001November 17th, 2025, regular board of education meeting for the Marcela Central School District. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> This evening, we'll start with the public hearing for the amendment to the district-wide safety plan document 2025 to 2026. Uh so our district-wide safety plan uh was uh initially submitted and approved in July. The state uh changed a law requiring the plans now include information about AEDs. Y >> so we had to now reopen amend our plan and and resubmit it with appendix J with information about the district's AE plan. And that's something just so that the public knows we're in the
002midst of getting trainers here so that we're strategic about making sure we have uh individuals trained to properly use the AED and um so we'll be doing that throughout the course of the year. Um but again in the beginning starting to strategically make sure that where coaches already have to have that training but other individuals that are overseeing extracurricular activities we're going to be working toward meeting that. We have one AED in every building. >> No, we have more than that. Ryan knows the exact numbers. >> Okay. >> We have 16 in all. >> Oh, wow. Okay. >> Between buildings and coaches. >> Great. >> Okay. >> All right. So, that any other questions, comments? >> It will stay open. This will be on our website for 30 days. Again, in public hearing, we have
003to have it uh available on the website for comment. It will be on the website. Um and then we'll bring it back to the board for final approval next meeting. >> Okay, sounds good. All right, with that that will end the public hearing and we will move on to item number three, recognition. >> Okay, so I have a couple items of recognition and um I don't want to steal Mike Freeze thunder because he's going to do an athletic report. Um but I do have to give a shout out. I know he will too. our girls varsity soccer uh won back-to-back state champions over the week championships over the weekend. Um it was an incredible game. Uh we had so many fans and the weather was not ideal I will tell you. Um but just to
004see the faces of our girls and um many of them are seniors and so just what a way to to top their career. Um Lori Updike showed up at my office this morning to give me this. So, she had an extra and I'm gonna pass it around because it's quite extraordinary. These are the medals that the students uh have around their necks up here. >> So, kudos to uh Lori and the players and um obviously the assistant coaches as well. >> And then I just want to give a shout out to Mike Dingman, our director of technology, and Adam Grryer, who actually was just here setting up the tech for tonight. Uh Adam is our network administrator. um they for the past few weekends have just been doing um extra extra above and beyond. This
005is what makes Marcelus amazing is that our staff go above and when we're called to duty uh whatever it might be if we're in the middle of something with our family. This is this is what what we do. And Mike Dingman and Adam Grryer did exactly that. Uh, one of the weekends, uh, in November, we had a power out or actually end of October, we had a power outage and they came in to work on restoring the network, get everything set up. Um, and in addition, we had um some issues with um, our network that they came in again uh, over a weekend, spent a whole day um, just making sure that we were protected. Um, so just again, Mike is here. Um, they are just invaluable, both of them. And then I do want
006to just uh give a shout out to we had uh last week we held um interviews for director of special education and grants and we had three different committees. We had a parent committee, a student committee and a staff committee. Um Tucker was was there participated as part of the student committee. Christine and Jen Tedesco uh participated as parent and board members. Um and just an amazing experience. Um it was a Monday night before a day off because the next day was Veterans Day. And uh it just again goes to show you the commitment of this district um toward just everyone, the work and how we put students first. This position is a critical position and it does require students first. And so everybody that was there and participated that was their focus to find
007the right person and uh indeed we did. And that is it for recognition. >> Okay. Very good. We'll move on to item number four presentations. >> So um just a couple updates and um I'm going to ask Don to Rob chime in too. Um the zero emission bus mandate is still it's still there. Um and so if you recall um districts will not be well as it stands districts will not be able to purchase um any buses that are not zero emission buses as of 2027 and then by 2035 their entire fleet is supposed to be zero emission buses. Don and I have been to many different uh workshops and conferences and listening to our colleagues uh from around the state and uh most districts that have put um you know a proposition forward for
008zero uh emission buses it has not passed and so I think the the governor uh is starting to realize that this the timeline is likely not going to be met. Um however they haven't draft the mandate. What they're saying is districts have to apply for a waiver. So if you don't think you're going to meet the mandate, which which quite honestly we're not, we we're ahead of other districts in many ways, and Don can kind of talk about that a little bit. Um but again, I I don't see that it it possibly would pass here um for a myriad of reasons. The expense, the technology isn't quite there, uh the winter months. There's there's so many things that go into that. Um I'm going to just let Don sort of chime in about some of
009the things you know Tony you heard last year worked on um quite a bit and Don has picked up that torch. >> So just in talking to other districts I think we are probably a little bit further ahead than most. Some of them have are kind of just hoping this doesn't happen seems like but uh Tony was was pretty um was very on top of things. We we are in the process of securing a grant through NISB. Um, in order to uh attain that grant, we would have to put a referendum in May of 2026. So, we got a it was supposed to be in in 25. Uh, we got a waiver to push that off a year. Um, that grant would pay for about one bus. So, uh, we could potentially get one bus
010for seemingly free. Those buses cost upwards of $400,000 for a regular gas or diesel bus is in the neighborhood of 80 185,000. So double the price. Uh but we'd be getting it for free, which would be nice. By the end of the year, the education department has to put a process in place for us to apply for a waiver. So that process isn't out yet. Um everybody kind of thinks that it's going to be um I don't want to say a rubber stamp, but every district is going to apply for this waiver and so we're not expecting it to be too ownorous. So it'll be the first of two two-year waiverss. Uh for the second one, you probably have to prove that you've made some in incremental steps towards fossil electrification, which I think, you
011know, we have certainly so far. >> Thank you, John. >> I remember when the that deadline came out, we knew right from the get-go that it was an aggressive deadline and that >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. So, >> so we'll do all of the things that we need to do to make sure that Um, again, we we recognize that eventually the technology will probably be up to speed. It's just it's not yet. >> Um, and financially for the district and not to mention the electric grid, Ryan can tell you too, we're just not situated right now with the electric grid to pull it off. >> The other um just update that I have is um Dr. Cook uh OCM's district superintendent did submit the regionalization plan for the districts in this central New York area.
012And there aren't really drastic things to to be concerned about. Some of the things that we have been talking about and honestly they're great things is um is there a way to um perhaps work together with UPK? And so if you remember um we always seem to have a few people who we can't get into you know, five or six kids because of the lottery, we only have three classrooms. Um I, you know, in talking to the OCS superintendent, he had some some room. So, it would have been a beautiful thing to be able to say to our families who were last on the list, I know OCS has room. So, those are some of the things that we're working to to try to make it productive um and and efficient and effective. Um something
013else that's also been floated is working on professional development. So um in a district, you know, a larger district like James will do it, Liverpool, they're able to to do some bigger things with professional development, bring in speakers, and so what we're talking about is is there a way to create that regionally so that we can all tap into that high quality professional development. So um again, those things are great and you know, really help us. >> And then the last thing that I just want to put out there, uh, there is a proposed again proposed amendment to commissioner's regulations, um, to require instruction in personal finance and climate education. And so, um, the way it it's anticipated to be adopted in March of 2026, um, what the requirement is is, um, by the end
014of the grade band. So here you see a K4 grade band, a 5'8 grade band, a 912 grade band. By the end of the grade band, um student h a student has to have instruction in personal finance and and then climate education um separately obviously, but what Bob and I have had uh conversations already and what we will do is do a curriculum audit just to we we do some of these things. We just have to make sure we know where um and make sure that you know we're doing our due diligence and providing students with what they need in both of those areas. >> And that's it for my presentation. Um we're going to move on to Mr. Montgomery. >> All right. I am proud to present today the 3 through 8 math and
015ELA results. So each year we do a summary of how our students did. Um this year, just so that you know, we continued with computer-based testing. As you may know, all districts are required to do computer-based testing now, um whether they want to or they don't. So, paper testing is going away. We just experienced year two of the science, the new science um test at grades five and 8. Our window uh was the April 7th through May 23rd this year. So, in years past, they said, "Here's your twoe window or 10day window for ELA. Here's Matt." They opened it up to say, "Here you go. make it work so we don't all have to test at the same time which does give us some latitude. Our scores may have been impacted but not by much.
016We did have the Amazon web service the very first day of ELA caused us to delay and then actually have to stop um some of our testing because it just crashed. Um not any fault of ours, not any fault of our planning. Um but it went um all the statewide so it threw a little monkey wrench in but our students did an outstanding job math and ELA just as a reminder are two sessions they're over two days and the science uh students sit for just one day and then our nicest slot um you'll see a range of dates there and our students who are ENL students um test over multiple sessions for speaking reading writing and listening we do have unlimited time during the regular school day if students are being productive, they can work
017a majority of the day. We tend not to do that because they still need lunch and recess and they need a a mental break from the testing as well. And then what you will see I put a link on is the last bullet. Uh that is our data warehouse that we have used. This is our third year and the reports that you see here are ones that we can produce and use data to make decisions and it simply is a warehouse that we can have all of our data fed into and you can get a profile on a student or groups of students within a few minutes. So the presentation you will see tonight took me longer to just go through and analyze the data than it did for me to put charts together. It
018was simply like less than eight minutes for me to do all the charts and put it into a slide deck. um which is phenomenal when you have a lot on your plate. So what you're looking at here, let me just familiarize. Um this is the same setup for every slide. We're going to read it from left to right. It's a four-year comparison of levels 1, 2, 3, and four. Just as a reminder, what you see in the yellow and the green, that's what the state determines as proficient. And we want those number. You should see lots of yellow and lots of green. Uh, and then these columns here, if you like to look at numbers better, this represents the number of students who scored a level four in grade three, then level three, two, and
019one for a total of 103. Any questions about the format that you're looking at? I just want to make sure that you're familiar with that as we go through. >> That's a significant growth in grade. That's incredible. So I want to just give you a little bit of background. In September or actually in August of 2019, we began the science of reading at KCH where we sent our first groups of teachers to be trained in letters volumes one and two. The goal of that training was so that teachers could make the best decision about curriculum materials that they could with the idea of what are good solid literacy practices. How do we evaluate our current curriculum? How do we make changes? And how do we do what is best for students? So, what you see
020here is over four years of time, this is a 21.4% increase in proficiency levels over four years of time. What that came out to be is about 72 uh 73.8% and that is the highest at grade three in ELA in 10 years. So, our students, even though we had that little hiccup with with the system that came on the very first day, they still did an amazing job at um progressing with their ELA skills at grade three. And then grade three math is what you see here. Um this is a phenomenal set of data that many districts are asking like what are you doing? Because over four years time, if you see here, this was 85% proficiency in grade three math, followed by 85% grade three proficiency in math, followed by 79 like 3% >>
021in proficiency. I will tell you that districts within our driving distance, we could add up their proficiencies, they don't equal 85%. >> So, our kids are doing a phenomenal job. And as you will see in the slide coming up for grade five in particular, this very first cohort here that scored 85% also scored 83% last year. So they are holding on to their proficiency, >> which tells us a couple different things. The strategies that our teachers are using and the schedules that we have in place are helping our students and then the curriculum piece for math in particular is helping as well. Do we have improvements to make? The answer to that is yes, but our data does look really promising. Um, especially for third graders coming up, it's their first time taking a computer-based
022test. So, on to grade four. Uh, we still do see similar results. If you can see that the green and the yellow are growing and in particular with grade four, you'll see a significant drop in the level one over four years of time. and we're picking that up either in the level two and then into the proficiency levels as well. And that's really what we wanted to see. >> So, it's a phenomenal place to um look, they went from I just want to give you this stat. I just want to make sure I'm right here. 48.9% in 2122 up to 61.2% in this last year in proficiency. That is a huge gain in ELA. So congratulations to the students, our teachers and families as well. Uh because it takes a group effort to do. And
023then grade four math, they're hanging on to those percentages as well. So we started third grade. You see the proficiencies are really gaining capacity there as well. And then this is um fifth grade and their scores look equally as promising. >> I just want to make sure I have the right percentage. So this is a 74% in ELA compared to 45.5% four years ago in proficiency. I will say just so that you know that this is the very first year that we came out of COVID. Yes, we were still wearing mask but students were returning uh to a full schedule but we still had some of those barriers with mask and that uncomfortable situation but you can see over time 3.4% 4% of students were in level one. >> Wow. >> Compared to Yeah, that's
024incredible. >> They peaked at 29% and over just three years of time reduced it to 3.4%. >> And then their math here, um, this is the one where this is 83% here, um, that they scored. Uh, Aaron Malone is one of the teachers in Colleen Cross in grade five. And as I was getting these results, I ran upstairs and I am like, "You don't understand." I'm like, "Look at this percentage." And they're like, "Aron Mahomes stood and she goes,"Is that good?" I'm like, "Oh my god, okay, we need more work around data, but it's okay." I said, "Other districts don't even add up to 83%, let alone have one grade level that scores the 83%." And there was a stat that I wanted to share with you from this over time from 2122 to this
025one uh 24 25 for grade 5 that is a 49% increase in proficiency level in four years time. That is outstanding. And I need to say thank you to the board for supporting our professional development plan and any incentives that we bring across and try and giving us the permission to have that latitude because it is showing differences. Uh this is our um science. So as I alluded to earlier or said earlier um we've only had this test for two years. If you are a teacher in a classroom with a grade five and grade eight science exam, what we remember as hands-on science and let me practice and show you has turned into a flatout reading test. And as I stood over students this this spring when they were taking it, I was amazed at
026the amount of reading that they had to do in order to answer questions on the life cycle of a frog at grade three or at grade five. But as you can see what happened, our percentages grew. We only had 2.3% of our students in level one at grade five. So the teachers I ran upstairs to Katrina Eric and I'm like look there were 19% increase over this for grade five and she's like that's awesome. So the teachers do get a little uh excited about the good data that's coming out of here. And then grade six, grade six is showing some steady um progression across um for ELA in the red and the orange, which honestly is not what we exactly want. But there are two things that we have done this year to combat that.
027Number one, um we have put an organized curriculum in place for grade six that is not just teacher created, but it's going to help the teachers guide their instruction. And on top of that, we also have the pilot going on right now, K6, which involves 16 teachers so that we can standardize some of the work that students are experiencing. So, we will get there, but this is an area of growth and uh we will look to next year. I'm very excited to see what happens in the spring. Not that I get excited over standardized testing. I'd like the results immediately. I'm not a patient person, but >> we did get them in August this year, which was I was amazed. And then math continues to make some growth here. Uh we did have a cohort
028um that grew here out of um level two and we're working to address that as well. Grade seven, we do have some interesting statistics here. As we look across, our tier 2 has reduced significantly 31% down to 18.2 two and then our proficiency levels continue to climb at grade seven. Grades seven and eight in all fairness is our are our grades that we have the highest number of optouts for and some dip as low as 80% on some of them. Um so just so you know that's one of the factors that we always have to take into consideration as well. And then here is our grade seven map. This is following suit with the elementarymentaries. If you look 27.3% at level 2 and 2122 down to 16.7 and then if you look at the red
02924.2% down to 8.3 in four years time. So we are making progress forward. >> And then 8th grade another um piece that um I promised Stephanie that I would definitely say um grade eight there is a lot that goes on with ELA and math and science. So don't forget we have regions exams that are available or regions courses for our math students and for our science. So they do not have to take the state exams. So when you see the results here they're like these look really low. Um you'll see like by the time we get to science it's like 48 kids. But the numbers are promising even with the small number. So our ELA t is got a great trend going across. The green is growing the yellow is leveling out and the orange
030and red are decreasing. And that's really what we want to see. And here's our math again. Again, um you see 36 and a half% at level one four years ago down to 8.1%. >> So I will credit that to our teachers, to our students, to our families, and to the curriculum that we continue to work on every single day. And then here's our science. We continue to grow even though you see only 48. Uh that's taken up by our Earth and Space Science regions course, of course. And then our eighth graders, I will be honest with you, get a little tired by the time this all happens. So the opt out for science creeps up there um as best we uh can combat that. And then just to let you know nice slot, that is
031our ENL students. Um we had three students take this. We're not a district that has many ENL students, but they do have to take a series of components. We had two kids that um tested out 100% at commanding. That means for us, our teacher only has to do some check-ins with them. Very brief amount of time and then our last um student scored in the expanding which is a very limited amount of time each day that we have to spend. So our ENL teachers and our gened teachers who work with those students, great job for them as well because they're getting across the line. All right, any questions? the date. >> Okay. >> So, and Bob, you can see it right there. We really have focused and as part of our strategic plan is focusing
032in on data decision making. Um, and so that's what the work has been for the past few years. And um I I will say I I do think it's it's paying off. And again, we're not it's not that we're obsessed of our state scores. It's just how can we make sure that we are you know, preparing students adequately for the next grade level. And that really helps us just know that we're we're doing it. >> I was trying to do the math and figure out which grade um are UPK our first UPK kids. What grade would they be? >> Uh they're not there yet, are they? >> They're not. Okay. >> Third grade is where they are right now. >> Oh, they are. Okay. >> So, we will be very interested to see >> where
033what happens with our scores on top of that. >> So, yeah, that was four years ago. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Now, director of athletics report. Mike, I'm sorry I stole your thunder. >> I I have more thunder in there >> because we we had yet another just amazing fall season with our sports teams and and with some of them, even though it doesn't look like they went very far, just the progress they made where they were in those situations, they just had outstanding seasons. So, we'll start with girls volleyball. So, our girls volleyball team had just an amazing season, the regular season. Um, league champions in the division. They were the top division in our league and they won it outright. They were just chugging right through. And unfortunately, we got to
034the section semifinals and they lost in five games to Skinny Atlas. And there was a bunch of reasons for that. I won't go into all the reasons, but you know, there was a pregame injury with one of our players. There was um Skinny Atlas was playing out our minds, which I'm not going to give him any credit for that, you know, and we went right to the fifth game, right down to the wire, and unfortunately we're not able to to finish that game out. So, they ended at section semifinals. our boys golf team. Um they we have we have a new golf coach this year. Mike Wise Cotton took the took the reigns on our boys golf team and did an outstanding job. Um there was a a group of boys that I I was
035not worried about, but a lot of them had never played golf before and they came together well and we qualified for sectionals. And this is the first time first time in golf history that they've tried to do the team sectionals and the individual sections at once in the fall. Typically they have not done that. they just qualify for individual sectionals in the fall and they would have to go on to play team sectionals in the spring if that's what they they were planning on doing. But they had a nice showing at the uh the championships this fall. Our girls tennis team, another another one, they qualified for as team sectionals. They made it all the way to the sectional quarterfinals. And another one, I won't tell you all the details, but when you don't have
036officials on a court and um you're relying on honesty for calls, there was some not so honest calls made in that game. We lost unfortunately in the quarterfinals to New Hartford. But this is the first time that I've been here that every one of our starters on the girls tennis team also qualified for sectionals. and they went this pretty far with with the brackets and sectionals as individuals. So, it was it was a great showing, especially after graduating. I believe it was 12 seniors off of our team from last year for tennis. So, we lost a lot of good players last year. We still reloaded again with our girls tennis team. Cross country just a hugely successful season for cross country. The second annual Mustang Invitational was huge. if you were trying to go anywhere
037near the park. And on October 18th, you couldn't get anywhere near the place. It was just mobbed with kids. Um I believe there were a thousand runners this year, Jason was saying, >> which which is pretty awesome to have that many kids down there in the park racing. >> Um at sectionals, that's where our season ended this year because we kind of got dinged up a little bit. And you know, I don't know if you with the running piece, if you're not tapering perfectly so that you're crescendoing and you're kind of doing this at the end, sometimes you have a bad day, but I'm just going to tell you one story. And just go with me on this. Amelia Pon is an eighth grader. She was nationally ranked as a cross country runner as an
038eighth grader. So, she starts at sectionals. She's leading the whole entire pack. exceptionals for the girls. And I won't go into details, but something happened about midway through. She was walking on the course and the coach kind of said to her, "Hey, what's going on?" And just talked to her a little bit and said, "You got to finish this." She had dropped from first back to 27. She said, "Yep, I'm going to finish this." And turning the jets back on and climbed all the way back up to eighth place, which was two slots away from going to states. So that's pretty amazing as an eighth grader and that's a lot of pressure for an eighth grader to learn how to deal with at a big huge Chinese game like that. So that that was pretty
039cool situation we had with them. Football team we another amazing season but didn't go as far as we wanted to go. We unfortunately played Little Falls in the first game of the year and beat them pretty pretty soundly. So when we got them in the quarterfinals and sectionals and they had to come back out here to play again, I think some of our boys were looking ahead to the next game and they had a player that we had not seen on the field before. I don't know if he was injured. And this this kid was pretty amazing. So we lost a close one in in the sectional quarterfinals with our football team. Boys soccer, another situation like that. They had a great season, but every one of the games that they lost to all these
040big schools and these tight games were by one, maybe two goals all season long. So, we were right in it all the way through the whole season. They actually um were co- champions for their league in their division. So, another league championship team. And they made it in sectional playoffs all the way to the semifinals. And they lost to West Hill. And I and I guess it's okay when you I I don't like to lose to West Hill and I don't like to lose to Skinny Alice, but when you lose to West Hill in the sectional semifinals and then they go on to win the state championships, you go, okay, that that you you can pallet that one and go that's okay because you beat them and you know, who knows where you're going to
041get to. Now we come to girls soccer. I I can't really say anything other than other than league champs, three peak sectional champions with this team, regional champions, and then like thunder was stole out from underneath me, the class B state champions yesterday. And boy, what what a game. That was a tough game. Semifinals on Saturday, we dominated the whole entire day. Like they were possessing the ball. We took like 35 shots on goal and were only able to muster one in regular regular time frame and we had to go to overtime with a team we didn't need to go to overtime with. They played a great game but just the finishing wasn't there with getting it to goal. And on Sunday, Leavonia was tough. They were hustling the ball that we we were the
042better soccer team, but they they gave us a good hard match and that was an outstanding game yesterday. We still beat two nothing. So, how awesome is that? So now the last but not least, their girls swimming team. And a lot of people don't know this, but we actually have a girls swimming team. It's a it's Marcelus swimming, but we swim with Skinny Alice independently over there. They only allow us to have three girls on the team. All three of our girls went to sectionals, which is what they have to do on this independent team. They have to qualify individually for sectionals. But Molly McMaster, section champion in the 100 butterfly. And Vivian Pon is just another amazing. And you know his same last name is Amelia. Vivian was a sectional champion in 100 freestyle
043and the 200 freestyle, but earlier in the season, she qualified for two other events. So, in swimming, you actually have to swim a certain time to be able to qualify to go to states. Molly missed the cut time for states, even though she was a section champion by one one point some odd seconds. So, she doesn't get to go to states, but Vivian made the cut time in the 100 freestyle and the 200 freestyle, which she won at sectionals. Earlier in the season, she qualified in the 100 butterfly and got the state cut time to go to states in that. And she also qualified earlier in the season in the 53 to go to states. You're only allowed to to represent or or be entered in two events at states. So this Friday is the
044state championship for girls swimming. Vivian will be swimming. She chose the 50 free and 100 free. and where she's ranked, she should be right there at the top and make it to the finals on Saturday. So, they the opening heats are Friday, like the semifinals, and then they run they they qualify for the finals on Saturday. And we'll we'll see more to come on that even better part last week. This is the first time since I in my memory and since I've been here that we have had five athletes sign national letters of intent this this fall. There's two signings. There's the one that happens right around Veterans Day and then there's one that happens right about uh Valentine's Day in February. And it's all sport spring fall sports. So what I told them all
045depending on the research you look at 8 to 12% of all high school athletes actually play a sport in college. That's pretty low number. And of those 8 to 12% of all high school athletes about and it's depends on what research you look at. It's between 1 and 2% of those 8 to 12% actually get offered money to play in college. So that's that's pretty amazing. So I told them all they're all they're all part of that 2% club because I I went with a bigger research because I don't want to say less than 1% club. But so we had Christopher Dashna. He's playing lacrosse at Maryland. Nick Rayfield playing lacrosse at SU. Donovan Fra playing lacrosse at Bingmpington. CC Powell playing women's lacrosse at UNC. And then Laura Reefer crew in Rhode Island and
046we don't even have a crew team. So she did this all on her own with the Syracuse Chargers crew team. That is amazing. So kudos. Great athletes, great fall season. Looking forward to a great winter season. And I know this young man has to get to a practice pretty soon >> because we're because we're looking for another great basketball season. Yes, absolutely. >> And here we go. seated. >> Thank you, Mike. >> Incredible athletes and just an incredible season. And thank you, Mike again. >> Okay, at this time we'll move on to item number five, residents comments. Public expression at the board of education meetings is encouraged and a specific portion of the agenda shall provide for this privilege. In most instances, the board shall reserve judgment regarding questions and concerns that are brought to
047the board's attention at a board meeting as it is typically not prudent for the board to make instantaneous determinations. In addition, many issues that are brought to the board's attention do not require a formal determination by the board, but instead are most appropriately addressed by the superintendent of schools or persons designated by the superintendent without further board action in accordance with board policy 3220, community relations. Do we have any residents comments at this time? Okay, moving on to the business portion of the meeting. Item number six, acceptance of gift to the Marcella Central School District from Arthur Scotty. Resolve that the board of education accepts the gift of $10,000 from Mr. Arthur Scotty to Marcela Central School District for the DMS auditorium sound booth. Can I have a motion? >> Amy, Justin. >> Second, Justin.
048Questions or comments before we vote? So, um, just to give you some background, um, Art was a English teacher, seventh grade English teacher. And fun fact that I just found out tonight, he was two board members here present, uh, their English teacher. So, Kelly and Erica both had art uh, as an English teacher. Um, he visited he he lives in New Hampshire, but visited um, I I think it was in the summertime late. >> I think he stopped in last year. interested in the project. Shannon For directed him towards us as a as a possibility for a future donation. When he saw what the auditorium project was going to be on paper, he got inspired and then stopped again back out this fall to see what the progress was and wanted to make a generous
049donation directly to a component of that project. >> Thank you. And so the sound booth, I I know I've shown pictures. Um it it is state-of-the-art and again um considering what we had previously it is quite an improvement and so um that donation is specifically designated for that. >> Very generous donation. All right. All those in favor >> opposed carried item 6.2 acceptance of gift to the Marcellus Central School District from the class of 1970. Resolve that the board of education accepts the gift of $1,970 from Marcelus High School class of 1970 to Marcelus Central School District for agricultural programs. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Erica. >> Second, Kelly. Questions or comments before we vote? So, I received a, you know, probably about three weeks ago, a beautiful thank you letter with
050a check um from the class of 1970. They had their reunion this past summer and um they were so impressed by the egg facility that they wanted to put their donation and again symbolically it's 1,970 um toward the egg program. So, um again just we appreciate their generosity >> very much so. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. Moving on to item 6.3. 6.3. Approval of the 2026 2027 budget development calendar. Resolve that the board of education approves the 2026 2027 budget development calendar. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Jen. >> Jen. >> Second. Justin, questions or comments before we vote? >> So, this is the typical calendar that you see around this time. I'll let Don sort of just talk again as as our new school business administrator. Um, this was his first
051budget calendar that he put together. >> Yeah. So, hopefully it mimics pretty closely what you've seen in the past. Uh, you know, I really am relying on whatever the documents Tony has left behind for me. Scott, you know, very good about leaving breadcrumbs, as he called them. So, uh, following the breadcrumbs and, uh, and setting up the new budget calendar. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. Moving on to item 6.4, approval of first reading of board policies. Resolved that the board of education approves the first reading of the following board policies. Policy 4320, superintendent, board of education relations. Policy 4330, administrative staff. Policy 4420, compensation and related benefits. Can I have a motion? >> I think Amy and Erica, >> Amy first, Erica second. >> Questions or comments before we vote? So,
052um you know the we're working hard on just updating our our board policy um policies and um several of them including these have not been looked at in since I think 2000. So um 4320 really it's there there's not a lot of drastic changes. Again we use um Eerie one um policy manual just to sort of check and make sure that everything's updated. Um there's a a little language difference that is a suggestion here. And then 4330 and 4420. Um my my suggestion is to um really just delete these retire these policies. They're obsolete essentially. Uh they're superseded by our contract negotiations and um so they're really not necessary. And again, it's wise to not have policies in your manual that are not necessary. Any other questions or comments before we vote? All those in
053favor? >> Opposed? >> Carried. Okay. Item 6.5, approval of professional learning plan for Marcela Central School District. Resolved that the board of education approves the professional learning plan for the Marcela Central School District 2025 through 2030. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Kelly. >> Kelly. Second. >> Second. Justin, questions or comments before we vote? >> So, um Bob worked diligently on just updating our professional learning plan uh toward the end of of June. Um our plan expired June 30th of 2025. And so, we're just putting that forward. Um there there a few little changes, but nothing really monumental. Mhm. >> And it's typical to do it's a fiveyear plan. >> Five years. Okay. >> Y all those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. Item 6.6, approval of first and final reading of board policy. Resolve
054that the board of education approves the first and final reading of the following board policy. Policy 6570 employment benefits for designated managerial and or confidential officers and employees. Can I have a motion? >> Motion Jen. >> Jen. >> Second. Erica. Questions or comments before we vote? >> So, the only change here, and this is why I'm asking for it to be first and final, um is um one of the individuals um is a transportation dispatcher, one of the jobs in this policy. And it it actually was 11 months before and we changed it to 10 months. >> Um and I'm requesting that we change it back to 11. And you'll see a little bit later in personnel. Evan Sanders is our dispatcher right now. >> And um the transportation department, we we do uh service
055students over the summertime, taking students to special programming. um and it can be pretty desolate up there, especially if the director wants to take a vacation day over the summertime. So, um there are many things that we feel the dispatcher can do to support the director of transportation in those summer months, getting schedules ready. Um and so that's why we're asking to move his position from 10 month to 11 month. >> All those in favor? I opposed carried. All right. Moving on to item seven, personnel. Approval of personnel items. Resolve that the board of education approves the following personnel items. You can see them listed there before you. 7.1 through looks like 78. Yes. All right. Can I have a motion? >> Jen and then Eric. Second is Erica. >> Questions or comments about any
056of those items before we vote? >> So, just to clarify with the bus drivers and bus attendance. You'll remember in October uh we had sort of an estimate and then what um Jackie our director of transportation does is she does an audit of the runs just you know as drivers become more efficient with their with the uh routes then she can get a better sense of exactly the hours. Um and so what you see here is the audited hours that she has this is the most accurate figure. Some are similar to what we put forward in in October and some are are changed um by by little amounts. >> They also change. Students move in and out of the district. The routes change a little bit. We have a a driver that's resigning. So, another
057driver might want to bid on that route if they like that route better. So, things get moved around. >> I also see Kathy Ryan is retiring. Congratulations. >> Retiring. Yeah, she's retiring in November of next year. So, um, we're going to hatch a plan on how we're gonna handle that. >> Not an ideal time in the middle of the year, but >> All right. Any other questions or comments before we vote? All those in favor? >> Opposed? Car. >> Christine, I do want to just welcome Julie Dharm Laam who is here tonight with her husband Paul. She will be our new director of special education and grants. and we are so grateful that she chose Marcelus. Um, and thank you for being here, Julie. >> Thank you. Thank you for choosing me. I'm thrilled to
058join all of you. I can't wait. >> Excited to have you here. >> And Cara, we will miss you very much. >> Thank you so much. I miss you very much >> and we wish you all the best. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to item number eight, consent agenda. Approval of consent agenda items. You can see them listed be there before you. Resolve that the board of education approves the following consent agenda items. Items 8.1 through 8.6. Can I have a motion? >> Is that Kelly? >> Second. Justin. >> Amy. And then Justin. Okay. All right. Um, any questions or comments before we vote about any of those items? All those in favor? >> Opposed? Carried. Moving on to item number nine,formational items. >> Yeah.
059So, um on Friday, this Friday, um we have the premiere of Lily Wonka Jr. That's our seventh and eighth grade uh musical. Uh Friday, November 21st and Saturday, November 22nd. What I do want to note though, at 6:15 on Friday night, we're going to do an official um DMS auditorium ribbon cutting. So um again, hopefully people will join us for the ribbon cutting and then stay uh for the show. >> That's it. All right. Meeting adjourned. Uh resolved that the board of education meeting be adjourned. Can I have a motion? >> Motion. Kelly >> Second, Jen. All those in favor? >> Opposed? >> Carried. All right.