so can any parent um I mean you're at the Cherry Brook primary school that's not just for cherryburg primary school students right right thanks for asking that Peggy so yes any parent can come to any session and there are no specific topics whatever um parents or citizens would like to talk about so so you're a Cherry Brook on the 27 28th but you're also on your the 27th for a um that's the kindergarten orientation orientation okay yes what do you thinking no I wish there was a way to consolidate you know get those folks about but um but I'll be there both nights sure to answer the have there'll be refreshments I'm kindergarten away as well that's great um I may have mentioned I I know I mentioned this in the past but I just want to say again how wonderful it was to um to attend the unveiling of the mural at Canton Intermediate School that happened on January 31st and I don't believe I reported on that last week but I thank all of the community and you board members for participating in that project and prior to that the entire school was able to go to the American mural project in Winston that has been 20 years in the making it's the largest mural in North America and there were two great articles in uh the Valley Press a couple of weeks ago um if you didn't see them try to find an older pathy I know we have one copy in our office but a great publicity and I'm just so proud of Deb Costello the Canton intermediate school art teacher and the Canton Arts Council Who provided funding for the project and for their involvement so it's just it's it's so exciting to see how our Public School in Canton and the community support the Arts I want to let you know also something that you may not know and that's that for several years we have been collecting our food waste at um at each of the schools and we can post that so um so the food waste is disposed separately from other waste and we've really focused on Canton Intermediate School under the direction of one of our teachers Diana heisen she has formed what she calls the green team at Canton Intermediate School made up of students who helped direct this effort during lunchtime kitchens at Cherry Brook primary school and the middle school high school also dispose of their food waste in this way we're now looking to expand the program up to the middle school high school to get it started again because before the pandemic it was going strong and then our students moved up and graduated so we're we're needing to train additional students to help in this effort and then we want to bring it down to Cherry Brook primary school and I know the town is also looking at um how do how to dispose of food waste residential ones so I just wanted to let you know that that we're continuing with this effort and we hope to improve upon it and I had Donna and I had a meeting this week on how to do that can I ask a question where's the composting taking place at individual schools like that good question okay um no we hire a company called Blue Earth composting and they pick up the food waste our challenge has been bears and Wildlife how to keep them out of the food waste containers so we had to get new containers that are barefoot that was a major obstacle but we now have thank you for asking become posted and then I wanted to um to mention to you you may have seen on the news today that Governor Lamont did sign the bill providing for free breakfast in lunches for all Connecticut students through the end of the school year so I know chair Daniels you advocated for that you said he read my letter that's right you send a very persuasive letter to State Legislature I got juice wow so um so this is very exciting and what I do want to say though is we don't have a start date yet so it's really important that families continue to pay for lunches and make sure there's money on their account until the first day that this begins and we should know about that very shortly within this week and we'll send communication all about that and then you can guess well if I recall we have a surplus in that account 100 and some odd thousand dollars I think right Donna yeah so why why knowing this is going to happen why can't we start the program right away and use some of that Surplus so the kids immediately they don't have to worry about it I don't know when when the start date is going to be but we just said starting Monday canton's going free couldn't we couldn't we take down some of that Surplus well I feel better if we actually had to start eating so we knew with the effect of the financial effect would be and you should it's the financial person but um you know I can't imagine that it's gonna be too far off in the future because there was something soon and so you know we could then put together a little analysis on that and if it is not going to start too soon we'll take a look at that okay all right we'll talk to Maggie our food service director about yeah it's it's a little volatile right now given the fact that um I think the lunches have gone down since the pain you know I was I was at Cherry Brook one day while visiting my granddaughters and I had lunch with with them and um quite frankly I wouldn't eat what they were eating but who who makes that food uh it is our food service it's a shared Service uh between region 10 Avon and Canton and it's all fresh farm to table kind of thing okay you're putting a little lipstick you know there's something like teens have also been a challenge and there are some issues you know with that but uh you know overall they try to make things from scratch yeah what I can say is um the number one school for serving meals is Cherry book students love those well I know my one had the French toast stick so how do you go wrong with syrup and fresh but then I saw some of these burgers that were coming out and I was like who determines up the content that we have I guess that's where it all starts that where what decides our contract with food servicing do we select them or town select them and we stay yes so we we um we're very proud that we're part of this shared service collaborative with Avon Edward region 10 in La last couple years we were working with Litchfield too so this is a cost-effective move to share one administrator along three communities and we hire our own employees and they um they create the food based upon nutritional recipes because it's very the nutritional guidelines are very stringent you might not think so by looking at some of the food but it it truly is so if we have any feedback about the lunch program we really need to get that to mag um so Maggie's the one that's like she's setting the menu baggage rare develops the menu and then all three districts and then make sure the recipes are given to the cooks in each of the schools and again very very strict guidelines so and they do go out of their way to do Farm to Table would it be overstepping to invite the board members when at your convenience if you'd like to uh stop by school and have lunch would that be all right we would love that I'd love to give you a tour of the school and have lunch there absolutely well I was going to as part of my report I was going to ask about that walkthrough maybe uh when we do the school visit if you can make it uh we'll start with lunch and then we'll move from there would that be all right I love that okay we'll work on that love that okay um finally as part of my report um I'll build lamb jobs or the state or the state um yesterday um aligning with our district on student wellness uh yesterday in Canton middle school held uh the first annual day of Wellness we're over 20 um 20 visitors uh percent presented a different aspect of Wellness to our seventh and 8th graders and Kim I want to thank you for coming in and painting Rock having the students paint rocks and I heard that was fantastic I wish I was there to see it myself and then Felicia thank you for coming in and and teaching the students yoga so so Mr Moore and I really appreciated that you gave your time to do that we had great fun I think it was wonderful I think Mrs brinsel did a nice job setting this up and organizing it so this was their first time ever doing something like this it was well received I think by the staff and the students they all really got so relaxed a little bit do something they enjoy I think there was a little bit of a you know they could do they would love to do it again because they didn't get something get to go see The Guiding eye dog and take it for a walk so it was a wide variety of horses that they could do two things but they enjoyed everything they did and it's just like they need more of this you know it makes you see how much um you know stepping outside the classroom doing something different working with different ages and groups because those seven were mixed with eight I think more of this is needed and I think right Felicia wouldn't you say it was a great great event it was definitely a good good outcome I mean I'm curious to know like I don't know if Mr Moore's doing this but like what the student thought and what they'd like to see moving forward like how much they did have a survey he was doing this they were surveying all the students so they could give feedback on their survey and Report because they may have ideas yeah so the big a big thank you does go on to Mrs brinjal who organized the events this took the place of the Day of Service which the middle schools held for several years but because our theme was on student and staff Wellness they wanted to focus on that this year I mean he's still able to do a day of service later on because that was so valuable as well you know why do we have to limit it to like either or I think it just comes down to time for planning event there's both events that take an extraordinary amount of time at well worth what you get back from absolutely so thank you Bob that's my extensive report for those very good thank you thank you any questions for the superintendent anything that uh you'd like to ask I have a question about the earlier so I will need to find out the details um we're we're concerned about the political unrest in Peru at this point um I think out of a level out of four levels of advisories peruse at level three um so I've asked um I've asked the trip leaders to work with the tour company and look into the situation at this point so if the communication went out about that I did not see that okay yeah I think I saw something nice the high school newsletter yeah they switched I forget they switched from Peru to some play Ecuador Maybe I think they got to come back to the board on that it just can't switch the trip I was surprised I was surprised that that was just can't do that about it but I thought that maybe I missed something behind the scenes yeah I want a full overview of Ecuador because that was if you remember I voted against the trip it was one of the questions that I had still have it that they're going down to you know a country that we're not that familiar with so I think they got to come back before they start saying that they're going to go to Ecuador Erica thank you for bringing me yeah thank you I didn't see that a quick question Kevin and speaking of Wellness uh are you seeing an uptick in what absences comparing a lot of the covet talk cases are you seeing that or not I have not seen any data related to uh to covet absences nothing that's been brought to my attention I can tell you the schools where I'm spending a lot of time at have not had any recent upticks in covert because tradition no that's that's the same at our uh monthly safety school safety briefing it's been very very flat even flu uh was very flat too you know good okay okay good all right uh chair report we'll go real quick and then I'm gonna do some committee updates um what is I want to remind everybody on 315 if you can mark your calendars that's a Wednesday that is the board of Finance meeting where we'll be presenting are of approved budget at that point to the board of Finance so it's a 315 it'll be in the big room I believe is it 6 30 do you know I believe it might be um six o'clock six o'clock um but Lou if I could just also mention that was the date of one of our community gatherings but of course the board of Finance doesn't check the Board of Ed calendar so we may need to look at that date yeah or for changing the community Gathering yeah which I'm sorry about yeah that's fine but we need to do that sooner than later okay I'm fine um the other thing is um you might have noticed we had promised you a safety briefing with the chief of police but we've moved out to March it's March um just in the interest of time so we are going to do that safety briefing at one of the meetings in March uh the other thing is uh the Avon Canton rotary has uh made an offer to the uh to the schools to uh two things one is um they had done this for many years in Hartford where they would come in and provide tutoring Services there were actually 10 15 or 20 of us that would go into the Milner school um once or twice a month I can't remember but they would like to try to initiate that here in Canton to provide you know they have some retirees with great expertise they would like to uh do some tutoring in some Sport and help and Mr Bishop is uh is helping coordinate that the second thing they've offered to do is to do an on Hand Project where a landscaping project Adopt A School if you will and they will do the uh the plantings and even make some donation to uh getting that done and again Mr Bishop is looking into that so that's great um the uh the final thing I want to mention is um once a month we have these leadership meetings with the uh with the town which has the CAO the first selectman myself Kevin John attended the last one and Ken Humphrey the uh chair of the board of Finance just to keep everybody kind of apprised what's what's going on and uh at that meeting you've heard some conversation that we we need space and uh John did an excellent presentation in providing them with the backup in the background of why we need space and uh the way that um our the bubble that we have coming through beginning in 2025.
um you want to start with the club accounts you probably want to show the um PDF copies the actual report no uh it would be there you go pretty small um so in January these are the balances through January 31st 2023 the Student Activities account had deposits totaling 4 171.25 the high school student council had a deposit of 726.25 from Miracle On Main the 8th grade promotion account had a deposit of a hundred and three dollars for snack and Concession sales class of 23 had a deposit of 721 dollars class of 24 had a deposit of 510 class of 25 had a deposit of 814 and the class of 26 had a deposit of 391 dollars from concession sales and the high school girls and boys basketball team each had a deposit of 430 I'm sorry 453 dollars for concession sales at the um January 19th basketball game there was one disbursement of 300 for the class of 24 to pay for the prom entertainment and the ending balance for Student Activities um on January 31st was 81 660 and 71 cents the student auxiliary fund excuse me had deposits totaling four thousand one hundred and eighteen dollars in January for um High School for basketball Sports entry fees and a rebate check for winter posters there were two disbursements out of um one out of high school auxiliary for team entry fee for the basketball team to um attend the floating wild shootout Invitational for five hundred dollars and a hundred and seventy five dollars from the Middle School auxiliary for referee payment the ending balance in auxiliary on January 31st was ten thousand four hundred fifty dollars and eighteen cents are there any questions please continue okay now we'll go on to the financial there we go so this is the um fiscal year 23 budget expenditures as of January 31st um 2019 2023 um the Mino reflects a budget balance of one million 289 919.32 we are seven months into the fiscal year and everything is looking good the Grants Department is currently currently moving expenditure funds from sr2 to sr3 teacher housing expenditures are moved into impact Aid as payments are made depending on the fund balance we have not reconciled with the county this month due to pending journal entries still needing to be posted at the county we just got word yesterday um afternoon that they were finished with the journal entry so we can be we can start reconciling with the county um later this month and great news the Arizona legislator finally passed the aggregate expenditure limit I will be receiving that funding so that's as of right now a budget revision is not needed overall we currently have a 60.61 or 24 million 487 189 and four cents budget balance excluding encumbrances and we received um 11 million 440 7973 and 32 cents so far um in revenues from all funds excluding Student Activities and the Insurance Fund do we have any questions questions no questions okay thank you [Applause] um number six or I'm sorry number five number five number five our barbecue Unified School District School principles Mr Diaz president members of the board members of the community it is an honor and now to present or everything that happened during the month of January by having the principles come up and I will start as always with the owner that I um good job um good evening again I have prison I have submitted my principles report in writing I hope you've had the opportunity to review it I do want to highlight if you go down not sure okay um we always see a lot of the good stuff that's happening but there are things that happen behind the scenes that we really don't share but I do want to acknowledge that you know we we discussed our stretch goals and um we have increased our attendance which is really good [Applause] but a lot of these things that our little ones deal with every day is things that they can't deal with on their own um a lot of our kids don't have that support that they need to be successful in school and I just want to make a comment on that is it's not an excuse but you know we had an issue a situation this past month um with a student who was infested with lice she didn't have the support at home but we found out there were other things happening and we took the time at school to clean her hair to ensure that she could come to school the next day and do what she needed to do and I want to highlight Miss Gordon and Miss Hart for stepping in and supporting us with the things that we needed so that not only the stuff the shoot the stuff the child could be successful but the parent as well so I really want to give them a shout out and I really appreciate you stopping whatever you were doing to come out and help us with that so um I hope you enjoy the highlight video did you want to say something okay [Music] okay let's see can you show me what it is [Music] I'm here [Music] silence thank you [Music] what's up [Music] agree passively okay so for example he didn't want to fight so he acquies to her request at least everybody says ready one two go als [Music] I'm looking at you I quit I've I got over here [Applause] any questions for principal by the primary questions for Mr Enriquez congratulations on the attendance thank you Miss Enriquez for your report thank you thank you ready I'm ready good evening board members and um [Music] and Ruben today is Amistad day so [Laughter] baby [Music] so I turned in my board report I hope you had a chance to um read it and then I like to share that Mr Fox just shared um some cool data with me about um are from the education statistics among the states in Arizona is 82.6 and intermediate made it in the 90s for January okay [Music] and what we do is we sell skateboards and stuff but we also host like competitions so you guys are getting a skate park kill here so we might be out here doing a competition or an event in Casa Grande we have competitions but we also have a skate team these are two of our skaters if you guys keep skating you can become good you know you guys can be on the team someday and we we travel we travel all throughout Arizona we do competitions and you know we feed you and take care of you guys it's just like a fun happy family [Music] [Applause] [Music] got it I wanna be the very best [Music] damn this Mom [Music] ENT s off [Music] [Applause] [Music] ready ready it's hard okay what's up everybody [Music] get a college degree foreign [Music] I'm talking thank you most important thing we have [Music] engaging lessons our teachers promote policy in reading and math our teachers try their Advanced to incorporate our culture [Music] [Applause] any questions for our intermediate I mean you know I just want to say I really enjoy I think I think really helpful helpful to prevent you and all your staff are all the hard work thank you I will let them know the last comment is I really do appreciate having a student there and hearing the excitement and looking at how well you guys are just trying to navigate through getting kids at school by offering different things I know it takes time to stay after school for you guys and I really do appreciate all of the effort that teachers and anyone takes to stay a little late and dance you know because I think that that's that's some it's not it might be a lot but it's it's not a lot or I don't know how to say it the kids enjoy it and I think that it's really driving what is bringing them to your campus and wanting them to be at school so keep it up and encourage your staff and let them know we're 100 behind you so thank you so much thank you and it was it was nice to actually get a um parent complaints that their kid wasn't able to go yeah because they missed the day and so um I was okay with getting those complaints no it was it was the Talk of the Town but the next um the next uh for February we are having a um moving uh hour movie uh we haven't decided what we're doing yet if it's going to be outside or inside depending on the weather and then March is going to be our March Madness awesome thank you so much Mr Diaz you can introduce the next campus yeah I would like to please help me welcome our principal uh for our wow it's cool thank you Mr Diaz good evening again um first I just want to thank Miss Brewster I'm we are so blessed to have her leading uh student council on the amazing things that she's done with students and then to have them come up and present to you all take a lot of them am I hearing is that it just this can we clear it up are we okay okay so it took a lot of Courage for them to come up and I'm glad they were able to share um their ideas their thoughts and ask you some questions um so thank you Miss Brewster and to my student council members that are still out in the lobby and then please there is basketball um Friday in Prescott Valley 6 p.m uh the playing St David So if you're able to come uh please come out and support they really do enjoy seeing you all out there and a huge congratulations to Mr Meese and the lady Warriors for their um run in the playoffs so uh it's been an exciting month and so here's our video thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] down [Applause] any questions questions from the board I would like to ask a comment uh that they have also increase the attendance for the month of January so congratulations please come up um I'm proud to present now our principal for our Accelerated School well do you want to see my couldn't have said it better myself good evening again everybody president when the aboard members uh Mr Diaz the remaining folks out in the field here thank you for coming um before I get to my video our tends to is up a little bit uh luckily it can only go up but it is going in the right direction with our high school kids we've worked really hard at trying to contact them it's about contacting them we've had a few that due to the due to the excessive contacting they've recharged and we've had a few of them now come and re-register actually so we're pretty happy with that we have a long ways to go with the attendance but it's it an upward Trend uh Middle School is pretty pretty strong and proud of those kids so if you have any questions after we're done please feel free to ask them and just let it be known we all we did almost 1900 activities that month this month [Applause] ready for the video sir don't blink it's quick [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Applause] foreign I noticed your garden what are you gonna do with your finished project yeah we're gonna eat it so yes it's a small garden but it uh reaps some some pretty good vegetables out of it so yes we've they've been picking the tomatoes off we've got our little visitor Josiah who every afternoon we meet at the bus and he's out there with Mr Elvis could I eat that can I eat that can I eat that so he uh he's taking care of the tomatoes for us and then just congratulations to all the schools on their attendance [Applause] thank you Mr Fox appreciate it I would like to also acknowledge and give a big shout out during the month of January to our principles uh there has been not only the winter but also they spend some time during the month of January and to spend the weekend with us during the retreat showcasing how they're aligning everything that they do in to ensure that we move forward so I want to give him a big shout out not only for what they put together but what they're rolling out if we see the evidence of what they're rolling out so I'm very proud of my principles thank you [Applause] foreign [Music] all your reports to that I really appreciate that you've done that so congratulations and good job okay if that's it we'll go ahead and move on number six is our barbecue Unified School District governing board member reports uh if you don't have a report I think for the sake of time we'll just move but go hit Miss Spence um I have a report so I just um uh the second quarter uh Town Hall celebration on January 12th um by the time I got there principal Saddam you are closing the celebration so I'm so sorry I missed that uh basketball senior night on January 19th I was able to be in the stands at aiming to enjoy a game of basketball for both lady Warriors and warriors teams against Saint David crowd was energized and ready to root for our teams I especially like the Warriors section that was set up on the bleachers great to see all the support from the individual players families and the busd administration and staff as well great job Warriors um then The winterboard Retreat on January 21st and 22nd thank you interim uh superintendent Ruben Diaz for organizing the three-year goals for busd a lot of preparation throughout the holidays by the administration is very much appreciated by the board we now have a Clear Vision by all on where we want to be and how we are going to get there thank you to all the principals and administrative team who came out to present Primary School visit on January 31st along with principal Enriquez Rubin and Dietrich I attended my first site visit we visited three classrooms all students were enjoying their day I saw many strategies used interact um to interact with students technology choral reading encouraging students to participate in activities to name a few Miss Greasewood and Mr wendia we're also at the site but along with the step principal Valdez and Miss Pablo's group National School counseling week February 6th uh through 10.
The the was just hooting, holling for each person they called out. It was an amazing fun thing that they've never done before and they all wanted it to happen all the time and you know they gave tips on how to remain on it or those who didn't make it how you can make it and it was really a nice ceremony to see celebrating our students. So again that's another something but um I just wanted to let you know that that happened today and I just kind of fell into it because I was already there for a meeting. Yeah. Often times they'll put it on there. They'll just list it. Sometimes they don't have an explanation. So what I can do is go back and ask them to elaborate because then we just copy and paste and put it on there for you. Right. Because Mr.
um it was a very good meeting and very productive and very collaborative because of what was determined in that meeting is rather than to do a um a Band-Aid fix you know we had talked about the community center or another building or where can we go to find Space uh we were even looking at Kevin's house for a little while but uh in any event um let's go on the market so in any event um they were very Cooperative in collab and they said listen you have a problem let's fix the problem let's do it the right way so uh whether that entails a building project or something else um I know Kevin John and myself are meeting to put that together they want to expedite it um they don't want to slow walk it which I'm really happy to hear so we're going to get back to you on what our thoughts are and then we'll get back to the town on how we start to uh to get the public support behind whatever's required but uh I will tell you what I what I feel very good about is it's going to be a not a short-term fix it's going to fix the problem whether that be um you know the middle school or CIS or even Cherry Brook but that's that's the job of the administration that kind of give us the option so that's what's going on there uh before I get to the committee updates any questions for me anything that I've said okay um committee updates uh we did Finance Joe do you want to I know we have some uh sure we have two policies for tonight for our first reading um and we're working on two I think pretty important policies uh one on controversial issues and one on selection of instructional materials and those are fairly complicated and timely topics that we hope to have a first reading at the next meeting but no guarantees great thank you Erica do you want to on curriculum curriculum hasn't had that so I'll have to do that next do you know when your next meeting might be um I need to okay yeah Joe your next meeting will be waiting in a second to six o'clock on the 22nd for those of you that would like to hear more on the policy people are in policy right now it's it's Cindy myself Joe Ryan Ryan yes you are Peggy sorry when are we meeting next I'm 22nd at 6 p.m before our regular board meeting all right yeah we regularly mean before the an hour before the second meeting of the month this happened to me three meetings this month so okay that's why we we made the Board of Ed meetings at 7 15 so we can get a meeting in rather than trying to get some consistency Behind these other side meetings and then on the communication side um our next meeting is February uh 24th at 2PM and um we're just kind of working on things to make uh District communication more transparent and just feedback from uh local Town parents and you know the kind of collaborate so many things thank you and I think that covers all the uh the committee reports okay we'll move on to uh we had public forum we'll open up one more time and see what you want to um bring up anything that was um not covered in the budget and of course if you have a budget questioning please feel free to uh to present that also but we'll open up for public forum again so for those of you who've joined us more recently if you want to make your public comment now you can use the raid fan feature on on Zoom it's on the bottom of your screen and I'll call on You by resilient sorry [Laughter] I don't have any reason you're kidding me you just raise your hand okay all right we'll close the public forum thank you very much so information reports will continue along with uh the assistant superintendent's report okay I only have a a few things to be able to share tonight but I appreciate the opportunity when you say only in a few that doesn't that doesn't jive with me I only have a view it's it's it's it's it's it's it's detailed notes go ahead um wanted to be able to let you know um uh Justine Ginsburg and our continued partnership is going to be working with us on March 8th for uh meaning we're calling the anxious child so I'm talking about anxiety with our children we know that that's a major a major issue um but we're looking forward to being able to have those conversations I will say from a Communications standpoint one of the things that we we discussed is how we're able to be able to track the connection and communication with folks we did see that we have an uptick actually in our in our first meeting we now have 45 views on our video that we had from previous oh that's where we only had we only had like seven people in person with us in this next one we had a lot of Engagement with the short snippet the the video that we sent out in response to hey this is what this is about and Kira did a great job of being able to build a web page or a page on our our website to be able to say here is the resource and here are I'm sorry here's the recording and here are our resources and we're going to work on being able to track that data on how many clicks and engagements we have with those types of things so here I appreciate your your partnership with that um Justine has been wonderful to work with she even has invited me to be able to participate as a featured star of the resilience grows here videos will be passed around the um the the Farmington Valley area so I know my children will be very proud of me as I'm shown in middle schools throughout the area but uh but it is something that we really believe in um in the value of participating locally to to act and um a broader perspective to be able to support all of our communities and I know other districts are going to be invited to be able to participate as well so that's that has been great I want to thank our our police department and I also want to thank our state representative Elaine Cavazos de brats sharing the information with us on the State security infrastructure grants we had a great conversation with we need to be able to discuss some of the initiatives that we have and also look at some of the projects that we have had in the past and some of the work that we're looking at going forward to being able to put into a hopeful grant that we hope to be able to to receive some support for um and we'll keep you all updated as that information comes along um and then here is doing a wonderful job on developing a a newsletter that will be able to go out to the community around our budget process highlighting the great things that are happening and the great work that's moving forward for us as a district we'll have that electronically but we'll also have that printed for folks too so that we can live in the digital and the analog world and then Alicia thanks for your feedback with this too um being able to start to curate more stories online that we can we can develop we can send out with a little video message and then curate those resources and stories so that there can be just in time uh communication and information for folks to be able to engage with um and be able to really do a great job of telling the story became Public Schools that's what I have heard something it was such an excellent report and it was only really this much of it yes that was that so Mr Bush up next any uh questions for Mr Bishop thank you for all the work that's going on with Communications and it's just so important especially as we did at this budget cycle so thank you very much okay um January uh 2023 you're up all right well I I have committee already um so just a short synopsis uh the uh same format as we have had every month I have separated the special education expenses from the other expenses and uh just basically highlighted the areas of uh where we're unfavorable budget um but again but it's by no means means that we're going to be coming in over budget it just means you know these are the areas where we've had to compensate in other areas so between that compensation and some of the anticipated reimbursements that we might get through the city of Hartford or excess boss Grant uh we would hope to be I'm sorry with um but just to let you know uh the first item is always the the most volatile which is the honest District tuition which is uh eight hundred thousand dollars over budget and this is an increase of 48 000 over last month and it is due to one student that has entered the program of out of District tuition uh all of the rest I've added on our on my variance sheet here uh I've noted that basically there's no change over last month so although it's an unfavorable variance right now uh it is not changing it's uh staying pretty much the same and again still hoping that uh with other compensation and reimbursements that we would come in online at the end of the school year so um if you have any specific questions you can let me know um but it's the same uh the same story basically is our special ed expenses um for the 800 000 intuition and then there's 171 000 in special ed pairs uh and then the transportation for out of districts uh are the big nuts in that special ed piece so um that's about it basically it's you know nothing to worry about and uh that's the story is I would just say that um Mr Case reported that they started a soft freeze um in the district as we um as we begin to kind of tighten up the uh the financials at this point but uh in in conversation that um you know if if our Administration administrators not spent certain dollars they probably didn't need to spend the dollar so um and and what you see here is you're not seeing the offsets too a lot you're only seeing the variances tonight so it's it's the start of it it's February um no need nobody thinks the sky is falling just yet but um the the administrative team is is taking certain steps right now to make sure that we stay within the uh within the framework right we'll know better as time goes on and we start to forecast out for the end of the character questions on finance we're picked on it thank you that was a great report too I appreciate it okay so we can move into the uh consent agenda Mr Case thank you very much uh the consent agenda exhibit two in your packet consists of meeting minutes from the January 24th 2023 and February 7 2023 regular Board of Education meetings I would ask that you approve the consent agenda as presented okay um any questions on the consent director I have a question about the um now Margaret Lynch came and talked about um how many times right against Cash Cash correct is that some are we going to discuss that in some date about would you like we could put that on the next agenda I think so sure we can do that it's right now it's the CIA see it's an accepted practice if you went to any ciac Tournament game you have to go to the QR code and give your credit card I guess the exchange of cash makes some people nervous but we could certainly have that conversation we can bring in the ad to kind of give in a little bit more information so sure okay that'd be fine any other questions before I take a motion okay may I have a first thank you um on this February 7th meeting it has Cindy and Ryan as abs and they're both virtual oh uh February 7th meeting regular or special um special regular we're the only at the at the regular or nothing special no that was a special that's a good pickup especially increase then there's big emotion second questions and the great questions and then how do I I have to amend this so what's the procedure quality can answer that question Robert's Rules expert yeah you want me to take a first a second have discussion or do you want me to you want to amend them now well I don't know if there's is there an error no I don't think there's an error no I don't think they were at 6 30.
thank you to all our school counselors for the love and support you have given our students throughout the year Baba kibri accelerated Academy site visit on February 9th along with Dietrich and Miss Kinsey we visited Liz Garcia and Miss amento's classrooms our students were engaged in their stating and problem solving many students in the class and the math class showed me their notes which helps when they are stuck on problems in economics some students were working on their vision boards which I thought was a great way to express themselves I loved it others were working on their laptops so one student was researching Rosetta Stone and then so I asked uh what Rosetta Stone was I thought was possibly an activist or like a Rosa Parks I thought that was super cool um as we sat and discussed the visit I explained that I only took note of the glows that day what I really walked away was with how important these site visits are as not only does the administration look uh at how well the teachers are doing but also what else would be helpful in helping the teachers continue to be encouraged to grow just listening to the Educators perspectives made me realize how like the anchor charts maximizing time and grouping could also add to students overall learning experience that's my report yeah [Music] are there any other reports from the board members go ahead okay I just want to quickly touch on a couple of things because I think it's important just real quick um the Arizona new Arizona governor did recognize all board members in the month of January with a proclamation which I was proud to attend with the asba delegation that went to to see her she's a very delightful lady and so I was really really pleased to be able to be in attendance and and actually um represent the school district on at least on on the side of um Native and Hispanic American uh Indian uh caucus and all of that um in addition to that the in light of the walkthroughs I just wanted to shout out some teachers because I was really Blown Away by our primary campus um Miss James Mr helt Miss Campbell and Miss Cipriano I walked away that day extremely impressed and just very proud of what we've done so far and I know each of you are giving as much of an effort um but to be able to walk in and as Miss Vance has stated understand why it's important uh not only for us to be present and I know thank you teachers for for I know they were nervous but they truly just blew me away and I'm really proud that our students are in really great hands um continue to do the work that you're doing um I again I I I left the meeting because I had to quickly but um I couldn't I couldn't I couldn't say much more I think just the classroom management and the ability to to engage uh was just off the charts for me for for what I was able to observe so thank you so much um last thing I know that the AEL wasn't it was um the uh extended extent extension um but what I do want to kind of lean into and I know I've had this conversation and I do also want to commend Mr Diaz because we've really kind of taken another a different route on the side of introducing him to all of the outside entities and all of the Partnerships that we can build especially if we're trying to provide housing and teachers and all of those things that we need I'm I'm thoroughly excited to make those connections and build that relationship for him for the district with with all of the entities with the geek Association planning department on automation Healthcare toua um those things happen I think very crucial and have very shown a lot of substantial uh benefit um that we're only going to be able to continue to to grow and engage as far as working with the community local community leaders um but in regards to AEO I know that we had some conversations about what we were looking at doing if it hadn't passed um I do want to continue just to kind of encourage the education and sharing of information as we're moving through with transparency for all of our district faculty staff parents students about the very real um I think reality that we have to that we have to come to in essence of dealing with covet dealing with all these pots of funding that were that were kind of handed to us that are depleting or are gone now um understanding that we have to really engage in how are we being effective cost effective and effective in general um we were talking about riffs we were talking about all of these things um I I'm not don't want to be Doom and Gloom but I do want us to be realistic on how we're going to approach the next year and financially the next year and how we want to continue to provide education to the students of busd um I had to have had conversations of course with our with our CFO and Mr Diaz um very pointed conversations about the realities of some of the things that we are able to observe as board members on functionality or whatever strategies that we're kind of looking at and ultimately are these being effective or are they not effective or can we uh what are we looking at here if we continue to engage with some of the proposals that are being brought forward um and how do we read out those things that that you know maybe won't or can't be funded um again just to be very open and transparent about those are the conversations that that I think we need to continue to have as a board um we're grateful that um things are moving in the direction that we like um and that the Arizona State Legislature was very mindful in moving forward with um their decision however that doesn't mean that that we're out of the woods or that we can um do without thought process so that's that's my report I just wanted to make sure to state that publicly and openly so that everyone's understanding that um and especially our staff and administrators that we are genuinely um concerned and we are genuinely trying to navigate with the administration how how are we going to move forward um do we have enough funding for the next three years five years ten years I don't know um and where and how do we help to support all of our students if we don't have funding so that's that's what I think it's important for that to begin to be stated thus far so there's nothing else okay we can move on um number seven is our barbecuing High School District superintendent's report uh government board members of our community um January was a very exciting month and not only for me but I'm hoping that for everyone um and we had the opportunity to see within the next three years where we head in but also dissecting the budget and and our leadership will be challenged at all levels in the next couple of years as we continue to see what we have and how we can maximize what we have so I'm excited to also to continue to work with um other team and to be creative to see in how we can maximize not only the other funding but as well as the positions that we have and I know there's a 35 page superintendent report that all of you spend the whole month of reading and you have so many questions on it um I I also the last couple of pages summarizes with pictures all of the events that took place however in an effort to be strategic the one item that uh I wanna continue to sing the song and dance the song it is where we hit it which is our three-year plan what we have done uh with a three-year plan at the stretch calls is now converting it into a strategic plan so what I have done in an effort was to communicate to uh the the uh the plan to the community to our constituents um the the video for the month of January January I've dedicated it for that three-year stretch goal um summarizing what we experienced during that retreat but most importantly um all of the different aspects that we're starting to hear and see it not only in the reports but also in conversation and including the students that were presenting um in the video for the intermediate um at this point I would like uh to present the video that has put together so we can now formally begin moving forward on a strategic plan um maestro foreign school district is heading a new Direction by implementing a three-year stretch called strategic plan consisting of the following five domains number one proficiency number two attendance number three essential eight number four supporting Challenge and number five fun standard based instruction in the next three years busd is committed to reach these goals by number one clearing the land of finding solutions to our obstacles number two building structures that support and monitor our growth number three building structures that maintain success what does that mean well for Proficiency in domain one and for attendance in domain two it means the following eighty percent of our students will reach a minimum proficiency of 70 percent depending on a current level of proficiency for each student our team will reinvent teaching to expect a growth of 25 10 or 6 percent and of course bu is the salsa looking for 90 attendance by teacher by grade level by school or hunting area two level this plan provides a roadmap of eight components intended to provide our school Leaders with a list of promising practices so that they can evaluate what components they have in place in their schools and which ones they can Implement for better results the these components are referred as to the essential Aid a closer look illustrates how domain 3 or the eight Essentials guides School leaders to successfully Implement number one curriculum mapping with unpacked standards number two a year at a glance to determine when each standard will be taught number three quality tier one lesson plans number four align formative assessment to check understanding number five quality tier 2 interventions number six intentionally including a spiral teaching in the calendar number seven aligned benchmarks and number eight quality tier 3 interventions moving along as a district we are shifting to a culture of supporting challenge at a level our primary goal will be to ensure our students and teachers are successful by understanding that all members of the organization have the responsibility to support and challenge each other in order to change the status quo what does that look like in the classroom level well here are four secret ingredients our Compass will be standard-based instruction that is number one fun yes you are right fun lessons for the students to learn and fun for those teachers to teach number two lessons that promote fluency in reading and math number three lessons that students can relate to and number four the expectation that 80 of our students or more will reach 70 or higher but don't take my word for it next you'll be able to see some examples of fun fluency culturally relevant lessons and of course how to monitor learning collect yourself what else why did I say none of those what does it create um [Music] turn it down [Music] five yeah [Music] foreign thank you [Music] good morning morning [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] the one item that once again I want to highlight I'm ready for any questions comments 100 bills whatever you wanna are there any questions for Mr Diaz and also all of the reports for all of my directors were included with your support and permission if you don't have any questions for my director of transportation and my director of operations since they are early risers I would like to dismiss them with your support that's fine thank you thank you for the submission of the reports thank you [Applause] everybody else stays here I am just kidding I'm teasing hey you're not director of Transportation all right um if nothing else we can move on number eight is our coaches and Club sponsors again just for your information board um the name's there for yearbook Club advisor and BHS softball coach you don't have to go in there we're just it's just quick respectfully thank you thank you um number nine is our first reading of the Arizona School Board uh policy advisories um I don't know if you want to go into anything at this point or you want to kind of share the information I have to share the information and I put together a a very quick PowerPoint uh to give you a brief um snapshot of what each one of those policies require um I'll be more than happy if you would like me to go through it it will take less than one minute or we can proceed I will take your advice one minute one minute yeah one minute or less and we get those certified policies are have been presented before you next Slide the very first one is about Family Life Education and everybody's asking these parents permission to go ahead and and do permission on uh um it's a obtained so this can benefit um regarding um anything that has to do with sexual explicit material or education next one um it is the the second policy is about Library material selections for adoption and it provides our schools an instrument that we can use to inform the parents and to notify them so we can be in compliance with our policy and um since we don't have a librarian a lot of it it will not apply to us next and the next one is admission of students of foster care we can summarize it by saying that those policies are removing all the obstacles and supporting the students to enroll them within our school district in somebody else's in a different District including providing transportation for those students next one it is um exclusions and exceptions from a school attendance um we by asking our parents to provide adapter notes is not a violation because he's going for my protected agency to a second agency and he's also unifies the other the the the the way you know how to provide information by having a form um by adopting a form the next one and last one it is Parental involvement in education it is also provided providing a uniform uh way in which a parent can ask for information or reports related to the students and it also attaches a form that's those are the five item five seconds to spare aboard I just said yes to go ahead and do that on behalf of the public wonder what we're doing when those policies come through so just for that information again thank you so much so much all right um letter F is our vote to convene into the executive session per ARS 15.843 I'll move to approve is there a second second by Miss Kathleen Vance um thank you um for everyone we'll return shortly once we are done with our executive session thank you foreign foreign foreign regarding um why we have the need of credit recovery the steps that have been done and what also the steps moving forward to also to continue to prevent students being credit efficient well good evening um so it's kind of a multitude of issues um that we're experiencing uh first when we went 100 virtual uh what we noticed when we initially uh closed in March 2020 that kids struggled with having eight class periods online and so when we went 100 virtual the following year we only offered four classes and so for classes that school year made everybody deficient but what we were trying to do is at least maximize the number of credit students can earn in a brand new setting so that set up everybody to be behind in credits we had some kids who didn't attend school altogether because that wasn't their method of choice for Learning and so they didn't do anything for either a semester or for a year um and so we struggled with those with those pieces um and so we're kind of trying to play catch-up at this point um and so you know we've sent out letters we've sent out report cards you know our counselor has met with students typically in the spring what I do is I do home visits and so last week yeah last week I had 15 scheduled I was able to get 13 out of the 15 because two just weren't responding um and when we went there was nobody home I have an additional 15 more that I need to make part of the issue is I have kids that um in years prior we had an agreement with a alternative if they were severely behind that they would go to Alternatives so they had the best opportunity to catch up and then could come back to us previous leadership said you will take anybody that says they want to come here so I do have seniors I have a senior with three and a half credits that really shouldn't be with me because the best place for him to catch up would be at alternative I have some kids with nine credits I have some with um and they need 22 to graduate and based on the protocol that we had in place with alternatives those kids would have been starting there but because I was told I had to take everybody I have kids that our setup isn't ideal for them for the amount of credits that they need to make up are you being told that now no so have you talked to your Superior about yeah those instances where there's your recommendations are you shouldn't anyone have them yeah the other thing is these you have staff I assume apparently liaison or whatever it may be a number of staff that could probably help you in needing some of those needs I know you mentioned and this is directly from the community so I want this to be on the record that letters are sent um check-ins are done but to be honest I feel like there's some deficiencies especially when it comes to ensuring that that see-through is done um so my only recommendation right now as Mr dssr is our only employees that we really work to find out what are we missing are we missing something can there be some type of improvement plans at least applied upon um so that it's really emphasized and I get that that parents play a role in this too um but I haven't seen much uh information in this essence of I mean I don't have students at a second secondary so maybe this is because I don't but we've asked about this I know pointedly other board members have asked where our seniors how many are set to graduate and it's February now and more than half of them are at least a bunch of them are not even ready to do that um so I I just I just want to be very poignantly clear that it looks it looks bad and I want I want you to feel like that where can we support you or do we do what are we missing because if you're not if you're not getting that support and like I said that's why I pointedly asked are you getting that directive now from your Superior because if that's the case then obviously we need to have a conversation with him but uh I'm looking directly at Mr Fox in the eyes because do you guys communicate when there's those types of things when hey I haven't I have someone that could be really beneficial that would really benefit from how you guys are structured as opposed to how we're structured are you taking some of what he's doing and maybe trying to apply it to some degree so that you do have some of those availabilities or instances where you can be flexible I mean I don't know just throwing it out there because I don't want to come down this like this I just I just I get concerned when I get pause or or anything and I want to be able to see all of those kids walk across the stage that's the main point um and I get that covert happening we gotta stop blaming some of those things and really look at how are we how are we going to be solution based solution thought and not excuses and and that's part of the reason for the Saturday is to give us pay a staff member to monitor on the weekend because we tell we tell the kids 24 7 365 days a year you can access ingenuity has anyone taught them how exactly how to do that and where to go and what to because I can't navigate some of these some of these portals I'm sorry I can't but I have to sit with the person who knows exactly what they're doing I haven't seen a session where parents can learn how to use Mountain monitor those things how do you go in there and look at it maybe those are other tools that we can start to say hey parents we're going to give you all the information you need it's readily available accessible here's how to do it because even I have trouble sometimes doing I don't remember passcodes I don't know how to do but we can certainly do that um we've tried like with orientations but those aren't well attended one of the ideas that we had is for um for 8th graders in order for students to participate in eighth grade promotion activities eighth grade trip dinner dances whatever we have that their family parent or Guardian has to come to a mandatory meeting to learn about credits prior to them going into high school we talked about doing that for the juniors as well so they can participate in senior activities what we're struggling with is what does that mandatory meeting look like because I want to hit every single grade level what do we have at ninth grade level what do we have at 10th grade level and what do we have at 11th before they we get to that one year where they have to make up all of these credits and part of it's going back to our protocol because Mr Fox and I were good with that but then we were told different things and so we weren't able to execute it that way and so in having conversations with families because we've taken them they don't want to necessarily transfer them to all oh I have a couple of them that are like okay my thing is I want them to be set up for success and the way our school days structured you have six classes plus all the additional online classes where with Mr Fox they would just focus on those online classes get caught up um I know there is an agreement with one of the students that transferred over when she has one class left she's going to come back to us because she really wants to graduate from Bobby high school so he's open to all of those conversations to figure out what will get kids to that Finish Line you know there's always a negative connotation when we say alternative or all because parents I remember what alternative was before it became what it is today so maybe there is some instances where we can change even what we're saying so that it makes it sound better and more appealing um because I think that it's unfair to you know the accelerated campus to continue to have this negative connotation or this negative association with it but we have to start voicing that as representatives of the District of the school to say accelerated campus is a very it's very different than what it used to be granted it's it's not where all the bad kids go but it is where kids that need a little bit extra help going and and that's not a bad thing so yeah sorry [Music] go ahead Sylvia yeah I just had a question regarding um what are the okay so we have 75 seniors um 36 okay so how many are we looking at going through this so I'll turn I mean this um um Saturday Saturday credit recovery as many as we can get in I I um I have 30 home visits to me um because they're either they're on the cusp what they do now is going to make or break whether or not they graduate um I also have some that are we know for sure my 3.5 credit individual is not going to be able to graduate this year and I'm trying but he that student doesn't want to go and I don't know how else to help that student when they didn't pass anything the first semester doesn't want to go where to Mr Fox's campus they accelerated has he tried to have you tried to talk to this student she's talking about okay maybe that's an Avenue to try I'm sorry go ahead yeah so um so I have 30 seniors on my list that I'm trying to make home visits I do go with our apparent liaison because we don't we travel together um and so uh I'm hoping that you know this is where we run into the issues I've had conversations because I just don't feel like doing it or I don't want you know trying to get families to them you know like can you check in with them make sure they're going online doing like I said they can access it whenever they want and I mean I've had some families are like okay I'm on it and I've had some families that are like well I tell them to do their work and that's hard and then I have had a couple that were like okay and they didn't have any questions and how like I'm like we're gonna probably have Saturdays we have after school tutoring they can do it on the weekends before school after school and it's just really getting them to so that motivation to do it so do we have account does this type of work that does cover I mean that does graduation plans or something you know that that we show the students how many credits they have how many they need and where they're short and then I did when I met with um with Ruben um Mr Diaz uh you know and and this and I actually commented on this so that's when at some point are we not gonna need this because you know within the last three years we've happened to do credit recovery [Music] so part of the plan for next year is we're adding another class period so right now we have six periods but because we're we need we have kids that are credit deficient we're adding another opportunity for them to earn a full credit for the upcoming school year um so trying to get rid of the credit recovery I know one of the pushes that we've made is instead of putting kids on online they just retake the class in person um if we have the availability to do that so if you didn't pass English 10 and you're now a junior if we can put you in English 10 with the teacher instead of online we're trying to go that route to where they have a live person um take the classes I'm hopeful that we can I just I just remember back when you know I was as far you know when I was working in the school district it was seven credits every year only because you have you get seven credits and your your sophomore 14 or 50 or 12 or more or something like that you're a sophomore you know your your credits you know just add up like that and and then after even after yours your junior year you at least if you had the seven credits you have 21 and you way be out Beyond you'll just need four classes I guess you know to try to get your 20 to credit I you know somewhere along the line I did that was lost as you mentioned it would have taken four classes then you know and I I understand that online an issue that we are having to have but even with that you know it could have been caught up by now but we are also required to do a six period block this year which wouldn't have been my option because we know kids are so critic credit deficient but that was a non-negotiable um and so we did said six credits if you do six credits for four years that's 24 credits kids need 22.
Hollyfield when he's talking, he has a bunch of events coming up um for different things and they're having a a big celebration next Friday night for African American history and they're having plays and I have a dream read and all these different things. I'm like, well, you need to tell us before the day before. So, I mean, those are the types of things that if we could get them a week or so in advance, I think more board members might be able to go to them also. Sure. So, that was another suggestion is that instead of getting a day, we could see if we could get maybe a future week if they've got like I said in their updates, they're supposed to provide those activities so that we can invite you. So, so that was one of the things. I mean, he just started running the RAC thing and all this you better send a whole lot of emails.
oh okay I'm sorry okay okay all right then I'll again Eric gave me a first can I have a second thank you Joe any any further discussion on the consent agenda all those in favor aye opposed and six seven seven oh okay um first reading the the uh the policies joke graduation requirements right uh graduation requirements this is a a minor minor change um to make sure that our uh credit giving curriculum is in line with state regulations Sean you were going to explain exactly what that was sure um there essentially what we're adjusting from this is there was a previously a required a requirement for four math credits uh it's being shifted to three math credits but still requiring an overall and you'll see in the graphic and overall nine credits in stem and that's right in line with what state statute is for that and so that moved around a couple other elements for it but it really does reflect what um what state guidance is and what that practice is I will say the one thing that we continue to be able to ask for um that is is beyond what the state recommendation is is um two years of World Language because again we we have to leave and we do believe the value in being able to persist in the study of world language language particularly as we consider ourselves uh to be preparing to be Global Citizens as well so it was just a minor change to make sure that it is it was reflecting the accuracy of our program and state state guidelines and this is just the first reading list anywhere so you don't have another shot at it so I need a um a motion to accept as a first reading p6146 graduation requirements Joe first and Felicia on a second any discussion on this any further discussion questions like I said it's first reading will come back to you all those in favor aye seven 7-0 thank you and now the second one jump second one is exemption from instruction uh that there are times when a parent can choose to have their child Exempted from a certain industry can't exempt your child from math but there are other areas where you can exempt them from um oddly enough the policy uh begins with an area where you can't exempt your child from uh and that's uh the state requires substance abuse education it can't opt their child out of that the other areas are pretty self-explanatory there um and it brings us in into guidelines with state regulations and what we added uh which not all districts have of what I asked John there was just a simple form uh it has not come up often in the past but it's very occasional that a parent requested child B and there are the areas that it's legal to have your child Exempted from did you so choose and this brings us right in line with uh some of the earlier policies that we had discussed earlier in this year making sure that we're enacting this in the proper way and that's uh the form is on page three of the um right after the um the policy itself right so where would a parent find that form that's a good question that will be available on our on our um our policy page we can also refer to it in our school handbook as well and we can hyperlink those types of things as well they're able to get access for them and probably it's probably not in the school handbooks right now but it probably would be good to have just a small note let's agree and what I would say too is our administrative staff when there are questions that come to them they they are aware that there is documentation that would need to be a part of this so this will be the tool that we will use to be able to say we understand your concern is if you could just go into document for us to be able to to send that back in and what that does which is wonderful is it it continues that communication pathway between home and installing and this uh this is not a new policy or is it a new policy first not a new policy it's an update um but it's an update on a policy from um 2003.
that's not a lot of wiggle room for kids to make any sort of Errors so initially we had pre-covered we were eight periods because the idea was that front load all of the graduation requirements so your Junior and Senior year you're either having internships being able to go into the workforce taking additional dual enrollment classes because now you have that afternoon schedule for tocc to go and take those classes then covet happened we were credit deficient and then we were up here at this six period block that we had to go into so next year you know after the shift in leadership that was one of the first things we asked Mr Diaz was can we switch our schedule for the following year um so that way we have more opportunity because now seven times Source 28 credits and if they miss something they can still catch they can catch up before it's it's too late so now we're playing catch-up and trying to devise a plan that we don't have to consistently um do this so we're working on what that looks like uh logistically because when we add that seventh period we're extending our day we're going to start 15 minutes earlier and end 30 minutes later but that impacts primary alt and intermediate in terms of bussing and dismissal time so we're trying to work that out with all of the campuses and transportation um to accommodate the additional class period for our students [Music] anything else I think just emphasizing again if there's anything that we need to be aware of or supportive or or try to figure out I think that ultimately the the communication just needs to happen because that's the first place people go is to their board person they're asking those questions and we don't know um we just can pass it along and it goes where it goes but we do understand that there's instances of things that happen and so on and so forth um so it's not that I don't support it I just wanted to say that I wanted to make sure that pointedly asked those questions that are of the community I was just gonna say um I know that covet has definitely changed how we've done things and there are there are protocols in place that you guys laid out to make sure that we're doing the tier one tier two tier three and that's happening and I do understand but I also feel like that conversation with Mr Fox needs to happen and you're having that problem with that one student or a couple of students that that's something that I think you need to probably push for I would say like reality is you cannot graduate we need you to go this route and we're trying to help you and I know it's easier said than done but I think those are hard conversations to have but I also feel like you guys came up with a great plan of how we can move forward so I'm looking forward to seeing that and yeah and this is the thing that I brought up to Reuben too because I knew it was going to be an issue people would be like why do we have this but I understand like we all had to there was so many things that happened out of covet that were out of our hands and we're now we're trying to push forward and move forward but I I also feel like we also need to start working with those other classes besides the seniors and thinking about those students who are credit deficiency already because I've had students I've had parents come up to me and ask me like what about tutoring services does cocc offer tutoring and I was explaining to them yes they have tutoring Services I talked to Reuben about this I said yes tlcc has some of those services but you have to seek them out and so those are just things to keep in mind and I know you and I are working on a couple of things so I think there's a huge discussion that we can have on our end and then just to add I think um Cathy had mentioned it sometime my go-to was to do enrollment because you also can get credits it's from and even you know or three credit cards you get one and a half you know so you know I think that's something that maybe we should explore also we dual enrollment has always been a part of what we do when Danny was there we had all the intentions to grow that dual enrollment program so they could leave with certification our next hurdle was doing Early Childhood um so they could graduate with their Associates there but then there was a lot of changes at tocc and our dual enrollment is kind of in the air right now so we do have kids in college algebra or math 142h and math 151 writing 101 and writing 102 that program it was supposed to grow into Thon Anthem history government language electives and all of those but again covet happened and I know there was some staffing issues after that so we're trying to like re- re yes so if I may ask what are those changes but you can give us that information later because pointedly we're pushing for dual enrollment but apparently it's changed and now it was it's mostly Staffing no no I know it's off the subjects I don't want to go into it but because that'd be good to know I'm sorry any other questions specifically to the idol if not I'll move to approve is there a second oh president when you have members of the board in a second and according to Ben back to you Mr sabala masappa hi number eight discussion impossible approval of parent and Community workshops any questions to them ocean by Sylvia Hendricks second by Miss Kathleen Vance what's up aye masappa I want to go ahead and allow everybody to leave who needs to leave I think that was the major thing that we were going to have some questions on so if anybody would like to go go home go home we'll be here bye thank you guys be safe be careful y'all discussion and possible approval of memorandum of understanding between the barbecue the Unified School District and the Arizona Science Center Native American co-writers program Mr Diaz anything to add is everybody have a chance to question these points no questions motion by Miss uh Stevens second my name is Catherine Vance go ahead Ben yes sir aye sorry um Aaron you gotta hang out with us [Laughter] discussion and possible approval of the 2023-2024 proposed salary schedule starting off and culture teacher speech pathologist and technician non-teaching salary classified pay grade placement HVAC technician Student Activities Athletics bus driver hourly salary diesel mechanic classified professional salary exceptional student services certified salary guy occupational therapist and physical therapist ocean to approved second wasn't by Miss Anna Marie Stevens second by Miss Kathleen Vance you guys made me say all that hi myself number 11 discussion and possible approval to change the March 14th board meeting day it's a move why what happened oh I think that the earliest one I can't do the earliest one I can do the later one unless you guys can do the meeting without me then that nights out for me you can't do either one because I can't do that first one you can't do the seventh you can leave the seven I can do the seventh you can't do the same you could do the seventh oh yeah are you okay I am a travel are you okay you know what you can yeah till the 11th through the 14th that's why we're moving the meeting we're gonna go and travel after night night oh I don't think we're held till Tuesday I could do the nine I haven't done this in nine ninth is a council meeting like Thursdays and Tuesdays are kind of offer me I have an appointment in town the eighth is okay tomorrow yeah no I'm not gonna stay here again tomorrow all right it's the eight okay it's a Wednesday it's a holiday I don't know I'm just looking forward just come this way I may be here I don't have a I don't know if we can do virtual what about 20 seconds 20 second works for me School Board after um the break I think it's a little bit close to though to the next one to the next one I think she said she can do virtual on the eighth I can do virtual I don't know if it's accessible can she pretend virtually can she attend virtually no I don't think about it [Laughter] okay okay March 8th five o'clock Factory yes my motion is there a second second by me silly Hendrix [Music] number new number 12 um which was pulled from consent agenda is the approval of gifts and donations oh motion to approve second second by Miss Kathleen Vance masappa recuse accusing myself motion carries consent agenda motion to approve is there second second by Miss Kathleen Banks aye Mustafa aye what's up do we have to do a very well I didn't even do it I'm sorry okay what come on did it specifically sent a memo saying that it had to be done and he sent the second one saying it had to be done I don't remember and that's the day I did it I am so proud of you I didn't do it in the second one I did it the very first email he said send it back is there a deadline for this yeah let's attempt [Music] ion who could do it can we do a special can we do a special on just this these two because I want it to be done but you'll have to do your ASAP no I would take care of number two if we want to this evening but I don't need an executive session to do it does mean can we move to action item l um yeah can we move the action item now we call a no vote on item Jay okay for the record no vote on item J vote to convene to Executive session and no vote on k vote to reconvene into regular order areas about these drafts one would have this review starting March 1st July 1st up next to you or you would hire a February 15th so tomorrow that was the one that I thought we were going forward with I would recommend the start date of the 15th I would also recommend in the question to a man I wasn't prepared are you okay we have this discussion okay you want to pull it okay for Item B under insurance can you bring that up real quick base item one under action item L right there click draft two yeah that's the one you pressed it literally up right there so um [Music] disability so it's in policy for the live term insurance to be three hundred thousand dollars not two hundred thousand dollars that was the change I made and also just give me one second instead of 200 okay [Music] machine is everybody following so far that's the change that they're recommending so I would accept it if there's no other and the second part is to remove uh everything after the third line so what it would say is in addition to the group health life insurance term life insurance benefits providers agency the districts will pay for 300 of life insurance coverage from superintendent and she'll pay the premium for short-term disability so what we added was superintendent short-term disability will follow the guide employees like it has in the past and remove everything down below where it says um assuming we're evil assuming reasonable all this would be canceled and his short-term disability would just fall under you still understood that everything assuming was response everything after yeah it's reasonable and charitability okay can you make it a little bigger boom hey okay boom sorry [Laughter] oh my reading glasses wait where did Aggie go she has all those reading glasses guys so that's all gonna go away and you're okay with that and the addition is going to be um superintendent short-term disability will follow the guidelines I'm okay to approved but you'll provide us with a copy of the all the changes okay [Music] July he's going to be prorated at his suggested he wanted right here oh another one it's gonna be prorated at his 30.
So that's where it was today. But it was a beautiful day and very proud of all of our honorable students. Thank you for being there. I was not able to attend. I know field said that it was fun having either. Yeah, it was fun. I had a great time and I walked away warm and fuzzy. Good. Any other Yeah, I just want to make a mention real quick a big kudos um to our uh community mentoring program. Um it's we had a great event on uh Martin Luther King's birthday and unfortunately I was out of town so I did miss it but I heard that there was great feedback um great attendance that kids weren't sure at first but once they got there they were really excited about it and now we are doing one for our girls as well um April 15th correct that's we finally decided on April 15th um so I think it's great we hope to continue to reach out to these young people and um and even their parents and try to get them involved and uh give them a good direction, too.
and I think the updated area was sex sexual abuse and Assault Awareness and prevention program that was what was added right they were there were actually a number of them to them but those are all in line with what our current state statutes are okay so can I have a first on this first Reading Please can I just ask clarify can I just get the person a second then we'll go to the discussion is that okay just to keep it in process so Kim on the first aircon the second and now discussion thank you what what is bilingual education that's a horrible World Language no no that's a that's a good question um uh not to validate it or dismiss it but I I was wondering the same thing with it um and it's really around the concept of being able to be instructed in two languages there are bilingual schools in which you might be instructed in English and Spanish um so it would provide that that flexibility but it's not World Language okay are you good with them yeah I mean I think those are some of the fancier programs in schools the you know they're teaching French to everybody as well as English they're doing that so sign me up I haven't heard that term one of the fancier when I was teaching in West Hartford one of the elementary schools had only French yeah all right uh first and second all those in favor aye 7-0 thank you okay and then the final thing for tonight is the approval of the January 2023 financials can have a motion to accept thank you Russell thank you Peggy first and second any any further comment on the financial concerns hearing none all those in favor aye opposed Eric did you vote okay thank you sir okay so that's 7-0 thank you very much all right uh any board comments questions um that you would like to express um in talking about mental health since we're you know focusing on the court I just wanted to point out which which is not related to the board but um uh principal Corton sent out a newsletter that had a recording of a conversation that was done within the community through a c and one of the healthcare provider or the mental health writers was on there speaking about the effects importance of SEL within the schools and we also had a person come in from crack talking about trauma-informed practices so it's you know if anybody's interested in that it's in her newsletter she's sexual excellent I I also just to piggyback off of that if you saw the uh Hartford current Community section um last week the town of Simsbury now is exploring uh the mental health they had a ton of Statistics but uh they're they're looking to implement programs and they're looking to add more of a public discussion about mental health both for staff teachers and students and they actually listed some interesting statistics uh relative to the students which is alarming if it's not so I I think we're taking the right steps but it's it's certainly gay gaining momentum out there to look at these types of programs so any other comments questions we don't meet again then until um next Wednesday the 20 seconds right okay which policy first the Board of Ed uh so hearing none um I think this was a record it was an hour um all those uh motion to adjourn peace thank you Russell thank you Felicia all those in favor aye okay we have seven off thank you we're adjourning
yeah for the rest of the year and then he would complete the following year up until July June 30th 2024. okay yeah okay I would conclude his contract so if you guys could you go down can you go back to the top a little bit um sorry just Aaron uh right there oh okay okay because I thought you I saw that wasn't the old one oh so I did speak to Gary and I we had a conversation via email and he was okay with with either contract scroll down just a little bit um Aaron please that's the one you were talking about is there's a increase I think around July no go a little bit more yeah I thought you lie in there but I think that's when we come around to the regular clear right okay right the July 1st but that's just based on oh yeah yeah questions from the board if not I'll move to approved with recommendations for uh the changes or changes to the contract is that yeah so you can buy Miss Kathleen Vance yes foreign [Music] okay no move no action on letter M I'm just kidding anything on request for future agenda items um next Wednesday is bus driver Appreciation Day it's on the calendar so I just want you guys to be aware uh we did talk to uh okay Association director about providing the staff over there but just an FYI the video from each one of you will be nice and appreciated and you can get us lunch now it's Wednesday next Wednesday so we come over for lunch [Laughter] yes all right um without objection motion to adjourn second by Miss Kathleen Vance supper
So, I'm really proud of that uh that committee. So, just wanted to make mention of that. Thanks. Thanks, Andy. Saturday. Yes, it's Saturday. Saturday. So, mark your calendars, ladies. Any other board updates? I would just like to shout out to Mon Township. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but they actually received an award for township of the year. Township. Yes. I tried for 12 years when I was on it and it didn't happen. The next year, the next year. So, I'm like, trying to tell me something here. Okay. Well, you taught them when they wait until you got off. Yes. Yes. I'm like, okay. Do you have to apply for that? Is that something you apply for? I think you get recognized by some outside entity to my knowledge. I'm not sure exactly how that happened. And I wanted to go down to Springfield where they accepted the award, but I couldn't make it.
But that was that was good. That was good. That's nice. That was good. And also being Black History Month, I'm not sure the mares. I haven't I haven't passed MC and just go steal Martin Luther King's birthday there a couple days ago. So I'm not sure. So if we haven't done anything, let's Friday if they've not done so ahead of time. I know um many of the schools had already had it up there. Talawa doesn't have a board yet. She reminded me about that made up over there. And make sure that you take a look at our website because we just posted that today of all the activities that we're doing and it's going out on social media today. I was going to put that in my update this week for you. Excellent. I knew you I knew you'd be asking. Yeah. It's the little fox that destroys the vine.
That's the old saying, the little things, but they can make a difference. And we're on that. I appreciate the staff for for their their work out there with our kids. Excellent. Thank you. That's all I have. Anyone else? Oh, were you going to speak on this? What's this all about? Thankfully, this you just need to turn it into Cheryl. Have we done this before? Have we been required to take I thought that was for employees only. Consider employees in order in order to go into buildings and be with children all should really be just saying have we ever did this before? I don't I don't know if we have Do they take a credit check too? We'll take We'll take a take its out both ways. So if we deny this that means we just don't do not have well in order to the reason for that is that so as we we need to put it into our system so we can generate an ID for you and that and then does a background check all and and uh Mr.
Sherman can you just tell them what what it looks for? Yeah, the background looks it's really looking the background. I mean, I already told you I was a gang banger when I was 14. We don't That's about it on my record. Okay. It's really looking at the sexual predator list. I'm not part of it. So, I'm just So, so that's really what it's looking for. 50 years that clear I think you know and again in the long run I think it protects you also you know that's so that's the only that it looks to flag. Nothing else gets flagged. The IDs will replace our key fob. Yes, they will replace your key. And they have them working now. See? And so yeah, and they're easily more easily controllable, too. And that's a standard we go to. It's a higher level of security also. Okay. Is it mandatory?
Well, we expect everybody else to do the same. I'm just asking is it mandatory to get an ID? Is it mandatory? If you if you if you want to receive an ID, it is mandatory. Is it mandatory to have ID? No. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Uh next up, administrative updates. I'll turn it over to Dr. Car. All right. We have two items for you. Um we've got uh a press uh issue 110. Um, I know you probably had a chance to look at it. Again, many of these, um, were some minor changes. There's just a couple that I wanted to probably point out to you. Um, on the first page, item four, colon 140, waiver of student fees. I just wanted to bring this to your attention. So, as you know, we we do not charge student fees at this time. That's correct, right, Mr.
Surma? we we've phased them out. So, um this is just there in case. But I think my question that I wanted to ask the board and I think the attorney I wanted to ask you as well, do we need to have a policy if um that states that we are indeed waving the fees? I don't think so. That's my opinion because it could change. Okay, that's just for now. So, when we put things in policy, we hope that's concrete. So that's something that the next board may not agree with. You know, there was the sentence when that came out at one point. Should we wave the fees or not? And so there was not a total consensus by the board when that came at one point. We was not on wes, right? Correct. We were charging up three or $400 a family. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to bring up Mr.
Sur and I were talking Yeah, I I do think Dr. Chair, I do think I'm gonna council, you may need to look into that. I thought I read somewhere and I don't know, I could not find it, Mr. Brown, that if the district has a does not charge student fees, we have to have that as part of the policy. Okay. So, I I you know, Eric, if you could just check that out on your end. I I I thought I saw that somewhere, but I can't find what I saw. So, I just want that blanket statement saying that the district does not charge fees fees. Fees. So, is there we're talking about certain activity fees or you have activity fees and another type of fee here and there. So, no, we're talking really about fees. Is that reg is that is it registration fees only?
We're talking about registration fees. Yes, there may be some additional fees. You're right. There may be some additional fees, but like registration or textbook fees are not charged by the registration. Okay. So, if we give them a textbook and they lose it, we give them another one. We just keep That's a fine. And we will continue to find them. We will continue to find. So, these are only for like registration fees. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Graduation fees too, right? Graduation fees we have begun waving. We we do not charge those. We incorporate those right into the budget. Boy, I wish my kids went to school now because I put four through with all the fees. So, I guess I guess the question, do we need it as a for? What number are we discussing here? Uh four. So, what fees are currently being charged?
Are there student activity fees? Are there registration fees? There may be some uh extracurricular fees that are charged. Okay. Um in some of our for some of our extracurricular activities, there is no registration fee, there is no textbook fees that are charged. And then there may there are also fines that are charged. So again, if someone loses a Chromebook or in textbook or something like that, that's a fine. So that's how we differentiate this. Is lunch a fee or? No, lunch is lunch is basically alle cart. Now we're in the c program which is the you know so all of our students eat for free. All of them. Anything that's offered? No, not anything. There's a certain lunch that you have. Now we do offer some alocart things that the kids will pay cash for or credit card or something like that. Um that is also offered in that but all our students eat for free.