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um that we uh will be getting for uh or we have billed part third four that would also offset those special ed costs fasting to uh come in close to budget there's still some uh items to watch the K-12 Transportation fuel utilities heating oil substitutes uh you know a lot of fmlas uh going on right now so that adds some costs uh and like a cost of custodial and other supplies so um we are still planning on coming in close to but we will know better at the end of May Russell you want to add anything to it oh no Donna covered pretty much everything but it seems like it's very accurate from what presented into those do you want to explain the um sure the uh CIP yeah so that way when we move to our approval right this evening I have submitted uh uh two motions uh to reallocate CIP funds uh we have uh uh about forty five thousand dollars uh in a an unallocated interest income account in our Capital uh plan our Capital fund uh so with that we have an unexpected cost for uh an elevator repair at CIS uh that is uh pretty important uh because it's the control board so to speak is Obsolete and on its last legs and if it blows uh then that operator or the elevator will be inoperable uh for for some time so um the inspectors have uh recommended that we go ahead and replace that now and be a little proactive so that cost is nineteen thousand eight hundred dollars and it was unplanned uh so we thought that that would be uh good use of funds in the CIP to allocate that for that elevator repair uh also we had a CIP approved last year of 25 000 for some High School auditorium lighting improvements uh that has in actuality the the quotes are a slightly more than the 25 000 so we are asking also from that uh unallocated interest income account to take 1 360 uh from that account and add it to the auditorium lighting account is is that been uh partially done uh the only thing that's been done is is really a screen has been moved but uh we had trouble getting some vendors in there we needed a few vendors to to bid but I think we've got that ironed out because we wouldn't have noticed a difference it's going to be done during the summer I've already majority okay any questions for Donald uh for Donna or Russell any questions Felicia or Erica no okay why don't we move uh we'll move forward we'll take up those actions in a minute let's go to the uh consent agenda Mr Case okay thank you this evening is part of the consent agenda uh we have the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of April 18th 2023 the special meeting of April 18 2023 and the um break excuse me the special meeting which was Canton celebrates uh last Tuesday May 2nd also as part of the consent agenda tonight we have three um three resignations one which includes one retirement I'll begin with um with Mrs Kaufman this is Lynn Kaufman who has been a school counselor at Canton Intermediate School um for over um 15 years close to 20. um is announcing her retirement after 20 years in education so she will be retiring on June 30th 2024.
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13 14 and 12 and 30. basically we took two entire chapters of the agreement two entire big chapters tossed them out and started from scratch and built it for what our employees need and what's going to benefit our employees may not be the easiest thing to administer but it's what's right for our employees and so I can't I can't express enough the work that both these teams did in negotiations to truly understand this and ask those in-depth those super rich questions how does this look what happens if this happens so that we could produce really a very robust personal time off that we can all be proud of and that should outlive all of us and hopefully we'll never have been doing this one again because it was a lot of work but it was it was work that was worth the effort a couple other major accomplishments on the certified side we worked with some language giving us the opportunity to have a late start once a week with professional development so our teachers have the ability to continue that great PLC work that they're doing those those great things are happening that are pushing our classrooms and our teachers to that next level to be successful and there was a lot of language around that that we had to go through and both sides were really really accommodating to each other listened and I think that's my biggest takeaway from this we all listen to each other every time somebody would talk everybody gave them the the respect and the honor and listened and not just because they had to listen but because they wanted to listen they wanted to learn and a lot of Minds were changed on on all groups of people as we went through this process the just a couple more quick accomplishments um for compensation we wanted to honor and we wanted to be Equitable with all of our staff and this was really really important to both the classified and the certified in the past we've given raises but our steps and typically around eight or nine which means once you've been in Adams 14 for nine years if we give a step raise there's no step for them to go to so they don't really get an increase in compensation and we as a group on both the classified and certified thought that that doesn't do a very good job of honoring our most uh our most dedicated employees so what we did is we um we proposed them we both agreed on a step raise for all employees for those employees who are at the end of the pay scale rather than being frozen we added an additional step so that every employee including those 9 10 12 14 veteran teachers in in classified everybody has an opportunity to get a step raise nobody is frozen nobody's locked in everybody got a step race we also added a one percent Cola we'd like to have added a huge Cola but we have to also be conscientious of our budget and make sure that what we do is sustainable so it was a one percent Cola and then the district is covering the increase in medical benefit costs which did go up this year and so we didn't want to give our employees an increase in compensation and then take it away in benefit costs so we covered that entire cost so they'll be able to see the entire increase in their in their paycheck on the certified side we also looked at the longevity and we increased longevity one percent so that our folks who've been here a little bit longer have that extra little little added to it and then again we adjusted stipends based on that one percent on the classified side we had to make some adjustments to some of our scales some of our folks were not being paid at the same rate as some of our surrounding districts and we do a survey to determine how Denver how all the other school districts are paying each group of people and so if we were at at the average of everybody else we were okay in our race is we're fine but when we had a group that fell below when another school districts around us started paying a certain group of of classified more than we were we knew we had to adjust because we need to stay competitive and we need to stay equitable and so we had to make some adjustments too I think it was five of the scales five of the scales and we had to move a couple of groups from one scale to another scale just because we wanted to make sure that we honored the work that they're doing and the effort and the responsibility that they have to our district and so that was the major accomplishment on compensation we left with a couple of of takeaways because we can't get it all done in one one year this is a multi-year thing and so what we are taking away on the certified side is that we're going to be watching the universal Pre-K roll out this year how that looks we're going to be making sure that we're honoring all of our Pre-K teachers appropriately and that we're not that how we roll This Out is consistent with the agreement because the agreements is there for a reason so we want to make sure that we're doing that so we're going to have a committee that's going to continue to monitor that throughout the year on the classified side because it's such a different way and it can be very controversial we're going to be monitoring how we evaluate compensation through those surveys to make sure that this is the right solution for our school district and that this really does honor all of our employees the best that it possibly can so we're going to continue to work we have meetings that we'll be doing throughout the year to make sure that the the compensation ranges and how we evaluate those are being done correctly so that is basically what we accomplished in a very short period of time we started in January February and we've worked collaboratively as a team since and so I would like to invite Jason Wayne is there anything you'd like to today hi you guys hear me on this thing yes um well I think a lot just a second everything Nathan said uh I do want to just you know sort of big picture point out that like when we win the corporate war on public education in Adams 14.
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um this year those same dates I think would be 6 23 and 624 if I'm not mistaken or something uh Saturday Sunday is anybody available 6 24 625 or is that San Francisco yes sir 17. [Music] um 24th uh but the 17th and 18th or something um foreign [Music] me too long seven eight questions foreign [Music] thank you [Music] Friday every Saturday [Music] and Tuesday 13th is our school board how about the 11 and 12 Sunday and Monday 11th and 12th January oh wait okay [Music] oh no we're coming back from Flagstaff laughs [Music] I have 18 19 purple hello [Music] 18 19 12 18 by 19. it's like let me make the first one it's locked let me make preparations the rest should be pretty simple back to school event just for your information 724 at the Desert Diamond the desert the BDC governing board went ahead and approved us for fourteen thousand dollars to pay for the event uh the ASP Summer Leadership institutes in Flagstaff and you're all registered we all have hotels okay good I just had to book it because they fill up that day you all have hotels at Little America rooms at Little America uh ncai we've been invited uh to present at the conference so we need to grab a board member or two to go June 4th through 8th and then I just put the nature States on there for your information just so you can write them down and be prepared yep [Laughter] oh yeah 18 is Father's Day [Music] yeah I don't have a father nice every day we're not going to be able to be there on Father's Day what about on Monday um what about Monday and Tuesday thank you so what day no 18th and 19th okay [Music] [Applause] Sylvia thank you again [Music] how those uh Andrew Stevens that would make greasework kathleenberg foreign
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um this will be a big loss for the district Mrs Kaufman is so valuable has really touched the lives of hundreds of students as they've moved through Canton intermediate school so I recommend that you accept her notice of resignation to retire and I I would add with regrets a big loss for us thanks you know um we've also received a letter of resignation from Forrest zerpillow Mr zurpolo was a or is a science teacher at Canton Middle School this was his first year um he has decided to to resign at the end of this year and then after five years in the position um Catherine mattioli who is our library media specialist at Canton High School has taken a position in another District so she will be resigning June 30th 2023 so those are three resignations that are part of the consent agenda that I ask that you take action on today I have a motion to approve the consent agenda is presented thank you Russell thank you Cindy first and second any conversation hearing none all those in favor aye Felicia Erica thank you um motion passes unanimous eight or eight oh tonight okay let's take up the approval of the financials is presented by Donna and approved by the finance committee this afternoon we have a motion to approve the 2023 financials thank you Russell thank you Peggy first and second uh any discussion questions hearing none all those in favor aye opposed 8-0 on that thank you okay and uh I have a motion for the reallocation of CIP um to the elevator repair is done in his described I mean yeah stone is described first I think tonight foreign we have two online just right six seven eight okay hey so actually the uh we we have a uh stated motion move to the cam Board of Education allocate 19 800 from VOE CIP unallocated interest income account to a new project CIS elevator control board can I have a motion accordingly thank you Cindy second Russell any further conversation questions all those in favor spine it's ego can I have a motion we move the camp board of education allocate thirteen hundred sixty dollars from the boecip unallocated interest income account to project 048-00-996-59469 CHS Auditorium upgrades motion Peggy thank you thank you Joe first and second any uh any questions all those in favor I I 80 there too okay great all right Mr shiver first reading of policy 6161-11 right there's three policies here they're all carried over from the last meeting where they were first read uh I'll start with the last one controversial issues policy kind of ask that we table that uh that uh another member Joe had some questions about it John and I met with Ryan for a long time and I made some improvements in that policy but we're not in a position to vote on that tonight I think the whole committee hasn't seen it and the whole board hasn't seen it uh it's very very similar to what we have but there are some you know probably a dozen changes so I'm going to table that if you're okay with that uh it probably has to be a separate motion huh the table uh no we just I don't think we just don't take it out okay do the other two are are connected uh and there was no uh I had no discussion no emails uh regarding those two uh the first one uh so let's start with the 6160 at the selection of educational materials that there are 11 items in that if you recall the idea is to make sure that the items that are go in front of our children uh in classes or reading in the library that sort of thing have some careful thought behind them and are vetted before they get there and there's a rationale behind why things are put there uh the the policy that we're being asked to adopt tonight just outlines the general guidelines the rules the regulations are late quite lengthy if you recall and we're not going to vote on those those are School regulations how the school will implement the policy part of those of the policy the education materials policy refers to what if someone in the community has an objection to something and that's a separate policy and that we we don't want we don't want things getting in front of our kids that aren't vetted nor do we want things removed without careful consideration that it can't be one person says take it out and it comes out and then we decide then there's a whole process established as a form established as a committee established and that's all quite spelled out in the policy how that would work should that ever occur so those are separate policies but they're really together really tied together you want anything to that or not answer so you're asking for approval of 6160 and the other one doesn't seem to come oh 61 61.11 and 61.60 are tied to get back together uh and the 6144 we're going to table so one one is the first reading one is an approval right you know they're both second readings so it's just misstated in the uh to to clarify what it was um what we had what we had initially done within 6160 um was to outline outline the um the policy the regulations within that regulation we also spelled out what the um the practice was if there was a request for reconsideration to be able to have that walk alongside effectively 61 61 61.11 can be adopted to be able to add to the overall structure of what we have so there has been an initial review of it well it's misstated in the agenda then um yeah I'm not hesitant yeah me too vote on it yeah we shouldn't vote on it as a secondary if it's on the agenda it's the first week I thought it was the first read last time but I could be wrong I could go back and look is there is there any harm in coming back to both and making sure we have it right no well we'll add both to the agenda next time okay so it's table all three of them yes okay now the only question I had on I happened to see Jody goer uh today and um you know our policy book if you haven't seen it it's about EA big right so uh one of the goals if you remember one of the board goals was I wanted to go back and I wanted to begin upgrading policies and and to be able to do that you know for a volunteer part-time board is incredible and I was talking to Jody about it and Joe had this suggestion and Jody kind of um validated it maybe what we wanted to take is um take a year in particular let's say every policy from 2016 and before just I'm throwing out an example we adopt the um shipping and Goodwin policies as written legally up to that point that upgrades all our policies up to that point and maybe we do the work from 2016 on or 2017 on or whatever it may be or everything that's new that's coming in post 2020.
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and we've we've when we have won that it will be because we collaborate it will be because we are on the same team okay it'll we'll look back on things like this steps along the way and we'll realize oh that's how we were able to fight back these billionaires funding attacks on public education in minority places and so that you know big picture I'm really proud of the work that the district has done I'm really proud of the work that uh CTA did in our particular process um because I think we kept that big picture in mind um I do want to also on that last slide point out you know that you're you know like all things uh there was a lot of uh committee work that got assigned to sort of oversee things as they develop and we're in a pretty big state of flux right now on Adams 14 and it's something that we want to keep an eye on you know through a contractual lens but I just really appreciate the district I appreciate our team members uh that stepped up and took many many hours put in represented their viewpoints and their particular job titles and and all their colleagues well and I'm really grateful it's a it's a great team and it was a it was a good process and I look forward to the next step in this ongoing process to make sure that we you know get the schools that our kids deserve here in a sports team where everybody is accessible no matter where you're coming from all right thank you thank you foreign Jason hit it right on the money it's a super long process that we have to take a lot into consideration um the team did a great job thank you to HR and Doug he came you know with what we needed to be able to get through this they were super supportive during this process we have a long way to go but we're creating a foundation that is is sustainable and we're doing it with a lot of respect and a lot of heart and intentions behind it to ensure that what we say is what we show we know that for classified yes they are the heart of a lot of this that goes behind you know the scenes and instead of just saying it we're trying to show them the survey salary is it was super important to make sure that we keep our stuff we hire them we cannot retain them there's a lot of positions that there's huge openings inside of our school and we're only as strong as our team so thank you yeah I I just like to say um it feels really positive we've been trying to uh get after job descriptions for probably seven years now and uh We've uh we feel really positive that we we're not there all the way yet but uh we've got a good plan and I think it'll it'll work out and then on the subway survey you know uh I'm 14 joined all of the neighboring districts because they all use this same salary survey and so uh that's a real plus it's a third party and so um you know it has some uh positive and some confidence in it from all of the communities around and so I want to thank uh Nathan and all of his team for working with us and uh on behalf of our president who's out driving kids right now when Rogers uh we want to thank the school district also for all of your hard work and moving to support thank you and I think I get to see Bianca tomorrow we're doing training on how to write job descriptions we have a whole process where they're going to review all the job descriptions for the classified side as we write them to make sure that we really are capturing the work that they're doing um accurately and that it's reflective of what we we need to have it say so um are there any questions I can answer about either the I think the certified agreement is the first one yeah we kind of combined the boat or two together so thank you for doing that uh board members I opened it up for any questions comments I guess I I more than a question a comment I want to say thank you because it has been years in the making I know um hearing from both um a classified and certified there was always that mismatch between both um and like we said you know we need both in order to make this school district successful and we want to make sure that people are compensated appropriately but also acknowledged for the work that they do so thank you for taking that into consideration and I know that it's not easy everybody has ideas on how things work but um I think we're getting a lot further than we were before so I appreciate the time that you guys all put in to make this happen and I know that um you know this is like the beginning it's it's a foundational step and then moving forward we just built on it and get stronger so thank you for all the work that you guys put into it did awesome and I have one question so I just want to make sure with the classified one I know last year I had some questions about it because when we did it we were only choosing like one group of classifieds that were getting these stipends a year I want to make sure that we're doing it for all of the classifieds and if we do vote on something like we did last year for us type in that it goes to all of them not just one group like it did last year or that's that's what we're doing now so there's no stipends with the classified for this we actually voted on the retention stipends earlier in the Year Rick and that was a four thousand dollar retention stipend and it is the same for classified and certified so our certified that return next year and are classified whether you're a bus driver or custodian a teacher everybody's four thousand dollars so that's consistent across all groups yeah I just want to make sure because last time we only had like the nutrition services getting it where the the office staff was in and other things so I want to make sure that we're making sure everyone is right yeah yeah it was yeah I was on the board we voted that I was like what why so I just want to make sure I'm glad that we're doing that now I think I have one question um related to that because I'm sorry Doug oh oh okay okay I see okay so Doug clarified part of that I think we used to look at one third of our classified staff for potential adjustments because of equity among other school districts now we look at every single position that's the the new the new survey that that we've all been referring to now we look at everyone and we look at those that fall below and it could be the same position that falls below three years in a row that has to be adjusted it could be different ones each year but we look at the ones that fall below to increase them so that we're Equitable across all thank you um I had a question around the retention stipend as well um because with classified the I guess we call them Subs but they're not really Subs they're like temporary workers are they not eligible for that um because like like as we're adjusting their um the positions of somebody's out for an extended amount of time they're three theoretically working full time for whatever amount of time are they not eligible for that stipend unless they are hired full-time employees they have to be employed by the district okay yes ma'am and then most of our subs are hired through the the essence but what about the classified we have some that are are here part-time and on call they're not a permanent employee okay so they're not they're not okay um another question I had I know Dak has brought it up a couple of years in a row um we had talked about um having a stipend available for our bilingual classified employees because as we know they're constantly called in to answer phones or sitting on meetings or did we look into that or address that I didn't see it in the contracts but it was not it was not brought up for the contract okay we talked about it was it the last day it kind of came up the last day and so that's one of the pieces that we're going to be looking at this year in fact I think we're meeting in January is that what we would yep we're going to be meeting in January to look at that for next year because we have to have a some type of criteria for determining who's bilingual who's not bilingual what's what what would be eligible for that stipend yeah and we didn't want to try to piecemeal something together quickly and then have to come back in a year and go so we wanted to take our time and do it right so we'll be meeting that's part of one of those takeaways that I just didn't put in here but that's a takeaway that we'll be meeting I think it's in January that we start that process so that when we come to negotiations next year we have a plan in place awesome thank you um and then we received a note that classified ratified last night did certified already ratify or um I in in the original communication we said we were going to close it at five o'clock tonight but to give everybody as much time as possible I'm going to leave it open a little bit longer to try to get everybody to participate okay wonderful thank you um yeah I think you guys ratified last night okay it ratified with over 90 percent positive yeah um and last I think um I did hear so um we assigned board Liaisons to attend negotiations if you guys would please invite us include us we didn't hear about it this time um totally not to step on toes but I think it just helps us um understand the process and what was discussed I completely appreciate the PowerPoint and all the work that you've done but to me it um not only gives us a firsthand insight as to what the issues are about how we can carry them forward the great things that are happening but um I spent a lot of time on the phone in the past couple of days just trying to obtain the feedback that um I would have been able to to witness um I I think to add to that what I heard in the feedback and I'm sorry I'm sorry to pick unclassified I didn't um I think uh director Zubia and amateur or the classified Janet okay or certified so I don't mean to pick uncertified but that's who I talked to um in addition to the bilingual stipend um I did hear some concerns around nutrition services which I had brought up a couple of times because I we we see the turnaround happening um is there anything we can do to kind of um help I think the governor approved an increase in funding for for schools next year but um I don't know how that will look or if that will help any of that yeah and so um one of the groups that moved had a pretty good move in that wake study was the nutritional service people it was okay so we're just incrementing incrementally I can't speak moving up to to comparable okay Mr Stephen like one or two dollars an hour makes a difference and it's it's easy enough to drive to the next District yes we did move them up but the governor has not given any additional he hasn't okay nutrition service I'm reading the wrong reports here thank you Mr muss oh yes I think you might be think uh referring to the increase in the likely but pending increases I couldn't believe it was like yeah people funding yes that that is a thing that that is happening I do want to point out that the biggest lobbying arm in the state for that is cea so um I want to take a little win on that one yes um but I think those are two different okay yeah that's what I was reading thank you um Madam president I think those are the only questions I had Madam president oh oh so there was um an increase to school funding um but amongst 179 school districts the increase is 150 million so it's 7.5 percent increase from last year but still um okay thank you in our internal documents when we analyze like the per pupil increase literally because of some external fact well because of the bigger picture Adams 14 got the smallest increase in the state So yeah thank you yeah right all right um thank you all for the amazing work I know it's tons of work and you guys are making huge strides that we haven't had we've been fighting for for years so thank you for an amazing job I can't thank the team enough for the work and just being open and bringing ideas to the table that that we could all consider and as a single voice between all of us I think it's much more powerful because we collaborate truly collaborated this year so thank you for your time great thank you so much um board members we have an option to consider these for approval tonight um we heard from our certified leader that um they have not yet ratified yet we are okay also waiting until June so if you prefer to not make a decision now um I think we're we're okay waiting but um oh yes Mr Musk please correct me if I'm wrong I would uh hope that you would approve tonight so that we can get contracts out early before our staff leaves oh gotcha that's what we're going to try and do okay and we can do this without the ratification of this Prospect okay all right yeah you heard it from him we have double confirmation and members of the board um next this year we started negotiations in February next year we're going to move it to January because I heard you know your um direction to have a little bit more time and did not feel that you know it's at the end you know the last hour yes because it's a lot to read so um just know that that is coming um as well so that you know it will help in the future and I also want to add that this uh process of looking at all job descriptions and Equitable compensation Equitable duties based on salaries and in in titles is not only been done at the certified and classified groups but also supporting Tech and administrative and we are in the process of of doing that as well we have been in the process this last few weeks and we'll continue doing it all right well that being said um would anyone like to make a motion a motion to approve 7.1 and 7.2 okay a second thank you any further discussion Ramona roll call please I'm sorry who seconded thank you Madam president yes yes prefer if you did it separately do 7.1 and then 7.2 okay so you might want to remove your second and remove your first all right I remove my second and I'll remove my first and I'll motion to approve 7.1 thank you I second to approve 7.1 any further discussion on 7.1 .1 Ramona roll call please Mr Amador aye Ms Estrada MS Lovato aye Ms Molina Zubia aye [Music] two a motion to approve 7.2 second any discussion comments Ramona Rocco please hi is Estrada Is Molina I miss Zubia aye thank you madam president yeah thank you uh Troy legal [Laughter] next on the agenda is 8.1 Board of Education new business requests and committee reports and other communication I'd like to take a moment of privilege if that's okay um we have had um some changes in our Education Foundation so Dr Lydia I'd like to turn it over to you too yes Madam president members of the board I would like to acknowledge our um executive directors for the foundation if you um please come up um we do have um Dale mingleton he is retiring after many many years and he alongside with Mr Gold Josh gold our new executive director for the foundation worked on a phenomenal fourteener I want to uh also apologize because I should have done this with my you know update so I asked him to stay a little longer because it was inadvertently I passed on the page and then didn't acknowledge you but uh so uh thank you for your hard work um actually two hundred thousand dollars in scholarships over time um 100 um 255 yes cannot even speak anymore in scholarships and um just watching being there myself and just watching and listening to our students how emotional this is uh their parents could not be any any more proud of each one of those students and um I just want to personally say superintendent thank you for for your efforts and your support not only with our scholarships but also with the mini grounds so many of the students are able to participate in clubs because you fund those play soccer now because you're supported as well so it's just um a true partnership and I I want to thank you Mr Gold I want to welcome you um you know to Adams 14.
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the point of the matter is it upgrades all our policies and it's consistent with what the work that shipping and Goodwin has already done and if we're challenged on it we we have no better legal recourse than to fall back on shipment and Goodwin it's already done the research there's no way we can read all these policies and upgrade them accordingly yet many of them are not current and not appropriate for today's for today's particular level I'm not asking for anybody to vote on that today it may be something that we want to consider and to have further discussion on but I think I want to see that policy book updated up to a certain point and then the board can pick up on the work the policy committee can pick up in the work from that point on just just my thought suggestion but I know some some boards are going that way for sure [Music] sounds like a good idea eventually so why don't we we'll we'll continue that thought process we'll have more conversation about it down the road and maybe uh as Jordan comes on board just to get guys some further opinion to it but um I'm thinking that's the way I feel more comfortable with our policy book knowing that we've at least on some of the work up to a certain point so okay um that's it on policy any other board comments anybody have anything they want to bring up to the board Felicia Eric I'll start with both you any any comments just so we're gonna have curriculum um meeting tomorrow and uh like Simone said we're interviewing for the next student rep tomorrow morning as well so we should know who that is going to be fairly soon are both those so I know curriculum's at nine are your interviews before that yeah eight okay so if if anybody wants to um pop in send me an email perfect if anybody wants to attend 8 A.M 8 A.M for the interviews or the new uh reps I think uh Eric has two nine o'clock is curriculum up at the Middle School uh yes okay one comment I wonder right I know we challenged Kevin in one of our meetings and John about experientials and field trips but the feedback from the community and the excitement from the children you know over at the Ellis Island you know I was silent simulation the Disney trip the eighth grade trip that you know bringing this stuff back um that's that's what it's about and the response of the parents and the students in the community and the buzz about it has been wonderful I think you're right my grandson can't sleep thinking about storage which is what two minutes away right so I think you're right thank you John and Kevin for you know really supporting those so great for working with us too okay uh we are going to walk into an executive session for the purpose of a Personnel issue and it'll be very brief okay um call them you want me to close everyone out of the meeting you can close everybody how would you like to handle the executive session I can either this is about uh some Financial numbers that I wanted to provide the board I can give it to you individually um just didn't want to Echo them out Felicia Erica if it's easy enough to close out everyone I'll just stay on to here yeah I can remove everyone yeah I can stay on or or if you'd rather send an email that's fine too can you stay private can we close everybody out and just go fight it'll literally be quiet no not yet you're just walking your executive session and after that and then after we'll post off the meeting so take all five minutes okay yeah
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it's it's a great place to be and you actually made a great choice by coming here and of course foundation made a great choice in having him so if you would like either one of you would like to say any uh anything um thank you so much for the welcome it's been so nice to meet the of all of you um over the last month so it's crazy to think that I started on April 4th and um have been here a month and was really thrown into it and and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to learn from Dale um I've known him for a number of years but to to see him in action to see uh the passion that he has for the students here in this District to see just the relationships that he's built over the last 10 years they've really given us a strong Foundation really to continue this work and I look forward to learning more about the district learn more about the schools and have had the opportunity to go to a few of them but really I'm grateful for the foundation board for for giving me this opportunity but also there's not many opportunities that you get to learn from a previous executive director and so that the fact that they gave that opportunity committee so that I did not have to do the 14er Fest three weeks after I started by myself um I'm truly grateful for that so excited to work with all of you and learn more about the needs that this district and how we can support thank you um just thank you for your support publicly I also have to thank my partner in crime that the first fourteener and all the students I would not be a success without Terry as you all know she put as probably as much time and energy into this as I did so I'm not gone yet I think Josh is going to keep me around through uh full-time through June and then I'll kind of filter off so but thank you thank you thank you and again my apologies for keeping you a little later [Applause] can I just say um I am very appreciative of all the work that you guys are doing um Dale I can't thank you enough personally for all of the time that you have spent in our community supporting our students and participating in our community from rotary to Boards of all kinds to just supporting the community as a whole so I wanted to personally say that that I'm going to I'm not going to cry that I'm going to miss you I'm glad to hear you're still going to be here till June but um you will be missed and um welcome Josh because yes there's a lot that can be done and um Dale um single-handedly did a lot with Terry yes of course but we know that um he was the staff of one for so many years and so I just want to acknowledge all that work that he has done personally to help these kids and how grateful they are because a lot of the students that you funded are students that participated in my groups and I still hear about how grateful they are so thank you can I I'll just uh add to because I'm I'm that proud parent though and Josh and I want to I get emotional because I'm a single mother and I know one thing for sure that without my son being able to get this uh scholarships um I I couldn't afford it by myself um I'm I'm very honored and thankful to the district also I have a graduate this year right my son will be graduating um and you know full right to MSU and then the foundation support is a great relief for a mother like me um I am a proof and my son uh looks up to you a lot that Miss Dale he's like oh look they get the other yesterday or when we were at the game but look there's Dale and I was like hey Josh I was like hey Josh uh just a month right but like you heard uh director Maria your family now that's how we're all related in Commerce City right because uh Dale's like already family you know he's but yeah thank you to the the foundation for everything and and making this this mama really happy and thankful also uh for my son gracias for all your work um I have the distinct honor of uh being able to get to know Dale uh personally and uh over gosh it's been almost four years now um so I just want to thank you for your dedication to our students um to me for walking me off some clips a couple of times um but um also the continued support because we not only award the scholarships through the foundation but um you and Terry check in with the students regularly our boards uh Mentor the the students and um it's just so cool to see them graduate high school make their way through college and then you guys get to attend some of their graduations and it's just um we have amazing talented students in in our district and I just thank you for honoring them and supporting them um welcome Josh look forward to working with you and continuing great work from the foundation all right um next on the agenda was Board of Education new business requests do we have any this evening regarding I don't think we can sorry I wasn't done I knew I I knew somebody would let me know if it wasn't so um uh if this is where I can ask for an update on um you know the the parent involvement um and uh the involvement around security and um I know we had talked about having a like a subcommittee to help look at that uh and the reason I bring it up is because I had invited um my fellow board members to meet with our youth Advisory Board that's really looking at the safety around schools and around Commerce City they recently met with a commissioner and they had invited city council members and so we want to make sure that um there's some connection there and would like to ask if it's possible to have them as youth come in prison to at a study session maybe and give some of their feedback to this group and I I have to recuse myself from that because obviously it's it's a youth advice report that I facilitate through my day job that they're very interested in in presenting their ideas and so I wanted to see how we can make that work so that's the one thing I have three thank you I think that's awesome I think um I know we um are meeting with Doc um at our next board or next study session in May I believe um and I would love if we can somehow coordinate that to invite them because I I definitely don't want to duplicate efforts and I think we have some very strong leadership on that Council as well as our Adams County Youth commission and ideally it would be great if if we all work together because I know doc was charged with um developing a committee that included representation from parents and students and community members so perfect thank you thank you oh see so we can start working thank you for Doc you guys are amazing as always um is there any other new business requests for this evening all right um Board of Education committee reports 8.2 do we have any committee reports yes I actually at this point if it's okay Madam president I wanted to um as a I guess sharing with the work that we've been doing with rotary um you know it's been awesome but I wanted to share that we recently lost a long time friend family member of rotary Mr Dick Stevenson passed away and he just so you know um is was one of the longest running members 50 years wow at the Commerce City rotary and very passionate about helping the students in Adams 14 and in the Commerce City Community just was a wonderful person um just learned a lot when he would speak about his passion for this community and so he's going to be missed dearly and I just wanted to acknowledge Him publicly by thanking him and his family and his memory obviously and his family for everything that they have done for this community and the back end without recognition with no even need for recognition and that's what rotary does for Commerce City our rotarians are very passionate about giving to us and every time I attend those I just feel I'm with family when we talked about family today I'm like we have such an extended family now that it's beautiful we just need to find a way to continue embracing our additional family members that really support this community and having a way to bring them in to really Embrace what community and 14 is and not from the outside but actually part of what we do and this group has done a lot in fact we were doing the uh what did we do oh we put labels on all the dictionaries last week for the dictionaries that go to the third graders um and as you know they do some of the other programs and they also sponsor some of the scholarships that Dale is able to provide or that the foundation is able to provide so I just wanted to say that um publicly I wanted to acknowledge dick for all of the work that he did in his lifetime for our community and our kids and like I said it was an emotional time for all the members that he has been that they've been around for a long time like I said we have members that have been around for a while about 50 years is amazing and he lived by the four-way test so if anybody doesn't know the four-way test one of these days we will share it with everyone um so it's a fabulous way to live and yes thank you for that so I just wanted to give an update thank you director Zubia um director Amador do you have any I would just remind everyone who's still watching um tomorrow for Dak if you are on that list to come there doing their elections for officers um and they're so they really need a turnout for that because last time I don't think that a quorum to be able to vote so they really need to have people show up for that and they can do it virtually or in person thank you um I think my only group that has met is the Commerce City urban renewal Authority um we had a short meeting last night um at 9 30 at night um it was uh we did approve a developer to began developing the space for Parcels A and B um I believe they are working with Adam's 14 and another provider to develop those buildings so they'll be reaching out soon um the Adams 14 Foundation we had a great Fortuner Fest um and the other those are the only updates um Commerce City Council I attend weekly um mostly virtual they've had a lot going on um I don't know that we publicly have things done but they did unanimously approve um funding for funding and and putting together the um speed tables for around our schools so they're moving immediately on that even where a couple of our schools crossed the boundaries into unincorporate Adams County um they also provided 4 000 I might be wrong on the amount for our also students students to take a field trip was it two it was a couple thousand um so I just want to thank them for um assisting with um those opportunities for our students um one that's not on here that I would like to thank uh publicly is the Community Choice Credit Union they I joined their board meeting but I've learned so much more they have a liaison that works really heavily with our schools and she is amazing so I just want to thank them for their involvement and their support with our the schools and our students director Molina do you have any updates for not just for the uh the EC pack is uh they're looking just to promote the campus and we want more organizations that might fit with the campus so just I know that mostly is for us my recommendations just to get the word out that we exist there that were there and the services that are being provided for the community um and it's just to get right now we're trying to just put the word out to let the community know what is being offered okay thank you um next on the agenda is other communication from the board [Music] oh yes go ahead so um I just wanted to remind everybody that um the public health emergency is ending but covet is not so I want to make sure people understand that um that the public health emergency is going to be ending soon and that just means that a lot of the programs and the funding that was in place is no longer going to be there but doesn't mean that covet is ending um and I'm bringing that up because I also know that a lot of the families if they did not make um any address changes or other changes they needed to their Medicaid and their CHP information they may need to do that so that they don't lose coverage because that is going to be a huge impact on a lot of our families so also know that we have a community center that was opened at the Mile High Flea Market that I oversee on Saturdays so just a little plug that we can help you and it doesn't cost anything to have us help you same with the campus that Lucy was talking about they have folks that help as well and so we're still doing covet vaccines because people still are getting coveted so I just wanted to put that out there and the last thing I have is I want to wish all Las Mamacitas happy Mother's Day because you're welcome it's um officially in our culture is tomorrow um the 10th of May is always for us in Mexico and for mother's day here in the US it's on Sunday so I want to invite everybody to come and if you're at the flea market come visit me at c19 for covet 19.
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we'll have a celebration and on Sunday we're going to have another event there at the flea market to celebrate the Mamacitas so yes happy Mother's Day and Felicia De Las Madres to all the moms out there you do not go unnoticed trust me as moms we appreciate everything that these moms go through so thank you thank you um I have a couple of announcements we're ending the end at the end of another school year so thank you all for everyone's great work um I would like to remind everyone we have our Lester Arnold graduating Phoenix commencement ceremony that's going to be Friday May 19th at 7 pm at the Adams City High School in the krogue stadium or outside in the krogue stadium weather permitting if not we may go inside um our Eagles from Adams City High School will have their commencement ceremony the following day Saturday May 20th at 9 00 a.m in the same place at croak field and congratulating all of them because yeah um modern president just to clarify or to share once again um for if we are able to do it outside there's no limitation for students to bring anybody in their family we know we have large families and we enjoy large yes however you're not on I think your children yeah ready if however the weather does not allow us to be outside we're going to move inside the gymnasium and the students will have a limitation for individuals but there's going to be an opportunity for um yes for the Overflow room thank you so um whether permitting it's outside and anybody and everyone is invited thank you and watch for social media we'll have updates um as the date mirrors um any other communication board members I'll do two more so I know there was confusion for both Kearney middle school and Adam City Middle Schools um for Kearney Middle School it's going to be on May 23rd on a Tuesday from 6 to 7 30 at the high school and everyone can attend there's not a limit for parents as well as Adam City Middle School which will be the following day the 24th from 6 to 7 30 and everyone can attend there's not a limit that you're going to have and just remember this coming at the end of May will be our Memorial Day parade that everyone for Commerce City should be invited to and everyone else May has lots of celebrations yeah oh great it's wonderful and we have all of our continuations look at social media for our elementary schools too they're scattered through the next two weeks yep lots happening but great things this is always a fun time of the year all right um without any further business uh may I have a motion to adjourn so a second thank you Ramona roll call please Mr Amador hi Ms Estrada Ms Lovato aye Is Molina I am I thank you we are adjourned our next meeting will be a study session on uh Thursday May 25th
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okay [Music] good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order Dr Foley roll call presidentials members of the board please let the record show that all members are present please join me in a moment of silence tonight we have a special guest special guest excuse me the Higley Junior Air Force Junior ROTC is here to present the flex [Music] oh great oh 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 or oh right [Music] lower heart oh God oh water pull out thank you very much that I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda second Anna yes all those in favor aye Merchant carries five to one Dr Foley superintendent's report I mean five to zero excuse me superintendent's report president Schultz members of the board we start this evening with celebrations and we have lots to celebrate tonight and some wonderful students in the audience I'm going to start this evening with our first points of Pride we're going to start with Higley High School and I would love to invite Mr Alan fields and Mr arendilly up to celebrate their Haley High School points of pride foreign Fields principal at Higley High very proud to be here this evening to recognize some of the people that contribute to our school first up I want to invite our student point of Pride Allison Ewing up [Applause] so it says Allison Ewing is a hard-working charitable student who's philanthropic Endeavors are countless as a dedicated member of Hickory High School student council Allison helps plan and produce our student assemblies dances and Spirit-filled activities she participates in the best buddies club and can often be seen participating in Productions with our drama and thespian students at the Higley Center for Performing Arts Allison is the vice president of the kids for wish kids club and she's the president of Earth Club teachers and students often comment on Allison's dedication work ethic and her continued willingness to volunteer and Lead lending a helping hand Allison will be serving as a student leader on the husd ASCA School counseling Advisory Board in beginning in the fall congratulations [Applause] okay Allison did you bring anybody with you that you want to recognize my mom and dad miss baywick and Angie and of course my sister they all have inspired me and shaped me to be the person I am today so thank you [Applause] okay so stay up here all right next up is our uh classified Employee of the Month our pride point of Pride uh Jennifer Gomez [Applause] so we are incredibly thankful to have Jennifer Gomez as a vital part of our kingdom Jennifer began her journey as a night many years ago as a student has returned to us over the past last few years as a staff member Jennifer is a constant light of sunshine in the front office her willingness to always assist and help families is wonderful to see she greets every parent with a smile and is ready to assist them with whatever they need her customer service is impeccable and she makes a connection with students and the parents daily she's meticulous and takes pride in the quality of her work her energy smile laughter sense of humor excellent customer service and willingness to always be there and lend a hand for her fellow co-workers is What Makes Her Shine we're grateful she's returned to our kingdom thank you and then is there anybody you brought with you you want to introduce my husband Victor okay [Applause] our certified point of pride is Colonel Scott Vaughn [Applause] Colonel Scott Vaughn is the picture of professionalism he is everything you would want and expect in an Air Force leader respectful confident organized experienced however it is the extra characteristics beyond that role that make him a unique and special individual it is the late nights he spends making sure the activity goes smoothly it is the early mornings he is here with a smile greeting groggy-eyed students boarding a bus for a competition is the personal knowledge of each student that makes him aware that he knows and cares for them thank you and Well Done Karma [Applause] I know you brought some individuals with you from the school did you bring anybody else with you do you want to introduce just it's just the work family back there in the in the corner [Applause] thank you [Applause] then our point of Pride for our parent volunteer is Suzanne camach [Applause] o Suzanne has embraced her volunteer role for the football boosters in a way I've never seen and quite frankly and astonished she is in charge of our concession stand a task that many dread instead of dreading it she's relished it and turned to turn the concession area into a four-star restaurant experience she spent her own personal money to make improvements and hundreds of personal hours cleaning and dusting the football games were so popular in that area with Bistro lighting careful displays and a unique menu for each game that we had to reroute traffic flow for safety these games were an event and she shows up five or more hours prior just to start preparing the food and displays after setting records each game for customers she then has serviced the needs of our sports groups throughout the year she just did another spring a game last evening and our extracurriculars are grateful for our campus and our campus is grateful for the amazing Act of personal service thank you [Applause] Suzanne did you bring anybody with you that you want to introduce yes my husband and my three boys they have um put up with all this and supported me throughout the whole thing so I appreciate them for everything so thank you guys [Applause] thank you guys [Applause] thank you [Applause] now we have the joy of celebrating our Williamsville points of Pride I'm going to invite Mr Fox thank you Mr stangle coming too nope Mr Fox and I will help hand out just direct me I'll help okay um members of the governing board Dr Foley cabinet members audience good evening I am Dan Fox I'm the principal the very proud principal at williamsfield high school tonight we want to start with our certified staff coach Jason Karcher who also teaches our video production class uh just a couple couple little words for Mr Karcher here Jason is one of our most dedicated teachers on campus coach is always a go-to person to complete a project and even when I have a complex task a few minutes discussion is usually usually enough for Mr Karcher to take care of business uh coach imparts these qualities on his students as he preaches autonomy Independence ownership and accountability not only does coach Karcher build incredible rapport with his students so much so that he has alumni who still contribute to Blackhawk Buzz and we're going to see the results of that pretty soon right yeah yeah cool but he builds great rapport with our football team Jason is always logical compassionate consistent and helpful for students he strikes the fine balance between being an authority and being approachable we're lucky to have you coach Karcher you are a true Blackhawk dominate [Applause] anyone you'd like to recognize who might be here maybe outside to my wife who's outside with my kids because my youngest ones didn't nap today so like to recognize them because I didn't want to break up the meeting because he's losing his mind right now so it's my wife so I wanted to point out the dedication that coach Karcher has so yeah yeah thank you coach all right for our next one um our classified staff is Jacob Watson Jacob Watson could not be here tonight he had something come up for him which is very unfortunate because Jacob is an awesome guy and we appreciate him very much but here's a little bit about him uh Jacob represents the dominates core values of dedication and integrity he does the right thing for all our staff he goes out of his way and he recognizes the value of his quick attention to all details he has never said no the entire time he has worked at williamsfield high school and his calm demeanor makes any I.T emergency seem like a breeze he is always positive I've never seen him frown ever and is one of our most reliable teammates Jacob is kind and personable and as every single member of our staff has had nothing but accolades for him since he started working with me Jacob you are a true Blackhawk so Jacob thank you very much [Applause] for our student Charles entley [Applause] thank you Charles yeah here we'll I'll give you some stuff in just a second here but um Charles was named a National Merit Scholarship finalist this year this is a tremendous honor and one reason why Charles has helped Williams Field High School to dominate our own path as a school of choice in the East Valley Charles is an exceptional scholar is exemplified by his Sterling academic record he plans on attending Embry-Riddle University and they couldn't be luckier to get such a highly performing student the following are few excerpts from his teacher's glowing recommendations for him first off we have Miss Krauss Charles and I have been together through six classes and four years of Robotics and every day has been an adventure you just never know what he's going to say next his passion to succeed is focused in summer camps and never-ending scholarship applications he is willing to help others and ask for help when needed for Mr O'Hare Charles is an awesome Blackhawk and demonstrates what dominates means he seeks excellence in all his schoolwork he is mentally tough and does whatever it takes to get the job done Charles thank you very much for being a Blackhawk congratulations a little present for you foreign and then do you have anyone here that you'd like to recognize tonight my parents thank you [Applause] all right and then uh finally for our parent volunteer uh Starla Taylor [Applause] Daryl do you wanna you wanna say this one okay I'll take it over here so Starla is the booster president for our cheer program but so much more she's an integral integral member of the Blackhawk family Starla always goes above and beyond her duties as a booster president here are just a few examples she personalized she personally customizes cheer apparel to make it more personalized to each cheerleader and Coach she makes goodie bags for the cheerleaders cheerleaders as they travel to away games or to their own competitions and Starla makes sure that cheer the cheer closet is always clean and organized in stocks with snacks and supplies for athletes and you better believe it right they do eat a lot don't they um she always thinks of other sports teams on campus and will prepare goodie bags for their special events such as a senior night and she does that without being asked Starla has two amazing daughters at Williams Field but she is truly here to support all of our young people when she attends events she is not only there for her children but for all of our teams she's always willing to lend a helping hand and can be seen at many events running around non-stop to ensure that everything operates smoothly for our coaches and kids so that they can have a best possible experience thank you Starla [Applause] and is there anyone in the audience you'd like to rec uh to recognize tonight who came with you your support on campus and patience with the whole program as it's being rebuilt has just it's been felt so even went to Disney World with us so thank you Mr single [Applause] thank you so much thank you [Applause] okay I'm going to invite Mr Fields back up to celebrate our next student Champions that we have to celebrate this evening we've got some more champions so can I get the uh state champion drill team to come join me along with their instructors [Applause] foreign this is a highly decorated group of individuals here that represent our school in an extremely positive light on a routine basis a routine for them because they're they're a group of high Achievers and dedicated individuals but on March 25th uh they won the state championship for drill team competing against over 25 teams from across the state I'll throw in a dominate for my friends in red over there but they did win a grand champion for the first time since 2006 when the program was created they had I think at least four other Grand championships throughout the year it meets that they attended they've been recognized nationally some of them for for their achievements a very small group of individual drill team requires these individuals to earn learn multiple positions within the drill team in order to be successful or be able to replace anybody that's there but it's a tribute to their instructors uh uh Danny altop and and Colonel Scott Vaughn who was our appointed Pride uh outstanding program in school and we're very proud of them thank you [Applause] anybody want to say anything okay just for scope purposes a lot of the teams we compete against show up with a yellow bus filled with Cadets that stream out Gilbert's team is 37 Cadets we have 11.
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percent you could do a six percent override if you wanted to it just depends on what it is you're trying to achieve and what the the board wants to do the capital override is 10 not 15 and it's limited to um two Capital items uh when you do it where you get the money to pay for the override is by an annual level of the secondary property tax for your taxpayers so this is why you have to go out for a vote because you're asking the the voters to allow you to exceed your limit on your RCL the revenue control limit and then you're going to pay for it with an increase in secondary property tax therefore the taxpayers have to give you uh permission to go ahead and do that when you do those overrides they are seven years but they're only fully funded for five years and then they're phased down in year six and seven most districts will go out for a renewal of your override in year four or year five depends on the situation in the hopes of passing before you phase it down if you get to year six let's just say you went out in year five and you didn't pass it you would have to in year six cut the amount that you're spending by a third you may turn around and pass an override in the sixth year and then you'd be back up to the full amount if you don't then in the seventh year you have to cut the remaining uh more portion of of the budget and um uh then you're you're back to starting over again um uh and so it's a November election only I only put that in because in the old days someone's been around long enough you could do uh these overrides multiple times throughout the year March May September uh November but they changed the law several years back and you're now Bound by a November election only Yeah question yeah so am I right in that when you have to um if you do not pass it in year six that when you cut that you have to cut exactly in the wordage of what the override was for yes because the override has to stay to what you're spending it for so if you said salaries then you would have an issue with salaries now you could theoretically if it was uh I would just use last year if the budget came in as a very good budget the employee may not see any difference because you just may trade out the cut with the increased money if it's Personnel then there's probably a little bit of latitude on which Personnel But ultimately if you if you put in a bunch of people there's going to have to be I'll just say cuts to personality you might in a situation reduce somebody down a little bit so if you said I'm hiring 10 people you wouldn't necessarily have to cut a third of those in one year you might take all 10 of them and say we're going to move you from a full-time employee to a three-quarter employee if you make up the monetary difference then you're still going to be okay because you met the intent of what you said you were going to do with the money which is to pay for positions but you also met in this case the intent of how much money you had available so so yes you do but but there's probably a degree of latitude depending on how the override was was written if you were in a K3 which tends to be a little bit narrower you may not end up cutting anybody because you may have also put in curriculum or something like that in which case you would you would maybe cut on the curricular area and not necessarily in the people areas so it depends on M O for curriculum for the K3 give you a little bit more latitude not not them and override but the K3 gives you a little more latitude okay okay right right it cannot exceed the five percent and it didn't used to be there they've added that since and if you want the uh the the specific language statutory language it's 15 481 and 15 482.
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[Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign
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but these are just they're not in good shape and they're 30 year old technology thank you a question about the running track when is that that's available to the entire Community outside of school hours or only when the kid when there aren't kids here then the community can use the traffic absolutely okay and they're going to have a dedication they're they're working on the uh the details of the dedication right now um and then one of the uh somebody wants to plant a tree um in Iran also so that's been working all that is when you work that and uh I'm sure K will have a update for us next week okay thank you I I want to know we had some technical problems with the webcast so for anyone who is trying to watch I apologize for that Gap but I'm told we're now back online so we will keep it keep it up I should have mentioned this to you earlier so maybe you could have added to your agenda but I know we had some issues [Music] in town does anybody talk to him about it um I don't know that I don't know if People's true facilities through the board yeah or that's what it always has been and we've always been apologies I ran the numbers it's half what it shouldn't be and it really comes down to um whether it means a constant concentration without sharing without tables it seems you know more about that than I do right now but if it's something you want to discuss all right I'll take the information and I'll do some research into it I know uh coming from you you know as an engineer probably there are more weight than me well that's what I've changed I have to dive into it because I just don't know what the problem we have with the octane tool is that kind of construction and I understand that it's uh it's something that should be looked at yeah I mean obviously safety first right and you know within the code you know compliance yeah that's right I want to call him first and have instructions to find out why it was I think it did change a little bit of how can gather as an entire Community is that correct the number we have so they have to break the school in half in order to have assignments at this point and how do we notify you guys I'm sorry what do you mean well you said it was reduced how was that was the notification yeah [Music] this seems like a good thing to put on the facilities committee sure sorry yeah do something it's going to take some information and that's why at the first off usually you start with a letter of some kind if a letter was issued I'd like to see a copy the letter and then I can call the fireworks and save them again so John Paul the facilities committee can pursue this yeah um offline uh it's fortunate that we have a wonderful space for our graduation so it won't interfere with that uh and uh we've got the summer to try to figure it out see if we can get some clarification well that's one of the things to think about they uh they want to buy a portable stage for the uh yeah which I think is a great idea okay thank you for bringing that point up BJ for the discussion we'll move on to the finance committee may I do the finance and we can we go okay um finance committee met last night uh and um my first thing is as you're as always was to review the expenditures to date uh which are in your board packet um relatively few changes from the preceding month um throughout all of the general education accounts there are no changes in either the balances in our favor or the overages we remain with a balance in our favor 139 311 deriving uh really entirely from salary and benefit lines because of staff changes in special education we had a small change which was an increase in the services line items now showing a four thousand dollar balance against us because of some new services that were required to to give our kids what they need leaving us with a balance in our favor of 113 000 to 80 that reflects yes the first payment of excess costs but a second payment is expected later okay so that will uh that will further address uh individual deficit lines in that um finally in operations and overhead uh we do have a change in the utilities specifically electricity costs uh which have been coming in they were already higher than expected they are now higher than higher than expected uh and so that balance against this has gone from fifteen thousand dollars to thirty five thousand dollars and that's simply because utility rates have gone through the roof in response to this Mrs Fargo has investigated different ways to get uh get lower rates and has locked us in at a rate that's almost 50 percent less than our current rate and losses there for five years uh the town has done the same uh that's for generation costs not for delivery costs so it's only a portion of the bill but it will reduce our expenditures and this account starting in June we're locked in but it's a good rate and I don't think anyone believes that the rates are going to go you know get go dramatically down over that time so hopefully that'll that'll turn out well for the school I think it's certainly a wise decision um and those are the only changes there will be a final uh I think her I think Mrs Fargo's word was scrub of the salary numbers to make sure that estimates on for for benefits and other details are now replaced with actual numbers and so our final numbers will become increasingly precise as we approach the end of the year we should see a little bit of Minor Adjustments in some of these lines in response to that process uh Juniper um so with that I will make a motion to accept the uh report of the operating budget summary as presented for April a second from Amy thank you any questions about anything on this report before we move on to a vote okay so I will call for a vote to accept this report all those in favor please indicate by saying aye any opposed any abstentions motion passes the budget report is approved um the other things we did last night at Finance so we are ending the year with a um balance in our favor and we're getting close enough to the end I'm starting to believe it uh and so as we've discussed before the process will be figure out any needs that we have that we weren't able to to cover before and I'll get back to that in a moment then we're going to build up our rainy day fund our non our non-lapsing account which is held by the town but remains available to the school for unexpected needs we're going to build that up to the Target of five percent which is what we are advised by our Auditors and then anything left after that will be turned back to Surplus so that that remains our plan um we reviewed in some detail more detail that I'm going to share tonight some of the wish list items that teachers have come to uh so uh call went out to all of the Departments and all of the individual teachers saying if you could have one thing what would it be what does your classroom need what are your missing what do your kids need and uh we had a you know a long list of small items it was actually fairly fairly modest requests the total came to forty thousand I think 48 000 total for all departments all teachers um facilities requested affordable stage to go uh in the Pavilion seems like a good investment there was some maintenance I.T needed to replace some computers get a new smart board to replace one that's that's all been falling apart this is all you know standard maintenance stuff the teachers had a variety of things they wanted interestingly to me the um the most popular item the teachers wanted was a sort of squishy comfortable irregular seating like like bean bags and wobble chairs and various things so that kids can you know move around and sit in various places and another thing that was interesting was what was the what was the term for the cube this is privacy cubes privacy privacy Cube so a little you know a little Cube I assume it's made of like plasticky cloth or something and the cortisol kid can go with me in a little little space by themselves either if they need it for self-regulation just because they want a little little privacy to read um and then one of the most popular items was a great big sticky posties easels so that people can you know write that kids can write on their on their easels so none of these are extravagant and all of them are the things that the teachers themselves have said this is this is the thing that would uh you know enhance my my classroom so um and so I uh I'm gonna expect that those will be uh I guess we I expect those will be done by the end of the year you say do it it'll happen um so that was what we reviewed um the town meeting is coming up on the 15th which is next week so that'll be the vote the opportunity to vote on the budget we have received no change no change in our budget requests um and so I encourage all uh all citizens of Bethany you here and any who are online to come to that meeting um and and uh voice reviews on the budget for the school and for the broader test and that's it any questions about Finance I have a question um I I think it's great I know at the last meeting it was brought up about asking the teachers about what their wish list would be and as you stated it doesn't sound like it's anything super extravagant useful for the classroom I guess where I'm a little concerned is we have to wait till the end of the Year wish list and hope that there's a surplus for a teacher to get an easel to be able to display something for students I would hope that there is a process maybe or thinking about how that potentially could be asked for earlier rather than waiting for a surplus some of the extra things like the cube seating and things like that those are larger Furniture purchases I understand things like that benefits something you would think of as a typical classroom Supply I just hope those aren't waiting until the end of the year purchases yeah it's fine it's a luxury rather than in the session but so the way the way it works so every year when we build our budget School Mr reedswell you know builds his budget and that includes what the teachers need the problem is that that's a year in advance um and I certainly know you know teachers need and papers book standard stuff there's a budget for the school to manage those so yes those those Necessities or or even wants that are you know reasonable not too expensive yes there's a budget to manage those on the way through I can't speak to why I mean maybe this was not that it was a big item that couldn't otherwise have been purchased maybe it could have been purchased earlier in the year but rather The Prompt hey what do you want what would enhance the school may have brought up some requests that didn't come up spontaneously but you make a good point we want to take care of our teachers we want to make sure that the school has an adequate budget for supplies to manage things as during the course of the year yeah and I'm just I want to kind of add it when I first started here as a parent of a student here I remember getting a request from a kindergarten teacher for classroom supplies and tissues and one of the first things that set me off was wait the school's not buying tissues which I don't think is the case but those are the kinds of things I'd like to make sure that you know teachers have adequate supplies of writing utensils and paper and things like that and that there's not this kind of weight and and when that need really becomes laid out for we have extra money at the end and that's when we consider this country this isn't that case I agree with 100 reasons the supplies basic Supply this was a wish list like the wobble tears and yeah yeah and those are bigger versions even what Kate talked about last night and maybe Cheryl can even weigh in on it later you know I didn't know while the chairs were and we had a brief discussion on it and to be honest with you it makes a lot of sense but thank you and obviously this synergizes with what we heard about during public comment about you know we want to take care of our teachers make sure they have what they need and we are in a position where that there's no reason that should be a problem so duly reinforced thank you um okay we move on to a brief report from negotiations committee um we met with these paraprofessionals for an introductory meeting just sort of to set the ground rules um see if there are any particular requests they want us to start considering if they want at the moment so we have another meeting scheduled soon where we will start getting down to the actual worker negotiating in the community thank you and yeah this is the paraprofessionals that we're negotiating with now their contract is up at the end of June 30th you know a a time a timely process and then the teachers whose contract is up on June 30th 2024 we're having a first meeting within June if I'm not enough so just uh and then know what no further meetings over the summer but to sort of get sit down and map out the process and get that going thank you any questions about negotiations and we will have reports from negotiations at these meetings now that both the negotiations hasn't met for two months two years but now that the committee is meeting we'll have reports but they won't be very detailed because because the contents of the negotiations are are confidential until an agreement okay thank you we move on to policy okay and we do have some to review but we'll get to that under unfinished and transportation no meeting no meeting okay very good so we do now come on to unfinished business we have a series of policies which are here for first reading is that correct are these for a second reading so if as on the agenda that I have in front of me it's incorrect it says first speak reading so I'll just note for the record that these policies oh these were approved for first reading and are now Rec I'm sorry I'll work on my reading that's okay thank you yes these were approved on April 5th and are now presented for second reading and adoption very good that's the motion yeah and then we'll see if anyone has that question recommended motion through the original policy 4118-5120 [Music] thank you and I have a second thank you Amy I'm going to offer a friendly amendment I believe this the number seven was policy 5145.12 I may have misheard but I just want to make sure that's correct is that okay um just for the record um these were all discussed at length um during during the April meeting um is there any uh any of these policies that anyone wants to review and under your review again what has been changed yes John I wasn't here for you in the market so maybe I'm missing something but 5120 this is Children of average and staff along with attendance school [Music] I'm half dead so so every year we have to do a state report from the financial system report there's a calculation called the current people expenditure which is a complicated calculation that's done by the state from the report and then that is what it costs the school district to um educate a student and we take that person we take that first people for that year and that's the percentage rather than using our own budget divided by our number of students and that comes up on the student cost [Music] done through the state report it's basically the same thing it's a number it's an auditing number it's the same thing but it's an audited official okay and sometimes they take up okay [Music] and and the 25 is something we discussed it at Great length in the past I know that that's why I'm saying I don't remember right because the incremental cost of adding a student isn't the per pupil call that's correct right because you're not hiring new teachers yeah okay I just want to clarify man yeah um any other questions discussion yet on that same policy I think Sean and Angela had some question about changing the uh the process from the board to the superintendent yeah I can update those who weren't here so Sean had um put up a concern about why the superintendent was approving it and raised the question of should it be the Board of Ed that approves it because of being taxpayer fines um I chimed in and said well before making any kind of of assessment why don't we find out what some of the other districts do and that's where um Mrs bird shared some information with us about what other districts do and other other policies that they have related to that who makes the decisions and what policies they have so I know that we saw that in your weekly updates that's why that information was sent out kind of where we left off and do you feel since Sean isn't here but do you feel that more discussion on that is is needed or uh it's it's up to others I mean our policy seems to be in line with the information that was sent out uh I think there's two districts that they couldn't get a hold of information on in the local area but almost everyone but one was superintendent approval um one was Board of Ed approval I said it too and when I say I remember the exact number but it was like 10 of them were super inapproval one Board of Ed and two districts they could not find information in their uh contracts okay so I'm I'm comfortable with the policy as is but it's up to others if they have any concerns that they want to raise or if there's like they have anyone wish to explore this topic further are we happy with the information provided okay very good any further questions about any of these policies or discussion before we move on to a book offerable for the second reading and Adoption of the policies that Mr White has read into the record all those in favor please indicate by saying aye any opposed any abstentions those policies are approved we now have two policies for adoption these are also second page [Music] can we have a second for that thank you motion's been made and seconded any questions about these new policies that are being adopted proposed for adoption before we move on to a vote okay hearing that I'll call for the boat all those in favor please any abstentions well it passes those policies are approved we have one policy um that is scheduled for deletion because of redundancy sorry move the Board of Education food the deletion of policy 5141.23 thank you any questions about this before we move on to a vote during medical those in favor of deleting this policy please indicate by saying aye any approach any abstentions motion passes that policies deleted will be removed from our policy they then have a large number of policies 34 in all that have been reviewed but do not deny our only change is that the policy committee has judged to not change the sense in any way these are things like punctuation and spelling errors and updating language in a way that doesn't change the sense of the policy um we this is actually new like we used to do everything and then we went to not looking at these ones at all and the point was raised that really the whole board should have the opportunity to be aware of what's passing through so so these are presented to you so the board is aware but all of these policies have been judged by Sue and the administration and then the policy committee to not have either no changes at all or changes that are Technical and non-substantive um so I will entertain do we have to read all of these kids any takers all right I moved with the Board of Education approved the technical non-substantive Provisions the policies 010100-1120-1317-3524-4000.1 or 112.61-4212.61-4115-4117.5 or 118.64218.6 four one two one four two two one four one three four four two three four four one four eight four two four eight five one three one dot three five one three two five one four one dot two two five one four two five one four two dot one five one four five dot one four five one four five dot one five five one four five one four five three six one one four dot eight two six one four one dot three one one six one four one dot three two nine one six one four two dot 102 6142.10 as well as bylaws nine three one one nine three one two nine three one three and nine four zero zero [Music] thank you Egypt any uh did I any did they screaming up they do okay [Music] any uh questions discussion about any of these policies before we move on to it I find the illusion the equality dot as opposed to a point there's a lot of more Dots here .
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
the soul rise through the Pledge of Allegiance congratulations [Music] for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and brothers [Music] thank you um okay Jesse here Gladys here Kate here Bridget here Lauren here out here Teresa here and Michelle here Julie I'm sorry all right spot are you School Rogers Park Middle School come on up [Laughter] so I prepared a 52 um page slideshow do you all know where to go to talk so I did in fact pre-record it so that I would stick to my limits so the amazing Mr Wallace who was the Battle of the tech leader is going to start it so foreign [Laughter] all the awards our staff have won miss Emily Lopes with the 2022 DPS teacher of the year award Miss Dana Perez for the 2022 Connecticut Association of schools assistant principal of the why Mr Bernardo dicastro with the 2023 RPMs teacher of the year award and I was humbled to accept the 2023 Connecticut Association of Latino administrators and superintendents exceptional principal award this past Saturday has been amazing to us and has adopted classroom we are so proud of all the awards our staff have won miss Emily Lopes for the 2022 DPS teacher of the year award Miss Dana Perez from the 2022 Connecticut Association of schools assistant principal of the Year award Mr Bernardo de Castro with the 2023 RPMs teacher of the year award and I was humbled to accept the 2023 Connecticut Association of Latino administrators and superintendents exceptional principal award this past Saturday has been amazing to us and has adopted classrooms for two years now this year our Project Lead the Way Mr Woodward and Mr Laurie our media specialist Ms Foley Miss Milwaukee and our art teachers Miss woman and Miss movement Simone received 500 each to spend for their classrooms Colonial Subaru loves us so much that they raise an additional thousand fifty dollars to purchase graphing calculator so Mr dacus's algebra requests we applied for and were awarded the 2022 Cas ciac endowment and finding in the grant we use this to secure youth leadership training for our student ambassadors if you're watching channel 8 what's right in school in October you may have seen Emily Lopes they did a segment on her with her amazing bilingual education and focused on her co-teaching and science where she brings content and English to life for our newly arrived students mark your calendars because on May 24th Miss Dana Perez will be featured in a sentiment on the RPMs meal Train three of our teachers are going to have an amazing summer because they were awarded the fun for teachers Miss work will be going to Spain and Portugal to learn more about student cultures through an immersive experience and Miss Cooney and Miss McKinley will be traveling together to Iceland there they will observe current sustainability and Green Technology usage to prepare for a cross-disciplinary project on climate change migration in the local environment here at Rogers Park this year we've used iready as a whole school to accelerate student learning teachers have embraced it and students have bought into it and then everyone's excited about their growth we are so proud to have had the highest growth of all schools in math on the winter Benchmark and one of the highest in Reading we focus a lot on our tier one instruction this year to provide all students access to high quality curriculum instructions to further address the needs of our students we collaborated with what we call became eight srbi supervisor Mr Mark colloquin to develop a 6-8 decision tree and srbi process to identify students who are not responding to our Tier 1 instruction we meet monthly to discuss the students and teachers actively Monitor and then address the needs of students in the moment we believe in accountability as a means to ensure that changes we made this year have the desired effect we intended which was to accelerate student growth and achievement in order to do this clean them through things one we've met in our instructional leadership teams to discuss the data and make plans move forward Connecticut Association of schools actually visit us to see how we facilitate this and tweeted us out we've worked as a whole school on a PLC book setting where we our aim was to build teacher capacity to examine student data and plan to meet their needs an example of one of the ways we work with teachers is through our ell PLC 7th grade history teachers our sciat coach Mr Chris Hartman was a key in helping to support teachers to build their capacity to work effectively with multiple like multi-lingual learners another way we do this is through our instructional rounds where we monitor the expectations we set and that way we're informed on the levels of support needed but we don't just look at academic data we are constantly looking at our attendance and behavior data when we we are so proud to show that the precipitous drop in our chronic absenteeism down nearly 20 percent this is directly from the work that our full-time leap specialist Mr Carly does this is a grant funded position and I'm hoping that we get it again next year he does many home visits to support our families with connections community community agencies and to talk to parents about how important it is to send your child to school he works on tier three intervention groups where he builds relationships with students and creates a strong connection with them and school so they want to attend and a little incentive never hurts students who meet their attendance role goals are reward over the pizza party when we talk about school climate and culture we've seen a decrease in the number of ISS and OSS incidents and we do this in a two-pronged approach we build relationships and we address when we're when those relationships aren't harmed we build relationships through our school climate transformation group where we work alongside our student ambassadors to create ways to establish positive School culture and funding and when when needed we can address individual students we have the school-wide became their expectations that were co-created with our students we have a pride award system that acknowledges the best behavior and we also have advisors where students can talk and get to know one teacher as their trusted adult when students don't meet all these expectations and are moved to tier two because they have an increase in all the physical referrals we have our check-in check out support corrossful counselors along with small group and individual counseling another thing we do is a purposeful placement in advisory would be remiss if I didn't mention our founder liaison is fully Ina who does an amazing job at connecting our families so that they feel a part of the school as well other things that we do to create a positive School climate culture is to work with the Scotts Ridge Middle School and our Book Exchange are two groups of students read the same book this year was what Lane and they meet and discuss the book virtually and then we've met him first we've got a special treat this year with a virtual meeting with the author of the book for a Maldonado we celebrate our students all of the time monthly at student of the month and pride award sentiments trimesterly with our honor and honorable breakfast and monthly again with our i-Ready Superstars breakfast we've worked this year to cultivate more things that students can do after school and our PTO has been key in helping us increase the number of Socials in 1873 dances that we have they're a small group of dedicated parents who are able to support our goal goal of increasing these level of experiences we also work to provide a large number of extracurricular activities for students our buildings buzzing all the time the only thing we're missing is Middle School sports but we have a wide variety of things that kids can get involved we also work with our family and communities to engage our parents and our community members in our school we work hard just you know to bring them into our school through various night events where we break bread together we celebrate our cultures we celebrate our students and our school community we have a nice connection with West Palm where each year they have a day of service where students come in and help us around the school this year they've painted our third floor media center we also work with Junior Achievement to do things like a career fair the center for empowerment and education have been a great partner and bring us awesome um relationship and how to be moved people Connections in our health classes we're proud of our work with our veterans where each year our concert choir is invited back to sing the national anthem at the Pearl Harbor Memorial we helped our parents he's into the school year whether Rogers Park Middle School student parent handles they knew what to expect we also helped inform parents for information nights and our weekly newsletters and our family liaison along with Miss Perez my meal train have helped our food insecure students have full bellies on the weekends and another thing our family meeting sounds on has done to help support our families is to create a winter quote closet through new donated folks thank you so much for allowing me to shout out our school I welcome any questions and an open invitation for anyone to visit us [Applause] thank you you have some of your uh [Music] stand up and introduce them and say hello to J and D of kjd what's going on and data for us [Applause] congratulations sir thank you [Applause] all right so recognition so for Miss Christine Miller Broadview Middle School named Danbury public schools 2023 the teacher of the year congratulations thank you so before you uh start this juices and I want to say a couple of words and um just kind of thank you for your service to this history I I will just say something quickly I don't know you as well as Kelly uh hidden behind you from the special education department but I the sports you know in this community should know so during the pandemic is really what I got to me several times and oftentimes and no different now I work with and Mead's office to get an idea of you know where I could be to help the community Etc and oftentimes she's like Place me you know Kevin go here go here go here and in this Fortune though this community should know everywhere and told me to go Christine belt was already there right and I mean every single time and it was during the pandemic it was post pandemic and it was clear that um was committed to supporting and serving this community so I I want to thank you because I told this story to Kelly and Kelly looked at me as well this is right and we didn't need a pandemic to find out who you are and so when I learned that you learned this award I just want to um like it was it felt good to me knowing and seeing you on those front lines during that time um and then it just be confirmed um what I saw confirm like everything you do for this school district in this community I was really happy to know that you ended up planning every one so congratulations Kelly tuition has also had some some support thank you Mr Walston So Christine um congratulations to you um Christine I'm just going to say a few words about her and knowing Christine I know this is hard for her Christine um is very humble um but she's Stellar she does an amazing job for our school Community um she goes above and beyond the call of duty every single day she is sought out by her peers by the students and most importantly by our families um and it's it goes without saying that Christine is a name that comes up years later I'll be working with a senior in high school and they're like Remember When Miss Miller did fill in the blank and it's always something amazing um Christine is a social skills counselor at Broadview Middle School prior to that she worked at Rogers Park Middle School she supports the entire student body so while she has a special place in her heart for students with special needs and does some amazing work with some of our most significantly disabled students she really is an amazing asset to all of bravio um we often talk about the pandemic how you know the mental health needs of our of our school community of our families um or the food needs our food insecurity or the economic needs Christine was doing this all long before the pandemic she has consistently sought out resources for families so whether that's food on the table hooking them up with Medical Care Counseling Services inside or outside of school they need furniture for their bedroom food she does it all she started um a food pantry at Broadview so students can come in and shop for whatever they may need for their houses she runs our Unified sports program and for those of you that are not familiar with what that is that's when students with special needs are given a typical peer mentor to engage in fun but yet competitive Sports um they do everything from soccer to track to other activities she's also sought out grant opportunities to be able to expand that program and provide resources to the school Community she runs the San Diego promise programs at Broadview and it's really a leader around the state for that program I could go on and on I think I've given a good picture Christine certainly does it all she's a wonderful example and really represents the special ed and people Services Department as well as the Middle School level very very well so Christine I'm honored and privileged to work with you and have you as a part apartment so thank you thank you [Applause] I don't want to say that this was a complete surprise to me I feel very at home in the basement and this was a big shock and brought an array of emotions from gratitude and grapes and appreciation and so many things but mostly it's made me feel very seen which is not the most comfortable for me but it is also what I want for all of the kids I work with and all the families and all the colleagues and all the people and I will say that some of the best gifts I've ever received in my life have come since then in all the emails I received um when Emily love spoke at the ceremony that night she read an email from a student and I've gotten emails like that um including one from one of my former student leaders a unified partner who is now a teacher at Park Avenue school and she told me the story of a student she worked with and how I had helped her to see that you know see the ability in everyone and to connect to students and that she learned that being part of unified in eighth grade and I literally read that email like every day it just it makes my whole you know world it just means what matters and so I thank Danbury public schools because it's been a place that has given me the opportunity to see what matters and to use that to fuel my way through every day whether it's a good good good or bad um and and that is truly what I've had the opportunity to do and I feel so grateful to all of you and to everyone who makes that happen to work in a place where they're super independent and all administrators are pulling food across the parking lot during a pandemic means everything to me so I thank you all so you're not going to get away that easy certificate for you and just on your help waiting to you we have the Board of Education just want to say thank you for your dedication you can hear when you talk to passion and you know like I say a lot of times if you don't hear to thank you enough I apologize for that so thank you on behalf of the board and it comes through in just your personality and you talked about what you do or how dedicated you are and I just want to say thank you for that thank you and the highlight of your night you're going to take a picture with us thank you very much thank you very much [Laughter] congratulations [Applause] no I thought that too [Music] much all right public participation any other board any board members foreign so public participation the boardwalkings forward participation assets because limit their comments for three minutes speakers we offer objective comments or School operations and programs that concern them the board will not permit an expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students more against any person connected with the Danbury public school system we have a list here in first um name is uh Fred and Merrill and how are you um so I'm here to start a conversation and the idea is I'm at Danbury High School teacher I've been a specialist teacher at Danbury High School for 14 years and I was at age before and after seven and I'm just here to talk about cell phones and technology at the high school um in my time I've seen a change in student Behavior overall concerning behavior and a lot of it has to do with cell phones so the idea is I would like to propose the idea of considering storage systems for the self or cell phones in the future in the classroom because um part of it is certainly the pandemic but part of it is that I've seen the deleterious effects of cell phone usage over usage not just on student cognition but on the way students behave my days generally each class I go into the bell rings I have to ask the kids to put the phones away I have to ask the kids to take their earbuds out to ask the kids to take off their headphones and I don't I don't know that we we're never going back in regards to cell phones being in the building but as being charged with getting the information into the kids heads and seeing what they do all day long and working with an at-risk population and talking to them about how long each day they spend using their phone um what I'm seeing is troubling to me because it's not the cell phones actually ironically enough are not nuisance kids have become more complacent but it's at the expense of vibrancy um it's at the expense of their ability to think sustain thought activate thought keep thought ideas knowledge in their head I've been blessed to work with some of the finest teachers at Danbury and I've watched The Art of teaching grow as we've adopted standards and so the art of teaching has improved but I'm not seeing um with the kids that I work with the Improvement that should be coming and I can only isolate into one variable which is the constant passive engagement with this device I mean if I had said to somebody 30 years ago there's going to be something that's invented that is a TV that is a movie theater that is a camera that is a jukebox that is all these things and will be in the classroom with a teenager and you're going to have to be the one to tell them to put it away which I do and I do team talk classes so I have the liberty of my training room while instructions occurring for I destruct somebody else can kind of so we have a little bit of an advantage but the point is there are days when we are firing at all cylinders and everybody's learning and then we come back a day later and it's as if nothing happened or I say to a kid on another note will he enjoy not even what do you want to do because that's a tough question I don't know what I want to do some kids do some kids don't but if I tell them you can't say using your cell phone or sleeping I'm getting more and more students that have nothing to share that they don't enjoy anything else or by eliminating video games and to me as someone who's charged with being in a building with full of teenagers trying to ensure not just that they're learning but now we're charged with you know trying to make sure that they're healthy as well it's um it's trouble it weighs on me very heavily when I walk in the morning and I see hundreds of kids in this position um some of the many of yours there's few most of the kids are beautiful wonderful people it's not about bad kids and it's not about um like I said me being annoyed by cell phones I mean I am for 30 seconds what's that 30 seconds left well I just want to end with I think as the district as a school that is charged to it um it's Shoring safety Health vibrancy and learning environment that it is um unjust that we don't consider um doing something that allows teachers to have better control of their environment thank you there's no one else on the list is anyone else here that didn't sign up to speak in public okay all right so student Representatives come on up thank you foreign ERS and we're just here for some announcements so spirit week is going to be next week May 22nd through May 26th and some of the needs that was chosen are future day where people will dress up as if your careers senior citizen versus Baby's Day where we're preparing of the Juniors and seniors to dress up as senior citizens and professional sophomores specific babies and then our third day is going to be barbecue dads versus soccer moms and that's end the week off like we usually do we're going to have a color award between the grades and a DHS school spirit day AP testing has also been going on since last week and it concludes tomorrow there will also be retakes going on throughout next week SATs and GSS and all the other testing can also included Junior Prom is going to take place this Friday May 12th and Superman is going to be two weeks from now on the 26th last day for seniors in school folks will be June 7th and there's going to be a lot of fun activities planned like the Church of Six Flags is going to be captured again graduation rehearsals and budget on success activities we've seen your award ceremony is going to be June 5th and it's just me by it by only the last first school's breakfast is going to be June 1st it's going to be in person philosophy of school for all grades is June 15th and there will be an art show on May 15th it's from 5 to 7 pm ESL award ceremony Fortress facing May 24th and just a shout out this week is also teacher appreciation week and I will set the Channel all Gamers and features that helped make DHS is a great learning department for everybody so moving on also have class elections which are currently happen which are very exciting we're seeing a lot of younger people getting the courage to represent the class and you know really speak up and have a holds for change NHS inductions is going to be next Monday um 52 industries that will be 100 applications which is really exciting we were also we have a middle school graduation on June 12th national math Honor Society will be having a convocation May 22nd through your leadership is hosting a color run on Layman 13 that is about running a 5k and all proceeds will be going to Make A Wish Foundation they're also they also held a teacher fundraiser on Duplo 2017-28 and the courtyard average but I believe right not for the teachers but I think we were able to raise so much snhs or science National honest Society um the conversation will be May 31st and then ROTC Awards will be May 27th June 1st for holding a multicultural food festival which is linked up by THS career leadership and then we're going to be having voter registration of milk and made up they're also Terry Wells sale was a great success and it benefited greatly the military well program which is all in that very well between us we also want to take this time to mention that this will be our last meeting for the school year and while the rest of the officers are not able to make it to this meeting we already do the opportunity to be able to attend this monthly meeting and let you know about DHS and with graduation capacity approaching you recognize that the rest of our graduating class and we would not be able to be where we are without the hard work and support of the board of education so we would love to we would love this opportunity thank you for all that you do to support the students at Banbury thank you thank you thank you so much in ways before you leave by making that one question I don't know if anyone else says could you sit after this website can you please tell us what your name is that my name is Nadia I'm one of the vice presidents of Board of Governors of BFG thank you so much you guys did a great job today [Applause] okay so we are up yes so we have some more amazing guests in the audience tonight about a month ago I recall shared with the board in the community and update about commissioner Russell Tucker's voice of change initiative one of the words that was used when talking about our students in Washington DC representing the state of Connecticut and the town of Danbury was we sent two amazing ambassadors with a state of Connecticut and the City of Danbury and our two former graduates in the audience this evening and so I had the opportunity to see you both on TV and it was as if I was watching two people who were running the company like that's what it sounded like yeah I I mean I was so proud to be a part of this district and working alongside all of the people who play a role in helping to shape and develop the two of you and so we wanted to make sure we found an opportunity to get you back in front of this war tonight in front of our community to celebrate you we spent years developing what we call the torture of a graduate and so just before you left we were beginning to try to shape it which portion of the graduate was Community informed so we had folks in higher education folks from industry Educators teachers and you embody all of those things that we're looking for in graduates so I I just want to thank you for taking time out of your College calendar to come back and join us this evening uh thank you for every role you have played I saw you smiling brightly alongside the commission on that evening I see a proud mom standing up right now taking pictures and you should be but we would love for you guys to come up and tell us about your visit to Washington DC representing um Danbury public schools but of course the state of Connecticut and so we've been looking forward to you coming back to join us so please come on out there please find another chair and get up there joyous and welcome back um currently a freshman normal sophomore house Crosman the final final at Fordham University in the city I'm majoring in political science with filmmakers economics and sociology so when I had the invitation to come back to Danbury and talk about what was your change I obviously had a safe time I at my final schedule to come back and talk about just because it was such a great experience going in Washington I've been working with his friends in Chapel and everyone else machine [Music] at the University of Connecticut pursuing the finance major I'm proud graduate of being here at old schools it was a great time going to DC representative the district we love so much and we'll do this lots of fun throughout BC and at the event we network with us in great people so we appreciate that with you um so I'm blessed um because I I could not pick two students who could exemplify everything we want in our graduates that means too I mean I and I had a slew of them to choose from but they just did more than I ever thought that they could do and they and they had a great time um I forgot your pictures I just realized um we had some as Chapel was saying we had some amazing opportunities other than just preparing for and presenting um at the CCS exposed legislative conference on voice for change one of the things that I was able to arrange is that we sat into a court case and from the Supreme Court of the United States and then we got to go down to my arm and Chambers and pictures um and we went and went to museums together and like it was their grown-ups um and all of a sudden they're grown-ups and and they were just amazing and you all well I don't know if you see the video um datejust I could not have been happier that day I was just beaming from from you know ear to ear because they are just so outstanding and um I want that for every single one of our students at DHS I wanted it for all and so that's what my classroom is about and I'm just happy to see that they were able to take everything that they've learned at DHS from all of their teachers and and put it into practice as they're going out into the world and becoming presidents so miss miss Lorraine's Chapel Viviana I shared agree with the board a little bit about the voice for change initiative a couple of times now and and that we tried to celebrate and encourage everyone to go watch live you guys speaking group can you walk us through like who was in the room and who else was talking I I I was under the impression that commissioner was representing the state of Connecticut but they were also representatives from the entire country there and so can you just kind of walk us through who was in the audience out there foreign [Music] schools across the country are doing at the Astro grants that came out during the pandemic so if it's Connecticut there was Utah Missouri and Tennessee so they had various products Utah focused on with metal technology through the pandemic Tennessee was working on tutoring those groups and there were various other people that stayed throughout the weekend happened to attend that on a single event of course all the election and everything it was kind of a round table discussion type of setup so the commissioner facilitated the conversation and asks us questions and then we had um kind of like a little bit of a time limit as far away it's definitely the general format but tonight sure um so the other people that were in the room were um many of the Chiefs um State schools around the country their staff members um there were um press there were organizations that partner with school districts there we were approached by several after our presentation um and I've had follow-up questions from them um and yeah so that was such an end also the CCS those staff was there um and so um my understanding is a lot of these organizations are now going to be using some of this information to create um materials about like the effects of essar what have been the impacts um we also saw the night before before our presentation um the uh Department of Education was there um in terms of the questions that we were asked we were asked about how we learned about implementing the program how we saw impacts your community and how they 've been able to affect our standing in college and how we expanded to leadership experience and how it's you know it's better suits I think we uh if you're able to convey that a program like that would allow the idea Academia public schools had a great impact and not on us but now also looking at the high school we're seeing better the future breaking you're seeing more water fountains through good seats um it was I'm sure it was a bad word for the teachers at the NBA tonight and at the end of these students too that I'm not sure if anyone watched it was really exactly getting their names out there and um and I also knew a joke about how uh how damaging is the best even though they can't give me extra credit anymore that really I hope the girl called that the interview teachers are the best and just to add on to that whichever was saying it has had an Alaskan effect I would love to see us Implement something like this in our district for like every year um but some of the things that you've heard on the girls that were here earlier talking about that there's going to be a voter registration well the AP Government students are running back at the League of Women Voters here so they're running that in high school um and then on the jazz station um then there's the um uh last year there was the day again about day of action against gun boxing except for kids God's word on to do and again this year a group of students started to save our schools campaign one of them came back supporting his fellow former students years and um so it is burned on I believe a lot of Civic action within our community within our students which is something that is um really important that they get along with as I've been working on the academy pathway we have had a lot of conversations I'm working on a Justice and law one and I've been having a lot of conversations with leaders in different legal rooms and all of them were saying like students need to get involved in the community they need to become part of the community they need to be feel welcomed into the community that we want you know we want them to be here with us and that's something that you know I think that as we do more things like this and we get kids encouraged that it's okay to step out of your comfort zone you're going to be okay we're going to take care of you um I think that that can only make our community stronger I'm hopeful for that so Miss Lawrence I I want to thank you again if you work your service your commitment to this program is for students Chapel of Viviana requested what I thank you again I don't know if the board of course we want to embarrass the kids and ask them to take the picture with us especially before you do does anyone have any questions I just wanted to kind of just say thank you guys for representing Danbury um it's pretty pretty impressive um you know just by listening to who was like in the room uh it's just it's amazing so one of the things that this is what we kind of this is what we do it for and to see the results and to see how proud you guys are and how the teachers are and it's just uh you know at the end of the day makes it all work is this what it's about you're sitting here we talk about other things but seeing the results of of the care and dedication to the teachers is it's just it's just awesome thank you for being a great representatives for so the highlight of your night after if anyone else what you say you won't be taking pictures with us so um anyone else have any yeah and thank you both again for representing us down in DC but I want to just do a shout out for Heather because when Heather walked in we just kind of looked at each other because we we said we think we saw each other like six times and over the course of like the last seven days I'm wondering when you're gonna put a desk in right uh because this is a testament to just how active you are right now it's not just voice for Change and all these other programs but um really taking on additional you know beyond teacher leader responsibilities we're helping with the pathway and uh pathway curriculum development um and so much more you've just been a leader of so many fronts this year uh and you're a magnet for inspiring students in your classroom and you know the fact that kids are showing up uh at night here to come support their colleagues it just again a testament to the kind of culture that you're creating in your classroom [Music] thank you again thank you anyway okay I got back 20 minutes before the baby sorry you guys the games the worst team in baseball 11 the first time thank you so much yeah no problem [Laughter] all right see you soon academies of Nashville visit to Danbury so right now we have tentative commitment from the board member in Nashville who has been part of the academies of Danbury academies of national consensus exception in addition a chamber member from Nashville and an administrator for Nashville is willing it has agreed to come up with various Mutual interests here on our side or we send an email out a couple of days ago and and promise to follow up with some more details about the museum so they have committed to coming off we put together a tentative agenda feedback would arrive Sunday night or someone or Monday we can welcome them with the welcome dinner place to be determined and with the welcome dinner we thought it would be best to just kind of get to know the folks of Nashville and formally ask any questions you may have and then they are committed to a full day of activities and opportunities for you to further engage them right now on the agenda we have a am breakout session with the board for the folks who might be available during the day for two hours a PM breakout session for the board members who are available just before a record event Workshop and the idea would be in a more intimate space and give you an opportunity to ask any adult questions you may have and then in the middle between the AM and PM session a lunch and learn with our company if I get business partners and city council members who might be available Civic leaders might be available and then of course any board members will also available in a lunch and learn meeting an opportunity to just talk about the model itself do this in a space with our partners who have already equated to helping and supporting us in any way they already have we just thought given all the opportunities working with Brandon thus far it'll be nice good and connect the dots and here firsthand from the people on the other side of the model what this looks like then last but not least going into the workshop and opportunity for the full board to ask questions from the folks of Nashville and I would like to think we would also have some parents and families and students who can listen and firsthand listening expressing the audience or of course watches on TV because of course it can't be straight so I just wanted to provide more details to that email that was sent out earlier again if there's interest from the board we will start moving in this direction the dates are Monday June the 20th and Tuesday June 20th birthday 19th and 20th sorry it's Monday the 19th and Tuesday the 20th and so again the 19th would be a welcome to Danbury evening we'll be find a restaurant in town and try to set something for abscape or private room if that's possible so we can have our own intimate space get that Tuesday you'll be able to walk into a full agenda and itinerary where again the board will have a more some kind of one-on-one time with a board member who frankly is she's Dynamic and previously was not only a board member but also a business partner so she truly understands the model and will be able to really speak to any questions I think the board members might have again again I hate having someone from the chamber really helps to explain how this model is different from an education that we all at the school system that we went through the last but not least we're trying to find someone whose position is similar to Brits who can also speak uh to how it's working in a in a system that's already established and it's already mature um you know 10 plus years now uh actually it's 16 plus years now and so their story is in it's an impressive story in Nashville I believe where we heard the story from the superintendent I believe they're high school high school graduation rate was in the high 50s and uh they were they were very close to being taken over by the state of Nashville and they implemented a model that they felt was going to help change their trajectory in Egypt and so I believe they were like 85 Plus percent graduation right now which I think speaks volumes on how they've turned it and turn that District that district and school Community around what you also learn is uh not sure I don't recall how many schools high schools are in the school district but 16 of them are actually part of the academies of Nashville and so it's not every school in the entire system are part of the academy model on the 16th of them are you also hear that as part of the story and so I you know I don't know if anyone has any questions or wanted to ask some more questions and have some feedback about the actual itinerary if you are interested uh one way to have some time to kind of modifying if this is something you're interested in you go 20 seconds 82.
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you have you must have 10 to March most of the sequences we March which means they all have to learn all the sequences multiple positions one student's out Plug and Play so it takes a lot of time dedication zero hour and seventh hour before school after school sometimes both it's hours of dedicated training and practice and practice and practice so congratulations [Applause] yes thank you [Applause] thank you and totally the celebrations we've got more because we have more Champions to celebrate where is Mr Edgar [Music] we have so many celebrations and championships we have to Stage it in sections so hold on Mr Edgar is coming so we can celebrate and Mrs Edgar's coming to Mr Edgar what [Applause] over here [Applause] all right well they're all coming in here uh very exciting uh spring season for us winter programs I had had a fantastic representation at the Winter Guard Arizona championships this is our wins Group North Side winds it represents uh both Williams Field high school and Cooley Middle School we use it as a educational kind of recruiting group gives the 8th graders an opportunity to kind of get a feel for what the marching band will be like as they move into the high school learn how to walk from here to there and step and play at the same time all that stuff so our our freshmen when they come in the door at williamsfield high school aren't really freshmen they have some experience to it and it's been a very positive aspect of our program I'm going to turn it over real quick where is Miss huddle there she is hi I'm Jenny huddle I'm the director at Coulee middle school and Williams Field High School this is the winner wins group from both Cooley and Williams Field again we're super proud of their state championship accomplishment this season and yeah great job you guys [Applause] ourselves all right ready here we go one two three thank you [Applause] welcome back all right our next group coming in um is our Coulee Black Guard we run two two guards at Cooley Middle School they meet every morning before school extremely dedicated group of kids um this is uh we have a a purple guard and a black guard basically comparable to a varsity junior varsity kind of a structure I'm going to hand it over to uh Beth Carlson the director of the group hi I'm Beth um this is our Coulee Black Guard they pretty much set the past few years have been able to set the precedent in the state for what a junior high Color Guard can be um they they come out and people are like those are Junior High kids and it's it's a for us for that for us as teachers it's exciting to hear because they work really really hard and we're very proud of them and this is black all right [Applause] two three thank you [Applause] so our next group we're going to invite up is our Coulee purple guard thank you so this group of kids a lot of them is a lot of them are brand new to Color Guard um this is we think the fifth or sixth year that they have won as the state championships consecutively so they had a really good season when we went to our first Camp uh Pam Edgar and I were like whoa like we were really excited um this age is really fun to teach for me especially because they're just they're eager and they're fun and they will let us try all kinds of things and we're very proud of them this year they had a great final run Cooley purple [Applause] foreign [Applause] all right percussion crew and last but not least we have our eighth grade percussion Ensemble from Cooley Middle School [Applause] uh these young folks had an outstanding season um very very strong performers we're very excited for the future um these these groups that we've been able to put together now are starting to feed up into the high school and um it's bearing fruit the the kids have done an amazing job and they're a lot of these students are actually performing with the high school group um in the in the Drumline aspect of things and we'll grow into that next year and are doing an outstanding job super proud of the accomplishments of this group state champions uh great kids uh our our percussion Ensemble eighth graders thank you [Applause] thank you all right here we go one two three [Applause] as they head out I just want to say thank you very much to the district for all the support that we are given to allow these groups to compete at the state level and we we are the largest represented District in the state as far as winter programs go and it's something that's very positive for kids and I'm very grateful for the support we receive thank you so that includes our student celebrations this evening while we welcome you to stay for the entire meeting we also know you want to go celebrate your Sensational students or or our points of Pride so feel free to stay or if you'd like to leave at this time that you are free to do so as well and we'll continue with our meeting in just a second what thank you it's a great way to end the school year with a lot of recognition tonight thank you everyone for coming I'd like to make a motion that we recess into public hearing for the fiscal year 2023 budget revision number three all those in favor aye we will now recess for a public hearing Mr Moore good evening president Charles members of the board tonight uh I'll be presenting the third revision of the fiscal 2023 budget this revision is required by Statute and is the last revision that we'll make to this current year budget as we've newly adopted I have our presentation acronym slide for those viewers online or who those wish to come back and review the presentation jumping into the budget timeline this slide should look familiar now as we've reviewed it several times throughout the year we are all the way to that third bullet there the May 2023 um this again is the third revision um for the district's 23-33 2023 budget uh this is required by Statute uh this revision is revised um back to our 180 ADM members so this chews up um our actuals um to our 100th ADM count as you know the district's operation budget and capital budget are are set from the state and are formula based and based off ADM and so when we reconcile that and revise as we're doing tonight um we revise to that 180 ADM number so it's very important when we talk budget that is the the magic number that hundred the ADM and that's what we're going to be revising to tonight um shortly in June uh we'll be presenting a proposed and adopted budget for fiscal 24.
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for this is just to give some perspective in this District I just threw the unification election in there in 06 it doesn't really fit anywhere but you can see that in that same time frame frame we did pass an override at 10 but then we failed it in 11 and 12 and therefore we had to reduce whatever was purchased with that override had to be reduced because the renewals failed um and uh the the pattern is important because um as a general rule in this part I'll just say Pinal County in this part of Pinal County overrides have not tended to do very well bonds a little bit more mixed but overrides have not tended to do well for probably 20 close to 20 years we're seeing some of that same situation starting to bleed over into some districts more on the bonds right now the Neil rides but that had been successful for a number of years QC and Higley last year had problems so just doing their bond right they were doing the bond yeah but but so I don't know if that's a one-off or if it's Trend data I think right qc's going for and over uh has to renew their override this year next year and I think higley's in a similar situation so we'll see if this is a more permanent thing or just the one-off depending on on what's taking place right with the bonds so you got Capital bonds again in the case of bonds it's like a loan you once you get the authorization to sell the bond you're actually selling the bond on the open market and the dollars that you raise allow you to do the construction or the renovation whatever you're planning to do purchase of land or Vehicles technology and then you pay off the debt services on the bond um through the secondary tax rate so again you're going to need voter approval for that you must spend the bond Revenue within the six year period so it's not like I can we can pass a bond and then just just sit on it once you sell the bonds sometimes they'll sell them in phases so you may not sell the entire amount in one Fell Swoop because you can't build things fast enough you got districts out there with with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds and so the sale of the bond may be uh delayed over time but once you sell it you have to use it within uh uh six years you also have the issue of the payback period most of them around 15 to 20 years but technically you got the one to twenty years depending again what you're going out for what type of type of District you are you might go out for a little Bond and therefore you might choose to to pay it off a little bit quicker you can see that and again for perspective the district itself over time has been very successful with bonds going back to the 60s again obviously the world was a little bit different in the 60s at twelve thousand dollars twelve thousand uh but even going to 87 where you only spent 285 000 um now you're not talking about Lots two classrooms restrooms couple storage rooms and lock areas so it's not a ton but 285 um probably wouldn't get one of those things done this year you know nowadays so um but so you're going all the way into you had one failure in oh six or excuse me in 15 but you came back in 16 and and if there's errors in here I was trying to do the best I could with with what we what we could uh what I could find but you're seeing that an 06 you had 48 000 and then you're going to go 40 and or 48 million excuse me then 40 million and 15 and that was reduced a little bit in 16.
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all right one two one squiggled um yeah all right enough of this lemon tea all those in favor please indicate by saying that all right any opposed any obsessions motion passes [Music] of course as uh meeting I was asking for a miracle difference [Music] mandated or recommended I didn't know if I did that right so as a matter of procedure is just making that request [Music] uh I think that's fine I mean when we review policies that always is indicated but I guess it's not in the policy manual is that correct that doesn't follow like under the footnote where it says where the policycat was sourced maybe we could just put something mandated or recommended so that it stays yeah so so if I if I'm understanding you correctly so when we have a policy it does say up here if it's mandated but that doesn't go in the policy manual that's just for our reference back here we have the list of actions and so what you're saying is you'd like to see on this line that on December 9 2020 this policy was revised and you'd like to see mandated or recommended here so that we can tell whether past actions were mandated or recommended is that I'm trying to differentiate on which policies are mandated by a statute and which ones are recommended do you mean for the policies that are in front of us in the present or do you mean so that when we look back we can tell about decisions that were made in the past a decision made in the past okay so that would be listing mandated versus recommended here because this is our history of the policy I don't see any reason that we couldn't do that but you just increase juice [Music] like if I look back to May 13 2015 when it was revised I can't tell correct I'm not sure no you can no this would only be going forward this would not be archeology this would just be going forward okay yeah just put recommended recommended dot mandated no recommended not done [Music] I take your point [Music] you can think about what's whatever's easiest for you and will have you know be give the recommended information going forward no no argue [Music] [Applause] or unfinished business so we now move on to our new business item eight on the agenda and with a review of the teacher and administrator evaluation and support plan flexibilities please Orient us sure so the state of Connecticut is revising their guidelines for Teacher evaluation and they have yet to finalize those guidelines I'm surprised and so we had to have a conversation between teachers Administration to determine whether or not we want to go ahead and start revising our teacher evaluation Plan before we get any guidance from the state or do we wish to wait until the state makes their guidelines final and then proceed with altering our plan as necessary so that we have a new plan in place for staff in the 24-25 school year so 24 25.
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are you trying to um are you trying to sort of have a halfway number as to who's going to be at this media we don't want to keep some imagine and no board membership disorder so board members will say well I will be in attendance we will definitely need an RSVP Miss Cooper and and right here this evening that the board has an interest and be pursuing as I would assume that the 19th 19th and 20th or third days the important to be able to commit to you know we can RSVP in terms of the a.m and PM breakout sessions but I think I really think it's the board would really benefit from the Welcome dinner very informal I think it will make it easier to ask those questions on day two um and they're ready you know as as I was talking to Greg um The Motto you know their model is so mature now they have six and they must have been 6700 people in the audience today hope we get to go visit and so they actually get um some type of commission for hosting school districts like they make money from this and and so many members also of their team um receive consultant fees for Orlando districts because they've been doing it so long they've been doing it so well so so this is not new to them and again I think will also benefit we're going back to your question yes well an initial commitment from the board would be helpful so I can continue to talk to Nashville too so we can pursue the specifics uh but I will need RSVPs at the very least at AM and PM and breakout sessions what's your name so it kind of things I I think it's a great idea to do either Fellowship you get an understanding more about the Career Academy we can hear from Grant okay um his perspective is but I think when if you sit down and talk to their board members and the people that there that's coming here and have that communication with it we might see it or understand it yet that's just me I just make it so you know you can put me down another month so obviously watching it move up and move forward soon okay and in 1921 student now 19 through 20th yes yes Katie how you doing over there Kate all right healthcare plan thank you okay and uh thank you permissions arrangement I know that you know we've had some folks who went down to the academy International and it was um exciting for those folks a little disappointed what else what does it go so if you guys are doing the next best thing or bringing them up here to the hospital institution okay thank you for mentioned in that case and so I think uh probably depending on your view the superintendent of Nashville I don't think they can get her up here we are about to ask again um but the board the board member is she is a Powerhouse and is given her time in addition number one but given the fact that she's been there from the Inception of this work um I I think you're going to get a lot of information and learn a lot about the program in the academy model during this visit and what we learned when we went down to Nashville and it was very clear I think to Karen and I um that the rent was very entrenched in the school Community there and to know that we still have a network that we can tap right and so not only does Brent have a Rolodex where he can tap the resources in Nashville but it's it's opening doors for Cara to have multiple people she can tap for a resource and help us with this work and so if we can find a way down to also have a board member service of resource to our board members I think that will also be helpful to put this other layer in the organization so what we're excited about the the idea the same thing with PJ Israel with the chamber I didn't have happen to network and their chamber come up come up so we hope those can be really beneficial in the neighboring schools is a board member I would like to go down and see it for myself as well especially I am not up for uh re-election this is I love it I think carrying it forward I would very much like to go yeah so um we are continue to pursue grants like we always do and uh like I said before we are we'll explore that there are business two times of the year one is to fall and once in the spring so we'll revisit that again and plan a trip with I mean we're not going to plan a trip just so we can sit down but we are as part of a cycle planning a trip because there's another study business ongoing study business can be the same place for us to continue so yes we will explore that as I am yes but the gravy will the grade be the same the grading system yes the model doesn't change the policies and then we have one more General update for regarding our security RFP like Dr ceiling is a potato thank you secretary so many of you have heard about our Connecticut State security grant that we were awarded last year for multimedia interoperability and I've talked to the board and specifically sites a little bit about this as we've gone through this process um we launched an RFP back in I think it was January and we've been working through a processor we had a bunch of different companies come in who responded to the RFP um we had a selection committee comprised of principals administrators technology folks uh boardroom aquello served on it as well and we believe we've reached the point where we are about to identify a finalist and that finalist uh we're hoping to have the full approval of the RFP in front of this board at the next meeting in two weeks so we wanted to make sure that everyone had just a good snapshot of just what this system was how it works and kind of what it's going to do and like I said the the grant that we got through the state Homeland Security is going to pay for the majority of the of these services so um I apologize I didn't get to share these slides with you was I only got them late last night so I can send this out to uh to everybody tomorrow morning so you can have it for your 300 you so um real quick the name Raptor may sound familiar they also manage our visitor management system when you go into a school you dip your ID into the slot and it does a background check this is that same company so it will seamlessly integrate with that technology um there's a couple high level features that it has that I just want to share with you uh number one most importantly is the large scale incidents so these are um you know Panic buttons uh you know alert buttons that will go straight to um uh police and Emergency Operations it comes right up on the psaps they can see all the information about uh who's sending in the message where it is and uh increases the response time it also has a feature for small scale incidents so for example maybe there's a fight or something that happens in the school you don't want to notify emergency services but you would need the principal or the safety Advocate to to come to the aid of a teacher or whatever that um that's another feature that they're going to be included in this so it has both of those both of those capabilities there's also drill management software uh it'll help us manage all of the different drills and compliance reports that we have to do with our school so we know that all our schools are doing their you know their various drills as dictated by the state um this is another feature where it will actually provide mapping of our schools and show where you know critical services are whether it's fire extinguishers or cameras or other things like that so everyone will have a emergency services we'll have a map of the school if there's any need for for that they'll know exactly where to go and what room and how to find yeah it also has group messaging so during an event the people that need to be informed or looped in from police to Emergency Operations to the principal to Central Command everybody will be on that app and not trying to you know oh is that an email is that a text message well I texted everybody's in that group thread so it it just keeps a lot of that messaging consistent and clean and this is uh another feature it's reunification so if there's an event and you know let's say I just we want to pull everybody into the classrooms and get them out of the hallway there's actually two features here one is I can pull a kid into my classroom if it's a passing period And if that student's not in my class I can still go into this app and claim that I have uh Miss Cara casimiro and then the teacher who is expecting Miss casimiro to be in her class will see that she's safe with me so the other side of this is that if there is a situation where we would need to reunify students with parents there's a clear system here built on the I love you guys template that allows us to understand who all the children are who they're assigned Guardians are that we're allowed to release them to it shows a picture of the student the signature of the parent goes right into the app and then we have a complete record of reunification the current system is really just paper so you have to keep you know printing it and updating it as attendance lists change you know the lists change it's it's a laborious process currently and this would really streamline a lot of them and uh there's a whole bunch of other bells and whistles and Integrations that this technology can can do so we like I said we have uh visitor management right now through Raptor but we also have cameras we have alarms on our doors so if a door has been propped open things like that this would integrate a lot of those so it would all come through the same system and then the advocate and anybody who needs access to that would be able to see all those things coming up in the same system foreign and then there's just a comprehensive dashboard so we can see everything who's using the system and who's drilling on it and who's compliant and if somebody hasn't done their October drill yet we can call them up and say hey you need to do your October fire drill and it's just a nice way for us to keep and check and on top of uh security from from a district standpoint and this is a feature that we are exploring adding on it's a in-person training program they would come out and so there's a basic training program where they'd help you through tech support things like that if you need it they'd call you up and and walk you through you know certain technology and other issues that might come up but this is where they would actually have on-site support they'd come out and actually help you with drills so if you wanted to test say that reunification software they would help you run the drill and uh you know you could you could have your you know your school safety team involved in it and everybody can practice and develop that muscle memory so if something are to happen were to happen everybody would have drilled in that and they would support that as part of this package that works okay I think that's it so um like I said the uh we wanted everybody to be um just up to speed on the RFP um please uh feel free to reach out if there's any other questions I'm going to share these slides with everybody uh we're working through some final things right now on pricing and contract and um we're hoping to have that uh final action for this board on our agenda in two weeks time where we'll officially award the RFP and then our plan is to start implementing really quickly thereafter so that we can start doing a lot of the technological back-end stuff over the summer we want to get it on everybody's radar before we go away for a break so that they know what it is when they come back and they start seeing this new language and terminology built into the school safety plans and then start training and drilling already at the start of next year is this a app is it a um put on the personal phones or the teachers and students so it it can be an app it works on every piece of technology that we have so it will work on teachers computers so if they don't want to install it on their phone they don't have to if there's an emergency it'll pop up on their computer it actually even has Smart Board integration so if someone's up at the board teaching and they're not looking at their computer it would pop up on the Smart Board and say you know there is an alert and then they would know to you know check check the messaging or whatever it is they need there's options to put it on the phone if a teacher decides to do it but it wouldn't be mandatory now we have the teacher comment about bringing the phones to the classroom the students are not they have to put in phones and a cubby holes say and with that interfere with this program no not at all this would only be teachers and staff it just teaches us that Nest students correct so it's not accounting for students it's accounting for teachers no so the student rosters this would tie directly into our student information system and that's how the system would pull all the class rosters and things like that so as me a teacher I would see my whole class roster and if there's an alert or an alarm I would know immediately based on that real-time list so if somebody left early say to go to a dentist appointment that would be reflected in that list and I could say oh that's why he's not here any other questions thank you thank you so you're going to email us soon yes looks like we got some more updates on this Lieutenant goals update all right so goal 1.2 Dr Casimir recently visited Charlotte and so this was study visit um I I shared with the board the last time Dr casimiro that might be asking me to provide an update that would be amazing if you could or maybe talk about how this music was different it's probably the last and also some key takeaways because I know okay back to my shift when you got back yes so um again the small team to Charlotte that was uh principal Donovan uh Brett Dean Dr Martens and myself and the purpose of the visit was really to understand the partnership piece just one high school Olympic High School with Charlotte Harbor had over 700 Partners um this one College and Career Readiness director who's kind of what brenta would be doing here brought in almost 20 million dollars of income donations and Partnerships uh in his tenure and as a result of that is deep in North Carolina knocked on his door when it came time to do a 24 million dollar clean energy Grant for the state they asked him as he's trying to retire they asked him to open up a brand new one of four random high schools in Charlotte Mecklenburg because of their experiencing tremendous growth in that area it's unbelievable how many developments are happening down there um so they They begged him to come over to Palisades High School which is at random high school and replicate what he was doing while we're in Olympic High School Bosch manufacturing flash appliances partnered with Olympic High School and created a multi-million dollar uh facilities lab for students to train and practice a training facility and basically they're taking kids right out of that facility with high school they're making quotes to six figures coming out and these companies are not just Bosch but their companies are paying for students to go to school while they are practicing with their with their companies there's a tremendous amount of back manufacturing very clean high-tech manufacturing down in North Carolina and they are clamoring for for students with a certain skill set there's this idea of durable skills and hard skills and hard skills come when you have a I use a one of the companies that we met with the president of the company called Roger and grodinger makes so if you think of any anything that fills bottles medicine uh vials vaccines lipstick tubes shampoos they make the machines around the world individually and unique uh uniquely customized for any company that's filling something and moving it along a conveyor belt really high-tech stuff um and every machine is different and so when you can have an engineer that graduates you know North Carolina they still have to do the same training as if it's kind of ground zero on those types of machines so they they invest in students they invest um on that side in the training that's a given on the hard skills but what they're struggling with and what we heard in our industry partnership today is this idea about these durable skills about the type of worker that they're looking for that come to them so they spent a lot of time just particular company spent a lot of time talking about how Olympic High School really developed that type of person that had the attributes that they were looking for to invest in over time but besides from that it was really focused on how this one person like Ray Allen developed all these relationships and how important that piece became in this mutually beneficial exchange of what the schools systems were producing and what the local Regional account is needed and demanded and so the school systems are now aimed at feeding this growing um metro area that is booming with success that is driving skilled positions from entry level all the way through way close secondary high tech stuff and so the the bottom line with the relationship piece is that it's really what we're asking you know I think we've approached this with companies and our area businesses is what can you do to help us how can you come and help Danbury public schools what are you going to do for us really the question is how do we how what are we going to do for you right so so we're trying to create this beneficial pipeline for our students to have opportunities but in order to do that we really need to start asking questions differently of our industry partners for industry influencers and saying you know what is it that you're looking for and then how can we design um things that if it works out for the best interest of students and there's opportunities at the end of it um to meet that need to create that pipeline of opportunity for students the jobs that students were getting coming out of high school were mind-boggling there was a lot of companies that were paying for so you know access to the academies is is completely open but once you get into the academy those internships become competitive right not everybody's going to get to go out and go into one of those internships and from those internships not everybody's going to get an apprenticeship and so how do you how do you inculcate students with the right dispositions and character and skills to be competitive for those types of opportunities and how these companies pay pay for students to to have their education taken care of and in return have a great job waiting at the under other end of that so it's very eye-opening in that sense of flipping the mindset of how we're approaching industry it's not what you can how you can support the school system how can you can support you to create a relationship that's going to provide opportunities for students at the other end um so it was a wonderful wonderful trip um they really pushed in our thinking and our mindset and it was uh it was Timeless friend internships for the students are they paid there's all kinds of internships so some are paid some are just ours right so people provide student um 15 hours of internship in the summer they can start the summer they can come after school if you're a senior to get out early you've got some opportunities some of the more competitive ones are paid so students who do well it's kind of a tiered system and they've structured them differently with different companies to to meet the company's needs um and you know if they were interested in students then you know some of them they had you know seven eight nine ten twelve interns interns that would come they they provided a project an industry inspired project that was that was real and timely sometimes they would put real problems that the industry were trying to solve themselves and you know kids are not constrained with all the all the things that can go wrong when they're trying to look at things and so uh you know they're not thinking about the money they're not thinking about the policy and the legislation and the liability and this has been tried before sometimes kids come up with really really get ideas because we're not constrained by the adult things that we've all experienced right rejection um and so they have students solve real problems for them and at the end of those they've offered um really like high paid internships and potentially apprenticeships again meeting your you know really high skilled person potentially an engineer for example um and we spent a lot of these companies were paying for the kids to us got to go to school it was amazing but like what happens with the student that has to work and the internship doesn't pay so these are all choices for for students so you know the goal is to create as many opportunity scenarios out there and to partner with the with each industry um you know expert that to create to create and generate what would work for them um again that's about you know what works for you and we'll make that connection um and provide you know students as flexible thinking and is you know we're going to be working with us another curricular experience it can be about you know how do you how do you act correctly in the workplace when you have time you got to show up you have to be dressed you have to you have to address people properly you have to make good eye contact you have to wait to turn to the table when you're having a conversation you have to be able to participate you've got to be a good team member what does that mean um how do you maximize your skills at the table you know what are you good at what's your partner good at how do you team up to create a product so there's a lot of a lot of learning involved in that and that's part of the and that there's a huge tie in the proportion of the graduate in this work so the a lot of the durable skills that we talk about you know being a good communicator and a collaborator and a learner right an innovation all of those things are highly embedded in this type of work and those are the durable skills more so than those hard technical skills that everybody really you know we're kind of heading into this thinking that our industry partners are going to be like well you're going to have to know how to code and do all these things well they're going to train Talent anyways but they want us to produce um a a student of character and one that will be a good employee and to be productive for the team and the company because you know um it's this one uh industry fellow kind of put us in our place and said you know if you produce failure in your school system you just keep pushing them through and they don't have skills your consequences are far fewer for you as a school district than me as a company we go out of business if we fail so how can we work together to make sure that what you're producing is meeting and growing economic demands and our kids are credit for these types of jobs that are like really spinning very quickly into a whole other realm of of skill so it's got those durable skills the durable things you know they last forever and are Timeless and that's what we got to work on question please good question what's the average length like a partner contract so we're talking about how is it like three years you know obviously so some that have been it various right some have been involved with that particular school for like 20 years like they you are my go-to you were my resource for how we're in that staff are our folks you know for every 10 kids that come through and do internships maybe one will come back from college and we're going to hire that kid in a relationship with them and we know who they are we trust them we know they're going to be uh part of our family and some are probably more short-lived you know as we're approaching the work with the industry and folks um you know in the system of India but having an Advisory Board and we had some real productive conversations about slowing that down a little bit because we're dating our industry Partners right now right we're dating um it's Brett and I have a chuckle about that because we're new at this and we want to make sure that we have a good fit so before we dive in and have an Advisory Board and say you you have this strong influence on what's happening in our school system we want to make sure that there's a good fit and that there's a mutually beneficial you know there's some reciprocity there and what they need and work and what we need and produces that best opportunity for students so um we're gonna We definitely took a step back and are a lot more Collective about our approach and you know the we'll be thinking a little bit slower and making sure that we build relationships with folks to see that it works for everybody as uh as Brent like identified like uh industry need like does he see more in my general Danbury has a lot of different business you see more like in manufacturing is it more companies that Healthcare is beaten down our door right um manufacturing manufacturing is a little bit tougher like there's huge need for it right and then there's you know how do you get the kids you know get to the facilities right so we can't necessarily replicate some of the facilities so we have to really that's a little bit more of a of a tougher run for us although there's a lot of people out there who are also interested in doing that Healthcare is is really huge in this area and um you know everybody wants to get a hold of our CNAs because that's a pipeline to you know many many Health Care you know jobs so it's not just DNA that's the beginning that's not the end goal for for most of the kids we've got kids that have gone to be surgical technicians um you know doing instruments in the in the operating room you can close to six figures you know in some cases um you know the CNAs you get to see your day coming out of high school and you want to be a nurse nursing school is very competitive and direct engineers and programs are 10 times more competitive UConn has like a four percent acceptance rate and you come out of high school and you've got a high school diploma and CNA certificate you've had your patient contact hours squared away and you've been certified in at least three more things you've got all these things and you're ready to go you now become need yourself 10 times more competitive money than your average applicant going into into college so it's not just about getting the CNA ones because it's about positioning for competitiveness beyond the walls of Stanford High School um you know in any regard that's just one example any like feeder from short on yeah so we're going to be growing our own we're hoping to grow our own so it's part of our pathway development and Heather Heather Lorenz was a part of the academy for professional Public Service she's one of the pathway leaders so we have an education pathway and got the law a few others so they work together to talk about those foundational grade 10 of course the goal is to graduate our high school students with a prepare a professional license that's very obtainable obtainable in high school and so we'll get an exposure to early childhood development or understand those things CPR and then the end goal is to get a pair of pro to take that care a protest so you can perhaps this channel on the protest parapro test assessment monsie graduate high school you can come back and you can work as a paraprofessional in our own School District you know possibly working more with the younger grades that really positions you well for experience and exposure do I actually want to be an educator I have the confidence to do this I've learned some classroom management skills I don't understand the appropriate way to interact with parents and to deal with teachers and administration and understand the confidentiality rules and laws there's a lot to learn doing that and while the case repair Pro isn't super great and hopefully working out I've worked on that over the years um the idea is that you've really created a pipeline to be coming from there for education and we're also simultaneously working looking at a lot of our universities right now we've got our new collaboration with posts a few others in Wisconsin but if you have something on our doors they have they have um you know they're offering early college credits so post for example right now for 150 you can take a three credit course and so some of our you know we're looking to do alignments between the three three classes that we're developing and to say hey why not have provide students an opportunity when they're taking this uh a letter grade course in a professional public service that they can also get through credit for three credits at Post University which by the way transfer to any State University Systems as like kind of a cash equivalent right um so we're looking for for lining those things up they'll take us a few years to find all the right matches but we've got a good start on it right now um so kids will come out with certificates of a few college credits and there's about a definitely a better sense of what they want to do or not when they leave Danbury High School right um to enter an executive sessions thanks thanks Brad thank you thank you it's on the agenda it's always a favor
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we've already gone through the exercise of kind of tentatively approving those and recommending those um Justice Just today the state in-house the Senate in-house approved the K-12 budget and so I'll have those actual numbers this year if you remember remember in years past we were bringing recommendations based on tentative approval or you know basically assumptions from the legislature but this year they've done the work and they do have a K-12 budget so um the proposed and adopted budget will reflect actual numbers this year and will get us off to a good start going into next fiscal year jumping into the highlights of this budget revision the main highlights include our 130 ADM as I mentioned um so from December our last revision to this revision our ADM is increased about just over 17 uh from the December budget revision again this uh budget revision aligns all our budget controlled funds which are mainly our maintenance and operations fund and our Capital fund and again this is the final budget revision for fiscal 23.
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Shelley you probably know more of the particulars I'm just going off of the data that was there but again has been successful um the one thing you have to worry about if you're not increasing Your Capacity your secondary tax rate and assessment there's only so much you can only do 10 so if you have 10 out there issued in bonds you may not have any capacity to go out for a bond until you pay down your debt Services enough that you now have capacity to go out for a bond um I we have some capacity and obviously if if you bring in a bunch of homes and we go through uh you know not only homes but if when LG comes in that's going to increase our secondary assess valuation through the roof and so you could sit and go ahead and pass a bond it would cost very limited amount to the taxpayer because in essence The Lion's Share of uh of your tax rate is going to be picked up by LG and some of the other um commercial spaces that will probably be coming in so in the future and that's where you get high wealth districts in terms of secondary assess valuation pass bonds left right and Center because the overall hit to the taxpayer is nominal at best if you go up to Sedona and you see some of the facilities they have on a high school that quite frankly is losing kids so fast they may have to close it down they have state of the art facilities left right and Center because the tax rate is such that every time they pass the bond it was it was two cents on every 100 for the taxpayers so it was no big deal but if you're in a in a smaller Community uh the tax burden is picked up by the taxpayers more than commercials especially out here as an example until we had commercial you're picking it up by basically your your homeowners once commercial comes in that will change so that may change for our district in the next decade once you start to see like I say if LG's coming in and their their plant is now worth 5.5 billion you just change the set us valuation something significantly out here so just a couple things just to see what the upcoming elections are I put in obviously if you have presidential or governor election it creates a definition I'll get to that in a second but I will put in in 2025 right now is prop 123ns so there's a fiscal cliff coming in in January of 2025 and so that that may may have people take a look at whether you want to do an override or not do an override to offset the loss of the 123 and help me out Julian what the number is on 123 how much we get roughly right so it's it's it's decent amount of money that comes in off off prop one two three um just a quick timeline this varies a little bit from hold on hold on just one two three is that like yeah it's limited and has to go to teachers uh it's a little bit broader than the old definition of just teachers but it's it's limited in where you can put it okay um and it was passed uh during ducey's Administration I can't remember the exact year but it was scheduled to Sunset 25.
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we would we will be set for 23 24. that's what the purpose of this action item is is so that we can maintain the status quo with our teacher evaluation plan that we currently have in place wait to get the hopefully soon approved guidelines from the state take that information and then spend next year working with our professional development educator committee to determine if we want to make any changes in our teacher evaluation plan and then have a new plan in place that would come before the board obviously to go into effect in the 24-25 school year [Music] I don't believe so based on the changes that we're hearing maybe coming down the pike so if so we don't want it to be a gotcha I don't know anything more worried about changing anything and they're not you know time yeah any other questions for Kay about this item before we move on to emotion okay um and I'll entertain the motion that's in here somewhere how about this one I moved the Bethany Board of Education approve the adoption of the Connecticut state department of education teacher and administrator evaluation plan flexibilities for the 2023 to 2024 school year yeah [Music] any further questions or discussion before we move on to a vote okay all those in favor please indicate by saying ah [Music] any extensions have your flexibility yay all right we move on to our administrative reports would be me that would be you yes so before I begin my formal uh report I didn't want to take a moment to thank all of our amazing teachers and staff and the work that they do here at BCS day in and day out we're very fortunate to have such wonderful teachers and staff and I hope that this week they really felt the love from the students families and the community members as well as the Board of Education the ice cream truck was a real hit today and while we honored them this week teachers are outstanding professionals that deserve to be respected and valued every day so I encourage everyone to remember how fortunate we are to have our BCS staff today and always right enrollment report numbers keep growing as of April 30th 2023 BCS enrollment is at 434 students you have the historical information in your packet for your reference our kindergarten projections at this time the enrollment for fall is projected to be 56 students we actually have those students registered so we are anticipating three sections those students that are currently enrolled those 56 17 of them were not on Sue's enumeration so there are still at least a dozen or so kindergarten families from the enumeration list that have yet to register at this time my recommendation is to definitely plan to have instructional AIDS in the kindergarten classrooms but to hold on making that final decision until we get closer to the end of June or July as it's really possible for those 12 students to join our ranks which would mean opening Garden keep our numbers you know what we like to have here small sizes and so we had I left this out of my finance report because I know you were going to talk about it plus I forgot but the um the uh we did have a brief discussion about the financial implications of opening a classroom so you know if we have three instructional aids for the three classrooms which is what we would do with the current kindergarten class sizes then that has a cost we need to hire a full-time teacher and Supply a whole new kindergarten classroom that has an incremental cost so we didn't get into the details yet I trust that a budget will be forthcoming when the if and when those decisions need to be made um we are fortunate I mean this is why we have the rainy day fund for the and why why we talk we have talked away surpluses so this is not a terrifying Prospect because we do have the resources tucked away to manage either contentions which is great no it's interesting numbers it's interesting well then you and I have seen them go down and then yeah come back up again it's interesting to see a 38 a year yeah you know I wonder where the peak is going to be yeah because that's all predicated my real estate so then I have a Personnel update um these staff members have submitted their resume we have Belinda mcguran a pair of professional she's given her notice Belinda is leaving us to become a Judicial Marshal uh so she will be off to boot camp her last day Friday we did post her position and we have higher replacement who I'll announce momentarily um we may have Rebecca career day after issues she absolutely would probably come back for career day and the kids would love to see her uh Kim Keller our beloved art teacher she has indicated that she will resign at the end of the school year Mrs Keller is beginning what she calls as her transition into retirement and we wish her well Vanessa Crawley A Team Summit teacher she's indicated that she's had a change of plans during her current Child Care leave and that family circumstances will not allow her to return next year as planned and Carrie McLaughlin who was our former fourth grade teacher that became our part-time instructional aide has resigned due to her personal reasons as we had shared previously in other board meetings however the following step will be joining our BCS team and I'm sorry the paraprofessional Marshall those were effective soon or immediately yes and the others are effective at the end of the school years correct thank you correct um kellyanne Novelli speech language Pathologists will become our new full-time SLP during the 23-24 school year Mrs Novelli has been with us for the majority of this year covering uh Miss Andrea check's maternity leave and we're really pleased that she's going to stay on and become a permanent member of our staff and Sherry Morris will join BCS as a paraprofessional replacing Belinda mcgurn Marshall she's been with us since the beginning of the year as well serving it in various capacities one of our building substitutes we're really pleased to be able to find such good people so quickly and the other positions we'll post [Music] my report any questions [Music] and are you going to do a report at the time maybe about the no typically no so typically our um since the the purpose of the meeting is just to vote on the budget so information about the budget is rolled into the board of finances report and they'll uh both at the at the April meeting that they already had and then at the main meeting they'll have like a slide or two about the school budget um but it will not be dwelled on at any length we will make a point of being there so that any questions or discussion that comes up we're in a position to respond okay because there's there's part of the statutes say that the the Board of Ed is supposed to submit to the town uh a report of the doings of the board not my language that was like I don't know if I've ever heard that out of town meeting but maybe I missed it it's it's I believe if I'm not mistaken and you can correct me if I'm wrong I believe it's submitted in writing and it's or there's a report the town report that's printed has a thing about the board event and it's not presented uh in person or verbally it's presents in writing so that is submitted yeah does it contain our doings all of the doings all of the things yeah so no no no I have seen that it's in the it's in the town report it's a few paragraphs but that's it's not presented at the town meeting it's just submitted in written form and and goes into the towns you know summary report at the end of the year and also Chris just the clarify with the we present it to or Kay and Chris would present it to the town finance committee who then lumps that in with all the other departments in the town and then presents that whole budget to the town so each individual department is not going to do it yeah so we we gave a detailed presentation to the you know with the background and successes and challenges and the details of the budget to the board of Finance but that detailed presentation which is available on the website but that is not given at the town meeting I understand the project this is this was a separate statute from the budget always what does that mean if anyone asks us about our doings we will be prepared okay so keep track of those doing all right any other questions for Kay or discussion about any of the points hearing then we will go on to our director of special services curriculum Etc I want to reiterate what Mrs bird said that the staff here are incredible I have worked in multiple districts and I've been nothing but impressed they're hard-working student-centered dedicated and truly are appreciated and I hope they know that but they just really nothing but impressed with how hard they work and when I say staff it's every single person who's in this building really works together for the sake of the kids so thank you to them and just to update some of the things from the curriculum meeting on April 6 we had Dr Marie Alcock come and work with the teachers again this time was on learning strategies and self navigation tools on May 26th the teachers will work collaboratively on class placements for the 23-24 school year on June 15th Sue Carpenter and I will be providing professional learning on the technological updates in PowerSchool that will allow teachers to use one platform to gain many new resources this will streamline all of the tools and hopefully we'll be supporting teachers better on June 16th the day that was added teachers will continue to work with the curriculum and be reorganizing the prioritized standards to prepare for the 23-24 school year and as you stated previously we haven't heard anything about science of reading waiver everything is looking like it's going to be delayed quite a bit and in special education we have some grant funding that we're going to be utilizing for students with dyslexia and they'll be receiving four weeks of instruction after school on Monday so we're really excited about that and that starts next week thank you very much any questions for Mrs Kiesel or comments on any of the issues that she's reviewed for us how many kids do you have that would participate because of confidentiality I would say it's a fairly small number but it's had to be students with that identification yeah just because it's such a small number I don't want it to be identifiable but yeah small number yeah yeah small number yeah other questions are coming [Music] um so uh by way of steering uh just to let everyone know we're continuing to work with our subcommittees and at this point we're both looking to review some of the work that we've completed from this year and then also looking forward to next year um both around current um work that we're doing and other potential areas of focus and then we're also looking with our steering committee develop next year's professional learning plan so Ms Kiesel brought that to steering committee um and so that's an area that we're really focusing on trying to make sure that we're looking at all the needs of the school across everything from staff meetings to in-service days to the days at the end of the year and the beginning of the year and making sure that we have a really substantive plan um by way of events uh as has been mentioned uh over and over um it's Teacher Appreciation Week um and I think some of the things that I'm always really appreciative of is that um our teachers when you think of teachers and staff you think of folks who are in front of kids and in front of the classroom and working with students and we do an absolutely an amazing and exceptional job with that but there's also the things above and beyond when people are coming in ahead of time to meet and speak about children when we're sitting down and we're talking about students in their programming and you've got folks where they could just be rubber stamping something or letting it go by and they're advocates for kids and their needs and everything that they want for children in every aspect of their day and that's the kind of things where we've got people who are working on steering committee who are working on before and after school programs all those things that are in addition to all the amazing things that they do in front of children and I'm always just amazed by all of the ways in which people give of their time of their effort um and of their care for kids and so it's a great way to be reminded of it this week but they do that all year so I'm just always really appreciative of the folks who are here they're amazing um we are really busy and have been really busy so I'm going to go through a lot of things but I think it's really to that end this all comes with the work and the effort of the staff and the teachers here um so since we last met Spring Track has been starting up and the kids are running around that track and they come in and they are flushing it sure as well and they're so ecstatic and excited um so it's great to see that use for the community but also for our students as well I'm not only out of recess but for Spring Track starting up we had our kindergarten welcome night on April 19th we followed that up with our kindergarten screening on April 27th on April 24th we kicked off our Smarter Balance assessments starting with our pep rally we had all of our third sixth grade students parading on down our kindergarten to first and second grade classrooms had made all banners for them that they now have been hanging up in their rooms as they've been working clapped and celebrated them on out to the to the rest of their work um we had as you heard the mad science uh assembly both for kindergarten to second grade and third to sixth um on April 28th we had our community meeting where we were we were celebrating all of our students let's see sorry we have had our climate survey out last week and are finishing that up this week I just sent reminders out for that so this is a plug please please fill that out um on the 10th that's today we have plant sale amazing um success where as as we've shared we had they had to go and restock twice we have our BMX bike assembly coming up on the 15th on the 17th second grade is going to the Russell Homestead which is connected to some of their work for old school house day on the 17th SEC sorry on the 18th Pre-K is going to Common Ground for a field trip on the 23rd kindergarten is going to Massaro Farm on the evening of the 23rd we're having our art showcase and I hear we might have some poetry reading I'm super excited um on the 24th our sixth grade is going to Amity field day on the 25th um fifth grade is taking a field trip to Sturbridge Village are you keeping up it's all and this is the key it's all humans and people here working to make these kind of things happen for kids right uh old school house day is planned for the week of the 29th the rain date would be the week of um the 5th on May 31st our fifth grade students are going to steam day at the high school on June 2nd we have our first grade field trip to the Beardsley Zoo on June 5th we have our sixth grade Awards assembly um on June 6th uh on June 6th we have field day our rain date is the 7th on June 8th we have our sixth grade field trip to the Science Center on June 9th we are tentatively planning to um to open up the Time Capsule super excited trying to get all of those plans and thoughts together there um on June 9th um we are also working on our kindergarten promotion and then June 13th we cap off with our sixth grade promotion ceremony hopefully utilizing our new Pavilion so um we have been and are super busy and I'm really excited for all of these things a lot of which are now finally returning post pandemic so we're really excited we just had a conversation um with some of the PTO and Joe De Luca just planning out some things for field day so lots of great things happening and a lot of great things for kids I'm really excited wonderful can you do that again I can I have it all written down thank you any questions for Mr Reeves well comments on any other things okay next is Chairman's report um it's always awkward to say the same thing that all the funny said some things are worth repeating uh and that is how fortunate we are as a community to have our teachers here it's something I want to say in particular we've talked about um teacher turnover and how we have staff we do have a young staff and we frequently have new people coming in and so it's remarkable that each and every individual on our staff is as dedicated and committed and wonderful for our kids as they are it's equally remarkable in it when we have turnover that we as a group as a school maintain those values maintain that community so so I want to applaud both the teachers as individuals but also the community that all of you have built over time which which uh you know which which you know continues uh year to year decade to decade in the service of the kids do we have any correspondence okay we move on to our second opportunity for visitors public comments is there anyone here who'd like to speak to the board at this time at the end okay please come to the podium foreign hello I'm Shannon Lane I have a second grader and a fourth grader and um as Chris said everybody has already said this but it's worth repeating um that we we are very lucky to have the teachers we do um and I I appreciate that I think the pto's done a great job in highlighting not just our teachers this week but you know the paraprofessionals and the cafeteria folks and the janitorial staff and all of the other people who who make BCS run and make it possible for our kids to learn the way they do and I just wanted to say thank you to all of those folks and to those of you who are here tonight the school board and the administrators who who are supporting the teachers this this weekend and uh always um I also wanted to say I had the opportunity this last week to meet our another new addition to our staff our new school social worker and I'm just really appreciative that the school is continuing to put resources into all of the different needs that our kids have and I think that's really important and I'm grateful for it and the last thing I have to say is nothing to do with teachers but I came in the other day and noticed that one of the speed humps in front of the building is gone and I know that I'm one of the people who changed the way that I drove in front of the school when those showed up and it's been it's felt a lot safer particularly towards town hall with the parks and rec kids out there to have them and so I just wanted to say I'm sure that there was a reason it came out but I just wanted to say it would be great to to hear about that in maybe a future board meeting and just to know that we're continuing to look at all the ways to keep the physical safety of our kids important in this way so thank you very much thank you hi Paula Co Francesco Shannon I'm going to answer your concern the bump that we removed was the town bump the other ones belong to the school and the reason it was removed is because we had vehicles and trucks that were speeding through the town parking lot to avoid that bump and then we had trucks and vehicles that were actually going the wrong way out through the town hall parking lot to avoid that bump so to make it safer um people and there is a tiny bump there still but we were just trying to make it safer because Vehicles were zipping through to avoid that bump and especially because they were going in the wrong direction and especially a dismissal or during the day people and kids getting out of cars we felt safety was first so I just wanted to address why that bump was taken out I think people were actually stopping even though it was gone it was just habit so but there is a slight bump that is still there so it was a safety issue and that's why it was removed okay can we have your address um 27 North hummerston Drive sorry okay um that brings us to the end of our public meeting we do have an executive session schedule um so I will move that we enter an executive session we'll then take a brief break five minutes um and then we'll resume the board will reconvene here in executive session thank you all for coming this evening so I moved it to Bethany Board of Education entered into executive session to discuss the superintendent's evaluation and
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