and so I believe the most important question right now once again is basically why should we trust you with your candidacy as the possible next potential leader of the Middle School like what can you bring to us that we haven't heard other people say that they can bring and um and and how would you be here to basically help us um as a school yes um again my whole Focus has been to be collaborative thoughtful inclusive but also centered around agency voice and self-determination for our students teachers and our Greater Community including our parents um as a leader I'll bring a lot of focus a lot of instructional supports which is something that I'm deeply passionate about supporting teachers so they can in turn support students of course using data as our roadmap not an indictment but a road map because it helps us plan for the future and how we move forward whether it's dealing with systems of restorative practices or working towards MCAS or whatever our Benchmark assessment is but also thinking about what does Joy look like yes we're we're gonna do the we're going to do what we need to do to make sure that we're meeting our mark on MCAS and then identifying how we can get you know students to continue to increase their score of the year but how do we have fun in school how do we have fun in a way that's responsible in school how do we leverage student and parent leadership in our school and those are things that I've been able to do in the past and things that I would love to bring to the arms Community um in a very inclusive way I'm also someone that believes that everybody again is a lifelong learner no one has is the end-all be-all so keep in keeping that in mind leveraging what teachers would like to see implemented what do families want to see implemented and how can we encourage our students to take on different leadership positions throughout the school as well I'm also someone that has walked the walk again I still have a lot to learn a lot of room for growth and I know that the arms Community won't let me fall shy of my growth but I'm someone that has literally walked the walk when it comes to building out these types of systems and I'd love to be a part of the arms Community to support with the development and implementation of these systems but also learn about the beautiful culture that I know you have already well thank you for that um trying to see here how I can move you to the back of the system the process so that you're not on on McCall as I'm speaking but since I don't know how to do that I'm just going to say well thank you so much for being here and sharing who you are with the individuals who were able to join us today this meeting this session is recorded So anyone can go back at a later time to watch the session and just um we play it as many times as you need to to hear what Miss Jackson has stated in her comments and in her responses to the questions that are asked can I there are a couple of questions in the chat do we have time it is 5 47.
we also received a recent notification of a retirement for an instructional coach we are proposing not filling that position um so our plan is to make sure that all buildings have support but there clearly will not be the same level of support but we understand what we're facing ahead we have a vacancy and we feel like we need to address that right now so we would not fill that position and we would reallocate support we have one which I've never seen this in this District but we have one Elementary classroom teacher retirement our proposal is to look at class size and adjust class size in a lower class size grade that would fill that role so it's not that we're not going to replace that particular staff member in their role but overall in the district we would look at areas of very low class size and adjust accordingly we have the same situation with we already have a proposal for the preschool classroom teacher sorry Mary I'm so used to looking to the left I'm not used to looking down that side of the table but um so similarly we would propose that in an effort to um to reduce a request that we would look at class size as a way to to adjust and we feel we can do that with limited impact on on students the other the other issue that I think we need to you know we need to look at in some way and Dr Jenkins brought it up is to shift some supplies into the school choice budget we are proposing shifting fifty thousand dollars of supplies into the school choice budget at this point hopefully um you know that will make a difference it's not staff so there's not quite the same level of commitment although these are supplies that we need and we will need next year and we will need the year after that I mean we're not we're not the type of organization that has fifty thousand dollars worth of extra supplies it's not it doesn't exist so we do need to think about that long term but at this point we felt it necessary to do that so those reductions would result in a savings of 361 343 dollars so what was a 5.1 percent budget proposal is that would would um now be a 4.4 budget proposal again our attempt is to minimize the impact on students with these cuts 311.
despite those hurdles enrollments to stay the schools also took advantage of government funding and coverage to recover from Financial losses the average cost to educate a child in this line of diocese in the most recent fiscal year was seven thousand five hundred seven dollars and 85 cents the schools of this line of diocese are funded through church subsidy tuition fees fundraising and development and also receive grants throughout the diocese the majority of funding comes from each Parish many of our schools participate in a variety of federal funding the focus of these funds with an estimated total of 8 million dollars covered several important areas professional development of teachers increasing the number of paraprofessionals establishing tutoring programs as well as counseling and Health Services at an enrichment overall technology Improvement was made possible Summer Academy was created and we also received equipment to mitigate covid the Salina diocese established a scholarship granting organization scholarship granting fund for the Catholic Diocese of Salina to utilize the state of Kansas tax credit scholarship program this year the sgo awarded 171 thousand dollars in scholarships for students in grades K through it through eight throughout the diocese these scholarships help students from low socioeconomic backgrounds schools across the diocese implemented strategies to reach out to communities in dealing with social emotional issues professional development was focused on the seven themes of Catholic Social teaching to help teach on social justice issues a majority of the schools have used frenzy but social emotional tool in the classroom to teach positive behaviors and interactions with peers the seven themes of Catholic Social teaching has also been shared in the register which is the Salina diocese newspaper the results from the ncea's Mayhill study in 2016 rebuild Catholic schools vitality and reasons why parents involve their students using the cognia platform this line of diocese created a parent perception survey modeled in the medical study according to those surveys the top reasons why parents enroll their children at our schools include Catholic identity class size and school reputation using the same survey there were a few challenges noted by our parents although still receiving over 75 percent strongly agree or agreed parents stated that our schools could improve overall in promoting a diverse learning environment student respect towards each other and keeping the parish informative activities these will be areas where our schools will look to make significant improvements listening to all stakeholders is important for our schools during this cycle teachers also completed a survey a teacher survey on the climate and culture of each building was conducted through the cycle generally teachers have a positive have positive perceptions of their school abilities in regards to expectations teachers feel that students are learning students are able to explain their word and students are understanding what they're learning according to the latest Elliott observations high expectations were observed in our classrooms at a 3.41 out of four point scale in regards to teachers completing their work they feel deliberate patient and calm and describing how teachers work with colleagues they respond to their caring hopeful supportive and honest and referencing recent data for million observations well-managed learning was observed at a 3.63 on a 4.0 scale students in grade three for five were given a climate survey asking for responses on the classroom and school environment students described our schools as caring fun and honest when sharing of the activities they do most often in class is reported that students most often listen to teachers think work with others and write our students also report the complete worksheets and only work on short term and long-term projects fifteen percent of the time this implies there's a need for more active learning using project-based learning students in grades 6 through 12 are given a climate survey asking for a response on the classroom and school environment students responded they are learning seven percent and understanding 54 of the time since we see perceive the teachers as honest caring and fun and students also report when working with a teacher they listen they know to ask a teacher and they hear things from the teacher like we will be working on and explain it the general climate of interactions with adults and building a respectful helpful and supportive while in school however our students report feeling tired forward and challenged implications of these challenges perhaps of this that the secondary buildings may look into building modifications or improvements to meet 21st Century Learning and the latest accreditation cycle the visiting teams know that a need for integration of technology in the classroom while the infrastructure was in place it was not fully developed Elliott observations also indicated a need to improve the area of active and digital learning a technology plan for pre-k-12 included strategies for technology at each level a stream curriculum was outlined at the Diocesan level a consultant was hired by the diocese to facilitate stream at the voting level Covenant did impact the progress of implementing this curriculum a positive outcome occurred as we recognized our need to adapted our program to accommodate remote learning new platforms programs and devices set a foundation to enhance digital learning with help from the Communications Department at the diocese a web page was created to share the great things happening in our schools with stream learning a logo was created to help raise awareness to stream learning and multiple pictures were added to show our students in action a visitor can look at stream in each area as well as read about the 10 characteristics of a streamed School s also share stream learning activities on their own social media pages so parents and parishioners can see the diverse learning happening in the classrooms over the cycle students in the Salina diocese has consistently performed well on state assessments when compared to the state with 43 to 45 percent of students scoring on level three or four on maps State assessments the Iowa Test of Basic Skills data in math was used to monitor progress for streams during the years of 2018 to 2022 the data shown Compares Iowa assessments from 2018 to 2022.
okay and let me see let me try Okay there are two so it says can you tell us what you know or understand about the community of Amherst and how would you bring the understanding of Amherst culture to your work and arms yeah so when I know about um the community of Amherst is that it's a large community of activists um but also a very diverse and inclusive community and I know that um combining the inclusivity um that is in the Greater Community into the school again by making sure that all voices are heard and that students um feel included and safe in school is going to be a big part of what I bring and help to enhance within arms so thank you so much for that question Miss um Miss Lopez and then the other one it says see there's there's usually a moderator with these things typical of the questions right so it says uh do you have a favorite program or process that you would bring to arms that would create a healing environment that is functional post pandemic and post leadership change yes thank you so much for that question Miss Mayfield and I think the system of restorative practices that I mentioned and again that would start with the teacher leadership team with the administrative team but also there are a lot of outside supports that we can bring in to support what the holistic needs of students but I think implementing that system of restorative practices and intervention supports will be something that will be foundational to support with the healing environment within arms okay great and that only took us a few extra minutes so thank you for recognizing the questions in the chat like I said there's usually someone who would come on and tell let me know that there are questions and you know here's something no worries slide it across but thank you again uh Miss Jackson for joining us and uh taking the time to let us know who you are and once again for everyone who um wants to this has been recorded and you can replay it as many times as you'd like so Miss Jackson I'm going to end your I'm going to remove you from this section and just put you in the back screen for a moment I just found out how all right thank you everyone great to be with you and please wait in the back so I can exit the process sounds good let me see whoops oh did something wrong here hold on remove and for everyone who has joined the call I know that there is a session scheduled for six o'clock with Tanya Broad and Miss broad has taken a position elsewhere so the six o'clock session has been canceled for tonight so thank you all for showing up to hear about what Miss Jackson has to say and I am going to only go on the six o'clock session just to let anyone who is not on this session know that the six o'clock has been canceled so thank you all and the broadcast is ending now
there's there's more to the story as to why we're bringing this forward and if you don't have questions about those specific Cuts I'd like to talk a little bit about that and then if you want to come back to it we can that's okay you want to wait for the end or that's up to you okay so I supplied with you I supplied you with some information regarding the town's budget projection um the town projection he has a 950 000 variance from where we are currently proposing at 5.1 percent nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars our revised proposals so if if we reduce that it would still be almost 590 thousand dollars more than what the town has projected for us um but from our perspective from the perspective I think of the administration our hope is that there could be some way that we could fund The Proposal at 4.4 percent any reductions Beyond this have a significant impact on students and we know we're facing going to face a difficult um you know difficult process with the fiscal year 25 budget so our hope is that we could gain some support for certainly first gain your support that's the critical part of this um and then uh and then move to gaining support elsewhere um to try and minimize the impact on kids questions Chris yeah I guess I'll start so the number I have here you said around 598th out and these are the numbers that the town has presented well the original 900 000 was what the town presented us with yes is that correct that's right was it was there an open dialogue and I assume there probably was because I know you're you know how you operate Mr Kylie um as to what the significance of these uh this difference would mean to um to the Dartmouth School System yeah I so I I had a meeting with the Town Administrator and the new Finance director for the town we had a discussion about this the feeling is that what was presented to me was a 3.1 ish percent budget increase for us um the the discussion was limited flexibility on the town side to fund anything beyond that so I at this point yes I I relayed the fact that what we're talking about is reductions in staff there's no you know where 80 percent Staffing so there you know there's no way to make up that money without without some further reductions and obviously we already knew we were going to be up against it in fiscal year at 25 so I was really hoping not to make these decisions this year um but at this point they understand that it would be Staffing it would be things like class size it would be um things like support staff administrative staff everything would have to be you know would have to be addressed so so I'm of the opinion that you know you certainly I support the reductions I'm just speaking on behalf of myself I certainly support the reductions that you proposed as much as I you know a huge advocate for technology I certainly understand the physical response physical responsibility and we're not these are positions these are not people at this time and I certainly support that and I would also support moving forward with the budget at the 4.4 I believe you said 1.4 percent and moving that forward to you know this is what this school department needs um we're already facing some significant struggles with learning loss and social emotional needs we're doing what we can we know Esther's dry it out so I would certainly support moving forward with that uh with that figure thank you Shannon so I agree with Mr Oliver you know I support moving forward with this I just have two questions one um so you know between the three and four we're sort of looking at moving things around um is that going to increase class sizes in some places or are we it is okay I just I want to make get that out there for the record to make that clear because we know how important having smaller classes is on student learning particularly at the elementary level so I just want to make that clear to everyone who's listening and watching yes it will have an impact we're trying to minimize that impact and look at the classes that where has the least where we can have the least impact okay the other sort of question comment I want to make so the instructional materials you said about 50 000 on to school choice how much do we get approximately each year 600 000 from school choice yes so my concern is I know we have to do that but I really feel like we're going to have to use school choice funds to ease us off the the Esser cliff and to the extent that we're now already committing school choice funds to other things it becomes even more difficult to to ease us off that Cliff you know we are doing I think as a as a school committee and a as a system trying to do what we can to provide some relief to the town I know that it's difficult um but it's just not a good idea to put recurring and this is not towards you this is to the general public to put recurring revenue or recurring expenses on a non-recurring revenue Source it's what we can do at this point in time but I'll remind people listening you know I think well John and I Mr Nunes and I were involved in the like 2006 was it when you know um we hit I like to say we hit the Great Recession in Dartmouth before the Great Recession happened and part of it was because we had started to do that again I'm going to support this but I think it's important for the community to know that things are are getting a little a little desperate here and we need to we need more revenue or where it's going to start having a real negative impact on the quality of Education that our students get that's all definitely yeah I don't disagree with my colleagues and I um uh to Dr Jenkins took my question about the class size but uh I I do want to thank you for doing what you can to be thoughtful around um you know attempting to um compromise or show a good faith effort to meet them somewhere in in a way that has the least impact in the classroom aside from those class sizes but with appreciation to thinking about those smaller class sizes so I appreciate and and um you know I would support that for what you brought down to 4.4 percent but it's just incredibly frustrating the sounds like the lack of of open-minded flexibility of recognizing what an impact on a school district like Dartmouth um what this what their you know proposed hard line so it sounds the impact that'll have on on our community on our school district but also on our on our the larger community in terms of you know the implications of that on the education of kids so you know thank you for your attempts at meeting them somewhere that is not best for us but you know um just trying to be mindful and and fiscally responsible and and all of that but um like you said there's really no more that we can do and uh without having an incredible impact on on learning in the classroom yeah actually um you know and again this is why it's so critical that we have our new superintendent who can be front and center you know as part of this process to convey our needs and really you know Assist you know Mr Kiley and all of us and getting that message out to the town and the realities of it um I also think again like for our students to come home and and Dr and express like their concerns to their families who so they can really understand and Dr news I I know um you know we have a student rep here is there an opportunity for him to ask any questions is that appropriate within this permit would you like to ask any questions I have no questions but I appreciate the offer all right because again like this directly affects our students in the classroom so I you know and all of our staff so I just want to make sure you know I certainly agree with my colleagues and you know I appreciate thank you first of all of all your work and advocating for our kids and um you know it's it's it is I agree it's really frustrating to see this and I certainly don't want to see any further reductions but I think I understand your choices um one question over the last two years have our school choice students have that number been pretty static um are we you know because I I know that with Westport building a new high school we didn't have as many students from Westport were those seats Filled from other communities we yes we still have ample um applicants okay good good good okay well thank you okay um yeah thanks Jim I appreciate that I mean if you think about it 311 000 of this is direct student uh effect effective you know I mean yes it's you know every time and then the moving but in moving person all around type it there but it's not replacing the Personnel I mean you know after that you know as I've said many times that this is not you know if we've got to if we don't get this this is not cutting a box of paper clips or a ream of paper type of deal it's personnel and boy that really you know that that hurts an Ari type of deal uh I don't know I haven't seen the town budget yet I haven't they haven't they haven't given us anything you know so hopefully they will uh I know we've got a meeting Thursday night with the fincon yes I was going to mention that we've been invited to the finance committee they posted their agenda for Thursday night 5 30.
due to remote learning it was difficult to Major with certainty to growth pattern however the last two years seemed to indicate positive growth in Great Escape through Wade which with each grade level consistently testing well above 50th percentile each year similarly students in the salon of diocese have performed well on science data assessments to compare with the state 51 to 50 56 of students scoring in level three or four on signed State assessments the itbs data and science was used to monitor progress during the years of . each grade level seen success in science in scoring in the 60th to 70th percentile each year in the English Language Arts students of Northern Catholic schools and the diocese also perform developing peers at other schools during the five-year cycle 53 to 54 of students scored a level three or four on Ela State assessments students in our schools have performed well on the ACT each year with a composite score of 23.3 in 2021-22 school year in math students scored a 22.7 and in science of 22.8 the stem score is a 23.
5 30 instead of 6 30. that's not good [Laughter] Kate would you do me [Music] would you post a meeting that we may be the school committee may be in attendance at that meeting just if anybody I'm going to be there out of anybody else that way what's that I thought I'll be there too yeah we I mean if we're there that type of deal okay okay all right um that being said I'm assuming if we all vote no on your budget request yeah I know it's your prerogative that that is I know uh seriously um much as I hate to I'll entertain a motion to uh go along with Mr Kylie's uh proposed FY 24 budget reduction in the amount of uh 343 dollars of which fifty thousand dollars of it is going to be school choice funds so we moved Kate with all due respect if you would have 50 000 in the minutes of its school choice ones thank you I got a motion by Mr Oliver motion by Mary motion by Mary I apologize Mary second by Mr Oliver on the motion any discussion chair hearing none all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously thank you Jim thank you okay anything else on the budget sir that is it okay Mr Martin we're good to go one down yeah can you get that right here deliberation right good evening everyone evening Lori that's Jordan evening and welcome and thank you for coming I know we're a little bit late I apologize running a couple of things and that type of deal so I apologize for that uh thank you for being here we have uh scheduled one hour uh for this interview type of deal so what I will basically do I think you know all of us but to keep things uniform I'll ask my committee members to introduce themselves to you sure Chris Oliver Shannon Jenkins Kathleen Amaral John noon's champ Barry White oyster so what we would like to do is kind of put this in three pots we've introduced ourselves we're going to give you an opportunity to make an opening statement we have some prepared questions for you type of deal and then at the end if there's some time and you want to make a closing statement and or I'd like to ask us questions more than welcome to great much thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight I'm thrilled um you know I come here with over 19 years in education experience uh the past seven here working as a special education administrator here and then prior to that working for 12 years in the Fall River Public Schools as a service provider as a counselor and you know definitely a service provider of special education students um I find that probably the most rewarding work that can be done is in special education it is wonderful to see students grow and thrive in ways that they never thought possible and that is to me one of the most rewarding things um I've been privileged over the past seven years to work with our out of District population which in in my mind is our most vulnerable students and our the ones with our most significant challenges um and I always put the needs of those students first while at the same time balancing the fiduciary responsibility that I have to the district but ultimately um not only in keeping the needs of the students first I also have formed relationships with parents as they've made some very challenging and difficult decisions regarding their education of their students at the school level I consider myself a good listener I'm an advocate for students I'm an advocate for staff and I there's no aspect of this job that I haven't touched and concerned in some way during a maternity leave that our current people support services administrator had I took over for her during that time which happened to be during covid times as well so that was not only challenging um in so many ways but I've I've spent my time in you know a supervisory role I've been in on hiring committees I formed relationships with community members and Community organizations that have continued to support our district I have been at the Forefront of compliance and Regulatory issues which is a major part of special education as well and I think one of my my biggest um one of the biggest things that I have loved about this job is working with The Talented staff that we have there isn't a day that goes by that I don't learn something from them and you know I think my my goal would be to continue to build capacity and Leadership possibilities within the district for for staff as well I'll leave it at that thank you we have a set of prepared questions for the candidates tonight you have a copy of them in front of you just for you to follow along and such in case you need to look back at it sure and such so what's that Mr Oliver thank you Mr news good evening good to see you I'll be starting off as you know the position of pupil Support Services administrator is multifaceted with the ideal candidate balancing many priorities in your opinion what is the most important aspect of the job you know I go back to a free appropriate public education um you know I think that that is the right of every student um within this District it's the right of every any student you know in special education and um I think everything is driven from that um you know in helping to find and support staff in supporting those students in making the best decisions regarding programming for those students in looking at uh fiscally how we can um align kind of our our philosophy about least restrictive environment in order to um you know to give students that free appropriate public education you know I I think of it in some ways it's about Equity it's it's about you know all kids having you know not only the right to a free appropriate public education but as much as possible to be able to provide that in the community that they live in um and you know obviously there are times where that unfortunately can't can't be done but for the most part I mean I think that's one of the biggest goals um for this position thank you hi I believe I have the next question am I scribe your leadership style and can you relate this style to specific examples of your leadership in action so you know I I think of it you know it it's it's multifaceted I think of it kind of in three different ways um you know I think that there are those decisions that um that need to be made that are um either regulatory or Personnel related that um you know are kind of the buck stops here and those are decisions that need to be made by the person in charge um and you know I think that the second way that um I lead and I think this is probably the way I like to lead the most um is being able to collaborate and and talk to and collaborate with staff and collaborate with others um that there are a lot of decisions that I would want input into and that's not to say that maybe in the end I wouldn't be making the decision um in making the decision that I feel is right but I also feel that that decision can't be made in isolation um and that there are people who have great ideas and great opinions about things that um we need to kind of value um you know I I think of that in terms of even some of the work that I've done um you know I'll hearken it back to covid um and um you know just communicating and making decisions particularly I supervise the nurses um and so you know one of the things that I really worked hard with is um a supporting them because they had a very difficult job during during covet but also listening to them and Gathering their feedback about um you know plans for um you know the way we were going to handle covered protocols the plan you know the way we were going to handle um testing all of that and I think that um you know that wasn't a decision I I I don't even pretend to be a nurse um and so um you know that was something that you know I needed and I wanted their input on um and so I would think that that's the second way that I lead um and the Third Way which you know I think is is you know the Democratic style for those types of things that you know when do we want to have the meeting on a Monday or a Wednesday um you know where you know we can you know that's kind of up for grabs um so I think you know those those are the three ways um that I lead um I would hope and want to lead um two and three more often and if I was leading you know uh the first way that I described um I don't think that's the most effective um you know I you know I think that there would be a problem you know with with a leader who solely chose just to lead from top down thank you for that okay my turn this is a position that will sometimes you will sometimes have to say no to a parent or student how would you explain that answer to the parent or student and as a follow-up could you give us an example of when you had to do that and what was the outcome you know I think you know as as a parent of two students with special education needs um you know I think that parents know their their students best um however I think that there are times that there there can be a disconnect with what we see here at school as opposed to what parents see at home um and you know there are times where a parent um has differing opinions on what a student needs um and I first and foremost you know I I'm an empathetic listener and I I value what parents have to say because I don't think um I certainly don't have all of the answers and I don't know their child's best but I also but I do know what's what a team says is best for a student educationally um and so I think you know first and foremost is I would look to the IEP team to see what exactly the IEP team feels is is the best that you know from their professional opinions um the best for for a particular student um you know I can think of you know a certain you know situation where um you know parents really you know really struggled with the idea that their student did not need Services anymore um and you know the the IEP team myself included um you know really had seen so much progress with this student and um and had so much data to support that progress and that was a tough conversation because I you know parents you know really um I can understand that struggle you know I can put myself in their situation I can understand the struggle but at the same time um you know particularly situations like that are times for celebration um that a student has you know reached their goals and you know got to a certain potential that um you know we all want for for our students educationally um but you know it it it's it's standing firm in in knowing that you are doing what is best for a student um you know regardless of um kind of that disconnect between what a parent wants and what what you know in fact is is the right decision um and and those are those are tough conversations um you know those are those are tough conversations to have because um you know for the most part you know I think parents and IEP teams work together but there are times where there is that kind of conflict um and it's the ability to kind of work through the conflict and put the needs of the Student First put you know Vape on the table uh free and appropriate public education and um be okay with making that decision for that student thank you I'm next hi Lori um so this question is two parts I'll start with the first part and then a little follow-up recognizing the various programs and special education models we currently have in Dartmouth please describe how the district can best support the unique needs of each so so when we when we think about um you know the Continuum of services that the district has you know obviously uh you know the first you know if we're looking at it from least restrictive to most restrictive we're looking at you know our co-taught models um and I um I firmly believe that we have some really good co-top models but I also think that teachers could also benefit from some support in in kind of strengthening those that model whether that's through professional development um because I do think you know that's our you know if you were to look at that that's our you know co-taught tier one kind of instructional model um and you know having that partnership between a special ed teacher and and a general ed teacher is so important um and it it's a dance between those two teachers um and you know sometimes I think you know I think that as as adults we can sometimes struggle with that just to know what our role is and I you know I firmly believe that that that is an area that we could strengthen um and then we look towards you know our our partial inclusion model that you know that we have um you know ins In Pockets um I think that's probably our biggest um challenge in the biggest area that I could see growth in um is those students who don't require most restrictive in a program kind of setting but also kind of struggle in that co-taught setting um you know really forming a more solidified model of what that looks like um because I think that we're seeing more and more students who are kind of that in between um that they they need more um and um having a consistent programming across elementary middle and high school that kind of supports that I think is really important um and then you know obviously we have you know a robust um and wonderful set of programs within the district um you know that I um that is challenging you know I think that we are seeing particularly since covid you know I the needs of the students have just magnified and increased um and I think that we continue to kind of modify and mold um programming for those students um you know I I think that um again could be an area of kind of that we take a look at that we look to see what is the best model in order to support those students um you know where you know maybe more service providers are working in the classroom rather than outside the classroom um but you know I think we do an excellent job of kind of meeting those those students needs and it's challenging for them thank you and you kind of you spoke a little bit about this but so for the follow-up could you now describe your vision for what an ideal knowing what you know right an ideal Continuum of services looks like in Dartmouth your vision so so again I you know I think you know always keeping kind of you know least restrictive environment in our mind um again I think it's strengthening co-teaching I think it's being creative about our model of um with programs but I I I think a good bulk of the work really needs to be that that in between um in how we support those students um kind of who have have different needs than than just a co-taught model or or you know a restrictive model um and while at the same time keeping students in District you know as much as we can um you know because they have a right to be here they have a right to um you know be in this environment and be in their Community I think that's one of the things that I'm so excited about our transition program that we are you know developing is that it's allowing students again kind of an a separate Continuum for your 18 to 22 population um where you are you know providing them opportunities to grow and learn new skills in pre-vocational and Vocational School skills and um transition skills for adulthood that um you know but within our district um as opposed to outside of our community thank you very much can I ask a follow-up doing follow-ups or yeah all right so you're going to have to ask yeah the same follow-up next time the same that's fine okay um let me just mark it here so as a follow-up you talk about the least restrictive environment and growing programs I'm certainly appreciative of that I've been chairs smack for now for eight nine years um and I I certainly have a good understanding not as much as my colleague Mrs Amaral of special education but I certainly do have a good understanding so in your opinion what is the Tipping Point where you say what the district can no longer support the needs of this to these students right because we we've had this this we've tried to grow programs in the past at Quinn for one example and it it wasn't as successful as we would have hoped so while I certainly appreciate the least restrictive environment keeping students in the district at what point for you is the Tipping Point all right we we need to reconvene the team we need to have conversations around maybe that keeping the student in District is is not the best outcome for that student yeah you know I think it's a process I think it's you know it's an individual um you know based on whatever the disability is um but I I think it is a um it's not a hasty process I think it's a process where we're constantly going back and reevaluating our practice um and saying okay let's try this you know let's meet for you know let's see how that works for six weeks seven weeks eight weeks and see what happens after that can we think of anything else um because you know I I I really think that kids have have the right to be here if they can um and while at the same time there does come to a point where um you know that might not be possible once once supports are tried and and tried in multiple ways and um you know multiple versions and um you know I'll give for I'll give I'll give an example um so you know if you have a student who is um you know has an emotional disability and you know is really struggling Within the classroom um one of the things that I had um started when I came to the district was um starting Clinical Services meetings and basically those meetings are a chance for our um our schools at the elementary level to really look at Behavior with a um with someone from the outside who can kind of take a take a an overview a purview of it and provide support and recommendations in addition to doing that um you know it's Carolyn mccurney from South Coast collaborative in addition to doing that one of the things that I thought was really important was not only um you know for her to come in and do some of that brain-based kind of recommendations but staff needed to be trained in what that meant and how they could Implement that in their classrooms and so over the course of three years professional development was offered for all Elementary staff so that all in Elementary staff was trained in those principles um and so I think when we're talking about a student who might have emotional challenges and behavior plans are tried at a school level um you know then then you know maybe we bring in a consultant and have the consultant also kind of come in and take a look and provide recommendations and then if that doesn't work maybe the consultant comes in again we really try to kind we really try to exhaust everything that we have in our toolbox before we kind of make the decision that you know maybe maybe right now for for now um you know this student kind of needs um supports that we don't have here thank you sorry we're sharing a microphone here today um I have the next question um and you know this the person that's going to be in this position um has a potentially big fiscal impact to the district both in terms of the cost of services we provide but the liability to the district we don't provide the services that our students need and deserve so can you talk about your your sort of fiscal experience your experience managing budgets and describe how you balance the need to provide exceptional education to all our students with special needs and the fiscal constraints of the district you know I I look at that in terms of you know you know everything I that I've done even with out of districts out of District tuitions are not cheap in really trying to balance um putting programming in place within the district to support students as much as we can prior to them um you know having to make a decision to potentially place them out of District um you're absolutely right I mean next to salaries and transportation special education has the uh has the the biggest budget um you know with the most expenditures and the most liability um and you know the reality is right now that there isn't a lot of money um you know we're dealing with the situation where you know we get pockets of money from you know three kind of Revenue sources our operational budget um are you know um entitlement Grant and then circuit breaker and you know that is it so I think one of the biggest challenges you know then becomes how do you know you constantly reevaluate and constantly um look at ways of reallocating what you do have um in ways that could enhance programming you know I think that is one of the things when I think of the transition program that was one of the things that we kind of talked about in terms of not only were we in a position in where we felt that students needs could be met here in District but at the same time it you know we're also talking about reallocating resources as well um and I think that that's one of the biggest things that in the biggest challenges that um you know not only you know in special education but across the board in education we're facing at this point in time thank you I have the next question how do you feel you can make a difference in educational outcomes if appointed to this position so I think I think my biggest um one of my biggest strengths is forming relationships um and whether that be relationships with um with staff with students with parents um and although you know special education is very individualistic in some ways because it's all about the individual individual needs of a student I'm a firm believer that you know it takes a team effort to um you know to increase outcomes for kids um and so I think there's a number of ways of doing that and you know when we look at at staff development I think that um that is extremely important in in good outcomes for kids um you know providing staff with a professional development opportunities that are differentiated based on where where teachers are what they're doing what population they're serving that it's not this one-size-fits-all type of um professional development I think that that's very important um I think that's definitely a way of increasing educational outcomes for kids because I think that you know we have such a talented group of Staff here and like I said before I learned so much from them on a daily basis um whether it you know they learn from each other and do some um peer kind of professional development um is just as important as bringing in someone from the outside you know and uh you know but I also think it needs to be relevant um and you know you need to to leave a professional development opportunity with stuff in your toolbox that it's not something that you know you go and it's so theoretical that you leave there and you feel like I I just wasted an hour or two hours of time um so I think that that's one of the big ways that we can kind of increase educational outcomes for kids thank you and as a follow-up what challenges do you anticipate or would you anticipate I think that's based on based on what I I just said about what I think would help I think probably the biggest challenge would be to juggle the differentiation of PD um because I think that you know I don't think it would be a staffing challenge I think people are eager to learn you know I mean that's why we're in this business in some ways is you know not only to be teachers but also to be lifelong Learners um and you know I think people are eager to kind of find ways of supporting kids and and and improving outcomes for kids so I think it would it's more a matter of finding the targeted relevant professional development um that could meet the needs of some vast and varied groups so I think that would be it thank you um so my question actually delves a little deeper into what Mr Oliver had just asked and I know you've spoken a bit about um you know adding Clinical Services piece differentiated professional development so you know just to kind of expand upon that and again dig a Little Deeper when making important decisions regarding curriculum resources and professional development take us through your process from start to finish including steps you would take to ensure district-wide implementation first and foremost is getting getting a group of people together and getting more heads together to kind of look at what what the needs are I am not you know someone who thinks that I know it all and know what the needs of of everyone are in my thoughts might be totally different and separate it in a part than what those people are that are doing the work and so I think that that would be that would be my first step in the process um would would really be to look at um you know and to talk to people um you know one of the things that um I think is is really important is you know to have you know I'm you know I'm I'm a counselor you know by by trade you know from years ago and you know one of the things that um you know relationships matter to me I want to hear what's happening with staff I want to hear um what their needs are and you know can I do it all can I you know no I you know I I can't you know make money fall from the trees but can I be creative about ways to support Staffing um and support um teachers I think that that's um you know really meeting with with people is would be my first step um and then once once the needs are kind of put out there it's it's to think creatively you know could there be um you know could there be competitive grants out there that I could apply for um that could help support some of that professional development um you know I also you know have formed some really good relationships with our area collaboratives who offer professional development as well at you know reduced costs for member districts um so it would be really working with them as well to help support our our teachers in that way and um you know I I think the last piece in that is that I would want I'd want feedback after the after the professional development to know whether or not what we did was effective and if it wasn't what wasn't effective about it and how can we make it better for the next time okay thank you so back to me for the final I think of our all our questions um please share how you would ensure effective communication with families and other stakeholders so you know I I think that one of the the key things with with communication whether it's with with parents or with staff is responsiveness and not being afraid to pick up the phone and call someone if they have a concern um you know not be you know making sure that I respond quickly you know I'm someone who you know is up you know late at night answering emails because I don't want I know from the other side as a parent what it's like to kind of wait for you know a response from an email and and knowing um you know that that can make the difference in in terms of how a um you know how a relationship can go um I think that um you know one of my goals for for families you know I have to say we've got um a new IEP Forum that's coming out it was just rolled out last Friday through the state and one of the things about the IEP Forum that I love is that it is very um relationship oriented you know it it really um it asks it it makes the team be very thoughtful in their decision making while also giving parents so much more of a voice um in in the process and I think that um you know that whole piece is also another way that we can effectively communicate um is you know having vehicles like that um you know I um the other piece of communication which I think is really important is just being present um and being approachable and being someone who you know is in the schools and not afraid to you know to to talk with people and um find out you know how things are going you know the good the bad the ugly um and uh you know I think that that is extremely important um you know and not afraid to you know meet with parents um and you know hear their stories um and you know what they they feel um are important factors um in their own students lives in you know their educational lives thank you Mr Jordan that concludes all our questions if you'd like to finish up with a statement that's fine if you have questions for us that's okay too so I'll give some closing remarks but then I have a question as well um so you know first and foremost I want to thank all of you for the opportunity um to meet uh with me tonight you know I I feel like when I um when I find a district that I feel I can do good work in I Stay and I feel that this is a district that I can continue to do good work in um I feel like this department is poised at this point to um not only continue some of the good work that is happening but also to enhance it and make it even better um you know I you know would love the opportunity um you know to to lead this department um and and grow it and you know make a difference so thank you and my last question is actually a question that I asked the screening committee when my last question with them and you know I I'd like to pose it to you for any of you that is willing to answer and um my question is you know based on um you know what you hear from your constituents what um do you think is the um biggest priority or priorities for the the new pupil Support Services administrator sure so for me um and you know certainly being out in the community and being a school Committee Member uh priorities that I'm that I would like to see is certainly a the growing of in-district programs that are thoughtful uh communicated well to all stakeholder all stakeholders involved um in done in a fashion that is sustainable in addition to that I think that someone the next leader of the um the pupil Services administrator position it's a mouthful it is a mouthful needs to have is the person needs to be visible used to be visible in the schools visible to our staff they need to listen and um for feedback and and grow the team even stronger than what we have today yeah okay I'll go uh I'm looking for someone that and I'm just writing notes down because someone that's going to keep at the department growing in in such I mean with the population and the students has you know the students best interest uh in hand personally I'm excited about the atlas program what's going to happen with those you know 18 to 22 year olds and keeping them in-house and giving them that opportunity I'm looking for someone who's going to be transparent and you know fourth width right wrong or indifferent type of deal and someone that's going to be very collaborative and has to have a good rapport also is going to have to have a good rapport that person is going to learn in a hurry [Music] just appointed subject contact negotiations the new superintendent tonight so we've got a new superintendent coming on board so the person is going to have to you know everybody's going to have to be working together you know with Mr Kylie and central office staff and the building administrators and such so the person you know the new part of my sped director and I mean it's easier is uh is going to have a you know their hands full the first couple of months so that's what I'm looking for yeah I'll I'll go go ahead yeah um and so uh you know I I have the unique perspective that um I could speak to my my personal sort of thoughts but then you you meant you did say constituency so we'll go with that um Mr Oliver did say a few just I think someone who's visible a team Builder um not afraid to have those comp hard conversations supportive of staff um in someone who um you know in terms of the programs that we have really the assistant Christoph Oliver used the word sustainable but I would say like a maybe a stronger infrastructure um and then you know maybe some just the team building and the the being visible to kind of know how things are going on the ground um and forth to build that trust with with staff that when you're not there they know you are there or at least you have them in mind I think is important because you have a reputation of being visible and and um communicative so nothing out of the range of what either of my two folks said but yeah and I'll just you know I'll just add you know someone who has you know a deep understanding and empathy for our families and and you know at all the levels of you know we know that children have been going through so much um you know and families we're faced with you know we've heard many stories of unique challenges not being able to get Services during coven so someone that again that warmth and approachability and uh and and again echoing again someone that parents stuff um you know can can look to as a true leader who tend to be that again to be visible and and open and in all the buildings and with our students so great well thank you Dr Jenkins all right so since everyone else I will just bill though you know I agree with everything my colleague said but I will you know you asked about what you hear from constituencies and um building on what Miss Wade said um you know there's a real concern about the influx of need from the pandemic um and and how we're going to be able to manage that because there's going to be a lot more children who need Services because of that and unfortunately the resources are going away next year so how do we do that right how do we manage that it's going to take a lot of leadership to figure out how to meet the real needs and from what I hear in the community I see it in my work people see it in their lives these kids I say needy not in a bad way I say it because they've been through a lot absolutely and how are how are we gonna how are we going to manage that is I'm going to take some leadership and some vision for the district and so that's important I think to people in the community but also to me I agree all right great well thank you all very much again for the opportunity thank you Lori thank you okay um well I paraphrased the more you know yeah yeah that's fine the other blank I got it you got it thank you all right bless you [Laughter] oh and for those of you that are at home and watching we are just waiting for our other candidate to arrive no problem we're right back on time huh and become yourself yes thank you hi everybody hi Lori how are you great thanks for the visual [Music] okay welcome and thank you for being here uh we'll start I'm not sure if you know everyone but we'll start whatever you know the committee members will introduce themselves Chris Oliver Shannon Jenkins Kathleen Amaral John Nunes I'm the chairman Mary Waite Lori denisio Laurie the interview tonight consists of three pots first and foremost we're going to give you an opportunity to make an opening statement if you'd like then we have a series of prepared questions for you we've provided you with a copy so that you have an opportunity to look back to them as they're being read or as you're answering so that you're good to go and also at the end give you an opportunity to make a closing statement if you like and you know if you'd like to ask us any questions you're you know more than welcome to we have uh allocated one hour for the interview so with that the floor is yours ma'am so as I said my name is Lori denisio um this is my 19th year in public education 17 of those years have been here in Dartmouth 15 of those years as a speech language pathologist and the last two as a team facilitator at Quinn I am also a resident and the parent of two students in the system a fifth grader at Potter and a seventh grader at the middle school as my career progressed I started to become interested in the larger scope of special education outside of my therapy room at Potter School that looked like being part of the PBIS coaching experience when that initiative first ruled out in the district many years ago a lot of work with RTI and reading intervention planning I provided professional development for our kindergarten and first grade teachers around phonological awareness and early reading skills when I transitioned to Quinn the scope of that work changed quite a bit I've been involved in developing District protocol and procedures around recommending certain evaluations as well as when and how to recommend a one-to-one paraprofessional for students creating visuals to help make team meetings more interactive and parent friendly and developing and facilitating uh professional development strand that we do on early release days primarily focused on our substantially separate programs in order to really look at what we're doing with those students in order to really make some changes um you may look at my resume and say well she's never been an administrator and you will be right I have never been an administrator but for many years I have been a leader in this department and I'm here tonight because I believe that is what we need at this time collaborative human centered present leadership in order to make the necessary changes in the special education department here in Dartmouth Mr Oliver thank you Mr chair I'll kick off the the questions here as you know the position of pupil Support Services administrator is multifaceted with the ideal candidate balancing many priorities in your opinion what is the most important aspect of the job that is such a hard question because every aspect is so important but I have to go with and I feel like I'm stealing something but that sense of belonging so we talk about sense of belonging for students um but I believe we need a sense of belonging for staff and when you talk about special education we tend to like use a broad brush so we have regular writing special ed we have classroom teachers and non-classroom teachers and in the reality of schools these days is that the positions are far more nuanced than that and um we all of those staff members need to have a sense of belonging they need to see their place at the table um so that means what that means planning for them that means thinking about them that means understanding their role and their job and how they contribute to the team so when you're providing professional development you're actually working towards the needs of this staff which will translate into improving outcomes for students because then you're improving the education for students um I also think that means knowing your staff right like this is a big district there are 630-something IEPs so at Quinn my rule for myself is I will not walk into a team meeting without knowing that kid whether that means I go in the classroom for 10 minutes or talk to the teacher I need to know who that student is and while that might be um a big ask for for a sped director uh I do think that that level of relationship building and sense of belonging is super important to make sure that we are retaining the staff that we have thank you so I have the next question and my question is how would you describe your leadership style and can you relate the style to specific examples of your leadership in action yeah um I do believe that again I use I use these sort of generic terms collaborative human centered because I believe that people are the most important part of the job but also the word facilitator so that's my job at Quinn right I'm a facilitator and I do believe that that's my leadership style as well I help to facilitate change I am not I do not have all the answers I am nobody's Guru but what I do is remove barriers create containers so that the staff can work together to sort of bring their expertise to the table at Quinn that has looked like again this professional development strand that we started and I propose that because we have all these conversations all the time about things we want to change um but we never have time to do them so I propose this trend so that we had time to talk about them so that we could make changes and Implement them strategically one of those changes has been uh a dedicated consultation time so from three o'clock to 3 30 um our substantially separate program teacher and the related service staff that works with that classroom sit down every day and talk about kids this didn't cost a dollar all it took was some kind administrators who are willing to help with this missile um and what we're seeing from that is amazing conversation that is actually impacting students um so when I say I facilitate again that was I don't even know whose idea it was it was not my idea but all I had to do was sort of put it together make it happen and that's how the changes occur and again I just think that the people are the most important part of this job um so that needs to be the priority in leadership thank you this one's mine this is a position that you will sometimes have to say no to a parent or student how would you explain that answer to a parent or a student and then I've got a follow-up for you um so recently I've had lots of practice with this um it occurred to me when I took this job last year on my current position last year that I was not the good guy anymore as a speech therapist you're always the good guy you're helping the kid communicate and there's nothing better than that as a team facilitator that's not always the case I'm having difficult conversations with parents about why we're changing Services what things are looking like why progress isn't happening struggles that might be happening in school that are new and that's tricky um I think the conversation of the services on the IEP is probably the the trickiest right so a student gets 10 hours of ABA a week and we want to change it to eight and a half hours of ABA a week and some parents will struggle with that decision so it really has to be a back and forth conversation about the data that we're using to drive the decision and why because it's our job to provide the least restrictive environment in which the student can make effective progress so that in order to have those conversations you need to have trust those parents need to trust the team that is working with their child that they have their the child's best interest in heart at heart not that they're always going to get what they want not that their services are always going to stay stay the same but trust that um what we are recommending is what's best for the child and that comes again with building relationships we need to build relationships with these families so the us against them whether that's School versus families or Bush Street versus schools that doesn't work we all need to be on the same page rowing in the same direction and and have the families understand that we're doing what's best for their kid that trust is so important so many conversations around that um usually involved in a partial rejection of an IEP in which case we sit back at the table and we talk about it and sometimes that's a compromise like okay we're gonna continue the service delivery until next day at which time we're going to reevaluate so compromise is one of the strategies sorry I'm jumping to your second question that's okay um and other times it's just having a conversation to explain a little bit more about our position about why we're recommending this one example is that recently um we had a team and the uh the student's parent wanted a one-to-one for their child so we wrote a statement that reflected that um but our idea was to use already existing program staff to support that student rather than hiring someone else the mother rejected it we sat down and we sort of re-explained our thinking because she was coming from a place where she thought we weren't giving it to the student because we're trying to save money but in reality our idea was we have staff that is trained that is on board that knows this child this will be a better fit and once she knew that once she knew it wasn't about money or it wasn't about um taking anything away then she got on board again she said as most parents do we're going to see how this works and if it doesn't work we're going to come back to the table and that's really what this process is you got to use your data to make your decisions um but at the same time you always have that ability to sort of go back and revisit those decisions you answered the follow-up so thank you so I have a question that does have a follow-up and I believe my colleague colleague Mr Oliver will have a follow-up to the follow-up to be consistent across the board um so recognizing the various programs and special education models that we currently have in Dartmouth please describe how the district can best support the unique needs of each so I believe in individualizing IEPs that's what the I is for and I think sometimes when we sit down to write an IEP it becomes a little bit of muscle memory so the student has a weakness in Reading we're going to give them 5x30 in the B grid and 5x30 in the C Grid in order to work on their phonics skills um I prefer a more reflective approach what are these students strengths what are these students weaknesses what is the specially designed instruction the student actually needs in order to make effective progress and that I'm actually hoping the new IEP sort of breaks those habits for us because we will have no muscle memory for that and we will have to be very reflective and so I I do think that that reflective practice that thinking about that student in front of you what the expectations are and how you're going to support them to meet those expectations I also believe a thousand percent in collaboration um collaboration between related service providers classroom teachers special educators my least favorite thing is to look at an IEP and see a goal that's repeated three times in three different ways the SLP has a goal for uh answering questions the sped teacher has a goal for answering questions we only need one goal for answering questions everyone just needs to work on it um so that is one of the things that we're working on in this professional development strand how do we write how do we measure how do we attack um collaborative goal writing so I think the best way to meet the unique needs of a student is to provide them the services they need in a reflective way and to collaborate with the rest of the team so now could you describe as a follow-up could you describe your vision for what an ideal Continuum of services would look like in Dartmouth oh gosh so flexibility I I again we get so stuck with it's always been this way or I've always done it this way um and I I don't think that's going to move us forward I think we need to be flexible thinkers about what our students need uh I am lucky enough in my job to get to go to different schools and see different kids and consult on them and tell them what I think about what's happening um and that's amazing other special Educators don't get to do that and I think they need to I think we need to see each other's classrooms a child at Demello with a reading Disability should not be getting different Services than a child at Potter with a reading disability We Are One District so I think while we need to um I individualize the IEP we also need to make sure that we're on the same page as a district with the services we are providing and I I do think we get there by visiting each other by talking by making use of um our our staff meetings in order to sort of shore up some of those services and I will also say that it is a Continuum right like that's what the grid is for so it can't all be this or I'll be that I think it really neat we need to have that flexibility perhaps a student has a real significant weakness in math but in Reading they are they are you know just a little below grade level so that should be reflected in the IEP perhaps the services are more restrictive for the math and in the ELA less that might mean there are two sped teachers working with them that can get messy but I do think coming back to the table and having those conversations with that flexibility in mind and individualizing each IEP is how we get there and I think it's just a constant conversation my vision would just be really thinking about it and and being reflective and being proactive about our decision making thank you and I'm gonna turn it over to my colleague who has a follow-up to that follow-up so as a follow-up in as we're looking at pleasing students in the least restrictive environment and that's clearly most of the time it should be in District in your opinion what is the Tipping Point for when we need to go back to our reconvene the team speak to our related service providers our special education teachers in in the parents clearly as to what's the Tipping Point for consideration of an out-of-district placement my least favorite words to hear are this kid doesn't belong here and unfortunately that's that's where you get when the level of frustration is high and you feel like you've exhausted all of your tools and and nothing's working you're not making progress with this kid this kid doesn't belong here and I think we need to reframe that question as what services does this child need that we are not currently providing um so the Tipping Point is what have you done I and I do think we need to shore up our processes and procedures around this what if you have difficulty with a student in your class if the team isn't agreeing if we're not seeing progress um what's the process for that we don't have one everyone makes it up right so that's an issue um we we need we need a process for that I do think what we need to do is reach out in District so some some schools have had me come because I work at Quinn and that's where the programs are um to consult to say have you tried this have you tried that so I think using our in-district resources is our first stop we have a lot of brilliant people in this district and we need to leverage that Talent um and we're not right so I think we need to find ways to do that to to build capacity across our schools to deal with these more complicated cases so again the process would be reach out in District um have someone consult make a plan is it working you have to have steps and almost like a flowchart everything everyone loves the flow chart and special education in order to get to the point where you say I think we need to look elsewhere and really that the question is are we meeting the students needs and sometimes the answer is no um we are not and what does the student need that we don't have and I think that those are the questions that we need to um that we need to answer before we make those decisions thank you so I have the next question so the person in this position has a big fiscal responsibility in terms of you know the the district's budget both in terms of the cost of providing services but also the liability we're exposed to when we don't provide the services that students need um so can you talk about your experience in managing budgets and describe how you would balance the need to provide exceptional education to our students with special needs but also balance the physical constraints at the district basis yeah um my experience with budgets is limited um I so much of special education is fixed numbers right so we have tuitions we have to pay we have transportation we have to pay so a lot of the budget is eaten up by that so the the first part of it is are we you know um is our circuit breaker in line do we have extraordinary relief funds um available and then what's left and it can't be what's left let's see what we can do with the budget it needs to be what's left and where are the needs so again I think that proactive planning the looking at the data um in order to make budgetary decisions is most important but I think the budget is way more than the money right like so if you have a a parent who does not trust their team does not believe that they are providing adequate service for their child they might make decisions about placement um that negatively impact our budget so I think our budget needs to go back to are we building those relationships with families are we utilizing the talent um and the knowledge and the expertise in our district to provide adequate services for students are we building trust are we building relationships if you have that then there'll be less sort of damage on your budget when you when those um when those things come up again I go back to um we provide exceptional education by using the exceptional staff we have um and we need to think about how we spread that wealth across the district you know I'm not up next how do you feel you can make a difference in educational outcomes if appointed to this position and what challenges do you anticipate so I think making changes that directly impact students is what's going to make a difference with educational outcomes again I go back to that um free three to three Thirty consult time we have instituted at Quinn that has already in the two months that we have been doing it affected change for our students as far as Behavior plans as far as progress we're seeing as far as our ability to write and track collaborative goals so what can we learn from that and how can we spread that across the district obviously this is what's happening in one building but again this can be a model for for other things to come I also think that we can make an educational Difference by making sure that our staff is well trained um as you know the dyslexia legislation is on its way um through the state house and that's going to hold us accountable to an another level of providing for students and I think our staff needs to be ready for that and I think we have the resources within the district to make sure the staff is ready for that but again it's taking an honest look at where the strengths and weaknesses and how do we build on those weaknesses um in order to make necessary change the challenges that I anticipate and I say this in the most loving way are the people um uh I heard the term loving critic the other day and I thought oh I think that's what I am but I think that's what a lot of us are right we love this place otherwise we wouldn't be here um Dartmouth has its challenges and if you are still here you're here because you want to be you're here because you're committed you're here because this is your place um so listening to those loving critics and sort of taking all that information in and having those hard conversations and pushing back when necessary I think that that that's going to be the challenge but that's where the work is that's where the work is and I think you need to make room for that as a in in a when you're in a leadership position thank you um so I think like pulling upon a bit of what you've already told us about your leadership style and again you know some needs you see internally with professional development it says my question is when making important decisions regarding curriculum resources and the forested professional development take us through your process from start to finish including steps you would take to ensure District to provide implementation have you ever heard of implementation science it's a new thing okay so implementation science is this whole new field that's coming out because we have all this research about education and then we have education and they don't talk to each other right so this whole field of implementation science is now how do we Implement change how do we Implement curriculum how do we Implement professional development and there are four levels so the first level is well we told them to do it and level four is well it's become part of the culture so I think we can look at initiatives we've had in the district and map them along that uh that Continuum like PBIS is level four we own that but many many things are level one so if you want real change you cannot have level one implementation so how do you get there you get there through coaching you get there through um observation you get there from modeling so teachers are watching other teachers Implement and use um whatever you happen whatever curriculum you happen to be using that's how you get there and I think because we've done it successfully before we can do it again we know what it takes it's just work and it's commitment and the other part of implementation science is de-implementation so that's sort of when you say we're not worrying about that anymore because what happens is as a classroom teacher as a special education teacher you have all these things on your plate and you don't know that we're not worrying about this one anymore because we put this one on your plate so especially with new leadership coming in we need to say we're not focused on that anymore that is not a priority for us we are focused on whatever it is um so looking at implementation as are we looking at the research are we then putting the research to practice and are we really fostering that um across the spectrum is how I would answer that question excellent thank you so back to me for the final question um please share how you would ensure effective communication with families and other stakeholders um brene Brown says clear as kind so I think that communication needs to be clear it needs to be responsive um and sometimes it needs to be on the telephone um or on a zoom I think a lot can get lost in email especially when you're going back and forth with parents or staff about really sensitive issues and even though no one likes to do it I think sometimes it's important to pick up the phone and just talk about it um but again part of that communication is having those hard conversations it is challenging but I think that when you're in that space with a parent or a teacher um that you're coming to them and you're saying look this is the issue and you're having that clear communication that's that's when you solve problems that's when you you lessen the hurt feelings um people want to be heard they want to know that you heard them so I think acknowledging that is is super important and I think it also needs communication also needs to be timely so if you get an email and you're not sure how to respond because you have some digging to do I think it's okay to say I'll get back to you in two days I need to you know but again acknowledging that you receive that communication letting them know you're you're sort of thinking about it um I think can Stave off a lot of bad feelings about miscommunication thank you that concludes our questions and uh to you at this point uh give you an opportunity if you'd like to make a closing statement and or ask us any questions thank you um for your time you guys have invested so much time this month and making really important decisions and as a voter I say that hats off because you're you're putting in the work um so thank you for that uh microphones and talking about special education are two of my favorite things so you guys made some dreams come true tonight um and I don't mean to be cliche but it has truly been an honor just to be nominated the support I have received and the encouragement I have received from my colleagues um has been so humbling and it's that support that will continue to fuel my passion my passion to advocate for these kids and to work to make this department better um and I will continue to do that whether it's from Bush Street or Hawthorne Street or Crossroad or Dartmouth Street or Slocum Road uh because this is my place and these are my people and the students of this District deserve nothing less so thank you so much for all that you do thank you thank you thank you very much okay are we good do we want a couple of minutes to digest everything take a quick recess I would love that okay perfect all right we're going to be in recess for a few minutes and we'll be back thank you relax me too thank you we are back in Open session it is 8 22.
Elliott is a classroom observation tool developed by Advanced Ed the purpose of this tool is to record observations that pertain to Student Activity and learning in the classroom to measure progress on our stream goals active and digital learning were focused on during this cycle our digital learning scores increase from 1.99 and continue to the cycle for 2.14 as we near the end of the cycle we also saw a growth near supportive learning our supportive learning scores increased from 3.66 to 3.77 this is significant since the schools have a wide array of learning needs our Active Learning scores also increased from 3.29 to 3.43 teachers are striving to have students especially since returning creating a community that cares and respects for each other is extremely important to our teachers and Families although a challenge navigating the pandemic while utilizing and implementing new technology proved to be a very valuable experience for our schools according to survey data from students teachers and parents indicate that learning activities were present in classrooms achievement that it did show some progress in classroom observations demonstrating good classroom management and active learning however there were indications on some surveys that Active Learning could be more enhanced with more Hands-On long and short-term projects and less dependency on individual worksheets during the covid-19 pandemic schools were able to enhance technology resources in the classrooms as well as ADD many platforms that students are able to utilize on a daily basis these technologies will enhance Active Learning in the classroom looking forward another goal for the schools in Salina diocese is to prepare the students for Life After High School by implementing individual plans to study at the high school level and by exposing all of our students to careers starting at a young age we are taking the necessary steps to prepare our students to be successful in whichever career God leads them school counselors and administrators collaborating to align courses in PowerSchool to better assist students in planning and the schools of the diocese shifted from Career Cruising to using cellular grades 6 through 12.
and thank you everyone giving us a chance to collect our thoughts and such It's been a busy evening and still continues at this point in time on the agenda on all seriousness if I can find my agenda we have now is uh our discussion with uh for our uh pupil support service adminar administrator vote and announcement type of deal so at this point in time I'll turn it over to my colleagues and I'm going to start down the opposite end Mr Oliver I'm going to let Mrs White be the first one for your discussion well why thank you um so you know I first want to say a huge thank you to everyone that's involved in our search committee um and certainly to the candidates who came forward it's it's a lot to come forward and apply for positions specifically in the district where you work that's nerve-wracking with your colleagues for me personally you know after looking on the materials and then feedback from from our staff I I do feel very comfortable with my choice I thought there was one candidate who tonight spoke more specifically definitely you know had a feat on the ground uh experience with her colleagues and had very specific programming in mind um you know when we asked questions this person was able to talk about you know what's instituted with it in the school now as well as like specific ways we can improve and take advantage of our amazing staff across the district and I think as we you know certainly we know and I think it was spoken about clearly in both of our interviews with these folks tonight that we are and we know throughout everything that we're approaching a fiscal cliff and a big part of our budget is special education and also we also have a number of students many students who have challenges um you know even before the covet pandemic and now certainly exacerbated by that so I think that you know this person in my mind has is better poised to you know take advantage of the assets that we have as a district and have very specific ideas to move forward so again you know my my choice would be Miss dianicio so I think she again at this point is a stronger candidate and was a standout for me thank you Mary Mr Oliver oh we're jumping back to me all right never mind Kathleen I also going to say thank you um no I I just um so what I you know I sort of said this with the superintendent search you feel as though you come into something with a sort of sort of lens or a bias or a thought because of the lived experience that you have um with the candidates um I feel that you know um I feel an obligation to have some sensitivity around our deliberation because these are our staff and so they are part of our district and clearly we see both of them um in such a way that we are proud to have them here and they're employed with us and um and I have the unique lens that uh I know both of the candidates I have received all of lots of feedback um and my son is full disclosure I've mentioned this probably a million times but he uh is a product of Quinn Elementary and and then there did come a time when what was in the best interest of him in a in a thoughtful way a very difficult and thoughtful way has brought me to have a relationship with Mitch joywin I I I'm so sorry I terrible and um and so and I and and and I also have a feeling around what we really need as a district and I do believe that you know both candidates are lovely but one really did speak to and knowing this person personally did really speak to some some specifics around what I feel would help us move forward in the special education department uh in a way that um you know in terms of like relationship building and that sort of thing um and so I I I am leaning I'm split I I would like to hear what I appreciate what you what you shared I um I would like to hear what my colleagues think I would like to hear the remaining members think because I I do feel that both folks are qualified yes one may be in an administrative position but you know stepping back I don't feel that that's the be-all end-all I do feel like it's about the humanity and about the relationship and in the culture of of that department um and so I'm really interested in everyone's thoughts and opinion specific to this um and having heard the you know received the feedback as well I know a lot of people tended to send some feedback to me and I thought please just don't send that to me it is an incredibly awkward position to be in and so I I asked permission and we showed it to the to the group although I know that lots of folks have been reaching out to the whole committee as well but um and so I would like to you know I I do have somebody in mind but I not to keep you guessing but I just feel like I would like to I think it's important for me having the perspective that I have that I hear from everyone before um before I go of course or offer that opinion Dr Jenkins yeah so I thought both candidates were great um as with our first search they have two sort of different strengths um you know I guess I'm looking at this right now as sort of where we are as a district as a whole we have a new superintendent coming in who's going to be sort of learning the ropes and we have one candidate who I mean I think they were both great but I am concerned about the lack of management experience I'm concerned about the lack of budget experience from Miss dionisio I love her I think she's awesome her passion is fabulous but she's been a team leader for two years I don't even think two full years it sounds a little bit more like a year and a half maybe I don't have a resume in front of me um she hasn't doesn't have the extensive management experience which I feel like when we have a superintendent um coming in and trying to figure their way around the district to also have our pupils Services administrator not having that central office experience I just worry about how that's going to work so I appreciate both of the candidates but I think for maybe some practical reasons I I might lean more towards Miss Jones well I appreciate everyone's feedback thus far I think first of all we have two great candidates I'm thrilled that they're both internal it says a lot about what we're doing as a district in you know I love to see us being able to within our capacity grow our own leaders in this District we have Lori jobwin Mrs jodwin who certainly has served in the capacity by the district coordinator gave a very compelling interview this evening um certainly has a quite a bit of management experience budgeting experience with without a districts um on the other side we have Lori dionisio who is clearly a very passionate educator that's really up until a couple of years ago she she was certainly well related service provider as a speech language pathologist clearly has an extreme amount of passion and an ability to connect with staff um at a on a personal level I do agree and Echo some concerns around the budgeting of having a new superintendent coming in is a little bit of a concern in the lack of budget experience with this position being such a high profile position for for finance I do agree to some extent that a lot of the costs are fixed transportation tuitions and obviously Staffing right what I would like to remind the committee some of you who was not here at the time but when we were interviewing um for this position uh when um when Mrs Townsend took over she came to us and she presented to us and I have a resume up here I was able to go back and with a little over close to four years of principal experience in speaking from now a professional standpoint of being in education I know that principles there's not a lot of wiggle room in a principal's budget so as far as budgeting goes I don't see and you know I'm not I'm not trying to disrespect any of our principals that may be in the audience but essentially central office really gives the principles their budget um that that's that's a fact other than advocating for Staffing changes your supply lines are pretty much the only thing that you you're able to manipulate in in order from so I like I said I'd like to remind everyone that um it's she only had four uh Beth only had four years of principal experience no central office experience and no special education um well special education administrator experience so weighing both of them while I certainly have concerns around the budgeting aspect I want to believe that Mrs dionisio would do what it takes to work on the budget and that's the only way that I would that I would see this possible Mrs jodwin also has you know a tremendous amount of experience and she's been in this role I think she said for seven years now um however I think in my honest opinion that the special education department needs to go in a different direction and for those reasons I personally would have to support Lori dionisio I guess it's me uh thank you to everyone and again I'll look I'll let go of Mary's comments my just my thanks to uh everyone that's been involved in this process so you know those of us that gave up a Saturday in the rain to uh to interview all these candidates I will say this these two young ladies that were here tonight was exactly the same type of interview that they had that Saturday nothing has fluctuated so that's always that is always good it's always a lot of fun and it makes it interesting in my perspective uh when they make your job a lot tougher okay as I get a Miss Amaral in a break it you know this is why we get the big bucks to make these great decisions a type of deal that being said in all seriousness uh I thought both candidates were excellent uh their answers are entirely different you know so that makes it interesting type of deal uh however uh I'm one that and again yeah we're fortunate we have two in-house in and I'm a firm believer that if we have someone in-house type of deal you always you know if if they have the qualifications and such you know when they pass muster you give them an interview and let it go from there and you know let the chips fall where they where they fall again both candidates in-house did excellent and he interviews the writings pattern of it that we get that we gave to them I think uh I have to go back and and I have to you know lean towards uh Miss Jordan uh again with with the experience I'm you know being a being a nuts and bolts and a dollar guy I'm concerned about the budget you know I mean Miss Jordan did have some good answers you know with regard to the budget and how it's funded in and everything else this is a position that you've got to be able to you know wrap your hands around that budget because one of unfortunately one or two uh slip ups and we're in trouble you know District you know budget-wise district-wise Etc type of deal uh so I mean with with that and also it's just I am 99.99 certain I'm leaning towards uh Miss Jordan Miss Emerald gets well now I can uh right when you play Yankee Swap you can come back and you can I'm going to take your answer and your answer and yours no Blended um right ahead uh you said you wanted to no yeah I do want to come back to it um you know I'm I this is a difficult one you know and I I will start off by saying you know I I recognize the feedback I have uh perhaps maybe a different uh relationship with Lori J then um others and so I see a different side and I do see uh but but I what I loved about Lori D and I don't want to butcher anybody's name um and when you talk about the budget and I liked how she talked about the budget in terms of the people and um and the humanity in that and that it's about the stories and about the why um and so and so I I appreciate the creativity and I do think that that and the relationship building could reap rewards and so I don't want to come in and say oh I know Lori J and she's lovely and she's the assistant and I work well with her and and dismiss Laurie D because of the lack of central office experience when I do know and have heard and have consulted with have had several conversations around the incredible you know creativity in which and the lens in which she kind of approaches her work in this district and I do think that um have the relationship building you know you can learn the numbers I just did during covet I just got my MBA so you can learn the numbers and and you can learn that stuff um because I think there's a little bit of a learning curve for both of them because I don't I think there's some limit to what Miss Laurie J does in the scope of her work in terms of um outside of the title and so I think to not to dismiss either one of them but I do love the relationship building piece in terms of thinking about the numbers and the individuality that Lori brought Laurie D brought up in her interview that I just didn't want to not say that to others and you're processing and thinking so I uh yeah okay that's helpful okay that's good okay so we are now at a crossroad so I'll just get back to you know again like feedback and again I do want to reiterate that in the strains I thought they were they're both tremendously impressive candidates um I just still can't my the feedback I've gotten and I'll get back to as a you know as a representative um from is that you know there hasn't been in the special education department one of our weaknesses is that we haven't had people who've been present from the leadership as much um and so that seems to be something that I've received a lot of letters on from staff and families saying that they would really like to have someone who leads from within you know who's much more present and that was a really a significant Gap over the last few years and you know we really we do so much in this District with very little and our greatest asset are the people on the ground who are working with these students and we need someone who really is with those folks who can you know and who talks about them not just as teachers but as professionals and even further as assets that we can take advantage of and I don't mean like take advantage of but I mean like but we can use throughout this District because we have these internal strengths I thought that was a very strong testimonial that Laurie dionysio I'm going to try made because you know we need people who believe in their leaders and over and over again the testimonies I've received have been you know testifying to how much belief they have in in her leadership and she has been a facilitator it's not as though she hasn't had any leadership that's been really real um and and she values her people and I don't want to say that Lori you know Lori J doesn't it just was conveyed to me like over and over again you know that the staff are are inspired by Miss dionarsio and I think they're willing to you know to to you know again because she's called collaborator and she's someone who you know really wants to take forth their great ideas and then put them in their direct action and and again that just was conveyed very clearly so I I mean I guess that's why I'm you know feeling very strong when this one um in favor Miss Diane Ico because I I really want to give the hearing to our our staff and her the people who work with her I think that's important so Miss real estate anyone else okay thank you much appreciate it yeah I think we have two qualified candidates in front of us we do for different reasons this is a tough one yeah the nice thing is with all the you don't lose with either one we don't okay we we certainly Jeff first in my opinion they each have their strengths I agree type of deal so that's what we have so I kind of feel like the old Bonanza when and cut right at the house the queen and the booth for the you know the winner but I'll say this the number one concern I have with Laurie dionisio is the budget the number one concern I have with Lori jodwin is being out invisible in relationship building when you put that aside I think that the budget piece can be worked on can be learned we've seen it from our past our current special education director Mrs Townsend she learned it she's done a heck of a good job with it with keeping the budget straight and I I'm sure it's also has a little bit to do with our our business manager our assistant superintendent of Finance with keeping those numbers straight I work closely with my special education director in the central Office Team and my my district and I think for for the reasons that some of us have stated I'm I'll make a motion that this school committee appoints Lori dionisio as the pupil Support Services administrator I'll second that so we have a motion by Mr Oliver second by Miss Waite to appoint Lori d anisio as Benicio as the new pupil support service administrator make sure I have to title correct it's a mouthful that's with all the that's why I said earlier sped it was just a lot easier it's a lot easier it really is that type of deal so we have that motion we have a second on the motion any discussion I would say no discussion I I am supportive um and I think again we not to be but we we have two candidates who are part of our our family and part of our community um and it's it's really about weighing you know the pros and the cons and I appreciate everyone's thoughts and um that's all I have to add that's fine anybody else okay all in favor aye aye opposed passes three to two congratulations [Applause] subject to contract negotiations all right so that finally Believe It or Not takes care of all the business and I think this has been and we're right on time believe it or not we're right on time get out of here well no we're ahead of time go we are ahead of time anyhow okay goodness that being said we're good and we move on to new business we already took care of the reserve fund transfer uh superintendent's update I'll be quick um fine so uh MCAS this week lots going on in the schools uh I did want to report back that um you know I thank the middle school and the middle school staff Mr Rossi and his team they Friday night had a middle school dance for the first time since 2019.
during the course of the cycle the diocese worked with ksde and Smoky Hill service center in developing an infographic for career clusters unique to our diocese to align with the Kansas career clusters infographic that shared across the state elementary schools focused on Career awareness and pre-K in fifth grade this includes exploring different careers within the Pre-K and five curriculum along with inviting speakers from the community to discuss careers and to investigate businesses and services that serve the communities in which our students live on the secondary level students in grades k-6 utilize stello to explore their interests strengths and career options this helps students prepare for options at the post-secondary level including college and careers working with counselors mentors and parents students are in the process of creating their own individual plan of study the Kansas cam Vision stays at Kansas can lead the world in the success of each student the schools of this line of diocese take that Vision very seriously every student is different in preparing students for Life After High School is a partnership between parents and our schools the high school graduation rate is over 95 percent and the success rate and effective rate are very high compared to similar size districts the Salina Catholic Diocese has been recognized for its achievements by receiving the following Kansas can Awards Silver Star for high school graduation for OnStar for academically prepared for post-secondary gold star for post-secondary success and the commissioner's award though Catholic theology recognized his parents as being primarily responsible for the education of their children achievement of these principles is shared by faculty by faculty members the parish and the diocese the Catholic schools of the Salina diocese are committed to fostering environment of support and coordination for Catholic schools or principals faculty and students it also seeks to maximize opportunities for Quality education in a Catholic School setting now you guys can all wake up it might be the second view on that it can catch everything or you want to watch it again it is on YouTube you can go to our guys Diocesan website and then click on that and catch anything uh that you feel like you might have missed like after putting that together I just told Dr campanio and I can spell his first name wrong on that last slide so what I'm passing out now is a proposal foreign for what we would like to be able to do uh in Wilson so with the closure of grades 7 through 12 at the Wilson School building the capitalizes of Salon would like to propose a lease agreement with USD 112 for use of some of the space materials and the ability to share common employees under the accreditation of the Diocese of Salinas Catholic schools Wilson Catholic Junior Senior High School would organize as a 7 through 12 Junior Senior High School offering courses in religion English Math Science Social Studies business art music Beauty and bow Tech as well as Opera special education services with Central Kansas cooperative and education accreditation is recognized by ksde and we are the first diocese in Kansas to seek and gain accreditation as a system as others currently seek accreditation by individual schools the Catholic schools of the Slime and diocese also follow Casey requirements with teacher licensure we've proposed the sharing of as many staff as possible including principal and counselor the use of the cafeteria office space shop gyms and Library would also be beneficial to both schools Wilson Catholic School released the building and teaching equipment inventory and future purchases by Wilson Catholics who have become property of the newly organized school we look forward to building a partnership with USD 112 to help serve the Wilson community so we'd love to answer any questions that the board has for us why not at K-12 right now the k-6 is open that's what I'm aware so we're not going to be interested in that came through um possibly web sports activities if there are enough students at the school to play sports and form the teams as they are then they'll play on their own for instance Sacred Heart and TMP play their Sports on their own for the most part they Co-op for soccer team because we're based on softball with lacrosse uh St Johnson Beloit co-ops with Tipton Catholic for their Sports other than typing Catholic does their own track uh in their individual sports like that but we can come up with the local public schools have that so if you saw there one of the slides was average cost of education is about 7 500 I think it was so that's all of our schools K-12 a high school does cost significantly more to run so a high school is about 11 to 12 000 stocks 11 to 12 000 per pupil to educate them so funding for that but with the sharing of some staff members that could be beneficial to k-6 so the USD 112 as well as in schools because USD 112 would then be able to claim part of our students so for instance if we share a music teacher an art teacher PE or whatever it is then USD 112 could claim part of our students and get per fuel pay from the state so whether it's a 0.1 a 0.3 a depending on how long they have the class they would get it still get State money for that USB 112.
they had sold 353 tickets which is a lot I mean it's pretty impressive they thought they were going to use part of the gym they ended up using the whole gym they had more than 30 staff volunteer for it and every everybody had a good time from what I understand so I was happy to hear that um saw some pictures they would dress to the nines it was great they look good um we we are a hosting uh the department of Ed for the next couple of days for the tiered Focus monitoring visit so that's always fun um but we're prepared well prepared um you thanked everybody for all their efforts through the searches both searches I just wanted to reiterate that it was really a big ask for a lot of people and um a lot of very busy people so I just really appreciate all the effort that everyone put in um and the only thing yeah the other thing we already talked about was the finance committee Thursday night so yeah okay any questions for the super this end I was just curious as to you brought up doctor Middle School how the transition has been I know that uh Mr Rossi has been kind of been weaning in over the past six months uh so it just curious as to how that's going I think he's doing a great job yeah he's doing a great job he's certainly taken ownership of everything and uh he's he's Off to the Races you know without a hitch really and yeah he's been doing great and uh have been impressed now I've heard I've heard no complaints I've heard a lot of positive things coming out of the middle school with that I'm just wondering um and my apologies if this has already been brought up but have have we considered bringing Mr Doane back just for some recognition for his years of service I I think he was and I don't know I this might have we might have spoken about this I just do not remember um and and I think uh for his years of service and dedication uh to the Dartmouth Public Schools I think it would be nice if we recognize Mr Doane for the um the culture that he built at the middle school it certainly would be well deserved for sure I'd be happy to have him back no we no we did not he didn't miss anything Chris seriously I you know I wanted to stop by right to say goodbye and all of a sudden I I think I was speaking to someone they're like oh he's take I don't know already gone yeah that would be nice yeah so so maybe we could set that up for a future meeting sure yeah I think you had talked about there's one of the things that occurred to me is when we have the new teachers come in about doing something akin to that with retirees and it sounds like we only have one retiree this this year but you know that's the you know how we of course bring in the news features in the beginning of the meeting and you know welcome them so something like that as a tradition is nice in general yeah um especially from Mr Jones I think given Darren's role in The District as a as a leader for so many oh yes it would be I think good to do something just for him yeah absolutely okay anybody else so I just two things I remind you I sent you an email I forgot about our spelling bee team I've let them know we spont we're going to sponsor a team we just have to commit so I sent you all an email about that when did you do that just like a half hour ago also I'm just letting you know because I hadn't up until the time and I also like to try to say these things in open meeting that I did this and it's just it's no deliberation it's just a reminder about that yeah we already all agreed on correct uh the second thing um I'd like to reiterate my request that we provide our student representative with all of the materials for our meetings the agenda the budget all of these things anything that is not pertaining to Executive session I would hope that we could provide to him when the school committee gets that and then if he can't make it and someone else from the committee is coming it would be his responsibility to pass that along but I would hope that we can start regularly providing him with that information so he can more actively participate in meetings Kathleen anything okay okay uh Barry you all set I am thank you okay a couple of things well more than a couple of things Jim just in all services a moment to thank you for your leadership you talked about us with the work we did but uh with the superintendent and sped direct deposition but your leadership getting us through it and you know coordinating with Jim Hardy and all the different uh schools and districts to uh to make the tours and you know driving around in in that type of deal that didn't go unnoticed and thank you very much thank you thank you I appreciate that appreciate it Dr Jenkins said it's not over yet and he did all that because he wanted to make sure it would be over at the appointed date that's right because you'll let it no I'm never mind I was going to say something about them just uh two things I mean a fall sport uh not fall I went to sports teams they had a fantastic season congratulations to them I know our spring sports are up and running so hopefully they'll have a you know they will have as much success uh this past weekend our color guard and the percussion and winds were both at New Bedford High School Saturday night and uh up in uh Dudley up at Shepherd Hill Sunday afternoon and Saturday night all four groups the JV color guide Varsity guide wins and percussion took first place in their class and then Sunday was just the wins and percussion and again they both took first place and had an increase in scores both times so that was good next Sunday this coming Sunday April 2nd uh uh the music department here is hosting nesba finals for percussion and wins uh starts at one o'clock I'm assuming doors will open it at 12 tickets of fifteen dollars for adults and students and seniors are ten dollars and it is cash only you know sometimes you can come in you can use a venmo or you know anything of that nature no they're all it's all cash type of deal so we we host that I've got an email out to them about uh you know doing I need presenters or anything of that nature and unfortunately they're not like our superintendent and sped candidates very collaborative and communicate so I'll keep you posted if I need anyone I'll send out an email type of deal also on there is the night the ninth uh we're going to have our annual night of percussion with all our groups and we also have a group coming in from Pennsylvania that's going to be performing their jazz band and concert band and such that night starting at seven o'clock in the gym so uh and I think it I think I'm not quite sure what the the prices on that I'll be honest I asked and didn't write it down so that's that so that's what's going on uh on my end of it and of course they're all getting ready to uh I'll talk about that next time when they start heading to Dayton and such so with that Mr Nunes just us oh I I know I remember on this side at the same um I saw the show in choir too it looks like the show choir was up and running it's something that I'm not you know I knew we started this launch this year so I thought that was really exciting to see that they it looks like they were all you know did a great job and so it's exciting to see that addition to our program and a lot of kids that I've seen in our other you know programming coming together for that so of course they work that's right thank you they were out uh Saturday night because they go back the same time we did okay the not we did with the abandoned the winds and percussion did type down I understand they took second place yeah I think Robbie cyclop excuse me I've got best in show or some special award I noticed you know again just glancing over social media but I think that was exciting I think the concept band is at a mica competition on Friday okay so that's great lots of great busy there music program that being said and that being said well tonight is Miss Waits last meeting and I'm gonna throw a joke in there and a week I might come back for half of these hopefully not but go away for um just you know being just it's it you will be missed thank you so appreciate your time and your friendship and on behalf of the committee well thank you guys I appreciate it [Applause] yeah so I'll just take a second to say um thank you it's been um a journey and a great thing to be here with all of you guys you know I just I've learned a lot on this job I came certainly at a really difficult time with coven and uh you know I think we all shared some frustrations and fears along the way and in that attorney and it was a different job I think in many ways during that time so I have to say that you know I've really been I've learned so much by each of your modeling and um you know I I you know want to also say just a few moments for Mr Kiley thank you for all you've done you know your gracious leadership and you know work ethic I think when I was looking at a superintendent I won't lie I had you as a model even though I know you didn't want to be a neck in it you know position but um you know it has been a real learning experience and you know you know it's also launched me and back into my original career because I've been pretty inspired by the people I've seen here so that's that's been exciting too and who knows maybe I'll find my way back here at some point but but and also I have to say um good luck Kathleen I want to see you I don't want to split these flowers I want you have your Mary thank you very much for everything we appreciate it uh like anything else we don't always agree but it's always appreciated your thought and your Insight is always appreciated and we thank you for that I thank you for that yeah thank you Mary wish you the best thank you okay with that the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session for the purposes of collective bargaining with Union personnel and non-union personnel and not return to open session so so moved moved by Mr Oliver second by Dr Jenkins on the motion any discussion chair hearing on all in favor say aye aye I'm sorry my phone yes roll call John Nunes yes Mary wait yeah wow thank you
and then like the hot lunch program twisting 112 it's still service the hot lunch and they'd be able to get the money for the student's problems program any interest in buying the building I mean we're not sitting out a whole lot of cash or anything like that so I mean it would really have to I'm sure there could there could be some discussion about that our CFO was going to come today or you know I'm starting to keep it down what I wrote this up with is what I knew like at the time since the 7 through 12 is what was closing and that's what I put on so what's your minimum student uh availability do you have a school I mean you would hopefully want about 7 to 15 kids per class would be nice to have at least I mean it'd be great to have 25 get to the class but we operate St Xavier Catholic High School or K-12 in Junction City and there's three seniors and there's 14 Freshmen but a lot of those 7 through 12 teachers that we may teach all whether it's just like any small school would know but I have the same math teacher all five years but they're all six years seven to twelve but intimidating yeah Tipton has 15 total 1912.
so that they kind of have a difference set up their Elementary School uh doctor correct me if I'm wrong with the elementary school is a public charge school and there's cost sharing between the two buildings the high school girls diocese and Charter School runs on its own aspect this whole working relationship is going to go down to nitty-gritty and the whatever we decide to do as far as the sheriff Austin the state formula how it works and so forth but it is worth calling at other schools in some of that responsibilities and even in that road schools we have our sharing and restrictions at the end at the great school so it can work but this needs to be soon just basically you pay assessment to Salina or specialized services you know can we pay anything the ckcia for special ed services so it's part of the co-op now we do now yeah so thank you thank you certain percentage of our students 20 and if it needs a lot of successful um and basically it's coming out of federal funding and it's based on the means and our schools do work and keep track of their record keeping system uh staff as far as the river staff that we need is what whether it's an LP person um and then there are some instances on the lower levels of where some students because we don't have the services five things Five Guys you've got a bus with 12 percent oh I think 16 percent and that's all whether it's uh speech services uh learning disabilities gifted Services I think abouts that are two percent and with that we are kind of uh at the mercy of Central Kansas Co-op and education like so we have a Catholic grade school at Abilene and this year they've pulled services from facilities so instead of how the special ed teacher would be there in the ability to say you know two hours in the afternoon our students get bus to the local public school for certain value today you think you've had teacher on site there our students take that Suburban over there you might share the class student classes interactions of good teacher the average student costs the other time your highest and lowest yeah so uh like tuition fees comes down to the at the local level so the parish would work with the school council and figure out the funding for that so the diocese doesn't provide like we give 85 dollars per pupil that's it to the local Catholic school at the rest so we've got to come up with about eleven thousand dollars per kid to educate that's just rough asthma that we only have four kids per class that maybe it's going to be 19 000 for people to educate you're still gonna have teachers there and keep the lights on uh the Paris would give a certain amount and that that Parish would decide that of how much they could give maybe it's 15 of the weekend collection every week it goes to the school and then fundraising event would have to make up the rest and then what doesn't they'd have to send the tuition so that's Sacred Heart and Salina uh if you have one kid and you make over 140 000 a year as a household you're going to pay eight thousand four hundred dollars now if you have four kids and you make over that you're only gonna probably pay sixteen thousand dollars total uh in Haze if you have a kid that goes to TMP you pay fifteen hundred dollars if they go to grade school you pay one thousand dollars so you can see the vast difference is if you tipped it I think it might be eight hundred dollars right now Beloit I think it's about three thousand and caps Edge six thousand dollars per family so every location is different depending on what they can do at the local level as far as what the payers can provide and what they can do fundraising and in a lot of the smaller uh areas you know there are clinical development all the Community Foundation where there's x amount of Sciences our parents and our schools they're still paying the full property tax rate as well they don't get a break on their property taxes because yeah um well if I explained how a religion classes of my work like you did last week yeah there was a number of parents that were asking how that would work because if it's going to be a Catholic School the kids will take the theology class every year from partner and I one of the things Jeff didn't mention in addition to being the victory General that has your eyes I'll teach five days when you can think of our eyes and a number of my students are not Catholic students and as I explained the other night in Wilson I didn't even know it I mean they just come out just teach them and usually in the last three years I've been teaching I like to kind of find out you know in a roundabout way I mean I'll ask some questions and say what do you think about that you know when you went to Mass on Sunday well father I'm not Catholic Paul I didn't know that so uh we just teach them and the idea being that um they're not we don't proselytize we don't you know if it's a written assignment and they don't agree with fine give me a reason Okay so that it's it's it's from the outside looking in the Bible kind of like you're kind of on some difficult change around but from the inside and quite frankly part of the accreditation process we that we have with cognia is to help support the mission of their Catholic school so our foreign but down the hall of your teaching biology yeah well I teach my kids Evolution yeah in my theology class you know you know here's what Charles Darwin said and I explained it so I just again I told him last week I'm a I'm a scientist I have a degree engineering from Kansas State and so my first thing was science so I have trouble pulling back and forth those are issues with the media GSW to cause problems and the students would also attend religion during the day uh you know if it's at 8 A.M it's not like the students would show up at 8 45 and say hello I'm not so I'm not going to realize that that's not a that's the deal breaker it's not an object you know as far as what is your student approved process and I'm sure that they apply and go through that exceptions what is your problem because there's there's really not a a major screening process if they want to go some over pretty much admitted unless they've been kicked out of a public school for 180 school days or something like that like we're not admitting anybody like that if we can educate the student with the resources that we have we are invested like if they're performing at a low level this is what they went to before it or give it a shot so uh the admissions process is pretty simple there's no I think people think because I was at a retreat a few weeks ago at ringneck Ranch actually is where they posted it with probably 30 other superintendents and sometimes the private schools get the bad rap they think oh well you don't even teach in holler you guys are going to feel that we we have all types of students that we teach so I think I think there's a idea that it's just like this private schools are just Country Club schools not not an assignment diocese that are found what should we do encourage our principal to someone be trying to find out what happened if there is something major illegal then um do we know what our percentage of students well it's out of History is what is out of District uh there's 15 out of District students that is that just seven through twelve yes now is that the same thing if somebody's at a district he's still got to accept them or in in eye of them because we don't have like District last chance so for instance in Hayes if you come from the Hayes Catholic schools are supported by three large Catholic churches in the Hayes and then the five six or seven outline parishes uh around so like and Catherine at those smaller communities give a portion of their collection because they have a lot of students that maybe go to that school they want to keep those Catholic schools open um so if Wilson at the local level said well you know you don't attend uh church here and then your feet are going to be that much then that would be designed at the local level but yeah if you could you live 30 miles away we have kids that go to boys St John's that live in June let me Concordia and even though the diocese considers that district with the state the local autonomy from the local level is very important does not work unless there is available so for example if you heard me mention if you were able to stay away because we have local school councils and their advisory so each School of Elementary or high school has a local school council that advises the uh pastor and the principal so the authority lies with the pastor the principal runs the school runs the banks by the pastor and the school council is advisory so they might they might do some votes to see what things are thought about they're there to provide advice uh to the pastor and the principal we do not have a Diocesan School Board I work at the hall down from the bishop he talks to me every single day hey Jeff keep me up to date or hey I was in um Colby and her visit about our grade school can you bring me up to date on that today email me there's a school shooting in Nashville know we know 14 or 15 of our 14 or 15 articles are very well secured one we are working on and he said you know even yesterday it was too late get on that and I explained back hey I've got we do have things we'll come this summer and but he's still you know keep yourself debate on those things so and if you've heard about that in the presentation done a lot of the compliance and stuff that required by state because of the great nation be the same um I'm not going to go through all that but 90 of the compliances that apply to Public School Systems so you talk about security we get into this building and we release it to you and you guys feel that there's not enough security he takes care of that responsibility it would have to be uh proposal between the two sides say what can we do I mean I would I Public Schools were much more secure than our schools I'll tell you that right now so I guarantee your problem it's more secure than a lot of places because I just think of if we're talking about security any church you go to for the most part it's wide open you know so now our schools are not as wide open as our parishes but right quite frankly most of our buildings are considered private is not as accessible as a public school building would be it's number one number two we do have a an insurance company that guides us the actual security building up to our audience which I I assume so thank you any more questions personal Community thoughts good bad McDonald's thing that could be thrown a monkey wrench into this is that they're still into bigger talking to legislature print out a possible Bill to get an extension that's I'm sitting here pleased with your approach has been your information but also there's a bill there that was already past the house and the Senate is doing some Provisions I think on it that would basically that the local back in our situation here one person could could uh if they'll help me out so that if one person had a problem with the closure which there have been they could uh get a petition started and then take it uh if that went through under whatever the guidelines are set of the bill in the process it could appeal to the State Board of Education the way I understand it is the State Board of Education would listen to both sides and come up with an advisory decision send it back to the board with maybe different options to consider maybe following what the board proposed to start with or maybe doing something else but it's still up to the board to take that Bob decision well I understand I hate to Hate to say too much because I'm not it amended this so much I've heard that today they've admitted it cut out a struck down yeah many pages to very few pages right now yeah so I don't know I got to get on and see an actual bill if it's posted again I talked to somebody this afternoon again on that but the one thing that the bill does not want to do is take away local control they want the school board to maintain local patrols they're just giving I think the basis of the bill is to have an option to reconsider I only bring that up because that would if that went through and I don't know if it will because the governor would sign that bill the date I heard was April 9th and I'm sure that process would get started in Wilson so I don't know how that would affect whether people would still want to do that and they know brought up our trying to maintain Public Schools I don't know we're in a quandary here as far as that's what we've been trying to get another year extension so we can some of these things straightened out and make a decision for it so and hastily don't answer your question or not I think I think to answer that as far as the Catholic school I think was very well received I'll talk to his parents today they're they're fine with it and look forward to it but sometimes we gotta think we don't know what's going to happen on the public side with the bill so I would say I have I also only heard positive things but it's been from I think those that would support it I haven't heard a lot of people you don't hear the negative yeah usually I do well but I mean because maybe some of those people already made their decisions today we're good with coming you're going there going there yeah so I mean I think in general I think the feedback that I've done is positive the outliners that see you know Catholic at the top of the page get concerned but I think it's a more of an educational thing an understanding I mean as a district I think it's a good opportunity for us because when we have half the building when we go we won't have a use for and I don't know how we're gonna paper teachers for things like Clarkson pee for just the elementary students so there's a lot of opportunities in the district hi it's a great opportunity that having two different has a building with two different entities is again I just see could be a headache so we'd have to look at utilities are we splitting down the other are we saying that's why I brought up it would be would you be interested in buying the K-12 or nothing it would be harder for us to get that off the ground all that to work did a partnership these first couple years and see where it goes from there because obviously you know maybe we wouldn't utilize more than China because the high school in Chicago Elementary so I think we maybe we have 55 percent of the utilities you guys have 45 or what whatever it is 65 35 uh but in Hanover Kansas which is the furthest Northeast of our diocese our Catholic school is a first grade through eighth grade an odd set of I think it's because when they started in kindergarten wasn't a fully you know funded bank or you didn't have to go back then uh so all the students that go to Hanover go to kindergarten at the public school then about 80 to 90 percent of them go to the Catholic school first through eighth grade so right now I've got 23rd graders in Hanover in our Catholic school and there's three in the public school classroom at the ninth grade they all go over to the public high school and it works for that town the seventh eighth graders from the public school walk across the street and are top map by our Catholic teacher all of our kids in our building walked across the street for lunch in that building are saying math teacher that has everything in the morning Houston the weight room in the afternoon at the public high school and had a couple of go to the public high school it's just uh the public school principal who's also the head of Basketball Coaches kid as a first grader at the Catholic grade school it's a it works for that small town so I was amazed but I went up there it's all about negotiations and your intake yeah and it's a strong partnership the superintendent in there I mean he drives from north of Topeka every day and it's Hanover Lynn and Barnes It's got kind of three towns uh but he's a he went to eighth grade through the Catholics equipment was into education because Jeep area comes back equals this so just it works for that town every time every time well the people see it's really good of their Community gives them an incentive to cooperate and try to work this out if there's a world there's a way I don't think it's a bad deal that major part of that word is guilty uh that we got to try to figure out okay he's responsible for defense furnace brings down boiler goes out there goes out it's got that window gets broke on the high school side you know the the second thing is is that okay the enrollment on it uh we're not guaranteed that we're going to get three-fourths that goes to the Catholic School uh we've already discussed prior um if my kid doesn't go to high school here why would my grade school to go here so we're getting that down in that situation again as okay if we lose half of the high schoolers they go someplace else the other half-state Wilson and go to the Catholic Wilson school but they pull half the grade schoolers out if we're in a bad situation as usd-12 so we got to look at another decision of okay are we going to try to keep it open uh with half of the enrollment still have the same amount of major costs and what if we lose two-thirds and we've got to close a k through six where are we at I think if we had enough students there I mean there's that Ellis has six kids per class right that's the greatest we started sixth grade a day but I mean it's the community that keeps it open it's the church to see people there yeah I grew up Lutheran my mom still lives in Ellis from Ellison the Lutheran she helped support the Catholic School they think it's great it's very proud well and and that's that's the difference between the community and the church to a school district uh Community the church can come up with some more funds uh school districts only allowed so much unless we come up with grants and stuff yeah there's no more begging from the state you know and and it was a multi-billionaire comes in and says hey I'm going to donate millions of dollars and we're still waiting on them so um you know and so yes I I think it's a great deal it it's just a lot of waves um you know and and and it would be tough to say yeah let's go for this and like Roger said something comes up with a build or something where are we at well we understand that I mean I I'm not in the business of closing you know Local Schools also I mean if something came up and there's a there's a change that happens that I live for good for 112 and all that I've not you know right it happened what would it take um or where would you be at when you would have actual tuition numbers for people to be able to decide like if they if they would want to be interested in doing that or probably July because we have to get teachers hired black principal you know teachers are assorted right now anyway okay so we hope to say you know anything by July 15th you're going to know what the tuition is we got to open it three weeks so it's steep out wouldn't even be an answer from us I know you guys need to get on the 10th I'll be balancing okay here for that uh but I would think that would consider better we're going to perform by the end of this month do you think let me pay to respond to that no I don't know Friday Saturday yeah there's something down you would start next school year there right we should try because I mean if we don't that you're not going to get those students back I mean even if your strong Catholic if you get started today you're at your school and you meet your new friends you're probably going to stay there you know it's hard for those kids to just switch and switch I mean this freshman head I hate it I it ended up working out extremely well but it was tough on him with this Builder talking about about possibly extending the rules of government schools is that what that just be for one year or would that be it that much I hate to say too much because I I'm not going to burst it as well as I because it's like Bill said they've changed it I've listened to two hearings who had representatives from Wilson there both there and 10 of them at the hearings the next day they'll change some language in that bill so I don't know where that is today it's it's on YouTube right now tonight I think maybe you know over the next few weeks because of your stakeholders and communities foreign so I guess that would be the one of the things that we don't provide like the bus and services if I could handle it for example correct any exception would be like a Sacred Heart activity buses in there and that would fall into the high school sure it's like a sport investment they would need a bus a school to figure out how do they buy one so they have one more advanced or Beloit Lloyd does not have a bus at St Johnson service that's a Friday driving training background checks driver's license checks and then they rotate takes the kids to all the games I think it's possible to come up with startup costs a short amount of time I know that you guys mentioned or Bishop mentioned that falls with our national brand or something to be available yeah one National Grant I looked at you had to be in a state that has school choice right now in case it's not habitable choice or not could be in the future but as right now it's not so they're not in here but we have a couple other viewers that was some available it'll certainly cause so the problem with those grants is we need more information to give them to say whatever you need what's your operation costs again yeah and I'm sure it's something that we could discuss just have some talk thank you so much for having a specialty I know it's a lot to come together uh you know when you're called six days ahead so we do appreciate it thank you guys being here and thank you for all the information any other questions sure that Josh all those in favor say aye thank you again yeah thank you thank you everybody for coming okay sure
but for everyone all right now even hello underneath for our purses said I wanted to wait [Laughter] and here's what's funny I sent the whole description sorry bad my bad oh um yeah yeah you can bring it up and then I'm gonna direct them to you agree you know what it's getting all right thank you to everybody for being here tonight to respect everybody's time we're gonna go ahead and get started the crane school district understands that our community of schools is located on the ancestral land of the Odom Jude and achimil Odom people who descended from the Hohokam and have inhabited these lands since the time immemorial the hodum whose names translates literally two people are a vibrant culture and communities spanning countless Generations into the past continuing to thrive in the present and carrying a powerful Legacy for Generations into the future with this acknowledgment the Creighton School District formerly recognizes that the traditional care and keeping of these lands by indigenous people is an aspirational model of community stewardship that we are committed to honor with practices policy and human relations um Miss mcshafri can you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please a nation under God indivisible Liberty thank you that brings us to our roll call we have Miss Gibson McLean here we have MS mcstuffrey and myself Ms McCaleb and Miss Ayers we want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and remind the audience of the request to address board cards that must be completed and submitted to the board secretary if they wish to speak to an agenda item board policy provides for two cards White cards to be submitted in order to speak to an agenda item and blue cards to be submitted in order to speak during public comments due to the open meeting law board members are not allowed to address items that are not on the agenda and before we go into approval of consent I know that we all are aware of this recent school shooting and also just yesterday or this morning an ice Detention Center lost 32 immigrants in a fire so I would like to take a moment of silence just for a few minutes I appreciate everybody who joined in that moment of silence for us that brings us to approval of agenda I move the governing board approve the agenda as presented all those in favor I never brings us to public comments Hilda do we have any public comments today okay and just a quick question um have we worked on Virtual comments I know that in the last board update we talked okay so just so everybody knows whoever is watching us also on online you guys are able to submit virtual comments now so um that way everybody's aware thank you guys for working so hard on that and that brings us to our superintendent report good evening governing boards Community hello staff it is testing season beginning with our fifth and 8th graders in science and Monday third through eighth graders with the aasa test so I know our students are getting to bed early and eating a good breakfast and staying focused we really appreciate their their concentration and energy in that area our kindergarten fair is from four to six tomorrow night Our Family Resource Center so we hope we'll rally all of our future kindergartners to join us there and learn a little bit more about our schools we also have our art expo tomorrow night from 5 to 6 30 at Monte Vista thank you Monte Vista for hosting also tonight's artwork is from Monte Vista if you care to go over to the display and see it we will have over 400 pieces of art at the art expo um now I know our folks who are on the conflict uh have a conflict with the health wellness and Safety Committee at that time so we'll see what we can do to mitigate a chance for them to go if they so choose um we also want to thank them for the creative Outreach at our NAU job fair our lead recruiter Jeff Geier and uh and Yvonne Carvajal created these ten thousand dollar um bucks to hand out as an incentive to encourage people to come and everybody else at the recruitment fair was furious with us so we're very proud of that and I thought that was pretty creative um and uh I just wanted to share that I want to thank the governing board for the opportunity to represent the United States and Creighton School District as a diplomat and Ambassador in Israel it was an emotional and moving and life-changing experience the way that the Israelis embrace all children from infancy to adulthood is the true definition of the solidarity of a village uh Palestinian Jews Christians the Arab people all are welcome and they have an amazing sense of Harmony despite some of the headlines that we read and while there appears to be upset with Netanyahu and his efforts to modify the judicial system over there I felt nothing but safe and secure and there is a possibility for our children to have an opportunity to go over there and I would absolutely support that if that's something we can make happen um I I could go on and on about that trip relative to the schools visited the alternative circumstances that they provide for children who needed different you know psychological music therapy art therapy outdoor environmental learning environment situations uh they have a a hospital service for students who come from Ethiopia with their parents where they can have residential support while following up on heart surgery the social services there are Beyond reproach and I have never seen a more child-centered Community as I have across the entire country and it was beautifully geographically it was beautiful spiritually it was beautiful in its democracy and efforts to bring Harmony among the many different viewpoints and beliefs in that country so I just take my hats off to the board for allowing me to do that and thank you very much and that also tells me right now it's about 3 A.M for my body so I'll I promise to stay focused and alert tonight uh but I'm adjusting having just returned and I'll conclude by wishing those who celebrate in the next week or two happy Ramadan Happy Passover and happy Easter thank you um Miss Ayers would you like to start us off with our governing board reports thank you um the only thing I really have to say is during the last two weeks why people were on spring break you did have aeaj at the Capitol and since I am a member I did a 10 and so did Kelly Riel um so it was nice to be with them down at the Capitol there was a lot of people down there for spring break and um we got to meet a lot of legislature uh legislators and um hear from them and their priorities um unfortunately we didn't get to meet the governor because she was out of town but her twin was there which I know Becky her twin so she kept getting confused computer where's her sister um so and there's more I'm going to share during the legislative report so I'll save that for later so thank you thank you Miss McCaleb um not much just uh thinking of everyone as you enter testing season and thank you teachers for all the hard work I know you're doing to prepare the students and create a culture and environment where it's not just a testing but trying to pump them up and and get them ready so thank you all for that and just continuing to think about those in Nashville and in that community and is really wanting everyone to think about how we can actually make a change um because it's just absolutely heartbreaking and just ridiculous that this continues to occur so thank you Miss mcsheffery yeah um budget and expense reports for the district's Federal pandemic relief funding grants s or one two and three um I just wanted to share publicly that these reports are not really in any context they're not self-explanatory this is not a transparent way how to explain how we have spent this money it is a list of numbers without meaningful explanations next to them similar to what we got um when we voted on the stipend which also was not self-explanatory um at all for example one line item says one hundred thousand dollars was spent on non-student books what is that there are many line items having to do with Personnel but no position title associated with it again not at all self-explanatory and not at all transparent I hope that we will have a much more thorough um presentation and discussion as we have requested um about a month ago now um and if not I mean then I feel like that's another area that is in great need of audit if this is all that we're going to be given as a board thank you thank you let's give some McLean foremost um just in case there are people in our community who may be impacted I wouldn't necessarily normally address this but as an individual I believe that there are human rights atrocities that get committed in Palestine every day and so I just want to make sure that if there's people in our community that feel um maybe alienated by things that that they understand that individuals may believe differently um additionally I have a couple of recommend or requests I guess for information moving forward um first I would I would hope to get some information about when we stopped using reusable cafeteria trays and why we use styrofoam trays for every meal curious about the amount of waste that cause causes and also what the decision was to get rid of reusable trays and and why we can't go back to those it seems like an unsustainable practice additionally I'm curious about um Federal I guess any kind of federal rules that would prevent us from donating or at least holding on to non-perishable food items when meals are completed it's concerning to me that many of it from what I've heard it sounds like maybe a lot of food is getting thrown away on a daily basis that's very concerning to me considering so many of the needs that we have in our community if there's anything federally that gets in the way I understand there's a lot of rules with money but I would be I'm just curious what's there and what's going on and how do we make it work how do we work around things um I also have a request to see if the board could get in a copy of an inventory of what's stored in our warehouse it sounds like maybe from meetings I've had with people that it sounds like maybe the people are unaware of everything that's in there and I'm just curious if we have an audit or inventory list of that and if we keep good track of that um I'd also like to know the number of contracted employees with the district both classified and certified at this time our guests for the next what we anticipate for the next school year and by contract it I mean obviously folks who are hired through a third party and I'm guessing then we don't pay their insurance or their asrs but or maybe one of the two but I'm just curious how many of our employees both certified and classified are contracted rather than actual District employees last request before I move into something but it's related is it's my understanding the mac and PA system hasn't been working since December that's a safety concern for me if the PA system doesn't work I'm assuming there's a feature on wired phones that should be able to work either way teachers shouldn't be unaware of how any of that why any of that's not working and it's already going to be April so that should be taken care of and I would like an update on that at the next board meeting um finally moving into safety and kind of going off of what other folks have talked about um you know I've spent the last seven months on the Safety Committee at Phoenix Union I'm the chair of the committee it's the committee of started out with 21 community members we're down to 15.
thank you all for being here we're just Gathering and then we'll begin shortly thank you foreign [Music] thank you again we appreciate and are excited to have all of you here and appreciate you into being in attendance and we just concluded an executive session and we will now begin our regular board meeting that starts with 2.01 I'm calling this meeting to order Tuesday March 28th 2023 and I would ask that we would begin with a moment of silence and if we could remember as we're remembering the those students and faculty and staff in Nashville as well as their families and Community as we begin Our Moment of Silence tonight that will be followed by a pledge of allegiance which I will lead thank you you'll stand if you will join me for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Mrs Wilson if I may ask you to call roll for us Mr Chad Thompson here Miss Laurie wood here Miss Sheila eugetti here miss Jill Humphries here Miss Rhonda page here Madam president all board members are present you have a quorum thank you that takes us to 3.01 approval of tonight's agenda board members is there a motion I move that we approve the agenda as presented thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved is there second second thank you Miss Humphreys it's been moved and seconded that we approve tonight's agenda all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with nay thank you that passes 5-0 that takes us to superintendent's recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members if you join me in front of the dice we will have our recognitions for this evening foreign [Music] thank you well welcome thank you for being here uh as always this is our favorite part of every board meeting we've got to recognize some of our students and our staff and some of the things they've accomplished over the last couple months tonight we're going to be recognizing a lot of Athletics and um first of all is Coach Jeff Alexander here from Mesquite High oh they did is is is is Eli here Eli come up thank you Eli come here don't don't shake hands yet sorry Eli now let me see this is now if I screw this up they just give me information I didn't write this all right Eli how do you say your last name Conde yeah you like Conde what grade are you in I am a junior junior Mesquite High School placed second in division three uh for wrestling at the 138 pound level congratulations congratulations all right take just one step over we're gonna bring everybody kind of up is Travis Jackson here nope but you are Jim I'm happy to see that Alexandra Alexander Sweeney where are you at are you here no that's not you no Mr laven come on up so he's like you gotta be kidding me Mr laven is our athletic director Desert Ridge High School and so he's going to stand in for Mr Alexander Sweeney who plays second in division one in wrestling 120 pound weight class so right here coach gusts of sin are you here come on up Highland High School now you have somebody have us you have Aaron how do you say Aaron's last name Aaron are you here come on up [Applause] Aaron you play second in the state in division one for the 132 pound weight class correct congratulations give him a hand still you're here come on up look at he's like oh Mr Ragsdale is the athletic director over at Campo Verdi high and tonight he's stepping in now you're going to help me say this name too the hell mahel moronis where are you Mahal there you are foreign he wrestled that 110 pounds bear watch out move over this way a little bit well you were the division two heavyweight champion correct yes sir congratulations [Applause] ladies and gentlemen these are our wrestlers this is how they did this year we're extremely proud of them if you guys could shake hands with the board and we'll have a picture with all of you one time one more time for him thank you stay here don't leave here all right I don't know how you guys want to do this please a little closer together one two three one more time [Music] next cheer [Applause] cheer is in the house I love it Mesquite High Chair and Pollock [Applause] all right Sharon and is Mia and is it Kira me and Kira come on up [Applause] Triple Threat triple oh Triple Threat sorry let me let me write that note down Triple Threat there you go well since you like talking foreign coach get up here why are you here tonight we are here because in the first time of Mesquite High School history we won the game day championship at AIA game day competition in December yes division three would our cheer squad please come up all right I'm going to start down here if you would tell everybody your name and your year that'd be great and you could just pass it down I'm Scarlett Olsen I'm a sophomore I'm Carson Glasgow I'm also a sophomore I'm Jasmine Parker and I'm a freshman I'm Michael Lahore and I'm a senior I'm Madeline Stevens and I'm a sophomore I'm I'm Brinkley bills and I'm a sophomore I'm Emerson Bowman and I'm a sophomore I'm Kaden sells and I'm a sophomore I'm Maddie McKinley and I'm a sophomore I'm Savannah Bell and I'm a senior I'm Amy diosado and I'm a junior I'm Deja ekfi and I'm a senior I'm Peyton Miller and I'm a senior I'm Cheyenne rush and I'm a freshman hi I'm Abby Strickland senior could our seniors just take one step forward please one more time for [Applause] you guys are going to leave Mesquite High School with the championship we're very proud of you the rest of you wow bars way up here the triple threat are gonna make sure you guys are going to take care of business for the next couple years uh one more time for Mesquite High cheer squad congratulations if you guys would all of you shake hands with the board and we'll get a picture if you don't mind locations all right coach we have assembled exercise that's why I turned it over time [Music] so the last cheerleaders that came in she did a pyramids yeah okay all right we'll fill in and thank you [Music] all right [Applause] one two three again congratulations and thank you guys for everything you're doing coach Mark Martinez are you here there you are how are you sir good to see you thanks so we we won some championships also in basketball this year 5A and 6A Campo brought home the hardware for the 5A state championship boys basketball if you follow basketball if you've been following basketball like even the NCAA tournament there's some great games going on I got to tell you what every one of these games that both of these teams played in were extremely close extremely tight but um the good guys won so we're very proud of you if you if our basketball team from Campbell would come on up and coach I'll let you talk come on up guys yeah bring the banner Bring It Off coach before I have these gentlemen introduce themselves will you kind of talk a little bit about your team in the season and what got you here today yeah um well first of all I mean it's it's uh an incredible honor to be here to be recognized for our hard work this has been something that's been building for a while those that know Campo basketball these are it's a neighborhood uh school um these guys have been playing together for a while so we've kind of seen the makings of this thing coming together and I think uh you know our final game our state championship game where we had five guys our five starters in double figures just uh is it you know exudes everything that Campo stands for in terms of team so really proud of these young men their their hard work um you know to cap it off this way a lot of these guys are seniors so to go out on top like that is is something we were you know allowed to share with the the community so it was great I'll start down here you would introduce yourself and then pass it down I I know you're not a senior go ahead uh coach Mark McDowell assistant coach I'm coach Jamie Petry also assistant Dyson Ashton Brenner Jr Alex Merrill Jr Caleb Weaver senior Cohen Ferguson Jr Cedric Frick Jr Kennedy gunlock senior Brandon Curtis sophomore Gage McDowell freshman Josh Campbell senior Ryan Perry Jr Isaiah senior JJ Jones Jr Tom McDowell senior Justin Garcia senior and then Garrett Ahearn who's on a baseball away game was part of us as well ladies gentlemen you're 5A State boys basketball champions shake hands let's get a picture with the governing board please thank you some of us said that wrong yeah we probably need to move around yeah all right guys [Music] squeeze in boy squeeze in [Music] thank you hey what did the banner says there you go very nice if I could have Coach Fazio from Highland High School [Applause] thank you coach Fazio is the head coach of the Highland High boys basketball team and they too won the state championship is this the first one in Highland history it is the first one in Highland history we could have our Highland basketball players come on up keep getting taller and taller are they though yeah coach if you would talk again um just like coach Martinez is about your team and what got you guys here today I'd appreciate it for sure well thank you for having us tonight um I'm gonna Echo a lot of things that coach Martinez so there's a lot of similarities where we're it's a senior Laden Group we've got six seniors uh they're neighborhood guys played together for a long time um and uh you know as a coach it's it's really nice when all you have to do is is coach dribbling passing and shooting um the guys work hard in the classroom team GPA have a 4.0 and we've just got wonderful wonderful young men here very proud of them work hard show up bust their tail our great teammates and uh I'm very happy that they got experience what they did this year they deserved it congratulations give him a hand again Walker's thumb more uh Owen rosenhan I'm a junior Tylenol Miller I'm freshman Joshua Branson Junior Michael Johnson sophomore Buckner senior Ryan Moon senior Brock no Miller Senior Max Robinson Jr Isaac Capps senior Noah Peterson senior Henry Hall Jr driving Merrell freshman and we're missing Hayden weiniger who's also a senior who um we're very thankful for Hayden who made a three-point shot at the end of the second overtime in the state championship game that kind of sealed the deal he's not here but uh I'm very proud of these guys it's a wonderful group of guys as you can see you don't need to be tall or good looking to be a good at basketball which can be said the same for Campo I think too but thank you again ladies gentlemen your 6A state champions you guys would shake hands with the board and we'll take a quick pick [Music] UPS area [Music] hey speak for yourself yeah kinda yeah okay um [Music] was somebody first team Allstate where's Noah Noah Peterson congratulations to you you guys I you win as a team but it's nice to get recognized as individuals as well so congratulations to you there you go there you go Walker I can't see yeah come on Walker hello congratulations [Music] again Hawks thank you guys for being here this evening Madam president governing board members this concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you yes I got extras [Music] yes there's there's at least one extra here for you everybody yes no thank you very much and again congratulations to those teams who are here tonight and to our all of our coaches and athletes looking forward to the next season we will now go to 5.01 for Dr McCord superintendent's reporter Dr McCord thank you madam president governing more members thanks to everybody for being here this evening once again we hope uh everyone enjoyed their spring break if they had the opportunity to do that again going through our first round of a different calendar and two weeks off in the fall two weeks at winter and two weeks spring break just so everybody has a heads up we will be sending out a survey to all of our families and our staff talking about the 24-25 and 2526 school calendars and we'll be bringing that to the board within the next few months and Mr Martin's putting together that survey as we speak Elementary art show next week April 3rd 4th and 5th from 5 30 to 8 30 at Norwood Furniture in downtown Gilbert if you have time please go check it out there are some phenomenal pieces of art there that our elementary students have put together and then the high school art show is April 18th from 5 to 8 P.M right next door here at HD South and if you want to see where those young artists go as elementary students and where they progress at the high school level another opportunity to see just some of the great things that our students can do I want to let you know our we're having our employee of the year celebration next week Thursday April 6 from 5 to 8 p.m at the DoubleTree we'll be honoring teachers support staff and administrators and we're looking forward to that evening um we're going to be bringing to the governing board next week at our work study uh proposal for employee compensation for the 23-24 school year and then looking to approve that at a little bit later date but wanted to make sure I know people are always asked the question we sent out contracts people accepted them but they wondered when we are going to be bringing forth what it will look like in terms of compensation for the next year and we are at that point we'll be able to do that and lastly spring holiday is Friday April 7th so there's no school on that day Miss Wood that concludes my report for this evening thank you Dr McCord that will take us to our request to speak to the governing board and we have three requests so I would ask Missy Jetty could you please read the admonition request to speak to the governing board pursuant to ARS 38-431.02.h the board may make an open call to the public during a public meeting subject to a reasonable time place and manner restrictions to allow individuals to address the public body on any issue within the jurisdiction of the public body at the conclusion of an open call to the public individual board members May respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the board may ask staff to review a matter or may ask that a matter be put on a future agenda however members of the board shall not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during an open call to the public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action during an open call the board requests that speakers refrain from voicing complaints against School Personnel or any person connected with the district as it may impact the due process rights policies k-e-k-e-b and Ked are provided by the board for disposition of legitimate complaints including those involving individuals forms required for use of these policies can be obtained from the Gilbert Public Schools website and we have a three-minute limit thank you we have Sarah Kane will be first and Amira virgath and please correct my pronunciation if I did that incorrect will be next if you could come up to speak thank you and the three minutes will start when you begin I wasn't I didn't realize it was three minutes I thought it was closer to five so I'm going to talk a little bit faster okay thank you um hi my name is Sarah Kane and I'm here to speak on the matter of Frank Murphy we all know him as Tony most of us as a ghs alumni and a current ghs parent and a former staff member I'm stunned and greatly disappointed in the choices the GPS team has made regarding Tony's dismissal from his position I am only one of thousands of students that have spent four years of my young life learning and growing on that campus Tony's guidance help and respectful mannerisms allowed me to feel safe and respected during a time when my adults failed to do the same I watched him speak with my friends as a fatherly figure and help them stay strong on the right path I've also watched Tony worry and comfort the friends that he didn't think that Comfort my friends that didn't think they could handle even one more moment and they did because of Tony I might not be here today I might not be here today with my family if Tony wouldn't have been there to keep me grounded as a former staff member Tony is the reason I became a security guard at ghs I realize the guidance he provided me in school was something I wanted to provide for other ghs students as well and hoped I could make even a small impact on students to help them and support like Tony had supported us I didn't realize how much more I would learn from Tony as a lead his empathy for students was endless he taught me how to accept kids as they are and how to guide them at work Tony's number one priority was always the well-being of students he knew them well well enough to see when they were sad distraught or struggling he has never judged students and has treated them like they were his own his emotional connection with students is unlike I have ever seen and it took me two years before I could gain even a small bit of trust and respect these students have for Tony I watched him celebrate accomplishments talk students down from self-harm and convince them to get help I've seen him hold students who made choices to alter their state of mind on campus and reassure them they will be okay until the ambulance shows up I have watched him cry over students who did not make it far into life and give pure love to students that felt they were on the same boat I'm unsure of the opinions of newer staff members but I do know the ones that work with Tony long enough to need his help are grateful and thankful and they will tell you how important he is to every aspect of that school I am now a parent of a student who grew up knowing Tony and one of the reasons he wanted to attend DHS was because he felt safe knowing someone who cares so very much would be there for him to talk to I have watched the security measures be reformatted putting guards at dords as a set of hallways and discouraging them to communicate with students and build relationships this there's a good chance right now most of the students on campus don't know thank you so much I hate to cut you off but it was it's been the three minutes we appreciate your we appreciate you being here tonight [Music] thank you the next our next speaker is Amira vergeth and then Richard Young and Amira the three minutes will start when you begin thank you sorry if I get emotional with this my name is Amira Burke and I attend ghs I've known Tony was there my first day he was there the last day he showed up to school me and Tony definitely had our ups and downs but through my four years he's been my best friend at her Homecoming this year I was sexually assaulted Tony it was the only one that made an effort about to figure out what happened my dad passed last year also and he was the only one that made sure I attended school because I wasn't going because of how sad I was he makes an effort to make to make relationships with students every day he puts a smile on our face every day they've been changing so many different things but as a senior I'm not used to and I will never be used to because I've went there for the last four years he made sure he reassured all of us that it was for the better and for us and for our safety he demoted 28 years you teenagers and helped us through everything he's the best he's our best friend he's our mentor he's the one that puts an effort we don't really feel that a lot as teenagers we have a lot of bad days he seems he puts a smile on her face almost every day if he's there and I mean this from every senior at Gilbert High School we want him at our graduation and we will do everything in our power to make sure that he's at our graduation because he's the one that has stayed with us for the last four years and guided us I know so many kids that could have dropped out by now but Tony was the one that made sure he was there to guide them Tony will forever be our best friend and her mentor I appreciate Tony a lot from the Gilbert High School and from everyone 500 of us that have signed the petition thank you we want him back we really do and that's all we ask for thank you Richard Young thank you Richard in your three minutes will begin when you begin with so little time coming out to resort to a quick fairy tale you're Snow White the Gilbert schools are Snow White the witch has come out of her Hut and handed you a beautiful delicious looking Apple and you've taken it actually it wasn't free uh the same Apple uh cost over three hundred thousand dollars to a school district in Utah and I assume you probably paid about the same it is of course poison uh Florida is addressing this issue they're trying to get rid of it Montana is Ohio is uh Tom Horn and this state is looking at it and is concerned about it uh it is of course and I I think you can probably guess what it is uh Second Step social emotional learning program you look at it there's very little about learning in it it's all social and emotional and it's behavioral modification years ago we had a different term for it we called it brainwashing you have to dig well below the pretty part before you can find the poison part and I did find some of it they use SEL discussions to validate student experiences of Oppression and using SEL social emotional learning instruction is a space to encourage use to use their voices for social justice well this has been around for a while how do you suppose this worked out Google uh this and you can find a student holding up a sign saying death to America that's not in Tehran it's just north of here in ASU that's what's coming out of this uh you affirm diverse cultures we're dedicated to advancing diversity equity and inclusion well let's see how that diversity and equity and inclusion is working out you can again go to ASU you've seen the video the multi-cultural Center two guys sitting there studying which is what it was for two women come in one of them is from Ethiopia that's only relevant because she tells they won't tell the guys this is our Center you don't belong in here it's a Multicultural Center they don't belong it's not inclusive for them why well they're male that's probably counting against them they're white that's definitely again some one of them has a pro Police Department sticker on his computer and that really upset them the other thing oddly enough was the cup from Chick-fil-A nobody told them the chickens are dead and already cooked they have nothing to fear from them this is what it leads to it's breaking up this country into separate warring tribes we don't need that remember the Pledge of Allegiance undivided well we're dividing it we've got to turn away from creating tribes and go back to sharing those things that we have in common our ideals As Americans you've got to go back to making Americans and you're not going to be able to do it with SEL please thank you we think all of you who've come and taken time to speak as well as those who sent in on the online comments as well I appreciate your your feedback and take it into account with that we will go to 7.01 in our reports FY 2023 monthly budget report for month ended February 28 2023 Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members I'll turn this over to our assistant associate superintendent of Business Services Bonnie Betts thank you Dr McCord governing board members president wood so this is the monthly report which should be up momentarily um [Music] there oh I have to enter up in how do I enter it thank you [Music] thank you did thank you very much okay so good evening again so this is the monthly report representing our financial activity year to date through February 28th 2023 so as usual you have the entire financial report as an attachment the presentation we generally include only those fund grids that we've seen some notable changes so tonight we're talking about the district operating funds the Federal grant funds state Grant funds as well as bond funds 630 which represents the November 2019 Authority so to begin maintenance and operations you can see is is highlighted in yellow note the available balance is 12.7 million dollars that's slightly up about a million dollars from last month when we presented to you when we found out that the governor was going to have to pull back the 100-day Grant and the educational plus up Grant we had anticipated using the educational plus up Grant to pay the second stipend that you all approved last spring at that point in time to to be sure that we had the resources available we encumbered a certain dollar amount out of Maintenance operations at this point in time we do believe that Esther 3 will be able to cover that cost so we unencumbered that dollar amount looking at unrestricted capital and you can see that our available balance and our actual our year-to-date expended encumbered spend that 17.3 million dollars has increased by about 1.1 million dollars over last month again reflective of the fact that we are we were urging our schools to quickly put in their purchase orders as the deadline was right before spring break to ensure that there was plenty of time for them to place their orders and actually get the product in prior to June 30.
uh could you please call the roll for the purpose of attendance foreign Miss disler Mr Hayden cirilla here Miss mammal Mr LaMontagne president okay superintendent another great thing to do the exceptional Reggie please good evening everybody yeah your microphone John please hey there everybody I'd like to start off this evening recognizing one of our exceptional Regis this evening from our dental assistant program Edgar Martinez the exceptional Reggie of all exceptional Regis here with us tonight uh Edgar Martinez is the son of Elizabeth Virgos from Lawrence Mass Edgar has been a student at greater Lawrence technical school since September 2019. he is studying in the dental assistant career program he is OSHA and CPR first aid certified and has extensive skills in his career area along with experience in patient care record keeping sterilization infection and infection control Edgar is currently employed at Smile Design Dental as a dental assistant in Lawrence through our Cooperative education program Edgar would like to eventually attend dental school I think no wonder they hired you Edgar they know how well you smile perfect name fits you perfectly Edgar has been successful in his academic and career area coursework at greater Lawrence with the 4.43 GPA and is currently ranked first out of a class of 405 students in the class of 2023.
one one [Music] oh my God almost done once there was a boy who took care of this it was a boring job he had to watch the sheep and look out for wolves a wolf could get the seat boy sat down at the top of the hill Minecraft the boys sat and sat then hadn't then he had an idea you stood up and shouted there was no wolf but the villagers came running to help get the wolf Charlie Charlie challenge the villagers were mad they went back home and left the sheet with the bull left the boy with the Sheep the next week the boy was bought again a wolf is getting the Sheep there was no wall but the villagers came running to help get the room [Music] the villagers were very mad they went back home and left the boy with the Sheep so next week the boy looked at the sheep and saw a wolf I I see a wolf no one came to help the wolf took a sheep and ran away the boy ran to the Village to get help why didn't he come [Music]
yeah I'm sorry yeah [Music] um [Music] foreign he was like yeah okay um because yesterday okay our meeting was thank you Brian I apologize for uh for this being a little bit late we had a uh the safety of update today it was very helpful and uh appreciated our achievement head of security Sean Cole was here to give us an update so we ran a little bit longer so I apologize for starting me to meeting a little bit late so uh the meeting was called to order prior to that um so that we could go into executive session however we will uh rise for the uh or the Pledge of Allegiance and then we'll have a moment of silence for the uh before the teachers and staff and students of Tennessee yes okay thank you very much okay let's get down to business um we start we start tonight's meeting with with our information reports our public forum comes after that so that the public can hear some of the things that are going on within the district from both our students ppos superintendent and the chair so first of all I would like to say to our two celebrities that are with us tonight what a fantastic and fabulous job you both did I was so yeah if you're seeing built together I mean it was uh I was I've seen my wife those are those are my we're on the board with us you know yeah so uh it was great and what a performance Seussical was so thank you for that performance you both did so well we're so proud of you so so you want to lose the report tonight thank you all right so for past events uh through March 3rd was the Red Cross America week and the National Honor Society we're the chairman to read along with the Catholic who had come to lead at both Cherry Brook NCIS um March 10 and 11th select CMS students have performed at the northern regionals Festival musical I've mentioned was held on Thursday Friday and Saturday which was the 16th 17th and 18th we had a total of 110 students involved between the Middle School and High School our first night had completely sold out and then Friday and Saturday we're also fairly packed as well um lots of cheys and chair book children ended up coming after seeing us at their re-aloud so it was definitely sold to see some familiar faces there to take pictures and stuff that was definitely very fun yes okay for upcoming tomorrow March 29th I'm taking the SAT on March 30th through April 1st selected CHS students will be performing at the All-State musical festival at the Hartford Convention Center um senior students will be taking part in their annual water wars tradition beginning April 17th and the class of 2023 will be up will be upcoming fundraisers and the unit will have yes This was um last week but we had the conferences held at all the schools which um made Tuesday Wednesday and Thursdays last week 10 days DHS fire and band students are preparing for the upcoming trip to Orlando um Disney World um there was last week apparent and student information meeting to kind of give the final details regarding the trip um CMS is preparing for their Washington DC trip and this week or less I'm sorry would have been the Cherry Brook PTO book fair excellent I see the anchor of the student reps are here Khalil how are you I'm great I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person uh unfortunately got caught up at work with a party you know feel free to swing by golf Lounge 18 if you guys made by me right now he has a feeling parties after this meeting um and I take photos that was a little bit of a typo class 2023 will be holding some upcoming fundraisers to end off the year um sorry I couldn't be there again that's okay Google thanks for joining by the way Zoom so uh the expectation is we meet once in April and then we move into May I've talked to Mr Case uh we're looking to um move forward with a couple of things one is uh we're gonna need a new rep to replace uh both Bella and Khalil and uh so that's something we need to talk to Dr Kidwell about and the second thing is to start closing down a little bit on the um on the warrior imagery that we're going to be using as we get towards the end of the year so I'll task you both with uh keeping that in Full full motion okay yes all right and thank you for your report and as always if you have schoolwork or other things to do you can leave at any any point during the meeting okay thank you um our PTO reports tonight Claudia do I have a written yeah there's two written reports one from CMS and CIS for in your folder okay so I'll just uh I will just uh point the board to take a look at those and again so grateful for what the uh the ptos do and uh the sport that they have uh for our experience I I think that um parental participation that we see it from the basketball game to um even uh the folks who were helping out with the drama presentation uh is fantastic if it wasn't for our parents and our ppos um we would be in tough shape I think so um so I'll just draw your attention to the PTO reports and we'll um we'll get back with them on anything that they may need okay we have tonight with us our our uh our athletic director who does such a great job coming off of the the winter season Mr Case do you want to introduce yes thank you thank you Lou uh came in church Hearth is here tonight to give us uh an update on the um very successful winter sports season yeah so Kim welcome thank you everyone has in their packet um him summary of the sports season which she'll be talking to yes so I won't read it word for word um some of the highlights are that our boys basketball team on the end Triple C regular season Championship um they've made it to the semifinals of the tournament but ended up uh losing in that round um and our boys ice hockey team won the CCC South championship and that's a team here at co-op with uh and that Newington is a host school for that um we had seven all-conference athletes and uh two All-State athletes uh we just found out today that Sophia mates also made all state so it's not listed on your paper right here but it just got no that Sophia mates made Allstate um and the other All-State athlete is Evan Haller or boys ice hockey um and so that's that's really the the wrap of the winter season but it was uh accessible and our boys ice hockey team played in the state championship unfortunately lost um but they had a very good run and the successes it's great I found this question's been boarded um so you're ready to break out into this spring season right yes uh regular season for Spring starts up on Saturday if the weather the weather will go um and we are doing scrimmages and preseason practices right now and we're set to go I see all your updates so I know you're extremely busy um how are we doing on uniforms equipment and things of that nature we're in Fairly good shape I know that ordering goes on early but yes yeah good yeah really good shape um we're heading out hand out uniforms this week everybody already and the participation level for sports this coming season how do you compare that from the previous season do we have more participate about the same it's it's about the same um throughout on average it's about the same uh throughout the spring Sports we have a little bit more boys tennis players and girls tennis players um about the same for both boys Golf and girls golf about the same for boys and girls across uh and then also a little bit less for boys baseball and a little bit more for girls softball and you're all set with your coaches I know you had a little bit of a deficit with the uh his Mr Case was going to offer he was going to offer the girls tennis I heard that that would be fantastic I'm a quick learner all right from the board any questions for Kim on uh Sports Athletics spring or fall uh winter can this um I think this is coming is it Friday night you have the DodgeBall yes do you want to speak to that yes uh we have an annual spring Sports dodgeball tournament it it does fundraising and you get money and canned goods well I try not to have them bring hands because I have to bring those boxes over to the food bank and it's very heavy so we have non-perishable food items and money bringing over to the Canton food bank after the dodgeball tournament but it's always a great time each sport is represented and the winner of the sport gets an awesome like five inch Trophy and also an ice cream party after one of their practices provided by the booster club so when is that Friday night Friday night and what school at six and High School gym it is a great time if you've never been to it just organize chaos music going on um and the kids love going back and forth against each other you have to take a peek okay thank you for that and that's just one great example of the community service that our athletes provide back to our community with the leadership of Kim and the student athletic Council I believe that's what what your council is called it's correct the the title is Warrior Leadership Council okay thank you thanks for taking time out to be with us tonight and being away from your family appreciate it okay okay um Mr K superintendent report please okay thank you very much chair Daniel good evening everybody and good evening to those of you in attendance tonight I see many of our employees who are the backbone of what we do in our school so it's great to see all of you tonight um I want to start off just by um giving you an update on a few items um the first item is um to remind you that we are undertaking a building-wide feasibility study um as we've talked about over the last several weeks um actually beginning several months ago when we looked at our enrollment report we know that we need additional space within our schools we know that um because of the number of births that took place in 2020 that we need to be prepared for additional students for most students we've had in a while we need to be prepared for them as they enter uh pre-kindergarten in kindergarten in the year 2025 2026.
tomorrow's our final meeting we're spending six hours making decisions about what our recommendations are going to be for the Phoenix Union board many of those things are translatable and important to this District as well and so three requests that I have are some of these things I understand may only be able to share with us in executive session and so whatever those may be anything that is allowed to be shared with the public rather than executive session I would prefer that for transparency's sake I would like to know if we have a crisis response plan if so what does that look like I would like to know if we use threat assessments if we do what is the threat assessment protocol look like and then I also would like to know if we have safety teams if so who's on them and what are the procedures that are followed for those um those are just questions I have um and I'm curious you know about those things so that we can kind of get a better look I think that with what we anticipate as I've heard from the president in the past looking at evaluating our discipline and student codes of Conduct in conjunction with these things that I've requested it's kind of like a holistic plan that those two items and then also our SEL which we're focused on I think all three of those things together are really what makes safety a comprehensive package and so I'm hoping that we can I I would love a bird's eye view of things rather than kind of just the I actually don't know I feel like I'm just kind of unaware of what goes on and I've spoken with some teachers and I haven't heard much about the existence of any of these things so I'm just curious so hopefully we can get some more insight on that um I think that's all that I have I know is a lot but if you need me to repeat anything or let y'all know after the please let me know thank you thank you so much um for me um just a quick update one of them is that I know that a lot of our spring Sports have started so yay congratulations to all the kids I know TCA has gotten their first round of sports and cheerleading so it's been super exciting for that school for the kids to be active in doing those type of things and thank you for the teachers I know that there's a lot of the teachers that are coaching and they stay all day in school and then they go three hours still after school just to make sure these kids have a space to play sports so um I'm really thankful for that um last week and I'm only bringing this up because it does affect our crane Community city council had an opportunity to protect some of the children that I serve and not evicting them of their mobile homes and that did not go the way that a lot of us were expecting so some of our kids will be unsheltered by May 28th which is the last day of school I'm really appreciative for the district to not only joining in a letter and letting know City Council so that we wanted them to act upon something can protect these families but that one of our administrators stood at the whole meeting for six hours as kids were playing for their homes so I do believe in an intersectionality and I do believe that our kids are our number one priority so when we have stuff at a district label and administrators showing up and in solidarity with his families not only does it mean a lot you know I think to the district but it says a lot to those families so they were really appreciative and thankful for you know what we tried to do so I am I'm thankful for the district to joining on that plan and helping protect our families I know that the Family Resources centers on top of it already and we're going to try to um get in there and help mitigate any you know setting crisis as much as we can um Saturday we had a fun field day on my birthday Eve going through superintendent um applications we were there for almost six seven hours and we were able to come up with six candidates of maybe potential people of our superint who will be your next superintendent so that was awesome that we were able to get um six candidates out of all the overwhelming applications one thing that they did let us know is that they've never seen a district with so many applicants so I feel like that's that's a good precedent for our district that even though we have a lot of issues in the community this district is known as getting stuff done and people wanting to be part of this District so that was really heartwarming to see in here I know that the names have been public already so you guys can do your own research and April 27th at excelencia you can come with all the questions you have um because eventually will we end up choosing some finalists out of that um so that's April 27th um at excelencia um one request I do have and I just found out recently at the district level that we do recognize some of the hours that our parents are putting in however I've just come to realize that our PTO parents and the hours that they do with the PTO do not include those hours and I'm trying to figure out is that a policy that's set in place who sets that because a lot of our PTO parents are feeling underappreciated at the moment um our school's activities the fundraising all that kind of stuff it really boils down to those parent-teacher organizations and the parents putting in the time so I would like us to get some direction on why those hours are not counted um from what I understand it's because it's a non-profit but everything is getting done for the school so if there's not a certain policy that's holding us I would hope that we can change that to really give the recognition the credit to these parents that spend hours in the classrooms making sure that they're their support for these teachers and that brings the conclusion of my board report um and then if you guys have questions on that just let me know and I can we can figure it out but I would like to know what's going on with that um so that brings us to consent agenda I move the governing board approved consent agenda items a through J in accordance with policy bedb Dash e I'd like to pull item J any anybody else want to pull something okay I move the governing board approved consent agenda items a through I in accordance with policy b e d b Dash e second all those in favor aye aye aye um so the reason why are we Andre sorry yes go ahead Jay discussion so the reason why I pulled Jay and it's not that I have like anything against this I would just like more explanation anytime we're upping a previous amount that's been approved especially by what appears to and if I'm understanding this correctly looks like we're upping it by 150 percent I'm curious just for more explanation on what this why and what the anticipations are I see that there's some in there's a little bit of a and as needed if needed basis maybe you could just give a little overview of the background of this thank you Jay Madam president members of the board um member Gibson McLean the um this actually just to have perfect clarity it's not an increase of 1.5 million it's an increase from the current amount which is one million two one point five million okay so so it's a fifty percent it's a fifty percent increase and so um this was prior to you joining the board but each June typically this is one of those types of items that we bring to the board um for approval and last summer there were some language changes and there was a recommendation you know given the changes in the cost of things to perhaps go to two million dollars at that time the board asked me could we just stay at 1 million and if our expenses run higher bring it back and and my response was absolutely the only you know warning that I gave is we couldn't in a pinch where we needed to see meeting to get something done wasn't a huge concern and so we moved forward and the board approved it at the one million dollar level since that time you've seen uh our good friend Mr Scott Wells here many many times and even more tonight and even more tonight so again one of the things you'll notice in some of those ones that have already been approved moments ago that very often there's District match and those District matches we can't go out and procure separately because we're tied to the sfbs procurement so to keep the procurement clean we typically do it through this jock not everything that's done here is related to that so I just want to be clear about that I'm not saying everything in here is that but the Lion's Share of what's come through this fund has been those types of things there is one fairly large ticket item that's coming up that wouldn't be related to that it's related actually to the electrical um I'll call it challenges that we've had at the Kennedy campus and being able to provide continued electrical support not only for our little big Minds partner there but also the addition of the replacement Head Start building to replace the one that had been on the campus and I'm very proud to say that head start's been a great partner and they're helping cover a portion of the court cost as well but our portion would go through this process as well so maybe a little more detail than you up I just want to make sure no it's fine I guess my concerns stem from knowing kind of the small community I didn't know the background of all of these items and I know that there's a small pool of contractors that seem to hang out in the education area and it's my understanding from being a nerd and reading people's minutes and agendas in different districts that a lot of times contracts are given based on low bids and then there's a ton of increases that are voted on later and I just wanted to make sure this wasn't one of those instances where one of these things was that because I'm not down yeah this isn't an increase to any item that was presented increase in the threshold of the amount we can spend through that mechanism um and um I did a quick glance with Mr Martinez who's our procurement person and just verified that not all of these have gone to one firm there's at least four firms that a lot of these jobs have been pushed out to and so I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any irregularities like every single one of these went to you know one individual firm or you know fifty percent of the money went one place or so thank you Mr Man any further discussion okay hearing none I move the governing board approved consent agenda item J in accordance with policy bedb-e second well they'll send favor I thank you and that brings us to our lovely Biltmore Prep Academy update on the a plus School of Excellence recognition good evening Madam president members of the governing board this evening in addition to the prep the presentation from Biltmore Preparatory Academy our students staff and teachers we will be celebrating the A Plus Award that Biltmore prep received from the Arizona Education Foundation just a little bit of quick background this very prestigious award was established by the Arizona Educational Foundation in 1983 as a way to identify celebrate and recognize educational excellence in Arizona's Public Schools this is the highest state level award given to a public school and we're very very proud of our Biltmore Preparatory Academy Tigers welcome let's give him a round of applause we'll bring the award up we'll do photos at the end after the presentation after the students have given us the wonderful uh information and I'll explain the a plus process in some detail throughout the positions the proud dad cameras that's okay come on come on back you can go anywhere you want good evening Madam president governing board members and executive team my name is Sophia velasigi and I am an 8th grade student at Wilmore Preparatory Academy I've been in the dla program for nine years my name is GM amini and I'm also an 8th grade student at bookmark prep I'm in the DLI program my name is Isaac Hernandez and I'm also an 8th grade student at Biltmore prep I am also in the DLI program we are happy to be here this evening to provide an update on our exciting year of serving as boot more prep leaders and our Biltmore prep journey to become an A plus School of Excellence we would like to begin by also recognizing our site leadership team Dr Jamar our principal Miss Suave our assistant principal Dr Grant our instructional coach Mrs riscoe our school psychologist and Miss Porter child advocate and the other Biltmore prep teachers joining us in the audience this evening our agenda for this evening's presentation is to First share some background information on the A-Plus School of Excellence program and Biltmore prep's journey to become recognized as an A-Plus School of Excellence we will then take a deeper dive into some of the aspects of our School's application and will wrap up with the video giving each of you a closer look into our school culture where you will hear from students and teachers as well as see some of the exciting things happening on our A-Plus campus we want to begin briefly by re-sharing a little about the a plus School of Excellence program by the Arizona Educational Foundation program serves as a way to identify celebrate and recognize educational excellence in public schools throughout Arizona while there while there are no monetary benefits for being recognized as an A-Plus School of Excellence there are benefits as our team dove into the application began collecting evidence we were able to celebrate the many pieces we have in place to support students think successful at builtmore prep as well as areas for continued growth and Improvement additionally being an A plus School of Excellence gives us bragging rates as we know we go above and beyond the everyday practices that all schools in are expected to implement as well as ensuring we have a strong commitment to academic Excellence cultivate our learning is centered safe School environment address students socials emotional physical and intellectual needs and serve as a model for equality and equity biltmore's journey to a plus actually began several years ago as the team made the decision to apply and began Gathering evidence the covered pandemic put a halt on the process however the team continued working through the application process beginning last school year working to ensure an understanding of the application the rubric and Gathering evidence for the different sections of the application our teachers understood the importance of this process being an entire Community process and not those of a few individuals and so while our primary writer of the application was Miss tashman with our team leaders serving as the contributing authors our entire Community was involved in gathering information and providing input our application was due on August 31st and when submitted was 30 pages you have a link to our application if you would like to read all about the amazing things happening at Biltmore every day at the end of September Dr Demar was notified by our lead a plus judge that our site had received a site visit and we were overjoyed and knew that there was work to be done to be ready for the team of five judges that were scheduled to visit Wilmore for two days at the end of February the two-day site visit consisted of the team of Judges observing every area of Campus including each classroom we assessed lunch arrival on dismissal at the start of day one we gave the judges a tour highlighting our learning spaces day one wrapped up with a certified teacher meeting where the team of Judges asked her if you choose a bunch of questions about our school day two also included some additional observations as well as the parent community meeting a classified staff meeting a student meeting and then wrapped up with the judge's meeting with Dr Mara and Miss Robert at the end of the visit we had to wait until and wait until notifications were made and the public announcement that built prep was indeed being recognized as an A-Plus School of Excellence we now want to share a little more about our application so you have a better understanding of our school and how we support student academic achievement in language proficiency section one was all about strong instructional leadership and we are proud to be living our school Vision where we work to ensure leaders across campus there are so many opportunities for students to become leaders on our campus whether serving as student ambassadors to give guest tours morning announcements leading the assemblies serving as junior coaches being leaders reader leaders for Spanish mentors teacher leaders are a key to so many initiatives across campus serving as team leads facilitating professional development and providing mentoring to others I encourage you to read more in our application about strong instructional leadership at Biltmore prep Tiger Tiger Pride is what we display every day and our culture is something that makes our school unique and special section 2 of our application is school organization and culture there is so much in this section of the application that we don't have time to share with you tonight however know that our school Community strives to create an environment where all students and families are welcomed embraced and loved our Ben spells kind campus initiative has provided opportunities to learn about kindness the science behind kindness and ways we can show ourselves and each other kindness just this week our con campus focus is on practicing gratitude and how showing gratitude improves improves overall life contentment helps kids feel connected Fosters a positive outlook and even helps to lessen anxiety we are encouraged to Express gratitude through learning to write thank you notes we invite you to come to campus to experience our special culture or to even attend one of our student recognition assemblies to see our Tiger Pride in action guaranteed viable curriculum and meaningful assessment is Section 3 of our application and this application is where we highlight important aspects of our Spanish Immersion program including assessment and opportunities for our students to earn high school credit for Spanish proficiency and but in the biliteracy award of Distinction just yesterday we received our Apple scores and we are happy to announce that the three of us along with many others scored high enough for Spanish one two 3-4 for high school credit congratulations in this section we also talk about how our teachers use data to monitor student projects back to teaching and support section of our A-Plus application painted picture for the reader on what happens across campus and in the classrooms during the school day the first paragraph of the section reads blocking degrees waves the voices of excited Learners can be heard throughout Biltmore prep each day begins with teachers and staff greeting students as they are dropped off by car or walk onto campus once past the gate students run to their friends and engage in chatting and playing on the playground as the bell rings teachers can be seen leading students to classroom doors including them by name and continuing to read this section you will learn more about the common language across our campus the instructional practices teachers use to ensure students learn how technology supports learning and how Biltmore prep has also been recognized as an apple distinguished School last section of our application caregiver and community supports Paints the picture of how our entire Community comes together to support our students our PTO Works tirelessly to ensure all families have an opportunity to be engaged within our community Through activities and events such as the dodgeball tournament just on last Friday the fall kindness Carnival the sweetheart dance and the k-550 soccer league I personally enjoy the kindness Festival the most what about you too I would have to agree I love the junk team I actually like the sweetheart dance because all of the food and my friends were there additionally there are many committees where parents and families can volunteer their time to support our school Community recently our garden committee collaborated and planted six fruit trees blackberries raspberries mulberries and grapevines and the garden committee and volunteers just had a garden work day this past Saturday we can continue to tell you about our A-Plus school and we thought it would be great for you to hear from some of our students and teachers as you get a glimpse into the great things happening at Biltmore through pictures and videos I mean sort of it's Arcadia light um foreign [Music] if you were to pull up a dictionary and look up the word community you would literally see a picture of Biltmore Prep Academy right next to it Biltmore prep has an amazing sense of community given all the love that the teachers and the parents give to the students we are truly student driven everything we do is for the students there is always opportunities and enrichment programs what makes BPA an A plus school is classes for being safe respectful and responsible and it was really fun and we always try our best like um for me the state test is coming up and my teachers are supporting us foreign Yama octavos sure um I have never felt more love and support from my students the leadership team my co-workers the parents that are involved at the school it truly is such a welcoming Community to be a part of I enjoy waking up every single day to come to work watching my students grow is such a privilege I get to work with students whether that's co-teaching social and emotional learning lessons with teachers or hosting Lunch Bunch with our school psychologist and I just absolutely love all of the students at our school and our entire community and I just see how invested everyone is oh foreign in every PA because if you learn Spanish and you like go to somewhere that they speak Spanish you know what they are saying one of my favorite Spanish words is adios um okay as we wrap up we want to share a quote with you about our school from our A Plus application boot more students are immersed in experiences that have grown into traditions in the community from learning about and celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month to setting up for Dia de los Muertos to participating in an exchange program built Biltmore Prep students are encouraged to learn about and embrace the cultures of other countries in order to enrich their own lives and grow into by literate leaders thank you so much for the opportunity to share and celebrate our school Biltmore prep as an A plus School of Excellence we are here to answer any question if you have them thank you thank you so guys so much for that presentation that was awesome I do have one question from each of you though what is your favorite thing about being a leader of your school I know all three of you have different leadership roles and I know they play an important part but it could be a one answer to answer nothing too serious I'm just wondering that I like about being a leader is one you have everyone looking up to you and a lot of them will come up to you and be like I know you and then you don't know them but they're all looking up to you and it's so nice because I remember I had Role Models when I was like in Elementary in elementary school and I looked up to them and now I am one of the leaders at Biltmore prep yeah you're setting a great example that's awesome I would have to agree with Sophia one of the great things of being a leader is having all the little kids look up to you it's really great responsibility and I have everyone trusting me so I can do my own work so that's great yeah I'd have to agree with both of them and I just like going and helping them during out during recess with Junior coaching and playing with them yeah awesome I appreciate all three of you and thank you so much to Biltmore prep for obviously cultivating you know these amazing leaders so thank you guys so much and I'm so proud to have the a plus oh no I'm sorry we have other board members I'm just excited my son is up here and this is like amazing I know you're a proud mom but I am a tiger so uh anyway um my question to you all is what do you think is one life skill that you that was cultivated for you at Biltmore prep that you're going to take with you when you go to high school companionship taking like an opera taking an opportunity when it comes to you yeah leadership it's a great role I wanna the presentation was so amazing and um it's been 22 years since I had my promotion um and the school was a lot different back then but it's so great to see some of the same traditions and also familiar faces and I think seeing the back of Miss Frank's head or seeing miss Sabah here it like remind and they aren't my T they weren't my teachers but I know who they are um it's I think it's so important to have teachers and staff who've been in in the school and in the district for that long I think that just is so invaluable to the community and to other teachers and staff it's fantastic to see that um just everything that's offered there's so many things that are still there which is so great and to see also we used to call it tiger News Network um and I was the host in 1999.
so those were the two major changes that occurred in the operating funds month over month are there any questions before I go on to the next grid okay great that of course is the notes that just reflects what I just shared with you federal grants again I already mentioned this the 100 day in person as well as the educational plus-up grant those two grants were actually pulled back by the governor associated with the fact that the the rules regarding how those monies could be spent were not consistent with the cares act and these two funds were passed through from the federal government to the governor's office however we have learned recently in the last two important to note that it wasn't just pulled back from Gilbert Public Schools right it's not it was yeah Statewide thank you so at this point in time the governor's office however has re-um proposed a new Grant that's eligible to all school districts in the state of Arizona the application deadline I believe is the 6th of April so we're actively working on that to see if we can recover that 3.6 million dollars or so of monies that that were pulled back from us to date so we're hopeful that we will be able to utilize the same dollar amounts that will help us continue to have a sustainable spend through the remainder of the current fiscal year any questions on that okay great then the state Grant funds these are two notable funds that have recently had activity so the C the college credit exam incentive fund that's associated with our teachers that are teaching advanced placement courses in all of our school all of our high schools the college credit exam incentive is paid based upon the number of students in advanced placement courses that that actually pass their exam at that point in time we receive a ride to bring amounts depending upon the demographics of the particular school but when we receive the money we have allocated out 50 percent of those Monies to each individual teacher that actually earned it based upon the number of students that they taught and passed the exams the remaining dollars stay at the school got Highland at GCA at Campo for the schools to use for professional development related to advanced placement or to expand the programming at their school the results-based funding and the other note about the college credit exam incentive we have sent out the email information to all of our schools and we anticipate making the payment to the teachers at the end of April the results-based funding is a fund that was created incentivized to incentivize schools for performing on their their tests I think it's primarily the state test is that right Barbara thank you and the results-based funding program we do give a portion of it to all of the staff members that reside at their schools then 10 of the remaining stays at the schools again for the same thing to use for professional development or expand the various programs at the schools and then the remaining dollar amount we have been holding back at the district level to to provide additional supports for those schools that are embarking on a New Journey as an example Gilbert High School with the international Baccalaureate program as well as Patterson Elementary with their International Baccalaureate program also we have numerous traditional programs that are launched launching that have launched actually I think it's at Spectrum Elementary as well as Canyon Rim and then we have a variety of accelerated classrooms at six of our elementary schools five of Ireland thank you Jason throughout throughout Gilbert Public Schools so I just wanted to share that information with all of you and the payment from the results base payments have been made to date I did have a question just to clarify this college credit exam incentive that was for students that passed their AP exams last spring correct that's correct and so yes we'll have students taking their tests in this next quarter but that payment to the teacher will not be until next spring that's a process of going through um our books and plus the governor's office and everything that's correct thank you so the last grid that I wanted to share with you this evening is bond fund fun fund 630.