001Get a motion to accept the minutes from December 11th, 2025. Okay, I see Ashley with a second from Beth. Any discussion? Okay, all in favor? Also unanimous. Thank you. Um, tonight we do not have a first public comment session. No one has signed up, but we will have a second public comment session after the meeting if anybody would like to address the board. And that brings us to our board committee reports. Are there any board committee reports? Tony, the finance and audit committee met on uh December 15th. We talked about a few things. Um first thing was the uh hiring of CNS engineers through the wish weis uh group to conduct a fleet electrification plan for us in conjunction with the um you know the initiative to to uh bring on uh electric buses. Um
002because we're going through Boseies, 75% of the cost will be covered. Uh and our our portion 25% portion will um only be $14,000. But this it'll be a soup to nuts kind of um study that'll uh talk about um it'll analyze utility needs um charging strategies, start to finish assessment for how to do it. Um and it's going to take about 8 to 10 months to complete. There'll be more information on that coming. Um Alvin Alejandro from Quest Arbosis, which is our internal auditor, reported on the 2425 internal audit. This was late. It it was just a sort of a best practices thing to have an in-person report out on an audit that already happened. The corrective action plans for that audit were already passed by this board and and have already been completed. So,
003this was just sort of checking that box. Um the observations uh were ver were minor and related to high school club raffles uh vending machine cash reconciliation and fuel billing verification. Um he noted uh that all prior audit observations had been addressed by the district including uh the ones in in this report. Um we discussed what the next the 2526 internal audit should look at. Um and uh among other options are payroll uh benefits and taxes. And then um we're also going to look at um possibly Medicaid billing to make sure we're uh maximizing billing for things like um special ed and and other areas covered by by Medicaid. Uh we did the annual sort of Bobby did the annual 30,000 view um look at the fund balance and reserve plan. This is something that
004we will will be finalized by the board uh in the coming weeks. Um and then finally, we ended Bobby reported on a few uh meetings he's attended um one related to federal legislation that has passed uh recently and changes to Medicaid and SNAP programs that that may result because of that um may have an impact on our community eligibility provision uh in in future years. So we want to keep an eye on that. Um and then finally uh there is increasing pressure on budgets uh because of recent legislation um at the federal level and the uh worry is that they will have a they may have an effect where they push um school districts ratings down and make it more costly to to raise funds for big projects. And so we wanted to make sure
005we're um keeping an eye on all of that. But um yeah, that was it. Thanks. >> Thank you, Lee. >> So, this was not a um BOE committee specifically, but I attended the district emergency response team meeting earlier this morning. Um it again was um attended by um folks across the district with representation from different um different schools. The focus of today's meeting was on stop the bleed and CPR refreshers. So it wasn't certification um but just a refresher for best practices um uh for for what to do in the events that um this type of action would be needed. uh we focused on um how to uh identify uh different uh uh situations uh where you would need to administer CPR, best practices for doing that on adult and children um as well as
006talked through um stop the bleed protocols um and best practices for for implementing that. So, a good refresher and um there are opportunities for folks to become certified through the district um and that's something that everyone should um think about attending. Thank you. Any other board committee reports? All right, seeing none, that brings us to our student member reports. Okay, so we received updates from five elementary schools and the high school for this week at Caroline Street Elementary School. They're excited to have their students back after the very long break that we had. On Tuesday, they had their incoming kindergarten meeting, which went very well. On Wednesday, third grade students had a special presentation called Science Chef Weather. And next week, fifth graders from all the schools will travel to the high school to participate
007in activities with the coralers at the high school. At Division Street, everyone was again enthusiastic about coming back to school. Next week, the students will begin their midyear I Ready assessments in reading and math and look forward to seeing the process they've made throughout the school year. They've completed the first section of Beyond the Bell and look forward to starting the next session after the midyear assessments are completed. And next week they will have a schoolwide interactive concert with the herd quintet and two dancers. The performance will include a slideshow and interactive elements such as movement dance, singing, rhythmic engagement, and audience participation. At Dorothy Nolan, students in grades kindergarten through fifth were excited to return from break um to the extensive gymnastics unit in PE. Many students are exploring what it's like to snowshoe
008thanks to a great collaboration with the Wilton Wildlife Program. Their fifth grade students are starting their work with the prevention council to understand that they are too good for drugs. Ski club is up and running for the season. Uh the kids enthusiasm must have helped bring in the latest snow into town. And lastly, Beyond the Bell Tutoring will start its second session next week at Geyser Road Elementary. They were visited by the Living Arts Collaborative from New York City. And they played two shows for them, which were a K through 2nd grade and third through fifth grade with the theme Golden inspired students to think about golden behaviors through music and favorite quotes. Next Friday, they will have a winter snowball dance from Lake Avenue. Their drama rehearsals have officially begun. They're excited for students
009to perform Mary Poppins Jr. in March. And the Beyond the Bell groups are completing their first session, and they're looking forward to starting session, too. The PTA organized a fifth MAD movie madness day for students on the upcoming half day. Students stayed at school to watch a movie, including a break for intermission with some popcorn popped by the Lake Avenue grands. And at the high school, they have welcomed the incoming 9th grade this week for academic information night. Students and families met with counselors and teachers to start planning the next step in their academic journey with Saratoga. Course adisement for grades 911 are occurring this week. Students will hear from their teachers about academic program progressions to start requesting courses for the 2627 school year. And the Hall of Distinction Committee is now accepting nominations
010to celebrate outstanding accomplishments of graduates from our district. Nominations are due February 20th. So they hope to spread the word through the community to submit nominees for the induction. Thank you. >> Thank you. That brings us to our administrative report. Well, welcome back everybody. Hope everybody had a wonderful holiday uh and a happy new year. Uh it was very nice to have the two weeks off uh again this year for our students and staff and uh it was exciting to welcome everybody back uh to school on Monday. Um want to thank everybody here at Maple Avenue, our administrative team, our custodians um and the staff that was here with us tonight for hosting tonight's board meeting. Uh the board had the opportunity to hear from our eighth grade student leaders uh and also the adviserss
011from a brand new program called sources of strength uh that is just kicking off here at Maple Avenue this year. So uh the students and the adviserss for sources of strength very excited to bring the student leadership opportunity uh to Maple. So we heard from our students uh and again uh just the wonderful leadership that they're providing uh helping to continue improve culture and climate uh of the of the students uh here in the building. Um so also want to promote a little bit on the hall of distinction. Sydney had mentioned that uh for the last few years we've been putting that out to the community. Uh and again, we have so many alumni from Saratoga Springs who've gone on just to do incredible things. Uh whether it's service back to the community or in
012their own professional lives or other ways uh that obviously they've used the experiences here as graduates of Saratoga Springs. Uh but we've been challenged to get nominations. Uh so really we're going to put out the effort um as as best that we can for the next two months to really encourage folks to think about uh neighbors, friends, family members, other folks that you know that are graduates of the school district that deserve uh you know the distinction of entering into our hall of distinction. Uh so again, we'll be promoting that out uh through uh Parents Square, through our our district staff, uh through our community newsletters, through the website. Uh and again, just encourage people uh that when you're around the table at dinner or you're out with friends, you know, thinking about, you know,
013who would be alumni of the school district uh that you think would earn uh have earned that type of uh of distinction. Uh just a few comments uh for from myself for tonight. Uh it's this time each year uh that our annual advocacy efforts uh with the all the 31 school districts in our Boseis region uh working in collaboration uh of uh with our local legislators uh that the state budget process negotiations starts in Albany typically in January and runs through the end of March. Uh so we have a list of 2026 legislative and budget priorities. uh that there's a committee uh of representatives from all the schools in our region and partnering with the boards of education in in our area. Uh and so just to give a a sense of the the few
014priorities uh that when we present these to the local legislators and we're down in Albany um uh advocating on behalf of the public schools not only in our region but across New York State. Uh Tony had mentioned uh zero emission buses and as school districts across the state, we recognize the importance of being part of this process to help reduce emissions uh for New York State and for our students in the future. Uh but there are some challenges with the current law uh that starting in 2027, all new school buses must be zero emission and then beginning in 2035, all school buses currently in operation uh then must be zero mission buses. So, uh, as you know, um, Tony mentioned that we've entered into a contract to begin our transportation electric electrifac how do you
015say that word? Electric electrification. That's a hard one for me. Um, a study um, again as to what that's going to look like uh, for the size of our fleet and for the distance that our buses travel. Um, but we know from conversations from all across the state that this has been a struggle for school districts. uh that the supply of buses as well as the infrastructure uh that's needed for this uh is a challenge. So there's been significant delays for districts who've uh put in um orders for delivery of buses and then the completion of the electrification and the fleet transition studies as Tony mentions can be up to a year uh just to get that information back to school district. So we are doing everything we can uh to work hard to meet
016the requirements. Uh but we need the partnerships. We need obviously the funding uh and again uh just the the collaboration through a variety of vendor participation and state support uh to make this uh a reality. So uh so that that obviously is one of the key components that really is impacting uh school districts all over across the state. Our other priority is is continuing on on funding uh to make sure to support financial planning at the district level and to asssure adequate funding across the state. uh to continue at a minimum to fully fund uh the current law of the foundation aid formula for the following school year and to adapt uh adopt adjustments because as you know the Rockefeller study we looked at the foundation aid formula and they made some uh tweaks last
017year uh to make sure that the foundation aid formula reflects the actual costs of the mandated services our school districts are required to provide uh reflects the limitations on our ability to generate rate local contributions under a tax cap uh and then uh reflecting the increases and and additional special ed costs. And uh you're going to hear from our PPS department tonight. Uh but one of the things that has gone into law is to fund uh FATE 22 where we have the obligation now to educate students through the year in which they turn 22. Um and so that has again uh required uh school districts to have resources set aside to uh make sure our our students needs are met. Uh another ongoing one is small group health insurance and again this is health insurance
018for uh employers that have less than 100 employees. Again this doesn't obviously impact Saratoga but we have some neighboring school districts uh that would fall into a category. There had been a waiver that had been extended through December 2028. Uh but we want to make sure that this recommend recommendation for small group health insurance coverage uh that those districts uh who would be considered exempt that couldn't participate in our consortium are uh are covered. And so uh again it's only a few years off but we want to keep that um keep that topic in mind. Uh workforce development is obviously such a cre a key area for all school districts. Uh like any employer, any field that you talk to, uh we're facing extreme workforce challenges. So whether it's teacher recruitment, administrator recruitment, bus drivers,
019support staff shortages, it just makes it increasingly more difficult to fully staff buildings. And so, you know, we've talked about in the past, what are some things that the state can do uh to help provide some flexibility around teacher certification, around uh professional requirements where we have folks moving in from out of state uh where they have teaching experience and so the reciprocity agreements with New York and other states or when we have folks who are mid-career who are interested and excited to enter into the teaching profession, how to use some of those career and life skills uh as part of their uh certification requirements. Uh the other big thing is to continue to align tier six retirement benefits more closely to those offered to tier three and tier four members. Uh allowing retirement age
020at 55 with 30 years of service. Again, for young professionals entering into the field, uh the tier six retirement benefits again uh are when you think long-term uh is quite a steep hill to climb uh for younger folks coming into the profession. And then finally, uh related to ongoing capital projects, this has been again one of our advocacy priorities in the past and uh this year uh again with the work that we've been doing as part of our legacy project. Each year the state allows capital outlay projects and so these can be up to $100,000 or less. Um and again buildings can receive uh building aid uh for a project the following year. Um but there's not a lot of projects that you can do for $100,000 anymore. It used to be uh this hasn't
021changed. I think since 2002 was when they set the formula for $100,000. So, for the last several years, districts have asked, hey, if you could raise that uh annual ongoing capital outlay to $250,000 for school districts, you know, when we talk about replacing windows, replacing doors, you know, just regular repair type of work that would be outside a capital project, uh that would be very helpful to to school districts. So, so some of these are reoccurring. Um and then others obviously are are more timely to uh related to the budget or to uh the zero emission bus mandate. So we have a legislative breakfast uh scheduled for Friday the 23rd. Uh Tony is going to be able to join that attend that with me this year. Is that correct? >> Yep. And we're up at
022the Southern Aderondic Education Center. Um and again representatives from all 31 schools in our region attend uh both superintendents and board members. and then our legislative uh elected officials from our entire region join us. Uh it's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our students, celebrate our schools and then begin the conversations, you know, outlining our advocacy priorities uh for the upcoming le legislative session. Um next thing just to give an update uh to the community and to the staff regarding our strategic planning process. uh really appreciate the incredible feedback that we've heard from the community over the last three months. Uh starting with our thought exchange survey back in October uh and then our in-person meetings with the board of education. Uh then we had about 60 members of our community with our students, our staff,
023our administrators, uh parents and community members uh that met for about five hours providing us with some some great feedback um on our existing pathways uh mission and vision and core values and some of the action plans um with a lot of information that we collected uh over the holiday break. Uh we gathered additional feedback from our leadership team uh and have presented a draft. So we've got a kind of a working draft right now uh that I've shared with the board. I've shared with some of our our our u administrative leadership just for their initial feedback and then our our goal would be the next step was to re-engage the 60 members uh that that came together to provide feedback uh on our our our strategic plan. Um right now uh the draft we've
024kind of renamed as pathways to excellence. uh so to kind of maintain the pathways uh uh verbiage that we've used over the last several years uh but again incorporate uh some of the uh new language that had been recommended u by uh the stakeholders that we've been interacting with. So, uh, I anticipate at our next board meeting, we're going to be able to present that draft, uh, to the public and to the board of education again for further feedback. And then our first meeting in February, uh if everybody uh feels it's at a spot that everyone's comfortable with, uh we'll ask the board uh to uh recommendation to adopt uh the new pathways to excellent excellence um strategic plan uh and then get that final document back out to the entire staff and to the
025community. Any questions from the board again about the process? Again, I appreciate all of your participation and feedback. So, you said it's your goal to get those 60 members back together. >> Not necessarily back physically together, but um after we receive initial feedback from the leadership team and from the board and I can update this first initial draft, I'd like to send that draft out to the 60 members for their review and their feedback. Um and then again hopefully in two weeks uh be able to present where we stand. Um, again, one more opportunity for any additional feedback and then our target was always the start of the second semester. So, if we stay on our timeline by by February, we could present the final um finished product to the board for your adoption. >>
026Sounds good. Thank you. >> Any other feedback on that? and and I just shared it out in the last two days. So I don't expect everybody has had a chance to go through it, but again I the everybody's uh voice and their feedback and their input is really um has proven extremely helpful. Um and then the last thing that I have on um my comments is next Thursday night uh is the Aderonic Area School Boards Association meeting and again this is our association for local school board members. Um, and every uh month or every other month, uh, representatives from our board of education, uh, represent Saratoga Springs at these, uh, dinner meetings. And this month, uh, Commissioner Betty Rosa, who's the commissioner of education for the New York State public, uh, New York State Education
027Department. Uh, she's going to be speaking on the New York State portrait of a graduate. Uh, so the learning standards uh, that are being rolled out um, from New York State. So, um, so it's a nice opportunity to hear directly from the commissioner of education, uh, in one of our local local meetings. So, we do have a few of our, uh, board representatives, uh, will be joining me on the 15th at the Queensbury Hotel to hear Commission Commissioner Rosa speak. That's all I have. So, tonight we have one uh, formal presentation. Uh, so really excited uh, to welcome and introduce our people services department uh, and under the direction of our director, Stacy Molton. and we got several members of our PPS team that are here tonight. Uh so I'll turn it over to Stacy.
028>> All right. Uh good evening and thank you for having us tonight. Uh my name is Stacy Molton. I'm the director of people services here and um and we're super excited to share some of our work with you. So, I like to start with this slide because it really shows all of the work uh that comes out of the office of people services. I think a lot of times people think of special education. Do we need to tap something before it goes out? Good. Okay. um think of uh special education um as the primary um work that comes out of PPS, which is true, but we do oversee a lot of uh really important uh areas. And something that I also uh like to say is that um while we all work really really hard
029in this district, uh those that work within people's services, in the buildings, in the offices are really some of the most dedicated compassionate and hardworking uh individuals that we have. So, um all of the folks that are presenting tonight, those that are here with me, I'll have them introduce themselves as they um they get started in the um the presentation over the last few years. Um I've shared this slide uh as a information um for you to see um the numbers of students that we are supporting and how we are seeing a consistent uh increase in those numbers um across the district. So preschool cse is the committee on special education and that's um students aged 5 through 22 um referrals. So those are the referrals to the committee on special education. 504s are 504
030plans. So students who have accommodation plans. Um BHSN is our behavioral health services north. Um that's our satellite mental health clinics that are housed within all of our buildings. Um and our McKenna Vento or or our homeless population of students. So you can see through the years um the numbers really kind of speak for themselves that there is a consistent um growth. Another piece that I'd like to say and emphasize at this time while our overall enrollment is declining we're continuing to see this need across all of our students. So, uh, Katie Supus and I go out, um, to all of our buildings and train an annual main mandated, uh, deescalation training. And when we do that, I have we have a slide that has a nice neat backpack on it that represents um the
031what students bring to school and those things that you can't see necessarily, some of those emotional pieces, the trauma, and all of those pieces. So if you look to the image to the far right of the slide, that's our proverbial backpack or briefcase if you will in that we are really trying to juggle a lot of things to meet the needs of many students in the best most supportive way possible. Um so it's really it's a team effort. Um but it really is something that we we really strive um for the individual and success of all of our students. So last year when we met, we met in um February and we had Job and his team from Measurements Inc. come and they talked about the educational review uh that we had conducted uh with
032regard to MTSS and special education. So, with MTSS, um, we have been working really closely with Lisa and Michelle and Danielle and Abby and a series of stakeholders to really look at the recommendations, um, for our tiers um, tiered systems of supports uh, and the operations manual specifically, and you'll hear more about that at another time. But for this evening, we're really going to focus on the special education aspect of it. So, we're always looking at our continuum of services and the supports that we deliver um for our students um especially during this time of the year as we're looking into budget um times and and the needs. So, I'm going to turn it over to Bethany and she'll talk to you a little bit about some of the work that we're doing at the
033elementary level. >> Good evening. I'm Beth Nightingale. Just like I'm a singer. Good evening. Good evening. Um, good evening. I'm Bethany Nightingale, coordinator of preschool elementary education. Nice to see you all tonight. So, um, keeping these recommendations in mind, as Stacy mentioned, part of our annual review process, we evaluate the needs of every building and program ongoing. um as she had previously shared overall enrollment has declined while the number of students thank you receiving special education services and the complexity of their needs has increased. Um in response to this growing need we convened an elementary special education task force last year to review student progress and programming. Based on the task force findings, we made several adjustments to our elementary continuum of services for this current school year. Some of these re recommendations are outlined
034here on this slide. Um, specifically integrated co-e um it was adjusted from grades K through three to K through two um with direct consultant teacher um being added at that grade three. In addition, we added resource room for grades two and three and with flexibility to provide reading resource in grades three through five. That is for kiddos that demonstrate significant reading um delays. In response to increased kindergarten needs, we um increased our teaching assistant to support the kindergarten classrooms full day. Um and they were a half day in the previous year. Additionally, based on the task force findings and growing student need, an additional K1 readiness classroom was established at Caroline Street. Um it's in continuum of our special class offerings. We recognize the importance and value of our aids um and our TAs. They
035play a critical ongoing role with all of our kids. Um they have meaningful impact in all of their lives on a daily basis. So we are always seeking opportunities to strengthen the skill sets that they have um and support their growth and professional learning. So this year um we looked we created an elementary aid and TA handbook. Um well it was updated from the handbook that we had prior. Um providing greater clarity around building operations, curriculum, instructional strategies and really just to help enhance their skill set as they walked in and there was turnover in those positions. Um we also provide ongoing professional development for the elementary aids and TAs. This occurs monthly where we all get together. The topics that are focused on are things that they generated in a September meeting. So they
036wrote them down, things that they wanted to learn about. So those are things that we embark on. As we enter the budget season, we'll continue to review student needs and evaluate current programming options informed by the recommendations of the elementary task force. Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Rob. Hi, good evening. My name is Rob Kelly. I'm the district coordinator for special education here at Maple. I also support students and families that attend the Boseies program um as well as the approved private day programs in our area K through 8. And I also work with students in the non-public schools that are at St. Clemens, Waldorf, Saratoga Independent School, and Spa Catholic. So, we appreciate the board's time and support and the work that we do and the students that we work
037with. I want to share some specific work that we're doing here at Maple Avenue Middle School. At Maple, we've been working on strengthening our special education programs and services grades 6 through 8. After receiving feedback from the Measurements, Inc. report, we went into action in September of this year. All Maple Avenue Middle School staff were given a special education survey and they shared valuable information that we worked from. 76 um you know surveys were actually um you know were participated in out of about 200 staff which is still a good amount of people. Um Stacy and I then set up a task force of 20 Maple Avenue staff members that included teachers from across all areas, grades 6 through 8, uh teaching assistants and teacher aids. So, we had a well-rounded uh group of members
038who were actively involved in meetings after school from October to December of this school year and they contributed uh on ways to improve student supports and we discussed ways to meet students needs as we move forward. Our work is ongoing and we are focusing on three areas. We'll be working together from January to March in subgroups to update our program descriptions and learner characteristics at Maple, strengthening our professional development and training on social and emotional needs and supporting our counselors and scheduling at Maple Avenue Middle School. I do want to commend the task force that we put together here for all of their hard work, their commitment to teaching and learning and ways to support our programs here at Maple. So, to continue this presentation, I'm going to give this back to Stacy and she's
039going to share other work that our people department is doing to support our students, staff, and family. Thank you. >> All right. So, I think it's really important. Um, I talk about all of the serious and hard work that we do, but so taking some time to really celebrate some of the things that we do. Uh, there's so many so many great things that we um our students achieve, our staff achieve. Um, so I'm going to uh turn it over to Katie Sup kick it off. Good evening. My name is Katie Subas and I'm the behavioral coach for the elementary schools. So, first I want to thank the board and every educator in Saratoga Springs that has supported our work to support students with behavioral challenges. Without collaboration and partnership, the success of this role
040would not be possible. So, this is my third year as the K through five behavioral coach. And to gain access to the behavioral coach, staff requests support using an online form. And this form helps promote critical thinking and inquiry regarding why a student may be having a difficult time meeting classroom expectations. In addition to the form, I've implemented a schedule that puts me in every building for at least a half day each week. Being the school being in the schools at predictable times has increased staff access and improve timely problem solving, reducing staff and student frustration. After I receive a request, an observation is conducted and a meeting may occur to establish one to three behavioral goals. An intervention or set of supports is implemented by the students classroom teacher or team. Data is collected
041and reviewed to determine if a student is making adequate progress towards their goals. Student input and opinions are valued throughout this process and changes are made to meet student needs. As a result of this process, students and staff are gaining skills, strategies, and competencies to help all students be successful. I have observed staff applying strategies, data charts, or behavioral interventions to students with similar challenges prior to our first observation or meeting. So, let's celebrate that. 31% of the requests have been discontinued this school year because teams are demonstrating improved competencies. Students are transferring to more supportive placements. Students are utilizing strategies and techniques or they have additional special education services for students who do require more involvement. Teams receive support at least every four to six weeks with ongoing discussions throughout to ensure fidelity of
042interventions, implementation, and data collection. So, thank you for the support in this role. All right. Operation Graduation. I'm sure you've all heard of it so far, but it was really um a project that I took uh a lot of initiative in and a lot of pride in, and I honestly couldn't be prouder of the students and the staff um within the program. I know that you've heard that we had com um 15 of the 15 students successfully graduate last year. So, it's really just uh an awesome um program. So, we are in our second year of the program and it really is uh a program that focuses on a different approach to education for students to allow for more flexibility with their schedules and scheduling their class selections and grading. So, operation graduation is that
043it's the OG. It's our main goal is to get students through graduation. So, I have a clip of some students currently um enrolled who are going to share a little bit of about why this program is um so good for them. Do I just >> I love because has made it a lot easier to come to school and be present with my school. I love OG because of the schedule and makes it very efficient for me and my school work to get done. >> I love LG because of all the opportunities we get for preparing for the future. >> I love OG because of the community we have here. I love OG because all the teachers are very useful. >> I love because they help me improve my grades. I love OG because I had
044really bad grades in attendance before this and I got twice >> because there's a really good sense of team building and community here and it's very tight. >> Uh so thank you. Honestly, I couldn't be more proud of the work and the students and um their attendance and what they're doing to um to make education a priority. It really changes the trajectory of their life having a diploma. Um so um those 15 students from last year um a couple of them have come back and given some Dunkin Donuts and brought some treats in for the teachers and the the um kids that are currently um in the program to say like this was great. This really changed my life. So, it's been a really um positive uh uh program. >> Hi, my name is Diane
045Davis and this is my 16th year in the district as the homeless liaison. The Department of Education's definition of homeless is defined by the federal McKini Vento Act, which is broader than the HUD definition of homeless. So a lot of times people think of the HUD definition of homeless as people who are unhoused and when we talk about homeless and when you see the numbers there that's really a broader definition that's comes from the department of education and that that definition includes students who are temporarily doubled up living in motel and campgrounds and shelters. So the majority of our families that are homeless are living in situations that are doubled up. They may have lost their housing. They may be living um in grandma's living room. Mom sleeps on the couch. kids are sleeping on
046air mattresses on the floor, situations such as those where they're really walking on eggshells, they don't know if they're going to be kicked out, those kinds of things. So, that's what we look at when we when we're considering homeless for our purposes because sometimes people get confused um about what that really means. So, because our district consistently has over a hundred students a year who do qualify for McKinto support, we are eligible to apply for a competitive grant through state ed. And the grant runs on a three-year cycle and it's used to fund activities that are above and beyond the mandates of the liaison supports. So in September, we learned that we we did receive funding for this three-year cycle. This is the fifth time that I have been involved with writing the McKenna grant
047and we have been successful for the last five cycles. neighboring districts um such as Boston Spa, South Colony, Albany City Schools and and wish we both they have the high numbers as well and they have applied but they did not get funding this cycle. So that just really shows how competitive it is and it's definitely something that we don't take for granted. So the the other thing that I want to mention is that in addition to the grant funding, um we're lucky enough to have the relationship with Skidmore College and their Skidmore Cares program and annually they help us out with donations. And so I just really want to thank them for the generous donations that they give us um that they've given us throughout the years because those are really valuable in terms of
048helping the families we support. Um I know I got some donations today and so that will appear on the next uh board agenda. So big thank you to to Skidmore for their support as well. Thank you. I'm gonna turn it over to Mary Alice Hipwell. Okay. I'm hoping that video works. Okay. Good evening everyone. I am Mary Alice Hipwell. I am the coordinator for special education at the high school level and for our grades 9 through 12 out of district place students. I'm excited to share a little bit about our care program this evening. Our care program is designed to prepare our high school students for success in their careers and their lives beyond high school. Care is built on three levels. So you can see the acronym C A R E. So the O
049A is awareness. It's when students are being introduced to employability and those soft skills. Whereas the next level is readiness. Readiness is helping the students build careers right in the school setting. The experience level is providing real world experiences and opportunities right in our community. So through these partnerships both students and our local businesses benefit creating a stronger and more connected workforce in the future or for the future. and I would like to introduce you to Millie, but unfortunately she was not able to be here in person. So, we did provide a video for you. Uh Millie um wants to reflect on how important the care program has been to her. So, let's take a moment and hear from Millie. Hopefully, this video works. Okay. Just Yep. Okay. I am working at many businesses in
050San I helping staff and peers with task and different business My favorite job is courtyard. I enjoy working in the laundry room houseep keepers and housekeeping task. Some other business skills I'm learning are taking care of laundry and to get a job at a hotel or in retail. My goals are to have a job and have my own apartment. I appreciate your time and the opportunity to be in this class. All right. Any questions? questions from the board. I have one. Um well, first of all, thank you for the presentation. It's one of my favorite every year. Um I am curious um just about the decision to transition from the ICT to the DCT for third grade. A couple years ago, we had a fantastic presentation about ICT and um my kid was in a
051classroom that was ICT for three years. >> Um and I'm just curious about like why why that transition. >> Yeah. So um and correct me if I'm wrong. Um when we met as a committee, we really looked at the continuum as a whole and there was a pocket of students that were struggling with uh literacy. So time, there's only so much time in the day for some of those students. So, it was the thought was by having students have um a smaller chunk of time or that DCT chunk of time with the two teachers that would allow for some additional support for students to have the reading resource um as as an additional support for them in that time. >> And the other reason also was to incorporate resource room itself with the third grade.
052As kids got up to third grade, we were hearing more of the academic struggles. So with ICT, they're in the class, they can do um you know, a variety of different teaching styles, including pulling the kiddos off to the side, but there wasn't that time for some of that um additional reteing, pre-teaching, those pieces. So that added that piece where they could pull them out and have that resource as well. >> I mean, that makes sense to me. Second to third grade is a huge transition. So, okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> Can I go? Sorry, this microphone is my arch enemy. Um, I don't think it's any secret that I'm a special educator. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all you're doing. Um, and Millie right there, like that's that's what
053it's all about. Um, so thank you for creating those pathways and those programs for kiddos that might not otherwise have opportunities. And I just I really appreciate all you're doing and thinking about the continuum of services. just curious like is that bringing down our out of district like are we as we strengthen our continuum of services like are our out of district placements coming down and like are we able to service more kiddos like I think about these programs and they are really outside the box which is awesome >> I think over the years absolutely um you know the the care program has changed we created it um Mike said hey we're sending all of these students to Boseies what can we do here and I created the acronym thinking in a couple of months
054I have annual reviews. What are we going to do? So, let's call it this and this is how we'll do it. And we kind of put that together. So, I do think yes, um we're we're able to educate more of our own students here within the district. And the other thing is there's not a lot of out of district placement. Yeah. They don't exist out there. Well, thank you. Because listening to her talk about what she wants to do for her career. >> Yeah. That's what it's all about. too is when we actually have schools come to look at our students for potential out of district placements, they say, "We can't do it better than you're doing it." So, you know, it's great. Um, but yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um, yes. Thank you so much
055for all of the good work that you're doing. you know, um, students don't fit into nice clean boxes in terms of their learning needs, and it's really wonderful to see the commitment of all of you to to meet those needs in really creative and effective ways. So, that's wonderful. Thank you. Um, I am wondering about the capacity for operation graduation. I mean, clearly this is a really powerful program that's working. um what is our capacity and is there a process to evaluate whether or not we need to modify that like are there are there more students out there who would benefit from operation graduation? Do we have space for them in the current structure? Um or is that something that you guys are evaluating? >> So this year we actually have a few more students
056than we had last year. Um it's something that we are ongoing um the evaluation of it. If a student is struggling at this point in the year, a counselor could make a referral and we could have a student um go into it. Again, it's not a special class, so there's not a true um guidelines around um regulatory ratios. Um, we want to purposely keep the classroom smallish um with a tight-knit community and as long as we have the seats and we're able to have that and the students fit in well um we have no problem accepting those students. I do think that again this is first hopefully of um several um alternative programs that will develop over the course of time. It's a passion of mine again trying to look at equity um meeting the
057needs of all students um and what does that mean and again not just for special education again that's a large part of what we do I do but for more um than that so many of our students um in OG are not special education students um so um they just have had a series of life events or you know different struggles um that have made attendance or um you know just graduation in general a barrier. We've also um done some work to have um students um be able to sit for what's called the NTI or the 21st century exam. So exploring the ability for them to um receive the CEDOS credential um through the option two pathway um to help them also if they are special education um achieve a diploma. Tony. >> Um, yeah,
058I don't I don't know if this question is uh fair or even answerable. Um, but you know, your students your your department is so critical and your students needs are, as has been demonstrated by you and in other um uh presentations we've had in the last year, the the needs are growing so rapidly. Are you able to put a um put a sentence down as term in terms of what is your most critical need? What like on on a wish list level thinking pie in the sky? What would you what would you like in next year's budget or in next year's you know things? What where's your biggest deficit? What what would fill the biggest gap for you? >> Yeah. And right now we are working through the budget process of creating some different um
059uh uh you know uh options to look at you. We're always looking at the data. So I share that one slide with you with the data. We have that um school by school, program by program so that we can really break it down trying to again um knowing that there's no one box for that fits every student. what how many different types of boxes and how can we shape them or maybe change the lid on it to maybe help you know another student kind of fit into it type of scenario. Um I think staffing in general has been an issue um whether it's um finding and recruiting uh staff that are teaching assistants and aids. Um, you know, again, the work that we do is is hard and I think, you know, the the stress
060and with those being TCIS trained, I think is another component. And we're training the staff, but again, there's a fair amount of burnout and that's a lot of responsibility for for folks. Um, you know, I think keeping Katie Suprol is uh a critical um uh component for the success of our elementary programs. Um, so, you know, it's something that we're always looking at and trying to think creatively with what we have. You know, I say that the continuum of services is only as good as um it is for the students that you have now. It can't be static. Um, you know, what was here 10 years ago when I got here is vastly different than um the continuum that we currently have. Um, and I think, you know, we have a really robust continuum, but
061there's always areas that we can look to strengthen as well. >> Connie, uh, congratulations on all of your accolades. The, um, the McKini Vento award is a big one, uh, for sure. And just the great work. I love the videos of the kids, so thank you for sharing that. Um, I just have one question. I'm looking at your responsibilities chart like your first slide and that is quite quite a lot. >> Um >> I'm just curious about I guess we heard about most of this but like how how are the nurses doing >> like do you have any anything to report there? the nurses. We are fully staffed with nurses uh in all of our buildings and we have hired a few new um new nurses this year in a couple of our buildings and
062they have been great uh additions to our work. Um we still have some shortages with subbing. um you know and it kind of depends on on the day um you know the availability but you know Deb is um the nurse supervisor is um now able to go out and we're starting to get back to um doing some of the screenings and some of our mandated things that we kind of have had to let go a little bit um because we just didn't have the staffing to complete some of those over the last couple of years. Um, so she's been out in the buildings with um, uh, one of our new LPNs. Um, you know, doing all of that. So, they're doing really, really well. Um, they're a great group of ladies. And again, when I
063said, you know, truly >> PPS, I mean PPS, like that's why I list that like everyone that we work with um, really puts their heart and soul into everything that we do. Um, >> it's an amazing group. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Ashley, just one more thing. Diane, thank you. I know Connie just mentioned the grant and I think oftentimes people think of Saratoga Springs and there's not an awareness of so many students that are displaced and don't have housing. So, it's such ultimately important work and thank you for your hard work there for 16 years. >> Well, just for an example, I didn't mention I probably should have mentioned it before. Monday, she's like, "Okay, let's lock in your numbers." I have eight new kids since Monday. you know, so you never you never
064know. It's, you know, when >> things change so quickly for these. >> Thank you. >> And it was amazing and again truly a celebration to get that grant because um one of my best friends is the director down in Albany and she's like, "Where is that?" Like, "How did you do that?" you know, um, and we >> we got Diane >> Diane listened and, you know, when we had all of the grant writing um, seminars, she and I went and we sat and she's like, I think this is what we need to do and this is how we need to listen to the key words. And I said, okay, we'll listen to the keywords and we wrote it as um, they had put out there. So, >> and I think back to Jerry's presentation a
065few weeks ago in transportation and just watching how it's all coming together and Thank you. >> Well, I mean, I literally speak with transportation every day. >> I believe it. Yeah, a few times. Yeah. >> Well, I'd just like to thank tonight's uh presenters for their wonderful job, but also to like Stacey says, so many people that work so hard every day, our teacher aids and teaching assistants, all the special ed teachers across the district, our student support providers who push into classrooms to provide support, and then the building administrators and district administrators. It it really is it's it's a total team effort. Um, and again, the challenges continue to grow every year with the needs that kids bring and the support that, you know, our team provides to our students and families. And so,
066um, you know, we continue to put our best foot forward and make sure that we're providing as much support as we can, uh, as those needs continue to grow. So, um, but I just want to thank you for awesome job, great presentation, uh, and pass along the great work that the entire, uh, district team is doing. Thank you. And that's it for presentations. Now we 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
067work and care by the professionals of the district. There are from time to time business items that by law cannot be included in a consent 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 factf finding that is part of their due diligence process. Do we have any modifications to the consent agenda? >> We do not. So I move to approve tonight's consent agenda items E F and G in their entirety. Is there a second? Okay, Connie, any discussion? Okay, all in favor? That's unanimous. >> I just have some recognitions here. So, uh
068in the agenda, uh under personnel, uh we have eight additional teacher uh retirement res uh uh recognitions. So uh the board has just accept the resignation uh of these eight individuals for the purposes of retirement with appreciation uh and regret and uh thank them for their dedicated service to our children and to the school district uh for their entire uh teaching career. So uh the eight teacher retirements uh these are all effective June 30th of 2026 at the end of the school year. Uh Michelle Baldani, one of our sixth grade teachers here at Maple Lav. Katarina Katarina Ballentine, elementary teacher at Dorothy Nolan. Uh Robin Chudy, math teacher at the high school. Uh Lorie Feld House, special education teacher at the high school. Uh Diane Gail, special ed education teacher at the high school. Uh
069Kimberly McGee, math teacher at the high school. Uh Carrie Morris, uh sixth grade teacher here at Maple A. And Lisa Quinn, uh special education teacher, uh at the high school. So, congratulations uh to all of these eight additional uh retirees on their upcoming um retirements at the end of the school year. This brings us to the second public comment period. Is there anybody who wishes to address the board? Okay, seeing no one, we move on to agenda planning. Do any board members have any agenda planning items? Seeing none, uh board member comments. Do any board members have comments tonight? >> Tony, >> um I'd just like to thank the uh the folks and groups who made donations. Uh first is the Division Street PTA. Um thank you for $500 worth of electric pianos for the
070music department. um Racing City Track Club for uh help getting the cross country team uh trip to uh Pikipsy. Um and thanks to um Kate Spectre uh K through5 art teacher at at uh Division Street and DN uh for donating a 3D printer. >> Yes, thank you Beth. It has been mentioned already, but I think it's worth recognizing again the amazing uh presentation that we had from Melissa Conurs and the students um from Sources of Strength. What an incredible uh program that that is. um the dedication and energy of the adults and the administration, teachers, the folks that are involved in kind of guiding and creating that opportunity for the students and then the students themselves. It was really impressive and I believe it will have an incredibly positive impact on the culture of uh
071Maple Avenue and then I think just the skills that the students are picking up, they will carry that with them into the high school um and beyond. So, I'm really proud of us as a district to support that and I'm really excited to see where it goes. Any other board member comments? All right. Our next meeting is on January 22nd at 7 PM at the high school. I did want to clarify, is that in the teaching auditorium, Mike? will be back in the teaching auditorium pretty much for the majority of the spring. >> Great. Um the presentation that night will be the budget outlook and annual staffing meeting and there will also be a pre-budget forecast. Um could I get a motion to adjurnn the meeting? Connie and a second from Ashley. Any discussion? Okay.
072All in favor?