001of emergency. Um we have district 10 10.5.6. here. >> God, invisible. Dr. We are >> Thank you. Um you'll see on the It is first item is approval for October Yeah, it's right here. start. >> Yeah. Start You can pick that up. Good evening. My name is Re and I'm a seventh grade student at the kitchen. I'm the proud winner of the 2025 county I conf until last year. Our art teacher at Grand Ry Elementary, Miss Black told her class about the I believe competition. >> She allowed us to use our class time to create our vision. I was excited for this opportunity because of my love for art and civic engagement. Miss Black was very encouraging and that made me want to put my best effort into. It's important though that she submitted all
002of our all of your student designs so that everyone has opportunity to had on their own. Where did this designer vision? Years ago, I was drawn to the boys and girls club inspiration. I asked my favorite staff member what her favorite food was and she said pizza. Then I asked what is your favorite animal and she said and I said sure. She asked that is how my pizza monster was first created. She has always encouraged me by telling me that I was a great artist. I joined in different forms and last year I used it to create the pizza of liberty for the conference. I'm also interested in government and being an active member of my community. I was vice president and president of the student council at my elementary school. I believe civic engagement
003means participating in activity that different types of people together with a common goal of bringing a positive change to the community. Obviously, I'm too young to go to elections and I'm not too young to be involved. I make a difference in my school and community when I choose to be empathetic, when I choose to educate myself in our mission, in our mission system, when I choose to make good choices, and when I choose to use my voice to stand up for others. Thank you, Miss Black, and to all the adults who encourage encourage children to believe in themselves. Have a great night. >> All right. Thank you, Michael. Jesus. So, Congratulations 22 to 21. The football team continues this weekend in the semifinal against Sleepy Hollow in Middletown. Good luck. All right, Miss Jean Greco.
004>> Randy Moore, school update. [clears throat] >> All right. I just want to thank everyone for having myself and some of my wonderful students here. um for the opportunity to share a little slice of life at Granty Morris. Um this is the fourth time that I've had the opportunity to share our little world with you. And I just want to say that I am incredibly proud to be the principal of Morris over this past year, but all four years. And I'm also exceedingly proud to be what I'd like to consider now an adopted member of the so community. So, thank you so much for that. We're getting there. We're getting there. >> I can tap dance. [laughter] >> That That's why I'm not tap dancing. >> Put your presentation. There you go. >> All right.
005Dr. Orbe did an amazing job reading this work. That was a collaboration. Um, everything we do, we start every meeting with this. Um, even my student BLT meetings start with this. So, I'm not going to read both, but because everything we're going to share with you tonight, um I really the vision sticks with me and it drives what we do every day for our students. So, I'm just going to say this again. We are the beacon of educational excellence where every individual is inspired to achieve their fullest potential. I think those words have real meaning here. Um so, today's presentation is all going to be centered around our district priority areas that we again developed as a collaborative community. Um so, we're going to to you about what academic excellence, professional culture, uh, family and
006community engagement, and the student experience look like at Morris. Um, I think the work that we did is really powerful because a lot of these areas overlap, and many of the things that we're going to share with you and things that happen beyond don't just fit neatly into one of these categories, which is really how it should be. Um, we also listed our core values because every month at Morris, we focus on a core value and all these activities reinforce those things we want our kids to be um to fulfill just daily who they are, but also we want them to be when they end up being a graduate as part of that portrait of a graduate. So, without further [clears throat] ado, we're going to start with academic excellence. And I would like to
007invite our student council president, Michael Tho, the microphone. >> [applause] [clears throat] >> Good evening. My name is Michael Tiano and I'm the president of Granty Morris Student Council. One of our priority areas at Morse is academic excellence. One of our favorite activities we do is we do that supports academic excellence is the success parade and the senior walkthrough. This is a great activity for students at Morris because during the parade students get to show their personal successes and the seniors walk and the senior walkthrough allows students to see what we can do. What someday what my favorite part is getting to see the seniors and celebrating all of the successes. [applause] And just so you know, each of the students picked what they wanted to share with you. Um, the other things that we're
008highlighting are our passion fair, which again aligns with that students choosing what they want to share. Um, and our success parade. No adult tells the kids what to present or what to celebrate at the end. That's completely student driven. Um, we also this summer instituted a summer reading challenge to try to encourage our kids to continue reading through the summer. And then we're not going to do the pages and pages of graphs and charts, but I do want to celebrate the hard work that every individual at Morris was doing. Um, we saw a 40% growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in both reading and math of students on grade level and that is a testament to the dedicated professionals at Morris who um go [clears throat] above and
009beyond for our kids. And we do recognize because educators do this that there's still growth and there's areas that we need to look at our ready data but also all the other data that we um get from our kids from what they share with us. Um so last week the elementary principles together [clears throat] with Dr. Roarbeck and Dr. Jen um did a dive into our I Ready data. A lot of what we'll do um when meeting with staff is we'll talk about noticings and wonderings. So that's what we how we approached um this start to our data analysis. When looking at literacy data, one of the things we noticed is that our primary grades, they're struggling to maintain the learning over the summer in phmic awareness and phonics, which are the foundational skills to
010everything else. Um, and our intermediate students are experiencing challenges with vocabulary and comprehension of written text. So, these are areas that as we're having professional learning, we need to focus in on these. Um, in the math realm, um, math has always been an area that's lagged a little behind reading. And we've noticed that our staff [clears throat] is making exceptional growth in math, but the summer slide that we see happening in literacy is actually happening even more in math. um with some grade levels experiencing a 50% decline from ending the year on grade level but then not starting the next year. So um I'm actually so now we go from the things we noticed to the wonderings and this is the really fun part because this is where we can kind of think about how
011do we make it better for the kids which is why we're all here. So, some of the wondering questions that we're going to be talking about at the building is what creative and cost-effective ways can we engage students and families to decrease summer learning loss. So, that's what can we do over the summer? But I'm going to quote my amazing colleague Mr. Tryion where he came up with the term how do we make learning more sticky? How do we make it stay? Because that's what we want for kids. And then the second is how do we provide more practice for our students to demonstrate comprehension on written not oral language samples. Our staff do a lot of support to students in the classroom and they read a lot of things and ask the students to
012comprehend it. But then what we do is our instructional practices don't match how we assess because we're assessing the kids to read it on their own. So, we have to build the capacity of our students and we have to build the capacity as the adults to let the kids fly on their own. So, we're going to work on those skills this year. Um, the next section is going to be introduced by our student council treasurer, Cash Fellow. [applause] >> [clears throat] >> My name is Cash Phillips and I am Morris, student council treasurer. [clears throat] The next priority area that I would like to speak with you about is family and community engagement. One of my favorite events that just happened at Morris is our annual Veterans Day assembly. This is a special activity for
013students because it shows everyone what veterans did for our country and it allows us to show appreciation for our veteran service. The reason that I like this event so much is because I get to escort my grandpa and great uncle and everyone could celebrate and see what branch of service they were. I would like I would now like to introduce Lucas who wants to share another favorite event. [applause] >> Thank you Cash. My name is Lucas Tiano and I'm the social director of Brandy Moore Student Council. The event that I would like to tell you about was a new one last year, MC Teacher Night. This event this event is fantastic for our school and community because it gives teachers, kids, and families time to bond and have fun together. My favorite part about MC
014Teacher Night is my is that my favorite adults at March get to cook for us and then we can talk with them. >> [applause] >> So, family and community engagement is really where this work moves beyond the classroom walls. So, in addition to the king things that our students want to share with you, um I feel like every month we seem to have a food drive which speaks to the need in our community, but our show you care food drive is especially meaningful at Morris. We have our sixth grade summitive activities where we celebrate our students who will be moving up to the junior high including Mustang bowl which hey maybe that's where we'll be repeating in football with some of those players next. Um the lip sync and our moving up ceremony. Um the
015elementary virtual career fair is near and dear to my heart. I think that career education starts in kindergarten and I was recently able to share that with some of my colleagues. Um, and our PTA is amazing hosting many events, but one of my favorite is trunk or treat. And then of course partnering with our um, fire department on fire safety day is always a wonderful day as well. The next priority standard is professional culture. Um, this one focuses on the adults, but we know when we support adults, we're really supporting students as well. Um, so a couple highlights that we've been working on in this. Um we are about to this week go into our first set of grand rounds which are data driven and solution focused conversations with professionals all about supporting students. We've
016had some amazing superintendent conference days recently um where we've been encouraging staff to look at data and also to share work because some of the best ideas are homegrown at so um here at Soures and so we have continued that work at faculty meetings we are doing since we only get 45 to 50 minutes when you get the buses out um we can't do dives we do data dips and we also have embedded in our faculty meeting time for staff to share out the work that they're doing and learn from each other. Um, I want to recognize um some staff members here at Morris. Every month we do standing ovations. Actually, every week we do standing ovations. Um, in the past year um Anna Zivian, Kelly Petramol, and Kylen Lighter have all presented at super
017superintendent conference days and many other staff have shared their expertise at faculty meetings. Um, Miss Jenner Kadapani was the Soy Central School District teacher of the year. [applause] I will tell you, all you have to do is step into her room on day one and then step into her room on the last day to see that is a very welldeserved award. And if you're someone like me who gets the pleasure of seeing all the things in between, you know those kids are loved and cared for so much. And then I was just having this conversation with one of my staff members. I cannot expect my staff to walk the walk and put themselves out there if I do not also do the same thing. So in the last year I had the opportunity to be
018featured in two podcasts at deeper learning New York which is a conference the whole admin team here goes and learns together in uh last month I presented at the ses conference which is the state um school administrative association of New York State and in conjunction with that also wrote an article for the Vanguard magazine which is a terrifying thing for me um putting writing out there is hard but if I'm going to ask my students and my staff to do it I will do it as well. So, um that's an important focus area because that professional culture changes kids lives. So, our last priority area will be introduced by student council vice president Lennon Toppel. [applause] My name is London Toppel and I was elected for the s for the granty Morris student council vice
019president this year. The student experience at Morris focuses on the core values of integrity, empathy, compassion, engagement, and inclusivity. The event that I wanted to share with you tonight was principal for a day. I think this is a good this is good for kids because my friend Chloe got to be the principal for the day. I remember the next day she was telling me all about it. She loved and she loved it and she got to do a lot of fun things. I really enjoyed seeing principles for the day walking through the halls with the actual principal. I also when people share their experience with me. Thank you. [applause] >> All right. And student experience, this is this is where the rubber meets the road. Um, other things that we want to highlight around student
020experience at Morris, we're fortunate between staff members and community members to be able to offer extracurricular activities for students in grades one through six. Um, we are keeping alive the park program. Um, the next two I'm exceedingly proud of because these are completely student driven. Um, we got permission to repaint the school building. So, if you've had the opportunity to step in Morris, it doesn't look like the old uh that I affectionately call battleship blue. It is beautiful and it is an elementary school and it was completely chosen in color by our students. Um, and the parking lot painting project, which is a little bit of a work in progress because we lost the sun and it's cold now. Um, but we will finish it in the spring, was designed by students last year and
021is being finished by students this year, which is lovely. Um, we do our one book, one school, which is in its third year. Um, we do our next class visits where students get to visit with their next classroom teacher at the next grade level. Take some of that anxiety away of going away for the summer. Project postcard I love and was born from COVID before I joined you. Every student at Morris receives a postcard welcoming in the back over the summer. Um, we have a little fun. So, we've played some clue which develops some students critical thinking and problem solving. And [clears throat] we just finished Morris Monopoly Madness and appropriately named but all again made the students really engaged that week which was great. And the last two things I want to share is
022um we have started at Morris having tabletop discussion cards. Think a restaurant where your menu would be. Now we have riddles and jokes and conversation starters for the cafeteria. And really if you're going to look at student experience it's about students wanting to be in the building. And last year I spent a lot of time talking to you about attendance. Um Morris decreased their chronic attendance rate by 2.9% which is the highest decrease in the district. Our kids, even our toughest kids, want to be at Morris and that is something that I will forever be proud of and we're still doing the work because there's still more to do. Um we shifted this year a little bit after some reflection guided by Dr. G and her blessing. Um, our student voice is so powerful, we've
023decided to bring it front and center. Um, our BLT is now student managed and predominantly um, run by students. Um, teachers recommended students based on diversity, [clears throat] creativity, and excitement. Love that. Um, adults, parents, and staff members are always invited. And we have representation from general ed and our self-contained classes. We've had two meetings. So the first is students met and discussed um these bullet points that align to some of the things we're looking to improve on. What are things that make it hard for kids to come to school? What are the hardest things to learn? What makes learning easier? And they were encouraged not just to think about themselves but their friends. And what is one thing you'd want to improve at Morse? We had our second meeting where we dove into some
024of the data and the students did some analysis and I tried to focus them to either pick a math or an ELA goal and they said nope. And since it's student run, we went with it and we divided into two teams. So the math team is going to be working on creating this winter a geometry game or event at Morse that will increase engagement and stickiness hopefully around geometry skills. and they have invited um a content specialist, our MTSS teacher to join them to guide them. And for ELA, um the students working on that, they're going to do a campaign around the building for our um working with our librarians to check out more informational and non-fiction texts. Um associating that with the Dewey decimal system and then also taking over those tabletop to challenge
025their classmates during lunch to answer someformational text challenges that they've written. And our next meeting is tomorrow if anyone from Morris would like the opportunity to work with these brilliant kids. So that is a little slice of our world. That's our whole student population from last year. And if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them. >> When you said you focus um you said every month you focus on a um >> a core value. >> Yeah. How do you like how do you do that? Like what? So we two years ago we took the core values and we divided them up by month. Um I we split compassion and um you're going to put me on the spot an empathy and then there's there that makes nine and then we took
026part of one and made it other one. So what we do is every beginning of the month we announce it on the announcements. We re remind everyone of it on Mondays. um staff who see students exhibiting the traits. So like this month is empathy. So if a staff member sees a child being empathetic, we have little papers they recommend students. You're so excited you're throwing a microphone. >> I know. >> Um and then every Friday we choose five students out of that box >> and then their names are read on the announcements. I do a positive phone call home to the parents and they receive a token for our book vending machine because if they can have a core value and read I'm I'm happy. >> No, that's great. Thank you. Okay, >> anyone else?
027>> No, but you did a great job. >> Oh, just thank you for your time and your continued support. We we love what we're doing at Morris and we want to keep it up. Thank you. Congratulations. $5,000. >> I say the one the one of the two new >> Thank you guys. Thank you everybody. >> Just throw it around. >> I know. [laughter] >> Thank you everyone. >> All right. >> So >> I know. >> All right. Now just moving to an older student. Our student representative for Adriana. >> [clears throat] [snorts] >> The club fair is underway this week. All students in grades 7 through 12 have the opportunity to explore the various clubs that exist in the junior and senior high school during their lunch periods. The ID badge raffle. Students caught wearing
028their ID badges have have been been given a raffle ticket for a chance to win a $10 gift card to Duncan or Starbucks. The drawing will take place on November 21st. Awards and recogn recognitions. Students in grades 9 through 12 that have been nominated by their teachers for demonstrating academic excellence or exhibiting Sovereignty Central School District's core values will be recognized this coming Friday and invited to attend an awards breakfast. Junior High School, a wonderful Veterans Day reception and assembly was held on November 3rd. Veterans were treated to a continental breakfast in their senior senior high library with members of the junior high school government and builders club. Over 25 local veterans were in attendance, including family, alumni, and student and staff of the junior senior high school. They then attended a schoolwide assembly featuring
029performances by the eighth grade band and chorus and student speakers including the winners of what patriotism means [clears throat] to me elks essay contest and I vote and the I voted sticker winner both soy students modified sports modified sports to begin next week. Our first schoolyear fall star breakfast reception for this from seventh and eighth graders will be held before the holiday weekend. Students will will not only be recognized for academic improvement and work ethic, but also be also for contributing to a positive and kind school environment. The junior high school government will be hosting our first social winter fest on Friday, December 5th at 6:30 p.m. Activities will include games, crafts, and dancing. Morris Morris held their Veterans Day assembly in Mustang Bowl, providing an engaging and educational experience for our students and community.
030Grand Rounds will be starting this week where we will will be looking at students strengths and areas of challenges as an instructional team. Kah we are excited to continue our partnership between Kaha Elementary and the Olster Bosey's agriculture and animal science program. Through the collaboration, high school students guided by instructor Lisa Baker are leading hands-on standardsbased science lessons for our third and fourth graders. Our first visit was on October 10th and featured a multi-ensory garden exploration and an experiment on plant needs, bringing science to life in fun, engaging ways. Their visit on November 17th was an in-class lesson on soil. With monthly visits planned, this partnership offers a unique opportunity for both elementary and high school students to learn and grow together. We are preparing for our school extended day session. During these sessions, students
031work with staff members who volunteer to lead a variety of clubs. Our first session session featured groups such as puzzle club, tumble club, book club, homework help, craft club, and ENL club. We look forward to offering an exciting selection of new clubs in the upcoming season session. Kahill PTA held our first annual fall fest on the 14th. P next PTA meeting on January 7th. No December meeting. Our winter concert will be on Thursday, December 4th. At Ricardi, we are excited to launch an American Sign Language Club after school. The club will be run for six weeks and is open to all sixth grade students. A big thank you to Miss Gavar for offering to bring her bring her expertise and passion for American Sign Language to our Ricardi community. Congratulations to Ricard's Community Service Club
032for your most recent donation to the food pantry. There were 197 boxes of cereal, 127 K Cups, 47 coffee pouches, and many other miscellaneous items were donated. Thank you to the club's officer, Miss Stephanie Sy, for your endless energy and sharing your passion for giving back to the community with our students. >> All right. Thank you, Adriana, Dr. Roarback. >> Hey, so good evening again. So, it's such a joy to see and hear so many of our students voices sharing their Sawyer experience. Thank you to all of them tonight. And again, I want to begin by thanking our veterans who have served our country, protecting our democracy and freedom. Your courage and sacrifice reminds us what it means to serve something greater than ourselves. I'm proud that each of our schools either hosted an assembly
033or breakfast for our veterans. And I found it absolutely outstanding that Cahill Elementary, if you drove by, you noticed all those small flags in front of the school. Um, their student government sold the flags for a dollar. Sometimes people gave more. As a result, they raised $750 for the VA and they presented that to them during the assembly and the look on their faces was just priceless. Additionally, Mr. Riyazi and the board and I would like to take a moment to recognize Mr. and Mrs. Mullen. >> Oh, yes. Okay. Um, so every year the Ulster County School Board Association um does a distinguished friend of education award and we get to nominate um somebody for that. Um so um this year on October on uh Thursday, November 20th, the Sori Central School District is proud
034to recognize Mr. and Mrs. Mullen as this year's recipient of the Ster County School Board Association Distinguished Friend and Education Award. To date, this is amazing. They have provided scholarships to 170 students. So, um we would just want to thank them now for their unwavering support, their generosity, um and their genuine care, uh for our students, not just with the scholarships, but with everything that they do for our community. So, >> Thank you so much. >> So, in addition to many of our students learning um just like Mrs. Gian Greco was saying, it is a core value that our adults, all of our adults are learning here in this district. And while our students achievements remind us of what's possible when talent, effort, and support come together this fall, I think it's really important to
035highlight that all of the adults have not stopped teaching and learning for one second. and they have been committed to the whole child this entire season despite uncertainty. So the de the adults are continuing to learn about traumainformed care and instruction during our superintendent conference days and teaching and learning meetings and we are continuing to learn more about the science of reading project-based learning. So I find these two methods absolutely fascinating because both are absolutely essential to build a whole child. So within the science of reading we are doing a lot of work on learning how to teach in a very direct and explicit method and then juxtaposed to that we are simultaneously working on projectbased learning in alternate assessments. we are learning how to release control and not always be so explicit. So both
036of these are absolutely imperative to education and I'm really proud of the plan pilot work that is happening. Um later on Miss Stafina will share more of that work but just well done to our staff that continues to dive deep into these initiatives that are what's right and best for students. Mafino plan pilot presentation. Hi, thank you so much for the time to speak about the plan pilot. Um, for me, this is really what I'm passionate about, and I am thankful that I've had the opportunity at this point to speak to the board a few times about this work. Um, so, as a recap, this is a three-year action research program through New York State. We were selected um through an application process out of many schools. We're one of less than 25 schools in
037the state participating in this program. We are currently in year two. and what this looks like in sovereignties. Right now, we have a working group of 12 educators who are interested in alternative assessments. So whether that is students presenting their learning at the end of the year, doing portfolios, project based learning, we are studying all of that. Um those teachers who are participants get ongoing professional learning over 25 hours a year and that consists of reflection instructional coaching as a group and with each other. And this year NISED has announced that there is the opportunity for plan pilot schools to apply for what is called the regulatory flexibility for part 100 of the commissioner's regulations. that being the diploma requirements. So, we will be able to apply um for a waiver to see if some
038of our work can count instead of a regent's exam for some of our students. We'll talk more about what that might look like. So our overall essential question that in our district we are working on in this work is how might we design rigorous trauma informed educational experiences for our students that allow for strong engagement, equity and empowerment. And right now as I mentioned we are in part of a three-year program. We are in the extended implementation phase. So we have grown our cohort of teachers um on to year two. So in year one we had we started with five teachers we grew to seven and the ask of those teachers was to try one PBL unit. They could pick whenever they wanted that to be throughout the year. They could pick something as short
039as a week to as long as a whole class which some of our teachers did. Um, and I was so proud and continue to be so proud of the intellectual risks both our teachers and students took with this work. So, just some samples of what came out of year one. We had an AP US history teacher who totally gave over control of his class to his students and let them run the project and figure out what they wanted to do. And what they came up with together was a curriculum audit. So the students actually asked teachers from K to 12 for their social studies curriculum. They looked through it. They compared it to the New York State standards and then they gave teachers and administrators feedback for how to make that curriculum even better. So
040that is really the gold standard of students driving the learning. They were actually giving feedback to the adults in the building. We also had an algebra teacher last year try to just change up the way she was assessing her students. So, she noticed a lot of times in classes, kids were able to do things when they were working in groups or independently explain things to her um and then they would get to a test and freeze up and really struggle with the transfer on a test. So, she changed one of her assessments um to what was called a round table and she gave the students different math prompts and they had to explain it to each other in small groups and that was their assessment. Um, so those are just two examples of what came
041out of year one that we are continuing to work on in year two. And what I will add, I don't have my um survey results from the students, but overwhelmingly students really respond well to this work. They're really excited about being given the opportunity to share what they think um and drive the learning on our engagement room. So has been highly positive for our students as well. In our professional learning time as teachers, all of our work follows a design thinking model. So I use the um Stanford dchool design thinking approach which is here on the screen to plan all of our PD. And then this is also the process that our teachers go through. So we always start by empathizing with the student experience. That might look at that might look like looking at
042student data, interviewing students, [clears throat] looking at classrooms, um ideulating what the students need. And then throughout the year, the teachers are constantly prototyping and revising their design. So it's never just here's my project, I'm done. Um we're working together as a collaborative group to always get better. Skip ahead one. And what that looks like for the students follows exactly the same pattern. So central to this work is students getting the opportunity to revise, take feedback, get feedback from each other, self assess, constantly make their work better, and then make their thinking public. And those are all skills, 21st century skills that just simply can't be measured by a standardized test. So to close, I will just show you the timeline of what our work in so has looked like and will continue to look
043like. Um to recap, last year we had seven teachers who completed collectively over 25 hours of professional learning as a group as well as bimonthly instructional coaching on their projects onetoone with me. Each teacher was tasked with implementing one unit or project. I will say most of them were overachievers and went above and beyond. Um and then we got to do a visit to our mentor school through P plant pilot that is Thomas Edison Career and Technical High School in Queens. They are coming here in two weeks to do an inter visitation with us. [clears throat] So that's super exciting. We are now in year two of the pilot work. We have grown to 12 participating teachers. It was my goal this year to focus on ninth graders because last year at the junior high
044almost all of our students participated in presentations of learning. So they all had the opportunity to build portfolios and share those out in roundts and I wanted to keep that momentum going with nth grade. Also, the ninth grade regent exams, algebra and living environment tend to be the ones that students with disabilities and ENL students struggle with the most. So, having that potential for regulatory flexibility there felt really important for equity. So, we have two cohorts of teachers right now, one who are all ninth grade teachers. We have um full participation from all of our learning environment and algebra teachers and one ELA. And then we have a second cohort for our 10th through 12th grade teachers which includes business, US history, chemistry and physics. They will continue this year um receiving 25 hours or
045more of professional learning together and bimonthly coaching. And then this year the ask is for the teachers who are doing regent classes they are implementing a summitive performance assessment. So something the students will do at the end to show competency on those New York State standards. The teachers who don't have regions classes get to choose any unit or project. Um and a lot of them are just doing project- based classes like our business classes. Our mentor school, as I said before, they're actually coming here this year, which is great. And I hope we can bring the teachers there again. And as I mentioned before, we have the opportunity to apply for regulatory flexibility. Next year is the last year of the pilot program. So the goal is to continue to grow and continue to add
046more teachers um to our cohorts. I would love if that looked like adding those 10th grade regents classes and building each year. And that is it. Does anyone have questions? >> I have a question. Um, so this is a pilot program and you said that we're one of 25 schools that are participating. Do you get together with your equivalents at the other schools to provide feedback and then what is the ultimate eventual like endgame that New York is trying to figure out? >> Yeah, so we meet as a plan pilot team, myself, Dr. G, um, Mrs. Molino and the other schools. We meet about once a month and it's just collaborative problem solving, sharing what's going well, what's not going well. We're actually working on a book of strategies which will be really exciting to
047share out to the rest of the team. Um, and the goal is for a statewide roll out of performance assessments. New York State has not figured out what that is going to look like and they're really leaning on us to show what could work. But I think it has become abundantly clear over the years that not every child finds the same success on a regent's exam and that doesn't mean there's something wrong with that child. So giving them different opportunities. Um and I think the other piece of this research is speaking and listening and building a portfolio and synthesizing work. Those are all skills that are not measured by the test um that are part of New York State's portrait of a graduate. So, they're leaning on us to help build that as well. >>
048Great. Thank you. >> No, you go first. Go ahead. >> I just have a question. Just out of curiosity, the curriculum audit. Um, what did the kids come up with? What did the students come up with? And were they able to share that with um social studies teachers or what are they going to do with that? Because I think that would be very interesting to hear what their thoughts are. >> Yeah. So, they shared it with Shannon and I and they're really focused on junior high and high school. they did not get um full share out of K to2 and we wanted to not put pressure on the teachers like you have to send this kid the email with all of your curriculum. So the feedback that they shared with us was they just want
049to look at more primary sources um and they felt like a less biased approach was helpful. And it was really interesting because the two groups both came up with different examples of what bias might look like from both sides. Um, so I thought that was really interesting. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Um, a little bit follow on to kind of Michelle's question about it being a pilot. So after year three, so this is under this is a pilot program. It's three years. Once after year three, then we just we continue this on our own or or there's like That's the goal. Okay. >> We've been told nothing >> nothing >> about after year three. I will say they're leaning really heavily on what we're doing and kind of using what we're doing to build >>
050the next year. So I feel very confident in the work that's happening in this building and it's it's going to continue here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Initially this was going to be the action research to inform the board of regions for uh grad graduation pathways but the board of regions in my opinion move faster. Um so now they have launched you know the New York State portrait of a graduate and which the soverey's portrait of a graduate dubtales with that >> and um also we will begin talking more and more about New York State graduation pathways. >> A question. So during the three-year pilot, is there any classes that are sort of where the students are sort of evaluated on the performance evaluation and this and also on the standardized testing so that there's sort
051of comparison that can be done? >> Yeah. So if we're granted the regulatory flexibility waiver, our kids will still sit for the exam and take the exam. We don't want to um not give anyone the opportunity to do that. And that way we'll also be able to compare Okay. So, they do both. Each student would do both. >> Yes. >> Great. Thanks. >> Uh I wanted to compliment you on u this effort. Uh it's great to see um looking at the experts in the field and building up rather than from top down. We all saw the horror of common core being implemented by the state and nobody knowing what they're doing. So, this is great. Uh the question I have, can the board help advocate in any way for you to get the regulatory approval?
052That's a great question and I don't know the answer to that. >> Well, if you can find the answer to it, please let us know. Uh, you know, we're active in the professional organizations, New York State School Boards, Senies, and so forth. So, if there's a way to help out, uh, we'd be glad to do it. >> That's very appreciated. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Perfect. All right. >> That sucks. >> Yeah. >> Great. auditor's report >> just in case. >> Just trying to be not as exciting as the pilot plan from >> Christine. They're they're remote, right? >> They're supposed to be remote. Yeah, >> they're supposed to be remote. >> I am on the call. Hi. >> Hi, guys. [laughter] >> It's all yours. >> All right. >>
053Rock. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay. >> Hello. My name is Teresa Ellis. I'm the external auditor and the audit supervisor with the Bonado Group. We recently completed the audit and went over the audit reports in detail with your audit committee and I'm speaking tonight to go over a very highlevel summarized version of the audit results and any questions that you may have. Uh first I'd like to thank Mike, Michelle and Annette and the rest of the business office for all of their assistance during the audit. There are three deliverables that we provided to you. The first is the financial statements. The second is the audit of the extra classroom financial statements and the third is the required communications letter. The school district's annual audit of the financial statements includes the independent auditor's opinion
054on the financial statements and we are issuing an unmodified opinion on your financial statements. An unmodified opinion is the highest level of insurance an auditor can give you. The other report that is included in your basic financial statements is the government auditing standards report. This report requires us to gain an understanding and report on your internal controls over your financial reporting. We noted no material weaknesses or certificate deficiencies in the financial reporting or internal controls. And the second part of that report is gaining understanding of your compliance with laws, regulations, grant contracts that non-compliance could lead to a material financial statement impact. We noted no non-compliance. Uh the school district is limited to retaining a 4% of the school's budget and unreserved unappropriate fund balance and the school district is under that limit at 2.04%
055and is in compliance. We are also issuing the school district's annual audit of the extra classroom financial statement and we are issuing an unmodified opinion on that financial statement. Again, the unmodified opinion is the highest level of assurance that we can give you as your auditors. Um so that's a very high level review of your audit results. Again, thank you to the business office for all of your assistance throughout the audit. I'm open for any questions that you may have. >> Anybody have any questions? >> No. All right. Thank you, Teresa. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Public recognition. Anybody in the audience who would like to speak, now's the time. Please state your name and where you from and your topic. Okay. Another second. No, nobody. All right. Uh, board member remarks.
056Michael, we'll start with you. Nothing. Thanks. Bellarosa on. >> Is this on now? >> Yeah. Michael's works. We know Michael works. >> I'll just be brief. I just wanted to um thank all the students that um spoke this evening. I know it can be difficult and um challenging to get up and talk in front of an audience at such a young age. So I I commend them for getting up and speaking to us. And uh congratulate Ron's achievement um of winning the the sticker contest. um and just to congratulate the sports teams and musicians for um you know achieving in their their areas. So thank you >> Sina keep passing >> community mic. We got community mic. [laughter] >> Okay. Um I also Um, I also wanted to um congratulate our student achievers in uh
057in music sports and um uh countywide civic engagement in the case of the uh uh sticker contest. Uh I have had the fortune of happening to run into uh Riker at the polls um at least two years in a row now. Um, so it's great as the winner of the uh vote speaker contest. Um, I also want to thank the more student presenters. Um, I still um am never particularly comfortable talking to a mic in front of people, but it's something that I'm working on. Um, and that's why I really appreciate um, uh, Christina Jeene Bravo's um, remarks on walking the walk. So, thank you for trying to do that myself. Um, and I want to thank Adriana for our student rep for the reports um, in the schools. Um, I really appreciate um, news
058of how our school buildings are stepping up to fill the needs, the incredible need in our community. Um, and I want to take an opportunity to advocate. Um I well what I really appreciate the work that we're doing what um all of the different organizations um Boys and Girls Club, the library, all of the um the community organizations uh do to provide support. I also want to take an opportunity to advocate for uh collective mutual aid. Um it's um mutual aid being a voluntary and non- hierarchal hierarchal um exchange resources and services between people. Things like um on Facebook there's a mutual aid group. There's also the buy nothing group where people exchange uh things rather than throw them out. Um it's a way for people to meet each other's needs and build community and
059solidarity and it uh builds a more resilient community and challenges some of the systemic issues that we see that cause hardships in the first place. So um I just wanted to take an opportunity to advocate for that uh to thank all of the organizations and including our schools that engage in that. Um, and I hope it I only hope it continues as things seem to be getting tougher. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Tman. >> Try this mic. Um, you know, sometimes, um, I've been on the board a while. I've seen um, numerous presentations. I was going to do some math during Miss Gene Gra's presentation. I think I've probably seen like over a hundred presentations from elementary schools over years. And without a doubt, yours was the best I've ever seen. You included
060student engagement on so many levels. like to have the students design the painting in the building that reduces vandalism in the schools to get kids engaged then you see an increase in attendance uh to see things and centered um student engagement because the the top tier and I think you hit a home run tonight maybe a grand slam I was also touched by some of the students uh you know and I think we're doing things right in the community when Cash talked about his grandfather his uncle escorting them up as veterans that's a memory he'll have for the rest of his life and a value he'll have for the rest of his life Ricker I think gave a campaign speech to be on the board of ed tonight and we better sent him some petitions
061so he'd sign up and be on here one day. So, u I'm glad I'm here tonight and I'm glad I get to hear these presentations. Um I think sort well on the academic front. >> Yeah. Um so I'll a little bit of what Bob said, Miss Gene Greco, that was a great presentation. Um it's pretty amazing to see a lot of the cool things and different things you're doing at the school. A little innovative and I know just from discussions with other principles like some people are following suit with some of the things that you're doing. So it's been cool to see that. Uh, I thought the uh the virtual career fair at at a a young age like that is is pretty pretty cool to kind of see that type of stuff coming up.
062Um, and I don't know if we carry it on through the high school. That's a question beyond that. But, uh, I I think I hope that that continues to carry through even as, you know, it kind of goes through the junior high and the high school at some point as well. Um, the students did an excellent job. I know there was a little nerves there, but they did an amazing job. Uh, even pronouncing the the hard words as the young woman had had there. Um, but I truly appreciate it. I appreciate it that it wasn't just full of grasps. we we kind of got to the the baselines of of what we were really looking for and and got a good look at what's going on in the school and thank you very much for
063that. Um Riker obviously he's not here but he did an amazing job. I think it's pretty pretty awesome to see uh soy Sawyer student be commended for for his his uh his design and then also as as we all kind of heard here when he was speaking his his own knowledge for such a young man it's pretty pretty amazing. I he's probably as well in depth if not more than than I am at the moment quite honestly. Um, I'd like to say thank congratulations to the the choir member at area all state and the uh the all state alternative. Uh to Mr. Riyazi's son Damen on his cross country at states. Uh the football team on winning section a true uh going into a true Dave versus Goliath kind of moment quite honestly. Um Adriana,
064thank you for your recruit as well. The Mullins. Um I know John and Peggy quite well and I know that they give a ton to this community and a ton to the school. Uh Peggy was a was a teacher for a long time and I know that that John would come in and do demos for classes. Um and and he he's a man that you know the family just gives gives gift gives kind of thing and and I'm glad to see that they're being commended for that and I look forward to Thursday and seeing them uh at that at the dinner. Um you mentioned the club fair this I think that's pretty awesome that we do that and and kind of circling back on the career fair. Um I know that some other schools in
065in the area do a high school college fair and where they invite colleges in and I don't know if we do something along those lines but they actually have it like like set up. It's pretty awesome and I think maybe if if we do that's great but maybe we can look at a little bit deeper too to kind of because I've had feedback that we don't necessarily do that and I don't know like I mean they literally schedule colleges come in and I think we also need to invite like technical schools as well um to make sure we're involving them also on that. That's all. Thank you very much on that one. >> Um I I would like to echo all of the praise and accolades that everyone has offered. Um I was very impressed
066with both presentation and Chelsea's presentation. You guys doing amazing stuff. Um, you know, it's meetings like this and weeks like this that we remember as a community what an amazing community sort of really is. And, you know, we've gotten a lot of bad press over the last six months. This is the real heart of this community, though. And this is the good stuff that starts to get the the um the time media and sort of social medias and all that kind of thing. Um, I will just mention quickly, I've gotten several texts during this meeting today from people that are trying to watch the meeting online. So, I know there's technical difficulties. Um, I don't know what the issue is and obviously I'm not resolved right this second. But if you are experiencing that, obviously
067the board I'm sure is committed to making sure that that doesn't happen because we want you to be engaged and able to participate in the meeting. So I just for those that have texted me and I haven't responded, I hear you and um I guess it's official. >> It's official. >> Well, Miss Keller, >> here's the problem with them last. Um, once again, um, I just wanted to say congratulations to Miss Gia Greco. Um, and I appreciate your presentation and how much work and how much time goes into working with students. Um, and I can appreciate all the hard work that you do to provide a safe and supportive environment, academically, and emotionally for your kids. Um, I think we've heard tonight um, and be here each month, not just tonight about our how we
068focus on the core values and how important it is to not only educate our students academically, but also um, those emotional and social uh, needs that they have and that's educating the whole child. Um, and I want to thank the Stfina for your presentation. Um, the the plan, it sounds really exciting and as you were talking, I'm I'm thinking in my mind, man, if I was in my classroom now, I would try this and I would try. That's very exciting. So, I'm sure you know the motivation is there and I'm excited to see what's to come. Yeah. So, thank you. >> Dr. Hos, do you have anything online? >> Uh, just a little. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm also going to start with gratitude. Um, I'm not going to repeat
069all the ones that have been said because it is just amazing and it does feel really good to have a lot of good things to focus on. But I want to specifically call out Christine um for attending so carefully to our financials and the audit committee um you know and then inviting Mike and Kristen to our policy when we were talking about transportation. was so helpful and it just sort of echoed then I'm not sure who's talked about professional culture um but it has been a real pleasure to have that uh grow in the board and um I want to thank all the other members for your time and attention because really our time and attention um are really our biggest gifts that we have to give one another and one of the themes you
070know about hearing about student voices but it's also hearing about a lot of doing um and kids are doing things they're doing things with each other they're doing things with their hands they're making things they're showing and demonstrating how they know what they know and they're pursuing their curiosity right and that is what we want to foster Um, and I know there's a lot of talk about AI and a lot of use of AI when people know and don't know that they're using it. Um, I'm not going to get into a whole discussion about it, but we did pass an AI policy and I do want to think together with uh the administration and the staff sort of how we can get a bead on how it's being used, how it's being used by students,
071how it's being used by faculty um because we just it can provide some efficiencies um but we don't want those efficiencies to come at the expense of our thinking and our creating and most importantly our connect with each other because um every day I read another story about how that's anyway. So I just want to say that and that we'll be sort of revisiting that and think about that also at the policy committee. Um you know we do as board members have an obligation to visit schools and it's one of the things that when we would go to schools which was great but it was very hard for people to hear um and to sort of manage that. So I'd like us all sort of think together about other ways that we're getting you know
072looking at the facilities looking at the teaching and learning looking at the you know how money is being spent and what's going on. So because I really when uh Miss Greg Gian Greos talked about um you know invited to the student uh the SFT the leadership team I was like oh I want to go but that's tomorrow and I'm here and then I just want to end right so I'm at the national association of young children's national um annual conference in Orlando which is all over the world. Um but I'm here presenting about um credit for prior learning and about demonstration of competence particularly in early childhood um and in higher education. So the work that is happening here in the district around um not just alternate assessments, but alternate ways of children expressing how
073they know, what they know, and what skills we're actually looking for. These are not questions that are just being grappled with at the high school level. Um and that it's really there's it's it's happening across education, and it's really important to hear that it's happening in our district. Um so that's it. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Ros. Um so I'll be quick as as usual I won't reiterate everything that the other nine people eight people have said but um uh the one thing on on Miss Shreko and Miss DeFino's presentations um they they were great presentations and from my perspective um who I listen to a lot of presentations in my other life um the reason I look at they were good the material was good but they it wasn't about quantity it wasn't
074the length of the number of slides that you had right which we've gotten killed with a few dozen sometimes right you guys were it was succinct um and everything that you put in the slide meant something um and how it was delivered so um thank you both of you that was that was great to learn about plan to learn about the that you are doing um how to grant you Morse is is fantastic and I think you know as you know kind of Michelle mentioned you know some of the things that have happened over the last six months I think the things that have kept our our school community going um in the direction that it's going which is very positive is our principles um all three of our our um elementary principles and then
075Mrs. Vale and Mrs. up here at the junior and senior high school um to manage what all of you have to do um is exemplary. So, thank you. Um and it just goes to show kind of what you guys are building. So, the other thing um the last thing I'll mention um every mention fun stuff um you are going to start to see some things happening. Um we as a board will release what level of information we can when we can. Um the thing I would say I'll speak for everyone around the table. Um nothing that we are doing or will do are we are not shooting from the hip. They are not quick rash decisions. There will has been months of discussions um and evaluations of components of data and facts and that's what
076goes into every decision that you will see. The other thing I will ask is don't jump to conclusions and don't spread information that you do not know is 100% correct. If you have a question, if you are part of the sort school district and you have a question on something, ask us. Shoot us an email. If if there's information that we can tell you and clarify something, we will. If not, we'll try to give you a timeline of when you can clarify. But don't take something and assume something and then spread it like wildfire because that just makes everybody's job that much harder. Okay? All right, moving on to the actual agenda items. Um, [clears throat] we have a bunch of resignations in here. Um, one name that Roback slipped in after we originally viewed
077was Mr. Prince. That was on the other day. Yes. Um, the doc the job he has done to come in and do the job of three different people has been tremendous. Um, but we have some resations. We have one leave of absence with the family medical leave. Um, and then appointments um everything from substitutes um to our volunteers. Um, we have girls wrestling chaperone which is great to see, Miss Kelly. Um, we have a new JV softball coach. um and the new teaching assistant. So I have a motion for items K one through three by Mr. Toman seconded. Miss Keller, any questions on any of that? >> I have a quick question. >> Yeah, sure. Do you have a coach for that? >> Yes, Dola. >> Okay. >> Um >> so he's he's coaching the
078boys and the his brother Mr. Pola fully certified fully certified and the thing that we um we had made sure that um to go out and find somebody to be an assistant to a coach um that was a female was almost impossible. So we made a chap position that would be there just like an Okay. Thank you. All right. Any any other questions? Great questions. All right. All those in favor? I. >> All right. Business office recommendations. We have our internal claims audit report, our treasures report, revenue appropriations, our extra crest classroom statements report. So anybody out there who's know that's that's the listing of all our clubs. Everything from our sports teams to the French club to B club. Um that's their funny um treasures reports. I have a motion for items L1 through
07913. >> Mr. I miss any questions? Um, >> yeah. >> Um, I just wanted to point out that one of the things, um, you'll see there's a number of revenue and appropriations reports and treasures reports on here starting after June. That's because of the audit, these numbers are now final and they can move forward in closing the subsequent month. So, that's why we have several ones on here at this point in time. Um, I also do want to point out that on this report or on this agenda is the um, the financial risk assessment report and the corrective action. We mentioned that at last month's meeting on the audit committee um, update that we did put out the annual auditor last month. Um and the report is finally finalized and um the district put together
080a corrective action plan for any recommendations that come out of that report. So >> thank you Christine. Yeah I first thought we had a bunch of duplicates. All right. So um any other questions clarifications? All those in favor board action items. Um we have items M1 through 8 which are CSC CSE and CBSE recommendations. We have inter municipal agreement with King School District. Dr. Warak what is neverone treatment center for? >> Sure. So it's an out of district facility to help students who may have substance abuse issues. Um so receive treatment plan in that facility. Would you like to say more about that? Yeah, we have to buy the um we pay for the learning while they're there. It's usually anywhere from three to four months. >> Okay. >> And it's in early. >> Okay.
081>> Are there a lot of students in that program? >> Okay. So just so she wasn't speaking to was it was um we pay for the learning while people are in that um while the students are in those programs. Um and there's not a lot of students in there. It's something that's I think it's great to offer. Um okay. We have a set agreement for assistant aids and seniority and then a MLA around payment. Uh can I have a motion for items M one through eight by Mr. Meyer seconded by Miss Keller any questions? All those in favor reports I don't know how much more we on the on the audit but >> um just we did have an audit committee meeting yesterday um just for the for the external auditors to go through the
082financial statements with us and I confirmed for this evening that doesn't opinion um there was no material weaknesses efficiencies internal controls um and the draft financial statements was included um for Google this evening um and the next also talked about um the we still are outstanding an internal audit report on the payroll process um and internal auditor on that um and the next board meeting is still and probably get that Okay. Thank you. Anything else? >> Just quickly. >> Okay. Just really quickly, um we had a meeting last couple weeks ago and um we are getting closer to identifying um the construction manager that was selected for a capital project because follow questions and recommendations and referrals. So we follow up with that. Um Rich Prince is has custody of condition assessment which prioritize in
083terms of risks and that's going to be instructed into what we measures do with the capital project coming up. Um so he's going to take a look at that. It was done I think last year um two years two years ago. Um he's going to over the next six days he's going to reevaluate that and determinate or anything that will not list as priority items but need to up um because of maybe you know changes in functionality or um condition of those things that come in the next 60 days. We're going to be touring certain um parts of the campuses that are really um in need of TLC upgrading updating as far as we try that next 60 days. And then uh the last thing is that recording ement um due diligence continues. I expect
084that the next facilities meeting hope we'll get an update from TER on where we are with track study wetland study. Um a couple of those things are pending and need to be completed before final B can go in there. So that's all marching forward. >> Okay. Thank you Michelle. Um Dr. Hy just I think on policy just if there's any key things we're going to discuss next month. I know we we um we cancelled November meeting because of veterans um and just the moving walls around. So our next meeting is in December. >> December 2nd and um I got a quarterly the quarterly policy update at the end of October from year one that has things we'll look at um and um yeah and so December second. >> Thank you. Okay. Um can I have
085a motion um to an executive session? We have a resource resource section and then we have a confidential legal insurance act to discuss second. Any questions in paper? All right. Just know we don't anticipate coming out and bullying anything. Hang out if you want. We got [laughter] >> nice to see you, >> Adriana. Great job. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Whoever the heck you are. >> Thank you very much. >> You're very welcome. >> All right. I don't want to be sick. >> Even I was sitting here like >> you're not over there. >> I don't like it. >> They kind of likes me. >> I know, right? And your curt fell down. >> [laughter] >> And one like bumped into it. Yeah, >> sis. Hey young lady, how's the >> [laughter] >> Christmas.
086>> Yeah. [laughter] I want to hurt Right. Right. Exactly. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> I heard your driver. >> Why? >> Four hours. [laughter] >> That's what Matt said. >> I'll do it right now and prove it to you. It said 3 hours and 56 minutes. >> Oh, maybe. I lived in Rochester. >> I mean, the convention center is really easy to get to. >> Oh, Kodak. >> Kodak. Yeah, they got the big Kodak building with it lit up. I love that. >> I think Oh, no. >> And how many? >> This is four hours and 44 minutes. >> And how how um how many So you That's what I >> It says 3 hours and 56 minutes by I90. That's what I look at. I don't know what this stuff means. >> Oh, here
087it is. No, that's See, now we get to pass >> the other way. [laughter] We're not really sure if it took us that long. >> But I did notice on the way home. >> Yeah, because he's like I don't know why. Yeah, I do. I had my 79. [laughter] >> Stay right under that 80. Well, you hear Hello. [laughter] down. yesterday. Yes. Good night. >> Bye, Chelsea. Bye, Chelsea. Thanks. Okay, >> see you later, >> Joshua. >> Good night. >> I don't want Thanks. >> Come on. It's an experiment. So, you have to give us a little He came up and he was like,