001Welcome to the Thursday, September 18th, 2025 regular business meeting of the Foret Central School District Board of Education. We'll start the meeting with the pledge of allegiance. Could you please stand and join me as your [Music] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. So the first item on our agenda is to adjourn to executive session and that is for the purpose of uh discussing tenure reviews and an individual personnel matter as well as a legal matter pertaining to the district. So can I have a motion? >> Any comments or discussion on the motion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I.
002Any oppose? Nay, extensions. The motion carries. We'll go into executive session. We expect to return to public session at approximately 6 p.m. Thank you. Please. >> So, thank you. So the uh we are returning from an executive session that was held to discuss tenure reviews, individual personnel matter and a legal matter. No action was taken in that executive session. So we are coming back to the public session and we are at item 1.03 on the agenda. Reconvene the public session. I will move forward to item two approval of minutes. We have one item, approval of the minutes for the August 14th, 2025 regular business meeting and action on the tax warrant. >> Can I have a motion? >> Second. >> Comments or questions on the motion. Okay, we'll vote. All those in favor say I.
003>> I. Any oppose? Nay. No. >> any extensions? >> Okay, the motion carries. Item three on the agenda, community questions and comments. So, I will just state briefly the uh instructions for everyone's understanding. And this is board policy 2370. The way it is structured is that we have an initial period of up to 30 minutes for comments which can be extended by virtual vote of the board. A majority of the board comments should be held at 5 minutes for individual speakers. The public comment period is not designed to be a discussion but rather an opportunity for the board to listen. Accordingly, board members will not typically respond to questions or concerns posed at the board meeting. We also uh want to make sure that people understand that this is uh you you cannot discuss individual
004district personnel or students other than the speaker's own child for privacy reasons. All speakers are conduct themselves in a civil manner. I'm not worried about that. Okay. So, do we have anyone that would like to address the board this evening? And I'm sorry, let me just say we do to just try to track the time. um is uh will have a timer and I'll we'll give you a signal when your five minutes are up and give you a chance to uh quickly include your comments. So if you'd like to speak, please approach the podium, just give your name and address uh and then we'd be happy to hear from you. Thank you. >> Uh good evening. Uh my name is Bill Finity. I live at 964 Broad Street. I'm the president of the Horsets Teachers
005Association and I am here tonight to ask the board to add a monthly agenda item that would guarantee units of the district like the HDA the opportunity to address the board and potentially establish a dialogue and exchange of information. Like all of you, I serve as a voice for my community as a school board member for the Omire City School District. One of the things that I appreciate about being a school board member is hearing from the different units within the district. On our monthly agendas, uh there's a portion of time separate from the public comment section that is reserved for reports, updates, or statements from any unit interested in addressing court. This allows for units to inform the board about successes, concerns, and events that have or will be taking place in the district.
006If there's no representation from any of the units, we simply move on to the next agenda. I realize that this is a strange request to make at the first board meeting of the school year, but I think that the opportunity for dialogue and interaction between the units and the board can only increase the board's knowledge of what's going on throughout the district and help unit members feel heard and understood going forward. Thank you for your time and thank you for the consideration of this request. [Applause] Thank you very much. >> Good evening. My name is Mike Depet. I live on L & Hill Road out here in New York. Uh I'm a service veteran of over 30 years. And my question I'm proposing to the school board is why Horses school district does not offer
007a veterans credit tax relief or break on their school taxes the way that the county offers that same break on your county property tax. That's my only question. And I have several other veterans that were supposed to be here tonight but due to the late nature they couldn't make it. But uh that's my that's my comment. Thank you for that. >> Good evening. My name is Kathleen Gary. Um I live at 170 Wam Road in Horse Heads. And um I am here tonight um just to give a short idea of about I'd like to readress the times in the district. Dear, Superintendent Douglas, Board President Christmas, Vice President Unvarski, and each of you additional board members, I'd like to respectfully present to the board a community petition with over 400 signatures for you to reopen
008and review all information, studies, comments, and concerns regarding the start times of our current schools in the district. Myself, as well as the other residents noted, do not feel that the current start times are in the best interest for our children's well-being from an academic, home, school, or safety perspective. I'd like to thank the board though for the many efforts already put forth as we work through the 2030 plan and I know that we in the horse school district whether it be a parents, teachers, board members want the best for our children first and foremost. So, as the committee that I am heading up, we respectfully request that the school board form a committee to formally investigate and discuss this issue. We ask that this committee be tasked with exploring the research, evaluating the potential
009benefits and challenges of later school start times, and engaging with the community. to develop a solution that works for all of us, but especially our students. We, the community, look forward to a further communication and discussion on this topic. I thank you for the time. I'd like to present, if I may, the original petition. You want to take it? Okay. This one's to Dr. Douglas. Okay. Any other board members? This one for Mr. Christmas, please. The original and for the student. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much for the comments for the presentation of those materials. Hi, I'm Megan Blitz. I live on Reynolds Drive in Horsets. Good evening. My name is Megan Blitz. My daughter Isabelle is a senior this year. We are very excited and pleased to learn that she would
010be attending the New Visions program this fall. As you know, it's a competitive program where students apply and interview for limited spots. Isabelle is also taking an ACE accounting course before her morning revisions program. When we received Isabelle's schedule in the mail, I thought there must be an error as her accounting class ends at 8:55 and there's 5 minutes until her next class starts at Elmmyra College. Just for reference, Google Maps tells us that the drive is estimated to be 12 minutes in clear weather conditions. So, the 5 minutes would not be accurate. when we received I'm so sorry I stopped ahead over the past week since receiving Isabelle's schedule I emailed her school counselor and principal of the most administration and most recently exchanged emails and phone calls with our district level administration I'm
011bringing this to the board for your consideration as I have exhausted my communication efforts to resolve this without your consideration. Um, we were told by district administration that they had worked with Boseies and the teachers at Boseies and Horse to let them know that some students might be a bit late and that this is affecting more than just our district and they are good with that and have set time aside to extend their lessons if needed. Um, my daughter Isabelle was still pretty anxious about this setup. So, I contacted her teacher at Boseies, but he didn't know anything about the extended lessons. Uh, he said he would try to be flexible, but the class starts at 9:00 a.m. Again, I emailed district administration to reiterate my concerns regarding missing instructional time and that there's not
012enough time to transition. This is would obviously cause extreme anxiety for a new driver. On Friday, September 5th, Isabelle met with her school counselor. She was 20 minutes late to new visions and she was looking for a solution. She was told she didn't have any options and Boseies would not allow her to be moved to the afternoon session. So, I emailed the administrators of administrator of the Bosey's new vision program to ask to move her to the afternoon. Um, our building principal got back to us and said that that just would not be possible, but that the district would make the exception for Isabelle to drop new visions, which they typically don't allow, but they would be happy to do that for her. We did not take that opportunity to go forward with that. Um,
013at this point, um, I emailed the assistant superintendent and then the district superintendent and explained the schedule conflict. I reiterated my concerns over the current schedule and her current verbal plan that she's been given, which is to use her judgment and leave at an appropriate time, which also means that she would miss 20 to 25 minutes of instructional time every day. I have been assured through a conversation with district administrator that he would contact Bosey's administrators, ask if this vote could be moved to the afternoon, work with building administration to make sure that she has a specific time to leave her ASA accounting class, that her teachers are aware of this plan, and that somebody would touch base with her to make sure she feels comfortable and safe with that plan. As that was Monday,
014and as of today, neither Isabelle nor I have had any followup regarding this conversation. Um, just two additional parts that I feel compelled to address. So, Isabelle doesn't have enough time to get from one campus to another. As a parent of a new driver, it terrifies me that she will be rushing. She knows she's ultimately responsible for the instruction happening in two locations at once. Isabelle's schedule is not reflective of what's currently happening. If it were to be accurately reflected on paper, there wouldn't be enough time during the school day for the classes that she has been scheduled for. Our policy for attendance in the district, policy 5100, states that students must attend 80 85% of scheduled classes to earn their credit toward high school diplomas. Um, daily expectations means that students who miss more
015than 12 minutes of a class for 14 instances would not be awarded credit. That would be 168 minutes. This is the third week of school and at this point, Isabelle's already missed 220 minutes of instructional time. I appreciate there isn't a simple solution and I'm not exactly sure how I can proceed. You know, your help. Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Just if you have some more you wanted to say, feel free to take another minute. I didn't >> Thank you. I just want to make sure I was respectful of your time. >> No, absolutely. I'd be happy to let you finish. >> Um, I guess the bottom line is I feel that we followed the chain of command. I completely anticipated there to be some glitches when you overhaul a district's time schedule like we
016have. I instructed Isabelle to go to her new visions classes and her classes just as scheduled on the first couple days of school. She came home just a wreck. And I said, "Hey, has there been any communication of something different that we can do?" And she said, "No, I'm I was the last one to show up." I was 40 minutes after the first kids that arrived at New Visions. I was a little embarrassed. I said, "I don't like you." Um, really the big deal here is she's missing instructional time. Uh, she's in a hurry to get where she needs to go. I can't pin down a specific time that she needs to leave by and there's no specific times that her professor or her teacher envisions is going to be looking for her. Thank you.
017>> Thank you very much. >> Are there any other members of the public that would like to address the board this evening? That's why I got to go both ways. So, give us a second. >> Hi, my name's Nick Le. Um, I'm presenting this by uh both Angie and myself. Angie is not here at the moment. She's over volunteering at horse uh march remaining and then ready for the be done. So a lot of this is going to echo what was just said. So bear with me but I apologize for that. Uh to the board of education as we begin a new year I keep thinking about the image you've used and the multi-ter system of support discussions the students invisible backpack MTSS should help lighten that pack. However, some district decisions feel more like
018stones or add to it. I have a senior this year who drives himself to America College for his Boseies program. On top of normal academic and social pressures, his backpack is heavier because of the decisions that this board has made. Because start times were changed and do not align with posty schedules as planned. He must choose between leaving early or arriving late to his new vision program. Either option feels acceptable to him. He values his teacher's time and wants to meet his own high standards. Thankfully, that burden has been eased by parents who speak up and teach her children to advocate, by a principal trying to make the best of a situation she didn't create, and by teachers who see a nervous new driver, doing his best, and going unsafe on time. Is that how
019you imagine MTSS working at the high school as a series of crises matched by goodwill? Even well-intentioned policies can add weight. Consider middle school athletics a culture of double team is a no cut approach may seem inclusive on the surface, but it can also prevent students from experiencing the consequence of not making a team. A consequence that often opens doors to new activities, friendships, and identities. When those students reach high school and find themselves sitting on the bench or disconnected from a team, where do they turn from community? Is that when you expect MTSS to step in? How about elementary music? Changing band and orchestra to an optional fourth grade may have saved money, but it also removed the early opportunity for students to discover a passion. My son's fourth grade band requirement led him
020to community, purpose, confidence, and perhaps even his career. How many students never had the chance to find that spark because a district decided that music should be an optional expense? Have you considered the impact of that decision on the music department and staff as a whole? So tonight, I'm asking you to consider how the policies you approve and the actions you allow can unintentionally deepen students burdens. In that light, I implore you to do three things. First, think more broadly about the student impact of your actions before you approve changes. Take time to consider the effects of policies you have implemented and assess and the true costs outweigh the benefits you intended. Examine the examples I mentioned earlier and consider if it helps or hinders this this new MTSS initiative. Second, consider the start times
021you approved and goes alignment. The board approved the policy under several mistaken assumptions, but the primary statement that the district used to pressure the decision was that it must align with Bosey's program. It does not. 15-minute adjustment from the approved policy may seem insignificant, but students shouldn't have to choose between making class early or arriving late to programs they worked hard to get into. And third, you must hold the superintendent accountable. You are the only people elected by this community to do that job, and we rely on you to carry it out for us. demand full transparency and accurate information on every budget and policy proposal. Do not allow changes to be pushed through under the guise of administrative authority without board review. The start time policy and the changes to foreign language program are
022clear examples of what happens when the board is not given full picture and our students are the ones who pay the price. We have listened to wonderful presentations highlighting the work and effort being done by the MTSS committee. But I wonder if the board should play a bigger part than passively watching it be built. I wonder if the board should consider that at your level MTSS can be implemented as a preventative approach to policies and curriculum that creates conditions where students find belonging, purpose, and support before those needs become a crisis. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much for your comments. >> Do we have anyone else that would like to speak? If not, then I'll just say I appreciate on behalf of the board all the community members that spoke this evening
023brought forward uh issues worthy of consideration and discussion which as I explained we don't do in the moment here but I for one as the board president am appreciative of what you've said. So thank you very much. So with that we will move to our next item on the agenda which is I believe the debut report from our student representative Serenity. Take it away. >> Hi everyone. So obviously we got the school year going. So we have lots of clubs opening up mainly class officer elections and officer elections in general. So, um, the senior class specifically, our first event is going to be our senior sunrise on October 3rd. It's a Friday. It'll be at 6:30 at the stadium. So, that's up and running. A lot of other class officers are still doing their elections.
024Um, we have lots of clubs. We have Scary Movie Club. We have RCH club. You can get applications out of room 100. Um way more clubs than that but um we also have the green room players are looking for people to join. So once we um start our show they which is to be determined they have people and they are actively looking. So if you have a child that's interested in anything like that music background even um our sports are they're going and they're going good. I mean we're winning a majority of our games. It's very exciting. Um, I'm very excited. Um, cheerleading has their first competition on the 27th. It's in section 6, so quite far away, but still. Football just won their first home opener game, which is very exciting. Swim's been traveling.
025Um, many more opportunities athletically. And if your child did miss opportunity to sign up for sports this fall, there are many more opportunities in the winter. Thank you very much, Bernie. Nice job. We appreciate that information. Just sad that the sunrise is going to be later and later, right? So, get it at 6:30 while you So, we'll move to the next item on the agenda. Section five, presentations 5.01, we have presentation from the district's external auditor, Mr. Zuber. So, let me get set up here. >> We need to make sure all the mics are off because the control Terry will be uh guiding the mic that has to be used question. >> Yes. As long as that All [Music] right. Good evening. Thank you for inviting me here tonight. And as mentioned, my name is
026Tom Mangar and we're the external auditors for the school district. and I'm here to present the June 30th, 2025 basic for the school district. Um, as you know, um, those the year ended a few few months ago. Um, we have met with the audit committee um, back on Monday and we talked um, quite a while almost two hours on the basis. We just want to make sure that mic is maybe sorry. [Music] How's that? >> That's good. Thank you. >> All right. Um so again, uh we did meet with the audit committee um on Monday uh and had an advice meeting. I met a little over two hours to talk about the basic financial statements. Uh we talked about a lot of different information. We talked about year-over-year variances. We talked about budget variances. We
027talked about reserves. fun balances, internal controls, checks and balances. So, we had a very nice conversation. Um, you know, the basic financial statements, there are a lot of information. So, I'm just going to give a a brief overview of some of the items that we discussed. We did issue an unqualified opinion, which is really the opinion you're looking for in the audit. It basically says the financial statements are fairly stated. Um, you know, uh, there were no significant deficiencies or mature weaknesses. So that's very positive from a financial statement standpoint. Um just like many other districts, you continue to to face many challenges. Um state aid uncertainties certainly continues to be a challenge. Not only state aid uncertainties, but certainly what will happen on the federal level as well. Um property tax cap, employee benefit
028challenges, uh inflation. So all areas that will continue to be challenges for school districts. um although we did hear today that there was a a little cut in the basis. So I think that's very positive as it relates to some of the inflationary challenges uh interest challenges out there. So that's something that has happened. Um but again the district uh continues to be in good financial condition. Um there are a few things that we'll talk about um briefly u but overall the district ended the year in good financial shape. Um, you know, on the revenue and expense side, it did generate positive budget variances of about 860,000 on the revenue side. Uh, about 30 3.7 million on the expense side. So, you spent about 96 and 12% of your budget. Okay. So, just from last
029year to this year. Um, in addition to that, you're using fund balance to balance your budget. So, you appropriate about 3.7 million uh to support the 2425 budget. Um, so just to to refresh ourselves, that means that you have a budget, right, and you have estimated revenues and you're balancing that budget with appropriated fund balance and reserves. So you're balancing you balanced 2425 budget with $3.7 million of fund balance and reserves. You did reduce that to 2526 to 3.1 million. But what does that mean? It means that in order to generate um or to break even that you you basically need to generate budgetary surpluses equal to that 3.7 million or the 3.1 million. So just to to keep that in mind but overall your fund balances did increase this year about 2.9 million. So
030again that's very positive from the financial statement standpoint. Couple of the other things we talked about is, you know, one of the the the areas that the district has been receiving for the past few years, the federal stimulus funds. So, those funds have been completed. Uh, in fact, the you received about 2.7 million in 2024. We only received about 2 or about 219,000 in 2025. So, again, the program completed at the end of 2024. Um, so again, just be aware of that. Um, one of the challenges the district has faced in the past relating to health insurance, uh, and again, uh, as you know, the district is self-funded on the health program. Um, and in the past few years, you have seen some challenges. You've had to run your budget relating to some of the,
031uh, significant claims and getting some large stop-loss reimbursements. You did not have to do that this year. So, that did help, uh, generate some of the very positive the positive financial results this year. Again, as a result, you were able to refund reserves about 2 $3.2 million. So, not only did you pull some dollars out of the reserves this year, but you did also refund some of those reserves. And that is something that we talked about in our internal control communication. We have some other recommendations um really to enhance your financial reporting. And one of those recommendations is really to look at your reserve levels and how they relate to what you're appropriating and reserves have come down. So, that's something that you designed. Um, the school lunch fund, that's one of the other areas
032we talked about. You're doing an excellent job in the school lunch fund. Um, so continuing to to monitor that. Again, you're you're you're within that the federal six-month average um expenditure category. So, that's very positive. And one of the other items we did talk about was the capital project fund. As you know, you've had a very um large capital project uh going on over the past few years. uh and you know as part of the capital projects you're um issuing short-term financing. So when you look at the financial statements you're the capital fund does report deficit fund balances but that really isn't unusual in a school district when you're um um participating in large capital projects. It's you know you finance these projects with short-term financing and when you issue your actual serial bonds those
033deficits go away. sort of something we did talk a little about with the audit committee as well. So again, uh nothing too unusual there. It's a big number, but it's because you're financing your projects for short-term financing. Okay. Couple other things we did talk about. Not only did we talk about the operating statements, but we did also talk about this entitywide statement, which one of the first financial statements you see in your fin your audit report. Although it's not how you operate, it's just um more to make the school district look like a corporation. Okay? So, we include all of the long-term uh assets, buildings, land, equipment. We include all of your long-term obligations. Um but that statement does report a deficit net position of about $85 million. It means your liabilities are more than
034your assets. Okay? Now, this is just for financial reporting purposes. It's not operate. Okay. But the reason for that is you have this retirey health obligation which is about $169 million which what that is is you have actuarials that come in and they review your different contracts. Okay. And based on the contracts you have in place, you've committed to your employees about $169 million in health insurance health insurance benefits when they retire. Okay? So it's an actuarial calculation that's performed each year. that number does change from one year to the next. It is an estimate, but it does tell a little bit of a story. So, so you're you're you know almost um um 75% higher than what your current budget is. So, again um you know that is the reason for that deficit in
035that statement of that position because you have to report that in the financial statements but New York State doesn't allow you to find it. Okay? But again, it's not how you operate. you operate on a payroll basis. So, you know, you have a million dollar expense, you budget a million dollars and you pay a million dollar. So, this is really just for financial reporting purposes. It's a snapshot of time, but I do think it does tell a little bit of the story and you should really take a look at that and compare yourself to some districts. But, um, so that's just something to note because it does jump out at you financial statements. Um, so just to be aware of that, not unusual. many districts your size are in that same position. Um so you
036know that's not unusual but just how you report that particular obligation. Okay. And I mentioned there were no material weaknesses or internal uh internal control findings but we did have a couple recommendations relating to financial reporting primarily around reserves looking to enhance some of the reserves. There's an option for um um health insurance. So that's something that we're we're suggesting the the district consider as well as looking at your reserves and how you're appropriating fund balance in relation to the level of reserves you have. So if you want to continue to to appropriate fund balance and reserves, you really should take a look and try and enhance some of the balances and the reserves as you go forward. Okay. So again, overall you did end the year in good financial shape. Okay. You're using fund
037balance, you're using reserves to help balance your budget. uh you do want to continue to monitor your budget. Obviously, you will continue to face some challenges out there, but again, at that snapshot, as of June 30th, you have the financial changed, we have to use the handheld mic. Hi. Um, I don't really have a a question because I got to ask a lot of questions when I was on the audit committee this year. Um, and thank you very much, Mr. Zuber, for all of your time and taking that time to help explain everything to me. And thank you to the members of the audit committee who were very patient and let me ask a lot of questions and to Katie and an who let me ask a lot of questions. Um but some of the
038things that I think are important and that we didn't um that we aren't talking about per se on here but within the audit report itself was talking about the additions that are coming and the um debt service line breakouts which I think when we go through the finance since that's when we are going to be voting on it we can talk about that specifically then but um I think it's I I think that's important to go over like being able to looking at the long-term debt to have a better understanding of it. I know that I learned some things and I want to be able to share that with the board, but that is again in the finance section. So, I just wanted to say thank you again and that's it. >> Looks like we
039don't have any questions. Mr. Thank you for your presentation. We will move to our next item in the agenda which is the superintendence report item six. Thank you, Mr. Christmas. Ladies and gentlemen, members of the uh obviously we've had we are in I believe day 12 of the June 2526 flu. There is obviously a lot of transitioning going on that we've been talking about over the past two years. The opening of school, as you're aware, on the first day, we've had substantial traffic challenges. This substantial traffic is not unneeded challenges that were unforeseen. One of the biggest unforeseen uh issues is within the area of transportation where in the past we've had roughly 60% of high school students riding transportation and roughly about 77 78% of students at the elementary schools riding transportation. For some
040unknown reason our high school transportation went up to almost 78%. But our elementary transportation went down to about 60 61 62%. So that put more cars on the road especially at the elementary school. None of us saw it more than probably Garden Road. Uh Big Flats has always had that issue where there are lots that are transporting. The high school had a lot just because of learning new routines and heavy construction that uh sort of gave a very strong microscope to the fact that there's only one way in and one way out. >> As far as the schools, once the kids got into the schools, they went through their day. It is longer for our elementary students right now. And that is something that is going to be over time. Just like when our preks
041start, they have to develop that educational strength for that length. So will our elementary schools K through six because they had one of the shorter days in the area and across the state. Because of that, it's sort of how we got here. And a lot of it goes back several several years to the consolidation studies to the time when I came in that there was a request for more instructional time. There was even some work on that to the point that there was a merger vote and then also eventually the state created not just a day requirement but an actual time requirement which unfortunately we were a little short on. We had a waiver period and during that waiver period there was a negotiation that addressed that instructional time. With that we also had discussions
042about how do we try to build a better transportation system as well as the horseets 2030 project that was approved two times by the voters that would ultimately close a building. Ultimately, there was a goal of trying to get one hour or less, trying to align the best possible with the Boseis as well as align our buses to meet the goals and minimize late buses or lateness of the buses because for a lot of people would not understand that at the middle school and the high school students would get out of school around 3:00 but never get on the bus until about 3:40 and then it would be about an hour, hour and a half ride home. I'm happy to at least say our busing system, although it still is tweaking, is meeting its requirements,
043getting students on the wheels, moving on the bus once they leave school property to be transported home to roughly about an hour or less as reported by the bus garage. I can tell you that last year our buses would regularly be coming off the road roughly around 4:35, 440. Right now they're coming off the road at about 4:30 to 4:35. Uh and that is with the change of start start times and ending times. The harder part is busing is built around being able to get the buses where they need to be. One of the things that impacted that also is moving the intermediate school with the middle school which was the desired goal for emergency preparedness and so that the whole school could be transported. And that was something that we elected to do, but
044it did change start times because unfortunately the middle school and intermediate school times are less by about 15 minutes from the high school time where they have a 7-hour day. I believe the intermediate school has a 6 hour and 46 and the middle school has a 6 hour and 50. These are all designed through the contractual negotiation. These adjustments mean that if you adjust one, you have to adjust the others. We purposely tried to keep the elementary time at it set time of 8:40. Honestly, it was probably a mistake of mine because as we moved the high school 835 and intermediate middle school to 7:15 to more fully align with Bosey's the middle school, the intermediate school would have needed to be about 710, the high school about 7:30. We try to make the decision
045based on all of it and what we can do the best we can. given the fact that if you have a shorter day, you must be picked up and dropped off first versus the longer day. In addition, these time adjustments to unify the building intermediate middle school for busing emergency preparedness, implementing the plans which we knew were starting this year, especially with the closure of Rift Road and the movement have put a lot of stress on the system. I am very proud of the administration. I'm very proud of the building principles, the teachers, the support staff, the teaching assistants who have all worked steadfastly over the past 10 to 11 days to bring a lot of things within line within the stressors far quicker than we have in the past. It was an issue at
046Gardener Road that there was a major overhaul just on Monday and for the past two days they've hit their milestones to the point that there still needs to be some tweaking. But I have every confidence in the building principal and the staff there that their plans and adjustments are going into place and buses rolled out at 3:29 today, even one minute ahead of when they were supposed to. The road traffic on Garden Road was absolutely backed up. We heard from the village. No other school district really addresses this because there are going to be traffic issues when you have short areas of drop off and pickup at schools, whether you're in Corning, whether you're in Elmmyer, whether you're in Aoka and so forth. But I'm very proud that the plans came together that we were
047able to switch things especially in this building that 100% of the traffic is now off road at Bay Flats. That's where our eyes are turning next roughly. It's about a 7minute issue in the morning and we met today to try to develop a doubling up of cars to get them off the road and we think that if I think uh Mr. Chicago and his team are trying to work on that for next year. I mean, not next year, next week. Uh that we should be able to at that point from the individuals that came and spoke before and I've had conversations with them that that will be the traffic is on the road. Center Street is a little more of a challenge with Ridge Roads traffic being there, but we are working on that. And
048for the most part, it's about the five to 10 minute right around Center Street, S and the entry. But that's going to happen unless you build bigger parking lots. We've used what we've had for Ridge Road and Center Street. It is a one-year issue because as soon as they move back to Ridge Road, they will be adding more parking, a different bus loop that will get that off the street. Basically what happens is any change is very difficult and challenging. Nothing is perfect. But we work at making sure we make tweaks throughout throughout this year and we make sure we give it time to work. We said that going in and that is what we need at this point. Um so I just wanted to give a little update because one of the questions I
049had why is this going on? Well that's sort of the why. what it does. The hard part is people don't understand is that you could not literally drop off students at the high school and middle school at 7:45 and 7:50 and expect to go out and collect students all over the district and drop them off at the elementary school at 8:15. That's one of the major issues, right? And then when you do set the time, you have to take the shortest time and make sure they're usually picked up or they're separated out long enough. I made a mistake by saying high school. It should have been the secondary or the single bus run because at the time we were looking at three runs. The district could not afford the three runs. Nor did the administration
050feel that having three runs and having elementary being the last run or the middle school being the last run being well after 9:00 would be acceptable by the community and therefore two runs is the only viable option. What assisted that was intermediate school and middle school being joined. I know some have said maybe we could do all in one run. It would possibly save money. The problem is our kids would be waiting on the bus from elementary to intermediate to middle school to high school before they even be delivered home. And that would be very timeconuming. So we try to make the best decision we can and now we try to work through it and work forward and adjust as appropriate. We are in alignment with absolute expectations from the New York State Education Department
051on days and times. we're actually over which now allows us to address heat issues that we need to which we could not do very easily at the end of last year. These are just some of the things that went into this planning over a 10 to last three year process the opening of schools in general. A lot of good things you've heard from Serenity kids are absolutely doing what we expect them to do coming in. The hardest part for them is the sell to cell or bellto bell cell phone ban. I'll probably ask Serenity a question in a minute, but from an administrative from a teacher standpoint, what we've heard talking to teachers, talking to administrators, it's been very positive. That is the push across the state as well from each individual districts. There are
052some districts that have trouble with it. There's some districts that have done it two years, three years. I'm proud to say that although we did not invest a large amount in yonder pouches or other things, our students are complying by doing reasonleness. Kindergarten through 8, they're not supposed to have their phones. If they have them, they're supposed to be in their locker or put away. If the high school 9 through 12, when they come in, it's off. It's located either in the locker or the backpack. And for the most part, I think 98.9% has been accepted. We're still in the honeymoon period, I think. Um, we do have a couple things that we were talking and Terry, do you have my little props? Uh, just so people know, it wasn't that we weren't looking for
053some type of help if we have non-compliance. But you can kind of hear Terry bringing them out. That is the Velcro on the pouches that we will have to institute if we have any issues. if it becomes an issue, we can rapidly shift to a full implementation with every student. Thank you. These pouches basically are very simple and they're meant to address a couple things. Parents said very clearly, we want to be able to get a hold of our kids in the event of emergency. Well, in the event of emergency, we want your kids to stay off the cell phone for the time being. Get safe and don't talk. text quietly and turn off that little clicker. But at that point, if they're in a backpack, they have them on. If they use this pouch,
054say they were constantly using it, we may put them on this for 30 30 days. This is for the high school. It will be available at the middle school. But the reason why this is very nice is if a student has it and they have it in their bag and they say, "Look, I'm going to sneak it out." Most teachers or people will often look but what happens is about this pouch which is much better than the yonder pouch is this pouch is an RFID pouch. Once the phone goes in it cannot receive a signal. You just take it out actively. Okay. I don't believe our kids need this at this point because they're showing they are young adults. If we really had a problem because let's face it does a lot. No, but they
055also make a locking pouch. It's not magnetically based. You don't have magnets running all over the place. It's actually one of the few that are mechanical based. And you have to see an administrator to be able to unlock the mechanism, which that quick. And then you still have to unzip it. This is probably the ultimate deterrent because it serend you example. Say you have a violation. I put your phone in here and it locks. You got to find me at the end of the day to get it unlocked. Yeah, you can cut it, but then you'll have to replace it because the bag will be assigned to. So, this is where we are going. And oh, it's about 50% of the cost of what other districts are doing with the yonder, which a requires the
056magnets, $100 a piece, even though it's a fishing magnet, and it's not RFID. If that phone is in the under couch and it goes off, it's still going off and you can't shut it off because you can't access it. So, that's where we've tried to resource and use some of the state money that's come in. We haven't expended it. We did a sample to see how it works first and that will be going out probably next week to the high school. We may even ask a couple students if they want to sort of experiment with it and see it. But a lot of times we've been hearing from the students in Serenity. Have you noticed a difference at the school? >> Um I would say I have noticed that I mean people like you said
057are complying with it especially in class. Um obviously there are frustrations when it comes to lunch periods and free times but obviously it's a New York state issued rule so there's not much we can do about it. And I think we recognize that as you said they're an adult. So, >> is the lunchroom a little noisier now? >> Um, >> do you notice >> I have fourth period lunch? >> Oh, that's >> so it's like Yeah, it's very empty. So, I don't really know how the third period lunches. >> And the reason why is most of the faculty and staff, especially the SRO and the assistant principles. I know Miss Gunderson, you're here. The lunchroom used to be a place and and I hope you understand. I agree. I'd rather have the kids have some
058access. We treat them like adults. I think they would handle like adults. But unfortunately, it's the law, so we can't. And I appreciate you recognizing that. But here's what's happened. The kids are actually walking and talking. The kids are engaging a little more right now in class. Some of them maybe still want to sleep a little. I understand. But for the most part, the kids have been playing Uno, different things in the lunchroom, engaging, which we may have to look at, okay, how do we encourage some of that interactivity? Uh, but it is a a a good initial positive. We've had parents call and say, "No, I wasn't sure. I've talked to a couple at sporting events. This is the best darn thing," they use different words that it's ever happened. my child keep needs
059to keep their nose out of scrolling, right? And what happens is even some of the kids have said, "Yeah, I'm probably paying attention more. I know I like it, but my grade has come up a little." Uh, now those are just short short synopsis. There are others that will probably have a negative view of it, too. I don't want to make it like a panacea, but that's the intention and I think we're there at least on the right direction from what I'm hearing at the high school and from what I've heard at the middle school so far. I don't think at the elementary you really deal many times with cell phones more can I have more recess time else I don't blame. So that's what's going on there. Uh I do like the board to
060know shifting gears that as all staff have to take our regular sexual harassment violence in the workplace training. It's called for us it's a whole bunch of training but it's called factory training. The board should be getting that email if you have not already received it. Right missable and she's all happy. I think it's I think we got about 30 days is the deadline to get that completed for the board. We gave it to you probably about 10 to 15 days. We'll stem that a little but it has to be completed somewhere roughly by that time because we have to report it to the state. Uh in general as best can be things are starting off well. People are working. People are trying to solve problems as they do. I can't I mean I we're
061here at Garden the Road and been here I actually stayed away today just to watch and it's hard because No view, but there's one house up there. You can see how many buses come in, when they're coming in. And if I would have made that to 8:45 instead of 8:40, all of our buses would be in exactly on time. One or two buses are now running 3 to four minutes late at the elementaryaries where it was 15 to 20 buses running 20 to 40 minutes late at the secondary. And now all the students are able to get on and get off. It's just the news, so I'd ask for some patience as we go through that. Uh, in general, we've got ticket prices and sales are out there for the tickets. You can see us
062at the gates. You can call, I think, the high school, go in our veterans, our senior citizens, 65 that are Horses residents. Free pass all year long. Please come down. We want to thank you for your service as well as supporting the district. But it was something that the board committed to, I think two years ago. Uh, it continues. Our biggest home game of the season will be in not this Friday, not next, but the next. And it's El White. Think of the parking that we're going to do. We pulled off a good job the first night, but parking is going to be challenging. We have all kinds of things uh and utility vehicles to help those that may have difficulty getting there if they have to park away. We do try to keep handicap
063parking and for those that have assistance up close to the stadium as much as possible. Uh and we are asking people out that we may be doing some busing and shuttle runs as well. Uh we are trying to open sort of a bridge through our construction area to try to open that path as well for that night. But it takes a lot from our contractors who have been local contractors who have been very good trying to a work with us and b be on budget and be ahead of schedule which they are at ridge road. They almost have steel completed. Once they're done there, they're going over to the high school. The high school is in found final foundation. They were supposed to get to steel about January. They believe they will get there probably
064November, December. That is all good news because as soon as we can get inside the envelope it starts to open up the campus as much as possible. Um we will as I've told the board towards the end of October be doing open houses in the evening in each of our buildings that are done now garden road as well as big flats. uh we will do sort of if you want to come over and we can talk people through ridge road and we will have the high schools so that people can see the return on their investment as the district is finally starting and finishing it up something I know somebody mentioned earlier that we are planning a project we are not planning a project right now the board is going to have that discussion for
065something in a future year and any statements to the contrary is really up to the board to decide but it is something that as you go through, you try to get to a three project, fiveyear, 5year, 5year cycle. Because once you do and those projects are done, when the project is paid for, you are able to recycle that money and never take it from the community again for some 50 to 70 years, which the reason why our price tag is high right now is because for 50 to 70 years, nothing was majorly maintained. When I came here, every single roof was out of warranty by some 10 to 15 to even 20 years. That is a major financial cost. Right now, our energy is outperforming and we can put in climate control, which now you're
066seeing we kind of need uh because the state put in a heat index. If we go to a certain point, they say we may have to close and I don't think that will make many people happy. But where we have climate control, we wouldn't. Right now, our biggest building, biggest concern at the end of this project will be middle school, intermediate school. And that is the first project that will be slated in any project if the board chooses to ask the community for that support. But it will not be this year's if anything just discussions or the pre-planning phase of absence start. At this time I want to thank everybody. Please come out to the letter game. We have a huge crowd almost 2,000 people. Normally we get 7 to 8,000. It is a great
067night. Please be patient with our concessions. It's hard to get everybody through. But I hope that helps. And I want to thank members of the board as well for your patience during my discussion. Thank you for that report, Dr. Douglas. We will move to the next item the agenda, our finance items for action. We have I'm sorry. First, we have the audit committee report to be presented by the uh chairperson of that committee. Item 701. So, Miss Dale. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so we met um this past Monday and you everybody just saw the presentation from Mr. Zuber. Um, we went through the the details of the audit. Um, it's as much as we could. Uh, it was a great audit. No deficiencies were found. So, there was, you know, little for us to really
068complain about or have discussion about other than just generic questions related to the details of the audit. Um the two recommendations that came out that Mr. Zuber mentioned tonight that we will consider as part of the corrective action plan is um to look at establishing a health insurance reserve in the future which is something that has been brought up as well um in the past. So that's something that we can look at you know all the requirements associated with that which is pretty expensive to set up that that reserve with the state. Um, and then also, um, and we talk about this every year too, is, you know, as we're taking money out of our reserves, we need to continue to have a plan to continue to fund those reserves. Um, and that's all so
069we can secure our financial health as we move forward. And that's a discussion that we have with every audit. We talk about it at every audit committee meeting as well as throughout the entire budget process. So, you know, those are discussions that we continue to have and we recognize that. Um there was no corrective action plan required because there was no deficiencies. Um but work will be done to address the the recommendations and that was our audit. >> Thank you very much. So we will now move to the uh action vote under this section. We have items 7.03 through 7.18 for approval. Is there a motion? >> Second. comments and questions on the motion. I think you can use your handheld mic if you have one of these. >> Yeah. Once we get >> Okay,
070thank you. So, I just wanted to make some comments about the audit report um because that's where this it actually is in this section. So, on the full length audit report, if you go to page the um page 37, which is 39, and it's talking about the short-term debt, one of the biggest questions that I had and that we kind of went over, and I think it's important for new board members especially to understand as you go through and you're looking at um the long-term debt and how it's forecasted. Um, page 30, page 37 is showing um, and I don't know if you guys need more time to get there. It shows your band construction loans. And we still have, so the one isn't going to hit the books until June of 2025. And then
071we'll still have the 102 million that won't hit the books until June of 2026. So now yes we will get aid at the same time that we get that but that's also when we are responsible for paying our share of that the loan that we take out. So the 15% of theund$12 million or the 20% that's when it will be added to the budget. So we have yet to get to that place where it's completely in there. Um, and so that was shown to me after my I had questions about um comparing last year's audit to this year's audit in the um it was right below it, but there's a there's a line that shows your forecasted long-term debt obligation. And last year it was at 5 million and then it went down through that
072each year 26 27 28 and it was showing your payments. But this year it jumped up to the 6 million. And so that's what I really tried to work hard to understand. Like if I'm looking at the long-term debt obligations now I'm seeing that it's up to 6 million. So how do I know what it's going to be next year? Is it going to seven? Is it going to 10? Is it going to you know and I think that those are the projections that we have to have and we have to have readily available so that we know what's really coming on the books so that we can plan and we can have real conversations about looking forward at the finances. You know, we know that we're going to have to pay $6 million for
073the new capital construction things that may be coming on. So, and we know that we're going to have these obligations for benefits and other things. How are we going to be fiscally prudent and make sure that we're investing everything else where it needs to really go? Um because in the end, like from the first year experience, the cuts were coming from and and impacting our programs and our kids. So, I think that that's something that's really really important. Um, and Tom said that Katie and Ann they are the they get those numbers and they have it, but I think we need to see exactly when it's coming and when it's hitting the books. And so I just want to make sure that um, you know, we have so while there's, you know, we we're not
074seeing anything wrong, we have to really know our numbers and know what's coming. And I wanted to share that information with you because I think it has to be um simple enough so that our sixth grade students can understand our debt. So that anybody can understand what's coming, how it's coming, how it's going to impact, because then everybody has the chance to come out and advocate for what they'd like to um you know what's important to them and their kids in the community. So that's those are my comments on that. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, you going to respond or >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Um so just a couple points. Um as far as uh the schedule of the short-term debt, um you mentioned the 50 million um that was coming
075on in 2025 and then you referenced the 2 coming out in 2026. I just want to make sure we're clear that this isn't an aggregate that we're not adding 50 million. We're not adding 102 million. I just want to make sure you're real clear on that. That this is a it's a renewal process. We renew what we've already borrowed while adding on the additional cash flow that we need for the upcoming year for the work that's anticipated to be done. So, we take what we've already borrowed and then we add what we anticipate we need to expend for the upcoming year. Um, as far as the debt schedules, um, once we convert to a fully amortized long-term bond, like we did did through DASME for referendum one, the amortization schedule does become more concrete. If
076it's a fully, it's a set note. We know what interest payments are going to be. Uh, the bands, they're short-term note. They're only good for one year. So when we borrow again um while we have the schedule from fiscal advisors they are projections based on what we believe our cash flow needs are going to be in such years um but we do adjust them we work with Wiver and Hunt to we really understand how much cash we're going to need in the upcoming year because we don't want to borrow too much because that's more interest expense that we're going to incur up front that we don't want to pay. Um and we work with fiscal advisors one to determine that amount um and we look at our building aid that's coming in. So, um we're
077not having a big jump in that local share. So, the uh that service payments that we're going to make versus the state aid we anticipate coming in levels out of that local share. So, we're not being seeing big spikes of the local share. Um so, the tax levy stays u relatively consistent. So, we do have those set schedules. We have those for um our bus purchases, the five-year notes for our bus purchases. We have them for our short-term notes um and we have those for um our destiny notes as well. So, we are happy to provide that information um as we go through budget development, but just keep in mind that we can talk about that, we can talk about other things, but those are obligations that we do have to pay. They're not things
078we can take off the table during budget development. We are obligated to pay those debt payments. We are obligated to pay those health insurance claims. Um so yes, definitely something to talk about during budget development when we're looking at the big picture. Um how it affects the tax cut calculation and the budget as a whole. Um but as far as any discussion about a reduction in the debt, that's the debt is what it is and we are obligated to pay it >> and it's been approved. >> Yes. >> Thank you. is go ahead with the dire you know I think you know over the years the past several years at least as we've been you know in these harder times we have looked at this as part of the budget process um we look at
079it in detail every year when we do the audit we also look at it as far as as part of the finance committee um when appropriate so um none of this really should be surprise. I mean, it's it's stuff that we have been looking at over and over again. Um, you know, Katie and and, you know, Bri, you know, continue to remind us of it throughout the budget process. Um, they continue to be looking at the big picture and looking and having that forward looking. So, I just want to give kudos to the two of you and the rest of the business office because, you know, I think you're doing an excellent job keeping it in front of us and being forward looking and making sure that the district is is protected in what our
080obligations are. Um so thank you and and does anyone want to just want to speak on 7.12 the audit report because if not then we can open it up to other comments in the motion. >> Please go ahead. The only thing I wanted to add um is um I think it would be really beneficial healthcare cost was something that so mentioned as um you know kind of opening up um and looking at ways that we can create a fund for it. Um I would suggest that we look at consortium of some type. I know that that was something that did come up. I know it's something that came up in the past. Um but it would be possibly beneficial to see to see if there is a way that we could help lower those could
081be beneficial for this. >> Thank you. >> Other questions, comments on the items that are pending with the motion. I did also just have questions on the change order summaries. Um, looking at that bottom total and having it being um, adjusted by 1.9 million, what does that is is that over the budget? Is that on the budget? Is that Can you explain that to me? The change order. >> It's right at the bottom. Okay, you can join in, but it's not anything that the board has approved and it's been told to the board several times in the past and the board has authorized those. Those are the alternates that are added in when we did the ridge road project and we held the awarding of certain things on that project to make sure that the
082high school project was also able to be awarded. and we held some things to protect the bid alternates and that's what we explained I think probably four or five months ago to the board and it was even a question before about why are these alternates showing up on the change order and we explained that as well. So I know that it looks that way but we are on budget for the total project. What the board authorized in this project was reduction because of high inflation, high cost all of a sudden, not through us but through the project that the intermediate middle school HBAC was removed from the project at this point to make sure that a ridge road could definitely be done otherwise we wouldn't be able to consolidate and the high school would be
083able to be finished up. Is that pretty much the bomb we just said at KDA? But any other contrary item, this is not over budget. It's not unforeseen. These were actually budgeted, awarded projects within the actual budget. Our budget is in well control and we are ahead of schedule. And I know other people may not be able to understand that, but we take great pride that we are doing this job on behalf of our students in the district. Garden Road came in on time, under budget. Big Plats came in on time, under budget, and we were able to utilize the resources from those to make sure that we were able to do fully Ridge Road and the high school as well. And right now, we're on time, on budget, and I expect we are moving
084to under budget. So hopefully that helps. others on uh this item. I was just going to ask if we're ever able to see when you're talking about that like the um references to like the finance and stuff if we're ever able to see um >> what we've actually because we saw this question coming for some reason uh and we are going to work on our facility my facilities committee to ask them to do a rectification and do it maybe quarterly and add it to the change order log update. for the total project. >> Okay, great. That would be very helpful. >> No problem. That's easy to do. We just have to get them into the half. >> Thank you. >> And that just so you know that will go like the last time Hunt was
085here. They gave an overview of all the projects where they settled out and the rain that will be sort of what we're asking them to produce. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Others want to be heard on other items in the motion. >> Okay. I I was just going to add my own comment to what we were just discussing and I know this from serving on the facilities grounds committee, but uh I do think it would be helpful and I'm happy to hear Dr. Douglas say that we will work on this to see a total. So what is shown in the change orders are the bid amounts plus the incremental ads but not the you know net budget and where we are visa v the net budget and I do think that would be helpful
086for all of us and for the public. So we will definitely include that as was stated in uh future documentation. So if there are no other comments or questions on the motion I will call for a vote. All those in favor of item 7.03 03 through 7.18 say I >> I any opposed nay any extensions okay the motion carries we will move to item eight personnel items for action we have three items 8.02 02, 03, and 04 for approval. Is there a motion? >> Sorry. >> Thank you. So, we have a motion that's um been moved and seconded. Any comments or questions on these items, >> please. >> I just need to abstain from um on H4 R to conflict interest. >> Okay. Thank you. Curt will note that. >> So I'll call for a
087vote on the motion approval of items 8.02 3 and 4. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Nay. And any extensions other than Miss Monas. Okay. The motion carries. Thank you. Item nine, miscellaneous items for action. We have uh a lengthy list here 9.02 through 9.11. Is there a motion? [Music] >> Okay. Comments or questions on the pending motion? Is this money? Uh >> I will again abstain from 9.09 of interest. noted. Uh, his varsity >> I have to abstain from 9.02. >> Thank you. That's we'll note that. >> Hey Shimona, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to have my back to you. >> That's okay. I have to abstain from 903 conflict of interest. >> Okay. Any other comments, questions, or abstensions to note? Okay, I'll call for a vote on the
088motion. All those in favor of 9.02 through 9.11 say I. >> I. Any post? Nay and abstensions have been noted. Okay, the motion carries. We'll move to item 10, board policies. Uh we have first a policy committee report from the policy committee chairperson. Thank you Mr. Conqu. All right. So we met September 8th and we discussed policy uh 6230 and it was the consensus of the committee um that we delete this policy in its entirety uh a because it's not a required policy by law and secondly because within the policy there were legal legal citations to cross reference and all of those legal citations are things that are prescribed by law. So for example, there was a citation for uh 114, that's the school breakfast and lunch program. When we approve um section 704 the
089revenue report there is the um school lunch program right in that report the checking account for the school lunch program. So we are following the law in that area. Um section 200 dealt with students with handicapping conditions and again within section 7.04 the revenue report we have a federal checking account for revenues that we receive for these programs. And then the third citation was 167 and that was for an adult education program which we don't have in this district. So the consensus of the committee was it's all covered under the law. We're following the law and um to follow in the footsteps of Mr. Johnson who likes to get rid of policies that um are meaningless. We honored our first meeting by recommending that uh this policy was no longer needed. So as when you
090open the first reading you'll see the whole section was deleted and that's the rationale for that. Thank you very much, Mr. Compton. So then moving to item 11.01, which reflects the proposed changes to the policy, which as noted by Mr. Conin is the full deletion. Are there any uh comments or questions that board members would like to make at this time in regard to that document? Iski, >> I think I've maybe said this before. Um, if not, I don't I understand that the things are covered under law, but I don't particularly like deleting policies in full. I think that it's a good thing to have policies so that like, you know, if somebody had a question within the school district and they wanted to see how we functioned, they're not going to automatically know what
091anything is. So, to just have it there for the public's reference. So, if they wanted to look something up and then they can find something further from there, I think it's important to just sometimes keep some of that stuff there. Um, you know, obviously we're going to be following those things because it's covered under law, but it's it's nice to be able to have the reference if people got used to going back and looking at our policies and seeing what is the school's policies on this. Okay, yes, they're all in law, but that's a nice little summary for them to look at. So, not that people are necessarily doing that, but that's why I think it's okay to not delete whole things. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. So, that's just a first reading. So,
092we don't have to vote to approve it. It'll come back to the uh board at our next meeting for a second reading and that's when we would hope to approve it. Okay. So, moving along to item 12, uh, board president report and board member comments. I will go first and I will try to keep it brief. I think there's something at 8:15. I don't remember what it is. Um the uh um I just like to say, you know, I it's my first year as the board president and I'm honored to have that role and I had the pleasure of speaking to the new staff at the new staff orientation as well as the um you know the full district on the first day kind of orientation and I was was real honored to do that
093and I appreciated the opportunity and it's just really great to see folks being excited and and together and talking and uh you know it's a palpable kind of feeling the beginning of school and it certainly isn't without its challenges and I know that as a parent and as a board member and a community member but I appreciate the understanding and the patience that people have shown and I think you know at our core we're all focused on trying to make this as smooth as possible for the students that's certainly my intent and I appreciate the efforts that have been made already by the district to try uh where we can make changes and improvements and I will certainly continue to advocate for that as the board president. I wanted to so we've heard it in
094prior meetings uh folks say that they're frustrated that they can't email the board directly. We had an email address but it would go to the district clerk and then the district clerk would forward it on to the board president. We have changed that. We want to be available to the community. So there is a email address h cs d p o e at horseheadsd district.com and that the way that works is that if you send an email to that it comes to all nine of us at the same time and so we will all see that it does not go through anyone else doesn't get filtered in any way. There are rules about the ability to respond and sort of get into a if if you know we have we have more than four board
095members communicating even in that form that's technically a public meeting and so we would want to follow open meetings law and so the way it's structured is the board president has the ability to respond to to acknowledge the receipt or if there is some substantive response to be provided but otherwise you know that whatever it is is that's brought to the attention of everyone because they don't have access uh and then it can be you know to be sent it should or needs to be discussed. We can do that in an open meeting in accordance with the law. So if that address is currently on the board of education page of the horses district web page and uh it's a little bit down the page and we're going to change that. Um we're going to
096have that I want it up at the top very you know big and and bold. So people see where that is and uh we encourage you to use it and and that way you'll be able to communicate with all of us in uh instantaneously recognize you know uh they'll have day drops and so we can may not respond to it immediately but suffice to say we will read that email I will read that email and you know we'll address it and then uh the last item or my fellow board members 12.02 02. There are draft board goals for this year and I drafted these based upon information from our self assessments at the end of last year as well as general discussion during our board retreat held over the summer. And so these are certainly,
097you know, there I just tried to crystallize what I heard into some proposed U goals which now we and and we do need to get to the extent we're going to discuss them. It needs to be in public session. So that's why they're available to the public there on the uh inboard docs. Uh I know folks are just seeing them this evening. So happy to talk about them now or we can you know look them over think about it and then in the next meeting have a discussion and finalize them. That's what the board goals and these are intended to represent uh just what I said the goals the things that as a board we're going to try to focus on and aspire to this year uh you know as a collective group. So, are
098there any questions that or does anyone have anything on the board goals at the moment? >> Okay, thank you that Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see. >> Okay. Um, so I don't know if we can do number four because of what um Dr. Douglas was saying. is this this is just like we talk about it. Um because he was saying that we wouldn't be bringing anything forward to the public within the next year. I think that's what he was talking about in the um in his report. So I think that number four contradicts what >> can I Yeah. Well, that's a good Let me explain. And I wrote it very intentionally to be that we would consider and deliberate on a potential and it says potential next capital referendum and consider what that scope might
099be and understand what the cost might be. But all of that as sort of long-term planning, not this is not intended and if we need to clarify it, happy to do that. But not intended to say that we would bring any kind of project forward this year. It's more just >> I'm going to do a project next year, you have to start talking about it this year. Right? So it's it's just um long range discussions as I would put it. >> You asking us to add goals to this like what our goals are >> or the well so let me these are not my goals for the board. These are what I have if someone had to put pen to paper based upon things we've talked about like for example we've talked about the desire
100to um understand more from an educational standpoint about performance levels of students and data and so I tried to crystallize that into a goal but yes most certainly if you have ideas for additional or different goals or would think these should be stated differently we should have that discussion because ultimately we're going to vote on and finalize a goal doc goals document that we all have to you know >> work toward collectively. So, and I know you're just seeing it now, right? So, we I'm not asking us to vote on it or approve it tonight. I'm just I'm thinking that will be October. So, we have plenty of time to think about it. >> Yeah. Please go ahead. >> Okay. So instead of having like board presentations on the performance levels of students, I would
101like say board discussions on like where we talk about student outcomes and ideas that we have to have improvement in those and what areas we want to see improvement and how that would work. I think that we have the discussions not like you know necessarily presentations. So and then you know having more um more discussions on any topic that we have instead of you know just the traditional we have a presentation and we make comments on the presentations more like we have discussions about things that are important or things that we need to have you know discussions about but mostly student outcomes. Okay, [Music] >> you had posed the question that we wanted to discuss or wait to review. Um, I would like to wait to review because I would like to reflect back upon
102our board of education um, evaluation that we did. Um, it's been a few months, so I'd like to refresh myself on that prior to having this discussion. Thank you. That's Miss Dale. >> So, just two things. Um, so one, I think it's important as we look at all of these and again to as we're all reviewing prior to the next meeting is, you know, our our goals should be measurable. So, at the end of the year, we can say yes, we achieved that. No, we didn't achieve it. Um, so I think that's that's really important that they're not just open-ended um goals. The other thing related to the capital project is I think it's also important you know it's not just a review of what the next project would be. It's also looking at the
103bigger picture as to if we didn't do another project what implication would that have to the district both from a equity standpoint and a financial standpoint. you know, when when we started this whole thing back in in 2017 with the first referendum, you know, it's all also about that cycle of death and, you know, what what happens if we were to stop it. Um, you know, and how do we continue to maintain the district over time? So I think it's you know it is important to begin those discussions now um and and do that this year and looking at both sides of the coin as we as we start um looking towards the future. >> Thank you. I think uh as was noted by Miss Siobhan, it would be a good idea to allow everyone
104to look back at the prior materials, refresh their recollection, and then we can um you know, work toward discussion, a more wholesome discussion and then approval at the next meeting. So, I'm going to move it on to board member comments. And I'll just say um as folks should know, you know, we follow our board policies 2352 which talks about board members can speak on items for 5 minutes and then others can be heard and then you're allowed a follow up uh on that item for up to three minutes. And I say this just I I you know welcome comments from board members but in order to have some structure around it the period I'm going to do my best to kind of follow those times. Um and if if anybody is bumping up against a
105time I'll give you a sign and try to move you on. So with that does anyone have comments? Dale. So, I just want to um I I probably today and I think it was today um I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw something that really made me smile and and and I know she's not here but um Patty Saro dressed as a a traffic >> and and you know I'll tell you it it had a lot of meaning because the meeting was okay here's you know we know it's been a difficult situation at all of our schools since since the first day and we we knew it was going to be and we're working through it and I you know I do appreciate the patience that you know our staff has that our community
106has um because it is it you know it's changed it's changed for everybody um but then you know to kind of take that difficult situation and you know have fun with it and you know make it lively for the kids and and lighthearted. So, I just I just want to applaud Patty um for for doing that and it just and and I'm sure those things are happening at all the schools. It's just I just happened to see that on Facebook and it just it really made me smile and I I think that you know we all need to look at the you know the opportunities that we have with with the current situations and how we can all work together to to make it better, you know. So, so thank you, Patty. And I'm sorry
107she's not here, and I really wish that she came tonight in her phone. I said that for a woman I walked in tonight. Um, but I thought that was really awesome. >> Thank you. >> I just wanted to say thank you uh to the whole district for, you know, a a fresh start to another year. And as we had a lot of changes this year, um something fun that comes along with it is change management, right? And how we navigate that and the cycle of change management, which means how do you work through it, right? What are the ideas? How do you uh come up with the ideas? How do you implement the ideas? Uh how do you make people aware of the changes? And then the fun one at the end is feedback and
108re-evaluation and as I will quote in France episode pivot right how do we pivot how do we take what is happening make adjustments to make it better and I just want to share that we've heard the feedback from the community from staff members um and that is what the district is attempting to do right now is to pivot. Um, and it's not easy to pivot when you have something already written out on paper. It may look beautiful on paper, right? But when it's implemented, it may need to be changed because we can't eliminate the human factor from paper, right? So, in doing so, I just want to encourage the community and the district to be patient with the pivot as the district is working through it. And it has been heard, you know, and I
109love the light-heartedness of of Mrs. Sero in her traffic phone. I haven't seen that picture, but I have to see it. Um, but that is what we do as a community that we hear the feedback, we make the changes that are necessary. Um, and again, just remember, you can't please the masses all the time, but you can try to please the most majority that you can. So, not everybody's going to be happy all the time, but we try our best to make as many people happy as possible. There you go. Um I had one thing and then Tom kind of addressed it about these trainings. Um who mandates the school that the board members have to take these trainings? >> State mandated thing. >> Yes. >> And why do they we don't work for the
110district. So why does the state mandate that we do that? >> They put your name on it. Honestly said board members are required to do this. >> Well, I was going to say I didn't do this in the 90s when I was on the school board. So I I'm you know I did it last year to say I didn't because I don't work. It's four and a half hours of training over and over again every year that you can almost >> I have to do it every two years for daycare. I do some of the very same things there. It's like it's repetition. Some of them are state is very um to assign trainings to school anyone school staff. They love to train it. It's important training, important project, important learning that everyone in the
111school needs to have. Um, but it's not a lot of training. >> As one example, like teachers are required, administrators are required to do child abuse training. They did a new child abuse training and required everybody last year to do it. Well, they just changed it. Now, they put out a new mandate to do it again, but it's not due until 2026. And nobody will explain why they're doing that, but we're forced to comply. >> So you're saying things you sent us today. One of the reasons also if I can add although you're not employees of the district you are an employer you employ me and anybody that's an employer whether it's one whether it's thousands obligated to know and understand those requirements. >> Okay. I don't think a child. >> No, I I know.
112It's just like I don't get it. But >> yeah, >> I guess I have to get it done. So, >> okay. And I wasn't going to say anything about the state of schools, but um people have done adjusting um very well and have worked hard and I've watched them. Um, I know there's still work to be done and uh there is frustration um with all of it, you know, and um I hear the frustration and I'm in the frustration and so we still have to work together and try to paint what's best because bottom line is we're here what's best for students and for our staff. these hours to be here um early and I just want to thank everyone who's been doing what they've been doing. First, I want to um apologize to all
113those who came to speak that I was not here. My daughter did have something that I need to be present for, but I thank you for coming and addressing my all board members um we are listening and as Mr. Chris has mentioned um we all now are able to see emails that come to the board which is really important. So send your concerns, keep showing up, it does matter and there was me. Um I wanted to thank a student um Heather Felco. She's a student at our high school and um this was on social media as well. Heather does a bake sale every year and buys school supplies for our elementary schools and then brings them and um she's been doing this for several years now and she's you know it's a selfless act that
114she does but I really think it's important you recognize that it's pretty impressive. Um thank you to all the staff at all the schools. Um I go to the middle school in the morning and I can tell you it's seamless. Like I really appreciate it. They had staff there in homes the first couple days too and it was fun. Um it has been crossing both ways but it really is um my son there he's a senior now and it's night and day. >> So nice to hear somebody say that. >> I I will say it's easy to drop off and pick up flight. I really feel it's really improved. So I agree with what my fellow board members have said like patience and change is happening and and we'll get it right for the transportation
115issues. It's just going to take a little bit because it took a little while for middle school of intermediate, right? Like we all remember days with the back up to Broad Street and it's not that way anymore. So, uh, kudos to everyone involved with that process. Um, now I do hear everyone's concerns about the Boseies and the new visions and, you know, the five minutes to get to the classes and arriving late and everything. And as we all talk about changes happening, we got to be patient. How do we pivot? Right. Well, I think maybe it's time that we ask, you know, the Bose superintendent DC to come to the board and do a presentation so we can learn what their requirements are as well for seat time and requirements. And we I don't know.
116I I hear that our students are missing hours and different things, but I'll be honest with you, I really have no idea if they are and what the requirements are. So, I don't know if that's something the board will be open to, but I think it would be beneficial for us to understand what their requirements are and hear it directly from them so that we can make the pivot appropriately. Um so I would appreciate if all of you would consider that and have a discussion about it. Um my only other thing I wanted to bring up is I do have concerns about um some of our transportation vehicles have a banner on that book with a yield sign. I'm not sure. So, I know they pull out in front of the buses so the buses
117can all leave the schools in a timely manner. And I think it's a great concept. I just would like to possibly see if there's any support we can get from, you know, possibly from county sheriffs or resource officers or anyone like that to help with that instead of us doing it and taking responsibility. So, um, just I don't know if anyone else has seen those or not, but the back of our vehicles has a yield sign and they when you're I only have seen it in middle school, but when you pull out of middle school, like when the buses start to go, that vehicle pulls in front and stops all the traffic turning right and coming up so all the buses can get out on time. I just I don't know. First of all, I
118don't know if it's legal for us to make our own vehicles whether they're DOT approved or not. But second, I would be concerned about an accident if someone tried to pass that or anything like that. And we might want to look at a more proactive way to do that that is more, you know, with Blackboard. >> And if I can give you a little update today. >> Yeah. >> Uh first of all, we are now starting to take those off because we had to teach people. >> We actually uh asked them and because we're trying not I mean we have the right to stop traffic coming off the property and if we have to we're going to uh we don't want to so we had to teach. We've actually worked with the village and the
119village has been watching it and is okay with that because it is helping the village at this point uh to try to manage that time when you got 40 buses coming through and everybody wanting to go every which way. So they are monitoring it with us because otherwise we requested an officer be stationed there every time. Uh and they said this is seems to be working and it's at a stop sign and so forth. But on the lighting part is Mr. Nichollet. I have trouble with I I think of my phone saying my slat uh because you know Siri doesn't talk too well sometimes but Rich and I were over at Bington watching today unbeknownst to anybody and we stopped the vehicles. So today was the first day they pulled out without you want to
120know what happened. They all got out but water because we've got some great parents that pulled up and stopped. And you know what? It only took four minutes and people were very good. Now the people that were in line were actually all coming and turning south on s going towards uh broad and I don't know if everybody would do this but this one woman and this one man go ahead loud kids to cross the crosswalk allowed the buses to go on nobody beeping and anything that's what we we were hoping to teach uh we can do it without the lights and have anybody vehicle and if somebody uses their motor vehicle one passes a double yellow line, that will be a problem. We're trying to teach people don't be. I think that worked well today.
121I think every now and then we might have to do some refreshers. We are trying to hope not, but we are also having some discussions with our SRO's that if it becomes an issue. They're a duly licensed sheriff in the county. I believe they have a requirement that they could be authorized to be a constable which is required in New York State and a constable who's a duly certified officer and an officer that can carry a weapon which we have can also enter into any state, county or town road and direct traffic if needed. We are hoping we don't have to do that, but those are options that they're exploring. And the worst case, the worst, we just stop traffic on our minimize traffic on the road. Takes about a three or four minute thing,
122which we can use the SLO to do that automatically. But most people have been very good. So, we're trying to as we go through it, we're trying to see what works best. And right now, I'm going to ask Ron to put something out and say, "Thank you. Would you please consider really trying to have that general purpose?" But yeah, everything hit well. And actually all of our buses left I think just a little bit before our 3:30 time that we were shooting. So >> 60. >> Yes. That's why it took so long to correct because we couldn't get approval to put the turning lanes in and it took a little state initiative with Mr. Rome as well as uh the county executive to put those turning which is help. Overall, it's working on this design.
123>> Anything else, Julie? No. >> Okay. Okay. >> Ear. >> No, it's not. Oh, there. Um, okay. I'm just going to pivot on what some other board members said here tonight. um because I've heard from several families that work in our district um and have students in our district. Um so I just want to share a few things that hopefully we can um help change or hopefully correct here in the near future. I know it's on our next agenda, the start times. Um but from what I've heard, extracurricular activities have been affected. Uh it's an ongoing challenge. Um, sorry. So, here's an example. Um, some students not getting enough rest enough sleep at night when they get home late from a sporting music event or extracurricular activity due to the early start time the next
124day. Anxiety associated with drop off pickups uh at several schools, mostly elementary schools. Uh also high schools I've heard there's some exciting that pick up uh drop off because some places have been blocked when younger students hear the older students getting up early in the morning then they are woken up too at that time by the time they get home from school they're too tired to participate in extracurricular activities. Teachers working in elementary schools are struggling with late release times to get to older students that their extracurricular activities start at an earlier time. It gives little to no time for family dynamic for them to sit down and have dinner, let alone do homework before going out the door. If they do participate in extracurricular activities, walking um in middle school classes has been cut
125from 5 minutes to 3 minutes to get from one class to another. Um the reason I know is cuz my daughter's in the middle school, so she's told that she's a pretty serious student that if she's late, she gets mocked tardy. And so many tardies can suspension. So she brought that to my attention because she's a serious student. walking in between high school classes has been cut from eight minutes to five minutes and I know some places take a long time to get so that's a little bit concerning uh without language in seventh grade I know my daughter has two study halls a day I know some kids have three study halls a day uh cafeteria lines being long and overwhelming for the staff and the lunchrooms when it comes to Boseies and I can
126say I'm a proud Boseies employee for 19 years our horse heads morning students not now arrive at 9:15 for CTE that's career and technical education obviously division It's a little longer to get to 12 college. In prior years, courses arrived at 8:45. All other schools arrive between 8:40 and probably 9:00 or 9:05, the latest. Teachers are losing valuable instructional time every day. And I learn this because I'm there firsthand. When students leave, they go back to horse and then they sit on the bus until 11:45 when the next class starts. So then they sit on the bus for 25 minutes. The afternoon students arrive at noon. They are supposed to leave at 2:15 which we've had several days where students from a variety of Boseies classes miss the afternoon bus and this unlike any other
127year we've always had kids miss the bus that happens in every district. If the districts are called the buses come back this year buses haven't come back several times including today when I drove more buses more students in a minivan back to horse to just barely in time catch their bus so they got home on time. Um we've had several days we have so much anxiety in the students um with this that's really never happened before this year and it's really not called for and we have hundreds of CTE students and tens of new vision students that this affects. Also when students go back to home school from goes at 2:15 they sit on the bus until 2:35. Um I understand that change is ongoing. It can be challenging. Things progress and we all need
128to adjust. However, change within our district has caused stress, anxiety, and overwhelming pre uh pressures amongst our staff and students. We as a board along with administrations administrators at Horses need to sit back, revisit these changes and try to better them as a team to take stress off of our families, staff, and students. Also, when it comes to the new email, I believe this is a step in the right direction. Uh even though I asked to have individual, I think members of the community, some people feel more um comfortable reaching out to an individual and we're all voted on this board as individuals and I think it's something that we should discuss as a board and something that should be voted on. If we want our own personal information out there, I don't think there
129should be a problem with it. I think we should be able to discuss that. Not just we have this email that comes up and now we automatically get all these emails. I think it could could or should be an individual thing. And that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thanks. Um, I just wanted to echo everybody's on this award's sentiment. Starting the school year is an easy task. Um, as a teacher myself, I know massive amounts of organization involved in uh getting a school district off its on off its on its feet and rolling. So, I want to give props, kudos, accolades from the superintendent, all the administration, to all the teachers, principles, cleaners, drivers, everybody. It's the most massive undertaking I can imagine. So, I just want to thank everybody here for an amazing
130start. You're going to get your wrinkles, you got to iron, but you started. We'll go. Let's keep going. Um, so I just wanted to thank this district for doing something unbelievably complicated. Um, I wanted to um make sure that I thanked um Mr. and Mrs. Mason Blitz Yuri Deetta for coming today. It takes a lot of courage to get up on that lectern and say what you have to say and I appreciate everything that you said. Um, we are listening are listening. So thank you very much. I wanted to also thank the HDA President Bill Finery for coming and presenting a wonderful idea. Um, everybody should have a voice. Our unions should come if they wish and they have something to report on. We're here to listen. Uh, it adds to the transparency that we
131talk about all the time. We just we want you to know that we're here and we want to know what you have to say and we want to listen. So, I I just I love the ideas of everybody coming to talk. That's what we're here for. That's why we ran. That's why we're sitting on the table to listen to you. Um so, I also wanted to thank um two administrators, I believe, Kelly and Damian. Um I had an opportunity with two other board members to sit on the wellness committee this past week and it was awesome. Teachers looking out for teachers, paying attention to our health, to our mental health, to our physical health. depending on what activities we like to do together. But it was it's just nice to see us that we're we
132may be alone in the classroom, but we're in our own islands as teachers and it's lovely to recognize that and I just wanted to thank you for it. It was amazing to be there for it and you guys with all the energy you must. So, thank you so much. Um let's see. Uh there there was one thing that I did want to bring up. Um it's come to my attention that there is no afterchool supervision for the intermediate school students following participation in extracurricular activities whereas supervision is provided at the elementary and middle school levels whether it's full afterare provided by the YWCA kids world or supervision between school and athletics at the middle school 78 uh nothing exists um for fifth and sixth graders. Now again I might be mistaken. So uh but it
133seems that there's an inequity and a fee system may have been created giving students who have an atome driver at that time uh to come and pick them up after their activities move at 3:00 in the afternoon. Uh and a clear advant advantage is being created for those that um that participate. Uh but what with what the intermediate school has to offer after instructional hours um it's only available to those that can find somebody to come get them at 3:00 in the afternoon because 10 11 12 year olds do not drive. Uh but if we work to practice what we preach our schools will make and should make every effort to provide an equitable environment for all students wish to enjoy and add to the positive culture in our school and community. There's so many
134wonderful things up there at the intermediate school garden club council drama club and and and and it should I find it to be kind of a shame when I hear uh some parents say well my kid can't do it because I can't get him at 3:00 in the afternoon. So let's explore some options. Um you know I just want to bring it to the attention uh to the superintendent to to Dr. Douglas. I'm not asking for a directive right and just maybe some information. I know solutions aren't as easy to come by and fixes are not easy sometimes and I I can appreciate that, but I'm just asking informally just for some information uh from Mrs. Tim Long, the school intermediate school principal or the superintendent, Dr. or maybe just a cost analysis. Um, if
135we were to offer an after club supervisory period for those students, just for a little while, not anything till dinner time or anything, but just to open a conversation, open a dialogue to see if we could offer something that's fifth and sixth graders body of the intermediate school. Thanks. any other >> I'd like to thank everybody else who came out today to speak and I'd like to say thank you to the staff and everybody who does make it all work and you know everybody has moved mountains to really make it work. Um but then I ask myself is this sustainable? Is this sustainable to do year after year over and over again? Is it sustainable for families to endure this all of the time? Couple parents came and spoke tonight about the new visions program
136and the CTE hours that Cara's talking about. You know, a student shouldn't have to make that choice between I'm going to leave and I'm losing educational hours or what am I going to miss? And when people come and they talk to us and we say, "We hear you. we're doing something. I think that it has to be a little bit more um action like we have to take action. So to me, okay, originally to align with mostly start times, we voted to have the high school start at 7:20. We didn't vote to have the intermediate school start at 7:20. And so that 15 minutes makes the difference. That is the difference right now. So to me, pivoting would look like middle school and intermediate have to go in that 7:35 time slot and drop off
137has to happen at the high school first. >> They can't. Their day is too short. >> Okay, I understand that. But but this was this was this is the type of like when we were when we voted to have this happen, we were given information. I remember Warren distinctly asking if it would impact Boseies and how it would impact Boseies. A student who's taking a CTE course at Boseies, this could be their career for life. This isn't college. They might not be going to college. They need to have those hours. They need to have the time. That has to shift. And it can't wait a year to shift. It has to shift now. So, I don't know how it works. What I know how it works is that the board votes on a start time
138and then everybody else figures out how to make it work within that. So, we voted on a start time which was 7:20 for the high school and that did not happen. So that has to be fixed. It can't be. We are all collectively working on it because we don't collectively work on it. We say this is how it has to happen. It has to happen. So that is that's a problem. I appreciate the veterans coming out. I'd like to look into the tax break for the veterans. Um the people who came that had the petitions that we haven't gotten yet, but hopefully we'll get to look over. They asked to have a committee formed, a board committee formed to reinvestigate and to look into these start times. And with all the challenges that we have,
139I think that yes, we have to dig into this deeply, talk to people, find the nuances, and figure out how to best serve the community as a whole and how it will impact their student outcomes long term. Rushing children from class to class, not giving them grades, having long days impacts their ability to learn and impacts their ability to function. I can see this firsthand with my own children with the long school days on both ends. So, and I see it in a whole in a lot of different children. And I've heard a lot of different feedback for the community. And it can't just be we hear you, we're working on it. We need to make a motion. We need to make resolutions. We need to say this is what's going to happen. Action needs
140to be taken. So, to me, um, you know, I understand it's 900 hours for 180 days. When you divide that, it comes out to 5 hours a day. So even if we put the cushion at 6 hours a day instead of 6 hours and 40 minutes, that still gives time because you you need to have breaks. Kids need breaks. They need to have time to eat. Having lunch at 10:30 in the morning is not the best time to have lunch. Like these are the conversations that your your public wants answers to. They want us to figure it out. And I came here to do just that. I came here to figure it out. So I make the motion to have this committee that they have asked us to create um to revisit the start times.
141That would be my first motion and I don't know if we have to vote on that now or not but it it needs to happen. and we need to investigate it or just as a whole board we just make a vote to make that happen and and immediately not like in January or whatever else something has to be done for these students and those that has to be done it is not fair to these kids you know it it's not fair to them and we can't wait we have to pivot it has to be quick Um, so you know that's I'd like to do that. Start the start the committee and um pick some new vision stuff. And then what Matt was saying about the teachers um when they came and they spoke and they
142want to have somebody here a slated agenda item. I'm also in favor them for that and I think that should be a motion as well that we get to that we vote on. I don't know. Yeah, I think we can make the motion to do that this evening. He talked about having them do the agenda, but I think we have to if people come and speak to us, we have to start addressing their concerns. And it can't be we're going to wait a month, okay? We have to have a special meeting to address concerns and we have to do it. We have to >> you the only board member that's one time Warren, are you okay? No, everybody said things. I might say I want to repeat like everybody else said each other's comments. >>
143Okay. >> So, uh that concludes everyone's spoken for their requisite time of 5 minutes. You have the opportunity for free additional if anyone wants it. Other than that, I would move to the uh adjournment. >> Make a motion. Can I second so we can vote? >> Well, you can only vote on one motion at a time. >> Okay. I'd like to I'd like to make a motion on the first one where we have a committee to focus and talk about the start times >> and we have a board policy that talks about committees. I think what's being contemplated is a this is policy 2250. It talks about special ad hoc committees of the board and there's a process that needs to be followed which starts with um putting a whole resolution together the board president
144who's responsible for doing this with the uh the purpose the chairperson and the membership the role etc. So I my view would be it's premature to just vote on a committee. We can um you know explore it. That would be the process to do it. Uh I think simply voting on it is not in line with policy 2250. >> Okay. Okay. So, what you're saying like we're having the meeting next month on the start times and the public came and asked to have a committee form. So, you could draft that potentially for us for a resolution for us to have that we could vote on at the next meeting if we want to have this committee and who would potentially be on that committee to help resolve this situation. Well, my view is that as
145we've talked about, we are intending to have a discussion about start times, understand sort of how things have gone thus far, where there opportunities for improvement. We talked in August about doing that in October. So my recommendation would be let's do that. Let's have information in hand and then on the basis of that decide how we move forward. So I would personally feel like it's premature to, you know, put a committee in place until we have some more clarity and we have that discussion in October. >> So do you want to put a motion for the teachers to be able to come and speak since we're already going to address that? So we can put that on for our next meeting as well to vote on discuss. >> Someone can make a motion. It would
146require a second and then a vote. I'll say my view is that requires some I would want us to consult with our legal counsel just to make understand the collective bargaining implications and the contractual implications and if all of that is can if it can be done in a way we're acting in line with those um obligations then I think we could that's when I would suggest we discuss it but you can make a motion I was just going to say I know for a fact that Lammyra has a standing part of their agenda where the teachers union is allowed to speak. I've gone there. They've never been I think the big fear might be they'll be disrespectful or it'll be a contentious confrontational thing. I've never seen that down there. I think they come
147in and they say they're peace or sometimes they just say everything's grand. So um I if there is a legal concern a lawyer has ignored it apparently. Well if I say it I would say it may be that they have something in writing or when they put it in place they talked about protocols for example you know there's grievance procedure under the contract right so if we had a a bargain unit come and talk about a grievance or something to that effect. >> I agree. >> Right. So my point is just let's just understand what would the protocols be, what would the sort of guide rails be and I don't I don't know what that is sitting here right now. That's why I'm saying I I'm not opposed to the idea, you know, completely. I
148just think I'd like some more information personally as to how we would structure. >> I think that we would also have to consider all the bargaining units within the district, right? So if we were allowing the teachers to do it, we would need to set aside time for all of the bargaining units. So you know, I think that's another factor that needs to be considered. And I don't know if Elmmyra had considered that as well. I don't even know how many bargaining units they have. Um, but we just would need to have that equity. So that's that's another another factor. So, you know, I would also recommend not only looking at the possibility of having a dedicated time during board meetings, but is there another way to get to that same outcome, right? So, does
149it become a standing item in the weekly updates that we get or something where every bargaining unit has the opportunity to supply, you know, a write up for for those, you know. So I think just you know kind of looking outside of the box as well um as to what all those options could be. So I do think it's something that needs to be I don't know if we can just go around it tonight. I think it's something that would be would warrant a larger discussion about all the opportunities. >> Okay, it's not working. So I'm just going to talk about Um, so I agree and I would support that. I think it would be really great to either have it in the update or in um a time when if they wanted to come
150and address this they could through as a normal portion. I'd appreciate if someone to look into that. I think that'd be fantastic. Um, we've heard multiple times obviously you know the concerns about requirement CC and stuff and I did bring up the idea of having um Stacy Salini and the superintendent of OSI come across the board. Is that something um Mr. that we need to make a do I need to make a motion for that to have that looked into or is that just something that you and Dr. Douglas would be able to look into to see if she'd be available potentially if we're talking about this next board meeting in October potentially she could come and do a presentation at that time if her schedule is available of course if the board wanted to
151hear that we could hear from her the requirements of exactly what new visions and Rosie's requirements are so we can get a better understanding and that this year >> I don't I don't think needs a motion and you know compel it right like if she's not available maybe we could get hear from our own staff right to speak about it but I guess what I would say is I also would like to understand more about exactly the time requirements etc but so maybe we let the district figure out how best to update us on that and defer to their you know discretion on that we can anticipate talking about it as part of our start time discussion in October. I would be comfortable that >> I think I would be comfortable hearing directly from someone
152from both not someone on our staff but potentially someone from their staff >> is what I like. >> I don't know. I you can make a motion. I I I'm not opposed to hearing from Boseis either. I just think it would if anything probably be a joint presentation. It's um Boseies is a completely separate school district. We don't have the ability to make talk works for us. I think >> why why don't we I have no acquisition whatsoever >> but I feel like it should be done in conjunction with our professionals right Here's the smoke. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> So, I think we got a little sidetracked though. Um, but I do want for the October meeting to have on it whether what like the vote on the agenda on if we're going to
153put a a teacher representative, all the stuff that we were talking about, I would like that to be a vote on the next thing that we make a vote on. We can have information. We can have discussion about it, but in the end, I think there needs to be a resolution of whether or not we're going to do this, they're going to be on it or not. that gives us time to get information and to make a a like a decision on whether or not we're going to have it and information can be presented so that can be an agenda item for the next month. And I also do think that we should have a resolution um crafted for the potential of the committee that the public requested we have that they have a petition
154with signatures for. So, I would like I'm making the motion to have both of those things created to be voted on at the next meeting. That's what I'm asking for. >> You said placing a teacher on the board. >> No, the teacher representative, the person, the collective bargaining, you know what I mean? The person that they had, the time slot that they had, what Mora just said, Almyra's got it already. So, I'm saying that that would be voted on at the next meeting. I'm asking to put that onto the agenda to make sure that we have that. I'm making the motion and I'm hoping to get the second for those two things to be on there for the next meeting so we can have action for the committee to investigate the start times which are
155making big impacts on everybody, right? And then for also >> there I'll >> Yeah, you need to state that for specificity. We need to be clear what we're voting on. >> Okay. So, we are um making just like what you read with the policy about how it has to be if we're going to do it has to be written by the board president that there would be a resolution and what the committee's going to do state clearly like what is the job of this committee you know what they're going to do start time wise so the making the resolution so having that resolution on for the next one so that we can make a vote on app. Does that make sense? >> So, the motion is in accordance with policy 2250 to consider at the
156next board meeting uh or vote at the next board meeting on the creation of a special committee related to start times. Is that a fair statement on your motion? >> Yes. >> Is there a second? >> And please, >> that's your motion. Is there a second? Well, including in it, >> you have to divide it into two separate those are two different items. >> Okay. Okay. That's my first one. >> I'll second. >> Is there any comments or questions on the motion? >> All right. I think it's premature. We said we discussed the starting times at the next board meeting. Um, other than what we've heard tonight, we have maybe there's positives, maybe there's no positives, but we put on our agenda that it would be discussed in October. Seems to me we're already saying
157we're going to study now by this motion the starting times. Then my next question would be why do we need that item on the agenda if you're making a committee to discuss it? I would like to know what the discussion would be about, what the feedback would be about. And then once we hear that, maybe we have the committee, but I think it's premature. And if this passes, then I would make a motion. And I'm not making the motion now, but I'm for warning. I'll make a motion to take that off October's agenda. There's no need to discuss it because now it's going to commit. >> Thank you. Anyone else want to comment on the motion? I could just make one thing before you take any motion. Does the board understand the hours are contractual?
158You can't change them. They're contractual. They are negotiated. They are settled times of instruction. Just so that you know, >> I don't think anyone's arguing contractual times. I think they're arguing the times that they start and the times that they >> I understand that. But the the length of the elementary day is 6 hours 46 minutes. It's not changing. The length of the high school day is roughly seven hours. Their workday is 7 and a half. the work day of an elementary I think an elementary teacher is seven and a half except on Friday where it's I think 6 hours and 50 minutes or something like that uh those are contractual they can't change they would no matter what if you move one you're affecting the other so if you move hypothetically just so that
159you're at least knowledgeable and we'll explain this next month if you move the high school time to say 7:20, the elementary time to make the buses work has to be at least 20 minutes before that. If you move it to 7:50, it's still got to be 20 minutes before that. If you say like some people we said in the beginning, you move the elementary to the beginning and you move the high school to the afternoon or the day for 40. Whatever time the elementary starts, you need about an hour and 25 minutes no matter what to send the buses all the way out and pick up and then hit the middle school and it will intermediate school and they'll hit first because it has to be them now because they have a shorter day and
160that's an hour and 20 minutes. So say hypothetically just flip them. The elementary was say at 7 7:30. That makes it easy. The intermediate school isn't going to start until at least 8:40. The high school isn't going to start until 9:00. Period. That's what's required for busing. The only way you can get around that, you got to double your busing. We can't do that. The only way you can get around that, have a super campus and bring all the kids in. If we tried to sit there, as some people have said, and say, "Let's go back to Kate 6 and do one busing, hey, I'm all for it." But you understand when you go out to all the district, the elementaryaries are the shortest. So, you'll have to start with them and go to each
161elementary school, then go to the intermediate school and middle school, and then go to the high school. If it's one time, those kids are going to be sitting on at least 20 minutes in between each building to get the school. and then it has to reverse in the afternoon the same exact way. That's what we've been dealing with. That's the only reason why when we said 7:20, we had to shift it to 7 uh I think it was 7:30 and 720 and we had to play with five minutes one way, 5 minutes the other. Everybody can think they can solve the problems of the world. It's not that easy. But those are all things that are tied together no matter what. And you know what? Boseies is setting their schedule. They will not move their
162schedule one bit. And we understand there are different schools from different regions in all of our Boseies across the state that will have certain times that they arrive. Boseies requires I believe two hours of instruction for their credit. I believe we're at two and a half hours for their credit. We decide credit, not boasting. We decide if a student is legal or illegally absent. That rests with the home district. They provide a service, we pay for it. So, I'm hoping you understand it's not that easy as everybody thinks it is. And everything's tied. And it's tied by a contractual agreement. So, if you mess with it, you understand you may be violating contracts. And I can't do that. >> So, there's a motion on the floor. Does anyone else want to comment or question on
163the motion? Christine, >> I agree with Warren. Um, you know, it's it's premature, right? So, we've been in school for two weeks and yes, it's, you know, there's been a lot of obstacles, but it's gotten better and over time, you know, I mean, it's not perfect. I am not gonna say that it's perfect, but I feel like again my opinion is that it's probably better today than it was the first day of school, right? Um I think that we need to look at a longer period of time to see what's working and what's not working and do that detailed analysis after we hear about that in October. you know, if if we were to form a committee, make a change, right? You know, we have to think about how does another change impact the total
164community. You know, there there there's many many families that, you know, rearrange a whole bunch of moving parts to make this new schedule work. So then if all of a sudden we switch directions and say, "Oh, we're going to throw that out the window and we're going to go to this other schedule," then that just puts more people into a tail spin. And I I think we need more time for us for it to settle out. We need we need more time for the district, you know, just as the district has done in the past couple of days looking at traffic flow at Garter Road, now looking at traffic flow at at at Bigflex. you know more of that is needed and then with a full evaluation in October to say how are things going
165um not necessarily okay how are things going now let's make a complete pivot so I think we need we need more time we need more time for it to settle we need to collect more data and so waiting till October to see all that and then make the decision is a committee needed and if we do a committee you know what does that mean and what would the outcome of the committee potentially And how does that impact the broader community >> soon? >> So Tom, when you come in October, do you plan to do a time presentation for the board or what is your update going to be in October? What will it look like? >> Well, what will what will your presentation look like? Have you thought about what your presentation will look like?
166>> Thought about a little about talking about, you know, what we experienced on the first day through like the first couple weeks. That's what we get settled in. Talking about, you know, have we made any tweaks to the schedule. Could there be tweaks for next year? Uh because honestly, we already said it's going to be one to two years to get the data because you're not really looking at it fully because Road's at Center Street. It's got to go back to Ridge Road. Uh in addition, we have to look at the lesson schedules because there was a goal to be under an hour. I want to make sure I have that data. Uh and also so it's not just the first 11 days, but it's more solid. Uh I think you you have to look
167at what's happening with our extracurriculars, what's happening with the students as well. I mean, there's students that are getting out now getting jobs, right? And here's the thing, there is no immediate thing that we can say. The only time you can change it is next year. >> I understand that, but I think there's a big frustration because when you presented this and I even went back and shot the pictures, um, you were making this change and changing 40-minute classes. Um, and this was going to benefit Boseies, but it did not benefit the kids going to Boseis. And when you when children grow up, we stress that they're on time for things. They're on time for their class. They're on time to be at school. And there's consequences when they're not on time. And so every
168they're stressed out because there are kids who are responsible who are taking, you know, these classes and they're torn. Okay. Well, you can leave early. It's okay. But um you can be laid down there too, so they can do both things, but they're frustrated every day. You know, they're they're trying to become young adults and we're saying, "Well, it's okay that you're late." Well, it's really not okay that you're late. So, there has to be some sort of um solution for these kids. You know, shouldn't we got rid of our 40minute bookends? I'm not sure that was what we should have done because when we had our 40-minute bookends at the beginning of the day and the end of the day out of how many high school students there's only a couple hundred that are
169that actually go to Bose or whatever the number is but you have kids who needed those 40-minute bookends that go to school all day long that I don't think it's maybe working for so I think we need to see that data too and let's you know we need to know these wise choices because the bottom line is you're in this business to do what's best for all students, not just your own and not just, you know, your best friends. But we got to look what's good for everybody, the >> masses. And as we started this process, we know that there's some things that have not gone correctly. And we have to be able to acknowledge that and sit down with these students and say, "Hey, look," and I'm sure maybe they are, but the kids
170are frustrated. And to me, that's not fair to them. you know, it's not fair that they have and our teachers are doing a great job and our administrators are doing a great job and everybody's out in your, you know, Europe early or whatever. But we still have to figure out what we can do to help these students and make it best for them. >> And I can assure you, my high school principal in this situation has been and trying to make it consistent as well. But that's talking to the students and we have a few issues but we have not heard from many have we >> that's being reported here. >> Okay. >> But that will be part of it because we want to build that for you. >> Right. >> You want you want
171to know. So, I think we should wait. I And you know, waiting even if you make a motion and it passes or it doesn't, we're not here to fix this issue, but we have to look at what we've done. >> Thank you. Um, shalom. >> Should the motion go first? >> You want to see on the motion? want to address something. >> We need to, you know, we need to follow our our order rules here. Is the motion pending? Everybody has a right to speak on the motion to vote. Did anyone else want to speak on the motion, which is whether we commit to forming this committee at the next board meeting? I just have a question. >> When you read the policy, you said that a resolution has to be made to form the
172committee and it has to be pre-written and it has to be available. So, the reason I wanted to have this motion is because I wanted to be prepared that if after the presentation and we have discussions about it, that resolution is there for us to vote on and we don't have to wait until November to create a new resolution and have it on there. That's why I'm doing it. Not to say definite like this is why we have to do it because when you read the thing, I'm under the impression that according to that policy, you're saying a resolution has to be formed. like we have to have all of these things pre-typed like so when we had the committees before Warren came he read all of what that committee is going to do so
173why waste another month waiting to have that if we are going to make a decision on it and we're talking about start times why wouldn't we already have that there just in case we need to vote on it that's why I want it there >> I understand why you want >> that's why I want it there >> okay and I'll speak last before we vote I understand that's why you want it but if you read the policy What it talks about is there needs to be thought put into why are we creating this committee? What will this committee do? Who will be the members? And you're saying we essentially have to do all of that in advance of hearing it and then decide maybe we vote for it or don't. I just think it's premature.
174I think I agree with my fellow board members. It's been a couple of weeks of school. What we need to do is hear from the district. Understand what options are. We're not going to change a start time this year, right? We we have already put this in place. We put the busing in place. There are thousands of students in this district and how many have, as Miss Dale said, already acclimated to what we have and would be as equally negatively impacted by change as those who might be positively impacted. We have we have to have that kind of information in my view before we commit ourselves to make a change. So what I think is we should have this presentation in October. we have the ability to shape what that will look like, right? We're
175going to talk about that between now and then. And then I think that will inform whether we need a committee, what that committee should look like, and that would get put together. I I frankly feel like we're, you know, we're starting to do more and more business in the board comments period, which is just the absolute backwards way of running a hundred million uh thousands of students operation, right? Like we put thought into what the agenda is and we get presentations about things. We make her sure that we're fully informed so that we can vote and understand the implications. I really think it's a bad practice if we start to do all of our governing in in the last part of the meeting and just react. And I'm not saying what we heard tonight was
176unjustified and I appreciate the comments people made, but I think it's being too reactive, right? And we need to act deliberately. That's part of what our job is is to understand. We always say the masses, right? What about all those other people that weren't here and didn't speak and might love these times? Let's like you have to consider the totality of it and then act in the best interest of everyone. So I for one would be against the motion. I call for a vote on the motion to commit to commit to creating a ad hoc committee at the next meeting. All those in favor say I. >> It's it's not to create it. is to have the option to vote on whether or not we make it. >> All those against say nay. >> I'm
177not moving. >> Any extensions? >> Okay, the motion fails. >> Go ahead. >> This should be quick. Um Tom, if it's possible to ask for drop off times from all the buses and goes per building >> bus drops off at what building >> and pick up. Thank you. That data will be very useful in future conversations >> and if kids sit on that before this year. >> Okay. Uh, anyone else want to be heard final time? >> I want to be here for the first time. >> All right. I agree with Mr. Christmas and I'm glad Mr. Christmas said it because he said it more eloquently than I did last meeting where I said this board member comment section is now a meeting. I left the July meeting for a family obligation that I was
17840 minutes late for but I stayed for the known vote. When I read the minutes of the meeting, the meeting went on another hour and a half and there were two votes that were unknown to me and unknown to the public. I don't know if that's a violation of open meetings law or not, but shouldn't the public have a right to know what's on the agenda and what's going to be discussed? Seems to me that somebody did something. You blew the >> Okay, >> seems to me these things should be on the agenda and we have a process where a board member can email the president and say, "I would like this on the agenda and then the board president and the board vice president and whoever is the third member that month can discuss
179whether that should be on the agenda, whether it's right to be on the agenda or it should not be. I I think board member comments when it went into effect cuz I was here when it went into effect for the baseball team did great. The musical was nice. Mrs. Caner really looked good out there with the traffic cones. It wasn't conducted another hour and a half's worth of business. So I agree with you, Mr. Christmas. This is totally gone beyond what the purpose of this section of the the meeting is. >> Okay, >> with all due respect, we're all board members. No one's more important than anybody else. And last meeting I asked to have something put on the agenda that we as a board discussed having our personal email and phone number on there
180and someone came up with the idea here's the email. We didn't talk about it. We didn't discuss about it. We didn't vote on it. It was something given to us and we're a board. We're all here individually. So to me we had these board comments going back and forth because when I asked to have something on the agenda, we vote for it. It wasn't even on the agenda tonight. We just all of a sudden have this new email where we all get these emails. We did not discuss having our personal emails and our personal cell phones and that was what was supposed to be on the agenda. >> You can you cannot conduct business as a board member of the Central School District with your personal email and your personal phone number. If you look
181at Corning, Elmmyra, Elmyra Heights, Watkins Glenn, every one of them, the email that's made available is a district email. Okay? So this was my proposal. What we heard was that people wanted the ability to email board members. People have the ability to email board members. If that's not sufficient, feel free to email me, as Warren said, in accordance with our policy and ask for an item on the next meeting agenda and we can talk about that in the agenda planning meeting. But the idea that on the district website we're going to put personal email is just it's not going to happen. >> And we're district which is what is there >> which is what is there's district email. >> We are a board of nine people and if someone has an issue they should share
182it with nine. We have no uh inherent power or ability to do anything as an individual. We are a board right and I I can't think of a more divisive thing than say why don't you write that person and you write that person and then start to build these factions. That's exactly what we're trying to avoid. Transparency. What is more transparent than everyone receiving it at the same time? >> Um I I would call for a motion to uh >> second. >> Any discussion on the motion? I didn't get to make my second motion about the teacher person being on for the next meeting because they came and they spoke and I wanted that to be on the agenda. And I'm going to reiterate what my sister says. When we ask to have something on
183the agenda and it doesn't get put on the agenda, then that's when we bring it up in board member comments. >> A motion on the table right now to adjourn. >> But see, you didn't even you didn't give me a chance, right? You didn't you we heard it tonight. You could send me an email tomorrow. You could say, "Can we talk about it the next meeting? Can this be on the agenda?" You could give me a little bit of benefit of the doubt that I'm going to try to do my best to support the whole board. But no, you, you know, instantly want to vote on it. And that's what I'm saying. It's poor governance and and you're and you're not giving me a chance. You want to make your motion then, uh, and you
184did talk about it earlier and said you wanted to make it, so you can make it. We have to withdraw the motion to adjourn. >> Yes. >> Thank you very much. So the motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Nay. Extensions. Okay. Me. My wife is 4T 27.