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Any questions for Dr. Long? Dr. Long, I I do have a question. I I noticed in going through the bid sheet, the $234,000, the next lowest bid was 594,000 there. So, there's a pretty big spread between the two. But I don't know if this is a appropriate question for you or for for Mr. Peters who's in the audience, but I'll give it a shot and then then Chad can probably correct me later. So um so when we open the when we put this out for bid um we opened it up, people could come walk through the building. Uh this this uh contractor walked the building five or six times, far more than anybody else does. Um he's local. He doesn't have drive very far. doesn't have far to stage his equipment and everything. And so we felt really confident and and I Chad can maybe talk a little bit about the Dcope meeting that they had with him, but felt really good that um they knew the building maybe better than any of the other biders did.
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revisions that just disappeared into the legal department for a year you know so uh we we should get more turnaround time we should get her be able to get a quicker turnaround time than that eventually but um yeah okay Lisa I agree that's that's good that's a good I would guess the critical juncture comes when a consultant is in fact hired and then starts to work that would be the time to include us and I think that's Mr Leonard's decision not Mr ponies well I I I have that same feeling any other comments on that issue I mean this speaks to this speaks of course to other uh concerns that I hear not just in this forum but um you know about transparency and key performance indicators and and transparency and the way the city government is run so I don't expect a conversation with this but I'm just saying that it touches on that as well so um so if are there any other uh comments on this okay so um let's see let's move on to other commissions let's see energy John energy connection yeah I'm sorry about that uh we've been dealing in the energy commission with the same resolutions and topics that we've been discussing here Equitable engagement the same resolutions the only thing that we did that we haven't considered here was that we provided input on the council resolution to advance energy equity and resilience and that's open for um I think Council to finalize and act on um other than that there's really nothing new um one thing Steve your comment just recently both the energy commission as well as last year the environmental commission passed resolution on uh performance transparency and um I don't know if either of the council member Liaisons are willing and able at this point in time to comment on what's going to happen with those resolutions uh if they can't do so tonight it would be appreciated if they could do so at the next meeting hey thank you so um let's see so let's do planning next uh we've only had one meeting since our last one we had same Equitable engagement thing and um we passed several projects none of which have like a lot of direct influence but there's just one thing I would suggest and that is that we passed the um the Ann Arbor Housing commission's Catherine project near Kerrytown and you know since they have committed to doing and know all electric building and things like that there was a very candid conversation about what has been like for them to be able to try to do geothermal and things like that and John I would suggest that you actually watch the last chunk of the meeting which went very late that we were up till probably 11 30 or something like that because there's some really good um just reality checks about kind of some of the challenges that they're having with how much geothermal they're needing where they have the space to put it and not and things like that um that I think would be important and interesting for for energy commission folks to just here's an example in our regulatory system with our staff review and all those kinds of things to see what that how that's actually panning on I don't think Shannon yeah I would do that um what date was that meeting this is our last one on on Tuesday so it would have been the 21st yeah the 21st okay yep that's why District geothermal is so important because if you do it parcel by parcel it makes it really difficult yeah agreed yep it's much more cost effective all right so um let's see so uh Ann Morrison is not here so Parks advisory um will not helpful report how about transportation Dharma yeah excited to let you know that um we are adding shared e-bikes to our contract with spin so those should show up in the city soon um they spin has done a good job of basically kind of keeping their scooters from being nuisance objects and so that's what's up to this move we're going to try for a hundred we used to have a bike sharing program but it unfortunately didn't work very well and it went away so we haven't had one since 2017 and I think the dockless nature of this obviously there can be concerns about where people leave them but assuming that it works as well as the scooters it can also just up the convenience and accessibility and there's a lot of equity things built into this new agreement including I think half price rates for people below means including people that live in housing projects affordable housing projects and people that don't have Banks they can get a special card so they don't have to use a smartphone um the other thing was that we sent a couple of letters for Congressional funding requests and one of that was for upgrading our Crossing um Crossings at crosswalks um to make things safer and then another thing is to reinvestigate a new train station so this is not Reviving The Old idea but starting again and this again is just asking for our Senators for federal dollars to do that so that's my update oh um I just had one question are they is there been any talk of including cargo bikes no thank you very much I haven't heard that yet no that would be cool people are going shopping they you know because a lot of times that what's that's what makes the choice between a car and a bike is yeah put stuff on it and I don't know exactly the configuration of these but they look pretty hefty maybe they have a basket on them I'm not sure yeah okay just a thought um so how about um so let's move on to council uh any report from Council um Lisa I mean as you know um Council discussed 415 West Washington on Monday night for the and it passed on first reading there will be a second reading and a public hearing um sometime sometime in April uh and uh I don't know I'm actually I was actually just looking in my notes from our let's see no that meeting was actually right we just met uh so I mean environmental commission just met so I don't think that there was anything other than that um but uh councilmember Ackman if you have a better memory than me please kick in I can't think of anything else now all right thank you so the chair has nothing more to say so let's move on to the next item which is a report from staff oh yes I'm council member this the process for 415 West Washington is the council is passing a resolution that asks for a proposal I I can't find any drawings or anything I need track it to see how it okay yeah so um this process like the process for the um for the building that is going up on the former y lot um this process has been to pre-entitle um a site and it comes to us not with a site plan but with a concept plan this kind of PUD could come either way either with a site plan or with a concept plan we don't want to have a site plan because that's extremely prescriptive and we're what the idea is is that the city is shopping out this concept plan which has all those supplementary regulations of PUD all the things that we want in the building shopping it out to developers to see who will step up and take on the project um commissioner gabrandel do you have any corrections that you would like to make to what I just said okay and um as you know um if if we do not pursue this course which enables the cleanup to occur through a Brownfield tax credit if we do not pursue this course then the city will have to bear the cost of demolishing the existing building improving the storm water um what shall we say it would probably be detention and infiltration on that site um and doing the cleanup and it is expected that this site can be cleaned up there there is not as much remaining material on it as there are on some other places I think probably 721 maybe a dirtier site so it is expected to be able to be cleaned but without the use of the Brownfield Tiff which that money the city cannot access on its own behalf the funding for this would have to come out of the general fund and the only way for it to come out of the general fund is at the cost of other things that people want the city to take on or that the city is currently doing so this is why the city is taking the approach of selling this site to a private developer and pursuing the cleanup in this way it's not necessarily affordable housing you're inviting We cannot put affordable housing on this side that's uh no I mean it well it's it's next to a train track um right as part of the Brownfield um it can 15 either on-site or payment in lieu can be done but it can't be done with either federal funds or um or sustainability millage funds so whatever affordable housing were to go there would have to be uh worked through the Brownfield Tiff requirements um because there's no other way to subsidize it and I would I mean in my ideal World probably a payment in lieu would be better for this site but I think some community members really felt that I mean it is a great you know it's walkable it's marvelous I mean unfortunately we have a lot of affordable housing going up in the downtown core so um I don't think it it would be a terrible thing not to have it here but again it just we we have no way of subsidizing it through our own fun through uh you know through tax credits or even our own millage funds on this site my last question is has anyone done a serious cost estimate for what the expense of the city would be for us to clear and clean that site yes yes what is the number it is in the millions the cleanup itself is not the biggest cost the storm water rectification and the dismantling of this building which probably has asbestos in it or ten uh the report that I read said in the millions so I don't think it means 10 but it doesn't really matter because the general fund does not have a surplus of any Millions and so this would have to be we would have to say what we want to not do well we did get a 25 million dollar gift from the federal government didn't we just recently not to clean up this site and you know as far as I know we've spent we've allocated all those monies in a lot of worthy ways yeah I know I mean so I mean I think yeah thank you for not being affordable housing I appreciate that well thanks Lisa that was um okay so um let's move on to report from staff yes thank you um as many of you uh likely noticed uh we are doing things a little bit different uh starting this month uh I have been working with staff to put together a written update uh that will be what we do from here on out um so in the interest of time I will say that uh the updates can be found in that written document but I will very briefly go over the highlights uh the free tree giveaway um from OSI is planned for April 30th uh we are also helping to organize the Ann Arbor Earth Day celebration which is going to be held on Sunday April 23rd uh a20 week is also coming up from June 4th to 10th and we are looking for ideas for events or that um from the public works department uh they are move in move out drop-off event will be taking place at the end of April and in early May uh the commercial Solid Waste franchise contract is going to city council for approval uh and public engagement meetings around the drop-off station design will be held on April 13th and April 19th uh and finally from systems planning staff have started uh working on the source water protection plan project which they anticipate to take around a year to a year and a half and like I said you can find more details on all those updates in the written update document all right thank you Sean um Chris you have your hand up it's behind uh it's behind a tulip Sean you can knock my hand out of this guy anytime you want to yeah it's behinding behind buying one of your tulips there so um Okay so see the next is items for next agenda so I have the natural gas resolution and the uh um let's see and uh and uh of course the solid waste activities update and discussion on the solid waste budgets this is when staff is going to explain their budget their spending on various Solid Waste activities and um tell us a bit about their budget ask for them for the next budget cycle um that's going to be the major thing so hopefully we can get through the natural gas resolution um and uh in an effective and uh expedited manner um and then in may we have uh nap in the green belt a review of nap and Greenbelt activities and focusing mostly on invasive plants invasive plants so um and then meanwhile we have the floodplain um the floodplain concerns continuing so we'll try to fit that in somewhere soon as soon as possible are there any other suggestions for um Lisa yeah I don't know if if we can add this to the solid waste evening but as Sean just mentioned um city council actually approved the commercial experience was um Solid Waste franchise I I think it would be interesting if they you know even just spent five minutes and explained to us what that is you know what the hopes are for that uh how that's expected to change anything if anything I mean the franchise was rewarded to the company that's been providing the service already so but it is a restructuring and I think not much is known about that um or not I don't mean it in the sense if it's some big secret I just think it's a shift and it might be interesting to hear a little bit more about that if no one else shares that then um I I know I'll be talking to them anyway but I thought you might be interested oh absolutely um absolutely you know that the downtown alleys problem has been a big sore spot for for many many years so I'm going to be it'd be good to have that should definitely be included and that's part of the asking was to review so it's going to be a full meeting you know I was hoping the whole meeting would be dedicated to Solid Waste but um things are uh now time is catching up so um um so I would encourage everybody to look at that at what's publicly posted and on that topic before the next meeting and uh we'll get we'll get information from City staff you know provided before the next meeting so um let's see any more comments about that no so uh the next scheduled meeting will be on April 27th uh 2023 it's it's um so the next item on the agenda is the second opportunity for public comment this is a an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes so please call please call 877-853-5247 and enter meeting ID 922-9696-1644 and this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand to indicate the desire to speak please press star 9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments and be patient there's a delay of up to 30 seconds before a connection is established so while we're waiting we do have uh braced hand already Steve okay well let's put them on all right um uh caller with number ending in three four five you should be allowed to speak now 515 Crow Street in the Fifth Ward um I was originally going to just encourage you to please uh put forward a resolution um about the flood plain and you know I've been getting a little frustrated uh listening and I'm not really calling it to scold you because I understand there are a lot of things going on I mean I mind boggled by the lack of transparency and how the natural features swing got stuck in the attorneys I mean wow I'm learning a lot now but one thing I do know is that climate change is real the planet is burning up it's flooding there's no time to waste here you can't just put things off until next year please how about a resolution regarding floodplains and no building on flood Plains I mean really think about it you're the environmental commission okay then I also want to comment on 415 West Washington and what council member dish was saying no there definitely cannot be any affordable housing it will be payment in lieu by a developer because even Jennifer Hall who is kind of a affordable housing said it can't be because it's on a flood plain there are a lot of rules against the speaking of rules that I heard mentioned before all these rules well that's a rule all right and also um there is some money to be had to clean up the toxins we can't wait years until some developer decides they want that there are lots of Hoops to jump through for developers we can't wait years there are poisons in the ground now they are spreading the city is the responsible party and the DDA has lots of money they have millions and I heard from my Council Representatives that the cost of the cleanup would be between one and three million so it's not anywhere near 10.
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one of my teachers crying I'd come late to school because it was a snowy day and it was halfway through First Market period I go downstairs to my locker room and I can hear tears coming from one in the basement bathrooms when this teacher walked out I could see in their face the horror the sadness that was going on and at that point I knew I hope that never happens to another one of my teachers because you know believe it or not she was a great teacher and to say that my siblings or anyone related to me would never have the opportunity to have that teacher ever again you know it kind of in a way destroyed me because she was a great teacher great um yes thank you so much for this opportunity I hope you all have a great day and happy Ramadan to all you who celebrate thank you okay commissioner Paris uh thank you Mr Smith um I just want to thank every all the speakers this evening and especially the teachers for giving us some insight into the the real classroom um and Dr barbatosi just maybe you can shed a little light on this um and I know from Reading social media Etc there's U.S world news report and it expresses a much lower classroom ratio um I'm sure it has to do with how it's calculated maybe you can give us some background on that Mr Paris it's it's a very deceiving number because you have I can't deny that there are classes with 30 students there are also classes with four students right and so the way depending on who's calculating if they're counting a self-contained special education class which has a small number if they're taking every teacher and providing it by the number of students that number is going to be lower than the reality you know what I mean so um we have to we would have to know how it's calculated yeah I just want to share that with the public because uh it is misleading um and there are certain classrooms specialized classrooms that you cannot have more than a small number of students um I was at the Old City concert the other night and I just wanted to uh thank the the staff the music departments both elementary through high school did a wonderful job I was very impressed with the students especially just the quality of the playing of Middle School in our high school it was it was really amazing to see so it again and week before we had all City Orchestra so uh music is alive and doing very well in our school system um and lastly I just wanted to mention Tiffany brought up something about some funding for the mock trials that's something we can look into what they need there Mr Paris I have that in my notes um I was surprised that we're not I was surprised to hear that we're not paying for these admissions um so barring it being some astronomical number I don't think that it'll be an issue okay great all right thank you very much everybody have a great evening thank you commissioner Santiago thank you president Smith thank you everyone for coming out um Ramadan Mubarak to everybody celebrating I just want to make a couple of comments one is um the sewage tax that is being mentioned proposed whatever um that would be the first time since we've had sewage tax which I think is like 15 years or so that the schools would be paying for that the first time essentially just making a comment on that um the other thing is the state in terms of the budget the state says that we can increase two percent without going to the voters right so um they they understand that even inflation right they're they're basically saying with that essentially you should be increasing two percent every year just to keep uh you know up with inflation and basic costs so that's just two percent essentially is what they're saying every year um I just wanted to mention that and then the other thing is we we obviously live here we walk around and we hear we hear the suing we hear other things and you know we have to pay for things so so we understand and and we listen to all that and and know that as well but you know our our mandate and our purpose is to try to provide the best educational experience for students period and we have to do that regardless of what other people are doing regardless of what other people are thinking about and um you know our budget is our budget and uh we really have to focus on uh what's the best experience that we can provide to our students period that's that's my that's my Touchstone that's that's how I work that's how we all work is you know focusing on the best um school system we can provide period regardless of other noise going on thank you guys again good night commissioner abedravo you didn't forget me tonight I did not um as an Alum of the mock trial team congratulations to them uh Mr Vander is still around um and I'm glad to see that the mock trial team is still doing awesome um even after I graduated back in 2003 um I'm dating myself listen we have stakeholders various stakeholders around the table that we need to make sure are not left at the at the doorway what does that mean while a point or percent a percentage or percentages that are going up on the city side should not stop us from making sure our pairs our teachers are suffering in the classroom no doubt about that but we also need to make sure there has to be a middle ground in that middle ground I'm not saying a zero percent I don't know if I quite agree with the six percent there's got to be a middle ground a middle ground to the taxpayer in the middle ground to our to our teachers in Perros our pairs are suffering and that's why I asked that question if there's a line item on the sheet that superintendent gave us and we don't quite agree with it or maybe we can put another pair instead of you know gain a para and gain something else down the road is that doable and I'm glad the superintendent said yes so things are still preliminary I'm glad you all came out because we noticed last year at the last minute 24th hour it works it worked on me that's why I motioned it last year and we don't know what's gonna happen this year so you know I don't want you walking away with a negative mindset he's stuck at three percent we did nothing no that's not true so we still have a ways to go and you know keep coming not to fight us but keep coming because we want to see you we really do want to see you um Ramadan Kareem um to everybody who is celebrating day one is down 29 more to go I wish they made larger cups of coffee because you notice I bought this at 6 45 and luckily it was still warm I'm gonna embarrass somebody really quick but I promise I wasn't gonna do a Facebook but I didn't tell I wasn't gonna do it happy 9th anniversary to my wife today I love you um if anybody puts up with me it's definitely her and she's the only way that I can get away with it and my mother uh other than that thank you and have a great night Mr Happy eating I want to thank all the speakers for coming out tonight um congratulations to the mock trials uh to the students um I I wish you much success uh since we last were here we had an event at the high school sponsored by the Passaic County School boards Association and one of our students um Nyla I hope I don't mess up your name was honored as the unsung hero from the Clifton Public School System each district got to pick one the Passaic County School boards Association Along with the Passaic County Education Association honored the students that night we were very proud to see her and and get that award um that was never done in Passaic County we we fought for three years to get it done we did one during covid it was not what we wanted it to be but the Passaic County School boards Association pushed to have that that we pick one student that the district picked one student doesn't have to be a high performing student it could be whatever they choose to to honor that student for student gets that award that night and it's just such a great thing to see it in person again I was so proud to be there I did attend the Old City Orchestra I couldn't make the one last night I apologize I had a I mean tonight I had to go to the city council meeting one of my really good friends were being honored for her involvement in Clifton's praise as a woman of the year a woman watched National Women's month and Gabby has taken praise to a new level that we the three of us only when we decided to start it could hope for it to be so thank you very much um I'm going to jump around happy Ramadan to all those that participate and and celebrate and observe um I hope I did that right tonight I heard some words about the budget and I heard I really wanted to thank my colleagues for having a budget meeting to me that was more one of the highlights of my 11 years on this board because I got to hear questions from everyone usually goes to the committee the committee recommends it and there's not a lot of dialogue there's not a lot of back and forth and yeah we're allowed to argue we're allowed to you know really come to a head but I heard a lot of things that made me do some um some investigation and I apologize to you Mr Smith I didn't get my questions to you it's been a really long I promise I'll get them to you by the weekend I have some questions and I'm gonna do it but what I heard tonight was budgets have been short changed for years less students to give more less to give students if we had excuse me less students to give the students more if we had more a less of a student ratio I heard more funding to get more highly qualified teachers can I it's okay that's all right I heard make Clifton the best place it can be these things like stick with me and I I want to tell you that we hear you but I wish people from the community would come out tell us what they don't like I heard a lot of people online I saw a lot of chat online you have to come here so we can hear you and I would hope maybe we can have another budget meeting so we can really hash this out uh we have until May 4th and really get down to it and and really get look at the numbers with two percent Eighteen with three percent 21 with 4 29.
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And they, you know, they part of their bid is they can um salvage any of the the stuff in there that we we're not going to salvage and use for ourselves. So maybe that's part of the reason. I don't know Chad if there's anything else to this contractor most of them were out of town so they had higher trucking cost by second closest I believe they were kind of surprised. Well, I I appreciate it, guys. I just When you see that big of a difference, just Oh, yeah. I'm happy. I'm happy we're getting it for a lower cost, but I'm glad you guys did did your due diligence and homework. Thank you. Do Do we Do we have a date, assuming we approve this in a minute? Um, like when they're going to start? Yeah. Um I I don't know if we've talked about this in a public meeting, but the FDIC, the fire department instructor's course conference that's held in Indianapolis, we were approached and asked if they could use that building.
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it's between one and three why can't the DDA put in some money and what about those arpa funds I think cleaning up taxes in our environment that is spreading is of utmost importance I'm sorry I sound cranky but I I'm just mind-boggled that everybody seems to think there's lots of time no rush this is imperative it needs to be cleaned up now it's important you're the environmental commission please push for this to be cleaned up now and for anybody that doesn't know what's happening on 415 West Washington I encourage you to learn there have been articles on MLive just go it's been discussed in front of city council for years educate yourselves please if you don't know what the city is planning to put on that flood Fringe with all those taxes please please please and we can't wait for a developer to clean up this mess it has to be cleaned up now the DDA has money there's arpa funds what could be more important than cleaning up toxins that are going to harm our residents okay thank you very much thank you for all you do I just wish you could move a little more quickly thank you um well thank you for your input Miss Khan so um anybody uh anybody else Sean uh yes we have a caller with a phone number ending in zero one two again that's zero one two you should now be able to speak yes hello um this is Muffy McKenzie calling again and I I too am calling um just about the last comments that uh councilman dish just made about um that the the cost um it we've never had um public factual numbers uh we got we got the one to three million uh from our council person um uh and then to say that of the 25 million it was spent on you know uh I've forgotten the word that you used um you know important projects I honestly believe that uh cleaning up toxins in a flood plain should be maybe top priority for our community um it was the city in the county who um dumped those toxins so it should be the city and the County's responsibility to clean them up and not to defer the responsibility to uh possible would be maybe not would be developer and I just would really um plead for all of you to consider putting um you know a resolution to to a clean up the toxins and B not to build in the flood plain as um our brilliant uh City floodplain manager I'm sorry I don't know his his title but Jerry had very emphatically said not to build there so I don't understand why nobody's listening to him thank you very much and I appreciate that it's a very long meeting tonight and I appreciate all your hard work and your diligence good evening thank you for your input Miss McKenzie anybody else Sean yes we have um a caller with a number ending in four six four again that is car ending in four six four you should be able to speak now oh hi can you hear me yes we can thank you oh thank you this is Linda Brower again um okay this was a great meeting long meeting I want to encourage you next month with no further delay to pass some kind of resolution about gas hookups in in new construction I think it's it's really we can't wait any longer I hope you do that I think in environment energy commission already did it or they will and I'm hoping with those two recommendations that somebody on Council will bring those recommendations forward for debate at the council table it's really important you you know why people have spoken about why so I won't go into that I also want to urge you to develop a resolution following our floodplain managers device for no new construction in city-owned partials in the flood plain for all the reasons that Jerry explained and it may be too late for 415 West Washington but there are other city-owned Parcels in the floodplain like 721 North Main and maybe it's not too late for 415 West Washington because it will take a while before a developer is identified if one is because it's such a challenging property we shouldn't be building on it as environmental commissioners I think I'm hoping that you will be open to the logic of why we shouldn't build on it I think many people in City leadership have a hard time understanding why it's not advisable but I'm hoping that if you can put forth a resolution that they will listen to you because your environmental Commissioners that the last thing I want to say I was very happy to hear the beginning tentative beginning of a discussion about the problems that many times commissions are ignored these are hard-working citizens I've been on commissions I know how hard you guys work and often your your sideline just like what happened with the natural features thing and I am worried it's going to happen with many things that you advise and we need to look into that and I'm hoping that council members will look into that and find a way to actually start listening more to commissions and and heeding their advice or at least discussing their advice what happened about the natural features is really a shame I know people have been working on it for three years and it's it's too bad it took three years but um you're being sidelined and I don't think that's right there are things that are going forward despite the fact that our comprehensive plan hasn't been updated tc1 zoning was developed and passed they didn't have to wait until our comprehensive plan why should a natural features ordinance update have to wait till our comprehensive plan there's a reason for that and I hope that you will not take no for an answer I hope that you will push more and I appreciate people who talked about transparency tonight there was a I think it was the energy commission that passed a transparency resolution about our a20 efforts and I it was passed unanimously and I still cannot believe that the one council member on that body voted no and this is a problem we need more transparency we need counsel to pay more attention to the experts on the different commissions and thank you for your work and I just please hope that your voices are heard more thank you so much oh thank you for your comment Miss Brauer anybody else on the line uh no one else currently has a hand raised okay all right well um in that case considering it's 10 14 I'm going to declare this meeting adjourned thank you okay let's let's think about building our agendas without an hour and 15 minutes over it I think that we just had too much going on on this agenda and there were a lot of controversial topics we didn't know how many people are going to call in I get that I also just we crammed in too much so yeah tomorrow I'm screwed tonight you know so I would really like to be able to just be more mindful about this for the future thank you yeah yeah I agree yep I'll try all right thank you everybody
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I we have we we the collective nine of us have a fiduciary obligation to you the taxpayers to the students to the staff to make sure that we deliver the best we can deliver with your with the budget so I'm asking you all to please come and speak and tell us what you need because we don't know that unless we hear I heard that this there are classrooms falling apart that they're a mess I'm going to address that with the superintendent and find out what's going on because we've been pretty good with the upkeep of our buildings and that concerns me is that if there are Bill classrooms that are falling apart we have to make sure they're fit fixed there's money as you heard from the auditor tonight in maintenance Reserve if we have classrooms that are in need of repair why aren't we using that money to repair them we don't know that because we're not supposed to be in the schools every day that's interfering with the daily operations of the building we're supposed to separate ourselves so I just wanted to say that to you there's also something from New Jersey school boards they just put out today that they if you can go on their line if you're thinking about running for the Board of Education the deadline to submit your application is July 31st at 4 pm um the election will be held November 7th 2023 this year they have a kit actually a candidates kit that you can access to see if this thing is right for you it tells you how many signatures you need I believe you need ten um to to apply you have to be a citizen you have to be 18 you have to be able to reiterate English and you have to be a resident of Clifton that's the qualifications that's it and you have to get your signatures 10.
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Uh so uh we're trying to make arrangements or we are making arrangements to have the demolition start immediately when they're done. We may even move them to a different part of the building. They don't care which part that we let them use. So, we may give them one part and start demoing another part of it. So, uh probably really around the end of April, 1 of May, we have to get permits. We have to get utilities shut off and everything and and get everything out of there that our maintenance guys want to use and and any security cameras and locks and stuff like that that are in there. So, we're taking all that out first and then so probably by the end of April, 1 of of May. Okay. And Bill, they're using that for just training, but they're not using they're not doing kind of They're not burning it.
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that's it no more they anything past that they don't check them so please there's a kid online access it see if this this looks appeals to you and uh to answer the question what is my superpower I help people that can't help themselves that's my superpower thank you and good night okay thank you uh commissioner brunsiak thank you president Smith good evening everybody I just want to talk about all the wonderful things that happen in the school district my daughter and I had a the honor of attending Seussical junior to give you an idea of how long ago the last public meeting was other than the budgetary meeting I wanted to stay on topic that that extra budgetary meeting yesterday uh last week and again I urge all of you who have not seen it to please watch that meeting we went very in depth a lot of the numbers and we we did not hear a lot of comments and Dr robertosie put a lot of it in perspective as to the amounts that we have not been paid in arrears for the past decade which is over 500 million dollars for Clifton Public Schools alone so I urge everybody to do that I didn't hear any comments about that tonight either so I want to let everybody know what's at stake here and what's occurred in the past that we haven't said anything in the past and how important elections are and elections matter because the legislature is responsible for how much State funding they provide to this this school district so that's how important that is so again I I want to advertise I want to let you know about that Seussical JR I want to give a shout out to the principal uh Gaba Gaba big and a very special shout out to Mrs Coleman unfortunately I had to abruptly leave as my daughter had a massive nosebleed and Mrs Coleman was so wonderful so I can't thank her enough for helping uh my daughter and I helped clean up because it was all over the place she's just prone to nosebleeds so uh but the hour plus that we were there was absolutely fantastic so shout out to everybody involved for that uh commissioner basford mentioned also state county school boards Association congrats to our CHS unsung hero Nyla barbadi unfortunately I was unable to attend because my son was ill so if anybody's got young kids uh you know they're pretty much germ Factory so they are sickly a good period of the time I was able to attend with my kids the All City instrumentals the strings uh I did see Dr robertosie other VIPs over there as well including commissioner bassper and commissioner Paris and it was absolutely fantastic uh my nieces were there so congratulations I was unable to attend on Tuesday I I had a previous engagement watching The Devils lose with 1.3 seconds left in overtime but I saw the rave reviews over there so next year I'll make sure I don't get tickets on that so um quick shout out to my to my nieces uh Rosalie and and uh Lucy and to my nephew Dustin all fantastic um thanks to Mr Mr uh leschevitz leshowitz and everyone else it's very competitive in this District so competition is Alive and Well out of all the the trials he said approximately one-third of those who tried out made the All-City ban so it's very competitive and it makes this District better to have competition like this so these are the absolute best of the best and it was absolutely phenomenal finally Ramadan Mubarak it's all my Muslim brothers and sisters who celebrate thank you everybody for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody thank you vice president Danny um good evening I want to say that I'm sorry I was late I had an emergency and I will not be here at our next meeting as it is my spring break and I will be away as an educator I'll be away um enjoying and resting that week so um do you want to apologize but um I'll be thinking of all of you while I'm laying on the beach I will and then next week I know Clifton has theirs so I'm sure everybody will be thinking of all of us you know um I want to say a happy anniversary to Mr abadrabo I don't want to repeat too much about you know um everything that's been said but I did want to mention um to Administration that in regard to the um later school start times Ridgewood is actually implementing that this year so you know to maybe reach out to the Administration there's superintendent and find out you know how how that's going I don't know if at the round table when you are with other superintendents if there are other schools that are participating in that pilot or anything yeah anybody in Passaic County that's okay all right but you know you could possibly call and and you know and just find out you know what they found you know um moving forward on that um Danny I believe that the pilot districts I think the state is doing a report on the pilot so I think there will be a comprehensive report done with the findings so that will help okay um that's good and I guess if there's anything from there that you'd find me just to know that there is Ridgewood is doing it so you know to call if you did have questions maybe found that you know if anything could be answered by them um the other thing that I want to say is that um as Miss bessford said there were a lot of like things on Facebook about people discussing the budget and everything and and I think it's very important that um you know people come out and you know not just put it on Facebook but take the time to either come here or the the virtual option call in option you know to let us know what it is that you're thinking um because we're nine here and we can think a certain way but there's sometimes something that we don't think about and I think you know as Mr Robert was mentioned also that um it's good that the administration is saying that they're willing to maybe you know take a look at okay maybe powers or something move some things around if we saw that a line item maybe would be better to put some you know a power there or a few Paras or or Educators or something so that's really good to hear that they are willing to maybe take our suggestions to to help in that and then finally just blessing to all those celebrating Ramadan Mubarak and um thank you good evening thank you um I've had some uh technical issues tonight so I apologize um for not being able to get through some of that um to remind everybody the board tonight has to approve a a budget that gets sent to the county superintendent it is a temporary budget it is not a final budget it still allows the board to be able to work on their budget but they require us at this time to be able to send them something so the board gave Direction last week to uh for administration to set up a budget that we all received to be able to send over to the county and then we can continue to work on areas where we would like to see more Cuts or things that like we would like to see more implementation so again I want the public to understand that this is a um a mandated date that we have to have into the county um they require this so uh again this is only temporary and uh it gives us the opportunity uh to be able to continue to work on it so um we did have our um our Municipal Alliance meeting um this past week with the city council um to say that I did not feel it was a productive meeting is an understatement um there was um really just one item on the agenda as you all saw from the agenda um but as these meetings always do they bring up additional topics from members that are present that they wish to discuss um our side per se if you want to use that terminology but our side had numerous items that we wanted to discuss and uh their side did not want to discuss them so um we can only do what we can do on our side um so I I have to tell you I'm very disappointed I was in that meeting um it is only the um the only opportunity that we really have to be able to discuss our concerns with the city and to hear their concerns um so hearing that they did not want to discuss certain certain or any topics um it was very upsetting um I do do not and will not have a board committee um that the committee is not um active in what it does that it's not productive and thus a waste of time for committee members so we will reevaluate it going forward but if I feel that it is uh just gonna be a waste of time for for us to attend um we'll look at that but again in the past as far as I've been involved with them they have been very productive um I think through Administration um through you and the city manager they've been productive um but this past meeting was definitely the opposite of productive um so I'm just saying to my fellow board members um I am not going to ask any of you to be part of a committee that does not show progress and does not show that our concerns of the Clifton School Community can be portrayed to um to other leaders in the city so I'll leave it at that for now we'll reevaluate it and uh hopefully going forward uh Dr Daniel was just discussing briefly on how unproductive or Municipal Alliance meeting was this past week um I was just stating to the board that I will not ask anyone to sit on a committee that is not um showing any type of progress or their voice is not heard uh did you want to add anything to that or yeah I'm just being basically briefly basically telling the public and the board how unproductive our Municipal Alliance meeting was this past week because of the lack of um cooperation on discussing certain items from the other side yes um well I I think it was that you know some of the board members did want to know about you know the idea of the budget from the city side and you know it was just that um you know some members from the city Side felt that they didn't want to discuss that since it was not shored up or like give any of their input to that um so you know there were parts of the um Municipal Alliance meeting that were productive in terms of like which we'll present and talking about the the Rapport and things but when it came to some of the questions that board members here had um that was we didn't go anywhere in regard to that so we'll just have to watch the the city and see what it is that you know they're going to do with the the increase for the taxes in regard to that and then the next meeting we will you know discuss like the the sewer bill and and that because we just had that so we will put that we're planning on another one before the end of the school year so um and and I guess we'll just find out in regards to that thank you Mr Paris did you want to add anything uh we're just about that sewer bill thing um I believe the last meeting which was Tuesday that was your first reading it's a change in the ordinance so the next meeting they have I would assume is going to be their second reading policy where they will enact it so I don't know if waiting a month is going to have any impact on that discussion the thing is that the dates you know there's there's three here and three that it's so hard to get like Gates right you know like that that's that's the thing um you know to get a date in between that time I'm going away for the week I mean it could be held without me but but still um I don't know I mean you can Mr uh Dr Robert tells you can speak to how difficult it is sometimes just to get the data that's like so quick yeah I'm not sure we'll be able to certainly try if that's what the board wants to do but in any event yeah I can personally reach out to the city manager and get some pers his perspective on it um on what it is and just to make sure that we're all understanding what what what's going on um if the board would like to do that I'll be happy to to reach out to the city manager and let you know what he says Well we I'm sorry are we done with board comments these are my comments oh okay I just want to make sure yep um so I I checked with the attorney these um we will discuss this in executive session under uh attorney-client privilege um so that the board can have their questions too legal to Administration on how we want them to proceed um on this topic so uh did you want to answer oh yeah I just um if Dr robitussi did speak out about if he's going to reach out to this County I mean the city manager sorry um maybe we can come up with a list of what we do as well and what we Supply in good faith in Goodwill just as a reminder um yeah I mean I know this is your comments yeah suggested that we do with the executives what I'm concerned about is that yeah so okay yeah executive we'll do it okay all right um I have to tell you the um the most enjoyable part of my week this week was um meeting with those students at the high school Under the student liaison committee um hearing what our students feel about our schools is so very important to me um hearing there and again we started off with um the negative we asked them what not so much even negative but what could be improved in um I expected them to have a much longer list because just my experience in the past it just you know kids like to bring up things that uh maybe aren't so great or need to be improved but this group truly um did not have a lot of things to say um that were not good things happening at Clifton High School and I was so happy to hear that I was so happy to hear that they had many more positives now don't get me wrong we all know there are things that can be improved upon and um they seem to be very impressed that um that we were concerned about those things and we were concerned about um what students felt needed to be improved um they kind of just felt it was we were a group that just you know made these rules and that was it and there was no discussion no movement and they were they were quite impressed by that we were actually interested in what they had to say and that impressed me tremendously um yeah you know I I couldn't have been more proud of those students um and they were given a task their task is now they need to go back to their fellow students in their uh in their grade and tell them what was discussed and to tell them um and to get ideas from their fellow students of what topics they want to bring to the next meeting and um I'm I'm pretty confident that they're gonna have uh quite a good discussion for us on our next meeting but um I I truly was impressed with them um with their um ability to contribute to this committee um it really and their ability uh to commend those who have helped them uh teachers parents um Paras bus drivers Etc secretaries nurses they were they emphasized you know I have to let you know that this teacher was so important to me and um the summer program in which I took in the summer work and the readings and it just it just made our district which I know is great anyway hearing it from a student was great and I and I told them three things um that they needed to go out and thank right did I say three people they need to go out and thank three three groups of people number one would be their parents and their grandparents for all their support and education and everything that they do their teachers to let their teachers know say thank you to them say I appreciate your help I appreciate what you're doing and then to themselves so very important that their self-esteem is something that is very high because how can you thank others if you're not thankful for yourself so those were three things I asked them to do and to go back to their um to their fellow classmates um so again I don't want to prolong it uh any further about the budget or um this board's ability to continue to put forth the best budget that they can and we will continue to do so um on that note uh to uh to my Muslim friends who are celebrating I wish you uh all the best story in your uh especially during your one month of fasting um and um to our mock trial team um Administration I know you'll look into that but I'm sure if it has to come back to the board I'm sure it is something that we would support um and uh to our spring Sports and spring um activities that are taking place uh last week I had the uh the honor of attending um our high school play which was Chicago this year um I I just can't tell you how impressed I was not only with our students but with our stage crew with our directors with our music uh everyone down the line just that performance could have been a I would put that up against any performance in in any area um they just did a tremendous job and it just again proves to you um the talent that we have uh here at Clifton and um Vicky I know I didn't get to that specific play but I am going to get there uh to see uh how uh art and children are doing in other areas as well so um so again great focus on our kids and um they will continue to do great things and um and I do have to say one last thing I have to tell you they were so as soon as that we met with said that they were so impressed and felt such um an advancement of Pride by that we think it was something very little but it meant a lot to them the sign if you haven't noticed we put a sign up above the entrance to our gym and it's lit up at night also and it's um home of the Mustangs and students said that that sign they felt so proud that that sign was hanging that when people see it or people from other schools come into our building they know who we are that we are Mustangs and that they should be Pro proud of all that that stands for so it's not just a sign that went up these kids really appreciated it and wanted us to know that so I wanted to bring back to back to the board as well so uh that's all I have we'll move on if my computer will start we'll go to uh new business is there any new business nobody okay so I get here okay executive session second um just to let the public know we have um student matters um a turning crime client privileged matter usage issue yep and there's passwords uh usage issue um I would estimate I'm going to say 45 minutes we will probably be sooner than that but I'll give ourselves 45 minutes um motion to adjourn to Executive session we had a motion in the second roll please Mr Robert yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mr Santiago yes vice president Danny president Smith yes okay uh we hope we'll be back um no later than 45 minutes hopefully sooner action will be taken yes action will be taken okay what's that resolution number okay no I'm good thank you thank you very much I'm good I'm sure thank you thank you I'm sorry okay all right the board met in executive session uh we had student matters to discuss we had turning crime client privilege to discuss uh so we have uh one motion here that's on E8 do I have a motion please motion motion my password second by Mr Paris um any discussion seeing none roll call Honey 8.
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They're not burning or anything. Yeah, don't think. No, they're not. They're not. No, but um they're going to stretch charge hose lines in there, so they'll probably make a mess of the place. Yeah, awesome. All right. Well, I guess I'll have to go find out the date and take a picture and get a brick. I went to elementary school there. Yeah, I know. I need a brick. Okay, I'll take care of it. I've had a couple orders so far. So, send them over there with a chisel. They can get themselves. I just want I just want you to sign it for me. Oh, of course. All right. Any other questions for Dr. Long? Do I have a motion? Mr. President, I move that we accept the bid for the demolition of PRC. Thank you, Mr. Russell. Do I have a second? I second. Thank you, Mrs.
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Mr Roberto Miss Ashford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Miss Santiago yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries motion carried motion to adjourn motion by Mr Mejia second by Mr Santiago seeing no objection meeting is adjourned thank you everybody
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Counts. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Next up is accept bids for the robotics edition. I guess I can start with Dr. Arnoff. I think I'm going right. Um this evening I'm going to recommend that you um reject the bids for the robotics edition and Dr. Long's going to provide you some additional information. Thank you. Um on February 21st we opened two bids for the 1,200 square foot robotics edition. Both bids were over our budget. Um so tonight we're asking the board to reject the bids from Dolman Contractors and from Wise Building Solutions. Uh in the meantime we're working on an alternate uh way to to build this that that fits within our budget and hopefully we can stay fairly close to the same timeline, but these were just too far out of our budget for us to make that work.
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And so we're asking the board to reject them tonight. Any questions for Dr. Long. All right. Do I have a motion to reject the bids? Mr. Go ahead, Jack. Mr. President, I move that we reject the bids for the robotics edition. Thank you, Mr. Russell. Do I have a second? I second it. Thank you, Mr. Robinson. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Just for clarification, we are still working on the project. Yes. It's not like we're going to stop. No, no, no. We're we still have plans to add the 1,200 square foot addition. We're just trying to find a different way to do it that it's not as expensive and it fits our budget better, but we plan to still do that real soon. All right. Next up, second reading and approval of proposed policy revisions.
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Dr. Arinoff. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. This evening, I'm recommending that the board approve the policy revisions and Dr. Nelson will provide you some additional information. This is the second reading of this policy more. So, I think you've already seen this. So, she's just really there for questions if you have any. If you remember, this was the policy where we adjusted for the COVID language. Taking that out. That's correct. Yep. took the language out. It aligns um to our attendance policies that are written in our K through2 handbooks.
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So, any questions? I didn't have any last month either. So, n Thank you. Do I have a motion? Mr. President, I move that we approve the proposed policy revisions. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Robinson. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of approving the um policy revisions signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes 5-0. All right. Announcements. Um, our next executive session and regular board meeting will be April 11th, April 22nd. And I'm sure this will be in Mrs. Counsel's update. The Galo for the Grove at the Indiana Ruff Ballroom. I believe I see Jennifer there in the back of the room, our executive director of the Ed Foundation. And then April 24th, um, we have a special board meeting scheduled. I believe that's to accept some bids. Correct? Yes, Dr. Long.
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Yes, it'll be Sugar Groves uh phase 2 and um high school academic pavilion. Okay. Uh yes, and that's at 7 a.m. Thank you, Tracy. Um board member updates, Mr. Russell. Nothing at this time, Mrs. Counts. No, just get your tickets for the day left. Nothing tonight. Mr. D. Sorry, I I did. I'm looking right at you, Mr. Robinson. Any updates this evening, sir? I just wanted to uh give a shout out for Good for the Grove. I I I just think it's great that we're being proactive and hearing people. So, I wanted to give uh credit to Scott and everybody that wanted to do this. So, thank you. Thank you, sir. I don't actually have any updates on any of my special projects tonight. So, all right, Dr. Arenoff, I don't I'll give you the last word. Thank you. Well, thank you. I appreciate that, but I really don't have anything.
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We'll go ahead and All right. Well, with that, um, I will adjourn the regular meeting and we'll,
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um all right we're gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order I mean it's gonna remind everybody um if you're here to go ahead and sign in a visitor vlog s nobody has ever asked me how cool okay we will have approval of the agenda okay okay there's a motion by a chat and a second by Josh all those sorry discussion discussion we can't change it it's a special meeting anyway but all those in favor who say I I promotion passes and the reason we are here tonight and I appreciate everybody coming to our special meeting tonight is for discussion of the Wilson Attendance Center and particularly um to hear from this line of diocese and the discussion of a private Catholic School possibly going to the exhibit Center and with that I will let you introduce yourself all right I'm Jeff Andrews I'm the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Salina this is my third year as superintendent and prior to that I've been to the public schools and uh USD 305.
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okay so it says that we are live wonderful how are you Miss Cunningham I am well I want to welcome you and I am going to start off with a statement I know that there was an email sent today um just asking for some transparency and I'll read the last bullet of the email it says arms staff are concerned about a history of hiring practices that appear to include conflicts of interest we believe that the responsibility of candidates and anyone involved in hiring them to declare any social or commercial connections they may have with one another and that those at HR or in the search committee with such connections should recuse themselves from any involvement in the hiring process it says we believe that the superintendent and school committee should make a good faith effort to discover conflicts of interest that may hinder a fair and Equitable search and I know that there are many who have done their research and so um they've come back with faulty information and with that being said I'm just going to make my declaration and Gabrielle after I make mine you can make yours okay okay so great I have never met you I don't know you from anything or anywhere ever prior to last week when you came to interview with our district so that is me making the statement of disclosure that you and I although we share the same skin color we have never met and have no outside affiliation Gabrielle right let's share whether you know me or not from any yes affiliations right I affirm that I have not met Miss Cunningham prior to last week's initial interview um she is good company to know so I'm excited to be here with the arms community and hopefully get to know everyone much better but previously no connection all right thank you and people by the way right right um so let me start off by saying good evening and welcome to the arms principle forum so you had a chance to meet me and the other individuals who interviewed you during last week's Forum uh interview session and um basically I hope you got a good feel for our district we know that you Gabrielle are interviewing us as well as while we're interviewing you so tonight we're going to ask you a series of questions I had asked the community families and every you know staff members to send me questions that they would like to hear you respond to I received quite a few with some themes that are um going to going to that I have merged together because you know every a lot of people have the similar thoughts as to what they wanted you to respond to prior to me asking the full-blown questions the people who are watching and it says at this moment we have about 20 people um the people who are watching would like to know more about you because they like the interview committee have never seen your resume so please tell us more about you and your background wonderful thank you so much again for the opportunity to be here with the arms Community um and as a leader and as a person I've been shifting twofold first of all I'm an inclusive affirming and collaborative leader and I anchor my leadership on three things for both students staff colleagues peers parents agency voice and self-determination to make decisions for the future and that comes down to just my upbringing when I was younger I had to face some challenging decisions at a young age in high school I remember the company that my mom worked for was going to be sending jobs overseas and so she had a tough choice to make and I remember her calling me into the kitchen and saying Gabrielle I know you want to go to college but here's the predicament that I'm in with my job I can keep my job for lower wages or I can sell it and we might not have enough money to put you all the way through school and I remember at this young age being like huh you know who gets to make these types of decisions we've done everything right I've gone to school middle one high school I have helped take care of my younger brother while we were growing up I did everything right my mom did everything right as a single parent but now I'm at the finish line which really should prepare me to propel me to my future and I'm stuck with this tough choice it was from that moment on that I decided I want to be an advocate I want to go into education and I want to make sure that students that I'm working with families that I'm working with everyone in the Greater Community knows that I am a leader focused on agency voice and self-determination in the classroom I have anchored a student agency at the center both bringing the community into the classroom as well as exposing students to the Greater Community and finding parents in as partners to be a front and center part and integral part of the classroom and decision making for their students oftentimes I see that we have parents kind of on the back burner on the outline until something happens and then we want to build a relationship and we know that doesn't work for our students and it doesn't work for our families and it doesn't work for the community parents also should have a voice when it comes to decisions happening for the students and with their students I also see myself as super inclusive um affirming and collaborative we're living in times now and we always have been where oftentimes we want to isolate one part of ourselves or one part of a minority group or a kind of tier our approach to how we support the needs of everyone when really everybody's fighting for the same thing and if we come together and operate as a fist rather than isolated fingers we can accomplish a lot in our community for our students especially at the Middle School seventh and eighth grade levels where they're navigating so many different things with their identity identities let's celebrate that let's leverage that let's encourage our students to take on leadership and be their authentic selves in and out of the school building I'm also a leader that centers around Joy who wants to come to a school that doesn't have joy let's have some fun while we're learning we know we have a lot of hard work to do we know we are in MCAS testing season Miss Cunningham I know you're feeling it too but let's have some fun let's have some celebrations let's celebrate some small and large Milestones together for students and for staff and know that we're in this for the long run together so that's me I'm all about agency voice self-determination and inclusivity and self-care now I can't leave out the self-care I thought it was done but I'm also definitely sittering on self-care we have to take care of ourselves if we want to be good for other people well thank you very much for that one um first question says this is a school seeking stable and capable leadership and we have several collaborative aspirations and models can you tell us how will you evaluate create and assess a strong working Community among the faculty and staff yeah so I think about what are the on-ramps or um pipelines that we can support with establishing instructional practices instructional coaching and developmental supports for teachers in the summer time and think critically and think um intentionally about how we use that summer planning time to launch teachers into the school year while building trust while building content knowledge and while collaborating with each other to ensure that we're supporting students based on their individual needs so I'll initially I'll use that summer planning time use some PD time throughout the school year but also leveraging our teachers who are also integral stakeholders within the school community and leveraging their expertise around how do we plan how do we support how do we scaffold differentiation for all students not just our you know majority students definitely paying close attention to our exceptional learning students and our English Learners which we know we have that population in seventh and eighth grade at arms and just being an inclusive collaborative leader when it comes to how we are supporting students in their learning overall and when that comes also making sure that we have those Benchmark chunks for how we're monitoring progress over the course of the year so at the beginning of the year whether you're a veteran teacher or an honest teacher what are what is the first chunk the first month of school look like for you how are we celebrating and measuring your success if there are stumbling blocks how do we work together to help you overcome those some some link blocks same thing going on throughout the school year creating these benchmarks these progress markers for ourselves and supporting each other collaboratively celebrating success and then also if we're not meeting the mark coming together as a team because we're working on creating safe spaces to have these conversations and Coach through them oh you touched on a couple questions that I have here so this was question number seven but I'm going to ask it now since you started talking about benchmarks and such right so it says um Beyond MCAS and other standardized measures what do you consider the most useful form of data about Middle School teachers and students and their overall well-being what kinds of things do you learn from non-testing data and how have you used this oh that's a really really great question Miss Cunningham thank you for uh taking me there one of the things that I found to be a priority especially coming out of the pandemic especially for middle and early high school students is the emphasis on creating restorative and holistic supports for students and even when you think about restorative practices it's more than just having group circles where we talk about what's going on or we talk about feelings it's building this community of safeness a culture where if there is harm done if someone's offended if something happens maybe that goes beyond offense we have a safe space in our classroom but also in our greater School Community where we can talk about this if we have a situation that spirals outside of that safe space um where you know uh myself as the school leader teacher leaders parents need to be brought in we still want to think about how do we restore and repair the relationship in order to move on but we're not just having these conversations we should track the data right because data tells us everything one of the things I've been able to do in the past is pinpoint when and where some of this harm can happen or when and where pockets of Joy happen throughout the uh the school year that can be as simple as talking to the team about here's a Google form that we're using um so that we can look at when and where of course this is happening again what are the hot spots so that then I can work with a student with the family and then also with the teachers around how we can overcome this obstacle moving forward the foundation to students being successful is for them to feel safe and welcome in their classroom safe and welcome in their school regardless of their gender identity regardless of orientation race ability we want our students to feel safe because we know that when students feel safe they achieve at the highest level on MCAS and Beyond oh okay well thank you for that the um question as a slight follow-up would be what steps have you taken in previous positions to ensure the safety of all students regardless of their race national origin religion disability age sexual orientation or gender identity and then please provide specific examples of how you have created inclusive and safe spaces in the past because you talked about students and feeling safe and belonging right in the school right absolutely absolutely so a couple of steps that I would take in a couple of things that I've done in the past is to make sure that we have the right folks supporting students outside of the classroom as well as inside of the classroom but let's start with what happens inside of the classroom one of my favorite analogies that I use is making a deposit and we've all we all have bank accounts right and we all know what happens when you try to make a withdrawal from your bank account and you don't have no money in the bank right what happens you overdraft the same thing happens with students when they might be having a bad day maybe the adult in front of them is having a bad day and we try to withdraw or provide a correction or a check if you will but we haven't done the work of depositing into that student giving them positive affirmations asking them if they've had a great day making Community contact with the families early on in the school year but now we're trying to call because we need support because something happened the instructional support with that would be ensuring that teachers are building their relationships with students on the front end of the school year so that again when harm is done we can move forward as a team that will be the first step then what happens outside of the classroom who are the students support people it could be a teacher leader it could be our counselors which I know have been doing a credible work in the arms Community who are the folks that support with that holistic need of students who are the ones that have check-ins with them throughout the day who are the ones that are asking them what happened and we know that our middle schoolers can have very bold and Frank conversations with us around what happened and how are we also again because on a very data oriented person how are we again tracking the data to ensure that this doesn't become a Perpetual cycle of the same students or same you know situations how can we create those supports that students need so they can move forward and feel safe also on that same notion thinking about what are some spaces we can have for students what are they interest can we create a survey at the beginning of the year because our students are also key stakeholders in their education to ask what do you want to do what do you want to see what do you want to lead one of the things I was able to do in the past was create Affinity spaces based off of just that restorative needs for our students I had students that were grappling with some Newfound identity struggles that they wanted to navigate with so one of the things that I was really excited and proud to launch was an lgbtqia book club and we had a coming a series of coming-of-age books that I had in my restorative practice team leaders facilitate with students and in that book club they were able to ask questions be their true and authentic selves and we celebrated them each and every day regardless of what was going on in the background another piece of that was just establishing some mentorships students that were able to take on a little bit more leadership again regardless of gender identity age ability everybody was welcome in these clubs because we are fully inclusive um including them in the mentorship program and then kind of checking in with them you know because students working with students helps to move them grow them move them forward in in our mentors student mentors became leaders for the other rest of the population and then also thinking about what does student leader student leadership look like at the middle school level again our kids have a lot of bold ideas a lot of bold conversations that they want to have let's use that for the good let's let them feel empowered let's let them use their voice let's create a student council let's create some art clubs let's figure out what is their Niche and really lean into what their Niche is so that they feel empowered and want to be in school with us each and every day regardless of what's going on and who are the adults that are in front of them and around in that support with that touched on inclusion and there is a question here that talks about um the person wrote I'd like to ask each candidate how they would handle Universal inclusion and what their support for students with disability would look like what kind of commitment do you have to full inclusion and how do you intend to expand and realize um some of the programs that are here I'm not sure if you did your own research to see what programs were here but they just wanted to know how would you expand it and increase access for all students and end disparities to access so that's a big a lot combined in that statement or that question but basically how do you how would you handle Universal inclusion and what kind of supports would you offer for students with disabilities yes so the programs that are offered for our students with disabilities within the arms Community are some of the best in the country right and a part of that is also the inclusive model where all students again regardless of ability or language acquisition are able to get grade or above grade level education in seventh and eighth grade one of the things that it takes to build out a program like that and to enhance the strong program and culture that you already have in arms and is with collaboration of our intensive needs administrator is to ensure that teachers have the coaching and development that they need to support with differentiation when needed scaffolding creating some flexible learning groups how do we break off to look at the data to see which students might need to be pulled to a small group to get that individualized supports while other students are able to continue moving and doing the work on their own just being intentional around how we are using our curriculum also around how we're using the data to create some groups and making sure that literally all of our students are performing at our above grade level but it might not all be at the same pace and I know again we have our our strong instance of needs administrator we have a strong special education department that I will be working alongside uh with if I offered this position to be a part of the arms Community um to move that work ahead and ensure that all of our students are performing at the highest levels because that's what they deserve thank you for that question so here's one that um I'm going to read it says the Amherst Regional Middle School teachers tend to be vocal activists for their school and their students it says we want a principal who can work with us on the multitudes of issues that come up every year please describe how you would work with us collaboratively to reach our goals yes so keyword collaboratively and I love working alongside um vocal activists and leaders in school buildings I feel like that's how we impact change and make sure that there's a system of accountability all across the board um and there's not a top-down approach I think about our our teachers as being like some of the strongest stakeholders that we have so my role and my goal would be to really listen in on their areas of expertise and figure out how we can work together to really lean into the areas of expertise to make beautiful things happen for students but also make sure that teachers are feeling supported in the areas where they need development coaching and evaluation and as well throughout the course of the school year so it's acknowledging that everybody is bringing in their strengths to the arms community leveraging those strengths but then also identifying I am a lifelong learner Miss Cunningham I have not mastered anything yet okay I have a master's degree but I've not met I have not arrived okay so just like I have not arrived we all as Educators should be lifelong Learners to continue to lean into our practice lean into development and coaching just like I would be seeking feedback from my colleagues and from you um and from the the teacher team as well because that's how we learn and grow that's how we get better for students and that's how we become more and more effective so then what what would your plan be on how to create a it says a harmonious work environment and build a community where all the teachers can Thrive and feel heard and respected yes so creating a harmonious work environment I look at that again and I'm someone that's very uh relational I like to get to know people hear their stories and I'm also someone that believes I have to be out of the office and into the classroom and that takes early on in the school year right thinking about the summer planning time getting to know um the teachers getting to know the needs getting to know what's going on and starting to build relationships with them and then learning what their strengths and areas of focus are gradually before we get into the school year I mentioned a little bit ago the importance of deposits and depositing into students before we withdraw it's the same thing with teachers folks want to feel heard they want to know if their opinions and voices matter and I'm some one that truly believes that let's have a conversation let's have an open dialogue because again this I am not a top-down leader I'm very collaborative I want to listen and learn and know more and together we build joyful learning spaces together we will build our harmonious School culture together but it's take strong communication on the early point of the school year that continues throughout the school year I'm going to pause for a second we are halfway through the questions okay so this will be your opportunity if you wanted to get a sip of your water or just um add on to anything but we're halfway through and so I'm going to pause great wonderful and I definitely have water ready and available I think learning about the culture of the arms community and again I know that you have a scholar that is a part of the arms community and also all the things that I know to be true about the Educators and what makes the school so special and so the the role of you know whomever you all choose to become a part of the community as the principal is not to take over by any means it's to be a thought partner to help with the utilization of data to help ensure that everyone staff students families feel included and engaged as a part of the community and to really listen and help you know build something that is sustainable build something that lasts Beyond an MCAS score where people feel safe where people feel seen where people feel heard another big part that I do want to share is um the importance of having parent voice at the Forefront um I know I had you know been thinking about how can we collect information or how can we bring parents to the table all throughout the school year again I'm I love a corny joke and I love the corny deposits analogy that I keep mentioning I think you know at the beginning of the school year middle of the school year end of the school year is great to do a survey or something where we get information from parents and see you know what are your thoughts about this your Scholars uh school what are some concerns that you have do you feel like your voice is heard but I think we can up the frequency of that like really building the relationships with parents bringing them into the school having more of a um you know uh an open door policy if you will when you know with the proper you know protocol in place so that parents are at the Forefront again they should be at the table when it comes to making decisions for their students it shouldn't happen on the back end you know after the decisions are made now we're calling the parent in for a meeting no let's get that done on the front end um and that's another part of how we will create a joyful culture not just for students and staff but also for our families so I'll say that one of the questions here talks about communication I'm going to read the question and then kind of change a little bit the question is uh as uh sent to me says communication is key for most families how do you plan on keeping families informed on what is going on in the school you touched on surveys and such yes and I would say how do you reach those who are not able to share information via survey you know so give us more if you can expand on how else you would communicate outside of just the survey alone one of your questions during the interview talked about how do you reach families who don't normally come in so okay if you can touch on something like that as well absolutely so survey would be the high level initial and throughout the year touches right what are the touch points that we have we can do a survey at least three times a year but that's not building the relationship right that's just data that we get to hear the voices and the needs and the idea ideas and the opinions of parents so that we can include them as a part of building the community and building the culture um I think that in addition to the survey we should figure out who are our parental stakeholders that can help us build up some different um you know needs and communities and group parent-centered groups focus groups if you will um groups where parents can come in and talk about what's happening with the ELA department or come in and talk about this restorative practice system right that we say that we have we need to you know and help enhance and build um better over the course of the school year so the date the initial survey data will be great for launching those types of initiatives but then thinking about who are the parents that have the capacity to be some of our key leaders and then it's the same thing as networking right parents reach other parents for us maybe they know the parents that we can't get in touch with uh maybe they speak the language of the parents that we can't get in touch with through the survey or through phone calls so on and so forth also I will say a part of me is old school because I don't mind you know going out into the beautiful arms community and many people face to face and there's nothing like going to a good flea market or going to the grocery store and meeting folks um and putting face to names because there's a I believe truly in the importance of human connection and getting to know people um so I believe that where there's a will there's a way when it comes to getting in front of all of our parents and just having you know I mentioned joyful spaces joyful assemblies joyful culture but also bringing parents in to help us co-plan and co-create these joyful spaces and cultures um on the front end and not waiting all the way until the end of the school year or again when something happens to invite them to the table let's get them there to build it with us and we can do that if we're intentional about our time so you talk about the joyful spaces and building and doing all this great thing what um one of the questions that someone asked is what prompted you to apply for this position and how can you reassure the families and stuff that you will stay the course and not quit after one year okay so one of the things that had encouraged me and inspired me really to apply for the arms position is just knowing the beautiful cultures and spaces and how truly diverse the arms Community is um and then also knowing just the importance of having an impact with seventh and 8th grade students because they're at a pivotal moment in their lives they need strong um uh supports and Leadership that will hold them to high expectations but also create a sense of safety community and belonging all throughout the the school year and that's something that I've been able to do in the past as a chameleon right sometimes we have to be chameleon leaders and shift and change over the course of the Year based on the needs of our students and staff and our families but also just being consistent and that is one thing that is true about myself is that I'm extremely consistent and if we want our students to fill that sense of belonging we have to know you know that you are bringing somebody that is not going to leave after a year um that is going to stay the course and that will be there um for the long run in order to create this you know um sense of just safety and um you know collaboration in a in a place where students feel like they truly belong um and that's someone that I am right um again I've had to be a chameleon all throughout my career just because we work I work in education right so sometimes you do have to shape and shift um but I do believe in order to have a sustainable and healthy school Community you have to have someone that's going to be there for the Long Haul um so someone that truly believes in our students and that they all can achieve again all students can achieve at the highest levels um when they feel safe seen and heard and when they're also pushed um and challenged academically bring out the student s ask you to two questions it says how will you help students to feel engaged and challenged in their academic classes and then the other one says um well we'll answer that one first and then I'll go back to the next one okay no problem so how will I help students to feel engaged and challenged I think it's twofold um the first part will be supporting teachers right so we talked a little bit ago about um listening to teachers learning about their area of expertise but also learning about um what areas there are for growth in establishing that initial coaching cycle um that is a non-negotiable right because we're all lifelong Learners um and lifelong leaders in our school um so establishing that to ensure that teachers feel like they have the support they need to provide the instruction um that again is Equitable when I say Equitable meaning fully inclusive right also at or above grade level that pushes our students to think Challenge and create in seventh and 8th graders if they can do nothing else they can definitely think Challenge and create so how can we leverage that and push them at the grade level and channel that into what they're producing um academically so that's the instructional piece coaching systems high level um academic curriculum and also ensuring that students are doing the heavy lifting of the work right and this is something that myself and the teacher leaders instructional leaders will work with teachers on but then there's also that sense of belonging creating a culture where student feels like they can show up in a classroom and Thrive and perform and where they are challenged and a lot of that comes in you know different instructional moves and instructional supports that teachers will be supported with me on but also just having students feel like they are seen and heard um will be a part of the the coaching piece and also ensuring that teachers feel comfortable with ensuring that students are seen and heard and that we're creating spaces where everybody feels included like they have a voice again that whole agency voice and self-determination piece is something that we want to fully Implement collaboratively as a team so the second piece um talks about how do you plan on engaging students it says the rising seventh graders for this upcoming school year so when you by the time you start let's say if you are the can the chosen person by the time you start you would be coming and starting July 1st then you have students who are seventh grade because this is a two-year school right so you have students who are seventh graders getting ready to rise into the eighth grade how do you plan to engage those students in in our schools in our school yes they're the big they're the big dogs on campus right Rising seventh graders they're going to be the big dog on campus so really helping them to see the power of their leadership of being the eighth graders um in the upcoming school year um and leaning into that right helping them see themselves as key stakeholders helping them you know navigate the complexities of you know being in eighth grade can kind of be a tough year as well because you're going to be in high school then what do you do when you're in high school you're no longer going to have all this like protection with people supporting you and telling you what to do though you kind of have to go and figure it out a little bit on your own but setting them up for Success early on in the school year by creating this like we are eighth grade you all are the leaders of the building and now we need you to show seventh graders how it's done show seventh graders how you can achieve at high levels so seventh graders how we talk to each other in the hallways how we create inclusive spaces um have the eighth grade mentoring the seventh grader so that we have this like chain and pipeline maybe even some of the restorative practice work that we talk about doing we can leverage some of our influencers right I use the word stakeholders but all of our kids they all love YouTube and they all want to be into YouTube influencers so maybe we encourage them to influence um seventh grade or maybe even younger grades right to make right decisions just you know to to do what they need to do in school when we have challenges there's nothing like student to Student Learning um and encouragement and influence over the course of the year so I think that would be a good launch for it again talking with the other stakeholders of the building our teachers families and really just supporting eighth grade with understanding that they are the leaders of the school we need you to be a positive influence celebrating their benchmarks of success um that could be you know at the beginning of the year having a launch where we're celebrating them um in some form for just being the leaders of the school I'm having something in the mid-year you know maybe um something positive that the students can lead and lift all throughout the year and then of course as we get ready to send them off into our high school having another big celebration you know that they can plan and lead and execute because we've kind of developed them over the course of the year to take on that type of leadership and our kids will rise to the challenge they they will rise to the challenge yeah they typically do um so along with that if you want to add on here's another question that's similar it says at present we are at seventh through eighth grade school right just two years how can you create a sense of belonging for students and families during such a short time I think it all comes from um again the supports that they feel in a school and I I know we kind of have been talking all throughout this um Forum around ways that we build uh community and belonging for all of our stakeholders or influencers what is it like for students how do we get them to want to come to school on a consistent basis how do we challenge them once they're in the classroom where they feel safe seen and heard on a consistent basis how we're supporting our teachers with the differentiation and Scaffolding that needs to happen to meet the needs of all students and then how do we call in parents um uh both figuratively and literally so that they feel included as a part of the community on the front end not all the way at the end of the school year not um you know in the instance that something happens with their student during the school year so it's really kind of integrating these things not operating in isolation with just one of our stakeholders but including all of these pieces together again and acknowledging the strong culture that arms already has in order to make sure that everybody feels a sense of belonging in community all throughout the course of the school year and then some folks you know some parents might have a little bit more time that they can invest into school why not allow them to come into the school a little bit more if they have the time to support with students why not you know have this uh this kind of excitement and joyful leadership that we want to come from the students kind of spill over into the elementary school grades if we can right just kind of creating this ongoing chain once we get this type of system established that can still be on a school but I do believe and I have done again being a chameleon work that you know once you leverage leadership and once you start to reach out to our community and reach out to families and bring them in they want to be there but it takes the getting the systems in place um to make that work happen together so here's another one what is your perspective on the use of cell phones and or social media at school in the middle school years says how have you worked with families students and communities to navigate these issues in the past so it's twofold um technology in general is a beautiful tool especially now and I think it's also a tour of the tool that our students have mastered the use of Technology um probably more than both you and I have but I think there has to be a time and a place because because of social media because of a lot of different things that we have access to on our cell phones it can be a distraction right so going into the school year again and communicating with the teachers with guidance counselors and with families I do think we'll have to establish a strong plan for how we are going to um you know if we're going to use cell phones During certain points what are those points everybody has to know those points and then there's no cell phone use at other points during the day I think it's a safety a reason I think it's also just helping students stay focused on learning right and if a teacher says you know we need to use this for kahoot or for whatever interactive game we can advise permission for that during that point because again technology is a powerful tool but outside of those parameters we shouldn't be using cell phones throughout the school day in regard to um parent engagement and parent phone calls and you know parents needing to get in contact with our students definitely open you know to having them contact me or contacting the main office right that's why we have the main office if students need to get in touch with their families families need to get in touch with students that all goes through um the main office as it would you know a regular a regular system so technology can be beautiful for many reasons we can definitely leverage it but now we have to put some parameters around it um just because of safety and because of the distraction piece okay well thank you for that and then here's another one it says the Middle School competes with other private Charter and public schools as well as homeschooling as an option for the students it says how will you Market the school for maximum retention of students from the elementary schools coming up to the middle school and to potentially attract the families who have left to help them to return back to Middle School yes I think in working in a alongside you and learning alongside you and the teacher team and our parents that are that have the capacity to step up a little bit more to be influencers I think once we build out these systems restorative practices creating an inclusive engaging and affirming um School culture for all students regardless again this is very important regardless of gender identity regardless of ability regardless of race regardless of any other minority pieces pieces of themselves creating a truly inclusive culture and then calling parents into it once we get that system established right because it won't happen overnight arms have been doing a lot of great things but I know that it'll take some time to just get these systems established um and we already have a lot of great academic data once we get all those things together now we can say we are arms right we are the middle school and this is the place that you want to be this is where a lot of excitement it happens this is where the Learning Happens trust me you want to be on board with this team then it also takes getting out into the community right letting the community see not me as the principal they don't care right well they care in this form but they want to see what the students are doing again using student voice student influence who are parental influencers that can go out and speak and do the marketing on our behalf and then how are we getting with the times like the students would say and using social media to Market our school in an effective in a caring way but we have to have something positive um and something engaging in affirming to to Market over time and we'll get there you know over time and ensure that this is the place that people want to be this is where students want to be this is where the learning thriving and Leadership happens thank you for that I like how you use that word influencer yes that's the word that a lot of the young people are using yes yes absolutely but here's here's something where you know it's not it's not a positive thing but just in conversation about bullying it says Please provide examples of steps you took following reports of bullying in schools where you have worked yes um so one of the things is just helping all stakeholders in our community understand that there is a zero tolerance tolerance for bullying and it's not negotiable um in an instance of bullying a lot of fact-finding has to be has to be done so that's like figuring out what happened um getting anybody that was involved in the incident of bullying um gathering information on what happened and then working with the guidance team working with the teacher leaders or leadership team to figure out what are the steps that we have to take in order to make sure that this doesn't happen again previously I've used a combination of like the district level protocol for bullying as well as implementing that system of restorative practices right so I know arms has a whole process for dealing with bullying but what happens when in the goal is to get our students back into school right or what or to make sure that they feel safe in school so what does the system look like restoratively where our kids want to be in school right or if there is harm student to student student to teacher how are we having this conversation um hearing both sides out together as a team so that we feel safe and can move forward we can co-create a plan um to move forward in a restorative way at first it might be a little bit uncomfortable right that's why I use the word on-ramps um and providing you know positioning people well because we want to start the school year with this we can't do it in December and then expect things to to go well right we have to start the school year with these practices um and helping everybody understand that the teacher leaders teacher team um community and students understand how this this process works um and then having the folks that need to be involved in our restorative conversations involved in that again student to student teacher to student leader to student or you know whatever the case might be so it'll be a combination of the district policy first of all there is a zero tolerance policy for bullying um regardless of the event doing the fact finding that's needed right you can't jump the gun before you have all of your data and pieces in place communicating with all parties involved um and then creating that restorative um system where this happened how do we move forward together as a community and ensure that this does not happen again so your time with me is almost at the end right oh no the session was scheduled from 5 to 5 45.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
foreign good evening I'd like to call the school committee meeting for Monday March 27 2023 daughter at Stanford the Pledge of Allegiance please why the United States of America like to remind you that this meeting is being live stream on the YouTube DHS TV media also being taped by the Dartmouth Community television channels 9 and 18 for future broadcasts on a number of different uh dates and times through the week and we appreciate that if you have any cell phones pagers beepers if you would kindly put them on silent we would appreciate that roll call please Wisconsin John Nunes yep Mary wait here Kathleen Amaral here Shannon Jenkins here okay uh uh at this point we have allotted 10 minutes for public comment if anyone wishes to speak on any items tonight I will ask that if you have a question about the budget that hearing is coming up and we'll take those comments at that point in time but if you have any comments on anything else on the agenda tonight uh you're more than welcome again this 10 minutes total so please be cognizant of that time hearing none okay thank you we will move on all right next item is approval of the regular session minutes of March 6 2023 so moves second by Dr Jenkins second by Ms Waite on the motion any discussion hearing none all in favor opposed motion carries unanimously and the executive session minutes of the same night moved by Dr Jenkins second by Miss Amaral on a motion any discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously uh regular session minutes for March 20th and March 22nd which were the superintendent candidate interviews moved by Mr Oliver second by Miss Waite on the motion any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously all right student rep the student rep report Dallas good afternoon everyone so Dartmouth is in full swing as we approach senior graduation uh the end of the year for everyone uh prom is on June 1st and the senior class is really looking forward to it the senior class has done a good job of raising a lot of money to make sure the location is good so uh overall I mean I'm happy about it the senior class is pretty happy about it Senior Week is approaching as well also some good events coming up very happy about that as well um I'm aware that this is kind of a lack of information and that my job isn't entirely just to say when prom is but the student advisory Council has been pretty busy recently as APS are coming to close AP tests coming up in May so a lot of classes are starting to wind down the actual content and going into more review which is fairly intense what I'm hoping and that what should happen for next meeting is that we should have a much more robust system of student surveying per se so uh based on the items of the agenda we've been unable so far to get anything super effective going but I think that by next meeting we can definitely have something that will allow us to survey the student body in a way that allows them to tell us anonymously their thoughts on the items of the agenda so that should enable us to do our job a lot better so that's all thank you sir thank you comments questions yeah okay thank you can I ask you a question sure absolutely so so I'm just curious right I don't know if you're going to plan this to stay we have a pretty long agenda this evening but um I'm wondering if you've heard any feedback from your students who are able to visit with the superintendent candidates um while they are because I don't think we're scheduled to get to that to like 8 45 so I want to make sure if the students have some thoughts that we do get to hear them I personally so there is a um a student interview Committee in charge of uh I think they know they gave interviews to those superintendents and I haven't spoken to them personally so I'm not completely sure at what the general um thought of the student body is on the superintendents I mean I know there were um surveys put out in in terms of what the students would want to see and then I think we've observed those results in that interview committee is has done their job very well as far as I know so I think that's uh somewhat not out of my reach but out of what I know currently so that's fine and I want to be clear that we do feedback from the students I just wanted to know if you had heard anything else so we we have gotten some feedback we haven't ignored it I just thought I'd ask thank you no worries okay I'm sorry and by the way he is making he did make plans to stay the whole evening because I did give him you know with you know that's great plus hour meeting I I did give him the opportunity to opt out type of deal so we're good at that point uh Mr Rossi is everyone here okay okay so we'll welcome Mr Rossi and some folks from the Middle School up for an exciting Spotlight on kids I wanted to give a Shameless plug for Newsies Jr which will be at the Dartmouth Middle School this Thursday and Friday at seven o'clock tickets are ten dollars at the door and uh kids if I just came from rehearsal kids have been crushing it so hopefully people can come on out and see it what path do you have in that Mr Rossi before we get to this you know I will be making my debut as uh Governor Theodore Roosevelt so absolutely 18.99 very cool so on behalf of the Middle School we'd like to thank you for this opportunity to put a spotlight on our kindness Cafe it's a program we're very proud of and representing the cafe tonight we have Mrs Elizabeth Duval we have Hayden Barreto and we have Helena Sylvia so what I thought I'd do is I'd read the mission statement that Mrs default has created and then we have a video that can uh show you the team in action so the kindness Cafe is a student-run Enterprise that Services the staff of the Dartmouth middle school every Wednesday morning the cafe provides opportunities for students to learn valuable job-related skills including but not limited to counting money making change stocking shelves and reading orders the cafe also provides opportunities for students to work on interpersonal skills that include verbal and non-verbal communication the ability to handle conflict teamwork empathy flexible thinking and active listening students gain confidence and build Independence when they deliver orders throughout the school building which is the ultimate goal of our kindness Cafe so if we can chew that video up we can take a look and see what it looks like I think you may have to press play Mr Russ where am I I think we don't I don't think we have Mr pratty here we're a little bit lost yeah try it one more time Jonathan come on out coming in ah there you go [Music] Hannah's Cafe coffee tea snacks bars Etc are all offered students prints out the form request gives it to the pal student willing to deliver that day and they fulfill the order the pal student will put their name in a little caddy with the people 's name class number items and head out independent need to deliver the kindness Cafe order all money that is brought in by the cafes put right back into ordering more supplies having the cafe questions and having organization and basic social skills students will love it some prefer delivering orders better than servicing the cafe but all students have a role in the cafe success welcome to the kindness Cafe [Music] [Applause] so I do think we have some treats all right let's do it anyway okay thank you thank you awesome thank you mail I appreciate that one that's nice thank you so much beautiful perfect that's great thank you very nice thank you it's beautiful thank you so much thank you you did a great job so if you have any questions for us I think uh Miss Dupont is ready three questions this was uh great presentation it's when when did this start um we started my first year teaching so I've been there about seven years and I always knew I wanted to have some sort of like service project so I thought about popcorn and then somehow we just came up with um coffee and treats and stuff we originally started baking as part of our life skills but then once covet hit we kind of had to like readjust and change things up so now we sell all prepackaged things which is nice because sometimes teachers will contact us during the day and be like I need a pack of chips or I need something and we can deliver that so it does having the pre-packaged stuff is actually a little bit better for staff and students sure what a great program that teaches skills all around for sure and great job to the two of you thank you yeah right here yeah she's smart she's like I'll do the money part so I'll just say you know some days you wake up and you you're looking at a four hour school committee a meeting agenda and you think to yourself why am I doing this and then you come to the school committee and you remember why and this really shows that so thank you thank you thank you thank you um thank you ladies you've done a really good job it's fantastic I remember when it began when Liam was still at the school um I wonder like has there been any thought around making it like a I don't know like a poor school club and having some opportunities for yeah inclusions and some friendship building we've kind of thought about it um we used to have our community connections program which was after school so we would do some of that um during then but since covet happened everything kind of like adjusted a little bit and I think we're finally now getting into like having learning Partners back in and so I do hope that we get to you know open it more up then because the kids always ask me like can I buy something yeah what about me can I come even just to learn that skill themselves and to learn from your students have you know the learning Partners learning from your students right is something that might be beneficial really great job Larry oh yes um just a great job it's so wonderful to see them navigating everybody navigating around the hallway and I just know if I was a teacher having coffee brought to me in the morning um would just bring a huge amount of my day so uh so thank you so much for this presentation and for all you guys do and the school to to make the teachers a little bit the day is a little bit brighter and happier so thank you thank you thank you very much and just curious how many orders do you deliver during on a Tuesday usually we get we have our regulars and then there's some people that are just kind of contact me during the day and be like can I have chips and bring out my chips or can I have this um so and every year kind of like grows and grows and um yeah so that's super that's good good luck thank you thank you and thank you thank you thank you thank you so much all right next item for the middle school PTO with their consent agenda for their fundraiser I don't know if anybody can I'll move approval Mr chair by Dr Jenkins second by Ms Wade on the motion any discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously all right so to say that we are way ahead of schedule would be an understatement uh thinking a little bit out of the bikes which I know is dangerous sometimes do we want to take a take up the uh superintendent search and discussion now and vote where there's no set time for this one so I mean we can't we can't start the budget here until 6 35 at the earliest interview scan interview to Canada I mean number one they're probably not even here yet with all due respect which is fine type of deal but what I would you know we want to take take up uh the superintendent selection type of deal I'm good with that sure so that works okay all right so anyone let me let me just that just general uh I just want to seriously take uh this opportunity to thank everyone that had a big Park in this uh uh from the interview committee to uh everyone that went on the site visits to the different communities whether it was via Zoom or actual travel uh to also helping out when the candidates were here you know going around town in such a the students that you know and everyone that was in you know gave up over their time to uh to meet with meet with the candidates and such it's it's appreciated it's uh it's a yeoman's work job and a lot of work time and effort goes into it and I for one uh having done this a number of times greatly appreciate everybody's effort Chris Shannon you know being the members on that committee you know I know there were several late nights types of deal just a few I know so but uh thank you so with that I'll open it up to my committee members Shannon so I'll have to say I'm I'm a little bit torn but I think perhaps from seeing the feedback and from my own experience it seems to me that this comes down to two candidates it seems to me that it's uh Miss Saba McGuire or Mr Girardi seemed to be the majority of feedback that we received was about the two of them and so to me it's between those two and I see strengths in both of the candidates and so honestly I don't know right I'm interested in hearing what you all think about this because I see different strengths from both of the candidates I've heard from a lot of different people about half of them have said they liked one half of them like none of you all are any help to me the comments seem to be about 50 50 so I'm interested to hear what other people think but my thoughts seem to be that there seems to be two clear Front Runners and maybe we should focus our discussion on those two unless people disagree no that's fine I agree Chris yeah so first of all I want to Echo everything that you've said um being on the screening committee and with Shannon and everyone else that took part in it uh it was this was a thorough transparent process that I'm I can say that I'm extremely proud of the way that this committee as well as our staff as a whole in Dartmouth has represented us and represented this town I'm extremely proud of the job that everyone has done with that starting right from the screening committee and and forwarding originally four names but um ultimately three names there were good strengths and qualities about each of the three I believe we had a lot of positive feedback phone calls emails speaking getting stopped in in the mall or Supermarket or wherever we may be but I I do at the end of the day agree with Dr Jenkins that I think in my opinion that this does come down to two two candidates and so with that there's this is a tough one because I I see a lot of positives and strengths among each of them and thank you for all the feedback and it was split I do agree it was split right down the middle um I I've done my research I've I've done all the follow-through and I'm I'm really torn right now I I you know I think each of them could lead this District into the future um and be the person to represent us and I think we can each of them would get there in their own way I'll leave it at that right now oh that's fine I'll reserve my seat my speaking and let someone else Kathleen I I really don't have much different you know thoughts to share I agree that I feel that um between the two and um you know kind of going into it admittedly I I was I had a a bias leaning toward Dr Stephen McGuire um you know I was trying to remember okay that's because you sat in on the visit you know I try to like separate myself and forget who they are but and try to be as Fair as possible but I felt that um you know she did have some a lot of great strengths I loved the way that her colleagues spoke about the incredible support that she's been to to them over the years um and and I and I liked how she spoke about you know looking through that teacher lens that on the ground boots on the ground I also though after the interviews and again getting the feedback which was helpful but yet not helpful because it was split down the middle and you know you read an email or you read a comment from the survey as to why one over the other and they were all very similar and um Dr Girardi what I did appreciate about him in the interview was the way in which he was shared stories and um had a strong emphasis in his interview about his compassionate leadership and about you know family and health and wellness first of his staff and I thought that that is certainly something that our district can benefit from having that kind of leadership um and so I don't know that I want to say I'm leaning towards Dr Girardi because I do feel that I um I think it's a it's it's a good position to feel that you know no I I it's not good to be indecisive but the two candidates as CR to Chris's Point um could lead this district and I feel that the surveys told us that others felt similarly that they it's it's about the two of them they're the the overarching top two strong choices so one or the other I I don't know that I would you know not support uh you know perhaps I'll make a motion in a minute but no um but I wouldn't necessarily not support emotion I don't feel that yeah they both have good good skills so I'll just leave it at that without rambling thank you Mary yeah so you know of course you know I feel also it's down the two candidates and uh you know I was part of Dr Arty's virtual site visit at that point I was you know very impressed by the way that his staff spoke about him coming specifically down into their offices rather than you know they had to approach him um are you going to listen to a parent who said you know she disagreed with the results of a conversation she had involving her daughter with Mr Girardi But ultimately she felt listened to and you know and she she thought the process was very again like transparent and fair um you know teachers and staff spoke about his you know again compassionate leadership and that stuck with me coming out of Monday's interview I think it was clear that Dr Saban McGuire was the standout you know and I really thought and agreed with all of your observations about the fact that you know she was very focused she had the very specific examples to explain like initiatives she took in and brought in and for good or for bad and how she she was a listener a productive member of a team creating a coalition to move forward I still think after you know watching both candidates Dr gerardi on stage I am leaning to Dr gerardi um I think that his the diversity of his experiences in different districts will serve us well that is one thing I noted when we got some feedback and again it was really I think we'll be in great hands with Dr C McGuire if we go that direction but I do think it's helpful to have someone who has such a different lens of projects that they've LED in different towns you know I know you know we're looking for you know I'm not Ford we are probably anticipating some serious building projects He has that experience he also notably LED Moon socket through a budget crisis and again that's certainly something that we're going to be dealing with as well I knew that there were some concerns around the new confidence vote and I did investigate that you know it seemed to be among like Asbestos and some other issues you know I will say like you know reading into that a little bit more and maybe you know my colleagues here have some more insight on that it seems to me that those were tests that you know he did not have the that full information hadn't been put out there for him either so he was you know trying to make the best decisions he was given the information that he had um but again I'm certainly open to what my colleagues have found out about that that was the one hitch and you know as I went through my decision making I do think that he'll be a strong leader who is able to bring people together and I'm hoping that he can convey and I got the sense that he will be able to go into the community and convey our needs and be a real marketer for for the town and you know our financial challenges ahead and so we really need someone who's going to be forward-facing I've also been impressed as I went through by every single person in every District talked about his tremendous work ethic his kindness and his willingness to go you know really out in the district staying Friday nights late at Block Island to get to games that parents didn't even go to so there were a lot of different things but again I want to step back and say I also think Dr Steven McGuire will be excellent as well I just you know given the wealth of information having to make a decision between the two I just would lean towards Dr gerardi that's thank you Mary I kind of agree with I I agree with my colleagues we've got I think uh two out of the three in loving be clear I appreciate the fact that the search committee brought four candidates they were all good there's there's no doubt about that type of type of deal uh one withdrew after the site visit and that's that person's uh prerogative type of deal but you know the other three candidates did uh did Shine uh their visits three of two of the three because you I did not do Brockton uh which was by zoom and snow was was the one I did not do but it listened you know we've got two good candidates I agree either one of them is going to be perfect that is going to be good for this District I have my thoughts you know who who it should be and who I'm leaning to towards and you know again yeah I agree Shannon Chris it's 50 50 split with the surveys and and everything else so and thank you to everyone who participated you know but as I've also said to my colleagues a number of times this comes down to our decision and such so that's where we are and that's where we where we go so okay so that being said well Dr James so you know Miss Lee brought up and and I do while the issue of the no confidence vote was about building facilities um I do have some really deep concerns about that this wasn't like a close vote where maybe right I just ran the numbers again 95 percent of the staff voted no confidence 72.5 percent of those of the total number of teachers voted no confidence 87 percent of the teachers that voted voted no confidence and it was primarily about building conditions but it was also about transparency trust and communication and that worries me a little bit um I don't know it's like the risk reward right I feel like both of the candidates are very good and be good in that no confidence makes me a little bit more concerned about the potential risk and I don't know how to interpret that uh interesting listening to Mary talk about the the difficulties moving forward the budget I I do have to I feel that um in reading the comments and then speaking to some folks I feel that Dr Saba McGuire and again okay here I am talking about my having been in the home visit and having the luxury of feeling like I know her a little bit more in her home visit what folks talked about and then she met with us at the end of the day as well via Zoom and I don't think she really let it all out there at her interview but what she spoke about that was impactful to me is that she always leads with her why so she gets the buy-in she finds she she wants to to build that you know the that team process she um when talking about transitioning from a level five to a level one school somebody made a comment about the teachers and she said it's never about the teachers it's the same teachers that were teaching when we were level five that are teaching that it when it was transformed within throughout her leadership and so she said you know it's never about the teachers she's always thinking about how you know what it's like in the classroom and and and and then her reasons for for coming to Dartmouth she feels that having had the vast sort of um responsibilities in her role in Brockton coming to a smaller District like Dartmouth she feel feels that something that she looks forward to is what she said so that she can spend more time in the buildings and um in a way I I can imagine the responsibility of such a large district and coming to ours that it would be something to look forward to to be have more time with that relationship building so I just felt like I wanted to also I'm sorry I went on a little tangent the why and then the why and then having that deep why um and being able to get buy-in because she's so passionate about selling whatever it is that she needs for the school so she did talk a lot about that in the in the visit and she really didn't represent herself that way in the um in the interview which was unfortunate but um so I put that out there to confuse y'all a little bit more Chris did you have your hand I did yeah okay sorry no no that's all right so we have two candidates here we have one uh June Dr saber Maguire comes to us with 29 years of experience in an urban School setting She interviewed extremely well I felt on both occasions it sounds like the site visits went very well we've gotten positive feedback from her I mean I'm sorry we've gotten positive feedback from our staff about her um she seems as though she has a vision in her head of where the future of Education needs to go or where she would like to take Dartmouth it is a little concerning that all have her 29 years is in Brockton um with that we also on the flip side of this I think I kind of alluded to previously when I was talking that both candidates I feel could take this District to the next level in different ways it's all about in my opinion it's all about relationships in building your team up being visible getting buy-in from our staff members our parents our stakeholders the town hall certainly important to have a good relationship with them at the end of the day I think this comes down to who is going to be able to Embrace Dartmouth and gain the respect and understanding of our staff because let's face it you know when I first came on 10 years ago Dartmouth was in this school system was in a much different spot it's why I got on this committee and I just want to make sure that whoever we get can earn the trust of not only the school committee but our of our Educators our faculty and staff that leads me to Dr Girardi in which sure I I certainly agree with Dr Jenkins concerns around the vote of no confidence I will say that being an education myself and seeing a lot of moving parts and with the multi-hazard plan which uh the the asbestos plan is certainly it's concerning the the article this is just one example this is one article we all know how the news sometimes can skew spin or or skew people's perceptions I did like the public interview with Mr with Dr Girardi his is wamped and a personality that's not to say that Dr Stephen McGuire um you know would was different in her interview but I just I felt as though that came out a little more in the public interview and in hearing some of the the comments from staff like I said I think both of these candidates can take us to the next level it comes back to though in my opinion that we need to make sure that we're looking at how can we build a cohesion how is this person going to take our our building blocks which is our central office team our building principles our Educators teaching assistants our support staff and and build them up which one of these candidates are going to do that everything yeah I think the challenges I think they both will and again to your point in different ways you know I I mean I again like it's I think the numbers that Shannon you know put out there Dr Jenkins excuse me put out there regarding the new confidence vote I think that is that is concerning because it is you know even if we can say like an article excuse I mean those numbers are the numbers of folks so I mean again that's hard I mean I that is my one hitching point you know along otherwise I think for me it would be definitely Dr gerardi but it's one of the reasons I want to talk about that um I agree with you I thought his warmth was conveyed but there's no doubt that Dr David McGuire is a huge Champion for her staff I mean that was something that you know was conveyed during the course of her interview and again in all the exits from those folks who attended that you know interview on Zoom so I don't you know again I'm stuff and it's I'm torn again I would lean towards Dr Girardi still but I that is you know I I could go either way because I that is something for me that is in concern and we are going to be asking him to run a large likely some large building projects so I've since the interview night and you know I've done the research on there must have been an article someplace that somebody forwarded to you because I never saw that one on the uh the no confidence vote type of deal which is fine I'm good but I've have leaned in even with the research I've done and calls that I've made I have leaned towards Dr saber Maguire and such I think she's the person that will lead this District stable is one thing that comes to mind you know the 29 years in the district you know moving through the ranks type of deal whether you know from you know teacher and administrator and now you know yes she's only been in that position a couple of years but still it's you know a new position that was created so that's why she's new at it so I you know with Dr gerardi you know yes like I said you know yeah we've got two good two two people that we've got to talk about but my leaning is in all services to Dr saber Maguire but again Shannon well yeah maybe hell is Raising over I'm just kidding because we're in agreement oh my God I'm just kidding usually when there's a splits and I are not on the same side but we are I agree with you Mr noons and I'm going to reference I'm gonna go back to the site visits the summaries that Mr Kylie sent to me us all of us and the site visit for Dr Saba McGuire was long long list of positives very very very positive things with very little in terms of areas of concern for the people who did the site visit conversely for Dr Girardi the strengths were a little smaller in the areas of concerns were larger in part because we were interviewing in a district where you know he's only part-time he's only been there you know and that was one of the things like I wish we could have heard we could have done a site visit or you know something there but there's it's not just about that in the areas of concern from the people who went on the site visit so again joking aside sorry Mr noon but um I I think I would agree with you that that's the way that I'm leaning Kathleen can I just ask a question that we probably don't know the answer to but as we sit here at this moment do we know of any pending offers because we do we do but nut offers but decisions decisions doc Dr saber Maguire is a finals in Hudson and according to the town website the school committee is supposed to be meeting at seven o'clock tonight to make their decision oh Chief good thing we're out of schedule yeah which is kind of one of the reasons I was hoping we would to move this up but seriously you know I do not know about Dr I'll do Dr gerardi and Dr schwam I know nothing to be honest doctor and let's do the Kylie do you know of any besides that no okay thank you Mary so just you know reflecting on this it seems that there are you know there is a concern about Dr gerardi at least in the no confidence whereas we don't have any you know everything is more or less positive with Dr Seaman McGuire so you know again if we're going to you know go through the the process it sounds that you know I mean I'd be fine with that like leaning towards Dr Stephen McGuire for that reason again I not just that reason I mean obviously she's an incredibly talented person but I can you know looking at this from that lens in terms of like Coalition building around stakeholders I mean that is a piece of it okay um I'm sorry I'm trying to listen to her and I didn't see you I'm sorry Chris yeah I I I appreciate you my colleagues comments and for me coming into this evening I I was completely open-minded I wanted to hear everyone else's I did too I did too me too I I think it was important um and I am comfortably sold therefore I would like to make a motion that the Dartmouth school committee appoint Dr June Sable McGuire as the next superintendent of schools pending contract negotiations second okay moved by Chris second by Kathleen on the motion any other discussion hearing none go ahead nope I was going to interject a joke that's not really funny so I was trying to get onto the website to see what Hudson pays per pupil but um that was a bad joke and that wasn't a joke but yeah I'm making it a bad joke now but anyway all right no my website wasn't working computers are wonderful when they work yes okay any other comments or questions all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously so it is the unanimous opinion of the diamond school committee to appoint Dr June saber Maguire of uh the assistant superintendent one of the assistant superintendents at the city of Brockton as our next superintendent of schools pending contract negotiations at this point in time I'm going to take a recess Chris Shannon one of you I've got contact information for Dr McGuire if you want to go out and make a phone call and let her know I will do okay all right the committee will be in recess we'll be back as soon as we can thank you [Applause] you know that's right thank you very much welcome we are back in Open session it is uh 6 29 according to my wonderful watch that doesn't work all the time Mr Oliver so I contacted uh Dr saber Maguire and she and she graciously accepted the position that mean contract negotiation yes [Applause] she said she was very excited to start our work together and she's looking forward to the next steps beautiful good good thank you and again in all services my thanks to everyone that had a hand in this okay so yeah okay we are still a little bit ahead of schedule only because of uh budget hearing and the time the time that we have on that so uh we're going to kind of a couple 6 35 so five minutes we've got five minutes so give or take and again if we started at 6 39 it doesn't you know certainly but you can't start early you can that's right so um one of the things that I asked uh Mr Kiley to put on the agenda uh was for a reserve fund from the town's Reserve fund to cover the cost of the superintendent search we've done this before we did it when we hired Dr Gifford just because of the timing of that it wasn't an item that we had budgeted for type of deal on so uh you know to to make this transfer and to pay this bill it's got to be it's got to come from a line item someplace different you know affecting you know student services or wherever wherever it it comes from so what I would like uh uh to do is to uh get the paperwork you miss the guy that get the paper work from town hall and fill out a request for a reserve fund transfer which is uh to uh to cover the cost of the superintendent searched with uh masc and all the other incidental expenses that goes with it just so everyone is aware chapter 40 section 6 is uh Reserve funds for Extraordinary expenditures establishment and section 6 says to provide for extra extraordinary extraordinary and unforeseen expenditures a town May at an annual a special town meeting appropriate a transfer of some of Awesome's not exceeding the aggregate five percent of the levy of the fiscal year proceeding the fiscal year for which the fund to be known as The Reserve fund is established no direct drafts against this fund shall be made but transfers from the fund may be made from time to time to be voted by the finance or appropriation Committee of the town in towns having such a committee and in other towns by the Selectmen and the town accountant and towns having such an official or in other towns the auditor or Board of Auditors shall make such transfers accordingly so what this means is the finance there's an article at town meeting to fund the reserve fund for this which is extraordinary and unforeseen items and the finance committee has control of those funds and that's where we have to go with it so that's what I would like to do and yes this this is we did it with uh with Dr Jank uh Dr Gifford when we hired her yeah and that because that was the same year that we also had uh back-to-back storms over three or four weekends of like 10 or 12 inches apiece so I also went to them and said give us money for the snow the XD extraordinary snow removal and they just kind of looked at me and I went if this had been weekend storms with two inches that we could you know push off with a broom I wouldn't be here but we've had to hire equipment and extra salt and every you know additional overtime charges so that was the logic I used with that also so so we we good with that okay Mr Kyle if you get the paperwork I will committee want to vote on that want to vote on it yeah um if there was a request to reserve on transfer to um to cover the cost of the superintendent search a second moved by Dr Jenkins second by Ms Wade on the motion any discussion Mary uh Shannon I'm sorry I'll just know you know we're soon going to hear that we're not looking at you know a great budget year next year and we're going to have to move things like supplies potentially onto School of Choice so to the extent that we can I mean we do this that you must Dartmouth if you have some money left at the end you can pre-purchase supplies we can do that I'm hopeful that this Reserve fund transfer can help set us up a little bit for avoiding some of the pain of next year yeah so I think it's a good idea all right Automotion all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously boy is that good time right on the DOT all right so it is now 6 35 and I will open the budget hearing on the FY 20 proposed FY 24 school budget Mr Kylie we advertised the budget hearing appropriately and are prepared to hear any comments from the public on it thank you all right excuse me okay at this point in time anyone who has any comments on the budget for fy24 I will invite you to the podium I will ask that you do state your name for the record so that we have a record of it anyone okay last chance and I'm not trying to be not trying to push okay thank you we will close the public hearing penny so that takes care of that all right uh why don't we do this why don't you talk about the budget while we're on it okay okay it might take a few minutes that's fine okay we're good so um we appreciate um the fact that you know we've we've had some discussion about this this proposed budget and we're currently proposing a budget that has a 5.1 percent increase and we understand that that uh funding for that budget presents some challenges so I've provided you folks with some information uh an acknowledgment of those challenges um that would focus on reducing the FY 24 budget based on some attrition and other factors that we feel we can focus on that would still minimize the impact on students and I'll just talk a little bit about each one if you have any questions stop me anytime so the adjustments that we're proposing tonight are as follows we received a resignation for an instructional technology specialist you might recall that we had increased the district's instructional technology Specialists with Esser funds last year in a one-year position we've continued we decided it was worthwhile great value for the district and we continued that into year two which is this year for that position but we recognize that the Esser funds are coming to an end and given the fact that we have an opening right now it makes sense to address that in this in this fiscal year 24 budget so our proposal is to not fill that position for fiscal year 24.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
to my left is Father Fred Gadget he's the pastor at the Cathedral at Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Salina he's the bigger General so kind of the vice Bishop I guess if you will and then Dr Nick compignon Dr campagnon has been with the son of diocese since 1977. he just retired last year he's been my mentor as superintendent he's our public policy and accreditation consultant as well and he does work at the state level with private schools for us so um he's been a great uh I guess benefit for me in this role as superintendent so just want to tell you guys a little bit about our diocese so you know how our schools uh act and then so I've got a 17 minute video if you know we feel like we've seen enough of it we can hit pause and we can move on and just discuss and then I've got a proposal that I'll present to you guys that's one page and and then we can kind of answer some questions and go from there so thank you so much for having a special meeting just for us to come to Cleveland tonight we really appreciate it so uh Mr lower if you can hit play this is from our five-year accreditation cycle that ended last spring Central Northwest Campus and covers over 26 000 square miles there are 86 parishes and 15 schools in 10 different counties schools represent a vital part of any society and our major source by which the wisdom and culture of a people are passed to new generations Catholic schools reflect the importance of integrating the Catholic faith with the educational process therefore the church sponsors and supports schools as the major vehicle for pursuing its Teaching Ministry in order for the church to carry out the goals of this ministry the Catholic Bishops in the United States have established nine characteristics that define the Deep Catholic identity centered in the person of Jesus Christ contributing to the evangelism contributing to the evangelizing mission of the church distinguished by excellence committed to educate the whole child steeped in a Catholic world sustained by gospel Witness shaped by communion and Community accessible to all students and established by the expressed authority of the bishop the governance of the Salina diocese is headed by very Reverend Bishop Gerald Beach Bishop he enjoys visiting schools and talking with students teachers and families about their faith and education each grade school is operated by a local Parish this line of diocese has two Diocesan secondary schools Thomas More preparing and Hayes and Sacred Heart and Salina other secondary schools in the diocese are operated by their local Parish all schools are under the supervision of the Diocesan superintendent working with local advisory councils of Education leadership consists of Pastor and principal for each School the diocese follows compliances which were which were applicable were applicable at Kansas State School Board the diocese also works alongside and follows compliance issued by ksde this includes teacher licensure educational standards and health and well-being of students our commitment to the ksde foundational structures are embedded throughout our schools these foundational structures are supported through the Office of Education on this planet of the Salina diocese the mission statement flows to the schools that are served in the Salina diocese the related studies were started at the beginning of the cycle and set up our Diocesan goals these studies are from the local state and National level since 1993 all the schools in the Salina diocese have been accredited through North Central ncea Advanced day using the cognia standards in this cycle all the schools followed a district model in seeking accreditation this will also align with seeking accreditation with ksde each year ncea collects National Data that mirrors the Mayhill strategies for the first time in two decades ncea reported an increase in enrollment in Catholic schools across the United States there are over 1.6 million students in Catholic schools over 21 are racial minorities for the 2021-2022 school year the Solana Diocese Catholic schools has 2253 students in prepaid through 12th grade this is a 2.7 increase from the 2020-21 school year over this cycle enrollment in the diocese has sustained the five high schools have 373 students enrolled and the diocese has received the Gold Star Award from ksde for post-secondary success enrollment Trends during the last three years have been stable overall even during a global pandemic the preschool numbers include both three and four-year-olds and therefore results in a higher number than the single grade shell considering the communities that have Catholic schools have lost population or disciple and the impact of covid the schools of this line of diocese have continued to be consistent with enrollment numbers and in some locations have even seen growth students across this line of diocese have consistently had high daily attendance rates averaging nearly 97 percent this indicates that students have a desire to attend school even with covid these rates did not waver modified quarantine classrooms were utilized instead of remote learning thus keeping students in school the Salina diocese has a large majority of fully licensed teachers in our classroom this indicates a Diocesan Community to retain quality teachers in all of our schools in our last accreditation cycle there were concerns as Financial liability enrollment growth and the communication of each school's mission to the wider community Diocesan and National studies indicated that these strategies which help to shape our goals for the current accreditation cycle there's a lot of diocese helped create a school communication plan including recruitment strategies public relations brochures websites and newsletters were enhanced the goal was to increase enrollment and maintain viability the diocese invested in the Communications Department that was tasked with web page to create social media engagement and Publications the webpage exists to promote and inform stakeholders as well as a landing spot for all schools the communications department has also spread the good news about Catholic schools throughout the Salina diocese utilizing social media platforms monthly newspaper quarterly magazine and even a podcast through this cycle the challenge of the pandemic did affect operations due to the shutdown of the school in March of 2020.
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