Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 2:21um and like to call the meeting to order and ask everybody to please stand for the pledge of
2. 2:26allegiance 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.
3. 2:48Leslie, roll call, please.
4. 3:02Mark Deace
5. 3:03here.
6. 3:04Amanda Grubler
7. 3:05here.
8. 3:05Kirsten Gustiffson
9. 3:07here. Diana Howard
10. 3:10here.
11. 3:11Matthew Macker
12. 3:12here.
13. 3:12Moren Sheridan
14. 3:14here.
15. 3:14Michael Sabella
16. 3:15here.
17. 3:16And Leona Prova
18. 3:17here.
19. 3:19Um okay. Uh do want to apologize in advance. We will have an early executive session today. Try and keep it as short as possible. Um but outside of that would like to make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
20. 3:33Second.
21. 3:34All in favor? Uh and that brings us to the student representative report.
22. 3:40In the high school, quarter 1 has just finished. Um next week there will be a spirit week in the high school. October the month the next Monday will be dress as your type day. Tuesday will be grim reaper/ blackout. Wednesday will be we wear pink as an homage to breast cancer awareness. Thursday will be white lies and Friday will be costume day.
23. 4:08There has currently be there is currently a lot of hall sweeps every period in the high school due to the fact there's a lot of lingering students in the hallways maybe accessing their phones. Um I've I've said like I've gone through them. They're pretty efficient. I haven't seen after the bell ringing everyone goes to their class. So I think they're effective.
24. 4:26Um so powderpuff um has been rescheduled due to the girls volleyball team advancing to sectionals. There will the golf team are um champions in the patrun conference. Unity day is tomorrow October 22nd in for awareness for kindness and bullying.
25. 4:52Sorry. For student council, we decided to give the student body more of a voice. So, we put up a poster in the cafeteria to allow them to write down what they think about the school. There's a lot of community service events going around for students, including trunk or treat and the able the ability to volunteer with the ghostly Gallup.
26. 5:16The varsity club is holding a multitude of stuff including a blood drive happening on November 17th and there will also be a volleyball tournament happening on December 6th.
27. 5:28Um I saw on the agenda that there is approval for the model UN field trip. Unfortunately we cannot go because there was an issue with approval transportation and the club itself um the club members.
28. 5:43Uh I wanted to go into a broader issue of this for academic teams. It is hard and there's no clear funding for transportation and with new administration there is struggle to understand the process to get admin to get transportation approval. So we were thinking of having a policy to prevent slashresolve this problem. That is it.
29. 6:09Thank you.
30. 6:10Uh got it. Sorry to hear about the model UN issues. Um we can definitely ask the administration more about that. Make sure it doesn't happen in the future.
31. 6:25Uh next that brings us to uh presentations. First we have a presentation from the high school administrative team on opening of high school and Bluehawk Academy.
32. 6:54We're very grateful to be joined by Mr. Rearen, Mr. Walker tonight. This is very short. We're very grateful to be joined by Mr. Rearen and Mr. Walker tonight to talk through some of the elements of the high school.
33. 7:06Uh this is the first of a series of three presentations this month, November and December. Junior high will present in November and the elementary in December. And really uh I asked Mr. Reen to focus in on what are the priorities, the key priorities for our high school this year.
34. 7:26it supersedes uh some of the strategic plan issues or I should say complements some of the strategic plan issues because it's real data and real needs of the students in the high school right now and each of the buildings will present uh similarly and Mr. Walker and Mr. Ridden will fill us in on Bluehawk Academy.
35. 7:47It has evolved over the past three years. I've learned a lot about the program and what the program is attempting to do serving all students in this component. Uh a a small percentage of all of our students, but they are our all of our students and uh you know actively seeking to get every child to graduation with what they need. So I'll hand it over to Mr. Rearen.
36. 8:16Thanks Dr. Bailey. Well, he told you what the presentation's going to be about, so I don't need to go through that. Um, so next slide, we have uh priorities for the high school this year.
37. 8:29So, four big priorities. Um, chronic absenteeism. Absenteeism certainly is a major barrier um for learning and engagement of our students. So, that's a focus in the high school. increase graduation rate, ensuring more of our students are graduating in four years. It's also a priority.
38. 8:48Um, improve the academic performance on on tests. So, part of this is going to be increasing regions test scores. Um, and I'm also going to talk about we have a new assessment that we we're using in the high school and all the buildings in the district this year, which I'll touch on.
39. 9:06And then to strengthen um a restorative school culture. So we've had a grant previously in the high school. So we received it again and we we have a core team in the high school that works together and do things with faculty and students related to restorative practices and that um it builds relationships and fosters belonging with the staff and students.
40. 9:27So chronic absenteeism so we want to reduce it in the high school by 5%. Um, again, chronically absent is students that miss on average 2 days or more a month, um, which is 10%. So, we again want to reduce that by 5%.
41. 9:47Um, with the bullets up there, it's early interventions. You have them in front of you, attendance meetings, and monitoring it on a a weekly uh basis. We do meet weekly with our our school counselors, um social workers, psychologists. Um Darren Collins we have as an attendance person within the district. He does a number of home visits when necessary.
42. 10:10Um we uh set up plans student by student based on attendance needs on a week to week basis. That could range from individual conversations with students when we notice for a week they've missed a couple days to calling staffings with parents um seeking help from outside agencies, home visits, things like that. But again, it's on a case-byase basis based on a student's attendance. So again, we want to reduce that by 5%.
43. 10:42Um the next one is increasing our graduation rate um by 5%. So academic supports. So some things we're doing differently in the high school this year is getting ahead with our seniors in terms of what they need to to to get um on that stage at the end of June.
44. 11:04So, for example, we might have a student that has passed an English 11th uh grade regions and failed the class. So, we have um opportunity through Quest Star to do some credit recovery in cases like that where they could pick up another credit and do credit recovery through Quest Star to free up their schedule to earn more credits. So senior by senior, case by case, we look at each one, what they need. Um, right now we have about 30 students set up with credit recovery. Um, so that's a positive.
45. 11:39And then academic support is needed. So we might have a student that is struggling to pass a math regent that we'll provide AIS services to for a semester or two semesters if needed.
46. 11:58The other is improve regions passing rates by 10%. Um, I'll look at the June region scores uh at the end of June, see if we went up from this year to last year. Uh, the NWA is the new assessment that I was talking about that we're doing um from the elementary through 11th grade. We do it three times a year. English and math we just completed.
47. 12:21We're going to start looking at that data, meeting in PLC's, assessing it, and um putting plans in place for students that may need more assistance in th those courses. And then focus on regions prep. Again, the g the regions exams are given in January, June, and August. So, prior to all three of those testing windows, um we'll do regions prep and then um again looking at the PLC information in those meetings with our with our staff.
48. 12:49And the last priority is strengthen the restorative school culture. So, the first bullet with 100% of the staff receiving uh restorative justice PD is just more about ensuring common language and buyin with the staff. Uh the second we want we're going to try having two um two nights where family and community members could come in and go through a circle so that if they're interested they could see what we do with our staff and students.
49. 13:20Um we're also going to train 10 to 15 students this year to be able to facilitate and run a circle. Um and then with the four times this year we're going to have students practice what they were trained in. Um, and then we do have monthly restorative meetings with our team and and the woman that oversees the grant.
50. 13:42And we are going to look at data within that on top of like what we're going to try to do in the building. But we're going to look at data of the participants that have been trained in in um being able to run the circles if they had an impact on any behavior or academic um things within them within the high school.
51. 14:03And the rationale with the restorative is it builds trust, strengthens relationships, um which in turn supports attendance, engagement and achievement.
52. 14:16So Bluehawk Academy. So as Dr. Bailey said, this is um it's the third year with Bluehawk and this is the third different year that it's it's different. So quickly year one it was half second half of the year. Um students were it the space has been the same. It's new tech wing. Um but the it was completely virtual. None of our teachers taught the students. The time that they came and left was different. So that first year when the high school bell rings at 2:37, the students that were at Blue Hawk at that time wanted to leave at 2:37.
53. 15:00um and then they felt completely separated and disengaged from the high school. So last year we same place normal school day 8 to 237 but we still felt that they should have separate classes for the most part other than like art, music and PE from the rest of the student body. Um problem with that was it was a strain on the high school schedule or we were paying six assignments as a district.
54. 15:24So an example of strain on the schedule is I might have been able to squeeze it into let's say a math teacher schedule as a one of their five classes when that happened it increases class size of the other four sections. Okay. Um and the students still felt separate from the rest of the building.
55. 15:44So this year they had and I'll get into what the schedule is after. Um, let me go over who's a part of it because the next slide talks about what the structure is this year. So, this is the staff. Larry Walker, who's with me tonight. Um, Katie Davis, school counselor. Darnell Harris is a driver. Eric Gregory, TA, Mr. Gahuli is a social worker, and Megan Platt's a substitute administrator.
56. 16:09And just let me stress that the staff, this isn't just Bluehawk's staff. they are imperative to the high school and other parts of the district. So Larry Walker does restorative and he does a lot with Bluehawk, but he also does a lot with the high school and the junior high school. Katie Davis is the the school counselor for guy for for Blue Hawk, but she also has half of the high school 10th through 12th grade.
57. 16:35Um Darnell Harris is a driver and monitor. He is transporting students to get here on a daily basis, multiple times a day. Mr. Gregory um does a lot of academic support with the Bluehawk students, but he also pushes in a number of classes that the Bluehawk students are going into to assist the high school teachers. Mr. Gahuli has students on his case load in Bluehawk and in the high school. And Miss Platt's a substitute administrator, but she starts her day at Blue Hawk, but works within high school, junior high, and elementary.
58. 17:14So, Bluehawk, it's program is designed to support students to help them overcome barriers that they having in maybe a traditional school setting. All of our students in the high school get supports. students in Bluehawk. They're they have just extra eyes on them. Um more people involved, a greater need um to try to meet their needs on a daily basis.
59. 17:43It serves just 9th through 12th graders. Um if you were on the board before, it was a 7 8 9 10 11 12 the first year. Last two years, it's just been 9th through 12th grade.
60. 18:01So this is this is the structure of it this year. So they come in first period. It's a circle every morning with Mr. Walker. Um we have a video on here. So I'm not going to talk about what that you'll see a little bit of what the circle looks like and what it does. So um not going to repeat myself.
61. 18:18They then after circle go about their day on a regular schedule. Okay. So based on where they are with the staff in Bluehawk, we determine greatest need for support in in classrooms um to help those students and teachers if their schedule allows. Mr. Gregory will help eth or ninth period for academic support. Sometimes it doesn't because it could be a student that um there's not enough time in the schedule and they need to be in other classes for more credits.
62. 18:57Mr. Walker, thank you. I feel like I don't got nothing else to say. You said it though. But anyways, um so um we have uh our ninth graders, we got 17 students. Now, we usually have more um more younger kids coming from the eighth grade because we really want to put that foundation in the kids.
63. 19:23Um we um we try to get them right when they're young so we can give them the tools. We want to give them some um we want to give them the tools and give them some stuff that they need to be able to to come to the next grade and next grade because at that time, we know the hormones just going out of whack and the kids is real hyper. So, we just try to take time with them right there. um and see if there's going to be a place for them about time 10th grade comes.
64. 19:48We'll have a couple maybe some says I liked it, but this was a good program, but I feel like you guys help me out pretty good and maybe some may leave and then um we'll keep working with them. Just because they leave Blue Hook doesn't mean that we're going to cut them off, you know, but we'll continue to work with them.
65. 20:08But our our goal is when a kid um starts, we want to really just give them give them the tools and help them to get past that hard time. Coming from eighth grade, middle school, bringing it to the high school, it's pretty it's pretty hard. So, we you know, we want to do that.
66. 20:35All right. So um so one of our big things is we take um attendance really really serious. Um it's a lot of different things about um what we do with attendance. Um some kids that um first of all we got a we got a blue hawk van that we got. is our van that um the school uses to that when a kid needs a ride um our um our driver um will go out there um go pick pick the kids up um we have a good relationship with majority of the parents and we see what's going on and because the fact that we are such a a smaller group we could really get um more intimate with what's happening on the home you know like we would take time out and the family may be going to emergency
67. 21:23But we can slow down a little bit. You know, we give the kids a chance and the parents a chance. Sometimes they come in, we may sit down with the family and we could talk. You know, a lot of times on the wide base of school, we don't have that. That's not that's not really there. But we could do that here in Blue Hawk. You know, sometimes, you know, a lot of kids may be having some anxiety, maybe some of them with some depression, some of them, but it's a lot of different things, you know, but but we here to basically try to take care of that, you know.
68. 21:53Oh yeah. And another thing is um at any time we do the home visits too. You know, we do home visits. So we may just be um all of a sudden like a Tuesday, we don't see a kid for two, three days. We'll come by and stop by, knock on the door, hey, how you doing? Is everything all right? Um because we never know what's going on, you know. And I I believe that sometimes the parents appreciate that because um not just the kids, but sometimes the parents is going through a lot of stuff too. You know, a lot of times we just focus on the kids, but the parents could be going with going through some of the same stuff or even even more. So, in a lot of different ways, we try to support that whole family.
69. 22:37One second. But um yeah, so so um yeah, we do we do circles every single day. Um it's funny because people say, "How could you do a circle every single day? Those not get bored." But u we switch it up. I actually happen to have four kids, right? And um and I have to keep them from not being bored. I remember I'm thinking about Christmas time. I may go buy a a computer, um a phone, PlayStation, whatever it may be. And then two hours later, um one of my kids say, "Dad, I think what's going on? I'm bored." And I said, "You bored?" I mean, so I understand that kids could be bored, but one of the things we specialize in and keep having something the kids to do, we play numbers of games.
70. 23:27We make the kids think differently, step outside the box. We just really want to um build their self-esteem up. We want them, we want to give them the tools that they need so when they get not just um high school, but some stuff they can have in life. You know, I know I wish that I was had a program that I can go through that people's going to slow down and listen to listen to me and not understand, you know, I mean the the different things that goes on that somebody's going to listen to me and and just and be able to discuss the feelings you got, you know, and I think sometimes school is fast for a lot of kids, you know.
71. 24:01It's a lot going on. It's a lot of people and a lot of kids get looked over a lot, you know. But one of the special things about Blue Hook, we slow it down and we can get in really in a really intimate conversation with them. You know, we got social workers, we got guidance counselors that's going to be there for him. And speaking on that, I think about our guidance counselor, Miss Davis. She's excellent. She's an excellent social worker. Let me tell you, I mean, she's guidance counselor.
72. 24:28Do you realize every birthday she bringing cupcakes for the kids? That's what kind of that's that's what kind of community we building there. We they have a cup cupcakes. I mean, and the kids like, "What? I've been having a birthday every day, but I got cupcakes for my kid." It's those small things that we try to bring to those kids, right? That um that blows their mind. And sometimes quarterly quarterly, I may say something like, "If this is not the program for you, let me know." You know, because we be in the hallways looking for them, whatever if this is a problem.
73. 24:59And there's no pressure. You can leave. Nobody leaves. Everybody want to be there. You know why? Because to them, it's a home. It's a place they can be to a place, a safe place, you know, and to me, I think that's I think it's awesome. But, um, I'm sorry about that. All right. So before I start this video, but I I do want to say um I want to thank um it thanks it so much. It well listen we wanted to put this together and the whole it um came together. They put it together. They did a great job.
74. 25:34Um I want to do a special thanks to um Charles cuz um he was able to um sit down and and we we went through it together. But um thanks for um listening. list a little video we put together for you get an idea how the program is. Um, here we go.
75. 25:54Why'd you pick teaching here?
76. 25:56Oh, you know, I wonder because for one, I love kids. I don't wors for maybe 23 years. A lot of the kids that I work with there, they're going to be serving life sentences. I feel like I did my time. You know, I work with them a lot, but actually I have three other kids in the school district. And I'm like, why why don't I just come come to the school and raise that the black kids there and then do the best I can do with these kids, you know? So, if I can be able to be a person that's going to help out kids before they get in trouble, um I'm thinking that that would be good before they get there.
77. 26:35I've been in the program for about like a year now and it's helped me a lot. capital. Absolute responsibilities now back when I got out, you know, um I had some social anxiety myself. Sometimes I felt uncomfortable. I had a lot of kids and I knew how that was, you know, and so when I see a lot of kids that that we got here, my heart goes out to them and and to me that I feel like they need that person, they need somebody, they need a program to be there for a lot of time, you know, look over and uh and they be in situation and you know, it's just crazy. Well, that's why I'm here.
78. 27:38That's where I don't know. I just I come by myself. I get to know more people. Um confidence I guess. But the staff here, they really care about you. Um I feel like the staff here, they tend to like they care more about your safety. Obviously, they care about it, but they always make sure you go first.
79. 28:10Yeah.
80. 28:11When you were uh playing the games with them today, how do you think that helps with their education?
81. 28:16We was split out of the games that I played and the things that I do, they think it's just to have fun. But what happens is planting seeds and playing that seed. I'm taking a chance. He's working on confidence. He's working on self-esteem. The more we play, the more comfortable they get.
82. 28:40Mr. Walker, he's great for moral support and he's helped me a lot with my attack and Mr. Bray along. Okay, that also really helps.
83. 28:58Awesome. Last question. You can say it in one word, two word, eight words, whatever you like. What would you say to future Blue Hawk students?
84. 29:08Oh, this is this program is great. Okay. You get food, you know, come down here whenever you need.
85. 29:18I put one of my kids in the program first cuz he was a he was um going down the wrong path. I needed a little help to guide him in the right direction. and someone recommended it. So, I tried it and didn't even know they so since the beginning alternative learning programs. It's a very warm, supportive environment um that works well for students who don't do who don't thrive in traditional educational environment. They're given um they're given a lot of backup and I think that's
86. 30:08you'll get through a year together. He's the one that's holding us down. Just come on in. Enjoy. We going to be open. We'll be here for you. We got to meet you where you at. And all we want to do is see you grow. And if any kid come here, we're going to take care of the best we can.
87. 31:12Thanks, Mr. Walker. So, the I'm going to give you a little bit of data. Um, before I get into that, I just want to say there's two ninth grade students in Bluehawk that last year flat out refused to go to any class at all. and they're going, it's not perfect, but huge steps from eighth graders last year to to where they're at right now. And I would say it's only going to get better.
88. 31:39Um, so this first slide about data, and I know it was last year's eighth graders, our new ninth graders were only 30 days into the school year, but last year's eighth graders, their GPA was just under a 60. right now. Again, it's only the first 30 days, but it's over 71%. This just a bar graph of that by student. Um, we want the yellow higher than the blue.
89. 32:15So, this is related to attendance. Eighth grade, um, 24 days on average per student. And then we're at 4.1 again first 30 days. We can do that. Look at this halfway through toward the end of the year what type of difference it made. Um get a better snapshot with with the 10th graders and the 11th graders. Um this just out of seven sophomores, six of them had higher academic improvement. um four and two, but two of those juniors uh were in the district as eighth graders and one was only here part of 10th grade.
90. 32:59It's just bar graph by student. So these are the 11th graders. So with this you're looking at uh 8th, 9th, and 10th want the yellow highest, gold highest and attendance related to the current 10th and then the current 11th. student three there um was the one that wasn't here in district before but certainly had a significant reason to to not um be in attendance last year
91. 33:53and then I mean data is promising early indicators are they're they're showing academic improvement um attendance is increasing continue going to continue to monitor the data implement more things to be proactive with those students and continue to engage the families. Um, as Mr. Walker was talking about the attendance stuff, a huge piece is they're there first period. So, if they're not there, the staff is on the phone immediately and I hear over the radio, "Mr. Harris, can you get someone to go pick up so and so?" Um, so it's immediate with those students just because they're either here or they're not first period.
92. 34:30Um, it is I mean obviously this is the third year of the program, third different model we're using, but I strongly feel that if this program wasn't in place for a lot of these students, they'd be struggling much more if they're struggling right now.
93. 34:52He said there's never been a fight in in Blue Hawk. Um, so that's what Mr. Walker and I have questions. Miss Howard,
94. 35:02I have two questions actually. Uh, with all the critical thinking being done in the Blue Hawk Academy, it's it's nice to see that. Uh, just real quick, the van that you have, is it possible to use the van to transport parents for meet the teacher night or things like that?
95. 35:16We've done it. I just did it for for our meet the teacher night.
96. 35:21Absolutely.
97. 35:22And the other question that I had was you mentioned uh Quest our credit recovery. What does that look like?
98. 35:28So, we buy we buy slots So we have 30 slots. Um it's overseen by a Quest Star teacher and so let's say it's for English 11. They take it for every unit a pre-EST post test. So if they do well on the pre-EST, they can go right to the the next unit. The teacher oversees it. Um we work closely with a woman from Questar that is constantly emailing myself and the counselors if a student isn't staying up to where they should be within the within the program. Um, right now the Questar woman is here like once day one day a week and we'll meet with the students that are in the recovery and then they're assigned to study halls if possible to work on it. Um, if their schedules are full like some are, they're required to do it on their own.
99. 36:17Two questions also. Um, one, thank you. The thoroughess of the Blue Hawk data is really great um, and really helpful. Um, what's the referral process? How do students end up in Bluehawk Academy? So they meet with the counselors will meet with the eighth grade teachers. So teachers can recommend students that they feel um would be a fit for the program. Parents can um and students can themselves. So
100. 36:44can students enter after 9th grade? Like if there was a student who started strong in nth grade but needed support in 10th to the cohort?
101. 36:50Yep. And then there's a process after. So, if the teachers are recommending somebody, there's an application, the um staff meets with the student, then would meet with the family, and then there's a a contract that they would sign. Um, and then related to your data goals for high school, um, do you have any I don't expect you to like pull a percentage off the top of your head, but um, in terms of reducing the chronic absenteeism and the strategies you've tried in the first 30 days of school, do you have any any like anecdotal data on whether or not chronic absenteeism is down in the data?
102. 37:23It's not down right now from last year. So, especially with the high school, you get you get some students that are older, um, 17 or older, and you might have students that have left the country that just haven't enrolled somewhere else yet. So, you're weeding through some of that, who's really coming back and who isn't, but until they are taken off the rolls, then they're still counting against us. So, it takes a little bit of time for that to to work itself out. Does that data get backdated at some point or does that
103. 37:58it gets corrected?
104. 37:59Okay.
105. 38:01I mean, right now I think at the high school it's we're at 21% chronically absent.
106. 38:12Yes.
107. 38:13So, previously you mentioned that they the Blue Hawk Academy students feel a disconnect from last year. Is there any movements or like things you've done this year?
108. 38:25I think the way the schedule was last year, they still felt disconnected. I haven't heard that so much this this school year because they're in all classes with everybody else.
109. 38:38Oh, I have another question. Uh, you showed a graph on attendance. Is there a reason why you showed the full eighth grade year for attendance missed and then only the first 90 days for first 30 days for 9th graders?
110. 38:52So the ninth graders have only been in the building for 30 days. Um
111. 38:57so it's this year's data.
112. 38:59Yes.
113. 38:59Okay. Thank you.
114. 39:00So at the end of this year that'll be two full grads for full year of eighth grade. This is what the percentage was and full year of their first year. Here as ninth graders this is what their percentage was.
115. 39:10Thank you. Yes.
116. 39:12I had uh some questions about the graduation rates. What where did we end up last year in terms of our graduation?
117. 39:1969% I believe.
118. 39:2069%. And how many um seniors are in this year's cohort?
119. 39:26117 I off top of my head.
120. 39:30Gotcha. Okay. So, we're talking like seven, eight kids to get us to that 5%. Great. More if possible, higher if possible.
121. 39:42Yeah.
122. 39:44Just wondering, do you uh keep track of whenever the the vehicle goes out or you do in in home?
123. 39:52We have to fill out paperwork. So, we have to do we have to do a a
124. 39:56whoever is driving it and only c certain people can drive it. You have to do a physical check of the vehicle before driving it, after driving it, and then hand in the mileage before, after, and
125. 40:07well, not as much for the vehicle, for the student that you're going to to keep track of how many times.
126. 40:12Yes. Go ahead.
127. 40:16Yes. Thank you. Um I have a question. Um, in terms of attendance, Derek, I'm just wondering, it seems like I mean it's a it's an issue in all all three buildings. Um, so what I mean do you have any um ideas or thoughts on what worked didn't work last year and how you're changing or what are you doing differently? What are you doing in Blue Hawk that you can use, you know, the successes from that to transfer over?
128. 40:45What we've done differently is like we have individual interviews and questions and keep track of that and then include the families which we were doing differently because Mr. Brenamman kind of oversees the whole attendance process districtwide. So building by building has created more consistency with what we're doing and processes related to that. Um, where we struggle though is if everything we do, if we still can't get that student to come here, I it's there's no one that is making them come. So, we need to convince them and we do what we need to do in terms of reaching out to outside agencies, but I think they're so overwhelmed as well that it doesn't seem the student that misses 8090 days that they they get here.
129. 41:41Um I have a question about um the support system that um there used to be SPOA
130. 41:48single point of of action where we worked as a you know um the community members everybody worked together um is still there. It's still there, but it doesn't seem to be.
131. 42:01There's other agencies, too. Um, other referrals, and it might not just be that. It could be
132. 42:07they're dealing with anxiety, so you're looking for different service providers. Um,
133. 42:13some cases it works, some cases it doesn't.
134. 42:16And then I had a question about um about the Blue Hawk Academy. Um, I lost my train of thought. Sorry. Um, so how do they uh, um, you said they that they can kind of choose to go in and choose to go out. So there's what's the like procedure or the criteria for getting in.
135. 42:41Oh, for getting in
136. 42:42and to go out or what, you know?
137. 42:42Well, once they're in, if they wanted to go out, they would have to have a meeting with myself, Bluehawk staff, the parents, everybody involved, and we would go through why do you really think this is the best option? These are the supports that we are providing you. We think that this is beneficial more so than not being in the program. Um, but some have chosen to la to leave. Um, but we would go through all those steps before that would happen. And then the other question was if they're recommended, what happens and how do you go about it? The the process is there's an application, we interview the student, we have a meeting with the parent, and then if that said that and and with with do you have students that you've recommended that that they no longer need the services or typically it's okay.
138. 43:38Yeah. Yeah. And that I mean that's the idea by the time they get to 10th and 11th and 12th grade that Mr. Walker and the staff there are there as a support if they need them. They don't necessarily need to go to circle every day, but hopefully they've grown so much as a student and can advocate for themselves, have have more self-confidence that they're okay with that structure instead of needing all those supports.
139. 44:04And one one last question. This has to do with um scheduling. Um there was a consultant that that was working with the district um last spring that was supposed to solve all the problems. Um she was like a scheduling guru, quote unquote, right? Yeah.
140. 44:21But what whatever happened with that? I mean
141. 44:25the
142. 44:26she gave us her recommendations.
143. 44:28Okay.
144. 44:28Um we used some, we didn't use some. Some of them it just didn't it wasn't feasible with the staff that we had. Um
145. 44:37and that was for the junior high as well or no
146. 44:39junior senior high.
147. 44:40Okay.
148. 44:43Yep.
149. 44:43Thanks.
150. 44:44No problem.
151. 44:46Anything else?
152. 44:49Thank you.
153. 44:49Thank you.
154. 44:50Thank you very much. I was just going to say uh based on the conversation uh before we post the presentation uh as part of the minutes we'll go back and we'll add that data that you asked about which is about chronic absenteeism academic success and improvement on the regious exams so that the 5% or the 10% makes more sense in relativity. Thank you.
155. 45:22you okay to invite the Penrose folks up?
156. 45:24Sure, go for it.
157. 45:25So, uh, we're very grateful to be joined by some, uh, members of the Penrose team. They presented to the board before before I arrived here and, uh, as we are approaching the referendum in November, we thought it would be a smart idea to have someone come and just refresh everyone's memory about what it is we're speaking about when we're talking about annexing of the property.
158. 45:49Thank you, Dr. Billy. Good evening, everyone. Um, I want to start, so I know many of you met my colleagues, by introducing myself. Um, I am new to the project, but not new to Penrose. Um, I'm here with Evan Bop. My name is Lindsay Samsy. I'm a senior developer at Penrose. I've been there nine and a half years, just over nine and a half years.
159. 46:08Um, many of you probably met Jonah and Dylan. Um, Jonah has since left, so Evan and I are are taking over. Um, I was thrilled to be able to tour the facility today. Thank you to Tyler. Um, it's it's a really cool property. I understand there's a lot of memories associated with it. It's very important to the community. So, I just want to thank you for the opportunity um to be involved here and to to remind all of you what the proposal is um in advance of the the vote.
160. 46:43Am I pressing There we go.
161. 46:45Um, so I won't redo everything. I know many of you are familiar with with who we are. Um, but I do want to remind everyone. So our company is called Penrose. We've been in existence for about 50 years and specialize in um, affordable and mixed income housing. Um, we have a lot of experience with historic adaptive reuse, which is obviously what um, would be at the JLE school. And then we also want to talk about today the development concept, the terms of um you know what we all work together on for the sale and the project timeline.
162. 47:20Um so we are based in Brooklyn. We have we actually have um offices in many different states but a Brooklyn office. Um you can see here there are a lot of team members based in Brooklyn. I actually sit in Philadelphia but am often in the New York office along with Evan. Um we've worked very very closely with HCR who is the housing finance agency in upstate New York. Um and have preserved you know over constructed over 1,700 affordable housing units um in partnership with HCR and have preserved over 2,000 units planned in the pipeline.
163. 47:55Um, again, I mentioned our expertise is really utilizing the low-inccome housing tax credit program, which is um really the the most efficient funding source for providing um true affordable housing that is deed restricted and um where the rents are are capped.
164. 48:16Um so we have completed over 47 historic rehab projects totaling about 2,300 residential units um all over the country. uh most notably recently in um New England and also in New York.
165. 48:33So the development concept that we are proposing um for the repurposing of the John L. Edwards School is really a rehabilitation and adaptive reuse utilizing um historic tax credits and low-income housing tax credits. um that those funding sources would allow us to provide 65 units of senior affordable housing um with a bedroom mix of studios and one-bedroom apartments as well as 20 units of supportive housing for the seniors that we would serve at the property.
166. 49:04Um as part of the the program and the funding that we're using, all of the units would be the rents would be restricted to 60% of the area median income um or below, which is great. So that comes out to about um $1,100 a month um for those 60% units. We are also proposing um amenities including a fitness center which we do at many of our properties um common areas and then a community garden, a stroll path and outdoor um green space for the community and for the residents. And you can see on the right is the proposed site plan and below that are some preliminary renderings of the building.
167. 49:49Uh this is the proposed design and potential floor plans and units. Um, so the the design team actually prepared the schematic designs um for a few of our funding applications that have gone in and this really um I think most efficiently repositions the building into the senior apartments um in terms of studios and onebedrooms but then allows us to retain the historic fabric of the school which I think is really important to the community and important to to our mission um in in New York and across the country.
168. 50:24Um the one of the most notable um exterior additions would be a new elevator tower. This would improve accessibility which obviously is a priority for for seniors that we serve. And then in addition, we are proposing a solar array um on the building for on-site power generation and to offset utility usage. Um so we do also provide um utility allowances to the seniors to help them pay for utilities. So this um you know the all electric building would allow for a more efficient property and more efficient utility usage.
169. 50:59Um so in terms of the the terms of sale and the timeline, I think since we last presented or since Jonah last presented to the board, um we've hit some some new milestones which is very exciting. Um the shipo part one submission has gone in. So that is really um part of the process to be able to be eligible for the historic tax credits. Um we also submitted our 9% tax credit application which is um the competitive round of funding and really the majority of the funding for this project and then um the the city the com by approved by common council was the reasonzoning effort for the school as well.
170. 51:38Um, upcoming, of course, we have the public vote, which is why we're here today to remind you all of of our proposal, uh, the part two with the state historic preservation office in New York, and then we hope to receive the competitive 9% low-income housing tax credit award. Um, we would think probably the first quarter of next year. Um, so just a reminder, the purchase price that we have proposed and agreed to is just about $2.1 million.
171. 52:09Um, we executed the the purchase and sale agreement in April with a four-month due diligence period at which time we um deposited $100,000 and then this is the next big milestone here to remind you all of the proposal and of course go to the the public vote next month. Um, if that is approved, we would um hope to again get the get the low-income housing tax credit award in March and close, you know, pretty shortly after that. So, we're looking at a early summer, maybe early to midsummer closing, meaning all of the financing is done, we can start construction. Um, and then a little over a year in terms of the construction period. So, you know, we have the potential to be fully occupied serving more than 65 seniors um in at the property by the first quarter of 2028.
172. 53:04I think that's all I have, but happy to answer questions.
173. 53:08Uh what would happen if you weren't awarded the credit?
174. 53:11So if we weren't awarded the 9% credit, we would reapply. Um so we would most likely need to um exercise an extension option to be able to reapply in the next round.
175. 53:20Okay. Thank you.
176. 53:24Um the net rent, the $1,000, what what does that include aside from the facilities use? Is that they also have to pay for electricity, wireless? And
177. 53:35so we offer um utility allowances utility allowance. So the net rent is less that. So we'll give them money for their utilities. U so the only thing on top of the highest rent in the building and then it's tier income tiered below that as well. Um the only thing in addition to that would be uh yeah cable and internet.
178. 53:54Uh and also you say seniors, what is the age?
179. 53:57It's 55 plus.
180. 53:5855 and older.
181. 53:59Yep.
182. 54:01How many parking spaces are included in how many units?
183. 54:04Okay, so there are 65 units. I was just there today trying to count the parking spaces. I will get back to you on that. Um, we do have the count there. Um, but I don't have it off the top of my head right now.
184. 54:18Great. Any other questions?
185. 54:20Oh, thank thank you very much for uh Can you sign up for public comment?
186. 54:28You did.
187. 54:31Go ahead.
188. 54:36I'm sorry. Folks at home
189. 54:52cover the debt on the building currently. Yeah. The question is, does the 2.15 million cover the debt on the building? And yes, it does.
190. 55:00Okay. All right. What's the current debt?
191. 55:02Uh, right now it's probably around 1.7 1.6.
192. 55:08Okay. And um and I know that there will be a parking plan provided, but when it was an active school, there was a big issue with it essentially being a fiveway intersection. So, has there been a plan put in place to um to quell the traffic congestion and make the flow more reasonable?
193. 55:33Uh yes. So, actually when I was there today, I had the same comment. Um, so we were talking to our civil engineers about it, but yes, we've done a traffic study for the area and we are looking at um you not not changing but modifying the main entrances and the circulation to allow for the traffic to flow better.
194. 55:59Thank you everyone.
195. 56:00Thank you.
196. 56:09Okay, next we have our board reports. I'll start with the audit committee.
197. 56:15Uh the audit committee has not met but uh as I understand the audit is on target to be completed on time and we will establish a meeting once we get word from the auditor.
198. 56:26Great. Uh facilities committee.
199. 56:29Sorry, little bit of allergies. Uh, so we met with Tyler uh and and staff today and talked about a number of things. I think uh top of everybody's mind is the update on the capital project. Uh we went over some of the details there. I think highlights include uh the fact that we're continuing to uh meet with the architect and uh and district staff together. There was a meeting uh on the 9th of this month and we're reviewing drawings.
200. 56:58Uh couple of update updates as people move forward uh with the project. So sorry I haven't coughed until this very moment. Um timing is always always a thing. Uh so I think uh some of the things to note are uh things like uh updates to the sidewalks in the bus loop and MCIS. Um there's some de deteriorated pavers that are going to be replaced which is a a good safety note uh that that we will see a safer walking surface in that area. Um and some for the junior and senior high school as well.
201. 57:36Um as we know and we've seen in our uh various presentations, bathroom updates, they're on track um including ADA updates to those spaces. I think some of the things that that are have wide appeal are uh issues with the swimming pool repairs. Uh we're trying to not only look at the retiling uh but look at some of the things that we need. This is a 56y old pool if the numbers stuck correctly in my head. Uh so some of the balancing the things we need to do with things that we could do uh while staying within budget.
202. 58:09It's an aging space and and we're evaluating there, doing further evaluation there. Uh the tennis courts are on track as well. We talked about uh adding striping for pickle ball in addition to tennis uh during the resurfacing and ways to uh make those uh occupy the same space successfully. It's widely done. Um and pickle ball with its incredible popularity uh could be a good thing to be able to bring to the community. Uh the greenhouse is uh moving forward.
203. 58:45It's may be experiencing delays based on some paperwork with Grossban, the company that we're working with to erect it. Nevertheless, uh we're working on uh getting the raised beds and and other items that we can move forward with uh going in the meantime. So even if the building uh if we're you know facing paperwork issues with the building, then we're still moving forward in other ways. uh the energy performance or EPC um you know contract was signed September 30th which I think has uh already been made widely uh known
204. 59:20the let's see the first goal that we're working on is uh finalizing some designs for the boiler but in general this is pushing forward um I think very successfully we can all be looking forward to to advancements there uh there's a number of drips and drabs, but I think I've been talking for a while and I want to make room for other folks to report as well.
205. 59:43Leona.
206. 59:44Oh, I have a question. Um, what is the greenhouse going to be used for?
207. 59:49It is. And and I don't know that I'm ready to speak uh elaborately on in the plans for it. Um, as I'm I'm primarily overseeing its uh the program for installing it rather than the way the building will be programmed and used. But we're looking uh specifically we've talked about it being used for agricultural uh class. So we have an agricultural teacher or agriculture teacher who's already um envisioning the way that space will be used. Um and we're developing raised beds and things like that. So she's already looking at how that will be used. So it's outside of my particular purview here how it will be used getting it in properly.
208. 1:00:26I just want to add one thing because it's pretty exciting. I think as part of the grant, to correct me if I'm wrong, but um a portion of the food produced in the the garden is going to be um utilized or eaten prepared um in the cafeteria. So that's that's pretty cool.
209. 1:00:44Thank you.
210. 1:00:47Awesome. Policy committee.
211. 1:00:48Awesome. Uh our expanded policy committee met last week. It's the second time we've met as a group that has members of the community as well. Um once again we split into two groups to be able to sort of divide and conquer and tackle all the things. Um so one group wrapped up a whole chunk of IT policies that really needed to be uh updated for this year and just sort of brought into the current practices of what we're doing. Uh those are on the policy in the policy section of our agenda um under a first read there.
212. 1:01:14Um and then the other group uh began to bite off what is a very large piece which is revamping our like HR and personnel policy section. And so we took a look at what um exists in Hudson, compared it to some other districts, sent everyone off with some homework to look at some other districts and just sort of like call some best practices. We're also going to reach out to NISBO who we've contracted to do some additional policy support this year and really think about the systems and the structures and the organization to all of that because it really is like a large chunk of it's it's not one policy that we're talking about revising. is sort of revamping a whole series of them and really making sure that that that fits in the right places within our policy book in general.
213. 1:01:54Um, if folks haven't seen out in the uh ether there, our policies are all over on board docs now and so they should be easier to kind of like flip through within board docs so you can take a look at what's there, what we're working on. Um, and yeah, that's where we're at. And I can answer any questions about the like specific policies once we get, I think, to the policy section of the agenda.
214. 1:02:19Perfect. Um, so board president's report. Uh, first I'd like to welcome Mike to the board. Look forward to um having your voice uh be a part of the discussion. Uh, on October 7th we had our um second board retreat of the calendar year um facilitated by Mark Snyder from NISBA. We focused on communication process and workflow and um the process of developing board goals uh which we will talk about again later on in this meeting.
215. 1:02:52Um continuing the theme of uh professional development like to commend Leslie for attending uh NISBA clerk training. We've already seen some uh changes to our process uh and agenda. Um similarly Mike and Dr. Dr. Bailey will be attending the uh NISSBA conference in New York City later this week.
216. 1:03:16Um last uh update is on the superintendent search process. Um reached out to five different firms um prioritizing firms that have experience working with districts of our size and within our region. Um reached out to five of them. Uh one firm declined, one did not respond and we received um three proposals uh which the board will review together in executive session. Um following that we would plan to invite uh some to speak with the board in a further meeting um and ideally make our uh decision uh at one of our board meetings in November.
217. 1:04:06I have a question. It's unrelated, but I remember last meeting there was um something about a new finance committee. I was wondering uh what is going on with that?
218. 1:04:16Uh Amanda will have an update for that in the uh policy section. Um so you notice on the agenda we have a new policy section. In the past, we've always listed our policies out in new business or old business, but one of the things that Leslie learned at her training was that it's best to keep the policies in their um own section. Um so we should be uh we'll have a second reading of the finance committee charter uh and then immediately after that if it's approved um designate the uh committee members uh to be a part of it.
219. 1:04:50Thank you. Yep.
220. 1:04:53Okay. Um, so that does bring us to our first executive session. Um, uh, be it resolved, I make a motion for the board to enter into executive session at 7:09 p.m. for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons.
221. 1:05:16Second.
222. 1:05:17All in favor? And again, thank you for your patience in advance. We will try to be as quick as possible. at 7:40 p.m.
223. 1:36:37Second.
224. 1:36:38All in favor brings us to the personnel agenda. Oh, apologies. Lost my internet. Matt, you want to call this out?
225. 1:36:59Uh, yeah. I'll make a motion to approve personnel agenda items A 1 through 7 and B 1 through 11.
226. 1:37:08No, I'm sorry. We have Do we get a 12th now?
227. 1:37:12No, that's information. Sorry.
228. 1:37:1312. Yeah. Oh, no. 11.
229. 1:37:15Yeah.
230. 1:37:1512 was voted on.
231. 1:37:18All in favor?
232. 1:37:20Who's this? Do we second?
233. 1:37:21Oh, second. Second
234. 1:37:26now. All in favor. That brings us to our public forum. Leslie, did anybody sign up?
235. 1:37:37Um, first we have Vinnie Hamilton.
236. 1:37:40Okay, great. A reminder to everybody, each speaker has three minutes to speak. We cannot entertain any comments about school district personnel or students. And please don't expect a response tonight. We want to take time to research uh your questions and inquiries. We'll be sure to get back to you uh when we have the correct answer.
237. 1:38:05Okay. Uh, hi. Um, I just wanted to give like the perspective of what it's like, um, as a Blue Hawk student cuz I don't want my program to be shut down. I really like it there. Um, the circles really help. Um, and it's nice having them every day.
238. 1:38:42I like that we have Mr. Harris to drive because it um it's actually really helpful. I know a lot of students need rides like most of my friends honestly. Um I think that Mr. Gregory helps us a lot with work. Like I can tell all of you I would not have passed last year if I was not in Blue Hawk. Um I think that It's good for community. I've made a whole lot of friends just from being in Blue Hawk and I think that's good and blah blah blah blah blah. Bluehawk is good. I don't want to talk anymore.
239. 1:39:26You did great.
240. 1:39:27Thank you very much. Hey Mark, can I ask a question to that?
241. 1:39:30Yeah. Yeah.
242. 1:39:31I have a question.
243. 1:39:33Come on back down.
244. 1:39:35Just over.
245. 1:39:38Yeah. uh being a student in that program, do you see anything that could be changed to improve it?
246. 1:39:44Like any different programs or anything like that?
247. 1:39:48No, it's pretty good the way it is.
248. 1:39:50Okay.
249. 1:39:52Thank you.
250. 1:39:53Thanks for speaking tonight.
251. 1:39:54Thank you.
252. 1:40:04Proud of that kid. So, uh, first I'd like to thank the staff of the academy, um, for all of the support that they have provided with my son over the last three years. Um, why, uh, why are things imploding right now?
253. 1:40:22Um, for good or ill, HCSD, like many other districts, is in the difficult spot of trying to improve both academic performance, um, behavioral issues, uh, all postcoid. All of our kids suffered learning loss and uh were to an extent uh traumatized by fear and isolation. Social graces, basic societal norms uh fell to the wayside. We as adults even experienced it.
254. 1:41:04Um uh our children sorry our children with their brains still developing had an extremely hard time um when they returned. Life was different and um what filters they had before were gone and things spiraled and I think that every teacher and staff member and administrator in this district really has felt that.
255. 1:41:32Um then uh then the academy came on the scene and the initial concept was different. A school in this school, but the social and emotional pieces um were desperately needed. I've watched the program evolve over time, and while have there there have c um sorry, there have certainly been uh been issues with instruction, varying degrees, um uh one year, none at all. Um you know, uh the support has been invaluable.
256. 1:42:09I'm encouraged by uh by Mr. Rearen's uh shift to restorative justice schoolwide and um understand that understanding and empathy and compassion are key uh for all of us but certainly for our kids. I think uh absolutely critical for them to understand and gaining understanding of each other. We all have differences but there's a lot of commonality there. our ven diagrams definitely overlap and they will not learn that in the absence of of that kind of openness.
257. 1:42:42Um punitive measures do very little and are so often um a perpetual cycle. Um not every child believes or belongs in a traditional learning environment. We all as human beings benefit from being heard and supported.
258. 1:43:03And I believe that the academy gives our students that space. Not everyone is cookie cutter. Um ALPs, sorry, I'm almost done.
259. 1:43:12Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
260. 1:43:13Um ALPS have been around, uh you know, for a while, uh for decades. I mean, I remember the alternate school, you'll remember that. You'll remember that. Um you know, and it's come a long way since then. Um, and I really like where we are now with uh with the academy and and think that there uh you know that that can certainly continue to evolve.
261. 1:43:34I've always said that I learned almost everything I needed to learn by the time by the end of 8th grade. Um, high school is more about learning how to navigate societal structure than anything else. Um, and Bluehawk Academy is a huge part of that for its students and I appreciate all involved. So, I just wanted to voice my support for the program.
262. 1:44:00Thank you. Thank you very much for being here.
263. 1:44:04Uh, anybody else listening?
264. 1:44:06Laura Bender.
265. 1:44:13Good evening, ma'am. Everybody, excuse my voice. I have a bit of a cold. Um, I wanted to say I appreciate very much the discussion that everybody had surrounding Mr. Rearan's presentation, especially all the questions about attendance.
266. 1:44:26I just wanted to bring up something that I wanted to add a little bit of nuance and complexity to the attendance situation, especially at the junior and senior high school. Um, so when we talk about attendance as a district, we tend to focus on day-to-day attendance, which is obviously very important. We need to get the kids inside the school to be able to do anything.
267. 1:44:45But at the junior and senior high school, there needs to be a little bit more of a complexity regarding the conversation with the attendance and that is class byclass attendance because we certainly have many students who are coming into the building but not making it to several classes a day. Um, so I would appreciate if we could work that into the conversation as well because that is also impacting success across many different class subjects.
268. 1:45:11And I think as a teacher first um speaking out of frustration with the attendance that is one of my number one concerns because I can try my very hardest inside the classroom and I think all of us do but I can't do anything with nobody in my seats. So I just wanted to add to that conversation. So thank you.
269. 1:45:34Thank you.
270. 1:45:34Thank you. Thank you very much.
271. 1:45:41Anybody else?
272. 1:45:42That's it. Okay. Uh, brings us to our consent agenda. Uh, we have a hand carry. Um, item W. Um,
273. 1:45:53oh, my apologies.
274. 1:45:56Hi.
275. 1:45:58It's my turn.
276. 1:45:59All right. Awesome.
277. 1:46:01I I just wanted to give the board an update on uh Mr. own presented uh to us on the trap club and uh he has he and his partners in this project have developed some fantastic documents to back that up.
278. 1:46:14I'd mentioned before that our insurance company gave a green light to this along with some caveats around specifics and they think they said something like with the national trap shooting association those guidelines around that but they've assembled some excellent documents. uh they've got their charter developed. They have students who are interested and uh our attorney is just looking through the documents, the parent waiver and things like that.
279. 1:46:41But I expect uh and and we still have to have some discussions with the union. But um I expect by November we'll be able to come back to the board and talk about the approval of a charter around that club. But I I commend them to have got something off the ground so significantly in a short time.
280. 1:47:01You know, it's ironic uh that Laura was just talking about attendance and I I quick I wanted to bring up because we didn't have the hard data in the presentation Mr. Rearden did. Um it's shocking. So at the elementary school uh last year 30.8% chronically absent.
281. 1:47:20What that means is you just got to assume it's it's um 10% of their 180 days. perhaps in 18 times and sometimes it's five days at a time or sometimes it's a day every two weeks like we've talked about. Um so it's pretty daunting um to look at numbers like that and I apologize.
282. 1:47:42I I don't have time to I don't want to waste any time bringing up the others, but um to Laura's point, they're coming to school, but if they're not in class, same problem occurs. And I we have the um district office, we have the senior high PA, and I can hear uh over the PA system, the doing the hall sweeps, trying to create a different behavior from the kids that are in the building.
283. 1:48:07It's not perfect by any means, but I appreciate that they're trying at least some different things to get to that. And the only thing I'll add about it is that adult attendance is one of the largest indicators of student attendance. The better our attendance is as adults, the better the student attendance is for a lot of reasons that all make sense. So, we're looking at all aspects of that.
284. 1:48:31I wanted to reassure you that uh you know with a lot of the the um retroactive appointments for things and we see some again on the agenda tonight that uh Miss Brooks who's been working doggedly to create HR handbook and the rest of the team have been talking about our hiring practices and making it consistent consistent from any job from you know our coaching jobs to our instructional jobs, our teachers, our teaching aids.
285. 1:49:04Without continuity, it gets very convoluted and confusing. But I I wanted to we're begging your grace this one last time to retroactively appoint. And we hope that you will see little or none of that going forward because not only is it bad business practice for us for for the board of education and for the district office, it obviously it sets a bad precedent and a bad taste in the mouths of our staff who think they're working on behalf of the district and then they're not recognized in a timely manner. So we have a lot of reasons to fix that and to uh to make those thing things right.
286. 1:49:40Um a lot of things happened in the last month. I got to go to my first homecoming game uh and I should say homecoming football game. But all throughout that week, the games that were going on and the spirit week essentially in every building was really heartwarming. You know, to see both the adults and the communities to see the adults dressed as twins and quadruplets and quintuplets depending on which department they were in. Uh helps to lift the spirits of the kids as well.
287. 1:50:11And what when Mr. Rearen was asked the hard question. What gets kids to school? The answer is school has to be more important than everything else. And building a culture where kids feel welcome and loved is a part of that. Uh having a rigorous curriculum is a part of that. Um having a supportive community and encouraging the community is a part of that. So those little things like that I am very appreciative of. And the last thing I'll say is that um we have Lauren Griffin as our new communications person. I've mentioned her before.
288. 1:50:47We are generally interested in creating a district-wide branding that everybody who has a child in every building feels as though we're all in the same district. So the way that we communicate with families and with staff should have a similar fit and feel. So over the next few months, including um the meeting of a communications committee, which I'll be sending invitations out for soon, we we want the critical feedback um so that we can approve appropriately, improve appropriately. You know, we can guess around what we think the community needs, but without having some feedback from them, it's not it wouldn't necessarily be useful or effective.
289. 1:51:28So, uh we'll have three meetings up front. We'll have a meeting to just talk through what's right and what's wrong. We'll have a second meeting for strategy and a third meeting a little bit later to talk through what have we done that looks like we're getting closer to the mark. But considering the phenomenal things that happen in this district on a daily basis in the building and outside of the building, to not be able to tell our story effectively is a it's an Achilles heel. Mr. Wheelers out there filming and sharing the footage of so many things and uh we want to be able to build around that and the other streams of information that we have to do something that is meaningful.
290. 1:52:11And to that point I wanted to ask the board one question. When you look around uh on school district's Facebook pages you see a mix of comments on and comments off. And I I had a conversation with a colleague who happens to run a page for one of the other Facebook pages for one of the other buildings or programs. And I said, "Comments breed problems." And the person quickly said, "Well, we just remove them."
291. 1:52:45The district is not allowed to remove negative comments, even abrasive comments, even hurtful comments. I don't like name a person. we're not allowed to. So, by opening that up, we invite both sides of every argument. So, I personally, and and here's the especially worst thing about um comments on Facebook. There's no one to answer them.
292. 1:53:12It's not an email, it's not a phone call, it's not a visit. It's dropping a comment into the ether where it sends ripples out into the universe. And there's nothing to stop the ripples. We've all experienced the joys of social media. And if you haven't, good for you. Um, I recommend that we turn comments off and we allow people to use the more productive forms of communication if they chose choose to do so. People are still allowed to do emojis. They're just not allowed to say I hate or I love. It's just left to the wayside.
293. 1:53:47But I could have just turned it off. But I unquestionably wanted to have a conversation with all of you. And you don't even have to make a decision tonight if you don't want to. But I wanted to discuss what is your sensibility around turning off comments that usually go unanswered. It's not a place where we can respond.
294. 1:54:08I'm all for it.
295. 1:54:09Agreed.
296. 1:54:13Yeah. Seems some civil. Uh and if people want to create a discussion, they can always repost something on their own page and and communicate that way.
297. 1:54:22Yeah. It's not a we're not we don't want to do it to censor people. It's this it's not an effective form of people expressing their concern. We would so much because often sometimes people do that and then say I said my piece, no one did anything about it is even worse, right? We want people to be able to say if you have a question, contact the school.
298. 1:54:40And you'll please note that um at least with the work that Lauren and I do, we consistently try and drive traffic to the website. So in other words, we might say uh interesting article um sale of this property or emergency sorry never we rarely use that word um concerns over student attendance um threat of violence.
299. 1:55:07We put a little bit on Facebook and then we drive them to the website which at least gives them points of contact so if they have further concerns they can ask those questions. So at least I I wanted to at least assure you it's not like it's just left out there. We try and bring people to our articles that are on our newsfeed on our website.
300. 1:55:24I think what makes sense to me particularly about removing or about uh turning off the availability for comments uh is the environment where I'm frequently dealing in a professional sense with uh Facebook is actually through museums another public facing um set of organizations. Museums are not restricted from taking down comments. um although they're discouraged from doing so, but almost universally the facilities that do that have somebody dedicated to make responses and reach out directly and we're not equipped for that. Um and I don't think it's the best system for us to do that.
301. 1:55:59So to me it makes sense that if if we want to be able to effectively address the community concerns that encouraging them to reach out through email and other systems by not allowing Facebook to be the I said my peace place makes sense. So I would be supportive of turning off comments. Um but I it's a thing. So, I want to make sure that that people know that we're doing it in part because we want to be able to properly respond.
302. 1:56:30If uh to to your point, Kristen, if we were to do that as a public institution, as you alluded to, we would be censoring public comment.
303. 1:56:39Um we would we would be choosing who is right and who is wrong and that that we we cannot be the arbiters of that.
304. 1:56:47Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I think just to Kristen's point, if we are going to do it, just notifying people this change is happening and this is why we're doing it uh would be important to communicate.
305. 1:56:59Okay.
306. 1:57:00Um and don't want to put you on the spot, but just because you mentioned it and I know there's been a lot of talk about it. Um but threats of violence, there have been a number of instances uh in the buildings this year. Um, are you able to just talk briefly about how the district's been responding to that?
307. 1:57:20We had our first one approximately three and a half, four weeks ago and my practice has always been and I think it's good district practice because in my mind, if one person knows, everyone knows, right? If a threat is made, a verbal threat is made, assume that everybody knows. It's so much more proactive and beneficial for the district to say this happened in this setting and we're taking action around it.
308. 1:57:46And to that point, I'm very grateful that the Hudson City Police Department has been fantastic partners uh both in participating in these uh uh in these uh investigations, but also in communication and also the district attorney. Uh after that first one, the district attorney and uh members of the police department were in my office and we were having a discussion. What do we do next?
309. 1:58:12And what was birthed from that was a letter that came out a few weeks ago that was, hey families, community, if your child makes a verbal threat of violence. These are all the things that can happen not only to the child but potentially to the family. It could involve child protective services. It could involve a search of your home. It could involve charges. U so we communicated some of the the magnitude of that u via letter to families.
310. 1:58:45What I'd asked the buildings to do is after the letter went out and and each building has, by the way, because I've been in them when I've heard the PA announcements, they have a almost a daily PSA on kindness, goodness, uh being uh positive, not uh using threatening language, all different ways of saying it and age appropriately.
311. 1:59:04And what we had asked and we we had a meeting today to talk about it some more is because it continues to happen. Maybe it's happening less frequently than it would have if we hadn't taken the actions because it's still happening. Then we have to go to the next thing.
312. 1:59:23The next thing we were talking about today is like a module to just a five or t minute module that everyone teaches at one time to all students that says just so you understand what we're saying when we say making a threat. If you say these words or any words like them, here's what can happen and here's what it does to our community and is are there other ways to express yourself.
313. 1:59:49Um, so we think we've got to move it a little bit more to the ground level and universally do it for every child uh in a classroom where they're with people that they know and they work with on a regular basis. Not an hour and a half, just little inputs to try and remind kids of this is what we mean when we say don't make a threat. But I think we know kids, they're impetuous sometimes uh especially at certain ages. They don't think through the consequences, they just let it go.
314. 2:00:22So, it's our job to try and uh better inform them around that. But we will continue to inform the public when these things happen. I know it it may make them uncomfortable, but a thousand times more uncomfortable when it's the news media telling them that something happened. We want to avoid that at all costs.
315. 2:00:45Great. Thank you for addressing that. Thank you.
316. 2:00:51Uh, all right. That brings us to our consent agenda. We do have a hand carry for item W, which is a uh change in title and an MOA for uh Tyler Kitzman, who is will now be uh director of facilities too. Um, so I make a motion to accept consent agenda items uh A through W.
317. 2:01:18Second.
318. 2:01:20All in favor? That brings us to our policy section.
319. 2:01:27Awesome. One thing I want to say.
320. 2:01:30Sorry. Hold on one second.
321. 2:01:31So,
322. 2:01:34you approve,
323. 2:01:37but you have to correct. This is a motion to correct the agenda from whenever it was first.
324. 2:01:44Oh, 57. Gotcha.
325. 2:01:46Yes. Okay. So, then uh make an additional motion um to uh change the date effective on uh Tyler's title change adjustment to be prop pro probationary until June 30th, 2026.
326. 2:02:04Second. All in favor?
327. 2:02:08Thank you.
328. 2:02:08Thank you. Um just one thing and I'm sorry I didn't catch this earlier but in um policy a the 1120 they're the title of them is correct in the document but in the title within the document it's listed correctly but the title of the word doc is incorrect. It says student record regulation. Student records. It's school records regulations. School records. Just one um one thing to note. I think because the actual like document itself is correct. That's not a problem in terms of
329. 2:02:46moving forward with approving them. But I just want people to be aware of that that those policies are not specific to student records.
330. 2:02:53Okay. Great. Um so these are second reading. We can approve them. Um just a quick summary. These are just um adjusting who deals with uh our digital records and how uh requests for um records and information are handled. Anybody have any questions?
331. 2:03:16I I have some I was reading through it and looking and so I just noticed a couple of things. So I just want to bring it
332. 2:03:22to um your attention or everyone's attention. Um so the um it this is the 1120R um and it's item um Roman numeral one and number two. It re it just reads kind of it it it doesn't read clearly. Um I have a suggestion on how it could read better, but just take a look at it and see what you think. If you don't think it's um you think it's fine, that's that's okay. Obviously,
333. 2:03:57um yeah,
334. 2:03:59we did we did review them in the like policy committee all together and shift some of the language. So
335. 2:04:06I think but I mean we could we could pull it and then shift the language if there's something. Um the only other thing um that I think might be um there is I I believe it's at the top it talks about that the superintendent would appoint um the records um
336. 2:04:27records management officer
337. 2:04:28management officer
338. 2:04:29management officer and then the records access officer would be the um the um um board clerk.
339. 2:04:37Yes. But then at the the bottom of the document um it it's Roman numeral seven. It says in indicated that the records management officer and access officer are both held by the board of ed clerk.
340. 2:04:53Yeah, I see that.
341. 2:04:54So that's not necessarily I mean that's contrary to what it says in the
342. 2:04:59top.
343. 2:05:00I think it it's I think that that's it's awkwardly worded, but it's the discovery team is the school attorney. the board clerk who serves as record management officer and the record management officer and other personnel as needed.
344. 2:05:13You need like a serial comma on
345. 2:05:16like that's I see what you mean.
346. 2:05:19These are little things but
347. 2:05:20yeah no it needs a comma. That is absolutely right to indicate that that's like a and this other person not that that person is both. And then just one one last thing is just a recommendation that the the forms so everything is um going to be digitalized. Yes, that's the move is to have the forms digitalized for like foil requests and stuff like that. um that they be like Google forms so that the person if so if you're photocopying it, you're putting it in as a PDF, it's it's really really awkward and and difficult to fill those forms out and then email them electronically, which is what we're encouraging people to do, right? To get away from the paper and pencil. Um
348. 2:06:05yeah, it would either I agree with you, Moren, that's not an improvement. It's basically the same thing if they're
349. 2:06:10you'd have to either print them out and fill it out and then take a picture of it and send it back, you know, whatever.
350. 2:06:16It would be a Google form or some other form of digital. Yeah.
351. 2:06:20Fillable form that would submit the information.
352. 2:06:23There is if you look at requesting records by email, there's a process to just email and what has to be included in the email instead of using the form. Does that feel like
353. 2:06:31Oh, it's instead of the form. Okay. So, if you look 1120e,
354. 2:06:37it's like you there's a series of questions that have to be answered so that it's a formal thing, but there's that option to do the paper form or submit an email that has all of these things within it. So, there is the eitheror option there.
355. 2:06:49All right.
356. 2:06:51Um Okay. I mean, there's nothing that uh requires us to adopt um any of these right now. we can bring it back for another um another uh reading. Um and I believe we will have a policy committee meeting before we uh have our next board meeting. So Amanda, are you opposed to just making those changes?
357. 2:07:19We can just make those changes to that one. It's just to the regulation R, right, in the like clarity of the language there.
358. 2:07:27Yeah. And then Moren, you can just send us your suggestions for that um
359. 2:07:32first bit.
360. 2:07:32That first bit. Yeah. We'll we'll make sure we address it.
361. 2:07:35Okay.
362. 2:07:39Okay. Next one.
363. 2:07:41Uh finance committee second read should be good to go for approval.
364. 2:07:49Any questions? No. Okay. Okay. So, I'll make a motion to um approve the finance committee charter to create a finance committee.
365. 2:08:00Second.
366. 2:08:01All in favor. That's very exciting.
367. 2:08:13I'm realizing on that note that we didn't get the facilities committee charter on here as first read. So, we just want to make sure we get that on for next time.
368. 2:08:20Yeah. I don't know if that one was actually quite ready. It was It was still pretty uh um mish mashy.
369. 2:08:28Sounds good. Then it's not on here on purpose.
370. 2:08:35Um
371. 2:08:37I will say though that just the one thing about facilities committee which is also exciting is that we're taking the policy committee um charter as a template. So facilities committee will be this a similar type of committee that not just involves board members but also involves members of the community who have um expertise in areas that could help uh benefit our our you know facilities plan moving forward. Um so for today we'll just be sticking to the three members but once that charter is approved then we can uh you know figure out who the who is on the expanded committee and use the same process we did for policy.
372. 2:09:18Awesome. Um and then everything else is up for first read. So if folks have any like questions, comments, suggestions. One thing just moving forward that we're going to make sure happens which makes this a little trickier this time around is moving forward we'll make sure that on the first reads anything that's changed is in red. So you'll be able to actually see the changes that are proposed.
373. 2:09:43Yes.
374. 2:09:43More explicitly here.
375. 2:09:45Yep. Um and I mean I can say that for the first bunch uh see the the main changes here were um sort of swapping out some titles. um because they had incorrect titles. Um and then uh the other exciting policy, three exciting policies which is amazing um is the AI policy um which is you know we're all in this brave new world and you know empowering our staff and our students to um know how and when it's appropriate for them to use AI um will hopefully be um something that presents itself with uh new opportunities in the future.
376. 2:10:40Um okay, any other questions, comments about policies? Um yeah, certainly continue to read through them, send through any uh feedback that you have to Amanda and make sure that it is addressed at the next policy meeting. Um so with the formation of our new finance committee and a uh new board member, we're going to go through and um redesate committee members. Uh we did it in July, but uh I think we have to rethink um how who's on these facilities moving forward.
377. 2:11:16Um start with the audit committee. Um as board president, I must be one of the members. Um, Matt, I assume you would be interested in continuing to serve. Um, and previously, um, Moren, uh,
378. 2:11:34or Dana?
379. 2:11:36Diana. Um, so Dan, are you interested in staying on?
380. 2:11:40Does anybody else?
381. 2:11:41I'm gonna see if I can jump out and see if maybe Mike wants to get into that one because, uh, Amanda has me really busy on this policy committee.
382. 2:11:48Okay.
383. 2:11:48Policy committee is a lot. Um well I guess we could start with you Mike. I mean which as a new board member which of the are are most appealing to you?
384. 2:11:58I think my fate would most likely be the facilities.
385. 2:12:01Okay.
386. 2:12:01So I would like to get on to that one. Sit in the policy committee last week as a spectator and that one's definitely not for me. Um not really sure what is involved on the audit committee or the finance committee.
387. 2:12:17Yeah. So um you know audit committee's purview is pretty strictly defi defined. Um it is something that we are required by law to have. Um you know our functions are strictly uh pertaining to the internal and the external audit. Um, so we're reviewing materials that both go to the auditors and that we receive from the auditors, making sure that we're meeting the deadlines set forth by the state and, you know, coming up with plans to address any issues that they call out.
388. 2:12:48Um, it probably meets uh I mean, we need to look at the charter because the charter does say it meets six times a year. More often than not, it's been closer to three or four. Um, but we'll uh we should look at that moving forward. Um and the finance committee uh newest committee was um formed mainly out of a uh realization that we need to have a more robust uh budget process and being tracking um uh our financial health and the financial status of the district and the ways that we allocate ways that we allocate money um throughout the year so that we're not really just talking about it in you know February, March, April.
389. 2:13:34when it's budget season. Um so, um that's what that is. Um and yeah, you know, there's there's also nothing that says that we need to have three members. So, if Matt and I are the only ones that are interested in audit, we can keep it that way. Um our policy do does also say that as board president, I'm a exeicio member of all of the committees. So if people can't show up, I can always be there to fill in for that as well.
390. 2:14:06The audit committee charter does say three members, so we need to revise that if we wanted to.
391. 2:14:11No, we shouldn't mess with that one. Okay. So, who else wants audit?
392. 2:14:15Um something I can think about or you guys need to decide.
393. 2:14:18Oh, yeah. We got to do it now. But, um I just don't know if it' be my forte. So,
394. 2:14:26I'm thinking that it would be I mean, if you want to do the policy committee, I'll I'll definitely stay on the
395. 2:14:32Is this for the uh for the audit?
396. 2:14:35Yeah,
397. 2:14:35I'll do it.
398. 2:14:36Okay. Um so then make a motion to appoint uh Mark to Pace um Matt Macker and Mike Zabella to the audit committee for the 2526 school year.
399. 2:14:48Second.
400. 2:14:49All in favor?
401. 2:14:53Um
402. 2:14:54okay. I have
403. 2:14:55and yes, this is one that we need to be sworn in for. do it again.
404. 2:15:10Yeah.
405. 2:15:10But now you're doing it again.
406. 2:15:12Um, okay. And this
407. 2:15:14Do they have to be again if they're not changing that
408. 2:15:19it doesn't hurt? Um,
409. 2:15:22and last time when we tried to read this all together as a group, it was incredibly awkward. Yeah.
410. 2:15:26So, we'll just do it one by one. Um, I, Mark Depace, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New York, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of audit committee member according to the best of my abilities. I, Matthew Macker, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the Constitution of the State of New York, and I will faithfully discharge the duties of audit committee member according to the best of my abilities. I, Michael Zabella, 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 a communique member.
411. 2:16:10Thank you.
412. 2:16:12Um, all right. Policy. Um, Amanda, you'd like to stay on as chair?
413. 2:16:20I would. Yes.
414. 2:16:21Okay. Um, uh, I'm definitely interested in continuing the work. Um, Diana, you
415. 2:16:31I'm staying on, too.
416. 2:16:32Okay, great.
417. 2:16:34I have to turn in my homework.
418. 2:16:36All right. Um, uh, so I make a motion to appoint uh, Mark Depase, Amanda Gruber, and um, Diana Howard to the policy committee for the 2526 school year. and make a motion to approve the 2526 draft policy committee meeting schedule.
419. 2:16:57Second.
420. 2:16:58All in favor?
421. 2:17:01All right. Um, facilities. So, we currently have Kirsten and Moren on it. Um, Mike, you're
422. 2:17:09I would like to be on that one as well. Everybody good with that?
423. 2:17:14Um, so make them
424. 2:17:17does that department need to have a chair? Um yes. Um and the protocol would be for you guys at your next Okay.
425. 2:17:27meeting to appoint the chair.
426. 2:17:29Um you chair has to have been on the board for a year, right?
427. 2:17:35I don't know. I don't know if that is
428. 2:17:37I think so.
429. 2:17:37I thought that that
430. 2:17:38Okay.
431. 2:17:40So then Kirsten, you're the chair.
432. 2:17:41Yeah.
433. 2:17:42Uh
434. 2:17:45make a motion.
435. 2:17:46Not this one. Make a motion to appoint Kirsten Guffsson, uh, Moren Sheridan, and Mike Zabella to the facilities committee for the 2526 school year.
436. 2:17:56Second.
437. 2:17:57All in favor.
438. 2:18:00All right. In finance, uh, the new one, who is, uh, who's interested in finance? Well, I did I just want to make a comment that I did read about it and they said that you really want people who know finances very so I'm only on one committee. I'll I'll do it but I'm not that person. Thank goodness we have Matt who is definitely that person.
439. 2:18:27Well, one thing that'll inspire you is the finance committee will be like the 10,000 foot view of budget development process. Mhm.
440. 2:18:35The board will get the 30,000 foot view, but the finance committee will be more integral into why are we doing what we're doing, how are we going to do it. So, that's something that will resonate with you, I think.
441. 2:18:47Okay.
442. 2:18:47Yeah.
443. 2:18:49Thanks for that encouragement.
444. 2:18:51Yeah.
445. 2:18:51And Mark, we're not reading the the end of the resolution. That's incorrect.
446. 2:18:56Yes. Uh, is there a sense of how frequently this committee will meet and at what time?
447. 2:19:08Um, that's a good question. Uh, I mean, I would assume that it'll it should be at least monthly. Um, you know, similar to policy. Um, you know, we definitely have work to do these next few months getting ready for, um, budget season. Um, time is definitely TBD. I'm looking at you thinking um, and I don't know if you are balancing the demands on your time or debating your interest level. If we have a need for a third person and you feel that your time is already committed, I feel comfortable enough with budgeting processes to be a contributor and to be part of this group. If you feel a desire to be so, I will not step in front of you.
448. 2:20:04I it is all yours.
449. 2:20:05All right.
450. 2:20:07Okay.
451. 2:20:08I think policy committee is pretty it's a demand pretty full force this year. So, so now with these with these committees, I know the policy they offer some public into it or allow some public to be into it. I
452. 2:20:19think all of them we're going to try.
453. 2:20:20Yep. They all
454. 2:20:21So, do they all have public? Okay. So, same interview process or um submission process like you did for the policy committee.
455. 2:20:29Oh, no, no, no.
456. 2:20:30The the facilities and policy will have committee this year. The other ones do not.
457. 2:20:38They Okay. Yeah. audit audit committee is so specific in its scope that you know and and a lot of the findings get presented in these meetings anyways. Um and then for finance the conversation was since it's a new committee and it needs to sort of find its feet and figure out how it's going to operate that at least for the the near future it would stay as just board members. Okay.
458. 2:21:02Um and then if we want to open it up after that we can. But yes, all the all the meetings are open to the public. Um, so, um, so then for finance we have Matt, uh, Kirstston and Moren. Everybody good with that? Okay. Um, so I make a motion to appoint Matt Macker, uh, Kirstston Gustoson, and Moren Sher Sheridan uh, to the finance committee for the 2526 uh, school year.
459. 2:21:30Second.
460. 2:21:30All in favor? Um, all right. Thank you. And next we have annual designations. These are two items where we just need to appoint um uh new people um to require designations based on some changes to the administrative staff. Um so for the first one uh make a motion to appoint um Alyssa Sabatino as the liaison for the education of homeless youth from uh September 17th, 2025 through December 31st, 2025.
461. 2:22:06Second.
462. 2:22:06All in favor. Um and then for the second one, make a motion uh to appoint the director of student services to the following additional designations for the 2526 school year. section 504 compliance officer, Medicaid compliance officer, opioid program director, director of school health services, and HIPPA compliance officer.
463. 2:22:30Second.
464. 2:22:31All in favor. Um, old business, uh, we do not have anything. Um, brings us to new business, um, uh, which wanted to have a discussion about board goals. Um, Marissa, would you be able to plug that up on the screen? There we go. Thank you.
465. 2:22:54Um, so just to kick off this conversation, wanted to um just quickly review our goals from the 24 25 school year. Um, the first goal was student first. Um, making sure that our first concern in decision- making and priority setting was our students. Um there's some uh different objectives um that we listed out um and uh you know I think we did a pretty good job of of uh addressing these um last year um the board self- evaluation uh was a big one that we did not get to last year um and uh you know is something that is required per our policy um uh so I believe my opin opinion is that this should still continue to remain a priority.
466. 2:23:44Um policy um I uh this was uh uh to develop an ongoing policy review cycle and ensure effective operations and oversight um of our uh of our policies. Um obviously we did a lot of work uh change the structure of that committee. Um uh we've hired NISB for this year. Uh we did state that um uh the code of conduct policy was a priority. We need to revisit that.
467. 2:24:15Um we did get to promotion retention of students. Um and still I think there just more work that needs to be done for the board member elect orientation. Um uh so we're obviously continuing to focus a lot on this. Um and then community engagement was the last one. um just creating a plan to you know really um make all of our stakeholders uh feel like they are given the opportunity to provide input and uh actively participate.
468. 2:24:42We did create a welcome brochure um you know we have been attending more functions um and uh you know did have um mechanism to recognize the compliments of teachers or staff. Um so those were the uh those were the goals for last year. Um at our workshop with Mark Snyder. Um you know he did recommend a you know robust um uh process of doing uh I think it was a swore analysis.
469. 2:25:19Um, you know, I would love to, uh, if we were on a regular schedule and doing this in July or August, you know, have this be a really, um, much larger discussion that takes a lot more time, but considering it is almost the end of October. I would like to prioritize um, memorializing our goals by uh, our next meeting in November.
470. 2:25:48Um, so if everybody's okay with that, you know, we just have a brief discussion now about the status of our goals. If anybody has anything that they would like to see added, um, we can, uh, call that out now and then at the next meeting, um, have a draft for us all to adopt. Um, but certainly if anybody is wants there to be a different process or or has any questions, we should talk about it now.
471. 2:26:15Um, I do have uh questions and comments.
472. 2:26:19Yeah.
473. 2:26:19Um, one question I guess I'm in looking at um, other districts in preparation for this looking at other districts and their board goals. Um, it's hard to kind of tease out the district goals and the board goals.
474. 2:26:35Um, and if we're looking at really just looking at board goals, what we can control and what we personally are working at, they should look really different than than what they do. Now, um the second thing is um that Oh my gosh, why do I keep losing my train of thought? Um it'll come back to me. Um but I do have some stuff um um written down. Oh, um I know what it was.
475. 2:27:06So, the the the writing of the goals, I'm a special ed teacher, so I've been writing goals for for years and years and years. and and these aren't smart goals and it's kind of making me a little crazy.
476. 2:27:20Yeah.
477. 2:27:22Um so I don't know how much we it didn't seem like our our our NISSBA guy was presenting smart goals either. So is that just not a thing? You know um like the the goals the objectives we have are should be our goals, right? And then those broken down. Um but anyway,
478. 2:27:41when I think about district goals versus board goals, the district goals would be the ones that would be more of the smart goals like measuring um you know, student success and and outcomes and um correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Bailey, but that would be a part of the what the the student success committee is working on right now um in regards to our both our DSEP plans and our um strategic plan.
479. 2:28:08I agree. I agree that the it's the building level and Mr. Rearen's presentation kind of presented the tip of that. They of course it said we're going to measure this and of course at the mechanical level they need to measure it three or four times a year. You don't wait until June,
480. 2:28:26right?
481. 2:28:27Um I agree though, Moren, throughout looking at you know the board you could grab a board goals from Queensberry,
482. 2:28:34right?
483. 2:28:35And it'll look like okay, we could do that.
484. 2:28:37Yeah.
485. 2:28:37Um I mean, they're not measurable at at all. They're more of a mission statement than they are a goal, honestly. It's like a wish list, but
486. 2:28:46but so I I you know, if it's appropriate to do it right now, I can share four things that I
487. 2:28:52Yeah, absolutely. Please do.
488. 2:28:54Um, so number one, appoint a permanent superintendent. Isn't that our goal, right?
489. 2:29:01Yes.
490. 2:29:01I mean, that's measurable. That's how are we going to go about that? We have to train ourselves. We have to prepare for that. we have to. So I think
491. 2:29:09that's a reasonable goal. Number two, and I also have bulleted objectives, but I won't
492. 2:29:15go into that. But increase improve community engagement and connections, which we already have, but then um that
493. 2:29:24bullets,
494. 2:29:24I have the bullets that go along with that. What would we what does that look like? You know, um number three, improve academic achievement.
495. 2:29:33I mean, ultimately, that's what we want. How do we support the school district, you know, the the superintendent, the staff? How do we, you know, as board members do that financially, what whatever it is, right? Or making suggestions. Um, and then we also, it's a part of this, I think, part of the old um but to support the health and wellness of district, staff, and students.
496. 2:29:56Um, I know that Miss um that Rachel I Rachel Cheryl um was part of that committee, the wellness committee. I don't know if it's been dissolved because Zucker was a part of it too, but you know that's huge. So piggybacking on that I have some great ideas now as a board what's our role in that right?
497. 2:30:23I don't know
498. 2:30:24policy there's a clear influence around that.
499. 2:30:26Yeah. Yeah.
500. 2:30:28Um,
501. 2:30:29I like the idea of having something about the superintendent search here because I do think it's really important that our goals match where our time is going to be spent and that is going to be a big chunk of time this year.
502. 2:30:40And so I think it would be naive to set a whole set of goals that
503. 2:30:44like recognizing that that is going to be a large chunk of this year's time.
504. 2:30:48Um,
505. 2:30:51that that makes sense to me.
506. 2:30:53Yeah. And I I agree with the academic achievement part. You know, there it needs to be a much larger part of what it is that we're talking about on a consistent basis. Um so, uh you know, granted, we can't
507. 2:31:10directly, you know, go out there and do the work that's going to
508. 2:31:14right affect it, but we can um
509. 2:31:18we can certainly influence it. Um, and you know, one of the things that's been on my mind that I think, um, would lead us to that is is, you know, a a board activity calendar, um, or presentation schedule where we can say, hey, you know, this month we want to know information about academic achievement as it relates to this school or, you know, this specific set of students or this topic and like we need to have presentations
510. 2:31:53three times a year so that we're
511. 2:31:55we can look at the data right I mean that that was one of my bulleted thing you know stu looking at student performance data right to allocate funds and to to know where to put money and also promoting the CTE programming I mean that's the the the move you know um to um improve academic achievement that's a whole really innovative, cool way of getting kids engaged and doing things differently, you know.
512. 2:32:23Um I'd like to hear more about how the high school,
513. 2:32:28you know, the programs that they have existing now and what what the plan is, future plan for that.
514. 2:32:34Yeah.
515. 2:32:34Um is, but that as board members, we can, you know, um find find training or support training for teachers. And those could be objectives that that we could um
516. 2:32:48Yep.
517. 2:32:50Um and the community engagement and that like we could track the number of people that um um participate online and participate um here and try to improve that attendance here. Mhm.
518. 2:33:05Um improve our attendance at um at different activities and make sure that a board member is at you know different events and stuff like that. Coordinate that.
519. 2:33:18Yeah, that was definitely a part of the the student first goal. Um, and you we tried last year to invite different student groups to come whether they were perform instruments or tell us about their club. And as soon as you do that, you immediately see like, you know, a big uptick in the amount of people that come to the board meetings because they're invested in their children and want to, you know, support them whenever they do anything in public.
520. 2:33:40Um, so I thought that was was successful and something we should try to build on for sure. Great. Anybody else got anything to add? I wonder if the way to think about it then is to like keep I feel like board self-evaluation feels like something we should do, but it's more of like a task than a goal. Like I wonder if we can replace that big bucket with the superintendent search and like name some objectives around community involvement and stuff there and then we like keep the big bucket goals but change the objectives underneath because I think those fall the big buckets still feel right there. use your describe all sub bullets.
521. 2:34:25Um, yeah, as long as we do our self-evaluation.
522. 2:34:29Yes, we're going to do it this year.
523. 2:34:31I just to me that feels like like a lamer goal than the rest of them.
524. 2:34:37Some of the examples we were given were were pretty also lame pretty base level goals.
525. 2:34:42Yeah.
526. 2:34:43Just about elevating the performance of the board. I I don't disagree necessarily, but yeah, I've always got a few senses.
527. 2:34:52I'd like to suggest one around budget finance specifically um beyond just approving a budget, which we legally have to do. Uh I think I think we'd like to um define a clear and replicable process in budget development um so that we can ensure that we get to a uh budget result that is tied to uh performance needs uh school operations and you know fitting within the means of um financial constraints. uh but not but again not just for this year but so that it's clear that there are different times a year where different functions are being um executed to build it up from uh from the needs to the finances.
528. 2:35:46Yeah. Um, yeah, I think that would fall under that board activity calendar, too. And just again being really clear about, okay, come November, like we need to know all of these things and this is what we need to be talking about in order to to stay on track. Anybody else?
529. 2:36:12Okay. So, um Moren, why don't you send me and Matt your um suggestions? Um I will try and put everything together in a draft um and uh you know send it around for folks to review and then at our next board meeting we can um continue this conversation.
530. 2:36:32Sounds good.
531. 2:36:33Great. Um okay, it brings us to public forum. Uh Leslie, did anybody else sign up? Uh board discussion. Anybody else have anything else they'd like to add?
532. 2:36:51Um okay. Brings us to upcoming meeting dates. Um, student success committee meeting Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 in the high school library, 6 to 8:00 p.m. Policy committee meeting Wednesday, November 12th, 2025 in the high school library, 5 to 7 p.m. Uh, referendum vote to sell the John L. Edwards building, Thursday, November 13th, 2025, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Uh, please come out and vote. And you can find all of the locations for voting on the district website. Uh we will uh need to hold a special board meeting on that evening, Wednesday, November 13, 2025. Uh this auditorium uh there are multiple events happening in this building on that day. So it will be in the uh MC Smith auditorium. Uh the start time is TBD.
533. 2:37:47Question.
534. 2:37:47Yes. Yes.
535. 2:37:48It says Thursday, November 13th. Yes. vote and then Wednesday, November 13th is the special meeting. Is that Wednesday or Thursday?
536. 2:37:56Thursday.
537. 2:37:56It is a Thursday. Thank you for catching that.
538. 2:37:58Sorry guys. That's okay.
539. 2:37:59Um and uh yeah, the start time is TBD. It is based on will be based on how much regular board business needs to be conducted at that meeting. Um so we will let everybody know, make sure it is posted with plenty of time.
540. 2:38:15I think it's important to point out it'll be a late meeting because the Yes, don't close.
541. 2:38:20Polls close at 8. Um, and so we need to be here as the results trickle in.
542. 2:38:26How soon after the polls close should we expect the votes?
543. 2:38:31Can you just say something?
544. 2:38:32Yes.
545. 2:38:33I changed the process a little bit. I picked my three best poll workers um to lead each polling location. So hopefully it's going to be a quick night.
546. 2:38:45Yeah. Great.
547. 2:38:46The only reason I asked is cuz for the board election we were here till what? Midnight.
548. 2:38:50Yeah. Yeah. Well,
549. 2:38:51there's a lot of confusion that
550. 2:38:53that's why we did that's why I did it that way.
551. 2:38:56Perfect. Um and then we have a facilities committee meeting Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 in the district conference room 5 to 5:45 p.m. And we have a regular board of education meeting Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 in the high school auditorium at 6 pm.
552. 2:39:18Um this time we do have a need to enter executive session for dis purposes of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons and for the uh um proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real property. Um so make a motion to enter executive session at 8:43 p.m.
553. 2:39:40Second.
554. 2:39:41All in favor? Uh there'll be no further business uh after this executive session. Thank you all for being here.

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