001All right, we're good. Okay. Uh, thank you for all joining us for the March 10th uh, Board of Education meeting. If we could all start with the pledge to the flag, please. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. And uh just as we begin the meeting, this is senior assassin week and we do have our board uh rep our student board member here. And just for anybody who wants to make sure, this is a safe space. So Samantha does not need to participate and cannot be touched or taken at this meeting. So thank you. In case you need it, >> in case I need it, Samantha, I've got it
002here for you. All right. So now that the most important work is out of the way, we will then move on to the second most, our report of the superintendent, Dr. Murray. >> Thank you. Good evening. I'd like to begin by congratulating the Parson Street Players on their wonderful production of Lay Miz over the weekend. It was an absolutely tremendous performance and a great showcase of the talent and dedication of our students and staff. We also have some exciting athletic accomplishments to celebrate. Congratulations to our varsity boys basketball team for winning the section one title. They're currently competing against Goan Central as we speak and I hear we are ahead. And we wish them the very best. Congratulations as well to our Ry hockey team who defeated Aquinus this past weekend are now advancing to
003the state semi-finals in Buffalo on Saturday where they will face Clarence. Turning to a facilities update, construction continues to move along well at both Osborne and Midland. Flooring installation at Osborne is complete and the crew has shifted to Midland this week. Installation of interior doors and Selto locks continues at both locations locations and is near completion. The HVAC system at Osborne is also nearing completion with commissioning anticipated next week. Brick work at Osborne continues to progress. As the snow melts and temperatures rise, we expect the remaining exterior work at both sites, including the brick work at Midland, to accelerate. I also want to inform the community about an upcoming emergency dismissal drill scheduled for March 25th. This drill is required annually by New York State. The drill will involve dismissing students 15 minutes early. Parents
004will receive a notification when the drill begins. Middle and high school students will exit the building at that time just as they would during a regular dismissal. Elementary parents or designated emergency contacts will need to come to the school to sign their children out. Typically, this drill takes place on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and that is when we will schedule it for future years. Finally, a brief budget update. This evening, you will hear the technology portion of our proposed budget. At our next board meeting on March 24th, we will present the facilities and athletics portions. Following those presentations, we'll hold our open topic session where community members will have the opportunity to share their perspectives as they relate to the budget. And that concludes my report for this evening. >> Great. Thank you very much.
005So now we will move right on to that presentation and discussion Dr. Murray just talked about for technology. Sure. >> Dr. Casson. Good evening. It's welcome. It's uh exciting to be back for round two. So I'm very excited for tonight to be able to present the technology budget for you. Uh tonight's presentation will really focus on the networking infrastructure and security um fields within the part of this department. Before we begin, I would just like to thank the entire team. Our two instructional coaches Caroline and Kim um our edi engineers Steven, Dylan, Chris, Brandon, Scott, and Abe. Our data team, Megan, and Michael. And also our office assistant, Colleen. Without them, a lot of this work would not be possible. And I'm truly blessed to be working with such a great, strong team that is
006committed to um making the ride the best that it can be day in and day out. The technology department plays a foundational role in making the ride commitment actionable across classrooms, professional learning spaces, and the broader community. Each section of the commitment naturally aligns with the core responsibilities of modern school technology teams. Just as importantly, the operation side of technology, our network systems, infrastructure, security, and support creates the conditions that allow great learning experiences to flourish. When the backbone of infrastructure is thoughtfully designed, constantly updated, and it turns to be reliable, it becomes an invisible yet essential force that empowers students to learn and collaborate, explore, and thrive without barriers. This is a commitment that we've made to Rye over the last however many years I've been here now, 13. um to really make sure
007that this is an essential part of the commitment that well a lot of the things that you see from an infrastructure perspective you may not see on a daily basis. It's behind a wall. It's in a ceiling. It's in a closet. This is what allows us and our students and our families to do what we do every day in each of the classrooms in our schools. So tonight I have the opportunity to really talk about a lot of the work that we've done in the 2526 school year. A lot of it you've heard before. Um things that we've naturally do every year to make sure that our infrastructure is reliable and working. Um but there is an infrastructure and systems component that I'm going to save for last to talk about all the amazing work
008in this project and what what we have coming forward. So to start with our device and classroom technology, um we spent this summer replacing 500 plus desktops districtwide, making sure that we had powerful operating systems that work in each of our classrooms and that also in conjunction supported the initiative of rolling out the Prometheium boards in our classrooms. Um Osborne School was one that got done this summer while also this school year we've been working hard to work on the middle school and outfit those classrooms as well. I want to personally thank the Ry Fund for Education for all of their support in this initiative while also our school district operating budget to make this um initiative in a reality. We have now two elementary schools done. Um we have most of the middle school
009and uh you'll hear in 2627 budget the plans to uh finish the high school in Midland. While we've also um in conjunction worked on just replacing hardware, having communication with our faculty, staff, and students from a support help desk side is really essential to us as a team. While we have operating hours um in the buildings throughout the day from a student helped us perspective, it is a system that is available 24/7 to our faculty, staff, and students and even parents. Um and it is actively moving all the time, which we're great to see. Parents will constantly submit tickets. our students do as well. And at the elementary level, our teachers either do it for themselves or put in um and advocate for the students at that age group. Um our engineers get anywhere between
01020 and 50 tickets a day. Um they resolve them as fast as they can and they are always making sure that they are the front line of communication. Whether we can resolve the issue or not, it's important to us to either have a a conversation with you directly face to face, updating tickets, sending a personal email um or just going to visit your classroom. And it's something that we pride ourselves on a lot to making sure that we all feel part of the school community. In addition to that, we've um made a lot of security enhancements this year. Um as Dr. Murray just mentioned, we've been actively working on the new wings, building out our server closets, working on salto locks and PAS in the new wings at Midland and Osborne. Um, we have done
011a comprehensive assessment of our camera system and we are excited to implement a new system in the new wings um that will be launching very shortly and then also we'll be talking about in the 26 27 what that looks like across um the rest of the schools. We've worked to update our salto locks, as you can imagine, while we just installed them, the technology has already changed. So, we went from implementing Blu-ray technology um with those lock. So, that has been done across the board whereas needed. Um and we also continue to partner daily with Ry PD to make sure that the enhancements that we are building also meets the needs um and how they can support us at a team. So, it's really nice to have that partnership. The most exciting piece that I'm
012super proud of this year is the work that we've done around infrastructure and systems. Um, Edgitech has been a huge instrumental partner in this work and the district has put together this year creating a six-phase Wi-Fi upgrade plan for the entire district. This plan will be implemented over the next two years, but a lot of the foundational work of the design um had to be done this year. So, our engineer spent numerous hours doing site surveys, getting heat maps of every single building. Thank you, Dylan. Um, he is probably sick of going into stairwells and classrooms and places that he never thought he would be before to make sure that we've put a plan together that meets our needs. >> Um, we've designed datadriven AP placement maps. So, we know now using this new wireless
013technology that's out called himina. This new tool allows us as a district to actually determine wall material, structural layouts, signal distances, and that has now helped us place access points in the more appropriate places um that we haven't had before. So, when you think about some of the makeups of the walls in this building, the concrete, the cement, um this tool has really helped shaped as to where this technology should be placed moving forward. And we are excited in the next couple of weeks we'll be launching a pilot at our central office um so we can live the remainder of this year um with this enhancement in this system get some feedback continue and make some tweaks and modifications and I'll talk a little bit about what the rollout will look like in the 2627
014school year. All of the work that has been informed in here wouldn't be possible without the technology committee. And so a lot of the work that happened at the committee this year was talking about the needs of Rise City in the um capacity of operations and infrastructure um and those different systems. We were able to design as a committee. Um we launched a technology readiness survey that went out to all faculty staff. We were able to get feedback and input from students, from teachers, administrators um about what the needs are within the district. and we used those survey results to help inform the goals that are now going to be a part of our new technology plan and then all of the items that we laid out such as a Wi-Fi upgrade security uh system
015enhancements. So we use data to really come together to say what are the needs and how are we going to improve together as a system. Um the plan is comprised of five new goals and in a little bit I will talk about which each one looks like and what the action steps are to complete. So, in the 2627 school year, we're just going to be taking a deeper dive into all the areas that we just talked about. You're going to hear a little bit more about the technology committee's role for next year, our district infrastructure plan, security and cyber security, software, and data systems. So, I'd like to start with our technology committee. Um, as I said, this year we focused on designing five new goals and the goals are consistent around infrastructure, security, curriculum
016alignment, and equitable access. This was a real opportunity for the committee to step back and say, how are we using technology across the district? How are we aligning it to curriculum and instruction? And are we using it purposefully enough while also evaluating the tools that we have? So, with that in mind, our plan will be submitted um this April and then also to the state in June. And our goal next year is to do a full evaluation of the goals that we've put in place to make sure that we're meeting them to get feedback from students and faculty and staff. Um while also consider continuing our work around AI and looking at our guidelines. That's been a commitment now to the committee, to the district that that will always be at the forefront to look
017at while also continuing to build our AI strategic plan. with the district infrastructure as I mentioned before putting together this six-phase Wi-Fi project. Um our pilot will happen at central office in March and then the goal is in July we will be implementing um our new system at the high school and middle school. So, we will spend the summer installing um new access points in new locations, making several moves, shifts, and changes across both buildings um and launching a new platform that students will have access to um come September and also our faculty and staff. Um we've done a deep dive into this. So we are actually going to be installing 40 additional access points in the building which means that the district will now be responsible for maintaining about 200 new access points throughout
018the high school middle school. This also this new system will give us visibility and better management to to look to see quickly when something is happening. How do we address it? How can we modify it? um there's a lot of AI components built into the system and so it's been a real um nice piece for us to move to because we're looking for more efficiency systems that can help support a larger network. The dashboard um has been a huge learning curve for all of us and it's been instrumental to partner with our vendor to make sure that the entire team has been efficiently trained um and we continue to operate in the learning stage right now um as we get ready to launch the system moving forward. We'll also be putting a communication plan together
019as well professional learning um for our faculty, staff, and students so that we can onboard um all members of the Ry community within the district at high school, middle school uh next year successfully. So, we're excited to um share what that will look like very soon. We are also going to be upgrading our phone system while we also that is something that we just implemented across our classrooms. Um technology changes very quickly. So, our entire phone system across the district will be upgraded. We are um installing two new servers um which will help with a longer 2-year plan out of upgrading the physical devices as well as the back end of the infrastructure. From a mobile device perspective, mobile devices have been um very utilized and we have several um throughout the district and it's
020something that we constantly are doing an evaluation on to make sure that our tools and our hardware meet the needs of our teachers and our students. So, we've conducted a comprehensive review of all of our devices and have put some systems in place next year to um upgrade the ones that need replacement. Currently right now we are managing over Chromebooks at the middle school level. We are are responsible for over 220 laptops between the high school and middle school that get shared across different courses for students. We have a onetoone program in first through fifth grade at the elementarymentaries and our fifth grade replacement cycle is up. So next year over 230 Chromebooks will be getting replaced for our fifth graders. We are also turning our digital art lab into a more flexible learning environment.
021So we are moving out of the stage of a lab um and moving to a digital environment where we are going to be implementing Mac laptops for our students that meet more of the criteria and learning model that they need to complete the digital art requirements and multimedia instruction in those in that course. We also are responsible for teacher devices and desktops. So, as you can imagine, there's a lot of uh devices that are um throughout the district. >> Dr. Asess, um so talk to me a little bit more, please network. Um especially as it pertains to now, uh our students keep their phones in their lockers. So, one might say, "You actually don't need better Wi-Fi because kids just shouldn't be on their phones anyway." So, help me understand the necessity for something like
022this. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, this will also impact our teachers and our students when they are in the classroom using their laptops. Um, and so what we found with our placement of some of the access points is there's some interference. Devices are not always lined up in the best location. Um, with the Humina tool that we've been using, it's been really powerful for us to know when we've put an access point in place, if it's next to a concrete wall or a place that doesn't support the signal, it could be an interference for that. And so, we've done heat map exams that will show us from a green perspective, what's working really well to a red perspective of where there is no signal or maybe signal is being interfered by something else. Um so just
023to have better coverage across the entire district is important for us from an instructional standpoint when students are using devices from teachers who operate their classroom devices um every day. Um so it's really important for us to have the ability to do that when students are on phones after school if you're in the building to be able to connect and have activity um based on what you need. It's it's been a struggle and some feedback that we've gotten from our faculty, staff, and students of just needing better coverage in all of the buildings. So, and I'm just also thinking as you're talking about um some of the security features that we have, I would imagine that this upgrade should be helping with some of those or how was that part of the um evaluation of
024for the heat maps and figuring out where there were blocks and what we needed? So, from a security standpoint, um, when we're looking at Wi-Fi, there's always Wi-Fi calling and coverage in in a system that you launch with Wi-Fi. We are not launching boosters or any cellular boosters within the district. But with working with the vendor, one thing that we learned through the extensive heat mapping process was that with better coverage and better signal, um, faculty members or students would be able to turn on Wi-Fi calling on their phones beyond the network, so be on our Wi-Fi and then be able to use their phones more accessible. Um, then sometimes now they don't have that capability of doing that. So, we did thinking about those areas of needing to make a phone call, um, needing
025to text someone, making sure that was all part of our plan that we would see growth and enhancements in particular areas across the district for that as well. >> Sorry. And if I could just go, so you talk about this uh dashboard. So, what is it that the dashboard shs us tells us? What's its function? >> Sure. Um, so when you log into a dashboard portal, it will show you the map of each of the buildings. It'll show you all the access points that are listed throughout. It will instantly tell you if something is offline, online, if there's an interference. Um, it's almost like monitoring right away and it's not something that now, right now with our current system, it takes a lot of time to go through logs and look to see what is
026up, what is down, to see who's on your network, what devices are on it. So this just gives us really a lot better monitoring and reporting in real time so that our engineers have to spend less time digging for the information. They can just act on it at a much quicker rate than we've seen before. >> Great. Um so with the diff district infrastructure, we're also talking about continuing the implementation of our Prometheium board. Again, thanking the Ry Fund for all of their support in this work. Um, this is something that we've been moving very quickly on. Um, and we're excited to continue that approach. As I said before, Milton and Osborne are completed. Um, and we've heard great success from, um, the feedback that we've gotten in the schools with the devices. Um, our
027middle school has been um, thoroughly working this year. Over the February break, we actually just installed 20 additional boards. So when teachers came back um they had access to that new technology in their classrooms um while providing a lot of professional learning around what that looks like and how they can use it. Um and we're excited to continue that growth into this summer and next year for the remaining buildings uh throughout Ry. As we said, security is one of our top priorities here in the school district and it's really important for us to make sure that we have systems in place um that are reliable and give us access to information that we need. So, as we designed the new wings at Osborne and Midland, it was important to us to take a look at
028a camera system. Um, then one that would be very highowered in analytics, one that would give us high resolution and better quality cameras and one that was efficient for our network in terms of bandwidth storage and automated features. So a vigilon is the new system that we will be going towards that we are implementing in the two new wings and the plan for the 26 27 budget is to bring that across the elementary schools uh over the summer. So our goal is by September the three elementary schools will be on the same system and then the following year the secondary building will go as well. We will be concurrently running two systems in the district until until year two is completed. Um, but we're very excited for the enhancements that the system has. Again, when
029looking at any new vendor, automation, getting information in real time and just a quicker manner was really important to us because there are so many systems and devices on our network. So, it's important that we can get the information very quickly. In addition to that, we've been working with our head of security, um, John Hawkins, and looking at exterior blue lockdown strobes. Our goal is to implement one of these strobes at each of the locations that will just provide clear high visible signals um when there is a lockdown or emergency that is taking place in a building. >> Dr. Sess for the camera systems are we um increasing the number of cameras or is it just a one forone swap? >> Um so there are some places that we have definitely grown. Um overall in
030the elementary we have approximately 180 cameras. So we're staying with that amount but there are some locations that we've identified to be a little bit better. Um some have moved slightly whether it's exterior interior but we're roughly around the same amount that we have right now. From a cyber security perspective in 2026, cyber security is always on our mind, right? Not just our physical security, but making sure that we are keeping our network, our faculty, staff, and students as safe as possible. Um, with all the information that we gather and that's out there, it's really important for us to make sure that we are putting the correct parameters in place so that we are secure. With that in mind, our techn our department has foregone two years of a cyber audit which has been a
031huge professional learning curve for us um to see all the strengths of areas of our own network and then some areas of professional growth for us as a district. Um one of the areas of recommended um places is strengthening our MFA. So, we have a commitment to move to a system called Cisco Duo, which will help support our high-end users at central office, just another two-step authentication measure for systems that they are accessing. Right now, we're currently using RSA tokens um and it was suggested to move to a different platform um which will just provide better protection for us. So, we're looking to um integrate that next year and we're excited about that. We've also moved to an endpoint protection program called Sentinel 1. Um, this system constantly monitors our network in real time and
032will alert us 24/7 2 am a weekend. It does not matter. This company does it 24/7 for us to let us know if something is being detected on the network that needs to be shut down. So instantly if there is a virus that's going out or someone clicked on a link that they shouldn't have, this system is in place to quickly notify us of what's happening. All of our engineers, including myself, will get, depending on the severity, a text message, an email, could be a phone call. Um, and it basically locks it down until we all have the opportunity to investigate it to say, "No, it's something that the district will allow and we can push it forward or no, thank you so much for protecting that measure and we take it out of the
033queue." Um, this could happen all the time, as you know, faculty get emails all the time. A lot of people will try to download things or just search for things and it's just another layer of protection for us to make sure that everyone is safe in this environment. Um, and we truly really appreciate the 24/7 monitoring. Um, that is a huge help for us just to make sure when no one is actually in the building, when things are running that they're still being protected. Another piece that was recommended from our audit is looking at a SIM or vulnerability management solution. And that is something that our department is currently working with three vendors right now. Um we haven't made a final decision just yet of the direction we're moving in. But either one of these
034systems will help us again monitor and future proof our network to see about patches or things that are coming out in the future that need to be applied for the network. Um usually that's information right now whether you're on a vendor email list or they notify you of what's coming out. this is in real time to say don't forget about this in 3 to four weeks and it should be implemented. So again, we're really looking at automating processes for us cuz there's so just so much information out there for us to obtain and implement. >> Just to elaborate on I guess maybe the the endpoint protection. Um, I mean, I understand with with uh, you know, district devices, you're going to have more control over what's uh, you know, allowed to be downloaded and and
035and and more monitoring. I guess I guess I was surprised to learn that all of the teachers and students can access the Wi-Fi, you know, with their phones after hours. It would seem that, as I understand it, it's very difficult to manage an outside device. So, what's the rationale to actually allowing those outside devices to access the Wi-Fi? Um >> yeah, so a lot of times in the it could be something as simple as we have a performance after school um and our students need access to Wi-Fi. We can have a consultant coming in. We could have a a speaker doing a presentation at night, right? So some access is always needed when we've built out our new Wi-Fi system. Um we will have a new guest portal that does have parameters are in place
036to make sure that they are monitored and and going through a filtering system just like our students and our faculty and staff would. But having also this protection on top of it just helps us to alert if something else is going on. There's a a lot of easier capabilities with our new Wi-Fi system to actually quickly see and monitor who's on the network at this given moment. Um and that's really helpful for us to just know we can run reports daily. We can get alerts um just vis more visibility into who's on the network. >> One other question about the um endpoint protection. So this how long have we been working with them because if it's ongoing we >> so Sentinel one we started this year um we were using a different vendor um and
037we had transition to them and it was part of our conversation in last budget cycle because one of the benefits of the Sentinel one was having the 24/7 monitoring and for us that we said while it's so important um to know what's happening during the day we also want to know what's happening after hours and what I mean by that is if we are launching updates at night and something goes array or something happens or someone penetrates your district and gets in, you want to be alerted as to what's happening. And so this was a huge step for us to say that not only do we have our district IT support team on all the time and getting alerted, we also have the backing of this company to help support us in that way as
038well. >> So we'll be have we'll have a similar model that we're you that we're um accessing this year with them for next year. It's not >> so we're continuing with Sentinel 1 and then we're also looking into the vulnerability. So Sentinel one will say, "I'm scanning your network right now to making sure no one's doing anything malicious." The vulnerability helps you future protect and make sure that you're always planning for future updates and patches and things that are coming out. >> Okay, thanks. >> Yep. And then from a data side, um, our data team, Megan and Michael are phenomenal with all of the things state reporting wise that they do in the district, whether they are working on level 0, one, and two from a state reporting end, whether they are working internally working
039on local data, whether that's scheduling report cards, um, benchmark data, you name it, they have their hands in it. they've been really instrumental in our cleanup process and really taking a lot of the ownership of our data back into the district versus working with our Bosei support. Um, some of the things for next year that we really want to take a look at is Power School has enabled a graduation tracker. Um, and this is a new feature within the system um that we've been working with to help build out tools for monitoring student progress towards graduation. So, it builds a mini profile for each child. It helps us. We can put in all of their prerequisites and requirements for graduation and it's helping our school counselors, our building administration to just keep track of where
040all of our students are. This year we implemented a new attendance monitoring system through Power School. So, a new way for for families to mark attendance, which has been really helpful for us. Um, and every year as the tools get a little bit better and better and new features come out, our commitment is to um to review them and to implement them if we see that it'll be beneficial to the district. Um, and then also just process improvements all over the place in terms of workflows, um, gradebook reporting, scheduling, um, better quality of just data output, making sure that we are streamlining and cleaning up the data as best as possible. Um our our data team focuses every day working with numerous accounts. Um we have over 470 P school accounts for teachers. We have
041about 1,494 power school student data accounts and about 2800 uh parent portal accounts. So we're really excited to see that our student growth and our parent growth um has increased with the portal. um the feedback that we've gotten and it's it's been a little bit easier to navigate. More information is readily available in one place now um for that system just like the attendance component this year for absences. Um so we're just looking to constantly build and streamline as much as possible. >> So Dr. Cass a couple of questions. Um for the graduation tracker is will that be a tool that is available for parents andor students to also see? So is it something with weaved within powers school? >> Not yet. It's been a suggestion for us. Um right now the interface is just
042for building administration and counselors. Um but there is conversation within powers school to see how they can transition that dashboard to be parent or student facing to see what is needed um on their end. So yes, I'm hopeful that that'll come out. Yeah, I just as a parent I think it would actually be quite helpful especially wouldn't you think about uh class registration time and knowing and understanding what do we still need? Did you do that hard? I don't remember if you took that hard. I know you know but okay sorry. Uh for attendance monitoring I actually um find it to be quite useful and helpful. Is I know it's something that's at the high school. Is that now going to be rolled down to the elementary into the middle? I only know it's at
043the high school. >> It's only at the high school right now. That was like our pilot phase. Um I would say that's still conversations we'd have to have. Um in in talking to it's definitely something we could look at for the middle school and I think that might be the best approach to bring it into one more school before the elementarymentaries. Um but it is accessible across all the buildings if we decide to go in that direction. So for the budget next year it is not about uh expanding it's simply about maintaining >> maintaining >> and then when you are having sorry lots of questions um when you have your data system and your data team and you're looking at streamlining workflows at what point are uh is the data team engaging with those who
044are actually doing the work to talk to them like hey what else do you guys need? >> Yeah absolutely. So, one of this year's one of our department goals around data um was really looking at um being the leaders in professional learning of using the systems but making sure that they have the tools and the abilities to carry out a lot of the work. Um, so we've been setting up meetings with uh building administration, support staff, clerical staff to really help in turn key to say how can we support you and what are areas that you need more learning with or things that may be frustrating or don't seem as simple to navigate within the systems. So we've been doing monthly meetings um with all different departments to really make sure that they have a
045full grasp of these systems in their buildings and can carry it out. And then our district uh wide software. So we software is a huge component of the technology budget that we are fortunate for. We have different bucket areas whether um we're supporting the operations side which we're talking about tonight which is really our business software our data our infrastructure and security. At our last meeting, we talked about the infra uh the instructional side of the tools that are used, but just to give you some numbers from an operation standpoint, um we has about 40 different softwares around those areas. Um from the instructional standpoint, we're at about 60 softwares across the district. Um all of the softwares that we use, we meet the EDLAW 2D data compliance. That's been a really important goal of
046us as a department um since EDL law came out to make sure that we are keeping data safe and private and working with the vendors that also comply with the rules and regulations of the state. Um and so this is something that um we are constantly always evaluating yearly and we also send out surveys especially from the instructional side um but even operations to really look at what are we utilizing, how are we utilizing it, um what are things that we no longer need and then what are maybe some new tools that we can also invest in the district. Um so this is constantly being evaluated, monitored and changed. Um and it was a big component at our technology committee this year to really make sure we're aligning um the curriculum, the the tools and
047even the operation sides with our systems as to what's being used across the five schools. Does that dashboard will the dashboard, let me ask it that way, will the dashboard allow you then kind of in your team to be able to look at what's actually being accessed out of those 60 and 40 programs or softwares so that it's not just self-reporting like oh my god I love it but actually I never use it. >> Yes. So we do >> I mean there's a lot of stuff like that. I'm like oh my god it's so amazing and I don't ever use it. I have so many cookbooks like that I can't even tell you. So, we've been really thoughtful with the surveys that we send out to faculty. One is going out in the next couple
048of weeks to really modify our language to make sure while all of our softwares are great, what are the ones that they actually cannot live without from an instructional standpoint. Um, and then in addition to that, the systems that we use, um, myself and our coaches have been meeting with our vendors, we met with four this week to start really looking at the dashboards and the datas and the numbers to really see who is actually acquiring what. um there are some new systems that came online um that a lot of teachers are utilizing and so with that utilization we'll probably knock out some other tools that are no longer needed, right? And so we constantly want to reinforce it's not about the number, it's about how we're using them um and making sure that we're
049staying true to, you know, we don't need to use everything, but we need to use things well and making sure that they're purposeful. Just as a quick followup, but it sounds like the dashboard that you were talking about earlier w wouldn't necessarily give us insight into that level of the what people are using. >> Yeah. So the Wi-Fi dashboard is just pertaining to the Wi-Fi the internet. Um but it so it does not give you an outline of all of the softwares in each of the softwares that we have access to. whether you're in the camera software system, whether you're in WCAP, whether you're in something else, each of those dashboards have different abilities for us to see usage and that's really more from like the instructional side of things for teachers. >> Okay. And
050I guess just as you were saying with with licenses and making sure that people are utilizing it isn't more it's you know uh making sure that we're using the right software um appropriately is with that I mean presumably in every every provider that we have there's going to be you know zero usage on a license. I mean, is is there a plan? Will those people that haven't used it, you just cancel it and then if they notice, oh, wait, I've logged in and I can't access it. Oh, to to provide it back or what's the strategy there? >> Yeah. So, what we do every year around budget season, um, which I'm really grateful for, is making sure that we have is making sure we have conversations with building administrators and then also I sit with
051our department coordinators, our chairs, um, our grade level leaders to really talk about usage and to discuss like what is most beneficial in their classroom. So, we get um, real-time information from them. So an example for your question is we sat with the English department this year and there's a software that they've had access to and came to the department and said I actually no longer feel that this is useful for us in the classroom. We're surpassed this. We're not really utilizing this. So it was something that we were able to take out of the budget which is helpful. Or we have another tool that's similar to something else but they say the they see the benefits of A versus B and so B can come out. And so we're constantly I'm redlining my budget
052document for Gabby so she will know um which ones we are able to come out. Unfortunately with any software and you will see in the numbers the increase for software has just been significant over the years. Um so it used to be anywhere from a 2 to 5% increase. We're now looking at a 12% increase for software. Um so just that is also one of the biggest points of we haven't necessarily grown our numbers in size. The price tags of software have just um shot up a lot in the last couple of years. And that's our budget. I don't know if anyone can see that up there, but that is the tech budget. >> And I'll guess question. >> Oh, you you preempted my question on the the software. So, you know, 300,000 increase to
0531.3 and that largely answers that question. Yeah. >> Um, but then notice on the durables, that's the other big delta. I heard you mention, you know, 500 new computers coming in. Is that 450,000 like a sustainable number or I guess what's the biggest change? >> Yeah. So, a lot of times you'll see within the durables, it's when the replacement cycles are up for certain things. And so, that's when we are replacing like the amount of Chromebooks that we're about to place in fifth grade, the new mobile digital art lab that we're building in the high school. Those are all components of those areas. Um and that's also included in like our access points that are coming in for the high school for the high school and middle school uh this year. So after this round
054next year, you'll see that impact for the elementary schools, but that will not have to be something that is then built into the budget yearly. Um so we have a life cycle for those as well. >> Okay. I guess you mentioned a number of things. I would have expected that number to be positive rather than negative. >> We're good negotiators. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I mean, are Prometheian boards an element of that change? >> They are. We've been so grateful for the Ry fund with our Prometheian board initiative in the district. So, while that there is a partial piece of that in this budget, um they've been instrumental in really supporting that work across the district for us. So, that really hasn't been a number that we've acquired too much in this budget. >> So,
055thank you, Ryund. >> Yep. Matt, I was with you. All of this talk, then we get to this page and I was like, but that's a negative. I was like, that's probably an error, but doesn't sound like it is. >> Other questions, thoughts, reflections from anybody else on the board? >> No. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Cesone. A it's um it's always uh great to hear about the many different layers and levels of which really the infrastructure has grown and developed and continues to support our intentional and meaningful instruction in a lot of wonderful ways. And I thank you and your department for really good work because in 13 years this is exploded but has exploded in ways that are relevant and meaningful and not gratuitous. And so we appreciate that. So thank you very much.
056Okay. So there is a slight uh misprint. It's not slight but there's a misprint. Just going to call it what it is there. It says it's open topics form but it's not open topics form. So what this time is is just the time for the hearing of the public to be heard. And so what that means is at this time we welcome and encourage our community members to address the board. Please come to the podium, state your name, address, and if you are representing an organization. To ensure everyone has the opportunity to speak, please limit your remarks to 3 minutes. The board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed to be a discussion. So, please understand that we may not respond to your comments or questions at this time. We take
057your comments seriously and may need more time to process or research an issue. We will ensure questions will be addressed by the appropriate staff member or possibly answered at a future board meeting. We will not entertain comments regarding individual students or district personnel as these are protected under state and federal privacy laws. Please know we take personnel concerns very seriously on these matters. We would ask you to follow the appropriate administrative channels. As a reminder, the community may submit written comments at any time to the board by sending those to rcsd boardschools.org. Um, hi, I'm Gil Forbes, uh, resident of 22 Bird Street, uh, two students in the district. Um, I've, um, wanted to first thank the board. We have an exemplary district and the board, I know, is apparently not very renumerative and sometimes
058may subject you to criticism. Um, the good news is that I'm here for an opportunity uh, to discuss an opportunity not to cast any stones tonight. Um I've come to share three sincerely held beliefs. Um those beliefs are one that we have a crisis in education. Two that the responsibility for that crisis does uh the people in this room have actually zero responsibility for that crisis. It has to do with social changes. It has to do with a pandemic. It has to do with other things going on in our society. Uh but I do think we have a responsibility as a district to to think about seriously about that crisis. And the crisis namely is that test scores are going down. Reading scores are below uh pre- pandemic levels and continuing to go down. The
059ry rye is not immune to this. Our scores are below where they were 15 20 years ago if you look at the percentage of students proficient in ELA or um NWA scores. So, we're we're below where we were 20 years ago. Um, and I I'll talk a little bit more about the details of that in the 90 seconds I have left. Um, but the but the third sincerely held belief is that there's an opportunity um given the talent we have in the district, given the resources that we have, the leadership that we have, there's an opportunity to think about where and how we can improve that. I am still a tourist here at the the board of education. I've done some meetings with uh administration, spoken to parents. I've had the pleasure to serve on
060a committee that Dr. Cissone chaired, the technology committee, but I believe that the opportunity lies uh squarely in middle school use of Chromebooks. Um you know, as a parent who's about to have a middle schooler in two years, I'm concerned that we have subjects in middle school that are 100% digital. You know, technology changes all the time really quickly, but the psychology and anatomy of the human brain doesn't evolve that quickly. I think most of the research shows that one:1 devices didn't deliver on its promises. That, you know, the learning on pen and paper and flashcards and active recall is how you convert short-term memory into long-term memory. and that the modality that that best serves that is pen and paper and writing and note-taking and not Chromebooks. Um so, you know, this is something
061that I think the the district has um already been talking about, but I think it's um it's imperative that the uh administration, the board, and the teachers focus on that. And so, that's three minutes. I'll honor the rules. Thank you very much for your service and your consideration. Mr. Forbes, thank you very much for sharing your uh comments. Before I give an opportunity to return to Dr. Murray, I would just say um if I don't know if you had an opportunity to read Dr. Murray's community update last week, but she gave a really nice reflection on technology in the district and the thoughtful uh intentional ways in which the administration is starting to reflect um and continues and has been reflecting on the use of technology. And Mr. Claire, our principal at the middle school,
062also recently sent a community uh letter related to exactly that issue of Chromebooks and useful uh reflection of technology in education. So, it is very timely that you raise this. It is certainly something that is in um our thoughts, in our administrator's thoughts. I don't know if you have anything at this and as I said, it's not something we're necessarily prepared to respond to in detail tonight, but I certainly wanted to make sure that uh you're aware of those things. Yes, I did read the the newsletter. I am aware tangentially of of Doc or Mr. Clair's involvement. So, I I thank you for the consideration. >> Sure. And I just want to thank you for your comments tonight and also thank you for being on our technology committee as well and sharing your perspective with
063us. Um and I'll be I'll reach out tomorrow and we can talk more. >> Thank you. >> Okay, seeing no one else here from the public, uh we will then move on to our consent agenda. So, can we please have a motion to uh review this evening's consent agenda? Matt Shangh. Thank you. Seconded by Sean Clapper. Thank you. Let's take a look at this evening's consent agenda. Consent agenda general. Consent agenda. Fiscal construction. Consent agenda. Fiscal. Consent agenda. Professional appointments. Consent agenda, classified appointments and consent agenda, curriculum, instruction and assessment. Okay, seeing no comments or questions, uh can I have uh all those in favor who are approving tonight's consent agenda? That would be seven to nothing. So on this evening's consent agenda, we have approved the contract for the voting machines which we will
064be using on May 19th for our school budget and trustee election. It is going to be the first of many reminders that you will receive that polling will take place in the middle school gymnasium from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on May 19th. And we look forward to having all of our community members exercise their uh civic duty and responsibility of voting on May 19th. We also have the approval and acceptance of a gift from the Midland PTO in the amount of $6,000 which will go towards um a contract with Sandbox Theater for the fifth grade play. We also have the appointment of our ESY coordinators and camp counselors. Um as we know this is the support of our students which continues through the summer as we work to ensure that our students get support
065all year long with their learning. We also have an approval of contracts with wellness professionals who will work with our teachers and staff to support their wellness and mental well-being as part of our commitment to professional learning in the ry commitment for our staff. So with that we will now move on to presentation and discussion to Mrs. Bole. >> Thank you very much. Um, so we are um at our second review of three policies. Um, and there's actually the regulations are still on here, but we're um those are not going to be adopted by the board um moving forward. Um, the three that are on here for our policies are the are um policy number 4325, which is our academic intervention services. And as I pointed out last week, um this came up for our
066regular review cycle and we um discussed um as part of the uh policy committee uh some of the information that was included uh actually fit better as part of the regulations. So we have reworked some of this policy so that it reflects um the the best information for a policy and then we've moved more of the detail into a regulation which is also attached here for your review. Um the second policy is uh 5421 which is the use of epinephrine auto injector devices. again uh came up for our regular review cycle of policies and we made some uh uh updates to the language around um uh documentation of training and where that would be housed and and how that um happens for non-licensed staff. And then the last that is on here is 911 0.4
067four, which is employees with HIV related illness. And there was a slight update made to that um at the very end of the policy. Uh I think it was really more just a um a word smithing so that we could combine some more information into a smaller number of words. Um, one policy that is not on here that we did discuss last week, um, we uh, it has to do with the automated I'm going to say it wrong, AEDs. Um, and, uh, we we pulled that off um, for a second review because we wanted to, uh, make one more change based on the regulation that was being review was being updated. So, we will bring that back once that's been um, looked at again. Anyone have any additional questions for these policies? >> No. >>
068Okay. We will bring these forward them for adoption. Just the policies at our next meeting. Okay. Great. So, we will now move on to communications to and from the board where we have our board and district updates. Uh we have the facilities meeting listed here but I do believe we did share our update from the facilities meeting at our meeting last week. Right. Yes. Great. All right. Uh technology meeting which seems to have happened after our last meeting which was on March 3rd. Miss Cloffer. >> Um so Dr. Sassoon pretty much hit on basically all of this. Um but just to summarize um the committee met on Thursday and we did an independent review of the technology plan that is being put together for submission to the state. Um we originally had four goals at
069that point and after some discussion uh it was decided to split some of them out and we will now have five in the new document. Um and those goals as um Dr. someone mentioned already, our infrastructure with the Wi-Fi upgrade over the next two years, security with the camera system upgrade districtwide. Um there is a goal on active learning environments and that's the one that's being split into two goals now with one um being dedicated to hardware in the physical space and then another goal focused on the curriculum integration with technology and the last goal is equitable access for all learners. So the next steps will be once every all that feedback is compiled and a new document is available it will be reviewed again by the committee and um submitted in April as Dr.
070Cesone mentioned and then again in June to the state if everything is good with it. >> Great. Uh it looks like we have a policy meeting to be held. So we'll look forward to an update then. Uh traffic pedestrian have they met? >> All right. So, we look forward to an update then as well. And then I do believe we have a student report. Great Samantha. >> Okay. Starting with Rye High School. Ry High School has had many notable events in the past couple of weeks. First, student government organized the winter pep rally highlighting the various successes of Ry athletics, including wrestling, basketball, squash, swimming, and more. Each grade within student government planned a schoolwide event with great student and staff engagement. The band the unprofessionals comprised of several seniors played and the annual staff
071for student basketball take game took place with staff taking the win. Additionally, the PSP recently put on a showing of lay miz with three showings with outstanding community support. And lastly, our boys basketball and hockey teams continue to compete as they v for state championships. Next, from Ry Middle School, our spring concert series is coming up featuring performances by our band, orchestra, and chorus students. We look forward to celebrating the hard work and musical talents of our students. Then from Milton, the Milton Student Council recently launched the Milton School Store, providing students with an opportunity to take on leadership roles while building school spirit. Milton also celebrated the 100th day of school with a creative cereal box Domino challenge. And the cereal boxes used in the activity were donated to a local food pantry, combining
072fun with service to the community. In addition, our kindergarten students marked the Lunar New Year with festive parade celebrating culture, tradition, and learning together as a school community. Um, Midland, during the week of March 2nd, Midland second graders participated in a classroom presentation about autism. Students learned that everyone learns in different ways and that our differences make us unique. The presentation encouraged students to lead with kindness and be supportive friends to everyone. On Thursday, Midland's reading superheroes, word wizard, and mighty reader visited kindergarten classrooms to celebrate the amazing progress students are making as readers. On Monday, Midland held a schoolwide assembly celebrating the magic of reading. Thank you to Miss Andrews for organizing this special event. And lastly, from Osborne, the Osborne fifth graders recently performed Madagascar as their annual fifth grade musical. All 68
073students participated as part of the cast and crew with every student having a speaking role and many playing multiple characters. It was a fantastic performance and a wonderful showcase of their hard work and teamwork. >> Great. Thank you. Always great to hear about all the good things that are happening with our students. All right. Uh any other communications to from the board? Okay. Seeing none, we will have our next meeting on March 24th where we will have two final budget presentations for facilities and athletics. Okay, great. Um, and so we look forward to seeing everybody here on March 24th. So with that being said, can I have a motion to adjourn this evening's meeting? Sean Clapper, seconded by Valerie Lapam. All those in favor, that is seven to nothing. Thank you. Have a good evening.