Board of Education Meeting - March 25, 2025

001all right good evening thank you everybody for joining us for the March 25th Board of Education meeting if you could all join me with a pledge to the flag I pled aliance 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 and we will start this evening with our special acknowledgements recognitions of excellence awards Dr burn good evening everyone thank you for being here we are delighted to begin tonight's meeting by honoring two extraordinary Rye high school students the Ry recognition of excellence awards were created in 2012 to recognize students who have achieved great things in the Arenas of AC mics arts and Athletics tonight we honor two Ry High School seniors who have been named candidates

002in the US Presidential Scholars Program the US Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 by executive order of then president Lyndon Johnson to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating seniors in 1979 the program was extended to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual Creative and Performing Arts in 2015 the program was again extended to recognize students who demonstrate ability and accomplishment in Career and Technical education fields and each year up to 161 students are named as presidential Scholars one of the nation's highest honors for high school students presidential Scholars candidates are initially selected based on their sat or ACT results and outstanding scholarship the candidates are invited to submit applications which include essays self assessments secondary school reports and transcripts semi-finalists and non-s semi-finalists will be notified in mid

003April Scholars and non-scholars will be notified in May to be named a presidential Scholars candidate is a rare and special distinction sha Yu Ry High School class of 2022 and a talented chist was a US presidential scholar in the Arts the last time that ryy high school had a US presidential scholar candidate prior to that was 2017 and we are so very proud of the two Ry High School seniors who have earned this distinction so please come forward as I call your name Andrew [Applause] Chun conratulations [Applause] congratulations Kiran good [Applause] kis our warmest congratulations to you both your success is reflective of a great deal of hard work and dedication not only but by you yourselves but also by your parents your teachers and the school district community at large and now if you'll

004allow us to take a few photos of you we would be very appreciative and Mr Hara if you can come on up that would be and mom's dad's parents come on up and Miss durman's also going to take photos and she'll share them with you e e e all right it's always so wonderful to have an opportunity to celebrate our students so congratulations again students we're very proud of you we will now move on to the report of the superintendent Dr burn thank you very much good evening and thank you for joining us for our March 25th Board of Education meeting just have to note the new table skirts are terrific that's a new addition first meeting recognizing student achievement whether it being academics the Arts or Athletics is one of the best things we

005do at Board of Education meetings I hope to have many more RI recognition of excellence awards to hand out between now and the end of the school year um it is time uh end of season to talk about Athletics and all of our winter sports teams have now concluded their season I'd like to congratulate the boys varsity basketball team the girls varsity basketball team the varsity hockey team the boys and girls indoor track teams and the wrestling team all of whom made it into the finals and in several cases really far into the finals this afternoon I toured the new softball field and was blown away by the new design The Sod will be arriving at the end of the week and I'm so excited to see the girls out there in a few weeks

006once the field is 100% % complete what an incredible transformation later this afternoon I stopped by at the literacy committee meeting and it was one of the most satisfying events of the Year for me so far watching the K2 teachers analyzing the data collected in the phonics pilot was stunning what wonderful progress and growth in our literacy program the growth demonstrated in the data was just incredible kudos to Trisha the instructional coaches and teachers for Transforming Our early literacy instruction similarly I've listened in as our upper grade teachers were providing feedback on a draft grammar lesson scope and sequence another amazing development I didn't even tell you about that one I just didn't want to give you too much I wish to thank those members of the community who took time out of their busy

007schedules to join us here in the Middle School multi-purpose room earlier this evening for our annual community budget Cafe in the past we would hold these on Saturday mornings but switched it to a week night evening starting last year in hopes that it would make it easier for folks to attend so just to thank you while it was a small But Mighty group we thank those who were able to attend earlier this evening and tonight we continue our Deep dive into specific budget areas of interest to the public this week we will hear presentations about the technology Athletics and Facilities portions of the budget um I will share links to the presentations in my weekly updates and you can also find them on the district website under the business and finance department tab and that

008concludes my report for this evening all right great thank you Dr gr and I certainly look forward to an update on all of that wonderful data related to our literacy and maybe even a preview of some grammar stuff it's always exciting stuff all right so speaking of exciting things we will move on to presentations and discussions and it looks like we're going to start this evening with the technology budget presentation s okay [Music] that very there you go [Music] all right good evening everyone I'm here to present on behalf of the entire department um the technology budget overview for 2526 um I want to start by just thinking here we go I want to start just by thinking the entire department and so why I'm here presenting on everyone's behalf it takes a really large

009team to do everything that we do day in and day out um so thanking Colleen who is my assistant who just keeps my calendar flowing every day um to Carolyn and Kim who's our instructional coaches um that really work closely with our students and teachers to just make sure all the technology you're going to hear about tonight gets integrated in a meaningful and purposeful way um we want to thank our data team Megan and Michael who keep our systems streamlined and in place and things flowing very efficiently to our engineers in editech all the hard work they do we have Stephen Amy here our operations manager our head Lee Dylan and all of our engineers in each of the buildings that just support our teachers and students day in day out so while I'm presenting

010on behalf of the entire team it takes the entire team to do this work when I think about technology and all the tenants of the Ry commitment so we are focusing on our students our faculty our staff and our community and so when we think about students we always thinking about how are we pushing them as critical thinkers as problem solvers as collaborators and Technology infuses all those different aspects that you're going to hear tonight but that's in the Forefront for our thinking and learning when we're putting technology initiatives in place when we're thinking about our faculty and staff we're not just thinking about throwing new things out them we want to plan and design with them and so that's really important for us that any professional learning any designs any commitment that we're making

011is really done in a meaningful way that integrates the entire organization and then for students our role with this with the right commitment um sorry with the community is to just really make sure that we're educating them on what all of our goals and initiatives are across the district and their informed of what's happening so I heard there was a little um challenge going on with our icons and so when I first submitted my first draft to Dr burn he sat down and said I have some really big feedback for you and I got a little nervous and he said you have to change the red arrows because that just doesn't cut it so I took the feedback um but you're going to hear tonight the different tenant of what our operating budget does for

012the um technology we are making sure that we are physically responsible with the monies and how it's spread across all those different areas of technology that we just talked about how we're providing excellence in teaching and learning for all of our teachers our students our administrative tasks um our community that we are providing academic growth when we integrate technology in all aspects of things that we're doing that it's the Forefront of our thinking um and that we're just as I said again physically responsible with our budget and so really making sure and you're going to hear in a little bit just about our infrastructure and our work from that top down that making sure that if all systems are secure and in play we're able to do the things that we need to do with

013students and teachers and faculty so hopefully these icons win for the night but I heard Rob has a few things up his sleeve so we'll see our Focus areas as you're going to hear are is going to be about our different District infrastructure to start off we're going to talk about cyber security you're going to hear about our instruction instructional technology practices all the professional learning that we've been doing across the district um you're going to hear a lot of upgrades with our Innovative spaces and how that's been integrating with technology and what these spaces are look like and what teachers and students are doing in the space you're going to hear about the technology committee and the tall task that they were given this year around AI um and then also in regards to

014our data systems okay I don't know okay so we're going to start with our district infrastructure and so the first component that I want to talk about of what we're doing this year is this summer was a really tall task for us in terms of rewiring the entire high school and middle school and so we were able with that work to really think about strategically with our plan where our current server closets are listed um if they made sense in classrooms if we needed to move them out of those spaces if we needed to strategically put them in a building this was the time to do that work so we spent a lot of planning time um the last time you heard us for the budget round of Designing and actually implementing that work and

015this summer we did it um editech was instrumental in getting us in a couple of weeks up and running and like I said rewiring the entire High School Middle School moving us to cat 6A cat cabling upgrading all of our closets building new closets so our main closet now is on a totally different location than it was before um which I'm saying very easily that that's something to do but if you were here all over the summer to see the AC units that had to be moved to get that work done cables through the ceiling guys working 24/7 um we couldn't have done it without them but because of that now we can say that our buildings map in a strategic way that makes sense and also doesn't impede on classroom and instruction because those

016pieces of equipment that should not be in a classroom are no longer there um and so we're really proud of that design I don't know how often you get an opportunity to be a part of that um but our operations team did a lot of work around what that would look systematically with that then came just naturally upgrading servers and systems making sure that we had the right configurations and the right setup in each of those closets for what we needed across the district um device management is always something that's really important to us and so making sure we start clean every year so we're touching over 2,000 devices in terms of Imaging them from scratch making sure they're ready to go for um the next school year and teachers have all the software that

017they need we've also worked with editech and our facilities Department to make sure that our prometheum boards are getting up and running and thank you Ry fund for all of their support with that uh grant that they have supported us with that um but that's been a really tall task for us in terms of strategically making sure when we're putting them into classrooms that it makes sense instructionally and so we're not just putting them back in rooms that maybe a Smartboard would be that they're aligned in the proper location students have great visual um components when they're seeing the board and it makes sense for the entire space um and Rob and his team would do a lot of facilities work on his end in terms of making sure they're secured that they the way

018that they need to be um you know he'll talk about it in his presentation but there was just a lot of coinciding of planning with the two departments um Wireless optimization is something that we're constantly working on within this District um over the summer our Engineers work thoroughly in our buildings to conduct heat map tests to just really look at wireless access and where our great points are and where things for continued growth that we need to work on and so having these Maps really help us in terms of future planning what this design would look like and what the need is as we grow our mobile devices and students and and just individuals within um each of our buildings we have a clearer picture of what that could look like um security and filtering

019we were able to move off of rocket and move on to realiz so just again keeping these infrastructure things as new technologies come out making sure that we are up to date with what all the needs are we deployed over the summer and into the fall with all of our teachers MFA so now we're secure based on our our cyber audit last year really thinking about two-step authentication and how we need to be secure and accessing certain systems um and so it was a tall task that everyone in Ry was so instrumental in helping us roll out everyone was cooperative they're doing it it takes a couple of extra minutes but we spent time explaining the security needs behind it and how it would protect them and us as an organization and so everyone just

020rolled up their sleeves and and now we have that in place AC across the district for our Google workspace which is incredible to say um that everyone was able to do that so quickly and then for our iPads do we just mooved to a totally different environment with our um our iPad environments we've working a lot with you'll hear in a few minutes about our digital our initiative with our iPads and procreate and just setting them up in an environment where students now have access to different Platforms in a more shared global environment that's more secure for us so that's a little bit about our infrastructure with that all in place and set up the that it needs to be we're able then to do the instructional technology stuff that sounds a little bit more

021exciting and a little bit more fun it's not talking about wires it's not talking about servers it's not talking the stuff in the ceiling or Behind the Walls it's the stuff that we see students engaging with and teachers engaging with which is really exciting but in order to do that we need this stuff to be in place and up to par in order to carry these initiatives forward so this year we've been working very hard on AI you've heard AI from me from the last couple of meetings but it's really exciting work um and we've expanded a lot of our sub subscriptions and a lot of our supports around teaching um of what AI integration could look like at the teacher level and the student level here in Ry so we're really excited for that

022to continue we've done a lot with our media tools Grant again thank you to the Ry fund for supporting that and we've been launching um authentic projects districtwide K12 for all of our teachers and to see the tools that they are using to create these authentic projects with their students has been pretty incredible um we've been busy with developing digital citizenship curriculum lessons at the elementary schools I've you as you've known over the years we've progressed and grown our scope and sequence and now we're also looking to develop that in our Ryme Middle School classes and so we launched in the fall a lot of work um in some of our electives around digital citizenship which has been great to see now that consistency out of fifth grade into sixth grade for students we were

023busy when we took on our new mystery science um curriculum at the elementary level working with our elementary coach um to ways that we could better integrate some steam and maker activities into Mystery Science and use the maker spaces so that's been a really great task to see our teachers utilizing those components um as we said the facility side supported us with installing the promethium boards but now to see actually students and teachers engage with the software and the hardware itself when they're in the classroom um is really great to see those interactions with teaching um especially when you go into an ICT classroom and we have two boards in the space and we're able to pull small groups um and they're able to utilize all the technology in just different ways it really lends

024itself to all the needs that teachers need for the classrooms and then our AI professional development we're really excited we are launching an AI Institute this summer and so we've been really busy planning and designing that for our faculty and staff um so more information on that to come but it's been a great opportunity just to keep pushing our thinking around what AI could look like in Ry and then just from a streamlined standpoint with all the things that we go that are happening within Ry here within the district we know that there's always support that's needed and so that's where Engineers are instrumental in making sure that teachers do not wait administrators do not wait students do not wait that support is almost immediate um in terms of communication problem solving working with students

025to get them up and running um so we're really proud of all the different opportunities we have for our help desk we have one for our faculty and staff that's been um from day one our student help desk is packed every day but it's great to see that students know now they know where to go they can advocate for themselves they know where the help desk is and they're just able to put in tickets and get support immediately um which we love to see and then our parent help desk our community help desk is also very fluid as well we're they can just pop in ask a question and then we resolve their's answers whether it's through a meeting or a phone call with me whatever it may be making sure they're just their answers

026um we have answers to their questions so those are supports that we continue to just talk about each year because they're growing um and they're really vital to just keeping everything um flowing the way that we want to with all of that happening right now thinking about ways that the budget is going to support additional initiatives next year if we go back to our district uh infrastructure next year we will be working on the two new wings so Osborne and Midland those will be coming soon and with the new building comes new wiring and new infrastructure that needs to go into play in those two schools so we will be busy that summer again cabling I feel like we talk about cabling every year um but it's all great things that are happening around those

027designs and those systems with that cabling comes um setting up new servers and new hardware and new equipment in each of those locations just to making sure that we're fully functional in those areas we are to a point in device management um within our district where we are ready to do a replacement cycle with our desktop computers so as we're installing more and more Prometheans we're replacing um our normal desktops with mini desktops in the classrooms um and then also now looking to see what we're transitioning to for our office spaces so that is a project that will be a large project to take on this summer um but it's something that we are starting to embark on with that we're also coming to a point where mobile devices need to be replaced they're up

028in cycle so our fifth grade um at the elementary schools will start to be replaced with Chromebooks our incoming sixth grade will get new Chromebooks um so there's always just a lot of movement in regards to Hardware that's happening within the district um in terms of prometheum boards we're excited we're going to continue with the installation of that over the summer again thank you Ryon for your support for that piece um and then Wireless optimization as I said before we're fortunate this year to do a lot of work around design for heat maps to figure out where our our strength points are and then where our areas of growth are and so this summer we'll be implementing some of those areas where we know that there's needs and impacts um to just make it a

029little bit more of a seamless environment for all of our end users from the instructional side for our um AI we are working on developing a strategic plan for AI we've been doing so much work this year and last year around AI in terms of professional learning knowledge for ourselves and our PD team and now it's important for us to come up with a strategic plan that just houses all the information in one place so whether you're new to the district whether you're just wondering what AI looks like here it'll be a formalized plan so not that we're just starting to think about AI but it's going to be a place that we're going to house all the great work that we've been doing in this one uh strategic plan document so more information to

030come on that we're working on it um our AI integration we've been growing our tools and so as more get approved from edlaw 2D as we continue to evaluate them we're looking to expand some subscriptions for next year um with professional learning around what those tools look like and how teachers and students would integrate them we're also we've been working heavily on lessons so this year we focused on digital citizenship and literacy in our library classes and our sixth grade middle school electives classes next year we're taking it one step further and we are also incorporating AI so our library media Specialists have been working on me on with me on our scope and sequence to think about where that fits in our curriculum K5 um and so we are designing those lessons right now

031and we are also working in another elective class in middle school for incoming sixth grade around passion projects and talking about research and design and Ai and how that will fit into this passion um work so we're excited to roll out those lessons in the fall for the teachers and then also we will just be continuing um maker space learning of how we can continue to integrate Steam and stem into the science lessons that we have with mystery science and then also continuing around the Promethean work for interactive software as you can imagine technology grows and changes every day so now promethian is coming out with a new board which is great it's called the active panel 10 it always changes um so there's some new great enhanc that are coming out so we're designing

032some professional learning for our teachers on those so they're up to speed for when that comes out as well and again just continuing the help desk it's it sounds the same um not much will change in terms of structure for it but just continuing the communication and messaging around that we're here to support you in those three buckets if anyone were to need it Community faculty staff or students so security has also been a really big piece within our district um this year we were able to successfully complete a lot of different tasks around security um all of our salt Salto locks now in all five buildings have been installed um and so we're very excited to see that system up and running districtwide we finished our PA integration in all of our school buildings

033as well so all the big clocks that you see in the area um in the space at least are in all of our school buildings they're fully connected now our systems are integrated so in an emergency when needed systems will talk to each other alerts will be notified administrators are are notified um and so it's just great to have one cohesive system now where we're not working in peace mail by different buildings so we're really proud of that work again our our Engineers worked really hard to do all that configuration setup this summer um and we're also continuing to we've deployed this year as well uh Cisco phones was a couple of years ago after doing some evaluation and discussion with building administrators just thinking about what other space could use phones just in case

034we needed to have some communication so we did walkthroughs of each of the buildings and we deed decided that some of our common spaces would need some phones and so that was implemented and carried out this year as well for next year which will be in the budget to support the 2526 is going to be looking at installation of Salto and PA systems that are newly constructed wings so making sure that technology is mirrored at Osborne and Midland in the new construction zones we are now at the point where we will be doing assessments of our camera system District yde just think about as technology advances what other pieces are out there um and so we're taking a look at some of those different areas and some of the different vendors um that we may

035engage with we're going to be looking at upgrades for Salto there's again technology upgrades so we're on RF we're going to Blue net just different ways that technology communicates with each other but we were informed that we need to start making that shift so we're glad that we've already pre-planned and budgeted for it and then we'll continue to work with Ry PD to enhance our portable radio radio functionality across all the buildings so it sounds like a lot but as you know technology changes constantly and so these are things we're just keeping up with I think Jam's head hurts well I keep turning and asking the question like didn't we just like we haven't finished and so the idea finished now we're starting well and and we haven't finished but yet we have to go

036back and refresh what we haven't even finished installing and I and I get it but it just makes me feel old and I'm not really old but I feel really really old when I hear these kinds of things that are happening sorry it sounds crazy right but Salto started in the district in 2020 so the network and the infrastructure that supports those blocks is now at a place where similar to wiring it's now the next generation of wiring and support that's behind all of those locks and we're falling behind already I mean and it's crazy right we're falling behind and we're just actually like I was like quite chuffed I was like oh we got Salos everywhere Salos set and it's like yeah no you're not right you got like yeah that was a funny

037game it's just it's believe me when she comes in my office and tells me that too I have those moments myself I've had the opportunity to do it behind closed doors and here I sit yeah yeah when she points to the door and she's like get out I'm like okay come back later um no but one thing I will have to say as quick as it's changing what I'm really proud with our team and is always thinking ahead of what's coming and so not to have to come to this table to say we're behind the eball we haven't planned this was already in the proposed operating budget for next school year knowing that our Engineers have done the research behind the scenes to say this is coming we need to prepare for it and so

038we have and so it is in the budget we're ready for it it seems like a quick change um but that's something I'm really grateful for that everyone's always thinking about the future and not just where we currently are from a cyber security standpoint so this year we're continuing with our Fe to audit so as last year we worked with a vendor called redo um and so since we did really well in our audit last year they have said to us and it's great professional learning for us we've opted into this it's not something we've been told to do but it's really good for us to see the areas and growth points that we're doing well in and then just an overall organization what are things that we can grow and do better and so

039for us that's really helpful with cyber security changing all of the time you want to make sure your infrastructure network is secure as possible we want to make sure that these things are play so it's great professional learning for our team so we are engaging in phase two with redo right now we're going through that process um they are doing what's called a NIS cyber security audit where they take a look at all of our documentations our procedures our internal processes um and they do a full scope and an evaluation and a test internal test um so we're hopeful that the recommendations will be provided to us um in the coming weeks and it'll just show again as I said growth points of what the district is doing really well and then other ways that

040we can just mature in our cyber security posture so we're hoping to have that by the end of April with that in mind then thinking about the following year and planning ahead um we would be implementing the recommendations from redo that we've been doing every year and then also thinking about what our phase three audit would look like and again probably some additional penetration testing things on the network that we can just test and constantly make sure we're up to standard wi Nest um cuz those are like teachers have their standards these are the standards that we're abiding by from a infrastructure cyber security standpoint um so we will be bringing that um to you next year and also um making some recommendations at the technology committee about that what that would look like in

041the future when we talk about professional learning within the district um our coaches have been instrumental in all the things that you've been hearing really pushing out the learning for our teachers and students and so whether they're meeting with our faculty and staff in small groups whether they're having department meetings whether they're just doing a coaching cycle they're meeting with teachers one-on-one or running inservice classes they are constantly um with our faculty sharing these initiatives coaching them providing support and really being the cheerleaders that we need for all this work that are be that's being done in addition we've also continued with our Communications so we have our quarterly bulletins we have our Tech tip Tuesdays we've been attending several national conferences just to keep up with our own professional learning um in terms of

042what can we do and where do we push teachers and where are we going with instructional Tech moving forward so that's been great learning for us this year um and these are just some of the inservice classes that you can see on the screen that we've offered so we've had amazing turnout in every single one of our classes full of capacity um we've been doing a lot of work around media creation just working with our teachers on designing um really anything from lessons to creative projects to authentic challenges we've had several classes filled to the max around AI we've done two level ones and one level two next year we'll be launching level three um a ton of work around mastering Prometheans in the classroom we've had a yearlong practicum this year that we've ran

043on digital portfolios and that has been a great class so working with Dr Murray to think about ways to expand that more globally um to all of our users across the district we've had parent univers that have been really successful and again we've had our normal Elementary and secondary steam nights and so those we were really proud of this year when we think about initiatives of where we're going next year we're going to continue with our normal communication we're going to continue with how we support teachers and students in the classroom um but we are going to introduce some new topics around our professional learning so AI research is going to be a class that we focus on could be a practicum for a year it could just be a traditional inservice um but AI

044will be a big Focus again next year so Ai and research our AI level three our AI around authorship in the classroom which is really thinking about like ethics and how do we use it responsibly um the power of differentiation in the classroom with AI in terms of differentiation your differentiating your lessons working in small groups the two tools that we have right now that teachers are getting heavily trained in is Magic School and different um we are hoping to expand some of our tools next year as long as they um pass the Ed law Tod test if they do then we'll be looking at that as well continuing as we just said Promethean is slightly changing their software so providing additional supports for teachers around some of the new tools that are out there

045um and then always upgrading anything new with our Google workspace and media creation Tools in addition to all the Great Tech things that we've seen across the district um we're actually able to see all this come to life in our Innovative spaces so when we opened the media center this year when we open the Innovative um the IAB in the high school it was awesome to just see teachers and students in there those spaces are packed all the time they're utilizing the small breakout rooms they're utilizing the Promethean boards you can go into the iLab when it's not being booked by a full class and you will always find a small group of students working in a breakout room working on homework collaborating problem solving working on a project together just going up to the

046boards and using it as just a whiteboard or a brainstorm and so it's really awesome to see that now they have access to this they're heavily utilizing it not only when a teacher is present but on their own time and so we're really excited for the work that's been done in all these spaces next year um we're going to be adding even more so I'm really excited to report on all the work that we've been doing um with the building principal so I've been meeting with all the building principles to talk about the active learning spaces that we're going to grow in each of their in their uh buildings and then coupling that with again the integration of the technology in those spaces so to just give you a little bit of some sta statistics

047of what's happening in each of the schools Milton we're working on four classroom designs this year and we're being really methodical with how we're thinking about it so we started with fifth grade we're doing fourth and then we're going to third all the way eventually down to K but we're doing working that process through with each of the teachers um at Osborne we're doing the new Wing plus third and fourth grade Midland we're doing the new Wing in third grade middle school is getting 11 new classrooms so there's just a lot of work that's being done um these are some of the drawings that you'll just see um it's not work that the building administrator and myself just do together we bring in each of the teachers to build a design team to talk about

048what are your needs instructionally with kids the types of furniture you would like to see the type of Technology you would need to support that work we brainstorm with the vendors that come in they do renderings and drawings for each of the spaces we agree upon that um we don't change the color palette Too Much from the work of the bond um but it's really great to kind of see the ownership that every teacher has in the design of their spaces and so while this may be a little bit slower in terms of like trajectory that we're not doing all at once it's really methodical and thinking about how everyone has a voice in what we're designing and that it's purposeful Dr casson sorry just so I'm looking at these sketches I just want to

049make sure we're not when you're talking about creating spaces we're not adding walls correct we're using Furniture to establishes correct absolutely nothing from a facility standpoint is or at least on my end Rob can talk about that later but we are not knocking anything down we are just taking out furniture that does not meet the needs of the students in the classroom redesigning it and talking to with that work happening putting in those Promethean boards or making sure the mobile technology is up to speed and date of what they need in that classroom and essentially you know we've talked about this for a long time for years and years and years in schools the only thing that could happen in a classroom was whatever the room allowed it to happen so if there were 32

050deaths or 30 deaths that were jammed into the room that could not move you generally had a teacher that stood at the front of that room and lectured or um focused the lesson from there what these active learning spaces do is that they allow within minutes you know two or three minutes reconfigure the entire classroom so that it can support a range of teaching modality ities so one day if you want lecture you can set it up that way if you have kids working in Partnerships or Triads or large groups or small groups it's so easy to do that because the furniture dictates it and it's also using the furniture as an instructional tool as opposed to just a place to put a body which is what it historically been in classroom so it's very

051exciting work yeah in each of the spaces too we've also moved away from just ownership of like my materials and my things and building a sense of community in the space so a lot of the furniture you won't see desks anymore where there's storage underneath it we're building storage capacity in other ways so that students are using everything in the classroom as like a communal environment and not just a standalone from there we're also working on our data systems and so this year we've done a lot in terms of some of the the bullets that I'll go through really working with our counseling department and the high school to look at Naviance which is one of our systems that we use in the high school with students and we've found a lot of ways to

052just sync and streamline data that students need to enter that we need to enter into our student information system that also needs to go into navon so we've really looked to streamline that process for our faculty our students and our staff and we've had a lot of success with how that is set up now um we've been collaborating with our building administrators on the scheduling process to just kind of streamline what that looks like in the building and also with our Gradebook process which has been really successful um to implement those new features we're using systems that help us now with rostering students in classes with software and so really just thinking about automation how do we automate a lot of the systems that we have in play um so that things are backing up

053overnight they're sinking and it's not a manual entry from some individual at central office to do that work and so that's been really one of the biggest goals that we've been talking about in any of these bullets you'll see here is Automation and efficiency um we've been working with registra to integrate new um tracking fields and our systems for the registration process which has been really helpful um we've transitioned Ryan middle school for our um student course request process this year it used to be done in a Google form and again all of that information then had to be manually entered into our CIS which was just a lot of work on the back end and with some training and some support we were now able where our middle school students now just go into

054Power School into the app and pick their course selection which then drives the m schedule because it will drop it right in there and then we design on the back end so just these small efficiencies have really helped us in terms of being able to do all this work a little bit in a more timely matter for next year for 25 26 which you'll see which will support the budget um I'm really excited about this feature that's coming out on power school so power school is actually doing a facelift for the entire interface for all of our administrator and clerical staff so that will be a lot of training and prep work that we are going to be doing over the summer um but with that they are coming out with a graduation tracker planner

055which we are going to be implementing in the counseling department at the high school so that we can track every student from middle school up in regards to just courses that they've taken a design and implementation plan of what could be coming next just making sure we have prerequisite classes fulfilled um electives that are needed we're making sure we're hitting all of those markers for graduation requirements so we're excited to implement that and work with the counseling department on that roll out um again really about mainstreaming Automation and efficiencies is a lot of what these bullets will talk about but the graduation and the power school interface are two of the biggest changes that we'll see from the data systems next year okay look can I can I ask a quick question about that so

056for the power school piece is there any change that would um impact how a student or a a parent would use no only facing for administrators and um and our clal workers yep let me pause and say at the moment no right right right by July I don't know if something would change but no as of right now it's just on the end user but it will not impact student or parents for what we're being told well sorry while while we paused and we're on this slide um automating attendance processes that again is for the N user not for the parent not for the parent or for the student for how we track attendance within our our system the reporting side of it is there any hope that they would change or allow some of

057these things to be able to be used as a as a parent to I can definitely find out right now the real um piece around that is how we collect it from each of the courses and teachers at the end of the day and then how we get it up to the state and so the way that power school collects it right now is just a little tedious for us to go through so they're working on efficiencies from the reporting side to the state um but those are always things that yes we will definitely look at to see if there's any benefits or any changes made on the other end you you're wondering if they're if they're going to have a mechanism for you to report so we don't have three different ways to report

058at three different schools or a tardy or a late or right all of those things yeah all of our codes it's just and then to sum it up with our technology committee so this year um I'm pleased to share that we had over 25 members on the uh technology committee which was a great turnout our Focus or our task was to design AI guidelines that would focus on ethical use data privacy AI in the classroom teachers support and training and then overall student use and so the committee worked really hard it's only march to actually um have guidelines uh review them several times make modifications and we're really proud that we're going to be presenting them to our larger faculty and staff at our April faculty meeting and so we we think this is the

059first step in the right direction in terms of um explaining what this would look like and how we're going to use it and the benefits um and just making sure that again this is part of our strategic plan moving forward continuing the professional learning and the design around um Ai and education for the 2526 Focus so the technology committee this year also discussed that while AI is not stagnant and will always change one of the goals of the tech committee moving forward is yearly we will be reviewing the guide lines and making sure that there are no modifications or edits that need to be made so that will always now be a focus of the committee to go back and look at those um that document and make sure it's up to date but in

060addition to that we're coming to a place where um our technology plan is up next year so we have a 5-year technology plan and so we started that in 21 um with focuses of different learning goals within the district they entail and and they're here on the screen making sure that we have a secure robust infrastructure which is something that we're constantly looking at making sure that we are integrating instructional technology um and some of the ways this year that we're going to collect some of that data or ways that we do do that is through learning walks um when we're in the classrooms looking at how teachers are integrating and talking to teachers about what the needs are we're really able to see what's happening in the classrooms with student use and teacher use

061um a lot of the times our coaches are working whether they're designing and planning with teachers or just supporting the work that's happening in the classroom they're able to give us feedback on how Tech technology is being integrated and used across the different classrooms um as our technology department end of the year we send out a survey and we talk to teachers about like what are the needs of instructional Tech moving forward what can we support them with in the following year what are softwares that they are using what are things that they'd be interested in moving forward with um so with all this data that we collected this year having that information to help Drive the conversations for the technology plan next year will be really helpful for us the state allows you to

062either modify and rewrite an entire new plan or just make edits and modifications where needed but that's something we'll discuss as we look through this data and determine where are we as a district do we need to shift and modify our goals do we just need to make some slight modifications and edits that'll be a lot of work of the committee next year to have a new plan in place for June again another five-year vision for what that looks like Sorry Kaitlin can I ask one more question on this slide so um I know we have the New York State digital Equity surge survey that we have to do every single year um what kind of uh response do you get from that is do you feel like you get like from a percentage because

063I know it goes to parents it's very low I would say if we get 5 to 10% of people responding to it it's not everything and we send it out three four five times right um but it's not something that ever we get a big push for um so you don't get you don't get a ton of data that you can use from that we don't and that survey has changed slightly from the state of what it used to be so now it's more just around access right um in terms of usage it used to be asking more questions around like how do you feel are you comfortable using technology how proficient would you scale yourself and using it now it's more from the lens of do you have access and so do does a

064family need support in gaining technology whether it's just in school at home internet what does that look like in terms of the makeup and so we will get some responses for maybe those that are in need or just fill it out but it usually the turnout is not big okay so I would say about 10% if that every year thanks yeah so with all that conversation whether we're talking about the infrastructure the instructional technology the committee security these are all things that you've heard tonight that are going to be driving our budget for next year um so on the in the different lines that you see up here from our infrastructure and Equipment line to our software line to support all the district initiatives that are happening at a software level to our durable materials

065from all the supports of repl in hardware and Equipment mobile technology desktops um these are you know what we need in order to keep the department flowing so I want to thank you for your time and I'll open it up to questions great thank you um it is always overwhelming the amount of things that fall under technology and the vast scope right from the hard wires to the soft goods to the instruction and so your team is able to um take a lot on and do it very well and we appreciate that and it's a great comprehensive um presentation do we have questions from board members I had a quick question um going back to one of the earlier slides about the areas of focus and the Promethean boards I you talked about that that

066is on um the was used from you know this year 2425 and it will be um Promethean boards around 25 26 just curious is it a goal of ours to have a Promethean board in every classroom yes and if so how far along our way percentage wise of in classrooms so I would say this year alone we were fortunate to install around like 20 25 boards um districtwide we were um able to outfit a lot in our elementary schools um we're going to continue that work with the summer to outfit Osborne and Midland a lot of it is based on need and then also is just strategic plan in terms of rooms that we can access and put up um that may not need some facilities work that Rob needs to do on his end

067first before we would put the boards up um so it's all kind of a big puzzle piece that we're working towards I would say we have a several more years until we would hit districtwide alone in the high school we have probably over 200 spaces that need to be covered um and so it's something that we're constantly working towards but again we're not just putting boards up for the sake of putting them up in classrooms every classroom is really looked at with a fine scope of what the need is from the facility side of it from the instruct from the technology side of it and then we put a plan in place to do the implementation um so we will have several years out but the feedback that I'm getting from teachers that have them

068is it's a great experience teachers that don't have them are still working towards getting trained so they're up to speed when it comes um and as we integrate new tech the new technology we're always communicating with our building administrators and our staff to say next year these are the classrooms that are going to get them um so we have a nice spreadsheet that we use to kind of keep everyone up to date with what's happening okay thank you actually in that oh goodness sorry thank you in that same vein I me we've been we've been outfitting the district with flexible Furniture um for several years I don't know when we started was early was before 2020 um how where are we in terms of capacity for that like are we halfway there very close in

069our elementary schools um so what I'm really excited to see is again from the support of the POS and the District budget able to do that these initiatives um we've been strategic in terms of grade levels but majority I would say by the time we open next school year we're very close to almost being done across the three elementary schools which is really great to see um Middle School is also taking a big leap from their po this year which is great support um and we are outfitting 11 more classrooms so that's a lot of work that we've been doing um and and Mr har and I have been having conversations about the transition of High School classrooms and so it's great to partner with him now to think where are we going to what

070are the needs in the building where are we going next um and we're going to start working with teachers in the fall on that work as well okay can I said it may seem really random and nitpicky and I apologize um when we're talking about the flexible spaces right in the classrooms and so you were talking about that um instructional materials will now actually be more of a shared um idea what then happens to and this is the common complaint that we get from parents in September and August I've got this materials list and it says I need 700 boxes of T tissues and 25 boxes of pencils and 57 erasers will there be in those classrooms where now materials are going to be thought about a little bit differently an actual like hearty review

071of those forms that always come to the families that say I need 37 composition books like I think that's a great opportunity for our staff to re-evaluate the the material needs yes thank you for that okay it's part of the process when we work through with teachers is re-evaluating what you need and it doesn't always happen in the first year because teachers have a hard time giving up some of the practices they've had but they realized very quickly that they need to shift their thinking and what they order and what they have and and it does become much more efficient so that is a process and that's one before po send out those lists they go to the teachers and talk with them and meet with them and that will be something that looks different

072for many classrooms just from a storage capacity like when we're working with teachers on these design we'll talk about like what does your current current storage look like in your classroom now and what are we moving towards and what does that mean in terms of purging things out of your classroom getting rid of some stuff and so it's all the exercise that we do as we build this design so that they know when the furniture is going to be installed and delivered in July these are the things that I have to prep for in preparation for that coming because my classroom's going to function or look differently when we find the gallons of dried up temper of paint all the way in the back of the I mean those are the those are great opportunities

073to talk through what do you need what has just been on the list because it was always on the list let's rethink this and and that is part of the process I'm very excited for that um can I ask a couple questions about the AI strategic plan sure so um first of all I think it's fantastic all of the work that has been put into this very emerging technology that I won't even begin to think I understand at all i' I've ventured into chat GPT World a little bit but not a lot um but at the same time I know that that this is something that is you know makes probably a headline every single day or more than once a day in in the world around us um and so I was just curious

074so the the Strategic plan helped me understand how like H Who's involved in that like how wide of a a a uh scope is it in terms of the people that you're kind of bringing together to contribute to it so right now Dr Murray and I have planning this so maybe a little bigger it will be a little bigger right now it's it's really looking at the guidelines we put in place and it's just harnessing all of the work that we've already done as I said like we've been keeping our own internal AI documentation to show every time we've had a professional learning course or work that we've done around it we've been housing it in our own documents if we will so we wanted to start to put together a draft so that a

075larger group that will eventually put eyes on this can actually see all the work that has been done and not thinking we're starting from scratch right sometimes when you say strategic plan think people think we're starting from the ground up to say what are your goals what are your objectives what are your timelines we already have a lot of those things answered right um and especially with the new guidelines now in place for us to help guide that thinking so we're starting our strategic plan of just mapping it out and then we'll bring in I'm sure our professional development team and other individuals to help us refine that work but we just wanted to start with mapping it out for everyone so it doesn't look like we're just saying AI is here what should we

076do we've already had those conversations for for sure definitely and it was so so helpful to have those guidelines to talk about at our last meeting and I was just curious if it was something you know when I think about different areas where we've done um you know development for literacy or for math changes or things along those lines if it would be that kind of a scope of people that you would want to bring together which would include you know parents community members others um outside of the professional development side which is super important because the teachers need to know how to to to present this and how to understand it so that the students can then understand it but um our plan would be also to take it to the technology committee where

077you have the group of people that created the guidelines and so you want kind of we're going to be designing it so it's a multi-year so things that we have done we will do next year and the following few years so we can be fully integrated with AI it'll take some time because there's so much professional learning um that has to happen right and and learning for on the student end as well right and and I would hope the parent end like maybe there'll be some parent unties so they understand I mean even just presenting like making sure people are aware what what our thinking about the guidelines are yeah so we do have a parent University schedule the end of April right you said that last time yes yeah and we'll continue to do

078those as well okay it's a very comprehensive and and thoughtful plan thank you for for sharing it um I guess one highle question and one clarifying question um and I know that um sort of it goes to what was making Jane's head hurt earlier but just as you think about um I guess the the phasing of rolling these you know Salto locks and prometheum Boards out you know I understand the logic like particularly for promethium boards to want to have you know 100% in all classrooms but then you know these these upgrade cycles of then having to replace every single one I guess could you sort of talk about how you think about phasing um you know so that we can you know manage an upgrade cycle more um effectively um and also just maybe

079on the backward compatibility of a lot of the the systems that we have in place and and I don't know the Salto Plus versus Salto regular but Ju Just as yeah absolutely so I'll start with the promethian side of it um so one of the things different from the smartboards that we have from the boards is just their lifespan in general is is a longer lifespan than what we've seen which is really helpful and one of the reasons we this product over the numerous products that are on the market right now is the compatibility and growth that it lends itself so Promethean is not just proprietary to their software it integrates with everything else that could be new and coming out which is a feature that we really loved so sometimes when you go to

080boards like a new line or something else it's proprietary to only that system so you're almost stuck with this package deal of this is what you have when we integrate the TVs into the classrooms you can either use it like we call it two sides we call it the Rye side and we call it the Promethean side so I could put a board in a teacher room tomorrow aside from having a large screen they could still function the way that they were because they have everything that we offer just only more tools that advance so when Promethean comes out with software upgrades we have to do the professional learning around it but they're still able to fully function it's not just this is p PRI to what they need um so that's been really helpful

081that was decided at the technology committee a couple of years ago that teachers didn't want to be pigeon hold into one system and one platform every teacher teaches differently they need different softwares and different tools you're a World Language teacher you're a science teacher everyone's classrooms look different so this gives the most flexibility for us in regards to replacement cycle right now so we're doing it in terms of needs of boards that are failing immediately that need to be replaced and then also adjust systematically what we could replace in a building um one of the things I'm fortunate about it that this will be phased over certain years is because replacing everything in one shot is never good anyway right because we wouldn't have the budget to do that if all boards failed at the

082same time so right now we'd get about 10 years out of the boards and so building in our inventories and our spreadsheets our checkpoints of when a board was installed to know when the turnaround time would be approximate for when we'd have to replace that classroom is something that we all keep internal in terms of our documentation to know when that cycle is up and then just just specific sorry for the um for the budget specifically so you know I see um the the line items for software and durables have gone up um you know uh quite quite a lot contractual has come down um I guess could you just walk us through those changes and then specifically within software how much of that increase is just our existing contracts that you know prices have

083gone up versus you know additional um offerings so I'll start with software first um so we've seen a a significant jump in software and just to highlight the number that you're seeing where in this budget line doesn't Compass software for districtwide things so it's not just instructional technology software it's software for the business office office for facilities it's encompassing of all which is great just to help us in terms of keeping track of what we have access to Across The District um in the past we've I've budgeted for software very differently now I'm budgeting last year it was at a 10% increase this year it's at 12% increase and that's even with the technology committee last year their focus on the committee was to go through at least from an instructional standpoint all the software

084we had access to we looked at usage we looked at benefits in the classroom and we actually got rid of someof softwares um but now we're actually gaining because of all the AI tools that are out there we've put some more back into the budget and they are quite expensive um we are trying to be very systematic and thoughtful when we're picking software so I'll just go back to AI being an example there's 100 tools out there that we could subscribe to and so we're working with teachers we're working with our committee to say what's our need what's more like more beneficial than another and really doing an evaluation on something before we just purchase it we don't need 500 tools we need a few that do some really good work around that topic and

085so evaluation for us is always important but software just keeps increasing so right now this year I'm at a 12% increase for each line and that's not to say that it may even be more than that when we get the actual renewals in July so it definitely has been increasing significantly in regards to the durable materials so that's where you're going to see a lot of the replacement Cycles as we talked about our desktops our mobile technology those are all site replacement cycles that have come up um and again just Hardware in general has also been increased significantly over the last couple of years and it just sorry for contractual that was all of the work uh earlier last year um just with all the cabling and that cost has come cuz we did it

086okay correct all right anyone else well Dr sassone as you saw me rubbing my head you have a lot to stay ahead of and I know that the department works really hard on ensuring that you're not only staying ahead but you're thinking ahead and you're current and you're constantly working and it is um greatly appreciated and it is seen and we thank you and your department for all of that work thank you all right thank you so now we will move on to our presentation of Athletics and that's Miss s Susan Reed duay Miss duay I always say when I follow Caitlyn I feel very boring in my budget um it's very interesting to hear um all the the information she always provides and I I thought about it the promethium board you said a

08710-year cycle replacement all I could think of was helmets um 10year cycle replacement so um we don't like that word but we're doing good with helmets so um I'm not here about that um so again um as many of us we start with our ride commitment it's nice in my fifth year to always refer back back to this and and think about everything we do on a daily basis not just here for the budget right to to give this presentation and when I think about our students I feel so grateful um to be driven daily by them to think outside of the box in my world of Athletics you can certainly get bogged down with the minutia of storing uniforms or you know doing Softball Field tours or different things that are just unique to

088the day so when students come in to celebrate or need some support it's it's a reminder on a daily basis why I feel so fortunate to be a part of this community and our students uh specifically and that's just not obviously athletes in my world that's all of our students I feel so grateful to be a part of um in our community I often I always strongly feel supported whether it's showing up to an event and seeing a plethora of people that don't even have children playing or alumni that show up just to support and to be there for our kids and our coaches and our staff of course um I think about Cali was at the PO meeting the other day in the middle school and how proactive our community is about bringing communication

089and how we can be better at what we do again pushing us to to be committed to our community and to our students um and then obviously with our staff Administration faculty I feel strongly that we are all of us are a part of a team um I was you know lucky to work with Miss Donis Orin who recently retired as my administrative assistant so for a few months we challenged through that battle and in that challenge um being a part of this team I don't think I could have you know landed where I am today without different people that you know stepped up in that role specifically I think about the business office Kathy Gabby Nancy and Patty especially who were making sure that we pay our bills on time and supporting me on

090those those simple things that you know someone else had done and when you take a piece of that team away often you think something's going to slack and that didn't happen our custodial staff which is continuously transitioning uh that step up day and day out for my neediness when something goes wrong and it might not seem urgent at the time but they always make it a priority I think about facilities like that quite a bit our health services team we recently received a wonderful new athletic trainer um but that's new and that's changed in the middle of a season and all of those things don't happen without overall a commitment to this community and I feel so grateful to be a part of it so when I get to come to do the budget piece

091um again like why I joked about ordering soccer balls and all those things they are all a big part of this and so operating standards are diverse and and more Global than people think in the world of Athletics um specifically like you look at something there like supporting the physical and mental health of students which is something I'll talk a little bit further about there is continuing um research especially related surrounding Athletics it's constantly in the news about student mental health and the pressure surrounding Athletics so you know we continue to look at these operating standards and again driving not just um what we do on a daily basis but how our budget affects these and what we need to assess in our daily standards or operating standards to make our community and our students

092successful so to high highlight a few I just wanted to reach this is a an important piece that we continue to look at um I highlighted the Ry youth Council because they have been working with our teachers and coaches specifically the beginning excuse me of Seasons primarily doing some different work uh with deep breathing uh mindfulness just to work on some of the strategies that they could use throughout not just the sport but how they can support one another as a team many of our coaches do team building sessions recently I just booked the MPR for eight sessions for coaches to do some work with a particular team I this winter I had a team do a book study um on what it meant to be a good teammate the Hard Hat by John Gordon

093um so they're thinking outside of the box which I love um for our coaches and our staff to be continuously thinking about how they can serve our students better this was new and this was driven um the end of season survey was driven originally from action research that we're doing as administrative team so I put out my first survey at the end of fall uh it I would like to have higher numbers of our students take the survey but as you can imagine I'm sure there was some angst when you look at a survey that asks some questions that go into deeper understanding um I brought my survey with me so I just wanted to share a couple questions so you can see what we're looking at um a couple examples that I used uh

094with that are on here with the kids whoops make sure I get in here uh what was the most challenging part of your season do you feel you improved as an athlete this season if yes what what areas how how would you describe the overall team atmosphere this season do you feel that your teammates supported and encourage you why or why not what could be improved to make the team environment better next season do you feel coaches provided constructive feedback why or why not those are just a few examples and when I put this out to the students um they can put their name and information or they can be anonymous I'm not collecting emails so I can't see where they're coming from the end goal is to take the information after the fall winter

095and spring and put it together so to speak to share with our coaching staff to hopefully Drive their instruction as they get feedback from our students so it's not being used as a punitive or evaluative tool but it's just to get feedback from kids to share with the adult that are supervising them and how they can improve um their culture of their programs I also will be doing a um senior kind of exit ticket if you will that again these are all optional for our students that sometimes they feel a little more comfortable when they're exiting the the district to uh give us feedback so I'm really looking forward to that I'm hopefully my winter season a survey that's coming up tomorrow I will get just more and more um you know students that will

096feel comfortable to take this I hope that they will and encourage them to do so um so we'll see quick question is that for JV andity yep and does the survey come from you or from their coach comes from me okay um I don't want to write at this point like my action research hasn't driven me toward the the coaches uh releasing that yet but that might come out you know with as we go through it to see you know maybe it could improve if it came from the coach on the other hand I'm not sure we'll have to see what what things say great uh just to follow up on that how are this how are you communicating with the student athletes the purpose or the the reason for the request for the information

097so I'm I've done a couple things I started with just an email and it goes to the students only um and in my body of my email I explain what I'm what my purpose is that I'm looking for feedback from them that it may be anonymous and why and that um looking at this feedback is something that I'm looking to support the culture of the athletic department one of the questions the last questions is do you feel the athletic directors value student athletes and well-being I'm also looking for personal reflection what could the athletic director do better to support student athletes I'm hopeful to get feedback from that again so I can change or support the needs of our students thank you for Emer action emergency action planning I always put this up here because

098I I want our families to understand that while we have many different sites we are prepared that if something should go wrong after 3:00 that we are cognizant of this that we want our students and our coaches to be prepared should something unfortunate happen it could be something just minor is a minor injury that students and the team um practice and work within these systems and again in collaboration with Health Services working with um Gabby and Tracy Barnett and specifically our athletic trainer with our coaches our student athletes and how we can be proactive um as we move forward with our systems and then secondly creating a fiscal responsible budget that provides long-term long-term Financial stability um constantly looking at sustainability and what we put into play when Rob talks about facilities planning Rob Gabby

099and I um have met many a time to go over what our scope and sequence our Pie in the Sky dreams were uh for facilities specifically and how we get there um organizationally but also how do we sustain them and while it's not in my budget you will see some of the things I highlight that the community was so generous on our override last year that we were benefiting from with Athletics um facilities planning and Gabby putting together things like fields and maintenance on those so we sustain them that we don't just do a project and oh it looks beautiful but then five years down the line we're back here saying you know the field is a mess we we don't want that obviously we want to be thoughtful with that um maintaining facilities and

100athletic programs within our proposed budget always so um you'll see the the dates always look a little strange right because I have the fall um participation numbers the winter of and then the spring from last spring because we're on the cusp uh vars and JV started last Monday the 17th and modified getting ready to start so so you'll see our numbers overall um pretty pretty much stay consistent some programs Spike often than others and I think it's just sometimes an interest in the culture of the student athlete but overall we have a large participation we have many student athletes I don't have the data in front of me but statistically speaking our we have many student athletes that are two and three sport athletes um in our district which is nice to see um cost

101per as you recall I do this on an average basis so this is over a 5-year period looking at grades 7 through 12 I won't go through each line item you can clearly see that you'll see how it's broken down roughly uh Transportation continues to increase especially as we get successful so you'll see those will fluctuate on an average um the cost per pupil is based upon materials that are ordered so something I always highlight something like swimming is $11,000 but that because that is a rental um for example with mck school district so it's not like we're spending you know $88,000 on equipment per se but um with the facility itself so things like that will look a little high sometimes but um that's something to factor in as well our coaching stiens are

102listed and those are the number of coaches that are lotted per Spore at this time transportation again and it's broken down to a cost per pupil this does not include anything that was part of uh for example when we get into let's say like uh when we get into wrestling the winter there's nothing there with the wrestling room that was a separate item with facilities and our transfer to Capital with the override um so when you look at these things they also don't include any donations that a particular group goes to so football often every year the RFA donates money to the district as you know um that you accept that they purchase jerseys for the student athletes with their names on the back we are not keeping those that's a donation and that's not

103listed here so anything like that goes through the OT fund you see it before we order it even so sorry um just as transportation is listed here how has the experience of Transportation been for these most current seasons knowing that last year it was a bit tricky so it's getting better so that's a plus right so positive was our uh fall was was a little shaky in different times but it flattened out winter I can honestly say maybe just one or two times where we had an issue with Transportation so we were able to we started our games a little later to help accommodate some of these things especially we have other school districts that are going through it that get out later can't get a bus till later so we of course will accommodate

104that as well so it's good and better I'm keeping my fingers crossed through spring as I just did the Google forms for transportation this week um that they will not have to use them hopefully but again we would not I just think back the last few years with the community we have and the families we have and what we're able to do there are many districts that could not do what we've done and and our kids would be without so I'm again very thankful for that we're getting better and here's your winter um breakdown you'll see um again this is an average between 20 and 20 20 to 202 um participation wise Again The Columns are pretty specific you know ice hockey is large remember because of rental and again that's not a donation that's

105the school component listed there uh wrestling is not the room itself as I mentioned it's it's supplies and anything that the wrestling um program would need for example like entry fees are in there for tournaments which is part of indoor track and outdoor track and bless you so I just think it's important this is something like kids will come in and we'll chat about things and they'll have questions and sometimes I find myself bringing this up because I think it's important for them to understand sometimes there's a lot of perception and I understand that and that's not going to change but these are things that are concrete and that we're reflective on as we do our budget to make sure we are being Equitable to the best of our abilities with the needs of the

106specific sport in the population and then lastly our third season again you'll see it's to 2024 because we have not completed our 2025 season in Spring you'll see our participation numbers remain constant overall and average again materials coaching transportation and cost per people uh flattens out again when you see Transportation at a little bit higher you'll see over time um it'll go up with her success so oops that's hard to see um budget drivers um you'll see there's some increases in supplies that's just a natural you know Caitlyn eluded to a percentage increase um just as cost like something as simple as of baseballs recently went up a few dollars a baseball because of a uh nfh s stamp that went on it so something like that you just can't plan for so while I'm

107not just throwing $5,000 on supplies I know things are going up so but I want to be responsible and not obviously overdo it um the Bosey Services that's your officials fees come from that your office fees your software fees like huddle our family ID registration local live um I also put in local live for next year for our softball field being done so that's also in there as an increase um so that is is sometimes hard to to just um to adjust a lot of the a lot of those things are are set but officials fees depend on how successful you are if you go further you're obviously paying for more officials uh next up is the postseason travel we added an additional 10,000 and two years ago when we had a lot of success

108uh we have a budget line in for this that sits at 10,00 and we hit close to 20 with that with our success now pieces of that come back from our section and our state it's not dollar for dooll it's usually a percentage of your mileage a percentage of meals your hotels things depending on the sport so when Gabby and I started planning this we wanted to plan for best case SL worst case scenarios so we wouldn't have to take um money from you know other areas of the budget that we were being upfront with that money and obviously that wouldn't be used unless we're successful but um that it's in there should we need it so right now for example as we head into spring I think I'm about $6,000 right now available in

109that budget code out of 10 um so as we head into spring as those teams get successful that's where that money comes from to utilize that and if we are successful we could go over and that's not something we want to do so that's while that's in there um yeah sorry good news for kids and good news for student athletes not so great for our financial B but I do love that we have it because I will tell you this a lot of districts don't have that line item and then when something happens they're going to the business official and this saying you know where are we getting this money and you know that's a great question but I think this when I got to R was here I was like this is great because

110we can plan and and we can talk about the individual sports we have our coaches that go to wrestling and swimming and when they go we want to make sure that they're able to go and they're not on their dime because they've they're supervising our kids and are there for them um rental and contractual this is a little bit higher because over the last few years I've seen this area where I've I've looked at it and we've um almost zeroed out of this or went deeper because of increases in cost of our rental and contractual um fees so to speak and within this to um we've had some success with a couple programs I'm look thinking of wrestling and skiing for example and as skiing adjusts we start out with a great idea that winter

111is going to be perfect for skiing and thunder ridge is the place we go and then Thunder Ridge shuts down and then you have to find other places to go so our students kid ski so we are moving um to different places and it's hard to budget for that because we don't know necessary a mountains fee like what we're supposed to be at uh say thunder ridge so that's something that I've continued to see increase and I don't want to have to come back to the board for a transfer of funds into that area um and it's something that you know just be cognizant of over my time assessing that's where we need it to be and the entry fees again as we wrestling indoor track outdoor track cheerleading um the uh entry fees into

112tournaments I feel like we're getting close I think I have with the spring about 2,000 left in that entry fee code so we're getting close to that and we still have a few things looming and I don't want to zero out at that or go over so um it just over time I've seen the increase necessary and it's our great unified basketball team from last year because I'm excited to take our new picture I'll I'll be sure to share with the board when we do our um our pep rally and all-inclusive day with our student athletes we have about 30 um students total between our athletes and partners this year so we've doubled in size psyched so this is not part of my budget but last year when I came to do my budget I

113I looked at my slides and in that was the discussion of what if and thankfully our community came out and supported our override and well here is the lovely wrestling room up top which I think Dean Oar told me was here when he started teaching um and again this is about sustainability right so we put this beautiful wrestling room in with mats and beautiful padding but what Rob and Gabby and everyone planned on the backside which doesn't look necessarily in that picture is the uh air systems the painting The Lighting all of those things that went into that make this a beautiful facility and so I thought it was nice to to show the fruition of this because um you know our kids were really proud to be in this environment and to practice there

114and you will see uh besides that we have completed the wrestling room um we did the painting and the lighting in the gym and the second half of the gymnasium will be over the summer which we Rob I'm sure we'll talk about or have maybe have some information on so I'm not going to steal his Thunder but um I love the poster by the gym that talks about this um we are looking at our wood floor our bleachers our Banner system and really excited to redo the gym and brighten it up and then uh again not a a athletic budget but again an upgrade that's part of Rob's um piece I'm sure we walked it today I'm excited for this um the softball field with the intentions uh of opening and bringing our young ladies

115onto a field that they can be proud of daily put a lot of work in Rob and Gabby and obviously Eric when we started first discussions with this and where it will end I'm really excited to see it and obviously we continue to do those maintenance works at Milton and I thought it was important to put that in there too because right now that's where our teams are practicing while this field is being um finished um and you can see obviously what's being done there so I don't want to Ste your thunder so here is the athletic budget over time you'll see there are some reductions I did highlight some of those budget drivers where you see there was an increase um for those specific reasons but if anyone has any specific questions about anything

116um or the specific line items I can clearly um obviously share with you any answers hopefully all right great thank you so much um you mentioned it in the very beginning but I think it's worth mentioning again that there was a period of time where your office went through a significant transition and it was really um unknown because the operations continued and to to it's great to hear that once again it's a result of the offices working together across the district to support one another and so that you could lose an athletic trainer and you can lose your office support staff and yet there would be no known impact to the community and so I thank all of those who who work to make that happen because it's really important and it's great to see

117the camaraderie and the collegiality and then the benefit to the community as a result so thank you for that I'm very lucky I just um had a question about the facility upgrades yes um I appreciate the pictures I've been in the wrestling room it does look amazing um and um and as well as the softball fields just Cur ious are there any facility upgrades on the horizon I know we were able to to pay for these through last year through the transfer to Capital um which we had the override and I know next year I don't think there are any up are there any other upgrades on the in the future and do we continue to look at facility upgrades master plan and seeing you know where we can there's some other spaces that need

118attention as you well know so where do we stand with kind of looking in the future for facility upgrades so nothing specifically in my budget for next year specifically but we did have a master plan so to speak of scope and sequence I know we often like to use of prioritizing so as we go through that I feel like when Caitlyn talked about her spreadsheet and checklist of where we're at we have to be mindful of that so there will be something forthcoming I'm sure as we start doing that because if we don't then we're going to end up as we said not sustaining our those facilities so it's not something that um that I could tell you what's next on the list but we did prioritize for many reasons of of how we did

119that did you want to speak to that yeah there is a portion in my uh presentation that does touch upon some of the uh some of the transfer to capital projects okay great thank you another good teammate that's right I love it no department is in isolation right all of these pieces are working together constantly in integrating and it's the intentionality that we've talked about a lot about being able to do that that makes all of these things so successful any other questions no thank you everybody appreciate it and last but never least we have our facilities presentation and Mr gigano you're up again thank you for um staying here for a late evening and giving me the opportunity to present this budget um for the 25 26 school year so it all begins with

120the Ry commitment uh very broadly it's a commitment to students faculty and staff as well as the community um and how do we do that I I've walked into a culture of of service uh and it's just continuing to build on that that culture we're making ourselves available as a department um and again it's not it it's uh it's a department that I have the the uh um the privilege of leading there's nearly 30 members between cleaners custodians uh our Courier or maintenance staff including our office staff who has been patiently sitting here the whole evening um Susie in this budget you know I'm presenting these these line items very you know uh you're looking at an entire year expenditure but she's looking at uh every single invoice and um managing that budget throughout the

121year so um special thank you for Susie and coming tonight and the entire department again it's uh it's a team effort uh amongst departments but within the department it's that culture of service uh there's countless examples that I have through throughout the year uh I I try to make sure that we make ourselves available not just me but the HEC custodians in the building um and you know neighbors that are uh adjacent to a construction site um I make myself uh make myself available when we're cutting down a tree I dropped off a uh dropped off letters kind of letting them know and that communication goes both ways recently there was a tree we took down and the neighbor uh actually read the letter called me and sent me a letter said that it all

122went uh it all went well which was you know it was uh really great to hear that it wasn't an issue that needed to be handled but they followed up and um and I I it's great having that two-way communication um there's a lot of initiatives that throughout the year that we work with um students that approach me on a on on a litter cleanup project or or upgrades to a courtyard uh with the PTO or play ground initiatives um these are all um these are all enthusiastic groups and it's it's very motivating to be part of that and work with them um and ultimately it delivers a product that uh fulfills the commitment to students and staff and and the community so any operating standards focusing on the the safe secure healthy environment it

123it begins by uh providing a clean facility so that ultimately there's a lot of big projects there's a lot of initiatives that uh Athletics and Technology are working with um but ultimately on a day-to-day basis it's our custodians that are here till 11:00 at night making sure that building's reset and having it um having the uh the facility clean for the next day so uh utilization of resources and Personnel that's a little sticker of a HEC Estonian meeting that we had so that's all the HEC estonians myself and Susie um that that uh we we we try to gather at least twice a month uh on a routine basis and we discuss issues that we're all having in our buildings and sharing resources what's working what's not worth working you know down to the detail

124um you know the quality of the the handp paper towel and how it's dispensing if you're seeing issues with it tearing or so um we've we've taken some of that information and uh made some changes that uh they're economically effective But ultimately uh save us work effort or just deliver something uh a little bit better um in terms of a hand soap or drying out uh your skin uh you know taking feedback from faculty through our work order system uh taking all that information but the real there really is a value Gathering as a group um and sharing that and and building that that teamwork so uh another operating standard here building a fiscally responsible budget uh that icon there is actually a spreadsheet it's a screenshot of a spreadsheet that gathers data uh that

125we input every time there's a utility bill um the bill comes in and we we use it to track and look at Trends and we could create graphs and and particularly with the utilities and you'll see in in other slides as I go forward um it just gives this indication if these are if these are just market trends in in the commodity itself or there's actually usage that we need to we need to dig into like a water leak that could underground and and we're seeing spikes in in usage so there was a lot of hype around these icons but uh these were more meaningful they weren't as flashy as the I think they're Fant spinning Wi-Fi but they they are worth staying late for okay and now next year's icons just so you know

126now I'm ready you you've laid the standard I hope everybody hears um well but there's next year so there's always another time so here is information that I have shared in the past this is uh just a general overview of the the amount of square footage we cover and maintain buildings rarely grow but in this case Osborne and Midland by the end of the summer they they are going to grow by uh nearly 8,000 square fet so that uh that has to be taken in into account for our budgeting there's you know difference in utility usage uh time commitment to be able to clean it future maintenance so all that is uh considered when when we develop the uh the budget so a vast majority of the facility budget is utility uh and that's gas

127fuel oil water and electricity so I just as I Tred to uh pick a few buildings that are a bell weather for utility usage and I think the the the graph on the left is natural gas usage at Osborne and fuel oil at Midland on the same graph so it's just interesting to look at these Trends the the the third column from the from the right and it was a warmer year 2122 so you could see a decrease in fuel usage although there was a spike in cost for oil because that was uh a year when oil nearly doubled so you could see that we're we're not just that at the mercy of weather it's also there's also Market pressures that uh we have to take into account so um but would would you say

128Rob for the 20 oh I'm not going to read it 2223 for the natural gas that that was um that was a market so we Spike or did we add so the last two years we've we've experienced uh over 20% inre Ines in some of these utilities cuz that's I mean it's it's a significant difference from even the past years where it was up right so so we're looking at actual expenditure so these are dollars yes uh but again utilities are it's also weather it's also weather dependent so 2122 when you look at total uh heating degree days it was it was far less than 22 23 so there's increased usage and and that increased usage is also a higher rate but um but you see oil dipping um although we may have used less

129it it it was actually nearly uh uh it the cost went from 680 a gallon to like 380 a gallon so it was a significant difference um it's it's far more vol volatile than other utilities uh or other fuel sources and we see the same at uh Milton with electricity cost cost so there you could see the the the expenditure has increased in the last two years quite significantly and that is a building that there hasn't been much change so um the they're adjusting for some differences in you know temperature or or you know cooling demand from year to year there there's still a significant different um cost increase that is going to continue uh in perpetuity so some of the other big drivers uh in our budget it's really focused on on maintaining repairing

130and um and continual investment in our assets right so how do we do that we do that with uh a lot of contracted services and in addition to everything that we could do in-house and the routine maintenance the there are things that we need to bring in the experts for um a lot of the the HVAC equipment newly installed HVAC equipment as well as some of the older one all the the refrigerant side um a lot of the the um communication software in there that that's proprietary and we just need to make sure that we're optimizing energy um the routine the routine maintenance inspection of uh light Life Safety Equipment elevators um alarm systems that that all uh many of that has um uh required inspections and keeping up with the market rates and and

131um and maintenance schedules is critical to to maintaining this equipment is all included in this contracts Services line um there is this year there's two major um two major expenditures in the architectural engineering line and that is a building condition survey that is a uh office of facility planning requirement that is every five years that we do a building condition survey so this is a a it's formalizing uh it's formalizing what I think we do uh consistently every single year we're we're constantly maintaining uh evaluating our facilities seeing where where there's issues uh but but filing that report uh there is the we have to bring in uh Professionals for that so there is some cost that it's captured in the budget uh as well as a trian trienal report which is uh that's for

132esus reporting uh it's a very comprehensive survey of all materials in abys in in District buildings that visible uh behind the scenes mechanical rooms uh so that's every 3 years so uh I guess every 15 years there's an overlap in these two two major uh reporting requirements so again that's captured in here so in addition to some of the the increases I did want to highlight that you know we uh as a department look at the budget um line by line and things that can be reduced are reduced uh we've had the uh uh we have been fortunate enough in the last couple budget years uh we were able to replace some vehicles and this we are in a good place for the moment we're continuing to maintain to maintain some of the older vehicles

133but we're we're able to take a a one-year pause on on some of that equipment replacement uh but still being a good place to have plow Vehicles ready for uh ready for a snowstorm um so uh I again there uh some of the other reductions we'll we'll see when we actually get to the to the line items uh it it's uh adjusting some of the some of the specific lines we do have uh a fairly new maintenance department that uh it's been about two years so uh supporting supporting those staff members with the the correct supplies and durable goods is something that we're uh we're evaluating and uh it really it's these dollar amount thresholds in the classification in the budget so just just looking at it and and um moving things around to accurately

134reflect what we're spending on so the durable goods which is an item over 500 it actually is not routinely um it it it's more uh items that are less than that for routines that were for repairs that we're routinely doing so um again it's just evaluating it and just trying to be very accurate and how we how we present uh the budget requests so this is always the best part these are uh these are photos of of work um of the transfer to capital projects that were supported in last year's budget um just to show you the the um as a commitment to the community who supports the budget we the ground running there's there's always pre-planning um and anticipation uh so after the budget is actually passed we could we could begin to to

135implement some of these changes so in the last year from the from the last uh budget we we actually achieved many of the items that we could logistically uh and starting in the the upper left corner that is a softball field that is a picture that's about a week old um if I was presenting this budget in another week and a half uh that photo would have been a lot better there there we'd see some green in the Outfield and it would look nearly complete but I guess we do have the advantage uh the next time I present the capital update or facilities budget I'll have a really nice photo of the uh the softball field but um all that planning uh the engineering the approval the uh all the behinde scenes work pro prior

136to starting the the physical work was was weeks and months of planning uh in advance and the moment we were able to get the green light from the community we hit the ground running and um and and that is a project that uh will is going to benefit the uh the program for many years to come uh on the upper right there's two photos there that's a curtain wall that was supported uh to to transfer capital budget there the you could see the work in progress and the completed uh the completed curtain wall on the right hand side there we did that in conjunction with the the the larger Capital project that was under way uh it was not included in the the original planning from 2018 2019 things got uh things obviously deteriorate um

137even in a 5year span but when some of it was not visible they were behind old uh heating cabinets when we removed them we realized that we did we did have to take action on this it really was the most uh economical U time to do it and and logistically was already ripped up so fortunately we did have that that um that request and that that fund to lean on and it uh we were able to complete the IAB with uh that exterior portion that was not originally included in the cap project but ultimately um it the the end product is uh it's actually stunning so and hopefully we'll be there for decades as well so uh Susan also had some great pictures of the wrestling room um that that is nearly complete again we

138started last summer with the painting lighting our custodians ripped down the mats the uh I think it was couple days after the budget passed we were happy to get get rid of the uh the um I think they would have volunteered for that uh to get rid of those old pads CU they did harb rid of the smell right away too that was a big Improvement yeah they they harbored odors and I think uh it was uh quite a ceremony so um and again working with those vendors we multiple vendors there was uh eight uh HVAC equipment identified two building condition surveys ago uh that was still we were we were still uh banding it and it was still functioning but now really gave us the opportunity to get in there the place was going

139to have you know um surfaces that didn't need to be protected we knew that there was equipment that was near were probably past the end of its life according to some of the calculations um but we so we have new rooftop unit to service the ventilation there but on top of that the you the unit has the minor upgrade of a coil and air conditioning so it is uh 2025 standards um so that'll be well appreciated the next time there's a uh there's a wrestling uh tournament in there so uh the the other photo there is some of the drainage work that is below the softball field significant amount of of uh infrastructure that won't be visible ever uh but is protecting the field protecting the neighbors uh adjacent to the field um and again

140all driven by requirements and the sensitivity of uh the area and and drainage and uh all over Ry so uh the last photo on this slide is the the high school gym this was taken last summer as we were wrapping up the that first phase of the paint workor we were hanging the banners back up and uh that really large uh donated flag from the Osborne which uh found a perfect home hanging on the uh hanging on that wall it looks like perfectly to scale when um when it's on the wall so um that was that was that was fun to hang uh actually had the the privilege of jumping on the lift with our maintenance guys in the summer as we were wrapping up at the last minute so so I spent a lot

141of time talking about transfer to Capital what we did what was supported last year and what was actually achieved so um Cali I believe you asked the question related to to Athletics there's less of a focus on Athletics this year uh just based on need so as we go through the year and we kind of look at failures and where where there's there is uh an immediate need for this year and what what's actually achievable this is the preliminary list that we came up with there's other things that we know um that again through our constant evaluation um we keep them in the back of our mind if if something can't be achieved on our initial list we might fall back on that but here is here's three examples of um in a photos of

142a a roof at Osborne that is from 1997 it's one of the oldest roofs it's one of the leakiest roofs that we have uh you know in in terms of constantly needing attention uh there are skylights that where we would then remove um upgrade the lighting to to offset that that natural light that goes in there but uh from a maintenance perspective and protecting the building and the insulation up there uh it's just a uh it's just a smart move so if we could uh replace that roof it would be one maintenance headache that would be uh appreciated by uh our staff and uh I'm sure the the building as a whole so the on the left there is photos that of the theatrical lightting system uh from 1975 uh the and and I know

143that because there is a uh the company out of Long Island that actually services it they're the only ones that manufacture some of these replacement parts um and they're reaching a point that some of these components are no longer available so through the transfer uh Capital there is a portion funded uh through the budget process here but there is some some generous donations to to also support that through the ri fund for Education as well as the high school and middle school PTO so um that that collaborative effort actually you know you know from from all parties uh really gets a project like that um off the ground and and uh hopefully we get a uh um a 2025 version of the lighting system so it definitely doesn't owe us anything um but it's uh

144it certainly gives our theater theater manager some angst we've uh we've had to decommission one of the panels and and move some circuits over and and uh keep it going but uh we're running out of options there so this that uh is coming at a really good time um and again we uh this photo is of a floor that uh through the input from from music teachers in that department uh telling me some of their their needs uh working in other buildings we've put some flooring in Midland uh Midland and Osborne in music rooms that have an acoustic uh they have an acoustic value with with this foam backing made for for these spaces performs really well I've gotten really good feedback so that's the standard that um that we're going forward in some of

145those spaces and looking at a floor that's that you know is failing and we could also improve the experience for students and the musicians in that room that would be one of the projects that we have in there um again we did speak about it I don't have a photo of it of the the additions coming but through this transfer to Capital uh will be working with the IT department when those when the the modulars are uh delivered on site and bolt it together we're going to get in there um and facilitate that that installation of the cabling which has a very uh clearly defined uh color pattern that works with our our Pas our clocks and all of our it infrastructure um and and controlling that aspect of it make uh ensures that it's

146going to integrate perfectly with the systems that are already uh in place in the uh in the in the rest of the district um so the second half uh also on this list here um the second half of the high school gym is the actual is the replacement of the actual wood floor uh through our investigations unfortunately um to to we drill down and take some probing there is there's a layer of material that we have to Abate prior to doing the floor so that that is a that is a significant cost so we we're um putting in its budget request to to complete that project so there's two slides of the actual um of the actual budget lines this is there there's two here because we do separate some of the cost centers of

147the utilities in each of the locations uh which is really helpful for from uh uh our Department's perspective for tracking um so again some of the bigger drivers that I mentioned before is the uh are the uh the architectural line so there's some increases there and utilities across the board water gas oil uh we have to we have to to budget responsibly knowing that there there are some Market uh Corrections from the utility companies and um and and just the the volatility of weather so um uh in addition there the there's an increased water at the high school not just in anticipated um utility cost but uh we anticipate some additional usage with the softball field so we're putting this really amazing field and we want to keep it amazing so we just got to

148keep that irrigation system running so uh we try to anticipate some of those costs based on uh based on usage that that we've traed the Midland irrigation system and extrapolated that uh and that's included in the budget um you do see a decrease in in equipment cost there like I said we're we're able to take take a one-year pause knowing that there's you know demands throughout the district and B balancing uh need um you know at the moment and and what we need to to [Music] function and again here's just the additional codes um the the uh on this slide here the facility maintenance Athletics so although the need is driven by by the field and and the student athletes here it does live in my budget because it's part of the physical plant so

149uh there's additional cost here and we're capturing the uh we're capturing the the maintenance uh required not just on the softball field but we're looking at all athletic fields when we did our evaluation uh two years ago um knowing that we can um there there's there's things that we can do to just optimize the uh the the the playing time in the field um so there is uh working actually with the the city manager he referred me to a uh to an organic um an or organic uh not a pesticide but a uh but it's a it's a chemical program for all of the fields so we've I'm including that in this budget we're limited what we could use we can't use any any type of synthetic chemical so it is uh it's a it's

150a program uh to maintain the to to optimize the the natural turf fields and that is included in this budget as well so that that accounts for some of that increase so those are the those are the highlights of the budget um if there's any specific questions go ahead so I do have first of all thank you to all of you um I don't know if I said that out loud for everybody but um one thing we talked about several years ago and I think it was prior to you getting here Rob was an energy performance contract so I'm just curious how does that play into looking at some of the um utility spikes and things like where does that fall in all of that so we had um anticipated incorporate an energy performance contract

151is um in advance of the bond then we realized that because it was so fluid and we were still trying to figure out where we were going to go with the bond it would be something that would come at the end um having said that when you look at where we are right now environmentally from a financial perspective and what the low-lying fruit is left in terms of what you need to do in order to generate funding to cuz essentially how it works is it's Energy Efficiency that then allows you to do other work savings there that allows you to do other work right so it's hard when you look at the spaces that we have left because a lot of it is putting in sensors it's changing to LED lights things that we've done

152a lot of on our own to then help pay for efficiencies on the HVAC side which we've also done a lot on our own in terms of controls um and putting systems in place so we are now looking at other options that work similarly to an energy performance contract but not necessarily having to go out to borrow in order to accomplish the same things okay um we haven't landed quite yet um but we are exploring um a contract with a company called synergistic that um offers other ways of coming up with Energy savings but again not through borrowing but through looking at the same systems that I'm talking to about in terms of controls and how they're being turned on and turned off um to see if that's a viable option of going forward where

153we can then do some additional cost savings but I do have to say once and going into this Pond we standardize the use of controls ABS controls throughout the district which means in every building they act exactly the same in replacing a lot of the equipment it's all the same equipment throughout the district and Rob and his team have done tirelessly amounts of hours of work trying to find tunn controls which to be perfectly honest I believe is what a lot of these energy performance contracts would come in and try to do so I do believe that we're reaping the benefits of a lot of what would have happened had we done that in advance okay um that we kind of figured out on our own right but but one of the things that you

154know a decision that can be made down the line is having an evaluation done by one of the companies that that work with districts on energy performance contracts because they'll come to you and and look at your campus and look at your facilities and analyze your utility bills and make recommendations and say we believe that you know lighting's always a big one they're constantly looking at lighting you've got you know 500 lighting units that we think could achieve this kind of savings but but that would be down the road to have them come in and at least look at things and say there's value here to go through an energy performance contract or there's not okay thank you that's helpful anybody else anything else I will just say um Mr klano I am always impressed

155with the commitment of your department to our students and to the community and I think the small note that you received back from somebody to say everything went great with the trees is really reflective of that um bridge that you've built with the community and with the families and it makes a big difference it's sometimes can seem like it's not as important and it's not as crucial to the work but as I know uh you and the rest of your team believe it is it is as crucial as the rest of the work we do and so thank you very much for all of that work that is done on behalf of all of our kids and our families thank you all right and that is the end of our presentation so thank you all

156so very much these were really uh great well informed uh and presented presentations so thank you and so with that we move on to the time of the hearing for the public on non-agenda items but I do not see any public here this evening at 9:51 on March 25th so we will skip skip that portion of the agenda but please know we are always available to hear comments and questions and at any time you may always email us at rcsd board R schools.org so with that we will move on to the consent agenda can I please have a motion to approve this evening's consent agenda Sean cler seconded by Matt shibanov great let's take a look at this evening's consent agenda consent agenda General consent to agenda fiscal construction consent agenda fiscal consent agenda professional

157appointments consent agenda classified appointments and consent agenda pupil Personnel Services and special education okay seeing no questions all those in favor of this of approving this evening's consent agenda all those in favor of approving this evening's consent agenda Mr signs on board that is 7even nothing so on this evening's consent agenda we have awarded the bids for the construction related to the Midland and Osborne editions and we look forward to many updates as we get closer to the kickoff of that work we've also adopted a resolution for work related to the Performing Art Center the high school gym the music rooms at the middle school and the high school the floors at Milton the roof the lighting the ceiling the flooring at Osborne and the new additions there is not one building that will not

158be getting some form of beautification and upgrades and we are very excited about those opportunities uh we have a memorandum of understanding with Allied service Allied Universal Security as they have uh purchased our previous security provider but we are happy to say we have the same security guards we have the same wonderful people and standards that will continue to support um our safety and security measures here in The Rise City Schools we have an approval to participate in one of my favorites our Cooperative bids with Northwestern bosies which will always uh which is a great segue from this evening we're looking for ways to help contain costs and being able to participate in this Cooperative bidding process allows us to do that it helps us with the greater buying power of being together so that's

159always great to see we have a donation that we are accepting in the amount of 1,7 no sorry in the amount of $172,000 from the Osborne PTO for classroom furniture for grades 3 to 5 perhaps maybe linking a little bit back to the work that Dr sassone was talking about earlier this evening so that's great to see we also are accepting a donation in the amount of $9,500 from the Milton PTO to support the fifth grade play which is always great to see always enjoy that spring show and that is it for this evening's consent agenda so then we have more we now we now will move on to Communications to and from the board and it is that time of the year where we have and I'm gonna I'm gonna push this to uh

160yeah y yep where we have our board and District committee updates so facilities committee March 18th Mrs Bole I know you were there was anyone else there with you miss Aon great it was an Allstar cast so who's going to give us an update what happened start and then you guys can fill in great um we um we started in the ey laab and Rob went over um the transfer to capital projects from the 2425 school year and then we got and then you talked about the upcoming projects and then we did a tour through the media center we went to the gym to see the floors that are going to be redone this summer we went to pack we got to see that outdated um lighting system surround system uh for ourselves and um

161we saw the wrestling room which looks amazing and smells great now too um and then we were going to see the softball field but it was too dark at that point so we did a comprehensive tour of some of the new um areas and then Rob talked a little bit more detail about some of the upcoming projects like the Osborne roof we also had at the meeting besides us and Gabby and Rob we had I think about three members of the community that participated on it as well who asked a lot of great questions and had a lot of great suggestions so any other updates from that committee no think I think C got it all right excellent all right and this is a unique experience where there was a policy meeting but there were

162no policies to discuss so tell us miss Bo what happened uh so we spent the entire policy meeting going through the updates that we are working on for the code of conduct and then subsequently scheduled a an additional policy meeting to finish those updates about the code of conduct which we're hoping we will do in early April um and then we will have our next regularly scheduled meeting at the end of April okay and I would imagine at some point we'll all get to see the great work of the code of conduct nope I only get to see it um no we will the with the goal um is going to be to bring any of the updated changes to the full board um we also will have a public hearing um for those changes

163and the timing should work out where those will all be finalized prior to to the start of the new school year on July 1 so that we can use those that updated version when it gets sent out to families and students to review and faculty to review and sign off on okay great we look forward to that okay uh any other committees that perhaps we missed no okay uh so now it is that exciting time of the year always where our board members announce their intention to seek reelection so I'm going to take that opportunity to pass Miss Bole to go first you don't think we should go in alphabetical order no no I think we should go ba we're going to we're mixing it up tonight okay um so as as you all know

164because every time we introduce ourselves we tell how many years we've been on the board um I've had the opportunity and privilege to serve on the board of education for the last nine years um it has been an incredible learning experience not just from learning the uh process and um just about public education how uh the state of New York Works um a lot of instruction and curriculum and facilities and technology and everything um it's also been the amazing people that I've had the opportunity to work with not just sitting at the board table but the administrators um and uh building administrators you know from from all the different levels um so there was a time this year where I was thinking do you know how how is 9 years enough um cuz 9 years

165is is a while um but I have come to the conclusion that uh 9 years isn't enough and um I have decided to run for another term um for the board that's it all right well that's wonderful news very excited that 9 years is in fact not enough so uh as would just luck would coincide Miss Bole and I are on the same cycle uh but I've only been here for six years so I don't get to have that same struggle of nine to say is nine enough um but six years I will say has truly gone uh in the blank of an eye it has been amazing to come in under one experience and then have things change and flip over and come out of it and move and the things that have happened

166over the last 6 years have been um pretty extraordinary and uh I am an educator by training and I most definitely am an educator by heart and to be able to have this opportunity to um be a very very small part of the growth of the district over time under the leadership of Dr burn and um I know that there are so many amazing possibilities and experiences that are left ahead with you leaving us but us being able to continue on and to grow and to see what comes next with our next superintendent um and I would be absolutely honored to be part of that Journey so if the community of the citizens of Rye will have me for another 3 years they'll tell me that in uh what on there we go on May

16720th and so we'll see what happens in the meantime and so with that we will end that portion and we will say uh are there any other Communications to and from the board okay seeking none there will then be our next Board of Education meeting which will take place on April 8th where we will have budget adoption that's right that's great so in the meantime uh can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting Mr Stein seconded by Sean clap all those in favor 7 nothing have a good evening thank you