001Good. Can you hear me? Okay. Um, good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. Can I please get a roll call? Trustee Latakia? Present. Trustee Braxton? Here. Trustee Emeka? Trustee Fogarty? Here. Here. Trustee Krakeler? Here. Trustee Wilton? Here. Trustee Wojtowicz? Here. Student member How? Thank you. Please join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Could I please get a motion to approve the minutes from May 7th? I see Connie with a second from Lee. Is there any discussion? Okay, seeing Sorry. Seeing none, all in favor? Okay. Um any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay. Could I please get a
002motion to accept tonight's agenda? I see Matt with a second by Tony. Is there any discussion? Okay, all in favor? Okay. That's unanimous. This brings us to our first public comment period. We did not see anybody signed up wishing to address the board, but are there members of the public who wish to address the board? Okay. Seeing none, there will be another public comment period at the end. And this brings us to board committee reports. Are there any board committee reports? Tony? The Finance Committee met on um May 11th and uh discussed a number of things. Bobby provided his usual update on the budget process. We're in our ninth budget extender, latest budget since 2010. Again, we're we're ready for that, and and there's not a lot of there aren't a lot of variables that
003that can affect us even with this delayed budget, but we're we're mindful of it. The the key legislative items that Bobby felt were holding up the budget were some auto insurance reform issues and timing adjustments to climate legislation, which does affect us because he thinks that'll likely impact the timing of the rollout of the zero emission buses. Um noted that that both the Senate and the Assembly support a 2% foundation aid increase, so we're hopeful that that comes to fruition. We spent the bulk of the meeting talking about Bobby's recent call and annual call with S&P Global ratings agency. They're our our credit rating agency, and um Bobby spends quite a bit of time going through the district's financial outlook and planning with them, and the you know, the the resulting credit rating helps with
004the bonds we issue, and and the interest we pay. And so it's very important. We just like last year, we received just today AA+ credit rating, which is only AAA is higher than that. It's the second highest rating. It's exceptionally high for a school district. It's it's a good rating for a company, it's a good rating for a for cities and municipalities and counties which have more flexibility than school districts, but it's exceptional for a school district because we have less budgetary flexibility in the form of you know, pretty fixed revenue streams and non-negotiable or rarely negotiable cost structures. So, it it was noted by S&P that uh um school districts getting an AA+ is exceptional. Um we discussed the fact that the next two meetings that the auditors, the external auditors will or the
005next two times they'll come on site are June 11th and June 12th and that will complete the final on-site field work for our external audit for 25-26. Um Oh, no, I'm sorry. The the That's the second to last. They they they'll come back in August to complete the field work. So, that external audit is is ongoing and on time. Finally, the last thing we studied was the Bobby reported on the kickoff meeting for the fleet electrification study, the the bus fleet electrification study. CNS Engineers is going to assess our facility and operational needs. You you know this for transitioning to to an electric bus fleet. And so, we discussed that at the kickoff meeting happened. It's it's work is underway. Um we talked about the New York bus incentive program which we will take part
006in and which will offer incentives. This this program offers incentives of either 10 buses or 10% of your fleet, whichever is lower. In our case, 10 buses is lower. Um so, we will receive 10 free buses, electric buses from this program. Um it's still a far cry shy of the 113 we typically need for full uh, you know, full electrified fleet, but it's a start. Um, and uh, Bobby continues to lobby for um, raising the reimbursement rates for uh, for purchasing these buses to the same rate that we get for building aid uh, in the state. Um, the the rates right now are much lower and so it's a much heavier lift for us to uh, contemplate the other 93 buses that we need. Um, and then finally uh, we did discuss that the district
007is seeking quotes for uh, two and three million dollar policies um, for cyber insurance to augment the one million dollar policy we have through our through nicer our our insurer. This is something I've been pushing for the at least the investigation of it for the last year and and I'm happy to see that we're we're we're looking into that um, as cyber attacks get more and more prevalent and look some local examples, um, I think we need uh, a little more than the million dollar coverage that nicer gives us. And that's it. Thank you. Any other um, board committee reports? Lee? Not a board committee, but I have an update from the the district emergency response committee which um, Tony and I were able to attend um, the last meeting of the year on May
00814th. Um, so this was a um, a year in review, review things that um, policies, procedures, topics that we went over throughout the year. Talked a little bit about extreme heat condition procedures, um, and a little bit more about reviewing the district and building level state plan uh, the the plans. Um, uh, each individual building um, met and and talked about their their safety goals for the upcoming year. Um and that was the um the extent the the the crux of the meeting. So, this brings us to our last meeting of the year. I wanted to just thank everyone who's involved, especially uh Dave and Diane for their leadership in keeping our our students and uh everyone safe. Any other board committee reports? All right, our student members are not here tonight. Um so, that
009brings us to administrative reports. Great. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Uh just want to start off by thanking the entire Saratoga Springs community for their support yesterday uh in passing our annual budget as well as the bus bond proposition. Uh we are so appreciative of the continued support of our community in supporting public education here in Saratoga Springs. Uh also, congratulations to Beth Braxton, and Lauren Allen, and Anita Strabowski, uh who each earned uh 3-year terms uh starting on July 1st uh on the Board of Education. So, we're super excited to have Beth back again, and look forward to welcoming uh both Lauren and Anita. Uh we uh typically in the month of June invite our new board members to the board meetings. Uh and again, their terms officially start on July 1st. Um again,
010in July when we have our first organizational uh meeting of the school new school year. So, again, thank you very much uh to again all of our community members uh for your continued support of our school district. Uh just prior to tonight's meeting, uh we celebrated 29 uh retirees uh that will be at the end of the school year or during the previous school year. Uh since last June, we do have some folks that retired during the course of the school year. So, we were able to celebrate uh all of those um uh teachers and support staff and bus drivers and custodians and monitors and clerical staff, uh just a variety of folks who've uh dedicated their entire careers to serving our students and our school district. We want to thank them for their dedicated
011service and we wish them happy and healthy retirement. Also want to congratulate our music department K-12 for across the district for again, this is the several times in a row now being named the National Association of merchant music merchants. This is a national foundation recognizing Saratoga Springs as one of the best communities for music education in the country and so that is obviously to the credit of our music department and our teachers and our students and the parent support that we get throughout the course of the school year. So we always encourage folks that if you haven't had the chance, now's the time in the spring to get out and catch one of our spring concerts. This is always a fun and busy time of year as we head towards the end of the school
012year. And just recently just an incredible accomplishment. Congratulations to of our to two of our high school students who took home awards at the Proctors High School Musical Theater Award ceremony. And so two of our students, Max Mittler won the outstanding male lead performer for his role in Newsies and Max will now be representing Saratoga Springs heading to New York City to compete in the Jimmy Awards which is June 22nd. And also to Haley Hammer who won the outstanding female performer for Newsies as well. So awesome accomplishment. What an incredible achievement for our entire theater department and Bob Berenis for his leadership and again everybody who's involved um from the stage and the set and the crew and the orchestra, and again the tremendous parent support that our music theater group receives throughout the year.
013So, so we wish Max the best of luck. Just a tremendous opportunity for him to head to New York City and and compete at the highest level. Also to our transportation department, this these are some of the things that otherwise sometimes go unrecognized, but the New York State Department of Transportation just did a full inspection of our entire fleet. And just wanted to give a shout-out and congratulations to our transportation director Jerry Keenan. Several other mechanics that serve our district. Their inspection report passed at a 100% passing rate, which is just incredible for a district of our size that the inspectors come in and review all of our fleet, all the documentation behind the scenes, and this is a year-round effort in ensuring that our transportation fleet is we're getting our kids to and from
014school safely. And that we're in compliance with all laws and regulation. So, we just received notice yesterday that we received a score of 100% and so again congratulations to everybody in transportation who works so hard throughout the year. And then finally, just a wonderful tradition that's been in place here in Saratoga Springs for so many years. Our senior give back day is on June 11th this year. And so this is an opportunity for our seniors to give back to the community. So, when we have 480 kids out into the community, you know, providing community service, it's a lot of hands helping our agencies and nonprofits and other the community centers and they do a tremendous amount of work. It's great. The kids are willing to give up their time to give back to the community
015that obviously has served them so well prior to their graduation from high school. So So again, thank you to the faculty at the high school who helps get everybody organized and goes out and acts as chaperones for our students. But on June 11th, look for a lot of shovels and rakes and a lot of work that'll be getting done throughout the community from the class of 2026. So that's it for my updates. So we do have one formal presentation tonight. And again, I know the Board of Education really looks forward to this presentation each year and it's from our district equity, inclusion, and diversity committee. So I really want to thank all of the volunteers who serve on behalf of our district diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. We have folks who have been participating for
016many years and serving in a variety of roles and each year we welcome new members and again, the committee is open to anyone in the community who would like to participate and tonight's an opportunity to celebrate the wonderful work that our committee has accomplished over the last school year. So I'm going to turn it over to Michelle Whitley and she's going to kind of act as our master of ceremony tonight. That's a big task, Dr. Patton. Good evening, Board of Education. We are very proud to be here this evening to share with you some of the collaborative work that we have done this year in the district diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. You'll see that we have some representatives from the committee and we also have students from Maple Avenue School here with us tonight.
017So they will be the master of ceremonies or the masters of ceremony in training, right? So, the diversity and equity and inclusion committee works on action-based projects and we support the work that happens at the school level to ensure that we are constantly striving to embody the four tenets of culturally responsive sustaining education and you'll see that in the New York State graphic. We also have building equity leadership teams at each building and they will provide more information about the detailed work that happens in each building. As a district, we come back together on a monthly basis to talk about the work that we're doing across the district and that all focuses on providing a welcoming and a welcoming and affirming environment for all, high expectations and rigorous instruction, inclusive curriculum and assessment, and ongoing
018professional learning to support teachers. Well, all of these these four tenets are talked about throughout our buildings and throughout our district so we can support all students. Here you'll see that we have four district DEI subcommittees. The presentation is going to feature representatives from all of these committees and they're excited to share with you the work that has spanned throughout the school year. I'm honored at this time to introduce Rebecca Lynch, who's a parent in our community and a long-standing member of this committee. Very long-standing, Thank you. Um Okay, so I was on the welcoming and affirming environment subcommittee this year and our main goal is uh the culture and climate student surveys that are given and the last time this was done was spring 20 spring 2024. Um we do it try to do
019it every 2 years. So this year the survey was administered in March and we made a couple changes since we did it the last time. Um last time we gave it in two cohorts. We had grades 3 through 5 and then grades 6 through 12 all together. Uh this year we split it into three cohorts. Uh grades 3 through 5, grades 6 through 8, and grades 9 through 12 just so we could uh analyze the data a little easier and separate out the middle school from the high school. And we had a great uh turnout in terms of respondents to the respondents. So we had just over 900 students who completed the survey for elementary school. Uh we had over 1,000 students who completed it for the middle school and over 1,350 students for the
020high school. So we were really pleased to see that response rate that we had. Um we also made some additional changes to the questions based on feedback from the last survey. Um the all of the belt committees got the survey the results of the survey last time and uh gave their feedback on what they thought worked, what didn't, you know, what changes they might suggest. One of the main changes we did for the elementary age uh survey we changed two questions from I see people who look like me and I see people who look like me in the books that I read and we changed those to there are people who are like me because our assumption based on the responses we got last time is that kids were taking that very literally because they
021all said strongly disagree. And we're like they're looking at it like I don't have an identical twin at the school. I don't see a picture of myself in the books that I'm reading. So we wanted to see if we could kind of get at what we were asking in a way that they would understand a little bit better. Um and then the middle school and the high school it was actually it was the same questions for both uh for both of those surveys. One of the changes we made was to change the question so that the strongly agree and agree cat uh responses were always positive or what we wanted to always see whereas the strongly disagree and disagree were always negative. Whereas last time we did it it was some of them were good
022if it was strongly agree, some of them was bad if it was strongly agree. So this way it's just easier to uh understand the results. Um We added in school to some of the questions to make it more specific to the time spent in school. So rather than I feel like I belonged, it was I feel like I belonged in school. Just to try to get at the school culture and climate a little bit more. Um Some of the questions we updated to be more about the individual respondent and their experiences rather than what they felt were the experiences of the school community as a whole. So for example, there's a series of questions that previously said students at this school are teased or picked on about it was about their uh sexual identity, their
023gender identity, about their race, about their religion. And we changed it to I have not been teased or picked on. So to try to get more uh feedback on who how many students are experiencing this and what uh what demographics they they come from. So we're uh the other two we added two more questions this year to the survey that were new, and they were questions about restorative practices that had previously not been on the survey because since we did this 2 years ago, we have introduced a large number of restorative practices into each school building. So, trying to get at are these effective? Are students noticing them? Do they feel like they are positively contributing to the school environment? So, we asked if they've participated in any of the following restorative practices, and they
024could pick um multiple one or more options of community circles, greet at the door, quick check-in, brain break, or none. Um and the other question was I feel these restorative practice activities contribute to a positive culture and climate. So, we um the survey went out, we got the responses, we have started analyzing it as a subcommittee um very we've just begun the data analytics. There's a lot more to do uh but it will also get uh shared out to the building and equity leadership teams for them to analyze as well. And just a quick little note about that, I'm on the Division Street um Belt team, and for 2 years ago from the survey, there was a question about uh people at this school know about my traditions and beliefs or my family's traditions and
025beliefs, and it was pretty negative the responses. A lot of people either disagreed or strongly disagreed. And we uh implemented as part of the Belt what are the Belt projects, we brought back the Multicultural Fair at Division Street Fair where families could sign up and volunteer and have a table and share about their family's culture with crafts or food or projects art projects, and it's gotten a really great turnout. It's been a great experience, and we're excited to see if our our answers on that question are a little higher this year. [laughter] So, thank you very much. Thank you You so much. Okay. So, Hannah Rose. Thank you very much. Um yeah, I'm Hannah Rose Van Weely. I go by Hannah Rose. Um although most of my committee members are here tonight, Valerie and now
026Dr. Patton. So, feel free to jump in and correct me. [laughter] Um So, yeah, I'm here representing the family and community engagement subcommittee. Um and before I jump into our goals, I just wanted to offer a brief description of the subcommittee and what it does for some context. Um I have two points here. Um the first is that being the face of DEI to families and fostering connections there is not just meant to be in a metaphorical sense, but in a boots-on-the-ground uh literal sense as well. Um it was really lovely. One of our current committee members stated at the beginning of this year that she joined um specifically because of the outreach that the subcommittee made last year. Um so, there's a real tangible impact there. Um and the second point is that I
027would characterize our subcommittee as being incredibly generative. Nascent concepts concepts from last year influenced the development of a subcommittee this year and newly brought ideas this year have tangibly impacted the the registrar materials, which are distributed to families um incoming families. Furthermore, our committee has received suggestions from various parties, uh not just pertaining to the extent programs, but with new proposals and requests for problem-solving ideas. That being said, our subcommittee has had a high rate of turnover the past 3 years, making it difficult to provide a long longitudinal history and stability to nurture the ideas and the relationships formed between disparate communities across the school district. And for this reason, one of the proudest achievements that we've made, I personally believe in addition to meeting the goals that we set, was that we have a
028promise of continuity in our team for the 2026-2027 school year, allowing for the current members more to join. Hopefully, we would love that. But for us to be a continual and familiar face jumping right back in at the start of the school year next year. And that especially I think will be helpful for the first bullet point. So, one of the goals that we had this year was to meet with the six elementary school buildings and the middle school. The the groups that are comprised both the administrative, teaching, school communities, and the local community family and caregivers as well. So, the PTSO is the parent-teacher associations, PTA, parent-teacher Sorry. Parent-teacher School organization. Thank you. Yes. Parent-teacher associations and home-school association. That's what the those are. And in addition to that, our team also met with
029two different groups at the high school, the counselors to talk about the student ambassador program, and also met with the peer tutoring program whose club club members meet with care to support special needs students. Um And then in terms of explaining and promoting the current family mentorship program, for anyone who's unfamiliar with that program, it's where incoming families, families who are established here are connected. It's volunteer on both ends. And in going out to the individual schools, there it was clear that the communication styles are different at different schools, the types of communities that are extent there are different. Um so to hit the third point by being able to start right back up at the beginning of the school year next year being a familiar face helping to work from the beginning of the
030school year towards you know both promoting the current family mentorship program and helping to make it work with the individual communities and yeah, improving those situations there. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, as part of the strengthening communications and promoting resources subcommittee, our goals were to review and update the existing community resource guide that we had and um to include the DASSA form to make it more accessible and to update the district DEI website. So, with our community resource guide, we updated the info, we expanded some sections, we added some website links. It had been a couple of years, so some of the addresses and phone numbers were not accurate anymore, so we went and updated those. We organized the list and the sections within them to be more alphabetical order and um we also,
031you know, really expanded the immigration help and the and we added a BIPOC section. Um and then um we added the DACA reporting link onto the website. Um so it can be more available. And then with the DEI webpage, we um it used to have, you know, language that said, "Oh, new committee." And so it's been a few years, so we made it more evergreen. And um you know, to show the continuing work that um we are doing. And we added a section that celebrates the past subcommittee projects that we've done. So if anyone wants to know what all the DEI committee has worked on, you scroll to the bottom and there's a nice long list. Um and then it also lists the current subcommittees that are made and I I do like how every
032time we assess the subcommittees and we say, "Is there something we should do instead?" And so we try to keep it updated there. And then we also um added a list, a link to a resource that has a list of books that promote diversity and inclusion. Um so then people can, if they want to know more of how to, you know, talk to their kids about it or their classrooms, then they can go and find that resource there. So yeah, thank you so much for your support. Thank you so much. Next we have some of our students with us here this evening from Maple Avenue School and they're here to share their ideas about student voices. So we want to welcome Hannah, Layla, Maja, and McKenzie. Hi, my name is Lila McNab itch and I'm
033an eighth grader. I've been to all four student voices events. Um the first one was back when I was in fifth grade and it was held at the high school. Every year the student voices event gets even better. This year was hosted at Geyser Road Elementary and it was extremely successful. We estimated about 200 people showed up to support our students. Student voices event is an event where we get to showcase how we help our schools create a culture of belonging and share projects um that we have done with other schools to inspire them. Our student art in promotion for the event. Um students were involved in promoting the event. One of our students designed the flyer that was hung all around Geyser. And I designed the art for the program. Students made a commercial
034that went out on Parent Square and was posted on social media. Hi, my name is Hannah Sanicola and I'm in sixth grade. New this year at student voices was the move dancers. This is a group of neuro divergent students and other high school students who love to dance and perform together. Although the Geyser Road No Place Oh, also the Geyser Road No Place for Hate group put on an a performance about inclusion and door The Dorothy Nolan students did a great Harry Potter skit that taught the audience about how showing empathy can help a person change from using rude words to kind words. Even the principal participated and taught the audience the effect of rude and kind words. We had more student performances at this year's event which brought in more audience members and made
035the night even more fun. Hi, I'm McKenzie Bedard and I'm in eighth grade. I was on the student panel this year. Hannah and Layla were on it last year. The student panel had students from each level, elementary, middle, and high school on it. The purpose of the panel was to help elevate student voices and highlight the student perspective. New this year, we had a high school student MC to the event. She introduced each part of the program and asked the panel questions. We got to share out about how we get our voices heard at school, projects we've been involved in to help promote wellness, inclusion, diversity, and equity, and got to give advice to kids who are younger than us. I really enjoyed being able to share my views on topics that affect every student
036in every school and that are so crucial to discuss in our changing world. It felt really empowering to be able to give advice to people who may be struggling and to make a difference in their lives with my voice. My favorite question that was asked to me on the panel was, "What advice would you give to someone younger than you?" I answered this question with advice not to be afraid of change. Overall, it was a really fun and rewarding experience that I hope to participate in again in the future. Hi, I'm Maya Smeemo and I'm in eighth grade. I was also on the student panel this year. After the panel, the audience was invited to go visit school displays. Every school in our district had at least one display. The schools showcased school-wide projects, clubs,
037and programs that all support building a supportive and inclusive climate at the schools. Maple Avenue had a table for the student voices club, international club, pride club, and best buddies. In the gym, we had many community organizations come to show what they are all about. The community organizations that attended were Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park, Saratoga Children's Literacy League, Camp Stomping Ground, the Franklin Community Center, Saratoga Center for the Family, the Spa City Swingers, and Saratoga Pride. There were activities to do with a few of the community organizations. For example, there were many dance lessons with the Spa City Swingers, paper bouquet making with Wilton Wildlife, and posting about your superpower with Camp Stomping Ground. There was also a lot of cool swag that you could pick up. We are already planning for next year,
038and the next Student Voices event will be held on April 29th of 2027 at Caroline Street Elementary School. We hope to see you all there, and thank you so much for having us tonight. Thank you so much, Maya. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate it. That was our fourth annual Student Voices event, and like Maya said, we have already scheduled our fifth annual Student Voices event at Caroline School for next year. So, tonight was a snapshot of some of the work that our district equity and inclusion committee has been working on, and we're just proud to be able to get together and have these conversations and promote all of this positivity and change, and really support our student needs and what they're looking for. So, we appreciate your time tonight. Um, we're here to answer any questions.
039We also have a lot of committee members sitting in our audience that are here supporting us. So, if you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer those for you. Any questions from the board? Well, I will say I attended the Student Voices event, and I thought it was phenomenal. Um, it was really amazing to see how it has grown over time, um, and changed, and I really had such a wonderful time. Um, I was there with Beth, and also, um, we were there together. [laughter] Um, and I did get some very, very cool swag, including from the Kindness Club at Dorothy Nolan. That is a really awesome pencil that I got. Um, so, congratulations. I know that this committee works hard all year long and this is, you know, triumphant end to this year's
040work and I'm looking forward to see what you do next. We appreciate your support. Thank you so much. [applause] I would also just like to again take the opportunity to thank all of our community volunteers, our parents, our students. You know, we started the committee several years ago and what's awesome to see is that now it's really it it showcases student leadership and student engagement and student involvement. Uh, the student voices event obviously is our culminating activity, but uh, to have so many uh, teachers and support staff and parents and community members involved in and helping us, you know, create a safe, welcoming, inclusive environment for all students. There's just so many wonderful examples of of great things going on in the district to celebrate. So, uh, so again, it's always great to have our
041students here, the stars of the show, uh, but thank you to all of the parents and community members, teachers, and staff uh, who volunteer their important time to this community. To the committee. So, thank you very much. All right, now Now turn to the consent agenda. For those in attendance or watching, a consent agenda is a commonly used vehicle provided for by our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure that allows a board to vote on a large number of items in a single motion. Typically, these are business items associated with the everyday running of the schools and their inclusion in the agenda is the result of a great deal of prior work and care by the professionals of the district. There are, from time to time, business items that by law cannot be included in the
042consent agenda. And when this happens, we pull those out and vote on them separately. Consent agenda items are known to trustees and the public several days ahead of the business meeting on which they are considered so that board members have the chance to ask questions of discovery and do any advanced fact-finding that is part of their due diligence. Do we have any modifications tonight? We do, yes. Uh we have item G1, which is the adoption of the canvas of the vote. And so with that, I motion to approve tonight's consent agenda items E, F, and G in their entirety. Could I please get a second? Ashley, is there any discussion? Okay, seeing none, all in favor? That's unanimous. I do have some celebrations and recognition. So you the board you saw on tonight's agenda, there
043was a a number of new folks, teachers that were just appointed based on the recommendation of the superintendent. So we want to congratulate and welcome a number of new faculty and staff to Saratoga Springs. I want to introduce John Morris is here with us tonight, a familiar face, but John's going to be moving into a full-time special ed education teaching position at the high school. But you see there's a long list of folks that had just been appointed tonight. So I do want to thank Joe's here. Joe's in the back in his first year obviously leading the charge when it comes to recruitment and hiring efforts and also want to thank the principals and all the teachers who spent so much time on our building level interview teams making recommendations, you know, to our district
044level teams. Joe does an awesome job kind of facilitating and coordinating the process and gets a lot of help from Michelle and Danielle and Lisa and again the principals do do a tremendous job. So we are just so fortunate to have such a talented group of educators who will be joining us in the district and looking forward to our new teacher orientation program in August. We do have a few open positions that we're still recruiting for. So you will see in June the will be just a few more positions that we're looking to fill. And [clears throat] we did also the board just approved retirement for Dale Hammon who's one of our custodians at Lake Avenue Elementary School. So want to congratulate Mr. Hammon on his upcoming retirement and thank him for his service to
045the school district. Are there any members of the public who wish to address the board at this time? All right, that brings us to agenda planning. Do we have any agenda planning items? Seeing none, that brings us to board member comments. Are there any comments from members of the board? Matt. I just wanted to echo Mike's remarks about congratulating the music department on being named to another community What is it? Best community for music education. This is the third year in a row. Congratulations to Halley and Max for their their work in the high school musical. Um and I I really I really want to to to to thank all the music teachers. It's not just those in the high school who put on these incredible events, but really the the the heroes of of
046the music departments uh in the elementary programs who really uh instill in these students a love of music and an interest in music that whether or not they become performers will serve them the rest of their lives. Um as we were reminded today that culturally responsive education is is at the new heart of the portrait of a graduate. And music education checks so many of the boxes of culturally responsive education uh as well as the overall goals um of the portrait of a graduate. So, I hope as we move forward we continue to increase our support uh for music education not just as an extracurricular idea but as one that is truly central to the curriculum. Uh and you know, because we tend to focus and support those things which we can measure um I
047I would like to sort of flag that there are at the I think the chorus concert, the students talked about their NISM scores. Um these are these are scores like English and math scores that we can track and report out. At the board meeting, I would love to see that going forward. Um I really do think that music is going to become more and more critical to our curriculum and I think the board needs to focus on it to do that. Thank you. Any other comments? Connie? I just want to thank the presenters tonight uh for the presentation and the students that came to um teach us about what they've been working on. Thank you. Yes, and congratulations to all the retirees that we got to celebrate before this meeting. Um I also got the
048opportunity to attend the high school musical theater um awards and I had never attended this before and I just want to encourage my community to attend this. Um it was such an amazing event. I really didn't I guess I I expected to enjoy it, but I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. It's like our local Tony's um featuring the students from like Albany to Ticonderoga. It was really really incredible. Um and obviously we got to feel like that extra level of triumph celebrating Haley and Max. Um and you know, just seeing the joy around celebrating the theater. It was really really incredible and to see our high school students up on the Proctor's stage. I just really loved it and I've been telling everybody that they should absolutely attend in
049the future. Um our next board meeting will be on June 11th. Um for board members we have the 10-year reception at 6:15. Um for the public there is a public hearing for our code of conduct at 6:45 and then our business meeting will be at 7:00 p.m. Um and Mike, will that be in here again? Most likely. It'll most likely be in here, weather dependent. Um we'll have two presentations that night. So, it's counseling and student support services up date and then the curriculum and instructional renewal updates. Um this will also be the final meeting of the year with our student representatives who have done an excellent job this year and so we'll get to celebrate them as well. Um are there any other things from members of the board? Oh, Beth, I'm sorry. Oh,
050that's okay. Um just while we were uh recognizing things that have that have been happening recently, I attended the um or I would I visited the students who were having pictures taken at Hall's Springs for prom. Um and I just wanted to thank all of the teachers and all of the students who were involved in planning that event because it was first of all, it was a beautiful night. The weather was perfect and it's just clearly a very exciting time for our seniors and our juniors um to get dressed up and and just do something really special. Uh it was really fun to see everybody out and uh it it's just such a great time to see kids that you haven't seen in a long time who are all grown up and um it was
051really fun. So, thanks to everyone who uh helped with that being such a successful event. Could I please get a motion to enter into executive session to discuss the superintendent evaluation process? That's Tony and then a second by Connie. Any discussion? Okay, for members of the public, we will exit executive session and re-enter um public session, but we will not take any further actions. We will not take any further further votes. We will immediately exit that as well. Have a great night. I'm sorry. Could I please All [laughter] All in support? Okay, that's unanimous. Thank you.