001meeting. >> Okay, we're calling to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Um the first item is the acceptance of the uh agenda. I'd like to make one addition that's on there. We are in need of an executive session tonight. So we'll add that to it. Can I get a motion for the agenda? >> Second >> as amended with the executive session. Any discussion? All in favor? I oppose. The agenda is accepted. Uh, next item of business is consent agenda resolution number 028 2025 approving the items on the consent agenda. Motion >> Mike >> second. >> Just next. Any discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor? >> I oppose. Consent agenda is approved. Next
002item of business is public comments. Any member of the public like to speak? I'd like to just take a moment to uh introduce Jackie who is our new physical therapist who we hired this evening. So Jackie's been working as a traveling physical therapist and working in the neighborhood when she's here. She lives she lives in our Do you know her Elliot? Oh you were like yeah she already knows people. So uh well so we are thrilled that you are going to settle in here in Sar Lake and welcome to our school family. >> Welcome Jackie. >> You will have to come >> and I forgot to mention that our first meeting usually she brought us treats >> next time. Right on it. >> So you also are welcome to stay if you would like but
003nobody will look at you crossey eyes if you wish to leave because we're fine. Yeah, >> self-propelled. That's good. >> We've heard we've not ever heard it described like that. Okay, moving on to financial reports. Thank you. >> Um, everything is saved on the share drive. There are no transfers over the $10,000 threshold, but they are listed on the back. Um, so you can see them right here. And this will enter the resolution. >> Ready for resolution? Resolution number 029 2025 approving the current budgetary treasure report as presented by the school business executive motion >> second. >> Any discussion? Those in favor? >> Any opposed? Resolution is approved. >> Um thank you. And I just wanted to add that the um annual state reporting, I don't know exactly what is involved with the ST3 and
004all the different reports that are due each year was due um by last Friday and everything came back clean as of yesterday. >> Nice work. >> Thank you. >> Yes, that's all. >> Okay, moving on to old business capital project update. We are continuing to close up shop with the EPC project at the Trova. A couple of things still moving along uh but all moving along coming quickly to an end. We have a little work left in this building. Uh we'll be working on towards the end of the week and then we're making a plan for um one last spot that we have some work that we have to do on the right way to do it. So that's all closing up like it should be. Uh an update on the turf field. We had
005a very nice meeting last week and we had a little extra money left in our contract allowance with Shaker Flats that is the subsidiary of uh Turfield. And so with that that will include that uh absorbed into that is the extra paving that we did in the parking lot and uh there was supposed to be grassy areas and we said yeah that won't ever actually be grass. So, we closed that up. All the water uh sorry, not the water line, the sidewalk that you see that they prepped for. Not sure it will go in at this point. Uh but the equipment was all here. So, it might not start till the spring, but they have it all prepped out. Will include topping the tennis court. We will not be painting it because we're actually renting
006a little robot painter that will paint our pickle ball information. We'll pick paint our pickle ball courts for us, but it does include all of the movable pickle ball required nets and all of that. Um, that all will fall under the contract. So, no additional costs for any of that work. >> 10 10 acres. We're going to put the tent anchors in. >> Uh, I don't think the tent anchors are in it. I think that's that's come out a lot. But what has gone in is a fence at this end for the pickle ball because they insisted I needed it and I said, "Okay, so you're going to throw it in, right?" And so I think they're going to fix the fence. >> Which end? >> This end towards the roadway. So which is where
007the pickle ball courts would be up at this end. Um the only thing that did not go in that allowance was actually the water line. So they put in the water line today. um have a little more work to do on it, but that's why you see the the uh final tear across the road. We're not sure we can get asphalt. It really is weather dependent. Um so it may not be until the spring that you do the asphalt work and the cement work, but if the weather's nice and the asphalt uh plant is still open. It's not in Cac, but they all come from south of us. So they could pick it up in Wilsboro. That plant is still producing asphalt and they all come through that way. So, we're going to see what
008the weather brings. This week is not is not looking good, but you never know. If we could have a little Indian storm in a week or so, uh we may be able to get some of that. >> Wild drivers will uh right there all over. >> I hope soon it will pack down in the winter. It won't be too bad. It'll be bad until it packs in and then after it gets mushy. So, that's the update. >> What is the water line? So, we have run a water line out to the end of the tennis court where we also put electric in which will allow um if you if we're able to do our our food >> concessions >> concession potential someday maybe. >> So, it's available. Yeah. So, it's nice now because we have
009the um we have the facility at the end the steeple chase that needs water. We've always had to pump it like we had to fill something to get it. So, it'll be nice to have water available there anyways. Um, but yes, so now where we're digging up the sidewalks, we're digging up anyways for other things. Now is the time to install it if we were going to do it. >> And the village took care of the hookup. >> Yeah, the village has been very good. They did the hookup at this end and then the the line has been run. So, >> okay, >> great. >> That's it. >> Okay. Uh item B is district facilities planning committee update. You have um packet of minutes that we'll give you after all our meetings. Um if you
010just you don't have to really read this but just take like look through it real quick and see how detailed it is. And I want to publicly thank Gina for that. She has done tremendous job of very specifically and accurately recording our discussions. If you read this, it gives you a great uh understanding of what we're talking about um and kind of progress that's taking place. It was an extremely long meeting. We were here well after 8:00. What did it's not the ending? See the end. >> Yeah, it was a long time, but we covered a lot of real. >> It was a good three hours. >> Yeah, it was it was a lot of base work that needed to be done. Um, I'm not going to go through this for you. You can read
011through it, but I'll ask Mike and or or Nancy if they want to chime in on anything that constructive. Mike, >> I think it was a great meeting. I I think, you know, I think we're at that point, right? We're we're gathering information, right? So, and we have several more meetings of gathering information, you know. So, I think I think everybody was on topic. I think everybody, you know, I think we we saw a bunch of different perspectives and I think that it was great. >> Well, I would, you know, definitely encourage those board members who weren't there to read the man. Um but especially the um I found really very new information from you know was the presentation by the transportation department on the potential ability to go to one bus route a single
012bus route instead of a double bus route morning and afternoon. The there isn't like a total dollar savings but that's something that I think we might try to figure out. But um that that's kind of a real interesting change. >> Should should the single bus run become something um that looks like that's consideration for us as we move forward as a board, we'll bring them back in and let them redo the presentation for you. >> Yeah, >> because uh it was very enlightening. >> Yeah, >> they have uh so I've also included the packet that was distributed to the subcommittee members. It's you each have a packet of that and the transportation piece of it is in there. >> Yeah, it's uh it's pretty cool in terms of uh the detail on it. So, we
013got a lot of people um from the community and on the district side that are putting some serious uh effort and time into this to uh you know try to look at all aspects of it. So, that's where we're at with that. Um Diane and I will meet uh Friday, try to uh chart for the next uh um meeting. We've got some schedule confer. But uh I think one of the things that came at the last um meet the subcommittee meeting was a little better understanding of of school funding, which we kind of take as second nature because we're doing it all the time. But I think the other people in the committee would really love to see um you know, we keep talking about this money because we we do it all the time.
014So I think Diane's exactly correct that should be something we should discuss um at that next meeting and we're probably looking a meeting after that to look a little more hardcore and do schedule possibilities. So that's a little bit of the plan could be adjusted based on whatever. So hopefully they won't all be three-hour meetings, but I think the group is serious about getting the work done. >> We do have uh >> some tours coming up next week. Isn't that >> the fourth? Get some >> 30th. The 30th at 5:30. >> Yep. Correct. >> Is that your building in the bus garage? >> Yeah. if anybody wants to come to it. >> High school is the fifth. >> Thank you. >> And then the next one was the fourth. >> High school. >> So, we're
015moving along. It's important, I think, before we get into real hardcore ifs and buts about uh uh uh scheduling, etc., etc., that we do this background information on process and budgets and money and size and all that factual data stuff before we start making decisions based on you know things that aren't numbers. So that's what we're doing. Okay, moving on to new business. The item A is a 2425 assessment tenants suspect data for the station. Uh, our building admin >> on the clock >> Jack on. >> Sorry. You want to click, Brian? >> Um, no, you can click Gina. Okay. They seem to have a little trouble with the technology. Wi-Fi would probably go off. >> Don't do that. >> Um, so really it depends on where you look for this data. I mean, you
016can look in four different places and get four different um numbers. I'm not speaking for all the buildings, but at least for Petroa, as we were going through this, um, you really could find different numbers depending on where you look. But you can see our enrollment has been pretty consistent from 22 to, uh, 22 23, 320 students, uh, 23, 24, 310, and then last year we had 303. Um, and I always find it interesting despite our efforts and the the different things that we do to to keep our uh students in school, especially our chronically absent students, um, here ranging from phone calls, letters, home visits, um, you know, reaching out for support, how can we help, is it a transportation issue, is it, you know, all a lot of different factors. But as you
017can see over the course of the last three years, 48 students, 48 students, 49 students. Um, and again, you know, we can knock on doors, we can get vehicles from the bus garage and go pick students up. Um, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So, those are the uh numbers for patrol for the last three years. >> And there's Bloomingdale. Our enrollment for those three years was pretty consistent. In 2022 23 we had 101 students. 2023 24 98 and then last year we had 104. And so our chronically absent was almost 12% and then 6% and then 12 and a half%. Last year we did have a few students who had some serious illnesses that um spiked their attendance a little bit. Um but same as Brian, I mean we have given a lot of
018support to those families to try to figure out how can we help. I remember many a time Brian knocking on a door at the drova. Um and we just try to figure out why is the student not coming to school. A lot of families are taking extended vacations during nonvation times even though we give them a really generous spring break. I know for our building last year, we had quite a few students take off two weeks prior to spring break and that means they're out of school for a month, which instructionally at our level is really detrimental to the students. So, even though we put it in every newsletter, my friend Brian, attendance is key. Um, I feel like since COVID in particular, attendance just has slid the importance of being at school and sometimes
019parents are giving kids a choice. They didn't feel like going to school today. So, we're seeing some of that, too. >> Anybody here have that choice when you're going to school? >> Yeah. That never happened for >> So, looking at suspensions over the last three years, um, you know, look at last year, the number of incidents was up, but the number of students was not that far up from the prior year. um in the infractions in particular might have been ones that required a you know based on the code of conduct or various things it could have been a fiveday suspension. So it looked these 33 days but it wasn't like there was a huge spike um in the number of students who were getting in school or out of school suspension. It just depended
020on the severity of it. And you know, we want to hold uh students and families accountable. And you know, if a student is being unsafe or or using inappropriate, you know, language, whether it's a slur or whatever it is, you know, we take that very seriously. Um so yeah, you know, not anything crazy from 22, 23 to 24, 25, but just wanted to point out that spike in days was due to the the intensity of the infraction. Dale, we didn't have any suspensions other than 23 24 and we had one in school suspension. Most of the behaviors um are really dealt with with behavior support plans and things um but we just we had one incident and there is our state testing data. We grouped it by grade three, four and five. And then on
021top you'll see ELA and math underneath. The red is non-proficient and then the dark blue and gray is proficient. So Brian and I kind of added those two together. So for third grade for ELA the total proficiency was 63.24 and then for math it was 54.42 for third grade. >> So a lot of factors go into um state testing and you know we look at the data and say okay where are we falling short? Is it particular grade levels? Is it particular teachers? Is it the certain cohort? Um, as a matter of fact, I brought not that we need to go through it, but here's an example of um I won't say who the teacher was, but this is a packet that our our three through five uh teachers are got in their mailbox today
022and they'll be discussing Friday afternoon, pretty much the whole afternoon of our conference day. um looking at the data, looking at the trends, looking at the the standards that you know at a particular grade level we may have um our students didn't perform well. So really drilling down what the data says to inform our instruction moving forward. Um a lot of things uh you know the the curriculum mapping um and next ready classroom work that Melissa is doing. Um we're looking at different programs to boost our curriculum. Um Katie and I actually just uh participated in a webinar. Yeah, last week >> um in regards to a third edition coming out for our our ELA program. Um and a lot of the places that we were falling were due to, you know, that particular program
023not being strong enough to hit all of those areas and teachers having to supplement with different things. So there they're areas that that we're aware of. We're drilling down to figure out where um the breakdowns are. Uh and the testing did not not on our part necessarily, but it did not go well specifically with ELA um this year with uh at the state level with, you know, internet would come in and out and then they would say, "Okay, we're I guess we're done for the day. You're gonna have to finish tomorrow." So, a student might have been in the middle of an essay or um not making any excuses, but it was it was very frustrating for um the staff and and even more frustrating for the students who were trying to concentrate and and
024do well on the test. >> When we look at those numbers, it may say, but I that's kind of small. What percentage of students did not take the test? Were there students that don't take the test for one reason or another? >> Yes. >> Absent or very small. We had a few who opted out. Okay. But I know I only had one. >> I think I might have had four >> because in the past we we saw pretty large on helmets, right? >> And that kind of skewed a little, right? >> Yes, definitely. >> That's why I asked if there >> Yeah. >> Can I get a copy of Can we get a copy of this? >> Sure. >> I have it shared on the drive. Thank you. >> Do we have I'm just curious
025now because like So this is grades three, four, and five last year. Do we have I'm sure we do like if the track like this is the so the kids who were in grade five last year where they were fourth third then obviously we hit the co time as bad >> down to Mr. Gar >> Dr. Yes. I mean, we can drill down as far as we want as far as >> an analyzing the data. >> Garwood. >> No, no, no, no. I I remember the testing guy that would have was freaking out because of computer So, yeah. I know that was that was not anyone's fault. That was New York State. >> Yeah. When Brian and I compared last year's scores and the same grade level, you do see some movement, which is really
026hopeful for us that the curriculum work is starting to sort of come into play a little bit. I do think the readability of the state tests have come into question that the readability is much higher than their actual grade level. Um, and also taking a computer-based test for a lot of our students is a brand new experience, too. So, that's a skill in itself. Any other questions on elementary testing? >> I want to ask one more question. um the suspension and we do we house I mean is it do we tend to see not so obviously buta or maybe even milan high it tend to be um like repeat offenders for lack of a better term same kids kind of >> absolutely so of those 16 suspensions that was seven kids >> um and I
027if I can remember correctly I think one was probably nine of those days >> yeah and we don't just suspend and oh you're suspended you you know right >> see you when you get back I mean We're working hard with our mental health team. We have parents, you know, to educate. So when a student makes that, you know, decision that wasn't a good one, they're not just walking out with a consequence. They're, you know, we want to help them understand how that affects them and affects the people around them and what their future looks like. So >> yeah. Is there also on that same U train is you know the from one year to the next does it tend to be same kids that track you know who have >> it depends we we sometimes
028joke that you know when one starts to get it together and you know we're on a good track then somebody else tends to take their place but um you know there are a handful of students that that have a hard time with school um and and they you know their behavior here chose that >> year year after year. Yeah. >> Some kids >> settle down. >> Yeah. >> When they get to middle school, >> we're start with attendance. >> So, our enrollment was 279 and 2223. stayed the same for 23 24 and then up to 289 and 2425. Students who are chronically absent our students who are absent 10%. So we had 51 students who uh which is 18% who are chronically absent. So um students who are out uh 18 days um last year
029when we look at some of these numbers as Brian said if we look at the school report card we have 176 days instead of 180. So you look at 17%. So, our chronically absent went from 18% to 17%, now down to 15.6 in the middle school. And last year, we started an attendance team in the middle school. So, it's Mr. Ryan, Mrs. Rock, who's our attendance secretary, Mrs. Riley, and me. We meet twice a month. Uh, and we have a list of students that we track, six, seven, and eight. Um, and we in this spreadsheet we track who the students are, each date that we talk about them, how many absences they have, and every intervention that we have used. Like Brian and Katie said, I call home. Uh, we have letters at when a
030student hits eight absences and 18. We um 23 triggers a family meeting. If we have not had that family meeting already before that time due to academics, we will do everything we can to get the family in to come in and meet with us to address this. Um and uh that team working every um two weeks has really helped. Even though it's only gone from 18 to 17 to 15.6, we're having a lot more conversations with families about where students are and how we can help them. Um our suspensions are a little bit different than the elementary school. Um 22 23 this was my first year. Uh we had 46 incidents that resulted in 26 students having 81 days of inschool suspension. Out of school was 37 incidents with 20 students and 120 days. As
031these years continue 22 to 23 or sorry 23 to 24 and 24 to 25 we started uh Mr. Ryan and I started working a little bit more on our students who had out of school suspension. And when they were suspended out of school for being unsafe or threatening behavior, we took those incidents and we had them see their counselor. Uh we met with the family when the student was suspended and then we we started re-entry procedures. So any student that was coming back on campus was going to have a re-entry meeting with their counselor, Mr. Ryan, me, the students, and during that meeting, first thing in the morning, we talk about how what happened at home, how are your academics, we welcome them back. We talk about a fresh start, how can we support you,
032who is your trusted adult in our building, and then we have them go into inschool suspension. So instead of having so many out of school suspension days, we take one or two of those and bring them into in school so they have time to meet with their counselor, sit in mediation if this is a problem with another student or sit in mediation with a teacher if they had a problem with a teacher. And we find that this kind of soft landing back into our community is much better for our students. Gives them time to get caught up in their academics, meet with their teachers and their counselors. uh our testing data uh this is for grade six alen math for last year. Uh so for our proficiency we had for ELA 63.36 and then for
033math we had 51.22 22 grade seven proficient was an ELA 41.57% and proficient in math 60.68%. And in grade eight 61 proficient in ELA 61% and 61% uh proficient in math and of that math score just remember that our top 24 students take the algebra region. So they don't take they don't sit and take the eighth grade math test. So they are not part of this data. They'll be part of Josh's data. And as we said, there are longitudinal studies that we can access through our Tableau accounts that can track our students from year to year. And as Brian said, our staff is going to be working on Friday with this data. We have many different types of reports that they can access um that breaks down the test by standard and it can tell
034us what standards our students did the best on and it can flag standards where our students were the weakest. So we like to start with where our students are the weakest and build on how we can support them. So here's our attendance. Uh you'll see over the last three years we've lost over 30 students at the high school. Um most of the other schools have been pretty consistent, but that's where we're seeing um some of the biggest uh change in our uh enrollment. Um again, chronic absenteeism. Um you'll see a significant uh growth over the years and that really has to do with seat time. So, we're we're targeting students that have uh eight or more absences the first semester and 16 is the magic number as we move towards May and June. And we're
035actually keeping them after school either at a half an hour clip uh an hour at a clip and possibly even Saturdays to gain some instruction time back so we can get them back under the the 16 or 18. So, these are kids that are on the bubble, not kids that have extreme um absences, but uh we talk about this at every assembly, every time we have an opportunity um you know preaching about just showing up because we find that kids that show up are very successful in our school. So the other conversation is is talking to the adults to make sure that um kids who are missing uh a lot of school are not always passing their classes too. So that needs to kind of be correlated um with their with their grades and how
036successful they're being. being in school. So, um suspensions, you'll see um also we've had um some growth. Um I think the last couple years we've really tried to uh only use out of school for drugs, um violence and and uh extreme disruptive behaviors. and um trying to keep kids in school with counselors with a me mental health team to make sure that we're we're being the best place for them and not just kicking them out because um you know it feels good for for the adults. So um I think we've worked hard on that. It's not always an easy transition because a lot of the adults want like an eye for an eye kind of thing and so we just have to justify that a lot of the students. So you'll see like out of
037school last year 12 incences with 12 students. So that that's just telling you they only they only had one instance or incident for each each student which is pretty is pretty good. So, um I think some of that, uh accountability with knowing that they're going to be in school because sometimes in school is worse than than being out of school. So, here's our region scores. So, you'll see um see August is not included in into the current year. So, uh August is the first um grading of the of the calendar year. So it was August then January and June. So um the 20 the 25 does not include the August. We did um actually have one August graduate this year. We haven't had an August graduate in a long time. So we were very proud
038of him. The region scores as you know some of the exams are changing. So life science, biology and earth and science earth and space sciences that those are brand new tests. And so if you know anything about high school and high school teachers, um changing the test is always a um a nerve-wracking thing because they're just the tests seem to be so consistent over time. However, um our our students did a nice job with those new tests um this past year. This year, um we're looking at chemistry, physics, English, and algebra 2 will be will be new exams in June. So we're transitioning to new exams. And as you know with a portrait of a graduate some of these uh tests will be absolut you know obsolete because kids will have different tracks and not
039using these exams as part of the uh graduation um requirements. I think just some highlights on here is for the most part we're in the 80s and 90s and then I think that you know some areas that we that we're not there it's pretty consistent across so nothing's drastically changed. Um you'll see algebra and physics for this past year jumped over uh 20%. And um those are just awesome highlights um for for our teachers and our kids. >> Did geometry change this year? Was that one of the test? >> No, it's actually changing. >> I don't know that. Tory, I'll get back to you. >> It's it's on the testing schedule, but I'm not sure. >> What about chemistry? That one looks like >> Yeah. So we we so we've had um some inconsistent with
040instructors. Um and so I think anytime you jump in there, it's hard to find chemistry teachers. >> So um I think we're in a we're in a in a spot where we're we're getting better and and we know what our shortfalls are, but I think that's just we when we had to transition last time with between teachers, we kind of had a a little dip. So I'm hoping we climb back up. Any questions on that? And these percentages are basically proficient. Like if you you know obviously um some tests it's uh three and four, but some tests have a have a grade of five it to be three to five. So they're all they're all kind of different. And our graduation data. So this is kind of the the highlight of the night because this
041is what we're all kind of striving for. And I think this is a district-wide um approach to this. So, it's not just not just high school, but you'll see that, you know, over the last uh what, six years, we've been uh 93% um and higher. And so, um you know, I think Diane will tell you, I'm always looking to make sure that we're better in this because I would like to have perfection. Um but there's, you know, being perfect is is not always the the key here. But I feel like um these are these are pretty good numbers. I'm I'm very proud of them. And uh you'll see the local diploma. The local diploma has an eight there. So over COVID because they had a lot of exemptions um our kids didn't qualify for local
042diplomas. But because we're now back in reality um we do have students that are are uh benefiting from the local diploma which means they're using the safety net for the region scores. Any questions for high school? Okay. We also included the homeschool enrollment for this year and then all of the past years. So you can see by grade level how many of our students are homeschooling. And then this year we're down a little bit from last year. We have 45 current um students who are homeschooled. That's good. And those are just some of the things that we're doing um at each level to intervene. So at the elementary level, as Brian said, we're working on our tier one curriculum, our MTSS, our multi-tiered supports, and tier 1B interventions, which is our small groupoup interventions for
043students. Um and we're just really trying to get an elementary focus on strong instruction and using the data to instruct. So I think one thing to point out here where it says tier 1B that's kind of new. It's not kind of new. It is new. In the in the past it was tier one, two or three. You know tier one was your your classroom level interventions that you do with all the kids. Um tier two might have been um a pull out service from an AIS provider um or even a push-in service. Tier three was always pull out smaller group of kids with a a focus on a specific skill deficit that they uh that they experienced. Um, but by using the MTSS system and adding tier 1B, it's creating uh the teachers are still
044responsible for that 1B, but they they're collecting data, they're tracking data, they're progress monitoring, they're having deeper conversations with AIS providers so that the the classroom teacher is doing not the exact same thing, but they're they know what's happening in AIS so they can support those students while they're in the classroom. Um so this is something that you know our our teachers are working through. We we have an hour and a half session um on Friday as well. Um you know to help some teachers along with you know putting those interventions into our RTI direct system. Um so I I have a feeling you know in a year or two we're going to have fewer students that need academic intervention and we're going to see you know some of those uh areas of deficit um
045coming up. Um and again the work that um Melissa's doing with our teachers um you know the curriculum meetings what they called them last year and putting their their units and and curriculum in the Atlas program has now changed to okay now that that info is in there what are we going to do with it? How are we going to beef up our um instruction to to meet um grade level standards? At the middle school level, we have targeted academic assistance classes. So, every five weeks, um we check our students grade, whether it's um their progress reports or their report cards. The student is failing an academic class. Um we if the student's not getting any other supports, we pull that student and put them in one of these classes. It's a very small class
046with a teacher and the teacher helps them work through uh and target any work that they need to make up in the class that they were failing and the goal is to move them in and move them out every five weeks. Um middle school lunch recess study hall is new this year. We have one per grade level. Our students shared with us last year that there's not enough options during lunch recess places for them to go besides the library. Um, if they want to read quietly or if they want to work or if they've been out for a couple of days sick and they want to they want a quiet place to work to make up a lab or to make up a quiz or a test or catch up on work, they can go
047here. We're tracking the data every day, grades six, seven, and eight. Uh we adopted the prior notice form from the high school in 2023 and that's helped with our attendance and our communication with families when they are pulling students out for a known absence for a full day or more. Uh as I said we created our attendance team and parent square also calls home for absences. Uh they do that every day for us but we also call Mrs. Rock will call or I will call as well. Um and then in the spring of 23 we created a hierarchy of consequences. Um this was to get our team on the same page literally as to how we were going to address student misbehavior. Um we had teachers reacting in different ways across the board and since
048we have adopted this uh we react in a more uniform way which is much better for our students and um and helps us to determine how to react to student misbehavior. And then our middle school high school team exploration of creative discipline to keep students in the classes. Josh and I have talked about this a lot. Instead of um suspending students out of school, the best place for them is in school. How can we keep them here while keeping everybody safe and keeping them educated and with their counselors? >> So our additional AIS support is we added uh lab to English 9 and um algebra 1. So that's just focusing more on additional um support. I think it's working really well um and the teachers like it. We do our academic support weekly. So we
049pull grades every week and then students are on you know level one or level two that affects their participation with extracurricular activities and and then the seat time which I already talked about uh previously. Nice work folks. >> Very informative. >> Can I ask a general community question? So you've been doing this a lot of years. Are you noticing like we know that a lot of these trends are are impacted by out of school factors? Are there things that you're noticing in the community that are contributing to these trends or or are some of these trends getting better? just thinking about some of the issues in our community and and how they trickle into schools and then we have to kind of triage those things. >> Our students are dealing with a lot of stress
050outside of school whether it's familial or >> community uh where they live and sometimes these are adult stresses that they can't do anything about. So, we try to really work together to make sure when they're with us, they have enough supports with our mental health staff and with us, as I said, to keep them in school. >> Do you feel like you have enough of that of of those staff and of those supports? Because I know over the years we've had conversations about making sure that we adequately staff and fund that's >> I I would say in the 13 years I'm at the high school, we have nicer kids. like I feel like we have nice supportive um kids that do appreciate their their their their other students. I I feel like that's been a
051big change. I also feel like we change uh a little better. So like when we have students that come in there that are that are that look and act differently than maybe did 10 years ago, it was like, oh, you know, the kids have to conform to what we're doing. And I think that that has changed drastically in the 20 years that I've been there that we've we've really been calculated on changing to the students and not and not having the students change to our >> which I think is that that might sound like it's a >> no it's huge >> a minor thing but I think it's it's huge and I think that >> um the students understand it. I think the families get it. But I feel like we've had to change drastically
052in the last 10 20 years. And I think that that's hard work to do. It's not easy, but I feel like we have to. We're constantly changing. So >> was that part of our welcoming being welcoming and inclusive for student I mean that we you know adapt so that our students >> I think I think it's just yeah I think it's just a kindness thing too like you can't you can't expect everybody to >> follow the same path that the path is you know 20 years old so you get a change >> that's a consistent message especially at the middle school the first day of school our assemblies and every quarterly assembly is kindness and accepting thing and how to support each other. >> Are you seeing like more housing insecurity, drug use that that's
053impacting families? Is that increasing, staying the same? Just kind of always >> I would say for our kids down. Hate to say that out loud because that could change. Uh I feel like they're outside use up. um housing. I It's hard to it's hard to say with high school kids so because they're so private and they you know they they want to they want to come to school and and not be judged on any of those things. So I think they're just trying to function as best they can. I I don't I don't know what you would say. >> I feel like at the elementary level our our kids know a lot more now than they ever did about what goes on at home. >> Yeah. um they're not sheltered from, you know, the the
054domestic violence, the the drug use. Um not even so much from their family themselves, but through social media. Oh, I heard this, I heard that. And then you hit send and all of a sudden everybody knows and um you know I think I think our I think our kids are are they're seeing and and involved in some pretty scary things you know whether it's them personally or that they're witnessing in their family um or their you know their their neighborhood. Um, yeah, they they just they know more than they than they should. >> And I feel like when that happens, we have systems in place to support them. Absolutely. >> I don't feel like we um are lacking in our team or what we can do. I feel like when those situations present themselves to
055us, we know what we're doing. >> And those teams talk more than we ever have. Like they have an opportunity on Friday to meet and discuss some things. So, I think they have more time where they're trying to make it consistent from K to 12, whatever, whatever that is. >> I will just jump in because I think I have everybody knows their world, but Erica and I know all their world and I'll speak for Erica and then she certainly can speak for herself. It seems to be um the number of students and what they're dealing with, what students are dealing with is getting more intense than it was even when we started community schools and I started having um a picture of districtwide what was going on. And it seems to come in waves. Right
056now, Erica and I would probably need both hands to tell you that we h the number of students or families really because they're multiple students, but families that are kids are in situations that is not of their own making that is very very bad right now and maybe by November it'd be one hand for a while. like it it's just an interesting eb and flow and it seems when it's flowing it's we we've had parent deaths we've had abandonment we've like just the the list is amazing right now of really devastating things for kids >> is it have to >> you know impacted by like you know wintertime heating costs are high so you know th those kind of things That's actually a whole another level and we see that right now. Everybody's looking for
057fuel money because the heat doesn't kick in until November, but it's cold outside, might snow tomorrow, right? So, how do you how do you get there and bridge some of those gaps? So, that's that's really a whole and and kids, Brian's absolutely right, students are now having those adult conversations at a very young age. So, I'm a third grader. I know there's no heat in my house right now. My parents are discussing it. I've got no place to go with this anxiety, right? I can't I can't help that. But I'm in the adult conversation. I think that >> and I think I think the county support too, as you know, is limited. So, like a lot of times where, you know, 20 years ago, you could lean on some services because the incidences were so
058small. now they're like this. And so a lot of times we're just having to do what what's best for our community and our kids in house, which we're lucky that we have >> those avenues because some districts don't. >> I will say the good news is I think because of community schools, families are communicating a lot more clearly their needs where I think there were needs prior. It's just they were hidden. I mean, even now with the food pantry program, it's the most humbling thing that we do where every week you shop with the kids in our school food pantry and the kids get to pick out their food for the weekend and they get so excited to bring home their food and it just brings it back about the importance of kids being in
059school attendance and families being able to feel free. You know, we don't have snow pants. We're stressed about that. We've had more families tell us that they they don't have enough work. They're scraping by. how can we get after care? So, at least they're feeling comfortable to communicate that with that that they see us as the hub of doing that. So many of the families are struggling like with their own mental health and it just trickles down to the kids. I mean, we have three and four year olds telling us some pretty horrific things that are happening in in pure detail. So, you just do your best to to give them all the love they need when they're there. But I do think families at least now kind of know Erica's their girl. They go
060there. They know that we have some things available for them. So, >> and our staff knows that too. >> Yes, I agree. >> They know rather than just the burden being them, they actually >> have an avenue to try to offer some family support. >> Thank you. >> Excuse me. exciting new business is supporting county's preschool special education services. >> Speaking speaking of support, uh we have had some unique situations with preschool students this year. We seem to have a cohort of students, not yet our our kindergarten students that are in need of some uh support. OTP speech uh see it which are preschool special education program services with minimal services available. In fact uh in uh one county there are exactly zero service providers. So, how do we support what are soon going to
061be our students with uh some services before they get to school? Because the last thing we want them to be is unserviced, knowing that they need support and then three years no support and then they arrive at school. So, Suzanne did some work to figure out why when we have some OTP speech special education teachers, they're not actually doing a little side business and working for the county. uh and and providing some some extra support in the community. One of the things that came up again and again is because they need their own insurance and they have to do their own billing with the county, right? They're standalone. I see Joe Joe shaking his head because you live this and uh Justin lives this with uh his wife. So the the problem really is insurance
062is very expensive and then you've got you've got to be your own accounting uh firm. So, we we talked to the county about this. Um, and we're going to be coming to you next week with a contract. It's going to cost us a little money, but not not a lot. They can fall if if the providers work for us as an employee. If it costs us any more money to put them under our umbrella insurance and they can provide their services in the community, they're still our employee. And we would do the billing to the county. We would pay them out of our payroll. We know that system works well. They would go on a claim for them and then we would build the county for their services. If county paid them $84 for a
063visit, we would pay 80 because we're taking that they're still making money because if you figure out how much their insurance cost them every year, right? and it will cost us a little money because if they're our employee and they are in the retirement, I have to pay the retirement, the social security, all those benefits that are attached to that. But what that means, we've already put out some feelers to see whether or not we could find anyone who is interested in the answers. Yes, we have people interested in doing it this way. So for a little bit of money, we are going to be able to provide some preschool services to kids who would otherwise go without preschool services. So I just wanted to me before it came and I asked you to vote
064on it. Um I just wanted to explain what is coming at the the next meeting. The the numbers are set by the county every year. They set their rates of what they'll pay. art wanted to explain why ours is off only by a few dollars a visit and what that was for and sort of the the the thought why in times of bud tough budget times why we're saying oh by the way it's worth the extra funding to make this work for our preschool kids >> would it be so it would be outside of their regular duties in school they're doing it as a >> correct yep they would do it outside of their regular workday Yes, >> in my new position at the Charlie Center for Independent Living, the number of people and the
065number of calls that we're getting, um, particularly these little ones, yes, >> is overwhelming. And the parents that just don't know what to do and everything you read, all the research says, the earlier these kids get intervention, to be craft, the cheaper they are in the long run. if they get the services, if we can help get those services at a reasonable cost for these little ones, in the long run, it will save us. And that I I'm really appreciative to hear that. That's really exciting. >> We we think so, too. We think it's a good rate. It will attract some people and we take all the guesswork. You'll get paid on a regular basis, right? We we hold the waiting for the county to get to the payroll and um do the insurance piece.
066It just it allows the provider to provide the service and not have to be the business side of things. >> And it's just >> this is just within the Sarinac Lake school district. Correct. Not the whole county. >> No, it's just for our it's for our our students or those who we think will be our students. >> Yes. >> Because Suzanne is the committee on preschool special education. So she has a handle on who those students are, what services they need. >> Are other districts doing this? >> Uh Timberlake has done it a little bit. Okay. Yes. And then we have other districts, Shannon Gay, who actually runs uh an intensive preschool and um receive some services that way through a intensive preschool service. >> But that might be a really >> we can work
067the bugs out. >> It's a it's a up it's their UPK. Uh it has a real name for it. I can't think of it off the top of my head. >> 3PK, >> but they they have an intensive it's got like an H something. I can't remember what it is, but it's really a high need 61. And then they run a three-year-old, which actually I asked Erica to look into, but there's no funding for it at the moment because that was our next step was to provide perhaps a preschool three, which means those babies are two when they're coming to school. But >> but we we have good community-based organizations. But when you're in a building where the PT person is walking by and seeing you in the hall, you know, the speech teacher is
068interacting with you at the water fountain. There's just more of a chance of of picking up those things, but there's no no funding for a PE right now. >> So, that will come uh for our next meeting. >> Great. >> Okay. Thank you. Moving on to reports for sports superintendent report. >> Just a quick one. Last week was school board's recognition week. Uh thank you all for the work that you do. Uh it is a pleasure. I tell people all the time I was I was gifted the opportunity to go out with a steady really hardworking um thoughtful uh board and I appreciate that every day. you know, I've worked for a lot of people over all the years that I've been here and uh this is a really well working group of people >>
069and uh we mentioned it earlier. We talked about the facility study that people don't really know what you do. People really don't know all the work that you do behind the scenes, but I do appreciate that every single day. So, thank you very much for doing the work that you do. That's it. >> Okay, moving on to our administrators. Uh Katie, >> uh no report. >> Erica, >> well, sorry to burst everybody's bubble, but I'd like to invite you on Saturday to Saturday Academy. It's hosted right here at the high school on the top floor entering door 13. And uh Tony the two-toed sloth has promised to be here. Delicious lunch will be served and carving pumpkins. And I have to um give credit to Chris Mimis. Uh as I was driving up here, don't
070tell anybody I was driving up here from down below. I drove up tonight and um he was out blowing the leaves off the trail for us for our jacko'lantern lane. We'll be lighting 75 jacko'lanterns out there for families to come see the wonderful carvings that happened at Saturday Academy. >> What time? >> 10 to 1. >> Lunch starts at 11. And then the Jack Lantern walk is >> 6 to 7 and bus loading is at 4:30 a.m. Right Elliot. 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. We are departing to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. >> Yeah. >> So exciting. >> Oh, sorry. Did I steal your Thunder Elliot? I'm sorry. I didn't know. >> That is one thing I was going to mention, but >> please mention it again because it's awesome. >> That's that's
071it, >> right? Nothing new to report, >> Amy. >> Nothing new for me either. Thank you, >> Josh. >> Amy said no report. We all English teacher. >> Uh, so we had our PSATs today >> which I think that I talked to a lot of people who took them and uh there were a lot of mixed. Some people thought that they were very hard and thought that they failed. Some people thought they got like a 1550. So, >> time will tell, right? >> We'll report back and let you know. >> So, we also have our writing retreat which is coming up I think the 30th and 31st at Paul Smith's. Although we also have uh call we've had multiple college visits. I think Sunni was yesterday and as well. >> Oh, yeah. Clarkson also. And
072we have a couple more scheduled coming up, which I've gone to a couple and they're very informative. >> Um, on the sports side of things, there are many playoffs happening now. Um, it sounds like there's been a lot of attendance. I've made it to several games. I even went out to Malone with a friend to support a former Sarin Lake student to watch his homecoming game. Um, as Mrs. I'll mention that there's the upcoming Statue of Liberty trip which I've seen there was almost 40 people on the um the Zoom or Google meet last night for the information which is great to see just how many people are actually interested in coming. And then next weekend there is the trip down to connectity to see Wicked which um there have been many um of the
073students in like the musical community at the school that have been very interested and will be attending >> and that is all that we have. >> Perfect. Thanks guys. >> Ellie, is the Statue of Liberty trip part of a class? Is it part of a signup? Is it just a trip? >> It's a sign up. >> Okay. 21st century >> 21st century and then claws provided a workshop on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Uh we had a class after school. >> Cool. >> So you got a good dose of of what we're going to see. >> So next meeting just a little report on how that went. >> Yeah. >> It's a really profound place. >> Yeah. Enjoyed it. >> Both places. >> Both both places are really profound. >> Cool. >> Okay.
074>> Moving on to our committee reports. Nancy. Well, just just to let you know that I'm I I didn't have anything prepared today on a kind of a regular electric school bus report, but I'm hoping to put some things together for the next school board meeting. >> Thank you. >> Do you want us to add that to the agenda? >> I guess you can. Then it'll force me to act. >> Joe, um just that we had our first DEI meeting the other day. Um, some new members had some good conversation with some students. Notes are in the folder. Do we have the notes in the drive? >> They should be in the drive. I'm going to double check on that, Joe. But I hopefully I keep them now. That's all I have. >> Um, I
075actually have two kind of interesting one. I'm going to drag you through because I sat through six or five hours of meeting. So, you all can um >> I saw those emails come through and was wondering how long your meeting was. >> Uh, we're down to five hours. It was a miracle. Um, we cut it close yet again on our um, we cut it close yet again on meeting quorum and as we make sure I think I'm done. Um, one of the things if something should happen to me or some other person desire to take this over, why it is so important that we continue to participate is that the notrecommended um resolutions are at the very end of the meeting and we got down to we need a forum of 202 and we were
076down at 209. And the last ones are the ones that get a little um >> spicy, let's put it I think that's a good way to put it. Um and there's a lot of them, like 10. So it gets tight and the boards there's a there is a group of boards that does most of them out of Long Island and their entire boards are sitting you see them sitting at tables and they are there and there are some arguments that it gets a little testy. So it's just one of those things. The bylaws did not pass. Um on the drive you'll find this, but you'll also find the um uh the letter to the delegates that just kind of states what they did for the last year, how they helped us. Um it's kind of
077an interesting overview. You get to see for as small as an organization and as big as how many people um how much we accomplished over the last year. So I just really were really lucky to have them. Um, as we know, I'm wearing, some of you may know I'm wearing many hats right now. Um, and as co-executive director of Charlie Center for Independent Living, I had the pleasure of meeting with Diane and Suzanne Nicholas and uh from the district um for for special education as well as the North Country Community Family Engagement Center uh Cesley Onis and Jerica Gilman. um to really reestablish some bridges and how can the center um support families and students with special education. Um the school district has, you know, a pretty heavy lift taking care of our kids and
078making sure they get the support services that they need. And the center is in kind of a we are revamping the center and really try to make it user friendly so that we can work with the districts and we can work with families so that families whether you need you know regardless of what you need we can help you get those things. And it was really nice to sit. We actually met while um it went really fast, but it was really nice um to kind of build that bridge again. So, I'm very grateful. >> Can I ask you a quick question about this? >> Sure. >> Um what's the timeline and maybe should we ever should our board ever want to put an amendment out for this? What's the timeline for that? >> I put
079it out every January. >> Okay. um we should be thinking about them this winter or sooner um the sooner we get them. We're very lucky to have Wayne Rogers um up in Malone who is the area 6 director. >> Um and I want to say that one of his other board members is actually on the resolutions committee. So if there are ideas that we have or policies that we would like to put forward um we have easy access to some people that can help us with language and um we can ask questions. Um I will have all those dates coming out I think in the next month or so. I would love to do more resolutions work. It's something um it's something that the rural school districts really need to be working on as things
080change. um not only academic on the academic front, but on the business end of things. Um the rural school districts, excuse me, really need to start standing because the big five, excuse me, the big five have an additional vote. Um they have an additional representation. Um, and then they have additional boards, boards of boards that are working for them. Uh, this year Eddie Webinaro from the Peru Central School District, they always put a couple forward. Um, Platsburg, um, there's a few. Area 6 is not well represented at all. Um, and in fact, if you look in the letter to the delegates, as far as area six goes, I think I'm in there three times because there's just not a lot of participation. Um, so it would be I would love to do that. >> Yeah.
081I'm just wondering like which not we don't have to have this conversation now, but just which issues would be worth there are specific issues that we deal with specifically around this. We've been talking about the taxation issue for a long long time and property values in rural districts. So, >> yep, that would be great. Diane, maybe as you as you think about heading out, what are the like structural issues that really need to be changed that we could advocate for? >> You have a better sense on some of those than we do. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Mike. >> Okay. Um we are in need of an executive session to discuss the medical financial credit employment history of particular corporation and matters leading to the appointment employment motion motion to suspension dismiss it for removal
082of particular person or corporation I get a motion to move to the second session I'll second in favor >> I oppose >> thank you everyone >> thank If anyone should see Dr. Henderson, he stole my uh reports. Could you ask? >> This is This is Dr. Garwin. >> Dr. Sorry. Sorry, Dr. Henderson. If anyone should see Dr. Garwin, >> did you mention that he stole my reports? >> Yes. >> Congratulations. Elliot, good luck. Ellis Island is profound. Yeah. Pay attention to the the racism at that place. It's a lot of America has a long long conversation over who's allowed to be here. >> Yeah. And who counts as an American. There's a there's an exhibit there where they show the medical procedures they did to some of the people without. It's awesome, dude. That's really
083cool. >> Whatever it was, they could not wait to get on our