Link to video of the live streamed Board Meeting can be found below
Board Agenda is below
The meeting started at a little after 7:00 p.m. and lasted until 8:45 p.m. A lot of new faces. Please continue to come to Board Meetings to stay informed. When this mask issue will go away, and it will one way or the other soon, don’t stop paying attention to what is going on in the school district and how our Board is representing and advocating for us and our kids. Continue to stay informed and most importantly, VOTE at the upcoming May 17, 2022.
The issue of masking our children continued to dominate the agenda of the meeting. The Trustees explained why each voted for or against joining the other school districts who filed amicus briefs opposing Hochul’s appeal of the order which found her mask mandate unconstitutional. Mary Keene, Rob Crowley and Steve Enella all voted to join lawsuit. All three of them reiterated their disagreement with Hochul’s mandate and wanted to unmask our kids. They felt there was no harm in joining suit, especially since there was no cost to district as the law firm was not charging the districts to submit appeal. Meg Ryan, Ed Corona, Tracy Miller and Kathy Moran all voted against joining lawsuit. Their reasoning was that they did not feel comfortable rushing to join a lawsuit with a firm that they did not know, was not vetted and without first confirming that this is what majority of the residents wanted.
Rob Crowley than asked Seniak as to whether the District had a plan in place if the indoor school mask mandate was going to expire on 2/21/2022 and then asked Board to consider filing a lawsuit should Hochul choose to extend the mask mandate beyond 2/21/22. We anticipate this being discussed during an executive session. We will follow up on this question.
Mary Keene asked that district to consider starting early for the March 2, 2022 budget meeting to give residents more time to digest the presentation and ask questions because today’s meeting felt rushed. Mary Keene also moved to bring back two portions of public comments. Before today’s meeting, there used to be a public comments section to address questions residents had on agenda items and a second public comments section at the end of the meeting for more general comments. For today, initially, the Board removed the first public comments portion, but then added it back to permit residents to ask questions on Agenda items only. There was a motion made to bring back 2 portions of public comments which was unanimously passed. We will continue to have 2 public comment portions at meetings.
Mr. McDaid confirmed that district was not in fiscal distress as was reported by News 12 earlier in week.
Dr. Seniak confirmed that to address the overcrowding of the third grade classes at Fayette, they are adding a fourth class so there will be 4 fourth grade classes for 2022-2023 at Fayette. We are going to know more at the March 2, 2022 Budget presentation.
Board attorney reiterated ramifications to district if they chose to ignore the law and make mask optional. He said that district could lose funding. Per Mcdaid, 9.5 million in state funding. However, the logistics of whether the State could or could not withhold funding was not addressed or discussed.
Universal Pre-K is here. 51 seats won via lottery. Not all seats are in our schools. Some seats will be in outside daycares (we think). Will get more information and post.
The remainder of the meeting focused on residents addressing the Board on the mask mandate.
Hochul’s mandate for schools is set to expire on February 21, 2022. The stay of the order invaliding the law in the appellate court is set to expire on March 2, 2022 (unless State perfects/files their appeal). The issue of the whether the Appellate Court was correct in granting stay has been appealed to the Court of Appeals. The shelf-life of this stay and mask mandate is getting shorter and shorter. We anticipate a decision on the mandate in next week.
The district approved a new CSCE contract, which requires Board’s approval before taking affect. We will post on any changes once we confirm and get copies of the new addendum.
The old contract can be viewed below. It is on district website as well.
Continue to stay informed and most importantly, VOTE at the upcoming May 17, 2022 election.
Next Board meeting is March 8, 2022.