001Try not to repeat speakers. This opens the first public comment period. Each speaker is allotted a maximum of three minutes. And before you address the board, please clearly state your name. And the first three slots are reserved for students. And so first up is Griffin Speckler. Good good evening board uh members of the board of education. I'm Griffin Spler. Put your phone under the speaker. All right. Good evening, members of the board of education. I'm Griffin Spikler, president of Club America Saratoga Springs High School. It is my understanding that you will be voting tonight to officially approve our club. Many students need a a nonpartisan civics club where where they can learn about the American values that the founding fathers held. It is a different perspective on America that needs to be shared and represented
002in the school community. Some of our goals as a club America chapter will be to unite students of all backgrounds who love America and encourage students to be upstanding American citizens. Student members will learn about limited government, free market economy, and their constitutional rights and responsibilities as American citizens. Also, Club America will equip students with strong critical thinking skills and the knowledge of the challenges facing young adults today. They will be encouraged to form their own opinion on understanding. They will be encouraged to form their own opinion with an understanding that they have a right to form and hold their own beliefs. Some important things that we will learn about are the pros and con of cons of college and how taxes will affect them. These valuable skills will be tremendously beneficial for students now
003and in the future. Thank you for for your consideration. I hope you will agree with me. Thank you. Right. We have another student, Parker Mansfield. Hello board. My name is Parker Mansfield. I'm a junior representative in the student council at Saratoga Springs High School. I've come to speak with you today regarding the district's reliance on my school books and several changes student council. Several challenges student council has encountered while using the the pro the platform. Excuse me. Primarily, My School Books makes online transactions disproportionately costly for families. My School Books charges a 4.9% processing fee to every transaction, which is significantly higher than alternative forms of online payment. For example, student council lost almost $3 per person on online prom tickets last year, a fact that almost caused last year's class to not be able
004to fund the prom. Furthermore, approximately 68% of students bought their prom ticket online via my school bucks, even at a higher cost than inerson payment. This percentage likely would have been greater had the online cost been the same as paying a person. Whichever way you slice it, My School Bucks is causing thousands of dollars of students and parents money to go to the H Heartland Corporation, My School Bucks parent company, instead of the school community each year. Additionally, the current my schoolbook system does not allow in-person payment with cards. This limits clubs as students clubs such as student council to only accept cash for in-person transactions. Lack of the ability to accept card payments severely limits the amount of in-person fundraising ability of student council as 81% of shoppers prefer to pay with ca cards
005over cash and shoppers spend up to four times as much when they pay with credit cards instead of cash according to Capital One shopping research. In other words, the inability to accept cards is out of touch with the current consumer behavior and creates a barrier for students who want to participate in school events. To address these challenge challenges, I would like to offer two proposals. Firstly, allow student council to have a bank account at Adorandic Bank separate to the already existing high school club account. Among the high school clubs, student council makes the most transactions. Having a dedicated account would enable student council to take payments that use cards by directly depositing money into an account. Second, I propose that the district expand the existing student ID payment system beyond cafeteria purchases. Allowing students to
006use their ID to pay at school events would consolidate school related payments into a single familiar platform. Extending this system would streamline transactions, reduce costs for families, and improve the fundraising capability of student organizations. To conclude, changing Saratoga Springs School District's payment system to be more modern, accessible, and consolidated would improve the fundraising ability of student council and other school clubs. These changes would keep more money within our school community, increase accessibility for families, and strengthen the ability of clubs to fund the activities that enrich student life. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay, Alexandra Fillian, I'm sorry if I mispronounced your last name. Good evening, distinguished members of the board. My name is Alexander Fyion, and today I'd like to talk to you about the approval of Club America. Griffin covered most of
007it pretty well, so I'd like to specifically talk about the dichotomy between us and the pre-existing Teen Republicans. So, first off, I feel that we'd be a lot more involved in the school than Teen Republicans would. They do a great job of providing an in-class time to just talk and discuss how they feel about current political issues. But at the school level, we would be doing activities provided by Turning Point, such as Flag the Classroom. And we'd be more involved in the community as well. I have done some research into a program called K9 for Warriors. We could raise money through a fundraiser, support the veterans with PTSD, get them service dogs. We're also more involved on a national level. There's America Fest and the Student Action Summit which are conferences in which we can
008all be involved in. I feel like we'd be doing more to carry out Charlie Kirk's vision. As well as that, we're a lot more organized. We do have the weekly um supplies given by Turning Point, the weekly plans. There's a lot of reps from Turning Point that would come and speak to us. We have workshops on debate and leadership to improve better debate skills. Do roleplay situations. Have mock trials. We could potentially even work with a debate club to make something happen. I feel like this would be a very good opportunity because not only does it teach students about politics and educate them, it teach students how to be leaders and go out and do something, be activists. Thank you for your time and I hope you consider my proposal. Thank you. Okay, next we
009have Earl Wallace. Hello, my name is Earl Wallace and I'm pastor of Liberty Christian Fellowship Church and I'm here to uh advocate for Western civilization and that we begin to teach it in our schools. I'm a former uh Saratoga Springs High School English teacher who had 92 to 95% of my students passing regent exams each year. There are ten commandments and there are 10 bill of rights. And the ten commandments enumerate what God calls our inalienable rights which are referenced in the Declaration of Independence. For instance, when God says, "Thou shalt not murder," he's saying everybody has a right not to be murdered, lied to, stolen from, sexually molested, sexually confused. And the Bill of Rights are designed to compel people in government to treat we the people according to the Ten Commandments. For instance,
010in Ten Commandment number six, God gives us all the right not to be murdered. So the founding fathers gave us the second amendment to bear arms to keep ourselves from being murdered either by private citizens or people who want to uh form a militia or or a pseudo force and come after us. My neighbors might hear someone attacking me in my home. They may call the police, but even if the police come, the firing is already stopped. One of my um Army Reserve mates was a resource officer here at Saratoga High when we had the debate about whether or not he should be carrying a weapon. You can't form uh pre pre-existing you can't form pre-responses to unusual circumstances. If somebody's going to attack someone, you don't know how they're going to do it. You
011don't know what hallway they're going to go down. But that's a whole another debate. I'm here to advocate for Western civilization. On the top of the Supreme Court building is Moses holding the Ten Commandments. There are ten commandments and they each represent our inalienable rights not to be murdered, lied to, stolen from. In biblical Christianity, there's no forced conversions as there is in many other religions. I wrote a book called the three-dimensional leader, negotiating your mission, resources, and context. And I've taught it on four continents. I've taught it in Muslim countries. I have a video of a mo of a woman in Saudi Arabia being beheaded in broad daylight in a parking lot. The king's she did something against the religion and the king's forces uh brought her to the swordwilling imams in the square.
012When we teach jihadists have taugh told me this overseas when you teach Islamic concepts in our schools you are making pledges that Islamists feel they have the right to give you corporate punishment if you don't follow through with it. And that includes going out in the street to bow down and pray. I'm advocating for Western civilization. Do not be biased against Jesus Christ who wants to bring peace on earth and goodwill to men, which is what we celebrate this time of year. Soften your hearts towards the gospel. Ask Jesus to help you because our society is at stake. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Alan Marsher. Hello, my name is Alan Marsher. Just trying here to give support for uh the club America for the students here to bring uh Judeo-Christian values and American
013values along with ethics and morals and I am in major support of them. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we have one more name on here, but uh, it says John Q public. Okay, thank you. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the board? Okay, seeing none, we will move on to board committee reports. Do we have any board committee reports? Tony, thanks. It's not a board committee, it's a school committee, but uh or district committee, but the um dirt team met this morning and uh I just wanted to give you a brief uh uh report on what happened. Um each each dirt meeting focuses on a distinct um uh safety related issue and and today's was uh radio use, functionality, best practices, protocols. Um the district, if you don't know, the district has many
014many dozens um close to probably a hundred uh you know, handheld radios that that um they use on a daily basis across the district in virtually all departments uh and all divisions. And um it was a great meeting. the um uh there was a brief uh uh discussion of as I said best practices and protocols and what how the radios were being used in each building and then we did a hands-on activity that was used to um sort of uh test real world situations and then a debrief afterwards. Um it uh it gave me good confidence that the um the folks who are are really thinking about um communication and safety in in the in the buildings um are you know doing their due diligence beforehand and um and uh getting schooled on the best
015practices in these uh in this area. So thank you Matt. Uh I went to two non board meetings that are I'd like to report out on. Uh first uh Dr. Patton and I went to the Aderonda Area School Board Association meeting uh before Thanksgiving where they were talking about uh AI and how AI is being used in schools. Um it was it was interesting they about half a third of the session was about how great AI is and how it can be used in school. The other two3 was um and I said this in the meeting, it's sort of a sexed sort of model of AI, which was like if the kids aren't learning about it in school, they're going to learn it somewhere else. And so we need to make sure that the schools
016are out in front teaching kids what AI is and how to recognize it and how to use it or how not to use it. Um and uh they sort of urged the schools to make sure we have a policy, which we do, and then potentially to have a position statement and a framework of how we want to uh use AI or teach about AI in our schools. Um I also attended uh the DEI committee on the 24th. That's also not a board meeting, a board committee, but a district committee. Uh it was it was lightly attended because it was the the Monday before Thanksgiving. Uh but we broke into four uh teams who are going to work on sort of four areas and present to the board at the end of the year. Uh there'll
017be a welcoming and affirming uh atmosphere committee. Uh elevating student voices committee. Um a fostering family and community engagement committee and a communications and promoting resources committee. Uh and those are the sort of the four areas that that we'll be working on. And uh I will also add that we're going to be doing the culture and climate survey again this year. Uh that will go out uh in March of 2026. Thank you. And I'm sorry I should have said any questions for Tony or Matt? Okay. Any other board committee reports? Deb. Yeah, the property committees um has been meeting met recently. There's u one or two projects underway. We're gonna they're sort of still being worked on so we'll report out about them at the next meeting. Thank you. Any other board committee reports? Right,
018Olivia with our student member report? All right, so for district updates, we received updates from five elementary schools as well as the middle school and the high school. at Caroline Street Elementary School. Yesterday, December 10th, the fourth and fifth grade chorus had their concert at 6:30 p.m. And a big congratulations goes out to all the students that participated. This Friday, tomorrow, the second grade uh is visiting the New York State Museum. And on the week of December 15th, the student council and PBIS are having their school spirit week. Next Tuesday, the second and third grade chorus will showcase their concert. And on Wednesday, December 17th, the third grade will host the Brett Rathburn meteorologist presentation. At Division Street Elementary School, a big congratulations goes to the Dragons on stage for their wonderful, wonderful performance last
019week. They are excited to um present the fifth grade pops concert featuring the talented fifth grade band and chorus. And a special thank you goes to the student council for organizing a schoolwide food and toiletries drive. We all appreciate their leadership and commitment to supporting the community. At Dorothy Nolan Elementary School, uh, fifth grade classes enjoyed having a tour of the Senate and Assembly Chambers, learning about the history of the Capitol building, architecture, and how laws are passed. All students are in the midst of shopping at the HSA book fair. Seeing their excitement for new books is a great inspiration for everybody. They look forward to some wonderful pop-in performances put on by the band and concert students just before break. And another large thank you goes to the school community that has helped make
020the holiday food drive, empty stocking project, and make a wish donations a big success. Uh it's wonderful to see um all the great models of support they have for others. And at Geyser Road Elementary School, they had their family math night which included games, bingo, popcorn, and hot chocolate which was provided by their PTO. Geyser held two half-day movies sponsored by their fifth grade advisory club and the PTO. The student council collected and donated over 300 pounds of food to the Franklin Community Center. And they are holding their annual kids night out this Friday, which is tomorrow. Um at Lake Avenue Elementary School, they've held four movie madness days on each of the half days for parent teacher conferences. Each serve as fundraisers for the fifth grade outdoor education camping experience. The kids had lots
021of fun with them and a big thank you goes out to the Lake A community for bringing in food for their Lake A food drive. They were able to send home extra food to families before Thanksgiving. They had a great PBIS assembly to recognize students that consistently followed the 3Bs and students in the Best Buddies Club led the assembly and did a very good job. at the middle school. Their sixth grade orchestra students had their first middle school concert last night with Caitlyn Drells conducting. Um, team 8C for Give Back Day on November 24th and 25th gets a big shout out as presenters from the Franklin Community Center, um, Operation Adopt a Soldier and the Saratoga County Animal Shelter spoke to Maple Avenue students about meaningful ways to support others and make a difference in
022the community. students then began the real work and you should check out the news channel 13FB post. The ELA team 8H gave 116 students the opportunity to experience the Broadway play Wicked at Proctor's on November 6th and uh Maple A had an official Battle of the Books team and 14 sixth graders are meeting weekly to work as a team to become experts in nine different books. They will compete against roughly 20 other students in a virtual elimination round in February and hopefully advance to an in-person battle at Sunni Aderandac in March. The Scholastic Book Fair is going on all week. Um, all students have had a chance to check out new and interesting books during flex time. And lastly at the high school, um, congratulations goes to Thomas Eisenowski for his participation in the Nike
023Cross Nationals, competing for the second straight year in the national track competition. Another congratulations goes to the Blue Streaks varsity football team for reaching the New York State Championships for the second time in program history. They played in the Syracuse Dome this past weekend and had a fantastic season. The high school girls swim team also went to the New York State girls swimming and diving state championships. Their second championship or their section championship win was the first time in 23 years following an undefeated season. They recently inducted 148 students from the class of 2026 into the National Honor Society. Students are inducted based on scholarship, leadership, character, and service. The Saratoga Inclusion Union Club took the Polar Plunge and raised $3,000 for Special Olympics New York. The high school is proud to announce the recognition
024of several coaches who have been given the following awards. Colleen Bellinger was awarded the Unified Coach of the Year at the District Capital District Region Special Olympics. This is her second time being awarded this distinction. Adrienne Danahe was awarded the section 2 girls soccer class AAA coach of the year. This is her second year in a row and the third time that she has earned this distinction. Karen Kavada was awarded the girls golf coach of the year. And it is the concert season for our music department. And come to any concert on Wednesdays in December to hear our talented musicians and singers. And that concludes our student reports for the district. Thank you. That was a lot. Um, next we have Dr. Patton with our administrative report. Well, thank you, Olivia. Very comprehensive in your
025report uh this month. Uh just want to start off by thanking Mr. Connley and the entire staff here at Gaiser Road uh for hosting the board of education uh tonight and also to uh Miss Burkany uh one of the teachers here at Geyser Road. Uh both she and Cody presented to the board of education prior to the start of the meeting on the Geyser outdoor classroom project uh which was a tremendous uh effort uh on behalf of many folks here at Geyser Road in partnership with the city of Saratoga Springs. Uh and so hopefully as you experience driving by the school, you'll see the beautiful new pavilion out uh in front of the school uh in our apple orchard. Uh and it was finished over the summer uh into the fall. Uh just a a
026great example of community collaboration on this project. Um just want to thank our facilities and operations staff for the wonderful job that they did. Uh but it was just a great uh community partnership uh to have a a wonderful outdoor learning uh space that students will be uh able to take advantage of for many years to come. Uh, also want to give a shout out um to our holiday concert uh recognition. Uh, if you haven't had a chance over the last few nights uh through next Wednesday and then there are a few concert dates after uh the holiday recess uh that please come out uh to enjoy uh one of our many concerts across the school district. I had the chance the other night at Maple to see our seventh and eighth grade orchestra as
027well as our high school chamber orchestra featuring our own um Olivia How and violin. Uh but it was the first time in 30 years that I've been going to uh high school concerts that our high school chamber orchestra performed without their director present. So to talk about how wellprepared our students are for a concert, uh I kept waiting and waiting and waiting. Okay, when's Miss Leello going to come on the stage? When's she going to come on the stage? Well, unfortunately, Miss Leell was homesick. Uh but the entire orchestra performed their entire concert without a director present, which just shows you how incredibly talented and prepared our students. So, so shout out to Miss Lavell for all the hard work that goes into it. Um, but I was just incredibly impressed uh about just how
028incredible they sounded. Uh, but you know, to be able to pull that off uh without a director present was uh was uh something I've never seen before. And also, congratulations to Caitlyn Trellos uh who is our orchestra uh director at the middle school for the seventh and eighth grade uh performances. So uh so again uh please get out and enjoy uh any of our concerts and support our musicians. Um also want to uh just give an update on our Bosey's regional advocacy efforts uh over the next several months. Obviously uh both the district and the board of education uh will be involved in advocacy efforts uh both at the local and the state level uh as the state begins to prepare the budget. Uh so in January the board will be passing a resolution along
029with the other 31 school districts in our Boseis region uh supporting our legislative priorities. Uh I've already started to have uh some meetings uh with some of the state budget committees uh meeting with our local legislators. Um and in end of January the governor's expected uh to release her executive budget and obviously that starts the negotiations uh over uh January, February, March uh as the state uh creates uh the annual budget. Uh so we'll continue to keep updated on our advocacy efforts uh and again the impact on state aid on our local community. And just finally, uh, with the upcoming holiday recess, uh, we have one full week of school left. Uh, and so the holiday recess dates this year are December 22nd through January January 2nd, uh, with classes resuming on Monday, January 5th.
030Uh, so again, uh, wish everybody a happy and healthy and safe holiday. Uh, our teachers and our staff and administrators deserve the time off. Uh, I know our students are excited. Uh this is I think our last year uh of having a a two week full break just the way that the calendar falls. I know already looking at next year's calendar it is not two weeks. Uh so enjoy the twoe break. Uh it is welld deserved and again wish everybody a happy holiday. So we do have uh two presentations uh tonight. Uh so uh both from our food services as well as transportation department. Uh so first up I'd like to introduce Eric Bush our director of school lunch. Good. Thanks. So, the first slide as a picture of the hallway into the high school.
031Thought it was a nice pick. Uh, got it from the construction, one of the magazines we were featured in. Uh, next it's me. My award. Thanks. Figured I had to put it in there. My wife told me I had to. Um, next is our staffing breakdown from Bobby to me to the building cooks. Have Karen in my office, Megan Carney who does our catering. Uh, and then a breakdown of our seniors. Uh, 45 service helpers, our three motor vehicle operators. Uh what I didn't put on there was the shared transportation staff. Uh we're up to about eight that we share with transportation during the day to fill in uh the positions that we had a hard time filling um coming out of COVID and it's been still super popular uh with the staff and it
032helps us out. Uh and then on the other side is our uh support from Cap Region Boseies, Jeff, Sue, and Alyssa, our dietician. Uh so starting off with summer meals. It was our largest summer program that we've done. Uh we had three stops with the lunch truck, uh west side, over by the terraces at the rec center, and then the children's museum as the third stop. Uh we were featured. Channel 10 News came out uh did a story on us and when I started googling for picks and uh info out there we were actually featured twice in the gazette which I didn't know. Uh one first is featuring uh West AB that donated uh chicken on Thursdays. They donated all the meals on Thursday which was great. It was super popular uh with the community
033coming out um and I'm hope they're going to do it again this year. And then I just wanted to highlight our summer meals collaborative that we're part of. We meet monthly down in Albany with the United Way. They kind of spearhead it and um it's with Russell Sage, Sienna, Franklin Community Center, Children's Museum, uh and Hunger Solutions. Uh we all take part in. It's pretty much a best practices, what everybody's doing. Uh it's nice to hear what works, what doesn't work. summer summer feeding is so different than what we do during the year and it's it's a whole different set of challenges. Uh so it's nice to get together monthly and talk it through and kind of gear up for it. Um and again this year the just just the summer program being highlighted so
034much. Uh the children's museum did a great job putting it out there uh and really showcasing us and they've become a great partner uh in the summer program. I know the lunch truck gets a lot of attention because it's still red mostly, but um it was our largest meals and we also picked up uh with the census map, we were able to uh service the YMCA off West this year and provide uh summer meals there. And then I just listed down all the other summer programs that we have going on across the district. Um which Greenfield Wreck is huge. That's I think close to like 200 meals a day. Same with the Y. Um, so it's a lot of meals daily. It's a lot for the staff to come in. And we really didn't get
035any time off because it started right after Fourth of July and we went right up until the last week of August. So they were they were troopers pumping out meals all summer. Uh, I just wanted to highlight kind of one of our average meal days, but I wanted to show what what a meal is for lunch if a student takes all the options. And we have quite a few other options because we we do a uh offer versus serve instead of just serving all the items. It it's really a mix. So, we we might serve on the tray the broccoli, the chicken tenders, um, and the tater tots that day. But then students can come down and they can choose if they want apple slices or apple sauce, the roll or garlic knot, a milk,
036you know, they can always get a yogurt. Um, but this is the, you know, what an average lunch would look like if they chose all the components that they could get for lunch. Uh, I wanted to show just our menu. We're still doing paper copy out, which I know our families love. I've heard that they put them on their uh fridges still, which I do mine, my daughter. Uh but we print uh close to 3,600 menus every every month to send out. Uh we also started um in collaboration uh with Stacy Molton's office uh doing a picture menu uh for our special needs students and also for our preK and kindergarten classes uh to help with learning. But to make it easy to know what what lunch is that day, I wanted to highlight, you
037know, we do we do a lot of New York products. We do a lot of New York produce, but I just wanted to show what we do, what's available on an average day. So, these are our options that we pretty much have out every day. Um, it's a Saratoga apple. We do Upstate Farm yogurt. Uh, string cheese, Stewart's uh Grab Apple is a New York State Apple. Uh we do Saratoga water available every day and Cocoon Farms is new this year. It's 100% apple juice. To drill down a little bit on the local products, uh Grab Apple is New York State sliced apple and it's one of our biggest sellers. It's it's a graband go item on the line. So, it's offered pretty much every day in every building. Um, and just on the amount
038that we use, it's it's um hundreds of cases, you know, a week we go through. So, uh it's it's massive. But it's a great product. I think it tastes great. It's one of the better sliced apples and it's 100% uh New York. Oddly, I went down to a food show today in Albany and he was there. So, I I grabbed some samples of of the apples if you guys want to try it. But, I got some good info which I didn't know, which is it's a good source of vitamin C, which I didn't really realize, but for the acid, so the apples don't turn brown. It adds a lot of vitamin C, almost 300 times what is needed. So, it's it's a great source. Um, it's like the universe just you know, metal. I was
039like, "Oh, I can add this slide in," which I did when I got back here. Um, but one fact, the booth next to him was Cahoon Cahoun Farms, which is the apple juice that we started serving. Um, they buy their apple cores from the grab apple guy because they're right down the street. They process the apple cores into the apple juice. So, he's buying all the core. We're really using the whole apple in district um from across the state between the apple slices and the apple juice. So, I thought that was just a cool cool little info that I didn't know. Big one. Stewarts is back in district, which is big. Um I think it's been extremely popular with students and staff. uh working with Bobby and Daryl in the business office, we were able
040to piggy back off of the Skylerville bid. Um so just to show volume, we use uh on average about 3,600 cartons go out a day. Uh we do about 20 gallons a day out of the coffee cafe in the high school. So it's a lot, but great product. Uh 100% New York. Most of it comes from Saratoga County and it's processed right here. U field technically line. Yep. And then my other focus of my presentation is uh just a focus on school breakfast. Um I think we do a great job. I think we could do a little better uh across the district. Um, and there's always challenges with breakfast times, age, um, you know, or elementarymentaries. They might eat breakfast already. You know, they might have cereal or something 7 o'clock in the morning, but
041by the time they get in, it's nine o'clock and they might still be hungry. U, but it's allowing them to come in, come through, get them through quick. But I just wanted to show the highlights of the nutritional facts uh from studies of the benefit of of school breakfast. Um this slide shows participation across the district uh average for the first three months. I think I pulled September, October, November data. Um so you can kind of see some disparaging. The a uh Maple and high school numbers are pretty good numbers for uh middle school and high school. I think when I started they were uh about 6%. So doing the changes, adding the coffee cafe in the high school bump them up. Uh menu options at Maple bump them up. Uh but there's always room
042to grow. Um and that's a time challenge at the high school. Um time and space issue at Maple. Uh and then through and then some of the top ones, you know, Caroline's doing a great job getting them through quick. It is hard. It's one line. It's, you know, 150 kids through in 15 minutes, which is very challenging. But there are some programs that we could apply for with the state. um they fall under breakfast after the bell programs and it's um breakfast in the classroom that was allowed during COVID but kind of went back so you need the waiver to allow that but that's always an option to work with the buildings and allow students to either come through the line and not sit in the cafeteria and just take it right back to class.
043uh grab and go options which um you know works great in the high school um and it could work at Maple uh in the gym in the mornings. Uh second chance breakfast which just extends the hours for breakfast. So late students if students get to class late and they say I'm hungry then they're allowed to come back to the cafeteria, grab something and bring it back to class. Uh and then one of the easiest challenges to to remove is just the barriers that are in place. And it's from um you know it could be from the bus to the door to monitors to teachers to our staff to the challenges of sitting in the cafeteria but just identifying what those barriers are and trying to remove them. Uh quick slide on just things we've done
044which uh we did uh the Caroline renovation which turned out awesome. Uh we also did lake over the summer which turned out beautiful. Uh both I think you've seen if you want you can peek in at geyser that's next in there and you can see the how rough that is um and the challenges. So yeah, lake and they turned out really, really well. Sorry, what? Oh, the pumpkin, the Halloween. Yeah, so I threw in some events. Yep, that was the high school. Uh they did a great Halloween event. We did we did a district-wide menu across the board uh and decorating, but the high school the high school usually goes all out. Um and then next to it is uh Dan Moss with Zezys. We have a lot of vendors uh when we purchase so
045much bulk um throughout the year, you know, we reach out to vendors to come out, do free samples. So, this was a free sample day uh at Dorothy Nolan where they gave out I think it was applesauce and graham crackers and let the kids taste different different stuff. Um at the high school, we did uh it was nice having the two separate lines. We did a Doritos versus Tostito nacho day. So, one line was Tostitos, one was Doritos, and they could pick and battle it out. And, uh, Doritos won. So, uh, we were also able to purchase a van this year. My other van was probably, I don't know, 15 years old, died. So, uh, we were able to get a new van this year. Um, that's Geyser that's up next. It's It's probably the
046one of the more besides Maple, it's going to be more challenging uh remodels with the space and the layout. Um so that's this summer and then let's pick up the high school. Any questions? Thank you, Tony. Not a not a question, Eric, but just a a observation comment. Um and kudos. I just I you're in charge of so much and the and the the district covers so much in terms of what food service means, but I want to call particular attention to the the stuff that's sort of either outside of school hours or outside the awareness of a lot of community members, uh, including myself. sometimes the uh summer meals, the breakfasts, the the um things like the second chance and the breakfast in the classroom. All things that are um you know recognition that
047you know nutrition and a full belly um are key to a productive healthy day and key to lang uh knowledge and skill acquisition. And um I think that it it comes through crystal clear that you guys are aware of that and and purposefully uh attending to that. So thank you. Um you sort of touched on it a little bit, but the the drop off between the elementary school use of the breakfast and and the middle school and the high school. I'm wondering if you have thoughts about other thoughts about why that happens. And then also like you sort of indicated that that there are barriers that are keeping kids from getting do you think there are sort of like a followup. Do you think there are kids in the especially in the middle school and
048the high school who want breakfast, you need breakfast and are not able to get it? It's hard. You know, they're more focused socially I think by that time where breakfast isn't cool is one of the first things that we tried to address and that, you know, the coffee cafe definitely helped with that. Um, it's just hard with timing when they get in, socializing, grabbing something. Um, I've definitely seen having the coffee cafe open. It It gets rocked at 9:00 and it the line is crazy. So, having it open during the day definitely helps and we we have breakfast there up until 10:30 which helps in those numbers. Um, it closes during flex. That's always a conversation. Um, but it stays open a half hour after the buses leave. So, we we try to extend breakfast
049as much as we can and second chance breakfast. Um, but there's definitely more we can do and that's just logistics and serving and and how we approach it. I think uh the Maple renovation will help too. Um, but a lot of it is just this drop off that you see at in every district. It's similar. You know, I think the best numbers I think we were at 17 almost 18. I think the best numbers I've ever seen is like 1920. So, you know, we're still like that 2% uh bump, but that's average across the board for breakfast in middle school. The numbers you had included second chance and the cafeteria. So, the only one that we really do what you would call second chance is at the high school because the coffee cafe is open.
050Um the cafeteria closes, but Maple does not. We do not participate in that yet. But but the 17% or whatever it is, that includes sort of all aspects of all aspects for the high school. Connie, um, congratulations on your award and congratulations to your team. Um, I really appreciate all that you do to to get our kids healthy um, every day um, and ready to learn. So, I did have a question about So, we only have a cafe at the high school, right? Yes. Okay. So, is that the only building that serves Caffeinated beverages? Yes. Okay. And then is there is coffee the only caffeinated beverage? Like can they get So they're all if they wanted to. So there is other beverages which are a carbonated you know carbonated water and they're kind of sweetened
051either with apple juice. Um those are lightly caffeinated like Celsius. Yeah. Uh we don't sell that but it's it's similar but it's made specifically for you know, for high school students. Um, so no sugar, you know, and even the latte is is minimal caffeine. You know, we don't we don't really sell coffee to students. We really try to push the latte and hot chocolate program. That's what's part of the reimburseable lunch. So, it's really, you know, we're we're selling milk. You know, the program is the latte and it has a little espresso in it. Um, but the majority, you know, 80 something% of it is milk. So, it's it's saying, "Hey, we're we're selling lattes, but it's really, you know, I really work for the dairy association." It it's to sell the l. All right.
052Thank you. Um, I also want to say thank you for the amazing work that you do. You know, it's basic needs, right? And if you're hungry, hard to learn. Um, and I think you do an amazing job providing for our students, but really you go above and beyond with the creative ways that you are feeding our our children and our students and the community collaboration I think is wonderful as well. So, thank you for that. Um, I do have a quick question. and I know it's addressed, but I'm just wondering um for students who have special dietary needs like celiac or um you know allergies, I know that's pretty common, but um in terms of serving food, but how how is that addressed? I mean, can students just come and are there gluten-free options or
053do they have to let you know ahead of time? So, we do I mean, communication's key. Uh it does flow through the nurses first. So, that's our procedure is we note. Um, it's a doctor's note, nurse practitioner, and this year they just added dieticians to that. So, a dietitian can write a note in. Uh, but we have it flow through the nurse first, so they know, building principles know, then it comes to the cooks. It's added into the point of sale system, so it's flagged at the registers for all grades. Um, and then we reach out to the parents or the students to kind of get an eyes on to meet you and say, "What? eat, you know, what do you eat at home? If we can get silk, you know, we get we get
054some odd asks where like this year I just got asked for like a pea milk, which I've never seen, but it's a pea protein milk and we had to source that. Um, so it's student based, you know, student by student. Um, but the cooks get to know the student, what they eat, and we try to we try to mirror the menu as close as we can. So if it's a chicken tender, we're getting a chicken tender. If it's pizza day, we get them pizza. So it's as close as we can. Um, and then high school, middle school is a little different because then we try to be like, hey, it's on you and you need to start to be an adult and come in and ask for it and we'll make it and you're here
055and you want it and get it to you and we have some ready to go. Um, but that's kind of how we handle it. Any other questions? I would just like to echo everybody's sentiment, but uh we are so fortunate obviously to have Eric uh leading our department. Uh his honor being recognized as the New York State Food Services Director of the Year is extremely welldeserved. Uh he provides just incredible leadership, the creativity, always looking for ways for students and families to remove some of those barriers that are out there. I I can tell you just in the last three or four months the number of school districts who've requested to come visit and we walked them through our cafeterias and just how incredibly impressed people are, you know, um whether it's from the food
056services perspective, the renovations that we've done, you know, to our cafeterias and and kitchens, u they're just kind of in awe of like what Saratoga is doing right now. And that's obviously through uh just Eric's tremendous leadership and the opportunities he's provided for our students. So, so great job. Keep up the great work. Thank you. All right. So, our second uh presentation tonight is our annual transportation department report. So, with us tonight is Jerry Keenan, our director of transportation, and Kim Ross, our assistant director. So, turn it over to Jerry and Kim. We're good now. Okay. Hi everybody. I'm Jerry Keenan. If I haven't met you yet, I know most of the people on the board, but there's a few I haven't met yet. Um, and this is Kim Ross, our assistant director. So, um,
057most of you know that we've had a little bit of trouble over the last few years, but we're on a positive swing now. Um, so I'm hoping that Uh we we present you tonight with some good information. So this is a snapshot of our transportation department right now. Um so there's me, I have Kim as my assistant director, we have trainers, we have um head mechanic, bus mechanics, dispatchers, routing specialists. Um you know, so it's like a village. I want to pause for a minute and talk about like yesterday's weather was insane. Okay? I mean, it went from a dusting in Guilderland to 11 inches in Corinth. Mike and I were on the phone at 5:00 a.m. Nothing on the ground. By the time we got out of dismissal yesterday, it was treacherous. And I
058need to take a moment to publicly thank every single person that is represented on that screen right there for the amazing job they did getting these kids home yesterday because it was it was I mean, it was a long day. So, um, yeah. So, um you know, so what I wanted to talk about what one of the pillars on here is our bus mechanics. Um last year through attrition, we did lose a third shift uh a mechanic, a third mechanic on our second shift. Um because of um some we we we um what's the word I'm looking for? You know, we were eliminating by eliminating a garage cleaner this year, we were able to bring back that third shift mechanic. So, what happened was I went down in my scores with the DOT passing rates
059on our school buses. Um, it only dropped a couple points, but enough to, you know, we don't want that. We want to be 100. So, um, with that, um, we brought we I decided I had a job that was v vacant at the moment, um, for a person out on medical, and we decided after that amount of time, if I we eliminate that, I could bring back the third mechanic. And since that has happened, our DOT passing rates are going back up again, and we're we're we've been um, flying through them. But, I want to jump right into what I think you're all waiting for right now is our recruitment efforts and our staffing. So, one of the things I want to do is hand this over to Kim because this is the woman who
060has worked endless hours on trying to recruit and get our training programs up and running. Hi everybody. He usually always holds clicker. So, our recruiting efforts have been going strong all year since se this summer. We started a new program that we've never tried before. Um, we hired people for um to come in without having a CDL, a light uh permit yet. So, we came in and we trained them. We had 10 people or started with 10, went down to nine that were went through the training. We ended up with six drivers, one bus assistant who is still trying to be a driver. She's still trying to pass her permit test. Um, so that was really good. Um, we have one that, um, hurt his back, so he had to go out and we had
061one that dropped out. But we did a really good job. Our trainers worked so hard. It was very hard to organize nine people all at different levels um because we did training of um practicing for the test, taking practice tests, going over the all the manuals that you have to know and uh they did a great job. But it was so exciting. It really was exciting because as every step that we went um it kind of spurred everyone else to try to catch up. So it was it was great. It was just a really fun summer that we had with that. Um, so by the school started, they had to wait a little bit to have their own bus run because they had to drive actually with students because we had that three weeks off
062at the end of the summer where we didn't have a lot of transportation, but it went great. Um, the increase really did help too. Um, we got four other drivers to come also um because of the increase in the pay and they are so happy at Saratoga. they go, "Oh, we wish we started here." So, they're super happy to be here. This is kind of our curriculum for that. Um, we do an orientation, then that that's where they start prepping for the test. Um, and then we start doing in the classroom things that they can do without having a license. We get all that out of the way. Um, and then from there they can drive around the the um transportation department and uh practice a little bit on their pre-tripping and then once they
063get their permit they can go behind the wheel and go right for their road test. But it usually does take about six weeks for all that to happen. It's a long time because there's early learning training that they have to do. Um it's a lot of steps that we have to get to that final um the final test. And we're so happy. There's they're so proud of themselves once they get there. It's great. It's great. And um these are some of our recruiting that we do. We go to big truck day. Um the little kids love going through the um the buses and we hand out flyers. Uh we've been to um we go to all the the trick or trunk. We do we do Fourth of July parade. Uh there's a caboose day in
064Breenfield. U we do open houses. We try to go as many places as we can just to be out there that we still need people. We still need people. So, um, but we'll keep trying. I have I interviewed an aid yesterday and I have two drivers coming in tomorrow. So, that's good news at this time of year. Great. Okay. So, now to get into some of our operational uh statistics. Um, So our students that are transported in this c in this year we have now the number looks high it's 5263 a lot of parents opt in for transportation because they want that reservation on the bus for when they need it. So realistically our numbers of how many kids are riding the bus is lower than that but we have to go off what's based
065on request in our system. So this year we are at 5263 a little bit down from last year we were at 5322 um for requests and so when I now go over to the other side I want to talk about terminology sometimes gets a little tricky when we talk about routes. So I'm going to talk about configured run segments. So a school bus um uh let's I'll use a school bus. A school bus is we'll call that the run. Okay, that run, that school bus may cover four different configured sections or more in our system. Okay, so it could be um high school morning, elementary, high school afternoon, elementary, and then if they have a midday, they could have five associated with them. So there's there's runs that are go from two to two to
066five or six segments per run. So this year we have 322 segments that are um o that are over um 71 buses right now. Last year we're down from last year. Last year's number was 345. And I lost the click. Thanks. Okay. So we have 71 um daily assigned buses covering those 322 segments at this moment. right now they were not posted as permanent runs because they that we have three temporary bus runs and they are McKini Vento which are deped students um and our deps um they can move at any given moment so I can't really put them out and to as a permanent so they're temporary until we we know that they're going to be there for for more or less um and I also have some um special education students um on
067one that is one that goes to Gilderland that gets out at 3:45 in the afternoon, which is hard for me to get somebody to do. So, I have a retiree that comes in and handles that one. So, for this school year so far, we have transported 97 Mckin Vento students. Um, that number may not be the accurate number today, but that is how many we have serviced since September. Okay. Um, 74 of those were in district, but 23 of them were out of district. Okay. So, and our out of district Mckin Ventos could include Corinth, Boston Spa, Glenn's Falls, Boston Lake, Clifton Park, Skylerville, Skenctity, Salem. Okay. Um, so a lot of these pe a lot of us for be able to transport this requires me to reach out to some other districts. Boston Spa
068helps me with one or I may be reaching out and we kind of work in a team um with so I'm part of I'll back this up. I'm part of an organization called NIAP, New York Association for Pupil Transportation. And so that gives me the networking to be able to know that I have we have a family of other transportation directors in the same boat. For instance, today I received an email from North Colony that they have two students living up here on Allen Drive that need to get down to Colony every day and I have a bus going to Boseis down there. So I might be able to help her get her students down there. So we're all like a family trying to help one another. Um, I also have to do some parent
069contracts. Okay. So, I right now I'm paying a parent to drive her students up from Skenctity every day back and forth. Uh, not me. We all are. Um, but I mean it's one way to get them to to and from school when I don't have the resource to send a school bus down to pick them up. So, on top of all these seven what you see up here for that kind of work, we also have extra work during our midday. And our middays include school to work boseies um ACC, HVCC, um off-site athletic classes, um spa med uh sped med modified schedules which are when sometimes when a student can't stay the whole day and they they're going to go into school get out at 10 or 11 o'clock. So we are um servicing those.
070Then we also have field trips for every school. And then we have our afterchool athletics. Obviously, thank you very much for all the good because I feel like we were a part of that this year. We have um really done we have really worked very hard and we're working in partnership with the athletic team or athletic department um trying to make sure that we have bus shuttles every day from the middle school to the high school and back. We also go to Skidmore for um swimming and um so and then you know we're we're um working to try to get that uh sports team people build up as well so that um you know sometimes they want seven eight nine buses at 245. Well at 245 we're taking home high school and middle school and
071then we got to run right to the elementary. So sometimes a a juggle to try to get everybody there. But I think this year is the best year we've had in the three years I've been reporting out to you guys. So I'm really proud of of the work that we've been doing with athletics. So looking at our numbers of what we have, these are in district bus routes only. These are not counting our uh private schools um or our special needs schools. These are just the buses that I'm using to transport to our eight Saratoga schools. So on this slide um if you look at high school that we have 25 big buses and six small buses that service that on a g daily basis. So if you you know I'll just go to the
072numbers. So when we add up the numbers here on the first here we only have 65 drivers. as well. Now, if you add up that with my with my temporary runs, I mean, it looks like based on the 73 people that I have that you'll see on another slide, um it's going to it's a little bit it shows that I have eight, but those eight drivers are actually servicing either a special needs school that is not part of Saratoga where we have students placed or it is servicing a private school. As you may know or may not know, we are required by law to service any private school for a Saratoga resident up to 15 miles. So, we do have St. Clemens, uh, Waldorf, uh, you know, many, many private schools that we are servicing
073every day. So, in the morning on that particular tier, I have eight drivers running all over the place trying to fit in all of that stuff that's outside of our in district. Tier two, it we have the nine extra drivers. Again, same thing. we're running all over trying to get everything done. I mean, we're take um I have a contract out with Wildwood, but you know, I mean, that's that's a school that I'm hoping one day I could get back in here. So, that would be all the way down to Curry Road in in Skenctity. Now, comparing these numbers to last year. So, if you'll see, I have a plus eight and a plus nine there, which gives me a little bit more because we got creative. Last year, we only had a plus six
074on the first tier and a plus seven. Okay? So, um, you know, we we we're starting to get create more and more creative re relooking at all the routes um and seeing what we can do to um look at better opportunities to make sure every student has access to transportation. So, on our overall analysis of the schools by building, I gained two buses that can run on tier one and I gained another two buses that can run on tier two. So, and I just want to note um that this is only in district. This doesn't include the out of district placements, homeless students, late buses, project lift, athletic runs. Um those are things that we do on top of everything else that we're fitting in. Um so, um you know, there's days and and we're
075still doing it. We're we're not out of the woods yet. I mean, Kim and I drove all day today. Um it was a K through five. We we were on different buses all day. Um but it, you know, we still got it done without cancellations. Today was a tough day, but we we did it. um cancellations um for school buses that are nothing like they were last year. I have not cancelled a bus run since October 10th. Okay. And it is a it I know some day. So today was a day where I'm like I we were we had 24 openings today and I said I don't care what we do. I'm not presenting to the board today after I cancel the bus run tonight. I just not doing it. So um you know we
076we do everything. We pull mechanics. We do everything we can to make sure all of this gets done every day. So, um, we're really moving in the right direction. So, right now we have 71 permanent drivers. Okay. Two permanent unassigned bus drivers, which means I have 71 dedicated bus runs, but I have two drivers those that are not assigned to an actual bus run, but they are guaranteed six hours a day. They come in, they're basically like a permanent sub, okay? They come in and they drive what we need them to drive. That most of the time those people are put on. If I have somebody out on extended medical leave, we want to keep the same driver on the run because then they're familiar with the homes and the and the especially elementary bus
077runs. You want the driver on there to because they learned the routines of the parents. So if you pull up and the garage door is not up or the white van's not in the driveway, the driver's going to know something's off. So, um, we still have in my budget for in my budget for positions, I still have three vacant unassigned bus drivers right now, um, that Kim is working very hard to help get us bodies into those. Um, we have 13 substitute bus drivers, which include people that just come in to do sports, uh, or the retired drivers or what they may be, but there's like, um, you know, retire substitute drivers doesn't mean that they're here every day. They get to tell me when they want to work. So, um, you know, and they
078may only want to do a morning shift or they only want to may do do an evening shift or they, you know, want to only do it on the days they're not watching their grandchildren. So, um, I take what I can get. So, I'll bring you in and I'll use you on the days you you can give me. Um, and now where we're finding a little bit difficult this year is with our attendance. Um, we have 13 permanent attendants right now with one unassigned bus attendant and three vacants. But with the increased need for small buses with an attendant on them and the discipline issues um that we are uh well I don't want to say discipline but that we want to be on there to monitor on the big buses as well to make
079sure that kids are staying seated and and behaving appropriately. Um with the addition with the need of that rising we're finding we're so we're a little bit stretched in that area. So, we only have eight substitutes that come in and again, um, one of them is a food service worker that comes in when the food service gets done and she's only available a couple afternoons. Um, so it's a juggle, but that's that's a focus for us to try to get that staff built up a little bit. Um, and I already talked to you about the closings, the cancellations, so that's a that I was really proud of where we're at with that. So going forward in the um in the here's what I have outsourced right now. I'll start with that. These are the schools
080that I have outsourced. Um and they are I'm fortunate enough that the bids all got won by the same carrier. These are all with upstate transportation. Um these are the schools that are pub uh that are outsourced. Now that looks like a lot, but technically it is. Um we have only nine they we contract for nine buses. So some of these are are paired together like Sacket and Vanderhiden is one bus run and SEAK and Sanford is another bus run. Stan St. Catherine's Parsons I have two buses on that contract and they service those three schools. Prospect and Wildwood schools with the volume of students that we have going to them. Each one of those contracts has three buses with the so we have a total of nine buses that are being run by the
081um outsource which is a goal that is my ultimate goal to um hopefully start as my staff increases be able to bring these back inhouse. So in the since 2324 um and I skipped 2425 because last year our presentation was different but 2324 when I reported to you guys I had more schools listed on this. I went back to my old presentation. Um so since 2324 I have been able to bring uh we have canceled our Charlton contract Maywood down in Albany by Boseies I have brought back in house and I also brought St. Coleman's back in house. Um, Oakill, we didn't have any students. So, we actually have dropped four in the last two years. We've dropped four four schools with the contractor. So, I'll move into the bus fleet now. Um, so our
082current bus fleet, we have 82 large buses, 70 um 7166 passengers and 1170 passengers. So one of the things that I've done here is I've increased it doesn't sound like a lot four passengers but that extra that those extra two row of seats means a lot if we because as we're trying to condense these bus routes I needed I need no student can stand they have to have a seat on the bus um so I have increased the size of the bus um I did I could have gone up to 74 but that's a little bit different driving and I'm you know I don't want to put the drivers over the edge making them drive these extremely long buses but by that by bringing bringing these buses in, we are able to put more kids
083on these buses and um be able to do more with them. So, um of the of the 82, it just so happens that this particular year, 41 are diesel and 41 are gasoline on our large buses. So we have um there was a time period where the gasoline engine was being pushed further um than the diesel engine and so we have moved back to diesel because we get more miles per gallon um on our fuel consumption. And so going into our small buses, we have 24 small buses with various seating capacity capacities. Um, six of those 24 buses are wheelchair buses and I have on order right now two large buses. Um, it it was passed in our budget in May of this year. Um, they are being built down in O um Oklahoma and
084so they um I'm hoping they're going to be here by um spring, but they are two they are two full-size large school buses with a wheelchair lift. They can um seat four wheelchairs and up to 30 students or they can have 60 students. It really depends on the configuration on what we need. It gives us a lot of flexibility. And by bringing in these large buses with that wheelchair capacity, that allows me if I'm running a bus down to Albany and I have to bring three wheelchairs down, I have the capacity to do so. Or I'm sorry, I keep saying I, we as a district, and I apologize for that. We have the capacity to do so. One of the things that means a lot to me too, unified sports. So if I have a
085student on unified sports that's in a wheelchair, they can ride with their team to their game and don't have to be on a different bus. So I'm it just it it was something very important that I thought that we should address when I when I got here. So we're trying to, you know, make sure everybody is feeling inclusive. Um we have one attendant officer vehicle and out of all of these 113 of those vehicles are in what are we call our DOT service. So every Thursday department of transportation inspection comes here and our buses go through a rigorous DOT inspection every six months and that's where I was getting into our report card earlier in my presentation where our rates will drop. So we actually have multiple buses anywhere from 6:00 to 8 buses that
086will go through DOT and DOT starts at 6:00 am in the morning doesn't finish till 1 in the afternoon every Thursday. So we are um 113 out of all of these vehicles are being inspected every six months. my 2526. Our 2526 replacement plan for the school buses is um we're going we're going to be putting out I'm looking for um we are looking for eight 70 passenger IC school buses, four 30 passenger Thomas minotaur buses. That's just that's your smaller bus. That's your small bus. Two suburbans and then introducing as we begin to and this is only beginning phases. I'm hoping to be able to into the propos a separate proposition to small electric school buses. We are just starting to get into this process and it's a slow process. It's like the cell phone
087remember they were big or in a bag back when they came out. You might not but now now we're carrying around little computers. So, I mean, we, you know, the technology is improving every day that goes by that we're we're um, you know, seeing that, um, the electric school buses are are gaining, um, more power or gaining more miles on their battery life. So, and actually, um, it's funny I just said that because now this picture right here is my fleet supervisor, Evan Ross and myself were invited down to, um, the Protera plant by Thomas buses brought us down to the T um, to the plants down there. We had to, we started out on a tour. We went to the Protera battery plant where we were able to see how the electric batteries are
088put together cell by cell. It makes like a honeycomb and then those honeycombs are brought together and the the power transferred through metal. And so anyway, we got to see how the batteries were were built and then the batteries are shipped over to the chassis manufacturers and then they're put onto the buses at the chassis manufacturer and then the chassis and the batteries are then shipped over to Thomas buses where they build the body around all of that. So, it was kind of neat to be able to see that um that done. We also had the opportunity to visit the IC plant where the same thing is done. Um and IC means international. That's where we buy most of our buses right now. Um, so, um, just want to make sure I didn't miss anything
089in my notes. Um, but the, okay, the EV buses, when we go back to the EV buses, they're going to require a, um, charger. So, by starting small with the two small buses, we're looking at probably introducing just a wall charger at this point without doing any dredging into the lot or running any electric out there. I also we also have to be very concerned by how much um is being um used how much electric we're using because um how much how much electric do I have at the building right now versus how much has to be brought in by national uh by national grid. So that's where you'll see on the third bullet here we are partnering with a company called CNS companies um for a transportation study. Um Bobby and I are working
090with that company. Bobb's really taking the lead on on that particular piece. Um and so that is something that you guys are probably going to see on your agenda tonight. Um or in the near future um that we are looking at working with them on a on like a 10-month transportation study. So that is um pretty much what we've been working on this past year. Um does anybody have any questions? First, thank you. Any questions? Ashley, make this thing work. Not a question, but just again, and I think food services and transportation, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for just you're leveling the playing field. Every kiddo is getting to school healthy, getting fed even out of school. So, I just thank you. And I also, Kim, the program for the CDL and bringing people
091in and training them, that's phenomenal. I hope that you can continue to do that because I think that also really moves some barriers, right, for so just I want to jump back to her uh slide here for a moment and just show you. So a lot of the training is not just New York State CDL. You'll see where I have Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. They came out about five years ago, maybe four, with it's called Early Learning Driving uh Test, ELDT. And that that those requirements are theory training. They actually have to do classroom training. Um and then you have to have open road and then you have to have closed range. And we have to enter their grades or the amount of hours they've been trained into the federal system. And then if
092we book a road test and those grades are not posted in the federal system, seven days prior to the road test, New York State will cancel their road test. So we have to meet a lot of different requirements. So it is, you know, this curriculum that we put together is a lot, you know. Um, awesome. And bus, my dad was a bus driver, so a very special place in my heart for transportation, school bus driver. Thank you, Connie. Um, very good presentation. Thank you both so much. Um, I did have a quick question, um, to follow up on all of the runs that you do. You did mention like midday runs. Um, we did have, I believe it was a teacher at one point came a few years ago and I know that was like
093close to COVID times, but has have we been able to do bus runs for extra help after school, not just athletics? Okay, great. So, I actually am we are doing tutoring. Um, but we're working on tutoring right now. I'm partnering we partnered with Lisa. Um, I'm actually tracking every time we drive a student in for tutoring. So, the benefit is that the high school gets out at 2 o'clock tutoring or 2:20. Um, we roll at 2:28. And so, um, what we do is we go pick up the student for tutoring before they go to the main office and then we can bring and then we go back, pick them up, bring them home. Um, we do beyond the be, um, beyond the bell and then we also do project lift. Um, so we have many
094different things that we're doing to support kids with their academic needs outside of the outside of the school day. And for the first time, and it was not popular with my staff, but we're pulling it off. Um, Beyond the Bell is running in the morning at Lake and we are doing it three days a week, and we are running a school bus three mornings a week to pick up students for Beyond the Bell. So, I have a retiree, it's one of the sports strip drivers that comes in and does that, but I'm we finagled it, but It's a difficult situation when we're trying to cover our regular academic runs and and do it all, but this year we're we're really keeping our, you know, momentum going. So, just to echo everyone, this is my second
095time hearing this presentation. It it it amazes me. It feels like a a juggling act, a puzzle that you're doing every morning, and it's incredible that you all get it done. Um, I do want to just to clarify, McKenna Vento students are unhoused students who are they don't have a set residence. It could be that they're many different things. Yes, we I I like to use the word displaced because they could be displaced for several different reasons. There's several different factors that go into that and that is a federal law and we do have a McKin v McKin vento liaison here in our school district that deems whether the student falls meets the criteria or not. So it could be that their house caught on fire. Um or it could be that a placement by
096CPS I have to follow the lead of the liaison and when she deems them um displaced we have to transport and there is no mile cap or well there is it's a 50 mile cap but if you try to if say it's 65 miles away the state's still going to make me do make us do it. And you had 90 over 90 students this year. We had over 97 McKini Vento students since the beginning of school this school year. Um that number is fluid. It changes every day. Um for instance, I got an email today. One got added, but two may have been dropped, you know, and found permanent hose housing. So this is it's just a fluid number that's never the same uh week by week. Any other questions? Just want to echo what
097Matt just said. you know, the the challenging, incredibly challenging puzzle that both Jerry, Kim, and the entire team at transportation uh department solve every day. Every day is different. Jerry's constantly calling Bobby and I and saying, "Hey, here's here what we're dealing with today." Uh so that total team effort, you know, by our drivers and by the attendants and the routing specialists, our mechanics, you know, who willingly jump on a bus to to drive kids to make sure, you know, that we try to do everything we can not to have to cancel a run. Um but again, total team effort and just wonderful lead leadership that both Jerry and Kim provide. Uh you know, obviously the recruitment efforts are ongoing. Um just want to reinforce all of that training is paid training by the district.
098Uh and again through their leadership uh looking at a cohort model. So explaining to folks hey when you come in and what these next eight to 10 weeks may look like uh but we had targeted over the summer that you know if you follow all these steps as a class you know we'll get you ready to be able to to drive at the start of the school in September. So this this spring we're looking to do the same thing. uh through recruitment efforts to bring in maybe another cohort together. Uh so again, our best uh marketing is our own people as our drivers and word of mouth of just, you know, sharing the experience that they experiences that they've had working uh for the school district, you know, supporting our kids and families and just
099the incredible relationships uh that our drivers uh you know uh establish with students and families. So, so we're going to keep up the driver recruitment efforts. Even six new people this year have made a tremendous different and difference. And we're really fortunate for the folks that do come in even temporarily or as substitutes that help fill the holes uh because every day there are holes uh that we're trying to fill. Uh so again, anything we can do to continue to get the word out uh for driver recruitment efforts is uh is going to be definitely helpful in the long run. So, so thank you for all your efforts and keep up the great work. Thank you guys. Appreciate your time tonight. Now we turn to our consent agenda. For those in attendance or watching, a
100consent 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 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
101is part of their due diligence process. That's Do we have any modifications to the consent agenda? We do not. And so I motion to approve tonight's consent agenda items GH and I in their entirety. Is there a second? Matt, any discussion? All in favor? That's unanimous. I do just have a few recognitions. Uh we have three teacher retirements uh that are on the tonight's agenda. the board of education uh just approved uh so recommended for the board uh for to accept the resignation for the retirement uh purposes with both appreciation and regret uh for the following uh teacher. So Kim Gagy is a first grade teacher uh at Caroline Street Elementary School. Kim actually will be uh retiring effective December 31st uh before the holiday uh or during the holiday uh break. uh Patricia Chilton,
102one of our speech and language pathologists at Maple A for June 30th and Sharon Nash, first grade teacher at Caroline Street, also June 30th. So, just want to thank uh and congratulate uh all of our early uh retiree folks that uh the board uh is recognizing tonight. Um this brings us to our second public comment period. Are there any members of the public who wish to address the board? Okay, seeing none, that brings us to agenda planning. We do have one agenda plan planning item from last meeting to go over. Matt. Yeah. So, uh, as you all recall, we I talked last time, I was hoping that during the technology presentation, uh, was they sort of went into AI and how it was being used. Last year I asked that this year they include data
103uh that if they can find it of uh of how AI use affects out student outcome. Um so I I the exact quote is uh I request that during the tech presentation on February 11th the presenters include data showing how students whose education includes AI have better outcomes than students whose education does not. Uh ideally this presentation will site studies that look at comparable classes or schools ones which use AI directly with students and one which does not. Um it's open for discussion. Oh I yeah I think I responded to uh this question last time and and Dave unfortunately is sick tonight so he's not here to be able to respond to it. I just don't want to ask um the technology committee who will be presenting in February to try to collect data about
104how AI use affects student outcomes because to my knowledge and in the short conversation I have had with Dave that type of data doesn't exist. So I don't want them to search for something that at least David had indicated right now the impact of AI on student outcomes he thinks is going to be a very difficult ask to be able to generate data on at this point. Yeah. I'm not I'm not looking for I want to be clear because this the question that was asked last time was like did I want us to do a study and I I don't. Um, there's got to be information about AI use in schools in that it's being used like we're not going to just use AI in schools without having someone having, you know, said that it's
105safe or or useful or or leads to good educ or someone has the conversations that we heard at the school boards association of that balance, right? And right now it's exposure and introduction and um some of the uh digital literacy type things that we're trying to encourage our students to learn, educate our teachers and start to expose parents in the community, but we're really just scratching the surface right now. We had a whole committee of teachers that worked over the summer that's prepared to present to the board in February with all the work that's been going on across the district uh to best prepare us. I I just think an ask about data that how AI affects student outcomes. We're not there yet. I I don't think and again other educators can speak up, but
106I just don't know if that data exists about how AI use in schools is impacting the ed educational outcomes of our students this soon in the infasy of of ad adoption of those types of practices. So I I just want to make sure what the board is asking of us is something that Dave and his team will be able to um provide to all of you. So um I do see a lot of board members are indicating that they want to speak and I am writing that down. I do want to say that if there is not evidence that using AI leads to outcomes for students of any kind, then that brings up major concerns about how we are using AI and whether or not we should be using AI in schools. Um I don't
107think that we can say like we can't show that this has an impact on students with data. Um but Deb, you're next and then I am keeping track. Sure. Yeah. Um I think it's an important question how AI is impacting student learning in schools obviously but my my understanding from the higher ed perspective is that is changing so quickly too. I mean Grammarly acquired an AI uh business and incorporated into Grammarly which now is as much an AI driven platform as it is a grammar checker you know so that the changes are happening that just happened this summer and students don't even know they're using AI when they're using Grammarly. So I think I think the landscape continues to change so quickly and people are still learning the pros and the cons how to use
108it pedagogically you know I've been experimenting with it in the classroom failure failure failure you know so it's it's it's a big experiment so far maybe and also the term student outcomes refers specifically like to program learning outcomes or learning outcomes I think there are different ways to measure the impact of the AI on student learning but I think we're still trying to figure out how to do that literally. That's been my experience. Tony, yeah, I think I' I'd agree with what Natalia and Deb just said. And um there's room here for defining data qualitatively and anecdotally in the absence of quantitative data. Um, I think, you know, Deb just made the point. I I think I what I'm what I'm hearing is is if we can't answer the question why um and that was
109part of Natalya's comment, then um then what are we doing? But I'm not suggesting that we can't answer the question why. I guess I'm sort of refraraming a call for data that uh shows impact on learning outcomes as you know tell us why we why we want to use this or or why we are we're using it when we don't even you know necessarily know we're using it. Um I think there's room for that kind of data. Connie um I wanted to say that I guess to the why and like why we would be talking about it in our school district and having our teachers learn about it and teaching our kids the right ways to use it is because if if we don't then they will use it and we know they used it
110but we can't really prove they used it and they don't know that we know the tricks too. So I think that it is important because you can totally tell like I have to write letters of recommendation for example for college for kids and when they hand me something that I'm like this is an AI flag word like the word unwavering right there I know you used it. Um so there are things that I think that we need to definitely make sure that we are communicating with them and I think it's still it's important that we cover it. So, I I want to say that I don't think we should throw it out and say like, "Let's ignore it like it's not even there." I think we do need to address it. How we address it
111is super important. Um, and again, I said it in the last meeting. I agree like who knows in 10 years maybe we'll be banning it because now we know how terrible it is, but we're not there yet because we're all still learning. Um, anytime I've used it in the classroom, same. like it just winds up you're like, "Okay, let's go back to paper paper and pencil for a moment because it it can just get out of hand and it's such a temptation to just go there." Um because it is it is an easy way out for when you're trying to really really think critically. So, I'm not sure if my comment really helped, but I think I think we do need to cover it. I still but I think as we cover it, we should
112be collecting data like how many teachers are getting the PD, what is the PD on, how many kids are being taught, what are they being taught. I think those things are maybe the the springboard for a larger study. Ashley, um I agree with a lot of what everyone has said and there's it's up, down, and all around, right? But I do think that um talking about we can't answer the why of using AI. I I think practically like if if we're looking in the professional world right now, if we don't start to think about how we're going to teach using AI, our kids are going to be left way behind. And it's happening so fast. And I'm just like in my head comparing it to thinking about standing in the high school library using a
113card catalog, but then like five years later, everything was on the internet. And it's so it's like maybe thinking how did we transition to internet? Like these are the types of things. But I do think like creating a very structured professional development plan which I'm sure at least like you guys are always you know what I mean. So the data I think we could say like what is our plan and why is that our plan just not so much like how is it impacting our students? We don't know and even I thought Deb's example was great like every single website whether we know it or not is using AI right now. So whether we're like we're using it or we're not using it we're using it whether we know it or not. So, it's a
114really dicey thing. I just think the professional development around it is going to be the key to where we go with it. Lisa, thanks. Um, I think they've been uh very insightful questions and comments. Um, and I agree with all of the I wonders that we all have. If you ask anyone that we've sent to conferences or when we have people come in to do PD, it is looking at the why first and Just like when I'll use the broad concept of technology as an instructional tool and a learning tool when that first became um new looking at what is the purpose of it. And so if you're looking at the purpose to make learning uh more effective, teaching and learning more effective and more efficient, that's usually where you start and there's frameworks of
115thinking around that. So, um you will hear when Dave um in the group present in February some of the work that's been done by our teachers, getting our teachers familiar with how we can use some of the tools to make planning and preparing for teaching more efficient and effective. So, um it's not the wild wild west. Um but we do have that responsibility to uh prepare our students and to change with what's happening outside. So um we keep um trying to stay a breast of it and um I know I just came back from a conference and there are a ton of workshops about AI and the commonality amongst all of them is that no one has the answer but it's talking about responsible use and becoming um responsible digital citizens and users and preparing
116for what we don't know which is kind of crazy But um that's where we're at. So how do we make teaching and learning more efficient and effective is kind of the very broad um way we're looking at it. Deb I think we're all agreeing in many ways right now. Um and that I think it's one of the most important things to do with AI is to teach the ethical use of it. And that's a huge ethical issue that um both an individual's use and a social society's use of um of AI. So there's there's I think there's lots of different takes on it too. And the and it's in higher ed, we're talking about it because it's one of the number one skills employers are demanding of their employees. And and and this and the
117stats also on how many students are saying they're using it and they're actually using it are very funny to watch because it's close to 100% who are actually using it in some manner as we all are using AI in some manner, you know. So I think this is a great conversation to have and it sounds like the school district is exactly the responsible thing which is you know experimenting to try and figure out what how to go where to go next. Matt, so I uh since I presented this like as a proposal, I guess I want to just it sounds like you you were writing down sort of like the the answers that we were getting, Mike. But um can can we also I guess as part of that presentation, I would love to hear
118more about like I I was responding to last year's presentation when I when I asked about the data and if this year's presentation is going to be more about the ways we're exploring, I would like to also possibly amend my comment also based on meeting that we went to the uh at Aronda School Board Association. How how we're how we're looking to communicate about AIUs to to parents and families and and so it's not I I guess I just don't want the presentation to be like look at this neat thing we do. I kind of want it to be more about how we're grappling with all these issues. Connie. So, I was just going to ask you um based on this conversation, is there specific data that you would want to see and what would
119that be based on what we actually could what the district could collect? I mean, it sounds like there there is no like data. I mean, I think Tony's answer was right, right? Are there things we're seeing in, you know, we used last year we learned about the the English teachers that are doing, you know, that kids would like write an essay and it would AI would sort of offer suggestions and they rewrite it and and to see like well did that lead to the kids being better writers at the end of the class like that would that that's who would be like the data for but I but I do think it's like a bigger I'm just trying to avoid the getting to that presentation seeing sort of all these like every every AI presentation
120I've seen at like NISBA or any of these other groups is often about like look at this cool thing that AI can do but but none of it's about how it's affecting our students is is it actually aiding in education besides being cool um right yeah and are the trade is there an analysis of the trade-offs right I mean to your point about the English essays is are the kids are the kids improving because of that um AI portion of their of their lesson. Uh and could they have improved the same amount or more without the just a grappling as you put it? That's the kind of data or the kind of grappling thought that I'd like to see and um because of the ethical issue, right? I mean if if we can't justify with
121some amount of data um numerical or otherwise if we can't justify the the the expenditure in water and energy uh extreme expenditure in water and energy that that AI takes then then you know it's a it's a net loss and I think I I just I also want to get away from um justifying AI because uh we're we're going to get run over if we don't uh adopt it. It's I I think we're as a society, we've kind of accepted a a marketing uh ploy there uh rather than something that's uh totally thought out, Connie. So, are we asking the district then to outline the ethical use and then maybe in the PD sessions to have like teacher discussions because I I know you I know when I see it, it's when I'm grading, right?
122So, it's not necessarily about like what's your grading policy because it's a totally separate thing, but like how many teachers are noticing it and and and addressing it with their students like calling it out so to speak and then what is the fix, right? So, is it more like are do you go back to basics? So, maybe it's more about having those discussions. I don't know. Um I guess and maybe the the answer to to my proposal is can we see what the technology outline is going to be earlier so we can say like can you add something about how we're talking to the community or can you add something about or we don't need to see X we want to see you know what I mean like I just I think it's such a
123big topic that I don't want to be on February be there on February 11 have a presentation and be like we didn't learn about these three things that It sounds like a lot of us wanted to hear about. So I guess that's more what I what I what I think we're going to end up I also anticipate that the AI conversation isn't going to be presented in one presentation in February. I think this is going to be an ongoing discussion and so as you know Dave he's as comprehensive as possible and we have many teachers that are helping lead this effort. So they're going to come and they're going to give you their best information that they can in February based on the practices that are in place now and then I think based on
124the feedback and questions that you have and again you'll receive their presentation in advance like we do with other presentations. So any feedback that you can provide to the committee, but there's there's a committee who's been working on this, you know, for for several, you know, years and months. And and again, it's this is not the first time that we're having a conversation about AI utilization in the school district. So, um, all those all this feedback, I'll encourage Dave to watch this conversation so he can be best prepared and then share the presentation, um, you know, a week in advance so you can take a look at it and and ask your questions and provide feedback. But again, I don't see it as being the only conversation or presentation that we're going to have. This
125will be ongoing for several years to come. I I have a feeling. So, we're we're really we're just starting to scratch the surface. Sure. I guess I do have concerns because I did think that last year's presentation was unbalanced in terms of just presenting like look how cool this is without actually talking about the ethics of using generative AI. Um I want to say like I I guess I'm not I personally would push for much more balance in any presentation that's given at any level including not having any u anything by salespeople. I think that's actually one of my biggest concerns when I do go to a conference, including NISBA, where all of the AI presentations are done by salespeople and they are pitching something. They want you to spend their money or your money
126on that. Um, and they're not telling a full story. I do think that a lot of presentations on a do veer into like basically a propaganda. Um, and last year, you know, my question was what about the ethics? And the like what about like the ethical downsides? And the response really didn't acknowledge most of the ethical downsides which again do really go into how the environment is affected, how like student mental health is affected, how the mental health of the people who have created these programs, most of whom we're not even aware of um what their role is in it. Like they're basically acting as like mechanical Turks like what their like what that effect is. And so I guess my concern is that like you're right, we are scratching the surface. And I think
127that 2025 and you know going into a presentation in 2026, we shouldn't just be scratching the surface anymore. We should be delving deeper. We should be touching on the ethics. And I do think that we owe it to our students and our educators to be talking about those ethics at every single level because it's impacting them. And I know like it's impacting our students more than anybody because they're young. So if we're talking about the impact on the environment, they can have a different consideration. And yeah, a 100% of students are using AI, would that maybe go down if they understood that they are like, you know, destroying water sources and the air that they're going to breathe for a lot longer than I will. Um, I also just want to say that I I
128do think that the idea that AI is like use of AI is comparable to use of the internet is a sales pitch. Um, and I have concerns. Um, kind of in line with what Connie had said that maybe in 10 years we're going to think about it more like vaping than like the internet. And so I just think that like while it is true that we are, you know, still pretty early on into generative AI, there is a lot of data out there and I do think that we need to be doing more than just scratching the surface if we are approaching this as a thing to provide children with. All right. Are there any other comments from board members? just just as a process question I guess. So it sounds like you you've heard
129a lot like do we need to like because it's agenda planning do we need to approve some sort of I feel like I feel like you've heard everything we've said and like as much as you can will get incorporated into the presentation. Do we need to do do we have to have to withdraw my motion? Is it like is there something needs to happen? All right. Are there any other items for agenda planning? Okay, then we're going to move on to board member comments. Any board member comments? I guess I'll echo again, congratulations to our retirees. Thank you so much to Principal Connley um and Miss Kenny who gave an incredible presentation to the board about the outdoor classroom here at Geyser. Um there's some really exciting stuff happening that is connecting the school much
130more with the community. Um and I think that that is really amazing to hear about. Um congratulations to our athletes and our musicians and I wish everybody a wonderful holiday break. Um our next meeting is on January 8th at 7 p.m. This will be at the middle school and our presentation is going to be from pupil services. Can I get a motion to adjurnn, Deb? And I see a second from Connie. Is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you so much.