SSCSD BOE Meeting 6/12/2025

001a call to order the Thursday, June 12th meeting, regular meeting of the board of education of the Saratoga Springs City School District. Um board members, uh Angie is going to be here a little late, so I'm uh I'm going to take us through the end of the main meeting, uh even though she'll arrive in the middle and then she'll take over executive session and do that. Um Bobby, can I get a roll call, please? Trusty. Trusty Crackler here. Trusty Amry here. Trusty Braxton here. Caligan. Trusty Copan here. Trusty here. Trusty here. Student representative here. Student representative here. Thank you. You all join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. Great. Uh, could I get a motion to approve the um meeting minutes from May 21st and questions? All in favor? uh could I get a

002motion to accept tonight's agenda as presented second? All in favor? Brings us to public comment. On behalf of the board, thank you for being here. We truly value input from the community and appreciate your engagement. New York State Board of Ed meetings are held in public so that the board can conduct the business of the district visibly to maximize transparency and information sharing. They are not public meetings uh with real-time dialogue um with attendees. However, our board provides two of them during which speakers may address us to share information and opinions that may inform our work. In the case that followup is necessary, the appropriate district officials will reach out. The first public comment period 30 minutes and then after the board conducts it business a second comment period is conducted with no official time

003limit. We ask speakers in the audience to conduct themselves in civil and constructive manner uh modeling the same respectfulness we expect from students. The uh this opens our first public comment period. Each speaker is allotted a maximum of three minutes and before you address the board please clearly state your name. Our first two slots uh actually our first three slots are reserved for students but two students have signed up. So tonight our first speakers will be students. Um first up is Payton. Are you together? That's fine. Sur Payton and then Aurora Murray. Welcome. We also hosted and improve communication between staff and administrators. also well attended also well loved and our last thing that we've discuss and address issues. Thanks very much. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else who wishes to address the

004board right now? All right, that'll wrap up our first public comment period. Uh, and it brings us to board committee reports. Are there any committee reports? We have policy. I don't think anyone else that we'll go straight to policy. So I think the we had a policy meeting forward in weeks but also now I guess the time to discuss conduct questions on that. I think that's under first read, right? The code of conduct is here for first read. So, as you know, there's been there was a public hearing a little while ago and so the uh the board can ask questions or offer comments now, but we'll have an opportunity at the next meeting where we will vote on that along with all those other Just saying that Dave and Michelle, we've got a committee

005that reviews the code of conduct each year. Uh we did our public hearing prior to meeting, but since we're now in public session just to review the vetting process and the committee just publicly. Yeah, publicly just so everyone else, Dave, just a short abbreviated version of the pro of just the process, not the recommendations. So based on the emails that went around questions that were already asked, some answered, some still processed. It's fairly obvious that the piece on student seizure that covers the proposed there's still some questions that board members want to get out. So wondering Kevin want to take the podium and I'm sure there'll be some questions and I was wondering if anyone was didn't have time to question. A bunch of us have already question. So I still have some questions concern

006thems I guess my question is what I what I don't see process that has adults speaking on behalf of the student during the search I know students don't have life having. So the first thing I just wanted to make a minor goal of having metal detector wondage in the due process procedures and protocols where we students in they have the rights to share with us and we conduct our normal protocols. So they do have due process. Okay. So I guess um with reference to the specific There's only one handcolfted because we don't this approved as policy. So it's not written anywhere yet because the board has not passed the policy. Okay. But I mean protocols are internal for our administrator. Okay. Um I guess my concern is that it seems like a tool to protocol

007is required in order to concerned I don't understand how I guess I think that we're at a time when we focus on building connection and I worry that connection I agree to a certain degree. So 10 years ago, this would not come up because unfortunately things have changed quite a bit with the types of materials. So part of what I'm hearing is our cursor searches. Luckily, you don't hear a lot about those because we conduct those in private and we conduct those usually we don't have to get to that point because we interview students process. We always have another We don't usually get to search. So this would be another tool for us to use in a changing world where items are easily concealed, less detected. It's not it's not in terms of it. This

008would be the last resort. A cursor research is something we do not often, but we do it very less often. This is the last item with our kind of rough draft of what we think it would look like would be when we have additional knowledge that there might be something harmful on that person. And then I think the We have a responsibility to ensure the safety of our students concern to us. I can't give you a black and So let's say we received a credible specific report indicating a safety issue. So we would in the privacy of our offices with two people bring a student in. They consent to a search. We search their belongings and we could potentially depending on what the safety issue is and the different protocols that we provided to you

009potentially use that metal detector wuck and I don't know if this is YouTube but if a student says yeah you can search me you like if you think a student has you saying it as a new world but like I'm trying to think of what we didn't 10 years ago. All I can come up with is cell phones and vapes. Um, but like, you know, a vape is potentially dangerous, right? They said, "You can search me." And you're like, "Yeah, but you have it. You know, I I know you have it stuck in your waistband." And then like then you would ask again like, "Can I wand you?" And they would say, "Yes." I'm just I'm trying to I'm trying to imagine a scenario where a student would consent to a search with a you

010know an a metal detector if they had something on them like I think you're asking us to speak for the students but that's really challenging for us to do. So in the situations that you're saying, if if there is a situation that fits the different draft protocols that we provided to you that are internal, then we could potentially use it if we feel like there is a safety issue that will impact our students and our staff in our building. I I think the some of the students who are involved in these activities know we don't have the capacity to do this and therefore somewhat pretty proudly talk about how they conceal their their items in in almost in plain sight but just out of our our cursor research range. So it's it is it is

011something that um we know we we think we know It's there, but we we don't have the tool right now to either have it as something that is um it is is something that the students know we have that tool to go to would help I think instead of them knowing that they can seal these items on. So that that is that kind of answers your question in a different way. The students do know that we do not have the ability to detect concealed items. Connie, then John So, I have like a bunch of like check for understanding items. So, if you could just say yes, that's correct or no, that's not, that would be great. So, first I do want to say that I absolutely support a safe learning environment for students and staff.

012Our job is to help people learn. Um, so can you please clarify the following? Um, administrative and security staff are the only ones using the wands, not the SRO. Is that correct? Only administration. Thank you. And this is for any contraband like vapes, phones, and weapons. Correct. Or or anything else metal. I guess I don't want to necessarily say that because down the line there might be something new. So included but not limited to. Okay. Okay. But it includes those things. Okay. I I don't think we believe a phone is dangerous. No, but it will be contraband as of next year due to Governor Hokll's. As of right now, I would probably phone is not dangerous to another. So I would almost exclude that for now. But to Michelle's point, we don't we don't know

013what is coming exactly. Okay. But you could want for a phone. That's not our our proposal currently is not wanting phones. Okay. Items that are dangerous to the other students and staff, not we don't see a phone being a danger to another student. Okay. And these searches are done in private. Correct. In offices. Okay. and they will be done in a way that deescalates the situation where students are treated with dignity and diplomacy and respect of course. Okay. Um so I will say that I have had several conversations with school administrators and security directors. Some schools well some administrators now work in a school that don't have the use of wands but they did and they're like why don't we have ones here? Like I want ones. Um, no one has said that they're a

014bad thing. And I also asked about like, well, have you ever run into like a legal issue where someone's complaining that you violated their rights and they say no? Um, what they do and what what does happen is when people when students refuse to comply, they call home and bring the parents in on the situation. And typically that helps um because the parents are like, "Can you please like I need to get back to work. Can you please give them your vape?" Um otherwise the student is sent home. Is that correct? Correct. And we follow those same protocols. So when the student is sent home, we have a duty to provide them with an education. Correct. That is done. We have an afterchool tutoring program. Okay. For mandated uh purposes like suspension. Okay. Those are

015all of my checks for understanding. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I've got uh John, Beth, and Deb. John, um thank you for this information. And uh I will say I'm I'm favorably inclined here, but um can can we can you get a lot more concrete? Can you like don't think in terms of policy. Give us a scenario where you implement this policy and it's a win. And let's you're not giving us every scenario. just give us a a modal expected kind of scenario and it's a win. We because we have this we we we've encount the reason we're here is we've encountered many scenarios. Um one is um repeated suspicion of drug use smell coming from a certain person. Um, these students are telling us that this student is concealing that item in a specific

016location and we do a cursory search. Nothing is found. The the parents may not be exactly cooperative. There is no deterrent and there is no way for us to prove that we know exactly where where that item is. And we we we feel like we don't have the adequate tools to to at least get to the level where the student stops uh his or her behavior. What's the item? Can I can I add to that? Name the item. Maybe it's a THC vape. Okay. And and if they decline to be wanded, you is that the right word? If they decline to be wanded is a sentence I didn't think I was going to say. Um then you're done. Or or I mean then then you move into a different trajectory. It helps it helps us

017with our conversation with that with that parent to say that there's a we we have gone to the highest level of our cursor search and there's a there's a robot please come in so we can discover so that's one scenario or they'll say yes go ahead and then you've got the wand and then and then you can discover this thing and then you proceed with that knowledge correct and I would say that we have a lot of concerns about the repeated students that are coming to our office for the same report through credible um reports through students and potentially staff. And when we know that the board has heard on numerous occasions some concerns about these issues through open comment, we feel like we want to do something to help support encouraging safety in our

018bathrooms and in our school. Um and we feel like this would be an additional tool to help be a deterrent uh for our students. And I I just add I think you've been trying a lot of different things and you'd like to be able get us to a better position. That's that's what the intent here is. Yes. Thank you, Beth. That response actually helped with something that I was going to ask. Um, I know in some of our conversations that occurred prior to this meeting, um, it was shared that other districts in our area are using wands successfully. And I was just wondering if if there's either, you know, or were able to get more data on that instead of anecdotally saying like they like them and it's helpful and they find that it reduces

019vaping in the bathrooms or um whatever the outcome is that we are aiming for. So I just I don't know if that if there's like best practices with using wands and um if that is something that we can get information about um the ways in which districts are using one successfully. How often do they get used? Um outcomes, things like that. And um you know, it's interesting. I wasn't thinking about a phone as being dangerous, but in September, they're not supposed to have them. And so, do you envision getting to a point where you would use the lawn to check for phones? We really see it as a safety reserved for those scenarios. We we are worried about the safety of many students based on what was reported. I don't think a I'm not saying

020no. I'm not saying no, but it doesn't seem like something that would fit our criteria for this. Deb, do you want to say something? Yeah. Um, thank you for explaining more. I think it's helping us all and and I think probably you share the same concern in that I think my fundamental concern shared by other folks here is I I object to the sort of militarization of schools and increasing level of security that that only resembles you know I mean and and I'm not saying that's your intent at all. So uh my concern too would be the cell phone in the fall and but I finding safety in terms of drugs specifically. Um that makes more sense to thank you. Um so just process note here. We can um we can give a clear opinion

021to the policy committee and the um high school administrators about what the board feels about the inclusion of the wand language um pro or con. We can do that tonight or we can ask them to go back and um tweak language, be more precise in language, uh any number of things. It it the the um schedule, Mike, correct me if I'm wrong. We do have room to to push to to make kind of a push first read off and then second read off and then the end of July meeting when we discuss the the cell phone thing. We could bring that all together if we want. So we have those two more meetings. We have the we have those three options. We don't have to give a decisive um opinion tonight. I before I go

022to I think Natalya, do you have your hand up? But before Yeah, before I go to Natalya, I um I just wanted to echo uh mainly Deb. Um and that is that my I you know I have I have kids uh who uh in the last five or six years in the high school um you know really complained about the the uh vape rooms that that happen to have toilets. you know, that's what they call them. Um, or called them and and I but we've seen we've seen improvement over the last few years as well in in our house in terms of reports of of of um that sort of activity and and how attractive or unattractive it it makes going to the bathroom. Um, and despite the fact that my kids are um have

023have always been wary about going to the to the bathroom, um, because of this sort of thing, I am really, uh, reluctant to support wanding for the reason. And I'm not saying Debb supports this answer, but the reason mainly the reason that Deb brought up and that is the the slippery slope towards, you know, the school to prison pipeline, the, you know, do wans are they a predecessor to um metal detectors? I you know I just hardening of our schools. Uh the the the um uh the relationship I think uh between school administrators and students uh is not made easier and and is would would conceivably be made visually more uh antagonistic with with the uh introduction of um of wanding. I just I don't I don't like the way it feels. I don't have

024anecdotal I I don't have um uh data to suggest that it doesn't work. Um in fact, I you know I you maybe it would I just you'd have to tell me that it would would completely eliminate um the problem entirely for me to maybe um support it. I I just don't like the idea. Um and I I to echo something Matt said earlier. I think I I know that while due process there are some due process elements that are acrude to students, there are there are certain civil rights that that don't um you know at the at the door of the school and and we know that that's um you know the the judges uh judicial cases have have decided that. But it doesn't mean just because they don't have them doesn't mean that we

025can't decide to confer them anyway. um whether it be for educational reasons or just human reasons. Um so I just wanted to say my piece and then move on to whoever else wants to talk. Natala. Yeah. Um I want to say that that concrete example you gave was really really helpful um for me. I think that there are um a couple things that I would want to see happen. Um the first is that again in the actual code of conduct with it that one sentence. I think that that publicly leaves it so open that it's hard for my mind to not go straight to that like, you know, breaking of connection and being used for something like a phone or, you know, something that's just not that serious. Um, and so I guess I I

026feel concerned about how it's written in the code of conduct. Um, I also will say that I think that there are a lot of things that we can say feel like they're helping. Um, but without the data, it is really hard for me to understand and I guess accept that it is more than just a feeling, especially for the person who holds the wand rather than the person who has the wand used on them. And so, I guess I just am curious for more information. I would want there to be something more specific in the code of conduct that's really clarifying how and when it's getting used. Um, but it is really really hard for me to feel good about use of something like that because I do feel I guess I I worry about

027the harm that can be caused by it. But I do really appreciate the specific example. I can see why it could be helpful in a situation like that. Absolutely. And I also just want to say like really don't want kids um I don't want anybody vaping or consuming anything at school that is dangerous for them. I don't want weapons at school. I don't want any of those things. And I appreciate that you are trying to figure out how to lessen that. I really respect that. Thank you. Does the board want to take a straw poll on yay or nay or or uh do we want to send uh a message back to policy and the high school folks for edits? What's your opinion, Beth? I I again I don't how much this is tracked, but

028it would be helpful to to have some data if if it's available. You know, I don't know if that's realistic, if anybody's tracking it, but um that would help me, I think. Just to clarify, you're asking for data from other schools. So, again, we we'd have to reach out to the other suburban council schools and and they would have to be willing to give it or if they track it. I I just don't I just don't want the administrative team to be trying to gather data. You know, that's just a time consuming Yeah. activity that is beyond our control, right? We we don't necessarily have control of those scenarios. I I wonder though like in reporting like is it reported how many times wands were used um in a search I think our school our

029student information system we could track it internally um if that was something that was interesting to you we can certainly add a field well I guess I would I'm more so just wondering how many times it gets used like once a school in other places in other districts once they have one, how much are they using it? So, and if that's not excess data that we have access to. Connie, what's your thought on the process? I think any edits. Um, I think what would be helpful is having a process somewhere in here, but then also something about us tracking our own data so that we and the board being having it be presented to the board on an annual basis so that we we can see for ourselves if it has been effective. Um, I

030think that's probably worth us knowing. So, we probably aren't going to get data from certain school districts because maybe they don't even track it, but we can. So, I think that that is definitely worth doing. Matt, did you I saw your Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess before before we make a suggestion to the policy committee, I guess my my question is like I got to imagine that now a student comes in, you got a really strong suspicion that they've got a THC they you know tucked in a pocket somewhere. You do a cursory search like you can't find it. Haha. Like do you just let the student go back to class at that point or like you're pretty sure they've got I mean like you do something at that point. Yeah. So at

031this point without any additional evidence that is produced in a cursory search there is no disciplinary consequence for that student leading to recidivism in offenses. I'll go. Should I suggest that we don't have a clear consensus here on a like a strong yes included or strong no don't include it? Um, do you mean just on the sentence on the wand? Yeah, I mean like it's within the board's okay perview to say no wanding or yes wanding. Yes on the wanding, but I would like more um I would like some additions including the things that I just mentioned. And that that's what I'm sensing at least on a majority of those who are here. Um okay. So what we need to do is we need to give um policy and and the the high school administrators

032some clear um guidelines for what we'd like to see at the next meeting. Right. Um so that includes if possible uh any data you can collect from other districts if that's okay with Mike that you spend the time doing that and if it's possible to to do that and that's on uh instances of of you numbers um anything you can get that's uh uh speaks to numbers of of times it's used and any effectiveness data that that you can supply. Um I can I ask for one could let me just let me I have a question about the data that can one of the data points be times we would have used it this past year or something along those lines. I mean I I don't think again it's it's like your situation that you

033brought. It's very situational in terms of um we don't document the the necessarily the reported incident of again the the scenarios we went through as you said the kid sometimes goes right back to class that is not something that is reported so would that or would not have been a case where we use the device I can't really say it's very very situational it has to hit a pretty high bar for us to even do a cursory search so this would be above that it would be impossible to go back and and go through those scenarios because as you mentioned that's not a documented case that you brought up. So we wouldn't even have a record of that case. Um, I did see some heads nodding uh when uh I forget whether it was Connie

034or Beth. The concept of sort of having some language in the in the um code of conduct if we're to go forward with with wanding that we uh that the board would routinely get um data on its use here. And that should include um uh numbers of instances uh used and any effectiveness opinions that can be derived from the the data. Um and then was there any uh Natalya on the clarity of the language did you have anything you wanted to were you satisfied with the answers on the clarity? Sure. I guess um when I look at the code of conduct just because it is that single sentence. I think that when um you are speaking you're being so clear that this is really extreme cases. It's going to be rare and I don't think

035that that is clear in the code of conduct. I don't know if it needs to be clear in the code of conduct, but I do think it would be helpful if it's like that. The other thing is just about um the mention of recidivism. I I guess there's this I understand that like if you can't see if you can't find the students device and then they go back to class and then they continue to do it because they continue to be able to be sneaky. I get that that's not like that's not solving the problem. Um the question that I would have is when a student is uh does receive whatever the penalty is for having um a device like that does that also end the situation or is it just that they are removed

036from the environment for a set number of days and then they come back and do it again? I guess that's my other question is about like when we're talking about like uh collecting information or collecting data. I guess I would also be curious as to whether this actually helps students vape less or whether it just leads to them not vaping at school for a set number of days because they're at home. I I would say that it could be both, right? that uh a student may be a first-time offender and they receive their consequence and we will refer them for some services and then they stop vaping which is the ideal and or there could be repeated offense because there is addiction and um and they offend again and then there is a higher consequence

037right I'm just wondering about if there is a consequence is that also taking care of the issue like when we're giving students consequences for vaping are they therefore vaping less like are we actually seeing that them getting the consequences leads to them breaking the code of conduct less I think it depends on the student it really does depend on the student and I just wanted to add about the language part um I've spent I guess hours and hours this week trying to answer the questions and going through the code over and over again so there's new language added into the student search and interrogation area and I know that's what we're focusing on. Please read the whole student search and interrogation section because that's if you really I think the high school did a great

038job of describing it's really an additional tool for them and a very comprehensive process. So it's it's adding to that or another tool in that process. So I know we're talking about it in isolation but it's really in that whole uh search and seedure component. Again I just it's right here with me because I've been reading it three or four times this week. And actually Dave that that answers one of the the frequency of the use of this that heading at least for my work I I live and breathe that heading and I don't luckily I don't live and brea breathe it too often that that cursor search that whole heading is a pretty extreme limited event. It's a addition in that event. So what I'm saying is that entire piece is not something that

039we we regularly do. So it is just an addition to that is already not not frequent. So, I'm glad you guys don't hear about that section because it means we're doing it we're doing it right then. Deb, did you want to comment before we wrap this up? Yeah, I just um uh it does sound like you're doing it right if it's not happening very often, but and it's also this is for the policy folks, the difference between policy and protocols that the the data gathering and stuff is probably a protocol, not a policy issue. And so, wouldn't be in the language of the code of conduct. Is that Well, it could be a regulation uh an administrative regulation could be appended to it. That's that's what I'm thinking. Just to to cl make that clear

040and also for the point that this is one tool in a in a toolkit of searching that the data should be about the searches in general and sort of the right cursory search as well as using a wand you know that what we're hoping whether it's an effective whether this type of you know response to student conduct is effective. Does that make sense? Mike and uh M Michelle and Oh, did you have another comment? I I have one more check for understanding for the administrators and then one for the board. So the student does have the right to refuse the search. Correct. They do. Okay. And this does not violate the fourth amendment because legal has checked this. Correct. I would say if legal has approved the language has approved then it is yeah then

041it is approved. So if and then for the board if those two things were listed somewhere either in the regulation or the policy is that does that make it more amendable for those that are not liking it? I mean we'd have to pull each person individually. I don't think I don't think that's what we're at we're we're doing right now. It wouldn't for me, but um uh I think what we're doing right now is trying to give you folks um see if you can get us some data. See if you can let us know what data you could collect were this policy to go into uh uh effect. and um I guess work with Mike and in terms of any of the anything that was said tonight that that could go into the language to

042just um clarify it a little bit. I know that's clear as mud. Sorry. Um but you know, just I I I think we're we're asking you to bring it back to us again for a first read again. Cool. Everyone, any other questions? I know we focus on cont anything else that you would like the policy committee to look at other than uh student search. There's also seven other policies listed there including extreme heat. Uh so make sure you check those out. Great. Thank you high school folks and Dave for all your work. All right, that brings us to student representative reports. Casey and Matt. Uh, thank you. At Dorothy Nolan, the fifth grade students were able to enjoy a perfect day at Camp Shinjuk, including a campfire and s'mores as the end of year trip.

043Students in grades K through 5 are looking forward to their end of year picnics at Gavin Park. An extra thank you to the parents that helped make this possible. The entire school community is looking forward to the flag day celebration and the honoring of hometown heroes this Friday. Huge thank you to Shannon Shaw and Meg Homics for their dedication and efforts in the HSA. Both are moving on and will be greatly missed. At Geyser Road on May 23rd, they held their annual career day. They had so many community members and parents present. The field day was May 28th and they lucked out with great weather. The Geyser Road orchestra entertained family members. On May 29th, fifth grade enjoyed their trip to Camp Ginger Cookook again without rain. They finished up I Ready testing and are

044looking forward to their flag day celebration this Friday. At Greenfield, they had their fun day on May 27th. All students enjoyed outdoor activities and they had over 20 family members come to see the fun of the day. Students are enjoying endofear field trips to places like the State Park, Canfield Casino, the Jungle Experience, and the Hudson Railway. The third grade students put on a hat parade last week. On Thursday, June 5th, the fifth grade students had their end of year trip. They spent a day at Silver Bay Lake George. They also welcomed the new kindergarten students for kindergarten screening. At Division Street, students across all grade levels have been have been enjoying a variety of exciting field trips this spring. Last week, the fifth graders had a wonderful time exploring the Wild Center in Tupper

045Lake. Today the students had a blast at field day and the PBIS end of year celebration. They'll close out the week with the annual flag day ceremony on Friday morning and the PTA fifth grade farewell celebration that evening. At all the elementary schools tonight, third and fourth grade students from uh were invited to band and orchestra instrumental at the band and orchestra instrumental padding zoo here at the high school. Students had the opportunity to try band and orchestra instruments and families heard a presentation from the music teachers about the program. The students were so excited about their opportunities to learn an instrument next year. At Maple A, grade level teams are attending their end of year field trips, including the upcoming seventh grade boat trip to Lake George and the eighth grade field trip to

046Washington DC in May, which was a huge success. The kids and staff that attended had a blast. Maple Fest will be taking place on June 20th. Staff has been working very hard to plan and organize a great day for Maple A students. Concert season has come to an end at Maple and it was a resounding success. Kudos to the music department who worked very hard to prepare students for their shows and it was very evident in their performances. Kids are rocking the end of the year. Finally, at the high school, student council held a successful springfest at the end of May for all students. Despite the rain, students had fun with games and treats. Congratulations to the 96 students who earned the seal of biteracy and the 239 students who earned the seal of subject

047readiness. These are graduation designations earned by graduating seniors after numerous steps to demonstrate achievements in languages and social studies. Uh Saratoga High School recently recognized 106 students for awards and scholarships at the academic awards night last night or last week. Graduation is Friday, June 27th at 9:00 a.m. at SPACK. We look forward to starting graduation week with rehearsal and elementary walkthroughs on Monday, June 23rd, and ending the week with the 152nd commencement ceremony for the high school. Thank you. Thank you. And um the Casey and Matt's last meeting uh technically is uh in two weeks, but it's the night before graduation. And so we have made the offer that they uh they could miss that if they wanted. We suspect strongly that they will. So today, Casey and Matt, we wanted to um show our

048gratitude and appreciation for for you uh sitting in with us for an entire year. Thank you for your your dedicated service uh for all the reporting uh for all the work that you put in during the week in addition to incredibly, I know, impacted uh senior in high school schedules. Um and this year, thank you in particular for your insight and advice uh as we try to build a policy towards next year which um you know that as you know most of you know um you know we've had student reps on the board for years. Uh it's just become mandatory uh per the uh per state education department um as of next year. And one of the things we wanted to do was make was revisit the role, make it more robust, ask their opinion.

049And and Casey and Matt have have uh generously and insightfully uh added to our understanding of the role and what it could be and and and uh so I want to thank you for that and wish you uh all the best in your future endeavors. Uh we have a a a card and a gift for each of you and uh good luck next year. [Applause] Thanks, Mike. And that, uh, Mike, that'll lead into Mike's, uh, administrative report, superintendent comments. Great. Uh we have the wonderful opportunity to recognize our board of education trustees uh just like our teachers administrators uh who are dedicated to ongoing professional development and taking advantage of learning opportunities outside the classroom. Uh our board uh again is very active when it comes to their professional uh and personal growth as board

050trustees. So each year we are uh very fortunate uh to be able to recognize board trustees who go above and beyond uh and are recognized by the New York State School Boards Association. Uh there's a point system um for when uh school board trustees participate in uh NISBA association professional development, attend conferences, go to workshops, take on additional leadership roles and responsibilities. Uh so we've had several of our board trustees in the past uh recognized. Uh so this year we want to congratulate uh both Connie and Beth for being recognized by the school boards association uh for their achievement award uh for uh conferring uh conferring more than 75 points on the point system uh for all their outstanding work representing Saratoga Springs. So congratulations [Applause] I'll catch up. We'll give Connie her certificate when

051she comes back. Uh so earlier this evening prior to the start of uh the business meeting uh we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate 27 of our uh district faculty members as well as building a district level administrators who uh earned their tenure tonight. Uh so uh congratulations to all those individuals who've worked extremely hard. Uh we want to thank all the mentors and the veteran teachers and the building administrators uh again who support our probationary teachers uh throughout their probationary uh period. So earning tenure obviously is a significant milestone uh in an educator's uh career. Uh so we had a a great reception uh you'll see a photo on the website uh of our group um uh here in the coming days. Uh so just again want to congratulate uh all of our teachers

052uh our TAs and administrators uh for earning their uh tenures appointments and again there's a a pretty long list uh that's on the agenda tonight for uh for their tenure appointments. So congratulations to this year's uh tenure class. Um, as mentioned in in the student report uh last week, just want to thank the high school for doing an incredible job uh with our our student uh academic awards as well as the opportunity to honor um alumni of the school district and in our hall of distinction. So this year we had two inductees, Mr. Sunonny Bonacio and Dr. Jenny Lounsberry. Um both came back um again to uh receive recognition as inductees. Uh so congratulations uh to Mr. Bonaccio and Dr. Lounberry again for all of their professional accomplishments. Uh and it's just a wonderful way

053for our students who are being recognized for academic achievement uh to see uh graduates of Saratoga Springs who've gone on and have done uh extremely well uh in their professional careers and continue to give back to their community. So uh congratulations uh to the this year's inductees. And then finally, Matt hit on it. Uh we are just two weeks away. uh from the class of 2025 graduation ceremony uh which really is a it's a community celebration um even though we're there are seniors graduating from our high school uh it truly takes an entire K12 effort of support uh for our students um as they as they go through their academic uh careers here in Saratoga Springs. So, uh, really looking forward to celebrating, uh, this year's graduating class on Friday the 27th, uh, at 9:00

054a.m. at Spack. And we're going to have a beautiful weather day that day. I guarantee it. So, um, so that's it. So, we do have, uh, two presentations tonight. So, at this time, I'd like to turn over to Lisa Cutting. Uh, and our first uh, presentation is from our counseling and student support services uh, annual update. Good evening everyone. And as you'll see based on the names up on the uh screen as well as the folks who are lining up here to present, it does take a community. And so tonight we're going to be talking about our student support services K12. And uh this wonderful group of staff um and the students who spoke earlier are part of an even larger community who work together um with our students and with our classroom teachers as

055well. And there is one four-legged friend here also who's part of this. Okay. So, here we go. And I would ask folks to introduce yourselves um to the board uh as you speak because there's a lot of us. Okay, [Music] let's try. Okay, so the goals of tonight's presentation are to share with you uh student supports and counseling through our multi-tered systems of support. uh reflect on the work and the newer initiatives implemented this year and then give a glimpse into what's coming down the pike. And this is tied directly to our core beliefs of equity of opportunity, collaboration, community as well as personalization. Speaking of MTSS, last month you heard quite a bit of information regarding the academic portion of uh our view and our phil philosophical approach to working with students. Um that

056whole child connection, the whole student connection. There's the academic, the social emotional as well as behavior, health and attendance. So tonight, a lot of the focus is on the social emotional and the behavioral health and attendance. However, you will hear from our counselors as their uh positions are unique in that they bridge um to the academics of course as well. At this point, I'll turn it over to Stacy Molton to give a brief overview of the different roles. Thank you. I'm Stacy Molton, director of people services. Um so, as you can see our little um circle, if you remember, I created an image that's kind of like a flower because I think this is really a group that really works very well together. So um as a district we are really proud of the folks

057within our um pupil services and student services areas. Uh so we have our school psychologists, our social workers, our school counselors and um our behavioral health uh so BHSN who works with us here. Um many of the roles again are very different but they all really work together. to support a common uh mission and vision for our students to have them feel supported and um succeed individually. Hi, I'm Oh, sorry. I'm Melissa Conor, school counselor at Melba Middle School. School counselors play a critical role in student well-being and success. As school counselors, we address the academic, career, and social emotional needs of all students. Our work is essential, especially as students needs grow more complex. We have aligned our program and student engagement with the American School Counseling Association. ASCA provides a comprehensive framework for

058school counseling, excuse me, programs that support student achievement and development. Every year, our department, thank you, Lisa Cutting, has the opportunity to send counselors to collaborate and engage with school counselors across New York State at the annual New York State School Counseling Association. Hoping to get the national one sometime in there. The ASKA model transforms counseling from a reactive service to a strategic data-driven program. There are 36 ASKA student standards that identify and describe the knowledge, attitudes, and skills students should be able to de demonstrate. We use the student standards to assess student growth and development to create culturally sustaining strategies and activities as well as build a program that helps students achieve their highest pos potential. As you can see on the board with our MTSS, our tiers, tier one, tier two, tier three.

059Um, our main three pillars, as you can see on the bottom again, um, academic, college, and career, and social emotional are our main focuses. Here to talk about the programming and the activities that we've done is Zoe McLolin. Good evening. Um, thank you, Melissa. I'm Zoe McLaclin. I'm one of the school counselors at the high school. Um, so building on what Melissa told us about the ASKA model and the MTSS model, the high school and middle school counselors decided tonight to each focus on a lesson plan that we conducted throughout the school year and give you a little glimpse into what we have done. So, some background about high school counselors is that each high school counselor is required by ASCA and New York State regulations to create career plan for each student by the

060time they graduate high school. So that means over the course of four years, we meet with each student at least once a year on a one-on-one basis and we work with them to get to know them on a personal and academic level so that we can create this career plan that identifies their strengths, their areas of improvement, and their goals for after high school. So this year to build on this career plan, we decided to imple a new lesson in which we went to all ninth grade CFM classes. And each ninth grader in these classes completed a survey on Naviance. That was a personality survey. And after the survey, they were given a summary of their personality types, their strengths, their areas of improvement, and how these different characteristics contribute to different fields um of

061careers. So um our goal through this lesson was to have students be able to identify three personal strengths, three career interests, and set at least one goal for themselves that they would be able to achieve by the end of high school. Um, and this information that we got from the survey not only helps students understand themselves better and explore careers that they may not have thought of before, but it also gave us as high school counselors better insight into these ninth graders that were meeting for the first time and we're going to be working with over the next four years. So, we found it to be very helpful and we plan on doing it every year from now on. And this is Brandy Kra, my colleague. She'll be telling you about the results of So,

062the good news is, sorry, I'm short. We met our goal. We um we had over 86% of our ninth graders in the career financial management classes complete the survey and were able to complete a career plan. Um in terms of the other results, we had 88 over 88% were able to identify at least three personality um strengths. 90 over 91% were able to identify three careers that were of interest to them that they would pursue in the future and identify what related skills they would need to be successful in those jobs. and over 81% of them were able to figure out and identify at least one goal that they wanted to achieve while they were in high school. Um whether it's improving their homework skills, study skills, or actually saying they were going to research

063uh more in depthly the careers that they were interested in. So the top careers that the students um ended up having were no surprise to us. They all want to be the boss. They want to be the chief executives. They want to be the marketing managers, the lawyers, um engineers. So they have really strong goals for the future. They were also able to um identify their personality traits. We found a lot of our students were extroverts um had sensing personalities. They were um they were feeling had feeling personalities and judging. So, um, they were also able to, we had these really great activities where they were able to like find other students that had their exact personality types, which was really fun for the kids. So, the good news is, as Zoe said, we'll be

064continuing doing this, but we will also be doing another activity with this group of students in 10th grade as well as the incoming ninth graders. Um, it was such a success. Thank you. And now Chris will be um going over the tier 2 um approaches for the middle school. Good evening everyone. Uh board, thank you for having us here. Um so uh like the high school, we operate in a tier one, tier two, tier three level all school year. This is a very minute uh kind of uh glimpse into what we do on any given day as school counselors in Maple Lab. Um I work primarily with our sixth graders in conjunction with Rebecca Schnure. Uh we serve approximately 450 plus students between the two of us in sixth grade. Um I'd like to highlight

065our a tier 2 intervention that we have. Um last summer, thank you. We were awarded the opportunity to uh develop a curriculum which aligns with our ask of model. Uh and we made sure to hit our mindsets and behavior standards that we utilize to guide our uh groups. For this particular group, um we really wanted to identify students uh within the first month and a half of them entering Maple Lab. Fifth to six trade is a big transition. Uh we used our teachers and staff and administrators to identify these students who for example may be sitting alone in the cafeteria. Perhaps they're struggling in groups um or small groups in the classroom. Uh we compiled a list, reached out to parents. We're able to gather a student case load who joined us during lunch periods

066once a week. Our our goals were really to um create a safe and welcoming environment to provide our students with a new set of social skills and tools uh that they would uh not only help them in the classroom but in the real world um and for students to build self-confidence and simply make a friend. A lot of these kids come in uh some from SAS from St. Clemens, some are just socially awkward, right? Uh so this was an opportunity for them to really build a connection with the school community. Um, and here's some uh results, a little quick uh summary of the outcome. Um, know a lot of our students really found it uh helpful. They were simply able to make a friend. Um, you know, after polling them, we had a pre-assessment and

067a post assessment with uh every single student. Um, you know, believing that being a part of a lunch group could help them make a friend. Previously, before the group even started, no, you can see a lot of students post 11, right? Which was actually the full case load. We had about 11 10 to 11 in each group. Um we also heard back from teachers and we were uh really pleased to uh hear back that they appeared more engaged in the classroom. They seem more um comfortable working inside of uh groups with others. Um and as well the students really enjoyed it. They wanted to come back. They wanted to join our our second lunch group. Um I wish I could do this uh more often. Um but it it's just a small example of a

068tier 2 intervention. Thank you for your time. Oh, also just a collage of images between the high school and the middle school. We love our students. We love what uh what they bring us as well. They bring us so much joy and we're able to implement so many programs and this is just a small example of what we do. Thank you. Next, Kevin. It's okay. It's all good. Um, I'm Carrie Jackson. Um, I am a conduct in restorative instruction instructional coach at Maple Avenue with my colleague Nora Ketchum. This is our first year bringing restorative practices to Maple Avenue. So, year one, tier one. Um, we really encouraged open dialogue and a growth mindset from both our students and our staff this year as we brought restorative practices to Maple Avenue. Uh that looked like

069a lot of walk-in talks with kids and adults, a lot of hallway conversations before school, after school, circles, circles about circles, circles with staff, circles with students, circles with students and staff together. Um as you can see from the data, we've had a lot of success this year. Everyone uh the kids and adults understand in June that we are there to support them um in whatever way that they need. Um the quotes that we included speak to the positive impact that restorative practices has had in our building this year. Um we ended we had our our final staff meeting the other day and uh it was all circles. Every uh staff member participated in a circle including Dr. Patton. Thank you for coming over and joining us with that. That was awesome. And as a

070result of that we just got a new uh note from a staff member uh the other day says Carrie and Nora. I have really enjoyed participating in circles this year. Thank you for taking this on. I look forward to more in the future. And so we are really enjoying the work. Sometimes um it's not always easy to see the positive impacts that we're having. Um it takes time. Um but it really is we feel beginning to make a difference in the climate and culture of our building. So thank you very much. We're proud to see what um what tier two year two brings next year. Thank you. And next is Hello everyone. I'm Kevin Wer, assistant principal. I'm here pretending that I'm Chris Connley, our restorative coach. He had a conflict tonight. I'm lucky to

071work very closely with him. Please don't excuse the brevity or please don't confuse the brevity of my words to how much work is done in the high school on this. Um, I will summarize his work by saying he collaborates very closely with our staff, our students, and our parents to build a more inclusive environment for our students. Um, we also were lucky this year to be able to uh be officially coached by New York State on restorative practices. Um, Chris also meets with us, the administrators and our restorative team, including Zoe. Um, at least twice a month where we develop more strategies to expand this work. Um, the highlight of our year by far was something that Zoe and um, Chris Connley, our restorative coach, developed, which was we led 24 students through a very

072official two days of professional development where they learned how to facilitate and run their own community building circles. This work is already expanding. They are reaching out and asking for more training. And I'll leave you with just a paraphrase quote about the work that one of the students said at the um when we reflected at the end. He said, "Not only do I understand now how to make small talk, I understand how incredibly important it is." By the way, at the beginning, Sere and Aurora pulled what might be the first ever board of ed switcheroo. They did their slide at opening comment, which is brilliant. So, we're going to skip it. Yes. and this was their slide which I think they did an excellent job of presenting. So, thank thank you to them. We know

073they're home watching this uh for being here and sharing the work from NCBI. Okay. And turning it over to Kate. Hi, my name is Kate Fischer. I'm the school social worker at Greenfield Elementary. And I'm going to just provide a brief overview of what social work support looks like across all three tiers in our district. So at tier one, our focus is on prevention and education for all students. In this role, we serve as educators, collaborators, and advocates. We utilize SecondStep curriculum and teach classroom lessons on important skills such as conflict resolution, empathy, and coping strategies. We're part of schoolwide initiatives, including SEAL and PBIS teams. We help monitor data, including trends in attendance and behavior. We may lead professional development for staff on topics such as trauma-informed care. And we're committed to promoting an

074inclusive and culturally responsive environment that honors and reflects the diversity of our school community. At tier 2, our work becomes more targeted and school here, school social workers serve as group facilitators and early intervention providers. We conduct small groups to address specific target uh student needs such as anxiety management, social skills, changing families, peer relationships. We may conduct cond uh conduct behavior or emotional screenings to help identify students who may benefit from additional support. We also implement targeted interventions such as check-in checkout or mentoring programs to improve behavior engagement, attendance, and academic outcomes. And we work closely with students and teachers to collaborate on behavior support plans and to adjust classroom supports or strategies. At tier three, school social workers provide intensive individualized services. In this tier, we serve as case managers, therapists, and systems

075navigators. This includes delivering mandated counseling services through IEP or 504 plans and individual C counseling for general education students. Uh we provide crisis intervention, conduct risk assessments, and support students through safety planning. We coordinate with outside agencies from community mental health providers to child welfare and juvenile justice to ensure students receive the full continuum of care. and we are deeply involved in family outreach and advocacy, working in partnership with caregivers to support student success. School social workers operate across all three tiers of support, but no matter what level of need, our mission remains the same. To remove barriers, connect resources, and promote the social emotional well-being of every student. Thank you. Turn it over to Judy. Hello, my name is Judy Bruce. I'm one of the social workers at the high school. Thank you for

076giving me an opportunity to talk about the work that we've been doing for our suicide prevention. According to the Office of Mental Health, suicide is now the third leading cause of death for individuals ages 10 through 24. Last year, our community experienced the loss of a student by suicide. His death had a profound impact on our community and turned a national statistic into a personal loss for the families, students, and faculty at Zertos. In response, a team from the middle and high schools connected with the office of mental health and joined a multi-year suicide prevention initiative. Our work has focused on professional development, improving our district policy and procedures, and increasing awareness among students and families about suicide prevention and mental health resources. Throughout all our buildings, our team collaborated with school staff to raise

077awareness of the early warning signs, interventions, and referral process for students struggling with mental health crisis. These include integrating the district and building response teams in increasing understanding of the vital role all school staff play in our student lives. We are lined we are we aligned our districtwide assessment tools and re-entry procedures to best practice standards. Using children's books and relatable characters, we were able to adjust our intervention tools at the elementary and middle school levels to reflect age appropriate language and concepts. At the middle and high schools, we increase student awareness by displaying posters highlighting the 988 text helpline in various locations, including the nurse's office, bathroom, and locker rooms. When talking to families in crisis, we can now provide them with information about emergency resources, warning signs, and strategies that they can use

078at home to better support their students mental health. Our goal throughout this process has been to build a consistent, compassionate, and proactive response system to reduce risk and promote student safety and wellbeing. So, one of the programs that we are working on to get at our middle schools, we have a lot of programs that are student centered. Um, so our goal, we just had our meeting last Monday, um, through the New York State Suicide Prevention, they've done a five-year grant. So, it's really nice, this program is being offered to us for free, um, for at least two more years. So kind of to see what it looks like and the skills. Um so basically we're going to collaborate with the clubs that are already in place um talk the adviserss and volunteer u myself and

079there's other adults in the building that we have um collaborated with who really want to be a part of this. So the idea is to um the adults would get training in September the students. So our roll out kind of thinking about this because it was very last like minute with our meeting. Um we would then kind of roll it out with doing uh student training in like late October, early November and then start kind of having our student ambassadors as we want to call them doing campaigns. So whether it's doing chalk walk one month to greet the kids whether it's suicide prevention bullying um and the idea is to um really work to build resilience increase connection change unhealthy norms around helpseeking break down codes of silency secrecy and silence and teach healthy coping

080strategies. So the idea is that if you start to educate and train the students, if a student goes to them about a problem, they can either a introduce them to their trusted person or then they'll have resources and support to allow them to get the help that they need versus maybe silently being in the bathroom. That's one of the other things we want to do is get more posters, have the kids create the posters, put them in the bathrooms as well. Um so it's just getting a voice to bigger population. So the idea is to get about 6 to 12% of our students um to buy in and then them as well as having an adult for one adult to three to five children that would meet once a month with the club. So, it's

081no extra work that the club advisers are doing um as I am volunteering to prep and set up everything when we meet with them and train them to just create the collaboration between the clubs. So, that's something to look forward on a report next year as we keep working on it. Good evening. My name is Katie Sup and I'm excited to start my third year in the K through5 behavioral coach role. I'm also a therapeutic crisis intervention in schools coach and a positive behavior intervention in schools co-coordinator K through8. So first I'd like to review some data. This is the second year in this role. So this year I had 81 requests and last year I had 64. And if you can notice that 65% of the intervention that I provided were for the primary

082ages with 31 requests in kindergarten. So just knowing that our incoming case students um and require some support so they can meet the standards in kindergarten. As you heard in the people service presentation in February, our change in student enrollment has led to increased student need. As the behavioral coach, the majority of my day is spent educating, coaching, and collaborating with staff to support our students. The work supports tier one, tier 2, and tier three practices with a focus on providing proactive interventions to help prevent concerning behavior. We review current behavior management practices and determine the next best steps. As you've heard before, all behavior is communication. Concerning behavior occurs in response to specific expectations kids are having difficulty meeting. In this role, I push teams to explore and investigate why a student might be

083exhibiting a concerning behavior. We often gather information from the child so they're part of the problem solving process. This helps students learn how to express their concerns, to listen to the concerns of others, and determine mutually satisfactory solutions. All skills that are necessary for the real world. Often concerning behavior is related to difficulties with flexibility or adapt adapt whatever to frustration, tolerance, problem solving, and emotional regulation. We create and implement interventions to support student need. It may take many observations, meetings, trials, and intervention fidelity checks to make changes. When interventions are in place, we do see improvements in student behavior. Thank you for the opportunity to support our students and staff in this role. Good evening. Uh, my name is Jen Warner. and I am the attendance liaison for the district. As we all understand

084that attendance is one of the strongest indicators of student success. Our community is evolving and changing. Our families face um they're they're facing more complex issues. We continue to adapt our strategies to meet those needs with empathy and in action. This year we've implemented several new initiatives under this tier one engagement. These are universal strategies designed to support all students. Some of those efforts include improve communication with families. Attendance letters are now being sent to all parents and guardians, not just those who have children who are chronically absent. Um, this helps raise awareness early and encourages conversations about attendance before it becomes an issue. Uh, we hosted an attendance awareness month. It was a district-wide campaign to highlight the importance of regular attendance, home visits, and family support. During home visits, I had opportunities to

085connect with families personally, share valuable resources, and when needed, guide them to community agencies that could offer additional support. Elementary outreach for our K through five students. I spoke at assemblies to explain the importance of showing up every day. I also attended kindergarten screening to discuss the attendance with parents. Uh middle school engagement at Maple Avenue. I joined flex chats and restorative community circles creating safe spaces for open dialogue around attendance and helping students reflect on their challenges and commitments. And then the data. Okay. Um so this attendance data shows that we are on target to continue to decline in the number of students that are chronically absent. These efforts reflect our beliefs that building strong relationships with students, families, and schools is key to improving attendance and helping every student thrive. Okay. Thank you

086for your support. So, what Jen just whispered to me is um that YouTube clip is part of the attendance awareness month that occurred in March um and students participated in different contests etc. and one of them was creating an attendance video and uh there was an excellent video. It's on our website that was created by um a high school student. Uh there were a variety of them, but this one was just amazing. And so we'll be using that next year and um Jen also had students creating posters. So the student created posters promoting positive attendance will be in the schools throughout next year. So kudos to a great job and working together across all the buildings. So, what are we looking ahead at next year? Um, there's no way to capture all of the tremendous

087work that the folks um who were speaking tonight do um and the additional work and connections with our teachers, our families, um and students throughout the district. But we'll continue doing all of this to create that welcoming environment through multi-tered systems of support. We had a program review um this year on that which identified some areas to work on. So we will be uh doing those things including um clarity of communication and operations manual and really professional uh support and learning across tier one uh but all the tiers um whether it's in academics um support as well as uh behavior and uh attendance supports. The counseling uh department also had conducted an intensive program review this year and kudos to them because they did a ton of work on that. They worked with a consultant

088um on some of that and you could see the some of the phenomenal work and that's just a sliver of what um they worked on this year and will continue to to do. So kudos to them and work that they'll be doing as an outgrowth of that. Um, and we will just continue our community outreach. There's some new community housing that has gone up and so we're going to uh continue that outreach as well. But it's not possible without uh people say a village. This is a small city here. Um, and so thank you for everyone coming out to present and give a little glimpse of what um you do for our students. Um, and If the board has any questions at this point, we will take them. Any questions or comments for the presenters?

089Connie, I see. Then Natalia, then Matt. Uh just a quick comment. Thank you for your presentation. Counselors, social workers, behavioral coaches, attendance lessons. U you do so much um like college and career planning. um teaching people proper behavior, basically telling people what they need to hear, but um some people won't tell them maybe, but you will. Um warm handoff to services. Um but you you advise not only the students and their families, but I can say as someone that works in a school, I go to my school counselors and social workers all the time about my students. And I think that's something you probably leave out, but not intentionally. Um, but it's something that definitely takes up a fair amount of your time. So, thank you for that, Natalia. Um, yeah, big thank you. I

090also am really excited about the sources of strength. Um, I went to a presentation. I just looked it up. It was Hilton Central School District, which is right outside of Rochester. Um, and it was a presentation. I think that Beth went to it with me in October. And, um, it was entirely done by students and it was Unbelievable to watch how passionate these students were talking about this program and how much it had affected them and how prepared they were to then be supports for their peers. It was really incredible and I'm excited that we will be doing it here. So, thank you Matt and Beth. So, John Bergamman is sitting behind me and not can't get to a microphone so I have some abbreviations but I just want to ask what they mean. Uh

091Stacy, I think at the beginning you said BHSN, which I think was a behavioral health So it's behavioral health services north. Um it's our our outside mental health clinic that we have here within all of our um buildings. So it's breaking down those barriers for families to receive. Thank you so much. Um and then uh the tears of social worker, what does NCBI stand for? National Co that word coalition building institute. Oh, coalition building institute. Sorry. Yes, you got it. Um, and then I know is social and emotional learning. What is PBIS? Positive uh behavioral intervention systems. Come on, bring another one. Sorry, I got another one. So on on that same PBIS slide, there was an up like an up the hill was P was PBIS and then down the hill was RTI. to

092intervention. Okay. Um, great. Thank you. You got that got that one. Um, uh, IEP is an individual education program. A 504 is a So, um, that is an accommodation plan. It's also out of pupil services. So, these are for students who may have um a health or other impairment that impedes their ability to access their education. So, it's not an IEP, but it is a legal document. It's governed under different regulations. Um, help provide access. So, it's breaking down those barriers for some of those students um for an equal playing field. Great. Thank you. Um and then I had two other sort of like examples that I was sort of hoping I could get. Um in the student survey um you know, you talked about that all the students were able to come up with

093three personal strengths. I just could you give me an example like what would like what is a personal like what is a personal strength? Are there one or two you could throw out? Sure. So um on the survey the strengths and areas of improvement were actually broken down into a few different categories. One was learning styles, one was collaboration styles, one was personal strengths and areas of improvement. I'm blanking on the fourth, but in each category there was um strengths and areas of improvement. So, examples of strengths related to learning styles could be um telling them that they are good auditory learners or they respond well to um like one-on-one support. Perfect. Thank you so much. And then my my last sort of question on the K through five uh social social work. Um, you

094you uh you you did some work. You talked about helping with concerning behaviors and I just I was wondering if you could give an example or two of what a concerning behavior is for the behavior coach for Yeah, behavior coach for the K through five. It was one of the Yeah, it could be calling out in class. It could be running away from adults. Um yeah, thank you, Beth. Um yes, I want to echo what has already been said. Thank you so much for all of the work that you do in all of the ways that you support and help students. Um, I think the attendance information is really encouraging and I believe the work that you are doing is connected to that. I think there are positive outcomes when students feel connected and valued

095and involved and cared for. So, thank you for all of the ways in which you support what's happening in the classroom. Um, and I'm also very excited to about the sources of strength. It's a really cool program and uh and just empowering students, providing um education and and professional development for staff. I I think it's wonderful. So, I'm really excited to see how that works out. All right. Well, thank you very much for that uh presentation. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Again, that's just a wonderful example of just the incredible team we have collaborating together. So, thank you to our school counselor, social workers, Sykes, uh all the student support staff for their incredible efforts throughout the year supporting our students and families. Um so, presenters, you're more than welcome to stay, but this is

096a great time to excuse yourself. Uh so, we do have uh one uh one more presentation. Uh and again, uh Lisa will be taking the lead. And that's our curriculum instructional program, uh renewal update. Whoever has those lovely books that we passed around, can we grab those, too, so I can give them back to Judy for our kids? Thank you. Yes. Okay. So, here we go with presentation number two. So, we're switching back uh a little more to the academic focus here. So, this is our program and curriculum renewal that you've heard us um speak of. Again, uh we have a team of folks here who are going to be speaking about this. Um and as always, this is tied to our um core beliefs and our mission. And one of the things I'm just

097going to touch on here is that uh lovely color wheel which indicates New York State's portrait of a graduate which they've come out with additional I'll call them soft skills. Some of you have been around for a while. We'll call them 21st century skills etc. But really uh requiring schools to make sure that we're building in those pieces. So we'll be taking a deeper dive into that in the years to come. We um you just heard us uh the team uh present on some of these social emotional competencies um and you've heard a lot about our culturally responsive work as well. So uh we will be working on those things um in the in the years to come as well. So our renewal process is systematic so that we can look at each program each

098content area um and and um not only for the work and the professional learning and the time that the teachers need uh and the administrators but also for the financial impact it has. So um it's part of our fiscal responsibility as well regarding uh resources to support what goes on in the classroom. And at this point I will turn it over to Dr. Whitley to talk a little bit more about the renewal cycle. Good evening. The renewal cycle is a structure that we have in place in the district and what we do there's a small sample there of it but the renewal cycle is a six-year plan and within that plan we look at the content areas across the district and we create groups from each department that are compromised of teachers and administrators and

099they represent all the different content areas. We have structures in place for professional learning teams. And with these professional learning teams, it gives us the opportunity to have representatives from each department to be able to come to these meetings, participate in the curriculum renewal, have conversations. Oh, that's clicking ahead on me. Have conversations and then bring the information back to their PLTS for feedback cycles. The focus of this work is really continuous improvement in student learning. When we and use the term program review. What does that mean? Who does that? Well, the teams for each department are made up of administrators that collaborate and grab together and analyze information and communicate that across the departments and across the leadership. When we get together in these curriculum renewals reviews, for example, I work with multiple departments

100across the district. We get together as a department and we talk about the current curriculum. We talk about student performance data. We talk about resources. We talk about enhancement. Um we also really look at relevant research and updated research to look at our learning practices and have those conversations. The program review leads us through this question process. And then in terms of the outcome of that review and the review takes months, you know, it's lots of conversations. In terms of the outcomes of that, we create a report of findings where we look at where our strengths are, where gaps may be, and we make recommendations to the assistant superintendent and superintendent to prioritize recommendations for that curriculum. We always have a group of stakeholders present and we look through all of the that we would

101like to put together um to improve instruction, teaching, and learning. The process has really evolved over the years. It's a six-year cycle. Um and so, for example, year one will be starting um next year for a certain department. So, that means they've already been through a full cycle. Um over this time we have included additional things in terms of program findings, data and also looking at priorities through the budget process and ensuring that we're aligning the budget calendar to priorities in the process. This slide shows an example of what those six years look like. So if you take a look at the graphic, you'll see that year one and year two are for planning and analying. So the conversations that happen during that time are deep thoughtful conversations between teachers, administrators, looking at data, talking

102with students and then in year three we are action planning, addressing recommendations. Then we're working on implementation and then finally in stage six it's an ongoing reflection of process. So this whole process takes up to six years and then we start again to ensure that we're continuously improving our work. I'm gonna hand it over to Dr. Wales. All right. So Dr. Whitley talked about that program review tool. So that's really kind of that guide that allows the group to take that breath, take that step back to see the forest through the trees um and really say, "Okay, let's analyze. Let's check out our curriculum. Is it aligned to standards? How does is it aligned vertically, horizontally? What data do we have from that? What's a student learning? Are they learning the essential standards? Um how

103is that moving from year what assessments do we have? Um, looking at the instruction, what are we seeing? What are the supports in there? How are we using instructional technology to support student access um to the content? And is it enhancing student learning? Um, what sort of professional development do we need um as a PLT or a department or certain grade level or a district? looking at all of those pieces and also looking at it through the lens of are we providing rigorous, relevant, and inclusive and equitable access to that instruction and learning. So those three big areas of curriculum, assessment, and instruction work hand inand in that ongoing cycle for student learning. And I know it's a little dark on the screen, but those four questions in that blue color, those are those four

104driving questions for professional learning teams. So, this isn't something that's just done say outside as a uh curriculum renewal process, but it's done on a weekly basis in terms of asking ourselves, the PLT is asking themselves, all right, how are students doing? Have they learned what we want them to learn? If they haven't, how are we going to help them? If they've already learned it, how are we going to enrich that? And so that all students are being challenged. So those are the ongoing questions and that role of the PLT throughout. But with the curriculum renewal, we're taking that step back, that bigger picture to do a deep dive into um how things are going as a system. And part of that assess part of the system is looking at the assessment system. Um, and

105it's important not to assess just for assessment sake, but what is the purpose of that? um and to make sure that the assessments we do give are purposeful, are providing information and data and that the um that we can as a system whether it's individual teachers looking at their classroom assessments or the bigger assessments, PLTS working together to examine student learning and come up with ways to uh help students that haven't learned it yet or or challenge students that have um looking at it through the curricular lens. Are there areas that we need to bolster because um there it's a little weaker or areas that we're doing really great in. So those pieces all together make up that balanced assessment system and realizing what part each of those assessments play from those large state external

106assessments of regions exams um going back down to the daily uh or weekly formative classroom assessments and to diagnostic assessments that we use to say okay let's not make sure we're not missing any students. Um and New York State recognizes that and actually just recently within the past couple months put out um some recommendations. Nothing startling really. What we know from good research is that you need to have a carefully designed assessment system so that you have that complete coherent picture and of course without over assessing with the um doing it so that you're not invading on instruction time. So, jumping right into the programs and highlighting a couple of the areas that this year are in year one or year two of the program renewal. Um, we'll start off with the STEM areas. So,

107science, technology, engineering, and math. Actually, family, consumer science, and business also kind of falls under that STEM heading. Um, and even though we're focusing on years one and two, I do want to give a shout out to the biology and earth and space science teachers who recently gave their new regions exams on Tuesday. Um, and as did many science teachers across New York State. So, you've heard a lot about science over the years because this has been a multi-year implementation. Um, but we're we're excited that uh we been teaching those threedimensional standards and we can see that come to fruition with the the regents which was a doozy. So um moving on to math which is in year one. So, math is one of those areas that has finished their six-year cycle and now is

108in year one again, which is actually perfect timing because just this past month, New York State released their numerousy initiative. And a lot of times when we think about math, we think about kind of the content of math and we forget about the literacy of math, the numeracy, which is that mathematical literacy. So, it's really nice to start to dig into these. Um, again, as having lived math, there I won't say it's necessarily anything new per se, but some really, really important key ideas that the state is bringing to the forefront for discussions um to help us as we move forward. So, this past year we've kind of put K5 on hold and we'll really be digging into it in the fall. Um, and then focusing on secondary through that program review tool um and

109secondary mathematics, middle school mathematics in high school has really been doing amazing work um as kind of a carryover from their last renewal cycle and digging into assessments. So, I'm going to introduce the middle school math department head, Janelle Miles, who's going to talk about the test mapping work and about their experience with the program review. Hello. Uh, so the math department has taken this very seriously because they want to make sure our kids are learning the standards that they're supposed to be successful. Um, so we for the past two summers have been doing curriculum mapping, making sure everything is all set. Um, and we really changed how we create our assessments. So, all of our old assessments that we thought were great, we still went through and listed all the standards, looked at the

110time we spent teaching those standards, and made sure it was proportional to the assessment. So, we didn't want things on the assessment that we never taught just because they were an easy question. points. Um, and we also didn't want there to be a large percentage of the test and it was just a very short lesson that we did not spend a lot of time on. So, we are really happy with those. We It's It's really changed how the PLTS have come together to make our tests and when we adjust our assessments, it's been helping. Um, oh, my picture. um one of the teachers who is now tenure um Michaela Vanderid and she and I presented at the conference in November uh in a hotel room um it was cramped um but uh still kind of

111cool. Um so that picture up there was one of our test maps. So, we lay out every standard that is on the assessment. Um, a little description of it, what questions match that standard, and then the level of difficulty and and if it's high process, low process, understanding. Um, and we just make sure it matches up. And we shared it with other teachers from other schools, and they were really interested in it. So, it was fun to nerd out about percentages, test questions, and make sure they're valid assessments instead of just things we think look good. Um and then the numeracy briefs I went to the um workshop and there's something that I think this summer when we do our next curriculum hours will incorporate into those uh the fluency which is so important and

112the math teachers have talked about for a long time. Um how can we help kids with their math facts it's not just practice them and do them it's use them. So the magic squares where you have boxes and the diagonals, columns and rows are supposed to add up to the same number. Using those instead of just giving them memorization worksheets of drills and facts um is actually more effective. So this summer we're going to look at how can we help kids improve their fluency um and other tools we can use in the classroom to help our tier one students um right in the classroom. um because seventh and eighth grade we have our AAS for the tier 2 um the extra support but we want more time to work on strategies for our tier one

113students in the classroom so we're looking forward to doing that this summer and Janelle's being humble that was a statewide math conference which isn't usually held in Albany and it was held in a kind of space with limited uh conference rooms. So, it was not ideal, but overall it was a good conference. Um, technology is in year two of its renewal. Um, and this was a great opportunity for the tech teachers to look at the alignment from middle school through high school to make sure that they're providing students experiences that build on each other, not duplicating, but building and growing that understanding um, and giving experiences in both the what we call kind of the technical systems and skills trades type areas. Um, and the engineering type areas. Um, and so what came from them

114reviewing their curriculum is a realization that they need to work a little bit more on some of the alignment in seventh and eighth grade. So starting next year, they're going to make sure that students in seventh grade have those distinct experiences of the uh kind of those hands well it's all hands-on, but the um trades and the woodworking um and how does that look designing with woodworking as you can see from that example up top right is a pingpong ball launcher. Um, so classic example, but how does that work with wood? How do you build that out? How do you design it and come to fruition and make sure that it can do the mechanics that it needs to? Then going off of that, what about engineering? We've done the engineering process, but how can

115we bring in 3D modeling and actually through the problem of um designing and printing out 3D printing out pieces to take that pingpong launcher into a catapult with designed pieces and put together that way? And how can we with accuracy and data analysis predict where it's going to land? So taking those skills and really looking at what skills each piece has so that it can be built on. And that's just an example going from seventh to eighth grade. But that same thing we're working on the alignment into the high school courses which students have a lot of choice with of doing a variety of engineering or um some of those uh technical skills and trades type classes through it. So with that, we'll turn it over to Dr. Whitley and the humanities team. So we

116have several humanities departments that are in year one or year two of curriculum renewal. Our art department, library, music, and world language. And it's really an honor to take the time to share with you today the role that humanities education plays in shaping well-rounded, critically thinking individuals. The humanities encompass a wide range of disciplines, whether it's ELA, social studies, the arts. Each of them contribute uniquely to the intellectual and emotional development of students. We meet a lot as humanities departments. We're consistently building programs, but tonight's an opportunity for us to share some of that work with you. Um, in our world, the skills that we foster through humanities education, such as critical analysis, empathy, cultural awareness, and ethical reasoning, are more essential than ever. And they really create the opportunity to have students build their

117own self and their identity and their talents. And they really enrich their lives and their experience. And they help them to navigate society and issues with insight and compassion. Tonight, we're going to hear from Danielle Terry, who's one of our elementary art teachers, and Derek Bull, who's one of our um music elementary teachers, to share with you some of the work that we've been doing to highlight their experience with our students in the world of humanities. So, I'll hand it over to Danielle and she brought some examples that I'm going to pass around for you. Good evening, everyone. Um I'm Danielle Terry. Um I've been with the district for 22 years. Um I was a third grade teacher at Caroline Street Elementary School for 19 of those years and I moved over to the art

118um department. Uh and this is my second year I'm finishing and I absolutely love it. It is an amazing amazing time. Um it's so great to see students in the light in the in the art world and um I'm so happy to be a part of it. I am at Lake Avenue four days a week and at Greenfield Elementary one day a week. Um for uh this year the first time we are collaborating with Derek Bull um as our K through five music and art department head. Uh his involvement has brought in new insight and support as our department moves through a period of renewal. Um much of our PLT time um is focused on developing and refining our curriculum. We meet on teams uh regularly and we share resources, student work samples, and we

119keep an eye on what's um on the edge of coming next in arts education. So, we like to stay on top of uh not only the standards in in the art world, but also um the high interest digital arts, like a big part of it, too. We're slowly getting to that at the K5 level, but right now um our biggest update right now that we've changed and we've modified is our clay unit. And so, we're going to be sharing some examples of the types of activities that we're doing with the students. Um, and really you don't think of it as they build, you know, these standards build off of each other, but they do. You start with kindergarten pinch pots. Um, and then first grade, they work their way up through other techniques in the

120in the clay world. It is the number one unit these children love. They'll show up. They'll never be absent. They're there. Um, over the past few years, um, the district facilities team has worked to ensure every elementary building has a kiln. And at Lake, I'll be getting a new one next year. So, this this next coming school year. So, we're I'm very excited about that. Um, it has allowed us to expand our 3D clay curriculum. Students are now creating more complex and expressive projects like um some of the fifth grade ones. There's a koi pond. Uh, but also you give them a little bit of an open-ended thing once they've learned um these techniques. When they're in fifth grade, we leave it a little bit more open-ended. We have like a constraints and criteria. So,

121include this in it, but it can be kind of like your own take on things. Um at the secondary level, Don Tally is our 6th through 12 department head and she has led a strong collaboration across schools. Over the past decade, that team has worked together to align assessments, refine curriculum, and share best practices. Ultimately, we are incredibly proud of our students and the phenomenal talent that exists within our schools. Uh it is a joy to support creative growth and see their skills and voices come um through through life through the arts. And I'm going to introduce uh Derek Bull, our music teacher. Thank you. Hi, I'm Derek Bull, the uh art and music department chair for uh elementary. Um I did not bring any musical instruments for you guys to play. I'm so sorry.

122However, one of you did stop by next door to the petting zoo and hopefully that was a ton of fun. Don't worry, it'll be on a different day next year. Um I have uh just two quick updates uh each from elementary and secondary. Um two updates uh from elementary. One is that uh through the our curriculum renewal process um one of our priorities was to uh renew and update our sheet music libraries. So we spent um a good amount of time organizing our current titles and we've worked uh to build the capacity to slowly replace outdated music to be more culturally relevant. Um some of the music is just physically very old. I have a lot in my file cabinets that is um falling apart, but they're some of them are really great um uh

123tunes. They've been well loved. Um we've also at elementary received uh the grant from the Saratoga Springs Education Foundation for partial funding for USB rechargeable keyboards uh for classrooms for general music. Um, I'm a little biased as a pianist myself, but the keyboard is absolutely foundational and essential for uh music literacy. Uh, as Mrs. Jackson will tell you, um, all music ed undergrads are, uh, thrilled to complete at least six semesters of keyboard skills, if not more. Um, so, um, just like clay is, uh, the go-to unit for, uh, art, uh, we have had, uh, ukuleles as a recent addition, but I think the keyboards may top that. We'll see. We'll let you know in a few years. Um, so thank you to the Serr Education Foundation for that grant. Um, at the secondary level,

124um, we are also looking at, uh, curriculum renewal. We are looking at all areas within music. Um but we do have a specific focus on uh the coral curriculum K through 12. Um and even more specifically at coral lessons uh 8th grade through 12th grade. Um we'll be aligning with the findings from earlier stages of curriculum renewal meeting the needs of um especially those middle school students. Um and finally at the high school um the big focus there is looking at the high school general music offerings. Um, our very own Jeff Holstead uh is retiring and our new hireer Sean Lipin is so excited to uh take the reigns. He's been to almost as many concerts as I have been in the past um couple of weeks. Um and he's gung-ho and uh so excited

125to be joining. Um so we have uh the perfect timing to uh you know revisit and revamp our high school music offerings including music in our lives. um MIDI Studio. Um MIDI is kind of the old-fashioned like uh communication for uh keyboards to computers. Um and our rotating um every other year university AP theory music uh courses. Um so uh many projects this summer that we are excited about. Uh and I'm going to turn it back to Dr. Cutting. Thank you. Thank you. So, there's a few samples of some of the music uh and art projects um as well as the clay that was passed around. And now it's time to talk a little bit about that counseling program review. So, Zoe and Chris will come back up and do that. Again, I'm Zoe McGlaughlin.

126I'm one of the school counselors at the high school. So this year during our curriculum renewal process, we evaluated our current school counseling program to ensure that we are aligned with the ASA standards as well as the MTSS model. I'm going to throw a new acronym at you. It's MTMDSS. Um at the high school and the middle school, we worked with Paul Ripchick, who is a consultant. He's a former administrator at Shen and introduced us to this new model that um includes the multi-dommain portion in between and we believe that the MTMDSS model fully encompasses the three essential domains of school counseling which are academic, college, career and social emotional. So that is added into the MTSS model in the three columns vertically. Um so what we did is we took a look at each

127task and activity we do throughout the year. Um we have it organized by calendar at the high school from July to June. We looked at each item and we categorized it based on the tier it falls under, the domain it falls under as well as um whether it's indirect or direct services for the students. And we in looking at those categorizations, we were able to identify areas of strength within our school counseling program as well as areas that could use a little bit more attention. Um, so this process was very helpful for us and we also made sure that we knew which ASA standards each activity was addressing and we noted that in our data and we are working towards collecting more data as time goes on. We gave you all a report from school

128year. A lot of that is what we worked on this year with Paul Ripchick. Um, and we are happy to report that we believe that our current school counseling program does address every tier, every domain, and every um, ask a standard and we will just keep improving and increasing services for students. Thank you, Zoe. Thank you, board. Um, I believe that picture uh, we took not too long ago. Uh, correct me if I'm wrong. Uh, but Josh, I believe that's still on your um board. Uh, this is one of our activities we did. Um, and as Zoe said, we really were able to dive deep into our current curriculum and see what domains were really hitting hard and maybe where we had some gaps. So, extremely helpful. But before we did any of that, we

129decided uh to uh with the help of Paul Ripchick, which we spent plenty of time with this year. First thing we did was uh create our vision and our mission statement. um our Maple Lab Middle School, we designed a brand new uh vision and mission. Um so this became our beacon of light, if you will, and it informed everything else that we did moving forward throughout those 12 hours worth of of treat uh training with Paul Ripchick. Um and like Zoe said, you guys have our year in review. Um you guys can read our vision, our mission statement, um which it's a living, breathing document. Just as our world changes, this may change as well throughout the years, but this is a great start. Thank you very much for your time. So once again, a

130lot of information um tried to encapsulate it and hit the highlights, but u folks do a deep dive into the curriculum and program renewal. And um it really does provide a pathway and priorities and uh it really is embedded professional learning and it also helps guide the additional professional learning that um we need to provide. So thank you to the to the team um here for presenting and for those they represent um with the work that was done and um we'll take any questions you may have. Any questions or comments from the board? No, I don't. Matt, go ahead. There's only one acronym that I didn't I didn't catch. ASCA Let's see. Association of School American Association of School Counselors. Okay. Ah, all right. American School Counseling Association. Thank you. School Counselor was I I

131couldn't figure um my actual question is so you talked a lot about assessments which um and which are they're not always tests, right? But they're they're often tests. And I I was sort of curious how the the humanities the skills learned in the humanities seem seem to really hit a lot of the Oh, it's not up there. It's on the the one you says hit a lot of the the skills in the portrait of a graduate circle. Yes. But they seem to be harder to test. And I'm curious how I want to make sure that the the humanities don't lose their u momentum or their support because they're less testable. So, we're going to put a pin in that one because some of the work uh in our next phase of uh program renewal is

132focusing on assessments and assessments are um I think a good way to describe it is how we ask students to show what they know. So, a test is a type of assessment like a um golden retriever is a type of a dog. So, um right so you have different projects and you have different ways of grading projects. We have rubrics that um a lot of their humanities is well verssed in that. Humanities also gives tests but there's a lot of performance-based assessments that allow us to evaluate um how students have learned whether it's in the moment process learning or at the end product learning. We will be elaborating on that more over the next couple of years as um all of the content areas have built curriculum maps based on standards. You know, it's um

133when and what to teach. Now, it's okay. We're embedding how we are asking students to demonstrate what they know. So, we need to do some more PD on that and you'll hear more of that in the next couple of years. Does that address your question a little? Yeah, I look forward to it. Great. I'll just say that um I mean curricular review and judging the effectiveness of assessments um both critical and and and maybe one of the most important things schools do. I know they're difficult. Uh it's difficult. It's time consuming. Um I really appreciate that you do it and I really appreciate getting the um the reports on these each year. Um, in particular this year, I really liked um hearing from Janelle about the test mapping process. Um, it's it's nice to see

134that level of um sort of scrutiny on and and revisit um revisiting of of uh um of the testing procedures. Uh so I appreciate that and just a process compliment. I think the um presentation this year I I think this presentation particular gotten better each year and and this year's was the best. So, thank you for that. Thank you. And I just do have to shout out to the to Janelle in the middle school math department because they have been the leaders in this next phase of the work and it's to their credit, not me, not Danielle, but it's that internal drive to want to to do this. So, um they serve as a model. Thank you. Angie, thank you for the presentation and um I don't have a comment on this one, but I

135did listen to the other one on the way here from the soccer game and I I just wanted to say um thank you for the creative thinking and the attendance um liaison work that sounded really embedded and it was just lovely to listen to all the efforts and ways you're reaching out to folks for that. Um, and the other one is the suicide intervention training. Um, beautiful work to add to that. Whoever brought that in, um, I did that through work. I know having an older daughter who went through stuff here and had that set of friends who all had a hard time walking through doors and she's lost several of them already. She's 25 from the class of 2018. Um that effort is just Thank you. Yes. And that was uh initiated uh from

136the ground up. So kudos there to uh the social workers and the counselors and Melissa was also uh very humble because she provided training to our entire uh dirt team as well. So Well, thank you very much for both presentations tonight. They were really informative. Thank you. Thank you everybody for coming. All right, we've had a a a lengthy meeting, a good one. I'm going to skip reading the the um boilerplate about consent agenda and just ask John, do we have any uh modifications to tonight's consent agenda? We do not. And therefore, I would like to move that we approve the consent agenda as presented to us, particularly items E, F, and G in their entirety. Do I have a second, Connie? Uh, any questions or comments? All right. All in favor of approving, raise

137your hand. Bobby, that's uh unanimous 90. Oh, do we did we lose? What did we lose? Oh, Dean. It was seven or yeah, thank you. I've I've made that mistake a lot of times before the the counting part have one recognition. Um they got a recognition, but motion carries and Mike has a recognition. So, uh, the board of education has just approved, uh, the recommendation, um, for tenure, as I mentioned earlier, for, um, several, um, educators throughout the district and also as well as, uh, hiring of, uh, a few new teaching positions. Um, but I also would like to use this opportunity to welcome Corey Hart Nelson, who's with us. Uh so Corey um Corey was just approved uh by the board of education to become our new um assistant principal at Maple Avenue Middle

138School. Uh Corey comes to us uh as a teacher from the Albany City School District uh where she served as a middle school reading specialist and for the last two years has served as an assistant principal at both Skencti High School and currently Skecti Middle School working with all of their sixth grade students and their families. Uh so uh Corey will be officially joining us in September. Um she'll be replacing uh Mr. Tim Harris who will be retiring in September. who want to thank uh Mr. Harris uh for all the years of service that he uh has provided uh to our district as an administer both administrator both high school and middle school uh and so looking forward to Corey uh joining our administrative team come September. So welcome. Thanks Mike. That brings us to

139the end of the business meeting um and our second public comment period. Is there anyone who wishes to address the board during the second public comment period? Uh, I would love to hear from our K-9 friend. All right. Well, that concludes the second public comment period. Uh, brings us to agenda planning. Uh, are there any issues for agenda planning? I have one uh reminder. It's we do this every year. I'd ask that um anybody who is interested in um uh considering uh putting themselves forward for leadership positions for uh 2025 2026 school year, please um plan to declare your intent at the next meeting uh so that we're not the idea is so that we're not surprised at the organizational meeting on uh in early July. Uh but if you're so inclined to pursue leadership,

140please declare that intent next meeting. What do you think, Angie had at at uh board member comments at the end? Okay, board member comments at the end. Uh which appropriately then brings us to board member comments. Beth, so many of you know that I am a member of the Saratoga Rowing Association and I want to take a moment. We often recognize our athletes and our teams who are um out doing really great things and um I wanted to highlight that there are 38 high school students right now that are attending the US youth nationals for rowing which is a really big deal to qualify. We have five boats of eight um plus a coxin and um they participated in time trials over the last few days and our onev both boys and girls made it

141to the semifinals and the 2v both boys and girls are in the finals for their for their heat. So these are athletes that work year round. They work really hard. They're really dedicated and they are um experiencing a great deal of success and there are 38 of our high school students there. So well done SR Natala. Um I have two. The first is that I did attend the instrument petting zoo tonight um with my rising fourth grader and it was phenomenal. our music department does such a great job of educating the community um and preparing us. There were different businesses from the region where you can rent the instruments and it was just so exciting um and great to see the kids be really thrilled about music. Um the other one that I wanted to

142share is that a few weeks ago um Mr. and Mrs. Gallagher who are teachers in our district did put on um I which is educating young engineers with um a lot of high school students um and it's a phenomenal program but I also saw today that one of those high school students Kyra is at MIT right now presenting about I with Mr. And I thought that was Thank you, Angie. I just want to say I'm sorry I missed your celebration, Casey and Matt. Um, I'm so glad you got to be on the board this year. I was cleaning the basement and found Caroline Street fifth grade graduation book that you were in with me. I did not bring it to read your stories. Um, however, it was fun to reminisce. It's been fun to see

143you grow up and I wish you all the best going forward. Any others? All right, that uh brings us to the end of the meeting. Um I at this time we're now going to move into executive session and we anticipate adjourning directly after and will not be taking any action in public session. May I get a motion to enter executive session in order to discuss matters leading to the employment of particular persons um particularly to discuss proposed administrative contract extensions and the superintendent evaluation process? Matt second. Deb discussion all in favor seven or eight now. God did it again. I can't even get back. God, this is I had one job. Uh, we're now in executive session.