Relación entre los factores y las variables originales

BOARD OF EDUCATION, BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK Tuesday, August 19, 2014 – 7:00 PM

PLACE: Board Room, 164 Hawley Street, Binghamton, NY

CALL TO ORDER The Regular Meeting of the Board of Education was called to order at 7:00 PM by President Hampton.

PRESENT Mrs. Valerie Hampton, President Mr. David Hawley, Vice President Ms. Christina Archie-Brown, Member Ms. Sandra Garufy, Member

Ms. Korin Kirk, Member Mr. Thomas Scanlon, Member Mr. Brian Whalen, Member

OTHERS PRESENT Dr. Marion H. Martinez, Superintendent of Schools

Dr. Tonia Thompson, Asst. Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction & Accountability Mrs. Karry Mullins, Assistant Superintendent for Administration

Mrs. Linda S. Gretz, Director of Personnel Mr. Vince Smith, Treasurer

Mrs. Sanya Brown, District Clerk 9 visitors and no media

PRESENTATION President Hampton shared the Board’s deepest appreciation to George Cummings, past president of the Noon Rotary Club, for the generous scholarships for graduating seniors, funding for musical instruments, exchange student from Brazil and the MacArthur School reunion this past June.

APPROVAL OF Motion by Mr. Whalen, seconded by Mr. Scanlon, that the minutes of the MINUTES Worksession and Regular meeting of July 15, 2014 and the minutes of the

Special Worksession of August 12, 2014 were approved with all members presenting voting aye.

FINANCIAL

REPORT Noted. Mr. Whalen asked about the tax warrants. Mrs. Brown indicated they were on the agenda for approval and folders would be passed around for them to sign the warrants.

UNFINISHED 1. Update on MacArthur Elementary BUSINESS

Mrs. Mullins shared that almost all of the footings and foundation walls have been completed. When the retaining walls are finished, they will be pouring slabs and running underground utilities. They expect the steel to arrive in September.

To date, about $16M has been spent on the project and another $12.5M has been encumbered. Our cash flow is good. We are keeping close tabs. Mr. Hulbert is helping on the FEMA part. We will continue to work with CBO and Fiscal Advisors. Mr. Whalen is concerned about the change orders. Mrs. Mullins indicated that the last change orders were not additional costs to the project, but there are $88K in change order events that have not been approved yet.

The schedule is a work in progress. It is a complicated, but coordinated effort requiring intense coordination and overlap when possible without having too many contractors on site. The next meeting is Thursday to discuss and accept the schedule.

At next month’s Board meeting, Ed McGraw from Ashley McGraw expects to provide a more in-depth update to the Board about progress, complexity of the build, and include a brief look back from the design aspect.

Mr. Whalen asked if the schedule has been flushed out yet. Mr. McGraw talked about the division of the project into 6 pieces, each having the same critical path (i.e., steel, enclosures, interiors, roughing and finishes). Those can overlap each other. The original schedule was linear and compressed as much as possible, but they are now accessing people power and determining efficiency (i.e., will they be stepping on each other’s toes, are they moving as fast as possible without sacrificing quality, etc.). There are thousands of pieces and 8 prime contractors discussing the project. While they all see things differently, they are getting a grasp on the critical paths.

Mr. Whalen looks forward to seeing the schedule. Mrs. Mullins indicated it should be available before the next Board meeting.

Mrs. Mullins gave a brief update to the Board on an asbestos issue at Roosevelt Elementary. As part of the district’s asbestos remediation, an area was identified in the ‘tunnel’ at Roosevelt. They started work last Friday, August 15, 2014 and will be done this week. Once finished, we will be able to access the elevator shaft for repairs and storage.

2. Report on Strategic Plan 2013-14

Dr. Martinez reminded the Board that the Strategic Plan was based on the Board’s goals and was supported by professional development. Last year, all building principals reported to the Board on the progress they were making. She can see the pride they feel in their student achievement. She is also pleased that the Board chose to continue with the same goals which will help the district maintain the focus and, since it is the same work, it is being supported by high quality professional development and school leadership teams.

Dr. Thompson talked about what the data shows. She also summarized the action steps taken. In the focus area of teaching and learning, we met our goal of achieving 200 staff members attending professional development

building leaders and we have an additional 285 staff going this year.

The district has been engaging community partners on many levels, providing cultural responsive practice starting with convocation, early release dates, etc. NYU’s technical assistance (i.e., discipline and referral rates) was highlighted as well as the summer work with students in poverty. In adapting the Common Core, the district adjusted its curriculum maps to reflect that work, used additional curriculum resources for support, turn-key training through BOCES and use of data driven inquiry tools.

The district engaged with consultant, Olivia Wahl, for supports in guided reading practice at the elementary level, which embedding elements of the Common Core into conversations. It was extremely well received and will be followed up this year with coaching professional development.

Mr. Whalen asked about the number of students reading on grade level, presuming there is a progressive measurement. Dr. Thompson explained the data, however, cautioned that it does not take into effect our mobility rate which impacts our data tremendously. Dr. Martinez commented that, even if a student only attended our district for one day, we would ‘own’ their data. To be able to determine how effective the curricula, we need to identify which students had continuous access to our program.

Mr. Whalen asked if the compilation of data is good. Dr. Thompson said it was. Teachers know this is a priority and the SLTs were provided data to help develop the building school improvement plans. She also said the district is looking at piloting a reading assessment tool which would be more accurate.

Mrs. Hampton understands families move around, but we have to figure out how to engage families so that the work that happens in school does not disappear once the student goes home. Dr. Martinez agreed. We are increasing collaboration with the Youth Success initiative, summer enrichment and after school programs because they are so important.

Mr. Scanlon asked if we have looked at other districts. Dr. Thompson said no other school is using this assessment, but we will be looking at how it mirrors the state assessments. There is a home component; parent engagement is critical.

Dr. Martinez talked about the parent and community engagement part of the plan. The Heritage was revised to align and prioritize material to the Board’s goals. The calendar format was also changed and each school is required to have a newsletter with which to share information, the employee newsletter was remodeled, we introduced the new e-blast publication, conducted a PR survey, doing realtor outreach and a new promotional video is in the works to help raise the profile of Binghamton and speak to surrounding community about our district. Also, the website was redesigned to be more engaging and school building webpages are more consistent. The community partners have rallied to provide support to the district as an advisory team meeting

every 6 weeks and participating with district staff at various events (i.e., NYU and Monticello). The parent cafés are helpful as well. There are community engagement pieces in the budget development process as well including roundtable discussions. Also, the mentoring now program can really be beefed up.

Under school climate and safety, the action steps included NYU’s restorative justice practices, training in progressive discipline and response to intervention behavior. This summer, they will look at the data to determine what the approaches are prior to becoming a discipline referral. There will be training for administrators in the use of SchoolTool so they can look deeper at the information being entered (i.e., demographics, etc.).

Finally, Dr. Martinez noted that the safety plans were approved by SED. The district is moving from process to results. Smart goals are measurable, attainable and time bound. The SLTs wrote their SIPs based on the district goals, but are still wrestling with the parent and community engagement piece (i.e., how to measure). There needs to be more qualitative work, but the learning continues.

Mr. Whalen commented that the building’s newsletters are an opportunity to encourage parents to get involved (i.e., PTA). Dr. Martinez commented that parents today cannot relate to the 1950’s model of the PTA and that we need to come out of the school and go to them instead of thinking the parents will come to us in the school. It is a big challenge.

CORRESPONDENCE Noted.

FOR ACTION Mr. Hawley asked about the BC Transit student transportation schedules and how it discourages attendance at school and after school activities. Dr. Martinez explained that she had met with Debbie Preston twice, two city councilmembers and with Mayor Rich David about the schedule. She shared that Martin Klein had reached out to BC Transit to explain the impact on our students. For example if a student is going to be late to school, they have a decision to make, which could end up being a discipline issue. Despite being a big issue, she is not deterred.

She also has concerns for students during winter when the wind chill is below zero. Many of our students live outside the two miles. Mrs. Mullins did a cost study last year to compare the shortening of the routes. The figures were astronomical (over $600K). The caveat is there is no refund from the state on aid. Rural districts can do that, but our impact is huge. More students riding would mean more buses. It is very expensive.

PUBLIC COMMENTS Motion by Mr. Whalen, seconded by Ms. Archie to add Resolution 2014-8-C79 ON G RESOLUTIONS and Resolution 2014-8-C80 with all members present voting aye.

NEW BUSINESS Upon recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the following Superintendent’s Resolutions were approved.

Recommendations

Resolutions 2014-8-C1 through C80, Ms. Archie, Ms. Garufy, Ms. Kirk, Mr. Scanlon, Mr. Whalen, Mr. Hawley and Mrs. Hampton voting aye.

2014-8-C1