so you'll be down to about 15 million and that that really is an outline of your current principal amount of your bonds okay on page seven your district has significant statutory bonding capacity as mentioned um and as a result of your recent growth that we expect next year the number I shared with you or you went up 32 percent if you look in the right hand corner your estimated bonding capacity going into next year is about 75 million okay so you have um significant statutory bonding capacity and of course the district would never consider anything of that magnitude we're only considering about 12 million so you're well under your statutory bonding capacity and it's going to grow over time okay let me pause there I'm going to I'm going to walk you through the new Bond here in a moment along with your current debt we're going to talk about tax rates we know that's extremely important to the board and we know that's extremely important to the community I'm going to walk you through some of the math but before I do that let me take a pause there was that background information helpful I'm glad to answer any questions the board might have all good so far okay all right sounds good okay I have one are we in better shape now considering a bond than we had been before you know that information when we've gone out for the other bonds through you are we in better shape I would say yeah I think all the measurements are looking really better for you for a variety of reasons you're operating budgets looking really good you got a good management team you got a tax base is growing their tax rates are reasonable what about the outstanding bonds compared to other years compared to compared to other years when we've gone out for a bond we still had money yeah in other a previous Bond each time I think yeah um you know your credit rating is in the a range and we just had a call actually yesterday with Kimberly she did an outstanding job of addressing the questions from the rating agencies they were very positive and so you will either stay at your a range or there's always a possibility you could be upgraded a little bit because of improved financial performance so I would say if you're doing as good or I would say you're doing better than our last Bond in fact if that answers your question okay this this is a pretty busy chart on page nine bear with me we know you love detail and uh want to thank Kimberly and Dr Wright they've been very patient with us we've spent a lot of time on this getting input and we want to share it with you and of course if you have any input we're glad to to go ahead and incorporate that so I'm going to start from left to right real quick fiscal year in column one we're finishing up 22-23 now as you know and your current tax base or your net limited assessed value which is what the county Levy's taxes on right very complicated property tax system in Arizona as you all know being school board members as we speak You're 295 million I just shared with you on the first chart the County's telling us that we're going to grow six percent in budget year 2324 okay you actually grew 32 percent but from a tax-based perspective residential property can only grow five percent per year so they cap it as it relates to our tax base all good so you really grew a 32.
and we're going to take our six percent growth for 23.24 good news we've estimated in column three a very modest amount of growth in future years as it relates to your tax base because that impacts your tax rate right the higher your tax base the lower your tax rate because you're spreading the debt over a larger amount of property the statute Arizona revised Statute and this is the exact table that will show up in your voter pamphlet that Kimberly mentioned so we're going to start working on the voter pamphlet if you approve the election tonight and this is exactly what our voters in your district will see it's a little busy for them but the statute only allows us to grow a 2.45 percent for the next five years and then as you can see 20 percent of that thereafter of 0.49 so this is a conservative projection and we're just following State Statute all good okay what what is your current amount of debt service on those two Bond issues you have outstanding before we issue the 12 million if it passes which we hope it does in column four you can see the total principle and interest on those bonds is 2.9 Million okay the 2.9 is coming off the books here shortly in 22-23 next year budget year 2324 and 2425 it remains at 2.9 okay you can see it then drops down to 1.6 million because that prior refunding bond issue is coming off the books okay so that's good news you got some debt coming off the books now we're going to wrap a new bond issue around it and we're going to try to minimize your tax rate impact so in column five then we're showing you what the tax rate projection would be if we did not go out for a bond and what we anticipated to be really going into 23-24 okay so this is the public policy discussion we had with uh with Kimberly and Dr Wright you're at 67 cents this year remember that's our our tax rate reduction that we saved from the refinancing all good next year we're probably going to set it this says 93 cents if you go over to column 11.
I think what we're going to do is set it somewhere around 98 cents per 100. going into 23.24 okay and so that'll be the tax rate for the existing bonds and so the voters will see the 98 cents okay and then if the bond election passes in November of 23 we're going to sell Bonds in the first quarter of 24. give or take so you have Bond money to go ahead and Implement your projects that's going to impact budget year 2425 right because next year 23-24 like I said we're going to set it in 98 cents we're then going to have the election we're going to sell Bonds in the first second quarter of 24. and then we're going to have to pay some Debt Service so what we did here is you can see in column six and column seven and we're estimating interest to be about five percent bear with us on that um that you would have somewhere around a 800 000 interest only payment as you can see there and then we would structure the total debt service in column 10 to be about 3.1 million you see that number that's 24.25 and that includes existing bonds and The Debt Service on our new bonds budget year 2425 so you see we're going to maintain the 98 cents so we're going to set it at 98 cents for the budget year 23.24 and we're going to be able to issue 12 million dollars of new bonds and not increase the tax rate okay you see how we did that we hope you like that and we we had to you know uh play with the math a little bit move some principle around a little bit and Achieve really the same tax rate as you're going to set for next year and so what we find is voters appreciate that and then you can see after that the tax rate goes down to column 11.
so we're just trying to straddle that last 2.9 Million Dollar Bond payment before it goes down to one six see how we did that so um we thought that this tax rate strategy this tax rate structure if you will would be uh you know received well we hold by the board and ultimately by the voters so you can see how that tax rate really kind of drops and it'll actually go down more because your assessed value will likely grow more than two percent so you can see how that tax rate drops from 98 cents to 81 cents goes down to 46 cents Etc okay that's a lot of math now if you go to column nine under the statute this is how we have to articulate it and communicate it to the voters in our voter bandwidth so we kind of talked about an overall tax rate strategy to keep it where it's going to be for next year but we have to show the voter pamphlet what the impact is on the 12 million that is column nine and you can see in column nine we'd start out at seven cents we're going to bump it up to 31 cents break because we have the capacity to do that because we're paying debt off right and then level it out about a million a year in Debt Service as you can see in column eight on our new 12 million and that produces at the bottom of the page an average tax rate 28 cents per 100 of net limited assessed value that's the impact on the 12 million okay so reasonable when I saw the number and thought good about 27 cents is the average and then in a minute I'm going to plug the average in the average tax rate and to hold valuations as was discussed earlier in the meeting and uh and give you an estimate of what the monthly cost is and share that with the board but before I do that uh sorry for all the detail but I really wanted to slow it down and walk you through how we're proposing to structure the new bonds and then what the average tax rate of 28 cents found in number two would be so I'll pause there and take any questions and then we'll take you to the monthly cost to a homeowner which I know is important to you what kind of explanation goes along with this if this has to be in the pamphlet this is hard uh hey let me take you to the next page okay because you're you're exactly right I mean without any without any previous knowledge when somebody gets paper like this we yeah we I think we do a pretty good job working with staff and obviously let the board obviously you can review it to try to lay out our motor pamphlets in as simple of terms as we can extremely complicated property tax system even for us right in the business trying to explain that to voters can be a challenge in place where we don't confuse them and take them right to the bottom line and then of course if they have questions certainly call Kimberly call the office and help walk us through the tax rate is that okay Kim put your phone number on the sign out there okay so now again let's go to the next page page 11.
this is exactly what's going to be in the voter band that goes in the mail a lot of footnotes here I won't bother you with unless you want me to read them okay so on page 11 we have a grid on the left hand side and we have residential property commercial and Agricultural and vacant land why they're all assessed of different percentages that thanks to the Arizona complicated tax law residential property is assessed at 10 percent of the County's value right so we have that table first and you can see in bold there we've calculated that the average value uh assessed value of a home within the boundaries of your district is a hundred and eighty three thousand dollars now as Dr Wright mentioned to you that is not market value right so voters have to actually go to their tax bill that comes in the mail or go online and you can see your full cash value which is the estimated real market value and you got to go to a box that says net limited assessed value okay and the average net limited assessed value of a residential home within the boundaries of your school district is a hundred and eighty three thousand on the left hand side I'm rounding okay you multiply that by 10 percent that's where we get the eighteen thousand two seventy two we divided by a hundred tax rates are per 100 of assessed value that we all pay on our property and to support a 12 million dollar general obligation bond for the Blue Ridge School District would cost the average homeowner 4.24 cents a month okay um if you own a home that's higher than that you will pay higher taxes that's the nature of what they call ad valorem property taxes whether you're a school district a fire district a county or a city um and then in the statute we'll put a hundred thousand dollars kind of helps people round a little bit if they have a home of higher value than the 183 and you can see for every hundred thousand dollars of value would be 2.32 cents per month so I'll pause there uh that's going to be the key number that the residential homeowners will will focus on of course in terms of an estimate of the average cost of support then we have commercial and we have agricultural as well there as you can see commercial average of 400 000 rounded about 15.60 a month and Agricultural and they get about a dollar and 48 cents a month based on the average value of aggregating lands so hope that was helpful and um glad to answer any questions the board has is a relation to any of these tax rates and average cost to to our to our residents and so in in regard to the bond election any questions regarding that oh my God right say that again this is in um this is not or is in addition to what we're currently paying this is in addition to okay and do we know what our current rate is now [Music] 67 cents okay so 67 cents going to 98 cents right because of our our payment holiday if you like that term or not your memories are short of course refundings are great they save a lot of money it lowers the tax rate okay because we want to take advantage of low interest rates now we're going to bump it up to 98 where it would have been if we had knocked on the refunding right right around that so our current tax rate will go from 67 to 98 and to keep it at 98.
and then the average the average cost of the 12 million is the 28 cents that I just shared with you right so if I'm to calculate this appropriately based on our average home value it's going to be four dollars and 24 cents per month plus how much is the other plus um because that's what everyone's going to ask yeah I can calculate that um the it would be well this this one's at 20 what do we say 28 cents right and currently at 67 cents so it would be uh double that rounded numbers okay I think is close so that would probably put them at uh what eight dollars eight to ten dollars a month for the for the whole Bond okay and we're gonna just break it out try to keep it simple because it was already approved previously that's why we do it so we're only going to focus on some old million right exactly right they do have to pay the current law so we'll be about double and it'll be about eight dollars a month yeah eight to ten dollars a month roughly now let me let me get Kim so I you know double check my math so if you want to put a footnote in the pamphlet or anything like that I'll leave that up to Jim Gill I don't think we generally do that right but I do think that we that's what they're going to ask right okay okay so with that um Mr chairman members of the board um uh if you don't have any more questions for me I'll turn over to Jim Gill he's your bond attorney as mentioned he's going to walk you through solution yeah so can I answer any more questions or are we good good for me bored anybody else thank you thank you very much I'll turn it over to Jim thank you [Applause] good evening this is my first time before the board but I did work with the district on your 2019 override election so I'm not a stranger to the district um unfortunately for me I get to get some partner the words are much easier than the math than the numbers that Mark distributed with you the election resolution that's on your agenda tonight is fairly straightforward it's our standard form of election resolution and we're doing a lot of these important answer media we're doing over 20 model collections we're doing Statewide we're doing number 40 this is Young School elections uh this year's year so you're in good company this year 2023 for an off year is very popular lots of school districts have made the choice not to be on next year's ballot which will be a fairly long ballot velocity reasons but including the legislature the Arizona legislature referring lots of items to the voters so as you know as a your school bond question will be at the end of any Ballot or toward the end and next year it'll be at the end of an even longer ballot so kudos to the board if you do go forward tonight because the timing is good again you'll be a good company the resolution as I mentioned is very straightforward it calls the election and the bond election and amount not to exceed 12 million dollars for the November 2023 election delegates to District staff and administration the authority to work with the county to the election that includes steps such as entering into an IGA intercom represents of the county to make sure that the election is conducted properly the the county will do some sort of menu of services that will kind of lay out who does what in terms of the election my firm Gus Rosenfeld is responsible for producing the voter information pamphlet in terms of a draft we work with Mark reader and his his staff over at Stiefel and as well as District staff in terms of preparing that voter information pamphlet Mark went through a fair amount of what's in that pamphlet uh one one other thing I wanted to mention about the pamphlet is it will have pro and con statements as part of that voter information pamphlet submitted by the public part of what's in the resolution tonight as you are sitting a date a deadline if you will for members of the public to submit their Pro or con statements up to 200 words that deadline is August the 11th which was set by the county so we'll make the public aware of that deadline you as a board do not have the opportunity to submit a pro statement for your pamphlet you may remember when you did your overall election in 2019 you did get the first pro statement but kind of by a quirk of the statute you don't get to submit the pro statement as a board for a bond election that doesn't mean that you as individuals are prevented from doing so so District staff Administration just like any member of the public May submit a pro statement to the county not using District resources not using District email staff time any of that but you have the right to identify yourselves as board members as staff Administration however you see fit and submit that up to 200 word post data and I've seen other school districts have senior staff board members do so so again I'm leaving that with you but I just wanted to mention that the the resolutions we digressed a little bit the resolution you'll see has both polling place election and mail ballot election information we put both of those in all of our school election resolutions just to provide flexibility I understand this board is Desiring a polling place election which you would typically see in a general election year an even numbered year so for this year that that is unusual will work but we are doing out of the 40 plus School elections two or three poll in place elections so assuming the county is on board with that um we can proceed accordingly but I just wanted to have the mail about language and the resolution in case something changes county has a change of heart if the legislature has a change of heart and as you know some folks are not real happy about all male ballot elections so if we had to swing over to that because for whatever reason um you know we have that ability without racing back to the board but you know we'll proceed accordingly with the mail ballot I'm sorry with with the poll in place election the uh the resolution you know actually yeah the resolution also has the ballot attached as exhibit a you'll see the 12 million dollars there you also see sort of a laundry list of bullet points that aren't the most I guess user friendly but they are taken directly from the statute so we do need to stick with the statute in terms of how we describe the proposed projects in a fairly generic way I did have the question just yesterday from another District that to emphasize Safety and Security as I heard earlier you guys want to as well to some extent and my answer to them was you can't put Safety and Security on the ballot per se but you can put it in the pamphlet which may sound like a little bit of a disconnect but there is a table in the pamphlet that proposed Capital expenditures table that will be very user friendly unlike some of the tables you've seen with lots of fine print lots of numbers the voter the proposed capital expenditure table is larger font we'll use it'll just be very understandable to the reader but within that table we will we're able to emphasize Safety and Security as as the district wants to and then you're held to that table the the bond ballot just has a single number 12 million dollars the table I'm describing will have a couple of different numbers we typically have a large number for building Renovations construction equipment Furnishing including technology equipment things of that nature including Safety and Security so that's your large number of let's say 10 million dollars like a number then you'll typically have a smaller line item for vehicles student transportation vehicles and you may even have a third line item but that's within your control but we have kind of refinement process to only having two or three line items in your voter information pamphlet because like I said you're held to those line items so if you say 10 million dollars for buildings Renovations things of that nature then that's what you have to spend the Monroe seats on the building Renovations construction secure Safety and Security some districts will be having trouble in the past when they've listed too many line items to try to show Equity within the district trying to highlight each Elementary School side each High School site to make sure everyone gets their share we advise against that just kind of you just kind of add it all up and put it in there and it'll make sense once you see the voter information the form of resolution also has various notices attachments will work with the district everything has to be translated we'll work with the district and getting those things posted and published as appropriate and finally the resolution has has exhibits see the request for the for and against statements the pro con statements you have to make that known to the public that they have an opportunity to submit that so that's Exhibit C that you're approving as part of the election Institution with that are there any questions about the resolution that's before you tonight or the election process in general just one question I have if we approve this resolution this evening when will it be posted to the public to review well um we'll so the The Next Step good question so the next step in our process is to post an official notice of election and actually publish it in your local paper twice um the statute was changed recently to say we have to do that before 150 days prior to the election which is June 10th so we'll get right on that working with Kim so that'll be the Public's first why the students say first notice their first notices tonight if you assume you take action so and then it's up to you as in terms of how you want to present it on your website we never publish or post the entire resolution this election resolution before you not that it's that long but we're just not required to do so but you can certainly make that available on your website what a lot of districts do is they have a separate section uh entitled election or bond election so it draws the voters the public to that section they can easily see the various election notices I'm talking about as well as election resolution as well as the letter information Council ones we have that which will be in the next couple of months okay thank you any other questions I forgot so a bond is a little bit different than an override then because after we vote for it we can continue to discuss or no discussion so this is it for us but as a citizen we can discuss however well I would advocate for it as a board in administration we can't use any District resources including email or time or anything to advocate for it all we can do is respond to factual questions right so for on our website we can still post that we're having it on our website because that's an it's a resource correct we we'd post facts okay [Music] okay [Music] uh social social media your email the distribution cell phone vehicles that you can use in those resources because of the election so right so it's uh the best source of information in terms of the election will be either because that's what every household of the register as well as you can proceed so that is a neutral yeah okay accomplish Ed election um so the order of the listings of what the bond is going towards is that also established by the state is it the amount of money that you're using or can we list as priority does does that make any sense so if we talk if there's five items or five areas that we're trying to um use this money for can we choose which order it's addressed you know like Safety and Security is a really hot topic so can we put that first even though we might not be um we can't hear you very well did the battery die on his way yeah we're not hearing you very well it is gone I'm just not getting white that fan this will help you there okay yes good questions attempting to describe sure we can be flexible with how what the order is um we typically wouldn't have a line item that says Safety and Security but if that if that happens to the board's desire we could just have a line item focusing on Safety and Security and even if that's a smaller line on it in terms of dollar amount that could be the first one typically as I was suggested earlier we would include that Safety and Security within a larger line item but but if you want to call it out and focus on it um and throw a particular amount of money at it and sure we could do that and it could be the first one what we would do is headline that within this thing instead the security building right but then the resolution it's different but when we have when there is the packet of information that's going out to the community and so after say if this is a yes vote who then will be the person that decides what that is going to look like we'll have a draft and we'll share it okay right we'll draft it initially but District administration will will approve it okay okay so within that amount do we have to stipulate amounts per each item or is it overall so that they're all included well yeah so each line item gets a dollar amount so in my example from earlier the large line item which theoretically could include the Safety and Security say that's 10 million and that's just 10 million dollars at that lineup so that would be you know that would be 90 of your total improvements in a single line item then you'd have a secondary line item for for typically buses not to say you have to but that's typically the way it is and and recently that's pretty much where we've stopped we've been able to put everything in that large line item and then and then the bus is below so 10 million and 2 million that's your 12 million right there and then that could be issued in one or more series of bonds over a period not to exceed 10 years if I could add to the the challenge that we have in implementing these things as a construction costs are fluid the items that we're looking at are fluid and they're really unknown to get in there and can anything that you do is 20 or more or greater well that's what I was thinking so we're trying not to get too specific if it can be held to that amount yep so we'll be we'll the larger bucket will go in these items headlined by Safety and Security and then we'll have transportation as the subset and that's very that's knowable because we know we have nine buses and we need to replace in the next three years and a couple light buses does that make sense okay and that is the standard way we've been presenting it for kind of refine that table down to it in the old days we used to have districts with it at one table that's a page and a half long and not only is it kind of hard to read but it's hard to live with because you might be issuing well it's five years down the road and you're locked into a particular dollar amount the statute says plus or minus 10 of that dollar amount that's your that's your variance ten percent okay which you know isn't a lot and you deal with inflation no and the political action committee if someone chooses to form that is the one that will give more information correct apart from this book correct for the district to do what it wants um the pack is entitled to receive information from the district factual information just like any member of the public is but you just don't coordinate in any way and it's on the pack to register do all that stuff on the road right just a word of caution maybe if you were to write a positive a pro you can't represent the board you can do it as an individual so myself I couldn't say as the board president I'd get myself in trouble doing that because I can't represent the school in any uh opinion like that it just has to be my own personal opinion well it I your point is well taken um the various Counties have accepted Pro statements from individuals representing themselves as board members just like any occupation you will but that's the legal answer the political answer lies with you you know as to how you want to approach it and uh if you want to take the approach that that you're speaking as a individual as a citizen but not particularly as a board member then then feel free to not identify yourself as a board member there's no problem with that it's really up to you but um but I've seen it done without issue in other districts I think too I think the distinction counselor is this too that we can't use our resources or these meetings to promote it sure correct right but outside of it answering questions and sharing their perspectives is okay as a as a individual person right okay and if speaking in more than just a sort of one-on-one session with someone you might bump into to at the grocery store if you're speaking to a group a disclaimer is always helpful that you're speaking you know as an individual and you're not speaking for the board or the district if you are talking about the election I think a disclaimer is always good thank you so if you were to do a statement or one of us you can be identified as your name and then a board member behind it and you don't have to say in the script that you're a board member or how is that done not far along though if any of us were to write a statement yes yes a pro statement would it just be our name and then there would be board member behind their name or we have the choice within that statement to say whether we're a board member you have the choice within the state within the 200 words or or on the signature line um or both okay that's that's that's your call as to how you want to approach that but but it's what I'm suggesting is it's valid to identify yourself is there a limit how do they pick them they just throw up 200 words and gets first I'm gonna trip myself up here um on the overrides there is I believe no limit I'll confirm that back to cam with the bonds there's a limit of 10.
I believe that's the order so it's just the first 10 that turned one in yeah I believe that's the case let me I'm not going to hold you to it I just you know the early bird gets the worm so yeah so um it's important so I'll confirm that okay if there's no further questions thank you thank you appreciate your information and advice okay if there's discussion amongst the board we need to have it now any comments comments discussion anything it's a lot to think about check information I would just say I have a thought that in somewhere along the line we should let people know that our tax rate has been going down for the last few years absolutely so because of the override that did not pass so our actual tax property taxes have been going down for the school district for the last few years so this is going to go back up uh somewhat but it's not just that we've been paying more taxes every year and now we're going to pay even more so all right um we'll take this vote as A's and nays and we need to make note right now that Dina Butler is absent so one member of the board is not here need a motion to adopt a resolution ordering and calling for a special bond election in the amount of 12 million dollars to be held in November of 2023 and I have that motion so moved I have a motion from Chuck I have a second from Margaret all in favor a a hi hi any Nays thank you there are no names I a whatever yes and no we just never vote like that yeah I know well technically we're supposed to oh for this one we were something thank you all right thank you thank you agenda all right next item on the agenda ER is item 2.1 Personnel Dr Ryan is there anything we need to discuss with Personnel no sir all right item 2.2 recommend to approve the administration and salaried employed contracts for the 2023 and 24th year uh Kimberly do you have anything to add to that Dr Wright do you have anything to add to that they have a motion to accept item 2.2 which is in regard to salaried employee contracts for this upcoming school year and a motion from check second from Jennifer all in favor that's unanimous item 2.3 a recommendation to approve the employment of hourly staff for the 2023-24 school year uh anything you'd like to add to that they have a motion for 2.3 I have a motion a second from Margaret motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor that's it okay is there any business do we need to redo that since we went out of order no I think it's I think and we didn't list us yeah the board president can move the agenda okay so there's nothing further basically other than announcements we'd like to announce that our regularly June regularly scheduled June board meeting will be June 12th at 5 30 PM is at a conflict with anybody June 12th at five o'clock I said 5 30 but I didn't mean it I won't be here you won't be here will we still have a quorum Jennifer you be here I hope so it's another start of the camp week so it's fine we'll just order pizza well let's do this we'll we'll establish it for June 12th if there's a problem can you let us know in advance and maybe we can work something else we just need three budget right and it's it will be a short meeting right very short meeting and it'll be basically budget that would probably be available by phone if nothing else yeah okay all right I need a motion to adjourn second second a motion from Jennifer a second by
thank you all right call the meeting to order we'll start with the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice girl thank you I want to start by welcome everyone to the meeting tonight reminding everyone that we are live streaming this meeting um so welcome all of those who have joined the Wide Web as well we'll start with consent agenda items if I could have a motion to accept I have a second by Pat you need to any discussion all those in favor um next is community non-agenda items is there anyone present who would like to speak on any item that is on the agenda or not on YouTube hearing none will move down to Old business under programs Amanda uh talked last time about the PACE program and the success of the PACE program I'm asking for approval to continue that for the 23-24 school year okay perfect I have a motion by path to continue the PACE program for 23 24 do I have a second I have a second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor next under findings we have a resolution Phillips yeah the annual resolution to authorize the transfer of this and this point five million dollars from education fund to Ops fund to reimburse operations for expenses not allocated to student instruction and learning for the 2023 budget year I need a motion to approve that resolution motion by Travis do I have a second by Cheryl you need discussion all those in favor because we have a Neola policy this is an annual policy it's a first reading it was on pause during coven but it is back in effect now so very minor updates just some wording really on one section so first reading and we'll be asking for approval at the next meeting and again that's a first reading so if everybody would make sure that you review that be prepared to vote on that at our next next we'll go down under professional staff we have some recommendations yes I'm asking for the career increment Master teacher stipend we awarded to the following individuals for the school years 2023-24 through 2027-28 that would include Brayton day Sharon Dill I'm sorry Sarah Dillon Jill Hall and Candace Nixon also asking that Kristen Campbell be hired for the Jennings County High School summer school teaching position uh Tyler plarkin as a Jennings County High School summer school teacher Rebecca Gilly will be moving from a behavior therapist Esther position at MBE took a full-time MBE sped teacher Cindy law will be moving from GCE instructional coach to Sand Creek Elementary as a literacy Cadre coach Sarah Morgan to be be approved for Sand Creek Elementary as a teacher and afford to be approved at Jennings cutting high school for summer school teaching India Vega to be approved at St Creek Elementary from a temporary to a permanent Sand Creek Elementary contract as a teacher Colby Vogel to be be recommended as a Jennings County High School summer school teacher and then in addition to Cindy Law's move we are asking that with the Liberty with the literacy Lottery literacy Cadre pitch position at State Creek the 15 additional days be added to her contract motion okay I have a motion by Earl to accept those recommendations as second by Pat any Edition all those in favor five up we do so now moving down under recommendations we have a permission to post a sped teacher yes yes I'm sorry permission to oppose the heist heises allowed while keeping so asking for permission to post absolutely I have a motion by Travis second by Pat any discussion all those in favor second one for one first so as we've been working on strategic planning and one that our data shows us as a parent is for more support for elementary students that are English language Learners and our high about our high ability students at that so asking for a split El High ability position for elementary for next year that would provide support to all elementary bill so asking for permission to post that position they have a motion to post that position motion by Earl do I have a second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor next under support staff we have um izations yes we're asking for um Scott Alcorn to be awarded to Jennings County Schools summer school bus driving position Mike Aubuchon to be to be made available to teach I'm sorry to be a parent at the Jennings County High School summer school program Chrissy Beasley from our food service area to be to have a change to her secretarial um from a full-time to a part-time position which will be 15 hours weekly we're asking that Rim beavers be approved as the Jennings County High School volunteer Color Guard coach asking that Kim bachby approved this is Jennings County Schools summer school bus driver also asking that Jessica Conrad be approved as the it's actually a move from the Middle School attendance secretary to Jennings County Schools I.T secretary asking for approval at Desiree Cummings um be become one of the summer school bus drivers asking for the recommendation I'm sorry for the approval for Barb Miller who is also with the food service program and serves as a financial secretary to change from a 205-day contract to 210 days asking the Angela rehart be transferred the transfer be approved from the high school to the middle school as a cook and lastly asking for the approval of Avery Whitt who's a junior secondary high school student officer worker to be approved for the 23-24 school year and that would be a 10th position okay do I have a motion to accept those recommendations as read I have a motion by Travis do I second second my backpack you're going to get quicker you're gonna have to get quicker any discussion on those recommendations all those in favor next we go down under finances yes we have donations asking approval to accept the following donations Scio sorority 600 to Hayden Elementary for the 20 324 Art Club John and Suzanne Kibler in memory of Mindy Jester 100 to the high school band Scipio Presbyterian Church fifty dollars to the high school senior book fee lunch balance Martin Ray Industries five hundred dollars to the high school supply shop schneck Medical Center PE uniform shirts which is about shirts to middle school and high school and Vicki Carson photography two light sets and accessories to the high school TV production class and yearbook class I have a motion to accept donations by Pat do I have a second by Cheryl any discussion thank you thank you absolutely so we're waiting to see this session of the agenda yeah thank you um any any other discussion hearing none all those in favor and then we have under finance an additional resolution yes every two years we need to renew the our resolution authorizing the purchase of gift cards by school officials and employees so this is that year Okay so need a motion to accept the resolution for authorizing those gift card use do I do I have motion I have a motion by Cheryl do I have a second by Travis any discussion all those in favor 5-0 and then we're down under property we are we actually miss we have one of our new teachers with us this evening Sarah Morgan who is going to be at Sand Creek can we pause and have her go through the ritual shaking everyone's hand I apologize it's one of our favorite parts so excited thank you good luck yes thank you and thank you for coming hi Sarah is knowledgeable of some of my children so I'm like I know that that's true [Laughter] well it's great to have you and we're glad we caught up all right yeah so now we'll go to property yes so the IT department would like to upgrade our app software this is what manages the app portal for our K-2 kids they're moving from bioway to j a n f and they increase performance at a cost savings so asking for approval of that and do I have a motion to accept that recommendation motion by Cheryl do I have a second I've had any discussion all those in favor and then down under operations it looks like we have a calendar a request for calendar change for next year so um if you've not heard the buzz there's going to be a full solar eclipse in our area on April 8th of next year and local emergency management and counties surrounding us and our own county has started to discuss that expecting increase travel from outside the local area happen during that day occurs at what one of our school day or dismissal when the kids are on the road so a lot of school districts around us have already done this and we are asked our ass calendar for the day of the solar eclipse asking for approval for that calendar change for next year do I have a motion to accept that information for the calendar change the motion by Travis do I have a second second by Earl any discussion Miss Morgan you're going to have a lot of fun planning for that she has she had a look on her face like are we going to be offline just think of all the fun things you can do prayer all right no hearing no other discussion all those in favor next we have an mou Sand Creek Elementary has been given the opportunity to be a part of the Lilly endowment IU literacy Cadre so this allows us to get additional Staffing support for early literacy for Sand Creek a portion of that paid for through the state and the literacy Cadre so asking to approve that mou for that program do I have a second second by Cheryl any discussion all those in favor which brings us down to other s hearing no nothing left on the agenda then I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion by Pat do I have a second by Travis all those in favor I'm a meeting in German
let's do it good evening my name is Shannon Donnelly and I am the principal of Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School I am pleased to welcome lieutenant governor Driscoll our school committee faculty and staff members and all of you to the graduation ceremony for the class of 2023.
sure all right right hand of your heart ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right oh thank you public comments do we have any public comments not pertaining to closed session okay well so just what we're doing in closed session pupil Personnel expulsion cases number 18 22-23 expulsion number 19 22-23 conference on litigation government code section 54956.9 current litigation nine cases cibds 1907-172 cibds 201183 cibds202-2956 cibds202-366 cibsb211303 civsb22-0303 cibsd221-8676 cibb 2304865 civsb2304865 government code section 549-54.5 and 549-56.9 ipated litigation one case 2020-2105 public employees discipline dismissal release reassignment transfer leave number four Public Employee appointment resignation retirement reduction certificated and classified number five conference with the labor negotiator agency negotiator Dustin Conrad employee organization Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association number six conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator Dustin Conrad employee organization CSEA number seven conference with labor negotiation agencies negotiator Trane Nelson employee organization California school number seven yeah number seven conference and with labor negotiator agency negotiator Renee Nelson employee organization unrepresented eight conference with real property negotiator government code 54956.8 negotiated parties Matthew Schulenburg Apple Valley Unified School District public session immediately following the closed session so this is what we're going to be doing and um we should return this building right here you got it all right second second all in favor aye okay thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you foreign thank you okay we'll bring the meeting to order um CSEA communion rep Nicholas Garrett not here Apple Valley Unified Teachers Association Karen sabers you know anything okay comments Trinity Nelson our superintendent I'll wait till the end of the meeting thank you okay board comments Rick nothing right now thank you Amanda I just want to say what a joy it was for all of the graduations that we were able to attend but I will wait for the next set of comments Gary no comments Maria not yet okay and I'll pass also closed session reports our clerk Maria will an expulsion case expulsion number 18 22-23 to amend the hearing panel recommendations to read to be placed on a suspended enforcement of expulsion to High Desert Premier Academy for one calendar year from the date from this date the student is to complete the terms and conditions of their Rehabilitation plan prior to June 1st 2024.
at this time would members of the audience who are veterans active members of the military or First Response please stand in addition I would like to invite the members of the class of 2023 who are entering the military to please stand we would like to recognize you and thank you for your service to our country at this time I would like to ask Anthony bonfonte from Plumbing Jake Bugari from electricity Caleb McNair from our HVAC NR program Michael Pelletier from electricity and Brynn Steves from Advanced manufacturing to join me on the stage please these graduates have all earned the rank of Eagle Scout we congratulate them for their commitment to service and we will ask them to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we now ask Mara Stein to come to the stage for the singing of our national anthem Mara is a junior in our carpentry program from Peabody oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what's so proudly we held at the twilight's last screaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we watch were so gallantly streaming the bombs bursting in yay proved through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled banned [Music] or the land of the free and the home of the way yeah you may be seated I am honored to welcome you here this evening as we prepare for senior activities over the last few weeks including our Awards night ceremony the senior barbecue the prom and now graduation I am struck by the number of people who played a role in making all of these events happen it took a team I would like to express my sincere gratitude to our facilities farm and grounds crew and the students and teachers in our construction trades and Landscape program who helped prepare the school and grounds to welcome you our guests to our beautiful campus several other Career Technical programs assisted with the preparations and should be recognized our culinary arts program provided Refreshments for many events over the last few weeks design and media Communications completed all of the printing and assisted with tonight's live stream and photography and our sustainable Horticulture program provided the floral arrangements your hard work and dedication are greatly appreciated there are also many people working behind the scenes to make all of our senior events possible the senior class advisors the class officers the PTO our clerical staff and administration just to name a few I'd also like to thank the many student and faculty volunteers who have been here to help us I am so impressed by the vast number of people who have stepped up and even stepped out of their normal roles to make these things happen I appreciate all of you as I think about how grateful I am for everyone who played a role in our Senior Week events I think about the fact that we are all part of the same team it's teamwork that allows this to happen as no one person would be able to manage this alone the same holds true for our graduates you didn't get here entirely on your own you had a team of people helping you along the way as John Gordon once said about success accomplishment and achievement it's all about teamwork sometimes you're the star and sometimes you help the star during your time at Essex Tech all of you have experienced the power of teamwork what was important was getting the job done and the project completed sometimes we took the lead other times you helped in a supporting role the point is that both are always necessary everyone has a team made up of different players class of 2023 I'd like you to think about the members of your team who have helped you get here today these may include your family friends coaches advisors counselors or someone else that's special to you please thank them and let them know how much you appreciate them most importantly please take this lesson with you as you move on to the next phase of your life you will need to add new members to your team and allow them to support you in addition I hope that you will lend a hand to those that need you that's how teams work as you leave us today stand tall and be proud as you go on to your bright and successful Futures please remember that you have been as strong and that your Essex Tech team is always here for you I am now pleased to present to you the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School District school committee chairperson Mr Mark strout of Marblehead absolutely okay thank you Mr Mourinho uh good evening everyone lieutenant governor Driscoll school committee members superintendent Dr Heidi riccio principal Shannon Donnelly Administration faculty and staff class of 2023 parents and extended family members it is indeed my honor and pleasure to represent the entire 20-member school committee in celebrating all of the accomplishments and honors of the class of 2023 who are graduating tonight from the finest Agricultural and Technical High School in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts graduates I want you to rest assured that the administration faculty and staff of Essex North Shore have prepared you to be highly productive members of the 21st century economy and to be lifelong Learners the school committee wishes all of you every success in life and want you to know that you will always be part of the Essex North Shore family as well the school committee wishes to acknowledge and thank the faculty and staff who are retiring or moving on in their professional careers this year we want you to know that the contributions that you have made to the success of our students have been so greatly appreciated by all of us the school committee wishes to credit and thank Dr riccio principal Donnelly the entire administrative team and our highly qualified and dedicated academic and CTE faculty members for having afforded the class of 2023 every opportunity to excel in their chosen area of specialization faculty and staff your dedication professionalism and the thousands of hours with our students molding them into the exceptional young adults sitting before us tonight is so greatly appreciated by all of us last but certainly not least the school committee wishes to acknowledge and thank the parents and extended families of all of our 2023 graduates to the students please don't ever lose sight of the fact that it was your parents who guided inspired nurtured and loved you unconditionally to get you all to this milestone in your young lives in conclusion I'd like to leave our graduates with a quote by noted American humorist Will Rogers when he asked to define success he said if you want to be successful it's just this simple know what you were doing love what you were doing and believe in what you were doing congratulations thank you all and enjoy tonight's celebration I would like like I would like now to welcome superintendent director Dr Heidi riccio to the podium thank you chairman strout congratulations class of 2023. it certainly is a great day to be a hawk where's the Applause guys I know you've seen that on our billboard our social media so I figured one last time welcome family friends staff school committee members lieutenant governor Driscoll and our graduating class today is the day when we send you off to accomplish great things our mission statement makes clear that at Essex Tech we promote technical Agricultural and academic excellence tonight we can say that you have achieved this because you took a chance you persevered you excelled at your craft you earned your seat on this field if you recall the words of Admiral William mcraven in make your bed the little things that can change your life and maybe the world he says life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present but those who live in fear of failure or hardship or embarrassment will never achieve their potential without pushing your limits without occasionally sliding down the Rope head first without daring greatly you will never know what is truly possible in your life tonight I ask you to take a chance whether it is for that next position at your place of employment joining a club in college saying hello to a stranger on the street take a chance Taking Chances can be difficult you may question whether you have the capacity for it or not those who excel in life do so because they took a chance to excel you must be willing to fall those that get back up and continue on understand that Excellence is a way of thinking a way of doing a way of believing in yourself and then taking action remember when you first learned how to ride a bike most were hesitant some may have been holding on to the back excuse me some were scared all of you were afraid of failing and falling some may have been holding onto the back of the seat why you took a chance eventually that person let go allowing you to ride freely without support the moment of freedom and the thrill of accomplishing something on your own comes from thinking doing believing in yourself and taking a chance we hope that we gave you multiple opportunities to ride your bike at Essex Tech you came here to learn a skill you met new friends from 53 different communities you had to work in teams whether it was in your shop your Athletics your academics or a club you may not have believed in yourself at first but over time you gained confidence to wire that fixture highlight the hair of a client which I think is more scarier than actually wiring a light fixture serve that guest take the blood pressure of a patient both human and animal enroll in that early college course and so many other skills learned here at Essex Tech you took a chance and made it happen so much so that you have the highest Cooperative education rate in the history of our school you are also the first graduating class enrolled in the early college program so much so that you are attending schools like Dartmouth Brown John Hopkins Wentworth Institute Northeastern University Howard University the state college system and more so much so that you are continuing your trade at our Nighthawks program and electrical and plumbing or you are studying command and control in the United States Air Force for those that are choosing to serve our country we thank you you see you decided to take a chance and here you are ready to go out and be who you are meant to be as we do every year at graduation we thank you for choosing Essex Tech as your high school on this day at this moment our vision of technical Agricultural and academic Excellence is now yours it lives inside of you carry it proudly and share it well it is how you will build your future I will leave you with one final quote of admiral mccraven it is easy to blame your lot in life on some outside force to stop trying because you believe fate is against you it is easy to think how you were raised how your parents treated you or what school you went to as it all determines your future nothing could be further from the truth the common people and the great men and women are all defined by how they deal with life's unfairness sometimes no matter how hard you try no matter how good you are you will still end up as a sugar cookie don't complain don't blame it on your misfortune Stand Tall look to the Future and drive on it certainly is a great day to be a hawk at this time I would like to welcome our keynote speaker and proud Essex Tech mom lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll to the podium thank you Dr riccio and Dr O'Toole and principal Donnelly it's great to be with all of you our teachers and staff parents caregivers and families and most of all the graduates of the class of 2023 go Hawks I'm so honored to be with you here on your special day I am a proud parent of two Essex Tech graduates my son Nicholas was in the advanced manufacturing shop he just finished his sophomore year at WPI and my daughter eilish was in the health assisting shop and is a first year nurse at Salem Hospital so I know the kind of effort and commitment it takes to earn your diploma here and I just want to stop for a moment and really look at what you have achieved this specific class of 2023 you earned your diploma in ways that no previous graduates have ever had to because your freshman year when you started High School the world changed think about what it took for you to reach this day you studied hard and worked hard and you did it all through a global pandemic That Shook the world to its core turned your education a little bit upside down you had to master new technologies you had to figure out new ways to connect and communicate you may have had to deal with illnesses or loss in your families tied to the pandemic you or someone you know may have had mental health challenges or challenges with anxiety or depression if you think back to eighth grade to leaving Middle School you didn't ask for or expect any of this to be part of your high school experience I mean some days it's hard enough just being a teenager but you persevered you kept going you learned you grew you overcame you got stronger as well as smarter and you made it you earned your diploma through a time like no other and today you're graduating your families are proud of you your teachers are proud of you and I can tell you your governor and lieutenant governor are proud of you also I hope you take pride in all that you have done and that you will do and what it took to walk across this stage tonight now there's no doubt you learned a lot at Essex Tech about the world about your vocation about what you like about yourself you proved that you have the persistence and resilience to do anything you put your mind to and that gives me tremendous hope and optimism about the future of our Commonwealth and frankly of our world you are the people we will depend on to keep our state strong and make it even stronger you will be the innovators the builders and The Growers the business owners the healers and caregivers and teachers you'll be the difference makers who others turn to for skill and knowledge and Leadership you know as lieutenant governor I get to work with Governor Healy and teams of great people who are experts in many of the important issues facing our state and there's no more important issue than education and helping all our schools and students to thrive let me tell you one of our top priorities is in education we're focused on helping schools provide experiential learning opportunities to all our students on expanding opportunities for more high school students to get to get on College and Career Pathways before graduating high school that way they can graduate with real life skills and real options to pursue good careers does that sound familiar it's what great vocational schools like Essex Tech are already doing you got to live it already you showed that it works I've seen it up close and personal and I see it in you today so whatever you do next wherever your pathway takes you I want you to know how important you are to your community because of your education because of your resilience because of all that you are and will become and as a public official in our state I want to ask you to do something I want to ask you to get involved in your community you are not too young to make a difference you can get active on your college campus or in your workplace you can get involved in student government or local government can volunteer for a community organization or political campaign it doesn't even have to be mine you can pick an issue that really matters to you no matter what your vocation you have something special to offer your community you've already learned the most important skill from your Essex Tech education you learn that reading and studying is important I mean it's essential but it's not enough you've learned that really knowing something you've got to get your hands dirty you have to do the work to make an impact that means you're exactly the kind of people we need to be active in our communities you already have part of what I call the get stuff done approach to solving problems when everyone else is talking and complaining about an issue you're the ones who will jump in and make a difference and that's why I believe today is not only a great day for you it's a great day for our state because I look out at this class of 2023 and I see something wonderful I see our state in our state's future and no matter what any no matter what everyone what no matter what anyone tells you it is a bright one because of you your resilience your talent your diversity and your can-do spirit so congratulations like enjoy today relish this milestone and whatever you do next remember you're in Essex talk Essex Tech Hawk and you can help our communities do anything too congratulations and good luck thank you lieutenant governor Driscoll for your service to the City of Salem and to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the class salutatorian is awarded to the student who is ranked second in the senior class this year our salutatorian will be attending Brown University to study English and economics he is an outstanding student from our landscape and turf management program and a resident of Lynn please welcome to the podium Thomas politano welcome class of 2023.
expulsion case number 19 22-23 be placed on a suspended expulsion enforcement of expulsion to Phoenix Academy for the remainder of the 2022-2023 spring semester and the 2023-2024 fall semester the student is to complete the terms and conditions of their Rehabilitation plan as amended prior to the end of the 2023-2024 fall semester in closed session the Board of Trustees took action in support of the following recommendation from the superintendent Public Employee appointment an emotion by Mr RC and seconded by Mr bender on a vote of 5-0 the Board of Trustees approved the following appoint Ronald clabo as dean of students Apple Valley High School range 7 column 5 under certificated management salary schedule 195 base days effective July 1 2023. can you stand up [Applause] Public Employee appointment on a motion by Mrs opara seconded by Mr RC Board of five zero the Board of Trustees approved the following appoint Andrew K Robbins as high school assistant principal range a column 1 on the certificated management salary schedule 210 base Duty days effective July 1 2023.
welcome our countless supporters our Educators our families our friends it is an honor to stand and speak here today and I mean that sincerely many of you are as deserving as I am to speak on behalf of our class that I know that this class is deserving of the gravity and honesty of each of your voices I thank you all for this opportunity to share my own now I don't have to tell you that we've come a long way you know what four years are like I don't have to tell you that you'll remember this day you're going to for there a few times in our lives when transitions are so clearly marked and celebrated no I'm going to tell you something perhaps even more obvious why we came here and why we're here now we applied to an agricultural and technical school because we wanted to work not only with our minds but with our hands we didn't want to sit in neat rows of desks scribbling away year after year frankly we wanted the break called shop week we needed to get outside to embrace the trees and the sun above us or at least to see it all on a computer screen in I.T we all needed to find and pursue what we love so we came here and we built and sometimes we tore down and we planted and painted and nurtured and tested and cooked and soldered and machined and we grew and we are becoming ourselves and we have so many to thank but what is it in us that brought us all together only a few years ago that unites us all here today it is our desire to leave a legacy it is our dedication to creation and it is especially important in today's challenging world that you hold on to that creative power and energy for that creativity is what makes us Tech students special it's what has made our civilization long lasting it's what makes teams triumphant it's what makes individuals humans loving now I can't tell you where the world is going but a surprisingly relevant quote from the 1976 Movie Network goes I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street all I know is that first you've got to get mad you've got to say I'm a human being gosh darn it my life has value remember that if anything there might be a day when you feel All Is Lost when you feel the world has given up on you but remember you've got to remember that your life has value that the lives of those around you are just as equally valuable remember the gifts that are the sun your good friends your freedom and summer and life and remember that you deserve love that we all deserve the beauty of what he will come to create congratulations but the commencement commence and thank you for everything thank you Thomas I would now like to introduce sharonjit Kaur who is the Essex North Shore Agricultural and technical schools 2023 mava outstanding Vocational Technical student Sharon G is a student in our engineering program she is from the town of Danvers and will be attending Wentworth Institute of Technology where she will be majoring in civil engineering foreign I want to begin by asking everyone to applaud for those who worked so hard to prepare this field on such a wonderful graduation and commencement ceremony now I want everyone to turn and look to your left now look to your right before sincerely thanking your supporters perhaps even extending a hug whoever it may be say thank you thank you now good evening friends family members administrators teachers and most importantly the soon to be graduates of Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School Today We Gather here in celebration of each of our individual achievements over the past years or a high school career our education and our journey it is my honor to be speaking to you all on such a memorable occasion as some of you may or may not have noticed Essex Tech is not a typical high school it actively combines teaching and education to adapt and align to every individual a school that allows a rigorous academic classes AP courses opportunities for co-curricular learning through skillsusa Deca and FFA as well as college credits through dual enrollment we were athletes We performed in a drama club took advantage of Cooperative education volunteered as members of you act and helped and led and developed integration academies all in one school hybrid academic and vocational education has changed and the old approaches to learning and repelled us all into the future of education and made us positive contributors to the workforce as young adults we were exposed to practical Workforce occupations that granted granted students autonomy into What fields of work to pick and the responsibilities that Encompass it the Alta control of your education from the beginning and you all should be proud of yourself for persevering and getting to where you are today if you went to your Traditional High School you will not be graduating as a CNA or CBA a licensed cosmetologist or with netplus Adobe digital media and has whopper certifications or with hours towards apprenticeship you will not have the opportunity to create a community with your peers in your respected Career technical areas there have definitely been memories that would stay with me long after I graduate that took place in the engineering shop some of us will go into a Workforce or the military and some of us will pursue higher education at reputable schools like brown Dartmouth Johns Hopkins Wentworth the Massachusetts state universities and much more after the ceremony we'll go our own paths and we'll all succeed I want to give a big thank you to those who have been those who have helped me succeed and those who have impatient me throughout my personal growth within high school as well as giving me the opportunity to be a part of early Workforce first education and experience I want to thank my family for the utmost support my friends for the generosity and kindness and my teachers and advisors for believing in me it helped me create a foundation as to where I can say I've succeeded as we embark on this new journey of Our Lives I have a piece of advice to leave with you all today be curious ask questions and get to know people cliche but you never know the impact and importance you hold just by a simple High a smile a kind gesture and a conversation improve the relationship with yourself first get comfortable with your uniqueness your individuality and then get out there and influence others thank you class of 2023.
all right thank you very much adoption of the agenda the board May approve the agenda as is or add or pull items do I have a motion to approve so moved second I'll second the motion all in favor all right recognition presentation there's none at this meeting discussion information number one ethnic studies Mr Gary RC uh board member yeah I just just wanted to bring forward for a discussion um so that we we all have this at our Forefront in 2021 the California legislature passed assembly Bill 101 which stipulates at the California high schools must begin offering their ethnic studies course by the 20 25 26 school year students in the class of 2030 will be required to complete an ethnic studies course as a graduation requirement the ethnic studies model curriculum adopted by the state department of education stipulates at the course should focus on the histories cultures struggles and contributions to American Society of people groups who have traditionally been overlooked in previous history courses particularly blacks Latinos Native Americans and Asian Americans the development of an ethnic studies course in the Apple Valley Unified School District will be a lengthy and thorough process that will involve the input and support of all stakeholders in our district including parents teachers administrators students and community members therefore it seems prudent that we as a board of begin the process of developing this new ethnic studies course and what it will look like in our district the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools has expertise in this area so it would seem uh prudent and it would seem a useful first step for the board to schedule a workshop perhaps in the fall perhaps in August to allow the county to come in and help us in the development of this new course and Mrs Nelson I think you might have some some additional information on that yes I would be looking for direction for the from the entire board to schedule a workshop as soon as the county is available most likely Late July early August that would be a Workshop which would be public in nature it because it is it would have to be a posted board meeting and so if it's the desire of the entire board I can get working on dates um Christina Pierce who was the director of the department that worked directly with school districts regarding the tool kit has actually taken a promotion and she's now working in a school district as an assistant superintendent there are other people within the department that are very well versed and ready to do that work with us I just need to get some direction from the entire board and then invite them in based on that information and then once we have workshopped it would be my desire and goal to bring forward some kind of a agreement with the county office to facilitate that work in our community can Mr President can I it would now be an okay time for me to speak yeah um so I first want to just say thank you so much to Mr RC for bringing this forward because it's definitely something that's very important and our community is very diverse and so it is very important that we have all of the voices that are in the room and I did do some research over the last week so I just wanted to pass some of these to you guys here I've got four that way I'm sure I'm gonna miss count because I'm a teacher and that's what we do there's a couple so I uh see we need three more down there okay um and then I have two more also um I don't know Mrs Tucker would you like oh no wait uh Mr Campbell then I don't know if one other somewhere in the audience as well there we go okay so one of the things that I was looking at is that as a district we have an excellent system that we've utilized um on the first page here I would like to make a motion that we do create a task force that would report back to us within one year just as he mentioned to address that that um assembly Bill and that we're going to go ahead I would recommend us use the collective impact strategies which we were one of the first districts um to adopt in the county to adopt the Cradle to career pathway so we're already using that and so I would I would recommend just like he said we go ahead and we have that ethnic studies toolkit additionally that we are we would utilize the literature approval request form process for approving literature in our district if you look on the second page um this is all information that I just took off of the front page of our website you know we do service just over 13 000 students we provide a safe encouraging challenging learning environment in which students are given the opportunity to reach their full potential one of the things I love about our mission statement is that it says um that we will serve our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral social emotional needs of all students all of them every single student so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world I did go ahead and include a graphic below about the the Cradle to Career roadmap which again is what we're already um connected within the district to utilize one important thing here on that page as well is just that and I'm not seeing it off the top of my head but um that we are we're connected with we have AP courses that we offer we have Avid we have all of the a through G we cannot go outside of whatever California is setting forth we need to make sure that we have all those voices and that we are recognizing that um the collective impact is a powerful framework for achieving sustainable social change that relies on a collaborative multi-sector and data-driven approach again everything should be best practices data driven with social studies they're using a lot of the uh project-based learning or I know AP is heavy with um I can't think of the word that's it I could only think of the BQ DBQ and I couldn't think of a b yes the document-based questions all of these things that they're things that we already use within our district um we have the five conditions of collective impact the um on page four or so that we will you know come together with this common agenda of meeting the needs of assembly Bill 101 and putting that into place for our school I did miss somewhere in here I had suggested that we set up this this task force within that first month when we come back because right now all of our Educators for the most part are off for the summer and this is not a good time to start something this important and that's valuable within our community so if we can you know start to put together this task force and invite every Community member that wants to be a part of it any parents you know everybody's voice matters in this process I personally would recommend two board members to sit on this task force I feel like Mr RC for sure you should be on there because you obviously like this is important to you um and you can extend your voice and then trustee akpara because she has been speaking about this since either Mr RC or I joined the board and it's important to her um so I would just I would suggest that we put those two but that's up to the rest of the board because I do not speak for the board on my own um furthermore uh we have the responsibilities of the task force on page five I showed a number of these I'm really sorry um but it's it's just that it's going to be the diverse members everybody is going to work together on this common goal and we're going to look at the best practices and we're going to use that the community or the toolkit that we have from the county um and I know the county is looking forward to partnering with us on this as well just from some um research I've been trying because I was trying to put together something so we could make sure that we do not miss out on anyone's voice in the process um I at the bottom there's some more information about Collective impact um in the United Way which is locally important as well as Statewide um the last page here this is actually taken just from our agenda today it's just one of the books that is on our agenda for us to approve and there's so many people that go through the process before it gets to us our job is to approve the recommendation our job is not to write the course and so for this example this teacher this professional educator She's Come forward with what she wants she's an expert in her field of math and science she's highlighted the Lexile level to show why it would be appropriate at that age group from there it went to the district or the department chair so then the department chair had to review the material they had to sign off then and I um it went to a panel of Educators because I noticed there were lots of pages in there of people signing off on them from there it then went to the director of curriculum and instruction and the assistant superbed Services there was oops and before that there was the notice of public review where they were on display so that anybody could come and look at it but then it's so it goes through that whole process before it ever comes to us and so I would just suggest that we continue to to follow along with that process that we already have in place because we do have these professionals in our schools as well as in our community and they all can come and participate um the last or not a second to the last page the ethnic studies toolkit I just kind of took some of that off of the website and you can see there there's the I pulled out the um the six steps to actually creating this curriculum and so we've got the six steps on there Step One established the committee I don't know if we can actually vote to do the committee today but I would definitely appreciate um that that gets put on our next agenda so that we can begin to establish the task force to move forward and then on the last page is just the motion that I would like to make so you're correct the the proper way to do this would be to request so um we would have to have direction from the board of a majority to add it to the agenda for next time with a action as an action item to process and move forward and our next board meeting I speak no go ahead regarding ethnic studies we have been having this conversation um long before we came out of covet and it is not a secret that history has been very unfair to certain groups of people and it is not a secret that some of us who came from another country learned the history of United States Without Really knowing where United States is but we wanted to know and so I don't see why we are all concerned about ethnic studies just because a group of people now finally want to know about their own history so having said that I am not coming from a place of saying ethnic studies is is something that we have to all Panic about uh because we all have to know there is nothing greater than having a student see themselves in a history that is being published there is nothing greater than seeing the history books being written by the same people who have who actually are walking the road so I do I do appreciate my my colleague here Mr RC for putting it on the agenda because regardless of what the situation is this is going to be on the agenda it's not going away by 2025 we should be having this conversation very clear in our heads so we have jumped ahead of it thanks to Mr RC by putting it forward that we need to have this conversation but in in putting it in this conversation I'm a little bit concerned that it came up in the summer months when the teachers are not available to even participate and I'm concerned in the summer months when we have on our calendar to hold board meetings at one o'clock it's a it's been on the calendar so if we are going to begin this this conversation we need to have it in the calendar when we are on a board schedule of seven five o'clock or seven o'clock so that more people will participate and in going forward there are steps that we have to have in this ethnic studies toolkit the governor has signed it into law so it's not going away and it's the state is going to approve whatever is is set aside the state has already given us a blueprint of what it needs to be and we are going to follow that blueprint this we we don't have a wiggle room out of it so we are going to follow the blueprint but we are going to tailor it to our community but the community does not exclude anyone and I would like to see everyone included anybody that wants to be part of this process they need to have the option to be in it I also would like to see the people heading this not to be part of us because we people will never believe that we are doing it without bias so get somebody from outside that's going to be the lead person for this committee so that they can report back to us as a board what are you doing in the in the team so that we don't have people thinking there are biases out there that will that will be a problem for us um we know that the county has people who are trained in this let's use them we are part of this San Bernardino County let's use the county to do the work that we want them done we want it done and we don't want it done correctly we want to look at all the textbooks that are being used we're going to look at the Publishers of those textbooks we're going to look at who's presenting it we're also going to look at the training of the people who are going to be teaching it thanks to Mr RC he's pushing it so we're going to push it a little harder and make sure that our voices are heard this is not it when we think of ethnic studies it's not ethnic studies for just the the people of black students there's the Asian Americans there is a Pacific Islanders there are the American Indians that those are specifically stated and the Hispanics we all have to come on into this and start paying attention believe me I have had this conversation with many people and I've said why did I even have to study Sheikh despair what did he have to do for me what do I know about Shakespeare am I going to move to Rome and speak in that language no why did I have to learn Trigon trigonometry what am I doing with it so why can't I give other people the opportunity to learn about their their history a based on Research not based on all the ideas that we have the state is very clear and I'm going to go over what the state says before that we don't confuse it with what we are saying for ourselves the state says that it has to be approved by the CDE it has to be the State Board of Education must approve this curriculum that we're putting out it's not a curriculum that we are starting afresh but that that we already have and now we are going to you know revamp it it's brand new so having it as brand new we all have to participate in the process there's no you there's no back door I'm gonna be sitting in this seat and if I see a back door you better believe I will let you know there will be no back door the truth will be told and that's all we're trying to do here so that we can get this ethnic studies I agree with uh uh um trustee Buchanan let us have a task force ready to go so the task force can report to us and every time that task force is ready to report we'll put out a call to everybody so you can hear it from from them firsthand that's all I'm interested in thank you well good we have amazing local history as well um so I brought dirt this is from I know I brought dirt um this is from the the Murray Dude Ranch which is a very important part of Apple Valley's history at one point there were only 2 000 residents in the entire town but the rodeo that they would host would bring 10 000 attendees and so it was huge for our country I remember being um and it was uh owned by African Americans and used in many video or many movies that like Hollywood would come out here and record and our kids need to know that like Apple Valley although I think it was called Victorville so technically at the time but I'm claiming it as Apple Valley you know it's we have a rich history and I was out hiking with my kids one time and there was a sign that said like early man hieroglyphics I had no idea that we had that here in our desert these are the things that we we want to make sure that the people who know can put input so that not only are we meeting the state but we're also tailoring it to our community that's it I just realized I forgot my dirt so we would like to have have this so that we can go back into the what are we going to do going forward starting today so that we this the people who came today they want to know what are we going to do next if I'm if I may bring up uh just a on what Amanda said how task force could possibly work just an idea having been involved with task force before and and uh so what could happen is there's five of us board members each board member could we could either appoint maybe two people from the community uh to the the task force but it's open to the public as well but then that way that the the information could be gathered for an outline on what our goals and objectives are in the in different topics that we want to put together so I would to amend a little bit what Amanda said and just maybe uh a habit where we appoint one or two persons people we could actually even put out um an application process for that um to pick from because sometimes people will want to be involved and they'll they'll apply and weaken a point so I think uh as that moves forward we have a lot of time and like Maria said too as We Gather in to the later guitar part of the new school year in the fall would be really a time to start putting that together and getting the wheels going moving forward well I'm going to say one more thing about that that the committee the committee roster that this state has put out for us or the county has put up for us um it's not a committee of us to be appointing is a committee that has to have it facilitator and that's where we bring somebody from the county from the county and and an administrator administrators are involved uh history and social studies teachers are involved and those are people who actually live it not people who are history and social studies but they're teaching it to the wrong group of people they are living it they're walking and walking uh history teachers uh teachers representing other subjects great span of K2 3568 and 912 parents and families instructional um Specialists people with the expertise um students families California Native American tribes and tribal organizations that is specifically stated in the state the county requirement so we have to look at who the who is that person that will be represented in that group um higher education institutions people who are working at the universities mind you ethnic studies is required for any student who is going to be going to California State University or a UC system coming from year 2030 that they must have this course so you have to bring the same people who are requiring that those students must have the course to sit at the table to guide us to tell us what we need to make sure that our children will have the opportunity to go to those universities my children all went to University and I do not want any child not to be able to go because of a decision we are making relevant Community organizations so Community organizations that are relevant to this are invited to this table County Office of Education they are all listed I took the time to read up on ethnic studies I don't have a problem I'll make you copies anybody that wants it so you can read up on what the County of San Bernardino San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools put together and the state of California has put together they've told us what the committee needs to look like and that's what we're going to be looking at if I could I would like to leave if I can well if I can get a second I would like to leave my motion as it is because I don't feel like it is our place to be appointing people because then we're I mean to be black we're four white people up here we can't we okay sorry we can't we can't disappoint we can't it has to be open to the community and if we have a facilitator from the county then that facilitator would make the decisions following the toolkit and the best practices for how it is created might I suggest that um we move forward with a board agenda item for the next board meeting or the August board meeting that could be your decision as a board but to move forward with a workshop for the board with the county allowing you to as five board members come together on what your expectation of the process looks like so that each of your voices they can take then and they can help establish next steps and timelines to get that completed which then is inclusive of the community and everybody else that would be I heard a few things such as holding this during an evening board meeting so I want to be sure that whatever we do meets the that criteria too so if it's a workshop that you want to hold and you want to hold it in the evening so that the public has access to it then I suggest that we I'm going to need some more information in order to to make sure that I've covered all of the basis and Supply what you need as a board as a whole I do think we need to have to schedule the task force um or to schedule the the training the workshop but I do think that we should commit to starting the process of there being a task force and committing to getting that established during that first month of school when we come back okay can I get consensus from the board to move forward so that I um one what I I believe I've just heard is agenda's uh um a works well agenda is the emotion for next board meeting to state that we are moving forward with a workshop utilizing the County Office of Education to do the workshop and consider them for our task force moving forward and then looking at our regularly scheduled board meeting potentially in August as a timeline for making decisions once staff is back meaning teachers and other staff that work in Apple Valley Unified School District to also be part of the process when I'm reading this motion that um becoming has he says her motion is to create a task force that will report back to the board in one year to address California Assembly Bill 101 on ethnic studies the task force will follow to the steps of collective impact strategies by December you know County ethnic studies toolkit Additionally the task force will utilize the literature approved request form process for approving literature in Apple Valley Unified School District that's how emotional on the table for next board meeting I can place that on the agenda I need direction from the board I would I would like a motion first to be approved today so that we can now place it because that's what you're putting to be place it on the next board meeting for the training for the board is not as important as studying setting getting ready for this committee to get started okay because the board will get the training we're waiting for the the finished product is when the product is finished and you present to us then that's when we we actually get involved but right now the people who are going to get started on the process are the people that we need to get set up so that they can start the process and we can come along and figure out what what what the state wants us as board members to do okay so for the purpose of emotion it would need to be agendized as an action item for next board meeting to add it means the public it's posted for 72 hours prior to the board meeting and the public knows that they can comment on that um item as a motion and an action item so I would still propose that this motion that this as a board item be placed on the next board meeting with consensus today from the board to do so that's what I'd need in order to place it on the agenda I sat down the motion okay but for the brown act for the purposes of the brown act having direction for a board item is all I need in order to put it on there then you can take action at the next board meeting when the public has the transparency of being able to comment on that item it's not you wouldn't be taking an official vote because if you do you have not posted for 72 hours to have the public know that you are going to make a an actual discussion today yes it is a discussion so in order to move forward if I can get three board members to give me a direction for all of you to I agree Amanda agrees and the board president just said yes so weird I think you have consensus everybody's on consensus to move it forward Mr RC okay so I will add it as an agenda item for the June um eighth board meeting it will be the board meeting is for the public at one o'clock just as this one was the two summer board meetings are always at one o'clock we go into close we will be out at three all other board main meetings during the school year begin at five o'clock two-hour closed session and we come out at seven and we cannot come out and do any public action prior to 7 PM in any of those meetings next year okay so I will do that and then I will get some dates from the county um that they're available for a workshop just so that I can have Kylie contact you as board members perfect that's what's good okay we'll move this along number two annual English learner program evaluation District English learner advisory committee Mr Patrick Schlosser yes that's good foreign Torres and her representative committee members from the district English language advisory committee will be coming up to do this presentation there are a whole lot better at this than I am sure thank you everybody um today's presentation is part of our federal program monitoring requirements which basically state that we want to make sure that we have transparency not just in our language programs but also in making sure that everybody's informed of the progress of English Learners and how we provide some of the feedback not just to our parents but to everybody that is interested in those um in those programs and the information so in our annual report um I I get the uh you know it was funny because Mr slasher is usually the one that has to do all the numbers and has to do all of the things and I always say no that's really actually to me that's interesting but as I was doing this and I was listening to our d-lac parents and the the feedback that they have to do today I kind of felt like man I get the boring part I get the I get the ones that that we should have to discuss numbers now mind you uh I think this is a specifically or um especially um hard year because last year was rough and we are always about a year behind in that reporting so when we were looking at truancy we were looking at truancy rates and we were sending kids home so they were not in class we are today thankfully in a very different place so some of this data will look very different in the fall and we will gladly share that with you again when when that takes place so uh one of the things that we want to highlight is the fact that our English Learners have grown our district has actually been in a been adding students all the way across every single one of our populations and English Learners are not um are not far from that we are a little bit over about 10 percent uh last year we were about 1348 this year we're about 15 31.
the class valedictorian is awarded to the student who is ranked first in a senior class the valedictorian of the class of 2023 is a student in our natural and environmental Sciences program from the city of Lynn he will be attending Dartmouth College this fall to continue his study in studies in Natural Sciences please welcome Nathan Hammerschmidt legal good evening guests family friends Essex North Shore staff administrators in the class of 2023 the moment has arrived the delivery of a speech but also of our new position as adults in a world of ever increasing demands we're here to celebrate our graduation our unique Collective four-year experience such an experience cannot be summarized in our last moments together especially Through The Eyes of someone like myself I'm guessing you probably wouldn't like to hear about my scientific research Endeavors in chaotic time management struggles my high school experiment or simply put my version of high school has a sample size of one I would like to however take time for us to relive the journey everyone has taken to end up in the very seats they're sitting in parents and staff included we arrived in 2019 the last class to begin in the 2010s and Bridge into 2020 associating underclassmen upon becoming upperclassmen we left behind the decade defining our childhoods to confront new societal challenges with increased clarity in the very time our concept Society were evolving we are faced with social injustices political instability climatic changes and international conflict not to mention the pandemic which impacted our development starting freshman year our class has a 396 versions of four years far from ordinary 396 students times four years makes 1584 years far from ordinary 1584 extraordinary years which is nearly 1.5 Millennia to form a one-of-a-kind class that will continue to face novel challenges let's have a round of applause for this extraordinary class foreign you could have said that about any other class of 2023.
and one of the processes in which we measure this is through the lpac which is the English language proficiency assessment in California so um as we as we do this every single year and we test our students we want to make sure that we're keeping an eye on that LP which is what level indicator we have so as you can see and one of the things that you want to look at is that we had about . I want to make sure I say it correctly 37.9 percent that made either a gain of at least one level or they were able to actually go ahead and maintain that level four now remember where you're behind so when we're looking at about 50 percent of kids that were not in in class as much as they should have been that's still pretty good they were still trying hard and they were making progress now our reclassified students in 2021 were about 50 students that we were able to redesignate and in this year currently we're already at 69.
this is far from the case personally Essex North Shore has exposed me to a whole host of perspectives and career paths that can be alluring insightful or even distracting in a positive way each of us was exposed to 24 different shops during career Discovery and even if we already haven't had a choice in mind we threw our understanding of all the other lives led a nearly Limitless array of jobs I've always gravitated towards the Sciences but here I've recognized the satisfaction of landscaping acknowledge the art of cooking and appreciate the skill of construction trades each shop each set of perspectives and possibilities has formed an underlying dialogue in our minds whether we realize it or not our friends and our teachers in comprising the community have tied us to lives completely different from our own where else can you sit in an academic class surrounded by Craftsmen Engineers chefs artists and scientists to engage in discussions all characterized by a background of such specialized interests furthermore where else can you find such people coming from all different cities and communities from Winthrop to Newburyport we've engaged with peers expanding our sense of place beyond the confines of our individual towns and I personally feel at home anywhere on the North Shore now no matter where I go there's someone to think back to this vibrant set of different perspectives and outlooks on life and on future plans however overwhelms me I find it hard to take in all the possibilities for such a multitude of career paths as I consider what to study in college I met with memories of peers here at Essex North Shore as many of you pursue a particular trade many will simultaneously pursue a completely different trade we will all be taking different paths emanating from this graduation and if you find yourself in my position slightly Paralyzed by the thought of quote finding what makes you happy know that there really is no right path that there are decisions you make and their outcomes so I leave you with these key three ideas first keep your exploration of perspective Beyond High School by attending a place like Essex North Shore you've already been exposed to this seek to continue that exposure wherever you may go second acknowledge the vastly different lives that others may choose to lead whether you make similar Life Choices or not acknowledging others allows you to accept differences without feeling behind jealous or otherwise confused and lastly know that there is no right path that there are decisions you make and the resulting outcomes the resulting perspectives acknowledging others will put you at peace with the possibilities and maybe then can you begin to follow a path yes a path not the path I would like to end by thanking the people that have and continue to support me I would not be standing here in front of you today if it'll work for these people first my academic teachers for educating and uplifting me in all my Pursuits shout out to Mr bellantone built-in Johnson Hickok and Poland my shop teachers Mr Wilbur and Miss colon for uplifting my interest in the environment my guidance counselor Mr Loring the administration for leading us through covid and fostering student involvement my track coaches coach Barrington who's an absolute living legend and Coach Stacy for making running a core component in my life members of the class my friends who are incredibly talented and inspire me every day special shout out to the drama Stars track teammates and Community change makers the German teacher crew and truly amazing friends you know who you are and lastly my family my parents who supported me in all my Pursuits my brother the one only Noah and my extended family who've all shaped my upbringing especially men who actually flew in all the way from Chicago thank you for listening and remember the extraordinary class of 2023.
so we're hoping for a couple more as as we go through the other side of this is that we are hoping to continue to grow in our biliterate seal we want to make sure that we have the opportunity to to continue to grow not just in English and Spanish but we have the opportunity to to do French Korean German or expanding programs and offering services so that however and wherever you want to learn we want to make sure that we give you that opportunity so a big important part of this is really to look at the long-term English Learners because those are the kids that have been in the program for more than four years and so whatever services and supports we're providing they still need a little more and what that looks like could be a little bit different so right now we're about even in a hard year two percent lower than we were in years past we were at 15 now we're sitting at about 13.7 percent but we have 500 students in this District who have only been enrolled in California three years or less so that takes a little bit of time just imagine learning another language we don't do it overnight so some of our um some of our state testing takes a little bit longer and so it shows you how our English Learners are doing how our reclassified English Learners are doing and are English only so I'll leave it up so that you can look at and you can see how on the other side of this program are reclassified English Learners are actually much closer to standard which really goes to show how much work and effort as they go through this process and the program and they come out of the other side and they redesignate how that's working for our students you can see the same thing in regards to our math even though our math really took a hit this year foreign now in our graduation rates we have 92.1 percent graduated for all students in our district and um wishes went to 86.4 percent which by the way before covet you know those olden times that we kind of don't remember sometimes we were at 83.
at this time could the class of 2023 officer team please come to the stage for the presentation of the class gift s Mr Strow and Dr riccio would you please join us as a class gift the class of 2023 is going to donate a memorial brick at the Kathleen Larkin Memorial Cottage thank you thank you very much we invite our class advisors Miss Grace and Miss Mills to please join us I'll shoot for the stage guys Miss Grace and Miss Mills we would like to thank you on behalf of the class of 2023 for your dedication and hard work to our advisors and our class in appreciation we would like to bring these special gifts to you we truly appreciate everything you've done through us the past four years okay very much thank you class officers to announce the names of the class of 2023 I would like to introduce assistant principals Mr Sean emberly and Ms Jennifer skein parents and guests we ask you to remain seated while we present diplomas are we ready uh Violet Dooley Gwen Steves Anthony Duchene bonfante Caleb Christopher McNair John Joseph buchari IV perfect Michael Robert Pelletier Thomas Stefan politano Nathan Phillip Hammerschmidt legal Ryan Wilfred lavasco Ava Lynn Allaire Tyler James Santiago Allison Ann bicente Mia Margaret now Guido ayanolfo Sharon Jeet core did it right there LeBron Henry Kiefer Foster Clifford Adams Gianna Isabel Nina Aaron Myla Ballard Stephen Joseph adario III Chloe Sage Aiello thank you Emma Virginia Aiello Fatima Newsome alfreji [Music] ations [Music] thank you congratulations Ali Saleem o Connie yeah Jay Patrick Aldrich Jr Layla Alexandra Alex Natalia Marie Almeida Matthias Joseph anderley Ella Karen Anderson Thomas Christopher Ayers Jr Jennifer Julie Baker I'm not sorry my Anna Elena Baker Madison barget foreign ARA Barreto Halen Noel barter Aaron Matthew Bash Alexis and Dede Armani benuardia congratulations Elizabeth Faye Bergman all right it's very quingly Diana Leah Bettencourt Haley Lynn Bettencourt Delia Jane diancardi Emma Rose Blair Noah Robert Blake Ashley Don bodak Joseph Thomas Bono II Anaya booth Amanda borsa Christopher George Bouchard Connor Roger badrow Megan Alyssa Bradley Ian John Breslin October Acadia brisboy Alyssa Nicole Brown Michael Thomas Brown Rebecca Aaron Brown Samantha Elizabeth Brown Michael Robert Burns Cody Thomas Butler Samantha Butterworth Macy Claire cadigan Louisa Abram kaplum rabrielle Stephen carrasquio Austin Robert Cassidy Damien Castro Almonte Mia Bella Rose Caballero Luisa Esperanza chantette Jocelyn Aaliyah chiati Elijah Martin Chanel Audrey Elizabeth chamara Eliza tiadra Christensen Rocco Bose trophy Charles Sager clinch Ava Natalie Cloutier Hayden Eileen Marie Coakley Christina Maria cabozy Joe sway delva cadair you don't know Faith Teresa coffee Nicholas Alexander Coke Ryan Edward Thomas Colbert Ryan Matthew Cole Kayla Marie colon Kiara Elise cologne Sarah Ann culpits Caitlin camo Aiden James Conley Gianna Nicole cook Samantha Marie cook Matthew William fatty Cormier Daniel Robert corente Aiden Broderick Coughlin Evan Michael Cowles Samuel Sturgis Crocker Benjamin James Philip Crosby Megan Riley Crosby Avery Christina Crowe Jessica Lee cruciani Rihanna Marie Cruz Olivia Rose cunha Claire Campbell Curry Nicole cuteone Maria Anna kutone Ivy Renee Dano Megan danjou yesman arulo de Silva Erica Knight dolphin Ashley Nicole Davidson Rex James Davidson Charles Edward William Davis Riley ivelisse de Jesus loose celesti De La Cruz El contra John Salvatore DeFrancesco Joseph Michael DeFrancesco Camden Ward Sutherland thank you Destiny Dana Lee dejarnette Alexandra Aaron Delaney Kyle Manuel depina Jasmine Lily deppen Medrano Duchesne Olivia Catherine Desmond Chelsea Brielle diamond thank you Michaela Lynn Dion Cameron Patrick Doherty Cassidy rain Doherty Haley Nicole bragodis Joelle Loretta dukeshire Alexa Lynn Ebersole Katrina Anya edry Piper and England Julia Marie Ernst Alyssa Sarah espinal Juan Carlos espinal Jr Kyle Anthony espinal Caroline Faith Evans Jada treasure examma George Arthur follow her Maha fazi Christian John Federico Ella Riley Felts Ali Elizabeth Ferguson Giovanni Fernandez Ellie Ferris congratulations Lindsay figuera Mia Sue Finn Ashland Anne-Marie Finnegan hi William Falcons Palin Michael Fortier Justin Daniel Fowler foreign Frazier Sam William Fritz Emma Kathleen frontero Emily Rose Fulton Alana Money Pit Gad boys Donald John Gata Lillian Rose gaglione Ryan James Gagnon thank you Chloe Gallant Barrett Jasper Eduardo gagagillus thank you say namely Garcia Tyler Michael Garland Destiny Michelle Guth Janelle Rita Gaudet I thought I told everybody gothier okay sorry Madison gavini Sophia Angela jamilas satiros George gianellis Samantha Gill Isabella and Gillis I think chicken Jacob Jack gillily Alana Rose gitlin Paige Bella Jeffrey Sophia Elizabeth Gonzalez Abby Marie Gonzalez Lawrence Burke graphio Rihanna Lynn Grant Carolyn Marie Gray Emily May Ying grazella yosarin Esther Guerrero Badillo ruling Elizabeth Gill Max yeah Lucas Darren Gunther Heil James Gustin Logan James garadaro Emma simkia Hammond Joshua Wyatt Keith Juliana Marie Hernandez Benjamin Michael Hepner David Allen Hill Joseph Allen hunulik Colin Edward Holden Gordon Lynn Hopkins foreign Shannon Huber Zachary Lee Hughes Cynthia Patricia hunt Garrett Matthew Hunter John Berta Hunter Christopher Arnold it's Stanley Jacob Jakes Benjamin Raymond Robert janvren Alexis Lillian Rose Johnson and when Hazel Laura Jones taekwon Angelo Jones foreign Maxwell Jordan Luke Edwin Joyce Amaya Leah Cardenas that's right Audrey Catherine Casper Madison Ryan Kaufman William Carey Kiefer Mackenzie Elizabeth Kelly Madison Elizabeth Kelly Drew William Kerr thank you Cameron Paul King siona and King Elena canossian Eliza Bagley Coyle Natalie Marie Kwong Samantha and Lake Murphy Anna Benjamin Roy LeBlanc Delaney Brett LeBlanc Devin Michael LeBron foreign [Music] bloomer congratulations Adele Haven Lopez oh Natalia Jalen Lopez Emily Nicole Lopez Mendez Shaylee Laura Brito all the way Vincent John losey foreign George Lynch Ashley Rose McAdams um Ryan Patrick McDonald Sophia Elizabeth matarisi Kyle Robert Mahan Trinity Antoinette mallet Alexandra Malloy foreign mancanello Ella Grace Manan Helen nabita minnow Brew ery Gavin Michael Marshawn John James Morada Jr William Jose Martins yeah Allen Grace Maxfield Catherine Mary Jean McBurney Jack Dana McBurney Maureen McCarron thank you Mackenzie Joanne McConnell Madeline Clark McDonald her diploma is being awarded by her mother Alice McDonald Molly Allison McLeod Shaylin Nicole medallu Sophia Alexandra meachan Jolena Rosario Melo Botello Camilla melodia Bianca mendezvous Joshua Robert Mercer thank you Curtis Addison Merrell Alex Manaya Griffin Patrick Minnette Olivia mincer Michelle Mandy Olivia Virginia moncini Jacob David Moody through Christopher Steven morency Garrett James moroney Nicole Ann Morse Ty Gainer Moen thank you Neve Marianne murta Allison Lorraine no Mark Anthony nazaro Jr Hate Mary Newman Ty Jaden Nguyen yeah Emma and Nicosia Christopher Edward nachoveli thank you Peter James Norton his diploma is being given to him by his father Jody Norton Ashley Elizabeth O'Brien Riley Margaret O'Brien Liam Thomas O'Connor amen hubby okay Madison Rose O'Keefe Sean Edward O'Keefe Alexandra Grace O'Malley Trevor William Carvalho O'Neal thank you Colin Joseph Robinson O'Reilly his diploma is being given to him by his mother Deborah O'Leary Morgan Lee O'Sullivan place thank you Vanessa Ann odawardi Francesca Lauren Oliveto gentiana almedo ledio oh Mary Benicio otilio Ortiz Jaylene Leoni Ortiz Jennifer rose Otero Otero patliana Lord Elise Paco Roman Joseph Palermo Lillian Rose Palma Alexander Christopher Park really Marie Catherine Parker Samuel Joseph Parker beer Korean parnassa yeah Ally Rose Parr Andrew zato polino Samuel Joseph Poland Ashley Pina Martinez Haley Morgan Peterson Jeffrey L Pike II thank you Andrew Richard Porter Devin Brian potorski Benjamin Henry prietus Mia Lynn Pro Alexander Polito Bobby Anthony Feliciano Gitano repasada yeah Sophia Patricia Raymond Aiden Charles Reed Elizabeth Grace Rio foreign Timothy renick Justin Mark Richards Molina assunta Ricola Haley Christine Roach Taylor Marie robenek Katina Roberts Aspen Rose robichow Avery Catherine Robinson Aiden Christopher Rock Angel Rodriguez Christian Rodriguez Iglesias it's cool great Natasha de Silva Rosario Ashland Teresa Russell Emily rebelo sampaio thank you Isabella Marie Santana Ruby Kate pay new scottsella Marco acidro Sherpa Nicholas Hawthorne Schluter Andrew Joseph shrimp his diploma will be given to him by his Uncle Robert Sullivan Victoria Lee Schroeder foreign and Scott laywa well Dean sergia Lila May Sheriff string Eleanor bariki Xiao Benjamin Joseph sieve Ashley de Souza Silva thank you Emma Robin Sylvia Brennan Michael simsino Giovanna Ann Smith foreign Serenity Smith Nathaniel Edward Sorel INE writer Alexander Southwick s Taylor Nicole Summers AJ David Stanton his diploma will be given by his mother Sarah matusiak Peyton Anthony stavis Jonah Constantine Stevens Kyle Robert Stacia oh Alexandra Marie Stone Amanda Rose stone Madison Bridget Sullivan all right Robert Summit Brian Scott swayzak Nicholas taramina John Anthony James tavano Naomi Tejeda Catherine Ann Thomas Olivia Michelle Tinkham thank you so much Dariana to ribio Bailey Jean trackia Alexandra Elizabeth tremper Peter thesaurus [Applause] Janine Vasquez suacho ajiris Crystal Velez bordelina Ventura Enriquez Sophia Adriana ventrano Glenn Norris Vieira Sarah Gonzalez Vieira Caitlin Erica Wade Elijah Heber Walsh naraz n Juarez Bridget Nancy Weedman thank you Alexia Sophie Welch Morris Hannah wiebe Elizabeth Ray Wilson Ethan Ryan Wilson foreign Rebecca Winston Stephen Thomas werkala Henry George worth Julia Peru Young all right I would now like to invite the class of 2023 president Ryan lovasco to the podium for his Farewell Address all right thank you principal Donnelly so here we are our graduation parents you can finally breathe we made it for all of us this moment is the culmination of the past 13 years of our lives and a fair a final farewell that Harley does that time Justice for some this ceremony comes as a relief as we are able to cast aside the shackles of high school that bound us as we enter the liberty of the adult world Brothers this end comes bittersweet every memory that we have made at high school is caught in an emotional struggle with the Allure of freedom in the adult world and that is exactly what it is the adult world not the real world to say that we have not yet entered the real world to say that everything that we have done over the past 18 years of Our Lives was not real but it did not matter would be a lie we've always been a part of the real world and as a new chapter of Our Lives unfolds before us we cannot help but look to the past to pacify our fear of the unknown and that fear is not unfounded for we graduate under the burden of a Nation we graduate with the weight of the world on our shoulders now more than ever the Earth our country and our community needs us and we shall go forth and answer that call but we will not have to do it alone we take with us everything that we have ever done everyone we have ever met and everything we have ever learned at Essex Tech so there is no reason to be afraid no need to sour this chance lay it out before us with feelings of regret and a longing for the past embrace your future whether it's going to college and earning a degree taking night school classes or going into the workforce for those in our class that are going into the Armed Forces I commend you and thank you for your service the possibilities in life are endless embrace your parents teachers and mentors you are strong enough to withstand the pressures in life because of them but most of all embrace one another we have traveled this journey together and though at this Crossroads every one of us must face a path that lies ahead we can always depend on the love and support of friends we made at Essex Tech but this summer be a testament to that bond with faith in ourselves that we can handle whatever the future may hold and our friends at our side let us enjoy this summer like no other the past four years of our lives have passed in the blink of an eye so take the next three months to slow life down and live it to the fullest do not forget you are only young once this class our peers and Friends sitting beside us as we move our tassels from right to left is really something to be marveled at all with different talents skills abilities I have no doubt in my mind that we will all accomplish great things in our lives as we move forward so use what makes you unique to thrive lean on each other be there for your peers co-workers families people you may not even know believe the difference you want to see thank you Mom and Dad for guiding me from pre-k to now for sitting through all my games grain or shine and whatever else I aspire to do thank you fellow classmates teachers staff and coaches for lessons and memories that myself and many others will take with us as we move on Essex tech class of 2023 it has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your President congratulations everyone rohawks this next part now will the class of 2023 please stand to signify that we have graduated we will now move our tassels from left to right ladies and gentlemen I kindly invite you to stand please join me in congratulating the class of 2023 the 9th graduating class of Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School thank you for joining us this evening to celebrate the graduation of the class of 2023.
so even in all of this uncertainty um California is at 73. we're working on getting towards that 90 percent and making sure that all of our students are able to do what they need to do so the fun part of this I am going to give the mic over to our d-lac rep so that I can talk a little bit about what it is that they have been doing and Miss Silvia Banuelos is going to be translating a um good evening my name is Felipe Hernandez I'm a single parent of two children um if I've spoken or I have spoken with you in the past I mean I don't want to talk about numbers or percentages but rather my personal experience as a parent um in 2010 my first child became kindergarten at Rio Vista school and I see the uh the then director of Rio Vista here so thank you for all your hard work yes [Music] on the first day of school my child not speaking any English was lost he got lost in on campus on his way to the bathroom opportunity foreign but that day I too began my process of learning English classification when he entered the fourth grade he was reclassified foreign I became a parent representative for elac as well as dilac and also and I participated in the process for reclassification within the district um back then the thought of a dual immersion program was just a it was a dream it was a dream back then and now um we're happy to say that beginning this next school year that dream has not become a reality Padre Escuela District through this path and my children being in school I learned to become more involved with the school more involved with their activities and more involved with my children um I know that it is your job um and it's a process throughout the year to go through numbers to go through uh the progress the academic achievement of not just of one student but of all students within the district classes I am grateful that I had the opportunity to be a part of that process of the decision making when it came to the surveys and the needs of our students and that you allowed me to voice uh my opinion in my ideas and you you took them into consideration semana is the Golden State is my son just graduated this year with the sale of biliteracy with the golden state seal as well and um having taken four AP classes his senior year [Applause] less gracias gracias gracias is I can't thank you enough for all of your support um during these years and also we don't know the discussions that you have behind closed doors um the difficult decisions and the signatures that you have to that you have to sign for but um I'm proud of my children but I am more proud of all the support that we have gotten from you sorry not my speech but I get emotional um good evening to uh the members of the board staff that's present all parents and general public that's here tonight good evening my name is serum my name is Marissa Aragon and it is an honor for me to speak uh speak in front of you here tonight um as uh elac and dilac representative Paloma I came to the Apple Valley District as a parent when I enrolled my six my daughter in sixth grade at uh yakaloma Elementary School um [Music] I have three children a 22 year old daughter a 15 year old son who's had his first year at Apple Valley high school and a 13 year old daughter who's going to begin her eighth grade year at Vanguard is [Music] after my sixth grade daughter's initial enrollment at yakaloma my two younger children enrolled or started kindergarten at Vanguard Vanguard prep foreign promoted promoted from Vanguard last year and as stated earlier my um my youngest daughter is going to start her eighth grade year at Vanguard yeah solicitadas por Los Padres Hijos tengan Los recursos neces during my time here I've had the opportunity to participate in several surveys that have been sent out to parents with the intent of uh asking or inquiring what we thought were the needs of our children and what our kids needed what type of resources are children needed primaria pero Vietnam my son my son who just finished ninth grade was reclassified in fourth grade however my daughter who is moving on to 8th grade this year is still in English still identified as an English learner and I'm hopeful that she will reclassify this year mental going back to some of the surveys that had been presented to us in the past I can say that um and I know I can say and I know that some of the results from that have been the addition of bilingual counselors and therapists that have been provided to our uh to our students India these uh this this Personnel was added um before we knew what the code pandemic was going to bring so I'm happy to say that we still continue are still our children still continue to receive these services to this day [Music] escuelas classes some of the other services we have received from the surveys are the addition of or the opening of additional family centers um additional parent education classes as well as the Friday disbursement of um from the food pantry foreign I'd also like to mention some of the uh classes or or courses that have been added um at least for our middle school students such as the AVID program and I believe specifically to Vanguard the AVID program as well as French and Spanish classes and it's my understanding that these courses will also provide our students with college credit when they move on to the university futur and as mentioned earlier by Mr Felipe the addition of the Dual language immersion class which has been a long time coming it's something that we've been uh discussing and asking for for many many years so it's it's wonderful to see that our students are not going to have this additional opportunity for learning is Silvia gracias I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone um everyone who's been involved whether past or present including Miss perine Miss Torres are now director for always uh backing us and supporting us in what we what we felt we needed um and we just want to thank you and we hope to see this program to continue to grow in the future and only get better thank you [Applause] [Music] the the last part of this was really shiz to mention some of the things that we're going to be working on as we go back into our normal every day hopefully knock on wood um next school year we are going to be looking at reaching 85 percent that is where we need to start a hundred percent is where we want to be but it does take time and it does take work and it does take parent support and teacher support and everybody else so we are putting designated and integrated ELD supports in place and more PD and we have a wonderful teacher on assignment on ald that's back with us and we're very happy to have we are finally in four years we have our bilingual pair Educators fully staff so definitely big shout out to HR for being able to do that we have bilingual counselors at each of our high schools we have biliterate clerks to facilitate and make sure that we do have those translations and consistency and make sure that we can get that out there we can do this in 210 languages if necessary so we want to make sure that every single person is included and beyond that I just want to say thank you for for taking the time to to sort of have a review and and give everybody an opportunity thank you foreign didn't translate was that she was also among those thanked in that speech and and she's a deserving of that recognition as well but she's so self-effacing so [Applause] there hasn't been an lcap or District advisory meeting where the district English language advisory committee doesn't show up in force and give their input it's wonderful to have and we can always count on them to ask wonderful questions and really push on those ideas so we appreciate that it's astounding to think of the progress that's been made um I'm going to ask I think I'm the next item should I wait for it to you introduce okay I'll ask Miss Theta Smith to come join me here and we're going to go over some items related to um uh student acceleration of learning so give us just a moment to get connected to the to the um screen there foreign [Music] okay are you ready we're ready you're ready we are ready okay glad you are because I'm not okay so I'm Theta Smith I'm the director of curriculum and instruction and I'm here to talk to you today about what Apple Valley Unified has been doing um to address unfinished learning sorry the micas [Music] so is that it okay so on confronting this challenge our goal is to find ways to accelerate student learning so how do we know what works best there are two main resources that have been guiding our Direction the first is the California collaborative of learning acceleration this is a project whose goal is to support Educators with the task of accelerating student learning in order to mitigate the impact of covid the second is a large body of research called visible learning which seeks to identify what works best to enhance student learning visible learning research measures the impact that certain influences have on student learning these Studies have included over 300 million students from around the world each influence is ranked on a scale that you see here starting in the red some influences have a negative effect on learning an example of this would be bullying things that fall into this category can result in true learning loss then we have developmental effects in the yellow which is the rate of growth in learning that would happen simply because kids grow and mature regardless of whether they are at school or not next in the orange we have teacher effects in the classroom that have an average impact on learning the 0.4 that you see is called the hinge point and it is equivalent to one year's worth of growth finally in the blue you'll see the zone of desired effects these are approaches that we can take that have the potential to significantly accelerate student learning foreign there are four main points that I'll be talking about and how they relate to our District's mission to serve our community with dignity by meeting the unique academic behavioral and social and emotional needs of all students so that they may thrive in an ever-changing world the first topic is addressing unfinished learning versus The Learning loss narrative next we will consider how child Wellness impacts academic success then we'll look at some of the evidence-based instructional strategies we are focusing on and that are proven to accelerate student learning finally we'll look briefly at concentrating on key standards to provide instruction in areas that are most critical for our students achievement first it's important to begin with addressing unfinished learning versus The Learning loss narrative during the last few years we have been bombarded by very negative messages in the media about the long-lasting impact the pandemic will have on student learning and success in school these were actual headlines early on and we continue to hear similar messages look at the quote in green oven 19 and student learning in the U.S the hurt that could last a lifetime that just kind of hurts the heart right there many of these headlines read as if students will never recover from this and we are surrounded by this deficit thinking but we cannot allow the pandemic to Define our students or their potential headlines and labels such as these damage are learners when we label them away such as struggling at risk low confirmation bias can affect the opportunities that we give them we have many students who have unfinished learning and how we perceive them and communicate about them can have an enormous impact on their success evidence shows us that simply by removing those deficit labels we have the potential to accelerate learning by a year and a half just by removing the labels we have to change The Narrative of the learning loss we have to believe in and leverage our students strength so they can truly live up to their potential and begin with the expectations that we hold them we hold for them our students have no less potential than they did prior to the pandemic and I'm going to say that again because it's so important that our students have no less potential than they did prior to the pandemic so in order to accelerate we must first hold our expectations high so that students can reach their full expectation we need to find ways to eliminate labels these are some more positively framed expressions and examples the language we use can have an enormous impact on our mindset which in turn can have a great impact on our students learning when we talk about accelerated learning and addressing unfinished learning we are recognizing our students power to rise to the challenge and finish that learning this thinking aligns with our vision of treating all students with dignity so that they can thrive in order to address unfinished learning we need to meet students where they are take a moment and read this quote to yourself this quote gets to the heart of the difference between two different approaches to addressing unfinished learning remediation versus acceleration remediation is essentially about fixing something that is broken while acceleration addresses the learning you need just before you intend to use it a student may not be reading at grade level but that doesn't mean that they can't think comprehend or discuss ideas at a higher level our students need Equitable access to grade level content with the right support in the past we have sent students to an academic assembly line where they are expected to master standards at a set Pace regardless of their individual needs if they don't fit exactly into this mold we label them as low or behind but they have no less potential to learn than they did pre-pandemic if we try to fit them into this mold we run the risk of seeing them in a deficit light which will have an even greater negative impact on them so we have to stop thinking about our students as being behind they are exactly where they are in their learning evidence from Decades of research shows us that tracking an ability grouping does not work this involves separating students by academic ability into groups for some or all subjects often reducing the rigor of curriculum for these tracks again when we take this approach students are placed in remedial groups and don't have Equitable access to grade level content this can result in them feeling discouraged about themselves as learners however when we take the acceleration approach it is shown to have the potential for a year and a half's worth of growth and I'm going to turn this part over to Pat the second portion of this is don't go too far the second portion of this has to do with attending to the whole child and uh that's because we aren't only attending to learning we have to get Learners ready to learn and so we're going to talk about kind of that portion of it the consideration to accelerate learning means we have to make sure that students are feeling a sense of felt safety a sense of belonging to school and connection then attending to like sort of those higher level learning targets but we know that students during the pandemic did feel um greater stress grief and Trauma um some of the information that we have been uh given from local studies from Dr Powell include things like um the the listed barriers that students are reporting both locally and in the county about how they're feeling about school this is of course not just uh Apple Valley or San Bernardino or even a California problem it's a nationwide issue attending to students uh social emotional needs their sense of connection allows them to come overcome some of those listed targets if we only focus on adding more rigor without attending to their sins of connection to school we won't be able to accelerate and remember this is information from the adverse childhood experiences study for our local area what you see there are some graphs California and green our County in red on the far right and essentially what you're seeing is students who report having one the far left is zero there's there are some students report having zero adverse childhood experiences remember that includes things like childhood trauma like an incarcerated parent drug use in the home poverty in the home um any kind of abuse or neglect and a list of 10 factors in our area children who report one two or three or four or greater is greater than 60 percent which means these children are overcoming trauma now this is a pre-pandemic number and we know the pandemic did nothing but add to that number so what happens again remembering that John Hattie barometer of that visible learning barometer the students who feel any of these listed items they actually have negative effects it not only slows learning down it can reverse it right it can reverse the sense of connection to school their sense of felt safety so attending to these issues means that we can help to reverse those negative effects how do we do that we consider the brain it's important to kind of keep in mind essentially what you know is probably Maslow's hierarchy right first they must feel safe they've got to have that it's why we keep asking that question in our youth truth survey it's why that we ask that parents both of parents staff and students then a sense of belonging that comes second am I loved and cared for at this in this place finally we can address the learning we must attack it in that order we must attend to those needs so once we have those things together here's what we can do that will actually does work remember anything with that 0.4 or greater effect size those influences can have a greater impact so enhancing sense of belonging you hear these students when they come to the podium and they talk about their school and they talk about the things that they love about their school and sometimes those things they talk about are their lessons but sometimes the things they talk about are the things that are extra after school fun things they do field trips they take all the things we do to help them feel connected and belonging and you you can't help but hear the things like Esports something I would never have thought to put in a school on purpose but they absolutely feel connected those are students who maybe would never have done anything else teacher student relationships huge effect size you can see the love the rest so the other things we're doing with safe and civil schools we're attending to all of those social emotional components their sense of connection to school we're making sure they talk about integrity and responsibility there are three main aspects to that actually a group that finished today talking about school-wide attendance issues so we have um classroom management school-wide foundational supports through PBIS type work and then of course you know making sure that we have the capacity to coach and support teachers as they have needs in those areas and we also have social emotional learning teachers on assignment who have not um and they do not add a curriculum they take our current curriculum our current adoption they go through the stories and they find ways for teachers to add into those less into those stories lessons that highlight things that show kindness discipline character traits and the kinds of things that allow students to voice and name emotions and appropriate regulation and so next we're going to talk about some of the instructional strategies once we attend to those that sense of safety and belonging that then do help us to really accelerate learning for all students foreign going to my part okay so key standards and priority content we must focus on on areas that students need to know versus what might just be neat for them to know not everything students missed in previous grades are critical the bulk of time should be spent on standards that will be most important for Student Success in life after school this takes us to the California standards guidance the recommendation is that 70 percent of instructional minutes should be spent on key standards identified in the California standards guidance by focusing deeply on fewer standards we can save time cons by concentrating on those standards that students will truly need for success in life and accelerating learning our district has also provided professional development to each of our school sites related to this document which gives teachers time to identify those key standards and consider instructional implications so along with the key standards literacy plays a critical role of focus some of you may have heard about the science of reading This research has been around for decades I'm pretty old and I think it's even older than me but it has hit the media most recently the science of reading takes into consideration evidence-based practices for a structured literacy program according to the science of reading to meet the requirements of a structural literacy program it must have these five pillars notice that phonological awareness and phonics are the foundation of successful reading we here in Apple Valley have a strong very strong adoption in this area and have offered over a dozen trainings on these topics this last year alone when we were adopting our new well a new language arts program we required at the time that any potential language arts publisher have all of these components and this was prior to the science of reading currently being highlighted in the media so we were on it we just didn't know we were on it but we were really on it we also offer a level literacy Intervention Program known as lli currently we have placed two lli teachers at each of our sites these teachers work with students in small groups and they work with them on comprehension vocabulary and reading strategies here you can see how a structured literacy program aligns clearly with the visible learning research as our district focuses on these components our data shows evidence of growth which you will see in the next slide and I am so excited about because it's really cool so each trimester our students in grades first through eighth grade are required to take the I already diagnostic exam this test is an Adaptive test and it's designed to help teachers help teachers support their students by personalizing their instruction this data truly guides our instruction so what you're looking at on the screen up here is third are current third grade across the district in language arts for the entire school year they just finished taking this test this is fresh data it's maybe about two weeks old you can see that our growth in the green is beginning to increase while the red and yellow for the at-risk are beginning to shrink this is just one grade level the data across the board shows growth this year in both reading and math with our iready diagnostic so the first triangle is that from the beginning of the year and the second triangle is the most recent the end of the year other things that we've been doing is we offer an elop program that stands for Extended Learning opportunities at each of our elementary sites so we have before school and after school activities that we offer with our students we offer support academic support in all subject areas we offer the art music physical education lots of electives and lots of technology so you know that Esports fits in there somewhere we also get support to operate this program from our high school peer tutors I believe we have like 70 something High School peer tutors that go to the elementary sites after school and they work with our students in these programs and they are paid yes and they're trained also [Music] we also get support from of course our Apple Valley staff that we couldn't do anything without and also we have developed a great friendship with the town of Apple Valley who we support them with our ASAP program and their day camps so we've had our students participating in the winter day camps the spring day camps and right now summer day camps as well as having ASAP at our summer school sites okay so when accelerating we must also consider de-implementation this is the process of abandoning existing low value practices we are focusing on skills that students will need in order to thrive when they leave Apple Valley Unified School District the implementation may involve weeding out some things that have been in place for many years but are not as impactful and they are not evidence-based so we are in very different times than we've ever been in before and so our students need some different things approaches we have always used may not work as well or may not be connected to the key standards we can't teach everything and still address unfinished learning but we can and we should remove things that are not critical to Student Success the challenges that we face today will take time but our students truly have every bit as much potential as they have ever had and the approach we take to unfinish learning absolutely makes a difference in their achievement there are any questions [Applause] I do have a question we're ready um I I know that pandemic has caused some havoc in many households and it has also opened the eyes of many households so having said that I do also know that there are so many students who because of pandemic they've accelerated academically they have learned to read ahead of their grade levels and they have also learned to do their math ahead of their grid levels and I know we are talking about uh what we're doing to close the gap but what are we doing for those students who have already exceeded where the Gap is where do we place them what programs do you have available for them we have an ILP process which is an individualized learning program and so we have had a few parents come to us this year whose students were they felt that they needed to be academically challenged and so we take them through this process we meet with them gosh I'm going to say like maybe every other month we'll sit down and we have a team with the teacher the current teacher and then the teacher at the grade level above and the principal and myself I've been a part of a lot of those um I think one of them you know of and we accelerate their learning we challenge them sometimes it's they will go to another classroom we set goals for them when they go to the other classroom they're working at a higher level and we do set goals we check every other month are they Meeting those goals and if they're not Meeting those goals what can we do differently to keep them moving forward because that's what our main goal is I did in the slides I skipped because I went too fast I did want to mention that and it was mentioned at the end that there is of course um intervention programs in the school day some of them though in some places the need is so great that essentially it's a retooling of the entire program because it's all tier one needs now if 80 of the students need a thing that's no longer sort of intervention it's ever it's what everyone needs to do and that's you know really the program adjustment that has to be made but the tutoring after school does exist summer school we should mention there's thousands of students in school today across the district doing you know sort of additional learning that that we provide for them I have one additional question as you all know where I am also a university instructor and I go out to the schools to see teachers in this in their classrooms and the one big thing that I I have noticed along the way is the amount of instructional minutes that I lost due to announcements uh during instructional time do we have anything in place as a district that minimizes the amount of announcements um during instructional time so that the students will get the maximum amount of instructional minutes that is allocated to them we don't have a district policy but a certain something certainly something we can talk to principals about this summer I think we will be talking about it with principles this summer prior to the panda limit and just like everything else that happened after the pandemic people have a memory loss about that and we will bring it back to the table as a reminder that that is disruptive to classroom learning yeah thank you [Music] you want to let the screen go so I can grab it please great thank you I should have worn my glasses okay [Music] no I'm gonna stand back so I can see um thank you Mr bender and board as you'll notice on the agenda later on today there is a public hearing on the proposed budget for next year so this is some information to arm uh yourselves in the public to make any comments or ask any questions either now or during that particular public hearing for next year we utilize a lot of information and putting the budget together for Apple Valley Unified School District including the first point there which is the 2022-23 estimated actuals that's how we that's what we are currently predicting how we're going to end this year um we still have a little bit of this year left but we have a pretty good idea what's going to happen during the month of June so our estimated actuals are just that they are estimated and when we close the books I will be back in front of you in September with what's called unaudited actuals where we will go again over last or this year and update next year's as part of the budget cycle again we use Governor newsom's January budget proposal proposal that may revise the lcff calculator School Services dartboard and of course the common message so in a nutshell this is this year this is our estimated actuals you'll see on the revenue side we're looking at approximately 275 million dollars of Revenue both unrestricted and restricted approximately 278 million dollars on expenditures and transferring out about 1.9 million those transfers out are from fund one to other operating funds in the district so you'll see that does end us with a estimated just under five million dollar deficit so that takes our fund balance from 40 million to about 35 million and then there's some components down there on bottom that make up the ending fund balance a little bit of expenditure detail you'll see of that 278 million dollars in expenditures a little over 80 million is uncertificated salaries that does include both teaching staff and administrative staff as our classified salaries includes both classified bargaining unit employees and classified management employees and you'll see the line items for benefits books Services capital outlay and other outgo totaling 278 million dollars the transfer is out I mentioned you'll see there on the bottom I just wanted to detail that out fund 14 is our deferred maintenance fund we do contribute about six hundred thousand dollars to that each year that money goes towards significant maintenance projects ones that typically aren't funded through our regular routine restricted maintenance fund 11 adult education is requiring a contribution this year this is the first year in a long time we've had to contribute to adulthood it's a great program it serves the community great serves a lot of the community so it's a wonderful investment that we're able to make for uh for our community and of course the 1.2 million for our goes to fund 40 are reserved for Capital outlay that's that RDA Revenue that Redevelopment agency Revenue that tax increment that we get that is only for facilities it comes to us in our fund one we move it over to fund 40.