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o m you can see their salaries Services supplies just kind of the top ones I pulled out and then the if there's more buckets but I just and then the total o m would be 8 million to 27. foreign same thing I picked a few of them the salaries they're the bus leases the fuel there's contingency in there so the total for transportation would be 5.3 million some of the remaining funds so you have your um the rest of the funds that weren't talked about are listed here you got your bonds and your debt certificates of eight million 8.7 million dollars that we have to pay this year your imrf Social Security Medicare is 1.9 million I did budget 900 000 of the capital project fund so between o m and um this Capital project fund should cover the about 2.5 million that we hope to have done this year in our FY 23 school year and then the tour is where all of our legal bills and our work comp and property insurances and for 900 000.
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thank you the director of uh Academy's director Teresa yeah so um his name is Dean actually Brent Dina but he began in July I think right after the July 4th weekend that's when he began so like John mentioned it'll be for this fiscal year thank you any other questions just a quick um I guess observation I'm wondering if um and I see everything zeroed out which is which is very good it's unusual for us to finish right at zero so I'm just wondering were there any um was there any overage that we had to to borrow and and bring into this year's budget or did we have you know even like a dollar leftover or anything or did it just line up the way that it lined up of course this year you know this the um the fact that everything's zero I think uh those are the instructions uh we received from from you in the committee uh the preference was not to see uh pluses and minuses throughout the year that's we were just talking about that's why that's the exact point I asked if we could have some time before we started uh doing that again um however I I think um in the months as we approach the end of the year I think our our reports said that um there might be a little bit left we couldn't tell we wanted to wait until uh that all the health insurance was in and that kind of thing we were having a trouble forecasting uh what our claims might be um and uh when we and and let me point out too that you know there are still bills um that are that haven't come in yet or there's something wrong with them or products and services that haven't come in yet so we will continue yeah let's say we had a bill a purchase order for a thousand dollars and it's in those encumbrances we may get a bill um next week that's for 900 that closes it out maybe there's a back order that they can't fill or something like that so um this number could change a little bit right up until uh when the Auditors come in in November uh but uh to get to the point um there was uh probably close to fifty thousand dollars it would have been unencumbered at the end of the year but we did have a pro we do have a problem or at the high school we had one of our uh classrooms that needed to have some chemicals removed um it's an expensive uh process to dispose of those we had budgeted that if you remember in the facilities uh projects but that's a line item we took a cut in so um we decided to use the money to get the chemicals out of the high school and um then we wouldn't have to worry about the cut either so that that was a year-end um a decision that was made okay thanks John I I just was I figured that there were some things outstanding and that's that's why I was asking that so yeah thank you and you know what we know enough though um nothing's going to change much uh By now uh you know as we get to the end of this into September uh most of the bills have been paid uh they were most of them were paid in July and August and there's a few that come in but it wouldn't materially change anything at all at this point so small John just a a quick question about the 150k shortfall because of our some communities not fully returning to our magnet schools uh how do we make that up made it um through other grants we found uh we had a school priority Grant we had uh we spread it out different places where it could be permissible but it none of it went into the general fund at all there wasn't enough there to uh absorb it and they didn't have many choices we took care of it with grants we did yes all right thank you any other questions I am it's certainly interested in the 2223 Reserve drawdown update okay ready to proceed group there are no further questions right item number two okay so I think uh at a fight like if I could carry this one um it's in our package right the letter that we sent in May um I'm going to share it again John right so um you know there's been a change obviously a change in the um City finance department and I I tried to follow up with this um earlier in the summer and um it proved kind of difficult but about uh 10 days ago I met with um Dan Garrick the interim Finance director I went over to his office uh sat down to uh talk about this and I said we'd like an answer um very I have to say he's been he's been great to work with um we went on went on to his computer and what he uh discovered was that one of the staff accountants uh there had um made a a journal entry that he didn't understand I didn't quite say what it was but he thought it was a debit that should have been a credit or vice versa he wanted to uh speak with her before giving a decision on what would happen next uh there's no doubt in my mind that the the reserves the reserve is there that was our unencumbered balance from last year's report you remember but what he what he said um I got a voicemail back from him I I emailed him Friday and I said you know we have our our committee meeting coming up Monday can you tell me where we are on this and um a voicemail came in at five o'clock tonight uh said uh he said to me he needed to sit down with sing Dao that's the staff accountant um he said uh she was working with Dave on the entries on these Reserves and he said hopefully we'll um we'll know more towards the end of the week so what I'd like to do is maybe follow up with him again before our regular board meeting uh uh Wednesday and see if there's anything new there but those were his words as of five o'clock today definitely follow up with him definitely yep John can we get um like a ledger of the total Reserve funds that are there um yeah well yes I can put something together tomorrow um well if you don't mind it would be my version uh we can get I think they're short staffed over there so it's hard to get uh reports but I'll take the report that uh David saying Hilary gave us last year around this time and they've really only been uh three changes to it uh if you remember we drew down uh 2.4 million to balance our budget the one we have in front of us here we that was always our plan uh we also put 2.8 million last year's unencumbered uh balances into the reserve uh because um David St Hilaire had to go in front of the city council for permission to do that he did that in February so that's that's tied into the minutes that's official that's there that was the second thing and the third thing is uh underway uh that's where the the mayor's office would prefer to take the deductible for our high school gym floor from one of the health insurance reserves and it was below the line if you remember there was a section I'll explain that but other than that there have been nothing else has happened to the report we got a year ago so I can I'll put that together that would be great thank you John I'm sorry question about that so it's coming out of ours uh uh deductible Reserve or Insurance Reserve for the floor yes so it's not coming from the city no told you Al so city building John right the board of the board of education does not own instructions you will not get any argument from us Mr Russell okay I agree it just just blows my mind I I think when we met with them in the summer um we were just we had to get the project going um it didn't seem wise to uh try and debate it it seemed better to get the money and and hire the contractor so right kind of thanked them for what they for giving it to us honestly well I say that again thank us for giving us oh I I was pleased that we got the money because otherwise we couldn't have started fixing the floor we didn't have you know you have to we had to um encumber it against our school budget and we didn't have 250 000 extra to do that understood [Music] Teresa go ahead anything else I just wanted to know where we are on the auditors right um okay so also from Dan uh this afternoon I um I'd emailed him about this Friday as well and what he uh and and I I like to keep saying this uh excuse me for being repetitive but um this is not a school audit by any means what we're talking about is the city's financial report it's 200 pages long it's available on their website it's prepared by the City Finance uh Department um so uh here's what he said he said um he's meeting Thursday with the auditors he'll no more uh where we stand after that meeting surprised me a little bit that it wasn't more on someone's front burner but uh those were his that was his message today was the increase in this forensic audit um brought to the front burner after uh we had a change in Personnel the up in finance they haven't said anything to us at all officially okay I haven't I just don't know we should um you know I was hoping we'd have our uh 21-22 audit well underway by now uh it hasn't started last year's Mother was never completed correct that's the one they're gonna talk about Thursday the 2021 audit um I would say though um back on July 14th uh the city did go out and uh sell bonds and uh to raise money for cardis Dave Ray uh and other things they uh had a bond issue of a 120 million dollars uh 72 million is for Cardis and that's uh I imagine to close the sale another 32 million was to update the sewer plant and then uh 16 million for other needs so the the fact that the report is not finished did not prevent them from raising money for the Cardis purchase now 72 million is not uh 200 million uh but remember this state of Connecticut is going to pay 80 percent of the uh the uh construction and all that so they they don't need the whole amount but maybe they're planning to go into the market again later I'm not sure but that happened July 14th all right so even though we've got it we had a bound issue for 208 million right taking into consider the number of bonds we're selling we're taking into consideration our estimated costs coming out of the city of Danbury pocket and not the total amount of the deal well I I'd like them to say that um that's that was the only reason I could think of that they wouldn't sell bonds for the whole thing with uh interest rates Rising but they must have had their reasons um maybe they're going to finance some of it internally on a pay-as-you-go plan I'm not sure um but you know when you when you sell bonds and you know there's there's a prospectus or an official statement and in that statement particularly on the municipal side you have to say what the projects are they have to be tax exempt so it was very clear of the 200 million that uh 72 million was for Carters 32 was for the sewer plant you can see right there uh the purposes that they they raise the money for so okay I could ask that too it's a great question I'll say why is why is it not 150 million let's see what they say it probably yes probably be more official than if it came from yeah yep okay thank you appreciate that sir yep any other questions all right so we are up to date on in our our concerns or our questions on Where the audit stands against still a work in progress and it's my understanding correct me if I'm wrong John that that this is all right just on a Boe or Board District audit this is a complete city audit that's a big initiated we are just part of that and I have to say when when we were uh criticized uh for not having things done there were plenty of things that the city hadn't done at the same time and I I have email because they asked us to help them with it later so I could share some of those with you someday members Theresa okay any other questions oh good well this is just a very general question and it um and probably we're going to ask this question a lot this year um just wondering given that we're coming up against this financial cliff um what are do we have ideas that we're floating around about how we're going to find we have money to bring into the district are we working out plans as far as things that might be reduced I just want to kind of get a sense of if there's some way that board members in particular can support the work that's ahead of us in this next year and in anticipation of you know the year after where we're going to hit that cliff that we're informed about that and that we're trying to move forward right away with you guys I think um and then maybe Kevin if if I missed something but you know most of almost all of our attention uh in the last month has been um getting this the school year up and running and getting things operating um it it's um that's where our attention needed to be and and as I was saying I think we had a very good opening um but we're going to start the budgeting uh early uh this year earlier than before um I I was uh we had our agenda item uh the other night uh for an advisory committee because uh for exactly the reasons you say so um those are all of that's ready to start and and um I don't know Kevin did anything I could add to that or there have been no decisions yet I can tell you that much so so we have no resolution at this point no no we we have a long journey in front of us um John was referring to the I believe the committee that we uh brought up in discussion last Wednesday um and the idea of the committee is to begin to wrestle with the very question King just raised uh but that committee would just be making a recommendation uh one of quite frankly many recommendations and considerations um I will be wrestling with and considering as we make a proposal to uh to the board um but but ultimately Kate um and Theresa and Al and Julie I I think this is really about finding ways to educate our uh parent Community our staff our Council and our mayor's office around our needs um and so we you know we ended the year talking about our reality moving forward um and the fact that our Esser funds will need to be accelerated in order to cover the remainder of this school year given um the ask and the monies that we received um next year we are facing um I believe we had talked about a lot of Staff potentially being cut and we will have no choice but to make some really difficult decisions but I mean just at a you know first glance we're talking about 100 positions potentially that would need to be cut from the school district um and you know as appreciative as we are of the four million dollars that we received last year um you know that was I this is year five for me and that's the first time we received enough money to cover just growth in salaries for one year and still you know my predecessor plus uh John's predecessor used to always talk about the money that we need just to keep the lights on and the 4 million helped us keep the lights on for this for the existing salary salaries that we had in place everyone's going to have step movement everyone's going to make more money the following year it's just a a reality of contract negotiations you multiply that times 2 000 plus employees and it's around four million dollars um we we haven't received close to four million dollars since I've been here and coupled with the fact that we've had increased enrollment and because of an increased enrollment more staff that we've had to hire um and so we're dealing with all of those realities right now um and and the reality is the so monies really provided real relief for Staffing over the last two years because we would have faced this Cliff prior you know to to the pandemic um if we did not have these monies um and so now that the hello Kevin froze he froze Kevin the thunderstorm must hit the west side of town we're not alone uh that board Might Recall Hanford is facing explained oh there he goes again Kevin your video is frozen and your audio is just phased in and out I'll try a phone call but this is difficult and you know uh one of the things Kevin was starting to talk about is we're we're not alone uh in terms of uh the cliff and and how to deal with it I think I read a story about the city of Stamford is almost in the same exact situation we argue and we do we didn't have the money that some of the other places did that had gotten us for money and they they were able to put their money into one-time things and uh infrastructure and all that but we we didn't have that we didn't have the base uh particularly with enrollment growing on on Kevin's back but that's our our situ our situation in a few other places like us is very different uh than the rest of the state What We Gather especially with that especially with that enrollment John I think you know Danbury is very unique in that in that way and that's really made things complicated for Staffing oh yeah yeah especially at Danbury High School especially Evan said Al Jim yeah he was he was frozen okay muted now Mr Walston sir I left and came back in and pushed me up I guess I guess Zoom didn't like what I was saying so it froze me I'm not sure what part uh my I got I started to freeze last five minutes well it was I believe I had was talking about Stanford in particular and um we're not alone just in terms of uh the cliff that we're facing um and and I believe as recently as I don't know maybe the last within the last month um you may recall see there he goes again it's definitely the weather we need it but now it happens we should have a zoo meeting all the time to fill up the reservoirs Gladys would be here tonight but her power is out due to the storm hopefully she can pick up but we have nothing by Andrew Cliff uh that you will there he goes again I just sent him a quick text and asked if he could just log in without video it could be that there's just not enough bandwidth also for that to get through because of the storm yes Kevin uh Roger that we're standing by for you I see your video is off just try again with audio only okay I'm going to try audio maybe this will help with the connection this time so I I'm going to talk faster this time as well so Stanford and Norwalk we will oftentimes hear us compare ourselves to those those districts because in terms of demographics um and and and Democrat and City demographics these are two closest kind of counterparts in this and so you'll you'll find that most recently Stanford had a 10 million dollar shortfall that was made public um but but but Stanford unlike us has a has a sizable um general fund budget um the same is true of Norwalk and although both of those districts might have um a shortfall as a result of expiring um Esser funds not this year but the following year um their their Gap is probably not going to be as big as ours because their general fund budget is not as is not as small as ours um from the I don't know if it's norwalker Stanford the last time I look it's close to 300 300 million dollars um a 300 million dollar budget they have pretty much the same I think Stanford has about two thousand dollars more 2 000 students more than us um and Norwalk is about neck and neck I believe they have about twelve thousand uh but both of their budgets are considerably higher than ours um and I I think going back to your question Kate um it's going to be really important to us for us to kind of you know always resistant to talk about the history of funding in the district before as we were trying to build build partnership with the city uh with the mayor's office with the council but but we we can't deny the fact that it's contributed to our situation right now um and so I think you know what we do is we educate and I think we have to do an even better job at educating our community and make sure folks are informed and hopefully that will help for a different outcome this time um but but short of that and and everyone on this call probably calls from our Council meetings you know I was asked the question by council members well what do we lose if um and that you know I was resisting sharing that last year because I didn't want everyone fleeing this District particularly prematurely if they didn't have to uh but next year we may not have a choice and so I will be you know we will have a committee that makes recommendations my team and I will also be sitting on exploring what this means for the district moving forward and certainly you know those potential Cuts will be part of our budget process so Kevin we will maybe it's my picture is why they kept knocking me off maybe that's what it is no so we will start the cliff recommendations when sir um it will be part of the budget uh process it's probably as early as November and we will look to put together this um restructuring committee that John had talked about in the in the board meeting uh within the next few weeks we'll look to form that committee okay thank you sir no thank you but to your question Mr Russo it will be part of our budget conversations really throughout the year once we have our budget formed in those discussions start um when we start those meetings we will be proposing potential cuts for next year and what that means thank you sir thank you and we will start to explore when are any any additional sources of revenue is there is there anything else we can explore to increase our revenue or do we have to wait for the state of Connecticut to step up we have to wait for other sources to step up before we can be proactive so we will um and I I feel like we were aggressive in this in this effort last year and we'll do the same this year uh with the mayor's office uh we wrote notes to the governor's office uh requesting that our alliance monies and and uh were accelerated to help address the uh the the needs in the Danbury Community now um unfortunately that fell on deaf ears um and you know we were reminded well if danbury's acceleration if danbury's monies are accelerated it means another district is losing money at the same except de-escalated de-accelerated rate um I mean as your superintendent I'm not sure I care about the other districts um but certainly I I would imagine that played a role in the governor's decision um and so we will undoubtedly request an acceleration again you may have heard a couple of times I think second to Bridgeport we have more English language Learners in the state of Connecticut than any District in the state of Connecticut and Bridgeport has almost double the enrollment that we do and we're only a couple of hundred behind in ell students and I bring that up because it requires different Staffing that other districts do not have you know this same requirement and obligation and so given those different needs I think we can continue to try to make a case that we are indeed different I mean I know it's easy for us to say because we're here in Danbury but we are unique in many regards in our proximity to New York I know we're not on the 95 side of the state but our proximity to New York I think um it's part of the reason that you know our needs are so different because we are close to the New York border and just create some different different opportunities but also requires different supports how about our lobbyists sir we we still have them on board to speak oh absolutely absolutely Ryan and Zach uh we're in constant Communications um you know we've talked about the HVAC Grant and a couple of other grants that are knocking on our door um they don't necessarily help our bottom line with our general fund needs but we will be back in touch with them again um as those opportunities present themselves I think they start as soon as um January when um the group is in session and so these next couple of months certainly will be strategizing around that uh but they they played a big role supporting the mayor and I um and trying to help us with our efforts to accelerate the alliance funds um obviously it didn't work out but certainly we'll we will try to uh partner with them again in this effort yeah am I incorrect in thinking that our student population grows while other districts it's shrinking so therefore we are entitled to these additional funds that that is the case that we are definitely making this to result thank you sir no absolutely I just wish the state would be as understanding As You Are oh I just maintaining decorum sir I understand I understand the problem everyone here does I know we just have different strategies and and how to go about it but uh I I thank you and you're stabbing it cabinet with staff and and John and Eddie and everyone for their uh their attention to get this accomplished when they can okay any other questions Terry any other additional questions not tonight thank you all right is that Michelle the m-e-a-d-a-n that's what I mean I believe I can meet uh Teresa oh damn meat I'm sorry thank you you're welcome so I think when you see those names like that those are our email names and I think that's the defaults so that's why I changed mine immediately Mr Russo's like lost k so that's Anne's default email okay let me know thank you I just want to make sure I have it right for the yes thank you thank you medium yeah that's almost as fun as we license plates you know foreign if we have no nothing else to discuss tonight I'll leave the floor open for discussion for another 30 seconds and I will say thank you all for your time and effort and uh a second everyone I will see
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so this slide kind of summarizes all the revenues all the expenditures and the difference of where they're going to land at the end of the year you can see that o m imrf and tort fund have negative or deficit balances toward working down the fund balance imrf working down fund balance o m um that's not really they do have a fun balance but that's not intentionally to work that down it's just the way that the dollars fell with the amount of projects and stuff that we had so if you have all of that combined it's about a 95 000 Surplus and all and then we have our projected fund balances so the First Column shows you the unaudited fund balance so that is where we were where we landed when in June 30th before the audit entries there are going to probably be some so those won't stay 100 true and then the changes from the slide before is in the middle column that shows you the plus or minus for over expenditures and then kind of where the ending fund balance is going to land so they all still have positive fund balances at the end of the year foreign [Applause] with all the unknowns the future um I think our biggest thing that moved to the top was our rapid enrollment growth it's always on our planet like just we're always thinking about it trying to figure out when's the best time to do stuff what's the best plan to do um do we really need this stuff so I think when you think about our enrollment we have to add more staff because we have more classrooms more sections our building capacity is getting maxed out where are you going to put the kids in the teachers they need spaces so in that you can't just turn on the light and move in you gotta pre-plan and build for it and then our transportation parking place is just maxed out there behind CMS so we're definitely going to need a new spot to house some of those buses um the second bullet pointer bucket I kind of already discussed the in the increased costs and all the supplies in the fuel I mean one of the meetings I just went to um one of our old fuel suppliers said that they can't get diesel fuel for the for Geneva's buses so I didn't realize that there was a shortage in diesel fuel but things like that kind of you know if you're worried um the state of Illinois fiscal problems those three things have been on there for the last year they've been stagnant there's been no movement on any of them so I I'm not I didn't like try to budget for any of that kind of stuff but the property tax raise with the zero percent CPI definitely would would hurt us I'm not sure the exact numbers but last I looked it was about four hundred thousand dollars maybe 500 000 that we would lose if that were to take place so it that could have Financial impact on us um and then the last one was the same same one that's still in progress It's all the so requirements um the high school Dr mongan and her curriculum team and the administration at the high school are working to make sure we get these indicators and everything up to speed that we need to so but it all costs time and money so with that is there any questions great job as always thank you so next up budget will be on display starting after our meeting for the next 30 days and then our next board meeting we'll have the public hearing at 5 45 that's on Tuesday October 18th thanks Taylor I'd actually need a motion in a second to discuss and improve the AP music theory textbook oh I'm sorry on the budget Bill yes yes yes that'll take a motion second discuss and approve the AP music theory textbook psychic we have our director of curriculum 612 with us tonight Stephen books he's the one who authored the memo that was coming to the board and um if the board has any questions he's here do you have anything you'd like to share about textbook at all 30 days meets the AP requirements requirements and we feel it's going to be a great addition to helping our kids in that AP course thank you thank you thank you yes yes bulk yes yes Gorman yes that's the motion second acquired discuss and approve the overnight trip some cross country to attend the Invitational in Peoria second okay we have much in a second this is the trip that I included is information because we received it we weren't able to bring it to the board before the trip occurred Horton was aware of it and as for your approval of it yep yes yes Nolan yes Gorman yes any emotion second to discuss and approve the overnight trip for FFA so moved second okay we have much in a second so um asking the Board of Education to approve our FFA um activities group to attend the National Conference in Indianapolis on October 26th through October 29th uh my mom and itinerary included in the board packet yes bulk yes Danville yes Nolan yes government yes flexing in motion second to discuss and approve the final budget for the northern Kane Regional Vocational system second so we have a motion in a second uh we have Terry stro with us who is our director of our efe 110.
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um I don't know if there's any questions we had our hearing already um there are no changes to the budget any questions from the board no no thank you Terry happy yes well yes yes good motion a second needed to discuss and improve the flight director jusky as one of the check signatures of the CHS impressed and CHS activity checking accounts second so in your board packet you should see um we're gonna clean up because we had some we had an old Secretary on there as well but we're removing Steve Diversey Kylie Garden Dr Stern and adding to Jessica to both of those checking accounts so he can be assigned around the account and that would leave myself Dr manga and Krista Stoney and Ted as signers on it so every check needs two signatures so I will sign and then Ted will sign all right Falk yes yes Nolan yes Alfie yes Gorman yes move on to information items we have an enrollment report so um we wanted to get the year started and double check all of our numbers and so we're bringing now uh fourth our first enrollment report of the year uh numbers were pulled from September 14th and it shows um our rate of change from the 2021 school year to this school year and you can see that from the 2020 2021 the 2022 school year we grew 262 students and then from last year to this year we've grown on another 109.
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so that puts our total District enrollment right now at 4734 students no all right product director Jessica is here events and Athletics Athletics I guess I get to say this again long time listener this time second time caller so uh appreciate you having me out here today just kind of want to give you an update on a few things number one thank you to the 301 Foundation I know well we haven't met since back to the hill ran but despite weather and everything else uh we had animals we had rides we had a packed field house and we had food trucks so a great turnout heard a lot of great things about it so you know you did a lot with that so uh well thank you for that um thank you for proving the overnight trip to uh the FFA conference I do want to let you know I did talk with Ryan Robinson and we do have four individuals that will be competing for National he says Supremacy but uh they're gonna kind of kind of be on the map I guess there's uh there's 8995 chapters across the country and we are going to have four individuals represent Central District 301 to be I think the way he put it maybe one of the top 10 in the uh across the country so we've got four kids in the model X is excellence and we'll have one individual competing with uh the AG science fair as well so just wanted to bring that to your attention uh so that's uh it was nice to hear from Ryan and his group um athletically things are up and running it's hard to imagine that we're already halfway through the fall we're going to be having some winter winter Havens with some of our winter coaches and you can look to see a winter sports registration open up here within this week for uh you know the coming sports in the winter time the as you saw too some of the clubs and activities have been posted as well uh right off the bat I did run some numbers we've got about 700 kids already involved in activities at the high school which is awesome knowing that not all the activities has even started we haven't even talked about our plays yet or anything of that nature but we've got about 700 kids now involved in clubs and activities early on within the first month of school so that's awesome to see and then the one other one other item the information item I don't mean to jump ahead but while I'm up here the information that's coming to you for the overnight trip we did have three individuals qualify for the Illinois High School theater Association production of Shrek they've applied last year they competed and they were selected to represent 301 and all the things that we're doing within our plays and our our theater Club to represent 301 at the state eight kind of the State play if you will down at Illinois Illinois Champaign Urbana for that performance in January so I just wanted to kind of keep you in the loop on that as that's kind of on your docket here but uh other than that I can't thank you enough it's been a great kind of first official month if you will with kids being in the building and uh looking forward to seeing it continue thank you thank you can you just talk a little bit about what youth uh foresee with the robotics Club I know that's brand new for us yeah right now we've uh we've been working with Dan Olsen uh with robotics I know we've got a wealth of information here with uh Mr books he's going to kind of help Dan and myself look to see what that will look like the first year out of the out of the gate and uh hopefully as we we go forward we work with Dan we can kind of continue to build and mold it and uh how we see best for our kids our sponsors and and everybody else coming through it so we've got supplies we've got a we've got somebody who's enthusiastic about it it's just a matter now kind of putting together a road map and a vision now that knowing that it's brand new great thank you you're welcome thank you all right appreciate it all right next to you Public Act 97-256.
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this is an annual um report that comes to the board every September and we're required by by law to publish salaries for administration and teachers in the district and that will be posted to our website has to be posted by October 1st and then Public Act 97-0609 similar to the last one uh this one is covering employees instead of being covered under TRS this is covering employees covered under the imrf compensation uh for for pension and uh that must be posted within six days of approving the budget however we are prepared and so most likely we'll post that before the budget approval so we're all set need a motion a second to adjourn and head into executive session so second Nolan yes a fee yes 12 yes yes Gorman yes thanks again for coming out have a good evening
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you ready to go I would like to call this meeting to order this is a public hearing all it is is uh there won't be any presentations we're hoping people have come prepared and they would like to just take a few minutes if you wouldn't mind and tell us if you'd like to support the presentations or if you'd like to just say don't do it at all and uh well if you come to the podium take a microphone and and uh give your name so Mary can record this since this is a polite public meeting we appreciate that so we're welcome we're I mean and personally this is this is for the board to get information so that we can help make a better uh better informed decision so we would like people to come up and just Express their opinions about what they would like to see either with that program the there are two programs presented and whether the option would be none at all and we'd ask people to take maybe three minutes on the long side because we've had a lot of people Express well I don't know if we've had a lot of people Express opinions we've had a lot of opinions by a few people so we would like to hear more but if you could just take a few minutes so everybody would have an opportunity to do that and personally I'd like to hear from the staff [Laughter] okay this is a public hearing so that we can get input there won't be any vote on this for at least 60 days so it'll be probably what December before we vote on this and a presentation and a presentation but a recommendation from the administration will give it be given to the board and we'll have the opportunity to vote on that recommendation so this is a opportunity for you to express your opinion so that a recommendation can be swayed maybe one way or another and Dr Wright would you like to just explain the two programs that are being presented whether they can be combined into one program or nothing at all sure and and the two different programs are the first one to be brief choices is the one which is a little more abstinence based both of the programs promote um students making good choices and both programs including the county which is a little more comprehensive encourages students to make good decisions and equip them to make good decisions about their behavior and they educate them as to what those good decisions are and how to go about that it doesn't neither program promotes a certain perspective with regard to moral stands I would say one as I said though choices is more abstinence-based and the county is a little more comprehensive those differences and the third option would be we just want to teach it at all and and we some have voiced that opinion on the the administration side if you could withhold your recommendation but just speak your piece on both sides that would be helpful to me because I think we're going to meet after this and then be able to have a more comprehensive and a more comprehensive setting with our Administration team to talk about which of the two if we choose to move forward with those what they would be but if you have at least feelings on both programs I want to share those with the board that would be helpful and if we could like Mr Merrill said keep it to two three minutes max that'd be helpful thank you So currently we actually have the choices is six through eight is what we're doing and then the comprehensive what we are currently doing for our school correct that's what I thought that's not accurate we're doing both and we haven't done anything for almost three years okay but we've done both in the past for great bands 6 through 12.
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call to order roll call please Mike Davenport here Christopher Espinoza here Jenny hagstrom here Terry papusic here Nancy kapka here and Luca plauskas here thank you very much we have a coral let's stand here I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign okay uh we need a motion to approve the minutes from the August 15 2022 business meeting the September 12 2022.
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foreign of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and just Welcome to our Monday September 9th school board meeting I would like to start with the agenda approval deletions additions Dr Morocco thank you we do have two amendments to this evening's agenda first under my Roman numeral seven a one professional leave request to attend the school board association annual meeting and then under Mrs mooch's 7b1 some additional Personnel recommendations thank you thank you to have a motion move to approve the agenda we have a motion by Dr Medlin second by Miss Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes is there any correspondence this evening Miss Kelly there is I have an email that is addressed to Mrs Aaron Novak our principal at Lake Central this is from a former Lake Central graduate from the class of 1972.
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okay okay so as as a stand just so this is for the board and the comments should be addressed to the board instead of Dr Wright so you can get uh information if that's at all possible and uh so the two programs we haven't done for the last three years we haven't taught any sex education for the past two years three years and the law has changed it's not mandatory that we teach sex education it's mandatory that if we put a program into position to be taught as part of the curriculum then that we have to go through this process to approve the to that curriculum to be added to to the regular elementary junior high and High School curriculum and then we'll vote on that that's what we'll be voting on so if we all just want the status quo that's just fine if if not then then everybody feels like there's a need for that then fine we'll we'll take that into consideration and I think the process if you can address the board what you'd like and how and what why you feel that way take two or three minutes really appreciate it and then in the next 60 days the board will probably do some of our own research into the programs and see you know what they are so that when the recommendation comes we're fully up to speed on it so all right time first person we'd like you to come take the microphone and come to the stand and address the board if you wouldn't mind so I'll give a brief history on what the high school's been doing so uh has was mentioned we haven't had anybody come into the high school since covid and prior to that we had a combination of where it was shared what semester we had Azu partnership come in and the other semester we had had the county come in and do the presentation typically those presentations were done in freshman Foundation class and then also an mepe weightlifting class and they would do it either two weeks at a time where they go in every day and then the other option would be where it was one day a week for nine weeks I think and I'm not sure which which one was done but that's that was the format of how the lessons were presented um so the let me interrupt okay in the past for a child to participate it was just across the board everybody did participate but they had to have permission from the parents in the future the way the law states and now for them to participate they have to opt into it I mean they have to say we want to take this class it's not just so everybody has has a class and then they opt out of the class it's an opt-in right okay we would still at that point have to have a permit like that was our own standard before even the state we would have the um the presenters would actually work with that PE teachers the different classes that they were sending in to capture those permission slips and even before they would be able to sit in the class they would have to have verbal permission from the parent if the kid forgot it sometimes I don't think sometimes I'll do forget but then they'll make the phone calls in order to be in there to make sure that they're okay to participate in the in the lessons we send out information ahead of time so the parents knew what would what they would be teaching it's not as in-depth as if when they were here coming in and looking through the curriculum so before that we did have it presented so the board years and years ago the board did approve the both curriculum so we were just going with that until the point where at least at the high school where we had covet then we just kind of put the brakes on those presentations the kids came away with a positive message they I I didn't hear anything from kids saying holy smokes that was crazy um they appreciated having that dialogue the conversation even if it made a difference in one kid it was a difference that was worth making so we appreciated having the presenters who were qualified in in giving that information and they were in there with a certified teacher in the class so it was a it was good having that the two different options as well so that that was just kind of in a nutshell how the experience at the high school was thank you all right good afternoon at the junior high level we were mostly connected with azyp we would have in the past we had azuip would come in during physical education classes students would have to again they'd have to have permission slips to participate um we would have a few students each time that did not participate and they had other activities that they were doing while the other students were in classes it went this the through azyp and actually I think I may need to have Crystal correct me on this but it seems like we went two weeks Crystal okay so two weeks that the students would have that every day in the class um and and again same thing that Mr Webb just said I didn't hear of anything that was concerning to students they were positive messages it was information on making healthy choices you know as far as the as far as any concerns I had I did have last year I did have a parent that asked prior to prior to the students going through the class if she could look through the curriculum and we had it out for the parent and she looked through it and and didn't have any issues with you know what we were teaching but I just had the one parent that had requested information on it but as far as the classes went they were more just based on making positive healthy choices thank you anyone else like to Express an opinion as to year and air or which one they like the best hello again my name is antenna me and my husband have been here for the past few meetings and our goal is just to inform the board and to inform the teachers that are here and the parents the truth that we have found in what is going on in our society today and that that's our one main goal is because our our world is coming to a point where it's just so corrupt and so that that is the reason why me and my husband have have been here um it's to express our concerned and our concern on these curriculums have additional material which could easily be viewed they couldn't easily be viewed the videos couldn't easily easily be viewed the PowerPoint slides and then just discussions that can come up some of which when evaluated were very inappropriate our biggest concern is that these curriculums appear to have some of the comprehensive sex ed material that is very dangerous to our children and we want to encourage everyone here to look into the history and background and agenda of comprehensive sex education again there's a documentary that was put out called the mind polluters um and that is the mind polluters which we encourage everybody to look up and watch you can watch the trailer you might be able to find the full documentary online if anybody is interested we do have that video if you want to view it um and then again comprehensive sex sexuality.org there's also a 10 to 10 minute trailer and 35 minute trailer on how it's been radically pushed into the schools and the and in this country and other countries around the world and then Dr Alfred Kinsey the demented doctor that abused children and also used sex offenders and rapists for his um to author his comprehensive sex education once people find out what kind of graphic and inappropriate and explicit material is included most everybody quickly and completely rejects it therefore we encourage the school board and everyone here to look up comprehensive sex education and the dangers of how it attempts to normalize sex and sexualize our children and groom them for predators and get them sexually active and get them to question um gender or whatever else it may be their sexuality therefore our vote is for no sexual education curriculum for this go around I just we just feel that we could do we could do better and we can find something that's better and um just thank you for your time thank you I appreciate Mrs Santana yeah I looked up those things you did and it scares you to death doesn't it so thank you next hi my name is Pam Williams I have two children here at Blue Ridge High School um I'm a Conservative Christian I have these conversations with my children however many children don't get the chance to have these conversations with their parents they don't have engaged parents um I received a letter from actually a Blue Ridge student the other day I'm going to read just a little piece of it and leave out the names in this letter it says hello I'm a student at Blue Ridge High School in Lakeside Arizona we've had some problems that are not being fixed in our school and it's putting students in an uproar at our school this person will call him Bob is an 18 year old male and keeps sexually harassing tons of minors including inappropriate non-consented touching that death threats for nudes enforcing minors to do other related things and the only and I'm just going to leave off at that part of the letter this letter goes on and the reason I bring this up is the curriculum we're talking about with Navajo County teaches about consent prevention of teen Dating Violence I really feel like this education would help our children be safe and then I just had a question am I allowed to ask a question okay okay so just very importantly I'm going to ask this because I feel like it's um something that a lot of people are kind of skirting around so does your curriculum teach um anything like gay sex or abortion um so I can answer that first for Navajo County Public Health um for your first question no we don't talk about that in our curriculum the only thing we mention is that no matter your sexuality if you do have sex you're at risk for STIs or pregnancy and then no legally in the state of Arizona we are not allowed to present abortion as an option or talk about abortion okay hello yes um I'll speak with Arizona Youth partnership for choosing the best and no gay sex is not mentioned in the curriculum and again we are not able to talk about abortion with the Arizona laws okay okay so um you were my son's sex ed teacher and I just wanted to say uh thank you I appreciate your leadership with our youth all of you guys I really do appreciate you um me and my son were able to talk after me and my daughter as well it opened up some really good conversations for us so I am for this curriculum and I would choose the Navajo County curriculum and thank you thank you appreciate your input she said why is she get your situation no no thank you hi my name is Danielle and I have a son who does not attend school yet but he will one day and I did hear a lot about the concerns about the Navajo County Public Health curriculum which really surprised me I'm familiar with the curriculum and I was shocked that a community would have such an issue with an abstinence-based sex education and healthy relationship curriculum for an opt-in class so I decided to dig in a bit more and see if I was missing something I am a politically conservative Evangelical Christian mother who has a Biblical worldview when it comes to sex marriage love and relationships I believe that parents are the number one Educators in a child's life and should have the authority to choose what their child learns in a public-funded school I believe this is an extremely important topic and parents should be the Frontline Educators with the top with these topics with that being said I believe this curriculum should stay in the classroom specifically in Navajo County Public Health many children do not have parents who discuss these topics they may provide a basic anatomy lesson but they do not educate their children about the consequences of pornography premarital sex teen pregnancy and relationship abuse this curriculum provides us I believe you can be an Evangelical Christian and politically conservative person and still teach from this curriculum I do understand the Panic though I follow many social media accounts highlighting the attack on children's sexuality in schools I watch videos of teachers and School staff encouraging gender reassignment studies hiding personal information from parents and even defending pedophilia I understand how children are being preyed upon and groomed in this in our society but this is not that type of curriculum it is the opposite they do not encourage or teach gender non-conformity or alternative sexual activities they do include basic information like STDs can be spread through hetero and homosexual activities because some kids truly do not understand that this is an abstinence-based opt-in class I personally am glad that one day I can have these conversations with my children and it will be reinforced in the classroom we should be not we should not be against education that will reduce STDs relationship abuse and pornography addiction once again just because you may believe your kid does not need this education it does not mean that other kids will not benefit from it not every child has a parent who will answer these questions or teach these topics reducing negative Health outcomes will create a stronger more resilient Community for our children I believe we should continue to allow navo County Public Health curriculum in the school thank you appreciate your being prepared silence is a killer president Merrill board members and staff thank you for your time today choice I think that's exactly what it comes down to here you've got a choice to choose one the other or none I like the way the system is where there's both because that allows if you choose that you allow parents then to choose the parent has the option to choose to send their student through the curriculum a parent that doesn't want to do anything or doesn't want to talk or somebody doesn't want to talk only has to do nothing and their choice is heard you can't make the kid take the program if you choose to say no program then you're determining that no parent has a choice to put them through the program for that reason I think it's easy to understand that offering the choice to parents allowing parents to make the decision for their students I believe is the best way to go thank you I have a question um both programs so apparent wants their child to take the class and they get him started in the class and then they think well I've made a mistake is it difficult to have them removed from that just they can just come out anytime they want to and if they're if they don't want to even have any information given to their child until you tell they're a senior in high school they can avoid all of these classes and that or they could take one as a freshman and then maybe one again as a senior or maybe one in a junior high and one is a junior so in high school so they get a different Viewpoint for a different age that's not that's not any problem is it um no so if a parent wanted to take their child out of the class that's perfectly fine just you know sending a note with the student or calling the school ahead of time so that we're aware not to allow the student in that class um and then yes they could take it at any time so you know if they didn't want to take it as a freshman and you allowed them to think it as a junior senior that's not a problem thank you how much parental involvement do you encourage other than I mean other than after you go home discuss this with your parents is there any uh pre notification this is what we'll be talking about today do parents have a a an outline with what each child will be going through every day and their child take the class we can use their information to the parents information to send them more about the direct outlines that each student will be taking so we have day by day you know outlines for each of our sessions so that's something that was mentioned last meeting that Navajo County is going to implement is apparent outline so that it can give them advance notice the subject matters for each lesson and they can kind of engage their student if their student is and engage them okay thank you I have a quick question um if if we choose to be able to have one versus other curriculums or whatever if a parent opts out what type of activities would the kids be doing and will it seem more like a punishment because you're sitting there having to write essays versus a you know like a leadership class or something so is that they're a positive outcome for kids that opt out we don't have that figured out yet that would be the application of it but I'm confident the principals will do something meaningful won't devolve into a study hall go in there be quiet field trips to McDonald's or something the Dairy Queen field trip but the specifics weren't able to offer those now then it will be a meaningful academic program in which they participate it won't be just sit down and be quiet because you're not in that it won't be punitive and it won't hurt their grade we'll just have to we're it'll take some time to develop that but the good news is we have time perfect all right any other input or questions hello president superintendent and the rest of the board and staff I'm Allison Heffner graduate blue ridge98 just saying alumni here um I am a patriot and a conservative in the community and I just want to say that thank you for taking the leadership and actually doing the steps to make sure that you can create an atmosphere where sex education is a possibility in Blue Ridge not a lot of the schools are stepping up like you guys did and it shows true leadership and I truly from the bottom of my heart appreciate that it's not easy superintendent Dr Wright what you've done with your staff doing this you did not take the easy Road you have a lot of information coming to you and some is correct about the curriculum and a lot of it is stuff that you find on the internet that really terrifies you mean you've said it seen it yourself I've seen it myself it's terrifying what's out there but to to put that aside and say we're going to do this for our kids she really shows how much Blue Ridge cares for their children and I really appreciate that um with the curriculum I'm extremely familiar with the Navajo County comprehensive program I did a keeping Kids Safe tour in 2016.
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oh I'm sorry we didn't do roll call we did yes okay too many too many things in my head September 12 2022 Workshop meeting is September 12 2022 closing I don't know so moved second Chris and Terry it didn't go thank you very much Christopher Espinoza aye Trey pavesich aye Mike Davenport hi Jenny hagstrom aye and it's a cup I the minutes are approved next we'll move on to the first reception of visitors do we have any sheets it's for the second receptionist so there's nobody else submission to okay oh okay all right so we'll move on to the recommendations and reports of the superintendent employer participation all right uh we have a few just kind of housekeeping items for the board this evening uh before we get into uh the budget presentations tonight uh the first one is a rule that was passed uh by state law that then authorized TRS to open up uh this it's basically a 457b right account uh attached to TRS that all new teachers will automatically be enrolled into we were required to go through the process of approving this this is the final step of that for the board to approve our participation in it it was very much a formality and something we're required to do by law so this was a memo to the board a couple of times but tonight's the final step of approving that process once an employee enrolls in it they can choose to stay in it or unenroll from it but it it's the final step of this process any questions uh Rob Mark or I can attempt to answer them for you or jury yeah all right so this is up for Action later on this evening the next one is the administrator and teacher salary and benefit report we're required to buy law to post this each year and then inform the board that it is up on our website the requirements is informing the board that we have posted it and we have any questions no no all right uh the next one we have a little bit of a title change and the document I printed out for board members because we have a a slight change in the opening paragraph over the last couple of days uh The Village's attorney went back through and reviewed all of the documentation we had this originally written as an intergovernmental agreement because that's what we've all referred it referred to it as especially myself and the chief of police but in going back and looking through the documents it's an actually a memorandum of understanding is the original agreement so this should be an addendum to a memorandum of understanding not a memory not an addendum to an intergovernmental agreement the opening paragraph Just changes that language otherwise everything is the same as what has been posted online before and was out for the public and the board has reviewed before this so the opening paragraph has changed to reflect that it's a memorandum of understanding and we've updated that language in the action item this evening otherwise it's the same language that you've seen before tonight any questions on this agreement that really just a housekeeping sort of thing okay it all right it really doesn't matter to us because the Mechanics for an IGA or an mou are the same for a school district but for Village government it's different so for us it's the same process either way but it needs to be the right language there for the village okay I'm good did you have any concerns with the body of though no all right that's an action item later this evening as well uh and obviously that's ties back to our strategic plan all right uh 20 22 23 tentative budget is an action item this evening returns for approval following a public hearing this evening and I will turn this over to Terry and Mark obviously the budget ties closely into our strategic plan I really like how we're tying everything back to the Strategic we do have um unattended budget we actually have some adjustments in this for tonight which are both Good Things based on new information that we have one is uh for the corporate personal property replacement tax we've got confirmation from the state that would be significantly more than we thought it would be so we made an adjustment for that um that should be in the three million dollar range when we're done to be it's incredible nice because it's been there it was there in the past and then they took it and diverted the funds for decades and now it's coming back to us which is which is a good thing so it's more for us but not more for the taxpayer right right corporate it comes out of the state yeah um the second is just interest rates we we were almost for the last three or four years it was almost like a second thought about you know interest wasn't going to happen so there was you know very little that we got out of Investments but we have you know our early taxes and other Investments that we we place and we're able to see we're meeting with some people this week we should be in the threes which is a huge change for us so what was sixty three thousand dollars in interest in the in the report now is uh much higher so those are the only two adjustments we have in the tentative budget would you want to did the board want to see anything else related to revenues expenditures or the operating just for those that may not have been here last meeting a week ago secondary yeah let me go back to YouTube or you can the only thing that's really changed is that revenues which is a good thing yeah yes yeah overall though fund balance sits at a projected 5.9 percent which is well above what our traditional three percent threshold yes all right then the next item oh that is up uh as I said after uh the public hearing it's up for Action right uh five-year Financial projection moving on so let me just go ahead and pick that up too the um it's a very I say very conservative estimate we would rather err on the side of you know too little and and having to pay big expenses and things um the CPI and really the key to this whole thing is when you look at the financial aspects of this the What's called the applicable tax cap percent that's the Consumer Price Index um capping itself at five percent there are years now that we've had it seven percent and we'll only be able to tax it five percent even though the inflation is going on at seven percent but we're still able to get through that that interest income will help help us through some of that but really the the percent the last three years five percent 2.8 2.8 and those are very realistic calculations to get that there in in direct correlation really with the the revenues and expenditures because they all operate off of the CPI so if CPI comes in much lower than we projected the economy theoretically and inflation should be running at a lower level as well and our expenses should be close to it and our revenues will probably be close to it so they're very very close and they're really bottom line is we we should well one big thing before I forget um is we are going to continue the t99 um addition modification to that that Attendance Center and um and of course about 4.4 million dollars over you know this next year and we're doing that with operating funds so that's um that's why our balances are going to drop from 9.4 down to the 6.3 range by the end of the next five year period and there'll be a lot of changes in between here in the next five years but we have that is a positive Target we'll be there we've been down in the 4 million range without any problem in our district we have it's pretty strong tax base and it's it's a good District right now so I just wanted to point that out that's kind of key to looking at the whole thing if you look at one piece and say this doesn't seem right it's looking for the other for the clue as to why and those trees or anything I should be adding in uh no I don't think so what Mark said was it is a very conservative projection just so that we have the room in there for any fluctuations and we already know our CPI our our tax cap out through 24 25 which helps um and I believe our teachers contract ends in 25 26. yeah correct yeah yep so we already that's a known out there too so that's a big help because that's one of our largest expenditures what I'm sorry I should have asked this question before but I didn't notice it until now what is the big um dip in operating fund balance in 20.
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the correspondence reads dear Aaron in the spring of 2021 knowing that the next year would Mark Our Lake Central High School class of 1972's 50th year a reunion committee was formed and began the tedious task of making decisions venue selection finding classmates event program development Etc a key component of the weekend was to visit a and tour our school and to utilize the facilities there to show a presentation reflecting one of our classmates experiences on September the 11th Looking Back Now our weekend and the portion involving Lake Central directly was a tremendous success we want to specifically express our appreciation to Jackie Holden Aaron Graves the four student ambassadors giving our tour and the SWAT team heroics of your I.T department to get the LGI room ready and operational very quickly please pass our thanks on to all involved as a token of our appreciation please accept the enclosed donation of 400 to the Lake Central Education Foundation from the Lake Central class of 1972.
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I knew the person who actually picked out the curriculum she's we would call her the Bible thumping Baptist she was extremely conservative and went down to Phoenix to make sure that she was picking a curriculum that our community would accept and that's why it doesn't have the Riff Raff that you're seeing California push on their people the other thing that we don't have that these other urban areas have or the other thing we have that these other urban areas don't have is we have community and we have people that are in these positions in your school and in in our community that are smart intelligent conservative individuals that would never put any child in danger and I want you to know that I completely trust what your decision is I'm encouraging you to um though I like uh I I would vote if it was just one I would vote for the Navajo County comprehensive education I think comprehensive education has shown through and through how strong it is in reducing STDs and being number one and number two in Navajo County between Apache County and Navajo County we're actually number one for STDs chlamydia and gonorrhea we go back and forth with Apache County and usually the zip codes with the highest numbers don't have this type of education I do know that this education was in Holbrook for a very long time and they had the lowest teen pregnancy rate in all of Navajo County because they had the curriculums since I think it was two thousand or six or eight Amy could probably answer that don't quote me anyway um I do like the fact that you do have both curriculum I like the fact that the azyp is in the younger generation I think that the high school is definitely suited to um take that next step and really understanding how to keep themselves safe in the community safe in relationships hygiene keep themselves in a good place mentally and emotionally I mean High School is not an easy thing I have a 14 year old right now and it's it's definitely um it's definitely not the easiest thing to come into yourself so having a resource like that that encourages that support that parent guidance those parent values their value neutral both programs are value neutral they will not tell your child how to they should value something or where their Christianity or anything religious or anything they just tell them the facts and two if you need to put values with it you need to have these discussions with your parents it's incredible how much effort they put into bridging that gap between parents and child there are parents out there that educate their kids on sex but even in the world today that's hard to do do you see the things that you see on TV how to block your kids from that information it's terrifying how to figure out how do I talk to my kids about the different genders how do I talk my to my kids about this that I'm seeing on on Marvel so it really allows us the opportunity to learn from these courses they provide parent courses as well I personally think it's a no-brainer you allow the parent a choice how how perfect is that you give them a choice to choose what they want to do with their child and like my husband said previously if they don't do anything their child doesn't get it don't take parent choice away don't take sex education away we as a county need it so bad in our communities and I really really want to commend you guys for taking this route even though it's a little bumpy you guys are doing a great job so thank you thank you Allison you know I appreciate everybody not being long-winded that way more people get to express their opinions good evening to all thank you uh Mr Merrill for asking me to be on the committee I only got to go to one meeting a lot of great people there and it was not divisive people talk back and forth it wasn't real heated and that people were warm after the meeting I thought you know I mean some people were passionate um I I as I told you last time I've taught a Biblical base that said and I implemented a a curriculum parent request and most of them are Roman Catholic uh parents and they couldn't take their kids to Xavier Brophy or those types of schools they couldn't afford that and we made our own and it took about two years and we just used the uh really if you want to know the truth we use the state standards and uh when when after them in detail Reproductive Rights it eventually we added a thing on contraception and um we it worked out for us and it was you had to opt in and the nice thing about it was is we had math and reading uh you know these were sixth graders and we had math and reading and we put you in that uh because most of those kids had had lower scores than those in those in one of the areas and so that worked out well for us uh Dr Wright told us we couldn't uh you know like divisor on curriculum Blue Ridge couldn't and he told us the reason why and I hadn't studied the law and I've had a chance to examine it and I think the state has been very wise in making it difficult for districts to to just not willy-nilly add sex ed curriculums and once you approve it you can't change it you know easily you have to go through the process again and and I think they're wise yeah we live in an age suddenly where where terms don't mean the same thing they used to in the English language was under attack Choice means one thing to some people it means entirely different thing to another gender means one thing and I seems our Supreme Court Justices can't Define what a female with gosh I knew that about fourth grade I could Define that I say these things not to embarrass one side or the other uh gosh I'm 67 years old so I'm I'm not I'm not with it like a lot of young people but I can tell you one thing that if you allow something to get its foot in the in the door and I did see lgtp Q maybe I should say two-spirit LG tbq I plus uh doll I think is now one of the yeah you know I I I'm not I'm not into that and I want my children to be in it I don't want them to be schooled in it and I would opt out um I came because I was asked to by my minister to come here he knew I used to work for Blue Ridge and been in education and I came for that reason and um my opinion is just as good as the next guys I I would say after looking at the at both curriculums I came up and I looked at both of them and I don't know hour hour and a half looking at them and then I studied them at home of the two I liked I'm having trouble with the name I like the other one that was not the sex notes I I was not into that one and I probably looked at it at the hardest but I did like the other one of the two have if I had my choice I would I would pick none and uh I want to thank you for extending the opportunity to express my opinion and thank you all for what you're doing uh Blue Ridge is well served by your efforts thank you and I respect your opinion thank you takes it carries a lot of weight in my mind thank you very much in next hi I'm Poppy um so I also would not choose any of these curriculums the two that are here um I think they are based and in a troubled area maybe like a as it says for Correctional places or troubled youths possibly this is possibly may be okay for them I don't know but I think we could do better for our kids here that are not in a troubled environment I thought Public Schools were healthy kids but this is geared towards problematic kids and is that how we're going to treat our public school kids as problematic that's an issue for me so I say no to both we could do better than this I'm not saying not to have any structure but this is problematic it's there's so many things I've I've talked about it quite a bit in the last meeting um so I won't do that but I believe these kids will do well with a structure but not this this may be geared towards somebody who already has problems and that can invite problems through loopholes things we don't understand and I understand that this is a new thing kind of especially for Blue Ridge is that correct this these curriculums anyhow I that's what I understood no these aren't new you know we haven't taught any sex ed for three years and personally I think whatever decision we go with will probably stay in there for the next three maybe four years so if we choose no if we wouldn't have anything for the next couple of years if we chose to choose one of these programs and it would probably be there for three years the process to change is pretty extensive and the research is pretty extensive and you know it takes nine to 12 months to insert a new curriculum so that's kind of where I think the direction will have to go either no or yes and I think the savior in my opinion here is you don't have to do it I mean it's there and you can you can not let your kids go but I understand you're problematic I really do especially with kids some week kids are weak and any kind of idea and my one of my real concerns is that this not a this is not a recruitment for something and I think that's what your concern is as you're trying to say so appreciate that very much sure okay thank you you're welcome next anybody else like to say something hi I'm Stephanie burgo thanks for having us again I just want to Echo what has been said before about um if we adopt I am in favor of adopting both of these parents have the choice whether or not to participate if we don't adopt them parents don't have a choice so um that resounds strongly to me that we have the option of whether or not to have our kids participate in this and if they're not accepted then we won't have that option so that's I wonder say yay I agree with that thank you Stephanie I don't know if everybody knows Stephanie she dances she moved here from Alaska and she took a tour group I don't know all around the United States dancing so you know thank you for your interesting kids it shows next anybody else like to say something their last chance to say something no here we go I'm gonna start staring people down so you could come up and talk thank you good evening president members of the board and faculty I am a nurse and I live and work in this community my political and my religious beliefs are very conservative however I work with youth and I work with young adults and it frightens me the level of misinformation that they come in with and the things that they're putting themselves exposing themselves to risk wise largely because they're misinformed and I feel like when we teach children about their bodies about making wise choices about how to say no how to set healthy boundaries how to talk to their children or their parents about the questions they have and the things they're experiencing that that's really important but I see tremendously High rates of sexually transmitted infections I see tons of young girls coming in not realizing that they can say say no that they can have healthy dating relationships and set healthy boundaries and I think we live in a day and age where we're doing our children a disservice if we don't let them know the risks that are out there and how to protect themselves and because of that and what I see in the work that I do I would recommend that you consider the Navajo County program that is more comprehensive but also very conservative thank you appreciate your input I was just kidding about staring people down but we really would like all of your input hello my name is Alex Harris and I am the program manager with the Youth and Family Division of Arizona Youth partnership and I want to say thank you to the board and superintendent and president for allowing us to present all of the curriculums that we have here even with the the county and I want to come up here and also say thank you to all the parents for their input and thoughts on both of the curriculum I want to say that choosing the best the curriculum the Arizona partnership is offering we are excited for whatever decision you have to offer for this community and that this curriculum is sexual risk avoidance abstinence-based we appreciate your time and the energy that it takes to hold these meetings and your deliberation and I just want to say from a biased Viewpoint that I believe we should have this curriculum in the school district but we respect and appreciate any decision that you do make thank you again bored you any questions Jennifer can I just as a parent have a comment is that cool or do you want me to go down there okay so I'm speaking more of as a physical therapist so my specialty area in physical therapy is Women's Health and um and also I work in a religious standpoint with youth and then I also have a kids camp and I'm shocked at the misinformation with kids it really makes me sad I wish that we didn't have to have this discussion I wish that parents were more actively involved in their kids lives um as a physical therapist I had a a child that was experiencing sexual abuse but didn't know it she was told by her adult boyfriend that if she just laid there doing during intercourse that she was not sexually active and that she actually did become pregnant um I have had women that I work specifically with pelvic pain and I would say unless it was a botched surgery or issues with childbirth that the only other reason why they came in for pelvic pain was not because of a physical ailment it's because of trauma that happened and they were all sexually abused so I would say I've seen hundreds of women that are professionals that were sexually abused because of a lack of understanding especially when they were younger in their sexual relationships so for me if we could do a community rally and parents start teaching their kids really early I think that's what's most important right now in our community and I've heard it by probably about a dozen kids they're talking about and I'm going to get a little graphic the anal sex is not sex and so you can still be a virgin and get married and I have had to report multiple things with police because these are adult males or females I'm sexually abusing young children and it is scary and if we need to have these conversations with our kids no matter what I would prefer it always to be in the house and parents to talk but if we're not going to do that we need to create this like Revolution because we do not need to have any more of these questions where young children are being sexually manipulated and abused not understanding appropriate definitions and it would be nice if I didn't have a job it would be nice if I wasn't called because I have another 65 year old woman that finally is willing to talk about her sexual abuse that happened when she was younger and so it's something that's close to my heart I cry every day when I go to work and it's very emotional and it's because of lack of information so best case scenario in the home and I really have to contemplate and figure out what's the best best case scenario but it is rampant and it is tragic and kids need to know and not be manipulated and so that's um that's my standpoint so I take this very seriously because I'm also extremely conservative and I have children that have been diagnosed with learning disabilities so I've had some of my kids that I opted out where other my kids I've opted in or they opted in later and so that's just what as we as a board are trying to decide I'm not going to speak for the board but as a parent and a and a physical therapist and Community leader and a counselor for we had 1400 kids this last year that went through we need some help and I and I don't know what the best answer is yet we'll we'll have two months to figure it out so thank you for letting me talk about it Jennifer appreciate that information any other comments going once going twice it's been your last chance to speak up I do believe that any member of the board is open to a phone call or an email you know expressing your opinions that way and our emails are directly on the on the school side so you can contact any one of us that way so appreciate that we'll call this meeting to order I appreciate all those comments were given to us today you have one more nope we have heard from everybody that's going to speak I guess well
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transfer some other funds we have um that's these are for The Debt Service extension-based bonds in the in the I'm trying to point to the right year here 's a second take it from the left right yes so in 2220 is there a second drop is for uh t99 expansion it's no I'm 25 26. 25 26. what do you put into the 6013 a change in operating fund balance well it's an increase yeah that's an increase of six thousand dollars yeah so we're almost balanced completely that year yeah it means they were almost on paper we're going up every year yeah it would be in red if it was going down it would right it would be right if we were going down but it's just we're going down so much so much we're not increasing by as much that year yes yeah well if you take t99 out of the 2.8 tax kit I don't understand why we're not why we're not increasing yeah because you're only at a 2.8 percent CPI so you're not bringing in as large of revenues as you are in those other years right but the following year we're bringing in 168 000.
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we hope that our donation helps and inspires those in need to succeed in their Quest For Education and innovational excellence thank you again for making our reunion visit a huge success sincerely Douglas C Edwards for the Lake Central High School class of 1972. very nice yeah very nice yeah it is 400 yes sure thank you thank you so with that we'll move on to our liaison committee updates Mr Marshall uh yes thank you uh as of this point there's nothing to report thank you Mrs Kelly uh once again I'll combine my Redevelopment commission and my sharival parks department report uh the Town Council and the shariable Parks Board is continuing to discuss developing the Ileana Speedway property into additional Parks area for our residents so I'll keep you updated thank you Dr Medlin nothing new report thank you thank you Dr Malco yes of Lake Central Education Foundation is hosting their second 5K on November 6 which is a Saturday morning early in the morning the theme of it is Heroes so what we're wanting to do is not only address the heroism that we have all learned about Dr Dana Les but also the heroes that we are know about in our own little neck of the woods in our community they could be veterans they could be EMT they're anybody that you want to identifies being a hero so invite them to come show them some love and support um I think it's really valuable and of course it's an important Money Maker for the Lake Central Education Foundation and Not only was that a nice donation to lcef but I noticed in the Clark newsletter on page five there's a really wonderful explanation about how they're using the grant money to buy books and then they have the book clubs that are happening so it's very very exciting to see those types of things happening in the school building but put that on your calendar November 6.
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yeah because we have a bunch of retirements coming in related to the teacher's contracts there's a lot of really just objection yeah forecast yeah thank you the weather forecast exactly yeah right you know yeah get that far out hopefully not that bad in Chicago we've had some crazy changes I was gonna say if we took um t99 out of this that operating that would there even be any red there at all difference no no there would be no rest so I mean I kind of wanted to point that out too that we're hey we're doing pretty good right well we're taking on that entire t99 Project without increasing anybody's taxes I mean higher than what what would happen under just inflationary amounts uh I will point out that there is one factor not in here which is uh some of our Athletic Facility surfaces so somewhere in the next five years you're just talking about this we have about three million dollars worth of um Renovations Renovations that would be the the field house flooring yep which is approaching well it's over 20 years old at this point and the artificial turf performance Fields not the practice fields but the actual main stadium fields that over the course of this year this will be jury and her expanding new role she and I will be spending some time looking at how we might make that work long term and still maintain a good fiscal Outlook there's a lot of possibilities here that are too early to talk about but we'll come back a little teaser later in the year of coming back before we enter in before we come back with next year's five-year projection we want to have a long-term plan for that piece uh fit inside of here well we were we were reminiscing about this a little bit just thinking back to when we first came on the board when we did those athletic the performance Fields And if I and recollection was that there was a 10-year exploitation and um how long have we been on the board that's we're already we've already moved we've already moved past right I think and that's just good maintenance and Care practices allowed us to get those extra years out of it but we're definitely reaching the point where we want to be proactive and and come up with a plan for those facilities so and that's a really great idea because it's going to be a lot of expense yeah those are big capital projects not as bad as doing them for the first time no deal was it you're putting in the infrastructure um and then it's just a matter of redoing so and does that include the uh track around it too because in the field house the track yeah yeah the track around the the turf and the stadiums yeah there's been some patching yeah well hey it's getting to be time again hey when you have 3 000 students you know trampling on it every day well let's say the Chicago weather doesn't help us with those things either so they're also I will just remind too that those are facilities that are you know our community uses as well not just their students so their assets to the community as a whole all right so any other questions on the five-year forecast all right uh we've had foil requests we've responded to foia requests so all of those are posted up on the website a public hearing yes for the public hearing on 2022-2023 tentative budget comments will be limited to three minutes per person do you have anybody who wishes to speak regarding the budget regarding the budget hearing none uh well you need a motion for the Board of Education to close the public hearing on the 2022-2023 tentative budget so moved exactly Terry and Mike Terry pavesich aye Mike Davenport aye Christopher Espinoza aye Cheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Joanna Vazquez Drexler aye I'm Nancy kopka aye the public hearing is closed on to the consent agenda we need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes the Personnel report leave of absence classified transfer change of position classified appointment exempt appointments classified the Personnel report retirement classified resignations classified resignation exempt the Personnel report terminations classified the financial patient pages and the Educational Tours so moved oh go ahead Mike I'll take a second give me just a second I think Mike Davenport hi Terry pavasich aye Joanna Vazquez Drexler hi Espinosa aye Terrell Fuller aye Denny hagstrom aye and Nancy kopka aye the consent agendas approved I will move to the recommendations for Action we need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the 2022-2023 budget is presented so moved second Chris and Chris Jerry pavesich aye Christopher Spinoza aye aye shirelle Fuller I Jenny hagstrom aye Joanna Vazquez Drexler aye Mike Davenport aye and Nancy cupka aye the motion curies next we need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the addendum to the memorandum of understanding between the village of Downers Grove and the Board of Education Community High School District 99 of DuPage County Illinois originally approved on October 11 2006 which remains in effect as a memorandum of understanding regarding school resource officers hello second Mike and Terry I'm sorry yes thank you very much Mike Davenport aye Terry pavisich aye Joanna Vazquez Drexler aye aye Christopher Espinoza aye Mr all Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye and Nancy cover aye the motion carries and finally we need a motion for the Board of Education to approve the resolution approving participation in the TRS SSP the associated SSP employer participation agreement and the associated SSP notice to employees uh Joanna and Terry I'll go Joanna Vazquez Drexler aye pavesich aye Mike Davenport aye Christopher Espinoza aye Cheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagsdale hi I'm Nancy cup aye the motion carries we'll move on then to new business uh the policy committee report the first reading of policies and administrative regulations 8.2 ar1 and 8.20 ar2 and deletion of policy 4.120 Food Services yep so we met this week the volume wasn't as thick as we've had in the past which is good um still pretty thick but uh but there's a lot of uh a lot of housekeeping things and um a few other things uh updates to laws that sort of thing everything's recommended from press um everything except for 8.2 yeah 8.20 use of school facilities that's our our own customized policy and that brings uh in alignment some old policy with practice yeah um I think the majority of those except for like the renumbering of Our Own job descriptions they're pretty much in line with press we reviewed some others that are our own policies but nothing that really needed that we saw needed to be changed but we have a standing policy or procedural uh goal to make sure we go back and look at those periodically make sure they're up to date so but thank you for for doing 8.2 yeah thank you that really clarifies a lot because it was the gray area so thank you does anybody need the old agreement to review for their final to digest that for their final reading if you'd like when I can send it out it is Redline it's pretty yeah it's and the old one is posted currently on the website too so yeah um and as always you're with me if you want to take a look later yeah Mike okay but if anybody else wants it yeah and then uh uh you know as always these are posted for the next month if any board members would like to discuss some shirelle Mike or myself all happy to discuss any concerns with you and then these will come back for approval next month okay okay now we'll move on to our second reception of visitors this is the second reception of visitors which is intended for audience members to address the board on any topic pertaining to Community High School District 99 comments are limited to three minutes to provide all visitors a unical opportunity to address the board if you need individuals needing more time should submit their thoughts in writing to the board secretary Mrs neidek visitors addressing the board need to submit a comment slip to the board secretary and will be invited to microphone prior to addressing the board audience members should State their full name the proceedings are being tape recorded and streamed for the purpose of producing accurate meeting minutes and being streamed and the board's presiding officer me reserves the right to modify these protocols if circumstances warrant audience observation of these protocols is appreciated all right uh we have one slip for Laura hoist I'm Laura hoyce last month in DuPage County 27 school districts opted out of the sex education curriculum required by the radical national sex education standards it's fair to say that most parents in this District do not want nses the national sex standards imposed on their children District 58 in Downers Grove opted out District 99 has not opted out so District 99 is all in on August 5th when I asked superintendent Thiele about this he said District 99 will continue to use the same scope and sequence that we have used in the past for many years prior to the recent mandate I did meet with the assistant superintendent having requested what is the sex education curriculum and try as I might and many others have tried as well to get some clarity around what is the scope and sequence what is the sex education curriculum here at District 99 and we got no answers so with that repeated refusal to provide the curriculum we're left with that question on well what is being taught apparently it does comply with national sex education standards because the sexuality unit Hank said is fully aligned with the Illinois learning standards for comprehensive sex health education and according to the isbe those standards are exactly the same as the national sex education standards so the teaching has been going on whatever that is we do know from what we've learned that gender unicorn is one example is being taught and other items of the curriculum have become apparent to us just not not disclosed by the district but from what we have learned from students in in the sex Edge class so gender ideology and influencing are of of a major concern and we know Governor pritzker supports that teaching supports gender fluency we believe this is not good education for the kids um so will parents be kept in the dark about their daughter's transition to a boy or their boy their son's transition to a girl at the high schools we know that's going on in some places and that is a concern on on the part of many parents that District 99 Embraces gender fluency and does respect students desire to be referred to by names and pronouns we believe the emphasis on this is not a good idea in education and we should focus on the basics Reading Writing math those things that help our kids to succeed after they're done with high school this push on sex and gender education is very lucrative for Planned Parenthood and makes a lot of money in the sex industry which we believe this is happening nationally regionally and locally for a reason it's big money so parents be be aware and we are hoping that Illinois will follow Florida's lead thank you let's see now we have no other slopes okay um take a moment to remind the board as I have shared these communications with those that have come in including Mrs hoist that our standards there's no reason to approve anything because nothing that we've done over the last several years conflicts and that is the language I have used our curriculum does not conflict with the national sex education standards therefore there is no requirement to adopt or not adopt any of that curriculum the concept uh or the the requirement in this law is that we publish our curriculum the guidelines recommend within two weeks of us teaching the unit we don't teach this unit until November so in advance of that unit being taught with at least two weeks notice the law requires us to publish it and our team is working on creating the documents that will be published on the website so that they are accessible to everybody in the community just as the law outlines also to those that are enrolled in our health classes they will be provided with the materials to opt out of this unit as they have always had the right to do as well so far as sexual orientation gender and gender identity included in the curriculum it's included in many areas of high school curriculum as those topics are covered as human rights in the state of Illinois would be very difficult to teach civics and the constitution in Illinois and about upholding rights or withholding rights without teaching those terms first you need to understand what those things are so that you don't ever violate those and then face legal scrutiny as a citizen in Illinois or that you know that if somebody takes those rights away from you they are protected as well so that's the logical rationale as to why those things are included in a high school curriculum and you know it has nothing to do with indoctrinating students or passing along ideals these are rights that are guaranteed to the citizens of Illinois and we have a Civics requirement to teach those things in our schools so just making I know I've shared this with the board before but since it came up this evening I just wanted to make sure that you know that was was shared so that's all I have for tonight no thanks for the clarification thanks absolutely okay communication is an announcement Jenny any update on Lund Friday will be our first meeting of this year yes finally um we do have a regional meeting coming up that we show it's in your Friday packet assassin Joanna uh um to a severe stamping shortages there will be fewer placements for students so I believe that she's going to be in touch with the district if she hasn't already yeah and there's also a strategic planning process going on that Scott Lisa and myself are participating in Jerry the foundation well we had a fabulous day at North High for our um our uh truck rally it was our excuse me Food Truck Yeah that's the next shift rally yeah yeah but um the bands were great and uh everyone enjoyed them the food trucks were good I think everybody ate their fill of whatever they wanted and the ice cream truck did come oh there was ice cream and it was just such a beautiful day I mean we couldn't have asked for a better day and so we need to keep that going up and getting good weather for when we do this again you know and the games the kids love the games so we'll be expanding the games a little bit more for the the next time we do this and and thank you North North was really a great host for this the CMG staff did great everyone involved was the fabulous so thank you very much thank you and uh I I we haven't had our meeting yet so I don't know what the um the bottom line is but I'm sure it'll be fabulous so I think so we're going to massage it a little bit it'll be a little bit different but um I think having an event at North and having an event itself because we're still going to do pizza wars so so be sure and you know think about that in the spring but uh um I think it's really nice to have the community come to both campuses so they see how wonderful they are and what a great job we've done and so because we're proud of our schools and so should the community well thanks for the Education Foundation for doing the work yeah benefits our students so it's a it's a win-win win win yes we're small but we're Mighty and if you weren't able to make it you can still you can still donate you'll yeah we'll take money so anyway all right we will keep you posted on when Pizza Wars will be in the spring all right thank everybody on the foundation ASP uh we have our delegate assembly on November 18th yeah coming up yeah in the city packet just came out today too I read through it yeah yeah nothing didn't seem too too controversial I didn't look through the whole thing yet but uh yeah yeah right maybe that's what I was thinking for you maybe it'd be a little a nice calm weekend is always a nice thing yeah on the save the date went out for the division meeting yeah oh okay yeah and that will be at South High oh that sounds spring spring is not the fall one oh okay I'm sorry I'm all excited over there everyone was like I was like what thank you okay upcoming board meetings we will have October 3rd we'll have our Workshop here at 6 30 and on October 17th we'll have our business meeting here at 6 30 as well now we need a motion to go into closed session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal a specific employee specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in the park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal counsel for the district including hearing testimony and a complaint latched against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the district or against legal counsel for the district to determine its validity and security procedures School Building Safety and Security and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual a threatened or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees students staff and public or public property and we'll be not taking any action no action following may come out to a close the meeting so moved Terry l thank you Terry pavisich aye Cheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Mike Davenport aye Christopher Espinoza aye and Nancy kopka hi we are in closed session thank you and um good night
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early in the morning it'll be here at Lake Central and we will not be going off campus it'll be here on campus and for the parks department do you want me to do that while we're here sure okay they had their DAV walk yesterday and they had about 60 Walkers which is not bad um and our next parks department meeting is going to be tomorrow night so I'll have more to share after tomorrow night's meeting thank you thank you and for the St John Redevelopment commission I have nothing but for Dollars for Scholars the deadline tonight at midnight for homecoming tickets homecoming is October 1st as of this morning I believe I was told 1 742 sign ups so it's going to be a nice big dance so thank you where are you going to host this Main Street this year so it'll be down Main Street instead of I always get them is it the wedge or whatever over by the counselors yeah so we've moved it so um and with that we'll move on to our official School Board topics consent agenda Dr Barako thank you again Mr Seuss please seek board approval for the minutes from our regular meeting on September 6th also seek approval of the claims payroll and extracurricular expenditures you received in your packets last week motion to approve we have a motion by Mrs Kelly in a second by Mr Marshall any discussion Harry none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you there are no public comments for Action items so we'll move right into our official School Board business topics regular agenda Dr Morocco my first item is an action item seek the board approval for Mrs mucha and myself Mrs Sue's Dr Medlin and Mrs Kelly to attend the isba function on October 3rd and 4th we've talked about this in the past but we just noticed today that we did not yet officially seek board approval for the expenses associated with that event so seek board approval this evening for annual meeting we have a motion by Mr Marshall and I will second that is there any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes thank you I do have a question because I don't see it on the agenda I see the one that Dr braco Terry Mitch and Jerry Patrick we did ours a couple of weeks ago so those school board members were done back in end of July Maybe no I'm just saying I don't see that on the agenda what Larry is asking for the the right here amended agenda the yellow the yellow under the amended agenda the revised agenda right so you're asking for the actual isba conference including your presentation all in one right got it okay thank you um I thought we did all in favor hi any opposed motion passes thank you next up we have Deanna Liva is going to give us an update on the current offerings and status of food service foreign good evening everyone the last two school years food service has provided free Universal breakfast and lunch to all Lake Central students through a waiver funded by the USDA and thanks to our dedicated Food Service team during the 21-22 school year we did serve just under 1.3 million meals from August through May this year we are back to the national school lunch and breakfast programs We are following the traditional eligibility requirements for free reduced and paid meals student eligibility is determined by the state either direct certified or through an application that we process in our office the eligibility determines both breakfast and lunch meal costs currently we have about 24 percent on the free and reduced program which is holding pretty steady from where we have been our goal is to provide healthy safe food options that promote promote healthy habits to last a lifetime we were uncertain with the demand for the meals would be at the start of this new school year now that we're back on the traditional program for meal eligibility and we're happy to report our numbers have been stronger than expected we are currently serving approximately 5 000 meals daily and it's proven that if students eat a healthy meal they will perform better in the classroom so we're happy to see those numbers since participation drives our program we are focused on three areas we're providing students some of their favorite items we're serving food that is high quality healthy and safe and we're employing enough labor to feed the students in a timely manner our menus have to follow the USDA standards so we have daily minimums on proteins grains fruits vegetables calories just to name a few I'll get to a few more but at the secondary level this year we're doing three hot entrees and three to four cooldown trays daily for lunches and at elementary we're doing up to two hot entrees and three to four cold entrees daily for lunch for them and we always have a vegetarian option available so we serve entrees that the students want we were looking to serve entrees that students want to purchase so some of their favorite entrees are any chicken item Bosco Sticks rib Sandwich Pizza burgers and one of their favorites breakfast for lunch we have several theme days during each month that includes a special treat this year for just for an example Patriots Day we did a cherry blue raspberry frozen juice cup we've got a camping day coming up at the elementary schools and we're doing a bug bite graham cracker so we always try to coordinate our theme days with something special in their for their lunch some of the special diets are our special diets are all tracked and our point of sale system so our point of sale identifies students with food allergies or special diets so we can provide them with the appropriate Foods this includes gluten-free meals nurses at every school are provided the nutritionals so that they can keep our diabetics safe with calorie carb Counting we do follow the offer versus serve guidelines through the USDA to determine a complete meal we have to provide five components at lunch a meat meat alternative a grain vegetable fruit and fluid milk students are able to choose three of the five to make a reimbursable meal one of the components selected does have to be a fruit or vegetable per the USDA guidelines so using this offer versus serve guideline does help reduce some food waste our menus also have to meet the USDA standards for the amount of calories sodium fat sugar protein and whole grains offered not only daily but weekly so our costs have been increasing some of the contributing factors to operate the program have been food and Supply costs um have increased 15 to 20 percent we've had some of the supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic uh the war in the Ukraine um we had a spike in wheat prices due to that we had a deadly bird flu which hurt the U.S egg turkey and chicken production severe droughts and we've had high cost of fuel for transportation and some increased costs and packaging inlay and labor are also contributing what did uh the USDA is helping School District Food Service programs during these challenging times they have increased their reimbursement rates for the 22-23 school year um for complete meals to help offset some of the higher costs and they've also provided some supply chain funding to help offset the increased costs of food so we're thankful for that so this is where we're at at the start of the school year and we hope to keep our numbers growing throughout the year so thank you very much Dean what was the impact on the regular lunch for paying customers for this for this year last year's price versus this year's price we have had no no complaints I really think they feel like it's a good value for what they're getting we went up about 35 cents which we hadn't raised anything and nothing had gone up since 19.
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so no no questions or no one's really made a comment the start of the school year have you found there's disrupt disruptions still with getting every week we have different things this week it's it's yogurt and Rib sandwiches and you know it's it's so funny but every week we have something different but we try to find alternates so you had said that you had offered a couple choices does that affect that uh you know I guess according to the schedule we're still trying to we'll always we're trying to do three no matter what but we say uh Bosco sticks her out then we'll try to have an alternate for the Bosco Stick so we still have three options of hot entrees so giving a more selection this year thank you I have a couple of questions so the menu price is what this year then at secondary for launch is three dollars at elementary it's 275.
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okay and then how about milk has that gone up quite a bit yes our prices did increase we had to go up a nickel we went up to 55 cents some milk if you're buying at a la carte right it is included with your meal if you take a complete meal but you don't have to take milk if you ought not to so so tell me uh because as we watch the Personnel um resignations and then the hiring and then you know the back and forth that happens in a school corporation this size how are you doing with Staffing with all of the cafeterias um I had a lot more substitute applications this year now we're hoping some of the substitutes when we post our permanent jobs coming up we'd like to do that end of September October we're hoping some of those subs will want to take some of the positions that are open so you're feeling comfortable with the staff that's at least applying to be a substitute and you're feeling not overwhelmed as you maybe have been in past years yeah there really hasn't been a day that we're always you know someone calls off we may not have a person to fill it but we kind of rearrange things to make it happen okay you have to survive yes yes we're doing it okay very good thank you thank you thank you Mr Marshall Deanne I found as a school board member that you're always going to learn something new I happen to mention this to Dr baracko in a short comment the other day I found that the school corporation in the collar communities around Indianapolis they got kind of out of hand but within the elementary school students were having doordash deliveries for lunch and I just shook my head I I didn't think it was possible have we ever had any problems with that or does it happen if they tried every so often it's not on a regular basis okay because that's corporations send out a letter to parents in Mass they wanted to curtail it okay just we put it in our high school announcements that that's not acceptable thank you right it was just in your announcements it went out and it was very clear that they would be confiscated if they interrupted the school and then you were very clear that anything for students staying after school that had to be delivered outside and could not come in the building hours if they're saying for practice that's I loved it I thought it was really cool are we having problems at the middle schools with that do we know just not a middle school rep here oh no okay okay good thank you thank you thank you much good report thank you okay my next item is just update the board on a new tutoring program that is being rolled out October 1st by the Indiana Department of Education in partnership with the Mind trust so this is one of those things where the doe doesn't feel they have the Manpower at least the way I'm reading it to manage the program so they've turned it over to an independent company in Indianapolis through the webinar that I was able to watch and then a follow-up Zoom meeting with the senior director of the Mind trust they're going to have 111 million dollars to distribute over 500 dollars per student over the over the two years of the program the idea is to get some one-on-one or at worst one on three one teacher to three students tutoring for kids in fourth and fifth grade who have been deemed below Proficiency in both English language arts and math on the iLearn and so as we look at it and try to figure out how do we encourage people to do this we ask the same questions we ask of a lot of organizations how do we know who's going to provide this service and right now the Mind trust says they are evaluating applicants to do the tutoring tutors can be current teachers former teachers students in college education programs earn working their way toward a teaching license who these providers will be whether they'll be vetted I.E background checked that has not yet been answered and so it gives us pause to want to get behind a program where there's just a lot of questions dangling out there including how are they going to decide how much is in Phase One if if a district with a really high free and reduced lunch population Antelope passing scores know that they have a giant population in need of this could could Indianapolis Public Schools get half of the money because on day one they have all their parents sign up and so they haven't really explained how that process is going to work and we're still hoping to hear something prior to the October 1st rollout it does look like it could be an opportunity if we could be involved in terms of knowing that it's our staff provide in that service um we we just are a little bit anxious about saying hey you really ought to do this because it could be free to you but if it's not going to be meaningful I think it uh it can possibly you know not be a successful thing and we don't want struggling Learners not to have a good experience when they're supposed to be getting you know the very help that they need so you know some key pieces of information missing I'm hoping that prior to our regional superintendents meeting next Wednesday because it's on the agenda for that that we hear back from the Mind trust and get some answers to some of the questions we asked when we were on the phone call on September 1st but anytime there's something out there that is extra help beyond the school day for kids it gets us interested on the other hand we'd really like for that activity to be done here with our people and even if it weren't with our people um some of the very children who need this would have a hard time meeting somebody at the library or some other independent location at six or seven PM versus if we already have them at school so we're going to continue to follow this I just wanted the board to know that it it was in Mr slager's newsletter recently and so it is getting pushed out by more than one source but there's still a lot of questions we have to get answered before we decide how much we can try to encourage people to participate excuse me Dr Rocco did you say it was Department of Education in partnership with mind trust correct and who is the executive director of Mind Trust uh it's the last bullet point Shawna Murphy is the senior director of this program I don't know who the president of that company is I just it makes me a little bit nervous to history wise but maybe the Mind trust has changed over the years thank you foreign is just to give a shout out to the high school um it's been a couple weeks to go now but was was attending the open house as a parent and really appreciated the messaging that I received from my boys teachers they they said the kind of things that I want to hear about how they're going to help our kids be successful this year they talked about the content of the course they talked about how students can get extra assistance several of the teachers said we officially have tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays but I'm here Monday through Thursday or I'm here after school most days as well I I'm not promising it but I'm here most days so if your child needs help they need to ask me and we'll figure out a way to arrange that time that kind of messaging really resonates with me because I know some students struggle with the content and to know that their teacher has the students success as a high priority is is really really good to hear and I'm not saying in the past years I didn't hear from from the other schools I just thought that I thought that the staff this year didn't get into any rules or any of that stuff they got right down to this is what we're talking about in this class this is what we want your kids to learn about and we want to have some fun too and so coming out of what we've been in the last couple years I think there was just a a lot brighter mood and that was good to hear too so I just wanted the board to hear it thank you we'll move on to our director of Human Resources Personnel Mrs mucho thank you I am asking for the Personnel recommendations that were in your packet to be approved with some attention to one of our people who have 25 years of service that would be Mary Gerlach who is retiring out of bibbage elementary school motion to approve the motion by Mrs Kelly second second by Dr Medlin any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye any opposed motion passes thank you I also have a professional leave form that was in your packet move to approve the professional leave request I have a motion by Dr Medlin second by Mr Marshall any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you question uh Miss mucha I see we had one retirement a resignation excuse me of a bus driver what is our current status are we scratching for drivers I think we will continue to have a problem with enough drivers we are getting in some trainees and Chuck has been working diligently on getting them trained along with Judy and we hope to have a couple more trained by the end of this month but it's um we get a couple we lose a couple I hear you kind of a net song Chuck is uh on the corporation-wide broadcast a number of times we'll all receive uh whether it's uh construction issues or our lack of drivers where we have to double up or something but appreciate the Insight thank you you've got a busy job and Terry to back up to what Mr Marshall just said I've been wondering does does the construction going on in St John cause delays for students and buses and car rides especially today it seems that every road that led to certain schools was closed so they did some of the routes backwards yeah and amazingly that takes more than when it goes the other way but it does and so he had to contact parents and let them know that their either their child would be home early or late but the construction has been tough this past couple weeks I wondered because it's always so different down there at St John it's first one lane then there's two lanes and then we're over here and then we're over there and I just had a feeling that it was causing problems and and we're just being flexible with that I assume you have to we we don't have much Joe we can't go on the roads I don't understand yeah yeah all right thank you so we'll move on to Mrs gramales she will be filling in for Dr Breezy for director of primary education yes um so first item on the agenda is seeking approval for the professional leave requests in the packet move to approve a motion by Mr Marshall second second by Mrs Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes and then Dr bracey's second item was to seek approval for a field trip request to the pumpkin patch we'll also moved to approve any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes and then we'll move on to Mrs mucho again for our director of seven secondary education Mrs Castaneda thank you I'm asking for approval for professional leave forms that Mrs Castaneda has in your packet move to approve the professional leave request we have a motion by Dr Medlin I'll second that second by Miss Kelly any discussion hearing none all in favor aye motion passes thank you and we'll just jump right over everyone else and go to our director of Business Services Mr James thank you Mrs sues excuse me um at our last meeting on September 6th I gave the board and the public our annual budget presentation for Canada year 2023.
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the next step of the process is to hold a public hearing to allow anyone in the public to make a comment about the items that were published on the Indiana Gateway system so at this time does anyone have a comment regarding the items that were posted on the Gateway website okay hearing done that will conclude the public hearing and then the next step in the process will the bolt be for the board to formally adopt the 2023 calendar year budget we will do that at our next regularly scheduled meeting on October 17th um then my second item is to seek your approval for the donations that were included in your board packet edlin any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye motion passes thank you thank you we do have um one public comment and I'd like to call it Miss Sherry true please when you approach the microphone give us your name address please 164 Primrose Drive Dyer Indiana good evening everyone I wanted to talk to you about some things that have been in our classrooms that don't have anything to do with the education that we're giving our children this poster was in the high school it starts off by telling our children what we believe these statements are highly political and inflammatory statements and this is allowed to hang in one of our High School classrooms Nicole Howard I like you since you're up for election to let me know do you believe in this is this okay that this hangs in our classrooms I'm not familiar with it yeah I'm not familiar yeah I can't see it from there that's the first time I've even been made aware of it what type of classroom is it what subject area um I'm not going to say science is real black lives matter Love Is Love feminism is for everyone humans are not illegal and kindness is everything but our school about what teachers can post in their classrooms what do you find an offensive on this first I'm finding offensive that instead of teaching our children how to create critically think and think for themselves you're telling them what to believe in it's not your job as Educators to tell my children what you what to believe in but one on here is offensive the kindness is everything what's offensive is black lives matters is an actual Marxist organization [Music] we'll take a look at it I you guys saw it I guess Mr Marshall Mrs Kelly would you like to see it myself but is there any rules Dr Rocco about what people could hang in their classrooms is there any rules about what teachers can hang in their classrooms at Lake Central yeah we would say if we think something is offensive that it doesn't belong Okay so what is your definition of what people find offensive well I I just didn't see anything on there at first glance that I find offensive so I'll study it some more um saying that black lives matter just those words are true black lives do matter it also is an organization that's a politically Affiliated organization yeah I I don't know that side of it thank you um but I I do believe that saying those words independently I think is fine okay and that's fine and we can say all lives matter and we can do other things that are inclusive of everyone that's not that statement is not excluding anybody Sherry I just want to know if at Lake Central then we are letting teachers put up whatever they would like in their classrooms well we'll have to review what is going on um if if there are other people who find that offensive I just don't see anything on that particular sheet that I find offensive okay but you're not the the person that decides that everything's offensive there are other these are public schools people can find things offensive parents to have a right to say what is being taught what is being shown in the schools so um to find it offensive because I don't I don't think that my child should be taught these things in the school like every human is people are illegal like what does that mean there's a lot of connotations underneath there and so the the first thing that says in there we believe so what you're saying is my child when they walk in the classroom they have to believe what that teacher is putting on there I don't think anybody is saying that well that's what the statement is we believe why doesn't everyone just seek to teach you I don't think people are instructing this stuff either Sherry I think I think there's signs that are up around the building just to try to get people to be kinder and gentler towards one another which I think we certainly need right now so if we can be nicer to each other if if the if those messages promote kindness I'm all for it if there are individual pieces in there that have uh alternate meetings that I'm not aware of then I'll have to study that a little bit more okay well I think we should study that because that could have alternate meetings on that piece of paper did you decide not to tell us what classroom what subject it was in because that could have a lot of reason for some of this it was it social studies was it history what uh I'm not at Liberty to say at the moment but I just I just lost the board we needed to why don't why are we not spending more time on actually the writing the math well you didn't say that they were instructing anything here if this is a message just promoting kindness that's very different than saying today we're going to talk about the poster in my class it doesn't say we're talking about kindness yes that's not what that says it says what that person believes science is real that after I'm pretty sure after the last two years of us being through covid that is a very inflammatory statement science is real well you know what everybody I wanna I wanna actually do you guys have any thoughts on this I really want to know I just took a picture of this I'll be glad if our next board meeting to give you an answer okay I appreciate that and I can tell you it's from my years as being a principal and working we always would go in the classrooms and make sure that the things that were posted were connected to the curriculum or some type of discussion in the in the classroom it's just part of making the classroom enhancing I'm done [Music] oh yeah right you need to come up to the place if you want to speak please you didn't sign up sign up deserves to hear what you have okay three minutes are up aren't they they are okay well I'm sorry Mrs Kelly did you have anything to say on that I will say I do agree with kindness is everything nothing else on there though you don't agree with the other one or you don't want to say thank you you said what I had to say thank you all right with that we have no other Community signed up to speak so we will move on to board comments and we'll start with Mr Marshall uh no I have no comment this evening other and everybody stay safe out there thank you Miss Kelly no comments this evening thank you Dr Medlin no comment thank you Dr Malco we all have interpretations of we all have interpretations of items and issues and that's why we are in America let some of it go and let's go down and cheer that volleyball team onto Victory right now so I am done and I call for an adjournment as well after Larry does his speech okay um well I um would also like to share on the girls golf team because they were sectional winners last week and they are moving on to regionals at this Saturday at Sandy Pines um so yeah congratulations to the golf the girls golf so with that we'll move on to our Board calendar future activities Dr Morocco can I add a short comment you sure can I think some of the school corporations around the state are more lucky than others I two weekends ago I had an opportunity to watch some games down in the Indianapolis area and I have a grandson that's playing for a seventh grade team we moved from one game to the other court the eighth grade team for his school just finished a game and one of the players was standing there he is six foot nine in eighth grade wow I just thought I'd mentioned that tell for sure thank you okay well we we do not have a meeting in two weeks because that's when the Indiana School Board Association scheduled the annual meeting so we will be back in a month on October 17th here the 17th October 17th thank you
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