001I'm sorry if I can crouch over there. >> Hello everybody and good evening. Uh we're going to uh call our meeting to order and uh if you don't mind, we would like to start with the pledge to the flag. 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. >> Okay. First uh on our agenda is an opportunity for uh the board to hear from uh comments from the public or the press. Is there anyone here? And first of all, welcome. It's wonderful to see a crowd uh for our meeting. Uh but is there anyone that would like to have uh some time to make a comment uh or uh anything of that nature
002uh before the board? Okay, hearing no clamoring for that, uh we'll move on on our agenda. Um the uh the first item that uh I have is we do have some actual bonafide board correspondence folks. Um and basically we've received our our annual letter from Bosey's board president Roger Bennett uh for the call for nominations to the Boseis board. Um those nominations are due by March 20th. uh there are three positions that are available on the board and uh in conjunction with that the Bosey's annual meeting and administrative budget review will be held on April 1st and uh that will be I'll let you uh I'll let you make that opinion known um on April 1st uh and the the component districts of the uh the Boseies including ours will be meeting on Monday, April
00320th for our regular board meeting to vote on the administrative budget and um the Boseis board nominees. Um all of the um details regarding all of that are um attached in the letter um or are in the letter that is attached to our agenda. And that's all I have as far as correspondence is concerned. Um, so we'll move on now to information and reports and uh the reason for you all being here tonight. Um, we uh we have some great uh um student uh work that we want to recognize tonight. And I'll call on uh Superintendent Burke, Trustee Murphy, and uh Mr. Alan Oliver to uh handle those festivities for us. >> As Mr. Oliver rises up and he'll be reading the names. Miss Murphy will be handing out certificates. But before we do that,
004the awards that are being presented, and this is really for the public, um, and for those folks that'll be watching this later, we have over 30 of our students who received awards in art, which is an absolute amazing feat, not just of our students, but also of our art faculty. And the three categories are gold keys which are awarded to work demonstrating the highest level of achievement and originality, personal voice and technical skill. Approximately 5 to 7% of all the regional submissions are recognized with gold key awards and those students advance on to the national competition. Silver keys are awarded to distinguished work demonstrating achievement at the regional level. Approximately 7 to 10% of all regional sububmissions are recognized with silver key awards and honorable mention awards are awarded to those that demonstrate creative potential
005and approximately 10 to 15% of the regional submissions are recognized with that distinction. So again, it's a great honor to welcome our students and their families tonight as we present these awards. And again, we congratulate you. This is Murphy. >> Good evening everybody. Uh, congratulations again to all the artists. And I would be doing a poor job as a principal if I didn't take a nod and look at uh, Miss Dashnaw and Mrs. Pennington Lee and Mr. Simpson out there. They all deserve a round of applause for all the work they do with these kids, too. All right. So, moms and dads, I'm going to call the kids down one at a time. They're going to come up and they're going to get a certificate and I'm gonna point them over to that side of
006the stage and we're going to end up with a big long line of artists and we're going to take some pictures at the end. So, when I say your name, come up front and there's a couple of these kids that aren't here, so bear with us if we have a name and no person. Uh, first up is Rogue Bentley. And we start right off with one that's not here. Carly Biggness. Good job, Carly. Just go right over there. >> Connor Butler. Amari Cece >> Anola Chrisman and looks like no. Uh, Gabriel Co., >> good job, Gabriel. All right, guys. Stop by Mrs. Murphy and we're going to take a picture on the way by. Uh Reese Focher, Chelsea Frost, Khloe Gushaw, Sophia Gushla, Lillian Haggot. Congratulations, >> Collie Hammond. Michael Herrick. Cooper Kennedy. Lexus Kerr.
007Smile, Zale King, Maddie Lrad, Anukica McKinnon, Okay. >> Right over there. Mila Matagic, Nvea, Misha just Alana Miller, Mariah Mitchell Rockill Ava Smith Christy Summers. Summer Thompson Go, >> Emma Taio. Kyrie Weber. Is that all of them? Ladies and gentlemen, this year's Scholastic Art Award winners. And if you'll humor me, guys, why don't we get into one group in the middle? Could my art teachers come down and get in the middle of this picture as well? Parents, feel free to run up front and grab a picture if you'd like. That looks like about enough. Congratulations again to all this year's Scholastic winners. And by the way, kiddos and families, by all means, you're free to leave at this point. You don't need to stay for the rest of the board meeting. But we'd love it
008if you did. >> We do have some cookies up here. Well, that was a lot better than an executive session. Okay, in the uh interest of expediency, we'll uh we'll continue uh now for uh going on to reports from board members. And uh we'll start with uh I think there's a couple of standins for trustee LeBlanc with the facilities committee report. >> Sorry. Um so the facilities committee met on January 26. I'm going to roll through this fairly quickly. Uh, at the high school, um, we had a capital project update. Uh, we discussed the high school turf, talked about a JW Liry front office plan. Um, we had an update regarding the elementary basketball backboard update with those issues. Um, we toured and looked at the PSPK in the high school. We did a general
009building tour and that was that. Um the facilities committee met in February 23rd at the junior high. Uh again, capital project was discussed. Uh they've done a page turn that day with design. Uh what's the other D? Ron DD DD design development. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. And uh >> so this it was a very in-depth look at the plans for with regard to how it's going to be constructed, what will be constructed and and and kind of the flow of that work. Um um let's see. We were we were shown some there was a we got a look at the outside wall of the pool. There was a request for some windows. Um we saw a canopy design for the new fitness center, an entrance into the that part portion of the
010high school. Um there's some sanitary sewer line scoping that has to be done at the junior high. We saw a plan for that and where that was going to be prioritized. Um and we will be interviewing turf vendors on March 16th. Um Peter Peter Kloff was there from GIO. Um he gave us an update on his side of things and he he really does have to deal with the phasing of the contract work and all those things as far as timing and what gets done when and things like that. So there was a in-depth discussion regarding that. Uh we talked about a capital outlay project for 20 2027. Um I think we're going to stick with some asbestous abatement to remove some floor tiles to keep things basically contained. It's very it's an easier project
011and it's and it's uh easier fit with within that small window uh small amount of money of $100,000. So you can take it as far as you need to go and it gets that work done. Um brief discussion about the water main break over by Nightgale around the the high school night andale complex. Um we discussed a request from the Madison PTO. Um we then we toured the junior high and got a good look at the junior high and that was next meeting is March 30th at the transportation building. >> Hey that's all. >> Thank you Kevin. You got it. >> Uh we'll move on to the policy committee report and uh Mr. Monroe. >> Okay. The policy committee met uh Tuesday of this week. Uh five in in Mr. Burke's office. Uh present were
012Mr. Burke, trustees Beexstead, Hayes, Jaru, and myself. Uh along with Mr. Reagan, and Mr. Oliver. So the policies were reviewed are um they they all are cohesive in some of the discussions that we had from the last meeting. Uh three of those policies were review only uh policy 7410 which is extracurricular activities. Uh 7420 which is sports and athletic program and then 7423 student athletic eligibility code. Again those are review. Um, and then up for approval for first reading tonight is 7310 student conduct. And so we did review the three uh review only policies. There were no recommended changes to those policies. Um however we did um discuss 7310 and um a lot of it has to do with this is the student conduct policy and if if you remember the last meeting we talked
013about um the athletic code of conduct and how that ties into the uh the board policy. So, one of the things we discovered policy 7420 is actually a student athletic eligibility code which states that um districts should have a certifi certifiable program that um that addresses pretty much everything that's in our athletic code of conduct. So, while it's not the athletic code of conduct per se, it's a policy that says that the district should have one in place. Now, with that said, we also agreed that um uh we haven't had this in practice before, but we're going to implement an annual review of the athletic code of conduct every August. Uh the the committee thought that it'd be good, especially if we have new board members that come on are aware of it, but also
014if anything changes down the pipeline, that uh we can make recommendations uh to the district administration as needed. Um so everything there uh is good and let me see uh there was also some discussion. So the high school musical also has their own code of conduct that is uh very much in line with with our athletic code of conduct. And then some of the other discussion that led was any of the extracurricular activities uh such as any of the clubs. Uh those are really tied to our academic programs in the student code of conduct. So any issues within those would be handled by our administration for things that would be relative to the athletic code of conduct. So it seems to the committee that everything across the line is is in par with the way
015it should be. Um all the checks and balances are there. Um, Mr. Pto, you'll be happy to know we did discuss 3220 use of therapy animals. Uh, however, we before we give further update, we're we're seeking some legal advice on some wording and whatnot. So, um, that'll that'll come uh future updates. So, >> something about the um, >> so you were talking about >> Okay. the alignment of the codes of conduct. And I had an issue with one of the things in the high school musical conduct >> that just it just it was something that I'd like to just point out. So on page two under tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs under letter B, >> Yep. It says that any student involved immediate removal from all current and future involvement in the musical theater club
016including all activities related. I just feel like if a kid makes a mistake and they can prove that they're not going to make future mistakes that banning them from all I I didn't see in the high school athletic code of conduct where you get in trouble for one sport that you can never play any other sports ever again or be involved with them. I just think that's too serious and too final. Um, I would like it if the wording could be changed to and possibly any future involvement in the musical theater just so that um if a kid makes a mistake or is involved with other kids who are making mistakes and by proximity they're implicated that they would have at least some hope, especially if the musical theater is their that they would be
017able to maybe work toward like let's say they're a freshman and in their senior year they want to try out for the play, you know, it just it seemed too final and too severe in my opinion and I just wondered how other people interpreted that. >> Sure. Yeah, I think you make a good point. um you know it does it does read as uh will be subject to so um again this is a this is not a board policy per se this is uh Mr. Lincoln's code of conduct specifically to the high school so I I would probably say it's closer tied to our student code of conduct is that right Mr. work more than anything. >> It is and it certainly has been modeled upon, you know, significantly the athletic code when you see
018a lot of the same language. Um, and and I think, you know, Mrs. Murphy brings up some valid points. Um, and having been on the other side of the aisle as a longtime coach, right, it's I I think that what we're talking about here is if a student, you know, if somebody's in the in the crew, that might be something different. I'm sure that and I think you know you pick up on the word subject to it's not I don't know and I'd have to talk to Mr. Lincoln. Um there are different roles and if somebody is in a in a lead role and they violate the contract and then all of a sudden they're out of the musical that that that that's a whole dynamic thing. It's a whole led down for the entire
019group um for that once in a year event. But let me take this back to Mr. Lincoln. Let me ask him, you know, how many time I think there are some other things that we should also know because of the rules that Mr. Lincoln has in place, how many times have we had violations where he's actually had to implement that. Um, and I I'm going to probably say it's been pretty successful. Um, that he doesn't have to do that because students know right off the bat what the expectations are, but let me bring that get information from him. And let me also ask if that does leave him with some subjectivity for future years. >> And too, I mean, we're talking under policy. Mr. Lincoln won't be here forever. And and so I would like
020to see some kind of continuity so that the next person who comes in will have this code of conduct and and just to have some >> what >> some leeway and and some back and forth because there could be a instance where a kid does something stupid and it's a oneoff thing and I would hate to see them just banned outright. my opinion. >> I'm not sure if I agree with your analogy, Ron, about who's in a lead role and if they make a mistake and have to suffer the consequences because you could have a star player in any team that could be going to one to a playoff game or a sectional game and they could get in that same instance and they'd have to be removed as well. And the and the show
021goes on. And I'm not sure if I agree with that analogy. It's just an analogy. It's just >> so and and as far as that >> maybe that uh I guess policy of the musical or of Mr. Lincoln's should become a board policy for extracurriculars and make it all into that where it is subject to our overview and our it has a process for review and understanding and interpretation that takes away the discontinuity of the individual at that helm at the time. you know, if they left. So, I I think it's important. >> So, I would just like to point out too when we talk about the athletic code of conduct, the musical code of conduct, those are not policies. >> It's falling under the opice of the code of conduct, which is what was
022shared in that policy committee update. Um that those are de facto regulations. So the board establishes the policies and then it's the administration with the team that determines the way to implement those policies. The the overall arching, you know, in speaking with certainly Mr. Holliver and Mr. Reagan, they they work well because they allow a lot of gray area. um they allow them to know the students not by name, not not who their last name is, but what their situation is and make the make the consequences adjust to what that child needs at that moment in time. Um, so >> and and that's all I'm saying is I think if with just adding possibly any >> would just say that it's under the person's discretion because he's asking for the student and the parent to
023sign this contract. So, I just would not like to see, you know, anyone get pinned down with language that just doesn't allow for any subjectivity. >> I will take those concerns back to uh to our musical director and I'll I'll report back. >> Can we add uh so we've we've got on a schedule to review the athletic code of conduct annually. Can we also add the regulation for the high school code of conduct annually too? We'll just review them in the same cycle possibly or >> I'm sorry. Did you say the high school musical code? >> High school musical code. >> Yeah, I think we would put all of those together in August. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I did have a question regarding 7423 which was reviewed um student athletic eligibility code. And under
024number one regarding good school and community citizenship etc. Uh athletics are a part of the total education process yada yada. Uh follow the following philosophical principles will guide the all athletes conduct. A to have respect and concern for the rights and feelings of others. How exactly is that interpreted? whose feelings and which >> uh the base principles of sportsmanship I would guess. >> How would we know? >> So part of that would fall under these could be violations under DASA as well. Um but DASA has some limitations. So, for example, if a student has demonstrated disrespectful behavior under any one of those classifications, somebody's weight, somebody's skin color, any of those things, right? That would certainly be part of that feelings. Um, however, it shouldn't and can't just apply there. Last year at this time,
025some of the first students that we honored were from a sports team that demonst from from a sports team that demonstrated outstanding citizenship. >> But that can also go the other way. It could be a sports team that's on a trip or it could be a a bunch of students that are on a field trip in line at McDonald's and saying something inappropriate about the mom in front of them that has no relation to the school. That would be that part A. We want our students when they're out and about with us to be representing Msina with pride and dignity. So >> again, it wouldn't fall under DASA because it's not a student, but that's where that could come into play. I don't like the language. It doesn't It It's not defined. I know you
026just defined it, but it's not defined as it's written. >> So, I don't like the language. >> It's arbitrary and capriccious. >> Kevin, what would you suggest? >> Take it out. >> I You would You wouldn't adjust adjusting it at all. >> No, I think I think it's all those things are covered under other things. >> That's what I was going to ask. >> It's all covered. So, I don't think it needs to be there because it doesn't mean anything to me. I I mean it's it's kind of spotlighted way up in the front and I it rights are certain things that people have. They're they're they're determined under DASA. That's where those rights are determined that affect their feelings. Feelings are just feelings. I don't think they have a place there. They're definable, so
027to speak. That's what I mean. If it's not >> So, do you think B does enough by itself without A in there? >> A A is fine if you take out feelings and then B covers the rest. Yeah, it's pretty wide open. Or what if you substituted uh instead of have respect and concern for the dignity of others? I think Kevin's point of just taking out the word feelings, it still covers everything and it's, you know, rights of others. >> Takes away the ambiguity. >> Yeah, feelings are hard to define. Did you hurt somebody's feelings? You know what? >> Somebody lost and they're going to be upset. So, >> but, >> you know, we still won. That's what we're intending to docracy >> sports, you know. So, >> okay. I guess that's where I kind
028of go back to the sportsmanship side. Could we replace that with a line about sportsmanship? >> Sure. To show respect and sportsmanship, something along those lines, but or even just include that in B and remove A. The only thing on that would be that this isn't just about during a practice or during um a sporting event. So if you if you limit it to sportsmanship, that doesn't allow us to address conduct outside of a the athletic event. >> So yeah, >> it probably you know I think what Kevin has suggested removing the word feelings >> Yep. >> would still leave us with more than adequate coverage. So what's the protocol for uh this was a uh recommended as a review only. We're now making a change. So it would fall would we just move it
029to a first reading with the with the recommended change? >> I think that's Oh, how okay. I just gonna say I mean it's it's not like a a difficult edit if it goes back to committee. We're going to take up a lot of time but pretty >> or or we could table it and and send it back to the policy committee. Either way, >> yeah, I think you have a couple of options. You you could simply consider this instead of a review, change it to the first read, make the second read the next month. I mean, this is not pressing. Yeah. >> Or the board always has that right to make an amendment and just do it in the one read. You do have that right by policy. So you could say tonight we vote
030to remove the word feelings and be done. Um if you know the eight of you are comfortable doing that this evening there there's nothing that prohibits you from that. >> Yeah. >> That we remove the word feelings from letter A under number one. Let's we'll we'll wait until recommended actions to to take care of all that. But uh >> um if if people are amenable to that solution, we can get that done today and have the policy committee move on to a different policy to uh to look at next time. >> Um Okay. Thank >> y Thanks. >> All set. >> Yep. Uh any further questions for um for Zach? Okay, we will move on now to uh the uh legislative breakfast which was a couple of weeks ago in Lake Placid and uh Mrs.
031Murphy will tell us a little about that. >> Sure. So Ashley, did we give them the >> Yeah. So, what I did was I asked Ashley to make copies of the packets that came inside the folders from that event. And in there, she also made a copy of this. This was a postcard that was sent to me by Dan Sec. And I'll talk a little bit about what that says um if you're interested. But there's school aid overview and the executive budget etc etc. So um the two people that um I felt were most um succinct in what they were saying and responding to the people who came up to the podium. So at this forum anyone can come up to the podium board members um superintendent and we did have actually a couple of
032exeicios come up to the podium. So Dan Sack said that affordability is the new buzzword and of these um energy was what he thought was the um most pertinent and the postcard that I held up is Dan's effort to pause or repeal the Climate Leadership Community Protection Act of 2019. So what happened was since this CLCPA, which is the acronym, energy prices have included increased taxes and fees linked to the Green New Deal and climate change regulations. And Mr. Cashman also talked about this how in 2019 uh due to climate and the green new deal um there was a lot of megawatt reduction and what happened was they took away natural gas and some other forms of energy in favor of wind and solar and now your energy costs the bills represent onethird of that
033bill of your average energy bill is going to fees and taxes and this um clean new deal. So Dan has proposed this petition to the governor and the state legislatures and if you want to you can um sign that petition and then it has the um the web address which is stack new yorksate.gov. So if you're interested in that, that's something that he talked about. There was also a lot of talk about electric buses and a couple of things that um Dan said were they cannot be undercoded to prolong life like we can the diesel buses. And he also said that the waiver qualifier to be exempt from the phase in mandate is not as accessible as the New York State Congress realizes. Um he also during the course of our conversation noted that he
034had visited the Mohawk school after the um the boxes incident um in November. Um Michael Cashman actually represents the 115th Assembly District. He lives in Platsburg. He also talked about electric buses and made mention that 70% of the state bridges cannot handle the weight of EV buses. His opinion was that it should be up to the individual districts if they would like to change over to electric buses. Um in his words, if they want it, go for it. regarding special education. The rural northern New York districts have unique needs which he is aware of. Um also there was talk about UPK quotas um the arbitrariness and that if they set class maxes that what happens if you get one additional student, you would have to make a whole new session section for that student. um
035which of course is another unfunded mandate. Um as far as energy, uh Mr. Cashman believes that we need natural gas and nuclear, but to even go to nuclear, that's a 15-year out um even if the site has been approved. So, it takes a long time to get that online. Um, and as I said, in 2019, New York State removed 4,300 megawws in fuel to pursue solar and wind and at best only created 2,300 megawws, and we've never replaced the other 2,000 megawws. While demand has increased greatly and will continue to increase with AI, the result is straining markets and increased cost for consumers. He also talked about health care cost and we talked about the premiums are approximately 36,000 plus for family plan with the addition of different drugs that are now covered by insurance
036that uh we are talking about $2 million increases and climbing. Um he is Mr. Cashman is in favor of home home rule state which is less regulations and gives more freedom to govern locally. Both the legislators in my opinion were very vocal and informed and sympathetic to the needs of the North Country School District's specific and unique needs. The problem is the conservative conservative state legislators, those who understand our rural values and challenges are the minority among their peers. So the challenge is to build coalitions and support. Um there were individual districts that came up to the podium and raised different concerns. um special education, uh the drop in state aid, the foundation formula, um UPK. There was also talk about land value formulas and assessments um especially in the smaller school districts. uh re
037the two exeicios who spoke their concerns were that the region's exams were not aligned to what was covered in classes and should be more aligned with curriculum. Um and the example they gave was the life science regents. Apparently it was not aligned and they spoke about Boseies and said um that we need more um ability to have handson learning and CTE. We need more CTE um was their uh ask and what they wanted to see. And if Mr. Burke has anything else? Um, I thought it was a very good legislative breakfast and like I said, I think that the ones who showed up really do understand our plight. I think it's just how do we get to making other people in the legislature a aware and concerned about our particular needs in rural New York?
038Okay, thank you very much, um, Trish. We appreciate, uh, all of that insight. And there we go. Uh, we'll move on to, uh, my report, which is going to be very brief. Um, tomorrow, uh, there's another opportunity to, uh, meet with, um, several, uh, state representatives, uh, assembly people, um, and, uh, senators, um, Senator Walzik, Assemblyman Gray, uh, Senator St, and a representative from Assemblyman Blanken Bush's um, office uh, will be at Boseies tomorrow at 11:00. Uh I believe uh Trish is going. I'm going and uh Mr. Burke is going to be uh attending as well. Um it's um fairly similar to the NISSBA sponsored um uh breakfast, but uh uh a little bit less uh formal I believe. Uh but hopefully some uh some some more good information will come out of that and
039there'll be uh more opportunities for um local education leaders to um find out more about the the the state budget situation uh and to um you know make their their views and their uh requests of our state legislators known. So that's tomorrow. And with that, we'll move on to reports from administration, and I'll turn it over to Mr. Burke. >> So, the first item that I have is to introduce our assistant superintendent for instruction, Nicole Charles. Nicole Flynn, I'm sorry, who will be presenting on our midyear goals. >> Thank you, Mr. Burke. I'll wait till it's displayed here, then we'll get started. Okay. So, we give beginning, middle, and endofear district goal updates. The middle of the year is always a little bit difficult just because some of our goals, we don't have data until
040the end of the year. So, we substitute some things in that can kind of give us indicators, if you will, to our goals. Um, so I will explain that, but please ask questions as we go through. So the second slide is just our visual. These are posted throughout our school district of our ABC district goals. A attendance. We are looking to decrease chronic absenteeism. Benchmarks. We're looking to increase the proficiency of our 3 through8 testing as well as our New York State regions. And C is our climate and culture. Um where we survey staff, students, and family members. Both of those in the presentation are hyperl. So you can look at uh the data that I had shared for the end of year just for reference. So daily attendance is not our district goal. Our
041district goal is chronic absenteeism. However, I did want to share this just a a c celebration of our district. Throughout our district, our average daily attendance is 93%. So that means every single day 93% of our students are here. And um we're really proud of that. we've slowly increased over the last few years. So that's um a thank you to our students, their families, our staff for getting them here. Um it it takes everyone. The next slide I had put in last year. Uh it was a newly published article on chronic absenteeism in our nation. I left it in there just as a reminder that chronic absenteeism is not just unique to Msina. This is across our entire nation. um they contributed to uh COVID students being out of out of school and then returning
042to school and getting back into those habits. So, uh it's just it's kind of a good reminder. New York State, you can see, is kind of right in the middle there from the 22 23 school year and that was the last time that that data was um published. So, the next slide shows our elementary chronic absenteeism. Our goal this school year by the end of the school year is at is to be at 21%. You can see here it's it's gone the opposite way. We're at 24.5%. Um I will explain a little bit about that. In September, October and November we were meeting our goals. December uh sick season happened in our elementary schools and um they really felt it. um whether it was COVID or or influenza um our attendance rates dropped in the
043elementary schools. The other thing is um there are different reports that get reported to New York State. One is called uh the they're numbered the 107. That's what gets reported to the state when it comes to our chronic absenteeism. So the September to June numbers you see there 23 2425 are past data that came from the report 107. Unfortunately for some reason it's not available yet. So I had to use a different report the 361. Um and that just tends to be a little bit different. So I actually think this 24.5 is a little bit higher than we actually are. Um so just it's it's a reference point. Um, but I'm hoping by the end of the year we have the the correct report in play. The big celebration is our next slide though at
044the secondary level. We are hoping to be at 29% chronic absenteeism or lower and um we are far surpassing that. We've had a 6% decrease um and we are currently at 26.5 in our junior high and high school. Um and and this is um a lot of different efforts, but the next slide really shows our communication with families. As you know, we started using Parent Square 2 years ago as our hub of communication, whether we're posting, we're sending newsletters. Um but this number alone, 92,539 direct messages. That means our staff messaging families directly about their students. Um and below that you can see the interaction of those families as well. So um 1412 sent direct messages from our families. So it's it's showing that that communication is increasing. That's making a difference. And as we've
045talked about before, our efforts are really focused on those yellow level two students when it comes to chronic absenteeism. So we are reviewing those reports every single month. our admin team. We share them with our counseling team, our social workers, um and they're talking with the staff and then reaching out um to families. >> Um >> yeah, jump in. >> Are are the uh are are these numbers for this school year only or is that since we started using parent square? >> Note that this is this school year only. Yes. Yep. July one it starts new. Pretty impressive. That's a pretty high number in one year. Half a year. So Benchmarks this again um we have not had 3 through8 assessments or the regions yet. I've put the dates there for you. However um linked
046in this slide the 2425 I know it's not mid midyear data but um recently the New York State report card posted our data so it is there for you to review. I won't go into detail, but what you'll notice is we are usually equal to or surpassing New York state averages. If we fall below New York State average, it's usually only by 1 or 2% and they're broken down by subject areas. So, you can take a look at that. And as a reminder, just from our endofear uh overview of our data, we typically are ranked third in the 18 school district. So it just gives you a comparison to our region as well. So because we don't have those endofear scores, we use I ready for our benchmark assessment. We do beginning, middle, and end
047of school year. And what we pull for the comparison is called a projection report. It's basically saying this student got this score on their I Ready benchmark. We project that they'll get a level three or four proficient on the 3 through eight assessment. It's it's a it's a hypothetical, but based on the range of their score, this is what they think they will get on the 3 through8 assessment. So, our goal by the end of the school year for the 3 through8 ELA is 49%. Um, you'll see this report, it breaks it down by grade level, which is really nice. Um, what's interesting here, uh, with the ELA and math is you'll notice our grade five and six, they just tend to be a little bit lower. and that um was our prek kindergarten group
048in COVID. Um so just their data does seem to be lower. Something we're keeping an eye on. Um our overall proficiency range uh well our average is 45.5% which is lower than we want to be by the end of the school year. We're not too worried about that. Um we have been when we first started I Ready in this district years ago there was a certain number of minutes that they wanted kids on the Chromebook. You know you had to get that rope practice with the program. Um, and we've kind of stepped back a little bit from that. We want kids with stu or with teachers and small groupoup instruction. Um, we have a new math program that comes with a separate uh online program called Waggle. So, kids just necessarily aren't on I Ready
049as much as they used to be. So, their their lower scores could be contributed to that as well. The next slide is the same thing with I Ready. It's just our math. Um, our goal is to be at 61% proficient by the end of the school year and our average was 55.8%. Again, it's broken down by grade level and you can see that grade five six bubble is just a little lower than the others. >> And again, these are projection projected proficiency numbers, not actual. >> Correct. Yes, we get actual benchmark scores. It's a scaled score. where it gives you a grade level equivalency equivalency and then we use that during our RTI or AIS modeling. Um, but overall this is kind of saying yes, we think you're going to get that on the state
050assessment. They're not actual scores. The next slide, we obviously do not have regent scores, but this is just a reminder. I know we've talked about this before um but the transitions of our regents assessments um and so some of the regions are phasing out and newer ones are phasing in. Um there's overlap of certain assessments um but we are basically running um that timeline. They had a three-year transition period and we're coming to the end of that. So, we're seeing these new regions come into play and our goal at the end of the school year is to have 70 74% proficient over um the 2526 school year. The next slide talks about our seagull climate and culture. So, this survey has been it's a little bit of of a roller coaster. Uh in the past
051we had a company called PLC who ran our climate survey across the region. The climate survey comes from a result of McKini Vento funding. McKenna Vento is our homeless students and um then they changed companies to Ed elements which uh had somewhat different questions. They had the same um yellow red green scoring but they had different language and because of our district goals we decided to keep the language the same. Assets really means what are you doing well? Those are your your numbers in green. Your risks are your yellows and reds. Those are the things what do we want to improve on or what do we want to keep an eye on um to improve on. So although we don't have a climate survey though that's given every spring um Boseies is actually creating they
052decided not to go to with PLC or at elements they're actually creating their own. So we are waiting that survey and once we receive that then we will administer it to our staff students and families. In the meantime, we we take a look at our suspension data um as well as our SSEC data. I'll I'll talk a little bit more what that is. Um so our elementary level suspensions, our inschool suspensions, you can see there it's there's not a whole lot of change. In our out of school suspension, you can see an increase at the elementary level. And when we dug down deeper into that data, um majority of those out of school suspensions are from one school and one student has majority of those and that student is on um well is is going
053through the process of possibly going to an 811 program. Um so it's a student that uh you know behavior plan, modified day, all hands on deck. Um but that's that is why we see that number increase. the secondary level suspensions have have decreased. Um, and we as a staff, the 712 staff for the past three years have been working with Kelvin Oliver. His company is leaving the village and he focuses on alternatives to suspension. Um, so the the junior high and high school now have a re-entry plan for students and um, high school is implementing structured day as well, meaning um, a student returns to school and they are walked to their class. So they are part of the instruction um part of the learning and then they are picked up at that class and
054brought to the next class. So they they are um being monitored and during those transition times. So they've seen that um great success with that. The next slide is the SSC. Uh this is something that we have to report annually. SEC is an acronym for school safety and educational climate. It's basically the way that New York State ensures safety of all of their schools. Um, and there's different categories and so a few times a year we pull pull this data, take a look at where are we. Um, and I think the biggest celebration here is if you look at the secondary level um the the drugs that were being reported 3 years ago compared to now, we've seen a decrease in that usage. So overall um our num numbers are very low with SSC reports
055and that that is obviously a good thing. The non-instructional goal um with Mr. Burke is designing the phase for the capital project. Um we've been meeting with stakeholder groups u meeting with the architect and um going over designs going over budgets. Um and so that is ongoing with the facilities committee. Would you like to add anything to that? >> No. In fact, I think we're a couple of weeks ahead of schedule. We're actually thinking now we may be able to break ground sooner rather than later. Um perhaps as early as 12 months from now to break ground, which would be great as we talk about. So, anyone who's watching, I certainly want all of our swimmers to know that that's now becoming a target for us is to try to get into the pool area
056maybe as soon as next February with a hope that we might be lucky enough to get that pool done in time for um the next swim season and not have to find an alternative location. So, things are moving along quite quickly. >> And that is the midyear update. Does anyone have any questions? Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next up under my report is there is a bus utilization request and I I apologize. This is a retroactive one. It's from PAL. It was for a uh trip to Chile to watch a women's hockey game on Friday, February 13th, the day before break. The transportation department is requesting the ability to declare surplus a number of items. We have an old uh DVR system that was on our buses, couple of lift pumps, bumper
057jack, a drill press, a welder, and a bus washing machine. And a bus washing machine is exactly what it sounds like. It's about 10 foot tall scrubber that you run along the side of a bus to clean it. um which we have not been able to use since we since it was purchased many years ago because we don't have the space for it. So it is surplus. The next item is a donation to the music department of a trombone case and a student modeled trumpet. So again, community members really stepping forward. I would also ask for the district or for the board's permission to enter into an agreement with the asiggo county boseies commonly known as city Boseies for the joint water testing and sampling. We annually have to do our lead water water or
058lead in the water testing and this would allow us to piggy back into that cooperative bid. We've done it in the past with good success. Any questions on those items before I go to my last one? Okay, my last item. With our wonderfully long and difficult winter, we are now down to two snow days with unfortunately a lot of winter ahead of us. Under New York State regulations, we must be in session for 180 days. 176 of those days are to be instructional days. We also have to meet minimum thresholds in terms of hours of instruction of 900 for the secondary level, 990 for the elementary. With so much winter left, I am getting increasingly worried about what will happen. By law, what has to happen is if we exhaust all of our snow days
059and we need to take another emergency closure day, we must utilize any vacation days that remain. So, in this case, we're about five weeks away from spring break. If we need to use a third snow day, that means that we will then have to tell students and staff that they would need to be here in some capacity for one day to make that up during spring break or multiple days. Basically, if we get past spring break and we be and we go beyond those two snow days, then it's a waiver to the state education department that due to circumstances that were that are out of our control, we had a closed days and we had no emergency days left. Could be for weather. It could also be for a water main break, which would close
060the school. So, if we can get to spring break, we're okay. It's from now until then. So, to help alleviate that, one item that we will implement is a three-hour delay. Especially as we get closer to the ice season, a three-hour delay will buy me the amount of time I need to help get the roads cleared and that it would be able to produce um the right conditions to bring our students in. Any delay is a major hassle for many of our families. What we will do in these cases, looking at the weather, I will do my best not to announce a delay the night before. I don't like doing that because the weather is unpredictable. However, if it looks like a three-hour delay might happen, the night before it will be announced that if
061we do a delay tomorrow, it will be a three-hour delay. That gives families a little bit of time to make that to make the arrangements that they need to make. So, we will be implementing a three-hour delay. The other request that I have, the request that I have of the board is to give authority to me to amend our schedule. If next Friday, we still have two days, we won't be doing this. However, if I need a snow day between now and next Friday, and that leaves us with one, I'm out of my comfort zone to be quite honest. So, what I'll be asking to do is to convert our March 13th professional development day to an instructional day, a full day with our students. That'll get us keep us on track to get a
062full 176 days to get that 180th day. The state of New York does allow remote and it can be remote instruction, it can be remote professional development, it can be a combination of the two. So, what I would ask to do is to make that 180th day an asynchronous remote professional development day for all of our staff to get us to that 180th day. What we would do is we would open up our portal for training sometime the week prior to spring break and it would close most likely the Friday of spring break, April 10th. So that our staff would have to complete the required number of hours of professional learning which would be remote. We would have to have verification of that which it would be automatic through the portal and that would count
063as that 180th day. What I don't want to do if I'm weighing remote instruction versus remote PD, it's a no-brainer. There is no value for our kids with remote instruction. It we've saw it. we saw during COVID. As a district, I would like to lead a district that says we don't want remote instruction if we can avoid it. We'll go for the lesser of the two evils, remote professional development. I trust the staff that when they completed it and they've earned their certificate for those sessions, it will have been done. There will be at least some value in that. Um, again, it's the lesser of two evils. And again, all I'm seeking tonight is the board's authority is sometime, it'll be next Friday, Nicole and I'll sit down. Nope, we don't need it. Yes, we
064do. And we'll get that out. If I have the board's authority this evening to do that, I will send a memo out for both of these things, giving our community and our faculty staff ample opportunity to think about this, how that's going to work. Um before all of this, we brought in the union leadership from all three unions. We talked about these options and this was unanimous. This is what our our staff is encouraging us to do. Um I will most likely be coming back to you in April to talk about next year's calendar and how we would like to possibly amend next year's calendar. Um, we have a two-eek break at Christmas and that's a very unusual thing, especially with the Christmas day being on a Friday. I believe I'll be coming back to
065the board and asking you to allow us to make Monday and Tuesday instructional days, which would then build in seven full snow days. Um, the the union leaderships were also all supportive of me bringing that back to the board. But again, I want to get one thing done at a time and let's see how that works. And uh I I'm sure I'll be coming back to you questions. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Burke. Um the next item on our agenda is anticipated executive session. Uh we have uh of course our our regular personnel actions to approve later on. Uh we also have uh an MOA approval uh potentially and uh a contract approval. Um so is if anyone has any questions about those that you would like to discuss in executive session, we can do that
066now. Or if there are no questions, we'll simply move on to the next item. Okay, hearing no questions, we'll move on to recommended actions. Uh, first is the consent agenda. And earlier in our meeting, we had uh discussion about the um review of uh policy number 7420, sports and athletic program or no that was the was that was the eligibility code. Is that correct? >> Yeah. >> Yes. Okay. 7423. >> Um I would entertain a motion to remove uh >> feelings. Felix, >> I'm I'm I'm trying I'm trying to figure out how we're how we decided we were going to do this. Um, I I would entertain a motion to uh for to to Does anyone want to request moving uh that particular policy to um out of the consent agenda? >> So, can we
067make an amendment or do we have to remove >> when we get to it in the other items for action? We can. >> Okay, then. So, moved. >> Second. Well, we we don't even need a second. We just we just need uh a note from someone on the board that they would like to uh move that from the consent agenda to other items for action. So, uh we'll we'll move on and I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda minus uh 7423 student athletic eligibility code policy. Any questions or comments? All in favor of the consent agenda? Any opposed? That carries? And we'll move on now to uh other items for action. And let's start with um that policy 7423. Uh we have a few options. We can send it back to
068committee or we can um decide to remove uh the word feelings from that uh section of the policy and um elect to approve the policy without needing a second reading. >> I would like to move that we um make the amendment and then just move it along instead of sending it back to committee. Is everybody clear on what u Trish is at is um motioning? >> So don't just remove feeling, remove and feelings. The two words of course, >> right? Yeah. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Um do we uh any questions or comments? All in favor of approving um policy 7423. Any any uh any nos? Okay, that carries. Moving on. Approval of the bus utilization request from PAL. >> So move. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? Any
069opposed? Uh, approval of surplus items. >> So moved. Second. >> Any questions or comments? All in favor? >> Opposed. Approval of the donation to the music department. So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? Okay. Uh, next is the, uh, approval for the superintendent to amend potentially the 2526 calendar. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? All in favor? >> Okay. Next is the resolution authorizing participation in the Asiggo County BOSIES cooperative purchasing program for water testing. >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? All in favor? Okay. Next is the approval of an MOA with the MFTt. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> Okay. Next is the approval of a new contract with the MBA. >> I h I have a question about that contract there. I just
070need a little clarification. So on page 14 it says with an asterisk longevity step added to total base salary but it never delineates what the longevity step includes. >> Okay. So that is not a change from the prior contract. And you said I'm sorry it's on page 14. Mhm. Is it delineated in the in the rest of the body of the contract? Because I didn't see it. >> Okay. Let me go back here. Trish, I know it is in here somewhere. And >> Mrs. Flynn, I know you worked under it. Is it $2,000? >> She's also saying the >> and that was my second question is how long do they have to be an employee of Msina Central School District before they are eligible for a longevity step? Okay. Trish, I'm apologizing. I'm not finding
071it right away. >> 12th year. >> So on page >> found it. >> Yep. Right right above the Well, I'm looking at the old contract. It's right above the signatures. It says members will receive 2,000 longevity added to the base salary at the start of the fiscal year in which the member will reach 12 years of service to the district as a member of the MBA. >> Thank you. >> Still, you're right. >> Question answered. >> Mhm. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? We have a motion and a second on the MBA contract. >> I interrupted before there was a second. >> Oh, second. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any further questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, let's get rid of that, please. Okay. Uh, next is uh a resolution
072for uh administrative leave. >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. And we'll turn it over to Mr. Burke for personnel action items. >> Mr. Hag, I recommend approval of action items listed as numbers 1 through 75. And I'm going to also do this the addendum at the same time. I will also recommend items 76 through 81 as listed on the addendum. >> Okay. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Should we make a determination about my daughter in there that it's not a teaching position? If it doesn't abide policy, just let go. Um, you're welcome to to make that. >> I can I can do that if you'd like. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay.
073So, number 68, we have Mr. Petta's daughter. However, by board policy, he would have to abstain if this was for a regular appointment. This is for a substitute position as a long-term. So, that would not qualify under that policy. So, Mr. Petta is able to vote. >> Just so there's no Yeah. Okay. Do we have any further questions or comments? All in favor of the personnel actions? Any opposed? All right. And f Oh, excuse me. Go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry. We have one other item and that is a resolution for a sick leave allowance for an employee who is returning to our district to bring back and carry forth this um personal leave day or the leave time that that individual had prior to departure. >> Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> Any
074questions or comments? All in favor? All right, that uh wraps up our business for the evening and we can move on now to new business. And do we have any uh items that board members would like to have placed on a future agenda? >> Oh, go ahead, Tim. I'd like to see us look into something with um the coaches and the volunteers like how many does a team need and what's the process of interviewing these people other than somebody coming to Gavin and say I got a volunteer that wants to help me out for my team. I just think we're getting to the point where these teams are getting some of them getting three or four volunteers. Do we know what their qualifications are other than the coach coming and saying I mean do they
075sit down and talk to anybody? I I mean this has been an issue that I've thought of in the past too. I think there need to be some way of doing things. We interview coaches and make sure we're just going by coach comes to us and said, "Hey, I want Kevin to be a volunteer for me and basically do the stuff we're supposed to do, you know, get fingerprinted and all that." But other than that, I don't think there's a lot done. I just think how many do we need? We should there should be something that says, "Hey, you know, the football team does need more than others, but do we need four volunteers for a softball team?" I'm not saying that's what it is, but we've got to control the numbers of who comes
076on and and where it is. I just think it's becomes an issue that somebody just wants to do it for a period of time. I really think we need to look into that on it can be a problem. >> Let me get what the process is that Mr. Reagan uses before he makes those recommendations and I'll have him write up. Yeah, just to bring that to us on what he uses other than you know some the coach comes and says I have someone that wants to volunteer. Oh. Um, so I know that Trustee Petta and I were um the people who were pushing for uh the survey for our seniors and doing some things different in recognition of our seniors. and we used lifetrack which we contracted and pay an annual fee and I'm wondering
077if we should um have an ad hoc committee and explore whether we want to continue with lifetrack and we think that it's a valuable service or whether we would like to do something ourselves or um maybe look at some other possibilities. Um there's some concern about how many students are actually taking the survey and then providing an email address, a personal email to follow up at the 18year mark, 18month mark and then beyond that. So, um I feel like it's something that we we need to do in conjunction with the graduation um to to figure out where we are and and what we should do going forward. >> Okay. Um I would fully support that. Um, quite frankly, lifetrack is it's great for the one for the students that are leaving, but we can get
078that information in multiple different ways and maybe a little bit more creatively. We like lifetrack because it had that post-graduate um component of it at 18 months and at five years. However, that relies on graduates giving their information. A lot of our students don't have their own personal email that they have and that we'll share. They're not willing to share their addresses. They're not willing to share their parents. Lifeterek's asking us, "Oh, just give us the parents and we'll reach out to the parents." No, that's that's not going that violates a lot of my ethics and I think it should concern any of us that we would give that information out. So, I think there, you know, I think at least Trusty Petta and and Trustee Murphy have talked before about how do we engage
079our alumni in in any type of way. I think that might be a better opportunity is to be creative of how do we reach out uh to the alumni to really get their sense but make it in a meaningful way as opposed to talking to 17 and 18 year olds about they'll give us your personal information so we can hound you for the next five years as they are trying to escape in some cases right so I I do think there's a better way that we can do that >> also it kind of was um eye opening when I went to the um uh Hall of Fame that was really well attended and I think part of that was because the student athletes were very engaged with their coaches like they made real bonds and
080connections so that when they found out that the coach was going to be there and to recognize the team for the Hall of Fame, I felt like there was a good turnout. And so I'm thinking how can as Mr. Burke said, what we want to do is engage our alumni. Like that was our whole goal and to see how we were doing as far as um students feeling like they were ready for either career or college or whatever their next move was. Um, so I just think that um the questions that Lifetrack is giving might not be the ones that we really care about and want to ask and that um the time that we're spending in class doing that survey might be better spent doing something else. So I'm just I don't want to,
081you know, say that Life Track has been terrible, but could it be better? Maybe maybe it could maybe we could do something that would be more engaging and and get more of our alumni engaged in communications and and being somehow um relatable to high school seniors, you know, as role models or career path models. >> Yeah. So I I agree with with some of that and I I I definitely agree with engaging with our alumni in some other ways. Um where I have kind of a different slightly point of view is with Lifetrack. It's you know when we talk to them because I was part of that discussion in that review. It really is a long-term strategy, you know, and I think it's it's really tough because I we want to really see those results
082overnight, but I would say because we've invested in it, you know, they they had a good track record. Um, they had good reviews. That was the reason we leaned into them in the first place. And so, if we have to address maybe some of the operations of it, maybe we could discuss that and look into that. um how we implement it, how we um conduct survey questions, you know, is there stuff um that we can customize ourselves to our own liking? But I really feel with systems like this, it really isn't like a fiveyear strategy. And it's it's very easy to get into some of these systems and programs and want to pull the plug right away. and the fact that we've invested. I just think that we have to at least do the due
083diligence of of making sure that um you know it what we originally signed up for it for is still meeting that need, right? And the fact that we can we can maybe see that light in 5 years to get the responses and especially if we're talking about quantitative data like this. Um we're we're trying to engage all the student bodies from the senior year and then try to get the most back in that 18month and then 5year mark. Um so with that said, I think that would be worthy of some discussion in an ad hoc. Um especially with the investment we put into it already. It's tough to just kind of throw that out the window right now. You know, one of the one of the aspects of of the purpose of this survey was
084to get an opinion at different points in kids' lives. Well, future adults like they just left school, then it's 18 months then 5 years to get the different lenses and viewpoints of what did the education provide for you from those perspectives to kind of give us a guide. I don't want to I don't want to let that be kind of overshadowed by anything else. It it was a way to get a different perspective into the education that we provided. Ask them to look back and say what did did it work for you with this lens then at the ultimately out to 5 years. That information I think is important to guide us in where we go with the education we're providing. And I I almost think I can see kind of a divergence between the
085purpose of lifetrack and then the purpose of engaging with alumni. I think we always should be engaging with alumni whether it's sports, whether it's whatever alumni. They're the citizens that we created. They can provide us opportunities. It to get them to remember Msina might bring economic opportunity to Msina. Many of them have left. We export many of them. they're gone, >> off to do great things elsewhere. Maybe by engaging them, it might spark some interest to know what resources we have here that might change the economics here >> or or just bring about a great example of of that could be presented to this to the next group of students. Mhm. >> All of those things are extremely important. >> Mhm. >> And there might be some supplementation, you know, if we decide to keep
086life track, but I just think it begs further discussion. And and I don't think it can just be the board. I think it has to be um the high school principal. I I think there are other stakeholders who should be engaged so that we have a better idea of how effective we're being. We are definitely 18 months out. I don't even know if we have any feedback. And who is the point person at our school that's taking that information that's getting that information? I haven't seen anything printed from lifetrack since we've been using it. And this is year three. So I think it I think it needs further exploration in my opinion >> or at least a hard audit >> so could we pull a a group of stakeholders together administration maybe you know some
087of the the um >> we had a guidance counselor last time >> well I it makes sense to, you know, reconvene that ad hoc committee. The board has changed some. >> Um, >> so I guess I would ask for any volunteers from the board just to let me know or or say now and who'd like to serve on that. >> Well, I I feel like I'm would want to be a part of that. >> Kevin, >> how many are you looking for? >> It'd probably at least be one initial meeting. And I think part of it is to understand how lifetrack does work or doesn't work. Um what what that process is because there are processes and you know we're getting we're getting better feedback each year from the students current >> but again we're
088not getting the information from the students. They're not willing to share how to contact me 18 months from now or five years from now. That's that's where we're falling apart. And so, you know, even though those are going out to the kids that to the students that are giving that, it's not very many. And that's where Life Track is coming back. Hey, we don't have a whole lot of information about how to reach these students um that are now 18 months gone. So, that that's where this is falling apart. It's again, we're getting better at >> our captive audience that's right here with with us. >> We're just not getting information to do the futures. I don't think young people have personal emails. I don't think they really check their emails. Um, they do everything
089on their phone by text. >> That's what I was going to say. Email is almost antiquated at this point. They use social media to communicate. So, >> absolutely. >> It's not that they're they're >> so should it be a social media push? >> Right. >> It can be, but we still need to know information from our students, right? Yes. >> And that's the information that we don't have there. There has to be a way for life track to communicate directly to them, right? >> And that's not what our students have been willing to share. Maybe there is something maybe they are willing to share. >> Well, I doubt many of our students want to share their social media accounts and make us friends or whatever. But who knows? Maybe lifetrack has something new. I haven't
090seen that come across that hasn't been the case >> in the reviews where you you know you have read what did the other people do? How how is it getting done in other places? You said they have excellent reviews. What are they doing to get this information in other places? >> And that that's a good question. So what we hear about is what the return rate is. But if you if you have 180 students graduate and 20 of them have given you your address for five years from now and 19 of those 20 responded that that's a fantastic return rate except that your sample is so small. And I think that's really what we're facing. So, you know, the Will Rogers statement about statistics. You know, there are lies, there are darn lies, and there
091are statistics. Um, so again, we're we're we're doing well, I think, with we're doing better with our again our captive audience. It's just getting that future information out 18 and 60 months. But it is concerning that you haven't heard or at least you don't know if you've heard >> from Life Track. >> Well, I I do think I and I'll go back. I believe I shared the results from the second year of Lifetrack um back in the summer. Um but I'll share those again. I'll I'll try to pull those out this weekend, get that back to the board. They were very similar to our PLC results. Um I don't think you'll see I mean, if you look one to the other, there were some things I think um you know, Mr. Mr. Monroe, you brought
092up something in terms of um knowing about their careers and how are we preparing students for um you know through guidance for kind of knowing what pathway they want to go in the career as as being one of the items that was missed. Um so again I think you know it gave us a little bit but maybe not enough. The other part with lifetrack is we really do have a lot of control with the questions that get asked. They have canned questions and through the result of our committee work, we took some of the canned questions, we altered some and we made up some of our own and I'm trying to recall if there's an opportunity for open-ended questions. I just don't recall if that's on there. Um, but again, we we do have a
093lot of control with that with lifetrack. So, we got a couple of us that are uh willing to sit down and explore this a little bit further. So, uh we'll endeavor to do that. Thanks for for bringing that up, Trish. >> And um are there uh any other items for future agendas that folks would like to get out there? Yeah, I had a thought as Trusty Murphy was presenting on NISSBA and then I got this shocking third to last page $6.7 billion growth in transportation aid and so I'm thinking to myself, so we put it whenever we purchase new buses, we put it as a proposition to the voters. >> No, >> we don't anymore. >> Not anymore. Okay. Yeah, we the the district used to do that, but we we've been in the for
094for many years in the habit of just making the uh the bus purchases part of the budget. >> My guess is when we get to electric, get to the point where we have to buy electric, that'd be a great idea to let the government downstate know what our locals think about it. >> That's kind of where I was going. >> Okay. It's where I was going with that. Um I I I also didn't realize that it had been removed, but to Kevin's point, yeah, I think >> that number just stood out to me and I've just been kind of stewing. >> I think it's been at least since well before Mr. Brady, even the the bus purchases, I believe before Mr. Brady, uh the bus purchases were have just been put into the budget. >>
095And the reason that we do that is we're in a unique position. Typically, many schools go out to bond for their buses. And anytime you do a bond, it has to be a voter approval. So, we pay cash for our buses. We don't bond them. We avoid the interest charge. We're able to do that now. I don't know what that's going to look like in the future. Even with conventional diesel buses, um, you know, we're approaching the 180 $185,000 mark per bus. when we start buying three and four of those a year to maintain our fleet schedule that it's going to become a little bit more of a challenge. Um, we may be looking at doing the bonding. We still get the same reimbursement rate on on that. It's transportation aid. I will I will
096be sharing with the board over the next week or two more information about electric buses. As you know, because of our contract with the state education department for the education of indigenous students, we are part of that is transportation. Historically, New York State Education Department provides us with buses. They those are the buses that say state education department on the side. Those are buses that are truly owned by the state of New York. we're able to operate. We can only operate those buses going out to the territory. As you can imagine, with the electric bus mandate and the very limited responses of districts at this point, there is a greater push coming from Albany to get engaged with electric buses. had a conversation today. I've been threatened. I've been advised I needed to have a
097conversation with state ed as it relates to electric buses for our native students. We engaged in a conversation earlier today understanding all my concerns, understanding all of my nos why I don't think it's going to work. Why given um concerns that have been very publicly addressed since prior to the holidays of a neighboring school that dealt with some of our Native American students? Why would I dare think about putting Native American students, any students, on a bus that's not going to have heat halfway back? I've expressed all of those items. Um, I have been advised to very carefully consider this proposal, this request, so much so that we'll have a follow-up meeting. Um, I did offer a uh some ideas that might make it work if if in fact I don't have to limit those
098buses to particular routes. Um what they're what basically is happening is state education has access to a number of free electric buses including the charging stations in lie of not being able to get a diesel bus provided by the state of New York. So that's really about all I can say at this point. Again, I'm just letting you know that we are in I'm having conversations at that state level. Um, and I know the next question is, does the board have to approve that acceptance of what might be considered a donation from state education department for an electric bus? I will be looking into that. Um, >> we never had to accept a donation of the other buses. Correct. >> That is 100% correct. >> Okay. But >> if you have ever >> But but
099are we allowed to have a resolution rejecting it >> out of hand that it's a terrible experiment at the expense of the farthest bus run that we have knowing that they've pretty much failed everywhere else that they've been used on shorter runs. So why in the hell would we even attempt this? Why would they even suggest it? None of it's been well thought out and this is about the worst idea I think I've ever heard. >> And quite frankly, I'm curious because, you know, I'm a little frustrated with NISSBA, too, because they do some really great things, but I feel like a lot of their cohort and our association is of similar um you know, purview. And I think that they they should really be be jumping up and down and and saying this, you
100know, what what Senator Stack has going um with his repeal is is probably a good push, but I I read the emails. I see everything coming across like I feel this should be at the forefront over and over and over again till it gets something. We're talking about a lot of money, a lot of infrastructure and bus runs that aren't that aren't feasible. What how long would it take us to even have a charging station ready? What would be the impact to MEED? What would be the impact to the allottable power that me has? I mean, there's so many questions to this that has a has such an impact on the local front to to get this gift from the state. >> So, I was asked yesterday um to prepare my questions so that they
101could be prepared to answer or my concerns. every one of those statements you just made were in my email. Um I what I don't have a firm answer on any of this and I'll be honest and I would ask that the board not do a knee-jerk reaction tonight by a resolution. >> Okay. >> I I will one would hope that there's some press generated with this and and maybe we'll hear from our neighbors to the east about what they think about it. I did bring >> I did share a link to the story about a neighboring school that we all saw in the paper and on the channel 7 news and that has raised concerns in Albany. And what I'm saying I think it's I don't think it's raised concerns about this is a bad
102law. I think it has raised concerns like is that information accurate? Is it factual? Is it yellow journalism? Um I I do not want Albany to know about Msina. I don't want them to be thinking about Msina. I don't want them to be thinking about Msina Central School. I want to stay off everybody's radar. So, I would ask that we just exercise great caution on this issue. Um, let our legislature fight this out over the next few weeks um to see if there's going to be any change to the law. Um, I do think it's important that you understand I am in conversations with some of the highest people in state education department remembering and I and I did temper my words today very carefully knowing full well that these folks also work for higher
103powers. Um, and this is this is how politics works and uh we're This conversation was supposed to have happened over a year ago. We actually entered into a um a grant application with other schools, seven other schools that serve indigenous students. Luckily, we didn't get it. Um but now there's when you couldn't get an electric bus, but now apparently people don't want the electric buses and these companies have access. Um and and we in fact I even had a meeting earlier this week with Mr. room, our transportation director with an entirely different company outside of state education department and they have I believe it's 10 EPA funded buses that were they whatever school or schools they were going to said no we don't want them anymore and now they're trying to figure out how to
104they don't actually have possession but they have they've got the money they want to spend you know this company wants to spend that money to fulfill the grant Um this is really the the this is when uh physics and science are are trumped by economics and social social needs of or wants that don't don't follow suit with economics or supply demand or or the markets. And that's why there's plenty of them laying around for anyone to give away because no one really wants them. >> If they worked, if they worked, everyone would want them. >> And I'm not down the road. They'll >> likely we'll all get a ride on electric bus down the road. But till it's mainstream, I don't see the need to experiment with our kids >> or our taxpayers. >> Well,
105that's the other big burden. I don't know who's pay That's going to be a massive impact. And the whole reason the whole reason I brought this up is because I feel like I'm having a conversation every week with somebody about their electric bill or their energy, right? And it's discussed with our town and in our village. And so, you know, the B kind of stops with us once we're mandated to have these buses. And that's great that our legislators going to going to try to do everything to be our voice and try to change everything. But at the end of the day, when it doesn't change, guess who that liability now falls on when this project doesn't work? It's not false. >> They found the most expensive way to generate energy is what they've done
106and it doesn't solve anything. It's the least dense source of energy to go to solar solar and wind. Should we go to nuclear? Economics and science would drive it that way, but >> yeah, >> politics has pushed it a different direction. >> Mr. Monroe, you're going to force me into a little bit of a soap box in preparation for tomorrow's legislative session. >> Okay. Thanks. So, please look at the NISSBA position papers. And I think Trish heard me all the way back from Lake Placid. Folks, we're talking a 1% minimum foundation aid formula for over 460 of the 700 school districts in the state of New York. What is our rate of inflation? just rate of inflation, not even including rate of healthcare inflation. 1% doesn't cut it. We're at 1.7%. That doesn't cut it.
107We're in a different position than many of our neighboring districts. We have reserves. We have fund balance. We can absorb this 1.8%. That is not the case. I cannot understand for the life of me why the New York State School Boards Association, the New York State Council of Superintendent, Sainies, NIC, it everybody and parents aren't screaming about one point or one point or 1% foundation aid for over half of our school districts in the state of New York. This is not adequate. We sure as heck can't afford a bus at a half a million dollars that we can't undercoat that we're supposed to pay for in 12 years when a bus lasts seven in the north country with salt corrosion. >> Just >> this does not work. We need to be yelling a whole lot
108louder than what we're yelling. A billion a half dollars just went to New York City on a whim. Where is more than 1%. We can't afford this again. We're going to weather the storm. And I know Mr. Beckstead's going to report it and I'm going to regret saying this when I get the call from Albany, but darn it, it's got to be done. And I'm and I said the same thing at Chiefs yesterday. We've got to stop beating around the bush. We can't say, "Well, gee, I'm glad we got one and not zero. This isn't the way we can educate our kids. And now we're going to have a mandate one year from now about educating every child with prek that wants a space." >> Yes. >> And damn, if you don't have the space,
109you got to figure it out. Mhm. >> We are putting ourselves on the cliff of financial ruin with some of these policies without the funding. If you have it within you to reach out to your legislator, legislators beyond tomorrow and please reach across the aisle. We need to reach both sides of the aisle. Our downstate counterparts are being affected just as much as we are. 1% isn't North Country. It's not north of the throughway. It's the entire state. There are so many schools, again, over 460 schools at 1%. It's not sustainable. Um, and again, there seems to be money for other things. >> What was uh what's the estimated cost of an electric bus? >> If you want the the >> just general, >> some somewhere between 375 and up to a half a million
110dollars depending on the range that you select. So it's a 2 to 4% tax increase in Msina just to buy one bus. So realistically for a taxpayer to understand >> one bus is about >> if we raise taxes and we have not raised taxes in we raised taxes every year. We haven't increased the tax rate in a number of years. It would mean to buy one bus it'd be a 3 to 4% 3 to 4% tax increase to buy one electric bus >> with a 2% tax cap. >> So just put that in perspective. Glad you got that out there, >> which will become a common trend across many schools. And then many schools will be >> defunct, >> not defun. Well, maybe default, but I mean there'll be school budget votes that just get
111turned down left and right >> once they're in it. >> Thanks, Mr. Burke. Okay, now I go home and I'll take my blood pressure medication and be ready for tomorrow. take some time. >> Well, we do have an opportunity tomorrow to to raise the banner for um trying to get something done with this uh crazy mandate. >> Oh, well that that's your workplace. So, >> okay. Um any other items for future agendas? uh hearing none. Uh I don't think we have uh anyone here or do we that would like to uh have a moment with the board. Okay. And uh with all of that said um I would call for a motion for adjournment. >> All in favor? Thank you. Have a great