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I'm sorry we mentioned you know the timeline you know our timeline is is you know getting pretty tight knowing when when this change has to happen and and I know that um hoping to work a little faster this time because I know they took a while they took seemed like an extra month I may be wrong but you know I don't know what their job is and how hard it is them to do all this so we also take that into consideration on on the timeline and when this has changed needs to happen yeah if we get direction tonight from the board um I will definitely uh move quickly on launching The Exchange getting that feedback into the designer and then launching the vote and board member benefits your thoughts on the grade level voters I'm comfortable with eight nine tenths of course I'm sorry did you say just 8th 9th and 10th no 8 9 10th 11th grade and 12th also yes okay um so I'm yeah can you speak before so just just and again the majority whatever they want I'm going to support but again the students are watching and and they're asking to have a vote on this and I'm just clarifying so we're what we're saying is I'm sorry even though you're in middle school you don't get the vote I mean just to clarify we're not saying that I mean that's why I'm asking that they're watching because they know that we're talking about the logo this is why I'm bringing it up and putting out on the table so we said students we didn't we didn't clarify before so to their understanding they thought they were going to have a vote in this and like I said for them is also very emotional to the fact that you know and their middle school is closing and so forth so I just want to clarify as a board I mean I I support the majority I've said what I've said but I just want to make sure that that's yeah so to reiterate I would I I my preference would be eighth through 12th grade right um that was my question yeah so I think we've heard uh Mr Greer board member Rodriguez Pena and board member Benavides and I um share our thoughts around 8th through 12th grade inclusive um and board memorandas um you'll you maintain your opinion about including grades 6 through 12 or 7 through 12.
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6 through 12. um so we we've shared out um you know it seems like our um our stance on this has been stated um so I'm I'm not an expert in in consensus but it sounds like we have a consensus um among the majority of the board with that would we have consensus on that do we do we have consensus around um student grade levels that will ultimately vote on the mascot and the the presentations to be a through 12th grade inclusive yes uh yes Dr Beau it's the consensus and that that's why I just said okay just to be clear and that's why Adrian said yes this is I still stand on the assistant and so yes it is uh eighth through 12th okay so Mr Ortega um do you need any further Direction on how to proceed with uh the mascot review and design process um no I just want to just summarize it really quick before you summarize it time frame you're going to get back to us on the time frame correct yes okay uh just to summarize real quick uh we will reach out to uh eight current eight nine tenth eleventh and 12th grade students who provide feedback on the current logo sets uh first drafts we will take that information uh analyze it and uh provide that to the uh designers they will Implement that feedback and uh bring back uh three new logo sets or tweaked or edited local sets and then uh those three will be the ones that then go out to vote for eighth ninth 10th 11th and 12th grade students thank you very much and I heard you say Mr take it that um you're planning to use the thought exchange platform for the feedback correct for round one feedback thought exchange and then for round two um we'll get together but uh probably email with the vote right in the email body probably makes the most sense but we'll figure out the the best way to ensure that it's one vote one student thank you so much thank you everyone for your thoughtful discussion and feedback on this important issue I'm excited to move forward with a fresh look for Azusa High School the time is now 7 31 and it brings us to item 4.1 adjournment may I have a motion make a motion to adjourn second can we hand vote please I logged out absolutely board member Greer yes board member Ariana yes board member Rodriguez Pena yes board member Benavides yes the board member Beau is a yes we are adjourned at 7 32 pm
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foreign [Music] students come out to our meeting when it doesn't happen often okay so we're good we'll get started there has been adequate notice of this meeting provided by the Board of Education in the January 19 2023 and January 12 2023 notice in the Asbury Park Press and the co-stars setting for the day time and location of this meeting similar notice has been posted in the Borough Hall the Brielle School website and the rural clerk who has been notified Mr Becker president Dr danbrosia Mrs Jones president this is McDevitt here Mr melancy yes this is me here Mr Vitale this is Walsh and Mr Walton here [Music] and if someone could make a motion that the Board of Education approved the minutes of the January 25th 2020 great evening to Becker yes Dr danbrosio yes Miss Jones yes this is Lee yes Mrs wolf yes Mr Wolf yes yeah and so this evening we're going to start with presentations we have Brielle Elementary School geography B winners so good evening everyone and welcome thank you for being here tonight on a damp brand new night magali mentions to all of you we are here to recognize our students so we're excited that we're recognizing winners of our geography be here at priel elementary school our sending District geography the winners we're also going to recognize students who are participating in our Band program who were also qualified and are playing at a high school level so we're recognizing those students tonight and we are also recognizing our boys basketball team for winning their league championship so it's a nice round representation of our student body here at Rio Elementary School we're very excited about that I want to thank in advance uh Mr Xavier for coming out he's going to talk a little bit about the Geography Bee as we give out our certificates Mr Kroll from coming out uh he's going to talk a little bit about our band members as we get out the certificates and Mr uh lebreck for coming out he's going to talk about our basketball team obviously so we're going to start Mr savior if you would please foreign so I just want to give you a little background on the geography beat we've been doing this since I've been here for 10 years finishing up going to Spring Lake Heights for the sending District celebration of the geography beat and then some of our students have been lucky enough to go to the state level of the National Geographic spelling geography has ended so this is kind of where it now is going to be ending so I'm going to talk about the three participants that went over to Spring Lake Heights and then talk about the the winner for us here and then how well he did over it Serena heads as well so our third place winner this year at the Geography Bee which the process started in the classrooms for grades four through eight and then from there we brought them into the all-purpose room they used the Google form to determine who the top 11 participants were and then we had a fourth or eighth grade assembly here for those 11 participants were on stage and they were asked the questions and they had to get up on the mic and answer the question in those top three then represent us over at Spring Lake Heights so our third place winner here every Elementary School was James Kika [Applause] Chase Cali made it up on stage again [Applause] and then the student that took uh first place here at Brielle and then went over and represented us also over to Spring Lake Heights at a very storied career in the geography Beak from ascending District perspective in fifth grade he uh took second place here so he represented us on stage there and he took second place only to the student from Brielle who took first place that same year and in sixth grade went through the same process represented us here on stage won it here went over to Spring Lake Heights and took first place uh the only thing that really didn't let him become the a three-piece was cope because they did not run it last year so he wasn't able to get on stage and represent us and win it again but Griffin tomney came back this year and as Mr Preston said from Springs Heights the most accomplished geography member or the most accomplished student that's been on stage during the geography Griffin Tommy who took first place this year so Griffin come on all right yeah that's our representation for the challenge [Applause] foreign [Applause] we're nothing if not flexible all right so as you probably know our boys basketball team won their League Championship uh very exciting game on a Saturday morning a very close and hard for game by both teams uh congratulations for your opponent for making it to the final against you but the boys really hung in there they played a real tough physical game but a real smart game which I was really impressed with so Mr Robert quickly foreign [Applause] [Music] our season started like right after the teachers convention um we had like three days of tryouts that we played uh we had two days of practice and then we played into CBA tournament like right out of the bat so it was kind of amazing that we only had two boys that were on that team last year and our scorekeeper was also back so we had three people that were actually in the program um so basically they were starting from Square they run a lot of offense there's a lot of defenses as they learned throughout the year and um it was amazing that they you know they were like sponges for you know accumulating all the information they needed to run our place so it was amazing that we were able to play in a tournament on two days of practice we did very well in the semi-finals we played against a team that um had some kids that were reclassifying and stuff like that so we don't really count that's kind of like a game that was like an exhibition game to me because you're gonna bring kids that are like really ninth grade that play against us it really is not fair um so I don't really count that as a loss I count that as an exhibition game um so we went from there into our MCL season we had very good season we basically we only lost to one team all year um the first game we just missed some shots and turned it over crucial point so that was one of our losses at home um second time we played them I told them we got off to a bad start and that's really my fault we lost that game because I didn't want to show everything that we could do possibly to play college of chiefs so I take the blame for that one but when we played that team again as as we were just saying that we've always played amazingly well at Madison High School with all the chips on the table um we were able to win the game Brewery we had to win about nine points so it's not like it was uneasy like we got lucky we actually played great basketball game and we deserved to win that game so for all the hard work they've done congratulations on great year I think our final record was 23 and two um I've been coaching like 27 years it's one of the most amazing Seasons I've ever had so everything goes to the police for all their hard work um I told them in a when we have a Google Classroom that no one thought I was crazy like the day before we played college achievement championship game we put in a press that helped us win that game and for them to be like you're nuts we've been practicing for like three months what are you doing now changing everything no one said a word to me they just soaked in all the knowledge did everything they were supposed to do and uh forever they're gonna have two banners every time they come back here to visit the school and they go on the other gym there's gonna be two banners and they're gonna say I was on that team so congratulations on a great great season foreign [Applause] foreign [Applause] foreign [Applause] congratulations foreign [Music] now here we are now so everybody can get their picture please [Applause] [Music] all right and as I was saying earlier we have four members of our band here at Brielle Elementary that also participated at the high school level which is just phenomenal so for most of you like myself who never got past the C scale this is just an incredible accomplishment to see our kids playing at that level under leadership salty with us [Applause] thank you very much thank you all for being here actually um so yes four of our eighth grade students that is all of our eighth grade band members these are the ones who survived through two years of no band um they stuck with me the entire time so that right there is an accomplishment they did not give up at all um they continued with this and yes they are playing at a level that is acceptable with high school they went in they were given music they had one rehearsal and they were putting on a show at a high school Level under the direction of the high school band director actually um so they got to see new faces they got a new director and it was quite an accomplishment for them um one of those members actually performs with the high school all year round plays with their Jazz I believe it also does their marching program so first I'll recognize Nikki Kutcher [Applause] cut for their High School marching band playing old football games and continues to work with them regularly so he'll slide right into his freshman year already knowing everybody and being a couple steps ahead ready for that um next up we have Curtis purcello stand up for this eighth grade here they're trying to face everybody seventh grade year you scared me that's why I never had to work so hard to get a kid to join me but they always said the harder you work the better the reward and please proof of that because he's a great player and it's great to have him with us foreign the next two I have to bring up together because everything is done together they have to share a folder I think they share drumsticks actually um they stuck with me since fourth grade they like said were part of everything but we didn't have it they decided to stick it out be those eighth grade members are performing very well they feature it on the drum set in our last concert um Audrey Lafferty and Delaney truck [Applause] so thank you very much Lisa the continuing to perform at Great level uh we will have another concert in the spring uh May 18th sounds very familiar to me so we're going to go with it um that'll be our next show and again on stage it's great to be back in the room back on stage and Performing the way the band should be so congratulations you guys [Applause] continue with them parents pictures of course [Applause] so again thank you everyone for coming out uh in our regular business meeting in just a minute or two so if this is your opportunity we understand thank you all for coming out congratulations again [Music] thank you [Music] foreign myself [Music] okay so now we'll move on to visitors business visitors are permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time uh correspondence of committee reports Tech Mr s yesterday and the Focus the focus of the meeting was before the media discover the discussion um finally had an answer as to what the issue was and you know how your house has gutters and the the waters flows through the gutters and it's supposed to flow in powers is supposed to it's supposed to flow down away from the house um very very similar situation except the water was not falling on the water the water was left it was actually accumulate and uh coming back under them so that was reasonable philosophers and um that's obviously that's obviously going to be going to be the mediated um it's not quite that foreign foreign [Music] open like nothing curriculum programs thank you President we did have a meeting it was just prior to this one entire industry is that as well as a student uh Julie and myself were there and lasted an hour and 45 minutes and we talked about any number of topics uh I do not have a whole normal report but I thought I'd want to submitted thank you human resources Community met February 9th at 4 PM with virtual attended by Mr Russo and I was quickly from the administration uh president vanilla Jones myself and community members Walsh and Dr David Ambrosio I've had a number of policy and regulation updates with Strauss estimated discuss which are on the agenda for this evening and I'll discuss those shortly uh the committee received an update from us quickly regarding our policy management system school has sent all of them are so cool as them all this and all the ultimate editable documents and board docs to be loaded into our policy management system this weekly is going to ask for Doc's team to expose all independent policies in preview mode all the board members have logins so we should be able to see policies before their uh publishing accessible to the public we will also remove we've had some comments about outdated policies on our website so we will be removing uh those PDF policies and replacing them with a Venable version of our Orthodox page a long along with a note that says we're in transition phase and if anybody leads the full and updated policies they are still on record in the va's office um then the committee was also joined by Board of tournament this is Michelle Adams to discuss the issues that were raised by a Community member during the January regular meeting pertaining to students rights to privacy and concerns about students and finding sensitive information about their gender and or sexuality to staff members of school further we discussed the concerns raised that a single staff member could be in a situation where they would hold this sense of information which would be withhold from the student's parents or Guardians in isolation most of the policies pertaining to the situation stems from our state mandated policy 5736 transgender students and to address the concerns of the community on the agenda for first reading tonight is supervision under the confidentiality and privacy section of our policy that states in the event that a student performs the issue relating to gender identity to a staff member I'll give them the principal or a counselor the staff members shall notify the school counselor in a confidential manner of the interaction with the student in order to assure that all appropriate supports are put in place for the student who move forward in the event the issue is brought to the counselor or the principal the information shot to be shared with the other so that both the principal and the counselor are aware in each instance and can provide the necessary support but it believes that this Edition makes it clear that no single staff member should bear the responsibility of the information that the student has to apply them alone or without having the appropriate support in regards to the other policies on the agenda this evening they are largely mandated with recommended by Strauss SMA of note policy 1648 11 and 16 48 13.
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good evening like to call this meeting to order sorry Dr Foley Dr Foley roll call when are you ready I'm sorry about that that's okay president Schultz member of the board please let the record show that all members are present perfect I'd like to take a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance all right I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda questions comments concerns seconded all those in favor aye five to one uh Dr Foley the superintendent's report president Schultz members of the board we start tonight with one of our very favorite Parts which is our points of Pride so tonight we're going to start with our Cortina tigers and I have the joy of inviting principal Mrs papke and assistant principal Mrs debono to come up here so that we can celebrate our Cortina points of pride thank you Madam president governing board cabinet thank you so much for allowing us to be here tonight to recognize some very special people this is one of my favorite things to do and I wish that we had the opportunity to do more frequently um but we're going to go ahead and start off with our certified staff member and so I'd like to call Mrs Leslie cook up to the front [Applause] so Leslie is the kindergarten teacher that every child needs she understands the importance of reaching the whole child and finding ways to make genuine connections with students in order to bring out the best in them Leslie brings a great deal of knowledge and expertise to Cortina she is a critical member of our mtss team and is someone that other team members depend on when looking at data and making goals for students Leslie comes to school each day with a smile and she faces challenges with a positive attitude she is in the process currently of obtaining her administrative credentials and she's had lots of opportunities to continue growing her leadership through many projects and she even helped us to create a school-wide informational pamphlet that's been very helpful and beneficial with information for our newly enrolled families Leslie has forged trusting Partnerships with parents and she implements a lot of different impactful strategies to support the various needs of the students within her classroom administrators and colleagues alike appreciate her willingness to share her knowledge materials and skills with others she is dependable and sometimes even uses her own time during prep to assist others Leslie's involvement involvement truly helps make Cortina a better place to learn and work and we are so grateful to have someone like her on our staff so thank you Leslie [Applause] Leslie who do you have with you this evening I have my husband Brett and my son Cole who's at Sussman in seventh grade and my daughter Kate who's at Power Ranch in first grade back and we're gonna have you stay up here members of the board cabinet and to all of you thank you for allowing me a few moments of your time today um I am Chrissy de Bono the assistant principal and I'm super excited to congratulate and recognize how our volunteer points of Pride Miss Molly gershikov could you please come forward [Applause] questions Molly has served Cortina in many ways for many years but most importantly as a member of our PTO board she does anything and everything from assisting in the classroom as well as the overall School participating and organizing our festivals our dances restoring our candy supply for our spirit wear on Fridays make a difference day is one of her big projects as well and it is truly impactful on our campus as each year we beautify more and more areas of Cortina Molly is super super caring so much so that little tidbit funny story if you have ever been experienced with the task of helping to control the crowd when um there might be an injured furry friend on campus Molly is your go-to girl she helped to ensure that our baby bird who wanted to be a little tiger one day was safely um well taken care of she even drove our baby bird all the way to a rescue shelter in Phoenix to make sure the bird was safe and cared for it and that our students understood too that all are welcome on cortina's campus but also that we have Caring Hearts and look out for even the littlest among us we are so fortunate that she gives of her time and is a resource with a sincere desire to help make Cortina a better place to be so Molly thank you to partnering with us and being the parent involved here that you are you are amazing [Applause] oh Molly please introduce your guest and who you brought my husband is in the back and my two that go to Sossaman Elijah and Chloe and my last one at Cortina Claire thank you all right and next up we would like to recognize our student so Andrew Morgan can you please come up to the front [Applause] here we go all right a little bit about Andrew Andrew is a sixth grade student at Cortina and he has been a Cortina tiger since kindergarten his teachers and I have watched him grow from a curious kindergartner into a delightful young man Andrew takes his academics seriously and he is truly an example of a tiger who roars Andrew is involved in so many different ways from being a member of NHS a tiger Ambassador playing in the band and he is a member of the robotics Club one of his former teachers Mrs Melanie Bodner shared a little bit about him and said that he has always been a very respectful and responsible student which I would definitely agree he's a great leader when working in a group or with his team he is our go-to person when it comes to helping others in our club at one of our last tournaments she said during the finals he was the only one all day that she saw who offered his hand to the other team for a handshake and she was so proud and I think that that is just one example that speaks to what a wonderful young man Andrew is Andrew sets an example for others and represents Cortina with tremendous pride and we couldn't be more proud of Andrew thank you Andrew for setting the standard high and showing what it means to be a tiger who roars foreign [Applause] can you share with us who you brought tonight I have my grandparents here and I also have my mom it's always here for me [Applause] Mrs pepke and I are so fortunate to have an amazing classified staff at Cortina and tonight we're excited to recognize and celebrate one of our very amazing paraprofessionals so would miss Francesca come on up thank you [Applause] Jessica you're welcome as I shared Francesca is super dedicated to Cortina she's a paraprofessional in our Special Education team in one of our cross cat classrooms and she is absolutely adored by all of our students and staff alike when you walk into a room you feel light and energy just radiating off of Francesca her smile is so contagious and a delight to see anyone who encounters her cannot leave visiting with her without feeling better about themselves she connects with everyone has such a helpful heart she can genuinely be seen all day every day working with kids for kids and the betterment of our school as a whole our students respect her greatly she genuinely displays and they genuinely know how much she cares for them on a daily basis her positive encouragement her delightful meaner is so uplifting and I honestly cannot thank you enough Cortina would not be who we are without you thank you [Applause] and Francesca who did you bring as your guest tonight um my husband is here my son Ricky my mom and my brother [Applause] we're gonna pause for a brief picture congratulations I gotta give you okay thank you okay that was fun to celebrate our courtina tigers and now we're going to celebrate our power ranch Panthers so I would like to invite Mr reuter and Mrs Coda up to celebrate power ranch points of pride [Applause] I'll help hold what can I do foreign good evening president Schultz members of the board thank you for giving us this opportunity to present tonight my name is Chris reuter and we're going to start by nominating our by recognizing the student we nominated and I'm going to have both Ethan and his teacher Miss carlucci come on up here we have Ethan Zavala all right thank you this is Ethan zovala deserves every bit of that Ethan is a model student he has been a power ranch for many many years he is responsible respectful and hardworking to say the least he is probably one of the best mathematicians I have ever met in my entire life he loves math future right here his ability to persevere through challenging life experiences has resulted in a young man who is self-reflective and one of the most compassionate students I've ever seen his ability to show empathy for people around him is incredible it is just innate it is who he is Ethan loves to learn and is motivated to be the best student he can be every single day he comes into the classroom he is ready to learn he helps others even though he is exceptionally intelligent and he knows that he is he is humble in his demeanor he never brags about it and his intentions to support power ranch his teachers his school his friends is unprecedented he is in so many clubs I think I might have left one out student council choir chess robotics did I leave anything out Junior Ensemble he does it all he does it all so I am honored to recognize you today Ethan congratulations [Applause] and can you share with who you brought this evening so I brought my dad mom and my two sisters Ella Sophia [Applause] and next up we are going to recognize Lindsey Keaton our classified employee [Applause] Lindsay Keaton there are so many things to say about this lovely lady we are so lucky to have her on our campus um Lindsay is an exceptional paraprofessional she's so full of joy and comes to work every day with the biggest smile on her face so what you see up here this is what we get every day all day long she brings so much positivity and light to our school she builds relationships and makes connections with all students not just the ones she is assigned to work with she understands their needs brings great ideas to support students and works closely with teachers to help students succeed we are so very lucky to have her on our campus [Applause] who who did you bring with you today oh I brought two members of my family here I have Emery Keaton my daughter at Power Ranch sixth grade and my son Julian Keane who I shouldn't say but is that Castile High School sorry about that [Applause] also for any of you who drive down Ranch House Parkway in the morning before on the way students are going to school she's the one enforcing that speed limit on ranch house so make sure you don't cross her because she has close ties with Gilbert PD so um next up we'd love to have Jackie Johnson our volunteer come on up here to be recognized so Jackie Johnson is one of our parent volunteers she is on campus as much as she can be and she was actually nominated by quite a few of our staff members for the efforts she goes above and beyond to support our teachers so she has two students here with her that she'll introduce in a little bit but since one of them is in kindergarten this year she's on campus even more than she was in the past she supports our PTO she's in charge of all our restaurant nights and the evening events with our fundraising committee she works very closely with classroom teachers to support in the classroom to make copies but one of the things that stuck out to me is that she really goes out of her way to connect with teachers even above second grade where she doesn't have students to support them in their classrooms whether it's making copies getting things for them in the lounge in the work room putting together things for them for upcoming events or activities and our staff really just appreciates everything you do do and she also knows that there's a great possibility that there's a hole in our PTO next year that we might nudge her to help Phil because she is very capable of doing that so thank you for all that you do for us [Applause] and I know that she is very proud of her family and also appreciates their support because she asked if there was a limit on how many she could bring so I know she wants to introduce them hey um I brought both of my Panthers My Little Panthers Brigadier in second grade and Bridget in kindergarten and I have my sister-in-law my husband my father-in-law my mother-in-law and if there were more seats I'm pretty sure more would a game I'm a very supportive family and you guys are included in that you guys made everything very welcoming so thank you [Applause] and last but not least Ashley Grimm come on up [Applause] so Ashley is our Music Teacher on our campus and the things that are written about Ashley pretty much have everything to do with everything else she does outside of what she just does in the music room because she pours her heart and soul into her music lessons and giving the students in our on our campus those opportunities during music um so I'm gonna read it because the person who wrote this really knows you and what you mean to our campus Mrs Grimm goes above and beyond in her duties as a teacher staff member mentor and role model Ashley goes out of her way to help anyone in need and pours her whole self into providing memorable experiences for her students between being an excellent music teacher putting together concerts running drama club and choir and helping others out with after school clubs she shares her positivity throughout the entire school and makes it a better and brighter place to work and I think one example I can share is when she came to me a few years ago and asked if she could do archery as one of our electives and I remember reaching out to Mrs Richards and asking her and we worked out some things but she never really just takes the easy Road she's willing to do whatever it takes to give our students those amazing experiences and I know that your colleagues that are here to support you know that we can see it in the winter concert and all the time and energy you pour into that but also in drama and choir giving our students those opportunities adding Ensemble to it this year to add to the program we love you and we greatly appreciate everything you do for us [Applause] did you know um I'm sure my parents would have come if I had actually asked them to be here but I brought my husband uh Dylan his third row back [Applause] picture time okay thank you to our points of Pride tonight we we always like to share that you are more than welcome to stay for the whole meeting but we also know some of you have school tomorrow and if you choose to leave at this time our feelings are not hurt but we always want to give you that opportunity thank you for those who are leaving for coming tonight to celebrate our points of pride okay president Schultz members of the board I'll continue with our superintendent's report always we conclude with upcoming events as you know by no means is this an exhaustive list just a few highlights of things that we have coming up we want to highlight out that we have another parent evening is connected with our strategic plan that will be hosted later this evening or later this this week apparent evening these have been well received we also next Tuesday we'll have a full house for our business partner breakfast and we're very excited about this because we're going to be showcasing some of our incredibly bright talented and beautiful students who highlight parts and pieces of the Strategic plan that is alive and well and and being implemented as well as Kindergarten Roundup and other and other events so as you can see just a few things to keep us busy for the next few weeks and that concludes the superintendent's report thank you Dr Foley a request to speak we value the input from our constituents this time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this is not an appropriate venue to evaluate discuss or criticize District Personnel policy Keb provides a process for complaints about personnel speakers should be aware of the false statements about individuals may result in civil liability members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to direct staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date please limit your remarks to three minutes first we have Hayden Nguyen hi my name is Hayden I go I'm 17 I go to high school not here in the Higley family but in neighboring Gilbert and even though I don't go to a Higley school I just want to say that I speak for I think everyone when I say that mental health matters and right now we as students are going through a mental health crisis we know this we know that suicide rates are up and we know that people are really suffering right now in our schools but within this crisis we also must recognize that at the Forefront that at the heart of this crisis are our LGBT kids accused students we must acknowledge and you must acknowledge at the board as the board the lgbtq students are suffering the most that according to the Trevor Project nearly half of all lgbtq youth considered suicide last year that nearly one in five trans and non-binary kids considered suicide last year and you must acknowledge this as a problem and we you must take this into account when we talk about gsas I was told that there might be people coming here tonight and there probably are people here tonight to tell you about how why you should take down gsas change your name get them out of Higley schools but gsas are a safe space for lgbtq kids and students to express who they are not a place of indoctrination you must acknowledge that because we know that lgbtq affirming schools are safe spaces for children and the LGBT affirming schools report lower rates of suicide and lower rates of self-harm than other schools we know that transgender kids who are allowed to use their preferred their preferred pronouns and their preferred names for poor better mental health than when they are not we must provide a safe space for our students and we know that investment into counseling with this issue and not sros are the only way that we can fix and save lives of students in our districts so you as a school board have a special responsibility to fix this in my opinion and I think on behalf of all students when they actually go to public schools know that these places are safe spaces and not spaces of indoctrination you have a responsibility to our parents and to our kids to students in your District to save gsas to support them and to provide support for our students and their mental health as they're going through these struggles right now this is a real problem and as people come up here today to speak I just want you to know that on behalf of students on behalf of teachers people actually in public schools that gsas are for students they're helpful for people's mental health and they keep people alive and these are lives we're talking about thank you next up we have ginger Smith oops I think hello my name is ginger Smith um and this is a community where I thought I could raise my children in a safe wholesome community we're not supposed to conform to this world we're supposed to sorry I wanted to quote scripture specifically Romans 12 2 do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve that what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will we're not supposed to sexualize children it has no position in the schools after school during school I don't care and I don't care if my kids are involved their peers are and we're all raising our children in the same community and they're going to have to eventually grow up and work together in this world and if we start sexualizing them so young it's it's taking away their innocence and it's just by Design This is not what schools are meant for there are kids that are graduating they don't know how to read write do basic math oh gosh the math um it's just really heartbreaking as a mother to see what's going on in our whole world and why is it we spend more per pupil in this country than any other country yet we do have these kids that are graduating and they're completely illiterate and they can't do math we need to get back to what schools were designed for and that is to educate our children we need to get back to teaching American history and why we are where we are I don't I don't hate anyone I love everyone and I want people to feel accepted but we cannot accept sexualizing our children it is completely inappropriate to bring up any sort of gender identity all of these ideologies into the schools it's just inappropriate and I don't want I don't want to abuse children I don't want to see other children being abused and that is all I have to say thank you next up we have Heather balk hi everyone how are you guys tonight and Heather I am the very proud parent of a junior at Higley High School he's not an athlete he is shy but you know what he found his people in the robotics club and you know what they're doing going to State and that is so exciting and what I love about Higley Unified School District and Higley High School is the diversity that we have in our community that we have something for everyone that they feel supported that they have the mental health that they can connect with other people who are like them and that is so important to build and nurture our students from the youngest all the way through high school and I just love that Higley has so many different opportunities for our students little story just to tell you about the success of Robotics club for my little guy the robot comes home every Thursday night and it lives at our house and it has ruined our dining room table and that's okay we'll get another one when everyone moves out but um the robot has like changed and varied and my son came home one day from school and he was so disappointed he's like I don't even know why I go to robotics it's so much work it's not working last weekend you guys his robot I don't know the stuff but it Scoops up the disc it shoots the disc it launches the rope and they are just thrilled and to see my son grow and Thrive with people that are like him regardless if they are into robotics if they are in G GSA if they are black athletes it doesn't matter you find your people you love your people and you be with your people and thank you hidley for supporting that thank you and then we have Miss uh Mr Neil Carter president Schultz distinguished board members and guests my name is Neil Carter I serve as one of the two state legislators for district 15 which is all of Queen Creek most of Santan Valley and a little bit of Southeast Mesa I'm on my way home from the capitol right now but I wanted to stop by and read my contact information into the record so I can be even more easily reachable my number is 480-628-1037 and you can reach me at n Carter azledge.gov um I'm just here to be of service so please let me know how I can be of service a funny story when I was in the sixth grade we had to do a career report and we had to interview someone and I interviewed this superintendent of our local District who I think was bemused that's what I wanted to do um but anyway thank you members thank you thank you Morales good evening members of the board Dr Foley Tyler uh it's been brought to my attention recently that we had discovered that there is a GSA Club here at Higley High School and then there's a another club at Williams Field called the queer Club I I forget the name of that and I was surprised as a community member to find out that such Club existed and when I went onto the website uh on the Higley school website it just says GSA to the unsuspecting parent we would know what GSA meant and it just seems kind of innocuous that it's there we wouldn't question it I'm wondering why the transparency is and why isn't the full acronym listed on that website and I've also noticed of all the clubs at Higley High School there's no way for a parent to be able to click on each and every Club to find out his purpose his mission and why it's there and how is that going to enhance the student experience so I'm concerned about that now in addition to that there was a recent article that was written at the Williamsville High School newspaper which appears to be written and edited by students on why sex ed needs to be part of the Arizona curriculum and not only just the basic part of sexual head but about gender and identity and sexuality now mind you we all know that the human brain isn't fully developed until our mid-20s and Beyond and yet we have students in this club and in the in the public forum in a school newspaper talking about gender identity and sexuality when they themselves have not been fully formed in the home or in their religious communities the concern that I also have is that because of the lack of transparency it may be violating some of the Arizona's revised statutes more specifically 1-602 Section 8 which does not which parents have the exclusive right to make sure that their children education isn't obstructed by the state or by the school system the parents rights is also to make sure that their upbringing of a minor child is under their Direction and not at the schools and that the right to direct moral religious training of a minor child with these clubs in place we don't know whether or not our students or our children are going to these clubs and if they are are they actually coming home and telling their parents are they Parts participating in these clubs and if they aren't then we're enabling them to live with their parents by excluding that information the parents have the sole right while the miner is in their care to teach about sexuality and gender identity based on their cultural ethnic and religious backgrounds it should be not be left at a state to do such a thing now as I understand this District does not have a sexual education but yet somehow there's a club after school that is talking about such subjects and it's outside the purview of the parents again the parents are the ultimate deciders about what education their children receive so please I asked you to reconsider this and discuss it among yourself that this is not an appropriate venue for sex talking about sexual topics for students thank you thank you uh moving on to the consent agenda I'd like to make a motion that we approve consent agenda 5.1 to 5.10 one zero sorry um any questions comments or concerns I'd like to make a motion to poll five six from the consent agenda for further discussion to pull 5.6 from the agenda for further discussion is there a second any okay so 5.6 stays on the consent agenda I have to do all in favor no way to say because we don't have a second okay thank you um and then um questions comments and concerns did you want to talk about 5.6 or I do um so I want to ask some questions not only because I'm curious but I think parents should um understand some of these things when reviewing the information I wanted to understand what the sleeping arrangements are um on this camp it was different when I attended but things have changed the world has changed so um I want to know you know are the boys separate from the girls in the paperwork it says by gender is that by biological gender um I also noticed that in there it talks about whole student holistic social emotional curriculum um and I don't understand how that's associated with science camp um kids and parents think that they're sending their kids to science camp um but there's all this information in there about safe space you know safe from who fostering empathy vulnerability inclusion I mean it makes it sound so nice trust environmental stewardship is that related to climate change experiential play what does that even mean when you look at the camp it says that it's um curriculum is ngss so you just have to keep digging and you go to all these different websites that is directed from the camp website gocampway.com and when you look up ngss align science camp you can see that um Arizona is not an ngss State and it's not within the Arizona stand State Standards so our kids are attending something where Arizona state standards are they're being taught something that's not within the Arizona State Standards so um again like I I want to understand like are kids going to science camp or are kids going to a counseling Camp do parents have a way to opt in or opt out or parents notified what the curriculum is going to be because I as a parent would want to know what type of curriculum because if I'm sending them to Camp science camp I'm assuming it's going to be science related so I think it's important that parents are aware but at the same time it's going to make it very difficult for parents to be able to send their kids to science camp and be able to opt out of the social emotional aspect of it so I wanted a make that known um so that you know parents are aware and that these conversations are had with parents thank you Mr did you have something you wanted to yeah and then Lindsay I just wanted to follow up on that um I think you're reading a little too much into it just saying I I chaperone for two of my kids for science camp my husband chaperone for my son at science camp the the location is simply a camp space it's our teachers it's our curriculum we're not sending them off somewhere to be taught an unknown curriculum the teachers work they do in-class stuff prior to science camp they prepare them for what they're going to do while they're there they use the outdoor space to do the Natural Sciences they dissected owl pellets um which the kids absolutely loved but it's a it's a rotational group that they do different types of science at and it is all done and taught by our Higley teachers no one from this gnss is teaching them anything they're not doing anything it's our curriculum it's our teachers we use their space so they have cabins most of them have cabins some may have tents just like Girl Scout camp things like that um as a parent who chaperoned science camp for some of these sixth graders the social emotional piece is some of them may have never been away from home some of them have may have never even spent the night at grandparents house that this is their first experience away from home away from their parents um and kids struggle I mean they struggle um being in a a different place away from their parents they usually allow depends on how many parents volunteer for chaperones because they can only have so many that they will do if they have more than they need they'll do a lottery and it's females versus males there were to adults per cabin with the kids if you if you have when my husband went with my son there was another dad there who had a daughter well they weren't going to put him in with to chaperone the girls overnight he was with whatever group his daughter was with during the day because they're assigned different groups they don't stay with their cabin and then at night he was in a cabin with the boys and somebody else was in the cabin with the girls so we don't mix that and it's based on biological gender if for whatever reason there's a concern somewhere within those assignments the teacher the principal and the parents can can meet to discuss to work out what's appropriate but we're not doing a gsaa curriculum we're not the majority of our schools I think there's an exception of maybe one or two elementary schools who don't go away for science camp I know one of them goes to the zoo and does science camp it's our curriculum it's it's our teachers that are teaching it it just gives them the opportunity to be able to do Natural Sciences in that um in that environment and stuff that we couldn't do in a classroom and like I said for the social emotional safe I I was one of those parents who had to really work and comfort children that they they were okay and it was um even a matter of okay let's call your mom let's call your dad you know um because that like I said for some of these kids maybe not for our yours mine whoever but for some of them that's the first time their experience in being away from home so there is a lot of of social emotional support there on it's okay we can be away from home you're okay you're safe um and and letting them trying to help them work through that so that they know that they are okay um we would never try and send them out somewhere they're not and they that's how they learn and build trust so um so I I don't I I hear everything you were reading and that's not our science camp so um it's a really good opportunity for our kids it's a great learning experience it's a great bonding experience and our teachers the science teachers it's typically the whole sixth grade team that goes so they know all these kids um sometimes the music teacher also goes the principal or assistant principal or both there's a lot of people who go and help support and run different different learning opportunities and parents have the option to volunteer to to chaperone so that they can go and do it and parents also have the opportunity to opt out if when we first returned to science camp after covid that was a very difficult decision for some parents on the comfortability of sending their children to be in a enclosed place that they don't know have they been sick are they sick this and that um I was fortunate enough to experience science camp with my son when the swine flu came out and guess who the whole sixth grade Coronado came back with slang flu it was very very fun um but they they do have that that opportunity to opt out and we have had parents who opt out and that's fine and their children can still go to school even though the whole sixth grade's gone and they just have an alternate assignment that they do um and so there's nothing wrong with that people opt out for many different reasons we never want them to opt out for a financial reason that we are always able to work something out and use tax credit for to help financially support their child to go to science camp so we don't ever want them to choose to opt out for a financial reason but any other reason they can choose to opt out and the teachers from what I've experienced from all three of my kids there were always kids in their grades who opted out and they were very respectful and and everything else it didn't did everything they could within their power not to have that kid felt left out so um I appreciate you doing your research on where they're going and and everything but it that is the location of the camp we use several locations um we went to one in Prescott um I want to say I don't know there's so many up there um but that is we're only using their space we're not using their curriculum we're not they're not teaching our kids it's our children it's our teachers it's our curriculum and it's a continuation from what they're learning in the classroom then they transition to Natural Science presence one point um also having chaperone um the social emotional well-be uh part of it is also um that these kids come together to and create uh a a group so there there's a purple group and an orange group and then they have a cheer and they work together and some of these kids aren't friends because just the way it goes with the cabins you get to pick one friend I mean I went my daughter I had she had two of her friends but then the rest of them weren't they didn't exactly get along but by the end of science camp then they did get along and they were able to learn to work with different people and we were the purple group and we had a purple cheer and we performed it and it it was a lot of fun and there isn't um I rarely saw the boys and the men and the only thing in like Christina said the camp is just a space they cook the food for the kids and that's it I never saw any of the other people besides when we left and when we ate and arrived president Schultz um and I I did go when my oldest was in sixth grade I don't know which location it was and it was great I think I was actually there with Coach Ross um and um and I I do remember like it was a great experience for these kids um but that was what six years ago and so so much has changed and and trust me like I'm not against I know there's the kids who are afraid of being away from home and and for teachers to step in um and and act as that parent role to comfort them and and that's not what I'm against um and so um maybe I am reading too much into it but this is the information that I had from their website and then you just it just kept going like it would create one link and then it would go into another link and the the current curriculum um for the SEL and the whole child and the whole school you know is what I have an issue with but you know obviously now understanding that it's just us using their space it makes such a huge difference um and so that's comforting to hear um because then none of this other stuff comes into play so please don't think that I'm against like teachers comforting children because that's not the case it's this curriculum that I found that I have a problem with thank you just and you said you went six years ago I went last year um I actually missed a meeting because of science camp and so last year it was the same as how Christina described it as well I went to the Prescott location but um yeah this is Lindsay do you have presidential can I make a comment um uh Miss Reese Miss Schultz thank you for the thorough explanation and sharing of your experiences um my kids went I didn't go I was in education and I just needed a break um but I do um as we had speakers today speak out on um views of um a Hot Topic in reality in this country I appreciate Anna you asking those questions I appreciate you the things I didn't think about and it's clear with our community members that it there are people that care on both sides so thank you for asking that and thank you for the clarification as well foreign anything else sorry did you have anything else you wanted to share only if you have questions okay any other questions okay thank you um okay uh Christina's second in um so all in favor of approving consent giant under agenda items 5.1 to 5.10 hi all right the consent agenda passes and then we'll go on to informational items with the transportation department update and today uh is National Transportation day so it is a perfect time for an update and we appreciate all of our drivers getting students to and from and everything they do if I'm a president Schultz and members of the board introduce uh Mr Josh Crosby our director of transportation and uh Mr Tim Harrison our assistant director of Transportation uh both have been with the district a number of years and so uh yeah it is fitting that this presentation is on national school list driver appreciation day so with that I'll let Mr Crosby uh Lord thank you for having us tonight uh yes we are celebrating love the bus month and today uh was a big day we celebrated with burritos at early release and a little rain and wind and it was a fun day so thank you again for this time to share a little bit about our department and changes that we've seen in the past year uh so we currently employ 51 bus drivers 18 bus AIDS seven office staff five mechanics and four van drivers our Fleet consists of 87 yellow buses that run 272 routes a day and over 700 000 miles a year our buses obviously service our 15 in district schools as well as 15 out of district schools that are required for some of our special needs programs and students in transition we have 5415 students that are eligible to ride the bus twice per day uh we were the first district to offer the here comes the bus app in the state of Arizona which has shown to be a great benefit to many of our families we do offer paid training for all of our prospective drivers and the Higgly bus chart is actually a certified ADOT site for the State of Arizona for third-party testing so we do all the road tests and everything in-house in our district we also provide that service to some of our other neighboring districts around and we do also participate in other activities besides to and from school and activity trips the aps electric light parade the wimps field haunted bus and those kind of things so we try to stay active in our community uh so who qualifies for transportation board policy states elementary and middle school students who live outside a one mile radius from their school or are required to cross railroad tracks major thoroughfares we transport those students so pretty much every Elementary School in our district has a boundary of the arterial streets around it the exception is Higgly traditional with the train tracks going by there it kind of shortens their boundary a little bit so we bus across the street for those students high school students who live more than a 1.5 mile radius from their school are eligible for transportation as well I do want to point out that with covet and the driver shortages there have been many districts around the state that have increased their High School radius from two miles and some are even up to three miles down in the South so fortunate enough we were able to keep ours at the 1.5 I mentioned students in transition or the Sip program those are students who become homeless and once they become homeless their education is protected wherever they move the two districts share and transportation of allowing that child to continue to attend the school of they were in when they became displaced so that makes up for the majority of our 15 other schools across the metro area that we drive to um we also do special needs students in our district and that is a big part of our program those students have to qualify through Shawna Miller and her special education department through an IEP to qualify for transportation and we'll provide services to them not only to our indistrict schools but any outplace students that Shawna feels fit for that student and lastly we do allow a limited number of boundary exceptions each year if we have space on a bus and a family submits an application it's a first come first serve process it can be revoked at any time if the bus is needed for capacity for those that actually live on that particular route on-time performance uh that's one of our biggest goals in transportation obviously is to get the kids to school on time I'm proud to say that we have a 99.27 on-time performance for our uh District which is uh remarkably well I know there's some districts around that are doing double backs with shortage of drivers and picking up kids 30 or 40 minutes late after the bell ring in those kind of scenarios um but some of the reasons we're late we got to experience three of these in the last two days early release schedules are always tough for us we have a shorter window to get the same amount of work done and we struggle with that sometimes emergency vehicles and traffic accidents we have student delays and behavior issues heavy traffic in and around the schools particularly the beginning of the school year or on rainy days everyone drives to pick up their kids and we're stuck in the same traffic as everyone else uh yesterday we had an example of a Train delay where a train uh broke down blocking the Higley Road railroad crossing which as you know is right next to our bus yard and those kind of things show up without notice whether the past couple mornings we've had some rain we do have driver errors we have changes in routes and we are not exempt from bus breakdowns or an error with our dispatching office and sometimes we just have drivers that are new to the route and they're still trying to get comfortable and we try not to rush them we'd rather them take their time uh something we're really proud of um is the elimination of charter buses this year so far knock on wood we have not chartered a bus in this District we've done everything in-house last year we spent over 195 000 chartering buses and again we were able to bring that all back in house this year and save the district some money some of our biggest expenditures budget wise second to salaries is fuel consumption as you can imagine big buses aren't the most fuel economical vehicles around what we're looking at here on this slide is just the first semester of last school year in the first semester of this year um you'll notice in 2122 we consumed a little over 68 000 gallons of fuel at a cost of 185 000 this year we actually only consumed 65 988 gallons in that same period but the cost was 243 164.
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here all right we are [Music] um I'll give it to two minutes just in case I don't want anybody to I'll get an email tomorrow [Music] oh I mean order of the board of education for February 22nd this is a regular meeting and uh due to weather today we're going to um we'll be foregoing some things we'll be shortened up the meeting a little bit uh I I gave the students excuses students for being here tonight because I didn't want them traveling with the weather and then I'm glad those that could make it by um uh by video that's great and I remind you anytime that you don't feel that it's safe to come out and you always have the hybrid uh option so with that we'll stand in pledge allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay um the um the finance committee met uh today and uh I know we're going to take a vote later on on the uh on the budget but we are using this time for another public hearing for anybody that wants to give any input to the budget I'll say this is kind of interesting because this is my 21st budget that I've worked on for the town from the time from park and rec through selectman and now Board of Education and I've never seen so little interest at this particular point there was there were times that literally this room would be maybe half full of parents uh voicing concerns or giving us thoughts and so on and so forth but this is our second hearing and um you know I'm glad that we have our board members on online but I don't know if we have anybody that wants to speak on the bug on the budget time we have with five attendees online so if any of view is like to make a public comment you can go ahead and use the raise hand feature zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name and you'll be allowed to talk again if you're joining us online tonight and you'd like to make public comment on the budget this evening you can use the rates hand feature Zoom it's on the bottom of your screen I will call on you by your Zoom name and then you'll be allowed to talk foreign okay well the parents who emailed questions we've directed them to you and Kevin so you'll get back to those parents on budget well I've received one I haven't received any okay so I think one parent was gonna CeCe but but Kevin has it and he responds well I have the same parent that he he received on the budget I think okay so with that there's uh no no other uh conversation on the on the budget so we'll move right into reports and we'll move right to the superintendent's report yes okay thank you so much good evening everybody great to see all of you tonight um a couple of things to report on before we um talk about the budget I listed the budget under um my report as well for our discussion um we did meet as you know last week on Tuesday and the last two days have been um school holidays so I don't have much to report since the last meeting but I do want to let you know that we had a parent meeting regarding the raid 7 through 12 student assistance program for student health and wellness we had approximately 14 parents online along with the two representatives from hmsa health health Management Systems of America which is providing the resource thank you we also sent out that reporting along we send out the recording of that informational session with the high school newsletter on Friday and with the Middle School newsletter this afternoon to get the word out so we hope that parents will be signing the consent forms so we can begin implementing the program right away and so they need to print that off fill it out and send it in to the nurse actually goes to the guidance secretary oh okay Ian Beeman at the high school okay or Amy brindle at the middle school okay and they can fill it out scan it and email it to either office oh okay so they don't have to do a hard job they don't have to okay it can be done either way okay thank you for asking last at the last meeting we reported the good news that the state approved the state legislature approved free breakfast and lunch for all students in the state of Connecticut we found out yesterday that program will begin on March 1st um I believe that's next Wednesday March 1st in the meantime families will still be required to pay for breakfast and lunch right through Mark's first um and of course families that qualify for free or reduced lunch that continues through March 1st as well but the good news is beginning on Wednesday March 1st free meals will be offered what's your communication plan for that so there is a uh um I was going to say there should have been a notice that went out today we'll also put it in the newsletters right yeah and there was one last week too great and I want to let you know this week is um bus driver Appreciation Week so all of our schools ptos have special recognitions planned for our bus drivers this week we very much appreciate the great job that they do I want to remind all of you and the public that um next week Mr Bishop our assistant superintendent and I will be at each school next week beginning with Cherry Brook primary school on Tuesday night February 28th um the community will have a chance to come out and ask Mr Bishop or I questions about our district so I'm calling these coffees with the superintendent and assistant superintendent so again Cherry Brook School Tuesday the 28th at 6 30.
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601 geez okay okay thank you so um first of all I just want to say welcome back everybody to kind of part two and I apologize for uh that we ran out of time I think we tried to squeeze this in before a live board meeting and it just you know we were getting the curtain call pretty pretty early and it was it was tough to do it it's justice so I do appreciate everybody was able to come back um all of our of our chair members but also uh our three folks that we have on again tonight our guest speakers uh Mark poliquin who's our srbi uh intervention uh administrator for K5 Laura Mead who's our stem administrator for K5 and Tammy Swift who's our ESL uh coordinator for an administrator for K5 as well so um they've been part and parcel to this entire process of helping to select um and really do a lot of research and homework um in the programs we've got a lot of people involved but um these these folks have really taken the helm uh Mark and Laura especially um with just the time time commitment and just just to re-kind a cap a little bit you know we don't have a literacy supervisor right now um we do have uh interviews tomorrow so I'm I'm praying for a great outcome um but in the in the meantime uh enough thanks cannot be given to the folks who are on this call tonight again there's so much leg work has been done and and really lifting a lot of carrying a lot of weight this year in addition to their own responsibilities um so I do appreciate that and appreciate your time tonight so what we did um was try to kind of capture some of the um the information that was presented the last time uh you know by our our program uh specialist who who you know came into our meeting to share um and also some of the information that we received on some of our visits um so tonight we're just gonna do the literacy program overview kind of just walk you through the condensed version and written down so that you have like an anchor to look at um because I know taking notes during those the last presentation was probably a little bit tricky um we'll talk a little bit about the costs and components and I'll explain sort of the vast difference in the prices um and then Laura between the last time that we um that we met um we did have a survey go out to some of our teacher groups who we also invited in to um get the overview and understand the programs a little bit better and we solicited their feedback as well and uh Laura Mead will talk talk us through that a little bit um that information came in since the last time that we that we met to talk about it and then we're happy to field um questions and answers we're not going to talk so much this time because I know we kind of left uh not enough time the last time so I want to make sure that um any any questions that have been on your mind you're able to ask tonight and we'll do our best to answer those and if we can't don't have the information we'll certainly uh find it for you and and return back any information that you that you need so if you remember and feel free to ask questions at any time because this is you know this is a small group we can we can certainly go back and forth and dialogue um just as a reminder um when you click on um the two icons here are core and amplify ckla they are hot linked so it'll take you right to the website with all of the resources all of the research white papers materials that you might want to take a deeper look at um and peruse it on your own time uh if you will but in general remember that both of these programs satisfy the Connecticut reading legislation the parameters around those with that they're evidence-based and that they focus on competencies with oral language phonemic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary rapid automatic name or letter name fluency and reading comprehension so both programs will satisfy the letter of the law in terms of um being a part of the the legislation making the list for the legislation if you will and so our due diligence was really to take a look at all of those programs and say what is the best fit for Danbury what were some areas that our deficit in our in our you know programming that we've that we've wanted to bolster and do these programs um you know their strengths uh you know satisfy those components um especially with um having so many second language Learners um growing population and uh now at this point uh kind of Learners that are stratified all over the proficiency kind of map in terms of of where they are from really proficient to students who who are really several grade levels behind so the first program is Art four and um you can see the the cost at the top and a little sticker shock when you see some of the prices of these programs uh but just a reminder that you know we do have 13 large elementary schools mostly large um and that the cost of materials to outfit um and this is I'm gonna say not atypical um texts are very expensive and so um you know you see the price tag at the top and I can talk a little bit about what's in those so one of the things with art core um that that we found was that they include an incredible amount of materials that come with the program uh as compared to the other program that we'll talk about in a second but I do want to kind of put that out there because there is quite a difference in price um but it's important that you know that um no no two programs are the same and what they come with uh in terms of the the materials and the resources are are very different so the cost basis of a ballpark range for Danbury um it was between uh three million one hundred thousand and thirty three million three point five with recurring costs of 470 and what that means is that the recurring cost piece is that how much it costs to replace the workbooks and certain materials that are consumable over the course of of the year um some of the things that can fluctuate price tag on a program such as this is are things like um workbooks that that we may or may not decide to purchase um the lab books or certain notebooks that could that could be easily replica replicated with a composition notebook so we'll go through on a deeper level um probably within a week or so to get a better sense of pieces that we don't need that could bring those costs down on the much lower side as compared to the high end costs of of adopting all of the all of the pieces that go with it some are more important than others and we'll we'll do due diligence in both programs to take a look at those pieces we've also received feedback we will be receiving feedback from the site visits um schools that we went to that um you know were in their first and second year of implementation to find out what components that they would reorder again for the next year and what they could kind of live without maybe run off on the copy machine so uh in general um art core has a variety of print resources very rich resources inclusive of hundreds of titles and I can't stress that enough for wide reading and research units so there's tons of text collections that align with the units of study and there's a real heavy non-fiction component to um that that is found in our core which we actually really love um because there's a strong uh connection in alignment with our ngss which is next-gen next Generation science standards so there's a lot of aligned social studies and science content and the books um are quite unbelievable uh that are in this collection so uh very very vibrant text and um really high interest level books along multiple levels for kids of different different abilities there are digital resources there's e-readers so digital resources in addition to the actual hardcore text and then uh School Pace I'll probably let Mark talk a little bit about that in a bit there's lesson slides and of course there are videos that come with this um the assessment piece and core I'm sorry that my dog is trying to get a cookie George can you please um she's not gonna let this go thank you sorry my dog is uh demanding some snacks right now uh and a great time uming herself keeping herself busy with the bone I'm just gonna say she gets stars for that yeah because I'm not giving her attention right now your dog your dog's better than my 12 year old who walked in here asked me for a snack and I said go downstairs in the kitchen your mom yeah sorry about that okay so um the assessment piece uh and the early independent reading leveling assessment tool kit is probably one of the most impressive components of art core of all the programs that we looked at and it's one that um I think was really uh stood out in terms of will this help um further and grow our readers and put tools in the hands of teachers that they need to make diagnostic instructional decisions and then to be able to apply a a prescription in the form of instruction and that is what the erla that is what the urla does um School Pace is a data warehouse so that when we have this information that we're entering this information in this very explicit detailed information about where students are in real time that we have a warehouse that helps to create a dashboard to analyze performance and so that teachers can help them process and assess student goals there's a great they're a great family communication Tools in there as well so the the Earl of component which is part of um of this is very very strong um that we find that the phonics components uh the early literacy pieces is very strong in this particular program something that we're very interested as you know um some of our students that come to us um you know needed additional uh work in uh in the early grades they may not have had a preschool experience um so we we think that this is a really strong component for us um let me just jump into real quick yes absolutely Mark go ahead in regards to the erla you know one of the things that you know I'm sure Laura is going to share with everybody is you know teachers were looking for resources to help support the deficits that they have in the classroom and one of the things that really is attractive about the arc program is the urla because it has such a diagnostic method of addressing the needs of the particular group of students what the teachers will be working with um and you know encompassing the erla program is also specific decodable texts that address the requisite skill set that the student may need in order to continue to make gains and improve towards grade level Mastery so um it really is you know what I like to call The Game Changer in terms of being able to address the varying needs of kids that teachers are having in their classroom because we know that the needs are so varied so I really think and then that in combination with school pace which allows us to you know generate graphs and generate aim lines and targets for students um you know it really is you know a dynamic feature of this program so I just wanna I wanna make sure that that gets really highlighted thank you Mark the question I see your hand up yeah the does this help our students well with the state tests Mark do you want to you want to talk a little bit about that yeah so um you know the the the the demands of the state test are are you know they're very rigorous and they're in their High they're high leverage in order for us to get students ready to tackle that type of work the work in the urla will really kind of Target the gaps in which they possess to help move them towards grade level Mastery another great thing about the erla is for those kids who are either close to grade level Mastery or already mastering grade level standards they're allowed they're able to work with texts that are highly cognitively complex and really deal with some some you know challenging content that will help them in their preparation for the state assessment um so the reason why I love the erla is because it does meet the needs of all the kids those kids that are super high flyers and they're really strong in the grade level content it gives them the opportunity to push it gives them the opportunity to kind of reach those um high level high leverage standards that we want them to hit on but for those students who are struggling and those students who need a little additional support it has that prescriptive approach to help them fill those gaps and get them to where they need to be in terms of moving towards grade level Mastery so I think it hits on both areas it does prepare the students well and it also does fill the gaps of those kids that we need um to really work towards um you know supporting and and I just want to jump into it just to add on to what Mark said Teresa it's a great question you know when we look at any state assessment all of our state assessments whether they be reading math or science are heavy in literacy they're they're a very literacy academic focused um and and just as Mark said I think it's really going to it would bode well for our students because they have those specific skills and strategies that the kids need kind of almost agnostic of content right whatever content they're digging into and learning so so the short answer is yes Teresa but and then you got mine and Mark long winded answer and then also in addition in addition to that Teresa one of the biggest pieces that we see on the state on the state assessment is um the academic vocabulary um I challenge anybody to find a program that has more rigorous academic vocabulary than our core so we're exposing kids and giving kids the opportunity to work with high level um you know academic vocabulary which is only going to help support them when they get to that type of work on espa um one more question um looking at being a reader is that uh software not going to be considered then so so when the state of Connecticut went through the vetting process of identifying which would be the approved curricula for um you know the state to uh consider for districts to consider uh being a reader was unfortunately not on the list that was released by the state of Connecticut so we had to choose from the uh programs that were selected by the state of Connecticut um and you know through our rigorous searching and you know vetting all the different programs we kind of narrowed down our our choices to these two respective programs here so while we're using being a reader and there are definitely components and aspects to being a reader that are great and we're seeing some great results from kids it unfortunately wasn't an option for us uh by the state of Connecticut okay thank you you're welcome um great questions um just to kind of round this this out a little bit one of the other aspects of kind of the research and the vetting process is really making sure um that there's enough multilingual learner supports in any program that we selected um we felt very comfortable that this particular program um has a lot of very specific tailored resources design um you know universally designed and by universally I mean that from the beginning they're designed with second language Learners in mind things that are good for all kids but are critical for second language Learners um and so this program is really chock full of supports and there's a separate toolkit we talked a lot about that erla erla uh toolkit there's a separate one specifically designed for a second language learner so uh we did like that that part as well and as Mark mentioned about the high level of academic vocabulary that is throughout uh we mentioned that the there was a tremendous amount of uh the text collections are unbelievable uh the amount of non-fiction texts that that come with this program and the vocabulary in those um in those texts are really your background building schema building um components that lead to Greater comprehension down the road and these are the these are the words the staircase to kind of complexity text complexity over time that we want to make sure our kids have exposure to um even the the adults with this particular program when we put down the materials in the rooms physical materials in front of folks um it was like eye candy uh the the texts are so so beautiful and so wonderful and so uh you know diverse so it is definitely was kind of a favorite amongst uh the adults and um because of just how uh how incredible some of these texts were so um at some point when we you know we go down the road I'd love to have everybody take a look at those because I think you'd be quite impressed as well and yes Theresa um wouldn't it be a good idea to wait until you get a literacy supervisor who would be in on the ground floor um with this program yes so we're we're we've come down to come down to the road these are our last two programs we've done uh as much uh research as we as we can at this point um we do have literacy interview uh tomorrow so supervisor interviews I should say and so one of the questions will be around you know their familiarities with either of these two programs their thoughts about um anyone who's involved in literacy right now in the state of Connecticut has had to take a look at all of these programs and has had to sit down and really think through um fit and and quality um in terms of what's being offered and and what the needs are of the district that they're coming from so um they should be able to speak to to some of these programs and at least are familiar with them at this point and so before we make a final decision we'll definitely incorporate some of the voice from someone coming in because they're going to have to have some ownership as well in this process which is going to be very important for them to be able to to implement at high levels one so the next um the next one here is really amplify ckla you can see there's a big difference in the cost price uh initially at the top compared to Arc one of the main reasons for that is the there's a different level of materials that comes with this program and so this is really more of an A La Carte program and so you would have to go and sort of match up texts and and purchase but also um you know that they don't have the same range and level uh across lexiles if you will in terms of reading um for for each of the units so there's sort of a little bit more of a narrow scope if you will um the each of these are very similar in the sense that there's grade level units there's teachers guys there's student resources there's activity books and workbooks and unit readers um decodable books which are the books that are our youngest readers who are learning to read um uh often use and then um there are some digital resources in this program that are a little bit different than the other Pro program we did like some of the digital resources in this program quite a bit some Google slides and some teacher guides that we think that some of the teachers might like but it doesn't come with nearly as many resources overall as as our core Mark do you want to talk a little bit about amplify ckla sure so um essentially uh you know the you know one of the big differentiators between amplify and Arc is when you look at that unit reader piece it kind of brings me back to my uh when I went to school and I had my my reader my Reader book that had all the collection of stories in it and then I would go meet with my teacher and we would read a story out of the reader um it's it's akin to that now it's it's it's far more engaging than that it's more complex than you know when I was in in school but that's that is essentially the text for the for the requisite unit is that every kid is reading the same book it's a it's a Akin to what we would call a bazel reader um and once we get into grades three through five uh there's no longer a decodable reader it's assumed that students are at grade level so the only books that they have available to them unless you purchase the additional libraries uh that amplify offers all students will be reading the same book um so you know we found that to be you know just you know one of the things that was a differentiator for us a big game changer for us between Arc and amplify um another piece is uh each of the digital resources the slides and the online student resources they're all in addition an additional cost per student and there are recurring costs every year so we have to buy those licenses each year for the teachers to have access to the to the slide decks and the e-readers for the students um in the classrooms so you know while the price looks favorable um if we look deeper at all of the different uh options that we would you know likely need to purchase with this program we get closer in line to what uh you know Arc looks like um so you know that's something to really to really consider uh you know that we don't really have the opportunity for providing students who are not at your grade level opportunities to engage in authentic text um you know like with Arc in in every Library regardless of the grade level there are books that are two years above grade level and then there are books that are a year below grade level within that same thematic unit um our amplify also has thematic units but again it lives within that single reader um so when we saw that when we were in um in Malden Public Schools you know that was one thing that kind of jumped out at us you know Laura and I had a conversation with a third grade teacher that was delivering it um and every kid was reading the same book um so that's you know one of the biggest differentiators right there thank you Mark um again in this program uh there there were multilingual language learner designated supports um and there is also good high level vocabulary in this one as well um and I again I I particularly remember the visuals on the slide decks I thought those were those were helpful um but again kind of compared to our core I didn't I didn't get that same wow factor in terms of the overall number of resources um for there I want to have Tammy talk a little bit about her thoughts on the um Second Language learn or the multi-language learner supports in both programs Tammy also um you know accompanying us to to the visits as well and saw these programs being implemented with second language Learners um and also had a chance to kind of interact with some of the materials and she also has as a parent she um has uh two children in the Wallingford public school system that used the erla from artcorn she has a little bit of experience with that so Tammy if you can give us a few of your highlights that would be great sure yeah I do have a little bit of that parent side experience with the erla as Kara just mentioned but to speak about the multilingual learner piece um what was really nice to see with the our core was just the the high level visual aspect and the multi-level text I think um in our classrooms I think teachers would really appreciate as well as the students having multiple levels available on the same topic that all students are reading about or researching and um they this the visual supports and the books they don't look like they're a lower level or higher level so there's multiple levels so you don't have to borrow if you're a fifth grade teacher and you have a student reading at a kindergarten level you won't have to go to the kindergarten classroom to borrow books because you'll have those levels available to you with that program and it doesn't look like it's a kindergarten book it looks like it's the same level but at that reading level for students so that was something that we noticed in classrooms at the school that we visited as well as with the materials that we looked at a lot of non-fiction and high engaging images diverse images that would represent our own student population in texts and then with amplify I think the struggle that would be for us with our our multilingual Learners is that it's all one text that all students would be reading and would not have access to different levels so that I think would be a strat a struggle for our teachers to work with different levels of students in their classroom um but I we did see that there's graphic organizers available um with cko ckla as far as the erla piece um as a parent aspect my my own children um use that in Wallingford Public Schools um where I live and so what um is nice is that the teachers can work on specific skills in terms of um literacy so they screen the students using the urla the cold read their levels at a certain level and then the teachers understand like which level a student is on and then they can pull a small group to work on whatever skills they need whether it be sight words or fluency or things like or phonemic awareness and then the r court that orluck toolkit will give lessons and skill um um skilled tests for for the teacher to do with the students in that small group um and then there they have they can go to their little book box and pick out the levels of of texts that match their reading level um and then it's meant to be like a progress monitoring you meet with the students uh weekly or bi-weekly to test them out of the skills as you're working with them to move up levels um depending on the grade um they're color coded depending upon um like I think kindergarten is is and don't quote me on this I think it's purple or yellow I forget and then you move up white or black um uh red and blue and there's different colors um depending upon what levels you are um and there's a parent piece that comes along with that so that's something I receive as a parent um I receive these this is where your student is this is the level they're at this is what they need to um to accomplish to move up to the next level here's the sight words for them to practice at home if you have time to do that um which that you know we do as parents so it has that family or Parent Connection piece so that's my parent view um with my own children with the erla um and then on the teacher end of it which I don't see as a parent um the teacher can put it into the the um School Pace and it can attracts them where they are and what what um they're learning and what they need so hopefully I answered thank you Tammy very much that's very helpful um so I like to kick this over a little bit to Laura Mead Laura did a great job of um really talking to teachers surveying teachers and Gathering some feedback for us um and so we will pass this over to Laura and she can go over a little bit of the pros and sort of the Deltas of each program kind of as perceived by the teachers but just and based on some of the presentations that that were made to date sure this is and as um Mark Tammy and Kara have talked about it's this what this these next two slides are really kind of a summary of it um I I I'm it's you know you kind of have to be silly not to say you know you've heard the lean toward um art core um and that was the same with our teachers and as you see here there are there's some really good things with ckla um I probably think the biggest um well not the biggest there's a couple of Deltas there that we really looked at that lack of independent reading time that our core does um uh provide for our students it wasn't visually appealing from the from the get-go we had um principles in the very in the initial um principles teachers we had everybody and in those initial um views of the program that was one of the things it was not visually appealing um and the fact that Mark already brought that up that you know we do have kids that go into third fourth and fifth grade and need some still decodable texts and things like that and that's where amplify sort of fell short if you go to the next slide Kara um obviously you can see here there were a lot of a lot of positives I had teachers calling me texting me emailing me Laura please please we have to go to the parkour I'm like hey I'm not my decision this is you know we're going through our due diligence with all of this um some of the things that they really liked you know if like I don't know third or fourth bullet down maybe fifth on the same structure across grade levels that's pretty important to our district when you know we have a teacher who might be a kindergarten teacher this year and then there's a vacancy and they move to fifth grade that structure of a program that says okay I know I follow these four units I know you know they're kind of structured the same way they're aligned to ngss um they love that the other piece that the teachers did love was the urla they said in anything that we have had in the recent past or when I say recent past it's probably been 20 years since we've looked at a program I was in the classroom then um and erla gave them this feel of knowing exactly where kids were and how to move them that was one of the biggest um Pros that a lot of teachers spoke out about that really lacked in um the ckla uh when when react even in the presentation you know we were teachers specific teachers and principals specifically asked well what's the structure like for small group instruction and and there wasn't um very much um and again that it's so it's it's really just kind of everything that everybody said the feedback was um definitely tilted toward the art core um teachers who spoke and we had everybody we had from veteran teachers who just had to learn a new program to uh meet um veteran teachers who've had to learn numerous programs to um new teachers who just have learned the one they're in this year so it was a nice um compilation of people who really gave us feedback on the programs thank you Laura so um that's really the kind of high level overview and and probably hopefully just enough details that you get a sense of the programs and and kind of where folks thought about those uh we definitely want to make sure we leave a lot of time this time around for questions that's the most important part um but we wanted to make sure it was anchored and some some information uh in in a summary format so that everybody had a chance to um just refresh themselves from some of the things that we heard last time that we were together so I'm happy to answer questions thank you we appreciate all the work that went into all of this so thank you Teresa had submitted some questions uh to the chair prior and I just want to thank you Teresa that was uh very helpful because that kind of what sparked us putting a few slides together to hopefully answer some of those questions so thank you I've got to confess um I was talking to the former years ago Mr Moore who used to be in charge of the program in Danbury reading program and he was delightful and he gave me those questions to uh make sure that we continue the great work in Danbury that's good those are good questions Laura Mead is beaming over there he's a good one so I have to tell you um Mark and I actually attended a wedding and Ned was there and actually when I was first hired in Danbury he was in charge of literacy and um one of my most amazing mentors so I have to tell you as we were embarking on this Mark and I were at the wedding and we said hey Ned we're looking for and he said the the one thing he said to me look for a program that has a strong writing component and it's funny that you say some bring up Ned and I have to tell you at all the the um writing component in ckla is basically um reader response right constructed response to questions and literacy art core has both that which we desperately need um but also um an independent you know writer's study you know how how do authors become authors and that piece so that was the one thing that stuck with me Teresa when Ned said that and I I kept and you said when you talk to him again you tell him Laura Mead was pushing for what Ned said I will I will and Teresa also because that you had that great question about you know the state assessment um with Arc the constructed response lives within the reading which is what we want kids to be able to do is respond to reading and critically think about what they're reading but the great thing about it is their thematic writing units are also aligned to whatever reading unit they're working within so this way there's can there's there's cross connection between what they're writing about and what they're reading about as well thank you do any other committee members have questions are there any board members that are not committee members on the call that have questions no questions online alrighty Lauren yes yeah hi just a quick question how long would it be um to take to implement whichever program that we're selecting and would it go to all the schools is it how does that work so I know we currently have some programs that some of the schools were implementing yeah it's a good question um so so we plan to implement across all 13 middle schools um the question that we're that we're wrestling I'm sorry I said Middle Schools elementary schools uh the questions that we are wrestling with right now is about whether to do k-3 in year one and then do four or five in year two or to do K K5 all at once which would be a lot um but we you know so we're going to be having that conversation about um what would be what would make the um you know the best path forward in terms of our staff being able to fully support but also the fact that you know we're also rolling out math curriculum as well that that has been we've been moving up the grade level each year with our math program and so grades four and five are slated next in the roll up and we've been doing that slowly over time and so um for the grade four or five teachers this could be quite the convergence of new materials all at once and so we want to be really mindful um I'm also mindful of our you know our funding streams and how quickly that will dry up and um our ability to make sure that we can um from out of the gate have a strong we are able to Resource this uh very strong um and properly from the beginning and make sure that all the teachers get at least the material so we could do a couple different things we could purchase all the materials up front um and then only roll them out to K3 and then we'll have to you know Warehouse the four five for a bit and then do that do that the next year so um that's probably where I'm leaning at this time but again I want to um you know consult with the rest of our curriculum administrators and our supervisors um to get a to get a feel some of the things too that that play into this is you know once the final decision is made there's a lead time um that that needs to happen for materials to be purchased for them to arrive for them I mean this is this is a massive amount of uh of resources and materials that need to be sorted and and sifted and um and handled um by just really the people that you're you're that are on this call tonight that it's uh you know so it's quite challenging so we're gonna we're gonna have that discussion about what those materials how many that uh what that would look like and then um the feasibility with our other professional development um initiatives that are happening so um as we once we nail that down we'll start to talk to to the companies to understand better understand their timeline the materials and availability also of technical support to support our district and I I'm sorry I I'm I'm not really sure how this works this is part of that right to read act right that we're looking at programs and then we're inventing currently the I ready math in many of our schools and in i-Ready reading program right that they're looking to get I guess the my path or so those are yeah that's a good that kind of work together sure sure so that's a that's a great question and some folks I think there's been some confusion on that so that so the I ready is an assessment system and the my path is really your um computer adaptive practice for in areas for things that students need to work on based on the assessment the diagnostic piece so those are really akin to practice targeted practice around specific areas um and it's more assessment based whereas this is more of a curricular program that that addresses all grade level standards and needs and I ready a student might only be working on a a slice that that they're deficient in or they need to be you know get some extra practice um so it's that's really the difference it's one is an assessment system with practice and the other is is a curricular program and they would work together they work together fantastic okay that's great I wasn't aware of that that's perfect right anyone else have questions oops I guess with uh one more question if you don't mind oh sorry oh I just um sorry is this is the ark cost in this current upcoming budget yes so we have so there are some Esser funds designated currently for was a placeholder with this in mind thank you yes and there is a state program right or like grant money that will be available isn't there like 20 million dollars or something yeah so I'm trying to get that Michelle so we have a meeting set up next week um and we're hoping to have our first put our first hand in the pot because I think we're coming out of the gate sooner than than other folks because a lot of people are trying to delay and get waivers and all this stuff and and we're you know from a strategy standpoint um we think we might be well positioned to be first in line those are the types of funds that just you know once they're gone they're gone and um so we do have a meeting set up next week to understand more um in in all transparency it has not been very easy to get information about that um it's it's the state themselves themselves are struggling uh to unpack this legislation and their responsibilities um to support it um have been a little bit muddy and you know it's been it's been difficult for districts to get good information but we're hoping um that that is that that would be made available to us um potentially a reimbursement we're not sure um if that's the case that would be great for Danbury if not we have set aside funding for for this um for next year it's great yeah hopefully we'll get some of that if you guys are like I'll be at the front of the line it seems from from the meeting that I had heard as well where it seemed like they were lacking information but definitely had some sort of deadlines yes right exactly that's a great way to put it yeah yeah thank you yeah yeah I think there's anything that comes up or you know in passing and you want to throw a question by this today doesn't have to be the only time you you ask a question um certainly reach back out and um you know you certainly know where you can find me on Wednesday nights you can pick my brain there as well uh before the meeting starts thank you okay thank you we appreciate your time I think Teresa has another question is there working in the library the State Library um offers opportunities if the library like movie licenses so we can all the libraries get them cheap does the State education um commission do anything like that you know so to or is it strictly through state grants that type of thing I you know not to disparage just that we haven't really received a lot from it's been a long time since the state really pushed out um those types of resources um and I remember those early on Theresa I know exactly what you're what you're talking about um but a lot of things now are really Grant based so if there's something that you want you want to acquire a license or site-based license or individual student licenses we usually try to you know seek out grants for those types of things thank you okay Lauren I think we're I think we're good all right well thank you so much for your time everyone and thank you for putting this together very informative um and then if we need another meeting to you know do anything let us know and we'll make those arrangements that's great thank you very much have a good night thank you thank you
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
let's see the whole stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Allegiance [Music] which is famous one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice Lord so roll call please Teresa Michelle president okay here Gladys here Lauren here Bridget absent Julie here Ralph present Albert here Luisa here all right yeah please the Board of Education welcomes public participation and asks the comments be limited to three minutes the public may offer objective comments of school operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or dissemitory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor any against any person connected with the Danbury public school system okay it doesn't look like we have anyone for public participation tonight okay just kidding all right so just like the Lauren said there's three minutes per person will give you a 30 second reminder um to wrap it up and the first person so it looks like it says move to the end so Jody see us that's where I sit yes um hello everyone thank you for letting me see tonight um by now you're all aware of what's been happening at Pembroke and I'm sure a lot of what I'm gonna say is going to be repeated tonight um but we as parents are worried heartbroken angry and concerned and I speak to you tonight in hopes that you can somehow help I could address many things regarding the situation including how these threats could possibly be the red flags that contribute to the increasing amount of school tragedies in our country the help the student obviously needs to be able to make these threats and keep the secret the city's resources that this takes away each time they're called to the school the disruptions to our schools I mean to our children's learning and the mental health of our school community the most important thing in this situation though is that this person needs to be identified and these threats need to stop I know protocols have been put into place after the first redirects such as taking a bathroom sign-out procedures the buddy system or the new classrooms only one student using the bathroom at a time adults outside of the bathrooms and finally cameras installed around the schools I was so hopeful that this would finally resolve finding the person responsible however after the fourth threat in all of these protocols in place we are still left with no answers how is an elementary age student able to continue to make these threats without getting caught I know Dr Ethel spent time on Friday and Tuesday reviewing camera footage I'm wondering if the school is left to figure this out on their own or have they asked for help from the authorities in an email from the principal she said quote is my understanding that the police do not take over the investigation the children of this age and she also mentioned a direct quote again the police officers here on Friday stayed with us and asked questions to help us process otherwise the police don't get involved in the investigation I also asked her if that I also asked her that if the school is able to narrow down suspects but no confessions are made would the police be helping to analyze handwriting or something else to to catch the person and she responded by saying your Expo again I'm not sure if they'll look at handwriting samples they've never offered but I can ask the detective when we connect after threat number four it seems the school needs help why is law enforcement not taking responsibility in any of this 30 seconds if there were any if this were any other public establishment with continuing threats police would surely be involved this is a criminal act that affects the well-being of every person in the building seems absurd to put all of this on School staff and not trained investigative professionals if the threat escalates in the future who will be liable our kids need help I'm asking you our board members to push the city to assist with this investigation so that we can keep our schools safe I'm not sure what the answers are but so far this is not it how can we help our babies foreign that um reading there was some emails and you were quoting emails and stuff like that if if you don't mind not doing that only because the other person is not here to verify what you're saying so anyone else coming back up and um oh are you going to speak in public participation she's here right yes thank you all right so uh Chrissy who good evening uh some of you may know me already or see me wearing various Hazard of the district here um of her passionate about doing what I can to support and make us successful as we can be awesome um so I'm here today as preparing the fifth grader at Edinburgh um or I'm also the president of the BTO um and I've expressed these concerns uh to some Community leaders including superintendent Wilson and German Professor um but I'm here tonight about going to reiterate those concerns so fabric is four times since returning from Thanksgiving break needed to drop the pencils or sandwiches from their hands and abruptly evacuate effects were discovered around the bathrooms shot over 450 000 students with many include with special needs of course to wait outside in the cold or the rain for emergency Personnel to come continue the building safe for entry parents of other days offended upgrade their child's school is about to be the next tragedy on national news simply worried how their baby is handling the emotional strain this time despite the interventions of protocols put in place to inhibit this Behavior those responsible imagine remain anonymous how can we expect our students to learn how can we expect our teachers to teach for our parents to feel secure when they are all hyper focused on what it's going to happen again on the one hand it's understandable to view this as an obnoxious prank orchestrated but if I were a student that needs to just stop but on the other hand it's important to remain cognizant of the fact that we live in a world where recently a six-year-old brought a gun to school to get a little issue with their teacher this may be just our work inconvenience for now about how compounded the Danbury School District or the community as a whole ever have peace of mind not knowing when or where the unchecked reasons motivating this Behavior can suddenly resurface or Worse escalate into actual tragic actions I beg you all to air on the side of the caution and treat this like a potentially serious Community issue it is with concerns and ramifications and martial arts and other kind of refuses the valley efforts made so far have not one of the risk I truly appreciate the protocols of Dr Apple was put in place the teachers that have given up their prep to monitor locations and central office that is expedited at the installation of cameras and even superintendent also near your letter today with outlining some additional procedures and safety Advocates that'll be in place I do appreciate however I call before you tonight to ask that you please continue to step up these efforts with a commitment to Discovery not just deterrence and to be proactive not just reactive this behavior is well past the line of a frame and it is essential that the responsible parties receive the support they clearly need not just to end the interruptions to learning but to make our schools and Community even safer thank you for your time and I hope you remove dedication to this concern thank you Christina Sweeney hello I am actually not here I'm Christina Sweeney I am a resident by a parent of the two students at Danbury High School who've attended Danbury public schools in Sierra I've been actively involved in several ptos as well as Citywide PTO since my children were little Rich worker first let me say thank you for your time and service to the community and to our public schools in the success I am here tonight because I have questions about the public support many members of the Danbury Board of Ed have been Landing to the proposed charter school for Danbury specifically I'm talking about the press release that went out asking for funding to be included in the governor's budget that was signed by several board event members I saw it on Twitter that was their conversation about this endorsement and board event meeting was it vote taken there is no more to that agenda or minutes that I'm aware of that included that discussion a board of Board of Ed members primary role is responsible oversight of the public schools of the community they are elected to represent charter schools because I assume you know do not in any way fall under the purview of local Boards of Education I am confused as to why several members currently serving on this board are actively promoting a charter school over which the board will have zero to our station or overtime moreover charter schools have no accountability to the local community any interest would seem to be personal and or political honestly from the outside looking in it appears that some board event members would like to Outsource the education of our children to privately manage organizations with no local supervision or accountability that seems like the conflict of interest at best and their election of Duty at first furthermore Charter School library is going to cost the district as you are well aware this is a district that has no wiggle room when it comes to coasters the proposed charter school is not going to leave you overcrowding in any meaningful way and instead is going to cost the district money busting a loan for the first year I understand to be estimated that over half a million providing special education services will be an additional tasks it would seem that board members of energy should be spent ensuring that the Career Academy and specialized programs will be fully funded staffed and ready to open sooner rather than later contrast to a charter the Career Academy is a school that the board of vet is responsible for overseeing and that will serve a majority of our students we have entrusted you to be advocates for our children and to provide them with the best education Polo also maintaining physical responsibility it is not fiscally responsible to advocate for a secondary system that will drain resources from the current schools advocating for a school that will produce a six percent of our student population and that has no accountability to our community because looking out for the best interest of our children or Dare memory if you are truly interested in advocating for our kids I invite you to speak so like I do every year in the coming months about the importance of fully funding the 2324 budget that you will refer red our kids in our community deserve their undivided attention and action on their behalf to ensure our public schools are the absolute best they can be I welcome anyone who would like to continue this dialogue Amanda Pascarella I as so many of us have already stated we are here as parents concerned about what's happening um I kind of speak with two hats that I wear one through the lens of apparent the other through the lens of an elementary school teacher I had this beautiful piece that was written and actually has been reiterated so many times already I don't want to waste your time I do want to bring attention to one of the proactive solutions that I do believe is important and is greatly missing in our public education that is simply that we are not providing all students with the coping mechanisms that they need in order to survive their daily social and emotional it is no surprise both out of covet and prior to covet our culture is changing that increases increased school shootings is in the staff and the fact of the matter is we as a public education institution are not providing every child knowing how to manage their emotions they are not coming into school knowing how to identify and react when they feel something in a safe and medical life and so every year I sit and I listen to every morning and every year I go out and I support budget in some sort of way and every year I hear our fantastic central office team present how they are in hopes of Bill excuse me building the social emotional needs of students and supporting them and every year I hear our explosions and I hear that now we have four bomb threats in an elementary school what we are doing is not working plain and simple it's not working so now we find what does work and I agree it's not Outsourcing the overcrowding what is helpful is proactively teaching as Mr Wilson said and tier one social emotional learning curriculum requires budget it requires time there's already so much on our plates but it's not something that can be overlooked anywhere it's not about adding counselors to support after 30 seconds it is about getting ahead of it and changing the way that our children react to their emotions happening with our babies and it's happening with our adolescents and it is destroying our schools Janice Anderson good evening everyone thank you for hearing me today I'm actually not here to drop that number I didn't know about it until I came home tonight it's right in here though but it does what I have to say does follow right now I was just saying I'm here tonight to express my concern relating to the current guidance counselor Staffing local at Westside Middle School Academy and what is being done to expedite to fulfill the open Council position those of you who let me know on the DPS curator I speak the port of city council and supported the board of education's budget I mean everything I can to get correct information to people about academies of Danbury and regarding everybody get out there and learn to learn so what I say to you tonight if I say as an apartment in the spirit of a partner with the district let me start by saying that my concern is not that west side is doing anything wrong in fact west side of its administrators Mr Blue Mr Flynn seem to be doing everything they can with one hand got it behind their backs and school counselor for Sarah he's a wonderful west side is budget has been two full-time school counselors and currently has won over the summer one of the school counselors retired living in an opening at the school my understanding is that a counselor from the high school was hired approved to transfer to middle school he's been not allowed to make that move because they'd have a higher replacement for him the opening on West Side remains on the district website there's another one for Danbury High School counselor for pre-law term subs for Harrisburg High School and I went to double check on you in Rogers Park and evidently there's an opening of some sort of brought to you as well but that's not an advertising the picture today 108 days into the school year almost two-thirds of the way for the year the open Castle physician website is not for today this is a time when the CDC has just released a survey from his 2021 youth risk behavior which then efficients themselves and alarming and many experts are warning a mental health crisis among us there are 750 students at one side half 375 of them having a son counselor the other half do not 375 students have been without an assigned Pastor since the first day of 6th 7th and 8th grade and continue to do so it was two-thirds of the way through the school year for the Denver is ratio of one password or 375 middle school students is reasonable as compared to the 1 to 250 recommended by the American school counselor association with one to 323 average in the state of Connecticut but you have to agree to them you have to agree with me that the answer to the question of what is a reasonable ratio of casters to middle school students can never be zero to 370 the pocket 30 seconds I Mr Flynn and all the other staff at school somehow they're making it work but the district is asking too much them kids are in crisis those that work with them are working under more stress than ever they can only do so much and we're shortchanging our children middle schools are 400 years how do they need they're transitioning they need as much guidance as possible I hope you do what you can to address this issue thank you Richard Janelle seems like we're facing the wrong way um the I wrote a nice script I spent a long time doing it transparency Amendment too so um I did want to come here tonight not to reiterate what has been said but I'll need to ask you to listen to these parents there as you were they're frustrated they're concerned they're scared and they thank you Mr Boston for offering to meet with them in person I think the personal contact that you would have an important person would have and leading these people and have open conversations but also toward you the opportunity to listen to some suggestions they they will have it's nice to hear a community come together and not just complain about something this is a serious issue I don't need a desperate but throughout the country the next thing is I think in the next few weeks you're going to be advocating for your money as I serve people well and I've always done this is a primary example of telling the story that has to be a way to include this in lithographs and with your numbers and with your presentations to tell this particular story also we often talk about impact it's also important you can say but the impact of not having this is the potential impact on a district of 12 500 kids for not being able to fund what's necessary for you to provide any Professional Services whether it be social or whether it be academic I do want to compliment with this meeting my presentation I went to last week in terms of Storytelling okay it was an incredible presentation made by Erica Hines I think from that it would be a good way to take some of these issues and present them into the budget what we've been doing in the fast in terms of a bunch of presentations is really fallen on deaf ears and I think they need an eye-opener AS three are only suffer thank you very much [Music] foreign good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight like so many other parents here I am concerned for the safety of my kindergartner I can't work out more true I'm appreciative of all the work that has been done thus far to keep our kids safe and thank you for Danbury Police our Emergency Management director for all they've done during health support okay thank you I had the unique experience to win this firsthand onto the threats in December and it was incredible super kindness and compassion empathy and quick actions by the teachers and staff in the school scared to cry and getting left from Coltrane and Pembroke staff on a modern job to help them feel safe but after the child who's now scared for emotional go back into the classroom and continue to work I know this is a very complicated situation but with the new cameras and additional safety measures by urgent disease to do whatever you can do to identify the individual or individuals terrorizing our kids I encourage you to use every investigative resource legally available to you a question what amount of personal resources have been involved with investigation today and to what degree I also asked them to visit the school safety and evacuation class to address a safe place for our children to evacuate for both my childhood worth going to school he loves his future but how can we expect our children to provide new environment of fear instead of discussing the sight words on cancer and questions about what would happen if Obama off while he's at school environment to teach our children it's hard enough and our kids deserve a safe place to grow thank you okay Gene rivet hi everyone my name is Danbury resident and I'm also called uh here because of Pembroke school where my grandson attends um so I'd just like to say a couple of things um I've had thousands of students I you know I think any teacher any person here who's a teacher can easily tell when a student is telling the truth or not after a couple of years of teachings um and have you considered it it might not be a child at all if it is a child then the teacher can talk before me um seems correct about all children's mental health is not being attract because this child obviously would have some kind of emotional problem um if if as an adult how many ways might that be indicative of a distraught staff member and how would anyone know without a police investigation if it's an adult how close to the mental jumping off point are they if they would go to this extreme to threaten our students in our schools I've personally been involved in an active shooter threat as a teacher in a school and still have this was three years ago I still get a lot of anxiety when I think back on it and I'm an adult and I usually you can know how to handle my emotions but these These are little kids and I've seen good the real real truth here in my grandson's face and I'm sure you know many other students there as well but um I'm hoping that all of these things are being considered that I know when I was involved in that active shooter uh SWAT came to the school I'm not sure what happened here I know the police came but um I hope that it's being with the climate in the country today I just hope that everybody's taking it as seriously as possible thank you Chelsea Hiller hello um I'm Chelsea Miller as a second grader at Pembroke um I don't have anything prepared or anything like that I just kind of wanted to go off what everyone else was saying but kind of tell a story so my son is absolutely terrified to go to school he's home he was home today the last time there was a mantra I kept him home for a whole week um he won't go unless I can confirm that he's safe and I cannot confirm that he's safe um he's just terrified so I'm just pleading for you guys to please step in and do something he's just just like all the other kids I'm feeling unsure he just has to go back to school I mean he's begged me to get him into a different School get him into homeschooling I mean he brought up homeschooling today this is the most social kid ever he is terrified to go back to school okay that's everybody I have on the list um so just for clarification we typically don't go back and forth on addressing any of the questions or issues that come up now but um I did I did ask Kevin to what we're going to put that aside for it and address some of the things that um you know some concerns just as an update on where we are and um you know what's what's going on I I showed up late is it possible I was doing something in the record absolutely just if you could give your name my name is Juan Rivas 59 data Road uh two children in the school system um I just came from work so um I apologize for uh not having a prepared uh Speech I thank you all for uh letting me speak tonight and get this on the record I speak on behalf of the panther parents as well it looks like a lot of it has been already set um what I asked of the board is I please support you guys to step up your efforts when it comes to the PD City Hall whoever you need to go to to help have this resolved in a very timely manner because this last event my son had a breakdown and I'm amazed that it took you know four or five threats for him to finally have a breakdown and like the last parents just spoke it's uh started to have an effect on the children and we can't City with this uncertainty I work 45 minutes away from home I do get the text alerts when the schools go into the shutdown but it leaves me helpless that I'm at work and I'm getting these text messages and I can't do anything about it not enough to include as well my wife is a tutor there at the school so now I have a spouse and a child that are in the school when this is happening God forbid something happens I now lose half of my family government something good to happen I can't accept that and I won't accept that so I asked of you guys to please step up your efforts let's get the to the end of this and find out who's behind this is what I asked me to thank you foreign so like I said typically we don't really have a discussion back and forth but I asked Kevin to update um kind of where we are and what's going on if that's okay with everybody else so when I I want to thank the families for joining us this evening Dr Apple thank you for also being here this evening to support your school I'm having a hard time hearing this for a number of reasons many of those reasons are the same reasons why our families are here tonight I've been in meetings and so because of those meetings I know a lot of the families who spoke here today respect the fact that you are concerned about your child's safety then I've met some new families here this evening I want to thank you for coming as well I know some of the families spoke the sentencing which came up and it made it clear that she's a partner in this work and I know that is true what many of you who have talked this evening so I want to thank you for that continued support of the district in Partnership today the security and safety of all of our kids is our utmost care I mean i period and let me also be clear this latest priority and shift that we made during the holiday break Christmas break many in the audience may not be aware of this but part of our security grant that the district has Pembroke was on a rotation to get upgraded surveillance equipment we made sure that that equipment was updated during the break in light of the incidents prior to the Christmas break I'm mentioning this not to just reiterate it because I just sent it in an email today but I'm mentioning to this because we have new resources available to us that we did not have before the Christmas break I'm not ready to give up on the investigation that just started on Friday and so I'm I'm saying that with a tone of my voice like I feel like we we're much closer than we've been before and I feel confident that we'll have some information available for you and our school Community sooner rather than later because of the resources available that we've implemented during the break we just have answers to questions we did not have before and this has given us eyes on different parts of the building that we did not have before so I I want to start there and want to share with everyone the investigating started on Investigation started on Friday I and I I can Sharon if you don't mind also want to help the principal because she sent out a correspondence to her community that may have given families the impression that we stopped the investigation or we stopped viewing the cameras because of the break and that that cannot be further than truth the reality is the investigation was because it because it happened on a Friday there were students and and perhaps even staff to one of the questions that I heard if we think about the fact that this could be someone other than a student and once we see the video now there are people who have to who have to be investigated who have to be interviewed and between ELP which is our Extended Learning Program we have folks who have access to our buildings before school during obviously our staff and then after school and so we have video footage of all of those all that movement throughout the day so if any event a note may have been left in one of these spaces the night before during school there are staff that we can get to in real time during the school day and then some staff on a Friday at 4 30 5 o'clock when my assistant superintendent principal was still meeting with kids but at certain point because of the time of the day that has happened they were not able to get to all the people who needed to begin and so that is what had to continue today on Wednesday when we got back and so I just want to clarify that message that went out so it was it was less about continuing to look at the video and more about the investigation itself that had to continue into this week before return to school so I just want to share that with the family I don't want anyone to think that we stopped working on this because we were up against the weekend we all had plans to get out of town I apologize we can't we're already off off our track and we can't we can't interact with we're going back and forth that's why I just he's making a statement and follow up you have emails and stuff like that I mean it's the policy and the rules of regular board no I understand it believe me I'm in this District a long time I understand it's just we can't conduct we're already over the time for public participation already and we're just pushing that aside because of the severity of the issue so and to be clear when I say we there is no separation in situations like this between a principle the superintendent and the assistant superintendents and support for the school so we means collectively it's it's weak so from our security team to our chief HR person to assistant superintendents when it's we it's we a principal whether it's Danbury High School Middle School or in this case Pembroke Elementary School we means the red phone goes off and all of us are in the room circling around to support that building in need of support I I also heard that really and a cry for help and Amanda please excuse me because you were crying for help but it's really like hey we we need to be more intentional about helping kids and not being reactive and being more proactive and we hear you loud and clear and and for the for the families who are not familiar with this idea this pascara is a teacher and so she understands how effective this strategy could be and it's really about the idea of helping and working with kids and be intentional about addressing their social health debt they have a social emotional health and um post pandemic immediately when we return during a pandemic and right after the pandemic we were really intentional about incorporating these ideas into our curriculum some of our families right Might Recall getting things back when our kids were coming home and it was about building community in classrooms Etc and I and I think we we don't have a choice but to revisit some of those ideas and and figure out what this means not only in schools like Pembroke but schools across the system so we not only just in light of your email in this latest incident we will be revisiting how we go about working with kids in regard to um the social emotional health and how all of us and again we're talking about tier one is our teacher who's in front of us every day because we don't have enough counselors and social workers to get to every single student I'm really really concerned about where we are as a district I'm quite frankly the information from the last couple of days I feel much better and I feel like we're much closer to identifying the person responsible but I'm also really concerned about the damage this has left on our school community over these last couple of months and so my my team and I um we think and the reason why we sent this invitation out to the community number one I was fortunate enough I mean three people in the audience tonight who I consider Partners in this work who said hey um Kevin I think it would be good and I'll be happy to help get families in to have a community conversation about this and so to all of you guys who are in the front row I I'd like to thank you for that and so we we listened and we heard and so we will have a meeting at Pembroke next Thursday I believe it's at seven o'clock so so that's one and then two we will have a similar meeting with staff um at Pembroke on Tuesday right after school I understand it and recognizing and appreciating the fact that they're going through the same feelings and emotions that our families are at home and so soon after we will talk about plans to just help to restore our respective climates in our building and I I do not have a magic wand but I just want to be clear that we understand that there's a problem and that's something my team and I will be working on over these next couple of weeks but we will be starting with listening to our families and to our staff and helping to identify a plan that really makes sense it helps to hmm get the perfect Community back on the learning and not having to be concerned about being safe in school so I I really appreciate all of you coming out tonight um thank you for the clarifying questions um and coming out this evening um this is serious for all of us we will find the person who is responsible for it and do everything we can to restore your faith in us um make sure that our school Community is safe so I just want to thank you for coming out thank you thank you thank you thank you I make a motion that the Board of Education approved the items on the consent calendar exhibits 23-36 through 23-39 is recommended second so motion read by Lawrence any discussion all in favor aye opposed okay motion cameras okay student Representatives you're ready I see uh oh yeah yeah okay and it's you all right thank you guys you're great every time we're ready [Music] thank you for allowing me to represent and speak on behalf of the Alternative Center for access Daniela Esposito's creative writings children's literature class has been collaborating with midtown's third grade class set of Ellsworth the goal of this fellow operation to provide the third ingredient celebrity I'm nervous I'm great Haley you're a pro at this you say you're here everyone you're here there's a lot more people here this time yeah students it gives them the opportunities start again keep everything sorry she usually does grapes oh I know good evening Board of Ed members cabinet community members thank you for allowing me to representative that the Alternative Center for excellence Daniella Esposito's creative writing children's literature class has been collaborating with this is happening hunting tins third grade class at Ellsworth the goal of this collaboration is to provide the third graders with a high school reading buddy at pen pal and for the a students it gives them the opportunity to draw and write the younger student and to recognize the important role they can have as a mentor this semester includes a new group of eight students who will be matched with two to three students each the plan is to meet monthly to have the third graders illustrate high schoolers accumulating project in published children's book on March 23rd these will be offering the sap to all ages 11 th grade a special thanks to Kyle tricola for coordinating that effort during that day Ace will also take all 9 through 10th graders to the White Memorial Conservation Center in Litchfield Connecticut also on this day all 12 creators will tour the mvccu campuses in Danbury Waterbury now we're talking about Community College by the way thanks to all the Proctors and chakras who make offering these opportunities possible to lead a student body that's it students at Ace will confuse the Henry Abbott Tech after school program on March 8th before the final decrease as a group at Eastwood John thank you principal Durkin for organizing an after-school program for students interested in exploring the following trades hairdressing and cosmetology poverty Collision Repair culinary arts HVAC and precision Manufacturing Ace has seven students participating in this program every Monday Wednesday from three to five after school thank you both for your hard-working determination and semester one fully distinguished honors honors and Genesis made my office thank you all for allowing us to share what's going on with our Ace family and have a nice evening stay healthy grooming it's strong [Applause] can you read eh action item a January 2023 financial reporting I moved that a board of education except January 2023 financial report in accordance with exhibit 23-4 page 16.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
these are policies that were mandated that the staff be vaccinated against government 19 and other code related Health requirements stemming from Governor Murphy's executive orders are apology however policy regulation 2425 which requires a school to have a County registered contingency plan to transition to remote learning in the event that a natural disaster or other unforeseen event that causes a closure of the school for more than three consecutive days will remain in peace next based on recent legal cases in the state the committee is recommending that the board approves change and policy 0152 which deals with our election of board officers we will still use our existing process which is a verbal nomination of the president and then vice president for calling for the officer votes at the reward meeting however we'll be moving from a majority representing all members prices at the meeting to a majority of the entire board this will ensure that all to the elected members support are able to participate in the election of Court officers during the reorganization and it will require a minor change to policy 0162 if you know to support meetings currently that policy states I stated by the law board members will be allowed to attend and participate in the schedule for meeting by telephone or electronic participation only if there will be a lack of the Quorum apps is patient it'll be adapted to read basically that only if there's a lack of core and perhaps in the concept of participation or for purposes basically everybody will have an opportunity for the president or not legal challenges in the state okay finally of note in the interest of student safety all regulations pertaining to the details of the school's procedures for specific threats to the building or documents will be moved to the district's policy and regulation manual and therefore not subject s um and community relations thank you uh we met online this week this week um there's a bunch of community relations updates we also had attempt as well um from the PTO we had a successful Snowball Dance on do you have winter enrichment finishing this week the readathon which I'm sure a lot of people got noticed notice more begins on Monday February 27th and if there is a sweet heart dance at the Shore Club on Friday February 24th um from the bef there was a donation of thirty thousand dollars for the purchase of 14 Promethean boards to replace older forests throughout the schools yeah um from our feedback group they had a meeting on January 31st which Kurt attended um where Judy McCormack from the Samaritan sector presented about conflict resolution Kurt and he goes who knows on that they do uh it was an eye-opening event a several months prior to that this party since maybe the focus of the group was to provide resources and this one was not like this is a McCormick from he was married at Senate made in the United States was not only comprehensive but very pathetic specific temporary else needs we went through a number of I guess skills or techniques in helping our children cope with conflict resolution and they were uh stop on uh in in as simple as they may have been they're effective and they're things that um not only did the 10 or so parents that attend the dead bus online were very welcome to a very responsible too but the parents who aren't aware of the resources that are available to them should should be harder it was like I said very comprehensive and it went through the lithium of recognizing conflict recognizing self-awareness all the way down to just making kids aware of that complex and that it is a part of life and it's something that is better prepared with they can code and see their way forever it was Iowa it was a great attendance and as Administration suggested that uh we were forwarded the future Partnerships with Miss American Center and topics both who are parents as well as a professional development right idea um and then just a few more of additional updates um there is a dental health program going on for pre-safe through third grade that doctor Little's office we'll be talking to students about Health that is tomorrow there's Pre-K orientation that will take place on Friday February 24th from Monday and the advantage one else will be reading wrinkle Juice by two people now it's a third degree class and usually third grade student will receive a copy of the book this is to take place in March there is a pickleball tournament that is also going to be held in March where teams will be made up of teachers the 8th grade students playing against each other so there's more to come more details will be coming on that um and also I'm sure you guys the scene the drama club is putting on Moana Junior on March 23 24 and then lastly from the board We are continuing our um the superintendent search continues we're currently in our second round of interviews which be wrapping up tomorrow and if we see if we find it necessary we may move on to a third round that will take place and wrap that up by the end of March so more to come and what's it for community relations a lot of information there um but it sounds like it sounded like such a good meaning was it just real um uh families or was it open to the she's not that's funny because uh when we were walking in and a new parent who had everything yeah they did say Mrs McCormick said that she has had some work with the other districts but noted for relationship s and administrative report uh yes thank you darling so two times a year the superintendent is required to report around potential or incidents that took place during two recording periods one in September to December and the other is January to June uh so in your packet you do have a report for the September to December reporting period and that report and requirements and the components of that report include any situations that involved violence vandalism substance abuse weapons in school HIV the status of the HIV if there was any HIV incidents in the school check the category of an individual that would indicate that it is that an HIV incident the name of those who investigated any discipline related to anything HIV or violence vandalism or substance or weapons what interventions took place in the school and whether there were other incidents leads to removal and the final category required is whether or not there were restraints or seclusions of students in school during that period of time additionally the report is required to include what HIV trainings took place during that period of time as well as what programs took place in the school again during that period of time so as you can see in your report you have zeros across the board with exception of two situations of violence that heading of those bothers me a little bit about required to be using this report if a student pushes another student it falls from the violence Academy program so as you can see we had two situations that were required the convention on behalf of school both at crypto discipline and what introductions took place in terms of counseling parent communication and administrative correspondence and conference with the students we also have four separate HIV trainings during that time period including trauma sensitive training in schools social emotional character development suicide and youth training and explore anxiety and phobia for our staff and for our students we had two programs for following around empathy kindness and respect along with uh deliberate that's delivered to our peer leadership program and led by our school counselors questions sorry Mr President this is required earlier um confirmed in Chinese so the next column is now right because they were because there were no I bought it so it could be an incident that was reportedly investigated now not today and HIV so the stats common indicates whether it was actually hippie or not right yeah um not that aware and it was not fun but it was really important I'm not aware of it right I'm not aware that we had a report that we investigated and determined not to be HIV HIV you think we did yeah the incident date was November 11th yeah number is 11.201 proceeded I got about November 27.
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we all saw the same thing at the pumps when we fill up our cars as well so looking at the last line there we consumed fewer gallons but yet we paid almost 60 000 more for what we did consume so that is a big um like I tell Tyler you know when he wants my budget I said tell me what the fuel price is going to be and so and if we all knew that we would do quite well aligning with Street strategic anchor number two highly effective Personnel all of our buses and passenger vans that are used for student use have this particular tablet in them it's it's provided to us through a third party vendor named synovia which was recently bought out by Cal amp um this is kind of the backbone to the here comes the bus routing system as well as it allows us our drivers to do electronic logs and pre-trips kind of go paperless inside the bus they recently uh turned on a new feature that we played around with the end of last year and then rolled it out this year which scores our drivers on their performance as they conduct their routes it looks at on Time Performance excessive speed harsh braking harsh turns and idling and I did want to point out that um if a bus is running late we're not dinging the driver for that we don't want them to try to speed to catch up or anything like that so the way we have it set up is if they leave the bus stop early meaning like the bus stops at seven o'clock and they leave at 6 57 they may get a deduction for that idling is anything over five minutes obviously when we have high heat warnings we loosen that up a little bit so that they can idle to keep the buses cool in the in the summer uh this chart just Compares last year to this year the dark blue is last year and the lighter blue is this year you can see that last year we had 50 drivers this year we're at 51.
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6 30 to 7 30. on Wednesday March 1st from 6 30 to 7 30 we'll be at Canton Middle High School um we will meet in the library media center of the high school that's just before the high school choral concert so for those of you who are planning to attend the Quorum concert come earlier and join us in conversation and then on Thursday March 2nd we will be at Canton Intermediate School from 6 30 to 7 30. and for those who find it challenging to come out in the evening if you'd like to talk with us in the morning on Wednesday March 8th at 10 30 uh we'll be at LaSalle's for anyone that wants to come out share feedback as to how we're doing as a school district and also ask questions and I'll also have information about our budget to share with anyone who's interested so Mr Bishop and I are very much looking forward to that seven is six thirty to 7 30.
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motioned me by Ms Cooper second by Mr Russo any discussion foreign [Music] motion that the Board of Education recommended the city council to update the members of the school building committee uh Danbury Career Academy to reflect the new board leadership members throughout Central Station board chair and Michelle cuello sites and Facilities committee chair in accordance with is it a 23-41 to hit a second okay motion made by cake seconded by Theresa any discussion just a quick question Mr Jim this position has always had two Representatives on the board I believe so prior before Rachel uh and I saw that I think it was catching on here and someone else I remember Kathy yes so I had always been two minutes from this board and my question is leading to I can see the chairperson taking that responsibility and being so now we've done it only the past years uh where we had two Representatives men to answer my question thank you yeah thank you okay all those in favor any opposed dreams Texas one abstention thank you so it carries a kid too right superintendent's report so I would like to start with before we start with item a um we have a visitor in the room with us and I'm not talking about the visitors in front of the room but behind Miss Cooper and King Thompson is going to talk to us about this display so um it doesn't take a second to share with you this new Banner um our team because we are in a bit of our cyclical low waiting for the burst of hiring to come that always comes in the spring um this is the time when we regroup and really focus on our recruitment documents what we're doing for outreach and so my team did a couple of things in the last month or so our brochure has been really Jazzy updated and so these will start floating around as well as some other marketing kinds of materials but this banner and there are two of them travel with a variety of our administrators across the district who go out to recruitment fairs to look for teachers and other kinds of Staff members could be paraprofessionals could be nurses could be anybody and so our administrators really do step up to decentralize a lot of our hiring so they're looking at a variety of different career fairs this year and they're going to take with us this nice Banner and there's a table that has a lot of information on it including the Chromebook that runs a lot of our aerial views and the mayor's little updates about the career academies so there are things on the table that are meant to be interactive as kids who are just getting ready to finish up their Program start to communicate with all of our administrators about hiring so we are hopeful that we will shake those trees and we will find those people but I just wanted to share with you some of our new work good thank you so I would like to update the board and really what's about to happen is really a Spike Lighthouse staff and our amazing students at Danbury High School so I don't know maybe three two or three weeks ago principal Donovan and I received an email from a gentleman by the name of Charles Kenyon and he left this Cliffhanger like emailing those it has some exciting information to share with you might you be available and Dan and I are going what are you talking about right and and then the guy just disappears and we set up a date to meet and then we we come back we finally set up a date to meet and oh my goodness and so he reminds us and in the title it said voice for Change and so we're excited but you know we've done something we've made some exciting announcements announcements about voice for change so we had no idea where this was going and then he goes on to tell us that then I'm not going to still get done lean against the wall he will he goes on to tell us that commissioner Russell Tucker is attending a conference on behalf of Commissioners across the country is going to be speaking about this amazing voice for change initiative that was started under her leadership here in the state of Connecticut the board and the community might be aware that recently we celebrated Miss Lorenz for her classroom leadership we celebrated last year at the black box when the commissioner came down and visited us and really thanked us because I think we made the commission to look really good quite frankly but we had more submissions in the entire state of Connecticut than any any school in entire state of Connecticut Dan Heather I want to thank you both for that but let me just start there but then it gets better because I the challenge is the competitions here's one right and I mean we just it wasn't just like first place okay I'm gonna stop there I'm sorry no no no we need you here and so let me just go back to Washington commissioner Russell Tucker has been invited to Washington DC with other Commission across the country she has asked Heather Lorenz and stood two students from Danbury High School to join hers in a conversation about the voice for change initiative here in Danbury um and so Dan and I it was like we birthed a child we said oh my God the commissioner was calling us to go to Washington D.C um then I'm gonna stop talking now please so that then yeah [Laughter] uh and so quite naturally we asked Dan to come here this evening and introduce Heather Lorenz to to some of the board members may not have been here last year when when Heather um but when we celebrated her the last time Heather I just want to go on record and just say I I can't thank you enough for what you have done to get us to this point um and I I'm convinced we are the commissioner's favorite Connecticut and it has a lot to do with the work that you have done um I know our teachers have benefited from this project um Dan has gone out of his way to do everything he can to also support staff in different ways but you've really led the way that I can't thank you enough I still remember the email by the way hey Mr Wilson did we not apply for this opportunity for our kids I can't thank you enough for pushing me to make sure that we apply for it um and so if you can come up and talk to us a little bit because we'd like to celebrate you embarrass you in front of everybody so thank you every time you bring me here I get tears in my eye um thank you uh thank you for allowing me to oh I'll cook at home uh first of all I want to once again I want to thank both you and Mr Donovan for um believing in me and letting me just run with it um I'm I'm like a bull in a china shop sometimes I'm gonna make like I want to make sure my kids have every opportunity possible and um this opportunity hasn't opened up doors for so many of my kids so many of my kids have gotten more active in their Community more active in understanding what's going on around the world um the teachers are ecstatic it went from 1970 in our Teachers Lounge to era 2020.
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okay so what I will do is go back to the research on that and then bring up revised report if necessary to the next board meeting um that's easy enough to do any other questions lots of action items well items to be lower on the recommendation of the superintendent uh programs thank you I'd like to vote for the motion to smooth uh action items paid one through A8 okay Mr Becker yes that could be Ambrosio Mrs Jones yes yes this is Reed yes Mr Vitale the false yes Mr Baldwin yes and the next District Operations Ted foreign yes Mrs Reed yes this by Cali Mrs Walsh yes Mr Walton yes and um yes I'd like to motion of the board I've seen one who's the following policies for first reading and proceed to the news policy and interest at the 10 for secondary second yes Mrs Jones yes yes this is weed yes Mr vitalik Mrs Walsh yeah yes and Human Resources John do you want to do 15 minutes second Mr Becker yes Dr cambrosio yeah is this joke yes his name debit yes this is me yes Mr Vitale Walsh yes yes and at this time uh visitors business visitors are committed to comment on agenda and non-agenda items foreign Treasury the amount of 1 billion 299 000 353.45 seconds Mr Becker yes Dr Gilberto yes Mrs Jones yes Mrs McDevitt yes Mr milance yes Mrs Lee yes Mr Vitale yes Mr Walsh yes Mr Walker yes foreign discussion owned business we'll move on to um executive session on a motion that the Board of Education approves to move to an executive session oh okay um is oh sorry personnel and security thank you are going to take action after we are not okay
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last year we had 22 AIDS and we're down to 18 this year and both years we've had four routes that are unassigned I want to be clear that the routes are still running there is just no driver available to bid on those routes so we're running them in-house with office staff and mechanics and other people that have their CDL licenses and then the last column is absenteeism with covid and other things we were pretty high last year at 6.32 bodies apps and every day and this year we're around four so we've seen an improvement there and so we'll take a a little bit deeper dive into our driver shortage uh it's obviously not unique to Higley it's Nationwide and you've probably seen it on the news here as well we have received 26 bus driver applications uh this school year of those 26 uh 12 of them were hired four of them eventually resigned after finding a better pay position four were disqualified at the interview and 10 declined when offered the position by HR with the most common reason given was compensation um so that brought us up eight drivers essentially from that application pool if you marry that up with our existing uh drivers we had two bus drivers that retired we had two others that found other employment two resigned and we had one internal transfer so our net gain is one driver up from where we were last year the next slide is is the exact same format but using bus AIDS however we've only received two applications to be a bus Aid this year of those two one of them was hired and one was declined when offered the position internally with our existing aides we had two that found new employment and one transferred internally and then two resigned and that's how we lowered our number down by four for our overall bus Aid count on this chart we're kind of deducing some things that obviously pays a big thing for our drivers here we we have struggled staying with the pack as I guess you would say higley's in green there we have a starting driver pay of 1833 and the other districts around us kind of our competition as I like to say um are higher than that with the exception of combs School District I also want to point out that just about a year ago January of 2022 we gave a mid-year salary increase to our CDL Drivers our bus drivers of two dollars an hour which we're very appreciative of but had that not occurred we would have been at 1633 essentially down at the bottom so um salary is a big thing the other piece is that it is a split shift and they're only paid when they are driving the bus they're not paid for the in between time while the students are at school so unless they pick up field trips and other things you're essentially at work for a 10-hour day getting paid six to eight hours a day on average so with that that is our transportation update I'd be happy to answer any questions any of you have president Schultz Mr Crosby I wanted to understand why the number of gallons went down and how often we're looking at our routes to maximize the savings on the mileage sure absolutely we looked hard at that we just completed our state report we feel that our biggest reason for that is is we had a student for Shawna Miller in the sped Department that was a one-way trip twice all the way off the 51 North every day last year and since that student is no longer being transported to that out of District placement school that cut a big piece off off of that um additionally some of our sports teams have been more local this year we haven't traveled as far so I believe that's a piece of it as well other question Mrs Reese presidentials thank you um Mr Crosby I was wondering if you can tell me how we're getting the word about here comes the bus app out good question um it is included in a letter that is received by every parent that has an eligible eligible child at the beginning of the school year it is also on the school's web pages and also through transportation and it's also on the husd app once you log into the husd app it's one of the apps on the second menu there as well because I've had parents and I know we've had some ups and downs and some concerns and been a little bit late to some schools on different days like you said primarily early release days um and parents expressing some frustration they're like you know the bus is 20 minutes late or I don't know where my kid is and it's like well did you check the here comes the bus app and it's what's that and I mean I had it long ago when it first came out so I just don't know if we if there's something we can do to continuously promote that um and try and get our families more used to being able to look on the app it doesn't change us arriving late but it does help the parents know where their children are um you know especially with those from Coulee to Coronado I mean that it's a long route it's it runs later as it is for the kids to get home and so if we're running a little bit late whether it be traffic whether it be you know trying to just deal with with the routes and and everything um it's a peace of mind for those parents but every I'm not kidding every parent I've heard complain about buses and I said well did you look and were you notified could you see that they were late and they weren't even aware of what the app was and and information is a huge part of the frustration at that point you know they at least they know right so I think we have just under 3 000 parents that are using the app right now last time I checked but that could also be one student with a mom and a dad that would be two in a two accounts so it's always hard to say but we can try to push it up on our website a little bit and I will say when parents do call us asking where a bus is we're certainly helpful and we'll look it up for them but while we're on the computer looking it up we try to tell them you know this is something you can access yourself with the here comes the bus out yeah and it is a great tool for us too because we can message parents on a specific bus if there is an issue and I think too the other thing is um for you know after breaks or I'm sure you have writers fluctuate at the semester there's especially in high school you you get those who now can drive and no longer riding the bus and then you have those other ones that hey they weren't riding the bus before maybe they got the car take it away but yeah that's a good point because even with sports we see it change from semester to report if they have practice or things like that for sure so I just I hope that if we can just find a way at a specific intentional times two to share that to try and get more people brainstorm with our public relations and see what we can do and of course and I'm it's not high school parents that have the concern it's the elementary middle school and um and I just wanted to touch too on the the different costs just like every other family we don't have the option to raise our prices here we are spending so far an additional 60 000 almost in fuel we have no control of those prices and we have to do it but we don't have the product to raise a price to to try and help offset that cost and so that continuously it's got to come from somewhere right same you have it with fuel we have it with food same thing all of our families are dealing with as well um but while we're not a store that can raise their price to offset that with that it's got to come from somewhere so we're still paid the same per student with these Rising costs so um thank you for putting that in there I know we all feel it but I don't think we always see it from the school district side and it's volume it's a lot so thank you for sharing that welcome thank you Mrs Reese um anyone so sorry I actually have two but they're quick the first one I have is um we're down for bus AIDS do we currently have buses running that are in need of an aid that don't have them like are you guys internally picking that up as well like the four routes correct if the IEP States they need an aid on the bus Which most of them do and a second adult is on that bus their job title may not be busted it might be routing coordinator or myself or our secretary but the buses still have the second adult on there sure awesome uh well and by that sorry that's a lot um the second question I have you and I'm gonna fumble what it was your word choice exactly as far as the ADOT with our stuff do we get revenue for that do we save something for that like I just I'm curious what that is we do so essentially we have a painted course on our blacktop that is certified by ADOT and we have a third party examiner on our site and then we're subject to audits basically and that's what we have to do to keep compliance for our benefit for our district is our trainees can train right on our lot we don't have to go somewhere else so that saves time and money and we're also able to test our people which means we don't have to make appointments at MVD and wait in line and all that since we have the course and everything set up we do charge other districts to use our course so we do collect revenue from that and I mean it's not a lot but it is something for them to at least come and use our course inside sure so for sure thank you not take a moment to share something I always had an appreciation and I knew that there was a lot involved in transportation I had no idea until last year when we were in the middle of our highest cases of coven and we had a lot of people out one of the things many school districts had to do was actually cancel bus transportation because they simply could not get drivers I will tell you that Josh and his team Josh and Tim he was often the very first person who was on my phone probably about 5 30 in the morning and he was usually the very last person on my phone and I personally witnessed him and every person on his team literally doing every job in that in that department to make it happen and I will tell you they were joking about you know needing people to drive buses and I'm really glad that neither one of ours ever ended up driving buses because we probably wouldn't have done very well on anything but I will tell you truly appreciate the amount of work that this team did to make sure Transportation happened and continues to happen and we were worried about plans and back-up plans should any one of these gentlemen end up being sick at the exact same time but could not have done it without their true servant leadership and truly I learned myself a whole lot more about Transportation more than I ever wanted to know and I'm deeply grateful about the work that happens in that department so to you and your team thank you for what you do every day thank you thank you Dr Foley I I had reached out to Mr Crosby when I had concerns um and he was extremely helpful and extremely responsive and explained to me different um things about the bus and what was going on and and uh one of the reasons I brought this up is because I had heard about buses being laid and I experienced it firsthand and so we're at 99.2 percent now earlier in the year was probably a little less or that's our average up to this average so okay um and I should point out that that is just mainstream routes we removed sped out of it because there are some other issues with special needs there's some students that take longer to load and so if this is just looking at mainstream perfect and I understand compensation is very important and you said you showed that the people showed up for the interview but then when offered it then they turned it down because of compensation did they not know what the compensation was when they showed up for the interview or they were asking something better I'm just trying to figure out if our communication isn't that we're offering yeah if they do their research they can see the range that's offered when Tim and I interview were not at Liberty to say if we hire you on it's going to be this rate so we do the reference checks and all that and it gets sent to HR and then HR aligns them where they feel they should be and then they make the phone call and and I hire people all the time and I understand they don't read the job description sometimes and so um that might be the thing um but I also uh wanted to ask or when you had when I reached out to you about the middle schools and being late and you had brought up the amount of time in between elementary school and middle school being an issue and in the way the policy was and voting on it years ago is there something do you think that it would be better and we would set drivers up for Success if we were able to alter that schedule a little bit and then in addition it was windy today I can't imagine driving the buses in the wind you know those type of things affected and it was an early release day as well so I don't know if if you were late today or if there was any lateness today but having the middle schoolers wait around for 20 minutes could be an issue for middle schoolers yeah it's been happening um for many years our hands are kind of tight it would be nice to have what would be your suggestions yeah what would what would help to set up for success I know that you know it would be hard to go later than four o'clock you mentioned that you know parents didn't like that but is there something that could make sense that we could alter change of policy so that we can't set you up for success um yeah I mean just the amount of time between bell times I know there's a set number of minutes um for each grade level they have to be in school so we're limited on how we can adjust it but on the back end Elementary to middle school is hot tight on early release days we're down to between the two bells ringing we have 35 minutes to load Elementary take them all home and rdb lined up at the middle school so and on a normal day we have 45 to 50 minutes for that so um so adding an extra 10 to 15 minutes in the middle it's right and I'd want to take a look at it in more detail because there's other factors that play into it with preschool bell times and some of the middays as well so I mean it's something I would be happy to look into but that would that would be about my only suggestion and I think the Middle School Bears the brunt of it because they're the third tier so whatever trickle effect between tiers one and two it just all gets pushed down I'm just you know Middle School's sitting idle for 20 minutes you know they could get into some trouble amongst each other or that's the one time they love the bus right other than that they hate it I'm sure of it um I'd like that if we could talk about that and that could be something that we could bring up um you know to help out because we want to set you up for Success so that you're not having to rush and you don't have to deal with it and Mrs Reese brought up the here comes the bus I also have parents who turn off the notifications because they start getting them every day and so then when something does happen then they like what happened well you turned up your notifications so turning those on even though you know they might end up in your email but it is important to be able to see and I appreciate like I said when I reached out to you and ask you questions about and I had a question with that or an issue with the app and you were very helpful um for that President Schultz members of the board we will what we will do is what we do whenever there's these tasks and questions bringing all the people with the multiple parts to the puzzle together in the room to make sure that we have explored every opportunity if there are opportunities or challenges that weren't considered before would they make sense now with where we're at from required instructional minutes to additional components and schedules with what we currently have available with his resources if anything could or should be adjusted we will bring back recommendation perfect and just in your opinion uh where would we need to fall to be competitive to not have a shortage of drivers again that's a loaded question I know the district I know I'm sorry uh and as much as I hate to say it will will fall to the middle of the pack and then the other districts will have a board meeting and a presentation and they'll it's just gonna do this I mean you know fifty dollars an hour oh I would like that as well we would be fully staffed right so um no I think it's good to be yeah everybody will our two biggest competitors um are Queen Creek and Chandler and Queen Creek came to the game this year um they were quiet for a while they have really stepped up advertising they've incentives and all that in there for what I understand almost fully staffed right now so I would say those are two competitors to keep an eye on so we just need Mr Moore to find us another 25 an hour I think right foreign any other questions um president Schultz Mr Crosby um I'd like to know if there's if we have any like Financial mechanism like future contracts or financial agreements through the state where we can fix um the fuel costs against future increases for coming years or do we just have to just buy as we go we all know you know recently gas dropped but it's going to go back up and are we going to have that um you know I want to make sure that when it does go back up that we are covered for that increase in cost uh great question I'm actually glad you bought it up brought that up but we get sent fuel pricing every day by multiple companies and we actually track it on a graph it's in the lobby of our office we try to track it really closely we're not buying fuel just from Circle K or Chevron we have our own fueling station and we are able to purchase fuel through the Arizona Department of Transportation ADOT so we're paying the same price that they do for their Fleet we're able to piggyback on their contract so um and and then how often are bus routes evaluated um changed for maximization and um what other avenues can the district pursue um to lower feel cost mileage driven um so we do use routing software through Tyler Technologies and that's probably our biggest asset in determining which routes are efficient it creates all sorts of modules and simulations for us where we can improve some of the suggestions we can take and Implement others just don't make sense based on student counts and things of that nature um but every summer every route is essentially torn apart and rebuilt a lot of them stay the same because the neighbors are the same and things like that but essentially we start fresh every year and then throughout the year as buses become overcrowded or undercrowded we're always balancing that out mainstream routes in our district have essentially stayed the same for the past three years they're all fairly efficient and as you can imagine sped routes change [Music] they're always changing so those routes we always try to leave a little room on because oftentimes there's a time constraint of getting a student started in a fairly quickly for Shawna so thank you for that um also on page 11 I noticed that you know the the districts that we're utilizing to compare us to um different is different than um let's say what the auditor general would use as a comparison to Higley um why aren't we using those schools that the auditor general is using for our financials that would give us a more accurate um number instead of comparing us to so many districts that although I like the fact that we're comparing ourselves to Ben Franklin and ala I you know it's nice to see the difference but um I'd like to be able to see the same comparison that the auditor general uses we can look at that I don't know how valid the data will be because our bus drivers live in our area so those are competitors of who's going to snag up our bus drivers as far as rates that pay if I'm hearing your question correctly one of our comparison districts may be you know on the west side of town and we're clearly not going to have a driver that lives in Gilbert drive over there for an hourly salary change so but we can certainly look at who are yeah that President member van Helk that the outer General comparison districts is but for similar size and budgetary reasons and so um while Mr Crosby's comparison chart works at just competitiveness in terms of employees and and basically our surrounding districts and who we can basically attract these are our main competitors in terms of employees the comparison districts on the other general report are by size and so like you stated we have several comparison districts that are in the West Valley North Phoenix and so polling their hourly rate would not necessarily make complete sense in this case but maybe pulling their route miles or their comparison on that Avenue in terms of their expenditures for transportation would be a more a fair comparison I'm just thinking a bigger school would obviously have more money so that they would be able to pay a little more and obviously by Gilbert and Queen Creek and even Mesa I mean Mesa is huge so their funding would be way more than ours so I think that would make a difference compared when we compare them to us so that's the only reason why I ask thank you hear what you're saying um just the fact that the reason why we have the shortage is because of the other districts and that's what he's trying to show from this correct so while we Mesa is a larger District they're our direct competitor because they and they can pay more and so we we're short seven drivers from the side I remember right right now and and one of the reasons and the biggest reason is compensation because we can't keep up it it's a difficult position because once they have that CDL they can drive commercial vehicles for anyone other school districts they probably hire them you know walk in the door and they might drive that afternoon and I also wanted to bring up since we're talking about CDLs the exact same CDL that our employees have here or any school bus driver at the State of Arizona also allows them to drive water trucks trash trucks and other large commercial vehicles and to be honest with you two of the people that left us this year are driving for the town of Gilbert trash department and I'll just say that it's kind of sad that we value and pay a trash truck driver more to haul trash than we do our own children but that's one thing so I know that a lot of times it's retired professionals that they come to get their license and then they want to drive is there anything that we can do to offer where they could split the time like maybe they don't want to commit to you know every day of the week or they have a vacation they're going to Florida things like that where we could hire I don't know two people to alternate or we're currently doing okay so yeah we have some drivers that only work a couple hours a day split it with someone else that only wants to work a couple so when we can make it work we certainly do and we figure even a partial day's work is better than none at all so so they could do something where it's like a month and then another person Works a month or something I'm just trying to think of yeah but we've done AM and PM where it split and things okay thank you that's a good point we also had talked about at one point because our drivers like you said their split shifts and everything where we were running low on um like lunch AIDS and things like that that during that middle portion of the day can they drive in the morning go to a school be a lunch Aid help there and go back and drive so essentially we can give them a full day's work even though it is different roles and responsibilities so um I know we had looked at that and I know some were kind of doing that but that's also I think we need to explore that because I believe all of our schools still need that and it keeps them busy and that it doesn't enter the only time it interferes is those early release days which obviously sorry the school's got to give so we can get kids from there but um so I think those are also good opportunities and and I think you know I appreciate you asking um about why are we looking at these ones because there are our competitors and unfortunately this is a conversation we have all the time when it comes to compensation whether it's a bus driver whether it's a teacher these much larger districts Chandler Mesa they're they're our neighbors they're huge districts they have huge budgets which essentially gives them buying power and gives them the ability to offer higher salaries for teachers for bus drivers for essentially any position within their District which makes it difficult for us as a smaller District that we can't we can't offer the same and that's part of why it's also been our District's focus on how we treat people that sometimes it's not always about the amount that they're paid but how they're treated and sometimes it takes going for that larger salary to be like oh nope I liked my home right I I mean it's like yeah that larger salary was great but they don't even know who I am where you know as a much smaller District we're we're much more inclusive we know who people are you know I see Mr Crosby we can't give you enough props here but I've seen where on husd parent page someone would post something about the bus and Mr Crosby's like here's my number call me I'm happy to help and I mean it's his work number but he's putting it out there on social media for everyone anyone you know you're always willing to help and we're much larger than your one bus that you when you started um or was it it was seven buses but it sounds pretty good I was gonna say or was it a tractor pulling a trailer with kids it was a horse-drawn carriage you know I mean you've you've seen our district grow and everything so the kids running across the field wait the tractor left without me so um but uh that is it's our ongoing conversation on our budget with our competition those are our closest neighbors those are the ones we compete for employees and they have much larger budgets so it's so much more important that our culture is what it is and what we've worked really hard for to really make people feel valued and want to be here because we just can't compete all the time in that salary area so are we still doing incentives we do have a referral incentive through June of this year so this summer it will expire okay so we're still trying to do referrals for other people um okay thank you something else to keep in mind with the salary as well as benefits the larger districts have more people to play into those benefits as well so if we can't offer the same benefits but offering salary to help keep us competitive is also a benefit thank you um I a couple things first of all I remember back whenever I was helping out with Benefits when I worked here and we went to the transportation department and walking into the back it really was like a family um it you can't speak enough for the department so working wages and working where you feel respected and you have good leadership it absolutely is true um the wage competition no matter what aspect of education is always whatever whatever time you look at there's got to be a challenge um I think we were able to not fix but make better for substitute teaching with the company that we use is there anything similar to that for transportation and maybe that's not a comp yeah I'm not sure all right hold tight and I'll be covering that soon I will just add off of Christina's Reese story back in the day we'll end on a positive note but we did have bus delays from time to time because the Sheep were crossing from one field to the other and the road was blocked so we're past that now we just have other delays but just a little memory there so thank you Mr Crosby any other questions I just want to say that well Ben Franklin and ala are on here it's not a fair comparison as they're not required to do the busing that we're required to do um as well and that's it thank you Mr Crosby appreciate it thank you moving on to 6.3 um oh sorry 6.2 I'm sorry Mr Moore I was which just kidding review of the 2023-2024 maintenance and operations budget thank you president Schultz and members of the board uh tonight we're presenting our second review of the fiscal 2024 minutes and operations budget um as I mentioned earlier it's a perfect segue as we will talk about our recommended compensation increases for next fiscal year which does have a heavier impact on their classified hourly Group which includes our transportation drivers um just as a reminder here's our budget timeline so we are always working um you know it seems like we're always working one fiscal year back and then looking forward um but this is the budget that we're discussing today uh we are working towards that June uh 2023 timeline where we officially uh propose and adopt the budget so all this conversation is regarding that proposed an adopted budget that we're discussing today um and then the timeline into next fiscal year would be as follows if in December if we needed a budget revision we'd bring that back to the board um that is if the budget that we adopted exceeds one percent of what we adopted the mere statutorily required to bring that back we did have to do that this year if you recall back in December 13th and then may we have to do a final revision to True up to the 100th day ADM count that is required by Statute and then June we get to do it all over again so um seems like I'm constantly talking budget here's our budget acronyms so um again there's been a public comment and and a board comment that we I know we use a lot of acronyms and so this is for our viewers online or anybody listening um this is a slide to reference for all the acronyms that are in this presentation tonight all right so looking at the fiscal 24 20 24 highlights not as much has changed since the first review uh the aggregate expansion limit that was Exempted this year um but as as I stated earlier this budget is looking towards next year um and so that exemption that was passed at the Senate was an exemption for fiscal 23 so this current year there was no exemption for fiscal 24.
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because that's you know you're offering a lot of times will you just be there the entire time or if nobody shows by seven o'clock do you leave or I'm just curious no so we won't be there the entire time okay people can go throughout that yes and you reminded me even though we're at one school a parent who has children at another school can attack it's not just focused on that one school it's whatever is a works for their schedule absolutely I really value the feedback we receive when we do this it really helps us improve as a district and I hope people come with questions that we can answer is there a presentation coming that starts the um anymore I like to know what people's questions are first and then I do have a presentation ready one set once everyone has had their questions answered any board members planning on attending I think I think it'd be good if a board member to be there I don't know if anybody has time you don't have to tell me now my choice you don't have to tell me now but if you can make it that would be great and this is going to go out or did I already got like bulleted quick about the dates and times and locations yeah so um so I have um I'm not sure what Kira just said but I'm hoping [Music] so I'm hoping we'll get a message out tomorrow morning if you adopt the budget tonight I want to send that message out as well with another copy of the budget with these dates also so that was my communications plan for for these coffees any other questions about that I had a question coming back to the um the counseling mental health program how are we planning to get the word out to students I mean my biggest concern about that is that people are not going to take advantage of it and so I think we really need to be focused on getting the word out marketing it whether it's handing out little business cards or the number on it so that people can actually add the number when they need it and we'll feel comfortable to call it great question Erica so we have a plan to talk with our students about it we also have brochures and posters that will be visible within the schools but today may be the first time that some parents are hearing about it we wanted the parents to hear about it first and then communicating to the students okay so we had the informational session a week ago High School newsletter went out on Friday in the Middle School newsletter this week so um now we'll talk with Mr Moore and Mr depipo about communicating this out to students the new chats and the guys I feel like they're gonna need to hear it multiple times absolutely okay the posters are going to have a cue card like QR code QR code okay I'm so with it uh QR codes it'll be easy for them that'll be great you know it's interesting the um the best place to communicate these things is on the back of a laboratory door so believe it or not that's where we get our greatest um our greatest um amount of initiative there so that's that's probably what they'll suggest and there's also a video that they offer the video yet to you there's also a video yes yeah okay and then throughout the years they'll make effort to um to communicate because our year has already started right like we've already been paying since January one all right so we go through next February oh so it's one year through February okay yes all right thank you for bringing it up because that's such an important part of the plan so thank you um related to dates I also want to let everyone know that we have a conflict with um our Board of Finance we are giving our budget presentation for the board of Finance on March 15th we had originally slated that as a Community gathering on diversity equity and inclusion we're needing to change that date we're in we are in communication with the facilitators to arrange a different date but I just want to let remind you and let the public know that we're coming up with a different date now for our community conversation any questions about dates I have a quick comment sure um in regards to the coffee dates I just feel like some of that gets Lost in Translation when it's paired with a bunch of other Communications are we able to send a district-wide communication that's just around the coffee dates with those dates to the public so they're able to take part in that absolutely okay it's a great Point Felicia it's something like you are invited you know make make it a little bit special if we could yeah I just feel like when they're when they're at the bottom of an email like obviously I I see them but I feel like when people get tons of emails they may not see the dates at the bottom and I really want people to have the opportunity to take advantage of that and mentioning Kevin like you said no it's it's not based on your child's School these These are the offerings you're basically doing it in different locations and around town and stuff because I think people sometimes will get focused on oh it's a cherry but I must can't go right no I appreciate that feedback that will go out tomorrow thank you Felicia Kira is Kim herthan she is yes okay please thank you so you will um you'll recall that um we had um a citizen during public comment um share with us her concern about not accepting cash at um School events as payment to get into the event so we use um an online ticketing program called ticket I think it's spricket um and um you know following the the public comment uh Peggy asked that this be put on tonight's board agenda so I've asked Kim Hearth our athletic director Kim Church Hearth our athletic director to be with us tonight so she is joining us virtually to talk about our procedure for purchasing tickets now for athletic events so I've asked her to speak to how we do it now so that you are aware in case you get further questions about this and then we'll determine next steps if there are any more related to this process what I can tell you is that for uh the School Musical and concerts we do continue to accept cash although we we really would like people to purchase tickets online for a variety of reasons and Kim will talk about what those reasons are related to athletic events so Kim thank you for being here tonight you're very welcome so uh so you just want me to kind of go through uh if I'm buying a ticket what's the process that I'm going to do and then just give some rationale for why we are using online ticketing is that uh am I hearing that correct yeah so Kim if you can explain why we uh why we implemented this procedure and what are the recommendations by ciac as far as purchasing tickets for our athletic events because we're not the only High School to do this correct I think it's important for the board to know why we went in this direction okay so yes so first off uh with regards to the ciac and other state schools that are using online ticketing um there are right now there are multiple online platforms ticket is the one that we use uh the ciac for every single state tournament game that they have uh this last school year and for this school year have used online ticketing only they do not accept cash at uh state tournament games either they use go fan uh and then there's there last year there was Hometown ticketing as well but then they've merged with ticket so ticket spigot and go fan are really the the main uh platforms that the states State high schools use um and then I did some research the fcac conference the SEC the swc the ECC and our conference C and Triple C are all using online ticketing for their basketball tournament games um and within our conference uh Ellington smsa and Rockville this school year use online tickets for all of their regular season games as well um so now to get into the nitty-gritty of why we do this uh the the big umbrella reason is it's more efficient and underneath that there's a multiple different uh reasons why it's more efficient for one it eliminate eliminates human error uh there's multiple people I uh I did it in I took a look at it in my head the cash turnover when we used cash we turn it over five times it goes from the person giving the money to our ticket taker then to me then to the business office and then to the bank um and every single one of those people need to count the cash and so therefore we could have some human error and Counting cash um and then also tracking the attendance for instance our student ticket price and our senior ticket price are the same number it's three dollars per student three dollars per senior um with cash you don't know how many students and how many seniors attended the game you just know that this you sold this amount of money and uh this amount of tickets went for three dollars this amount of tickets went for five dollars with online ticketing you get a printout report of exactly how many seniors attended how many students attended how many adults attended um and then I also I have to keep the cash in my office and so uh with online ticketing there's no cash there's no security needed there's no lock boxes needed um the everything is all the cash is accounted for and it eliminates human error from counting the cash and moving it from one place to the next um and then another reason it's a Time Saver uh when after when we did cash after the game I would have to go down and count the cash and then write down how many potentially potential tickets we sold for seniors and students and adults and then uh put that all in a ticket report and then have to go give it to the business office and then the business office has to count it again and then take it to the bank and that's when the bunny finally gets deposited into our account um with ticket spigot I click a button after the game is over and it gives me the entire ticket report how much revenue we've made and how many tickets we sold and it direct deposits the money into our bank account so nobody else touches it um uh we can customize attendance as well this is a big one um and the example I'm going to use if any of you remember in 2000 20 it was right before the pandemic hit we hosted a boys 10 Triple C final basketball game where we did sell out our gymnasium and before the game I was sitting there counting actual paper tickets for How many seats are available in our gym and I told my ticket taker once you get to this give out this money uh tickets stop however um so that was time consuming to do that count all those tickets with ticket spigot and the other online forms uh platforms you can uh say Max the ticket uh sale at 500 Max it at whatever number you want um and then that's an easy way for managing attendance at the games um and then uh the tickets are always accountable as well they'll never get lost so we have paper tickets what if somebody needed to go run to the bathroom and then they come back and we're asking for their ticket they lost it it got thrown away and now they're not going to be able to go back into the game but with tickets picket and online tickets your tickets are on um our ticket takers uh app and so we can see that they bought the ticket and they can get back into the game um so that's those are all the and then oh and then finally there's multiple ways to pay it doesn't have to be a credit card or a debit card you can pay via Apple pay and Google pay which is the way a lot of students are purchasing products uh these days with their phones just using Apple pay and Google pay and you can do that as well um so those are the the big uh reasons why we chose online ticketing thank you Ken we appreciate it that's a great presentation uh just for the board's um understanding Mrs Lynch came to the last meeting and she had a question on you know why why are we eliminating cash and there is some advantages to cash and uh the way of counting but obviously Kim just outlined 10 or 15 reasons why it's just so much more efficient to be able using that and as Kevin pointed out we continue to collect cash when we have to for mute musicals and uh concerts and things of that nature so there is still the ability for people to use cash the fact of the matter is we are going to a cashless Society during the pandemic you may remember it was credited many times it was credit cards only I got used to just bringing in my debit card everywhere I went so um this was really for us to understand and uh and Kevin will report back to Mrs Lynch I'm sure uh why we're doing it this way but Kim that was a great presentation any questions for Kim okay sure do we turn a student away what if there's a middle schooler who goes to a high school game or a basketball team or do we turn students away if they have cash only and they're not did you hear that yeah yes I heard that and absolutely not uh I don't go spreading that rumor around for uh kids trying to sneak in but correct we will never turn anybody away if they don't have anything on them we will never turn somebody away but if they only had cash on them would you accept cash if they only had cash not not at this time that three dollars is not gonna mean a whole lot in the long run any other questions Kim thanks for joining us tonight you can go oh anybody online I'm sorry Peggy do you have any questions for Kim no we lost Peggy I scared her okay I I'm sorry I pressed the wrong button um no um I I just think you know um I don't know I'm looking at the notes from Margaret Lynch's uh statement and one of the things she was saying if there's an act concerning acceptable forms of currency as payment in local businesses um so it just you know I I think the thing that I was interested in I mean I see that cash isn't being handled as a former High School teacher and person who collected cash for fundraisers um I can see why you know it's not great to have cash on hand um for a variety of reasons but I also thought that the fact that you know maybe marginalized people in the communities or low-income people don't always have the resources or maybe the debit cards or whatever so I don't understand Google pay or Apple pay I don't know if you need a bank in order to do that or not so you know that's just a question foreign I'm not sure how to use it either I'm I have not I haven't I've not used Apple pay or Google pay before um that might be a high schooler's uh question to answer if the students were there I'm sure they would be able to help us out with that one but um I I'm not sure either how that works uh but I I do know that many high schoolers do have that on their phones rather than um cash or cards on them okay yeah to answer that question Peggy um you can put money into Apple or Google pay like you can someone can send you funds you can have it on there almost like a instead of a debit card like just just a fun balance so someone can send you like 20 and you can have that on there to utilize um as a form of payment um the another question I was thinking of was what about um venmo Kim is that an option as well uh not with the platform that we use but I have heard a lot of um vendors using venmo uh with schools and I that's something that myself and administration and uh Donna would have to talk about if we wanted to set up a venmo account for our school um but I do not believe that uh tickets picket uses venmo for uh yes yeah I think ticket spigot definitely doesn't because I think I asked about it before but I didn't know like the school or the district had a venmo account that you're able to just you know pay that way as well just just as an option I think this is something about Tempest and a teapot I think um I mean if there is somebody uh you know if there are folks who who are really having an issue with with not having a debit card or a credit card that would probably be a pretty small number and I think as a community we would certainly you know tell folks tell us if you know come see with somebody Kevin whomever and say look I'm having a problem do this I want to go see games I'm sure they will take care right I don't think we have to worry about um I think Kim is very young yeah she's she's pretty good at the door and uh if somebody a senior comes in a little yeah confused like I am sometimes yeah I mean to that point though not to not to keep going with it but to that point I don't think it's someone like you know not being able to but I think in that case people don't necessarily want to point themselves out in being in that position so I think that's something that we have to take into account as well um but you know I'm hoping that people feel that we're approachable and able to take take care of you know a certain situation or you know one-on-one situation that that happens but I think when people are in that situation they don't feel comfortable and and pointing themselves out any other questions for Kim go and watch the rest of the Yukon Providence College game for me all right thanks Kim okay you're welcome thank you Kim okay the last item and the very important item is discussion of um the superintendent's proposed fiscal year 2023 2024 budget uh the finance subcommittee met at three o'clock this afternoon and uh I'll turn it over to Russell's report on the committee's discussion and recommendation yep so the discussion went similar to what we talked about last week and that we're gonna it's our recommendation to have Kevin move forward with the budget as he has right now there really isn't anything to cut it's basically flat everything in there is fixed costs and then in addition the only addition is the Thrive program which we think is going to be a cost Savings in the in the long run whether that's a year or two it should be a significant cost savings we're basically in the same spot we were last week kind of did go and speak with the administrators to see if there were areas just so that we would be prepared and there really isn't anything to cut without moving backwards thanks so that's a good report Finance is going to finance inside a whole pat on the budget we're recommending to the board that we move forward as presented that vote will come at the end of the meeting but any any questions for Russell or miss Mr Case Donna what are the three biggest cost drivers in the budget uh the fixed cost increases the special ed program and the Thrive the initiatives right you know the only comment that I would make um and I fully support the budget as is but I think you know and I recognize that um the special education costs are kind of Beyond are Beyond canton's ability to to Really impact their state level I would just you know I think in in the long run when you look at these costs um the state in particular I'm just saying is just going up for the record um really needs to consider some sort of cost-sharing method with folks who can afford um to share that cost right um the state puts an enormous burden on municipalities when there are folks who have the means to contribute um there are folks who do not have the means to contribute and they should not be penalized or have a child's education impacted in any way shape or form but there should be some kind of means test from my perspective um rather than simply everybody gets the same deal regardless of our means that seems just like I mean that's how the state does it we don't have a lot of say over it they are trying to change that it's Bill 5003 that's before the legislature that would change that uh and put it on a more as needed basis I don't know if that's going to pass yeah so but they are lobbying everybody's on your bandwagon call your legislature yeah call your legislator speak with them let them know that this is important because we simply can't continue to flip the bill I think for everyone um if those folks have the ability to at least contribute you know and obviously they're folks who cannot and I would never think about penalizing them or their child but if if you can afford it um I don't know what that Benchmark is but that should at least be a conversation right I agree any other questions on the budget online Cindy Peggy Felicia okay anybody um no okay and we'll take that up at the end thank you all right Mr Case okay that's all for tonight okay so that leads the chair report there's nothing for me to report tonight um that would lead to the public forum uh the general public forum or if anybody has any comments on the budget or anything they've heard to this point we'll open it up again Kara please sure so if you're joining us online this evening if you'd like to make a public comment you can go ahead and use the raise hand future zoom and I will call on you by your username I don't have any race okay thank you I'll close the public forum we'll move to uh where we're going to uh not um we're going to delete the Canton High School trip to Peru for now uh that may come up again in a special meeting um just be prepared for that um it's more I need to find out more information yeah there was a change as you know so uh assistant superintendent report uh I have nothing new to report tonight um thank you for the conversation during our committee work thank you business manager report I have nothing to report tonight you are my best friend that is great okay we're done [Music] consent agenda Mr Case as part of the consent agenda tonight the consent agenda consists of only the approval of minutes of our regular meeting of February 14 2023.
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you know I need to tell the board in the community of project and what happened sure I can give you um so one that project in particular was a selection of five by the commissioner it was her first election and she chose it um because it was um the only project in the state where students focused on Teachers Health is mental health and how that has an effect upon student health and well-being and learning in the classroom and my kids were they did a great job of writing it up um and she selected it and and they're they're ecstatic about it but honestly I don't think we would have done been able to do even half of what we did if it wasn't firm Mr Donovan he won't he won't bloat about that but seriously him and John LaRosa our assistant principal at DHS were significantly helpful in US obtaining furniture and getting it moved and getting things set up and and just everything that went along with it um we're still in the process of rolling it out we've gotten probably three quarters of it done we're hoping to have the rest of it done you know about maybe spring break or the end of the year um the second project was the water fountains project which many of you may know um Chapel he came here last year when he won and um he's actually going with me to along with Viviana Flores who last spring came and presented to the board about what voice will change was and one of the projects that they had done so um both are now College freshmen and they are static and they have this opportunity too and that project is going to be able to replace some very outdated water fountains throughout our school and we're in the process of working on that and the work will start spring break spring break and hopefully be done by the end of the school year and that's going to be wonderful because we're going to go from like I think it's four water fountains or four four water filling stations up to eight by the end of the school year and maybe a few more extra foreign because it gets kids back into classes faster it allows them to stay hydrated when they're hydrated they're the more focused implies so it has a lot of benefit plus it's better for the environment um did you want me to talk about the presentation in Daisy also go for it please I'd like to know what you're doing at these okay um everything well I can tell you what I know so far which is not that much but um the conference is like the I think the 17th or the 18th of March through the 22nd we will be there we're going down the 19th through the 20s and we're coming back the 22nd we are presenting on the 21st with the commissioner and it is the ccsso sort of like the Chiefs schools like the school Chiefs yeah conference legislative conference and so the focus is on how covid Esser funds uh you know made effective change for students throughout the country um and so our focus is going to be on student agency right because that's what this project was about it's about student agency and how I took um the commissioner's initiative and created into a project-based learning experience in the classroom um which then like um and the students are going to talk about their experience in the classroom doing this um and what they took out of it also um and so it's going to be showing how these funds made a difference in terms I've hit everything but that's about all I know so far we haven't had our planning meeting yet um so once we do I'll have more and obviously once I'm back I'll have more information to share thank you so much thank you and congratulations please take lots of pictures so we can show you off again and for the finance committee and for the board there's an item on our monthly budget report and you'll notice under grants it says voice for change it's 30 plus thousand dollars that through Heaven's leadership and the students of Danbury helped to bring into the district and then those funds are covering these projects that she's talked about today so just wanted to connect the dots thank you so much thank you I guess Dan can go home I guess huh I'm out principal Donovan thank you sir thank you so much and just last but not least our superintendent goals update uh School climate and as the subway it is school security and lots of goals this year and how we're moving towards coming to address those points thank you superintendent so there's a lot that's been happening in School Safety and Security um we're gonna be talking a lot more about this in executive session uh we'll be talking a little bit about some of our camera installations um our safety Advocates Staffing some of the changes we've made in light of the safety audits that we conducted last year and then also just some of our forward planning and thinking ahead that we're doing but one of the things I want to talk about here was our RFP process that was launched last month as you know we have the State security grant that is supposed to be focused on multimedia interoperability and this is really about increasing the district's capacity to interface with Emergency Operations in the city and also the Police Department fire any anybody that that we need depending on the nature of emergency um this was it was it was a significant Grant it's over 700 000 and we really wanted to make sure that we were picking the right software so uh John Spang and I put together an RFP that went out and it was week when the What's called the opening date it doesn't mean that the RP is open it means it's actually closed but we open all the submissions so it was the opening date and uh we had four really high quality submissions that we're very excited about um a little bit about that RFP so the way you write it is you put in at your objectives for the things that you're trying to accomplish with the software or the systems that you're you're looking to acquire and you can do it in a number of ways you can either look for a sort of One-Stop shop that would solve all your issues or you could set it up in a way that you're going to Cobble together two or three different pieces of technology so we had six clear objectives that we wanted to achieve we wanted a comprehensive system for managing coordinating and sharing critical security information we currently do it manually it makes updating and just keeping things a little bit more challenging so we want a system that would coordinate these have templates we'd be able to say here's your drill report and things like that we wanted capability for staff members to be able to alert emergency services or to alert an Administration very quickly we wanted the capacity for School site mapping to to Aid in emergency response if they were to go into the high school and weren't sure where D building was or G building was they would have they would have that capacity we also wanted some help around reunification software so things you know Patrick's a great example if there's a drill and all the kids are standing out on the field the teacher currently has to have an attendance list everybody takes their paper out with them we wanted to make sure that this is something that could be digitized and for example if Miss casimiro is supposed to be in my class but I she was maybe pulled out for uh you know music classroom for intervention or whatever that it would be it would come up on my screen that she's grayed out and she's with another teacher and that I know she's safe so the the technology is really advanced in these areas so these were some of the objectives that that we wanted in place with this new system uh so like I said we when we send this out we got back four really high quality proposals from four very reputable companies Raptor Technologies was one of them Raptors currently the system that we use to scan ideas when people show up and they have an entire Suite of services that we're very excited to to see up close entrado is another company that that's we've also worked with in the past but primarily as a web host but they've actually sort of pivoted their whole business model and now they're all in on security and I saw some of the other their stuff demoed at a conference not too long ago it was very impressive navigate 360 is another company that responded um they're they're very happy on the planning and templates piece of this work and then they also have some of these um these other Technologies and systems that we're looking for and then total Communications who's primarily Communications company but they also have some uh some of these mechanisms to help contact Emergency Operations and the police department so our kickoff meeting is tomorrow we have put together a selection committee uh comprised of I think 11 members we have a board of bed member on that committee a selection of principals central office administrators and then we also have some Partners from the city so we have Captain Larose from the police department uh and Matt casabecia for Emergency Operations because we just want to make sure that everybody is seeing what the capabilities of the system are and it's going to work for everybody so our kickoff meeting is tomorrow we'll be talking through a high level all these different proposals um kind of what our parameters are and what our process is going to be and then we're going to schedule the pitch sessions either one day where we're just going to have a marathon you know kind of shark tank style pitch where they're going to come in and show us the product and you know let us play with the gadgets and a demo of it we won't break it up into two days we'll see what makes more sense for the group but we're hoping to have a decision in the next few weeks and then enter contract shortly thereafter and I look forward to sharing what we chose and all the great capabilities that it's going to have thank you so that before I say that concludes the superintendents report I I want to say and I just want to share this for the families that in the audience it was important for the chairperson tonight and make sure we had an opportunity to respond to the words that were shared today the superintendent's update is specifically aligned to security and school climate goals so I don't want to be a sensitive to what we heard this evening and think that the goals that we share has made it's it's specifically of my indirectly it's helping everybody including Pembroke but it's not speaking to that incident because it's this has been playing actually months ago for me to provide nothing it just so happens that it just happens to me tonight um and then there are some more details that we'll be speaking about so Mike has intentionally kept this very high level we were going executive session so I'm sure it is with the audience will know full of our folks at home go to Executive sessions to speak in more detail about the things that we're hoping that programs can provide in terms of security support it upgrades but also some other things in terms of personnel that we are looking to do addition required those things are not high level and kind of meets the requirement for executive assessment which I just really clear thank you let me know next um asked a question and because what's going to come in an executive session I can wait until then but um as we talk about parents that are here with fear and the children going to school the bomb threats everything else that's going on in our country and you guys knew what happened here aboard me and a couple of uh a year or so ago when we got shut down so I'm not no doctor none of us or doctors how can we sort of come together do not have that fear and students and teachers working within those facilities not have that type of appearance again because you know what we can say it won't happen a lot of other places say I didn't think this was happening in my room okay and things happen and we can't understand why these things happen no one can but the fear of the child and I have two grandchildren in the school system too so you know I don't want them to tell me they don't want to go to school and I guess my question is how can we work on that good social social emotional illness to get people back or get our students and our faculty that in that sort of halfway comfort zone and I know that you know it's a hard task so miss Cooper it is a hard task um and we're acknowledging that we have to do something about it the point that I had raised earlier the investigation is one thing and identifying a person responsible is one thing but we understand clearly that we have to work hard to prepare the damage that's been done in immediately and when I talk about damage I'm talking about the anxiety that we've heard our parents talk about tonight helping to support kids and staff in any way and families anywhere we can and have those anxieties have led to fear in some cases fear even coming to school so trying to as one of my assistant superintendent said today you know we need to provide some type of reset our school community so we will be working hard on the staff to do that but we wanted to listen and I've suggested that we start by listening so we will start that next week with the staff and with the families and then come up to come up with a plan to do the very thing that you're asking about but that is come up with some type of plan to help again give our families and our community to confidence that I can't promise this will never happen again but we do want to assure folks that everyone is working toward the same goal that's the key most safe with that type of momentum I think folks will feel better about coming to school so we we understand there's a lot of work ahead of us and we will be focused on thank you and so I want to make a comment I mean I'm up here I'm cracking jokes and trying to make a bite of some stuff to make people laugh but I'm I'm actually I'm actually pretty I'm kind of upset about um you know what's going on for Rich and Chrissy who know who know um you know I understand what it seems like because you're getting a lot of words and you go all right we're going to do this and we're gonna do that I get parents who went through the school I I have kids who went through the school I would be where you are now and feeling the same way that you guys are but I just not that it makes a big difference or it does if it doesn't make you feel better we're we are on top of it and and it is concerning and I know in public participation we really can't get into it as much as I you know I wanted to and it's a couple times I just felt like screaming but you know and I'm having a hard time with it and you guys are living in real time so I can understand what you're going through I know sometimes you know it seems like because I've been involved yeah we're doing this and we're doing that but I could we've been in many many conversations even over the break and stuff like that there is a a concern and what I'm confident in the staff doing what they can do and we all want to get to the bottom of it and this is just more talk I get it but I'm just trying to for the people who do know me know how serious you know we take this and if that helps in any way that we're on top of it and we're doing what we can I hope it does if it doesn't I understand too but I'm sitting up here and I'm stealing to try to say something and I guess when you're in board chair you could say what you want so I'm just going to say it now and and be done with it and hope that helps that we are working on going to accompany Kevin next Thursday um if that's okay and just any questions any answers were were you know we're there whatever we can do we can do um that's all I got off on a team um all right what was I saying that yeah yeah yeah ever since they were coming out is there a reason we don't have in our educational staff come before us anymore question because they used to come and do the presentation from the schools and it was very Enlightenment particular what was going on at the school I think we've changed that over to a spotlight in school so like so they come at that point right exactly because that's what you did yeah that's what I think for us okay all right yeah yeah all right and as a board chair person's reporter ready discussion of that information there's no discussion items on information just making the board of the community okay report sorry I'm I'm throwing off um so just a couple things um some meeting updates and expensive times we are going to do a um 227 at 5 30 .
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so yes we will face the aggregate expansion limit again next year I do not know what that limit will be yet I think early estimates come out in May by Ade and so we'll get a good indication of what that budget implication would be for our fiscal 2024 budget other budget implications we know the Arizona State Retirement System is increasing by 0.12 percent that increases both incurred by the district and the District employees as both are members of the Arizona State Retirement System so we do know that will be affecting the district to the tune about 60 000 and to our employees uh 0.12 percent um on their paycheck bullet point number two uh our mno transfer to capital for our Middle School lease payment I do have a full slide to discuss our new lease payment um that uh lease refinance did not get rid of our lease but rather refinance our lease to reduce our payment so that estimated payment is 3.55 million down from in previous years which we have been carrying over 4.4 million again I have another slide to further dive into that in addition we are transferring additional mno to support our Capital needs I highlighted that amount of 6.6 million in our Capital presentation and that supports that capital budget that I presented what was that April or February 8th um bullet point number four uh the only real assumption that we know or that we're taking into consideration in this budget is the estimated two percent inflation inflation adjustment to the base level support So in statute it states that if inflation realized inflation is over two percent uh statutorily the legislature uh should appropriate two percent at a minimum two percent um to the base level support and the base level support is the per pupil amount that schools are funded in the State Foreign funding formula the third section there employee Insurance enhancements we're still researching options and as I mentioned previously this budget cycle and our insurance cycle are two different timelines and they're not tied together so as we talk about uh compensation increases and contracts um employees signing that does not obligate them to Insurance um plans and so those are two timelines there's this whole separate insurance enrollment um which Ms Karen Johnson will have a presentation in April um about our benefits package for next fiscal year I will note our benefits survey has went out to all employees I did talk to Isabel magnato our benefits coordinator she said that it's been well received and there's been a lot of input already so we're going to leave that open through next week collect that information summarize it and work with Kairos our insurance administrator so fiscally outline what some of those enhancements would be budgetarily uh just to note we would not be funding those enhancements from the ml budget as I mentioned earlier our switch from fully insured to self-insured has saved the districts and funds and so we're looking to put those back to the employee and help offset um you know we may we may not be able to do as much in compensation but if we can help in benefits that's still going to help their take-home pay and so we're going to put that money back to use more to come on that as we collect information and work through our insurance administrator through our renewal process so AEL again I know I keep talking about this but uh it's not going away uh fiscal impact to 2023 there is no impact as that was Exempted um I do want to note that again that gives us full budget capacity for this year so uh the budget we adopted is the budget we can use the impact of fiscal 2024 uh there may be a potential operational impact as um we work through the recommendations um later in this slide you'll note that we'll potentially be tapping into some of our budget contingency and I know Miss Reese I can see you cringing over there but um we do not have the luxury to continue to set aside um the amount of money that we've been doing for the AEL we do not have we proposed a bond that failed and so now we've been balancing our budget by transferring mno dollars to Capital to support that as well as trying to balance offering a competitive salary as well as all the increases that we've incurred and terms of insurance and basically cost of living increases across the board utilities Etc so I just want to know there may be a potential operational impact I do not know what that is yet as I stated the first pass at what that limit would be or what the districts would be exceeding that limit in fiscal 24 will be in May in 80 evil send us that information I will be certain to include that in a report to the board so some good news uh we did close on our middle middle school refinance this chart here is outlining just three fiscal years but this is a 30-year term is what we refinanced so how you read this is on top so we have our fiscal year we have our old payment and our new payment and then we have a savings column and so going across starting in fiscal 24 you'll see our old payment principal payment 985 000 compared to our new principal payment 870 000.
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okay uh promotional proven Russell gave the first second is Felicia any conversation discussion all those in favor aye um okay unanimous so consent agenda passes thank you approval the following policies Mr scheidler both policies were discussed at the last meeting and I haven't heard any questions from anybody maybe I have some now freshman involves graduation requirements it's a very small change uh realigning our math curriculum with the state regulations I get that right John essentially it's a very small change really only one one line second policy uh updates are Exempted from instruction uh that allows parents to exempt a child from their child from certain areas of instruction and a form that would be filled out with that if you have any questions about more specifically certainly can get into that so take a motion to move that the Canton Board of Education approve policy 6146 which is graduation requirements and policy 6144-1 exemption from instruction per state guidance can I have a motion thank you Erica second thank you Russell first and second so any conversation on those motions any questions for Mr scheidler any concerns now okay all those in favor aye three eyes cross nine oh okay thank you very much thank you Mr Sharon Mr Case possible approval of sabbatical proposal for Michelle Trump [Music] yes so you will recall that um at our meeting of January 24th 2023 Michelle tribe A World Language teacher for the Canton Public Schools presented her proposal to take a sabbatical beginning a year from now from next um January 2024 through June of 2024 so she presented this proposal um to you in that meeting you also have um you were also given a written proposal and it's at this meeting that you need to decide whether you approve or not approve of that sabbatical proposal the language and the teachers contract reads that the approval of this of any sabbatical proposal is at your discretion but you must do so by March 1st this is our last meeting before March 1st which is why you will need to decide this evening whether to approve or not approve the proposal and your recommendation is Mr Case my recommendation is to support uh the sabbatical proposal this tribe put a great deal of thought into the proposal anytime a World Language teacher wants to travel to um in her case because she teaches Spanish she's traveling to Spanish-speaking countries again to immerse herself in the language she is not a native Spanish speaker Spanish is not her number one language so anytime she can immerse herself in length a Spanish-speaking country and immerse yourself in the language that's extremely beneficial even more importantly is a world language class is not only instruction in how to speak that language it's also educating the students about the culture of various Spanish-speaking countries and so she will be visiting countries she has not been before two before and will be able to bring Great Value back I consider the fact that Ms tribe teachers at Canton Intermediate School Canton middle school and Canton High School has a wide impact on a variety of levels of students students at different grade levels and she also runs the global awareness Club at Canton Intermediate School the global awareness Club at the middle school in our high school interact club which is all about service about self especially in a global Society so for those Reasons I'm very supportive of The Proposal but I know ultimately it's it's you as a board of education that needs to determine that right so thank you for those words and maybe I'll kick this conversation off and up so I think Michelle Trump is just a wonderful educator and she is a special person I think her presentation was was uh was exemplary and um I think she's standing her case very well however I'm going to vote no tonight and the reason being is because because something like this has not come up before the Board of Education Mr scheidler and I were trying to talk about this in maybe 40 years the problem with this is we do not have the proper qualifications in place to approve a sabbatical if we were to prove approve uh Michelle tribe's request um it would be a little bit thinner in the wind because we don't have defined qualifications that uh an applicant would have to mean this is nothing against Michelle this is the fact that it's it's kind of a wide open thing and if we approve Michelle tonight on what criteria do we improve Michelle on and then next year when somebody or two people come up and we say no to one and say what yes to another we've not defined the sabbatical component uh properly for us to approve this so with that said um as much as I um I think Michelle's presentation was worthwhile I I don't think that we can approve it based on the fact that it's just too wide open it's something that maybe we have to put some policy around or at least some tighter qualifications but I think we we open up um we open up for the Board of Education um a situation that we may not be able to defend or actually defend in the future so it's for those for those reasons besides any Financial implication which there is a financial implication but um I don't think that that is the driving a driver on this um and it could be uh if if we put the qualifications in place that you know we have to be in such a position financially and so on and so forth so for that reason uh I think that it's it's a no vote for me so I thought I would leave that off you don't have to pile on to this you you can State whatever you'd like to state but um we'll go we'll go around and um I'll start with with Russell and we'll go all the way around to the folks online so Russell I agree with the a lot of what you said I feel like it seemed really loose in the in the contract of how you requested what where do you say no it doesn't say you can't have five teachers do it the same time so yes I agree with you Erica I well I I have a question I'm not sure if you answer this or not but um as part of her presentation she had said that she was gonna go whether it was approved or not and so I'm just wondering if they're what if it wasn't approved how would she still be going what path would she be taking you know I do so that's a great question okay um so the only way that uh this tribe could do this would be to resign her position there are no other avenues that she could pursue she couldn't take like a leave of absence no we don't have any provision for that within the contract okay okay so she was essentially saying in her presentation that if we don't approve this shoe will resign well I can't speak for her but what I can tell you is in order for her to do this she would have to resign um that part of it I find troublesome um you know this is a it's a tough thing can you tell us more what you're thinking well I I mean you know she's a great teacher she's a phenomenal person the kids love her they're inspired by her my son had her I mean she's wonderful but um I I do have a concern about the precedent that it says and I don't think being a small District I don't think we are prepared for multiple teachers to request sabbaticals um you know it's it's just I'm conflicted about it when you have three that comes in front of you and you and you're all worthy who's up first that's what I mean about the qualifications yeah well I have to say I really wanted to vote Yes for this uh that it was a wonderful thoughtful proposal given by a highly regarded teacher wondering I have a lot of respect for for the job she does and I want to vote for it I find that the arguments that you may clue are very very persuasive but it hasn't been invoked in the contract I believe once and it was about 1980 it remains ill-defined in the contract and needs more specificity I don't know what we'd say to somebody next year or the year after or why you and not you need to Define that I also have trouble with the uh the budget being what it is adding to it in this regard and reluctantly I'm going to have to vote now okay yeah I would agree with everybody's thoughts tonight and you had me thinking as well too I would like to vote Yes I would like to see this happen for her I think um she's well deserving of it however the same thing I think I have to vote no based on the everything you've said and the veil said my concern is about I wish there was something where we could provide a leave of absence because I want to retain good teachers and you know you know don't wanna we don't want to lose her to the situation so I don't know if there's any loophole or anything for that but it doesn't sound like theorists so the reasons of it not being you know like you said contract you know set up between the board and for the budget I will have to vote now right I think um yeah it's a bummer because it's a really cool idea and I like the idea of our teachers taking sabbaticals and going out and doing new things and I'm coming back even stronger as Jobs obviously an excellent educator I I hope that I I'll vote no for all the same reasons um but I think it's an opportunity for the board to come up with that policy and I would you know anyone who's thinking about doing this whether it's Miss trout or anybody else you know give us you know give us six months or so to get a policy in place um we don't want to lose anybody obviously um but I think it's a it's a it's an opportunity for us to come up with the policy because we want people to do this but yeah we can't keep ourselves open to you picked him but not her and thank you thank you Ryan Felicia uh my vote is yes um but I do agree that we need to look at what we have in place so it's fair for all I don't believe that the implication of the budget is too great however I do feel that it kind of opens the doors for opportunities for other people to think that they can all go on sabbaticals I don't want to lose I'm a good staff member a good teacher within our district I do think it's important to have sabbaticals for expanding cultural um education and things of that nature when it comes to this particular situation but I do think this you know gives the board an opportunity to really look at what we need to put in place for future um positions of people that that are looking for opportunities like this thank you thank you um Peggy you're on mute yeah sorry um I'm gonna vote Yes because I think that um you know someone said earlier that Canton is a small and a secluded town and I think that this would be an opportunity um to kind of become a little more Global and bring in new cultures or new uh experiences and language back to the school um I think if Joe is correct Joe scheidler you know the last time somebody uh applied for this is 1980 I think most people probably have um families and mortgages and you know other obligations and this is a single person single teacher I believe and um or free of some of those responsibilities and has the ability to do this so I think within you know a very long period of time nobody's done this so I I think it's fair to say yes you could do it but I also think that we should you know look at the policy and look at you know how to how to deal with this as we go forward because uh just because nobody's applied for it for a long time doesn't mean that we should you know we should have some sort of standards in the policy it you're you're right I mean we're being a little bit reactive unfortunately we couldn't be proactive for this uh at this particular time but Cindy so um I needed more clarification I I thought that uh Michelle trubbs presentation was was fantastic what was a little bit lacking for me was how this uh sabbatical was going to benefit the children of Canton Public Schools and uh Michelle has been afforded um time to travel before uh and you know for me the bottom line is how is this going to benefit the students of Canton Public School so at this time okay thank you Cindy okay uh have you heard everybody's commentary um we'll take a motion somebody want to make a motion either up or down foreign first and second that way three minutes after I said I'll motion um for allowing the sabbatical for this job hi thank you I thank you again shelf valuable position s I'm having an issue with the audio me too we blocked you so just by talking directly at the owl can you hear us now yes thank you all right all right thank you for that vote everybody Mr charity emails will you write a letter to I I will write on the other half of the board I will I will I think I think we owe that much and um I'm sorry you see that we're going to lose a great educator but uh I totally understand her position hopefully we won't yeah yeah I hope she does come back um okay the final item for tonight is the adoption to 2023-2024 budget can I have a motion to approve the budget is presented um by the superintendent with no changes by Finance or the board can we read that so the motion is the camp board of education adopt the budget for fiscal year 2023-2024 of 31 million 911 000 90 we couldn't make that an even number huh which represents an overall increase of of two million three hundred and forty three thousand seven hundred ninety eight dollars or a seven point nine percent increase I have a motion please thank you Erica thank you Russell we have a first and second any further conversation hearing none all those in favor please raise your hand I nine nothing okay motion passes any other comments for the board tonight concerns thoughts so the budget is zero-based budgeting that's why I came out to that number if we ever um get the results of the Nature's Classroom survey of that so in response to the email regarding Nature's Classroom um tomorrow I'm going to send you information I have from Mrs Corton okay about Nature's Classroom so I have a memorandum from her uh that I will send to each of you to give us an update and more information right so what um what Mrs Hayes is asking about is um that unfortunately um we will not be having the Nature's Classroom trip this year for a variety of reasons um we are in ha we are having an experience for the sixth graders that the staff has planned through Empower leadership which is a great opportunity that um took place last year took place this past fall it'll take place again this spring and I will communicate to you on behalf of Mrs Corto the reasoning for that by the staff and by her and so when you say it won't be happening this year does it is it off the table for the foreseeable future or is that is it just going to be a year by year consideration yeah so that's up to the school principal and the teachers um so again I can find out like as a board other guys to take more control over that I don't if this whole Nature's Classroom being kind of felt out of our control um I think we do have the capacity as a board to kind of you know pull it back in and to be a little bit more insistent um if we deem it in a central part of the curriculum um that might need to be factored into contract negotiations with teachers who there's there's lots of different ways that we can approach it and I I think I was sort of surprised to hear about the amount of resistance not from you know leadership just across the board um and I think the board may have to reach in and get a little bit more involved not because of a lack of Kevin just I want to understand more and ask some questions and figure out how can we avoid this in the future yeah I think um I understand and I've heard from many of you you're supportive Nature's Classroom I must have gone to Nature's Classroom for 20 straight years both as a fifth grade teacher and as a school principal I see the value in it um but there are many reasons as I said why it's not going to happen this year it may happen again in the future I think the board could consider through the curriculum committee um what kind of experiences you would like our Canton students to have but I think the Board needs to be careful not to um micromanage outside of policy and so so a board of ed should not be telling the staff what kind of field trips should be taking place you know I'm just going to stay to the roof trips all the time I'm just going to state that as your advisor you approve them because the staff brings them forward as the educational experts and they say this trip aligns really well with the curriculum that you all have approved you'll know it'll be a great experience for the students it normally doesn't happen the other way around however Ryan I respect what you have to say and I think we should explore it as part of the curriculum committee so so John I think I think that would be a topic and you could invite Mrs Corto the administrator to be part of that the subject just kind of there's a sensitivity by the board I think unanimously that we feel that that was an important part of the experience for the uh for the CIS students to go through so um I think I think if you can make that um known and if it requires additional stipend to get a champion I think we talked about that or uh to get the chaperones necessary I think the board would be in favor of of meeting um you know that that kind of halfway fan so just I'll leave it at that I don't want to get into debate about Nature's Classroom tonight I think Kevin picks up on the vibe we want to see that thing happen again we did though discuss several times getting at our curriculum committee and here um just like we have all curriculum laid out like a curriculum map of our experiential field trips activities and we're still waiting on that information so John's still working on I know because there's been so much that has changed and gone away Aaron's come up to all of us as board members often and and ask about is this happening is that happening there is no where that has that information pre-k through 12 and that may be helpful giving some gen you know information and transparency to parents and us as board members um that should be laid out just like curriculum is laid out and we don't have that current ly so we don't even know what's happening as parents as is you know as board members and that's lacking right now just like just like fourth grade always for 30 40 years went to Sturbridge Village you know I don't know did they do go this year are they going this is like a very valid request and I think we should get that for 23 and 24 of what the plans are for those type of extra curriculum obviously there's room for flexibility creativity teachers changing of course we want to support teachers and and we want them to feel good about what they're doing but without any plan without any one pager or map of anything we don't we don't have any idea or anywhere to find it or any place to look what are experience I'm building that for for all of us right now to in a conversation with our our Administration so I did hear that loud and clear and I will be happy to be able to bring that forward in the in the near future thank you look just very quickly just just to wrap up this conversation I think you know Kevin very respectfully I think that there are instances when you know this board is very Hands-On and very deferential I think that when the board gets um concerned enough to start talking about intervening then that adds extra weight to the boards frustration or displeasure that we are still that when we're talking about you know why aren't things happening we have to take a larger role that's really only when we get really frustrated so I think we surely take the advice and and stay hands-off um but if there's anybody out there questioning why would the board get involved with that I think it's because of orange particularly pissed about it I hear you okay I'm not saying it's right no no I hear you have no way dumping this on your plate we cross the line all the time over here and I also know the um School principal here's all of you loudly and clearly good yeah I know we want to run out of here but we had our last executive session sounded like we're gonna get a follow-ups not prepared yet I don't have the information yet but there was going to be an announcement at least of what was going to happen in the interim it can't happen yet parents are gonna ride like a like a shield and a sword yeah tell me what the plan was I'll take it offline with you okay I'll give you a call I'll give you a call okay all right I love it when these meetings get down today all right beautiful teachers for all they do and you know how hard they're working we do and we work hard at this too we just like I said we're not here to run the schools we're here to make sure that schools run well and that's what we're trying to do so with that I'll take a motion to adjourn Kim and Joe thank you ladies for being online first and second any uh discussion all those in favor nine thank you very much have a good night
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we were originally we're going to do a roles and responsibilities Workshop I've asked Tom Mooney um most people know to just come in and give us kind of a uh overview of roles and responsibilities and uh you know for board members it's good to do that um you know every every now and then so we're gonna we're planning that on um 227 at 5 30. that's uh that's when Mr Mooney has availability and I think it's good since we've appointed a new new board member uh congratulations Jesse Fernandez um so we wanted to do it after we appointed a new board member um so that'll be 5 30 here on 227 and then 3-1 there's a sites and Facilities meeting but also we want to have a special board meeting to get a presentation from the city on the new Academy because there's a to see plans and see um you know how the construction is going to progress going forward so that's 3-1 sites and Facilities I believe is at six o'clock and so we're going to make that in person and then go right into a seven o'clock special meeting with the presentation um for the board don't want to only be until 10 o'clock that night you'll be okay Excuse me yes the 227.
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the next column outlines the interest for both the Old and the new and then the next column outlines the additional fees and this is where you'll see the biggest change right um the the previous lease had various fees associated with it we've talked about these in a board presentation it included fees to maintain the buildings in which the leaser was responsible and owned the buildings they were obligated to maintain them we can argue whether they were maintained or not but there's also additional fees for basically Insurance because we do not own it we also insured the building so we were double paying insurance but we could not rely on the lease or um when it come to when it came to coverage um and other various fees and so those equations about 515 000 on an annual basis and when you take those out as well as the final interest that we settled on in our new refinance those estimated savings for fiscal 24 620 000 which is money right back to our operational budget so again I can't emphasize how big a win this is the lease is not gone but it does um reduce the financial impact in the district um to the 200 620 000 which can go a long way in addressing teacher pay or other compensation areas where um you'll see recommendations later if you roll that out through 30 years that net cash flow difference is about 18.6 million so again that's 18.6 million back into the operational budget um over the next 30 Years so um a big win for the district and definitely something to be happy about even though we saw the lease but it is better terms um and to the district's favor okay so the mno uh 2024 projections um the FY 23 estimated revised budget so this has not changed again this budget was revised in December 14th we had to make a revision uh due to the district exceeding one percent of its adopted budget that budget was revised to 119 million 873 246 dollars again that does not that we have full authority to use that budget as the AEL was Exempted and that does include a budget balanced carry forward of 23 million looking to 2024 our estimated proposed General budget limit uh we'll continue to project no ADM increase as we've done in previous years as I mentioned earlier we're we're the one thing that we are putting into this estimate is our projected two percent increase to the base level support we do know the asrs is increasing and so that is taken into consideration um and then one thing that changed from the first review uh was the the trued up number of the m o transfer to Capital so we were initially earmarking 10 million which showed uh basically a lesser estimated JBL increase and so the difference in why that's increased over the first presentation is because we finalized their Capital plan which was reviewed but the board earlier this month and that transfer is 6.6 million instead of the 10 million that we originally estimated so we worked that down a little um and so that is why that has increased we are currently realizing a budget bounce uh carry forward of approximately 26 million a lot of that is due to vacancy savings we do still have some covert relief funding that's expiring at the end of this year and that's having a budgetary impact we're holding that because all those items will now come back into the budget next year and so that will quickly go away as we look at fiscal 25 budget but that's a little bit down the road so one budget at a time right I do want to highlight that the total estimated increase is the 4.3 million from our current revised budget to our estimated proposed fiscal 24 budget um so we do know some some more about some of our fixed cost increases if you remember previously these were all to be determined we have worked with some of our insurance carriers to identify some of these increases First Property Casualty Insurance we have heard already preliminary increases to five percent to a property Council insurance that equates to forty thousand dollars workers compensation is about two percent increase that equates to ten thousand dollars and then annually every year we do hold an FTE contingency that has been reduced this year typically we've hold up to five hundred thousand um and and welcome to Higley Karen you get a reduced contingency um that is that is gonna be three hundred thousand this year going into next year and so of of that re contingency slash reclassification and so what that can that 300 000 is used for if we experience any sort of enrollment growth um or additional needs we basically utilize that contingency to address that enrollment growth so this year I can tell you that has been largely used at the secondary level uh with Mr lawsonizer in terms of six fifths that Williams Field has seen drastic enrollment growth um far more than expected and so a lot of that has used with six fists because we were unable to hire teachers so teachers have picked up additional shifts the remaining uh dollars in there the 69 350 uh was reclassifications for employees that were hired in the year fiscal year 2019-2020 um during that time the district did not offer any sort of experience and so uh what has happened is created some inequities um in our salary schedule and so those employees can literally quit today and be hired back for more money and so working with Miss Johnson um those we feel like we need to address those because that is not um I don't think it's an equitable situation so that is that 69 000 um moving down the list the utility increases these are drastic this year water electricity all those we have received word that they're all going up so we have budgeted 275 000 for those increases um and that's again for all our additional utilities so water electricity and I'm sure as as consumers in the community have all seen that cost increase as well the Big saver here is a removal of contracted services and so uh what we are recommending for next year is to we currently contract out uh custodial and grounds at six of our elementary schools we did that this year out of a need if we could not fill the positions and so um if the board remembers a lot of this stemmed from covid too in which we had increased custodial needs we have maintained those and those we still haven't been able unable to fill the position so this year we took initiative and contracted it out for the whole fiscal year with some changes that we're recommending today as well as working with the maintenance department we have been able to rehire a number of positions and are currently almost fully staffed in custodial and so we feel confident that we'll be able to fill the um basically those six schools both custodian grounds going into next year with our own internal staff and and if you've contracted anything you know that it costs greatly more than what it would if you can bring it in-house and so um that is that a million dollars that we would be realizing in terms of savings into next year you take go ahead can I just ask you on the contract the savings is great I just have a question do we have a contingency like what happens if we aren't able to fire or higher sorry sorry so that number that number includes contingency the the total contracted costs are closer to 1.4 million okay uh we did hold some contingency in there because I while I'm while I'm optimistic uh I still need to be realistic and we still have a need at our schools and so yes that that number is have con that does have some contingency in there okay thank you president Schultz to that point um so this is a savings for not having internal contracted staff this is a savings from moving to internal we're currently Contracting and so to the tune of 1.4 million um we if we eliminate contracted Services we will not have to pay that anymore and we can bring those staff on board okay so I'm thinking the other way okay thank you yeah foreign fixed cost and this is an anomaly in most fiscal years I will note that because of the removal of contracted Services um it's actually a savings of 305 000.
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we haven't they haven't sent out that invitation trip no we're doing it'll go from Gary I wanted to mention it to make sure everybody had the time zone yeah so these two yeah so the the three nine meeting with with the cape that was that one's canceled we've not had one we're not having that because uh 27. I have something and um speaking of my last thing speaking of the new Academy for some people might know that we are moving the off and the boardroom um the new Academy correct so we need the Cartersville so I just want to make people where we are starting the process of naming the new boardroom after one of our most esteemed board members who served on this board for 31 years Miss Gladys Knight so I just want to let everybody know s her but but Gladys and I go back a little way and and she was kind of the first one who guided me when I was on it was elected in 2013.
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