001on a second. Second. Chloe all in favor? Aye. Motion carries. We will now stand for the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thanks. I think there was an anyone on the attendance sheet to speak? Nope. Okay, we'll roll in and then we'll do comments at the end, just to get rolling. So we'll go to 7.1. It's recommended the Board of Education approves the agenda order as presented. If there are any additions, deletions, or changes. Are you not hearing any? I will make the motion to see a second. Second. From Stephanie, all in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And we will go to 8.19. It's recommended the Board of Education approves
002the consent of the agenda order as presented by the Superintendent of Schools. Second. From Chloe, a second? Second. From Cheryl, all in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Alright, 9.1. It's recommended the Board of Education approves the personnel agenda order as presented. Are there any additions, deletions, or changes? I'm not hearing any, just seeing a motion. So moved. From Stephanie, and I'll second that. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And we're going to jump down to 10.35. It's recommended the Board of Education approves all personnel items in section 10 as presented. Just seeing a motion. So moved. From Gabby, a second? Second. Cheryl, all in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Do you want to call it the retirements and the tenure? You're at fault one point. So moved. So moved. Yeah. Chloe and Gabby. So in that packet,
003we did have a tenure appointment of John Zabowski, who would be our teacher at the middle school. I did forward you an email as well that he realized it was going to be voted on today, and he had a prior commitment, but he wanted to thank the Board for their support. And he's always proud to tell people where he works and he gets so much support in the fine arts and music. So I think the rest were resignations there. Were they two retirements? Yeah. It sounds like 24 and 20. So we had Cleaner retiring who started with us, and he's been in place since just July 2002. Seems like yesterday, but it's been 21 years. Yeah, I mean, that seems like yesterday. And then that was William Bush. We wish him all the best. And
004then Linda Chelfee is our account clerk who's been here since 2001. She'll be leaving. You also, in conjunction with that, we wish her well in her retirement, created a temporary position because that's like a single one-and-done position that's very circular in nature. So it could be some training and rollover before she leaves. So then we'll go back and we'll make it back to one, but we're going to post and hire for that. All right. Thank you. And we can roll into our policy. So these are our second reads for these. So 7614 is the pre-school special education program. When we reviewed this last meeting, we reviewed that it is a required policy. There's been some addition to the recommendation of placing a child in an approved program that also conducted the evaluation. So they conduct
005the evaluation and then they make the recommendation and place the child there that has been added in accordance with law. We didn't have any questions on this one during our first reading. Next one, 717. So this is the declassification of students with disabilities. Within this policy, there's the removal of the graduation and aging out section, but it was moved into the transition services policy, 7641. So no overall deletion or major changes, just moving it into a policy where it's better fit. And we did not have questions after the first read last time either. So 7640 is the development of an IEP for a student with classified. There were some changes throughout this one and you did have some questions. So I'll move through what those questions were. One of the questions was related to the
006functional behavior assessment and whether or not parental consent to conduct a full FDA functional behavior assessment is required. It is required for a full assessment. So I had the opportunity to talk with Mike Hiller, our director of special education, and he said, you know, we do have tier three in the RTI process screeners for behavioral purposes, and those wouldn't move through the same parental consent requirements, but a full functional behavior assessment would. So if one of the recommendations from our student review team would be to get a better in-depth look at a kiddo's behavior ahead of CSE, we would have the psychologist reaching out to the family and moving through that. We did change some language in light of our conversation. So if you go to page three, the top of page three, that last
007sentence originally in the revised draft, the determination to handle learning disability and talking with Mike made the move to educational disability. So it may be specific to learning, it may be specific to other health impairment, so that we're using educational that will be one of the classifications that can be made as a tool at CSE. The other piece that we did adjust some languages on the same page, so if you go to the. Perfect. So the individual reevaluations, so C is what is required at least once every three years, the district will fully reevaluate a child who has an IEP. The sentence right below it in our draft that we brought last time read a reevaluation will not be conducted more frequently than once a year, unless the parent and the district representative pointed to
008the CSE agree otherwise. That language seemed to be a little bit tricky because you're saying at least one every three years but then reevaluation will not be conducted more than once a year. So when talking with Mr. Hiller, it's an evaluation will not be conducted more frequently than once a year. So if it's the reeval year and the reeval is done, let's say the reeval is conducted in January of that year. A parent requesting another full evaluation in June of that same year wouldn't occur and so at that point Mr. Hiller said he'd be engaging the family and the CSE on are there other evaluations that we should be looking at what is the missing piece that maybe is in question that we don't have enough information about for that child and how they're progressing.
009And is there another type of evaluation or a subtest that we could take a look at administering? So we cleaned sort of a reevaluation and a village. The last piece was in regard to the difference between a plaque, which is the present level of academic progress within the IEP, which actually isn't in the policy specifically. But a question on are we considering adding functional to the plaque statement? And in talking with Mr. Hiller that those functional pieces as far as the kiddos strengths and weaknesses related to functional behavior are already a part of how our special education teachers are writing their plaques and he went on to say there are a lot of different acronyms out there depending on the state, depending on a variety of factors. And so he recommended keeping it the way
010that it is using the acronym that we're currently using. And now those are the two changes and some answers to some questions on that one. Anything on that one? Could we just hold this one until next week so Krista can hear? 7641 transition services. This is where the additional piece on the graduation and aging out moved from the declassification policy and was placed in this one because if you're graduating then you are transitioning out of our school system. We did not have any questions on that after first grade. 7642 extended school year. There was a removal of some of the state education responsibilities within this policy because it was word heavy. And then there was also the removal of parent consent because that is not required by regulation anymore so that was taken out of
011the regulations that was removed from the policy. And we did not have any questions on this one. 7650 parent involvement for children with disabilities. There were some redundant sections that serve to be repetitive. So they streamlined a list from list form into a condensed paragraph for parental consent. And they removed some of the exhaustive examples, but other than that, there weren't any changes across this policy. And we didn't have any outstanding questions after our first week. All good. 7650 child time. The changes for this really occurred in paragraph three on the first page. So there was a change in regulation where the district now has an obligation to notify all parents and guardians upon registering their child here to attend one of our six schools. The information regarding the process for committee on special education
012and who the CSE chair is. So we've been working with our special ed department and ed services on adding that notification into our registration packet. So that will meet that new requirement. And we did not have any questions on this one either. 7680. We did have a question on that. We had a suggestion on this to add in writing. So a parent may request an independent educational evaluation at public expense each time the district conducts an evaluation of a child and that parent disagrees with the outcome or the recommendations of that. And so the recommendation from our first week was, are we able to add in writing that it is in a phone call with a parent making that request that we are asking them to put it into writing. And so we did an
013improvised version in the second paragraph, we added a second sentence, the request should be made in writing and submitted to the CSE chair person. Anything on that one? Last but not least, we did not have any questions on this one. They took out some repetitive language in the last paragraph to make it succinct. But no substantial changes, no changes in the regulations and we didn't have any questions. Alright, anything on any of those? Minus 1113. Thank you very much. Alright, so we'll take action on 11.10. It's recommended the Board of Education approves all items in section 11 minus 11.3 for the second read as presented. Did you see the motion? Any second from Cheryl? All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. We'll go down to 12.1. This is a tough one here. It's recommended the Board
014of Education approves the notice of resignation for the purpose of retirement of Gregory Waitilla, Superintendent, effective at the end of business on July 31, 2024. Mr. Waitilla has been a valued employee of the district since September of 1992. I will make the motion. I just need a second. From Chloe. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. It's a tough one. Yes, they didn't say no though. I appreciate all the families, all the employees, and like I have said, the Board of Education for working with me. It's been my second family since 1992 and before that because I graduated from NT High School like those kids sitting in the seat there. When someone says, how long have you been an NT, I have to tell them my age because it's been more than just a job. So
015it'll be different. I won't know what to do with myself, I'm sure, for a few weeks, but it's ready and I'm excited to help the Board as much as they need in the process to select a new leader for a very strong school district that will just do bigger and better things in the future. I look forward to seeing where it goes, so thank you. Thank you. Congratulations Greg. Thank you. We'll be glad to have you there. What do you need from us? We'll be ready for you. I've given Mr. Holofskill orders that if I ever say I'm going to run for board seat, he's to take me in front of me and follow me. So that won't happen. Don't worry, we'll do that. Thank you. Board goals. Go ahead. Just before we get to
016the end, I know our student board member has some items too. We absolutely will. We'll talk board goals real quick and then we'll go into comments. Yeah, we will add the policies that we just approved for the second read. Remind me who went to the conference? Chloe. You and me. No, there's two of us. And Greg and Frankie too. Okay, great. And then we'll put on Saturdays as well. Yes, the Saturday retreat. So the board is meeting this weekend to do a retreat surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion. And then also once we get to December, our involvement in the DEI committee that is starting. So I know I'm attending in December. And then if anybody else can make some of those other Thursdays work. But we'll sort of add that on a rotating basis. Yes.
017Yeah, we're going to look to get now that we got the first one out of the way. We work with them on their calendar as far as if we can do it later and have some evening hours and things like that. So we'll try to make it easy for the board to attend as possible. My vacation time is already in for the seventh. That one's sick and where it is. Mrs. Smith ran that first one for us and she said it was, she put them through the circle, like you guys went through here, you know, restorative and for why they wanted to be on the DEI committee. We're very honest and truthful and it was a great start to that committee. So we just expect great things to come out of it. You ran the
018circle? I did. I don't have to run the committee, right? Okay, but everybody is in need. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm ready for that. Okay, great. Awesome. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Anyone in the public that wish to speak on any school business? All right. Now, hearing any, we can go around. We'll start with David for you this time. Tell us what you got for updates for us. Yeah, take your time. Okay, so from me, so from my self gathering information from students and faculty, I'd say a concern recently has been with our bathrooms. Our bathrooms are not really up to what I would consider standard. Our stalls are outdated, our sinks are outdated, our dispensaries are outdated, our soap dispensers, some of them are on the walls, some of them don't function, some of
019them simply don't have soap in them. Same thing with the towel dispensers. You know, the stall doors, they're flimsy, the locks don't quite work, they're vandalized. It doesn't really reassure you if you want to go in and use it. I know many people don't feel safe in the bathrooms because those locks don't quite work. All around the walls, vandalized, mirrors, vandalized. I think that sinks, they need to be fixed too. You can often see leakage with the pipes. You can see that hot water doesn't really work all the time. And if it does work, you have to stay there in a really unknown amount of time to let the hot water come in. I think that if you put in touch-free, hands-free technology like hands-free paper towel dispensers, soap dispensers, and motion-censored faucets can sink.
020I think that can be new. I think you have to adapt to the modern age. And if you go to modern restaurants and things like that, you see these technologies in restaurants. I think that you should also paint over the seating in the bathrooms and maybe paint some vibrant colors, school colors. You can add some school decals and spread some spirit there. One more thing I want to touch on is overall school fundliness. Some of the classrooms, they don't really get up to standard. The janitorial staff, I don't think they're doing their job. I don't think many students are. I know for faculty and teachers. So I've heard complaints from teachers that the janitors, they're not doing their jobs. They're coming in and maybe an understaffed or savage of them. But janitors are coming in.
021They're not doing their job. There's visible dust. It's scary. They're drying. And I think it's ridiculous that teachers have to come in early and clean the classroom and do the jobs that people, the next of four should have done for them. And if you look back at COVID, I mean, we really did prioritize cleaning classrooms and, you know, keeping that standard of hygiene. But I think as COVID has gone away, the cleaning standards have gone with them. So I think it's a thing to push towards revamping our bathrooms and maintaining hygienic fundliness within the schools. Do you think if the bathrooms were like repainted and the doors were fixed, do you think students would have more pride and try to keep them that way? I think so. I think you would take a pride in
022the higher standard of education. I think it's hard to take pride in something that many people frankly wouldn't. I feel like something everyone wants to have is a nice safe bathroom, clean bathroom. You don't use the bathroom at someone's house if you don't do it. It's not really clean, you know. But it feels sanitary. I think that if you fix it and revamp it, many students would enjoy the pleasure of having a clean, comfortable space to do what they want to do. The technology piece is something I know that they are looking for as far as like the dryers that are more hands-ridden. There was a time where we had the push faucets that only last so long. By law at the state, you can only have so many of those because just with anyone
023with handicapping conditions or anything like that, it makes it a little bit harder for them. But I think there's a ratio per bathroom install. I do know that the sinks were redone in one of the last capital projects, but they're still like that bolted to the wall model. Maybe that needs to change for what they are. Yeah, well, not that every student does it, but a lot of them will sit on the sink or push on the sink and then it makes the plumbing piece is the other piece of it. The good news is, is in the capital project that's coming up for the high school, it is really the focus the high school this time around to revamp a lot of those areas in classrooms. So it'd be the perfect time to kind of
024look to revamp what we're doing in the bathroom. So it's great timing because we'll be voting on it this spring. Sure. Awesome. Anything else? I'm not hearing anything else. I just think though, from especially teachers like this, they really want the jammers really start cleaning that up. That's been a long issue. Now it's not an excuse, but they're just, no, no one wants those jobs. So the people who are there are trying to get as much done as they can, and they're not getting into the detail work of it, you know what I mean, or scrubbing in the corners of that. So like I said, bathrooms, that's one of the student issues. And overall, that's students too, but also teachers because they have to teach those guys. Yeah, well, it's everybody when you walk into
025the building, you know what I mean? Yeah, you want to be part of the school. So we are working with that unit right now in negotiations to try and do a couple of different things for as far as like attracting more employees. So hopefully that will help. Thank you very much. Alright, we will start with Chloe. So congratulations to John and Teddier. Congratulations, Greg. You will be missed, but you're not getting away from us. And then I did go to the conference, the annual convention conference. It was really good. I actually went to some seminars about choosing a superintendent. I must have known something was going on, but I did it. So I learned a lot also about social emotional learning and stuff about our, like our technology. So I'll be putting everything together to
026show you guys what I found out. Other than that, I don't really have much going on. I really want to thank you for all of your dedication and hard work for the district for so long. And I thank you. It's going to be hard to fill your shoes. I just really want to thank you because you've taken great care of all of us, including all of my kids. Congratulations though. Thank you, though. It's much appreciated. It's kind of like poetic that I'm in this building to end because this is where I got hired to teach, you know, so many years ago. So yeah, it's kind of like full circle. I'm not going to wish Greg have a retirement yet, only because we have him until July. So just because he announced it doesn't mean I'm
027giving him attention. But I do want to congratulate the other two who did retire that we approved tonight and also for the tenure. And just on a note, the assignments that we had for the board. I have been slacking a little bit on what's been going on in the middle school. I know that that was my school that I'm supposed to be paying attention to. So I'm going to try to find some events going on in the next probably month or so before winter holidays to try to end something at people's school. Thank you. Also, thank you. Congratulations, who's on for 10 years and though I couldn't be here, we do appreciate the email that he sent out. And thank you to David, right, David for your comments because it's funny. I was speaking with
028someone the other day and they went to the high school for some sport thing and they had also mentioned the bathrooms, actually. So you're not alone in that. And that person was not a student. So they didn't know what the students were talking about. So it clearly is an issue. So thank you for bringing it up. And those bathrooms there need a redo. Those are worse than the other ones. Yeah, so we are listening. Yes. And as we go through the capital project, that can be something that you make sure that stays at the top of the list. That will be nice. And then congratulations. Congratulations to Greg. More emotional than I thought it was going to be. I just hope the students realize all the good work that he's done. Yeah, no. So, yeah.
029So from my side, I did get a chance to check out after running back from the NISPA conference, got to check out the play of the high school clue, which was super exciting. And they did a fantastic job student run production. And I was talking to Mr. Vales. He said it was the first student run production in 15 years. The last one was directed by me. So it's been a while, but it was super exciting to see this, you know, the students, you know, leading students and the talent was phenomenal. So glad to see the legacy continue. And the humor in it. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, very funny. Yeah, super good. So super exciting there. Like Chloe said, I also attended the New York State School Board of Conference, some really good sessions. I
030went to one by our dear friend, Mr. Mark Laurie in Niagara Falls, talking about school safety and leadership, which is good because a lot of the stuff that they're doing in Niagara Falls and the city of Buffalo. We've adopted with, you know, with the Raptor system and the safe vestibules and SO rose in the the evolved system. So all the things they're talking about, we're doing around a radar. So, you know, it's really interesting to get some different perspectives across the state, some of the trends that they're seeing. So that was a really good session. Also got to link up with the, I don't know what we're calling something, a group of school board associations. I'm the president of the Niagara Leans School Board Association. So it was the other associations getting it together, just
031talking about the exciting issues in the state, whether it's funding, whether it's electric buses, all the fun topics that everyone's talking about. School safety, DNRI, and all the things that we're talking about, everyone else's. So we're not, you know, just doing it in a vacuum. So it's good to hear. Obviously, you know, Mr. Rotila, seven years we've been together. It's been wonderful. Yeah, like we said, you're not leaving us quite yet. So we're excited to finish out the year with you and excited for what you have upcoming for you. And then I'll just say, because obviously the rumor mill starts rolling when you see the superintendent retiring. But I just want to say from me as the board president, you know, I'll speak for the group, obviously everyone can speak for themselves as well. But
032we'll have a thorough search. It certainly won't be just a quick look over. We'll have a, you know, a search that means something. We'll take in all different points of view and considerations. So rest assured that it's going to be a long process. We'll get involvement from lots of different parties. So I just want to put that out there as, again, as the rumor mill likes to go. So, you know, we'll have a comprehensive search. Yeah, I will just mention too that coming up, because Clue was so good and all the arts are fabulous here in North Carolina that there's a band and a chorus concert coming up in the near future here. So we do, it is November. So we do run our early release drill that's required by state because we operate buses.
033So the Tuesday before the long Thanksgiving week recess, we run 15 or 20 minutes early dismissal. The important piece of that isn't just so much that it's 15 minutes earlier. There are a lot of sports and clubs and activities after school and the Boys and Girls Club that watch kids and it's all getting those outside organizations to practice that drill because they have to shelter in place for that 15 minutes of that before they can resume normal activity. And we, you know, safety is always on our mind. We do lock down drills, we do lock out drills, we do, you know, all kinds of fire drills and that. But after school, it's not always practice, you know what I mean? So we try to do this so that the sports team know, oh, I was
034in the locker room or I was in the gym or I was heading out to the field. What do I do after school? If, you know, I get a notice or alarm goes off, what should I be doing? So it incorporates that piece of it. So it's very important that we do that. We had, it's coming up on conference time. The middle school and the elementary schools will have a half day and a day off to do parent-teacher conferences. So anyone who's watching as a parent, if you need to talk with your teachers, it's all in November. The high school and middle school one is after and 29th for evening conferences. But the elementary, I believe, is the 16th and 17th on the calendar there? It's Thursday. So a lot going on and more planning
035and detail on the capital project. So perfect timing because it's always easier and more efficient to do remodeling when the state's going to help pay us for it, you know, rather than do it on our own. So thank you for your report and we'll keep that updated. And thank you for 33 wonderful years. And thank you for our teachers. Yeah, they actually are from the middle school who made them. And Mr. Wood, who's a teacher there, is a board member where he lives. And it's, you know, board appreciation so that he wanted to bring those over to see if he could face the board. Yeah, so very nice. They made them and got them all done there. So it was really nice. We've got more of the district getting into TNT. The middle school being
036connected to the high school is doing a lot more activities and then all the other schools becoming our little lumberjacks are all part of it as well. We won in Tonawanda. So my records are still good. So they didn't disappoint me. And it was close game at the half. We went into the half almost tied. So yeah, they came out strong in the second half. They need some help. So, but yeah, that's good. We've got another meeting next Wednesday, which is all policy work there. So if there's anyone who still didn't come, have your classmates for a board meeting tell them there's one more this month that they can get in this policy meeting. All right, very good. That's all that we have. The board is going to go into executive session just to talk
037about personnel after this. So we'll do that and then once soon as we sign off here we'll send your sheets here. So just seeing a motion to adjourn into executive session at 709. I'll second it all in favor. Motion carries. I'll say good night. Any of us can sign for him.