SSCSD Board of Education Meeting Notes (SEEN)
May 10, 2022
Notes by Rebecca Lynch
View the meeting. Read the Meeting Agenda.
Trustees Present: Anjie Emeka (President), John Brueggeman (Vice President), Erika Borman (arrived at 7:21pm), John Ellis, Amanda Ellithorpe, Dean Kolligian, Tony Krackeler, Natalya Lakhtakia, Connie Woytowich
Meeting begins with a performance by the Senior Band Percussionists
7:08pm Public Comment #1
- Erin Leary: Erin provides evidence to rebut the lies and misinformation being spread by Excellence in Education.
- Rebecca Lynch: Rebecca speaks about the racist and xenophobic hate speech being spread and calls on our community, including the School Board Trustees and candidates, to join in denouncing it.
7:15pm Superintendent’s Comments (Mike Patton)
- There is a press conference at SUNY Adirondack the next morning announcing a partnership that will allow Continuing Education programs to be offered again.
- The district is expanding the school-based mental health programs through a new partnership with Behavioral Health Services North (BHSN).
- Stacey Moulton says it was a difficult decision to switch from Parsons (the previous provider), but there has been an increase in need and Parson has not had the resources to keep up. We will be going from 3 clinicians to 6 clinicians and the goal is to eliminate the waitlist for services. They are reaching out to families now to explain the switch and let each impacted family know what their options will be.
- The budget hearing was held just prior to this meeting. Thank you to Tim Hilker and Joe Greco for their presentation.
- The vote for the budget and for school board candidates is next Tuesday, May 17 from 7am-9pm.
- After the polls close at 9pm, there will be people gathering in the Administration Building in Rooms 221-223 to wait for the official results to be publicly announced. Anyone is welcome to attend.
- Thursday evening is the finalist interview for the principal position at Lake Ave, with a goal of having a recommendation for an appointment to be on the agenda for the May 18 board meeting with a start date of Aug 1.
- Kudos to the transportation department. We received our State DOT Inspection results for the most recent state fiscal year, and we achieved a 99.56% passing rate (the statewide average was 96%).
7:26pm Student Representative Report
- The student representative shared updates from each building in the district.
7:27pm Presentation: ESSA Update (Presented by Lisa Cutting, Jennifer Steimle, Danielle
Bouton-Wales, and Abigail Adams-Snell)
- The focus of ESSA is on equity of opportunity. The presentation will be sharing the most recent ESSA data and trends (from the 2020-2021 school year) and will discuss the intervention and monitoring systems in pace, the general implications for the district, and the next steps.
- The Accountability Indicators used to assess districts are academic achievement, student growth, academic progress, graduation rates, English language proficiency, chronic absenteeism, and college/career/civic readiness
- Some of the data will be skewed because of the impacts of covid, school closures, and remote/hybrid learning.
- There is a lot of attention paid to attendance and chronic absenteeism. The focus of the attendance supervisor has evolved to use an interventionist approach and try to get at the “why” of why students are absent, and to work in conjunction with student support services.
Questions?
- NL: Asked question regarding OOS suspension rates, and why they increased for MS but stayed the same for HS. Abigail: They are going to be doing a deeper dive into the data over the summer and working with the building principals on that to look into why that might be.
- TK: He appreciates the shift from punitive to interventionist approach with chronic absenteeism. He is struck by the high percentage of economically disadvantaged students with chronic absenteeism and wants to know if we are employing strategies to help our economically disadvantaged families. Lisa: the attendance officers assist families with obtaining services when needed. The pandemic also had an impact. They are looking at the “why”.
- CW: She is wondering if we will be looking at the crossover among subgroups with the data and trends. Ans: Yes. She wants to know if the board will be presented on what “civic readiness” will entail? Ans: This is a state requirement and will be implemented in accordance with the state guidelines. Most of what will count towards “civic readiness” already exists in the courses that are offered. Question on the code of conduct, where it says that “restorative practices and/or punitive measures” are used, and how it is determined what to us. Is it on a case-by-case basis? Ans: Yes.
- Amanda: In the future, she would like to see the data regarding Math and ELA proficiency with comparative numbers for how we are doing against other districts regionally and nationally. Lisa: We can provide that.
- EB: How do we tell where kids are, with regards to extra support services? Kids perform differently on different days (especially her son), so if there is a test, how do they know what benchmark to use to move kids in and out of services? Lisa: There are a variety of assessments used, not just one test.
- JB: Agrees with Amanda that it is valuable to look at comparative data, especially with regard to the subgroups with large N numbers, so that we can see patterns over time, especially in relation to covid and any systemic interventions that occurred.
8:25pm Modification to the Consent Agenda – minor changes to 2 items
Motion to approve consent agenda – passes unanimously
No discussion items
8:26pm Patton recognizes the individuals who are retiring, per the consent agenda
8:27pm Public Comment #2: no public comments
Board Member Comments:
- TK: Recognizes NL’s donation for school lunches in honor of Philando Castille and Hattie’s Helping Hands donation for the music department
- DK: Congrats to the retirees. Thanks to the percussion groups for playing. Huge accomplishment for the transportation department for their pass rate.
- NL: Thanks to the district (and Stacey Moulton) for the emphasis on mental health and working to expand services.
8:30pm Motion to Adjourn – passes unanimously
SEEN 