001all right good evening and welcome to the Monday March 10th 2025 Marcela School District Board of Education meeting please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic stands one nation [Music] indice this evening we'll begin with recognition yeah so um we're gonna start tonight with um some recognition and um first up is the all School show um they did a production of All Shook Up and um I do not exaggerate when I say that it was fabulous it was unbelievable um you know a contender with some professional Productions they did an outstanding job so I do want to just give a shout out to Christie King and Elizabeth Fern who were the directors um Brian apples Andy Wy Terry Hoy Virginia
002fennessy rockel desera and of course the cast and crew I mean we would be here all night if I named everybody but it really the students came together and put on a absolutely professional production I you know as I sat there I was just riveted and um just the music and everything so um just outstanding kudos to them and um looking forward to next year and then I also want to just um talk a little bit about the successes that we've experienced with the winter season and a with our athletic teams um Mike free would do this but he is at the sports booster meeting right now so um just to sort of cap um our girls varsity basketball team they played in the sectional semifinals last Monday in Sandy Creek they were not successful
003but they had an amazing run um it was a close game and um I think they were hoping to to get to that next round headed to States but um what a great season Great accomplishments um a fun team to watch uh our boys varsity basketball team um they did last week Tuesday um play in the sectional semifinals they played um Holland and Patton and beat them and then played on Saturday at 11:00 am at the SRC Arena at um OCC and they beat skinny Atlas uh and are now going to the state sub regional tournament that is actually going to be at FM the first round on H Wednesday night so just again great season that they've had so far um for the wrestling team Christopher dhna um won the section three champion in
004his weight class and then he went on to states to represent marcelus um and placed fourth in the state so just an incredible um success for him our indoor track team also went to state so um bear with me I do want to just sort of give these um individual accolades so our 400 relay we had Madison Karen Aldrich Dorothy McMahon and Emy Roser win section Champions um Amelia durin section three Champion she won the 600 meter Liam Eldridge in the section three he was the section three Champion he won the 1600 Madison boy won the 55 meter hurdle um the 800 relay Jack Lucio leam eldrid AO Shaw Toby Nyland they won the section Champion Sophia Pyon she won the sectional Champion for in the 300 uh Emy Roser was the section champion in
005the long jump and then our 200 relay uh Again Korean Aldridge Sophia pylon Dorothy McMahon andison Bo um went on uh to win the section champion and then they um some of them competed at States this past weekend the boys 800 Jack Lucio Liam Eldridge AO Shaw and Toby Nyon J Palin placed seventh in the state for their 800 and then the girls 200 relay Karan Aldridge Sophia pylon Dorothy McMahon Madison boy um and they placed 14th overall so all of our athletic teams have had incredible success this season and uh it's not over for our boys basketball yet but extraordinary um so kudos to our coaches to Mike fre um just just an amazing season so far congratulations to them that's great and then I do want to just um there are a lot
006of people that may not know about this so um Tyler Cooper started a chapter of deca and so Deca is distributed education clubs of America and it's for students that are interested in business and so this year he started a chapter here at Marcel's High School Tyler Cooper he has 15 members that joined um that inaugural chapter um we had two students that qualified for States so Owen Alexander um and Griffin Palin so Owen Alexander this past weekend and Rochester competed in principles of Finance Griff and Palin competed in principle principles of Entrepreneurship um both placed top three in the regional competition which then allowed them to go to States this past weekend Owen placed first he is eligible for the national tournament in Orlando Florida at the end of April um so just and
007Griffin did an amazing job as well just outstanding um that again an ini initial chapter has been so successful here at Marcel's right out of the gate so kudos to Tyler Cooper and all the work he's doing um with our students great recognition Okay at this time we'll move on to item number three on the agenda presentations so I do want to welcome Allison she is from the marcelis academic Club she's going to sort of give an overview um for all of you here and all of the community members that are listening um the marcelis academic Club has been an incredible partnership um between the district and this club and just helping us um support student opportunities that they may not otherwise get so um Allison thank you very much Jean um very nice to
008see you all tonight I prise I won't take too long on here on the agenda um just wanted to tell you a little bit about the Marcel's academic Club U it has actually been in existence I just heard the other night since 1998 Lydia West is our current president and actually um the conception for it was at her dining room table she said her parents started talking back in 1998 um and came up with the idea I have been um I'm the foring secretary from act and I've been a part of it since 2007 8 after my daughter was honored at a banet and I thought wow a lot of work into this um I wanted guys us all and then neighb organization so I'm just run through a little bit make sure I don't
009forget some of these things explain a little bit about what that does so we really try to um support recognize AC student achievement and Improvement as well too which we feel like is really important it's not just about all the high Achievers but it's about kids working hard and trying to do their personal as well so some of the things that we do we give out academic letters and pins to honor and high high honor those students we have step upward for kids who have raised their point average by five points from one maret to another and I think that's part of that that's fun for the kids we actually get them things from Little ums or something from the chocolate pizza company so they call down and they um they get their recognition for
010trying hard and having success there um we provide re Refreshments for the Honor Society Banquets and academic um Awards Banquets so you might have seen us people out there handing up C and cake and drinks and all um another way that try to help um every year we have an annual bage that's out at house and it's for all the high honorable and um High honors and just regular H I should say um so it's really sometimes I think we have good 78 kids and the kids are invited to attend and bring their families and um have nice U dinner for them we also have a speaker we a speaker that is a Marcel who comes in and talks about some interestinger line that they've done over the line just speaker for us during our
011dessert time we also um do award cash and a present it used to be a book now it's kind of usually like this school Works blet to the two students with the highest average to so at the end of the year we give them from those things uh the other thing we do we support faculty student projects to optimize student opportunities so some things we tended to do for years and years we buy the books that they give to the kindergart as they're coming into the families I think they get that the summer before we've done that for years um we um have supported the student book clubs and reading challenges too by providing the books for the kids we um have done the Science Olympia like financial assistance to the kids who participate in
012the Science Olympia um Lego robotics kits and support with robotics team and I just found out that our robotics team just did compete in the robotics compition at the most and um they felt like basically with the skills that they've gotten from the kits they they really got to um show those skills off so that was that was fun to that supplies to the chemistry department for special activities and over the years to we tried to also Branch out a little bit and help Performing Arts in the music departments too got equipment done some of the lighting in the high school too in the auditorium so different ways because obviously those buildings are important for bre and students to this year actually um we have approved money to give to the kindergarteners for 20 boxes
013I don't know if you guys know what they I had heard about them but they're actually a screenless little box electronic box and there's like a little character that sits on top and the kids can listen to stories their teachers actually can narrate the story so they can hear their teach voices or their parents voices um so really just promoting language and reading and L reading to the kids and I think they use it at little time when there's a BL time or down time and the teacher might be doing something else the kids get a chance and they love them so they're having a lot of fun the back so we just gave money for that uh last year we did help fund the artist to pay school um this year we are going
014to be helping told you different ways that we can try support academics the district and really it's been K through 12 not just at the high school but that so basically um our sources of income every year a lottery Tre and it goes from one school to the other and teachers or different staff members might choose to buy tickets that's a sorts of income at how happenings everybody at the are supposed to give us one of their things that they're selling and then we put those things into a raffle and um people actually spend money to get tickets for so well last year we did actually not transition the year before we did for a purpose for do that too that was great it was fun and just to out very very nice about that
015PR get local businesses Don every year we send [Music] out all the local businesses this year um myself and another woman we went around we actually the letter letters and we have a nice little oh printed out thing um that says that they are donators and we got a lot so just even that personal contact to really help this year I think we got easily over $2,000 by doing that so that that's an exciting way to get it and then individuals lot of people who donate have KS who come through the districts they might be staff members themselves or prior staff members um those are kind of all of our sources on the back of your sheets there is a information there and on theate through PayPal if you were to be interested in doing
016so we always need extra people to help us on that we have a small little crew and somehow we never get really large but we are awesome and we have fun together but we always look for more help or staff members who would like to help us at the events than like thanking really obviously the superintendent always staff members we can't thank you enough for all the support over the years and to be able to come here tonight um and tell you a little bit more about that I'm sure that but um thank you so much to all of you guys who support us so well thank you thank you for all you do to support us as well appreciate any questions I think it's you so moving on um this is just a sort
017of a quick update um we are having a ribbon cutting for the career exploration and agricultural Sciences building um essentially the the building is complete um there are just some um little items that still need to be attended to um inside um you know like some simple as a light switch or um you know some of some of those little fine details that are being worked out now the ribbon cutting is going to be Saturday May 31st at 9:00 a. and then it's going to be followed by a pancake breakfast I did send out a newsletter um last week to families and embedded in that newsletter is a Google form um RSVP so that we can get a sense of how many people um we need to serve for the pancake breakfast um but uh
018in addition to that we have um a video is in production for the community that we just recently did with the CTE Department the egg Department um Brian CB and so that people can get a sneak peek of what it looks like inside um and then we obviously highlight um the ribbon cutting and pancake breakfast at the end of that video so um that is going to be exciting in addition to that just a um of note the bus wash garage is close to being complete I know Brian has been working with Jackie Pearson just completing a few things this week um and I think Jackie said she's hoping that it's online by Friday I'm sure Ryan knows that too we're just waiting for a couple parts with the equipment being off for almost two
019and a half months through not so it's kicking out running four minutes and saying hey the bus hasn't come through yet so we're just fixing a couple of those components thank you so one uh other note that I want to just highlight um Tyler Cooper uh currently is working with students on what we have sort of poined independent study and if you look at our social media um he has partnered our students with projects and uh individual careers um so that you know we have our students poised for Success when they go off whether they decide to go to college or or career um one of the things that Tyler has done in this sort of work that he's helping students do um he has made a ton of context in in this local community
020but even outside and so um what was born from that is Tyler saying hey we should really create a community connection group so that the town the district The Village um members of local DEC Baltimore Woods um and local businesses we can collaborate learn what's happening figure out ways that we can expand opportunities for our students and so that has started um we meet usually around every other month um and it's just been a beautiful partnership just to hear what's happening um with the town with the village they can hear you know what what planning what some of our students are interested in um and interestingly enough when I sort of talk about this to other superintendants they're just amazed like wow like that does not happen in many places so just kudos to everyone
021in marcelus who always comes together for our students and this um this community group is evidence of that um and any board members if you're ever interested in attending we usually meet at noon um you know on whatever day the week that tends to work for everybody involved um but if you're ever interested in attending feel free to reach out to me I'll keep you a prized of those dates so and then we also have um some presentations tonight from um our upk six principal so Lauren Masa is our KC principal upk uh to third grade and Kathleen Mahoney is our principal of the Intermediate School grades four five and six and they are are here to just give you a presentation and overview of what's happening in both of those uh areas okay okay
022so I'm GNA take you into the way back machine if I may um imagine just for a moment that you're in school maybe a second grader a middle schooler maybe even a high schooler um what do you remember most about the teachers or those staff members who had the greatest impact on you was it what was it that made them Stand Out was it their knowledge their lesson plans or was it the way that they do feel safe supported capable that I'm sure everyone's answer is the high quality instruction they see day in and day out special teacher right and that may have very well been the case for some of us but at the core of some of the most um foundational relationships we have with teachers who made an impact on us the
023foundation of that is relationships and so Kathy and I being new we wanted to sort of ground ourselves and you guys in some of the research around relationships and why we are intentionally focusing on that in our work um around the Strategic plan so anybody here know John Cy heard of them definely okay a couple people so I'm GNA give you sort of the cliff notes version on John hadie um he is a researcher he is an educator he is a professor he holds a Doctorate in Education I and his body of work is titled visible learning um it encompasses over 2100 um studies and about 300 million students and is considered one of the most comprehensive studies around what works in education um um so basically what we want to do today is sort
024of give you an overview of what he has titled the barometer of influence so he's a meta analysis he does meta analysis so essentially what that means is he's studying all the studies done in Education and compile them to in one five work so this is his parameter of influence and you can sort of Center Center yourself where it says point4 to the left of point4 are all these indicators and things we do for students two students um that that can have an impact on their achievement and then to the right of point4 we have this blue area that's called The Zone of desired effects okay so he has about 250 indicators that he has studied and he's put them on this barometer of influence now things in the red um are are said to
025possibly have um negative effects or reverse effects on student achievement um the yellow moderate effects to No Effects and then the green our teacher effects these are things that have you know moderate success in the classroom that we see use quite often the things that we want to have a laser light focus on and what this research has shown is there are things specific things that we do in education that accelerate student learning right and you can read some of those there so jeans put up the first one positive school and positive class climate Okay I want you to take note this is not a curriculum this is not an instructional strategy it's just the climate right this is the way students feel the way Staff feel the way families feel when they walk into
026a school anybody want to venture to guess if they can see what you put up there before on what the effect size is for that I'm a math teacher so my weight time is impeccable one guess I understand the question so it's 1.6 here so so point four is your hinge point right so anything to the left of 04 is said to have negative or moderate effects and anything to the right of4 is considered to have an effect that accelerate student learning good question so you're asking whether positive class climate is on the right hand side yeah I'm yeah that's a good way to ask or or what you think the effect size is 3.5 1.2 62 so we're in this zone of desired effects right positive school and class climate is directly tied to
027relationships right all right second one G is teacher and student relationships also if you read this rearch research this this counts for administrators to teacher relationships a guess on where it falls on the barometer of influence strong relationships of trust and engagement 1.2 72 all right now again he's studied 250 indicators the next one Collective teacher efficacy first do we know what that is I don't want to assume there's a community it's a community of teachers that that collaborate and have a belief Collective teacher ethicacy is the belief that a group of Educators hold that all of their students can and will learn at their Highest Potential again not a curriculum not a strategy but a belief that a group of people hold I'm not going to have you guess it's the number one indicator
028for student and okay so these three things all are directly tied to relationships okay so we are going to highlight academic excellence and the student experience as it relates to the Strategic plan um in first academic Excellence um we're committed to a upk2 curriculum that LS academics career exploration and social responsibility this means ensuring that every student not only Masters core subjects but also sees the relevance in their learning how today's lessons shape their future when students feel connected supported and engaged they don't just learn more they develop the skills and confidence to thrive beyond our walls we're going to focus on the student experience another Cornerstone of our strategic plan um and we know that students thrive in an environment where they feel safe valued and understood and so through our instruction strategies and
029how we build the student experience we really are trying to create an environment where students are empowered to do their best surrounded by individuals who believe so first we're going to start with academic Excellence um we chose the term refining the RTI process um a big part of of what I think that we do is scaling the Excellence that already exists in our buildings before we took over so Mr Montgomery spent a lot of time and effort in the RTI process at kch and so I use I use the term and I mean it that we're refining that we're continuing to look at what has been working in areas to improve as we go and so part of that has been positioning myself as the leader in those meetings having conversations with um our RTI
030staff and with our teachers making sure we all have an understanding of how we're servicing kids how we're moving kids in and out of Tears um a big thing that we did this year was we created an instructional video for parents that we pushed out um ahead of the beginning of our RTI process so that they had an awareness of what it is what we do and who the contact people are in the ability to go to if they have questions excellent um I am going to really rely on my notes here because there's so much excellent work that's happened at marcelis and as you all know um I am not super experienced at marcelis and I don't want my lack of experience to diminish the awesome things going on so I did sit down
031I am involved in all of this but it would be foolish for me to say that I'm an expert in any of this right now um but I don't want the hard work at at DMS to to feel diminished because of my lack of experience so we also are um kneep in the RTI process um it is in full swing um I am also attending some of those meetings where we're really de doing a deep dive into the data um making sure that we're meing the kids in where they need to be met and then pushing them forward there's a lot of parent communication going on um as students move in and out of that RTI process and the conversations that are had about the kids strengths and the kids needs are really impressive um
032up to and including that they're very intentional about the children that they place together in a group knowing that a student will perform better with a friend or knowing that that student may not perform quite as well with a friend um and and that is all occurring during the students wi time ensuring that they are not taken out of that tier one instruction next thing we're going to talk about is I ready so at kch we have been piloting and utilizing I ready Mathes since the beginning of the year um so you may be aware that kch has used as web um and still uses as web for our benchmarking and that is just essentially a way for us to get a quick data set on our students it tells us a little bit about
033how they measure up to students nationally with some normed data um and helps helps inform our decision conversations around who might need more support outside take one instruction what I already does is what I just said Ang does but it also is a Criterion reference assessment so not only does it tell us how our students are comparing against National Norms it tells us how the students comparing against themselves based on so for for math if I can pick on Trey it IR is gonna tell us what Trey does really really well down to specific New York state standards and it's going to tell us where his growing edges are so that we can best support him in the classroom and so that's been a huge change for us to have that Criterion reference data aligned
034to standards and has really made a difference on helping us had informed conversations around students and what they need there's a lot of excitement at with um I ready our pilot is in full swing um we we're beginning with the ELA pilot are we doing Ela and map together okay um but what is really exciting is that Lauren has so much experience using I so the um the our literacy coach has been spending a lot of time with Warren as well as her counterpart so that we can hit the ground running um and I think what we're finding to be the most exciting aspect of I versus maybe what star offers us is that it offers us an opportunity to have really personalized PL vers so we can Target what they need and as Lauren
035said you know find out where those where those needs are where those strengths are and really drill down and Target those our teacher support teams we have on on both sides of the house here um this is a team that is in our building that is comprised of all members of of our building teachers special Area Teachers um teacher aids uh our school counselor our School site myself and teachers can um submit students of concern to the TST team and this is an opportunity for us to come together every week to talk about students who not just are struggling perhaps academically but maybe behaviorally maybe they have something going on at home um it's it's a chance for us to get all of our heads around the table um to problem solve and come up
036with plans to ensure every student's um success in our building and that is exactly where where we are at DMS too we make sure that we're involving the family early on because we recognize that their input is by to Student Success as well um and the approach it's a coll collaborative approach that allows us to explore solutions from multiple perspectives and we have found that then we have our mtss committee that stands for multi-tier systems of support I believe Brian and Stephanie spoke about that in their presentation as well the way that I like to describe mtss is when we talk about RTI response to intervention we're typically talking about academics and academics alone mtss is sort of that umbrella over the child that encompasses all of that students needs um so the district has
037an NSS committee now that's working on refining and imple what that's going to look like here they go for meetings and thenon here in the district and so we have members fromc as well as DMS and um I'm I'm looking forward to again parallel for both of us our Ela curriculum committee as you know montgomer is working diligently around the clock to ensure that our teachers have access to a variety of different um curriculum choices to look at to make a decision on what is going to be best for our students and and ultimately make a decision on what we're going to Pilot um so we have a strong support of kch teachers um and RTI staff that are members of that and I've been fortunate enough to attend some of the meetings so it
038really is a a k6 team that's come together um the committee is currently P DMS piloting wonders 2023 and we're planning on highlighting The Benchmark advance in the 2526 school year um having a strong tier one are you looking at right okay having a strong tier one curriculum in place um from k6 allows us to also collaborate effectively with our seven eight Partners we're looking forward to that and then we have our positivity project um our character education platform this is not new again this has been in existence um we'll talk a little bit I'll talk a little bit on the next slide on what we're doing um to sort of enhance that this year but that is in existence and we have a dedicated time in all of our grade schedules where they teach
039all these different character traits and um I also will highlight that on the next slide too um we include this in our daily announcements um it was really nice to see the kids you know one of the mantras is that other people matter and it was nice to see the sixth graders partner with first grade in the library last week um and that really is a nice way to make our sixth graders really important and special and they look huge and the first graders really I think enjoyed having kind of that big Big Brother Big Sister feel um and it was it was really nice and it's born out of this character oration and I just wanted to highlight um tth has always had an author visit this year we had a strong connection to
040the author that came get cooked I don't if anyone knows of her um but she my mouth is a volcano is one of like her most famous ones but all of her she was a school counselor in in a former life um and now she writes children's books and so we had a strong connection she was phenomenal with the kids um and we also had a parent night this year where parents could come and it was really just a dialogue and a conversation parents could ask questions um and so that was a nice way to sort of bridge what we're doing in the building as far as building social emotional intelligence in our kids um and allowing parents to sort of come in and en that homeschool connection all right so now we have the
041student experience so we're going to start at on the K side with the Mustang morning program this is a program that we are running this year it's four mornings out of the year we have uh 13 teachers who are um coming in early an hour early and we're putting our k6 kiddos on the early bus so they come in with the i four times year we've done three we have one left um and we focus on seal um but we also focus on on building our school community so give an example of what we did um I don't know if anyone knows that K used to have a rabbit named daffodil um who tragically passed away last year right before I interviewed I think like the day before if I remember correctly students are very
042upset about I remember bringing it up um so one of the kids had this idea that they should plant daffodils outside the library and so what they did is we got bulbs donated um and they came in and they planted bulbs um outside of the library sort of the atrium window um and you should see those come up any day now so that's just an example of what we've done during that time yeah that's really cool and I'm really looking forward to those we also have the before school on say we've done two our third one was cancelled because of one of snowb rather um and we will have that this Wednesday the fourth one will be mid to late May um and I know that our teachers have it's been nice for our teachers
043to work with the kids in a different way to build those relationships with adults outside of the classroom um and I know um through some of the my preparation for this is that Jean gave one of the groups a shout out for making a gratitude buletin Bo as students enter in and that was one that's the primary focus of this one group gratitude um so this is a really fun thing that our kids look forward to I know that when ours was postponed last time you had one maybe the next day and some of our kids still showed up and they were so disappointed that we were not having our for school day so I know that there's a lot of activity and um and fun involved in this and I'm looking forward to see
044next we have pushing lessons and teaching time again this is not something new our school pushes in um and does lessons in kindergarten in third grade and we have dedicated positivity project time where they're focused on a character trait every year we also focus on it on our morning announcements third graders are doing announcements with us this year and so they give a little last week was perseverance and so we talk about perseverance all all week so again that's something that is existed um but that we are continuing and doing that with intentionality r are also um delivered by our social worker and school counselor they're aligned to the New York state seal standards in fourth and fifth grade the students learn about the positivity project in conjunction with the zones of Regulation and in
045sixth grade is primarily focusing on the positivity project um the younger the zones of of Regulation talks about how our feelings are valid and identifies the feelings in for colors and helps the kids understand that it's not the feelings that are bad it's something times none of our feelings are bad but sometimes the reaction that comes from those bad feelings that can then result in the being in trouble or or the son or daughter being in trouble as it were um but the families as I understand it had an opportunity those materials at a teacher night um and it's it's more appropriate for the fourth and fifth graders so that's why we're not doing zones of Regulation with their sixth graders But the teacher the counselor and the um social worker push in on a
046rotating basis so they they're with the kids twice a month next we'll talk about monthly assembly so one of the things that was apparent when I started over the summer um teachers had a desire to bring back the all School assemblies that Happ monthly and so we are doing that um this year and they've been a highlight of of the school year for sure um so what we do is we focus on coup of the character traits I'll usually teach a new lesson and have some movement breaks in there um we do the K pledge and our announcements all together and then Roman are you still awake back there how do we end our assemblies what do we do at the end of our assembly before backass remember I CAU off we do a freeze
047dance at the end all our assem maybe Rowan doesn't like I've seen like he does I just put him on the spot um so those have been great our third grade just um so I took over the first five our third grade teachers and students just put on the last one on Friday and it was incredible they focused on perseverance and they brought the um girls soccer team from the high school over and they played We Are the Champions when they walked in and um they taught our little kids the marcelis alma Mo and me because I didn't know it um and it was awesome our kids thought that they were rock stars and it really was a great yeah that's great um we have quarterly P2 Awards ceremonies um that kind of are in
048conjunction with the academic assembly that we have quarterly this is with the help of with ptta um students are nominated by their teachers and awarded um a breakfast really put on by the PTA before school um it is I know we messed up the parking lot last time because it is such a huge event for our families and for kids um we we will be more mindful at parking next um but the the P2 award breakfast um really highlights the kids who have worked on those character treats that we're highlighting for the quarter and then the next day at the academic assembly our sixth graders received honor rooll and high honor rooll Awards and we bring the whole school together to celebrate those Scholars um they really stand um as you know some exemplars that
049our younger kids can achieve should they keep their keep their with about them and and work hard um the P2 awardees are then at that assembly theori are then again announced so that their peers can celebrate their hard work and efforts too we also do the positivity project Awards in our monthly assembly um so I as teachers to nominate two students per class and I also ask them to tell me why and then the students get the award I do a personalized parent Square to the parents because our parents do not come to the monthly assemblies but I want that connection to be made that we're celebrating you know these qualities in the kids and so I send a message to let parents know that celebrated them and this is a l project positivity project
050Bates um students work on projects that are related to the pro positivity project and given oral presentation to this card um afterwards Mrs Hub Awards some of the badge and they can collect all4 badges um and those badges represent the specific character trait and then once the student receives a badge they have their phot taken and are displayed on so next is Mustang spark um I'll be really brief about this but this is um a robust after school programming opportunity for our students um what this is in a nutshell is we put out all calls to staff at kch parents at kch and then the larger marcelis Community um asking if anyone has any special skills talents hobbies that they would like to share and teach our about and so this is going to run
051for five weeks so kids will have I think we have 23 offerings it's about to be released to parents next week um we sign up starting on March 27th with the hope that we're going to run like four or five of these sessions next year so just one session but there will be like four or five five we sessions next year and we have things like archery there's a tailor Swift literature club uh Barnyard babies they're going to have you incubate eggs there's art clubs there's all sorts of opportunities it really is quite incredible and I'm I'm excited to release it to our kids and see how it goes so I'm sure we'll have more to report on that and some of the DMS teachers actually answered that call I think so I'm really looking
052forward to working with foren and hope that we can do something like that at DMS too it's um I'm I'm watching carefully I hope it's successful and I hope it's something that we can easily launch it at DMS as well um a couple of other um extracurricular opportunities we have this Friday we have a sixth grade um dance where we'll feature a bad Mitten tournament arts and crafts and refreshments um the event is made possible with help with some here volunteers so we always appreciate that um we offer a click after school session once a week for students who it's on a voluntary sign up basis can use a little bit of extra work academically they've got some teachers support in that um in that after school session uh also our sixth graders are preparing
053to launch their play and high school students take a pivotal role in that me again Ryan um I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out the high schoolers reached out to me at work and asked if they could come to sixth grade lunch and present the play and then have the students sign up for that and my understanding is that those seniors mostly seniors with some under class who work with the sixth graders to produce this play direct display they really have their hands on this um so it's a really nice reach back for the 12th graders to work with the sixth graders and those comments when the kids walked in the building um the high schoolers it was so fun they were like wow is that always been small in here you
054know it's it's really nice and I I know we're just launching that um and uh and I'm looking forward to seeing that play out as well community service projects this is just to highlight you know we try and get our kids thinking outside of just themselves and our building a cas there's been a couple things that we've done this year and we'll continue to to be thoughtful about this as we go forward um we did the kch Super Bowl where they brought in canned goods and they could put it on on either side of the atrium there um I I will say that the Eagles did win at kch and thankfully they wanted Super Bowl too um we did Halloween candy donations and we donated almost 500 pounds of candy which shocked me that these
055kids came in so willing to just give their Halloween candy away so that's quite touching um and we Earth Day coming up which our third graders will walk down into town and pick up some trash and help the chamber um we are planning an entra cleanup and Community dinner with our sixth graders um the uh sixth grade team is just going to get in there and break they'll be guided by Ryan in break and help clean that up so that cross country team that path um and and be safe doing so um and then the community dinner I understand for sixth grade is a huge event a community event and it helps our sixth graders grow in compassion and learning how to put something like this and then I just wanted to highlight some of
056the extracurricular things that our students have experiences with um obviously field days is a historic event at kch and so we're well underway planning that and then some just field trips that really highlight our extended student experience outside of our classrooms um we have the planetarium coming on Wednesday um we have first graders going to hospital land we have Warrior Factory field trips that build in so lots of opportunities for our students to go on field trips and that is um fully supported by the casc and I think these are some pretty Hallmark trips here too Camp to L our sixth graders the Olympics that are put on with our sixth graders um fourth grade is planning on going to the one room Schoolhouse in the ER Canal again the wax museum put on by
057the fifth graders um and we are always looking for opportunities to get the kids outside and learn um and also all of the classes will take field trips at the end of the year to celebrate their learning and I know some of them are kind of reimagining what that might look like I'm going to do the last three all together these are just examples the must day March is what we did at homecoming with our kindergarteners and our seniors um we have third graders doing announcements with me and Day this year and if you come by kch at arrival or dismissal we are having a full-on dance party um so come by and check us out help with arrival and dismissal um but these three things are just examples of ways that we're trying to
058be intentional about getting our kids excited connected and and really jazzed to to be yeah I walked up after I heard about that I walked up on Friday and they literally are dancing out it was so cute to see um we have hi am am announcements that are uh posted on the Google meets so the kids come into my office and they're kind of on camera I believe it's worked through all of the grades right now we're on fourth grade and they are so much fun to work with um it's student L um they read all of the announcements that they're comfortable reading some of them are a little bit less comfortable but there's always there're always brave ones out there um we do highlight in this the positivity project trade of the week um
059in each morning one morning it explains the terms in a friendly way but in a student friendly way but then throughout the week we discuss what the trait looks like in action why it matters synonyms for the trait and the daily CH Challenge and then at the end of the week There's a quote that captures the essence of the character tree it's so fun to have the kids come into the office like that to to do that I think it really builds a nice sense of community for the four thank you awesome just honestly like when you think about the last meeting we had Stephanie Rice and Brian cie present on what's happening at 78 and 912 um and then you know Kathy and Lauren just kudos to all of the work they have taken
060that Journey with me and with our strategic plan and without our outstanding leadership in our buildings all of this would not be happening to the level that it is and so hopefully you feel the cohesion as as parents in the district you're feeling that cohesion but that's our goal that we are bringing um you know that cohesion across the district and all of this work heading back to where goren uh and Kathleen started that Collective teacher efficacy all that we're doing is really an efficacy for all everybody in this District um so just kudos to both of you thank you so much thank you so much for all that you do okay we will move on to item number four residents comments public expression at the Board of Education meetings is encouraged and a specific
061portion of the agenda shall provide for this privilege in most instances the board shall Reserve judgment regarding questions and concerns that are brought to the 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 they are most appropriately addressed by the superintendent of schools or persons Des 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 item number five and no comments on we're not doing that anymore right okay um item number five business approval of the marcelis Central School District 20 2025 26 school year
062calendar resolved that the Board of Education approves the Marcela Central School District 2025 206 school year calendar can I have a motion second second Justin questions or comments before we vote so just a little bit of context about the calendar so um our Marcel's faculty Association um contract um keeps our the days that teachers are allowed to work in the district at 185 so um when I when we work to develop this calendar there there are many things that we're thinking about first off is I use the ocm Bose calendar because um you know that we I have to be cognizant of when bis is is open and when when they're not um in addition to that I also have to be cognizant of our contract um and so um what I did with this
063calendar is I built in a few extra days and I and just to give you um sort of what's happening right now we have one snow day left and I'm hoping my fingers are crossed I I hope the sun just keeps shining from now until the end of March even April let's face it sometimes we we can have tricky weather then but so this year I have built in um additional days so I have really two additional days built in um one of the reasons for this is you may remember that the governor passed the high heat bill um and so that's something that we starting in in the 25 26 school year um that is something we're going to have to be very cognizant of and there could be a time in June where
064again it's not law until September but there could be a time in June of of 2026 where the temperature is going to be so high that I'll have to use a closed day so I have built in um extra days next year and if by chance we have a mild thinner and we don't use them what I would do is uh in order again to meet the teachers contract of 185 um I would um likely give some days back around the Memorial Day holiday next year um but that will be a time decision based on what's what's happened so um I think there are a lot of schools that are surprised that they use so many days and I know some schools are chopping off April Break um because they have theyve used even more
065than we have so um again I'll I'll be careful not to do that we have a plan if by chance we used two more snow days we do have a plan in place that we'll communicate um if if we need to but this calendar um really follows the Bose calendar and um again with some extra built-in days in case of e more emergency closures any other questions or comments before we vote all those in favor opposed carried moving on to item 5.2 approval of gift proposal to Marcela Central School District resolved that the Board of Education approves the gift proposal from Sunni Portland teacher immersion program and the amount of a approximately $1,000 to the rean helping fund and I have a motion second any questions or comments so I do want to just give
066a huge shout out to Cara Lu so Cara has been in a partnership with Sunni Portland um and students who are um future teachers and Future Special education teachers and she's been doing this for several years um it's a lot of time and effort and she does an excellent job partnering these immersion students with um our special ed teachers um honestly it's benefited us to some extent because we've pulled some of those teachers into the district the ones that we're able to to sort of take a look at ahead of time um but Sunni Portland has um this is really funds that they would give to our teachers for doing this and our teachers said take that money and put it right in the Reagan fund for our students so um thank you cara but
067thank you to all of our teachers who post these immersion students um and and want to give back to the district to support our students thank you thank you Ken any other questions or comments all those in favor opposed carried item 5 three first reading of board policy resolve that the Board of Education approves the first reading of the following board policies you can see that there on the board docs policy 1210 Board of Education nomination and election can I have a motion Amy second Erica questions are coming this is for our student so um as you know we are gon um again govern H signed into law that every District needs to have H A student board member so that will officially commence July of 20125 so um we just need to ensure that
068our policy you know is in line with that and um if you remember the student board member uh they don't vote they don't attend executive sessions um but they certainly can engage in discussion they um can give that perspective of you know that student experience that they live um we have developed a process that we will be unfolding um soon in the next two weeks and um we're looking at 11th uh well it'll be current 10th or 11th graders who will be 11th and 12th graders next year um there will be an application process an interview process um and then we will make a selection of of one student to serve on that board and it will be a year-to-year basis uh honestly it's great experience for students to go through just the process of
069applying and getting references and having to um do interviews um so I think you know overall it's going to be a great process this what what's in this um policy is simply really just to update to make sure that it aligns with what we have to do yeah I'm excited about it I think it'll be a real asset for for the that we do so all right all those in favor opposed carried moving on to item six Personnel approval of personnel items resolve that the Board of Education approves the following Personnel items you can see them listed before you 6.1 through 6.7 can I have a motion Erica second Justin questions or comments before we vote about any of those items there I just want to give a shout out to Teresa Clark MC and
070she is just a beloved member of kch and you know she's the type of individual that steps up you to whatever the need is she will step up and fulfill the need and talk about ethic teacher ethicacy um she is just a a testament to to that um so we are we are sad to lose her but um excited for her to have that next adventure and you'll see that she um put her name on to sub so um we're grateful that that she's willing to do that congratulations to her for sure any other questions or comments any of those items no all those in favor opposed carried okay moving on to item number seven consent agenda approval of consent agenda resolve that the Board of Education approves the following consent AG agenda items you
071can see them listed before you 7.1 through 7.5 can I have a motion motion just just second questions or comments about any of those items before we vote all those in favor opposed carried moving on to number eight informational items so Tony is g to cover tax exemptions but I do want to just mention um publicly if there is anyone interested in becoming a board member um they can get the board applications from District Kirk um Cen oi those are due April 21st by 5:00 pm I think Monday April 21st by 5:00 pm um so just if there is anybody and then Tony is going to cover just very briefly the tax exemptions that we've been talking about um he'll give you sort of an overview of recommendation uh so I spent some time with
072Don last Friday he and I sat down together to make sure that I understood fully the information he presented to you folks uh it was quite quite a while ago about three months yeah yeah it was yeah so um and so we recognize that this is a it's a difficult decision to make to be placed upon a board to make uh to decide what you might want to do with these exemptions that are available to folks so uh be C with you there was really um Let me let me start with veterans exemptions uh so this is going all the way back to the time when these exemptions were first made available uh that there was an informal poll T taken locally by one of our board members at the the PFW and it was
073unanimous amongst the folks that were there with this informal poll that we really really AR interested in this exemption for ourselves uh we didn't they didn't feel at least for this particular group that they entered this service to you know in effect pass their tax burden off to the residents of the district so um so we are recommending that we do not change the current exemption that are offered to Veterans uh for volunteer firefighters um this is H so this this exemption and the senior citizens and disabled U exemptions were essentially aligning with the districts that have already entertained a change in exemptions that would be Liverpool bville West Hill and West gennessee so we're aligning with all of those districts with the exception of West gennessee who uh their board opted to face in
074the exemptions they do have the the intention as they say here to increase the maximum permissible income thresholds uh the other three districts that I mentioned went straight to what we have up here on the screen and then in addition to that that the IRA distributions that folks uh take so say an individual their their income that they're reporting on their tax return is $40,000 a year that would make them eligible for reduction in their assessment U but they also draw draw a million dollars from their Ira that that year you have to say specifically or explicitly that that withdraw counts towards the income uh income threshold so so we are recommending that distributions do be counted as income uh you can see the impact here for each of them it's relatively minimal um the
075senior citizens and disabled is already in existence you're just increasing the the thresholds income thresholds that would make folks eligible and um so if you're uh if you'd like to move forward with a public hearing at that point you're still not committing the public hearing is an opportunity for uh you folks to actually sit in the audience if you choose or you can sit up here if you like but for the residents of the community to attend the meeting and it's unlike a board meeting where residents aren't really participants at a public hearing they are so they're permitted to speak ask questions and things of that nature at that point it's not really the board's meeting it's the Public's meeting so we'd hold that public hearing and um and after that hearing takes place if
076there is additional information that's shared with the board that might influence your decision on which way you might go here uh that's that's the time that you uh receive that information so that when it does come time to pass a resolution um you know the public has had an opportunity to participate so so when that uh resolution would come to you just it just needs to come to you by uh next February so there's really no reason to wait if you had do make a decision we could could entertain a resolution as soon as April 7th so I think really it's just getting a gauge on do we want to move forward and it's really the next board meeting we would hold that hearing first and then move on to the board meeting um if
077if we want to move forward with that public hearing just to get a sense of um you know what people think and how they feel about it I think the public hearing would be helpful you know I think we you I think it'd be really important to hear um you know from our community members what their thoughts um and feelings are about this and then you know have as much information as we can so we're all in agreement that we'll move forward with public hearing any other questions or comments about this before we okay is that it for informational items okay all right at this time we will adjourn the meeting I resolve that the Board of Education meeting be adjourned can I have a motion Amy second Erica all those in favor