001employers that we have a trained CPR AED certified individual um on site for all of our school sponsored events. And we currently have a list of I believe it's over 60 people um that are certified. That list will continue to be updated. We still have about 60 more people on staff that are looking to become certified at the end of the year. We do have to report to state dead and to the Fort Drum Regional Provider Health Organization um how many cardiac arrest situations we've had, which hopefully we'll be reporting as a zero, but we do have to report that information. And we'll annually update as well our list of um certified staff. And that's really the crux of the entire annex. But, uh, we do have a lot of people that want to be,
002um, trained and are doing it now. So, No, we don't have portables at the elementary for that. But what we can we're going to be looking more at um having a couple at the bus garage for when they do go out on field trips. Yep. >> Yep. And that's really all that I have to report on who's responsible for the maintenance of the AEDs at our at the district because it's a very I I know a bit about it. It's very there's a lot of like parts that expire all the pads expire batteries and whatnot. So I was just curious. >> So it's our head RN and goes through each year and she has an actual great list of when the actual machine expires when all the pads expire. on that. Last year we changed
003the pad on last year and we found a couple of AEDs that needed to be replaced and we also found a number of pads that were expired so or coming close to expiring and we've actually created a line item in the budget for that purpose. >> Right. Okay. Um communications public and press. Do we have anyone here from the public or press who had any questions or comments? >> Okay, moving along. Um board correspondence. Uh I don't believe we have any um and information and reports. So this evening the audit committee met with Jason Coleman of uh FA Charles. Um we we went over the audit for the district. Uh there were no no um negative comments. Everything was positive. Um which is great news. Um we're in great shape. Any There's a If anyone
004wants I don't know if the copies got distributed. I put a pile of them down there. There's a pile for everyone who didn't have one. >> Oh, did you? >> Okay. Does anyone have any questions at all about that? Excellent. We're moving. Great. Reports from board members. Um, Andrew, do you have a microphone? >> Uh, yes. Yes, you do. >> Yes. Nice. >> Excellent. So I have a presentation linked on the slides. Um so first thing uh the laptop laptop cards are being worked on by Mr. Burke and Mr. Oliver. Um we hope to get that with um hope to get that up and running within the high school soon. It'll be one cart uh with laptops that a teacher can sign out with. Um so you a teacher can select to bring it to
005their classroom for the period to let their students have access to a more powerful computing device rather than taking their class on a field trip to the computer lounge. Um the second thing um the spirit week and homecoming this Saturday at the high school uh has been going well. Uh there are lots lots of pictures and lot lots of teachers and kids having fun with the whole with the whole ordeal with um you can you can see in most of the pictures there is also a teacher with um with many of them wearing wigs or dressing as students. And in the bottom left you can see Mr. Barlo with his five doubles. And then we had our first cooking club where I um showed everyone how to make pasta salad. Uh there are a few
006pictures on the next page and yeah, no no comments. It went well. And if Mr. Petta would like to come to the next one maybe. >> When is it? >> We haven't set a date yet, but it would be after school. Probably a Wednesday and Thursday or Tuesday and Wednesday from 2:30 to 3. >> After school for you, but work for me, but I'll see what I can do. >> Okay. Thank you. >> If I can accommodate you, I will. Uh so we had six this time around but um there are about 12 in Google classroom and I know of a few more that have expressed interest but I'm not joined. >> Thank you. I think >> uh yes the pasta salad has >> it is okay. >> Excellent. That's an awesome idea >> and
007I I think it's excellent that take this kind of initiative because learning to feed yourself is a very important thing important part of being a human. >> I know uh my mom in college would just take a head of lettuce and some ranch every night. So >> there's there's been >> lots of questionable diets that occurred in college. We won't use those for good examples. Any questions? Okay. Uh, facilities committee >> testing. Testing. Can you hear me? So, the facilities committee met uh September 29th, 5:00 at the uh cabin. We had for guests Mr. Peter KL from GIO. He introduced himself and uh it was the first time we had a meeting with him after the interview. He uh had did a great presentation about who he is, what he's going to do for us.
008So it looks promising. He we then did a recap with Greg about recent incidents at junior high in Nightingale water problems. We talked about the capital project for a length of time. Uh we're going to have two phases. It's going to start in the winter break of 2027. Second phase will be in 28 and it's going to con should conclude in 2029 if no big problems arises. The uh we talked with Mr. uh Peter from Gimo and he mentioned that he's going to avoid second shift work at school because they're not productive and he's going to focus on having a team from contractors. So only good things we heard. He works uh on a regular base with King and King. So he's getting there's good communication with our architect firm. So it's good to hear
009also talking with Mr. Oliver about the best time to do to plan all those intervention how he's going to work with the high school. So it was good to hear as well. We also talked about the recent badges change that the high the the entire school district went through. So Mike worked on almost 400 badges to replace. I think it's the end of it. I think we're at the end of this project and we also talked about ash trees that are dead and need to be repa uh not replaced but cut down at Jefferson. We concluded after 6 p.m. and the next meeting will be October 27th at 5 at night. Any questions? Okay. Um, policy committee committee Monroe. >> Okay. The policy committee met last week uh October 7th. Uh, attend in attendance was
010Joyce, myself, and Mr. Burke. There were two policies uh that had Eerie 1 updates. The first one was 7513 medication and personal care items. along with the regulation to that of guidelines for administering medication in school. Uh there were no major changes to that policy. Uh it was just a a simple rearrangement of wording within that policy. Um 7521 which is students with life-threatening health conditions along with the uh the regulation to that of students with allergies and or anaphilaxis. So again with that policy in the ER1 update there was some rearrangement of wording within the policy there was an update to part E of that policy which stated that um NLOX Nlloxxone use and administration uh we were advised by Mr. Burke that as a district we operate under item three within that policy
011as it stated that the district participates in an existing New York State Department of Health overdose prevention program operated by another organization. Now the other piece to that policy was the addition of part F uh which is regarding epinephrine auto injectors for use during emergency situations. So those were the two updates to that that policy 7521 7521 regulation. Um and then the remainder of the policies uh 5413 procurement for UGG for federal awards 5510 accounting of funds 5520 extra classroom fund and 5530 petty cash in cash and 5540 annual financial statement. Uh those were all review only. We did review them and we did not uh see a need for any updates. So reviews seem to be okay on those. Um the last one is uh there was some discussion around 3411 um regarding some
012St. Lawrence County probation department updates, but I am going to uh put that on pause because Mr. Burke has that as part of his superintendence update for further discussion. So that's all I've got. Any questions? Good. Bruce have a question. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, I don't have anything myself this evening report. Um, Mr. Burke. So, first I'd like to start off with schoolboard recognition week. And this is that one week where we get to show our appreciation for all the work that our nine volunteers do for our our students, for our school, for our community. And really, the work that the school board does is absolutely critical. And I think that not to put any other school boards down, but I take a lot of pride in our school board, our nine members. Um, for
013anyone who is here for the public discussion that we had about the NISBA highlights and and legislative actions, it was a group of people that were having dialogue, not always agreeing, but listening to one another and saying things like, "I see your point. I hadn't thought of that before." And you do that on a regular basis every month. You you have dialogue. You talk about what you believe and you talk about why you're believing that. and you do it with intentionality. And I think as role models for our community, this school board does an outstanding job. And so you have a small token of our appreciation tonight. Um hopefully you'll wear that shirt with pride. Um because it is the work that you folks do that should make us all proud. It allows us to
014do our work um here in the school. So I want to thank every one of you. Um, again, great role models and it's an absolute pleasure to work with this board and uh, again, you you set the you set the bar high for public discourse and uh, you should take a lot of pride in that. So, I know I take great pride in being your superintendent because of this board. So, thank you for all that you do. We will skip over food service for just a few minutes um, until Kristen um, arrives. She was planning on 7 o'clock. As Zach said, we have to we do need to take a look at policy 3411, which is regarding um the possession of a weapon on school grounds. As I've shared with the board, excuse me, St.
015Lawrence County is moving in the direction that they will be arming their probation officers. We originally thought it would be coming in December. I was told late this afternoon that that may be delayed um until early um well late winter or early spring while they finish ironing out some of their details. I did share the policy that St. Lawrence County has come up with. Essentially, what the policy states is that folks that are already probation officers will have the choice to be armed. New pro new probation officers will be required to be armed in St. Lawrence County. We are one of the last counties to do this um around the state. That's happened. Under our policy 3411, this board has the ability um to provide permission for somebody who is not law enforcement to carry
016a sidearm. As a probation officer, they are not considered law enforcement officers. They are considered peace officers. And when you look at the policy that the county has come up with, it's really requiring everything that they're requiring of a police officer that they go through all the training that they have gone through a psychological background. Anything that a police officer would be able would be required of, they are also being required. What I will be recommending to the board in November is that we provide written permission for St. Orange County probation officers who have been duly certified by the county to be armed while at school. We have a very close working relationship with our probation officer. Um so much so that parents are actually asking for her work, for her help with their kids.
017Um she's in our building on almost a daily basis. She's there whenever we need her. Um, and again, I don't want to take a chance of losing having her ability to be in the building. Um, her work is so incredibly valuable that I half jokingly, but really more serious, offered her office space. Um, just stay with us. Um, because of the value that she brings to our kids. I am confident that if she passes everything with the county that she would be fine to have a sidearm. I've spoken with Officer Flynn. he is also in agreement with that um aspect as well. So again, it's certainly open for discussion, but it'll be my recommendation as an action item next month. Any questions on that? >> Yes. So my my understanding is that she even though
018it's optional for her, she will be going through that process. How often is she on our school every day? >> Kind of depends on what our case load is with students. Um the past two weeks she's probably been here just about every other day if not a little bit more frequent. >> Uh junior high and high school. >> How long does she stay at school? An hour? >> It really depends on what we're here for. Um, so she attends a lot of the superintendent hearings. Um, because a lot of times if we think we need if we have a student who's really facing some difficulties in life, it's important to get them into that pins process and having her there. Again, we I've had parents actually ask, you know, why isn't she here? We should
019have her. Um, so again, it depends how really what our case load is and what the needs of the students are. at all times. >> They communicate, I would say, probably more regularly than Officer Flynn and I do. Um, he's they're on speed dial to one another. They're texting. Um, so there's a lot of sharing of information there between the two entities. Um, and when you look at the policy, the policy that the county has, I I shared that last, I think this past weekend or the week before with the board. Um, you can see all the training and all the requirements. They have to count, they have to turn their weapon in at night. They have to count account for all the ammunition. Um, they're very strict protocols. They also have to carry the
020um, pepper spray. That's the first course of action, non-lethal. Um, they do have to have a badge. She has to be the the badge that's issued by the county. Um there will be she has to have on something that identifies her as St. Lawrence County probation. There are some and I'll be honest, there are some superintendent that uh really want that emlazened all across her all across her back or across the front so it's very readily identifiable from a distance. I'm taking the opposite approach. Keep it lowkey. the badge, something underneath that just says SLC probation because we have to remember she's dealing with students and you know a kid can walk down the hall with officer Flynn. They they do that all the time. But to have a student walk down the hall with
021somebody who's got probation written all over. We've just advertised way too much. Um our police officers know our probation officer well. So, if there was an incident at school, I'm not worried about her safety that somebody's going to wonder who's this person running around with a gun. They know her. Um I I'm confident that uh again, I'm confident that we have to take action on this because I can't lose her. Our kids can't lose her. The value that she brings to us is just incredible. Um >> her name. >> Yeah, it's Danielle Lennox. I'll say her name all day and I'll even offer her office space, no charge to the county. Um, and you know, Nicole sat in on a on a number of these superintendent hearings and she also gets to see the uh
022the interaction. Um, so >> we'll have to talk about the no charge, >> right? A dollar, >> but uh she she has politely declined. So, but again, I just >> So, that's kind of where we are. And I know some folks don't like having the sidearms in in school and that that's sensible. Um but I guess also given in the in our day and age, you know, now when we are seeing church services being disrupted by um gunmen, you know, and I think we'll have more conversation about this very topic as we talk about strategic budget planning for next year um with SRO's. Um, the world is becoming increasingly dangerous and things that we never unfortunately I think we almost got too used to a school shooting here and there, but then they attacked a
023church. They attacked people that worship. Um, we can't take anything for granted anymore. Um, so, but that'll be a conversation down the road. So, um, would this be like a concealed carry situation or like is it out in the open so everyone >> uh, typically our law enforcement, our peace officer and and the probation officer will have to carry it so it's visible. >> Yeah. >> Um, it doesn't mean that because it also has to be accessible. >> So to have it wrapped under a jacket, you know, if they're coming in from the cold, probably it wouldn't you wouldn't see it. Um, but it's not going to be like a holster on the ankle. It has to be a belt holster. Um, has to actually be the holster that's issued by the county for, you
024know, safety reasons. Um, but yes, it would be visible in in most cases. So, like what's the difference? Like, why not just have probationary officer? Like I feel like it's kind of you're displaying it either way. I think if we what I'm trying to look for Andrew in this case and the county may have a different perspective on this um because they were really asking us our opinion as superintendents. What do we want? Um and the reason I like it small is because probation means for it would be basically means you've been in some type of trouble. You've broken into a place. You've gotten into a fight. A variety of things that children under 18 do. To me, that's a very private matter. And while it's a small town, we don't always know who's gotten
025in trouble. And again, we want to keep the students privacy as private as possible. Um, I haven't heard from the probation director yet as to what he's going to do. Like I said, he heard very different perspectives from superintendent. Um, and everyone's entitled to that. they, you know, to their opinion on that. But, uh, I'm going to really wait for the county to determine how big do they want that probation label. And, uh, she will have to wear an armored vest. That's part of the requirement as well. So, that'll probably be underneath a shirt. >> Um, >> Andrew, can I ask a question? Are you are you asking like this? This is what's in my head and I want to make sure that we're kind of on the same page. >> So, They have all
026of these that make them look like they're an Mr. B is saying then you're kind of singling out which is not what we want to do. So what if it just said like it's probation officer but then if it says officer then other This is what I'm thinking. Other kids might be confused like why is that person wearing sidearm >> if they're not supposed to be here or whatever? >> Am I on the right? >> Yeah. >> Like so I guess what you're saying is like kind of like our inhouse police officer Mr. Mr. Flynn. Um, so yeah. So like kind of just like an officer on her as well like title I guess >> to so they associate them the same kind of thing where you see both people as having a weapon on
027them but they're both officers of the law. So you don't uh associate one with only escorting or taking care of the misbehaving students. >> The distinction's lost in the minutia of the insignia then is what you're saying. >> Yeah. >> They get the idea. They don't need to know the specifics of which office they represent. >> Yeah. Well, I think we have to be careful, too, because a New York State police investigator can walk in and for for an investigation or to handle a matter and he would very much look like how imagining what the probation officer would look like. Is that correct, Mr. Burke? >> Well, actually, so when we have um a state police investigator, they are completely plain clothes. There's not a badge displayed. It's just you see the sidearm. Um, so,
028so we already have that with our state police officers and any really any undercover or on I'm sorry, not undercover, but a detective type level. Um, and that can even happen with our local chief of police. If he's in plain clothes, he'll be wearing a sidearm coming into the building. Um, so, and we do see that quite regularly. We do have a state trooper who's who's here very regularly. He uh he's also part of the fire department, so he's been, you know, if he comes in as a state trooper, not as a firefighter. He is playing clothes and he is wearing just a sidearm, which is allowed by New York State law. And typically, I don't actually I checked the other day and I can't remember if I saw a badge on his belt or
029not. Um but but again, I think it's important to remember that the probation officer will have a badge and it has to be displayed at all times and it has to be a county issued badge. Um, so it'll have that. So it'll be a person with at least a badge. And again, probation will be somewhere on their clothing. Um, I'm just not sure yet what uh what the director has decided with that aspect. Anything else on Okay. Um, and let me just see the last thing I think that I have here is a bus utilization request. for the Horizon's Youth Clubhouse. They went to the Breezy Maples Farm on October 10th. Um, so again, we that's already gone past, but it was one of those last minute ones that came in for us. And I
030believe that Mrs. Karuso Martin is here. So, if I could turn it over to her for a presentation on our food service program, which is exciting. >> She got a microphone. Um, can you hear me? Okay. >> A microphone down there. >> Is your microphone working? >> Actually, I'm food service. I don't know how to turn a mic on. >> It's on. >> Okay. So, am I all that stands in between a quick meeting and you guys leaving? Because I can make this really long if you need me to. Just kidding. Um, but I do love talking about food service. It's something that I care a lot about and it has been a couple of years since I've talked to the board. Um, so thank you for inviting me to come and present tonight. Please
031can you pull up the presentation? Okay, >> no, >> it's okay. No. Okay. So, okay. So, um, the food service department at Bina Central, um, has 26 employees. We've got a director, a manager, five cooks, two drivers, and we actually also have five managers at each school and a number of food service employees. Um, so it's about the same size as it was last time I talked to everybody, just with some different players. Um, we cover all five buildings. So, right now that's 2,470 students with 97 allergies, which is actually down from last year when we had 115 allergies. Um, and we do scratch cooking on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We uh serve 180 days of the school year, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and we do catering, which I'll talk about. And then we've also really
032expanded our summer meal program. So this past summer we serve students. So I believe that school ended on the 26th. The next day we were serving students at Msina Wreck and we served all the way up until almost the end of August. So we're really trying to create a bridge for our students and families to address food insecurity. So the biggest program that we run is the national school lunch program on a daily average and this is based on our September data. We serve 1500 students and 13 lunches and 1300 breakfast. I don't have the snack data yet because we haven't had every school get on board with or get started with that until our October stats come in. Um, our favorites meals are still tangerine chicken and pizza from the students, although we've added
033a few new things. I figured out a way to get compliant uh turkey pepperoni, which the kids like, although we don't say it's turkey. Um, and then buffalo pizza is the most most popular pizza with the high school and junior high. And sometimes the elementaryaries try different pizzas as well. Um, so over the summer this year, I sat down and I looked at our data and I looked at our meal sales every month and I isolated our top sales and which meals they were and I made sure to include those in our menus for the upcoming year. So our menus are based on eight week cycles that are seasonal. So we have like a fall menu, a winter menu, and a spring menu, and then we'll have a summer menu. So that's what how they're
034structured. This year we're also really leveraging our government foods and our government well we we get um this year we're getting about $120,000 from the government and we can use that to be able to have access to some very lowcost foods but we can also use it to work with companies to get different foods that are available for the students at a lower cost. So it's called the processing program. We haven't done much with it in the past, but this year we're introducing some nice new items. So, next week, actually, we'll have a really nice barbecued turkey that's coming from a company called Brookwood Farms down south. And then we'll be getting pulled pork from that same company in in the last week of October. So, we're trying out some like barbecue options. They're nice.
035Kids like tangy. Kids like spicy. Little kids like chicken nuggets. Still, some things never change. Um, but we're trying new options and the kids seem to really be liking them. Um, so also there has been requests for more pasta and uh some some people say less chicken, some people really like the chicken. It's tough, right? Especially because beef and pork can be p beef can be really really expensive, especially when you're feeding 15 or 1600. Um, so we try to really leverage our government funds in that way as well. And with our pork products, we try to work with our local vendors and farmers for those. But we do have some students that for health and religious reasons cannot eat pork. And we do try to respect that as well. So we're trying to make
036everyone feel comfortable and accepted and also be able to eat the foods that we're serving. Um so something that we have coming up in November and December um heading into our winter rotation will be pasta Thursdays. So, in November, we'll be having I just actually did the November menu today. We'll be having a tortoillini one day and then we'll have manakotti and ravioli and lasagna. So, those are our pasta options. What's nice about the company that we're buying those from, if any of you have ever cooked a big batch of pasta, you know that it can turn into a clump of mush really fast. And when we're cooking huge batches of pasta, it can be really tricky to make to try to have a quality product that still looks good and tastes good when we're
037serving it a couple of hours later. So, this company actually creates pastas that are compliant with child nutrition standards and still look and taste good and hold together, keeping that delicious cheese inside. Okay. Um so this chart shows um our it just shows our breakfast served and our lunches served. So these are Septeers from um 21 to the current year. So to 25 uh you can see it looks like our numbers were pretty high in 2021 and that's because we were still operating under a waiver from COVID. So meals were freed under COVID for every school. Um and then when it went down a little bit in 22 was actually my first year doing this and it was the year that we went back to self-pay. That year the following year we got C and
038we can see a steady increase in our breakfast. We're really seeing a spike this year in our sorry in our breakfast and our lunches. We're really seeing a spike this year in our breakfast which is interesting. I'd like to think that it's because we're offering some things that kids like. Our dragon fruit parfets last week sold out in like 20 minutes. Apparently the football team was uh really upset that they didn't get dragon fruit parfets. So, we're going to double those for next week. Um but we're also starting to offer some savory items, not just sweet. So, the soft pretzels with nacho cheese or marinara sauce is going over well. Um but yeah. Yeah. And our and our breakfast is spiking at the high school. That's the most noticeable school, which is really interesting. They're
039up to almost 400 breakfasts a day. That from like 300 last year. So, pretty proud of those numbers. And we're also doing those with 25 people. Um, I will say that the parfets are amazing. And um, a lot of my friends when they like first try them, they like always like need to come back. They're like, "When what day are we having parfets? I need to get down there." >> I know. If you're not there in the first few minutes, you're going to miss the parfets. So, you better be there. There's kind of a line. Um, yeah. So, so kind of and thanks Andrew for that segue. A really interesting trend that we're noticing this year especially is that kids are actively looking for healthier food. I'm not just saying that because I put tofu
040on the menu a couple of years ago and I'm not venturing there again yet, although I might. But um at the afterchool snack program, we run that at all five schools and we really really work on making sure that all kids have an have access to a snack. Madison serves the most snacks. Um Nicole Terminelli and her team have figured out a way to get a snack to almost every student at Madison every day. Um the high school and junior high have also gotten really creative with it as well. Nightingale is looking into it. Um so I think that the students and staff really appreciate it. This year for the first time, two different students at different schools were asking me when we were starting the snack program when it didn't start up at the
041beginning of September. I was like, "Give us a week to get our equipment all working like we'll get there." Um, but at the high school, um, so so we have a food service employee. I just ask, you know, anybody, this is outside of the contracted hours, so so we can have people sign up basically to run the snack program. And the person that does it at the high school has started using the the 12 ounce parfait cups with the do lids. So she layers vegetables or fruits in the parfait cups. And then with a vegetable she puts a little cup of this ranch dipping sauce that kids love. Everybody loves adults do too. Um so they can have like a cup of like some days she'll do fruits, some days she'll do vegetables. Kids have
042literally started lining up for these and staff in the hallway are like hey those veggie cups and fruit cups are amazing. you know, and I guess a girl at the high school took like three the other day and then Jess was finally like, "Stop." It's hard. It's hard because we're only allowed to give one, but you know, kids are hungry. I'm not going to say no to a hungry student. Um, so the afterchool snack program has gone really well. I don't have numbers in yet, but last year we actually um made $85,000 or $85,136. Where's Mallerie? That's before our expenses. Mallerie. So, yeah, it's going really well. Um, okay. Another program that we run is our summer meal program. So, this year we saw a big jump in our summer meal program. Um, the data
043that I had was 23, 24, and 25. Um, so, so yeah, this is, um, so the summer meal program is still, you have to be in an income eligible community in order to be able to run it. So, not every community runs the summer meal program, but once you're running it, anyone can come in and get a meal. So, Parishville doesn't run a summer meal program, but any family that might be camping in Msina or something can come and get a meal. Um we work with our partnering agencies that are supporting students. Um so um we run programs at the high school in Night andale well where Raider Academy is and then we also provide meals to Missina Rec, Lewisville Wreck and PAL. They come and they pick up meals. So they'll follow the same
044menu or a similar menu. Um, sometimes they do just like Lewisville Recre likes to do hot lunches to give the kids a chance to have a hot lunch. Um, PAL and Msina W just wanted to do cold lunches. Um, so we really expanded that this year and actually, as I mentioned earlier, um, started providing meals to Missina Rec like the day after school ended and we bridged that entire week or two weeks up until our summer school started. We also took advantage of the rural non- congregate option this year, which is brand, no, it's not brand new. It started in the last couple of years. Um, but it's pretty new in New York State. So, what that is is it's an option for families to sign up to get a bag of lunches. So, they
045can get a bag of five meals. So, five breakfasts and five lunches. Um, so we did that on a trial basis because we didn't want things to get too crazy. It's there's pretty strict rules, right? So families that had students enrolled in another program where they were receiving meals could not attend because it would be double dipping and things like that. Um so we kept it pretty small. I think that we had about a hundred 100 students that were being served. So we had you know what a lot of our teachers took advantage of it to be honest our staff because food is really expensive and um and they utilized it. Um, but then we had some really big families, so seven kids, eight kids that were using it and really were were appreciating it.
046Um, this the foods were pretty like summer friendly. So, peanut butter and jelly, hamburgers, chicken patties, hot dogs, stuff like that that would make kids still feel like it was fun. So, yeah, our summer meal program was going really well and we got audited last summer and had a perfect audit. I'm pretty proud of that. Okay. And then we also do catering. Last year we catered 42 events. We cater your board meetings of course. Um our catering events can be small. So we we catered some juices at um Jefferson's walking school bus recently. And then we also cater large family engagement nights. So Madison likes to have a fall um family dinner. And we've been doing a retro dinner lately. This is kind of fun because our cooks can stretch their skills a little bit.
047We can provide some Msina favorite meals. So we do we did a or we'll do Italian dunkers um pasta salad because apparently everybody loves our pasta salad. It's very very popular um that that we make which is a little bit different than the pasta salad that Andrew shared. Um, but yeah, pasta salad is big. And then we'll be bringing back peanut butter bars, which people have been asking for the whole time that I've been here. So, it's a way for us to kind of bring back foods that people love that we can't necessarily serve um because of the regulations that we have to work under. Um, so the photos that you have are from the prek at Madison where they had an apple festival and they asked if we could make apple crisp. So, our
048cooks stayed after work and peeled bushels of apples and made like from scratch crisp for 77 students and their parents, which the kids loved. So, that was a lot of fun. And oh, and this year we're already up to 13 catering events as of last week when I did this when I put this together. So, we're probably going to do more than 42. Um, the fresh fruit and vegetable program is brand new this year. Um, we're getting ready to launch it. It is a smaller program. It's only for elementary schools, but some of the elementary principles have been asking if there's a snack program that we can provide a snack during the school day in addition to the afterchool snack program. And of course, we need to try to find things that we can get
049reimbursed for. Um, so the fresh fruit and vegetable program is designed to be a way for children to taste a new fresh fruit or vegetable. It has to be raw or uncooked um and not served during a meal time. So, we'll be getting ready to launch that in November. It was nice to get accepted into that. And I believe that we were allocated 80,000 for that one. Um farm to school is I think it's my favorite part of food service. Um farm to school is great and I think our our school community really loves farm to school. Also, sometimes teachers will come up and say, you know, my daughter was saying she goes to school in Ogdensburg and she was talking about the meals there and I was like, well, we have farm to school.
050It was so cool to just hear that and like and when we do farm farm fresh items, our staff start to line up and the kids experience say that they like it. Um, and I can see our participation go up. Um, so this is our third year doing farm to school. We're kind of just cruising along with it, doing really well. Um have a lot of support and we were highlighted in by um uh Sunni or by St. Lawrence University last year as a farm-toschool and we were in their newspaper and I think that Ron shared and Ashley shared it with everybody. So that was also really nice and they let us keep the great pictures that they took. Okay. Um, so those are the big programs that we're running on a daily basis. Um,
051it's how we operate to feed everyone, but we're also starting to gain a little bit of traction on a statewide level for our school. Um, to talk about our community and what's going on here, what we're doing, and how other schools can help their students. Um, so for the last couple of years, I've been a a master instructor. So when a new food service or director is um hired anywhere in the state, usually kind of in our northern areas, my territory, then state I work for state ed um to go and help them get started and kind of help point them in the right direction for how they can run a successful program. And we can also do programs for um food service departments as well to provide continuing education. It's a really nice chance
052for me to get to work with some of the more experienced food service directors around the state and also to get to work with state ed and see kind of what's coming down the pipeline. Um, what's new, what's interesting, what do they actually want us to do instead of just getting a memo. Um, Slack, I'm I'm also our area Slack representative. Um, so I think Slack is a state legislative action committee. Um, but it's actually so our office of government services is the state office that our government food kind of flows through and they have area directors. So I'm the northern states or sorry the northern county director. Um, so there are seven of us around the state and we work with OS to kind of have meetings and provide input and ideas and create
053strategies across the state for how we can better utilize the $30 million in government food that our state has access to to get it into the mouths and hands of children that need to eat it. It's a really great opportunity to work with again directors from around the state to work with different parts of our state government and to also kind of work together handinand to try to take this pot of money that we're given and make the most that we can out of it. Um the NISTNA is the New York State School Nutrition Association. Um so I'm our area director for the same northern four or seven counties I think. I think it's the northern four counties. Um but also same thing right providing like policy governance and advisory um activities for food service.
054Um we're planning a conference in the spring. So that's been really interesting and will be exciting. And then of course farm to school is my favorite. So I'm um I'm on this the statewide coalition for farm to school. So, it's nice to be able to come from a rural school setting and be able to talk about your school when a lot of the other people at the table are from urban areas. Um, just to get like a different perspective, but it also gives me ideas and strategies for things that they're doing well that we can adapt to our school district and do it here. Okay. So, what's coming up? Right. So um you know I don't like to stay stagnant. So um we're actually partnering with Sunni Pot Stam um to do some to start
055growing some of our own food here. We won't be able to put a dent in the amount of food that we actually consume here at Msina Central. Um but we are going to be working on setting up hydroponic gardening systems in our cafeterias. We'll start with the high school, see how it goes. Um, we've got three grow towers, one flex farm, and a few grow racks that we'll be getting rolling. I think it's going to be really good for the kids to see their food growing, see where the food comes from, and then we'll have also really nice micro greens to add to the salad bar. And then I should say hopefully my my idea for the future with hydroponics is that we can get some kids involved with growing. Um and then we have
056cooking clubs. I'm sorry I missed Andrew's presentation. Um but we had our first meeting of the high school cooking club yesterday. Did you already present? >> Okay. Um so we had our first meeting of the high school cooking club yesterday. And then for the first time ever, we have an elementary cooking club that's happening at Jefferson. They've had two meetings so far. Um the first time meeting they made chocolate chip cookies and I I hear it went really really well. Um so they'll be doing four sessions of a cooking club and then they'll be taking a break and then they'll be doing four in the spring. So four in the fall, four in the spring. And there's been a really nice response to both cooking clubs. So, and actually I think it's a testament that
057the first cooking club at Jefferson, we did not provide transportation. It was it was before the busing was available and all of the parents came and picked up their kids. So, thank you. That's all I have for food service. Um, yeah, I I think things are going really well. You know, it's I know you all were really supportive when I started doing this job. Um, and it's it's been four years, which has flown by. Um, well, I'm also going to start teaching nutrition classes at the junior high this year, which should be really fun. I think the more we can get kids involved in what they're eating and thinking about what they're eating, the more that we can help them make good decisions as adults. What questions do you have? >> How are the tips?
058>> The what? >> Tips. >> I don't I don't get any tips. >> I know. have a question. >> Waste tracking. Um yeah, so one of the farm the the primary farm that we do our that we buy our produce from um does have a composting um session or they have a composting station and we started to just kind of dip our toe in the composting. Is that where you're getting it? Wait, >> I mean whatever children Yeah, >> we don't do a lot of waste tracking. We've everything all the data I have is anecdotal. We don't have any scales or anything. Um, we've switched over or we're we're in the process of switching over to providing bulk milk at the high school and junior high, which Ron and I have high hopes that it
059will result in less liquid waste, right? Um, and last year we started in the high school and the kids loved it. Like they are convinced that the chocolate milk is has extra chocolate in it. Um, and now we're experiencing the same thing at the junior high. I was just there yesterday morning and I asked how it was going and the kids are loving it. You know, they really like it. I like giving them some choice, you know, and and if they want to come out up and get a second milk, they can get a second milk. If they only want to put a little bit of milk in, that's okay, you know, like let's just start to teach them about self-regulation and what their body needs. But I don't know about Yeah. It's a good
060question. >> I will say that it would be incredibly hard to track food waste because a lot of students, myself included, do not eat in the cafeteria. Uh many students, especially seniors, will go to the senior lounge. Um some students may eat in like teachers classrooms where they like maybe feel more comfortable or it's a better environment just to just to hang out, I guess. Yeah. So it would and they just throw it out of the teacher's classroom. >> You mentioned that people have allergies. Do you know what's the majority of those allergies? >> Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Lactose. Um, so we have a lot of students in elementary school that are lactose intolerant and then we can um so the the nurses and I um share so we have a shared spreadsheet and they email
061me every time we have a new allergy and I add it and then every time an allergy gets taken off um we take it off. So I'll see the lactose you know they'll start out with lactose intolerant and then they'll they'll like go off in junior high or high school. Um but we've got some interesting allergies. We had a cinnamon one, my first cinnamon allergy that just popped up. We've got some kiwi. You know, >> I'm actually really thankful we don't have more soy and gluten because our foods have a lot of soy and gluten and those would be really hard. >> You mentioned different mention spaghetti which is affordable, very light and simple to do. >> Oh yeah, Robert. Um we so the pasta so so with our government food systems we actually have
062to um so it's it's bidding season right now. So we're so so companies are reaching out to schools to try to negotiate like what there are food shows like what do you what do we want? What can they make? Um so the company that we're buying the pasta from um does the stuffed pastas. So the short answer is it's really difficult to make spaghetti for 1500 kids. Like it it just turns into a giant ball of mush in the kettles. Um but what we can do is get these like filled pastas that are kind of parroiled and then we put them in the steamer. They cook really nicely and they still have a good texture. >> Yeah. But yeah, spaghetti is just really when you're looking at that volume, it's really difficult. One last question
063to school. It's interesting that you take advantage of that. Is it possible for our kids to have more exposure those farms so they can see where the food is coming from? >> What if we had pictures from the farms that were showcased in the cafeteria? >> Yeah. >> I mean then it would ase their farm in the cafeteria, the kids. >> I think that's a great idea. Yeah. I And um well, for example, we have a lot of um maple farms, right? Or farms that also have a sugaring component. So um during the sugaring season um the some of the farmers have offered to either come into school actually have a magnet in my bag that somebody gave me um to come into the school to talk to students and you know provide different samples
064of the you know the darker to lighter syrups and talk about that um but then also to come to the farm for a tour. So that's a really good one. the ve the produce farms are a little bit tougher because the growing season is is not perfectly aligned with our school season. >> Um but >> it would be good for student connect. >> Yeah. >> In conclusion, I just want to say that we're lucky to have great leadership great innovation ideas focus on the health of the students on the community. You understand the young I like that. >> Thank you. >> I think at this point we're leveraging almost every single free meal program that we can for the students here at Msina. There's one dinner program that I can't figure out how to make
065work at our school. I keep talking about it with Ron, but because we're not all in one building, it gets really difficult. But other than that, we're taking advantage of every single other other food program to address food insecurity for our families here. I think they appreciate it. I mean, >> soundsit. >> Thank you. We have a we have a really good team, too. Um, we have a a great food service team. everybody works together and I mean some people I have to tell to go home you know I'm like what are you doing go home you don't have to stay this late and they're like no no I just have to finish this you know they're just really dedicated and hardworking and I'm I'm lucky to work with the people that I work with
066>> else thank you. >> Okay, >> thanks Kristen. >> Thanks everyone. You know where to find me if you have any questions later. >> Since I can do absolutely nothing better than what our food service program is doing, that will conclude my report for tonight. >> Okay. Under recommended actions, we have the consent agenda items for action. Does anyone need anything pulled out of those or can we vote that as a block? I have a question. Can we have the financial a little bit more detailed? I would like to have two periods, two months added so I can make sense of those numbers because it's hard to make sense. I'm not on the finance committee. When I see those numbers quickly, it doesn't mean much. Having a progression compare at least last month, that' be
067great. last year. >> Okay. Um, >> any other questions? >> Okay. Can we get a motion? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any against? carries. Other items for action, uh, approval of the audited financial statements and single audit findings. We have a first and a second. Any discussion? All in favor? Motion carries. Uh approval of the single audit findings corrective action plan. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Uh all in favor? Very good. Uh approval of bus utilization request. Second. >> Any discussion? Uh, all in favor? None against. Okay, motion carries. Uh, Mr. Burke, >> Mr. Petta, I recommend the personnel items listed as numbers 1 through 83. >> I had a question. >> So, when are we going to discuss this? after the meeting or we're not going to discuss anything.
068>> There wasn't going to be an executive session. Do you have a specific item you're concerned about? >> Yes. 65 66 Okay. How would you like to handle that? >> 684. Sorry. >> As those are personnel items, we will have to go into an executive session. >> We can do it after. >> No, >> we'd have to do it now and because we have to vote on it. Well, we could we could vote on everything except for those if you want to. >> We'd still have to come back to do it either way. >> Okay. >> Uh, >> can we Okay. So, could we get a motion for executive session to discuss the items Mr. Leblanc pointed out? 64, 65, 66, and 68. Did I have that right there? >> I I think Mr. Burke,
069were all the Did you note all of those in your in your updates to us? I I believe >> I believe you covered all of those. >> Yes. >> So, >> I I didn't get that. What I printed out doesn't have the ones that Rober had. >> Yeah. >> Okay. We can >> When I printed this, there weren't 80. There were 73. So there were a lot of additions etc. >> Okay. So we'll have to take an executive session discuss these items. Uh >> I understand the intention of what we're going through when we're going but this is new and it's a little confusing and I just want to vote comfortably. So I want to >> wasn't prepared for this. >> Yeah. So could we get a motion for executive session? >> Yeah. And there's
070something else I would like to discuss the executive session. like two weeks ago. Oh no, two months ago the organization special how they work. >> Is that an executive session? Does is that an executive session? I don't believe that qualifies for executive session. That could be under new business maybe. >> Okay. >> Well, at least for me >> or was it was a person about >> Okay. >> Let me just I think it's on the first page of Ron's notes and It was the first item. Thought we were going to have discussion about that. >> Um, no. On Ron's notes, the ones I printed week of October 13th. >> Okay. So, >> figure out what it is. >> Special note. >> Okay. >> And then I don't want to talk about it. >> Okay. So,
071do we have a motion? >> Do we have a second? I second. >> Okay. Any Well, we've already discussed it. All in favor? >> Okie dokie. >> 7:38. >> The pumpkin roll. >> Okay. >> Yeah. We call the meeting back to order. >> Okay. >> Uh we are at approval of personnel action items. Does anyone have any of the 80? I can't read that. >> 83 that they would wish to have separated or will we vote them as a block? >> Block works. >> We good. >> Yep. >> Okay. Uh, Mr. Burke, >> pardon. >> I was going to have him put it up again and get a >> So, Mr. Freda, I recommend approval of personnel items 1 through 83. >> Second. >> We have a first and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing
072none, can we vote, please? All in favor? None against. Motion carries. Uh resolution for paid administrative leave. So >> move second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? Very good. Motion carries. Any items for for further agendas? >> Yes. You first. >> Yes. >> Rober's agenda item as discussed in executive session. We'd like to have more >> we'd like to have more information about how um special education programs are working within the district. It'd be really helpful to have like a flowchart of who people report to like so that we can kind of see the chain, how it how it comes down and um what's going on in each one of the buildings in the programs. We don't have to know like specifics, but just more of a general how especially some programs like our please
073program, how that works. Um and our any other new special ed like um special prek, you know, things that typically we didn't have in the district um let's say more than a decade ago. >> And that's what I was going to say. So, >> I just already like have an overall plan that just session I'm just concerned with how things are going for >> uh so Mr. Hayes I would be putting that into the strategic budget. Um that would be my request from the district office part. Um and I know there's going to be a lot of competing requests for extra money for next year. Um, and while I do believe that that's should probably become a priority, it'll have to get, you know, through the uh finance >> finance committee and then >> in
074the process. >> Yes, it will be in the process. Um, but on that note, I think it's fair now even though it's only October. Um, >> you only have to watch the news from out of Albany. >> It looks like it's going to be a potentially difficult budget year. >> Uh, the prediction for the following year is worse. So, I think as we plan our bud budget for the 26 27 school year, we're really going to have to keep in mind what our future might look like as it relates to state aid and how we can make those accommodations. So, >> thanks. >> Any other items? >> It's actually So, I have a request from Mr. Haggot. He is looking at our November 20th board meeting and due to some other conflicts, he won't be
075able to be here. He is wondering if the board would entertain um moving the November 20th board meeting to Wednesday, November 12th, the week prior >> On a Wednesday, >> what what was the >> We have a policy meeting scheduled that night. >> We do and I think we could be done by 6:30 for that. Oh, okay. So, just do both of them as the same, >> right? >> One back to back. >> Oh, November 12th. >> You could hold it over here so that you don't have to go like do it in my >> That works for me. >> You need an answer right now. I have to I don't know which way the wind's going to be blowing that day and that's getting into the peak of the rock. >> Exactly. Same thing.
076>> Your microphone's on. Um, so if you like I'm I'm just throwing it out tonight if it's okay with everybody. We can certainly ask Ashley to send out a poll and see what the consensus looks like as you can look at your calendars a little bit better, but I just want to put that on your radar. >> Yep. >> Any other items for new business? >> Calling once gone. Uh any comments public or press? Is anybody left besides Chris up there? >> Chris, you good? Okay. Um >> motion. >> Can we get a motion for adjournment? >> So moved. >> All in favor? >> Everybody. >> That motion carries. Have a great night. >> Okay. You too.