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so I think that we work with our staff by saying this is it we're doing this and like miss lady said call the parents don't tell them don't ask them tell them you've got an incredibly bright young person here we're putting them in ninth grade into an art class at tocc and this is the program they're going to take and this is what they're going to get when they're done with it and we're just going to educate them on the benefits and strictly just the just the good planning the time management the efficiency the the cost analysis of what this district is actually offering these kids with tocc um so how we get it out there is we just we make it happen and that starts with the principle thank you Mr Fox um would you like me to paraphrase I sure can all right all right so the question was from board member Stevens um who's the transition coordinator at tocc and her question essentially when you boil it down was what are your plans to ensure that you are either hiring or completing the duties of a College and Career advisor within the campus so first of all starting by making sure it's in our budget I I know that in previous years we used to have someone that was strictly dedicated to a college and career counselor and that in itself we all know is a is a huge job so recruiting stealing people from other careers that enjoy working with students and then training them on the way you know we do things at Babu kiburi but also using the resources that are available to us so first and foremost making sure that I I don't know what the budget looks like but making sure it's still in the budget because you we can train our current counselors we can train our assistant principals we can train you know other teachers that are in the classroom but when you have three or four different people doing the same job sometimes the students get a different message they don't get all of the information so um I I understand why you're asking that question because that job is very very important there is so much that goes I honestly learned so much from our college and career counselor just for my own personal you know for my child so the fact that that job has been open for over a year means that we have a priority in making sure that we find someone that wants to be that wants to work with students and wants to help them move forward how do we do that we use what our resources are social media I'm not embarrassed to go out and steal someone from another company and say hey look you're this fits your personality let's how what do you think of coming to do this job because it can be a fun job it's not for everyone you're not in the classroom you're still working with students you know just using what we have available and in the meantime training people hello um piggybacking again how and when would you create those opportunities for the staff to train and have you know I guess lessons from their superiors to maybe learn these things I know there's a lot of Staff who have duties as needed added on their role as aside from what they already do how would you provide the training necessary for the for the staff in order to achieve the goals that you are trying to your 30 seconds to think Starts Now Ava it will come to you first clarifying question so when you talk about opportunities for staff to learn do you mean like the extra duties or to learn what they're currently doing right now like sorry so as on duties as needed they're already doing so much so then the training necessary how would you provide the training for them to complete the goals that you are trying to complete such as how they said for the guidance counselor how they already do sort of help the students but they also have a bunch of things that they already deal with aside from college career readiness as an example okay all right starting our 30 seconds no thank you all right Miss Leyva comes to you first your time starts now okay so um first and foremost we I would fight to hire someone first obviously um the idea of training like our guidance counselor and anyone else in the school would be as a as a plan B because the reality is our students need to have this information earlier I mentioned if you know if in my three-year plan we wouldn't start with all students immediately so we would start with maybe the seniors because those are the ones that are going to be going out into college the soonest so identifying as a team what are our priorities if our priority is just graduating students then that's where the guidance counselor needs to be but I believe that we need to take it to the next step and that is not just graduating those seniors but preparing them so that they can go to college you know get an associates go out into the workforce whatever it is that they deem necessary for themselves but as far as training provided for those you know extra duties it just comes with identifying our priorities so if if we decide this is a priority then we all need to come together as a team and say how much of this pie are you willing to help pick up so that we can get our students moving forward it's a team effort and that includes you know if if I become the principal that includes me as well thank you Miss lever Destiny I'm going to try to reveal your question but again yeah thank you um so Mr Fox um the question from Destiny Robles Lieutenant clerk at secondary campus was how and when would you create the time to train staff on the things assigned to them kind of those extra Duty things that are outside of their primary role okay well I think career and college is should be ingrained in everyday conversations with our students every day we should it should somehow or another you should work that into your conversation what are you going to do what do you like have them do a what's that like an aptitude survey a true color so to speak True Colors tells you what your personality type is and what careers you may excel in get them to know themselves first but as far as training and again ingraining this into the culture of the school is the principal's job but as far as training our or making them a little more at what they're doing if we subscribe and use with Fidelity Beyond textbooks after what I saw last week and after what I've seen it do for my own child and her teachers at the Bell School District there's an hour a day for planning that's just been taken away there's lesson planning gone there's agenda there's scope and sequence there's the yak it all goes away if you use Beyond textbook it's geared for our school it's built for our school and it is proven through years of use and many many a user that it works so we free up right there a 50-minute however long that scheduled time frame is for planning planning is now something that should be something of the past because use what works and don't reinvent any Wheels thank you Mr Fox I think John let's give it my hand please let's give it let's keep in the morning thank you non-stop answering amazing questions and mail another one by our amazing world my name is Peron my parent my grandparent and a staff member I would just like to ask how often would you come out to like monitor the kids during lunch because no no one is out there um would you have time to go out in one of those kids I love the questions how are you going to hold yourself accountable in the kids accountable in balancing your schedule great question 30 seconds Mr Fox it'll come to you it only took 13 shots all right Mr Fox your time starts now okay so um as far as monitoring goes it's a whole school job I think that um if anyone for some of you guys didn't know me the last place you generally find me unless the board reporters do is in my office I'm constantly out of my office I'm constantly sometimes too often on Miss McKay's campus but I'm always in one of our classrooms what I did spend a few months up at secondary last year as kind of a just a guest I was out there for passing periods that's what an administrator and their administrative team does they're in the cafeteria they're pushing the broom they're wearing the blue gloves and things and tables none of us in this room is above doing a little bit of work for the better of all the whole system so I think that your question towards the monitoring is you have to be out there in order to Monitor and you have to look at your campus and know your hot spots know where you might have some of the shenanigans going on you know where there may not be I don't I can't speak to the campus and their cameras but at a campus that large the cameras are almost just secondary they're almost approved what you think you saw and you're not going to see if you're not out there so the administrator all the principal the assistant principles and that that administrative iot instructional leadership team needs to be out during common times it's really really that simple I don't think we put that on our teachers if that's their lunch time they need to eat lunch so you're in the cafeteria you're on the field you're participating you're interacting with these kids that's what we need to do and if anyone saw me up there a few a year and a half ago a year ago it's exactly what I did because I didn't know what else to do so I was out there doing this stuff watching baseball practice cleaning cafeterias picking up with my stupid little picker upper picking up trash that's how you monitor thank you Mr Fox he said that um so our question from Miss Pearl who is a parent grandparent and also a staff member the question was how often would you be out and about moderate students at lunch passing period and during other activities how often I would do with everything if I could the reality is we can't always be there but every moment that I would be available I would be out there monitoring um I I understand that every school has security and monitors that that's what they do on a daily basis they are the experts but in order for me to understand what they can do on a daily basis the best way for me to know is to be out there with them it wouldn't be every day but it would be enough to understand that you know what they what they see every day what are they dealing with and work together as a team so that we can address any issues that come up so um I wish I could tell you that I would be out there every single day every passing period of the day because when I was over there and I was a teacher I was expected to stand at the door and it's just good practice as a teacher to stand at the door it would have been um you know the the leaders that that I got along with the best were the ones that were out there with us instead of saying you need to do this it was more of this is what how can we work together to do it and that's the kind of leader that I would want to be again could I promise you that it's going to be every day probably not because we do have things that we need to do on on you know on a daily basis to help run the school but as often as I possibly could I would be out there monitoring students need to know that I know them students need to know that they are seen and sometimes if they know that there that maybe today the principal will be out here maybe she won't be they might because they're still going to do it but they might reconsider it for a second and that's what we want we want them to know that they're seen and they're heard um not always you know for good reasons but that's where we need to be thank you Miss labor any other questions I just wanted to ask um in your time that you've been out here in the Zama Foundation what have you learned about the thought about the people and where have you been on the nation other than just on campus it'll come to you first all right Miss Ava if your time starts now okay so I have been out here since 2014 and I have learned where do I even start um I have learned that we have more similarities than differences obviously coming from a Mexican family I found many of the things that our family and our tradition did were things that are done here in on the Donna at the nation so we we have a lot more in common than we do differences when I wouldn't hear the language I'd be like sounds like a Spanish word and then you know so learning learning the language where have I been on the nation I've been to a couple of villages in 2021 I was I consider myself very blessed that I got to be part of a team of um staff members that went out to the homes of our students and presented them with their certificates so I think the furthest west we went was I I don't want to purchase any Google and then we went um up towards Casa Grande and we went to a couple of places that we pass on the way to Tucson I'm not going to say the names because I'm going to butcher them but um I I clearly I've been to topawa because that's where I used to go when I worked at the high school um I've I've also learned from our culture teachers why some of our students don't behave the way those of us coming from the city expect them to behave and um and seeking out that kind of information it has allowed me I'm gonna say to have a successful career out here because it's it's a beaut culture the culture icon promise is also beautiful but it's been a learning experience thank you Miss Lady Mr Fox the question from Miss Linda Carlos who is a parent she's also on a she's a Community member and she's also on her hiring panel here was in your time here on the thought of the nation what have you learned about the people and also where on the nation have you well I've learned that it's a beautiful culture filled with very very intrinsically beautiful people I come from Tucson I've worked at Tucson for well over 20 years and I mentioned it to quite a few of you in this room that these kids on This Nation very polite you guys may not think so go to Naylor go to Safford K-8 I'm very impressed by our student body from little itty bitty ones up to my 22 year olds they may not be the perfect people none of us are but I can tell you what I've learned is they're very conscious of what they say and what they do because they I don't think they really enjoy hurting other people's feelings that's my take from it maybe I'm lucky maybe they're nice to me all these young little people but I found them to be very very amiable and very communicative you can talk and have a very deep conversation with some of these kids where I've been on the nation I've Been Everywhere from Gothenburg to the museum right outside of Rocky Point um I have visited convo as well and the directions were amazing that I got take a left at the truck turn right at the tires and I got right there um I've been out to little Tucson and this is just visiting students and checking on them and bringing them devices or other necessities that may need um so I'm just happy as can be where I am and as a lifelong learner this has been an amazing experience for me and the fact that um I can now say good morning and good night in six languages just good morning good night though but I will get better at it so um I've learned that it's a great place to be with a deep deep rich culture that should be appreciated and exploited thank you so that was a great question I think that it's one of the questions I want to ask is what will you do to introduce the community to your teachers that work on the nation because the nation is pretty big how will you implement taking students or taking your staff out to see the community so that they can learn where the students come from foreign gosh that's as bad as that yellow submarine video would be quiet for one minute yeah yeah good all right Mr Fox this one will come to you for I think a perfect opportunity to do that as in our all diabetes that every school has is a couple three four times a year I also think it's imperative that we get out there we see where our kids come from um what I've also learned and I know that's the last question but it pertains to this is we are you are a beautiful community and a beautiful people but there is a lot of pain there is a lot of obstacles there is a lot of things that in 25 years of education I've experienced here more than any of the other 23 years and I don't think that if you are from not from this community if you don't experience and see where these young people live what they do to get to school to get up at 4 30 in the morning to walk down a dirt road to take an hour and a half bus ride that's admirable and our teachers who aren't don't know their students on a very intimate basis need to experience that they need to be taught that so get out there on PD days and listen to your kids when they come in late don't give them a hassle right away find out why they relate they probably got had done more work in the three hours they took him to get to school than that some of us are going to do all day so we have to just be conscious that there's a lot going on in these young people's lives and sometimes School takes the back seat to that and sometimes it actually needs to because you're not going to make gains at school until you make gains and Safety and Security thank you Mr Fox Miss Leva the question again from Miss Anna Ray Stevens The Transition coordinator at tocc um is how will you bring or introduce your staff to talk to them So currently I don't know how many of you are aware but we do provide a tour or we used to provide a tour this year where teachers but it's specifically for new teachers to the community and they get to go on a tour of the nation this is planned and executed by by and with our culture teachers so we already have some sort of system in place but I think that you bring up a really good question how do we provide that for teachers that maybe we're hired during the pandemic when we didn't provide these tours I know when I started back in 2014 I don't remember I don't think I had a tour so um maybe providing an opportunity for teachers that are already here either making it voluntary or mandatory depending on when we could do it my other suggestion would be we provide community events where the community comes to hard campuses would it be possible for us to reach out to those Villages and say Hey how do you feel about hosting one of our community events where we provide many of the things that are needed but we get to go out to their Village and get to see what they do so uh I I know that we already do it but we only do it for new teachers so we do need to open it up for um you know people like me who have been in the district that for some reason I didn't get to do one of those tours but then opening up those community events so that you know we wouldn't force it on them but we would ask if any of the communities would like to host a community event like the ones we do on our campuses and it gives everyone not just the teachers but it gives everyone the family the students an opportunity to see where their friends come from so that would be my suggestion all right so at this time we are going to wrap up so before we do that our live panel who's our community members about the right word is there but we will have them introduce themselves and their role for those of us who are tuning in online and then whoever is missing I will also enter by proxy so we're going to start right here good afternoon my name is Robert Russell I'm the school Improvement specialist at Bobby secondary good afternoon everybody and thank you for being here I'm Theresa Brazil I'm yes teacher and secondary good afternoon my name is Linda Carlos and I'm sitting in as a parent he will be back I assure you all right so those of our panel members that will be joining us virtually are run through the list here miss Aaron Martin who is a middle school science teacher you will also have Miss Amanda renegar who is a high school you will have Mr Travis listo who is secondary security you will have Miss Megan Haley who is the secondary guidance counselor and I'm missing one Mr Meese Mr coach Meese who is our secondary um he's a basketball coach as well as health and PE and then we also have President board president board President Juan buendia joining us as well he is here live in the panel so um let's give it up for our candidates [Applause] so the way that this process will go from here because we we did have some hiring committee members who were unable to be here live with us today for various reasons we are streaming this online online they will also have access to it after the fact and we are asking that all nine of our original panel members review and score our candidates based on their responses and then the team the committee will come together tomorrow to discuss and make their final recommendation from there that final recommendation as we all know will go to the school board and the school board will have the final say there will be an executive session where the school board will get to ask either of the candidates any questions that they have before making their final decision and I think that concludes our form for today so let's give our beautiful candidates all right thank you all so much for being here I'm gonna thanks for recording and turn this
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we knew this increase was coming and that it was coming fast that same demographic report is projected to continually increase through 25 and 26. where they're projecting 367 students that 367 is already lower than where we at are at right now so the need for increasing our space is is really imperative so that projected 367 and 2000 in 2025 2026 we're expecting to be probably closer to about 450 if you actually keep those those increase adjustments consistent with where we are right now so the need is there and like I said we batted around a few different project ideas there was some discussion of great plane project but we ultimately landed on the Granville project and I'll let Dan and Anton talk a little bit about how that came about and um and where it's going to go yeah thank you Mike um so uh just to introduce myself uh Dan Patrick's assistant city engineer um I have Tom Hughes with me to our superintendent Construction Services for anyone that doesn't know it um and just to kind of expand on what Mike mentioned um some of you that have been around for a while might kind of be scratching your head um because um the 2020 task force that was put together back in um I believe the end of 2019 and kind of presented on some solutions district-wide for for the increasing enrollment throughout all of the grade levels um we had the um Osborne Street Edition the growth at the high school middle school levels which were taken care of by the Career Academy and now the third arm of that was the Pre-K Center The Early Childhood Center for the Pre-K population um and the the goal behind that was really to provide the district with a centralized um location for the Pre-K and at that time the most logical place for us to put that addition and and build that space would as an addition on the Great Plain Elementary School um for the last couple of years that was the project that that we're moving forward with um there was funds approved for that in the um uh David Career Academy Bond uh referendum that was approved last year and we were moving full steam ahead with the Great Plain location we even went so far as uh to advertise for architectural services um earlier this year and it was at that time the city was approached with the opportunity to um purchase Granville um so that's kind of where where the twists were where the new information might be coming in for a lot of you um Granville Avenue um as many of you know is the location where Danbury public schools is already operating uh the Early Childhood Center and um very quickly over the last uh couple of weeks months um we have been looking at that site to ensure that it can accommodate uh the number of classrooms that we were originally planning to construct as an addition to uh to great plan Elementary School for the Pre-K Center um the building as you all know is is great building I think everyone is very pleased with it very pleased with its location it was recently renovated in in um and we would be looking to expand that space to accommodate approximately uh 16 classrooms total uh which is the number of classrooms that we were looking to construct over at Great Plain um so we've taken a look at the site um it is a it can be a challenge um you know being an inner city site um but we do think it is feasible um so that's what we're moving forward with um you know ultimately the site is in the heart of downtown Danbury it really lends itself to where a lot of that um uh Pre-K population is located where the growth is coming from and um it just provides a school in a location that will be permanently hours rather than a lease space that we can continue to enjoy for for you know all the years to come so with that said I think that that's kind of the background on it we are uh we're excited to move forward with it again we are in very very early concept stages um the aspect that you're looking at that was put together is really kind of our our project manual for this um so we don't have anything to present in terms of um design drawings things of that nature um we were really just moving forward the very early initial stages of the project in order to get us um all of our approvals in line and in order for our state Grant application which has a June 30th deadline for next year's priority list and we typically like to submit that application at least a week usually we try to get two weeks early just to make sure the state can digest it take a look at it make sure that everything looks good and is acceptable so that we can address any comment that they might have prior to the June 30th thank you Dan did you want to talk a little bit about the specifics um like additional classrooms I know we're going from 13 to 16 there's a multi-purpose room are there any other features that you think are are worth calling out at this time I know like you said with the design really isn't fully baked yet and there's still a lot of changes that could be made with where walls are how big certain rooms are how many offices there are um yeah essentially we're looking to maintain a lot of the space that's there um you know the building is um operated and and um you know it's fully occupied as exists today and we would basically be looking to expand that um I think we can get um at least six classrooms there I think there's ten classrooms there existing so uh We've looked at it we we can we can pick six classrooms there um if it turns out that there's an opportunity to um to fit more um and and project funds and budget allows it you know we'll always take that opportunity to to to to to do our best and uh see what we can do to do the best we can for for everyone and create as much space as we can uh but right now the goal is to meet um the six additional classrooms for a total of six team that we were planning on constructing a great plan um and uh yeah really the the idea behind great playing the centralization was to try and um mitigate any leases um I know we have at least in this building now if we were uh when when we purchased it um you know it'll take care of that lease and uh provide some extra space for the district um I know everything's growing and and the numbers have changed since uh since 2020 when this plan was put in place um but uh you know we're gonna we're gonna do as best we can to to maximize the site maximize the space and and create a well-functioning school for the district thanks Dan Madam chair without without specifications what are we actually voting on tonight the need we we have no numbers to uh the uh the Ed specs uh are we're part of the package um so these are included in the um the agenda pack for tonight right but we have no direct specifications with cost is that correct and um Mike if I could jump in uh that's how it works with Ed specs um the Board of Ed uh approves the spec it goes back to the building committee um they'll come up with cost estimates they'll put it out for bid they'll they'll look at the budgetary aspects of things um you're just voting on what you uh want educationally uh in the project okay and if I'm incorrect uh no you you that you're you're you're correct John um like I said uh the aspect is is essentially serves as the project manual um so it kind of details the need for the project um the rationalization for the project um the programming of the spaces that you want to see the types of spaces size of sizes of spaces um really just kind of kind of the backbone as to what you are doing not so much the details of um how and how we're not approving the cost okay thank you great bye Mr I misunderstood your question yeah um okay Kelly do you want to talk a little bit about just the program and and how this is going to be an enhancement sure sure right now uh just as a reminder to the board um we have 10 classrooms preschool classrooms currently housed at the current Grandville location we have three class preschool classrooms uh that are special ed preschool programs housed at our Sacred Heart location which is separate from Granville we'll be adding a fourth preschool classroom there for next school year so the 23-24 school year so this would give us the ability to bring those four classrooms over into the Granville location if this project were to move forward and be approved that also helps us to centralize services so many of our preschoolers receive speech occupational or physical therapy um Assistive Technology support adaptive physical education and it really helps to have all those programs under one leader which is our special education supervisor in one location to help to provide continuity of programming for those students it also provides for the um the increase in growth which we have seen historically with a particular tick over the last few years in our preschool program I don't know if there's any particular questions that you have about the current program as it exists I'd be happy to answer them can I can I ask a question Michelle is that okay okay go ahead Teresa just curious the ins the Connecticut Institute for families their school uh what do they do sure so um they provide early childhood education for students that is a separate grant that they receive directly from the state it is not operated by the Danbury public schools we do collaborate with them oftentimes we will have children that may attend part of the day with them that come to our special education preschool programming to receive their iepied services so it is certainly um a very valuable Early Childhood Program in our community and there are many others as well but these particular programs are ages three through five at the preschool are any students with special needs that were required by state law to receive special education programming and it was not and that is with us in our current programs thank you so Kelly how many will this be able to service this new look you know larger size the 16 classrooms how many students we're talking about 385 right now possibly 450 what will it accommodate um so it would it would give us the ability right next school year we'll have the 14 classroom so we're anticipating some growth with that at about 400 or so um possibly even a little bit more and then we give us several additional classroom spaces uh for that continued enrollment and growth and just a reminder that our preschool most of our preschool programs are a split day session so meaning we have an AM class and a PM class um so there could be anywhere between uh depending on the type of programming we're talking about some of our more specialized have a smaller student-to-teacher ratio they might have 10 or so students in the classroom other classes might have upwards of 16 18 and those would be 16 or 18 students in the morning and an additional in the afternoon um so I think it would give us you know a pretty a pretty good number for continued enrollment six additional rooms and 18 students 108 students am plus PM we're at 216 that that makes us space we need anybody else you want to continue Mike do you want to continue Mike I guess does anybody have any other questions or just just one yeah please it would be better to have it all housed in in one one unit so with the split split program will we be saving any for any supervisory or administrative savings by only having one administrator for one housing or are we or will there be no cost savings whatsoever so as far as administrative functioning right now we have one administrator overseeing um the the two different locations currently with a designee that's functioning um when they're at an alternate location um so as far as an administrator salary no there will not be a savings there um but uh when you look at you know secretarial staff you know um safety Advocates and things like that um that will be something we'll have to consider based on the enrollment when we merge the two programs together there could be some savings um the other thing um that I foresee is we currently are um we need to account for travel time between the two locations for some of our related services staff so like our speech and language Pathologists our OTS and occupational therapists and physical therapists so we do lose some of their day in just transitioning from one program to the next so they would be able to take on and um you know provide Direct Services to more children so that would maximize our efficiency there thank you all right well if everyone's good on preschool we can move on to the big kids um could I ask the question um I I'm not only committed yes class yes go ahead I also understand another facility that's being looked at versus Great Plain okay uh and going back a couple of years ago uh the people over in that era was very uh upset because they all feel the boardroom talking about where why are you going to bring more students over there when we're done oh parking is bad so so I guess I guess my question is is this the only place that you're looking at Mike were you able to understand that whole question no I I think I can piece it together I think I have a pretty good understanding of it just from from being in some of the um past uh past meetings where um you know some of these plans were discussed um so this um this location is actually a a new location we are pivoting away from the Great Plains School location um and and looking to purchase the building at 22 Granville Avenue um to construct the site so um I I spoke a little bit in the beginning about great plane um as far as the history of how we got to today um but this would be this this would be a an alternate site um where there would be no no additions to Great Plain um which is a kind of another one of the benefits of the thrust because great plane you know no sight is perfect but great plane in particular would have been a challenging site um you know to accommodate all of the parking uh the Bus drop off in traffic um in this case you know we at Granville Danbury public schools have a school they're operating currently um you know the neighborhood is used um to the to the uh bus traffic um parent drop-off uh traffic um you know and it it's it's really kind of kind of lended itself to be an ideal location I mean it already is an ideal location um we're just uh just looking to to continue to keep it there and have ownership of it um so that's that's one of the the main benefits of this as well um and again thank you thank you Dan I I sort of misunderstood because I didn't hear the uh the early part of it and I apologize for that uh I thought you was talking about class more classroom over at Great Plains where I I couldn't see where that's happening uh Granville Avenue you know uh yes I've been over there it's a you know and we can have everyone under the same umbrella I don't see anything wrong with it I would just uh sorry that I missed hurt because you know I was about to go battle for great plane you know we we don't need no more traffic over at Great plane and uh you know so I appreciate the chairperson for letting me uh voice my opinion and and I appreciate uh the clarification and I think that's what we really need to be when we're explaining it to board members and parents and stuff because people will get upset when you're talking about moving Thank You Bridget do you have any questions or comments in here um so the only question I would have um in the specs I think there was a brief discussion about remediation so if you could just uh talk it doesn't seem like we're going to need an awful lot of Remediation in the building but if you could talk to that for just a second to clarify I'd appreciate it someone sure so um as part of this project uh right now a portion of the building is occupied um released by by Danbury public schools and the other remaining portion of the building I believe is currently occupied by a church not all of the areas were um renovated um and and abated during the 2020 renovation so as part of this project we would be taking over the building as a whole um so the the area that's currently used by the church would also turn into classroom space and it's really some of the areas in there um that that are likely to contain some hazardous materials that would have to be evaded as part of the project okay thank you very much I appreciate the explanation so if everybody comfortable um would we like to go ahead and try to put it to a motion to address in front of the board the approval of the education specifications for Early Childhood Child Support Center is there emotion anyone so moved I'll suck at that approved by uh moved by Bridget and second in by Al Russo thank you Mike okay great um so we'll move along now to the uh science labs at Danbury High School so where Grandville was really a project about expanding uh the science lab project isn't really so much expanding it's it's about rejuvenating and modernizing uh the existing labs in that building I've really been there since the 60s I make a little comment in the Ed Speck that when they were built we hadn't even yet been to the Moon Science Education has come a long way um so our facilities need to accommodate that so um I'm not going to get I don't want to get into the the enrollment numbers and all that again we all know Danbury High School um has has a lot of kids um they are going to be a site of the academy oh sorry Mr Russo I apologize but procedurally I I have to ask I realize we have a motion on the floor in a second do we need to vote as a committee on on the motion that was made to support oh okay is that is that the case Mike yes to bring it what did you just I'm sorry I have the motion eyes Bridget motioned I second and I suppose you have to ask for a vote okay and we have a vote please uh so I'm gonna say uh all those in favor sorry aye aye any opposed I apologize opposed none okay the motion is past that thank you sorry Mike that's all right I'm so excited to get talking about the science labs I wanted to make my joke about the moon so [Laughter] uh so anyhow without further wait a minute I was in the science lab at that time so be careful well I'm uh I'm sure they they did a great job uh but Back in 1970 Teresa that's that was there in 1960 I know she didn't get a chance to be there until I did though you were in a higher level you were in the honors low yeah I did have Irish cab so I'll let Mr LaRosa talk a little bit about the changes in science curriculum um and what that means for the classroom space where we need to hold the classes um so a few years ago so I'll introduce myself for those that don't know I'm John LaRosa I'm one of the assistant principals at Danbury High School um I work closely with Rich jalbert and his team on facility stuff within the building and formerly I was a science department head for about 10 years in a science teacher before that so my knowledge is pretty good in Science World um our science building currently again as as Teresa mentioned and Mike mentioned um is the original science building for Denver High School science is pretty different than it is than it was in 1962.
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um there was a lot of direct instruction back then um and and all of us have taken science classes in high school and if you remember like lab class you had a lab book and you followed step one and then went to step two and you followed a procedural um lab experience that is not the science of today our science curriculum is based off of the national or the Next Generation science standards which most districts in the country follow all of the state of Connecticut follows and that curriculum is transformed from direct instruction and kind of like cookbook lab settings to a lot more inquiry-based student cooperation problem solving based activities our classrooms right now we have I think it's 16 classrooms Dan correct me if I'm wrong 16 science classrooms and they're a mix they were built for a specific reason so we have specific chemistry they called chemistry labs and specific biology Labs um and and they're all outdated they no longer fit this this new science idea of um students collaborating to solve problems they were built um to have direct instruction and or cookie cutter cookbook Style Lab activities so the plans that Dan has been working on with his Engineers would would do two things for us they would provide more collaborative space in all of the classrooms so not just the chemistry classrooms that right now have collaborative space this would provide direct instruction space as well as collaborative working spaces in all of the science classrooms so all 16 versus what I think is now about seven or eight um it would also update all of the facilities within those spaces so after all of these years the sinks that are in those classrooms that are used regularly for activities no longer functioning and the city is unable to really fix them because of years of chemicals going down the drains have eroded pipes and created problems that the city just cannot address and which means it puts an impact on the teacher's ability to implement this new new style of curriculum so in in the layout changes of the classroom which we'll also be updating all of the facilities so that the materials and the the functionality of the space will work we're going to be hopefully moving away from designated chemistry class designated biology class to make classrooms a little bit more Universal again having a direct instruction space and a collaborative working space because as we all know the the population of the high school is growing and we don't always have the same number of chemistry classes each year if we have a larger sophomore class we need more chemistry classes and then the following year we need more physics classrooms some of the updates will allow us to really utilize the science classrooms as a whole more efficiently to make sure all the students get Equitable access to this new curriculum and new style of teaching thank you Mr LaRosa uh just one quick adjustment I think you said 16 or 17 Labs so we have actually 18 Labs planned for for modernization great thank you um and that includes 17 kind of prep storage uh work room spaces I know there's some some sort of greenhouse features and some of those uh prep areas with the hoods as well too so all that's going to get um going to get an overhaul yeah we're lucky that that our science classrooms um do have have prep space for teachers um so that the work that they're doing to set up some of these activities these Labs can be done in a safe controlled space and then we also have uh they call them like Grow rooms they're not really greenhouses as much as their designated rooms um for for staff to utilize as a working spaces for students to again do more long-term project stuff so the students are working on some of these long-term um real world problem-solving activities they can set them up and kind of keep them going for weeks or weeks on end versus utilizing um the same space that they have to share with all of the other classrooms thank you John um and just a reminder that then this goes for the Granville um piece too we will have artwork as these projects develop there's some very very preliminary sketches um that you know come to the table and we say no this isn't enough space or you know these are islands they need to be uh peninsulas you know there's all these different conversations that are still happening and um as we said earlier the the Ed spec is really just a sort of explanation of the logic of the project the need for it um and what we want to do and then as as that sort of gets formulated the design comes into uh you know a you know a clear picture sorry we said do you have a question I'll wait till after Al if I make I thought as I understand it there's going to be some new additional classrooms is that correct Mike so this one won't really add classrooms um this is really just a refurbishment of the existing okay and and subdividing some space for Grow rooms um yeah and I think a lot of those rooms are are existing right now there's sort of those in between rooms in between classes where there's you know like a desk and then maybe a hood for for demos and things like that my question was and you've confirmed it existing square footage is going to be reutilized thank you yeah currently all of the spaces Mike talked about the prep room the The Grow rooms the classroom space they're all the walls are already there um they're just extremely outdated so this would be refreshing them to make them usable um for kind of the new way of teaching I think it's much more effective and and you know the other little piece of this too is you know some kids are going to be going to you know the new building um the the west campus for science um so you know it's nice if kids feel like you know they're they're getting a new experience too for those who will be taking you know their classes at the high school so it really is about an equity issue as well I've heard of science Equity now I know science Equity okay Teresa questions talking about the new way of teaching so you're not going to cut open gerbils anymore but what will you be doing in lieu of to get my head wrapped around this new system yeah so some some of the programs still do dissections the typical frog thing but the different style is again if you remember um doing a lab in science you you did step one and then you did step two and then you did step three and then you recorded did it turn blue or red and you wrote it down and then you went to step four there wasn't a lot of problem solving on the student's end it was more of can you follow directions as if you were baking right you've got to do this step then this step and this step write down your observations um nowadays it's a lot more real world problem solving so an example is we just I was lucky enough to go and walk through and witness one of our aquatic science classes or really all of our aquatic science classes they were working on water quality and specifically looking at the still River here in Danbury and how Danbury High School and our watershed area affects the still River so students were given the task of how are you going to improve the the water runoff at Danbury High School that will inevitably improve the still River and the students had to come up with real world problem-solving Solutions on how could we better handle the water at Danbury High School when it goes down into storm drains to hopefully produce a healthier still River so that was a a project that they did there was no no step one to go to step two they had to really come up with what is their problem what possible research they had to do to figure out a solution and then they had to um do some activities that went along with that before they finally presented to both staff members and outside agencies about their proposal on how to fix a problem with the still River being polluted from Danbury High School I I was able to join and do the walk through those presentations as well and I have to say I was really impressed some of the solutions Dan and Tom I'm gonna make you guys come with me next year because I think they've got some ways to keep the water off those steps as you go down behind uh behind the old gym there so just one more thing um just to note um so everyone um is aware um this project is also very um closely related to uh the um meask uh report um that was issued uh for Danbury High School um so this was one of the comments as far as a a modernization of the science classrooms um or an improvement of the science classrooms to support and modern curriculum so I just want to make sure everyone's aware of that that this project is dovetailing into that um the ask report yeah thanks and that's when I was speaking again of some of the facilities within the classrooms not working and the Equitable issue of how each classroom is quite different and we were teaching the same courses and very different setups um that did come right from our nearest report as they walked around and thought on these 1962 classrooms no longer meet the Need For What Science Education is what's the best case scenario as far as when this would this work would begin because I know that you know we had parent come out and talked or a teacher I think come out and discuss the science lab and inability to be able to utilize it so what are we looking at for a timeline we would be looking at a construction start of the summer of 20 24.
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um so the way the project timeline is kind of rolling out we're applying for our state Grant application Again by the end of June and um over over the months of the summer we'll be doing design plans and specifications um and then it's it's going to be kind of gathering everyone around the table um and um John in in his high school administrative team and um saying okay how can we make this work because as as everyone's aware um there really is no swing space at Danbury High School um to handle the classrooms that would be taken out of commission during construction um so that that is one of the biggest challenges of this project is the construction timeline and in the in the period of time that's available to get the work done um but yes it would not be starting until the summer of 24.
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and it would be two summers right down yeah that's what we'll be looking at so are we looking at no water then in that in those classrooms currently for the next definite year plus two as far as I I mean I would say the the conditions that are in in the labs currently uh will be in place uh for another year but as far as I know I mean I don't think water has ever been an issue um in the Rogers Park issue yeah I'm sorry okay question as far as far as funding this is 100 Grant funded or what is the city or do we have a current part of our current uh bond issue of 208 million uh correct so so um funding for this project was part of that um Bond referendum last year as well um we would be seeking our uh our typical approximately 63 64 reimbursement from the state uh the remainder uh of of eligible costs would be City funded okay thank you second part of my question is to Teresa Teresa's kids at bio 102 had frogs you did you really have gerbils yes we did I would draw the question yes we did I had honors biology I didn't but come on so moved all right I think sorry Michelle okay anybody else have any questions discussion Bridget nope all set thank you I'm good thank you so if we're ready then we're going to be looking um for the approval of the education specification for Danbury High School science lab Improvement and um is there a motion then for the sites and Facilities committee to be renamed to the board of edu to be excuse me recommended the Board of Education approval I would make that motion so all those any opposed okay motion is passed right thank you that's all we have okay thanks so much everybody for coming tonight appreciate your time and uh we'll see you soon
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or just alive so you'd like to call this meeting to order and I've asked Mr Ryan Grace the lead is in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice as well thank everybody for being here this evening you'd like to excuse this evening Diana Butler her health is not so well this evening and she has to be excused we in terms of time over to Dr Wright for some presentations absolutely we have tried to increase and need to do a better job of recognizing our volunteers and we have a br Superstar volunteer I want to say just a couple things about Dr date before I turn it over to Ryan I met Dr Dave almost nine years ago and as a reading volunteer and he showed up Faithfully he has done an outstanding job he's beloved by our teachers and our students and he's been a fine example of service to his community thank you Dr Dave I want to say personally we love you and appreciate all you've done I'll let Mr Grace make the formal presentation of this award foreign has been here since uh long before I've been here he's touched countless children's lives and their education he has worked very closely with Miss Mike downs and so she's here to say a couple words about it I have a couple piece of paper I just want to take a moment to thank our longest serving kindergarten volunteer Dr Dave krigbaum he has helped our kindergarten program for approximately the last 11 years this help has come in person volunteering his time and talent and also giving financially to our kindergarten team while he volunteered for a longer period of time with the prior kindergarten teacher at Blue Ridge I feel he contributed enormously with helping to get a brand new kindergarten teacher me off to a great start he embodies the perfect model of patience and perseverance during the covid time frame our program continued to utilize the math books that our team had purchased using the Crick bombs Financial donation we also have used funds to provide a differentiated resource for higher Achievers in English language arts prior to open court my favorite very favorite thing to witness at the elementary school was how the older students on the four sixth grade side of the building would respond to seeing Dr Dave the children all loved him dearly you will be missed by many children at Blue Ridge thank you for the wisdom you have imparted to me and the role model you have been for so many kindergartners thank you Dr Dave thank you [Applause] foreign [Applause] just a little bit and do the call of the public for Lauren Webb right now if you'll step up and take care of that right now we'll because we have firefighters waiting here we we'd hate to have an emergency happen and they have these guys sitting here amen Lauren if you please join us president Merrill members of the board Dr Wright thank you for altering your schedule agenda for us just a little bit my name is Randy Chevalier I'm the fire chief with Timber Mesa and here with me is division Chief Tabor Heisler we'd like to take a few moments to recognize Blue Ridge School District and principal Lauren Webb for some for support partnership is important in this community and I think we all can relate to that recently we conducted a training and I'll allow Chief Heiser to kind of touch on the training that we conducted but recently held the training here in this room and throughout the halls of the high school here on a critical topic we all know school security school safety children's safety is up and most important in Blue Ridge School District and Lauren Webb kind of came to the rescue for us allowed us a host of training many participants came here worked through the halls of rescue Task Force training I'd like to turn the time over to Chief Heiser and he'll explain a little bit more about what rescue Task Force training really is good evening to all of you um appreciate you giving us some time today um we've been working with an organization called IC save and what I see save does is they come across the State of Arizona through financial donations and they provide free training to not only members of the public school districts like yourselves but they also bring together a fire department and police departments and teach us how to work together for a an active violent event so we brought that training here was one of one that we did at Blue Ridge we have several more that are coming up but the the premise of today was that from our staff we heard nothing but great things about Lauren being here supporting the efforts providing for that group and and it really is an intense training where they're kind of running a little bit of the campus so we just wanted to thank you give your appreciation for providing that support and we have a little plaque for you appreciate you thank you I think we surprised Lauren jumped yeah he thought he was in trouble when he heard his name at the first of the meeting I thought I saw him jump about two inches off his seat there anyway we'll turn the time back over to Dr Wright for more presentations thank you I'll uh I stand behind my characterization as Mr Webb the most amazing High School principal in the world I introduced him like that at commencement exercises it stands to this day nice job Mr Webb thank you and thank you First Responders and Health Care over here helping us out and working our community we we love and appreciate Joe and thank you again Mr Dr Dave and Landon for all the quick bones I've done for our community we we love both of you dearly we want to recognize now the NASA and our Fab Lab team the NASA competition we wanted to recognize him before their competition Mr Woodward says hey let's wait and do it afterwards which we agreed to and then I dropped the ball in May sorry about that so we're bringing them back and Mr Gibson we didn't sit on it we did send out a text message we heard you thank you sir and we love these kids we're firmly behind the Fab Lab and we're very proud of them I'll turn the time over to Mr Woolridge without any further delay there she is she snuck in on me being that it's summer you know everybody's off at the lake or playing so when when the race was finished we looked at the leaderboard and Blue Ridge was in fifth and when this competition starts there's multiple hundreds of schools applying from 30 different countries it's a huge pool and you know every couple months there's another Milestone that has to be met and then it became fewer and fewer and fewer and fewer and then the last Milestones showing up at the race having a cart that can actually finish the course when all was said and done Blue Ridge was in fifth on the leaderboard and then a couple weeks ago they sent me an email with the final results one of the teams that placed ahead of us was disqualified for using a chain in their drive system so Blue Ridge actually ended up fourth Blue Ridge High School fourth out of the high schools which is huge [Applause] so it's it's such an amazing competition and there's so much growth the kids end up going through throughout the competition but I figured I'd let them talk about it and I'll let you and thank you to to the families the kids the Gibsons Miss Brimhall everybody for their support I really can't do it by myself I really it's such an involved competition that without p Ure people helping it just I wanted them to tell you a little bit of air experience and what they learned from it and then after that we do have short videos so the whole thing it was probably one of the best experiences I've had the entire first year of high school it was the sportsmanship that we shared between all the teams was really amazing everybody was super excited to be there we got to talk to so many people from all over the world and the like the whole thing was really eye-opening to see all the different ideas and just all the happiness I guess would be a good word for it among everybody just kind of being shared and put into the competition it was just kind of really amazing uh so I'm in Elise I'm really bad at public speaking so I will try my best um one thing I really liked about the NASA River competition was like the diversity and all the schools and teams that were there one team we were next to were right next to was Mexico and then we also talked to team from India so it was really cool so we set up a Instagram and we got their Instagram pages so I thought that was really cool to like meet all these people from all around the world and to know that like everyone gets a shot and I thought it was really cool that we were we were able to be there as well um one thing I loved about with being next to the Mexico team they were like super happy people and they would dance so they started having like a dance party and it was really cool so then we started dancing with them and it was just amazing so I thought it was really educational and we met astronauts so that was really cool as well people from all over the world they're meeting like-minded University and high school students kids that have the same interests the same goals ultimate goals kids with you know science stem and Engineering desires and they're networking with these these groups of people which from really all over the world it's it's just an incred incredible competition so thank you for your support I can tell you as a school district we can be more proud of these kids than we are you know the only way we get more proud is if they got first place but we're extremely proud of them for where they are right now I think this is this is this is next year can we hold you to that all right I'm gonna put money on that I'm just kidding [Music] but it filled with an existing team so they're heading there they know what to expect next year they're my New Year's next year their experience protections for that first place hey Dave can you run that video sir [Music] thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] board have anything else before I move on Mr I enjoyed the dancing part of that so much all right yeah I don't know Dr Wright yes sir next we have the National Honor Society the state champions for their blood drive and Mr vest and Mr Webb have a presentation to make to our students participating in that effort I'll defer to Mr vest thank you the presentation's actually to the board come on up guys so I will say up front not that I'm competitive or anything this Banner says co-champion the calculations were done before we did our last blood drive when you add in our last blood drive not only were we actually to stay champions in our division we were the only we were top 10 in the state regardless of school size and we were the only School outside of the valley to be in the top ten so every year the National Honor Society participates in a blood drive event that's their chosen uh primary chosen community service activity it's through vitalant this year we were the champions for our school size we got introduced on the field at a Diamondbacks game last month before the game got tickets everybody had a good time unfortunately it was the same night as a powder puff game in the last week and a half of school so we had a lot of people that chose Powder Puff over a seven hour round trip to a baseball game but so our NHS students this year generated over 240 units of blood from students and the community they did about 1300 hours of community service as a group and according to Lori Hilliard who's our contact at vitalant the blood drive organization they saved the lives of 150 arizonans this year thank you and I didn't know this until I got involved in NHS but one out of it in Arizona one after every six blood donors is a high school student wow that's that's impressive congratulations kids and Mr best who's our outgoing vice president Joe grzelik who's our incoming his our incoming secretary the treasurer so we actually managed to as as Mr Woolrich said it's a little hard to round people up on these nights but we did find three people so thank you all we're presenting this to the board and hopefully this will be an annual thing we'll see what happens thanks thank you we'll be glad to put that up in here thank you Mary can we have that installed under that thank you guys the next item on the agenda is a presentation of a a bond presentation by Dr Wright and then and list is contained we'll take it now when we get one next year it should have first place state first place in state all right thank you all right so we'll turn the time over to you Dr Wright thank you presentation Kimberly Doug Dillard CFO will have a presentation and she'll introduce other guests we have with stifel that will help execute this if approved by the board so I'll turn the time over to Kimberly good evening governing board and governing board president so we are at the time where we get to decide if we're going to go out for a bond so we want to give you some information um concerning the bond I'm going to do a presentation with the help with Dr Wright on the projects that we would use this potential Bond money for we have Mark reader here from Stiefel and he's going to do a short presentation on our bonds current bonds and what this will mean going in the future and we have James Gill here from Gus Rosenfeld our bond lawyer if we have any legal questions that we may have so I'm going to start with our the school district presentation first Okay so uh we are here at Blue Ridge we're committed to student safety and success and therefore we're asking um to call for a bond for the November 7th election um coming up this November so just a reminder a bond um as you can read here is funding provided to school districts used to purchase Capital items these dollars may be used for Capital Improvements existing facilities such as security enhancements purchasing computers buses and capital items those that's tailored to us uh oh whoops our rookie president are here um anyway so uh this is Taylor to us because you're gonna see as I go through the presentation that these were the top items that um are surveys with the public um came out of those surveys and our surveys with staff and talking to you all about the things that we need here at Blue Ridge so the first and most needed thing that the community felt and that we feel is that we needed to focus on safety and assessment in the district so um that includes security improvements um and we'll talk more about that in depth the next needed thing was upgrading and updating our technology as you know we're a one-to-one school district and we bought those computers a while ago they will need to be refreshed if we want to continue to be a one-to-one school district and there's some other technology things that we'll need we will also need to refresh our transportation so at our last Bond we bought a fleet of buses those buses are coming to the time where we're going to need to replace them we would like to use some of this Bond money to replace those buses um do some facilities improvements and some extracurricular needs and we'll go through more specifics on what those items are so Safety and Security um so one of the priorities we did a Safety and Security assessment with Jesus's company and they gave us a lot of great data on where we at where we're at here at Blue Ridge with our Safety and Security and we're doing really well but they did find some things that they thought that could enhance our Security even more one of those things is keyless entry for all of our entryways and part of that is is that we just need to make sure that we have the right people in the buildings at the right times yeah of course yeah if I can interject a couple things importantly within this area the state school facility board has minimum guidelines currently for safety and they do not adhere to the guidelines that Security Experts would recommend this is an evolving in the state's defense it's an evolving area but one of a couple of things that have come to that we have come to our attention keyless entry is important and I'll tell you why turnover happens quite regularly people lose their keys quite regularly the last time we re-keyed the entire district and we used some of the 2016 bonds to do that it was a hundred thousand dollars well we know costs have gone up and that's an Antiquated way of doing that law enforcement First Responders like firefighters need access and they need it readily so it's easy to assign them a key card and when we change the code they come back and we update that code for them we get it back and forth It's a Small Town that doesn't take much when somebody loses their keys or their their fob we can replace that quicker and so it is a far more secure environment for those that are here the students that are here and it's the only way to maintain key control on the other entries like bulletproof glass it seems excessive but hey there's been 528 mass shootings as of yesterday we live in a different time when we I wouldn't have made this presentation and when I did in 2016 our top concern wasn't security it was education now admittedly it's it's taken a backseat to number two we first have to make sure our students and staff are secure and so there are some changes that we are not going to have two or three years to make and so that's why we're asking for this help the updated camera systems those are Antiquated some of the help that we had in 2016 was used for that as you know technology evolved very quickly we need to update those district-wide internally and externally inside and outside I should say interior and exterior and then on the PA systems ours are we've been working to try to get these replaced with the school facilities board for some time we don't have time to wait to get approved and have them installed in two years so I wanted to provide some context for the public and for the board and before we go on are there any questions with that any of those points before we go on to the next section if not thank you thank you Dr Wright okay so the next um whoop the next area is um technology and like I said um earlier we are a one-to-one school district and to keep continue with that we will need to refresh computers that the students have and the staff have so that we can continue to do that um and that is kind of how education is going um in the future I think it's been a really great asset for us to be able to do that and it's a really good learning opportunity for our students and especially going into the future where they go to college and for career Readiness that they have a good um skills with computers and with computer programs we also need to upgrade some stuff in the technology department there's not this is not an exhaustive list of the things that they need but just some of the ideas of the things that they need we know that we need more wireless points we know that we're probably going to need some maybe some cell phone stuff if we do go with firstnet and that program for our Safety and Security so these are just some improvements that we were gonna that we will need for technology do you have any questions about technology okay one of one of the questions I have is you know we have uh the campus on Penrod will this link them together so they want me something separate that we have right now so when we send out a uh an announcement with the PA it almost goes to two different things right now so um will this be unified so that one goes to every every building and and say even the like the the LDS seminary over here would they be included in that because they're not getting any of the information when it comes out right now and they have kids sure need to go into a lockdown or anything like that so will it cover that or are we going to have to take another step to get to that point there's there's two parts to that if I might answer Kimberly the first one is we have to have a district-wide system to alert people one of the ways we do that is with the Rave system and everybody including Seminary and anybody often on campus students when they're at MTC are aware all you have to do is they enroll for the raid application you get that that's the global notification there has to be Awareness on the site of the event and that's where the biggest Gap is and it is a challenge at this campus because we have East Campus and the well both the junior high and the high school operators won one campus so when the high school would be notified it's going to go high school-wide we'll have a well it is it's it's a good point you mean it's something we should look at from an I.T perspective that would be Chris here I'll give it to Dave we should be able to integrate the elementary the I'll get it right eventually I'm thinking of the old elementary school the junior high school and the multi-purpose school and our various tenants at that facility should all be alerted when we make a general announcement like this is a lockdown and everybody should be able to get that everywhere on this 80 acre campus that we can do and we should do Porter Mountain will operate independently with the exception of the notification now another Gap we have cell phones don't work at Porter Mountain all the time so we're working with net one is it Ryan is it first net I'll get it I'm mixing my company's first net we're working with first net who is a relatively new provider that provides coverage Statewide and recently during the Super Bowl when Verizon went down firstnet had zero interruptions and so it will cost us money to buy to have a service with them and to buy the devices we would need but there were several times this winter where we couldn't send text messages even and so we're we were struggling to cancel the school day because our our cell service was out District white we have a unique set of things this goes the communication part goes Far and Beyond an active killer shooter it has forest fires that's a real threat where we live I think we'll all agree on that we have other inclement weather so we have to be able to communicate to ensure at an adequate level of Safety and Security for our staff and students does that make sense thank you firstnet is a government cell phone network so we're included in that government Network through for the First Responders are it's a first responder Network sorry through the government and we're included in that because we're a school district so they're inviting us into that Network and that's why there's not like Dr Wright stated as many people on that Network so we would have first priority for cell service on that network but that would require us to get some cell phone boosters I think at on the elementary school just because of where they're located okay Transportation so like I mentioned we will need to replace our bus fleet we are consolidating routes but we still will need buses and we'll need to replace those buses as they age and they break down we will need to get new buses we'll also probably um buy some buses some smaller buses for extracurricular activities for coaches to drive and whatnot um to sporting events um and for like the NASA rover if they needed a bus they're smaller the coach or the sponsor can drive that bus so that would be included in that as well yeah for um for additional detail we have nine vehicles our buses are full-size buses nine of them have 125 miles 125 000 miles or more and four of them have 140 000 miles or more and so these buses to replace now if you remember last name and they're about 135 000 they're approaching 200 Grand now the ones that we bought a couple of them that had chains and we're finding out those work really well in our snow and ice and so we would like to buy the new buses would come equipped with these chains that you can automatically deploy and so they're going to rent us I would say the ballpark would be for the full size around 200 000 per unit the square white buses that you just need to have a medical clearance to drive that's around 75 80 grand but they're more fuel efficient and you don't need a CDL to drive one of those are there any questions about transportation okay next um this is like General School improvements so like we mentioned campus security needs and improvements there are some improvements um that we will need to do to our buildings um we are doing really well with the school facilities board um and so a lot of our projects are getting funded through the schools facilities board but they don't do everything like Dr Wright mentioned we have put in for them to pay for a PA system that may or may not get approved there are some things that they that they will not pay for and so we would use some money for that and then another initiative that we have going right now is teacher housing projects there's a lack of housing here in Lake Pinetop Lakeside and so we do need to provide teachers with affordable housing so that we can keep quality teachers here some of this money would be used to continue those projects in the CTE program is actually focused on doing those programs Mr Waldo is very familiar with that so his house is almost complete and ready to move in which is so awesome so we'd like to do more projects like that for our teachers here in Blue Ridge yeah along the lines to the board of the teacher housing we have retained at least four teachers we would have lost between this school year and the beginning of next because of housing we've been able to resolve it with the current housing that we have and so that capacity is going to grow and imagine the need is going to scale right along with it right now we'll have right I should say by the beginning of the school year we'll have four units that are in service and one of which is a family unit a studio was taken half of the old boardroom two Studios and it'll be full service two restrooms in there with a small kitchen and also a laundry room in there so it's a full service unit the Waldo Suite that you started check about 15-20 years ago is is that's my favorite one I said we're building that for the old superintendent when he gets kick to the curb but in all seriousness we'll have that one filled too and that was the bones were really good and the CTE kids have done a wonderful job with that now we need to look for a couple of areas to add a couple of portable structures and then we need we've taken back a couple of rooms at the old multi-purpose area we're trying to find adequate space for it but it is making a difference we're just one step ahead of the need we want to go further ahead but we need resources to do that yes it's very exciting the kids are doing that work it's exciting to see that finished so hopefully it'll be done by the end of the month we'll take a tour Maybe okay extracurricular activities as you can see we have fabulous extracurricular um things here at Blue Ridge the Rover project is just one of the examples of the fabulous things that are going on our drama Department the the Footloose play was just fabulous so we would like to invest some of the bond money into supporting those programs and the things that they need as well as supporting our Athletics programs and some of the things that they need to be successful we have great programs here we just want to continue what we have going and make them even better yeah there there's the greatest predictor for Student Success is not act it's not grades it's participation in extracurricular activities that includes your Fine Arts programs your Athletics and your stem that is those those elements of participation Mark the best chance you have for your student to be successful all of that requires parent participation requires specific funding and attention we really do have a unique offering I mean I'll I'll be the first one to brag I'm like a proud father of 160 graduates here every year the past four years five years six years we've sent kids to tier one universities we've sent young ladies to Air Force Academy West Point we send kids to we're sending them again to Columbia they can get a great education here at Blue Ridge we have a a very robust offering at the high school on advanced placement classes and our stem lab is the only private school Fab Lab in the in the in the state and I would venture to say one of the few in the country so we have unique needs but these things need help you have to sustain it it's one thing getting it rolling but to sustain it we're going to need some help so we're trying to articulate that as best as we can so uh just we wanted to just go through a few bullet points we want to make sure the Public's aware that we are committed to responsible stewardship of sacred taxpayer funds and that we want to get the most out of these dollars as possible um and in our pamphlet we were clearly delineate um what we're going to be doing um and we will hold um we'll holding a public hearing we hold public hearings every year to go over what we use this tax dollars for for our capital projects so uh we will be communicating what we're doing with our brusd funds through our website and through um our other social media our Instagram our Facebook our Twitter will be communicating we're working on a plan now on how we're going to communicate all the things that are happening with these Bond dollars if we get them so that the community can see how we're using these Bond dollars here to support our students and to support our staff and we'll have an oversight appointed by the super oversight committee appointed by the superintendent who will report on progress and maintain our accountability and thank you principally the board will Empower me to oversee that with the CFO our principals facility directors others that are directly involved in the day-to-day and we'll report back regularly to the board with updates on the progress for each project are there any further questions Mr President [Music] I'm reading through this information and maybe it's the next presentation the first is we're going out for a total Bond request of 12 million dollars is that correct and we have a capacity for about 50 million give or take over or more so where are we currently on our bonds when will they expire is that the another presentation perfect ahead I'm always behind so that's how you are so Mr reader from steeple will I answer all of those questions for you perfect the last thing is is where are we on our Energy savings that I'll handle that one okay that that uh I wasn't here when it was implemented but it is I hesit this hesitate to say anything derogatory about the plan but I I it's just it's a mess we I wasn't here when it was implemented but we're not seeing anything that the company said we would we would see right part of what we're doing is we're going to satisfy the last the large part of that section of the payment to be done with that and when is that when are we out of that I have I never was a fan oh yeah well it's if we stayed on payment it would take us probably another seven years 220 29 2029.
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did anybody else see me all right let's start with the pledge and as I only pointed out the leg is every time [Music] to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right so we'll call the meeting to order at 6 31.
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um okay that's definitely too tall there she is so when you guys come up you know and then you guys can go right back up to the floor just excited yes Sam and you're okay on one night perfect can you just help them adjust the mic yeah we're gonna adjust it for you somewhere in the middle for both of us yeah so that works we're gonna go one at a time oh okay we split it up so okay yeah that's what we're trying to like right there is good that worked if anything just tilt it down if you need so Sam I'll probably it's so it's gone yeah to do that yep by the apartment the less things I touched you guys want to give it a test one two three tests tests one two three tests foreign thank you right here Brianna Brianna okay so why don't you get Martha to bring one up oh because I was calling you thank you um so if you want you can actually help Pam to hand out like the translation headset summer down there they're handing out chaos down there so you can check with them and see if they need anything yeah I would check with Tim and Diana who's that foreign thank you I think that's all anymore congratulations foreign thank you now introducing Jen kins foreign get your uh right here no you've got it thank you something Maybe yes um it's right here another two copies yeah yeah thank you we're ready [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] good evening my name is Brenda Richardson and I'm the director of admissions and counseling at greater Lawrence Tech thank you all for coming this evening to celebrate some of our amazing seniors for the class of 2023 before we begin the presentation of awards I'd like to welcome two of our graduating seniors Brianna aganaga alaman and Felicity Garcia to the stage for the singing of the national anthem if I could ask you all to rise for the singing of our national anthem [Applause] oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what's so proudly we held at the twilight's last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the Paris just fine or the red rampers we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glass [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] wow that was incredible thank you so much Felicity and Brianna sure anybody who has not been seated yet we have a row a whole empty row over here on this side of the stage all right so now I'd like to introduce our school principal Ms zielinski to the podium to welcome all of you to our Ceremony this evening and to present our first award of the night the principals award Ms Alinsky [Applause] good evening families staff honored guests District committee members Mr Tom Hayden from Methuen Leo LaMontagne from Lawrence and Mr Bill Tarbox from the town of North Andover and most importantly our class of 2023 award recipients we are recognizing here tonight superintendent Lavoy extends his congratulations and well wishes he was not able to make it tonight due to a family graduation but he says he'll see you at graduation as distinguished Award winners you have exemplified our core values throughout your four years by challenge yourself in all aspects of your high school career you have shown dedication personal commitment and resiliency as students employees friends family and community members tonight we celebrate you and your outstanding accomplishments we are proud of each and every one of you I ask that you take a few minutes to reflect on how you got here tonight and the people who have been by your side every step of the way throughout this journey we remember to thank them for their unconditional love and support I am honored to present the principal's award which aligns with our school mission of preparing students for today's challenges and tomorrow's opportunities this year's principles award goes to Kate Saxon that's fine Kate is Kate is the daughter of Denise Fitzgerald and Keith Saxon of Andover Kate is a stop a top student in our biotechnology program since her freshman year at glts Kate has embraced and demonstrated the glts core values of supportive environment lifelong learning growth mindset and high expectations Kate is an incredible young adult she's compassionate articulate responsible and amazing advocate for herself and for others she stands out as both a student and a person Kate is excelled as a student here at glts achieving a 3.9 GPA Kate is a member of our National Honor Society a peer mediator an active participant in Reggie leaders our student leadership group she has represented glts at Area Middle School presentations to encourage students to attend glts and can be found at most of our school events supporting our families and students she was also on the board of the class of 2023 throughout all four years of her High School career helping to fundraise and plan events for the senior class outside of glts Kate is a member of the Teen advisory committee at Boston Children's Hospital through this organization she advocates for teens with chronic health conditions as part of her role Kate meets with teens and their families who have been recently diagnosed to help guide them through the challenges they may face Kate has spoken at conferences in front of hundreds of people to help bring awareness to chronic medical condition she has also served on a panel for School nurses to better prepare herself for working with students with chronic health issues at schools Kate is truly impressive is a truly impressive and remarkable young lady who has taken our school's Mission beyond the walls of glts as evident by her work in the community and her desire to help others I have no doubt Kate is going to leave her Mark in this world following her passion of working with teens and families in healthcare setting Kate intends to earn her bachelor's degree in medical social work at Iona university in New Rochelle please join me in congratulating Kate Saxon as the principal award recipient this year [Applause] please welcome Dr Jen DiStefano our assistant principal for humanities who will be presenting our Junior book award recipients these Awards will be given out by Pam Clark our lead English instructor [Applause] I guess okay good evening it's my honor to present the recipients of the junior book awards this evening the Boston College book of world goes to Stephanie Mayorga Perdomo come on up the Endicott College book award goes to Alexander Shapiro [Applause] congratulations okay the LaSalle University book award goes to Ariana Valerio [Applause] congratulations thank you [Applause] the Rensselaer metal is presented to Michelle Mercado [Applause] foreign congratulations Michelle [Applause] the Saint Anselm College book award goes to rangelli Gill [Applause] congratulations [Applause] St Michael's College book award goes to Amy zoria congratulations a second book award from St Michael's College goes to Mario Rahi [Applause] congratulations the Salem State University book award is presented to Jasmine Borges [Applause] congratulations Suffolk University book award is presented to Christine Seder [Applause] congratulations and the final book award from the University of Vermont goes to anajaline Jacques [Applause] congratulations to all of our book award winners next Ryan Brown the assistant principal for Math and Science will be presenting our awards for outstanding academic achievement these Awards will be given out by the lead teachers for each academic Department [Applause] congratulations to everybody I'd like to welcome bet Nellie's Familia Moya for the English language acquisition award [Applause] next we have Edgar Martinez the recipient of our English award [Applause] [Music] [Applause] for the academic achievement award [Applause] for the academic achievement award in history I would like to bring up Eduardo espinal [Applause] next we have our academic achievement award in mathematics Michelle Batista [Music] foreign [Applause] ly for the academic achievement award in science I have Jose Ramos [Applause] Josue Ramos for the academic achievement award and wellness we have Jordy Ortega [Applause] well congratulations congratulations to the award recipients please welcome our athletic director Mike Nelson who will be presenting the awards for outstanding male and female athletes good evening and thank you and congratulations to all the deserving students and families here tonight you should be very proud of yourselves I know we as a school are very proud of your accomplishments it is my pleasure to stand up here as your athletic director and recognize our most outstanding male and female athlete recipients first I will recognize [Applause] our outstanding male athlete this student athlete it's a three sport Varsity athlete all four years excelling in football indoor and outdoor track as a natural leader he was a three sport captain captain of the football team captain indoor track captain of outdoor track his senior year he's a two-time two-time CAC football All-Star and he also received alignment of the year for the CAC as well this year's most outstanding male athlete goes to Angelica thank you [Applause] now at this time it's my pleasure to recognize our most outstanding female athlete this year's female recipient was also a three-sport varsity athlete all four years excelling in cross-country indoor track and outdoor track Ariana was a two-year captain of cross country and a three-year captain of indoor and outdoor track students received many accolades over the years including this year's Eagle Tribune student athlete award rep representing greater Lawrence this year's most outstanding female athlete goes to Ariana valverte [Applause] congratulations again and now at this time we will be presenting a Career and Technical education achievement in Vendor Awards these Awards will be presented by the Lead Teacher for each CTE area and they will be given to the students by the CTE coordinator for their rep for their respective programs we will begin with the presentation of the awards for advanced Manufacturing [Applause] good evening everyone my name is Mr Lotter I'm Lead Teacher for the advanced manufacturing Department I would like to call to the stage Delaney Gonzalez but outstanding technical student award [Applause] next I'd like to call Anthony Jara outstanding technical student effort award [Applause] he also uh has the gene hot no way Gene Haas Foundation tool Award of twelve hundred dollars [Applause] okay all right that's it good evening everybody my name is Walter Murphy I'm the lead teacher at the auto loan Collision to be passionate facility at this time I'd like to call up Joe Elizabeth artisti [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Jalen bolonado [Applause] Victor De Los Santos [Applause] Gage Dube [Applause] the Don Kennett award for a hundred dollars [Applause] Athea Khan Nick Cotter award 150 dollars [Applause] Kayla machique Don Kenneth's hundred dollar award maricelli Monticello [Applause] with Joe Fournier award 150 dollars [Applause] Jaden Nunes adamson's industry hundred dollars Braylon Ortega adamson's industry 100.
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we're sort of still in an exploratory knowledge gaming mode at that point so um Kelly I don't know if you want to just run through the agenda real quick and talk about um you know how we want to handle both of those items and what recommendation we as a committee can make to the board absolutely um thank you let me just start by sharing my screen so we have two items on the agenda tonight and we can do them in whichever order the committee would prefer uh the first is a regulation so it's advanced placement courses and changes to our existing regulations so it's not a policy but a reg update um and these when we go through it these are what we post specifically in the DHS course of study guide this is particularly related to advanced placement horses at Danbury High School and then the second item on the agenda um is bylaw 9321 time place and notice of meeting this was the bylaw that earlier in the year we had suspended for the last three months and had converted to the workshop and board meeting model kind of alternating and so we need to have a discussion um and make a decision regarding whether or not we want to reinstitute this policy in full make official changes to this policy or lift the suspension whatever the committee uh prefers so um if it's okay with you and then Kate we had also discussed just in preparation for this meeting um if we wanted to spend a little time at the end uh talking about the work of this committee kind of moving into the summer and fall for next year that all sounds good Kelly um it sounds like the regulation should be pretty cut and dry since our committee won't be doing anything other than learning about that so if we want to start there that'll be an easy one to cross someone do that thank you that's my screen will collaborate give me one second there we go um so what I did here is I just posted the current language so you could refer to what what currently exists related to advanced placement courses and then I'll go into the the new language that we're recommending um advanced placement courses as currently existing um is considered a full year course with a full year commitment meaning it runs from the first day of school to the last day of school um testing fees so advanced placement courses um also require advanced placement tests um and the fees are collected in the fall or in the month of September and in this existing policy students who do not submit the test fees will be withdrawn and will result in a WF which is a withdrawal URL failure um this does not refer to specific instances in which we uh support with fee waivers and so you'll see in the later policy we further spelled it out I want to clarify um in current we are doing the fee waivers it's just not listed in the regulation and probably should be um and then you'll see if you withdraw from AP course after the two-week Mark you receive a WF or a withdrawal your wealth failure for both semesters our typical withdrawal policy for all courses at the high school is within the first 10 days of school you must make a decision to stay in the course or to change courses and after that 10-day window um bearing an exceptional circumstance um no changes are made to the courses um so that's how it's currently written I'd like to then go through um the proposals for changes and just for reference we have um looked into received feedback from um Educators at Danbury High School the administrative team parents and families that have had to make changes and we've also looked into the advanced placement policies of districts surrounding us as well as similar districts urban districts in the state of Connecticut um and taking kind of um you know kind of a holistic approach at what others are doing and then try to apply it to what we feel will meet the needs of Danbury um so again continuation of advanced placement courses will be continued as a considered as a full year course so no change there um we note that testing fees will be collected in September again the same as the existing policy students who do not submit test fees by the end of the drop window with will be withdrawn from the class um and here we have a little asterisk and I'm going to refer you to the bottom if the AP registration fee causes hardship students are encouraged to discuss this with a school counselor prior to registering and fee waivers are available to eligible students again we're currently doing that but feel the need to spell that out specifically in the reg for Access so students are not just heard or dissuaded from taking the course because of the fee there is the provision for the fee waiver um and we do still this Falls within line of our open enrollment policy that all students at DHS will have access should they so choose to taking these advanced placement courses um this is where the changes come in kind of the next uh the paragraph not the bulleted part um students may drop the college prepper honors course and enroll in another course if available within the first two weeks of a school year so typical courses you get that two-week add or drop period um students taking AP courses may drop the course up to the last academic day in September so extending that window to about four weeks um it sometimes it could be four and a half depending on the school calendar but to the last academic day in September the reason for this change is feedback from students is that they're not um it's hard to get a taste of what an advanced placement course will fully entail within just 10 school days having the full month of September so usually a couple days in August in the full month of September really gives the student a true picture of the expectations the workload and so forth so extending that ad drop period gives them a little bit more flexibility to make a decision that best suits them academically and if they have enough credits in a given area to graduate because we do not want a student dropping a class and not being able to pick up another course that they need to graduate um and we we've put in there that it will be reviewed by either the principal so that'd be Dan Donovan or his designee um that then they may make that change by the the end of that September deadline students may not enroll in a new course class the standard ad drop window of two weeks so they can drop out of the AP beyond the two weeks but they can't add into another class as it'd be too late and students who draw decide to drop after the last day in September so that would be October or after we'll receive either a WP so withdrawal your while passing or WF withdrawal your while failing that's another substantial change um we were always if a kid was dropping it giving the WF and that's not indicative many students were passing the course with maybe a b or c but decided kind of holistically that they they felt they needed to make a change um and we don't want to penalize students and make it look like they were failing a course when in fact they weren't if they decide to Institute this change policy um so those are the the changes that we have recommended and I'm we'll pause here to see if there's any questions go ahead Terry I don't like it that it's not aligned with the uh being able to jump into another course it's two weeks you could jump into another course but you could stay on and then you end up either getting a WP or a WF it's kind of kind of yeah I just want to jump in for a second because I I want to make sure I heard you correct Kelly you're saying that they can drop the course within that first two weeks and then enroll in another course which is what you said Terry but then they have up until the last academic day in September to to withdraw from the um AP course without any I don't say um any penalty so no withdrawal on the on the record correct correct okay and if that happens they're obviously past that window like Terry's pointing out past that two weeks uh to be able to enroll in another course so that's why you guys have that language in there about making sure that they have to have enough credits to graduate in whatever particular area it is what happens to a student who withdraws let's say the third or fourth week of September so they're past that two-week window what happens to them during that block of time that they would have attended the AP course that would typically turn into a study hall period for that student and the reason why we're not able to keep open enrollment for the other classes is we um we have that 10-week ad drop you know being able to switch between courses very intentionally as beyond that 10th day the curriculum is usually too far um you know moved into the course for students to um to successfully enter um so that is why the provision for making sure that they have enough credits uh oftentimes we will see students that that enroll for example in three AP classes and just realize that the workload of those three classes are you know too much too heavy maybe they took an elective area like sometimes we'll see an AP Psychology for example um and they may decide that um that you know they're they're going to continue in their core academics which are graduation requirements they fulfilled all their other area intellective requirements and then are going to withdraw to that one one additional class um I think the important thing to know is that this is giving our students more latitude than they were receiving previously it does have the downside of if you are in the third or fourth week of September you do not have the availability to pick up another class but remember you will not be allowed to drop the class if you fall below the threshold of being um you know on track and eligible for graduation so that will be reviewed by Administration but all students will know this in advance of registering for the AP courses this will be a publicized policy will be reviewed with students and families so they will know going in that this that they have the two weeks to change into another class and then if they go beyond those two weeks that they can still have another about two weeks uh till the end of September uh to still withdraw without penalty and then beyond that there will be a penalty attached may I ask a question sure go ahead Bridget thanks um Kelly you had mentioned um that you had spoken extensively with um you know members of the school Community could you just expand a little bit on on who you talked to and and um you know the process of that so uh to getting getting to this you know um this revision sure um thank you so uh Cara Casimir and myself have worked together along with uh the Danbury High School administrators um Kevin Walston has also been involved in these conversations um so some of the things the feedback I will share with you first and foremost from families is um the WF uh being much too harsh um so it you know even if my student as Pat my child is passing a class um if they are withdraw after the 10-day Mark in the existing policy they're being penalized with that WF um which is um kind of keeping some kids reluctantly in in some of those classes um so that was a significant feedback um also talking with the administrators as far as making sure that kids that we are monitoring all kids for on track for graduation and having the flexibility within those first two weeks to make changes is very doable and reasonable um and and help and kids can change after some you know a week's time into another class and still be successful but beyond that two-week period um it becomes very very challenging for them to to catch up with the academics in that course um so those were two um you know driving factors we also reviewed um when we when we talked about the wp and the WF we reviewed existing policies around the area and while there's no one common practice we did see that many districts had um not as harsh of a policy as our current policy with the firm WF and that was a big point of helping us to flex to the availability to have a withdrawal year while passing or withdraw your wall failure so those are three kind of key takeaways for that um the other piece that we wanted to highlight in the changes were the fee waivers that is a lot of feedback from our school counseling department on number of students that are accessing those fee waivers and making sure that it's very explicit in in the course of study guide which is this reg for students to know that that is an option for them and also to remind them that registration for those AP exams happens in the fall of of the year in which they are more in that course okay thank you very much I appreciate you expanding on that thank you Jerry I've got a couple questions um you said first of all the requirements for AP courses are open to everybody it is open enrollment yes there's no minimum grade point average no so any student has the ability to enroll in an advanced placement course however that said we do encourage that our students are meeting with their school counselors to discuss their course of study paths which courses are most applicable for them and in their best interest to take so there is that School counseling component to Let's uh with students on families so let's talk about what is best for this child given what we know about them academically socially emotionally outside factors um so but it is an open enrollment policy we allow anyone who is willing and able to take on the challenge to do so and my other concern is we've increased the graduation uh number of credits needed to graduate um and now I I saw that not only we have uh that other course that was passed last year that's required now there's a climate course that's also going to be required in Connecticut that students need to take um if they take something like this and end up dropping it and going into study I don't see how that helps them at all um giving them you know that we have to have all these two required courses now for our students to graduate I I don't know so there's many required courses right there's a specific number of core academic courses so you have to take four years of English you have to take X number of years of science social studies mathematics Etc um I think you're referring to the personal finance course which was added as a graduation requirement as well um you have a Civics course you have different elective requirements so all of those are true and have have been um some of as the number of credits have has increased towards graduation some of those requirements have also increased but the reason here to have review by the principal or designee is to prevent exactly what your concern is Terry to prevent a student from putting themselves at Jeopardy for not being able to graduate on time so the student will be strongly encouraged to make a decision within that first two week window right because that is when they can go from an AP chem course to just a college prep or honors chem at that point in time right those first 10 days they can change across you know the same content area but into a college prep honors course um after that if the student still feels it's too much they will know in advance you will not be able to take pick up another course the principal or designing another administrator would review that information and if the student does not have enough credits to be on track for graduation we would not allow them to withdraw from the class so they would have to have a you know pretty heavy load um which many of our students in this situation do um and take into consideration the global picture of how they're going to be progressing towards that ultimate goal of graduation uh by instituting this policy and extending the withdrawal period a little bit longer we are certainly not looking to put any additional children at risk for graduation we're just looking to open up the options to make sure that we're encouraging kids um to try these AP courses that's a good experience at mimics a college-like experience for students we want as many students to try that as possible but we also recognize that for some um they they get either you know too much of a workload as far as a number of courses that they're taking or realize that that particular content is a little bit of a stretch for them and this just gives some latitude for that thank you thank you very much um Kate if I make sure go ahead um Kelly would you mind sending me uh what you have a bottom of the screen uh tomorrow morning if you don't mind absolutely it's also linked right within the agenda but I'll share this document okay it's not I didn't see it the version we got yeah I will reforge you the linked agenda you'll have everything thank you awesome thank you very much appreciate it I apologize that it wasn't in there yeah you explained it beautifully thank you uh are there any other questions from either committee members or I'll open this up all such non-committee members as well okay thank you um so it sounds like uh that regulation is definitely going to be an improvement um just offering our students more flexibility so appreciate you taking the time to put that together Kelly um did you want to move on to the second agenda item I can do that great thank you do we need to vote on it or no this is a regulation um and so it's you know it's you know done in in accordance with policies and it's something that is a regulation that they use to run the schools so it's really under the the purview of the administration and not us okay but um I assume it will assume it'll appear as a point of information on the uh the next board meeting it will so yes it will just be for information on the board packet but we know that this has been something um it is going to be a change that we wanted to bring to the entire board's attention um and so we will put it there for information and can certainly answer any questions for the full board at that time but it there's no need to take action on that particular item thank you Kelly so the second one this is one that we we do need to take action on um this is the um uh bylaws of the board which talks about um the regular meeting schedule um so if you recall a few months back we had suspended a portion of this um to allow us to move to the um Workshop followed by a board meeting within a given month so that one meeting a month would be a workshop one meeting a month would be a board meeting um and so this is coming back to the policy committee for discussion uh to see if you would like to go back to the previous practice of having two board meetings in a month or continue what we've trialed for the last few months with one Workshop one board meeting um so I will open it up to discussion um amongst you and can certainly be here to answer any questions you have about what the revisions would look like all right who who would like to kick this conversation off go ahead Terry no Bridget it's Bridget [Laughter] so um I'm gonna go back to what I said at the board meeting uh gosh a while ago I just don't I I don't feel like we've trialled it for long enough um if it was uh it is my inclination to try this model for at least a year so that we can see if it works for us I think we've had a sort of a a taste or an introduction to this model if you will for the last few months and um although I I think it's been working I think that um the ebb and the flow of the work that we do as a board um we'd be I think we would understand the ebb and flow of of the this this setup better if we gave ourselves at least a year to experience it um I I would I would uh Advocate that we do it for a little bit longer to see if it is something that continues to to work or not work for us so my two cents thank you virgin Tara um I don't see any difference to be honest with you still seems like a regular board meeting whether it's a work difference maybe having it longer you know extending it on further I would see more of it but it's to me it's still the same yeah I think I think yeah I agree with you Terry I think a lot of the the content of those meetings is the same but I don't believe we've been handling action items at the workshops um because I don't think we we technically can um so the workshops you know don't include like okay we have to have approval of previous minutes or if we have like a policy that comes before the board that would only happen at the official board meeting um that's been the most substantive difference that I've noticed um one of the things that um when this idea was introduced that Mr Walston discussed was the idea of having the workshops take place at different locations different schools um across the city um with the intent I guess of you know having a presentation you know like we've have we've had you know the um individual schools come in and do a presentation on their program or an aspect of their program that they want to share with the board um you know we talked about actually being in the other uh schools to try to see them and have the receive the presentation there um so that would be something that I think you know could could benefit all of us on the board and so Bridget as you were talking about not having enough time to really test this um that that was my thought like it would be great to to sort of realize this in the way that it was originally proposed um I think that would be really helpful I think that gives us a contextual understanding of the buildings the building needs uh you know it's more than just having uh what's on the agenda we're actually seeing um more of the district and I think that's really useful I think that'd be great if we could do it that way too fine with me I'd just like to see something different well I think um you know again like I think the bigger question is what is our what does our workload look like in the fall uh in terms of you know different actions that we may have to take as a board um you know what frequency we're trying to handle different policies for example or different uh you know aspects of things um and I'm not sure the policy I mean it makes sense for us to have this conversation with the policy committee obviously because this is something that we've done on a temporary basis but I think this is probably a larger board conversation as far as you know how we want how people feel about the way that things are operating right now with the format we're using versus you know what we how we might handle it differently um Kate could we could we possibly thank you um could we possibly recommend to the board you know instead of voting on this for a yes and or no um you know for from our position on policy could we recommend that the board take this up as a discussion item um at the next regular meeting I that's what I would be most comfortable doing yeah that's what I would be most comfortable doing um Julie do you have any thoughts Gladys did you want to chime in I'm sorry um I was going to say I feel say Mr Risa I mean and I also feel the same as Bridget I feel that we haven't actually given enough time to decide it and then I feel the same as Theresa I feel I don't I don't feel much difference right now um based on the time on the um while we touch on Basics on the meaning so I'm open to either um running for a longer time to see if more people are interested or um stop with the trial I mean I'm open to both suggestions okay thank you thank you Gladys yeah oh I could go for a longer time to see would it will it work uh I have a problem with we as a board making [Music] um an item to discuss and as we used to do this at the old board members is the the chairperson will bring this item back to the board to say this is what's going to be on the workshop and I think why it to me it feels like we're doing the same thing as we're doing at a board meeting versus voting and taking I action items on thing taking action on an item is we have a hat and a part in what we're going to be discussing and and I feel like if we're going to talk about the Career Academy you say to the board okay that's our Workshop is going to be about the Career Academy and I haven't unless someone else is getting the information besides me you know we don't know until we get to the workshop what the workshop is about to get the information uh I felt within the last couple of months and maybe because I really wasn't applying myself 100 is in between the time that you have the board workshops and in between the time that you have your board meeting there are certain committees there are certain duties there are certain obligation that you really need to do and we fall off by the wayside we're really not not that I want to have more meetings but it's got to be something that's different and I don't know what that difference is only thing is I can tell you right now I'm not comfortable with the board Workshop first and then the board meeting so I have to sort that out of my mind thank you for the feedback Terry I thought we were going to have like experts like the lawyer the it's the gentleman lawyer Mr Money yeah come and talk to uh you know kind of like expound on some educational law uh you know that type of thing to work to make us a better board that's what I was thinking when I think of a workshop at thinking more in that vein that I thought we were going to do but I'm not sure if I got that mixed up with something else I think you're you're on the right track I mean um you know in in looking at what a workshop is supposed to function as there's supposed to be like sort of a targeted subject that we're there to discuss and that may result in bringing in someone to speak with the board about that it may not but the idea is that we would you know we would be focused on a very specific area you know for the majority of the meeting and I think you know there there's a needle that the the group is trying to thread here in you know making one of these um meetings a workshop so that it's sort of a confined timeline first of all um and still accommodating some of the things that folks on the board Express concern about I know that one of the things that came up was we don't really want to eliminate opportunities for the public to come in and speak with us about what might be happening in the schools and so you know they they were that was the start of adding you know public comment at a workshop which normally would never happen um you know we we talked about adding in you know the the superintendent's report because we want to make sure we were continuing to get updates from the superintendent regularly so slowly what happened is that that model of a workshop sort of morphed into this like Middle Ground between an actual workshop and a board meeting um and I think that's why you know it's hard to sort of differentiate and we have you know a lot of members of our board who um you know have have only been here for a certain period of time and so I'm I I can understand why there's confusion here because they're that's sort of like the normal experience for those folks um and that makes it you know a little bit harder to to sort of have everybody weigh in on it um but I do think I really overlooked it as a committee here to to try to move forward with a decision on this because I think it's a it's a the same as it was a full board conversation initially before we even looked at this policy and suspending this policy um you know it's I think to go back the other way is it requires the same level of uh involvement from everybody so you know I I agree with you Bridget should be I think I my my best recommendation would probably be to have a discussion about this with the board I don't know you know I don't want to get into like a 20 30 minute conversation about it but I also think you know we need to have a sense of what the whole group is thinking about how this format is working or not working because it's it's I think the way that it was initially presented we've moved away from that to try to satisfy some of the concerns that were expressed but we basically just kind of reinvented the wheel of what a meeting might look like so I'm not sure it's served its purpose and if that's the case then we may as well um you know reapply this policy because we're just having meetings anyways go ahead Gladys but wouldn't it be fair overboard and like I said I have sit on this board of many many years to say to the board members what would be your idea for a workshop this month and I and I'm trying to say we have no input in that and it might be and I don't want to pay Mr Mooney to come down here and talk but it might be some board members that want to ask a particular question to Mr Mooney that we feel like that we can do it at a workshop I'm just set back in the way that we gonna have a workshop and no board members you have uh 11 board members beside the chairperson and there's no input as to what that Workshop is going to be like you know maybe we don't want to hear Dean talk about the Career Academy this time maybe we want to hear about special ed the way we want to know about the ell students only only within that Perimeter at that workshop and and we set a time frame from 6 to 7 30 and be done with it because it's to me we're into the same cycle that we're doing at a board meeting yeah yeah so if I'm hearing you correctly you're suggesting that part of this conver a second component of this conversation be how we uh how we create a space where everybody on the board can make a request for different uh subjects for the workshop piece of this not so much everybody I don't think you need to go to 10 board members that ask them what you want to talk about I think you need a consensus as to you know glad you want to talk about yeah our student this this yeah you know children that are bringing home bad lunches you know there's some other things going on in the school system beside uh you know some of the things that we talked about at Boardman I'm just saying if we had the opportunity as a group to say okay and it's a majority let's talk about special ed okay that's just where I'm coming from I think the question then becomes do we want to continue to do regular meetings second and fourth uh Wednesdays and then supplement that with workshops I think the reason we had moved away from that is people were feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the frequency of committee meetings and board meetings um but I think that's the reason that's a reasonable question to ask just huh I hear what you're saying I I and maybe that's a maybe that's a question of us you know having some way that we brainstorm you know uh a list and then we have you know some process by which we narrow that list down and pick you know three or four things during the course of a year to have a workshop on um but I but I it it you know we're still not answering the question here and again I don't know that it's appropriate for us to do so do we want to move back to the way that we used to operate it doesn't feel like we've moved very far from the way we were operating before I don't think that right now would the the newer people that's on and and even some of those that have been on a long time they don't understand uh you know the procedures of the board and I would say at least at least another six months or a year to make that decision okay because you know come uh you know and I don't want to throw this in there but come November you could have a whole uh new set of board members that's absolutely true yeah so Kelly let me ask you um no I you know I I just think to go and say yes now we're going to do the workshop I think we can continue on doing it the way we're doing it right now and then after the election in January we should sit back and say okay you know we we know who the players are and uh if we want to do a workshop and do one board meeting and try it I that's just where I'm coming from um Kate if I may go ahead version I'm sorry Bridget sorry no can you hold that thought for just a second Terry was was um how many people are up for re-election on the board seven so you're gonna get a maybe new crop we're not going to be familiar at all well what's transpired the last couple months um I would I would suggest maybe uh from August to October try that format and then judge judge it at that point with the board that we currently have if you want to do it that way or just wait until after the election and make a final judgment on it uh with the new members it just seems um we don't know how the election is going to pan out who's coming back because that's a that's more than half the board right that's um so that's uh you're affecting the whole new board uh I would say do it maybe another three months you know August September October uh but do something at a workshop component like we were originally talking about um uh special ed um discussion a ell uh discussion you know in those three months just to give us a taste of what it should what it should look like um just my thoughts thank you Terry Bridget um I I just uh given the fact that the election is coming up it does seem kind of precipitous of us to make any kind of recommendation about this so you know hearkening back to what I said earlier I I kind of and listening to what Gladys had to say and what Terry had to say and what you had to say Kate um it does seem like it might be best if we just continue on with the model that we have adopted and then the board and our recommendation as a policy committee could be that we the board take it up as a point of discussion in November or December um it just it just seems uh it just seems like we might be setting up you know a new board for or you know possibly uh for things that they don't know about and it feels a little awkward especially not having everybody's input on this you know agreed with that I agree with that so Kelly um in looking at this policy now we suspended this policy is that correct so if we were to just not take any action on it it would continue to be suspended until he came back to revisit it yes I do need to double check though I think we originally said on the vote and I I would need to call those specific meaning minutes through the end of this school year so you would need to make a motion to advance that if you wanted to continue the suspension into the next school year can we do it as on like an indefinite basis or do we have to stay a date um you you can make any changes that that you want as long as you play some motion and vote on it so you you don't have to put an end date okay but I believe the first time we did it I know there was a hesitation on how long this goes making sure we have a defined time to review it um in the easiest way and you could also you could also you could make a motion to suspend it for an indefinite amount of time you can make a motion to suspend it for a you know defined amount of time you could also make a motion to change it and you could always make a motion to change it back I mean those are your different options um I think what I would put forward and I'm curious to hear what other people feel about this is I would put in a motion uh to keep this policy suspended um through the end of October next year um I feel like at that point we could revisit for conversation if we have to what do folks think about that Jerry I think sorry go ahead Bridget no I wait I'm sorry I don't want to talk over you you go first sorry I just um I kind of like that because I remember when I first got on the board I was lost I wouldn't know what to rule on so giving that the opportunity for the new people to make this I think it's a major decision going forward we could still keep it like you said till the end of October and uh suspend suspended to the end of October and then the new board can revisit it when they're ready okay if we if we did just to clarify if we did this through the end of October um the new members of the board potential members of the board won't be seated until um December December so we've been aware sorry yes that's correct January 24th January 2024 would be the start of their terms so we would still have um a meeting two meetings in November uh during which we could discuss this because December we typically don't um conduct any business other than the elections so um we would have if we if we keep this through the end of October it would still allow the current board that's in place to make an assessment based on their experience which I I think is probably the smarter way to go okay I agree I agree uh just to confirm the motion would be if someone were to make it a motion to continue to suspend our current meeting policy through October of 2024.
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we're going to accelerate that payment though and get it done right but there's more practical ways of going about it so yeah I I wasn't impressed with the the outcomes I thought there was very little accountability on the company's side I agree could I just also Mr President compliment Mr reader and the staff are coming up in person you know and showing us the respect to be here in person and not doing this over Zoom or whatever thank you for taking the time and and paying us the respect to coming up and speaking to us so that would be for a taxpayer who has an assessed valuation of a 300 000 house that would be about 6.98 um per month can I add something so assessed valuation is a technical term the average price of a home is probably closer to 450 000 a 450 000 market value probably has an assessed evaluation of about 300 Grand so that means half of the homes in Pint up cost more than 400 Grand 450 000 half of them in Pinetop costs less than 450 000.
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and are there any modifications to the agenda tonight there are only two and they are on both appointments and they're just directions to um salaries and compensation so we sent out the original agenda there was just an error both of those so what is in red is the actual modification okay okay is there a motion to approve the modifications soon also okay any discussion uh let's boot maybe yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes Doug yes all right so first up we have consent agenda items of personnel and it looks like we have those are just the modifications next we have recognition of visitors and comments from the audience is there anyone who has any comments they would like to make foreign [Music] number six is approval of the public session minutes from May 18 2023 in our meeting uh is there a motion to approve those minutes all right so I'll move second any discussion yes number seven is action needed items we have the recommendation to modify the resignation date of Carlos Salisbury from June 16 2023 to May 26 2023.
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Jeremiah Polanco adamson's industry 100 dollars [Applause] okay Jalen Mario Rodriguez outstanding technical student award Bill DeLuca Cadillac two box kit two thousand dollars Derek zepeda the Don Kennon award one hundred dollars [Music] [Applause] good evening everybody my name is Michael Willett and I'm the Lead Teacher for automotive technology I'd like to welcome Jake Bosco to the stage for [Applause] Fisher Auto Parts tool award [Applause] congratulations Jake like to bring up Brady Dunn [Applause] Andover Sportsman's Club award congratulations [Applause] Eduardo espinal [Applause] Town Fair Tire Tool ship award congratulations [Applause] Colin Grimley [Applause] outstanding technical student award [Applause] congratulations Colin Gabriella tornado [Applause] Gabby if you all know her non-traditional Autotech Co-op award in the Town Fair Tire Tool ship award [Applause] Jaden Jamie [Applause] outstanding technical student effort award [Applause] congratulations Jane Orion Levesque [Applause] Fisher Auto Parts tool award congratulations Orion [Applause] Joanna Elise Miranda [Applause] non-traditional Tech Auto Tech Co-op award and the Town Fair Tire Tool ship award [Applause] by the way that's the first time I ever called her buy a real name I I always call her G congratulations [Applause] William tibetz [Applause] Andover Sportsman's Club award congratulations bro [Applause] Louis varus [Applause] looks like that one goes on the Town Fair Tire Tool ship award doesn't look like he's here [Applause] hello my name is Sherry Lewis and I'm the Lead Teacher of biotechnology um Tais Ramirez outstanding technical student award Tori Wright outstanding technical student effort award [Applause] thank you you can shut my hand thank you good evening I am Brett Marciano the grade 12 carpentry teacher I'd like to welcome Cody Cody Curtis [Applause] for the outstanding technical student effort award and the Jackson Lumber award [Applause] hey congrats buddy next I'd like to welcome Leticia Ferrari congrats next is Yuri Nunez Torres oh sorry Jose Guevara you could you can tell I never won a Scholastic award congrats [Applause] uh Yuri Nunez Torres [Applause] thank you next is Adelson Perez Perez [Applause] uh Julio Reynoso congratulations and last uh Brooklyn Valentin [Applause] good evening my name is Emily Barron I'm the Lead Teacher for cosmetology I would like to call up thank you Brianna Brito for outstanding technical student effort award [Music] right there and a thank you with the Sally's gift card also sorry let's not say that next next is orolani's Jamie Silverio for an outstanding technical student award and a Sally's gift card [Applause] good job [Applause] hahaha good evening everyone on behalf of myself and all the other culinary arts instructors we'd like to have our best wishes for the culinary art graduates and award winners as well as all the other schools Award winners I'm Mr Stewart the head of culinary arts some of you might know me from holding up the sign in two weeks how many days left of school is anybody going to miss that how many parents are going to miss that hi all right so let's begin our first award is the Dell perilla award and that's going to go to Brianna aguinara ellman [Applause] congratulations lovely job in the amplitude very good next up winning the outstanding technical student effort award in the Henry Axel Ward award Paris Brown take her look you're welcome next up the recipient of the Massachusetts Restaurant Award 200 Cade release class foreign [Applause] next up the Abe Bashar award 225 goes to Olivia delegas [Applause] there you go [Music] next up the core recipient of the a Bashar award 225 Santa Joseph [Applause] you're doing a great job by the way oh you're welcome next up the outstanding technical student award and the recipient of that Henry Axel award award for 225 Chanel pachado [Applause] you're welcome next up the Del Perillo award for 200 Lourdes Polanco [Applause] congrats congratulations what is this okay I can shake my hand I'm not mean next up the Edward V Coakley award Brianna Sapone [Applause] oh you're welcome congratulations next up the Christine picarillo award for 200 Jarrett Soto [Applause] this was the one I was going to keep for me but I said I would give it to you [Music] burn I'm taking it back and lastly winning the Samuel Osgood award Joni Quintana thank you very much hi good evening I'm Allison lagore Lead Teacher of Dental Assisting and it's my pleasure to present the following Awards for outstanding technical student award an Oral B toothbrush Edgar Martinez for outstanding technical student with effort award goes to Darlene Medina oh an Oral B toothbrush [Applause] good evening my name is Scott Donald I'm the Lead Teacher in the electrical department and I'd like to announce the outstanding technical student award along with a Green Mountain Electric Supply gift card to Gabriel tomorrow lazowski [Applause] got to offer the um let's go to shop award to James McConnell [Applause] and the outstanding technical student effort award along with the Green Mountain Electric Supply gift card to Esmeralda Rojas I also want to announce that Esmeralda was initiated into the electrical union today [Applause] good evening Tom naderi your engineering teacher I like to welcome Ariel cabareta [Applause] Ariel carveda for outstanding technical student award [Applause] s Familia Moya [Applause] outstanding technical student afford award [Applause] all right hello I'm sure I'm sharing your bruzzi lead Health assisting instructor I would like to welcome up Alexandra Diaz to the stage four outstanding technical student effort award up she's getting a stethoscope to practice all righty and then the Lexa Isabella Polanco Sosa please come up she is receiving the outstanding technical student award and also a stethoscope hello everybody my name is Matthew bosmer I'm filling in for Mr Lynch from the HVAC department good evening I'd like to welcome the following students Austin AltaVista come on buddy thank you very much all right there you go see ya um [Music] Nathan coborn [Applause] Bell Simons oh there he is come on down congratulations Nate James Cruz Arco gas torch setup Michael De La Cruz outstanding technical student effort award in fwm tools your heart Gutierrez FW web tools [Applause] foreign outstanding technical student award and Malco Head of the Class award [Applause] Joe Ed Javier for HVAC instructor award [Applause] foreign fwm tools Josh Manaya Malco Head of the Class award [Applause] I'm calling Miranda Lee teacher for information technology outstanding technical student award and the I.T teacher award for 100 goes to Josue Ramos [Applause] in the outstanding technical student effort award goes to Aries Rivera [Applause] well done hi good evening I am Peter Leonard I'm the Lead Teacher for the landscape construction and sustainable Horticulture program here and I'd like to welcome up to the stage Emily Fernandez I've seen a technical student effort award [Applause] and uh Marlin Ortega outstanding technical student award [Music] [Applause] foreign good evening my name is Teresa Hurley I'm the Lead Teacher for medical assisting outstanding technical student awards Sarah May Diaz [Applause] medical assisting shop award Perla espinal Dume [Applause] medical assisting shop award jayatza Rodriguez [Applause] foreign [Applause] outstanding technical student effort award Lisette Rosario [Applause] good evening everybody my name is David Thompson I'm the Lead Teacher of metal fabrication and Welding I've been doing this for 18 years and sometimes you have a class that will just you know will stick with you this is one of those classes so with that I want to reward Juan Gonzalez as our outstanding technical student [Applause] Juan is also getting a continuing in the career award from Arco Welding Supply which he can get later on with me [Applause] this next guy right here big Brian Brian's getting to continuing in the trade toolbox award for all of his hard work he's done [Applause] and uh this last guy here I want to take a second and uh acknowledge him he's gone through more stuff than any high school kid should have to he's fought a lot persevered and for that ransel you're getting our high effort award brother you well earned it [Applause] I gotta say one more thing about ransel he is one of the top most skilled welders we have graduated since I've been here [Applause] good evening my name is Tyler Peters Lead Teacher for plumbing um I'd like to welcome Matthew boldick to stage [Applause] he's receiving the outstanding technical student award as well as a gift card from Wilder Plumbing and Heating [Applause] Ricardo Boya he's receiving a gift card from schlager [Applause] Isaiah Hernandez hundred dollar gift card from North Shore mechanical [Applause] thank you uh Elijah Cruz Martinez a gift card from Avila Plumbing for a hundred dollars [Applause] Ricky Mejia a gift card from Wilder Plumbing Edwin Oppenheimer a gift card from Wilder Plumbing [Applause] runzel picaro [Applause] also a gift card from Wilder Plumbing [Applause] you Neil Rivera [Applause] he's receiving a gift card for pbd Supply as well as power tools from FW Webb and a tool bag from Davenport Industries [Applause] congratulations Christian Sanchez [Applause] the outstanding technical student award as well as a gift card from schlager Plumbing [Applause] Keisha Lee Sanchez a gift card from North Shore mechanical congratulations Michael Wiley [Applause] he's receiving a gift card from North Shore mechanical I also want to point out that he received the PHCC All-Star student award [Applause] congratulations Caesar zacharius [Applause] all right thank you good evening my name is Tim Cusack and I'm a guidance counselor and we are now going to move on to the scholarship and recognition Awards we ask that you please hold off Applause till all the awards for the recipient red first up from Advanced manufacturing Jade Castillo will be receiving the DCU scholarship for 300.
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yes to extend to extend 2023 2023 sorry thank you Terry and if I could just interject we just suspended um the portion of the policy that talked about the two meetings a month um being board meeting so it was I would I would specify that you're suspending one c um because that was the part that we removed not the entire policy um because there's other pieces that still apply absolutely yeah thank you very much Kelly thank you Kelly Gladys good yeah and this has kind of bothered me uh if we're going to move forward and and we're going to suspend it and we you know and and I'm looking at this and you know I know the board is not um shouldn't be a political thing but again we're talking about the new board members are going to be seated in January so why not suspend this bring it before the board in January and let let them make a decision as to how they want to move forward with the workshop foreign than to do except October November so I think I'm getting a little bit stuck on that Gladys because I don't necessarily like if we're onboarding new members in January they're not going to know the difference between these things they're going to have had no experience with the board or with any of the the meetings hypothetically um do we does it make sense for them to be making a decision about this why not if they just got elected to come on and serve for four years you know I I I can play you know we can sit here and talk about this and we can go back and forth you know whichever uh one that you're comfortable with we can move forward with but to me it would be more logical because whether you got seven new people on or one new people person on you know uh they they should be able and their partner should be able to explain to them that this is this was a change that the board because I've heard it already in the community from Community leaders this is what the board is doing one Workshop a month and one board meeting a month I'm just saying to me and and maybe it's me an old age you know it would just make sense to bring this back in January and say okay you know election everything is done and uh you know it could say the previous board decided that this is the way that we were going to move forward with the the the uh board meetings and the workshops I don't you know I I don't I yeah I can I can understand both sides of this I hear I hear what you're saying does it make sense for for folks who may not be continuing to sit on the board to make a decision for the folks who are coming forward after um and I understand that point as well um well let me let me ask amongst uh the folks on the committee here uh what would what do you what do you think of of that um dilemma would you be more in support of holding it through uh the end of October or through the end of December okay go ahead um I personally like the idea of having it through October and with our review in November and that and this Korean boy can make a recommendation to the next board this is what we determine and let them decide as Gladys wants but I think we sh because there's no meetings you said in December and they're still and this current board is still on board in November this will give us time to uh gather input from the whole board from The Last Cup last three months what's going on okay that's my feeling okay so you would you would keep the suspension in place through the end of October with the idea that we would make a recommendation to the incoming board in January uh but it would be a recommendation it would not be a hard and fast decision right half of that report right okay right I didn't know this would this would sort of let us revisit this conversation at least at the policy committee level um in November to have that conversation yes I would you would have to have the conversation my recommendation would be before the end of the suspension whatever date you decide that right because you would have that before absolutely yeah take action on before the pal before the suspension expires otherwise by default it will go back to the typical model okay okay so it would have to be through the end of uh be through the beginning of January then it could be any time period that you that you designate I guess what I'm saying though is if it's going to expire at the end of October for example you'd have to you'd have to propose to the board at some time in October before it expires and making a recommendation one way or another and I think you would only have probably a handful of board meetings maybe like four under your belt at that point in time okay yeah okay sorry I didn't mean no no that's helpful that's helpful in the timeline yeah and you can always take action you could sorry Bridget you could always take action sooner so let's say you suspended it through pick a date you could always decide two months prior to that you want to take action and change it if you've got enough feedback from the board okay okay so maybe maybe we're better off uh setting that end date through let's say January 15th because my hope would be that we would have a policy meeting prior to the January 15th in the new year yes we'll see maybe not work out that way um uh Bridget and Julie what do you guys think of it um I'm comfortable with the with uh suspending it through the January date knowing that we're going to be you know talking about it at policy meetings prior to that so I think that actually beats both um both what Gladys was saying and what Terry was saying so you know we we get to um to January and we make a more informed decision January but we've gotten to that point by having discussion about it too so um so I'm I'm comfortable with that and if I could just possibly read back the perspective motion to make sure that I have it um written the the right way um so a perspective motion would be to continue to suspend policy 9321 specifically section 1C through January 15th of 2024.
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that's a ballpark but our Target was to stay under 6.98 you can't buy a whopper or Big Mac for 6.98 so that that's kind of our benchmark technical information about the bond election and getting registered to vote and all of that so the bond election will be held on November 7th um early voting starts on October 11th the last day to register to vote is October 10th and please please please if you're not registered to vote we beg you please get registered to vote even if you do I'm a mail-in ballot that would be fabulous this will be a full election though it will be in per there will be in-person voting for this election all right are there any questions for Dr writer I you had a committee that worked together is this the recommendation because we were talking about a bond and or an override is this so the my recommendation I made last month was looking at both and as we aggregated disaggregated the data far more favorable for a bond of this size than any size override and so our feeling is we have a much greater chance of passing a bond and getting what we need and have those basic needs met then expanding it and looking like we're in other words you know you don't need that much we feel we're in much we're on much solid more solid footing if we ask for a bond and not an override perfect and then the other question that I had was previous years non-residents that claim their residency in our community is there a way that we can check that before so people that will put because they're they don't have to have emissions for their car or their you know those type of attack bases how are we ensuring that we're getting an accurate representation I think it's a question for the county okay you're going to administer that vote but we can request that correct so that's something that we can request for them to evaluate what we will do is we'll follow up with that question okay and we'll ask our the person that the county responsible for that and then at the June board meeting we report back to Ms Brimhall what we found okay would that be all right Mr President okay yes yes any other questions Chuck yes um is there going to be is there going to be anything else on the ballot or is this only on November 7th our voters going to the polls only to vote for this Bond or are there other things on the ballot well for Blue Ridge it'll just be this item but for there'll be other things for other elections on that ballot in the county there will be yes okay because I'm I'm not sure what they are I can see if I can find a list of what they are but I think if I recall the last time we had a bond election it was the only thing on the ballot and a whole lot of people just didn't bother to go and I think it's important that when we do it there are other things on the ballot I will find out any other questions I I would like Dr Ryan if you in mind just explaining this you know folks the biggest argument they have is you know you're given money by the state to run the school district why do you have to bond sure the first thing is the base level support provided for us number one it doesn't keep peace Pace with inflation since I've been here the only area of school funding that started to increase but it's still not to the level it was in 2009 it's still not to the 2009 level is for Capital funds and so the community it's up to the community if you want to provide more than just oatmeal and water you've got to have a 100 override otherwise it just barely sustains what you need and so in communities that take an interest in Fine Arts extracurricular activities and academics it's it puts them in a position to invest in those things through bonds and overrides and so even with the the latest influx of capital that we've had it's insufficient and so we're we're getting to the point now where we have cut back on Administration we've cut back at every Department we've cut back in every area and now the next area the only area we can go to now is to have fewer teachers and fewer teachers means larger classrooms which means it's tougher for kids so it's just where we're at in Arizona we don't expect it to get better overnight however I will say that the latest budget did have 300 million in one time spending to Blue Ridge it means about seven hundred thousand dollars that will help it it's one time then it's gone so we'll take that and we'll string that out over three or four years to try to help us but we're we're if we're going to want to maintain the programs that we have now we're going to need the additional help if we're going to want to secure our campuses and our office buildings we're going to need additional help and so we worked really hard to come up with a number to keep it under seven dollars to make it affordable because we know these are these are tough times and so that's why we need the help does that answer your question Mr President yes thank you basically to piggyback on that our current capital budget is approximately what I think it's 900 or something yeah 900 and change right and I when I first this was what over 10 years ago it was well over a million maybe closer to two I'm sure it was about about 2009 for our population had been about a million five right right so we're still behind where we were before and just for clarification state does not pay for any extracurricular activities have to come from the community and previously when we tried to increase the pay-to-play type of extracurricular activities are they fell off the map our kids can't afford some school districts not in our community but in surrounding communities it might be you're paying a thousand dollars to play football correct what is our current pay to play and do we know what percentage of our kids are on scholarship because we scholarship a portion of those kids too correct right all of the kids theoretically have to pay to play and very few if any do and we do not keep anybody from participating we make sure that they their scholarship and we take care of it right and you're correct in your assessment East Valley you go down there I've got a nephew and I've got well a number of nephews but the ones that have played just recently in large 6A high schools they pay between 2500 and 3 500 a year to participate in football that's common if you're going to play at an ala school you're going to contribute to so much amount of time and money and are we about 95 dollars for our Sports I I think I think so I mean for all in you can pay for everything yeah and in fact Mr Webb he knows the exact figures is there anything you'd like to add to what I said [Music] and knowing essentially scholarship to kids that can't afford it okay which is we waive it okay correct so um basically we get zero dollars and just an average sports teams for example they have to earn money because we don't even have enough money to pay for gas and food so not only do we need to pay coaches to be able to devote hours of time we're we're just not even meeting any of the criteria correct so other larger school districts can pay a football coach 250 000 because they're charging these kids 35 hundred dollars to play football where we don't even have that as like an option correct correct okay I think that's the point that we need to really drive home because everyone keeps saying you keep asking for more but then they don't recognize that we can't do something with nothing right I think Chuck will remember those two that years ago they used to pay all Heating and Cooling too and things like that that parents don't think about because our our rooms are comfortable here but the state used to fully cover that what about snow removal stuff like that no so basically what you're saying the state legislature said if you want your school district to thrive you have to bond or go for override if you want your school district to border on failure keep it status quo is that basically what they've said to us and what they're doing to us and I think it probably has more of an effect on smaller schools than does larger schools because larger schools just have more population smaller cold remote yes where costs are greater and I think too people need to remember as the school goes so does the community yeah communities in the midwest small communities that's where I'm from and a lot of them either Consolidated or they died and when a school especially a high school dies or is under hard times the the town just stagnates and that has happened before so people come back I mean even Dr Wright when he came here and goes this is not the Blue Ridge that I remember seeing when I was coaching and so that's what he walked into but that's what happens if we don't fund fully fund and the state is not helping so we have to make up work it's sad just a couple of things like Navajo and Apache county is ranked in the top five poorest counties in the entire United States so even though we're remote and we get snowy the state does not take into account any additional effects of not being in a metropolitan warm area is that correct so it makes it even more challenging and then the state does not like in comparison we we provide all services for our kids correct and other areas might not have to provide all services so it just makes everything as challenging and there's no give in any of that correct okay and if you notice all the big competitions are held in the valley so that's how we get all our miles on our buses when the Well when the communities you know the school districts in the valley go to state they drive across to Mesa or they drive out to the west side of the Metroplex but we drive four or four and a half hours one way to go to a state competition where we want our kids to compete in some years we have we have great kids and we're doing that a lot so that's where a lot of our money ends up going all right Dr Wright let's let's move on with more of this presentation all right we're [Music] testing uh Mr President members of the board good evening Mark reader with stifle and it's nice to be uh back in front of the board I was asking Dr Wright earlier how many board members were with us at the last bond election and he shared with me that all of you correct me if I'm wrong or on the board when you add your last bond election in 2016.
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is there a motion to approve so is there any discussion yes number two is a recommendation to rescind the board's action of May 4th 2023 approving the resignation of Casey love as a result Casey love will remain in employee of Brown County schools first school year 23 24 is there a motion one second any discussion [Music] Elementary School and yes we are incredibly grateful that she has decided to stay with us right all right we'll call Amy yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes and number three is recommendation to approve a donation of a thousand dollars for each of the uh following groups from the Brown County Community closet it's a total of four thousand dollars and that would be a thousand dollars for the band uh a thousand dollars per cheer a thousand dollars to Student Activities and a thousand dollars to be interact um I just have a question that that I assume these are high school abandoned and cheer and Student Activities so it's specifically the husband okay uh is there a motion to approve absolutely second any discussion thank you very much they do a lot of hard work down there and they we get them a lot of the benefits from that so appreciate your work yeah wow that's a lot of money so yeah that's exciting it's always amazing how much money you can earn from those types of things and they are a very good non-profit really benefits if it's very grateful to them any other comments all right let's do roll call Amy yes Carol yes yes yes number four is the appointment of Lisa olds who is a masters and CCC SLP at a rate of 63 an hour just at sprinting Elementary beginning August 7 2023 through the last student day at the 23-24 school year total services not to exceed 19 and a half hours per week without prior authorization of the director of student Support Services it's our motion to approved all second any discussion all right welcome Amy yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes yes right number five recommendation to approve the donation of ten thousand dollars from Dollar General adult literacy grant for the use in the jail literacy program that's exciting uh emotion right any discussion yes this is and we got this grant in the past is look at any time don't ever remember it being this much but we did uh some years okay we received 10 last year though two seven seven years great all right well thank you that was what I was going to say I didn't I assume this wasn't me money but um I I think jail literacy programs are any other discussion maybe yes Carol yes yes number six recommendation to approve the donation of ten thousand dollars for the Brown County Community Foundation for the use of CRC certification scholarships their motion to the group any discussion also another good program for different programs all right anything else all right let's do real quick Amy yes sure yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes doc yes all right number seven uh recommendation to approve the donation of two thousand one hundred ninety four dollars and sixteen cents from the Community Foundation for CRC certificate scholarships so how is this thing different it's not it's just not patients they are different one comes from uh oh from a specific endowment endowments Virginia that's why it's such a specific event I'm sorry three days or so that's it okay that yeah that's why it's such a specific number so we don't know or you know which one this comes from but they designated this year's yeah fund okay great well thank you very much folks who um decide because those folks get to decide where they think that's great thank you uh is there a motion to approve well thank you to the to those on the their endowment I appreciate it um yes Carol yes Vicky yes Stephanie yes yes all right number eight is a recommendation to approve the donation of 400 from uh Michael and jadine leros for the general use of the career Resource Center uh Brown County it's our motion to approve I shall move I said any discussions and thank you yes thank you let's do workout Amy yes Carol there's Vicky yes Stephanie yes Doug yes and number nine a recommendation to approve the donation a hundred dollars from an anonymous donor for unpaid lunch balances it's a recommendation to group so um any discussion thank you thank you yeah terrific welcome Andy yes Karen yes Vicky yes definitely yes yes all right so now we have the consent agenda items under Personnel it looks like we have six separations and five appointments and no transfers um so starting with uh Brockton High School care professional Judy Peak and ends with a new choir teacher for the high school in school uh Jacqueline list is there a motion to approve I still move I see in any discussion great glad to have Morgan a board this is to meet you yeah great yeah thank you for coming too we like to put a face with the name so that's great get a Civic all right uh any other comments well welcome to all of our uh five new uh staff members and teachers I'm really excited to see right so and I am really sorry to lose our other our other teachers and counselors our professional time of year when folks you know uh let's do roll call Amy yes Carol yes Vicky yes definitely yes Doug yes all right superintendent's reports I just have a short report tonight um first and foremost um graduation the the second class graduating from Brown County High School will be this Saturday at 11 A.M at the Larry c banks gymnasium um that is a change I think typically for the at least a few previous years they've been held on Friday evening so excited to do a Saturday mid-morning celebration and looking forward to that um and then second I just want to put it out there a little ahead of time at the next board meeting we will um be bringing the new dates uh for the new um school year of 2023 through 2024 and our board meeting dates will be on the first and third Mondays with a few exceptions of when we have holidays that land on one of those Mondays so I will be bringing those dates for the next school year at the June 15th board meeting for approval and then sending out to the media and facing on our website so um I do believe it'll be a change how many years to spend on Thursday evening but um so as many times as I can help get that communication out there take advantage of it so um again just looking forward to graduation it is an incredibly awesome celebration so I'm excited friend uh comments under board update I do I'm looking forward to uh next year with board Phillips classes what's that um and that idea came from another employee here in this book thank you awesome all right who knows um I wanted to congratulate our our teachers of the Year from each of the buildings and uh for the whole school corporation um and I um I'm pleased to see the breakfast and the recognition that teachers receive I think that that's really really important it's a job in which you often feel that you're all alone and there are some long nights and uh so it's really good to recognize and I could tell that they um you know really that was really important to them to be recognized my colleagues and really pleased that we get to rec uh that we get to do that and I think we'll be having those names out there but it's just really exciting anything else all right uh is there a motion to adjourn ing um
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Gene has Foundation scholarship for four thousand dollars the James Booth scholarship for a hundred and twenty five dollars and the Norman e Martin Machine Tool scholarship for one thousand dollars congratulations next from Advanced manufacturing Nicole Harris please [Applause] she will also be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for 200 and the Gene Haas Foundation scholarship for four thousand dollars [Music] [Applause] next for advanced Manufacturing Kylie and alaski [Music] [Applause] she will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for 300. the Evelyn Burke scholarship for 150 the Gene Haas Foundation scholarship for four thousand dollars the Mars school PTO scholarship for 300 and the Norman e Martin Machine Tool scholarship for one thousand dollars next up automotive collision repair and refinishing marilisi Montesquieu please for the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars congratulations next up is the automotive technology students receiving award Brady Dunn the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for five hundred dollars in the rolling cotton retirees group scholarship for one thousand dollars congratulations next up Eduardo espinal will be receiving the greater Lawrence scholarship award for one hundred dollars congratulations unfortunately our next Award winner is Jordy Ortega he could not make it this evening and he's receiving the greater Lawrence scholarship award for a hundred dollars [Applause] finally from automotive technology Derek zepeda he will be receiving the David Vincente Memorial award for a young gentleman that was killed in Iraq uh David Vicente memorial for 500 and the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for three hundred dollars congratulations next is biotechnology receiving her award Charlene Acevedo the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars [Applause] also from biotechnology Neroli Delgado will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars congratulations and not to be outdone biotechnologies Tori Wright will be receiving the glts yearbook scholarship for two hundred dollars congratulations next is carpentry our first winner is Leticia Ferrari who will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars congratulations next up is Jarius Gavin who will also be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars [Applause] not to be outdone but we also have Elizabeth julott who will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars our next award I ask us all to hear it for David mambro [Applause] ok proud of you buddy and next from carpentry for the Digital Federal Credit Union Yuri Nunez Torres will be receiving a 200 award congratulations next we have the cosmetology department and if our recipient is in a sable Matos who will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars and the Mary Lou Salvaggio scholarship named after a longtime cosmetology instructor Mary Lou Salvaggio [Applause] next culinary arts our first recipient is Paris Brown who will be receiving the great alignment scholarship award for two hundred dollars congratulations next Olivia delegas will be receiving the art Scholars scholarship for 150 and the Walter J Malcolm award for 100.
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yes okay that would be the motion um Julie uh does that sound okay to you as well yes it makes sense all right um so who would like to make that motion resistance you put it together you wanna okay um Let me let me bring close to my eyes to not wearing glasses um to so the motion would be to continue to suspend policy nine three two one section 1C through the end of January 15 2024. through January 15 2024. so there's an emotion made by Brigid and Terry's going to second that motion thank you all those in favor please sign by saying aye all right any uh anyone opposed many abstentions emotion so carries thank you very much all right Kelly thank you for walking us through that and letting us uh being patient while we sorted it out there appreciate that thank you Gladys yes thank you so um I'm sorry if I could just add one thing Kate um if there are particular things that that this committee the policy committee or the flow board would like to see um in those Board of workshops there's definitely things that um we put on like the data presentations related to State assessment or chronic absenteeism and so forth so there's definitely things that um you know Kevin uh superintendent Walston and the cabinet you know feel are important to update the board on throughout the year um but certainly if there are additional topics that you're hoping um to see workshops on um now would be a good time to think through that for the fall um and certainly for that information to us so I know that was something else that came up um to make sure that the the workshops are useful and meaningful that that's the intent of it um so if there's something that you want to see on a particular topic whether it be related to Mr Mooney doing something or something more extensive on you know special ed ESL whatever it may be um academies we can certainly meet that need just let us know what what your thinking is there thank you Kelly and that that certainly uh you know reinforces what Mr Walston himself did share with us which is that he's looking for feedback from the board about areas of school operations that we want to hear about so hopefully we'll all put on our thinking caps and come up with some some some things we'd like to see um I'm going to segue to to the close of this I know Terry you've got to get going but um you know we're getting close to seven o'clock here and we finish the items on the agenda there is one more thing I just wanted to discuss and uh you know Kelly and Kim and I spoke briefly about this we are scheduled to have another committee meeting on uh June 21st and we don't really have um any policies that are Urgent to review at that time so I think we're going to cancel that meeting um we don't we don't it's not going to serve any function for us um with that in mind I just want to talk a little bit about sort of where the status is of our our current situation with policy and sort of like you know what direction um we need to be moving in as we come back uh in the fall um the key uh so Cabe has been hosting our policies we made a decision to invest in their services and have them uh pull over our paper policies onto their digital platform we have them digitally on our website but they were not easily searchable and uh just kind of a cumbersome setup so we did make that decision to work with kabe on this and um it seems like when the information was pulled over uh to their platform that there are some some gaps there um and really what it requires is that um some time is spent going through and kind of comparing our existing policies and the policies that Cabe has posted as our policies within their database to do some comparison I mean this is our first time using a service like that and I think we're still trying to figure out how to effectively use that service and decide whether or not it's really the most efficient method for the way that we want to handle our policies so um you know I think what's going to happen is over the summer Kelly and Kim and you know perhaps some other other employees will be taking a very hard look um uh at comparing the two sets of policies and kind of coming forward with you know a strong assessment of um where where things are and whether or not we should continue to invest in this service um and I think you know it's also going to give us a good layout for how we can start to tackle each of the series of policies there's policies labeled from the zeros to the nine thousands I believe is the the numbers um and each one of those sections handles different things and it's the it's the responsibility of this committee to go through those policies on a regular basis to make sure number one that we're staying compliant with any updates that come down from the state or the federal level and two to make sure that they're up to date uh to our current situation so if we have circumstances that change like we went we did when we went through um uh the pandemic and we had to make adjustments to you know like face mask policies and bring those forward um but there are those kind of changes happen on a much smaller level as well um but we just need to make sure our policies are staying current to what our situation is so that would requires us to do a regular review of those policies and to make sure also that they're notated with the current uh the current date that we did our last review because if you look back and and Kelly thank you for bringing this to my attention um there are some policies where um you know we've done a review of them since the last you've probably made any formal changes and can you hear me you froze what was the date okay I I didn't specify a date I was just saying that there are policies we've reviewed since the last time that changes were made to the policy but we haven't updated them with the last time that we did a review so the reflecting old dates but they have been looked at since then and it really for the benefit of anybody who might be looking at that information it would be beneficial for us to put the date that we last did a review on a policy even if it stays the same so that folks understand we are continuously reviewing these policies and making sure we're staying current with where we're supposed to be um so that's that's sort of where where things are at go ahead Terry uh I'm very familiar with keeping a policy book and while that's a good suggestion I never changed the date on a policy uh when it was approved I never ever do that I changed the date when it's approved so you know this is the policy that was approved back in 2017.
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so it's nice to see all of you again this is actually my third bond election for your district and uh so I'm here as you know to provide additional information and make sure you have the information uh at your fingertips as you consider your decision tonight to call uh call a bond election I just leaned over to Jim who will follow me and I I ask him how many Bond elections he's working on and and our firm is working on just to make you feel a little better there's 20 we're currently working on 20 school bond elections throughout the state so I I know you're you know that to a certain extent but this is an extremely busy year for Bond elections so I want to go ahead and provide some information that I hope is helpful to you on page three this is kind of a busy graph but it was mentioned earlier it's your tax base and if you go on the right hand side I'm not going to get in all the numbers here you had your best year ever in terms of your property your property tax base as valued by the county that's that blue line that's called the full cash value that's where the county uh does a an inventory of all the real property within the boundaries of the Blue Ridge Unified School District and you can see that number is 450 million on the right hand side up about 32 percent so that's your best year I believe maybe ever uh they're they're about 15 18 months behind as you know the county is generally speaking as you know takes them a while but it's your best year ever driven by home price increases as you all know increased residential development increase second homes and of course some increase in commercial property so nice job on that and it just goes to show you that you are growing and having a and you have a very very healthy tax base and you can see really over the years how you have grown you know somewhat modestly in some years better than others but the good news is going into budget year 2324 the numbers are extremely strong so we just wanted to share that with you on page four we'd like to remind you that for every dollar of property taxes that your District levies both on the primary and the secondary side essentially you can still see here that you're still largely a residential community uh as you can see down there about 80 percent so over time as your commercial hopefully expands uh that'll change um so I just wanted to share that piece of information with you um and obviously the residential homeowners are the ones that are going to be voting for your bond very very critical um electorate for you on page five we wanted to share some good news you've done a very good job as you know throughout your budget sessions of lowering your property tax rate as best you can the green line is your total primary and secondary the orange line is your primary for your operating revenues it's been very very steady there all in all in fact this year went down a little bit so good job on that and then on the the blue line is the secondary tax rate for Bond Debt Service and uh and so you can see we topped out at two dollars and 24 cents back in 1819 and you can see it's steadily declining as a result of increase in your tax base and the tax rate this year is 67 cents as a result of that refinancing we did if you remember we all worked together and we had a substantial Savings in your debt service when interest rates were down in the two percent range if you remember and we refinanced some prior bronze and we lowered your tax rate significantly for this year so we kind of call it a payment holiday that's on your secondary Levy for 22.23 okay um so I wanted to share that all in all good news with you that tax rate is going to go up bear with me because we gave the taxpayers uh a lower tax rate this year from taking advantage of the lower interest rates all good okay to respond uh uh to uh Miss brimhall's question we have your outstanding bonds here on Page Six I'm flipping back and forth here and this isn't the outstanding principal amount of your current bonds and I'm going to show you a schedule here that shows the total debt service and tax rates which we know you're very interested in but you can see here that you have two bonds outstanding you have the 2017 that we issued for various improvements and then in 21 we did the refinancing as I mentioned to you that one's coming off the books pretty quick okay you're going to have a substantial amount of debt coming off the books over the next few years and I think from a timing perspective of your bond that you're going to consider this evening that's going to really come into play and going to be a positive uh positive for your District so as you can see over there we have about 17 million outstanding we've got about 2.3 coming off the books here on July 1.
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congratulations next is Santa Joseph [Applause] Santa Joseph will be receiving a Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for three hundred dollars and a glts local 1707 faculty scholarship for four hundred dollars [Applause] congratulations next is Chanel pachado who'll be receiving the greater Lawrence scholarship award for two hundred dollars congratulations next Mariah sedo will be receiving the Howard Friedman scholarship for two hundred dollars [Music] congratulations and next is Jarrett Soto who will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for 200 and the Helen Kelleher scholarship for 200 each congratulations next we have dental assisting and the first student receiving Awards tonight [Music] [Applause] are Michelle Batista who will be receiving 200 for the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship the Lillian Shaheen scholarship named after a long time nurse here at greater Lawrence Tech the MVA secondary student Award nominee congratulations next is Emmy gallon Emmy gallon will be receiving the 200 digital 200 Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship and the Philip young Clause make a different scholarship for one hundred dollars Emily Emmy gallon [Applause] [Music] congratulations next from Dental Assisting Amanda Martinez Amanda oh I went out of water didn't I I apologize Lexi and her I went out of order my fault 15 years doing this and I still don't get it right lexan Hernandez the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship but I'm sorry for 300 and the local 1707 faculty scholarship for four hundred dollars [Applause] next is Amanda Martinez who will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for 200 and the Wayne EC Memorial award for two hundred dollars I asked I ask that we hold off showing his name because he may do a dance coming up here but our next recipient is Edgar Martinez [Applause] [Music] [Applause] stand here young man well I have the pleasure of reading these off for you the Anne-Marie Farris student leadership leadership award for 250 dollars the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for five hundred dollars the mass Association of vocational administrators outstanding Vocational Technical student award the mass vocational Association non-traditional student award the Roland cotton retirees group scholarship for one thousand dollars and he was our U.S presidential scholar for the state of Massachusetts from CTE students and will be attending the Ivy League school the University of Pennsylvania in the fall [Applause] well the poor next student has a very tough act to follow and that is a student who we're very proud of Emmy Lee Montanez will be receiving the Anne-Marie Farris student leadership award the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for three hundred dollars and the Fred Tau box for the founding of one of the founding fathers of our school for a hundred fifty dollars congratulations next is jariel payano [Applause] Dario will be receiving the Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship for two hundred dollars and our last recipient from Dental Assisting is laisha PETA congratulations next is the director of um guidance Miss Brenda Richardson back to follow too so uh thank you very much so we'll start with electrical our first recipient is Jason Pittman he'll be receiving the 200 Digital Federal Credit Union scholarship and a 200 Wayne Dumont scholarship and I think moving forward we'll just call it the DCU scholarship they were very generous so from engineering Joseph Calla [Applause] Joseph will be receiving a 200 DCU scholarship and a 250 dollar Technical Training Foundation scholarship congratulations Arielle cavaretta Ariel will be receiving a 300 DCU scholarship 250 dollar Technical Training Foundation scholarship and a one thousand dollar Valley Patriot scholarship [Music] Chris Bell espinal Lopez Chris Bell will be receiving a 200 DCU scholarship that Nellis Familia Moya and but Nellis will be receiving a 200 DCU scholarship and the 150 dollar social nationalization Club scholarship [Music] [Applause] Joseph Mastro Joseph is receiving a 300 DCU scholarship and the Dr Judy and DeLucia award for five hundred dollars [Applause] and next up is Health assisting Chris Marley Lopez Chris Merle is receiving a 200 DCU scholarship congratulations
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if there's an update then you on the thing you say updated in 2023 I have never ever uh said you know across the board okay I reviewed it on this day um because I consistently did it every year um so I'm very familiar with keeping policy books like at wescon uh even at the live the little Library one we have uh I think that's you got to be very careful um you could say policy book in the beginning uh reviewed on this day but I don't touch policy dates approval dates at all that's my strong recommendation okay thank you for that feedback I might be using uh not the right vernacular here so that could be part of you know I'm just communicating a little bit um but I think it's fine it's fine no you do want to show that you reviewed it and I think Rachel would have touched on this last year and we never did it and I'm very I would be very hell uh happy to help with this except I work during the day there was off you know different hours I I would be glad to help um like I said I I gotta which Kira gave me a hard copy of the book and the policies that we have approved I've appended to it and I kept the minutes to the policies that we have changed since in one year so um I mean that's that's what I do and Kara was very kind she she updated she just she gave me the policy book but I agree with you we got to be in sync with cave and yeah and Rachel said their policy is a little bit off than what we we have yeah so and you got to have somebody who knows what what's going on like Kelly yep um and and you know Kelly and Kim you know have have provided us excellent guidance um on this committee uh so that we can we can come to the table and make these decisions um I just think we need to make sure also that we're making other folks aware in the district that we're paying attention to these you know this information we're doing our due diligence it's our responsibility policy is one of the biggest responsibilities I think that the board has and you can see that the recommendations we make out of this committee that go to the born level um you know they have on occasion been some that come back to the committee for further discussion or for you know changes that they that the board wants to see as a whole but um most for the most part the board does end up adopting almost all the policies that we'd recommend at this committee so it's a big responsibility that we have and I just want to make sure we're honoring that and and making sure that folks are aware that we're honoring it because that's our accountability so kid if I could just add I went back the order yes um and even in the um you know the midst of the pandemic perfect over 30 policies um in that time so our first priority was to make sure that any um policies that we needed to Institute ASAP were done um and we have uh taken care of those and so now it's really looking through it series by series um to determine um if there's any revisions tweaks changes or just a general radio that's okay thank you Kelly um so I think you know that's that's sort of where things are at um and the hope is again in the fall to come back to the table uh kind of fresh and make a decision about how we're going to proceed to go through these policies and uh and sort of lay a course for the coming year um one thing I do want to mention to the the committee members here um you know it's our it's very helpful if we can come into these conversations having read through the policies and sort of having some notes jotted down about sort of what we're thinking about them and and um you know to be able to start and jump right into the conversation we've spent there's been some committee meetings where we've spent a lot of time Ford smithing um and and kind of going through on a with a very fine-tooth comb um that makes it really laborious to go through these I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't pay very close attention to what it is we're doing it's just very helpful that people can come prepared um but typically when we get the agendas there are clickable links that we can go through and take a look at those policies um and you know being able to come to the table so that with with a common understanding of what that is just makes it easier for us to have those conversations it just makes the whole process a little bit more fluid so I just want to mention that out loud to folks so that you know as we start to go through the series of these different policies some of which are very extensive um and and really will require quite a bit of time um that we that we come to this the meetings prepared and and ready to um you know move through the discussion and take action okay um I don't think I have anything further Kelly I just want to make sure if you there's anything that I left out or if there's anything uh you need to mention that you have an opportunity no I think you covered it all well so Kim and I will work hard over the summer to kind of get an updated lay of the land um and be ready to go for the start of next school year school year wonderful thank you so much thank you all and Kelly if I can help in any way let me know like I said I took care of the Wisconsin faculty handbook uh for 20 years uh so I'm used to but I gotta know the to compare it to what what is accurate and what isn't it and I'd be glad to help and meet after work I I know that's tough for you or even before work I could come in thank you I appreciate that sure all right if there are no other concerns or comments from committee members I think we're going to look for a motion to adjourn please so moved so moved by Terry can I have a second please second Thank You Bridget all those in favor signify by saying aye aye
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