is that with leaving that 25 or so million in the account for an entire year is that where we're here yes okay so as we're going through I'm curious because if we're going to pay down some of that monies and we're going to get less interest earned what are the pros and cons of keeping a higher balance in our account to earn more interest or paying down in earning less interest so as we're going through if that if you can answer that I would have I would appreciate that so I think that the leadership team here at Gilbert as well as the governing board um has the desire generally and and we have a policy policy DB the diet desire generally that's stated in that policy is that we use the money that we have in any current year for the students that are here in that year so that's a given so with the occurrence of the pandemic we have been a little bit more careful and have have made some other decisions so as an example a year and a half ago we had a policy meeting in the governing board agreed to Target our maintenance and operations fund balance every year to about four percent so given the current Year's total budget four percent represents about 12 million dollars so if you look at our most recent monthly Financial you'll see that our m o budget capacity and actually here the budget balance carry forward for maintenance and operations is expected to be right around 12 million dollars so we are we are targeting that and being successful at targeting it right now um but I think there's so many unknowns that having a little bit of money available to us is a good thing right now but um we have an ability to make different decisions all along as we present our financials to you and and if new needs arise and we want to make a recommendation to you we will absolutely do that okay thank you I appreciate the the carefulness um yeah there is unknown so I was just curious as to if that was a district-wide kind of unspoken policy to leave that amount of money um it's actually not governing board policy even um but it's turned out that way just due to the situation with the pandemic but trying to make sure that you're aware of all the available funds um one thing in in neither the two of you were on the board at this point in time but going into the fiscal 2020-2021 school year we saw a significant decrease in our student count over 2500 students and there had been a commitment made by the governor at that time that he would hold us harmless up to 95 percent of the prior year funding that did not occur and so where we needed about 30 million dollars we only received 15 million dollars and this was prior to the eser monies coming down the pike so at that point in time that 20 million dollars we have in reserve we yeah I mean if you could see how quickly that could be drawn down one I think is um as a declining school district and and that's a negative term to say but it's it's fact and so I think we have to be uh a little conservative when it comes to that because there are so many unknowns and when you're hitting uh sometimes a wall and unexpected things happen just in a school district unexpected things happen sometimes maybe when it comes to what our funding sources will look like and so we've been down this road before in years past and so I think we've learned from some of the things over time and so I'm very happy with where we're at with that it's it's because I guarantee you at some point in time it's gonna it's gonna come home to roost so I've actually said too I think we always talk about the funding our priorities and if we have a lump of lump sum of money somewhere we're going to definitely draw down on that to make sure that the priorities that we talked about with the Strategic operating plan and making sure that our employees have competitive wages we're not going to just leave that there and say yeah sorry we have I can't our yearly budget and ongoing budget doesn't allow for that be you know we're because we're going to keep this aside no we're saying you know what we're drawing that down in the best way that we can but we're going to definitely fund the priorities that we have set out with with those funds until we have to make a different change I guess since yeah that's what I that's my thought too so yeah and that's what we talked about earning interest isn't a priority right correct earning money is not a priority right that's good but but yeah it was but yet having somebody sitting somewhere else when we could have it there earning interest that was a fiscally responsible way to to have and that that is a new experience under Mrs betz we didn't really do a lot of that prior to her arrival so I appreciate her um creative not creativity but innovation in you know using our friends wisely and helping us to have that little bit more well frankly it's just bothers me that we can't earn interest on maintenance and operation so I'm trying all the time to figure out a way to do that but that body along those same lines you did the same thing with our insurance trust that's right so we're actually making money um with the money there as opposed to what was it 8 000 or something a year so it's not just happening in the overall but in other places too but giving us an opportunity to give the premium holidays that you all approved this past spring as well so being responsible but giving it back as well when the opportunities arise so that's what we've been trying to do so when we do have the money that we you know in interest like that we are able to utilize it in a way to benefit the employees which is really nice so the other thing is um so to your question again to Rhonda remember on the last slide we were talking about maintenance operations you all actually made a decision when when you approved the pay increases to draw down fund balance by four and a half million dollars because it was most important to make sure that we were offering competitive salaries to all of our employees so I think that's a really good indicator of what you were talking about Mrs wood [Music] you bet so now as we've shared the budget capacity for industry Capital we need to share our plan spend so these are items that are pretty much regularly ongoing um so adopted curriculum readygen is a big player in the current year there has been a recommendation to prepay the readygen curriculum and then also we are planning I I believe to do a K-12 math adoption during 2024 again planning on utilizing our last learning loss set aside in sr3 to help fund that so that's six million dollars we expect to be spent again another indication of our priorities the school's request a zero-based budgeting process we did decrease that per School the soft cap of that by 50 but still we have sent those out I believe to date and are requesting that our schools make their priority decisions and that's about 2.7 million dollars being allocated out Chromebook and computer refresh at the last two years three years we've been uh two years the last two years we have used unrestricted capital for the Chromebook refresh that prior to that had been funded by the bond so as soon as we were fully funded in the district additional assistance we moved those ongoing costs into industry Capital other allocations athletic equipment in uniforms library books the reading allocation and then district-wide technology and operations these are the for technology in particular particular all of our software subscriptions to Visions which is our enterprise resource planning our payroll HR and finance software as well as our student accounting software Infinite Campus so those are the big hitters on that budget and the other thing I wanted to to remind you is that we had a really rough operations year for unexpected HVAC equipment going out this year and so this three and a half million dollars includes about a million and a half of anticipated those types of issues to occur again in the current year um next year but in the current year it was closer to 3 million so that gives you an idea of why it's important to hold monies into Reserve so that if something does go out we were able to respond quickly to take care of that so miss betz I do have one question on the school requests um you just mentioned that this is about 50 percent less than they've had in the last couple of years we had major needs there is that why it's we're now able to reduce it because they hadn't had this money for a long time so there were a lot of things that had not been addressed Are we more able to address those so they don't need as much I think it was more of a budgetary recommendation not knowing for sure knowing that our Broner last Bond dollars Etc okay so we're starting to to think ahead and plan for the worst and hope for the best okay okay I know that we were gonna they get the one time we didn't eight million we didn't we thought it would be or the increase to the district additional assistance right we didn't anticipate having any increase that's correct and actually our first recommendation to you was not to have to hold off on any allocation until we have more information at the beginning of the school year but because of that eight million dollars of new new one-time money we thought it was actually prudent of us to allocate out that at least some of the prior allocation to our schools so they can address their highest needs that doesn't mean that if a school comes forward and says I desperately need this we have a process within cabinet to address additional requests and we make those decisions almost on a weekly basis as individuals come forward requesting those is the reading Elementary line item is that the I don't remember the name of the curriculum but the the tier two support that we approved as a board a little while ago oh I know this is the AR this is the air they are okay The Accelerated Reader or other programs right so there's there are roughly half of our elementaries have engaged in the accelerated reading program and so the other half are using it for other reading materials uh yeah so that that curriculum where did that come from we already spent it we already it was part of this year's spend for that supplemental reading that we approved it's within the curriculum ongoing unrestricted Capital requests it's in there okay I'm excited that we are supporting those those AR programs because there was a time when we had to allow the ptos to do that so this shows that we are receiving monies and a better able to to fund our needs without relying on fundraising well the same thing with the athletic equipment and uniforms so largely um Mr McDowell has had to fund all those ongoing needs through rental monies through Civic funds so um we are arguably responsible for providing those materials and the kids kids love the AR program I know in my house my son's always excited to tell me what color he is um do we have an account of how many books or words or something like that that was read District wide and involved with the CR program not off the top of my head or that I know your pocket no but that's interesting because I know each school they probably have some sort of how they tout you know oh our students have read you know you know three and a half million words or whatever it is I was just wondering if there was somebody new what district wide what that I don't know your last no I'm just kidding no I don't know but we'll ask around to see if we can come up with a number yeah so I just wanted to note the total here um of monies being allocated out is 18.8 million dollars um which leaves in our minds about eight million dollars in what we would consider normal reserves over time but that 18.84 million does draw down our allocation because it was only 17.7 million again to your point trying to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our organization in an appropriate way can we just take a second and point out you guys notice the little yellow stickies that pop up we just wanted to we got a real kick out of that everybody laughed actually people jumped back so you guys didn't have the same reaction but we're thoroughly impressed Jackie did all those if you want to go back we can reenact it oh let me do that that would be awesome thank you Rhonda I mean it was particularly good to get Sean's attention Mr mcintosh's attention and he was real excited about that okay so other fund budgets we are sharing classroom site fund classroom site fund is a large contributor to our budget balancing this year but note that our allocation has gone up two million dollars year over year but it's almost 30 million dollars so the contribution from classroom site plan is increasing annually and then the interest earnings again because we have been sitting on about 20 million dollars we are able to earn interest and spend the interest in classroom site funds so Medicaid again shared with you the fact that we intend to use about two million dollars of Medicaid so moving maintenance and operations expense into the Medicaid fund they're thereby saving maintenance operations expense you can see our estimated revenue is two million dollars matching ongoing Revenue with ongoing expense a total of about 13.4 million dollars in that fund Community Education we have spent a fair amount of time over the last few years talking about our Enterprise funds where we've gone up and down and up and down and up and down they are in a positive situation right now with a five million dollar fund balance and are expecting to get back to their normal Revenue we are very conservative with the estimated revenue of 10.34 million dollars but keep in mind that the estimated Revenue in revised number two includes the workforce Grant as well as the stabilization grant for Community Schools which has a value of about five million dollars so we are close to that ongoing Revenue though we do expect them to beat the 10.3 million but we're being conservative again nutrition services note the beginning fund balance on the 2024 proposed drawing that down to about 4.4 million dollars largely due to all of the improvements nutrition services has been making to many of our serving lines mostly in our Junior highs and high schools along with a couple of boilers that have gone out some unexpected freezer issues at Desert Ridge High School all those have been replaced also required by the state department we're only allowed to keep three months of operating in our nutrition services fund so this is appropriate so we're watching this closely we are anticipating a significant reduction in Revenue this year as the pandemic and cares act funding wanes however we will know more July 1st when we receive the new USDA reimbursement amounts we don't know whether they're going to be the same or they're going go up a little bit we don't expect them to drop but we will report that to you out as soon as we know it as well and then the learning loss set aside as this was shared with you on our plans for our curriculum adoption for math we included just that budget on the federal funds here as well and then of course we have another 50 different funds out there we don't know what the final spend is going to be we don't necessarily know what the allocations are going to be and we don't know what our budget balance carry forward is so all those are estimated at this time okay any other questions all right back to the Esther 3 learning loss yes just the sr3 in general are are we about will this be the end of that this will be the end of it we have will be done with all user funds we have a few hundred thousand I think left in the Esser yeah regular sr3 um but we we plan on spending that okay thank you is there a deadline a date that we have to have this spent it needs to be spent by September 30th of 2024 so we have another year okay so as an example we had allocated about three million dollars to the to the curriculum adoption in math that leaves us about 750 000 that can be allocated to the fall and spring break intercessions as well as summer school for um summer of 2024 as well so planning ahead on all those expenses also okay anything else on that okay so average teacher salary this is now required on our budget form so it's on the front page and this is something you already know we took the average salary from last year and increased it by three percent to reflect that 68 094 and you can see the increase in average salary of the dollar amount of about 1918 per teacher resulting in a three percent salary increase note that the sixty six thousand one seventy six will not reflect the revised number two average teacher salaries because that included the fifteen hundred dollar one-time stipend but for purposes of this treatment we eliminated the fifteen hundred dollar one time because it's not ongoing so it hasn't it has a an odd effect on this calculation that's not real okay and then risks and opportunities we always share this again the conversation of remember that we're funded on current your student counts we don't we don't even know what our current year student counts is and we're well past the 100th day they're changing every month and we won't know the final until the Statewide recalculation which is cursed generally in early to mid July so we will be sharing those finals with you probably in August also um so um could have a greater loss of students than expected also we don't anticipate this but the budget balance carry forward in our funds could be less generally speaking at this point in time though those are pretty solid in fact it's probable that they will increase when we share with you the AFR in October we expect that the budget balance carry forward will slightly increase based upon our end of year efforts and then use of one-time monies District additional assistance even though it's only 1.2 million dollars that we realized and maybe as much as two million dollars any amount of the use of one-time money for an ongoing expense always presents somewhat of a risk however due to our very favorable fund balances we feel like this is a very good risk for us to to take on and then opportunities however this the opposite can occur so note that we could re we could lose only a hundred students or only 200 students as an example in the current year we projected a 400 student loss we only lost 260 students had an economic game to our budget capacity of over a million of nearly a million dollars during the school year a budget balance carry forward may increase probably will increase and then turnover savings so as as Dr McCord shared about 78 us teachers have opted to retire June 30.
been very successful in keeping students in their home District being able to attend specials and lunch and general education opportunities as appropriate for them at an individual basis it so happens that Berlin has three students that will be in kindergarten next year that need that level of programming and it makes a lot of sense for those students to be able to stay in their home District of course um again have access to their friends and their neighbors and their teachers all of that same access that the students in Boylston have enjoyed so we would like to take a look at the feasibility of adding a Bridges teacher that's the name of the program is Bridges we'd like to take a look at keeping adding a Bridges program to Berlin and you have the space in Berlin because I thought Berlin was like jam-packed it it does revolve it does involve some rearranging our rooms but we can make it work okay it will the other thing is we consider this it will expansion to teach her some additional Staffing and then there'll be a furniture and a lot of equipment it'll be expensive but clearly not nearly as expensive as having kids out right one of the things to add also if that's okay yeah at the end of the budget season we got we were told about some additional students that we got for that are potentially out of District in Berlin this is in relation to that so the funds are there so this goes with that whole plan got it so this would keep them in three of them well known not three of them um not three of that four yeah we can't really go I sit down and talk about two specifically because we could do that like an executive session all right um but just so you know that is part of that yeah the funds that we receive that's part of that plan yeah makes sense that helps so okay yeah I think it makes sense the goals to keep in absolutely and this really would provide us with an opportunity to expand our programming this proposal and this recommendation is based on three students individually there are there are indications that there are other young students perhaps a preschool or or even first grade right in that developmental range that may need access to this type of program as well so developing that capacity helps us to keep students in their hand District which is I think all of our shared goal in these positions these are for vocal tonight yeah so it would be three positions one is one book's the first time so fsp is into a position but it's uh it's a program to touch base on the float nurse and the fsp financially oh yeah because um other piece is that since early 2022 tejanto has had a bright program which is a resiliency program for students it has been a successful program that was presented to school committee a couple of years ago what we're here to ask for tonight is to approve a job description for the academic coordinator and the outset or the start of this program we didn't necessarily recognize the need to have such a distinct job description we've learned a lot in the in the couple of years that this is very much a distinct role this job description describes what the academic coordinator does and so we'd like to be able to approve that in this current school year so we have it in place and that were those were the pieces thank you John Nancy okay so the financial aspect of adding the 0.40 float nurse for two days in the family success partnership um so that would come to a total of 77 964 dollars and we would be adding that statistical year 24 budget to cover the expense what we would do is we would increase our allocation from circuit breaker for that amount to cover an Audi District tuition and then the budget and then the funds that were budgeted for the audit District tuition would cover those items so it's just a yeah you're just moving it or just moving yeah we're just moving funds around so I also um moving funds around but using more of circuit breaker so and I'm going to cover this in a few minutes but part of this is we've received our extraordinary funds from circuit breaker and we were wonderfully received 169 000 so that was great so that kind of helped with this so that's more than we a little bit more than we forecasted and that's where we started the discussion so we got a little bit of extra funds we have some special end needs let's try to get creative um so in your packet you'll see where how we originally forecasted out circuit breaker and where we will be now with this plan if we if it's approved by you where we'll be with circuit breaker so when you approve the fiscal year 24 budget we're forecasted to close circuit breaker out at 305 616 if you could make this approval we'll close circuit breaker out with 227 652 dollars that's with using the extraordinary relief funds in fiscal year 23.
second all those in favor hi hi and I'll just know that Miss um Gibson McLean stepped out to the bathroom but I'm pretty sure she would have been an eye but she's not going to be recorded and that's why oh we were in the middle of a vote would you like to vote on approving Dr Grant as the assistant principal for um Papago effective July 1st 2023.
so depending upon the teachers that are hired to replace them we could realize additional turnover savings meaning that all those incremental cost increases that we're expecting would be less than we expected and so we would have some additional budget flexibility so the other thing I wanted to share the legislature did already approve that in fiscal 2024 the aggregate expenditure limit is already been waived so that means we will not have our standard Springtime deliberations over the potential 50 million dollar reduction in the current year so that's very good news on that front and then in 2023 I wanted to remind you of this again it's an example of opportunities that we have in us in our school system so when we adopted the budget in 2023 again to Mrs Wood's comment we wanted to make sure that we were putting as many as much money as possible into those areas that we are prioritizing and those areas have included pay increases so back a year ago we adopted a budget that included pay increases with an expectation that could draw down just under five million dollars of fund balance because of the Improvement in the student counts because of the Improvement in the budget balance carry forward because of other decisions that we've made along the way during fiscal 2023 we have closed that five million dollar Gap without having to draw down fund balance so we're making a conservative budget with probably arguably as many opportunities as risks associated with the budget so we feel like this is a good proposed budget and it represents an appropriate allocation of resources for Gilbert public schools for next year so finally what is our estimated tax rate based upon the information we have today we are estimating a decrease in our tax rate of about six cents again we will be updating you all once we set the tax rate in July we will update you in that first meeting at the end of July and that's all we have today no no are there any questions any other so this was this is the proposed budget and tonight what we'll vote on later in the meeting is the advertisement of this proposed budget summary and public hearing notice which we have to do by law which then we'll have we'll actually vote on this proposed budget June 20th after we've noticed it and done all these things and we'll have a budget hearing that night as well so I just wanted you guys to know we will see this again and can continue to discuss or have if we have thoughts or questions that that's a possibility as well so is there anything further I just like to think Bonnie and her yes thank you so much thank you Ashley one more thank you before you go appreciate it uh we're making her come on the 20th too by the way are you making her present you should no no we weren't gonna do that though it probably would be good practice for her thank you guys should we get to hear about the opportunity is that sure so she is the new Executive Director of Finance for Levine Elementary School District they're lucky to get you we're still kind of mad about it actually I know thank you all very great thank you very much that will take us to 3.02 review and discussion of governing board Pro statement for the 15 mno override budget continuation ballot question on November 7th 2023 election Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members we have a rough draft before you for a pro statement related to the budget override and just what's has agenda details on our onboard docs the very last sentence talked about an increase from 10 to 15 percent that's incorrect this is a continuation of a 15 so I just want to make sure you guys know that I think you've all had an opportunity to take a look at this Pro statement this the purpose of this is to give some feedback and let us know what if you like it if you want to add delete you can only have up to 200 words in this and so and what we'll do based on discussion tonight we'll bring it back to you on the 20th for approval okay okay I just wanted to start by saying that we are required by law to submit as a board a pro statement when we go out for an overhead so that that's kind of what uh yeah I kind of prompted this so this is with overwrite only for the override for them we're not allowed to for the bond yes and this is just something that will go to the community it's not any any ballot language yeah we'll go in the pamphlet that is sent out to the community yes yep thank you can we see that on the screen because I did read it but um that was yesterday clarify and Sheila's comment that's coming in the pamphlet with before the ballot it will not be in a pamphlet with the ballot is that correct correct yes and if I remember from the last one I might I might not have it will be in the it will be in there it's definitely published in the pamphlet but at the end it's published in the section okay yeah it also can it also can go out to the community prior if I remember correctly the last time we had a little pamphlet I think so that went out prior to the mailer right yeah that's but that's that it was pretty much this yeah Barney's mentioned okay if it comes up before so it's before yes okay please do so Sheila it's before right not not with no it is with or as a part of the pro statement but there is one that goes out before and that would that's not that's just if maybe I'm not remembering it correctly but it seemed like we had something that went out before so there there's a bit well it comes out before and um but it would be similar to this or no this would be in the pamphlet right um along with other community members who want to submit Pro or current statements and then the ballot language will be different right ballot will come by itself with just the ballot language but usually I think it depends sometimes about language can be shortened to say you know the the meaning of this is if you vote Yes it's this and if you don't know it's this there are some some explanations and stuff that's within the pamphlet that we're allowed to add but the pro statement that you all would be deliberating over is is definitely part of the pamphlet it's not part of the ballot it's part of the pamphlet it's an information pamphlet that goes out mid-august so that I think that's the question like when are those go out in this yeah right because I think sometimes with the melon ballot we also get a pamphlet in there like a small sheet or something I can't remember but I can't either I I appreciate you because I thought this was ballot language no it's it's definitely something that's in the pamphlet a little black and white I'm sorry but this is the raw measure this is the one for 2019.
Yep they're in they're in your packet it says financial aspect floating nurse and FSB and just what I also did and if you go to the agenda There's the link there's only just for you guys I did that so maybe you can pull it up that way and then does anyone have any questions on that um a couple of things I just kind of wanted to touch base on um as you know our elevator broke at Berlin Elementary um a little more than a month ago so we decided to submit a claim to our insurance company and we did get rainbows for that claim for eleven thousand dollars Habib and Associates has finished their work at Boylston Elementary the goal is to have the facility assessment given to us by the end of the summer and some good news that our facility director Dan notified me of is that the Boy Scouts have contacted him and they're building a shed for Boylston Elementary so he's really excited because was that for like the toys or stuff for after school I'm not really sure but whatever it is very very excited to store stuff there's yes that's awesome yeah so that's great so that's been built by August so a couple things you'll see for approval you have the three classes for the year the fiscal three fiscal 23 budget that's something that you approve here when all the three classes that I make all year long um you have a list of the Student Activity accounts and their balances that's all the clubs and activities that occurred in fiscal year 23 that your need approval yeah also done every fiscal year yes okay yeah yeah we have been very busy reorganizing the central office and we as I reported in a prior meeting that we kind of got a lot of updated furniture and stuff so now we have some Surplus so um there's a list of surplus items with the central office that we are asking me to please recruit Nick can you explain what that means like are you selling them are you giving up Jessica and I were trying to figure it out giving them away okay I see this they're just actually the stuff that it is yep most of it's yeah yeah it was at the opportunity thank you yeah I think our plan was if I remember right was to kind of gather some stuff this summer put out a posting if you want to come look at it yeah and you can't sell it like do it with it but these aren't items I mean they're like binders and you can manage the eBay listings you might be a possibility selling there's another school district it's really funny that just sent out an email and it was right before I came here and they're they're doing an addition and they said where have you where did you guys buy tents because we need them for our kids for next school year and I replied to her I'm like I have a couple so she's like oh my God it would be so be interested so we're kind of talking so we'll see where at least so we don't need those tents for like field days or the ancestors yeah yeah they're massive they're nice like I think it's 60 by 40 years yeah the guys could even so we'll see where that goes with that yeah yeah uh I put the rates on there from Acid Valley that's a yearly thing that you approve one of the things another thing that I've done this year um you'll see there's an approval of a coffee paper bid for some reason and that's through French River we um this district has always done that with supplies but they've never done it with paper um and the facility director and I were talking about that and I guess the reason was always the storage issue but cost wise it makes sense so a case of paper we're paying right now is 49 in case I went out to bed through WB Mason we can get 33.87 for case next so it's really worth doing this and Dan found room for storage maybe it's because of the shed I'm not sure but um schools we're going to pre-buy the paper and then when the schools need paper we'll take his new facility truck until yeah so that that's in there for Europe um and we are going to be at we are asking the committee to add a 1.0 FTE health teacher to the Berlin Elementary and Boylston schools it will be a position that's .60 for Boylston and 0.4 over Berlin this is also one of those positions that is that our strategic plan and it's book a lot over the budget process so this is being funded why we're eliminating the librarian position in both of the elementary schools that's a total of the one point all FTE has the same split so the library and doodle Doodles duties will be incorporated within the responsibility of the multimedia specialist the multimedia specialist was approved in the fiscal year 24 budget so we included in your packet you have the job description for the multimedia specialist and the health teacher can you so yeah just so I can rephrase so we're getting rid of the librarian position and making it joint with the multimedia position yep so currently in our in in our current budget we have a multimedia specialist position that's been approved you guys approved it in fiscal year 24 budget we also currently have a 0.60 and 0.4 librarian we have eliminated those positions with the funds of those duties we'll go to the multimedia specialist position with the funds of the librarian we would like to hire a health teacher with the same split to the schools did I say it right sure it's the library media specialist the library media specialist isn't a librarian and then some it's somebody who also does Tech attempt Porsche absolutely a tent portion but in a way that teaches digital literacy it's I think Nancy's referring to multimed because they're taking that these people are taking a lot of different pieces to educate the students have classes project-based learning opportunities it ties in with what we already have up at tohonto which is we do have already the library media Specialists we changed that several years ago and given circumstances with us right now this that supported us that opportunity to be in sync with that position and offer our students more opportunity so will the students be able to take out books from the library absolutely will they still have reading done absolutely it's just it's that position and more that position also also offers PD trainings to the teachers and helping them be able to prepare the students in the classroom working on research projects from the youngest ages so that they have a skill set that they come up with in into Middle High School I think it ties in really well with the work we keep talking about portrait of a graduate moving our children forward and moving them getting them ready for the world that they're moving into by expanding this position to make it more while still appreciating the role of the librarian and and appreciating books so that's the role of a lot it's a library media specialist I just wanted to clearly that term sounds more reassuring right I understand but then the other piece is actually if you go back to our three-year plan the health teacher was something we were looking for with this year yes we had to cut that out and when we were making choices about what but now if we can we have this opportunity to have the health teacher I put the job description in there we have needed this help health teacher who probably well definitely as long as I've been here in the elementary level we have looked at social emotional issues somebody trained in this field will work on that as well as physical health nutrition at a young age um and and do that work that was so desperately I need it I feel like you want to add no I just you know and I think it's important to kind of Flesh that out just because when I went to your girl talk about the health teacher I'm Baba health class and the biology of health class and we're deodorant and the other things we all went in the health class mental act as a Blog in elementary school but it's become so much more it really is much more about the social emotional figure it's how to make pregnancy how to deal with conflict it's all of that stuff it's I think it's a huge step forward for us maybe we can add nutrition it is yes [Music] those are the types it's usually on top of it at the Forefront of education yeah for some reason the standards or the Frameworks have remain the same since 1999.
yes congratulations we're so happy to have [Applause] Dr Rhonda is there anything they would like to visit sure I just want to say thank you um it has been a difficult process absolutely to get here but I think it was a good process because um as you know I started my teaching career at papagon and just like everybody else wanted the best candidate to come forward because it's a special place it's a great community so excited it gets to be me and knowing that we have a lot of work to do but it's my community and it's where I want to be so thank you for approving this congratulations okay that brings us over to nine a um which is the approval of the guaranteed maximum price GMP for the bond funded rebuild of Kennedy School I do have two public comments to this agenda item so I will be calling both of you first um if you whenever you come to the mic just state your name and address I mean um well just your name you don't have to give me your address I was reading the back of the card and you will have three minutes so first we have Brian Kennedy thank you so much for being here with us tonight thank you I am from a sustainable living community nearby called the Enchanted Forest and I'm here to help advocate for the trees and the children for a better future um I specifically wanted to talk about the the planned Estuary area there was a lot of concerns during our last meeting uh that it wasn't realistic with the the biology and Ecology of the desert environment um and so I Drew up some alternative plans because there were no alternative plans and this is just done on the fly but I do have I do have some some drawing skills I think um so essentially um I believe the whole area should be um turned into one irrigation Zone um and with a water catch because if you're going to have a massive water storage you can't have it just exposed because it's not a sustainable system you'll you're not going to just be able to create a bog out of nowhere but we can benefit from having a a top to bottom spiral or or stairs that that lead down to an area that is catching the water and this will be a different bio biology um Zone where we'll be able to grow trees that aren't normally grown in Phoenix but um you know this this is already being done in parts of Phoenix so we know that this is doable um also the the huge issue with um a pond of that sort uh in the long term is also the biomass buildup so you're going to have algae and animals and and plants that are actually building up that will need to be mucked out and and I I never really saw a long-term uh plan that didn't involve some some massive uh overhaul every so often and that would completely mind you reset parts of your biological experiment you know it's it's it's a an estuary uh for for showing turtles or or I don't know what kind of other experiments they want to do with it but if you have to scoop it to clean biomass then you're you're resetting everything you're actually hurting it but it's it's a it's a very difficult balance to keep something like that going in some place it's not supposed to be and so I'm I'm just saying that we have um much cheaper solutions that actually offer a different type of gardening experience um and and these plans aren't just off of nothing they they're actually other other scientists and organizations that are are doing things like this so essentially you create a three minute went up I'm gonna let you just wrap up your last sentence that's fine it's just a big funnel that creates a water catch and this is the the benefit of it and and you have stairs for growing that spiral down and a walking path along those those growing areas I have a question for you so is there something specific that you saw in the plans um that you think are are not going to work out and this is why you I see the water feature specifically as being more of a selling of a postcard idea than something that's actually long-term feasible or something that we want to teach our children because we want to teach our children to biologically improve things in an area restore but in a feasible way right and in a way that that isn't going to to set back people in the future we need something that's sustainable right and going to to not cost huge amounts of money in the future okay there's a wetland yeah please question um I'm sorry I had to step out for a moment what's your name Brian Kennedy and where do you live in the district yes I'm from the Enchanted Forest okay where's that 32nd and Thomas okay um so basically what you're describing is like a small Salton Sea type of situation where it just evaporates the way we currently are proposing it right the way we're currently proposing it um it is going to be just like the other ponds around the city now those ponds weren't built to be uh wildlife sanctuaries they actually have to be restocked with fish not for any other reason then it's not long-term sustainable for fish you know those ponds require a significant amount of resources because they're poorly planned um water surface actually on evaporation only cools the water efficiently it doesn't actually provide cooling for the air above very much at all as opposed to if we have layers of canopy provided by trees which my whole funnelite concept is actually about helping create a three-tier system of growing that has total canopy coverage eventually um trees naturally diffuse light cut down on Heat and the evaporation is helping everything in the environment it actually creates its own separate micro environment do we have any other questions or comments I appreciate this information because I took a a special class that was a cohort it's called Urban heat leadership and we talk about and it's done by the nature conservative conservancy and they talk about you know heat mitigation and tree planting and there is a lot more than just the surface of building upon throwing water and hoping that it sustains itself so I appreciate you bringing this to light I I know that there's a lot more and I'm glad that our project managers are here because we're going to be asking them questions of what organizations where they're getting this information and hold them a little bit more accountable to what studies they have actually done to make sure that if we're going to create this type of space it's actually sustainable and we're not just adding on to the drought that we already have yeah I'd love to come back and talk more any other time okay and just I just wanted to make a comment hopefully that's reassuring but I know Mr Mann is working closely with um Creighton Community Foundation which has a extensive Garden knowledge and working on some aquaponics Solutions and um water cisterns like underground so um so we are working with those guys so um thing but I really appreciate you bringing uh this info we talked about the water cisterns before it's like Planet Doom we gotta think differently out here thank you very much thank you just as an additional piece of information because um what he was referring to is the Wetland area part of the plans um which at the last Community Forum like there were several people who had concerns about it and I just wanted to point out um and all of this is on board docs so everybody can look through it but when we actually get to the item um to discuss for approval tonight the Wetland area is actually an alternate that's not included in the GMP we're voting on tonight okay just for transparency sake and clarity that's what I was looking for I was like I didn't think okay thank you all right that brings us to our other public comment on this item Jessie giambra foreign thank you madam president I wanted to speak to this item because I mean everyone is really excited I think about the new school and um I fully support the Outdoor Learning concept I'm excited about it and I was at the community input session and one I noticed a few things I really like a lot of the ideas but basically I just kind of want to know like what is the community process going to be for the co-construction of the different phases moving forward because I know that um there were there seemed like a lot of a lot of really good Community input and I felt that this has been to my knowledge the only Community input Forum since covid um I was part of one that was online and this is the the next one that I had heard about and I know there were a few community members who had said we were part of the community groups that but then we never heard back from anyone since covid and so they you know wanted to be part of it and so as a teacher there were a lot of things I like that I noticed that um you know for example we talked about the Outdoor Learning Court we are when we were there and I was informed that you know this is meant to be a specific learning space and I just kind of noticed that it didn't really feel like a classroom space with like surfaces places to write like a circle meeting area and like kid-friendly Landscaping like things like a lot of gravel or tiny rocks and plants and so just little things where I was like well I really hope that we can be part of this so I guess what I'm interested in is just what is going to be the process for Community input to actually make a difference moving forward and to see what types of updates have been made since that Community Forum um and then I think just some things about the ins well mainly the the inside there were like just some ideas like I didn't see a library or Studio spaces and then with the outside um I was a little concerned when I saw the Garden area because I saw what I saw was a lot of concrete and I was like oh no I would never want to have to like Jackhammer up something later you know like so we need to make sure that the people were are actually working there are really going to be part of the planning as much as possible which I really respect the Architects and the vision and I know they do have a lot of expertise so I'm not many meaning to be like negative about it at all but I do also at the same time I would like to work there I'd like to send my own kids there so I just really feel invested in making sure that like honestly it's like easier to work with dirt than it is to work with concrete so I just kind of want to know about the process for Community being part of the discussions um not only now but also along the way so thank you so much thank you do we have any questions or comments no I just um I think it is really you know I think the there was input on kind of the overall vision and direction and you know what we were going for um but I agree that now it's like okay well now there's this very specific area and what do we want that to look like and there are some really cool ideas that came out of um the community input forum and I I would like to continue to see more of those as it's like some of those kind of I don't want to say hotly debated but you know the areas of the plan especially the ones that aren't going to be covered right away I think that leaves us some really amazing opportunities to continue to bring the community in and kind of hammer out those details there were some great ideas um that were brought up about you know kind of Unfinished areas and and the school having um kind of like the what is Awakening seeds and um so I think continuing that process on these areas that are not yet fully committed to and developed Miss Gianna thank you for just your um continued comments and you know support of the um District um I was out of town for that meeting um and I understand you rallied some folks to to get there I appreciate that too and I did watch the meeting um although it was a little bit hard to hear um on the YouTube channel just feedback um for um it um but it felt like not a new meeting it was except for the community was that was there but it was basically a rehash of what we did at our study session I don't think we've I still don't think we've done enough because um because exactly what you're saying so that's concerning for me too thank you so much thank you too I don't know if I have any time in my three minutes um but I as far as the implementation of the learning programs too I think I don't know what to say about it other than it has to be part of the groundwork and I know that you can't know now who's going to be working there um but it should be influenced and co-created at the same time and I think like the amount that we're supporting our Gardens now is still really dependent on a lot of volunteer work um and if we're going to be having an outdoor learning school it's going to take um so much vision and so much energy um so yeah I'm just looking for I guess the reassurance in the organization of that moving forward so we can all feel excited and positive about it and like we're really going to get the most out of this experience so thank you thank you yes I appreciate it thank you so much um that concludes our public comments to this so I'll turn it over to whoever is going to leave this conversation we have representatives from Facilities Management Group with us this evening as well as Chase Building team of course my voice would go away right at this moment and what'll Gilmore Architects um so I am I'm going to turn it over to Tammy Caraway from Facilities Management Group kind of give us a walk through of some of the overall budget um following our resolution of whatever we're under attack by I think we have a roach so we're going to take a short recess until until it's cleared so we have no distractions I'm petrified okay what's this hello oh there it goes thank you all right back in session so um I'm going to turn it over to Tammy Caraway from Facilities Management Group barring any other invasions of our meeting to walk us through an overview of the upcoming project the irony in all of this is of course we're trying to build a campus that gets us closer to Nature and then when there'll be more bugs visit us um you know that that created this slight pause in our in our regularly scheduled approach thank you so much thank you and good evening Madam president members of the governing board I am very delighted to be here it's been a while since I last saw you a month six weeks ago but I am Tammy Caraway with a facility Management Group and as you are well aware uh we are your District representative with the design build construction team so uh we have your best interests at heart um I will tell you that we have reviewed all the documents that you have in your board package as well as a significant amount of documents that got us to this point so we've reviewed everything and we believe that everything meets or exceeds the expectations of the district um I actually am happy to hear community members here and making comments um because I'll I'll share something in a minute that I think will indicate that there are still things yet to tweak there's there's still some open books some chapters to or at least a few pages to be written um but the design and construction team of Weddell Gilmore and Chase Building team have uh completed the bid documents and taken all bids by pre pre-qualified bidders uh to reach the guaranteed maximum price so that is the GMP that we refer to um the document that you you have a couple different documents one identifies the GMP for building and grounds as well as adjacent ways you also have what we consider an overall project budget and that's a key element that budget those budget numbers are just what they they say they are we we have a fixed GMP to fix GMP numbers but that budget will fluctuate fluctuate and flex a little bit during the process and the reason for that is because we don't have all of our furniture identified yet we don't have all of our kitchen equipment selected yet it's all identified but we are working with food service to identify exactly what is needed in the way of non-permanent kitchen equipment so those numbers sit outside of those GMP numbers which are provided and those are listed under things like other services or miscellaneous I.T so there's a number of different light items just like your household budget that we track um so addressing some of the if I may just some of the public comments that like I say there are areas where we are still making selections and there will still be continuing input uh all and we are also working to when the subcontracts are bought out those will we should see some Savings in some areas hopefully we know construction prices fluctuate a lot right now but that's that is one of the areas that we could see some some buy down in we also have other areas for contingencies that can be released at different points and then the the district working with us are very actively seeking grants we've submitted for a water conservation Grant we I know there was a meeting to discuss being trees donated with I believe the Arizona sustainability Council Alliance sorry yes Alliance uh and uh we also in the GMP one of the things that we've already garnered is a Sports Court donation that is the actual slab of the court and ideally or not ideally but it was really nice to see that that Court actually increased in size slightly so that that is a donated item that is reflected in the GMP so we're we're constantly seeking funds and moving funds so that we can take advantage of the grants donations and anything else that we may have so with that I will answer any questions and as mentioned we have uh representatives from both Chase Building team and model Gilmore here thank you um do we have any questions or comments different areas so I don't want to take I don't want to I can't ask all my questions at the moment because I want to let people kind of do the areas but I have a question about um in the beginning agree to talk about the first please go ahead and move on to the other concerns I guess sure yeah well I just once I guess about the bitter list um I think um that I was the only governing board that gave Mr Mann feedback um uh about subcontractors and if we had preferences for um women-owned business minority-owned business um locally owned companies do you remember that Sophia you were not at that meeting so I'm not I wasn't at that meeting but I remember that okay so is what you're talking about yeah um at the study session yeah it was the studies we were sitting down here at this table we also talked about it I thought at the meeting that that I would we talked about it um like two years ago when we approved the first approval of Chase for this building I think it was like two years ago so can you just go through that document about there's a percentage of um locally owned businesses that we have Incorporated based on kind of the board's desires I don't know which document that is and the bitter list I think it was just I don't think it's I think the information they gave us is the the businesses identified as what we were looking for not necessarily that we picked out of that like seven people who were small women business enterprises um put in a bid okay and so what what was missing here I thought was um uh Union based shops if that is a If That Matters to anyone it does speaking for myself and also like I mean at the end of the day cool there's a lot of bitters but what did we end up with as far as people who actually secured on Subs in terms of like their representation here I guess I can cler um and I'm gonna speak up on this I guess um since you guys um do the negotiating for us and everything what efforts have you done to to align your Partnerships to what the governing board has requested into those like how how's that played out how have you searched out intentionally these type of things that we want for the go okay um well as far as preferential there is not a statute that I am aware of I could be misspeaking but there's not a statute that I'm aware of that that does require that for this type of project it doesn't but it was a sentiment of the board yes as a whole and it was told two years ago to whoever was here and I believe both of you were present here that day and it was a sentiment in the direction of the board yes yes and so what steps have you guys done to follow that sentiment of the board I think that probably would be best answered by Chase Building team thanks Madam president members of the board thank you so much for having us we're super excited about this pro project and just everything that's occurred over the last uh a little over a year now as you mentioned uh but as far as it goes to uh Union um you know basically just kind of recapping on what what happened uh since our last board study session we went out to over 334 bidders that were really local to Arizona some of them do have a national presence but all of them are really local to Arizona and the Phoenix Market as a whole um as far as kind of the designations whether Union or minority designations um we we kind of always do that first filter of safety quality and then the value that's going to be provided uh kind of as Tammy mentioned not too are aware that is a union requirement but certainly something if it's a sentiment of the board to be able to provide that's something that we want to look at as far as where we're at in terms of soliciting these and actually saying that commitment to these trade Partners none of these have uh official commitments to this project so this is certainly something that we want to discuss with is why we really provided an abundance of information here and what you see is 109 bidders submitted on this out of the 334 so we can certainly go through that bitter list and uh identify which ones maybe do have a union presence I know sometimes the elevator companies do have a union presence along with fire alarm different trades so certainly if that's a lens that we want to go through and really take a fine fine-tooth comb we would love to do that further at this point we haven't committed to any because we we haven't really been able to at this point so that's where we kind of stand as a union does that answer your question it does and I appreciate that and I just think that overall even if you guys are just an Architecture Firm or if you're just doing these things we want to be intentional with everything we do in our district and we're building those Partnerships with unions that leads and operates you know networking it opens opportunities for not only our students but for our parents into trade school and having those relationships in place is vital to what our community this and what we believe as a district so that should be I mean for me that would be high priority other members can speak for themselves but um I think it's really important that we're seeking out those type of Partnerships certainly I mean obviously I'm live in the house I grew up in I'm from this community for many decades now it's been a blue-collar community lots of folks who are union members and in the trades and my dad was a team Sergeant sheet metal worker my my uncles were Sheet Metal Workers my grandfather was a steel worker I completely value the idea that we are valuing labor and we're hopefully employing folks for this undertaking that live in our community as well hopefully that there's some reach there and so that would be definitely a plus for me and my intention in trying to um be intentional in in the big picture of how how we undertake things in this District any further comments on that specific notion um not just that I'll triple down on I think you know the next step before committing is that we do want to look at who are union based you know who are the small business who are local to our community and and to Echo and to add to that I think the union focus is great and like given the makeup of our community I would also love to see us having like minority and minority contractors involved in this project as well yeah certainly we love to do kind of analysis on that that selection once we get to that point with your approval here tonight um okay the other question that I have is um what efforts have you guys done to negotiate these prices as Representatives as our district I would hope that anything that's going over the bond I mean it looks like it's two two million dollars roughly um what have you done in our name to negotiate those prices because I know those can I understand that change orders and that kind of stuff happens especially because we've delayed it for so long I I get that construction and materials are a little out of hand but I want to know what exactly you guys steps have you guys done to Niger can negotiate those prices versus the grants I already heard that piece but what other steps or efforts have you guys done yeah absolutely so it really begins with us making sure that we get a healthy participation in the project you know that's the best thing that we can be doing here in the community is making sure that there's big participation around this project and uh as we mentioned before and even around the teachers you know there's quite a bit of a demand for that labor pool out there and we're happy to say that over a hundred bidders that submitted on the project is is there's a lot of competition around that so the best thing that we can do is make sure that we have a sufficient number of bids to be able to actually compare off of and then start to go through our process right the first thing is going to be based on that safety Factor right so we're always going to be examining we believe that that bitter list that you see which is kind of the Consolidated one here the ones that actually submitted are all going to be qualified on the safety uh and that quality side so it really comes down to us doing our analysis to making sure that we're looking through these plans to quantity takeoffs using technology to really make sure that we have an understanding uh that these are complete bids right because we are not going to come back to this board and ask for change orders as part of this project this is a guaranteed maximum on price and so to do so we need to make sure that we've got it very thoroughly so and that happens in basically our own analysis fmg's analysis what a Gilmore's analysis and making sure that we have the correct quantities and then also comparing all those trade partner proposals to make sure that they're even so that we're not getting major misses along the way the best thing that we can do as I mentioned is just have that uh you know participation to make sure that we have good comparisons to compare off of and uh you know we're happy to see on multiple of the major major trade line items uh six six bids which is is pretty remarkable you know it's been hard to get a lot of Labor as you as you know here in the market especially local so we had great participation and we feel like we were able to vet it to a degree that provides the best value for the district any follow-up questions or comments on that um I mean just like kind of going back to being when we first started out with this Bond and looking at it and I was pleased to see the GMP coming in under um the oops sorry I just had it pulled up now it's gone um so coming you know very close to the to the 20 000 when we looked at this like five six six years ago seven maybe even when we initially um we were aiming for around twenty thousand and so for it to for the GMP to be this close when you take into account uh or yeah a million not a thousand um um for it to be that close I just I'm very grateful for that because not only we had seven years of inflation but we've also had a pandemic um and a lot of other variables in there so I was pleased to see these numbers I was a little terrified at first before I opened everything so it's not really under it's it's 21 900 million and then we have a list of items that will be left out because we can't afford to do them and I'm not sure what this list adds up we don't have a total but um it's I know I was saying from like our like when we first got the bond and I was on the committee and we were aiming for a general like 20 million I was saying I was very pleased to see it that close to that with everything that's happened I think but I think what we're what we're saying is this price tonight is for section A So eventually in the long term it's going to cost a lot more than yeah if I may chime in on that you know one of the things that we found you know that's unique to this site which is actually a real benefit too is we share the site with the compass center as well so there's really two different entities on this site that's sharing it so it makes it a lot larger than a typical uh site may be in itself um so that's where we really kind of focus on the critical features um certainly nothing that's lacking in the features that's provided in this design and really the you know you mentioned the budget and it was certainly challenging to be able to reach this especially in today's environment and the inflation but one of the the amazing things of Weddell Gilmore and the team and really the community input was is we decided to place these buildings in the former footprint of the past campus and what that allowed us to do is to be able to maintain those fields areas which have beautiful trees Lush grass great Landscaping in place that allowed us to really reuse that save the money's there and make sure that we can focus in on the building the parking lot the infrastructure um and the queuing that's going to happen on this new side area so certainly as those new grants come along there's a lot of really cool features that we wanted to make sure that we price and got the market analysis on when it comes to price to make sure that we know what those would cost as we're hunting for you know grants and opportunities but as far as the actual campus goes it's kind of unique where we're sharing it with a couple different entities right now and can we get some clarification on because my understanding is there's a decent amount of opportunities for these alternate items through grants like we already have potentials yeah I bet um if I could there's I think there's four different ways that we're looking at um attacking the alternate items and if the team would please correct me if I misrepresent any of this so the first one is if you look in the GMP there's a fairly healthy um contingency fund and the contingency fund is there for those things that you can't anticipate like let's say all of a sudden block doubles in price and you know we've tried to plan for what we would expect increases to be but you know something that's unexpected happens so those dollars are there in order to handle those contingencies that the problems you run into on a job site that you might not have anticipated if we don't run into those problems then those contingency dollars are still part of this project and they can be reallocated based on the prioritization of you know the the team that's working on the design to determine you know what can we add back in based on having those dollars available so that's that's one of the areas another related area is and I think um Tammy referenced this earlier you know we're trying to get the best price we can with the best knowledge of what's going to happen and there are times when things cost more but there are also times when things cost less so the hope is if something is able to come in under budget then those dollars would be added to that contingency fund and would also be able to be used to capture some of those alternates the other the other places that of course we're looking and Tammy mentioned this earlier is any place that we can gather grants or donations um and you know as she mentioned the donation that came to us for that slab for the sport court is an amazing partnership because it is a woman engineer who's working on her doctorate who lives in our community and her doctoral work is on how these slabs cure and what happens to these slabs in that curing process I'm probably butchering the technical nature of it but all of and this is and I'm going to say too much and I apologies but it's so cool and I'm such a geek but um all of the data that is used in Arizona right now is based on Texas because no one's ever done this research in Arizona and so someone who lives in our community not only someone who's living in our community but I think our board president referenced a powerful woman we have just approved for our assistant principal a powerful woman in our community who's getting her doctorate in engineering is going to do that study and that work on our campus and as a result of that we're going to have a sport court that that concrete is going to cost the district nothing and it's of a larger size than what we would have been able to provide under under the rest of the estimate so those those are the type and that came from the community it came through that person meeting Mindy Zapata or Noemi Zapata from our Head Start partnership and so you know this is where we really want things to come from Miss mcsheffrey mentioned earlier we're of course working closely with the Community Foundation as well and some of the things that they're doing with gardening in the community and a number of other partners so um I don't know that that will get us to being able to do all of these things but I will also tell you that staff has approached me and said but if there's an item on this list that's over a million dollars a staff member come to me and say yeah we've done this before with other projects and I have a better way we can do it and it's you know we don't need to do all of this we can end up with a better result doing it ourselves in a different way so that's not an excuse for the fact that these things don't fit in our budget and then the last thing is we've heard from our community tonight there may be elements like that zone B that the way that they're currently designed you know Mr Weddle may be able to address all those concerns and explain why that is a very valid way to do it and everybody may agree to that we might want to find a way to do it that way or we might want to make adjustments to that portion of the project and that may have impacts on what we do moving forward as well so this may not everything may not be put in place exactly as we see it today even though it's an amazing design fine because as people start to work and live in the site they may determine that there's things that they have a greater desire for than what we have currently planned but what a per what is approved tonight and what will be solidified are the plans for Section a correct so so if if the GMP is approved this evening it would be for that work on Section A it could potentially include some of those other items if the budgetary capacity um you know remains because of things like cost under runs or the contingency funds now I guess then regarding subsection is Phase a specifically I'm curious I have not I have yet to hear and maybe I missed it but what the interior of these buildings the plan for them is is this a concept that looks like Creighton Academy is it traditional classrooms also why no library or Tech Studios as we heard tonight also the courtyard concerns were any actual classroom teachers consulted in that area and how it would logistically and practically work for a teacher who's trying to utilize it well I'm actually gonna I would love to stab at those answers but I have someone who will give you a better answers Madam president members of the board uh happy to be with you tonight my name is Philip wattle with Weddell Gilmore Architects um so an answer to your question about what's included in zone a it does include the full build out of the school both exterior and interior and we've been working not only with the design committee which includes faculty staff community members but we've also worked with Creighton's Kid Academy kind of going through different ideas as well as several uh Community meetings so the interior of the school does include full build out under this GMP budget in the zone a it does include a library in media that is part of that budget uh it does include steam Labs Art Labs music Labs so I believe it has all of the lab spaces that we were talking about is that in building a or that is all in a there's nothing in it the one thing I guess I would like to kind of frame what's in a and what's not because we've been working very collaboratively with the district with fmg and Chase Building oh no I meant specifically in building a b or c not phase a are is the library because it's not on here that's why I'm asking the library is all the things no no there's building a b and c in Phase a and I'm asking where is the library building a b or c okay I'm just asking because it wasn't on here and I think that's why it opens to a patio okay cool so yeah all of those are included in within the GMP in zone a and I think strategically we really tried to look at Zone a as what are the kind of critical components for this school when it opens to be able to be fully functional and operational and achieve the vision of indoor outdoor education and that educational Courtyard and the build out of all the interior spaces are absolutely critical to that so none of that has been cut as a part of the effort to try to maintain that 22 million dollar bond fund the things that have been treated as alternates are essentially the elements on the Northern portion of the site which we feel like particularly based on some of the community feedback we've received that that's actually an opportunity for us to have more time to kind of integrate more Community feedback into that and to allow those areas to evolve over time going forward I guess then to reiterate my questions specifically to phase a what is the I guess I'll do them one at a time what is the interior of these buildings look like what is the concept physically speaking are they open classrooms it's something like Creighton Academy or is it a traditional classroom looking situation they are not open classroom like Creighton Academy they are more closed classroom and part of the driver for that is that we have classrooms that are exterior circulation that open directly onto the courtyard so whereas in Creighton Academy the breakout space was an interior Atrium space within the middle of the building our kind of heart of the school is the Outdoor Learning Courtyard and so we have classroom spaces that open directly into that space to allow for that indoor outdoor education and then um kind of going off that to other sub questions one is what do those openings are there lots of Windows facing that courtyard do the are the doors like with Windows or I guess how is this going to look in terms of if we're going to be opening to there are the kids going to be able to kind of see that the courtyard during we do have Windows that open to the Courtyard the doors also have glass in them um having views to Nature we feel is a really important component of this school given its Mission while also trying to do that and protect from direct sun so we're trying to find ways to shade that but also provide direct views to landscape into the courtyard so that you so that teachers can supervise what's going on if they have students that are working outdoors and indoors it gives them the ability to be able to kind of have visual contact and continue to be able to supervise thank you so much and also we heard from Miss giambra during public comment some concerns about the courtyard in terms of its practicality and logistically speaking the use for an actual classroom teacher I don't know if I can adequately reiterate what your concerns were but it sounded like maybe practically speaking it didn't sound like the best option and I'm wondering what if anything from that very last Community Forum we have has been taken in and possibly implemented in this or if nothing I guess has kind of changed with regards to this so from the last Community Forum we were actually uh already well into kind of pricing and bidding the project so no changes have been made since then that doesn't mean that we can't evaluate changes going forward I will say that we have five Outdoor Learning environments within that Central Courtyard and they do provide different scales of spaces and different Furniture configurations so we do believe that there is opportunity for Outdoor Learning in those spaces and that it could accommodate that but that's certainly something that we can review with the District staff and other team members as we're going forward and if we need to make adjustments there are certainly opportunity for that that will be one of the last things to be constructed on the project so we have a little bit of time on that if we need to make adjustments going forward yeah like just on that vein I know there are teachers on the design committee but I think as it comes down to like planning the details of that specific space I would like if the district pulled in some teachers who are not currently on it but who maybe are already using some out because some of our schools have in the past or still do have some kind of outdoor classrooms and so I think it'd be good to figure out who those teachers are who have experience with that or maybe teachers who have had experience of that in other districts and bring them in um for some feedback on kind of all those little nuances of the space like the concept itself is great I think it's all those little tweaks on what do the little mini species within that look like design from the design team's perspective we 100 agree with you and and those kind of Lessons Learned are incredibly valuable for us going forward to make sure that we hit it correctly um so we would welcome and appreciate that input um I know we have a partner for school and we are also possibly exploring another skating partner for the district as well I know they are at the community Forum what's the feasibility of like skate feasibility in this area [Laughter] suggestion would be to talk to your insurance carrier because that there is a liability um just just like you know so many things can be associated with the school so that would be the the first you know suggestion would be to discuss that but having said that if that if there's a desire for that and if you have something that's already working on another campus then yeah by all means okay yeah and we've we have partnered with skate after school several times we do work closely with the trust to make certain that whatever that partnership is that all the liability insurance is in place um I think one of the things I've learned about the skate after school folks is they're very creative about what kinds of spaces I'm sure the other partner is as well so one of the things we need to do we had them very early on in the process and somewhere along the line we lost the we kind of missed a step in making sure that they attended Downstream meetings so we really just need to get them back to the table and have them look at things and then give us some feedback and they also um very often come with grants themselves to add components and so um that may be another opportunity to help enhance some of the other spaces one of the reasons we like working with Weddell Gilmore is they are very creative about like is there a way if they can bring a grant and create some spaces that would work for skateboarding can we place them in such a way that they also act as some of the swales that we want on the campus to do water retention capture and help with xeriscaping and some of those types of things so um definitely a partnership after our our Forum it came up as well this was a hiccup on our part and we need to reclose that Loop and make sure we re-engage that partner um sure sorry one last one and I'll open it back up but after our Esther presentation when I saw what happened over the years with the Esser committee my question then is who's on the design committee how big is it when's the last time they met has it dwindled is there enough voice on that Committee in a varied voice what's going on with the design committee yeah so I will take a stab and I don't have all the exact numbers in front of it yeah clearly so generally yeah anything I say take with a grain of salt but none of it to represent we have had several permutations of this design committee some of this work was done pre-pandemic rolling into pandemic and the numbers have ranged anywhere I think the largest we ever had was we have about 35 people for one of the meetings that included like external Partners teachers staff a lot of Kennedy teachers at that time um we have since grown and shrunk over time um a lot one of the clearly not an excuse but one of the big challenges was keeping people engaged throughout the the pandemic period and we have purposefully sought bringing some additional experts to the table so some of the folks who are on the current committee um actually some some of them brought To Us by board members so like Dr Steven zeiker from ASU I think Thomas mccheffrey brought to us we made sure we added him to the team we have Partners who work for um have worked for Desert Botanical Garden and um Boyce Thompson Arboretum we've brought been a person who's a retired facilities manager for Marana School District who wanted to help support the project so we really have it's been a broad array I would say our last design team meeting was very small I think we had about a half a dozen people show up but that was we also I think scheduled it across a holiday week which was a mistake but the one immediately prior to that I want to say we had somewhere in the 12 to 15 range show up and how long ago um April I believe yeah April yeah and about how many people showed up to this community Forum that was held um if from as far as community members are concerned if you were to um not count any of the staff and people from other school sites that showed up probably somewhere in the 8 to 10 range is what I recall does that sound right to the other people who were present yeah so it was about 50 staff yeah there's probably about 20 total and it was about 50 staff and a board member um and the rest were either members of the design team or community members who had joined us so I guess going off of that too then the very last thing that I forgot to mention that I remembered from the comment was I know it's part of phase H but it is addressed with a grant I would want to make sure we bring in an expert voice in in deciding whether those Garden Planters are made of concrete or whether we could see something more like what we've seen with uh Jeff Bowles and the engineer he's working with at that church that's over on um 51 correct yes and I think that that system seems a lot more sustainable than that that is really one of our big intentions with area H and you know we've had some conversations with uh Mr Bowles and members of his team we here's one of the things I have learned in the time I've been with the district one of the very first things I got to do when I started here was be part of the opening of the community garden at Loma Linda school and one of the having had the opportunity to work with the community there one of their biggest frustrations that has been repeatedly brought to my attention is it is very difficult to sustain Community Gardens if you're depending upon School staff availability and also if you're depending upon members of the community because the community Ebbs and flows and changes and the school staff's level of interest and their ability to have the time to participate Ebbs and flows and changes and so we really feel like with that area H if we are going to have a community garden we need to have a partner organization that's going to help us support that the other thing we have tried to do and um and we've actually through a variety of Partnerships brought to us from several board members including Miss Jeffrey we've gotten grants prior to the pandemic to try to open our schools after school hours and on the weekends you know clearly that had a pretty big hiccup last couple of years and one of the things that we know is it's difficult to get and sustain those types of operations grants and it is difficult for the District to have enough free funding to be able to support the Staffing to support those things so where we really feel that we need Partnerships and support it for this site we really want it to have a lot of community use so in addition to needing support from some of those organizations for things like the Community Gardens we also need some support to help provide some supervision after school hours to allow broader Community use of the site to do that we need trusted partners and so you know we're really going to be seeking those Partnerships and clearly one of the longest established Partnerships we've had has been with the Creighton Community Foundation yeah and just to add to that I think it's very important especially because we're going to be doing like gardening outside I think obviously we have a climate justice issue or a climate issues here in Arizona and I want to make sure that we're intentionally going and partnering up with those non-profits organizations I know that a Community Foundation gets brought up a lot but we have a whole bunch of different ones that Focus just in Phoenix our ZIP code on exactly how we can mitigate heat what we're looking to conserve water and not just because we're planting a whole bunch of trees that's also we we need water and there's non-profits around that already have established you know parameters how to avoid all that so I want to make sure that when we're really doing this we're not just picking somebody from nationally we really need to focus on our non-profit organizations and our and our you know people around here that really know this community and how we can fight that yeah and I I couldn't agree with that more and I would say the same for like our xeriscape spaces right we really want to work with our local experts because xeriscaping in a different region of the state where xeriscaping even in a different part of the valley like if you look at what the weather conditions are in Santan versus you know where we are in Creighton District here um you could put things in that work perfectly there and they'll die here and vice versa so we want to make certain that you know we're looking at what works specifically within you know our actual environment that we're operating on that same note as far as phase a goes for tonight and as far as what our Landscaping looks like are is there room for improvement can any of that be adjusted after tonight's vote foreign it can certainly be reevaluated I guess I would just encourage that there probably be more discussion around that the Landscape Architects that we have on this actually are a woman-owned firm who are uh very close here to the district and they are a highly recognized firm who specialize in developing native Landscapes that are dealing with uh trying to create microclimates dealing with water harvesting creating rain Gardens bioswells they just recently finished a project at Arizona State University that won a national ASLA award that was able to create through biomass and shading cooling that was able to reduce the radiant temperatures by 15 degrees in the areas where they were planting so I think they are a highly recognized expert and so I would just encourage that we look at what is actually proposed closely let them make their suggestions take input and if we need to make adjustments there's certainly that opportunity but I feel like that we have worked very hard to try to be very responsible and responsive to those desires through this process certainly and I guess just looking at the documents I've provided it's unclear to me what has been proposed with that in that regard I was going to say like I think it would be helpful like the presentations we've had in board meetings have been good but they've been very big picture up to this point I got so much more detailed information by going to the community input forum would it be possible to share some of those like the presentation and some of those details and you know draft sketches and things like that with uh the board secretary so that all the board members can do that I was like taking awkward photos during it but yeah I mean I feel like again the name of that firm ly yeah that's what I was gonna ask I feel like we're in a moment that we're rushing this we are in a transition so literally Dr Lewis isn't even here this is supposedly her vision it's I I it barely has a vision to it if you ask me but um I propose that we table this until we get some of these things answered and we have the opportunity to meet with our new superintendent prior to jumping into a vote right now because this is something you know our old superintendent wants to click you know check off her list um I'm uncomfortable with the relationship that Dr Lewis has with Chase construction I've said that before um and I don't want this to be something that we're rushing into because this is something she wants right now when we have a lot of questions unanswered and we still do not have the community input that I have asked been asking for for two years I never got an audit that I've asked for for over two years and I think if you really want a transparency that would be a really easy way to get that we have a quote to do an audit on Creighton Academy for thirty five thousand dollars that's about half of what um we were told that something like that would cost um so I don't understand why that has been obstructed for so long so I am not comfortable with voting for this tonight and I propose that we table it Mr Man um what happens if we do table this I it's my understanding that we have a certain time limit since it's been extended already because of the bond money so can you explain to us how that would affect this project what you explained at the study session yeah he was in the study session it was oh it was when you were not at the meeting I was the president for the evening I think we all just set it up but for clarification we're bringing up this question again and where this is a different meeting so I would like for Mr Man yeah yeah so so there I mean there's there was I think there's two completely different sets of concerns here one is um that when we do a bond sale the expectation is that 85 percent of those dollars are expended within a three-year time window so right now we are still on track with that three-year time window so depending upon the amount of delay that could have an impact um it it doesn't um I don't have the exact date is it this year fingertip no it would be roughly two years from September is my best estimate so um so you're remembering something that I'm forgetting here because I don't have the numbers in my fingertips so but I think it was last August or September that we did them on so correct and then um but the the other component of this is I just need the board to understand and this is not to put any pressure whatsoever this GMP is dependent upon this vote tonight the prices are highly volatile so I you know there's no way that this team can guarantee that GMP if we were to push this decision off in fact I had a call from Tammy I remember if it was earlier today or yesterday asking me to make certain that the team was ready to make sure that if the board approved this tonight that the PO was cut by Friday so the pricing doesn't slip because the market is still that volatile when it comes to pricing so so my concern would be I have zero concerns over you know ultimately who builds it whose Vision it was to begin with what what I've what I've seen over the last couple of months is and we saw it tonight when was the last time we had community members come out to support something that we've never seen at a board meeting before to talk about how wonderful some new project we were doing is and then be so concerned that they went to the trouble to create drawings and sketches to show us how we can do it better so what I would hate to do is get us into a position where we're not able to build this project because you know hiccups mistakes some of them maybe even mine along the way have left the board in a place where you're not feeling comfortable voting on this tonight so I would never in a million years suggest you vote on something or especially vote Yes on something that you're truly feeling uncomfortable with um but I I feel ethically compelled to point out that um I don't know what the GMP that would come back to you would be if we had to kind of go back to the drawing board and redo some of this work and just for last minute clarifications this doesn't mean if we approve this that if we run into some other organization or some other input this does not mean that it's set in stone and that things cannot be changed or worked out in exchangeable communication correct yes that's absolutely correct and the team um from the meeting on May 17th the community Forum meeting um that it was very we all discussed it afterwards it was very much recognized that the quote wetlands area area B which is outside of the scope right at the moment needed to be kind of re-looked at with and the comments taken into consideration uh but in reality I'm sorry to interrupt in reality the only way to make that happen is if every puzzle piece still fits if you're changing something within we're still operating in the same bucket right and so if something doesn't work we're going to be stuck with something I mean if if whatever we want to switch out isn't going to fit in that missing puzzle piece space is what I'm trying to right say so there is something we could run into if we get into a situation and I'm not saying we can plan for every contingency and I know this isn't and like entirely in the it wasn't like you know obviously the pandemic happened right but now we're in a position where like we're voting on probably the most money I'll ever vote on on this board and I don't even have Clarity on what the heck is in this plan I do not feel comfortable and I ran for the board never thinking that I'm going to vote on something especially for this much money and have some little plan thing here that like barely tells me anything about what's going on I just for me morally epically living this is my community and I know what I I feel doesn't feel right to me is voting on 26 million dollars with like this basic ass plan thing that I've been presented and I'm just putting I'm just being real and I want to get floor plan when not since I've been on the board I just want to say that I feel like we've had this money for a while I feel like if we wait we're gonna have to go out and get another Bond and I'm not sure it's going to pass at this point because we really haven't done anything we have this empty lot with nothing we need to start showing something for all of the money that we we have for this my other question is is we heard we're not going to come to you with change orders we're not going to come to you to increase the GMP at another meeting what what assurances can actually be made that are set in stone for that so so the there are legal grounds for the GMP okay um so um once the board approves the GMP and Chase Building team has agreed to it it's my understanding that they're held to complete the project within that budget where things tend to shift and adjust to see it on every board and I I will give you I'll give you several good examples um something ends up costing more or the district chooses to make a change that costs more with the district um you know we talked about subcontractors and the sente talked about you know we can go back and apply that lens that lens may cause us to choose a subcontractor that cost twenty thousand dollars more than a subcontractor who doesn't need the lens that may meet the values of the board so that's the direction we want to go but then that will consume um that contingency fund right or and that's the point where it's like it would have been great for that to have been like the plant like followed all along what I'm hearing from you is that this was communicated two years ago and that should never have to happen down the road is what I'm saying like changing that to be in the intents of the board well that that would that it's it's not a change it's that that would always happen based on a GMP process because because the reason that they solicit qualified bids is to see what things cost certainly and that's to determine a GM but if that lens was never there there's we run the risk of having that happen more times than you might have anticipated if that lens was not there you'd always choose the lowest cost exactly that's what I'm saying so and that lens seems to have not okay um I don't mean to cut anybody off but I I no it's fine and I think we've all made our opinion apologies if you guys want to move with the motion to table it you're more than welcome to um and then we can go off or if that's what you guys want to do if there's no more back and forth you could we can vote on it if it doesn't pass then we go on to the next motion okay so I move that we table this um at least um into July the July August time frame and when we get some more information from our new superintendent um with some questions that we all have and at least get an opportunity to meet with our new superintendent and and discuss um and just take a little bit more time a second okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor and I'm going to do a roll call Miss Gibson McLean Miss McCaffrey myself no no no Roshan does not pass um I move the governing board the guaranteed maximum price GMP for the bond funded rebuild of Kennedy School through construction manager at risk all those in favor and I'll do a roll call again Ms Gibson McLean Miss mcsheffrey aye motion passes okay that brings us to our last um item which is of course what's the plan then if we're going to mitigate some of these concerns because we tried to mitigate after the study session and that seems like it didn't go well at the community form like yeah that's fine and we can have sent an email to our superintendent with the things that we want and the discussions and then we can go from there makes you understand there's not a lot there so I'm just putting it out on um I think Hilda if you can figure out which meaning I found the April 18th study session does have some floor plans but I know there was another presentation before that yeah if that can be shared with all board members yeah and I think um that information can be sent on the next board update and then um whenever miss mcshuffrey or you just to note Miss Jeffrey stepped out it's 8 37 um or Miss Gibson McLean whatever concerns direct concerns so whatever outcomes you would like to see if you can direct those so we can have those conversations directly also during the community Forum one thing that won't be in the physical email presentation is they did like a fly overview video and um I sat there and recorded it so if I can get it to you or upload it to a drive maybe so we can share that I think that's helpful visually so yeah but if they have it they should be able to provide it you don't have to do it that information that they have how big it just gets sent to us and and figure it out yes send you whatever you to make sure that everybody is on board and understands what is to move forward okay all right thank you I appreciate your guys's time um future agenda items does anybody have a future agenda item okay I'll go with mine um the only thing that I'm gonna add is um talking about CBI CBI e a oh policies I was like Community Bridges oh no no no okay it's okay um well actually the exhibits don't have to be um put in right exhibits can be changed without is that correct Hilda okay just over okay so CB it's CBI and then the exhibits are CBI EA CBI Dash EB um do I have CB in here no CB and CBA all these have to do with evaluations of the superintendent um superintendent performance-based compensation review they all kind of go hand in hand and um and our superintendent evaluation our student outcomes are at a lower percentage for bonuses than anything else and I think that's a problem student outcomes and student achievements should be one of the priorities we have one job is holding our superintendent accountable and if we're not producing that student achievement or student outcomes then we're not really doing what we're we're supposed to be doing so all these would change a little bit of the superintendent eval and what lives in policy but we can have a further discussion on that but all those goal tied together any other future agenda items um no but just as a heads up I will not be at the June 27th meeting as a reminder okay this will be at a conference awesome and then just as a public comment this evening will there be will is there a guarantee that the special ed investigation will be on the next agenda it is June 27th and we will have our attorney present as well thank you all right with that I move the governing board adjourn all those in favor I thank you guys have a great night
right um Gabby do you have the one that was that I sent to the board on Friday maybe that would be the one that if we can put that up the um we we put last year's um Pros I mean 2019's Pro statement on the agenda because you all haven't deliberated over the new one and so um so um but it's very similar the new one is very similar to this one but um is it possible that we can put it up Gabby or should I I can probably put it up too if you want give her a second let's see okay so I spent today about an hour kind of going over this and kind of rewarding it um and I don't I I don't know what we can what we want to talk about tonight but I thought we could concise it in some areas take out a few words here and there condense a couple of sentences to when that comes up Gabby you having any luck finding it okay you're good [Music] well she's doing that just to clarify that the override continuation can be more generic where the bond has to be specific correct well I think they both have to have parameters right I think the Bond feels a little more right but it has to I mean you can't you have to put exactly what you're going to spend the money on for the bond correct um not by project but by high level categories whereas the override can be a little bit more General by by law am I right on that um it's it's true though we've been pretty specific yeah well I think it's better to be specific but you don't have any um laws that are whatever rules right right we just have to give an idea of what we plan on spending the override dollars well and the other thing is is the budget can fluctuate that's correct priorities and the budget can fluctuate but we also don't want to be so specific that we pigeonhole ourselves into projects that we have to fund if we something else comes up like campus security we don't want to get too specific like with that I think say campus security and that's yeah that's not I mean that but not like hiring 12 new security guards because then you end up pigeon holding we want to keep it Broad and that's correct at the same time well one of the things that we've said all along was that we we wanted to use the extra five percent for competitive salaries and that was worth about 10 million dollars but over the last three years we've put over 30 million dollars in salary increases so um an indicator of how things change so how do you want to start DR mcard what's your thought well I think I think we I'll read this to you guys first and then and then we can go from there uh draft Pro statement uh discussion for tonight June 6 2023 Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking the community to support the continuation of the 15 maintenance and operations budget override as the existing 15 budget override approaches is expiration we express our gratitude for your trust and ask for your continued support the existing 15 contributes about 35.8 million dollars to the GPS maintenance and operation budget each year and allows the district to maintain salary competitiveness in comparison to our East Valley Piers please know that GPS continues to prioritize these resources for the direct benefit of our students as affirmed each year by the Arizona auditor general GP I think if we could just add the auditor general report is that let me finish and then we'll go back to that okay okay sorry you're good the GPS continues to rank among the most efficient districts for dollars spent in the classroom and is graded amongst the districts with the lowest administrative expense the budget override continuation will directly benefit our students and families by retaining and attracting high quality teachers and employees by maintaining salary competitives and maintaining campus security Personnel inclusive of Mental Health Counselors and Social Work social workers and maintaining the allocation to class size reduction please preserve the excellent education our students receive and our community expects please vote Yes for the budget override continuation governing board Gilbert public schools number 41.
they have a move but they're a national health standards that a lot of times these Health teachers will follow and incorporate into their into their teaching so um you know I just more than ever I think it's been impaired yeah that position I would love for someone to live on the time on learning versus additional research level because I know there's a lot of studies that support additional recess Focus the kids so yeah well they only need seven minutes to eat yeah working on social emotional piece the library media specialist working on the tech piece so we can now get the cell phone use etiquette into the elementary schools right yeah it just I this is the moment we have and I think this is we're going to talk so much about moving us forward this is well it goes back to the staff and the teachers I wish Don Murray was still here because she had flexibility up on her report card and changed you said change yeah you have to be understanding and flexible to adapt with these changes as the current time one through the budget process day by day things are changing right the extra kids that came into town after the budget process things changed and now you have different opportunities so it changes every day so a plus plus plus plus to you for being flexible and able to understand and have the empathy to make these changes but it really is the whole thing I mean we sat these decisions don't come without many many conversations through the weekdays and weeknights and begins to kind of talk you know we didn't realize it changes hard and getting out of the box but one of the things I wrote down earlier when Caroline was here it feels like we need to have a group of student like sometime for students in the schools all of them to talk to you about what life is what they're like here now you know because I I hear us and God knows I can't even get into the arena when discussing what life was like when I was in elementary school or high school but here in love with their world is like from their world and from their perspective you know so we're just trying to meet their needs and think about people and poor thinking for them I think it's important for the committee to be prepared for even though we're all very flexible some blowback especially around the libraries I can't speak to Boylston but I can tell you the librarian in Berlin's beloved she's a Community member she's a parent people will take that heart it'll it calls on us to be flexible and it's the right decision but you'll hear from I'm sure you'll hear from parents why can't we do this why can't we keep it the way it wants um and then we resume we can't keep it the way it wants is because we're moving forward this is yeah back then what we had before what's happening at the yes because I heard from my children the tech teachers not so is that is it happening differently at Bes yeah this changes but we can't some of we can talk Personnel issue so I would yet I have to decline to respond to that but just because of that reason and when you tell these teachers this they're given assurances that yes you're beloved taken care of it below they're not taken care of yeah they don't have a license okay that's the issue yes she's beloved in Berlin and down the road doors are always open and things like that right what licenses yeah right um Nancy is there any more financial updates no what was the auditorium management position so yeah so if you remember quite a when we were on the stage for the uh parent Forum yeah the the person from the Christianity the personal problem the cabled access was there yes yes yes yes I couldn't use the speaker nobody had knew how to turn on the up sound system and anyway that led to getting a teacher who knows how to do these systems to help out and to do some training which led to the idea of bringing kind of back someone to manage the equipment in that in the auditorium who knows how to use it who can train students how to use it so that students can go out we can utilize those students and that particular person if we have events there and not only our events town events and also people who want to rent the facility rent like the auditorium who need somebody to use the equipment right so they're not touching at all so it's so that's so this person will also make sure that this Auditorium is kept clean and organized who does inventory on what's up there um and just overall takes care of scheduling so that we can make sure that there's no conflicts and scheduling for the auditorium it just basically oversees what we haven't in the past so that's the position it's a statement position I was just going to say it's a statement and it's not a full yeah it's just a stipend position right absolutely I just want to clarify with a stipend yeah [Music] and the staff applies for that position we have some people in that it's it's like because it's not part of their annual salary it's a it's like on the side and it's posted and anybody it's welcome to any you don't need a license to do it it's just and that's going to be able to be made up with a little bit of positions we had someone retire at tohonto and we were able to replace that position and a less of a salary so we're able to afford it that way we didn't have a bright coordinator in previous years okay okay I remember the people that came and spoke in them yeah and now she was paid to study through a grant it was through a grand okay okay all right sounds good all right uh any other Financial offices okay so we can move on to what can I myself but the bottom line is like with all these scriptures changes like you mentioned from circuit breakers so the fiscal year 24 budget is stays the same you know you've had because of the circuit breaker so the funds came from circuit breaker so okay so that bucket is the same level the bucket and circuit breaker dropped by said about 77 000 wow like everything's we're not voting to spend more money I think is what Jess is asking somebody came in is what you're saying I'm not more human than we anticipated right you but you are voting to spend another 77 000 out of service but we've got more money for the circuit we got more Revenue right yeah so I'm curious like we were when discussing the budget we were concerned and a lot of those buckets were low yes and so I'm kind of I just don't know how low that yeah so let's go it's more favorable she gave us the difference right you said two something yeah so yeah to improve the budget it was we would be at circuit breaker and about 305 000 um with disapproval float nurse and the fsp it would be about 228 000.
so you go ahead and back to you Jill well or should we just start let's start with the first paragraph sure sure and then no I was going to say keep yours highlighted notice so I great no I appreciate that so in the first paragraph is there any uh discussion that we would like to to talk about any changes or or something that you would like to suggest I think we should move that second sentence just for continuity down to like I think we should take that out on mine I put it down at the end I put an entire paragraph at the beginning I'd like to at the beginning because right away we're expressing our support and appreciation for to our community for what they've already done for us okay I really liked it right there because that way they um okay we're giving that affirmation that hey you know I understand you voted for this in the past and we really appreciated it to change up some language because gratitude for your trust trust in what what are we asking them to give what's this page do you mind telling us exactly what you what you wanted to do that's what you can you just you know what I brought I brought extras I'm just saying I'm throwing this out I'm my way is not the right way just um I edit it just a little bit but I do understand what you're saying up there I um but maybe we could even reward it just a little bit to make it sound thank you we thank you for your past support and again ask for your trust in funding the excellent education provided by Gilbert public schools because that sentence leaves out what your trust in what and I know I'm being really picky I do used to edit papers at a college level so I know I'm being really picky about this so I don't mind leaving it up there I just think that we need to you know maybe reward it just a tad so could you again Express what you think that sentence should say so she moved it down I just moved it down for continuity purposes I combined the two and as I said Jill this is not what I'm I'm just giving my suggestions um I do understand why it's up there maybe we can just reword it just a task I think if we reword it just a tad also I um just looking at the flow just the on your page um one thing that I like about what Bonnie has done there is that we keep it at smaller amounts smaller paragraphs because I feel like all of a sudden this seems a lot to read and kind of overwhelming okay yes so I I would really suggest keeping it smaller and even maybe breaking up that paragraph that's a little longer in the middle but definitely keeping it so it's easily read and I did appreciate the way the consultant advised us that especially our older voters are going to read through the entire pamphlet I understand but even making an attractive videos let's leave it so um so there might be a different way to say that though in fewer words yes so Gilbert Public Schools So currently it says Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking the community to support the continuation of the 15 percent um we could shorten it up a little by saying Gilbert Public Schools governing board requests the community's continued support I think that's one or two fewer I like it better or asks for the community's continued support I like is asking the community I think it's just more gentle I mean respectful maybe I don't want to be too you know I I actually thought this was pretty well written and was very happy with it but um It is Well written I it is and we can leave it the way it is there's a couple places where we have pleased three times that might need to come out okay so it I I really like that first sentence we're we're we're the board we're asking the community to support the continuation of the 15 maintenance and operations budget override I think that really States what we're doing and I think it's um I I kind of want it to be softer as more than requests or um I I just I think it's a little softer and I'd like it that way well then so let me ask you this is our goal to save words in certain places so we can add words in other places to make it exact exactly oh you're good no obviously exactly 200 words no I our goal is just to stay under 200 words okay just at or below that's it so how we get there is up to you guys the goal is to convince them to vote for this yes that that is yeah so maybe we could save a couple words here by saying is asking Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking I let me I had this in my in my mind I have to I have to remember that um when they had the override and bond election in 2007.
so it's a 77 000 difference and so but that 227 000 that's the bucket that we have for whatever might hit us in the coming months yes that is correct if there's anything yeah right who knows but I guess what like our incidentals this year what was how much was that adjustment just in person Financial uh it changes so often like that it takes some research to do so additional unexpected money came in we're spending more in one account net overall the budget for next year stays the same yeah we received about 30 35 000 more than what we anticipated um so you'll be using an additional seventy seven thousand to cover these positions so the difference 32 or whatever it is um well is unaccounted for I'm a circle breaker from what was presented to you yeah I mean we drained the school choice buckets um how is school choice going we approved 30 more positions a weekend anymore actually we just recently got it we had some openings still but we just recently had some more applications do you think I hope so because they're not yet but they can still affect is there a deadline that you let the students know by a certain date that they've been accepted or in um they're yeah like from the original batch of applications yes but now that we can still accept more because oh that's great all right first item on a business item number one is policy kcda this is a community fundraising for school this is a first read this was changed because of some issues that happened uh basically some the fundraiser was done and for Nature's Classroom oh yeah Nature's Classroom was canceled during coven correct me if I'm wrong but the money that was raised for that particular year was then given to the schools approved by the school committee at a school committee meeting to be put into that particular was it eighth grade at the time fast forward three years later there was some apparent confusion as to whether that money was to go to this year's Nature's Classroom or was to stay with who are currently 8th graders correct scholarship fund just a question yeah some parents business owners they were concerned because they had donated money to that event and they thought that it was not going to be they thought it was going to be statements then there were some questions so they thought it was going to be taken away from that class they threatened to take their donations back all sorts of craziness happened you guys have meetings attorneys were involved it got sorted out but now we're here because policies come from real life right so we've updated this policy we added um if you see down there at the bottom it starts with before submitting the gift to the school committee for acceptance we're asking people now to provide a lot more documentation as to how the money was raised why it was raised what was the intent of the raise whoever is giving this money to the school committee are you legally allowed to give that money away things like that um in finance it's called know your client anti-money laundering all these types of documentation rules so that's what we're adding to this policy uh this policy is Cash donations need to get approved by the school committee so if these are cash donations it goes on to talk about the group's fundraising you know fundraising for schools has to be approved by the committee if it's an approved group like a parent group like a PTO link or something like that they're on their own they have their own rules on how they do things but if it's a parent group that's formed for a specific thing they if they want to say we're fundraising in the name of bbrsd or something they're going to come to the community that's not that already happens you brought them in Nature's Classroom this year with John that goes through the principles the Improvement super uh super superintendent it's when the money actually comes to the bank account that the school Community gets involved so if that money is coming from somewhere else into our account we're going to ask for a lot more documentation so we avoid business owners coming to us three years later and asking for their donations back is that I don't know how you do that but so this is the first read we'll vote on it at the beginning of the year next year all right uh the next one is uh also uh we put this on here for first read this is the auditorium manager job description okay to be a first reading oh yeah um or do we need I'm just thinking completely yes like stipended positions is that for is this the first read for this or do we need to vote to make it happen for next year foreign all right we'll have our meeting on our first meeting is in August I think so we'll we'll put on it then okay uh all right next number three is the SRO request remember this is uh simply a request or a vote to Simply ask the towns if they would provide Essentials this isn't to say how it would happen or anything if we vote Yes on this we'll then go ahead and ask the towns and then depending on what the town say there will be some sort of agreement um so I have a motion to uh for the school committee chair to ask the talent to provide school resource officers in school buildings during school hours Laurie sorry Julie any discussion against [Music] all right motion passes six zero the next item policy ebcfa so this is the infamous Mass policy okay we made some proposed changes here to this policy not many uh when's policy is written this policy covers is from covet it covers masking when do you mask how do you mask it simply says the school district is going to follow federal and state guidelines so when the state and the federal on different days declared coven over we should have adopted that as well it seems there's some confusion in the health offices so I believe the nurses sent us a letter yeah the nurses wrote us a letter asking if they could remove masks in the health offices they should have been able to on at least May 11th but anyway what has changed in this policy is the beginning there it simply says that uh the coven state of emergency ended on May 11 2023 according to the governor or per the governor of Massachusetts there's a link there to the website where that Declaration was made and the rest of that is from the original policy the other thing that was removed was there was a line there between the second and third paragraph that said masks are required in health offices that was removed so this is uh the updated draft here is what the updated policy will be going forward can I have a motion to approve the draft policy EDC fa so moved Megan seven Julie any discussion I could throw a letter from the nurses player quickly uh yeah I think it's in here yes let's get to it I'll read it I want to make it bigger I have that are you looking for the word for Lisa you got it right uh it starts off May 17th is dated uh good afternoon we'd like to begin by saying thank you for taking the time to review discuss and consider our proposal the district nurses are reaching out to all School community members regarding the recent May 11 2023 announcement from the state and federal government and in the public health emergency Braun Boylston School nurses are all in agreement and would appreciate your support in favor of lifting the mass policy in The District Health offices Mass Healthcare Massachusetts Healthcare facilities including hospitals have lifted the mass mandate and we would like to be in alignment with that decision we'll use our best nursing judgment when assessing and monitoring symptomatic individuals if and when a concern presents itself individuals will be kept in the health office away from others until they're dismissal again we appreciate your consideration of this matter thank you Lisa Lamar RN MSN District nurse leader that's the letter they sent us I'm curious are the funds there to still support Mass to be supplied to them we have needed so many masks and of course if anybody wants to wear masks they're welcome to wear a mask fully supported any other discussion a motion is on the table Lisa um I'm wondering about if there should be anything about exemptions in there you know for like kids who are hard of hearing or who like have anxiety from wearing a mask or um you know on the Spectrum like some kids just can't wear a mask so I just don't remember seeing anything about that yeah the policy kind of builds that in it says uh parents are the ones to make the right decision from asking their kids it says we will follow federal or state guidelines so if ever federal estate makes a law saying you've got to wear a mask again whatever exemptions they have in there will follow um It also says that if any decision in this district is made to wear a mask again in the future a written plan must be made as to when how exceptions when it can be removed things like that it's in the um under future mask parameters and the policy so it is covered and I actually like I'd like to add on you use the word guidelines they would be mandates that we would follow when they suggest what we should do we we take that as a if it's a suggestion then it's a parental Choice yes only if we're mandated by law would we do that and then if am I saying if we did do the policy then we would think about things like that yeah the prior statement it's had those little allowances for people with mental disabilities or mental physical disability and do we as a school just a district have any ability to demand like the highest form of um like medical evidence for something that's going to be mandated to us like that um control trials meta-analyzes last year during this or not last year with the uniform yes believe it or not it was 2022.
this is how much I did not know okay and I I have to understand that people are in that same place where I was and I was like why do we need this why do the school should have enough money and my son came to me says mom if this passes they'll put air conditioning in the buses and we need air conditioning and so I voted for it I look at it that we have to be aware that a lot of people that read this are not going to be well informed about what it is we're asking for and why we're asking for it and we have to be clear that it's our community that's why I like that part about we're asking the community to support the continuation that we've had this in the past and we're continuing it so but I do think there's some room in the second sentence if you want to clarify that a little bit more so let me let me just pass this by you Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking for the Contin for the communities continued support of the 15 Main and let me let me let me tell you why I think that may be better is because it the way it's written here it almost seems like continuation is part of what we're asking for part of the part of the the 15 15 maintenance and operations budget override but if we say if we say is asking for the community's continued support I think it more um I think it will engage readers emotionally that they're that they've been doing this and they're going to keep doing this so if we say if we if we attach the continuation to the community to the support the communities continued support I think that reads a little more like but what this this is one thing is the ballot language what is the ballot language going to be is it going to be continuation of the 15 maintenance and operations budget and then they Mark yes for continuation or no for not continuing what what is the ballot language going to be that's that's where I think if it's saying if the about language is going to say continuation of the 15 maintenance and override budget then I want the same language that's going to be on the ballot in our letter the ballot language actually says budget override continuation yes or no do we have any control over that we do not okay [Music] but it does say budget override continuation that's what we've been told right it's in the resolution that you all approved last time so that's why when when we're talking about our 15 maintenance and operations budget override I want to put that continuation in there somewhere whether we change it to to support the 15 maintenance and operations budget override continuation we could do that because that's more like the ballot language or leave it this way but that's where I think that we want to it has to mirror the battle language well yeah so I mean it doesn't have to but it no it's smarter too maybe you could say is asking the community to support the 15 maintenance and override budget over to support the 15 maintenance and operations budget override continuation yes I think let's change it that way because that's what the ballot language is so this is this is sentence one right yes okay oh yeah we're just getting started no no I just want to make sure that tomorrow I'm celebrating my 40th wedding anniversary so I don't want to go until nine or ten o'clock tonight please congratulations the balls in your court my friend um Gilbert Public Schools governing board what's next is asking is asking for is asking for the com no just the best community is asking the community to support yeah the 15 maintenance and operations budget override continuation okay hold on and then and then hold on let me just because I'm I'm slow Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking the community to support the maintenance and operation budget budget override continuation okay there you go okay good second sentence that's on the second sentence [Music] I I actually have a thought on that one um if we took out as existing 15 budget override approaches it's the expiration just start with we express our gratitude for your trust and ask for your continued support if you want to throw something in about trust there and it's just trust in what you're reading it and for me I'm reading it going trust in what trust what what it what your gratitude for trust in that we spent the dollars fiscally responsibly you're Creston Gilbert Public Schools I like your thing down here and funding the excellent education yeah we just need to describe what trust in what huh I like the part where you said trust in funding I think that's important yeah because what we're saying we have gratitude for your trust but what it what do we have trustee I agree with you yeah I mean we know what it but we know what it means but you we're having to write this to an audience that doesn't know what we're talking about so you're being specific we're being very specific you have to we read it and we know what we're talking about but we're not the audience the audience is the voter but I think that in funding the excellent education yes is really trust in funding that's what we're saying is that we have we're grateful that they have trusted Us in funding the education in our community yeah yeah forget that the quality and the quality the Excellence these things that we're so if we say this next sentence it just reads this based on what you guys were saying we express our gratitude for your trust in funding the excellent education we provide and ask for your continued support yeah yeah did you start with as the existing I was hoping to put that somewhere else like um what what part show well I don't know I don't want to make the sentence too complicated but um I was hoping to find so if maybe we put it the existing 15 override which it comma which is approach approaching its expiration comma contributes about 35.8 million to the GPS and maintenance operations budget each year and allows the district to maintain I that's getting to be kind of a long sentence so I might end after year and say this allows the district or the district is able to maintain salary competitive in comparison to our East Valley peers just to make it not so the sentence doesn't get too long complicated make it two sentences and could we go back to what Mrs page gave us and look at that just where she said okay so her second sentence is the existing you think it's important to put the trust and thank you at the top or what do you think could we put that at the bottom I think it's important and I'm okay with putting up there just as long as we defined what the treasure is yeah okay so then what if so Dr McCord youth just said basically express our gratitude for your trust in funding the excellent education will provide and ask for your continued support and then just move to the next thing the existing 15 override contributes about 35.8 million so what if we just keep it like that yeah I don't even yeah yeah well you I mean my only concern is that do do we want at some point to let them know that if they don't vote Yes this 15 is going to expire it doesn't have to be that's implied basically if if it's not continued I mean this is what we use it for if it's not continued it's well maybe maybe um maybe we put it in after that comparison to its East Valley piers if the 15 budget override um is not continued it will expire do we want to ask for their continued support two sentences in a row I think that the part where you're there we're being specific tells us that this is what we're going to continue doing I don't know that we yeah what if we just got rid of the second sentence altogether what if we did we express your gratitude our gratitude for your trust in funding the excellent education provided by Gilbert public schools and ended the sentence there and then move those the the expiration if we wanted in or the support to other people it's almost like we need to switch those two sentences then we need to thank them and then say now we're asking for something yeah I'm back to Mrs pages I like this if I know that yours um miss temporary's you had a concern about the well I just think the spacing well then I thought yeah my concern was just um but if we just return after one of the sentences as an editor you can you can make two paragraphs out of something fairly easy I'm not a professional editor you're obviously for continuity and lack of repeating ourselves over and over again we need to be a little bit more professional and concise this this has got this is what Bonnie's done is amazing she set up a great bones here I don't own this this is yours this is this is a retread from 2019.
you're right we were we had a letter drafted we did we did request that um to DC directly did we actually send the letter I thought yep I think we did did we yeah this also says um this also says that unless the unless there's anything like that presented unless what it says is We're Not Gonna put any burden on any student that isn't being shared publicly by other elected leaders so Governors senators PC directors and presidents and anything like that if they're not doing it in public then we're not going to force the kids like all those pictures of like adult standings so if that yeah so it covers it yeah well I guess I'm just concerned about um I don't think the CDC was actually following the science when they were mandating masks I don't think the state was now all the research is showing that the cloth masks and the surgical masks didn't make a difference it's not going to make a difference unless there's a Tight Seal you know like to the face and so the n95 mask could potentially make a difference but they have to be fit tested people have to be clear for use so it's like a huge Camp worms and I just don't think that we should like I feel like we should learn our lessons from what happened before and not just go jumping into just going like okay whatever the state says when they weren't you know if they just try and do that again like I think that we should demand I agree with you yeah what is it it's uh so surgical messages the third paragraph kind of covers what you're looking for this has any decision to require coverings in the school buildings or on buses requires a vote by this movement so at that time is when all of that so this isn't saying that we just automatically follow the guidance then no only if it's a walk if it's a law we have to manually everything nobody wants to release it but if we if they're going to say they're in a car for funding because we're not following their policy we're probably not gonna do that you know that would be suicide I can't believe that and something like that's ever going to happen again no no at least in our lifetime I mean they're demanding tasks in different places around the world oh they are yeah so the the motion on the table right now is to approve this one as written um any other Jesse I do cut you off Justin I'm sorry so go ahead and say what you want to say as a nurse a nurse practitioner who was a provider from this you know I find other data and I know other people find other data um but I the data that I'm seeing surgical mass and to make a difference I agree that cough masks did not um so I just wanted to stick around I would love to meet with you at some point to go over all of that yeah like line by line sure because I did that I went through all the studies and all the references and all the studies and I have patients six year old who have parents that are dead yeah you know they were trying to control so all in favor of the motion to accept the policy evcfa I guess uh five eyes uh zero against one abstain okay thank you um we did number five we approved number five with Kyle uh so next is the budgetary classes I have a motion to approve the fiscal 23 budget free classes some moved second uh Julie Megan any discussion on these are we on number five um any questions discussion yeah so I'm I'm concerned because like when we decided to add the three additional positions this is on number six on the three classes this is all the money she moved for fiscal year 23.
it actually is changed so so what if we just have that first sentence that would kind of make a a statement look on Mrs Pages Gilbert Public Schools governing board is asking the community to support the 15 maintenance and operations budget overhead continuance continuation then return have a new paragraph the existing 15 overhead contributes about 35.8 million the GPS maintenance and operations budget each year thus allowing the district to maintain competitive salaries and reduce class sizes to enable GPS to remain competitive within the East Valley GPS yeah new paragraph GPS continues to prioritize these resources for the direct benefit of our students as affirmed each year by the Arizona auditor general which what did you want to add report report because then they could go look there for that as the Arizona auditor General's report yeah okay that's a good call Jill yeah as a result GPS let's see as a result is that what's up there no no okay no I am okay okay so okay so as a firm teacher by the Arizona otter Generals Report I think I don't even know if we need to put as a result but just say GPS continues to rank among the most efficient districts for dollars spent in the classroom and as great amongst the districts with the lowest administrative expense um and then and then basically this is the same same stuff which I think is really good to just again get bullet points of exactly how we are committing to spend it how we have spent it and how we're committing to and then um and then I like when we end with we thank you for your past support and I ask again for your trust in funding the excellent education provided by Gilbert Public Schools please vote Yes for the budget override continuation I I like this a lot I think it's it gives enough details but then kind of gets it a little more concise if you guys if you're if you think it's okay sorry let me let me make sure I understand yeah okay so the first sentence we is we changed how we originally changed it right to to support the and then we put continuation at the end which is what we have up there right now and then a new paragraph yep the ex existing 15 override blah blah blah um and then even a new paragraph to that so just one sentence basically GPS continue the next paragraph is GPS continues to prioritize these resources for the direct benefit of our students as affirmed each year by the Arizona auditor General's report and then GPS continues to rank on my most efficient districts for dollars that in the classroom is greater amongst the district with the lowest administrative expense than that second pair paragraph does not change I mean now it's like the fourth paragraph exactly exactly so I'll stop you there Jill the only thing I did take out and this is where we probably need to add maintaining is on two bullet points maintaining then maintaining okay the allocation to class size reduction maintaining to allocate was kind of confusing to me so I took it out um but we probably need to add something in um I don't know I think maybe not I think what you have is fine it explains just okay again that's we have a right that's what part of it will go toward is the specific way that we yeah so we talked earlier about making sure we don't pigeonhole ourselves into something and I think the second bullet point does that to some extent What If instead of Mental Health Counselors and social workers what if we say we could even say improving campus security comma student student support for academic achievement because I notice we don't have we do say you know excellent education provided but none of our bullet points focus on academics and I think that would be important for people to know that that's one of our main focuses is that is this academic academic success of our students definitely the what happens is we specifically we going out in the 2019 override to increase to the 15 we did specifically include social workers and Mental Health Counselors so I think that's why we've continued that just saying that will continue to fund that and we are I think that's kind of what we're still allotting that for but I guess we could discuss if if that's something different what if we uh how about student student Port student mental health or student wellness student oh there you go because that really is what we're that's what it is about is us you know support and support for student wellness which includes improving campus security and student wellness yeah that's really which is the focus it is and that's so if I could just um just make a comment um very sensitive to words such as improving implying that we're not already doing it and we have the resources to actually make it better which I don't want to misrepresent so that's right that was why we purposely used the maintaining yeah I mean not improving further Improvement further improving well but but that would imply we're adding more resources to that I'm always afraid I'm just you can do whatever you want but I'm just I don't want to really is dollar for dollar we're turning it forward it's not like we're saying we're not committing that we can add more to it necessarily we're saying to pass this allows us to how about just using an allocation to reduce class size yeah something something it's not maintaining sorry I can't get thesaurus up on my own and we can use maintaining the allocation I didn't quite understand what that meant but I also like what Mr Thompson said we probably need to add somewhere in on that class size reduction something about academics um if you want if we all decide we wanted to add that language in there too that would be probably the line to go on there and Jill yeah I don't have a thesaurus either I I have it on my phone I keep it open but it's not doing maintaining and we can use maintaining I don't know how many people are really gonna well you can say continuing or continue we have a lot yeah continuation up here but that's okay yeah absolutely yeah we're thinking instead of second or third bullet third continuing class size yeah allocation to class size to class size reduction we could just say continue smaller class sizes I don't know no I I wouldn't say that either because sometimes people would say well that's not small especially if they've come from an Eastern State where they only have 18 kids per class sorry so the second bullet are we going to keep keep it as maintaining campus security and student wellness that's what I kind of got out of there okay no I think that's good I'm just thinking sorry what are you thinking I'm just thinking I'm just listening I'm just thinking in my head just like just throwing this out and and I don't really have an opinion on it is it important to say something about mental Mental Health because that is a huge topic right now and that was on our survey it was really reminded me of that that it was at the top of our service is there a reason someone doesn't want to say Mental Health Counselors and social workers the only reason I would say we might want to avoid it is because it's one of those hot button issues well I think well it did people well but would it be possible or can somebody just tell me what what meeting was it where we got the results from that survey because I think I recall that mental health yes it was up there but it was it wasn't at the top and it was below their threshold of what was most important [Music] Mr Thompson I want to represent what we are using this for though too right so again it's it's you know it might be a hot button issue but I think it's it's out there everywhere right now in particular that there's so much need for it well I think it depends on how you use it specifically how this came to be was that we had a group of students from Gilbert High School who organized and came to the board meeting with a resolution and spoke during public comment and said you know and this was in about 2018.
it's just like did you see that huge spreadsheet with all the requests against all right passes six two nothing um can I have a motion to approve the annual Student Activity accounts Laurie Jess any questions on the Student Activity accounts for approval I have questions I mean I have so many so I don't know if it's worth doing this now or do this has to be voted on tonight and save that right when do we meet again August we we need to have a subcommitting of anything though let me just say this about Student Activities yeah it is very high on my list yeah I know I am going to be reviewing it this summer I'm going to be having some trainings with the principals I I need to get a much better read yeah on Student Activities I'm kind of been here a year and I gotta delay of the land [Music] um yeah I'd love that want to do it that way perfect as long as you don't need a vote tonight yeah okay okay this is just really this is just give informational yeah saying this is what we did this year um okay what are we gonna do that that's the that's the balance I mean I'm concerned what happens with all that money right that's been left in these accounts a lot of them just get rolled over to the to the reunion funds for next year no I mean let's hit The Graduate they're still here okay they have I forgot the time next three years yeah so they have three years to transfer it over to the president and the treasurer yeah and they put it into their own if there's funding remaining they put it into their own account and they can use it for class reunions yeah yeah okay so I mean there's things that need to be cleaned up on here yeah I know I know we can do so much yeah okay we'll do can I just ask John what are it's you know in every school what is civics activity that is money that you know the balance is out in front where clothes are donated oh yeah then every month we get a check and dance with that checkup all right the original purpose when Jeff was here you know he made it you know we're going to take this money we're going to do Civics things with that that was about as specific as we got okay so this money's just kind of growing it's one and we'll go through because we've got to do better than us today and then my second question and this will be it because I know this is a lot and it was a lot to compile and all that I don't want to spend forever on this um we can discuss those specifics later but the undesignated funds in these schools where where's that with that that's a huge Okay so come on all right I love it let's talk about it I mean the amount of money in there you could yeah it's great it is great but I just hope it's being um the majority of it is majority of it is fine yeah and it's not that none of it's not being spent correctly because it is right now yeah forgotten like we have this let's do something with it like it's just sitting here also it's being invested properly like so it's earning money I'll say this um because I have a few kids here at tejanto that I will say um there are parents community members that are going to be excited that you're going to do this and that's what everyone's going to be on the same page with Student Activity accounts because there's you know on the sidelines conversation about how much money is in the class I don't know for all these I mean there's a lot of awesome clubs here that have money in their accounts and that's so great um so I think this is awesome that you know people are going to all be on the same page with the process so thank you and one more thing before you improve keep in mind that these balances are not year end though right so you you'll see here like the the class of this year has almost eleven thousand dollars in it but we had prom and I mean they had all the senior activities so that's dwindled way down yeah so a lot of you know this will be different in a month or two oh it has May 31 I didn't see that okay so you haven't applied June expenses so generally and this will change next year this is something that you would approve at the beginning of the year yeah not at the end of the year gotcha I wasn't unaware that the prior yeah Director of Finance didn't have this approved so it kind of came to my attention like a couple months ago and gotcha no one you think it's in because it has to be approved this year so yeah for the year you will be finished looking at this again next and do we approve again at the end of the year too no no okay no it's really just the beginning it's kind of like this is what we're going to be offering for clubs this year and these are the clubs that we're going to be closing out and this is what we're going to be doing I'm so glad you're doing this that's really how the process should go yeah yeah motion is on the table to approve the activity counts uh uh all in favor aye I guess um next item on the list is the school community calendar for next year and the link is done for the school calendar yeah it's in the if you go in this business there's the school committee meetings calendars for the school committee members if you're going to the business hours [Laughter] underneath two of the months there was a little error and it said earlier at least but it was really you gotta make it a full PD day but that language wasn't so do we need to vote on that one too yeah that's right I just want to make sure you were aware of that and so we changed it I changed up on the top of six six if you could do that all right let's uh all right so first we'll do we'll do that one first okay all right so let's go down so okay I have a motion to improve the edited school year calendar presented by Carol Glory was that Laurie Jess second Megan what was changed so if you just look at January for example right we had to take out we had in there for two things we know school systems and we had early release all schools but it's not early release law school that was before we made that approach we had to change because of the number of days Good Friday absences this year didn't land the Friday before vacation I did I didn't look that but I can follow along any other questions all in favor um uh calendar I'm just in the business it is in the business items folder it is a file called copy of copies so to move it to five uh so they have a motion to approve the school committee meeting calendar all right now is there any discussion yeah I really feel strong in the 5 PM is not not recognizing that there's working parents in the district and future school committee members maybe working full-time people as well and so you know most soccer practices and sports practices and things start at 5 30 recognizing that people need time to get home and get kids or have a spouse to come home to watch the kids to you know to then leave to the meeting so I I recognize it's a long night for everyone especially you guys start your days earlier um but I think five is just not recognizing that there's working people that may in the future and currently are on the committee should just be once a month though I hear you well like a month one late night I mean it's 30 minutes later I know but I just feel like um we used to have a lot of late nights last year and you just are not no I know seriously you are not productive at this hour like literally I have so many thoughts in my head but I'm just like I don't care because like I fall asleep at 10 30 every night so it's just I feel like we're not productive at this hour so to add an hour instead of it being 10 it would be nine o'clock now like I just feel like I don't know I hear you is it does it create a huge issue for you I I think it's not Equitable I mean you know I talked to a few friends who were parents and it's like at five o'clock you're trying to wrap up work and you know grab the kids like even I would have to ship my kids out to my husband's office to say all right watch them for a few minutes I gotta run up to school and like that that just brings up covered memories of working at night and I just and it doesn't it doesn't recognize that people work and if you're going to come and do a public comment like it's unrelated to think that anyone could get together for five o'clock and I know we talked about moving it to 5 30 but I still it's people even watching remotely I think it would be so here's something I was thinking about the public comment Jess um we talked about moving the public comment too later most public comments are what on the business Cycles right the boats yeah would it make sense a couple public comment before the business items which would make it probably like 6 30 7 o'clock something like that that would definitely help the public don't want to come and speak for sure yeah because you can always stream it on your phone while you're doing whatever pay attention to what's going on meeting come here we can you know like we had our five-minute reasons right we can do that and then have public comments um you bring up equity which is nice equity for everyone else here too though working the day that starts at seven o'clock in the building probably earlier maybe earlier getting out at three four o'clock stick around for two and a half hours then being here for another four hours that's what like an 18-hour day or something but it should only be once a month and I know it has not been for yeah budget stuff and hopefully that would not be as Grand as next year but you know I understand for the stuff it is a lot in a very long day but how many hundreds of parents do we have within the district that should have us be able to have a say within the school can you be able to that's a very fair point how many have shown up this year but how many are watching online I mean what's the data well we're not going we're not talking about not having it online though anybody can still we'll still be streaming it we'll still be recording it and are they at 10 30 at night I don't think yeah yeah but so if you randomly because you have an interview like that so if you put the parent comment buried within the meeting I mean then people are gonna have to stick around if they don't want to listen to so I I just think five is not realistic like if my schedule if my course have changed my schedule there is no way at all that I'd be able to be here if I so I you know and and if someone we've already had someone have to resign on the committee because of scheduling conflicts and that was more to just uh the day but but I I we have to recognize that people do have kids and do work and usually normal jobs get out at 5 PM so to start a meeting at 5 00 PM you know we're not in Star Trek we can't transport ourselves I wish it would be fun but you know I well one of the reasons we do this whole calendar for the whole year here in 13 months before the unit is to add that advanced plan uh we can put it to a vote if you want to put it to a vote just you work every day till five I I am privileged enough that I do not now but all right that's good but I'm saying that you know elections come and you know it's just yeah every two years so if people here can do this year we can vote again next year but if everybody here can do five we have to do what this committee can do for this year 5 30 is still moving up an hour but if the people here don't need 5 30 including yourself because you said you're flexible this year I mean I would still my husband works till five and I do have two kids yeah one of which still is very accident from so you know I can't just leave them in the house days coming though Jess it's coming it's a nice day but anyways I'm just saying if you're you could do it if you I see what you're saying I know but it's not just the you know whatever 6 10 12 of us you know there's a whole District of parents and other people invited in the meeting right but we're suggesting moving it back a little bit for those people we need the committee members to commit to five everybody else I mean yeah you can you can you know there's select board meetings that start at 7 30.
and they said we need more resources on our campus we our students are dealing with a lot of challenges and I as a student can't help my friends I'm not a professional I can't help my friends so we Mr Carr was the board president he accepted the resolution we voted on it and then we incorporated it in when we went out for our override because we had already made that promise to provide more resources and while I think it was a maybe more of an issue back then in 2018 or 2017 I think that people are more aware of how teens and students are struggling with this issue right now and I I really don't think that most people I'm sure there are some because there are always some but most people would be grateful to have those resources available should their child need them let me tell you how these ranked I'm pulling it up right now this is from top to bottom student and staff safety maintaining competitive teacher salaries and benefits campus security suicide safety and prevention maintaining smaller class sizes and highest needs classrooms Mental Health Counselors maintaining instructional coach support dedicated to academic achievement and then social workers yeah so Mental Health Counselors and social workers are at the bottom of that list which I which is why I think saying something more generic like student wellness we could even say I mean we could throw I'd say mental Wellness or I just I do you know I think Wellness again Wellness is too broad I think it's all encompassing so it's any whatever your idea of Wellness is it's included in there that's why I think it might be because the other part is I feel like having those resources on our campus is a really important part of campus safety it's really an important part of campus safety to to know that there are resources there to help students when they need it maintaining campus Safety and Security and student supports how about maintaining campus security and resources for student wellness I could I could go with that does did anybody did you have something I I just I feel like maybe mental needs to be put in there somewhere because I mean if you put Wellness does that mean we're gonna have a physician I mean I don't know like I'm afraid that might be what if we just say supports for students resources for student support supports what about mental health supports right yeah that's not where I was gonna go okay because I think when when you say just Wellness that could be you could interpret that could be somebody could interpret yeah being physical too it could be you know the basketball game the basketball team that's I mean it all that we do is for student wellness but I think this is more specific so maybe if we put maintaining campus Safety and Security and resources for overall mental health support student mental health support would you say I'm sorry I said overall student wellness or overall student I just really liked what I heard earlier somebody said earlier today that we have to get the students right before they're going to learn and I think that that could be there's a whole spectrum of what students need to get right before they can learn and by just saying mental I think we're we're not we're not encompassing enough of that Spectrum and so that's why I and I'm not I'm not in love with the word Wellness but that's why a word like Wellness is is can be can be anything to anyone on that spectrum of what a student needs to get to get ready to learn can we ask the cabinet sitting back there what their opinion is or not well we can we're gonna come back with this remember we're not gonna this is the first year yeah so we have an opportunity to reword yeah because I would like to see the well I guess we're not voting on it tonight that's for sure so I would like to see the whole thing so let me let me see if I can kind of Wordsmith with the suggestions or just yeah and and so I think we've got the first paragraph which is split into two I think we got that so now we're just working on the bullet points and I think we got the first bullet point we're good it's the second and third but primarily we've been talking about the second so we can work on that a little bit and then let's go down to the last part where it says we thank you for your past support and ask again for your trust in funding the excellent education provided by Gilbert public schools are we good with that I'm good with that if if we put a new paragraph at the top you mean add a new okay split it into two where we where we already have yeah right because I think it's just so and I was going to start that second paragraph where it says GPS continues to prioritize now that's a third paragraph So the there's just one sentence at the top we've seen one sentence at a time oh and then do another paragraph where it says the existing 15 okay I didn't catch that good and then the third paragraph is GPS continues to prioritize gotcha then the bullet points then this last sentence and then please vote Yes for the budget override continuation okay yes I will get this to you by Thursday and and um with some suggestions you guys so are we done proposing changes tonight uh no no no so one thing and is the sentence beginning we thank you we thank you for your existing support or your current support yeah oh yeah or just support yeah if the intent is to say oh but it's saying thank you for your I've been supporting yeah your past support and past can be changed it's just yeah because we we're trying to say that we already have this in place yeah yes I've already supported us in the past please continue to support us in the future do you want to say previous support because it was a vote yeah we thank you for your previous support and ask again for your trust in funding the excellent education what do you think about that Mr Johnson do you like previous um um I think I like current better but I don't previous doesn't give me any heartburn yeah thank you so I was wondering on the class size reduction I've been playing around with that a little bit what about ongoing class size reduction allocation that I like I love that what about that ongoing class size reduction allocation sorry Dr McCord you could never be the administrative assistant oh goodness it doesn't work it doesn't it's not the right language so you're talking about for the third bullet point yeah for the Third Edition I just wrote all this down you said no sorry well because the budget overhead continuation will directly benefit our students and families by ongoing no no you can have it a couple times no it doesn't fit the sentence in terms of what the next word yeah yeah well we can work on it okay I think we continued what's good on that one continue continuing the allocation yet yes or continuing the class size reduction allocation yeah continued resource allocation to class size reduction it works it has to be parallel right retaining maintaining continuing so we have to but we can change all of those too but okay right not till the 20th um and it's not officially due till after that yeah we could potentially have another stab at it at the end of July though it would be better yeah I think we'll be ready this was a good I think this was a good discussion and I think again that was great we want to be clear in helping our voters understand why we're asking for it the our priorities that we'll use and how we will spend this money and how it you know relates to our students and staff basically and again I think that the more clear we can be I think that's that's good so so after Dr McCord sends out this written revised version how do we submit further revisions before the 20th do we send them just to you or just to help us to me and then so I want to make sure we're not I know yeah we can't that's helping me a lot but send them to me okay and then I'll either add a kind of add your versions or because I won't make the final decision on that and I don't imagine there'll be a lot of revisions but um we'll bring it to the the board meeting and then we can we'll talk about it one more time but with a vote at the End discussion with about pretty sure you count the words please yes yes yes I just wonder if if there is some place to add in that the existing 15 override will go away because that is something that they may not realize so I would love to see on this the 20th board meeting if we're making changes can we can you print them out and highlight them so I can read it like yeah we did tonight because it's hard to follow when we're all just throwing sentences out there so yeah if you make up a a sentence yeah bring it let's yeah everybody's suggestion I'll okay yeah you can either print it out and add it in or you know if we have five separate things we can at least look at it because trying to write something else without um something in front of you I'm a visual learner it's really hard for me to follow that that's why I brought this tonight so I appreciate that I appreciate that just while my brain is in this mode [Music] if we want to include the that it expires soon we could do it in this last sentence we thank you for your support of the override that expires soon or some version of that oh I'll look at it yep um and then maybe make a next sentence if it's an if it's an agenda item on the 20th can we post all these things on board docs so we can each look at it prior to the meeting because that way we could if we need to so so you would have to have those into me if you really wanted to give it an Earnest look probably next week beginning and next week so like next Monday or Tuesday okay I can do that I'm taking a vacation from now on but Monday or Tuesday I can do that I will be out of town the 15th through the 18th so so you know but I will have internet access so Dr McCord um I was wondering if it would be helpful to share an electronic copy of the 2019 full pamphlet so that all of you can see how the pro con statements are included within that would that be helpful yeah just send them a piece everybody yeah that'd be great that way you can see the other information that's why there's only 200 words because there's a lot of information that describes the override and so well that would be helpful to know what the description is maybe we don't need to add that language because it's already in the description so let me do that tomorrow perfect thank you great thank you I think we are at a point where we can conclude this discussion and we will now adjourn my friend's okay with it we will adjourn the work study um I'd like to move forward unless we need a quick break okay okay let's move forward then so we have now adjourned the work study and we'll now move to number five on the agenda the brief board business meeting um I will call this meeting to order and then I would ask Miss Wilson to please call roll Chad Thompson here Miss Laurie wood here Michigan here miss Jill Humphries here Miss Rhonda page here Madam president all board members are present you have a quorum thank you very much that will take us to the consent agenda items 6.01 the approval of consent agenda items board members is there a motion so moved thank you Mrs Humphries it's been moved that we approve the consent agenda items is written is our second second thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved and seconded all those in favor of approving the consent agenda items please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with Nate thank you that passes five zero that will now take us to our action items for tonight uh we'll begin with 7.01 superintendent's performance performance-based pay for FY 2022 2023 I'm just going to ask for a motion okay I move that we approve the superintendent's performance-based pay for FY 2022-23 as discussed in executive session thank you Miss Humphries it's been moved is there a second thank you Miss Mr Jetty it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion um I would like to just say that based on you know our discussions and what Dr McCord presented to us that we are very fortunate in Gilbert to have a superintendent of the quality of Dr McCord and when I say this I it's not just his leadership but it's his ability to bring a team together that he has his leadership team he draws very highly qualified people and he listens to them and he is out there and getting to know the community all of the time and I just want to say that I'm very very pleased that we have Gilbert has Dr McCord as our superintendent thank you Mr Jetty is there anything further that was all-encompassing yes he didn't leave much um I I want to add my appreciation um but it's been six is this the sixth year sixth year and I I do feel like um our district has really moved forward in the last six years part of that is the help that we've received more funding so we have more opportunities to do things but I think good leadership is critical and the leadership creates the culture and I know we have a very warm collaborative District where people feel welcomed into our schools and I um I think that comes from the top down and thank Mr McCord for sorry Dr McCord for his hard work and all that he's done too and and the people that he leads with to do that for us so thank you thank you Mr Freeze anything further so since my time on the board I've gotten a a much better understanding of the role GPS has in our community and I think that GPS really is the heart of our community it's it's the one thing that all of us everybody has in common or could have in common and we're seeing and I think that's the same in a lot of communities but we're seeing around the country and even here locally um some of those things some of that Community feeling um breaking down and uh for any any number of reasons that's this is happening um and so I I want to thank Dr McCord for his ability to make sure that our students have what they need uh and and as importantly um making sure that things that don't belong in schools stay out of GPS you've got a good understanding of what uh of what this school district and this community needs to stay successful and that shows in your uh in the way you cultivate an attitude of success not only with our students but also our staff from your from your Administration to our school administrators it trickles down all the way to our classrooms and I think our everybody knows what we're trying to accomplish and I think that's because of the of the the path that you have had a tremendous hand in defining and so I thank you for for all you've done and and all you continue to do I don't even know how to top the three of you so I knew Dr McCord when he was coach McCord Little League many many years ago um but I've always been a huge fan of you always been so grateful for the service that you've contributed to GPS I agree with what everybody said here top down we can see it one of the first things you said to me when I pulled my papers and I was able to meet with you was when trust is you give us so much when trust is earned you turn around and allow us to have access to your Administration there are superintendents that don't allow that with their boards and so I appreciate the fact that we can have access to them call them with any questions being able to have conversations with them um GPS is very lucky to have you here very very lucky I've known you before that you were the same then you're the same now and I'm so grateful and appreciative of your dedication to the students here and wanting Gilbert Public Schools to run very excellently and you've surrounded yourself with an amazing team really impressed with that and created a culture where people feel welcome and I think it also affects this board the way that you've approached us it's always been your doors always open you're we always have access to you and your and your Administration so I appreciate that thank you all I I'll just add as well just wanted to thank you is it's good to pause and reflect as we end another year here with on your contract we're appreciative I'm so appreciative of you as well with your leadership your time and dedication your belief in teachers and staff and your passion for students and their education and your respect and partnership with our families and all you do for our community and it the way that you lead out in the outstanding educational opportunities that we have here at Gilbert public schools and I I appreciate that and we are grateful so thank you for your work with that being said it's been moved and seconded that we approved the superintendent's performance-based pay for FY 2022 2023 seeing no further discussion I will call for the vote all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with Nate thank you that passed five zero can I say something please you guys said such wonderful things and I appreciate it um these folks that you talked about and alluded to the team not just the folks in cabinet but everybody out there in departments as well as at schools teachers support staff Transportation operations custodial staff everybody this this is a team and it isn't top down it is it is about relationships and we've had some very very blessed uh relationships and this place has been through some great times and it's been through some hard times and so I appreciate everybody sticking in there and and and being tough but more importantly and I've said this in other venues but it is clear that the success of a board of a school district is is about how the board interacts with each other as well as with the superintendent and you guys are setting the standard for that and I appreciate that that is something that should speak volumes not just in this community but around the state and around this country because not everybody agrees and has the same philosophy but it's about respect and kindness and how we treat each other not just privately but publicly as well and so I appreciate you guys making the effort to do that so thank you for that thank you Dr McCord and thank you all for your thoughts that will take us to 7.02 the advertisement for FY 2024 proposed budget summary and public hearing notice Dr McCord thank you madam president governing board members as uh you were presented tonight in just 46 slides but done extremely well we always have fun with Bonnie and the number of slides uh this is as required by Statute to give notice and for public hearing for the proposed 2024 budget thank you board members is there a motion I move that we approve the advertisement for the 20 fiscal year 2024 proposed budget summary and public hearing notice did I do that right yep thank you Miss CJ it's been moved as our second and second thank you Mrs page it's been moved and seconded that we approve the advertisement for FY 2024 proposed budget summary and public hearing notice is there any discussion so not not I don't have anything to discuss regarding the notice but I did think of something the question that I probably should have asked earlier it was alluded to during our work our works our work study that this budget can be tweaked as we go as we as as things come from the state as Things become more final or we we learned things that we didn't know before uh what's the process for for that making sure that we continue an approved budget and is there some threshold that once we reach it does have to come to the board for approval to enact that change what will happen is we'll we always have revised budgets coming forward and when's the next one probably or the first one will be October September just depends our student s more than we expected we may be required by Statute to revise down by the 15th and but generally if something goes to the positive or not so positive we come back uh right after school starts and we we continually crunch those numbers and if we see danger coming you'll be alerted and then we'll come back with another revision for the budget uh sometime before December 15th thank you yep I appreciate that question so is there any further discussion hearing none I will call for the vote all those in favor of approving the advertisement for FY 2024 proposed budget summary and public hearing notice please vote by saying aye aye and any opposed with nay thank you that passes five zero that will take us to the adjournment of our brief board business meeting board members is there a motion so moved thank you Miss Humphries it's been moved is there a second second thank you Mr Jetty it's been moved and seconded that we adjourn all those in favor please vote by saying aye aye any opposed with Nate thank you very much
you know people want to get to those they have to get to them I'm not trying to sound insensitive at all right you know the administrators that are here I mean it's not I know it's just too late but it is part of the job description too once a month school committee meetings and so you know I think you're recognizing that they're staying late by trying to move it out from 6 30 but I think five is too early and I think really five is the earliest that should be considered so as someone who's been on this Pokemon for three years I can say that we never it's rare that we ever do one meeting a month and that's really an unfortunate reality is that when budget season comes and we didn't this year we had a really important budget season but the year before we had double meetings it just seems like there's a lot of time and I I recognize and I appreciate that you're speaking out for those those parents the reports are not what the parents show up to talk about so if we were to move the reports to the beginning and then move the public comment followed by the business items that we go on that's what usually people feel really passionate about I think that would be a nice compromise that's just my opinion um because I I know you know after having worked a full day especially where you guys are here so early it's just a lot to ask you to stay that late and I feel like they I know they can't watch it but with the with the fact that it's recorded you can always watch it later which is usually what I do yeah I mean the subcommittee meetings already take place during the day I don't know it's hard to to cater to those daytime schedules but that again like from the perspective of a parent that was trying to stay up to date on what was happening it was really challenging you know I couldn't go to a subcommitting meeting I you know I'd have to watch it recorded if it was recorded and then post it in a timely manner so it you know those upcoming meetings also happen more than once a month or so certainly in the budget season having a lot you know so I think that recognizes and and caters to those daytime schools we've heard from Jess any other comments All right so I'll we'll call for a moment so all in favor of the yeah I would like to amend the current calendar to 5 PM to 5 30.
is that a motion it is a motion to make an amendment okay are there any seconds I hear no seconds so we'll vote on the original motion uh all in favor aye against um can I just point to the clarification or something one of those lines we didn't discuss any of the dates we just had a whole long lengthy discussion if anybody wanted to discuss a date they were free to do so we have all in favor yes no here against okay motion passes uh next up is the Garland scholarship vote um [Music] we need the motion first um have a motion to approve the Moses Reed Tyler scholarship someone second Megan all right we'll do them one at a time okay specific scholarships the first one is the Moses read Tyler scholarship the scholarship was given in the Berlin student or resident who wishes to further their educational studies post High School graduation Rich Mariani and Carol Young again this year made up the scholarship committee nine applicants were received in nine Awards will determine subcommittee recommended awarding twenty thousand five hundred fifty one dollars and ninety one cents to nine eligible applicants from a designated trust fund each receiving a total of two thousand two hundred eighty three dollars and fifty cents I'd like to recommend we vote to approve the subcommittee's certification anybody any questions discussion all in favor all right that promotion of passes that's for most Street Tyler can we get a second one uh can you make the we need a motion to approve the Marion Hoffman award that's right yes all right because someone could have a motion for the Marion Hoffman Awards second Lori the scholarship is awarded to one to two Berlin Memorial School fifth grade students to be presented at the fifth grade recognition night this award is given to a student or two who displays volunteerism and or as an Avid Reader I would like to recommend two thirty dollar amounts to reward to two chosen students chosen by the teachers and requests that we vote to approve this recommendation any questions or discussion all in favor aye okay motion passes uh number 10.
busy uh Capital motion to accept the copy paper a bit similar blurry second one Julie any questions or discussion for Nancy is that a 15 for case savings or something like that um against uh can I have a uh that motion passes can I have a motion to approve the Surplus once any questions or discussion all favorite all right that motion passes if I have a motion to approve the absolute Valley collaborative rates Laurie Julie questions or discussion Carol do you need to give us an update on this or summary or getting done the healthcare yeah no this is just submitted from them it was in the drive yeah any questions all in favor aye aye yes all right that motion passes you have a motion to approve the health teacher position this is uh the position not the job description first approved the job description do that first should we do that one first okay can I have a motion to approve the health teacher job description Julie any questions or discussion here this is just the description correct yeah questions discussion all in favor aye against all right that motion passes so now can I have a motion to approve the health teacher position the second Megan what's called you Julie questions or comments on this one discussion so where was the finance because the library library okay so that's I just love it I'm glad you advocated I mean it happened it's so needed all right yes okay that motion passes I've had a motion to approve the food the floating nurse for two days per week sorry Julie any questions on discussion so where are the so this is one of the positions that will turn into the 77 000 right yes from the bucket that's correct um when we approve those three additional positions though I think we were in the whole 100 000 and that's what got approved right the additional 109 that I can put approved in the budget but then we're not in the hole we weren't in the hole it was just that we were taking money out of this record breaker fund yeah I guess well not sustainable right are you talking about the Berlin Elementary no she's talking about the budget how we voted um she's talking about the additional positions that we added and how we are using school choice and circuit breaker funds to fund the Paras or the AIDS at bes we're using 100 000 from circuit breaker and 50 from school choice could be AIDS I think that should be voted is that what you're asking us is that what you're talking about yeah like you know I know the finance committees were concerned because we were draining buckets and now we're looking to use another 77 000 so I'm just concerned how sustainable it is because like if we drain the school choice that was a buffer are we going to be able to do this next year too what is this floating nurse just for the year or is this a permanent thing Janelle um you know it's in the district Improvement plan would like to be able to keep a float nurse yeah actually five days perhaps it's a situation we have to take it year by year yeah yeah I think that would be probably be the best approach um I mean the high school is large enough for my warrant ooh so this is kind of kind of Paving that pathway and this year the expression yes grows too maybe you know a whole field trip thing too I mean yeah there's so many lit there's so many there's so many reasons um that that's important I mean I was thinking generally you were to talk and there's um a student over in the high school I can't go into medical conditions student has a medical condition and with all the bus issues last year and someone had to stay um with the student after school a nurse you know so it's you run into stuff like that it is tough it's nice to have an extra person especially just because in today's day and age it's not like Subs are ample like right we have a decent simple nurse um pool of some nurses um but you know they're either retired or they have full-time jobs they're not just on standby you know ready on any given yeah [Music] and not everybody's up for a field trip too you know Six Flags until seven eight o'clock at night so you need flexibility it's always such a hard question to answer is it sustainable because you don't know where we're going to be a year right if you have five teachers retire and you bring new teachers in yeah it's going to be very succinct yeah School budget's hard you just it's just all and here's the thing with budgeting too especially for not graphics with the last thing you say because I'm so tired the goal is to just maintain we're not trying to make money here or have a huge surface at the end of the year we're spending everything we're getting right so I mean obviously we want to have reserves in case of an emergency situation but we don't want to be in the position where we want to make sure we're giving the district what we need so I just I don't know I I totally get what you're saying I mean holy holy support these positions I just you know financially I do anticipate having some savings I feel low there won't be tons [Music] you know any other questions all right that motion passes uh number motion to approve the family success partnership program Julie questions and discussion those are the wrap around Services 10 different families or students assessment out there hi hi [Music] all right that motion passes number 17 I have a motion to approve Bridges teacher Berlin at Burlington Laurie Julie anybody else want to talk tonight any questions or discussion is this just the program or is what's the associated cost 3 500 per second Bridges of the year what's up right I mean yeah um hold on I'm sorry it's a para right it would be a one butter and then it's a teacher it's a teaching position but there's a one-to-one parent so if you need three pairs so so students if students in that program need a one-to-one Peril we need to be able to assign them that wouldn't be something necessarily that we would ask for your approval for like is that stuck through special education chances are in that situation the student would need a one-to-one regardless if they were in the district or or out of the district so um any other questions this is uh is this the item that will potentially save it out of District placement which would be double triple yeah I mean those numbers could um it could be exponential pretty pretty quickly yeah but this is going to be a savings for us yeah yeah compared to what it could be especially as we develop capacity it's hard to always know exactly how much but we can see that there's some immediate savings there and then long term as we have capacity to be able to service students in their home District that's a savings all right yeah the questions all in favor aye aye yes okay that motion passes and man oh thank you very much yes you're welcome all right and uh hey team I had a uh motion to approve a stipend and job description for the bright program academic coordinator so that's the 3500.
all right any questions or discussion all right all in favor aye aye against all right that closes business items Carol do we have the animals okay so the executive session does not need to happen all right um that was that was going to be to discusses there's one other item that everybody wanted to be on here uh an open discussion for priorities next year basically is there anything do you want to talk about this now or actually after last night I had my conversation with Tony this might be something that we can discuss during that meeting tomorrow we have this to the end at the end of every uh meeting yeah this one was intended to be a little bit longer because I wanted to go through the district recruitment plan Oh yeah talk about now that the PTO groups are on board how should we work with them next year but uh I'm holding forward and looking online Dr Ben that you'll be speaking with actually I mean this could be part of that yeah so if we want to skip it does anybody want to do it if you want to skip it well just don't feel productive at this time because I do have ideas do you have stuff to what he's going to be talking to us about and doesn't it I mean so I think it makes sense to kind of for him to gather our separate ideas and then pull us all together it would fit yeah and to also be able to look up in the district plan again yes um the 28th it's a Tuesday July 26th okay is it Tuesday July it's 22nd yeah you know all right uh any discussion on the journey thank you for your support as always okay thank you very much thank you
foreign here we are Live on YouTube and recording and ready whenever you are for the interpretation announcement great thank you so much Cameron thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon um Cameron and Guadalupe can you please make the interpretation announcement say Lupita foreign sorry everyone technical difficulties just give it a minute Mexican [Music] yeah see we can hear you when I started companies organizations [Music] thank you very much great thank you so much um thank you everyone for joining us this afternoon I'd like to welcome you to the June 7th 2023.