Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 4:10Okay, thank you everybody for being here. Um, uh, waiting while we dealt with some tech issues. Um, Mr. Macker will not be attending tonight. Sends his regrets. Um, like to start the meeting by asking everybody to please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
2. 4:31To 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.
3. 4:47Uh Leslie, roll call, please.
4. 4:53Mark to Pace,
5. 4:54here.
6. 4:56Amanda Grubler
7. 4:57here,
8. 4:58Kirsten Gustiffson
9. 5:00here,
10. 5:01Diana Howard
11. 5:02here,
12. 5:03Matthew Marer, Moren Sheridan
13. 5:06here,
14. 5:07and Leona Prova
15. 5:08here.
16. 5:10[Music]
17. 5:11And I'd like to make uh a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
18. 5:17Second.
19. 5:18All in favor? Great. Brings us to our student representative report.
20. 5:26So, the first two weeks of school went by. Um, the 2020 class of 2027 is holding two fundraisers. They're selling hot cocoa during lunch and they have a car wash this weekend. So, please come by and try to support the homecoming uh is the 3rd, October 3rd, and the dance is October 4th. And see any class of 2026 um officer to buy tickets.
21. 5:46Try is thinking about holding a movie night. Field day um is planned by student council. It's going to be held October 3rd. Clubs again are starting up like Molly and Mocktrial both had their meeting this Monday and will be continuing next week. Environ will have their first meeting next week Thursday.
22. 6:10And for the transition on the phone band, it's been going okay. You know, it's definitely a rough process. Uh, in class there's definitely improvement, but outside like during passing periods and lunch, there still needs to be work.
23. 6:28Great. Thank you for that update.
24. 6:32Uh, there are no recognitions or presentations. Brings us to uh board reports. Um, audit committee has not met since the last report. Uh we should be scheduling a meeting for uh sometime later in October or November. The facilities,
25. 6:53we just had our meeting today. Uh it was a pretty good meeting. Couple of updates. Uh kindergarten bike rack has been installed to accommodate young riders on that side of the building since they enter uh through a different area. uh personnel. The uh maintenance staff is now fully staffed thanks to taking on two new employees.
26. 7:14We are continuing to work on the pool uh the pool pack motor, which I had to learn about uh is being replaced and we hope that the pool Tyler hopes that the pool will be open uh in the foreseeable future. I don't want to put a date on it because that's putting a deadline on him. Uh but they're moving pretty fast to do an in-house repair uh to uh conserve some funds rather than having a contractor do it. I think they deserve a little recognition because it's a significant lift.
27. 7:44Uh so let's see. Uh sewer line that had collapsed prior to the start of school has been fixed. It was actually an old fix that had failed. It was a complex dig that they undertook uh to make sure that that was not only repaired but hopefully will resist future uh failures.
28. 8:05The music room at uh MCS is uh getting some updates uh that I think will help those kids to have better experience. Greenhouse ground bake breaking was completed uh before our last meeting meeting um and that's moving forward. Uh drills have been successful. the standard evacuation drills um and lockdown is coming. A little bit of equipment updates and uh kind of general maintenance there.
29. 8:35And the capital project is continuing to go through its usual paperwork uh contracts, reviews, uh some legal reviews and things like that. So, we're moving forward.
30. 8:46Amazing. Thank you. Uh policy committee.
31. 8:50Awesome. Uh hi everybody. Uh last week we had our first meeting of our expanded policy committee. So I want to officially welcome uh Crystal Jeffs, Ely Hilton, Nikki Janeito, and Walter Voss to our policy committee. Uh this brings in parent perspective, community perspective, um middle and high school perspective from within our district.
32. 9:12Um and we're just super excited to bring uh all of those folks together. in our meeting last week then because we had uh power and numbers we were able to split into two groups and tackle two big buckets of um policy. So we had a group focused on sort of IT updates and making sure that we hit some like important pieces around instructional technology and AI AI use and everything within that.
33. 9:35And then we had a group focused on finance where we were able to look at um our reimbursement policy and really make sure that it matches the needs of our district and sets staff members up for success in how they um are reimbursed for or how the district proactively pays for things like conferences um for staff members. Um and then we were also able to look at our records management systems and just like tweak that policy to make sure it accurately reflected the roles and responsibilities within the district.
34. 10:04Um, so I'm super excited about being able to continue to get, you know, twice as much work done and have that perspective of the community, of parents, of staff members right in that space so that we're able to really like troubleshoot and think through the needs more quickly in policy. Um, so that that is our policy update. Um, we made some final changes to those policies and they will be on next month's agenda just so that everyone on the policy committee, we want to kind of close go slow to go fast at first and make sure that everyone on that committee has a chance to review changes first and then they will be up on the next board meeting.
35. 10:41Did I miss anything?
36. 10:42I have a question, Amanda.
37. 10:43Yeah.
38. 10:43Um, how many so how many people are on the committee now as compared to prior to sort of opening it up? Yeah. So there are three board members and so previously the committee had been three board members plus the superintendent. There are still the three board members plus the superintendent plus now four more members and then two which puts us at eight. And we had talked about there being that's a great question. Um no more than 10 people there. What we um ended up deciding to do with central office staff or um other like school-based leadership potentially too is instead of having a standing person like it doesn't make sense for Christie to be in the policy committee every single time if we're not talking about finance but if we are talking about finance we really can't do it without her. So those last two spots will be sort of folks from the central office who come in as needed. So last week we had Christy and Cheryl come and be there to be in those respective groups to be able to give that perspective and then depending on what policies are being discussed. I'll work with Leslie and Dr. Bailey to proactively invite the like central office staff whose perspectives we need.
39. 11:54Okay. So just one more question. Um were there those were the only four people that um expressed interest in it or you had to kind of limit it or
40. 12:04No, we did have to make some decisions. There was actually quite a bit of interest in that. Um, and so we we did have to make some decisions on who we selected. Um, there were a lot of strong candidates. We looked for diversity of perspective, I think, in terms of people's backgrounds, in terms of whether their connection was to like the younger kids or the older kids, what um, they brought to the table in terms of, you know, professional experience. Um, and we had that discussion in like the open meeting two times ago. Um, and yeah, I'm excited though because it also I feel like gives us a kind of like a bunch of people who are also interested in potentially engaging in other aspects as as parents, as staff, as community members as well.
41. 12:44Awesome. Thank you. Um, and board president report, there's a few things that we need to be keeping in mind. Um, the first is uh superintendent evaluation. Uh the first milestone for us is to file a notice about the mechanism which we will choose to evaluate our um superintendent. Uh my recommendation to the board is to switch from NISBA standards to NISCUS standards. I don't know if anybody had a chance to look at those, but I generally feel like the NISCUS ones are a little bit more pointed. Um, NISSBA is a little bit broader, a little bit vague, and also has areas that sort of overlap and bleed into each other. Um, everybody agree with that sentiment?
42. 13:36Just a a comment. It's interesting because um the NISBA aligns more with the the system that's used to observe and evaluate teachers.
43. 13:47Yeah, that makes sense. Um, they still use the um is it Heidi? Uh yeah. Um so they both use the same scale. Um but yeah, I just remember using NISBA in the past and uh sometimes just being a little bit unclear on what exactly we're supposed to be uh thinking about for that specific um area. Um and then as we did last year um we will use super val as our tool. um takes a lot of the back and forth and administrative work out of it and wrangles all the data into one piece.
44. 14:24Can you make sure that we're added to that?
45. 14:26Absolutely. Yes. Um and we can also have an opportunity um in the future to get training on the platform as well. Um second uh and second thing sort of related um is a superintendent search. Um, you know, our goal is to have a full-time uh replacement in place by July 1st of next year. Um, so in order to meet that deadline, we do need to get started soon.
46. 14:58Um, uh, my goal would be to have a few different options for the board to weigh at the next meeting in October. Um you know the usual candidates would be um folks like uh Questar um HYA uh Allen Pole um you had one other that you
47. 15:20that's for the search you mean?
48. 15:21Yes to conduct the search for us. Um and we've done it a few different ways in the past. Um I think the biggest thing for us to really um consider outside of cost is you know what we want that level of community engagement to look like. um and how do we want to get uh um you know buy in and input from all the various stakeholders. Um so that's something for us all to to think about and to have in mind. Um if anybody has any thoughts um definitely please share them with me and then uh once we have some options we can see uh who we think are the best fits and invite a few of them to present to us in a meeting. Um, just for clarification, can we search for the superintendent ourselves or do we have to farm that out?
49. 16:08Uh, in the past we've always worked with an outside group. Um, you know, we can definitely, uh, whether I've done it both with Questar and with HY YA. um each of them have asked the board for any recommendations or um people that we would want to um have them consider. Uh but you know the goal is for them to um handle all the the postings, the publicity, um the outreach to candidates. Uh they would handle the community engagement piece of it. um you know really spearhead that whole entire process for us which you know will last for you know anywhere from I'd say six to eight months. So it is a lot of work and a lot to stay on top of and in addition to all the logistics there are things like uh you know HR and hiring practices and and uh practicing
50. 17:09I feel like they really offered us a lot of really valuable services the last time we went through this in terms of checking through candidates and
51. 17:15which one Kirsten
52. 17:17the we didn't use Bose who who did
53. 17:19it was HYA
54. 17:20okay yeah we used so we used a private firm HYA um and I thought that they were um very effective in addressing um you know in reaching out to a broad range of candidates and being aware of of surrounding circumstances in other districts. Um and I thought that they offered some things that really um were a lot of time and dedication that that demonstrated that they're a professional company doing it on a dayto-day basis. So, they're really dedicating those hours and I don't think that um it would be as effective um to have just us doing it internally in terms of trying to reach out to all the places that they reached out. I don't think it would be as as good.
55. 18:05And was that for both Spindler and Pennyman or just penny?
56. 18:10Uh with the first one it was with Questar. Um they uh they conducted that first search. Um, I would say the big differences between the two were, um, Questar did a little bit more robust, uh, community engagement and actually had, um, different committees of stakeholders that interviewed um, different uh, candidates and sent feedback to the board. Um, obviously it's free, which is beneficial. Um, I think the one of the downsides to it was that it did take uh a lot longer and you know they're doing this in addition to all of their other responsibilities uh as running a Quest Star.
57. 18:56So at times it was hard to keep the momentum and keep the pace up. Um and then uh you know we had hya they did um focus groups with different stakeholders uh to see what qualities and um the the community wanted out of uh a superintendent and we used that as a rubric on how we graded the um the different candidates. Um so it's a little bit of a different approach. I mean, I think they both have their um, you know, positives and negatives. Um, but there are other firms out there, including um, Allen Pole and a few others that I forget. But I'll collect a bunch of information, send it to everybody, and we can see, you know, which ones we'd be most interested in hearing from.
58. 19:46And we as the board did conduct the interviews if that if that helps you feel like it's not being taken away from our our role as as a board. you know, we're still the ones conducting the interviews and making the final decision.
59. 19:58Thank you for that clarification.
60. 20:01Yeah.
61. 20:01Uh I have a question. What is the cost of outsourcing um to find a superintendent?
62. 20:08Uh I think it varies from firm to firm. Um I don't want to um speak without the exact information in front of me, but I would say anywhere from 10 to $20,000. Um so yeah, we'll keep that conversation going. I'll collect some material and distribute it to everybody.
63. 20:29Uh third thing is um board goals. Uh in addition to the superintendent evaluation, we should also be conducting a uh board self- evaluation. Um we started it last year, we did not finish. Um so I think that's at the uh top of our list of goals is to finish it. um has not been something that's been done uh since I've been on the board. Um so I think it is a top priority.
64. 20:58Um and just so everybody has sort of a sense of where we at went last year um with our goals. Um the sort of focus of them was a student first uh mentality, you know, so keeping that in mind with all of our um policies uh and presentations that come to the board. um the board self-evaluation was a priority. So we I think that should still be up there. Um last year policy was something that the board identified as a um an area of focus um including the um the code of conduct which I think is still really something that is uh should remain on our our list of priorities. Um as we saw last year, it's you know very complicated uh process but now that we have a larger um policy committee hopefully we can uh make a little bit more progress. And the last goal was around uh community engagement.
65. 21:58Um that's where the welcome brochure that we have here um came from. um and uh you know some of the um you know efforts to recognize compliments of uh of teachers and staff members. Um so yeah so everybody think through that and we can have uh further conversation uh next board meeting about um the goals that we want to commit to for this year.
66. 22:27Any initial questions comments? Well, I'll chime in right now with um Moren and I just had a little side conversation earlier about um I had asked about moving the location from time to time and I did speak to Mr. Wheeler about whether or not he would be able to film and his response to me was as long as we have Wi-Fi, we should be able to still go live. So, I would maybe like for us to consider moving the location. Not that I don't enjoy sitting underneath these beautiful lights, but
67. 22:58yeah, I remember in the past
68. 22:58if we want to engage the comm the community, we can go to them or to a place where we can all explore together.
69. 23:06Yeah, I like that idea. In the past, we've gone to MC Smith, but I think you're suggesting going even further. Um, and yeah, I think we just need to check uh policy and law and make sure it's permissible for us to hold it at locations where um that are not owned by the school.
70. 23:26Um okay. And then the last thing um especially since we will have a new uh board member joining shortly. Um I would like to suggest another board retreat in early October. Our next board meeting is not until uh October 21st. Um so then in the coming days I can send out um uh a form for availability and hopefully we can find a night where you know we can spend two or three hours just continuing to work through um you know board communication, board norms and just you know make sure that we're um all on the same page about how we're functioning moving forward. So um I thought our last one was really uh really productive. So I'd love to keep that work up.
71. 24:21Uh, great. Um, so that does bring us to an early executive session. Um, I make a motion to enter into executive session at 6:22 p.m. to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons.
72. 24:40Second.
73. 24:41All in favor? All right. Great. We'll try to be as quick as possible. Thank you for your patience. ready for your patience. I make a motion to exit executive session at 6:48 p.m.
74. 49:41Second.
75. 49:42All in favor? Uh brings us to our personnel agenda. Uh make a motion to approve personnel agenda items A 1-5 and B 1-10. Second.
76. 50:02All in favor?
77. 50:07You got to keep that one separate. I don't know which one that is.
78. 50:09Uh, it's consent agenda.
79. 50:12It's not on this one.
80. 50:13Okay.
81. 50:13Yeah, I got you though. Um, brings us to
82. 50:18Oh, I got it. Sorry.
83. 50:19Public forum. Leslie, do we have anybody sign up?
84. 50:24We have Wayne Kenny. Great. Uh everybody, as everybody knows, uh each speaker will be given uh three minutes to speak. Um we cannot entertain any comments about uh school district personnel or students. Um and uh yeah, turn it over to you, Mr. Kenny.
85. 50:45Excuse me. Uh good evening. For those of you who don't know me, Wayne Kenny, science teacher at the high school, past president of Hudson Teachers. Uh since you guys brought up the topic of the superintendent search, uh I just wanted to throw my two cents in because I was involved in the last two process-wise.
86. 51:07The first one I thought was a better process because it involved everybody at more steps. Um, we had an interview committee, uh, union presidents, community members that interviewed first and then the board did the final interviews, final decisions. That was much more involved in the second process. And what I liked about it was at least if my members came to me after we hired somebody and they asked me questions like, you know, was this the best candidate, was this that, I could give them more than the second time around when I could just say, I don't know because we didn't know anybody.
87. 51:47So who you choose to use is up to you, but if they can do that process, I think that is the better way to go to get everybody more involved. So I just wanted to say that. Thank you.
88. 51:58Awesome. Thank you for that feedback.
89. 52:02That's it.
90. 52:02That's it. Okay, great. Uh brings us to our superintendence report. Dr. Bailey,
91. 52:11we opened school and uh that was at the heavy lift by a lot of people in the district and to including uh uh our facilities director Tyler Kurtzman and all the staff that were working literally up until the very last minute that uh students came through the door. food service, Lisa McGovern and her staff. Um, they were ready to go again this as soon as students came through the door. Bill Mohead and transportation, which I don't know if you know, we we contract with at least eight different bus companies to do what we do every day. And I won't tell you that everything was perfect on the first day, but I will tell you that I have seen calamitous first days. And uh, the first day was pretty good. and we've only continued to get better around that work. And of course, the clerical staff and the counseling staff and our building administrators managed to pull things together, get schedules out, greet students, do their orientations, and just, you know, having seen a lot of openings of school, it was very pleasant to be here for this opening of school.
92. 53:20I wanted to talk a little more about Clay Target. I mentioned I would talk reach out to our insurance company and ask their advice because obviously that is a um very reasonable question of them and when I called the insurance agent she was silent on the other end of the phone. She said, "That doesn't sound like a good idea." But I said, "Well, here are some other schools that currently have them." And since Utica National represents something like 400 districts in New York State, I said, "Burnt Hills, Still Water, Lancingburg, Tamarack, Mahanison, Columbia, Borisville, Greenville, and she reached out to the carriers and they said absolutely and we do it at no charge."
93. 54:05What they did give us though is they had some guard rails around what we do to ensure that we're doing it correctly. They recommended that we have a hold harmless agreement in consultation with the school's attorney uh about the range of the club that they're utilizing and hold harmless agreements must be reviewed. As I said, they talked about how they're stored and their recommendation is they are stored at the facility and they're obviously not being transported by children. Uh they talked about the types of facility and that the weapons are stored separately from ammunition and children do not have access to that and that all rules and regulations for participation be in writing with those expectations around safety and students should be given appropriate training and they should follow the rules and guidance set forth by the National SK Shooting Association and they included a link to that.
94. 54:57So if the board so choose and I know there are some other things around this process. There is a uh extracurricular club development process that the district follows um which includes some pieces from the union and includes some pieces from the staff and includes some things from the board. Uh but we know that the path is doable if the board would like to pursue it. And I and I really the reason why I wanted to talk about it again is I know that um the the people who presented Joe and others very enthusiastic about it and I know that some of the families in the community are as well the school district where I am they actually have one of these clubs but I didn't want them to proceed if when it you know came to the board you weren't comfortable with it. So, it's it's not a vote per se, but it's just just to get a sense from the board of should we proceed um on this path and follow all these directions and get it done.
95. 55:58Is there any recognizing you might not know the answer to this in all of your time here so far, but is there any process of sort of gauging levels of student interest before we go through all of that? Because I think like if if there are clubs that are going to serve, you know, 10, 20, 30 kids, great. If we're going through all of this for like one interested student, and it wouldn't apply just to this, but I think in general, I'm wondering if there's a process for like gauging enough interest.
96. 56:27Absolutely. I mean, it's true of any club. We wouldn't go to the efforts of trying to create one unless they knew. I'm going to guess that there absolutely will be knowing, you know, that we have families that start in the center of the city and go all the way out through all those farms that we have children who, you know, would want to participate in it. But we absolutely find out.
97. 56:49Yeah. And part of the um club charter process is that they need you start with at least four students who are like the officers of that club. So I think that in and of itself is a pretty good indication that there's interest and that there's students and staff who are really going to um you know drum up uh interest and you know yeah just based on um Joe's enthusiasm and you know spreading that throughout the school I think I can't imagine there wouldn't be a lot of interest.
98. 57:19Yeah.
99. 57:19So what are the next steps?
100. 57:22The next step would be to follow the club creation process just as Mark was talking about paperwork. Yeah, it's club charter uhou um with the hta and um I think it's just those two things.
101. 57:39Yeah, most in most cases extracurricular clubs lie in the teacher teacher union contract. It doesn't if if a someone from the unit doesn't want to do a club, it is possible sometimes that people from outside of that can do that.
102. 57:56Yeah, thank you for following up on that. Let's definitely keep going.
103. 57:59Yep. Um we have uh the APC contract that is on the consent agenda. I just wanted to fill you in on some of the um thought process around it. Uh there were about 11 substantial changes that our attorney believed were necessary. It had to do with warranty, had to do with ownership, it had to do with communication. And I did send them to the company late last week and they sent them back and we're very close. We're we're we're like two or three things where, you know, we're debating a a number of, you know, months and things like that. But the reason why the resolution was adjusted to say to give the board president and superintendent authorization to approve the contract is in order for us to meet our summer timeline.
104. 58:49This is the the best window best opportunity for us to do it between now and the October meeting and as soon as possible because we all know uh the the um the uh the materials you know the supply chain that's what I was going to say the supply chain is not great u frequently and for us to be able to bid contracts or to attract the right people we need ample time to do it and um as with anything there's state approval do, but um for Mark and I to approve the contract once our attorney believes it to be in a state that is in the best interest of the district that that's why that resolution was adjusted like that. Does anybody have any questions about that?
105. 59:38I have a weird recommend a weird request and we were just in the facilities meeting uh talking about the pool and um this might be the highest used pool I've ever seen in my life which is a great thing. It's a wonderful resource for the community and um as is true in most places, we're frequently looking for lifeguards to fill positions because they might be 6:00 to 8 in the morning and then they're noon to 2 so they can uh do some PE classes and then they're 3:00 to 5 and then they're 7. They're all over the schedule and it requires a lot of people rather than one that works a 14-hour day.
106. 1:00:14And I know that uh we have some people who are interested in it. uh but we absolutely did not have an opportunity to onboard them while we were trying to hire custodians and kitchen staff and instructional staff. So, we prioritized a little bit there. I wanted to ask the board's permission that if a lifeguard applies, is certified to be a lifeguard, has been fingerprinted, uh, and is eligible to work in the district, if you would be okay with us allowing to onboard them and allow them to, um, work prior to the next meeting and appoint them retroactively.
107. 1:00:57Yes.
108. 1:00:58Yeah.
109. 1:00:58Okay. Thank you.
110. 1:01:01And the last thing is we have a lot going on. The junior high meet the teacher night is tomorrow night from 5:00 to 7:00. The high school is next Tuesday at 5:30 and the elementary is Wednesday from 5 to 7. And um after many many years of being corrected, we have homecoming week. Every single one of our teams is celebrating homecoming during the week of uh September 29th to August 4th. Um with August 4 being homecoming dance.
111. 1:01:35October. Thank you so much. August. It's very late homecoming this year.
112. 1:01:40Wishful thinking that we're still in August.
113. 1:01:43August 4th. Thank you. Um and I'm excited to see what Blue Hawk Pride looks like here.
114. 1:01:49Thank you.
115. 1:01:49Awesome. Thank you very much. Um so that brings us to the consensus agenda. Uh we have a request to um pull consensus agenda item E for its own uh discussion and vote. Um so then I will make a motion to accept consensus agenda items A through D and F through O. Second.
116. 1:02:22All in favor?
117. 1:02:24Um and then consensus agenda item E. Um I just want to say, you know, I know we've had a lot of uh feedback from the community in the past about the size of our central office administrative team. Um and you know, we have a few less bodies than we did in the past. And um I appreciate Dr. Bailey's plan to bring in two part-time consultants instead of more full-time bodies. I think it's uh fiscally responsible while still meeting the needs of our students. Um and yeah, if anybody else has anything to add um about discussion, we can then vote on item E.
118. 1:03:05No, I think the only thing that I would add is that really important that we maintain um and keep up with all of the grant funding and the title funding that comes into the district and making sure that we have the staff to be able to manage that because if we if we lapse on that then our students lose.
119. 1:03:22Absolutely. Um, so I would make a motion to accept agenda consensus agenda item E.
120. 1:03:34Second.
121. 1:03:35And all in favor?
122. 1:03:40I'm trying to see.
123. 1:03:42Yeah. Uh,
124. 1:03:43I think I'm the only one that's not. Okay.
125. 1:03:49Okay.
126. 1:03:53Uh brings us to new business and our finance committee charter.
127. 1:03:59I knew I forgot something when I gave the policy update. Um and this was it. One of the other things that we worked on was the charter for the um launching of our finance committee. Um, so this charter launches a new committee, a new board committee specifically, um, focusing on, let me pull up the exact language because we word smmith this exact language. So, let me get it right. um providing independent advice, assistance, and recommendations to the board about the district's financial planning process, including budget development, implementation, and evaluation, maintenance of dedicated reserves, monitoring of unreserved fund balance, and fiscal reporting and transparency.
128. 1:04:42Great. Um, yeah, I question. Sorry.
129. 1:04:45Oh, yeah. Go for it.
130. 1:04:46Uh, what is like the main difference between that committee and the audit committee?
131. 1:04:50That's what I was just going to talk about.
132. 1:04:52I was thinking about the same. So audit committee is um mandated by New York State um and those are controls that the the district is mandated to perform to make sure that we are spending money and have all the necessary processes in place to avoid um instances of uh fraud or malfeasants. Um and it was recommended to us by our attorneys um that we keep the finance committee separate from the audit committee.
133. 1:05:21The audit committee has a very specific and narrow charter. It's only allowed to discuss things um pertaining to the uh internal and external audit. Um so a lot of times in that committee meeting, we'd find ourselves bumping up against items that we wanted to talk about but couldn't under the purview of uh of that charter. Um you will see schools that have them combined. Uh but again it was recommended to us that um that we have them as uh separate entities. Um and the goal here is to really make the um you know financial status of the district both short-term and long-term a you know year- round conversation in the past.
134. 1:06:06It's only really come up in uh you know budget seasons. We talk about it you know three months out of the year and are kind of uh you know sort of rushing to get a budget out. Um this will give us uh you know more time to really dive in um come up with uh not only a budget for the next school year but also a uh a long-term plan which as a district I think is is very important for us right now.
135. 1:06:35Um so yeah my recommendation would be to uh have us vote on this next week. um next week
136. 1:06:44meeting
137. 1:06:44next meeting. Sorry I keep saying that. Um and uh at that point we will also have a um full board so we can discuss who we want to appoint to that committee and if um there need to be changes to um any of the other committee appointments.
138. 1:07:06Make sense?
139. 1:07:07That's a good idea. Cool.
140. 1:07:09What' you say, Dana?
141. 1:07:10It's a good idea.
142. 1:07:10Okay, great. um to
143. 1:07:14lose my teacher voice.
144. 1:07:17Uh so that does bring us to the vacant uh board seat. After a lot of uh discussion, you know, the board submitted a call for um letters of interest uh to fill the board seat vacated by Calvin Lewis. Uh we received four letters of interest uh from Christina Asby, Michael Zabella, uh Peter Meyer, and Steve Pek. Um as uh per our policy, um it requires a uh majority vote to uh appoint another member of the public to this seat. Um so that would need uh four of us um to uh to maintain a consensus. Um but yeah, love to open it up for um conversation and discussion. Um and yeah, can we start with you, Meen?
145. 1:08:12Um I would I want to start by saying that um I I'm happy that there are so many people that um expressed interest in in the board seat. Um, I think that's really telling of of, you know, the dedication and and um interest in the school district. Um, I think it was, you know, in the past it's been a little lacking. Um, and I'm impressed with the credentials. With that said, um, my choice is, um, Mike Sabella. Um, because for a couple reasons. One, he's been at every board meeting since the election. um and he went through the process to become a board member and came close to becoming a board member.
146. 1:08:58He was, you know, there were three positions and he was the fourth person um out of six, I believe, altogether candidates. And um I also believe that or feel that he will be a um helpful with the um capital project um with his professional and um business experience.
147. 1:09:23And so, um, but I I just want to say that I'm impressed with the other two candidates and I hope that you, um, in in May when we have another election that you you come forward and go through the process and and um run for the run for a seat. Thanks,
148. 1:09:47Diana.
149. 1:09:48So, I wrote my things down so I wouldn't forget any of this stuff. Um but he was nominated by a 100 community members at our last election, questioned by the student council. Community members came out to vote for him. Uh if there was a fourth uh fourth position open, it would have been his anyway. He's attended every meeting even before I was uh brought on here and definitely would be an asset to um the facilities team. So I choose uh my voice to um recommend Mike Zabella.
150. 1:10:27Um based on the letters that were submitted and the information that people put forth answering this question, um I think that Christina Aspie has a lot of strengths to bring to this position. Um, I think that the experience as a civil rights attorney that was listed here thinking about grant funding and thinking about sort of utilizing those two pieces of of her background um are pieces here that I think are not skill sets that very many of us on the board currently have. And so I think that that rounds um she would be my first choice in that like rounding out the board in that way.
151. 1:11:06Okay. Great.
152. 1:11:07Um, well, I also am grateful to the people who submitted letters of of uh interest and appreciate the time and effort that people put into these and the thought. I too like Amanda would also recommend Christina Asby um particularly because of her professional background and experience or considerable experience in an area that I think can really like Minda said round out or or fill out our our knowledge on this board. Um she is also a considerable community uh presence and and a person who I think can also um you know have a lot of people speak on her behalf in the community.
153. 1:11:49Great. Um yeah, I have uh a lot of the same feelings. Appreciate all of the interest. Um I think everybody would contribute something um uh to the board. Um Peter Meyer obviously has a lot of experience and you know I've learned a lot from uh uh him in the past. Um Steve Pek uh was also a a graduate and um has some very interesting um uh experience um and was the editor of the academic exchange quarterly which I'd love to know more about.
154. 1:12:23Um, Christina, I um, you know, appreciate her presence in the district and at the school and the, uh, the bike bus and, um, you know, everything that that, uh, she brings professionally. Um, and, you know, I think for me, um, you know, seeing uh, Mr. Zabella, you know, show up at, as other board members have said, every single board meeting for pretty much the past, you know, year and a half. Um, is something that I would, um, you know, think deserves recognition.
155. 1:12:55Um also aware that you know was very close to uh you know being in his shoes myself and you know being in the the fourth position and you know think that that is you know took a lot of effort and uh um took a lot of um yeah just work to get to that point. So I would um while it is close would definitely uh put um my vote towards Mr. Zabella as well. Um so that is three two we do need four. Um and yeah so I would have to ask uh you know Amanda or Kirsten if they'd uh are willing to change their perspective. Um alternately we would have to um table the discussion and wait until the next board meeting when uh Mr.
156. 1:13:55Macker is available again um and either do it on October 21st or uh find a day for a special meeting. I know that Matt was aware that he was not going to be able to be part of this conversation, but I would really value his input. Um and I would love to table this actually and wait till the next meeting particularly since you know it's only two weeks away. It's it's not a long not a long interval.
157. 1:14:19It is it is over a month till October 21st. Yeah. Yeah.
158. 1:14:24Well, now I'm just going to grumble to myself while I think
159. 1:14:29um anybody else have any other thoughts?
160. 1:14:33Has he did he say anything to you about
161. 1:14:36he's not here? He can't.
162. 1:14:37Yeah, I I don't want to We can't accept his vote. Um
163. 1:14:42I don't think we have a policy for proxies.
164. 1:14:44Yeah. What's the deadline that we need the position filled by? Again,
165. 1:14:52uh the only round the only uh guard rails that we have is that if it were to be filled um by a public vote, it would need to be within 90 days. Um but since we are appointing, it is at our discretion
166. 1:15:09and once we appoint that person is sworn in immediately. Correct?
167. 1:15:14Yes. Yeah, they would be sworn in immediately. Um they would have to run again in the uh May 2026 election. Um if they uh if they win, they would maintain their um seat on the board. If somebody else wins, they would uh um that person would be sworn in immediately after that election, serve the remainder of this term, and then the next 30 years. Leslie.
168. 1:15:43So, um, they would serve until the vote night and then whoever got the highest number of votes would would be sworn in that night. Interesting.
169. 1:15:59Got to love the details of state law.
170. 1:16:03Yeah.
171. 1:16:07It's not even a full term.
172. 1:16:08No.
173. 1:16:09No. It's not even close. It's not even a full year,
174. 1:16:12right?
175. 1:16:14Um,
176. 1:16:18I'm sorry.
177. 1:16:24Uh, Miss Asby is asking if she can withdraw.
178. 1:16:29I don't see why not.
179. 1:16:31I'm sorry to see her do so. You certainly aren't going to lasso her and drag her to the table.
180. 1:16:44Um,
181. 1:16:46all right. It sound it sounds like in the voices from afar here um that what we're saying um I can I can shift my vote um recognizing I think the again like the contributions the vote that happened in May um and we can move forward in this in this moment. Um, and then I I would just say I would encourage right when there are more seats up again in May. I'm really excited to see more people be a part of this and bring more perspectives in. Um, and really appreciate, you know, the the community perspectives here
182. 1:17:26and that was very gracious to to do that
183. 1:17:28for sure.
184. 1:17:29For the folks listening at home,
185. 1:17:32um, Christine Christina Asby has withdrawn.
186. 1:17:36Okay, great. since they don't since she doesn't have a microphone and not everybody could hear that
187. 1:17:40like we're on a talk show all of a sudden.
188. 1:17:43All right. So then I make a motion uh to appoint uh Mr. Michael Zabella as our new board member.
189. 1:17:52Second.
190. 1:17:52All in favor? Right. U Mr. Zabella if you are um available you can come up here and Leslie can swear you in right now. I, Michael A. Isabella, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York. and I will faithfully discharge the duties of
191. 1:18:39board board member according to the best of my abilities.
192. 1:18:43Okay.
193. 1:18:44Uh congratulations Mr. Debella.
194. 1:18:46Welcome.
195. 1:18:46Yes. Thank you again. Uh Miss Aby, uh Mr. Meyer, and Mr. Pek.
196. 1:18:52And do we want to committee? Uh, can we wait on that because we're going to talk about the finance committee at the next one and that might reshuffle things.
197. 1:19:04Yeah. Was was that a question about committees
198. 1:19:06about pointing to him to a committee? I think we should just wait until we get finance up and running and then we can reshuffle everybody.
199. 1:19:12Yeah.
200. 1:19:13Yep.
201. 1:19:15And Mr. Zabella Leslie will be in touch about getting your email address and your board member packet and we'll uh we'll all chat soon.
202. 1:19:22Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, okay.
203. 1:19:27So, does that mean he's coming to the executive session that he's sworn in? I mean, he's not going to sit down now, right? Because we're not finished.
204. 1:19:35Uh, that's a good question. Um,
205. 1:19:39I would I would uh
206. 1:19:42I think
207. 1:19:42I would wait until the next meeting uh after he's received his board member packet and has everything. Um, but I will definitely make sure that uh over the course of the next week or so, Mr. Zabella is up to speed on all of the um things that are happening within the board, including all the confidential matters as well. Um great. That brings us to our public forum. Leslie, did anybody else sign up?
208. 1:20:19Samuel Santiago.
209. 1:20:22Great. Thank you, Mr. Santiago. Um, as you heard, each speaker gets three minutes. Uh, we are unable to entertain any comments about district personnel or district students. Um, and, uh, please don't expect a response at this time. If you have any questions, we'll make sure the proper staff member gets back to you.
210. 1:20:44Hey guys, my name is Sam Santiago. Uh, I got a concern. I was here this morning or this afternoon watching a game and I went into the restroom and this kids everywhere. One of the kids was rolling up contraband. I had to tell the kid. I said that's uncalled for. So I spoke to my wife who said this was going on and so I just came down here to address it, let you guys know. So see if it it gets done because the safety right now there with kids all over the place is not good. Especially the way the world is these days. Somebody sneaks in this building and sits here overnight.
211. 1:21:24Tomorrow morning, we don't know who's in this building.
212. 1:21:29Yeah, that's what I have to say.
213. 1:21:30All right, that's a fair point. Appreciate that. And um Leslie has your contact information. We'll make sure we follow up with you if there's anything else. Yes. Thank you so much.
214. 1:21:39Thank you.
215. 1:21:45Uh board discussion. Anybody else have anything to add that we have not addressed yet? Um I got to attend the chalk the school back to school night right before school started at the elementary school and just like kudos to the school staff and I believe the PTO there who put that on. It was a really nice way for I think kids to hang out in front of the school building before the first day of school and like you know my own kids made hopscotch leading into the building and I think that that helped with some beginning back to school jitters.
216. 1:22:22Amazing. Um on the subject of PTO um I know the some of the leaders from the junior high school PTO have moved on to uh restart the booster club which we're very grateful for. Um I believe junior high PTO is now being run by um Mr. Richard Scofier who has uh a student in the junior high school. He helped throw the uh the trivia nights last year which were a big success. Um but I know he is looking for help. Um and so any parents of the junior high school students who are around tomorrow night, I know he'd love to uh chat with you and see what we can do to keep that organization uh organization going.
217. 1:23:06Um, okay. Uh, important dates. Um, we have a policy committee meeting October 14th, 2025 in the high school library from 5 to 7:00 p.m. We have a facilities committee meeting October 21st, 2025 in the district conference room 4 to 5:00 p.m. And we have a regular board of education meeting October 21st, 2025 in the high school auditorium. Mark, we we move the time to five o'clock for the facilities.
218. 1:23:37Uh for facilities. Yeah.
219. 1:23:38Gotcha. Okay. So, the facilities committee meeting on October 21st, 2025 will be from 5 to 6 p.m.
220. 1:23:44Can you change that in the calendar too?
221. 1:23:46It says four on the calendar.
222. 1:23:48I think the real question for that date is u is there a door prize for the visitor who comes in the best costume?
223. 1:23:56It's right be right before Halloween.
224. 1:23:58Okay. All right. So, board meeting in costume. Gotcha.
225. 1:24:04Um,
226. 1:24:05come on.
227. 1:24:06I was going to say, you know, to the point of what Mark's talking about, we had discussed that um there was an ominous absence of dates on the website. If you're keeping an eye on the homepage, uh, our new communications person from Boseis has been filling, she's been digging and digging for information for for anyone at home or on the board. The Google calendar that's on the homepage of our district website has everything on it and then when you go to each of the individual buildings, it shows just that building when you go to those pages. So, it's slowly being becoming more robust, which is helpful for even me.
228. 1:24:46Yeah, that's amazing. I appreciate that.
229. 1:24:48Can we add the board committees and stuff to that? They're not I just pulled it up. That would be a great thing to add, I think, just
230. 1:24:54just uh at our at our last meeting, we just talked about accessibility, too. So like the um the facilities committee was in the conference room at the district office which is not really easy to get into that we would be making sure that the meetings were in a place where the public could be able to enter the building and get to where the meeting is.
231. 1:25:13Makes sense.
232. 1:25:15Um okay. So we do have a need for a second executive session. Uh, the board makes a I make a motion to enter executive session at 7:23 p.m. for the purposes of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons.
233. 1:25:33Second.
234. 1:25:33All in favor. Um, and there will be no further business after this executive session. Thank you all for being here.

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