3 2 one action. Good evening everyone. We just exited executive session. so we are on agenda item 1.4. Recommended action be resolved. The board of education hereby leaves executive session and returns to the regular meeting at 7:50 7:50 p.m. So moved. Second. On the question. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Item 1.5. Board reports. Advocacy. Ah. . All right. So, advocacy met my notebook and turn it back on. so, advocacy met last week, last Monday. and much of our meeting was on the discussion and revision and preparation of the resolution that you will see later on in the agenda in the new item section. new business. so we spent a good deal of time talking about that. We also discussed the upcoming advocacy efforts. so we discussed the final advocacy priorities from Westp and from NISBA from LHC. we discussed the opportunities that we will have as board members and and our superintendent to meet with our local legislators over Zoom. those meetings that Westp puts together for for us. and then you just upcoming information, the NISBA capital conference will be happening soon. So we'll get a breakdown of that budget and learn a little bit more. And then lastly, we did also discuss the fact that the LHC legislative forum will be held on the 29th. So, that will be an opportunity for everyone to join on to hear from a range of legislators throughout the five counties that make up LHC. and hear from from them about their thoughts on the budget. we are able to share our advocacy priorities and we'll be there. So, but the bulk of our work was on the resolution that we will have before us this evening. So, Audit audit hasn't met yet and we'll be scheduled to meet in the next few weeks.
• Board development board development is board development is meeting on the 5th of February and we have no additional updates right now. communications. we have not met since our last meeting will be sorry February February what second policy meeting policy policy committee met on January 20th. one thing that we are doing right up front, I'll tell you, is we are moving our meetings from Tuesdays to Fridays because of conflicts with some of our members. Those dates will be in the schedule. We discuss various policies that we had on the prior agenda for first reading with regard to the annual meeting and the annual vote policy 050 that will come back to second reading. Policy 1230 public comment at board meetings made a few changes. Policy 2120.2 two on the voting procedures. There are a couple of questions that were raised by the committee following what our board raised at the prior meeting and so that will come to the next meeting. So not February 12th most probably and if not it will be done thereafter. That's a vote specific item. So, we need to get it done soon. The other two policies on board organizational meeting and concussion management will be reported to the board. We then discussed a policy on exeicio student trustee based on input from the board and input from student faculty congress and I attended the SFC meeting on January 15th where this was discussed. it was decided. We're going to try to put together a policy, share it with SFC for comments, discuss it at our next meeting in February, and then bring that to the board with the expectation that we will be ready to have it adopted well in advance in a time that trustees need to be selected and that that's about as far as we got. It was one other policy. We started talking ma'am. We didn't resolve it. People had to leave and that was all 90 minutes of work.
• It was an intense 90 minutes. So it was Thank you. Does anybody have anything for me in some reports? Yeah. on January 15th, I attended the district emergency response teams meeting and I would say three main things that we covered. just a very general summary. we talked about DESA's law. and the fact that we are in full compliance with DESH's law. for folks that don't know, Dash the possibility of putting together special teams that would be tasked with responding to these types of emergencies and the conversation particular started at PBC but is something that's going to continue in conversation as a potential which I think folks thought was a very positive idea to to do that and then the meeting ended with a tabletop exercise which I thought was a very good way of sort of practicing potential emergency situations and sort of talking them through as a way of just like putting in practice right like the things that we might know in protocol but sort of like how would you work together as a team to address that pretend emergency situation that hopefully isn't ever real, but good to practice. So, it was a good good and productive meeting. I have a quick one. I think as folks know we have started to institute board leaison to some of our volunteer parent and community organizations. Among them is chef. So, I had an opportunity to meet with the leadership of Chef earlier this week and it was a great conversation. I think I I'm pleased to report that that they are they are, they remain committed to supporting great initiatives coming out of our teachers and administrators in school buildings and are interested in I think collaborating more widely with other groups in the community, which is something that we've been thinking about as well as like trying to think of ways to bring all these like-minded folks who are really committed to supporting our schools, to fundraising frankly, and to supporting people in the community together in a more formal way. So that was sort of like the start of the conversation and we'll have more to report as our collective lay on meetings continue over the spring.
• I was not able to attend the PBC PTA meeting, but Miss Kelly was kind enough to send a quick notes on it. and it's all about the school dance tomorrow. So I hope that event is super successful there. and then I know CHHS met the P the PS I never get this right. The PTSA met this week and voted on a number of grants and are well underway in terms of what they're doing there. I also had the opportunity to attend our booster club meeting which was held at the beginning of this week or last week. My days are blending together. so, we had a good conversation about, the recent MakeLoman tournament. talking about, getting ready for spring sports season, winter sports season underway. and then also talked about the work that the booster club is doing with the Aspire students to put together a a gathering like sports swag like teaching swag that will be able to be available at the family resource center for for families. So that was a really great initiative that is underway and that was sounds super cool. I forgot that I also had for my other leazison I'm sorry I forgot I attended the SEPTA meeting at the family resource center again like a great use of that space just to be able to bring in our PTA organizations and have an environment where you can sort of sit relax and have a great conversation. Rachel was there and I think it was a really productive opportunity for folks in the community to ask questions and to be able to have that direct access to you Rachel which we always appreciate you being there. So thank you so much. I think again it's like to be able to to make use of that space and just have it feel sort of like comfortable. I really loved it. It was great. Thank you.
• Just want to add with respect to student congress maybe want to talk about there was discussion about driver's education and you know what done students are interested. Yes. So this got brought up two meetings ago. you basically I think I touched on it a little bit last meeting but there were some students specifically some sophomores and juniors who were interested in the idea of running driver's ed again at our school because that used to be a program prior to co but we know we had issues with the school we were working with shutting down and so they were trying to find workarounds to that. So, they established a committee and talked to some administration about it, but it was essentially decided that we can't actually run a program here at the school, but they're looking at options to essentially like funnel students through other nearby schools that run it. For example, like Austining runs it. There's I think they just can't find they can't find the staff to do it, unfortunately. That's what they just shared. Awesome. Austin, and there's a lot of regulations they might Yeah. Well, yes, they're looking into some nearby schools about, potentially running it like like some districts like Panis, I think, still runs safe there. but so they're they're looking at some things like that and they're trying to find certain workounds. So, they're creating another committee to go try to find some potential solutions to that, but yeah, for now, we're still working on it. I'm starting to wonder if like this talk about like people not wanting to get their driver's licenses is because it's actually becoming impossible. No, it's a real legitimate question because it's like it's how again it's like it's very different. Access to driver's ed is very different than it was 20 or 30 years ago. There's a real Yeah, there's what there's a real accessibility issue because you basically having gone through this twice recently. I mean, you need to have somebody be able to drive your child during working hours to most places and like we're it's a mess.
• Is that it? So, we will now move into our work session item 2.1 the winter 2026 school climate survey. Turn it over to Superintendent Walker. Thank you, Anna. Good evening, everyone. I wanted to just say by way of a brief introduction for the past three business meetings, November, December, and this month, the board and community have heard from our building leaders with regard to some outstanding success that our students have demonstrated over the course of the past several years on various standardized assessments. And we all know that there are multiple reasons for that. visionary leadership, phenomenally talented and collaborative faculty, but also foundationally the creation of school climates and school environments that help students to feel safe in every possible context of that term. and so tonight we get a chance led by Rachel and our building leaders. Thank you all for being here and more importantly for leading this work about some of the data regarding and how our kids are telling us their experience in our schools has been and continues to be and where our work needs to continue to focus in that going forward. So again, thank you for being here. We look forward to to the sharing of information. We know that there's there's vulnerability and strength in asking young people about their experience in our schools and then sharing it so publicly. So, thank you for demonstrating both. Right. Good evening everyone. So, after the administration of the fall school climate survey, the administrative team met to kind of discuss what our focus is and what our work was going to entail. So as you can see from this slide, our purpose was to focus on, whether the differences that we're seeing were meaningful in practice and just not statistically. Cross-checking the results of this data with attendance, behavior, and academic data to confirm the trends. And then if some indicators stayed the same, such as safety or belonging, that stability could be a positive sign. We use this information to plan for the next half of the school year and note any initiatives that had a positive outcome or that needed to be adjusted to further see an impact. So our data results have been compared to three data sources. The National Center of Educational Statistics, NCES, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC school climate data, as well as Panorama and Ed Survey Synthesies. now I'd like to introduce Carol to dis to discuss C's data.
• Thank you so much for the opportunity to present here tonight. As any of under our leadership at CCT, our primary focus is social emotional learning and this is a direct result of a lot of the work that we've done to ensure that our children feel safe and comfortable and belong at CCT. so what we are able to present tonight for the first time is actual cohort data. So we're going to be looking at the same group of children who took the survey in spring of 2025 and this that cohort taking it again in the fall of 2025. what two important things I think to point out are the timing of those administrations. I think it's important to note that the spring 2025 was given at the very end of May. It was given between May 28th and May 30th. So, the children who were taking that test had been in their environment for an entire school year shy of June. and our fall administration was given in September of 2025. So, they had been in school about 3 weeks. So, that's something to note. I think another important piece, when we were looking at the data, Craig thought to ask, well, do we have a lot of new fourth grade students? And ironically, we had the most new students in fourth grade. We had six new students enter CCT as fourth graders. So, I just want to give that context a little bit as we dive deeper into our data. Yeah. And just to point out, when we first administered this last May, there were 110 third graders present at that time for the administration. When we did it again in the fall, there were 126 fourth graders. So there was a difference of 16 students. So approximately 14 and a half% difference with the amount of responses. And those six new students came pretty close to a difference of 5% of our final numbers. So as we go through the data, if you do see a percent up or down, we think that could explain especially with the comfort and the feel being with your new classmates or have do you feel comfortable in your classroom? Have you made a connection with an adult? If we have say six fourth graders who had only been in school for 3 weeks while taking this, we think that might explain some of our numbers here as we move forward.
• Can I just ask is your laying the landscape with this? Do you have did this is there a third grade class that stayed together and then looped into that? We will have that third into fourth year. We anticipate having that third into fourth this year, but we had nobody. Okay. Because that's an excellent question because those kids you would expect there not to be right getting to know you trusting adult and comfort. That's an excellent question. So you'll notice as our students moved from third to fourth grade that overall a positive school climate ratings increased. Yes, responses became more common and we did notice and you will note the report of bias related incidents increased slightly but we asked the children in a follow-up question to expand on that if they could and a lot of the responses for children who did write in something said that it occurred in an earlier grade that they were remembering something that had happened and that they referenced the bus and recess as primary locations which is important for us to know about how we do our outreach and how we take what we have implemented in the classrooms with all of our steps that we've taken but into these other areas. And our next series of slides will focus on the nine questions that the students responded to. So again, you'll notice that the first question is I feel respected at CCT. This is a little bit confusing. So just take note that the red is blue and the blue is red and that is something that Google did, not us. So it it does look a little bit wonky. The bigger portion of the spring data that's red is actually yeses and the bigger portion of the fall data that's blue is actually yeses. So I know that let that absorb for a minute because it looks like I always think of red as negative but in this case just if we look at the numbers so we had 61% of our students indicating that they felt respected and that increased to 73%. we did see a slight decline in I feel emotionally safe and comfortable at CCT between the spring administration and the fall. And I think that one of our program questions when we meet with our four fourth graders, which you will see is a action item is to kind of talk about that timing of the year and see if without being led to that if we hear from them, well, I didn't know my teacher and I was with new students. So, that's something that we want to kind of probe deeper into.
• You guys go to the next slide. So, next slide. The first question. I have more than one trusted adult that CT. Between spring and fall, we went from a little more than 95 to just shy of 94. we also talked a little bit about this. Beginning of the year, you're still building relationships with your new teacher. you're still building that trust. And then the second question, my friends accept me for who I am at C. Once again, fairly close, less than a percent difference. and once again talking about going to a new class, building new friendships, having new friends or maybe say visiting those friendships that you had in earlier school years. So certainly a little more than 1% change and a little bit less than 1% change. And you will notice on this chart very little change in in anything in our percentages. Nothing glaring but enough to still probe and ask some questions. The friends and teachers support me at CCT is almost identical. very little change there. So one of the wonderings that I had as I was looking at this data is what the response will be for the spring 2026 administration with this cohort. Will we see a pattern that the overall positive responses are stronger in the spring after a year of being in their environment and in their cohort and with their friends? When I say cohort, I mean classroom co cohort. So that's a wondering that I have. I'm kind of wondering if we will start to see the trend of more positive in the spring and if there is a possible decline in the fall because of the changes in their environments. So one question is you said fall was done in September three year three three weeks into the term. Is there a reason it was done that early in the fall semester? I would think we all did it around the same time. We were part of charged with let's let's get this baseline data so that we know what to do with it and how to analyze it because we all did it within a few days of each other in all three buildings.
• I'm just saying that it may be that if the change at the beginning of the year causes some discomfort or discontent, maybe a more accurate would be at the end of October. That may even be a really good comparative question for us to look across the three buildings to see if I think PBC and the high school have had more cohort data than we have. I think it's that would be an interesting question for us to see if you see that trend. Neil, it's a it's a good point, but yeah, September 25th was so early into the school year for our students, but at the same time, if there was a problem, you'd want to know that early on. Exactly. If it was and it was glaringly different like if we were talking about a huge percentage right here we're talking about maybe a percentage less than a percentage if it were huge that would be extremely telling. I agree totally. As we move on to the next couple people who are different from me feel respected at CT. small gain a little bit more than 2%. And then I've had my feelings hurt, but I'd like to focus on this when you talk about the colors. Yeah, they're reversed, too. Reversed. So, not so so. Okay. In the spring of 25, we had 10% who thought they had their feelings hurt. And then in the fall, we were down to just shy of a 7 7.9%. So, both of these graphs show we move in the right direction, which we're certainly happy to report from. another chart where you have to note the color difference. My like I said, this is a Google thing, so we could not do that. this is another one where I referenced on our on our intro sheet that there were instances of, a bias disrespectful because of race, culture, religion at CCT. when we dig took a dive into what kids specifically said about that question, it was bus and recess and older events that kids do. And that's telling too though if a child references an event in fourth grade that occurred in second grade or occurred in third grade, that is telling to us too because that just shows the impact that it had on a child that that much time later they're remembering it. So I think that that causes us to pause and think about, more of our restorative practices and how do we not expect a child to forget, but be able to recognize change, which is a maturity piece, too, but to recognize that yeah, this may have happened then, but now we have this in place and this in place and it hasn't happened since. So it's that's interesting conversation to have as kids get as kids get older. All right, as we move on to the next slide, as Steve mentioned before, we're certainly proud of the academic achievement that we've seen throughout the three different schools, but it all comes down to are students happy? Are they comfortable? So, some of the things that we've put in place in just the last year or so, are multi-age teaming. As you probably know from previous presentations, all of our classes at CT have a multi-age team, which is in a different grade, which brings them together. It fosters different relationships among different grade levels, among different age groups. They form those relationships. We've also seen that we've talked about in our house system and we've seen that carry over. We've heard from parents about our youngest students now have older students models to look up to. They feel comfortable. They see each other in town in parks. So, that's certainly working. We've had the full implementation of the Little Spot curriculum. huge thank you to Robin Woolly. Robin does push into all of our classrooms and takes two lunch periods a month for a short period of time, 8 n 10 minutes just to reinforce some of these strategies from Little Spot. speaking of Robin, we've had the creation of our curriculum coordinator. we've had fantastic support. last year Carmen Rosario came to us 6 three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. And this year, we've had the benefit of Mr. Liam Heiny, a school psychologist who's with us 5 days a week. So certainly having that additional support staff with us. We've seen we've seen that pay off in spades. And we've also last year we started the house point system. Something that we added each year we tweaked our house system a little bit. Last year we added the point system where students are kind of we like to point out positive behavior when we see it. this has been a buyin from our lunch staff. We talked about some of these issues are happening at lunch. Some of them are happening on the bus. So to have the buyin from the lunch staff, we've seen some positive change there. Hallway behavior, classroom behavior, assembly behavior. So when you look at this list about kind of what's been put in place, we really do think we're starting to see some of this kind of come to the surface and, help help our students out.
• Are you going to bring back cop doing good? We still have those. We still have them. But it's funny cuz teachers and and will say we used to have the copy and good stickers. But what they like about the point system is that we have you know how we have the monitors in the front of the building in the back. It's like a bar graph and the kids can kind of see the progress that each house is making. And what's really neat, it's never just one house like takes off and has the lead. It's actually pretty close. And so it's an opportunity aside from the court being good. What's different is it's more of a global recognition and kids can kind of see it growing. And we've even been at assemblies where we've given out. So we give out one point generally. There are times when teachers can give out three points. We have the capacity to give more. There was one time where we had an amazing situation happen the day before house assembly where these two kids stepped up in a way that was well above and beyond when it came to helping a friend. We celebrated like crazy giving those two houses 10 points each because of the above and beyond. So it's more global than a coffee and good sticker. So, we still have them and I we still whoop them out every once in a while, but this tends to be more effective for a greater number of students. Probably with flesh jackets, too. They don't walk around with them on their foreheads anymore. Yeah. So, the data reviewed reflects national trends showing that the students sense of belonging and safety is strongest in elementary settings. The reports of fire related incidents also align with national data with that slight increase likely reflecting recognition and reporting due to maturation than actual rises in incidents. The concentration of incidents during recess and bus is also consistent with national patterns indicating that supervision adult oversight are the primary areas and for targeted improvement. So we were actually in trying to implement this workshop for our lunch monitors and our bus aids about notice, noticing and being an ally and a supporter for students. But we're going to defer that until the fall right before school starts so that it's fresh and then we can hopefully use that as an additional level of support having that staff trained in being more observant, to studentto student interactions so that we can intervene early. Hi. I had a a question. so in CT in terms of the instrument survey did you collect any demographic or identifying characteristics data?
• No. and it wasn't an omission accidental. It was that, and we talked about this kind of in depth when the last time we reported on this, that a lot of our kids don't identify at a younger age as a specific race or so. They may culturally be aware of things, but wouldn't self-identify that way. So, that is not a question that's been on the CCT survey. Okay. And then, thank you. And then the other qu I guess a request that I would have is because I found it like interesting how you were elaborating. It sounds like there was some qualitative data that you were able to capture that beyond the the pie charts. so I know for me as a B member, it'd be really I would love to be actually to see the survey instruments and also to see because it's a comparison between two years to actually see were there any revisions between the two years because then we can get a better sense of like well what are the qualitative things that you're following up and then like Rachel you pointed out that there's a slight increase in bias related reports. my question is like from the way the surveys instrument is designed are you able to get a sense of like any types of incident like or typology of of challenges that our students are facing that like you know if there's a certain group of students that we hear repeatedly or scenarios that beyond the place where this is happening. so that way we can we have the data to then target programming and support to certain students who may need support and or education. So to go back to rewind it for a second when you said any changes in the instrument you mean like wording of questions and stuff like that. So we didn't change any. So our first administration in the fall of 20 24 we since fall of 2024 we changed the wording in one question but we did not change that from spring of 2025 to spring I mean to fall of 2025. So that what we're reporting on right now is the exact same tool. And all we did was just for a little background knowledge it the question said do you feel safe at CCT and we were concerned that some students were interpreting that more from like the lock down the doors being locked. So we added safe and comfortable to kind of make that that more of an emotional safety but that did not change in the data that you're looking at. And to answer your other question, what we have found is, you know, when we look at those bias statements and what children are reporting, often it is the use of a racial slur or term. The more deep we dive into it, we've learned that a lot of the kids don't even know what they're saying. They're repeating things that they've heard in songs or on videos. But what we have started doing, and this was a shift we made last spring after the survey was implemented in the fall, was when Robin speaks especially to our third and fourth graders, she actually calls things what they are. She doesn't just say you can't use a racial slur. She will name what it is and so that kids understand that that term or that phrase is hurtful and why. Whereas prior to that, I think we kind of just made the blanket statement, you shouldn't say things that are going to offend people or don't say something that's about a person's race. But now we're naming it and making no mistake. Kids have a clear understanding that if you say this, it is harmful. It is hurtful and it will not be tolerated. So we have in response to the types of things that were being reported, we have shifted how we educate our our students about that. I think it's very important to call it what it is and not to just make a blanket statement so that kids really understand the expectation.
• Can I follow up on that? so what are some restorative practices or or corrective actions that you put in place for kids when when they do say thing? Cuz kids defend what they're saying, but a lot of times they don't know what they're saying, right? So we actually do tell them what it is and how it is offensive and why. And we usually will bring parents in and have that conversation with the student sitting there. So that the parents have a clear understanding of this is what was said and that's and this is why it was hurtful. So that the parents are hearing the child is hearing this message in front of both the authority at home and the authority at school. and that there is no there is a consequence anyway even if they didn't mean to offend because they have offended. But if it if there's a repeat offense, then that is handled much more severely. But I can honestly say, unless I'm mistaken, I can't think of a single child that has ever been brought in with the accusation of using a similar or even a different racial slur or expression more than once. So I think what happens is when you tell kids this is what you actually said to this person and this is why they are offended by it that they internalize that and we've not seen a lot of repeat offenders and I'd say in the last 5 years I can speak to that we haven't seen any repeat offenders but unfortunately the truth is at the elementary age if they hear something that sounds different or somebody responds to it in a certain way they tend to repeat it because, oh, it's different. It's going to have a reaction. Quite often when we have these conversations, the students aren't aware of what they're saying. They just know when they say it, it's going to get people are going to listen and people are going to question it. And so, it's it's certainly interesting. You know, we can only speak to elementary level, but and these unfortunately, they happen every now and then, and when they happen and we go and we investigate it, that's what it winds up being. It winds up being, you know what, I heard this in a song. I heard this in a video. maybe an older sibling or somebody down the block said it and got a reaction and they they repeat it and quite often they repeat it incorrectly because they're trying to model something they've heard and they they just don't get it right. so that's I think what makes what we're schools a little bit different when I'm glad the response is kind of like an educational moment as opposed to like a punitive response for a the first time is always a teachable moment. The second time would be very different. it would be more punitive and more serious. But the first time it happens with a student, it we we say that to parents all the time. This is a teachable moment because parents are very often like appalled. I can't believe my child said that. I don't remember where they got that from. And we say, well, this is the age where we need to teach children that their words have an that kind of an impact and that these are these hurtful things. You know, the first thing we often say to kids if we hear that they've said something and we ask them, "What did you say?" and they say,"The first thing we ask collectively is,"Well, what does that mean?" And rarely is it what it means.
• Yeah. And to also on the other side of it, the child who it's said to often knows that they should be offended because they know that it's not something that they should hear, but they're not even 100% sure why they should be offended, which is why now in our whole class instruction, we call it what it is and are very targeted about it. I have one more quick thing. Rachel, when you were talking about how you approached the overall analysis of the data and you were looking not just at like the data from this but also like I think you said like discipline and other things. have you also been taking into into account like DASA complaints and like code of conduct that kind of stuff? The school building. Yes. any, infractions that would lead to a suspension or any type of parent meeting. That's all of that information has been analyzed to see if there's any alignment in those particular areas. Absolutely. And when we do have incident reports, that is one area that we look at very closely is, you know, what was the did it fall under DASA? Is it not DS? You know, we we keep that data. Thank you. The questions asked here and I guess at the other schools and well as well talk about do I feel being treated disrespectfully because of race, culture, religion. What's not in that question is sex or gender, immigration status, English language. I mean 50 million different. Well, but I'm talking about that's something that we know at various points during the life of a child as they're growing to be an adult. You know, kind of disrespectful statements or feelings for because of one's sex or one's gender can happen. And I'm wondering if there's a reason that we're not looking at that. It was only at the elementary level that we developed, developmentally appropriate questions. So, as you see the survey questions progress over the ages there is a variation in those particular questions. But as far as gender, immigration status, heritage, those factors were not included in the elementary questions, but you will see a variation of those as you get to the other. And what we we do explicit teaching into the definition of race, race, culture, and religion prior to giving the survey, but those are things that kids developmentally are all kids, I'm not saying that there are not kids in third and fourth grade who couldn't understand immigration status or gender or sexuality, but a lot of our children, even with an explicit definition developmentally, don't have a conception of that. So, we asked the things that were more concrete to a child at that age.
• I just had one quick question follow with respect to the building level supports. Do I remember you guys coming and talking to us about the new additional social worker actually spending time out on the playground? So Liam is out on the playground for third and fourth and Lauren is out on the playground K1 and two and because of the additional FTE and the and the support that we have we are able to do that and they are able to intervene and cut things off at the path and see things and be proactive. So that has been a tre that's just this year. It has been a tremendous impact. And not only are they nipping things in the bud and being proactive and really getting to know the kids, but they're modeling for our lunch monitors that you can't just not look at something if you see something and they're modeling going over and intervening. So yes, we did share that. It's been very helpful. That's good. So just to look at our next steps like we did in the last year, we will analyze this data with our faculty and determine as a faculty what are our next steps, what do we need to do, how are we going to support just those few students who may not feel comfortable. What are we doing to ensure there is more than one trusted adult in the building? So that will be an analysis of the data similar to what we're sharing here tonight with our faculty. We would we will meet with our current fourth grade students to kind of get to like I said I don't want to lead the kids to questions but I want to have an open conversation where the students can kind of share their thinking and what what resonated with them and what noticings or wonderings or things they want to point out. so our work with the recess monitors is we are in our second year of Robin and Craig meeting with our lunch monitors once a month prior to lunch period starting to do little snippets of PD and if nothing else reminders. This is how you should intervene. You have the authority to intervene, you know. So, I give a lot of credit to Craig and Robin for planning PD on a monthly basis with our lunch monitors. Transportation, that is something that we have not specifically reached out to our transportation department, but based on the feedback we've got from our students about the instances where things take place and we've actually full transparency, Craig and I have seen an uptick in incident reports from transportation. So that's something that Joe Craig and I will be working on together to how can we carry these expectations and and these ways of strategies and wording that we use even to our transportation department.
• So one thing hopefully I mean I'm assured this is data you'll be able to get but you would be able to gather from them like when you have that conversation if those incidents are happening more on buses not all buses have monitors right because our doesn't allow for that. So I think that would be a question we'd be interested in understanding from a budgeting perspective as well is if there's a correlation between monitored buses and incidents or non-monitored buses and incidents I guess just to have a view of what we need in terms of that sort of resourcing that's so tricky to have bus drivers also well it's very difficult to monitor well because their primary focus is 100% the safety of children physically in a moving vehicle. So it is very hard. But even like little things like we feel very strongly that even if a if the expectation or the understanding is the way you greet a child when they come on the bus just to make them feel comfortable that little fist bump as you're getting off the bus to feel that connection. Like there are things that we feel that we could implement that would have an overall impact on very similar what we do with our lunch staff. It's all about making those connections with the students, feeling they and once again that adds to do I have another adult that I could go to. And certainly your lunch monitor should be an adult that you feel comfortable with or that you feel like you could trust them as should be your transportation your whether it's the aid on the bus or the bus driver. So the more we can kind of enhance and build those connections, those relationships, I think we're going to see these numbers continue to grow in a positive fashion. I think it's also great to see just because we because now as a district that we've decided to embark on some, examination of this with regularity, the fact that you're following up also with them with the students after they've done the survey. I think it really does sort of help establish that this is an important conversation for them and it's not just something that they're doing sort of to like, satisfy like what do teachers or what does the community want to know about this. It's really it I think it really reinforces that we're we are interested in knowing what they think. So I appreciate because I think also it's like when you're doing that survey it's like you're filling stuff out but it's not the same as having that sort of engagement like on a human level. So I think that this that sounds like a I don't know if you've done that before but it's great to see that it's on the agenda for next steps. So thank you for that.
• Amazing. All right. So, we're going to take a look at some PVC data and we're going to compare fall of 2024 to the fall of 2025. and it's pretty exciting to see that most of our results are really consistent with last year's findings. we had 437 students respond to our survey in the fall. on this slide here, you can see the race and ethnicity breakdown. at the time of administration, which was early October, it sounds like we went just a little bit after CCT, our total enrollment was 458. So we had a good number of students participate. Who has me? I didn't know if everyone. So, a couple of the questions that we asked and we did parse out after we asked some follow-up questions to students in terms of if they wanted to share additional things afterward, they always had that option. But these first two pigraphs that we're looking at here ask about feeling emotionally safe at school and having at least one adult who a student feels that they can go to with a concern. And so those results were just below what they were last year. And that makes sense since we administered earlier in the school year than obviously right we did last year and so a quarter of the responders are fifth graders who were just getting to know PBC and we're just about a month into school. So a vast majority of our students report feeling safe at school and in that breakdown students frequently describe the characteristics of the trusted adults that they were referring to. they used a lot of positive terms talking about their adults. really empathi emphasizing empathy kindness. the fact that the adults were using discretion when they were speaking to them. and the adults who the students referenced were recognized as being helpful accessible, helping to solve problems and offer like practical advice were some of the things that the the students had shared out and that was important to see and spot on I think with what we're we're trying to create. So the next two we're looking at there illustrate students of different cultural backgrounds, religions or ethnicities and how welcome they feel, valued and respected. and how students the second question how students are being accepted for being different. Overwhelmingly agree and somewhat agree responses to both areas, which is really reassuring to see. And when we parsed that out, there were a few nuanced responses about language use that we have paid particular attention to. so it was clear for that first question about accepting differences that students interpreted that very differently. and so that gave us some really good information about next steps topics for town hall meetings, advisory lessons, things of that nature. so you know what does that word you mean to be different? kids interpreted that a lot of different ways. So, a lot of those responses were scattered, I think, for us. and these next two compared feelings of belonging at school, and there was a slight increase there, which was always reassuring. Students reported a strong climate of belonging and peer support along with emotional connection to one another. That was a kind of a consistent pattern that we saw. they felt strongly about their friends and being connected to their friends and trusting their friends. And so those were consistent patterns of students feeling socially connected which explains a lot. I think about the bottom graph where students are supporting one another at PBC. And so most of our students are reporting feeling confident that their peers care about them will stand up for them that they felt like they had allies. And so that was really reassuring. So, as Nicole mentioned, PBC's data is it looks really good this year, and it's actually aligning or exceeding the national data for middle school age in the areas of feeling seen and understood, knowing others support and stand up for you, and being accepted for who you are. So, what this data is telling us is that students consistently feel safe, supported, and emotionally seen at PVC. They report stable friendship, strong allyship and acceptance of individual identity as well as feeling safe having that supportive adult in supporting them both academically and emotionally and still having high perform high performing results in those in the academic areas.
• So we attribute a lot of that to our teaming models in the middle school. they definitely give I think a familial feel which is comfortable for for so many of our students. our PBIS work those behavioral expectations which are on the right side of that screen. Our pause acronym our ruler alliance right using mood meters and meta moments and creating charters I think is a big piece of that. students involvement in clubs, modified sports, our town hall meetings, our grade level meetings, and then our most recent multi-graded advisories in the last two years I think are all things that are impacting our data in a positive way. So that is good to see. the connection circle I think is a great restorative practice that has a strong presence at PVC. really helps to build and foster those relationships not only from student to student but from student to adult as well. And so those strong peer relationships I think emotional visibility and supportive adult environments, right, appear to be some of those key drivers to the student well-being. And I think that is awesome to see in middle school. We know how challenging of a time that can certainly be. And so I think our overall kind of schoolwide takeaways is that there is a strong sense of belonging in all grades 5 through 8. our students feel allyship. They exercise advocacy. They stand up for one another. there is a culture of of peer care. mutual respect for the most part and in inclusivity is something I think we talk a lot about and is really stressed throughout PDC. students for the most part respect that individuality of their peers. and so classrooms were reported as mostly the the most positive and supportive places. again, right, there's always an issue on the playground potentially, right? Or on the bus or, in the hallways, things like that. but healthy, inclusive, and emotionally supportive school culture, right? Our students are feeling connected, they're feeling valued, they're feeling safe, and I think that's socially, emotionally, and academically. so our findings really support that, right? that that we have a supportive and inclusive strong school environment with, all while m maintaining some really high levels of expectations and and peer connection. that emotional safety is really really important in in middle school. And so, it's middle school. We know that we're talking about a really difficult age a really difficult time in a lot of lives especially for right our adolescence. And so there's always going to be work to do in these areas and always going to be individual situations to address. So, we're we're lucky that we have this this strong network of support and these systems in place to really address any of those needs if and when they arise. use of peer mediation, restorative conference, social groups, lunch bunches, our counseling, our flex spaces, all of those things I think play a role as well as all of the adults obviously that that fill those spaces. So, I think we want to talk a little bit about, next steps. I think there's a lot of reinforcing and deepening and monitoring to continue to do. So, we will obviously continue to share out these findings with staff of obviously while encouraging right positive behaviors. I think we we appreciate the individuality that is what middle school is and so we encourage that. we certainly want to ensure that our students are feeling safe and seen and heard. and so we're going to continue to empower them and develop that student agency through opportunities that really allow students to lead and and take a a leadership role in a lot of that work. I think one area of our greatest need is is our middle schoolers really need to focus on the language that they use towards each other sometimes about themselves but more often to each other. So, that is an area that we take really seriously. and so we're working to really enforce what appropriate language sounds like to one another, especially in school, but everywhere. and so, I think that comes with the see something or hear something, say something kind of mentality. And I think that's something that we've been really trying to reinforce. So, we encourage our students to be upstanders. When you hear and see something that's not okay, it needs to be addressed. and so again, I think that also contributes to those feelings of allyship and support. So, definitely our work as a a middle school team to make sure that students know the difference, right, between reporting and tattletailing. That's a big deal, in middle school. And we want to continue to build trust and foster those relationships and create those kind of identity affirming environments where our students really thrive. And, I think that's our our work. I mean, that middle school's messy. It's emotional, right? It's powerful. we we know that and so we have to continue to work really hard to support our students while maintaining those high expectations. and so I think our our data from the fall really reflects a pretty consistently strong inclusive and supportive environment. we're going to have continued strengths in in safety and belonging and peer connection and and all of that's great to see that it's closely aligned with last year. So there's a lot of consistent pattern.
• Before we go on I just have one question. if I if I may, if is it time for this? Okay. Yeah. just going back to what you were saying before, Nicole, about the the the question about being different sort of being like a challenge because you said that I don't know I don't know if I heard it correctly that that that phrase is sort of like difficult for students to interpret. So, I'm just I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on like like how you might dig dig in on that. I guess I have a specific angle in asking this question, so I'll just be upfront about it, which is I think one of the things that I've been hearing like in the parent community in terms of feedback is that we're not I don't know if we're like explicitly asking students about whether whether they feel like they're they're experiencing bullying or like hearing negative language as it relates to as it relates to ability. neurode divergence, participation in, an IEP or having like needing extra time, whatever the case may be. But I think it's certainly something that I've been hearing a little bit more. and I will say, again, it's like maybe because the people that I hear from happen to be in middle school and high school, it is something that I'm hearing more from the older from, from the two upper buildings. So, I'm just wondering if there's is that like part of the conversation in a way or like how is that part of the conversation? It's like we've mentioned it's like we're identifying whether you have read something based off of your religion or your race or your ethnicity. But that the question again of of like ability disability and neurode divergence etc. Are those questions also being asked or how do you have a plan to sort of think about how we approach that?
• Yeah, we we definitely left it a little bit more open than that. So if you have it made to feel different, would you like to tell us more about that? Right. Right. And giving that that option. So we left it nice and open. So a lot of kids were able to share you know that's never happened to me or I haven't had that experience or Yes. I don't I don't dress like everybody else dresses and sometimes people have something to say about it. most didn't really talk about like a a racial recognition as as being a difference or an ethn ethnic difference or something like that. they it was much more skin like like surface stuff. so that's what I meant when I said like they all kind of interpreted that a little differently. so yeah, it was it was obviously it's anonymous, so it's tricky. You know, we're looking at grade level data that way and just kind of try to cohort it a little bit and address our conversations in that way. I I think the empathy when it comes to neurode divergence and different style learners, I I our kids are pretty good. I I'd say it's more of how someone looks, right, would be the direction that they would go. Maybe there's more a comment about a body shape or a hairstyle or something like that. and then it's often, right, very typical middle school like followed up with a, "No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I was just joking." And then that's that's explicitly the conversation that we're having. Hey, if you have to say, "I was just joking. That wasn't a joke." Right? And so right off the bat, like so, so let's stop right there and let's back that up and and let's have that conversation. So, I think that's kind of the work. I don't know if we we could certainly dig a little deeper into the learning style piece. It's not something that showed as a trend that I felt like we needed to address in the immediate, but we certainly could. No, I think it's I mean it's good to know if it hasn't shown as a trend then it maybe just again it's it's it's hard to sort of marry I think the anecdotal from like the self-reporting in these surveys and then as we've talked about it's also it's like there's that piece but then there's actually what's reported and where they're disciplinary it's like there are so so many pieces coming together so I think even just having a conversation like this allows us to sort of engage in just that sharing of information and talking about it yeah and I think the other part that we followed up on too was the idea of like hey did you share this information did you report this was another question that we asked. a lot of them were saying no and that has shifted to a little bit more of a yes, which I think is really reassuring. And that's where this whole idea of like if you say, see and hear something, you you need to share that, right? What does that really mean to be an upstander? we did have a great number of kids say like, I I told my parents, I didn't tell anybody at school, right? And you're like, okay. And so we count on, right, those relationships with families to reach out and build that connection and bridge that that gap between home and school and making sure that we're we're communicating about that stuff too because I think that's definitely part of that.
• Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. To I guess pick up on to some extent to ask. I'm looking at the slides in your last two pie charts. At school, I feel like I belong and students in our school support each other. And I see a couple of things. First, the numbers of those who disagree are smaller than last year, last spring, but that's still a not insignificant number of kids, like might be 20 to 25 kids would be in that orange. I disagree that students 20 or so I feel like I belong and then there's a large percentage standard percentage that are somewhat agree which are as I surmise or believe are kids who might if they were subject to some situation might move much more to the disaffected. And just when I look at that and I know we're just looking at numbers, not individuals, but can you talk about how in the middle school you work on a one-on-one basis with those kids who might be in that and you don't know them by the survey, but who might be in that orange I disagree that I feel I don't know why or I disagree that kids support each other to help them to help others who are not in that orange where in the red not become I guess more disaffected. Yeah. And and again it's hard right because it's an anonymous survey. So it's situational definitely right when those those situations arise I think we tap into right all of the resources in our building. So, our counselors are amazing at, obviously counseling, but making sure that we're checking in with teams, communicating with families, making sure that we're checking in with kids. right, Carmen, as a social worker for the district, right? Coming in and and connecting with, students. I think that team approach in the middle school is is huge, right? You might not click or with every adult you see all day long. but chances are, right, when you're a part of a team, you're going to connect maybe stronger with one than the other and you have that. and then they're constantly communicating and they're sharing out with us and so it's I think it's a matter of making sure like no one falls through the the crack and if they are feeling that way that they feel comfortable enough to share that right I think that's a huge win in and of itself if if the student wants to say like this is not okay this is not been my experience well tell me more about that right where did we fall down what can we do and I think amplifying their voice and making them feel that they are seen and heard and that that does matter makes a huge difference yeah because my my concern What I worry about is when you hear about a student who engaged in self harm or you or suicide and people say we never noticed. We never knew and you know that's out there and I think we really need to do everything we can so we don't say that. Yeah, I just want to commend the approach specifically this slide like on the PBC schoolwide takeaways because I think that when we started this work, two years ago, we were really looking at like kind of quashing the name calling and quashing the bullying. and the very realistic approach that as you've said, this is middle school and some of this, I mean, testing boundaries, it's like what their brain is equipped to do at that point, right? to to have to have the back end of the work also be that students have emotional supports that they're focused on having like trusted adults in the building that they feel connected and valued and that they're uplifted that way despite the fact that this chaos is all happening because in the world of women it's happening anyway. I think you're creating resilience in that. So that's our hope.
• Yes. high school. Sorry. Oh, wait. Keep going. Keep going. Okay. There we go. Okay. So, at the high school level like PBC, we opted to compare fall 2024 to fall 2025. I know CCT did spring to fall. Our reason for this decision is because we have seniors out on choose in the spring, so they're off campus. So the seniors were included in our spring data. So in order to have a true applesto apples comparison and to view those trends over time that we did fall to fall. we are also mindful of how students interpret timebased questions. So if you ask someone in the last 3 months have you heard it's often times difficult for them to distinguish okay 3 months ago versus six months ago. So by doing it in the same time of year, it helps to account for that variability. So our response rate this year, we had a sample size of 388 students. Last fall, we had 328. The survey was administered during chap time. as we've shared in the past, sometimes high school students aren't as compliant when it comes to the survey participation because it's anonymous. So, that means if there's not a direct accountability if you choose not to complete it, your name is not attached to it. There's also an a degree of survey fatigue. at this level, they've seen the survey three times. So it can feel maybe repetitive or if they don't think they have something to add to it. I've already done that. It's been the same. So that might explain the reason why we don't have a full sample size for our students and there were some students who were out on a trip a field trip that day. but we do definitely value the data that we receive and something positive here is that it is a an equal representation for class as far as 9th through 12th grade. So we are seeing a equal representation in our results. So this graphic we're going to look for us more closely at the demographic data in the upcoming slides. But if we look at this bird's eye view here, it's fairly consistent from what we've seen previously, there is no real shifts overall, but as I said, we're going to talk more about demographics. So, there's been some slight drops, and I feel like I need glasses as I'm sitting here looking at this. that we were at I'm actually just going to look at my slide here. 97% agree, somewhat agree that they feel emotionally safe at school. And in the fall, it was 98% for the question that students feel like they belong. In the fall, we were at 97% and now we're at 95. 15% here. This year, I've heard hurtful language and last year we're at 13%. Five had been hurt by the language as opposed to 4% last year. So, it's in the same ballpark. And we're going to talk about how we see those differences in the demographics. Oop, sorry, I got the corker. So, on the next four slides, we're going to take a deeper look at the four focus questions that we have been zooming in on during each administration. So, in this first slide, we're looking at the percentage of students who feel emotionally safe at school. And you can see a fairly consistent response from fall to fall 24 to fall 25. And that's across overall students, white students, and other de and students representing other demographics. so, so that one's a pretty consistent year-to-year response. And then on the next slide, as far as the students of the percentage of students who feel like they belong at school, this is a place where we did see some change. So the overall percentage remains fairly consistent, 97 to 95% and the percentage of white students remained exactly the same at 97% but the change in other demographics is notable. down to 89%. So in this administration, 89% of students reported that they feel that they belong at school. 89% of students representing other demographics. So that's 64 out of 72 students who responded to the survey that identified with those demographics. And that shift in number is obviously concerning to us as a school. And it also lines up with what we are hearing and seeing in terms of reports, observations, and conversations locally and nationally and what we're hearing that our students are exposed to online and media and otherwise. so we definitely believe that some of this shift is related to the larger world around us for sure. Okay, so this slide here is about the student responses to the question, have you heard hurtful language at school this year? And so you'll notice similar to what Laura was talking about that 14% of white students in both years reported hearing hurtful language. So that has been consistent. The overall student response 15 it was 13% and now it's at 15%. So, what's driving that appears to be the other demographics? specifically, it was 15% this year, and that's up from 12% in 2024. And to kind of address what Neil was saying earlier, that represents 11 out of 17 students in the other demographics if we're sometimes with the sample size, getting the number of students is important. While the numbers are relatively small, obviously that percentage increase is notable and it's important for us to examine that more closely. Related to that, this slide shows that breakdown of students who reported being hurt by the language, not only hearing it, but then also being hurt by that. Last year, this number was 4% across all groups. This year, it's increased by 1 percentage point overall. But if we look more closely, the reports from white students decreased by one percentage point while reports from students in other demographics increased to 13%. So that's nine out of 72 students. as a side note, as in previous years, multiple students when they're talking about the event or the incident that they're referencing, we see multiple students reporting the same event. So it's important to note it's not necessarily discreet incidents. like if nine out of 72, it's not nine separate incidents, they could be talking about the same thing. so while we are committed to learning more from our students, reducing that purple language in our school, again, echoing what Laura said, we need to recognize that school's a microcosm of society. It's possible we're seeing the impact of language that students are exposed to through media, social media, they're influenced by current events. the stu the survey does ask them to to think about their school experience but realistically your life is your life right it's hard sometimes to separate those different areas into silo well this is how I feel at school this is how if you're feeling that way it can blend together so this data does align again with what we're seeing because we have addressed more than one disciplinary incident this year involving language and that l that nature of that language has been at a level that we haven't seen in a few years. So that just underscores the importance of continuing to monitor the education and then our response to that. So, I mean, it's it's like hard to it's it sounds like you're you're have a you're concerned about this as well, but it it is disheartening to see that, they're the people who are experiencing the most like who are reporting the being hurt by language are focused on, non-white students, right in a disproportionate way. I'm curious, it like you like one of the things that you guys have been talking about through the evening is like this tension between self-reported student data. even though it's anonymous, sometimes students really don't think it is like survey fatigue. what what mechanisms might you be doing in place to capture from teachers or staff observing things because like and are there any conversations on how there that might be overlapping with what you're finding here?
• Question actually I do follow up on what Nicole was talking about earlier. none of the incidents that came in the descriptions in the survey were incidents that we were not already aware of and had addressed. And I think that's important to note because we weren't getting new incidents that or learning about new incidents through this anonymous survey that weren't already reported to us. So I think that actually I know that that actually shows a change from previous administrations where there is more reporting going on which is I think a very strong data point. but in terms of formal mechanisms for teacher reporting we always have our DASA reporting and we go over with students with staff every year. It doesn't matter whether you think it's DASA or you whether it falls under this particular category. you just tell an adult no matter what or if you're an adult, you tell one of us no matter what. And I think that consistent communication and culture remains really strong in the school with people not holding on to information or making judgments on their own. I guess, it this is just making me think like it in like, is it might be interesting to do like a like a sister survey of something like this from the staff and teachers perspective and any trends that they're seeing or hearing as well. because that might also augment the data you're getting to kind of figure out like how to allocate resources and prioritize time and things like that. Okay. So we're going to delve more deeply into the top three bullet points on the upcoming slides but just wanted to touch upon some of the others. This year we held team- based parent teacher student conferences and that approach allowed teachers to present a unified team in support of their students. Anecdotally we heard from parents who said it was a lot easier especially in those more difficult cases to tell the student story once as opposed to having to rehash it in every class to tell about what the student is experiencing. So everyone's hearing the same thing. got it out once and everybody can address it together to support that. We also are continuing the emphasis on active learning spaces, renovating our spaces because that does have an impact on student engagement and behavior in classrooms. and sometimes that's where this is can happen. Although we do see we don't have the playground but in the cafeteria and hallways. we are also talking about focus groups. so we can talk to students and ask those follow-up questions, potentially working with the Star Club here at the high school. And for our next survey, because it is anonymous, you can't then as part of that survey ask if they want to talk in a focus group because now they've just said who they were. So to immediately put another Google form out to ask if now they would like to participate in a focus group. so that we were able to, like I said, ask those more specific questions, hear their voices, hear their suggestions. we'd like to do some more pulse surveys to capture the quick data because we know that if you're doing these longer surveys, there can be some fatigue if you're asking one or two questions. perhaps we would get more information out of the student. As always, we want to analyze the school climate data with our faculty. So that ties into what you were saying Allison to to make sure that everyone is hearing this information and then we can also gather that information from them. Oh, the civics's professional development. We have our social studies teachers who are working with the program through Boseies with students to be able to go to a a civic summit where students are going to be working together and with other students in the region to create projects for to better our school community as well as the larger community. And when we talk about those things in being a good citizen in civic engagement and how we can improve that here at the school, we believe that all ties into the positive school culture. And finally, we are having we just the faculty yesterday heard from the human rights education center. We're having a guest speaker and we got the preview of it and he'll be speaking to our students next week. And that's an example of our responsiveness to the recent hate symbol. we want to stress the importance of creating that safe environment for all of our students. And this can only be accomplished through that consistency of our message and our actions and the education of students. So, as Laura was saying, when we hear something, if a student, if a teacher hears something, report it. We want to be consistent to deliver that message to everyone that we do take it seriously and it's not something that we're sweeping under the rug. Also, just to zoom in on those top bullets that Erica had mentioned, community launch is an area and also related to poll surveys. This was actually one of the pulse surveys that we sent out to students a couple several weeks ago now. but as you might remember from previous administrations, one of the areas that the high school students consistently reported on these surveys as a factor that increased their sense of belonging was having a friend at lunch. And we've heard this over the years about the impact of not having friends at lunch with the multiple lunch period. So, as we brought community lunch to fruition this year, aided by our incredible new cafeteria space, we paused to collect some of that pulse data from our students and we're pleased by the results where 89.2% of students reported a positive impact from community lunch. and we see that every day in the culture, the inclusion spirit in the building. and just for some data on pulse survey participation rate, we had almost 400 students respond to this quick pulse survey. So, I think that's important data. They like the topic perhaps. And then also related to some adjustments to our schedule was another area that we collected pulse survey data on. as you know, that's an important part of our new schedule. And the first question on the left asked students about their ability in the past to commit to a club for a full year. So, this obviously only was available to students in grades 10 through 12 because the nth graders didn't have that same experience. And something that we noticed over time in terms of consistent participation and attendance in those clubs was that there there wasn't consistent attendance in those clubs. students have different sports seasons, different obligations throughout the year and what that results in besides attendance is also a reduction in what a club can actually accomplish or the work of the club. so one example of note is our model UN club that has such strong attendance and participation this year already that they're actually they've joined the competition circuit again for the first time in years and they're in two weeks they're going on their second competition which hasn't happened in the high school at least. another example is the amount of participation in clubs from our ENL students. So that's we consistently collect data and knew that our EML students were not accessing our clubs and activities. So those numbers are significantly up and attributed to students being able to engage with the clubs during the school day. And our biggest participation from our ENL students is actually in our explorers club where they go out on the weekends or camping trips, eating trips and things like that. So, that's a really nice data point for us. And just overall, the quality and amount of work and participation in these clubs has improved. And as you see on the right, you have 77% of students reporting that having club time during the school day has made them more likely to attend. quick snapshot of attendance just to put some numbers. the last Croin Wednesday, we had 225 students attending a club. So, that's half of our student population on a a randomly selected Wednesday. okay. So, one of the bullet points on that previous slide was about expanding our counseling team. So, as we added a school counselor at the high school with the hope of making earlier and stronger connections with students, we brought the ratio to 120 to1. And one student in our survey when we asked for suggestions, this student wanted more mandatory meetings with counselors earlier for this reason because they thought it was important to make that connection. And if they were, of course, they can make an appointment stopping to talk to their counselor whenever they would like to, but if they were forced to go at a particular time, they feel like they could make a better connection with an adult in the building. And in addition to that, our counselors are working on programming to support those 9th and tth graders. So stay tuned for that because they're hoping to do more specific programs with our 9th and 10th graders. Just to tie it all together, we have our overall I'm doing something.
• That's okay. So the our overall noticings is that the results from fall 2024 to 2025 there has been an increase in students who have been hurt by language. So we definitely don't want to minimize that particularly those for students from other demographic groups. Our disciplinary data lines up with these few reported incidents that we said. nothing came up to us as a surprise that we learned about something new. And then finally, this goes to something Neil had asked earlier on the high school survey. We did add gender to the survey questions as an identifying factor. And when we analyzed it, it did not make a difference significantly that you know how they identified in their gender made a difference in their reported instances of not belonging or feeling like they heard hurtful language. Quick follow up on that, Erica. Is that just gender identity or is it sexual identity also? I believe it just said gender identity. So yeah, I just want to create a space here. Phil Felina, I don't know if you have anything. I don't want to put you on the spot, but I just wanted if you had any insight or anything that you wanted to add to this before the board asks questions. Well, nothing specific. I thought what Mr. Hon was saying earlier about like adding gender to like the younger ages like just even like in as an option because like thinking about like like my experience in CR and like like things I've heard from students in CR. I have a lot of like little cousins and stuff who are like in the elementary school and MPVC and I feel like I have heard some instances where gender is like a specified issue like where it's like just like simple like oh like girls and boys like just stuff like that. So I feel like that would probably be pretty insightful to add for gender groups and I feel like it's like a real discussion because it's something that everyone's experiencing and that it's important to educate kids about that as well.
• thanks for that and thanks for all the great work on all of this. I I guess my question and we we've talked a little bit about it is with regard to just the the the survey instruments in particular and I was heartening to see that you're you're trying to kind of get even more like rich data based on like focus or from focus groups and other things that you're trying to add into the process. I guess one simple logistical question and one related question. One is like is the same kind of survey approach I know the questions differ but like the same kind of approach used across all three buildings and then relatedly how often do we sort of look at the instruments that we're using and seeing like what else is out there that could potentially better serve our needs. I with surveys I sometimes worry just about the limitingness of it right of like an instrument and so it would be great to understand what sort of exploration we do of like what is out there that might actually get even richer data for us in the in future years as we're doing this work so we collect by Google form so that's just the logistical piece of it we've worked with Rachel so she can talk more about that on the initial questions and then based on when we do these presentations and things for example like gender that's something then when we're going back to do a new survey we would talk as a group and decide what we should add. And then there's also the piece that for consistency sake, if you're trying to put in different, programs that you're hoping are going to address these issues, the questions you want them to be somewhat consistent so that way you're able to track from year to year, but we certainly like when we first started, we didn't have under ethnicity, right? We didn't have Hispanic as an option on there. So we had very limited data. So I think as we gather this information, see what the responses are from the students, the things that they're reporting to us in the extra where they can put in their notes to describe the incident. and then talking to students here to be able to say perhaps, we need to add gender, identity or onto onto the survey. And to remember your question earlier, ability based comments were something that did come up in some of the high school comments, which is not something that we've previously asked about on here.
• So, as it relates to the survey design itself, we wanted to capture the students voice as it relates to emotional safety and a sense of belonging. So we did work to craft those questions for our specific survey. We had initially I think when I had started back in 20 in 2022, we were utilizing a panorama which was more norm but it was an extensive survey which really was time consuming and we used it for school I forgot what the original topic was that we had used that particular survey for and it may have been a climate survey. It was a climate survey, but then we realized that, we wanted something that was manageable and targeted those specific domains of emotional safety and sense of belonging. And that's why we designed, this way with that progression of questioning across the developmental, ages and the grade bands. But we're not against seeking out something that may be more, normed and more, I guess, standard, standardized. But I feel like the way that we, look at the data, we're able to align it to national data. So there's value in those questions because these are topics that are being collected through at least those three organizations that I had, described earlier. So it's not something that, we do we're not considering. It's just something that we have to look further into to maybe make it more to dig a little bit deeper to gain more insight into it. But I I honestly think the structure in this instrument has yielded bene information that has helped drive our work and it helps to support the work that we're doing here as a district. So, again, it's something for us to consider in the next iteration of this particular survey. You know, look at something more packaged, packaged or more utilized across other school districts and communities.
• I just want to build upon what you're the point you're making. So, like it's always hard doing these surveys because also like what is what is the goal? Like what is the big question that you're trying to answer? And then also like your point about being able to compare the results to others, standards have a big benefit. I guess like again I haven't seen the the full instrument so I don't know but it seems to me this is more about safety and belonging which are like without a doubt key right group needs. we like we need to have this in place. But to the point like from some of the like to me that in terms of like a cultural of of continuous improvement like so it seems like if we do have like these baselines of like okay we're hitting these like we're doing well compared to national standards maybe it is an opportunity to reexamine some of the instrument to see if the data that we're getting can provide some more nuances on who's being impacted and like when we talk about difference like that is a really confusing thing like even among adults like what does that mean it could be different race religion sexual orientation identity politics socioeconomic language you know what's your native lang all these different things so I don't know if there's any appetite to like look at the the instrument to see if there's ways that to refine so that we can like dig into some of those areas that we're we're already seeing from a like more like a qualitative perspective that people might need some more support on.
• So these this particular survey instrument has evolved over the course of the past few years. So it's going to continue to evolve and we initially started collecting this information because we had such a high report of specific incidents. So you know that was like our bas our basic model essentially of the survey instrument and then over the past few years we've improved it and refined it to target that information to help us be more responsive to it. So it's definitely something for us to consider this summer when we're meeting and having conversation about designing the upcoming fall but there just to maintain that consistency in fall to spring. We'll maintain the same instrument and then make considerations for changes or shifting maybe emotional safety and a sense of belonging. You know we've gathered enough information on that and then we look to identify some other areas that we want to gather data on and work towards. Can we just for purposes of kind of like reviewing the history in terms of all of this? I remember when we did this the first time and it was in response to some community concern we had regarding that. What I'm hearing from each of you in these buildings is that it's not really just the survey, right? There's all this other work that's going on behind it. like to your point that you were already aware of these incidents. So, I do think that for the public it's kind of confusing to see you touch on these points and not connect it to the greater work that we know is happening in the schools because it it seems as if with the disconnect there it seems as if this is uncovering something that you're not aware of but you all seem to be very much aware of what's happening. so I'd just like to kind of highlight that. Thank you.
• So, how does the high school stand against national norms? Overall, school climate remains stronger and more stable than national averages. Emotional safety within the 97 to 98% and belonging 95 to 97 remain very high and well above national levels, indicating consistent systemwide strengths. as were described by the team at the high school. national data typically shows emotional safety and belonging in the mid70s, mid70s to low 80s and it declines as students get older. Reports of hearing hurtful language remain well below national average at that 13 to 15% mark. Very few students report being personally hurt by language which is significantly lower than national norms. So that also reflects an effective response and support system at the high school. The increase in hearing hurtful language alongside fewer students feeling hurt is also consistent with national trends showing increased awareness and reporting rather than an increased harm. And then the differences that were noted across those demographic groups also mirror national patterns reinforcing the importance to continue to dig deep in that subgroup data and monitoring that we continue to have an overall good school we have a great school climate. So, as you could see, as I can now see on the same so as noted here, these four district initiatives have proven to have a positive impact on overall school sense of on our students overall sense of belonging and feelings of emotional safety as evidenced in this presentation. Next slide. So as it relates to the important pardon me the enhanced support staff with the improved counseling ratios the mandatory guidance meetings for early intervention we exceed national practice by providing lower ratios structured proactive supports and positioning students for early identification of social emotional academic concerns as it relates to our social emotional learning initiatives. According to national surveys, SEAL is implemented unevenly with roughly 60 to 70% of schools reporting some SEAL instruction, but it often lacks integration with mental health supports and clinical support at the schools and those more clinical approaches like DBT, dialectical behavioral therapy. As far as our community initiatives, those structured programs, those programs are very rare nationally. Our initiatives are more intentional and outcome focused than typical national practice creating measurable social, emotional and relationship relational benefits to our students. Our initiative as it relates to the family and community outreach only a minority of schools provide targeted bilingual outreach integrated into the broader engagement efforts. Our bilingual partnership based outreach exceeds national averages and represents best practices in ensuring equitable access to our families. Compared to national trends, our district supports substantially exceed typical practice. the enhanced counseling ratios, mandatory guidance meet, mandatory guidance meetings, more proactive intervention than the national norm while the integration of structured, small groupoup counseling and DBT offers a more comprehensive approach than is commonly implemented. So collectively, these practices position our school well above the national norms in social emotional support, student connectedness, and family engagement. Thank you. Oh, and again, districtwide consideration. So, we've had a lot of discussions about this data and, we've we've identified some areas that, we're still trying to navigate and decide, you know, what our next steps are and how to address them. So, as Erica had mentioned, survey fatigue is real. so we're going to evaluate the frequency of our surveys and look to see, you know, when is the best time to capture this data in our student voice and as well as, looking at, are we looking schoolwide or targeting specific grades that may have been noted to have, a higher incidence or a lower incidence of some of those particular topics that we had captured in this data. and then conser to consider further use of the pulse survey. The high school as noted had a high response rate with those small snapshots those pulse surveys. So it's something that we may consider doing oh districtwide because of the the information that valuable information and the you know that targeted less less items. And then we also have had discussions about those student led focus groups at our well it wouldn't be student led at fourth grade but more facilitated there but in the middle and high school to have more student voice presence and have them facilitate the conversation amongst their peers. So that's kind of what some things that we've been considering and discussing over the course of these administrations. So, we're hoping that we'll have some definitives, for moving forward into the next school year.
• I think for us, it's really great to be able to just see a lot of the forward thinking. So, I feel like the last couple of years, it's been a little bit of just getting this process up and running. And then also, I think it's it's been really helpful just to even hear from you this year because this is not our first conversation for some of us. and it it's been ongoing just that you've been able to evaluate things like timing and things like, are you able to compare like to like data? I think you're 100% right in terms of like the fatigue question because absolutely yes. Some of these kids have participated in these surveys multiple times and it can start to feel like it's, you know, who's asking and why. And I totally get that. But I would also argue that I think it's like there is definitely value in in documenting and checking in on this. So hopefully we can find like the happy medium. I'm I'm super excited actually to hear about the pulse survey because I think that ability to sort of ask that targeted question and to sort of like, tie it to whatever we need to ask rather than making students, especially high school middle schoolers are very cognizant of like why these questions are being asked, right? And so that's a testament to their awareness of like the environment that they live in and the world we all live in. And kudos to them for having that self-awareness. but I think using that pulse survey as a way just to sort of capture specific moments, that seems pretty exciting to me actually because I think you can get really great data and also again like really target those questions and you're getting the participation which is great too. and then I I'm also very encouraged to hear about sort of like the student led reports because I think I think what what I'm hearing also is that sometimes when people participate in these surveys, it's like there if there if there's a feeling that it doesn't apply to them, maybe it's not something that they're going to focus on or engage in. But if it does apply to you or if you've experienced it, it's something you can really want to engage in. So I think for us to be able to lean into where folks and students are interested in participating and engaging on this, it's like we should this is our way of elevating student voice across all of our buildings. If it's something that they want to talk about, they want to focus on it. They want to bring in a speaker. They want to have an assembly. They want their club to talk about it. I think it's great to see that that across all the buildings we're supporting their desire to have that conversation because again it always goes back to this is really not about how we feel about how they feel. It's really how they feel about how they feel. So thank you. I appreciate this discussion so much.
• Anyone else? I just want to add to an point I think to the broader point. I'm I'm incredibly proud of being part of a system where this is an annual work session topic and discussion because it it certainly underscores the priority that the entire system places on the importance of the student experience and to get a chance to be in the room with this team when when they review the data. it's amazing because you'll it may not surprise people but it's it's worth mentioning you'll have 116 students respond to a question and 110 will say they feel safe in school and the instant focus is but what about the other six kids who said they weren't and instead of saying resting on our laurels there's just never that orientation. It's how do we get better? How do we think about it more efficiently and productively as a system? What are new programs and interventions we can put into place? and that comes from the leadership of the people in this room. So, and and many many others on the faculty and staff as well. So, thank you again for being here but more importantly for leading this work. Just want to add one other thing which is kind of piggy back on what Steve said and I was going to had to say this very well. I am less talking about resting on morals. I don't really care that we are above the national average. So that doesn't mean anything to us. What it means to us is that we are working constantly to identify how our students are doing, how our students are feeling, and how those who may not be comfortable, may not feel respected, may not feel part of our community are able to be reached. And that's the work that you all do and we all do and all your staff do. And that's what I appreciate.
• Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great rest of your evening. We'll talk to you.
• We're just going to take our stretch.
• two one action. We are back. We have concluded our work session on 2026 school climate survey. Moving into item 3.1. we are going to now open the public hearing on proposed usage of repair reserves. So recommended action be a result of the board of education hereby opens the public hearing regarding the proposed usage of the district's repair reserve. So move second on the question. On the question I guess maybe you could very briefly say what we're talking about here from the public. Yes. so the purp the purpose of tonight's hearing is to present two projects related to repairs in our building. the hearing is required in order for the board to authorize it an expenditure payment out of the reserve. the repair reserve is currently funded at about $260,000 and it's designated for nonrecurring repairs to capital improvement or building related issues. It provides us financial flexibility. So these funds will not come out of the general fund because they are unbudgeted. We did not plan for these or prepare for these. So it provides us with financial flexibility. so we'll have a hearing this evening. Following the hearing, the board will be asked to make a decision about whether they want to move forward with the repair utilization and the projects that we have on the agenda for tonight. So, we have we're proposing two critical projects. One is the high school elevator. the high school elevator has obsolete electrical equipment and mechanical systems and it's made repairs very difficult. we can't get the supplies, there's long lead time and it's a matter of ADA compliance. We use the elevator for student transport and also building maintenance and so forth. So that project is valued at approximately 185,000. the second project is the high is the middle school steam boiler. So, the condensation return tank is probably 5 years past its useful life. Right now, it's 20 years old. They usually last about 15. it's deteriorating and impacting the efficiency and safety of the whole entire heating system. So, our goal is to replace that as well. And that is valued at 65,000. So given the current repair reserve of 260,000 we are proposing to utilize that to attend to these two critical building related matters.
• Thank you D. Sure. So we have opened the hearing. Have we not? Okay. That was on the question. So all in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Motion carries. There is presently no one here for the public. unless the board has any questions, I will move 3.2 closing of the public hearing on the proposed usage of the repair reserve. Recommended action be resolved the board of education hereby closes the public hearing regarding the proposed use of the district's repair reserve. So move second. All the question all in favor I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Moving into new business. Item 4.1 resolution of authorization of the proposed expenditure from the repair reserve fund. Recommended action that the board of education approves a resolution of authorization of the proposed expenditures from the repair reserve fund. Second. on the question. I just want to thank Omar because he was the one who the board years ago to establish a repair reserve and I'm so glad we've done it and we funded it and we can use it for purposes like this. And this is this is actually the second time that we've used it. use it in the emergency at PV PBC. So, in light of the fact providing it it is approved, I will likely recommend that there be a proposition on the ballot to replenish this fund at full cost. All in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. I would just also like to know while we talk about this reserve fund and different funds that we've established, it's with specific intents like these that they are established. They're not general funds. They're limited in their use what we can access the funds for and it it all transparently happens before the board in public. So, thank you both of you, for your foresight and for, caring for our facilities when they need it. Item 4.2, to a silent approval of the criminal teachers association. Matt sections recommend that action be resolved with the board of education hereby approves the sign letter of agreement between the Cton Harmon free school district and the criminal teachers association bargaining unit and authorizes the superintendent of schools to take all actions consistent with the terms thereof.
• So moved second on the question. All in favor? I opposed abstain. Motion carries. Item 4.3 side letter of agreement to teachers association from Cory Mart. Recommended action be resolved the board of education hereby approves the side letter of agreement between school district and the quote teachers association bargaining unit and authorizes the superintendent of schools to take all actions consistent with the terms thereof. So moved. Second on question. All in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. Item 4.4 universal pre kindergarten resolution. Did you want to speak to this conversation? Sure. Yeah. as part of our commitment to on an ongoing basis keeping our community up to date with regard to a university pre kindergarten and u the district's work to continue to administer this program in a robust way. we saw some potentially significant movement earlier this week out of Albany after the governor's budget proposal. And so like many in our community for whom the state CPK program is a priority, we were very pleased and encouraged to see our district state aid runs based on the governor's budget proposal reflect an allocation of $10,000 a student for the 202627 school year. This allocation would bring our district in line with some other local districts who were able to access grants that we were not able to because our district decided to participate in the UPK program prior to some other districts. While the $10,000 per student allocation reflects the governor's proposal only and now is subject, of course, to negotiation with the state legislature, we are very hopeful that our district will receive what many have been advocating for, funding which will allow for community- based organizations to operate viable, sustainable programs for our community's young people, and families. As a result of this potentially significant change in the state's funding, we will be issuing an amendment to the request for proposals or RFP. So, if you're an interested UPK provider, please be on the lookout for that amended RFP. We will also be pushing back the submission deadline until early in February to allow for the potential providers to consider their proposals. Additionally, we've previously shared publicly that as part of a good faith effort to make the state's funding for UPK viable for community based organizations, we've been considering allocating space at CCT to dedicate to one UPK classroom. Although accommodating UPK at CCT would impact operations as every room at CCT is currently used for instruction or student services, we believe that if necessary, those adjustments would be justified to support the UPK program. However, if the substantially increased funding as proposed by the governor does come to fruition, we'll be looking for providers to utilize their own space as they have in the past for UPK. So, the amended RFP will reflect that potential providers should base their proposals on the idea that their programs will need to operate from their own spaces if the proposed funding increase is enacted, as has been the case in each prior year of UPK in our district. The potential for increased funding from the state for UPK can be a true gamecher for this program and we look forward to issuing the amendment to the RFP, evaluating the responses and following the state's budget negotiations closely as they relate not only to UPK funding but education funding overall.
• Thank you. Thank you. Sarah, I'd like to turn it over to you. Yeah, thank you. so as part of as part of the advocacy committee's work and and the the board's work in hearing the advocacy of many of our community members, the the advocacy committee has presented has put together a resolution that we think strongly showcases our support for universal pre kindergarten and the benefits to students in having such thing. and we would like to bring this before the board for consideration and adoption so that we can then send that out and share that with our local and local legislators. I'm happy to read the full resolution that is for everyone. but I presume that everyone can see that in the agenda. if there are any questions or any thoughts on the language of this resolution, any potential changes or adjustments anyone thinks may be necessary and given that we did craft this resolution prior to the governor's budget being released. So, if if anyone feels that there's anything that does need to shift, please feel free to air that. I am looking at the operative language there now. Therefore, being a result of the board of education calls upon New York State leaders to take immediate action in the 26 budget to provide funds for the 2627 school year for increase per student allocation for UPK and plan for annual increases in allocations per student thereafter through etc etc. I don't think there is a need to make any change even with this news and I think this still should be directed to our legislators, governor, other legislators, etc. as is. Does anyone else have any thoughts? I just want to be clear again because the way that the program is named it's named as universal prek. It's not actually universal pre kindergarten for our district or for districts that participate with this program. it is a lottery system based on the number of students that's determined by the state which is an average of students that are interested in participating. it is not traditional universal prek. but to the extent that we are involved in it, we're asking for an expansion in terms of the funds available per student. So I know we keep using it synonymously, but it's it's not and I think a lot of people from the city sometimes think that it is. So, but I do think they can actually be tying it to the board of regents recommendations that we that we know in the beginning and the end and in the board of regents recommendations and and goal is to set forth universal pre kindergarten for all foury olds. So in that right by 2030 and I know that there is some difference in the governor's timeline but again that is under a UPK program that still still functions under that proxy allocation in terms of the number of seats. So a full true universal prek program I think is how we've aligned it to to the board of regents recommendations makes sense. Correct. And I I would just add looking at that state aid on issued by the governor a couple of days ago there's an allocation of 64 seats.
• Correct. right. So that's how many if this goes through we will be funded for and how many seats would be in the lottery. potentially open to negotiations between with the one house budget and 95, right? All all that is open to negotiations. So ba based off of the fact that we we have this new information now that was shared and stated it's like the it's looking like the per student allocation amount the governor's proposing is higher. Do we feel like it's necessary? I guess what we're saying is like we don't feel like it's necessary to to change that language here because our advocacy aim remains the same or is making or would it be helpful and more impactful to acknowledge that we're you know that we're that's what we're hoping that is going to get passed. Do you know what I mean? And like does it make a difference here what in terms of like what we're stating within the resolution. So that's just a question. Yeah. I don't think because as as Neil mentioned to this last the the you know that will now therefore be resolved language does call upon New York state leaders to take immediate action. So that would be right the governor has made her recommendations. We will now wait for the White House budget. So I think it's important to get this to get this to them so they understand that that is our position is that something that's incorporated in for next year's budget. Yeah. Okay. No, that makes sense. I I I think what you're reminding us is that the resolution is actually that portion correct between the resolution and the whereases are the background. So I think that's a that's a helpful reminder. I'm very pleased to I'm I'm grateful to you all for putting this together because I know as we've talked about it's like it's something that we've been talking about now for honestly for months and actually for years because it's not like this is our first UPK rodeo as a board or as a district, right? So I I think thank you again to the advocacy committee for the effort in getting this put together on our behalf and for the the responsiveness I think to the advocacy on the part of the community to partner with our community members to be able to put this work to the legislature and I can say that that we had an opportunity Neil and I had an opportunity as your representatives of the board to actually u meet with some of our community who's been advocating on this front and and I I think, this is the moment for us to sort of really come together in support of something that we all recognize is extremely valuable and to keep the pressure on the legislature to come through. So, thank you.
• If and does anyone have any other questions or anything with regard to the resolution? I'll turn it back over to you. So recommended action be resolved. The board of education hereby approves the resolution for universal pre kindergarten as presented. So second on the question all in favor I I opposed abstain. Motion carries. So we will direct the district clerk to send the resolution to the name partners. Yes. And 4.5 direct energy agreement for services. recommended action. Be it resolved, the board of education of the Croman Harmon Union Free School District hereby waves the requirement of policy 6700 for advanced approval regarding the specific transaction due to the time-sensitive financial nature of the agreement and hereby ratifies and approves the contract with Direct Energy signed on January 16th, 2026. So second question. Okay. So, the business office conducted a study of our natural gas usage. I would credit to Kelly Lent who did a lot of the the heavy lifting on that. So, with regard to natural gas there, to put it simply, there's supply cost and there's a delivery cost. supply h the purchase of the natural gas and delivery which comes from our utility which is non-negotiable. So with the deregulation of the supply side of things it now gives the owner us the option of bidding out our usage to another supplier. So we contracted with with two agencies, M&R agency and they conducted a bid for us and the bids came in very favorably. So our current rate with our current provider is about 70 cents per that's the full year. That's that analysis I feel is a little inflated. Okay. that was from the the bidding agency. We're looking at it more closely because we have different rates through different seasons. Our current rate is about a little over 70 cents per therm. The bid rate through direct energy was just shy of 52 cents. So it was a huge savings. So, these are very short-term contracts because it's complicated, but we I wouldn't even get into that. We you really only want to bid on the high usage months. So, that's February, March, and April. Ideally, like November to April. So the reason why this resolution is listed as it is is because we received the bid rates and now they're also they also fluctuate with the market. So they change daily.
• So our initial rate because we didn't act on it till the following day changed very slightly to that 5199. but we found out firstly that the rate was going to change and secondly that in order to change providers we needed to give 10 days notice in advance of the first of the month. If we did not give that 10day notice then we would lose our highest usage month which was February. So based on policy number 6700 which which requires advanced approval we are asking the board to kind of wave that right because of the financial gain to the district and the urgency of acting on this on this proposal. I have no problem with going forward and waving the advanced approval. I'm just wondering from a policy perspective if this is something that we feel we may be doing for certain utility costs mainly gas perhaps also electricity. Is this something that administration feels they would like the ability to jump on these types of things without the necessity of getting advanced approval so that there may be a modification to policy 6700 for this purpose based on this last experience and the need to proceed very quickly to lock in our rates. I would say yes, there should be some language allowing us to, upon notification to the board of education take action in a situation like this. Oh, double. No. Okay. But that's, you know, that's something that we can work on. Yeah. So we have to add that along with add to the other. Yes. So we will add it. Okay. All in favor? I I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you. And then we have item 4.6 six which is an update to our stop on the camera installation on district residence and I will turn it again back to assistant superintendent business car thank you so as we shared with the community last week we have officially begun installing the stop arm cameras we're about a third of the way through we've got 16 buses as are equipped with full exterior stoparm cameras as each bus is completed, that bus will driver beware, begin issuing citations for anyone who passes the bus while the stop alarm is out. keep in mind that these fines are being handled by the municipality that you're in if you could commit one of those offenses. for those of you who have haven't been following this, this was a program that was spearheaded by the Westchester County bus patrol initiative and we were one of the first adopters. We heard about it. We signed on immediately. We were one of the first adopters, but one of the last to kind of come on because we had some policy and other issues to work through. but so as a first adopter, we were also offered the opportunity to get interior bus cameras. now we our buses are equipped with them now, but they're old and outdated and failing. So this opportunity saved the districts close to if not more than $50,000 where we've we are getting fully equipped interior cameras for for the buses. So overall the the initiative alone significantly increases the safety of our buses, our students, our drivers. I cannot tell you how thankful the drivers are to have these vehicles ready. So it reinforces driver awareness within our community and it's it's a win-win. It was it was worth the the long haul. Thank you, Denise, because I know you've been working on this and I know Joe has been working on this and I know our policy committee has been working on this and we've all, I think collectively engaged in the conversations about privacy and the safety of data and all that. So, I feel like it's been a very very thoughtful process, but I feel like you just said it when you said it's like the drivers are happy. We know that for them like one of the things that makes them literally crazy because this is like part of their job is when their buses get passed. They work so hard to like maintain the highest safety standards. So just to have this support for them and obviously for our students and for kids crossing the street, parents crossing the street, the community just generally I think it's it's a huge win and it brings us in line with other districts and this is where we need to be just because again it's like people don't seem to have an awareness of what that stop sign means in any form but certainly they don't seem to totally get it. So, anything that we can do to help make it safer for kids getting on and off our buses, I really I think we all appreciate it. The community appreciates it. So, thank you for all your work on it.
• Yes, it's a win-win. Absolutely. I agree. I just would add that I hope between our municipalities, Yorktown, Croen, Courtland, there will be significant publicity. now that we're doing this because I don't want anybody to say I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know why. Why did I get these tickets? I know in other places like in Long Island there's a opposition among people and we are concerned the driver opposition but we are concerned about student safety and want every I bet everybody know I'd rather have no revenue because everybody follows the law have revenue and kids are put in danger. The revenue doesn't go to the municipality either. Yeah. Okay. Whoever it goes to, right? So, yes, we did we did notify Mayor Pew and and Brian Healey as well as Courtland and Yorktown. Great. And those notices did get out because I certainly got mine. You did. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. I know that was a long haul. I feel like we've been dealing with it for almost three and a half years. So, we need to get that over the finish line. Finally, item 5.1 instructional personnel resignation. U recommended action be resolved. The board of education hereby accepts the resignation for purposes of a very well-deserved retirement of the first library media app here in Courtland Middle School effective July 1st, 2026. So moved second on the question. I can't even imagine that library without it first there is all I will say about that. but I am so excited for her to move into the next phase of her life. All in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. We will now move into item 6.1 consent agenda approval. Recommended action. He resolve that the board of education here all of the items on the consent agenda act will need a minute.
• I will wait I moved it. I need second question. Okay. Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Obstain. Motion carries. Now moving into our closing of our meeting. the board has a second executive session planned for the close of this meeting after which we will adjourn off camera. moving into our first executive session, item 7.1 recommend action be resolved board education hereby enter into executive session to discuss and effect subject and following a confidential student regarding a particular street. So move second. On the question all in favor I opposed abstain. Motion carries. So we will now move into our executive session after which we will he will immediately adjourn the meeting. Thank you.