School Board, Regular Meeting

1. 0:00Welcome to the city of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson,
2. 0:30New York City of Hudson, New York City of [… repeated text trimmed] Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York [… repeated text trimmed] City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, [… repeated text trimmed] New York City of Hudson, New York City of [… repeated text trimmed] Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York [… repeated text trimmed] City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, [… repeated text trimmed] New York City of Hudson, New York City of [… repeated text trimmed] Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York [… repeated text trimmed] City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, [… repeated text trimmed] New York City of Hudson, New York City of [… repeated text trimmed]
3. 5:30Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York [… repeated text trimmed] City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, [… repeated text trimmed] New York City of Hudson, New York City of [… repeated text trimmed] Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York [… repeated text trimmed] City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, [… repeated text trimmed] New York City of Hudson, New York City of [… repeated text trimmed] Hudson, New York City of Hudson, New York [… repeated text trimmed] City of Hudson, New York City of Hudson, [… repeated text trimmed] As you all can see, a lot of good has been happening across our district. But I wouldn't be doing my duty to the student population
4. 9:38if I didn't express some of the genuine concerns that were expressed to me by my classmates. One of the greatest concerns that have been expressed to me by my fellow classmates is how we were informed that we will no longer have the Writing Center as a resource as we try to navigate the college admissions process. I cannot unequivocally express how It deeply disappointed me, and many members of the senior class are about this development, especially during one of the most stressful and nerve-wracking semesters of our high school careers. For those of you who don't know what the Writing Center is, or rather was, it was one of the main college resources that our high school offered for seniors who were trying to navigate the college admissions process.
5. 10:22We will be the first senior class in 13 years to not have the Writing Center as a resource. College admissions have only grown increasingly competitive, and a part of that process is writing your personal statement, which is sent to every college that you apply to, along with supplemental essays. Again, I cannot express how important these essays are to your college application, especially if you are applying to more selective schools. I hear the same words from my classmates every day. I have no clue what to write in my college essay. I have no clue how to navigate the Common App. I don't know what I'm doing as I'm trying to apply to college. Over the past 13 years, it is the Writing Center that answered these very questions for thousands of students.
6. 11:09They have answered questions from writing the college essay, to getting financial aid, to getting scholarships, allowing our Hudson students to get into amazing schools, both public and private, both in-state and out-of-state, for so, so many years. It is an understatement as to what a privilege the Writing Center was for students, and how important it was to make college accessible for students of all backgrounds, especially low-income and first-generation students who are navigating this process for the first time in their entire lives. Now, I want to give you all a big picture of how much this entire admissions process costs. A private college admissions counselor costs anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000, and that is a low estimate. A private college essay review service costs anywhere from $400 to $5,000. The Writing Center was providing these services to all students at no cost, ensuring that finances were not a barrier to any student who dared to be too ambitious or dream too big.
7. 12:18I come to sit at this table knowing that every single one of you wants to see the students of Hudson succeed. Every single one of you strives every single day to see our Hudson students succeed. That is why all of you are spending your Tuesday nights in a dark auditorium with me. Because you care. Because you care about us and our Hudson students.
8. 12:40I also understand that all of the budget cuts were made in good conscience and after a great deal of thoughtful consideration and deliberation. But I cannot help but notice that the programs that genuinely help students in the admissions process, from academic extracurricular activities to institutions such as the Writing Center, are disproportionately underfunded and underappreciated. What happened to the Writing Center is simply a microcosm of a larger trend within the school district. Programs that allow students to be prepared for college and programs that allow students to dream bigger, even beyond Hudson, are again disproportionately underfunded.
9. 13:22Similarly, students that demonstrate high academic achievement face little support. We are simply expected to continue being excellent, despite lacking resources to achieve the potential that we and every single student within this school district has. I've said this before and I'll say it again. The programs, institutions, and initiatives that we choose to fund reflect our priorities and our values as a school district. How can we claim to want every student to achieve excellence when every opportunity to achieve it is underfunded and eventually cut? How can we, as a district, pursue higher academic achievement as a whole if we do not provide support for the students who are already excelling and can do more?
10. 14:13Again, I understand that the words that I am saying today may seem harsh. They may even seem unfair. I will be the first to admit that I do not know everything. What I do know is that I, and many of my fellow classmates, have spent the last four years of our lives doing everything right. We have studied and prepared for exams. Many of my classmates worked full-time jobs and have secured summer internships. We are represented across every field. When we, as Hudson students, put our minds to something, whether it be a sport or Model UN or mock trial or an instrument, we excel because we are capable of doing great things.
11. 14:53This is the time in our senior year where we see the fruits of our labor, and we are asking you, as the board, to help us see that fruit. We have done our part for the last four years, and now we ask you to do yours and restore the Writing Center. Thank you.
12. 15:24I don't know off the top of my head how it was funded last year. It was one of those two programs, but we also have another exciting grant, and maybe we could work the Writing Center into that.
13. 15:38There are definitely opportunities. So if you are referring to the extended school day grant that the district received over the summer, work is starting actually this week to gather some information about how to best utilize those funds. So there could certainly be some potential there.
14. 15:51And it's also specifically for the junior high school and the high school, because elementary school has the robust elementary school program?
15. 15:59The grant itself can be used across the district. Our focus is going to be starting at the junior-senior high school to create some opportunities there. We'll likely then extend to also include some elementary opportunities. The distinction with that is it is all after school. It can't be something that happens during the school day. It is outside what would be the typical school day for students, but certainly can look for some opportunities of what the Writing Center provided and the skills that were developed and the resources that it provided, potentially a different structure.
16. 16:34Thank you so much.
17. 16:35Thank you.
18. 16:40Any other questions or comments from the board?
19. 16:45I think that's it.
20. 16:46Well, thank you. We are very, very glad you're here.
21. 16:49Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
22. 16:51All right. Now we have our board reports. Audit Committee?
23. 16:54The Audit Committee will meet in advance of the audit being presented to the board when the auditor tells us it's ready.
24. 17:02All right. Thank you. Facilities?
25. 17:06The Facilities Committee didn't meet this month, but I got an update today from Tyler on the projects going on. The capital project, the roofing, is 95% completed. The detailing is to be done by 9-17. As everybody can see, the two storage buildings were removed. The excavation is to start on the 15th, and they're going to put the footings and new concrete work to be done as soon as the excavation is done.
26. 17:32The salt building excavation is to begin on about the 17th. The work in this auditorium is potentially going to start next week with a trench demo and the removal of this existing seating. And the new seating and carpeting is scheduled for the October 13th in conjunction with the new strip lighting.
27. 17:56Going to the EPC, the last pieces of the boiler upgrades at the high school arrived today. The co-gen rigging and insulation to take place next. There's a portable boiler on site to start heating the pool, so the plan is to have the pool up to temperature by Friday. Lighting is complete in both buildings, and the attic stock arrived. The steam traps are complete at MC Smith, and the attic stock arrived for that as well.
28. 18:22The next project will be the RTU here on the high school. The unit is on site. They're looking to install it on Columbus Day. Update with the greenhouse. It's expected to ship on 9-23, and then installation will be coordinated after arrival.
29. 18:42Update with the outdoor classroom. Tyler and the district received an email regarding the application process from Assemblywoman Barrett's office. That application was filled out and returned, and that is the update as far as we've gotten with that.
30. 19:04And there's some load curtailment regarding the energy usage, so that's part of the NRG vendor. They sent a request to try and cut some of the usage because there was a lot of peak usage in the summertime, so they're trying to look at our usage and help us out with what we can reduce in the district. So that's something that we're actually working on in the agenda tonight is signing so that they can work with us to do that. That's it.
31. 19:38Just one correction, Lou, on the outdoor classroom. We had a meeting with the architect and the construction manager to look at the application form that was sent. It has not been returned yet. We tasked the architect and the construction manager to work up a proposed budget that works within the $1.6 million that's been designated for the district. We're looking to hopefully get that back and submit within the next two weeks. So just wanted to clarify that one point. Thank you otherwise. Thank you Lou.
32. 20:05Policy committee. We had our first policy committee meeting of this school year last week. In the meeting we talked about goals for the year really centered around thinking about a couple high-impact student facing or student centered policies to really dive into that need major revamping while also focusing on kind of streamlining our overall policy manual and looking at removing policies that are more procedural that are outdated that aren't actually being used to drive our district so that we can get our policies down to kind of a manageable number and really focus on on implementation. How do we bring them to life in our district and have them have the impact that we want them to have.
33. 20:44So we spent some time talking through that. We are going to add up to three additional policy committee members so if you are interested in that a notice went out from the district but submissions are due by October 5th and we will make that decision at our October 13th policy committee meeting. There's two policies one that's up for first read and one that's being rescinded which I'll talk about once we get to the policies.
34. 21:09Finance committee. Finance committee met for the first time today. We reviewed some financials for the prior year and unaudited so we'll get final numbers from the auditor in the next month or so. We discussed some financial process improvement that's going on in the district office, some policy changes that we potentially are going to forward to and the budget development calendar which is on tonight's agenda as a introduction and with the intention of being adopted in the next month.
35. 21:55Perfect and for the board president's report we held a board retreat on August 26th where we went over communication norms, superintendent goals, process for deriving some board goals and our expectations there, our board activity calendar and a little bit of our budget development calendar. All those things are reflected in the new business section for further discussion before board approval and also wanted to welcome Ms. Melanie Lesher to the table. Glad to have you here. Next we have a smart schools investment update.
36. 22:41Thank you. Good evening everyone. This evening I'm going to speak to you about smart schools investment. I've been speaking to you over the last couple of years in regard to where we are with the smart school. This is the final piece. We're very excited about that. Once this is approved then we'll be able to start doing the work around the district.
37. 22:59So the first piece is I wanted to explain to you is that we may be aware that there was official notification that was received by the district and what was approved for those who may not be aware I should say was $1,719,004 and we originally had $1,771 that we could apply for but at the time when we applied we wanted to leave some extra money because we knew that a year, year and a half from now prices were going to change and that's exactly what happened.
38. 23:36So when you look through a couple of things have happened so far. We've had a couple of meetings with our vendors Todd and myself. Melanie wasn't here at that time but we brought her up to speed and Tyler was involved as well. We met with the vendors. We talked about pricing, timelines, floor plans, all those various pieces and what we came to find out was that it was a year and a half and the money had changed due to material costs and so forth.
39. 24:05So right now when you look at the list this breaks down what the cost would be. So when you add everything up it's $1,870,096. Now that's more money. That's $92,000 more than what we had applied for initially. So in order to access that we have the $52,000 that's there and then we also have $40,000 in technology. We knew that we would allocate. We knew the monies would raise so we put some money aside.
40. 24:40So it really isn't except for the $40,000 cost which we allocated we're in pretty good shape and what that will do for us is we broke it down so that everyone clearly sees what it is for. So we have to do cabling and wiring for the junior high school and high school.
41. 25:00There's much more cabling needed at the elementary school so that's the price difference. It was just older technology there, older cabling and then we also we know we're updating the PA systems and the clocks that's districtwide, wireless upgrades. We know we have been doing computerized testing and wherever wood is thank goodness everything has been so far so good but we're always very afraid that our wireless is going to give out because our wireless that we have is 12 years old. So this will cover our wireless through the whole district and then additionally the last piece is the security cameras.
42. 25:34We have a lot of security cameras but what this piece is going to do is it's going to put more security cameras in places where we don't have it. So that's basically the recap of in regard to what we've done so far, what the difference in the money was and what we will be applying for. Those are the next steps. So once we apply for it the next piece is NYSID will approve it. They may bounce it back and say you need to fix this or fix that but it really is a smooth process.
43. 26:04It's not a year and a half like it was. They tell us it will be a few weeks that's what we're hoping and then once it gets approved then we would work again with the vendors, with Tyler and his team, the technology department and start planning for the work and the work would be done after school. So those are the next pieces and then the last and final piece is once all the purchase orders are cut and the work is done then this is where Melanie comes involved and she submits for reimbursement of the money that the district lays out and I've presented this before but if anyone's interested out in the community these are all the resources, these are the former presentations, these are the actual plan, the details for NYSID and it's also the smart schools main portal and then lastly like I always do which is very important is to thank everyone because this even though it's been a long process it would have never happened unless we had the team planning.
44. 27:06So we're very thankful to our community or Tyler and his team, the technology department, the smart schools team, the students, the staff, everyone who was involved in this and our vendor partners. So without further ado that's basically where we are now and do you have any questions for me?
45. 27:24Is there an anticipated completion rate? Hello.
46. 27:24So what happens is it will get submitted to NYSID and they tell us it could be a couple of weeks to a month. As far as the whole project we hope to have everything done by the end of the school year. That would be our goal. You know we have to order things and so forth so if there's not a backlog with materials and supplies being ordered we hope to have it done by the school year. It could go into the summer and once we have a true timeline we'll be able to share that.
47. 27:58Great. Thank you very much.
48. 27:58Thank you. At this time we do have a need for a brief early executive session. Make a motion to enter executive session at 629 p.m. for the purposes of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons.
49. 28:15Second.
50. 28:15All in favor. City of Hudson, New York public meeting. [… repeated text trimmed] Make a motion to approve personnel agenda items A, 1 through 9, and B, 1 through 8.
51. 33:06Second.
52. 33:08All in favor?
53. 33:11And now we welcome some new staff.
54. 33:17All right, just want to recognize some of our new staff that are joining us. So I have some bios to read on two of our instructional and two non-instructional folks. So the first one is Adriana, who I don't think was able to join us tonight, but still want to recognize her.
55. 33:31She is excited to be joining the Hudson team as a school counselor. Her journey working with students began in early childhood education, where she started as an assistant teacher at a daycare and eventually became a lead teacher for two years, or for a two-year-old classroom. From there, she transitioned into mental health counseling as a clinician for a nonprofit organization that provided counseling services within New York City's Department of Education.
56. 33:56She then became a school counselor at a charter school, where she spent two years supporting middle school students academically, socially, and emotionally. She's very passionate about working with students in a school setting, definitely came through in her interview, building meaningful relationships with them, and being someone they can come to when they need support. She truly sees herself as one of their biggest advocates and loves what she does.
57. 34:19She's excited to bring her passion and experience to Hudson and to get to know our students, families, and staff. And she provided a fun fact about herself, that she's ambidextrous, so she can write with both her left and right hand. So welcome to Adriana Calderon.
58. 34:33Are you going to applaud?
59. 34:35[Applause]
60. 34:38Second is Judith Croft, joining us as a special education teacher. And I did see her, so welcome to her this evening.
61. 34:44Judith Croft goes by her middle name, which is Christine. She has a bachelor's of science with a major in elementary education and psychology, and a master's degree in special education from New Paltz. For the past 23 years, she has worked as a special education teacher at Anderson Center for Autism. And in that time, she has worked with parents, residential managers, case managers, support staff, OT, PT, and speech therapists to ensure the best possible outcomes for her students. She has experience differentiating instruction, helping create and implement behavioral support plans and IEPs to meet the needs of her students.
62. 35:21And that also came through in her interview, the fact that she is bringing with her 23 years of experience in special education to Hudson. I feel very fortunate to welcome her here to Hudson. Kind of her fun fact, she said she and her family love animals, and she has three dogs and has been fostering dogs for more than 15 years. So thank you, and welcome to Judith, or Christine, I should say.
63. 35:42And on the non-instructional side, we have two members joining our facilities team. The first is Chris Morrison, who is a strong candidate for the custodial position that he accepted here at Hudson City School District. He brings extensive hands-on experience in facilities maintenance, building and grounds upkeep, equipment maintenance, repairs, and inventory management. His background as a facilities manager and alumni demonstrates his ability to work independently, respond to maintenance needs, and maintain safe, clean, and well-functioning facilities here at Hudson.
64. 36:16Christopher is dependable, hardworking, safety conscious, and comfortable performing the physical demands of the custodial work he'll be taking on. His local connection and broad maintenance experience make him a perfect candidate to join the district's team. So welcome to Chris.
65. 36:32And last but not least, also in facilities is Garfield Thompson. So he brings a strong history of hard work, dedication, and commitment to the Hudson community. He spent approximately 14 years at the SCODAC CML facility serving all the local Dunkin' Donut chains. His long and steady work history is a testament to his reliability, work ethic, and dedication. Garfield and his family became part of the Hudson community in 2010, and he has continued to build roots here with his son graduating from the Hudson High School, making this a particularly meaningful connection to our community and our district.
66. 37:10We are happy to welcome Garfield to the district and look forward to having him part of our school community. So we welcome all these members to our team. Now we have our superintendent's report. Keep on going. Organize that.
67. 37:26All right, so from the last meeting to today, a couple of things have happened, so I want to share out and give an overview of the opening of school. I will start with September 8th, which was our first day for faculty and staff, and I want to start by saying thank you to all of our faculty and staff for being here today. I will start with September 8th, which was our first day for faculty and staff. I thought it was a great day. We started in here with all the faculty and staff.
68. 37:53I want to thank the board members that were able to attend. We welcomed the new staff that we had in place at that time, and then we also brought something back that had been done here in the past, which is service recognition, so recognizing staff members who have been here for 10, 20, or 30 years of service to the district. So just to give you numbers, we had nine members of our staff that hit that 10-year mark this past year. We had five that hit the 20-year mark, and we had one that hit the 30-year mark.
69. 38:22So we celebrated those. If you add all those years up, it's actually 220 years of service to Hudson City School District, which I always like numbers, so that's a fun number to share. So really wanted to celebrate them on opening day. My other message for the faculty and staff as part of opening day, I spoke about my experience in starting here in July and really emphasized the importance of working together as a team and collaboration and communication and the things that we have been working on as an admin team over the summer to get ready for the school year.
70. 38:55And overall, I felt like it was a really great, positive first day and has been a positive, great first week the past week with students as well. I did ask the principals, so Mark Brenneman at the elementary school and then Derek Reardon at the junior-senior high to provide me some information just from their perspective at each of the buildings. So I am going to read the information that they shared with me from their perspective.
71. 39:20So we'll start with Mr. Brenneman, which is at the elementary school. So the elementary school started with 631 students as the enrollment this year. We have started assessments in both reading and math to begin interventions in the coming weeks. Next week, students will take the NWEA assessment to drive classroom instruction and meet student needs. The arrival and dismissal, which is always a tricky part of starting a school year, have been an involving routine that is getting faster and more efficient every day.
72. 39:49Today, we hosted our annual station day to start the year, teaching the students about the ways to be safe, responsible, and respectful in multiple areas of school. of our school building in the coming year. The counselors and teachers worked collaboratively together to rotate through these stations and students earned lots of Blue Hawk bucks. On Friday of this week we have two assemblies where each class was introduced, students learned about all the ways they can spend their Blue Hawk bucks, and Ms. Cox led students in a fun beanbag balance game.
73. 40:20I don't think I got an invite for that, I'm a little disappointed. So many of the students had excellent balance. For Mr. Brenneman we are looking forward to continuing what has been a great start to the school year.
74. 40:30For the junior senior high from Mr. Reardon, for the enrollment at the junior senior high there is 830 students which is 6 through 12. At the junior high which is 6 through 8 it's 345 and high school 9 through 12 is 485. So overall the opening of school has gone very well. Students and staff have settled into routines quickly and the transition to the new school year has been positive.
75. 40:59We were especially pleased with how students and staff have responded to the changes implemented this year. The principals, associate principals, counselors, and instructional technology coach collaborated to conduct grade level assemblies for students in grades 6 through 12. The assemblies provided an opportunity to welcome students back, review expectations and procedures, reinforce available support and help students understand some of the operational changes taking place this year. The assemblies were also well received and provided a positive way to start the year for students.
76. 41:33One of our primary goals for the 26-27 school year is to operate more efficiently as one unified 6-12 campus. Moving to a single main office for grades 6 through 12 along with adjustments to student entry, parking, and lunch schedules represents a significant operational change all that were worked on over the summer. While there are always details to work through during the first few days and learning from what has been implemented, the transition to start overall has been smooth.
77. 42:02One of the biggest positives so far has been the increased collaboration among the administrative team and counselors and the grade level assemblies are a good example of this collaborative approach that has helped establish consistent messaging across the 6-12 grades. One other positive item to highlight is the development in the reintroduction of positive behavioral interventions and supports or PBIS at the junior high. This work has begun through collaborative or collaboration between the high school PBIS team and interested junior high staff. The goal is to establish PBIS at the junior high while working collaboratively with the existing high school team to create greater consistency and expectations, language, and practices across all grades 6 through 12.
78. 42:46Overall we are very pleased with the start of the 26-27 school year. The first few days have been very positive and we're excited about the direction of the school and the opportunities that lie ahead for both our students and faculty and staff.
79. 43:00One other just enrollment piece, when I mentioned all the numbers before that was a breakdown by building, also thought it'd just be interesting to share the number of registrants that we had over the summer, so new students coming into the district was actually 46. So I'm not sure if that's a higher or lower, wasn't able to go back in time and look, but I just thought that was a good number to see that we actually had 46 new students coming into Hudson for this school year. That does not include a student that maybe was here last year, left at some point, came back. This was truly 46 new students entering our our district.
80. 43:38So the principals provided an update from the instructional side. I also just wanted to provide a little bit of information from the operational side of facilities, transportation, and food service. So again, just some numbers. Operating a school, there are so many pieces that go into getting ready for a school year and then so many pieces that happen every single day.
81. 43:58So one of them that I always find interesting is just food service, the amount of work that goes into preparing the number of meals that are served every day. So I asked Lisa McGovern at the end of the week last week, so that's three days into school, so very new to the school year, but just to run some numbers of how many meals had been served to date. So by Friday of last week, after three days, it was averaging about 250 breakfasts, which isn't that many, but roughly about 800 lunches every day. So you total that up and it's over a thousand meals every single day, just in those first three days. So 3,000 meals by Friday, 5,000 meals by the end of the day today. Just think of that in the scope of all the work that goes into making that happen. So I want to thank Lisa and her team.
82. 44:39On the facility side, when you think about all the work that goes into preparing a building, comparing it to the size of a potential house, so our square footage as a school district, I asked Tyler this the other day, we have approximately 380,000 square feet of buildings and instructional spaces. So if you think of a 1,500 square foot home, that would be like cleaning and preparing and getting ready 253 1,500 square foot homes. Just to put it in perspective, the amount of work that goes into getting that ready. Likewise, on the outside of the district, they prepared over 70 acres of sports fields and areas that they maintain from the facility side, which is the equivalent of 53 football fields. So a lot of work going into that.
83. 45:31And then last but not least, on the transportation side, as many are aware, there are a lot of shifts and changes to transportation from last year to this year. So I want to thank Mr. Bill Muirhard, who has been working on this. He was aware that last week there were some concerns of congestion and buses that were very crowded. He took that feedback, has been listening to that feedback, and actually today implemented or started an additional run that actually pulled some students off of several other buses so that those buses became less crowded, and this new run was picking up those students to help maintain that. He is continuing to listen to feedback and concerns and will continue to make adjustments as we settle into the year.
84. 46:14So all that, just on the operational side, the instructional side, I feel like overall we've had a very positive start to the school year and we will continue to build off that positive start.
85. 46:29Amazing. Thank you. Any questions?
86. 46:35All right. Brings us to our first public forum. We have Claire Cousins.
87. 46:44Hey Claire. Sure, yeah. Oh, Lance would like the mic. As you know, each speaker gets three minutes.
88. 46:55My name is Claire Cousin. I'm a Fifth Ward Councilperson, parent, and director of Youth Power at Kites Nest. First, I wanted to give a shout out to the student ambassador. As an elected official, I want to say I'm proud to see such a fierce, articulate, diplomatic advocate for your peers. Don't stop paying attention, speaking up, and asking questions. Also glad that I came to this meeting because it looks like I'll be asking to join the policy committee after I give my lengthy complaint.
89. 47:22I want to speak tonight about an experience my family had on the second day of school because I think it raises some important questions about how we're implementing and evaluating restorative practices in our schools. My son is in a specially classified classroom, has a behavioral plan, and an IEP, and on the second day of school he had a difficult day and ran out of his classroom. This is not a new or unknown behavior for him. It's something that has occurred in the past when he is disrupted in a disrupted or unfamiliar environment.
90. 47:51This year he is also entering a new environment in a larger classroom with different behavioral supports than he had previously. That day the regular building administrator was out. I received a call from inside the school letting me know that I should expect a call because my son had a rough day. Before the school had the chance to call me, I called in myself and learned that they were in the process of giving my son what would have amounted to a week's worth of lunch detention for running out of his classroom. His teacher is not at fault and his new aide was at lunch, I later learned.
91. 48:20I immediately asked a very simple question. Had his emotional needs been addressed? Had he been given access to his counselor? I was told that he was accessing that support at that point, but that raised another question for me. Where was the restorative justice in the process? I was told that giving him access to his counselor after the punishment had already been determined was in fact the restorative practice.
92. 48:40Much of my frustration comes from the fact that I clearly articulated at the final CSE meeting of last school year all of my concerns and that I had leading into this year and this change. Further, for your reference, I do not fault his new teacher and his one-to-one aide as I learned they were at lunch. Thankfully, after having my own conversation with his counselor, to my understanding the situation was ultimately resolved differently.
93. 49:03My son did not end up receiving the lunch detentions. Instead, he had an actual restorative process with his teacher, the person whose classroom and learning environment were most directly affected by his behavior. His consequences were connected to repairing that relationship and taking responsibility for how his actions impacted her classroom. To me, that is the definition of restorative justice and much closer to what the process should look like.
94. 49:26It's the first week, so there should be some grace for staff and administration, more importantly for students, especially those students requiring additional thought and attention. I want to be very clear, my child is not beyond reproach and I am not asking this district to excuse his behavior. I hold my children accountable. I talk with them thoroughly about their actions, their impact on other people, and what they need to do differently, but accountability and punishment are not the same thing.
95. 49:47I also want to acknowledge that I don't come to this conversation only as a parent. I work at a liberatory education center where we think deeply about how schools can respond to young people in ways that recognize their humility and humanity while still holding them accountable. So I am particularly interested in whether the values we say we believe in are actually reflected in our day-to-day practices.
96. 50:09Can I finish? Yeah. Had I not advocated for my child in that moment, a non-violent behavior that was already known to be connected to his dysregulation and environmental disruption could have resulted in a nearly week's worth of punitive action. He's also a fifth grader. On the second day of school and when we start moving children through escalating punitive responses for behaviors that could instead be addressed through relationship, accountability, support, and repair, we have to ask whether we are contributing to the very school-to-prison pipeline that restorative practices are supposed to interrupt.
97. 50:39So my purpose tonight is not simply to complain about what happened to my son. I want to understand the district's policy around restorative practices, how those practices are actually being implemented in our schools, and how we evaluate whether they're working. And I would actually like to see this become a board-level discussion. I think we need to have a broader conversation about what restorative practice means in this district, particularly for students in specially classified settings and students whose behaviors may be connected to emotional regulation, disability, or changes in their environment, because there is a difference between having a restorative justice written into a policy and actually practicing restoration when a child is struggling.
98. 51:19My son ultimately got the support and accountability that he needed, but I have to ask what happens to the child whose parent isn't there to make that call? That's the question that I hope this board will take seriously. Thank you.
99. 51:27Thank you. Thank you for sharing. And we'll talk through our board goals, but there's a piece in there where policy and practice are definitely one thing that we want to be focusing on this year.
100. 51:44Next we have Dawn Beaumont.
101. 51:52Good evening. My name is Dawn Beaumont, and I'm an alumni of Hudson, and I've had two daughters who graduated in 2018 and 2024. I also work for the Department of Social Services for nearly 30 years, 32 actually. Sort of what my comments are relate to what Claire Cousin just spoke about, and I'll keep it brief, but I recently attended a meeting that included staff from the Columbia County Mental Health Clinic, and I had learned from the clinical director that there is actually a program where they provide counselors, clinicians to every school district.
102. 52:33Every school district has the opportunity to have a clinician in their school free of charge, and I was surprised to learn that the only school district in the county that's taken advantage of it so far has been New Lebanon School District. So, you know, given the constraints that school boards and budgets are under, and I know that a lot of times social work, school psychologists, counselors, school counselors, guidance counselors are often the positions that tend to be cut first.
103. 53:02I just feel like if it's something that the school could figure out a way to incorporate, especially when there's apparently no cost to the district, I'd like to see that explored, and if you'd like any contact information, I can provide that to you, because all kids need as much support as they can get.
104. 53:21Amazing, thank you. You put your information on the sign-up sheet? Okay, great, we'll definitely be in touch.
105. 53:35You have to switch the video feed to the live camera, it sounds like. It's on now? Okay, thank you.
106. 53:55Leslie, anybody else sign up? Okay, thank you both for speaking. Next, we have our consent agenda. I make a motion to approve consent agenda items A through P.
107. 54:09Second. All in favor?
108. 54:14Brings us to policy.
109. 54:18All right, there are two things here for policy. One is the first read of an update to the workplace violence prevention policy. One of the things we spoke about in policy is also just making sure, as everybody knows, in the last three, four years, there have been considerable sort of transition in our central office staff, in both who was in those roles, as well as what the titles were when we moved to consolidate positions last year.
110. 54:46And so last year, we worked hard to get away from names and policies into titles, but now we have some title shifts, so just making sure that we are also vetting policies to make sure that it's really important that people know who to go to for what, especially when there's a policy around needing to know who you report something to if something is happening. So the first one of these that we updated is the workplace violence prevention.
111. 55:07I apologize to the rest of the board. Usually, our practice in policy is to put changes in red so you know what was there and what is new, and that is my error in our policy meeting. There are some changes just in sort of like grammar semantics to it, but the substantive change there is to move to identify the executive director of business and finance as the person that is the reportee of this policy.
112. 55:32And then the second one is to abolish this policy called policy dissemination. Like I mentioned earlier, we have something like 275 policies as a district. That's a lot. And so in looking at redundancies and looking at things that are not necessary there were several policies that addressed the meta policies about policy. And this was one of them that was completely redundant to another policy that already existed. And so we are going to continue to try to really call down.
113. 56:09But again, these are two first steps within that with regard to like updating points of contact to accurately reflect our current org chart as well as then removing things that are redundant or not necessary. And the purpose of removing policies is not like, great we have 100 instead of 275, right?
114. 56:23The purpose in removing policies that are not actually driving our district forward is it lets us anchor in and focus on the accurate implementation of policies like the code of conduct that should be driving actually how we are acting as a district, right? So if we can sort of call down to the ones that truly matter and impact students and get better at using those to guide the work that we are doing then we will be better as a district.
115. 56:52Any questions about those?
116. 56:55No, unless anybody has any questions we could move. I just have one more thing to add. In the event that someone didn't see the notice for advertising somebody that wants to be on the policy committee in the community, where should they reach out to us?
117. 57:07Yes, they should send Leslie their response to three prompts which are why are you interested in the policy committee, what skills do you bring to this, and are you willing to commit to monthly meetings as well as time between meetings and like what time constraints do you have with that?
118. 57:29Thanks, good call. By October 5th.
119. 57:38It's also on our website. Yes, so any questions, comments about these two policies?
120. 57:48We can move to abolish policy 2450 right now unless anybody has an objection. So make a motion to abolish policy 2450 policy dissemination. Second. All in favor?
121. 58:08Okay, brings us to letters of interest for Bacon Bordsee. As all of you know Maureen Sheridan resigned from her position in July of this year. We put out a call for interest with letters due September 11th. We received three complete letters of interest from Alejandro Vincenti Jr., Rip Knobland, and Kirsten Gustafson.
122. 58:37For those who haven't seen your email, Rip did send his regrets that he couldn't make it tonight. He had an unscheduled conflict, and before we get into it just recap the procedures. We will motion to open the floor for nominees, at which point any member of the board can call out the name of a nominee. If you'd like to say why you think they are a good choice, you can. I would like to keep it to reasons why somebody is a good candidate, and not why somebody is not a good reason.
123. 59:17Nominations do not need a second, and after each nomination I'll just repeat the name of the nominee for the record, and then when there are no further nominations presented, I'll make a motion to close, and at that point move on to the election, and we'll start with the first person nominated, go from there, and once a candidate receives four votes, they will be the person appointed to the seat. Any questions about that process?
124. 59:58So just to be clear, this is for the remainder of this school year, correct?
125. 1:00:00Yes, so the person that we appoint today will serve until the budget vote on May 20, in the third week of May, at which point the person who receives the most votes in that election will assume that seat and then serve the remainder of that term followed by their three-year term. So that's, yes, a little bit.
126. 1:00:37Probably the same situation that I incurred last year.
127. 1:00:37Yes, exactly.
128. 1:00:41It's not the remainder of the full term?
129. 1:00:41No.
130. 1:00:47No, and then so whoever, and then so the person in, so there'll be three seats up for election in May. Matt and Amanda both need to both have expiring terms. There'll be the third seat. Whoever comes in third in that election will receive a one-year term, which is the remainder of Maureen's term.
131. 1:01:10Check, yeah. So then they would have to run again the following year.
132. 1:01:16And that person would start serving that night?
133. 1:01:19No, the way that we've done it in...
134. 1:01:24The one with the most starts that same night. This is the same thing that we didn't appoint. The most votes starts that night, which is not necessary.
135. 1:01:33But I'm just saying there's two people who could be on the ballot who are already on the board.
136. 1:01:36And they'll start in July. Well, you're already here.
137. 1:01:40That's what I'm saying. So the third person would be the person who would start.
138. 1:01:44So Matt, if you got the most votes, you would be sworn in that night.
139. 1:01:51But his point is he's already on the board. Yeah, so it's a little bit different than from when Mike ran because there weren't other board members running as well.
140. 1:02:02So we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
141. 1:02:05For now, we are picking someone from now through May. And we will figure it out by May.
142. 1:02:11Okay, so make a motion to open the floor for nominations.
143. 1:02:16I'll give you a second. Second. All right, all in favor.
144. 1:02:22Okay, floor is open for nominations.
145. 1:02:27I'd like to nominate Kirsten. I think that we are a Kirsten was on the board and was on the board for the entirety of the until very recently, like for my first two years on the board. And I think was dedicated and thoughtful and deliberative and helped see us through.
146. 1:02:52Superintendent Trent, like help us appoint an interim superintendent, help us find a permanent superintendent. And I think that we are we're a relatively young board. And I think in this moment in time, there's benefit to institutional knowledge and capacity and wherewithal of like what this role is so that for the rest of this year, we can really hit the ground running on the policy work, supporting the new superintendent, like getting things where we need them to be.
147. 1:03:20And I think just that institutional knowledge is valuable right now.
148. 1:03:25So that was longer than two sentences. No, thank you. Appreciate that.
149. 1:03:29Any further nominations?
150. 1:03:32I would like to nominate Rip Knoblin. And I would like to nominate him primarily because it's the same situation that we had with Mike. He ran. He sat here, went through the scrutiny of all the questions that were asked by the student council. He went through the election. He was voted for by a number of people in our community.
151. 1:03:57He also understands the seat, having listened to his questions and answer period from the student council. And he has multiple children in the district that are employees and also his wife. So he has some knowledge of our community and our school district. And I would like to nominate Rip.
152. 1:04:23So it's a nomination for Kirsten, a nomination for Rip. Any further nominations?
153. 1:04:32OK, so make a motion to close the floor for nominations. Second. All in favor. Now for the election process, each board member will get a yes vote. We'll start with Kirsten, who was nominated first. All in favor of Kirsten Gustafson, please raise your hand or give an aye. Aye. OK, so that's the four votes. So Kirsten Gustafson, welcome back to the board. You can come on up here and get sworn in. I'd like to thank Rip and Alejandro for their interest in the position. As you've heard earlier, there are seats available on the policy committee. And I believe the facilities committee still has some open seats for community members. So that'd be a great way to serve the district, get to know the workings of the board a little bit better
154. 1:05:37and get ready for election in May. Are you going to make a motion? Yes, I will make the motion. So make a motion to appoint Kirsten Gustafson to the Board of Education for a term starting September 15th, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. But we all know what happens at the election. Second. All in favor. Aye. I move to adjourn the meeting. Second. Aye. Second. Aye. [… repeated text trimmed] Our second goal is fiscal oversight and budget development. The board will strengthen its oversight of district finances and the annual budget process to ensure decisions are timely, transparent, sustainable, and centered on student needs. And this is largely around our budget development timeline, providing regular communications, clearly making sure
155. 1:10:26that our budget priorities and spending decisions are tied to both our district goals, the student needs, and educational outcomes. Improve the board's understanding of our multi-year financial trends including enrollment, staffing, revenue, fund balance, etc. And just to ensure significant budget decisions and potential reductions are discussed early enough to allow for thoughtful consideration of their educational and community impact. And then the final goal is around superintendent support and accountability. You know, this is a big year for all of us and we want to make sure we establish a strong working relationship with Mr. Hilgendorf in year one, provide clear expectations, consistent support, constructive feedback, and meaningful accountability. And as folks in the community hear this and are listening to our board goals,
156. 1:11:25want to make sure everybody is aware that there are board goals which are focused on our role as a governance body. There are district goals which at this time are contained within our school improvement plans and which will continue to be refined throughout the year with input from community members and staff members. And then there are the superintendent goals as well. And you know, it's in here to support the superintendent in building a district culture grounded in trust, collaboration, accountability, and shared responsibility. And I think that's a lot of the work we'll be doing together over the course of this year. So yeah, I just want to open it up to the rest of the board, see if folks have other thoughts, anything that they think
157. 1:12:14we should add, anything that I failed to convey properly. I think I would just reframe that idea of like over ambitious. I think I think last year we had board goals that felt like what were the things we wanted to do kind of in addition to the work that we were primarily doing as a board, right? Like so an example of that would be that we did not have a board goal last year that said that we needed to find a new superintendent. That was probably the biggest thing that we needed to do as it was, it wasn't, but it wasn't like as central to, it was there. Okay, yeah, let me reframe. It was there.
158. 1:12:56It didn't feel as central to like the priorities that we're doing. And so I think it's not about like not being ambitious. It's not about not wanting to like do good and work hard for this district. I think it's about making sure that our goals are really driving towards like what are the things that are most needed right now, right? We need to make sure that all of our committee work is driving forward decisions that are good for our students. We need to make sure that we have a better handle on like finances, on the budget process, on a transparent process around how we are approaching that and continuing to get better at that. And we need to make sure that we're
159. 1:13:32supporting and holding accountable our new superintendent, right? And I think that those just feel like what truly are the three biggest tasks. Sorry, I didn't mean to like misspeak that that wasn't a goal of ours, but that it didn't feel like we were driving towards key central pieces last year as well as we could have been. Cool. Any other thoughts, questions? Okay, so we can sit with this and we'll bring it back in October and hopefully be ready to to approve it. And next we have our meeting calendar or board activity calendar, which gives some helpful milestones throughout the year. There was one thing that was discussed last year that I forgot to add, that was discussed last year that I forgot to add to this and would like to add and is
160. 1:14:27to make sure that at some point in February or March we review our voting and election procedures because that was something that was important to members of the community.
161. 1:14:43Okay, so I'd like to make that change. And obviously there's a lot of things on here that are fluid, including a mid-year academic workshop with our administrative team. And yeah, we'll just keep working with Mr. Hilgendorf to make sure that we fill this out and give as best of an overview of what's happening in the district to both board members and the community at large.
162. 1:15:20Any other comments or additions?
163. 1:15:27Okay, and the final piece here is the budget development calendar, which I'll let Todd speak to.
164. 1:15:38Certainly. So this connects directly to what you were talking about, Mark, in terms of one of the board goals around financial planning. The district has had a version of a budget development calendar in the past. This is a refined version of that that Melanie and I have worked on. So the full version is linked on board docs that you can look at the draft. The idea was to share this tonight, get any feedback from the board as a whole, but then this would actually also be on the October board agenda for approval and adoption so that then this is guiding the work that we do throughout the year for budget development.
165. 1:16:10One of the key pieces here is the budget development process. It really, truly never stops. While we often think of like February, March timeframe as the heavy time around budget development, and that is true because there's a lot of work that happens during that time. If you look at the calendar that we're proposing, there's some key pieces that actually start in October with reviewing the process and defining what the process will look like behind the scenes with administrators and supervisors. I'm not going to go through all the dates and all the details that are on the calendar, but I want to kind of highlight some of the key pieces that are in here.
166. 1:16:45Another key piece is the idea of this being a collaborative process. So developing a budget for a school district is very complex and there's a lot of intricacies that go into it. It's also critically important that when we initially start this process that we are getting feedback and ideas from across the district from different areas. So one of the items that's on here is in the month of November, teacher leaders, so that's grade level leaders at the elementary school, department chairs at the high school, allowing an opportunity for them to give feedback from their perspective of thinking towards next year, which sometimes is challenging because it's the fall of this year and we're asking them to think about what it will look like in September of 2027 from their perspective as a teacher, what they might need in their classroom, but allowing that to have an opportunity for them to provide that feedback.
167. 1:17:39And that continues through the administrators, so at the building levels, at the district level with our director of student services, with facilities, with Tyler, you know, just having different opportunities for those leaders, administrators, supervisors to provide feedback to both Melanie as the executive director for business and finance and myself as superintendent. So key there is that it is a collaborative process, a lot of work to gather those different ideas.
168. 1:18:05Then the other thing I just want to touch on which connects back to what Mark just spoke about too in that presentation schedule for the year for board meetings, the key ones that are budget-related. So the first one is in December, so again that might seem a little early but really not because it's important for us to be thinking about the budget process. So the December budget presentation is really an overview of the budget development process in greater depth and greater detail than just looking at this calendar. So one of the things that I like to do for that is include a budgeting 101 handbook because when we start talking about school finance and school budgeting there are so many different acronyms and terms that it can get very confusing very quickly. So the budgeting 101 handbook is meant as a reference so throughout the entire budget development process or any presentation that we're giving if titles are used or phrases are used it's a place to go back to and like, oh yeah what is the appropriate fund balance? What does that mean again? It provides a guidance for anybody that's interested in looking at that. So that's December.
169. 1:19:10Then in January the budget presentation is the rollover budget, so that is taking the current year budget 26-27 and doing the best that we can at that time in January, which is still early, but projecting as well as we can the things that we know. So we know certain salaries based on contracts are going to increase a certain percentage so we can fold that into the rollover budget. We make projections about insurance and look at current expenditures for this year. Are there areas that we have gone above what we thought we were going to expense that we need to incorporate into the following year's budget? So that rollover budget is really taking what the current budget is, best predictions at that time, and creating the rollover for the 27-28.
170. 1:19:56From there in February we start with present Presenting the budget in what's called the three part component budget, that's a requirement of New York State. So every school budget is broken into the program, the capital, and the administrative component. So the way that we'll present the budget is in February we present the program component, which is always the largest percentage of a school budget because it's all the programming, all the instructional pieces. So think about everything that happens in a classroom with teachers and supplies and materials, textbooks, equipment, the salaries of those individuals working with students every day, all of that goes into the program component. So presenting overall what the program component is in February.
171. 1:20:43The next meeting would be in March, and that would include the other two components, which is the capital component, which is everything on the facility side as well as debt service, and then the administrative component, which is the administrative, think the administrator salaries, the leadership of the district is in the administrative component. So those two components would be presented together in March, as well as at that time the projected revenues, what money are we projecting that we will bring in as revenue in the 27-28 school year. So those are really the main components that go into the budget, program, capital, administrative, and then on the flip side, the revenue, you put that all together and you're coming up with what is the proposed balanced budget.
172. 1:21:24There will be a second meeting in March, that's really held to see where we are in the process. There's a lot of unknowns that go into this process in January, February, and March, so depending on what information we have and when, that March meeting might be simply an update of where we are in the budget development process, or if there's more things that are uncertain and we're still gaining information to further develop the budget, it might be a more in-depth conversation about what is needed to balance the budget.
173. 1:21:55And then from there, the April board meeting is for the board to adopt that proposed budget with ultimately the election of board members and the vote on the budget itself happening May 18th. There's a lot of other details in the budget development calendar that relate to regulation by New York State in terms of how we post information and when petitions are available for board seats, and just different deadlines that we have to follow by New York State regulation. So yeah, that just gives the overview. As I mentioned, that connects directly back to that board activity calendar for the year because you'll see those dates that I mentioned for budget development are locked into the dates for those presentations.
174. 1:22:39Thank you. Any questions? Okay. All three of these items will be brought back in October to be approved by the board. That brings us to our next public forum. Leslie, do we have anybody who signed up?
175. 1:22:58Hello, everybody. I gave you the summer off. I didn't speak. I'm back. I heard what the administrator said about the beginning of school. I disagree. I don't want to go into a lot of detail, but I feel like we're on a hamster wheel and we just can't get off. I would urge maybe a survey to go out to staff where they don't have to tell you who they are so you get a full picture of what's really going on.
176. 1:23:34I don't know what else to say, but I can tell you I've been here 26 years and I've never had a beginning of the year like this. It is not good. So I would just urge you maybe to do that and just stop by. Maybe just stop by and see what's going on in your halls. I'll leave it at that. Thank you.
177. 1:23:58Thank you, Nikki. We have board discussion. Anybody else have anything they'd like to discuss? I have a couple of things. I'll just piggyback on what Nikki said because I was also going to suggest a survey. Claire, I'm going to mention you in a second, too. I was also going to suggest that we send it out to maybe parents or community people so that we can get feedback, like real feedback, and maybe a space for them to maybe write a little suggestion, too, not just a checkmark thing. Because maybe somebody has a good idea that they would like to share.
178. 1:24:36So that was my one thing, to get feedback on the reconfiguration and the buses and all of that. But I mentioned Claire and also Liba because I want to talk about something that Todd actually brought up twice and didn't give himself credit for when he was talking about the first day, and Mike Sullivan, who actually donated the piece for the clock. So the thing that Todd said was, you know, twice already, take some time to appreciate somebody. And what Mike Sullivan said was, take time to notice the things and then see what you can do about it. So that's why I want to mention Liba and Claire. So I appreciate you guys telling us what we can do about the things that you noticed.
179. 1:25:25So we don't just hear you and forget these things. We actually do talk about stuff. So thank you. The other thing I wanted to talk about for appreciation is our teachers. Because I do strongly believe that the teachers are the most valuable asset that we offer to our community, you know, aside from our kids. The teachers who don't even have the chance to go to the bathroom all day, like that's the best thing about retirement is you can go to the bathroom whenever you want.
180. 1:25:56You're in a room with other people's children all day long, 25 kids by yourself, crazy, and not able to go to the bathroom until your half an hour lunch break. So you zip out real quick and come back and your room's full of kids again because you are their safe place for lunch. And so after lunch is over and you clean up their mess for them, then there's another rest of the day. And then the bell rings for the end of the day and you're not done yet because kids will come back because you're their safe place. Or they need help with something.
181. 1:26:29And then at the end of the day, right, when something goes wrong, it's usually the teacher's fault, right? We don't appreciate them enough and then when something goes wrong, it's their fault. So, Claire, some of you it was my fault because I was your teacher, right? And Lance, it's your fault that I'm here and Mike's here because you were my teacher, probably because Nikki's here too, it's your fault, holding us accountable for ourselves, right? And Austin's partially my fault. He's leaving and nobody's saying anything, so I'm a little heartbroken about that, but he's on to bigger and better things.
182. 1:27:08So, as much as everything is our fault, everything's our fault, see? Even all the good stuff. So, take some time to not complain about your teacher once or to notice what they're doing wrong and try to help. So, I appreciate you, Lance, as my former teacher and that was my 50 cents of the day. Oh, also, Bob Conti, if you're listening, it's also your fault.
183. 1:27:41I actually wanted to piggyback off of what you said, specifically regarding teachers, considering I'm the only student actually in here. I really do have to say that every single day I walk into this building, I have so many truly amazing teachers, so many passionate teachers, so many teachers who would literally do anything for us and they, like you said, they really are someone's safe place. I have so many teachers who are not only a safe place, but they are mentors and for some students, they're like the only mentors that they have. But yeah, I love most of my teachers, yeah. I won't say who the other most are, but the majority of my teachers, I really, really do love. Oh, and one more thing, Ms. Hudson, I really wanted to thank you. I really did appreciate what you said and it means a lot. Thank you so much.
184. 1:28:50Thank you both for sharing. Anybody else have...
185. 1:28:53Yeah, I'd just like to say that I took the opportunity to attend opening day and it's the first time I've been back to the first day of school in 23 years. And just the opportunity to see all of our staff together in this auditorium and the appreciation that I have personally for everything that each and every one of them do. And I think it's really important to mention that meet the teacher nights are on the 22nd and the 30th. And for all the parents out there to please take the opportunity to come and meet with these people that works so hard for your children and just, you know, show them a little appreciation that way and ask the questions that you have for us.
186. 1:29:33Some of us will be bopping around the buildings. We each have, some of us have kids that I'll be at the elementary school on the 30th. I know, I think Amanda will be as well. I'll be at both this year. There you go. Got a kid in both spaces now. Exactly. So, that's all I got. And Lou's not my fault. Neither is Matt, but yeah, Lou's brother's my fault too.
187. 1:30:01Thank you, Lou. Yes, those are both great events. That Chalk the Walk was lovely. I love that that's become an annual tradition. And I think it's really, really helpful for our little kids for whom transitions are sometimes hard. And as much as they're excited about school, the nerves creep up. And so I love the opportunity to hang out in front of the building and draw a picture on the sidewalk so that then the next day when you're getting dropped off, you get to jump over the rainbow that you drew. And that's how you walk into the school building. And I think that really makes a big impact on the first day. So thank you to the PTO and the teachers who pull that off every year, too.
188. 1:30:41I actually stopped by the PTO meeting before this. There was like 15 or 20 of them at the room.
189. 1:30:46Nice. They're excited to keep the projects going.
190. 1:30:49That's awesome. And ambitious. I thought about trying to pull that off. And I was like, I can't. A 5 o'clock meeting and then a 530 and then a 6.
191. 1:30:56In and out.
192. 1:30:58Cool. Well, thank you all for sharing.
193. 1:31:03Upcoming meeting dates. Letters of Interest for Policy Committee are due October 5th, 2026. Tuesday, October 13th, 2026, Finance Committee meeting, 3 to 4 p.m. in the District Conference Room. October 13th, Policy Committee meeting, 5 to 7 p.m. in the High School Library. Monday, October 19th, 2026, Facilities Committee meeting, 5.30 p.m. in the District Conference Room. Tuesday, October 20th, 2026, Regular Board of Education meeting, 6 p.m. in the High School Library.
194. 1:31:37Monday, November 3rd, 2026, Finance Committee meeting, 3 to 4 p.m. in the District Conference Room. Monday, November 3rd, 2026, Policy Committee meeting, 5 to 7 p.m. in the High School Library. Monday, November 16th, 2026, Facilities Committee meeting, 5.30 p.m. in the District Conference Room. Tuesday, November 17th, Regular Board of Education meeting, 6 p.m. TBD due to the auditorium renovations. And that makes me remember that, Kirsten, you've got to think about which committee you'd like to serve on. And we can discuss offline.
195. 1:32:17This time we have a need for a second executive session. Make a motion to enter executive session at 7.33 p.m. for the purposes of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons. All in favor?
196. 1:32:32All right, let me know further business after this executive session. Thank you all for being here.
197. 1:32:40Thank you.

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