0016 o' we are going to start our meeting. >> Audience >> guys meeting. >> We're starting our meeting please. Thank you. All right. So meeting called to order. Let the record show that just Miss Taber is absent. The rest of the board meeting members are in attendance. Please stand, move your cap, and join us for the >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Katie. Did we have any changes to the agenda? >> Um, the only change was to the date for the return of the unpaid um employee. Number eight on consent agenda, we're changing it from December 15th to December 1st. Anyone have any questions on the agenda?
002Not. Could we move it? >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I >> opposed. Abstained. Motion passes. All right. We are very excited to have some foreign language trip presentations. Pardon us while we rearrange for just a moment. >> German starting. All right. We're so excited tonight to have our trip presentation. So, German students, if you would like to come up, you're going to start us up. [snorts] >> And can I use that up if I need to? >> Yep, there's a there. >> Okay. >> All right. So, um this is the group that went to Germany. There were about 25 students. Um, most of us are here. I'm missing just a couple. I'm missing four because they were seniors and they're going to go through it. I'm going to be
003standing here, guys, and you just walk out when it's your turn. >> And they're going to tell you about their great trip they had. >> Nine, can I use this from further away? >> I think so. >> I can stand over there and then when I see their >> Y, it should work. [laughter] I never use this so I >> and and that moves it. [laughter] >> Okay, you ready, Brena? And if I mess up with this, we'll we'll be okay. Go ahead, honey. >> Uh, hi, I'm Brena. I am in 10th grade German, and we will be talking about our German trip that we took in April. Uh, we were on the trip April 11th through April 27th. We did lots of fundraising for this trip. It was about $40,000. >> Four,000. >> Maybe
004only have a quarter. >> You really [laughter] fundra. >> It was expensive. >> Uh we did lots of fundraisers and uh one of my favorite fundraisers was the German dinner, but we also did the bottle can drive, the Grinch breakfast, lots of concessions, bake sales. Uh this was the day that we left. We made a giant sign. There's all us working on it. Uh I was one of the ones that did the countdown before we left. Uh which was really fun, even if I did forget some days. But uh this was the Buffalo airport. It was my first time flying uh and first time in the airport. So it was really nerve-wracking, but also really fun, especially with the people we had. There we go. Uh, this was the Detroit airport. Uh, we were in
005at the Detroit airport for a layover for about 6 hours. Really long layover, but it was worth it cuz then we didn't get delayed with the trip. Uh, Blake, Roger, and Dylan got these cards from the pilots. Uh, they walked up to different Delta airplane pilots and collect them, which was really cool. Uh, the Detroit airport was basically like like a giant mall. It was huge. >> Okay, Rudy time. >> Hi, I'm Ashley Osborne >> and I'm Lily Edwin and we are both in 10th grade. Um, this was our group for our trip. This is our first stop in Rudah. We saw a lot of different historical architecture. We saw the near bank vault, the mouse tower, we saw great vineyards. We went on something called the zeston and yeah, it was a very beautiful
006place. Um, Rudahim was a really nice walkable place to start off our trip. Um, one of the first one of the first things we visited museum wise was a musical instrument museum. And it had all sorts of really cool musical contraptions that were all kind of like giant music boxes. A lot of students took home small ones and it was really neat. Bangitzel is a pastry that Rudime is known for. I personally didn't get one, but I heard that they were really tasty. Spaghetti ice was also is also really popular in Rudahheim. A lot of people tried that and that was definitely a fan favorite for all >> over and over. They tried. want me to go. >> So, this was our group. We spent a lot of time together while in Germany. We had
007meals together. We all went to a lot of the similar places. We all stayed in the same places, obviously. Um, and overall, this was just a really good group to do Germany. We had all of our breakfast and dinners together in the Grunin Crowns, which is where we stayed, and it was kind of like a guest house. We went for like boat tours. It was really cool cuz Rudtown is right on the Ryan River. So, we were able to see so much of the old architecture from the water, see all of the hills, the valleys, all of that stuff, all of the like vineyards that were on like crazily steep hillsides. And it was it was really cool. >> We also went on a bike ride in the Ryan River. Um we did have some
008bike trouble. >> Always at least one poor person gets a bad bike and this year it was Brena. [laughter] She had the bike problem. Go ahead. >> Overall the bike ride was very fun. We went into the Ryan River actually. Um, and on the bike ride, we got to see a lot of like amazing views and just so many amazing things in Resan. >> And Rutan was just an awesome way to start off our trip. A nice small town. And I'm excited for everyone else to tell you about the rest of the trip. [snorts] >> I'm Maddie. And I'm Sienna. And we're both in 12th grade. We're going to talk about youth host. And our first stop was the Gruning Craws like they mentioned. And this is a little bit different than youth host because
009it's more of like a guest house style which could be compared to like a hotel here. And that was probably my favorite place we stayed because it was so different from a typical youth hostel. And we had breakfast and lunches and dinners all together. And it was just a really cool experience to be able to stay there. >> And all the rooms in the guest house were different from each other. So none of us had the same room. Me and S room together. We had to like squat down to shower. The boys were on their knees to shower because all the showers were really low down. Um and then the rest of the trip we stayed in youth host which [clears throat] are like hotels for kids and people with families. They're very family friendly.
010They have a lot of stuff to do, a lot of places to sleep, and they're a very affordable option, which is what makes us be able to go on the trip because we don't pay a lot of money to go to stay at these places. Some more of these hosts we stayed at were these two were more modern. This one was in Berlin and this one was in Munich. And the one in Berlin was an old school that got renovated, which was pretty cool to experience. >> The one in Selzburg was an old school as well. A lot of the buildings are repurposed to be apostles. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Hi. Um, I'm Leah and I'm in German 10 and I'm going to be talking about Rotenberg. So Rotenberg was a day trip we
011took after Rudy. And a fun fact about Rotenberg is that it is the only medieval town that still has the complete uh wall around it. Um in Rotenberg there [clears throat] it's all cobblestone. It's very medieval. And so that's kind of the street with the cafe outside of it. And then you could go up into the house which is like a courthouse I think. Um, you could go up all the stairs and look at the town on top of it. >> Many stairs, right? >> Lots of stairs. Yeah. >> Oh, it would jump. My fault. >> And in Roenberg, there's a Christmas store where it's like three levels of just Christmas decorations and some like German Christmas history. And in Roenberg, there's the like a dessert called a ball. It's right there. [laughter] >> Um,
012yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, Fusion. >> Hi, I'm Zoe. I'm in 11th [clears throat] grade. Um, this was our second third second stop. Um, this is the night where Fra treated us to spaghetti ice. That's what they call their ice cream in Germany. And it's like all like homemade. Um, this is the zukitza. you. We all took a gondola up and it like went above the clouds. It was on the border of Austria and Germany and it's the highest mountain in Germany. Um, this is Lewig II's uh father's castle where he grew up and it's the second castle we went to. Um, this was Norse Funstein. Um, we took a windy road up to it on a bus and then you could either go two ways to the [clears throat] first way was to the
013bridge where Mitchell and Blake are standing and the other way was to Norfstein where we got a tour of the castle. Uh, this is the Ver Kursa. It's a pilgrimage church and um it's a rooko church which is a type of religion in Germany and you could like write letters to your loved ones [clears throat] who were ill to like ask God to like help them get better. Um this is Linderho. It's the first it's his only finished castle and the fountain is all based on water pressure. And then this is the cave where he spent all of his um like personal like time in the like for his personal stuff. Uh this is her Kim. Um it's the longest and biggest castle we went to. Uh it has like a huge garden in the
014front and fountains. And it was all finished in the beginning of the tour, but when you got to the end there was like a grand entry that wasn't finished. And it was like all plank boards. >> Most of his castles weren't famous living. >> And we're to Saltsburg. >> Hi, I'm Payton. I'm in 10th grade German. >> I'm Connor and I'm also in 10th grade German. So, this is Salsburg and these are the famous pretzels which were the first thing we ate when we got there. And a ton of different flavors and they were really, really good when they were warm. They're also like the size of your head [laughter] >> or bigger. >> Yeah. >> So, this is our view of Salsburg from the fortress. And then that's the main river that ran through.
015We had to cross over every time we wanted to go somewhere. Uh this is the cart we rode up to get to the top of it. And then this is all of us along the staircase of the fortress. Then this is the So these are the trick gardens. So pretty much >> pretty much [clears throat] everywhere is some sort of hidden fountain that'll spray you with water. >> Everybody got wet at that fountain besides her [laughter] brow >> because why toe doesn't work. >> She knows. >> I knew they said come sit. And nobody would go. And I said, "Oh, come on." And I know where to sit that doesn't get wet. So I sat down and they all sat down with me and I went, "Yes." Okay. [laughter] And it was a warm day
016though, right guys? It was It was good. Go ahead. And then so this is the zoo. So there was a bunch of different animals there. >> And then this is one of the Sound of Music things. And Roger is proposing to Blake. [laughter] >> So this was the um salt mines up here underground. We crossed the border between Ger Germany and Austria. And then this is the like a little train that we took underground to get from outside of the salt mine inside. This was our view from outside of the salt mine. See all of us standing there? This was Fra, Justin, and Miss Ellsworth going down one of the slides. They're made out of wood, so we wear the white protective gear and we slide down. And then this was Brian. It was super
017salty. This was the sound of Saltsburg dinner theater. So, all of us are eating dinner up here. Some of us had pork, some of us had schnitle. Blake is dancing with one of the dancers. This was a picture of us outside of the dinner theater. And then up here, I had one of the actors come and sing to me. And then Mr. Osborne actually got brought up to the dance floor and was >> he provided much entertainment that night, didn't he? >> Okay, >> this is Ho and Barin. You can see the boys. They're on stilts. This is one of the um castles we went to. This is the falcon show. There was a lot of cool birds that we saw. This was actually on Easter, so there was a lot of different activities going
018on. We were given hard-boiled eggs by our tour guide. He was in a bunny costume, so that was pretty interesting. And then that's just us waiting for the falcon show to start. That's it. Um, so these are the rallies. So every place that we went, FRA would give us a packet of questions that we could answer and we would answer them just kind of as a way for us to keep track of like all the things that we were learning just because it was an educational trip. >> Yeah, spent her own money on these. And if you had the most points for the questions, you were able to pick a fun prize and have a cool souvenir. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And look what we start with. Yes. Okay. Look, Roger can't even wait
019to talk about this. >> Go ahead. >> I'm Dylan. I'm Roger. Uh when we went to Munich, we went to Alian Serena, which was my favorite part of the trip. [laughter] Uh I've been looking forward to that very much. Wanted to see. We got to go into the locker room. We got to take a tour of the whole stadium. Go I mean field level. We didn't get to go on the field, but um there's just really cool stuff there. a whole museum with um Bayern Munich's history in it. So, I thought that was very interesting. >> And they helped the German economy at that store. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. [laughter] >> Uh we went to dock out, which is a concentration camp uh in World War II. Uh this is like the bunk beds
020they had to sleep in. Uh this is like a representation [snorts] of like death and like all the skeletons and stuff. Here's [snorts] like arbite mocked fry which means work will make you >> work makes you free which it really didn't. It just died anyways. And here's [clears throat] the like church thing. [snorts] Um this is the Olympic stadium we went on. We got to walk on the roof of it and it was that was one of my most favorite part was walking on the roof of the Olympic stadium >> and we brought him back. That's good. [snorts] He was hooked to the rail. That's [laughter] good. >> This is some of the free time activities of like just things we did in our groups and stuff. We got to go to like the hunting
021museum which was pretty awesome. This was the BMW BMW museum. Um, we got ice cream a bunch of other times. Another car picture. Legos. And then >> that was the clock tower. >> The clock and steel. The clock and >> that was pretty cool, too. We got to watch that live. That was awesome. [snorts] [laughter] >> We went to another castle. This one was very big. Um, it's supposed to replicate Versailles, I think. Something like that. >> Not this one. But that's okay. Keep going. This is where Ludvig was born. Go ahead. >> There was a bunch of carriages >> and stuffed horses. >> Stuffed horses. >> And look, Leah's shocked. A stuffed horse. [laughter] >> And there were swans. >> Yeah, a lot of swans. >> Remember the swan? But it was very interesting
022because it's literally like what you see in movies and you saw it in real life. [snorts] [laughter] >> Okay, Bruin. >> Hi, I'm Jenna. >> I'm Taylor. >> And we're both in 10th grade. Um, this was the [clears throat] Berlin Wall like east side gallery where we had a bunch of different artists that came and they painted murals all over it to like depict how life was on the occupied side of Berlin. And you can see the trolleys that they had where [clears throat] those were the only cars they could get and the different ways they tried escaping. And we can see when the border finally opened all the people rushing out because of how bad it really was on the occupied side. Um we went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum where we got to
023see different ways on how the people on the occupied side tried to escape. They would carve out pieces in cars and try and hide in them when they would cross over or like mail them or hide in boxes. [clears throat] And we got to see like the checkpoint too, like the brick wall place where it actually was the checkpoint. It was really cool. And then we got to see a car from like 2021 I think from Ukrainian war of like all the gunshots and everything. We got to see Korean war camp stuff. Like it was just really interesting. And then this is the Fern. It was like a really really tall tower. We had to climb a lot of stairs and then an elevator. But it was really cool because you could look over like
024Germany. You could see the whole city of like Berlin. And I did see like when we were looking at you could see people swinging from scaffolding on like the skyscrapers which is kind of scary but it was cool and it [clears throat] was just a really cool experience. >> Also earlier that day we got to see two different churches. the first church on the bottom. On the outside, it had a bunch of detailed architecture and it had a gold clock on the front with bunch of windows. And then when we went into the inside, it was immediately covered the ceilings in a bunch of different detailed illustrations. And also inside there was a display of what the church actually looks like and it was really cool. And the walls were surrounded with a bunch of
025different like miniature statues. And then the second church that we went to, it was originally bombed after World War II, so it was rebuilt and the outside is completely concrete, but on the inside there's a bunch of blue tiles. And then in the middle near the front there's a statue of Jesus. And when we went inside, we sat in the chairs and we got to take a bunch of photos. Then we went to the Berlin Zoo. The Berlin Zoo is very big and it had almost over 14,000 animals. So there was a bunch of different animals we got to see like pandas, turtles, giraffes, capabaras, elephants, and we also got to see a bunch of sea animals. And at some point it got very confusing because we didn't know where we were going since it
026was so big. But thankfully there was a bunch of maps to guide us. [clears throat] Then finally, the last thing we did before we left Germany is we got to watch the Blue Man Group. And I don't know if anyone has watched the Blue Man Group, but it's a very chaotic show and it was really fun because we got to sit in a splash zone. So, a bunch of us got wet and there was a bunch of paint on us. We also got toilet paper thrown on us. Fra got jelly thrown at her [laughter] >> on my chest. >> And it was just really fun. It was also very comedic because in the Blue Man group, the Blue Man, they don't have any facial expression and they don't talk the entire show. So, it's just
027a bunch of comedy and I thought it was really fun and I think universally everyone would agree that it was a really great show. And then at the end of the show, it was cool because we got to go down and we got to take a bunch of photos with them. [laughter] >> Leaving Germany, it didn't even feel real. It felt like a fever dream. Um, just was crazy. We all got so used to being in Germany. I was super sick getting there and like I got I just got used to being there. Felt so much better. Um [laughter] these are the airports we went to. >> Yeah, the trip home was a little crazy. >> Yeah. >> Anything else to say? >> Uh >> I don't know. >> Thank [laughter] you. >> Thank you.
028Thank you. >> Of course. Wait, wait, wait. You guys, before you go, can I ask one question? >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Okay. So, I look at all these awesome things that you did, right, as a group, and you miss a lot of school to go do this trip, right? So, tell me like what do you think is important about it? Like what's a one big takeaway a couple of you have? >> It's so educational. Like when we go on these trips, it's so educational. We learned so much new things. >> I just think it's like super educational. I think it's super important to go on [laughter] especially if we're in Germany or we're in Germany. >> I definitely think the rally specifically they like the packets is not just like three questions. It's like
029a packet >> 30 plus questions and [laughter] they're in German and we like respond in German in our packets and then FRA and Mr. Stoker. They look at our packets at the end of our each city that we're in and they see what we learned. Like we are always talking about it. Mr. Stoker would always pull us aside before we went into something or saw a monument and he would tell us the history of it and why we were going to see it. And I definitely think [clears throat] that that's really important, especially when you study a language because you can study the language all you want, but if you don't understand the culture, then you're not going to >> really take anything away from it. >> I love that. One of the new things
030about like portrait of a graduate for New York State is being a global citizen. Do you think this made you a global 100% >> I think it made all of us feel >> anything else people want to share of like here's why this is so important? >> I feel like it was definitely like the memories like some of us like don't talk to each other in school and being together for 17 days like new relationships were like formed. >> Yeah. Do I have a question? What advice do you all have for younger students who want to go on this trip? Whether it be travel tips or fundraising tips or >> take a lot of medicine. >> Don't go sick. >> Or don't be sick. [laughter] >> Take the chance. >> Just do it. It's a
031once in a lifetime trip. >> Yeah. Step definitely step outside your comfort zone because, you know, you're not going to get these kind of experiences. I mean, a lot of people in their adult years, they don't get to go on trips like this. Most people, a lot of people don't even ever leave the country. So, if you can go on a 17-day long trip with all of your friends for less than $5,000 and have like the time of your life, why wouldn't you say yes [laughter] to that? And also, there's so many fundraising opportunities. So, even people who can't afford it, maybe they could, if they really work hard at it, they can fund raise their entire trip. >> For example, how many of you raise half of your trip >> or all? I mean
032half at least half at least. >> Yeah. >> But they were hard. They >> were >> question for you. I see a lot of fun pictures um and interactions amongst yourselves. What was the interactions with with the local population, local citizens? >> Oh, they were fascinating. >> Honestly, great. I talked to everybody and anybody I literally everybody and anybody practice your German? >> Yeah. >> Well, and then you met French people. You were French people. I was singing the national anthem with them. [laughter] >> Blake was like the German people's favorite American. [laughter] >> Like the the Germans were just whenever they found out that we were from America. They were just absolutely fascinated. >> They had so many questions about us about McDonald's. >> There was like 40 people talking to me at one
033time. I was like >> going to stop with so many questions. [laughter] >> All the tension. >> And they don't expect you to be able to speak German. >> They don't. They don't. They all spoke English. >> Yeah, they all do. But they have >> Even if your German wasn't perfect, they still could understand. >> Thank you, you guys. >> Thank you. >> I don't know. >> [laughter] >> We have more. We have more stories. I got my one side right [laughter] now. All right. >> Switch to English. >> Yes, [snorts] please. All right, [laughter] let's do it. So, I'm Sharon Duffy and I took some students on a wonderful, unforgettable trip to Spain last spring. And Lydia is our spokesperson. And here we have just a couple of snapshots of things you will see.
034Um, so when we first got off the bus, uh, it was a long flight. We had two flights to get there. So we drove all the way to Philadelphia and then we flew flew there and once we finally landed we took a bus all the way to Barcelona and we ended up in Park Guell which was a park designed by Antonio Gaudy and >> so you can see some all of the stuff that he made was out of tiles and these weren't tiles that he bought. They were tiles that were repurposed. So he was already recycling way back when he was around. And so it was like people's broken sinks, bathtubs, um frames, anything like that he would repurpose and use. And he was very in touch with nature and um just the earth in
035general. So a lot of his lines are like flowy. They're they're not very rigid. Um and yeah. All right. Also in Barcelona. Here we are on Las Ramblas which is the main thoroughfare for tourism for dining for hotels and much of uh the artwork is right there for everyone to see to touch. So you can see we're standing on some modern art by Han Muro and of course we had to stop at the Gothic style cathedral. someone >> in front of that cathedral. We were walking around. Um, our hotel was actually right on this road, so we could just walk out and you would immediately be immersed in shops, people, pop-up shops, a bunch of things. Um, my hotel room was actually looking over the street. So whether it was 5:00 p.m. or 2:00 in
036the morning, it was going it was always always going. There's a lot of people um people selling things. And then over here, >> I'm so sorry. I know. [laughter] Um behind So, as you can see, we're all so thrilled in the picture. Um [laughter] behind us there were native Spanish people doing um a traditional dance. So, it was kind of similar to our flamingco, which you'll see later. But they were all doing it in squares and locals would just come up and start going with each other because they all knew the dance. Everyone knew it. They just kind of joined in and it was like a whole big thing. >> Okay. [laughter] And when I say I'll go. >> Okay. Okay. Uh this is the Sigra Familia. Um kind of a famous building to people
037who know really anything about Spain. Um it's a very large building. So this is there's the front and the back which they tell the French stories. Yes. So this is a church also designed by Anthony Gaudy. Unfortunately, he was run over by a street car before he finished his project, but all of his designs were preserved. And so it has been under construction for another hundred years. They're hoping 2026 to be finished. Um but the exterior sides each tell a different story from the life of Christ. So the front is his birth and growing up and the three wise men. And the back completely different style where we see things looking more stark, more like death. And it tells about his crucifixion. And you can kind of just see these baskets of fruit that are
038on part of the roof and those are fruits that are traditional to spring. >> Um, also, so the the day that we did this, it was very hot. It supposedly was like 85. It felt more like 100. Uh, so on facing this side, on this side, there's a whole market. So there wasn't that many stores, but there were like little stuff with like water, snacks. So we spent at least like $45 on water alone. Um, and then this is the backside where we're standing. There's a huge entire sand pit. And it's not really a sand pit. It's more of just like a large area of dirt. And we all stood on it. And there's a bunch of people taking pictures, getting the nice scenery in the background. Okay. This um so this was also in
039Barcelona. This was the Barcelona football stadium. So the soccer stadium. Um obviously the famous person if you don't know is Lionel Messi. Uh he's number 10 and as you can see his jerseys right there. These are um Golden Boot awards and Golden Ball awards. These are famous awards that he's won and they have over like 50 of his jerseys. They have hundreds of jerseys throughout the entire It's like an interactive experience museum. So they have these giant pillars. Um and everything was like glass reflective and you'd walk up to a pillar and it show a player's face. You could swipe on it. You could tap on it and it'd show you stats, highlights, and it was just all on these pillars. And you walk through and there's like a maze of them. And that's us
040in front of this was a case and it spanned like the whole way and it just had a bunch of soccer balls, artifacts, all that. And we all took pictures because it was all lit up. Continuing on in Barcelona, there's uh it's sort of a miniature version of Spain. So you enter these walls and it has all of the cities of Spain. And so we went to Little Sevilla for our flamco dance class. And so you can see here is a professional flamco dancer giving us instruction. We try all the steps, put them with the clapping and the stomping. We were pretty good, right? Could have blended right into the show. They didn't ask us onto stage. I don't know. So yeah, um we started off with simple steps and it was like little steps,
041little claps and we all thought we were doing really really good and we're like oh like this is not that hard and then he's like okay next step and then we were all lost but it was like turning stepping like a lot of this just like common dance. Um then they had like wooden boards cuz I don't know if you can see but he has high heels on so whenever he'd like stomp it make a different sound than when he'd hit his toe. So it was like it was like as much as it was visual is also like audio. So we were on little wooden boards kind of simulating that as well. >> So here they are on stage but after our lesson we went inside for a performance. Our teacher was one of the
042performers and there were other dancers as well and the music is just flamco guitar singing and clapping and it was like we're right there right at this stage. It was amazing. They're making eye contact with us. There's so much drama you can hear in their singing about love, about pain. So all the emotions and we had a tapas dinner and tapas is little bites. So many plates coming out, sampling, taking a few. Everybody has their favorites. What was your favorite tapas? >> Uh there was a it was like fried chicken in a bowl or and there was that and then there's fried pork in a ball. That was really good. Um so yeah, like she said, we got to go there. Um one of the the person who taught us, he also went on. There's
043a bunch of people in the back. They're all playing guitar. They're singing and then they like take turns coming off. And our table is right here. Like that's the end of our chair. That's the stage. So they'd like flip their dress, they'd kick, and it was like right in your face, which is actually a really cool experience. And then we had an experience with tapas. So a lot of us have never had them. And it's similar to our appetizers. So it's like a little amount and then over and over. So, first they brought out these little chicken like balls and then we all ate them and we all got full and then they brought out more and then more and then more and it was like 30 plates. >> Every course you're like, "Oh, well,
044this must be the last one." >> And it's never the last one. [laughter] >> It's once you think you're all done, like they'll bring out bread, they'll bring out tortillas, everything. But yeah, so we got to try Spanish food. And when she says tortilla, she means tortilla espanola, which is not a flour pancake. It is an egg dish made with potatoes and onions, kind of like an omelette or a frittata. Still in Barcelona, there's so much to do. Um, every time you take this trip, we do a cooking workshop, but before we're ready to cook, we need to get some essential ingredients. [clears throat] And of course you everybody goes to the market every day and gets those fresh ingredients, but our guide helped us to know which are the stands and taste a few
045things and make some decisions about what we should get. So when you first walk in, it's honestly a really overwhelming sense because there's fish markets. So you have all that smell right next to meat, right next to like spices, next to fruit. So it's a lot at once. It's very like in your face. Everything's right there. There's a bunch of people. It's like single file. Um, but yeah, we got to try in the middle picture. We're trying. It's kind of like a fudge. So, there's was an almond fudge. It just has a little bit of a sweeter and like denser consistency. It's called >> ton. And up top we're sampling ham. And maybe you have heard of srano ham, but we went for the hamon eerico. And you know you're having hamon e i e
046i e i e i e i e i e i e i e i e iico because the hams that are hanging have the black hoof. And [clears throat] you see the um there's an acorn hanging and they live in a wild area where there are oak trees and they eat just acorns and it makes it very lean, very tasty, very healthy for you. So yeah. Um, a lot of us were a little nervous about trying all the foods cuz obviously very different from what we have. But I mean, the ones that we tried, we all actually ended up really liking a few people, especially the fudge. Um, I know a lot of us brought stuff home. [clears throat] So, um, two people on our tree on our trip, Kayla, I know she brought stuff
047home and I think, um, another kid, Aiden, did as well. And then this was our cooking class. So we got the stuff from the um market and then we walked through the rust lab rash street went up um into like an apartment style cooking area and we all got assigned different tasks and they handed us these fancy aprons and they was like okay this is like your task getting harder. So me and Kayla we were making a squash soup. So, we had to peel them, we had to cut them, and then we'd pass it off, and then they'd mush them. Some people were making a virgin sangria. Um, we also made crema katala. This is our paella we made. So, that was like our main big dish. So, that had like a bunch of meat,
048a bunch of vegetables. That was big thing we did. Um here actually we'll go here. This is the crema katalana. So um the person here Aiden he made the main part of it and then in this jar here there is sugar and you put the sugar over the mixture and then you use a blowtorrch and you harden it so it like solidifies and then to eat it you get a spoon and you crack the top. >> Mhm. Yeah. And then over here, this is our picture like celebrating all of our hard work making our meal that we were actually really proud of. Um, so we had the Virgin sangria, which also had fruit on the top. It was really good. We like finished the whole all of it. [laughter] And we had soup. A lot
049of people didn't like the soup. I thought it was really good. >> I ate every bite of it, but it was wonderful. >> Um, [clears throat] and then in the soup, we all had different flowers that we could put on it. And the flowers really didn't do anything, but they're mainly there for looks. And then there's tortilla, which like she said is not what we think of a tortilla. It's like egg. It's kind of actually more like a breakfast thing. And then there's a tomato bread thing. So it's bread and then you put garlic and tomato on it. That's just very common eat. >> On to Valencia. which is also on the west coast of Spain. >> Yeah, Valencia was my favorite place of the trip. Um I think that was the best part of
050the trip. But so if you think of our courthouse in Marion, it's kind of simple. Uh so this is the courthouse in Spain. It has like that's like the main part. There's flags, there's paintings, there archways. Everything's covered in gold. Everything's big. Like there's the chandelier. This is also still in the courthouse. Um there's just a balcony up there. Very fancy, very outlandish, I guess. Um and they even have like a really big balcony. This is me and Kayla on the balcony looking up at um just there's a sign that says the courthouse and then that's still like fancy stuff in the back. I don't know what it's called. Okay. So, one of the big festivals in the spring is Las Fias. And it started out that each block, each square, they would say, "Oh,
051this is all scrap wood, straw, paper, and they would burn it up." And somebody said, "But wait, we could make a big float out of it first and have a contest who has the best float statue, and then we'll burn the losers." So, [laughter] here we have the winners. They are enormous. They look a lot fancier, right? They don't look like scraps anymore, >> but still a point of pride for each neighborhood. So, like none of us even expected any of these to be in this room. So, usually we walked in, Miss Duffy really didn't tell us what was happening. Kind of keeping it a surprise. We walk in and it's like it's overwhelming, but honestly, in a really cool way. So, you walk in and everything's on wheels cuz they have to be able
052to move. And they're giant, like probably two or three times the height of the ceiling. Like they're very big. And they have a little square in them. And as you can see, Olivia's next to them. And normally people would put their heads in it and then like wear it. And they were really heavy. None of us really know how they would do that. Also signature item to see in Valencia is the Yadro factory. And so we they make porcelain very precious porcelain and they some of them are molded but some of them are handcarved. They we went into where they are crafting each piece and everybody had a role but we couldn't take any pictures because it's you know trade secrets. [laughter] Yeah. So when we got there um we all got to sit in
053this room. It was kind of a small room and they just talked about the procedure how everything's done and the importance of like how it is. And people collect these people like use them in their houses like they're very popular. So after that, we went into a whole workshop. It was pretty big. It was kind of like a long strip and it went down the process. So there's certain people with very specific jobs. So some people are only the sanders. Like all you're doing 9 to 5 every single day is just sanding. And then other people are flower sculptors. So they sculpt porcelain like by hand. And a lot of them are for flowers. And they make like three flowers in a day. So it takes a long time. And the one that me and
054Aiden are standing next to that is a peacock and it was around like $13,000. Like it was a lot. Um and they all had different themes. So like this was dog and candy. So they were all dogs and candy. Um there [laughter] was there was Star Wars, there's Disney. Um and they also had like little characters and we were all like, "Oh, this is great." Like maybe they have like little ones to buy. Even like smaller than my hand was a few hundred. So not many souvenirs from there. >> Right. Continuing on in Valencia. This is the city of arts and sciences. >> Yeah. So um this was a really big actually really amazing place to go to. So it was obviously what she said it was arts and sciences. The first part of it
055was the ocean ocean oceanographic. Um, it was a very big like aquarium. So, you walk in and there's like an outer ring that you can walk on and then there's like an escalator down. But the whole entire center is a big aquarium. There's sharks, stingrays, honestly really any like whales. >> There's there's some like random animals that like our aquariums would never have. Um, and then there's multiple like that is like one building and it goes lower, too. And then there's a bunch of them and they're all a lot of them are connected. So, we got to walk on a walkway and over top of us was the aquarium. So, you like would look around and there's beach sharks around you. Um, and then there was they also had a bunch of jellyfish, which we
056thought were really cool cuz I feel like a lot of ours places don't have them. Then it was also kind of like a zoo. So there was um otter were like a really good thing. Otter, sea lions, there were a bunch of turtles and then this was a like a I don't know it was just like a large green area and it was there's seeds all around it. So we got to sit there and enjoy the nice weather cuz this day was about 85 degrees as well. very great weather and there's on these sides there's stray cats and they just live there and we all were kind of scared because we're like oh no what if the cats get hurt or something but the town actually takes care of them so the town acknowledged that
057there's stray cats like living around here and they were just like oh a lot of them had boxes food water and they actually were pretty friendly >> but you had [snorts] to speak Spanish to them they actually didn't respond to any But if you spoke Spanish, they would look at you. [laughter] >> All right, on to Madrid. And we started at Retiro Park. Getting lots of fresh air on this trip. And in Retro Park, they have a crystal palace. They have the love fountain. Did you make a wish? >> I did. >> Did not come true. >> We're waiting. >> Did you walk three times? >> I did. So, yeah. [laughter] So, basically, there's a fountain. It was in a rose garden and it's believed that if you walk around it three times and you
058make a wish and your wish of love will come true. So, a lot of us did it. Don't know how great it worked out, but you know, we all did it. [clears throat] And then there's a pond here and we also did these boats. So, yeah. Wait. Oh, more. Yeah. Okay. [laughter] So, standing up in the boat. So, um, the boats were honestly kind of rocky. Uh, we gave the job of paddling to someone on our trip named Aiden. He was our paddler. And then we were on the outside and halfway through he decided to stand up and we all almost fell in. So, that was honestly a really fun trip memory. Uh, he lost the ore in the thing. We had to like fish it back. So, another great trip memory. But, it was
059really cool. There's a bunch of people and some people were speaking English, some people were speaking like Portuguese, some of them were Spanish. And it was kind of cool because like people would almost hit each other's boats and even though a lot of us didn't speak the same language, like we figured out how to like maneuver around each other. It was kind of cool because like there's um my group, my boat, uh we almost hit someone who was speaking in Portuguese and we figured out how to like maneuver around them because it was a crowded area and it was really cool cuz we didn't speak the same language. >> Touring around Madrid, seeing some of the statues and then we met Ratonito Perez. So, um, obviously most people know that we have the tooth fairy.
060So, Spain is a little different. They have a tooth mouse. Um, so >> yes. So, yes, it's So, we have a fairy. They have a mouse. So, he's actually a lot of people like think, oh, like that's kind of silly, but he actually has a monument. That's his monument. It's kind of small, but so is he, so it's okay. [laughter] But he has like a little plaque on it. And if you walk outside of there, it's just on the street. It's probably about like the height of this. There's a little door and it's basically no no one would recognize it. No one would notice it, but it's his little door to get into his monument. And [laughter] so, but so there's like we are very like I feel like in the US we're very passionate
061about like the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, like we have books about it. You know, people teach that in schools. They're very passionate about the tooth mouse. So, they have books about it. They have stories like kids grow up reading about him. Yeah. So, fast forward a little bit on our trip home. We flew back into Philadelphia and we're sitting at the gate and a flight comes in. It's not our plane. People get off and a mouse got off that plane and entered the gate that we were at. And we were like, I don't see you here. [laughter] >> That would have been three gates down. >> But no, that I thought that was really fun. And it was something that none of us even like realized could possibly be different. Um and then so
062this was also in Madrid. Uh we were walking around. It was a long day. You know, we had a tour guide. We saw a bunch of Madrid. It was actually amazing. Uh then we stopped at a little restaurant, went down stairs, and they gave us all churros, which was a really nice treat. Thank you. And so we all had churros and we all had chocolate sauce. And it wasn't like our chocolate sauce that we have. Don't really know why, but it was really good. Um, and a lot of people ended up just ordering the chocolate sauce and drinking it. >> And you did. And then you run out of churros. And you >> finish. [laughter] My group my group in particular, we had a whole basket of churros and like two things of chocolate sauce.
063So we had a churro and put very little amount so we could all drink the chocolate sauce after. [laughter] Um but and then this is the center point of the country. So >> yes, kilometer zero. So it's a a thing to do. Everybody put their foot on kilometer zero and think of that as the center of a wheel and all the roads right back from Roman times would lead out of Madrid like the spokes at the wheel. >> But yeah, this was a picture that we were all excited to to take. Um we had an amazing tour guide for this as well. She was great. Um, Blanca Blanca. >> Blanca. She was an amazing tour guide. She was very passionate. She was so fun. Um, we love to have her. And so, yeah, we took
064this picture and this was kind of in the center part of Madrid. This was also in Madrid. This was the royal palace. So, as you can tell, very big, very chaotic. But this is actually not where the royalty stays. Royalty does not stay here anymore. But everything is gold embellished, outlined, has fancy pictures. Everything's very don't touch. Um, that's the throne. So me, Kayla, and Aiden were standing right in front of it. And that was honestly a really cool site to see. And something sort of significant and special is that although there was a fascist dictator [laughter] for many years in Spain, he did not get rid of all of those royal things, the royal palace, all of their collections. He preserved all of that and gave it back to them. >> And a cool
065part about this is like, and I think the pictures on the next slide, too, is that every room you go in, like you think it's going to be done and it's never done. There's everything's different. So this was one of their dining tables. Actually, this was the main dining table. And we were all in awe. We walked in and we were like, "Wow, that is a lot of chairs." So the big joke of that day was getting if you were on one end and you wanted butter from the other end and try to pass the butter down the table cuz um so yeah, that was actually really cool. Every I mean even the chairs like they had detailing, they had fancy cushions, buttons, everything. And that was the crown and scepter. So that was also
066amazing to see. And then in the back they had swords and even the curtains were fancy. Like everything was just velvet or gold. [snorts] All right. Next stop was going a little bit north to Siggoia. And [clears throat] this was another city that was controlled by the Romans. So we see the Roman aqueduct still standing there. And there's no mortar. There's nothing holding those together. They're just perfectly stacked and still functional, still bringing water to other parts of the country. And you know, more evidence of Roman control, the wolf with Ramulus and Remis. >> So like even like these pictures, yes, like the aqueduct does look big, but it was like bigger than anyone can even imagine. And like it was it was just a crazy thing to see because we're walking up and it's
067like wow there's nothing holding these together. It's pure just like construction. Like they did that themselves and even back then like that's a huge feat now. So back then that's even cooler. And then oh I'm so sorry. I have triggered [laughter] um in those trees those are stors. So we all cuz so we had our tour guide and they're like what birds do you think those are? We were guessing like cardinals, eagles, crows, and then they're like, "No, that's dorks." So, we all thought that was really special. >> Yes, they were bringing babies. [laughter] >> Um, this was one of the castles that we went to. Um, it we spent the time on top. So, as you can see, it was a nice like it's a long area. It was on the top of that.
068And we stayed there for like 35 45 minutes just looking at the site. And none of us really expected to be there that long. Um, so we kind of had shorter shopping time, but we were all fine with it because it was really beautiful. None of us wanted to leave. But this whole entire like column right there, it was a spiral staircase, but it was a really tight spiral staircase. So me and Miss Duffy joked that we were the perfect height for Spain [laughter] because we were the only ones on the trip that didn't bump our heads. So, um, two people who I hung out with a lot were Kayla and Aiden. They were both fairly tall, like around six foot, and they were hitting their head on everything, dunk ducking under everything. So, it
069was definitely a little rough, you know. We had to take some little stops on the way up. It was and it was just very tight steps, so a lot of people got dizzy as well. Um, this is the back of the castle. This is also a castle that Walt Disney used for some of his um creations. And that's armor, which was in kind of the lower level. Um, a lot of us were actually really confused by the armor when we first saw it. So, the armor, as you can tell, yes, it does look really cool, but compared to us, we look bigger than it like proportion-wise. So, even like the legs were very small and none of us really understood how that worked because I mean, you had to be pretty skinny people to be
070fitting in these. But um the armor >> the Mediterranean diet, [laughter] >> but the armor was all different. So um like this armor had a split. The U was in the middle. So the flaps of the armor could go both ways and sit on a horse. Some of them were just straight down and were more protective for like people on land. And all of the helmets had a very narrow split that was to allow just enough light and vision to see and do the purpose but so that nothing can harm you. Now we're heading south to Sevilla where it's very hot and uh we had a stop on the Guadal River for a cruise and a bike tour which we will see a little bit more of soon and also a stop at the Cathedral
071of Sevilla. >> Yeah. Um so this was part of our bike tour. Our bike tour was actually a pretty long and in-depth tour and our tour guide was also amazing. She did a great job picking out our tour guides. Um, so this served as a place for kind of like a fair and they had these little blocks and it was like little separations and they had the town name. So that says Valencia and it has [clears throat] like a little map. So I took a picture in front of that cuz I enjoyed that place. But there is Madrid, Sevilla, Segoia, Malaga, whole bunch of places. And they all were unique and had tiles and pictures from that area. And on our bike ride, also right next to this place, um there was a bull fighting
072ring and there was preserved bullheads from the fights and we got to take pictures on the war, which was really cool. And they had plaques which said like the fight, the year, the person. Um, a couple of trivia notes about Plaza de Espa. This is what they consider a pavilion for the fair. So, they built this, this was a casual pavilion, [laughter] but um, it was featured in some films. So, it was in Lawrence of Arabia and also Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. >> But you watch those, you walk in up those stairs and then there's even more stairs and they were like fancy. there were marble and here and there there were musicians. There's someone on accordion, someone on like a cello, a guitar and everyone was just playing music and although though
073they were like close together, they were all like I don't want to say working together but their music kind of blended and it made a really cool environment. All right, inside the Cathedral of Civia and we're posed in front of the uh tomb of Christopher Columbus. Interesting story. Um Christopher Columbus and his son Diego are buried here. But because his remains traveled more than his living body did, he is claimed to be also in Venezuela and also in the Dominican Republic. But only Spain has done DNA testing and can confirm that they have at least some of them. [laughter] So, um, the green things around our neck are from an audio tour. So, we got to walk through this amazing place and we all got like these little earphone things and they just went around
074our ear and then a tour guide would walk kind of far ahead of us and point at things and then we could hear her which was actually so cool. Um, so she would walk around and there was chairs, there's big scenes, there was everything. It was really cool. There's a lot of natural light. Um, Spainards tend to favor natural light as opposed to like I mean there were chandeliers, but other than that, mostly natural light. And then in this picture, this uh there's horse and buggies. So when we would walk downtown, we would have to move over like get out of the way and horse and buggies would come through. And the locals, like no one paid attention. Like it was kind of just a natural thing. It was just us being surprised by it.
075We took a trip a little away from the city to get to the countryside to visit a still operational bull farm where they raise fighting bulls. So um this was a great experience that we had. So we went to a bull farm and there were hundreds of bulls. there were they all get branded um which doesn't actually hurt the animal. Um but it's so that if you're looking out in a pasture um it like a bull will have for like the number 42 on it and then you can just be like oh that's which one it is. So you don't actually have to look at an ear tag which can be a little hard to tra to chase down a bull. Um speaking of like all that so obviously in bull fighting they have a
076red piece of fabric that they use and like famously move it. We all got to hold it. And fun fact, it's not light. It's It's really heavy. It feels like you're holding a table. It's not And you also have to hold a sword at the same time. So, it's a lot of handling. It's a lot of maneuvering. And they also showed us like what they wear and that's also not really that light. So, it's a lot on these people. Um, yeah. And then we got to take this this trolley cart thing. Um, but it was cool because the bulls would we were in their habitat. It wasn't like we were taking them out of that. So, they would walk up to us, walk around us. So, it was really nice. But yes, we were all
077surprised of how heavy it was cuz none of us were expecting that. >> Nice color choice to go out in the bull field. >> Oh, no. I Yeah, I didn't really plan that. [laughter] Not the best, but you know, I'm still here. It's all good. [snorts] >> All right. Another side quest. different trip into the country up a very winding mountain road. We won't talk about that. Um to see where they're still pressing olives and growing olive trees and olive trees, you know, we think of apple trees and every few years we pull them up, we burn them in a pile. Um there are olive trees that are 5,000 years old and they're still producing. There's no reason to stop. Um, a really cool part about this. So, we go up this road and we
078all thought it was amazing like around us when we first got there. And then the higher up the road you go, it just got even better to see. Um, so we got to see this bridge, which they didn't really explain us what it was just a casual bridge, so there's really nothing significant about it, but it was kind of cool. It's nothing we would have here. So, I considered it fancy. Um, and then they have this machine which basically presses the olives and makes it into olive oil. And this was in like a really cool house. We also were able to buy olive oil, which a lot of us did. I brought home some for my mom. So, all right. Final night of the trip all the way down to the southern tip, Costa del.
079Um, so this was our last place. It was in Malaga. Um, we actually got spoiled. It was a really nice hotel. It was straight across from the water as well. So, you literally walk out of there and you're straight on the beach. It was amazing. Um, we all got food. It was kind of similar to the tap house we had, so we all got to pick what we wanted. And honestly, the water was really cold, so a lot of us didn't go in it, but Olivia, Kayla, Aiden, and me were in that picture. And it was at the end of each night, we had a few hours of free time. So, we got to shop. We got to um just kind of do what we wanted to to really experience and thoroughly like get involved
080in the trip. So, we spent this time in the Mediterranean Sea and it was really nice. >> Yes. Even if it's cold, it have to say I I was in the Mediterranean. >> It was so cold. But [laughter] >> yeah, it was nice. >> All right. And then final memories or is it a test? >> What's that? Who knows church [laughter] and this is inside right nature. >> So like yes it's a really cool place on the outside but the inside was honestly just as captivating. So there's uh stained glass and it looks small but it would shine on the entire place. So if it was red the entire hallway would be red. Uh there had multiple arches. There was like at least 100 different arches with different stained glass, different pictures, patterns, everything. There
081was also a shop um both in and outside of it. So they had a lot of like religious things. Um and then on the outside they had like more common things like magnets, shirts, all that. And up here that was in the um Barcelona football stadium. Those were the pillars I was talking about. So you walk up to them and you click on it and it just like shows stats, pictures, events, all of that. And there's like 50 of them. So you like walk through. It's kind of a maze. Um more awards. This was at the bull fighting uh arena ring thing. >> Mhm. So they have a ring and they'll actually fight the females and see right because who do you want to be the mother of a fighting bull? You want it to
082be the the toughest, most aggressive female. So they fight and they kind of see and they say, "Okay, you're it." But uh how how many people in that picture are safe from the charging bull at that moment? >> I'm [laughter] safe. >> Yeah. And then free time fun. So uh we definitely used our free time wisely. Um some of us did just stay. Um we we got eventually a lot of us actually didn't know each other between different grade levels and different schools. So her son went on the trip. Um he goes to a different school than all of us and so does his friend. So it was really cool. We all got close to each other. Um and part of our free time that we really enjoyed was like frozen yogurt and ice cream
083and custard. We spent a very heavy amount of our money on that. Um [laughter] another thing that was really cool is we have McDonald's, we have Burger King and all that. So do they, but honestly in all of our opinions, theirs is better. So that's a lot [laughter] of our free time there as well. Um in this picture we went to do mini golf in Sevilla. So um our group was Lucy, me, her son Tabby, his friend Aiden, Olivia and Kayla who both got Marion. And it was really cool because just in our group alone we had like different grades, different schools and we all came together. This was I think our this was in Valencia or Sia [clears throat] but it was like around the time of Valencia and we were still getting used
084to each other and we already made like such a cool bond with each other. So between that and then we would also go to stores. So they have like stores we have like H&M all of those stores and then they have this place called LAP and it's basically R5 below but like 10 times better. >> [laughter] >> So, it was like anything you could possibly imagine. Like, um, hey, let's get a bathing suit cuz we're about to jump into the Mediterranean, but I also want a cool purse. And so, that actually did happen. So, um, we had like 30 minutes of free time um, like during one of our excursions and there was just the Mediterranean Sea. She's like, "If anyone wants to do it, go for it." But that night, we actually got to
085take taxis home to like see more of the culture because not everything's done on a bus. So, um, we got to do that and I was like, I'm here. I might as well. So, me and a few other people went in and I realized they didn't have extra clothes. So, we all got to shop at the LAP store for like the 50 second time. It was great. But, so yeah. Um, the overall the trip was really good. as much as like it was super fun. We learned a lot, especially about like bull fighting, that was a very big custom for them. But yeah, it was >> it was nice. And the bonds that we made with each other were really cool. We didn't go as long as the German trip. Person personally, I think we
086had more fun. [laughter] >> And I've noticed some social media posts of pictures of Spain and I want to go back there. I wish I was there right now. Yes, I I just told her um when we were actually going over this that I think she should have us all go again. But [laughter] um this was the first year or like last year when my brother went um not last year before that um they went to Toledo instead of Valencia. So that was a new experience for us. And I think that she picked amazingly because that really made the trip. >> Valencia was a favorite. >> Thank you for listening. question. >> I feel like it would be my same question to you, Lydia. Like, what do you feel like is your biggest takeaway from
087this or like the most valuable reason that other kids should do that? >> Honestly, okay, there's like a school one and a not a school one. >> [laughter] >> So, not school related. You get so close to the people around you, whether it was the people in these pictures or if it was like Miss Duffy and her husband. Like, at the end of this trip, we were honestly like a really big family. And our tour guides, we connected with them as well. We had this one tour guide named Simone. It's fan favorite. We all loved him and we got back from the trip and we all followed him on Instagram [laughter] and he's he travels the world. He does amazing things and it's really cool. And so yeah, there's that's the non-school one. And school-wise,
088I mean, honestly, to me, it was a lot about learning culture. So, like how I said with the boats and we didn't speak the same language. You got to learn that. We had to order food in Spanish, talk to people in Spanish. Um, even locals like cuz it was like especially Barcelona was very commercial. So they would chase you, not chase you, but kind of chase you down the street asking if you wanted something. And as much as we wanted to be like no and run away, like we would stop and then answer in Spanish. And it was cool. You got to see a lot about like traditions. And even clothing, like everything from mannerisms down to clothing were all different. We dressed very American. You could very tell who we were, where we were.
089Um, and they were very they just like business casual everywhere. And I don't know how they weren't hot, but [laughter] >> yeah, it was well our guide in Valencia said we dress for the shade. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> But like even even like with the fires and the burning and all the festivals like it's nothing like how we have here and just being able to see that especially at like the age we are like you're like the German people said like you're probably not going to have this experience again. So getting to see all that culture now is really cool. >> That's great. A couple things that I would add. Um, when you went on excursions of your own during free time, finding things, right? Researching what is there for us to do, when is
090it open, navigating our way there, right? That was really impressive. And also something that you said during the trip, you mentioned like, >> why is it that when I'm here, I can just understand everybody, right? [laughter] and and having that immersion, being surrounded by it, and even if you don't have to talk to someone specifically, all of that exposure was increasing your language knowledge. >> We also did work to this leading up, whether it was with Miss Duffy or on our own. Uh me and Kayla did a lot of research about where we wanted to go. So, there's this one um like jewelry place and it was build your own. So, I built my necklace that I'm wearing right now and I got jewelry from it. We a lot of us did, even the boys
091actually got Julia, too, which is kind of fun. But um you got to go and you got to pick charms. We got to do everything. It was cool because that was something that no teacher thought of and we just did it on our own. And even like finding stores and places to eat, we did eat a lot together, but then the places that we got to eat on our own, like you chose what you wanted. And some of us chose more American. And then all like a lot of us though, like we had churros, churros, we had papas, like we did a lot. That was great. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. [laughter] >> So we please have Have a motion to approve executive session for the specific purpose of discussing potential litigation. >> Thank you.
092Second favor will be moving into executive for a few minutes. [snorts] Students have to stay but anyone else who would like to your laptop again. >> Yeah, I'm just going to hang up here then. Okay, next we are back from executive We're going to restart the meeting. >> All righty. >> At this time, does the public have any comments on agenda items? >> No one signed up. >> Okay. Personnel bike and center. Are there any that you need to pull out and do separately or are we doing these? >> We can do them all at once. I will mention um for each of them. So the first one is um the approval of an employment agreement for Nikki Miller, our assistant superintendent. So this is kind this will be her last contract with us, taking
093her through her retirement next June. Um second, the board is appointing our business administrator for when Mr. Walker retires. Um that's Mr. Keller House who the board knows um has worked at Marian many years. uh did his administrative internship uh with us in the business office and has done a phenomenal job. So, I'm excited for him to start with us. He apologizes he is not here tonight because he's actually attending his first big business official training um through the New York State School Business Officials Association. And then we also have a probationary appointment of our newest special education teacher, Cassandria Sanchez. and she is here tonight. >> Okay. >> Um so she'll be able to meet the board. >> Okay. We're going to vote by consent, but when we are done, we're going to ask
094Andrew to come up and run our gun, which is just shaking your hands is not really that scary. [laughter] All right. May I have a motion, please, to approve the consent personnel by consent? >> I move. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I opposed. Abstain. Motion passes. We will have you start with Mr. Marshall. We're just going to shake your hand. [laughter] >> Congratulations. >> Congrats. Welcome aboard. >> Thank you. board of education reports. I attended the fall sports awards. It was pretty amazing. Um I sat with the theor coaches who came and I have this is the third year the football coaches come and spoke this and this is the third year he's asked to walk in and see our weight room and each time his mouth
095just dropped. So it's kind of neat. Kudos to us. There was an assistant coach with him this time and they're they're quite jealous of our our facilities. They thought the whole idea of the assembly was neat or the awards dance assembly. Um they do it different where each team has a separate banquet. They don't get to hear how the other teams had done. So it was something different. That's what I had. Does anyone else have any reports? Moving right along, do you have [laughter] more? Because I have not heard from you enough tonight. Come on. >> Um, so the students have actually been really busy. Uh, we have a current food drive which each grade level can earn a Sunday. So, you bring in 15 items and you get ice cream. Then you bring in
09615 more and you get toppings and so on and so forth. So, you get more toppings the more food you bring in. Uh, we're starting our penny fun soon. Um, all the pennies are actually counted by the NHS members. So, we're starting that soon. Um, and the NH NHS induction is actually tomorrow. So, all the new members, uh, they get to wear the sash, light the candles, and we have a whole party for them. The cross country team, uh, boys and girls, they went to States and Aaron and Michael meddled. Uh, we also had a send off in the halls, so they walked down the halls to music and we all like clapped for them and took pictures. So, that was really fun. Uh musical auditions, although they did get rescheduled, did happen uh yesterday.
097Uh we have a cafeteria survey to address like all the food, which is amazing because it's something that was actually recently brought up at a meeting and it was very quick to get done. So that was awesome to see. >> Um the language clubs are offering a gratitude turkey. So, you take a piece of paper shaped like a turkey and you write some like someone you're thankful for and then you get called called down for prizes and it was a way to spread kindness. Uh like Miss Killian said, we had the sports banquet which recognized the athletes and a lot of co um not only athletes and parents came but coaches came too. So, the other coaches came, uh the Newark coaches came. It was really cool because everyone got to speak and we also
098had our first night shield awards ceremony. So people were or students were recognized for attendance, behavior, and like honor roll, merit role, and it was really cool because we all got to go down and see our school picture that everyone loves taking [laughter] on the board in front of everyone. So that was really cool. We all got to clap and Mark's Pizzeria, they did a great job and they are all giving us like free pizzas. So any of all the kids who win, they get little free certificates to get a pizza. Dr. Lloyd. All right. Which is why he stayed here that exact didn't mention Mark's pizza. That seems like something >> the winner um for each one. So there's >> Oh, you're fine. >> There's um wins for attendance and it's each grade level.
099So there's seventh, 8th, 9th, 10, 11, 12. There's a winner for each grade and it's for attendance, behavior, and >> grades, right? >> I think there's another I don't. But um yeah, so then the winner gets a large cheese pizza. exciting. >> All right, I have just a couple updates for the board. So, u my fall superintendent workshop, uh a little bit about uh Pomeran marker at the elementary school and our fall athletic survey. So, um I last week attended the Wayne Fingerlakes fall superintendent workshop. Um we had two what I thought were really great sessions. one on energy grade capacity concerns. Um this is something that is becoming a bigger and bigger challenge in our region and um concerned for multiple reasons. Uh first like we talked at this workshop about the need in
100terms of grid capacity for housing like housing development in Ontario and Wayne counties. Um and that the lack of energy grid capacity is impacting the ability to uh move forward with construction PA projects which then impacts housing which then impacts schools because of enrollment. Um also there's the whole piece with the electrification of buses and just another reason that that's not really feasible with the current grant capacity. So, um, they invited us and our boards and anybody who's interested, um, to attend, uh, Fingerlakes Energy Summit to talk about the energy needs for our region. So, that's December 1st from 10 to 2 at Hobart William Smith. So, um, if any board members want to attend, it's a free event. Um, we can register ahead of time. that's something Naen and I can assist with. Um,
101but honestly like it was eye opening to me to see the level of need uh in terms of our electrical grid. Uh, so I think it's something that it's worth like learning more about because for sure it will impact schools um for multiple reasons. Then uh this other session was on state aid and finance for this the 2627 school year and beyond. Um that was led by Rick Tims. He is the person that is doing the next 4ount schoolboard workshop. Um that was excellent. I've heard him speak before. Um but he addressed pieces of the foundation aid formula talking about um how depending on what New York State chooses to implement from the foundation aid formula recommendations from last year's study, how that can impact state aid runs for school districts. um thinking about the
102bigger picture how like federal government decisions and state government decisions can impact uh what funding comes to schools. So again, he will be uh the next speaker for for county, but he also put out an offer to us um as superintendent that if any board would like him to come do like either a work session with the board or an open workshop that he's willing to come do that um free of charge. He does like have his own consulting business. Uh but you know to give a general overview for boards to learn um about foundation aid about finance um that's something that based on my experience with him I would recommend we consider I know at least Mr. commercialist going to his session for four counties. So, I think maybe that might be something good
103to talk about um the next time we meet if we want to take him up on that offer. Just very knowledgeable and really did a great job of like centering where school districts are, especially small rural districts like us, and how uh we can be impacted by those state aid decisions. I imagine it would hurt us to do such a thing. >> Yeah. No, I feel like would be fine. the more you know. Okay. Um second, uh the district has been collaborating with Marian Historical Society. I know the board knows about the mural that is in progress. Um hopefully we'll have some updates soon. I saw Mrs. today and she said they're hoping to get some updates on the panels, maybe some pictures. Um, but in addition, um, in conjunction with Marian's bicesentennial, we're applying
104to have a Pomemeroy marker, which I didn't know what that was. I put up a picture because I had to look it up myself to see what it meant. So, these um, you know, distinctive like blue and white, blue and white, blue [laughter] and yellow historical markers um, across New York State. So, we've applied to have a marker to commemorate Mariam Collegiate Institute. Mrs. Mrs. and Mrs. Miller have like gone into the Marian uh school archives to find the documentation that you need for this. You need original historical um documentation that you submit with your application for the marker. So, we've been approved for the first step. So, now we need to move through to complete the next pieces of the application. And the way that impacts the board would be that the board has
105to um give permission for the marker to be placed on school property. So we would get to pick the location on school property. It would be in front of the elementary school. Um but the board has to agree for the land use sign off for the marker to be able to be placed there. So I just wanted to let the board know about that and if the board is all right with that then Mrs. Keing would sign off that we can give permission. >> Perfect. I'll sign it. >> Great. Thanks >> for not for [laughter] >> and then I have a separate slide deck to go through our fall athletic survey results. So, we put out a survey this fall um to our parents and to our athletes from fall sports. As far as I
106know, I think it's the first time at least in a long time that we've done this in Marian. So, I'm going to go through and I have a summary of the results. The board also has the full results. So, you have a packet um that gives you the full results of feedback because there's a lot in there and I would encourage the board to like take the time to review the full like results and feedback from parents and athletes. Um, again, I'll give you the summary, but if the board after going through the summary and having a chance to take a look at the full results, like if you're looking for other information or additional information or another presentation, I'm happy to do that for you. So, um, in general, we'll just go I'll go
107quickly through the general results, some sports specific results, uh, some key themes from the comments. We had a lot of like open-ended questions. Uh talk a little bit about next steps and like I said uh the board has access to the full survey and the full responses. So general results um just a quick snapshot for the board of each sport and the number of athletes who participated in each sport this fall. [clears throat] And then in terms of the survey, uh this is just a snapshot of each of the questions um that people went through that weren't open-ended. So just so you can see the board uh can see the responses. About 75% of the responses were from parents about uh 25% 26% were from athletes. Athletic level. So we had uh the majority of
108our responses from the varsity level grade level. Um so this reflects, you know, either if it's the athlete filling it out, what their grade level is or if it's the parent filling it out, the grade level of their athlete >> for seniors. >> Yeah. Right. Sports. So you can just see the uh participation by sport. I'm number two. >> And again, that's like a little bit of why I put the number of athletes at the beginning. So for example, like we had three golf athletes and we got three responses. So, you know, it's not that way for every sport, but just so you have a little comparison if you want to go back and see, oh, we got 18 responses for girls volleyball. How many total like students participated? So, overall experience, how would you
109rate your overall experience with the athletic program this season? So, a breakdown on that one to five scale. I don't know if people [snorts] can people in the [clears throat] back see that. No. >> Okay. [laughter] So, level like a rating of one was about 14% of responses, about 3 and 12% at a two, 8 [snorts] and a half% uh rated at a three, 24% at a four, and 49% at a five. Uh the other uh kind of big bucket we had was communication. Um rating communication throughout the season like schedule updates, transportation information. Um again a 1 to5 scale uh 5 and a half% rated a one, 7% a two, 24 and a half a three, 22.8 a four, and 40.4% a five. Then what I did is just uh break it out to
110get a feel for what's the average by sport. So um looking sport specific, what were the overall ratings of experience and the average ratings of communication and just so people are aware like how many people actually responded for each sport to get a feel um for that. I also um just converted the average scores to a percentage just because I think sometimes it's easier to think in terms of percentages. So average experience overall was 4.1 which I in my head I'm thinking is like you know about teacher >> 82%. Yeah. [laughter] Uh and then we wrote rated lower overall in terms of average communication like a 3.8. And again you'll see like across the board it's very variable by sport. I will say it's also variable like within levels of each sport. So like the
111ratings for example from girls varsity soccer were lower than if you looked at girls modified soccer. Does that make sense? >> Okay. Um just some key themes from the open-ended question. So we had a general open-ended about positives. Um the themes that came to the top and again you can see the full responses in the printout. um meeting new teammates, working with new coaches, the support athletes got from coaches, um learning new skills, drills, uh growing as an athlete, the challenges or the concerns, the merger of girls soccer, um division of the team or teammates in girls soccer, uh transportation when it was provided, uh some feedback around it not always being reliable. Uh and then a big piece around communication from coaches especially out of district coaches who don't use parent square. So not
112being able to connect with coaches uh whether you were a parent or an athlete if they were not using that platform making it difficult to manage. Uh we asked specifically about logistics and transportation. Um some themes that came out like difficulty of having practices in two locations for merged teams. Um again some in inconsistency of provided transportation. I will say in this uh question there was also a lot of appreciation for the district attempting to provide transportation when it could even though it wasn't always like perfect but um there was a good chunk of people you'll see that like appreciated the effort is how I would say that. Um, and then some feedback around the later practice times get from the end of the school day, like the more difficult that is for people to
113manage. Um, overall experience again like I really encourage the board to like dig into these like results as a whole and looking at people's like narrative feedback because it is really varied by sport and level. So, I tried to pull it out by things that I in my head thought of like experience detractors, like what took away from kids experience. Um, so things like poor coaching support, um, specifically for girls merge varsity soccer, things like um, negative parents in the stands, unequal playing, less playing time, loss of traditions, stress on athletes and athlete friendships. Um for the places where there were like experience enhancers like things that maybe made the programming more valuable um coaching support, team building effort, connecting with two with new teammates were the things that came to the top. And then
114in terms of improving the overall experience, um some themes from that uh question came out around better communication overall and that was consistent across every sport. Um things like being more uh proactive with schedules, practice locations, uh being explicit about pre-season needs, like if there's specific equipment that you need. Um clarity on who to contact when there's questions. Uh, another one not merging specifically around girls varsity soccer, but also if there's sports that are merging, having a longer timeline notification process than we did this fall. Uh, and then a specific focus on team building and skill building [snorts] in terms of some next steps. Um so we will review the feedback uh with coaches because again like taking a look at it for coaches from specific uh the specific lens of like your group of
115parents and athletes. Uh we'll go through that with our coaches. Uh communication is something that came through again across every sport. So, uh, doing some planning with how we're going to improve communication around athletics. Uh, we'd like to continue our board of education athletic updates each season like we have this year with like talking like, okay, spring season is coming up, like what sports are we anticipating offering, which of those sports are merged, like those types of things. Um, and then continuing to survey parents and athletes each season. Uh like I said, I feel like we got a lot of great feedback from this survey. Like there's a lot to learn from this and you could spend a lot of time and I think uh if we're going to ask people to give the feedback
116then it's our job to take a look at that feedback and act on the feedback. So uh I think that's a way continuing the survey is a way to not only continue to get feedback but maybe have some metrics around are we improving [snorts] So lastly, uh like I said, the board has the full survey and I'd really like encourage you to take some time to dig into that. And I'm happy to like answer any questions now if you have them or to like circle back to this if you want a little time to like dig into both this presentation and the full results. >> Can we get that electronically because that's very tiny. >> Yes, we can. [clears throat] Are we looking at like this is the first time I've ever heard of us
117bringing students back to Marian after emerged practice? >> I know we have not done that. >> Yes. >> For other sports. >> Yeah. >> Is that something that was it a one season like we sprung this on you so we're going to help out or is this the way we're moving? Well, we specifically looked at it for soccer because of the number of athletes that we had participating in those merge sports and feeling like um because it was multiple athletes to the same location that that was something that we would like offer and see how it went. Uh we do some transportation for wrestling like getting to practice. Uh >> but they actually came back to Mary. >> Yes. Yep. And I >> I've had a lot of experience with merch teams and I've never
118seen >> the return. Okay. >> We didn't want to set that precedent. So >> I put a comment in. Uh, I think it would be nice to look at spectator busing again, especially if we're going to be merged because one games won't necessarily be [clears throat] >> sections. >> Yeah, that would be >> a spectator bus. >> No one came because no one wanted to travel themselves. >> Yeah, >> those are good feedback. because getting your kid to school is not as nearly as challenging as getting your kid to wherever >> an event. Yeah. >> Anything else? >> But I would like to have a return conversation on that after I >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. >> Are you going to be using this? >> No. Okay. New configuration. [laughter] Okay. You are
119Mr. >> Okay. Uh I have three items. Uh the first one is the longest. The other two will be really quick. So the first item is uh last board meeting there was some concerns brought up about the the cafeteria. So there was a survey done and in the board packet you'll see that the information is there. There were 130 students and adults that completed the survey. Um the questions that were asked revolved around cafeteria staff, the overall taste of the food, um healthy food options, variety of food served, and overall, you know, cafeteria environment. Um and so the results in terms of the students and staff that took it, it was grades 7 through 12 plus adults, and the population was represented a low of 10% from grade seven. Um, and then the highest representation
120was uh grade 10 at 19.2% of the 130 were 10th graders. Um, so it was a pretty evenly distributed representation of those that responded. The cafeteria staff um so for almost 48% uh gave it the highest rating of excellent. um very good was the second highest rating at just over 25%. And then um the lowest rating which is a poor was less than 1%. So the cafeteria staff was viewed very favorably. So that was good to hear. the overall taste of food and healthy. So, uh the overall taste of the food >> the so excellent was almost 5%, very good was almost 8%. Uh good, which was the highest uh category rating. Um so good would be like on a scale of 1 to five would be a three. That was um almost 39%. Fair
121was 36% and then poor was 12%. >> So ultimately 49% of our student of whoever took this found our food poor or fair. >> Yes. >> Okay. Just want to make sure that's noted. >> Sorry. Go ahead. >> Healthy food options that were served. Um I get uh almost 15% said excellent. Almost 38% said good. Uh so between excellent and good that was represented over half over 50%. Uh very good was 12.3%. Um fair was about 25% and poor was 10%. So healthy food options overall fared fairly well. variety of food served at the cafeteria. Uh, excellent was five almost five and a half percent. Uh, very good was 10%, fair was about 31%, good was about 28% and poor was 26%. And then the overall cafeteria environment uh excellent was 11 and a half%
122very good 22% uh good was 31 12% fair was 25% and poor was 9.2%. So favorable results for the overall cafeteria environment. Um, so other information that resulted from this survey. Um, some of this there was some open-ended questions like what was your favorite meal or what was your least favorite? Um, so based on some of that feedback, um, some of the next steps would include, you know, obviously reviewing the menu options and, [clears throat] uh, changing that to adjust to the survey results. Um, I will say that um the cafeteria staff is is very um proactive. Um, the uh new food service director has been very communicative and transparent and is doing his best to make [clears throat] improvements. Last time we had talked that our kitchen had changed from being a working kitchen
123to a reheating kitchen and you were saying part of the problem had been supplies chain not able to get everything >> is it possible to go back to being a working kitchen? So I so maybe maybe what we could do is have our food service director actually come in and maybe do a a presentation around obviously he's the expert and he would know have better detailed information about that >> because I think the last time we tore the bus scratch some of that kitchen equipment is still here >> old drew me off. Yeah, >> I would love to have him come. Okay. >> Uh, anything else on the cafeteria survey? >> Does anyone else want the food service guy? Because this can't be a Michelle decision. >> No, I think >> he's offered to do
124that right up front. I just said, "Well, let me see how this goes and we'll go from there." So, >> yeah, I really appreciate how quickly this is sort of. >> Yeah, I heard [clears throat] someone was a hero in school for starting this. >> That's not what I heard. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Uh the next item, every November, uh the end of uh tax collection season is over. So the unpaid taxes, uh get turned over to the county and the county makes the district whole. Um and it's typic they're very similar every year in terms of the percentage that's unpaid that gets turned over to the county. So the board will just have to accept that um so that the county can pursue to collect those taxes. Okay, we have a motion to approve
125the tax collection report. >> Thank you. Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> Opposed? [snorts] Motion passes. Will be second. >> Okay. Okay. And then the last item, um, at the last board meeting, we had the budget development calendar, uh, for the board to review. And so now we're just no other questions or concerns. Action to approve. >> Okay. Does anyone have any questions or concerns? May I have a motion to approve, please? >> I'll move it. >> Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion passes. All set. >> All right. Thank you much. Moving on to policy review. Does anyone have any questions for our policy committee after having read these and propose them? Okay. We don't take any action on this. This is our first
126reading. We will vote on these the second time we see them. Up next, consent agenda items. Does anyone have questions on any of the consent agenda items? >> I'm sure you do. >> Okay. >> Um the Keller House's appointment was July 1st >> of 2026. >> Yes. >> That his resignation is effective in November. >> We >> can I answer that? >> Yes. Yes. [laughter] >> So right now Kyle is a TOSA. >> Okay. till the end of the school year, June 30th. >> Okay. >> He's not going to be a science teacher anymore. >> So, he's resigning science teaches resigning as a science teacher. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure we weren't causing him to go under. [laughter] >> Good thing to double check. >> But just wanted to make sure I
127understood how those dates were working out. So, he'll still be a toa. >> He will be a tossa. Okay. >> Until June 30th. >> Okay. I just again wanted to make sure he wasn't unemployed after tonight's meeting. >> Nope. While we're discussing dates, number eight, unpaid child rearing from January 5th, 2026 to December 1st, 2025. >> Yeah, she's coming back. She's not >> can't start it in 2026 and come back in 25. I think that year is wrong. >> Her unpaid leave that you guys approved back whenever she went out originally for her unpaid leave, she was supposed to come back January 5th, 2026. changing the return. Gotcha. Okay. I was like, this doesn't this isn't the same calendar. I'm not [laughter] >> Okay. >> Then I don't have a question. I get a motion
128to approve. >> Thank you. Second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Abstained. Motion passes. Anyone in the public have questions or comments. Three minutes, you may go. >> I know I did sign in and Ly's gonna like scream that I said because I told her I wasn't going to speak, but I just might go back to the sports awards. I think the sports award, especially for the Bill White award, needs to stay in Marian. So, instead of all the merge schools, I think it should be a Marian um award because it's a special award to the district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? All right, we're going to adjourn the meeting, but if you're here for class and need to have a paper signed, >> make sure you handicap.
129>> No, no, no, >> no. But if you have a paper for class, any of us sitting at a table can sign it for you. I just wanted to get that out there before I adjourned and everyone took off. All right. May I have a motion to adjourn our meeting? >> Move. Thank you. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion passes. Bring your purple papers up.