Saranac Lake Central School District Board of Education

9 meetings on our record, 7 of them from the past year and 2 with unconfirmed dates · typical meeting 1 h 01 min · 1,064 students · 7 members on our roster

Latest · Sep 16, 2026: Saranac Lake board approves new flexible spending administrator after prior provider stopped operating Play 6:10
Newest meeting we have: Sep 16, 2026 · District's board page ↗ (it may list later ones)

On the board: Mark Farmer, President · Nancy A. Bernstein, Vice President · Justin Garwood, Board member · Joe Henderson, Board member · Mike Martin, Board member · Zac Randolph, Board member · Tori Thurston, Board member

Watch the board’s yearA decision it made, its hours, its busiest night at the mic and where its time went, each with its source

Recent meetings

What the board took up lately

Board meeting · 1 h 30 minWednesday, September 16, 2026Saranac Lake board approves new flexible spending administrator after prior provider stopped operatingChronic absenteeismSpeakers: Nancy A. Bernstein, Justin Garwood, Joe Henderson, Tori Thurston and 1 more

Play 6:10

Board meeting · 1 h 01 minWednesday, August 26, 2026Board approves tax warrant using $2.9 million of fund balance to reduce levySpeakers: Mark Farmer, Nancy A. Bernstein

Play 17:09

Board meeting · 1 h 16 minWednesday, August 5, 2026EnrollmentSpeakers: Nancy A. Bernstein, Justin Garwood, Tori Thurston

Watch

Board meeting · 38 minWednesday, June 17, 2026Speakers: Tori Thurston

Watch

The board

Who talks on this board

Minutes speaking per full board meeting · 7 board meetings, Mar 25, 2026 – Sep 16, 2026 · talk time only, never tone or stance

Listed by seatHow much of the members' speech we name isn't measured here yet.

Coverage not measured on whole meetings yet

Minutes = time we heard them speak per meeting, from the speech we have named so far, so each is a floor: at least that much.

Runs the meeting

Mark FarmerPresident · runs the meeting, not ranked3.1min, at least1 of 4meetings heard, of those while seated—runs the meeting, counted apart3.0questions asked per meeting, at least

Members · listed by seat

Nancy A. BernsteinVice President · Seated for 7 board meetings on our record; we rank at 82.2min, at least4 of 7meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.2questions asked per meeting, at least

Justin GarwoodBoard member · Seated for 7 board meetings on our record; we rank at 81.3min, at least3 of 7meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked1.7questions asked per meeting, at least

Joe HendersonBoard member · Seated for 3 board meetings on our record; we rank at 80.6min, at least1 of 3meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked0.0questions asked per meeting, at least

Mike MartinBoard member · Seated for 7 board meetings on our record; we rank at 80.0min, at least2 of 7meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked0.0questions asked per meeting, at least

Zac RandolphBoard member · Seated for 5 board meetings on our record; we rank at 80.4min, at least2 of 5meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked0.0questions asked per meeting, at least

Tori ThurstonBoard member · Seated for 7 board meetings on our record; we rank at 82.8min, at least3 of 7meetings heard, of those while seated—not ranked0.2questions asked per meeting, at least

Minutes speaking per full board meeting held while seated; a meeting they missed or stayed silent in counts as zero · bar = minutes named so far · talk time only, never tone or stance · Hamlet

Meetings on our record

All 9 meetings on our record

Clips

What Mark Farmer said on Jun 3, 2026

Since we've gotten computers decades ago, it's been that way for a while. Staff are finally catching up because we're getting, you know, staffed up from My generation now, but I suspect in the AI world, a lot of our students will be down the road farther than our staff.Mark FarmerPresident · Saranac Lake Central School District Board of Education · Jun 3, 2026Watch the full meeting from 17:15

Meeting time

Where the board's meeting time went

Budget and finance11%3%–22%

Public comment4%0%–12%

Ceremony and recognition1%0%–4%

Safety and discipline0%0%–1%

The two readers didn’t agree on 26% of the time; it counts toward no topic, so every share above is a floor.

Not shown: facilities, closures and enrollment, curriculum and instruction, student services and special education, labor and personnel, governance and policy, routine business, other subjects, whose checks haven’t passed

Public comment

Of the 9 meetings on our record, we counted public speakers at 9; 2 had at least one.

1 speaker1 speaker0.2 a meeting on average

Federal district ID 3625740 · student count from the federal 2023-24 count · meeting videos posted by the district