so you know County spoke it's not you know the schools you know we're here dealing with about the county voted on you know there was uh what two districts out of the whole County that agreed with it only and then another one had tied so you know we've got us we gotta deal with that but like I said you know we're gonna be the windshield time it's all set in that so guys um I have I guess I just want to address um I feel like is um as I said when there's sort of a lack of information people are like oh my gosh the world is coming to an end it's not um you know we we need referendum money we're going to seek it again can't be any more playing than that we will do that um I don't want everybody to catastrophize this we did what we needed to do we thought that we ran a good campaign we thought that we I thought we were doing a great job of educating everybody um it was shocking it was disappointing but I I'm I'm with Doug that this is this was about and we accept that um so as a result we will be having to cut our budget and that's just the facts that we have to deal with right now and until May of 24 which I think again is is the most likely time in which we'd seek the referendum again um you know we're going to be doing what we need to do as board members to cut that budget and do what we need to do the world is not coming to an end um we are still going to keep doing our job every single day educating the kids of Brown County and we're doing a great job of it we're doing really good stuff there's we have been doing this if you will remember since 2016.
and the more students you add on the more feedback that student can get the more attention that student gets and as much as the teachers compensated for it they retire and unfortunately some of them we have to you know if someone doesn't volunteer for it we we have rules that we have to go by to get someone to take that work he teaches you were forced for a due to a low person on the totem pole you're the one that's taking in that class and sometimes it's you know first or second year teachers that are now taking on a sixth class where they are trying to develop their craft as new teachers because best is able to prepare coming out of some of the great programs we have around here in our secondary edits you know when you step into the classroom and teaching it's a whole different project and they're trying their best to prepare themselves through five classes now when you add a sixth one on an error and it becomes that much more so if you look at the the slide that's in there on page 21 that's kind of a list of our overages now all of these when we look at our overages there's different reasons and I don't want you to think that's all enrollment because it's not there's some up there that we call usuals and these are just terms that we make up for January high school they're not in any textbook or anything like that whatsoever usuals mean to be we run them every year no matter what for example hpsa6 class that is our nursing class in order for the students to reach the number of nursing hours they need to go to the hospital we have to pay the teacher exercising to go with them so they can get the number of clinical hours they need to take the CNA test that's been going on since well before all of us except Miss Cooper have probably been around on this court right yeah there you go so we um although we have those usual Fox then we have another term if we call people people are somewhere out on medical somebody maternity you need and things like that there's probably 30 of them out there that are that those are already somewhat budgeted for uh in this year's moment where there's leads us to another problem that we're having which I believe everyone's happy naturally it's teacher short I can't find a World Language teacher anyway we have had those hosting Justice at the Union School we have tried to find him it's the same for the counselors It's the safety and special ed staff math you know we haven't been able to climb it and see the World Language runs out there you know the district has said yes go ahead go get them Dan fill these classes with it and we can't we can't when you see something you know if it says 70 something days out there or otherwise I'm going to teach you left with how many days are they're going to be out for an entire year before they resigned and we just can't fill it and then the last one last category we use what we call enrollment those are the ones that because of the amount of students we've had we've had the parcel schedules together to make core classes and elective classes available for our students we have 12 of those which equals another 2.2 teachers that would fill the gap for us so in total you know if you took it the the 10.7 the 2.2 that we have and I don't know what's coming down look like from July to whatever we don't build a schedule except for our ell classes I get ESL one or new Congress we leave room in those four new students that we know coming in because over the past seven years we can somewhat predict how they come that's how I end up with a 13.5 adding on one counselor because while we're getting 200 new students not all of them are classroom teachers that we meet our counselors at the high school I believe are overloaded already with numbers around 300 we were cited and we asked for that so those 200 students we would need a counselor for a school counselor and that's what I'm going to put it there everybody awake sorry but that's you know I just want to come explain where we come up with our numbers it's not a perfect science in that because I can't tell you right now how many students are going to take this class next year because we do run a schedule on enrollment but I do know that those students need seats and I need to put them in seats so they can get credit towards graduation questions I think thank you thank you Dan good yeah can you repeat that whole thing then no no so just for clarification on these these overages here are not not budget for obviously in the budget stay away uh 30 about 36 of them third 41 probably are okay but there we can't find teachers for them right now but we thought it was important to show that just the overages like how much of a you know 50 top teachers are teaching an actual classroom right there's the bathroom yeah okay there's 12 sections of those are unboxing before okay and then we try to project the enrollment numbers but when the kids show up we don't tell them to come back next year because we don't have anywhere to put them right no you can't okay you can't do that you have to address the the um the growth yeah okay they come in we do our best to try to get them seats you know and the way we've done it at the high school and we think it's the best way to do it is we let our seniors pick their like pick the classes when they load as we call it into PowerSchool they go first because they have a graduation requirements they have things that they need to hit profession can last to me to a problem we were looking at this year with the freshman in the last classes that were open to them because we don't want students sitting and studying also we try to avoid that one is is okay to have but any more than that because [Music] thank you yes Mary you're ready sorry that's okay thank you Dan okay so next week we might call you back okay um so next we're going to look at our sure okay okay um so the next slide talks a little bit about our ESL bilingual needs as you saw the increase in enrollment uh in our change over time we have eight additional FTE full-time equivalent Physicians to satisfy Connecticut bilingual law and the provision of ESL services for our students and so we have one bilingual Portuguese FDA Pembroke other than Portuguese at Broadview bilingual Spanish at Broadview the Heritage Spanish which is technically not an ESL class it's really a world language class for Native Spanish speakers in a Portuguese Portuguese and Spanish full-time basically Paras and so how these numbers determine really in terms of the Connecticut legal law we have a data collection that occurs every October 1st so who's present in the school system on October 1st of the previous year determines whether or not a school system is has to provide by law bilingual services to students and so the here reflect our PSIs data collection from the previous year the Portuguese Spanish full-time Paris the 4.0 ftes those are paraprofessionals that work in our our classrooms to support the teacher but also to help with our bilingual needs it's very difficult to find valuable teachers and so where we can't find those those staff we try to ensure that we have at least a paraprofessional working in the class to help support I think Kelly talk a little bit about the Middle School needs you could go just back to the Middle School side for a moment um so you heard from superintendent Lawson earlier that our Middle School enrollment um has been trending um pretty similarly across the last few years and what we are noticing with our students is that there's an increased need for interventions and social emotional support and so what you'll see here is reflected in additional um after year full-time equivalents at each one of the middle schools and the particular focus of this will be on Intervention and support services to students as well as meeting their social emotional needs we should also knock that west side which is driven by a lottery is also something that we watch and monitor closely as we're still not sure which of our sixth graders will attend so that does impact both our special education ESL Support Services as depending on the number of students that are selected through that Lottery process one of those activities that website may need to be considered for either of those or more services for students um the next slide is reflective of our special education needs a superintendent of Austin alluded to earlier we've grown by 70 students today in previous school years we're growing about 50 or 60.
motion second hang on oh I have a motion from Christy Chavez and I have a second from Montero so I'll open it up to public comment uh Daniel is there any public comment on items 5.01 [Music] would you like to present something to the board uh I want to see where the board is is going we do have uh a consideration for the War I don't even want to call it a recommendation but a consideration for the board but I don't know what the board is here I'd like to hear it if possible okay so what would would Mr Ruiz uh mention present this consideration to the board please and as he jumps oh there he is uh okay there he is so um no no Rogelio if I should start with a little bit of context or are you ready to jump in I I can address it if you like right away go ahead um good evening board thank you for having me here um uh just by way of background and I believe we discussed it at the last board meeting uh the governor has uh has issued a new Proclamation that the uh covid uh Declaration of emergency will terminate as of February 28 2023 so at the end of next month previously um the governor's emergency orders and some emergency legislation allowed this board or allows this board to hold virtual meetings during a declared state of emergency and subject to certain findings that are included in the resolution before you in other words that um the virtual meeting uh the board finds that the virtual meeting is appropriate and necessary to stop the spread of covid and because you are working in confined spaces um and it may not be safe for either the public for board members or for staff now that the emergency declaration will end on February 28th um the board can know will no longer be able to hold virtual meetings as it has done in the past there is new legislation that will allow individual board members to participate virtually when there are emergency circumstances namely related to the health of the board member or the board members family or for reasons of Just Cause such as to care for a family member in an exigent circumstance or some things like that um but the bottom line at this point is that this board can continue to meet remotely virtually through February 28th of next month and after that uh the boardroom and and you know unless there is another emergency declaration which doesn't seem likely at this point after February 28th the board will have to open up the boardroom for public in-person participation and and observation and comment and um the you know the covet pandemic still uh according to Public Health Data the coveted pandemic still continues to affect uh East Side uh the San Jose's east side and particularly the district's jurisdiction disproportionately uh compared to the rest of the county and so the recommendation this evening from the staff is that the board approve the consider and approve the resolution which would allow you to continue to meet virtually through February 28th of next I'm sorry yeah through February 20th of next month and one of the items for consideration is uh and it not necessarily take a board action this is more in the realm of administrative prerogative is to take measures to safeguard against the transmission of the disease the disease and one of those ways would be to reduce the capacity of the boardroom um and by some certain amount and to use the adjacent room across the hall as overflow space and this will allow for this will prevent uh crowded spaces it'll allow for some social distancing um but that's but that is an option with the district which is what the superintendent was talking about um and it would not be unique to Alum Rock there are other districts that have reduced the capacity of their boardrooms to deal with this situation okay so should I amend the motion no it has it uh as as you sort of Rogelio there's no need to amend the motion because this is uh administrative this would be an administrative decision so you could uh thank you so much Mr Ruiz so I did see vice president ferrero's hand first I just want to um confirm and make sure I'm understanding so when and if we move in that way past this February 20th date um is this something that we need to pass at the next regular scheduled board meeting something like new language into what we've been approving is that what I'm hiring or is it okay for the staff to just move in that direction yes it it will well it's okay for the staff to move in that direction um but as a practical matter the new legislation will require an amendment to your existing board bylaws because it will change for for those circumstances in the future uh for which a board member wants or needs to participate remotely there are a new set of requirements so this will come to you next next month at the next regular meeting anyway in the form of a proposed amendment to your board bylaws and that was going to be my next question because I know that like in December I participated remotely I was in a conference um and I was able to do that very differently than I did you know four years ago yeah so right now up until let's say February 20th I'm still able to do that but once that new uh language and that date I guess comes around then we'll have to go back to what we were doing prior to the pandemic so if if the board passes the resolution uh that's on the agenda tonight then yes you will you will be able to continue to do that through February 20th after the 28th after February 28th next month we're actually not going to go back to the way it was pre-coveted it's going to be something in between that will give board members more flexibility on an individual basis to participate remotely under some very specific circumstances thank you uh question to Mr Ruiz has that legislation taken effect yet it took effect on the first of this month okay okay uh let me hear I saw Kirkland here I have a question um no no question just want to express my personal support for the recommendations Administration board they can be adjustments that are necessary to provide the things for the public but at the same time uh the best use of overflower accessories so okay so clear I mean interest debate around uh yeah well first of all just to clarifying so uh just a moment ago Trustee of Vice President I have to get used to are you vice president sorry I don't know what I just um asked a second ago if we that that she's still able to participate remotely and I think the response was yes until February 28th but actually that's not accurate based on the resolution that trustee fam I believe introduced several months back we all need to be present currently is that correct that so the the resolution provides for so yes there was a resolution requiring in-person attendance but subject to uh other conditions um that allow under the brown act for remote appearance um so it's I I believe that the the language and the resolution was advisory or recommend recommendory if that's a word um it wasn't a condition to participation on the board and I'm not sure that that limitation would be enforceable okay um so thank you for that clarification so that my comments are um first of all I partially to be consistent but partially um just because I think that's the right way to do things even if it would theoretically only be for one more uh regular meeting I I won't be supporting this uh tonight because of um that item that's on the resolution that de facto kind of requires us to be in the boardroom and as I mentioned previously I think that the current situation is not uh conducive to good Public Access I think you know in spite of all the hard work we've done to get here I just think that the way that it was before is provides better more access to the public to the board members individually it more closely replicates what it would be in in real life and what it will be soon again um so I won't be supporting this additionally there's a special board meeting uh coming up and um for me personally if the requirement is to be present I will not be able to be present at that time during the upcoming meeting um so I would be available to participate telephonically or virtually but not in person so I won't be supporting tonight this item and the second thing I just um kind of I have a little maybe different thought than trustee Quintero uh just mentioned about returning back and I mean this is just news to me kind of right now but I kind of off the top of my head I kind of feel like I would just lean towards just ripping off the Band-Aid and just not having those limitations I I'm certainly not a infectious disease expert but I do not believe that that type of a measure is really going to have any significant impact on on spread or anything like that when I go to restaurants the grocery store everywhere in the community I don't see those kinds of measures and so um I in spirit I understand what the thought would be behind that but I um am more inclined to just return to a reality that I distantly remember several years ago and I think that the I do I wouldn't say that if I didn't believe it to be as safe as possible um and if I was seeing some measures like that reflected in the community I would be more in favor of it but because I just don't think that aligns with the reality of how we are living today um at this point in time I likely would not support that going forward but again I could have different thoughts as I mull it over a little more and and change my thought but just wanted to share that so thank you all right oh did you you know I just had a quick question oh okay uh so vice president for our lawyer um the only thing I'll add um is I would be supportive because I'm hearing one that we'd go back to screen not exactly what it looked like but at least as close as we can be safely I have still have a lot of close members of my family and friends that are still testing positive and I know if I tested positive that would affect my you know ability to do other things including my daughter going to school and learning Etc anyways so with that I think the point that I like the most is that we'd be able to do both that we'd be able to do in person and that we'd be able to possibly do uh virtual which for me would be important to continue to give access to those that maybe wouldn't be able to be here otherwise I know that since we went virtual we've had our attendance has gone up um and I want to make sure that we are accessible right when we talk about Equity um for those that want to be here and those that want to log on virtually so for me there's a lot of Pros to doing that um so for some people it's important to be here in person and that we have that ability but I I truly believe that I think a lot of our uh attendance um will continue to be virtually attendees that would be logging on virtually and I could be wrong and we'll find out um but I would be in support of that because I think there's a lot of Pros um for moving in that direction in the near future so yeah okay trusty Shabbos I agree with what she just said and also for the attendance of the board trustees because we have families we have things going on it would like she mentioned that in December she was able to log on and I was also over in San Diego and I was able to log on that made it easier to get the learning for us done as well as being able to participate in the board meetings because it's not always easy to be there a few days like that the law had it before that you have Deport a public meeting and stuff it just made it way more difficult and that's probably why there was also more absenteeism with trustees I think that and I truly believe that all of us when we were zooming before some persons they commented on that we weren't even at the board meeting we were all here at the district office we were all just in different rooms but the way this board is we've all been physically here which is a really good and I think that if we make leeway for a few adjustments here and there and also have the public here in you know sooner than later would be good too thank you okay any further comments the questions from members of the board so I'll sum up with you know uh you know at you know at some point you know we we have to move back to a regular order you know even the even the Board of Supervisors and all its uh Power is has returned to in-person meetings and uh you know part of it is we we just asked you know we asked our teachers to come during adverse weather and you know the least we can do is uh you know conduct business in in our assigned place of uh meeting there so uh you know it so I I do welcome the the return of uh in-person meetings it's you know the resumption of the regular order of process but also I am also mindful of you know uh the risk to uh you know even as this pandemic is you know taking its long time and exiting stage right I am mindful of you know our responsibilities to those who serve the district and members of the public so uh so I guess the my request to the superintendent in the administration is to bring you know research the relevant bylaws so that the board hasn't can can you know and you know work with Mr Ruiz to craft the suitable and suitable amendment to those bylaws in uh in compliance with existing legislation that will you know uh allow for the um you know allow for the limit uh how you say uh limitation of uh let's see I wouldn't say limit but also to uh how you say to cap the the seating so as to uh allow for ventilation and social distancing to the exact and also if you know if need be to allow fellow for um individual virtual virtual participation as prescribed by legislation all righty is that yes do we need a so with that uh uh we can move to a vote on item 5.01 so I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez hi uh board uh vice president Herrera loera aye Bob Montero all right uh trustee Bay hurano no and myself building I motion passes four to one with uh trustee Bay harano dissenting uh moving to item 5.02 approved resolution number 26-22-23 certifying to the Board of Supervisors of the Santa Clara County of Santa Clara all proceedings in the November 8 20 22nd General obligation bond election measure s and establishing citizens oversight for measure s Bond expenditures okay motion from Quintero second from trustee Chavez uh Dr Bauer would you and introduce the item it basically just needs an approval that okay you know what something that we have already uh just saying that the measure passed and the the current oversight committee is going to be overseeing this okay that's what you're approving oh you might want to call for public comments okay okay so with that uh I will open item 5.02 to comments from members of the public Daniel do we have uh do we have members of the public bushing the comment what president there are currently no speakers okay so seeing no further public comment any comments or questions from members of the board all righty seeing that well you know I would like you know uh you know this is part of what I had mentioned in my earlier comments about you know New Opportunities the sun you know the place in the sun on the hill you know uh you know this is you know this you know uh I wanna you know I can't thank the people of Alum Rock enough for their confidence in our district and uh approving uh this this very very special bond measure which uh will enable our district to uh you know to make to make progress to you know to be the first you know the first the first district in in all of San Jose they found such a bond measure and it speaks volumes to uh confidence you know and the trust of the people of Alum Rock so it's with that uh with that sentiment that I I I I am I encourage my colleagues to support the item so uh with that I will move to the vote and I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez hi uh vice president herreroira aye Clarke Quintero hi uh trustee Bay hirano aye and with my self-building eye motion passes unanimously tell moving to item 5.03 approve resolution number 30-22-23 uh national day of racial healing at the Alum Rock Union School District uh let's see here I mean I know that is uh that was your uh item clerk Quintero so uh would you uh you know Quintero the floor is yours yes um I I'm in conversation with Miss sultan we uh brought to my attention uh the national day of racial healing that um unfortunately due to our different uh calendar uh found before our January meeting whenever the last I thought it was important to bring forward the resolution that is provided in their action to policy makers and I think it's a good opportunity for Alum Rock to prepare for the for next years um uh national day of racial healing um it gives us an entire year to begin the process of of taking into account what took place this year and seeing how we can incorporate that into Alum rocks uh so we have a a robust program of events and things that we can do to participate in this national day um and so it's with that that I asked by colleagues for support and uh the resolution and we have to talk to him is uh still on if you can come on and speak about um what she's aware of and what has been done in other places I think she mentioned that penthouse for education and it was also adopted um uh the nationality of research okay uh thank you Quintero so with that I will open item 5.03 to comments from the public Daniel is there any comments from members of the public for president there is currently no public comment Miss Dalton is there is there oh okay yeah yes uh miss tolton you have the floor yes good evening for president I still hear the echo but I'm hoping it's not on your end as well um I want to thank uh trustee Quintero for being willing to discuss this with me and to bring it before the board as someone who um grew up in the south and living as an African-American racial healing is something that is very important to me I strive to be a person that Bridges makes Bridges between races and certainly my work in the district with the racial Equity committee is one in which I'm demonstrating day-to-day the importance of bringing people together regardless of the differences um I was made aware of it through the County Office of Education and just wanted to see with some of the things that are occurring in our schools if there is a way for us going forward to implement this ongoing in our district I see it as a way to build awareness of differences but at the same time showing that we have commonalities as well celebrating the differences but acknowledging our shared humanity and I don't want to belabor the um the meeting going on about it didn't know I would be speaking but I did want to just thank trustee Quintero for bringing this forward I certainly hope it would be something that you could Implement in the future thank you okay thank you okay so what uh seeing no further public comment I will move to a common question for members of the board so I saw trustee Chavez she had your hand up yeah motion to approve okay motion to approve second by Cliff Quintero all right and I see uh vice president Herrero loera uh I'm very happy that you brought this forward thank you so much uh when I was reading our board book um it really caught my attention I wrote questions for Dr Bauer and uh I I'm glad that you said you know to have a year to prepare I look forward to having something as a district I look forward to um but this will bring um as we talked about earlier you know there's so many things that we need to work towards that we are already working towards and I think it's a great addition to you know how we started today with our um committee presenting uh Miss Talton thank you um glad you were part of this and you know I just wanted to make sure that we didn't just pass a resolution to pass another one and to just kind of check that box and highlight you know a day um but to make sure that we do something about it whether it's in the classrooms or an event for the entire District um so I look forward to uh hearing what that is and also participating um so thank you and I will definitely be supporting for questions and comments from the board just one an event well I know I know that you're part of the conversations it's going to be big now yeah I mean it's important work you know and there and and our community not because of our community but you know because of again some of the things that states here the injustices that we've you know had to endure there's a lot of healing that gets to happen um and sometimes we don't think about these things especially some of us that are it's not in our face every day I'm glad you said that so that's why I said yeah an event that's like an opportunity yeah thank you okay I'll just sum up you know uh are we I am of course 100 in favor of this I what is it Alum Rock is uh I always like to say greater than the sum of its parts you know to keep it short I mean uh we uh you know as you know when I in my you know when I started as a on this board you know one of the things I was looking at was the district history you know and for our big 90th anniversary and you know in those last pictures of Pamela back in the day and you know later on Shepard in the 60s and all in Ocala in the 60s and all you know uh Latino Invasion and African-American and um Caucasian you know all all together and so it's uh you know it is you know uh we only do well when all of our children do well so it is with that and there we can we can uh make things better for our children and families you know it is something we you know work want to do and I believe down the road it will help us further our goals towards academic progress for the children so I am uh in support of the items so with that I'll move to the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president Ferrero era aye Quintero aye trustee baharano aye and myself voting eye item passes unanimous unanimously five to zero moving on to section 6 Business Services Board discussion interaction the board may take action on any item in this section unless it is designated for Action only item 6.01 okay action approved 21 2021 2022 annual Financial audit report motion by clerk Caro second by trustee Chavez uh okay yes so uh Mr Chang let you uh the floor is yours superb to present the annual Financial audit yes good evening what president can you hear me yes loud and clear thank you um good evening president members of the board and superintendent Dr Bauer um at this time I would like to ask Mr pinga or another Mr um Charles Bradley from bro um who will be presenting a quick overview of the audit report foreign in the audience can you see me okay yes yes I can see you okay okay uh so I'll uh quickly summarize the results of the audit uh for the year end of June 30 to 2022 um so as you may know the audit that we conduct includes three major components that's the financial referral award uh which is your uniform guidance or federal compliance audit State compliance on it for each of those three so this fiscal year we have a given what's called unmodified opinion so uh that's the also known as a clean opinion but it's the highest level of assurance that you can look to achieve out of an external Financial audit so we had in this current year 230 2022 no findings to report and uh overall it was a relatively smooth process for conducting the audit you know considering coming back from um the 2020 and 21 years that we're more challenging um so yeah um any questions I'm happy to address those on the audit okay uh well uh before I take questions and comments from the board um is there any comments from members of the public or president there are currently no speakers okay seeing no public comment I'll move to questions and comments from the board uh any questions and comments from members of the board all righty uh well seeing them I'll just say uh I am proud of the annual audit at the financial statements the you know these are positive developments for the district or you know it shows that our that uh the administ this board and the Administration has been running the Alum Roth School District in a fiscally sustainable manner up through this point and you know I mean it's just not this audit I you know would like to also and you know inform the public that I received the letter from County Superintendent Dewan also concurring in the positive budget certification so I'm happy to say that you know and not only are we audited but also an extra you know the County Office of Education concurs with with the numbers that that we are showing and you know again this you know uh puts our district on on on the correct path of you know providing for our families and the commitments to those who serve us in a way that's fiscally sustainable so thank you so much so uh Let's see we have the motion right okay so we have the motion already so we'll move to the vote uh can I just say one more thing all right uh Mr colvera I'm uh I'm under the how should I say um can you also send that to the board because uh I know that the president gets it and I believe that you also get uh what the county sends can you pass that to the board trustees please yes um are you referring to the uh the letter from the county correct yes yes I can do that thank you okay okay very well okay okay moving their boat Rusty Shameless builds I board vice president hi okay Clark Quintero all right myself building I motion passes unanimously uh moving at item 6.02.
now there be it resolved that this resolution be forwarded to his bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great Regard in which Mr Pesci was held by the Board of Education the Administration Employees and pupils of the Clifton public school system and there and be it further resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in its entirety in the official minutes of the Clinton board of education for future General generations to peruse dated January 19 2023 Emotion by Miss basford second second by Mr albadrabo um I had the fortunate um what's my words here um I was fortunate enough to have served with Mr petchi um probably for about five years when I first got on the board um Mr pechy was um very dedicated to Clifton um foreign just had a little story real quick um so down in our Stadium we used to have a the entire stadium was a brick wall around the whole stadium and uh Mr Pepsi was very big in football and back then we didn't have turf we had grass and if our football team practiced on the football field it got chewed up in holes and everything so when they went to play their games on Friday nights the field was a mud pit so Mr pet she had the great idea that if he could make a practice field on the side so that they could practice on that field and only play the games on the regular field well there wasn't enough room so the superintendent got a call one day uh Mr Lee's and said Mr Lee do you know your wall is coming down your stadium and uh they took the wall down to make room for the practice field so that's why the east side of the stadium is all open now but that used to be a brick wall there and if you travel that road that runs along the the pond you'll take a look at it and it's called the patchy Drive so not official drive by the city but Mr pechi had the sign put up and uh things were done a lot different back in 19 uh but he he was very dedicated to Clifton and I was uh very happy and fortunate to serve with him so uh I believe his wife Jerry is still alive and we send our condolences actually his son was a painter in our district for many years so uh I just thought I'd add that all right uh roll call please Mr abidrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries k-19 whereas on January 4th the community noted the sorrow of passing of Miss Marie Van Walden and whereas Miss welcome has served the board education and children of Clifton Faithfully conscientiously as a highly respected special education teacher at Clifton High School 1987 and vice principal at Woodrow Wilson Middle School before retiring 2010 now therefore be resolved at this resolution be forwarded to her bereaved family to serve as an expression of the great regarding which van walligam was held by the Board of Education the Administration Employees and pupils of the Clinton Public Schools and be it further resolved that the contents of this resolution be noted in their entirety in the official minutes of the Clifton Board of Education for future generations to peruse dated January 19 2023 motioned by Mr abujavo second by Mr Paris uh discussion again just quickly um I actually have a picture that I just saw the other day when we were putting the new edition on Woodrow miss van wellingham took her dirt of shell a shovel of dirt and thought that there was nobody behind her and threw the dirt and nailed me so I always remember her for that we laughed about it many times okay roll call please Mr abadrabo yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries okay I think we are up to board member comments um so we'll just start uh with Mr badrabo and just move around I don't have my chart ready yet but for next meet uh very simple congrats and good luck to all the sports teams that are have played and are playing and uh tonight I think was a great demonstration of what the school has to offer and what the values are and where um what the ceiling is and that it really is no ceiling because what our Administration does and our teachers do day in day out is phenomenal for our students and that shows in our students from the students of the month to the president's volunteer service award recipients and congratulations all around I'm proud to be a Mustang thank you Miss basford yes thank you very much I would like to thank all the speakers for coming out tonight uh your voices are heard uh we do appreciate comment we and your concerns and any issues you have you should come up to the mic and whenever you have an issue because sometimes we don't hear it and it's good to have the community involvement I do appreciate that very much so thank you to the speakers as well um I'd like to congratulate the recipients of the presidential award and also the students of the month when students strive for a higher level they give other people that they're a role model for other people that are striving to get there so that's a good thing to have and we do since Dr robotazi has started here we've had more presentations than I can remember we used to come to meetings and just work on our agenda and it was it was no there was nothing to like show our student achievement so I do thank you for that it's it's really a good thing to do I see that there's a lot of move movement around the district have been seeing a lot of trucks and different kind of equipments the windows at school five at night when I go down Valley Road I saw this big big light on the school I was like what the heck was that turn around if they were putting windows in at nine o'clock at night I was like oh my God so I just I doubled back just to watch them put in a window and I thought it was pretty amazing at nine o'clock at night there's these big spotlights and they're putting these windows in so um I have a couple questions I'll address the superintendent about that but um it's really amazing to see the amount of work that's being done in the district and I can't wait for it to for our communities to start seeing the good stuff that we voted on the community voted on and approved back in um for the referendum condolences to the peshi family and also to Marie Van wellingham's family when my children went to um which also my daughter went to Woodrow's and she was the vice principal and she was she was pretty tough she was a tough lady but she ran that uh she you you respected her she commanded respect and and the students really love this so I my condolences to the family that's all I have tonight thank you for coming out once again be safe with your trip at going home but Lucy just to uh piggyback on what Miss Pastor said those windows at school five were under Sr right yes they were under the Esser Grant right that's super Mr Robertson thank you Mr President thank you to all the commenters that spoke tonight as well regarding some of these issues about safety you know it's it's one of my top priorities this is what I pledge for the district as well and I submit to you back in 1996 so I'm aging myself a little bit to let everybody to know what a dinosaur I am and I was at CHS uh one of my good friends was jumped right on Clifton Ave these guys just came out of a car and uh they ended up breaking one breaking one of his ribs it was over issue they believed that he allegedly had messed up a fresh pair of his Tims or whatever you know and uh you know unfortunately it wasn't reported to anybody so one that ended up happening two days later you know so many degrees of separation my other good friend end up escalating and a fight broke out at in the JFK Auditorium a massive fight broke out between the same crew over here and uh it's all connected so um I urge everybody to to contact the proper authorities associated with that this information was publicly available these these it was somebody spoke at the at the um city council meeting as one of the commenters said before and uh you know all the education and is fine but if if you can't get to and from school safely it's very concerning as well and be to be safe in school as well and I have confidence that the uh you know all the whatever was alleged over there and the accusations made I'm hoping they're truthful and I hope any perpetrators and and uh are you know prosecuted to full extent of the law because safety matters to all of our students thank you for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody um Mr Mejia um I first like to congratulate all the student athletes and especially huge congratulations to all six students who came today and got recognized by the Board of Education and our superintendents I also like to thank the administrators faculty and staff for always pouring your health your hearts out and helping each student no matter what um I know you guys probably go through a lot each and every day and you guys sometimes you're probably tired of it but at the end of the day you're still pointing your house out for our students and I don't just appreciate it and appreciate everybody here in this room and all of our um other faculty members and citizens here as well um thank you to our PBS's pbsis team members again for that nice presentation and for the supervisors for Math and English thank you for all the hard work you've been doing thank you Mr patters thank you Mr Smith um I know what I'll be brief too because I don't want to repeat too much of what others have said but congratulations uh especially to the president's volunteer Award winner at the national recognition puts Clifton on the map and really showcases how great our students are um congratulations also to the pbsis aces and a Shameless plug for the Key Club Mr abidrabo and myself are eligible for pies in the face so if any of my colleagues would like to see any of us get pied please make a contribution and one of us one way or another I guess we're going to get it right and it goes to a great cause goes for uh children's cancer research thank you [Music] and you can donate more than five dollars uh Mr Santiago good evening uh so this past Friday the 13th I attended an event at school five which was a kindness event uh but also to get the kids moving physical activity event and it was the New York Giants organization was a part of it News 12 was there interviewed students and there were former Giants there who actually interacted they just weren't hanging out in the back uh doing nothing or getting or you know signing autographs they actually participated uh in the event there were a few staff members who were there um and it was just a really great event the biggest thing is to see all the kids who were so excited that that was even happening and then that they were participating it was a really good event so just kudos to everyone who was involved in that I think principal Anderson the staff was there too they were involved so kudos to everybody and then the Giants ended up winning so um i i attended uh last evening I attended the webinar the transgender non-binary intersex and gender diverse activities presented by Garden City quality and uh it's in coordination I believe with Key Club and the Clifton Education Association so it was very informative a lot of data there um very helpful you know we're um you know we're a public school system so you listen and you learn um and uh I look forward I believe it's a part of a series so I look forward to attending um other uh the rest of that series um and lastly this this past Monday was uh Martin Luther King Jr's birthday um so you know great one great part of American History a person who literally gave his life to um cause of equal opportunity and just uh Americans being treated equally under the law and so there's a lot of quotes but I just wanted to end with with this one that resonated with me so the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically we must remember that intelligence intelligence is not enough intelligence plus character that is the goal of true education so education is is critical but what you do with that education uh how you behave without education how you share that education is is also as important so like everybody else said thank you everyone who came out and everybody online um and uh congrats to all the kids again students who won awards thank you good night Dr Danny uh yes I want to say congratulations to all the students and the staff who are recognized it's always nice to see students that are excelling and to hear their achievements and what it is that they want to do in the future and you know again we are board of education so it's really nice it's also nice to see staff who put in the time who are very dedicated to help those students that's it it's finished okay um I'd like to say you know thank you also to the administrative presenters do such a great job and it's nice to you know hear exactly what we're doing to help students succeed whether it's in science or literacy or math and thank you for the speakers who came out and spoke and condolences to the peshi and the wellingham family and that's all I have for the evening [Music] um just real quick I just like to um welcome our our new board members to their first meeting tonight um it was a it was a packed agenda uh but a lot of good things that happened and I apologize for moving around a little bit um I I just I hate to have staff members wait around um they have to get up early in the morning and so I I just tried to move some things around but if I confused you guys I apologize um but most of the time we take it in order um you know sitting on this board our staff and our students are the most important part of what our district is about and um I am so proud to be part of a town to be part of this board that recognizes through our superintendent that recognizes achievements of our good people um we have a good we we have a great school system and we should be proud of it we should be proud to Showcase it we should be proud to show our students and um you know 272 hours of community service I mean that's just remarkable um and attend school and your studies and all the things of of growing up as a teenager and still finds the time to donate that I I was floored tonight I wanted to speak to them and find out you know how he does it and the energy he has and to do that but I I commend them and I hope other students can follow along with that to give back to their Community to give back to other people um piggybacking on the uh the giant thing um I think it was Channel 12 in their little um bit that they did on on School five um so after they filmed School five they had kids that were in the hospital and sick send a message out to um um we got to get a new timer um they send messages out to the Giants and to everybody you know um and that just touched me that these these young kids that were in the hospital were so psyched of seeing that event that happened at uh School five and that they sent their uh regards to the Giants and uh um that really touched me it touched me as well um as you know I TR I intended to join you on that uh on that morning but I should have had Mr Lucy's alarm uh maybe it would have gotten me up um but um you know as as Commissioners on the board we try to uh get out um and support our our schools and our students and activities and um so you may see us around and doing those things um we try our very best to to support uh support our kids because I know I again speak of all the Commissioners but we are so proud of our kids and the staff and to see a 19-year staff member who worked through and applied for a position and may not have gotten it over the years and stood by it and was rewarded by the district tonight that tells a lot about our district that hang in there do a good job do hard work help our district shine and you can move forward and again I'm just so proud of of all of our kids and all of our staff and keep up the great work and I know Clifton will continue to shine and those little things that um that try to bring down Clifton um you know someone reported uh you know one fight and you know that Clifton is full of fights and that's all Clifton High School is is fighting and that that's not the case you saw it tonight this is what Clifton is so don't let the bad press try to over ride what good things are happening there's a lot of good things happening in Clifton and if you can't see that as Miss basford said you're going to be seeing windows and you're going to be seeing ball fields and you're going to be seeing vestibules and and you're going to be seeing an up-to-date bathrooms in every one of our schools and ventilation systems and air conditioning and you're going to be seeing a lot of things happening in Clifton that's because you people thought enough of our school system and our kids that you came out and said yes we want our kids to have these things and we want our schools to be up to date and we want our bathrooms and all those things so it's because of you people that this is happening and we thank you for that and you're going to be seeing a lot of a lot of good things happening to commissioner Awad we hope you're you're feeling better and of course to our uh our chief uh superintendent Danny um we miss you tonight uh it's weird having this seat empty um but we wish you well and I know you'll be back to us soon and um I was going to highlight this next meeting but I'll just quickly do it um if you haven't noticed at our board meetings or at sporting events or um that we have this year we have hired um uh security um and um I I can't be more proud of um the responses that we're getting back from kids and teachers and faculty and people going to sporting events and um we are so fortunate to have such a great group of security and they're both men and women and Rocky and Tommy are here tonight and we're so thankful and fortunate to have you and the great job that you do and if you see these guys out somewhere uh say hello to them and and thank them for the the work that they do I know our kids respect them um many of the kids I know talk about and they look up to them and um they're just doing a great job for uh for our district and um I just want to make sure everyone was aware of it most of the time you'll see them um you know Rocky and Tommy are big guys wait to see Gary he's even he's even bigger but they they wear these uh the your security on their their back and uh they're they're doing a great job to um to protect our district so thank you guys to you and your colleagues for all that you do so that's all I have for now and I'll open up new business is there any new business and if there's not I'll entertain oh I'm sorry I'm just I was wondering if you're thinking about uh scheduling a board retreat yes thank you yep thank you yep we'll talk um no executive session so motion to adjourn no objection meaning adjourn thank you all night everybody
correct this is where remember we came in I know different you reference the 1.6 million that we were awarded in 2019. do you remember what that 1.6 million was specifically for I was for ECFE for Early Learning Program it was very yes for early specifically for early intervention and for vehicles for our agency for our early intervention we actually got more money for that so that first year we got I believe 400 000 on top of the 1.6 as a one-time fee for Fleet Maintenance and Fleet Capital um and then but that was one time and then the recurring uh amount was 1.6 million I believe they came through the Telecommunications fund the first year and then in subsequent years it comes through the general appropriation um so if it goes through the general appropriation it's just for my general understanding it's just for our agency and how it runs is no longer just specifically for an intervention or is it specifically still for early intervention um well when it comes through and Shane is probably the better person to answer this my understanding is that it comes to the general appropriation I think that we tend to pay some of the Early Education teachers salary from it along with other you know along with other funds with the azip funds is that correct yes and I do want to clarify the 2.07 that we did get in 2019 the one-time funding was 470 000 to purchase up to 21 Vehicles the remaining 1.07 was yes to expand the Early Intervention Program but it was to hire up to 21 staff so it's so it's it was intentionally to bring on the additional staff unfortunately with the one point million the ere was not incorporated into that amount so we've gone above the 1.6 million we have Incorporated that yes into the general funding it is ongoing to fund the payroll for up to I believe 16 staff that we have within the birth to three programs so that 1.6 million currently is specifically for payroll So currently that 1.6 million is not just for early intervention that we could use for these contracts specifically the way the verbiage was written and um Maria Murphy can probably help clarify that was before my time when that submission was provided to the state but it is again for payroll for the staffing to expand the birth to three program thank you very much okay um so again we have the motion on the table to um direct superintendent to enter into or to to issue an RFP um uh or in the alternative extend under a as practical as a practical contract with certain vendors until you know the the RFP is successful and or the uh more sustainable option that Dr Benedict had mentioned is comes to fruition is there a second for that I'll second all right uh all in favor um say aye aye okay uh any opposed all right let's roll call um president Agro uh yes Brittany Buchanan yes Lynn Davison the ball no Colette Chapman yes Mike Gordon hi Lillian Lee yes TV Jance no myself no all right um thank you I appreciate it uh next we go on to 4.01 information item Finance report good evening board president Nigro superintendent reichman assistant superintendent Cooper and Martin and members of the board in astv community I will try and keep this short I apologize our most recent finance committee was held last Thursday January 12th with board members PB Jance and Mike Gordon as well as superintendent reichman assistant superintendent Cooper and director of agency operations Albert Duff Mr Duff did a presentation on the agency's capital Improvement plan and capital Review Committee process we also discussed the November 22 and 21 Financial reports provided to each of you is the same financial information but in a more condensed version this total student count for December 1 2022 was 2090 a decrease of 40 when compared to December 1 2021.
Dr Camden told us back in 2016. here's the trend and she has made many small Cuts throughout that period of time we are still in good shape as of today and you know we are we're just doing what we need to do to prepare for this lack of um so by the time we get to um either November of 23 if we should choose to do that or may of 24.
um so the fact that we're growing about 70 students in the less than a half of a year this is the most significant Spike that I've seen in my seven years as a center of special education we are projecting about another 50 students before the end of the school year and we have kind of two bubbles of students that are moving through the first of our preschoolers our preschool population is exploding we have currently 50 students that are somewhere between two and a half and and almost three that we need to evaluate for services between now and the start of next year we anticipate that we will have a significant number that will need additional support and while we'll lose some students that move on to kindergarten and this will cause us to need to add at least one more classroom at the preschool level we are also seeing an increase need in some of the needs of those students which causes a more of a specialized program for example we have more recently needed to automatically fragile program to our community school program these are students that are significantly medically compromised and require additional power support nursing support and so forth so it's not just representative of the number of additional students which we are seeing on a significant uptick but also on the means of the individual students within the program and how we support those of the masses of K-12 again we're we're seeing growth across those across the district at the elementary level we are anticipating the need to add two additional programs we are very fortunate to have one program that consists right now six self-contained classes for students on the autism spectrum and the numbers that we're anticipating out of our preschool program are going tomorrow in the seventh class but these are students that need a smaller class size typically 10 to 12 students with a special educator as well as parents to support what they're learning in addition at the middle and high school just due to overall student growth very similar to what um was alluding to earlier we graduate less students with special needs then we have coming in the door so at the high school we will need two additional teachers to support with Staffing and our Middle School while our enrollment has been consistent as far as the number of middle schoolers attending school the needs of those requiring special education supports has increased and will need to add another special education teacher to run you as well as one of our team Rogers Park due to that increased enrollment um in addition you'll see it here reflected on the slides physical therapy as well as speech and language therapy the physical therapy is predominantly at the pre-k through two level nursing and increased need of students receiving Physical Therapy supports and that physical therapy is to access schools safely so this is not Physical Therapy that you would receive if you had an injury or something like that that this is to make sure that our students can safely access the educational environment can be mobile that we can train staff on how to meet students needs things like toileting moving from a wheelchair to a walker to a standard all of those standard require a highly scaled staff member to train others to ensure safety paper students as well as to provide those Support Services to kids and then lastly we're seeing a need of increased speech and language Services again at the high school and the preschool and so that would be one position that would be split to support the overages in both of those are thank you oh sorry [Music] what is the uh what's the student counselor ratio at the middle school in high school sorry um over 300 um so you're holding around 300 at the high school at the middle school you have three counselors for about a thousand students um so 3 30 or so and the West Side you have 750 students but across two concerts so are we including any of that as far as additional counselors so so the Middle School additional Staffing as we are looking at that that was what I was looking to for social emotional support between the intervention the social emotional support at that point okay the next slide talks a little bit about Staffing from safety Advocates we currently are playing for about 36 or exactly 36.
second we have Mr Chang present the item sure let's continue thank you Mr uh greatly go ahead and present the items uh when you're ready thank you sure so uh you know in addition to the district audit we also conducted um a financial and performance audit over the measure J general obligation Bond during the 2022 year we identified identified approximately 820 000.
total of 21.30 the students and the MD and mdssi category were separated further by their primary eligibility of vihi and deafblindness you will see a reduction under MD and MD SSI while there is an increase in other sensory impairment and deafblindness as of December 1st we had about 492 FTE which includes 8.5 FTE from FBC at that time we employed 717 staff only 139 of those are full-time with the 1.0 FTE there are currently 134 vacancies across the agency the highlights of the November 22 Financial reports show the revenues of 15.6 million was 1.5 million lower than November of revenues of 17.4 the major difference is we received the October voucher payment of 3.8 million in December this year while it was received in November last year the budget fiscal year 2022 expenses of 24.3 million were 3.7 million higher than budget fiscal year 2021.
um will have made those cuts will be you know coming to the voters again and hopefully putting out a case that we'll be able to convince those voters that a referendum is absolutely needed um we've only been lost by about 335 votes I think it is thank you and so you know we need to you know work on that our messaging um and we need to be able to do that so that's what we're going to do um people are like well what are we going to cut we are going to analyze every single bit the budget quite all the things that we can do and try to minimize the impact obviously our staff and on our kids that's all we can do right now so that's what we're going to continue to do and I know Emily is working with Dawn very very hard and with our other staff to try to figure out how we can do that um there are going to be some cuts that may be painful they're not cuts that we won't make but we do have to live within our budget that's our job and just like getting household or reading business that's what we have to do um but are we seeking a referendum again like everybody after that of course we are um that is the only way when we type that money is for teacher pay but let's just be honest about it and we are already low on the scale compared to our surrounding counties on teacher pay and we have to see that that money that's what we're going to do um but we can't do it tomorrow we have to live within the confines of the legislature um and I don't want to lose again so we are absolutely gonna spend that time making sure that we're getting the message out to those folks and they uh you know and and if I could have talked to every voter I feel like I could have convinced them why we needed that money but um you know how do we reach those trucks and that's I appreciate your coming to us from the PTO and talking to us about how can we be helpful and I had a retired teacher uh organization come to me as well so I you know we have to take responsibility we probably thought we were getting reaching everybody and waiting we probably worked so we need to utilize all of those things and making sure that we are using our parents and our staff and our community to get the word out so that we can be successful in the future so that's what our plan is um again the world's not coming it's not coming down around us um we are doing what we need to do and we're just going to keep uh you know being fiscally responsible because that's that's willing to do so I hope that that answers some of those questions um we are all uh you know we are all in this together Origins superintendent you know working towards the same angle successful as we can given situations I think I think and you did ask what what is a way that she can help one thing that could help me tremendously is when we say that the district for that election I can't get anybody tell me how much that election is going to cost the district that is one area that I need help in um so um just put that out there our team is trying to do some research and um difficult trying to what would it really cost us is it minimal or is it not I know no one can tell us that because no one's done it um and we so so that's one question the other question for me is that the and you probably heard us say this before the question on the ballot is not determined by us is determined by state legislature and state legislature doesn't want us to be successful and I'll come right out and say that they um so in doing that they've written it in a very confusing manner I lawyer and I know something about school law and I still don't understand the question so the general public was confused um and so how you can as I said if I can talk to each person individually if I can talk about that but if I just go in and read the ballot and read that question I don't vote which is about a thousand people who voted did not vote on the question at all or I'm going to say my taxes are going up and I'm going to vote no it is designed that way and I will be real honest so the answer there is the state legislature so I would encourage you to write to our legislators we did do you have a priority for the state Indiana statement and School Board Association I was on the legislative committee this summer and I made sure that was one of our legislative priorities is to change the language that doesn't mean that their real legislature will do that we'll do that but we do need to talk to the legislature about school funding in General Hospital funding for small and declining enrollment schools um referendum language um stopping preferences for Charter School many of the things that we're experiencing are not of our doing they are Upstate policy that comes to us so um if by April the language of the referendum on the ballot would change and we found out that it didn't cost very much money to hold a special election those facts might change our mind about a November special election sure but those are facts I don't have today so you can't make that decision so that's the position that we're in and I will address the special election because I have been spending a lot of time with the election board at meetings so I told a special election the way we hold a technical election I believe there are 11 precincts and those precincts have to be manned which means you have to pay people if you pay for a place there's a there's a lot of money involved to find out the dollar figure for that I would go to the election board for the uh Treasurer's Office because they can give you that information I have gone to the election required additional research with vendors and everything that goes with it um but I I think another uh option that has not been discussed is that both political parties are interested in going to voting centers which means voting centers voting Center as opposed to precincts and that um the cost of that is one of the reasons they want to do that is the cost would be much less and um it's almost like that might be a pipe if we if we wanted to go with the fall November the the Boeing Center it might be a good pilot program to see if the channel would be interested in that it wouldn't cost us as much it would be the only thing on the ballot I'm not saying that that's a good idea or a bad idea I'm just throwing it out there to use for some research that you might want to do yes all right so let's go ahead and open it up for three-minute comments um so make sure you can see in here just whatever you like um okay um the point is um that is 1.2 million dollars is impact but we are worrying about that it will it once we lose the momentum we're gonna be just almost killed that we don't know what kind of impact is going to bring our school I mean I mean my mind I'm a musician I'm average musician hey we're going to cut up this theater with something that's so vital to our children and students that might be caught up and it actually gonna make the identity why the school exists right so what as a parent we really wanna make make sure that anything that drastic catastrophic experience don't have school so we need to weigh the value so even if it's a week just pay some money up front but it's a last day because we pass and we fail I'm sorry to say this we failed referendum that actually that kind of brings us together like this is momentum there's momentum there that we've got to save our school that this week this is kind of a timing that we can kind of talk to our parents actually aggressively more practically and just can grab hold of them hey if we don't do anything else we're gonna lose so so our point is that that money is important but but what kind of a box or damage both our children and our teachers and programs have to go through so we have kind of a main way the pros and cons so that we really make sure that that we don't historical schools so because once we lose all these teachers I mean they probably start like making an interview with other schools so that we need to give them some kind of open region that hey we know we have obstacles coming on but we deleting the value because Brown County school is such a huge presence in our community it's kind of part of identity at Brown County we've got to work hard to make things going and and well it's kind of ten thousand six thousand we can find some money from outside who are less parents do the job just we we've never been this uh involved so we take our responsibility but like this when things happen we cannot be suffered as a parent we've got to make sure that our children get the education our teachers stay there our programs because it's a Brown County we we are brown county is our Lifeline so I'm sorry so that's kind of we do you want to really it's it's not about just money it's just really value and impact it's gonna have for 10 years of our future so that's what we're invest in thank you all right other comments well and Claire I just want to address it we already we don't want those things to happen and that's certainly what we're trying to do uh and I would say that um I've had more people talk to me about the referendum after the election before they like um so I did I did for different groups of people to say wow this could really happen I think maybe everybody just thought it was going to happen and we were kept complacent and so I agree with you that I think that that is a motivating factor so hopefully we can harness so thank you appreciate everybody's efforts and um anything else all right uh moving on um action needed items I have the recommendation to approve the donation of one thousand dollars from Brown County Community Foundation to the CRC for certification scholarships right um I make a motion we approve the donation a thousand dollars from the Community Foundation to the CRS that's our second one any discussion thank you yes thank you welcome Amy yes Carol yes Vicki yes Stephanie yes yes all right uh number two the recommendation approved the donation of 500 from science for the Broward County High School band and a motion to consider so I made a discussion thank you thank you yeah I I actually um recommended that one I was like wait we have some money Mr Finley you need to ask for it so I'm glad that that happened so um welcome thank you yes sure yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes yes and direct relation to approve the donation 500 from Nashville Arts entertainment commission for the Brown County Middle School art program is there a motion to consider absolutely any discussion yes foreign yes all right consent agenda items um and we have it was like three separations an appointment and a transfer starting with um s wrestling football coach through a bcms assistant wrestling coach Justice Guerrero with Sarah motion chief of Cinemas I'll second all right any discussion to do one of the job all right any other discussion okay yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes yes representative report ing I want to thank our partners that already set in Brown and Brown for everything that they do for us their presentations tonight just like they presented to me was very informative I truly believe that both these programs are going to help save the district money and at the end of the day they are full of direct benefits to our employees and um I also want to take our district and Geo Council for being here tonight for supporting us for having the energy and um wanting to continue the momentum for what we need to do you have no idea what it means to me for that support um and to know that somebody's going to be here at all their board meetings it makes me delayed so if we can get more people to come and get involved and engage and hear our stories um I didn't see ultimate goal so thank you for that um our next Ambassador meeting is scheduled for Tuesday January 24th begin it's at 8 30 um for those participants that are in that program our topic will be wellness and safety I'm proud to have Mr Gavin Steele and Liz Hill to be presenting on both of those topics and just a reminder to the board we will be at Van Buren Elementary School um so I want to thank Greg Canard for hosting us um also something that exciting is actually coming to fruition finally um as you know Brown County Schools we've identified five priorities um in our first drafts drafts of our 2023 to 2025 strategy and priority plan those are School Safety and Security student outcomes Recruitment and Retention School family community engagement and happy staff and happy students um in our drafts the district has outlined clear objectives that we will obtain over the next three to five years and in addition to that each school and each department has identified very specific measurable miserable and relevant goals that are aligned to each of those priorities we are excited to roll out one of these goals for the priority of school family and Community engagement and we have been working diligently on a quarterly magazine that will be sent out to be an entire Community it will be called the Eagles Eye and our goal is to be able to share our stories with the entire School community and we'll start with that quarterly magazine we will also on our website have a monthly District newsletter that is like in a blog form and then we will have blogs from each of our our principals to be able to provide updates highlights celebrations upcoming events um in that format as well so um you know these these stories will be focused on all of the objectives there are five different priorities and it is our attempt to provide transparent clear communication so we can highlight the school district um again each quarter will will publish a new edition of The Eagle Eye we will be able to share it on all social media and our communication platforms and the first one is scheduled for February so um I'm hoping that date doesn't change thank you our students our staff the entire School Community we have so much to be proud of at Brown County and um excited just to get that off the ground so look forward to that I want to thank Matt Finley um our Brown County High School director for all of this hard work and his dedication to the the program here today he took our band kiddos to each of the elementary schools to share their love of music and show off their incredible Talent so be looking for pictures and videos on social media to see all of their work um I want to thank Trent Austin Mark Bruner Emily Llewellyn Alicia Adams Carly Salisbury Tyler staff at the high school for making homecoming week fun engaging and something to remember for our kids the prep sessions tomorrow afternoon and of course the official events will begin Saturday evening so I hope to see you live in the community to come out and support um and just thank the high school um for doing something special for the kids the playhouse is offering a free showing of The addicts week tomorrow at 6 30 they had one tonight but we are all here so um if you want to it is an incredible opportunity to see the documentary and it is free so that's tomorrow at the playhouse and finally it is board appreciation month and um I want to thank the board members for all your support and helping us reach our vision here at broadcutting schools creating world-class opportunities to follow straight relationships so we can live a lifelong impact I hope you enjoyed dinner I want to thank Don Heimer at Chartwells and his staff um are always serving us so thank you thank you to keep it clap after every time all right um yes thank you okay very good we need to vote on planes so is there a motion to adopt the claims as presented in the board package all right any discussion all right let's do roll call Amy yes Carol yes Vicky yes yes all right is there a motion to adjourn yes absolutely and is there a second all right everybody say hi
uh safety Advocates and next year we'd like to add 5.1 for each uh middle school and then two more at Danbury High School this group had talked earlier about getting closer to a 300 student to one safety Advocate ratio currently uh that's that's compatible what we're doing in the high school but by adding two it gives us a little bit of flexibility people will cover government people when they're sick we can move people around and not not take away from security at the high school so Cloud safety Advocates and about 150 000. all right energy and utilities I think we've had it pretty good the last few years trying to predict these things but it's quite a challenge this year but what we all know is going on with our electricity price comparison at home and each of these energies you see up there really has to be looked at along the different things that impact these utilities you can't you can't apply apply a format rush so the other night we went into it pretty deeply with the finance committee I'm just going to give you the kind of the top level things we've talked about I uh what I said to them is uh we're very fortunate um I've relied pretty heavily on chip hoping the town's purchasing agent he's very good at these kind of things he um he understands the market he can he can tell you what's what's going to happen he's with what's going to happen every day in utilities these crates are working with so um we I worked a lot with him on what these projections would be for example the natural gas which is shot way up you'll see they were looking for a 44 increase that's because a year ago we were paying 59.7 cents per 100 100 cubic feet that's how it's measured 59.7 cents this year we're paying 86.25 and that's a 44 increase we didn't think it was going any a little higher next year than it is now that's a pretty big increase but that's that's what we're seeing so far electricity a good example of what I was just saying a chick with your electricity bill are just Outdoors at home really comes in two parts there's the supply cost and then there's the delivery cars and for us it's about half and half half of our bill is one half's another and what a chick was able to do for most of our accounts is locked in the supply cost through December of 2024 at a very low price and uh hats off to him he's saving us a lot of money the delivery costs are so it has a number of different component parts that has been moving up in the last uh six months it's moved up 13 percent it's and we think in the next six months will be another 13 and no matter that's half of our cost and we felt that those that Trend would continue after project trajectory for the next year as well so we added another 13 and 13.
of expenditures in total and of that we tested approximately uh 429 000 of that which was about 52 percent and had no issues from both compliance requirements and the financial statement reporting requirements so ultimately it resulted in uh the unmodified opinions for the financial audit and the performance audit all right very well uh so I will uh we'll open this item to uh public comment uh Daniel any members of the public wishing to comment on item 6.02 or president there there's currently no public comment he's saying that for the public comment any comments for members of the board comments questions case Okay uh vice president Herrero era I just want to thank uh cover for all your hard work and continuing to keep us I mean from good to the best so thank you for keeping us um as one of the best school districts along with you know Dr Barr and everybody else but I know that you've been working hard so thank you okay I have a question um for Mr colvera may or may not be able to answer but just popped into my mind right now so to my recollection we've now have had a a series of years consecutive years that we have had relatively positive um audits that have come back to us annually and so in the bigger picture other than knowing that we are kind of doing things as they should be done um is there any other impact or result or positive uh you know a positive outcome that comes to the district by virtue of continuously producing these these audit um results yeah the um the benefit or the positive outcome um obviously um you know um we're continuing to train staff to be able to follow processes and procedures um and so you know um we're not always going to get a clean audit every year um but you know at some point that'll be an opportunity for us to correct some of those uh missteps or holes that we have um but the benefit is that we continue to train our staff and our team to follow those processes and procedures to ensure that um you know we're we're staying compliant with the audit regulations um going forward um I do want to take this opportunity um to comment on you know the clean audits um and thank you for the kind words that um that has been made to this evening but I would be remit um to not acknowledge the team who has worked and committed their um time and hard work to make sure that um you know that they're following processes and procedures um you know over the last two or three years there's been a slew of changes um and the audit itself is not just just the audit of the business division um it's you know an auditor of the whole districts so HR has a part um business has a part academic service has a part um particularly student services has um had to deal with um a large amount of changes over the last two years with independent studies in terms of attendance taking and backup documentation so I want to give kudos to them um you know for keeping up with those regulations and also give kudos to our Auditors who um you know has State give um keep us abreast of all the changes so that we can keep moving forward and having a clean audit um thank you so is it safe to say then basically that it's one of the benefits at least is that continuing to um get these kinds of results kind of establishes the culture of responsibility of you know meticulous record keeping and all those kinds of things is that kind of what we're talking about establishing a culture establishing maintaining a culture within the business department of the expectations of how we do things and and how we modify when necessary is it really kind of about establishing that as the as the standard for the Department that is absolutely correct then you're more eloquent in terms of articulating it than I did you know you know what I need to understand it so you did fine thank you okay thank you both okay and before that I see superintendent power thank you and and thank you uh Colbert for the answer and thank you uh trustee for the question I just want to also remind us all that in addition to the wonderful work that our staff is doing and establishing that organizational culture having when we go out to the market to sell bonds everything it's considered so it's super important for Alum Rock to continue in this trend because as we move forward with our bonds program and you're gonna see in the next section of this agenda a tremendous progress uh around that work so it allows us to be able to go to market and for investors to say you know that is a a sound District they have sound practices they have clean audits money people look at everything so and I'm talking from a perspective of an of uh an administrator being very mindful of our finances equally as to cover us so um that's the other side of that coin interested thank you for the opportunity opportunity to be able to remind everybody that that's also very much part of how we are seen in the in the bigger uh world of Finance thank you okay any fur comments and questions find more well I'll just wrap up well first of all you know I re-entered this District involvement in in this District through the bond committee so I'm very glad gratified that you know our you know measure J bonds are running cleanly and that we're setting the standard for measure s down the line uh you know and I just uh wanted to end with us you know thank you to Mr Chang and all of Business Services because you know I you know I used to ask the hard questions about the bomb because uh you know for three years I was the one that wrote the the bond oversight committees uh annual report right so I was the one that you know asked the uncomfortable questions about the bonds and uh you know um so I I appreciate it so so convenient was a bit of my a bit about how how I approached finances you know because I he was the facilitator for the bond committee so I wanted to end with that note so with that uh seeing no further comment by the board I will move to a vote so I we I believe we have the motion in the second right so I'll call you as I see you on Thursday Chavez uh vice president Herrero loera aye um for Quintero all right uh trustee hirano aye and myself voting I item is approved unanimously five to zero uh moving to section seven uh items uh bonds uh item 7.01 motion motion to approve second motion by trustee Chavez second by clerk Quintero uh superintendent Bauer who's presenting the item uh this is a very uh straightforward addendum Scott's uh contract um he he's already helped us through you know the the one program now we would like for him to help us as a team to be able to enter into the world of Workforce housing so it is for that kind of work specifically that we're requesting no more to approve the addendum okay okay so before uh also I'll take this opportunity to open item 7.01 for public comment uh Daniel any any uh any members of the public uh wishing to comment Court president there's currently no public comment that Casey no further comment by from the public uh questions and comments by the board any questions or comments okay I see clerk Quintero uh yeah I just wants very hard to support this item is it uh indicative of the progress of every meeting on the workforce housing um I want to remind everybody that we you know that we went ahead and authorized the committee so I was working on teach and the future workforce out here uh to continue his work once uh we move forward with the bond was up and running and so um I'm looking forward to working to work with Joe Scott as part of that many uh when uh we're moving forward with deciding after the teacher periods of this project so I am uh looking forward to supporting me any further comments and questions my members in the board well I'll just wrap up uh you know the you know this is um this is big you know we're the first district around to have to have Workforce housing and Workforce housing bonds so this is a you know huge opportunity uh for alum walk right with me not even they're saying once in a lifetime opportunity so uh it is with that that I you know I'll be supporting this item and I encourage my mem my fellow colleagues to do so so I will move you know having having the motion in the second I'll move to the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez hi um vice president Gerardo era aye uh purple Quintero right uh trustee beharano aye and myself owning I item is passed unanimously five to zero moving on to item 7.02 motion motion by uh trustee Chavez second second by vice president Herrera loera so uh superintendent Bauer so the next series of items I'm gonna just ask Paul Vera to stay on and he can answer any questions from the course okay very well uh so with that uh okay open uh I'll open item 7.02 to public comment any uh Daniel any members of the public pushing the comment board president there is currently no public comment okay uh very well uh to the items okay so okay so uh having a motion and a second I will move to the vote I'll call you as I see you Christy Chavez aye vice president Herrera aye uh Quintero aye trustee Bay hurano aye and myself learning I item is a proof unanimously five to zero moving on to item 7.03 uh motion by trustee Chavez second by Kirk Quintero okay uh okay so uh openings item 7.03 the public comments or president there is currently no public comment okay see no further comment by the public comments and questions by board okay seeing none I'll move to the vote I'll call you as I see you trusty Chavez motion I mean no I put myself voting I item passes by the zero moving on to 7.04 motion okay motion by trustees second by Kirk Quintero uh let's see here no need to I just wanna very briefly uh uh let uh the public and in front of the board now that these two portables are gonna be going one to uh Adelante one uh as a music room and the other one is going to be going to up to the academy as a classroom okay thank you uh Daniel uh I mean I'll open 7.04 for public comment Daniel any any comments from the public yes for president burst currently one speaker Delia you have one minute please unmute yourself the moment you begin speaking the timing will begin all right for your Delia thank you um so I'm glad we're getting affordable at the school um I just hope that as uh parents uh the the administration we get a say of exactly how it's going to be put in because to the other day my daughter had water dropping off her in the mariachi reportable so they had to do some stuff in there so um I'm glad that this is coming in but I also want the staff and have a say of like exactly where it goes because we're kind of a tight fit but we also need the space um because when the fencing went in it was kind of all over and it's a very mismatched fencing around the school and you know people are still getting in over the weekend so if we can um have a say whether it's the with the governance committee uh uh how and where that credible will be placed thank you alrighty Daniel any further public comment present there is no more public comment okay seeing no further public comment comments and questions from the board seeing none I will move to a vote so uh trustee Chavez vice president Gerardo era aye uh clerk Quintero all right uh trustee Bay hurano aye myself voting eye item is approving unanimously five to zero uh moving to item 7.05 second okay motion by Kirk Quintero second by trustee Chavez superintendent Bauer yes I have asked the Bradley Trail our chief technology officer to give a brief explanation of the need for this particular purchase as a result of my conversations with the different board members in our 101 so that the public will know why we need this purchase so Mr Littrell uh thank you Dr Bauer so this purchase is for battery backups at school sites currently all the school sites do have battery backups that have been failing we're probably about 90 percent of existing UPS's in the district have failed these UPS's not only provide battery backup for district services like networking phones and and so on and switching as well as cameras around the district but they also help protect that equipment from Power surges from the power grid connecting directly into plugs with brownouts and everything can seriously destroy existing equipment that's in there and most of that equipment to this day is about 10 to 12 years old which is well beyond the end of life and of support of that equipment so we're trying to uh elongate that that life until we're able to you know purchase uh new equipment for the district and get that replaced as well as protect the new equipment when that comes in so great thank you Mr Littrell so uh okay I'll open item 7.05 to public comment uh Daniel any comment from members of the public support president there's currently no public comment okay having a motion in a second I will move to the vote I'll call you as I see you tradition do we have comments on the board oh sorry yes uh comments and questions by members of the board trustee Bay hurano our resident techie I don't know what that's what I have a question here um thank you first of all Dr Bauer and and Mr Latrell for giving us that background we basically did answer the question that I and it sounds like other but my colleagues had about um you know the the need for this and just knowing basic technology 12 years I don't think is good and you say so one of the questions is that you said there's I believe you said something about a 90 uh rate of failure is that like within the course of those 12 years or recently or or what is that how are you defining the 90 okay if that's correct my recollection uh yeah so what I Define by that is uh every single IDF has a UPS in it about 90 of those IPS are UPS is excuse me are no longer functional and in fact uh you know they're to a point where we've had to disconnect them completely and plug the equipment directly into Power uh just because you know the the the boards on the UPS's uh will no longer function so it no longer supplies power to that equipment uh even if we replace the batteries it wouldn't matter because the UPS is actually you know no longer work at all okay so thank you for that and then um so obviously I mean it sounds like we are definitely in need and just the other piece of it that I had is I think towards the end of your comment you mentioned that kind of like this is a this this is kind of like something sufficient to bring us up to a a minimum bar but we still have investment that needs to be made in this system and I asked just because I mean it's a fairly significant total amount but hearing you talk about it it I mean the way that so much of the work that's done is now dependent upon uh reliable technology I do see the value or the need for that amount but can you just talk a little bit more about what the future investment looks like based on your comments about you know still needing to upgrade and stuff yeah so uh there's several parts to this and you you the board has already approved uh the purchase of upgrades for the networking equipment uh that was I believe back in November or December as far as that goes and so that is already there however the the networking equipment has about a year backlog for us to purchase uh just from supply issues so you know we're having to make do across the next year with this existing equipment that when I referred equipment I mean Network switches which is what connects everything together uh we're having to make do with what we have and uh to to give an example uh in the last two weeks we've had about four or five power supplies in in various switches go out now we don't expect that to continue hopefully because we will run out of our supplies very soon however I do believe that that is also due to having to plug these these very old switches directly into power and so uh you know one one step is we need to replace the UPS is get this get the equipment on condition power the next step is to replace a lot of this very old equipment with new equipment however that's going to be at least 12 months down the road okay thank you very much you're welcome okay any further questions or comments by members of the board all right seeing then I'll move to the vote trustee Chavez hi uh vice president aye and myself ordering eye motion passes five to zero unanimously moving this item 7.06 second uh motion by Kirk Quintero second by vice president Herrera superintendent Bauer uh no need to okay very well uh okay uh so uh oh I'll open item 7.06 to public comment Daniel any members of the public wishing to comment but president there is currently no public comment okay seeing no further comment from the public uh questions and comments by members of the board uh trustee behrano yes thank you um so I have basically the same question for 7.0607 and 08 so I'll just ask it now in the interest of time um and I don't know if it would be Mr Chang or whoever that could just give us a super brief explanation of what the changes were on these change orders they're they don't seem to be very um high dollar amounts but and I didn't quite understand the language that was used in the in the materials to describe the changes so um I'm just curious as to what those were yes so thank you um so first of all this step for 7.06 and the rest of the items um in this section is really to close the loop um in terms of the projects that the board has previously approved to be worked on um and this is essentially just to report back to the board that the the projects has been completed and also to go with the change orders um that was done during um during these projects or for these projects um so for example some of the change orders might um in the contract we might include contingencies such as um do the tight window we might have to allow contracts the words um during after hours or weekend when those action does not need to be required um to change orders not to need to be exercised and so even though contract the initial contract includes those those contingencies um if they're not happening then you know that'll be a credit to to the con track and the districts would get those funds back conversely in the event that you know we start digging and there's unforeseen stuff um that'd be fine um then those change orders uh would need to be um implemented um and so um you know we mitigate that by building in um an allowance of about 10 for each contract for those unforeseen events um so um there's a variety of change orders um some are credits and some are additional charges to districts um but we ensure that um we follow the change orders rules just to make sure that we stay under the 20 for all these contracts um that we're presenting to the board yeah hi and I'm thank you for giving I just want to you know um kind of thinking about our past experiences with these types of things I just want to make sure that um there's clear understanding of the particularly the change order process and reasons for our needs for um and as much detail as we can get on that so thank you for for that explanation and that's basically the same for 0607 and 08 right 7.06 7.06 37.13 um it's the same process and any change orders um that are brought to the districts uh we do discuss that with our program manager and construction managers to make sure um that they're um legitable and that they're necessary okay perfect thank you thank you very well any for have a quick question trustee what was the percentage that the change order could be again because I noticed that the first one is exactly 10 so what what is the percentage again the the maximum that we can uh due to 10 okay thank you okay for okay so I'll just sum up and I'll save you know because it goes for all uh this is progress I'm glad that you know we're fixings we are slowly but surely fixing our facilities they are being completed they are being completed on time and within budget and in some cases even under budget so uh thank you a big thank you to uh to business services and fiscal services and to the contractors for getting this or getting this done so with that uh having a motion in a second I will move to a vote and trustee Chavez motion I mean I okay I don't know I'm watching it is uh motion is approved unanimously five to zero moving on to item 7.07 uh uh I I heard trustee Chavez so uh motion by trustee Chavez second by Quintero uh comment from the public Daniel but president there's currently no public comment I'm saying no comment from the public comments from the comments or questions from them board because yeah I just I forgot to say this on the last one so I'll say it here but um you know this over the course of the past several years that rzcr bonds has been one of the challenges that we've had to clean up and I just in case it's not already known for the public I mean Dr Bauer and and president Pham already alluded to it but this is the transparent process that you know the public should expect to see with regards to these types of facilities improvements these types of projects this is what you're seeing and what you've seen from the district to this point is what the process should look like so although we've had our challenges in the past I I just want to make sure that it's out there that this district has implemented the you know the standard for how you go about completing this kind of work for the benefit of our of our district okay thank you any further questions or comments alrighty I will move through the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye uh vice president Herrera loera aye group Quintero aye trustee bejarano aye and my cell phone and I item is approv unanimously five to zero moving on to item 7.08 ah motion by vice president Herrero era and second will explore Quintero I'll open it to public comment Daniel any members of the public wishing to comment Court president there is currently no public comment okay seeing no for Republic comment comments and questions by members of the board alrighty seeing none I'll move to the vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez um uh vice president Ferrera aye Quintero uh trustee B hurano aye and myself building I item is approved unanimously five to zero moving to item 7.09 motion second motion by Christy Chavez second by uh vice president Herrero I'll open it to public comment uh Daniel any members of the public bushing the comment was President there is currently no public comment they say no for the Republic comment with comments or questions members of the board okay seeing that I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrero aye Quintero aye uh trustee Bay hirano aye and myself learning eye item is approved unanimous Bay unanimously five to zero uh moving on to item 7.10 motion okay motion by trustee Chavez second by clerk Quintero uh okay I'll open it to public comment okay any members that the public wishing to comment Daniel or president there's currently no public comments questions and comments for members of the board all right seeing that and I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrera aye Kirk Quintero uh trustee Bay harano aye and myself voting I uh motion is approved unanimously five to zero uh 7.11 is pulled so we'll move to 7.12 motion motion by trustee Chavez second second by Quintero uh I'll open it the public comment is there any members wishing to of the public wishing the comment Daniel or president there is no public comment now facing the Republic comment and questions and comments by members of the board all right seeing that I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye uh vice president Herrero loera aye Quintero all right uh trustee harano aye and myself voting eye motion passes a human unanimously five to zero moving the IMs 7.13 motion by trustee Chavez Clark I mean second clerk Quintero uh okay um I'll open to public comment any any members that the public pushing the comment Daniel or person if there's no public comment all right so you know further comments from members of the public uh questions and comments from the board saying nah not move to a vote uh trustee Chavez hi vice president and myself building I item is approved unanimously five to zero building the Section 8 instructional Services item 8.01 the promotion okay motion by trustee Chavez second second my uh Quintero there uh okay uh let's see superintendent Valor nothing okay uh okay uh I'll open it the public comment Daniel any members of the public pushing to come in on item 8.01 what president there is no public comment seeing no for public comment questions uh comments by memories of the board yeah thank you I had just a question about two of the items on the field trip list um one of them for Russell mcentee to Henry Cowell State Park and Scott Valley Scotts Valley sorry and one um Linda Vista for Camp Campbell and Boulder Creek and so we talked earlier about the rain and I know that in those particular communities there's been significant damage on the San Lorenzo River and I believe that river runs pretty close to these areas um so I was just the question is if one of them is not till April so I'm thinking hoping that that won't be an issue one of them however is coming up in February um and so I'm wondering if indeed it is an issue with the state of that particular facility or Community will they need will this need to come back or is an approval tonight will it suffice in the event that the trip would need to be postponed or delayed due to the availability of the site the facility so if the so if the place is unsafe the kids are not gonna go and uh if the board wishes to provide that you know flexibility that the kids will go whenever is available then we don't need to bring it back if you approve today but it doesn't happen for whatever reason and we don't have flexibility we're gonna you know and they have to reschedule we'll probably have to bring it back so it'll save a little bit of a paperwork I could change the motion and say just to set the flexibility to be able to move it at a different day if if needed needed okay so we have Amendment Amendment motion by the maker of the motion that's the second does the second or approve yes okay very well uh alrighty do we have publicly and I think I answered the whole question because I was confused sorry that's okay is it okay to ask something after him or are you gonna know oh you're done so yeah good president um so I was just gonna ask isn't this typically on consent calendar or am I thinking of the field trips typically they're here okay I was just wondering oh yeah I just thought it was out of order but yeah I'm in total agreement and I trust since we mentioned that I trust that obviously the staff would make that decision if it's unsafe so thank you so any further questions or comments by the board well the only thing I will say is Bon Voyage all right so I will move to the vote on the amended motion so uh practice Chavez uh vice president forever and myself voting either the motion as amended is approved unanimously five to zero moving on to item 8.02 motion motion by trustee Chavez second by Kirk Quintero alrighty uh any I'll open to public comment any members of the public bushing the comments or the president there is no public comment okay seeing that for public comment comments and questions from members of the board seeing then I'll move to vote trusty Chavez hi vice president aye Kirk Quintero aye trustee beharano aye and myself learning eye motion is approved unanimously 5-0 uh moving to a m 8.03 motion motion by Christy Chavez second by Kirk Quintero uh I'll open the public comment uh Daniel any members of the public pushing the comment or president there is no public comment okay very well questions and comments by members of the board oh all righty well the only thing I say since I said in Vietnamese I will say Kung hey for item 8.03 and with that will move to the vote uh can I ask a question yeah so I thought I my understanding is I did correct but I thought I heard you say did I just hear it incorrectly incorrect okay so I'm pronouncing it correctly with the yes CH sound for me yeah that's right say it again so so I still you know as I said I said said in Vietnamese during my my comments as president of course you know their Tech that's the Cantonese version so with that I'll move to the vote Christy Chavez aye vice president aye and myself building eye motion uh passes unanimously five to zero moving on to item 8.4 seconds motion two by vice president Herrera loera second by trustee Chavez uh uh what's this dude I'll open the public comment Daniel any members of the public wishing to comment or president there's no public comment okay see none I'll move to comments and questions by members of the board okay I was you know seeing well I'll just wrap up I you know uh uh you know you know in these times I you know I encourage we that we all should try you know try to be kind to each other and where we can possibly keen and be magnanimous let us you know let us do kind things for each other it makes our district a better place it makes our community a better place and with that I'll move to a vote uh trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrero loera okay uh trustee harano aye and myself voting I'm item is approved unanimously five to zero moving to item 8.05 motion motion by trustee Chavez second by purple carrolls superintendent Bauer nothing okay well I'll open to item 8.05 to a public comment uh Daniel any members of the public wishing to comment sport president there is no public comment okay very well seeing no for public comment questions or comments by members of the board all righty signal for her comments I'll move to a vote Christy Chavez hi uh vice president Herrera hi Brooke Quintero aye trustee harano aye and myself holding eye item is approved unanimously five to zero moving to item 8.06 okay motion by trustee Chavez a second by clerk in Tarot I'll open it to public comment Daniel any members of the public pushing the comment or president there is no public comment none for question or comments by members of the board okay so no further comment number to vote Christy Chavez aye vice president foreign [Music] uh section 9 Human Resources 9.01 resignations this is information only so I encourage my colleagues to read it at their Pleasures moving on to oh oh okay I will take public comment on item 9.01 at this time uh Daniel any members of the uh was it members of the public wishing to comment report president there is no public comment okay CNN I'll move to item 10 contracts over 100 000 items 10.01 motion motion by trustee Chavez second second by vice president Herrera loera all right I'll open it to public comment Daniel any any public comment but present there is no public comment okay seeing none questions and comments by members of the board right same then I'll move to a vote trustee Chavez aye vice president aye 4.0 aye trustee Verano aye myself voting I uh item is approved unanimously five to zero moved to item 10.02 motion motion by trustee Chavez second second by vice president will open the public comment Daniel is there any public comment for item 10.02 what president there is no public comment okay seeing that for public comment questions or comment by members of the board aye vice president aye and myself voting I I am approved unanimously five to zero moving to uh section 11 contract extension of 100 000 moving to item 11.01 motion uh I heard uh okay motion by clerk Quintero second second second by trustee Chavez I'll open the public comment Daniel any public comment for item 11.01 what president there is no public comment nothing for the public comment questions are comment by members of the board okay seeing none I'll move to a vote I'll call you as I see you trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrera thanks uh Quintero there Steve harano aye myself voting I item is approved unanimously five to zero motion to section 12 the consent calendar second okay is that just to clarify is that the entire balance of the consent with the exception of that Pina Contra yes and I also have I would like to pull 12.01 and also since we're close to the time can I make a motion now to extend okay I will entertain the motion and extend uh the extent to 11. okay uh do I have a second for that motion second via Quintero so uh yeah we have blue session yes I'll call you will not be enough time if we hurry on this one yes yeah yeah okay so I'll call you as I see you regarding the extension motion trustee Chavez hi uh vice president Quintero the meeting will be extend you know the the extension is adoptedly unanimously meaningless extended to 11 o'clock so uh I heard item 12.01 being pulled so is there a particular contract yes um I'm sorry to interrupt but the board can approve the rest and then go back oh okay okay so with that okay I forgot about it so with that uh motion to approve items 12.02 to 12.08 and we have a second right okay uh so I will open that up to public comment uh Daniel any members of the public pushing the comment or president there is no public comment okay seeing now for Republic comment comments questions for the board on items 12.02 through 08.
the increases are a result of the 10 salary increase as well as moving staff to a minimum salary of 14 an hour contracted services including Transportation FBC one-to-one nurses and repair and maintenance including ADOT agreement and the new student information system and building software the 350 000 transfer to adoa and budget fiscal year 23 was for the food service equipment Capital Improvement for both Phoenix and Tucson campus the major difference in the programs is the regional cooperatives there was a hundred and twenty five thousand in Professional Services that was encumbered last year in November for voucher reimbursements and it was not encumbered until January of this year if there are no questions this concludes my report of the agency's financials uh thank you with any questions thank you okay thank you Kim um we're going to go down to 6.01 which was a consent agenda of rule of public interpreter pay schedule changes effective January 21st 2023 PV us that this be poll do you have any comments on this yes thank you for president negro I would like to ask some questions to Anita Pyatt please foreign thank you I just have a quick question in relation to the pay scale it says for trilingual ASL public interpreters 10 increase but I don't see any mention or comments on training or requirements or determination how do you determine whether a person is certified for trilingual is there some sort of qualification that you require for that trilingual yes there is certification that's required did you want Clarity on how that is paid or because it's added to the the current certifications that they already have I maybe have overlooked it I'm simply I'm looking and I don't see where it says the requirements for a trilingual interpreter could you show me where on the pay scale that is the different is that a different document perhaps no that's the same document however our pay schedule is driven off the certifications that you currently have and so um I don't have that document in front of me so I would need to pull that up but I'd be happy to send that to you can I get a point of clarification I don't I don't think you're understanding the question okay see the certifications for ASL he's um I think the clarification needed is what are the certifications for having that third language oh for like are you talking like the foreign language like Spanish yes so um that would be the uh certification requirements that we have for foreign language would be years of experience and or um flip testing thank you so to clarify you don't require an interpreter to have a specific training for that third language specifically there's not a training it's it's the flit testing that they have to have at 80 or higher passing score there is training and certification for trilingual interpreters I do think it's important that we pursue and have that reflected if we can that trilingual interpreting is a very very very challenging skill I want to make sure that we have qualified interpreters who are appropriately recognized and are able to provide that trilingual interpretation with the certificate let me let Dr Scarborough clarify on the triangle trilingual training hi uh thank you uh uh I was waving trying to wave down from the side so I did work with HR to try to establish some sort of Baseline for that requirement since there is no State Baseline for trilingual certification anything like that currently so what we have established is we start with ASL licensure as our requirement and then from that we have added our Spanish requirements uh so that's that's what we use as our Baseline so we do have both of those two as our guidelines were requirements for trilingual interpreting board member if they are if they are rid requires some sort of require for trilingual certification would you be in compliance with that if they came up with something like that or is there any other certifying body um for example the Bei that that's based in Texas both are recognized as certifying bodies so they can certify that interpreters have that training expertise is that potentially something we could look into both of those certifying organizations use their requirements yeah I'm I'm actually glad you brought that up that's definitely something that we would like to look into since there are no current requirements in Arizona we haven't followed anything like that but that is something that we would definitely start to as long as we are we're always wanting to be in compliance and we're wanting to go above and beyond obviously okay this is board member James thank you I appreciate your comments I would like to go ahead and make a motion then to pass and approve this I schedule for public interpreters with a formal request to continue to evaluate potential additions in the future and a separate requirement for trilingual whether it be training licensure or certification recognition okay um I I second it uh all in favor hi any opposed and any abstentions okay uh now we're on to 602 action item consideration possible action of John council's appeal to the board presented ARS 3843103a1 the board may vote to go into executive session before I'll be open to the public for the purposes of discussion consideration employment matters as it relates to this agenda item pursuant to ARS 38 4310383 the board may vote to go in executive session which will not be open to the public for discussion consultation for legal advice with the board's attorneys um so we've gotten uh well there's no movement that's just I was just reading the agenda item oh oh the move um you know I and and before before we take that um I just want to clarify uh we are not reaching the merits of this case uh today um the issue before us under our own policy is is very uh simple it's a procedural question um there does need to be a hearing to hear this appeal uh and our policy allows us to appoint a hearing officer from the administrative office of hearings um or we can do it ourselves doing it ourselves would mean we'd have a special meeting um we would have to go through all the procedures set for them in the policy to allow this appeal to be heard and evidence to be introduced or excluded and then produce a a report of you know findings of fact and conclusions of law um or we can appoint a hearing officer that hearing officer would uh who's a professional hearing officer and does these things would then hear the appeal they would take all the evidence they would they would exclude things as needed they would produce a report of findings of effect and conclusions of law that they would then produce to the board and then at that time we would take that report and discuss the you know the merits of the case and make a decision um you know as Allowed by our by our policy and I can give you that policy name if you like in just a moment um and and that's really the question for today is that procedural aspect later when the board does have to make a decision on the appeal after the hearing occurs we might have to have a special meeting there's a the hearing has to have at least 30 days notice so even if we gave notice tomorrow it couldn't happen for at least 30 days and then once the report is generated by the hearing officer if we choose to do a hearing office we have 20 days to render a decision so this may or may not be done by our March meeting we might have to call a special meeting to meet that deadline depending on when the hearing is and that's just really you know we can't determine when that hearing is going to be for today so I mean if the board would like to Executive session we certainly can but you know really the decision today is procedural it's whether we appoint a hearing officer to handle the hearing and then we deal with the report or if the board is interested in conducting the hearing ourselves um oh and then and then uh so there's still there is a motion there could be another counter motion but and just so you know the the policy is oh gosh let me see it's G just so that you know PV so you if you want to look at it I mean it is lengthy it's gcfqrb gcfqrb um again it is a kind of a lengthy policy um but that's where we are so there is a motion there um yes I believe because we have a motion to go into an executive session and we do have a second from board member both can we proceed with a vote for that uh yeah yeah we we can do we can do that um all in favor uh say uh I um any any opposed okay um and uh folks on the phone Colette and Lillian it doesn't go well okay thank you um Colette I've seen thank you um because I I would move that we appoint a hearing officer to take this hearing that okay um are there any in favor of appointing the hearing officer um I uh Lillian hi hi any any opposed okay and any abstentions okay all right um so for that matter we've now appointed a hearing officer um and the agency will work with that um or we've appointed the hearing officer um the hearing officer will reach out to Mr counts and handle the appeal when that report gets to us the agency will distribute it to us again that's you know we'll keep that you know course confidential um and then again we may need to call a special meeting depending on the timing of that to discuss it and then and then at that time we can go an executive session and discuss whatever needs to be discussed at that time uh next is 6.03 is going to be another long action item so get ready um information discussion item discussion of the current leadership team contracts for the 2023-2024 school year pursuant to ARS 3843103 A1 the board may vote to go an executive session for the consideration discussion of employees oh yes so let me let me finish reading this and then we'll take our 10 minute break um the board may vote to go an executive session with the consideration discussion of employees and current leadership positions and the issuance of leadership contracts for the 2023-24 school year pursuant to ARS 3843103 A3 the board may vote to go into executive session for discussion consultation for legal advice with the board's attorneys um this again because it goes into um Personnel uh you know the employees have the right to have their discussion out in the open um so I have that list with me if those names are are discussed I don't know what superintendent Raymond's going to tell us um but we she'll tell us in 10 minutes thank you [Music] microphones are hot now are they are they on now yes okay great um I know we're missing a couple board members so let's just wait till they get back but I would like to start when we can not allow it up [Music] um foreign [Music] oh yeah yeah it is it is cold yeah it's cold it is not it's hot over there yeah you know [Laughter] oh that's true yeah yes oh okay great perfect oh okay now we have everyone present um I had just read 6.03 and that long item so do we have a motion to go into executive session so moving is there a second all in favor aye okay any opposed all right we're going to go into um executive session so uh we'll be right back foreign returned okay so um we are out of executive session now um there were some employees that exercised the right to uh have any discussion about them in Open Session um so superintendent reckman if you have anything to say about those three individuals um please of those three who requested the discussions to be open to the public I would just like to say sentences about one one I've had conversations with assistant superintendent George Martin and I have shared with him my concerns about his performance and my intention to recommend not to review and that is all I would like to say at this point and there's nothing else to elaborate on that that is all okay there any any questions uh for superintendent no okay um we're going to go to 6.04 discussion and action item approval of superintendent reichman's performance evaluation uh pursuant to ARS 3843103 A1 the board may vote to go to Executive session which will not be open to the public for the purposes of discussion and consideration of employment matters as it relates to this agenda item uh would anyone uh like to go into executive session maybe board member chance thank you president nangrove a question yes is this something that superintendent reichmann wants to discuss publicly no um she indicated she was notified prior to the meeting that we're discussing her evaluation just like we do every year and she did not exercise her right to have that discussion in public okay then I would make that motion to go into its executive session for the purpose of discussing superintendent reckman's performance evaluation okay um my second all in favor aye I um yeah um okay we will go back into executive session thank you uh 10 minutes we're taking 10 minutes you're taking a 10 minute break yeah we're gonna uh we're gonna return at 905.
again because it's only half that comes out to a 20 probably 27 percent increase next year over where we are right now of propane uh we put propane in all our school buses propane power we have had a cooperate cooperation with the city chick had locked in our propane price for an extended period of time in a very very low rate not a dollar nine uh lasted for a couple years but it ran out last June we are now prices were much higher so we're stuck we didn't think it was the right time to lock in again all of our new we thought the price would come down and it has come down we walked in a little bit for this year but from that dollar nine price uh it's now gone up to a dollar 62. and that's a quite an increase we think that might go up even a little more [Music] increase on that one and our bus contract we paid for the fuel uh the gasoline that's simply the gasoline price that we pay for our buildings and garage vans that we run around town because to put a little bit more increase in there just in case in case but that doesn't seem to be coming up either the heating oil that was uh pretty tough when we looked at what that what has happened with that talked about it it's uh it's been very very volatile on the market um saw that about a 30 increase from what from budget to budget uh would make sense but in all of these what we decided with the finance committee uh the other night was uh we we set these uh projections in December and we thought we'd go back again take a fresh look at it before we adopt a budget in it's going to change so a couple days before we're going calling chick again see what he thinks uh of what's going on that that's the plan the other thing I should have said to start with on all the views who are predicting the same quantities uh next year as we have this year [Music] you wouldn't change the quantities unless you thought something was off from the previous project when we were changing something of the building or in those times same quantities it's all about prices and it's the same kind of thing we're seeing at home okay technology replacement so pandemic changed a lot about learning but probably one of the most significant things it did was it made Danbury about applied one-to-one school district and the device of choice for us is Chromebooks we are including District we use Google classrooms Google Suite of services that initial thrust of Chromebooks that we bought to move into remote learning was largely bought with cares act money and Esser funds and as John's alluded to those funds are now drying up or having or going to be expired very shortly um and now that we're a one-to-one district is something we have to maintain um the life expectancy on a Chromebook is about five years um that's assuming it gets treated well it doesn't get dropped or still done uh so the the responsible way to make sure we keep every student with a good Chromebook in his hand is to start a replacement cycle or punishment cycle where you do about one bit with the computers every year over the course of five years and then that just becomes a cost that gets embedded into your budget going forward so we're going to be starting that next year we're planning to about 12 500 units which gives us a few there for coverage for for breakage and drops so it's about 2500 units a year we'll be doing that for five years and that brings us to about 875 000 a year that's the initial cost for next year's Chromebooks we'll see if that price goes up at all but that's what we're planning for next year and then the remaining 125 000 we're going to be starting to use for our printer and photocopier replenishment uh we have some uh really old copiers in the district I think our record holder is a nine-year-old copier at Park Ave so uh these lead to delays in printing and reading materials and um like imagine of the line of teachers that just need to get their copies going off in the morning before class so we're going to be replacing the copiers they have a little bit longer life span in the Chromebook so that'll be a six zero punishment cycle and 100 five thousand dollars we'll be going towards the first year of that and then over the course of the six years we have 112 copiers in the district right now when we add them into the Career Academy we'll be adding in a few more so we will planning for about 120 copiers were placed over the course of 6 dollars equipment and services we took a deep dive on Transportation also with the finance commits on slide 33 North Carolina and then earlier three distinct component parts of that look the public school transportation home to school going back up the our contract with the STA was extended last June or June of 21 or a year and a half ago and in hindsight that was a very good move to make the increases were three and a half percent of the year no one really saw the inflation that then burst on the scene um schools that today are going out to bid their contracts around contractors don't want to extend anymore including SDA with its customers so we uh we caught it caught it louder and and we're budgeting for the same number of school buses school bus routes and regular education next year as we have this year the reason as you look at that first line with its up more than three and a half percent is an accounting change I'll call it uh we uh we also bus students to add a tech and until this budget the cost for that Tech buzzing uh appeared in Dan's budget uh in your line item budget you'll see that what's on page 34 that's now a zero in next year's budget we've moved it over here because the bus routes in the morning they all blend together sometimes anyway plus make them a habit Tech than a broad view then a shelter rock or something like that there's there's no reason to separate that out the state doesn't ask us to report it differently foreign Public School transportation as I mentioned the finance committee if a non-public school in here in Denver including the parochial schools if they're enrollment is more than 50 percent of their students live in Connecticut [Music] but a 50 or more live in Connecticut then we have to pass the Danbury case to those schools and we have to give them the same level of service that we give our Public Schools so if you know a kid who make kids walk if they live within a mile at the high school or high school and they don't get a bus service they can't say well Immaculate that's three miles they have to apply the same criteria so it's the same number of buses that is something we have to report separately to the state at the end of the year so that's a separate line falling out the cabinet moves around over there is special education and there's a couple uh things going on next year we expect we think we may have a handful of new placements out of District so we have to provide for those who want to have an out placement we also have to provide the transportation there as well but um our contract with sta does not really cover you see a lot of white bands out on the road carrying school children on top and things those are going to out of District Schools they're for special education and what we do is every year we take those runs and we put them out for competitive bit okay five or six different companies that did those and at different prices and advance for example in our rest will do itself the uh but last spring when we did them for this year those providers were experiencing higher fuel prices higher gas prices so we saw much higher costs than we had before we hadn't had a time a chance to budget for that because our budget was already done by then so we need to reflect what we think will be the higher cost for those right threads so we see that going up but the the rest of the service or middays are our Pre-K all of that we're budgeting the same number of buses Runs kids games same with Summer school just what we've had for the last couple years and there's a couple slides in the deck that just show you uh the numbers of buses in each of these categories I want multiple trees so I'll back up a little bit so we are now in this bucket oh my god um have we had to adjust the number of buses based on this increased enrollment that we've been seeing uh no but they're they're very very proud as you look at them as you know I talked to Danny's out there every afternoon in morning beautiful so what's the average amount of kids first two of us right so uh let's take a bus that goes um we're going to do three tiers it's a high school middle school elementary and you'll see on the side of the bus capacity 66.
seeing none I'll move to vote trustee Chavez aye vice president Herrera aye Quintero uh trustee Bay hurano aye okay uh and myself voting I the items 12.02-08 is approved so I will go back to item 12.01 oh yes thank you I had a question about um on 12.01 the contract or PBC Guru um it's fairly insignificant amount however it is a an amount um and like I'm wondering about what um the I guess the relevance the impact the outcome is hope for this it it's uh sounds like it's 10 to 15 minute virtual speakers from an author for K through fifth grade I believe and so I'm just wondering um I'm not quite seeing the value of this based on the description and it seems like something that you know in order to save a couple bucks we might we may be able to receive something similar free of charge on YouTube or something like that so I'm just maybe I'm not understanding so I guess I the question is um what is the benefit of this particular program to the students who will get these 10 or 15 minutes Within author online yes Miss Garcia Maribel I have 600 Garcia to be available for questions like this I promoted her right now thank you and maybe I need a suit no one is asking for a woman um but hi I'm here um I actually I I don't mind answering some questions but this is not my item I think this is Tara's or Barbie I apologize on that Barbara is there yeah thank you um a lot of times um that we are reading different books um there's a the students learn a lot by having um chats with the authors so these opportunities where the authors will do a virtual chat uh Virtual Reading but then also open up to be able to do some specific questions to you know what's behind the store what's behind the story how did they become writers uh different pieces like that a lot of time in relation when we're doing different book studies um really um is really interesting for the students this is an opportunity where we have different authors and different genres that would be presenting okay so so the the point that it's interesting for students is that like a just like your a personal qualitative assessment of that or do we have it and I'm really just trying to get into the mindset of like tying the yeah the expenditure to the outcome so do um obviously but I could see your explanation making sense now that I'm hearing it that it can it seems like what I'm hearing is it kind of connects or makes real the reading in the classroom and allows an interactive opportunity and that kind of increases the comprehension for students of of reading or I'm not a teacher so I'm trying to understand but that's kind of what I hear you say is that close it does increase their their comprehension but it also get it you know in some situations it can it can um motivate a student to want to do their own writing but also it gives it it allows opportunities to have conversations around perspective voice uh how you know you could take a same a same story and have different voices within that story depending on who's telling it and they're experiencing because I think I miss the interactive part I thought it was just like a a talk here's 10 minutes of my experience as an author and that's it that's why I said oh we couldn't hear that on YouTube but you know they do have some of those on YouTube but this is an opportunity to actually meet one in person and you know even if it's virtual but it's still in person great thank you for the clarification no problem any further questions or comments I remember you know I'll just sum up with you know I think it's just important for our kids to have an opportunity to interact you know I mean uh it's sort of like if they're reading Harry Potter you know they have an opportunity to talk to JK Rowling I wouldn't want to deny them that opportunity so with that happy honor uh of course yes crusty uh I mean clerk Quintero I think that there is value in allowing the kids to have exposure because many times they walk into the library they see names on the books and it's just these random different people that are far away and when you can actually put a face to the person you have a conversation you can provide resources or additional material and we'll keep that level of learning going I think is a good investment um I i i as a kid I don't recall having met an author early on you know it may wind up taking kids in a particular direction if they have this exposure so I do see the value in it um I and I am appreciative of the fact that the questions are being asked because it's important um but I think it's a good investment so several authors uh that would be paid for through the expenditure uh over the course of the year and so that gives different opportunities for for kids to be exposed yeah very well thank you very much saying no for uh trustee vejarano yeah just quickly I already said but I want to re-emphasize the um I'll be supporting this I I think it's important too but it's part of my reason for asking the question is again for at least for me personally to begin thinking in a way that ties the the resource to the intended outcome more intentionally um and calling out what are we hoping to get from this so that's um that was part of it too but I I also agree and I believe it I will support this thank you very well seeing Mill further comments by uh members of the board could we do we need to take public comments as well I don't want you guys to think okay very well so with that I will move to a vote I will call you as I see you uh trustee Chavez hi uh vice president Gerardo loera aye Clark Montero all right Christy and my cell phone and eye motion is approved unanimously five to zero so so we moved to section 13 closed session 1301 with the board will recess to closed session uh the time is now 9 53 uh Open Session will resume at the conclusion of closed section uh superintendent would you like to make call announce for uh section 13.02 um the items are as stated on the agenda 13 uh 03 conference with legal council anticipated litigation for potential cases item 1304 as described on the agenda those are pending litigation uh I'm sorry existing litigation as described on the agenda and 1305 at conference with labor negotiators employee organization area and finally 1306 Public Employee discipline dismissal release okay so um before we move to closed session uh Daniel is there any public comment regarding items we discussed in closed session report president there is no public cop okay signal for the public comment I will at this time the board will work take a 10 minute recess and meet in closed session at you know now is 9 55 so the board will reconvene in closed session at 1005.
okay all right one more minute foreign okay everyone um we are back we're in 604 we're out of executive session um it's your motion to approve the superintendent's performance evaluation so moved a second all in favor aye aye any opposed the abstentions no post okay all right any uh extensions all right um 701 discussion possible it's possible action item parulas are just changes to ARS title 15 1204 and title 41 chapter 27 Article 2 uh Marie Murphy good evening board president Nigro members of the board superintendent reichmann assistant superintendent Cooper and Martin for the record Maria Murphy director of policy and government relations so once more back into the freight the Arizona State Legislature went into session about two weeks ago now and you have before you some suggested changes to Arizona revised statutes that we are proposing to take in front of the legislature so first I would like to start with House Bill 2456 this was introduced last week by education chairwoman representative Beverly pangarelli and we refer to this as our Sunrise bill so as part of the sunset audit we are actually required to run a bill through the legislature and have the governor sign it to authorize the continuation of the school and I am very pleased to say that representative pingorelli is recommending that asdb be renewed for another period of eight years I'm also pleased to say that the house had a committee of reference meeting this past Tuesday and the house Committee of reference passed a motion again mirroring house Bill 2456 to continue for another eight years so with your permission we'd like to go ahead and get this bill run and run it through the legislature and get it up to um Governor Hobbs for signatures so at this time I'd like to take any questions in regards to that particular bill any questions for Miss Murphy yes I do have a question is eight years the max or how is that number determined uh thank you uh yes that's a very good question it used to be that the maximum was 10 years but lately the trend has been to do a maximum of eight years the legislature actually has the ability to determine through the joint legislative audit committee a period of time some recently have gone as low as three or four years but the fact that the Committees of reference have both said eight years we should interpret it as a sign of confidence in the job that asdb is doing and so that is the maximum that the legislature is recommending at this time okay thank you you're welcome do we have a motion to um approve uh or to approve the suggested changes to the ARs so moved here second I second okay um all in favor aye any opposed and any abstentions okay um Nexus 702 information discussion item introduction and possible discussion policies BCB GB e a a g c f c i h a i h b f i k f and lb Ray Murphy thank you board president Nigro um you should have before you a copy of all of the red lines for the proposed policies and they were posted to the public I have not received any public comment regarding concerns about the policies so at this time I'd like to make myself available for questions there any questions for Miss Murphy okay um thank you we can move on then to 703 this was taken off the consent agenda item this is 703 approval of policies e-e-b-e-i-m-b-i-m-d j i c f a j l c b j l c c j l d a j r r n k i um uh PV you would ask that this people do you have any comments on this yes my girl I know that that was a mouthful all of those letters I specifically just wanted to ask about jlda interestingly there is verbiage within this that specifically says that psychologists must be a de-approved but are exempt from a licensure my only concern is where is the additional disability qualification is there any sort of ASL qualification does Ade recognize or does this agency allow for us to seek psychologists who are fluent in American Sign Language can we add that requirement I don't want to have the board then later find out that we have all of these potential candidates but none of them are fluent in Sign Language or none of them have any sort of Education or know how to provide a psychological evaluation for a blind or visual impaired student a board member chance um I I apologize because I am not prepared to answer that question I do not know that at this time um I I was prepared to to discuss the actual changes that were being proposed in the policy regarding um employment versus contracted psychologists so at this time I cannot answer your question um regarding ASL fluency is there anybody who might know a little bit further information here Anita do you know I'm going to have to go back and do some research board member chance I apologize that's totally but I do want to also clarify for the changes that have been proposed specifically for the purposes of identifying the difference between personnel and contracted service providers those are the changes we're discussing correct ly yes yes and um and essentially that change was made because of House Bill 2178 which essentially is stating that now contracted School psychologists who are certificated contracted School psychologists are able to provide services previously to this bill you had to be employed by the by the school now you can be a contracted certificated School psychologists providing services okay that that so just to double service providers they just have to meet the definitions and requirements for that bill the agency still can use our own discretion to add additional qualifications such as expertise in ASL or blind or visually impaired student s correct a board member chance we can always go above and beyond that is a this policy is the floor so that's the basic minimum that we have to meet we can always try to um to follow higher standards perfect thank you that's all that I had I just wanted to now make a motion then to pass these policies as we have okay um I'll second that before we passed I do have a question sorry sure um I just have a question um on the verbiage on is it jlcb the immunizations it reads I it reads that we will not accept any students without vaccines but I'm pretty sure under state law we're allowed to students are allowed to have exemptions sorry I'm looking for the actual policy this to the end I'm so sorry I'm having difficulty finding it in my packet let me just um it's before the school counselors and psychologists as well there is a section specifically that is our students unless the student is accommodation it is not um I'm sorry can you repeat that sure so there's a section in that saying this shall not be electricity unless the student is so there is a passage in there that does state that exceptions requirement is okay um I just wanted to make sure that there that was in there some exemptions are allowed under his state law I just read a little bit more towards this is an absolute requirement and I must have missed that singular part it also discusses that there could be serologic confirmation of the presence of of the disease in the bloodstream that could also be acceptable as well um board member Buchanan so yes I'm sorry I finally found the uh the policy I was looking in the wrong packet that's why I was having trouble and I beg your pardon so but yes right okay thank you um one more thing if I can change my second just for a moment there's a typo in jlcc it does say asdb may required that a mask but it should say may require um so I will make sure that gets corrected right now my second that we that we just fix that yeah yep I see it and I will get that fixed thank you for pointing it out okay all right um all in favor hi hi the opposed extensions okay um that passes then we go into the uh president Niagara yes could I add a clarification yes 6.03 yes about my contract yeah uh yeah yeah okay I just wanted to clarify it was stated that I was spoken to about performance issues that was not true I was told I had a lack I didn't have emergency I asked for clarification none was given to me I went through everything I accomplished in five months superintendent reichmann agreed but did not provide me uh circumstances or examples of what a sense of urgency meant so I just wanted to clarify it was not performance issues and it was never communicated to me in that fashion okay thank you assistant superintendent Martin next is a 705 information discussion item strategic Plan update and preparation for Capital Improvement you know this one is is one that I've been thinking a lot about you know we had a presentation back in October you know we had a work study session on the capital Improvement well o4 I don't think we removed that did we that was still on consent yeah we didn't remove 704 that was just the the mean oh I'm sorry well 704 is on consent I mean I'm looking at Leticia isn't concerned right oh so 704 was not concerned that was approval to move the May 11th meeting from Tucson to Phoenix there was a conflict with this facility on the bpac it was not available on that date so we had to move it to Phoenix where the PTSD campus is available um so that's that and then 705 is information discussion items your teacher Plan update and preparation for Capital Improvement so right so this is the appropriation for Capital Improvement as we we talked about in in April or I'm sorry in October oh we had a work study on on uh Capital Improvement plan um you know we had highlighted that in our strategic plan um the need for it that got kind of sidetracked a little bit by covid um and uh we were it was also highlighted by the auditor general that we need to have this plan and we were told that we're going to need um you know and we're going through the capital improvement process that's about 18 to 24 months away and we're going through that process but you know to me if we fast forward to the end of that we kind of already know what that's going to look like right I mean we were told in that October meeting uh that we need 69 million dollars um to uh you know kind of rejuvenate um the campuses um to to get the capital facilities where they need to be now that Capital approval process may change that amount it could be 50 million it could be 90 million I mean who's twos to know but it's going to be tens of millions of dollars um and that is going to be a big ask to the legislature so the good news is we have time um to tell a compelling story to the legislature about why it's worth the investment um that significant investment uh in the the Capital Improvements but you know I I couldn't help but think like I would think I'm not a legislator but now I think that they would think and they're going to see very quickly they're going to see a few things right I mean they're going to look at um you know the performance right is this worthy you know is this worth the investment um you know we spend if we look at our cost per student this is uh in 4.4.4 the Strategic plan uh for fiscal year 23 and we look at our enrollment as of the 8-1 that was our last or board meeting closest to the end of that fiscal year um we we spent 21.2 million on the Tucson campus uh 14.5 million on the Phoenix campus and 35.8 million total so it'll cost us 35.8 million uh to run the the two campuses that was for 354 students that's a hundred and one thousand two hundred seventy nine dollars a student yes one one hundred and one thousand two hundred seventy nine dollars a student so that's as a as a to think about that but put that in perspective you know or voucher money that we get um is uh is is is is much less right so we get about twenty five thousand for blind visually impaired uh we get about the same amount for deaf and hard of hearing we get about 30 uh three thousand for MD and uh we get about 42 000 for mdssi students um if we look at that uh revised you know we have a revised budget of 63.5 million dollars so that's 56 of the budget went to serve 354 on-campus children overall if you include the early intervention include the preschool uh include the itinerance um that's that 354 is 17 of the children that we serve so we're we're spending 56 percent of our expenditures on 70 percent of of the children um and again that that you know that has to go that extra Gap has to come from somewhere right if we're spending four times the voucher amount uh you know what's that Delta well if you if you have if you average it out to 30 000 a student uh that's about a 26 million dollar Gap in our general appropriation last year or this year is 26.6 million so it's it's nearly the whole General appropriation um and that's so if you if you look at that that means that we get a general appropriation to supplement our other income which is primarily the two biggest chunks are the general appropriation and the voucher revenues voucher revenues being the largest amount General appropriation be the second largest amount we get some other monies some federal monies we get some money from Medicare or Medicaid we get state land grant things we get some other uh other sources but those that's the two primarily primary chunks of funding that we get uh and and nearly all of it is going to go to those children on to the to the campuses um and that would lead a legislator I think to believe that we have a very high population High needs children there are plenty of children that do cost a hundred thousand dollars um a year to to serve their deeds and of course we'll happily pay that where there's a deed um but when we look at our our numbers that's just not the case um 70 are deaf or hard of hearing four percent are visually impaired or blind uh nine percent are classified as MD and 14 are classified as MD SSI that is those are the kids with the highest level of need so only 14 have have that very high need um I mean that would be high for a school district but you know in in our context that's uh very high so we we you know the majority of the students you know about 75 or are either uh deaf or hard of hearing or or blind visually impaired so we're spending about four times the voucher amount for those students um and districts don't spend that right districts get the vouch for money they have their tax-based revenue um you know they have bonds overrides and other things other sources of funding um but they don't spend a hundred one thousand dollars on on this population uh so that's that's really high um and and it's and and that you know the use of that General appropriation is high that we've seen you know perhaps it's to the detriment of some of the other children we serve if we say that we don't have money for this or that um because we don't have enough in the general appropriation we we know where that's going um so gosh that's that leads us to think that we must have if we're spending so much we must have outstanding performing schools and I I really wish that I could say that um the data that we have you know we used to have data from the co-ops from the children that we serve in the co-ops that was the last given to us in 2018 we got just last week I've been asking for for months and months and months we just last week got a small sampling about 50 or so I believe districts sent over some of their data and that's helpful but it's not complete but if we look at that the board presentation of 2018 you know we see that the the uh the co-ops at the time and there were five of them at the time had um on grade level rates for ELA and math about 20 they ranged um from 13 to 24 but mostly I mean DVR 13.6 NCR at 23 SCRC at 24 swrc at 20.
um that that's not uh high school and middle school kids you can't put three on a seat that's the capacity for elementary students for the high school and the middle school about 50 kids so and you'll see and some are some may look empty because of where they're going or might have a short movement between two big ones but those are capacity to try and vote for them so are we looking to add buses thanks John so uh just wanted to go back a little bit we kind of jumped past this slide so we are in that bucket of equipment and services there was a total of a two million dollar increase so John just talked a little bit about Transportation but this bucket includes a lot of different things Building Maintenance uh Lexus licenses memberships paper equipment repairs there's a new personal hygiene mandate around dungeon products uh the schools are mandated to provide cleaning products service contracts software so it's a whole a bunch of things that go in here I want to talk a little bit about some of the building maintenance and improvements that we're planning to do um so as our buildings continue to age it's important that we have an updated facilities master plan this does the sort of assessment of you know the age of the roofs and floors and you know doors and things like this so that we just don't get caught short by linky roof we know that it's coming up on its replacement cycle and we have to plan accordingly for that so that's something uh we definitely want to get done this year and you'll see a theme as we go through here the a lot of these are about partitions and and making new classroom space in existing spaces that's one thing that we want to do at King Street primary give them a little more classroom space KSI and KSP some new flooring Morris Street they need additional classroom particip partitions and some new doors as well out of South South Street office partitions KSP if you've been over there they have that Media Center where there's that kind of pit and it's just it's just not the safest things fill that in and make it a nice flat surface we want to paint the auditorium and DHS in that district-wide we want to buy some new auto scrubbers our custodians cover a lot of a lot of square footage and those Auto scrubbers allow them to get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time so we want to buy some new some new machines for them uh Haze town and Great Plain we want to add some new entrance vestibules uh this is something we've talked about over the last year and came as a recommendation from some of our school studies DHS Jim bleachers currently they are mechanical some of them are electric but some are mechanical and now with the new floor um as I understand it when you pull them out the mechanical way that there's a risk of it damaging the floor so by making them electronic they'll come out a little more smoothly and not floor and then again Shelter Rock room dividers for additional classroom space so a lot of these are things that we're just doing to try to make do with the current space we have and make sure that everybody has learning spaces and workspaces and spaces for private conversations and offices and that's coming to about 689 thousand dollars now I just want to say there's an additional budget off to the side of this which is the city's capital budget that's more bigger projects that's a couple million dollars that is a separate budget so I know we've talked about both insights and Facilities so I just want to be clear this is a separate amount of money that is in our budget not the capital can you fast forward to slide 37 then I will wrap up with these last few slots so you may recall earlier in the president this is one of the piggy banks page 37.
thank you very much foreign [Music] man Ford has uh is reconvening to open session uh so item 14 report of action taking in closed session there's no need to report okay very well so uh move to 15 future board agenda requests requests from the Board of Trustees and or from the public request shall be submitted in writing to the superintendent or designee with supporting documents and information if any at least one week before the scheduled meeting date items submitted less than a week before the scheduled meeting date may be postponed to a later meeting in order to allow sufficient time for consideration and research of the issue so with that I shall adjourn the meeting I will adjourn it at 10 59 PM our next meeting is February 9 2023. thank you very much thanks
a little bit different for math DVR at 16 HDR 27 and cr21 this year's c818 swrc at 25. and for the same when we look at at the campus schools in 2018 the a b had Ela on grade of nine and math of nine ASD had an Ela of 2 and math of two PTSD and Ela of 8 and math of seven in 2019 I you know you can look at the ad reports and unfortunately there are too few students that were at grade level to even register to report it was too few to report so um and then in terms of psos how is that coming well you know we don't really have a uniform way of measuring psos it's part of our strategic plan we've talked about it even before a strategic plan the auditor general um you know mentioned that we don't really have a good uniform way of measuring them we have some approach but it's hard for us to say because we haven't gotten good at doing that so when we look at our data you know this this is hard data to sell to the legislators to just to ask for the amount of money that we're going to need to improve the canvases um because they're going to see that districts pay far less and Achieve far more academically than than what the agency does and you know that's something that we're going to have to change um in the next couple of years so that we can go to the legislature and say uh you know look here's here's what we're going to take that money we're going to invest it and here's the kind of results that we can expect from that here's the type of good that we think we can expect from that um you know and again I mean I think a lot of that is is the leadership I think our staff is very dedicated I think that they the ones that I interact with are very dedicated to the students and improving the their educational outcomes um but you know we really need to be able to manage this a lot better than we have um you know again dietary program you know doing well but on campus we need to make sure that we you know we're managing the funds properly so we're getting efficient and we have to make sure that we're that we're getting some educational achievement from that um and it's been that way for for years it's not like there's one year it's not like these are all pre-covet numbers so again that's uh I don't know if anyone else wants to comment on it but the idea is you know I think the administration is going to have to come up with the strategy to make sure that that when we do go to ask for these improvements once we have our Capital Improvement plan in place that that we have a real compelling story to tell the legislator as to why this investment is warranted in these campuses to to improve the schools and prove that you know the capital place where our students come to to school every day [Music] however data only follows the story me we can view it from different companies we have a board we need to recognize the fact that where this agency is right now is because of our decision making five previous fours and some more decision making five previous evidence triggered to the AWA administrators when I was looking um through some records and the financial agency has been seriously incredibly not responded for many years and that's part of the legislative responsibility it's also a part of the resource responsibility another thing that we need to consider is at the end of the day deaf education in general and some aspects of wine education are still not really easy that there is no ready to go the staff here comes in that value and make everything deaf education has been formally established in this country for over 280 for the long Conference of 1880s um the Milan conference established the future of deaf education and what we are seeing is the result of that approach to deaf education we can't fix over 280 years worth of approach that has been consistently paid um issues [Music] at the end of the day when we have hearing people with little to no understanding of deafness or little to no understanding of language acquisition little to no understanding of blindness making these critical decisions that impacts Generations that impacts multiple Generations and continues a cycle of poor results I think it's important to recognize that we need to reframe that data we need to reframe the discussion and like you said for the legislature to swallow that amount I don't see it happening we as an agency and as a board have to make some very difficult decisions in order to help the agency survive and I do not think that we can avoid these difficult decisions however does that mean that the agency is a failure because of all of this data no so I would like to submit that perspective thank you PV um I certainly appreciate your comments um yeah you know in terms of the the performance at least you know to me the the Striking thing is that the students that earn our co-ops are doing much better I mean far and away they're doing much better um and it academically than they are on campus and that's for for far less resources that are being expended to attain those results that's what I think a legislator and again this isn't me I mean if I could wave a magic wand I'd have the money we'd have cranes here tomorrow um but that's you know that's not the way the world works we have to go convince the legislature and if they're looking at this from a perspective of where you know where should public money go should it go to the system with far lower costs you know half that I mean maybe half the cost or less and is getting far better academic achievement or should it go to the far more expensive um methodology that that isn't that is getting far less academic achievement that's the story that we um have to tell the legislature and again they they make those decisions not I mean not me I mean I wish it were me but it's it's not important for a chance I I just want to um just add a note here though um comparing our Co-op students to our on-campus students are comparing apples to oranges kids that are on campus are there because their IEP requires them to be there and many of them have been language deprived and so we're trying to catch kids up that are so far behind that it may not be possible to get them to the point where they'll be grade level where the kids who are um seating in the co-ops probably had a better base to start with and so you can't I mean that's the story we need to be able to communicate to the legislators is why that need is far more important because we're working with kids that the system failed them before they even got into it and so I think that's the the things that we need to really take a look at and make sure that we're communicating that to them so that they see you know yeah that that's a great model for those kids who come in close to on grade level when they enter kindergarten with their peers but for a lot of the kids that are on campus that is story and so we're working really hard to get them to the point where they can have an independent future and be able to be successful and have an independent life out in a community of their choosing but that's going to take them far longer than those kids that are in um in the co-op programs and and I think that's our responsibility is to make sure the legislators know that board member chance thank you well said suke and president negro I do understand your perspective but I respectfully disagree with a specific phrasing that the story that we have to tell no it's not the story that we have to tell is the story of what tsuke just described we if we are asked and we have to explain or speak to those points absolutely that's not a conversation we can avoid it's a conversation we need to have however um a perfect example of that comparison of apples to oranges I was raised and went to a hearing mainstream School I was considered an oral success because I could speak well but until I was 14 I was formally labeled mentally that was the official label for me at that time in the 80s and 90s I was a quote-unquote oral success and I was failing Public School we have to make sure that we understand the data in the appropriate context and I'm a little saddened by your comment that yes while the data is valid it is not being applied appropriately if you look out into the audience I saw several people who were clearly upset and I'm sure that they probably feel like they have um the the professionals who've worked here for many years have just been denigrated they are teaching other students who are trying to catch up and you can imagine for myself looking back on my experience um those 300 400 students um that aren't doing as well we're essentially blaming them because now they're continuing to be compared to their same aged fears who did have access at a younger age who did have Privileges and benefits and resources that a lot of the kids were working with didn't have and that's not the message that I want our students to to receive when they come to this campus I don't want that to be the message from our agency so we need to be careful with how we raise things yeah are there any other comments okay um next is 802 discussion possible action item I'm sorry 801 call the public sorry about that 801 call the public for non-agendized items I think we have two uh the first one you can first one is Becca Bailey okay foreign Ford and staff I'm not going to go through all the names because my brain is exhausted my name is Becca Bailey and as I mentioned before my child I am not an alumni I am the parent of an alumni who graduated in 2017.
so you might recall a it was a subtotal part of the initial ask we went from 14 8 million to 14.89 to 9 million so 13.8 I believe it was 9 million in this and this is the idea of efficiencies and cost savings cost savings are frankly because of the various vacancies that we have throughout the 22 School we don't anticipating we will we hope to filter but we do not anticipate we will be filling the vast majority of these positions the majority of them are actually paraprofessional positions that we have district-wide we hope we don't have to pay for that later I'm going to go to that detail right now but um there is an opportunity this year so we are planning to use the monies that we are saving from salaries this year from the vacancies to pay for the technology replacement to prepay for some of the energy costs project the energy costs and utilities finished here and and this is an opportunity for us to pay down on some of those other things I opened up with to open up the presentation additionally look at the Institute shortfall and there was the staff members that are in esso2 that's expiring this dirty it we will have we will carry that forward into other grants in this case the extra three what we will kind of fold it over to S degree and really frankly worry about that next year which was a whole another story that I'll talk about in the subsequent slots so I just wanted to take a moment to talk about unfunded mandates this the Board of Ed has heard us talk about unthinked unfunded mandates two of them there are a number of them by the way there are more than two but two I want to bring the attention of the board and for our uh one it's the K5 reading initiative and you'll you'll note that it was not part of our budget this evening because we are looking to use Grant Monies to pay for it but indirectly it still impacts the budget because we have four between four and five million dollars that we can be paying for something else instead and by the way this is the right work like the district is fully awarded it believes in the science of reading and uses this type of reading program District but it's a mandate that's uncommon so we will Cobble together Grant Monies to pay for the whole Bank four to five million dollar Grant and we estimated them for what happened this includes not only programming but the professional development Etc to launch the program the next one is circling back to the presentation that you heard from Principal Donovan and that's the 25 credits and so we moved and are we in year three or year before then of that mandate I don't remember okay okay and so we previously we were at 21 credits which was which requires this many classes for a student and for the for the system to 25 credits and then all of a sudden it's this many classes we need to assist the system that comes at a cost for us uh we estimated that's at about 1.2 million dollar cost uh maybe a little more a little less but it's more teachers because there are more classes that have to be off and then this is not a one-time cost for the district this isn't a cost for the district every year on top of every year so even though well enrollment is increasing but it's enrollment times the unfunded management going from 21 to 24 credits that's really impacting our region and so on the next slide you'll see it says long-term effects of covet and this is just really thinking about some of the challenges that we have been faced with post pandemic and I know we're kind of feel pandemic but really I'd like to thank RuPaul's pandemic but what we're feeling the impact so for anyone who will listen I will talk about our challenges around chronic absenteeism and I had a conversation with the board just a couple of weeks ago had a conversation in our initial launch of our Collective impact meeting in chronic absenteeism essentially means typically we have well we have 180 days of the school year if any of our students are asking 10 of the time or 18 18 days they are considered chronically acid you could be chronically absent because of an excuse day you could be chronically acting before on excused day you could be chronically absent because of a suspension you can chronically I've said if you are missing instruction more than 10 percent at any point in the school year so if we've only had 50 days and you've already been five days out you're chronically absent according to that that metric and we now have in this District I'm proud to say this and be part of it we had single-digit chronic absenteeism well belong the state but below the state average seven eight percent if our kids are here we can teach them our staff does the magic that they've always do we are we are closer to 23 and 24 chronic acidism right now now it made sense last year uh because particularly here in Danbury our covet cases were higher than really the entire state of Connecticut and we were encouraging staff to stay home if they were sick encouraging kids to stay home because they were sick encourage their parents to keep their kids home if they even smelled like sick like everyone was just encouraged to stay home and so our chronic absenteeism numbers just went out of the roof well this year we're still fighting it and by the way I I was sick coming you know going into the break a lot of Staff would sit going into the break a lot of kids were sick going to the break and so whatever the impact whatever the decision-making is at home uh we're finding that we have elementary students staying at home at a record-rate middle school students staying home at a record rate uh chronography numbers at the high school level is normal because adolescents make sure not always don't always make the best choices and so they may cut class which may contribute to Chronic absenteeism but K5 and 6 8 they don't make those decisions historically and those numbers are well beyond anything we have ever seen so when I talk about the long-term effects of covet it's in Kelly earlier talking about social emotional support for students the challenges are different pulse pandemic our board knows that we've had expulsions at a rate that we have not experienced here in this District before um those numbers did not exist prior to the Pandemic those numbers exist now it's part of our reality close pandemic um suspension rates are higher post pandemic and the support needed needs for kids it's also true and that's why you continue to hear this kind of song from us and our staff next page Mike there's only two more uh the so light bill and so it really hasn't so nationally you read articles on really kind of how the SEO funds and the release monies have been used and what we have found across the country particularly in urban school districts is really it's allowed this District it really has and and the same is also true for us here in Danbury we are in a position where our Lifeboat at least for institute is expiring soon we're fortunate that sr3 and some of the commitments we had initially made we will be able to get creative and move some of our SO2 staff over to Esther three but when we're talking about staff we're talking over a hundred staff members between the two grants and one yes we will be faced with some tough decisions but a lot of those teachers are at Danbury High School that that's how we hire them that that's why it was so easy for us to say sure Dan we will get you those teachers and and some of the board members might may recall we were able to use S2 and nested 3 they were eligible for that Grant because of social distancing because of the pandemic last year we folded eight to nine teachers elementary teachers through attrition and so we cut those positions because we no longer needed them but post pandemic we still needed the positions that we brought on during the pandemic at the high school so that that's kind of our reality now in that regard and I I just want to talk about next steps for us here as a community there are there are several next steps for us as a community but I just want to touch on because I had an opportunity to be part of a cause meeting uh this week I know we have um letters between legislators and our councilmen Council women of course our mayor and our Board of Education we we are and I am happy to say and partnered with the mayor's office on this get behind a bill to fully fund Danbury public schools and other districts across the state the ECS formula right now does not acknowledge or weighed differently the needs of our community I I think we've talked about this several times in presentations but we didn't really underscore here tonight when we talk about our multi-language Learners or our ell learners we have the second highest number in the state of Connecticut without any acknowledgment financially for that number and when I say the second highest I'm saying we have more ell students than the Bridgeport the new Havens the Waterbury there's only one other District in the state of Connecticut that has more than us yet we also have the highest percentage of Elo students in the state of Connecticut by far the ACs formula does not acknowledge that in way it's not weighed in a way to give us extra money to help support the special Staffing that we need and so in this partnership with the mayor's office we're hoping to again Advocate as we did last year advocate for a bill to accelerate that funding but I but I think we need the entire city of Danbury to get behind in support of accelerating this funding so there's more to come I think in the next we've been talking with Ryan Ryan Bingham who's our lobbyist so we have a meeting with him next week and Mike and I will provide an update to the war on Wednesday it's a little early yet but we just want to give some initial updates to the board around Tyler I think it's like over 1500 bills that came through um I'm assuming those those things will begin to be sorted out soon and hopefully we can find ourselves in there and continue support across the state 14 in the ECS formula and for us it really means Alliance so I just wanted to end on that note I know that there are probably a lot of questions our presentations have been a little bit longer than I expected um of course I didn't know because I was talking as well but I want to make sure the board has an opportunity for questions also I know we have some folks excuse me so chairperson so yes first I'd like to open it up to our board members any questions and then um Mary Esposito if he wants a question and then the education um too many council members if they'd like to ask some questions that was easy Mr Russo okay okay just to start off thank you Mr Lawson gentlemen for an excellent presentation we certainly appreciate all your work on the technology replacing the performance for 12 000 years but we are we heading up for one student K1 contained first grade students also we're looking at over 12 000 years the answer is yes but um Dr casnero can you talk about the why behind that sure so during the pandemic it was it was critical as you remember for all of our students to have access to technology so initially we wanted to make sure that everybody had had the new Chromebooks um and it is especially our arcade ones needed a little bit of a different type of touch screen Chromebook for easier navigation we are having some conversations now though moving forward about whether or not those students actually need to take them home on a regular basis um and and screen time for for our youngest Learners so while we have that I think it's part of the account now we are going to be monitoring um really how much you think students will need to have the one-on-one versus having a laptop cart um you know between those two classrooms um so we're having some of those conversations now but I believe the initial number that's up there was a was for the true one to one which included our kindergartners um so it should when we get to the point where those uh laptops need to be replaced um then we will we'll be making some decisions at that point also a question on Safety and Security uh I notice we're having some safety advocates it will be considered uh additional school resource officers instead did you say instead of instead so um well yes the answer is yes we would consider it um the three for each Middle School was originally it was really a follow-up to the request the board made last year we're trying to get three at every middle school and of course continue Advocates to help support the increased enrollment at the high school and I believe we also had a question about maybe having a discussion do we need more at the elementary school and then we kind of ended there we opened up the school year with two at every Middle School most because one we hadn't budgeted the career forever school like when we talked about I think it was at the end of the school year and it was kind of all budget cycle so we got three more advocates in but Mr Wilson I guess what I'm trying to say is The Advocates are reflecting kind of the conversations we've had here if there's a appetite for a different model I think it really just we need to talk about here at the board and see if it's something that we can afford [Music] yeah are projecting to equipment it depends on the budget whether you're getting it yes that's right so you know it's a projected number that we want in place it has not found the event requirements that we wanted to have them in place and I write about it yes and of course there's from the course um I I personally would like to thank everyone for the presentation I think that was done beautifully um I know we on strict time bring back times but sometimes it takes a little bit longer to understand this budget and this is a budget that I've seen on this aboard all these years that have really as I've gone over the years trying to understand it more and more and more and I've always came to the conclusion that we support the budget because it's the right thing to do for our students and our administrators and our teachers and everyone that's in place to teach our children and I would like to say to Mr Donovan who has who has opened up and let some of us see what goes on up at Danbury High School because it's not a One-Shot deal to go in to bring in a teacher to do this there's other things that's involved with students working with students and the parents to make sure that a child can get through the educational process and sometimes it's not easy so I would like to say to Mr Donovan and I know he's always jumping with me because you know him and I've been playing the school to tag with this knee replacement for the last two a year and a half but I would say to him you have did an excellent job in Ran the educational expectations where students should have to get out of Denver high school and it's not a place that some students just want to go and and and get out it takes the it takes the pairs it takes the student to want to do what they need to do to graduate everyone and I just wanted to say thank you Mr Donald thank you any other questions from board members no Stop opening no way anytime you want a hard out at 8 30.