001We're relying on the band devices. All right, we ready? All right. all set. Okay. Thank you. So, I'll just get us started and kick off uh this year's budget hearing for the 2526 uh budget. So, just to uh go over the highlights that are within the budget. Um, first and foremost, this budget really continues the district's investment in the high quality uh academic programming and opportunities uh extracurricular um and athletic alike that we provide to our students. Uh we're continuing the significant investments uh that we've been making in CTE programs at Boseies. uh continuing all AP and advanced courses. Um professional development opportunities for faculty and staff is truly critical in being able to stay up to date to provide these uh opportunities to our students. Um additional extracurricular supports uh additional social emotional learning
002supports uh specifically this one is related to the addition of social work to the uh budget. um continuing our work with operation graduation instructional coaches and then there's also some other things where we are looking at the expansion of our larning supports. Uh we are absorbing a currently funded uh grant position uh district-wide social worker and wrapping that into the general fund budget because of the expiration of the grant that supports that currently. And we are also uh rounding out our I guess you would say uh social work deployment program and finally putting the last FTE at our remaining elementary school. So now every elementary school in the district will have dedicated social work support for the student body. Uh we will have a participatory budgeting pilot here at the high school. So essentially what
003that is is uh really civics's involvement for our student body at the high school. Uh really it's a budget process of sorts where they will get to uh put forth proposals, be able to vote on what proposals might be uh otherwise funded through then a successful vote that they will hold among the student body. So that's something we're really looking forward to hearing more about next year. Uh the tax cap calculation for the 2526 budget is within our allowable limit at 3.97%. We also uh made some reductions and reallocations of operating costs to the tune of $1.8 million in this budget. We do have a $2 million uh bus bond proposition uh to support the acquisition of various vehicles. We are also utilizing $13 million of fund balance and reserves that we have on hand.
004And there is a specific uh $4 million inner fund transfer to capital to help support and pay for the um legacy 2025 capital project that will also be on the ballot. And then finally, there are three board candidates for three vacant seats uh with the terms beginning on July 1st of 25. Just an overview of the uh expenditure budget here. You can see um really with our general support category year-over-year uh slight decrease of $105,000. Similar type of uh theme with our instructional costs. Year-over-year. We're looking at a a decrease of just under $53,000. And then some of the other line items that do uh increase in the budget year-over-year are pupil transportation. We're looking at almost a $384,000 increase to that line item. As we know, our employee benefits have been really increasing over
005the last few years. That will be uh a $3.6 million increase year-over-year. And then our debt service in the form of our principal and interest uh will also be increasing to the tune of $2.8 8 million which is part of our capital plan um as part of our current uh capital ongoing legacy project work. And then finally, like I had mentioned previously, we have an interfund transfer to capital for $4 million. Um and that will help to pay for uh the legacy project that's on the ballot um this month. So overall, we have a budget-to-budget increase of 7.19% or $10.6 6 million. However, if we take out that $4 million interfund transfer to capital, which truly is a budgetary an anomaly because it does not happen on a on a regular basis, it really is
006this specific uh special instance where we're going to commit funds to a capital project because we're in the middle of capital project work. That's where you see something like this pop up. So, next year, for example, we would anticipate to see uh a lesser amount uh or totally remove $4 million from the budget. And if we do that, we're looking at a 4.5% year-over-year increase. So, like I mentioned before, uh our 2526 tax levy is within the allowable limit. The allowable limit is 3.97%. So, we are going right to that limit at 3.97%. What that means for us is 3.9 million new dollars in revenue. Um, and that's important because we are a district who is uh really reliant on our property tax levy to make up a significant portion. 65% of our budget uh
007our budgeted revenue is made up of property taxes. So, it's really critical that we're able to uh maximize this uh revenue stream. And you can see here our 8-year average is 3.18%. Here's just a graphical uh depiction of a history of the property tax levy going back to 1819. So again, you can see over the course of time uh eight years it's 3.18% increase. What does that mean for an individual taxpayer? Well, utilizing our estimates and keeping um assessed values, exemptions, equalization rates, and full values constant um compared to 2425 based on $100,000 of assessed value, you would be seeing approximately $35 increase year-over-year. So, if you had a $300,000 assessed value home, you would see an increase of about $8.80 per month. And as most of you know, uh, one of our budgetary practices
008here is utilizing our fund balance and reserves on an annual basis. So this is a history of our fund balance and reserve utilization uh, during our budget process going back to 1920. You'll notice the different colors that we've discussed throughout this process. And I just want to point out the 2021 school year and the 2526 school year and the fact that the green bars are stacked on top. Those green bars represent capital project contributions. So back in 2021, we contributed $7.6 million for the current legacy project. We are continuing that same theme going into 2526, taking $4 million, moving it over to capital, and helping to pay for the legacy 2025 project. And then similar to past years, we are continuing to utilize the unreserved fund balance and retirement reserve to help us balance the
009budget. uh positively we are slightly decreasing the utilization of the unreserved fund balance and we are also decreasing slightly the use of the retirement reserve. Um so overall the silver lining here is we are getting uh closer to a structurally balanced budget by being less reliant on fund balance. And so just to go over uh the revenue budget quickly, total state aid. This is something that we've been working uh off of the executive budget run that came out in January. Um we did hear about the conceptual budget agreement that was in place yesterday. Actually about 8:30 last night, state aid runs were released. I took a look at those and it for the most part was really unchanged from what we've been working off of. Uh overall there was about a $15,000 de uh increase
010I should say. So that was positive. But right now the budget is showing a $1.5 million year-over-year increase. We are uh increasing our fund balance uh designation utilization of 3.7 million but again a large portion of that is because of the $4 million interfund transfer to capital. And then as as you know, we scrutinized the other revenue line items during this budget process and we were able to find some additional revenue where we thought we could comfortably increase these lines. First being interest earnings. We increased that by 125,000. And then there's other miscellaneous revenues we have throughout the budget. Uh one in particular was the refund of prior year expense. So when we look at all of those miscellaneous lines, they were able to be increased by $1.1 million. So total other receipts are going
011up by $1.3 million year-over-year. And then as I mentioned before, our property tax levy is right at our uh allowable cap. We have pilot payment in lie of taxes revenue which are really uh specifically outlined based on agreed upon pilot schedules that we receive from uh organizations like the IDA. And then we also received interest and penalties on uh installment payments of taxes. So all in all rounds us out to an an increase of 10.6 million, 7.19% year-over-year. And if we remove that $4 million, like I said before, it would be a 4.5% year-over-year increase. And one thing I do want to point out uh just because I know there's a little bit more attention this year. So just the federal sources that are contained in the general fund budget. It's really important to remember
012that our federal grants that we received are accounted for in a totally different fund, not the general fund. So what these federal sources of revenue represent in the general fund budget are two very specific things. Number one, it's our Medicaid revenue that we receive for the services that we offer, the Medicaid reimburseable services that we offer to our students who might need them. And then the other is a Medicare reimbursement for some of our retirees who participate in Medicare funded health insurance. So that is what makes up those those two federal line items for our revenue. So, it has nothing to do with any sort of um you know a violation of any sort of federal law or regulation. So, I just want to be really clear about that piece. So, our three-part budget, as
013I mentioned before, uh we have an administrative program and capital portion of this budget. So, our admin portion is increasing just under two $200,000 year-over-year. our program uh po portion of the budget will be going up by $3.1 million and then capital mostly due to the fact of that $4 million interfund transfer to capital will be increasing at $7.3 million. So that rounds us out to the $10.6 million uh year-over-year increase that you'll see there. So as you can see proportionally unsurprisingly as well the program portion of the budget makes up the majority at 73.61 61 and then this particular year we're making continuing that investment in capital. Uh so that's making that portion of the budgetary pie a little bit larger. So we have a bus bond proposition on the ballot as well. This
014is really something that will just continue the work of our local bus replacement plan because as our buses age, we try to acquire new ones, keeping uh our fleet newer uh and safer and more up to date. Um, so this is something that is a a regular thing here in Saratoga. What is different year uh compared to years past is the fact that on these presentations we are not specifying specific quantities of vehicles that we plan to acquire because we're not really sure uh where the chips may fall in the um federal tariff uh situation. So not really sure in discussing with some of the uh bus prices with our vendor partners if tariffs will cause an increase in the buses or not. So throwing caution to the wind here um and being very general
015but just knowing that we want to acquire as many of these listed vehicles as possible within uh the $2,60,000 authorization that hopefully the community will approve. There is a local share here. Um we will receive transportation aid back on this investment. Um we will we will receive that over a five-year period and then be paying this bond back over a 5-year period with the transportation aid. Unfortunately, we do bear the brunt of this cost. So 40% is is received from the state and transportation aid and then we will make up the additional 60% and that's why you'll see our local share is higher than the transportation aid that we receive there. And so contingency budget really is something that will happen if we uh see a budget defeat. Um, what we would have to do
016is, uh, decide, do we want to modify the budget and put it back up to vote the third Tuesday in June? Do we want to go immediately to a contingency budget, or do you want to take take our chances and put the same exact budget back up to vote the third Tuesday in June? So, those are really the decision points if something like that were to happen. And this is what the contingency budget would look like based on the calculations that we have to run through in my office. The big takeaways here are the new bus bond proposition would be prohibited as well as the interfund transfer to capital which would help to pay for the legacy 2025 project. So that would also be prohibited. Um another big piece of going to a contingency budget
017would also mean the prohibition of a levy increase. The tax levy increase would not be able to happen. So what that would mean is we would be left flat. the levy would remain the same as it is for 2425 and the additional $3.9 million that we were getting in revenue from the tax levy increase we would then have to dip into fund balance to make up that difference. So that's another key point as well. So just the board governance piece like I'd mentioned before we have three uh three-year vacancies on the board the terms beginning July 1st. Um the ballots were due to my office on April 30th. So that has since come and gone. And the board of ed candidates and order of appearance on the ballot are listed here. Uh Natalya Lukakia, Lee
018Wilton, and Ashley Fogerty are the candidates. And here is a QR code with um the email address to the business office should anybody uh be looking for more information. And now I will jump right into capital project and give a brief overview of the legacy 2025 uh capital project referendum. So as you all know everything that we've done with the legacy project development has really been couched in the vision statement here for our pathways and it's been an ongoing process that really has been happening for years now. Uh this entire process started back in 2016 um with the great outdoors project and then you know that work got um got started and we were starting to finish that up and then the LRA met again to develop the current legacy 20 uh 2020 project that
019is ongoing. Um so it's been something that's been going on for a number of years now. Now, we started work in March of 24 and what we're putting together and have put together that the voters will decide on uh in two weeks will be the May 2025 uh legacy project. So, that just continues this series of uh capital project investments uh to bring our facilities up to date. Here's a brief rundown of the status of current legacy project work. So you can see uh a significant portion of work has already been completed. We're slated to file some final cost reports for Dorothy, Nolan, Greenfield, and the high school. So for phases two and three uh by June of this year, we're 60 complete uh 60% complete uh of the way through phase four. We've awarded
020contracts for phase five and six and we are uh almost in the final design phases of seven and getting talking really hot and heavy about phase eight right now. So it it really is something that is ongoing and uh a really collaborative process that involves many stakeholders throughout the district. Here's just some uh pictures for you to take a look at to see the benefits of the work that's been done. So, at Dorothy Nolan, we've had cafeteria upgrades, classroom upgrades, which are being done across all buildings in the district. And uh the bottom right hand corner there shows what the standard classroom looks like. And then you can see in the one picture with the students to the left some of the classroom furniture uh flexible furniture that we're utilizing throughout the district. Also, safety
021package upgrades as well. So looking at um right here, Greenfield's secure vestibule. Um all schools have been uh receiving that secure vestibule in their buildings. Greenfield also received a main office upgrade. And um as most of you know, the bus loop was also significant work that was upgraded to help ease um the stress on the parking lot there with the bus loop and parent drop off. lot of work also this past summer at division uh classroom upgrades again with the secure vestibule also received kitchen upgrades and then massive uh roofing improvements throughout that building as well. the high school here. Um, significant cafeteria upgrades and up upgrading the uh the hallway with the seating area for the students outside of the cafeteria, making it really more of an interactive flow space. Uh, the fitness center
022um really eyepopping when you look at it from that perspective and uh knowing that we're utilizing it in different ways, not just for athletic programs, but for our uh health and PE classes as well. and the uh the design team for uh the cafeteria actually won an award for the work that they did. So their work was featured in their um their organization's magazine due to the the work that they did here. So the scope of work here uh really was developed by the folks who you see on this picture, the legacy referendum advisory committee. uh we met over a series of about eight or nine months as a group to talk and prioritize about a number of things. You can see these are some of the items that we used to develop our our
023priorities. We also heard feedback from uh you know a number of stakeholders on the community whether whether it be district employees, administrators, parents um or just members of the community at large. But really what we did was we we relied on our building condition survey, our educational plan, um and then past work that these folks who previously had served on LRACK uh brought to the table. There were a number of district-wide items that we knew needed to be addressed. We wanted to continue to address safety items and then there were also building specific items um that were brought forward as well. And we also made it a point to uh physically go to every building to see, you know, some things that might be uh in need of repair or in absolute disrepair that needed
024to be addressed immediately. So that was a really helpful process as well. Ultimately, these things were teased out and placed into buckets of priority. uh whether it be building improvements. So some of the things that contains uh in the project is uh the toilet room renovations, roofing reconstruction, continuing upgrading our mechanical and electrical systems. We're replacing some exterior windows, um which when the safety realm, we're also uh putting security film on some of those. We're also improving some of the paving throughout the district. uh update upgrading and updating district-wide signage. Sometimes it can be really confusing when you come on to campuses as large as ours. You don't know really where you're going. So that signage hopefully will be very helpful to people when they see it. ADA compliance upgrades and then everything else was
025part of our educational program improvements, our classroom renovations. Really something that we're excited about here at the high school is the upgrade to the front of the house uh part of the auditorium. Um it's really starting to see its age. Even though it still is a beautiful space, it's just uh a little tired and can need some uh you know refreshment. Um library renovations is another one as well as track resurfacing and replacing the um or installing I should say uh artificial turf on the softball field. So ultimately we had some financial goals when we put this project together. Uh continuing our investments in the future first and foremost. Um we knew that we weren't able to get everything accomplished in the current legacy project and additional work needed to continue to be done. So
026this is what this package does. Uh we wanted to address as many as the capital needs that were identified as possible while maximizing our state building aid. We receive 70% back from the state on our capital investments if we time the work properly. We want to diligently manage our debt service and our capital reserves and fund balance. And we wanted to do all of that uh without adding to the tax burden uh to the community. So in looking at our total project scope, we have a number of $142.8 million. As I'd mentioned before, we really are trying to continue down that same road that we have previously with our capital project contributions. So, we're still contributing to this project $7.5 million similar to the past two projects. $3.5 million will come from an already established
027and funded reserve. And then that $4 million will come from the budget that I talked about uh previously. That four million is the line item interfund transfer to capital that will help to pay for this project. So after we take away our capital fund contributions, we're left with the amount remaining that we would actually have to issue a bond to finance. $135.3 million of principal. As with any amount that's financed, interest will be tacked on. Conservatively, we're estimating about 77.3 million in interest to give us total debt service of $212.7 million. That 212.7 million will be 70% reimbured to us from New York State. So, you can see we have a reimbursement of just shy of $150 million, leaving a local share of just over $63 million. So that $63 million will be repaid over
028a 23-year period, which would then leave a local share of $2.7 million. So you might wonder, well, if you're saying there's an annual share of $2.7 million, how is that not adding to the tax burden? And that is because we have that equivalent amount coming off of the books in in the form of debt that we owe. So when we have the expiration of current debt, we're able to put that right back on, keeping the debt level constant and thereby not increasing the tax burden. And so ultimately there will be four ballot measures on the ballot on May 20th with um the board election as well, the three trustees uh for three seats. So proposition one is the school district budget and that really is just we're asking for approval of the annual budget at
029$159.3 million. Proposition two is the school bus bond proposition that I talked about before. Uh we are seeking the authorization to acquire various vehicles and we're seeking the authorization to issue a serial bond of $2,60,000 to acquire those vehicles. Proposition three is the legacy 2025 capital project proposition. That proposition would authorize the district to um start the $142.8 million scope of work. It would authorize us to use our $7.5 million of fund balance, three.5 million from the reserve and 4 million from unassigned fund balance. And then it would also authorize us to issue $135.3 million of serial bonds. And then finally, the fourth proposition is a capital fund proposition. Capital reserve fund proposition. This would authorize the district to create a reserve for future capital projects that we might put together and put up to
030vote after July 1st of 2025. We are asking the voters to authorize that funding up to $10 million and the useful life of that reserve would be 10 years. Uh biggest reason for this is we still know uh that we have capital needs that will need to be um addressed at some point in time definitely within this time period. So we believe it's only prudent to continue previous practice of establishing reserves to help offset and lower the need to issue debt to continue our capital investments in the future. So those are the four propositions. As a reminder, we have the three candidates for the three seats and the uh polls open at 7 a.m. They will close at 900 pm and each of our elementary schools are polling locations. Also, I want to mention we
031made a chatbot specific for the Legacy 2025 capital project. If you go to this QR code, it will bring you to the capital project website. Uh, I encourage anybody to ask the bot uh any questions you may have and um give us feedback. If you have anything that you know you stump it or you might not get the answer you want, feel free shoot this email address and email and we'll be be happy to uh write you back. Okay, any questions? All right. Thank you. [Music] Yep. Oh, perfect. All right, let's call this meeting to order. Bobby, can I get a roll call, please? Yep. Trusty Amecha here. Trusty Crackler here. Trusty Amory here. Trusty Braxton here. Trusty Bugamman here. Trusty Collagan here. Trusty Copans here. Trusty Lakia here. Trusty Witovich here. Please stand and
032join me in the pledge of allegiance. Okay. Can I please get a motion to approve our minutes from April 22nd? Deb and Matt, is there any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Thank you. Can I please get a motion to approve our minutes from April 10th? Uh Beth and Matt, any any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. That's unanimous. Can I get a further motion to accept tonight's agenda? Natalyia and Tony. Any discussion? All in favor? Thank you. That's unanimous as well. Brings us to our public comment period, but we have something up first. I'm going to let Dr. Patton take over. Well, good evening. Uh this year we are very fortunate to have three uh members of our community who are running for the board of education. Uh as we have presented in all of
033our um budget development um presentations as well as the board election presentations. Uh we have three uh board seats that are available each year that start on July 1st that are three-year terms. Uh and at the close of the business day on April 30th, uh three uh residents of the district had submitted petitions to run for the board of education. Uh so in order on the ballot on May 20th when the uh residents of the community vote for the board of education, uh they'll be um submitting their votes uh for these three candidates. Uh our incumbent Natalyia Lectakia, uh Lee Wilton, and Ashley Fogerty. So, typically it's been the practice of the school district to partner with the League of Women Voters uh when we have our candidates for a meet the candidates night. And
034this year it was scheduled for Wednesday, May 14th. Uh but since we only have three candidates that are running for the three seats, uh we've coordinated obviously several months in advance with the league. Uh we spoke to them right prior to April 30th. Um and they let us know that uh customarily it's a practice of theirs that when they don't have a contested race uh they do not host the meet the candidates night. Uh so the meet the candidates night that was scheduled for next Wednesday is cancelled. Uh we will not be hosting that event. Uh but instead we've invited all three candidates uh to join us tonight. uh just to provide them the opportunity to introduce themsel uh to the community uh and just to say a few words uh again for the folks
035that are here uh as well as uh folks who may be following along uh in the stream. So in the order of the ballot we'll just have each of the candidates uh introduce themselves um say a few words on their behalf. So first up is Natalyia Is it on? Is it on? Okay. Can you hear me now? All right. Hello. I am Natalyia Luckia. I have served on our school board since 2019 and I am looking forward to serving another term. I have lived in Saratoga Springs with my husband and now third grader since 2016. As a speech language pathologist, I have dedicated my career to working with students in the public education system, working with students of all ages, helping them communicate their wants, needs, thoughts, and ideas. I am passionate about meeting each
036of their needs and making sure that they have a safe, kind, and healthy educational environment. I bring that commitment to my service on the board. I currently work for a local school district and I am a proud NISET member. I am also grateful to have been supported by SSTA every time I have run. In my family, education is everything. It is what motivated my parents to come to the United States. My father from India is a distinguished professor at Penn State University and my mother from Argentina was a research associate who transitioned to teaching Spanish at my high school and then at Penn State. In 2010, I completed my master's degree and followed their lead into the role of an educator. I have dedicated my time on the board to supporting our district, our teachers,
037staff, administration, and most importantly, our students. I was elected board vice president in 2022 and 2023. I have served on many board and district committees. I am also on an advisory committee for Skidmore's education department. Outside of my work with students, I also love to spend time every week being a student, specifically studying voice. I have a lifelong interest in making music and art and especially enjoy doing hand embroidery and quilting. My family loves to attend musicals, explore museums, and visit beautiful places. We also really love to read together. I so look forward to welcoming Ashley and Lee to the board and for our entire um board to continue to work collaboratively and collegially together. Thank you. The second candidate uh on the ballot is Lee Wilton. Can you hear me now? Yeah. Thank you
038so much um Dr. Patton u for the opportunity to introduce myself um to the board of education and the greater Saratoga Springs community. My name is Lee Wilton and I'm running for a spot on the board of education. I'm a an educator um a district parent and I believe in public education. Um I uh um am a proud public uh school graduate myself and I strongly believe in and was raised with a deep understanding of education as a privilege as a great equalizer and as a a value and a virtue in and of itself. Um so now I'm deeply committed to building strong inclusive and equitable schools in our home community. um places where students can come and feel intellectually challenged but also valued and nurtured and supported in their education and goals. Um I
039am a an assistant prof sorry an associate professor of psychology at Skidmore um where I teach courses and research on topics connected to social identity and social interaction. I also deliver some of our um statistics and um statistics and methods courses in our curriculum. I received my PhD from Rutgers and my uh BA from Princeton, both in you guessed psychology. Um I am a district parent. I have uh two children in middle school. I'll have a high schooler in September. Um I also have a um um a preschooler who just really can't wait to ride the big yellow bus to Division Street when he's old enough in a couple years. Um and where we've had a lot of wonderful experiences. Um before graduate school, I also worked for years in management consulting and I've served
040on a number of uh committees as a as a member as um a volunteer and as a chair uh committees that have been uh focused on educational initiatives and also inclusion and equity. Um uh my family and I have been um residents in Saratoga Springs for the past uh 10 years. And um I also believe that a well-rounded education is one that um that uh allows students to explore critical thinking, explore new uh and diverse ideas in a in a global and everchanging world to prepare them for careers, but also enable them to grow and learn in their pursuits. Um I also believe that strong schools um require strong support for teachers and I'm really honored and grateful to have received the endorsement from the teachers association. So, thank you very much. I look forward
041to working hard and collaboratively to support all of the uh students in the district. Thank you. And our third candidate uh running for the board of education is Ashley Fogerty. Good evening. Um, can you hear me now? Okay. Hi everyone. Um, thank you Dr. Patton for having us here to speak tonight. Thank you to the board. Um, I am Ashley Fogerty and I'm really excited to be here and honored to be a candidate, I suppose, a future member now. Um, and I deeply believe in public education. My husband and I just recently returned to Saratoga two years ago. I was born and raised here, graduated in 2001. Um, and a large part of our decision was the strength of the Saratoga public schools for our daughter. I'm running for the board because I want to
042support and strengthen that foundation for all students and for the educators and staff who make it possible. I come to the board not only as a future district parent, but a special education teacher and administrator. My career actually began in this building. I was lucky enough to do my student teaching um as a specialed co-teer in the history department with the late Jeannie Morris who was absolutely incredible. Um I since then, it's been two decades, so there's been a few things that have happened. Um I've been mostly in Boston and a few years in New York City. I taught middle school in Massachusetts and in New York City. I owned and operated a tutoring and advocacy business in Boston for years and was director of student supports for a network of um Horus man public
043charter schools in Boston and Lawrence, Massachusetts. And most recently, if you've heard my name float around, it's probably because I worked with the district um as the director of UPK with the YMCA partnering with Saratoga and um Skylerville in Cambridge. As a board member, I will work to ensure our schools are places where every student feels safe, has a strong sense of belonging, and they can access a high quality education that meets their individual needs. In a district as strong as ours, the role of schools isn't just to teach. It's to help young people grow into confident, empathetic, and thoughtful citizens. That growth begins the moment a child walks through the doors of their elementary school. And it's made possible by the unwavering commitment of staff. And I that's a sentence on the paper, but
044I truly I was so lucky to be in that role where I was in the elementary schools last year. And it you walk it's contagious the feeling of optimism and excitement that the students that walk in our elementary schools really do feel every day. Um so that's not just something you say, it's happening out there, which is so amazing. Um and that is because of our teachers, our staff, and our administration team. I will work closely with my fellow trustees to ensure every decision we make prioritizes students, educators, and school leadership. Our students deserve to feel supported and seen at every stage of their education, and so do our educators. Having served as a classroom teacher, an administrator, and a program level leader, I understand the pressure educators face. They hold themselves to high standards,
045always striving to meet the needs of every student, and external demands continue to rise on every educator. The board must lead with empathy, listening to our students, staff, and broader community to foster meaningful collaboration and long-term support. As the world continues to evolve, so must our approach to education. By working closely with the Saratoga Springs City Schools administration and listening to the meaningful feedback from staff and families, we will continue to strengthen these programs and opportunities. I know we won't always agree on every decision, but I do believe in leading with honesty, transparency, and deep respect for the voices of our community. So, I look forward to look looking and working alongside all of you. Thank you. Well, I want to thank Natalya Lee and Ashley for uh being here with us tonight. Uh and
046again um throwing your name in the hat to run for the board of education. Um so, just a reminder to the community, the board of education elections uh will be included on our May 20th uh ballot. Um so, good luck to all three candidates. Thank you. We do not have anybody signed up for our public comment period. Is there anyone wishing to address the board? Okay, seeing none, we will move to uh board committee reports. Do we have any board committee reports? Okay, we'll just start here and go around. Matt, you're up first. Thanks. The the policy uh committee met uh recently. Um we were mostly looking at the code of conduct. Um there's some definition changes that are happening. Um they're adding we're looking to add a a section to the dress code uh
047that uh doesn't allow students to conceal their full face uh except for medical uh cultural or religious purposes. Apparently people are coming in with balaclavas or like full face makeup. They'd like to stop that uh because they don't they can't identify who the students are. Um uh we're tweaking some of the uh conduct that's allowed um in the halls and and around the halls. Um under the student searches and interrogation section, uh the administration wants to include uh the ability to scan students with a portable metal detector wand uh in addition to to searches of students and their belongings done in private with a witness. Um this is mainly a response to um the vaping that is happening in the in the bathrooms. So students are are hiding their vapes in um in their their
048waistband or or undergarments in ways that the teachers can't find them when with just a sort of like empty your pocket search. So they they want to be able to to use a metal detector wand on them. Uh and then we also discussed uh the school district records policy um primarily a change to district reporting policy that will be alerting current and former employees of foil requests within five business business days. Questions for Matt Natalia? Um this might actually be a question for Dave, but when uh when is the meeting where we're going to discuss this? I do have some questions about the proposed changes. Sorry, I should say the um the first read of that will be at this the June 12th meeting and then the final passage will theoretically happen on the 26th.
049Yeah. So, I guess I'll just um I guess give the the heads up that I would have some questions about uh using a wand on children. Any other questions? All right. Um who else was um Tony, uh the finance and audit committee jointly met um on April 21st. Uh we had a brief discussion of the at that time unpassed New York State budget. Um it our discussion is largely rendered moot now that it has been passed and Bobby uh reported on it uh better than I could uh at this point. He did that a few minutes ago. Um we discussed uh also Bobby you stole my thunder on this the uh the chatbot um and we we demoed it. It's um you know it's a small thing but it's it's something that uh uh it's
050an example of the um sort of forwardinking um uh mentality of of I think the business office that they are constantly looking for ways to improve um the way they get information to the community and and how get community to have questions answered. So, we tested the bot and gave it silly questions, gave it topical questions, and and um it it seems to be uh a pretty good um starting point for for folks to get uh information about the capital project. Uh we then discussed the really interesting new auditing standard, Gazsby 101, which basically just uh deals with how uh how we're supposed to um deal with compensated absences on our books. It's just a change. we're always made aware of uh when these standards um are imposed on us and and what the the
051business office is telling us that they're aware of them and here's what we're doing. Um Bobby uh informed us that uh Eric Bush uh the the food service is is uh underneath the um the business office uh in our org chart and uh so Eric Bush uh was named the New York School Nutrition Association's director of the year. I really want to um uh really congratulate um quality and innovation in the food service program is what he's what he's being awarded for and um we all know he's great. It's now really cool that other people know he's great and he has a great uh staff that that uh works with him. So congratulations to Eric and uh another congratulations to to uh Joe and Bobby who were um who uh completed the requirements to be
052named certified administrators of school finance and operations. This is a um a uh a designation that requires fulfillment of work experience, education requirements, and passing a pretty comprehensive exam. There are only 13 people in New York State who have this designation. Um, so congratulations to both of them, but in particular, I think, and Bobby would agree with me on this because it was the way he brought it up. Congratulations to to Joe who kind of initiated the process, right, to get that thought this was a good idea and and maybe we should we should take this on. Uh, another example of sort of the forward thinking in in their department. I I really appreciate that. Um, and then we rounded it off with a robust discussion of a fuel tank issue at the bus garage.
053Um, we're probably going to have to have a budget amen budget amendment come to this group down the line to uh to pay for um some of the uh assessment and replacement that's needed over uh associated with that project. And that was it. Questions for finance? No. Yes. Go ahead. How do people find the the bot, the chatbot? It's it's on the page that is dedicated to the legacy project. The um Thank you. Yeah. Dean, anything? Nope. Okay. Any other board reports? All right, Casey, you're up for student reports at Dorothy. at Dorothy Nolan. They are so proud and humbled by the student voices of current and former former Dorothy Nolan students at the student voice event. They truly value and celebrate each of the students and their perspectives and are thrilled to hear they
054feel connected and cared for by the school community. The HSA has been working hard to prepare for the annual spring fling. Kids can hardly contain their excitement for the bounce houses and food trucks out back. They are looking forward to the spring buy one get one book fair taking place in library classes. They hope to see lots of students and families back at school for the art show and silent auction on the night of the school budget vote at Lake AB. Lake proudly hosted the third annual student voices event on April 24th. It was wonderful to hear how students feel connected to their schools and to celebrate the achievements in each building to make our schools more welcoming and inclusive. They are looking forward to the lake a art show book fair and chorus and
055band performances that are quickly approaching at division street. A heartfelt thank you to all students and families who attended the student voices event. It was truly inspiring to hear directly from students and to see the incredible work being done by clubs across the district. Last week division had the pleasure of hosting VIP lunchons, a special time for students to share a meaningful meal with their families and friends. It was a joy to see so many smiling faces and connections being celebrated this week. They're proud to honor the exceptional staff during staff appreciation week. They're taking time to recognize the dedicated individuals who support, guide, and uplift students every single day. As they head into a busy and exciting m they're looking forward to several upcoming events, including the home run derby, grade one play, art
056show, book fair, and the budget vote. At Geyser Road, they celebrated the inaugural Earth Week celebrations that included an activity each day, culminating with a donation to their PTO for $1,000 to support outdoor classroom and orchard renovation. Students in grades K through two attended the theater works presentation of Ada Twist at Maple A. Art teachers Mrs. Pella and Miss Maguire transformed the building into a beautiful art show, showcasing all of our students creative work. Parents and students tooured the building admiring artwork that included various mediums. Each day this week, their PTO showed gratitude for the hard work and dedication of the staff for National Teacher Appreciation Week. At Maple A, Maple Avenue students recently completed the New York State English language arts and math computer-based testing. All students did an exceptional job. This week, eighth
057grade students participated in the annual Washington DC field trip. A total of 377 students and over 4 Whoa. And over 45 faculty, staff, and parent chaperones attended the trip. A huge shout out to Amy Moore and Michaela Vander Ziden for organizing this amazing trip. And at the high school, congratulations to the SSHs mock trial team. They were awarded the Saratoga County Bar Association Champions after defeating the previous New York State champions in competition. SSHs welcomed principal Ernest Masaba from Uganda last week, giving him a tour of the building, eating lunch in the cafeteria and then meeting with students in Miss Perry's class to learn more about Uganda. The Saratoga Springs Unified basketball team played a great game against Niskiuna during the school day this week. The student body was supportive and excited as they cheered
058on their peers. And the SSHs prom is at the city center next weekend. We're looking forward to a great night out. Thank you, Casey. That brings us to administrative reports. Great. I also echo many of the items that Casey has already recognized. So, starting off uh in the over the last week and a half, we've had the wonderful opportunity to recognize all of our building administrators uh through principal and assistant principal recognition uh all of our teachers through teacher appreciation week this week. Uh as well as our school nurses. Uh so obviously all of those individuals play a critical role in supporting our students and their families throughout the the course of the school year. So even though those are one day or week-long recognitions obviously uh the incredible work they do uh goes throughout
059the school year. So we truly appreciate uh the dedication and the efforts uh of our administrators and our teachers and also our school nurses and I believe it was food services employees this week too. It was a very busy recognition week. So, food services may have been uh at the end of last week. So, again, thank you also to our food services staff. Uh I think I mentioned already when we introduced the candidates um we are cancelling to meet the candidates night. So, we'll make sure to get that information uh about the candidates up on our website uh and and make sure that folks are aware uh that we'll we will not be hosting uh with the League of Women Voters uh next Wednesday. Uh we're coming to the end of the year where there's
060a lot of celebration and recognition. Uh always a a fun time this year to recognize uh both our students as well as our staff. Uh so next Thursday night is the Aderonic Area School Boards Association uh community service awards. Uh this year's recipient is Caroline Our. Uh so Caroline will be recognized by the Avonic School Boards. Um several of our board members, myself and principal SA will be there at the Queensbury Hotel uh to recognize Caroline. So congratulations to her and her family. Um next uh a week from now on May 21st, we are uh looking forward to celebrating all of our retirees uh who are either retiring at the end of this year or who have retired during the course of this school year. Uh so since the last time we held the celebration
061last year, uh we invite back all the retirees for the district for retire uh retiree reception uh that will be held in our high school library on May 21st. That's a Wednesday evening uh at 6:15 prior to the start of our business meeting uh on the 21st. And then again, just one more reminder, uh we've been out in the community and and visiting all of our schools. Uh we met with the Lions Club this afternoon. Uh and again, I really appreciate the board's participation and support uh during our presentations. Um we probably have about 15 more to go uh over the next week and a half. Uh but again, all of that is in preparation uh of getting information out to the community, answering many as many questions that we can uh regarding our annual
062budget vote, um the capital project uh proposition, uh the board of education election, and the establishment of the capital reserves and the bus bond. So, uh, again, the annual vote is May 20th, uh, from 7 to, uh, 9:00, 7:00 in the morning to 9:00 p.m., uh, in all six elementary schools. And again, I also, uh, like Casey, would like to give a shout out, uh, to Colleen Bellinger and Kelsey Allen, uh, two of our fizzed coaches here at the high school, but they're also the coaches of our unified basketball uh, program and our unified sports program. Uh both Colleen and Kelsey were recognized um by Special Olympics in the fall for just the incredible job that they do coordinating our unified uh sports program which have really it's become a model program for schools all
063across the state and and the country. Uh so on Tuesday afternoon the entire student body and all faculty and staff uh filled the gymnasium uh for unified basketball game against Niskuna High School. Uh and it was just incredible school spirit. It's one of the, you know, favorite events of the school of the school year and, uh, it's it's just awesome to see our students show their support of our unified student athletes. Uh, so, but, uh, both, uh, Coach Ballinger and Coach Allen, uh, do just a tremendous job, uh, coordinating those opportunities for our students. So, uh, want to thank them, give them a shout out for all of their efforts. So, we do have just one presentation tonight. Uh, so Lisa Cutting uh and Michelle and Danielle and Abigail Adam Snell, our director of accountability
064assessment. Uh, each year we present uh our every student succeed act. Uh, so again, this is a incredible review of our student academic results. Uh so at this time I'll turn over to Lisa and team uh to present the annual ESSA presentation. Good evening everyone. Can you hear me? No. All right. Now it's working. Okay. So, uh, tonight, uh, the team is excited to be here to share information, um, about our accountability in the eyes of New York State. And so, without further ado, we'll get to it. We're going to be sharing data with you from uh, the 2023 24 school year. We'll talk a little bit about what accountability measures there are. Um, it always u goes back a year. uh academic programming that supports that, what things are in motion currently, and then
065we'll wrap up with looking ahead to uh what is on the horizon or continuation of those sorts of things. And as always, our work is aligned with our vision statement to prepare all students for their future and our core beliefs and the um ESSA accountability, the Every Student Succeeds Act. There's the explanation of the acronym for you, Trusty Buggerman. Um that is um really based in educational equity. So this is the main federal education law. It um pulls in public school accountability for our work with students across the nation. New York State um obviously is aligned with that and our accountability system is aligned with the federal law, but we have the ability to have some um a little more flexibility. This looks at student growth and achievement um and at other factors besides just
066tests or assessment. Uh and again a reminder that this presentation is based on 2023 2024 performance data. Um on the left hand side are their general categories um of achievement of course uh based on some core areas um core subject performance as well. Um graduation rates and it looks at not only four-year cohort but fiveyear and sixyear because we do know sometimes uh it takes a little bit longer. Uh chronic absenteeism is another piece you've heard us speak about and English language proficiency for our um English language learners. So those are all uh the main indicators that schools all public schools um in New York State are judged upon. So where are we? This is what you really wanted to know. Where do we shake out and rank? We are in very good standing. It's
067called local support and improvement or LSI. Um, and all of our eight Saratoga schools and all subgroups within all schools are in good standing. So that means uh keep doing what we're doing and contra trying to make sure that we're supporting all students in every way. We are not cited for remediation in any of our subgroup categories. I will point out that's a beautiful photo of our middle schoolers on the uh bikes um donated by the shredders and um they've been having an awesome time on them. So again just to provide context before diving into the data um you've seen this slide before uh the data we are looking at tonight is New York State data. It's um academic achievement data plus a little bit of our attendance data. And again, the framework that we
068work with our students is a whole student approach to success. Um and uh we call it MTSS, multi-tered systems of support. And we have three main categories, academics, social emotional learning, and behavioral health and attendance. And tonight's data focuses on academics and I feel like the price is right attendance. So really quickly just looking at our snapshot of our enrollment, our student enrollment. This is based on um beds day which is October of every year. So there's your three-year trend. In general, it once again shows that our overall enrollment is declining. And um in the ethnic groups, we have a general decline overall in uh white, multi-racial, um Asian, Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander subgroups, but we do have an increase in our Hispanic or Latino populations. uh along the bottom portion are other subgroup disagregations
069and you can see all of those um subgroups are increasing. So what does this mean? It means that while our population overall may be decreasing, um we are paying attention more to the kind of needs that students may be coming in with more and really trying to look at what we're doing and how we um support those students in um a learning environment. So at this point, I will turn it over to Michelle Whitley to talk a little bit about ELA. Thank you. So, we'd like to share some information regarding the content areas, starting with looking at the school report card. So, you're familiar with this. This is the 3 through eight um New York State ELA uh school report card. And essentially what this does is it shows the overall performance for um grades
070three through eight on the annual assessments that we take. Um our participation rate in these assessments remains steady around 93%. And then as you see in the report card, it's disegregated um by ethnicity and other subgroups. So what do we do with this information when we get this report card? I think it's really important to know that um as a leadership team, we look at this information and then we take the information and share it out in multiple ways with our teams throughout the district. So we share it with schools, we share it with um buildings, grade level PLTs and what we gain from looking at this data is areas of strengths, areas of focus um and really looking at the growth of our students and that helps us to identify the needs of instructional
071practices on changing in intervention services and things of that nature. So our work as teachers and administrators is to really dive deeper into this report card. This is just a glance of information for us and then we spend a tremendous amount of time looking through I'll call it the nitty-gritty of each student, their performance cohorts, subgroups, looking across grade levels and looking at each of our schools and then how they funnel into the secondary level as well. Other information this gives us is information about resources and professional development that may be needed. So um one of the questions that comes up is how do we perform um in regards to comparable school districts? So, we took the opportunity to create this slide um for you to take a look at. And as you can see,
072the prof proficiency ranges from 35% to 65% in our region. And Saratoga has an overall of 59%. So, you know, what does this mean? How do we use this information? We use this information to collaborate with our region. Um, for example, our regional leadership um, group for English language arts meets about four times a year. So, leadership from all of these districts gets together and we talk about um, how our students are performing. We talk about instructional resources that we're using. We talk about success that we're experiencing and we also talk about the barriers and challenges that we're facing and we look to collaborate together to share resources. There are similar groups in the region for both math and science as well. English language learners. Um during our professional development presentation, uh Karen Kjura talked
073to you a lot about the work that we're doing this year and continue to do to focus on our population of students um that are English language learners. They also have an assessment that is part of accountability. Uh this is the New York State English as a second language achievement test which is known as the NISS law and this is used to monitor the growth of our um language acquisition and proficiency of each student that we have and then what happens is it's converted into a performance level. Once we look at that performance level, it then is aligned with um categories in which students receive services based on regulations. Those services include integrated services where um teachers may co-e together uh or something called standalone where students come out of the classroom and meet specifically
074with their ENL teacher in small groups. So, as we monitor the students across the years, we're looking for growth across proficiency levels in this area. Now, it's time for Danielle to talk to you a little bit about math. All right. So, similarly, we see that math report card for grades three through eight, and you see that pattern trend over the past three years. Um, it is good to note that, uh, students can fall into multiple subgroups. Um so that is just one thing to think about there. And the number of students that is listed is a total number of students in those subgroups. Um for that uh math you may notice has a slightly lower participation rate than the ELA. Um we find that sometimes after students take the ELA the parents will um opt
075out their student um after that and we might not have as many students taking the math. Uh also we do but in general we do see similar trends. Um we see that math is making some gains in all of their subgroups over the past three years which is very exciting. And for a visual representation we have that graph again that shows Saratoga compared to the New York state proficiency level as well as uh local uh larger schools and suburban council schools. So, Saratoga Springs there is at the 75% proficiency. Um, and you can look at that across the board. Um, and as Dr. W Wh Whitley mentioned uh one of the things we do is make sure that we're very involved in the curriculum groups and area groups that are around the region and have
076our PLTS really if you want to think of it that way as we work with uh different people from uh local school districts and across the state on what are the best practices and the most recent research with that. So bringing it all together with what we do with this data. So data is um a huge part of our conversations daily, no matter what setting that we're in. Um and while this slide only has three bullet points, it's hard to capture the focus of the data without sharing stories about it. Um data tells a story. It gives us information about our students and we use it for programming specifically. So for example, if we look at our K8 instructional programs and we think about ELA and the science of reading or math or science, we're
077using the data that we have, whether it be summitative data, formative data, um observation, looking at all of these pieces to make decisions about what our students need. Um, one of the a recent example that I want to talk a little bit about is uh our K3 or P3 literacy um committee and initiatives. And there's a group of us that are reviewing and analyzing the performance of our P3 literacy um and students across the district. As you know, we implemented um a new resource for our curriculum and instruction uh about five years ago and we're looking at students performance based on that where we're seeing strengths and where we're seeing areas of need. Another example would be our uh student centered math coaching. When we look at our overall performance of our students each year,
078we make that shift based on what we see our students needs are and then we align the resources with that need. So our math coach supports where we see the need in terms of the supports to continue to talk about that a little bit. Dr. Cutting talked about MTSS, multi-tiered systems of supports. What does that mean in our world, whether it be elementary, middle school, or high school? It means how do we support all of our learners? And we do that in different ways. You've probably heard the the terms tier one, tier 2, tier three. And essentially, it creates an individualized program for students that may have gaps or lagging skills. so we can provide support to decrease that gap and make sure that students have what they need. We work um in tandem with
079our special education teachers and with our ENL teachers um and our DNA teachers to look at all students and at the elementary level we have something called win time. That wind time is built into every schedule and that means what I need. So, if I need more support and fluency with my facts during that time, I'm going to be working on fluency with my facts, but my friend next to me may not need that. So, they don't have to work on that during that time. They're working on something else. At the middle school and the secondary level, it's called Flex. And academic intervention services is something that you hear about. And we are very targeted in providing support and who we provide that support to. um and we look through data cycles, through meetings, through
080conversations to see how to shift those supports. I think how does this all come together as a system and systematically how do we provide support? If we look at professional learning in general, I think that as educators, we strive to learn cons, you know, constantly and we're always looking at, you know, if we know more, we can do more. um how can I learn more about my craft. We take our profession very personal and very serious and some examples of that as you know we work in professional learning teams throughout the district K12 and those teams get together weekly and using data looking at resources having conversations about student outcomes is um a critical part of our system. We talked about our ENL students and we're looking at raising more awareness in terms of language
081acquisition, co-eing strategies, uh, instructional strategies. Our educators work really hard to build their own knowledge about a child's culture, their background, how to make those connections, and language acquisition is very challenging. Think about trying to learn a new language yourself, right? Um, so we spend a lot of time looking at that, looking at instructional strategies that are going to, excuse me, support our students. You've heard the term science of reading a lot. It's a really big body of research um that supports how children learn and we talk about that K12. We focus on that K8, but we talk about it K12. and we have created opportunities to systematically provide professional development in a way that all teachers have access. So we're looking at whether I'm a classroom teacher, whether I'm a reading teacher, whether I'm
082a special education teacher, having the opportunities to have the same training in a systematic way. An example of that is called a letters training. Letters training is about phonics and how to teach phonics. It's not a book that we hand teachers or teachers teach themselves and take information out of it. It's more of a graduate course in terms of the specificities around how children learn um and how to teach phonics and teachers get together in grade levels and in their PLTs with trainers um to continue to refine their knowledge about that because what we know that that 48 years of research called the science of reading says is that foundational skills in the P3 years are the years to prevent reading difficulties. So that's an example of that. Additionally, I mentioned a little bit about
083our math student centered coaching. What's really important about that is you hear the word student centered and we're looking at building skills, building skills for students and teaching them the areas and working with our um teachers to really laser focus in on specific skills for that. support and that partnership is really important amongst our teachers. And the last thing that I'll I'll mention as a systematic piece is really looking at the work that um our teachers have done around um professional learning, culturally responsive instruction, instructional strategies and we've have engaged in as a leadership team in collaboration with our teachers in something that we call learning walks. Um, as leadership, we're in and out of the classrooms. Um, the days go by so fast for all of the teachers, and this really gives us an
084opportunity uh to be able to talk about our practices and see them in action. And this has been something that's been really um eye-opening for both our leadership team and our teachers in terms of support and conversation. But we can see how these practices and conversation come to life with students in the classroom. So hopefully that gives you a picture of our story on how we use data and we are always accountable to our business office and AROI. Right, Dr. Greco? I'm going to hand it back to Dr. Bin Wales. All right, so moving on to grades 9 through 12 academics. So just a little walk back in time, we know that we had the regent exam waiverss. um during the COVID years and after that. Uh but 2023 was that last year where the
085waiverss applied to the regent exams that were taken in that year. So that means as we have the graduating class of 2024 and the years ahead of that, there's going to be fewer of our graduates had regions exams that fell during those waiver times with that. Um so that's something good to keep in mind. Also, this past year, we've heard some information from New York State with the Blue Ribbon Commission, and we've talked here a couple times about the portrait of a graduate. So, the Blue Ribbon Commission has what they are now uh calling the New York Inspires Plan to look at um what graduates and what that portrait of a graduate and that pathway to graduation looks like for all schools across New York State. Uh so there's not a lot of specific information
086yet. It's still on the bigger ideas as they work through the information, but this will be um high on the topics that we talk about here over the next couple of years. And it'll be in those four transformation areas that you see the pictures there, that portrait of a graduate. Uh the state's looking at redefining what credits and potentially learning experiences look like. um looking at sunsetting diploma assessment requirements and moving to a one diploma type that would then have seals or credentials to designate areas of interest or excellence. So that more information as that comes from New York State will be discussed. And as we turn to our graduation trends over the last four years, we do see a slight decrease in graduation rates in just a couple of our subgroups. Um but overall
087pretty much remaining steady. Um and just a reminder that the number of students listed there is a number of students that make up that subgroup. So as we know from some conversations in the past, if the subgroup size is not large enough, the state doesn't put out a percentage of proficiency with that. And that's why you see some of those not available pieces with that. Um also as just as a reminder sometimes students can fit into multiple subgroups. And if we look at the graphical visual rep representation again comparing uh Saratoga Springs with the New York State graduation rate and the rate of the larger local school districts and suburban council schools. You see that top gray bar is the 93.3% graduation rate of Saratoga and then that middle gray bar is New York State's
088graduation rate of around 86%. Um, and just a note on that that the bar heights are a little skewed because it looks like there's a big difference, but there really isn't between the bar heights. So, just noticing the numbers as well. So all of this, we always need to use data to inform programming, to inform next steps, to inform instruction. And hopefully you see um a lot of that interconnectedness both with our last pre presentation around professional learning um but also this presentation that's centering around the ESSA data. But really the the bigger thing is what do we do with that and what does that mean? um especially as we think about continuous improvement and how we provide those opportunities uh to support to interest to challenge all of our various students all of our
089different students. So we listed a couple of the different programming options that are available at the high school which is a great way to meet our diverse populations needs and interests and opportunities there. And that has been a focus over um a number of years looking at expanding those college and the high school courses, making sure that we have career and tech pathways for students and all of those pieces. Um but we don't just look at those regent scores and graduation rates, that big picture data that we're talking about here. We do look at the ongoing academic data throughout the year to respond to student need. And that's what teachers use as they're providing that daily support during their academic support or flex time. Uh peer, we have a peer tutoring program. We have tiered
090interventions at the high school. Um and also as we think about how do we support our teachers and our staff so that they can better support their students. Um so very much what you've heard about already, but just wanted to make those tie-ins because that's so important. things do not operate in silos. They inform next steps. And so that's how our bigger data and our smaller data informs what we do. Now I'll turn it over to look at the part of absenteeism and attendance with Abby. Thank you. So we talk a lot about the academic data, but over the last few years there's been a lot of focus on our attendance data of getting students back into classrooms so that we can engage them in the learning that we know is why we are here.
091So really exciting when you look at elementary and middle school absenteeism is combined. Note that kindergarten is not included in these numbers, but we've seen a great trend in the right direction heading back down to close to what were the precoid numbers years ago. as we're looking at the subgroups. So, we're seeing great progress here. And with the absenteeism, I'm also looking at how are we doing with other districts that were also facing the same challenge over the last few years. So, once again on this chart though, we're looking to be on the lower end of the chart. Lower scores is better, which is very exciting. And as we're looking at chronic absenteeism, it's a reminder that it's 10% of a student's enrolled days. So any student that walks through our doors during the year,
092even if they leave, they do count in our absentee numbers. Secondary also seeing trend in the right direction over the last few years. Once again, subgroups were seeing great um progress at the secondary level. Here's the comparison to the local districts. Once again, we want to be on that lower end. and a quick glimpse at where we are at this point in this year compared to previous years as we are looking at attendance. But really we want to focus on what are the things we are doing to improve those attendance rates. Uh working with Jen Warner, our attendance liaison, who's really taken the lead with all of this work. um really trying to find preventative proactive ways with families in the shift now looking more tier one interventions really getting the word out. She's going
093to go really ind depth on this um in the student supports presentation that will be coming up in a couple of weeks. But once again, this is all still driven in our data. We're using that with attendance teams in the buildings, within CST teams in the buildings to look at who is coming to school. Are we seeing trends or patterns? So once again, even though attendance is also driven by our data in terms of the supports and response that we have to attendance. So now it's time to look at where do we go next? This is all historical data from 2324. So where are we moving forward? And as we've talked throughout this whole presentation, a all of our decisions are based in data. And what part of our work moving forward is how do
094we continue to get the right data, timely, useful, purposeful data in the hands of the staff that need it. So you're seeing on this slide is glimpses some of the different data tools that we are now using in the district. You'll see up there in the upper corner a student attendance rates. That's in the hands of our attendance clerks. So, we're not just talking about teachers, but this is all staff members getting access to the data they need to be able to keep track of who the students that they are responsible for and respond to it. You will see a platform data mate that we are now using for our common math assessments. Our math coach is helping use this data to help inform help the teachers see where are the strengths and weaknesses in
095their skills with their students and how are they going to respond. And on the other side, we're seeing some of our bigger picture data. uh at the district level. So we can get very very granular right down to the standards to specific questions to also big trade trend data through these uses of these platforms. And now I'm going to pass it back to Dr. Cutting. So just to wrap it up, um we've talked a lot about data. We've shown you a lot of quantitative data, but through our um the structures that we have in place throughout the district in our professional learning teams and in some of those meetings that you saw up there, that's where the qualitative pieces come into. So, it's a multiple measures way of looking at how our students are doing.
096So if we divide it out, this is certainly not a comprehensive list of every nitty-gritty thing that is being worked on, but trying to capture some of the major pieces of of work that we're focusing on. So that structure of multi-tered systems of support, um focusing on tier one instruction, K12, this was an outgrowth of the program review that occurred earlier this year. So, some of those recommendations are those first two bullets that we'll be working on um for clarity of communication um and expectations. We're also working on updating the K5 report card to be uh better aligned with standards across the content areas. Again, part of special education, the special education program review, looking at our um what our offerings are and how to best support students through the budget process. you've heard um
097discussions about um adding some programming for our K1 students um who need a little more support. So that's one example of that. And as um Danielle mentioned earlier that um portrait of a graduate, what um shifts are we going to be looking at? And then uh a lot of the bullets underneath uh encompass the professional learning that will be required to um support our teachers and all of our staff in the work that we are doing looking ahead. And I just have to do one more fun slide. There you go. So any questions? I have a few questions and a comment. Sorry. Um my first one is on the slide about the changes to graduation. It said sunsetting diploma assessment requirements. Is that could you clarify what that means? A little bit because the I
098know it's still up in the air. Yeah. The the guidance we have is a little bit but um really just trying to at pathways for kids. Um, and that has been in the works for a little bit more, but again, so maybe it's not about um the assessments like regions. It doesn't mean regions are getting thrown out. It means regions may be there, but there may be other options for students like a more portfoliobased um collection of the kids knowledge and showing what they know. So, um, not fully assessmentbased is probably the best way to say it. Okay, thank you. Um, my next question is, it is really great to see that the numbers for chronic absenteeism are going down. That's great. Um, and I know that there's a lot of different contributing factors to
099that. I am curious because it is something that we talked a lot about last year. How has the transition from two attendance leaison to one been? I have heard that there is an impact from a few different families in the district, but I'm curious um I guess for more information about that. So, I guess it probably depends on who you're you're speaking with. Um one of the um functions of our attendance liaison is a tier 2 or tier three. So, um one of the things that is a integral part of that job is working with parents and um trying to help them with routines etc. so that they can build their own capacity to help their students. So while in the past there may have been more rides to school, um there's not as much
100so trying to work with them more and getting more folks involved at and I'll say more definitely at the elementary level. Um as you know the focus on that um at an early intervention is what our our focus is but trying to then build the at the school as well and building the capacity um in the parents too. So, it's probably that there is not as much um can you come get my student to school? Um okay. And then my last thing is more of a comment. Um but I appreciate the focus on having the right supports to meet each student's needs. I think that's so um essential for their growth and their ability to access their learning. Um just before this meeting, four of us did attend an SSTA liaison meeting and we heard
101about um the sub shortage and the impact on especially the elementary schools and how AIS teachers are often being pulled to cover for classroom teachers. Um and I know Dr. Cutting did say that there are plans to help with this issue next year, which is really great to hear, but I thought I would share with the whole board that that's definitely something that, you know, we look I look forward to hearing about. Thank you. and that's to try and avoid pulling teachers from classrooms. Thank you for that presentation. It was very thorough and I liked the data that you um that you showed. The upward trend specifically in math 3 through8 uh was really good to see. Um I have a question that's kind of related to a question that I have posed in prior
102years for this presentation and it's about elementary reading uh specifically. So um when my kids were in elementary school we used a tool called the fountainisen panel and that measurement or that the levels were a through z. I understand now and we we invested a significant amount of money 3.5 million on American reading company and their levels are they're not a through z but they still have levels. They're kind of wacky when you look them up um but they're levels. So, I'm just curious to know what we've learned from that investment of both materials and training um from American Reading Company. What has our response been? Um and then is it aligned to the It looks in part that it's aligned to the New York State Science Literacy Initiative that was mentioned tonight, the science
103of reading. Um but basically what have we learned from that investment and is this New York State initiative similar to the graduation one in that it's you know a little bit but not fully um articulated to districts. So I'll address the the first part of that and then ask Dr. Whitley to talk a little bit more about some of the work with the committee that she mentioned earlier. So the art program um is aligned with the science of reading. One of the uh things that we found and this was due to ongoing teacher feedback, especially when you're implementing a new program. Typically, it's not the resource or the program, it's the implementation and making sure we're supporting folks through that. Um, and not just the first year, but the second and a third year and
104to work things out. And some of the feedback that we did receive was that it was not the program in general, especially for the primary levels, was not as strong in phonics. So that is something that um there was a team of teachers um reading teachers as well and Dr. Whitley um examined um different other programs and that's where the letters um training that she mentioned um came out and that is also um very much aligned with the science of reading. So that was one of the the biggest pieces that we found. I think um some positives have been it's put a lot of of literature and books um in students hands in a relatively easy manner. Um the investment in the physical uh books as well as now digital books too um has been
105a great part of what the cost of that is. I think if you talk to the teachers and and um one of the greatest pieces of feedback that we've heard is that um students really love reading and they're excited about it and they have choice uh a lot more choice. Um that resource, one of the reasons we chose it was because there was so much that was included in it and teachers didn't necessarily have to go hunting for all of these books here or there. um to your question about um the you know fontis and panel versus the uh arc version right now um teachers still have to do um individual assessments there's always going to be some sort of subjectivity with that however um there's been coaching and training to assist teachers with that
106so that um it's by color and it's a similar um process in that there are expectations for in general where students would be at the beginning of a grade level, middle and end of year and teachers are able to monitor that and make note of that and work with students um in groups do large group instruction as well but um that's similar to fontanel but I think it's actually more specific in terms of the the resources that are available and I'll turn it over Dr. Whitley, if you want to jump in and talk about purple and red and green and orange. I don't need I don't need you to go there. Um I was gonna say just what is the name of the phonics program that we're using to supplement? Sure. So um we're not
107currently using a phonics program to supplement, but we're moving in that direction. We have just um done an analysis with our P3 literacy committee and there's a recommendation that's been made to move forward with UFly. It's a open sequence that pairs with any um literacy program. And what we found is that with the ARC program, it's an analytical approach, which means I teach to your need um in terms of how you're learning phonics. And what the body of research with the science of reading says is that we need systematic phonics. Um and that means that we're following the same scope and sequence. And what we've seen over time in implementation, there's been a tremendous amount of positives that Dr. Cutting mentioned. The only thing that I would add to what she said, she did a
108beautiful job, is the knowledge building component of the program. Um, and how that affects our students in terms of building knowledge in science and social studies as well, which was starting to trend downward across, you know, not just our state, but our nation because of the focus on literacy. Um the uh literacy committee has identified uh our school district's priorities in the alignment to this program and what we have found is that we have great strengths in readers engagement. We have great strengths um and improvement in writing and in research. The phonics um is a an area of focus. Um and the committee identified that and identified moving forward what we want to use. And to give you an example, um, next week we have something called articulation where our grade levels get together. And
109we decided that we're going to focus on kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. And during that time, all of those teachers in kindergarten will get together and they'll be they'll have a training on you fly and they'll look at the scope and sequence. That's also going to support the work of our reading teachers and our special education teachers. Um, so we're working at tiers at different levels um to provide the same sequence. So that is an area that we expect to see um flourish um as we've been utilizing you in intervention services. We're now moving it to our tier one. Thank you very much. Sure. I did have a comment. Um, I noticed similar to I think what Natalya was getting at, the slides that we saw tonight really showed those of our comparison districts
110who have higher graduation rates also have um less attendance problems. And so I'm wondering if we should maybe keep a close eye on the need for a more liaison attendance leaison work there. Um, those just flip-flopped so clearly for me when I saw those up on the screen tonight. All right, I think that's everybody. Good questions. Thank you so much for that great and thorough presentation. Thank you. All right, that brings us to our consent agenda. Tony, do we have any modifications? We do. We have an added item. Um it is item F as in Frank 11, financial F11. Uh and I did um send it. It was it was added pretty late this afternoon. I sent uh a PDF around of the learn well agreement for tutoring for 2024 and 2025. Um if no,
111if people didn't get a chance to look at it, I we can I can give them a second to do that on the uh on the agenda here. If you did get a chance to look at it, just not or um and if you did, then we can we can include that in the consent agenda. Okay, looks like we can ask a quick You said you said F as in Frank. I think you meant H as in Harry. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh it it is financial. So, it's financial 11, which is H. Yes. Thank you. Um, so that being the only addition, I move that we uh approve consent agenda items F, G, and H as modified. Can I get a second? Natalia, is there any discussion? All right, seeing none, all in favor? That
112is unanimous. Thank you. That ends the business portion of our meeting and opens up our second public comment period. Is there anyone here wishing to address the board? Yes. I'm going to give you the brief version of um our rules. Um please, you have three minutes. Okay. It was just approved. It was included in the in the consent agenda and that was for Mark Reva from Denver. So we look forward to welcoming Mark next year. And Thank you for being awesome. Thank you. Anybody else wishing to address the board? All right, seeing none, that brings us to agenda planning. Does anybody have any agenda planning items? How about board member comments, Natalia? Um, tonight I would like to recognize Mr. Warren Dart, who sadly passed away on Sunday. Mr. Dart was a graduate of our
113district, a longtime teacher in our district, and a coach and a volunteer um in our district both during his tenure and after retirement. And he was also a friend of mine. I feel lucky to have known him well enough to truly understand what a loss his passing is for our school district, our larger community, and for his family. Mr. Dart is a great example of how a community benefits when teachers make enough money to live where they work. Connection matters now more than ever. And when kids see their teachers out and about in their community, it builds their connection to those teachers and to the community. As I said, long after his retirement in 2012, Mr. Dart remained active in our schools, coaching girls basketball as recently as this past season, and attending and speaking
114at many board meetings, including some this school year. Uh, if it feels like I've said the word community so many times during this comment, it is because there is truly no other word that better encapsulates Mr. Dart to me. Thank you. Thanks, Natalyia. Tony. Um I have two comments both related to the upcoming um budget vote and uh trustee election. Um the first is to thank uh my fellow board members uh for helping us achieve um one of our our goals for the year. uh Dean and Connie and I were on the the sort of subcommittee to to work on um improving our um outreach to the community as as board members. And um I want to thank all of you who have and will um participate as as support and uh question answers if
115needed and and just general support for the administration as they go through the variety of community school um uh community and school sessions to uh educate the public on the the propositions that are coming up. It's really important and I think it was a good goal of ours and um thank you for being um willing to to give of your time uh in addition to to what we already do. Uh I'd also like to encourage the community um to come out and support the the four propositions. Um it it might be um you know uh tempting to uh have more people sit an election out when board the the visible thing which is the trustee vote has three people for three spots. And so that that's a little anticlimactic but it's a super important uh
116year for um uh supporting the four propositions for the students and for the future. We're planning for the future and um it's critical that we come out and uh build support to uh vote yes on the the proposition. So I encourage that. Very well said. Thank you, Tony. Any other board member comments? Okay. Um, can I please get a motion to go into executive session to host an appeal hearing with one of our collective bargaining units to discuss matters of employment of particular persons and to discuss issues pertaining to the OCR investigation? Connie, John, any discussion? All in favor? Thank you.