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in 2022 she was honored as the Susan Jordan administrator of the year before that time she served as the assistant principal at both Skiles test and Brook Park Elementary her teaching experience was in mathematics at Belzer middle school and in grades one and two in Dayton Ohio according to superintendent Dr Sean Smith the director of Elementary education supports our commitment to academic Excellence as it pertains to Elementary curriculum and instruction professional development and data he adds Ms Schneider has demonstrated a commitment to student achievement evidenced by her years of instructional and servant leadership in the district I'm confident in her abilities and believes she will be great asset to our team regarding her new position Ms Schneider shares I'm truly grateful and humbled to have the opportunity to support and serve the Lawrence Township community in curriculum instruction I look forward to working collaboratively with LT Lawrence Township leadership teams to continue to provide the high quality and Cutting Edge instruction that all students deserve Schneider holds a BS in elementary education from Wright State University in Dayton Ohio she completed her master of education degree in principal principal licensure programs at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion Indiana congratulations Ms Snyder Madam president Dr Smith and the board I just want to thank you for this opportunity I am so excited to have this opportunity it's always been a dream of mine to work in curriculum it's I've always had a passion for it so I'm super excited about this opportunity thank you so much foreign this evening the school board of Lawrence Township approved the appointment of Miss Mari Swain to the position of Director of Human Resources Miss Swain transitions to this role from that of director of the McKinsey Center for Innovation and Technology where she has served since June of 2018 before coming to Lawrence Township she served in the Lawrence Township of Pike Township as director of The Pike career and STEM Center assistant principal at Pike high school dean of students at Pike high school and instructor of business and I.T at the Pike Career Academy before transitioning to school administration she was an English teacher at Pike High School Warren Central and Taylor High School in Kokomo Indiana she also has experience in higher education having served as a student affairs coordinators of recruitment training and Tech development at Miami University in Oxford Ohio superintendent of schools Dr Sean A Smith shares Miss Swain brings a wealth of experience to our Human Resources Division she's highly respected leader within the city and state according to Swain it's been my pleasure to serve LT at the secondary level for the past five years and to work to lead the best CTE Center in the state of Indiana and I look forward to serving in this new capacity as we work to serve our students for many years to come she adds Lawrence Township students deserve the very best and I look forward to joining the team that onboard staff into our world-class school system Swain earned a bachelor's degree in Business education from Indiana State University in 1995.
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wait wait a minute it's through right not and through okay thank you thank you second Miss simulton aye Miss Swanson aye Mr pluger no Miss Doyle I Miss Johnson aye Mr sarone aye Mr Gatewood aye motion passes six one action item 10.4 approval of the release of closed session minutes can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the release of the following closed session minutes which no longer require confidential treatment and will be made available for public inspection as discussed in closed session you have three I do uh February 28 2022 September 26 2022 and October 11 2022. second Mr cloger no Miss Johnson aye Mr sarone aye Mr Gatewood aye Miss Swanson aye Miss Doyle aye Ms simultan I motion passes 6-1 action item 10.5 approval of District administrator contract can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the district administrator contract as presented second Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson I'm abstaining because I came to closed session late and didn't get a chance to answer questions Mr cloger aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms Swanson no Miss Doyle aye Ms simultan aye motion passes five one and one abstention item 10.6 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Miss simulton aye Mr pluger aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms Doyle aye Ms Swanson no motion passes six one kind of have a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn all in favor all right
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and so the salaries are up 17 over 2022 levels which is almost exactly where we expected them to be when the board approved in July and June of last year significant increases particularly to the bottom of the scale and some adjustments to individual positions based on our own internal salary study the other operations expenditures are in line with budget but I'll just point out to you utilities and fuel are up about 36 percent over 2022 those are both expected and they were they were elevated at the end of 2022 as well this is just compared to the first quarter of 2022.
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so it's the turnout is is really increasing um so if you can stop by Wednesday night we'd love to see you and then to put on your calendar Wednesday May 10th is our unified game day at Crown Point High School from 10 to 1. that's where we cheer on all of our applied skills students with their peer bodies and they compete in a array of track and field activities we have some generous Community donors that we'll talk about next month that are helping to make it a real special day so if you're available we'd love to see you um yes Mr angel I wanted to recognize about 3 600 students right now are participating in iLearn uh this is a kind of an intense time in our school buildings at grades three through eight uh also want to include in that we have students that are participating in the I am that's the alternative assessment takes a lot of work and students are the primary goal of trying to uh you know for us ascertain their their proficiency levels and to uh take a look at and analyze our programming to improve it also as we go through this teachers and staff are vitally important to the administration of this test and to maintain its Fidelity and then the parents who are putting up with all of this as we go through our testing season and then when uh Chromebooks break down which they don't I think all of you might be really surprised that the uh the technology that is in the backbone of this assessment we have very minimal issues with the technology uh so again thank you to Brian in the work of his staff as he prepares also for this so Test season is Mark is alluded to his uh is is here and uh school years coming to a close quickly after this thank you very much thank you Mr angel I have a couple items tonight the first is Miss Toriano the district-wide head nurse asked me to pass along some some thank yous every year first graders are required to have a vision test we've had four eye doctors who have volunteered their time over the years two of them have been with us the last two years uh Dr Yadi um from Community Health Net and also Dr kucera from Moses Eye Care they've both been up with us the last two years they donate two afternoons of their time to do all their Vision tests the two other the last two I want to mention though are Dr Sheila Bogart she's from Midwest Eye Consultants she is one who organizes and Gathering the rest of the doctors to come in and help us out with this she's been doing it for 32 years the last 16 of those have been with us so we can't thank her enough for coordinating this for the last 16 years and also providing that service and last is Dr Gary Circe he's with Eagle Eye uh let's see Eli and the amazing part is retired me still does this and he's been doing it for 40 years for us so I just wanted to make sure that as I butchered those names and their businesses thank goodness the certificates won't be read in my voice they'll be on print and they can read it for themselves so not to have me butcher their names anymore I just want to pass along those thank yous for their their contributions and volunteer work to our organization to the school district uh and helping get those Vision tests completed also the the next item I want to pass along is uh on Thursday April 20th we closed on the last round of bonds for our building construction projects I'm happy to report that in issuing 32.9 million dollars worth of bonds we've added about 36 and a quarter million dollars into our project funds uh do some premium on those bonds I'm happy to go more in detail if you're interested let's just say it was a good Bond sale the average interest rate I'm not Bond sale was a little under two and three quarter percent uh so still even though interest rates have risen uh since the initial Bond sale back in uh 2021 uh really excited about where we're at now uh with the closing up this last round of funding for the projects and and think we'll be there to complete these projects now without any further funding with that being said since our last meeting tax bills have also gone out we received a couple phone calls regarding the tax bills and what they look like and if you notice want to acknowledge that as part of these projects we talked all about not having a tax increase and I think what's important to note is while the tax bill that received in the mail shows a tax increase from 2022 to 2023 of about 10 cents it's important to note when you go back to when the project started in 2021 we've actually seen a decrease of a little over two cents on our overall tax bill we had a small dip in 2022 on that tax bill and 2023 is coming back up it's actually less than I'm going to repeat that less than two years ago by over two cents so we've done we're doing all these projects we've actually seen a reduction in our tax bill for further evidence of that if you look back over the last 11 years while we've been in the referendum period nine of those 11 years the tax rate was over a dollar Thirty in the last three of the four years the tax rate's been under a dollar Thirty and that's even with doing these projects it's important to note that tax rates are trending down even though we have done these projects in the community so it's important to note while the tax bill shows you a two-year comparison last year this year if you look back over a time period especially over the last 12 years we're actually seeing a decrease in our tax rates even with all the construction going on so to make sure we as you say Ms strange earlier with the Ambassador group we get the right information out it's important to note that the information is not wrong in the tax bill we did see a 10 cent increase from 22 to 23.
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it's forgivity yes so um as is the case with the uh the travel uh in 2024 I can't remember exactly where we're headed in spring break in 2024. thank you the Mediterranean Coast um this is a similar type of trip with the same group um obviously following you know our policies and procedures and so we'd like to be able to offer another opportunity to our kids Spring Break 2025. um obviously you know in your packet to solve the criteria and all the information and this would allow those students and families plenty of time to plan to save money away um and it would be my recommendation that the board allow our group to travel to uh Costa Rica and then spring break 2025.
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she earned her master's degree in science student affairs and higher education Administration from Indiana State in 2005. her education continued when she earned her building level Administration license in 2007 at Indiana University and her director of Career and Technical Education certification at Ball State University in 2015. she completed the requirements for an education specialist certification through Indiana State University in 2018 and is currently a doctoral candidate an Indiana native Miss Swain has been a resident of Lawrence Township since 2019. she her husband Rommel have one daughter Clark congratulations and welcome to human resources from central office I'll be very brief just want to thank to you Dr Smith Madam president and members of the board in cabinet I just want to thank you for the opportunity to continue to serve serving the common good is something that my grandmother instilled in me at a very young age and to whom much is given much is required and so this allows me to continue to do that and I really appreciate this opportunity so I look forward to it thank you [Applause] thank you Miss Johnson and it's so exciting to have our new appointees here with us this evening board this brings us to that portion of our meeting where you may have some comments to make would anyone like to make the first comment do I have a volunteer thank you madam president uh you know I've been reflecting a lot this week on how talent I mean tonight was evidence of how talented and exceptional our kids are in our district um but I also had the opportunity to sit in the scholarship committee um that Ms Gibbs referenced earlier today as a member of the Lawrence Township School Foundation um every year it's kind of my favorite thing to do because it really is a Showcase of the kind of the best and brightest that our district has has to represent and I will tell you our kids come from diverse backgrounds our kids come from from uh some you know economically disadvantaged some with hardships some moving here from other countries and it really is quite impressive because I don't think there is another District in this state that offers the same sort of diversity and the same sort of exceptionalism that our district does and so I just want to call out the fact that we have just a really incredible district and we should all be very proud as I am to read all of those applications I also feel very much like I've accomplished nothing in my 43 years compared to some of these kids good parenting would you like to make I think it's really been a long night and I echo my fellow board members sentiments that just want to congratulate those that have been newly appointed we're just supposed to stop so congratulations good job good job everyone I wanted to thank the foundation one of the roles that they play is funding field trips uh all of our second graders were able to go to Lawrence Central and see the musical setup of Mamma Mia and then we were able to attend Mamma Mia and I was just blown away at how talented our students are I mean Beef and Boards look out because they I mean the artwork that was done on the stage the musicians in the pit the students singing I mean everything the lights was fantastic so kudos to everyone thank you have a good evening I just I thank you all for being here for the long haul this was a long meeting but so will our kids so so deserving um the hard work so um our next board meeting uh I'll I'll hand the mic to Dr Smith in a second but just a reminder our next board meeting is and a good superintendent always closes out thank you madam president thank you board good meeting and I'll let you close out the meeting Madam president because I was ready at the gavel for you do we have a motion to adjourn we're adjourned you implicitly
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we also remind you the board approves the purchase of investment in new routing software for the transportation department so that purchase is reflected in here as well the operating referendum side everything is as budget and as is expected the last slide here just shows our cash balances this includes tax anticipation warrants and so there's always some variation based on how much we borrow from each fund from the prior year but this includes the cash at the end of the first quarter actually sitting in each of those funds the education fund is down about four hundred thousand dollars compared to 2022 but we borrowed 1.5 million dollars Less in tax anticipation warrants so the real actual balance net of the tax anticipation warrants is up just over one million dollars over the prior year and that's mainly due to again we didn't haven't had any three pay months yet in this six month period we will have one in June and so that should get us back on track with with expected expenditures on on salaries there I'm sorry from the education fund the operations fund is up uh 4.5 million over 2022 but tax anticipation warrants were 5.5 million more we borrowed none last year 5.5 million this year so the actual balance is down about 1 million dollars which is exactly where we would expect to be based on our increased investment in both people and facilities for this year the health and dental balance is up about 175 000 so that's healthy and continues to crawl slowly towards our Target of about six and a half million dollars which is 30 percent of expected expenditures and then The Debt Service fund is down 1.2 million from 2022 but is that is as expected as the um every time we roll off old debt and replace it with new debt we're going to see the cash balance decrease because we're only allowed to keep 15 of the next year's payment in cash as opposed to old debt we could keep fifty five zero percent happy to answer any questions about the first quarter financials do you have any questions Mr I'm going to ask about uh follow-up on what Mr Grimes said I know that the state budget I believe that the state budget will be for the biennium that runs from 23 to 25.
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but most importantly it's actually a decrease when the project started in 21 until 23 and we anticipate that going forward into the future thank you Mr Reese director of communications Miss Allen good evening thank you I would like to thank Sue smooten from our buildings and grounds Department as we've started nearing the opening of a couple of our buildings and we finished some sections of Timothy ball and others um interior signage is something that people never think of they never notice no one thinks about the locks on their doors and having the right key and Sue and I had to sit down over the last couple of weeks and determine every single room number every sign make sure everything was correct I just said yes to the color but um Sue's job was to make sure every piece of that information was accurate the spreadsheets would make anyone's head hurt it's just an amazing amount of information and no one thinks about it because Sue gets it right so we don't have to think about it so I just want to thank her for her work thank you Miss Allen superintendent of schools Dr Terrell thank you so when I come back uh last board meeting we spoke about the naming of schools and buildings policy I want you to know that I've been working with isba and we have now about 14 different sample policies from around the state so in talking with Mr angel I'm going to work with cabinet and we'll bring you guys some of those kind of mushed together to get input and then changes and I anticipate that we'll do that throughout the summer months as we work through first reading second reading to get those policies where they needed to be but wanted you to know that that we are working towards that as we indicated uh building projects update I want to let you know and Dion's out here and he can help if you guys have questions on this but right now we're in a really good spot um you know it seems like for the last I don't know 12 16 18 24 months we've been talking about this and it's really coming to life right now and as you start to get closer to where we're opening buildings as Brooke mentioned seeing Furniture being delivered classrooms full of carpeting flooring is in at the new Taft we're right on track with where we need to be furniture will start being delivered here in the next couple of weeks at May 10th at Taft and when that happens it's just carpet went in it was a whole new thing white boards go up on the walls and you're like wow this is really when cut when Furniture starts getting there it's going to be an amazing thing to see so again thank you to Dion and his staff it's crazy when you think about the number of projects we've got going on and I'm telling you the number of hiccups we have with those projects is incredibly minimal now Dion's sitting out there thinking yeah they have no idea but it's a credit to him because all we see is that steady moving forward and know that behind the scenes Dion and his team they're working daily to make little changes here and if this is going to be delayed how do we do an end around and come back on this side over here and uh those contractors that we talked about with the Windfield bid tonight so many of them are doing projects in other places in our district and it's a credit to them as you walk through those buildings they're you can tell they're enjoying working for their own Community to that end so we do appreciate all of that legislative update Mr Bass appreciate what you're doing there with working with that you know it really comes down to we're at that point where those things that are going to happen are happening behind closed doors is the impact we've made up to now with different groups and the the conversations we've had just continue to work forward with that I still believe we're going to end up in a really good place but stay tuned and we'll have great things for for our community I also want to remind you just of our board cabinet Retreat coming up May 9th look forward to having you here and we will start that uh with dinner being served first and then we'll have kind of a working dinner and plan on staying until about nine o'clock that night so look forward to having you guys here and meeting with cabinet during that time 5 45.
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and board members are responded to go with that right of course what will you be doing well so we're assuming the Europe trip and Excel rooms about right thank you was more like history and language immersion is more like the science and the culture um [Music] Central you're at the Mediterranean trip we're hitting each of our foreign languages that was kind of planned that way this one has more of like a science vibe to it uh thank you yeah this is great thank you very much sometimes okay can I get emotional improved I'll say it okay we have a motion and a second all in favor aye all opposed motion passes thank you guys very much for thank you for taking this on that's great next item on the agenda is an approval request for the Chartwell renewal for 23.24.
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uh how will that impact our budget planning um no I'm sorry yeah how will that impact our budget planning for next year it depends on the increase for this for this calendar the only possible impact in this calendar year is if there's a increase above and beyond what we expected for the July to December portion of this calendar year and if it's significant and when we negotiate with the teachers this fall so the Teachers Association and us will start negotiations for this fall if the increase in this calendar year ends up being more than what we budgeted we'll need to come back to you for an additional appropriation but as soon as we have that number from the state when the budget comes out here in a couple of days I'll be feverishly putting projections together and and determining what that means for us for the next two years but I take into account in building next calendar Year's budget the increase from the state no okay thank you Mr Phillips all right at this time we will move to public comments so I have several people that have signed up on the blue sheet one of them did not put an agenda item so we get to you all I'll ask for clarification um so I'll remind everybody our policy is that we allow comets up to three minutes we do have quite a few speakers so I'm going to ask everybody to strictly adhere to the three minutes I believe Nick has a timer set up here can we see that with the glare can you guys see that okay great so for folks when you come up to speak you'll be able to see how much time you have and then if if you had something more to say we we hang around out afterwards you can always come in and talk to any of us okay privately great so we will start with uh Sarah Leggins Sarah thank you I think for we need to ask you to State your address is that correct Mr Macgyver yes State my home address please yep yes it's 35 10 31st Street okay thank you good evening to you all my name is Sarah luggins I'm the mother of three children in bcsc one at Richards one in north side and one at East this is not my first school board meeting but it is the first time speaking at one um I have always had the utmost respect for educators and supported our education system because I believe in the growth of young minds and the future of our world over the last couple of years however I have felt the push of progressive ideas into our schools and our children are feeling it also the new policy is being introduced have thrown up several red flags for me and I would like to touch on just a few of them this evening [Music] the first is the old policy on staff member dress code was not gender specific nor did it single anyone out it stated that staff would address in a professional manner and in a way that does not cause distraction to the education of our students the new policy clearly states that staff can dress according to the gender they identify with is this not meant to be a distraction additionally and I need a very clear answer on this one the policy is clear on staff attire being chosen by the staff members chosen gender identity will staff be permitted to use the restroom according to the gender they identify with as well and what about students I am very uncomfortable with the fact that the school board members must first make an appointment with the superintendent in order for their visit to school to be considered official I have always operated under the see something say something rule how ever the new policy policies to strip that right from school board officials concerns will not be officially addressed this is a big red flag to me anytime a school board member Witnesses something that should be addressed it should be officially addressed the reason we elect School Board officials is to be representative for us in the schools and in the decision-making processes this brings me to my next point which is why are we having an outside agency one which openly supports critical race Theory and other radical ideas writing our new policies this is why we elect School Board officials why are we electing these officials officials if the power is being Stripped Away from you guys we need your voices not the voices of an outside agency finally I am uncomfortable with morals being taught in school at all morals are directly related to culture religion and family dynamic and should most definitely be the responsible I'm sorry responsibility of the parent not the school if I have certain standards or religious beliefs that I teach my children to live by the school should not and does not have the right to teach them the exact opposite the proposed policies are often unclear and leave way too much room for interpretation in closing I would like to inform the school corporation that I am profoundly disappointed in the track that we are currently running on I am ashamed that these red flags have made it this far in the process if these policies are to be accepted all three of my children along with many others I know of will not be returning to bcsc next fall thank you thank you Miss Leggins okay next I have Amy manafi sorry it's a little hard to see Amy if you could just say your address please I listed my address on the forum for the record okay so I'm just here to talk about the policies as well I don't feel real prepared to speak on them because I don't feel like they've been released to the public in a very clear manner I've been today even speaking with some school board members trying to get clarification on what these final draft policies are and I want to thank all the school of our members that have responded to me every one that I have reached out to to talk to has responded and helped me out and I really do appreciate that the I just have a couple concerns the policy on staff and student relations um it's addressing sexual misconduct between students and staff members on it looks like that all the examples of inappropriate boundary Invasion has been struck from that policy and I understand why some of them would be struck like things like hugging you know hugging a student or something could be um you know something that could be an innocent thing or maybe not I don't understand why striking things like showing pornography to a student telling sexual jokes to a student engaging in talks containing sexual innuendos with a student would be struck from policy I'm asking that if you don't like the wording of those kind of things that you at least take some time to read to look at the policy and come up with some wording that would address some of the inappropriate boundary invasions that could be happening before there's an actual sexual encounter between a staff member and a student so I do think that there needs to be some inappropriate boundary Invasion things put in policy so that maybe we can protect students from actions before it is an actual sexual encounter between a staff member and a student and then also I have the same concern about limiting board members access to schools we do elect all of you to speak for us and to give us the information that we need so any policy that keeps our school board members from visiting schools or having interactions with schools or limits their ability to have access to the school I think as a policy that should not be supported and I do ask you guys to delay voting on this policy tonight until a lot of these questions on policy could be addressed when more people are aware of all the things in the policies thank you thank you okay I have a Megan it's not Johnson I'm sorry is it is it okay thank you Megan Johnson if you could please confirm your address for me uh Columbus okay oh I'd like okay I'll give it to you I don't wanna yeah I think you say it publicly bear with me I have a little difficulty speaking I'm asking the school board to please postpone voting on policies today I have reviewed every page that was made Public public only to find new and changed drafts all the way up until today our school board should be leading policy changes and setting communities standards but why are they not currently we have biological boys using girls facilities and elementary schools at Parkside and no policy to govern such a situation we have political Flags in High School classrooms with once again no policy in place I've been to subcommittee meetings and asked about that I was told there was no policy it needs to be put in the document we are leaving out important policy and adding very unclear dialogue such as school board members can only visit schools if they set up a meeting with a superintendent first this policy strips you the school board are elected officials of their authority responsibility and capabilities why is moral education a part of a school's role well sexual abuse education provided for grades 12. I'm sorry sexual abuse education will be provided for gate for grades K through 12.
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we'll start at six everybody's got the Down May 9th thank you Dr Terrell um item 7.01 other business the board of course somebody else can start I just want to make sure um I know each individual kind of mentioned the contributions made by Our Community Partners including the new owners in the McDonald's I want to make sure we don't forget about that the Community Foundation is probably number one behind that but there's so many more Knights of Columbus were mentioned and things like that that they kind of get overlooked sometimes and I want to make sure that they get their just Due based on just other than you mentioning them and we are extremely thankful for all those Partnerships that work with the donations being given and everything they do to help us out in areas of need and it's done way more than they it comes to the Forefront at a board meeting so I want to make sure that they do realize that we do thank them for everything they do whether it's just you know contributing when those individuals contribute at the middle school for like career day they volunteer their time to come and help kids kind of learn about finances and everything else that goes along with that so all of that doesn't go overlooked on our behalf as a board so I want to make sure that they they do get their acknowledgment start time is five not six I'm sorry that would have the record shortest yeah no five and we'll start serving food will be ready at 4 45 so if you want to get here a little early great moving on to other businesses of the board I know Mr Vassar you had a few things I think central starting uh the next school year alternative thank you hear me now yep is starting an alternate diploma for students with cognitive disabilities this state just approved the alternate diploma I don't even think it's been a month so we have a group of students that will graduate with that this year fantastic I just think that's I think that's wonderful as a former special educator I just think that's absolutely wonderful uh second thing I wonder about is when we receive our board packets for personnel and we are to you know either approve or not approve those people are working before they're approved that that could lead to embarrassing situations um what can we do about that to streamline that a little bit don't have to have an answer now but just so sometimes based on timing of those fill-ins hires things to be it's almost impossible to address like to fix some of those but I'll let Dr Terrell speak in regards to that as far as the overall process of that yeah so Mr Angels correct in the fact that we try to have those be after the fact there are some of those especially like if you look at ECA positions that are part of that so background checks all of that has gone through and has been processed before and part of it has comes up with the timing of it all so one of the things that you will see on our next board meeting is beginning in May and then going throughout the summer the board will give me permission to hire before the next board meeting so that way we can benefit on not waiting three weeks four weeks two weeks whatever it might be to be able to get the best talent and recruit them as well so that's that's kind of that process there again we try to make sure that we when we can that we hit that Mark there's just a few exceptions thank you for that I just didn't want to know all of the background stuff obviously is done well before they're at that approval state which our ours have gotten really extensive from the years I've just been on the board with General moving into pretty much a full background check some things can obviously slip through the cracks and uh just don't want to put anybody anybody us staff or that employee in an embarrassing situation um just want to reiterate about the 252 voucher students I think that's important if we can find reasons why that happens um let me so we know where those students are going the majority of that number are going to religious schools and that's where we're seeing those students go so that's that's the biggest part can you clarify that 200 252 students or 252 students who are pulling their voucher 252 voucher students that's the report I received so I I don't know and you know I think we can make conjectures and surmise about they're going to go to that school anyway which I'm sure is true in many cases I'm not sure if it's true in all the cases so I just want to make sure that are we are we capturing what we need to be capturing for the parents and for the students it could be a lot it's something that can be a subject matter at The Retreat Retreat we'll make sure yeah and and isba also is recommending that we review our policies which I'm sure we're going to be doing after the retreat am I correct in that for any for any existing policies that need review or that hasn't been updated now because once again we've switched carriers yeah yes Terry has really hit hard on that one as well so let me comment on that so we have monthly reviews with them and quarterly reviews with them where we continually review our policies and then bring changes if they are needed to the board yeah well I don't know if he was speaking in terms of what happens with the assembly if that was fresh on his mind because I just received that on Monday I believe it was no last Monday not not today but uh continue our practices and make sure that those are addressed yeah and then and then lastly it just hit me when the the TAF students were up here seeing all these kids walk up which was which was wonderful in 2005 State mandated at every school every public school in the state has the Pledge of Allegiance every morning if followed by a Moment of Silence why don't we do the same I mean to set the example for our schools I mean we do the pledge but we don't have a moment of silence is there any reason why we don't do that because our schools do that the first mention of it and I have no objections and we can discuss that as a board to move forward with that don't see any issues with it but make sure we're all on the same page on that okay thank you any other any other board new business at this time uh Miss pascus again apologize for the first time what was the time of the thing next Wednesday the event unified track May 10th for 10 a.m 10 A.M May 10th thank you well I had made 10 000 but I had no time so I want to make sure if I can make it I can get the right time Time and Time perfect any other new board business this time okay moving on to 8.01 board statements of appreciation and recognition we'll start with you Mr Vassar if any Mike please thank you Brooke we'd like to I like to compliment you uh here's why I received a personal phone call from a resident uh parent has two students at Crown Point schools to complement whoever put together on the website um the transferring of students with the redistricting and said it was incredibly easy to follow and any question that she had she found the answers to so just wanted to say thank you Brooke for making all of us look good and for your efforts on that thank you Mr Vassar Miss Basin anything this evening uh yes I had the opportunity last month to attend and I'm probably going to butcher what the actual name of it was but it was the the academic honors awards banquet is that did I get that accurate uh alongside Dr Terrell Mr Hardman and Mr gianfermi um and it was where we were acknowledging and celebrating the students who had gpas of 3.85 and higher is that correct and it was uh a really exciting event besides seeing all of those smiling faces who were very excited to graduate but the students they selected I think three or four students who had the opportunity to speak about the teacher who they felt had the most impact on them and Mr Alston were you one of those so I feel like while we're on that train of recognizing some Excellence um it was really to what Ms Ramirez had said kind of reminds you of your why and why you're here but hearing the impact that those handful of teachers had on their students and hearing the emotion come out of those students was very impactful to me I think there was one that like made me tear up and I'm sitting there on stage thinking wow like a very powerful speech by a student very powerful emotions that they felt towards their teacher and then recognizing that that is just a small sample of what all of our teachers are doing across the corporation that these few were recognized for but just the Deep Impact that that our teachers are having on students and and getting to kind of hear that and celebrate alongside everyone was very very impactful and and kind of reinvigorating and also made me miss teaching in my classroom a little bit a lot of those students I had had in second grade or had come through Eisenhower so I appreciate the opportunity to attend that that was wonderful um so thank you thank you for the invite for that thank you Mr babjek nothing from me tonight thank you Mr Smith I had a list on my cell phone and I left myself on our work so I'm going to have to come back next next month more prepared so your attorneys work harder than all of us so I don't know how you keep your head on straight I'll pass uh for tonight oh Mr angel can I sneak back for one more absolutely I I do quickly want to acknowledge and thank Dr Terrell um for his communication through the number of things that have come up just since we've been on the board Mr Vassar and I in January we're always made aware of of big things or things that might hit the media or those things in advance and it's very nice the transparency the communication um and just feeling like we know what's going on and we know how it's being handled is very uh like it's it's very comforting I guess to know that that's all being handled and very much appreciated the communication that you provide as well so I didn't want to forget I I forgot I knew I had a note somewhere and then I didn't see until after so I did want to thank you as well for your communication Dr Terrell yeah all right just know if you're getting yours at five mine started probably about a quarter to four I don't even know where to go with that one just because trying to convey to four individual board members individually and then wait for each individual response to make sure things are all coordinated uh makes for some interesting mornings and early afternoons but I do appreciate everyone to raise the community or whatever well when you're a member of a five board panel you have to make sure that things are conveyed in a professional manner yet at the same time acknowledgment so that everybody's on the same page moving forward knowing that we're responsible for the 9 000 kids and everything else that's on in this community so thank you on in that regard as well uh I don't have anything individually other than um as a reminder graduation I think I can speak this accurately for the first time ever will be in the month of May is that probably right Mr Hardman just being that you've been here a lot longer than I've been here and that you were a principal of the building at one time but so May 31st the Tuesday after Memorial Day so please put that down in your calendar it's always and now they moved it outdoors and I like that atmosphere a lot better even though the Radisson and Star Plaza theater was nice Outdoors just seems to have a little extra special to it knowing that it's they're held on the ground so all looking forward to seeing everybody then that day um I don't have anything else other than once again I'd just like to say kudos to those individuals that went through the training and the uh ambassador program once again I think it's a great thing and we look forward to continuing each and every year and expanding that and making our community more aware of what is out there and what's done behind the scenes which I think is more important than anything so with that I will look for a motion to adjourn motion by Miss Basin second by Mr babjek all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed motion
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
now that's actually chart Wells um so Chartwells is our food service management company and uh if you might remember when we decided to move forward with chart Wells um essentially it's a whole it's a four year term but it's for one year renewals and so um we've kind of met the met the time to where it's time to renew them for uh the 23-24 school year and we are happy with their services and the food and nutritious meals and the options and expertise um they bring to the table for uh for our students and so be my recommendation that the board approved this request I hear good things so I will make the motion to um renew the contract from now here around here a lot of good things as well so I will second time okay any questions or discussion okay hearing none all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next is an approval request for an overnight high school volleyball camp to Ball State University yeah so as is uh in state but it's overnight it requires board approval in your board packet they've submitted yeah itinerary all the information and obviously there'll be proper uh proper supervision and so it would be my recommendation then the board approve this request as presented I'm making motion of big sense that's pretty cool [Music] can we have a motion in a second all in favor all right well opposed motion passes next is an approval request for police for staff devices yep so it is time to um earlier this year we replaced um some of our devices um the desktops and some of our remaining computer labs and some of our areas where they require more traditional desktop and now it's time to replace our staff some of our central office staff some of our secretaries time to replace their devices with laptop devices Corey's done a great job and it's on out and secured some different quotes on the devices and essentially he found the best one with Dell and we're proposing that we do a four-year lease on the devices so 48 month lease with one dollar purchase option at the end he's gone through and fine-tune the numbers as far as how many we need because ever in place and so we're not purchasing devices for them but this will give our staff a good opportunity or good option they can take their laptops home and work from home when needed and it would be my recommendation that the board allow us to move forward with purchasing these devices hopefully before any more cost increases because we've noticed that things are more costly than they used to that new student used to be so we're looking at an annual lease payment of 72 149.79 and we have that money budgeted um in our operations fund education okay yeah it's a similar device to what they have now right now they have HBO well I make a motion that we buy the computers I'll second okay we have a motion and a second any questions discussion okay all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for reading adoption yes I'm going to pass this off to uh Becky all right yes um so after almost this entire school year we've been working as a reading committee uh we started with looking at four different curriculums um narrowed it down to two teachers went into their classrooms piloted the lessons came back and debriefed um we've had different discussions with those companies and their reps what kind of PD is available and so um I'm requested for your approval the adoption of our amplify ckla option so this will go K through five right and I assume uh it's on the computer but are there actual physical books we're also going to use yes so the students will have a consumable that they'll get each year okay and this was a clear favorite of staff yeah okay with the staff tried it out um every program is going to have holes in it right um are you guys working to fill those holes yes so um we use OG for our skills which is that phonics portion and we're just so we're not going to go with their skills so now we're looking at um how to balance that so that's kind of our next step with that we actually have a PD with this this afternoon so making those steps now so one of the things I asked the teachers to do with both curriculums or to point out the strengths and also those challenges or things that they might need in order to implement successfully and the teachers help develop some of those Solutions is obviously with anything they're going to be whether there be pros and cons and so um machine administrator is doing a good job of taking a look at those things and obviously we want to plan for a successful implementation so we're going to support that whether it be um uh PD um that's going to be the primary things are ongoing okay uh just be ready for next year is that right yes okay fantastic thank you okay can I get a motion to approved absolutely a second okay we have a motion and a second any further questions feels good to have an actual curriculum based but our kids and teachers okay all in favor I I all opposed motion passes okay the next item on the agenda is an approval request for some donations which we can improve all together first Putnam County Community Foundation to Greencastle High School band in the amount of 737.47 next is the McDonald's mctimber to Greencastle High School a decade in the amount of one thousand dollars and Dennis and Emily knuth to the Greencastle High School art Department in the amount of five hundred dollars discussion leaders here can I get an emotional proof I make a motion that we gladly accept all donations a second okay motion a second all in favor all right all opposed motion passes last item on the agenda is some first readings of the 2023-24 building and books yeah so no action uh necessary this month but it's just the time of year to continue to prepare for uh next school year so those were in your board packet for first reading and we'll bring those uh back for second reading and your approval next month and then I think allow us enough time to have them printed for next year and I don't know if this is the right time to bring this up or not but are in I apologize I didn't ask I haven't asked you about this before are we looking at our late start Mondays and whether or not they're being used efficiently if we're going to make a change talking about the handbooks I think that would be in the handbook I don't know when the time to do that is yeah you know at this point right now we're not planning any um major changes but obviously it's a goal to always utilize our time to the best of our ability and I know that our staff has found that time to be valuable and or continue to work to fine-tune our efforts um because quite honestly meeting time with staff is very limited with contract time especially being able to get whole groups together or grade levels together we still have base insurance as we substitute teachers we obviously don't want teachers to be out of the classroom because then you miss out um on obstruction so that time is valuable especially when considering you know the reading adoption and the math adoption that can be an opportune time to provide PD um for teachers to get together and curriculum math and plan so at this time there's no major plans to overhaul or revise anything I I would just like us to look into the future three or four years and just see there's just it would be better to have a whole day where people could get through debt I don't know but just something to think about sure yep we're always evaluating uh what we do okay any other questions okay here he goes um last item on the agenda is other business does everyone have any other business it's not so there's no other business last item on the agenda is adjournment I make a motion a second okay motion a second all in favor aye aye all opposed motion passes so thank you for coming good evening and see you next month
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
may I remind you that a kindergartner is age five [Music] some knowledge is too heavy for small children they should not be forced as children to see and feel the words the world through the lens of an adult staff will be permitted to wear clothing that is consistent with the gender in which they identify well this create distraction in the classroom what about yet again the bathroom policy with drafting notes like this we are engaging in the same ideologies that we have seen elsewhere what about hugging a child in the classroom are we really making this unacceptable some sometimes a hug from a teacher is all some students will ever receive these were just a few things that I have made noteworthy with a ton of other questions do you any of the board have questions about the policy I'm [Music] I'm asking do you do you have questions about the policy I will say I've personally asked questions about the policies yes are you comfortable with the policies as they're written I think that's a voting matter that I'll abstain from but since you asked specifically I'll answer the first okay would you like more time to address the questions for your constituents a quick search of Neola the third party education consultancy in which these policies were adopted indicates that neolith supports critical race Theory influence concept at the educational equity in public schools with this I would like to ask each School Board member to take the time to thoroughly review these policies that I and many parents in community members find extremely alarming and reschedule for further review thank you thank you Miss Johnson [Music] hey Misty Hunter all right could you please confirm your address for me 2008 North 850 West okay thank you thank you good evening first I'd just like to say to you Mrs Wilden thank you for sharing that uh excerpt from that Food Service employee I thought that was very touching and it's encouraging to know that employee turns the microphone up oh sure that employee has that compassion for the students at BCS it also inspires others as well um I have read a 61 or 62 pages of the policy there's several revision points I would like further clarification and perspective on that I have concern about and hope that I have the opportunity after after this meeting to continue to reach out to board members for that clarification the one policy revision I would like to ask the board specifically about tonight is policy 9150 School visitor policy I would also just like to start out and say that I do believe our children and the students at bcsc will be most successful if we as parents and educators are collaborative and work together however ultimately I as the parent am responsible for the overall well-being of my child the policy 9150 revision states that school board understands that parents or other persons with legitimate educational purposes may visit the school with that revision it is revised from policy that said the school board welcomes and encourages visitors to schools or visits to schools by parents and other adult residents of the community that is the revision remove the welcoming of parents into the school is how I read that policy revision um the concerns I do have about that is that it is not clear there is no definition of what legitimate educational purpose is for visits to the school and throughout the policy in another section there is a definition of something similar the similar definitions outlined in the student record for um legitimate educational interests so the policy is not consistent with defining those items second that my concern is that I know that there was a form created for that engagement with the public whether that be parents or community members and my question would be is that genuine is there genuine interest that we work together because I'm concerned that policy is eliminating that welcoming of parents and Community into the schools for concerns I just ask that the board consider all clarification on these policies before they approve it they thank you okay I have Kelly wheeler hi if you could confirm your address for me please yes Columbus Indiana so my problem is also with the maybe not problem but what I want to see addressed is restroom usage for those that choose to dress the way they identify I know that I don't like being told what to wear and I am not entitled to tell somebody else what to wear that's not why I'm here my concern is that people with gender dysphoria are and that is expanding itself into restrooms locker rooms and anywhere else girls and women are at their most vulnerable moments where they deserve security privacy and safety where their insecurities and sometimes embarrassing moments should be kept private all of us sitting here know how to make sure these protections are kept intact the same way they've been kept intact since institutions like this were created it's really very simple and I hope that the schools School Board does something for that matter and restroom usage thank you thank you Miss wheeler okay um this next name I apologize ahead of time I'm going to get it wrong I need a brain Brown okay okay sorry and you didn't have an agenda item listed so I'd just like to ask you to declare your topic before you start please I'm sorry you didn't have an agenda item listed listed on the form so if you get the voting policy the policy okay thank you and can you confirm your address for me please um director with Avenue Columbus thank you good evening I am here tonight as a concerned taxpayer and on the behalf of a friend who couldn't make it today and she has asked me to read this I am requesting tonight from the school board to not bring a vote on the policy changes for bcsc on Thursday of last week I pulled up those policies from the school board webpage and read through it entirely since that time it has continuously changed multiple times including today [Music] this is a terrible transparency and becoming incredibly frustrating there has been no time to go back over these documents and comb through the amount of information in order to have a good understanding of what is in them and what has been changed one word can change and one word can change and an entire idea means opposite of what it did we need more time as a as public and more time for school board members to look over these policies before any kind of vote can be made as of last night there was an entire section that was struck down and miraculously today it isn't so which is it policy on student and staff relationships went from lots of parameters to no parameters to them being there again there is no consistency or clear guidelines here I will also note that I hope hugging will be allowed especially at the the younger ages I spent some time as a substitute last year and every time I would walk into a kindergarten or first grade class I would have kids running running up to me and giving me a hug I cannot imagine not being allowed to hug them back they need that comforting hug or about a teacher congratulating a student at a ball game or graduation children need that human connection hugging in secret and behind a closed doors a totally different situation and this is why guidelines need to be specifically in specific specific and clear when reading through these policies at the bottom of each one was the words Neola 2022 I didn't know what that was so I decided I had better look it up this is an outside source that was used for policy creation these these policies were not well written in many errors is this why the changes have been made even today and we were extremely difficult to read and comprehend did the taxpayers pay to use these guidelines and why didn't we allow our elected officials to lead the policy changes and set community standards now say no our students our school and Community is best I am also concerned about the policy on the school board members only being allowed to visit schools if they set up a meeting with the superintendent now I will be honest this may have already changed since I have read it last night this seems like nonsense to me because this strips our our school board members of their Authority Miss Brown Miss Brown New York you are over time um I'm very sorry we are trying to stick to the time I'm going to add this please if I may be happy to speak these policies um changing the way they are there should be a deadline on those okay so they can so there's no changes so everybody can look through them thoroughly thank you I appreciate your time tonight thank you okay Eric Farrell hello Mr Phil could you please confirm your address for me it's Eric Farrell and uh it's Columbus Indiana District Four thank you foreign policy 2240 of controversial issues and uh I guess I'm kind of concerned with uh with the statement as in line a we're just states that is related to an instructional goals of the course of study and the level of maturity of the students so my question is who and what determines the maturity of the student when quote unquote controversial issues are taught I haven't seen anything in the policy that gives a description or an example of a controversial issue and how it relates to the fundamentals of Education as far as anything outside of the normal education and when I reference to Neola you know the recommendation of policy towards the board I'm kind of concerned about some of the things that they offer as far as support and um concerning ldgtq CRT issues like that um I just wonder if that will be implemented in controversial issues and wanting to know how you're going to engage what student can handle that or can't handle that um you know 50 percent of the students say or you know they're okay with that they understand and one isn't is peer pressure can override that one person's understanding uh you know they need a way to extend their or at least get a way out of the education or that that point when it makes any sense but um and uh see can I can I ask why you're sure checking there I didn't hear I'm trying to find which policy it is you're talking about it was uh let's see two two four zero controversial issues maybe in the actual manual it may not be a policy that you're actually trying to change but I wonder if it could be more clear you know clarified in the policy itself at least have an example of what you know what you're actually using as a controversial issue is because when I visit Neola there's a lot of topics here and so when you just say controversial issues what exactly you referring to I mean is there I know there's a broad spectrum of things you can talk about with the class but there's a lot of things sweeping Across the Nation now that you know are taking a toll on children's lives and the way they live not so much in Columbus yet maybe but you know definitely on the west coast are really changing things and I see that coming this way and as a father and a conservative citizens for children itself you know then I want to make sure that it's you know clear cut and dry and that way it's you know there's a safe place for children put them into Lane physically so but thank you appreciate it thank you for your time [Music] okay we will move on to the house there we go all right foreign thank you Mrs Wilden uh so under request for approval for nine items that are listed there minutes of the regular school board meeting our last one was on April the third supplemental contracts we have field trips and professional leaves as well as a list of claims and payroll numbers claims for April 24th today's date a little over 1.1 million dollars pre-runs dated March 1st through March 31st about five and a half billion dollars in our payroll is three million one hundred sixteen thousand five hundred seven dollars and seventy eight cents additionally we have the secondary math resource adoption for you to consider the first reading of that was on that April the third date we also have the calendar change that Dr pleek talked about at the last meeting that was moving the PD day from its original date on the Thursday before Good Friday to the date that is the total a solar eclipse next year we also have Neola policy recommendations as well as you had notes about the student handbooks and changes to those as well as School Meal prices and the school meal prices actually are there is no increase but we do have to have that but in front of you so that can be approved and placed in the student handbooks too so no recommendation for increases to the school meal prices and those are the items that I have do I have a motion related to any of the requests for approved I don't know when we do this could we pull out item G so we could address some of the things that in and age please and age okay sure okay so um I will ask for a motion related to items a through f plus I I would like to make a motion to remove uh G and H and recommend for approve all the others okay okay thank you Mr major do I have a second that okay thank you Mr Allen all those in favor of approving consent agenda items a through f and I please say aye all right oh there's a post thank you those items like you're approved okay now related to item G Meola policy recommendations do I have a mission from the team I would I would like to make a motion to postpone this till the next meeting based on the roughly seven people from the public that requested more time additionally I know Logan has got some things that he's concerned with and he unfortunately is not here I think there's nothing to me that is pressing with the policy that has to be changed tomorrow so I think giving it another two weeks would be acceptable so I would move that we would push out the Neola policy recommendations until the next meeting major do I have a I need a second for that or the motion to delay the vote on the Neola policies second thank you Mr Grimes all those in favor of delaying we can wait you can ask questions yep I forget that part every time Mr Nelly thank you so so I just Wonder um maybe there's a question for Dr Roberts I mean what does that do to our schedule um what do you mean by that how big an issue is that if we put it off and I guess my other question is I wasn't necessarily going right there myself but I we heard some issues and I think we at least need to respond to some of those if we just put it off and we don't respond to those during a board meeting I don't know when our response occurs so I don't know what my question is sorry does it well I think you started with the timing piece I don't know that the timing um is is an issue per se we put these out in January and it's April so it'll be two weeks will be May so that that hasn't meant anything yet um so I don't think that that is an issue if that is your question okay yeah and I think I think I would Echo strongly the comments from the public because I have here three sets of copies so I have the current policy the January policy and the March policy all printed by Sherry at around the time that March 29th update was made and I know that for policy number 12 1301 student staff relations we have not had a meeting to discuss it but I was aware of the fact that as it was mentioned out here that that policy has changed and there were several items struck out so at a minimum Mike I hate to ask you to speak today just a quick yes or no question if policies for this meeting that were posted on March 29th are amended without public notice not just overriding the March 29th file but not notifying the public that this has changed and what has changed would this then only be a first reading from a from a compliance standpoint Jason I think the board's obligation is to post the agenda which identifies the topic so that has happened on several meeting occasions and to allow for public comment before a final vote would take place so there is not we have generally had a first and second reading approach to matters to allow for additional public comment but there's not a specific requirement that we handle things that way so as long as it was on the agenda which it was for this meeting and as long as you have allowed public comment before you would take a final action you have satisfied your legal requirements okay any other questions or comments I guess the only thing I would ask too is is on 12 13 what facilitated the changes that struck out everything that was accepted and then rejected and it appears I haven't looked at it today my copy has it all is accepted um what why did that change you were sent a copy that had it hadn't crossed out but they were changed because the feedback I received from you and others was that hugging and several these other ones on here could be debated there would be situations where how it's appropriate in that particular one we were going to get down to a few like showing pornography with students I don't think any of us would agree that that's okay but we were then going to be down to a handful of items in a policy that we would be saying to those things are the ones that are inappropriate even though they were silence examples of becoming very specific with just a handful of things this is a brand new policy for us it was recommended that we have a policy like this from Neola and so it again is brand new we have been times having to address whether or not things are inappropriate before and have made decisions based upon that regardless of of this policy being in place and so it was believed that the wording the board prohibits inappropriate boundary invasions by a corporation employee into a student's personal space and personal life followed by the end of that particular policy here it is followed by disciplinary action up to it including termination may result from the violation of inappropriate boundary invasions because again there was a long list of examples and that's all they were that's how it was stated and worded we start picking and choosing those examples we're down to just a handful of things of people going to point out is concrete those are the things those are the only things I didn't do that and we're worried about inappropriate behavior period and from the standpoint of posting online as we have changes are trying to make changes uh if we're going to post those each time then we would have to you have to tell me what changes to make tonight and then we'll post the new ones next time because this board can't have a an executive session to talk about policies and as it needs to happen can we have a public session yes you can it has to be public just because the topic as per Indiana code does not meet the requirements for an executive session so our our comments appropriate at this time are we not just questions okay thanks so um one thing that um well first of all let me say a smoother process for policies I think Falls to our subcommittee on public engagement so um hopefully next year we work on policies we will have a it will move your way to get it out to the public and that falls on us on our subcommittee to come up with that so there's our challenge but what what the public didn't necessarily get to see is that that a lot of the changes were because of our questions to Dr Roberts and the administration and and I appreciate and and also in his in their discussion with teachers and cea and I appreciate those changes and I realized the frustration I had frustration myself like okay which one am I supposed to be looking at but and so I appreciate those changes the difficulty is how do we in the future do that in a in a smoother way um and the other one that came up several times from the public was the one about us visiting schools so when I first read it I was a little bit offended but then I so School Board visit school board members visiting schools hasn't it's my understanding that hasn't happened for quite a few years and and I appreciate fabulous experience doing that um but I I I I I would say one my one question on that is this year our process has been to go through the assistant superintendents whether it's secondary or Elementary to schedule those along with the principal and I kind of assume since they're your designee that we're doing that according to policy I think that's was my recommendation okay um so I I think the intent of that policy has been misinterpreted by by some people I think the concern I have with that policy is not so much that we have to ask to participate in their day I know that it can be a burden on them and it can also throw a wrench in their schedule but the thing that frustrated me the most about that that policy is at the very end it says something I won't get this verbatim but it says something about if a school board member sees something they're not allowed to do anything until they talk first to the superintendent and then he'll address it so to me I think where we're talking about conditional elements that were in the policy we just spoke about there's some things here where it says there are no conditions that you can talk to this principal if if I were to see something happen in a school that is wrong and it's blatantly wrong but I have to go to the superintendent at a later date I'd lost the opportunity to have a conversation with the principal in the moment I think the superintendent will be available at that moment probably okay okay any other questions or comments from my fellow board members which obviously we get ready to do how does that affect the student handbook this is just for item G so we have a motion and a second only for the Neola policy it would not yet impact item H which we will discuss next I believe but isn't the policy going to affect the handbook as far as what would go into not necessarily the ones that are included here Pat that's always a possibility but the ones that are in this particular list of policies doesn't affect I don't think anything specifically with the Handler okay but if we do delay this this is our chance to clarify any changes we want made in this public forum is that correct yeah with the understanding that you may be proposing things that not all seven are going to be in agreement right that is certainly a possibility as you all give your individual input on a policy as well as what we get from the community certainly appreciate the input tonight I have received other input from community members so um it's not isolated to a single person or two in terms of writing policy oh AJ okay whatever the question my last question but it was also brought up about um teaching morals and I could expound on what exactly that means in public education but I won't um but that's listed under the mandatory much of the stuff that has been mentioned as a wording from the statutory code of the Indiana State legislation so that's not an option that we can decide not to include in our that's correct I'll take that up with representative Lauer and Senator Walker so the question I had about morals and some of the others that just stood out uh that were either new or not familiar to me was can we identify and share some information on the curriculum because I didn't understand what moral studies meant I didn't understand what Indiana history meant I didn't understand what ethnic studies meant I can I can use my imagination and think about what some of those are but what is that curriculum for those look like you know any any curricular materials you would be approving at this level so if we if we put moral if we put morals into the policy we're not putting it into there Mr major that is statutory that's Indiana State but we're putting it into the policy so are you recommending we strike it no I'm recommending that if we put it in regardless where it comes from that we have a discussion about what it means if I put more if I vote to put moral morals into the policy and I know nothing about what you're planning to teach then I have failed my job is to understand a little bit of that maybe not to the level of detail to the dust on the table but I need to know there's a cloud in the room right so I think it would be nice to have a conversation around some of these especially since we have other people here and that have contacted you and I've had several people contact myself too so just a reminder to the board as we try to sort through this the the documents that were posted on the web were cleaned up versions of what we went through initially with Neola because you initially had red lines and you had green red lines of things that were subtracted and green additions each of those were new based upon prior policy Mr major indicated for example that he had a couple of different documents in front I think he's part of the ones that are on the website currently so if you go to our school board section of our webpage you can find our policies before these changes are made you would see what the policy looks like today and so what I attempted to do after the meeting with going back and forth on the red lines in green was to retype all those policies the Neola software didn't give us the chance to do that so recreated each of those in a version that tried to just highlight in green changes and so as you read those it doesn't mean you shouldn't disagree with something you should if it's if it um it just doesn't read correctly but the recommendation was based upon what the policy had been here is the changes that are being recommended most of those changes are going to be um based upon State Statute so something has changed in state legislature like the addition of ethnic studies ethnic studies wasn't something that we decided at a meeting to just add ethnic studies it was approved by the state legislature it is required as a school corporation we offer ethnic studies at least one semester each school year so that was added to to the policy and I think that is a new a new one that's in this particular one I mentioned timing and again it's not January to now so we can wait a couple of weeks but we have two volumes of policies that we were sitting on trying to understand this process and what will work best for us the community those trying to read the policies and get through them and understand and so the more efficient we understand develop this process the better we will be more efficient we'll be with the next two volumes and I only state that because as statutory changes are made that's when those volumes come out we have a new legislative session happening right now there are things now Mr Grimes I think you indicated already seven signed by the governor affecting K-12 and 48 on the table and so there will be you know potentially 50 plus legislative changes affecting K-12 education that need to be in our policies we're if we don't and it is reactive unfortunately we were having something done to us with new legislation but we have to react to that efficiently and so whatever that process again looks like for this board we will need to get that figured out and then uh work through those so maybe this next couple of weeks will give us the opportunity to figure that out um one I'm checking off the different points that were brought up one point that I'd like you to speak to is the staff dress code can you um please expand on that yeah and you know I I just find the policy here the first number right it's it's in a few different places so uh 12 16 I think is the first one on dress agreement just for everybody's sake um anything in the 1000s our Administration anything in the 3000s are certified staff which would be people that are covered under our collective bargaining laws and then anything under four thousands are classified staff so in those three chapters we have all employees in the corporation covered and so a lot of the policies that we'll be trying to change will actually have to change them in three different places because there may be some different wording things may be covered under a certified teacher by collective bargaining and we have to respond to that because that's also State Statute where we would not under classified staff or even under Administration and so we have three so just looking at the very first one dress and grooming there'll be three different places we would have that in there um it actually is probably not the good one because I don't think it was a drafting note on this one under dressing grooming for staff there was a drafting note from Neola that's when it indicated the Discrimination piece and that's where I think I'm hearing the transgender um remarks this evening and that was in the drafting note itself it would not be a part of policy I was in the attempt to be transparent had left it in there for people to review and and try to figure out how that affected the policy itself but the policy itself is an attempt to be non-discriminate non-discriminatory and just indicates the standards that you would see in that policy the established standards for dressing grooming shall be upheld in a non-discriminatory and uniform manner at the beginning of each of the policies I tried to add a comment about why that policy was being um recommended and I was getting that information from Neola but it was new to the administration when interestingly enough we had a dress code for our dress and grooming policy for certified and classified staff but it did not have one for administration so the first attempt was just to add one and have it align with the others and then the second piece was just ensuring that any language we had in there was non-discriminatory that's when you may have seen the drafting note that it did indicate something in regards to a person who was identifying by a different gender but that language itself is not in the policy and um the drafting note that we would have in any policy would not be a part of a proof policy thank you Dr Roberts um in the policy it does State though and uh that there will be developed administrative guidelines and that also there will be an established dress code could we have like a reference number or something to that so that we can review what those are yeah anytime it references administrative guidelines should be the same number as the dress code okay with that being said I don't think there's any additional information for these that go beyond that Mr major okay where were we we had a motion discussion right and a second to postpone the vote for item G on the agenda which is Neil love policy recommendations we had discussion we had questions I think I'm ready to ask for a vote so all those in favor of delaying the vote for Meola policy recommendations say aye aye okay I'm not going to be able to see raise hands and Mr MacGyver since you can see better if you can count for me okay raise your hand and say I you'd like to delay the vote for the policies okay I see four hands Four Hands who would like to move forward with the vote tonight that would be me no is that what you just said yep no that would be two so motion passes to delay 4-2 [Applause] okay um so we will move to item h which was 2023 2024 student handbooks do I have a motion regarding item h mm I would move to that we actually approve item three h uh the 2023-24 student handbook revisions thank you Mr Grimes do I have a second a second thank you Mr Allen all those in favor I'm going to ask you yes questions or comments Mr major as always so yes sir this one um I took uh I I don't understand this this one frustrates the Daylights out of me I tried to be a good dad when I was at Richards elementary school and I would go to lunch with my daughter once a month and I would get to know a little bit of about her friends I would get to know a little bit of the administration Mrs Green the secretary would always welcome me Mr strongwood as well part of the elementary and secondary hands handbooks changes there's a note here that disturbs me immensely and it says CSA fodrea Richards Taylorsville Mount Healthy Smith and South Side all added a provision that they are not allowing visitors to join students for launching the cafeteria so for all the parents and grandparents aunts and uncles that used to go and visit with their son or daughter niece or nephew or grandchild you will no longer be allowed to go eat lunch with them and to me that is uh anti-parent I ran on trying to bring parents back into the fold one of the best ways to do that is have the parents engaged at schools if we now are no longer going to have them welcome for lunch if uh in the prior in 91 to 50 it was mentioned there about the school board welcomes and encourages visits to schools by parents and we change that as well I why are we become an anti-parent Dr Roberts would you like to maybe um to that thank you Dr hack the elementary schools that are putting that in the handbook what is their current situation the the elementary schools that were adding that provision what is their current situation with visitors during lunch sure so that provision started whenever we had coveted and so we really looked at opportunities to not have visitors in and out during that coveted time period since then bigger schools like Southside Richards others have noticed that when parents and grandparents aunts and uncles like those come in we have to be cautious about where they sit and how they interact with all students so there's one thing to consider there another reason South Side Richards out of that list I'm trying to think of others space is critical so where can those people go to have those opportunities so that's that's one thing another thing that we hear is from some of our schools where students May struggle a little bit more parents grandparents bring in McDonald's bringing in other other resources it does prove to have a Have and Have Not situation so those schools are asking then that we continue with what we have been doing which is not allowing um families to come in so so I know when I visited Richards with Logan about two months ago they had some space in a hallway outside where the parent could sit with the student and they were doing that two months ago so again I just I'm I'm struggling with yeah I understand that it may not always be ideal for every school but the parents pay the taxes the parents have the kids and one of the last things I would hate to see is upset parents take their kids out of our school corporation yeah and I think that again they can come and take their child and have lunch with their child nobody is saying that they can't do that but it's just not only the space but it's the resources and it's again finding the space inside the school as well as making sure that all kids are safe whenever a family member comes to have lunch or visit visit that school we want to make sure that they have access only to their child does that does that help it's an explanation I don't like it but thank you for explaining it yeah and Dr Heck just to confirm and I think you said this the recommendations from those schools came from the schools themselves that is correct okay I think that is correct thank you and I think you just said parents can come and take their children to lunch at any time okay well during that during lunch time right during that lunch time but absolutely parents can come and and pick up their child and sign their child out for safety and then bring them back and we we celebrate that to make that happen absolutely we'd never would never stop that okay thank you Dr Heck okay any other questions or comments on student handbooks so so I believe we've had a motion to approve item H student handbooks we've had a second we'll now take it to vote I'm going to ask you all those in favor to say I and raise your hand I all those opposed no okay thank you Mr major vote passes uh five to one Dr Roberts okay uh thank you for that review and we will move to the request for approval of Human Resources recommendations Dr fleek thank you I request the approval of the HR recommendations as presented in your packet this evening do I have a motion related to Dr pleat's Human Resources recommendations I move that we approve the human resource recommendations okay thank you Mr Allen do I have a second second thank you Mr Bryant all this in favor of the human resources recommendations please oh discussion guys it's been a long day we'll get a lot of practice tonight I try not purposefully trying to be a pain but um one question I have about the restructuring that we approved in the last meeting is do we have job descriptions for all of the defined jobs that will now exist in this new format yes okay the other thing that I this is the one thing I probably struggle with the most is um there were some bios sent out but most of these didn't have bios so I know nothing of these people in some cases some cases they were and apparently I missed the one with Mr Mahaffey but the part that frustrates the Daylights out of me is how we are in advance of a board mending meeting putting out in social media and in the public that we have hired someone when the board meeting has not taken place and the vote has not been approved approval yeah I I still think that that is unfair to the board members because now you're pressuring us because you've put it publicly when technically they're not approved until we vote on them I think it's just unfair to us we do not want feedback on those individuals excuse me would you not want feedback on those individuals if the community thought that maybe they weren't the people for the job just like policies or anything else that would be putting out in front of the public so so okay well sure let's do that then let's start doing that let's put the BIOS out there and everything let's talk about all the other things that are in HRS as well so we have five assistant principals two directors of counseling two academic coaches eight teachers two basketball coaches there's a whole bunch of other stuff I want in there's a principal director of ell and director of special education Joe public did you know that those people were going to be voted on and proved tonight okay so we need to probably do a better job of that in the future than that okay so I any other questions or comments on the HR recommendations tonight I'll make a comment real quick and so just to broadcast how I'm going to vote beforehand um and offer an explanation why I will be voting no simply to be consistent with my no vote on the additional Appropriations at the last meeting so there are some positions there that I simply don't agree with and again I want to go on record as saying I'm wholeheartedly behind the team Approach at the high schools I just the the restructuring there's lots and lots of unanswered questions still in my mind so that that is my reasoning behind my no vote this evening thank you Mr Grimes those in favor any other questions okay all those in favor of approving the HR recommendations as presented tonight please say aye aye all those opposed no thank you okay vote passes four to two Dr pleake you're welcome okay what is that um upcoming a board input and review any other input to 19.
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are we starting down here we can okay yeah for sure okay um so I to two comments one one or two reviews I don't know what they are um one is the the team approach um I have been thinking about that a lot since our last board meeting um because it was a close vote and I was deciding how to vote during the board meeting um and I every teacher I have talked to in terms of student performance and lack of success the three things they always talk about are those kids they miss too much school they misbehave and they don't do their homework and one of the things that excites me most about this team approach is that we're going to have a team of people that are work on attendance behavior and getting homework done and I think it I hope it can't lose my ongoing concern is that the plan we've seen for East High School has three assistant principals for four grades and it seems like a what I've seen what we saw last it seems like a very inequitable way to divide that and I'm my fear is we're making it a harder harder um hurdle for East than we are for North because of that situation I don't know the answer to that but but that's my concern um the other topic I want to just mention quickly I mentioned that we've been doing the school visits Mr Stenner and I visited Smith and CSA fadia and the one thing so I have to go and see the classrooms because that's what it's about and and we go at the end towards the end of the day and my concern is okay we're going to the end of the day and if they're starting to shut down I get it but they aren't and I'm going to assume that wasn't just because we were there but we went through classroom after classroom after classroom and and saw kids working 20 minutes before they got on the buses and it just okay I gotta cry down and it just it Thrills me to see that and also many many classrooms we would walk in and we weren't sure where the teacher was because the kids were doing so much and the teacher might be bent down talking to one kid or working with one group and and I get excited when you walk into a room and you're not sure where the teacher is because you see so much work going on with the kids and it's been great um thank you to the the community members for your input during public comments here this evening uh thanks to Dr hack and The Culinary students for their uh presentation on C4 uh the sweet corn ice cream and the duck were delicious and so good luck to them as they compete as team Indiana in Washington D.C and then also congratulations to to all the many students and staff that were recognized this evening for both their personal achievements and their positive contributions to bcsc okay I'm a numbers girl third year in a row iu8 Purdue seven very in our top 20 kids okay I was keeping score over here I think there were eight IU and and seven Purdue we're almost there but there were 18 ladies okay and that's something to be celebrated tonight all 20 of those students obviously amazing kids so that was great to see thank you for continuing to make great kids Mr Stenner thank you as the temporary chair of the subcommittee that's looking at public engagement um like the other board members that are coming in tonight I'd like to thank the parents and citizens that came out tonight I am encouraged by the discussions we're having as a board in the discussions we're having as a community about public engagement and I look forward to continuing to make progress and notice you use the word temporary it is a temporary assignment okay Mr major I would like to thank Columbus North High School for allowing us to have this here today thank you very much to the administration the staff in the unsung heroes the janitors that don't have to put all these chairs back so I'd like to thank all them for the hard work they do every day but especially for tonight and I think I've spoken enough so I will be quiet and thank you all for coming in Mr Bryant what do you have just want to say thank you to all of those that came here tonight not just to celebrate the top 10 of each school but being here talking to us and giving us information that sometimes we don't actually receive so thank you for that and one other thing I'm disappointed that nobody went to Kentucky foreign okay our next board meeting is on May 8th and it will be back in the administrative building we do not have committee meetings between now and then is that a true story okay I didn't think we are still looking at dates okay so looking at dates okay so that will be posted I think we'll be able to make an announcement at our meeting on Monday the 8th okay great before you gave a lot that will be a meeting where we recognize our retirees May 8th will be retirees great okay thank you Dr Robertson with that meeting adjourned
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is there a party or something it was the next day thank you interpretations gracias thank you Guadalupe oh yeah now I can hear myself first on the study session we have the K-5 science curriculum adoption process um Dr Gloria would you please introduce this item yes Madam president members of the board um I do have our academics team here our chief academic officer Sheila Burke um and part of her staff here miss Leonard to present the process of the science curriculum the selection how it was selected and then um moving forward on you know having you potentially take action on this later on today so miss Burke good evening Madam president Lovato distinguished members of the board as Dr odia had shared my name is Sheila Burke and I serve as the chief academic officer for the school district I'm here tonight with my colleague Laura Leonard who serves as a science and social studies coordinator for the district we're here tonight to be able to share an update regarding our K-5 science adoption materials uh before we begin in front of you you're gonna find a folder with some of our materials for tonight including our revised science philosophy statements the first piece you'll find is the presentation for tonight again the revised science philosophy statements the evaluation rubric our committee used in evaluating the resources We examined and our teacher comments from the piloting process in the order which they were piloted we also have included a notepad for any questions that you may have and we're happy to answer those both at the end of the presentation and throughout but at this time I'd like to turn our presentation over to miss Leonard good evening Madam president Lovato distinguished members of the board superintendent luria and viewing audience thank you for having us here tonight as Chief Burke stated I am the district science and social studies coordinator in this presentation we will look at board policy an overview of the committee's work the adoption timeline and the science committee's recommendation first we will look at the board policy that guided our work for the science process we followed word policy i j and ij-r next we will see an overview of the science committee's work the committee consisted of 28 participants the committee consisted of 28 participants with representation from students bilingual and monolingual teachers serving kindergarten through fifth grade the Community Union Representatives as well as school and District administrators we had eight meetings throughout our process totaling 16 hours six surveys were completed including vendor vendors to Pilot and the committee's final votes throughout this process seven vendors were considered and reviewed by the committee we will share more about this in our later in our presentation you will see a general overview of the committee's work on the slide displayed first we revised the science philosophy statement I think it's all right that's it nope we're good just make it there please to guide our work an evaluative rubric was created to score vendors materials the T the committee narrowed the vendors down to two Savas and TCI to Pilot with students and teachers at the elementary level finally our committee engaged in a discussion regarding our work and casted a final vote just the committee reviewed the previous written science philosophy statement and made Collective revisions you will see an excerpt from the revised science philosophy on your screen distinguished distinguished board members you will find the full philosophy statement located in your folder our viewing audience can access the full science Philosophy by clicking either of the underlying titles on this page both links will display English and Spanish versions next we will share more about the committee's timeline the left column of this chart shows the months the activities took place the column on the right shows a summary of activities that occurred our work began in October of 2022 with the revision of the district science philosophy statement to guide our work the committee selected resource evaluation criteria in November there were multiple meetings in which we finalized and approved the evaluation rubric to score the kindergarten through fifth grade science resource materials the committee used our revised philosophy statement Colorado State Standards common core standards and Next Generation science standards to create this evaluation rubric we ensure that all instructional materials met specific non-negotiable criteria which included the following aligned to standards research-based inclusive Equitable and accessible to all students materials are available in our dominant languages both Spanish and English using the evaluation rubric any instructional materials that did not meet these non-negotiable criteria were removed from the process rating these materials spanned over multiple meetings in December the committee continued to review and narrow curriculum materials in January of 2023 the committee completed the last reviews of curriculum materials and the narrowed the vendors list down to Savas and TCI using the overall score from each of from the evaluative rubric for elementary science core programming the pilot process overview was presented to the committee piloting teachers received a shared piloting calendar including training start and end dates and other important piloting information throughout the process updates were provided to school leaders and Elementary teachers including the work accomplished in February we had a committee committee meeting and reported out vendor one of the piling piloting teacher results we followed the same process in March with vendor 2 and the team formulated their recommendation piloting teachers scored each vendor using a teacher evaluation vendor rubric this section will highlight overall comments from piloting teachers and student survey results the first vendor piloted was Savas you will see a few comments submitted by three Elementary piloting teachers within the district on the slide displayed T1 T2 and T3 are located on the left representing piloting teachers please note more teachers piloted than these piloted these materials for tonight's purpose we are highlighting some of their comments a complete list is included in your folder some piloting teachers and committee members reported that Savas provided visuals to support learning however as indicated in their comments the spender lacked rigor and was challenging to navigate English and Spanish materials to meet the needs of our linguistically gifted students the second vendor in our piloting process was TCI as noted on the previous slide you will see a few comments submitted by piloting teachers within the district as the teacher feedback shows TCI provided connections to real world situations differentiated reading levels and Spanish materials were noted to be abundant and easily accessible for students and teachers alike at the end of the piloting process 265 students participated in Anonymous survey students were asked the following question how would you rate the Savas curriculum visual aid was also provided to support students the next the same students were asked about TCI a visual aid was provided as well the last question in the survey was which vendor did you like best or prefer the color blue represents Savas and TCI is purple approximately 68 percent of students preferred TCI to Savas as indicated by The Color Purple the chart on the left displays the survey results from piloting teachers the chart on the right shows the results from the science committee both groups indicated support for the TCI science resource based on the body of evidence that included scoring rubrics survey results and feedback from from stakeholders as well as discussions and best practices our committee is recommending TCI as our district approved science resource for kindergarten through fifth grade our group identified pluses or positives they experienced and Deltas areas of opportunities they shared with the two vendors our committee is recommending TCI and over the next few slides you will see the group's thoughts regarding pluses and deltas each chart shows pluses on the left and Deltas on the right we would like to highlight group one comment that TCI has Spanish for a linguistically gifted students and connected well to academic standards on this slide we would like to draw your attention to the positive comment that TCI has valuable assessments including claim evidence and reasoning aligned with cmass group 3 notes TCI has embedded extended opportunities and supports our specialized populations finally we would like to focus on group Four's positive comment that TCI complements our reading language arts curriculum wonders our committee is recommending TCI is our district approved curriculum through fifth grade science instructional resource thank you again for your time this evening thank you Miss Leonard so Madam president Lovato Dr odia distinguished members of the board this concludes our science adoption overview for our K-5 science materials at this time we would open it up for any questions that you may have for us thank you thank you for the presentation uh colleagues questions comments um I have a couple to start and then I'll Circle back because you know Renee always has questions um what uh Elementary curriculum are we using now for science Madam president Lovato uh thank you for the question currently we have Mystery Science and it's one that we've been piloting or have been using since we've been in um since covet and remote learning we went through the science adoption process last year's you may recall and as we went through that process our team couldn't make a strong recommendation it was almost split down the middle so we went back to reevaluate the process that we followed last year with MGT and then went through the scoring rubrics that we had we redesigned the process and then looked at a more extensive list of vendors and used Unbound Ed to be able to help with that part of it excuse me not unbat and Ed reports to be able to design the process that we followed here so currently right now elementary schools are using Mystery Science thank you um that is a great segue into my question because I too looked at reports and um the Middle School the six through eight reviews for TCI who are not um two standards um so I'm wondering about the continuity I'm worried about our students learning this in elementary and then they're going to move up to secondary and and not have the same resources or the same alignment thank you again for the question Madam president Olado part of our process was designed to be able to look at a Smith Leonard had shared the next gen standards the Colorado academic standards and then the best practices alongside science so in that even though the resources may not necessarily be aligned the concepts that we want to be able to teach in aligning those standards throughout the curriculum pacing guides within the resource will help us so that the language is continuing around science vocabulary preschool all the way through 12th grade and so that should help with that regardless of the resource great thank you um my next question is around the standards I know Colorado standards has changed continuously changed so when you say you uh checked that they were in line are you looking at the 20 or 2009 or the updated standards because I think science was updated and 2012 it was a couple it was supposed to be implemented for next year thank you madam president for the question um yes we looked at the 2020 science standards which did Colorado did adopt portions in full transparency in GSS so the national next gen sorry social studies and science time in my brain um The Next Gen Science standards and so we have looked at both of those simultaneously and that was one of the non-negotiables to make sure that we met those if it didn't meet those then we didn't move forward with that specific vendor and they have adjusted with TCI and again those were in 2020 and they're the most updated Colorado science standards K through 12.
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Mr Thompson are you on the line I am thank you wonderful thank you we'd like to welcome everybody to our regular board meeting Tuesday April 25th 2023 around six o'clock um we just finished executive session and we are back I'm calling this meeting to order and would like to begin now with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mrs Humphries if you'll please stand and join me for a moment of silence if you'll join me in 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 thank you Miss Wilson could you please call roll Miss Laurie wood sure miss you like you Daddy here miss Jill Humphries here Miss Rhonda page here Mr Chad Thompson here Madam president all board members are present you have a quorum thank you very much that takes us to 3.01 approval of the 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 a second second oh go ahead oh Mrs page thank you it's been moved and seconded that we approve the agenda is there any discussion [Music] I will call for the vote all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda please vote by saying aye aye aye aye thank you and any oppose with nay that has passed 5-0 thank you now we'll turn the time over to Dr McCord for superintendent's recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members if you join me in front of the dice we will present our um not a ward sorry nobody's walking away with 500 extra dollars tonight but recognitions forward everything well good evening everyone how are you good thank you for being here we are excited to honor some of our folks this evening we'll honor some staff members student and Community individual but we're going to start off with our staff right now Christy Peterson could you please come up give her a hand [Applause] hi Christy how are you doing well you're doing smile big so what do you teach over there Mesquite High uh math math like just math like what kind of math uh algebra one honors algebra one co-taught algebra one algebra 2.
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of Education April 25th 2023 at seven o'clock P.M Cindy could you please call the roll here look present here Meadows present weitzler here and Mrs Meister would you please lead us in the French of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um Dr Hastings are there any items removed from or added to or changed to our agenda tonight um we just have one public comment so we're going to do that first and all right so we're going to move that agenda item to the front here all right so welcome to the Board of Education meeting everyone if anybody wants to address the board I know we have please see our recording secretary Terry will have you fill out the form uh with your name and address so that we can keep our detailed set of minutes um I'm just going to hand it over to Holly teachman so she can explain to you our process uh thank you president Journal speakers will be called up in order of form submission the first form received which we only have one tonight is the first invited to speak when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard you'll be limited to three minutes a three minute timer will be shown on the screen so you'll have uh mindful so you can be mindful of your time at any time during the meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary Cindy Rodriguez at my right speakers should conduct themselves with Civility and respect toward others and our one and only public speaker is Daniel Russo good evening I'm Daniel Russo the retired lrc director at Batavia High School and this is National Library week and school library month and the theme of this year's celebration is there's more to the story and I want to just talk very briefly about Librarians in that story when you think about libraries you probably think about books shelves of books but that's something lifeless a librarian is the person that brings those books to life a librarian sees displays contests book lists author visits and the librarian's most important tool is the book talk in the book talk you pick out tantalizing details you build to the critical moment and then you stop and if you're lucky a week later a student's going to come into the library and say do you have another book like that one and if you're really lucky a student's going to say this book was not too bad but do you have another one like it and the librarian then knows that the reli that a possible reluctant reader is turning into a dedicated reader now some people think about technology when they think about libraries libraries have always been big on technology and when I started the librarian's job was to get the light on the VCR to stop blinking but today Librarians partner with classroom teachers they work together to integrate technology and they do it in a framework of information literacy skills so students learn how to use media efficiently and responsibly today their tools include 3D printers podcast makers and of course an endless array of apps I know my time is short I love to go on but I want to leave you with three ideas number one Librarians have one of the biggest classrooms in the school and that classroom never closes because of its online presence number two Librarians have the biggest teaching load in the school because they work with all the students and all of the staff most importantly number three because of that big beautiful classroom and because they know everyone in the school librarians build community everyone is welcome supported invested and everyone learns please visit your library you'll discover there's more to the story thank you thanks Dan foreign [Applause] the next item on our agenda is our consent agenda which is an opportunity for us to pass a number of routine business items with one vote all of which are outlined in the board book so I'm going to ask Mr Pierce to walk us through there thank you uh 3.1 and 3.2 is the approval of the March 21st 2023.
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assisted by Angelina trulio in there with some unbelievable speed for adjustments wide they back it up again [Music] a little break right here it looks like miniature really trying to compose themselves coaches all the time out she must see something early here strategically on this beautiful night 55 degrees a little bit Blue Sky some clouds lots of fans Advanced nights of all time every year here for this event youth night here in East Longmeadow all the little laxers are out there girls who are sitting here in the stands dreaming of playing on that field one day it really they think it's like decades away but it's only three or four or five years away they're gonna be the ones out there meeting the Spartans the western Mass titles yeah you can see the joy yeah I mean it's just great they got to go through it tunnel with the girls they got to walk out with the players on the field they got to be out there while the national anthem was being played I mean just a wonderful opportunity for the girls to really experience what it's going to be like for them in four or five years you know they build a relationship with these with the older girls just a wonderful night here I mean the parents are out supporting great all right back in the draw 22 minutes and 12 seconds remaining 2-0 East Longmeadow Megan morno taking the draw again on the right and adding the Jordan on the left draw one by number six and now we're gonna try to get the ball over great who's there by Bridget's already gonna hustle back and try to prevent them from getting into the offensive zone but they do get in there one of our best defenders really really stepped it up this year in her game on defense after having a great field hockey season really improving your defense coach thinks very highly of her is willing and able to put her on any flare on the team got to get rid of it here she's about to get caught from behind she really gets that stick close to her great job there getting it in the offensive zone good job by Kenna Marino recognizing that one of the defensive players was in the offensive zone and held up big turnover right there that's that Aaron's pass you don't want to see that in the middle of the field again holding up he saw metal gonna set up its offense here they look a little bunched right there Bridget Jordan going in oh it was open but just couldn't sneak that pass through turnover minute jog Hall great catch right there in transition bouncer really good catch there by Jamie Addie Jordan is really flying the Chaser down and this is where they got a stopper this was the problem last time really she really caught them in transition I'm sure coach talked to Tyler and Weiss to make sure she slows her down as she goes [Music] thank you foreign number 11 really came but I'm not sure if it is you go sidearm instead of Holly big save flips it out to Talia Weiss whites being chased from behind up to Addie Jordan great move here Jordan over to her sister Bridget Jordan great pickup from the ground down the middle Trulia catches it swings and shoots and Joshua by useful yeah they're they're a lot they got a lot of fast-paced plays coming in and uh oh good play there by Alan Thompson picks it up Bridget Jordan running down the field doesn't have the numbers does the very smart thing pulls it out waits for the offense to get set up holding the balls to the top to Megan morno who's taking your time right here really setting things up looking for a cutter passes it over to one of the fastest players on the team Kenna Marino that was a tough pass right there the cut wasn't really there comes Addie Jordan chasing down that they're gonna keep this going here it is this is the one he's gonna stop right there and they do back to Jordan Jordan tomorrow now he's her in the corner she's gonna try to look for a cutter I think [Music] and now they're back again this is where they've had problems right here is going to charge now just gonna set up its offense game probably needs to slow down a little bit there's been a lot of back and forth and back and forth all the way down players have to be getting just a little bit tired seeing Anna macaroni coming out of the game getting a little Restless in case it comes in for her and that fast Paces uh shorts and turn-ons it has at the end there yeah morno you know trying to squeeze through a little bit early probably take the time there I think set up the offense you're ahead to nothing you can kind of dominate the game no real reason to rush this is really removed right here she really likes that she really likes it over there and again it's a charge evaporated East longmeadows prepared for this you know you can tell the coach was really taken to the video knows what happened last time knows the player that scored the goals and kind of made things happen and not going to let it happen good pass there in transition another good pass Kasich has the ball very Speedy player crafty Dodger passes it up to senior Bridget Jordan makes a move Addie Jordan coming around with the patented right-handed shot it goes wide and it looks like it's going to remains on middle Ball but I'd like to say good play by the goalie they're trying to yeah gotta appreciate the speed again we're gonna have you know a tough one here another turnover turnovers in the last uh five offensive possessions okay I just think maybe the team taking its time well that's going to be crash and burning we're going to get a yellow card there is one metal going to the bench Bridget Jordan's senior just trying to make a good play there got her stick up a little bit High a little too close to the head I'm gonna spend a couple minutes in the yellow chair yeah yeah Dylan you're right he saw him at Alaska you know last game really got himself in trouble um with the yellow cards this is one of the things that drives boats probably a little crazy is you're a woman down you've had possession of the ball and you give it right back and you're moving down like that one of the things that coach likes to see is just to maintain possession right out that clock while the you know all the players in the yellow chair until you can get to eat and Shrink but let's see if these long metal can really grind out this defensive possession really protecting this right hand side they're not going to let her in there on the right hand and sure they are it's going to be a challenging one Bouncer and it goes out of bounds that's okay it was a shot ball foreign looks to be like it's more of a protection she's at full speed um she's really been playing great all season for her miniature she's a leader on the field leader on the team leader of the classroom somebody that I fully expect to have great opportunities at the next level [Applause] [Music] yeah here we go this is more you can see coach really doing a great job coaching the girls doing a great job listening they're spreading this out here really waiting until they can get you know even Frank Bridget Jordan about to come back into the game she's sprinting into the offensive zone we're now you know we're now going to be we're now with even strength Dylan moving she's gonna take this there's a shooting space violation again just good move there by Megan morno to notice that there was going to be a shooting space violation otherwise she was going to have a pass let's see if she tries to fire it in again and she does and that one goes thank you not sure where she learned that whip move powerful shot again looks like we're gonna have here uh on the draw Circle we're gonna have Megan morno on the draw Circle Kenna Kennedy Marino to the right and Ali left so far draws have been about even in this match I think you know it's maybe 2-2 so far let's see what happens on this one ball goes up it goes over the stick and just a little box out there and miniature just a little quicker to recognize where that was maintains possession and gets the ball got number 11 Lily King right there there is a good shot low to the left corner just missed by number 15.
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education for all and so one of the questions that was listed directly in the audit report was does greater Lawrence technical school have a specific policy mission and vision regarding educational Equity so what we've done with that particular question you'll see in a moment when we show you the objectives that we've drafted in again these are just recommended objectives that we think you might want to look at or what you might want to consider working towards within the Strategic plan as we move forward so these are the draft recommendations for core strategy four and my apologies that it's small um but I think you have a printout of this if you're following along with the presentation um so we drafted four objectives um and the objectives in mind it's actually kind of interesting you put several teachers together at the table and they go back to our teacher training uh the objective has to be something that we one of our members today said we have to remember that the objective has to be something that can then be proven and shown and done so um one of the members today actually said so students will be able to and that's how we started to draft our objectives um the first one being review knowledge of roles and responsibilities as elected officials within the glts community the action on that that we we were looking at or thinking about was potential training on scenario-based situations to clarify roles responsibilities of elected officials and again this is just a review this view this is not um something and these are all just recommended the desired outcome of that one would be an increased equity increased Equitable and transparent decision making and effective communication practices again everything that we've done within here goes back to the overarching goal and we've tried to use that language and carry that language throughout um another one is and many of these actually of these four you're probably already doing as a committee compliance with mass policies and procedures including meeting postings operation and recording the action being have a legal representative to provide training at working sessions continue the process of posting meeting agenda and minutes and then the desired outcome of that would be adherence to Legal responsibilities um as as set by Mass General law I should put my other glasses on um and then a mask representative reviewing meeting agenda in minutes for a compliance um last two that we added in there reviewing glts District committee policies and procedures we um left these last two open because we know um we know this but that one the review glts District committee policies and procedures is something you're doing on a regular basis so that we weren't sure exactly when you're doing those or what your process is for that so that'd be something we're looking for feedback for and then the last objective we included actually comes directly from the equity report and that is to work with glts administrative team to develop specific policy mission and vision around educational equity and that comes directly from this particular report and and pulling that directly from that question of do we have a specific policy mission and vision regarding educational equity so that is where we are that is how we have gotten to this point um our next steps you are welcome to attend our open meeting is currently scheduled for next Tuesday May 2nd um that and to be honest with you all of our meetings have been open anybody could come at any time um Tuesday May 2nd at three o'clock we typically hold them from three to four um in room 1064 which is my classroom um so you're welcome to come down if you'd like to provide us feedback via email um or however you'd like to do so and I guess at this time excuse me I'd go back to this slide first of all guys I'd like to thank you it's nice to be back in your class again I've been trained by both of you it's a pleasure to have you here Isabel let me back you up to the equity Equity audit report [Music] you said there was an outside contractor that did the equity yeah [Music] what's the relevance of the outside contractor who was it it's a big Mayo Brown if we showed her um so she does these Equity products or a number of educational facilities and other facilities around so we just felt that we needed to get an outside View and she looked at everything she looked at our classrooms you know the uh the number of students in the ethnicity Breakout that are in honors classes versus not honors classes just making sure that they're able to get what they need to get special populations like our El students able to take honors classes special ed students so it's kind of a bird's eye view and she just compiled information that we Center curriculum and provided this is over a course of how long so we provided her the information in the fall probably starting in August and I think we just got it back in March um a little bit of a report on it tonight and you're going to get a copy of the audit tonight as well and then next school the next school Community you're gonna get a full presentation on it from Sue and myself but you're going to get an update a little bit on it um I appreciate these strategies that you guys came up with I think it was uh pretty much what we needed um I'm not sure if I'm getting ahead of myself and asking this question but each core strategy at what point would the committee receive the initiatives that the school will be taking on each core strategy or is that something that like do we have the initiatives in place right now and we're working on it or is this something that we're going to be working throughout the school year and either Midway or towards the end when you do right before your evaluation is that when we will receive a more comprehensive detail report as to every initiative that the school took on each core strategy and um how those initiatives were actually accomplished excuse me one sec Mr Cirillo oh thank you Leo um two things I see questions 21 I don't see question 25.
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very own Sierra senior Sebastian rorenzo um oh Sebastian can you turn on your mic oh hello good evening everyone ready begin 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 for liberty and things as well thank you thank you so much moving to item 5.0 report of action taken in closed session on behalf of the board I'd like to report that the board took no action on item 3.1 now moving to item 5.1 may have a motion make a motion to approve 5.1 and a second and we'll go to a vote motion passes unanimously item 5.2 may have a motion motion to approve 5.2 is there a second second moved and seconded let's go for a vote and the motion passes unanimously next moving on to item 6.1 Mr Mall good evening I'm happy to announce um for the last three years we've been taking part in having our students to design our budget book cover um for the last two years we utilized our Graphics Arts students and this year we partner with the fabulous ed services division who was doing the artwork for gratitude cards this year and so we reviewed all the cars who were happy to display this year's budget book winner Miss Yasmine from Slauson Middle School Miss Jasmine could not be here with us tonight but we will present her with her award he's not here but if you'd like to uh the certificate is there if you'd like to just read the certificate we make sure that we can uh deliver that to her so on behalf of the Azusa unified Board of Education we present this certificate of recognition probably presenting it to Yasmine Quintana inohos for the winning ausd budget book cover design contest on this day April 25th 2023 signed here by our superintendent and myself and Yasmine we also have a wonderful goodie bag for you thank you so much for all of your work and your artistic talent and now we move to the main event Mr rankio good evening Dr Beau board members Board of Education members cabinets and guests I have the honor of starting our formal recognition of our teachers of the year at this Board of Education meeting teaching is the profession that all other professions grow from and it is only fitting that we take time to honor all of our teachers of the year as we prepare for our teacher appreciation week in a couple weeks selecting the site's teacher of the year begins in February where sites are asked to begin this election process from their site teachers then in March our site teachers of the Year submit letters of recommendation and complete a questionnaire in April a committee of bargaining unit members managers and myself get the opportunity to interview each of our site teachers of the year it is a magical day one of the best days I have all year the days filled with laughter are felt genuine emotion and just an up uplifting feeling that our kids our students are in wonderful hands here at Azusa Unified School District at this panel interview teachers from each level and from all Sites spoke about what is important to them and what they value to ensure that all students learn teachers like Miss Terry Maharaj I'll intent teachers of the year who spoke eloquently about working with students and helping them be successful at Reading or Hodges teacher of the year Miss Michelle Velasco who felt uncomfortable being the center of attention but lit the room when she talked about her passion for the students and the families of Azusa and I could go on and on talking about how wonderful it was to participate in this process there's so much passion for teaching our students in our district I want to thank our administrators for their constant support and flexibility throughout this process I also want to thank Margaret McCann our HR Personnel technician who coordinated this teacher of the year process from February through today I also want to share a heartfelt thank you to our nutrition service staff for our wonderful reception thank you nutrition services and above all I want to thank all of our teachers for the work that they do throughout the school year for our students before I ask our principals to recognize their honorees I would like to invite principal of Sierra High School Kent Stout to welcome you all to Sierra High School and highlight the school's accomplishments Mr Stout thank you good evening Dr Beau Board of Education member superintendent Ortega cabinet and attendees I'd like to take some time to welcome you to Sierra's High School I've had the pleasure of working here for four years now and when I first came to Sierra I really didn't know too much about Sierra like you I get a lot of questions sometimes so I'd like to share some information about our school we are just like the other two high schools in many ways our students have six periods of the same curriculum we offer AP classes ROP program Dual enrollments for citrus the one difference is that we run a trimester system here where the students have an opportunity to earn 90 credits in a school year this allows the students to successfully graduate with their class on time or many of them will opt to go back to Azusa High School or Gladstone High School since we're celebrating teachers tonight let me tell you a little bit about our teaching staff here we have 15 teachers with four ROP program teachers now our average class size is 20 to 1 which allows our teachers to accelerate the learning opportunities and provide some individual instructional time the teachers here have a total of 279 years of experience teaching and of those years 188 of those years have been spent working at Sierra High School I think this quote from a student and our youth truth survey kind of sums up our teachers here I believe the teachers at my school are strong advocates in believing in US students each one may not do it in the same way but they express concern in whatever way they can it can be a simple thing like clarifying their presence is always there if needed or pointing out what days of the week they're most available even quieter Meeker students who are often left out in other school environments are made aware that they can seek out teachers at any time if necessary I have never had so many teachers who care about me and and the students in the ways like the teachers here tonight you guys are going to get the opportunity to hear some amazing stories about the teachers in Azusa we have some awesome teachers from every site and you're going to get an opportunity to hear about them tonight so I'd like to welcome you to Sierra High School tonight and our teacher of the year celebration so without further Ado congratulations teachers of the year I would now turn it over to our first principal to present Dalton Elementary principal Ms Laura Clark good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees my name is Laura Clark and I'm the principal of Dalton School during my time at Dalton and in the district I have come to realize how precious a teacher like Gina is to the students staff and Greater Community she has a heartfelt commitment and a very strong work ethic her contributions have had a powerful impact on so many lives I'd like to introduce Ms Gina Ramos our teacher of the year when students are new to the school and placed in kindergarten we don't often have enough information in advance about the students needs to plan ahead despite some extreme situations with student behaviors over the years Gina's focus and determination is informed by her love of students and how she can support them for success I cannot express enough how she has gone above and beyond with her patience and dedication to address their needs if you only knew Gina she's awesome Gina can always be counted on to volunteer and attend our PTA events even if they run late into the evening she even brings her family to help out she goes all in when it comes to rolling up her sleeves and supporting whenever and wherever she can Gina works so well with others and is highly collaborative with her grade level partner her Gentle Spirit and care for others has contributed greatly to an improved morale among staff which has been so very much appreciated she has spent a lot of time planning Gatherings and events to bring our school together always willing to Mentor she takes on student teachers to help guide the next generation of Educators her classroom is a wonderful place for new teachers to learn about effective strategies and instruction Gina is a lifelong learner and she openly shares her knowledge with others this recognition is so well deserved congratulations Gina Ramos you are so appreciated at Dalton School good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees I'm Dr Anna Kwok principal of Ellington school tonight I am honored to present Ellington's 2022-23 teacher of the year Mrs Terry monhoraz she is supported by her husband and her two daughters who are here tonight Terry was raised in Pasadena California she earned her bachelor's degree in the University of La Verne and her master's degree at Cal State Fullerton she and her husband moved to Azusa after they got married Terry has served in Azusa unified for 35 years she started her career at Ellington School in 1988 where she taught second grade through sixth grade for 26 years and has now been Ellington's resource teacher for nine years she likes being the resource teacher because she experiences The Best of Both Worlds she's able to support her students academically and be a support system for teachers and administrators two tips that Terry would like to share with new teachers are one be sure to ask for support and two it is important to be consistent with your classroom management strategies people who nominated Terry stated that Terry is a dedicated teacher she has been a beacon of strength positivity and consistency throughout the years at Ellington school she is truly a resource to students and teachers alike despite all the extra tasks that she has expected to handle she always makes supporting students and teachers her number one priority her leadership skills and ability to remain professional and are inspiring and she goes above and beyond in all that she does congratulations Mrs Terry monoraz on being Ellington's last teacher of the year good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet members and members of the audience my name is Jeanette Flores and I'm the proud principal at Hodge Elementary and it is with great pleasure that I introduce Michelle Velasco as Hodge Elementary's teacher of the year joining Michelle tonight is her husband Rob and her Hodge family Michelle and Azusa resident attended Mountain View Elementary Center Middle School and Azusa High School before she began her career at Hodge she worked for Azusa Parks and Recreation she married her high school sweetheart Rob Velasco ah and together they had four beautiful children who also attend and attended Azusa schools Michelle first began her career at Hodge Elementary back in 1995 when she joined the staff as a computer lab aide just a few years later she rejoined the hot staff but this time as a second grade teacher as a teacher Michelle is dynamic organized and structured she loves her students and demonstrates it by engaging them in fun and challenging lessons in a warm and vibrant classroom environment where all students are praised for and respected her love for Disney Mickey and Minnie can be found all around her her room which makes her class that much more special for her students whenever visiting Michelle's class her students are always excited to share what they have learned or are learning and she is always willing to stop what she is doing to allow her students to have a voice and share their seal chance their AR goals or their writing with me outside of the workday Michelle manages the busy the busy schedules of her family and somehow manages to find the time to design beautiful teacher t-shirts you know the ones with the sayings she has a knack for creativity and produces beautiful items that you will see if you walk into her classroom or anywhere around Hodge because she loves to share her creations with the staff Michelle is a beautiful person inside and out shares her talents with her colleagues and her students she is a team player if I need someone to join a committee I can count on Michelle is our person if I need someone to encourage a student or if I need someone to create something beautiful it is for these reasons and so many more that Michelle was selected as Hodge Elementary's teacher of the year and Michelle I would like to congratulate you on behalf of the entire Hodge staff for representing our school good evening Dr bull Board of Education members cabinet and attendees I'm Diana Rojas proud principal of Charles H Lee Elementary School and it is with the great pleasure that I present Mrs Angie Rubio as our teacher of the year up here although Miss Rubio has only worked for Azusa Unified District for seven years her impact has been extraordinary she exemplifies all the characteristics of an outstanding teacher professional hard-working collaborative compassionate personable flexible and dependable Mrs Rubio's passion commitment and Devotion to the success of all students is her number one priority Mrs Rubio joined our lead staff five years ago as our Upper Grade special day class teacher as an education specialist Mrs Rubio has admired and respected by all of her colleagues parents and students for her positive classroom environment and high expectations expectations due to her structure and the variety of learning strategies that she incorporates into her instruction her students always Thrive academically socially and emotionally in addition as she works hard to prepare them for middle school she inspires her students to believe in themselves by the support guidance and encouraging words that she provides them on a daily basis along with being an exceptional teacher Mrs Rubio serves on our read Across America committee which has established a partnership with Smart and Final their Associates have been guest readers at our school and have contributed donations to our school library another committee committee that Mrs Rubio has developed a countless hours to is our social media and yearbook she has been an essential part of running our lead Facebook page and has collaborated with another teacher to bring back our school year book to students to enjoy we are truly blessed to have Mrs Rubio as they teach our Charles H Lee Elementary School and we are excited to recognize her as our teacher of the year for 2022-2023 Resident Evil good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees my name is Jenny Lee the director for the early childhood education program and it is a pleasure to represent the Longfellow School community and recognizing and celebrating the School's teacher of the year Mrs Elisa Vargas Smith she is the school's resource teacher her family her tall friends in the back are here to support her dedicated to the success and growth of ausd's ECE programs Mrs Varga Smith performs a multitude of roles in supporting our preschool and TK programs in curriculum and instruction she is an instrumental coach and for ECE teachers she provides professional development and coaches teachers in a District's implementations of initiatives including the preschool to third grade coherence collaborations and seal Mrs Varga Smith is has work has greatly contributed to the success of this initiative which has led to increased staff Effectiveness and Student Success furthermore Mrs Marcus Smith is dedicated to supporting the daily functions and programs at Longfellow School she works with staff and families to help ensure student safety and achievement she coordinates assessment chairs IEP meetings and student study team meetings she also provides parent workshops where they learn strategies that they can effectively use to work with their children at home Mrs Varga Smith with her always ready to help approach can't shift between roles or even among different roles seamlessly one moment she may be working with the teacher on fine-tuning a teaching strategy the next moment she's off to cover a class she may be in if she may even stop on her way to help bring a student back to the classroom who tries yellow congratulations and thank you Mrs Marcus Smith for the many many things too many things to mention in this short speech that you do day in and day out to support our school and our program good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees I'm Marcelo Fonseca the principal at Magnolia School and it is a great honor and privilege to present to you Magnolia Schools teacher of the year Mrs Jeannie benhamfar Jeannie is a company tonight by her husband two daughters sister and many friends tonight is extra special for Jeannie because we not only recognize her as our teacher of the year but we celebrate a lifetime of dedication to education culminating in a well-deserved retirement though this may be Jeannie's final year in the classroom she has left an indelible mark on the Mustang community Mrs B as she is lovingly called by her TK students keeps her room abuzz with the littles engaged in learning and laughter there is always something great going on down in the TK classroom because you can hear them squeal with excitement with every new opportunity a new song a new dance a new story a new friend with each new day Mrs B brings the joy a child's first teacher in elementary school holds a holds a very special place in the memory and Mrs B has etched her place in the hearts of many her kind words when someone won't share a gentle hug because recess is over a quiet reminder that going to the potty is more important than finishing the block tower these are the important lessons that shape the character and set the foundation for our youngest Scholars a task Mrs B handles with great skill Grace and love not only is Mrs B A beloved teacher but she is a brilliant colleague and beautiful friend her warm smile and positivity permeate the campus and blessed are those who know her thank you Mrs benhamfar for your 34 years of service we celebrate you and the impact you have made on nearly 1 000 students directly over the course of your tenure but no your influence has reached beyond the classroom door two and that is why we are honored to have you represent Magnolia as our teacher of the year congratulations good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees who's this awesome teacher standing up right next to me j-a-o-a-n-n-i-s-l-e-y my name is Adrian Acosta and is a proud principal of Clifford D Murray Elementary School is with great honor that I present to you Murray's 22-23 teacher of the year Joanne Eisley joining us in tonight's celebration and Joe's is Joe's husband will her daughter Emily her mother Grace and Mary her mother-in-law you may be wondering so what's with the singing well anyone who knows Joe knows that she's a huge Disneyland fan that's right if you want to know where Joe goes after school you might want to try Disneyland if you want to know her jokes going for Thanksgiving break winter break spring break or summer break you might want to try Disneyland so when thinking about the theme for Joe's poster we came up with Tinkerbell why you guessed it Disneyland Joe is the positive playful enthusiastic teacher in room 18 as stated by her peers who greets everyone with the kind word from her heart and a smile that lights up your day for warm inviting classroom invites all students to feel comfortable to make mistakes because as Joe States the mistake is an opportunity to learn it even better Joe desires every student to achieve High rigor standards she will roll up her sleeves and learn new teaching strategies to spark her students learning from seal to words their way Joe's classes are passionate and showing school spirit as well as participating in school functions Joe has Grace Murray with fond memories of her Halloween costumes in the Murray Parade from Wednesday Adams to Harry Potter so how does she do all this to still be great at it well as Tinkerbell would say all it takes is faith trust in a little pixie dust thank you Joe for being our Tinkerbell for showing our Mountaineers as Tinkerbell would say that laughter is timeless imagination has no age and that Dreams Are Forever ladies and Gentlemen please join me in applauding once more Clifford D Murray's teacher of the year Joanne Eisley good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees my name is Patty abalo and I am the interim principal at Powell Elementary and it is my privilege privilege tonight to honor Renee everling Powell's teacher of the year Renee is celebrating tonight with her husband Jason who's in the audience um her daughter Juliet and her two boys Austin and Merrick are at home celebrating I'm sure without her there Renee teaches our most special population of students at Powell Elementary our life skill students these students require someone who is loving understanding caring and skilled in their craft all of these characteristics describe Renee Renee not only loves and cares for her students but also their families she cares for her students they like they are her own and the parents are very very appreciative of her she takes the time every morning to greet the students and parents to inquire about their mood how their night was how their morning is going she you will also see Renee talking with parents at the end of the school day for quite a while informing the parents how their day went any concerns throughout the day and any reasons that they might have to celebrate Renee also integrates her students into mainstream educational opportunities as much as possible her students have joined with the Champ Program special field trips PE and Robotics to name a few so to all of her family celebrating with her tonight be proud Renee is receiving a well-deserved honor and as we wind down our final year at Powell Elementary it seems fitting that our recipient is one who loves and cares for our most special students a quote that I found is if a child can't learn the way we teach maybe we should teach the way they learn this is Renee she meets the students where they are so please join me in honoring Renee everling house 22-23 teacher of the year I listen in the morning good evening Dr bull Board of Education members cabinet members and attendees my name is Horacio Trejo and I am the proud principal of Valleydale it is my pleasure and honor to present valleydale's teacher of the year Belen Pinedo Miss Pinedo is a remarkable teacher who has won the hearts of her students and colleagues alike her dedication kindness and passion for teaching are truly admirable in talking with her students they say that Miss Pinedo has an infectious laughter that lights up the room and makes everyone around her feel at ease her ability to make even the most challenging or boring topics fun is unparalleled and one of the many reasons why they look forward to her class one thing that every single student said about her is that she makes it easy to ask for help and for that thank you for creating that culture Miss pinatum this year Miss Pinedo has taken on a leadership role within our upper grade teachers and staff setting an excellent example for our newer teachers and that leadership has also made an impact in our dual immersion program as we work along with Hodge and Dr Fairley to make it not just a high quality program but a model for California schools she embodies the Viking spirit and is always willing to join the next Committee in lend a hand her fifth grade students benefit from her enthusiasm and knowledge in both languages and she continues to work with our gate students to provide fun and exciting learning activities to extend their learning Miss Pinedo is always willing to lend a helping hand to her fellow teachers whether it's less than ideas tutoring or just being a supportive partner to lean on she uses her creative and artistic talents to provide a rich learning environment in her classroom and she is always excited about new technology this ease with technology earned her a deep respect from our teachers because she became a mentor to all during distance learning she is an exceptional teacher who embodies everything we value at our school she's kind dedicated and passionate about teaching her students are lucky to have her as her teacher it is an honor to have her as a member of our teaching staff and we are grateful for everything she does for our Vikings so thank you Berlin I can't wait to see what magical accomplishments all of our Azusa kids will get to experience because of you thank you very much people today okay good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees Matthew Contreras principal at Center Middle School tonight is my distinct pleasure in presenting Center Middle School's 2022-2023 teacher of the year the Magnificent and extraordinary Mrs Kelly o'haney Blackburn Mr Haney is joined tonight by her husband Sean mom and the entire Spirit of the center family Kelly's Educational journey through school was not linear and smooth but these trials through multiple systems have forged an anchor teacher for schools and students her thirst for knowledge and ability to create is fostered in her love of teaching and learning in softball there's a term called a five-tool athlete that is the player that can hit for power hit for average run well throw and field Kelly is a five tool teacher she has been at center for the long run spending 30 years at CMS she hits for power as her lessons incorporate the most rigorous and accessible strategies for students she masterly Fields questions from students at times having to read their body language ensuring the highest degree of understanding she has thrown out all stereotypes as she was a diversity equity and inclusion proponent before this was a term and she has hit for average the last 32 years here in Azusa unified displaying consistency in the classroom that students year after year reach out to her or visit and thank her not only for Content but for life lessons for the past three decades Kelly has been an integral part of the education of approximately 4 112 students not including the players she has coached the center community cannot say enough positives about Mrs ohanie Blackburn her classroom or her interactions with kids and parents she would give anything to assist her students so I'm in the meantime while I was asking a few students to share a little bit about uh misohanian class one of them shared a story and I I feel this is a time to share to show the character and the person that she has always been so we had an unfortunate lockdown that was very sudden at school two weeks ago at that point we were not able to send a notification to teachers to tell him what it was so they went into our automatic protocol I asked the student hey how's my I was expecting oh she's great her lessons Etc the student let me know and said let me tell you Mr Haney when we had the lockdown we got kind of scared she moved us all into the corner though and she told us I'll stay there this is Middle School stay here and then she immediately moved herself in front of the door and placed herself right there and said they will have to get through me I've already lived my life you guys there will be fine so that sums up what the career Kelly has had um the whole entire year she is retiring this year the same way she started her career with the energy um the care for kids and the care for learning so Kelly is a champion for students she's a champion for life so please help me in congratulating Kelly o'haney Blackburn on Center's teacher of the year good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees I'm Miss Fury and I couldn't be prouder to be here with you to celebrate Foothill Middle School's teacher of the year Miss Alice fuelskamp Miss H serves as our seventh and 8th grade life skills teacher when you visit Miss Hills Camp's class you'll see her students love her and love being in her class you'll see her students socializing at breakfast engaging in energizing dance moves to work on agility and coordination creating beautiful watercolors and art projects that go with the seasons and building their computation skills in their math centers we particularly love Friday lessons where the students practice their culinary skills mixing and measuring and producing some wonderful eats and our personal favorite yeah Miss H's Puppy Chow okay don't leave the bag on your desk it won't be there it has been noted that Miss Hills Camp consistently seeks opportunities for her students to connect with other students and activities across the campus she has a program with the stem science classes known as stem Buddies hear students engage in Friendship activities such as Bingo and this past St Patrick's Day they applied some science knowledge and created the part of gold games saving their precious gold from the Michigan campus Miss H is beloved by her students and staff alike and here's what they say working with Alice is a joy it's a fun-filled adventure every single day she's dedicated hard-working always putting her team first and it's for these reasons Miss H and so many more that we thank you and we are proud to have you as our teacher of the year good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees I'm Yvette Walker the proud principal at Slauson Middle School it is my honor to introduce to you Mrs Peggy Harris slawson's teacher of the year she is joined this evening by her husband Ken her son Elle her daughter Shannon as well as other family members a quote from Peggy earlier today family is my life so thank you all for attending the celebration this evening what an honor it is to stand beside such a dedicated caring hard-working educator this is Peggy's 36th year in Azusa she began her career here in Azusa as an instructional aide at Gladstone Street and later moved to become the librarian at Slawson and today she currently teaches 7th and 8th grade English language arts Peggy's style of teaching is one in which he teaches from the heart her relationship with her students reflects a sincere desire to teach it is evident that students are not only learning but are engaged in her classroom Peggy's lessons are always well planned with her team member and partner in crime Miss Mary Nagy Peggy encourages her students to actively participate take risks collaborate ask questions share ideas learn and discover literature in a variety of ways when I asked Peggy what her favorite part about teaching is here's what she said every day is different and challenging and satisfying so it never gets old when I asked her students what they liked most about having her as their teacher a few responses we know she cares about us and one of her students said she makes me feel like I am really successful at writing because writing is difficult when Peggy is not teaching she enjoys cycling mountain biking dirt biking reading roasting coffee and one of her favorites craft beer tasting Peggy self-imposed standards of excellence have guided her through a successful 36 years here in Azusa Unified School District on behalf of the staff we've certainly saved the best for last as slawson's final year it is with pride and pleasure that we celebrate you this evening please join me in congratulating Miss Peggy Harris as saw since 2020 to 2013 for every year good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet and attendees thank you so much for putting on this event my name is Althea Zimmer and I am an assistant principal at Gladstone High School it's my great honor to present our 2023 and final Gladstone teacher of the year Mrs Terry Perdomo she's joined tonight by her husband Sam who is in the audience with us we are blessed to have such a talented art this who chose to share her gifts yes with the students of Azusa unified prior to teaching Terry worked in print media she spent three years in La unified and then made her way to Azusa Terry has been a department chair member or department chair at Gladstone High School Art Club advisor gate coordinator member of wask and so many more things she is on the district-wide PLC where they come together and put on these fabulous art shows in our ghs art gallery Ferry's built a strong relationship with Educators across the district and was recently selected to be department chair at Azusa High School next year she's loved and respected and is one of the kindest most professional people you will ever meet Mrs Perdomo teaches students that are in an art class for the first time all the way to those tackling the rigors of AP Terry's student-centered approach Fosters creativity expression and artistic growth she does this with empathy and compassion that the times demand and her students love her for it her greatness is seen in the success of her students and the awards they have received from ribbon winners at local fairs to Congressional winners and students passing AP exams just like my son Nicholas Terry's students have excelled year after year I thought I would end with a few of the things her students had to share about her the first one said she cares about everyone has a beautiful personality and always has a smile on her face the second said she takes time to work with each student individually to help them progress their art skills while providing a safe environment filled with the resources they need to succeed and she's doing a phenomenal job once again congratulations Terry Gladstone loves you and I love you sister all right good evening Dr Beau Board of Education members cabinet superintendent Ortega and attendees it's my pleasure to introduce to you to Sierra High School's teacher of the year Mr Charlie Callison tonight Charlie's wife of 27 years Cammy is here celebrating with him Charlie and Cami they love to spend time together and travel and this summer they're going to go on a cruise somewhere he's not sure where yet but he's going to take her somewhere Mr Collison began his teaching career in 2006 in Upland as a science teacher before moving to Azusa High School where he taught for four years and then transferred over to Sierra and and became a part of our staff in 2011.
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