001Ready? >> I'm ready. Yes, Mr. Rosario is [laughter] >> feeling a little feisty. We need some protein. >> All right. Good evening everybody. We're going to call to order this regular meeting of the Soretti Central School District School Board. Um designation uh January 13, 2026 uh emergency exits. We have one at the rear rear of the room and then one on each of the sides. Um Virginia, would you do roll call, please? >> Christine Bellarosa >> here. >> Katie Emerson Hos >> here. >> Shel Grimoglia >> here. >> Shakina Erizeri >> here. >> Carol >> here. Michael Meyer >> here. >> Jeffrey Azie >> here. >> Timothy Wells >> here. >> Adriana Argua >> here. [clears throat] >> Here she is. >> Okay. Pledge of Allegiance. >> Pledge to the flag of the United States
002of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We please have a moment of silence for James Cook, a beloved bus driver, and Jacquellyn Ray, a substitute teacher for the Soerty Central School District for over 30 plus years. >> Thank you. >> You're up, Dr. Mission Visions. [clears throat and cough] Mission statement. We provide equitable, engaging, inspiring, and holistic experiences that support success and empowerment for students, families, and the community in a diverse and changing world. The vision statement, we are a beacon of educational excellence where every individual is inspired and able to achieve their fullest potential. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, moving on. Approval of minutes. Um, can I have a motion to approve the minutes from our uh December 9th meeting
003>> by Mr. Meyer, second by Mr. Bolia. >> Any questions on those? All those in favor? >> I All right. Dr. Roarback Sawyer Soore. Thank you so much. So, tonight we have two Sawyers that we would like to acknowledge. We'd like to acknowledge first our wonderful PR specialist from Olster Boseies, but we consider her Sawyer. Uh she does such an incredible job promoting all the positive here in Sogerties, taking care of all of our social media, but she was also recognized nationally uh through her professional organization for specific things. And I just want to point out that Christine Kante won an award of excellence for the sixword story contest. Remember that national award for that? Can you please hold this up? >> Yes, I will do that. >> Also, she won uh an award for
004distinguished achievement in the category of our district newsletter. Take one, pass it down. We'll get the two. and then an award of merit uh in the area of overall social media. So Christine Kante, could you please come up [applause] here? Secondly, we have a student, a Sawyer who is soaring. And I am so pleased. I think he just snuck in. But there's a story behind this and why we have chos Lopez Cruz to be a Sawyer who is soaring. And I'm going to ask Miss Churchill to share some of the background story of why we've chos. >> Are we working here? Grass. Awesome. And I don't know that [clears throat] knows who I am or when he saw me last, so he might not know how I saw him doing this great thing. Um, but
005I'd like to recognize Baron Lopez who generously volunteered his time during the holiday season to support the Sawyer Toy Express by serving as a translator for our Spanish-sp speakaking families. Uh, Sawyer Motors has taken over running this annual event that provides families in need with gifts for their children for the holidays. Baron's willingness to step forward ensured clear communication, fostered inclusivity, and helped families feel welcomed and supported. This act of service reflects the empathy, leadership, and community-minded values we strive to cultivate in our students. And I will add on like a 24 hours notice that he stepped in to do this for our families. So, I really we really appreciate it. So, thank you so much. [applause] Congratulations. >> Thank you so [applause] Okay, moving right along. Now is uh public recognition. So, if there's
006anybody in the audience who would like to address the board and the public, now is the time. Just so you know, like just a a reminder, we've gone down to one public recognition instead of having one here and then the one at the end. So, okay. Uh, moving on. Adriana, student [clears throat] report. High School plan pilot mentor school visit. We would like to recognize our science Olympia team for finishing 13th out of 37th teams in Albany last Saturday. Great job by all. Quarter 2 is coming to a close in January regent regent exams will take place the week of January 20th to January 23rd. School is not in session during this week at the high school and only students that need to take regent exams or to attend. Sour High School is close is
007hosting the county coral festival this year. This event will take place this weekend, January 23rd and 24th. We would like to thank Miss Rebecca McDougall, Mr. Justin Simsky, Mr. Richard Prince, and all the and all of our custodial and maintenance staff for all their efforts in planning this event. [clears throat] attendance. >> Junior High School the interdisip disc disciplinary teams are teacher of teachers continue continue to meet on a daily basis to discuss student needs. The bobblehead project projects of art 7 are on display in the junior high office. Next next week diagnostic days will take place on Tuesday and Friday. These days are meant to strengthen connections between our staff and students while reinforcing academic excellence and the Sawyer experience. As part of the diagnostic days, grade 8 math students will be presenting their
008linear exploration math projects to their peers. There will also be a midterm collaboration time given to students on their cumulative portfolios in Mr. Carpino and Mr. Skimmer Horn's social studies CL 8 classrooms as well as Miss Squire's English 8 and Mr. Deiri, English 7. The Elks Elks Club celebrated participants in their essay writing contest last week. What received a $100 gift certificate for their participation. The students essays have been forwarded to the to the to the district and state levels for review and if selected will then move forward for selection of national winners at the Grand Lodge session in Chicago, Illinois in July 2026. Kho. Last week, Miss Martin and her high school students visited our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes. The high school students facilitated hands-on science experiments, guiding our students through small
009group activities focusing on DNA. Five of our students participated in the county band auditions that took place on Saturday, January 10th. And several of these students have been selected to participate in the Oster County band. We are very proud for their hard work. Our next PTA meeting is Thursday, January 15th at 4:30 in the cafeteria. Ricardi, our sixth grade students continue to have a blast with Miss Gavar in her after school sign language club. Thank you, Miss Gava and her high school students for volunteering their time to enrich our elementary students in this way. Ricardi's student government recently directed and produced a music video to accompany the Ricardi theme song, which was recorded by fifth grade students during their enrichment time. We are excited to share both the song and the music video once everything
010is finalized. Ricardi students are nominated by their teachers as most improved will have the opportunity to attend a free Renegades Baseball game with their parent. Our next PTA meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, January 14th at 6 p.m. in the Ricardi cafeteria. And the next building leadership team meeting is Wednesday, January 21st at 3:10 p.m. in the Ricardi Library. Please join us. Please consider joining us for one or both meetings. Morris. Last week, Morris had welcomed back assemblies while students could mental refocus on school expectations. And we also shared some of the exciting things to look forward to in the second half of the year. This Friday, Morris will have two student principles for the day. Principal Lertzman and Principal Kayla will have a fun day of observations, reading to classes, supervising lunch and recess, meeting with
011the superintendent, and doing a full safety walkthrough of the building. Morris's next PTA meeting will be on January 21st at 6 p.m. This meeting will be virtual, but our next BLT meeting is January 28th at 3 p.m. All right. Thank you, Adriana. Um, and it's just to note too is it's nice um Adriana hitting our student rep, which is a change from the past of hitting all the schools um and not just what kind of is happening up here, but hitting all the elementary schools and what's happening. So, great job. Um, and as we've continued um each of the meetings, we've had a um a school [clears throat] um come in and talk to us um give their update. And this month it is the high school update with Miss Molino. >> I talked to
012>> Thank you. Before we start getting nasty texts, pick up. Yep. [laughter] >> Listen, I get them, too. Don't worry about [clears throat] >> Am I on? >> Oh, yeah. Very good. Nice. There you go. a a little clicker reset here. How am I changing slides? >> It's really different when you talk. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. So, as we get up and running, thank you very much. Happy New Year everybody. Um you've heard of the Sori Central School District priority areas before. They've brought before you with multiple principal presentations and other formats. Um so I'm just going to reiterate what they are. They are the student experience, academic excellence, professional culture and um family, community and engagement. So, here we go. Okay, so first up, we're talking student experience. Um student engagement,
013as you all know, we've had the change of yonder pouches this year, and I have to say that's probably one of the biggest noticings as far as student engagement goes. Um you've heard us talk about the engagement continuum for the district before and um that work is still there still prevalent throughout the building. You can actually physically see it in building in the classrooms when you attend there. But the feedback that I'm getting as far as the increase in engagement um is definitely there and I would attribute that to a a lot of that cell phone use. Are we perfect in the use of the pouches? No. That is why we're rolling with a semester 2 reset. Um, but I will give students credit. It's really been amazing um to hear how [clears throat] they're
014feeling about it, too. I have a couple quotes towards the end. Uh, so then listed up there are just a few different things. Club club fair uh mock trial school store elective fair. I want to go to the club fair and the elective fair. They're going to speak a little bit to the student voice of choice that I see throughout the building. Uh, so one of the things that we talked about um was the efficiency and effectiveness of the club fair and the elective fair. So what I did was I pulled a group of students together. Mr. Scallow was there also or one of our science teachers and we met and I just kind of wanted to hear from their perspective of those both of those fairs and like maybe some things we can do
015to improve. So some of the feedback that we received was um if they're held throughout the day multiple classes take us so we see the same thing multiple times. Uh some of our classes didn't go. So we came up with as a group we came up with some ideas that we wouldn't have been able to implement just yet this year. Uh some of those ideas were maybe having it during an open house or some type of family engagement from the night perspective. We could tack it on and add it there. Maybe um you know a parent teacher conference night, something along those lines. But what we did plan for this year was uh actually the elect affairs tomorrow. What's today? 13th, 15th and 16th. Um so it'll be in this room and then our PE
016department is actually going to take each one of their classes. That's why we rolled with it over the course of two days. So we're actually ensuring that every student is exposed to the elective fair. The same thing with the club fair. So one of the ideas was to roll with it during the cafeteria during our lunch periods. So we ran it for an entire week. We had different clubs come in. They set up their areas in the cafeteria. This way we could ensure that those opportunities were in the face of every student, you know, throughout the periods. Uh so I was really happy about that. Um mock trial this year, we're actually looking to compete. Um, so we're looking to compete with Kingston and Newalt. So that should be exciting. So stay tuned for more
017details with that. Uh, the school store, um, I I put this on here. So if you look at the top left, you'll actually see a flag. So Bernie Sawyers, and you might see it waving out front by our American flag. So the school store is on here. So that's an example of a product that our classes, our students designed with Mr. Cooper that we're actually selling in our school store. There's other things, too. So there's lanyards, there's stress balls, there's other products. So, those classes are actually designing things and then actually bringing them to fruition and we're actually selling them throughout our school store. Um, community partners, I mean, we have so many to name, it's hard to just like throw them. I know that we did uh I know that we put them up
018on our website. I believe that they're still there. Uh, but I would just like to always thank them. We always have them in the back of our minds. If you look at the center of the presentation, one of the things for me is we talk about these large student experiences, but we don't always get to see the day-to-day. So, these last two pictures here, you can't see the one on the bottom right, but the one in the center, that's just an example of some of the the baking that our students are doing. So, I I had the privilege of going up into a classroom and seeing these cupcakes. They're so creative. They really are. Um, and then in the bottom right, I was actually walking through the hallway back by the the the gym, and
019I heard this sound, and I was like, "Oh, what is maintenance doing?" It was actually Mr. Shower's class. um they created a hoverboard >> and the kids were actually that was the coolest thing to say. The kids were on the hoverboard and actually moving around in the hallway. So those are the day-to-day things that are happening that are not always highlighted. You don't always get to see unless you have the privilege of being in the building to actually experience them. So I'm always grateful for those. Uh some other things to highlight here Boseis capstones. So our students that go to Boseze, some of them are enrolled in capstones, which means they actually leave and they go to work for a couple time a couple hours a day. So I know of a couple students like
020one of them works with Mullins, one of them works with Sawyer Motors. Uh so our students are getting experiences that way. Uh C3 Quest is new to us this year. Um it's actually free, right? >> Miss Churchill was helpful and getting this up and going as well. Um but this is an additional support to our students. uh gives them a look at uh some peer mentoring support in an area that they might need. Um internships available. Um what else am I missing? There's a ton of stuff that goes with this. Uh but this is new this year and we're learning about it. We're experiencing we do have students enrolled. Uh so more to come with that as well. Uh positive referrals. So you've probably heard me talk before about the power of the positive. And
021I'm just going to be totally honest with you. It's very easy to get caught up in the negative, right? It's not the practice of everybody to share the positive. I actually think that's way less and lower on the list than actually sharing the negatives. So, we really try to bring it to the forefront. Yes, those negative things can bring us down, but it's really important that we make that positive thing really the highlight. So, that's a lot of our work in the building this year. Power of the positive, not just for us, but for the students also. Positive referrals is one of the things that we've started to do and students are earning these positive referrals. So instead of parents just getting a call home saying, "Hey, you know, behavior referral," we actually have the
022positives, too. So I'm grateful for the staff that's implementing that student support. I'm going to touch down when I talk about attendance and the support team. Um I'm actually jump to that now. So you've heard this before, too. We have our cohort teams that meet uh weekly when we can. Uh we review each student. We talk about supports they might need um at risk upper end and we talk about attendance. We talk about tardies. We talk about grades. We talk about do we need any type of improvement maybe how do we get this student from the next. I'll be honest with you most of the time you end up um you are focusing on the students that kind of need a little bit more support. But ultimately that's why we're there. Today our day ended
023very late and the the main priority is is support, student support. Uh we do our best to get to the why. Um what I'm learning is a lot of the times the wise up here are not always something that we can really control. So what we do is the best the best that we can try to help and support the best way we know how and try to get and create that relationship so students are comfortable coming to us uh maybe in the time of need of something. Um and then the other big focus is our re-entry meeting. So this comes from either it could be anything. It could be a long-term absence. It could be uh somebody was struggling. They just didn't want to come to school. It could be a suspension. But that
024re-entry, we don't just have students come back to the building and just, you know, release them into their classrooms. We check in with them. We make sure they're comfortable. A lot of times there's gossip that goes with things. We make sure they're comfortable in a response, right? We want to make sure everybody's protected. So, I really do value those support and cohort team uh meetings that we have. Um, and then we have New York Business and Marketing Honor Society. So, this is something that Mr. Cooper is bringing to us and it's new this year and I am now going to turn it over to two students to bring you the rest. I specifically asked if I should introduce. They're practicing introduce. >> Hello everybody. My name is Chris McHugh and I'm the secretary of our
025business entrepreneurship club at the high school. and my name is Anukica mccclary and I'm the social director at the for the club. So today we're just going to be talking about um just about the club basically what we do. So I'm going to start with last year. So last year was the first year that we founded the club and because of that we weren't quite able to how much or like as much as we wanted to do but we did go on a field trip to U Alb where we got to meet with some business uh professors and like learn a little bit more about business and what it might be like to major in business there. We also did a stock simulation which I thought was really cool because I knew nothing about the
026stock market and still don't as maybe as much as I should but it was really cool to like learn a little bit about it and I think it's something that you should know about especially as you're moving to college and just becoming an adult. We also organized the pickle ball um tournament for the school which I don't know if you guys are familiar with it but basically everyone not everyone but a lot of kids from the school sign up and like do this pickle ball tournament and it's really fun. I as a social director did like the social media for it. So I was like going around interviewing teams about how they felt about their matches and all that. It was a really cool experience >> and it I think helped a lot with like
027kids to like understand like what it takes like go into planning an event and like everything you need because there's so much that like I didn't take into account that you need for that event and Stein Mr. Cooper really helped for me to like realize that and open my eyes to that. >> So I'm just going to explain what we're currently working on in the club. Um, we partnered with our local Duncan that's right in town and we were doing a sales competition where we broke up the club members into teams and we're each designing our own donut and in the spring carnival we are going to be selling these donuts and it's going to be a lot of fun. Um, there's been a lot of creative ideas and it's a lot of fun just
028seeing everybody like pitch in and their creativity and um I believe Duncan will be donating a prize to the winner. So idea and we're presenting it and pitching it to judges and the prize is entrepreneurship cup which will have our names on it. So that's something to look forward to as well. And all the plannings for all these events and projects and field trips. Um all these planning um happens on Wednesdays after school. So for example, tomorrow we have a call with Kingston to discuss um more ideas for the entrepreneurship cup. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. Um the responsibilities for the club members just includes showing up to the club and giving your best and just creating a positive environment and it's a really great thing to be a part of and the
029club is growing. There's been a lot of new members over time and it's turned into a really great environment. So now I'll give the mic over to Anukica to talk about our new honor society. So, something else new that we're doing this year is a business and marketing honor society through New York State. And basically, like some of the basic requirements is like a normal honor society. Like you have to have I don't know exactly what it is, but like good grades in your normal classes and good grades in your business classes. And you also need to be a part of BAC to be in this. We have our induction on January 29th and it's basically just like a resume booster for like kids who go above and beyond in their business classes because we
030don't really have anything else to show for that. So this is that it helps with college or if you're looking for an internship. It's just something to say like hey I went this extra mile because they I mean they can look at your transcript but that doesn't always show like how much effort you put into that. We also got these cool cords that you're going to get at graduation like blue and yellow. [laughter] You get like something that shows that you're in that. Um, basically like the club is really cool. You like learn soft skills about public speaking. Like even in entrepreneurship last year and like entrepreneurship is a club. I wouldn't be able to like stand in front of you all and talk to you as comfortably as I am without this. And that's
031big thank you to my teacher Mr. Cooper, but also thanks to the club that I have to do so often that it just becomes that much easier. >> Anything else? >> Great. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Thank Mr. Cooper also for um getting that up and going and bringing that here just for you because it's very very >> like how he's hiding in the back of the room. >> Yes. >> Good job, Mr. Cooper. [applause] my presentation tonight. So, we thought it would have been a little too late, but I'm always invited in to sit and do, you know, like provide feedback for student presentations. So, I said, "Ah, maybe we could have students come here and critique me." [laughter] No takers tonight. Okay. Um, the other thing I want to talk about just clubs
032real quick was we have roughly about 30 clubs right now. And I did have a student come to me and um my point in this is we have students advocating for additional clubs, one of them being a human rights club. So we're we're currently working on that. Dr. Catalano started um Habitat for Humanity Club as well. You may have seen that come across your way. Okay. So plan pilot. So I want to give um a lot of credit to uh Miss Defino. Um she currently oversees this. And I would also like to let you know a little personal story. So I when I started last year I was kind of like this was already up and running right and so I go to my first meeting and it was very quickly I put it together
033that when we're in the meeting with these people across the state were the state people that we were meeting with right they were asking these two questions they were like hey so how do you do that oh you did it that way oh great so when I tell you that I feel that we are truly leaders in a plan [clears throat] pilot we are I think we're setting the example for other schools other districts we have them reaching out to us. Um, so I just I felt like it was important for you to know the the work that's actually being done here and you can actually feel the impact that Mfino is having in the building with getting this up and going. So, thank you, Mfino, for all that you're doing with this. So, um,
034and I'm not stealing her thunder. I just want to give you a little bit of my perspective coming in and seeing this and kind of learning along the way for the last year. Uh, so this year we're in, um, our ninth grade team is working on project based learning projects. They're all happening in EOA, algebra and living environment. Uh we just had January 9th, we had a product uh project launch day where Jackie Greco and Kate Morrow to math teachers put together a panel of teachers and administrators to debate and actually have a debate about math. Uh they also did a little Q&A session. So the whole day was planned by these teachers and they had um with support from their colleagues they had the students in the auditorium they had the debate they had
035some Q&A and then afterwards they came actually in here for some team building. So that was really great to see. Um and then that was of course the product project launch date. Uh students are developing portfolios in living environment algebra ELA and US history. Um we're expanding our community partners within and outside of the school. And here's one of the coolest parts of this. So sometime in December, we had our mentor school visit with us, Thomas Edison High School. And one of the first things they did when they came in, they were like, "Wow, we love your school." They were like, "It's it's physically beautiful. The grounds are beautiful." So, you know, kudos to our maintenance and custodial staff. They thought it was clean. They thought we were It was huge. Uh so that was
036really nice to hear. They they couldn't believe how many clubs we offered our students. Um so they they really did just give us high accolades. And then they said that the the possibilities for us to collaborate and do things. So including items like including concepts like the score store um they really just gave us high praise for our setup here and kind of the things we had in motion. Um and then the other part was students were sharing. So they brought students with them and then their students were sharing that they actually have they re their their students actually work with our teachers to design lessons and uh talk about like content delivery and when we visited their school their students are actually leading classrooms their students are actually instructors. So part of what we're
037starting to talk about and implement here is getting that ball rolling because uh we had a few teachers uh bring their our students into this meeting and not only was it great to see the students connect but our students started talking about saying hey that would be really cool or hey we should really talk about that we would be interested in that. Um so I'm really excited to see more of plan pilot and and where that goes. Um, the other part of the student experience that I want to highlight, Miss Highland's actually going to come up and talk to you a little bit about scheduling. Last year, it's hard to believe it's a year ago already, we talked to you about some new scheduling procedures. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Highland
038for counseling department. >> Hi everyone. Um, >> no, I'm not following along at all. >> That's okay. >> Not that [laughter] it really matters. >> I'm not good at this. Here we go. >> There we go. Okay. Um, so I'm Jamie Hileman. For those um, who don't know me, I currently am the department chair and also have the seniors this year. Um, this is just a breakdown of our counselors this year. Um, and I'll go over a little bit. We have, uh, Miss Tiffany who's in for Miss Chonovich who had a baby. Um, so she'll be out for a little bit. And Miss Tiffan has been great um, covering helping um, across the board. As you can see, uh, Mr. Tolman does seventh and ninth uh, breakdown. Miss Madden 9 to 10. Um and then
039Dr. Catalano is part 10 and all of 11. Okay. So last year, um I came with sheets that I I think I came with them when we had them online already. So we're going to do the same thing again this year. Um we've gotten a lot of feedback from students, um teachers, admin that they run, parents. So we are tailoring it a little bit more this year to be even more user friendly. We are still going to push into classrooms. So we actually just set that date. It's going to start February 2nd um right after regions week. We're going to have a week where [clears throat] they're here and then we're going to push into the classrooms. Um so what we're going to do is we're going to hand out those sheets again. They're going
040to be able to bring them home for a week and then we're going to collect them and then uh put them in the computer. So it is going to give students that time to talk to teachers. So if they're in electives, let's say they're in one of Mr. Cooper's classes, he can say, "Hey, this is the next class you should take." They can then add it as an elective. This way they're talking with their teachers who are actually teaching those classes um that they might not know that they're eligible to take. Um so we are tailoring that still. It's still going to be colorcoded. Um the it will be up on the website as soon as we have it like really refined. Um so you'll be able to see it then I miss Mono can
041always share that too if you guys want to see. Um so again we're just every time that we're going to do this it's new so we're just going to keep making it better and better each year taking feedback. Um, >> can I ask a question? >> Yeah, >> I'm sorry. >> I don't know which version of the mic I have. >> Yeah, that one. >> I appreciate you um giving the overview on that and that information is going to be on the website and I will tell you having two kids in the district, the the scheduling process has always been a little bit opaque to me. So, I think to the extent that we can get information about how it works out to the parents before anything goes home or before you meet with the
042kids and let them know how it works, you know, to the extent the parents will consume the information. I think it'd be very helpful for Okay. >> others, at least if they're the same as my vote. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we can I'll meet with Miss Molino and Miss Veil and we'll come up with a way of how we can tackle that and best get information out prior to us going into graphic. >> Um, thank you. And then um we will so once we get the schedules in um we won't have the schedule made but we'll have what classes students have signed up for as their like course requests. And then the plan is again we're going to send them two [clears throat] letters. The first one will be like here's what we have
043for your child for the uh next school year. Once we have the schedule made or close to it we're going to say okay um here's if they have a couple electives we'll say here's ones that fit in there right now could change. And then it'll also have the next year's case load. So the counselor's case loads will change as of next year because my seniors will be gone and I will miss Adriana um and everybody else in the senior class, but I'll have a new case load as well. So we're going to want to make sure that parents know who to reach out to. So we'll make sure to add that on there. And again, we'll keep the website um up to date as possible. >> Can I ask a question? When you say letters
044go home, are they all postal service or there if you have emails on file, will the parents can the parents get an email? I'm just curious. I think maybe like postal. >> Yeah, we did a postal. >> It's all postals. Okay. I was just curious. Okay. >> Question what I would have is are we able to I think the goal would be to get it on the parent portal and have it access accessible there >> and we have been talking about that. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> That would be good. >> Not all parents um have emails or provide emails to us. So we figure mailing they're going to get it or we get it back and then we find another way to get it. But every every parent has access to the parent
045portal. So >> if they theoretically >> that was a bad blanket statement. >> So but it so the the point is this. We need to get it home in different ways to ensure we're getting everybody. >> Got it. >> That's the that's the bottom line. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um and then I just wanted to highlight our sixth grade a little bit too. So, um we our sixth grade counselor, she pushes into classrooms all the time um at all the elementary schools and most recently she did an escape room that she was super excited about. So, it worked on um they had to do um uh goodness, I'm blanking. They basically had to work together and learn to talk to each other and figure out like um it was a scramble so they had
046to like go around the room. She sent me a bunch of pictures. If you guys want them, I can send them to you. Um, but basically they got this letter and it was like a mystery and they had to like go around the room and figure out what these letters said and a lot of it's like clean your room, make sure you do your homework, you know, just stuff like that with >> eat your oval team. >> Um, so she said that the kids loved it and thrived and she even had her daughter helping her at home so that it was like a little bit more tailored towards their age. Um, so they they really liked that. And then we are going to have our tour days for sixth grade where they come up and
047they meet with Miss Vale, Miss DeFino, um all basically our admin, our social worker, psychologist, and we just do a little tour. So they start in the auditorium, they go on a tour of the junior high, senior high, kind of check it out. Um they'll see passing time when the bells ring. They'll fill out um a quick Google form for us, just tell us what they're excited about, what they're nervous about, and then um they head home, it's about a half day for each of the schools. And then when they come back for their uh shadow days, which will be in May, we don't have those dates set yet. Um is when we answer all their questions that they brought up for us, that's [clears throat] a half day that well, they're here for a
048little bit more than a half day. And we provide them lunch and then they go home after that. Um but that's always a big hit and everybody wants to be a buddy and have a buddy in seventh and eighth grade. Big deal. >> Yes, it's a it's a big deal. So um yeah, we look forward to those. >> Any other scheduling questions for you? >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. So, academic excellence. So, I'm not going to go through probably everything on here. I'm just going to highlight the the the big ones for us. So, Sawyer's on. Sawyer on. Is Miss Ki still here? So, she was a huge part of this. That's why I'm trying to say that. So, we brought this. This was the first time we ran this this year. And
049I don't know if you remember this, but we had our graduating or our seniors on the stage. They could wear their work shirt. So, somebody was leaving, let's say they were going to work at Home Depot, they could wear their work uniform if they wanted to, wherever they were working. Uh, we offered to have their maybe their boss come with them. I don't think we had any takers on that. Uh, college, if you're going to a college, you could wear your sweatshirt. If you're going into the armed forces, you could wear the uniform if you chose to or something to represent that. The bottom line is we were trying to recognize and celebrate anybody and or everybody and their next step. Uh, and we've brought them together. That's that center picture there. That was Miss
050Ki trying to organize everybody and get everybody to take the picture. But that was really fun. So, we're looking forward to continue that. Uh, seals. So, we had five students graduate with the uh seal of bi literacy and the seal of civic readiness. We had seven students graduate between with 30 to 39 college credits. >> So, great. >> Great. >> That's an associates degree. >> Yeah, >> that's huge. Um, core values are celebrated quarterly. So, you've heard our core values. We've Miss Defino again was uh one that brought this to the high school. So um she was we have teachers that recommend students that uh display or portray our core values and we recognize them quarterly with the breakfast. We're coming up on the the second run of that [laughter] um college partnerships. So right
051now we're working with Sienna University of Albany and Olter County Community College. Uh capstone opportunities. I talked a little bit about that before. And our work with the portrait of a graduate is continued and then our targeted academic support. So you based on need we might look to introduce um like a literacy lab uh or a math some type of math support MTSS support right multi-tered system of supports. So based on need we kind of look at that. So we added a couple of things into the schedule um to support that. And then this year, what we also did was sometimes you have students that don't make it through the regent exam the first time, but they passed the class, so they're not actually enrolled in a course. So, we ran um regent review sessions
052uh with the support of the district to um get we're actually running through them this week and we have some pretty good attendance. So, we're running review sessions and they're open to anybody. Um but that's really where that was coming from. professional culture. So in the center here you see that engagement continuum and that's that student engagement continuum that we were talking about and I think I stole this from principal Jan Greco. Um we last year we ran through our teaching and learning meetings and what we did was we we came up with the adult engagement continuum. So where are we as the adults in the building? Um what does it look like if we are withdrawing? what does it look like, you know, if we are um drawing a blank avoiding, right? So, our
053staff actually came up with or are we driving? Our staff actually came up with what that looks like from the adult perspective. Um, and that was we I put that all together and right now I'm trying to get a friendly format to get that out to the staff, but it was really great work. Uh, so basically the question is how engaged are you as a staff member here, right? um trauma-informed instruction and restorative practice is always at the forefront uh in everything we do. Uh just yesterday we had a teaching and learning meeting and it's important to me that we have a common understanding of the simple things. It's not always very uh it doesn't have to be so complex. So something as simple as the language we're using in class and how we are
054actually responding to any type of situation in a classroom. Uh trying to get some type of consistency. So I can't have a certain response in one classroom from a teacher and then our staff member and then you know a different response over here. Uh so we had a really great I thought it was a very great meeting uh yesterday about that. We have our ninth grade teams. So our teams are getting together weekly and going through and collaborating and talking about the ninth grade teams. Uh shared accountability. So this one's big for me because what I first realized when I got here it was it was um I thought I like it's it was terrible. It's just it was it was disjoint. It was like, "Oh, that's the administrators. Oh, that's the teachers. Oh, those
055are the teaching assistants." So, one of the areas that I wanted to focus on was bringing us all together to discuss and have us all, hey, we're in this together. We have this shared accountability to make sure that we are doing all the things together. We're supporting each other. um everybody's taking responsibility for the successes, the behaviors, uh whatever it might be that we're facing, but we're all working on that together. Basically, we are all accountable for the well-being of our school, right? So, trying to bring that concept together. Um committee participation. I'm always grateful for staff that participates in the the committees after school at night. Um and clap out celebrations. So, this is something we did last year also. Mr. Mr. Wickham got the best one because he was able to be surprised,
056but now the cat's out of the bag. So, one of the things we started to do last year was anybody that's retiring, we all meet outside and clap them out on their way. That was really nice to see. Everybody coming together again. And then recognition and appreciation. I can't tell you how grateful I am for everybody in this building because people don't always see the above and beyond with the staff, right? They're spending money out of their pockets. They're providing food for students that need it after school because they're staying after they're staying after some of the some of them are here until now, right? So, I'm just always grateful for everybody and I really just appreciate it. I I do across the board. It's it you can definitely tell that we're student centered and
057that that's first and foremost. finishing up family and community engagement, the week at a glance, the wag. Uh, so what I did this year was now I share it with students. Last year it just went to parents and guardians and then I had a different one that went to staff. I also share it with students. Some of the feedback has been great with that. The students actually like like it. Uh, they feel like they have they know what's going on in their school building and I don't know that they always did before. Uh, ninth grade orientation was a little different this year. We had a materials pickup night. So they came they got everybody got everything. That was really great. I thought we had great attendance. People came, got their yonder pouches, their Chromebooks. Um,
058that's not something I think we've done before. So, it was really nice to see. Uh, and it was very helpful. We did it for 10 through 12, too. I don't know why I left that off there. Uh, and then open house and FASA night. So, the attendance was great. Now, I talked before about the club fair and the elective fair. We're toying with ways to kind of combine the two and see what we can do there. So, [clears throat] uh, Miss Veil and I also met with somebody yesterday to talk about vaping education and we also talked about there's a parent, uh, section of that. So, we talked about bringing something like that into one of these nights that's already there and scheduled to try to increase get awareness and that kind of stuff. Also,
059uh, community partners again and then our score store because what our score store does is pretty amazing for our school and our community. Um, that picture right there, class of 1963. So the other part of family like community engagement, we always have classes coming back that have graduated years ago and they're standing in front of that wall and they said that's the exact wall that was there when they graduated. Okay, safety. So new addition to the team this year was Officer Cutler. Um he's been amazing. He's definitely integrated in with the students. He's definitely making those connections that we want to see. He's very present in our cafeterias, our hallways. Um he goes above and beyond to just, you know, be there to assist. Right now he's outside helping with the parking lot situation or
060eyeball and dismissal. Uh but he's been super wonderful to have on the team and we're grateful that he's here. Uh security guard Eric, you know, he he's a tremendous asset to the team as well. What he does at the front of the building is amazing. Uh he also helps us behind the scenes a little bit because he's the man in front of the camera all the time. Um his skills are definitely very much appreciated. Uh the other thing we did this year, again I talked about custodial and maintenance. Uh custodial meeting last year when we run our drills, it's important that everybody in the building knows how they work. And this is a thing that it should be the same in all of our buildings. It is the [clears throat] same in all of our
061buildings. So ran a couple of meetings this year with custodial staff, maintenance staff, our monitors, and then the cafeteria staff is up next on our docket. Um ID badges. I'm rolling with a positive reward system. You've seen that in the wag. I'm trying to get everybody to wear their ID badges. It's not happening, but we're getting better. I have faith and then just continuously approving upon the following arrival and dismissal is big ticket item right now. So what's happening right now is when everybody is dismissing uh those that are picking up their kids are lining up in that our entryway there and just blocking it. So stay tuned, more to come. What has to happen is if we're picking up, we need to pick up in that lot that's over there uh to my left
062right now. All the way over. that's over there closer to the Hildebrand building, not behind, but to the side. So, more information will be coming from that. We'll have to be out there directing everybody over, but the key is that we have to keep that open. Um, we do our drill procedure, safety walkthrough, and then our building safety assessments. And then finally, so our data. So, I shared with you data. I'm absolutely not going to go through the entire data because you can recharge, you can look at the stuff, and quite honestly, you can go down a rabbit hole. I'm just sharing with you some of the things that I'm looking at, some of the things that I'm doing like me in my role. Um, and of course, I share it out with the teams
063as appropriate. So, this is just attendance. I just started looking at this. So, chronic absenteeism defined by the state is missing 10% or more of the classes you're in session. So, right now, call it 80 days. It's a it's 78 79ish. So, I just rolled with eight. So, right now, that's the number of students in each grade level of what we have them missing. And I'm looking at the percentages. And then from quarter to quarter, I'll look at that. And then I started to look at stuff from last year to see where we are in comparison. Uh here's the regent exam scores. Again, I'm not going to go through it. The only addition that I gave you this year was students with disabilities and our ENL students. English as a second language. Uh I gave
064you AP enrollment. Talk about that in a minute. Uh actual AP scores and then uh the mean score for our P our AP exams. And then I'll come back to that in a second. So the takeaways that I have are this. The data it it's what we can physically see. So I can go through and tell you X percentages did this, X percentage hit mastery, but you know, go along the lines of that. Um, but what you don't see, so you might have a student sitting in the failed category, but that was huge for them that day. That might be a student that's not coming to school. That might be a student that significantly struggled. And that person showed up and actually took the test. And for them to get a 40, you know what?
065That's a huge win for that kid. We have other supports in place. We'll figure out and we'll we'll strategize after that, but it's important to know the data doesn't always tell you exactly what's happening within the walls. Um, Earth and Space Science. So, that's a brand new exam and we're relatively strong in comparison given the fa fact that it's, you know, brand new. Um, AP exam. So, here's what I was looking at. I gave you the AP enrollment. I want to look at and see if it's increasing or decreasing and across the board it looked like there was some I think it's about six out of the x number of classes were increasing which was more than last year uh testing versus not testing so something I learned is students are signing up for AP
066courses but not actually taking the test so I'm curious why uh so be looking at that a little bit more um and then are we competitive so are our students whether I should have just put this in general are they leaving here and going to a college classroom setting and they're competitive and I don't mean competitive like winning. I mean like are they able to hang in the classroom conversations? Where are they at? That's why I was looking at that mean score. Where do we fall across the state? Where do we call fall across maybe the nation? Um my other key takeaway is always keeping the focus on balancing between at risk and pushing our students that are doing well higher. Right? Everybody needs that love and attention. Uh students and staff are taking risks.
067So, even those that are not in the plan pilot, I still hear them having conversations about project-based learning and what they're implementing in their classroom. Um, we are definitely student centered. We definitely have those core values at the forefront of all of our work. Um, even tonight, the students that we're talking about are definite representations of our core values and we are in a great position to continue. Uh, you know, New York's New York inspires and looking forward to our future work there. And then key challenges. This was a big one for me. I came in my style isn't to come in hot, change everything and do everything and fix everything. You kind of have to like sit back, observe, see what's happening, what's naturally coming to the surface and those things. Um, and a
068big takeaway for me is even those big items that we have to address. So maybe something like, you know, the safety at dismissal, it does take time. Attendance does take time, tardies does take time. So that was a big uh learning experience for myself. The challenges are really going to take time and I don't have to have it fixed in a solution right now questions. I forgot those. One of my favorites was when I was asking about the under pouches. Student just looked at me was like I don't like them. I don't like fair. Other students told me I have it up here since everyone has to have their cell phone away. they don't feel like they're missing something. So, that was great. >> Option. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Shannon. waiting. >>
069Are you waiting? >> Okay. >> All right. Next up, um, superintendent report. [clears throat] >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Okay. So, good evening. I want to take a few moments just to share some of the intentional work we've been doing for the last four months. So, as Principal Malinol was focusing on her specific building, I want to broaden our lens and I had the opportunity very briefly to catch my breath over the winter break, take stock of where we are, reflect on the incredible work we've done [clears throat] and where we need to be. So what stood out most to me was the professionalism, resolve and deep commitment of our staff. And despite an extraordinarily challenging climate, our focus has rem remained exactly where it needs to be on our students. Tonight I want to briefly
070share the work we have done to rebuild trust and strengthen safeguards, how we continue to advance student learning and how we are moving forward together with purpose. So firstly to speak about repair, safeguards and trust building. Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of students and staff. The district has taken decisive comprehensive action both immediate and long-term in close partnership with the Olster County Special Victims Unit, mobile mental health, Olster Boseies, and trauma-informed care experts from around our nation. So, in terms of safety and security, we continue to have Atlas security. Uh, Principal Molinol just referenced Eric at the front of the school. We continue to have a resource officer. What is different this year is our collaboration with local law enforcement to have clear articulation of what the expectations are of the role
071and how we are going to evaluate and assess the role and also what is the training. So weekly our SRO officer checks in with principal Molinol. Um and there is a different tone and we are really appreciate the collaborative efforts with our local law enforcement. In addition, we continue to do what we've always done. We continue to have safety plans. We continue to have safety meetings. By the way, our district safety meeting will be scheduled um and posted shortly and we do know that we need to continue our communication. We do know that when there is a hold in place or a lockdown or if you in the community see a police presence in front of a building, we understand that you might be nervous or fearful. So, if there isn't a communication, it is
072to protect a student. It is to protect the dignity of the student and their situation and their family may not be for the greater good of the public to know because it might do more harm sharing that with the public. So please understand that not everything needs to be known publicwide if it's going to do damage to a very specific situation in a specific student. But we can always do our best in letting you know the building is safe and we will do better with that. In terms of mental health and student support, here is what we did on opening day for staff only on the superintendent's conference day. We had mobile mental health on opening day for students. We had mobile mental health here to help us. They have great expertise and they were
073so wonderful to work with. Throughout the summer, our high school counselors made themselves available for counseling. We also made off-campus counseling available to those who wanted it as well. We have incredible support teams throughout our district and they work in great partnership with their principles, the special ed and PPS. Um, we also, as uh Jamie Hileman mentioned, we have an elementary counselor who pushes into the classrooms for social emotional learning. It's our hope to launch a specialized high school trauma support program uh now that we have done the errands law instruction. In terms of prevention education, there are some things we've done differently here in Sardis. By law, we have to do education for grades kindergarten through 8th grade. And Aeron's law is required. You are not allowed to opt out. and it's about body
074safety, healthy relationships, and it uses age appropriate language. And we bring in experts in the field to do Aaron's law education. And it's typically just a short lesson. And for example, if it's in a primary grade, it's typically a book, a read aloud at an age appropriate level, and then conversation. We communicate with parents to ensure that they are aware of it. What was important to us is that this year we expand the Arens Law education to 9th grade through 12th grade. So they know what it is, they know their rights. And more importantly, we also had a faculty meeting so that the secondary staff was informed of what Aeron's law education is. In terms of staff training and accountability, we always have to complete mandated reporter training that's done in addition to sexual harassment,
075child abuse prevention, bullying, and many other required trainings. There's about 13ish in total that all staff, including coaches, anybody who works for Sogerties needs to complete. We also have chosen very carefully to go deeper in our work with restorative practices and do trauma-informed instruction and care professional learning for all staff. So we've been working closely with Dr. Bashant and providing this. So far we've had 12 internal workshops provided on superintendence conference days. Additionally, it's not just about the teachers and the staff receiving the traumainformed professional learning. We began this work this summer with our leadership. They have done intense work of traumainformed leadership uh professional development, but they are also receiving some executive coaching one-on-one with an expert in the field for the entire year. Lastly, we have launched for family and community engagement uh
076the Sawyer family community learning series with uh Dr. Bashant's building brighter futures corporation. So topics might include co-parenting supporting teens with depression. For example, the next uh webinar will be January 27th and it's parenting a child with ADHD and/or oppositional behaviors. So, to date, we've had 59 parents andor community members participate and that's fantastic. Our hope is that we continue this throughout the year. By next year, it will become a standard practice. And in addition, we hope to offer some in-person uh workshops for parents and community members on everything from anxiety, using social media in a healthy way, um and helping your student with homework. So, I want to be very specific because there's always a lot of assumptions. Those are all the things we have done. We know we have so much work to
077do, but I want to recognize and honor the work that has been done. So, thank you to the staff. Thank you to our partners who have worked with us during this very challenging time. One of the most amazing things that happened was over the summer in the midst of this breaking, elementary teachers came to me and they said, "Dr. G, we don't want to lose momentum. We are doing great work." And what they have shown is they are continuing to do the great work. This past fall, right now in fact this month, we were launching new literacy assessments through the I Ready platform, the literacy task. For a teacher to listen to a child read is one of the most important things in our profession. For a teacher to listen to them decoding their fluency,
078their reasoning, their comprehension is absolutely essential in their professional judgment to know the next move and step. And I am so proud of our elementary teachers and what they have learned this fall, how they have stayed focused and how they have rallied together and stated, "No, we want to maintain momentum for the greater good of our students." And it's helping us stay researchbased and aligning our curriculum and standards to be aligned to the science of reading. At the secondary level, as you've heard, our plan pilot really is doing extraordinary things. When our when our students are seeking out feedback from staff members, revising their work, then presenting again, that is the re the process of learning. Revision and reworking and tweaking is learning. And I'm very proud of the secondary plan pilot students who are
079doing this and for the teachers who have had the courage to say, you know what, instead of just marking and doing a scantron multiplechoice test that might take three minutes, we're going to go through a longer process of learning because this will last with them a lifetime. So moving forward during my initial interview for soerties about four and a half years ago in the summer they asked me why I wanted to come to sois and through my work at Olter Boseies I've been affiliated with so for years providing professional development and leadership support but in that moment I said so is on the precipice of greatness today I can tell you. We are still on the precipice of greatness. We are still doing great work. We have extraordinary talent. And we need to seek out
080the people and harness and leverage the talent that is extraordinary. Our students who are movers and shakers. are students who want to do extraordinary things in this world and raise the roof and just have the opportunity to do it. There are always going to be negative people. There are always going to be naysayers who want to bring us down. But this is our moment to be great. And this is our moment to rise above it. So to move forward, we must leverage the talent within the system and maintain a laser-like focus on what students will need in 2045, not 2026, and continuing to align our work to the portrait of a Sawyer graduate. So this requires the discipline of analyzing our data, thoughtful program implementation, and a budget that supports our shared priorities. a budget
081that mirrors our values. That's going to be tough. So, in the coming months, my colleague, Mr. Stagger, and I will engage you if you choose to be engaged, and the board of education in the community to have transparent conversations about our fiscal reality, immediate needs, and the investments necessary to ensure a bright future for our students. So in closing, my ask is the same. Continue to take care of our students, continue to take care of yourself, and take care of one another because we are a Sawyer community and we are great and we will be a beacon of excellence. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Rob. Uh board member remarks. Um start with Mr. Wells. >> I'm good. >> You're good. Mr. Gremlia, good. Mel, >> I'm good. >> Wow. Mr. Meyer, good. >> I'm
082good. >> Good. >> I know you're not good. >> I am great. [laughter] >> [clears throat] >> No, I don't have um much to say, but I am going to lobby day in February. And so I will be sending a email out to everybody just sort of um once the uh governor releases a budget which will happen should happen before that. But um she has certainly talked a lot about increasing money for prek um for you know clean green schools program efforts to address teacher shortages teacher shortages. So lobby day we go and NISBA helps us with some talking points and everything else and we talk to our local legislators about what we would like them to put forward in the state budget and to sort of fight for. So anyway, I'll be reaching out
083to folks about that. And um that's it. >> All right. Um I have three things I have to cover. Um uh first off is um Mr. Tolman um a former board member. So um Mr. Tolman's resignation was effective December 31st. Um and really uh personal reasons. um he had no he didn't have a desire to be on the board anymore. Um so with that um we are now an eight member board. Now just to clarify um we as a board will discuss how we will fill that position if we will fill that position. Um we do not as a board have the ability simply to shrink our board. Um that is something that needs to get put out to voters. um if we had a discussion and said, you know what, we just think based
084on involvement and things like that, um this would be better as a sevenperson board. That's not something we just get to unilaterally decide that would go out for vote in May, um with with the budget and with the incoming board members and things like that. >> Um there are two options we have. Uh excuse me. Yeah, there are two options we have. Um, one is we can appoint someone to that position and that can be anybody. Um, and in this case, um, that the if we did decide to appoint somebody, that person would simply be, um, there until May, not for the entire term that was left for Mr. Toman. Um, and then come May, instead of the normal three board members that would come up for for vote, there would be four. Um, the
085other option we have is to simply not do anything until May. So either way, come May, there will be four board positions up for vote. Um, the three normal cycling ones and then Mr. Tolman's position. Um, and how that would work is very similar to how it worked our last vote last year is the person with the highest vote total would immediately assume Mr. Toman's former seat um where the other board members would get voted would get would come in July 1st. So the person with the highest vote total um assumes immediately um once the once the vote is um is certified. Um so that's how that works. I hope that clarifies of things. We're not shrinking the board. We don't have that ability. Okay. Um the second thing is transparency. We hear a lot
086about, you know, the board promised transparency about a bunch of different things. Um, and we are trying to be as transparent as we can. Um, people have to realize that there are um, there are personnel matters involved, there is HR involved, there are unions involved which have certain rules. Um, and I've learned a lot that transparency tends to follow um, what you think is going to happen. So that if it's not that's not that if that's not what is uh communicated then we're not being transparent. I can tell you one thing as we go and we and we continue to to um take the recommendations of the investigation and things like that. There is going to be no announcement here at a board level of names of specific names of this did this and this
087that we just don't have that ability legally from a personnel perspective. Um, so if that's what people are expecting, you need people need to reset that expectation. Um, and what I want to do is I want to take a minute to clarify again what was um, what Miss Gatos, who was the investigator, went through. She was investigating in the March April time frame of 2023. There was an anonymous um I I'll say complaint about um certain things around the wrestling coach, the the girls wrestling coach. Um that's what the investigator went after. The investigator was not looking into sexual misconduct or any legalities on that. That is that was the pre purview of the DA which as we know how that ended up and where that ended where that has um just in the past
088week or so has been finalized. What the invest the initial one of the the key things that the investigator did find um and these are the findings of the investigator. Right? This is not a board opinion or anybody's opinion around this table. These are specifically the findings of that investigator in interviewing 40ome people. um throughout the district at all levels. When that complaint came in, the process that was followed and the investigation process that was went into that complaint um was lacking any sort of best practice or any sort of proper protocol to the point of where the investigator found there was no clear record of how the complaint actually came into the office. There was no official investigation file created on that. Um, and outside of the wrestling coach, um, there was no one
089else talked to, um, around the complaint. And again, these are the findings of that investigator, not of the board, not of us. Um, so there were no um there were no uh wrestlers spoken to, there was no parents spoken to. Um and then when sub other information came available the investigator found there was no subsequent follow-up discussion. Um so really coming out of that one of the this all centers if you if you can put the pieces together really around HR right around how HR needs to function in a district this size and what I mean by a district this size forget the number of students it's really around the number of employees we have and having process having a right for a a standardized protocol for investigation so when something comes in um it
090is handled exactly the same way and as Dr. Roarback in um talked about she's had she has worked with the um the DA's office the county sheriff's our local police department on when they would be engaged in a certain investigation um and going through and even to the point of standardized forms and things like that. Um so that's all being taken into account. The other component of this is how our athletic department is run, right? And I I can't thank the work of Mr. Plesi of what he's done in the year that he has kind of taken over um and how he has standardized things from how certifications are done and reported to New York State and validated and renewed and things like that to the protocols and things that he's putting in place with
091coaches and communication with from the coaches to the uh to the athletes. Um, and then the other thing, as I mentioned before, is HR. Dr. Doherty has come in um, and done an amazing job so far on analyzing here's what's missing from an HR perspective. Here's what needs to happen. Um, and again, none of this is placing blame. It is here's here are our here's what's missing. And now, and it's a good time to be talking about it come budget because some of these things are going to cost money and some of these things are going to be non-negotiable. They can't be right. If everybody wants to talk about the safety of our students and the safety of how things are going to go, then when we say we're going to go hire an HR
092director, it can't be, well, what about the budget? No, those things need to be non-negotiable. Um, so as we go through and like we said, we will release more information of how I think we're moving now to how we're going to implement some of these things. I think that's what you'll hear about in February as we have um as we kind of crystallize more of those things. But again, just from a transparency perspective, if people are waiting for me to get up here and say so and so did this and so and so didn't do this and so and so did this, that's not going to happen. Um, simply because to me, that's not transparency. Again, that's placing blame. And in that case, in those cases, I'm I'm not we're not allowed to release those
093kind of names and and those kind of things. So, hope that clarifies a couple of things for everybody. Okay. >> All right. Moving on to the actual agenda. >> The rest >> uh I personnel and instructional non-instructional. Um we have items I one and two which are resignations and appointments. So can I have a motion to accept I one and two? So moved >> by Miss Bellarosa, seconded by Miss Kelder. Any questions on any of these? All those in favor? >> I. >> Business office recommendations. We have a treasures report, the revenue and appropriation status report. These are all uh normal things that are in here. We have a small donation, a nice donation from Hanniffords. Um and that's it. So, can I have an item uh a motion for items J1 through five? >>
094Make that motion >> by Miss Golia. >> Seconded. Seconded by Miss Irrizeri. All those are any questions related to that? All those in favor? I >> I Okay. Board actions. >> Dr. Dr. Hoffs, you have something? >> Yeah. I would like to make a motion to amend the agenda to include two policies that we have discussed. And um policy Put it down here. Can you step on the mic? Oh, right. Yep. I'll start over again. >> Take your own medicine. Right, Mr. What is it? She's throwing yelling at us. >> That's right. >> Okay. I would like to make a motion to amend the agenda to include under board action items policy number 5720, which is our transportation policy, and that we approved in the fall and needed to amend to make clear um about
095um staff driving students in personal cars. um that it is that is not um allowed as per our policy. But we also understand we live in a small district and many staff will take um you know they have children of their [clears throat] own who have friends who they will drive and so that we will be putting something in place where there will be we know there are exceptions to this and that we can just track that because we need to understand you know who's going with who and um that's not something I need to understand but that the school needs to uh know how that's working. And then also to add policy number 6180 which is the staff student relations the fraternization policy. Um and that we have also looked at my proposal. Well
096actually wait I need to make a motion to amend the agenda. And so I need a second on that to add those two policies. >> I'll second that motion. >> Yeah. Any questions? >> No. >> All those in favor? >> I All right. >> Okay. >> Agenda amended. >> Okay. to include policy 5720 and 6180 as a first read and approval. >> Okay. I think that's it. Right. Unless >> No, you're right. Now, those will now be included in the um board action items. >> Yes. Okay. >> And if anybody wants to look at what those look like um they are posted and [laughter] >> Okay. So, I need a motion and amending it to um I'm going to uh a motion to accept items K1 and now 1 through 13. >> So, move. >>
097All right. By Miss Keller. Second. >> Seconded by Mr. Wells. Any discussion? Any questions? In favor? >> I. >> Okay. Any big happenings on the audit? No, nothing report >> facilities. >> Uh just one minute of remarks. >> Yeah. >> Uh we had a great facilities meeting this week. I want to thank everybody that came and I would like to encourage uh everyone to continue to come to make that easier or even to make them more accessible. We are going to be sending out uh a link to those meetings uh going forward every month. We are going to move those meetings. We'll do it on a trial basis initially, but we're going to move those meetings to a 4:30 start uh because a lot of the people that attend those are coming straight from work
098at the district and we'll see how that works out. And I will be including a written facilities report in the board packet going forward so that I don't have to take up time at the meeting and I can give more detail to folks. Um, but I will let you know that for the time being, in addition to going over the status of capital outlay projects, where we are in the upcoming capital projects, which are major agenda items, um we are going to be putting a standing transportation item on the agenda because transportation is a major issue. Kristen Wilhelm came to the meeting this week and um the uh or last week and the information is just it's really critical and it's very important for the the district and the public to understand the impacts of
099transportation, what goes into it, the costs that are associated with it and the obligations that we have as a district. Um and I don't think it necessarily fits within policy or audit. So I'm stealing it. Um >> it's a good idea. [laughter] We will be getting a significant update on the Ricardi easement at the facilities meeting in February. We're expecting the report from the engineers in hand on the 19th I think is what Rich said is we're getting the report from the engineers on the 19th which is the drone footage and then we'll evaluate it and then we will be uh prepared to present that or or the engineers will be prepared to present that at the February meeting. Um, there's a lot of other stuff, but we don't need to to go into it
100here. Just look forward to those reports monthly, and I'll put those in the public section of the board agenda going forward. >> Okay. >> You're good on policy, right? Since you got your two in. >> Uh, well, actually, I did. Can I just speak to I know we have a time thing. Yeah. No, I know we have a time thing. I just wanted to um just highlight for the staff student relations patternization policy. I just want to make it really clear with folks um that there's language that requires communication between staff and students to be through district approved technology. If you have a question about what that looks like and how that works for music or athletics, please ask your building leader. Um and um that if you as a staff and as an adult
101are concerned about anything that may be happening in the building between staff and students, report it. document it, write it down, send it in an email if you're wondering, "Do I have to fill out this child abuse form?" Ask your building leader, right? Do not just tell somebody. Um, but and the policy lays that all out. Um, and that you are as staff required to do that. Um, so let us our we can we our policies are only as good as our practices are. And so all of us as uh responsible and responsive adults are bound by to do better. >> So thank you. >> Okay. Um and because it's on the agenda as an error, I'm going to follow it. Um right, there's a second public recognition which shouldn't be there, but if there's
102anybody in the audience who'd like to address the board, this way we follow the agenda. I know [laughter] >> I couldn't. My name is Joan Longike. I live in Glasco, New York. >> Get a mic. >> Mic. Sorry. >> You sign in. >> Sorry, Miss Longike. Did you sign in? >> If you wouldn't mind, please. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is Joanne Longike. I live in Glasgow. I've been here for years, 44 years. I do I I was one of the um members here last month mentioned about the second uh public comment and I want to thank you for adding it on to the agenda because sometimes when things happen during the meeting, you you write something down, but then you can't talk about it until the next meeting or it's
103like, well, forget about it. You know, it's not worth it then. Um, I did hear about um parents not having emails for the parent portal um for schedules. I just find that so hard to believe that parents have no emails and we've been trying to do that parent portal with the schedule for a long time because I was the web coordinator for the district and we were working on that and I was the web coordinator for over 20 years. Once we got that wonderful infinite campus and we got the Cadillac, we we should be using it in that respect as far as I'm concerned. I'm not sure what they're doing with it right now because I've been retired. This is my second year of being retired. Um, district safety meeting. Thank you for really looking
104up because that's one of the main things on the district safety meeting is that right away that's coming down in Glasco or if it's not whatever we plan to do with it. Aaron's law education I think people don't know much about it. It's just that if you're not in education when we speak of it, it would be nice to have maybe a quick link on the website so people can investigate it mainly because it is very important and being in education all my life I do know about it but there's a lot of people you say Aaron's law what's Aaron's law I thought we did have an HR person maybe That was one of my notes. I thought we had an HR person. I think it's great that we should get an HR person whether
105it's in the budget or not. It's something that really needs to be done and especially like you said a big district like this. Thank you for doing this second public comment and have a magical night. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Um I need a motion to um process into executive session um for the purpose I got. >> Oh um for the purpose of a uh legal issue and a personnel issue >> by Miss Keller. Seconded >> second >> by Miss Galia. Any questions? >> All those in favor? >> And just for everybody's note we we are when we do reconvene we won't be voting on anything else. Yeah, >> guys, if we could get into the room. Yeah, >> cuz there's somebody on the phone for us. >> Yeah. Great job technology.