Massena Central Board Meeting - November 20th, 2025

001Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. We'll have the pledge of allegiance, please. Over here. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic which stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice for all. Okay. >> Okay. We have any communications from public or press? I think we do. >> Yes. >> All right. Good evening, uh, high school board members. Uh, Msina central faculty, >> could you check that microphone, please? Make sure that's >> There we go. >> Well, either way. Yeah. >> Yeah. Is that all right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh, good evening. Uh, my name is Greg Yateman. I am the president of the trap club out to the Msina Rod and Gun Club. Uh, how you all doing tonight? Very good. >> Thank

002you for the opportunity to speak to us. Uh the reason I'm here is to promote the idea of forming a high school trap shooting team here at Msina Central. Uh as you're all aware, there's quite a few teams just in the local area that have trap teams already. Uh they're part of the New York State High School Trap Shooting or Target Clay Target League, I'm sorry. Uh it's a section 10 sport. Uh here in New York State there's 95 teams with 1300 participants. Uh I did a little more research. Uh nationwide there's almost 2,000 teams with 54,000 participants all high school kids that enjoy this sport. uh nation. There's also 300 college and university teams that have trap teams or colleges and universities that have trap teams. Uh the Msina Central High School has a

003rifle team that the rod and gun club has supported for decades and we have a great relationship with those folks. Chris Sanchez is the coach there. Um, we do have they use our indoor range out to the run and gun club. We have a booster club that supports some of their activities and we do appreciate your folks support for that activity as well. Uh, another team, the Clarkson University has a trap shooting team that also uses our facility. They practice at after school at our place. And we do have a lighted trap shooting team league or field which they use so you can shoot after dark because it gets so dark early in the winter time. So, uh, let's see. Let's see. Okay. What we would like to do is get support from you folks

004to get this trap team started. and the Msina Rod and Gun Club as a group is more than willing to work with you folks to get things organized and get it started. Uh we do have a a booster club that is part of the rifle club, rifle and pistol club that works with the rifle team. There would be a similar setup for the trap club. uh the students they have a good benefit from this type of thing through teamwork, confidence, sportsmanship and all this type of thing. And there is quite a few colleges and universities that also have scholarship programs for the shooting sports, rifle as well as shotgun sports. uh our benefit is going to be part of our mission statement is to promote marksmanship for the young young folks and gun safety as

005well. Um, and in the future, we're hoping that these folks will uh develop an interest in the shooting sports and in the future be the leaders and the volunteers out at our clubs. We can keep our club going and the rifle team and the future trap team. Uh, like I say, we're more than willing to work with you folks to get it organized. Uh, and at this time, if you have any questions, I'm willing to do my best to answer them. No. Okay. >> I was just going to ask what what is it exactly you need from us >> other than our support? >> Well, it's not going to be simple. We do have a list part probably a partial list of the logistical and procedural hurdles that we would have to overcome. But there's

006quite a few teams. There's national support for this type of sport. I'm sure we can come to figure everything out and get it going if we all work together. Right. >> When where would it be? >> Okay. The Msina Rod and Gun Club is located uh out Route 37 on the end of the Patterson Road just past the Lewisville Town offices and the fire station. >> That would be the location. >> Excuse me. >> That would be the the official location. >> Yes. Yes. It's uh 155 Patterson Road actually. >> When What's the season for that? It summer. >> It's going to be in the springtime, we believe. >> What do you expect any request for funding? >> Do you expect some money from the board? >> Uh I would say probably not right away.

007We're going to use booster club money and get to get things rolling, but perhaps in the future there would be some funding support and that type of thing. I don't anticipate right away that we're going to be doing any traveling to other other clubs to shoot against other schools or that at that level. That would be later on. The equipment would be provided by the school >> by the No, no. This club would supply the shotguns and we'd have to come to an agreement about ammunition funding which the club can handle. We have certified NRA instructors for shotgun sports and gun we're all gun safety people, you know. >> Is there interest from the staff? Is there any staff members going to be involved? >> Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. Yep. And I actually I was

008out to the clubhouse last night at the rifle teams having tryyouts out there and there was probably I'd say 12 or 14 youngsters in the building and I said show a hands. How many'd like to shoot clay pigeons out of the sky with a shotgun? At least half raised their hands. Right. >> Those are students you're talking about. >> Yes. Yes. >> But about among the teaching staff, do we have any interest? >> Well, that I don't know. We'd have to have a high school staff appointed coach for the team, right? >> I'd prefer that. >> Yeah. So, these are questions that Mr. Reagan will work with uh the Rod and Gun Club to to work out all the details >> on how the coaching works. Um, you know, then we'd come up with a

009a future year's budget >> and, you know, we've done really well, I think, with Rod and Gun Club as it relates to the rifle team. It's uh I think this, you know, the request coming from Rod and Gun tonight is really just to begin that conversation on a more formal level. Yes. >> And uh if we don't hear opposition, I'll be asking Mr. Reagan to go back and uh >> really entertain some of those conversations more in depth and get some of our questions answered. He's already worked with some of the other athletic directors around the area just to get a sense of what exactly is out there and and how it works. And I think he's got a pretty good ground level basis, but uh you know, we certainly want to keep that partnership

010going with Rod and Gun. >> Okay, that sounds good. That sounds good. Uh anything else? >> I just say thank you very much for It sounds like you're you guys are really willing to step up and >> that's part of our mission statement at the Rotten Gun Club is to promote marksmanship and safe gun handling for the youth. Definitely. So, so anyways, thank you for your time. >> I think just I think the other benefit of that and I know we're not supposed to talk about this a lot in public participation, but you know, the gun safety is a huge issue. >> You know, and and to have highly qualified individuals teaching our youth how to properly handle a gun, how to properly handle ammunition, when to be doing all of that, >> that is

011one of the most valuable lessons. It's right up there with teaching our students how to swim. >> Um, this is a north country. We know that they have access to weapons. Um, but to teach them at a young age how to use them properly and when to use them, that's invaluable. Um, and also quite frankly, these are also great adult mentors that will be around our high school students, and it's pretty hard to put price tags on on that as well. So, >> and yes, I could I'll also say that the uh some of the students that are participants on the rifle team, I've seen over the last few years how some of them have stepped up and taken leadership of the rifle team, you know, through Chris, of course, and uh I think that's

012good for the kids. So, thank you for Thank you for your time. >> Yep. Hello, my name's Ed Ryder. I'm just going to kind of build off what Greg talked. I'm the secretary treasure of the trap club. Um, and I am an NRA certified uh, firearm instructor. One point I want to point out also, this is both for all the students, girls and boys. I don't care what your ability is, handicap, you know, if you're in a wheelchair, that functionality is there. we have that ability to uh provide that service or that function for the all athletes that want to participate in this to to to to do that. So just so you're aware that it's global within your student body and there's like no restrictions uh for your your ability to to to participate.

013That's it. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> I wish these opportunities were around when I was a kid. Anybody else? Okay. Um, thank you very much for coming. It was nice nice to hear it. Um, okay. We don't have any board correspondents that I'm aware of. Nothing is there. Uh, reports from board members. Andrew, what have you got for us? Uh very per usual I have a set of slides and um so on the third wait no the uh at parent teacher conferences I brought pies of apple and pumpkin. Um, I thought it would be nice to bring a little change of pace to the parent teacher conferences and um and bring something that has a little bit more of the um what's going on in mind. So, uh the holiday aspect coming up, we have

014Thanksgiving. So, I brought pie and um I I was there for both 12 to 3 and 5 to 7 serving pies uh with Mr. Chartreata. And um actually I had a little bit of mixed reviews honestly. But um some teachers were very appreciative that I was taking initiative and doing something within the school that was very seen I guess while others they missed the cookies that were that were given out at previous um onto the next thing. Cooking club we've been meeting every other week on Wednesdays. uh attendance has been steadily increasing. We we get a new member or or three every every meeting or so and uh I'm thinking of starting bringing in community guest chefs next meeting >> which would be after break. Um and then the last thing Chromebooks are definitely starting

015to show their uh inac inadequacy in my classes. um especially in uh in classes that we are starting our IIA section which is a lengthy uh writing task which uh on the Chromebooks takes a very long time to load in and is uh not the most enjoyable process. Um, I've also noticed between other students and I that we have a lot more work coming home because what would happen is between classes like you'd have maybe 5 10 minutes to like when you're just waiting for the class to get started or like you arrived a little early and you just open you were able to open your personal laptop or and like pull out your homework and get some work on it and 10 minutes every couple periods That adds up. We can't do that now

016because that 10 minutes, probably eight minutes of it would be spent logging into a Chromebook through and then um loading everything in, you're already out of time. So, yeah, I don't know that that's uh not not a problem I have a solution for, but it is one that I have noticed going into the school year now. So it's not a function of the the the capabilities of the device or is it an access issue through our own uh >> well >> uh what is it personal information protection all the >> is that what >> well you get a different Chromebook each time you go to different class so then okay so you're not carrying one yourself >> no correct >> okay Is it >> is Mr. Allen aware? >> H >> is Mr. Allen aware

017of this? >> Yes, >> he is aware. Okay. >> Okay. >> So, Andrew, that doesn't have anything to do with your request for better devices for your IB classes. the first half of it does the like loading in of everything as well as working on these longer documents >> is considerably harder on Chromebooks and sometimes actually people will avoid working on it in school and spend time teachers will give them doing nothing >> just to go home and do it. >> Has anything moved forward with that request that you know of? >> Um I believe I believe it's moving forward. >> Okay. But um >> you'll keep us apprised of it. Okay, good. >> And thank you for doing such a great job with this by the way. >> And the cookies and the pie

018thing. It's just your first time saying you cannot please everyone. Andrew, good job with the pies. >> Thank you. >> If I had a piece, I would have an opinion, but I don't have one in front of me. I will say the the rest of the pies were given out on that Friday to the students. So >> very good. This shows great initiative. Thank you for trying. >> We all set. >> Thank you. Uh facilities committee trustee LeBlanc. >> Good evening. Uh we met uh last month October 27th at Nightingale. sort a typo on my minutes because it didn't say night and but that's where we met. Uh Megan from King and Peter from Gim were there. So very appreciative to have them on site again to explain how the progress of the capital project

019is going. We talked about a lot of elements u essentially also about the ice cool canopy that's going to be the new canopy because this one is falling. You know we have a lot of problems at the entrance there at the sports section. talked about a new fitness center that's going to be installed and all possibilities and new redesign of the the the the team rooms in the back. Very interesting. We also talked about the Jefferson tree removal that we have done recently. It improves the drain and cleans the line. We also toured the Nike elementary school good in general but we saw some uh problems with the roof and we talked about that at length and also talked about financial possibility as we are going to start a capital project if we could get

020some help from organization in the area that'd be appreciated our next meeting will be in Madison November 24th next Monday. That's five. Thank you. >> Thank you. Policy committee meeting. Trustee Monroe. >> Uh so I was unable to attend the November meeting. Uh Mr. Burke, did you want to maybe cover that one for us? >> Sure, I can. So we reviewed policy 5413, which was a um an ER1 update, and it really reflects grant acquisitions and things that we need to do there. We are recommending that we approve that update. Likewise, policy 5681 recommending that as well. Um it's an area one update. The primary change there is, as we'll talk later, the cardiac emergency plan annex um which needs to be part of our district-wide plan. There's also a little bit of revision to

021some of the terminology such as lockdowns. >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. Um, moving on, policy 5851. This is a new policy. It is in response to a new law regarding cyber security and the reporting of those incidents. That's also being recommended to be approved. Policy 7522 had a one-word change which we have also accepted and are recommending which indicates that uh we are changing a word from the word seek to the word obtain recommending the new policy of 5850 which also goes back to network security and this has also been reviewed and approved by our IT director Mr. Allen. And we are recommending reauthorization of three policies which do not currently have area 1 updates and they are policies 5550, 5610, 5622. That's it for that report. Okay. Does anyone have any questions? Who is

022there? >> Uh, Trustee Beckstead and um Trustee Jeru. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, the NISBA convention, if we get an update from the board members that attended, >> I can talk a bit. I can First of all, I would like to uh thank the board for allowing us to go there. It was very interesting. We learned a lot. I went to the Thursday session on legal. Learned a lot there. I focus the presentations on AI, which is evolving very quickly at a lot of levels. And I also focus my learning around special ed, which is a an interesting subject that's not easy to understand, very complicated. It's not traditional classroom. So, learn a lot there. essentially in it. We were invited to a dinner with Tetra, an architect firm, not our not

023ours, but another one. And we had a good evening on Friday. It was on a rooftop. So, we enjoyed that at their on their dime. >> Okay. >> I'll just speak briefly if you don't mind, Mr. >> Sure. >> Um, let's Yes. And again, I wanted to start by thanking the district for allowing us to go. It really is very much worthwhile and we we really do learn a lot. Um let's see. I'll keep it very brief. Um I went to the law seminar as well. I wrote down in as you saw in the um agenda some things about tenure law and um wording of contracts, but you can look at that yourselves. One thing about community engagement that I was curious about, they different people presented different options. Do we advertise who will be

024presenting at the board meetings? For instance, when the food service or Raider Academy, would it be good for the um community to see who's going to present? Could that be done through the school tool or whatever it is that would do that? Parent Square, excuse me. I thought that was interesting. Um, and also the community is very much aware of the sports programs, maybe even the music programs, but what about the shop classes that are in the building? I don't I'm not aware of a lot of them. I'm on the board. So, that's that's my own problem. I need to deal with that, but the community, do they really know what's available in our building? So, some of our um engagement with the community maybe could improve. also AI um they mentioned the um the

025policy should be reviewed every six months because it's changing so quickly and so fluid that we have to stay on top of the privacy monitoring and maybe get reports from some of the administrators. How is it going within the classrooms with the students and the teachers? We need feedback and maybe to review that policy very often. Um another thing Actually the workshop I was the most disappointed in was autism in the classroom. But one thing that I found interesting and I again felt bad for myself being even though I was just principal at Trinity a small school that I didn't do this and it bothered me a lot when I heard this and I wonder if it has uh privacy implications but what about the staff members of the school not just the teachers but

026if a child is autistic maybe can't make direct eye contact um do the does the janitorial staff know about that the cafeteria staff. What about the bus drivers? Who needs to really know about each individual student and their needs? And it bothered me that I hadn't done that for the students that were under my care who were autistic. So, I don't know if that's an issue, but something I'll just throw out there. And then, of course, the ever popular electric buses. I went to a workshop on that and across the board, nobody's into it. not practical, not possible. And one superintendent had a very interesting point. He was from a large school in Long Island, hundreds of buses, you know, in his district. He said that his local fire department had come to him and

027said, you know, you can't park your buses the same way that you do the diesel buses. You can't you won't be able to park the electric buses the same way. They can't be that close to each other. You have to allow a distance. What if there's a fire on one of those buses? you can't put out the fires on these electric batteries. He said that that has the potential to be a disaster. And the superintendent said, I don't know where I'm going to put them then. I don't have the room to store 120 buses so far apart. Something I hadn't thought of. So there, although everybody agreed we're all about green energy, fabulous, wonderful, it just I don't think it's really been thought out yet. So that was it. And thank you again for allowing

028us to go. >> I don't think anything was thought out at all about electric buses. >> Pretty nervous about it. >> I uh I also attended and thank you uh to the board for allowing me to go. Uh I was able to have dinner with a recent Msina graduate which was uh which was great. Um I I did share a short report. You have access to it. I I I gave you links to the slide decks from everything I went to. I highlighted the ones I I felt were um most beneficial for me. Uh one was on budgetary insights. Uh uh another presentation I saw was from a district about three and a half hours south of here who in uh 12 months time was able to cut their chronic absenteeism in half uh with

029an in-house created plan. They they didn't purchase uh any kind of a program. um and uh that that superintendent is willing to take a call from our district if we were interested in learning more about it. But uh anyway, thank you. >> If it moves the needle at all, it seems like it's worth it just to make a call. One kid, >> it's worth it. >> It uh sounds to me like uh we've got some pretty good plans in place right now and I think we're probably going to hear about that uh shortly. So, >> okay, >> we're we're making some good gains here. Anyway, >> if I may add, Paul also placed a report for us to see. He also appreciates and wanted to share his thanks so we can see his notes on

030on online. And I I also met some contractors about the facilities because I'm on the facilities committee. I also looked at options and brought them to the committee. I know some contractor already called because they know what we're going to be doing, what we're planning on doing. So, they're proposing their offer. And in regards to AI, it's move like Joyce said, it's evolving very quickly and the students are already using it. The teachers are already using it. We have nothing against it. We just need to understand it, frame it so we can evolve in a good way with this uh new technology that's evolving. So, it's important to look at that and discuss a lot of stuff and they they provide a lot of help and they also offered their phone number because a lot

031of them are advanced on it. They're they tackled it they t tackled it a lot sooner than us. And in regards to buses, oh, that's another subject. So, I'll talk about it after. You have anything else after? I can jump in for some different subject. Um, next subject. >> I just want to I just I just wanted to report because we met October 29th with Roger Katenna. I don't know if we talking about it. >> I should I go ahead? >> Sure. Go ahead. >> Different subject. So if we want to report, we also met at Bose's Ogdensburg October 29th and met with Roger Katenna and it was very interesting was long very interesting. uh all the superintendent were there and what I uh noticed or what I appreciated the most is that with our

032what he said is that in our political environment there's a lot of uh frustration and he was saying that uh education is a stable of stability. So what we're doing now, what we should be doing is the same as what we used to do. Keep teaching the same traditional way or that were thought like 200 years ago. We we we had it right 200 years ago and sometimes we would just want to change something that's not going to it's not necessarily for the better. So anyway, it was interesting and he also talked gave us an update on the bus and he also mentioned that they're starting to realize that we don't have the infrastructure to have buses. I know there was a deadline to have electrified bus in 2035 and nobody has the infraction and

033us who have their own electricity in Msina if we can't do it oursel and we realize there's a lot of problem we talked with Msina electric the chances of this going forward are getting very slim just an update it was interesting to hear from him >> that's it thank you >> a couple of things uh first on buses um electric buses are really um problematic for not just the reasons you've mentioned. Uh another one of the big ones is actually heating. Electric heating is really difficult. Um one of the ways diesel does it is just running it through running the coolant under the bus to heat to heat it. And the way to get around that is basically in my opinion hybrid buses. And I I'd like to put put that thought in the back

034of your mind if you want to look into that later. Um the other thing is the um AI it's evolving faster than anyone can react and students will use it in any possible way to do anything whether it's more work or not just use AI and um but I think the way we should go about it in my opinion you don't have to do this But you I think you should embrace it like to ask the student to say they're using AI and let them use it to give them ideas. Don't let them plagiarize and copy exactly what they're doing, but let them go to it for um structure for ideas for um going going in and making uh uh finding spelling errors. I know Grammarly is possibly one of my favorite AI tools and

035it's yeah, you know, I I'm I'm glad you speak up and and because this is the this is the benefit of having you here because we need to hear this. So don't be afraid about speaking up. So AI is going to be like any other tool or system just like the internet will figure it out and none of us is big enough to stop it. The uh the model schools fall catalog from Nerk is it was loaded with courses for educators uh regarding AI using AI to create form Google forms sheets uh magic school AI uh quite a few courses are are offered just this fall and uh I I've taken some they're they're actually pretty solid informative It's a great >> tool. You just have to learn how to use it. >> AI is

036a time it's a timesaver >> for sure. >> One of the seminar I went was recommending that we start putting footnotes at the bottom of our work. Just like biography when you're not biography but the lit you know the books that you use to do a research you put your reference down at the bottom. When you do AI work you have to put it down. Did you use AI for 90% of your project? 50% 25% and where or what did you use for prompt to get the information that you collected for your work? I thought it was interesting just to be transparent and the teachers are being transparent. They're saving a lot of work. One of the teachers said she used AI to correct the student work. She uh corrected the first one or two.

037She had her correct book. should correct two or three copies and then she ask AI to help her correct and then she monitors closely for after three or four that she fixes. After that it was the same as her correcting the the AI understood the pattern and it corrected the rest of the the work which saved her a lot of work. So there's a lot of savings of time for the next generations by using the tool correctly. The only thing I might add is about um if you want students to cite every prompt, I think you might be going in the wrong direction and start pushing them away. Especially students that don't want to do more work. Citing every prompt, especially if you're having a conversation, is a lot of work. And I in my

038opinion the the way you might want to go is citing only the prompts that you like uh use in the like your final copy I guess. And um cuz I believe it was in an IV techn or use of technology conversation where they said you should cite everything that you ask AI during this whole project and I don't know that's I think a little bit too much even for stu high achieving students. So, >> so, so here's the reality and I think this is kind of the future coming down the road is that as much as there's reporting that AI is taking jobs, it's also creating jobs too. Companies are creating it because it requires human prompt and it re and it requires human review. And I recently noticed that colleges are even starting micro

039credentials in AI. Um, and another one I even reviewed was an associates in AI. So, I think that's only going to escalate and it's going to evolve to people actually getting probably master's um degrees in AI at some point in the near future. And so I as a school district um I don't think that it would hurt to maybe start a conversation now even if it's not you know necessarily needed but looking at potential intro coursework for our students right like ethical use of AI and um advanced uh prompting to be able to use AI as its at its uh full capacity um just to prepare them for the future and you know it's like um if if you had uh if you were a student in the early 2000s and I think about this

040myself because that's my generation. It's uh an IT degree who knew an IT degree was going to be so important and that's everything between cyber security and everything right now. So I think the more that we can get ahead of it and set our students up for that opportunity and and you know future successes would be now would be the time to have it before it's already skyrocketed. I think that's a really neat concept. >> Yeah. Teachers just have to be ahead of it. >> Exactly. Yeah. >> Right. And I'm not sure if you can even call it plagiarization, right? Because you're not I mean, you wouldn't want to use it as such, but it's not really it's not somebody's ideas. It's >> Well, yes, it is. The AI is trained off of other people's

041ideas and it just mis mismatches everything. And if you take directly from AI, you're technically plagiarizing hundreds of people. >> It's going through the legal it's going through the legal framework in in in defining plagiarism right now. And I don't think there's a solid answer on it yet. generative AI creates. >> Yeah, >> sure. That's a >> I was thinking about its use the other day for in a court, how it could replace a jury, but it can't because the sixth amendment peers, you have to have a jury of your peers. No. No. >> So, the other thing I just want to mention about the bus is as an analogy. I think perhaps a good way to look at it is like it's like forcing a third grader to do physics trying to move this

042quickly on getting um the infrastructure and everything set up to be able to you know if if they're going to set dates. It's like I'm saying it's like like trying to force a third grader to do physics. We're just not we're not there. Going back to what Andrew said before about the hybrid buses. I don't know if you noticed when we were down in New York City, the public transportation buses, they're hybrid yet they want us to get electric. I'll say no more. >> And we don't have the budgets either to support >> and they're super expensive compared to traditional bus. >> Okay. Um I don't have anything myself. Um reports for administration. >> So we have a number of presentations this evening and I'd like to start off with a presentation on our indigenous

043education program. I'd ask that Danielle Chapman come forward. She's our director and she has an entire team with her this evening. All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you for allowing us this time to speak about our indigenous education programming here at Msina. Um we receive four indigenous education grants. Um, and I do the easy work of the annual applications and final reports, but the team here, we're lacking some other um, staff members, but they do the hard work of working with our students and setting up all the programming that we have here um, at Msina. On the next slide, I just put in um, some data. Um it has changed already as I was um looking at our numbers yesterday. Uh we currently have 316 now um indigenous students. We have 94 at Jefferson, 27

044at Nightingale, 18 at Madison, 66 at JW Liry, and 111 at the high school. Um on the next slide, um Shelby Barrow is going to speak to you um about our students and where they come from. Hello. Um I'm Shelby Bureau. I work at Jefferson Elementary as the Title Six teacher native liaison. Um, I started at Msina Central in 2018 and my role um in Jefferson has changed as the student population has changed. Um, I currently work with students from kindergarten until grade to grade six and I work with them in ELA. I focus on helping them make the adjustment coming in from different um places, different school districts, uh different parts of Aquaznney and different um uh they all have a different path. So if you could take a look at the map, you

045will see that um I have numbered the schools that are on Aquaznney. You can see the territory um borders um is are quite distinct. you have uh the southern portion is located in New York State. So if you could take a look at the school labeled number one that is um the St. Richard Mohawk school which is part of the Salmon River Central School District. We see students um that come in um it used to be at Jefferson. They came into school starting in grade six because that is where the Mohawk school stopped. Um, prior to that, students would go right from the St. Bridges Mohawk School and would go to the junior high. Also in the southern portion of Aquaznney at number two, you will see the Aquaznney Freedom School. The Aquazni Freedom School

046um teaches uh it's an immersion school where they're learning Mohawk and tradition and culture. And that school, depending on who's enrolled, um, possibly goes up to grade 8. If you take a look at school number three, the location of that is on Cornwall Island, which is part of Ontario, all part of Aquaznney. School number three um, is part of the Aquazni Mohawk Board of Education. And that school is the Aquaznney Mohawk School, different from school number one. And in that school um they are taught standards aligned to the Ontario standards of Canada. And there they um it's primarily uh classes are taught in English with Mohawk language classes. If you look over to school number four that is in St. Reges, Quebec again part of Aquazni. And at that school they are that is Gennadyo

047school. Gennad school they are taught um prek and I believe it goes to grade six but I would have to double check on that. Um Mohawk immersion entirely. And then school number five is just school and that is a school that um has K through six primarily taught um standards according to um Ontario. I think they all follow Ontario guidelines for their standards and again taught in English with Mohawk language classes. The reason why I'm sharing some of this is to kind of uh speak on behalf of the students that are at Jefferson Elementary. Danielle had just stated, Mrs. Chapman had just stated that um our students are up to 94 students from Aquazusni and we I have been working with the students to help facilitate their um enrollment into Jefferson and their success. I

048support them in ELA learning, teaching them, students who come from Mohawk immersion to encourage and support the students to have a solid foundation to learn to read and write in English. So that may sometimes look very differently where I would have a first grade student who would come in and um I would have to uh just review letters, sounds and you know an understanding of the English language. Whereas in sixth grade the the gap is quite bigger. You have a student who is learning I have to teach letters and sounds but also get them acclimated to the classroom and get them set up for success for reading. Um I I involve the teachers, the students, the families and also administrators to keep um contact of what we're doing with the students and getting them the

049supports that they need while in also I encourage um cultural uh programming as well at Jefferson Elementary. And that's it for my part. All right. So, um Shelby explained a little bit more um back on the data page where we had that um the percentage of indigenous students in grade three um there were 54% that were two years um behind or more. And so just seeing that they're coming from Ontario standards, um, and coming into us, some of them as fifth and sixth graders that are just learning, you know, their letters and sounds, um, you know, gives you the realization of where they're coming from, but they work super hard to get them. Um, I love going to the meetings and hearing of their great success. Um so the next slide after Thank you. So

050one of our grants um the title six indigenous education funding is um federal funding and that serves um our kids from prek to grade 12. The grant objective is to increase graduation rate, increase the knowledge of cultural identity and awareness and increase academic achievement. This funding is um all voted on by a parent organization that has to have um a president and members that come um to vote on where the funding will be spent. It starts with a need survey of all of our indigenous families and then we narrow down um to what they want to spend that on. So, um for example, this year they wanted um supports for reading. Um they wanted cultural um a cultural teacher transportation for summer um summer school for our J um junior high and high school. We

051have culture classes and I'll talk about that more um at a later slide in our elementary this year. Um the we also fund field trips to the Aquazasnney Museum for all of our um fourth graders and supplies needed um in the classroom. The next slide is talking about our state funding. So that is our um indigenous education funding that comes from the state. that does not include prekers. Um the focus is academics and culture and language support. We do sign a um contract, a 10-year contract for that, but still annually you have to put in um what you will be using the money for. And then um we also also get additional funding for transportation um to the territory and tuition. our um so what we use the um state funding for is for our

052um reading teacher and we also have a teacher assistant that um helps Shelby at Jefferson because our immersion students are coming in our older students who are learning to read and write in English. We want to make sure that they're still able to get in with their peers and learn math and science and social. So, this um teacher assistant goes in to help them with reading. The next um grant is our My Brother's Keeper Indigenous Education Grant. Um the number there is wrong. We do support all of our students. So, at this point, 316. The grant objective is to implement a coherent cradle to college career initiative with an emphasis on boys and young men. and Ryan Ransom is going to tell you about all that he does with that. >> All right. Hello everyone.

053Like you said, my name is Ryan Ransom. I've been the grant coordinator for MBK since 2020. Um, and this program, this grant has changed a lot since I've kind of taken over. I focused a lot on bringing more culture into the school district for students. Uh brought in mentors and actually if you want if you can click on the middle image. So I I don't know if you know this. I did create a website for the grant. It's on the district website and it just shows the things I've done over the years. Uh talked about our various programming, current programming. The big thing I like to talk about are the mentors. I brought in college age mentors over the last few years. Um many of them are Msina alums and they've been working a lot

054with our students and I think that has proven to be very beneficial. Um, more students are coming in for academic support. And the last time I talked to um, our liaison down in Albany, they did mention that the graduation rate for our indigenous students here is higher than the overall population in Msina. So, I'm pretty happy about that. Um, and also like these this mentor program kind of benefits the district as well because a few of those have come to work at Msina. Um, you'll be hearing from one of them here in a minute. And uh, yeah, so the big thing we're working on right now is all my mentors have graduated, moved on, but I do have a few who I'm getting ready to bring back in. Um I've developed a steam room in

055the tech wing. So we have flight simulators, 3D printers. I do a lot of um activities with that as uh my main job is actually the assistant director for the NCT STEP program, North Country Science Technology Entry program out of Sunni Potam. So I work with students in grades 7 through 12 who are interested in STEM careers. So I've kind of been able to merge those two programs and um some of the benefits of that are uh we MBK helped uh NCTEP cover the costs of taking two students to the AC's national conference this year. That's the American Indian Science Engineering Society. Um, one of them was able to present her research she did. Uh, cuz I partner with the tribes my program, Mohawk Youth Health Ambassadors program where her students get to work with

056indigenous STEM professionals and if they want do research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. So, we've had a few students go there over the summer and conduct research with um, healthc care professionals. Uh last spring we formed what what's called an MBK community and with that I am working on partnering with outside organizations to help support our goals. I want to create a network where students have opportunities to maybe find a mentor in a field that they want to work in and with that comes the uh fellows program. Um, we have the opportunity once we become a community, we can apply for the fellows grant and that allows two junior males, two junior indigenous males to apply. They get accepted. Uh, we had two that were inducted this spring, uh, Kingston King and Andrew David. Uh,

057part of that fellows grant is they work with professionals that New York State MBK finds. Uh, it's kind of like a mentor program. They do a book study. They get work help with their college application essays. Uh they have networking opportunities. There's a few events that we have to go to down in Albany. Um we got to set up an internship for them and they have to do a service project. Uh I know Andrew is working on one with the uh cooking club. Kingston, him and I are working on setting his up at night andale. We want to develop a reading mentor program. So, one of the objectives for the community is that we pick they have national milestones. There's six of them. And the one we're focusing on right now is trying to ensure

058that all students are reading at grade level by grade three. So, he is uh recruiting students at the high school to go over to Nightingale and we're g they're going to be working with uh some of the students who are tier 2, tier three uh helping them with their reading, but he's also going to incorporate some cultural lessons. Um, and I know we're not going to be able to reach that goal because as Shelby mentioned before, we do have students who transfer in from immersion after grade three. So, my hope with them is that we can at least get them up to reading at grade level by the time they get to high school. And oh my god, my mind just went blank. Yeah. And I think that pretty much covers what I'm kind of

059doing with MBK right now. Uh there's a lot going on, but if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to me. Um each one of those pictures links to like the specifically the MBK community, MBK fellows. Um yeah, so if you have any questions, uh feel free to let me know. Thank you. >> Okay. Um we also do have an indigenous language grant. Um that's an annual grant that we get to um support students outside of the normal school day. Um so we will have um Gia Dundis Thompson come up and talk about what she is doing in her Mohawk language class. Gaand. Hello everyone. As mentioned, my name is Gaad Dand and this is my second official year in the district uh as a teacher. So I teach Mohawk language 1 and

060currently we have 23 students in grade 8 in two different classes and 13 students at the high school uh for grades nine and 10. I anticipate I'm very confident that uh in the next couple years that number will increase dramatically as more students and more families are more aware that Mohawk is now offered in the district. Uh we keep our themes and topics fairly in line with what our French one and Spanish one are teaching. So other than our introduction to self uh social and family relationships, food and meal prepping, health and wellness, we also cover the Ganya alphabet. It's very brand new to a lot of the learners. Uh we cover pronouns, particles, and there was phonics. And then what we just started this week was our galwaqua. So meaning our words before all

061else. It's a very important speech among the Haranoshuni people that reminds us to give thanks to all the things within the world that we have. Um so hoping that it's a learning that speech itself is a really positive influence on our students. Other than teaching Mohawk one, I also have a couple supported study classes which cater to a student each period. Um, and outside of that, I also help with Mohawk club. So, at the junior high, my students have been learning how to bead. So, there's an image of two young women who are starting their own project. So, I know they're making either a pin or a keychain. Um, and outside of that, I also meet once a month with currently one senior student who wanted to learn how to bead. So, he's learning how

062to make his own medallion, which he is going to proudly wear at graduation. Um, and I think that's it for me. Thank you. This is um our elementary Mohawk culture. Um just a snippet of in fourth grade. Um so Bear Fox and Millie King have been going to every um elementary school and they are going into grades four and six at Nightingale and Madison and they're going into grades four, five and six um at Jefferson and they are spreading awareness of the Mohawk culture. I have heard great reviews on this. I get um emails every day from teachers where they're going in and just sharing different um mohawk crafts, um song, dance, and then in May, we'll have a social where these students will be the ones that will um teach the rest of the

063school all of the different Mohawk dances. We now have um Robin Logan to share um her Hoden Noson culture class and her supported studygo. My name is Robin Logan. I've been working at Msina since 2012. So alto together about 10 years. Um this is my fourth consecutive year back in the district. I uh teach honosi culture and history which is an introduction course half credit elective that's offered to all Msina students. It covers the basis of hodnoson culture um social um political family structures. Uh we cover topics like the creation story. The students look in depth at the wampom use of wampam in diplomacy. They study um their own belt and then they make their own belts. So that is a course that I teach in the fall and in the spring. I also teach

064supported study which is uh the role of supported study is to provide culturally relevant programs and services to indigenous students within the school setting. I also work as the um adviser to Mohawk Club and the students plan the events that are happening um for Native American Day. Typically, they do some fundraising. They want to make some t-shirts, so they're working on that. Um it gives them some leadership skills. A lot of the students that are president or vice president um often ask me for references for college. So, they are a big part of uh Tuesday's Native American Day celebration. Um, I think that's it. There was a video link on there. I don't know if that's been taken off, but there was an interview um that David Somerstein did with NCPR for they covered I

065think it was 2017. They covered Native American Day. So, there was a little snippet on there, but I can share that at a later time. >> It It's on our copy. We have it. I can see it on my screen. >> I'll let you watch that at your own leisure, but since uh yeah, I think our time's up. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, um, when we reported this in October to the parent, um, at a parent meeting, it was an hour and a half long presentation. So, we tried to get it everything all into one. As you see, there's um, a lot of great things happening and all of these things are um, everyone in the whole district is able to attend. So you know even our um Mohawk language we have non-indigenous students

066in it also. Do you have any questions for any of us? >> I have a question. You mentioned that we we currently have 316 student. Could you tell me how it evolves from the last five years? Is it increasing? >> Yes, it certainly has increased. When I started this position um five years ago, we had um 2 I want to say 57. I can get you the exact numbers from um the last five years, but um then I remember we were in like the 260s. It was 274. Um last year we were 309 I believe and then this year 316. So, we're doing well and we're improving and according to what the lady just said, we might teach second language a little bit later if it keeps being popular. >> Yes, >> for sure. >>

067I also want to say, yeah, thank you for the presentation and and my son, I can attest that my son attended the uh one of your uh MBK program and he learned stuff that I wouldn't be able to teach him because so it was a great opportunity and he had a great experience many years a few years ago. I have a question and I didn't know there was a museum. So my question is how can the community being so close to the quasaste how can the community learn more? Is there places that we're are welcome to visit other than the casino? >> So sorry I need to be closer to the mic. It's practice for Tuesday. So um the Aquazni library is in Hogensburg. It's right kind of in the middle of Aquazni before you

068get to Bearsen on the left. They have a small museum and gift shop. Um there's the Native North American Traveling College on Cornwall Island that uh I think Mr. Sanchez had gone to this summer and my daughter and Addison Tarbell who's in the top picture there both uh gave him a tour and he raved about them. And um there's also just the governmental agencies that you could reach out to. um AMBI board of education language um program they have a lot of resources um on GAO there is the ADA building which they make Mohawk language resources as well >> where sorry where is that the one you just mentioned >> um on the Peace Tree Mall on the left before you cross onto Cornwall >> okay >> so it's but they have a website AE

069ad aa you'd have to look up Aquazasni development agency. So, and then there >> Yeah. So, AquaN economic development agency and then the travel Aqua Travel also has a website where they have things. Um, I think that covers most of it. Yeah. Okay, thank you. >> What's up? side for the next group. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you uh for that great presentation. And now I'm going to ask uh assistant superintendent Flynn and high school principal Mr. Oliver to present on our school data. >> Thank you, Mr. Burke. So I will start with our overall data and then uh Mr. Oliver will join for the high school. I'll wait until it gets up on our screen. There we go. Okay. So the first set of data that I always share this is the same

070annual report. So this this information is actually compilation of the 2425 school year. So last school year. So our enrollment has stayed uh pretty much the same over the last 5 years right around um the mid 2400s. And uh Rober um asking about Native American population over the last 5 years. That's on the next slide. And you'll notice my numbers are a little bit uh little bit under uh Mrs. Chapman's. And the reason for that is when some families enroll, they enroll as mixed race. And so this is how um state reporting on uh the very specific report that we pull for this information. So it looks a little bit um under. So ours shows 298 where her data says 316. So, this kind of just gives you a good visual of the increase over

071time in the last 5 years. Uh, the one on the bottom is our students with disabilities. Last school year, um, I'm sorry, uh, this this one, 431 students with disabilities on beds day, which is the beginning of October. Economically disadvantaged is is quite similar, but what I want to bring your attention to is the bottom right where you see our homeless numbers. um our homeless students went from 26 students to 44 students. So that's the largest amount that we've um seen and um this is where our community schools really comes into play. So we have a community schools coordinator and then we have a McKenna Vento liaison um and and we work with them and we also have specific title one funding that goes directly to these students when they need something. Um, for example,

072if they need a very specific calculator for uh math class or they need something for like a Boseis cosmetology kit, those are some things that we purchase for them. The next slide shows our migrant and foster care students which are holding pretty steady. And then yes, we are excited to give you an update about our chronic absenteeism. As you know, our district goals are ABC's, attendance benchmark, and climate culture. And we've really been all hands on deck as a district with our chronic absenteeism. And just as a reminder, chronic absenteeism is missing 10% or more days of school. Um, and so at the end of November, any student who misses six or more days is considered chronically absent. So, um, what we're doing each month is at the district level, we're working with our communications,

073um, to create images that all the principles and the district level use in their parent square newsletters and all the building principles have on their, um, TV screens in the lobbies and cafeterias for their students to see as well. Um, and it's just, you know, reminders of of the importance of attendance. Then each month um we are pulling our what we're calling level two yellow data. And the these are students that are close. They are chronically absent but one or two day shift and then they're no longer chronically absent. So we're really focused on those students that um really we're hoping to be able to shift. And what happens is each month we give that data to our building principles, our school counselors, our social workers, and then they work with the teachers um to

074look at those students. And each department chair and grade level leader has a very specific goal for um their team and they are looking at their rosters monthly and looking at students who are chronically absent and we're asking that they have outreach through Parent Square with direct messages. Um and I get reports of the number of direct messages and we are in the thousands um as a district. If you could go back one slide, Mr. Lincoln, please. So on on the bottom here, this is just a quick update. This was a celebration um that we had as a team. Last year at this time at the end of October, um our chronic absenteeism at the elementary level was 18.4 and currently we are at 16.5. Um, so that's a 2% improvement from this time last

075year. And again, just a a reminder, our goal for the end of this school year for elementary is 21%. At secondary, uh, this is the the the big celebration. This time last year, at the end of October, we were at 28.8% chronically absent at the secondary level. Um, and we are happy to report a 10% improvement at the secondary level. So uh at the end of October we are 18.2% chronically absent and again our end of year goal is 29%. So we are seeing improvement. Um again it is a team effort. We are talking about attendance all the time um at the teacher level at the student level at the the leadership level. Uh so we're we're seeing improvement and we hope to continue that. So the next slide uh the way we wrote our

076district goals is we separated them elementary and secondary. that makes most sense um the way our teams are. But the way state reporting is is chronic absenteeism is split by grades 1 through 8 and then 9 through 12. Um so in the blue that's all students. So in grades 1 through eight you kind of see it it remains the same around 25%. The other colors are the subgroups. Um and so we're looking at those subgroups as well. So, um, each month we are looking at our Native American population. Anyone that works directly with those students, they're getting those reports and asking for outreach as well. Um, and we're also focused on our homeless students with um, our McKenna Vento liaison and community schools coordinator. The 9 through 12 data uh in the blue again is

077all students and so um at the end of last year we were at 40% and again we are hoping to drastically decrease that number this year. So 3 through8 assessment data uh each year I show you three reports the percent proficient those are our level threes and fours our performance comparison to the region our St. Lawrence Lewis Boseies and then trends over time over five years. You all have access to this so I won't go in, you know, into the weeds of the all the numbers, but what I'd like to highlight is that last column. Uh in grades 3 through eight for ELA and math, we are um above the regional average in almost every grade level in ELA and math. Um so we were excited about that. Um, and we were ranked, I believe

078it was, um, third in our county for ELA, second in our county for math at 3 through eight, and then fourth overall. So, ELA, MA, math, and science. So, um, we definitely celebrated that with our staff. They do a great job um, working with our students. Then our five-year trends over time in almost all areas, you're going to see um, increase over time. And again, you can take a a closer look at those charts. This first one is 3 through8 ELA and the next one is 3 through8 math. And I will pause right there. Does anyone have any questions about chronic absenteeism or enrollment or 3 through8 before I hand it over to Mr. Oliver? >> Uh yes. Um so first your endofear goals um on the chronic absenteeism slide. Yeah. >> Uh it says

07921% or and 29%. What does that mean? I guess >> so. Uh when I presented the district goals, they were formatted in those ABCs and you see the posters around the school. Does that sound familiar of the red ABC? >> Vaguely. >> Okay. So what we did as a team is we took where we were last year and we said each year for chronic absenteeism at the secondary level 7 through 12 we wanted to decrease chronic absenteeism 2% each year so that in five years we saw a 10% improvement and so each year we have a goal that we're trying to hit. So at the end of this year for secondary level it will be 29%. Um, last year we didn't hit our goals, but now we are um well below what we were hoping

080to be with chronic absenteeism to meet the goal. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Yeah, it's a team effort. We're we're excited to be giving you this information. >> And Mr. Oliver, you are up. >> Hi everybody. Uh, so as you go into the region data, Chris, you can go forward a Nope. Uh, one more. We'll be I'll just quickly go over I know you've had one long presentation and I won't take too much of your time tonight. Um, we'll be looking at proficiency levels here tonight. We'll be looking at performance comparison with both Boseies and the Rick and then we'll also be looking at trends over time and I may or may not brag about one other thing in relationship to attendance tonight. Uh, so if you go to the next slide, this

081is just a reminder to the board. uh regions curricula and targets have been moving a lot over the last uh several years. This is just a partial list of curricular changes and test changes that we've been implementing over the high school the last several years. So at our level it's you're not always comparing apples with apples when you're looking at tests because some of these tests have shifted massively over the last few years and how they're taught. particularly last year was the year that bio changed in a big way and that ch that test was very different than what it was in years prior. So that's just something to take a look at going into it. So the next slide becomes the the performance level. I won't go into the details on this. I will

082say that our chart off to the left comparing us or to the right comparing us to the Boseies and Nerk is not nearly as nice as the one that Mrs. uh Flynn got to present up there. But if you take a close look at it, you'll see in several areas we're below. But if you get into the data, we're very very close in most of the areas where we're below. It's only a percentage point or two off in most cases. There are a couple of notable exceptions in there and we've spoken about those before. There's a couple of curricular areas that we have some we have some work to do. Uh and we compare pretty favorably with the Rick across most of the board. Uh so that would be the sort of general uh comparison

083of our scores. If you move on to the next uh our five-year trends, uh we're still kind of the tail end of Boseies at the beginning of these. So most of these you can see a drop in a year or excuse me tail end of COVID and then things flatten. Uh the three that you're looking at there would be our math trends. One of our areas as we've talked about is algebra. there's, you know, we continue to have some issues there and we're continuing to work on that. Our trend in uh algebra 2 trigonometry class is pretty flat, but at a very high level. It's one of our areas of success and one of the areas we're strongest at at the high school is our geometry. Uh not only are we on a strong upward

084trend in ge geometry, we're pretty much towards the top of the pack in that particular uh test. Uh next slide would be ELA. our ELA five-year trend. We had a big dip a couple of years ago. We seem to be on an uptrend, but I want to see that going on for a couple more years before I'll say that out loud. Uh moving on to uh our science. Uh science for the most part is good. We uh even with the new biocurriculum, we we went up a piece last year. Uh the trend in chemistry is down, but I can tell you the trend in chemistry is down everywhere. Uh, I don't know what that is. And there's a new curriculum that's implemented brand new this year in chemistry. So, we'll see how that all shakes

085out. Our earth science are flat but at a very high level. We have very strong instruction there. And physics is also flatish but at a quite a high level as well. Uh, the next slide is looking at some of our social studies. Very happy. When we stood here last year, social studies was one of the areas that sort of jumped out at us. We put a substantial amount of effort into that. We were able to see some really nice gains in our social studies scores this past year. Uh so that's a big tribute to the folks in those departments. Um next up, uh before I get into the lifetrack data, um I did want to make a point that when you every year I come here and we talk about the region scores and there's

086always the proverbial what are you going to do about it? and we very much went back to basics this year and we're all in on attendance at the high school. Um Chris, if you could show that other slide I prepared for you. You guys don't have this one, but tell me, can you see it on your TV up front there? And I can get Mr. Burke to share this one out to you. This is one that I shared with my staff at a faculty meeting this week. As Mrs. Flynn said, we're all over attendance. She looks at chronic absenteeism for the year. I tend to report in terms of daily attendance rates in the building. So, this chart that you're taking a look at, the blue columns would be last year and the green columns

087will be this year. Andrew, if you're bored, I'm sorry because you saw this this morning. Uh, so what you can see, the first two columns are populations and grade levels. The next two columns are the numbers of days that those students missed, and that would be from the start of school to the time period we're in now. And the last two columns are the average daily attendance rates. So what I would draw your attention to is the days missed between last year and this year. Um with our focus on attendance this year in the first two and a halfish halfish months of school our students which there's 20 less of this year have been in school almost 1,200 days more than they were through this same point in time last year. Uh, so when you

088ask what are we doing about some of the things on regions? Yes, we're doing the curricular work. The end of the day, you can't perform on the regions if you're not here to get the content. So, we're all in on making sure our kids are here to get the content. Uh, I've worked in this district for 20 years. To move the attendance daily percentage rate a half a percent is a big deal. And we're over we're what 3% up on the year so far. Last year, it was not uncommon for me to have daily attendance rates, particularly for some grade levels in the 80s or 70s. I barely ever dip out of the 90s now. Uh, and I track it every day on the TVs up here in the school. So, it's a big uh

089it's a big just a tremendous effort by everybody at the high school. Uh, so and everywhere in the district, but I'll brag particularly on the high school. So, that I just wanted to share with you as well. Uh, you can go back to the other presentation, Mr. Lincoln. Uh, last year you we it was a goal of the school board to get lifetrack out to our seniors and get data. I believe you guys have all the data from the lifetrack linked into your agenda. We just wanted to call your attention to a couple of things on the next slide. Um, you know, this slide is kind of showing where our students plans are. So, this is our seniors last year self-reporting. You can see the vast majority of them are heading towards a four-year college

090and another big group are going to two-year colleges and then a lot of them are either planning to work full-time or part-time. Good information to have. For me, the better information to have is the amount of people that think they were prepared walking out of our school. So, as reported by them, they're they're giving us a favorable response to how they feel walking out of here. Obviously, that 75% could be 85 or 95. There's room to grow there, but that's a fairly that's a number that makes me feel pretty good to see up on the board there. And I think Mr. Lincoln Oh, graduation rates. How could I forget? Next slide. Uh the New York State data isn't out yet, so we're just giving you our data in these slides right here. Uh so the

091next slide would be uh the June graduation rate and the August graduation rate. You have to remember we always present them both. Our June graduation rate moved upwards a little bit last year. So, that was a good sign. Our August graduation rate was a little flat if it didn't go backwards a little bit last year. Uh, but this has been the stickiest number of all in my 20 years of being here. It it is it has been bumping right around the same three or 4% as long as I've been here and it's not for lack of effort. Uh the next slide would then show you the subgroup graduation rates and these are all broken down. You can see that um you know dropout rate seems to have gone down a little bit. Uh there's some

092trends in there that we're working on and some things that we need to work on. Our students with disabilities is something we always pay attention to. Uh but that is really the high school or the secondary data for this stuff this year. I think that's the end of it now. Any questions on the region's data or the attendance data or any of it? >> Just a quick question on the algebra one. It looks like the proficiency was quite low and then the algebra 2 jumped. Is that because they fall off there? >> Um I would say it's a matter of uh the scale of the numbers of students and who's taking the class. So at algebra 1, that's the benchmark test that all students have to take to get out of the school. Whereas when

093you get into the algebra 2, you don't have to take that course. So the students who are taking that course tend to be um more on a traditional college path or whatever you would say about that. So the the algebra test is the one we're trying to get everybody through. And it's it's it's it's it's definitely one that we pay a lot of attention to and we're working hard on. Any other questions? All right, I'll get out of the way because I think you have another presentation. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Oliver and Mrs. Flynn. And I'm going to ask Miss Miss Wells to come forward to present on special education, please. Hi everyone. I'm pretty loud. It's my first time speaking up here. So, um, thank you for inviting us to speak. I do have,

094uh, at least a part of my dream team in the back here. There are um four of us now in the special education office that are running um approximately between 800 and 900 meetings a year. Um so that is a a that's a lot of meetings. So we we work hard and I just wanted to show you a little bit of what we've been doing so far. So, I wanted to start with our continuum of services. And people talk about special special education and and might think of maybe a resource room or a special class in one of our in one of our schools, but really when you think of a continuum, it it is it's a scaffold of services that you that you use to support your students. So, right at the bottom is

095general education, you know, where everybody has access to everybody and everyone in the building. Um it kind of goes up a little bit. Um you know whether or not it would be a uh just some support within the classroom, you know, modifications, accommodations that help support the student. Um moving into a resource room. Um again, you know, you can have more than one resource room and then moving into special classes and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. um all the way up into residential placements or even hospitalizations or extended stays. So that's where when when a student starts, you know, they everyone starts at the bottom in general ed and kind of if you need services, you work your way up. Mr. Lincoln, this is basically the same um the

096same information, but I wasn't sure if you were more of a horizontal or a vertical learner, so I wanted to make sure everybody had their own accommodations today. Um Mr. Lincoln, uh our special education staff, I knew I wouldn't be able to read it from here. Um h quite a few special education teachers can't read the numbers. Um I think we have about 37 if I remember. Special education teacher assistants 18. We have uh five six five or six speech therapists depending on where we are in the hiring process right now. Hoping to have six soon. Um which means uh that's the equivalent of three per elementary building and then those speech therapists move into the district where the needs are. We have three occupational therapists, zero physical therapists, uh, four school psychologists, and one

097intern right now working with Megan Castell in the high school. We have two testing room teacher assistants. Um, we have two teacher assistants that are 504 coordinators. We have 100 plus aids and we have a job coach in the high school. And that is really where most of our personnel is. We have at Msina very specialized program. So on top of resource rooms, on top of 1211s, 1511s, we also have our please program which we move from the high school over to night andale. We have two DTT classrooms which are very highly specialized classrooms that work on ABA um discrete trial. Um, I think I put a little thing in there just to tell you what that meant. Uh, we have our PSPK, which is our special education preschool program, which has about 11 students

098in it. We have always more to come in. We have our IPK over at Madison, which is a classroom of 12 students, six special education preschoolers, six general education preschoolers. We have adaptive PE that's in I think uh four out of the five buildings right now and we have a a combination of 1211s and 1511s throughout the district. Also at Seaway Tech we um support our students there too. Those are the programs that all special education and gened students can attend. And if you do have services and you do go to Seaway Tech, there is uh there are special education teachers there to support you in both uh as a consultant role and actually with homework help there too. >> What you mean to do? >> We have um a waiting list for quite a

099few services right now. Uh physical therapy, we have a waiting list of probably um about 20 on the list there. Occupational therapy, we also have a waiting list. And at this uh right now, we are not able to kind of provide occupational therapy in some of our kindergarten classrooms where we we do a lot of cutting and gluing and just kind of preventative things. Um, most teachers will tell you that kids are coming into school not ready to have a crayon in their hand, not ready to use scissors, not able to glue. Um, they have been attached to a tablet and that really has not helped their their hand strength, their their visuals, um, motors, any any of their motor problems. So, that is where we are with occupational therapy. It really is a a

100big help in the classrooms. Speech therapies. Hoping that when um we have another speech therapist that possibly will be part of the district, um she will absorb an awful lot of the students that are both prek and on a waiting list in and regular education. And our behavioral consultant. So right now with only four school psychologists, um a lot of that behavioral consultant uh piece that a school psych would do is kind of left behind because of the amount of um testing and supporting their building. That also has to go on too. Um our team developed the one-stop shop for special education this year. So, every single special education teacher has access or anybody that kind of falls under our umbrella. We've put everything there on this um on this web page that has everything

101that they can they need throughout the year. Um all of their documentations, how to write IEPs, you know, class buildings, um teachers and who's assigned to classrooms. It really is hard uh keeping track of the staff members that are attached to each classroom. Uh people move a lot, so this is kind of a just a good graphic organizer for everybody. Um we also have um built-in staff meetings for our special education teachers. Now, Anna and I have been going to every building once a month and having a regular staff meeting with all of our our special education teachers, uh the teachers assistants, and all the related service providers that are in the um the buildings. Um we were there for about 20 minutes and uh go our merry way, but it's nice to connect. It's

102nice to get to know them. It's nice to see what they're doing in the classrooms, and they really are doing amazing things. So, it it's it's been great. It's been just a great process working here in special education. Is there any more slides, Chris? I think I'm done. Any questions? Yes, >> Amy. Amy, let's see. On slide number five, I'm not sure of all these acronyms. DTT. >> So, it's a discrete trial. Um, that's basically what it means. um you go in and then I don't know if you've heard of ABA from from any of the Boseies. So it's a applied behavioral analysis. So it's just a very systematic approach to teaching students that really do have trouble learning the traditional way. So a lot of um getting compliance out of them. A lot of

103for instance uh touch blue, touched blue, touch blue. They don't want to touch blue touch your nose. Distraction and then teaching. distraction and teaching kind of thing. >> Wow. >> A lot um most most of our students that have a pretty high needs with autism are in those programs. >> Okay. Okay. >> Um I have a question. Uh do you mean by students are not ready to use a crayon? >> Uh they just don't have the fine motor to be able to hold crayons. We expect them to write their name and they can't even hold a pen. >> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> Yeah. Quick question. What's What's a job coach? Is he just for special? >> Um right now, yep. That's what the job coach is used for. So, some of our students uh

104don't actually Well, not actually. they they are part of a work program here and that's how they earn credits for graduation. So they have somebody that that works with them on uh being a janitor or works with them in in the kitchen of how to, you know, take garbage out. So things like that, somebody to support them as they work. >> Uh next question. We have zero pity. >> We don't have our own physical therapist. Our physical therapist is somebody that we contract. >> Is there do we have is this normal or >> this is the way it's been since um I've been here. >> Do you like that? Do you like that? >> No. >> Nice presentation. A lot of stuff. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you. >>

105Thanks Amy. Uh next up under my report is this evening we will be looking at the budget calendar to have that approved. And basically with the budget calendar we have to work backwards from when the date of the budget vote is which is established by the state of New York and then we have to meet all the statutory regulations in terms of public hearings, public notifications, that type of thing. Um, we actually began the budget calendar this evening with our first finance committee meeting just taking a very preliminary look at what um, our fund balance may look like at the end of this year and what we're projecting for some of the major expenses for the future in terms of next year. Any questions about the budget calendar? >> Yes, budget calendar. Oh, it's not

106a school calendar. Sorry. Good. Okay. Uh we have a bus utilization request from PAL for Monday. Um they will be on uh it's a half day for our elementary students due to parent teacher conferences and they are looking to take two buses to the Mccandre Nature Center. Uh the last month or so I've also talked to the board um about the need for us to authorize probation officers to be armed. Um that is something that's coming down from the county and if you've read anything in the news as of late there was a delay in that. Um they first thought it would be a delay in um obtaining the the weapons. Um however the weapons came but because they anticipated a delay in the weaponry. They put a delay on the training and now that

107they've delayed the training they're struggling to try to get that up and going. Um we could delay this vote. However, I'm going to ask that the board not because something some miracle might happen um where the training is um imminent um that way we're at least prepared to provide that authorization for our probation officer um to to be armed. And I do want to just go through why we have probation officers here. We have what's a process that's called pins. it's a pupil in or person in need of supervision and that goes through family court and when that's been assigned they have a probation officer assigned and they are an integral part of our team that works with the student and with the family. Um so again that this will allow our probation officer to

108actually be in in the buildings and on our campus. Um that will be a condition of their employment is once they are trained they will have to wear their sidearm. Questions on that? Should we already have probation officers on campus? So, shouldn't the re the the recommendation be authorization of armed probation officers on campus? >> It should be. Yes. >> Should we add something in pending completion of training? >> That we we can certainly put that in there. Um because that that's >> just because we're preemp sort of preemptively doing it and no one waiting for them to get trained. >> So approval of armed probation officers on campus and perhaps it should even in instead of saying training it should say authorization by St. Lawrence County. >> Okay. Okay, moving on. We uh as

109indicated a number of months ago, we had to add a cardiac emergency response plan to our district safety plan. That has been done. We are continuing to educate or train people on CPR and AED. The public comment period has now ended and this will put us ahead of the game by about 45 days where it has to be authorized by I believe it's January 1st. And my last item is requesting that the board approve retroactively a donation from the Home Depot. And these were boxes that were provided um to community schools which was instrumental in working with the Salvation Army and the food pantry to uh produce I believe it was 57 supplemental food boxes. And when I say food boxes, it was actually two boxes worth of food. Probably enough to feed most families

110for at least anywhere from seven to 14 days that was provided. Um and actually I think was actually more than 57. Was it 60 or 65? >> So, um during that day of packing, the boxes ran out and uh our community schools uh coordinator Emily went right to Home Depot, want to know what they would charge and they said, "There you go, take what you need." Um so, we ended up with some really great moving boxes. So, again, huge thank you to uh Home Depot for that donation. And on that note, I would like to also again just publicly thank uh the folks that were truly instrumental and that was Emily Kimble, Ashley Snider did just a tremendous amount of work together behind the scenes and uh ended up getting again a large number of

111families that needed food um to get through that SNAP benefit crisis. So again, a huge thank you to all of those folks that work so hard in the Salvation Army uh the food pantry. We also hadn't had an emergency meeting the week prior um where we invited all the food pantries in from the local area. Um members of the clergy, members of the churches and uh again just a great great community effort uh which really is indicative of who Msina is as a community that people just came together. It was a meeting I think we put together within I think it was under 72 hours and uh my office was full of uh people that are the movers and the shakers that can get things done on a on a moment's notice. So again just

112a great great effort and we also had local politicians there as well giving their support. That's all I have Mr. Petta. Okay. Recommended actions. The consent agenda items for action. We get a motion for the consent agenda. >> Just question. Motion. >> Do we have a second? >> We have a motion and a second. Discussion. I would like to know what you think as a board chair of the finance department. What do you think of the budget status report because I tried to make sense and I didn't understand correctly. So I'll go with your opinion if you're good with it. >> What's Mallerie think? What what was your concern about it? >> The report because I bec I I would like to see I would like to see it differently. So, I didn't go through

113all the lines, but you sit in the budget. >> You're you're the chair, so you're comfortable with >> I'm okay with it. >> That's all that's all I wanted to know before I vote. >> If you're feel like this is a baited question, if you're good with it, then I'm good with it because I didn't I didn't look I have to vote independently. I would like to know what I'm voting on. And if you I trust >> Could you Could you call Mallerie sometime and find out whatever? Is that >> reasonable? I mean to to get your questions are cleared up. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. Good. Mallerie >> there. Very good. Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor. Motion carries. Uh approval of the 2627 budget calendar. There a motion.

114Second. >> We have a first and a second. Any questions? All in favor? Five. That's all of us. Motion carries. Approval of the bus utilization request. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? Five. Motion carries. Oh, maybe I'll get this right. Approval of the county authorized armed probation officers on campus. >> Second. >> Any questions? All in favor. That's five. Motion carries. Approval of the cardiac emergency response plan annex. >> So move. >> Second. Any discussion? Good. Dan, you're digging in. >> No, I'm good. >> Okay. Uh, get vote for it. >> One, two, three, four, five. Yeah. Five >> against. Nobody. >> Someone against it. >> No. >> Okay. Let's see. Okay. and approval of personnel action items. Superintendent B. >> That's right. I recommend approval of the action items

115listed as numbers 1 through 46. >> So move second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. Addendum. Well, Ron, sorry. Was it was that >> I did all I did all of them together 1 through 46. >> Okay. >> Resolution for the sick leave allowance >> and then for the resolution of a sick leave allowance for one of our new employees that was just hired uh to carry over sick days from her current employment. >> Can we get a motion? >> So move. >> That's for the resolution of sick leave allowance. >> Yes. Correct. >> Your second? >> Yes. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Motion carries. >> What do we do with the second one? Uh before do we have to move? Do we have to make a motion to not vote on

116it? >> For which one? Addendum personnel. He he car one through 46 covered all. >> So we don't have to say nothing because it's on the agenda. >> I did one through 46 as the totality. >> Okay. >> If that works for everybody, we can do that in the future or >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, and then any new business or items for further agendas? >> Yep, I've got something. Um, so I thought Mr. Oliver kind of gave us the really uh positive general overview that came with the lifetrack survey. Um, but as always, we want our district to be the best that it possibly can, right? So now the fact that we have all this data, I think we should just dive into it in a deeper discussion. And for instance, like the the

117biggest thing most important thing is that you know when I was looking at the narrative um the students the graduating seniors reported strong instruction and caring staff. I mean that's the basis for solid academic confidence right and that's that's really important. So some of the the minor things but are really instrumental to our student success that they pointed out is going to be um you know career and postsecary readiness and I think that we should have some discussion on that because I did write down in my notes um one-third of students indicated issues with career preparation. And now it's double-edged sword because the reality is we're trying to ask 18-year-olds to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their life. But if there's anything that we can do as a district,

118you know, whether it be providing at the board level more support to our guidance or advisory or whatever that case may be for our our uh high school students, um I think it's worthy of a of a discussion. And so that was kind of the big thing that I just pulled out of there. But as Mr. Oliver pointed out, I would say the general overview is that um you know the students were happy with their uh school experience. But >> yep. >> Uh I think that an AI class would be really helpful to that as well as uh laptops in the school. >> But you're right, um Zach, if if we're going to do the live track, then we have to do it. We have to take the results and and act on it or

119see where we can go further. You're absolutely right. I agree with you. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Joyce mentioned earlier that she doesn't know what's going on in our between our walls. So, and we have an electric car and some cool stuff going on in the back here. >> Yes. >> Should we have a presentation on learning more about the cool stuff we have? >> So, we can certainly add that. We we crammed a lot into tonight and I think we took one from February and moved it to this evening >> so we do have access. So if you certainly >> sorry if you'd like more presentations like that we can certainly not sure if yeah Mr. Oliver is still here. I'm sure that he would love to uh talk more about the technology program

120that's attracting some of our students. I think last year we had uh Mr. Thomas and Mr. Jaggers uh here presenting about welding and >> about the switch car. So, I know we didn't let any of you folks take the switch car for a ride, but uh you know, when when the weather clears, that might be a possibility. >> And perhaps we could again focusing on the communication with the community, let the community know that there is going to be a present presentation on that. >> Certainly. >> Okay. Um any other items for further agendas? Any other communications or comments from the public and press? Probably not. Okay. Uh we do not we don't need to anticipate executive session. Okay. So, can we get a motion for adjournment? >> Any discussion further? >> Who wants Who

121wants an executive session? Uh, I think it was Zach, I think, wasn't it? >> Did you see that? Sorry, I jumped in there.