some people like it some people don't like it are you ready now Mr hater that's the delayed opening every Wednesdays not every Wednesdays yeah it's uh it's once a month and then some seven months or two anything further thank you very much this time the chair would appreciate the emotion from this committee to adjust the agenda back to public participation for a special guest no motion please I make the motion all those in favor all right we're opposed would you introduce to Mr Cirillo um I want to come over here my apologies for coming late hi yep that's fine that's okay um allow her to introduce herself um quiet no she could take my seat um thank you everyone for having me um and again my apologies for arriving a little bit late um so I guess I'm here to talk about the event was it or my situation so I'm an alumni I graduated in 2003 I went to um I was in office Tech I think it's called business Tech now and um the vocus home for me um I was a student that struggles with the mccast so when you guys are talking about the m test I'm like well if they still have the MCAS I had the first I was the first school year to have to pass the MCAS in order to get your diploma a lot of my other peers unfortunately didn't get a diploma because we were so new and it was they were they struggled I struggled as well I remember the state came in and I was able to take a little bit extra math support um but fast forward from 2003 till now um I am finding myself in a situation where I have a one-year-old daughter that needs a liver transplant she's at Boston's children's hospital and I knew that I could count on my school for support So we had a fundraiser last Friday that was amazing here at the Elks I called I had a connection with my a friend of mine who called Frank and said hey we need some support for this fundraiser can culinary give us a hand with like sandwiches and salad and pasta and things like that and they came through for us so all those years later I can still count on my high school to have my back um and so I thank you guys so much for that um I have some posters we were able to do like um have all of the sponsors um have a you know the red Alliance logo and things like that it's a little story on my daughter's condition um it's a rare condition um one in 15 000 it's called biliria treasure and so we have a QR link for you guys to follow along on her journey but um she's at Boston's children's we're waiting for the call and I thank you for your time thank you very much we wish you well wish you well please keep please keep us informed all right we'll do okay and when I got the call she's a constituent from Methuen and alone from glts I connected with John and Scott and Sue um and they made it happen so I want to make sure that we acknowledge all the efforts that done by all these three individuals to make this happen Scott delivered the food on on the day of the event and they made and the students help with making the food John was very eager to to help and support the community and members of the community especially I learned from the school yeah all those years later thank you for coming thank you very much make sure they get put up okay thank you for allowing that ladies and gentlemen um back to the regular order of business out of state travel we're going to do these one at a time please out of state travel for Mr Chris watersworth Advanced manufacturing instructor to travel to Hartford Job Corps Academy in Hartford Connecticut for the NASA visit on November 14th through 16th it's no cost to glts the cost is picked up by the host school you have a motion on that please second discussion all those in favor anyone opposed okay out of state travel for Mr John Delaney and Ms Nicole uh though Bernie their softball coaches to travel to Montvale uh the cty for coaching education for softball coaches and players convention on January 13th through 14th 2023 the cost is 139 dollars per person uh 278 if you do the math correctly for the registration have a motion on that please move discussion follows in favor anyone oppose a Ms Colleen Abdullah McGrath a guidance excuse me guidance counselor and Mr Michael let uh Automotive instructor along with all women in automotive and auto body to attend Toyota of Nashua Nashua New Hampshire on November 18 2022 for a tour and to speak to women in the field the only cost to us I believe is a van or a bus would be transportation from what I'm reading here discussion follows a favor how do you want to pose in your calendars and November calendar exploratory grade uh rubis is uh in your packet uh report from committees none oh John I just want to speak quickly to the exploratory uh grading scorecard a lot of work went into this uh by uh my committee to end up you know one of the important aspects of things we're trying to do with exploratory this year is to ensure that there is more equity in students getting their first choice and having fairness and opportunities for all students and I think this grading form for the player uh the rubrics that was developed goes a long way in providing more equity for students at the end when it comes time for making selections so that grading is fair and clearer and students have a much easier understanding of what they're actually going to be scored on so that it makes it uh clear for them in terms of motivation in terms of understanding what's important day-to-day as say perform in each of the shops because it's important for in each of their shops to do the best they can in order to get the most points they can when it comes time to picking selecting the shop so this was not an easy task but I think it's a task that goes a long way in providing a lot more equity for our for our ninth graders this year so I think it's a pretty exciting it'll be great to see how it all plays out and I think it's going to result in something a very positive you got any questions for the trooper excuse me any questions for the superintendent okay oh I'm sorry I didn't see your hand that's odd that I don't see you go ahead okay um on the safety one I unless I'm misreading I think all four of the same so um I I didn't see that on anything else just looking quickly at it so the it's labeled safety and each one reads the same I believe sort of differences that uh they're following those safety rules at a higher percentage of the time okay I see the percentage there thank you thank you did you say old business new business okay no I I had something under old business okay um you had mentioned that it might be spoken about later but I was concerned about the continued issue with the busing and what's going to happen no what I said is one of the committee members had asked me uh under future items to ask the bus company to come back again to to address us not that it's going to be discussed at a that's so I didn't mean to be okay so um so when would be the next meeting all right and we can't talk about it tonight no all right never mind well no go ahead what do you have I'm just I I'm just you have a solution no I wished I did but I get more Angry each time knowing that each of our communities have solved their problem and I use the term of low man on the pecking water and it's just beyond frustrating I still keep seeing it on our unofficial glts site and I can't imagine the frustration of the kids and the parents that are dealing with this and nothing has happened so I that's it Mr Cirillo I know I was asking for this later on to be added to the agenda but Maryland and I'm in total agreement as a parent I get the emails I was seeing how many buses are late since before the we had the bus company since the bus company has been in and I guess as I'm sitting here today before the meeting started I'm watching how Lawrence got 24 new electronic buses and the big hoorah but yet they still don't have drivers our kids are still being almost two hours late um and the three bus drivers they claim they that they were going to have in two weeks which everybody knows anything about the bus company is two to three months of their training and that's if you have other bus drivers to finish training them after they get their certification or their licensure so yeah I'm asking for the bus company to come back right so I'm in total agreement with you and the frustration yep anything further okay oh yes John sorry so well before I left I know I reached out to the bus company on a couple different issues uh particularly the three supposedly drivers really isn't three drivers it's three drivers are now qualified to go into training so it doesn't really help us in terms of that the other thing I had spoken to them about because they said one of the big issues was they didn't have drivers that were getting in the English classes to be able to be able to pass the test so we offered them to offer a course for as many of their drivers to offer that particular English ell class to help them learn specifically targeted towards passing the tests that they had to pass they said they had like 30 drivers but they have not responded and presented those drivers to us at all we said get back to us we're willing to do it and but they haven't really responded to that after they said that was and they had said when they were here that was a critical part of it so we are trying to do we what we can to help them resolve this problem um so I guess um our next step which I'll be calling out to our attorney and he has looked at it once already but I'm going to ask him if he can there's got to be some kind of way of at least compensating the loss to both to not even so much to the school itself but to students themselves and to families that they have to deal with this so we'll reach out to them and see what what's possible regarding that issue in itself Mr Sorella and to staff because we have to have staff here winning around um to support these students they're still behind they were here and they said they had a partnership with greater Lawrence Community Action Council um to teach English classes my the next day I had a meeting with greater Lawrence Community Action Council which then informed that they don't have an agreement yet because they it's hard to get the bus company in to even sign the mou so Goldman and total poll whatever it is we're not flashy enough but we pay more than most communities yeah it's it's time um to have this conversation with us with the attorneys Vivian I just want to make sure if we're inviting this person back to speak on any updates that we're actually holding her accountable because she's completely misrepresenting the process um because it was news to me as to you know it was I was under the impression that we would get two to three drivers pretty quickly and this was already it's been what two months since her last visit and they're just going into training so that's my thing it's like if we're inviting this person to provide us with updates how do we make sure that we're not just accepting any falsified uh information in order for her to satisfy whatever challenges that we're presenting to her that they're clearly violating at this point um and I believe Maryland brought up in previous meetings that um like the contract that we have with them are we Contin are we going to continue to honor the contract as is or are we going to perform any adjustments to it based on their performance talking cheers first of all I I would ask the bus company insist that they send their CE send their CEO someone at the highest level we don't want to talk to having someone that doesn't really have the authority to give us the right kind of information we're looking for so I'll ask for the CEO to come and talk to the school committee so that we can hope it's better to hold him accountable and he he has to be upfront and honest with us I think that's a better way to go and then in terms of the contract uh I will sit down with the attorney to look at each step of the contract to see under the Clauses of each aspect of the contract what do we have what is it that we can do is there a penalty Clause yeah what are the things that we can do to enforce some of uh they're not meeting their obligations to that contract and Mrs uh Fitzgerald yes I it really and truly is something that I think about every single day I feel we're being discriminated against we are the only community of the ones that they serve that has continued to have it we have a signed contract with them I believe we have more buses than any other community that we've contracted with and it's just as far as I'm concerned we are November and it is inexcusable that all of the other communities are being serviced in full and we are not and I think it's time to Rattle a few cages by way of our attorney I'll stop now Leo for that Mr Savella promises promises Mr Cirillo um Maryland and I am total agreement I mean just I think it was last week or something where I drove by one of the buses and it said Andover public school which a tape over greater Lawrence technical public Technical School so it was a tape over greater Lawrence technical um so so yeah in Miami uh she sat here and instead of them calling their their bus driver has been June in July to start getting ready for the next school year for our contracts that never happened so yeah John it's more than just senate representative they they didn't need somebody that actually has authority to come before us on the CEO um whoever that is these days being that they've gone corporate um because now we can't continue to have been doing this and then I had a Converse and being that they're the biggest Monopoly in the Commonwealth we gotta go really hold them accountable sorry Leo no problem did you break your promise already Mrs Fitzgerald yes I did so for those of you that um haven't been around quite as long as I have my Mantra before I even got on this committee um my neck of the woods when I was working here was down that end of the building and every day when school got out I would stand out on the little ramp by the pool exit door and wave to all the kids watch them go by when I first got here every single bus that left here said great Lawrence technical school actually it might have said the abbreviation Regional Vocational Technical school then as time went on I it there were less and less saying that and more and more saying other things I had asked and have asked and if we go back in the minutes you'll see how many times I asked that when we sign our contract with him that a certain percentage of our buses say greater Lawrence technical school it never went through and got put into the contract but it is so frustrating and now that you're saying that they actually taped over our name um it's just infuriating I really feel that we are being discriminated against and I can't believe the parents haven't started yelping about it I meant by going by way of the newspaper okay we also said Johnson will uh ready get this not try we will get to see you in here okay okay uh for policies section b b d e a establishment of capital Improvement plans I have a motion on that don't move all of the flavor are you going to pose sorry I didn't answer the discussion uh do business table matters Personnel consider Personnel considerations resignation from a data assessment specialist and security is that a security officer John sister or maybe what you know they resigned security officer yeah well I know you I'm just saying you know you've been aware no leave of absence no retirements no opponishments and I see no job postings on my sheet of paper future agenda items ongoing projects John you have anything to want to fill us in on uh well right to any chance yes I know if you want to I did take a walk around take a look at what's going on what's going on and uh as you know cause it's pretty much done there's still some little uh items that need to be taken care of um ready Cafe cited the project pretty much done as well there's a little bit of painting in this I don't I believe that it can open next week you just got to get it set up now which will probably do during this particular week and then we were still waiting for some of the doors you like your phone John I'm sorry oh I'm sorry we're not we're still waiting for Ron even still waiting for uh some of the doors to come in that we ordered way back in July The Swinging Doors to Maple doors with the steel bucks still haven't arrived yet so some of those still need to be put in in both in Cosmo and in the Reggie Cafe which uh once those are put in we could actually probably open both sides of the of the restaurant because there's a bathroom and a storage area that doesn't have a door on it right now so as soon as those go on we can open that up [Music] because that's pretty much in pretty good shape too we do have an outside exterior door that needs to go in in uh in the new uh in the Four Winds Restaurant which we're still waiting for that door unit to come in uh was doing actually I think sometime this week so hopefully if that shows up we can get that in and so that outside patrons don't have to come through the building they'll come out from the outside there and then that can be reset up and and opened up as well uh the um the other big project is the child care center the students are um the next big part of that project is doing the HVAC system and um I've got I got a price to do the duct work for that for a hundred thousand dollars so I went to HVAC department instead of the students capable of doing that he said they were so we're going to save 100 000 because the students are going to do that project uh they actually uh put together the specs and ordered the material and students will start sometime this week uh putting together that that's about a two to three week project on that ceiling goes in and then we're ready to do the Finish which is the cabin so we're trying to open up uh in uh sometime in December at the latest July uh January 1st for that particular project and of course we started the playground on the outside you'll see there's some excavation that's been doing we've been doing getting that playground ready the students have been doing that project as well to save us a substantial amount of money as well the landscape departments doing the playground for us out there and the library we're just waiting for the furniture in the library to arrive so we can finish up that project and that furniture was ordered way back in July as well so we're still waiting for that questions and comments uh Frank um Tom and I the other day had had a the pleasure of taking a little walk and looking at cosmetology and let me tell you that place looks amazing it looks brighter in this cheerier I'm just we took a little glance at the folk perform Winston and let me tell you um it's well well worth the investment it looks it's going to be it's going to look amazing but with that where are we with the um Automotive um Edition or expansion um when I look when I had left looked like it was going to start to move a little better they were getting ready to pour the floor I didn't look at that today so I'm not sure if they got the floor poured um so that's two months behind schedule is what I've been told by the contractor himself so that would take us to sometime in February before that project would be done at this point I'll take a look tomorrow but I would expect it would have started putting in the block walls on the outside so and I think it's two on Tuesdays we have the uh Rob meets with the uh Rob and John meet with the contractor on Tuesdays and sometimes I attend the meeting sometimes I don't but I'll make sure I attend tomorrow to see if there's any issues at this time we're having some difficulties between for a while there between the architect and the contractor on some of the proper way of doing some of the construction so I think we've ironed all that out and it seems when I left when I was left that it seemed like it was going a little smoother anything further yeah um we extended it to February thank you I'm Leo um and correct me wrong some cementing during the winter well doesn't that become an issue on its own yeah if the block well we still have some time to get the block wall if they jump on it right now I still think they could get the block walls done um before it gets so cold that they couldn't do the mortar but if it gets to the point we get into you know the middle of December or later then we have to enclose it with uh polyethylene uh and heat it in order for them to do that which is an uncommon on a construction site you can do it the costume anything further okay uh moving on then uh marketing and uh social media John do you have any comments on that or do we have any questions on that nothing okay I'm out do you have any questions both does anybody have anything want to move on it or what yeah well okay all right John oh you do okay I remember I asked to sure you got the floor go ahead John do you want the floor yeah okay John they're giving an update because I remember I said at the last meeting um that why are we using our social media to promote the amazing to promote the amazing things that the school is doing the projects okay I I'm like jogging our memories here okay Frank yeah um I think the camera there's been a couple of good events that had taken Inspire um processary place here and there was no photographs um being taken thing I mean we had Cassandra on Friday took some good photos of the event um but we're missing it yeah they were posted um but we missing um others weren't that's why so it brought up the um the fact that we make sure we have somebody there doing their yeah good hey John so I I did meet with the uh company uh represent from the company who who we hire to do all our articles and uh I'm meeting with him at least once some once a month and to reconcile what we know is coming up for events so he can be sure he covers the events for us so uh there should have been coverage on Friday and there should have been coverage for Sunday the company they'll do an article so he'll come in and meet with um different people from the building who were responsible for overseeing the uh the events and myself to talk about those events and do a story on those so both open house and Friday should have there should have been something on that I'm not sure if there was any anything beyond our other than our own social media uh we had somebody taking pictures on Friday I don't know about Sunday but as I was walking in today they were I was looking at the big TV in the hallway and it so it looked like it there was a presentation being done by Miss sadinsky and I'm and I'm looking at that and it's like that would be something really great if we had it oh on a commercial or YouTube promoting um the school and all the great stuff that's being done um that's actually the only time I've seen it that's who I know I was I was not here last meeting when this was discussed but I just want to assure the committee that it is a priority of both the superintendent and myself as the principal to utilize social media to promote all the good things happening here at glts and I can say that although there may be some Mist like on that day I've actually received compliments people have reached out to me that don't work here to say that they think that they've actually complimented me on it so in terms of right now one of the things I want to update you on too is our Twitter account was kind of M.I.A and that actually account has been reactivated so our goal is to connect all three social media platforms and expand in terms of when we post on Instagram it goes to Facebook and we also include it on Twitter one of the things that I think is a challenge is um you know I I think and I want to say that I've been working with Cassandra and she has been doing a great job in terms of when we say hey can you cover this event one of the things that I will say that we need to do a better job on and I'll take responsibility for it is to kind of schedule out certain things that we know are happening to ensure that we give her adequate time to not only make sure she's there but make sure that we give her like um you know what we put out there in terms of content we did post and we actually tagged the um the members of the army that were here on Friday and we captured some amazing photos of yesterday which will be going out in the post but there was a delay in that today I it's a goal of mine we've also tried to do more in representing glts and recognizing certain events in the community and will continue to do that so I appreciate the feedback and I think that's right now the best way to get I'll share all the good things that are happening here so we will keep improving on that yeah because I do remember seeing Cassandra yesterday she was had the orange suit on um those sound corrected on that because she was here that's right Vivian did you have something you want to add no no superintendent so we're trying to uh Cassandra does a lot of the work with the social media and um and Eleanor works with her on our on the newspaper on that uh newsletter that goes out from Sue and myself Cassandra Eleanor myself Susan we work as a team on that particular uh piece that goes out and also we're trying to because we don't have a specific marketing person anymore we're trying to uh have trying to hone our help Cassandra develop more responsibility in overseeing it along with some guidance from Eleanor particularly when there's some writing that needs to be done and along with trying to connect with our agent that's working with us so I think that as we move forward you'll see some improvement in that and uh but it it takes a real planning and organization takes a lot of planning to make all this stay on top of all this so between Sue myself and everybody trying to pay more attention to meeting specifically to look at what's happening or eat week to week that needs to be put out there every week it's something that has to we actually have to actually almost have a meeting scheduled once a week to say okay this is with the people that are responsible to help us get it out there so we'll we'll try to do a better job with that this is uh the show yes speaking of the newsletter it was terrific who does that all go to does that go to all the parents faculty everybody that needs to know the nitty-gritty that was it was great Frank are you all set uh Frank did you have a question it goes to the parents um The Faculty students alumni and the advisory committee of course the school committee um quick question and business Tech do they have like a little bit marketing their curriculum because they're um seniors or Juniors that help out with um some of this there it's a small there are some uh competencies that fall under the marketing it's not huge um we haven't uh since we've kind of reorganized we haven't really put any we haven't connected them but it's actually a good idea maybe to connect them with uh Cassandra and Eleanor to see maybe they can even do a piece for us and and take a look at some of uh over helping us with that task okay what about um information technology yeah that doesn't really fall under their framework anything further see nothing okay uh is there a need for an executive session so you know no good morning okay no further business the chair will accept the motion to adjourn [Laughter] dollars in favor thank you very much our next meeting show today please I'm sorry they don't sell those 20 seconds
so that is our look back and obviously some numbers that we need to pay attention to there those are numbers go in the wrong direction but uh we're happy to have tools and and strategies that are going to make an impact on those so that's the look of that I also uh looking backwards and I'm looking at our school climate data our school climate survey results page spring we give students and families a school climate survey these are last year's results and we see a lot of things to be to be proud of here because I've arranged both lists uh breaking in from their um areas of strength these percents are the percent of positive responses students or families agreeing that those uh areas are positive at Kent Middle School and so you see up there at the top of which students either the rules and Norms their communication with teachers their connectedness to the school all very strong we see at the bottom of that list that social emotional security and respect for diversity are the greatest areas of needed however I put in uh numbers next to that to show that those are also areas where over the past couple years we have been recuperating points from some of the more tougher or darker times uh when those numbers kind of reached a low when we went home for we were on the way back up and then our families are very supportive of Canton middle school and we see school climate also um so see school climate as a top ranking area with school Communications school connectedness being their designated area of needs albeit still uh still feeling very strong with 84 or 85 positive response there Jeff would you prefer questions at the end or do you want it here's your bill so that and I'll pause there those are those last two slides are my historic look back and I'm happy to answer questions any questions so far for today um the aspectives aspect it's one day I get all that you know but then particularly in math uh you said are not what you want right is it is it just a covet hangover is it a curriculum issue is it an instruction issue I'm sure you've done some studying of it yeah so that answers complicated and I'd be giving you my best professional guess right the exact diagnosis of it is tough it's also not a candy issue right which I don't I take personal responsibility for it and own it as a Canton Middle School issue but the bottom line is that the these scores and approximately 10 drop has been seen in our area in some of our area colleagues and Nationwide the people are analyzing what uh you know what the impact of covid1 so covet hangover I think is the biggest part of it at Canton Middle School particularly the math we adopted a brand new math curriculum that really leaned on student collaboration and then within the first six months of implementing it canceled the PD for our teachers stopped having students interact with each other and so we this is the first year we've been with in which we can live Fidelity Implement a math curriculum that I believe is high quality what we've had to do an altered version of it for the past two two three years right but we're investing in it just today there's some great professional development happening with the teachers if that's one of the causes then we're dedicating time and energy to getting teachers if those Math teachers in with curriculum Specialists to say to analyze it to know it know it well so is that the sole reason for those math scores probably not but it's it's one that we can control and so I want to make sure that our our three Math teachers feel a masterful understanding of a curriculum that admittedly got derailed upon implementation I believe when we went home for cooking so I think that's a big piece of it um and um what I wanted to hear so it's a good answer in other areas like the curriculum documentation to see as an area of focus for me and reviewing it in its entirety and making sure that we're accelerating where we need to we're eliminating not dead space but anywhere that the curriculum can focus in on key areas uh and key areas like skills that will move students forward so we're doing that correctly as well so is there a significant percentage that you know just missed or you know two or three questions correct would have moved them into yeah right so the the charts and stuff that you can get into here we do have a lot of students that are near those bands right a lot of students on the cusp um and so yes we we looked at that and the star results that I'll get into in my next section can also speaks to how our students are right there and also mentioned and this is I don't I couldn't back this up quantitatively when you come into Canton Middle School we have brilliant students doing complicated work in in some cases these percentages don't match what I would say is our professional assessment of our students critical thinking skills right we've gotten competent kids that have been moving through our school system they're learning and growing and I'm really confident that they're the Next Generation and we'll be voting in an election cycle or two and taking control of things like so this I also think there's something going on with the test and where we are and it being an accurate reflection of the holistic picture but it is a challenge and even if it's if it's an impotent imperfect one if we we know our content if our curriculum is tight and our teachers are being Diagnostic and intentional then these these can and will come up so so would you say we've bottomed out here is this the bottom or do we have more or are we we're going to drop further I would I have no reason to anticipate a further drop it's uh it went as long as that history goes back on any of these cohorts which is coming up or our grades this is we've never been here and if I'm right that it is a result of A disruption to business as usual and we're getting back to doing things at a very professional level the data we're using the conversations we're having as Educators there's no reason to believe uh so again you can make a note on your phone to ask me at the end of oh I will in the summer I know but so we're the only the only place is to go up from here certainly my intent okay thank you what question on the school climate survey results the uh plus six and plus seven can you explain that a little bit so that yeah so we give that survey through Panorama and as we run that report it reminded me that last year's number of the students who said positively that the social they thought the social emotional security became Middle School was they agreed or strongly agreed that it was positive last year that number was 62 I'm sorry well the previous year right so spring I went to one 62 in Spring 22 68 of students felt that our social emotional Wellness was positive so that's a six point a notable six-point jump same thing with respect for diversity uh 21 in the 50s this year seven points jumped off into the 60s okay so that was spring to Spring spring 21 to 22.
actually yeah 2017 took the AC so what is this this is all I say to people yeah yeah so that could be a factor certainly could yeah they want to pay their own way to your point about saying that it was a time where it's College college yeah I think they are fighting their way I'm talking to more students who feel like I have other College that could be you know who knows but it's about and and while we will have very soon cohort data we may also see a difference too as the SAT is moving online in the next year the next couple years so it'll be an online test instead of a paper now it's paper pencil s that'll be interesting to see for some students that might be a better some maybe not it's also adapted as well correct but it'll will also be comparing then students took the PSAT 8 9 and 10 on Hayden to SATs so that could have impact as well as well but we'll we'll see as you look at these cohorts you know if I I would be concerned if I saw our position cohort to cohort drastically changing beyond what you're seeing cohort to cohort I mean those are students that all were kind of born at the same time grew up through school at the same time you know are having similar experiences especially within the county and if you saw us drastically changing in position rank distance between us and the state or the county that would say oh what what's going on the fact that we're maintaining kind of that same kind of same look over time indicates that we're staying on Pace of where we were cohort by cohort this is math again the same idea District 99 is in blue you'll note here that we actually went up 0.4 percent which is nominal however if you look at the other two went down so the other high school districts and again it's an average so we're included in that 2.1 and then 0.5 for the state so an area that we have worked a lot on including meetings this summer looking at discipline policies looking at attendance looking at how the codes that we use in our own system to make sure that to ensure basically that we're recording things correctly started before we actually knew what our chronic absenteeism number Plus ISB defines a student being chronically absent if that student misses 10 percent or more school days with or without an excuse even if a parent calls them in if they're sick they go to the orthodontist if they take one of their five mental health days those all count College visit days College visit days absolutely and it it doesn't have to be that the student missed the whole day but it compounds by periods it can add up and so basically it's 17.5 days or more 17.5 days or more for any reason to be considered chronically absent and this is an area of concern and I do want to point out which I'm I'm sure you realize is that in this case we want the bar to be lower right in the other cases yeah right that was impressive but you can see that this has actually increased um for us by 6.7 is the definition changed at all in this it's okay the definition has remained the same you may recall in 2019 uh was an area was a time when we went back and looked at internally how we were coding things and the different percentages that one period counted as um so some of that correction that occurred between 19 and 20 although 20 .
there's no sense in doing that without uh again I think as Miss krikos has said there's only so much money I I I honestly don't know you know what I you know what I've tried to do in presenting this is just right you know give everybody a little piece of the pie of trying to satisfy some things I mean you know you're bound by the money that either can be borrowed or used or what we have without at least when I feel without putting the district in the financial you know predicament you know as we go forward here so and I and I guess looking at this you definitely want the concessions I'm talking to people out there within Athletics they are definitely more than happy with being able to have the the faces as you put it um to have the football to have the track to have because as our soccer team plays in a retention Pond that is terrible then our football team plays in the stadium that's bad and then knowing that the goal is to build out I mean I definitely know that the concession stand would be a wanted and having an athletic complex long term as you had this is phase one then phase two as you explained before you're on the phase it in but I definitely see what Mr swallage is saying with the concessions but I also see the need I wouldn't want to scrap the ability to get them better playing facilities because we can't add a concession stand and I don't think that's what you're saying no no I'm just saying that you're going to build that facility then you will have nowhere for the teams to go you have nowhere for the bathrooms you have nowhere for the for a concession you're going to have Porta porta johns and then we're going to spend 14.5 million or 5 million on concession but then we got to think you know I mean that's where we got to think hard about the middle school I mean 3.6 to 10 million we have to we have to keep that I can't spend you know we got to do it right it's the same thing I said about the middle school if we're going to make the decision we got to make the decision that makes sense if you do the research of the programming and figure out what do we need there we don't we want to do it once I mean look at the cost of the middle school it's six over six times the cost on a decision but then again back then it wouldn't have satisfied 100 percent we just have to make sure that I mean 14.5 is a lot for still not having bathroom facilities and it you just got to talk you gotta all that's got to be discussed can you can you give a little more without I know you don't have it up there a little more information on the phasing the phasing process because you said phase one phase two how did you look at that uh let's do this let me let me do this let me get through this and let's get through the park because I'm and all that too all right uh with some opportunities come regarding thank you maybe Dr Hall knows this or you can as far as as far as the kids not being able to go into a locker room they meet at opposite hands of the end zone during halftime is that typical or is other schools like that or are we just a soul School in this position right now it's typical it is typical yes okay so other schools only school that I know that has a facility where you can run off the field into the locker room at halftime that I that I can think of is for both teams It's Thorn Ridge that's a pretty old facility so that's a good thing I don't know of other places when I think about they they pretty much meet in the end zone right don't have time okay and a Gately Stadium but yeah the whole stadium too okay all right yeah yeah let me get through this and we'll talk about some of that fit phasing and all of that so again let me let me share about uh uh the expanded program for Early Learning Center including Child Care again read designing the the administrative offices for more classrooms and rooms also requesting additional funding through our preschool for all grant for additional teachers I'm estimating the additional cost is only going to be about a million dollars after we complete some work here I think I can get that done by August 24.
we'll be bringing that forward to you folks uh very soon either the next school committee meeting or the one after that for your consideration and in that we will do just that as they include some monies to um you know we we don't want to spend we want to spend as little as possible to maintain uh appropriate learning environment right that's that's the goal um because all we will be doing is patching things and it will all get ripped up as soon as we actually do proceed with a project but the reality is that a Project's likely three years from being completed at the at the earliest um because it takes a year to design um and so it takes a year to approve from the mspa year to design year to construct three four years from now maybe uh I think real estate wise and pound foolish to not invest some money through Capital to fix our problematic areas because if not the alternative is you know leaky drywall that's ruined or electronics that are ruined or mold in the floors um so I would rather spend the money now then yeah we we have buckets as it stands right now um and what some of those things are what we were trying to address this week with some repairs um so we'll we'll stay on top of it and uh hopefully move forward and of course any monies we get for roofing repairs would be considered at the June town meeting so um you know it's it's not something that'll help us through the winter or anything um we if if we felt like we had such significant issues that you know we needed more immediate funds there are other options for us to think about and we could we could um you know talk to the town about some emergency transfer funds or something you know something else to to assist us but I'm hoping we can string things along on a small level just to get get to where we do have some money to to fix things but anything else Mr all over that's all I have okay anybody Mike only thought as you put the capital plan together those projects that have to be strung out type of deal if you could just notate them on the report so that everybody is aware CIP is aware fincon border selectment Etc now meeting is you know what we've had to string out because msba is not uh doing that anymore or at the moment they've suspended it I should say okay thank you sir okay we good with town meeting okay thank you okay new business superintendent search something near and dear here we go uh first and foremost I did have a uh conversation with uh Tom Scott at m-a-s-s uh last week the week before with regards to posting for an interim type of deal I asked doc to give it to kind of work on something to get up to him uh and put out there I personally I'm looking at if they come back for our December meeting which is excuse me December 12th type of deal and then we have some time to look at them and uh make some type of a decision in January you know take take what you know we look at them take our top three and interview them and see who we can who we can put in place how does that work for everybody thank you Mr chair so yeah you know that that's certainly an option um we're looking so I'm sorry we're looking for your last day Dr Gifford is March 1st okay so March April May June so so four months yeah my only concern about bringing in a retired Superintendent at this point with four I could fully I would 100 percent agree with if this was going to be a year position if this was going to be a year-long or a six-month position but to to bring in a retired superintendent for four months that doesn't know Dartmouth that is really gonna we're gonna our staff is gonna have to spend time bringing that person up to speed you know I would personally and this is just for for take it for what it's worth you know I I think that we have people that are very uh well versed in house um to to get us through the four months um you know personally and once again you know and I I hate to put them on the spot but we have our we have our own Mr Kylie um he's um I I've been very impressed with him since I've come on the committee I've known him for close to 10 years he was on the first superintendent search um you know I don't know if it's in his uh desire a wheelhouse um to uh to get the district through and help us out for four months but we do have a solid leadership team under Dr Gifford we brought into two curriculum directors um so you know my thought would be to you know asked Mr Kylie if he this is something that he'd be interested in in the Endeavor because one we're also going to have the opportunity to have a considerable amount of overlap here because the the two of you have worked together for eight years now um so there's a lot of shared institutional knowledge um so that's just my thought that we have a very viable candidate in-house to pay a superintendent of to pay a retired superintendent forty thousand fifty thousand dollars um and have them our own resources get them up to speed um you know to where we're at to bring in someone new you know I I would just uh be interested to hear the committee's thoughts that's that's kind of where I'm at um on the hiring a new superintendent I think we should look at immediately uh region all right we'll we'll go there thank you that's thanks Chris Dr Jenkins oh I have to go next um yeah that's fine um it's kind of awkward to like ask someone how they feel on the spot in an open meeting like do you want to do it I know but we have to have this conversation um in open meetings so I guess what I would say is uh I'm not a verse to Mr Oliver's idea I don't want to put Mr Kylie on the spot to have to make a decision now um so maybe it's something that can be explored between now and our next meeting and come back because I don't want Mr Kylie to feel like well maybe he's like no and he can tell us that right now but if the answer is maybe then maybe we should wait until our next meeting to see where we stand on that if the committee is okay with it I wasn't expecting a response tonight by any means foreign with maybe having that conversation internally about whether or not they think that could work I think again for four months um you know we had experience we had a vacancy in our office we brought someone in and it ended up being more time for me to train the person to do the work than to actually do the work and then they left after four months and then I had to train someone new again and so um I can see the value like sometimes it's just easier to get something done as opposed to having to train someone for a short period of time so I can see the advantages to that certainly thank you ma'am yes Emerald I I am agreeable to what Chris brought up um as I see Jim kind of going down in his seat but and I'm agreeable to what uh Dr um Jenkins mentioned obviously not you know to think it through you know um because of all the reasons mentioned you know unless you know alternative if we had a you know Mr Shea in our back pockets come back yeah different one but um you know um sorry that's kind of funny yeah I I I agree I mean I would be agreeable to something like that if it were a possibility based on um all of it was mentioned I agree yeah okay okay so I guess I'm the only fly in the ointment but that's okay so what else is new no uh and believe me one of the wonderful classes I took was on superintendent searches at the school committee which was excellent by the way but we'll get into that in a bit uh I've thought about that was kind of like the first thought out of my mouth my my head my mouth to me when Dr Gifford said to Kathleen and I that type of deal but I also wanted to stand the constraints that Mr Kiley is under it's budget season that type of deal and you know everything else that is going on so if you know he written and again I'm not putting him on the spot if he was to respectfully decline I would totally understand that if he was to accept I would totally understand that and appreciate it so that's where I stand on this okay I mean in talking with Tom Scott at Ms m-a-s-s there are a number of good candidates out there some from the area that are kind of familiar with Dartmouth so in you know with for argumentative sake it's not like we're getting somebody from you know North Adams Massachusetts who is Dartmouth you know that type of deal so that's a possibility of I mean we can rehash and I don't mean to that we can talk about this again at our next next meeting if we if we want I'm good with that that part of it so it's not like we need somebody tomorrow right exactly so I'm good with that plenty of time right okay plenty of time but yeah we have enough time it'll be here enough it'll be here in a hurry okay in addition that being said as I said at the masc uh conference last week there was uh a session on searching for a superintendent and I gave you one of these they had some handouts so I've get you know the you know that and this was an masc that they ran type of deal Dorothy ran it but she did a great job she wasn't higher us that type of deal here were the things you needed to look at and go through in that type of deal nestec was also there the Collins Center was also there so those those are the three because for the most part you've got to get three you've got to do your best to get three bids if you know when we hire Dr Gifford if those of you that were on we had two we only got two we tried for a third and there was we couldn't get a third to submit a bid well you snooze you lose okay that type of deal uh so we we have that type of deal we're going to need to bring them in and maybe we look at bringing them in in December okay December again at December 12th we'll just stack that meeting to the guilt type of deal will bring we'll put an RFP together for uh yeah we can sort of have one got one I'm getting sure yeah from the nine years ago yeah you know make it take and make the tweaks you know and just put it out there and you know I know talking with masc and and NASDAQ and even The Colony Center they want they were interested so again you put it out there whoever applies that type of deal I will say this is and it was drilled into our heads uh at this session type of deal is this is our baby we own this process okay I will and please allow me with my 32 years of experience to expound on this you are going to get we are going to get a lot of phone call once this thing becomes public you know the finalists become public because everything is done behind closed doors until the finalists are announced once the finalists are announced and I'll talk about this more but we will get a lot of phone calls a lot of emails you know Johnny Susie Jimmy Timmy whatever type of deal thank you very much looking at everything so I just want you to you know as as to to be aware of what is coming down the pike we do have time you know they were talking about you know Dorothy talked about you know December January putting things out she says at the moment there would there would probably be a good pool to to grab from so which is which is nice to hear type of deal so that's my spiel on this and I'm open to any and all suggestions so please let me know Chris So the plan is December whoever wants to come we'll put out the RF RFP whoever wants to come I think they that's like the the deadline we need to people have people in here by December to present to the committee because this needs to go public with it with a flyer and because if you remember we have to there's a lot of putting together we probably still have the brochure and a lot of the paraphernalia that goes along with the superintendent search um that this needs to go public on all the websites by sometime in January yes exactly to get that out there exactly everything it's going to start dropping in the meetings that whomever will need to schedule excuse me with community members faculty staff us right things of that nature anybody else with a question comments Dr Jenkins about the time the time I was here for the last one we heard Dr Gifford it was great it was great because I think you two did it and I didn't have to do it of the five of us oh Mr Garth okay but I think you know that's right Chris was on that committee that's right we have to we have to be mindful of the fact that there's also an election right in the middle of this and I you know I hope that my colleagues continue if they decide to run but I do think we should be mindful of that because we do want continuity I mean the last thing we want is for someone to be on the committee and then not be on the committee because that disrupts the continuity of the process if we're doing I mean we can do all of us being on the committee but if we do it like the last time yeah I think ultimately it's it might come down to two of the three of us because of to ensure continuity yeah you're gonna need you're gonna need I think we did two left yeah you're gonna have yeah you normally have two you know two ones you can do more but then you've got to do all it's a regular meeting and the postings and yeah it's a regular committee it's a regular committee but it ends up being an executive session because of the you've got all of that right open meeting lost stuff absolutely I'm seeing Mr Smith roll his eyes as he you know we talk about that but uh yeah it all it all has to be so yeah two and then you know somewhere down the line we're going to have to think of how big a committee do we want okay not yep and again out of the box my thought is nine to eleven I think we had 11 last night yeah someone tells me about 11.
no that's an annual government okay thank you is it concerning that physical safety is only at 71 no and I can tell you why because that that number jumps out to me as well and you'll actually find uh one of the two questions that make up that that uh component in my areas of strength actual I feel safer than the building is in the 90s that is I have seen someone be pushed at school okay what is the social emotional security like you know a 68 for that is in the lower and comparative what do you attribute that to like you obviously know the question just broken down better than we do right now we have a little info on that I will and actually I would love to defer that to my goals where I actually show you the four questions that bring that down the lowest and my targets to go up to the road but I can show you the language but yes physical safety I can tell you exactly what it's only two questions one of them is I feel safe at school but the other one is I've seen someone be pushed at school yeah and that that response was low uh a lot of pushing going on yeah you've seen the size of our hallways no I think I think the ambiguity of that but if they were to ask about fights at school sure that our discipline reports that's not okay Middle School's not you know in safety course okay I'm sorry I have a question Alicia um so on the numbers drafts that don't have like the plus next to them does that signify that the percentages were similar last year or the same roughly again I I highlighted those because Panorama highlighted them to me um and so I if I put them next to each other I'm sure you would see some discrepancy but those were highlighted to me as notable areas of broke so I thought I would include them as well but uh it is uh fair to say that those other numbers are roughly in those similar ballparks fit from uh 21 to 22.
it's hard to say right right could be because of that um but definitely we have seen an increase of 20 or up to 23 percent you'll note that the state has also seen an increase of 8.7 but this is something that we are definitely focused on and working uh on as well and some of this is communication because again it's excused absences as well when you look at this I'm sorry is it calendar year yeah school year school year not countable so 2020 is the school year 20.
again I'm going to turn this over to Dr Cara to kind of talk a little bit about this and then Miss Chess is here also to answer any questions that we may have may have Dr Karen yeah including this year some of the things that we began to see coming after covid we started seeing some of our little ones coming back I think the first year we weren't seeing so many but all of a sudden people were feeling more safe they were rolling their children there was waiting lists and I know talking to Miss Chester she'd say oh my goodness I've got all these children that are waiting to come in the other thing we started noticing this year especially in our kindergarten level we have a lot of children throughout the district that are five years old and in kindergarten and many of our children have not had preschool experiences they need more play-based instruction and we're seeing a lot of discipline problems with our students because they're just not ready they have a difficult time with fidgeting walking around managing um you know some impulsive behaviors a lot of that could be developmental so what we're also thinking that we probably need to start looking at is a transitional kindergarten program that would be for students that would be maybe five years old and instead of starting in kindergarten we would have a transitional kindergarten program for them it may be a half day maybe a full day and again more play-based instruction and getting them used to doing school as opposed to just putting right into a traditional kindergarten program so we see a lot of that coming and that has been emerging across the district as we speak so we would be looking for screening them to determine what type of program would be helpful for them this kind of program we would need to probably house at the ELC program because students within that program could just transition nicely into that to receive additional services so we do believe that we will have enough right now to house at least one classroom for that now the other piece that we're looking at again as you know we are trying to attract and maintain our teachers in attracting staff we've got Miss Trish that has been going out to all the universities and trying to you know share all the great things that are going on here but what we notice is we have a lot of staff that have little bitty kids here a lot of small children that they're looking for daycare and you know managing you know two two working um parent can be challenging especially for teachers because it's very difficult to you know you can't just call off work you've got sub plans to do and it can be difficult so what we would be thinking also is to open up a daycare center for teachers children that they could have their child come to school and then they could go off to work and then they could come and either see them at noon if they had a break if there was something going on or come and get them right after school we do believe there's not that many schools that do offer that there is one in Naperville that has offered one that I had been to before but it would be something very attractive that not a lot of other districts offer which could make us a little bit more competitive and something we can go out and market and it would be a nice place to house An Early Childhood Center or the daycare center for staff if it wasn't full with staff students we could certainly Outsource it and open it up to other members of the community so we're seeing a lot of places that we could use and really expand this Early Childhood Program not only to attract new teachers but to support our staff to let them know we're here to help them as a family help take care of their children while they're working and then also to try to expand our Early Childhood Program and get more screeners out there to get more of our students in because a lot of our kindergartners you know have been struggling in the last couple years so anyway those are some thoughts that we have for really the value of expanding this program and this building could facilitate that uh Miss Chessa would you like to maybe come up and talk a little bit about some of the uh the needs that you're seeing with students that might be on the waiting list uh screenings that you're seeing any thoughts on um you know a transitional kindergarten program hello there you go there you go all right here we go good evening everyone so this is really exciting news I love to hear the fact that our district wants to grow ELC we've been working really hard over the years our program has grown tremendously since it started back in the 80s we were in that little spot over at Creed Elementary in the wing that they've completely rehabbed and here we've been here probably about 15 years now and groaned so much that we don't have any other space for classrooms so I talked to Dr Kara recently about what you know while they're doing construction can we add on some offices can we you know so that we can take a couple we can get a couple more rooms out of what we have but this is exciting to hear that we would have access to the entire building um right now we have about 213 students enrolled in our program our child find has grown we usually in the beginning of the school year it starts off very small so we have six checkpoints during the year that we do screenings so and we've added on another layer where we do online screenings so our children are coming in we're we're searching we're finding we want more access that they can come to us that we can find them that we can get them screened and find programming so whether they are at risk or they need further testing where they would go into a special education classroom we're trying to find them get them in so they can get prepared for kindergarten and we're doing screenings for birth through three so those little ones that are out there that parents aren't quite sure if they're if they're at their age level or they may need extra support we guide them as well um to early intervention so the earlier that we find these these kiddos the better so that's what we found and so getting our program grown is wonderful we have found that with this new online system right now so far in the school year we have 223 parents requesting screenings we have completed 122 of those screenings so far um we have 81 right now in process so I have another screening this week that's in person and we're doing checkpoints so I have probably about 15 kiddos coming in um in person and then we have another group that are being screened online so but how many openings do we have we're asking we have 10 spots available for our at-risk students right now now last month I actually filled them and because we did further testing some of our groups of children have moved on into a special education environment so that opened up some availability but on that I just wanted to note that out of all the screening we had probably about 20 parents just drop just stop the process we found that because we didn't have an all-day program that was an issue they didn't want to leave their daycare so now that we have transportation which I have to thank all of you Ken I I just it's incredible because it's helped our families get their students into our program some families though are have daycares that are out of the district and we can't they can't benefit from Transportation so they're looking for all-day programming so we're kind of keeping an eye on how many families are dropping because of that or that have started our process and found that they still they need an all-day program so I would like to keep an eye out for future grants there's a PFA a preschool for all expansion grant that is out there and that allows us to have a full day program and it's not if even if we add on one more class we can do a weighted criteria and get to those families that need their children to have a full day program so that's an option that I want to look into for the future another possibility of a grant is called prevention initiative and that Grant is to help educate our families so it's reaching those families with birth through three children providing that education that Mom and me type setting class they're not here all day it's home visits it's that education piece so we're starting again we're starting earlier we're reaching those families we get we're getting them connected with the school district and having that opportunity to grow on and build our program so that's that's another option that's out there but again a second Grant so let me add one more piece I forgot is we are looking to build out this program the the benefit at the high school would be the students can come over walk over and they can do the pathway program for Education they can come over and do hours at the daycare center or at the ELC program and we could really start building our future teachers as well so it's a it's a cyclical program that really has the benefits from both ends and it's wonderful and that I want to add on to Dr Cara um introduced us to Lewis University this past year and they had grants available to pay for our paraprofessionals in the district to go to school and get their degree and their certifications needed and I just have to let you know that that's incredible because I have a handful of my paraprofessionals that have been here forever that have not had the opportunity to go back to school because they need to work well now they can work and go to school at the same time and they can student teach here while they're working and get their certifications then they can we're growing our future teachers here as well so I have I have put in for hire two of our paraprofessionals in their district one in our building one in another building for our two open positions that we have right now it's exciting well I can tell you when I started here in 2015 I thought it was a babysitting facility I had no clue what ELC was and talking to you getting closer to kids and this is Mike Therese dream if you recall way back when he kept saying we need to get more of our kiddos in we need our kindergarten teachers are saying that we need to get more of our kiddos in and to me there's nothing better than getting them started early I mean reading to a child when they're in womb even starts that whole process and every time I think about the possibilities that you offer each and every day to all of our kids it's it's marvelous and you talking about all these other things other that no one knows about I mean there's so many opportunities that people just don't know about and we're blessed to have you and your team and I would like nothing better than to see it just keep growing and all the great things that you hear and see about ELC so thank you to you and your staff number one but number two I can't think of any better way than to get them when they're young and get them on the right track so absolutely yeah yeah Kelly I mean he was just knocking it out the park as you were speaking there I mean again it goes back to this 30-hour trip that I had on a trainer a few days back and reading this article and all that and basically reading verbiage that basically said that five-year-olds minority five-year-olds coming into kindergarten is already two years behind black kids compared to white kids and other minorities two years behind for various reasons social economics things of that nature okay so and I believe it was you Dr cogley's a couple years ago basically saying it's been a study out there that kids are behind before they hit kindergarten and now you have kids here three four and five-year-old now I hear you talking about taking assessments on one-year-olds to three-year-olds and that is remarkable and one thing I would take out of this conversation is more daycare you know just because that's kind of a that's kind of a negative connotation as seen from Outsiders schools we don't want to take care of kids but this is ELC Early Learning Center so if we can come up with another phrase for the earlier kids and and that's great as a benefit possibly bring having teachers you know caring for their kids in a way but put them in a learning environment as opposed what you probably that's the intent but not just use that phrase daycare you know but a Learning Center so if we get our kids because how do we expect our kids if they're coming into school two years behind and then when we teach them algebra and geometry and things like that and other reading courses that we expect them to pass how do we expect them to be up to par in the fifth grade and the sixth grade when they get to kokona's class and things like that how do we expect that you guys are you know really behind the eight ball trying to bring our kids up to speed so we need to do everything in our power as board members as Educators and all of that to try to get our kids when they enter the kindergarten just as ready as possible all of our kids all of our kids so it's still a lot of unknowns out there but I think this is you just was knocking it you was saying what I want to hear I didn't expect it and Dr cogmanisa has been saying it to in different ways and to hear it come from you and it just did my heart well do we have do we have evidence within the district and Chantel maybe you can speak to this but children who have gone through our ELC do they perform better when they get to to the elementary school or do we is there any data or yeah we do have some data um that we get from the University of Chicago that we've been working with for some years so I can pull that data together that compares I mean it seems like it would make sense but you know you're just curious if we've tracked it or could see the fruits of it of the labor so to speak yes I'll I'll add it to next week I think if we remember back in our strategic plan we were struggling in kindergarten and if I'm not mistaken it was sixth or ninth I don't remember it was two grades and kindergarten was one of them is because I think as you know our program only allowed so many kids per year when so many other kids just didn't go to preschool because they couldn't afford to send their kids to Private Preschool so opening this up allows us to reach our kids at an earlier date and more of them that's I think the goal to make it so when they they start learning at a three-year-old Pace like you said then as they get into kindergarten at least the social aspect of it understanding how to be together and what rules are and what a day versus even if it's a half a day they understand that they're going to school and what the expectation is the expectation at three four and five years old and and again it cannot all be accomplished here by your teachers along it's going to take a lot it's going to take a much more apparent parental engagement all of those things to bring our kids up to speed and that's what we're here we read our mission statement our vice president Reid our mission statement all the time to empower our kids so they can be social responsible students out there in the world but you know I see the scores and this is again no knock on our district I think we're doing a tremendous job this is kind of a global thing here you see the scores you see the achievement gaps you see the gaps are there and we need to do our part which we are we are doing our part and I take my hand hat off to all you Educators this you know you're dealing with the hand you're dealt with and trying to make the best at what you have and I just think that what you were speaking on here I think that's a big big part of it the close that achievement Gap get these kids early see what we could do with them early and we better prepared to get to our K through six and K through 12 and we'll see those gaps on in my opinion close that much more so Ken for our you can stay because we may have more questions but get Ken back up here stay over there or stay here yeah stay right there stay right there I'll just stand behind you so how many for kind of moving the administration out of this out of this building sure for a million dollars how many more classrooms do we get well when you start looking at it that's why you know right now Kelly has her main office in one room and then she has her offices in another room those are actually classrooms so we would pick those up we would pick up room 35 here would be could become a classroom I've got a room next door which is 37 it could be a classroom and then so there's four classrooms right there I've got you know we're talking about the possibility of even moving Tech out and if tech moves out of here also we pick up another couple classrooms there's some storage and then a classroom so in essence you really could pick up with no problem five classrooms and then I think over really where our main offices are you know Kelly and I've had a little bit of conversation of this move all of our main office's reception area over there and then also I think we may can we can probably put up a doorway a couple temp walls and all that stuff not Tempo the permanent walls so that you can pick up another classroom there so there's probably six or seven classrooms that you could easily pick up uh without a lot of capital um money invested in them again we've already done the HVAC so everything is zoned out already too and we're in good shape there too so uh so I think you know and our plan is to replace all the carpet too so all that's coming up so that's all part of the plan already so it really would not take a lot more so Staffing there is available funding through preschool for all grants well we think we think about probably by so Kelly always has this problem of not asking for money I don't have a problem asking for money oh so yeah I know so so so our goal is to try and increase the money that we have coming in from the uh from our uh preschool for all Grant to pay for some of these teachers also yes okay so you can let's say that all works where are we going to find the teachers good and that's where our partnership comes into play with Lewis University so we have Paras that are going through programming right now so we are growing them to get their certifications in early childhood special endorsement ell um so if they have all of that they have the possibility if we have openings to apply for that and um gov I was adjusting the day Governor state has correct something as well they also have where our students can earn college credit our high school students can earn college credits by going through if we partner with them through for a program as well as they begin to they can earn their parapro something certification and as well as team with our parapro super can become Educators they can work as they go and then they can work as they go sodium Grant as as well going on right now are for our paraprofessionals so they have the opportunity to work here and to go to school for free maybe not 100 but um a great amount of that money is paid our schooling is paid for right now which is great so I don't know how much more that goes I know one of it one of the grants go until December this year and then I I heard there was another funding that was opened up and people were applying um to go back to school so we have a lot of parents that are back in school which is very exciting to me they finally they have that opportunity and then of course they're looking the the colleges are looking into they know they realize that early childhood education was getting smaller and smaller so they're they're encouraging that they're building their programs and by having these funds out there hopefully we'll see more people coming in this area that's that's our goal so whether we get the grants added on ask for more money you know there's there's a lot of opportunities out there to help us grow let's see okay and what this building used to be a full school right yes my husband went to this the school and it was elementary so yeah that's well create money but anyhow um I think you're high back in the day I think you're going to get a lot more classrooms than six out of the open space you have to be honest I mean this is way bigger you counter this as one this is more than one room so um Kelly please please don't be afraid to ask him for money be free to ask us for money maybe but not him make him come to us that was back when you didn't get credits for electives you you know you and I are gonna have a little talk after this mister they pick on me about a little statement I made a couple years ago he was he was just because I was afraid of losing it or right I mean because we've had it for so many years I didn't want to be that person that asked for something and they took it away and he's like no no no no no no no no no we right yes well well Kelly is the grant money you're talking about because I read something about the governor release grant money back in August of this year is that the sum of money for early learning I believe that it was like August of last year he released I don't know so many millions of dollars the governor okay with Louis I'm talking yeah I just saw something I recall reading something that says Governor release x amount of million dollars approve x amount of million dollars for early learning programs and that was in August of this year's just a couple months ago so I don't know I think I share this with Ken and Dr Carolyn Dr Care on this so I don't know if you've got more information or would you seek more information I don't all I will say is that I know Governor pritzker is you know high on his agenda yeah early for early learning no education so he can change to try and fund that more and more and more so I think as the uh depending on you know what happens at the midterms here but again I I see that continuing I can see him continuing be putting more money than in there so I think the rest they asked for okay okay what's tomorrow let's keep going on sure thanks Kelly thank you very much so picking up on that in order to expand the program that means the Administration has to move out of here and so one of the things is to relocate our administrative offices to the former old plain Trail Bank operations building which would mean we would purchase the property from wintrust bank we would also need to construct an addition there for some more offices and a boardroom professional development area with separate entrances I I'm estimating the cost at about three million dollars I'll update you on on the latest of this uh however you know as as you may know right now room 35 why we have it for board meetings we also use this for professional development if we moved over there we would not have that uh room to be used and so my thought is that we would put on an addition so that we would have an addition that would house um what I'm calling a boardroom professional development with a separate separate entrance so that the board meetings would be there and then it could be used for professional development also we've had offices so on one side of the building would be OTL office of teaching and learning along with the superintendent's office professional development on the other side would be HR business and then we're looking also at bringing technology over there um the building is for sale um I will not go into quite honestly sales prices that's something I can talk to the board about in closed session and we we do have we can't do that in closed session because I don't want to make the jet any negotiating thing but they are in the process of getting a new appraisal for that property for us in order to sell that property the president bank has told me that they have to have an appraisal within 12 months of sale by law so he's getting that once I have that price he has said to me that he will let me have that appraisal he's just looking he can't take a loss on the building that's um I will share that uh when we talked about we're moving over there for two months and so the rent for that is going to be five thousand dollars for both for entitled 2500 a month he said if we do purchase a property he will credit us back that money also you know so uh again I just estimated this price and that would include also the addition that is on there that is really just an estimate I haven't even started looking at plans for that I have had our architect over to the building to take a look at it he's got the blueprints he's just waiting for me we haven't put any money in his work at all he's just waiting for me to give him the knot if we want to start looking at developing some type of addition onto that building okay I have also talked to the uh the president of the bank who has said he will give us an easement coming through his lot so that we can enter that way we do not have to put another entrance in at all we can do that so that's not a problem he also said that we'd be he'd be happy to allow us to put a sign out there for our district offices as long as it doesn't block his big LED sideways I don't think it will but he said he would allows to do that no school buses at all so this is all be you know office traffic uh he's that concerned about board meet you know because board meetings will take place after the bank uh is closed so even if we had a meeting that would be attended large by the public we can also use there a lot so that's not a problem either um I I estimated this I can actually we we think we can get this done in the fall of 23 which then would allow us to get this place ready for 25 uh we could do that so uh just to kind of let you know that the last thing that I will share are the outdoor areas the outdoor classrooms uh What I Call Outdoor whipping centers this is just kind of a sample of what we could do at Balmoral I think as the board knows we did the ELC Courtyard here which is just been an absolute hit as Kelly can tell you with the staff and with the kids it's great to be in the offices and just hear the kids out there all the time uh so what we would do is we would put Outdoor Learning Centers like this everything would be AstroTurf with some small breakout areas a bigger area that we do this is just kind of a sample at Balmoral but what we would do is we could do balmoro create CSK and also the middle school we would do their Courtyard also estimating the cost of that of about 1.5 million dollars it does sound High it is high most of it is because we have to Crane everything over the roof in order to get it into those areas and that which is what we had to do here looking at that probably completion somewhere around August of 25 this would probably be on you know the back end of our our list so let me let's go in a little bit about financing and about total costs and everything so the entire plan is costing about 25.6 million dollars you'll see the breakdown of all the costs here again this is pretty high level first crack at all the estimates could come in a little bit cheaper I think but that at least gives us kind of a where we're looking at right now so the question comes up is how do we fund this so I'm going to talk a little bit about tips here I'm not going to talk a lot it's I'm going to talk about tips during my Levy presentation I'm going to go into it in depth because it is going to be uh big become a large amount of income that's coming into so there are two tips that are going to be rolling off one is we'll need tip number three one is up tip number five this is the annual revenue that we would get into the district now again this is not a one-time thing this is an annual amount that we would get into the district into our operating funds about 5.929 I'm just going to say six million dollars to round it up we'll start getting this money in June of 25 and that all right I'll go into detail about that again during my Levy presentation but that's going to be coming in but what you can do is you could sell alternate revenue bonds which is again you're selling the bonds based on getting that Revenue in that's what this that's what alternate Revenue bond is I've contacted PMA who's our financial advisor that does all of this stuff and again uh if this is a route you want to go that I would recommend and if you're interested in that I could bring PMA in for a discussion probably in January sometime to go over this it is an alternate bond is issued using a revenue source as a pledge of security for the payment of principal and interest there are some guidelines associated with that we meet all the guidelines this the revenue that we have coming in from the Tiff we'll meet those guidelines there is still a petition period a 30-day petition period like there was before so that would still have to take place this is a chart there's a lot of small numbers on here but this is a chart that I've asked PMA to put together because if you remember back on this slide we've got about six million dollars coming in so I said okay that's six million dollars what if I use up here these two columns are 1.5 million dollars of an annual payment towards a bond payment how much money can I get on that these two columns is if I use two million dollars this is if I use 2.5 million dollars of that money okay the two columns will tell you if one I'm selling the bonds this column scenario one on here is if I sold the bonds in 23 next year and get the money or I can wait till 24 and sell it can I get a little bit more which you'll see and I'll go through the bottom line here so again 1.5 million selling 23 24.
yeah and that's fine you know again nine to eleven so it doesn't become too uh overburdened that type of deal so again things that we can think about and kind of finalize up come you know our next meeting on December December December 12th we can kind of finalize this Kathleen um purview of special education which is really important um which I I would love to do again and I and and um no announcement but I do believe I might I if if I do if I run for school committee again which I I anyway I do plan to do that because I'm really passionate and feel like I've got some more work to do however um would it say say the committee when we decide would I be able to sit as a parent it would have to be as a company okay yeah all right so that's that's how that would unfortunately that's how that would flow okay that's it Miss White I don't think I have anything right okay that's right Chris anything else you could no I'm good so all right so we get the RFP yep ready to go ready to go yep Jim yeah technically it won't be an RFP the dollar threshold is going to be such that it's going to be below it's going to be a quote process that's right I'm assuming unless things have really changed in terms of the pricing I hope not um so that'll help because it'll expedite our ability to get quotes and evaluate them and bring them to you and you know so I can pull out what we have from the previous search and maybe share that with you Mr Nunes and you can take a look at it and see if it sort of fits the bill and what it is I don't think you know that much has changed that kind of things yeah yeah no problem thank you sir certain things like that I will defer very good okay that takes care of that next on our agenda is uh proposed meeting dates for January through June so it looks like everybody got back to anything yeah everybody's good January 9th and the 23rd February 13th because of the vacation week right March 6th March 20th April 10th April 24th May 15th June 6 and June 27th so we'll go with those so I think a motion I don't know about my availability in at the end of May and into June but if I'm not here for one of them it's not the end of the world yeah that's fine we can if something pops up Shannon we probably hopefully have got the flexibility to pop it up once pop it down one I'll let you know if anything yeah that's fine same way a little bit at the end of May and they might be the same way yeah no way yeah moving time moving day yes all right so take a motion to approve these it's all moved okay second by Dr Jenkins second by Ms wait on the motion any discussion share hearing that all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously yeah all right superintendent's update okay I was going to mention the Envision learning and uh portrait of valerna but they covered that so I think we're good with all of that I just wanted to mention we got continuing with the Bay State textile uh as you know the bins but I just wanted to bring this up because we every month we get a report of what the school so this month was 1280 in the school so it continues and I will I will also note that it is now illegal to throw away textiles in the state of Massachusetts so handily we have bins at all we'll get more to help you yeah can we get more bins I was just curious about that like because I knew at one point we're having a problem with capacity and then so and now if this is the you know if it is the law like with that because we've had stuff like that was an issue for us I'm wondering maybe we could like put them on other town properties all over the place but only if they come back to us right that's right you throw up on the farm why not it was a big discussion about select boards yeah yeah but it's been a good program and again this money goes in the principles funds and whether they use it Cushman is barely leading the way I think like anyway speaking of Cushman Justine Dr Dale called me and they she received another five thousand dollars from the Feinstein Institute and they get the golden ticket at the school so today she decided to go pick the checkup from Mr Feinstein because he's getting quite older but um she he wasn't available so she was kind of bummed usually she just has them send it so that's exciting um I want to bring up it's it's a little bit in the distance but we are having two presentations um I don't think you were there during our orientation days but we had one of the days we had a group called minding your mind present to the teachers and it it this group is um minding your mind and it's a it's it's kind of funny the first time we had them they said oh just give us some money like it's not a it's almost like a non-profit if you will um it's a it's a I'll just read kind of it's minding your mind is dedicated to ending stigma and destructive behaviors associated with mental health issues moving away from a crisis-based response to prevention through education they use storytelling all of their speakers have been through some kind of crisis in their lives um and the young man that we had we actually saw him oh it's probably two years ago already at a special education Summit and it was so powerful this young man that spoke about his life and how he always portrayed himself as the young kid that was happy and go lucky and involved but deep down inside he was struggling so much and um had the the signs of depression and and attempted suicide Etc et cetera but he speaks about how educators and people that come into the life to help so it was so powerful followed by one of the psychologists that works and and giving tips and resources and works in the group as well so we decided a number of teachers came up to us and and said how wonderful it was that we are bringing them to our middle and high school students to speak about you know this hope and there's there's people you can reach out to and that kind of thing so that's going to be on December 7th and 8th for the day programs the middle and high but also on December 7th we are offering a parent night same thing and that would be we'll have more advertisement but I just kind of want to put that out there it's really a wonderful wonderful group of people also I think you probably saw her on our Facebook page that Sarah Duke is over at the middle school attended the association for middle level education National Conference in Orlando and and she was she had texted me a couple of days before she went she was like gulp because she knew she was presenting with some other colleagues that are on the Committees it's called the constituent committee from that group but she didn't realize her presentation was a featured presentation on the brochure so she kind of had a heart attack over that but all went well so okay that's great yeah we're proud of that I did email you the comprehensive District review report and as I said I just received that matter of fact Mr Oliver asked me at the conference and I said we just had a draft we were correct and then lo and behold we got the final report so as I said I really haven't had a chance to really review it but a quick review is it it's okay and again there's no corrective action it's just something that's posted on Dusty so you can take a look at that and we can certainly discuss it at another meeting just bring up some of the highlights as I remember if you remember they visited all of our schools they were here for quite a few days so yeah um and just as we get that report we get I get another email and I know Miss townsends about this the tiered Focus monitoring visits that are coming up for the next next audit if you will or review so on March 28th and 29th they'll be coming and that focuses on special education and civil rights um You probably as high school parents uh Mr Shea put out a all-call they're having analyst drill tomorrow so again keeping up with our safety protocols so staff are aware of that and parents have been made aware as well um you all know about November 10th so I guess many of you will be here at the high school for the celebration of the unified as a unified Banner school again and being able to celebrate our students at halftime with that and then one last very important as you're speaking of replacing me um and I know Mr Nunes is going to read it also um Miss Townsend will be resigning at the end of the school year you might know she's been in law school and is now heading in a new direction to practice law so she'll be with us longer than me till the end but um that's kind of exciting for her and I take credit because I was the one that encouraged her to go to law school so there you go so congratulations so she's taking the bar this summer and we wish her all the best on that so yeah she's not gone yet but no she's not going you know you know you're in trouble when you know you're the chair and you get an email from the sped director that says do you have a few minutes next week or something so you know this day that day so yep how about Monday at 10 o'clock okay and I'm sitting at I'm sitting at home having breakfast and I look and it's a quarter of ten and I'm like I'm not going to get there at 10 o'clock send her a quick text I'm running late you know no problem but she was right into that because I'm done okay so she said you know that she was leaving and this is her letter that stated October 31st 2022 it's addressed to myself as chairman and to Dr Bonnie Gifford superintendent of diamond Public Schools Dear Mr Nunes and Dr Gifford according to the terms of my contract of employment with the Dartmouth Public Schools I hereby notify the school committee that my covering contract will expire on June 30th 2023 I write to inform you that I will not be seeking a successor contract to begin on July 1st 2023.
okay thank you foreign Target here is um are our academic goals so this goal is uh simply that our students will improve their skills and the areas of reading and Mathematics this is a goal that I've kept consistent because it's broad enough to cover these vital skills they also correlate to the smarter balanced assessments which are language arts and math um given recent performance which I have on the next page so I'll get there in a second I believe that 80 of seventh graders I would like to see 80 of our seventh graders be at a profession or above on the smarter balance assessment and 70 of 8th graders scoring next four problems assessment in the spring and 23 math 70 of both grades uh given where uh where they were and where they are I think that seventh am 8th grade we're all getting up to 70 at coefficient or higher net or hired on the 23 Smarter Balance math assessment are ambitious but achievable tolerance and adjust it by that on the next slide where here you look at the cohort performance so this is diving into some of our historical data um and so if you try to go back and if you look at what my grade history performance and then this color performance they won't match because that was seventh grade over time right about 127th graders at any given year this is tracking the current seventh graders back to when they were third graders over time so this is them as a group so in the area of language arts the current seventh graders were have held in the mid 70s throughout now there's a little bit of flexibility in that number because it does not include anyone who's moved to town after third grade it's a pure covert that number is an accurately true cohort so it's roughly 83-ish students and the only reason I say issue is that either Seven eighth grade is different but it's roughly in the 80s of the students that have been here since third grade all the way through eight and then so that's a true cohort but they've stayed in the 70s and so I'm setting my target for them to beat 80 move off meanwhile create that cohort has been in the mid 70s and after the covid uh after the shutdown they had come back and held in the mid 60s so I'm setting the school-wide target for that grade to be at 70 uh proficient or above in the area of language arts below that is another piece of data to help us diagnose that this is star data star you may have heard from some of the other presentations I certainly taught you about it last year a tool that was introduced to Canton Public Schools last year we gave it three times last year it is a diagnostic formative assessment uh in the form of an Adaptive test so it gives kids questions and when they get it right it gives them a harder one when they get it right it gives them an easier one to try and find in the area of reading like an accurate measure of their reading level when we looked at our current seventh graders last year so including their performance as sixth graders you see that mid 60s so the projection from star that students would be performing as expected or better in the mid 60s things throughout their Sixth and then start of seventh grade eighth grade meanwhile say uh in the mid 60s in uh their seventh grade year otherwise holding steady in the mid 50s so that's a star measurement of if they were to take the smarter balance assessment right now they think that percentage would uh at goal or above so if I manage it so we have a downward Trend whether you're svac or your star there's a downward Trend correct you're hoping to hit a target of 80 you're going to grow by four percentage points and on the uh on the eighth grade you're going to try to hit 70 right so you're going to tell us later in the presentation how you think we can do that because that's quite a jump based on what the trend line is well so the so yes and I'll tell you the strategies that okay but it's also a combination of so something that intrigues me is the discrepancy between star and aspect performance which is something we're going to need to pay attention to over time and I was telling you in the spring we weren't quite sure how that was that would shake out because you need history with it so how come eighth grade as a cohort 65 last year 65 for a profession or better but stars in the spring of 22 so at the same time the day and with that group went out and got 65 Star said 59.
okay it's the ending okay are we still uh 2021 was the 2021 school yeah so looking at 2022 um last year could we have had um parents holding keeping students home because of uh fear of covid this sort of thing so um Eve dug into those numbers I'm guessing we have and actually if a student has this rating but it's only if it's documented we know it and we apply the the correct code but oftentimes we didn't know the students outside the last two years we've told anybody if you have any symptoms stay home you know go get tested so if a parent kept a kid home because they had a sore throat for a day one got tested negative results came back that would count as an as an absence because they didn't have covid they were just checking to see if they did any any feeling uh you know what the pulse of what's happening right now this year so far so our numbers were very high and I realized in September for this data date again that we had an error in The Way We Were coding some things so we are actually going back now and correcting it not for this year we corrected some yes but for this school year going back and corrected some of it because in some cases we for example knew that a student was documented out with covet but just listed the student as out medical oh so like that's just one example okay where the if you use the covid codes again it doesn't go against us for chronic gifts so we are in the process of going back and making Corrections so that we get a true number right and and do we do anything with students who are hospitalized so if a student is hospitalized and they are receiving Educational Services it does not count against us okay if a student is hospitalized for example uh isn't a car accident goes to the ER that day does count against us because we're not providing services for a single day yeah okay but long term but if it's a long-term hospitalization it could be uh for for a variety of different reasons and we are providing Services which we do that does not come against us and we had found some errors in that as well that we are correcting well returning from the pandemic this is a nationwide trend of absences being up for a multitude of reasons but this is not we're not going alone with this data right now principals and their teams have been looking at the data they've been working on lowering suspension rates we have the path program the board has supported our path program so we're looking at restorative practices so not just looking at codes and different things like that but that also discipline related absences factoring to that as well so this slide is the same idea as the other slides in terms of comparing District 99 to other DuPage County High School Districts and then to the state and while we are up 6.7 percent you'll note that the county is up 9.2 percent so this is a good one where if you look back in time we outpaced and we've switched that Trend I see that mm-hmm yeah so that's evidence of the work that we have been doing around this it's still growing though buildings have really taken a hard look at it and are very committed to reducing for example suspensions using our path program because suspensions factor in there as well even though we're suspending the student those count against in the ratings I think that the school board portion of the presentation took up at least 20 percent of the time which would keep the 18 minutes in under I think the clock's still ticking Mike as you advocate for time okay all right um as I mentioned as we opened we're going to skip the next two items to just move to the public hearing and then we'll Circle back to those items so uh let me get to that slide all right okay so Mark Stalin will explain the reasons for the key Levy and any proposed increase and we will permit anyone Desiring to be hurt an opportunity to present testimony comments will be limited to three minutes per person Mark okay I'll get to that in a little bit you know with taxes there's always something the things we do know things we don't know things that we we don't know right now what the eav is going to be for the 22 Levy calendar 22 might be an okay you'll occur in the next uh four months after after December um new construction and in this case this is a big factor we don't know new construction we do get some assessments help from the assessors and they give us estimates what they're turning in now but when we did this it's three months before the end of the year we're hoping there's some more that might come in because they're collectively the four townships only had it was less than one percent and typically it's it's two percent it might even be bigger because there was a lot of suppressed construction during the the probe period and seems we went through a period where there was actually good new construction that we'd hoped to pick up and we know what the CPI factor is that limits us for the tax caps tax caps limit Us by the lower of either CPI which is what their standard is for inflation or five percent just a flat five percent they've been in business or benefit tax caps have been around since 1992. that year the inflation Factor was six percent and so they used five percent as the starting Target over time that we have not had the inflationary Factor break and be higher than five percent until this year so the average over the last 20 years somewhere in the two to two and a half percent so this is an unusually high inflation Factor because it's a three times what the normal is and it's even higher you know one half of what that is for the that five percent limit so the issue is we are going to be having a putting a levy out but we we know that inflation and that's what this comes in for this last Levy was seven percent that we're waiting for now we even think that the next level to come along could be it could be a trend now for a couple years so we're we're trying to protect because in the green the bottom line that's our cap for the is it going to be five percent that's the lower of new construction or five percent new construction the inflation for or the five percent can so typically we might say well let's just leave it alone and see what happens but in that case you know we have we know that an expenditure side we're going to be seeing some big costs we know that we're having trouble hiring people we have people that just don't want to come and work and we know that the only way we're going to be able to resolve that paraprofessionals and and we just have a constant wanted and there's just not coming uh and nurses and so there's positions and we know that the busing is still a problem there's a huge short of drivers nationally but particularly in DuPage in these areas that just aren't enough people that want to do it and so they're going to have to pay more and so we're expecting another double digit bus cause things like that this is good and we believe that these inflationary things are going to hit us so the problem is we're having to put seven percent into the revenue side and we know I'm sorry five percent into the revenue side because we know that's what the cap is the lower of the five percent or the seven percent and we know that inflation is seven seventy seven percent so we know we're already short trying to marry those two up so it was very difficult to do this I think we've only done this one before once before in the district it's during my time um so that's the issue so now we we to do that you have to have a truth and Taxation hearing that's what this is we had to put it in the newspaper so that it was properly notifying the community members and we had to discuss what the problem is that's that's causing us to exceed five percent and the fact that we're seeing it at seven percent it's nuts for for this year and it's trending could hit eight percent across that's just through September um on the top it could be another higher digit that we're you know you're gonna have to be kept it five percent we might have to do this again next year depending on what we see now the I'm trying to make sense of the percentages you list and and the numbers go up and down the yeah this is straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said what the percentage is each month month over so then then what are the what are the numbers underneath the line so that's that's what the value isn't that the just so it's a it's for me really to guard it okay those that's what they do a basket of goods and they so they they buy a refrigerator or they they price a refrigerator and if it has newer options on it they discount it which is you know when we're trying to get to be a good number that hurts um but the the numbers underneath are what the their evaluation using their system was for that so you can see if it goes up that number goes up then the percentage goes up so it's what I typically do with this is I take the last year or last month I mean which is 296.8 and I just use it going across as if if everything was the same price in three months than it is right now this is where it would be and we would be closer to seven percent um because the bottom line is picking up and it's the difference between where the that number is 296 compared to what the number was back here it creates that percentage well the graph it's just it's a little confusing to me because I see nine one nine point one percent on the left there I see eight percent on the right but that blue line got higher so I 9.1 oh on the top yeah that's the the most most of the it's comparing what what that basket cost at that point in time so 296 compared to 271.
2 million 23 24 2.5 million 23 24. because you know I tried to find this on tape but I remember Mr Brown asking me a question about three or four years ago when I was doing one of my lovey presentations and we talked about Tiff she said what would you do with that Tiff money I remember you asking me this question at that time I said here's what I would do I would take a third of that and put it towards athletic facilities I would take a third of that and put it towards your operating costs and then I take the other third and put it towards the preventative maintenance program in your facilities which is what's needed and so that's what this kind of does is it breaks this up so again if you take 1.5 million dollars we've sold it in 23 we would net out 17 million if you sold if you took 1.5 million dollars in 24 18 million if you take two million dollars of that and 23 sold at 22.6 million 2 million 24 million and then if you get 2.5 million you could get 28 or 30 million my recommendation really in all honesty is this middle of the road I I think taking the two million dollars and securing it against some bonds to get you either the 22 6 or the 24 million dollars depending on when you want to sell these uh is is probably the best way to go I don't know you can go this high it's only a half a million dollars more to be honest with you and that but again I you know a little bit more conservative than this is so what then would happen is is this is that I could use Esser funds 600 000 1.4 million dollars in sr2 and sr3 funds of that I think we dip into our fund balance about 1.6 million dollars we're in good shape with that uh it would not hurt our financial rating at all we go about 1.6 and then we would get 24 point a little over 24 million dollars which would give us 27.6 million dollars in revenue for our projects and this is kind of a summary page you'll see now again you don't have to go this much but I just put it down so everything jives projects are going to cost 25.6 million dollars we would get 27.6 million dollars so you got about two million dollars extra doesn't mean you have to borrow all of it you can borrow a little bit less of it okay look like I'm sorry so I know I went through that you know those numbers are so small I know I know I and I apologize so out of the Six Million every year two million is gonna go to the debt payment 2 million is going to go into your your uh operating funds and 2 million is going to go towards preventive maintenance yes Wild Card question go ahead what if it's not there what if what's not there what percentage that money what if it's not there the Tiff money I think that's the thing that you're going to have to uh again and you know I think this is very well known I'm retired in June of 24.
over the past five years I have been pursuing my Juris doctorate degree from UMass law school what has emerged from my coursework is a love and a passion for the law beyond what I could have ever anticipated I truly feel that it is my calling to pursue a career as a lawyer after I graduate and subsequently sit for the Massachusetts bar exam in July of 2023. it has been a pleasure to serve the students and family of families of Dartmouth as the pupil support service administrator the special Educators and related service providers in Dartmouth are an inspiration to me and their work is amazing the students are incredible and the families are so nurturing and supportive over the past nine years I have learned so much and I am grateful for each and every one of my experiences while serving the district I am willing to assist in any way as you seek as you seek a candidate for the rule for the role of pupil support service administrator respectfully Elizabeth Cabral Townsend Beth all the best I know you and I taught had a long conversation type of deal but in public thank you very much for everything you will be missed wish you nothing but the best thank you sure you're putting everybody on the spot I know I know thank you so much I just want to you know I'm just emotional right now so um it's it's weird because obviously I wrote the letter but hearing it it's just um every word of it is true um I would not want to do this position or this work in any other place um this is truly just a shift in Gears and something that I've kind of come to learn is more of my calling um but this is the most incredible District I am so honored um to have been selected by you in 2014 I'm grateful for every minute um that I've spent here um thank you and um you know to all of the teachers who um and staff members who have just done the most amazing work for our students with disabilities um it truly has been an honor and a privilege and I want to thank you all very much for your support and for taking a chance on me because I know I had not been a special ed director when I got hired in 2014 so thank you for that and you know um I just look forward to continuing the work like I said through June 30th so thank you thank you thank you that's another one we're gonna have gonna have to post yeah come on now let's get into that a little later yeah that's that that's later that's you know that that's that's one of our responsibilities also so thank God for it reform okay uh yeah yeah okay my turn uh seriously uh tomorrow's election day uh polls open at seven o'clock till eight o'clock uh please do your god-given constitutional rights and go out and vote um congratulations to our sports teams and their tournament runs that they've had uh especially a volleyball who won again tonight so they move on I'm not sure when their next game is but good luck to them uh something that I was unaware of and I will do the mayor Koop is when I see uh Miss Braga their coach is that they're also incompetent they do competitions type of deal and uh found out that this past weekend they placed first in uh division two second in the SEC Conference and that's qualified him for a spot in the uh msaa Regional so congratulations to them realize that they did that so good for them we have a home football game last one of the Season uh Thursday night at seven o'clock at uh living Memorial Stadium and last but certainly not least uh congratulations to our high school band who uh scored another Trifecta type of deal they uh last weekend uh the 29th and 30th to the 29th we were in Rutgers for a band of Band of America's New Jersey Regional Championship for the first time and we ended up winning that competition with a score of a little over 86.
right so that that's just an interesting Gap and I'm glad in that case that group outperformed what stuff said they would so start one piece of information and it informed some of our strategies but then they as a group in that 60s so I do think myself but star to me seems to be more accurate because you have a pure cohort on the S back which is a little bit of a tighter uh Groove so Stars more you know more Universal I guess you're right that is representing everyone who took it right you're right so um you know still the trend Line's not good either way right I mean it highlights uh it highlights a need to use tools like Star sure really know who the kids are something we can't get away with this year like when we say things like our struggling readers and we need to know who those students are and we need to be having an action plan for in my class I know where they are and because of that I'm doing this next okay so I I don't want to jump on your presentation go ahead because I want to hear the strategies and treatments we're going to use to drive to see these numbers in the spring make some moves towards your target goal absolutely um before I even do uh the strategies are similar similar review on math and so doing that kind of short and quickly because now it's a similar pattern and pass back call word on top is third graders the current seventh graders perform very shortly for that year 86 but then settled in in the mid 50s I Target them at 70 percent uh a gold or above the current eighth grade class in the 70s then there's that trend line 64-53 um that's aspect co-work performance I think 70 is still an ambitious Target for this one I want yeah it's a huge far and on Star we see that when you look and here's a here's a case where star is if if stars were representative start things more students are proficient in that than S back shows so they're going down to the star chart this is the current seventh graders looking at their performance in sixth grade 20 20 21 16 in the mid 60s and On The Rise upon their arrival the middle to Middle School 79 73 percent the current 8th graders 70s in the 60s holding there in the mid 60s at the start of this year Mr shiver help me um these are Big discrepancies between us back and star I mean I think how do you get a read I I don't know right and how do you factor in the learning loss and the time loss for the oh but I don't know how to do that either how to make sense out of it uh it looks like we peaked in third grade and and then we work our way down and you know we had two plus extraordinarily difficult and challenging years for sure not as shattered this isn't General uh but uh you're confident the star Assessments in the S back are testing the same things no you're not coming right now let me test the same things in the same star is an instructional tool right it's about it how predictive it is we don't yet know okay when I arrived Camden Middle School had much more experience with the SRI in the area of reading and that's probably something that you're more familiar with and that can Middle School teachers and reading Specialists could tell me with much high level of certainty SRI SRI performances like this Lexile scores like this tend to mean this on the smarter balance assessment right so a longer history there that we were more dialed in it did not uh other than being a predictor tool that uh did not necessarily offer information and insights into standards and skills that you could use to move students along so the move to Star is a wise one because this we can use and we dive into it and say what are the key areas of weakness and what do I do here's where Joe's at what's the next best thing to move forward so that is immediately valuable and those are the conversations we're having right now will it predict this year as back performance I I'll I will see I I predict that if stars on the incline s backflow as well because if you're reading better if your comprehension skills with your arithmetic is stronger it'll come out in the wash um but you're right that discrepancy is something that we don't have the perfect answer to your question too about about being able to read the two different points that it's um we are actually having some further training with star to be able to see exactly how to be able to dial in more of that adjust point about using it as a litmus to be able to see at a moment where we're at and what do we need to be able to focus on that's 100 of what star woods to be able to do give us that momentary sense of where we at how are our kids doing or what do we need to prioritize and then over time to Jazz Point as well to be able to look at are we seeing that grow are we seeing the areas where there were deficit before are we seeing those start to improve based on the instruction and the treatment that's what I want to hear but I can't I can't get that I can't pull that out of this um I'm frustrated with these numbers and targets that we don't know if we can hit because we don't know how to measure and I mean this is kind of frustrating uh how where we are here as a middle school seems to me if you want to be successful on the aspect that's and teaching to the test is a losing proposition as far as I'm concerned but you want to you want to teach challenging kids to be able to answer questions and solve problems that are related to the kinds of questions asked on the S back test not just repetition and drill cool but the phraseology and the setup of the of the reading and the and the math uh problems and questions needs to in some way be reflected on the suspect assessment if that's being successful that is important correct and you have to know you're doing that after how the games played and you know right so I I'm if star isn't giving you that then well you've been transfer to success on the other tests star seven right is similar in in that I just if I'm asked if it will if it has been a predictor then the answer is not with a trend line that I recognize yet but in addition to the iebs right the interim uh in the interim assessments which are made by the sort of balanced Consortium so students are being exposed to that that type well also balancing the fact that I do not want to become and I don't think you want your children to attend a test prep school right smarter balance is one thing and I believe that a well-rounded education that focuses on them being great people that are receiving a rigorous education will ride like it is a game and we'll we'll do well in the game if we're well prepared and we are getting really robust information on this time the conversations that we're having are the right ones to be having as education professionals but the excellent share the question of you know what is it as a predictor other than if the trend line is moving in the right direction I anticipate it will further the the summative assessment that is specified all this aside how do you how do you think we're going are we making progress how do you feel about it I believe they can middle school is having the best conversations we've had in a long time looking forward productive professional conversations where for a few years it's been about we are reactive taken care of Opera you know like a Hold Steady pattern because of the challenges we were up again this is a forward-looking forward moving staff in school staff motivated excited yes they feel that we got a plan in place and I would love to ask them and make sure they're down there you're the spokesman for those guys so energy is good and this is the work that we want to be doing okay what I am most proud of is that um Jeff and the staff more than ever are talking about visual students with this data that we have the star data is aligned with the standards in math and English language arts svac is debatable let's start the star data is aligned and it allows us to really focus in on those weaker areas students have and put a laser leg focus on that instruction at Jeff's professional development trainings with teachers there was just one held last week I believe and Jeff and the staff talked about individual students that's that's why the targets are so high we are very confident having an individual action plan for every student they will make progress okay definitely we've had many conversations about that that's that's some that sounds incredibly ambitious in a good way but so how do how do we take the individual student data and translate that into something that actually happens in the classroom how does that work you got to come to PD tomorrow that's exactly what we're doing tomorrow morning so so yeah it's a team um the PD that Mr Case was referencing what we did is we looked at how you can use star and classroom performance to look at your class and say where uh where is this class what is the next best thing that can make this class do better in addition to the curriculum because the challenge here you do have your curriculum that you need to progress the right we need to implement that with Fidelity but then also you need to be doing this like circling on top of the curriculum based upon skills what are the areas of need in math is division in fractions it's an area that trips students up and then obviously that's a Mainstay so fluency with division is holding our students back so how do you move through a geometry unit that you have to cover while practicing division so the last PD was looking at like that classroom level in individual student reports to figure out how could you literally how could you group students based upon an area of need that's been presented star showing it but then also teacher judgment and classroom assessments and make groups based upon that so in the middle of your geometry unit you pause on like a Friday and you do a refresh Friday activity instead of your traditional do now and you hit some fluency in a diagnostic area of need for the four groups for four different things so that's what we'll do tomorrow what we're going to do we're going to talk about those students who are right on the cusp we're going to talk about those kids that are in the middle they're on watch but they're not right yet projected to get into the proficiency band those are students who are sometimes they're not on either extreme of the bell curve so we're going to pop the hood up on those kids we're going to name them my name we're going to go into their data we're going to say what does this student need next to move them forward and then how do you differentiate for them or group within your class like what literally where are they in your sporting a period b period so you you dive into it we're taking advantage of the half days we've been provided the PD days that we're provided and half of them are being spent on curriculum documentation and review and the other half are being spent on who's the kid what do they need and uh and how does that impact your instruction and everyone ends with an action item of I'm doing this different in a period over the next two weeks based upon what I see in the data if I can jump in real quick too just to be able to to help um again show where some of this is coming into action so uh conversation with Christian grecular who is our math support um uh tutor so Chris is where your kids at how are they doing we were able to look at initial individual student within her tutorial to be able to see what their levels of Readiness or what their level of level of need was and then put the action plan together to say anybody's been following those kids individual individual settings in the Box along with certain focused instruction on the areas that they learned with support from Banks and what support from Sacramento Academy but some additional parallel work and then in three weeks she's going to do another assessment another quick dip of this to see how they've learned and that's the expectation that we're going to see that type of inflection move with those kids based on the need that they have we met with Lindsey Ramos who's a representative from prep she's an instructional specialist who specializes in illustrative math which is the uh the program that we had adopted prior to the pandemic and she worked with the team to look at the star report and say this is where it looks like our classes because star will show this is what the Readiness skills are for your class which you need to be able to to connect back in with so working with her she said okay based on your unit right now in unit two it looks like your kids are doing this and may be struggling here so she was able to connect us back with curricular resources that said all right we're going to pull in this piece to help Elevate those kids to keep moving them forward a bit so it's a feedback feed forward Loop that we keep trying to be able to work on with this to use all the tools to help us out so I just want to say you just said a few minutes ago I think it's fantastic I think that is the Cornerstone of can right there the idea that you're going into each child and you're figuring out what their needs are that can only happen in a small town and it's a resource and it's it's a value that you know I'm telling you not many other schools can have so that that alone to me that was very impressive so thank you for saying that and thank you John because you kind of highlighted it but I think that's fantastic how many math support tutors do you have okay well under the circumstances I know ordinarily is enough but is it now the one tutor right in the area of reading one two in the area of math would be sufficient but the flexibility with which I can get students in front of an intervention tutor is is not ideal at the moment so part of the reason that in the coming meetings we're going to talk and I want to share with you thoughts on the schedule for 23 24 and Beyond uh would be to increase that because right now I have I have the right people but some of the structures that we operate in we don't facilitate the level of nimble meaning and support that we that we need right now I mean students don't have a opening in their schedule to meet with the math tutor what we current right and that's why that's why we have a flex period right now that should that that creates opportunities so we're we're making it work right procedures are lifting it up on their shoulders and making it happen um but we can we can alter things organization that make it that this is just how we operate and a lot of what you know what you were just highlighting there that's star is a tool right and I don't even want to say as we mentioned all these cool things that it's doing it is the current tool that is doing something that can't middle school has always done the reason that cameos was based upon the team model is so that you can get together and talk about kids at that level so that has not changed what's happening right now with that I think is invigorating to staff is right now we're having the conversations that we have been paid to have right these are about curriculum our subject area our kids the data even I don't consider myself a data guy per se in terms of this chart is not why I teach right but this is very invigorating because that is a kid represented there and knowing where they're at and where they can go and this is what we're going to do professionally move it that is inspiring right and that is so that's very palpable interculture inclined okay so my goals might be ambitious but I'd rather be aiming towards them and make sure that we've definitely bottomed out and we're climbing out uh I'd love nothing more than to get these targets but I love your approach I think you can get there on that one by one taking each student each child individually I think you might get there that way I'm pressing helps them um so go going into this and I'll try to just highlight this this long list here um but the Strat the academic strategies that I think will uh get us there in addition to what we've talked about so the first point being the most obvious right star is a formative assessment that we will use throughout the year and I've told you about how I use uh the meeting time and professional development time that we have available to us to continue that process such as an endpoint two data analysis to inform instruction and adjusting a curriculum as needed I'm looking learning and behavioral data I like this question right for whom is this not working what do we need to do to meet their needs that's the that's the question that's driving each meeting uh in each data cycle we're making sure that we're doing a nice job with uh targeted interdisciplinary strategies we've noticed a trend when uh strategy is used across disciplines students do a better job of generalizing it this is not a candy phenomena but students very much Silo information in their brains this is how I write a science report is seen as different from how you write a social studies essay which on one hand they are but evidence is evidence and using evidence to support your claim is universal and when we layer those together and talk about claim evidence reasoning as a universal strategy when we talk about I squared or other uh or specifically penalized graphs and charts an area of need that we've noticed by analyzing the smarter balance data when we do those in Universal ways kids see that this is how you look at a chart no matter where it's coming at you from and that generalization I hope will yield better problem solving skills on a one-off test like the summative aspect accessories so um we were talking about PD and using rest Consultants to enhance the professionalism and Readiness of our staff to do do this work and know their curriculum particularly in the area of math um there's dedicated time for the curricular documentation and data analysis and I've asked teachers to do it and not give them the minutes uh focus on student-centered learning practices I did not think this was the year to do something in terms of brand new uh initiative something brand new out of left field this is a continuation of the student-centered learning that has been a focus for Canton Public Schools in Canton middle school for years just getting into it really deep into the into the weeds to differentiate the tools such as IXL nearpod and learning ally again we'll we'll take any tool that could possibly help a student on the individual level and help them grow and practice we are not going to solve this by putting kids in front of screens but if there is a tool that will help then diagnostically and appropriately will use it right but ultimately it's going to come down to kids being well known and well taught with a teacher that cares about them in front of them and I think that's the direction we're headed and that I guess to that last point there making sure that the student the intervention is as flexible as possible so students are getting what they need from the teachers they needed at the time that they need it so those are some of those instruction strategies any questions on those next we're going to move into our culture and climate goals and here I highlight uh um the artwork that was completed over the summer uh we have we felt that it was time to update some of the murals throughout the halls of Canyon Middle School and this is how involves you as you come up the stairs our Unity mural um and I just I loved capturing the progress of it over the course of the summer and I think it's appropriate that you are welcomed into Canton middle school with a message of unity who you are is exactly who you should be and you're going to be well known well taught and well accepted here for exactly that so with that my culture and climate goals I have two one for students one with the families and canvas will get to uh on that side you're seeing the questions that I'm specifically focusing because that is the language um as it as it is asked so my first goal for students is that they will feel increasingly respected and valued by their teachers and peers with a measurable Target of looking at it for 80 of students will respond positively to the following questions and I've put their the four greatest areas of need um I'll read them out because I think it's relevant so what percent of students agree or strongly agree that students in this school respect each other differences that they will try to stop students from insulting or making fun of others that they treat each other with respect or that they're treated fairly regardless of who they are and so you see the percentage there and again Panorama highlighted for me some areas of growth I think that is two years of growth for anything but at a trend line in those responses being universally moving upward when you look at um there was one graph Mr Bishop you and I were looking at about five year six year trajectory of giving the survey and uh it's clear that uh the stressors of the world uh brought us to a bottoming out there but we are very much not at the bottom of our culture and climate uh in terms of how our students feel at school we are very much on the rebound in all areas but these remain areas of need and I want students to respond uh positively to these four questions in particular no [Music] um thank you I mean maybe curious as to like one or two strategies that we're using or doing okay um is that the third goal though or the second climate goal is related to parents in which I want 90 of our families to uh respond positively to those those questions uh ultimately I want them to feel updated on student progress and I want them to know what a valued member of our community they are as part of their kids education there's two specific questions that I thought were uh worth focusing on that uh ninety percent of humans would respond affirmatively that they feel welcomed or I'm sorry well informed about what's going on in school and welcomed here at school strategies to achieve those are continuing to lean upon the very uh the invaluable Middle School advisory program which continues uh that didn't go anywhere um throughout uh the the pandemic but it's uh it has remained just a backbone of God connected this within our school Community uh every kid knowing they have a trusted adult to go to um and I think part of the reason that our parent numbers are strong even though I want them to be stronger um I have so many examples of a time where a parent wasn't quite sure who to ask a question to so they started with their kids advisory teacher which is exactly the point you're not sure who to reach out to um start start there because that person knows your kid and can help get you the answer that you're working for so we will continue but we need to infuse more resiliency and social emotional learning into our advisory program before the pandemic we were doing a specific resilience and programming partnership with the Farmington Valley Health Center and we are currently working to develop new resources that can enhance the advisory program I don't want to take away what it is with competitions and team building and academic uh academic conversations but to achieve those responses to have students stand up for one another to respect each other's differences we do need to explicitly teach that role model and have those conversations and I think advisory is one of the key vehicles for that we also have a pretty robust uh PBIS so PBS is a positive behavior intervention and support and what it basically means is it's a philosophy by which you can't just tell kids to do the right thing can't just tell kids be nice because what does that actually mean what are what are the action steps towards kindness respect uh Equitable mindsets and then you have to you have to know first as the adults what you're looking for and then you need to teach it you need to celebrate it when you see it and then you can more confidently call it out when it's not happening so our PBIS team and myself have a year-long plan with monthly areas of focus ongoing celebrations for recognizing students when they're doing the right thing and monthly Town Halls where we bring students together highlight students of the month and uh highlight students of the month who are representing CMS wave and that their monthly areas of focus but we also have it's another teaching opportunity to say overseeing some of this so we're getting timely feedback back in front of kids uh based upon what we're seeing and what we think they need to hear from us so um making sure we continue to have competitions and events that promote inclusion respect and pride in our community um and increase the number of in-person events uh especially families wanting families to know have an increased opportunity to be on site in the hallways of the school and all of our teachers have set a goal relative to communication with families that I thought it was valuable for every teacher to have one of their professional goals be how am I staying in contact with families in a proactive way so um my theory is that if every teacher is focusing on that throughout the year and being held accountable to that parents will feel the welcomedess and they will feel the proactive communication so those are some of the the key areas key strategies any question numbers all good then as I near the end of my presentation I'm having to brag that we continue to have outstanding participation in sports and clubs for a small school the number of things we offer is is exceptional I have to highlight my colleagues at our fellow school another great benefit of a small school district is the ongoing collaboration between those schools um the the elementary Intermediate Middle and High School level we know what's happening in those schools and we really can think about smooth transitions between them and even I love uh it's going to come up at the end but I love the opportunity to talk to Mr Robin about how we can do things now and get kids excited to get to Middle School which isn't always the case but we can be doing work from the very Elementary level and the Middle School level across the bridges and build early relationships so I highlight my collaboration with my with my colleagues there I'm bragging about the return of DC and I appreciate your support there um ongoing and continuing Traditions that make our school a special place here is Mr Daniels uh students I wanted to highlight these very strong responses in their climate survey I feel welcome 91 I feel safe 91 and teachers help me understand why we're here in the smooth Mission our values our purpose 94 to good numbers so and then academically I'm bragging that our students are moving within the bell curve from urgent intervention to onwatch it's not enough to get them to the place where like that summative data looks at Golden above but we are seeing the shift and in the area of reading our students show a strength of reasoning and evidence which I think ties into an effect that we have that Universal strategy about the same evidence reasoning they also do a great job of determining Central ideas my priorities and this is where I'll close and then take any final questions about um are the curriculum documentation we need to review our curriculum invite years and have that be refreshed and up to date um that's obviously a living document so you never stop doing it but there's a concerted effort on it and you need to do it right now the continuation or the real deep focus on formative assessment data analysis I'll be coming on working on and we'll be coming forward with a scheduled proposal so we can continue to do the great things but more nibbly meet students individual needs instructionally we need to focus on the skills using explicit details inappropriate text structure and we need to do what I was telling you about in The Advisory program making sure we are explicitly and proactively teaching students skills around resiliency and uh um and respective behavior and discourse so those will be my school project events are it will continue to be my areas of focus for the year and uh as I was telling you about me and Mr Robin um you know I end here highlighting a costume parade that was held on Halloween where kindergarten students had the opportunity to come through both the middle and high school obviously this was done with the high school's support as well but uh Not only was this a great day for us but it uh we were really focusing on and we want to build a tradition where students can come and see their future School see the big kids we had uh so many siblings that came out and were able to say that's my younger brother my younger sister and soja a real reminder that we are a communion we're a pre-k through 12 community and it's all and we're all a part of the journey and I'm honored to be a part of that new the unique 7th and 8th grade years I know that we have work to do but I feel more confident than ever that I've got the right people doing the right work and I hope to show you in a quantitative sense not just a qualitative sense over time that that the work is paying off good job Jeff questions for Mr Moore um you have a comment um I just was looking at the um goal number two in the questions and just seeing those numbers um going from that 36 and 39 respectively up to um 52 and 62.
271 I see so so that's it I get a big variation for it to go up okay but it's coming back down and it's all based on what the the distance is between those two lines that creates the percentage the other piece of this is that what you're driving to with all this too is that you know our rates based on what's happened but what's you know and then that's going to determine the money that we're getting to pay for things in the future and the numbers are going to be even higher yeah so well could be could be lower we don't know but you you're just projecting into the future and here's the the thing to make sure everybody will be because I don't think that the new construction is going to come in that that much but we put a big number there so that we can capture it all because when it's all done let's say we got zero new construction we wouldn't or we wouldn't be able to claim any more than five percent so the average property is going to get hit when you average it all out by 5 but everybody's taxes we'll go out by the cap amount of and the only way that we can get this new construction that that's new money so if we get another two percent that's coming from the new property not the existing taxpayers and their property unless they did some big renovation to it and brought it to successor's attention which a lot of people don't but you have reason to believe this year for that there that there's more new construction than potentially than what what you're what's being reported right now versus past years I feel that way because we've we've never had it this low so we never had I see new construction Factor less than one percent in the last so I'll remind the board usually in December Mark and Drury bring us this projection they've had all the way up until the end of the year to work with the assessors to determine what new construction is right as Mark is saying CPI is what determines what everybody's increases by that's one part of the pot of money that comes in as property taxes for us and that's spread across everybody based on their eav what the value of their property is then there's another chunk of new taxes that come in that isn't spread across everybody that's just based on new construction in the community typically Mark and Jerry have right up until the end of that presentation in January or December to bring you the best possible estimate that they can and every year I tell you mark injury have worked really hard to bring you a realistic number so that it we're not over inflating what that could mean to the community the problem is is when you have a number that in aggregate is greater than five percent we have to hold this this truth in taxation meaning that has to happen by law a certain number of days before you pass the levy so because you need to give your community enough notice to know that this is going to be a big number so that makes it so that Mark and Jerry are now two months two and a half months earlier in the year trying to guess what's going to have to happen at the end of the year so then they can't bring you as accurate of a number they need to bring you a number that has more buffer in it because we don't know what's going to happen over the next six to eight weeks so you know in years past Mark contri explained like we've done all of this work to get this very exact number so that our community can have trust and that we're not over inflating what the actual number is because in the end really does you could say a hundred percent right now it wouldn't make a difference because it needs to go through it'll be capped at five percent for CPI and new construction is what new construction is so if the board remembers in February we'll be back Mark and Drury will tell you what the actual maximum Levy was that we could have levied based on new construction CPI is set at five and then we come back and the board goes through a process of readjusting their Levy readjusting our Levy to match what we could actually tax that'll be at the April or April meeting okay so uh you know it we always try to get as accurate as possible but always make sure that we're gonna We believe we'll capture all of that new construction we don't want to come to the board of the community and underestimate what that new construction is because the only time you can bring those funds in is when they first come on board if we miss it we lose that new that Revenue that new Revenue forever and then the rest of the community has to pick up our mistake for that so we don't want to leave any of that new construction on the table so that's why Mark's saying even though we're capped at five and it's unlikely we're going to get another three percent in new construction we can't leave we can't leave any of that three percent on the table even though it might be one percent it might be two percent it might be half we don't know because we're so far away so our country don't have the time and the tools to give you as accurate of a projection as they have historically understood and under construction was two percent so wow yeah so got it yeah so that's why you know we think we're coming in at eight that gives us the truth and Taxation meeting at this time anything that we had above five which if we had one cent in new construction with the cap at five anything in new construction would push us above five and require this meeting tonight in this public hearing tonight um so pretty much every school district in Illinois is holding a truth and Taxation meaning like we are percentage the um above seven percent is that something where when it's it's really insane everybody's having this is it are we coming up with some more numbers well everybody will be five because every everybody that's a tax cap District which is the majority of Illinois will be capped at five because inflation is greater than five that amount of new construction varies very much depending on the community that you're in yeah but everybody is going to be capped at five because inflation was greater yeah so now and the thing is we we know it's a big number totally don't think it's gonna we're gonna actually get another three percent of new construction but we it because it doesn't hurt the other taxpayers it just is the new players are putting more money into our pot that that we feel that's just not missive you know I I think it we'll be lucky if we get two or two and a half but right now it's not that's not reflected in what I think we were foreign those statistic Ally it hurts the new York but oh no I mean right now without new construction we're going to have X amount of money that's going to come from all the property owners that were there for the prior year if someone builds a house in our property new house that they're coming out into the role that we get we get to claim that and add that it's outside of the cap that allows us to get money they realize if somebody that builds a house you still have maybe kids and that's going to come into school or you just have taxable property that you should have the legal right to attach to so it's letting us do that it doesn't affect the other tax bills but it creates it it creates a higher effective tax rate I'm sure people will misunderstand that nobody's here tonight to question if pools of money it does not unless they did an improvement to their house or they had an incredibly you know big change in their you know the property it won't affect what their tax bill is watch it sure this is you know in past years um we end up you know matching CPI right so plus the new construction the new construction but for your typical for a typical like your typical homeowner you're just matching CPI that's what's that's that's the effect on you as a typical homeowner this year what's going to happen is we can't match CPI we we're going to be less than yes which means that you know we're going to have to maybe tighten things up a little bit I mean a dollar at the beginning beginning of the year is never worth a dollar at the end of the year this year especially so and unfortunately just you know like a lot of people are even seeing I mean your income's not keeping up with inflation neither is neither is ours is what's going to happen a good amen is new money it didn't increase or it didn't lower their tax bill because it because it's treated totally separately from the existing assessments then the next year it's included in that without anybody being hurt so um it's just important to know that well this whole system was designed in the 90s to ensure that property taxpayers were protected from periods of high inflationary rates right so even though everybody else's costs are increasing in their basket of goods by seven eight percent this protects existing property property owners from their taxes growing greater than five percent in other years it's protected by that CPI right we don't grow faster than the inflationary rate up until five percent so our costs in some areas especially as Mark said like busing are going to grow much greater than five percent but we'll have to use whatever mechanisms we can inside to run an effective budget to make sure that we make up for those gaps but that isn't passed on to the average property tax a person paying property taxes so you're in other other your your property taxes is going to be the one one thing where you're not seeing what the inflation or not seeing it grow as much as everything else in your life um so it's in in effect in essence a break yeah well in my that's my interpretation it always keep it always grows at the rate of inflation except for when it passes five yep and then here we are caps at five know all right if anybody from the public wish to address the board about budget or the the levy tentative loving hearing it on wait is the board all is anybody else from the board here yeah all right I'm gonna go back to our oh wait we don't need to close yeah um we need a motion for the Board of Education to close the truth and Taxation public hearing so moved Mike and shirelle Mike Davenport aye Mr all Fuller hi Jenny ericstrom aye Terry pavasich aye Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye I'm Nancy Koka hi thank you okay we're gonna move on next Circle back resolution I'm going to attend the village meeting yep thank you Mark thank you thank you we have uh the t99 project uh being reviewed by The Village tonight so Jim is there and Mark's go for it um so ISB resolutions this is the time each year where the board considers the resolutions that are there traditionally there's been some controversial ones at this year not so much so this is time for the board if anybody wished to discuss any of those and then we could pass back to Chris anything that board members were concerned of there were fewer resolutions yeah than I think we've ever seen and I didn't see anything it's a much easier year I didn't have any I read through them all I had no comments did anybody else have anything they wanted to bring up further resolutions I agreed with the positions that uh that the committee had come to yeah yeah pretty easy year not much on this one yeah okay all right School maintenance School maintenance grants um so you'll fill in the gaps if I miss any Journey sure will all right thank you all right so there is a round one for school maintenance project Grant which can help offset our Capital Improvement projects for next summer uh the Board needs to approve us going for this grant uh should it be awarded up to fifty thousand dollars could come back towards our capital projects next year we need the board's approval to go after that money tonight trying to understand why we wouldn't I don't know either but we need your approval right you've got mine any discussion no hearing them we need a motion for the Board of Education to approve submission of a Grant application for a school maintenance project Grant I'll move Joanna and shirelle Joanna Vasquez Drexler aye Cheryl Fuller aye Jenny hagstrom aye Trey pavasich aye Mike Davenport yes and there's a Coco I have motion carries thank you so this is the second reception of visitors there's a second reception of visitors do we have anybody who wishes to exist that wishes to address the book okay then we then we need a um motion uh we lost my spot um thank you we need a motion for the placement of to go into closed session for the placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students so moved second Mike and Terry thank you Mike Davenport hi Terry pavasich aye Joanna Vice coach Drexler aye aye Gerald Fuller hi hagstrom aye Nancy covert hi we're going into closed session the board will take the action as noted in the agenda when it comes out of closed session and also to adjourn hopeful and hopefully to adjourn ladies
okay so uh quit laughing why are you laughing you know yeah I did no I you know here here is and again I'm a straight shooter with this and we're going to talk about facts I mean I think we all know that there are a couple issues over at up and making sure that up dissolves that tip and I think you're going to have to stay on top of that whoever my successor is is going to have to stay on top of that along probably with our legal counsel so now so now what Tiff so in January of 21 they took 3 million out of a tiff that has been put back yet it was at a tip five that isn't Tiff five yes so my point is you're projecting 4.9 million out of that Tiff but my thing is what if it's not there well see here's and again I I'll go into that next month to understand about that Tiff but that money will be there because that money is based on eav not on surplus funds that are there okay so I'll I'll explain that next month but that money will be there as long as they dissolve that Tiff and they have to you have to make sure that they dissolve that tip and that tip will be able to be dissolved so what and again I'll just give you a little bit here on that those both those tips in Monet and up were created in 20 20.
good on the buses Sunday morning went to reading and uh dropped a 99-2 out of 100. uh for nesba championships division five and then this pass at the night down at MetLife Stadium and it must have been an omen because the Jets were playing so the stadium was all lit up in green so you know we were talking about that uh they scored a 99 I'm sorry my fault in 97-7 took all the captions and amazing brought home another first place for their sixth in a row so what's that okay five o'clock Friday night but we'll we'll get that you know take a look at the website under High School athletics team schedules and click on the volleyball that'll be good thank you okay other matters my committee members I guess we had time that I'm just going to mention um that on uh uh November 29th so it's the end of the month but I'm going to still put a plug out for our annual um required basic rights and special education it's sort of like a refresher for parents like myself it's always good to revisit the information and this Townsend will be presenting that um at Quinn Elementary School from 6 to 7 30.
I just want to commend you on your implementation on different um things for the students and you know with this program that you spoke about I think you were doing an equity group of students to just really move conversations on creating that environment and that um respect from each student to another so I just wanted to just you know commend you on that but I'd like to obviously see those numbers go up from that 52 and 62 but just seeing that they came up from 36 and 39 is pretty impressive so just wanted to point that out I appreciate that thanks Felicia Peggy anything for you uh no it sounds great and I especially like uh this ending slide with um kind of building Community nice board members so I I asked the two board members um Kim and Ryan you have children in Middle School how's it going pretty good on my end good happy camper good lost the seventh period of the eighth grade election though I thought we could pull all these Rings there Jeff I don't know but we talked about that my morals and values I was testing you so yeah no honestly everything's great um I've been impressed because you hear Middle School transition horror stories um but we found to be very supportive and and you know happy to be there so great job he gave a great speech by the way he needs running anything council speeches were so good Kim it's good okay and I have one generation you're very very positive experience you have a tough job there's no question you know you're at that that level where they're making that jump I think and uh like I said I'm so impressed that it's Mr Case pointed out that you know every student individually and you have a plan for that student and for me that that system also I'm rooting for your numbers and I look forward to seeing it in the spring but I think I think you're on the right track so thank you for your presentation tonight I appreciate it I appreciate your support I can't do it without you so I'll be I'll be working hard on here and so so I do have a question what can this board of education provide for the middle school that you don't have right now that we can maybe go after for you what I know I've seen your the things that you'd like but what can the board of education do for you so in specific terms as I this scheduled proposal which may include uh not major but they include FTE requests yeah and and some uh some of the provisions to courses if that is what it takes for me to have a schedule that I need to meet the needs of my kids for the years to come sure that may that may I know that asking for people and their four dollars uh is always something that needs to be done thoughtfully but this is a process we've undergone thoughtfully and so that will be that's a tangible thing that will be coming before you that um will be uh I've asked for your questions and dialogue and partnership but then ultimately the disappoint there right I look forward to seeing it and we look forward to backing you on whatever you need so appreciate it okay just in case anything else Jeff thank you to you and your entire staff for all your hard work working out we're we're talking about having a good time thank you staff for for all of us because I do appreciate it I know I know you're not a one-man band there so you have a lot of support with your teachers and your staff so yeah thank you thanks very much appreciate it okay that was a great presentation we move on to Donna oh me for my CIP yep all right um I put it on your desk hopefully or your table in front of you I hope everyone has one um I am recommending an action tonight uh we have a generator uh project at Canton High School the generator is uh already installed that was part of the CIP the capital Improvement plan um once it was installed uh we uh wanted to see if it had the capability or well we want to see if it has the capability of extending into some other circuits to that would inevitably be covered by the generator in case of an outage um and we think it's a good idea Tom Richardson thinks it's a good idea uh so that's something we'd like to do uh and it costs a 10 a little under ten thousand dollars to kind of figure all this out so we have the money in CIP if we reallocate some funds um and uh I'm making a recommendation tonight that we knew um well 9 271.35 from a cvtf file boring replacement project that is complete uh so that um it's kind of a no-brainer it's uh that's done and then in addition to that we just need another 248 dollars and change uh from a Russell was going to write that check right yeah from a miscellaneous CIP building projects but that's under the Board of Ed so that those two uh movements would enable us to go ahead and and get that done that's great so we we have that promotion at the end of the uh the finance committee looked at that Don explained it uh Joe Russell myself and Peggy were here and uh were in favor of it so thank you okay um John hey John quick question for you the new website is it oh is it because I I go to so we went to be able to that's a great question with much fanfare and excitement we uh stated that October 31st was going to be uh the day that we were going to launch the website uh but unfortunately there was a trick rather than a treat for us with that and we needed to work with Q send a little bit further to be able to um take care of some functionality issues we knew that um and I I really want to be able to give a lot of credit to Claudia and uh and Lynn young my assistant for doing some additional work we really want to make sure that it is community ready and that it continues to build confidence in the work that we do and how we do it there were a couple little uh um little Labs that weren't connected with each other so we have to go back and work with Q send a little bit more but it's close it's very close we just want to make sure that it's working the way that it needs to so hoping to be able to have it by parent teacher conferences not the answer that I wanted to necessarily give you but it is where we're at with that right now um a couple things quickly we did talk about the November 14th Community Workshop very excited for um Justine Ginsburg to be with us just in this a phenomenal community resource and she's also talked with us about having an additional um uh several additional follow-up events that we'll have so we'll we'll present uh information about that to the community on that night as well um but we're excited about that for a professional development days which are coming up um one thing that I'm very excited about and the work that that we do is uh we don't work we don't want to work in isolation um we have been doing a lot to be able to collaborate with other districts and so um understanding that our new physical education health and wellness standards have been have been uh presented to the world um we want to make sure that our staff have an opportunity to be able to work well with that so we're partnering with Simsbury and region 10 with a consultant from Central Connecticut state University to be able to review those new standards to be able to do some crosswalk work on what what are we meeting what do we still have opportunities to be able to work with and be able to get some additional training so in in a lot of these cases where we have Singleton folks who teach um in a in a small Department we want to give them a broader reach to be able to collaborate we're doing good work with that right now um I wanted to let you all know in the uh the situation with me reading legislation for the state our our regional Educational Service collaborative our our rest prep they have put together an event on the ninth that I'm going to be heading over to with um Kathy Watson one of our literacy Specialists from Cherry Brook to be able to do a review of the six approved State programs however I will say that the bureaucracy is still put in this and we're waiting to be able to see how the shift of these State's requirements may work themselves out through some additional lobbying from uh Cave and caps can I mention something on that please I kind of bubble up to me though is Columbia well thought out thought out with our with our teachers is you know is that is that accomplishing well we because some some you know you know put put this thing to bed is is the worst thing that ever happened yeah so I think I know there's a financial impact yeah the litmus test that I would say with it is I think I think people like the sense of um being able to have readers and Writers Workshop the workshop model of being able to work with kids that develop in a sense of a love for reading in the craft where we have an opportunity to be able to develop further is through some um structured literacy work there too so right now my mom was an educator for 40 years she talked about the pendulum swinging back and forth all the time the pendulum is moving again and somewhere in the middle of workshop and structured basal series is a sweet spot for us that that we would think of as like the Canton structured literacy so I I don't think I think there's opportunity to move beyond the um TC version that we've had in the past to be able to add some different elements to it should the state allow us so I think overall I think there's a Readiness and a understanding by our staff that we can and need to do more to be able to support our kids and there are resources that we have to be able to do that we just need to know what the state is going to let us do okay and this Foundation is going to move down to I know we started with third grade right so so well this this is the challenge for us right now with that the state is not allowing us to be able to have a program that would have multiple elements that would connect together right so so they might say sorry well currently they're saying no we can't bring something else in we've got to choose a program which is your robust then for us I wouldn't say it's a bust I think what we're doing is we're taking what we know about about structured literacy and we're taking some other resources that are brand agnostic and really supporting it we are taking um we are taking fundations and using that for what we would call our tier two or tier one plus what that means is those kids who might be struggling they get that support from tutors and we're having support that gets pushed into the classroom to take care of those as well so we're doing the best of both worlds while trying to wait for the state to be able to let us know what we can actually do but we're not going to be able to budget for foundations foundations in uh like second grade for example because we're up in here right now right I I don't know what things are going to look for us just yet okay okay it's frustrating for us because we want we feel like we've got some really good resources that are out there for us that we would like to be able to implement but we also know that there's a financial reality for us with these resources that we don't want to we don't want to shoot ourselves on the foot I get it okay so we're trying we're taking the principles and the resources and applying them in the best way that we can right now with with some other resources to support them okay thank you again it's not an answer that I necessarily want to be able to give but it is the reality we just get out of our way that's so much better off that and that that is not a um an unfamiliar tone from Lords and superintendent's offices around the state uh because we have things that will work I will say that when we come to a recommendation that will happen for you all it's going to be well thought out and pretty comprehensive we're working with uh we'll be working directly with West Hartford Simsbury Avon uh brand B region 10.
yes no I'm sorry 2000 were created in 2000 they expire in 23 then you have 12 months to file to dissolve them which means they'll dissolve in 24 so that they get onto the books in Spring of 25. so in Spring at 25 you'll start getting in half of that money which is the three million dollars let's just say and then what happens is the next fiscal year you'll get all of it in okay so that's the way the cycle works now I'll share that next meeting but this money is based on eav it is not based on the surplus funds that may be there so you're gambling by taking selling the bonds thinking that they closed that Tiff I am so I mean the reality is Street shooter if they don't close that Tiff now we've borrow that money right and we've got to find a way to pay for it right and you're gonna have to pay for it on operating funds is what we to pay for it now now again I I will share this with you and I've shared this with the board that you know Monet has asked about extending that tip my response to them John Izzo our attorney has been our starting point is 15 million dollars to discuss that because if they extended you know you look at my number here that I shared with you dollars my 13 years what they extend is about 15 million dollars give us 15 million dollars and we'll talk okay and again I'll share the sixth meeting because again the district has the right to negotiate that an extension and they need a letter from us in writing supporting that so you know again I um again this is my recommendation I would stand firm on that because again we're talking six million dollars a year six times you know 13 years is a lot of money you know that's like 78 million dollars just something again that to consider again I I agree with you Mr swallowish I think you know you're taking a little risk there but I will say I believe you're holding the cards on this one but you just have to make sure that you know the resolutions have been passed they have to pass a resolution they have to send it to the county clerk the county clerk won't do anything without that resolution from them so so essentially you're banking on the two Villages two entities to do that yes and you I mean when when the up chip rolls off the last one that rolled off I I had to be in contact with them on a monthly basis for six months I was sending them notes did you do this are you doing this what are you doing I filed for your request I did all of it yes you know and so I think you know uh uh talking with the legal counsel to assist with you this is a lot of money that six million dollars a year is a lot a lot and so I you know it's nothing that I don't think you can take it lightly I don't because it will put this District in a great financial position and the purpose of the tips are to do that that's the purpose of it okay so I just want again I think I asked you this question before I just need to have a level of certainty it comes to all 11 0 to approve not to extend a tip it's an understanding and building bill can jump in on this it's my understanding the conversations I've had with John Izzo and him and I have talked about this that letter in writing from each of the taxing bodies supporting the extension the extension is approved by the state legislature I believe that's who approves the extension and if the state legislature does not have those approvals historically they have not approved an extension especially a school district that is responsible and gets 60 percent or seventy percent yeah no the go by no if all the other number the state legislator could really look at it say no four four I mean we're one and people were a huge yeah but I don't know I don't know if they're talking about Revenue no there is no again and again this is my understanding talking to John and you know being involved in this there is no minimum or maximum of the entities my understanding Bill shaken said yes that's right there is no there is no minimum or maximum but what the state legislature does look at is getting the approval of all the taxing bodies they specifically look at the school district because we are one of the largest or the largest taxing body and if we say no we do not they historically have said we will not allow that to be extended I'd have to I have to defer you to John you're pretty much saying we are pretty much certain that if we say we do not want the hormone need to tax uh tip that they will not yeah that's what we're saying that if again that if we as a board our district say you know what no we do not approve you extending these tips for another 12 hour uh 12 years money and University Park that that's what a buck stop no they will not have the luxury to extend their tips so we pretty much again as all of you alluded to this nothing is 100 certain except paying taxes and dying okay but but so but you feel pretty confident that I heard on Council party not in his head too that bill it's pretty confident so generally if there's not a state law state law have to do with practice is again okay okay and I think we do have some muscles by being the biggest as Cheryl alluded to 70 of these revenues that hit us coming again for us I know again okay you know whoever whoever follows me in this role I will advise them that this is a high priority I mean a high priority to make sure that this is done and again it just it just takes a lot of you know following up and being proactive blah blah blah all that stuff yeah so Ken I I share kind of the concern about borrowing on revenues that we think will have but we're not 100 sure I would say the and thanks for putting this together I mean this is good stuff but I think as I said here kind of thinking about the projects like you and the um you know executive staff come back on the middle school I mean if we're going to do this let's do it right and let's let's do it once and do it right I mean I you know there's four classrooms the right size is a you know let's I I don't want to just because we've got this kind of package of stuff we want to do um kind of do it halfway and or at least see what what it would cost to get it done right the first time I guess is what I'd like to see um and then on the district office relocation um I mean I think that building makes a lot of sense if it's available to us I think my concern is about putting you know an additional couple of million and renovate right away you know with spending two million dollars on administrative offices non-student is it's kind of a tough sell I think in the community so that would just be my feedback so I don't know if others um definitely would you know how I feel about the facilities the football multi-purpose Stadium looking at the Middle School I definitely would like to see that done it sound the way it sounds like they need a whole new school that's the way it sounds to me like they just don't have room and they need like even if they got eight class zones it wouldn't be enough so I I don't know how realistic that is and maybe I just misinterpreted it um I I but I definitely would like to get it right the first time however I I guess you could when I look at the other stuff what's needed what's extra um what would be what we do down the line when it even as we talk about phasing things in for the athletic facilities maybe we could look at those things when it like can could we Face some of the other things in um I don't know those are some of my thoughts but we really would have to we know we want from the stadium we know we don't no I didn't sound I wasn't clear on what we need from the middle school so we have to be clear what what they want Dr Hall that's kind of what kind of I think I think more on what's the right programming what's the right facility size where's the marriage there well yeah that's what I'm saying so once we get that I think though for me those are the two big big uh items that we really need to look at are those the middle school and some people who aren't athletic don't understand they they'll say they understand that Athletics are important but they really don't they just it's not that it's this is about it but that's part of Education it's like if you're a coach you can't say I don't want to deal with the parents that's part of coaching dealing with the parents Athletics is part of schools but that being here nor there that the Middle School leads to the high school so they need what they need so that we can so that they can get to that next day so again just probably saying really saying what they're saying those are my two big things if we could get those um looked at I mean I think that that would be so Todd you're saying not what they could live with but what they actually need to fraction at 100 correct right right yes I mean what you really need not what you can live with because she's living with no classrooms right and then she said well we could live you know we could make do whatever I mean at this point I don't think make do is is the way to go if we're going to invest the money we want to invest the money so that it's going to be good for 15 or 20 years unless there's a huge boom in population and look at the programming change you know updated right what's required by IB and that type of thing okay I guess the the only the only question I have and I'm going to push back a little bit on this is finding the money because if 8 is the answer on the classrooms it's 10 million dollars I I'm just being real on this but but that's for the board to decide okay and you know but we just need I think where we're coming back is let's not do something halfway at least have the information of what it takes to get it done 100 percent then we can decide what the priorities are I guess right and if we want to borrow money on revenues we don't have in the pocket yet all right thank you maybe you don't retire at all you may retire sooner I'll retire sooner there you go all right thanks okay thank you okay um a lot covered there tonight uh next up do we have any old business yes anybody else all right so I printed a couple things out that we read and I gotta say that when you read through the weekly updates we had one about as silly as it sounds about Halloween costumes right so I think Society has taken their mind in in and lost it somewhere in the last 20 years that we cannot have a child come to school in a costume or makeup or anything like that and I can't even tell you how I I don't I don't care how idiotic that sounds but it's happening and I think Dr caroluted that she had some students that had an issue and had to be you know showed up at her office and everybody forgets and puts an adult to put themselves in front of the kids and forget what a kid goes through growing up I remember as a kid in Elementary in Chicago Heights and Serena Hills dressed up as a Storm Trooper I you remember that as a kid and I think we all lost our mind and we can't have a Halloween party because it offends somebody we can't have a Halloween party because of a religion but in one sense you can always do something else it's the kids that want to come dressed in a costume I can't believe that they would be sent away and they'd have to come to the superintendent's office I can't tell you how much that completely bothers me that they can go out trick-or-treating but they can't come to school so I know you put it in your FYI that you had those parents in there and I know you're talking about doing a parent survey but I don't understand why we can't if a kid comes and it's against a religion if they don't dress up that's okay but they can they can still participate in the day right I have a friend that's a Jehovah's wit a Jehovah's Witness and he doesn't celebrate anything but we don't exclude him out of everything if he chooses not to be in that setting that's his choice but I don't understand why we're taken away from kids now I understand High School is one thing but when you're talking about elementary kids they remember that forever I remember it I definitely agree with you we don't celebrate Halloween but we never tried to stop other kids or classrooms from celebrating Halloween right it's part because as a kid coming up I did it was fun it was fun for us you don't because I don't do it doesn't mean I stop everybody else is fine right or like I mean they're kids they're kids it's it's a Memory that that you take with you and you don't dress up as a kid you go in your classroom we had Halloween parties I get it maybe it changed the wording whatever it's going to be but the fact that we're taken away from elementary kids is totally ridiculous that they had to show up at Dr Kara's office you know and they're frustrated do you blame them you know and then the parent pulled the other kid out like well if this one's not saying that that said I'm sad for that for those two kids so I think we need to to look at this more and and again I'm not trying to exclude anybody um you there's other ways of of doing things if the child doesn't celebrate it there's something else they can have maybe they can have holiday candy maybe they can then there'll be something else for maybe a fruit snack right you just you got to be creative with it but I still don't think take it away from the kids and that was a time where they would even if a teacher vote volunteer to have those students who didn't celebrate Halloween or whatever if they chose to If the parents want them to to come down to that other room and watch the movie and I know some people say well they miss out on all the fun and they can't but that's a choice the family made yes that's the answer right there so so as I said in the uh in my update um I historically I think this was a decision that was made at some board meeting in 2004 parents came and were upset and like I said in the newsletter our parent population is different now our they have different kids and so I think we have to go back and re-engage our community find out what our community wants and so I had reference that that in September we would go and re-engage our families to find out what they would like and then we would reinstitute practices based on our community for today and so that's my intent for next year and I think you have to because I've been on the board since 2015 and I know that there have been parties and I know that the kids have worn costumes and I know that the teachers have worn costumes so I don't know where this from 2004 it stopped I I have teachers sending me pictures saying this was us two years ago this was my class three years ago so I don't know where this whole decision supposedly came from but I know that that was not adhered to at all because I have seen the pictures I have talked to teachers and I know kids in my neighborhood Who Came who went to school they did stop calling a Halloween I believe Harvest or October something or whatever his parties but the whole time my kids were in school they were Harvest parties and they never dressed up and they're out now but they started I have 2006 pictures because they were so upset because their kids went in costume when we're told they had to take them off and they sent me pictures of a previous year where they were in costumes I had teachers who came to me and said they wore costumes every year every year now it didn't include masks I know that because I asked that but they would wear a costume and they came to school so I don't know I think I know there are two schools who have done it every year and obviously nobody has complained there and evidently the district didn't know what was going on but I know that parties were going on and I know the costumes existed so I think we do need to take a look at this because I don't feel it's fair to the to everyone I I think right and I remember when you're talking about they had a separate they went and watched movies or something while the party went on at lunch time or whatever I do recall that happening bye okay so so you'll get back to us so so number two um I I gotta tell you this will be uh and I'll be careful how I word it because I know it's in your uh FYI but I have to tell you that in May the teachers were here and you know they're you know want or is the administration gonna come into the classrooms and see what we're dealing with and then I think I brought it up in August it's November and you know you put in your flight you're having some issues right and how many hours are you taking every week to handle your the some issues right my problem is you have teachers we're asking for an internal substitution because they're you know they're exceeding the 10 uh hours or 10 times that they have to um sober you know forget the word internal Subs where was it back in May when the teachers asked you know some people from central office to come and see what's going on is that happening like well like where are we moving forward to assist them I mean we're putting together an internal substitution to pay them more to ask for their help to do that but I like I'm not understanding what's going on and obviously if you read your FYI there's issues going on here what's going on like what what what's happening are is central office going to be able to come and help the teachers or is what we talked about this in May and the teachers came and they were frustrated but I haven't really seen anything change well I guess you're asking me about the the Moa that we kind of came up with as far as central office you want central office staff to go out there and cover well anybody like you know they're saying Administration so I put that in my head central office administration maybe in the buildings but how are we helping them how are we moving forward to help them cover those hours so they're not absolutely I think that's what the moas were for is to try to to uh alleviate some of that we're really stretched we were trying to come up with other incentive packages um I know some staffs were were taking a look at um you know we were looking at mental health issues is why so many people are out those kinds of things so we we've kind of looked at a variety of things because that was a question why I asked about the sub pay and everything and I know we increased it and I know there was a concern and what we put on there first and then it changed but just trying to figure out what creative ways are we making because is this the you know it's November what uh seventh and some teachers already hit their limit we still got a long way to go I wish I wish I had an answer for you I don't as far as trying to produce uh extra bodies to cover classrooms I don't okay like I said I I just I don't see the solution I mean at this point I understand the internal substitution 100 but I just see the word burnout if if I see a teacher that goes to where where was it at on MLA um at the end what you know it was two and a half times or whatever it is if a if a teacher gets to that point I just see the word burnout you know they're going to need help like I said the shortages is concerning um the last thing is uh if we can't tell I I I don't know if I missed it but I think we had talked at one point so in 2019 before the pandemic our kids were at this level here for math and reading and all their scores and but where are they at today and wherever they're at today if they're above if they're at the same level or if they're below where are they at and and I don't know if I missed it and then if they're whatever they're at what are we doing to get them back to work so Mrs Wallace they're leading into next week's presentation if you could wait for one week we'll have that ready for you okay thank you that was three you get you get three anybody else in the old business okay any new business okay we do have a need for closed session so can I get a motion to go into closed session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees sex roll call when you're ready Brown is an i Mrs Galbraith all right Dr Hall aye Mr swallowish aye vice president aye president Auburn aye we are in closed session at 8 34.
um so yeah the 29th of November um we we had our first meeting at Cushman which was great uh where we had some folks come and deliver some resources and answer questions and I think we had about 20 20 parents um and some staff as well some uh staff so it was really it was great to have folks back in person and hope to continue that to engage more families and growing and learning and be better together well actually I'll do some you know so it just came across my radar but the um the orchestra and the high school orchestra is having their performance as a z and it's not until December 20th but it's my understanding is tickets do sell out so and they're going quickly so anyone that is interested in that performance you know you might want to purchase your tickets I think they said there's something like 150 tickets left and you know they sold quite a few so just as something to keep in mind uh I need you to talk about that Charter thing but one more okay one thing for us I apologize one thing that I do want to mention and that's a congratulations to our own Kathleen amaralhon her degree from UNH so congratulations well deserved congratulations that almost free time now yeah there you go Chris uh one quick question actually maybe a little longer do we have anything uh planned around the books or in the works when would our next joint meeting with the uh select board be I'm just I bring that up because I'm going I'm going on 10 years now on the committee and it seems like year after year after year the problem is always coming back to health insurance the health insurance split in this town is a problem and that's one thing that I will say is that I will implore the select Board of Dartmouth to let's have a conversation about the health insurance because it's 10 years it's wearing on all of us and it really is in my opinion Dartmouth can we should certainly be looking at at options ever and I know I've had the opportunity probably six or seven years ago or right when Mr McGinnis came on board I think I I met with both Dr Gifford Mr Kiley um Sean and it might and me it was over in Bush Street that's right it was over that's right you were there so it's just frustrating that year after year this comes up so I I think that you know I'd love to see a little more engagement and just to answer your question Mr Oliver we'll have an update on that in the executive session thank you Dr Jenkins well I also want to note that you know for years you've been here longer than I have but in the almost equally lengthy tenure we have always waited for this Blackboard to invite us but there's no reason why we cannot convene a joint meeting I think we find when the select board sets the agenda that the agenda is I'll be charitable and say 60 not relevant to us Mr news might put a different number on that um but I don't see any reason why we can't convene a joint meeting um and invite the uh the select board and even the finance committee um to talk about some of the issues that we want to talk about with them um we're co-equal branches of government right um they can they can also you know we can extend the invitation to them as well and put the things on the agenda that we want to talk about so maybe you know we're going to have executive session tonight um maybe we revisit this topic at our next meeting and we pick a date and we pick some topics for the agenda and extend a meeting to those two boards it might mean that we have to meet an additional time um but I'm okay with that because I think this is important I agree yeah yep I'm cool with that oh Church yep that was I was trying to find it but I can't find it so just actually which ties into that conversation is I'm on the charter Review Committee and so as we're going back through interestingly this question of uh collaboration and what our role is vis-a-vis the select board has come up in terms of language and so I'm just going to read this and I think I probably need this I think it's probably best as if I share it with you because there's a comments about what does it absolutely mean we're revisiting in our next meeting which is that I sent it to John there's been a lot going on but I just uh I just wanted to like make sure that I was I thought we all needed to weigh on on this if we're talking about revisions before it comes to town meeting but I'll just read it quickly but I understand that it's easier to read it and then kind of digest it but right now the language says that let me see the town of notwithstanding their election by the voters for the purpose of coordinating the work of all Town agencies the town officials named in this section including school committee members and all elected members shall be subject to the call of the select border of the Town Administrator at all reasonable times for consultation conference and discussion on any matter relating to their respective offices or multiple member bodies that's the current language so I just want to like just say so I think like if because we're talking about that and there were and again in that board of course the representatives of all the Committees so I think it's just important for us to kind of consider are we okay with that continuing that language do we think that is representative of what we think of our role because I my reading of that is that we're subject to the select board and and again do we see ourselves is that is that the case and again that's how I've read it and there was again some discussion within like you know but I wanted to get your viewpoints inside your web I okay I just want to say that's fine I just want to warn the committee that we need to comply with open meeting law and so it's fine to circulate that language but discussion via email or serial discussion no no it's no I know so you can't circulate it to all of us and all of us individually responding well no I know that so we have to if we want to talk about this we have to talk about it in an open meeting when is your next Chata meeting so we have a meeting on Wednesday but this is something that is on hold so we're not necessarily like you know we're kind of cleaning up and going through you know various sections but this is one that we highlighted for a future discussion so there's no anyway I'm sure we will revisit it on Wednesday but again we do not have to make a final decision around it and I can say we're in discussion that's fine so why don't you fall with that to everybody we all take a look at it and we can at some point have a discussion about it type of deal okay okay yep all right thank you Mary thank you Mary much appreciated okay all right anything else that's enough I got it okay our next meeting is going to be uh two weeks from tonight Monday November 21st uh 2022 at 6 30 here in the media center that being said that chair will entertain a motion to adjourn to Executive session for the purposes of collective update on collective bargaining with uh Union personnel and not return to open session moved by Ms Amaral second by Miss Wade on the motion any discussion roll call vote sorry John noon yes Miss Oliver yes Shannon Jenkins yes Kathleen Amaral and Mary White yes thank you everyone and have a good evening enjoy Veterans Day to our veterans thank you [Music]