or is it from 345 to 311 to 308. I think 325. and then it would be the variance of taking the parking out which would then still put them above 1ar District allows 300 for far which is the ratio percentage of the lot it's 300 of the lot area that's your building size and then there is and so that that's just 300 percent and that floor area um is 216 444 square feet right then you can go 8 000 square feet above that so to 224 000. right so with the pedestrian amenity premium the the way it's worded it says that you take your the 300 percent what that number is and then you can add 8 000 square feet so there's no sort of Max cap but if you do them but if you do that they may still stay yeah they'd be maxed out but the 8000 yeah but if you do for the the extra square footage that we are in debate about yeah and if you do the math the 300 uh 300 far Plus 8 000 square feet that's 311.
I'm just trying to understand this so am I am I understanding this right when it looks like I guess the easiest way to to visualize this is slide 17 this the blue line is where where we'd be if we spent 20 million dollars a year the black line is where we'd be if we did not spend 20 million dollars a year that's correct it would just pile up from where we are too okay so those two lines up until 2029 pretty much there's not a big gap there we don't see a you know a huge Spike until 2029 um is there I guess is the is the benefit worth the ask of our taxpayers for a hundred million dollars when it seems like we could wait until 2029 and we'd be at almost at about the same place we are now could we give the taxpayers a break for until 2029 and then ask for some money to to do some of these things because in both the the black line and the blue line they don't neither of them Spike until 2029.
I have a three of pre-approved Committee of the whole meeting minutes April 11th 2023 item four approved Committee of the whole closed session meeting minutes of April 11 2023 item five approved special meeting minutes of May 9 2023 item six approved special meeting closed session minutes of May 9th 2023.
actually um and this is specific to surveys it administered through doe funds or is that the updated versions the new one has that yeah 25 years old needs a revision yeah Federal program and so the other one also includes that is obviously much more robust in the one pager you see before I am this would apply to like the free reduced lunch survey or at least that came out of this somehow if it's a federal program yeah I guess you know I foreign I was talking to the new policy person that came who's a former superintendent and we were racking everything I can't I don't know if you can remember Department of Ed ever issuing a survey that would address these things I don't remember the number issue with the survey um now they talked about some of the research surveys that dob does when they've been was doing research on this but it really had more to do with the Collegiate level um at the public school level but I think you'll see if you if we look at the proposed policy um that you know you'll see some of the similar language about that we administer surveys to learn like you know safe School climbing and things like that uh the Board of Ed must approve those that are received by the superintendent include that these are the that was not in that other policy through the doe right yeah these are through the DOE um reference to any of these factors so this is this has been the same if it's v-o-e funded survey however where it's um enhanced is even if it's not a doe funded survey there are a number of Provisions you'll see that we follow now in this proposal that you know would it would address notifications so um any time that we're gathering information on the list if it's something that is doe funding funded it requires sign consent if it's not and I you know even if you look at the list um I can't think of places where you don't ask questions about the political affiliations mental or psychological problems of the student or the student's family may come in definitely the illegal anti-social sexual behavior this is for uh our older students on the uh developmental asset survey that Michelle picarillo talked about in our last board meeting does get into this stuff if you go back I forwarded you the the developmental asset survey results the from the last you'll see I mean it does talk about when are kids engaging in sexual behavior at what age you know stuff like that it's none of its personally identifiable but it does ask for it's all Anonymous when you say it's Anonymous houses taken is taken online or is it taken hard copy online yes to like a Google form no no uh I'll just say if I'm taking a survey online I don't buy it that it's not a mess yeah and I'm not saying that it's not I'm saying I just don't believe it and my guess is is the whole survey we'll have a subset of students who just are not going to believe that it's Anonymous they may answer the questions honestly or not just pointing that out yeah because I know I've got this conversation with a bunch of different people yeah yeah maybe I mean there's I don't know if my dad was a cop he always said Humpty Dumpty was pushed they're going to be shut up for people um I appreciate that but um so you know things that delve into this stuff the only one I can really recall is the developmental asset survey is a good number of these right down to the religious practices not you know are you affiliated with a religious practice you know because of the developmental asset survey is um it's asking how many positive research-based positive connections do you have in life do you have frequent um connections with family members like grandparents and things like that because research says the more that kids do the generally the better the outcomes are for those kids so we will be asking like do you do you go to are you connected to Church synagogue whatever um and what's the Frequency now again it doesn't tell me who the student is but it tells us about all this you know the ninth graders at Cheshire High X percent say that you know they they are connected to this degree to their religious beliefs or to you know X percentage are engaging in you know smoking marijuana or something like that it kind of gives us a picture of the kids and the community what they're saying um and how do we support the development of positive Assets in their life and I think that that survey that I shared with you guys the results from the last time we did that really does a nice job of articulating that and it's something that Southington does it I'm more of a community-wide basis so they have like a the Community Committee that's dedicated to the developmental Assets in providing more developmental assets and that you know we talked about things that perform your budget and stuff they they're deeply tied into the developmental assets or that but that's the only one I can think of that really covers Us it's not a governmentally funded um and so you know as you go further into this parents have the right to inspect other requests or father request surveys created by Third parties and stuff we we do that now so like when we send out the developmental assets survey we will tell people you know it's going to be administered on this day if you want to see it you can't come in and take pictures of it because it's you know all proprietary I guess you can review it you can look at it and anybody who's ever seen the um the uh the executive summary that I sent you would know what the questions are basically anyway because you can see it right there but you can come in and observe you know review everything like that uh if it's not uh if the survey is not funded by the federal government so it's not a federal government survey you must be given prior notice of the survey with the opportunity to opt out uh but written consent is not required and what I like about this um policy is that when it gets down to notification and we we would send this every year to all parents like all parents would see this this gives you know uh information about different surveys uh how where you would opt out how you would inspect surveys uh and then we notify parents which is the I I like this part here so if we're going to give any surveys that address any of these issues and you know the the school climate survey I mean maybe you can make an argument that addresses this I don't know I think it's a bit of a stretch but maybe oh you're getting climate so it does have yeah indirectly because the comments that students write yeah can kind of get a feel for the tone yes well-being I mean I certainly think yeah so if anything here that you're talking about maybe the mental or psychological issues and other climate survey but we at the beginning of the year send this to them with the date that it's going to be administered to the grade level what the survey is a summary of the survey um and then you know if it's sign permission slip if it's a funded survey and then directions on how to opt out or review it if it's not so climate is not uh federally funny right that's something we just do right so but you would still be notified if we're saying that this is without falling in the second section of opt out and yes right but I think what we should do the uh um so that's an opt-out version there's a parent I can tell you if if you sent me this notice in August before school starts which is what we would do the likelihood that I'm going to remember it in March um is zero so I would recommend that we send it out a month in advance of the survey of the surveys that we're doing even if we set this in this would be like a parent Square type distribution yeah that we would send it I mean we could have send it five weeks four weeks both five weeks out just reminder four weeks out is what's the is there a requirement for the August distribution yeah okay yeah I mean from people I've talked to who do surveys professionally yeah um and this is really just anecdotal I think this is what they do the first notice is often not done at the moment in time I will get to it later and it is forgotten and then when the second notice is sent that's when you get a much better response rate oh sure yeah so I mean because they feel guilty at that point that they hadn't done me oh damn I was supposed to do this one yeah I mean every everybody that's a parent I mean or anything interesting being I guess you've probably been through well even the parent what's it that all of the um not parent it's not parent handbook but the all the forms you Society oh yeah you get multiple reminders information at the beginning of the year yeah it is it's tough at the beginning of the year and this probably adds to this to a degree so the I don't think it's fair to think that any parent who's going through this in August is gonna I mean we'll they'll be like seven parents who will actually really read and process this and the rest of them will be like okay not an immediate issue moving on yeah but I think that we would send the the protocol that we would design and you know discuss here is to you know someone out like five weeks in advance of the survey Administration another one in four four weeks in advance so we could do it you know three times five four three uh before the administration are you naming the frequency on this subject or you're just waiting you can okay we can I think we should um feeling you out about you know what do you think is I think it should be more than once but I don't really want to tie your hands and tell you if it should be two three or four times depending on the situation it might only be let's say it's a survey to Chapman relatively small what is it 200 kids 100 families you get 90 responses 100 responses after the second one I don't watch you required to send a third yeah yeah I think I think you should have the flexibility just um at least my belief that if you send it out once that's like if something goes wrong you'd be like well I told you but that's ridiculous twice I think it's but keep in mind I mean you're talking about surveys that have a pretty Limited scope here we don't do this every day we really don't do it period I mean we developmental asset survey like I said definitely and that the last time that was administered I don't even remember it was pre-covered was that Michelle yeah Michelle yeah she said 2018.
we could we have the dinner event on the 19th so I don't think that would make sense or be reasonable um the week before um is graduation week so it's kind of a kind of a lost week if you will with the middle school and high school graduation we have some rain dates on uh I'm just throwing a bunch of dates now so so forgive me how about a seven o'clock morning meeting well there's no conflict in my calendar at seven that's for sure [Laughter] or the 15th if we don't have um we have the 13th is probably the safest one if we don't have a rain date on Tuesday is open in terms of afternoon because we've kept it clear you know and planning for a rain date um so if that's okay for the committee we can go June 13th on a Tuesday what time um whatever is convenient for the convenient for the committee if you want to keep the same time six o'clock or you want earlier all the above work for me because right now I'm I'm clear just in case we have graduation on that day ISO move for the 13th that kid 's okay with me okay we'll put it on the calendar for six o'clock unless you want it earlier okay I gotta get home I get out at 5 30.
I've attended Liberty for all four years of high school and through my time here I've been awarded the order of the crest ran the National Honor Society and now I've received the honor and privilege of introducing the salutatorian and valedictorian Marissa Brad Brazier and Noah Schneiderman I've had the pleasure and great honor of being in the class of 2023 with these two undeniably intelligent individuals Marissa our salutatorian first would like to thank Mr Capra Miss alicio Senora Richie Miss Costas and Miss Weber for getting her to this moment you all have been beyond supportive and we're always willing to stay late or come in early to see her succeed your selflessness has inspired her and many others and for that we all thank you Marissa herself is an active student at Liberty a phenomenal student with a GPA of 4.551 a member of the Spanish National Honor Society and the National Honor Society and a tutor to students in math and chemistry her commitment to her community is undeniably one of her best attributes you'll notice that today she is not delivering a salutatorian address nor does she need to over the past four years I have never met anyone as loud as Marissa not verbally as you may be expecting but in her courageous actions and incredible capacity to lead by example Marissa is one of the few people I know who has such powerful actions that they are louder than words could ever be I am proud to have worked with Marissa throughout high school and cannot wait to see her succeed at Colorado College where she will study biochemistry as I award her this Medallion please join me in recognizing Marissa's success with a round of applause [Applause] and now to move on to the man the myth the mathematician Noah Schneiderman [Music] [Applause] many of you know Noah as a math whiz and a genius both of these titles are undeniably true a true scholar with a GPA of 4.555 a phenomenal athlete excelling in track year after year and a dedicated student to all the programs he participates in if you're ever looking for him he may be hard to find he could be at knowledgeable Science Olympiad French Club and fnhs a National Honor Society meeting or playing as oboe in Wind Ensemble instead of continuing to summarize his entire High School career I'd like to tell you a little bit more about Noah as a person when I asked his closest friends how they would describe Noah they told me things like smart Innovative inspiring but one response stuck out to me the most balanced for many of us it's hard to find balance we don't know where the line is between too much time partying and having a complex social life or studying too much Noah has taught many of us that it is possible for us to do both and not only to do both but to thrive at every aspect of each I'm excited to see what Noah will do when attending the University of Oklahoma to study meteorology I'd like you all to join me in a round of applause as I award him with this Medallion and welcome him to the podium [Applause] thank you Peyton for those kind words of introduction good afternoon everyone it's my absolute honor and pleasure to be standing here today addressing you as Liberty's valedictorian [Music] [Applause] before I begin I'd like to recognize some of the many people who helped make this day possible Liberty High School's teachers our Administration and our principal Mr Sisson as well as the District 20 school board and superintendent Mr Gregory and we can't forget about the parents and honored guests who are here with us today and of course the Liberty High School class of 2023.
it is now my pleasure to introduce this year's student speaker at large Eli Boston Eli is joined tonight by his mother and father Alexia and Steve Bastian brother Luke Bastian and family friend Tristan green thank you I was walking through the grocery store searching for something anything that could bring to the French food party that happened to be next class I checked my phone to see the time 11 35 the end of lunch and 10 minutes before the start of blue 3. I rushed through the grocery store's aisles grabbed a bag of the most french-looking pretzels I could find and headed for the checkout line when it's finally my turn I handed the cashier an elderly woman with curly gray hair and a pleasant smile my bag of pretzels as she inquired about my plans after high school her eyes beamed with life as if my response was the most important thing in the world her smile lifted my spirits until she asked and how do you plan on being successful taken aback by her question I chuckled slightly so that I wasn't that I was still trying to figure that out and then paid for the pretzels and ran out of the store her words began to haunt me what does success look like and what does it mean to actually be successful as I rushed to French class I found myself examining the lives of those around me wondering are they successful are they how about them I finally worked up the courage to open the door and enter the classroom and face the inevitable stairs of my peers I repeatedly apologize for my tardiness and raced to the protection of my seat it was then that I reflected on my shortcomings and inability to meet the perfect expectations that I had placed on myself the voices in my head took the spotlight and their Echo paralyzed me I began doubting every decision that I made and compared my life with those around me and although I was staring at the same Eiffel Tower lined walls I found myself in a completely different world my entire Rampart career flashed before my eyes every time I showed a blade to class missed a question on an exam forgot a responsibility or made a joke that people did not find funny it guaranteed that I was destined to remain forever stagnated in the quicksand of mediocrity success is so often defined by wealth accomplishments Fame and the ability to appear perfect but as long as we try to convince the rest of the world that we are successful the manipulative voice in our head will remain our compass that guides our every thought action and desire and so how do we regain control over our minds and surrender our addiction to comparison and how do we redefine the meaning of success as I left school that afternoon and returned home I found my answer there were two young girls drawing with chuck on the sidewalk along with their blue and yellow outfits they both sported the brightest most infectious Smiles as they concentrated on their shared artistic masterpiece together they transform the otherwise mundane sidewalk into remarkable canvas upon which they drew a rainbow a heart and a radiant sun with the word smile underneath it struck me seemingly out of nowhere but success looks like a smile like eyes that see the world with empathy and love like a courageous rainbow that stares guard after a terrifying storm it sounds like a thank you like a shared story from which nobody can escape an inevitable embarrassment it sounds like a laugh that inspires a community and it feels like the tickle of the early morning Breeze like a shoulder to cry on and like a warm embrace class of 2023 when you stare at the sidewalk what do you see the ordinary and the mundane for a canvas and an opportunity to create something truly special and when you pick up that piece of chalk what do you choose to draw what makes you happy what do you love when you reflect on your life on your experiences and on your memories will the sidewalk be painted or will it remain a blank surface simply waiting to be colored by an artist with the courage to follow their heart success lies within each and every one of us all we have to do is pick up the chalk your friend Eli thank you at this time it is my honor to introduce the rampart choir under the redirection of Miss Ellie Hackbarth who will perform Looking Out My Window [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] I don't know [Applause] it is my pleasure to introduce Mr Tom Gregory superintendent of Academy School District 20.
so this year as I stand before you making my final graduation speech I think we share some of the same feelings over the past week I've experienced a host of emotions I've been excited anxious eager nervous exhausted and ready to turn off the alarm clock and sleep in maybe you too have experienced some of these same emotions but when I'm not thinking about how great it will feel to sleep in I find myself reflecting reflecting on over the past year and over the past 33 years graduation day is certainly a day of Celebration but I think it's also a natural day of reflection for all of us including those in the audience when I reflect on the past 33 years of working in education I realize that in that time I've learned a lot and experienced a lot and have been impacted by thousands of people you too in your 13 years of school have learned a lot and experienced a lot and been impacted by many people our experiences could fill books or maybe these days get lots of likes or something throughout my life and career I've been fortunate to be around some very special people they have helped me in so many ways but often I was so wrapped up in the moment or consumed with how busy I was or thinking about what was coming next I didn't take the time to acknowledge impactful people and simply say thank you so if I could go back I would say thank you more often specifically while I have the mic I will say thank you retrospectively to one person Ms Flory this floor is one of my High School Math teachers she not only made math interesting and fun she made me feel confident in my mathematical knowledge and abilities and believe me they were very average at the time she was passionate about math but delivered her instruction with compassion and care for students she taught me that math was important but it was not the most important thing little did she know at that time that I would pursue math as an undergraduate and finish with a degree in mathematics so today I say thank you to miss Flory this floor is one person I wish I had thanked years ago I have so many more people to thank for their impact on me but I will spare you you get the idea take time Before 40 years pass to show gratitude to the special people in your lives so today I encourage you to move forward with gratitude thank all those who support you encourage and lift you up not only will it make them feel great it will also make you feel great in fact research shows gratitude has several benefits living with gratitude improves your overall health grateful grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and Report feeling healthier than others grateful people sleep and feel better and more rested and maybe most importantly those who spread thanks and share gratitude report lower levels of stress higher levels of self-esteem and make and keep friends easier it's hard to argue with those benefits cultivating gratitude what I like to call developing an attitude of gratitude is one of the most overlooked Tools in our toolboxes the simple Act of saying thank you is mutually beneficial and will lead lead you to a happier and more successful life in the future my Reflections in the past week also reminded me to keep the most important things in life at the Forefront and not let the little things dominate your time or treasure I will close with a short story adapted from a college classroom that best summarizes this concept a teacher stood before her class and had some items in front of her she silently picked up a large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls she then asked the students if the jar was full they agreed that it was the teacher then picked up a box of small Pebbles and poured them into the same jar she shook the jar lightly the Pebbles rolled into the open spaces between the golf balls and she asked the students again if the jar was full again they agreed it was the teacher next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar and gave it a gentle Shake the sand filled up the remaining voids she asked once more if the jar was full the students responded this time with a bit more frustrated but unanimous yes now said the teacher I want you to imagine that this jar represents your life the golf balls are the most important things like your family your faith your health your friends your passions and if everything else was lost and only the golf balls remained your life would still be full the Pebbles are the other things that matter possibly like School your home your career your job the sand is everything else the very small stuff now think about what would happen she said if you filled the jar with sand first there would be no room for the Pebbles or the golf balls the same goes for life if you spend all of your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are most important the things that really matter pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness spend time with your siblings your parents your faith visit with friends take your grandparents out to dinner play another 18.
okay great thank you my questions um since this is a uh our first mass Timber residential development I think in the state of Michigan right because there is one last number what's that first tall Mass Timber tall okay good uh thank you for that qualifier um in Ann Arbor could you just take a moment and talk about this material uh because it's new and then um can you talk about it sustainability um uh benefits as well and I think you had a slide about the capture card carbon and then um can you explain uh both the height so the limitation I know you just said that the you're using a a newer version of the international building code and so you have a cap of 85 feet for that but you are also developing the building on top of a either a Podium or some kind of concrete still base so could you talk about those things yes as well just for a moment uh yeah I'll start with the with the code I guess so that so this is where uh Michigan we work with the 2015 Michigan building code this is adopted Statewide uh the state we've been working with close uh colleagues at Michigan State University Department of Forestry uh lobbying State uh representatives and people working at Lara to update the go to the 2021 IBC which has Provisions for a new building type which is for engineered Mass Timber and Tall Mass Timber buildings so anything now you see out um buildings have been built with wood and mass timber for a long time and they've been predominantly up to five stories that's what's allowed now with the new building code that's adopted by the 2021 IBC which will be adopted in Michigan hopefully shortly that would allow us to build with exposed Mass Timber up to eight stories of residential and 85 feet from the ground plane so that's where the 85 feet is a cap from the ground round and not from the concrete Podium level we can't get any more height out of that by strictly staying to that building type and not adding a variance on top of that this is a building material that the wild glulam beams and columns have been used for for a while engineered Lumber like that cross laminated Timber is used for the floor decking which is a fairly new invention from the from the 90s that is used for entire floor decking with a concrete topper on top of that so there's a lot of mass in that floor decking and it also offers fire resistance rating for the floor that's another big change of how we can build tall with with mass Timber is that it offers really good fire resistance um and that's what's required for residential buildings um so from that we've you know for for its carbon so a tree growing is going to capture a lot of carbon over over its lifespan and this is going to use a lot of lumber the lumber being forested in forests is as we've learned for the past uh we've been going to the mass Timber conference from last year Sydney spoke at the mass Timber conference in Portland this year about this project we've learned that deforestation is not really is not a is not producing Lumber in in the United States it's not a forest stewardship managed way of producing Lumber and that Forest need good for Manchester management to keep biomass from falling down and then drying out and then burning causing these massive wildfires fires out in the Pacific Northwest so when a tree falls and burns it releases all that carbon so we're taking it cutting trees down in a sustainable way that is then going to be replanted putting into a building that is uh sequestering a lot of that carbon in the building so this diagram and chart you see here this is how much carbon it would take to to produce this building versus a typical concrete build construction and versus typical Steel Con steel construction so already we're about half of the carbon that it takes to build a building this is I mean these are the real numbers what it takes to build buildings it takes a lot of energy it's 193 000 mature trees of carbon in one year and 4 000 over 4 000 flights but what using wood it's sequestering about 80 percent of that carbon that otherwise is being produced into the atmosphere and keeping it inside the the building and then new trees are planted and sequester more carbon and the cycle continues so that's the that's the really great sustainable um product of mass Timber and then it has to be on a concrete Podium because of the use underneath to separate um you know we have we have cars parking underneath and we have other commercial uses we have electrical rooms we have generator rooms that we need a certain level of fire resistance between that and other parts of the building so that's why the podium is required by building code to be concrete but we're doing as much wood as we can thank you this question no it's a helpful question or answer um I think this question now is for staff Miss DeLeo if you could just walk me through again the the um the setbacks the 10 foot and 19 and the five so I think my understanding is because they're exceeding the setbacks in other parts of the development they are developing to the 50 minimum of that zoning area which would be 10 so 50 of it would be five so they would fit that but we are rejecting what is in the zoning ordinance and is required are requesting 19 instead um uh not so much of a rejection but but uh yeah but but an add-on going above and beyond so yes the c1a slash our district requires a 10-foot setback from the front lot line this site has four front lot lines no side no rear um the evolution of uh planned projects um we um expanded a little bit of the flexibility it's in a section of code that allows for alternatives to um setbacks and yards the yard meeting the space between the lot line and the building that is the front yard example um the C1 air slash our district requires 10 foot minimum for upset back all mixed-use zoning districts can reduce a minimum front setback half if then you increase another setback to balance the whole thing out and so they are um I guess a video they started with 10 feet on all four sides um shifted the building to five feet on the State Street side they can give you maybe more specific exactly the calculations but in the end the total amount of front setback area remains equal or more than the minimum required the but setbacks are taken from the lot line and here the atom you might need to remind me the dimensions but um the then the public right of the public sidewalk is in the public right-of-way side and it might be 10 feet um between the curb and then the five foot tree lawn and the five foot sidewalk that might be ten feet so this building would be 15 feet from the curb of State Street which is not terrible but given the number of occupants in the building a five foot sidewalk is just too is too tight it's not very it's not going to be very comfortable you can imagine um two people passing by it's on a sidewalk five feet wide is fine but if you have 30 people trying to make it to a nine o'clock class or whatever you're going to want an eight foot wide sidewalk and you don't want that sidewalk too close to the street because there's there's things passing by you you want all that space so the ideal amount of space between the back of the curb and the building phase is 19 feet this project by minimum code that they is let's call it 15 for discussion purposes so we asked them to voluntarily push it back farther on all sides so that 19 feet is achieved between the back of the curb and the building face and this is more than the minimum we'll accept per the zoning standards which would be um five feet from the lot line and then whatever Dimension it is then from the curb so if I can clarify thank you and you know we I've emailed I emailed you this and you answer and so I I just want to make sure I fully understand it so the way that I read the motion however was that staff was recommending postponement and made this conditional so that's why I said that it was rejecting this at the beginning and but in your description just now you talked about it as a voluntary request of the development so is there is there any distance in those terms or is that a difference without a distinction well I tried to just think I tried to be very clear with the applicant team like what would it take for the step staff support right I had two two principles I thought that the building needed 19 feet from the back of the curb to the building face because it is a sort of urban style building going in a residential scale and I thought that for consistency and uniformity that it needs to have a measurement of mass that is 300 percent far Plus 8 000 square feet because that's what the minimum standards are and they are meeting the my 19-foot request but the building they did not reduce the size of the building so the building okay I'm sorry you just said something new they are meeting the 19 so is that longer in the the the post bone met so when you when you emailed me on Friday it was the postponement was conditioned on that 19-foot and so now that it's being met I honestly cannot remember exactly what I wrote on Friday okay but I did not mean to imply that the postponement is sort of the totality there are outstanding staff comments right across departments so there were two there were two I'm just I am if if you will permit me I just want Clarity so that I understand because I'm going to do something in a moment and I want to make sure the thing I do is the right thing and and this is how we disabuse me of that now so the and let me just net it out I don't understand why we were postponing this this is a referral to city council so council is going to get this there's going to get a first reading then there's going to be a second Reading Plus a public hearing they have to go to zba this feels like an unnecessary delay uh in a process that is already ongoing so given that I haven't been working with the developer for a year and you have I want to defer to make sure I understand what you are communicating to us at the table and when I emailed and we exchanged and thank you so much quite prompt quite exhaustive I really appreciate your um uh response to me it seemed there were two things and the two things were the developer needed to meet a 19 foot minimum setback and the developer needed not to exceed 300 far is that did I read that correctly I know there's all the staff comments yeah so that the traffic and all those things but so those were my two original stipulations for my support of the zoning designation okay and they have met one of them okay the building is does provide 19 feet for whatever manner yes and so now the issue is the far which is up to zba uh it is okay sure if I could so uh so we I just want to sort of echo that we we did have some staff conversation in this and the question of the site plan before you is does it meet the requirements of our code and in its current configuration it does not you could do that and that is that is achievable in a couple of ways one the Planning Commission could deny the site plan because the proposed zoning does not the proposed side plan does not comply with the zoning that's being asked for and so that that's one scenario the second scenario is the Planning Commission could uh approve the site plan without postponement subject to uh or conditioned upon the granting of a variance by the zoning board of appeals that has not happened yet I want I want to sort of stick in I don't want to speak for Alexis but I want to speak in for my voice um this petitioner as as noted we think the c1a r is an appropriate zoning district for it the notion that there are hardships around this particular completely new development on basically what's going to be completely a blank slate property seems like a heavy lift from my perspective but that's not my decision to make that's the zoning board of appeals and so in the context of that timing I just want to be clear you could absolutely go against any recognition to postpone if you wanted to do so it would have to be with the full knowledge that this site plan has presented does not meet the c1ar zoning that is being asked for by the petitioner and if that's if you wish to do that I would recommend strongly that it is conditioned upon the granting of that variance by the Zoning Board of Appeals so I have two follow-up questions is it okay chair give mine okay well the first one okay so um the first question is then why are we seeing this now and not after the zba well there's there's no requirements that one has to happen before the other um I think there's merits actually in both um that the zoning board of appeals uh could consider it earlier or the Planning Commission considered earlier I I just want to be clear there's no right or wrong answer to that in this case we were intending to bring this uh to you obviously it's scheduled to this agenda we have to make that decision about a month in advance the coalescing of the fact that this was scheduled before the zoning board of appeals and the fact that over that time period since we were aspiring to have all staff comments related except for that outstanding one that's what my recommendation was then at that point uh to Mr Leo is to given the fact that we had so many outstanding technical comments and the fact that this question remains to the zoning board of appeals I thought it was appropriate to bring here for preliminary feedback from the Planning Commission or action contingent upon that but it gives the Planning Commission actually the opportunity if you would like to transmit any comment to the zoning board of appeals in regards to this petition but you've been very clear at the table that we are Separate Tables you are somebody else we should not use our table to influence what they do at their table because when we've talked about EV Chargers when we've talked about whether those are there are two churches I think that came through and I know I had a whole host of questions um like oh can we send a like we approve this but put a note on it and you told me that would be inappropriate and so I'm I'm just trying to understand because I'm confused yeah would it confused that a development that does not meet our zoning is at the table being asked for us to vote on it it would seem that that doesn't make sense it's non-conforming and I don't understand why we would approve something that is not conforming this has nothing to do with your development this is a staff question that I'm trying to understand because it's a fair critique I would say that in the past um and I think part of that is is I wanted to bring that notion this is a complex project you might recall the Villages of Ann Arbor was another example it was just a relatively large project and we thought that there might be some complexities and aspects of the project that actually warranted maybe a couple of a couple of reviews by the Planning Commission it's not necessary again you know I I guess I would I would turn that around I would not get so focused on why it's here you you have the opportunity now to consider this proposal and the desire you want I just want to be clear but it it's if if I can yeah it is disorienting to hear you say that because you know when commissioner dish brought the last development to uh the when you introduced last night the Pud that we approved against uh staff recommendation uh Council had a very strong sort of reaction to that like why are we getting this thing that staff has denied and then planning is approving and so I'm just confused I'm really really confused it doesn't seem like we want to have these kinds of developments and and I'm getting mixed messages I'm getting messages that says we're in a housing crisis we need to develop and then we get developers who go out acquire land do very Innovative things they've answered I think almost everything we've asked at the table in this development and yet we can't actually approve it well because if if I'm understanding correctly we can't actually approve it because it's non-conforming to to the zoning that's incorrect you can approve this if you if you desire to approve it you can approve it and that I would but I would advise that you you are a regulatory body okay and so your job is uh is not to um you don't have the ability always to make a decision absence absent the parameters of our code and nor do we as staff and so we do our best and it's not always linear it's not always easy frankly and we try our best to find those balances in this case if you desire I just want I just want to be crystal clear that you can the Planning Commission is full within your authority to approve this if you do that I would highly recommend that you are concluding that it will meet the requirements of the UDC on the condition that the zoning board of appeals determines to grant that there is something unique about this site and the cons the characteristics of this project that warrant deviation from the requirements of the c1ar zoning District you can do you can absolutely do that I would not advise that you approve this site plan at 340 or 311 or 345 percent far and conclude that it meets the requirements of the c1ar district okay and then to the developer if zba denies you if you go back to your parking thing are you able to do the build to do the development inside the 300 far because another question that I asked uh to staff when I saw this is where does this fit within our zoning and the the only thing that would make this work at your far would be a D1 right right or a PUD because then you don't have the same kind of height restrictions and and we can Flex the far so and I forgot my planning book I actually I've been carrying my planning book today I've been looking at everything no seriously I I have actually spent a lot of time on this on this development because I am I am confused and I can go get you one what's that I can go get you one no no no not the UDC I carry the UDC and my I have it annotated I know I've I have all those things there I'm talking about my uh planner citizen planners book that I got from the extension uh MSU because they walk through all these things and and that's why I was pushing back Mr Leonard was the because it sounds like we're being asked to approve a non-conforming development and I think I appreciate your Clarity I'll let the developer answer my question and then I'll see to my colleagues so yeah I mean if we if we do not we have a tough choice to make of there's 24 000 square feet that also could be taken away from housing which we definitely don't want to do and the the infeasibility of pushing the parking down and the storm water Vault down doesn't uh doesn't work either then it's either no park that's accessible or uh no no parking which is still somewhat needed in this this area as we've heard from other concerns but you could build a development with no parking and then that would be the cost and that would get us inside the far that would meet Miss deleos requirements since you've already met the 19.
so um so a couple of comments about that um so uh the the fear there is that the need would be so great by the time you hit 2029 that now you're going to have to sell a large amount of bonds all at once that's going to definitely adversely impact the taxpayer because it's going to hit their their tax rate because you have to amortize that out over the time frame I think the other thing is that orange bar throughout the bottom of the graph is still considered poor so the yellow line is fair and green is good so the Orange is poor so we would be going into that poor range um by next year so I mean there's just some some things to to consider but those are those are the the reality of what what would happen it would be difficult to catch up all at once um but it's not impossible but but I I think we wouldn't necessarily need to catch up all at once because we're not catching up all at once if we ask the taxpayers this time right so we would be maintaining in that poor range for the next because that that Gap is still 20 million dollars every year so we would be encroaching and getting to that criticality of the red closer and closer Even after spending 20 million dollars every year so you know we'd have to we'd have to take a look at it if we're on so we'd have to take a look at it anyway if we're unsuccessful in November yeah I I get I guess a big concern of mine is that we're going to ask the taxpayers for 20 million for 100 million dollars and in and then there won't according to this chart there will not be a time in our future unless some of those things that you said you know the the facilities board you know comes through and gives us what we need um but it just doesn't look according to this chart that there will ever be a time where we will be able to keep pace with this chart without asking for a hundred million dollars this time and then I mean double that next time in order to you know for the to well two and a half times that to reach the 48 million dollars required required annually for over the next 30 Years and so that's just a concern of mine is that this is going to be a Perpetual ask and I know that it's not like the buildings are getting any any newer right and so I realize things need to be done but that's just that's just an observation that I think this according to this chart asking for 100 million dollars is really just the tip of the iceberg that as we continue to age our taxpayers are going to be uh asked again and again for money and more and more and more money and that's concerned um and and possibly I'm a Believer in the next five years look out and so things change so quickly um um the only thing I will say about this particular work that amaresco has done with us is it absolutely points out that the the highest criticality need which helps um you know Albert to do his work and make a recommendation to us as a leadership team so that when we do have any money at all we know what the highest needs are to get to get addressed and I think you bring up a great point about having to go back and back to the taxpayer and and I think you kind of touched on it it is about the funding formula and and what is given to schools obviously they don't have this information like we have at our fingertips when it comes to the legislature and I understand that but these are the types of things that we need to go to them with when we say listen this funding formula isn't appropriate if you don't want us to go to the taxpayers here's what we need moving forward but at the end of the day if that doesn't change they leave us no choice and so that's what's difficult yeah there is I will share something too that that probably won't allay your fears Mr Thompson but it's definitely a strategy that will help us get through the next 30 Years in a positive way anything else should I go in I have one more okay you bet question or line of questions um how much do we have in our budget balance carry forward and my understanding is that that money is pretty flexible that we can use that money for a number of different things possibly some of these things that we would use Bond money for how much do we have in that and can we offset this hundred million dollar at this hundred million dollar what are we what are we calling it this I don't want to keep saying ask and make it have a negative connotation but um Bond Bond yeah can we offset the 100 million dollar bond by what we have or a portion of what we have in our budget balance carry forward to not put as big of a burden on our taxpayers and we absolutely have the flexibility to do that you're right so uh with uh I shared today that we're right at that 12 million dollar four percent Target that's a a goal it's not it's a Target it's not set in stone it's your policy Target so we don't have to have a 12 million dollar budget balance carry for that's actually in the m o fund right now um we do we did if you recall we did move 20 million dollars last a year ago now into unrestricted Capital sort of to have that Reserve we did make a decision that based upon our and things have improved but based upon our information that we had in April when you all approved the three percent pay increase we did anticipate that we'd have to go into that budget balance carry forward about four and a half million dollars that's improved now because of the legislative work it's probably going to be closer 32 million dollar drawdown which gives us some some opportunities as well the other thing is is that um in it's not just Bond dollars that has been spent to address these needs so um Mr dutchover is spending about two to three million dollars annually on just replacing the smaller equipment that does extend the life of our buildings such as pumps compressors those types of things so that is already being utilized to provide some support the money that's in here too is reflective of the current Year's prices right so it's not they they had this philosophy that we're not going to accelerate what's going to happen and guess what the inflation rate will be in 24 and 25 and 26 and just extend these costs based upon that projection so they're going out 30 years based upon today's costs is another point and then these are all real hard costs so they don't include architectural costs permitting those kinds of things which the unrestricted Capital would provide us opportunities to fill those in as we're doing these projects so but yes again as I I said at The Retreat it's all about how we prioritize the available money that we have you all also made a decision tonight regarding the culinary upgrades at Highland High to impact actually the textile and in the interior design program as well we are working very hard at utilizing all of our funds to address our needs so in that particular case there's probably a great deal of of need in The Culinary classrooms and in the textile classrooms that's reflected in these numbers we had an opportunity to use another funding source our jted funding source to address those projects the other example with Jared Ryan being able to allocate out three million dollars of a grant that we weren't expecting to get all those things are just being added to addressing some of this backlog so we're constantly looking at it but but yeah so there's so to answer your question there's 12 million dollars in mnl and there's about 20 million minus roughly two about 18 million dollars available in unrestricted capital okay once it's gone it's gone it's not like that carryover is right it's gone it's gone right okay um I and I don't know how many slides are left in this slideshow but it would now be a good time to talk about to inform those watching um how how does the bond how does the bond work how what are the bond rates based on and what would happen to those rates if let me let me rephrase that so my understanding of how these bonds work is or the interest rate on the bonds that we get on the bonds are based on um on our our rating is that correct our boundary our bond rating which is and the interest rate on these go bonds the Geo government the Geo is General obligation General obligation that that that that interest rate is determined by the assessed property value of the of the residential property within our boundaries as well as the some some interest rate some bond interest rate is that right right so the um so it's the uh the taxpayer by getting and requesting a hundred million dollar bonding Authority the taxpayer is agreeing that they would pay the interest and principal back over time for an infusion of those proceeds that the district would get to address Capital needs right so um and I will go through some of those tax rate impacts later if I could okay if you want to you want to talk talk later a picture to show and to share that I like pictures okay yeah let's do it Miss betz can I just clarify one thing back on this slide before this just so that I understand following Mr Thompson so we already have a backlog of 198 million so somebody walked into our district and handed us a check for 200 million dollars we would be current correct Well we'd have to get the work done well yeah but that's what I'm saying after that so we already have a backlog of 200 million dollars according to amaresto but remember that includes all of those areas down there that's not prioritized it includes every single right right so it's not it's not prioritized is my point right they're not necessarily all critical they got to get done right now but we do so then why is it a backlog if it's not critical um it's a it's a backlog because that's when we and I don't have that slide in here oh yes I do that was why we added this slide to show that these are our priority analysis right there so this is the cumulative five-year priority need versus the question so as an example we we can delay painting forever we can delay Landscaping forever it's not necessarily going to impact the instructional uh experience of our students okay so that's that's really so this is really the cumulative five-year priority needs thank you you bet this is this is bad side I I this is all extremely complicated and I know you're going to get to some of the slides that talk about the property tax in just a minute but I I have to look at things simple simplistically when it comes to this much money and I just want to make sure that I'm kind of I I said this at the work study but the bottom line on this to me is that if if we wanted to continue to do everything that we should do we would spend 48 million a year but because we have the bond we get to spend 20 million if we didn't have the bond all we would have would be 2 million pretty much pretty much so simplistically we would go from 20 million to 2 million we spend the 2 million right now on textbooks curriculum and other things so how do we make the 2 million fix the air conditioning at high on high right those are all true statements so it's all again that same conversation about priorities so yeah so you're you're you're in your 2 million the two million is actually we do have two million the two million is actually allocated for operations to do those that's right because that's right that's why I want to secretary and there's about 15 million there that's right because it's separate yes but that 2 million has to would have to do everything that would be like the air conditioning I I'm going to rephrase my and take out the curriculum because that's I don't mean that um but but we would basically lose 18 million dollars a year we wouldn't have the 18 million dollars a year to go into our facilities and then Albert how would you prioritize two million dollars I'm asking Albert very carefully I mean is it how is it even possible so um he shares with me every day so we had on Friday a leak at Burke where there was a water leak underneath the front right the pad the cement pad at Burke where it was flooding yeah yeah so when that stuff happens he's going to use some of that too many dollars to get that leak taken care of him if you have any of that to me and left in May yeah right well not that it's not it's not a defined it's not it's not restricted to 2 million if we wanted that that's what you're saying if we wanted to we could prioritize other things re-prioritize other things if we did have you know something come up where we needed four million one year or 10 million one year and yeah it it would be it would be a a struggle but I mean theoretically it's possible that we could reprioritize things so that we have we'd have the money that we hopefully we'd have the money that we needed if if things came up that were above and beyond that two million but that's currently budgeted but along those lines Mr Thompson you're talking about the total budget that we have so let's say we don't have the bond and we don't have the override so we've got to find if we if we take let's say another 4 million what are we going to cut and excuse me on the regular budget get that 4 million to put into the you know that's it becomes a like a almost a game of trying to figure out you know something's got to to go away it becomes a budget yeah well if something goes away yeah definitely yeah in 2014 15 and 16 that was the reality for this district and during the work study I did mention this and I checked with Albert to make sure I remembered correctly but because we couldn't maintain the parking lot at Mesquite High School when we finally had the funds we had to replace the entire parking lot which was much more expensive if we'd been able to maintain it it would have it would have been a savings for the 4S not to have to redo the entire parking lot those are the kinds of things that we we had to make priorities and carefully spend the little money that was there and save the money that as much as we could to deal with some of those um things where something just breaks unexpectedly and we have to deal with it I really appreciate the voters for stepping forward in 2015 and 2019 passing the override to help us be competitive with salary and passing the bonds all of the things that we've done this entire boardroom we used to have some really uncomfortable chairs in the audience and behind the dice and I am very appreciative that I now have a chair that is something I can sit in I had to bring in a different chair because the the older chairs we had were just very uncomfortable on my back so those are some of the things that we we had to prioritize in those years when we didn't have bonds and we didn't have an override we went down to State funding only it would be incredibly difficult to offer the high quality of education and we would have to be very selective and I do remember one of the things that we talked about that fortunately we were able to not make that cap but we we talked about cutting our Librarians I consider a librarian especially in our elementary schools the heart of the school we're we're teaching children to read and to have someone with that education that can put a book into their hand to interest them is I think that's priceless and so when we're talking about can we do less with funds we could do less but this as we get to the um later slides this is the tax rate that our our community has been at for the last eight years and it has provided enough that we can upgrade our schools make them look nice make them something prideful for our students I mean I've gone to many elementary schools that have gotten some of the new library Furnitures and it's just a matter of Pride and I think it's really important that the children in our schools know that we have a pride in their education and that we're willing to invest in the staff with the override and the building with the bonds um we we need to get on to the rest of them thank you if I could if I could ask that we just let's finish this presentation that's called questions until then and then we can ask more if that's okay if you're ready okay thank you so um this is some of the critical facility upgrades that Albert had already identified even prior to amaresco completing their report so roof Replacements are always one of the highest priorities we as you know you approved two and a half million dollars to replace all of the 98 or so units at South Valley Junior High School and you can see Desert Ridge High School's impacted Gilbert Mesquite High Highland High Mesquite Elementary Findlay farms High Highland Park Patterson Pioneer over the next two years that's a 14 million dollar ask restrooms again so many of our schools still have this tiny little tiles in the bathrooms and you can see after 20 25 years we need to replace the fixtures Etc uh secured entryways that's the 150 000 each for all of our elementaries assuming that that would be a priority we would do that in 2025.
on a business item one approved Board of Education financial report item two approved payment of 111 061.05 to RL Soho for work completed at ELC in Talala I have a three repayment of 296 691.72 for RL Soho for the completion of work at CSK item four approved a payment of 265 558 and 26 Cents again to our El Soho for work completed at bellmoral item five approved payment of 137 242 and 14 cents to RL Soho for work completed at CSK item six approved payment of fifty nine thousand six hundred and sixty one dollars twenty cents to RL Soho for work completed at Crete Elementary item seven approved payment of 184 thousand one hundred and thirty dollars fifty two cents to our house Soho so we're completed at Town Mall item eight approved payment of five hundred and sixty three thousand forty four dollars Thirty cents so whole are also hold for work completed at Crete Elementary for item C teaching and learning approved treatment Middle School Washington DC field trip item two approved Consolidated District plan item D Personnel culture for item one will be approved the Personnel report that consists of approved the certified staff employment leave of absence return from legal of absence reassignment resignation educational support staff employment leave of absence return from leave of absence reassignment resignation and dismissal and that is it for our consent agenda [Music] um and for Ken on the 2022 projects how close are we to completion how many how many more payments it's probably going to be either one or two um they are the big thing that's left is the testing and balancing of the air conditioning system uh both at Talala and ELC the chillers are set to go on what is going on the 18th which is this week and the next one's going on the 19th that are being turned on once that's turned down then they have to balance the system for the air conditioning I just don't know if they'll get the payment the final payment in uh for the June or if that'll come in July yes uh but that's really all um all of the punch list items have been completed from 2022 that has been done uh I'm just trying to think off top of my head I there was I thought one other thing that something and uh but I don't remember what it is but I know it was minor but so for the most part there should be only one more left I think so before you release the retention the punches will be 100 is 100 yes right it's just a testing your balances so we'll hold money for that are you able when when we're done with the 2022 projects come back to us with who was our original budget here's how much we spent we've already we've already taken look at that we already have that they haven't turned they didn't turn anything in it so yeah I'm done any further questions agenda if not low cost please Madam Secretary aye the site's thunderous pain abstain Mr Gallegos vice president Hall president Brown hi next up on the agenda is Action Report have a motion to approve item a Alpha the number eight business to accept and approved a bit the base bid of two million dollars for a total contract amount of two million 2 million from RL stroke general contractor Plainfield Illinois for the 2023 renovation work at Talala Elementary School second oh second by Dr Hall um any discussion can would you like to speak on that office yes so if you remember at the last meeting I talked about the bridge came in high and so what we decided to do is pull out some of that scopa Talala uh because of the asbestos that is there on the flooring so this will include removing all of the discusses in uh Talala it will also include all the flooring they do have to do a little bit of work taking out some immune events because there's some things in there putting that back and all of that so uh that is just for that I will say and just to touch on the next motion that you're seeing is a 26 000 down there credit for flooring there so they both go hand in hand we just had to have separate motions on that so one is two million dollars and then there's a twenty six thousand dollar credit uh um all of this excuse me all of this was in the original scope of work that was bid out in our bidding process so this is nothing extra but it's all was during our bid process we're just reducing the scope okay and this is capture two and at 468 page manual usage yes it is I'm sure everybody agreed Mr Gallegos Dr Hall president Brown aye motion pass next action item we have is number eight Bravo I'm sorry eight number two Alpha number two accept and approve a credit in the amount of 26 150 for flooring materials and labor from RL stroll general contractor Plainfield Illinois for the 2023 renovation work at Talala Elementary School have a motion to approve moved by secretary group all right I need discussion I think can kind of covered this already any further clarification from our business manager no discussion a roll call please okay Mr Wallace Miss zeit's thumb rest I Mr Gallegos Dr Hall president Brown aye oh sorry Mr Albrecht sorry motion carry next up is number eight Bravo Board of Education approval of calendar dates for 2023 2024 Board of Education meetings can have a motion to approve yeah do we have to say something about that change or she'll put that in a wording we ex did we did we change or don't we oh okay all right so we can approve it we can we can run it with yeah we're good with that right here okay so we got a motion by secretary Ruth no uh Mr Gallegos moved and Dr Hall second okay any further comments on our discussion if not broken please Madam Secretary all right Mr swellish group is a knife Mr Albrecht aye Mr Gallegos the site stonebris I Dr Hall aye president Brown aye motion carry any old business important to read diabetes so a VLC is on hold right now koala is partially now some of the work that's being done uh at Solana would have been part of the third year so we're only doing part of that the specialist part of it and then the flooring which would have been year three ELC itself is on hold so what we'll do is we'll re-bid those probably in September uh the rest of the scope uh I'll take a look at some alternates but we'll rebid everything and help you get the price down it'll be done in 2024 then yes yes and these are mainly for the Cosmetic type improvements yeah it's the flooring and the the three things that we were doing cosmetically at least let's say an LLC is the flooring the painting and then we're going to take out the uh lockers and put in cubicles in storage cabinets in the hallways for the kids and teachers so those type of things so again it came in pretty high plus if you remember one of the other things was uh the casework was going to be in really late like it was going to be able to deliver until September October so just kind of put a pause on that for a year [Music] yeah yes exactly that's going to be the key to this yes just like you did with the Union events this year got everything out earlier yep any other home business you know sometimes I found myself pulling out whole business from God knows when and just let's see thought give us some thought I would like to capture all of if anybody have some old business maybe catch her in a one place and make a list of these are out the board old business items and and then we can just kind of check them off when they're completed or something just a thought just a thought think about it think about that any new business welcome again on two new board members thank you welcome and all the new business all right we do have a closed session tonight and the closed session would be four I will be for collecting negotiating collecting negotiating matters between the public body and as employees of their representatives for deliberations concerning salary scheduled for one or more classes of employee five Illinois compiled statue one two zero slash two Charlie two have emotions so go into closed session move will buy on for member Nelson Gallegos and uh any discussion on that no discussion okay discuss closed session anyway Roblox all right Mr Gallegos group is an eye Mr swallish it's like thumb breath I Dr Hall uh president Brown aye motion pass we will probably be in closed session probably you know more than a half hour and after that the board will take no other action so and we've just uh only to adjourn we'll come back here to a comeback public to adjourn thank you public for coming out we really appreciate your sacrifices tonight thank you so much
yeah because she was gonna do it in 2020 yeah you know we were doing it every two years up until that point yeah yeah um so that and again by you know Loosely I think we could say that the school climate survey fits in here and those are the only surveys that touch upon those issues it's it's be exceptionally rare for us to do something like that um and it would come through now the developmental or excuse me the uh the curriculum committee is examining this past assessment which is social emotional learning uh I think we would have to be that closely to determine if it you know it doesn't address anything except for maybe the mental or psychological problems of the student or the family and it's really asking about mood generally you know what's your mood uh I don't know if that qualify as a mental or psychological issue but we do that all the time anyway in class with the mood reader to coach kids about if you're feeling X you know in the red area that we'd meet her angry uh upset you know how do I move to the green area and that's part of our social emotional learning stuff yeah I mean I'm I'm not a health care but I would want them to look at that yeah I'm not a healthcare professional but to me the way you're feeling about the school climate to me that's like a psychological thing like and I don't mean that like any sort of negative way it's like just how what you're feeling about something yeah I do I do have one general question about the surveys when you send them out they're age-appropriate well so because this one I think you're talking about like ninth and 10th grade so the survey is being sent to the high school the developmental asset survey is exclusive to seven through twelve in our district it has been okay uh other districts have decided otherwise historically that's what we've done if we're going to do the developmental asset survey again that would come before the curriculum committee to evaluate whether or not they want to do that and so you know that's you know developmentally they make that decision but a curriculum can be in the board so I guess I guess my question is this so my kids just brought home a Norton climate survey so that's only Norton yeah but the survey I could see a situation just based on the words that you used the kindergarten is not going to be necessarily understanding what a sixth grader would not do we asked the k-3 version okay four through six okay 70 okay 9 12.
okay I'm sorry 6 p.m okay I'll bring it to Cara Pompano's attention so we'll reschedule I think we're all set with the day history so I'll you muted yes thank you uh I'm hearing TV in the background and by muting my microphone I assured you it was not I here tell me some background noise okay okay so the meeting is now rescheduled okay and I believe you have some final remarks for us for tonight yes yes thank you so so I I just we had a great evening last night um one um just want to mention to the committee members uh that we celebrated our students at the cave awards ceremony um at the Amber Room um I was gonna yesterday at five o'clock and so I was there with principal Donovan principal zalita principal Kimball and principal blue middle school and high school principal is also principal Weber and we celebrated our cave Award winners and so um our finance committee and board members will see those students at our next board meeting so I wanted to start there but then then I raced over Mr Donovan and I raced over and a couple of families who were also at both award ceremonies and we had our spring induction National Honor Society ceremony we had a really good turnout it was really and we probably had the Danbury High School cafeteria Auditorium half full with with families and guests and what a really big induction class um and so I just want to thank Julie and Louisa um and Bridget who was there there's a board member and a parent last night but um Teresa was on the committee on Teresa did not know that you were previously a National Honor Society recipient and your heartfelt um speech yesterday was really appreciated by all just want to thank you for taking the time to be a part of this ceremony yesterday so thank you thank you that's it for me Mr Russo all right anything else any discussion comments queries quips with that I will entertain a motion Teresa ah God bless you all have a great night everybody
[Applause] I'd like to extend a special note of personal thanks to some of the many people who have been particularly instrumental in my high school experience miss going miss alicio Mr fackelman Mr Romero Miss Paulin and Mr Straub without your dedication and hard work I would not be standing here today with the Knowledge and Skills that I have I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my parents who have been exceptionally supportive of me for my whole life and probably haven't received quite as much gratitude from me as they deserve [Applause] no High School experience is without its challenges but ours had let's say unique difficulties from well the pandemic I doubt any of us will ever forget some of the things we went through the online AP tests the Frantic attempts to log back in when Microsoft teams spontaneously disconnected and those dreaded emails telling us we'd been quarantined just to name a few for me one of the memories that sticks out the most from that experience is the modified Sports Seasons I all too clearly remember standing at the start line of a cross-country race and getting ready to take off my mask start my stopwatch and avoid falling in the mud all while concerned that if I moved even an inch in any direction I'd be within six feet of one of the other competitors and that was just the first five seconds of a 17 minute race nonetheless even though I probably looked utterly ridiculous I made it through all those races not to mention all the other Joys the pandemic brought each of us experienced different challenges during the pandemic but there was a Common Thread in all of our responses resilience the resilience to keep searching for ways to inject some sense of normalcy into a decidedly abnormal period of Our Lives and yes we've all heard about and commiserated over the experiences that were taken away from us during the months of isolation but when I look at the class of 2023 I don't see a group of people who lost close to a year of normal high school and will never recover instead I see the remarkably adaptable people who were faced with an unprecedented Global Challenge and took it in stride people who in spite of the division the pandemic created banded together to overcome the hardships we faced and people who are undeniably ready to take on whatever adversity awaits us as we move on from high school we class of 2023 are leaving high school as a force to be reckoned with and while I don't know where the future may take us I do know that we have the tools to succeed and Excel regardless of the challenges that life throws at us as we conclude our time together as Lancers I hope we all will remember everything we accomplished over the past four years and keep that Spirit of determination with us as we move into the next chapter of Our Lives congratulations and best of luck to you all thank you [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] oh you just call out my name and you know wherever I am [Music] to see you again [Music] all you've got to do is [Music] and that all should begin [Music] keep your hands together [Music] as you know [Music] of the money see you again [Music] ain't it good to know that you've got a friend when people can be so calm they'll hurt you and desert you for those [Music] [Applause] [Music] Winter Springs [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] it is an honor to introduce our class of 2023 commencement speaker Miss Hannah Brown our speaker today excuse me I gotta let her have her Applause our speaker today has lived every day of high school making a positive impact on everyone she meets including myself Hannah since her freshman year has been actively involved in the academics activities and Athletics at Liberty High School she's played soccer and has been a member of the Lancer cheer team for the past four years she's also been a member and a leader in student council NHS Latin club and the sources of strength she also was recently recognized by KOA Channel 5 sports for being the athlete of the week for all of her efforts in the classroom the playing field and in the community so why was Hannah voted the top senior to give this year's commencement speech simply put she embodies the motto of Liberty High School give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth her hard work and dedication to serve others above herself like her classmates is why this class has rebounded after coven she like her classmates attends events games activities for simply the experience and opportunity to be together with each other Hannah lives by the quote from Glennon Doyle Melton if you can't beat the fear do it scared well Hannah you are fearless ladies and Gentlemen please give a warm welcome to Miss Hannah Brown [Applause] in the wise words of Aristotle give me a stool to stand on and I will move the Earth and now I would like to welcome everyone present here today thank you to the family and friends who fill the arena with proud loving eyes thank you to our Administration for not only handling the logistics of graduation but being the best admin of school could ask for thank you for making relationships with us and caring about the whole student not just the academic side thank you to the members of The District 20 School Board present here today and no I'm not just saying that because I have to we truly could not be here without your Everlasting support and most importantly thank you class of 2023 for making the past four years memorable and your hard work to make this day possible the countdown is over no more senior Sundays we made it [Applause] and let's not forget all of the staff members who have stood by our sides endlessly to those who supported us day after day after day to those who formed the gauntlet as we entered high school and who will fill it as we leave to those who gave up many lunch periods in free time to assist us not only in our academic Journey but also our development as well-rounded human beings education goes beyond the classroom Beyond knowing that a squared plus b squared equals c squared or what an Oxford comma is or everything that happened in the 1900s or that the mitochondria is in fact the PowerHouse of the cell true education comes from who is teaching us their personality views morals past experiences and who they themselves have learned from as I entered High School standing at about the same height I am right now but a lot more worried stressed and freshmeny it was the teachers who came to my rescue to get me to where I am right here right now I would like to share some of their wisdom with you as you journey into the next chapter Mr vasnilis taught me the importance of having fun and making memories in conjunction with learning Latin class has become my home these past four years and I am proud to say that I have made many lifelong friends because of him in that class Mr after Heidi taught me that learning is Limitless and it doesn't matter what you're learning as long as you love it as he goes on his 23rd tangent of class I now know the true story of Betty Crocker Miss alicio taught me how to push myself to my Highest Potential and that anything is possible if you put your mind to it as she challenged me to get a higher grade on my next calculus test Senora Richie taught me the true meaning of hard work and passion [Applause] that in order to make a difference we must put our heart and soul into what we do there has also been one more teacher in my life who is not necessarily an educator as a hostess at a local restaurant my favorite pastime is people watching there is one woman who comes in frequently she is the kindest most gentle person you will ever meet she also happens to be blind one night when we had live music she got up to go to the bathroom as she was making her way through her path she started to dance you could see the Glee radiate from her as a smile filled her face however she became so engulfed in her own party that she had lost her way when I went to go help her she said something that has stuck with me she exclaimed sorry I was too busy dancing to notice where I was going since I have realized how this can be applied to our own lives with the unknowns and deceitful maybes of the future ahead of us it is difficult not to become consumed by fear but I have decided to become too busy dancing to know where I'm going make so many memories so many connections so many bonds so many friendships that it becomes difficult to say goodbye enjoy every moment that you have in the present and fill it with laughter memories and Delight the future will still come but it becomes a little less daunting when we face it with happiness instead of hesitance so I challenge you soak in every bit of knowledge that you can don't let fear win and finally always choose to dance thank you [Applause] good afternoon my name is Kylie Heinrich and for the past four years I've had the pleasure of spending my high school experience at Liberty this year our superintendent since 2016 Mr Thomas Gregory has announced his retirement Within These last eight years Mr Gregory has made a multitude of progressive contributions to the district completing a total of 33 years in education 32 of which were spent in District 20.
born and raised in Academy District 20 Mr Tom Gregory has a passion for the educational process and thrives on helping others succeed fulfilling 32 years in Academy School District 20 Mr Gregory joined the District staff in 1991 as a middle school math teacher shortly after he transferred to none other than Rampart High School where he served for 11 years as a math teacher math department co-chair football coach softball coach baseball coach and as the assistant principal and athletic director for four of those 11 years following his time at Rampart Mr Gregory served as the leader for business operations became our Chief Financial Officer Deputy superintendent Chief Financial Officer and finally as superintendent where he has led Academy School District 20 to earn the ex accredited with distinction designation from the Colorado Department of Education for the 14th consecutive year we would like to thank Mr Gregory for all that he has done for Rampart High School students and all of the district please welcome superintendent of Academy School District 20 Mr Gregory well thank you Ali and good evening Rampart High School and congratulations to the class of 2023 you made it and teach family member here with us today congratulations to you also because you made it too I'd like to take a moment to recognize a special student from the rampart class of 2023 Sam Martinez Sam if you could please stand [Music] I want to recognize Sam because Sam represented the Rampart High School class of 2023 on my student advisory Council he was the Rampart High School senior voice to to the district and provided student perspective with maturity honesty dignity passion and compassion thank you Sam for your time and commitment I appreciate you and know that and please know that your feedback and input makes a difference thank you Sam today is a big day after 13 years in school you are closing the first biggest chapter in your lives normally I would stand here and say I can only imagine how much you how you must be feeling because let's face it it's been a few years since I graduated from high school however this year graduation ceremonies take on a whole new meaning for me because I am graduating with you after 33 years in education I too am graduating I'm graduating from a career and on June 30th I will officially apparently with Mr messes and Miss pavlica be retiring from a fulfilling career in Academy District 20.
thank a special person for being special there will always be time for the small stuff take care of the golf balls first the things that really matter the things you will always be grateful for set your priorities because the rest is just sand congratulations graduates I thank you for allowing me to share in your celebration go forth and make your mark on this world keep what is most important at the priority and live life with an attitude of gratitude thank you and congratulations thank you Mr Gregory and once again thank you for your support for our school and the way you've advocated for our students and our staff at each graduation members of the senior class are asked if any of them wish to speak or to do a musical performance this year we have two students that wanted to share their thoughts with you and a cello solo so to begin with batting lead off I would like to introduce Mr Kevin White what's up everyone all right so I am probably the least formal person but I'll try my best not to say bro or bro if that does happen though I'd like to let you all know that is an all-inclusive term just ask my mom and sisters I'd like to welcome all the graduates friends and families of the class of 2023.
I think the struggle would be making the project work for the developers as a cost so then there might not be a development would be the next thing all right thank you I'll I'll see is this directly related to this okay and then I would like to follow with some something I have a couple things that are but this one is directly related to the why don't you go first and then I'll go ahead because I have a Litany of things including one that directly follows on from this okay so there are so many things about this project that I love there is one thing that is really hanging me up and that is Airbnb because this developer came to us several years ago and said she was doing a development for young professionals and she has several properties around town and they are all listed as short-term rentals all of them I feel a little salty about what she came up and promised us that was legal then but she I feel like she kind of misled us because right now I have a hard time seeing how this could not just turn into Airbnb land and that is exactly the opposite of what we want because if this becomes all Airbnb in my mind it's better if you leave those existing houses which are at least affordable and that's kind of a black and white statement I may not totally feel that way but I there's been some history here which a few of us have been around and when you deviate a little bit people remember frankly I don't think I even would have thought about this if it hadn't been her coming forward but she did so I need some sort of assurance that this thing is not going to become short-term rental land because that is completely antithetical to our housing issues here so there's again so many things I like about this project really but that is really hanging me up and so she's not here tonight to be able to talk about her own history you all weren't on you know representing her at that point but um for me I am glad we are not that that we have more to discuss tonight because that one is a big one for me because I truly feel like that actually makes our housing situation worse if that becomes instead of like we can count on these you know the housing that's there that it then becomes open to the world and I'm just going to say one story that I had that I was just in Vancouver where they're having all kinds of issues with housing we did a short-term rental in a building and big building uh 30 stories something like that many units there was a fire alarm on Wednesday night at seven o'clock you know how many people came down like everybody had to leave the building 30 people came down and we just chatted with people everybody was Airbnb people so they are just not that efficient if they could be short-term rentals 100 of the time all the time that just doesn't happen so there's a lot of empty in a place that still makes money for people with Airbnb and again it's not just there's other places too so I want this thing to have people living in it that's what I want yeah I want commissioner Mills to be able to follow on the conversation of commissioner wych but we have Council has heard Str concerns from constituents and there was an exchange which I think might have been from the between the owner and council member ire I can't tell because the way the communication was forwarded I couldn't tell who wrote to council member ire but I wanted to read you the words of this communication because it in my mind it suggests that there might be other um conditions that might be offered with this project so I'll just read it we will use a number of the South Town units for short-term rentals the preponderance though will be a long-term will be long-term rentals here is another important point and I'm still quoting we will convert uh 63 short-term beds in the same neighborhood from the current short-term rental status to long-term rental status once Southtown is complete once that is done there will be a net reduction in 4M short-term rentals another important point is that we are actively partnering with others to draw young mostly female entrepreneurs to Ann Arbor with the hope of creating opportunities for current and future residents our Str properties are at the center of this for these attraction efforts we actually set our rates much lower because that makes the opportunity to be part of this small but burgeoning startup Community possible anyone should feel free to confirm this with our various Partners including Ann Arbor Spark so this paragraph and I'm sorry I could send it around as an email because but is it oh yeah that's right it's in oh it is yeah yeah you're right it's in your packet you read this or no anyway yeah it's it was it was actually you had to enlarge it a lot so um I actually called Ann Arbor spark and I asked um how it was that Str properties could be at the center of a partnership to draw young female entrepreneurs to Ann Arbor it was uh the person with whom I spoke could uh it couldn't explain the connection and so I'd love to hear you clarify that and I'm not at all I do not mean this as a gotcha I just mean that is interesting to me and I'd love to hear how that what that connection is um I'm pleased to hear that there will be a net reduction in 4M short-term rentals I wondered if were if the phrase is a number of South Town units for short-term rentals and preponderance for long-term rentals I wonder if those could be Quantified and offered as conditions and I wonder but I also yes thank you I was looking right at you tell me how bad of an idea that is no no not a bad idea I just um I think this is a good opportunity just to uh remind the Planning Commission um about the nature of this petition this is a conditional rezoning and so what that means is it's provided for in state law it allows this petitioner to come to us and say we'd like to rezone it in this case to c1ar but we are going to add conditions to that that further restrict it is not to be used to further relax so it is not to Grant variances but to further restrict they have to be completely voluntary so this is not something that we have the ability at this table to impose upon them so um and it and the the notion of that would be perfectly appropriate to consider in the context if they wanted to do to do so um if that was desired I would ask that you sort of give us the space through a postponement so staff can work with that petitioner on making sure that that language is right um a couple other pieces I just want to be clear the c1ar is as a couple people have mentioned I think insinuated I just want to be clear it permits um short-term rentals so part of you know part of that zoning district is intentional I presume on behalf of the petitioners making sure that they have that use I think the petitioner to my understanding has always been clear that short-term rentals were intended to be a part of this that's not to say that there aren't some different perspectives on whether that's a good thing or not but I I think it is fair that there's never been any sort of in this case intention to sort of obso vacate that in any way um and then lastly the notion of um as the question as you were reading that the notion of removing um short-term rentals elsewhere I I similarly want to caution that that might something that warrants a lot more information um absent Perpetual ownership or deed restrictions of those properties um that's a really tough thing for us to be able to measure and enforce over a long term so um so it's just to say that if that were something that the petition were interested in staff would be happy to work for them would work with them to sort of look at that as an opportunity but I just want to set that stage so everybody understands that process yeah I think I should be clearer I offer the quantification of a number of and preponderance of as food for thought for staff negotiations and the net reduction um is pleasing to me but I understand that that's not part of this decision and I also understand that the conversation we're having now which I'm really glad that you brought up commissioner gibrandle because I feel like I needed to bring it up as the person whose liaison to the people who represent the people of Ann Arbor we heard about this and so I was going to raise it in my capacity as doing that that is separate from the discussion of whether this proposal meets the requirements of the zoning and I believe that is what commissioner Mills wants to pursue so do you maybe we just keep on going where you were going to go commissioner Mills and we let you guys chive in on everything later thanks short-term rentals were not on my bingo card and that's not on my list so if you want to address that now you are welcome to otherwise I can go with my list um what I can say about it it's not a secret that these that a portion of these are going to be used for short-term rentals and for uh for this building to also do it we've designed let me go to the floor plans we haven't been designing in a way that it's meant to be like short-term rentals with six bedrooms or like big group spaces like uh we weren't involved in in their past projects um but these are all designed to be you know possible for families they're mixed sizes and and a diversity of sizes throughout uh throughout the buildings um so that they can be if they are used for short-term rentals because that's what makes the project get built because that's what can make money uh to get it going for a year or two and then it can transition they also do offer pretty uh affordable short-term rentals that we've been looking at their um their prices of what what they have nearby and it is really competitive or affordable for the neighborhood and surrounding Ann Arbor that it does make it welcoming for people who can't afford a 150 a night rental they offer ones less than a hundred dollars uh in in their buildings and I think that's really good for for the neighborhood and also to to making it um you know it's represented by two women that own it and and strs that are owned by women and a business that's run by women makes it I think safer you seeing someone who represents you the same way uh it it makes it uh more comfortable to to go to they know who the face of of the business is um so yeah I mean these these units are not designed with short-term rental design they're designed to be units that can be flexible that can change they're not fixed to a very like unique use so that we we thought about that throughout the process that these can be used for for any terms of rentals from a day to to years and most of these would be used for for longer term leases all right so I want to ground us back to where um we were left off before and remind us all that we have three petitions before us and one of them is about uh recommendation a recommendation to council about rezoning that was offered that includes conditions that these folks offered that we are not suggesting other things and that one if it is rezoned stays with the land the second petition is is associated with the site plan which per the conversation that commissioner watch was having with Mr Leo before is the one that if we passed it tonight if we decided to act on that part tonight we would need to add a I'm not going to call it a condition a stipulation effectively which is what is drafted for us that it is uh that we are stipulating we're approving it but only if the variance is granted because we can't just pass it without that comment about the subject too without that stipulation because it doesn't conform with our current plans and that one uh that's time limited if if my if my memory is um serves me right like that does not run with the land forever if we pass a site plan is that a pro is that an appropriate way to to have that it expires at some point a variance does run with the land it means that there is something about the land that no one regardless of applicant can comply they are saying that that land is so unique that they should not be allowed they shouldn't have to count at grade four area used for parking site plans uh you can pull a permit for site plans are valid for three years you can there's an extension process okay if someone was um if the site plan were to expire the variance would still be there and the next iteration could then use that variance that's on the land and the rezoning could still be there which is what I'm going to come back to rezonings run with the land as well and then the third one is about this vacation of a an alley and Alice vacate and um that one presumably also goes forward regardless once we vote to vacate it that yeah once it's done it's done it's done okay so I okay thank you for clarifying that and now what I want to say is now I'm going to my other no it's just a minute I like this plan a lot I want it to be built but I also know that things happen and I want to make sure that we have our bases covered if this plan doesn't get built and that's when I'm concerned about and that's what I have taken as my job I'm Planning Commission to poke holes into to make sure that the that particularly when we're thinking about rezoning and particularly for things that are not the norm that we don't have unintended consequences by rezoning thinking we're going to get something and that is forever the case you know that runs with the land even if the site plan doesn't pan out that particular development so um I think that this brings up a couple of different things it well actually I'll go to my list of amusements that I found from this like things that I hadn't thought about for a while um within our UDC but the first thing that I want to say is that I think oh in the comments that we got tonight I think what I like about this space and what a lot of people like about this space is that it manages to get us housing and sustainability together and doesn't divorce them and my concern is that the rezoning does not keep those things married together and so we could be rezoning this and not get something and get something that is hooked up to natural gas and get something that does not have any solar panels on it and get something that does not consider geothermal and get something that is not passive house standard and get something that is not to mass Timber Construction I am very uncomfortable with that and I cannot support that I'll just be really clear um I can't I can't support rezoning this in that context because you know to commissioner White's point when you compare it to kind of what is around there or where what other districts this would be allowed in you've got D1 which I don't think you're gonna also convinced me that this is D1 or you have PUD and the benefit of doing pud is that those things are all stipulated and spelled up very clearly because that's a make your own zoning District so without those sustainability elements associated with the land I won't be able to support this um so I already mentioned but PUD is what I think is your option at least for me in the comfort of or or something else that may tie those sustainability elements to that space to that land um uh the other thing in terms of your conditions and this is also what I typically do with puds is um their you made the case about the 85 foot limitation within the building code and so my question is why a condition of a hundred feet that was offered up yeah so that condition is mostly for parapets elevator rooms above or stairwells that need to access the the roof area per the fire code and getting to the solar panels and things like that that's that's what it's for it's giving us a little bit of leeway room for for that okay and again so I imagine what some people's worst scenario is right like might be and how what we're seeing in on a site plan deviates from what could what would run with the land forever so that 15 feet is not hugely impactful but I would just suggest that your shade studies are not are going not for a hundred foot tall structure it's an 85 foot tall structure so that's something that's in my mind that I want to make awaren to people also um the open space that's offered as a condition what is shown on the site plan that we're seeing is about twice what is in the condition we're seeing about 890 square feet 91 I think square feet per unit and what's in the condition is 50.
um HVAC central plant uh four million dollars over the next two years that means chillers cooling towers Etc some of our larger schools and then High School stadium safety as well as technology infrastructure that's that communication piece so those are our highest priority needs based upon so over 53 million dollars needed that we have already prioritized to just give you some context to share so I'm under 60 Capital just wanted to share again this is just an example of our energy Capital funding history we were cut didn't have enough District additional assistance and also didn't have any school facilities funding either during that same time frame but we were reinstated finally in fiscal 2022 fully funded on the formula but there was about a 73 million dollar underfunding I guess of of our unrestricted Capital during that time frame and this is how we spent it uh the current year so you can see technology please know that this is um this is primarily um the Chromebook replacement now because we are fully in unrestricted capital for our student devices and then there is about one to three million dollars worth of software Solutions Infinite Campus which is student accounting our infinite Visions our vision software which is our enterprise resource planning our financial otm software is in that technology note the 5.4 million dollars at our schools to your point Jill they were not receiving any money at all for the last 10 years up until the last two years and then you can see the 2.5 million dollars allocated to operations and then we did do some curriculum adoptions as well in the current year so that's the that's what we're spending on unrestricted capital on just to put it into context and then we can spend unrestricted capital on everything that's in the bond but we can't spend the bond dollars on undershick Capital needs for all underserved Capital needs so here's the tax rate considerations here's our assess value growth we still are realizing a significant growth in our assessed value and it's not just it's not just our values our home values or our commercial property values it's also intrinsic growth so per statute we can only grow and assess value by five percent for taxation purposes so that's the limited cash value but we are allowed to grow our assessed value with that intrinsic growth new property that's coming into our school district so that's where you get the 6.4 percent that's what we have seen and been able to take advantage of over the last four uh the last six years because the assessed value continues to grow having a positive impact on the tax rate impacting everyone that already owns property here but the needs of the school system are then spread over a wider base decreasing the cost to each of our individual taxpayer whether it's commercial or residential and both so this has been our Trend you can see the tax rate Trend continues to go down even in 2024 continues to go down even with the new Bond sale that we're closing on at the end of May so managing the district tax rate and you ask some really good questions at the retreat Mr Thompson because yeah there's an ending to this but this is what I really wanted to show so if you could take a look at that dotted light blue line that's our combined tax rate so that includes both the um the override as well as the bonds and then this black dotted line going down is our bond portion of the secondary tax rate so you can see that we are overlaying this grid with sorry with new sales so in 2024 if we're fortunate to be successful in November we would be able to sell a certain number of bonds in 2025 but it would still result in a decrease in the total tax rate a slight uptake tick from the year prior but still level with what were realized what we realized in 2020 um and then and then we can continue to so you can see the series C in 2023 that's the what we just sold and so you can see that at this point in time the tax rate has gone up a little bit but still under a dollar four uh when we requested approval for the 2019 Bond and override the tax rate was expected to be a dollar fifteen so we're still significantly below that so over time you can see that because our assist value continues to grow and there's a five percent growth in here as this Bond need goes down you could potentially fill in over time additional debt without necessarily having an adverse impact on the taxpayer now you ask the question but what if the assessed value plummets and then under those circumstances yes because we still need this Levy you can see this 25 million dollar bogey there that we're living about every year on average so that Levy then would be born across a lower tax rate a lower tax base assess value and then our tax rate would be going up but we control that by when do we schedule the next Bond sale do we take advantage and maybe do Bond sales earlier because the interest rates are incredibly low which is what we did in 20 and 21 and 22 to keep it low so that is the conversation regarding that this does give an understanding that yes if we didn't have this the tax payer would see a decline in their tax rate for sure and in their taxes but at least it's a way similarly to the way we handle our own homes and our mortgages as you pay off your debt you have an opportunity to maybe incur additional debt or maybe you refinance where you keep your payment exactly the same but now you have a little bit more money that you can upgrade your HVAC systems or upgrade your bathrooms or whatever the case may be so it's a it's a I guess way to look at that this chart is meant to share that so the election timelining costs this is just to share with you the biggest thing to share that's important for you all is that for the mno override you shall create a pro statement to be included in the pamphlet in the bond you are not given that ability however each of you individually are able to put in a pro or con statement to in any of these asks in the bond pamphlet okay and then this is about the cost about three hundred thirty thousand dollars we're expecting and that's all I have for today wonderful thank you let's let's have entertain a lot of questions I'm not trying to limit that at all but I just thought let's see what the rest of the presentation had okay so thank you yes me I ask about the the tax rate um and I I apologize because I intended to look up my our own personal one today and I didn't but I know that when I paid the taxes in March they earned I think it was in October anything they had gone down not significantly but it was a little bit and can you can you kind of explain just based on what you were saying I think I kind of understand it but you're it's based on assessment why would my taxes go down you know generally for your particular case it's very likely that your value also went up so your value went up the tax rate went down and the tax rate went down low enough where you saw a real savings in your tax amount that you had to pay the actual dollar amount you had to pay because we had a whole bunch of new property come into Gilbert which spread out that amount levied across a a higher denominator so to speak so it decreases the the rate as well as in some cases the the actual tax bill other others might have seen an AV growth in their own property of say 10 or 15 well let's just say five percent because they couldn't go any higher than five percent and if the tax rate didn't go down enough it's possible that they could have still paid more but because we have this incredible growth still coming into Gilbert spreading out those levees across a wider base makes a huge difference for many of our taxpayers so it's it's basically possible to do something like this and still have lower taxes it is possible further further questions please so I I think we're in a completely different economic situation now currently than we were eight years ago four years ago um and every time we go through this with with this presentation tonight and the one at the The Retreat I'm learning more and more and there's some additional concerns that these things raise for example I didn't know that commercial property was part of the was part of this calculation and the reason that concerns me is because I'm seeing everywhere after after covid and after people employers realized oh my Workforce or a portion of my Workforce could work from home we're seeing a lot of commercial real estate just not not being utilized which I think is going to be a big problem I think commercial real estate could potentially take a a significant hit in the coming years same with residential we've seen uh just because of my profession I've seen residential home values decrease slightly nothing like we saw in 2008 you know thankfully um but that doesn't mean that they couldn't continue to decrease and so there's two things that that I think are are significant um uh concerns for me um and then there's this this idea that you know well we've been spending we've been our taxpayers have been spending this money or have been at this tax rate for the last since 2015 and since 2019 therefore it's okay to stay at that tax rate I underst just another piece of the argument I'm not saying it's okay it's another piece of the argument right and so I get I guess I that that argument just for a lot of people I don't think would hold a lot of weight especially in our current economy because like I said we're in a different space right now and a lot of people are in a different place right now A lot of people are tightening their belts and so maybe if in 2019 they were okay spending you know having their taxes raised a little bit I think there's a significant number of people out there that based on their financial based on our economy today they're not okay or they wouldn't be okay with continuing to pay that tax rate you know just like my my annual income fluctuates and so that forces us to look at our budget and some years we can go on a nice summer vacation and some years we just go camping right um and so I think that's a big concern for a lot of our a lot of our residences uh just the fact that we're in a in a different economy now and based on your on everybody's individual Outlook of the next couple couple years four years um it could get a lot worse it could get better um and then the other concern is that we've got these ongoing I know at the retreat you had said that if things do decline if commercial property goes down if residential assessed value goes down if taxes you know go through the roof then we just don't have to we just don't have to uh sell bonds right but based on some of the other charts we're seeing tonight with the uh the analysis that amaresco did about our um our Capital needs we would we would still need to issue those bonds and I think that's always the the the trick or the conversation that we have as a leadership team is the first of all we can't go outside of what we committed to on the pamphlet that becomes law basically and then secondarily we have those those meetings in the leadership team and we decide what's our most urgent priorities what do we do next based upon this what can we live without for another year until until we can wait to see what the environment turns into in the future the other thing is that the the bond Authority does expire after 10 years so if we don't spend the 100 Mil if we don't sell the 100 million dollars by the 10th year then it expires and goes away okay so those are those are my those are my concerns there's not really a question in there to answer I greatly appreciate the work that you and your team have put into this this is not easy um and so I want you to know that that we recognize the work that's gone into this and uh and and it's greatly appreciated so thank you very much sure thank you anything further page did you have anything so I guess this is the presentation um for both the bond and the let's see for the next two items yes yes this is the presentation but then we will take each of them individually so but I so I guess um maybe I should have a could could we just take a excuse me sorry excuse me for one moment please maybe I I would like to what I would like to do is before we discuss anything further we probably should have a motion on one of them and then we could continue the discussion so I think I'd like to end this presentation part but you'll still be available if we have other questions and then if um according to the summary she'd like to take a little break I'll do let's do like a two minute recess a three minute really quick okay and then we'll come back and we'll begin with 9.03 I think let's take a break and then we'll then we'll do the motion is that okay with everyone okay okay wonderful thank you we'll adjourn for two to three minutes thank you [Music] thank you [Music] come on [Music] foreign [Music] thank you living breathing [Music] all right cheers [Music] all right are we about ready board members thank you thank you all I appreciate and I appreciate the discussion and want to continue that I just wanted to make sure we're doing it in an orderly manner so with that will take us now to 9.03 to discuss consider discuss amend if desired and edema deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special budget override election to be held in and for the district in declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 PM the the complete resolution is included in our our board ducts as well as on our agenda but for this sake we'll just use this as the motion so board members if if there is a motion I move that we consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling for a special budget override to be held in and for the District in declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election of the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 pm it's been moved is there a second I just have a quick question should we add the percentage I would like to amend it to add the percentage Yeah I believe it's in the resolution is that correct in the resolution yes that's where it's contained you don't need to end the motion so it is okay budget continuance of a 15 correct and is that what you intended that's my motion okay okay so that's are we all clear on that yes okay so that the it's been moved that we um go through these things knowing that it's the resolution includes the 15 continuing the 15 percent budget override okay so it's been moved by Mr Thompson is there a second second thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved and seconded that we consider discuss and amend this um 15 budget continuance board members can we have further discussion I'll go first I I really support this 15 percent override going out for an election um asking our voters it's um it makes a huge difference in being able to have competitive pay and smaller class sizes I think we've used this money very wisely and I'm very appreciative that in both 2015 and 2019 our voters were supportive and passed it in 2019 making it a 15 override we have incredible people working in our schools and and that's really what public education is all about is having incredible people to teach and and take care of our students every day and so I this is to me critical to have and I would recommend a yes vote thank you Miss Humphries is there anything further I just want to clarify for that for the people who are in our community that will be voting that with the override we don't have to be as specific as the bond correct but Dr McCord go ahead yeah there are items that we will list within the override that we will advise and I think we did the three that are priorities but this allows us to exceed our the budget that we're given by the state by 15 percent correct so which is a continuance of support currently right so if we don't do this or if it doesn't pass then we have to cut by 15 not next year not after 25 yes I would ask us again just declare we would not expect to see any increase in taxes to our taxpayer with this continuance of this 15 that's correct okay and this would be for our maintenance and operation as we were discussing before just to be clear so okay again I don't think we take this lightly to ask to come before our taxpayers and ask we appreciate and respect and want to be good stewards we're I think we try to be very responsible in our spend and I think we should be and I think we should be transparent and I think we work as hard as we can to be with monthly budget reports and answering of any questions that we have and I think that we've we have prioritized and shown that it is for compensation for fair to have the best possible teachers and staff in front of our students possible which directly impacts our academic success we we can see that directly and then also the other needs of safety that we've mentioned and the two percent or the 2 million toward class size reduction so again um those are my thoughts if there's anything further yes Dr McCord if somebody has questions and and Miss bets if somebody has questions about how the override how we use the override over the last four years is that something that they can go to the district and get information on and who would they contact they would contact Miss BET's office probably Jackie Madden as well okay thank you you bet and we do have a report on that every October how those monies have been spent a question about the language that was going on in here so I know we want to bring um Mr Caleb yes up here for a minute Brandon would you mind coming up thank you so much um Mrs Paige asked her questions I was being a total nerd and I read the whole thing um so on the override language and I mostly want to clear this up for our voters so there's absolutely no confusion um on Election Day we have in the override um language about polling places and the times that they open and close and yet also in the override language we it talks about it's a melon ballot only and that language is only in the override so can you explain why we have that and why why we have the two different uh yeah of a state statute with the overrides you have to if you're going to have a polling place election or mailing ballot election you have to have notice for both and we leave that in the maintenance and override election for flexibility purposes in the event that the legislature comes out with a law that changes you know voting procedures if the county decide they want to do a different way or even if you hear tonight that said you know we don't want to do a male election it we we have that in there and because the mail the maintenance and override election requires us to post that notice we post both notices allowing us to have the flexibility moving forward the bond election uh jumping ahead just the first second that's okay does not have the same requirement only the mainly notice requirement but not the polling place requirements so there might be confusion because uh you know we like to you know let you know all of the servings that you can put on your election Sunday so to speak um but it's just our way of giving you the smartest Board of opportunities and allowing flexibility uh in the event that something unexpected happens but there will be no polling places open correct um I'm not sure I'd have to because that was that was my confusion is if there's not going to be any polling places open that particular day right there because there would be there would be one at least one place to draw one place will be open okay thank you Miss Humphries um just and so when our these ballots go out they will have language in there that says you can either show up to a polling place on the override not the bond or mail it in um once we once we know which one network like it'll say just the mail in ballot uh what like the but as we get closer to that we will we can go one way or the other it won't have to say like the for purposes okay it'll only say it here which allows us the flexibility going forward but as far as ballots what voters will see okay they'll only see one there won't be a confusion as far as where they should go or what they should do but most likely we're just gonna have mail in for both of them right I think that's no I think that's a good point is we did have one small slide about that I think we didn't it wasn't a polling place though it was just a place where they could receive the the already completed ballot but they were there to verify the the Steve but the plan that what we are asking for the costs that you quoted us for this election is a mail-in only that is what we're considering in these resolutions is a male in only election that's correct since November I just think Mr K Wood's point is that legislation could change Maricopa County could change in the next month it could happen and so they want to make sure that we don't have to hurry up and have another board meeting to get approval to do the polling one they're trying to provide all possibilities in this resolution but our preference is um but our preference in what we're asking for in this is a million unless something crazy and so something changed and that's similar to what we do like when we were talking about the bond financing uh with the interest rates that you know when when covet happened that uh that uh changed the way investors were looking at it and the a lot of our resolutions uh to consider Bond action would have flexibility so like that's not just something that would carry over to election but it'd be okay if uh you know if we have to do a different means of sale if we have to do a private sale to an individual investor if we have to go to many Bond sellers uh we you know we build that into not just our election resolutions here but also into our bond authorization resolutions which uh and when when the board passed the bond resolution December like that that one had all sorts of fixings just in case anything happened um and that's that's really our purpose here is just to give the protection and flexibility to the district even though the preference of the districts to go one way we just you know don't paint ourselves into a corner so to speak okay thank you I just wanted to clarify that because we had at The Retreat talking about our poll results and he talked about how we have a certain segment of our voting population that reads every single word that goes out to them and when I read this I was like am I supposed to mail this one in then am I getting a separate ballot to go to a polling place like it was kind of confusing just to me so when the ballots come out it will be Crystal Clear yes it's a mail-in right but we have to leave the language in there because of Statute yeah well for statutory purposes right okay because if we if we say say that we decide to go a different direction and miss you know what mail ballot is uh you know the way to is not the way to go all of a sudden we have a notice problem because we didn't have the notice in the in the resolution that the what that procedure on how to proceed that the bond resolution doesn't require thank you for clarifying any any other questions I think that's good for now we might call you back up and if you have any questions after I'm happy to walk through okay thank you so much thank you for that question Mrs page is there others or any other comments about specifically with this budget continuance the 15 over it no okay uh seeing none I will call for the vote then all those in favor of considering discussing amending and adapting to actually adopt the resolution ordering and calling a special budget override election to be held in and for the district and declaring the deadline for submitting Arguments for and against the election to the Maricopa County school superintendent as of August 11 2023 at 5 PM please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with name thank you that passes five zero now we will go to 9.04 which is to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to adopt a resolution ordering and calling a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the Associate's superintendent for business and support services to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code so this is um this specifies this is about the 100 million dollar bond that we are that we've been discussing tonight can I ask a question Mr Squid um do should we put I I know that we had some discussion at the at the um meeting that we when we discussed this about how much so should we put the resolution when it's in the resolution it's contained in the resolution 100 100 million dollars as what we're asking all right thank you for asking that so with that if there's no um other things before we have a motion can I call for a motion I I move that we consider discuss the man if desired and if deemed advisable adopt a resolution ordering calling a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the associate superintendent for business and support services to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code thank you Miss Humphries it's been moved is there a second second thank you Mr Jetty it's been Reuben seconded if we could have any discussion I just wanted to add some final thoughts it seems like everybody else has jumped in um at The Retreat um I went up to Dr McCord after because um in the surrounding school districts we actually are asking very little compared to the surrounding school districts this is something that has held steady in Gilbert public schools for years and years is the 100 million and it is impressive to me that the school district is such good stewards over this they are very conservative in the way that they spend the taxpayers money they have that in the back of their mind and I went up and told them I wish every elected official treated our taxpayer money as well as Gilbert public schools has um just I wanted to add a few thoughts we are a public school but we also have to also run like a corporation and many corporations or companies have a lot of expenditures especially with building and maintenance and it is imperative I believe that we get this hundred million we've got to keep our buildings maintained we have to make sure that our kids are safe on our campuses and this will greatly benefit Gilbert Public Schools um just for an example if we go down to the 2 million that Mr Jetty was talking about if we lose air conditioning in one of our little you know our elementary schools in August and we have no money to fix that air conditioning our kiddos are going to go home they're not going to be able to stay there so we need to HUB the funds to make sure that our students are in a in a comfortable and safe environment within our schools um and I just wanted to thank Miss betz thank you so much for all of your work that you put into this I've had many phone calls with you thank you for being available and and taking the time to answer them many many questions and I think that's that's it thank you Miss Paige anything further yes Mr Jerry I just want to say that that in you know having been in education for more years than I want to stay in the state right now um you know it's so cyclical as to what we you know what we what we deal with and obviously maintain maintaining buildings is is not cyclical I mean that's just been that's always the case that's but one of the things that I do believe that we have gotten a lot of emails about is it seems like every time there's any kind of a tragedy that happens we do get a number of emails from parents about what we're doing and you know I think that what in just what we've done has been wonderful in terms of the doorbells and and that but that doesn't mean that we can't do more and also I you know like I know the police officers and and security is not part of the of the of the the bond but we're listening to our community endless and seeing what's going on in our society and making sure it with all the means that we have to be able to provide the safest place for our students to to learn um and I'm glad that we are you know that's one of our our priorities for the the bond in addition to the you know I'm not talking about um you know all of the other needs that we have but I think that you know safety obviously has become something very important thank you okay please um I I really appreciate what the voters did in 2015 and 2019 to support Gilbert public schools and make sure that we have the finances necessary and I believe that Mrs page and Mrs eugetti have both made excellent points about why this is so important I think it it is a fiscally responsible amount um and I I think if we are careful and plan carefully we we are using it wisely we're we're we're pinching every penny we're making sure that we we are very careful and considerate in our planning um I think that what we have been able to do since 2015 and 2019 um has really improved our buildings improved our education and um I just think it's it's an important part of our community our town the reputation of our town there may be other schools but the reputation of our town is founded on the reputation of our Public School District it is an asset to the community to have wonderful schools where kids feel safe where they're engaged in learning and the bonds are for the buildings and transportation and Technology but that's a really important part of Education now if we're going to educate our students for the future Workforce they need to have that technology and have those safe environments and so I I really appreciate our voters what they've done and I look forward to a successful um passage of this as well because I think it's important to our students and our staff and our community thank you for some reason any further I just I guess I would just end with it's I see it as a heavy and a real responsibility to balance asking our taxpayers for this with the responsibility that we also have and feel to provide outstanding education and maintain functioning and safe facilities which we've already invested in as a community and taxpayers we've invested a lot of resources already in these buildings as a community I think we've been very responsible in having completed this comprehensive Master Capital plan to have an understanding across our district of the full needs and what our prioritized needs are and how many can be spent most effectively to maintain but also to enhance and to wisely use wisely spend the money that we have whatever it is to spend it in the best way to maintain the appropriate and safe learning environments for our students to make sure that we have appropriate and outstanding learning going on in each each classroom for each student I see this also as an opportunity for um of local control the the legislature this is something that they have given us the the ability to come to our community and to ask what the priorities are and to show how we have spent in the past and to um show what we are doing with with this money especially on the bond we specify exactly what we're going to spend it on within a couple of percentage points and we then report on that and show exactly how we've spent it and so this is an opportunity as local control to come before you and also to ask for your support um and I I see that as an opportunity of again local control in in how your the funds are spent the taxpayer money is spent and again with it's with a real responsibility that I I see these both these asks and and with an appreciation of what we're asking but also realizing the value that we have and what we've put into this into these schools into our students and to our staff so I think if there's nothing further nothing okay thank you all for your discussion thank you for the presentations and we will ask for the vote then I will call the vote to to consider discuss amend if desired and if deemed advisable to actually now to adopt the resolution ordering and calling a special bond election to be held in and for the district and authorizing the associate superintendent for business and support services to comply with certain sections of the Internal Revenue code specifically again applying to the 100 million dollar bond in a million election coming this fall and I would ask board members all those in favor to please vote by saying aye aye and any opposite name nay thank you that has passed for one and that will take us to 10.01 items for future agenda are there any requests that need to be made tonight yes there was a one of our earlier meetings we had talked about [Music] um looking at uh the organization that we want to use for our policies okay and we said that we were going to look at that maybe later in the school year when we weren't so anyway yeah um is that something we could add to the agenda for June or we will have it on the agenda probably for June 20th okay thank you thank you for that is there anything further for tonight or again if there's anything please contact me Dr McCord at any time um with that we will move to our board committee reports uh beginning with myself city of Mesa liaison I don't have anything to report tonight 11.02 town of Gilbert liaison Mrs page nothing to report tonight thank you thank you 11.03 Gilbert Education Foundation and audit committee Miss Humphries we had our scholarship reception at Desert Ridge High School had a wonderful turnout and a number of student scholarships awarded the number of Staff scholarships awarded and also a great number of students who earned their volunteer letter and it is impressive to see how many volunteer hours that they have put in so that was one of the things and then for the audit committee we met last week in Wendover and discussed upcoming getting ready for the the next audit because we're never done in the fall and working through that and continuing to meet to just make sure we continue to get those great results thank you Miss Humphries 11.04 Insurance trust representative Mr Jetty I don't have anything to report tonight thank you thank you and 11.05 legislative representative Mr Thompson I was going to say something about the budget being passed but somebody stole my thunder earlier so and that's and that's okay but that's all for me thank you thank you very much and that is that is wonderful news we're appreciative of that with that I'll ask 12.01 Dr McCord to give us meeting dates thank you madam president governing board members our next governing board work study and brief board business meeting will be June 6th our next board policy committee meeting will be June 13th and our next board business meeting will be June 20th thank you um that we wish everyone a successful and happy end of the school year um congratulations to our graduates and thank you to all those who have worked so hard and supported this successful school year and we'll say We'll ask for an adjournment all those in favor of adjourning please vote by saying aye aye let me do an emotion first yeah I need emotion I move that we adjourn it's late I know you're excited Mrs wood I'm ready to return it's time to go go ahead yes a motion please I move that we adjourn oh thank you Mr Thompson is there a second my second thank you I guess we're all excited yeah excited to go home I'll say miss miss you jetty second thank you all those in favor here we go again all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye aye any opposite name thank you we are adjourned
so everything should be age appropriate for the curriculum or for the uh climate survey yeah okay those are ignoring the fact that some kindergartners can't read a thing when they start okay so that so that leads me to um the the top section where the Board of Ed was supposed to review quite uh review the questions of the surveys um and specifically the school climate survey because state law does give us latitude um having us review the questions so is that something that's inferred in here or do we need to add that um I would feel better if it was explicit I don't want to and then like but I would assume we would go through curriculum right yeah you know you know like you said they're all if they're defend uh developmentally appropriate for each grade then you know curriculum at least gets to go through them and say yeah okay we looked at them and then they put it on board with the datum the other thing is because I know some of those other surveys those are proprietary I don't know yeah chance to review those and with those surveys the developmental asset survey the the pass assessment those things you know they've been researched for validity and reliability and I don't know I don't think that it would depend on the actual survey that you're using as to whether or not taking questions or playing with questions within those instruments mess with the validity or reliability so like you know and this is yeah if we're giving psychological exams like we do is part of our special education programming that automatically comes with written consent but you can't play with the questions on those exams for they totally you know ruin the results right I don't that's what I guess I'm trying to save for the developmental asset survey into the past we would need an expert here to tell you well yeah I more specifically talk about the time of survey because State log is this latitude the state law directs us to answer asks certain questions but then has a lot of latitude about anything else you want to ask but even that I mean the state has not yeah high and low to find the specific questions they want you to ask right and there's no follow-up on that part from it at all if you don't do it though that's problematic that's part of the state statute but there's no nobody ever asks us for the results maybe somebody goes on our website and wants to see if they're there because they are they're there from the last Administration we haven't finished processing this one but those will go up when that's done so so then we'll add up so I'll add a piece about school climate going through the curriculum committee okay great for this created by third party event like Panorama creates a lot of they do yeah not for our school climate survey oh the school climate survey the the Genesis of that was from sde Maybe a decade ago maybe longer it's a week about the yes so that's that's ours that we're asking questions there's no guidance from the state on that the pass we think is a better instrument to look at social emotional skills than kids have um and that one they just discussed through the curriculum committee you didn't get the report on that Thursday because that just happened last Monday I think Tuesday last Monday yeah I'd feel more comfortable Defender that specializes in how to appropriately ask and they're probably not asking the state required questions but nobody from the state has said anything Panorama I know you gave that as an example astronomically expensive yeah so we were looking at the past is a better instrument to get to how are our kids doing socially emotionally and how can we coach coach them that's not anonymous that we we can look at student data and support the development of SEL skills which is what we were trying to do weekly is an organization say that development of SEL skills is a priority but we don't measure that which I have a real problem with and how do we we want an instrument that can tell us if what we're coaching kids on in terms of being able to see the red and move to the green and those skills communication skills is is it working or not for us as a school system because if it's not we're spending a lot of time money and energy on it we need to ingest our practice that'd be one where that would require the specific written consent right because you said only anonymous um no specific consent is when oh that's a funny Federal funding yeah okay uh opt out review all that stuff is if it's now notification all that other business but I'm I'm curious I wasn't able to see Monday's meeting yet um and I did meet with the vendor multiple times um but I I don't know so non-anonymized for instance right information now it's going to be going through a third party vendor foreign we have privacy agreements and things like that that are required by Statute um you know but it's all available on our I'm just getting flies that's all yeah right our data privacy page on our website has all that all that information it's really it's a good good site the data privacy piece um so I guess we won't move this one forward yet we'll wait for the additional like well we can move it forward to the second reading and adjust anything now okay and because it'd be best to try and get it in place for the start of next year yeah that'll be great yeah they'll do that so if we don't do that today then we kind of make it more much more difficult to get into place for next year so with the understanding then we'll we've been yeah yeah we're going to be discussing it again at our next meeting okay in early June and then I would think maybe we could get a third meeting in before the end of June 30th and then adopt the policies we've done a few times in the past at the June 30th close of business meeting I think Dr Ben's looking at me because that's usually his okay uh then I'll I'll move um a move that we move uh 6162.51 surveys of students student privacy uh to a first reading however all in favor all right unanimous thank you thank God another opportunity to talk about teacher eight yes oh great I make a motion to advance right away sir this is uh again a statutory reference I you know I'm gonna when they talk to them about the other one this is this is the same is there anything materially different between this thank you sorry not to add confusion because I don't know all the details but under No Child Left Behind there was some language specific around paraprofessional having to have an associate's degree and that's for title one for Title One schools they have to play the one um it's based on so certainly the North End School and now we've kind of adjusted it we have multiple schools where we use Title One resources so that if you're a para educator you have to meet a different set of standards that are defined in law and that's where this whole thing got Inky yeah um I'll ask uh Cave you know just to take another look at because I have to like we were saying on the other one I'm calling them anyway so let me try and get some clarity on this too but I think we're okay advancing this as well um and we can adjust any language before the next meeting this is education under parental direction from homeschooling um this is if you're if you're homeschooling you're homeschooling uh you're not part-timing uh that will be running to again as a reminder a number of issues with vaccination status with behavior and maintaining school rules uh you know you shouldn't be participating in athletics I can't monitor your academic achievement to make sure that you're following ciac protocols and things like that so we just struck the idea that students can attend on a part-time basis um in the in the schools do we have not to go too deep into this but I'm curious do we have part-time students and I'm going to talk about extracurricular I'm talking about academics the only thing that we have that would resemble a part-time student is at Cheshire High School there's a group of kids who go to the Educational Center for the Arts the Educational Center for the Arts is an extended day afternoon program where students go in they receive instruction in their core content areas it's CHS jump on a bus go to New Haven and go to school there from like you know lunch through four o'clock and they engage in artistic Pursuits there so theater music Visual Arts things like that but that's the only thing we have that kind of resembles a part-time student okay so you as a superintendent view those students they're not whole time yeah they're not homeschooled okay yeah they you know this is we don't permit you to homeschool your child but no I come to PE because you like it yeah no I get it I understand yeah okay the in and out of that logistically along with discipline and vaccination issues would come super treats so those are the only two that we had for second reason have you got any complaints about that one from any parents no okay I'm fine I've never had a we've had it and people asked and we said no if you if you're homeschooling you're homeschool they're just homeschool yeah there was a lot of noise during the pandemic well I'm gonna homeschool ing that I don't know what our percentage is right now I know one family who coincidentally was in my daughter's class and her friend told her they were moving to New Hampshire because of masks there was another one who said something about it but I don't think I actually moved and I think I've probably heard that from a few people but they did actually move to New Hampshire and you know I guess what relative to our peers we were open back of a lot more than most and I think you know so for the most part people didn't make that decision to try to opt out you know the circus tent community that we had going on and the precautions that we took you know jumped through a lot of Hoops intended you know the circus reference to make sure that our kids were in school a lot now the mask thing was the mass effect and that's all of them so we only have a lot of homeschoolers it's pretty rare bird friends any other questions um yeah move uh policy [Music] 422-4222 uh teachers Aid paraprofessionals and policy 6172.3 education educational instruction under uh parental Direction homeschooling uh for a second reading is there a second Tim all in favor it's unanimous thank you we'll move to third grade this is the one where we had to clarify with the state law we have and the yellow part is the the updates of what as of today the state is requiring you may have heard in the news that the state is also going to be requiring uh personal finance is a graduation requirement potential that's a requirement yes Cheshire Public Schools already does that somewhere and you do um so that would impact us necessarily but that's that's not uh this is the state what the state requirements are so that's why it's update the Asian Pacific Islanders effective for the 25-26 school year so what so do we offer it or require it we we all would offer that class and as the state offers requiring us to offer it or requiring us to require it questions to offer it okay so that's lack the Latino studies yeah yeah I'm talking sorry I'm just talking about personal finance yeah oh oh that hasn't been decided yet that where are we do we require it we require it yeah okay either then it won't have no impact we require either personal or Advanced personal finance for graduation at CHS so these are just the updated as of today will probably be a bit you know revisiting this yes although Jeff I'm wondering because of that it's going to impact our our personal finance curriculum anyways because the state has a personal finance curriculum model up on their site right now yeah I don't know to what degree they're gonna require that either um I was just looking at the other day we don't have to they they can require standards but not curriculum they can provide a model curriculum right and I think our standards would meet or exceed anything that they put together but we'll have to review that once it's the fruition and the last one is just basic instruction I think that word basic implies that we're not we aren't comprehensive enough and it's reflective of what you saw in the list on the other policy so the API if you're getting 25 uh the black latino studies offering in 21 Native American July 123.
these years in coup include but are not limited to being a coach teacher and a member of several school boards like the YMCA Metro board board of District 20 education and the Colorado conservatorium for Earth and space science education now I could continue to stand here before you and list facts about Mr Gregory but I do not believe that that would do him Justice when I asked Mr Gregory what he plans to do with his retirement he said I don't know he mentioned volunteering like being a bus driver part-time teaching traveling and disappearing into the mountain range but he told me that these were just ideas that mainly he was excited to not be tied down by a 5 30 a.m alarm clock which I'm sure most of us would agree with but what really stuck out to me was that he was not ashamed of his Unknowing most of us in this room believe that as we lead this Arena we need to have everything figured out not later but right now if I can give you anything about my meeting with Mr Gregory let me give you this there are a number of possibilities out there and even if you think you know exactly where you are going now tomorrow that may change I had never considered working in education until I talked to Mr Gregory you can tell when someone is genuinely passionate about something by the way they speak about it it does not take a plethora of fancy words but rather depends on how you use them Mr Gregory asked me about my future what I plan to do Post High School and when I told him I plan to pursue a degree in Psychology he had so much to share with me and that knowledge I gained from him is so much more valuable than summing up his biography I don't know where the world will take us and I will not pretend like I need to this is our time to discover ourselves and now hopefully you know you are not in this alone it is my pleasure to provide a formal thank you for the service Mr Gregory has provided in the district to students and staff alike and finally it is my privilege to introduce you all to superintendent Mr Thomas Gregory [Applause] wow thank you Kylie ready to borrow your stool good afternoon Liberty High School congratula congratulations graduates you made it and to each family member sitting in the audience today congratulations to you also because you made it too I'd like to take a moment to recognize two students of the Liberty class of 2023.