001valuation and we hope to have that uh finished up uh by the end of June. So that's really all I have for this evening and at this point we can move on to uh reports from administration. I'll turn it over to Mr. Burke. So on the original agenda we were to recognize our two award winners for the Scholastic Art National Recognition. However, due to some scheduling conflicts, that had to be moved to the next board meeting. So, at this time, I'd ask um Mrs. Christina David to come forward and talk about a proposed trip to Italy. Yeah. Is it that >> you're good? >> It's working. Okay. >> Good job, Mr. Oliver. >> I'm just waiting for the slides to come up. Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh, my name is Christina David. I am a
002biology teacher at the high school. Um, and I'm here to propose a student travel trip to Italy um during spring break 2027 from April 9 to April 16th. Next slide, please. Uh this is actually a parent presentation that I've put together um that I'm going to use for this board meeting, but I'm just going to kind of uh breeze through a lot of the the details just to kind of go over the basics. So we are proposing about 20 students, maybe 25 at the most. Um and 20 students would be four chaperones, myself, um Mr. and Mrs. Violi, and uh Jod Legary. The cost right now is about $4,485 per student. That is before any fundraising efforts and uh before any discounts. There are a couple of discounts. Um one being that if they register
003early, you can get $200 off. Next slide, please. Um so I'll just breeze through some of this. So I love to travel. um love to get out of my comfort zone, experience new cultures, and especially experience food. Um I love to try all different kinds of food. I chose this particular tour because I thought it would be very popular with students. Um, it's kind of like a bucket list thing that I think students would love to check off and um, it would be a great learning experience for everything from art, architecture, uh, historical landmarks, ancient history, um, and then of course the culture and the the cuisine of Italy is something to experience. Next slide, please. Uh, I have pretty extensive travel experience. Um, but the thing I'd like to highlight is that for a
004lot of the trips that we've taken, I have uh I don't usually go on a tour or anything like that. I design the whole trip from start to finish. I book the flights and the hotels. I plan our day-to-day itinerary. Um, book tickets months in advance for hard to hard to to to um hard to get uh landmarks to see. Um, and we've been to many places, Europe, Asia, and so on. I've also previously traveled with this tour company that we're using, Explorica. We went to Costa Rica in 2024, and um, I also chaper own the Boston trip for two different years in 22 and 24. Next slide, please. Um, obviously, you understand the benefits of student travel. uh just being able to experience a different culture, seeing uh the perspective of somebody from a
005different country. Um it teaches them confidence and independence, life skills, and um you know, there's some stats up there about how students that travel get better grades, um have better behavior, and so on. Next slide, please. So, this company, we have personal connections with them, with um Mr. Rioli and also we've used them twice before Costa Rica uh four years ago and then we used them for London two years ago. So we do have a lot of experience with them and both of those trips overall were uh very successful and the students really enjoyed um those trips. Next slide please. And so this is where we're going. We're going to see uh we're staying over in three cities but seeing four um total so April 9 to April 16, 2027 a total of 8 days.
006One of those is an overnight flight and then six overnight stays um in accommodations in the various cities. Next slide. So, we'll start in Venice uh and spend a couple of days there and then from there we will travel to um to Florence. On the way to Florence, we will stop in Verona for a day trip in Verona. Um and then from Florence, next slide. From Florence, we will travel to where I am looking forward to going to the most. I've never been to Rome. Um and we will tour Rome for the rest of the trip including a day in Vatican City um including a trip to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the St. Peter's Basilica and so on. Next slide please. So things that are included for students obviously air airfare transportation while on
007the tour we will usually you have a coach bus that uh transports students around accommodations in um hotels in triples or students will be with at least two or three other students full breakfast daily and dinner daily. Um, all of the attractions are included, all of the sightseeing tours, and we get a full-time tour director, um, and emergency service, 24-hour emergency service. So, things that are not included for students will be any passport fees that they have to get, uh, travel to and from the airport. I will be be requesting a bus, which we will divide the cost between, um, between families. Um it does say up there tips but I have we have included tips in into our price and spending money um especially for lunches. Lunches are not included and then and of
008course any like souvenirs and things like that. Next slide. Uh and then one more thing that is not included is uh travel protection or the insurance that will be optional for optional but highly recommended um for families to purchase. Next slide. Uh okay that so the rest of this I'm going to present to um to parents at the parent meeting but that's all um that's relevant for tonight. So are there any questions? How many student are you anticipating and is there a minimum and maximum? >> Yes. So, well, I'm anticipating 20. Um, I honestly have no idea how much interest there will be. The cost could be a factor for many families. Um, however, the location of where we're going, I think will be very popular, especially going with the violis who are very experienced
009um in travel to Italy, and I think their perspective is um would be valuable. So, I think that would be popular. As far as a maximum, um I'm thinking right now I don't want to go over 25 students. Um for a minimum, there's not really a minimum. uh but to keep cost right now that for that that price that I have it set at is for a private tour where we're not combined with another school. But if we can't get enough students like let's say we only have 15 students, I might take out that uh private tour fee, we would be combined with another another school, but it would actually bring our cost down. Um, if I if we had fewer than 20, let's say we had 15 students, but we kept it at a
010private tour, it would actually be more expensive for everyone. So that that price that we have it right now, 4,485, will be the highest it would be. >> So there's no minimum. So if you're only four people, you'll go with another school. That's all it is. >> Yes. Yeah. We would just join with another school. >> What are you asking from the board? >> What? >> Just permission to go. >> Yeah. Okay, >> thank you. Nice presentation. >> Okay, you're welcome. >> Christina, um are you planning on providing any free like total scholarship for at least one student? >> I personally we like this is not tied to any club as it has been before. So I don't have any funds for that. No, unless the school has something or the high school has something
011but no, not that I know of right now. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We will do fundraising though. >> Uh-huh. >> Oh, thank you very much. >> Okay. You're welcome. >> I I guess there are no more questions. >> Very well done. >> I have a quick question. >> Yeah. >> If you get 40 people that are interested, how would you select? Um, right now I'm going to say it's a first come, first serve. Uh, so we're going to have a parent meeting on Monday, May 18th. And after the parent meeting, they they'll be able to sign up and um, yeah, just from there, first come, first serve. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Next on our agenda is a presentation um, from Mrs. Flynn and I believe Mr. Oliver
012about early college access tuition. >> Thank you Mr. Burke. So recently St. Lawrence Lewis Boseies has a new coaster that we are participating. It's called the early college access coaster and what this allows us to do is any course that we are teaching inhouse that we're working with local colleges and the students are getting that dual credit. They're getting high school credit and college credit. we are now able to run those expenses through um this coser. So our district staff if they're teaching a dual college course, we can actually run it through this coser and a percentage of their salary. We're getting um a percentage of that back. There's twofold. So, it's a percentage of the staff salary and other schools are um also running student tuition costs through this coser. So, ultimately that's where
013I'd like to get with this presentation. Um later in the agenda, you'll see I did submit a memo. Um I'm asking the board to consider uh the district covering the cost of student tuition and then running it through this coser. But I'd like to uh go in a little bit more detail so you have a better fuller understanding of of what all of that entails. So uh Mr. Oliver and I went to a meeting recently uh April 16th at Boseies. A special thank you to Mr. Jim N, Deputy Superintendent. He is the one um that really brought this coaster to our region. It's being utilized uh downstate um quite a bit. and also uh Miss Alisa Sergy, she is the new coordinator overseeing the early college access for the entire region. And so now instead
014of schools having direct uh communication and contact with these colleges, she's our point contact. So she's doing all of that work for us and she's doing an amazing job. I have been in communication with her um quite frequently since this meeting with lots of different questions. So it's new. Uh, we're all learning, but I want to walk you through a few things. I know you have this linked, so um, I'm not going to go into detail on everything, but Mr. Lincoln, if you can just scroll down to um, that's perfect. So, the next part of it in your link, what it does is it shows the nine different colleges that our schools in our region are working with. So, for example, it starts with the beginning of JCC, Jefferson Community College, and you can see
015Harrisville and Hammond are are having um dual credit courses through JCC. Our dual credit courses are majority through Sunni Canton. They offer the first three courses to a student at no cost to them. So, tuition free for nine credits annually. So, each year it starts over. Um so majority of our dual credit we're running through Sunni Canton. They've been a great partner. Uh and then our world language we are running through Sunni Potsdam and that's where we see our students currently paying for their own tuition. For the current school year the rate was $125 per student per course at Sunni Potsdam. Next year they're lowering that to $75. And the reason for that is they were offering $75 to free and reduced lunch students, but now lunch is free for everyone. So they've lowered the
016cost to the student tuition $75. Um, so that list is quite long, but what it showed us in the region, it was the first time someone had compiled all this information in one place. So now we know, oh, Governor is working with this college, Coloulton's working with this potamber. we can see what other partnerships already exist. And what we're doing currently through the high school guidance department and they've been working really hard on this with um our department chairs and our high school staff is saying what are we already doing that we could be offering as dual credit for students and there's twofold. What happens then is obviously that's great student opportunity, but then it's also also bringing revenue in because when you have a teacher uh teaching that dual credit, you run it through
017this coser and get a percentage of the aid back. The second part of the packet, um that's a great place, Mr. Lincoln. Thank you. What it does is it goes through each college has different requirements. It has different tuition. Um, like I said, Sunni Canton, it's the first three courses are at no cost, but say they want to do a fourth course uh that year, I think the cost is 20 maybe 25 or 59. Um, if we can go to Sunni Canton, there we go. It is $22955 per course per student. anything after those three courses and again Sunni Potam is lowering to $75. So two things that we can take away from this is there are a lot of schools in our region working with local colleges for students to gain dual credit. Um
018obviously we've had IB students walking away with college credit. The question has always been will the colleges accept that right? um that will always be the question at hand, but we're hoping hoping now opening up with AP. Um more will be accepted and also um some of these courses we don't even have to run them as AP. Uh we've had local schools running say US history through dual credit and then students are getting high school US history which is a core class that they need to graduate and they're getting college credit for it. So obviously with those opportunities there comes the cost of student tuition. Um so I thought before I get to the breakdown I um Mr. Burke kind of tasked me with some hypotheticals of student tuition costs over time. Um I did
019put together some of those things but I thought it was important um for you to see what are we currently doing. And so uh Mr. Lincoln if you can put the uh yep the second one. There's there's two things that are happening um that's pretty exciting is uh Mr. Jonathan Hershey put our course catalog high school course catalog and then he put the Sunni Canton course catalog in chat GPT and said would it be possible for a Msina high school student to graduate with an associates degree and the reason um he did that is recently Mr. Oliver and I attended a school site visit through the redefining ready cohort. It's focusing on portrait of a graduate and the shifts of um of students when they leave uh high school. Are they are they ready for
020that next step? And so we visited Aiggo school. It's down near Bingmpington. And Aego school is currently graduating students from their high school w students with their associates degree. And so that really brought got our attention. If they're doing it and it's in New York State, then we should be able to mimic that. And what an amazing opportunity for our students to be able to walk out of high school with all of those college uh credits and possibly even an associates degree. So uh Mr. Jonathan Hershey what he did here using AI he said what you're currently doing in your course catalog and what Sunni Canton has to offer it's actually very feasible for that to happen so I have been talking with Miss Sergy at Boseies um and she is our liaison with Sunni
021Canton right now she's talking to their contacts um there are some hurdles so I'm I'm bringing this as an idea and I will say to you it has not been accepted as yes, let's do that rather than let's continue to talk about it and see if we can work out these hurdles. Um, and we also need to be, you know, respectful to Sunni Canton and what they're comfortable doing. So, I'm sharing this as an idea. It's something I'm excited about. Um, we're not quite there. This won't be happening for next year, but my hope is in within the next four to 5 years, this is where we get to. we get the opportunity for our students to be walking out of our door with an associates degree. So the third part um Mr. Lincoln if
022you could put the third document up. Um I had put together uh basically what we have to submit each year for this revenue stream is to put what courses we're teaching with dual credit, who is teaching them and the uh credit that the students are receiving. And when we did that, Mr. Burke shared with you at our last board meeting, we were able to bring in $175,000 of revenue um into our school just by running these salaries through this coaster. And these are salaries we already are paying for. So really the idea is bringing in those those new revenue streams. But Mr. Oliver will walk you through what we're currently doing and then I will give you some hypotheticals on cost. >> Hi everybody. Uh so at Msina Central High School, we have a long
023tradition of partnering with uh neighboring institutions to give college credit. This isn't anything new for us. Uh over the years, we've had close affiliations with Paul Smith, with Sunni Potam, and most recently with Sunni Canton. Uh the sheet that you have in front of you, this represents live college courses that we offered this year. There were 28 dual- enrolled courses at the high school. Many of them within our IB program, but there were a number of them outside of the IB program. Uh we are currently in a process of with the new information for this coser reinvigorating our efforts to reach out to staff to try and get more of our courses crosslisted with Sunni Canton. I wish I had solid numbers for you tonight. I don't. We're in the process of doing that now.
024I think it's very safe to say though that our next year our offerings will certainly not be less than you're seeing on this page and quite likely more. Um the advantage to this obviously u I'll go back to you were speaking of IB earlier. One of the old problems with IB was can you get college credit or not? And oftentimes it was tied to an exam score. So, you could get it if you got a six or if you got a five, but not not maybe if you got a four or a three. Um, I'll use my own daughter as an example. My daughter graduated from here two years ago or three years ago. She's graduating with her undergrad next week. She got an entire year of college credit through the work she did here,
025which saved me a lot of money and I'm very appreciative of it. Uh, and uh, that was because they were dual enrolled cross-listed classes. Now, she did well on the test, too, but she got all of those credits at the university she went to. Saved her an entire year. Uh, so we're trying to expand these offerings. Our teachers are very on board. You may ask, well, what's going to happen with the transition from IB to AP? To my knowledge, at this point, every AP teacher has submitted their courses to be Sunni Canton cross-listed courses again. So, they'll all be replica replicated. And we actually have, I think, more offerings in AP than we did in IB. So, we'll get more just right there. Um, you know, in a community where we're trying to raise the
026bar in education and turn out better citizens, getting them college credit in high school opens more doors for them in the long run. So, anything we can do to support that would be greatly appreciated. It's really all I've got to say on that. >> Thank you, Mr. Oliver. Mr. Lincoln, if on the bottom of this spreadsheet, if you could click the second tab. Perfect. Thank you so much. I'm not sure if you can make that bigger. Thank you. So, the first box is our current school year. This is the breakdown of student tuition cost. So, at Sunni Potsdam, this is where our world language dual credit courses are. Um, we had 90 students participate. Each uh student, it was $125 a course. So that totaled $11,250 that um our students and their families paid out
027of pocket. Sunni Canton, as I said, uh the first three courses are free. We had 286 students participate in that. Um at that time, no one took a fourth course. We really weren't even talking about that. We just were offering the free uh three courses for the nine credits. Obviously, that was at no cost. For the upcoming school year, the 26 27 school year, we currently have 77 students enrolled in our world language dual credit courses. This was um as of the end of April. If uh the dis if the board was to approve paying the student tuitions, what this would mean is at $75 a course, 77 students, that would equal $5,775. We would pay upfront and then we would run it through this um early college access coser. we'd get 80% aid and
028our final so our reimbursement would be 4,620 and our final cost would be 1,155 of the total cost. Now, as I said, the next part is extremely pie in the sky. Um this is a little bit of um a dream a wish at this point. Um, but if the idea of a student graduating from high school with an associates degree comes to fruition, and I use Sunni Canton as an example. Again, these conversations are just starting. Nothing is promised. Um, but if each year a student w took the nine credits that were free and then the other 36 credits needed at $22,955, the total cost to a student would be $8,263.80. Again, we would pay that upfront. We would be reimbursed $6,6114. And so the total cost per student for an associates degree if they
029were to receive that through Sunni or Canton if that was um if that does to come to fruition would be $1,652.76. Now the breakdown I did at the bottom was to show you um I would be super excited if we even had 25 students do that, right? Like I think that is a tangible number. I I would be really excited about that. Um, and the the total cost of that using the 1,652 number, um, if 25 students walked out of here with their associates, the overall cost would be 41,319. I broke it down by 50 students, 75 students, 100 students. It's not necessarily that I think 100 students would do that. That's over 50% of a graduating class. I don't necessarily know we'll ever get there. The point I'm trying to make though is if
030you look at the total cost of 100 students, it's 165,276. Meaning it is still below the current new revenue stream of $175,000 that we just brought in from this coaster. So, I'm just trying to show you kind of the balance of the new revenue um compared to the cost of the student tuition, which I don't necessarily know we'll ever get to that amount. Um, but just wanted to give you the breakdown of cost. Um, but really it's about student opportunity and um, there's a little bit of an equity piece here uh, that I want to bring to your attention, right? Um, $125 may not seem like a lot, but to some families that is. And then if they're taking multiple courses and this $229, that's the that's there's cost associated with other colleges as well.
031So, um that may be a hindering factor for some students and their families. So, if we agreed um the district paying it, it really takes that part off and opens up opportunities and equity for all students. So, again, later in the agenda, you will see I've submitted a memo to uh Mr. Burke and the board requesting the district to um beginning the 2627 school year cover the cost of student tuition for dual course enrollment and I will take any questions and I will do my best to answer it is very new and I'm learning. >> So I I do have a question and I I want to thank you Mrs. Flynn and Mr. Oliver for putting this together. I think uh the cost barrier for students is uh is is very real >> and so
032being able to provide this opportunity out of our district is is tremendous and I think there's so many benefits to this. I'm just curious because we're talking hypothetical to a degree and I'm just wondering is there criteria for students to enroll in a college credit course and then on the other side are there guardrails for if a student enrolls and possibly fails the class? And I don't want to I don't like to think like that, but if if a student fails a course, are they then held to the same academic eligibility as an enrolled college student? >> I don't know if there's timelines. I'm assuming there are. Um I would have to ask that specifically with what whichever college we're working with. Um Sunni Canton has certain guidelines, but I don't know if we've come
033across that this year with Sunni Potam or Sunni Canton. Do you know, Mr. Oliver? I I don't know because I don't know that we've ever had anybody fail one of these classes to be honest about it at this point. >> Um yeah, and Sunni Canton particularly does a nice job of making the dual- enrolled student feel like a student at Sunni Canton. They get a Sunni Canton ID. They have access to Sunni Canton facilities as a as being a student there. Uh but I we've never had one fail. So we've never bumped up against that. And the eligibility is simply if you're sitting in the class in our school, you're eligible. So >> great. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yep. Anyone else? >> Yeah. Um, so I I realize this is under development very much in
034the in the infancy here. >> Um, but there are lots of other schools in our region that are affiliated with other colleges. is the goal uh or is are one of the goals to offer more options for yes our students here? We're already involved in Sunni Canton and Sunni Potam to a lesser degree. >> Um is the possibility there uh for affiliating with a Sienna or a Syracuse or >> Yes. So what we did uh we met with the department chairs and shared this list and said what are you already doing find it on this list and are you interested in it becoming a dual credit course so we've kind of opened it up to staff um the thing with Sunni Canton is it's that first three courses are free and they have been an
035amazing partner with us and if we're if we're heading down the road of the idea of an associates it would make more sense to partner with one school. Um, but with that being said, right now our conversations are, do you see something that a a local school is already doing that you would be interested in doing? And then we stretched it even further and said, or are you doing something that you love and you think it could be a dual credit? And we've already gotten in touch about two different ideas with that with Miss Sergy at Boseies. And now she's talking to local colleges to see if that's possible. So really right now it's kind of all these great ideas and what can we offer and what I've said is if anything for next year
036if our one big win could be the student tuition and then we use next year to grow this even further. And remember the more teachers we get on board with this the more we run through the coaster and the more revenue we bring in. >> So but great question and yes that's exactly what we're hoping to do. Yeah, Paul, I think next year I think there's a very good chance you'll see us have courses with Slooh next year, uh, which we haven't typically partnered with in the past. And there's a couple of things working for a couple of cross opportunities with Hudson Valley Community College on the technical side down in the Albany area. So, that's just two examples of things that have popped up in this last month really since we've worked on this.
037It's got the potential to grow exponentially, but we got to go slow to make sure we build something we can sustain. Uh so >> well it it's just it's I mean that the possibilities are really kind of mindboggling. >> Um and the both of you certainly need to be commended for uh this kind of outside the box thinking and and you know in collaboration with others around the region. It's terrific. >> Thanks. >> What do we think the workload would be for an AP student that wants to do sports in addition to enroll in those classes? Would it be too much or >> it wouldn't be any diff um make sure you have the model in your mind correctly that these kids aren't being asked to do anything more than they would already be doing
038anyway. There's no extra burden placed on them by the college. The college is in effect signing off on our syllabus saying your syllabus is enough for us to grant you credit in this area. So it's no different than what we're doing already. Uh many of our students are already full IB students, multiple sport athletes. Not going to lie, my kid was one of those kids and there's a price to be paid for that, but it's absolutely doable. You might have one of those kids sitting up there with you, too. >> Yeah. Um it's doable. Um the only class that I have that's not IB associated is uh physical education and my study hall, but um it. Yeah, it's it's definitely something that you can do, not easily, but doable, especially for a high school student
039with um three three sports um and also other activities including uh board meetings. I'm a MBK fellow. I uh run the cooking club. I I still have time. So, >> thank you for sharing that perspective. It's important to keep the student perspective. Uh when we were at OEGO, they did have a student panel and we heard from four or five students that are getting their associates. Um and I will tell you one of my favorite was he basically said as freshman and sophomore, I was chronically absent. I didn't want to come to school and when I was here, I was in the principal's office because I was causing trouble. And he was laughing about it the whole time. But what turned it around for him was he a started working for the school. Um they
040had a graphic design center. They were running their own school store and he just loved it. And then he started enrolling in these courses that he's now getting college credit for. So I think of our students that you know we've talked about before sometimes freshman and sophomore we're trying to get them to stay here just to get them to Boseis but really we should be asking ourselves like how do we just keep them here whether we're sending them to Boseis or not to want to be here and OGO says every student should have a home right whether that's here whether that's in CTE programs um everyone should be having something that they're feeling connected to and feel like they have goals and The dual enrollment piece is certainly an achievable goal. >> Yeah. And I'd
041like to echo too, it's not just about traditional college partnering with schools like Sunni Canton. You get a this is really just an extension of the work we've been doing in previous years with Sunni Canton to get classes like survey of the trades off the ground. Um, you know, the the mindset look for me particularly recently at the high school has been CTE and sort of the kids that were trying to get to Boseies and how do we give more opportunities for those kids during their high school experience and all of this would add more opportunity with college credits walking out the door which is whether it's three or 30 it's a great thing to have some in your pocket walking out of the door in high school. So, >> Mr. Oliver, is there a
042music theory course offered at the high school here? >> There is. It's not crosslisted yet, but we're working on it. >> Hot Sam would have some. >> Yeah, it's good. >> We're not there yet. >> We're having that conversation. >> Okay, good. >> So, with uh I know Sunni can in particular, it seems almost 50% of their programs you can get a degree online even now. And it seems like the Sunni system is moving that way to be able to provide more opportunity if say um staffing becomes a barrier uh within our district. Is there been any discussion about our students being able to take advantage of their online programs as part of it to extend those opportunities? >> No. And um I will say this model allows for our teachers to still be our
043teachers, right? And so there's also safety in that. >> Um, and when I met with department chairs, we I showed them the chart of our enrollment, right? The reality of our high school enrollment is it's declined, right? We've looked at 15 years, 10 years, 5 years. Um, and we want to keep our staff there. We have an amazing staff. Um, there's a little bit of job security with this part, too, right? Um, and so we talked about that as a group. And so we're really looking at the model of of utilizing our teachers to do this work. Um on the other side of it, Sunni Canton is um wanting if someone is getting an associates degree, their feedback was well then we want students to step on our campus. And so we're we're wondering what
044does that look like to them? Um Mr. Oliver referenced working with St. Lawrence University. They have a model where it's all done through our teachers, but then they have specific days that our students are going to that college campus, which again is a wonderful opportunity, but majority is still happening here on our campus. So, those are the questions that we're asking. Um, but we are trying to stay away from the online part and still really focus on that in-person learning. Um, I will say that there are still opportunities to take an online class if it's like necessary. For example, um, I was looking into applying to a bunch of different schools and one of the ones that came off on my radar was uh, Caltech and they if I were to apply, they would require
045me to take one more level of math. I'm in the highest level of math that we offer and the only way for me to do that would be take an online course at HBCC. So, there is still that opportunity, but it's very much like you have to do it outside of school hours and um >> it's on your own terms. >> Thank you everyone. >> Just I'm sorry. Um, so I haven't heard too much on the downside of this at all. Have you have you guys done kind of like risk assessment like what what could go I mean it sounds like other school districts are everybody's on board with this and and I'm just thinking about this is kind of a redefinition of what uh school uh public school or high school system is. We're
046moving into a whole new redefining of what we are. We're not just uh high school anymore. We're almost like doing a as you know it's part we're college too at some level, right? I mean >> maybe that's the way it's going and that's great. Um but I'm just wondering if there is some downside that would >> have you did you come across anything? I haven't really talked about that and really the it seems like the idea is new but it's actually not. Dual credit has existed for a long time. The only new part is the revenue stream coming in which allows us to be creative and perhaps cover the cost of student tuition. Right? So this list is long because our schools regionally, they've been offering dual credit for years and years and years as
047have we. Um, now it's just about um working the money in a in a more efficient way. >> But I do see what you're saying. >> But put it in context, at Msina High School, we've been offering dual credit classes for well over 20 years. And if there's a downside to be had, I don't think we've tripped across it yet. So, >> um, I have a question. the like AP and dual enrolled classes are will they be offered um to underassman so sophomores and freshmen as well because I occasionally see online like someone will have applied to colleges with like 20 AP courses and that's not something you can do in two years. >> Yeah, Mr. Oliver raising his hand. He's very excited to answer. >> I am. Uh the answer to this question is
048yes. You can start taking AP classes as early as sophomore year now and in some cases even earlier. And the truth of all of these courses, it goes for anything that would be listed as a dual a dual enrollment situation. If you're in the class, you're eligible for the credit. So if you're in the class as a freshman, you're eligible for the credit. These classes will likely be higher division classes. So it'll probably be mostly sophomores, juniors, and seniors in those classes. But it does open that up and our dual credit was heavily weighted towards juniors and seniors because it was heavily weighted to IB which was all juniors and seniors. Uh so with that loosening that we're going to see with AP about who can sit in our most rigorous classrooms, you'll see these
049opportunities expand. If I could just ask there was um a portion of the presentation that said if you would like I can also create and then you had a a variety of things listed a visual 4-year pathway chart an Excel planning template. >> So what you're referencing is what Mr. Jonathan Hershey put into chat GPT and that's chat GPT telling him if you'd like I can do these things. He he didn't do them. He just sent me what he did um have Jet Chat GPT create. >> Okay. >> Does that make sense? Like those words are actually from chat GPT saying I can do that. >> Oh, okay. I see. And then my other question is um so you referenced high school credit requirements. So, are we currently in the um portrait of a graduate
050or is that coming next school year or when do we actually transition? >> We do not know any of the graduation shifts due to portrait of a graduate yet. We are being told that the rubrics are supposed to come out this summer. Um the narrative somewhat changes over time. uh when portrait of her graduate and the six attributes that came out they came out two three years ago now we first heard okay there's going to be an option there'll be a regents path and there'll be the option for having no regions then that shifted to oh no we're going to have some regions that are required and then it was like oh wait no nothing with that is changing this is just an option so it's unclear what all that looks like um but we
051do know >> that it's going to be somewhat of an and, right? Um, so these six attributes are really creating this this whole learner, this whole global citizen as they graduate and the high school what is needed to currently graduate. That's what we're predicting, but it has not um been communicated one way or the other. We're still waiting and we're hoping to have more information this summer. >> Okay. because I'm just thinking that could be the one sticking point because currently they line up and we're offering them. So, it's you're taking this, you can get college credit for this, but if they shift those around and they, let's say, require something that isn't part of that curriculum and the student needs to be taking all of those credits each each year so that they can
052graduate with the associates. So just um you know >> it's almost like every year we could reassess what we could offer for dual credit. Right. So what you're saying is what if they need a course that's not on one of these lists? Then again we can go to Boseies and say we're looking to have this as a dual credit course. Can you find a college that's willing to partner with us? So I think it will eb and flow and it will shift. and Trish, the attributes within Portrait of a Graduate are really about making a work in college ready student. So, opening up pathways that you're giving kids college courses in high school will fit handin glove with that. I don't see that it'll be a hindrance or an encumbrance. >> I hope that the
053regents >> Yeah. keep that in mind because um you never know what kind of influence will come about and and change their minds. So as you said they've kind of waffled a lot. So that's why I asked because >> that's a good word >> just for us to be mindful of that. I will say Oiggo who we went and visited they were uh being highlighted because their structures that are in place speak well to portrait of our graduate attributes already and they're doing this work right so it's really instead of what are you doing when you're here with us for four years it's their whole narrative has shifted to what do you need to do to be ready for year five when you leave us and they've really just shifted did that and really they've
054used a lot of the portrait of a graduate attribute. So I I see it working nicely with it, but as you're saying, we'll probably need to reassess annually. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Y >> I think it's an interesting it's a really really nice concept. I think it's it's great to have these opportunities and I I'm excited for it and I hope that it improves our graduation rate down the road is because at the end of the day from the worst student to the best student we want that rate higher. >> Yes. So >> agreed. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Good. I do want to also echo a huge thanks to Nicole and to Allan for all the work they've done on this. And it's also important to note that our students who
055go to the tech center, they're also eligible for dual credit through the Boseies programs. Many of those programs offer dual credit in their CTE um classes as well. And as long as I'm offering thanks last August when we had new leadership team at Boseies with our new district superintendent Darren Safe and Deputy Superintendent Jim N, they were both challenged um during our retreat to be bold because we knew what's we know what's coming. We see the economic indicators. We see that we've got declining enrollment. All the things that the headwinds that we're basically facing and they have taken that challenge of being bold and this is one example this early college access. So I do want to publicly thank them for that leadership that both of those um educational leaders have given to our region.
056So um again continuing the excellence of our St. Lawrence Lewis Boseies. So, all of that great stuff top being talked about. I'd like to give two giveback days to our students and our staff um as required by the contract and it's I'm going to list them in reverse order. We do have two days left. The first day would be our rating day which is Friday, June 26 and then the other day would be Friday, May 26 2nd, the day prior to Memorial Day weekend. What that means is if we don't use any days prior to the 21st of May, we'll use uh May 22nd and then assuming we'll still have one day left. Any questions on that? All right. And then again, more good news. We have donations to accept. Two donations from the Aderondac
057for Kids Fund and those are for $2,000. one to Nightingale, $2,000 to Jefferson to support the sixth grade overlook trip, and $1,000 from the Friends of Jefferson PTO to also support the sixth grade field trip. And that concludes everything from my end. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Burke. Um, on our agenda, we we moved our opportunity for executive session down. Uh so that we we could have had the uh the budget hearing tonight which we opted not to do. Uh but uh good that we we got these presentations out of the way as well. Um but we do have uh need to have an executive session this evening. Um it would be in regard to items leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, resignation or dis discipline of particular persons. Um, could I get an a
058motion for uh going into executive session, please? >> So, move. >> All in favor? And there will be no action taken there, and we'll be back to finish out our uh meeting once uh we've completed executive session. >> Is it okay for Andrew to leave? >> Yeah. If you'd like to take off, you you may. Thank you for your uh at my age. I was decided to wait for you. Okay, we are back uh in open session and we're going to move on now to uh recommended actions. And first, we do have a few items on the consent agenda. And I would ask if uh any board members would like to have any consent agenda items removed for uh further discussion and adoption in u a little bit later in the meeting. >> The uh
059minutes from our last meeting, please. >> Okay. Um there's no need for approval by the board for that. Uh we'll simply uh talk about the uh the minutes of the April 20th meeting when we get to other items for action. Um so uh outside of the uh the minutes from the last meeting, uh could I get a motion for the approval of the consent agenda items? >> So move second. >> Okay. Uh any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? That carries. And we'll move on now to other items for action. And u uh I guess we'll start with the minutes that we took out of the consent agenda. >> Okay. So I would like to in um our recommended action the first one um there is a word further and I would like
060to have that word further be changed to subject. Um, can you can you tell us which there's there's like a reference a resolution number? Can you can you say which uh what resolution number that is? >> I I have it. It's resolution number one line 198. >> 198. So you are recommending that we change the word further to what now? >> Second >> subject. >> Ah >> this one. >> Wait no it's this one. >> This one >> further to subject. >> Yeah. So after the comma employment comma the word is further >> right >> to board approval that should be changed to subject that's what we had agreed upon when we voted in my recollection unless >> somebody else it was it was my uh my language recommendation and you're absolutely correct. >> We
061agreed on subject to board approval. >> Okay. So every everybody on the on the right on the same page on what we're talking about here. >> Um so I would call for or I'd ask for a motion uh to approve the um >> April 20th meeting minutes as amended. >> So move. >> Second. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you, Trish. >> Uh, next is uh approval of the Italian highlights trip. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? Yes. Um, I I look forward to a trip to Italy one day. It's one of my bucket list things. I'm probably going to try to learn Italian before I go. Um, I'm not sure why looking at it from many different lenses, the opportunity is tremendous for those that can afford
062to go. And so then I question as I thought about that the why in fact if it is something of privilege and is exclusionary of those that can't afford to go does it is it being run through the school in itself? What's the benefit to the school to what's our liability that we carry to have to approve that trip? Because why do we have to approve that trip? That trip could happen without us. What are we carrying in order to approve that trip? >> I I simply because it's an out of it's an out of country. >> But people could do whatever they want. People go out of country on their own without the school. Kevin, the students and the chaperones are missing three days of school. It's during spring break. It starts before spring
063break. So, they're leaving the 9th. Spring break starts the 12th or ends the 12th, but whatever it is, but there's three days. So, >> Oh, okay. >> So, we are saying that they are excused from being in attendance to go on this trip. So, I think that's the reason why we have to approve it. I I think it's some of it has been a past practice, but and there's in the past I think a lot of these have been through clubs that are that they participate in all year. So this is even more exclusionary because it just popped up. So who who doesn't have the money and is aspires to go to this could ever have a chance to try to accumulate the money to be able to participate. So it's extra exclusionary in my
064mind. >> So I went as a chaperone on one. It was the last one before COVID and it was run by a club. We had raised enough the club had raised enough money to pay for one person to go completely free of charge. All that person had to have was their spending money. And I agree. I at the time I thought it was great. He had a great time. He was a he was so motivated that it really got everyone in the group, you know, really hyped up about it. And he was like a very much a leader and and he was chosen by the club. They voted. There were some people who asked to go and and out of the three candidates, he was chosen by the club. And I thought that was a
065great that's why I asked her. I said, "Are you going to provide a scholarship?" Because in my mind, that was well worth it. And I think everyone else, the students on the trip and the chaperones were really glad that they selected that young man. He It was fantastic. So, I agree. >> I'm thinking the way Kevin just said, I think she even mentioned with us, this has nothing to do with the school. It's not a school club. >> Because the question was asked. She said, "This is a trip that we're doing with somebody else. were not connected with anything with the school. So why are we approving it when she even said it has nothing to do with the school? I think it's a great trip. I don't want to take away from that as
066well. I think it's a great idea, but >> we're allowing the chaperones to miss school and we're allowing >> we can still do that whether it's a school trip or not. >> No, because how can the chaperone just take a trip? You can't. That's you cannot take people do it all the time. So, does the chaperon go free? >> You you by >> I understand what you're saying, but I'm saying when she brought it up, I I mean, I'm all for the trip, >> but she brought it up and even said it's not connected to the school. >> So, do the chaperones go on the backs of those that participate? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that's the other part of it because they're chaperoning to represent the school. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> And
067they're getting days off. But I again I don't it's it's so exclusionary. >> You'll know in a minute where I'm going with it. >> It's not to be a jerk. It's just it's >> it there it's a great opportunity for those that can afford it. And >> yeah, >> this is a free and appropriate public education. I don't think we should carry that kind of liability for something that doesn't include everyone. >> In 2019, it was half that cost. That's how much the costs have gone up. >> Yeah, >> it's very expensive. >> Well, anyway, it's it's it's a bummer, but it's the way I feel about it. >> Kevin, I think you bring up trip based equity. I think it's a strong point. I'm wondering if with the trip is it the explorer company
068and the ability to fund raise is that do they need the backing of the district to be able to do that >> is that the reasoning I I don't know I don't have the answer but >> yeah it's >> I I don't seems >> I don't necessarily disagree with Kevin's comment um but I do think when when people come along and they're willing there there are some kids that the family may have the means but the parents are never for whatever and work schedule is going to be able to provide that kind of opportunity. So, having access to an opportunity for those who can afford it, I I think that's good. Um, but I we have other trips within our district. The price tag isn't over 4,000. It's I I I don't want to I
069don't want to even guess what the number is, but we have other trips where kids have to come up with money. And so, those trips are just as exclusionary they can be. I mean, there's fundraising and fundraising helps, but I can think of two trips off the top of my head where I I know there are kids who don't go because they they know they're not going to be able to fund raise enough and their family is not going to come up with the 200 or the 300 or the spending money that it's just not in the budget. Um, but I I it it is what it is. It's a horrible thing. Uh it's it's a challenge for any school district that's trying to offer equity and opportunity for all students. But uh I I
070I can I can appreciate people who are going to come forward and put the time in and do the planning and give up a week or a week and a half of their life and take whatever group of kids, whatever number they can handle and uh take them places where they they may never ever venture. Uh, so those are my comments on it. >> Yep. >> I literally just asked Ashley before the meeting about the junior high trip. It's the same story. It's the same thing because one family told me um during the week, well, you know, it's pretty much $1,000 for them between the cost of the trip and then spending money. And Washington DC is even more. So I said, well, are there scholarships? because certainly we know times are tough. There are
071people many and more and more who cannot afford to go. So it's it's the same thing. Maybe it's 4,000, it's 1,000, but but can you not give the opportunity to those who can afford it? >> The the difference in my mind is every kid knows their entire career about the trip to DC and the trip to Boston. They don't know about the trip to Italy. just came up. >> The premise is the same though. Do you deny those who can? And and listen, I'm the first one to speak about equity, which is why I spoke to Ashley about the trip. Are there scholarships? Are there ways ways that we can help? But then what about the ones why take away from the ones who can afford? Yeah, >> I'm being the devil's advocate here, but
072and I'm always about the the other side, but I'm seeing this side, too. >> Yeah. Again, we're we're board of nine. We'll find out shortly, >> I guess. So, >> any further questions or not any further comments or questions on uh the question of the um Italian highlights trip? Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Okay, moving on to the approval of the early college access tuition. questions or comments on this subject. >> Just real quick comment on that on how it works. Tech prep always had that too and um my son went through it and other people he got the credit numbers weren't big like getting the degree but he had more success in college because he could take one less class every semester all the
073way through because of what he did through tech prep and the credit he had there. So it works at a low level, high level, wherever you want. but it saved him from having the stress of an extra class every semester because that's how he decided to do it. Instead of taking a semester early, he just divided it up through his college career and just took one less credit hour. So, it's great for um at all levels. And two, I think Nicole, as long as we keep guidance counselors aware of that fact, like I like what you said because you know sometimes when you're making your semester course list, if you know that you don't have to take five, that you could take four and you can stack them in a certain way then you can
074get a work study, you could get a job and you can that's what my son did. And so it really is a good thing if the counselors can kind of help kids. Okay. You know, it's it's a deferred thing. You're going to if you're planning on going to college, this is probably something that you want to at least take. And as you said, the three courses, that's free. So, why not? I mean, at least take one. So, I'm glad that you brought that up. Thanks, Tim. Any other comments, questions? All in favor? Any opposed? That carries and we'll turn it over to Mr. Burke for personnel action items. >> I recommend approval of action items listed as numbers 1 through 14 and 16 through 26. >> So move We have a motion and a second.
075Do we have any questions or comments? All in favor of the personnel? Any opposed? That carries. >> And I also recommend approval of action item number 15. So moved. Okay. All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, I think that concludes our agenda business. Uh, now is the opportunity to discuss any future agenda items. >> I'd like to discuss one. Um, we had a meeting, a lifetrack meeting on Tuesday and it I felt it was a very productive meeting and I'm asking Ashley to um take my handcratch notes and to make them look pretty and then I'm going to share that with the board. But one of the things that um I think as a board we need to address and that is that the consensus
076of the high school was that lifetrack is not worth it. And here in a nutshell, you'll read it in the in the minutes, but in a nutshell, it was that um the high school felt like asking for one more survey was not conducive to students being honest and actually giving good feedback and that doing something for the sake of doing it without um being mindful of the results was um not productive. Um what they felt was that the high school climate survey was a better indication of how students felt about the school and the education that they were getting. And so um Mr. Burke volunteered to see if Boseies could break out just the high school seniors in addition to um the data that they do share with the high school and that that might
077be a better indicator um than having the high school seniors um fill out yet another survey. Um the first year that we implemented lifetrack there was approximately 60% participation. The second year that we um then did some additional things it was about 80% participation. And then this year Mr. Oliver said that he spent considerable time tracking down seniors to get them to um to complete the survey because lifetrack likes to have 90 plus%. and he did eventually get it, but he said it was a lot of work and that he felt like some of the students that he had do it weren't their heart was really really wasn't in it and they weren't really focused on answering the questions to the best of their ability. So you'll get more on this but I think as
078a board we have to decide whether we want to continue to invest the money in lifetrack from um going forward. This year is completed but um you know we have to decide. I think really the decision is do we want to keep going for the 5-year mark and see what we get from the 60% who answered it or do we want to just save our money and maybe use it in a more productive way to um affect our change and possibly rewrite our goal based on that our board goal. I think the evaluation of that program makes sense. I I forgot about that meeting. I could make it anyway. But um was there discussion about like alternative options to keep engaged with students after they graduate? Did you get a chance to talk about that?
079That'll be in the notes. >> Yes, it was it was mostly centered on alumni. >> Yeah. Perfect. Okay. >> That was supposed to be the big bonus, right? what we heard back from them after they graduated and left here, how they then looked back at the education here. Correct. So the discussion about that would be um most people's perspective was instead of coerc I don't want to use coercing but close to that like cajoling people to do this >> as opposed to having a way for those who want to reconnect and want to be alum active alum that we would make a path path for them to be able to do that. >> Okay. >> So, Joyce, I think what you're also talking on is that 18month and that 60-month >> follow-up surveys, right? >>
080And it really relies on students giving an email. >> And it's hard to believe that people don't use emails. I guess that's our generation, right? Um but what we're finding is that these students don't use emails unless they're associated with the school or their work. So, a lot of kids when they leave here may not have one. Um, so we have very little data from two years ago when we first implemented of we even contacting that group and uh the data just isn't any better. You know, we may have gotten 90% this year, but we don't have that data to go back out and reach them in 18 months or five years. >> Understand? >> Is it a digital survey? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we we we talked about some other options too about
081how we can engage alumni and I think when you mod read Trish's notes, it could be um we've talked about and it's going to be a lot of work, a lot of vetting still of how we can do this. Um but having an alumni page on our website, having QR codes for each grade or for each year, and that way they can stay connected with one another. Um, we've got to do some work through our EDL law 2D compliance officer sitting to my left here to make sure that we're not linking off towards some unsavory sites or whatever. Um, but but again, how do we engage the alumni? We've got an outstanding athletic hall of fame. But on the other side of the house, whereas our academic are our just distinguished alumni. So we we're
082talking about a lot of other ways to engage alumni to get them to come back and to give the feedback. So lot looking for lots of ideas going forward. >> Real straight and narrow. I mean we could take a page out of any university advancement book and you know really implement it at at the public school district level. It's effective. It works. I think it was an exciting meeting. I know uh I think everyone kind of left a little reinvigorated about where we could go, you know. We may have hit a roadblock, but it opened up some other other ideas. >> I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there. >> That's okay. But I but I do think that we need to like we need to have a board discussion. We need to really um
083after you get the notes, it might spark some ideas of even, you know, not just the participants who weren't able to be there, but everybody. and then, you know, go from there and brainstorm. I think it's I think that's a really worthwhile agenda item. And it wouldn't um bother me if during the summer maybe we had an additional meeting or maybe we had it as a focus of one of our board meetings. I think it's it's something that um will benefit students greatly and I think it would benefit the school. fiscal fisc well I can't speak fiscally responsible too I mean if we're not getting our money's worth we should be addressing those those things where it's not uh benefiting the district so yeah >> any other uh items for future agendas I have one
084um we've engaged in a an internal study on the um uh reorganization of the uh elementary schools. Uh I think uh if we can arrange to have a presentation on where we're at with that in June, I think that would be uh ideal. Um we haven't heard we've we've we've had a little bit of uh discussion talk about it in in our board meetings, but not a lot. and and I think a a presentation to to kind of show where the uh where it's headed uh would be great to have anybody else. Okay. If there is uh nothing else to discuss, I would entertain a motion for adjournment. >> All in favor? >> Have a great night. Don't forget the uh the senior reception on June 16th, >> please come if you can. >> That's
0857:30 p.m. >> 7:30 a.m. It's breakfast. >> 7:30 a.m. I have not seen