001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Horsed Middle School Intermediate School for our June 18th regular business meeting. Would you please stand and join me in honoring America by reciting the pledge? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. I need a motion uh to adjourn uh to a recess session so the board can conduct its annual self evaluation. Can I have a motion, please? Some move second. All in favor? I opposed abstensions. All right, we will adjourn to recess and be back at 6:00. All right. Good evening everyone. We are returning from a recess session and now returning to the public portion of our board meeting. And the first item
002on our agenda is approval of the public minutes. And we had uh three minutes sets of minutes that need to be approved. 2.01 through 2.03. Can I have a motion, please? Second. Curiosities, discussion, comments. Right. All in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. I am told that we do not have any uh individuals from the community tonight that wish to speak. So, we will uh move to section four. And the student representative has other commitments tonight. So now we will go to section five and we will start with the report from the superintendent. First, thank you ladies and gentlemen and members of board of education, those individuals that are out there in TV land. Uh as well, I want to thank the whole community. You know, it's been a difficult time during the past month with the
003first budget vote and the second budget vote, but overwhelmingly the the board's budget near the second time was passed at over 66% is the highest in of the three budgets that were out there in approval. So, I want to thank our community for coming out uh participating one way or another, but our budget has been passed and we're moving into graduation time as well as into the summer and starting to prepare for the next year. with preparing for the next year. You'll see on the uh board minutes under policy of their first read is the internet uh devices ban, which I'm sure every student out there is happy that we got to talk about. But they are receiving a survey today to start giving us some of their thoughts over the next couple weeks as
004well as parents received one today as well as the staff did. So we'd encourage people to uh please understand that we're looking for some of their information more so probably on the regulations that administration is going to have to develop and how we can best work together because it is the law of the land. We have no choice. Uh and yet the policy is pretty much the sample from our lawyers that falls in line as best possible at this point. So the board will have some of that discussion tonight. So, I just want to let you know we are in full compliance with it and we may need an extra policy meeting somewhere around next Thursday or next Friday just so that we can prepare for the upcoming organizational and next board meeting for any
005second reading so that we can comply with the August 1 deadline. However, I do know that the state is not going to slap our hands if we by chance were off by a meeting from the August 1 deadline. uh I don't think they have the workforce to monitor it, but we want to try to do in good faith and make sure at least we at the start because regulations cannot even start to begin until after the policy is finalized. So that will be up under policies first. Uh there is a GST Bose board vacancy at this point. However, because we already have a representative, they have chosen to take an officer. I think the Bradford board that was a former Boseies board member, but we were obligated to give you that notification uh in case
006you want me to sort of say, well, we may want somebody else on it. Um, but I don't see many people lining up for that position because they could have run as the position was able to be uh run for, but there was only one candidate who wanted to put in. It's an important time of graduation. graduation date procedure, as you know, over the past several years until we have an indoor venue, is an outdoor graduation on our district field. Uh it starts right now, we are starting to get into the window on Wednesday uh of next week. It's at 6:00 p.m. Please be aware that we could always move it back to 6:30 or so. We try to give as much information on that. It is at the stadium. There will be our wonderful
007maintenance facilities assisting those that need assistance getting into uh the stadium from various parking spots. Uh but if weather is contingent on that day, we try to make a obvious call by Tuesday. If it's sort of sketchy, we may hold a call all the way up until Wednesday afternoon and try to indicate whether or not we're leaning one way or another. Right now it does look good for Wednesday. Although it will be very toasty out. So um just like for our school days on Monday and Tuesday, we encourage people to wear lighter clothing, lighter colored clothing. Make sure there are plenty of fluids. Make sure you're sending students with a lot of hydration. Uh as well as we have some field days and outdoors. And the good part is many of our buildings right now
008do have some type of form of climate control with Center Street and Gardener Road. I think having a good deal of it as well as the high school. Unfortunately, the intermediate middle school is would be in the next project if it's considered uh by the community. And uh Ridge Road is obviously uh just at the point where they're going to start giving some for the current project. So those are some of the things and not all of our elementaryaries that have big flat rooms have uh climate control. So we want to be very aware of it. But Wednesday is the first night to graduation. If it rains and we cancel, we just go to the next night, Thursday night. Again, we'll make that call Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon. If it's still weather and we
009have to make the call, then it will go to Friday. If it's still weather, we go to Saturday. But on Saturday, we will give a time and it is rain or shine. We will have to adjust if there's lightning. So, please understand, we tried to do it best. In the four years I think we've been doing it, we've only had to move out Wednesday, one night, and it was Thursday night. So, please pay attention. Please pay attention to Joe Baris, who I always blame the night on every year. even though I know I can't blame him. Go meet with him right now, but uh he is doing his best to try to get us a perfect night for our uh graduating class of 2025. Uh summer construction is in full swing. Uh it's going to
010really take off at the end of next week. We ask everybody to bear with us, even our staff, as multiple buildings, multiple rooms, multiple staff have to be moved. And we can't just do it in a day. We need the next two weeks to try to do it so that everybody can move forward. Just so that you know, the high school is almost three weeks, possibly four weeks ahead of schedule. Ridge Road is absolutely on time and once they can get in, they feel that they will be able to speed up the schedule. Uh all of this is hopefully to give next summer more chance uh for people to have more time in the buildings if possible. But we'll keep our fingers crossed. We are starting to plan for a community open house or a
011walk-in in September right before our open house for our students at the high school garden road and big flat because those construction areas have been regularly updated and we want to invite anybody out. More information will be out. We'll also put it out uh to local uh senior homes and as well as our community and try uh to advertise that so people can see their return on investment uh as it really has made a difference in the lives of students and their opportunities. Um I already announced that so I'll need the board to talk about cell phone and an extra policy meeting just real quick uh by the end of the night so we can set that out. And then also um I had talked at the last meeting about opening times and I didn't
012really hear anything back from the board at that point. The budget has passed. It is not in the budget, but we announced the times and we're getting ready to have our principles communicate that out to the new students coming to their buildings. But I would like to see if the board is okay with me using whatever resources I can to try to make sure that I have at least 20 minutes to maybe up to probably 40 to 50 minutes for the K through fours to try to at least for this first year assist as many parents as possible. Maybe like from 7:50 to 8:10 it has to be are those people that have how would you say we would have to figure out the mechanism but they must be at work. they have no other
013alternative and they have documentation that they can give to us that we first and foremost take care of those those other individuals would show up 20 to 25 minutes before school which is the normal time and get through this year with the understanding that next year schools open 20 minutes before the actual start time. Any thoughts from the board members on that? Um I'm I'm in favor of that. I think, you know, whatever we can do to ease the transition over this next year to be able to help parents, I think would be very helpful. Um, you know, you know, again, with the understanding that it's not a long it's not a long-term um assist, but to be able to to give the families additional time to figure out different. So, I'm definitely there I
014agree with what Christine said. I'm just could you if you're not sure that's fine, but would this be done through say having you know have a staff member work overtime or some other mechanism? We will we will have to have individuals on staff volunteer to come in and work extra time which I do believe there are people going to do that and considering it but because of some contracts it will require extra overtime but I think it's a small price to pay to try to help everybody out throughout this year and as this is the other thing if say we're doing at the beginning of the year there's only one or two kids per building and sooner or later they take care of it we'll draw it back once we know people have been able
015to adjust but we want that's what we said last time that's the only thing keeping us from finalizing all the times. Yeah. So I and the reason I asked is just to make sure that we would be appropriately compensating anyone who would be willing to do that. But I'm certainly supportive of it and it's worth the knows it would take to do it. All right. Any possibility of a lexime conversation with your staff member? Those are all those are all possibilities. Yes. Okay. That's the numbers. Yeah. I The hard part is we have don't have the maximum number of people that might be available. So I think one way or another we we've estimated that we're going to have to carry some cost. Okay. And then just what how would you handle that with each
016individual teacher in the unit. Would you do like an how would you uh a lot of times it's probably not going to be the instructional staff. It would most likely be our teaching assistants, monitors, and so forth. So let me turn off. Okay. Um, I just have a concern with the starting times. I I know the board approved the um high school back in I don't know, September, October. I forgot to go back, but um I think these times are really and um I have a concern for having these growth times for grade levels 5 through 12 when high schoolers. I know people will say they'll get up regardless, but I know I just I just really struggle with the times that are in place for these kids for next year. I think it's too
017early. I feel like they're the parents to go to work at 7 a.m. and work till 3, it's going to be a long day. And then for the kindergarteners or whatever, um, excuse me. It's it's just a really, really long day. And I have concerns about the times and um how are these kids going to keep up with this on a daily schedule? And like for the middle school, maybe a 205 um and they're in a sport. Um you know, would have been better to have the elementary kids going early because they're always up before the crack of dawn anyway. And I just have concerns about the way the start times are. And I've heard that in the community, too. I'm not I'm not saying just personally, but what I hear from parents um especially,
018you know, single parents who have to get their kids to school. Um I I just not convinced that these are a great a great subject for them. But would you I guess my question is would you be okay with us trying to assist with what we've got? Those times are there trying to assist as many families as we can. Yeah, I would be okay with that. I just I just never gave another opinion about this. But yeah, thank you. Did that before. Julie, I would agree. Um I'd be okay with it. I would just caution us that once we put something in place when we say it's first year, it's always hard to pull it back. So, I would just caution us that it might end up being something more permanent or we may need
019to look at that down the road. Um, I'm for the flax sign, too, if that's an option. I think that's a great avenue to go. But, um, you know, it's always hard to take something away that we make convenient. Everything that we post is going to have the warning on it just so that they know because unfortunately our budget is still our budget and it is not something that we can just be convenient on. Unfortunately, we'd love to be, but everything unfortunately does have a potential cost. So, we want to try to help while we can and work while we can so people can adjust. But, I'll make sure that that's clear. I think it would be helpful um to get like a dollar amount and to understand what it would cost, you know, because
020when you asked us to give um an opinion on it without having to know, okay, is this going to be 10,000, 20,000, 30,000? He saw what those numbers are in different budget lines. So you don't know like I feel right now we're making a blind decision and we don't know what we're going to be trading off for in future with this decision. I want to be able to help people and make sure that they have the transition times but I don't know this cost and I feel like it's really important to be able to have that information before being asked to make a decision. Um, so you're saying that you want to try to open the buildings 40 minutes in advance. So I just want to be clear. You are saying next year you would
021open the building at 8:20, but this year you're going to try to have it open at 8:00 a.m. or are you trying to have the elementary school building open before 8 a.m.? I'm trying to have the elementary buildings open around 7:50. Around 7:50 a.m. And then what are you trying to do for start times for the intermediate? Is that going to be 7 a.m. or are you trying to do that 7 6:50 to 7? 6:50 to 7. Okay. So the kids the starting bell would be at 7:20. So then we're saying because and then middle school, do you have to have um would you have to have teacher assistance or staff available for that to also be open ahead of time? Not as much as you go up in the grade level, but there could
022be potential. But that's covered by contractor. So mostly you're looking at additional staff in K through 4 and 56 or just K through four. Just a second. It's about $30,000 two extra people in the morning and that's at full overtime if we need full overtime. And then how many um students would be benefiting from this potentially? I have no clue. It depends on the parents. That's the problem. So you're saying that this would be able to benefit 100 kids or 50 kids. It should only benefit the students that require that supervision because their parents are required to be at their job or employment document. So we can't be anything to everybody. So what you're saying is not So if my job doesn't require me to go in earlier, then I wouldn't be able to drop
023my kid off earlier. That's most likely the way we're looking at it. Yes. Okay. So then what would be the drop off point in time for the parents that are not required 20 minutes before the actual start time might be currently. Okay. So, they would have 20 minutes and then the people But you don't know exactly how many kids would be able to sign up for the $30,000. No, the 30,000 is just the range of what I'm estimating at full overtime. It could be less. It could be a little bit more. I doubt it's going to be as much just because of the flex time and so forth. I'm taking the worst case scenario. Okay. But so, yeah, I'm curious about how many kids. There's no way to know until parents get the opportunity to
024sign up to sign up. Yeah. Because officially we could just say the doors open 20 minutes and that's it. We're trying not to do that and for what I'm hearing the board would like to do that as best we can. Well, what I'm I'm trying to get to is okay, if you say like, "Yes, we're going to do this." But then you find out that, you know, you're only allowed to let 40 people sign up because that's the max capacity that you're allowed for the people who can sign up ahead of time if there was some sort of cut off. Well, that would be like per building, right? 40 that 120 kids. But if we But if we had an overwhelming like a number higher than that of parents who wanted to who needed that
025to them. If I can correct you, it's not if they want to, it's if they must and they have the documentation. In other words, we're not opening these schools for 45 minutes for parents just to drop off their kids. It's not a convenience. It's because it's needed necessity. I feel just let me interrupt. I just want to make you aware you have one minute left. My clock is in here. I keep Okay. I just feel like this could I feel like this could have problems with parents saying these people are dropping their kid off early now. Why can't I drop my kid off early because the lines are too long. Do you know what I mean? Absolutely. I want to help people, but I um it's hard for me to just say yes right now
026because $30,000 is a lot of money and if it's going to turn into chaos then I don't that that's necessarily one spent. I understand. That's why I'm asking the board, what would you like to do? Liz, I would be in favor of it, but I do have a question. During those 45 minutes, what are the kiddos doing? They will basically be going to the cafeteria or library depending on how we set it up and they will have options of being able to start with their breakfast early so that when they get in the classroom they're already prepared but it's basically we're supervising them for that time. I do not know if people will want their kids sitting for 40 minutes either. So, we've heard that people are concerned, but we also have heard people say,
027"I'm going to figure it out." And, you know, best judgment. We just want to be able to address people that really So, so is there still going to be latching these programs in these buildings too? There will still also be our kids world program too. So some of the parents are already reaching out there. It depends on their scale as well because we also don't want to infringe into their business as well because they provide a great service for our community. But they can only take so many. It depends. If they know they have more, they try to get more staff. Okay. We're just looking at it like a last resort option for those See, I don't understand the cost of the 30,000. Um, I I want to help families as well, but I'm just
028not sure that it's a good use of our resources without knowing exactly how many kids are going to be in the programs. Um, you know, I'd be more open to the slot scheduling or something along those lines, but to spend additional money on something without knowing exactly how many kids are going to be impacted, I I don't think I'd actually afford that. Um, and then my my other concern with this is that saying that like the drop off time is going to be 20 minutes beforehand. I'm concerned about congestion and traffic and and all of that, especially being able to get through the line ahead of time. That's why we have a transportation system that I encourage everybody start using. We cannot anticipate or how would we say be able to address individual conveniences and
029travel. It is what it is. Our buses are there. Our buses have no problem. Okay. Um so right and I mean I'm just saying like right now for the elementary schools at what time are they allowed to drop off in the mornings? 20 minutes before for all kids. It's 20 minutes before. I'm thinking for next year. This year I think 8:40 we have opened up at 8:00, but that's very minimal people there to cover because the teachers are not. So yeah. So there's 20. Yes. So they get dropped they can get dropped off at 7:40 and the door is open. Their doors are open. They can come in sorry right they they go to the cafeteria they go to the spots before they left the building we're about 10 minutes 20 minutes same concept. Okay.
030So what you're saying though is that is what we are not going to be what we have available unless we pay this $30,000. No. confusing. It's not unless we pay. It's that we would pay something. We estimate that it would be no more than 30. But of course, we're an administrative team. We try to minimize the potential impact. It could be two kids at each school. I may only need one. Immediately, I've cut it in half. I mean, that's the whole thing. I'm just giving you the worst case scenario that I can think of with two people full overtime every single day. no flexible step going and this helps our community during a transition and that it is time out. It might only be for the first half of the year. It might be that
031we see that there's two or three families and our administration, our social workers try to figure out how to best support them so that they can change that. It might be that they've never avowed themselves of transportation because they're afraid of it and that we help them not be afraid of it. I mean, there's all kinds of avenues there, but we have been heavily convenient for everybody over probably decades and many years. Okay. I I'm really sorry. I just really want to make sure that I'm clear on this because I think that maybe it would have been helpful to see like last year's like what we're currently doing compared to how it's shifting so I can like see the numbers that way. I'm trying to get it in my head. But, um, okay. So, right
032now the doors you can drop off at 7:40 and the bell rings at 8:20 right now and the doors open at 8:00. So, but for next year if it if we were not doing the extra it would only be at 8:20 that the doors would open, right? And we were going to cover in the last slide from 8 to 8:20. I think an extra 10 minutes is appropriate to try to help people get here a little early, get to their employment. Okay. But so then how are we doing it this year without having to pay for it? A lot of people available. So then because I guess I'm just confused like if we are able to do it now and we're just shifting the times, why would it why would we not be able to
033do it? Go ahead. So currently, yes, this year's model is looking to be replicated next year. And that the bare minimum 20 minutes prior to a student being able to go into their classroom, they're allowed into the building. So that's the bare minimum. That's what this original is establishing. You have a longer school day next year. So those people that are currently covering that 20 minutes before the school day have a longer day. So to add extra time now onto a longer school day as Tom was acknowledging for more time. The question on the the table is we can open up at 8:25 but there was concerns that that was not um should we open up earlier than we currently do in the system. So say it's 7:40 this year. What's on the table? Was
034it for this year we'd be opened up at 7:20. Do we open up earlier to accommodate? It would cost more because we're extending the day next year. So, our coverage this year is within the contract rule. We do have people that will do this day and they'll work the hours. They won't have to recruit overtime because they're still under the set the hours of, you know, by by the contract. Next year, school day lengthens would be fine at 8:25, but if you want to add more time now, there's a cost that would come to it. Does that make sense? Okay, this might be a silly question, but if we didn't extend the school day essentially, do we save that money? Well, then we'd run into not receiving actually we would not receive aid in about
035$50,000 per billion a day because we were for the past four years because our day is absolutely one of the shortest in educational time for the kids that did not meet necessarily the minimum number of hours. That's the problem. That's why the contract is negotiated. That's why there's a shift. That's all been explained to the community. We haven't really had many questions about it. That is a contractual requirement. Okay. I feel like we should I um I thought that you just had to have Yes. morning hours. We are in compliance starting next year with New York State's minimum days and hours beforehand. For the past four years, we've been getting credited even if we went under by the state, which we were primarily at the K through four buildings. The contract was negotiated. We've had
036a mutual agreement and that has been put into our budget for this year because that's when we schedule and we are in full compliance now that we will not have a problem with days or minutes as required by New York State Education. So I feel like we're getting too into the details. I mean I think this is more of an operational thing the district um on on how the district chooses to staff and accommodate um the the community. I mean, I think we're going above and beyond to be able to offer this service to our community members who need it. Um obviously, I I don't think the administrative team would have even offered this if they didn't think that that they can work it into what our current boundaries are on our budget. Um and
037and if we give an overwhelming response then we might not be able to do it for a whole year. It's going to end up costing us a lot more. So I mean I think I think you know be able to give our opinions on it but at the end of the day this is an operational decision. No I I just need to make sure the board has support otherwise it's just going to be 20 minutes before and that's what it is. So I think at least seven of nine I seven of eight I don't think you wait or six of Tom I think this is a very kind gesture to share out to our parents. I really do. I think this is something that we have listened. Uh people have come to you with feedback.
038has been uh concern from some people about how they were going to manage this timewise and financially. And I feel like this is a really um kind, generous offering for our parents that truly may need this financially. So, I am 100% on board. I I think we can be creative with how um you know are able to pay the people who are going to staff it whether it is you know and I'm going to say it again flex time you know if they're open to that that's a possibility um but I think we can be creative I think that's what we do best as a district and I think it is a a great gesture to do for our parents even if and I will caution this I think We need to revisit it. We
039need to evaluate it. Is it being uh you know, do we have too many students? Do we really need to have two, three, four staff members where one could be sufficient? Right? And that's for you guys to decide what what staffing needs needs to be. But I think we we continue to look at it, evaluate it, see what the need is, and see how we can address it. We can be creative. Yeah. I think we'll have a better idea come the end of September. I do too. Once once this is put out there and you're able to get those numbers and we're able to put a true dollar amount on it, um then maybe we can we can talk about the length of time. Maybe that's something that is the sorry maybe you know maybe
040the length of time that this will be for is something that could be uh you know talked about. We could say at a minimum X potentially Y, right? I'll sit there and say we'll do a review and we'll at least do it for the first semester. Yeah. And if anything, we have to get through winter, but at least to try to give people the ability to see, find out, and see where the real issues are, which will bring down the cost no matter what. I know that. It's just that I'm I was asked for a cost so I wanted to give about cost. No, I think that's very fair. Um you know a minimum potential maximum just as long as it's communicated prior. I mean the communication is key that and that's what this is.
041Tomorrow we start that process and try to start getting I agree with what Aaron has said. I think it's a nice gesture on the part of the district to look into providing this and I truly understand that specific decisions cannot be made until the numbers are solidified. I'm 100% in support of it. I think it's a um wonderful gesture to the community and um whatever the appropriate compensation is, that's what we have to pay to help the community out. Anyone else? I think I at least have some direction. I appreciate this discussion. We're going to try to help our community as they helped us especially this past week. Uh Yep. on your highlighted thing. I just wanted to say that um you're it says the building opens at 8 a.m. and that would be a
042drop off time, but then it says um documented requirement um for an 8 a.m. work time. That is only for your eyes at this point. It's so you can understand I'm going to have to adjust that and get it into the final set at this point. Good. I didn't want to put something up and then have to change it. So, I wanted you to see it if you had questions and that way now I can change it and then I'll put it out. question. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, my second to two last things before I introduce a very patient person um is the fact that we had outstanding accomplishments this past weekend. Uh in the area of track and field, we had wonderful kids go up and compete at the state levels and move move
043on and through it. and they were coming back in the rain. At the same time, the girls team ended up winning their semifinals and going to the state championship as well as the boys team winning theirs and going to state championship the next day and everybody having to change the rain and stuff. But I had a wonderful time. I was sitting next to the Buffalo Bills coach for two straight days, John Mcder because ultimately our girls did play Orchard Park in the end and we did fall three to one. But I think everybody had a good time because he was there too. Even though I know there was sadness, the girls did an outstanding job and really uh had a very good tournament. It's it's always a matter as our own coach here knows it
044depends what day I mean and how that goes through. And then what was really nice is they were able their game got over they started at the same time their game got over and the boys games went into extra innings. So they were able to show up, support the boys even though they went through their second place medal runnerup state champions and they were able to get there for the boys and they were able to see a very dynamic end to a game which our own uh Julie Monahan's son had the walk-off fielders choice hit to the shorts stop which threw over stepped off the base. They score. They scored there. And I never knew Jeff Sully could run so fast and not so high. Uh but he was running. His son was running. The
045kids were jumping on everybody. This is like my fourth or fifth different team state championship. And it's always exciting when you see the work and you see the nerves and you see that and you see the parents up there that are worse than the kids at the nerves and the bungles and the jumps and boy, you don't want to be an umpire when you make them mad. Uh, but what happened is those kids came off, they handled it with style and grace, they got their awards. We even got it so that the girls were pictured right behind the boys so that both teams were sort of immortalized with their final state pitcher because it's very rare that two teams in the same sport even make it to the state championship, let alone make it to
046the finals. So, com commend them. I know the seniors are excited. they're ready for graduation and everything. And I want to hands hand hats off to everybody. They can have bus rides of this, the athletic department, the kids, the parents, the supporters. But there are a lot of great things going on here and it's because of the investment that the community has made, the board, the determination, the participation. We have one of the best programs I think out there and I don't want to see it go. And I think we are getting stronger and I appreciate the the community pushing this budget through even though we did defeat the board that there are great things to come and I appreciate the board trying to take care of the community as well with their guidance. And
047going into next year, we have a yearbook. So if board members would like one, I have some. Please get to me or Terry. Uh we do that as a courtesy because you don't get much when you're here. that this is a great way to honor this year in whole. And we also have our plaque that represents our student representative that will go back up in the high school with Mia's name on it. And as such, Mia is not here. I know Warren's going to probably impress her and get her something at graduation. We'll see her there. And to kick off next year, somebody that impressed us that wanted to maybe throw their hat in your wing is sitting right here. Her name is Serenity Jefferson. She's a wonderful student, junior, who's going to be a
048senior in the class of 2026. This is our nomination for student representative. Hey guys, I'm Serenity. Would you like to say anything? Just tell me. Go ahead. I know she can speak under her feet with no problem. She can tumble too. I believe you're also a sectional champion, right? Yes. For fall, right? I turned mine off, so yours should work now. It gets easier when you're up here. Okay. Hi everyone. I'm Serena Jefferson. Um I first moved to Horse Heads when I was in eighth grade. So it was a bit of a transition. Obviously I grew up in a different town. I grew up in Almy Myra. So getting to know a different school when you're a little bit I don't know that like switch stage. The second year of middle school was only two.
049So it was very different for me. I was a little bit nervous going into a new school as I mean growing up in Almire it's two different environments, different teachers, different friends. So I was scared to leave a lot behind. But coming to sides it was very welcoming. So, I'm so excited to be a part of something a little bit bigger as more than just a student, but also a student representative and representing a whole student body that has been so welcoming to me. So, this is very exciting. I'm very honored to be here today and be here through the 2025 2026 school year. So, thank you. Well, Serenity, you're welcome to stay, but I know tomorrow is Junth and it's a day off for everybody. So, if you want, you're welcome to stay and
050join us and stay for a while. And you're also welcome to exit for your own time, too. I'm going to leave you guys. No problem. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. So, ladies and gentlemen, that's my report. Sorry it took so long with some things but we had to get through and we are officially in hiring season now. All right. So we'll move to uh section six finance items for action and initially we will have a report from the audit committee. Okay. Um we met last week on June 11th. We had um Julie Hart there from Boseis uh going through internal audit information and Tom Zuber was there uh for external audit. So uh Tom went through um just the review of the audit approach and responsibilities. Um he did give an update just at on
051his review of the reserves and you know we say this all the time that you know we really need to um to keep our eye on on the fund balance. Um we have needed to use our reserves to help with the budget the past couple of years. Um there aren't any major concerns right now but we do need to continue to monitor. Um Julie Kpart. So if you remember back in February, uh Julie um we had the internal audit risk assessment update and at that time we did not have the corrective action plan um completed. So we did not review that audit again because we did it in February and we also um had it on on board docs in the February meeting. But we did go through the corrective action plan. Um and all
052items have been completed are on track for completion and the details in that corrective action plan are in our board docs. Um Julie then went through the internal audit health benefits um which is what we had asked her to do back in February um to do that focused audit on our health benefits. Overall it was a good audit. Um she did find a few areas that can be in in um that that can be enhanced um in the areas of deductions uh dependent documentation and stop loss insurance and all of those items are also covered on the corrective action plan which is in our docs for you to review in more detail. Um so we went through all of that um information from Julie and then uh Katie and Caitlyn went through that corrective action
053plan and that was our audit committee. Thank you. Right. Thank you. Um, and moving along, I need a motion for 6.03. All right, I'll start again. I need a motion for 6.03 through 6.42. So curiosities, discussion, comments, Katrina. Um, yeah, I have some questions on the different RFP awards um 6.25 through 6.30. Um, so do we, when we're seeking these, did we put this out there to get bids from other people to see who would be competitive with these positions? If I speak on all of them, and Ann, you can correct me. We did initially put them out. They're five-year RFPs. These I believe are all extensions of the original ones that we did for favorability of the rates and moving forward I think the last two years. What else? But it was three and
054this is the addition. This is the addition to continuations. Okay. So and then my question because I was reading um the legal one specifically the 6.28 28 and then it had said that they had the um rates from the previous one. The only um contract that I could find to see what their retainers were was the one from 2020 to 2022 um because they didn't give us the full detail of the services provided. They had said like the updated fees which are increasing slightly. So that's why I was wondering if we had shopped around to see price point wise, you know, if there's other places that are cheaper. Um, you know, I understand working with people that you're familiar with and going through that, but I just am wondering, you know, if you look for
055better deals, I'm not not saying that this is a bad deal because this could very well be the best deal, but the options that is what the RFP process is at this time. We're recommending this goes forward for the additional two years. They've been a longstanding firm like you said, but they also merged into one of the best law firms in central New York where before we only had access for roughly three free attorneys because two lean had retired. Now we have access to over 40 in multiple specialty areas and these rates you'll not find really for other similarsiz law firms with the experience and the expertise uh as well as the retainer that we have. I don't think the retainer has changed. It's still a $4,000 a month retainer. Yes, the retainer right here
056says that it's $4,000 a month to 48 and it goes up to $48,000 for the year with the contract that I was looking at. And then that made me um a little confused too because then when I was looking at the expense line for legal services, it says $89,000. That's because it's a a variety of legal expenses. Remember, we have bond counsel, which is also on here as well. our daily and school council as well as special education. Okay. So that's the total of everything. Okay. And then um final question on that because I was um when I was reading through um this is something that had popped up um in my mind on page 20 of the um legal issues school board members may encounter. It talks about the school uh the school attorney
057is typically appointed at the board's annual reorganizational meeting. it is improper for an outgoing school board to bind its successors to a contract within with a school attorney. Um and then I guess the references. So um I am understanding that these are um like rates. I just want to be clear that we are not finding the upcoming board who's going to vote on this decision come July. So, um, if the board is going to say, well, in drafts there was a resolution that said that we were making this happen, and I believe according to what this says, that would not that would be improper. So, I just want to make sure that that's the case with the other RFPs. if we are if if we should be doing this now or if we should really
058be waiting until the organizational meeting to be reviewing these documents and then moving forward at that point. We've done it this year at this point. It's not improper. I understand that that's your opinion. So right now these are just us saying these are the bids and we're accepting the bids but that these people are not necessarily performing the work. No, they will be performing the work. You will appoint them at the organizational meeting as well. And then on top of it, if the board wishes to remove them, you can remove them. So they're not bound. But what happens is we have to have an attorney. And the attorney or the insurance or the bond council or the employee assistant program stays in place and then if the district wishes to you sever. Okay. So, um
059I don't know for sure about the others, the six, you know, other than the legal services one. I just know um what the NISA book says. And if this award is somehow like making that commitment, then I feel like that isn't proper. So that at this point, I would have to vote no on those. That is okay. So, um, Candy, I guess you would mark me down for no on 6.26 through 630. Are you also doing 6.25? That's an RP as well. I said through. Yeah, you said 6.26. So, I just want to make sure you didn't. So, I would have to do 6.25. Again, I don't know for sure, but I feel like Well, I that's what I'm saying. I finally [Music] appoint them whatever we do in July. have to go through that.
060All right. So, this is just wrapping up these projects. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Call a question. All in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. All right. Moving along to section seven, personal personnel items for action. I need a motion 7.02 and 7.03. So move. Second. Inquiries, discussion, comments. Christine, um I need to abstain from E4 on the HR recommendations because that's my son. on section G of substitutes. I will be voting no on number six. I'll do the same thing. Call a question. All in favor? I opposed abstensions. I'd like to take a moment and acknowledge Mr. Joseph Caputo who was 25 years as a plumber and uh Jennifer Gilbert who was 25 years and currently is teaching grade five. Uh on behalf of the board I would like to wish them well and thank
061them for their years of service to the children of our community. I'd also like to um welcome Aaron Packard as a resource room teacher to Rididge Road. He received a probationary appointment tonight and we wish him well and um hope he has hope he has a great career in the Horad School District. And then there were 18 tenure recommendations that we approved tonight. So those names are too numerous to mention, but congratulations to all of those individuals on reaching that milestone in uh your career. Yep. All right. And then lastly, um I'd like to congratulate Mr. on his move and well wishes for continued success in your new career and certainly will miss you in horses. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Uh miscellaneous items for action. I need motion on 8.02. So second curiosities,
062discussion, comments, call a question. All in favor? I opposed abstensions. Section nine, the board policies. I'll turn it over to Mr. Christmas for the policy committee report. Thank you. The policy committee met on June 13th and we there are on the agenda as you can see three policies for second reading approval. We didn't make any additional changes to those at that meeting from the prior version that had been seen in first reading. So that's 6210, 6215, and 6220 on the agenda. We did spend uh significant amount of time discussing as Dr. Douglas alluded to earlier, the new smartphone restriction policy that by law each district is required to put in place in New York State. And so you can see in the agenda the U draft policy for a first reading under 1001, but because
063of the uniqueness of this, I just want to offer a few uh words of context for what you'll see. the the the law itself which is education law section 2803 is very prescriptive in terms of what is required. And so when you look at our policy sections 1 through 4 in terms of how things are defined, the prohibited use statement, the exceptions that are permitted, all of those are right from the statute. we really have very little ability to modify those. Where the district has some discretion is under the remaining sections under the statute. It says each district must provide at least one method for parents to contact a student during the school day and must provide at least one method for students to store an internet enabled device during the school day. And so
064we as a committee talked about the fact that we should try to identify one of each of those as it's seen in sections five and six and where we have uh identified those. You'll see we've also stated that by regulation entered into pursuant to this policy there may be additional methods that are identified. So, you know, we're trying to meet the minimum standard, but recognize as more information about this potentially comes out and as we see how it's implemented, there will be some ability to to modify and enable other methods. But at a minimum, it states that the contact method would be by calling the office of the school in which the student attends. And at this point, the storage options would be identified as student walkers. Um, lastly, we The statute specifically states that
065a student can't be suspended solely for violation of the smartphone policy. But what we have stated is that if a student were to repeatedly ignore instructions to follow the policy that would amount to insubordination, which is a separate offense for which they could be disciplined. So that's under section 7. And that's also the reason for the change to the policy 5300-E code of conduct. If you scroll through that, you see other than a couple of miscellaneous name updates, we added language to say that violation of repeated violation of the policy amounting to insubordination is a basis for discipline under the code of conduct. So certainly, as Dr. Douglas said we'll potentially need to have another policy committee meeting to finalize this and any input either you know now or after the meeting from other board
066members would certainly be welcome but I wanted to just make it clear there's there's a lot of this that is set by law and only small amount that we can actually modify. Thank you Mr. Chris. Um, so I need a motion for 9.03 through 9.05. [Music] Second, discussion, curiosities. All in favor? I opposed abstensions. All right. Do we have any questions on first readings on either 10.01 or 10.02? Um, yeah, I think this is a great time to be able to have some discussion on the new policy that we are creating. Um so I did print off um the law so that it is so that it was available. And there's one section um section I that I really like non-inable devices such as cellular phones or other communication devices not capable of connecting to
067the internet or enabling the user to access content on the internet. So to me that is saying that flip phones are an option. So it it in creating this um obviously smartphones are not going to be an option, right? Parents still want to be able to contact their child. If there was an emergency and there was a lock there was a lockdown, they want to say I want to be able to contact my child. Kids stuck in the gym want to be able to have a cell phone accessible to them for safety purposes. Some people really think that and feel that way. So, I feel like it's important to be able to say to a family, yes, you are allowed to give your child a flip phone. And that child is allowed to have that
068flip phone on them at all times. And they can use it. It's not going to be distraction. They're not going to access it to um look on the internet because they can't. But what this could also turn into, which I think would be a goal and what would be helpful for kids and society as a whole, is if I was a parent and I was weighing the options of whether or not to buy my child a cell phone for the first time because I want to be able to communicate with them. Am I going to go out and buy them a smartphone or am I going to buy them a flip phone because that's what the school allows. So, I as a parent personally would say, I'm going to go out and I'm going to
069buy my kid a book phone so that they can still communicate with me, but then long term, how does that child end up communicating with their friends? Maybe not on social media, right? Because that's where we're seeing problems with kids, right? And that might take the whole equation of having those smart devices out. So, I think that would be something that would really be worthwhile exploring and getting feed feedback and input on, right? I'm really thinking like way big picture here. But I I to me communication skills when I the way that I see communication these days is people text each other in the same room on their phones, right? They might not text each other if it was phone. they might be more inclined to pick the phone back up and have a conversation
070and have those conversations and then parents are satisfied because that's an option for them to be able to get a hold of their child, right? So, I think that's a really great tool and um the other Yeah, it helps you know or was you have more about this policy? All right. And I I just want to offer policy committee um feedback. So that's it. Sorry, go ahead. I thought you're switching to something else. Still on this one. Um and so then the other section that I thought was um important that I think should be added is number seven when it's talking about no later than the 1st of September 2026 and then it goes into um the study that has to be published. I think that's important to be able to include that in the
071policy so that we know that that is going to happen. um demographics of um children might be disciplined for violations of it. Um that's the you're talking about the state report that will be required, right? It's the state report and I do think that that's important to keep in to the policy. I think that we really do need to um and section number like on the policy itself number five and number six. I think that those the plans that we want to have when we get the community feedback that we are supposed to gather in this creation of this policy, I think it's really important to outline those things. Um, and then for the discipline enforcement to me's not clear enough. And then when I go to the um code of conduct um it there's
072sections of it that it's like you know not necessarily this one incident but maybe a child has had other instances where they might have to where like maybe they had this violation, right? So, a parent might see it as, oh, this is a first time phone violation, but they shouldn't be getting suspended for this, even though they had other things prior to. So, I feel like we need to go back and revisit the code of conduct and outline and have things a little bit more clear on that. Um, so that that thing. And then number nine is far Christmas. Thank you. Just uh I wanted to respond to a couple things. So I failed to mention that the law does require the district to res to to solicit input specifically from local stakeholders including but
073not limited to employee organization representing each bargaining unit within the school building, parents and students in the development of such policy prior to its adoption. We did talk about that at the policy committee meeting. It's really outside of our jurisdiction, but Dr. I just explained there were plans to solicit that input and in fact I saw uh the parental survey today. I received it as a parent that was sent out by email. So there are mechanisms in place as I understand it for the district to receive that feedback from those groups prior to to us adopting the policy. And then um with respect to the first part about non-s smartphone enabled phones created just to be clear I don't disagree with anything that you said I'm not you know putting aside whether that would change
074parents buy dining habits and whatnot but the policy only specifically prohibits smartphone enabled devices. So in the statute it excludes non internet enabled devices from the scope. So everything you said is allowed and would continue to be allowed with this policy in place. Let there is no prohibition for a non smartphone enabled device by virtue of this policy. There could be other district rules that bear on that that but the policy itself doesn't in any way prohibit what it was that you were advocating for. Yes, if I can add that's very clear that you do have some kids that do have that but K through eight they're not supposed to have them on. I mean that's our current procedure rules. Now that does that mean that a child may not may have it in their
075backpack after school? Absolutely. The big thing is when they're in school, if they cause a distraction, they're going to be addressed whether they're internet enabled or not. Right. So, I think that's the intent. Um, as far as all the regulations, we will be working on that. Uh, I do want to comment on the discipline piece. Uh, because the discipline piece is separate and distinct in this is that if it's because of solely the cell phone, we have to go through a procedure. If it becomes a regular distraction or a disruption, it escalates up and then suspension or other things can be warranted. But their other activities, say they were cutting class or something, are not going to impact the level of discipline that they have for a cell phone unless they are constantly in subordinate.
076That's the only thing. So the two don't necessarily go together. That's why our code of conduct is progressive. Uh, and it's responsive to the nature of the incident and to the level that it doesn't necessarily mean both. I don't think there's a a major need of changing the code of conduct at this point, but the regulations are going to be within the same lines which will prescribe the discipline and then that will be amended into the code of conduct. I had the wonderful opportunity to actually have a discussion with some of my favorite fifth and sixth graders yesterday about this topic and I was very surprised. Um, overwhelmingly I had 14 of them in the room. All of them said cell phones are a distraction. They're excited about this. They just had questions. They were
077okay having them off during the day. They just one kid I I felt really proud about this moment. What if I need it for medical reasons? What if some one of my friends needs it as a magnifier? Um so they were really thoughtful of how smart devices have become part of our lives. But I was very humbled to see that those those young leaders are absolutely in favor of this. They see that it's a distraction and I'm excited to see what that feedback looks like overall. Julie, thank you. Um, Liz, that is exciting because I also have someone who's experienced the internet school and um, there's a question like you said, which is how it's going to work. Um, so I just want to make sure for storage devices when we're speaking, we have to
078be able to provide them an option, which is what the locker is going to be. Will backpacks be allowed for storage? We have in in a policy we want to be as general as possible to not limit you. We have in certain buildings there's lockers officially prek through sixth there's cubbies I think and a cubby could be that but again prek through six they're not going to have their cell phones with them if they have they are supposed to call parents call the office and radio I think that's been the case forever uh and then seven and 8 is supposed to be that way even though they know that they come in and guess where the kids mostly They're backpacking. Uh there's something to be said about yandra couches. They're hostile. Uh but they serve
079a purpose. I've always believed the place where we're going to have the biggest issue is most likely the high school because we already have a K through eight you weren't supposed to have, but we haven't really had a lot of problems with. But we'll have to re-educate and make sure they understand about that, too. At the high school, there is enough lockers for everybody. So, we meet the requirement. But most likely, we're going to have to do a regulation says a locker this. The biggest thing is they are off and they are not seen. And if they're on, they go off, they're seen, it's a violation. Period. And then what do you do with each violation? I think you're probably going to have to have like five steps. That's from looking at different schools discussions
080even with NISSBA they did a wonderful podcast uh from my former school district they do have that and they really have haven't seen the recurring issues after about the first two to three months once the students and the parents understand that a it's being enforced b you aren't just oh you're okay you're not and consistency across the school. And by doing that and staying with it, the students start to comply and understand because they start seeing the benefits of what's happened. I will tell you, I've talked to high school kids. First time I said it, I had my phone right in my hand. First thing they said was, "What do you think?" What about the staff? Nope. It was, "My grades will probably go up." Their second question was what about you and the staff
081and this is not for the staff. However, we are in a profession where we lead by example and I think we are going to have to have discussions that when we're bellto bell and in the classroom we're student facing we are here for education. when we are not studentf facing and private that's probably professional and I'm hoping that everybody will join me along with it as I told the kids believe me I have no problem being able to say Terry where's Terry oh she went to get something to eat for us u Terry here's my phone they'll call you if they need me I'm going over to big flats or I'm going over here because honestly I I'm a big viol leader of it because I'm pretty much attached to get back to people as
082soon as they can. But we have to set that example and I think the kids will respect that whether it's the middle school, intermediate or high school. I don't think it's really much of an issue at the elementary school. Um, but it's something we're going to have growing pains and we're going to have to go through probably the first semester. Okay. Okay, so just to be clear, backpacks are going to be allowed. I have to write the regulation, but most likely something like that would be considered cuz you know no one at the high school uses lockers, right? But it's the one place that they're locked. So that's seven. Yeah. No, I understand. Not to contradict anything Dr. says that just again as the policy committee chair to be crystal clear as currently written it
083states the permitted method is lockers. So the policy as currently written would not permit backpacks. We talked about we talked about that at the policy of committee meeting and I think it'll be interesting to see the feedback and one point of view was that having them in backpacks just increases the temptation for students to take them out and use them during the day which therefore increases the burden on administrators and teachers to be enforcing which is a distraction from teaching. Right? So frankly myself I was in favor of just stating lockers but as I said the policy allows by regulation additional storage mechanisms to be identified. So as Dr. Doug was explaining as it gets put into place as we see you know how effective or whether blockers doesn't work for example additional methods could
084be identified and then I think if at some point you know if the board had an issue with that obviously we come back and revisit the policy but as written does not specifically include backpacks I just want to make sure that's clear interesting um just one comment and one question so comments And um you know even even thinking about the flip phone or having a non internet device you know what I mean and if the purpose is so parents can get in touch with their kids during a lockdown or something like that. I actually think that that provides a safety concern in and of itself. You know, I mean, in the lockdown, if there was an active shooter and all the kids are congregating in a classroom in the corner and all of a sudden
085all these flip phones start vibrating or kids start talking, I mean, it could alert, you know, an intruder as to where where the kids are. So, um that's just me being kind of ultra sensitive about that. But um and again just a comment but my question is if the law is asking us to get feedback from parents um what happened and I don't know what questions are asked because I don't have a kid in the district but what happens if all the feedback we get is we don't agree with this and we want our kids to have their their smartphones right and so then all of a sudden now we're asking for feedback but now we can't take any of that feedback into consideration because it goes against what the policy or the laws tell
086us that we need to do. So to me that's that's counterproductive. This is the conundrum called the state legislature making a law and not working with the state education department on the implementation. So we have a law we are required to follow. Um and as I said at the last meeting state said they are not going to get involved and they are not going to provide any guidance. If you have a question, contact the state legislature. Numerous superintendents have contacted the state legislature as well as the secretary of education under the governor and guess what? No return calls. So, we are allowed to do the best that we can. I think you know you do have to talk to kids and we are going to get their consultation but the consultation like you said, well,
087we don't like it. Well, that doesn't happen. the law is the law. Now, if they come back and said, "Hey, have you thought about that? That's what we're looking for. That's what's going to help shape some regulations possibly. But just because somebody puts this doesn't mean that that's going to find its way into regulation." The big thing is it's kind of hard to ask the people, hey, we're going to take your cell phones. Give us your thoughts on I know what thoughts I'm going to get. Um, but what happens, I think the good intent is there. We're trying to do it. Everything went out today. Uh and basically what it did is we took the first components and asked a question give us some of your thoughts or suggestions. Then we took I think like
088that was one through four and then we took five and said some of your suggestions six. So, it's very open-ended. And then we got down to seven and eight. What are your thoughts? And overall, what are your thoughts? So, people can sort of tell like and it even says this is the law. We have to do this, but tell us what your thoughts are. That's how we're going to try to sort of bear it out what they're thinking. Uh and then no matter what, even if we do it with students and say the policy is exactly what it is right now, we're going to have to adapt adapt and morph with it because when the kids come back, especially at the high school, the first week is going to be nothing but class meetings, talking
089with the kids, setting the expectations, and helping them understand we don't want you to get yourself in a certain way. This is how you're not going to do it. And you need to understand it will be forced. Once we get through this, then we need to do dress code. Yeah, I know. I thought that would be the laugh, but um it's the same thing. I mean, cell phones, I think the kids understand a little bit more than dress code, so to speak. So, I'm hoping that between the staff, the administration, the students, the district administration talking kids and saying, "This is why this is what it's going to be." Please adhere to this. I've always said if you teach a child who wants adult respect, the adult responsibility and they live up to it, they'll
090surprise you and do what you ask them to do. But there will be a few deal. [Music] So this is coming, right? It's not an option. And I know I've stated this before, but there are local neighboring schools who have taken on this task already prior to the state law. Have we consulted with them, good, bad, ugly, from them? Right. Um suggestions for how to overcome uh non-adherence and so on so forth. I think it's important that we we hear that information so that we can have an easier time moving into this. Uh the other Part of it that is critically important is training for our staff members. They are going to come up. They are going to be the front line of this. I mean, let's just be honest. The the teachers, the staff
091members will be the first ones that are going to be dealing with these issues. It has to be really clearcut. We we don't want to add any more to the load of what these folks already have to deal with. It has to be very very clearcut a prescription if you will. This happens you do this. This happens you do this and the adherence has we have no other option than for adherence to be 100%. That's the only way that this works. It really is um you know speaking personally I've been through this before as an administrator. We've implemented uh a cell phone situation and if you have teachers or some staff members that don't adhere, you're done. I it's going to take you two, three, four, five times as long to reach the expected goal.
092So that staff has to be in lock step with this with each other. And I think the concept is and and you know I'm speaking freely here. You may have your personal opinion x y and z but when you walk in these doors you are an employee of the state and as an employee of the state the expectation is that you do x y and z. So that has to be super super crystal clear and then the support from administration has to come up behind them to say this is your role now this is our role and that has to be crystal clear and Parents have to understand too, right? If your student violates this consequence one, consequence two, and so on and so forth. But it has to be crystal clear. So that's just
093my comments. If we want to see this be as successful as possible as soon as possible, we need to learn from the mistakes and the triumphs of others who have done it and be super clear with expectations all around. Sue am I allowed to talk about? Okay. I just have one thing under the coordinators. Um, you have Center Street Patty, but I think Center Street shouldn't be there anymore. You should have Gardens Road Caddy, correct? In this now. Yes, we are going to have to update certain things between the first and second. Okay. Well, I just thought this is the first reading. So, that was the first thing I saw and yes, I think the cell phone thing would be an issue, but it's the best thing that happened that they can't are a big
094great big distraction. Zena Um so I just wanted to go back I thank you Dan for clarifying I understand um you know this what you guys have written in the policy is not prohibiting that paragraph but I want to go back as to why I feel like that paragraph is so important you know I asked myself why is this happening right because it's a distraction but when I had read the anxious generation and it was talking about the use of cell phones and screen time. They talk a lot about dopamine, right? And the effects dopamine has on the body, right? Why do people eventually why why is heroin so addicting? It's a dopamine chemical, right? It's the same thing. It's a distraction. So having that phone even in your locker locked up, which I know
095is going to be the storage device, kids are going to be jonesing for their fix of their internet device, right? That's why I think it's so important to give the parents the power to say an option for you is to have a cell phone. We're not taking away the cell phone. We're taking away that social media, that fix. So I think that if we could promote that option because it's all about being able to have the communication, right? If we can promote that and push that as an option, I think that we can take if we can try to get rid of as many smartphones as possible, then ultimately we're doing our students long term more favors because they're not going to be trying to sneak out to their lockers on a bathroom break to
096go get to their phones. And then the code of conduct, it reads students should be, you know, reporting violations. So Susie saw Johnny in the hall and he was in his locker grabbing a cell phone. So they told somebody, you know, like there's just a lot of problems. So that's why I feel like that piece is giving an opportunity for people to say, "Okay, here's another option and with this option, your kid will never be in trouble. So let's go with this option." You know, it's like a it's a positive thing. And then it's not like, okay, we're taking this away from you. you can never have it again because that I don't really ever feel like is effective with making people stop being distracted and wanting to go and get it. Do you know
097what I mean? So that's that's why I'm I'm a big advocate for that to be included as an option because I I am hopeful that maybe 10 20 however many parents get on that bandwagon. it might be beneficial long term and then maybe more people get on that bandwagon and then we're really helping the overall wellness of that person and that dopamine connection long term because that's the stuff that's leading to the anxiety right and the depression all the other things I want to try to help combat. So that's my thought I know it's turn I'm going to say something real quick to Katrina I knew I saw this But research has shown that it takes 60 days to rewire the neurons in your brain to break the dopamine habit of the cell phone. Saw
098it in research. Just looked it up again. Um but I just felt that was fair to share. 60 days to rewire. Interesting. So, um I I'm going to say I know we're like, "Nope, we're not doing it." The yonder vouches or something similar, right? So, we just talked about spending $30,000 for the assistance to have people at the schools for our new start times. But if you were to purchase younger couches, that's pretty much what it would probably be or close to that. No, it's going to be much more. You got to buy the magnets. You got to install them. You got to hook power up to them. You got to get the younger pouches. Then you also have to be able to uh have enough so that you get 1100 kids into a building
099in under 15 minutes. So I mean I'm not trying to say I'm just telling you these are what other schools have told me that their problems have been. So, but so Governor Mojo has put out a grant. I understand it's not funds, but have we applied for the grant at all to see? We can't apply for it yet. They haven't provided the means. Okay. Now, are we ready to have somebody if that money becomes available because that could be something if there's money available from the state, we should be applying for it. Well, yeah, we always will. That's why we have brought in our own grant. So, I have every confidence that once they do something, Stacy will be right on top of them. But I just did a simple calculation of the 13.5 million
100by 710 districts about 18 to 10 18 to $20,000 per school. So um Aaron had mentioned uh working with our neighboring districts that have been doing this for some time and I believe one of them does use the library. Yes. Yep. And then the other one has a bell to bell house. They have a bell to bell. they primarily use their bad tax and I do not believe that school is having success at all. Okay. Um because of I think some of the things that Aaron said about some people enforce it, some people don't, some administrators do, some don't. Have we um maybe proactively looked out or any of the competitors would be under to get a vote just to kind of be able to bring that to us to see what that cost would
101be to put that in place? They they tell us point blank your initial quote just for the pouches is $30 per pouch. Yeah. Yeah. So we take 1100 times 30, right? Right. So it's 31, right? Then each of the magnets, depending on each magnet, you're going to have to hire a contractor to come in electrician at school right now. So what we allow those contractors at the school right now. Just saying. Oh, I know. Just saying. I know they love that. I'm just saying. No, I know. access to those types of people. I'm just curious if we look to get a quote of what it would be because it might be beneficial for us to say, "Hey, if if the lock policy is not working, we may need to pivot and to be prepared to
102pivot, we might need that quote and understand exactly what that expenses need. I just need I mean, if you're getting a quote, you want to know if you're going to be heading down that way because you're not just quoting just to get a quote." Well, we could be quoting just to get a quote. I mean, we have to understand exactly what that looks like. If we're not heading and we get a vote and something we're like absolutely not going to I think you're looking at 50 to $100,000 just for the high school. Um, okay. So, that's my first thought is the my second real quick is when we talk about the staff again um and making sure and again hit on making sure that they're really leading by example. Um there is um a section
103in our policies um for staff. Is there anything that we can put in there that is kind of when they come up that they kind of completely write policy when they're I think the board could try to I think excuse me not pleasing. I think the board can always try to but I think the board will automatically get a work action. Thank you. Yeah. Just because what happens is the work action could could always be if you try to force something and say this is what you're going to do would be the fact that you're affecting their I guess can you think of it working conditions they have a right to bargain all impactful working conditions they'll sit there and say I mean I don't have to tell them they'll sit there and say telephone
104our emergency line in case our phone goes down if we're outside we don't have a line my work condition. If something happens to that kid, I'm in trouble. That's my work condition. That's always the difficulty. What you do try to do is have those conversations with the leaderships. It's like, I got Jess back there. Sorry, not putting you on the spot, but I would have no problem talking to her to her staff and say, "How can we best resolve this?" I think that tends to work better. Uh, but then you also have to have that same conversation. How can we make sure everybody understands this is not an option, right? And a lot of times you have those conversations, everybody does get on the same page. But when you just sit there, hey Jess, this
105is what's going to happen. You deal with it. She'll she'll sit there and say, okay. But then the LRS will come in and say, you know, you can't do. So that's that's the part a lot of people don't understand about like our workforce and our work environment from business that we have a different rule that has to apply. Sometimes I love the the out the business rule and sometimes I think the business rule would like some of ours at certain times, but it's trying to find the balance. I always find our you my at least I can say over the past 10 to 11 years our labor relations with every single unit has been successful and we've worked through things and it's by constantly talking even when we don't agree but we come to an
106agreement eventually in the best interest of both sides as well as the students and the outcome. That's the best I can say. Christine, um I am not in favor of adding something to the policy that tells parents all of their different options, right? Because I I I just this policy is about the elimination of internet enabled devices. So they put put something in the policy that says however you can get a foot or or whatever. um that's not for us to tell parents what they can and can't do in that respect. Um, so I'm not in favor of that putting that into the possession. I took good notes. Okay. All right. Um, so now we move to section 11 and under the president's report. I'll start with this. No board member can leave until they
107see Terry because Terry has a document for you to sign. So you don't want to get on Terry's bad side. So make sure you see Terry. And then tonight we also have uh three individuals that are leaving the board. One is the student representative and we all know Mia. And if um you want to see Mia in more place, you can go to Fredonia where she is attending next year and she is going to continue um following her active dash. And um we have a gift card for Mia and a regular card and I'll have to get that to her at graduation or in some other fashion since she's not here tonight. Secondly, uh Liz is leaving us tonight and she has been a strong advocate uh for students with disabilities in the district and
108she's been an um outspoken on that passion that she has and she has served um on many ad hoc committees on the board and we certainly uh will miss her and maybe if I say it some people might miss Yale more but I I don't know but um with Liz we have uh being donated in Liz's name to um the grade school library just ask subtitled be different, be brave, be you. So there will be on the inside cover, it's not there now that it's donated in your name um as service to the board. And I'm going to go out of order and if you have anything you'd like to say, I think we'll entertain that now. And if you don't, that's fine. I'm good right now. All right. And then lastly, Maryanne is also
109leaving us and she has spent a career as an elementary teacher in the Corny Painting Post School District. She has served two separate terms on the school board and is currently training um and mentoring the next generation of teachers as a student teacher advisor consultant at Sunni Court. and Maryanne chose James um as the book and I maybe you can speak to what it's about but again um it's won multiple awards and it's won Puliter prize so uh these two books will also be donated in Maryanne's name you're welcome and I don't know if you want to speak now or wait to um board member comments which is the next section on the page. I can speak now. Sister Mary said so often I always thank you. Uh I'll tell you a little bit about
110James. It is a take on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and I just feel children that are in this area should know a little bit about this gentleman who spent a lot of time in Almyra. But anyway, so what the the way it is narrated, James is Jin, but James is literate. James can read and James can write as Jyn could not as a slave. And so when James narrates, he narrates with very good language. when it is necessary for him to take the role of a slave, then you hear the dialogue. It is extremely well written and I really enjoyed it and I think it would be a good book for our high schoolers to read and that's why I chose James. So, I do have some words here. I hope I hope I can
111get through them without getting weepy. I've practiced. Please bear with me. I'll try my best. So good evening everyone. As I stand I guess I could say sit. As I stand before you tonight, I am filled with gratitude. Gratitude for the trust the Horsets community placed in me during the 11 years I have been on board and the unwavering support from so many within the Horset Central School District who I see sitting there right now. Uh, thank you for allowing me the incredible honor of serving. When I first joined the board of education, it was with one simple goal to give back. Wars is where my three children grew up. They learned, they laughed, and they thrived. Today, they are not only pursuing successful careers, but they are also, which means a lot to me,
112compassionate contributing members of their communities. That is a true testament to the power of this district. Reflecting on this journey, I am reminded of a famous line from Charles Dickens. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Indeed, we have faced profound challenges, none greater than the pandemic. But under the steady leadership of Dr. Douglas and the board. We made decisions guided by care, resilience, and responsibility. We adapted. We protected. We delivered education in the best way possible while prioritizing the health and safety of our students, staff, and families. And yet it saddens me to see how some efforts are now being obstructed not by reasoned disagreement but by resistance rooted in personal agendas. One of the first lessons that I learned as a board member was this. support the decisions
113of the board even when it doesn't align with your own views. Our mission must always focus on the betterment of all children, not the loudest voices, not individual interests. Today, I must speak honestly. There is a troubling undercurrent of retribution surfacing in our district. It threatens to divide rather than unite and sends a dangerous message to our students. That bitterness can override respect and that personal grudges belong in civic life. That is not the legacy that we want to leave with them. But let me be clear, the best of my time on the board far outweighs the worst. Over the past decade, I've witnessed extraordinary progress. Our schools have been modernized and now shine as beacons of pride in our community. Innovative programs have taken root, offering richer academic and emotional support to our students.
114And more children than ever are engaging in the arts, athletics, and extracurricular activities thanks to expanded opportunities. The impact of these changes is visible in every classroom and in the bright futures we are helping to shape. I leave this role with a full heart immense pride. Going to get through this not only in what we have accomplished but in who we are as a district. for sex has always stood for excellence, equity, and empathy, and I believe it always will. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Does any other board members have a comment tonight? Christine. Um, so a couple things. Uh, first of all, um, I just like to say to both Liz and Maryanne, um, it's been a pleasure working with the two of you. Um, I think as a board, it's very important that we
115have diversity of thought, diversity of backgrounds, diversity of experiences. And I think with the two of you, we've had that. Um, and you know, Liz, I know it was only, you know, a short time, but you know, just a lot of um, your your passion just about everything that we've talked about and everything that we've worked on. So, it's been a pleasure getting to know you and working with you. Um, and Maryanne, you know, you'll your um, your experience, right? You know, I always appreciate you as a retired teacher, but you are still very active because you're training other teachers and you're, you know, keeping up with, you know, everything that is current and your your ability to um see the good in everything that we do is is really valuable. And so it's definitely
116missed. Um, so, um, outside of that, uh, I just want to let everybody know I just want to give a shout out to, uh, to Ridge Road, um, to the third grade staff at at Ridge Road. And, and I know many of you know, um, so for the past 12 years, um, my family has gone into the third grade classes at Ridge Road to talk about the book of Wonder and to talk about um, choosing kind and what it's like um, for somebody who is born or they have a facial difference or they they look different. And um my family's been doing this all around the, you know, the tri-state area, but we we started it in horse because of um third grade in Ridge Road and particularly um a shout out to to Mrs.
117Kelly Murray um and Mrs. Kelly Wolf because they've been the two third grade teachers that have been there along the entire um the entire 12 years of doing it. and then you know also having um uh Mrs. um Emily Calderretta involved as well. But it's it's amazing what these teachers have done um with really teaching the students how to choose kind and how to really look for the best in in in each other and the activities that they do as part of this program is really neat. Um and so I just I just want to thank them for keeping this going for as many years as we have. um even during co we did it we did it virtually um and it's it's just really been been very very special and just want to want
118to thank um the staff there and uh just it's the highlight of my of my year getting to go in and just seeing all these third graders and and how how they treat each other and just how excited they they get to be able to tell each other what makes them special. Um, and it's it's really neat experience. So, thank you, Julie. Okay. Um, I would second what Christine said. Um, to both Mar and Liz. Thank you so much. It's only been a year for me, but it has been a pleasure working with both of you. Um, so thank you for your service um, and giving back to our community. I want to um, let Mr. my class know that we miss you in the community and wish you the best of luck. Um they
119are certainly getting a good one and so um shared their family. So good luck to you. Um congratulations to all the seniors. Um there was a graduation at Boseies this past weekend or past Monday and you know some of those uh seniors got their first diploma. Uh very exciting for them. Um lots of celebrations. It's kind of fun to see this time of year uh senior day and all the things that they do. Um, and I just really want to wish all of them, regardless of what they're doing next year, the best of luck. Um, and then I really want to thank, um, give big congratulations to the softball team, the boys baseball team of course, and, um, the track team members who do go to states. Um, I think there was a new school
120record set there as well. So, that's really exciting for a relay team. Um, just getting states is pretty much a huge accomplishment. And, um, I think long to be celebrated. But I really want to thank um Mr. Saxs frequently talks about in our athletic community Raider Nation and how do we make Raider Nation really felt um and I can tell you that as a parent um as someone who's on the baseball team, Raider Nation was there and they showed up on Friday for regionals and or semi-finals, excuse me. And um they were definitely at regionals as well before but at university the information and I say that I mean I mean everyone in the community that came to support whether you were you know near or far from sending well wishes. It was truly felt
121and um it was pretty incredible to see so many people supporting the athletes. Um those uh for those of you that were there, you know, you can attest to the Wington University baseball stadium was amazing and it was packed with blue and white and it was so awesome to see. You talk about so many things that we deal with here and decisions that we make, but you know that really just kind of puts it all together. This is an amazing community and so many people are supporting that radiation. So I just want to make sure that I acknowledge all of them. Thank you. Thanks. I would be remiss if I didn't also offer my um you know heartfelt thanks to to Liz and to Maryanne for your service on the board. I've learned so much
122from both of you. Your the experiences that you have are diver diverse from mine and the passions are diverse from mine and I think that's what makes us work well together as a group and uh so thank you very much both of you for everything that you've done for us collectively and I value you know the friendship I've developed with both of you. And then secondly, I don't think we talked about this earlier, but I uh thank you to the community for coming out to vote uh and to the district work, you know, who worked hard in a short timeline to put a new budget together and to communicate about that effectively and to encourage people to vote. And so I think that, you know, that was a successful uh work under difficult circumstances. And
123I'm thankful for that to the community. That's all. I need to thank Liz because it's been so great to work with her. And um we teachers don't get the bonus checks and all the you know car so forth and so on kinds of things. The best gifts that teachers get are seeing their students be successful. Thank you for my gift. Okay, now I'm done. S I have a few things. Um, first of all, I would like to mention a former board member, Al Dietrich, who served on the board with me for 12 years. I don't know if I was there 12 years, but I read that he passed away in May. Um, and I was sad to see that. He had so much knowledge and I really enjoyed working with him when he was on
124board. Um, he was just a wonderful person. He was in Oregon with his where his daughters were. Um, his wife teachers three years ago when she passed away with cancer in 1995, but they were just uh they really served the community when they lived here and was a wonderful wonderful person. Um Warren talked about Mia and Mia is actually going to be in a play this summer theater and the play will be August 15th to 17th. So if you want to catch her in one final performance before she goes to Fredonia, she will be here. I would like to congratulate the sports team, the softball, the baseball, the track. I couldn't be there cuz I had another commitment on Saturday, but I had one person at the baseball team, baseball field to me what was
125going on. I had another person at the softball field tell me what was going on. It was exciting. It was exciting for sure. and it's just awesome because I know a lot of those kids on both of those teams. I also would like to congratulate the seniors. I'm excited for graduation next week. I would thank like to thank Mr. Boswick for his time that he's given this community and good luck in your next adventure. Keep our eye on what's going up there. And thank you to Mary and Liz for your time and your service on the school board. sometimes thankless job and thank you for all you've done. Let me see if I think I scratches. We had a great center street carnival last week until it rained about 7:15, but it was before that
126approximately 290 students came through and the kids had a blast. Um, it wasn't so much fun cleaning up pouring rain, but it was I'm still dying things out. But it was a great turnout and uh it was a lot of fun. Trina, I just want to go all the congratulations to the sports team. I mean, what a way for them to go out, right? I mean, and story book ending. That's wonderful. and the girls softball team and the track and field everything. It's excellent. It's really, really great. Um, and I echo Dan's thoughts on the people who pass the budget. Thank you for continuing to support us. Congratulations, Mr. Boxwood, on your next move. Very exciting. Um, and I also want to make sure I say a special thank you to my day of our
127carnival. There were some muddy areas, holes around Center Street where the parents were going to walk. And I emailed him suggesting that I could bring over some wood chips because my dad had just got a half of a driveway full. He wrangled the deal with somebody down the street when they were chopping down a tree. I thought, well, I could fill some of these holes cuz we were worried about people. And um you know I emailed I emailed to ask and he immediately said sent the team over and they had they brought over dirt. They leveled it out. They made everything look so great and they were it was really really awesome and I was so appreciative that they did that. Um and then it poured and then people walked on the mud and then
128I was like oh my goodness. Because really it was a 4% chance. Um, but I really have to recognize Patty um because her and her team made it so that the kids at Center Street were able to utilize bouncy houses during the day and it was a first time attempt that they tried to do and the way that they had everything coordinated the kids moving from station to station. She had a total of five different bouncy houses that the PTO like provided and I was there during the day setting up for the smiles on the kids' faces and their comments saying this is the best day of my life and thank you so much because you know I couldn't come. My parents said you know we live too far away and then just to see
129and then we got too afterwards. It was just really really great. It was it was it was wonderful. Um, and then I also have to say um, Mr. R, I'm not going to attempt to say his whole name. He's a teacher assistant. Um, him and Mr. Packard that we had just approved were so gracious and volunteered themselves to be the gunk tank people, which is a really hard thing to do, but they did it. I mean, the kids loved it. They And going into that, it's it's hard work. like you're signing up for a job with that and that's, you know, so I just wanted to say thank you to everybody for that. Um, and I want to thank Marian and Liz. You know, we may not always agree, but volunteering and signing up for
130this is a huge commitment and it takes a lot of heart and thank you for doing it because not a lot of people do step up to serve and it it it's it's hard to do it and you stepped up and you did it. So, thank you for your time and your effort. Um, and then I did just want to make one um comment because I wanted to talk about this with the other pouches. Um, I would be interested in seeing what that looks like wise because it may take away that itch to have to go get it out of the locker and it may satisfy the oh, I have my phone on me so at least they feel better about it. So, I would be interested to see what that cost does look like
131um and to see if it is an option or if it is not. And that was all my comments. I forgot just about the baseball team. I It is a great way he went out. In 1999, there was a parent on the team who won the um Yeah. Bo and that's the year our oldest son graduated from high school. So, I was telling Christopher about it on Father's Day when we were talking to him. He said, "Oh, I remember that." He didn't play baseball. He was on tennis, but he said, "I remember that championship." And I said, "Yes." And now his son was on this team that won. So, I thought that was pretty amazing um for that family to father now the son and both championship games. So congratulations for sure to the baseball
132team. All right. So I'd like to end by thanking the community for coming out and supporting the budget and most importantly supporting the children of our community. Um certainly we appreciate your support and the children appreciate your support. So I need a motion to go into recess for 15 minutes and then enter into executive session for individual personnel matter and negotiations. Second. All in favor? I opposed substantion. Take about five minutes. All right, we are returning from executive session at 12:45 where we conduct the negotiations. There will be a special board meeting on Friday evening 5:30. We will return right here to the middle school. High school high school cafeteria. Oh, high school cafeteria. That's all right. Sorry. We will we go to the high school cafeteria um to vote on our contract negot on
133the contract negotiation and there will be an agenda put out. Motion to adjurnn. move. Second. I oppose. Have good evening everyone. Then we take you out because we got to get