Sayville BOE Workshop Meeting - Thursday, October 9th, 2025

001agenda. >> Have to wait. They're beautiful. >> Gonna keep it in my new board bag. >> I have a blanket from them. Like it's like a jacket blanket thing. Yeah. >> Like a winter. >> All right. I say we're going to hold this to the board discussion because I feel it's coming up. All right. I'm just going to say this is our first workshop meeting this year. Very excited. And for those of you out there in um Zoom world or or in front of us, welcome who's here. Um that um this is going to be a meeting. We're going to have two really good presentations. Um my hope is that the board can take some time and really absorb them, ask good questions. will then open up public session for questions about the um presentations

002that we hear tonight. Uh we have a little bit of business to do just because um it's unavoidable and then next week we'll open with a business meeting and um we will open to public session on on open items. At that point I'm going to turn it over to our superintendent. >> Thank you very much and uh thank you to everyone who's here today and those of you who are watching at home. As um Miss Sarnney said, we have a curriculum and instruction presentation which is going to be uh presented by our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction, Miss Amy Demiola. Um one of the things that I'm really excited about is we spent a lot of time talking about a lot of things, but one of the areas that we don't get to talk about

003as often in these meetings and this new model I hope will allow for it is the instructional practice that goes on and the work that goes on through curriculum. Because the truth is the majority of things our kids experience every single day are through the curriculum that we write prek through 12 as well as the instructional modalities that we implement K through prek through 12. So I'm going to hand it over to Miss Deer. I just want to thank our teaching staff, our administrators and Miss Dilla. They've done a ton of work these last couple years and you're going to get to see some of the fruits of their labor. So here we go. Is it on? >> Oh, good. Okay. All right. Uh good evening. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to talk

004to you tonight about the work you've been doing in curriculum instruction. Um I'm here this evening with Cow. Uh he's our district's director of technology and innovation and together we're going to present on the progress of all of our academic programs as well as the instructional technology infrastructure that supports them. Uh so tonight we'll aim to illustrate and celebrate all the careful thought that goes into constructing the learning experiences that our students have every day. Um and the best way to set the stage for that is to establish how we define ourselves at our core. So at the very foundation of all of our learning is the desired student outcomes, beliefs, and goals that we define together as a community. as a board as an administrative team um and together with guidance from New York

005State. Uh these are the core pieces that drive everything that we build upon. So I do want to mention here that New York State has been raising awareness about the newly developed portrait of a graduate. Um and this is the state's vision for a graduate. Uh it combines academic mastery with um skills such as collaborating, innovating, communicating and deliberately placed at the heart of the portrait of the graduate is cultural responsiveness. So this represents the premium we place on building respectful relationships and valuing diverse opinions. So, as I share the district's work with you tonight, I think you'll see as clearly as I did how well our work already aligns with the priorities of New York State, uh, both through our more recent design work and through our long-standing traditions. Um so the next layer

006of like what makes us us is uh the road mapaps that help us carry out our work and these road maps are exemplary artifacts of what unites us and what defines each individual learning community as unique. Um several years ago Dr. Ferris shared his vision for how caring and learning intertwine and under his mentorship our building principles worked with faculties to create these building plans. So these are road mapaps but they also ser serve as um affirmations of what each learning community values um along with how they're going to focus on moving our students towards the desired outcomes and they become true touchston for our each learning community. Um, and an important thread through all of it is a program that allows us to prepare students for those healthy, respectful relationships that should be at

007the core of all of our learning and all of our interactions. Um, so thanks to our PPS team, our Strides program is vibrant and it's present across all areas of our district. Um, so it's within this context that I'm here to present tonight. um to peel back the next layer of work that happens here across all of the academic areas in this district. Um these areas represent all the slices of every student's experience. Um along with the key uh infrastructures that give shape to the work that we do with student every minute of every day. Um and it's nearly impossible to do justice uh to the richness that's happening in every single one of these spaces. uh the passion that's pouring to them is truly astounding. Um and they all deserve their own stage. Uh

008so rather than present a a general update on each of these areas, I'd like to report from a specific vantage point um that shines a light on the deep thinking and planning that goes in um into each and across these disciplines, how they connect and how they all connect back to our goals and our values. Um, so in addition, I want to point out the support structures that have an important role in tying everything together. Um, a great learning experience happens when it's done with intentionality, um, and in a system that's well coordinated. So, I'll take you around this circle tonight as I pull back the curtain on some of the ways we accomplish this. Um, and I want to give a special acknowledgement to our department chairs for our their instructional leadership. Um, their

009passion for their craft and for the teams that they lead. They're all very excited uh to showcase their work tonight. Uh, and I am too. So, one of the key structures that grounds the academic experience for a learner is a curriculum framework. So, two years ago, we worked collaboratively with faculty to design this tool. It's based on the wellestablished understanding by design framework. Um and that's backwards design and we tailor it to say uh the framework is not just a tool for commemorating what's happening in a course but for going through the exercise of considering the deeper components. It's outcomes driven. So the focus is on defining standards, essential questions, knowledge, skills, understanding. Um, and we've added our building values and strides. And when teachers go through the process of establishing these outcomes, it grounds

010a course in a very purposeful way. And then the maps then allow us to define how we're going to measure how well the students are learning what we intended. So, we're making a point of expanding beyond traditional tests and quizzes, and those will always have a place in the healthy diet of assessment. Um, but We're also putting a spotlight on other ways for students to demonstrate what they know. Performance tasks are an authentic way to show learning and through our curriculum work. As people work on these maps, uh we're seeing an increase in this type of assessment and that's engaging for students and it's informative for teachers. Uh so finally the process of creating a curriculum map gives teachers an opportunity to collaborate on their instructional approaches and they can define the best methods for

011achieving the desired outcomes. Uh these design opportunities are ongoing. We have dozens and dozens and dozens of maps now at various stages of development and they're stored in a catalog that's accessible to all faculty. So once we understand the infrastructures and the goals that unite the various learning experiences, we can start to see how they make themselves apparent and each of the learning spaces and these commonalities and the consistencies that we have truly supercharge our learning for our students. And I won't be able to talk about each of those infrastructures tonight. Uh but um know that each of them plays a role in uniting all of our disciplines. So uh the first academic area I want to view in this context is the art department. Um I'd like to highlight the strong focus of this

012department on connections and ownership. Uh so a bit of a spoiler alert. Uh you'll see as I describe each academic area how many departments here in Seville build a strong identity around civic engagement. Uh that tells us a lot about who we are as a community. Uh and it demonstrates how tuned in we already are to that cultural competency core of the New York State portrait of a graduate. Um so in the art department, our students are truly everywhere. They're incorporating service learning into so many aspects of our community. Uh here we see them at Walk for Childhood Cancer, uh the summer readathon at the public library, the annual Empty Bowls fundraiser. Um we've had students serve as dosent for uh the Bay Area Friends of Fine Arts Festival, uh just to name a very

013few. So this kind of civic participation helps students uh see art as a tool for connecting, improving the community. Um our students also see this space as a way to connect with one another um and to find a sense of belonging within the school community. So there's no better way to illustrate this than through the words of a student. Uh so in an ELA class recently, uh students were prompted to reflect on what home means to them. And so with the students permission, I will share what they wrote. Um the word home is important to me because it doesn't just mean a physical home. It means a safe place where you feel comfortable. Whether it's an actual place or maybe a friend, Mr. Hammer's art classroom felt like a safe space for each student to

014speak their mind or to talk about a difficult topic. I think this definition came from how I felt safe enough to be able to talk about hard topics for me out loud to others feel good about says a lot. Uh and in these classroom spaces besides private uh providing a thriving classroom culture, we're also promoting rigor. Uh our teachers have articulated a skill progression that begins at the most fundamental levels. It carries all the way through several collegiate uh level courses. Uh here we highlight the cave painting project of the art history class and students are acting as scholars, historians and even archae anthropologists to uh understand the most primitive forms of art and they go on to study uh all the way up through contemporary media. So between the deep connections and the rich

015uh learning opportunities the tagline that the art department has recently used is really true. It's to be a part. Uh our second discipline to look at together is the fizzed health and athletics department. Um so while our athletic teams are often the more public of our accomplishments, we're excited to provide a window into the academic goals and updates that um underpin these athletic experiences. So we've been focusing on curriculum consistency and technology integration in our Fizzed courses. Our teachers are creative and they're forward thinking in how we're enhancing learning with instructional technology. So I want to share some great work in this domain. Uh we're incorporating heart rate monitors into instruction. Um and even exposing students to orientering where they can use a geocaching app to track their GPS location. Um so our appreci appreciation

016goes to Coach Bulier for sharing some of these innovative approaches to PE. Um our athletics department is also committed to finding and creating an environment where all students can find a connection. Um, and one way of doing this is going to be to expand our secondary electives uh variety into non-traditional courses uh which will attract kids with a variety of interests. We've surveyed students. We know what they want and we're looking forward to putting some of these next level ideas into place. Um, from an academic standpoint, we're focused on keeping up with, uh, learning standards and, uh, to support that, we've updated our curricula at the K2 level in both PE and health. So, thinking ahead, uh, we're designing future opportunities that uh, will hopefully help our students satisfy their requirements with um, some of

017these creative electives. um and also planning health ed opportunities that reflect the rapidly uh revolving uh evolving world around us. Um and we'll focus on laying the foundation in the early grades. So our students are champions both on and off the field. Uh athletics supports academics in Sville and vice versa. Uh we've earned the school uh school of distinction honor two years in a row and that's the honor that you earn when 100% of our city teams receive scholar athlete team recognition. So the commitment and grit that we foster here really speaks for itself. Uh the championships that our teams seem to keep winning is no coincidence. Uh it's a true testament to the thoughtful design work uh of our teachers and our department. Um moving around the ring to our business and facts department.

018It's here where projectbased learning truly shines. Um, thinking back to our curriculum framework, this department has heavily tapped into the opportunity to focus on performance tasks as evidence of learning. So, our emphasis on career preparation begins in our earliest fax classes where students learn valuable skills such as financial literacy, resume writing, interviewing as you see up there. Um and we move into higher level coursework uh where students develop their um ability to think like entrepreneurs. Uh here is a photo of one of our teams from last year's virtual enterprise international course. Uh students design, pitch, manage a business, operate all aspects of it from finance to marketing to human resources. Um and besides directly equipping students with highly marketable skills, um several of our business courses can earn college credits as well. So, an important

019part of this academic update uh revolves around the work we've been doing districtwide towards defining our uh literacy program. So, we've we understand that literacy is a prerequisite for everything else that anyone does. Um it's understandably a key area of importance for our faculty and for our families. So what I'd like to emphasize right now in terms of literacy in Seville is that we're focusing on designing learning experiences that support the science of reading. Um we've engaged in a full faculty study on how students learn how to read. We've learned best practices to achieve sound instruction in all these domain areas. Um and we are uh now in the process of determining the curricular tools that will best support that instruction. So, we currently engage with the programs listed here to ensure full attention to

020every facet. Um, and soon we'll be analyzing how well we believe this combination of materials accomplishes our goals. Um, one thing we're looking closely at is the extent to which it's challenging for teachers to juggle all these different components. So, we might look ahead to piloting a curriculum that includes more of them under one roof. Um, that would make it less cumbersome and easier to focus on instruction. Um, so a potential pilot of new materials would take place in like the spring of 2026 and our literacy committee will reconvene later this fall to discuss any plans for that. Um, the foundation of literacy continues full force into our secondary program. Uh, the department, this department in particular has uh really embraced the construction of curriculum maps. They're collaborating vertically and horizontally to create a seamless

021articulation of skill building across the grade levels and their deep dive into our curriculum framework has resulted in a significant expansion in the variety of assessments that they offer. Uh in ALA we've been seeing more performance-based assessment tools. So an example we see here is a fantastic way for a visual learner to demonstrate their understanding of a work of literature. So here's a student rep um their work is representing connections between plot, character, setting, theme, and they're using a model to describe their understanding of the author's intent. Um an important logistical update for ELA is that we're planning for our juniors to take the ELA region in January for the first time as opposed to June. Uh so this will be in keeping with um conventional practice across New York State. Um students are well

022prepared by this time and one benefit of this plan is that our juniors will have one less demand when it comes to the spring uh which is often filled with other obligations like APs and SATs and other high stakes regent exams. Our math colleagues have also been very hard at work at the K5 level. We utilize the uh into math curriculum uh and our secondary team unites around uh the e-math instruction curriculum. Uh so these tools help create consistent experiences in terms of content and we've focused on strengthening consistency even further by having teams of teachers work on common assessments across the grade levels. Um in math in particular what's even more important than the curricular resource is the approach to instruction. And I am so proud to share the thoughtful work that's happening districtwide

023in this capacity. from the youngest level. Our teachers uh collaborate to embed a growth mindset mentality and they focus on uh approaches that are well researched such as concrete, represent representational and abstract. They know that learners need multiple representations in order to fully process math concept. The building thinking classrooms approach has been growing across our secondary math team. Um I think it's really important to illustrate what this looks like because it's not the math learning that any of us probably engaged in while we were growing up. Um, I'd also like to mention it was great to see Anthony in class the other day and I hope we get to hear your insights about this later as well. Um, so the focus on this instructional method is first students collaboratively engage in a task that's unfamiliar

024but which they are equipped to tackle. Um, the teacher consults, they help, she helps them persevere. uh this entire exercise creates context that gets built upon um as they return to a full class and that puts structure around the new concept they've just developed. And I want to point out that our teachers are truly engaging as scholars. Um the markedup book of one teacher um who has studied this approach is a great reminder of like the level of intentionality and the professionalism that our faculty um delivers to our students. I want to also mention um that our secondary math team has adopted Desmos as our interactive graphing calculator. Um it's installed on all our Chromebooks and it offers a much more intuitive interface than handheld calculators that have been in math classrooms everywhere for decades.

025Um this tool is not only more capable of helping teachers build conceptual understanding, but it's also free. Um our secondary leadership team collab with our instructional tech team to apply and gain approval from New York City to use this on our regent exams. Um, and it's also been adopted by the College Board. It's a fantastic step in a contemporary contemporary direction. Um, and I want to thank the whole team for making that happen. Um, and finally, when students need support in math, we have some key methods that we lean on and also ones that we're looking ahead to. Um, we have many at our disposal, but I want to point out some of the more impactful ones. Uh the bridges program has been critical at the elementary level. It helps our teachers build fluency and

026skills and I'm grateful to our elementary RTI team for championing this method. Uh I Ready offers personalized instruction. Um and students practice throughout the week on I Ready um during station time. Delta math excellent resource for students to complete problems with guidance and the teachers can follow student progress. Um, and finally, we're looking forward to embracing first in math, which is gamified standardsbased practice for K8. And New York has covered all the costs for every district in the state to acquire this tool. Um, and before I move on from math, I just want to make note that this department has been rolling up the nextG standards yearbyear. And finally, this is the last new regions exam. Uh, this year they'll be giving algebra 2. Uh, the next discipline I want to talk about is the

027music department. This is a space where we develop an intelligence that strengthens neural pathways and it lights up creativity. Um, our music ed program, we know that students not only develop the skills and concepts they need to grow as musicians, but this learning fuels success in other subject areas as well. Um, and we're really proud of the commitment that so many of our students have. I look how many of them go on to achieve in high levels. Um the curriculum work that our band teachers have recently completed has focused on defining those key concepts all through the years and they build on to themselves. Um and our teachers have used our curriculum framework as a tool to discuss develop common language consistency create seamless transitions um between the years. Um we're focusing on providing early

028opportunities. We have an 85 participation uh 85% participation rate uh in instrumental music in the recently introduced fourth grade program. So from the from the youngest age, we work with students to cultivate an appreciation for the arts. Um we start with a very young focus on how to be an audience member. Um and in keeping with the strong value of the SEO learning community, our music students also see their craft through a civic lens. You'll see them everywhere from a holiday tour to jazz to performing at Carter airport. Um, our students know that theirs is a channel through which they can be meaningful contributors to society. Um, and perhaps even more critical, our department focuses on understanding its role as a way for so many of our students to connect to their school community. And

029countless students will also attest, similar to what you've heard in art, music is their home here. Um, and to ensure a wide range students with a wide range of interests can find a place. Um we're focused on providing unique opportunities, piano, guitar, musical theater. Um in our middle school general music class, we're making podcasts. Um and moving forward, we're going to cultivate that community in two key ways. Uh we're launching a mentorship program where older students can link with younger ones to generate interest and instill a sense of belonging. Um We're launching an all district festival of bands in March. Uh students at all grade levels will spend a day workshopping together and then they'll perform as a full district on puzzle at the end of the day. Our students science experience has been looking

030very different the past few years and that is thanks to our faculty across all grade levels uh who have embraced the new science standards. These are very different from how science was previously taught and it's been a big lift. Um, but we're proud to share that our new standards are being implemented in classrooms all the way up through 10th grade. Um, they demand a different type of learning. The focus that has always been on content now expands to include um, practices and conceptual understandings and you'll see that in that sort of triangle illustration. um and they reach these these understandings and concepts of just get repeated over and over again pre-K through 12. Um and as an example of a practice I've highlighted engaging an argument from evidence. Um it's one of the key practices

031that a scientist needs and along with all the other ones our teachers don't just suggest it but they make the skills explicit for students. um they teach into it at appropriate developmental levels. And to make learning visible, we equip students with these icons and these descriptors as visual cues throughout the years and they can refer to them during the learning process so they know what it will take to be successful. Um and I want to note that I selected this particular practice to showcase because it's a prime example of a concept that reaches across disciplines. uh we work together as a faculty to promote thoughtful civil discourse and there's a scholarly way to approach it by considering a position and backing it up with evidence. Um so teaching it to these skills and concepts uh

032in a science setting has required a thoughtful transition. So we've taken a lot of care and we are now prepared to launch the new earth science and bio exams in 26 and we'll be doing the new physics and chemistry exams in 27. And we're doing this with the help of a true expert in this field. Uh not only to prepare, but also to inspire our teachers to be ready for the work. Paul Anderson, seen here developing units with teachers. Uh he's going to be back in late October to meet with our preK through second grade teachers. Um and we'd like to invite all parents to come out to the middle school on October 22nd in the evening to learn from Paul as well. It's a really impactful experience to be engaged in learning with Paul.

033Um I'm not uh overstating that. Um so anyone interested in learning more about science education is really going to enjoy this special evening. Um the practice of engaging in argument from evidence that we saw in science is lives in the social studies setting as well. Um in social studies a key focus on um is developing the art and science of engaging in respectful dialogue as well as developing critical thinking. So our teachers intent is to prepare students for thoughtful participation in democratic life um in and out of the classroom. Um our teachers have also worked to create both vertical and horizontal consistency uh in skills and instructional approaches. Uh this curricular alignment creates powerful consistent transferable experiences and we're seeing more student collaboration, more common assessments. Um, and an example that um, of a skill

034that builds over the years is this evidence-based argument. Our students learn how to define, identify a source of evidence to use to back up a position. So, here's a fun example of a hands-on activity at a middle school where students are learning about artifacts and primary sources. And I won't say how it made me feel to see this, but I think I remember having that camcorder and I guess um, that's considered an artifact now. So um so finally the crucial role of the social studies department is to provide expert guidance in fostering civic engagement beyond the classroom. So students um participate in all kinds of clubs and initiatives and highlights um include long-standing traditions, Veterans Day, breakfast, flag day ceremonies, all the ways we honor our servicemen and women truly like no place I've ever

035seen. Um the stop 22 initiative. Um, and our extracurricular clubs such as the debate debate team offer exceptionally high level hands-on experiences in leadership, advocacy, public speaking. Um, so as we near the end of our academic ring, um, it's my honor to share with you what we've been working on in steam and in teched. Um, this field of study has turned into a strong K12 continuum. uh three years ago, we didn't have steam for our youngest learners and then we created a five-year plan that committed to providing steam for all students and this has resulted in enrichment for all students and enhanced the quality of learning across the board. So I want to illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of steam and how it provides um high level design and problem solving. Um, so in our youngest

036classes, we start by exploring what's a scientist, what is an engineer, what's an architect. At this early stage, we start by building an identity. Everyone truly has a seat at the table in STEA. Um, and some great examples include the following. We have young students exploring architecture, and they're doing so by making ELA connections. Um, these students have read uh The Three Little Pigs and they're utilizing materials to make uh houses, construct houses, and to see which one is the strongest. So, we have Legos and blocks and straw um that students are testing to see uh what happens when the big bad wolf come and try to blow it down. And they were delighted about this and they're making their ELA connections and uh they're also learning how to be engineers and architects. Um, we

037have second graders learning about the Earth's landscape. Um, and in their STEAM classes, they're going to explore landslides and they'll construct barriers to protect from landslides and they'll draw blueprints like an architect would. Uh, we have older elementary students making connections to social studies. They're creating topographical maps. They're studying rubber to coincide with their Maya and Aztec unit. Um, and they're going to use that knowledge to explore the concept of biomimicry. Um, and the steam space also supports that use of academic vocabulary. Um, here's another place where they're going to practice making claims and backing them up with evidence and reasoning using high level vocabulary like constraints. Um, as we get into secondary, we'll start to introduce students to tools that you're going to find at the professional level. They get to experience the newly

038developed STEM exploration courses at the middle school along with their teched courses. So in this space the focus is on collaborative group work and critical thinking innovation. And here we see students linking uh learning to mathematical concepts and using our laser cutter to execute a design. At the high school level we're going to lock even further into those industry standard practices. Um they're ex they're getting exposed to professional software technologies course work like drone pilot flight school or materials processing. um they they emerge truly prepared for a professional workspace. And to come full circle, I want to finally highlight our world language program. This is an important space where we develop our students cultural competency and that ties back to our goals for our students and the goals established in the portrait of a grad.

039Our elementary program lays the groundwork for an appreciation of culture and language instruction is happening this year in grades one through five. Um, we are very fortunate for these experiences, but we really want them to speak for themselves. >> What are they going to do? [Music] middle level program and we look forward to growing that program uh in the future to increase contact time at the middle level and stretch strengthen the pathway towards fluency. Uh our language classes across the board place a high premium. They spend a lot of time in the target language and a lot of time in studentto student discourse. Students push out of their comfort zones and they take risks. And we're very pleased to report that the pathway towards fluency is already very strong. Last year we had 32 seal

040biiteracy students and we had two students earning a seal of triliteracy. Very impressive. So Dr. Ferris often refers to the concept of connected autonomy and that applies here too. Each discipline offers a unique atmosphere for learning but we're all still growing together. uh it's these support systems that help us think as a cohesive unit and row in the same direction and our curriculum framework is one structure that helps us accomplish that. Another area that provides overarching support both in terms of day-to-day infrastructure and instructional enhancements is our instructional tech department. So this department is under the direction of Chris Cowder and they've been advancing our district in a variety of ways. Uh Chris is here with us tonight and I'm pleased to introduce him to provide an update in this area. >> Good evening everyone.

041You give me a fantastic. All right. Um well, thank you so much. Thank you Miss Dola for that warm introduction and thank you board for uh the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Um the last nine months has been a lot of listening uh collecting feedback collecting information from teachers from administrators from our own department and uh I think we really have established a really nice blueprint on where we're moving uh and and where we're going for the next couple years at this point. Uh this is this is a graphic that we showed to our our staff on conference day. I gave a presentation about the roadmap for this school year and uh there's a lot of great instructional enhancements that we have that I would like to share with all of you. So in

042regards to technology we uh we you know we live in an environment today in 2025 where we expect technology to really enhance what we're doing both for and you know in school out of school and so on. Uh my philosophy in in regards to technology is it needs to be seamless. So, in regards to school, how do we how do we adopt that? Well, we want to create a frictionless experience for our staff and students. Now, what does that really mean? Well, we want to peel back some of these hoops and layers of accessing material, accessing um uh devices, accessing their their uh their accounts and so on. And by doing so, um our team has worked really really hard to peel back some of we'll go we'll go over these in just a moment.

043Um, the other thing is leveraging key systems for automation and rostering. Uh, we have two very robust systems, Infinite Campus and Envision, which I'm going to go over in just a moment and how we've established automation with these products. But I do first want to um make recognition to our staff. All right. The technology department um is is the key component to all of these key infrastructure uh decisions and moves. U these these two graphics, I think, speak volumes right here. There's a lot of brainstorming, there's a lot of collaboration, there's conversation, and together we come together and we we elevate the district, you know, and so um some of our tech team is here with us right now. I want to thank you. Uh but we have our networking team, our data team, our

044instructional technology team that that are behind the scenes and they're truly the unsung heroes of all the things that we do. So I do want to thank all of you for that. Uh in regards to, you know, how do we find material? Okay, our instructional technology team, well, they created this this uh this resource center. So, this is our one-stop shop where we put all of our EDL 2D contracts, our tutorials, how do I get help? Um, all of these key instructional tools are all in one place, and we have it linked in class link, which I'll talk about in just a moment. This graphic demonstrates our automation process. So I made reference to our two key sources which envision which is which has all of our staffing data and infinite campus which is our

045students and sta uh students and parents. When we have a new staff member on board, we have a new student on board. We now have an automation system where it creates all of their their um their accounts for them. So these are applications like Microsoft, like Google and all of our thirdparty applications. So, gone of the days of having to, you know, manually input a student name into each one of these systems manually. Uh, gone of the days of having to onboard staff manually. The best part about this is one, it speeds up and it's more efficient. But on the flip side, when a staff member or a student leaves the district, their accounts are disabled. So, from an from an auditing perspective, from a compliancy perspective, this checks all the boxes and it really

046secures our district. Let's talk about student devices. Okay. So, at the elementary school, we do have Chromebook carts. Uh, every teacher has a Chromebook cart in the in in their classroom. Uh, this past summer, our technology team in their in the buildings, they went through all the carts. They cleaned them, they fixed them, they updated them. They did a really amazing job for the start of school. Uh, at the secondary level at grades 6 through 12, we do have a one-toone initiative. Uh, so that means that our students get to take home their devices. student currently in sixth grade gets a new device and um and and has it till 12th grade. Um currently working with our cabinet level team and eastern suffices to establish additional touch points along a student's journey meaning that they

047would receive another Chromebook either in ninth grade or another time period after sixth grade because what we're what we're noticing is that these devices um they tend to break down over a period of six or seven years. I'm seeing Anthony shake his head right here and he understands what I'm talking about. So, we are working on a plan diligently right now. Uh we're working on a plan that's cost- effective for the district, of course, and uh we'll hopefully be able to leverage some state aid on that. So, more to come on that, of course. Um Class Link, Class Link is our instructional portal, I guess we'll call it right now. Um so, this is our one-stop shop for all of our instructional material. Uh I do want you to take note of the QR code

048that's on the screen right there. This is a new feature that we that we implemented this past summer for our K to2 students. So when a when a elementary K to2 student opens up a Chromebook, instead of the student having to log in to to their device with a username and password, and some of our early learners maybe don't know the keyboard yet or frankly how to spell, um they now have a QR code that's associated with them. A camera pops up when they open the the uh computer and they just wave it right there and they log in. So the the amount of time that's saved and the amount of instructional value that happens. I've seen some elementary classes and I feel so awful when I when teachers are running around the classroom and

049now it goes from those minutes to virtually seconds at this point. So that is a new feature. Really great. Uh and we're really excited about that. Um this is what the the login page used to look like for Class Link. So this was a unique username and password. uh we've we've eliminated that and now our all of our staff and students log in with their Google accounts. So, this just made sense considering the fact that they're logging into their Chromebook with their Google accounts and now all they have to do is just click the sign up with Google button on their Chromebook because they're logged in already. So, you're starting to see the pattern here where we're trying to make these these processes as simple as possible again to enhance instruction, more more time and

050learning, of course. So, when a student logs in, this is what their their Class Link portal looks like. Uh this happens to be a a middle school student right here. Uh there's some instructional tools that I'm sure that that you've recognized. Uh the nicest part about this platform and class link is it really is a personalized learning tool for all of our students. Uh depending on what grade level you're in, depending on what course you're in, your dashboard may look different than another than another student in your same grade depending on courses that you're taking. So, you know, we have the ability to push out textbooks. We have the ability to push out certain applications to rostered courses. It's a it's a great platform. Google Workspace is a uh is really a a platform that

051we've probably had in the district for the better part of the last 1015 years or so. Uh Google Classroom happens to be one of the major ones and I'll talk about that in just a moment. Um we use Google Cloud, we use um Google Workspace, you know, with our students, uh Google Docs and things like that. But um one one initiative that we're we're pilot that we're moving forward with is uh migrating our Outlook email and calendar over to Gmail and and uh Google uh Google calendars as well. So this will complete the entire Google the entire Google workspace suite. Um prior to this we were sort of living in two worlds and now we're going to be collaborating all in one. So, we're expecting the productivity value to increase, the instructional uh capacity is

052increasing as well. So, this timeline, I'll go over that in just a moment. Uh, we've been moving these emails over behind the scenes for the better part of the last two months. Over 10 million emails we've moved over. Um, we're increasing our security. We will be enabling two-factor authentication. So, again, our security posture will be in place. And, uh, and of course, professional development and training. So, this past week, we've actually trained the vast majority of our staff. Uh, today we we culminated with district office and we expect to go live with uh with Gmail on November 4th. So, we are very excited about this. For the most part, our staff seems to be very excited about this. They use Gmail in their personal lives as well. So, it just makes sense that we would

053be leveraging this for for our school district. Um after we do that, we'll be able to uh enable Google single sign on with our infinite campus. Um this would be specifically for our teachers. So so that is going to be a huge win right there. You're very welcome. Uh we actually implemented this back in the springtime for our students. So for our student portal, we pushed out the um the the the student portal link right in class link and they're able to sign in with their Google accounts as well. So again, one less one less login to have to uh to use. Um so that brings us to Google classroom. I keep on making reference to it because it's used extensively in our K to2 environment at this point. Um but this past summer was

054the first time that we rostered and we automated the process. So you know prior to this year, every teacher would have to either create a new classroom each year. They would have their students join with a with a code and then their students would be rostered. Uh this past year we we did it for them. So this past August when we when we rolled over our new system, uh we rostered over 2500 Google classrooms. So when teachers logged in, that's what it looked like. They went in, this happens to be a uh um middle school uh ELA class, a ELA teacher right here. Uh they would just have to click accept and all of their students are already rostered for them. The nice part about this, if they get a new student maybe next week

055or November 1st or whatever, that student who's rostered infinite campus will then sync automatically with Google Classroom and all of their applications. So really excited about this. Uh this has been, you know, a lot of great feedback about it. And then um once the um the second semester comes, we'll be rostering those as well. So our team has been very hard at work doing this. Um I've talked a lot about Google and I've talked a lot about various products and so on that we've been using but I do want to talk about some AI tools. So we do have access to various AI platforms uh Gemini which is part of Google Workspace and we also have notebook LM. Um our teachers have been uh been trained on these. We've been talking about them in professional

056development courses. We've been leveraging some pilot groups and so on. So Google Gemini our teachers do have access to uh it's also part of Google Workspace. So I do want to make reference to that. But more importantly, it's now available in Google Classroom. Okay. So our teachers who again are using Google Classroom when they log in, they have the ability to use artificial intelligence to create activities with their students. Okay. They create choice boards, they create stories, they create rubrics and so on, all with the touch of a button. So this again enhancing instructional practices in the classroom. Um, this one, this is a this is a great one and I had to share this because I thought this was a great activity. So, and I also kind of like just saying the term right

057here. So, uh, Nano Banana. Okay, so it's just fun to just say, I guess. So, Nanobanana is is part of Gemini and it's it's a new image creation software. So, about two weeks ago, uh, Dr. wrote uh challenged the advisory teachers at the middle school to work with all of the advisory uh classes and create a class logo. Okay. And the process right there was taking feedback from the students on things that they enjoyed various foods that they like uh activities uh where they like to go their favorite animal all these various things and they put it into the AI model and it created a logo for the particular class. Okay. There were 52 of these. By the way, I'm not showing you all of them, so I'm just going to show you some. All

058right, so these were these were two from the sixth grade. All right, so just take a look at how vibrant it is, how colorful uh the de the level of detail. I do love the taco and the the far left one. Uh but on the right, there was a there was a there was a lot of dolphins in a lot of dolphins and sharks. It was a reoccurring theme with these, which was really great. We have some ballet slippers. We have some gears. So, as you're as I'm going through these, and I'll go through the seventh grade as well. I just want you to take note of the the diversity here and and the the the levels of interest and this really just just lends itself to what Miss Demiola was just sharing before about

059all the amazing curriculums that we're focusing on here in the district. Why I think these graphics speaks volumes on what we're doing here at large. Uh and then I'll I'll finish up with the eighth grade right here. So they're they're awesome. So the next time you're at the middle school um these are all now u taped to the to the class. So when you walk past you'll see them. They're really amazing. So I was only able to share six of course but there's there's a whole bunch more and they they were absolutely amazing. So to sort of wrap up um this this year uh the district technology committee uh we are we're meeting so by the way the district technology committee comprises of administrators um teachers uh support staff and so on. We are tasked

060to come up with a another three-year plan and submit it to the state this uh this April. Uh and some of the things that we will be focusing on is network and security upgrades because that's of course important for cyber security. Um our infrastructure and and systems enhancements um our innovative teaching practices and last but not least our community and stakeholder engagement. So we're really excited. We think this roadmap really puts us in a great position moving forward. And I want to thank all of you for for your support and and all your guidance moving forward. So at this point I'm going to turn it over to Miss Dola. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, Mr. Cower. That was tremendous amount tremendous lift that your department is doing. Um, so to conclude this

061update, I want to share a visual that Dr. Ferris has frequently used to help us frame the process of systemic systematic growth that benefits our students. The visions, values, and goals are the groundwork for everything that follows. We're constantly training and finding PD opportunities to keep evolving. And then with supervision and support, we know that what we'll need for further PD. And all this leads to high levels of learning. Um, and this year, we're working on two important systems related to PD and to evaluation. Um the PD committee has been meeting and the work is underway to construct our district's PD plan which will be presented for BOE approval in June and we are eager to take uh New York State Ed up on the opportunity to create a new evaluation system. Um the system

062that we are poised to create is called the standardsbased educator evaluation and professional support aka steps plan. Um It's more focused on professional growth than it is on ratings like APR was. Um we have a steps committee and it's going to collaborate to design a supervision system that's going to help our unique community continue to thrive. Um and this is the kind of vision that's well articulated. Uh we're grateful to Dr. Ferris for his ongoing mentorship, guidance, and support and to the board of ed for your constantly championing the work uh and the proud traditions that make this an extremely special place. and school. So, thank you very much. [Applause] >> Any questions? We'll be happy to answer. >> And before you ask questions, I just want to thank Mr. De Miola, Mr. Couter, the

063uh department chair people, and all the people who kind of teachers and staff who put their work and effort into the last three years of this effort because um it's very easy to have a five-year plan and to put goals up there and to have them look pretty. It's another thing to do the work to make it happen and this staff is making it happen and I'm very proud of you guys. So, thank you for all of that. >> Comments. >> So, I just have a quick uh question for you Chris about the Microsoft uh aspect of that. Um we have to pay licensing and everything like that. So, is that also district savings? So, we or no Google just going to charge us more for that? >> Yeah, not really. So it's it's it's

064a wash when it comes to that. So that that would been fantastic. So no, I mean we we still we're not deprecating our you know office suite and so on. We we still will leverage that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good question. >> Hi um Amy, thank you for showcasing showcasing the passion shared by the teachers at Seville. Um, and also it's so nice to hear how in elementary school what's taught one year is not in isolation but connected to what was previously taught and what's to come. Thanks. as you per usual. Um so I really loved the implementation or maybe the highlighting of the informal assessments uh in particular all the project based learning that seems to be occurring because that reaches every learning type. Um, so you get, you know, you get a

065broader scope and and you really like that that's when you start to teach like the whole child instead of just like, you know, focusing on the the traditional academics. Um, and that's when you you start to really the teachers get to really know who their kids are. Uh, because you might find that tactile learner that maybe struggles uh with computation or something like that, but is phenomenal with their hands. Um, you know, you get the the kids using their intrapersonal skills as well. So, I'm that that made me so happy. I I thought that maybe um in that Google form where they have all of their scope and sequence and things like that, maybe they could create, you know, or you could create for them a place where they could share some of those project-

066based learning experiences that they do so that um because I'm sure they all have like, you know, brilliant ideas and things that they do and things that work. and if they could throw them in here, anybody could go and and see an awesome lesson that they did, maybe, you know, like an outside the box lesson that they did that they could take in into their own classroom since they already have that like, you know, the scope and sequence uh there. Um I did just um the orientering was amazing. I did orientering 18 years ago, but it was like with a map and crayons. And to hear you say that when you said orienteering, my ears perked up. I was like, "No way they're still doing that." And then you were like with GPS. So that

067was that's amazing that that she does that and when you said the teacher it was I wasn't surprised to hear it. Um the I did the only my only question I had was about piloting a new program you said in the spring. So, a lot of those I don't know if that would be detrimental because if you were piloting a program in the spring and you've already taught the you know you've already taught the curriculum from say September to March and you're starting the beginning of a pilot program now in April, you would inevitably be backtracking and there would be some redundancies there. And so that would maybe show false um hope if if you were like, "Oh man, my kids killed it in this." but they had already learned that before because in essence

068it's a review. So, um I've never been a big fan of piloting things in the spring. I understand sometimes that they don't work out, but to get like the true test of if the program is worked uh is is working, uh I I think it would be better suited to be in the fall. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, it it does make sense. Uh we had talked about it initially being this fall. um one of the products we're most interested in wouldn't wasn't going to be ready until this coming January. >> Okay. >> Um but it's still the the other piece of that is, you know, we considered the same thing that you were thinking of and um the committee has yet to come back together to meet. Um but we um likened it

069to several years ago when we piloted into math >> um in the spring and in just a couple of short months was enough information to know that this was going to work for us. Um, so thank you. But um this is going to work. And but I think you know your point is well taken that and I I trust our committee and and our sort of thought process to make sure that anything we do attempt in a in like an off part of the year like just like spring March, April, May or March or April um would have to be really well thought out like okay which unit are we doing? Let's let's try to pick up as >> Yeah. you would have to match it up to your to your current program. Right. >>

070Yeah. And if that's not possible, then I don't think we would have the faculty's support in in attempting it. So I I think we would have to do that collaboratively. And if it made more sense to wait till September, makes more sense to wait till September. So I think that's going to have to be yet to be seen, but we're only going to do it if we can do a good job. >> Yeah. And then lastly, I just thought the in the STEM and or steam, I'm sorry, the uh the use of the tier three vocabulary words I think is huge. Um you know, tier three being the words that are more specific to the actual content. So I I think that um is huge when you're going even into reading um because it it

071will teach the kids scientific root words. it'll give them those those Greek and Latin prefixes that a lot of these scientific words have um which will only further their um you know reading instruction as they go along. It it'll give them word attack skills when they get to those words in in ELA and things like that. So I think that's extremely important too. Um and um when from the technology I think that we are catching up uh and I think some of these things are you know important and you know will give our teachers like all the tools that they need and uh Gemini is amazing. My kids absolutely love it uh the things that they can create. So I'm excited to see like as we start moving forward with this like what our kids

072are able to do and and the lessons that our teachers are able to pull off. So thank you. Um, so first of all, Mr. Carter, I wanted to say that the new Chromebooks in high school is an excellent idea. >> Thank you, Anthony. >> Um, I've had this one since sixth grade. It's getting a little slow. >> Um, Desmos in the math classes is very good. I wish we' had it earlier. It's like it's so much easier than the calculator. You got to charge your calculator. Calculator's always dead. Um, it helps you visualize everything, I think, much better than the tiny calculator can. And it's good even for the teachers to be able to put it on the board and you can adjust values and numbers and things and see how that affects graphs. Um,

073class link is very good. It's very um the Google like single sign on for everything is very easy. I mean, I don't have to write down passwords or anything anymore. I have one password. It's very nice. In the math department, I think the changes in the math department have been like the most easy for me to see. I can remember last year going to Mr. Brown's pre-cout class. He taught very differently than the teachers did before. It was more group work oriented and you kind of figure out the lesson yourself and then you formalize it after. Um, it was weird in the beginning, but ultimately it was I think it's the best way to teach math. I was a little worried this year that it wouldn't continue, but it does. I'm very thankful for that.

074Um it lets you I mean if you're in a class with your friends it's nice you can collaborate and mess around a little bit. Um but being able to figure everything out on your own first and then having the teacher formulize it and answer questions I think is amazing. Um and in the music department being a um like a comfortable like family environment um I just think is very true. Been there since fifth grade. Um, and electives. There are a lot of electives. I haven't been able to take any of them, unfortunately. They don't fit in my schedule, but like guitar, I wanted to try. Um, there's a piano class my sister told me to do. Um, I think that's very good. And for physical uh, PE, I think more electives in PE would is

075a great idea. Um, like I remember kids, I mean, since I was a freshman, kids talk about wanting a weight room class so you learn how to like do movements in the gym safely. you don't hurt yourself and things like that. Um, so yeah, I think overall the last couple years we definitely I've been able to see all the all the changes. So, >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Very perceptive. That's to for a student to be able to process um the intentionality of instructional moves is is a really big deal. Yeah, I'll just add that um you know, seeing the vision that we collaborated on a couple years ago to actually see it, you know, uh being consolidated and presented and see it actually rolling out and working is is pretty cool. I'm glad

076to be a part of that and thanks to everybody all the hard work. Yeah, as as you began your um your presentation, both of you, thank you so much. And although long, so I'm so glad that we were able to sit through it and and absorb it. Um there were just some words that you were throwing out that that were just um just like what Tom said, making us realize that kind of the visions coming together. Words like interconnectedness, intentionality, collaboration. I really feel like in this district and I see many um the willingness and the um of the of the the entire staff, the teachers, the chairs, the the the administration to work together to to make this happen. It it would not happen as quickly or as well if everyone didn't have the

077buyin they have. And I always am so appreciative of that. And I know that you highlighted many different activities and things that were going on in classes, but I wanted to focus on that math one as well, just for a second. Not because it's just math or because it was that particular um class, but because of the thing you the the um activity you chose to highlight. I felt like that um and I only caught a little bit of it, but you basically said they they sort of challenged something that the students didn't necessarily have experience with and then made them figure out how to um how it worked on their own. And I think that that is like the culminating activity of all the things that you discussed. um the idea of the the

078confidence it takes to build on prior knowledge and to be able to take a chance and be out of your comfort zone. And that came from all those other areas that you spoke about. Um whether it was the science-based evidence that they got out of science or whether it was the problem solving from steam or it was the civics and the willing to work with each other in art, music and fizzed. Like it's like all of it everywhere culminating in that activity. And I don't believe that that's the only activity where that's happening. So, um, and and know that Anthony has only been part of that, although he's at the end for three years. Imagine what our K students are going to look like in in 10 years. So, I just I can't give kudos

079enough to you, Amy, for putting it together and and and Chris as well, but for the entire staff for being part of it and and and for our students for recognizing it. So, I thank you. Um, and as for the tech part, um, as a teacher in the classroom, well, way too long ago, um, I always felt like technology should be a tool and an enhancement in a classroom and never a hindrance. And just watching the way you're making things so much easier for it to be palatable to use because um, I was one that would easily be like, I could just do it on pen and paper and I'd rather do it that way. Um, and I think that, um, the same way we are with the curriculum and we're we're putting it in,

080we need to give our staff the support that we're giving them and allow them to get comfortable with using the tools, um, I think that will, um, help continue the buyin and help them use it to enhance the other work that we're doing. So, I just want to thank all of you tremendously. You, uh, both of you, the other administration, I know um, Jillian, it may not have been highlighted here, but the work that you do feeds right into all of this. I appreciate that and and and the staff, all the teachers, including the support staff, uh really kudos. I think it was amazing. So, thank you. >> I have one final question. Will it be training for board members for the Google Docs? >> Of course. Yes. any other uh questions or discussion you'd

081like to have around any of this? >> Okay. Um the other part for tonight is going to be a shorter presentation, but we had talked about constantly updating uh financial updates and just to kind of let people know where we are with things as we head into uh October, November, December budget season. Mr. Bartell's has been really good about tracking and kind of looking at the data and uh he's going to share a little bit with you tonight on that as well. So, let me just get that up. >> Okay, thank you, Dr. Baris. Um, so now that we've had our uh external audit and we've kind of gone over that, I wanted to walk everybody through kind of where we were on our finances. So with our fund balance, reserves um and so forth,

082how we stand kind of at the end of the fiscal year. Um I don't have as many pictures as the previous so it won't be quite as fascinating. Uh I do have some charts. not necessary. >> Just believe. >> So again, I just want to talk about the kind of the reserves that we have. I want then I want to go through the explanation of our fiscal stress calculations. So how everybody will be able to understand exactly how they come up with those numbers. First thing I wanted to start out with and and this is I've mentioned this before. Um this is just a showing of our uh expenses and the revenues. Um our expenses are in blue and our revenues are in orange. Uh so you can see going back to 2021, we were

083actually being able to add some money to fund balance with your revenues above your expenses. But ever since then, uh it's been falling behind. And for the last two years, there's been a very large gap. So in 23 24 there was a $4 million gap and at the end of 2425 there was a $3 million gap. So uh what that means is we've lost about $7 million in our total fund balance over the last two years. Um and I think the reason for that um is the loss of the co funding. I think the district had, you know, had was receiving that money, was kind of in good condition, implementing programs, moving things forward, and then kind of that funding fell off. Um, and there was no plan, you know, from from the business side

084of how that was going to happen. Uh, so this is our total fund balance. So you can see back in 2122 really was where we hit the highest. And again, that was one of the last years we had the uh COVID funding. So from that point on, the district had to make up funding from other portions and they started to take money from fund balance and then you didn't again with those lines your revenue is not matching your expenses that's why your fund balance begins to decline. Uh so this chart shows the different components of the fund balance. Um each line each bar is the total fund balance and then the components are kind of broken out in each one. And then I'm going to kind of go through each one of those components so

085you can see the detail. We'll get you an update. >> That's interesting. >> Yeah. >> That's right. >> It might have happened when they converted to a PDF. >> Yeah. >> I know. I just pulled. Yeah, >> it might be when it was converted from the PDF. >> When you get it in PowerPoint view, it expands, I think. >> Okay. Now, I want to go over each kind of each piece building kind of from the base. So the first is our undesated fund balance. This is what's commonly referred to from the and you order uh mentioned it at one point that our maximum is 4% that we can hold that's not designated for anything. Uh this is what you'll hear uh when the state says districts have too much money in their funds. This number

086is actually above 4%. So you want to try to maximize this as much as possible. If you have more than the 4% that's when you would put it into other reserves. uh the problem we had for the last couple years or one of our issues with fiscal stress and I'll talk about that later uh is in 23 24 and 24 25 you can see that number had dropped a little bit that it's what caused the fis a piece of what's caused fiscal stress points um for those two years uh we were able even though our fund balance dropped by $3 million I was actually able to increase this piece of the fund balance Um so we will not have any points for that for next year. Um the amount that's appropriated for subsequent year expenditures.

087Uh this is something that's standard in most districts. Uh at the end of each year, you look at how much extra money you might have that use to support the following year's budget. you want to try to keep this number as a stable number uh going, you know, going across, which this pretty much is between 2.7 $2.9 million. Um reason for that is that's kind of what you hope to gain back through budget savings and revenues exceeding what you budgeted your revenues for. So any additions to um you want to try to get as close to that as possible. If you end up with a higher number than that, you would put it into fund balance. If you have a lower number, then kind of comes out of my balance, but that's kind of a

088number you want to aim for each year. Um, the reserve for retirement contributions for ERS and TRS. So, this is a portion of fund balance that's used to pay for uh pieces of the retirement system contributions. Uh this is a number that personally I don't think should be used to fund the budget, but this is one of the areas that has started to fund the budget over the last couple years. Uh to me, you have money in these funds to address spikes in the TRS or the ERS. So a pure TRS percentage which has been pretty stable now 9 10% for the last few years if that were to jump to 15% that's when you would use this type of reserve to mitigate any impact on the taxpayers. So you would increase your budget by

089a certain percentage, but then you would have this fund to so you don't have this this huge increase in one area, but just to fund it as an ongoing uh piece of the budget um without having those revenues to back it up, you just tend to uh use down that that expense. Uh the reserve for employee benefits and acrudeed liability. Uh part of this is uh what the auditor was mentioning with the gas remember >> I remember I think it was prior to 2008 right like contribution was quite low TRS right for many years and then all of a sudden when the financial uh crash happened in 08 then we had it put in double digits >> correct >> and that's what you're trying to say is uh this acts as a a cushion for

090that >> correct yeah this the contributions while it's been 9 to 10% over the last three years uh uh had been down to literally 1% and I think there was one year was actually under 1%. As far as contribution, but then it kind of rebounded went the other way and went up uh to 17 18%. So being at 9 or 10% is much better. Still a little high. It's a big portion of our budget. Um but yeah, that's exactly right. That's when you want to, you know, use that for those spikes. And then as the number comes back down again, that's when you, you know, don't have to use this this type of reserve. Um, employee benefits are uh what what we pay for employees when they retire from the district. It's uh compensated absences.

091uh as the auditor mentioned that the new Gazsby 101 requires us to account for u people's time who don't have a contractual payment at the end. But uh I guess they feel if they're working the following year, there's an expense to that um that holdover if those people's accumulated time end up getting used in that following year. >> Kind of an anticipated use. I I don't understand why they would need to do it for accounting principles because this from my understanding when this was originally set up it was to be in effect if the district went out of business tomorrow this is what we would owe all these people through their contract payments. Um the new people that they just added with this new requirement we wouldn't owe them anything. They would lose their days.

092So >> correct. Correct. So but again another state requirement for us to put it in there. >> Okay. Uh so this uh this number just kind of floats a little bit. It dropped a little bit a couple years ago when we had um a number of people retire. Um so that's kind of where that number stands. It usually stays pretty pretty even. uh reserve for unemployment insurance. Not sure why money was added a number of years ago, I guess from 1920 to 2021. Um uh we added money to that reserve. Not sure why we haven't had any large expenses out of the unemployment reserve. Uh so we have taken that down over the last couple of years to put that into other reserves. Um and I guess I think one year was partially to fund

093the budget. Um, but we don't need it as much money in this reserve. Uh, by the way, there's a second bar here. So, the we have the first bar going up. I should have a little clearly differentiated. Uh, but the second bars really are a negative is really a positive. So, it's supposed to show what we used from the reserves each year. So, if you see a negative bar in like in 2021, we actually added that to what was in 1920. So that's when we increase because we right um now in 24 25 26 we're actually using that money so that's why it's coming down that's why those reserve numbers are coming down um >> you're you're indicating that it's more in line with what we really need. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The

094unemployment reserve bringing it down was was a good thing because that's down to kind of where where you really need it. Uh the reserve for workers comp. Uh again, this is another one that's really being used to fund the budget. Um I just see the numbers dropping off here at large ratios. So looks like it's $300 to $500,000 a year we're spending out of this reserve, but we're not putting any money back into it. That's a big chunk of money. And you see the bar is now we're using basically half of what's in the reserve. So if we do this again next year, that's the end of this reserve. So one I would like to do going forward is kind of mitigate these reductions. There shouldn't be the same amount going and then nothing. So

095we have that in a couple of situations. We want to try to have if we're going to use the reserve, you want to bring it down slowly so there's no drop. >> May I ask a question? So we have these reserves that are all decreasing quite a few. How do we replenish them? >> By ch that first slide I had with the lines. You have to get your revenues above the expenditures. That's the only way to replace. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Well, increase revenue. >> Okay. Yep. >> Um reserve for capital. We ended a couple years ago. We were able to put uh money aside into the capital reserve um for capital projects. The only issue with the capital reserve is you need another vote to actually spend the money. So when we determine what

096we want to spend that money on, probably put that in with a vote probably at budget time instead having a separate um vote for that. >> Yeah, it's a separate um reserve. >> Yeah, it would be a budget vote and then a separate vote would be to spend it and you have to identify it's not linked with you might Sorry uh reserve for bonded debt. So this is uh monies that you receive as premiums when you issue bonds um that you then use over time to pay off the debt service. So this is what I would consider an appropriate use. So, as each year you're using a little bit of the um that reserve and you're matching it kind of with the debt service that it was created with. So, we just issued a bond

097last year for $15 million. We got a premium of $511,000. So, that's why you see that big blue line going down for 2526. That actually increased the reserve. So, that's why the red line went up. So now we have more money there. Again, we have more debt service, but now we have an additional reserve to continue to used to offset some of that debt service. >> And and that was for the uh roofs and the solar panof. >> The roofs roof roofs. >> Okay. The solar the solar separated separate. So that's the roof. Okay. >> Uh we also have a reserve for encumbrances. Um this number as you can see is kind of all over the place. Um the number really what this is for is for goods and services that were encumbered in 2425

098that we're not spending until 2526 because we didn't get invoiced or right something like that. So, these numbers really are a little high. To have uh $3 million in incumbrances is an awful lot of money. Really should be under a million, probably closer, probably under 500,000. So, one of my goals for this year is to get that number way, way down. >> What is like the average incumbrance cost every year? Like this is what we have in the reserve, but what are what are we paying then next year? >> That's what this is. That's >> this isn't like extra money. This is monies that we're holding right >> to pay for it. >> To pay for uh one of the issues, >> one of the issue if and if we don't spend the incumbrance, it

099rolls into um the regular budget. So, it's not like we lose the money. It it's additional monies we have. But what tends to happen with these is um different offices will keep purchase orders open uh because they haven't had all of their uh bills come in. For example, um utilities, you're not going to get a lot the June utility bill until the end of uh July. You don't know exactly what your expense is. So, you think you may have a $10,000 electrical expense for the high school in June. Um so, you want to keep $12,000 or so. You want to make sure you have enough money, but then the bill comes in, it's only 8,000. So, but you multiply that numerous times for all the different utilities we have. All the other purchase orders um

100and services that we have. We have um a lot of them are tuitions that we're holding that we haven't got our final bill for tuition yet. Some of them are transportation services. So, when you add up all those different purchase orders incumbrances, that's how they tend to build. But over a million dollars is still still too much. >> Do we have strategies to try to like those open bills in any I know some of them you can't do anything about like the utility, but like are there other departments that could work on closing out those accounts more timely fashion? >> Yeah, I I tried to do that pretty much right when I got here to try to close any of those open purchase orders because some of them were for, you know, didn't have any

101invoices coming in. So, I wanted to try to close those out earlier. So going into this year, probably starting in March or April, I'm going to start going through any open purchase orders, especially anything that were issued in July, August, >> because, you know, by the springtime, you really should have them uh paid out. Now, there may be some that are for commencement exercises or some end of the year type thing, but um those are tend to be smaller numbers. >> Thank you. We have a reserve for leases which is non-spendable. This is a new requirement. It's again this is another state requirement that we put this into our financial statements. It's not non-spendable, not something we can use. It's kind of tied into our leases to Boseies for our buildings. So, it's an accounting

102entry that Boseies gives us that our auditors have us put into our fund balance. I'm not really sure why, but it's just that's just a piece of what it is and it it sits there. That's not much we can do with that. Um, and then we have a couple of reserves that have um run out at this point. So, we had health insurance and this is what I'm I was talking about. So, you had $1.6 $6 million and over four years we used 400,000 400,000 400,000 4 it was kind of went like this and then you have a $400,000 hole. So we want to stay away from those types of situations and um I just want to point out that these started a number of years ago. So the use of these reserves like this

103one um we got it 2122 and immediately they started using it to drop it off. Um this next one we had a reserve for tax reduction. Again this one $400,000 over a couple years it just dropped right off. So instead of you know spending it a little bit at a time and using it uh it just kind of drops right off and and that happens you know. So that was over in 2122. But only reason I have it on here is when I tried to use that one slide about the total fund balance was included in those first couple of bars. Robert, can I ask you a quick question? Um, >> were those used for their intended purpose or it's just that? >> Yeah. The reser they were used for their intended purpose. My point

104was to try to spread it out longer. Gotcha. >> Over a longer term. So >> you would have less of a a drop off, less of a cliff. >> Right. Right. All right. Now this is our again back to our total fund balance but as a percentage of the budget. So we had been up over 30% of the budget. Um now we are down to about 23% of the budget. Um the good news on that is and I've said this before while it's come down a lot you still have a significant amount of total fund balance. uh you'll see when I get into next few slides. One of them is how much fund balance you should have and uh the requirement is at least 10%. Before you would start hitt you you'd have to drop

105below 10% or start getting hit with points for fiscal stress. So we have more than double what that number is. So that's why I say in terms of total fund balance, we're good. We just kind of have to change those initial revenue expenditure lines. So that's really the reserves. Now there are six um components of fiscal stress. Um unassigned fund balance and they all add up to to 100 points. So an assigned fund balance, total fund balance, operating deficit, cash ratio, cash also as a percentage of monthly expenditures, and then short-term cash flow debt reliance. I'm going to go through each one and explain them. Um, so you based on those components, you're assigned a score, how many points you get out of each of those components. Uh, you can have up to 24.9 points

106and have no designation. So if you're under that 25 point number, they consider you not to be in fiscal stress. Once you go over 25 points, that's when you start to get designations. Um, and the higher points you have, the more stress you have. So the first one unassigned fund balance. Um I put all the numbers in so you can see them. Um as I was mentioning with the graphs in 23 in 2023 2024 those fiscal years you were actually just below 3%. So that hit you with 8.33 points >> on the fiscal stress score. I I think what's what's frustrating here is that with a little tweak uh we would have no points in those areas. >> Probably $100,000 >> probably not probably not even >> so it that's what I said this this

107is a very controllable number. >> So last year we were at three million now we're close to just about four million. All right. So we're in good shape here. don't expect any issues with this number going forward into the next year. >> What's also uh interesting about this is that the state hammers hammers you right by having too much money. >> Correct. >> Right. >> And then uh if you have too little then then you get >> well you're not allowed you're not allowed to have more than 4% but if you have less than 3% you get hit with physical stress. >> So It is is interesting. >> For that one, >> correct? >> No, no, I'm I mean there there is one that will do that. So, I'll get to that one. >> So,

108we we'll be good there. We'll be good next year. I don't see any problem with making sure that number's above 3%. Total fund balance, as I mentioned, 10% is what they're looking for. We have 23%. I don't see any situation where we would drop anywhere near that number over the next couple years. So, I think we're safe here. I don't see any points here for fiscal stress. And that's our total fund balance. You take the total fund balance, divide it by gross expenditures, and they want 10 points. Now, the gross expenditures here are your actual expenditures. It's not your budget. So, so, so we may have uh I think I ran the numbers. We our our um our total fund balance was 3.75% of uh total fund balance, but it was actually 3.85% of expenditures

109from last year. That that was our undesated number. All right. The next one is the operating deficit. This is this is the problem. Okay, this is the one that's caused by those two lines. State wants you to be within 1% of your expenditures. So, your revenues, you don't have to have as much, but if your revenues don't get to within 1% of your expenditures, that's when you have uh points assigned. The problem with this category is prior years count. So once you have it for one year, one year is 6.67 points. That stays with you for three years. All right? So in 2024 we got hit with 6.67 points. That stays with us. 2025 >> you have another 6.67 points. So this is the number that I'm still unsure of the end of this year.

110We're going to do everything we can to make sure there's no points in this number, but I really I I can't guarantee that at this point. Um, so if we have a more than 1% gap at the end of this year, that's another six point six points. So we'd have 20 points in this gap. >> One to zero. The best we can do is maintain 13. So if we are within 1% or we have more revenues than expenditures hopefully um you only have 13.33 but for planning purposes and I'll get to that in a minute. I have to expect 20. So and I'll get to that a little further. >> Does that 6.67 six, seven. Does it see that it doubles based on the the percent difference or like is that a like >> No,

111because you're it's cumulative. >> No, no, I know. But but like if we were closer, does that number get less? No, it's always 6.67. >> No. If you're between that, >> so if you're less than 1% >> in one year, it's 6.67. If you're less than 1% in two years, >> I see. Okay. >> And it could be year one and year three. You could have had a year in the middle, but that first year you still >> carries for three years. >> Just the same. >> Yes. >> You've got to get that break. >> Now we get into cash ratio, which this is your cash that you have available divided by your current liabilities at year end. So, how much money you basically have in in the bank divided by your liabilities. Here, they

112want you to be over 100%. We're at 181%. So, we're in really good shape here. And again, I don't see any scenario where our number would drop that we would drop $6 million. So, we should be absolutely fine in this scenario for the next year. Yeah, we're back. >> Yeah. No, there's really no >> it's these are they're liabilities that you have at the end of the year that you have to pay in the following year. >> So that's what these are. So they're the accounts payable, there food liabilities, um the ERS, TRS payment that we have to make in the following year. >> Um >> so a number of those. >> Addition, >> Correct. Well, well, there are addition because not all of this is encumbrances. Some of them are accounting entries. All right.

113The next calculation is the same cash on investments except this time it's divided by gross monthly expenditures. Here we're at 130%. Uh they want you to be uh over 100%. Again, We're in good shape here. I This one you'd have to drop about three million to fall into that. I don't see us losing $3 million over the next year. So, we should be in good shape with this for another year more. We're going to turn everything around. So, we're not going to have to have these conversations. >> Yep. Well, part of it is the increasing expenditures and the other part is the decreasing revenues. But >> yes, but again, you bring those numbers together. You got to bring those lines together and then you're not going to have this this continuing issue. Now, this is

114la this is the last calculation. Um short-term cash flow. This is tax anticipations. So this is the amount of money that we need to borrow. This is the number we need to borrow be because we don't receive all of our tax receipts early enough in the year. So this number is impacted by that previous number, the cash we have on hand because we only have so much money at the end of June before we get our tax receipts in the end of October, November. are there, but we have payrolls that we need to make. So, we need to borrow money before those come in. So, the less money we have on hand, the more money we need to borrow. So, that's part of the issue. Last year, they borrowed 17 million. So, they went from

11514.2 to 17 million. That caused 10 points fiscal stress. Good news is that doesn't carry forward. Okay. But I had to make a decision when we borrowed our tax incipation notes this year because you remember the previous one we have a possibility of 20 points. So I couldn't borrow more than $18 million this year or we would get six points. So I was limited uh to borrowing just that $18 million. We probably could have used 19, but I have a couple of if god forbid we get that close, what I would do is hold off on some large payments like Bosey's pay and just not pay them until we had enough. We have to meet our payrolls first and our accounts payable or some of the more that we have. But that's kind of a

116decision I had to make looking at the fiscal stress scores because I I don't know if we're not going to have that 20 points. I couldn't justify more than 3.3 points because the next one's six points. >> So that's why I had to keep the increase less than 6.67%. >> And this is Tom this is what John Verdon always used to talk about like why can't we use like we have fund balance on hand why do we have to borrow why can't we use what we have and then replenish right and they don't allow for that. Yeah, >> we have all we have reserves that are that are earmarked for other things, but they're not being used, but you can't use that money >> for this, >> right? >> That and there's always been talk

117of making legislation that >> has has NISBA has that as a resolution or ever taken it up? >> I don't know where it's where it's gone. >> Yeah, we can ask at the convention. >> Shout out to John. >> Hi, John. Hi, John. John actually asked the comproller and went up to him and the controller says, "Yeah, it's a great idea, but nobody's actually acted on it." Right. >> So this this chart just shows a summary of all the points and the totals for the last few years where we are currently. So this year we are right there. We're going to have 23.33 points. So we will not when the state comes out with their fiscal stress numbers after they get all the ST3s and all the state aid numbers that we all had to

118just put into their systems when they spit out the numbers we should only have 23.33 points unless they change some formula someplace which they have in the past but not expecting it. Um but based on the way they calc they've been calculating we should have 23.33. We should not fall into that fiscal stress because I limited what our TAN borrowing is. We're going to have 3.33 points in short-term cash flow. So, I'm saying at the end of next year, we're either going to have 16.66 or 23.33. So, even ne I'm pretty much telling you now, even next year, we're not going to have fiscal stress. Okay. Robert, can I ask you one more question too? So, say we do get those lines trending in the right direction where our revenues are outpacing our um liabilities.

119>> How will that help in the last category you just mentioned? Will that because you were saying like that one doesn't transfer over like the three-year carryover like the other score. >> So, that one is going to be with us for a little bit. But that last one, the whether we're on the process of 16.66 or 23.33, if we get our revenues higher than our liabilities, then that number should go down in in the following year. That's what you're saying. >> In in the following year, >> okay, >> you you won't have Well, first of all, you'll have that break in that one category. So now for three years, there's one year in it that you're not going to have any points. >> That's so So, so once you do that, you you're okay. Even

120if you had to increase your tax anticipation, but it's it's not like a cumulative piece. So, you can increase a million this year, increase another million next year, you're only going to add 3.33 points. >> I was just trying to think like best case scenario, worst case scenario, you know, where where could we be? You know, I mean, I I get these are numbers and we want to be as low as possible. But the main thing is is like you were saying the numbers is we need more revenue than >> everyone knows basic math, right? If you're you're spending more than you're making, you're you're going into debt. Um Okay. Thank you. So my thinking right that for the for the foreseeable future right the goal of us as a board and us as a

121district is to as we as we increase revenue whether it be through attrition teacher retirements things like that to just enhance the current programs we have and make them the best that we can instead of adding >> brand correct >> you don't want to add something that's going to create >> if you if you look at the years it's it's plain as day >> I wasn't on board right but and my kid hadn't yet started school, so I wasn't fully invested. But it it seems plain as day, we got an influx of money from the federal government and co money. >> We spent it and created new programs. We did not then want to take away those programs, but then the money came and we had to fund it ourselves. So now we're in this

122boat where we kind of have to keep ourselves afloat >> and then, you know, just enhance what we have and not add new. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> For a little bit. >> Yeah. It looks like the in those first couple of COVID years when the district found out they were getting more money, >> they you know put in some additional programs which was great, >> right? >> But then they kind of ran out of that funding. So >> correct. >> You know, you've heard about the cliff a number of times. Um but that's something that's hit here. They tried to cover it with reserves, but you can only do that for so long. >> Yeah, exactly. All right. Thank you. No pictures. I want to thank Robert because um >> I'll try to get pictures

123next time. >> It's okay. They would have been distracting. There's a lot of numbers. No more red though. >> Yeah, we're going to turn the red into green. But the other thing I just want to thank Rob for is the way that he clearly articulates and does research and shows you the pathway is is really important and it's going to be very beneficial to the district >> and it's really appreciated. >> Thank you. >> Yes. And I hope for the the community and and even the staff that um us starting this this early and having time to absorb it and understand it and then how it's going to lead to our decision-m going forward. I think it's really beneficial not only to us as a board but to the community at large. So thank you.

124>> I just want to speak to that too. Um you know Dr. Ferris and I we met with people trying to raise revenue. You know our goal is to raise revenue. We don't want to cut programs. We want to get money in the door. Um and we're looking at ways to do that and we just want people to know that. >> Yeah. I want to thank um Chris because we met at the high school to talk about what that would look like if we upgraded our lighting and sound and would people want to rent that space out? And the answer was absolutely yes. And then uh I don't know if I I told you this, Chris, but I met with him again on Friday. He came to the middle school and we did a walkthrough

125of the middle school and they loved it. the space in the atrium, the cafeteria, the gym, the classrooms behind it, the hallway, and um they're going to be renting it out a couple of times this winter as a trial period. And if it works out well, they said they won't want to rent it out from like January through May. And that would be significant um significant revenue for the district uh over many years if we could have that partnership. And then if we could have our upgrade at the high school, then we could rent out two spaces, you know, from January through May every year, and that would be additional revenue, you know, in the several hundred thousands. So, I appreciate that you helped us make that connection, but that's something we talked about when

126you were running for the board that we wanted to do. And, uh, we also are going to be talking about a summer program that Mr. Magna has kind of brought to us, uh, with possible summer camps that could also add several hundred,000 in revenue to the district. So the combination of the two could be quite powerful. >> Yes. Yes. Looking forward to discussing both of those things further once we have more information. >> That's our presentation from the uh the central office. >> All right. Well, it was kind of a good segue into our board of ed discussion. So I think number three we just covered unless anyone wants to add anything else. Just seems like the right time. >> Chris or Desmond. just about the revenue the revenue piece. >> You have anything more

127to add about >> anything? >> Oh yeah. So I mean you know my my goal was >> Sorry. My goal was to obviously bring revenue in by, you know, dance companies and and people have have gigs and and they pay to use your equipment because it's a lot to have a huge auditorium. You know, there's not many places on Long Island that do that. Um, and you know, there's dance competitions and dance recital and uh so the goal is to bring these companies that need space. Um, and we have the facilities and we want to update more facilities so that we can have a great working relationship with them and um, you know, it's local people in the area from all over and they get a great place and you know, Seville is such a

128great spot because we're right by the airport. You know, some of these companies can fly in and they drive down the block and we're right here at Seville and they have hotels right at the airport as well. So, it's really a great location to be if you're a company that kind of tours around the country doing dance shows and dance competitions and everything like that. Um, and it and it is needed and it helps them and it helps us out. So, it's a mutually beneficial thing and and that's why uh you know, if we can turn that number around and even help us out a hundred a few hundred,000 here or there makes all the difference. And I think one of the things we talked about when we put the lighting and sound in at

129the middle school was let's get high-end equipment so that people would want to rent our space. And when they came to visit, they felt that that was some of the best lighting and sound that they've seen in any school. So they were really excited about using the space. >> Um and for me it was um just the uh prospect of bringing future stars uh to Sable Middle School. Um, one of the directors is a disabled resident. I I emailed the proposal to Christine to to share whenever, you know, she was ready to share it. I >> I just sent it to you. I had sent it to Robert and uh and Mark. Um, just but basically the the overview um is it it is a re potential revenue stream. uh they offer 15 uh% to

13017.5% uh gross revenue to be paid back to their district which anytime you can get the gross of anything is huge. Um they they offer like ex like a wide array of uh potential camps uh you know as as far as you know different types of sports. Um they have an all-inclusive, they have steam um you know they they they really do a little bit of everything. there. They also offer reduced tuition uh for Seville residents if they were to be here. Um it also creates job opportunities for our older kids uh to to work right down the road. So, you know, if they wanted to work at a camp, whether they wanted to be an art instructor or a steam instructor or they wanted to be an aid or help out and just be

131a counselor, then they could just ride their bike down to the middle school. So, so it's great. Um you know, and you know, they will help invest in facility upgrades. Uh if it's if it's something that they're into long term, which you know, we recently walked the grounds with uh Dr. Cox and and and you know, talked about all those things. So, um I just I just thought it was so good to bring to the table. I think we h we have the potential because we have that space is huge and they are actually the ones that are interested in that space. So, >> so Desmond, I'm going to suggest that we put this on the board agenda again for next week, okay? Because I didn't share that with everyone. So, I think that visually

132for them, if they've seen that proposal, I think it'll be more fruitful of a conversation and I do apologize for that. That's my mistake. Um, but not that I want to cut you off, but I do think we should continue it >> and I just wanted to send it just to Mark and Robert first so they >> make sure that what seems to be beneficial is actually beneficial. >> One of the things that I spoke to Dr. Cox and Robert and Mr. tells us about was um looking at um meeting with the group because I wanted to see if we're running our own camps, which we do and they're running camps. I want to make sure they're not that kind of coordinate. Yeah. >> So, we're gonna I would like to just set up an

133initial meeting with gentlemen runs this program, talk about what could be and the possibilities, locations and all that and get more detail and then I could even bring that back as well. But I think it's worth me following up on and reporting back to you guys if you guys. Yeah, I happen to be at um Suffach County Community College this week and I could see like they're already advertising for that camp. So, I think that if we're going to move on it, we probably need to get some information and have some good fruitful conversation. >> Yeah, I agree. >> Okay. Um just going through what we had on our uh board um discussion, PTA meetings, um I know that they have started. I just want to say thank you to all the leaders of the

134PTA and the parents and the teachers that volunteer. um the amount of work and support they give to our students in our schools is is amazing and they deserve great support for that. Um and for the parents who are unable to volunteer, which is not, you know, for everybody. We don't all have that time, but please join your PTA. Um that revenue is really important to them. And in um and if you don't happen to be a member of that school or a member of or still have kids in school, um support their fundraisers. All that money goes back to our kids and back to our schools. Um, so I just want to say that's really really important. Um, and I think some PTs might have the option of community member or >> something like

135that. I'm not 100% sure. >> All right, I'll ask them. Um, so I just want to also say that as a as a board, we really should make sure that um, at least one of us attends these meetings. I think that they're important and we need to show our support. Um, I think it's great for us to get information. I also think it's great for them to um you know ask ask or give us ideas and and questions and feedback as to what's going on there. So, I think a couple things we should talk about is first of all, how do we cover them? And second, like what is our role when we're there >> as far as covering um up to everyone to decide, but um I typically always attend the middle school, high

136school PT meetings. I know I couldn't go this week, but um I would like to sign up for that one possible. >> And just um from a historical perspective, um in the past, PTAs usually have a space in their agenda where it says like board superintendent report. So, if a board member was there, they usually always have a moment where you at least say hello and then report something out and then they ask questions. >> Typically, what I would say um maybe what was ever on our agenda coming up week or new projects that were happening or whatever um things that we were running. Yeah, the last meeting um Mark spoke about both of the presentations tonight and then we just clarified what the um uh the the new meetings were going to look like

137and and Kathy took the time to thank them and acknowledge their their leadership and that was at the middle school high school one. Um and I know that there were others this this week. I think they're all starting to meet. Um so um anything else about what our role is there? Well, I mean the the only thing I would just be careful from experience is that um everybody's looking at you as representing the board and of course you're there as an individual as well. Just when you you know speak you know be careful how you word things you know not that you convey your own personal opinion and it's conveyed as as the board that's only some in the past it's you know has happened sometimes you know even if you say it's my personal

138opinion and they go and say it people still take the board. Yeah, sometimes it's hard not to get ahead of like where we are as a board even though you may you know um uh mean >> John Verdon and Norm used to always go to all board meeting I mean all the PTA meetings and basically they would just you know whatever information they would get from there they would bring it back to the board relay the message back and invite encourage everybody to come to the board meetings >> I actually I don't like being at the board meeting as a board member like because it's hard I'm sorry. Yeah, because um that's my son's school and I'm a member of the PTA and I want to be there as a parent. >> Yeah. >> Um

139so, >> you know, I was lucky that Kathy was there because they did all of a sudden like put us on the spot and they were like, "Oh, well, we have time for the board." And and I didn't I I wasn't really prepared to speak as a as a member of the board because I was taking it all in as a parent. Thankfully, Kathy stepped up and and spoke for both of us. But, um but yeah, I I understand what you mean. I I don't I don't want to be a board member when I'm there. I just want to be like a dad. And um >> so I I don't know how to separate. >> It's difficult because you'll always wear both hats. As much as you want, >> you know, and you know me,

140I'm not one to shy away from speaking, but I just I'm like I'm dad when I'm there. >> Yeah. >> True. But I hear what you're saying if like you'd prefer not to be the only board meeting at that board member at that those particular meetings >> or you could go to like a different like >> should be there someone else. >> So I Julie had sent out us the the schedules right for the next couple of the board meetings for the whole year actually. So if you can look at them and and figure out PTA I keep saying board meetings sorry. Yeah, the PTA meetings. Um, and just look at the ones that you will be able to attend and then the rest of us we can we can fill in. Um, I'm going

141to try to attend at least one from every place throughout the year. But I just know I work a lot of evenings, so there's no way I can do all of them. So, um, let's do that over the next week or two. Um, and then if you sign up for one and you realize you can't go, just give a shout out and if we can cover it, we will. Um, and the PTA should just know we're trying our best to support them. And the sheer volume of PTA members is astonishing. >> Yeah. >> It's unlike anything that that that sunrise cap was unbelievable how many >> I do, but I think it's also you have to note that there's a huge drop off right after elementary school, right? And and it was obvious that um

142a lot of the high school, middle school, I'm just going to say because we were there um PTA leadership have seniors. Um so I hope there's a transition that that continues. >> Um >> okay. Okay. Anything else about PTA? >> N SEPTA and Simba. All of them. Wonderful. >> I'll be on. >> All right. Um, uh, Nichch ratings. Um, Desmond, I know you put this on and I go, I know what you want to say. I agree. I it's getting late and I was less fired up about it um now because it was a week and a half ago. But the niche ratings came out in New Day and I was immediately upset because um their comparison tool is unfair in my opinion to our kids and to our teachers and to our community uh

143because they rank these schools and one of the biggest schools that one of the one of their biggest grades is diversity and I just don't that's something that's out of our control and that that's out of our teachers control and that has nothing to do with our students and how hard they're working and and our parents and how hard they're working at home. So, I was enraged and that's why I I put it on and I called Christine immediately and I said, "Can you please put this on?" Because, you know, when you break down um when you look at it and I will give uh the niche credit, the website, because you can compare schools and you can see where we stand on on a lot of things. Our student toteer ratio is better than

144all of theirs. Okay. Our overall teacher grade is better than most. I I would say 75% of of all the and and it's an A+. So, nobody is better than us when when it comes to the teacher grade. Um, and it it just upset me that News Day chose to put that in there. It was almost like cherrypicking a stat to highlight certain um areas in communities. Um, and so I, you know, I just wanted to say that that I hope people don't, people understand how that ranking is and that that it's not really a true indication of what we are, especially when you pull it up and it's like teacher grade A+, academic grade A, like and and then diversity grade is B minus, which is something that is completely out of our teachers

145control and our students control. So, I just I just want to >> What's interesting is that, you know, News Day will throw out niched ratings or they'll go around online. And I think when you're like in a K12 environment, like as a K12 parent, if you're living in a in a place and your kids are going to that school, you probably don't pay much attention to niche ratings. I will say just being on the other end of it, when you start to look at colleges, those niche ratings can rot your brain like as to what they rank and this school is here, this school is there. But having gone and visited over 50 schools over two years, those niche ratings, a lot of nonsense there because with like they were it was silly things like,

146you know, they'll rate top dorms and you're like, well, I was in that dorm and it ain't it ain't what you're saying it is or I was in that academic school or I was there. So, um, you know, I think that it's a it's a money maker for some industry, right? And, uh, we have to be careful not to give too much credit when it doesn't say what we want. And then we have to be careful on the other end not to to buy in it too much when it when it does. And um niche specifically I mean I think there are other women are blue ribbon school or there are others that the criteria are much make much more sense and are much more applaudable. So um thanks for bringing it up Desmond. >>

147I do think they're utilized for people looking to move into other communities. That's what it is. >> Yeah. >> It's a real estate tool. >> It is. >> Um Yep. Number four. Town of Icelib school boards um association meeting October 27th. I think I looked at my calendar. I don't think I can attend. >> Actually, you know, there's a conflict with this because the reitent meeting is on the same night. >> Of course, it is. >> Yeah. And uh I was asking Mark about that. I mean, the reit unfortunately uh is the one I'll probably be attending. So if you can let ISIL know, >> do they not speak to each other? >> Guess I guess not. I don't I don't know. I don't know their relationship. Um >> we usually attend the refit. We

148usually attend the other. But refit's something that only happens once is season. So >> how many people generally attend >> attend >> like the refit or the ice town boards? >> Refit has been any board members who want to. So some years it's been four or five, some years it's been two of us. So >> it it is an association of uh of members, right? >> Yes. So yeah, I don't know if I if which school is part of it, >> but um the isip school boards is just the association of school uh communities and disabled >> and I mean I um it was more attended in the past >> the or the refit >> the But last like it didn't happen for like two or three years and last year they had I think

149one meeting. >> Yeah. It's >> Yeah. Yeah. So they usually, you know, have topics that they try to share with others. >> Yeah. I mean I would go um I just you know I'm looking at my calendar that's that's round two of playoffs and open hope open me there. So I I mean I can't make a firm commitment right now because I don't I don't >> I'm kind of the same way. So >> yeah, but I I mean I I've attended lots of meetings in that that cafeteria. I if I can go I will. >> Okay. All right. You'll let Julie know. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. Um and the last is any comments or questions on the claims report? >> I have a question. So um Sport Scope Inc. What is that?

150And I'm curious why Um, in the report it stated this district should have obtained three written quotes. So, what is Sports Scope Inc. and why didn't we obtain three different quotes? >> Sure. what is something >> I googled it to try and find out what it was who owned it and I can't find anything. I the closest I could get is it's some kind of camera business for maybe with sports So, >> could could be the huddle, but we're going to look into it and get back to you. >> Thank you for the question. >> $7,893. >> We'll look into it and find out. >> Okay. Um, public comment. Anybody looking to make a public comment? Are we sure? >> Come on. >> Okay. [Laughter] >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. >> And I'll have

151to look into it, but there might be only one company that makes something like it. If that's the case, that's probably why we didn't get that. >> We'll we'll confirm that tomorrow. But that sounds right because I remember being at the last game and they were talking about the new camera for the end. >> Can I give you one more foul swoop? No. Um I can >> 10. Okay. Um All right. U going moving on to um our recommended actions. I'm going to start with the minutes first. So I need a motion on 7.01. Motion, Tom. Second, Kathy. Um, any discussion? All in favor? Motion passes. All right, I'm going to take the next hunk together. 8.01 to 10.2. Can I have a motion? Kathy Desmond second. Any discussion? Kathy. >> For the student observers,

152I know I've said this before. We have so many for the same content areas, but we don't have any for science and world language. So, we need to come up with a way to recruit student teachers because we're going to need them. >> Science and world language. >> Yes, >> science and world language is currently the hardest areas to staff right now. >> So, so I do know because um especially in in some of the specific sciences, physics, but world language, too. And everyone should know that those are two certifications that you have to be individually certified in each one. So, um like a earth science teacher, unless they're certified in physics, too, can't do both, right? Um but I know that there are some schools that are looking at the limited number of colleges

153that even offer some of those as as um majors and going and recruiting there. I know like uh I just happen a friend in uh Longwood who sends teachers up to to try to recruit technology teachers. Um I'm glad to see we have have one coming, but um >> I was told that some of our chairs do reach out to the local colleges to look for student teachers and observers and and they don't like in those areas. They're just not >> don't have that's the problem. >> So I do know we do outreach. I know Miss Bricker is nodding, >> but it's it's it's just very hard to find. But I anything we can do to get more uh people in the mix because We are coming up on a moment in time where we

154are going to need two physics teachers or a physics teacher. We're going to need earth science. We're going to need language. So, it's um it's definitely an area that we need to pay attention to. >> Um did you mention 8.04? Was that on the trend? >> Do we have to amend the date mark that we talked about or can we just vote on that? >> Okay. gear off. if it's not correct. >> Yeah, that one particular item. >> I mean, I'm just >> I thought that was adjusted today. >> Yes. Right. >> So, that date needed to be adjusted. So, we will take care of that. We don't know. table that >> it's remove. [Music] >> No, I don't think you need to vote it down. >> No, I I think you can remove that

155item. Vote on the rest of the table. >> Okay. and then vote on that other item next week. >> Okay. So, so let's Yeah, you can skip 801 to 102. >> Motion to take over. Motion dates of Middle school. Discussion. All in favor? All right. Thank you everyone in the back for coming.