Board of Education, Regular Meeting transcript: FUTURE HUDSON

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5:32to call the meeting [clears throat] to order at 6 pm and ask everybody to please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
5:40I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
5:56Leslie, roll call, please. Mark Deace
6:12here.
6:13Amanda Grubler
6:14here.
6:15Kirsten Gustiffson.
6:17Diana Howard
6:18here.
6:19Matthew Macker
6:20here.
6:20Moren Sheridan
6:22here.
6:24Michael Zabella
6:25here.
6:25And Leona Prova
6:27here.
6:29That brings us to our student representative report. The things that have been going on in the high school is that the class of 2028 is
6:40You didn't accept the agenda.
6:41Oh. Make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
6:44Second.
6:44All in favor. [clears throat]
6:48I don't think the mic is on. Yeah.
6:50Okay.
6:52Hello. Okay. Now I don't know.
6:54So, the class of 2028 is selling hot chocolate and pizza. The National Honor Society is sponsoring a food drive. And if you want to make a donation, you can be at the junior high main lobby or within the high school lobby. The class of 2027 is hosting a bake sale every Monday.
7:10There was recently a blood drive hosted by the varsity club on November 17th. They're also hosting a volleyball tournament on December 6th. The winter concert is December 18th. Model UN has a competition at Hudson Valley Community College December 6th.
7:27Something new is that there's more hallway TVs in the hallways and there is important information on it. So, however, sometimes they don't last as long. So, if you're trying to read it, it just switches to another slide. That's it.
7:44Thank you very much. Uh, next we have our junior high school report from Mr. Bear and Mr. Hi, good evening everyone. Thank you for having us.
8:18Um, first and foremost before we begin, I'd like to thank Miss Patch who has been a great addition to the junior high this year. We've been very fortunate to have her come on board. I'd like to also thank all the staff at the junior high who on a daily basis show how they go above and beyond for every one of our students.
8:35So very uh appreciative of all of them. And I'd also like to thank all the board members here because you guys support us on a daily basis and without your support we really couldn't do everything that we'd like to do. Uh thank you for giving us a few minutes of your time tonight to kind of just go over what our priorities and goals are for the year.
8:54The goals we've developed are purposeful D and dual focused in their intent. First and foremost, all the goals you're going to see tonight represent our roadmap for removing the junior high from our TSI designation, the targeted support and improvement and returning our school back to good standing.
9:13All of our goals extend far beyond compliance and accountability measures. They're going to serve two purposes. At their core, they are designed with our students futures in mind. Each priority we've established aims to equip each and every student at the junior high with the essential skills, knowledge, and work ethic necessary to become productive, engaged citizens in their communities and beyond.
9:33We believe that by focusing on both academic excellence and character development, we're not only improving test scores, but we're transforming lives and opening doors of opportunity for all of our young people. So, with our goals tonight, we're going to provide you with a clear understanding of our vision, our action steps, and how we plan to measure our progress throughout the upcoming school year. I look forward to sharing all these goals with you.
10:04So, as you can see, this this data that you'll see up above is data that's been shared with you all throughout the uh the past year. The junior high is designated as a targeted school of improvement based on one, you know, one or all of the following.
10:20At the junior high, we are a design TSI designated school for academic performance of black, Hispanic, multi-racial, and economically disadvantaged students. I'd also like to to make everyone aware that everything we do, we do it for all of our students in mind. Our goal is to support each and every one of our students.
10:46Again, we believe um thanks for having us you guys. Uh we believe this is information you've seen already because it's break broken out across all three schools within our district. Um but we're looking at the red areas being the areas in which we're specifically targeted for improvement.
10:59And again, to echo what Mr. Bear said, "We view this opportunity not just to help students who the state has identified as in need of extra support, but all of our students." Because, as many of you know, especially the former teachers, what you do for one group of kiddos can often have benefits for a larger group of students.
11:24So, our our three main priorities at the junior high are number one, decrease chronic absenteeism by 17 students or 5%. We really have the philosophy that the most important thing is getting our students into the building each and every day. Um, if we don't accomplish that, everything else is a moot point.
11:44We're also looking to grow student proficiency in each subject on the sixth and through 8th grade annual state assessments by 5%. And we're looking to improve upon school climate and culture as indicated by a 5% decrease in referrals for uncooperative behaviors.
12:01We will explain later on what what those uncooperative behaviors are.
12:07So the question then is how? And a lot of these steps are things that we're already doing, but they're also in addition thing layers on that we're going to add this year. So, um, for a while now, the building has been hosting weekly attendance meetings with support staff, which includes our counselors or school psychologists, with our attendance monitor who works with all three buildings, with Mr. Bear, and with other parties who can help with the restorative justice piece or the reaching out to families piece. So, those are still meeting weekly and we'll continue that through this school year.
12:40In addition, we attend the monthly attendance task force meetings that we're having at the district level that also involve um the DA and other members of the community to help us really look um systemically at how we can help kiddos get to school every day and stress the importance of that because we are one aspect of their lives and we want all of the parts of their lives to support getting to school every day. Continuing to work with Mr. Darren Collins, who's the district's attendance monitor, to visit families and reach out to community organizations to support students in coming to school. And as many of you know, this can look like having the district van go pick up a kiddo that missed the bus, or it can look like reaching out and having a phone call. How can I support your family in getting the kid to school?
13:23We're also, and this is a really fun exciting thing um that we did at MC Smith, what we're also doing at the junior high is incentivizing perfect attendance for every month. And I was blown away in September and October by the amount of students that participate in these awards ceremonies for perfect attendance. They've been pictures on our Facebook page, so if you're interested, you can go check it out. Um, but it's really a wonderful thing and the kids feel the success and special kudos that we're giving them for having that perfect attendance.
13:53One of the next things we're also going to look at is um not only incentivizing perfect attendance, but also students who have gained the most in attendance because not everything needs to be perfect. So if we have a student who one month had 40 or 50% attendance and they increase to 80% attendance, we want to make sure we recognize them as well because again, you know, the the main goal is to show growth. Not everything's going to be perfect, but if we have students who show growth, we want to celebrate their achievements as well.
14:24Priority number two, as stated, is growing student proficiency in each subject, ELA, math, and science, uh, by 5%. One way we're going to do that is use the NWA screening tool to identify needed areas of growth. This is, uh, replacing FastBridge as we used in years past. Um, we believe NWA, the district believes, is a a more efficient screening tool.
14:49We are going to offer high quality tier one instruction in math and ELA. It's something we already believe we do. Um, you know, it's just we're giving an opportunity to just we're looking to increase it um standards aligned, rigorous, engaging, and relevant tier one instruction. We're also offering uh tier 2 and tier three instruction. We're looking to increase the number of students receiving all that. Um, we've created a few additional classes at the junior high level in which students have the ability to uh receive tier 2 instruction who were not receiving it already.
15:25Um, we're also looking to create a positive culture around assessments and academic effort. If you remember last year, I stood in front of you and one of my main goals was to increase uh participation in the state tests last year. Happy to report we achieved that um considerably. Last year, I believe we only had about 16 students in the eighth grade who uh opted out of math. So, and the ELA. So, it was it we had a great um great result out of that. So, just positive culture all around will hopefully help lead to this uh goal.
16:04And then our third priority for the year, again something that you'll see that we've been doing, but just enhancing and synthesizing it more so that can really target kiddos that are in need of these supports. Um, so we're looking to improve school climate and culture as indicated by a 5% decrease in referrals for uncooperative behaviors. And as you all know, making a goal, it's very important that it's measurable. And so we looked at uncooperative behaviors as being some of the specific um identifiers in e school, which is our behavior tracking system that are the most disruptive to class, the most um the ones that create the least cooperation in a classroom.
16:41They really center around respect, trust, um equity, justice, things like that. So, um, one of the words that's used, unfortunately, in our referral tracking system is insubordination, which really comes down to a place of disrespect of another student, of a teacher, of um, anyone in in the learning environment. And so, we're looking to decrease the referrals that really target that uncooperative behavior. We're still going to have late, we're still going to have tardies, um, their kids learning how to manage and budget their time. Um, and they're also teenagers and they're still learning how to navigate the world. So, we're not looking to decrease all of our referrals, but really just target those ones that focus on respect in the culture.
17:26So, to do that, um, we are going to continue to grow the ruler program that the district has adopted and has been in MC Smith now for three years. Uh, many of the staff in the junior high are very familiar with it, but we haven't really rolled it out to the students yet. So we're taking this year to ensure that all of the staff are familiar enough with the program, the language, the tools, the components to be able to implement it in their classrooms because as everyone knows, you can't um teach something that you don't understand.
17:57So as part of that, we're working this year to have a goal that 100% of our teachers have a mood meter displayed in their classroom, which is one of the chief components of the ruler program to help students be able to name their emotions. because in order to regulate your emotions, you have to first be able to identify them.
18:16So, we're just looking at that basic step of ruler and then to build on that in years to come. We're also hoping to train more staff on restorative practices. We have um several wonderful staff, Mr. Collins, the Mr. Walker's double that know these restorative practices and can help us and the students navigate this every day. But we see that we could benefit from training additional staff in that work. and then also developing systems of communication between the people practicing the restorative conferences with students and the teachers or other students that were involved.
18:51So, not only are the core people who were involved in the disruptive experience having the restoration, but the class as a whole or the group as a whole that experienced it. So, that um it's really all-encompassing and branches out to a multitude of students. At this point, we'd love to take questions and open it up to discussion, thoughts that you might have or items of clarification needed.
19:23Leona. [clears throat]
19:25So, I think it was on slide three. Can you explain like how is the um like one or two how is it being scored? Like is that of like like a total number? Can you explain a bit more? in regards to the weighted average.
19:41Yes,
19:42there there's a formula that um the state ed uses and so they basically just make us aware of what where we fall in regards to each category.
19:54This wasn't data we compiled this data given to us.
19:57Okay. Um I have another question. Can you please explain what tier one, tier two, and tier three is on slide seven or six? Sorry. Sure.
20:09So it's uh you know in education jargon's always changing right the words it's always existed that you're looking at groups of students in collective holes. So tier one refers to the greatest population of students that are served by the general curriculum. It's usually around 80 85% and that is the group of students to whom you are delivering the core curricular instruction. Tier 2 is then looking at 10 to 15% of the students which are students who are in need of repeated instruction or alternate seating, not necessarily an IEP, but just kids that benefit from more differentiation in the classroom instructional methods.
20:53So both tier one and tier 2 are often provided within the classroom and classroom teachers are trained to be able to provide both of those levels of instruction. Tier three is looking at the other 5% of kiddos that maybe don't um glean the information that we're trying to provide to them upon the first instructional mode within the first instructional mode. So they would be students that could benefit from an AIS class or a smaller group environment or students that might then end up having an IEP or a special education classification because they need additional repeated instruction or it's it broken down in a different way or more hands-on materials.
21:31So, it's really just talking about how we want to solidify that instruction at the tier one level and then also continue to increase the amount of students who are supported at tier 2 and tier three. One thing I wanted to add on is um we talked about tier one instruction using the Questar math specialist as a resource for that because she can really help uh coach our teachers in providing a broader array of tier one instruction.
21:58Does that help answer your question?
22:00Yes. Thank you.
22:02Oh, wait. I have two more questions. I'm sorry. What is
22:05Never apologize for asking questions. It's a really good skill.
22:08What is the ruler SEI?
22:13So, um it's actually ruler seal which is social emotional learning and that's basically um it's a it's a program that it's a basically a curriculum. Correct Miss Pat uh Miss Patch? So, it was ran at MC Smith who use it and we are implementing it now. Um, we're beginning to implement it with our sixth graders and then we're going to start rolling it out throughout the uh seventh and eighth grade as well.
22:40So, I can clarify. So, SEAL is another, you know, with education, we love acronyms. So, social emotional learning, but ruler itself is an acronym that stands to um be able to recognize your emotion, understand your emotion, label your emotion, regulate your emotion, and then oh, sorry, I did it backwards. Express your emotion, and then regulate your emotion.
23:00So, it's working with kids because, as science has proven, we can't do uh anything cognitive unless our basic human needs are met. And so it's making sure kids have the ability to meet their basic human needs, express their basic human needs, and regulate their basic human needs so that they can more aptly um benefit from the instruction being provided.
23:22Thank you. No more questions.
23:26Miss Sheridan,
23:28um I have a I'll I'll start with um Ruler since one one of my questions has to do with ruler. Um, Miss Patch, can you tell us a little bit about how effective and what you noticed at the elementary school and how you think um it would best be implemented here at the junior high that you know, you've only had a few months, but so far.
23:50Sure.
23:52uh at MC Smith, you know, I didn't prepare data from there based upon ruler, but anecdotally, I would say that I saw students being able to express their feelings and recognize that they were their feelings alone, and that didn't necessarily um change how someone else was feeling or thinking. So, what I would see were students in the playground saying, "I was really mad when you took the ball." And then the other students saying, "Yeah, but I'm really sad cuz I want to turn." And so just them being able to identify their feelings provided them with the groundwork to then have a conversation about equity and turntaking and etc.
24:29It's [clears throat] going to look a little bit different at the junior high especially for these first couple of years because our current sixth graders are somewhat familiar with it in that they used it at MC Smith and fourth and fifth grade but our seventh and eighth graders really weren't at MC Smith for any of the groundwork of the program. And so it's starting from scratch in some ways with them. Um, and we've had discussions about how we don't have a morning meeting because we run in blocks of 40inut periods that how are we going to do a mood meter check-in every period and that would eat too much into instructional time.
25:04And so we've had conversations about where does that fit in the day? Maybe it's when they come back after recess because just like at MC Smith, that's when emotions and feelings are often the highest. they've had um even older kids have had some free time, some unstructured time, and
25:19so they might need some processing time before they jump into curriculum again. Um so we're looking at ways to use it at the junior high level. Um the other beautiful thing about kids at this developmental level is that they can create some of the ideas themselves. And so we're hoping to involve student voice in what ruler looks like at the junior high. Um, I would say overall anecdotally, again, I saw referrals go down. Um, because when you can regulate your emotions and express your emotions, you're much more likely to solve a conflict with words than with actions.
25:58Thanks. Um, I have a couple of questions on on other topics. Um one one of them is um about ha how are you doing with the um placement of students or do you have any data on the placement of students and uh the number of students in tier 2 and tier three currently receiving services?
26:18Um well I we we do have data. I did not bring that data with us. Um so we just finished the NWA benchmark for the beginning of the year. We're actually still in the process of finishing up some students, but we've really began to implement and use that data. Um, so any student who tested out rece needing tier three instruction, we have placed them in AIS classes. Um, many of our seventh grade students who need uh tier 2 instruction in math or ELA are receiving an additional class. Um, and before we received this NWA data, we we went off the end of the year uh benchmarks for FastBridge from last year.
27:00Can you send that data to us so that we can have a follow?
27:02I can get it for Absolutely. Yeah,
27:04that was one of my questions too.
27:05Yeah, abs. Absolutely. I'll compile it for you. I
27:08So, they're get getting an extra math and like an AIS class. Is Is that what you're talking about?
27:12Some of our seventh grade students are. Yes.
27:15How many sessions of that do you have? How many groups of tier two?
27:20Uh I believe it's two. Math is math is two and ELA I believe they're both two
27:28two groups of tier 2 and math and two groups of tier 2 and ELA.
27:32Yeah, I would have to go back and double check.
27:34And you're looking at to see you're going to look at the data to to let us know what's shifted since the test. Well, I'm going to get you the data of who's who's taking who has tier 2 and tier three instruction based off the NWA data
27:48currently.
27:49Yes.
27:50So, because we didn't, excuse me, [clears throat] because we didn't have the NWA data to make the groupings for this academic year, I think what we're both looking forward to is the January data from MWA because that's going to show us more of the growth. This was a benchmark. It's using a different assessment tool. So, it's hard to measure compare fast bridge with NWA. We can
28:12give us that in January, too.
28:14Absolutely. Absolutely. And we're looking forward to seeing what that looks like because I think that's where we'll see more of the movement.
28:21And you're no longer doing FastBridge.
28:23NWA replaced Fastbridge.
28:26Okay. Is that Dr. Billy? Didn't we talk about
28:28I'm sorry.
28:29I was Never mind. I'll I'll ask Dr. I I I was under the I was under the impression that we were going to keep Fastbridge.
28:37FastBridge is used being used as a progress monitoring tool,
28:41which it always was.
28:42Yeah. So, and we're also using it for a social emotional piece for the Sabres.
28:46Still you still have FastBridge. Yeah,
28:48we we do. Yes.
28:50For benchmark on academics.
28:52So, all of our beginning, middle, and end of year assessments are NWA.
28:57Um I wanted to um I have two more things. I'm sorry to take um the attendance
29:04um I um at our last or the time before board meeting um uh Laura Bender mentioned we had asked the high school we were talking about attendance and you know it's an issue across the board for all buildings and she had suggested and it was a great suggestion that we need to focus on attendance in classrooms as well. It's not enough to just get kids into school. they need to be in the classrooms and on time. So that's just I'm just putting that out there reiterating her you know what what she said because um I mean that could be a part of the perfect attendance you know it should be tardiness and attending classes. AB: Absolutely. And we've discussed that in our attendance meeting how we're going to start uh you know spending a certain amount of time in that meeting discussing tardies whether it's you know getting to class within five minutes or but it definitely right we need kids in class and being productive not just in the building. Absolutely.
29:58And then um I I asked Derrick the same question. Um but from from your um task force um for the attendance and your attendance meetings, what are you what information are you gleaning from that getting from the the community um partners?
30:18Um how's that being implemented?
30:20So far a lot of it has been what barriers are preventing our students from getting to school? How how can we break down those barriers? What assistance can we offer? how can we uh partner within you know with the community and what resources are available to us. Um obviously you know we we know a lot of what our barriers are but it's really a lot of it is just coming together as one you know with the whole approach trying to figure out how can we each and every one of us contribute to support you know getting a student to school each and every day.
30:51Some element of that task force as well has been looking at resources from other school districts across the country because as we know postcoid uh the numbers of attendance have become a significant issue for many school districts. So it's been nice to have um like a hive mind almost of people who have heard of initiatives that have worked in different schools or I went to a PD with a school that had a a walking bus and so we've discussed options and things like that. Um, so it's not it's a chance for everyone to get together and brainstorm and then look at what we can implement and how we can measure that.
31:26Can I just have one?
31:28And you have [clears throat]
31:32Oh boy. [laughter]
31:34Um, so the last one is about um restorative just restorative practices, right? Um, and I'm just wondering how um, so you mentioned Malachi and you mentioned um, Darren. How does how are you able to transfer get that into the classroom? Because my experience has been that it's a separate entity um, and it wasn't yet being used. It was talked about being used for um, kids returning from um, long-term suspension or any suspension, right, to to to give them that.
32:08So, absolutely. So, uh Mr. Walker's he's been phenomenal. Um and he's providing it's you know almost like a three- tiered approach. One, we are he's obviously taking care of a lot of mediation. So, dealing with conflicts as they arise, but we really are, like you said, trying to get him in the classroom and looking at the proactive preventive preventative proactive approach. So, um Miss Patch has been instrumental in helping get him in a few of our classrooms and she can really speak to So, one uh classroom in need we identified at the very beginning of the year had a lot of kids who were struggling with transitioning from home into their morning program and getting right down to academics.
32:49So, at the beginning of the year, we asked Mr. Walker to spend several mornings in there doing a circle with the students to help them transition between home or outside and the academic piece of their program. So we started off with him five days a week and then he went down to three days a week and now he's doing it at this point in the year one day a week and we've already seen referrals in that class go down difficulties interpersonally that the students are having um minimized because they have a place to put those conversations and um for anyone who doesn't know a lot of the work restoratively is on just relationship building and when you're a community of learners that care about each other and know each other you're much less likely to trigger each other
33:32And so it he is doing those what I would say again like tier three uh mediations with students coming back from um from time away from school to help them reenter, but he's also doing that tier one approach where he's going into classrooms and leading a circle. He's also been into some of our sixth grade rooms in the same capacity. Um, and also the other, you know, tier one piece he does too is he's out in the hallways all of the time when he's not scheduled with a meeting, especially building relationships with our sixth graders who he is new to.
34:06Thank you.
34:07Thanks.
34:07Is it my turn?
34:08Oh, I'm sorry. Um, so some of my questions were answered, but I also wrote some questions before we got the presentation because this this this agenda was was kind of last minute in a lot of different ways. So I hope you don't mind entertaining some oddball questions.
34:26Not at all.
34:27Um, but there were cuts at the junior high school and I'll specifically ask about the sixth grade. Uh what did we do to make sure that the sixth grade students had cohesive equal social studies classes since each individual teacher had to compensate for the one social studies that was left? Like how did you manage a an individual curriculum for three was it three different teachers? I I don't remember how many teachers left.
34:54So we have so every teach [clears throat] every teacher is teaching a section of social studies. So all four um
35:01but do they have common planning time? I didn't see anything about materials. We weren't asked for materials.
35:06So currently they don't have common planning time other than their prep which they have every day same period. But we have been using times in PLC's. Actually we used our PLC time today to talk a little bit about what that looks like because we've been talking about how um different classes are grading differently and how that can inform our instruction. And a conversation we had was this year which is an anomaly we're hoping that um that when we have student uh teachers from different discipline levels how are they making sure that that program is the same. So they are having conversations in PLC's with us.
35:40We've also provided them with and I think Miss Renoitz was it social studies weekly? I think we got them the like a scholastic magazine.
35:47Yeah. Studies weekly. We we got them the license for that. years.
35:50Um, and as well as the social studies department chair at the high school offered her assistance when whenever needed. She would come down and and meet with all of them and help support and um, you know, offer any guidance. So,
36:05um, so speaking of PLC's, that was another one of my questions. As a result of the data collected in last year's PLC's, what changes were implemented this year and how do you evaluate your own changes from last year's PLC's?
36:17Um well obviously based off of you know we have we had a lot of lot of changes from from last year. Um so in regards to whatever we collected um you know I don't know how to
36:34spit it. It's okay. We'll get it. We'll get it. We don't have to be eloquent here.
36:39This is a this is a school. We say things how they are right. Well, we basically just whatever data we took, we we created the master schedule with everything with all the data in mind. Um, we basically just created the doing it the best way to support all the students and the staff. I don't what what I don't know what data you're you're discussing.
37:00Well, it's your data. You collected the data, right?
37:02I know. I don't have we had we had eight months worth of PLC's last year so I don't know exactly what
37:09what did you make any changes and what were they based on that's all your schedule
37:14I can speak to just one minor change but I think sometimes those minor changes have a big impact so again I wasn't at the junior high last year but I did help with PLC's at Mc Smith and we were using the datawise um template which is a a Harvard based program to look at um a spiral of action and Our note-taking document was based on that and provided to us by the executive director of teaching and learning at the time. And a lot of the feedback from teachers, at least at MC Smith, was that it was a little bit verbose and a little bit cumbersome to capture the note-taking and conversations from each PLC. So, I readapted it this summer and streamlined it. And that's the one we're using at the junior high as well, so that it has more functionality. We're still taking teacher feedback. Um, today we had a sixth grade teacher say, "I'm not really sure where to type this note." And so we're still adjusting the note-taking so that our data and our documentation is a more seamless process.
38:13Okay. Uh, so as you know, there's a new promotion and retention policy this year. Uh, since since there was a benchmark in September and one in October and then we finished the first quarter, um, this is the time to reach out to families to make meetings. Have you done that? And how many have been responsive to that?
38:30We we have started to um we are also going off of the MTSS process that's defined by the branching minds playbook. So I have already um reached out to all staff. The first step in the process is coming up with a school level uh team and all the teachers who have all the staff I should say uh who are interested have responded to me. We are going to conduct our first meeting in the first week of December and then they we will meet one to three times a year. Then we will implement the grade level MTSS teams who alled begin uh meeting. But our school counselors have also been meeting with families of students who uh may be struggling academically or who have uh need who have areas of opportunity. So we have been in contact with many families.
39:21I think I have uh just I'll skip that one. That one time. So um let's see. The only other question I think that I'll ask for today uh is that do you have a timeline date for teacher evaluation so we know when all that's going to come to like a a general idea of when you think that's going to be done?
39:40Well, obviously they'll be completed by June 1st. Um but we have the email went out to all teachers this week uh asking them to begin scheduling. So miss they've been divvied up between Miss Patch and myself.
39:52Awesome.
39:52The email went out I believe was it yesterday?
39:56Um so it went out and we have three teachers set it up yesterday. Um so we will be I'm giving the email stated we'll give everyone until about February to set it up and then if not we'll to schedule their own and then at that point we'll schedule.
40:12So
40:14Mike, you had a question? Yeah, I have a question. [clears throat] Okay. Okay, I was watching your presentation here. Um, I see all the solutions to improve. Have you ever gone back and looked to see what the root cause of all the issues were? Was it classes? Was it teachers? Was it What was it that got us into the situation that we're in now where we're being watched by the state so closely and ranked so poorly?
40:43I I mean we have tried to to go take a look back. Obviously, it's been a little bit difficult because a lot of this information is going is goes to central administration. So, with a lot of the turnover, we haven't been privy to a lot of the data. Um this is Miss Patch's first year at the junior high. This is my first full year at the junior high as the as the principal. Um so, that is obviously right. we always want to get to the underlying and root cause and figure out how to how to fix the issue there. Um, but that will be part of the work that we continue to find the root cause. Um, obviously as we get deeper into the school year, we'll begin to gather more data to really hopefully help us come up with solutions on how to prevent these issues.
41:30Yeah, the solutions look great. It's just why did we get there?
41:34Absolutely. Why why are we
41:35saying but was did things change after co
41:38is that when we saw the decline
41:41again for me it's hard I I think overall in every school district I would say yes that's the answer um for you know I've only been in this position since July 1st I was interm last year so I don't have that much
41:54but you were the AP too though
41:56for four months so I don't have but I'm saying I don't have I'm not privy to that that deep of the data that
42:03I also would I'd like to speak a little bit about the idea of a growth mindset because I've been part of several educational communities and especially when you're new as we are in various definitions of the word um and you come in and you start to look at what went wrong, what did you do? You're met with a lot of defensiveness and then the progress has kind of shut down. So I think you're 100% right. There's got to be root causes. Whether it's COVID, whether it's cell phones, whether it's increased mental health issues, you know, we could point all these fingers at it, but I think what we're really trying to focus on is how to grow and grow across the board so that it's no longer a way in which we're identified.
42:44Well, I I mean, I think also the these classifications are new, but for our district as a whole, it's not new. We were a targeted district in 2011 2012, you know, we ticked back up so that we weren't targeted anymore and then coing. Yeah.
43:00Yo-yo.
43:01Yeah. So these are are systemic issues.
43:04The other and the other thing is that the the state changed the testing and that and then they went from paper to computers. Those are all factors, too. there. There's a ton of stuff that goes into
43:16In addition to that, we've talked a lot about that that identifier of Hispanic, which we realized through our work last year at the uh elementary school in looking at the SKEP plan is that that's largely self-reported by families too. And so then how much of that data is very accurate? So that's why we've tried to take more of an approach of what can we do to help every kid
43:39do better because as all of us know data can be really valuable but you can get lost in a bog of it and you really need to just focus on what are some key achievable items and so we worked really closely with Dr. Bailey on achievable goals things that we can grow this year um and then look to grow upon that year after year. Amanda,
44:02I just have one quick thing and I promise I'll be fast. Um, I one first I really appreciate that this is really like quantifiable that it feels achievable to your previous point and that I think you're tackling like we need kids in seats.
44:14We're looking at what their core academic programming is and we're looking at the like community building that creates a space. And so I I really appreciate that. Um I don't expect you to answer this right now, but it would be great to see um just reports. This is similar to a question I asked in the high school one too, like of like what the attendance is and year-over-year like is October better this year than it was last year? If it's not, then what are we tweaking? Um, just to make sure that we are like moving in the right direction on that. Oh, and if you have an answer now, great. I don't expect you to pull it off your head.
44:45I don't have an answer now, but what I can do is tomorrow I can send you the monthby-month attendance because that was that was my big initiative last year. Amazing. Like I felt like coming in last year, especially, you know, coming in in October, there was a few things I could control like immediately and I felt like attendance was one of them. I'm happy, you know, we the attendance I we increased it by about 8% last year and I tracked it monthly. So I can I can send that out to everyone tomorrow on what our monthly attendance rates were
45:12and I don't have it in front of me now, but I believe for September and October we were above 90% across
45:17Amazing every day.
45:18That's awesome.
45:19Every day. So
45:20yeah, it's huge. Thank you.
45:24That's it. That was my
45:26Thanks.
45:28Uh yeah, I'm just wondering, can you can you quantify the the referral space here? Um 5% decrease like how many
45:36is that is that I I'm having trouble visualizing, I guess, how how what impact it is to students to to get that down 5%.
45:44Absolutely. Well, and what I can do is I can include in my in the data I send over tomorrow, I can show you the the I can just do it monthly, the monthly referrals for for the three um disruptive behaviors, insubordination, and disrespect. So, I can provide how many referrals if you'd like I can do for the month of October and just show you, you know, what five decreasing by 5% would contribute to.
46:06Okay. Kenny, do you think could you if you have the data on on the number of students in the different um that are receiving AIS math and AIS the tiered the different tiers? Y that would be awesome too.
46:19Yeah, I'll put that all together in a little spreadsheet for everyone.
46:22More than three things because we can't remember more than three.
46:25Well, you can remember three and he can remember [laughter]
46:28it's all on video.
46:29Yeah, true. helpful.
46:31Um, uh, last thing you called it out, but create a positive culture around assessments and academic effort. I'm around a lot of junior high schoolers and you you hear them say like, you know, these state tests don't matter. They don't affect my grades. And it just seems like a really tough battle to get them to take them seriously. And I don't know how to do that or how to change that message.
46:54But I've heard them even say like, I just go in, I just fill in like the same bubble like all the way down the sheet. Um and and that's kind of what I was you know when I discussed about participation last year we we hit our goal of maximizing participation but now how do we not only maximize participation but how to maximize effort and that's something that's discussed on a daily basis whether it's in PLC's attendance meetings staff meetings um I I think that's you know that's the age-old question and it's something we're really still trying to come up with um you know you really You can't obviously incentivize performance, right?
47:32So, it's really a lot of it is creating that culture, getting wanting getting students to have that intrinsic motivation, wanting to do it for themselves, want to become better people, better more successful. Um, I think it starts with just the staff who we have in the building and the staff's phenomenal, right? They're showing our students how to be productive citizens, how to want it from within. Um, it can also be relying on community members, members outside in in Hudson who have, you know, who have risen to be really successful, productive individuals. Um, so so there's there's a lot of things we can do, but it is a work in progress. Unfortunately,
48:10I think it's a balance as we incent uh not incentivize performance, which was uh which is not what we're trying to do, but um as we encourage effort, um I think it is a balance with the kids who who say that the score doesn't matter and it doesn't impact my grades and we see the alternate trend in uh in a different set of kids um which is test anxiety um and extreme stress. So I think you know finding a balance there and me finding a middle ground um is the real tricky spot
48:42and we talk a lot about that and I think Mr. Bear is exactly right that it's culture and having taught sixth grade a lot of the conversations I would have with the students would be to destigmatize and like remove the fear base from that testing situation. So I used to equate it to them like it's a measurement tool. We want to know what your brain how your brain works right now as a sixth grader and then we're going to measure it again next year and we're going to see oh my gosh your brain really grew or no your brain didn't grow in this way and so what can you do to step up and take it so that it's not so much attached to value as it is to a measurement tool to help kids know their areas of strengths and their areas of challenge.
49:23Is it is it fair to say that it's not testing the students, but it's testing the school?
49:29What do you mean by the state test?
49:31I mean, at the end of the day, it's it's for the state to talk about
49:35Oh, the designation you're talking about.
49:36Yeah. And and so, you know, if I don't know if it's less stressful to a student in their mind that it doesn't necessarily weigh on them, but it weighs on the collective or something.
49:45Oh, I I think that's fair to say. Yeah. I mean, I don't think many of our students would even realize that, you know, and nor should we we want them to, right? Like, we want them to be students and just strive to be the best best individual that they can be, whether it's in the classroom and outside of the classroom. Um, so it's just the same thing with state tests, right? Like we just we want our students to perform to the best of their ability, whether that
50:08I think the more that kids feel confident, like you said, with like high quality tier one instruction, too, the more they walk into a test and they're like, "Oh, I know how to read this. Oh, I know how to do this math problem. Like
50:21that leads to better like when they feel confident in their academics all year long, inherently your scores improve, right? And so I think that it's it's less I mean I don't know my personal opinion is less about test strategy and more just about like academic comfort and confidence all year long, which is like I and again like I appreciate that about this plan. This isn't a test prep plan. is like how do we improve the whole learning community all year which then inherently leads to that.
50:49Yes, Miss Howard.
50:50On that note, and I was going to ask ask about academic tutoring later because I know it's not just junior high school, but there are some children students that are maybe not the most successful and maybe not the least successful, but are in the middle that might want some help and might not be uh an athletic teams. So my first question for everybody was, I haven't heard anything about athletic tutoring. Are we still doing that? And can we provide a tutoring program for the kids that perhaps want to attend to get that extra help so they're ready and prepared for a test or to pass a class or even the state tests?
51:29That was on my list and it wasn't for you.
51:30I can't I can't speak to athletic tutoring aspect,
51:33but do we have the athletic tutoring? I not that I'm aware of this year that we haven't had it.
51:39And what happened with that?
51:43Maybe we can like table that and bring it up once we
51:46I I we're going to find out though.
51:50Yeah. And maybe we can have like a general tutoring for other kids that might want to get help in a certain topic for uh you know to pass a test or their class. I I do know a lot of the junior high school teachers uh let students come to their classrooms during lunch and um either retake tests or go there for help. So,
52:09I mean like test prep or regent or whatever else they need.
52:13Yeah. No, I mean more help is always better.
52:16Well, thank you. Really appreciate you guys having such an engaging conversation and answering tough questions and uh everything that you do.
52:25Thank you all. We appreciate you.
52:27Thank you. Thank you. While it's fresh in my mind, and I hate to go low tech, um, Miss Patch and Mr. Bear are 100% on the right track to try and affect the change in the things that you've discussed. I just want to quickly demonstrate the magnitude of our effort that needs to happen.
52:49So, Labon asked a great question. What's tier one, two, and three? and they mentioned 85% of students should be within that tier one. What that really means is 85% of our students should be proficient by just going to class. Right now 30% are.
53:12So the pyramid, and I'll get out of the way in a second, is supposed to look like this. 85% in the bottom. They get it. They're going to class and they're getting it. And then you have a few that need tier two, which is additional inclassroom or out of classroom. And a little teeny bit, and I grew a big grew a big tier three here, should be that uh intensive uh academic intervention service.
53:40Unfortunately, this is us. This enormous area needs that. What we're constantly trying to do is we're trying to move this line up. We're trying to get as many kids proficient as possible. This is the crisis that we're facing.
53:56And I accept kids are all different from COVID. They're very different students, but they are in every school in New York State. The test changed. They're now they're electronic. It's more complicated, but they're different and they're electronic for every student in New York State. And when it shows that we're a one, that means that we're in the bottom 10% of all schools in New York State. And I keep saying we just don't want to be in the bottom 10%. We need to be 11, 12, 30, 50. That's what we're aiming for.
54:27We need to move this line up this way. And you know which kids we're we're saying like reduce uh chronic absenteeism. You know where you make the most gains? These kids right here. These kids that almost get it. These kids that are almost not chronically absent. these kids that are almost not in trouble all the time. You move these kids first and you build momentum and then this line moves up here and then you'll have a whole new group of kids that need to be moved up just a little bit higher and you just keep doing that.
55:01So when they say 5% that's what they're talking about. They want to move this line up so we have 85 we get closer to 85% of kids who are proficient just by coming to school and doing what they're supposed to. And that granted there are a lot of other things that happen in our district. We're over 66% poverty rate and poverty rate is directly linked to academic outcomes. Um the culturally we've had a vastly changing culture uh within our community that has an impact on these things as well.
55:32But we have amazing resources. We have amazing staff who are perfectly capable. We just all have to agree that this is what we're trying to do. and agree on the few things that we're going to do to do it. Not a hundred things, a few things that will move it that 5%. Three, he's carries it. Three, that's good.
55:57Um, but I really appreciate their thoughtfulness. And they have teams of people that are being just as thoughtful. And what you should continue to hear is continuity between what the elementary is trying to do, the junior high, uh, and the senior high. We're I know we're going backwards. We're going to present the elementary last, but this is the same story that Mr. Brenamman is going to tell. We're trying to move this little piece up a little higher each time.
56:21And um to your questions about data, what we want to do, so we just just did the benchmark. Um all of these things that are up here, we're going to share the data with the board three times a year. And the first one's coming up because we're already starting to measure. You need to know where we're starting from. We'll do another one in January, February. We'll do another one as we approach the end of the year. And um I'll talk more about how we're going to share that when I talk in my um what am I superintendent component, but thank you for your patience.
56:57Thank you.
57:00Um I just want to you use the word crisis, which I don't think anybody's ever used here in a very long time. You're welcome.
57:09Uh yeah. [laughter]
57:11Um and yeah, I I I don't want to uh and I think that that is okay and I think we need to be comfortable with that and I hope the rest of the board agrees that like we want the truth and we want to be talking about the reality of what we need to do um for our students and for the district. So the statistics on the difference between graduating from high school and not are daunting. That's why it's a crisis. And it isn't just about graduation.
57:35All the things we do leading up to it are essential too. But again, indicators, right? If we're not producing graduates, then we're depriving them of millions of dollars in productivity over their lifetime. We're depriving them of choices. It's a crisis for those children, those families.
57:51Yeah.
57:52Every day, and we embrace that together.
57:56Thank you.
57:58Um, all right. Next, we have uh superintendent search presentation from Dr. Kawita Adams. I have a question. Um, did you guys decide on HYA or is this just like an introduction and there's several other firms you guys?
58:17Yes, we uh Dr. Kita Adams is going to be leading our search. Um, I can talk a little bit more about the process in our uh in the board president's report which will come next. But yeah, Dr. Adams will talk about her firm and her background and her experiences in Hudson and um take it from there.
58:35All right. Thank you. Well, I'll go ahead and get started. Good evening and thank you. [laughter]
58:48Good evening and thank you so very much for having me. President Depass and also um the pace I'm so sorry and members of the board uh and sup interim superintendent Dr. Bailey. Um it is so nice to be here with you this evening. Um, I know that we've had an opportunity to meet virtually, but I'm so happy to be here in person, and it's so good to see all of you.
59:13I am a 37-year educator. I am twice retired from two districts, and I love education, and that's why u, as my husband says, who's here with me tonight, Mr. Eric Adams, Senior. Um, that's something that I really am not doing well at retirement. Uh, because I keep working and I keep working in education for our children is I am one of the lead associates for HYA and Associates where we do superintendent searches across the country.
59:51We work with many districts large and small to help them find the best superintendent that fits their needs. And this is quite a joy for me because having been a superintendent, also an associate superintendent, classroom teacher, building level principal is extremely important. And having worked with boards of education, I truly understand that as a board, this is the most important decision that you make in selecting the leader of our school district.
1:00:25And so, as you are aware, um I want to talk to you just a little bit about HYA and then we're going to get into our process. Um we are we are all over the country. uh we have over 130 associates that work and we work in teams or we work depending on the size of the district. We may work individually or we may bring in other associates as needed.
1:00:50Um, one of the things that I would like to emphasize here is that I am not currently working on another superintendent search. And so my attention would be completely dedicated to the Hudson City School District with regard to searching for that superintendent.
1:01:12Also, uh, we are one of the largest superintendent search firms or search companies in the country. uh we have a 94% rate where our superintendents go through their first contract. Uh we do have a guarantee with regard to that and we can talk about that a little bit later if you would like. But we also make sure that we provide the support for our boards.
1:01:36And we want to you to think of us as ambassadors and as partners in this work. And the thing that we really uh emphasize is and I'm going to jump right to this because this is the key of what we're going to talk about tonight. This is our signature process for looking for a superintendent and it explains the process that we go through and it's four stages. We have the engage stage, the recruit stage, the select stage and the transition.
1:02:07And so I'm going to unpack these a little bit and if you have questions, I'm more than happy to take those questions. But in the engage phase, this is where we start by conducting a planning meeting. So I would work with you as a board holistically. I would also meet with each of you individually to see what your priorities are, to see what are those things that you are looking for, to see what some of the challenges have been in the past, as well as where you're looking to go in the future.
1:02:38You've just heard a wonderful presentation from the junior high school and you've looked at those priorities that are at that level. And so finding a superintendent who understands um achievement as well as attendance looking at chronic absences absentees.
1:02:57How would that superintendent be able to contribute to strategies for reducing chronic absenteeism? You'd want to have someone who has um who has experience with that. Also, when you talk about your social and emotional learning, someone who may be familiar with ruler, someone who's familiar with different strategies for helping students understand how to regulate their emotions, to label those emotions, and to understand how to communicate that in ways that are beneficial.
1:03:28And ultimately, you would want to have a superintendent who understands the delivery of quality instruction because at the core of it, when you're talking, as Dr. Bailey mentioned, this group of students that you're trying to move up and increase that 85% that is about the quality, the delivery of quality instruction. And so you need to have a superintendent who understands what some of those strategies are so that they would be able to work with building leaders and with the board as well as with the community to understand here's how we get from point A to point B.
1:04:12And so those needs are going to be unique. One of the things that we do is we will conduct interviews. We'll do focus groups. We'll meet with your communities. And these groups of focus groups, you would determine those with me. You would say, "These are the groups of individuals or groups of, you know, categories that we would like to meet with." Maybe it's a support staff focused group. Maybe it's a teacher uh focused group. Maybe it's a community group. Maybe it's your administrators that you would like to have. You could have separate meetings or you can group them together.
1:04:45While we know that we're not going to be able to speak to every single person in the district, we couple those focus groups with a survey that goes out to your community. You will have input with that survey. What are the questions that you're asking? What's important to you to know from your community? Now the beauty of this survey and the focus groups, we take that information and we develop a leadership profile. This is a critical tool because this is the tool that I will use with regard to recruiting and helping to find candidates that fit our district.
1:05:22And so we have to make sure that that leadership profile truly captures what we would look for in a superintendent in our district. I also want to say that I've worked with districts where there was also a student forum where students were able to meet and talk about hear the types of characteristics that we would like to see in our superintendent because we definitely want to hear that voice. I see that you have a student representative on your board and her voice is absolutely a great voice and I love the questions that you had. It's very insightful and it's also important that we hear from those that we serve.
1:06:08And so the end product with this leadership profile, we're using this to help drive our candidate pool. And so we would look for candidates that match that that leadership profile. After this, then we would look at the select phase. This is where you take more of a lead in that I would provide you with a slate of candidates. You will look at the backgrounds of those candidates. Of course, I would share them with you in terms of a tier one, tier two, tier three and then you would determine those candidates that you would like to bring to the table to interview.
1:06:44Once you do that from that slate, then I go ahead and I set up the interviews for you. We organize everything. It's done in according to how you would like that done. And then we move forward with the interview process. that interview process, you determine how you would like to do that. Okay? And if there are multiple interviews, so usually there's a screening interview and then usually there's another interview. Sometimes there's a third interview depending on how many applicants we have on the slate and those that you want to move forward.
1:07:21By the time it gets to um the end of that selection phase and you've narrowed it down to your final list, I don't say your top three. I don't even say your top five. Why? Because every board is different. You can have as many finalists as you would like. But you have to determine what's the criteria that sets one candidate higher than the other. And so typically people will have three finalists. But I will say to you, there's no magic number. You can determine how many finalists you choose to have.
1:07:54Once you determine your finalist, um then we would have that the final interview process. And we can do this a number of ways. There are some districts that they like to have a meet and greet with their community where the finalists meet with the community. There are questions that are asked. We can take those questions ahead of time. We sort them out. We let the the candidates know here are some of the potential questions that you might see because some of the questions they might need to prepare for.
1:08:25So we give them a list of questions. It doesn't mean that every question will be asked during that meet and greet but they have an idea of what to expect so that they can answer and then there will be questions from the floor. We can take questions directly from the floor and then we can ask those questions and you would have a moderator for that particular event. Um it can take place uh let's just say that you have three finalists. You could set up three different rooms. They could be going simultaneously and then it's like a roundroin. And so in one room it might be community members. In another it might be um students, in another it may be adults in terms of faculty and staff.
1:09:07So you can set it up however you would like and I'd be more than happy to facilitate that. And then we would have that particular that particular group would then give you feedback on their thoughts. They're not voting for the person, but the questions are objective types of questions that they would answer in a feed, you know, electronically. And then you would get that feedback to say, here are some of the things that stood out about each particular applicant. And then you would be able to make a choice from that.
1:09:39So those are some things that we could do after that. Then we look at the actual selection process. You would decide which person you would deter you would decide to hire. We go through the negotiations process and then one of the things that we do is we have for a couple of months we have a transition piece that we do and that helps that particular hire assimilate to the district understand the board. We facilitate those particular discussions so that everyone is on the same page with a smooth transition and that's something that we've added to our process.
1:10:19The other piece that I want to emphasize about that is we help you create a dashboard and this dashboard can include your priorities and how well you are moving toward those goals for those priorities and it becomes a public document. So not only do you as a board see that progress, your community can see that progress. Teachers and support staff and students can see that process.
1:10:48There are numerous times where we've worked with districts where um for example, some of the questions about how do you go about measuring your success? What are those indicators? Well, in a dashboard, you would be able to see what those indicators are and see how the school measures up to those particular indicators. And so that's something that we can do as well.
1:11:15Uh we do have some optional transition services. If you turn to the back of the document that I gave you, you can see those are not included in the presentation tonight, but it gives you an idea of some of the transition services that we do have as you move forward.
1:11:37Now, that's the core of what we do and who we are. Okay, there is quite a bit of background on HYA and I know that um you can absolutely look through that information and see where we are and where we rank. Um and one of the things that I do that you've heard me say a little bit about is being your ambassador and working as partners. It is a partnership.
1:12:04This is what I commit to you in being a partner with you in finding the best superintendent for our district, for the Hudson City School District. I'm going to wrap up now and um I don't know if you want me to go ahead and take questions or
1:12:26if anyone has any questions.
1:12:28I have one.
1:12:29Well, I think it just be also be helpful to talk about your prior experience with the Hudson City. So, two years ago, um I was hired to work with the school district in developing the school improvement plans and the district improvement plans. And in doing that, um one of the things we had one school that was a TSI school and we made the bold decision collectively um to to have each school have a school improvement plan. And the reason that we did that was so that we would have that continuity of instruction.
1:13:07So that when the and and I'm going to pick on the example of of SEAL and the use of ruler. If students are learning ruler in one environment and it does not transcend to the other environment, it's a disservice to the students because they learn something that may work and it becomes beneficial to them and then they go to junior high or they go to high school and it's dropped.
1:13:31And so one of the agreements that was made was that Ruler would be consistent throughout all three schools with regard to social and emotional learning because we do know that if students don't have their basic needs taken care of and if they are not socially and emotionally in a place where they can receive education, they are not in that best space. And there are numerous reasons why students can and cannot be successful. But one of the number one reasons that students can be successful is when you provide a safe learning environment and you address the social and emotional learning needs of each student.
1:14:13And so we did work with that and I did offer before and I'm happy to provide that to you. We did surveys at the end. The process was a very smooth process. We did um end up with the the DIP which is the district comprehensive improvement plan and that set the stage for what would happen at the district level.
1:14:36But one of the things that was really that I commend the faculty and staff about in developing the DIP that was not developed until after each school developed their school improvement plans. So this was not something that was done top down. It's not like people sat in a room and said, "Okay, for the district, here's what we're going to do now. Schools live long and prosper and go forward." That's not how it was done. Each school, Cheryl, you were there. Each school developed their school improvement plans. And from that school improvement plan, those school improvement plans, what's the through line? What's the common threat?
1:15:19And from there, that's when the broader district improvement plan was developed. So now you have a full complement of continuity of instruction from elementary to junior high to high school which then in turn means that your social and emotional learning becomes consistent. Your chron you're addressing chronic absenteeism becomes consistent because some of the same strategies would be used elementary, junior high and high school.
1:15:48And then at the core of it all looking at the delivery of quality instruction. How do we engage students at a level where they where we hit this 85% and we increase that 85% so that the majority of our students at the tier one level are successful just by coming to school and being engaged in the classroom.
1:16:16So that's just a little bit about my background and the work that I've done here.
1:16:22Awesome. Leona You go.
1:16:25No. No.
1:16:26Thank you. Can you explain the graph? Um it's like is those numbers um um like 93 90 88 are those numbers the amount of
1:16:37which ones?
1:16:37Oh uh slide six.
1:16:40Oh this slide
1:16:42the what the graph represents on the slide you were just on.
1:16:45Oh okay.
1:16:47Yeah. like 93, 90, 88. Are those like the amount of superintendent or people like executive positions you've hired?
1:16:56So those are percentages.
1:16:58Okay,
1:16:58those are percentages and it's it's comparing HYA with other companies in terms of the percentages of that 94% that stay the full for the first full contract.
1:17:13All right. Thank you. I have another question.
1:17:14Sure. Is location a factor when you're searching for a superintendent? Is like is it like a specific thing a board can ask? Because I feel like if you're getting someone from Florida, they're coming all the way up here. They may have different viewpoints, but is there like a is that something you factor in?
1:17:32Again, that is a board decision. We will cast our net as wide or as narrow as you would like. It can be statewide. It can be regionwide. It can be nationally. Um, however the board makes the decision, then that's what we would do. You'd be surprised how many people want to move. I came from Las Vegas to Albany, New York. [laughter]
1:17:52[snorts]
1:17:52Thank you.
1:17:54Probably regretting that about this time of year, huh?
1:17:56You know, my husband always says this time of year we could be on a beach somewhere.
1:18:00Not in Las Vegas.
1:18:02Yeah, [laughter]
1:18:04California's close. One of the situations we have around here, probably within a 40 to 50 milei radius, there's multiple schools looking for a superintendent.
1:18:12How will that affect us? Because you may have applicants using your firm or another firm. Uh is there a possibility you may get into like a bidding war? What what downfalls can we have to that or side effects?
1:18:27So, I'm going to start with the positive.
1:18:30Okay. The positive is that because there may be a number of opening positions, that means that there are going to be quite a few people to select from and candidates to to look at. What we then would do is [snorts] we would look at who's the best fit. And it's not so our process is not one that is just we put out the job uh description, we post it, and we sit back and cross our fingers and hope someone will apply.
1:18:57We actively go out to people and we actively look at people who are in our qualified selection pool and we tap them and say not making any guarantees but you know this might be a district that you might be interested in. Um the other thing that you have to decide is do you want and you don't you're not making that decision now. I'm just putting it out there. Do you want an open search or do you want a closed search? because that's going to make a difference to some applicants if it's open or closed.
1:19:31What's the difference?
1:19:32So, an open search means that uh probably from the very beginning, if I'm a current sitting superintendent or an assistant superintendent, I'm going to apply for your position and it's open. People know that I'm applying. A closed search means that it is done in a confidential manner and names are not released until you get to the finalist stage.
1:19:56And can you expl explain the reasons districts might choose one or the other?
1:20:01So I will go back to Las Vegas. Clark County School District has an open search by policy. So they cannot do a closed search. So from the very beginning, it is an open search from beginning all the way through. Does it limit people who may choose to apply there? Yes, it does. But you're also talking about the fifth largest school district in the country.
1:20:28And so with that, there is almost an expectation that it is an open search because number one, it's the law, but also you're talking about competing with Broward County, um, Chicago, uh, Dallas, Texas, you're t New York City, you're talking about competing with those much larger districts in a closed search.
1:20:49The benefits of doing a closed search is that if a current superintendent or current assistant superintendent may be looking to move but not really unhappy with where they are and they don't want to send alarm to their community or to their board, then they can apply for jobs confidentially.
1:21:15Typically, there's a greater um a there's a greater candidate pool when it's a closed search, but they all know that by the time if you make it to the finalist, it is going to be public because especially if you are a district that selects to have a meet and greet with your finalist, that's going to be public. But at least they know that they are in the running for a finalist position. And most people are okay at that point with, you know, letting the board know, letting their community know that they are a finalist in a particular district.
1:21:58Um, Leona, one thing I would say just for like for me personally when we first met with Dr. Adams, that was really exciting for me is to your question about local is I think that it's it was really appealing to me to have someone who knew our district and who was like local to this area and familiar with the like what is unique about where we are situated within New York State and sort of like all of the complexities that come with what that means. And so like although HYA is a nationwide firm,
1:22:25I think what was appealing was that the the specific person who we were working with isn't someone who's lives in Boston and is just like zooming in to tell us about this is someone who like deeply knows the community, the complexities of what it means to be like sandwiched just south of the Capitol region and just north of like other districts that pay more than we are able to and all of that. And so that's just something that's exciting I think around that. and then to be able to speak to the intimacy of being in a small community.
1:22:53Um, and I will only share my experience. Um, I'm originally from Louisiana. Uh, my husband's from New Orleans and I'm from Sharport, Louisiana. So, we're both from pretty big cities. Uh, we moved to Las Vegas and Las Vegas was growing um at like 5,000 people per month when we moved there back in the in the early 90s. And to go from a huge district of three, if you can even imagine this, 327,000 students alone, that's just students, 327,000.
1:23:31To come to a community where there was 10,000 students, and and to see how intimate the relationship can be with your community, to get to know your people. There's something to be said when you can walk through the grocery store. or my husband doesn't want to go to the grocery store anymore because we get stopped and it's 45 minutes that you're talking to a family or you're talking to students or you know and they see you and they're like oh hi Miss Adams you're my superintendent those kinds of things you get in a larger district to an extent but it's like this you in a larger district you may not be able to get to know your families the way that you can in a smaller district and in a community and a community like Hudson City.
1:24:16And so, believe it or not, there are people who may want to come from a larger district and come to a smaller district because it really does fit who they are. But again, that's where the leadership profile comes into play and that's where we do that research to see if that's a good fit. because if you know they could come from a large city and not understand the close-knit community and that's not going to be a good fit. It's just not. And so they have to be able to understand that and work with that.
1:24:59Any [clears throat] other questions?
1:25:02Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Adams. We appreciate you coming to visit and look forward to
1:25:06Thank you so very much. And I'm going to tell you, I am still getting used to that, but it's Dr. Bailey, you can you can identify that when it first happened, you had to get used to it. But um I'm getting comfortable with it. So, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. And again, I appreciate um just the consideration. And I want to say thank you again for this evening. And if there are any questions that come up, you're welcome to email me those questions and I'll be happy to get a response. Absolutely. Thank you so much.
1:25:39Okay, brings us to our board reports. Um, audit committee. Uh we had an audit committee meeting on November 13th uh in which Scott Puser, the district's external auditor, uh presented the committee with results of the 2425 audit um and uh recommendations for improvements uh which are going to be reviewed and and uh you know monitored by the committee. Uh and we're tenatively planning to have him present uh to excuse me come present the audit uh to the board on December 16th, our next meeting. Great. Thank you. Uh facilities committee,
1:26:20we were not able to have our meeting that was scheduled today uh due to some staff vacations. We do have another meeting coming up December 16th.
1:26:27Awesome. Thank you. Uh policy committee.
1:26:31Awesome. Uh policy committee met last week. Uh we tackled the beginnings of two big topics. Um, one is developing a policy around booster clubs for um, our district and sort of how we utilize that. That would currently be the the actual like booster committee as well as PTO's um, and how we're um, utilizing them in collaboration with the district.
1:26:53Um, so we have a draft of that which will be ready for the next board meeting but had a much longer discussion kind of about how we want that to to function. Um and then we spent a long time also talking about the process for working on the code of conduct this year um and thinking about um how we have a subcommittee of the policy committee that involves more members of the community, more administrators, more teaching staff um to really take a look at that with the goals of I think um both aligning with I feel like the junior high uh presentation feeds right into this really nicely around how do we like codify all of the restorative work that is happening within the district into our code of conduct and then also how do we take a look at data to really analyze what is or what isn't working currently within the code of conduct [clears throat] um so that our code of conduct is is really supporting students and teachers in achievement you know of all of our goals. Um so those are our policy committee updates.
1:27:54Thank you very much. uh finance committee.
1:27:57Uh the finance committee will be hi holding its inaugural meeting on December 1st.
1:28:03Very exciting.
1:28:06Um and board president's report. Um so most of you are aware we had our special meeting and referendum vote last Thursday, November 13th. Uh thank you to everyone who voted. uh very happy to move the process forward with the Penrose group and uh um hopefully uh take the next step towards uh a new life for JLE.
1:28:32Uh we just heard from Dr. Adams. So uh last week we did meet with three uh different uh search consultants and the board selected um Dr. Adams. Um uh many in the community are probably aware we have worked with HYA in the past. Uh Dr. Adams was not a part of that search. Um they have as she said over a thousand associates and that was a separate team that we worked with in the past.
1:29:01Um we as Amanda mentioned we did feel that her familiarity with um Capitol area uh talent pool and also her familiarity with our district made her a really strong fit. It's great to see her um you know chatting with uh Mr. Bear Miss Patch at the beginning. Um so we feel like those relationships will give her sort of a leg up and she's got famili uh you know intimate knowledge of of you know what was needed for somebody to be um successful here.
1:29:31Um next step is to finalize uh the agreement with HYA and then conduct a special uh board workshop to plan out all the details of the process and the timeline. Um it's definitely top of mind for the board to have community engagement be a significant part of the process. Um so we'll be sure to keep everybody updated um as how that will come to fruition.
1:30:03And then separately uh Dr. Bailey and Mike Zabella attended the um NISBA conference in New York City and had a great time. I'm sure. Yeah, it was actually very very interesting. Um, wasn't quite sure how to handle the whole thing when I first got there, but towards the end of the process, it was very good. Uh, attended, I think it was five or six different meetings
1:30:28over the course of the show, picked up a lot of good things, met a lot of very interesting people,
1:30:33talked to a lot of other uh, districts and some superintendent and uh, is very interesting. Um,
1:30:40hopefully you might be able to implement some of the things that I learned and talked to other people about.
1:30:48Um, and we'll get with that and go from there. One of the things I did here at one of my conferences was uh, one of the superintendents from a local district said how he or on their website they actually have a ask the superintendent a question right on our homepage. Um that was your friend from uh
1:31:09Kanjo
1:31:10Kanjo here. Yes. [laughter]
1:31:11Um which is very interesting because he said he usually guarantees that there will be a response within 48 hours. So I know it puts a lot more pressure on the superintendent but that is I think opening communications with the community and the school a little bit. Um whether it's with you or another super our next superintendent. I think that that that will sort of segue nicely into our conversation about our board goals later, [clears throat] but it's interesting idea.
1:31:41Yeah.
1:31:42And uh one other quick thing, another thing I learned was [clears throat] some of the schools in the state are having a sports program for the students with disabilities,
1:31:55but they're doing it with a mentor. So, it's like oneon-one one student with a student with disabilities and they're having whether it be basketball or soccer or something like that. And some are having inner school competitions or some are actually going to other schools u to try to encourage um the sportsmanship through all levels of students.
1:32:20That's very cool. I know we have an adaptive class.
1:32:25Yeah. That are taken to the next level. So, It's very interesting.
1:32:28There's a also an adaptive um sports association in Columbia County.
1:32:35Okay.
1:32:35And see if we can do something with them.
1:32:37I know obviously there's expense to it, but let's uh I think it might be something well worthwhile, but there's there's a lot of other stuff, too. So,
1:32:44I definitely appreciate being able to go down.
1:32:47Awesome. Thank you. I think the best thing about the conference is exactly as Mike highlighted. You're talking to board members from other school districts and superintendent and NISBA has a requirement that when you're preparing a presentation, it is the voice of those people. So, it's frequently you're seeing the superintendent and a board member and a community member or business administrator or somebody. So, they're telling their story and it it has a little bit more relevancy than just like going to see someone um who's presenting on a topic.
1:33:18It's real world stuff.
1:33:20Yeah. It wasn't just the courses or the seminars we were attending. It was the afterwards
1:33:26where you learn a lot of
1:33:27information too.
1:33:28Yeah.
1:33:30Absolutely.
1:33:31Cool.
1:33:31Oh, I have a question.
1:33:33Yeah. So is there any other specific reasons than like what you mentioned why you chose HYA again?
1:33:41Um again I think it was mostly the uh well a there's not a lot of search firms out there. [laughter] Um uh location had a lot to do with it. There were a lot of search firms there are a lot that are in uh Long Island or Buffalo. we felt like those were not really um that relevant. Um there were others that were from, you know, the Fingerlakes. Um one that was from Connecticut. So again, it was really that, you know, she was the closest in in proximity to us. She knows our district. She knows like the people that are, you know, most likely, you know, the most likely candidates to apply. Um and that really, you know, made the most sense to us.
1:34:31She was a recent superintendent in Albany City School District, too. So, like is really like knows this work deeply in terms of what we're looking for in a superintendent candidate.
1:34:42We definitely talked it out. [laughter]
1:34:47Awesome. Um, okay. It brings us to executive session. We do have a need for an early executive session. I make a motion to enter executive session at 7:29 for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons.
1:35:05Second.
1:35:05All in favor. Uh we will be as quick as we can. Thank you for your patience. to exit executive session at 7:46 p.m.
1:51:44Second.
1:51:45All in favor?
1:51:47Everybody.
1:51:48Uh, brings us to personnel agenda. Any comments, questions. Okay. Make a motion to approve personnel agenda items A 1- 6 and B 1- 12. Second.
1:52:04All in favor? That brings us to uh public forum. Leslie, did anybody say Laura
1:52:12Bender? Laura Bender.
1:52:14As you know, each speaker gets three minutes. We're unable to uh entertain any comments about staff or students.
1:52:30Good evening everybody again. Um, I forgive me because I have comments and maybe a question about a couple of things and I tried to organize it so I'm going to try my best to keep it in order. Um, first a couple of thanks thank yous. Um, thank you for explaining the differentiation of this superintendent search with HYA and the one that was done in the past. I I think that a lot of people looked at the board agenda tonight and got a little bit worried. So, um, having that as a differentiating factor, I think has settled a lot of qualms and and worries that people had. So, thank you for explaining that.
1:53:09Um, thank you to Mr. Zabella to for pointing out that we are one of six school districts around us right now that are searching for a superintendent. So I think we are in a situation where you know we don't want to rush but urgency is is kind of going to be involved in this I think and um I don't know if you have established a timeline yet but I I guess maybe if I can point that out as a question do we have an idea of a timeline?
1:53:43We're we're trying to have somebody uh in place by July 1st.
1:53:48Okay. It's ambitious, but um
1:53:51yes,
1:53:51that's the goal.
1:53:53And uh while while I'm still on the topic of that, I really liked Dr. Adams um presentation with regard to um the different levels of stakeholder involvement. And I know the last time that HYA did the search, the stakeholder groups began in the beginning um with the characteristics we were looking for as far as a superintendent. I would if just I can put my input in in on that. If we could encourage the use of those stakeholder groups beyond that initial input, I think it would be a really good idea. Um, your staff have been here for a really long time and know the culture of our buildings and know the culture of the community and we're very much invested in Hudson and if we could be part of that process beyond just the initial getting of the characteristics, it would be much appreciated on our end.
1:54:48And on an unrelated comment, um, in regards to the development of the code of conduct, um, I very much appreciate that we're taking a look at it again.
1:54:58And just a a a reference for the code of conduct that was developed in 2020. At the end of 2019, uh the board had asked the student council at the high school to look over a proposed code of conduct and then in 2020 everybody knows what happened and everything went crazy and we all went home for COVID and then it just kind of never happened. So just a suggestion to put it out into the universe. I don't know where it will go but if you have um the prerogative of involving the students, it would be very much welcome I think on their end.
1:55:35For sure.
1:55:36Thank you everybody.
1:55:37Great. Thank you very much.
1:55:42Anybody else, Leslie?
1:55:44Uh, no, that's it.
1:55:46Brings us to the superintendent report.
1:55:48So, Lav and I met yesterday to talk about the agenda and um and she admirably talked about all the activities that are happening at school and right in alignment with what Miss Patch and Mr. Bear just presented on, there's one glaring missing piece of information that every student should know. What are we working on and how are we doing? Because we're all agreed that um the staff need to know, the teachers and the sports staff and the administrators need to know, the families need to know and the beneficiaries of what we're trying to do.
1:56:28They absolutely need to know. And one of the things that we discussed is that, you know, even if you're a high performing student, um your who's in AP classes or pre-ol or going over to Florida. If the school is better, it is better for everybody. And you heard them say that over and over again in their presentation.
1:56:49We need to be screaming uh at every opportunity. All right, screaming is not the right word. We need to be sharing at every opportunity what we intend to do, how it's going to be measured, and what the data says. It should be on every TV in every one of our buildings. We're blessed with lots of inside the building communications. Um, it should be on our website. It should be on our Facebook page. It should be in communications that go home to families.
1:57:14The progress that we're making or not making needs to be publicly exhibited. We need to rally around successes. We need to embrace around things that are broken. Until we are able to do that, we will not move the needle. We will not close the gap. We will not do the things that we intend to do. So, um, the next time when she presents, she will have exposure. She'll know what it is we're trying to do. I She's blessed. She's at the board meetings. I mean, so she can hear the principles discussing it. But this is not [cough and clears throat] where people should be getting all their information. So, we're going to change our tune and we're going to um,
1:57:55what was that word, Matt? Not transparent.
1:57:57Clarity. we are going to present with clarity what it is we're trying to do and in that light I mean you're you're seeking the next person who's going to help [cough] support and be amazing uh in the leadership for this district they like I said when I looked at the website when I came here I had difficulty identifying exactly what is the thing we want that next person to identify it and I there's lots of people who would come in and embrace what what it is I'm just talking about [cough] because they can see it is so nice to come into a district where there is work to do and you can see it and I'm going to be honest and I'll tell you it is a lot easier to do this than it is to move a Bethlehem a Gilderland a north colony from 85 to 86 we have a lot better chance of doing that and there's a lot of leaders who would love to do this work. So that's what we're going to do large scale.
1:59:06Uh the Hudson City Police Department uh has a proposal and and I when I was in Albony County, the Albony County Sheriff also proposed this to to the board. They have an interest in discussing whether or not their um rifle can be stored in the buildings. And there's a a statewide initiative around this. And I'll explain why. And I'll explain that they have a lot of safety guard rails in place. I don't want to tell the whole story because I want them to be able to present.
1:59:37But the weapon is secured and is safe and the rationale is that it makes sense to have the equipment that they need in the event of a real emergency. So I wanted to ask if the board would be interested in having them come in December or January to present what they're proposing and what that might look like.
1:59:59Hear it out and you know and get a sense of what that may be.
2:00:02Just uh do the officers that are here, are they carrying a weapon or No,
2:00:05of course
2:00:06they are.
2:00:06They are. They're carrying their sidearms.
2:00:08They are carrying their sidearms. Okay.
2:00:09Yes.
2:00:10There's only one [clears throat]
2:00:12officer. It's just Officer Ralph,
2:00:14correct?
2:00:14Yeah.
2:00:15There's one for both schools.
2:00:16No, he's the he's it.
2:00:18No, one for both schools. One person. We used to have a sheriff's deputy over there.
2:00:23Do they have one at the ele or the elementary also or now? No, just here.
2:00:27He's shared. He used to go back.
2:00:28He He's the only one for the whole district.
2:00:30Oh, he's the only one for the whole district.
2:00:31Three buildings. Yeah.
2:00:32Okay.
2:00:32All three buildings.
2:00:34Yeah. That was my only concern is what happens when he goes back and forth.
2:00:37Um suddenly it's getting moved a lot.
2:00:40Yep. And then we willing to have them discuss that.
2:00:43Yeah. and it's
2:00:45I'd like to talk to you about something else that also as
2:00:47I mean I'm I'm open to hearing what they have to say but it makes me really uncomfortable.
2:00:53There's there's things to consider.
2:00:54I I don't I just when I saw that I just thought they have guns have no place in a school and and to me that's bringing that I don't know but I'll listen try to be open
2:01:09and I and quite frankly I haven't heard their presentation either. It was just a proposal and since I was familiar with it, I thought I would broach it with the board and and they may have some really good fail safes that could make people feel comfortable.
2:01:21Yeah.
2:01:22Okay. Uh thank you. Um on the agenda tonight was the creation of a special education teaching position at the secondary level. Uh I may have mentioned before uh it is a good habit for boards to acknowledge this is a large scale investment. Obviously it would be an addition addition to our expenditures that wasn't budgeted last year but um there's a clear need um state education department sets forth some boundaries around the age gap within a specific classroom that has to be within 36 months I believe um so they're conscientious about that plus also uh in order to create really relevant opportunities for our students with varying ab abil Those classes should be specifically aimed at students needs.
2:02:12And after some review, and you know that uh Miss James Hughes is relatively new to the district, too. She's our director of student services. She's trying to get a more global picture of what we're offering that we unquestionably have a need that our students aren't being served perfectly uh that are combined in a relatively large class right now. So, that's why that proposal is on the board agenda tonight to create a new position after after it's created, we would advertise and ideally draw someone into that position.
2:02:42Likewise, it's a good practice the board we will bring to you when we are abolishing positions or we're changing titles of positions. You know, the board minutes always act as a record of those things that uh signify the start of a salary, the end of a salary, the beginning of employment, the end of employment. The same thing is for positions. A district shouldn't have 500 custodial positions lingering out in perpetuity because it's very difficult to budget. We need to know we have 26 custodians and if we need an additional one, we create a position, we hire into the position. If we don't need the position, we abolish it. That's how what good budgeting will look like.
2:03:22Um, and as you move forward in the process this year, uh, we want to be able to describe we have 200 teachers, we have this many of whatever. So, [cough] this is an important process and that's why you're seeing and hearing that um as a proposal tonight as part of the agenda.
2:03:43Can I [clears throat] um I just have two two things to
2:03:47I'm pretty sure that the last um special ed director Kim Lyalt who was here for years was very much aware that this was happening be this would happen um and was planning for that there was a bubble of
2:04:04kids that were moving up. Sure.
2:04:06Um, so I'm not sure where the ball got dropped and why it wasn't budgeted for for that position to be created for, you know,
2:04:14before now.
2:04:15Before now. Um, but with that said, um, it is kind of a temporary position because that bubble of students will eventually
2:04:25all things are temporary.
2:04:27Well, that is true.
2:04:28Um, yeah. And and what we never know is we never know what um what population will the district population will leave
2:04:37who will return from out of district placement who will go
2:04:40it's always fluctuating and changing
2:04:42you know as is the nature of things we know year over year people retire that person be gains more seniority and you know there's there's a lot of things and that was the other thing I'm glad you brought that up Moren just like as a procedural thing when we do know that there's a terminal date. Board appointments should say there is a terminal date. That's only fair to an applicant, right? And we did that like with grant money like co that's not uncommon to say it's only good for three years.
2:05:10But that's another good point.
2:05:12Is there a difference between not rehiring for a position versus abolishing a position?
2:05:20In my mind, that position continues to exist until the board takes action.
2:05:23Great.
2:05:24Okay.
2:05:25Yeah. Um so you you may not rehire. you could leave it vacant and that should be budgeted even though it's vacant. Okay.
2:05:32Into the incoming year. It's u it's not a very accurate, you know, way of of budgeting.
2:05:39Okay.
2:05:39Yeah. And well, we can talk more about it in
2:05:42Yeah. I was just I was just wondering because I know there's some teacher positions that were not filled. I didn't know if they were abolished or just not refilled. So,
2:05:50not refilled and they should be in the budget.
2:05:53Okay. Um,
2:05:54can I chime in here and interrupt also?
2:05:57Sure.
2:05:57If you don't mind. U, but this has come up in other meetings like what how many cuts are there districtwide. Um, at some point I would like for us to wrap our hands around exactly not just the teachers but aids, TAs, subs. We're missing a lot of people in in different places too. Clerical.
2:06:17I think that'll all be part of this year's budget plan, right? We'll be like really strategically looking at it.
2:06:22Yeah. and and because of how things have transpired in full clarity uh this is going to be our starting point we really because of some of the other things I've mentioned about how grant monies have been intermingled with general fund money has been very difficult to understand and identify who actually is how many there actually are we have to use this year as a baseline as a non-negotiable here we are we have this many of And then whatever comes next, we're adding or subtracting. That's just how it has to be. But there we have to establish a baseline. And there's another thing that will be very beneficial for the next leader who comes in. They'll know. We will have already
2:07:05gone through all the hard work because the budget will be done by the time the person comes in. But then going into next year, what a blessing it will be to know and to know what our long-term strategies are and where we might see some like rolloff student population, things like that. it'll be a good thing.
2:07:22And then just procedurally, that would be something that finance committee would start looking at when they start meeting and bring that back to the board and say, "This is where we're at in this process and we'll track it uh in their reports."
2:07:36It's actually it's exciting because then you as a board and absolutely as a central office, we feel like we're in control of the situation, not the situation controlling us. Uh it is it's very empowering and that's 100% um how we want it to be. The um communication advisory committee I put out um advertisement for the public and for the staff over the last couple weeks. There's 11 people signed up. Uh there's seven staff members and four parents uh that are volunteering to do that. I think we only have four major meetings scheduled. The idea is our first meeting we're going to talk about what are our wow factors. What do we see that is working and is not working? Um
2:08:21leading into the development of a survey that we will send to the community leading into um some really thoughtful and responsive okay what's our action plan this month six months a year from now. This is great in the uh combination with our communications person from Boseis having her last day with us yesterday. uh she had taken a job with the state. So um the uh her supervisor at Boseis will be the itinerant in the short term and there will hire and assign someone else to us. Uh good timing, but uh we we need to do some um accounting around what we're doing well and what we're not doing well. And again, like with everything, if we identify those things
2:09:07that we think are not quite right and we say we're going to do it, doing it would be very important and relevant for the people who are dedicating their time. Uh and and absolutely the great thing about communication is people can see that you did it. It's not like some of the other things like uh we're going to improve the shelving. Well, you only know that if you're in here, but uh communications, I mean, like the first thing I said, we're not telling our story relevant um connectedly and uh to the people who actually need to know it. We're spinning our wheels. So um if anybody wants to climb on board, I will send another invitation to all of you
2:09:49and they're in the evening. They're from 6:30 to 7:45. They're virtual. Um so it's not too heavy a lift. Okay. Thank you.
2:10:01Awesome. Um, thank you very much. Uh, brings us to our consent agenda. Um, we've had requests to pull a few items. Uh, we're going to pull C, poll D, and pull J. So, I make a motion to approve consent.
2:10:24Mark, can you repeat that? Pull C,
2:10:26pull C, D, and J. [clears throat] So, make a motion to approve consent agenda items A, B, E through I, and K through U.
2:10:50AB
2:10:52AB. Yep. E through I. And then K through U. Second. All in favor. All right. And uh that brings us consent agenda item C. Uh this is the um uh memorandum of agreement with BRRI Consultancy. This is a uh agreement for them to audit our 21st century community learning centers grant project. This is our afterchool grant funds. Um it's required by New York state law. It's about $10,000 previously. Um some of these have cost us up to $80,000. In addition to this, we also pay have anou with our clerical staff um uh um where member of the clerical staff has a stipen for doing data entry.
2:11:58So what do they actually do?
2:12:00Um they have to audit the expenditures. It's millions of dollars. Um so they're auditing the expenses for New York State making sure it's all spent correctly.
2:12:11They're different than the other auditors that we use.
2:12:14Yeah. Right.
2:12:15Yeah.
2:12:15Okay.
2:12:16Yeah.
2:12:16Because this is specifically auditing this one grant, right? And and
2:12:22just to check my understanding right the 21st century grant is what provides free after school to every kid in the district which is a
2:12:29and the other ones don't this one why is this separate from the other ones?
2:12:33So I I I believe this one is um
2:12:37our auditors don't audit grant funds.
2:12:40Well there there's well there's an element they audit grant funds but there I believe this one is auditing uh performance metrics too.
2:12:48Good. So it's it again it's a requirement from the state to audit the program that it is accomplishing what it is set out to do.
2:12:59And this is something we've been using.
2:13:01Uh we've been using them since 2003.
2:13:04Okay.
2:13:04Um prior to that we were using uh Candace Laroo and OBC Consulting. And again the cost of those two firms was over $80,000. Wow.
2:13:21So, this consultancy plus theou with the secretaries is only $20,000.
2:13:28I'm just curious, how much is this grant?
2:13:31Uh, millions. It is. Okay.
2:13:331.9 just rough figure. Okay.
2:13:37So, it's a it's a very large grant.
2:13:39Okay.
2:13:40Yeah. We were I didn't know what it was either. So,
2:13:42Okay. But at the bottom it says that seven month total will be 28,000. Is that different?
2:13:49Uh that's that's this is this is C not uh
2:13:53never mind. Sorry I
2:13:55sorry.
2:13:56Okay. Uh make a motion to accept uh consent to agenda item C.
2:14:01Second.
2:14:02All in favor.
2:14:05Um and next is consent to agenda item D. This is uh the county treasurer services agreement with management advisory group. They are currently acting as our district treasurer uh for sum of $4,000 monthly which is a fantastic deal and they're doing a great job. We're getting all of our reports on time. Any questions, comments?
2:14:32No, just that this is saving us money, right?
2:14:35Yes, absolutely. this year.
2:14:38Uh, does anyone remember if we appointed her as treasurer with an end date? I don't remember.
2:14:45It was November 30th.
2:14:48All right. So, we're going to need to update that as well.
2:14:53So, if if the board approves this contract, they will need to also in personnel appoint her as the or
2:15:01actually were we doing it personnel or we do it in
2:15:04consent. We did it in person now.
2:15:10Contract.
2:15:11Yeah, I think it was I think it's a district officer appointment,
2:15:14right? It's an officer appointment. So, I think we have to do that. But I think we have to do that tonight then.
2:15:17Correct. I just remember that.
2:15:20All right.
2:15:21So, we got to add that.
2:15:22Yeah.
2:15:25Okay. Um, let's do this one first. Um, any further questions, comments? Make a motion to accept uh consent agenda item D.
2:15:41Second.
2:15:42All in favor?
2:15:45One. Oh, two. Three.
2:15:50So, I have five.
2:15:55Um, and then uh Dan and Mike, you guys are opposed. You're abstaining.
2:16:03Oh, opposed.
2:16:04Post.
2:16:05I wasn't asked. So,
2:16:08um,
2:16:12and then brings us to consensus agenda item J. U, uh, 2526, Kasaki transport contract extensions. Uh, I believe Mr. Macker would like to
2:16:27recusing myself due to conflict of interest.
2:16:29Great. So, uh, make a motion to accept, uh, consensus agenda item J.
2:16:36Second.
2:16:36All in favor?
2:16:42So, can I just ask um for item C, did everybody approve?
2:16:51Yeah. Yes.
2:16:53Okay.
2:16:55Um, and so we need to add consent agenda item W G, no V V. [laughter]
2:17:09Um,
2:17:10a resolution to appoint uh Amy Skip as the treasurer through June 30, 2026.
2:17:18Okay. So, uh, consent to agenda item V. Make a motion to appoint Amy Skiff as district treasurer through June 30th, 2026.
2:17:29Second.
2:17:30All in favor?
2:17:33You already have a V on here.
2:17:35No, you
2:17:36we took out
2:17:38Oh, you must You're looking at the
2:17:39Yes. Something got taken off since it was printed.
2:17:42Oh, okay.
2:17:43Yeah. Yeah.
2:17:44So, is that put hand?
2:17:48Oh, so Diana's opposed. Mikeos.
2:17:50Okay.
2:17:56Um, all right. That brings us to old business. Uh, last board meeting we discussed 2526 board of education goals. Uh, we got some great input and ideas. Um, this is a draft. Um, I would love to get any uh Oh, yeah. I can get a clicker.
2:18:26Um, love to get any further feedback um from the group. Um, if everybody's good with it, we could adopt them today. Um, but you know, we should also get them right. Uh, goal one is on leadership and governance. Board of Education will strengthen its effectiveness as a unified governance team committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement in servants andu in service to students and the community.
2:18:54The objectives and benchmarks are superintendent appointment complete the superintendent complete the search and appointment of a permanent superintendent by July 1st, 2026 through a transparent inclusive process involving staff and community input. maintain public communication through the process to promote in trust and confidence. Uh board onboarding and operations. Create a board member communication handbook and conduct a professional development workshop to train all board members. Create a board activity calendar tracking key governance events, budgetary milestones, and academic data presentations.
2:19:29uh board self-evaluation conduct a mid-year review in January 2026 and a formal annual self-evaluation using NISBA standards and super eval by June 1st 2026. Any questions, comments on section one?
2:19:49No, I think that it's a good choice for that to be our primary goal.
2:19:53Yes, I think that's a good prioritization there. Yes, that was a great suggestion, Moren. Um, goal number two, student achievement and well-being. The board will ensure that all decisions prioritize the academic success, personal growth, and social emotional wellness of every student.
2:20:10Objectives and benchmarks, datadriven improvement, review, academic and climate survey data quarterly with district administration to identify achievement trends and inform resource allocation. Curriculum review. Identify areas of need and maintain responsibilities for and main responsibilities for a new executive director of teaching and learning. Review current curriculum maps including career and technical education.
2:20:37Student well support and wellness. Review annual wellness plan to sustain and strengthen district's mental health and wellness programs. Celebrating success. Recognize student and staff achievements at each monthly board meeting. Um,
2:20:54I have two questions about this one. I guess in the curriculum review, I just want to be like clear about what is the responsibility of the board versus what are responsibilities of the superintendent within that. To me, this feels a little bit like we're
2:21:07potentially like infringing on superintendent responsibilities
2:21:12um
2:21:12as written. And so that's I guess I would just like to like like think about what
2:21:17the curriculum
2:21:17like I I don't feel like we are like broadstrokes we can look at our like K12 curriculum but we're not actually looking at like curriculum maps within subject areas as a board
2:21:28or I I don't or I don't think that that's really like within our purview.
2:21:33Yeah, I'd certainly love any feedback from Dr. Bailey and other administrators as well.
2:21:40Um
2:21:41yeah, sure. [laughter] Um you know what I'm glad that um you paused there. That's it's a good focus area. Um and talking with in the cabinet um we've been thinking about how to abolish and restructure things. We think that that position the director of teaching and learning should return back to director of curriculum and instruction.
2:22:07I know we're talking about semantics. Um, but if you were to take a snapshot, go within a 25 mile radius of a snapshot of who is sitting in the seat to help to do what you're just talking about. It's usually called assistant superintendent or director of curriculum and instruction. Under that falls assessment, under that falls grants. Under that falls evaluation, a whole bunch of things. But if we're it's really about curriculum and instruction, it's the bare root of things. So that's one thing and I'm going to talk to the board more about that in December.
2:22:43I think it's fine for the board to say ensure that the district reviews the relevancy or alignment of their curricular name of thing, their curriculum maps, the curricular in the classroom, the curriculum. I think um giving you an advisory, you can are you doing what you need to do? We want to see a report on that's absolutely within the priv of the board. It's not really the board making the decision this is great and this isn't but instead saying we you the superintendent and the director name a thing tell us how you are doing what is supposed to be being done
2:23:25so
2:23:26I guess I see that sort of embedded in number one then around data dev and improvement like where we lean in as a board then is is the student academic data
2:23:36like our responsibility is is the student academic IC data meeting the needs of students. Are we showing that students are successful?
2:23:44It's the responsibility then of the superintendent and the central office staff to make sure that the like roles and responsibilities of other staff members and that the curriculum maps and whatnot underneath it are leading to those results. Like I think our lens as super as superintendent no no um as board is to like look at the outcomes and your job is the road mapap to the outcomes.
2:24:14Yeah. And I feel like uh we're a very lucky board and that we are graced with three people with [clears throat] exceptional experience in the classroom um and directly in the school. But I think having uh many of us directly reviewing curriculum is is perhaps not serving uh you know serving that that those outcomes.
2:24:36um as well as it could be. We just some of us, you know, it doesn't hurt to again seek data about how successful those are, but the expertise um you know, not each of us has the expertise to make specific curriculum uh comment commentary.
2:24:56I think it really comes down to the assessment, evaluation or monitoring. In other words, um uh uh examines the effectiveness of certain curriculum or seeks to understand or it's just someone needs to report out to you whether it is or it isn't. That's really the board's position. I I I think what maybe motivated this uh objective at this moment in time was just knowing that the structure of the cabinet is changing and and maybe that the board wants to make sure it's changing in the right way.
2:25:45Is that the um so maybe it stays as that then it's not really curriculum review then right I think it's something like
2:25:57maybe it's something about like
2:25:59academic performance
2:26:00align alignment of personnel
2:26:03and it's sort of a broader thing about just like ensuring that that the position appointments that we are making are in service of student data because again like that's where our
2:26:14our like lane is is to be thinking about what are the positions that are being recommended what are we budgeting for.
2:26:20Yeah. Yeah. making sure that that the people that we're pointing are in direct service of student achievement.
2:26:27Yeah.
2:26:28I'm not sure if this is the right time to ask, but what's the difference between the the name of that position assistant superintendent verse um director? Is it just a name or is there a different titles or different job?
2:26:44Same certification essentially the same title. I was just try trying to say like there's a me be quite frank there's a a little bit of a concern that we'll be attracting a a building actually be a district level administrator. So they have their master's degree and they have um certifications as a building leader and a district leader which is basically another master's degree.
2:27:10Okay.
2:27:10Into a job that isn't called assistant superintendent. The one bridge closer to that is call it curriculum instruction which is almost the same thing but that's the words those are the words that people are using if you went to another district.
2:27:26Okay.
2:27:27What what's your job? I am the of curriculum instruction. People people in the field identify with it. They know what that means.
2:27:35So you're you're saying that it will help us attract people who are on that curriculum.
2:27:41Teaching and learning you could be just doing grants. You could just be doing teacher evaluation. you could be doing monitoring progress in kindergarten. There's no like it doesn't it could be um a little less worldly than those two words curriculum and instruction that is are used so prevalently in most places
2:28:02because not being in this position before is like why don't we have a superintendent and that's why I was always wondering so it's the same jobs description different title
2:28:11correct
2:28:12okay
2:28:13yeah that's a great question Mike and I bannered around like grants and you know look look at some of the other titles we've had and just like slap another name in there. Slap another name.
2:28:22Yes. Well, it seemed like a few years ago we did have an assistant super.
2:28:26I always remember super.
2:28:27Yes. That's why that was um and that is one of the issues I think we have. We've just been adding titles and putting somebody in it and I think
2:28:37we didn't add a position though. It was a title change. It wasn't it's not like we duplicated that position.
2:28:43Okay. And the title changes usually increase pay.
2:28:47Not necessarily. Okay.
2:28:49No.
2:28:50I mean, well, technically we did add a position though. We had um and the board needs to abolish that one, too. Student engagement.
2:28:57We did. Yeah, we did actually add a position.
2:29:00But this wasn't a new position.
2:29:01Well, yeah. And that Well, that was a position that was created three or four years ago, wasn't it?
2:29:05But we It started out as DEI.
2:29:08Yes. So, it really it it started out as DEI. So, and then DEI was got was abolished.
2:29:15I wasn't a creative.
2:29:18It's I think it's that conversation is not current. So, maybe we could just go to the next goal this one.
2:29:27There are two.
2:29:28So, do we need to change bullet point two? Do we need to change the sub bullet points? What?
2:29:32Yeah, we we'll revisit bullet point. I think there's also similar um now that we're looking at this similarly like what's now I'm looking at this do we have an annual wellness plan?
2:29:43Yeah, that was going to be my next question. I don't know what that one means.
2:29:47Yeah, we do. Okay.
2:29:48Cheryl's been fiercely championing.
2:29:50There's a wellness policy that we're working on. There's a wellness committee, but there's not a written wellness plan. We can definitely create one.
2:29:58Okay, cool. Um, and then, you know, I think celebrating success that that's also something that's maybe a little bit out of our control. We've seen different attempts at it in the past. Um, and you know, I think some people feel differently about, you know, formal acts of recognition. Um, just, you know, if we're putting it down here, what do we feel like the best way to actually do that is? And is it something that's really in our control or is it something that is more
2:30:33I have a suggestion and I think we batted this around just as a joke for something I'm not really sure but as we have our meetings and there's executive session we can have some kids come in and talk about things or put an art display or have a show of something at the board meeting so that you have a display but you're not saying congratulations on getting you know some high score on a test. You showcase the student by um a sample of their work in some way.
2:31:06Yeah. We've had students perform here, but how do you do that for staff?
2:31:10You don't want to see the teachers dance. [laughter]
2:31:15I don't know. I think one of the things that we've faced when we do it monthly is that it can feel a little forced and a little um kind of oh it's a run through it's an obligatory somebody was going to get it. I think there may be a value in actually reducing the frequency of that recognition so that it becomes a little bit more um a little bit more of a highlight whether that's four times a year um you know that which could coordinate with our quarters pretty well um I think I think coming up with those on a on a monthly basis has drawbacks
2:31:56could just be something subtle that we do too just as subtle acknowledgement somehow and not at a at a board meeting.
2:32:03I think where I'm stuck is like what's the criteria through which we are recognizing students and staff and that in and of itself takes like a development of something like what what is the and I worry that that opens a little bit of a can of worms
2:32:20when there are like a lot of other big things that we really truly have to get done this year. Like I am all for recognizing and celebrating staff and student achievements. I think in my mind that's actually like our role as board is best served in goal three there around like how do we recognize it? We show up to things
2:32:38and we like clap loudly for the kids when we're in the audience. We show up to parent teacher conference like we we show up to whatever like superintendent conference days and like help serve lunch to the staff like I think that's how we support staff as the board.
2:32:54Okay.
2:32:55And I think a suggestion that might not be a good one. Um Mr. Bear and Miss Patch came tonight to present um on the goals of the junior high school. Next year they will have gone through a year of this process. they will have a collection of students who have succeeded in some way perhaps next year and and they and allow them to help choose the criteria, but and you're always wondering how to get parents and families uh closer to the board meetings is is why not have a recognition of one of the benchmarks that they just talked about. recognize the kids on the meeting the night of the meeting when you're the junior high is presenting and that's you get the marriage of celebrating last year's you don't have to do this I'm just saying the celebrating last year's and the families on the board hear what the goals are for that year you have all the people and all the things in the same place at the same time the board is involved the families are involved and um you're all hearing the same story just an idea and it doesn't have to be 500 kids. Nobody wants that. You want to like choose a select thing like um you know kids who scored a four on a state assessment or kids who had perfect attendance all year or choose a thing that's exemplification of what we're said we're going to do
2:34:20then you got full circle but you don't you know we have a lot of time to decide that but just just putting that in your mind.
2:34:25Y
2:34:26appreciate that. Yeah, I kind of like the idea of um I still actually kind of like the quarterly idea. Um, but maybe tying it I like the idea of tying it to the benchmarks and we could unfortunately there's three schools in four quarters and I say we could rotate through the schools where those schools get
2:34:42you know do quarters in the elementary
2:34:49but I I always like the idea of perfect attendance for a quarter um
2:34:53just um
2:34:55for a variety of reasons.
2:34:57Um
2:34:58so you know I think that that would enable us to do that. So, yes, I understand tableabling that for now, but that would be my last smidge of input.
2:35:06Um, goal [clears throat] three, community engagement and partnerships. Intent, the board will foster meaningful relationships with family staff and community partners through proactive communication, visibility, and collaboration. Uh, objective one, participation and v visibility. Each board member will attend at least one attend at least one school or community event per month during the school year. Uh maintain a board engagement log to track attendance and community interactions. Two, communication and input. Investigate ways to receive public comment and suggestions via digital communication. Sort of similar to what Mike was um suggesting earlier. Um track inperson and virtual attendance at meetings and report trends annually. Um, community partnerships. Invite three new local businesses, nonprofits, or higher education institutes to present at a board meeting. Hold at least one board meeting uh not on district property to increase community engagement. Any uh thoughts, questions?
2:36:09I have something to add on that.
2:36:11Um, so Teresa Hayes was at our policy meeting
2:36:15uh presenting about uh the booster club. So, I threw us kind of all under the bus and I reached out to her and said, "Let us know when you have something going on so we can show up."
2:36:27So, just so you know, there should be an email coming.
2:36:30That's great. Yeah. [clears throat]
2:36:34And their events are usually fun, too. That's a great obligation.
2:36:40This one sounds good to me.
2:36:41Cool.
2:36:43Um, anybody else? All right. goal for policy planning and accountability. Uh Amanda helped craft this one. Um the board will ensure that all policies and planning processes align with the district's mission, promote operational excellence, and support positive student outcomes, objectives, and benchmarks. A comprehensive policy review, partner with NISSBA to complete a full update of the district's policy manual as a part of a three-year policy review cycle. on community input and policy development. Expand opportunities for stakeholder participation by broadening membership with policy committee to include representatives from staff, families, and the community. Um, stability and systems alignment, prioritize policy updates that build clear, consistent systems supporting district operations and governance.
2:37:36Any questions, comments? Okay. So, it's really just goal two that we need to um clean up a little bit. Um take some of the input uh and feedback and circulate a new draft that we can uh present at the next meeting. Um there's no new business. Uh policy section we have Third readings.
2:38:15This is all the one big bundle of student district records work. Um everything is the same as what you all saw in the second read except for 1120R which reflects the changes that Marine suggested at the last meeting. um which just helped like streamline and clarify the language so that it's a more understandable flow I think is how I would summarize that. Um so you can see in 1120R those the new changes are in red that are there.
2:38:52Thank you. Any further questions or concerns? We feel comfortable moving to adopt them. Okay. Uh make a motion uh to adopt policy 1120 1120R 1120E1 1120E2 1120E. Uh
2:39:19got them all.
2:39:19That's it. Yeah. Okay. Um yeah, that's it.
2:39:22Second.
2:39:23All in favor?
2:39:25Um one quick update, too. There were some policies that were on first read last agenda um that got pulled from second read this agenda and that is just because the attorney sent a lot of just like little semantics updates but we didn't have time to get through all of them for this meeting so those will go on the next one. Those are all close to being ready also.
2:39:46Um Leslie, did anybody sign up for public forum?
2:39:50No.
2:39:53Brings us to board discussion. Anybody else got anything else they'd like to add?
2:39:59I have a random question or comment or just a general inquiry.
2:40:04Yes.
2:40:04Um, once upon a time ago, we had a parent ask a question about seeing something in the bathrooms.
2:40:11Mhm.
2:40:12Uh, I just want to make sure that that was uh addressed. Uh, also the bathrooms in the schools have um been locked in the past and there's been a lot of graffiti and everybody knows what happened during COVID. You're supposed to wash your hands, use the soap and so bathrooms don't have soap in them. So I just want to bring that out as a general can we do uh review of what's going on in the bathrooms
2:40:40bathrooms and all what is that just kind of spotty and happening through you know inadequate [snorts] replacement where are we seeing I think that would be the question is where are we seeing
2:40:50what building
2:40:51what building
2:40:52uh well high school with the lack of soap and all of that middle school junior high sorry locked graffine
2:41:01yeah that those parts I It was more the the soap that's a maintenance issue
2:41:05that's here.
2:41:06Okay. Sounds like that goes to facilities committee I think is
2:41:09Oh, that's Thank you.
2:41:12Yeah. And I do believe the gentleman who um
2:41:16Mr. Santiago
2:41:17Yeah. spoke at the board meeting was directed to Tyler Kitzman who is the both the district safety officer and the chair of the district. So, we're doing something about making sure that
2:41:28I called and spoke to him and um he was I invited him to the um the last safety meeting that we had, but it was at a time where it not convenient for him to get there. Um but we talked about um what after school coverage looks like and the area where um the incident occurred. Uh so in the safety meeting we talked about what does shaper burning look like, shaping coverage
2:41:52because it was in it was in a very public area. in that um what do they call it the event entrance
2:41:59um that goes between the junior high and senior high those restrooms there which I think it was um I don't think it was volleyball but we have chaperones at these events that are in and around the area so we talked about chaperone coverage what type of training they get and where they are during um those types of events um I won't to pre pretend that it's perfect. It's not perfect in most places, but the idea was we know that we don't always want them just in the door. We don't always want them just in the hall, but kind of a marriage of those things. Um, and I think the most daunting thing for him was the um the fact that he was an adult instructing a student to do something and he's someone who who has worked in in a position where he should be able to direct people and the student did not respond. I mean that's the compounding thing beyond what the behavior was that the kid was distributing or exhibiting. Um so we did talk about it from perspective of chaperrons and um and making sure that the building is locked in all those areas where students aren't supposed to be during events which is very hard in this facility.
2:43:11Just to be clear the bathrooms in the junior high are locked during the day.
2:43:15I know. Yeah. I was Mr. Santiago was talking about a sporting event, but I know and the high school is as well. Um, and there there's someone there to unlock them when students come to to use them. [snorts] Um, I'll check on the junior high because I was there um today. I don't know if that that was the case, but um would you like to talk about this in facilities? You want to talk about it?
2:43:39Thanks.
2:43:40And uh we are not the only school district that has this issue either.
2:43:43I I know it's it's crazy. I'm excited that our bathrooms are part of the referendum. They're part of the construction project. They they need a lot. Um I think they should
2:43:57they need a lot but they get trashed. So that's
2:44:00I I broken the window. You know that scenario that if things look bad then they'll you treat them badly. I think if things look good they'll treat them better. That's my optimistic perspective. Any other?
2:44:16Well, thank you. Just so everybody knows, this is that's what this section is for. Um
2:44:23Oh, yeah. Actually, I just want to say real quick, uh very pleased with the um turnout for the referendum for General Edwards School. Um it seemed like a lot of community engagement and positive support for moving forward with that.
2:44:35Yeah, agreed.
2:44:37Very excited for that.
2:44:38When should we hear from them again? Uh is there a time frame?
2:44:42I believe their next milestone there they should be hearing from the state about funding in early spring is what they said.
2:44:51Oh spring. Okay.
2:44:53Yeah. Um and if they get their funding in the spring then we would be moving to close. Um if they don't get their funding then we'd wait another year and um uh they would apply for the next round. So
2:45:08Wow. I believe we have three more years. So they
2:45:12and we're locked to them.
2:45:13Yeah. Yeah. They have the ability to Okay.
2:45:16Apply for multiple rounds. Yeah. It's a
2:45:20funky game.
2:45:21So we still own it.
2:45:22We still own it for a while.
2:45:23Anybody new who came in would be seeking the same funding. So start over with the same three-year process with someone different.
2:45:30And it's um we still have it. uh the referendum was necessary to be able to sell it, but also um with the positive referendum, we it's a milestone to hold deposit if we if they back out for any reason. So,
2:45:45and and each year that goes by increases the amount of money that we
2:45:50just what happens if something happens to the building.
2:45:54It's insured.
2:45:55We still insure.
2:45:55We we still Okay.
2:45:58Don't say that, Mike.
2:45:59I know. [laughter] Seriously.
2:46:05Okay. Uh upcoming meetings. Finance committee meeting Monday, December 1st, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in the district conference room. Policy committee meeting Tuesday, December 9th, 2025, 5 to 7 p.m. in the high school library. Facilities committee meeting Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 at 5:00 pm in the district conference room. Regular board of education meeting Tuesday, December 16th at 6 pm in the high school auditorium. Policy committee meeting Tuesday, January 13th, 2026, 5 to 7 p.m. in the high school library. Facilities committee meeting Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, 5:00 pm in the high school conference room. regular board of education meeting Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, 6 PM in the high school auditorium.
2:47:02Everybody, please be on the lookout for an email for December availabilities for a special um special
2:47:10workshop,
2:47:10superintendent search.
2:47:12Can we get these dates put on the calendar that's on our website?
2:47:18Yes, we can. Yes. Um, okay. At this point, uh, we have a need for a second executive session, uh, for the purposes of um, discussing the employment history of a particular person's a person. I make a motion to enter executive session at 8:43 p.m.
2:48:03Second.
2:48:04All in favor? There will be no further business after this executive session. Thank you all for being here.
2:48:14Thank you everybody for watching.

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