Reader

and she taught until 1996. today on August 9th 1999 she returned so this is since then her 8760th day back in education she is also known as a huge support from the time that that people joined the team her highest priority is what is best for the students she's kind compassionate listens and stays curious she is also a leader through her action she is always available for questions and always working to help her students and her peers dedicated reliable student Advocate are just some of the words used to describe her I know that I am honored and lucky to be a part of the same team that Brenda's on [Applause] Judy what'd you tell me okay all right thank you do we have any uh volunteer recognition no volunteer recognitions and student of the months will start in September okay so do we have any uh items from governing board members nope nothing from the governing board do we have any public comments nope no public comments okay so next would be item seven the um consent agenda does anyone have any comments or issues they would like to talk about regarding the consent agenda I do not have any who nothing okay then I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda I move to approve the consent because consent agenda as presented easy for you to say hi second it's like 10 seconds okay all in favor say aye aye opposed it passes four to nothing okay next up is I gotta scroll down to find where I am item 8.1 uh let me hang on I gotta get there discussion and consideration of approval of the 23 24 Geo comb strategic plan goals so this was uh this is the final product if you remember we started at the board retreat and we worked through and had a rough draft between the board members and and uh leadership and then we came back to fine-tune it over to leadership meetings and so I believe it is reflective of concerns and questions that were addressed or raised by the board at the at the retreat and some fine-tuned um uh pieces that we talked through based on some of your concerns and Based on data uh relative to how we're doing so if there's specific questions you're more than happy to work you through it but otherwise I would recommend approval as presented so when I looked at it it appears that it's just in the same kind of format with the four goals and then the strategies underneath it right because so what we're changing the the strategy level the objective level and the goal level there were some minor changing of the objective levels in certain ones the goals themselves remain the same tied to our instructional plan and so it's really just at the strategy level with the hope within five years we'll get to 2027 and we'll meet what the big goal was because we're making progress every every year okay questions about that item anything no questions okay then I I'll entertain a motion I moved to approve the jail Combs Unified School District strategic plan 2324 District goals as presented in a second okay all in favor say aye aye opposed it passes four to zero next is discussion and consideration for approval of fiscal year 24 Capital plan members of the board Mr Wyman Dr Wyman colleagues tonight we are here to talk about another Arizona revised Statute this one is statute 15 2041 B which requires the governing board to approve our Capital plan annually for submission to the Arizona school facilities oversight board the capital plan is not a review of our fixed assets it is actually a compilation of our student ADM projections open enrollment students new construction projects and district-owned vacant land summary that must be submitted to the school facilities oversight board this information becomes their basis for eligibility analysis of funding for a new school the 2024 Capital plan was completed using our current ADM or enrollment information the independent study that we previously contracted and then our historical Trends the data shows it breaks it down into K5 6 8 and 912 based on those numbers CMS would be eligible for a school in FY 33.

we've tried but they just don't run very well so I recommend this board gen item as presented I'm just curious as to when does the timeline run out on the use of the ursus funds Esters 2 was running out in September this year we've spent all of those funds Esters 3 runs out in September of next year end of the end of the month questions about this item nope okay a motion please I motion to approve the purchase of new Windows laptop computers for security secondary teachers as presented second okay all in favor say aye aye aye opposed okay it passes four to zero thank you thank you that's a long time isn't it okay item 8.7 discussion and consideration for approval of the purchase of one HVAC unit at Combs Middle School members of the board Dr Wyman colleagues um the middle school has two AC units they're 40 ton units on the on the gymnasium one has failed it's not repairable um it's pretty much towards the end of its lifespan anyway and this is to replace one of them um it's desperately needed I'm running the other unit 24 7 just to keep it to where they can use the gym but it towards the end of the day I think or I can tell us that it gets a little toasty in there yeah wow that's the way to get it quick I mean no no that's the problem everybody's um everybody's slammed as far as um with the excessive heat all of the manufacturers are three to six months behind and for Clarity on some of this too is is HVAC units these types of units are not like it's not like you go to a card lot and there's all these cars and you just choose a car that you want most cases they don't build these until it's until you order one I had an emergency I lost eight in one building up in Payson uh the week before Christmas and we did not get them put in until uh the end of March and that was an emergency and so you're at the mercy of whatever the lead time is and that was before the pandemic and all that kind of stuff so uh we had uh formal bids and they all they are all putting 35 weeks as delivery time how's the other unit working I mean I know it's yeah we have a few of those That We're Not Gonna Knock in the wood um I mean so um you know it helps by letting it run 24 7.

uh really you will see the increases caused uh just by the increases kind of salary and benefits that we have done over the past a couple of years not only with classified staff but with certified staff started to build up I've also included in their positions that we've been paying for out of Grants I know that the Esser Grant was a fund that we've been paying out of salary positions over the last three years eventually that Grant will run out at the end of the school year and so some of those positions are integrated into this 2024 all those positions are integrated in this 2024 budget uh which obviously will determine what our staffing needs will be at a later point in time but all that is represented into this budget and so the increases are primarily salary benefits we did add a day reporting position in there that's something new that we haven't had we've always shared that in one cyber school districts as well as its own separate uh position housed by us and then the only other thing in there I highlighted in red is that doesn't really show up on our budget estimate but that is kind of what we budgeted last year for as far as transfers from the education fund into the operation fund that will probably go up a little bit but that is nothing that is reflected in a budget as far as Appropriations are concerned and Dr Q mentioned the day reporting it's not just the day reporting as far as I mean that's one of the primary duties of that teacher but that teacher has special education license will be our continuing Services teacher which means that if we need some a short-term alternative education placement besides just the day reporting which is really the suspensions that we have done before he would do that and then also this position this teacher will also be a teacher for a special education for bridge students one of the teachers we have several special education teachers in that program but just another one because of the need for that so when you look at that salary you're probably wondering about the day reporting but there's multiple uh duties of that that teacher so so what's the date report data where whites that way so again there's a building and I worked with Mr Ron Evans the CEO and their staff to make sure that we can house that there actually it was housed there at one time it was housed at an elementary before it was housed in the ounce program as a house that the old eigen tech building so it's been a lot of different places but now it's just our own for norfolks out really for grades six through twelve and the reason sixth grade is because we have moved them up and then that could be typically we're not going to have that younger student if we get every once in a while in this situation that they may be placed in there for a few days for some accountability of their actions instead of like a formal principle foreign moving on to Personnel recommendations resignation Amy Powell bus driver paraprofessional jet Alliance paraprofessional Danielle Whiteman paraprofessional underemployment we have Rod Cole teacher at southford high school Melissa Clark paraprofessional Salford Elementary bus driver Tanya cellis paraprofessional Mary blykin paraprofessional Jessica florig paraprofessional Stephanie Fisher paraprofessional Paige Klingler teacher jummy Willard paraprofessional Heather Heiden teacher at southford High School Sherry Anna teacher temporary Southland High School then we have Kelsey nicom his junior high volleyball coach at Salford High School Jonathan Collins volunteer assistant cross country Southwood High School Casey Dyson fifth and sixth grade volleyball Northfield High School Kenzie Griffin seventh grade volleyball Northfield High School Lori Schultz paraprofessional and transfers and Melissa Metz transferring to Superior professional from Shark Creek to Northville High School the one thing about my nails she'll also be a very professional not along with bus driving oh yeah it gets here I just did that yeah [Music] a second unfavorable approval say hi hi [Music] and we do just really appreciate the new staff and also some of our staff who have retired and help us out to come back and do some work for us so below that anything tonight but superintendent report yeah I just want to mention a couple of things obviously this time of year since you've already mentioned that in the prayer but school starts tomorrow and it's just amazing how much in preparation that everyone does and we just appreciate all of our staff for that just to give you a little idea um administrators we had a basically something a little bit different this year to get all of our logistical things covered we met on a zoom last week and then that was so you know sometimes there's some travel situations that just take a little more time so we thought we'd be more efficient and do it that way I know Mr Drake and I were both principals we'd always talk about Central offices Central since I was at norfield I felt like it was a lot more Central than what Mr Drake thought it was so uh but that was always fun because you had to go across town but anyway but then also last Friday we had the opportunity to be in a Global Leadership Summit that's something that is global so it's all over the country Chicago was the main hub for uh U.S but then there's also satellite areas and so we were just at Honeywell Center in Legacy Hall heard a lot of great speakers and that will motivate us and help us with some different leadership and things that we can all improve on and we'll talk more about that in our admin meetings also our bus drivers had a couple of meetings to get all prepared they're very very important stat members of course because they're typically the first ones that a child will see and so we appreciate all that they do and bring them to school safely and they're the last ones that see our students too so they've had a couple Millions custodial meaning Mr Drake who runs the new teacher meeting for new teachers also just yesterday we had our opening day and we actually had a very interesting situation where we brought in the 2023 teacher of the year the Indiana teacher of the year to be our keynote speaker and she was a teacher at Southwood for two years uh social studies teacher and she actually that was her first experience as a public school teacher she did private school she did some other things prior to that and so it was really neat to have her come in and share and to motivate and talk about our district and and how our mission and vision kind of goes along with what she is trying to do as far as being an advocate for the teacher of the year for 2023.

well I mean you have to add on um contingencies design fees to soft costs which is about 50 Factor so if you're 750 000 with 1.5 all in costs about one one one two that sounds better right because you're about two classrooms and anymore I think your classrooms right around a half million dollars there's a 3.3 million dollar difference between option two and three so I was trying to listen on Facebook but probably so you asked that question about Field House what was the answer not a lot of the difference right I don't know there'd be a whole lot of square footage difference we've done it two or three really three-quart field houses where we squeezed 500 600 seats in they pull across maybe the end court but the middle court then becomes the one that you use for a competition or program or whatever and what size try to remember that I gotta pull off lockerings and the things that Quake wrestling rooms and stuff that got stuck onto the end of them but 100 70.

okay and there's one year where it actually went negative it was 2008 and it went down like 0.9 percent every year since then it's either leveled off or it's gone off so we have still Peak yeah I don't see your I don't think you're gonna ever see a big deal the cost it's a matter of how much is it going to go up purchase of the money is more of my concern Ed it's we're still historically low but yet we're higher right at least we were last on interest rates yes I don't know those are we had the graduates last year it's kept moderated well I'm saying historical like 100 years ago yeah not for five but for more trades right no well what do you mean from us they have a decision of some kind of Rights rather than keep going around in a circle like we always do we'll wait for what do you want to learn next we're going to think about this and have questions we'd love to do this we could wait three or four months before we get started on it so we'll get back yeah is there still a timing issue on when you want to sell bonds and all that kind of good stuff so we're going to be selling bonds for our current projects that we don't come up here within the next month or so but we would like to sell once again in [Music] for a bigger project but part of now when we start depends on when you want to take the bonds out in 2024 and get us but I won't speak for Dana but if that's something you want to do why they do their next year we probably need to get a role in there well and we need to do it too though we have Steve and Tony here too and you know we do have things that we need to decide because we're Sharp Creek and some things that need to be done and so yeah that's fair yeah right well to prepare and just to make sure that we can keep continuing the HVAC going and things like that right Christine that's right okay yeah did a great job with all that though but cannot continue or maybe a lot larger advantages so yes you would like um encourage the board too but all of us to make the decision found out in early spring installer in late summer early fall both so from the time we did ask those questions earlier yeah this is 2024 yes we'll get some shovels out and we'll listen yeah so we'll make a decision here shortly and that can happen Play Somewhere That's 12 of us no pressure we've been talking about a long time all right well we have another meeting coming up here thank you okay thank you again we'll stay in touch shutting her down

as presented in a second second and any further discussion you heard the superintendent's info about that already any further discussion I'm not seeing any uh so any abstentions from that any no votes again that passes unanimously okay superintendent evaluation uh that's item 11 and uh for folks who are following along the meeting in the materials for tonight's meeting there is a copy of the evaluation form that we use uh at this point we are in a two-year evaluation cycle for the superintendent and the form that we use now is called the mid-cycle formative assessment evaluation report for administrators it is provided to us by Desi um each of the committee members was just provided with one that is customized for them with their name as well as the actual details of the various goals and objectives provided in there oh it's state this one's stapled funny that's not yours doesn't look like this so if you look as a Committee Member on page two you will see that the superintendents goals I'm just getting mine out um progress towards goals has already been filled in based on the superintendent's um goals and indicators for the two-year cycle which is the final pay It's the final page of the packet that I gave you and then I've just filled in the items that you're evaluating to kind of make it easier to know what you're supposed to do so you can see on page two and also on page three I've taken the information from the superintendent goals and indicators that we have and I've plugged it into the form for you so hopefully it's as error free as possible when you actually fill it out so the last page is the key I just filled them all in for everyone so you don't have to do it yourself that was one of the big hiccups when we lasted the evaluation last year people didn't understand what they were actually evaluating and it's we've voted on these goals now at least twice for the superintendent and so I've just plugged them in and then the other thing that is provided to you as evaluators is I yesterday shared a Google drive folder with everyone of the member school committee members that has a blank copy of this form the goals and indicators sheet and then the deci 28-page rubric of the focus indicators and the Strategic objectives and strategic priorities that you can review to see how the superintendents specific goals are connected to the rubric that is provided to us I did not want to print out 27 pages of rubric for everyone because you can get it on the Google Drive and it's in the binder that we all have from the evaluation training that we did in 2020 whatever 2021 remember John Johnson we saw please uh two questions on page two um my copy shows empty check boxes for the first two rows for this second two rows I think it's applied that I'm supposed to kind of fill in a box like that but the boxes are yeah that's a Desi mess up actually and I just missed it but they should have boxes as well is that where you're asking check boxes yeah that's my question the final two rows on page two should have the same check boxes I just used their form and didn't notice that they didn't that's so that's a good catch and my second question is on page three um there are codes but I don't see that they're spelled out anywhere but I believe that you means it's spelled out on page two the top of each column okay but then you have you have U and I which doesn't line up with nuts I'm sorry oh look at that yeah so I think that here's what I think maybe they stand for maybe correct me if I'm wrong but you would be unstarted unsatisfactory unsatisfactory okay and what's ni then it needs improvements proficient needs Improvement the P would be proficient and the E would be for exceeded or excellent or exceeds yes and they are spelled out on the rubric I believe the 28-page rubric that I didn't print you'll see those on there as the evaluating okay I mean this is why we have trouble with the Forum right yes exactly yeah thank you very much thank you for asking part three of my I'm sorry I was talking to you I'm sorry I have multiple questions that's fine what why do we have this one and this one the one that's in the packet is provided as a part of the publicly materials for the meeting it's just an example so the public can follow along at home gotcha okay and the one that I gave you it's just a printed example but this is the one the one I gave you with your name on the front page is the one that we will use for the actual evaluation okay and then my other question is in this lovely novel are the um goals from the last one in here and the data from the last one so that we can look at that and make comparisons from evaluation to evaluation that we're going to do no and that I don't know if that's because it does say that's a really good question I don't know if it's beyond the scope or not well it says in here it asks us different ratings from prior summative evaluation comments required so are we looking at ratings and comparing them to the Past so one of the prior summative evaluation one piece I would like to clarify this year is not a summative evaluation this year's formative meaning that you are giving feedback to see if we need to change course on any of the goals or if we're you know if I'm on track it's to give feedback the a very easy way to sort of distinguish formative to summative is formative as you're tasting the soup while you're cooking it and summative is how your guests feel when they eat it so at the end when the soup is done you will do a summative and you can compare it to last year's so next June will be a summative as well this year's just feedback and what was last year last year was a summative based on one year's evaluation okay so let's check in because it's got this box and I want to make sure that I understand all the aspects of this terrible report that we all hate okay remember Johnson go ahead so uh where it says on page three of three under formative evaluation only there's two different marks same ratings as prior or different ratings from prior does that mean we need to go back to what how we rated the superintendent last time and determine whether our marks this time are different from the word last time and then make comments if they have changed I think that's kind of what that was just what I asked oh sorry then what was the answer the answer was it's not no the answer was next year we do it but it says it's four formative that we have to check I can give you last year's although the goals aren't the same so I'm not you know I guess it would be the general area of performance you could look at am I doing about the same in instructional leadership Better or Worse am I doing about the same in management and operations better or worse it's that sort of comparison I believe if I guess I just want to I guess what I'm curious maybe the chair can answer if I were to submit this without check marks under either those items and without going back to my past evaluation would that be acceptable or do I need to try to okay what I was what I was about to say after hearing both of you is perhaps I sort of just checked different ratings from prior summative evaluation comments required I could have done that and you could just yeah that's my question how would we know if it's not in the package I guess I'm misunderstanding the the um I think the superintendent might be able to provide more context two things one I'm happy to give you last year's summative ratings that that's completely fine however I would also like to make the point that this document is not the process okay the feedback is the process um there's there's some requirement for you to give me a grade so to speak but I you folks could write feedback to me on paper towels that is the piece that is important is feedback on how I'm doing moving the district so I would encourage you to not worry as much about the form as the process that's what we talk to I talked to my principals about and I hope they talk to the teachers about it's the conversation and the feedback that's really the important thing so I am quite happy to share last year's grades so to speak and you can give feedback if you think I'm doing better on communication and you know family engagement than I did last year that would be great for you to comment on if you think I'm doing worse it'd be great for you to comment on but I also feel like you could do that subjectively because you all have feelings about how how I'm doing in all of these areas so um but I'm quite happy to provide you last year's rating so if you would like to do objective comparisons you can do that but it's I don't want to I just want to be clear I don't want to do that fine don't and to that point like the the forms are stay internal to us so I'm not you know as long as your comments are appropriate to the scope of the evaluation and you've given some indication of providing feedback we'll leave it at that we can't get hung up on the details we learned that last time around that it's just it doesn't serve anyone well but they're not internal to us in the sense that our responses will be public of course but I I mean we're just you know sometimes on a form when you fill it out anywhere the person helping you fill it out will say you can just leave that part blank we don't use that anymore or we're not using that right now or something and we just we move on and we feel don't fill out that part of the form that's all please mayor uh on the page three I believe I just heard you say correct me if I'm wrong this is the question that what you really under formative evaluation only the one page with you the ni Etc you want us to follow the second box different ratings from prior summative evaluation comments required we kind of just don't want to even worry about what the right answer is in that box just provide your feedback yeah just okay other questions is there a time if it was in an email I missed so there was not an email about it um I I would like to say if I could have it um I was going to say not this Friday uh give me a second to look at my calendar the 25th of August it gives you a little bit over two weeks to get it done the 25th of August it's a Friday I would be happy to provide a reminder earlier that week by email that you need to get it done Into Me by that day is it something that's on our calendar we can put it on the calendar um can you add that to your notes yeah how are we getting it to the Amish way is fine you can walk it to my house um you can send it if if you want to scan if you have the ability and you want to scan it and email it to me if you want to provide it to Lauren in the central office however you want to get it to me I am fine with that the Amish way is my favorite any other questions about this so the 25th um and I'll chase you down and I will do a reminder email at the beginning of that week okay and I should have also mentioned the the Bible please so we are going to get a tour of the of the documentation for the evaluation that the superintendent is providing the highlights I'll hit the highlights I'm not going to read to you you all are capable of reading this I would like to explain the format so that you know what you're looking at it begins with somewhat of a narrative by me you will see in boldface the goal identified so the goal for school is instructional leadership as an example I then go through identifying the evidence that is included in that section and I have included next to each piece of evidence what indicator I believe it supports you will see some notes for example in this packet our priority plan work that we did working with our Statewide system of support ssos folks is in here it is included as a copy in the instructional leadership section it is referenced in two sections but I didn't copy it a second time and put it in the second section so you will but you will have seen it by the time it's referenced for the second section there are e-team minutes you'll see in each section there is a document that says examples of e-team minutes right at the top and then it says goal a instructional leadership these are excerpts from our administrative team meetings that are relevant as points of evidence that I've included um so you will see that I put the date and in the narrative I reflect which indicator they represent I'm just um at the end so each section goes through that there are four goals as you can see I include evidence in each section and then the last several pages of the narrative document that's on the top includes additional accomplishments those are things that are not connected specifically to the goals but I felt were important for even if they do not relate to my goals that the committee should recall were accomplished during this past year such as the Strategic plan being completed all of the contracts being completed so some important benchmarks are also there so you will see each section there are two data tables I'm happy to explain those briefly if you would like okay in the packet you will see two tables that look like this the first one speaks to the percentage of chronically absent students there are two categories one the percent of students who are absent ten percent of the school year or more so if they miss more than 18 days in the school year that's the category that they're included in or the students that Miss more than 20 percent of the school day these statistics are on the state site they can be accessed by anyone and the comparison is from the last day of school for 2022 to March of 2023 because the state has not yet published our end of school data but I felt that it was important for everyone to see the substantial improvement in our chronic absentee rate make no mistake we are not yet pleased with what the numbers are but we are very happy to see the Improvement because our academic Improvement is not going to reflect what it could be if our students are not in front of us so that is one piece of data the other is illustrative of some of our data I expect in September or as soon as our MCAS scores are out you will get a more in-depth presentation of performance data what you will see is on the left all of our tested grades using Dibbles or the middle school version called Maze and then our usns which is the universal screener for number sense they are just two indicators they're not the be all end-all and you will see the percentage of students at or above the target from the fall of 2022 to Spring of 2023 the first section being the reading piece the second section being math what I noted is this is my interpretation without further analysis but it will be it will be done as we get more into our ilt work at the start of school you will notice the more significant Improvement in performance at the younger grades my hypothesis only at this stage is that the exposure to high quality instructional materials consistent across the district is having a positive impact that is my hypothesis we will continue to test that as we go but there is a rather significant change in performance as you get to the upper grades but we are confident that the steps outlined in the Strategic plan will help us to address those can I throw something in another hypothesis is that you can the interventions you do with younger students will have an impact over the years on the old as they grow older and that it may be more difficult to move numbers with older students than younger I very well could be and as you know across the past two years the intervention process has been refined and is much more consistent so we're doing a better job reviewing data and identifying students for intervention as well and you're right cumulative impact if we address learning gaps early on it is less likely to impact in the future so I think that's plus plus for our youngest students again hypothesis at this point but so barring any specific questions I again don't feel the need to read all of this to you um but certainly if something is not clear I'm happy to respond to that I only wish you provided us more information so sorry yeah give a couple more Bible entries I have many many more so don't tempt me it will be coming so I just because I'm sure that I would walk away and not be able to figure this out if I hadn't been or I'd be able to figure it out but I would be confused so goal a is the same as standard one goal B is the same as standard two c three D four correct I'm saying it out loud so we're on the same page because it's just okay I just know myself other questions for the superintendent or comments about the process questions about the process all right thank you Christine thank you committee we will move on item 12 is the request for new agenda items please remember Denise I was hoping to add to an agenda in the future discussing um break times for these meetings because they do go quite long and it would be nice to know that maybe we have a 10 minute break in the future sure other stuff secretary extra yeah um I just I've been thinking about um oh continuity and not being here anymore and and things like that and with a with an election year coming up and sort of I don't know there are things that happen in election years that I've watched I'm just which is not an implication of anything but I was just curious if if the policy committee could review file BCA which is the school Committee Member Ethics Committee or policy just to ensure that it's up to date so that when new people start at the beginning of next year that it's everyone's clear on it I guess I'm not I just it's no there there are pieces in here that that speak about politics and as we know I get a little angsty about politics that may or may not be going on and and that's my thing um but I just I think it would be wise for us to do a review of that I don't that's so that's my thought so you are asking about one specific policy or about the ones related to school committee roles in that section it could be so if we went back to the policy manual which is what I'm looking at everyone here it would be section B but there's an awful lot of things in there um so I you know well I mean I think one I think it's an excellent thing to bring up I think it's relevant for us to review occasionally our roles as school committee members which is what you're getting at um and I think we're competent enough as individuals and collectively that we could say let's talk about anything relevant to section B and folks can review ahead of time and bring the things that they would want to talk about whether they think it's important they point it out to everyone else or they have questions or something else is that what you're would that work for you is that what you're getting at something else entirely well I I so my goal is that yes I mean we can all use reminders but also so that when the next next terms begin that it's all accurate and when someone goes to it there isn't any question of it and and everyone who is still here is confident that what a new person would be reading um is accurate so let me interrupt you for a second we did review within the past year section B at the policies subcommittee level and we voted on the entire section here that said we approved it and then came back to the fact that a portion of it was blank that identified which committees were a part of the school committee right right which subcommittees so there's always you know and as we were as we review contracts we talk about that we often Overlook things even when 100 people look at them right so it's likely worth it to as a committee discuss but knowing that it's in pretty good shape already because the policy subcommittee has already reviewed it within the past year yeah you agree yeah remember Johnson um I guess I guess I'm not maybe I should know this but I don't actually know if all the policies on our current website are up to date superintendent that's funny I was actually sort of trying to get you to think the same thing one of the challenges is that this committee has paid for paid for previously hosting of our policy manual on the masc site but they will not host until the entire manual is finished so I think it would serve if we confirm tomorrow that the voted section is had actually manually been added to our website I think that's a good thing to double check so we were thinking similarly and then the other thing is I think you know the chairs right to point out that we did just consider the whole section and vote on it but that's different from as a committee taking a a policy out and just discussing it re-familiarizing ourselves with it and and having a discussion about it so if you think that there's one or two policies that you think are especially timely I think that would be a very appropriate thing to put on a full school committee agenda just for a review and discussion and so I don't know if you might want to think between now and the next meeting about which policies in particular you'd like to have us review together uh sorry um I can make suggestions or if people would prefer that I wait until the next for that we make wait until the next one so I can fully formalize my thoughts that's okay too I'm okay with yeah why don't we why don't you you know take that as a as a project to look at section B and which ones you'd like us to discuss and if it works for the chair and the superintendent we can have a discussion about it at the next meeting okay and and I can also confirm that the ones you're looking at online are in fact the most recently voted okay I'll do that tomorrow and send an email to them thank you so much and perhaps um member Johnson we said as uh chair of the subcommittee for policy you could entertain that policy subcommittee members could bring to our next meeting any that we would want to highlight as a part of that type of discussion um because we've probably looked at the policy manual more than other folks um that's just we can do it as an agenda item sure thank you and do we have other requests for new agenda items okay and we've got reports from the administration starting with askp thank you a couple of Grant updates they're slowly getting approvals as the governor's budget starts to get ironed out in the state we did receive notification that our Civics grant for fy24 was approved in the amount of thirty one thousand dollars I'm very excited about that the focus with this grant opportunity this year is to really engage students in more Civic experiences so we're going to be meeting as a history Department in grades 8 through 12 and just talk about some experience we could provide kids through field trips either locally or at the state level some of the ideas that were tossed around were trips to the State House the Freedom Trail in Boston the JFK Museum so taking our students and getting them out into the world and exploring areas outside of Greenfield so we're looking forward to that the Middle School will be reaping the benefits of the investigating history Grant we will be partnering with edu curious which is our professional development provider and Jen richelli the associate principal at the middle school will be helping lead this charge the grant covers not only the professional development partnership but allows the teachers that are participating along with the administrator to be part of Statewide professional learning communities with others who are also piloting these materials so they'll get to collaborate with teachers across the state who are also teaching in these grade levels with these materials and then use edu curious as the the backup partner to help them iron out any of the Kinks as it unfolds this year summer school Title 1 sponsors summer school and our program was very successful it ended on Tuesday August 1st we serviced over 150 students in grades K through seven but I forgot to add to those we also provide a credit recovery for high school students and approximately 25 students earned between 2.5 and 7.5 credits towards graduation so those students who found themselves credit behind due to whatever circumstance had the opportunity to come in over those four weeks and earn credits back towards graduation so that was really successful that program as well and then we are involved in our strategic plan and the curriculum department has been very busy we have met with uh Desi ilt in our ssos team and we will be starting um the big reveal of uh three high impact evidence-based instructional strategies that are going to unfold throughout the course of the year at all six of our schools so we'll be doing professional development with all of our faculty we're waiting to hear on a grant and might have a professional development partner that will be assisting us as well but we've started that work part of the Strategic plan was for me to meet with all department heads and really look at their professional development we tend to focus a lot on teachers and instructional assistants and we really want and everyone that works for Greenfield Public Schools to have time to experience professional growth and learning opportunities so I met with transportation and food services and I.T and the nurse leader and really just talking about the needs of their staff and planning out what they need to have time for this year so that all members of their communities can have learning opportunities we are also uh partnering with the teaching lab and uh working with them in ssos but also really trying to map out the year and how that's going to unfold so that Christine myself so ssos members can have time to do walk-throughs observe the instructional strategies that are happening in classrooms really see where that impact is uh directly affecting student growth and achievement so we're looking forward to that these links that are in blue and underline are all live that you can get to if you don't have copies in your packet I apologize and then lastly we have posted for curriculum committees we are doing a five-year curriculum review cycle we're going to start with Ela and foreign language this year so committee members can apply and we are going to meet two times per month from now until June and hopefully tackle curriculum mapping for ELA Pre-K to 12 and foreign language at the high school Grand goals but we have a good ambition and hopefully we'll get some of that work done with the help of our curriculum committee members and that's it thank you Karen questions or comments for askp really all right happy vacation that is about the most I ever get of a vacation so thank you I appreciate that um how about a report from the superintendent Christine go ahead well I've I've given the committee quite a packet there so I'm not going to add to it um but I did want to share something with all of you at this point communication has gone out to the staff about this but as I begin the third year of my three-year contract um I have made the decision to retire from public education effective June 30th so this will be my last year with not just with Greenfield but as a public school administrator and I would like to thank everyone for the opportunity certainly I'm not leaving tomorrow to the good or to the bad I'm not leaving tomorrow but this has been an extraordinary place to work it continues to be I'm very much looking forward to this year there is so much to do and I'm very excited about what's going to happen I know Karen whizzed through her strategic Plan update but she represented about a thousand hours of work that has been done and that will be done another thousand so um we have a lot to do and I'm very excited to do it so I'd like to thank all of you um but I've I've made the decision with my family to take a step back and be able to spend more time with them so I am not leaving Greenfield I've just decided to give myself back to my family of course after a few months they may be sending me back to Greenfield but so that's that's the last um I have no further update I think that's quite enough for tonight how ironic that that update is not on paper for member Martini to ask questions about um all jokes aside we appreciate everything that you've done for Greenfield I I'm speaking um as as chair in in seeing um where we've come from it was basically this week two years ago that we knew you had been hired and you joined us for uh training on again ironically the superintendent evaluation process with our interim Superintendent at the time Dr Houle um and How Far We've Come is is evident in any number of ways whether you're talking to a student or a staff member or a member of the leadership team or a member of the school committee we've made huge strides under your leadership and I thank you for that and I thank you I think the most for giving us another year with your expertise and guidance and I'm grateful for having had you here and I am very jealous because my only goal in life is to retire so I wish you so so much luck in that and um when Steve's ready to send you back you just you know how to find us um and thank you any other comments or uh discussion from the school committee regarding the superintendent's announcement really no one okay we don't need to be all mushy without this that's fine just so the public knows we all set our wonderful thank yous and we're so happy for you in our during our executive session not that we're all sitting here going yeah she's out so anyway oh and I would add how nice to go out on a good note it's always nice to be a leader that can leave um on a positive note um you know kind of at the top of their game so I think that's that's it speaks to your commitment to professionalism um in in the um in your profession yeah so much profession right there professional profession yes thank you no other comments okay so oh Gene that would oh please remember well I would just like to say thank you for coming to Greenfield and teaching us how school system should be run it it you have done an excellent job and thank you there are amazing people here amazing people every every Department in this district has fabulous staff members in it who are so committed to this District so that that is a gift to the community and you know everyone should know that so I I very much enjoy being here thank you member wall anything else we'll do a chairs report I have a few things tonight um so regarding the move to hybrid meetings we talked about that for a September timeline my indication is that the it folks for the city are quite at capacity with the new library we may or may not be able to come online for September the goal at this point would be for October I've heard from only one school committee member that they're interested in being trained on being someone who would run the system for hybrid so if anyone has forgotten that they wanted to volunteer for that you can certainly remind me at any point I will volunteer I'm sorry that I forgot to tell you that oh that's great thank you member Denise so thank you we will I'm sorry I meant to all the time no worries um and yeah okay so great that's wonderful um and I will work with Fernando to get a timeline for when it's possible for us to get trained and we'll go from there and I will also acknowledge that city clerk Kathy Scott has provided me with some excellent written documentation of how that will work and hopefully that will kind of support us as we move to the hybrid format and again I think the timeline is more realistic for October than it is for September um we want uh we don't need to put Fernando over capacity is how I would put it um and then I had a note to discuss um attendance at the masc annual conference in November um I think it's November and uh I I'm not sure exactly how to approach that like it's not something that um I am interested in going to but I guess we could start with are there folks who are interested in going I'm going I just got very busy and haven't booked it but it's on my list to do it tomorrow okay book it okay um and remember Denise remember Martini anyone else so we will work on the logistics and cost of that I wonder if that is appropriate for like budget subcommittee to talk about or I think we already have we have funding for it we already have we discussed it we've had Warren said it's set and all we have to do is send in our hotel accommodations I love it when it happens and I don't have to get involved okay um all right anyone no one else is interested in going so the two of you will move forward with that okay great um I wanted to make a note so the governor signed the fy24 budget today and something that is very important to me in our schools is the continuation of the universal School meals program and that was in that budget so we are now one of just a handful of states in the U.S that has decided to continue free breakfast and lunch for all students that was signed into law today and that's just that's awesome for our students so I wanted to put that out there and then the only other thing that I had in terms of my report is uh I had a note about rural schools bill and I really am terrible at taking notes so I can't entirely remember a context except there's something in it that we might want to talk about and I think it was member geneve that you brought this up can you enlighten me yes representative blay would love to come and talk to us about the rural schools bill they would like an invitation and Senator comerford's office would also like to do same if we are interested so we could reach out to them see if they're available for September or October they are 100 expecting us to do so wonderful thank you for that and I did look at the bill and there's a couple of pieces relating to some interesting funding for all districts um in there so yeah we'll have them come and chat with us for sure thank you for that reminder that I believe is all I have for a chairs report um we will move into subcommittee reports and I do believe we have one from redistricting this month is that correct are you going to fight over it we I'm gonna let Gene start we met last month and reported that uh we would have a vote in October right and is there something I'm forgetting that I was supposed to that's okay it's been a little bit what we did what I shared with the subcommittee members is that the administrators and Karen and I met and we were able to look at how we would assign rooms in each of the buildings working under the preferred structure of three schools that held grades K through five and we are able to do that so we're able to with the redrawing of lines for school areas so Jake wild Smith our transportation coordinator was instrumental in doing that so it does look like that model so far is working has the least impact on Transportation costs there is some potential that we would need to work on there's some potential we might have to talk to our bus contractor about maybe another bus but that's not definite we're still configuring that but um I did do a survey of the staff not just the teachers all the staff were invited to take it 85 percent of them preferred our option 2B which it's lovingly referred to now which is the redistricting of the school areas and then having three k to five schools so the next step that we will do after school starts because there's a lot of people involved in the next steps and they're involved in getting school open so we can't do it at the same time there are two pieces and they're related to Staffing one um our elementary specials art music and physical education special will be affected if we go to a k to five because it adds classes so Karen and Mike Browning from Four Corners have taken the lead on drafting what that could look like and then I will work with the high school and the middle school to see what scheduling would look like if we remove eighth grade from the high school I say that because some of our high school teachers especially our elective courses do teach some sections of eighth grade so we need to look at what that does to the high school schedule and the Middle School impact if any in that regard so those will be done after the year flips and the schedules for students are out and things are moving we will then engage in a mock schedule for the 24-25 school year I have met with the president of Gea to talk about the fact that we will need to meet to talk about any impact to staff even if it's just moving buildings so um she's aware that that conversation will need to happen in the very near future but at this point right it's looking very promising and I will have some discussion for the full committee at the next meeting around how we how you would like to handle the previously available intra-district Choice scenario we'll need to talk about options for how that is addressed going forward but right now we are on track for I believe you folks to be able to make a decision about the model by the October meeting and then it's all up to Logistics packing and unpacking and etc etc but but thank you did I cover it Gene perfect and the redistricting committee was a member wall member geneve and member Johnson we saw is that right yeah and thank you all for your work on that and of course the superintendent and your team on that and to reiterate for folks at home because I did actually get a question last week from a panicked parent who thought maybe their eighth grader was staying at the middle school this year this is a future plan this is not for fall of 2023 just so that's absolutely clear and then as the superintendent outlined we would have some steps that we would take as a school committee to reinforce how this logistically would move forward based on our policies as our school committee policies uh sure secretary extra [Music] um so what kind of would there be changes to special education because I know that my daughter because her teacher was at a school that wasn't our neighborhood school had to leave our neighborhood school school and go to a different one which was fine but it's something to think about or that would still need to be the case um I believe based on our current work that the specialized programming would be able to remain in the buildings where they are um but there is some impact on the choice decision because as you can imagine some buildings have higher enrollments based on the fact that some students have done intra-district Choice into those schools but in a general sense I believe all of our special education programs would be able to stay in the buildings where they're currently located the other benefit of the plan is that low-income students would be more evenly distributed throughout the different schools so it does address not just the concern about the grade levels but also some of the the equity issues that that were vital to this committee thank you other comments great thank you for that redistricting update policy update we did not meet and your minutes from the last meeting you can see you gave us some homework so we'll be doing that in early September plus the items that came to us tonight thank you budget subcommittee tomorrow thank you and the I think actually I had asked remember deneve she'd contacted me about a new agenda item and I'd asked for that to be brought up as part of the discussion for the budget subcommittee please go ahead um thank you last month I visited uh representative Blaze open Office hours here she's here every second Monday of the month and they asked me a very interesting question and I thought I had better bring it to all of you um the question that was asked was what list do we have to submit to them for earmark funding for the next year and I really didn't understand what they meant so they spent some really quality time with me walking me through line items on the state budget and they said specifically that they've started a project within the last year while this is still an available option and they would like to know if we've identified a list of things that we would like to have funded not annual or recurring things but big Capital expenses and if we could go through the state budget and identify the line items that correspond to these needs that we have and get a rough estimate of what we would like to have funded and then submit it to them and then they would basically go to bat for us and I asked them if they had examples of what they had done recently in regards to that and they said well Mohawk came to them and got a new HVAC system so these are things that they're actually able to work for us but they need us to come to them and wanted to know if we were prepared to do that and I said I had no idea I had to bring it to you all so I'm bringing you this information that they would like a list of capital expenses that and corresponding line items and they could address it for us and perhaps fund them that's it I would kick that to the budget subcommittee unless anyone else feels like it should go somewhere else to start obviously anything that goes to the budget subcommittee would eventually come to the full committee for further discussion and action if the budget subcommittee's meeting tomorrow there won't be time to put it on the agenda so I just wonder if it might be something that I don't know if the budget subcommittee will meet again before the the September meeting but if they aren't able to meet before September maybe we could discuss it as a full committee at the September meeting and I'm on this budget subcommittee and I should be saying we thank you did they give you a deadline enough they did not they explained that obviously this year it's already set and it's done and she said I mean clearly they just signed it it's done but we'd have to think about it long term so next year would be when we would get the funding if it went through so we need to prepare and you know shortly in the next few months and have the items identified and ready to present wouldn't it be items that have come before Capital Improvements like elevators and things like that uh that that we might have go back and look through Lee I mean you probably already know the items but I would think if we could get two elevators that would be what are you looking at Gordy knows is it me or Christine Christine um I think they well certainly elevators come quickly to mind as I was listening to the conversation I think the task will be to comb through the state budget so can't wait to get on that yeah really fun they they went through the control F function with me and told me to look specifically for Greenfield and I was like yes okay but I believe Mr Puckett they didn't leave me hanging they gave some instructions I get Andy on that for us so we'll leave it as um it can't be discussed at the budget soap committee tomorrow because it's not already on the agenda and it needs to be posted 48 hours in advance if budget subcommittee has a meeting before the next the regular school committee meeting in September so be it we can have them discuss it there otherwise we will put it on the September agenda for the full committee to discuss um and I'm not going to dual out homework to anyone but uh it sounds like I'm well I'm guessing the mayor has some experience with some of this and um Diana on the city Side as well as Andy on our side may be helpful in context saving that it's really hard for me and I'm just going to save my thoughts on earmarks well when we talk as a full committee when we talk as a full committee we'll talk about it yeah yeah anything else about that thank you for remember for bringing that forward you're welcome and did you have a report from the collaborative nope so we would look for a motion to adjourn the mayor has made that in a second and we do need a roll call vote for that yes we're adjourned at 8 20.

Teresa I think I saw your hand go up yeah um this is this is a good idea but what I don't see the course descriptions between the Middle School and the high school uh you talking about the AI AIS differences and what course descriptions uh and comparing them you know what is the difference if there's any and and that is it becoming aligned now with what's in the high school uh in the Middle School yes it's a great question um so so we have to say something oh yes well I'm just going to just to point out very quickly Theresa and we could certainly share these with you that the Corsa study guide um at the high school has the descriptions for the for the various courses and they will be one in the same um which is why you didn't bring that before us you know like just there's a courtesy for us to see you know you're telling us uh just I'm not used to that I'll be honest with you I'm not you show you show us the discrete of the course study guide include the descriptions here that's all I asked uh I think it's a great idea don't get me wrong but you got to show the the comparison now it's going to be aligned with and this is what you want to do um saying it's over here and not showing me that doesn't help okay we can certainly we could certainly follow up and do that for you thank you I mean this is a great idea to just um I would like to see you know side by side comparison thank you yeah okay any other questions real quick yes hi Michelle hi how are you did you say I'm sorry I don't know if you mentioned it I know you mentioned credit but I didn't know if there it's one two or what are how many sure so the students would receive one credit so they would and that would satisfy so these students have to take two um two World Language so this would satisfy one of those already um it also helps um on the credit on the number of sections in Spanish also at the high school that we would have to offer kind of helps with the the Staffing levels there as well because now you're have to you don't have to offer as many sections because kids are coming in with um that doesn't have to say that kids wouldn't want to go all the way through and do AP Spanish or AP French um but it just opens up more opportunity um and possibilities for students which is which is really the goal how many sections then are there or does it alleviate in other words how much room does it actually well you know it depends how many students take advantage of this right because it's because it's a special area and it's an option kids don't have to take it they don't have to do it we're hoping you know we're trying to incentivize it so that everybody takes the full year so I think we'll get a sense um Michelle it's a great question um very curious myself I think we'll get a sense of of the pattern right like generally how many kids are interested and and then you know what do we have to do to to make sure that make them more aware or to or to get them you know to to take it on um so I think after a year or two um we'll get a sense of how many kids are are interested and how often they continue on at the high school yeah this could help with that 24 credit kind of issue we have it was four credits it would alleviate one and that would open up that schedule which is like a Rubik's cube right everywhere you move right so absolutely correct Michelle I think we have like 50 what was it six or seven yes so that should help with alleviating that travel absolutely yes and we and we are struggling to secure World language teachers as well so that has been a last couple of years very difficult we're still looking to fill several positions right now as we in the waning weeks of of school okay I see your hand up but if I could also just interject just another thing to keep in mind is that while we require two credits um for high school graduation many uh colleges and universities are requiring three um and so we have seen that that increase in the three uh three years of a language has increased in recent years so this will not only allow students to get a head start prior to high school but also open up the ability to take more years at at the high school level or to potentially take an elective in another area that they're interested in right that's that's a great point and we do encourage to take what the minimum College requirements are because it sets them up for success thank you Kelly Augusta I'm sorry I know you wanted to add some no I was going to I was going to bring another important component which is the Seal of biliteracy so by doing this we also kind of open the door to their appetite and made them make them more interested in actually becoming um uh eligible for the the Seal of buy literacy once they get to the high school so that would be like a climax for their World Language experience at uh at indianberry and we have started that uh three or four years ago and it has been very successful so that's another component that will definitely um get some improvement and and some help from doing this thank you anything else in the world language I love him as a hand raised I'm sorry I can't it's hard to see yes so my question is um are there any requirements in Middle School in order to take this credit like do they have to have certain grades or anything like that or is it just across the board everybody can take it and yeah it's good it's great thank you it's across the board opportunity for everyone now you have to pass the class to get the credit the same way it is at the high school so it has to be fair in the sense that like if you didn't really do well in it um and you know you didn't pass it or um you know you would probably want to take it again at that when you get to the high school and make sure yeah so but you're welcome and uh the other thing too is that we just require the part that is required as part of the Middle School experience is the exploration so we are going to introduce you to speak a little bit of Spanish a little bit of French if you're at West Side a little bit of Spanish a little bit of a little bit of Chinese so that you can make an informed decision before you engage in the year-long course that's the only requirement and we offer that's part of the Middle School experience is the exploration component but whether or not you want to take the language is is part for the student and it's open Teresa uh the credits again is a one credit for the full year and if they only do half a year they get half a credit well once you're in a course in middle school so these are full year courses so it'd be a full year it's kind of an all or nothing either you you know you take it and do well and you pass the course you get the full credit thank you you're welcome one last question I'm sure sorry um So currently when you take it and it's 1A and then 1B are you taking those uh in the same year or won your first year in two years so this is much better because you forget everything by then so you're going in exploratory it's in seventh grade now and you have full instruction for a year instead sixth grade forget everything start in an eighth and then wait again until the next year so this is actually I think a really good idea yeah thank you Michelle we think so too thank you thank you if I may just to add some clarification the in terms of curriculum the 1A plus 1B equals level one exactly the same thing exactly the same thing okay so you'll get us course descriptions yeah Augusto can uh with the course of study guide and the Middle School of Augusta can send over the description of those courses okay thank you you're welcome I think I lost you you think I lost you we could see you and we can hear you okay oh there I am okay but sometimes it yeah the screen only allows so many views at once so it's hard to see who's in the room thank you okay so I think you know I'm certainly happy to entertain any follow-up questions in this if you you know later but um if we're good I can move to the next slide and you could talk a little bit about dual enrollment okay thanks Kevin so kind of in part of the larger umbrella of creating opportunities um you may have heard me talk about through the academy you know developing when we talked about the vision of the academy was to um expand dual enrollment opportunities across all academies and not just have it in this kind of one Deco program and so that was sort of our vision and our goal from the onset is really building that up over time and you know creating articulations with area University partners and finding any opportunity to Advantage the students in some way um and so you know I think the state is I'm going to put some ego behind here they're thinking like we are now right uh and that they're starting to flood um a lot of our information and our notes and our updates with this push for for dual credit expansion and as part of some of their um I believe it's some of their leftover Sr money um they have allotted some districts um they have created it's a competitive Grant can't but pretty much all the folks who have been targeted uh have been given an allotment to to apply up to a certain amount Danbury received the notice that they are eligible to apply for this grant it's only 90 000 but um it just allows us and some some small grants are have so many strings attached to them that it's not worth it this one isn't too too sticky um so we definitely applied for and is in 100 in line with our uh with our work so um this is really about scaling dual credit opportunities and so when we applied for the grant um it was really to extend some of the work that we're already doing so um the application included stipend it's for teachers and someone to help coordinate the pathway development leaders which is really a continuation from what we're doing with Barr so um you know in the bar Grant we have 19 pathway development leaders these are the folks that are really helping with the the content area curriculum for CTE they're serving as Liaisons between the school central office they're in my office that work in a curriculum um and now as part of this we would like for them to we find Opportunities to get our nvcc or wcsu in our Post University folks who were having some conversation with who um are also approved providers with the state um to build these relationships they've also been urged by the state of Connecticut to reach back out to us and to work on alignment and articulations so that our curriculum and their curriculum have some crossover so that we can open the doors for students to get credit so for example today I had a meeting with nvcc which is a second follow-up uh where they're going to take our program of study guide so they're going to look at the let's say the engineering and Engineering pathway and they're going to say well if you're going to offer an engineering one program in your pathway um why don't we why we have an engineering program uh course description that looks very similar to what what you want to do and so let's work together to satisfy the requirements for both what we would want to see and what they would want to see and then offer a section of that class to be to earn college credit and so students so if we offer two sections of engineering we would say to students and if you want to get college credit for this one you can enroll in this section and this is the one we'll offer three credits at nvcc and today was very exciting because NBC C would like to try to match um our our pathway curriculum to at least have six credits in each pathway on potentially nine um so but these are evolving conversations but in order to kind of really do that work you really need to have content area teachers at the table working with nbcc and wescon and post um uh teachers who are engineer experts and and those who are delivering content to work together to make that to make that happen um and it's it's it's not an overnight process it's an overtime process and the the application would support the work needed to to to do that um again we have built a little bit of this in terms of curriculum into the bar grant for the pathway specific items but the bar Grant right now currently only runs through the end of this year unless we get an extension and so what we did was we took some of the things that we were doing in bar and we're hoping to sustain that work and so in the application we identified that the target year for using the funds would be 24.25 um so we're just finding try to find creative ways to leverage funds to continue to do the work especially heading into um you know the next year or two with with aspiring us for funds Etc um and then another part of the grant is uh at the bottom is is you know there are situations where in order to teach a certain course um wescon or nvcc UConn used to be a great example of this they would not engage in a do we could not have one of our teachers teach their college course unless they had a graduate two at least two graduate um courses in the content area under their belt a lot of our teachers have master's degrees in education but they may not have a master's degree in mathematics they have an undergrad uh degree in mathematics but not a master's and so UConn would say listen we'll partner with you but your folks have to take two two graduate classes before we can certify them to teach our course um and so a lot of our teachers are like ah sorry I don't have the extra you know fifteen hundred dollars to take a course you know things but no thanks and so we've embedded a little bit of funding in here so that to remove that barrier so if you have a teacher who's been teaching with us for a while and they're the perfect person to help broker some of these dual enrollment that we can reimburse them for some for um some minimal coursework to make that happen so yes Theresa so what was the total that you applied for it was night we've the the our allotment the the max we could apply for was ninety thousand might have been ninety thousand fifty dollars or something like that but it's ninety thousand and we applied for ninety thousand okay so yep um but one more and uh Teresa we would never not apply for 90.

um and so we are letting um our schools know that you know we do have some schools this year starting out at 23 24 25 um and and so K12 again we try to stay within the 22 to 25 range um and sometimes we it's not uncommon that we are at 24.25 this year we have more Schools starting out at 24 25 than we typically do that's not across the board but that that is something that is that is part of our reality yes okay with that being said so where can like so that's changing grade level teaching somewhat for some for some folks so you know if we're having higher numbers we might need we might not need like a fourth grade class or a fifth grade class um so teachers are being moved to different grades um how does how does that happen does that happen like by seniority by you know like if a teacher's been in the district 12 years and they don't want not that they don't want but they're not as comfortable teaching say a first grader or kindergarten as they are teaching an upper elementary grade is that taking into consideration or because they're more tenured they get moved to a lower grade because kindergarten certification is different it it kind of varies and so the certification as you had pointed out Lauren is it's a K5 certified it's a one five certification candy Garden is separate um and so if we're just talking about just moves within the building oftentimes it's not uncommon that you know annually regardless of the moves that um you know but that might be going on right now um there might be so you know I the five years that I've been here at Park Avenue for an example we've had years where we've had a bubble of like second grade is a lot of kids that second grade would move up to third grade is a lot of kids and so Dave might have to move some people around in his building to um to to to address you know that bubble moving up across the building um and um so it really depends on the school kindergarten to your point if they don't have kindergarten certification that might be might not be a great level that they're moving to um if Kelly Cara and I are all third grade teachers and Dave needs someone in grade one um you know he can ask voluntarily if there's someone who you know Cara might say I love first grade and you know she'll run down there even though she has the most experience um and or um and so it will go first um you know and I believe we go by seniority first and then we we go by moves uh but the principal also has the ability to place people uh within within their respective buildings question two may I Lauren good um sorry yes go ahead thank you Lauren so I was um wondering if you could those two things um I was speaking with somebody regarding reach and I was told that there was and then don't see how this could be possible no math teacher at reach teaching is that true I can say without teaching that they did not teach math classes at reach this year there was no teacher there is that the case so that's not accurate there the part that is accurate is that there was um there are teacher shortages in the area of mathematics um so we did start the year with a long-term sub in the position um and then we did have to reallocate again looking at the resources in the building based on certifications um and um we also uh supplemented um with some online learning supports for our students there um so it is a position at the building um that uh there have been across the school year um three different individuals that have been supporting with the content um it actually was in the middle school program so Endeavor um and uh and so there have been changes in the mathematics and we are still actively working to to Sure up that math position for the start of the school year so then we didn't have a math teacher like a formal math test everybody kind of just helped out is that what you're saying no so we started out with a long-term sub we then have someone that can teach more than one content so we did a change teaching assignments um and then we had to make another adjustment and we utilized a sub a sub at the end of the year as well so Mathis taught there was classes taught every day every week within the program correct okay and then the other question that happened to come up this weekend so which was you know obviously last year we went with the two-week summer program because of the impact from covid this year it was because we were running you know our tight things were tight so I think we went again with the two two weeks but then I understand is it true that after the first week or eight days of the program it was shut down or that we closed summer school program in Danbury I've heard that at two different locations and I just didn't know from two different sources and I just I hadn't heard anything about it that there was an error and that they had to actually could no longer fund the program is there any truths or I can maybe start with our special ed program there was one day of closure this summer it was actually the first day um July 5th and that was due to flooding in the building um so it was one way I'm sorry at AIS um there was one day so our special education summer school program runs for five weeks uh we ran for five weeks but we did have one day of closure um and that was again due to the extensive rains that we had had and so forth so I'm not sure if the closure conversation um is happening there that was a reality fortunately we were able to resume normal operations on the following day and proceeded for the five weeks of summer school there um for a regular Ed summer school program it did run two weeks um we uh there was some early uh in the spring conversations about running that program four weeks uh do we did make some decisions with budgetary constraints in mind to run it two weeks and that is how we hired and rolled out to staff for summer Michelle that you mentioned eight days and I think the the when summer school all summer school always runs Monday through Thursday okay and so two weeks so that's you know week one Monday through Thursday week two Monday through Thursday so so that is eight days if that if that is where that number came from so it's two weeks but we don't we don't bring the kids in on Fridays and stuff no actually I had somebody come up to me two two different that's the thing and they said that there was an error in payroll that there was uh a significant error in payroll and that there was not enough funding to extend the program till its completion so this is just a rumor but they there was no the program ran two weeks yeah right we had two summer programs it went two weeks um and then Kelly's program with the full five weeks with the with the exception of that day um when we had that issue at AIS so there was no issue then with any error in paying the the anybody in the program in the summer program like double you know 40 or 75 an hour that is not the case nothing like that occurred because that's basically what I'm hearing and I just want to make sure that that it's uh if it is an ugly rumor that you know that we address that conversation was there any kind of issue like that I did I did get word of that right so I I just want to try to unpack this a little bit so the the summer school experience for kids did not change right and so with that moved forward this summer as planned and um the day that we had out was that unique day when we had the flooding at the school um and the the eight days for summer school moved forward as planned um if there was an issue with payroll it definitely whatever that may have been I'm not just exactly sure what what you may have heard uh but that definitely did not impact our planning for uh summer experience for kids this summer all right well Kevin can you if you're not really sure confirm with with John or whomever because um I just literally I you know this person spoke to one of the people that were working there and said that they were going back to school because the program had been closed because they had paid him double which I you know understand that being so if you could just confirm that right but I want to make sure I want to make sure what I'm confirming Michelle so that their error in payroll paying the summer school program that there was no early you know there was no issue with the the payment I guess that's part of the curriculum I had heard that the program had already had ended early and it had to do with some sort of payroll issue if you haven't heard anything that's great you said you weren't sure if you could just confirm that but I but I can confirm right now some right but let me just confirm now summer school move forward as planned in both the special ed programming and so like if there was an issue with payroll and I can clarify with John it I'm all on all I'm saying is our summer school experience moved forward as planned this summer if right and so if you heard the rumor that because of a federal issue our summer school plans did not move forward as planned that's incorrect because of summer school did move forward as we had planned wonderful to deliver this year but but I can find out separately if there was a payroll issue if if you want to talk offline see if I can look up specifically I can ask John for clarification wonderful I only say that because I heard I was at two totally different events and I was like you know what I hadn't heard anything about it let me confirm because obviously we don't want that going around and I hadn't heard that but in one weekend I heard it at two different so I just want to make sure that you know I can set that straight so if you could let me know that'd be great just to confirm with John yes thank you Kevin if you could confirm that information for for us that would be awesome uh one more thing so we're all set then with the issue that we had discussed I'm pretty much sure we are I just want to make sure the nine teachers we are you know we're not let go the music program that you know we're kind of looking to get the uh ask for the reserves to the city all that needless to say nobody's been let go right and those programs are moving forward as part of the curriculum for next year or whatever is that correct that is correct thank you appreciate that I can certainly I'm sorry oh what was that no you're fine oh you're breaking up hello Lauren are you still there I think you're muted Lauren it might be traveling there you go I'm just gonna I didn't care a finish but I was just gonna say it's any members of um board that have questions that are not on the curriculum committee please feel free to ask your questions at this point thank you you can always email as well if you think of something later that's fine of course so if I can just quickly Cara we were gonna you're gonna provide me with that chart that we talked about right the organisms yeah so I'm trying to so I don't know if I was there for the the the session where you discussed a specific chart so I'm trying in my my brain trying to understand I I haven't seen a chart from Nashville that charts out all of that stuff and I've been to Nashville twice now so I Cara I think the discussion was and Michelle I don't know how much you remember from the from the meeting because I remember a little bit more now um when were there when when Michelle had asked the question um I I recall it as the organization chart for the district and then this could give us an opportunity so let's just say Nashville has 40 000 kids and we have 12.

by one student are there any questions in regards to this data if not I will follow this with the school facilities board tomorrow anybody have any questions no no okay then admission please I moved to approve the fiscal year 2024 Capital plan as presented and a second Jen okay all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero next is item 8.3 discussion and consideration of approval of the JL Combs Unified School District hearing officer list for 23-24 school year this is just something we do every single year this just brings names forward to you in case we need to have hearings uh independent outside individuals on a hearing could be for student discipline could potentially be for an employee issue too for the most part these are uh former Educators there's one exception on there which has been Hufford he's an attorney I always put his name down just because in case the situation is complicated it may involve a legal representation on the other side at least the hearing officer that we have in place understands the law and Dr tabletsis and myself are on there just as a safety net and depending on what would go on so I would recommend approval as presented any questions about this item no okay then I'll entertain a motion I moved to approved list of hearing offers for officers for student disciplinary hearings for the 23-24 school year as presented second okay all in favor aye aye all opposed passes four to zero item 8.4 discussion and consideration of the inter intergovernmental agreement between Pinal County Sheriff's Office and the J.L Combs Unified School District for a school resource officer last year we uh Sherry Dukes Dr Dukes applied to the school safety program for its three parts it's actually got social workers counselors and school resource officers we actually applied for three different well we applied for two school resource officers one of the high school and one to split between the Middle School and the alternative school in actuality for some reason the state gave us three but just because they gave us three doesn't mean we get three and so in talking with uh Pinal County pcso they do have or will have an officer available that could become a SRO at our high school they're waiting on some hiring issues so it may not occur right away but this is the agreement with them to go ahead and have that individual come on board as soon as possible in the grant it showed a price tag of 110 it's actually a price tag of 158 uh a thousand dollars that's picked up by the state we're still talking with the state um the the grants or the belief of superintendent horn as we ought to have officers in every one of our schools and so they're not going to be able to fill all the requests even that were approved because again many of the Departments do not have enough officers to put in schools so I'm not worried about the the difference in pricing that'll get taken care of but and we're working with ad but we do want to bring you that piece I would argue that even if we didn't get funded which I highly doubt that would happen we would fund the difference just because of the importance of a SRO at our high school so this will get us started and then it's a matter of when pcso they have an identified officer that's on the other side of the county but lives over here that would come here but it's a matter of them going through the hiring process to get someone else to replace and I'm not totally sure how long that will take but but hopefully it'll be fairly quickly so I would recommend approval as presented questions anybody no okay then a motion please I moved to approve the IGA between Pinal County Sheriff's Office and Joe Combs Unified School District for a school resource office officer at CHS as presented second okay all in favor say aye aye opposed it passes four to zero okay next 8.5 discussion and consideration of approval uh Pinal County school safety Cooperative agreement what they're finding there's new uh process out there in this case the software is called Mutual link what it allows for is the police department to come in and take over your cameras in the events of an emergency especially like a shooter on campus or something like that it's very restrictive when they can take over our cameras so it's it's not a case where they can just look in it anytime that they feel like it several districts use this and they're seeing success in situations uh Scottsdale unified did a drill that was scheduled for four hours had the whole thing had all the hospitals mock up all that kind of stuff they caught the two perpetrators because I actually had a plant inside within 20 minutes and so because the dispatcher can see what's going on and can tell officers exactly where to go so this is the software that we're looking to do Pinal County received a grant from the governor's office for this and so they're in the process of utilizing the money for that to do a Consortium across the entire County so that all school districts that want to and sign up for it can be on it uh and so that's a recommendation to move with Pinal County at some point we'll probably also have a conversation with uh qcpd although there's no campuses in their jurisdiction obviously there are jurisdiction butts right up to some of our campuses so in the events of emergency they would they would be uh dispatched also but this is the Consortium in Pinal County and therefore it's just a Pinal County pcso issue so that's my recommendation to move forward with as this as presented questions I do have one um it says pcso will only have access to the cameras in the event of emergency do they need to contact us to get access in that no there's a the the back end works with with um uh what their what their computer system works to access our computer system and so there's just an agreement that says you can't access it in the events emergency as somebody's called out for a situation then they would be able to dial in or I shouldn't say dial in that sounds old like I'm real old but they'd be able to go ahead and use a user password to get in uh into the system and go ahead and access the the cameras and we use vercatas which we put in across all of our schools and many of the districts are using brocato so there's not a problem between the Ricotta and mutual link communicating uh if there was an emergency and if they were to do that in the case of emergency would we be aware of that yes okay so we would know when that's happening okay other questions all right then a motion Jason you want to do some I don't want to no I'm in a long time I motion to approve the Pinal County Safety school safety Cooperative agreement as presented second all in favor say aye aye opposed passes four to zero next 8.6 discussion and consideration of approval for the purchase of Windows laptop computers for secondary teachers members of the board Dr Wyman colleagues how you doing the purpose of this agenda item is to refresh our Windows devices for our high school middle school and all School staff the high school devices are the oldest who have we they we purchased them in 2017 and more devices at the high school have started failing over the last year or two so you know we'd like to refresh the devices there for sure the other issue that we're running is Windows 10 support ends at the end of the year and the devices at the high school we can't upgrade them to Windows 11.

because essentially you're developing thermal storage at night when the ambient temperatures down lower the head pressure on the compressors a lot lower so that way you're pre-cooling the buildings for the day so your best strategy we can come up with because I recommend it pass them over to the high school to do stuff or well they'll go in there with our fans that doesn't sound good at all I mean I know all right any any other questions about the HVAC unit all right we need a motion I motion to approve the purchase of one HVAC unit for the CMS gymnasium from Tempe Mechanical as presented second okay all in favor I I opposed okay it passes four to zero 8.8 discussion and consideration of approval of amendment to the contract for custodial Services by SSC service for Education under one GPA contract number 20-01pv as you remember when we brought uh SSC on to take care of the do Ranch and uh the high school we said if if it was a positive relationship and if we continue to run into staffing issues we would look at expanding that we are in the staffing issues we're short five custodians as as we speak and so we've approached SSC for the possibility of of uh expanding their footprint we looked at the middle school just because it's the second highest usage type of building with the public and so uh they've said yes they can do it the pricing's at I believe 240 but but we do anticipate a savings of approximately 30 000 sometimes I think people think it's an automatic that's going to cost us more to do this but we see the savings just in part through Personnel but in part also through supplies and so if you approve tonight we will let them know tomorrow and they will probably need uh they will need until after Labor Day to ramp up and get the people hired to come on board nobody will lose a job the individual work for us now we're short to down at ctac CCS so two of the people will go down there and then two the others would be absorbed there's a chance some of these people they'll be approached by ccs to see if they or excuse me SSC if they want to work for them so we may have a temporary uh overload of people but based on the turnover we're having we won't have an extra employee for that much longer and so we would recommend uh the expansion what we continue to do this in the future just depends uh we're just looking at every different possible way we can to make sure our facilities are clean and then understanding what the unique situations are so recommend approval presented questions I just excuse me um in terms of the coverage so we're kind of spread a little bit so some of the things we'll maybe not get done is well as we would like in the meantime until then right right yeah I mean it's the same battle we had which is which is quite frankly why we ended up going with a third party is we were so spread so thin that that in some cases our facilities weren't looking at the level we wanted them to and so this just gives us a chance to give like in the case of CTA and and CCS they'll have the three full-time people they need instead of the one that they have right now and so uh uh yeah we'll we'll be back to cleaning uh where we want maybe even better because we'll have a full staffs everywhere but again there will be about a three-week window while the hiring takes place and and then we can move people around three weeks is better than 35 weeks that's I was just I was thinking the same thing but I didn't want to say it okay other questions okay I had an emotion please emotional approve of SSC services for education to provide custodial services at Combs Middle School through June 2024 under igpa contract number 20-01pv as presented second second Jan hey all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero 8.9 there's a lot of eights this week or this month discussion and consideration of approval of school facilities division building renewal Grant roofing project at Simonton which members of the board Dr Wyman colleagues if you recall the school district did have some weatherization and also some Roofing Replacements in the prior around these two schools that are recommended well we'll take one at a time so this is uh for Simington so Simonton was one of the schools that did not get re-ruffed and we're we have some damaged uh areas and if we need to we need to address it because with the new monsoons and everything else coming up it definitely is needed and they're willing to put the bill for it so which is always nice yeah so I recommend your proof and and so you see you'll see that the two 2.1 million on both both of those so this is substantial amount of money again that does come out of our pocket comes out of the sfob I just bring this up more so that the public understands where we're going after every dollar we can for everything we we can do we did 17 million back in 19 or 2021 um we'll do with the four that you're going to do here probably in excess of about 5 million um in addition to other projects that we've done so we continue to to uh push the SF OB to give us as much as we can but there is a structure that we have to follow um I have a question I know we're talking about Simonton we look at Harmon it's the same dollar amount is it that one dollar amount covers two or is it two million per it's two million it's their sister site so it's exactly the same building footprint and everything so that's why it's unusual that you'd have the exact same price other questions or comments okay lotion a motion approved the terms and conditions for a building renewal Grant roofing project at Simonton Elementary is presented second my second okay all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero 8.10 discussion and consideration of approval of school facilities division building renewal Grant project at Harman same thing right same thing okay any other comments or questions okay and motion to approve the terms and conditions for the building renewal Grant project at Harmon Elementary is presented hi second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero okay let's see what are we up to that 11 another discussion and consideration of approval of school facilities division building renewal Grant projects at the Combs Traditional Academy and the comb Center for Success campus members of the board Dr Wyman colleague good to see you again it's been such a long time um this is desperately needed we have worked with the stage system for over a year now this you know everybody knows that that was the original Campus of this District it was added on piece by piece and the the fire alarm systems and Life Safety Systems are a reflection of that a lot of the equipment is so outdated you can't get parts you actually have to have somebody custom make cards to make it work so so they're in full agreement that needs to be replaced the report that we gave them showed that um so I recommend that you approve this and this is also coming from the state the funding sure yeah and one thing I've been told that we school districts are really trying to get these things approved soon because they're afraid that it's going to run out of money so you know yeah questions or comments okay motion please emotion approved the terms and conditions for a building renewal Grant project at the CTA and CCS campuses as presented or campus as presented right second I second Jan all in favor say aye aye opposed passes four to zero and the last eight 8.12.

it's just one of those things I always thinking about thank you do this and then oh I wish well that's obviously probably cheaper now to put another 40 feet on than the kind of six years down the road and put 40 feet on it so it's which was my point you at this point you're trying to get to where are we are we going to renovate Sharp Creek are we going to expand Metro North or are we going to expand Northfield it's not going to look like what I showed you I can promise you that because you'll think of a lot of other things as you're working through this that might tend to tweak the way things get put together or it actually gets included I think last time we talked about 14 classrooms in the Northfield option it's really possible that somehow apart music for the elementary become an adjunct to existing art music and Junior High in high school well now I don't necessarily need rooms in the elementary for that but you might have some other use in the elementary you might want to develop it their own Media Center rather than use the existing one we'll have a lot of conversations like that and those will all be different depending on which option so there's a number of growth as far as this I know some of this last paper has a cost forward which that was just an option that was added mostly because about the town where you would put the program well that's what I was just been an option so a new playground as we get into that yeah 200 000 allowance do they use the playground studies yeah probably is more of a black top area [Music] is yeah monkey bars [Music] foreign [Music] probably from the beginning I've always thought about what we look like in 20 years so that's why I my head just keeps pushing towards the north of allows you because I like you said usually the last thing we eliminate is the high school it's not like we're increasing the population even if we don't if we stay stagnant then we're still safe I feel like the other way to push all those classrooms there and then you did go down and you're like you still have to keep up those those activities it's not a choice at that point the apartment with facilities I wish I'd be part of the academic explained in the dirty gauges and the community feeling towards these are student ages of buildings that's why I have thought about with the north there was if we did go that option we have to figure out almost a way to make sure that's its own building you know treated as its own building you know we enter in a different you know its own way obviously a cafeteria issue that thing is going to have to be through you know obviously they're going to walk through the hallways of Garfield but we're gonna have teachers with them at that point how they're scheduling would fit for that cafeteria period because that's the only time I ever see it being anything crossed out there not very many times but obviously the auditoring when they that's the advantage of that too having um that's event it's already Advantage there if this would be a model that would be South also that obviously would help them a lot too but have the auditorium even though like we discussed so much when I'm still the size of it still doesn't take care of everything but it's still a lot better than what we have on a smaller Elementary gyms does it help Staffing anyway Mr great compelling Elementary teachers you know approximity to a junior high classroom you'll share it you'll be able to share more specials or your electives those teachers go into the studio and you guys have talked behind before having the older kids with the little kids in our in our community is always it's fun center people typically get nervous and think about all of the bad things but so many of our kids volunteered in the read they become interns they spend time with the little kids instead of and then with the sharing of custodial staff and sharing with other administrative staff it's hard to predict what that looks like and so there's more details carved out but it certainly wouldn't hurt it certainly would put us there we've heard on the parent side too that the convenience of that too our students at a location that's not why we do it but yeah that's just another positive I mean for us how many students are like the Juniors and seniors how many of them are like student teachers or you know Casey neiston has a pretty good selection I want to say she has five out of the ten maybe they go down there and I'm sure that fluctuates but right now it's a bit of a interesting it's a bit of a car driven much more often use that so if it was something they could do for one period rather than the student you want to pick up some more and you might have other teachers English teachers social studies teachers that might incorporate more of that if it's so can a student teacher or a student classified basically what we usually hire as players professionals well I just I don't know I it would be the same option well I'm just but I know we have to hire them all the time we're usually it seems like we're always looking for it certainly provides support services where they where they go now so I just didn't know that can substitute if we ever were in lag if there's students can kill that Gap it's on the timing of their classes of the classes they have and the gay issues that you be covered and evident a would give you all that coverage insurance my personal I know it costs more I like the idea of the separate book with the kids I don't know you know you have parents say well it's nice to have them all in the same building you still got k-32 down here anyway [Music] that's going to change as the kick grows no matter where you're at if you have two or three chisels they'll teachers apart that's they're going to be different buildings so I don't base a lot on that I just like the idea of the younger kids being a group more so it also leaves you an option to Northville to to put on a field house or simply growing through population all of a sudden you've done that you've looked at yourself you're still going to have two buildings how are you gonna that's just those are things I think have there's needs of both places you know cafeteria gym area when you ever see that's been kind of discussed a little bit would they ever see the bill having just one campus though nothing nothing that's cool I don't know I don't know well old school it's old school for us but knowledgeable for other schools like the raw spills and the castings and the prayer and all those schools that have a they basically just have one campus but to do that you're going to have to add on a lot more there you're gonna have to add on another Metro North there right yeah no I'm just saying down all right and again I don't want the spirit of math on that for that scenario like my brain just keeps going 20 years that's where I always have to be collaborate them but that is a big decision because if you go one way or the other that will possibly limit that future 20 year third year um so have you guys heard anything I mean ever has anybody said anything anybody personally you're doing it in front of my family no yeah yeah actually anybody that's part of our School District Individual that was concerned about keeping the kids separate at those ages as long as they were separate they're good and that's the same thing we talked about last year when we talked about how we were going to do the configuration of our pre-k through eighth grade that discussion actually changed a lot when we said there are positives out there too positives of having those students closer but they would definitely be on their own schedule they would be in their own rooms like California earlier like it's not like they're in the past hallways if they're doing very often at all and they're probably the teachers the world of war once in the teachers just because a 45-minute period for a high school kid that just doesn't Translate very different so they would be segregated or isolated or whatever you want to say a lot you chose that option sure precautions so they beat 0.5 8.4 it's more than the North Bill oh more than that it's just one door choices well that's 5.1 difference from the metrics probably recommendations from Architects or construction maintenance probably will be just like we said option one would not be considered considered at all right it's a lot of money on this one if you're if the Northfield option is one you want to seriously consider I might suggest you reach out to East Allen officials they've only they brought a six to their junior Highs at Woodland and their Heritage about five or six years ago so they've got a pretty fresh understanding of what that means and how their communities accepted it um I do know that at Heritage the elementary students eat in a in the gym they have their separate Little Gym and they eat there at Woodland the kids literally marched the length of the building to go to the cafeteria you said East Allen right so those are K to 12 campuses are K-12 we just moved up the k6 to make it then they moved the k6 to the junior senior senior cases he said about five or six years ago I think we would want to build to do that to accommodate both of them did yeah not unlike what you're looking at here several they might have some relevant what it meant for curriculum how they function throughout the day if they had it to do again how would they do it different versus the folks who have like a castle you've been kicked 12 since day one in Rossville Japan is the one that I talked to when we had this concerns last year and you know he was willing for us to put people on the bus and go take a little field trip if anybody wanted to so I'm sure we would offer that again today since that to take with their kids from Lafayette to Rossville so that was an indication that there's there's some strength that goes along with me he starts being Pre-K and you just walked in the building and you go out the other room yeah yeah I mean the main thing is they liked the school Episcopal District but it felt so positive they also you know thought it was positive that so um well I think we're in it I think either way we're in a win-win situation but choose enough to Overlander well I've I've been if we went the Northfield idea you know even what I thought was you know if we would would go with the new high school last year is Heartland careers Center always struggles or they they don't have space for short space and so I you know thinking about how we could help subsidize that space you know in our area there at Northfield you know either adding on because those two rooms that we were talking about um or we just use that space as you know for space for Heartland because they think they have at least the nursing program they don't know you were saying that they were planning on putting on two to three classrooms if we could but there again that runs into other school districts what they're what they want to spend that kind of money do that you know we got a eight million dollar upgrade to get the facilities just up up to snow and then that's without adding in classrooms you know a couple years ago that's all we were worried about was adding classrooms now we're looking at well let's get to heat the ventilation HVAC and all that stuff correct before we do this so I don't know how you're going to get other schools to add more money for that kind of work it's going to be pulling teeth to get the rest of them although I was I was getting that we paid for it right I guess like they were doing with the problems you can get enough credit money there's Flawless with the whole equipment because the building costs too much or that they have that whole building because I'd like to get the Ag Department from Portland out there I follow what you're saying that I would you know if we're not gonna we're taken away a little bit I'd like to get it so we can maybe strengthen some of that area is there any kind of support the support from that AG area can we run into any kind of restrictions on doing something like that building spaces releasing back or whatever I don't think so I mean I understand we would have to definitely we have to definitely investigate that right yeah how the money for the board have you guys heard of anything like that before as far as they do that right now a lot of schools they don't have necessarily they have you know their their programming is different high schools go for different things so I'm sure that there are there are setups like that I don't know how the monies are transferred and how that all works but um you know Huntington for example they have their own they come to us they pay you know those they pay it per diem and then also they go to other school districts for other programs and so there has to be some agreement that's worked out I just don't know what that is but we haven't been involved because it did not hurt on the rent the space from Wabash so there hadn't been something there was some sort of agreement there I don't know but that was kind of connected with like yeah so we were kind of used to Ivy Tech's canvas which was that but that's no longer there so correct me but if we if we fund car on building space it's around 38 because MSD based off the current Formula now yes so it's all based off the cessified widgets or it could be more could be less it's around 38 right now to a lower Rift yeah because it's God's point you know if you're building space and you want to build aggressively that's the wrong term if you want to build huh yeah it's been a little bit above appropriately okay you're already paying for 40 of it if it's built someplace else why not build it on your farm it makes sense the difficulty you would have who's in charge of those kids is it a separate is it going to come through our principles who's going to talk those kids off what what are they going to come in so okay how does kids get ancestors so they get dropped off at Heartland and Heartland takes about that so it would be this because they don't so does Heartland pay Manchester or do you know no that's just part of Heartland Portland but one thing I do know is though for the Honeywell uh that equals that is a program we have and Heartland does pay for that so there is and I'm not going to say that I think I know what it is but I don't know I don't know I just know that's why they're they're going over there there's an agreement that's made between there's a him I think they only go up there once a week once a week yeah but you'll see it or though they go there you go a day like this and there is they do there's a rent for that yes that's that's my only ideas I think number one we're we're kind of trash in the Ag Department out there if we do that correct but I so I like the facility part of it but well but I'm just saying I'd like to see if we can strengthen it somehow yeah in a different area because certainly I think does a great job with that stuff but I like to support it somehow maybe giving them an additional space it's an idea that that's if that's what we if that's what's Chosen and read upon to investigative one because really after we start talking about that yeah there has to be something because it happens everywhere so um and just like we said Eagles Theater there is a payment there's a payment probably right off that same formula right see what that is but they get a lot of bang for their Buck because they get all the state of the yard of everything yeah at least the technology now but yeah questions Dave do you see prices escalating as much as they think do we see any plateauing do we see any kind of levels the first part of the year um on a monthly basis it's been about 0.15 but the last two months it's been 0.5 of 1 so we've actually seen a little bit of a spike the last two months we're waiting to get August's indexes um but there is still uh you know that probably that three to six percent escalation every year that we're that we're anticipating now so yeah we don't necessarily see things leveling level or declining we still see a little bit of a tick going on are we still at the very highest level or are we down a little bit from where it spiked earlier well we we've tracked cost indexes all the way back to 1990.

that's the rule the other thing is when we work hard to do these arrangements with the colleges um I found that they the credits coming out of high school were only accepted uh towards uh electives and not towards majors would this be something that would be different that they could use it towards their Majors yes you know so I I see this as the seed I see this as the beginning not the end so you know if we can pull this off you know who's to say so we already have some articulations uh for example with with our AP courses so if you pass AP the AP English course AP Literature course um Westcon we have an articulation with Westcon that they would get credit for that that would satisfy sort of their English one course that when they come in their first gen Ed and so we want to be able to do more of that so along those lines so right now the focus you know all the focus is on the academy and the CTE Pathways um but I would love to see our students start to get get credit for is anything that we can we can get our hands on to get credit for what we're trying to what we're trying to wrestle with if I could be completely transparent is that all of a sudden we have you know because because the state has knocked on the door of each and every every one of these universities that said we're going to give you some money to work with them and then they said we're going to give to the districts we're going to give you guys some money to work with them so get your get together and start forming articulations work on this stuff and it's wonderful that it's happening but um you know so you know post came out of the gate and like oh that we would love to partner in these areas nvcc is coming is working on that we just got an email Brent um sent me an email today he goes you know he was having conversations with Goodwin University who had all kinds of opportunities and so you know I was like whoa you know we have to slow the train down a little bit because you know do we create really intentional Pathways with one you know like nvcc for example is it Canada is now as of this summer Connecticut State University system so if you take a course if you register as NDC as your home school you are good to go with uh in terms of a transcript registration and have access to any Community College in Connecticut before they were separate they did not speak to one another they offer different things they still will have different programs in different areas of the state but now our kids if we partner with them can access something happening at Middlesex Community College that has a unique program that no one else has if it is online courses or whatever um so so the idea is to make sure Kevin we lost the presentation I don't know if people if it matters or not but um the idea is to you know do we have a solid relationship with multiple Pathways in one area um or are we going to give kids oh we can get three credits at Goodwin University and you can get three credits at posts and you can have three credits so kids will have three University transcripts started with three credits each on them or do we wanna you know dig deep and go deeper with one school and make sure that they have you know so we're working through those pieces now and and but we're meeting with different universities to to see what the best way to position this for our students is right now but we we're definitely gonna I think we're definitely gonna be working with nbcc for sure we have some we've had some great conversations today with them I have a question Cara um so how much did you say the bar Grant was for I don't know if you mentioned it I didn't hear that but you were going to utilize some of it and then it was going to be expiring but what is that amount for yeah it's so it's about the same amount in terms of the stipends that we have for the teachers to to be pathway leaders and then and then a pot of money to to work on curriculum development uh in projects over the summer so it's it's close to it it's like um it's not quite 90 000 I think it was like 30 000 for total for stipends and then maybe another 30-ish for the curricular some of the curricular pieces so the amount of money for the same type of work is in the same ballpark which is kind of why we thought of this grant as like oh this would be a great way to extend to extend that work so right now in order to this development that you're looking at these 19 um I'm going to say teachers the 90k would cover the expense for the development of these Pathways there would be no additional cost or no not sorry um go ahead please but you could finish your set well not right now that we know of so you know what we know we're going to have to revise you know the first time that you develop a curriculum with all these new um components at play right we're trying to integrate portrait of The Graduate skills we're trying to embed industry um industry content you know that we're meeting with and so usually you know so we'll in the first iteration of curriculum um you know teachers will then Implement Implement and they'll come they'll get to the end of the year and we'll say let's have a feedback conversation about what worked what didn't work what felt really aligned and what didn't feel aligned in your teaching and how can we make this curriculum better and so then we make those edits and sometimes you know that you go back to the you go back and you do revisions and so usually courses get revised a couple of times before they kind of settle in to what it's going to be and and we do pay our our teachers curriculum development um um it's an hourly curriculum development stipends like 31 dollars an hour um and it's never enough for what they actually really do but it's a gesture towards the work um but that but we do need those funds to sustain continuous work so um you know when it comes to Grants we always look for opportunities to continue to to continue to fund that work uh off outside of the back of the of the district general fund so I just want to make sure I understood that so we pay approximately like thirty dollars an hour for these 19 people to help develop the curriculum and the pathway correct and that could be within we're looking at the 90k and not expecting it to be more um not more at this time so that's more like yeah the first round of work correct yeah okay thank you um I just have a question it's Lauren when you said we pay the 31 an hour we already have teachers not including these 19 right that we're paying that 31 an hour that whatever it is for curriculum development ongoing so this isn't something like we're just implementing because of the academy correct yes so thank you so whenever we do curriculum work right so thank you yes we we that's it's not new it's not different right this is just a continuation um and and and two you know to that end it's you know whenever we can use a grant to offset or or to supplement or to continue and sustain work we we always look to do that so this is this is just normal normal practice this is not new right and we have that set hourly rate so we're not chaining anything we're not going out of the box anywhere this is just developing for the new high school correct and that's and those those rates are set with the Union they're already those are already pre-negotiated those terms perfect thank you for that yep um does this also include non-profits as part of the community um that would be involved in this when we're talking about establishing business relationships the schools is the community also like non-profits the development of you know through the school programs that we're looking at currently so you mean in terms of offering college credit in that in that direction or right I mean I know that we had talked about it with nursing and other programs is that and we're engaging the community I'm just wondering is that part of this conversation and you're just having obviously across the board with all Industries and partners or yeah so the Dual credit so there's two pieces two there's so many moving parts to this but the the idea is that so if we're developing CTE pathway and I'll use um I'll use we'll use engineering as an example back to the engineering example again so there's a couple things that need to happen so you know teachers don't we at Danbury High School we may have one or two people who have some engineering background right but their teachers are not actually in the field and they're you know so so in order to help develop the course and to help stay current with the course and what's emerging right in the industry especially right now with artificial intelligence and all the crazy things that are happening we want to make sure that we have a relationship and a partnership with some engineering firms that people who are willing to like you know yes so that's the that's the and they could be non-profit they could be for-profit non-profits are always great but they could be anybody who we think are the best people to talk to so we want to we have to work with them to get content for curriculum right and then in order to to say in order for the students to get University Credit we have to make sure that what we're putting together is going to also satisfy and work for and work with University Partners so it's kind of a triangle of work and collaboration that has to occur um to make it happen and it could come from a variety of folks but the universities are the ones who would issue the credit so we have to we kind of have to play to their their talk thank you thank you can I can I just ask a follow-up question to Michelle's um so with the partnership this is kind of a partnership question just real quick um we're we're out there making Brent is making these Partnerships and these connections and building you know building our community for us for the Academy High School but like at the end say we have like I know we have Danbury Hospital for nursing that's awesome but like say we have say we have a well drilling pathway and we have bills Well Drilling and Harold's Well Drilling how where do we narrow it down to picking do we pick one over the other where does it come into like these are great both these are both great businesses but this one is really going to be better for Danbury and who makes that decision does the board come into play where they listen and not that the board would make that decision but just like where do we come into play and is that a decision do we have two companies how do we decide who's better than another yep so that's a great question that's a great question yeah um so so I think I used the term I think at least I did with this group I used the term dating um because we are you know it's okay for us to initially start off working with an engineering firm let's just say right to get information from them to say you know how you know what are the most critical aspects that are accessible to high school students for them to get a sense of this industry and then the basic skills that they would need to enter it right and let's just say we worked with with uh Larry's engineering firm to to partner with that work for a year but Larry's engineering firm might not be able to offer us you know six or seven internships for students right they're a small firm but they're super friendly towards education and they want to work and come in and do all these things but they they don't really have a lot of spots for entry so so it's okay for us to work with Larry um Larry's engineering firm to get the content information that we need because they're super friendly partners and they have a knack for like they they're invested they like the curriculum aspect of things sometimes you get really interesting people on in these corporations that have a knack or skill or they were a teacher whatever over um to work with us um and it's okay to say we're going to use three other engineering firms to offer internships and we can partner our partnership with them could be the internship but our partnership with those other three three firms could be that you guys are going to send your engineers on career day to come in to talk to our kids you're gonna we're gonna schedule you across the school year for a variety of engagements um and we're going to go out to three different uh engineering firms for field trips to do for kids to to see what this looks like in action so you know there's no one partner that's going to do all of the things that we're going to do and and and as we get to kind of know who's who's going to be the best fit for what part of this um you know that's the part that's gonna you know that will continue to evolve and um so I had we've had we've had conversations with some folks who were like jumped out of the gate can't wait to do this and then you know are following up and they're not you know they don't respond right away and we're like okay might not be the best partner down the road right and and Lauren to to your question you know initially I I re I recall Kara presenting out um and talking about how they um sat with they you know they went through a process to determine um what direction the industry was headed uh what positions what What fields would be the higher paying jobs um uh for students um but if I heard your question correctly um you know industry or industry might change uh demand for positions might change and you know what what is the process to help shift along with how industry is moving and as I understood the structures that Cara Brandt and Dan presented out on a couple of months ago um what one of the and Cara I don't remember which one in terms of the organization structures but one of those structures actually continues to evaluate if what we're offering is actually appropriate for kids meaning appropriate continuing to meet the regional and state demands across the state and as I heard it from Lauren he's like hey there might be a different demand and it might be different from what we're offering right now and how are those decisions made and we the structures that we have in place from Nashville and now the ones we're putting in place will help to keep an eye on what's going on so can can you speak to that a little bit because that's how I heard Lauren's question I don't know if that's what she was getting yeah yeah it's all a lot of information and I appreciate it so thank you thank you you're welcome thanks thanks hi one more question about the um the thirty one dollars uh an hour for coursework development is that credit hour no so it's um so for example if we say a brand new course is going to be developed then we assign we say that should take about 80 hours without developing out the assessments and everything that goes with it or it could be 40 hours so for example we would sort of making a determination about what how many hours a project would cost so then I say don't get don't when I say 80 hours that's like kitten caboodle assessment development room work development over the course of a period of time a lot of projects take uh five hours they think 20 hours and we try to make an assessment um so for example Teresa give you a differentiator so we've used Project Lead the Way curriculum I'm not sure if you've heard of that but they have a pretty they have a curriculum that's that has a lot of the components that we're looking for when we look for curriculum and so most of the work is done when you adopt that curriculum and you're using it so like for engineering specifically that's one that we're that we'll be using for like you know engineering one so there's not a lot of work to do so there's only a few hours assigned to add the other pieces to it something that starts from scratch could have could have more hours over and that's being developed over the course of a couple of years I I just uh faculty when it was by the credit hour and you know in credit hour was you know a thousand or five hundred dollars depending on you know what level they were or whatever so this is a little bit more open-ended in that in arbitrary so it's a little different uh well it's not open-ended to the sense that like so the so the hours get assigned you know but we we're making a determination and so we we've had situations we're like well it took me longer than 20 hours it's really about assigned project hour so well you know may have taken you a little bit longer to do it but we assigned 20 hours so you kind of got to get it done within within a scope of window um and sometimes your Visions are needed you know there's different levels of expertise with developing curriculum so sometimes we send it back and folks have to kind of do some extra work on it with the same assigned project hour so that happens as well so it's not it's not as open-ended as you think Teresa we I keep a pretty tight handle on that thank you you're welcome bye Kara yeah oh great okay so two things um we've discussed on several occasions at our regular meetings and um curriculum meetings about going to Nashville I think at this point especially people on this committee need to get a real understanding of what we're looking at I had requested as well several times I didn't see it come over perhaps I missed it uh the flow chart basically the operations um remember when they came from Nashville on the uh visit and they said that they actually have a model of what this looks like how many people to support a student in the business entity a scope of it you know Nashville said the national folks said they had a chart oh yes and Kevin you were there do you recall the conversation so was it their organization chart yes it was basically um and I forgot the uh the very lovely lady who came here the older one who had said that they do have an organizational chart because it looked like they had several ways of breaking down the system and they had several people that were supporting at every level it looked like you know there were 20 people touching one student and I went out of I mean specifically asked the question at our breakout meeting and then again at the overall main meeting that and I was told that I would be provided that chart that it exists and um I wanted to compare it as far as what we do is student enrollment that's how we base our support in all lessons and we are struggling with Paras the program that was provided to us and the kind lady again that was running it said yeah it's kind of difficult we have to fill in the gaps or the actual words that she had used so again we're looking at curriculum we don't have the course curriculum breakdown which would make it easier as for us to reference like Teresa had mentioned this flow this operational chart to see how we have what we currently have as staff and a different model for what we're looking at and they have different ways of funding it through property tax though they don't collect and they have that flexibility we discussed as well of being able to just Place children in different locations patients this is when we came up that we are a lottery system and that it is more difficult to provide and that is why they're successful so all this I'm sure you recall came up and I feel that if Teresa myself Lauren have the opportunity to actually see the program in live and in person as well as you know what really constructs it we would have a much better idea of what we're talking about and much more in-depth questions and Analysis of really what we're considering here which is our curriculum thank you yep okay um so thank you for that um I'm texting and emailing as we speak to see if Brent to see if he has uh that and you know with from that conversation and that uh see what we can get from our Nashville folks they were super friendly with sharing so I'm sure that would be yeah I think they were happy to do that and I also believe we've asked on multiple occasions but I don't seem to have received it the list of the current business partners that you are having because I believe that there was a number of 60 Partners currently that are so again can we please have the businesses the community leaders Pro you know yeah what are we talking to thank you yeah I'm just adding that to the Lister appreciate that right okay all right I think we could go to the next one before we go to sort of the general discussion I just could give you some updates uh but we have Rick um where you see with us and I think that uh you know hopefully you're introduced at some point that is our new adult director and we're very lucky to to get him and to find him and he's already working on uh establishing some some Partnerships and some great great um some great branches in the community so I don't know uh Kevin or Rick if you wanted to talk a little bit about this but I um I will turn it over to you both yeah thank you Cara and I I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce Rick I know some of our board members attending some functions um that um adulthood and family community resource center uh collaboratively had uh together to close out our school year Rick was able to pull together some meetings through some um really fast and creative programming and he's I think Rick's been with us for about four four and a half months and and already has his foot well entrenched into the community and continuing to try to further develop our adult education program I've asked Cara and Lauren if we can add Adult Ed to the agenda this evening to really talk about what we feel like is an amazing opportunity for the community um and also an opportunity to bring some resources into the district some of them Financial but also some resources via coursework opportunities and I've asked Rick if he can come explain and talk through some of these unique opportunities we have someone who was an adult that in charge of adulthood in Milford previously um I I'm happy to say that we stole him from Milford and but with his experience well recognized and appreciated and respected across the state we're happy to have him here I think we've already benefited from his leadership and he's going to talk to you tonight about some unique opportunities that's ahead of us that I think quite frankly is going to be mutually beneficial so Rick if you can talk to us about it thanks Kevin um so like Kara had mentioned my name is Rick rayusi um I am the director the new director for Western Connecticut Regional adult and continuing education or we race we race is located at 10 Crosby Street as some of you might know or might not know the state requires every municipality to offer certain State mandated programming for any adults aged 17 years or older those programs include high school diploma programs so anything anybody that had not completed their high school diploma program in a traditional High School sense has the opportunity to take those classes English as a second language classes for anyone who is not a native English speaker and then citizenship preparation classes which ultimately prepare someone to take the citizenship examination um as they're putting in their application for citizenship um so those are the state mandated programming that we currently offer the state of Connecticut offers three different types of Pathways if you will to high school diploma completion to result in an actual high school diploma that come from Danbury and the third is obviously the GED certificate which is a high school diploma alternative but it is not a diploma itself it is a certificate um currently Danbury offers two of those three options the partnership that we're going to talk about in just a moment will allow us to offer that third option to Danbury residence which is very very unique it will open up a lot of doors for a lot of the residents in our community something that we've been working on at we race over the last four months um has been discussions on how we can expand our programming so over the last few years we race has done a very nice job in providing those State mandated programs but we have not and we haven't provided enrichment programming for the Danbury Community uh throughout the last four months I have worked not only with Brent but with local businesses um and and different stakeholders within the community to identify folks that might be interested in teaching enrichment classes for us come spring I'm really excited to announce that um we will be having enrichment programming for the first time in a very long time that will be open to the entire Danbury Community um so we'll be piloting that in Spring 2024 and that's really exciting for us I hope that I see some of you at those classes if you're interested in teaching one of those classes I'd love to talk to you um but we know across the state a lot of people uh appreciate enrichment classes um in in talking with other directors in my experience coming from Milford um we had you know upwards of 3 500 residents that would take part in those enrichment classes so we're hoping to build something substantial in Danbury that will allow residents to to take part in that which is great um one of the Partnerships that I wanted to talk with you all about this evening as you know we are a regional program we currently Service uh in addition to danbury's seven additional municipalities um so that creates our regional program um and we currently offer Connecticut diploma program which is one of the three programs that I referenced earlier which results in a successful candidate earning a diploma and then additionally we offer GED um the one program that we don't currently offer is called National external diploma um and in talking with Milford my former District um we are very interested in entering into a partnership with them that would be mutually beneficial for us it will allow us for the first time in quite a while to offer GED in the fall as well as offer this third program for diploma that will allow students an alternate Pathway to earn a high school diploma for nedp and additionally it will expand our ability to offer additional ESL programming during the daytime for Danbury residents and folks within our district um and it will bring in upwards of forty thousand dollars to our program and allow us the ability to service more folks within the community so I wanted to report out on that and um provide that update we're very excited I'm very optimistic about the direction that the department is taking and the changes that we're seeing and the growth that we're experiencing uh Teresa please uh as a person who works at the Danbury Library you desperately need what you're talking about and I would highly recommend uh uh you know reaching out to the library if you want to put a table there and showcase when you have your programs all set up and you want to drum up business it's a great idea we definitely need that service thank you um it's I'm I'm excited that you you pointed that out and I'm happy to share that I actually was speaking with the library for the last two weeks uh someone by the name of Chelsea uh department and possibly do that so okay so we're we're definitely pursuing that actively excellent excellent any other questions okay thank you so much so I I just wanted to add I did ask Rick um um and let him know I would love to be able to get him back in front of the full board um later on in the fall um to just kind of talk about the things that are going on in developments that are going on an adult ed we want to find every rate possible number one to promote what's going on in Adult Ed and if we're going to have this enrichment programming um of course we want to start with the board and see if we can kind of get the word out in our community uh Rick Rick in uh Milford very successfully actually offered uh courses to staff to try to just get their feet wet and hope that they remain interested some free courses so I'm not exactly sure what his strategy is going to be here in Danbury uh but you know we want to get as much foot traffic as possible and then from there try to create an additional source of revenue for the adult dead program so again continue to remain really excited about Rick's leadership here in the district and we'll have some more updates regarding this partnership and hopefully this is something that we can solidify really soon and uh Ray can come back and tell us more about what this means for Danbury Rick thank you um I will be reaching out to you this week or next week about some ways I can help get information out to the community awesome I would love that thank you so much thank you Rick yep thanks thank you I think we could go to the last slide um you know and Lauren wanted to make sure that we had time to talk about anything you really wanted to talk about or just ask questions and you know as we head into head into the school year um you know we there's there are so many things happening there are so many different types of things that we could talk about but I did want to just update you and some of this is relevant for you and some of it's just more you know good to know um and you know the kind of training that the we're going to be engaging folks in Across The District K-12 um you know as you know are implementing our course is a pretty big training series dedicated to that it's going to take a lot of time across the year and a lot of our efforts are going to be surrounding that um I think the academy itself is is well known that we're going to be doing a lot of work on that but um in addition to the things that you may not hear a lot about it's really art core literacy training will be kind of front and center for for Elementary this year um that our district is engaging in something an opportunity uh an invitation from the state to protect participate in something called the science of reading master class and it's very much tied to why we switch to Art core and why we headed down that road and it's tied to the legislation so um the very first year that the legislation came out they took a pilot a few pilot districts and engaged them give an opportunity to engage in a master class of the of the of the science of teaching reading and it was really District leaders that they were that was the target of of that training um so that everybody was on the same page about the look fors and what what should be happening in at our earliest levels um to make sure that folks skills were up to par and that really had a deep sense of shared language and vocabulary around these things um so we were again we were mad that we did not get in that first cohort and that we we weren't picked for that first round um it was very randomized they just kind of tried it with a few with a few folks and um we had pestered the state uh on a regular basis to say if you offer this training again please make sure Danbury is involved in it so long and short of it is they opened up another round and a cohort Danbury was invited um and they selected 13 districts they invited I think 15 or 18 schools to apply it was an application process so we applied um and we were invited to attend and so a lot of our central office leaders Kevin Kelly myself our literacy experts a couple of our coaches a few teachers and student support Specialists and two principals um we'll be engaging in a very deep training opportunity over the course of the Year training costs are completely on the state of Connecticut Teresa so there is no cost to us thankfully that's why we that's why we really wanted to make sure we got involved in this um the state itself is already 12 million dollars in on this training that they're providing with the with the level of the experts coming from across the country to to do this um but it's of no cost to us so they have not passed that cross on to us so we we're very excited to do that um but it'll keep our our folks very busy this year um we I'll skip down I'll leave PBS training for the end because Kelly's deeply involved in setting that up um so I'll Circle back to her in just a second um our Delta aspirin program so those are our our teacher leaders um and folks who want to become administrators and so we have um a couple of sessions we meet with them I meet with them after school on Wednesdays we have different central office admitters come in and talk to them about their role their work what they do um so they engage in some some wonderful professional development there and then we also get to see who kind of Rises out of that group as as a real leader and we have hired some of our aspirants in the past and so we'll I will continue we'll continue that as well um we have this year a smaller small but a developing administrator Reduction Program so rather than you know good luck welcome to Danbury um get right into that building we're intentionally going to be pulling them out to work with them and to make sure that they're off to a really solid start um so we'll engage them in some of professional development as well so we have a few sessions dedicated to that right away in the fall so that they feel comfortable and that they can can transition and they also kind of understand the Danbury way um our teachers really are going to be very excited we're going to be taking them out on some of those on industry externship so um in November the goal is to take the the teachers who have been assigned to the different academies and allow them an opportunity to go out to um a manufacturing facility or on site to see what the work that the the engineering an engineer would do or to see the work um that we had a successful event last year where some of our teachers visited um lesser evil the company the snack company in Danbury they were blown away they felt they were abuzz with ideas that they wanted to you know can we get this into the curriculum can we try this with the kids oh my gosh now I get what what it is we have to do and um can we bring the kids here for a field trip and so um we were like wow the teachers went crazy for that opportunity that professional learning it was very different than what they're used to getting now okay we're gonna talk to you for a couple hours here in PD and so they they really loved it and so we're going to try to scale that in November and take some of our teachers out and get them passionate about this but then also bring that information back to and foreign curriculum and then very quickly I'll talk about an ASAP training last before I turn it over to Kelly illustrative mathematics we've been rolling that out over the last several years it'll finally reach grade 4 and grade 5 which is wonderful because we've done K3 and we've had six eight and so this kind of closes the gap on math and we're really trying to improve our math score so um there'll be our fourth and fifth grade teachers will be doing that that work quite a bit this year and we'll be engaging our our principles and understanding how to support that as well nasap training so and this kind of goes to Michelle some of the things you know we've heard how Nashville does some things the NASA standards the cat our Academy standards for what a model Academy should look like and so their aspirational standards so if you have these things in place and you're doing all of these things um to this degree right it's kind of a rubric and a Continuum of of level of where are you at with getting to this really high standard um and we'll use that Acro as we as we go forward to measure our progress on how we're doing and to hold us hold ourselves accountable for for having a high standard and and not dropping any of the important pieces that go into this so um so that's something that we want to hold ourselves accountable for and I'd like to uh socialize the board and Orient the board on what those standards are so that you're also familiar with them as well and and that we have some shared language and understanding so at some point during the course of the year and we can certainly start it in the curriculum committee um I'd like to introduce those to you and then and then the larger the board at large um and we can talk more about that but it's definitely one of those that's why I have a little star there because I think it's something that that the board should be well aware of um and then I'm going to turn it over to I'm happy to field questions at the end uh turn it over to Kelly talk a little bit about the pbas training and the importance of that work this year or another training thank you cara another training that we're going to be doing this year is PBIS which is positive behavioral interventions and supports um and essentially what that is is explicitly teaching kids the the soft skills the behavioral expectations um so that they can be successful uh in school both in life and in school um so we are going to elicit um teams from K-8 uh there'll be a team inclusive of building Administration pupil services so support Personnel classroom teachers and other key leadership positions in the building and every one of those um every one of those teams will be trained um by Circ on this this model and so it'll be a six day comprehensive training we have two cohorts of uh teacher teams going through these trainings um and then their responsibility will be to bring the information back and develop expectations for their school we have noticed since post pandemic that the behavioral needs of our students some of the disciplinary needs and so forth have been on a rise as well as some of our engagement attendance and things like that so this is a way to explicitly teach expectations district-wide so that we're very clear on what we expect students to be doing so that we can have both safe and positive learning environments for kids we all know kids that need to be connected to school they need to feel safe at school um they need to be there at school in order to learn so the work of this team is really talking about the curriculum this is setting the stage for the curricular work to happen and so this training will happen over the next three years it is being funded through kind of a variety of different grants but every year there'll be six days of training this year followed by five days of training the following year and then four days of training the year after um and so what each team will be responsible for doing is setting expectations doing uh presentations to the whole school including staff students and families that everyone is aware of what we expect so rather other than just providing the discipline policy which we will also do this also communicates those positive things that we want to see students doing with in school also helps them to feel part of the school Community have shared expectations across the school community and have input into that so we're really excited it's been something we've been wanting to do um over the last handful of years and we've had this opportunity and so we're excited to launch this also along with this it's not on the list but we will be doing training on aperture which is a social emotional screener we'll be using for our kids so after we set the expectations if there are students that still have needs and need a little bit of extra follow-up or support or work that screener will help us to identify those needs and further support those students as well so our teachers will receive training in both of these areas to help support the social emotional needs of our of our kiddos turn it over for any questions on either PBIS or anything else on the list does anybody on the curriculum committee have any questions about anything we went over tonight or just kind of questions that you're looking for answers on yes Theresa I'm sorry I was waiting for Lauren to but I wasn't sure what the the rule was I keep forgetting uh going back to uh credit high school credit for uh World languages uh as we all know we have a very diverse population do we ever test students out of world languages um with their background I mean do we ever do that so one of the things that we I don't like if I don't have the slide up but um you saw a Heritage Spanish uh on the list and so we have a lot of students that come in and speak Spanish and have us have a stronger oral background but they're not literate in terms of their reading ability or their writing ability so it's a whole different ball game right because grammar comes into play language structure context comprehension um in in print and and in writing so we developed we offered a Heritage course so those are for students who um probably who probably on the surface could test out orally right like the student clearly can speak English and Spanish but really they they are not literate and and proficient in it if that makes sense and so the Heritage class is for Spanish speakers who um who on the surface can orally you know engage but need more work and more attention more time on things like Granite grammar sentence structure language structure and so it's a little bit different it's a different curriculum than your typical World Language Spanish one curriculum per se so they just focus on the areas of of Need for Spanish speakers so there's not really testing out there's really um how you know how much better can you get at this right so that these skills can really um serve you well in the future right to be by literate is such a gift so um Augusto mentioned the Seal of by literacy we want our students at the end when they graduate towards a graduation to take the Seal of my literacy test so that's Teresa where you are proficient orally you are proficient in writing you are proficient in Reading uh and literate all the way all the way through and that becomes a Distinction on your graduation uh diploma and on your transcripts and when you apply to colleges um but it's it's kind of an honor to be able to do that but um we don't have a test out per se you know particularly you know in middle school I would say that there are very few students who come to us fully articulate in English as well as Spanish or indoor French or Chinese or Mandarin so um so but we did we but because of our population particularly being heavy Spanish speaking we did develop um and offer a course called uh Spanish Heritage to address to address some of that so that was called the seal by literacy feel of by literacy oh so so you are you know we're certifying you that you are literate in in a language in both in a dual language thank you yeah I have a question about um not really about what we've gone over tonight but um can we just about class sizes in elementary schools um we've heard rumor that we're starting class sizes at a minimum of 25 in K through five schools is that correct can you expand on that a little bit yeah so our class sizes Kevin do you want to you want to touch base a little bit about that or yeah sure sure um and so it it varies across the district Lauren our class size has always been uh 25 and we try to keep the guide between 22 and 25.

and so we get their org chart we put it next to our org chart because Michelle's point is they have all of these resources as I as I remember it anyway okay all these resources to address all these different things happening like how are we going to pull this off and and so we take theirs for 40 000 kids we take ours for 12 and I think it's necessary for us to do some kind of crosswalk okay understand how we're going to make this work we're trying to duplicate a model they have a whole bunch of resources and we're trying to better understand well what what does this mean for Danbury um and then um and then the folk the visitors from Nashville also shared at the meeting um you know not every school in the district is an Academy School uh you know families have the choice and so if it's not let's just say it's 40 schools in Nashville I don't remember what it is and so if it's only 20 schools then you know of the Old Chart you know who who at the district level is supporting you know just the academies and what does that mean for the org chart as well so just just really giving us the opportunity to do a crosswalk so we can say this is what it looks like in Nashville this was called Danbury and see if there's any gaps and just begin to talk that through I think that would help everyone I do remember that part of the conversation Michelle the way you described it before I was envisioning a different chart that and I'm like so I think it's a chart that has to either be made or national shares with us it's not something that I already have oh it's yeah it's one that Nashville has and they said they have it and the nice thing about it was they have a much bigger system but they actually scale it down to the size they have different model sizes that would actually kind of line up with hours that we're implementing so I did send an email to Brent so we'll hopefully get get that sooner than later I mean it was one of the um I think it was the um older uh uh lady that that had come and had more had a lot of experience on the business board member the board member yeah because we were looking at you know how do we support because they had like three steps just to support for an internship and they had it all broken down and you know it's important for us to at least say hey do we have can we you know instead of just kind of moving down the road the way we I think we do which is you know great but um they're successful and so they've already done the work right let's if they think you need four people for this and we're like wow we're just making two I think Kevin and I had spoken of like it's great to put this in place but we want to make sure that you know when we first we have yeah which reason yeah and I'm I'm dying to go to Nashville Don't Tell don't I mean for my own reasons but not not in this case in this case I just really think like you know I know that there's a couple of members that are going to be here for the next two years for sure um and I really would like to know I think I would just be more you know useful or helpful yeah yeah we we we will we will definitely um I think the we went the last time in March Kara so I guess we would be for the spring to make this work so yeah the registrations they book almost a year out so we would have to know you know we'd have to organize something that would be yeah we'll do it ASAP then yeah and just me too me too the funding to do it and then you know the number of people who of course wants to go and that becomes always a little bit of an issue so maybe I'm sure Kevin can follow up with with Ralph and on that conversation to see how to how to best to approach it um but I will just say just as a placeholder too you know we just didn't we didn't just go to Nashville right so when we were looking at the models you know we went to Nebraska we went we sent folks out to some other places as well um you know our administrators went on um calc training which was and part of the calc training which is a collaborative leadership training they also visited other Academy sites and everybody does something really really well that you want to emulate and bring back and then there's some places you know Kelly and I looked at each other like nope I think we do a better job of this on our own you know so right and so not everything that that Nashville does we want to replicate and so and you know but there are definitely some great things in there right and so the same thing with Nebraska and some other places so um you know I just want to make put put that as the lens that you know just because they're Nashville and they're and they're they've done an awesome job and they've been at this for 17 years and they've you know have this stuff there are there are some things we're like well you know we we that's kind of not how we do certain things in Danbury we provide more opportunities in certain areas so just wanted to say that because right it's you know Nashville is like yeah yeah all of you came back excited Dwayne Perkins you know the man like everybody seemed to really get have a real uh understanding of the product and I just really feel that that would really help us you know help you know as far as what the vision is because everybody obviously lends a different perspective sure thank you for the consideration again thank you okay all right well Lauren I don't know if you want to close it out or I make a motion to during the meeting yeah second

we've tried but they just don't run very well so I recommend this board gen item as presented I'm just curious as to when does the timeline run out on the use of the ursus funds Esters 2 was running out in September this year we've spent all of those funds Esters 3 runs out in September of next year end of the end of the month questions about this item nope okay a motion please I motion to approve the purchase of new Windows laptop computers for security secondary teachers as presented second okay all in favor say aye aye aye opposed okay it passes four to zero thank you thank you that's a long time isn't it okay item 8.7 discussion and consideration for approval of the purchase of one HVAC unit at Combs Middle School members of the board Dr Wyman colleagues um the middle school has two AC units they're 40 ton units on the on the gymnasium one has failed it's not repairable um it's pretty much towards the end of its lifespan anyway and this is to replace one of them um it's desperately needed I'm running the other unit 24 7 just to keep it to where they can use the gym but it towards the end of the day I think or I can tell us that it gets a little toasty in there yeah wow that's the way to get it quick I mean no no that's the problem everybody's um everybody's slammed as far as um with the excessive heat all of the manufacturers are three to six months behind and for Clarity on some of this too is is HVAC units these types of units are not like it's not like you go to a card lot and there's all these cars and you just choose a car that you want most cases they don't build these until it's until you order one I had an emergency I lost eight in one building up in Payson uh the week before Christmas and we did not get them put in until uh the end of March and that was an emergency and so you're at the mercy of whatever the lead time is and that was before the pandemic and all that kind of stuff so uh we had uh formal bids and they all they are all putting 35 weeks as delivery time how's the other unit working I mean I know it's yeah we have a few of those That We're Not Gonna Knock in the wood um I mean so um you know it helps by letting it run 24 7.

discussing and consideration of approval of the school facilities division building renewal Grant project at Ranch Elementary this one's a little bit unique we had storm damage a hail storm almost a year ago um and it damaged majority of the units insurance company came out to trust had mechanical companies take a look at and evaluate it um and they gave us a price of 140 41 thousand dollars to replace the coils the coils are one component of the condenser on top of the roof that the hail bounced on these units are towards the end of their lifespan so it'd be like putting a new radiator on a 57 Chevy and everything else is really bad so they said you know you really want to do this or would you want to take this money and see if you can go ahead and use some of your funds to go ahead and replace it put new units on it and we don't have a bunch of capital money laying around so we went and petitioned towards the state to see if they can help us out and this is fairly new to them to do this partnership and Dr Wyman should get a lot of this credit he convinced them to consider that to think outside the box so and I think other they're starting to do it with other districts now too so it's a good joint venture so I recommend that you approve this comments or questions no okay then a motion I motion to approve the terms and conditions for a building renewal Grant project for Ranch Elementary as presented second I second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero that was a lot of eats a lot of heat okay moving to 9.1 discussion and information on student achievement the August report I think we have Dr Fountain coming up yes all right it feels weird not to have Shelly here so I don't know does Bob I'll move over you like president pro tempore interim I'm not sure what uh to go with here but um so evening members of the board Dr Wyman and Miss Wagner um excited to bring you some updates from the curriculum instruction team um generally we would also include in this some of our assessment updates as I think you know we are in between Personnel for our assessment coordinator and we're kind of in a in between phase two with our data collection but we'll have that for you um by we I'll have that for you since I'm subbing in just like Mr Delano um so we'll have that for you at the next board meeting we are currently working on completing our initial benchmark assessments those will be done in the next week or so here so we'll have that data for the next board meeting we're of course always waiting for the state a through F data that preliminary data has come in it is still in the embargoed phase it's not Public public release yet but the initial data looks looks pretty positive for us so we're hopeful that the uh the board will finish that up in the near future and give us the official release and those cut points but they still have a few things to navigate on that so um I won't count on September for that update but it's usually October by the time we get that official information in see if I can make the clicker work it helps me turn it on so we're going to start tonight uh with Bob Anderson because I just feel like Bob's been up here enough he should continue to be up here so Bob's going to share some information about College and Career Readiness oh no Bob is going to defer that to John so so John come on up um okay governing board members Dr Wyman my pleasure to be here uh really so um just reporting back on some results that we had from our major Clarity usage and you can see based on the chart that we again are doing some wonderful things with the use of the platform again this is one tool that we use for our College and Career Readiness for our students and again we are pleased that our staff has been so heavily involved in helping students navigate and participate in the different activities that are available to them and that's why you see such a large percentage of usage and account activation at the elementary schools we have our counselor counseling team or maybe even a library Aid in some cases that are facilitating those activities at the middle school we have had last year we had our counselor and one of our counselors and as well as some teachers in the court areas and that's important to understand that we're really trying to get staff on board so the four core areas are given some activities to do with their teachers and they were very good about getting those done so the nice thing about that is our students are seeing that this isn't just something that the counselors are doing with them but that the staff has bought in and so it has a little bit more weight and then uh at the at CCS we're we're very fortunate to have uh Ms Godin the counselor there who has a little bit of a different scenario a different circumstance where she can actually sit down one-on-one with students and work with them uh with and and that has made a according to Dr Goolsby that's made a good impact on their students because now it's giving them some focus of what they might be able to do when they graduate from high school and maybe a reason to graduate from high school and then at the high school of course we have several staff members counselors that are involved in helping the students it is a student owned platform and I want to emphasize that because um you know it's really something that the students can utilize anytime anywhere right they can do this at home they don't have to be given an assignment they can go on the platform they can explore different careers when they get to the high school level they can search out Financial Resources for college they can apply for scholarships they can apply for college and so forth all this on the platform they don't need direction to do that so it's it's really something that will follow them again they have lifetime membership so even when they graduate from from Combs High School they will still have access to the platform they can access test scores that they have entered in their resume information all that stuff that that they've built up can now be used Even After High School so again it's been a good platform for us to use for our students and you saw the badge up there the badge simply just as an award that major Clarity gave us for uh robust use of it um just again for our four or five grade students there's um theirs is pretty basic they visit the 16 different career clusters to understand what those are it's just a career awareness piece when they get to the sixth grade platform uh at the elementary schools and the seventh and 8th graders they now begin to do a little bit more deeper dive into career exploration so now they're looking at specific occupations uh jobs um and an opportunity to really see what people do in those jobs what kind of earnings they make what kind of job demand or Outlook there might be so forth and so on and because of the assessments that they take it does align with their interests so if they don't know what they want to do major Clarity kind of gives them an opportunity to to have a launching point right and then for our 9th through 12th grade this year we've made a a larger shift well I should back up I want to tell you that in seventh grade you all approved the careers in your future curriculum and they use major Clarity every week with those seventh graders along with the Hands-On activities that we approved and so they're going to get a much greater depth opportunity to explore careers and we did that on purpose because we want to spend less time exploring at the high school level they will still do some exploration at the high school but we really want them to start uh getting to that Career Development stage where they're now taking classes they're developing skills that they can apply in the workforce they're making choices as far as what career what college they might need what uh what post-secondary really looks like for them and so that's really where we want to emphasize or what we want to emphasize with the high school now we still do the expiration we do a lot of it in the Career Technical education classes we do some in other classes but really we've made that nice shift so we go from awareness to exploration to development okay our goal again is that when the students leave they no longer give you the I don't know what I'm going to do at graduation they give you that I at least have a plan whether that plan changes or not that's up to them but at least they have a plan you have seen these quotes this is just different things that our counselors and teachers have experienced um throughout the experience the last couple of years this year we're happy to announce that uh with the acquisition of paper uh of major Clarity by paper um we also have integrated Common App common app is an app that was designed years ago to where students can enter in their information so instead of applying for a college and entering the same information multiple times they can enter it into common app one time we currently offer that to our students it's a it's a free version um but they have to find it right so we have to put it on our website or whatever that is now integrated into major Clarity so they go to their major Clarity account and they they'll have a common app option the second part is parchment parchment is our transcript software that we use um up until this year students could utilize that but they had to pay for the transcript small cost just a few dollars but every time they they request a transcript they had to pay those few extra dollars we integrated that also into major Clarity this year at no cost to the students so now students can request as many transcripts as they'd like no cost to the family um and again one place a One-Stop shop for all these things in major clarity okay oops I'm going ahead and that's not me nope okay so anyway so a little bit of a review I think you've heard most of this before but we just wanted to touch and touch base and let you know where we're at and some of the the new and exciting things that we're doing this year I'm always trying to improve on what we're doing and I think we're doing a pretty good job and when I say we I truly do mean um the sites the administrators their support counselors teachers all of them really uh buying in and understanding the importance of college and careerness even as low as the elementary level any questions John you could have said my part if you wanted members of the board Dr Wyman I am here today to talk to you about our new employee orientation and the pieces that we've incorporated into that and what's coming forward for our new employees additionally so we had 45 certified employees that includes teachers and student services members within for our new teacher orientation we provide it as we do with our students with that personalized learning we wanted to give that opportunity also for our staff so we provide a different breakout sessions that they could attend based off of their needs we provided time thankfully with the Combs Education Association and then our Combs teacher Association we had lunch where our principals and our coaches were able to spend one-on-one time with our new teachers at their on our campus here at the district office but together at the same table to really collaborate oops and then with our professional learning all of our new employees were able to hit that goal one literacy component through there and then we provided a resource folder with all of the different resources that we have that we not only provided paper copies of but we provided digital resources for teachers that they could go back and refer to whether it was benefits information from HR business services and also art with Goal one with our literacy pieces and curriculum pieces and then at the end we created a Neo survey that we took back with that feedback and to continuously improve our practice as our teachers do within that classroom setting so at the beginning of the year that's our boy there we started summer camp where we had uh trained professional learning for foundations right from the beginning and trauma-informed care and then our new employee orientation where we did our culture building breakout sessions goal one um where that was learner-centered culture and our standard operating procedures and then our year-long continuous support systems for our staff will be with our content coaches they met with every new certified teacher to ensure that they had the resources that they needed to start off the school year in addition they've been out on campuses modeling lessons attending plc's providing resources for all of our teachers not only our new teachers but for all of our teachers and then additional resource and support training can be is offered one-on-one if our teachers need that additionally our instructional coaches we've done walk through Crews and met with all of our new teachers on that end and have provided different areas of support with our vision our code Sops we've watched modeling we've had our I've done walkthroughs with the coaches and we've seen how even our new teachers have already embraced our vision and code they're posted in classrooms we had teachers even new teachers beginning to unpack standards it was wonderful opportunities to see through our walkthroughs and those are going to be conducted year long not only myself with the instructional coaches and with the CIA team and with principals but we'll continuously so that we can see weirdly what's happening within that classroom setting on that instructional and being able to provide that instructional support then our induction program we conducted A needs assessment for our staff we're going to change it up a little bit and we're going to provide different sessions for our new new teachers and what I mean by new teachers that's literally our first year newbies fresh out of college or that they've gone through a new teaching Academy or a new teaching program so those are fresh first-year newbies that we conducted that needs assessment and then we're providing specific um Pro sessions for them to give them support whether it's in classroom management whether it's some of that personal kind of personal support if they need support with resources whatever they need on that personalized pieces and then we've also set up our first mentoring and mentor and mentee event and that's coming up on August 22nd and we're refining that a little bit so that there's a little bit more kind of clear EX expectations for our roles and expectations for not only our mentees but for our mentors so that both have the provided the supports that they need and then just a little bit of feedback from our Neo survey that I'll let you guys read about how our new employees felt about it and next is Christine good evening members of the board Dr Wyman I'm really excited for this opportunity because um as you can see in the images on our first slide here these are some of our teachers in the district that are really embracing fluency elements in our hashtag forward movement and we offered a panel discussion for the first time and the feedback was really exciting to get from our teachers so I'll share a little bit about that as we move along so during our conference we had over 240 participants they were able to self-select their sessions that they wanted to attend and we followed kind of a learning plan model with a learning practice Improvement opportunity throughout the two days we offered 21 learn about it sessions we also had six panel discussions which were those images came from those on our day two to launch that it was a question and answer Style then we had 12 Workshop or practice at sessions which was a two hours of focus time on specific topics so staff got to self-select where they wanted to spend their time for that two hours we had 21 work groups for our approvement sessions which was really across grade levels across the district that they've kind of been asking for that time together so we provided those opportunities for them and then that campus work day was that third day I call it kind of an unconference day where they had that work time that was uninterrupted for the day three so on the first day we launched with Dr Wyman coming into the CPAC giving us our intro to hashtag forward for kind of our new staff and then we focused our learning sessions those 21 sessions were around goal one fluency for learner Center culture Sops vision and code that Nancy spoke of and then we dove into our goal to for literacy around bigger since that's our shift this year and focusing on types of pedagogy and then the fluency elements that go along with that we also offered training for math adoption since that was a new resource this year for teachers we also provided content for science because we have quite a new quite a lot of new staff in science in our secondary piece and with the new standards we wanted to make sure they had that shift that we're looking for and then student services had some Focus sessions so the feedback you can see here teachers felt like they had a lot of opportunity to get some new ideas the counseling department found value in the sessions for setting expectations when students come into their sessions and then that unpacking of the standards process people felt like they found some more value in that then on day two we launched with our panels we had goal one and goal two elements again for our panels staff who had achieved fluency was who we sought out and they were selected and recommended so we had six K2 teachers represented eight three six teachers um we had some sped populations represented with Pre-K and a 7-8 teacher and then we had seven 912 teachers on those panels and the first piece of feedback that you'll see there is actually from a panelist who said that they themselves even gained knowledge by being on the panel so we thought that was exciting and then consensus-wise most people felt that they were helpful to their development to actually see and hear how people are living and breathing it on with the boots on the ground so to speak and then after that session we moved into the workshops again around goal one and goal two fluency elements we did bring in those content specific elements for those that have been asking for that support in planning and then student services had time to really dive into goal book which is a resource they use for planning and we had 96 percent of the participants found this specific time for workshops beneficial they created many lessons we had our PE teachers say that they could collaboratively work on a weight training learning plan and then finding teachers were able to find time with people from other schools to unpack standards and work on those priority standards and then in the afternoon this is where we came together and had spread out our staff so that we could support the elementary grade levels so K through six had groups across the district so first grade district-wide work together second grade and so on Elementary specials were grouped together secondary staff was grouped by content area we had our electives people at the secondary level group together and then our special student services departments had their own work groups and again the feedback we received was working across the district in our in those groups they got some great ideas from each other they appreciated the time together and our vertical articulation of those CTE PE and Fine Arts people from middle and high school really found value in that so overall we asked what their feedback was from the conference and a lot of people said they were able to take risks get out of their comfort zone and I think even our department and our student services department worked together to to take risks ourselves to try something new this time around people really valued that planning time on day two that workshop and prove it time and then um they really enjoyed having those teacher leaders in those panel discussions so next steps as a department we talked about those walkthroughs that Nancy mentioned instructional coaches content coaches are starting those walkthroughs in the next couple of weeks to get on campuses and I'll be going with them as well principals District leadership we talked about through those walkthroughs we'll use that data to identify our needs district-wide and professional learning and then those data dialogues that will come out of those data out of those walk through data discussions so that we can really support that move into rigor that we're shifting into this year with professional learning what are sorry what are like the follow-up what's the next thing I say this because I've just been in places as a teacher where we have a wonderful beginning meeting it sounds like that's what you had and then there's nothing by day 90 it's like forgotten what it was even the vision so what's kind of your plan or thought to reconvene bring them back together or what what are some of your thoughts or ideas that you guys have talked about absolutely so one one of the things we're working on is a professional learning Master calendar so we've brought back kind of those site PL days in Camp that is campus site or campus PL days and then District PL days each month so we have different Focus around either hashtag forward elements or rigor or data elements over the next couple of months and then in October we'll bring back a similar format of learn about it practice it and prove it with those same topics to keep that thread of rigor going through for our teachers because it kind of sounds like if you if you have that collaboration they might feel they're connected more as teachers to the high school wherever they were it just creates more of a family which would that create more of a retention of teachers because they feel like they're part of something bigger than just their classroom not that the classroom's not important but when you feel connection to the other professionals it's like you got someone rooting for you got someone to go to for ideas when you're discouraged just something to consider because teachers do feel a little bit lonely in the classroom sometimes I think a lot of us can sympathize with that right and I think that consideration yes and part of the process too I met with student services to kind of refine those work groups I call them to make sure that all of our people felt like they had a team of people they could collaborate with and work together with so we even identified ways to refine that this week it's cool what other questions might you have well I guess I was just wondering um the new teachers people new teeth you know to our school our district into hashtag forward it seems that this is really helpful to them what kind of negative comments that any do they have regarding hashtag forward I don't I didn't receive any of those I know Nancy yes if anything it was that they enjoyed that time and really helped build that culture piece and so and even again when we were out into the classrooms that very first day of school from the first day to the first week they were already implementing them within that classroom setting the nice pieces and again I'm I might be coming from out of District but their best practices as you know as a teacher they're literally best practices we might use a different term for them but it really is our research-based best practices for our teachers and as a matter of fact one of the um teachers was like this was great because this is everything that I learned from my University coming out of the university and I was like I want to know what university you went to because we don't normally hear that and so those that was really nice to hear that piece and that it was just it really helped her even see that what she was learning within that University level is immediately implemented within a school that's true that's good to hear yeah I mean I think the the one piece that's existed in the past and we've done some things to mitigate that um is that question of time and how much time is allotted to begin to implement those pieces and so as was mentioned in the presentation we we put a heavy Focus during Neo to get them through that and give them those opportunities so that it wasn't uh something that they had to do on their own um and I think that really helped a lot and we have some strategies that we're using to slowly build these pieces so that they're not all expected at once because we know that feels pretty overwhelming when you're you know first coming into the classroom so um what I hope you heard and I'm gonna I'm gonna brag on these folks a little bit what I hope you heard was a common theme about we're really focused on that retention side of the recruitment retention equation and it's our desire as a team to really have some focused efforts in place to make sure that those who are new to us particularly those who are due to the teaching profession find success because we feel like that's one of the biggest drivers for turnover is that people don't feel like they're success successful so heavy effort on getting in and seeing new teachers they have had face-to-face contact with our team even on that independent work day that we gave them the content coach team went around and visited every single new teacher to the district to make sure that they had all of their materials in hand to review with them what do you need do you have the stuff that you're supposed to have so that you can start teaching those forward days were designed to get them their first set of lesson planning essentially so that they were structured to give them time those first couple days and I think we're honing in on that sweet spot of give us time to do the work and don't give us just free time because then the work might not get done what does that guided practice look like to give us the supports to make sure that positive work is happening but it's meaningful to us in our classroom environment so I think there's some really good things happening and hopefully we'll have more to share on that in the future so a couple things that will be coming up we're working really heavily on goal two this year which is all about building rigor in the classroom so that's a lot of what you'll hear us sharing with you this year and then as I mentioned at the start we'll have some updated benchmark assessments in aasa projections hopefully either in September or October depending on how long they drag on and if there's anything else the board wants to hear about from teaching and learning please let us know and we're happy to put that together for you well I think that um rigor in the classroom excuse me is tied into US looking to improve overall performance in the classroom scores on on standardized tests so the rigor is you know one of the steps to get us there so I'm glad you're working on that and it really and we'll foreshadowing right when we get to the aasa data that's a lot of what you're going to see in that data is that if you look at where we're at as a district I mean your two major components are your your growth and your proficiency right and when you look at the growth that our students achieve over the course of the year it's competitive with all of our surrounding districts so it's not a matter of our kids aren't learning it's a matter of ratcheting up that rigor so that the proficiency level is reaching higher so I describe it as saying if we go from 0 to 10 and we grow 10 points and another District goes or another school goes from 5 to 15 they also grew 10 points but they started higher and so they're ending higher and so that's the piece that we're really trying to make sure we address in the classroom setting so that we can move those in the direction that they need to be foreign thank you thank you let's see where are we um item 9.2 discussion discussion and consideration of approval of changes to policy recommendations from asba policy advisory 744.2747 first reading yeah this it gets a little confusing so I've asked you to take a look at it will you approved something back in May and then asba kicked this out and what you approved in may they made a minor modification too because some attorneys said hey we're not so sure we need to use this uh specifically the board authorizes policies it the statute says simply says authorize so they're taking the word board out of several of this policies so it's a minor change this is just discussion and then in September uh would come back and prove so if you have any concerns with it you can give me you know talk to me over the next month but at the end of the day it's it's a minor modification and it's this happens with policies as different attorneys look at it differently and and some group reads it but then someone else looks at it says I read it differently so it's nothing major but we'll bring it back for second read in September okay all right moving on to item 10.

um and so we are letting um our schools know that you know we do have some schools this year starting out at 23 24 25 um and and so K12 again we try to stay within the 22 to 25 range um and sometimes we it's not uncommon that we are at 24.25 this year we have more Schools starting out at 24 25 than we typically do that's not across the board but that that is something that is that is part of our reality yes okay with that being said so where can like so that's changing grade level teaching somewhat for some for some folks so you know if we're having higher numbers we might need we might not need like a fourth grade class or a fifth grade class um so teachers are being moved to different grades um how does how does that happen does that happen like by seniority by you know like if a teacher's been in the district 12 years and they don't want not that they don't want but they're not as comfortable teaching say a first grader or kindergarten as they are teaching an upper elementary grade is that taking into consideration or because they're more tenured they get moved to a lower grade because kindergarten certification is different it it kind of varies and so the certification as you had pointed out Lauren is it's a K5 certified it's a one five certification candy Garden is separate um and so if we're just talking about just moves within the building oftentimes it's not uncommon that you know annually regardless of the moves that um you know but that might be going on right now um there might be so you know I the five years that I've been here at Park Avenue for an example we've had years where we've had a bubble of like second grade is a lot of kids that second grade would move up to third grade is a lot of kids and so Dave might have to move some people around in his building to um to to to address you know that bubble moving up across the building um and um so it really depends on the school kindergarten to your point if they don't have kindergarten certification that might be might not be a great level that they're moving to um if Kelly Cara and I are all third grade teachers and Dave needs someone in grade one um you know he can ask voluntarily if there's someone who you know Cara might say I love first grade and you know she'll run down there even though she has the most experience um and or um and so it will go first um you know and I believe we go by seniority first and then we we go by moves uh but the principal also has the ability to place people uh within within their respective buildings question two may I Lauren good um sorry yes go ahead thank you Lauren so I was um wondering if you could those two things um I was speaking with somebody regarding reach and I was told that there was and then don't see how this could be possible no math teacher at reach teaching is that true I can say without teaching that they did not teach math classes at reach this year there was no teacher there is that the case so that's not accurate there the part that is accurate is that there was um there are teacher shortages in the area of mathematics um so we did start the year with a long-term sub in the position um and then we did have to reallocate again looking at the resources in the building based on certifications um and um we also uh supplemented um with some online learning supports for our students there um so it is a position at the building um that uh there have been across the school year um three different individuals that have been supporting with the content um it actually was in the middle school program so Endeavor um and uh and so there have been changes in the mathematics and we are still actively working to to Sure up that math position for the start of the school year so then we didn't have a math teacher like a formal math test everybody kind of just helped out is that what you're saying no so we started out with a long-term sub we then have someone that can teach more than one content so we did a change teaching assignments um and then we had to make another adjustment and we utilized a sub a sub at the end of the year as well so Mathis taught there was classes taught every day every week within the program correct okay and then the other question that happened to come up this weekend so which was you know obviously last year we went with the two-week summer program because of the impact from covid this year it was because we were running you know our tight things were tight so I think we went again with the two two weeks but then I understand is it true that after the first week or eight days of the program it was shut down or that we closed summer school program in Danbury I've heard that at two different locations and I just didn't know from two different sources and I just I hadn't heard anything about it that there was an error and that they had to actually could no longer fund the program is there any truths or I can maybe start with our special ed program there was one day of closure this summer it was actually the first day um July 5th and that was due to flooding in the building um so it was one way I'm sorry at AIS um there was one day so our special education summer school program runs for five weeks uh we ran for five weeks but we did have one day of closure um and that was again due to the extensive rains that we had had and so forth so I'm not sure if the closure conversation um is happening there that was a reality fortunately we were able to resume normal operations on the following day and proceeded for the five weeks of summer school there um for a regular Ed summer school program it did run two weeks um we uh there was some early uh in the spring conversations about running that program four weeks uh do we did make some decisions with budgetary constraints in mind to run it two weeks and that is how we hired and rolled out to staff for summer Michelle that you mentioned eight days and I think the the when summer school all summer school always runs Monday through Thursday okay and so two weeks so that's you know week one Monday through Thursday week two Monday through Thursday so so that is eight days if that if that is where that number came from so it's two weeks but we don't we don't bring the kids in on Fridays and stuff no actually I had somebody come up to me two two different that's the thing and they said that there was an error in payroll that there was uh a significant error in payroll and that there was not enough funding to extend the program till its completion so this is just a rumor but they there was no the program ran two weeks yeah right we had two summer programs it went two weeks um and then Kelly's program with the full five weeks with the with the exception of that day um when we had that issue at AIS so there was no issue then with any error in paying the the anybody in the program in the summer program like double you know 40 or 75 an hour that is not the case nothing like that occurred because that's basically what I'm hearing and I just want to make sure that that it's uh if it is an ugly rumor that you know that we address that conversation was there any kind of issue like that I did I did get word of that right so I I just want to try to unpack this a little bit so the the summer school experience for kids did not change right and so with that moved forward this summer as planned and um the day that we had out was that unique day when we had the flooding at the school um and the the eight days for summer school moved forward as planned um if there was an issue with payroll it definitely whatever that may have been I'm not just exactly sure what what you may have heard uh but that definitely did not impact our planning for uh summer experience for kids this summer all right well Kevin can you if you're not really sure confirm with with John or whomever because um I just literally I you know this person spoke to one of the people that were working there and said that they were going back to school because the program had been closed because they had paid him double which I you know understand that being so if you could just confirm that right but I want to make sure I want to make sure what I'm confirming Michelle so that their error in payroll paying the summer school program that there was no early you know there was no issue with the the payment I guess that's part of the curriculum I had heard that the program had already had ended early and it had to do with some sort of payroll issue if you haven't heard anything that's great you said you weren't sure if you could just confirm that but I but I can confirm right now some right but let me just confirm now summer school move forward as planned in both the special ed programming and so like if there was an issue with payroll and I can clarify with John it I'm all on all I'm saying is our summer school experience moved forward as planned this summer if right and so if you heard the rumor that because of a federal issue our summer school plans did not move forward as planned that's incorrect because of summer school did move forward as we had planned wonderful to deliver this year but but I can find out separately if there was a payroll issue if if you want to talk offline see if I can look up specifically I can ask John for clarification wonderful I only say that because I heard I was at two totally different events and I was like you know what I hadn't heard anything about it let me confirm because obviously we don't want that going around and I hadn't heard that but in one weekend I heard it at two different so I just want to make sure that you know I can set that straight so if you could let me know that'd be great just to confirm with John yes thank you Kevin if you could confirm that information for for us that would be awesome uh one more thing so we're all set then with the issue that we had discussed I'm pretty much sure we are I just want to make sure the nine teachers we are you know we're not let go the music program that you know we're kind of looking to get the uh ask for the reserves to the city all that needless to say nobody's been let go right and those programs are moving forward as part of the curriculum for next year or whatever is that correct that is correct thank you appreciate that I can certainly I'm sorry oh what was that no you're fine oh you're breaking up hello Lauren are you still there I think you're muted Lauren it might be traveling there you go I'm just gonna I didn't care a finish but I was just gonna say it's any members of um board that have questions that are not on the curriculum committee please feel free to ask your questions at this point thank you you can always email as well if you think of something later that's fine of course so if I can just quickly Cara we were gonna you're gonna provide me with that chart that we talked about right the organisms yeah so I'm trying to so I don't know if I was there for the the the session where you discussed a specific chart so I'm trying in my my brain trying to understand I I haven't seen a chart from Nashville that charts out all of that stuff and I've been to Nashville twice now so I Cara I think the discussion was and Michelle I don't know how much you remember from the from the meeting because I remember a little bit more now um when were there when when Michelle had asked the question um I I recall it as the organization chart for the district and then this could give us an opportunity so let's just say Nashville has 40 000 kids and we have 12.

because essentially you're developing thermal storage at night when the ambient temperatures down lower the head pressure on the compressors a lot lower so that way you're pre-cooling the buildings for the day so your best strategy we can come up with because I recommend it pass them over to the high school to do stuff or well they'll go in there with our fans that doesn't sound good at all I mean I know all right any any other questions about the HVAC unit all right we need a motion I motion to approve the purchase of one HVAC unit for the CMS gymnasium from Tempe Mechanical as presented second okay all in favor I I opposed okay it passes four to zero 8.8 discussion and consideration of approval of amendment to the contract for custodial Services by SSC service for Education under one GPA contract number 20-01pv as you remember when we brought uh SSC on to take care of the do Ranch and uh the high school we said if if it was a positive relationship and if we continue to run into staffing issues we would look at expanding that we are in the staffing issues we're short five custodians as as we speak and so we've approached SSC for the possibility of of uh expanding their footprint we looked at the middle school just because it's the second highest usage type of building with the public and so uh they've said yes they can do it the pricing's at I believe 240 but but we do anticipate a savings of approximately 30 000 sometimes I think people think it's an automatic that's going to cost us more to do this but we see the savings just in part through Personnel but in part also through supplies and so if you approve tonight we will let them know tomorrow and they will probably need uh they will need until after Labor Day to ramp up and get the people hired to come on board nobody will lose a job the individual work for us now we're short to down at ctac CCS so two of the people will go down there and then two the others would be absorbed there's a chance some of these people they'll be approached by ccs to see if they or excuse me SSC if they want to work for them so we may have a temporary uh overload of people but based on the turnover we're having we won't have an extra employee for that much longer and so we would recommend uh the expansion what we continue to do this in the future just depends uh we're just looking at every different possible way we can to make sure our facilities are clean and then understanding what the unique situations are so recommend approval presented questions I just excuse me um in terms of the coverage so we're kind of spread a little bit so some of the things we'll maybe not get done is well as we would like in the meantime until then right right yeah I mean it's the same battle we had which is which is quite frankly why we ended up going with a third party is we were so spread so thin that that in some cases our facilities weren't looking at the level we wanted them to and so this just gives us a chance to give like in the case of CTA and and CCS they'll have the three full-time people they need instead of the one that they have right now and so uh uh yeah we'll we'll be back to cleaning uh where we want maybe even better because we'll have a full staffs everywhere but again there will be about a three-week window while the hiring takes place and and then we can move people around three weeks is better than 35 weeks that's I was just I was thinking the same thing but I didn't want to say it okay other questions okay I had an emotion please emotional approve of SSC services for education to provide custodial services at Combs Middle School through June 2024 under igpa contract number 20-01pv as presented second second Jan hey all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero 8.9 there's a lot of eights this week or this month discussion and consideration of approval of school facilities division building renewal Grant roofing project at Simonton which members of the board Dr Wyman colleagues if you recall the school district did have some weatherization and also some Roofing Replacements in the prior around these two schools that are recommended well we'll take one at a time so this is uh for Simington so Simonton was one of the schools that did not get re-ruffed and we're we have some damaged uh areas and if we need to we need to address it because with the new monsoons and everything else coming up it definitely is needed and they're willing to put the bill for it so which is always nice yeah so I recommend your proof and and so you see you'll see that the two 2.1 million on both both of those so this is substantial amount of money again that does come out of our pocket comes out of the sfob I just bring this up more so that the public understands where we're going after every dollar we can for everything we we can do we did 17 million back in 19 or 2021 um we'll do with the four that you're going to do here probably in excess of about 5 million um in addition to other projects that we've done so we continue to to uh push the SF OB to give us as much as we can but there is a structure that we have to follow um I have a question I know we're talking about Simonton we look at Harmon it's the same dollar amount is it that one dollar amount covers two or is it two million per it's two million it's their sister site so it's exactly the same building footprint and everything so that's why it's unusual that you'd have the exact same price other questions or comments okay lotion a motion approved the terms and conditions for a building renewal Grant roofing project at Simonton Elementary is presented second my second okay all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero 8.10 discussion and consideration of approval of school facilities division building renewal Grant project at Harman same thing right same thing okay any other comments or questions okay and motion to approve the terms and conditions for the building renewal Grant project at Harmon Elementary is presented hi second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero okay let's see what are we up to that 11 another discussion and consideration of approval of school facilities division building renewal Grant projects at the Combs Traditional Academy and the comb Center for Success campus members of the board Dr Wyman colleague good to see you again it's been such a long time um this is desperately needed we have worked with the stage system for over a year now this you know everybody knows that that was the original Campus of this District it was added on piece by piece and the the fire alarm systems and Life Safety Systems are a reflection of that a lot of the equipment is so outdated you can't get parts you actually have to have somebody custom make cards to make it work so so they're in full agreement that needs to be replaced the report that we gave them showed that um so I recommend that you approve this and this is also coming from the state the funding sure yeah and one thing I've been told that we school districts are really trying to get these things approved soon because they're afraid that it's going to run out of money so you know yeah questions or comments okay motion please emotion approved the terms and conditions for a building renewal Grant project at the CTA and CCS campuses as presented or campus as presented right second I second Jan all in favor say aye aye opposed passes four to zero and the last eight 8.12.

10.1 call for executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431.03 A8 and 9. the governing board may vote to convene an executive session for the board to consider the proposed District school safety plan so should we do that okay I'm wondering if it would be okay with the board if we were to invite both Jennifer Corey and Bob Anderson to join us in the executive session in case there's any questions we might have they'll actually be making presentations too and making presentations as well all right well then I make a motion that we move into executive session at 17 at 7 18. do we have a second okay Jason seconds all in favor okay see we are moving

discussing and consideration of approval of the school facilities division building renewal Grant project at Ranch Elementary this one's a little bit unique we had storm damage a hail storm almost a year ago um and it damaged majority of the units insurance company came out to trust had mechanical companies take a look at and evaluate it um and they gave us a price of 140 41 thousand dollars to replace the coils the coils are one component of the condenser on top of the roof that the hail bounced on these units are towards the end of their lifespan so it'd be like putting a new radiator on a 57 Chevy and everything else is really bad so they said you know you really want to do this or would you want to take this money and see if you can go ahead and use some of your funds to go ahead and replace it put new units on it and we don't have a bunch of capital money laying around so we went and petitioned towards the state to see if they can help us out and this is fairly new to them to do this partnership and Dr Wyman should get a lot of this credit he convinced them to consider that to think outside the box so and I think other they're starting to do it with other districts now too so it's a good joint venture so I recommend that you approve this comments or questions no okay then a motion I motion to approve the terms and conditions for a building renewal Grant project for Ranch Elementary as presented second I second all in favor say aye aye aye opposed it passes four to zero that was a lot of eats a lot of heat okay moving to 9.1 discussion and information on student achievement the August report I think we have Dr Fountain coming up yes all right it feels weird not to have Shelly here so I don't know does Bob I'll move over you like president pro tempore interim I'm not sure what uh to go with here but um so evening members of the board Dr Wyman and Miss Wagner um excited to bring you some updates from the curriculum instruction team um generally we would also include in this some of our assessment updates as I think you know we are in between Personnel for our assessment coordinator and we're kind of in a in between phase two with our data collection but we'll have that for you um by we I'll have that for you since I'm subbing in just like Mr Delano um so we'll have that for you at the next board meeting we are currently working on completing our initial benchmark assessments those will be done in the next week or so here so we'll have that data for the next board meeting we're of course always waiting for the state a through F data that preliminary data has come in it is still in the embargoed phase it's not Public public release yet but the initial data looks looks pretty positive for us so we're hopeful that the uh the board will finish that up in the near future and give us the official release and those cut points but they still have a few things to navigate on that so um I won't count on September for that update but it's usually October by the time we get that official information in see if I can make the clicker work it helps me turn it on so we're going to start tonight uh with Bob Anderson because I just feel like Bob's been up here enough he should continue to be up here so Bob's going to share some information about College and Career Readiness oh no Bob is going to defer that to John so so John come on up um okay governing board members Dr Wyman my pleasure to be here uh really so um just reporting back on some results that we had from our major Clarity usage and you can see based on the chart that we again are doing some wonderful things with the use of the platform again this is one tool that we use for our College and Career Readiness for our students and again we are pleased that our staff has been so heavily involved in helping students navigate and participate in the different activities that are available to them and that's why you see such a large percentage of usage and account activation at the elementary schools we have our counselor counseling team or maybe even a library Aid in some cases that are facilitating those activities at the middle school we have had last year we had our counselor and one of our counselors and as well as some teachers in the court areas and that's important to understand that we're really trying to get staff on board so the four core areas are given some activities to do with their teachers and they were very good about getting those done so the nice thing about that is our students are seeing that this isn't just something that the counselors are doing with them but that the staff has bought in and so it has a little bit more weight and then uh at the at CCS we're we're very fortunate to have uh Ms Godin the counselor there who has a little bit of a different scenario a different circumstance where she can actually sit down one-on-one with students and work with them uh with and and that has made a according to Dr Goolsby that's made a good impact on their students because now it's giving them some focus of what they might be able to do when they graduate from high school and maybe a reason to graduate from high school and then at the high school of course we have several staff members counselors that are involved in helping the students it is a student owned platform and I want to emphasize that because um you know it's really something that the students can utilize anytime anywhere right they can do this at home they don't have to be given an assignment they can go on the platform they can explore different careers when they get to the high school level they can search out Financial Resources for college they can apply for scholarships they can apply for college and so forth all this on the platform they don't need direction to do that so it's it's really something that will follow them again they have lifetime membership so even when they graduate from from Combs High School they will still have access to the platform they can access test scores that they have entered in their resume information all that stuff that that they've built up can now be used Even After High School so again it's been a good platform for us to use for our students and you saw the badge up there the badge simply just as an award that major Clarity gave us for uh robust use of it um just again for our four or five grade students there's um theirs is pretty basic they visit the 16 different career clusters to understand what those are it's just a career awareness piece when they get to the sixth grade platform uh at the elementary schools and the seventh and 8th graders they now begin to do a little bit more deeper dive into career exploration so now they're looking at specific occupations uh jobs um and an opportunity to really see what people do in those jobs what kind of earnings they make what kind of job demand or Outlook there might be so forth and so on and because of the assessments that they take it does align with their interests so if they don't know what they want to do major Clarity kind of gives them an opportunity to to have a launching point right and then for our 9th through 12th grade this year we've made a a larger shift well I should back up I want to tell you that in seventh grade you all approved the careers in your future curriculum and they use major Clarity every week with those seventh graders along with the Hands-On activities that we approved and so they're going to get a much greater depth opportunity to explore careers and we did that on purpose because we want to spend less time exploring at the high school level they will still do some exploration at the high school but we really want them to start uh getting to that Career Development stage where they're now taking classes they're developing skills that they can apply in the workforce they're making choices as far as what career what college they might need what uh what post-secondary really looks like for them and so that's really where we want to emphasize or what we want to emphasize with the high school now we still do the expiration we do a lot of it in the Career Technical education classes we do some in other classes but really we've made that nice shift so we go from awareness to exploration to development okay our goal again is that when the students leave they no longer give you the I don't know what I'm going to do at graduation they give you that I at least have a plan whether that plan changes or not that's up to them but at least they have a plan you have seen these quotes this is just different things that our counselors and teachers have experienced um throughout the experience the last couple of years this year we're happy to announce that uh with the acquisition of paper uh of major Clarity by paper um we also have integrated Common App common app is an app that was designed years ago to where students can enter in their information so instead of applying for a college and entering the same information multiple times they can enter it into common app one time we currently offer that to our students it's a it's a free version um but they have to find it right so we have to put it on our website or whatever that is now integrated into major Clarity so they go to their major Clarity account and they they'll have a common app option the second part is parchment parchment is our transcript software that we use um up until this year students could utilize that but they had to pay for the transcript small cost just a few dollars but every time they they request a transcript they had to pay those few extra dollars we integrated that also into major Clarity this year at no cost to the students so now students can request as many transcripts as they'd like no cost to the family um and again one place a One-Stop shop for all these things in major clarity okay oops I'm going ahead and that's not me nope okay so anyway so a little bit of a review I think you've heard most of this before but we just wanted to touch and touch base and let you know where we're at and some of the the new and exciting things that we're doing this year I'm always trying to improve on what we're doing and I think we're doing a pretty good job and when I say we I truly do mean um the sites the administrators their support counselors teachers all of them really uh buying in and understanding the importance of college and careerness even as low as the elementary level any questions John you could have said my part if you wanted members of the board Dr Wyman I am here today to talk to you about our new employee orientation and the pieces that we've incorporated into that and what's coming forward for our new employees additionally so we had 45 certified employees that includes teachers and student services members within for our new teacher orientation we provide it as we do with our students with that personalized learning we wanted to give that opportunity also for our staff so we provide a different breakout sessions that they could attend based off of their needs we provided time thankfully with the Combs Education Association and then our Combs teacher Association we had lunch where our principals and our coaches were able to spend one-on-one time with our new teachers at their on our campus here at the district office but together at the same table to really collaborate oops and then with our professional learning all of our new employees were able to hit that goal one literacy component through there and then we provided a resource folder with all of the different resources that we have that we not only provided paper copies of but we provided digital resources for teachers that they could go back and refer to whether it was benefits information from HR business services and also art with Goal one with our literacy pieces and curriculum pieces and then at the end we created a Neo survey that we took back with that feedback and to continuously improve our practice as our teachers do within that classroom setting so at the beginning of the year that's our boy there we started summer camp where we had uh trained professional learning for foundations right from the beginning and trauma-informed care and then our new employee orientation where we did our culture building breakout sessions goal one um where that was learner-centered culture and our standard operating procedures and then our year-long continuous support systems for our staff will be with our content coaches they met with every new certified teacher to ensure that they had the resources that they needed to start off the school year in addition they've been out on campuses modeling lessons attending plc's providing resources for all of our teachers not only our new teachers but for all of our teachers and then additional resource and support training can be is offered one-on-one if our teachers need that additionally our instructional coaches we've done walk through Crews and met with all of our new teachers on that end and have provided different areas of support with our vision our code Sops we've watched modeling we've had our I've done walkthroughs with the coaches and we've seen how even our new teachers have already embraced our vision and code they're posted in classrooms we had teachers even new teachers beginning to unpack standards it was wonderful opportunities to see through our walkthroughs and those are going to be conducted year long not only myself with the instructional coaches and with the CIA team and with principals but we'll continuously so that we can see weirdly what's happening within that classroom setting on that instructional and being able to provide that instructional support then our induction program we conducted A needs assessment for our staff we're going to change it up a little bit and we're going to provide different sessions for our new new teachers and what I mean by new teachers that's literally our first year newbies fresh out of college or that they've gone through a new teaching Academy or a new teaching program so those are fresh first-year newbies that we conducted that needs assessment and then we're providing specific um Pro sessions for them to give them support whether it's in classroom management whether it's some of that personal kind of personal support if they need support with resources whatever they need on that personalized pieces and then we've also set up our first mentoring and mentor and mentee event and that's coming up on August 22nd and we're refining that a little bit so that there's a little bit more kind of clear EX expectations for our roles and expectations for not only our mentees but for our mentors so that both have the provided the supports that they need and then just a little bit of feedback from our Neo survey that I'll let you guys read about how our new employees felt about it and next is Christine good evening members of the board Dr Wyman I'm really excited for this opportunity because um as you can see in the images on our first slide here these are some of our teachers in the district that are really embracing fluency elements in our hashtag forward movement and we offered a panel discussion for the first time and the feedback was really exciting to get from our teachers so I'll share a little bit about that as we move along so during our conference we had over 240 participants they were able to self-select their sessions that they wanted to attend and we followed kind of a learning plan model with a learning practice Improvement opportunity throughout the two days we offered 21 learn about it sessions we also had six panel discussions which were those images came from those on our day two to launch that it was a question and answer Style then we had 12 Workshop or practice at sessions which was a two hours of focus time on specific topics so staff got to self-select where they wanted to spend their time for that two hours we had 21 work groups for our approvement sessions which was really across grade levels across the district that they've kind of been asking for that time together so we provided those opportunities for them and then that campus work day was that third day I call it kind of an unconference day where they had that work time that was uninterrupted for the day three so on the first day we launched with Dr Wyman coming into the CPAC giving us our intro to hashtag forward for kind of our new staff and then we focused our learning sessions those 21 sessions were around goal one fluency for learner Center culture Sops vision and code that Nancy spoke of and then we dove into our goal to for literacy around bigger since that's our shift this year and focusing on types of pedagogy and then the fluency elements that go along with that we also offered training for math adoption since that was a new resource this year for teachers we also provided content for science because we have quite a new quite a lot of new staff in science in our secondary piece and with the new standards we wanted to make sure they had that shift that we're looking for and then student services had some Focus sessions so the feedback you can see here teachers felt like they had a lot of opportunity to get some new ideas the counseling department found value in the sessions for setting expectations when students come into their sessions and then that unpacking of the standards process people felt like they found some more value in that then on day two we launched with our panels we had goal one and goal two elements again for our panels staff who had achieved fluency was who we sought out and they were selected and recommended so we had six K2 teachers represented eight three six teachers um we had some sped populations represented with Pre-K and a 7-8 teacher and then we had seven 912 teachers on those panels and the first piece of feedback that you'll see there is actually from a panelist who said that they themselves even gained knowledge by being on the panel so we thought that was exciting and then consensus-wise most people felt that they were helpful to their development to actually see and hear how people are living and breathing it on with the boots on the ground so to speak and then after that session we moved into the workshops again around goal one and goal two fluency elements we did bring in those content specific elements for those that have been asking for that support in planning and then student services had time to really dive into goal book which is a resource they use for planning and we had 96 percent of the participants found this specific time for workshops beneficial they created many lessons we had our PE teachers say that they could collaboratively work on a weight training learning plan and then finding teachers were able to find time with people from other schools to unpack standards and work on those priority standards and then in the afternoon this is where we came together and had spread out our staff so that we could support the elementary grade levels so K through six had groups across the district so first grade district-wide work together second grade and so on Elementary specials were grouped together secondary staff was grouped by content area we had our electives people at the secondary level group together and then our special student services departments had their own work groups and again the feedback we received was working across the district in our in those groups they got some great ideas from each other they appreciated the time together and our vertical articulation of those CTE PE and Fine Arts people from middle and high school really found value in that so overall we asked what their feedback was from the conference and a lot of people said they were able to take risks get out of their comfort zone and I think even our department and our student services department worked together to to take risks ourselves to try something new this time around people really valued that planning time on day two that workshop and prove it time and then um they really enjoyed having those teacher leaders in those panel discussions so next steps as a department we talked about those walkthroughs that Nancy mentioned instructional coaches content coaches are starting those walkthroughs in the next couple of weeks to get on campuses and I'll be going with them as well principals District leadership we talked about through those walkthroughs we'll use that data to identify our needs district-wide and professional learning and then those data dialogues that will come out of those data out of those walk through data discussions so that we can really support that move into rigor that we're shifting into this year with professional learning what are sorry what are like the follow-up what's the next thing I say this because I've just been in places as a teacher where we have a wonderful beginning meeting it sounds like that's what you had and then there's nothing by day 90 it's like forgotten what it was even the vision so what's kind of your plan or thought to reconvene bring them back together or what what are some of your thoughts or ideas that you guys have talked about absolutely so one one of the things we're working on is a professional learning Master calendar so we've brought back kind of those site PL days in Camp that is campus site or campus PL days and then District PL days each month so we have different Focus around either hashtag forward elements or rigor or data elements over the next couple of months and then in October we'll bring back a similar format of learn about it practice it and prove it with those same topics to keep that thread of rigor going through for our teachers because it kind of sounds like if you if you have that collaboration they might feel they're connected more as teachers to the high school wherever they were it just creates more of a family which would that create more of a retention of teachers because they feel like they're part of something bigger than just their classroom not that the classroom's not important but when you feel connection to the other professionals it's like you got someone rooting for you got someone to go to for ideas when you're discouraged just something to consider because teachers do feel a little bit lonely in the classroom sometimes I think a lot of us can sympathize with that right and I think that consideration yes and part of the process too I met with student services to kind of refine those work groups I call them to make sure that all of our people felt like they had a team of people they could collaborate with and work together with so we even identified ways to refine that this week it's cool what other questions might you have well I guess I was just wondering um the new teachers people new teeth you know to our school our district into hashtag forward it seems that this is really helpful to them what kind of negative comments that any do they have regarding hashtag forward I don't I didn't receive any of those I know Nancy yes if anything it was that they enjoyed that time and really helped build that culture piece and so and even again when we were out into the classrooms that very first day of school from the first day to the first week they were already implementing them within that classroom setting the nice pieces and again I'm I might be coming from out of District but their best practices as you know as a teacher they're literally best practices we might use a different term for them but it really is our research-based best practices for our teachers and as a matter of fact one of the um teachers was like this was great because this is everything that I learned from my University coming out of the university and I was like I want to know what university you went to because we don't normally hear that and so those that was really nice to hear that piece and that it was just it really helped her even see that what she was learning within that University level is immediately implemented within a school that's true that's good to hear yeah I mean I think the the one piece that's existed in the past and we've done some things to mitigate that um is that question of time and how much time is allotted to begin to implement those pieces and so as was mentioned in the presentation we we put a heavy Focus during Neo to get them through that and give them those opportunities so that it wasn't uh something that they had to do on their own um and I think that really helped a lot and we have some strategies that we're using to slowly build these pieces so that they're not all expected at once because we know that feels pretty overwhelming when you're you know first coming into the classroom so um what I hope you heard and I'm gonna I'm gonna brag on these folks a little bit what I hope you heard was a common theme about we're really focused on that retention side of the recruitment retention equation and it's our desire as a team to really have some focused efforts in place to make sure that those who are new to us particularly those who are due to the teaching profession find success because we feel like that's one of the biggest drivers for turnover is that people don't feel like they're success successful so heavy effort on getting in and seeing new teachers they have had face-to-face contact with our team even on that independent work day that we gave them the content coach team went around and visited every single new teacher to the district to make sure that they had all of their materials in hand to review with them what do you need do you have the stuff that you're supposed to have so that you can start teaching those forward days were designed to get them their first set of lesson planning essentially so that they were structured to give them time those first couple days and I think we're honing in on that sweet spot of give us time to do the work and don't give us just free time because then the work might not get done what does that guided practice look like to give us the supports to make sure that positive work is happening but it's meaningful to us in our classroom environment so I think there's some really good things happening and hopefully we'll have more to share on that in the future so a couple things that will be coming up we're working really heavily on goal two this year which is all about building rigor in the classroom so that's a lot of what you'll hear us sharing with you this year and then as I mentioned at the start we'll have some updated benchmark assessments in aasa projections hopefully either in September or October depending on how long they drag on and if there's anything else the board wants to hear about from teaching and learning please let us know and we're happy to put that together for you well I think that um rigor in the classroom excuse me is tied into US looking to improve overall performance in the classroom scores on on standardized tests so the rigor is you know one of the steps to get us there so I'm glad you're working on that and it really and we'll foreshadowing right when we get to the aasa data that's a lot of what you're going to see in that data is that if you look at where we're at as a district I mean your two major components are your your growth and your proficiency right and when you look at the growth that our students achieve over the course of the year it's competitive with all of our surrounding districts so it's not a matter of our kids aren't learning it's a matter of ratcheting up that rigor so that the proficiency level is reaching higher so I describe it as saying if we go from 0 to 10 and we grow 10 points and another District goes or another school goes from 5 to 15 they also grew 10 points but they started higher and so they're ending higher and so that's the piece that we're really trying to make sure we address in the classroom setting so that we can move those in the direction that they need to be foreign thank you thank you let's see where are we um item 9.2 discussion discussion and consideration of approval of changes to policy recommendations from asba policy advisory 744.2747 first reading yeah this it gets a little confusing so I've asked you to take a look at it will you approved something back in May and then asba kicked this out and what you approved in may they made a minor modification too because some attorneys said hey we're not so sure we need to use this uh specifically the board authorizes policies it the statute says simply says authorize so they're taking the word board out of several of this policies so it's a minor change this is just discussion and then in September uh would come back and prove so if you have any concerns with it you can give me you know talk to me over the next month but at the end of the day it's it's a minor modification and it's this happens with policies as different attorneys look at it differently and and some group reads it but then someone else looks at it says I read it differently so it's nothing major but we'll bring it back for second read in September okay all right moving on to item 10.

so any of these that have been updated of course have a revised state we just received information from the trust by the way on this one about use of Vance for transport of students and um uh I suspect we will get a revised version of this from the truck from the asba because there's been a very specific ruling about that students are not to be transported in 11 to 15 passenger vans because they are not designed to transport students in in lieu of school buses so we don't do that so it doesn't particularly the change does not particularly affect us but it could for instance let's say we had we don't but let's say we had a golf team at Fox Creek well okay that's usually five to seven to ten or eleven kids and you know I have a bus for 11 kids is kind of strange so if we were to ever be in that situation I would be coming to the board and requesting what's called a White Fleet a White Fleet bus and it's a it's simply a bus that's designed like any other bus except it's painted white and it does not have the stop arm on the side and it doesn't have the flashing lights in the front and the back but it is designed to carry passengers student passengers so right now that whole ruling does not affect us so but I want you to be aware of it and know that we're aware of it so you can't use those small buses that they have you know how you've seen those little if it's a bus we can use it oh but if it's a bus this is talking this one is talking about Vans oh Vans passengers okay gotcha and we and we don't we don't transport any of our students in Vans for any of for any purpose uh but the issue is that Vans are not do not rise to the standards safety standards uh that are expected for transportation of students gotcha gotcha okay any questions let's go to the next one questions item e on there that has to do with transport of homeless students some additional regulations that tied to that were in uh that whole policy about homeless students that you approved or that you read last month foreign yes and I will mention that that's another reason that they don't want transportings don't want us transporting students in Vans is because getting to that back door in a van is not easy whereas in a bus students readily have access both to the front door exit and the back exit that's true okay moving on foreign yeah any of those things what if there was a service animal we would have to honor a service animal I'm sure yeah and I well I was going to say no one said that such student might be on uh the door's door bus but they might not be either but I'm guessing they would be on one of our door-to-door buses so there would be fewer students in but we would have to honor it oh yeah is there any more of this one Kathy I thought there was more of this so basically they get warned by the driver yes second time they get we have we have very specific consequences for for bus misbehavior you'll see the exhibit in a minute we have all the elements of this exhibit on the forms that we use but the forms don't look exactly like this and it's very even though we don't give parents they can ask for this anytime but we don't give them this document but this information is very very clearly spelled out in those handbooks okay okay good next one so this is the incident report that I was telling you um uh they don't look the ones we use don't look exactly like this but they do contain all of this information and then um Sheila in terms of consequences also we do have the progressive discipline but if a student does something egregious on the bus you know we'll jump to a more serious consequence this has not been updated however um uh bus training requirements uh have now been taken over by a federal agency and so our folks are all being having additional training to make sure that they are in compliance with those federal federal regulations we provide that training though yes we do absolutely and they have the regular CDL exams yes yeah yeah they have to have a CDL and then but now there's also the this additional uh Federal training and and we have trainers good the trust actually is excellent at providing training for our trainers um each year so anytime there's an update in requirements or expectations then they provide the training for our directors one of whom is is a trainer so we're sure that we're always ahead of the you know head of the schedule for training get as happy with it well there's more pain I forgot this one yeah do they do any random drug testing yes yes we have and we have a standing purchase order with a local Physician's office to do that random random testing and then you'll um you'll see in the I think it's in the next one that um uh if there's an accident any kind of accident the driver must immediately go for a drug test okay excuse me yeah go for it so is this a state or a federal with the random testing um it's both this one's based on State it's interesting they only have the only require well it says minimum but uh 50 of drivers shall be tested annually for drugs and 25 for um alcohol yeah so you can drink more than you can you can just may not have water whatever okay actually 49 CFR is a federal thing so this really this really is pretty predominantly Federal yeah and you can see it's very comprehensive yeah yeah okay okay I'm going to show us the rest of it Cassie [Laughter] it just goes on and on actually it's 20 and it's the same it's the same 29 Pages 29 Pages it's 29 pages so yeah um yeah so yeah no I know it doesn't it's not it's 20 it's that you you pulled down that many total yeah the 29 Pages means of all the ones she pulled down not just this one so oh okay we're going to read 29 Pages total this is only four yeah yeah so what happens if a the driver tests positive is he fired immediately or is he given a second chance I think it probably depends on the circumstances okay if it's in the random if it's in the random I don't suspect that we would fire immediately I think we would suspend and as with other employees who for whom we do not do any drug testing or alcohol testing but if if there is an issue first of all we want to make sure we're helping the employee if there is a you know if there's a an addiction issue so we're going to figure out a way to do that if there were if there were drugs or alcohol involved in an accident they would lose their CDL and therefore we could not employ them I think that's the way that works I do the DOT physicals and they're very very very specific on all of that yeah it is very specific okay okay can you do the next one and is simply documenting how long we keep any of the records relative to the in this case and relative to drug and alcohol testing okay show us next page okay our directors of uh Transportation are responsible for this uh for maintaining those records and for reporting the annual report to the state next page please okay questions okay move to the next one please short one a nice short one okay easy enough very good Set Go this one seems to me to be a bit out of order but yeah yeah and repetitive yeah questions okay do we even have an at this age level be where they have an organization that would be making a non-curricular yes yeah so uh we have least so for instance last spring when there was the air show we leased 14 of our buses to uh to the airport Authority uh used to be when the there was the Regatta released buses to the city for the for the Regatta and provided the drivers and then they pay us at a a per hour rate for use of the bus and the driver's salaries next one please we have to um Sheila like student council maybe for like Fox Ridge Creek if they went to um the conference in Phoenix or some yeah some kind of conference or something then um we would transport them by bus and I think the student council has to pay like certain over a certain number of miles miles they have to come up with they have to pay the difference so I would have to reimburse the transportation yeah it doesn't happen very often it's 100 miles yeah it's 100 it's not very much no no Kingman and back that's yeah I think it's 100 miles one way a one-way 100 miles one way it still doesn't even get down to Phoenix nope I wouldn't get you to Phoenix Wickenburg Maybe a Wiki up brother Wiki up okay last one drop you off okay good luck you're on your own and this one's fairly important because um when I first came to the district it was not unusual for me to take a student home uh if you know if parents didn't have transportation and I needed the student gone from school uh whatever but we don't we don't do that anymore we do not transport students in personal vehicles for many many many reasons not the least of which is liability but there are plenty of other reasons not to transport students in personal vehicles if there's an if there's a situation where we absolutely need to transport an individual student we use a school a school district vehicle okay and then let me say Melinda's because I know you're concerned about the time the workshop can go as long as you all needed to go the regular meeting does not have to start at six it cannot start before six so you have whatever time you want to take for the remainder of the items on the workshop all right let's see those again soon okay sometimes so um uh I'm presuming since you had no suggestions or comments that we don't even need to bring these back those policies and and things so we'll move on to the next set in you know in the future move right on down through the policies so got it okay item 1.4 idea sharing regarding teacher recruitment Madam president and board members this was a request that Sheila had she had some ideas to share so um if you want to share those that would be good and then you know we can we can discuss a couple of them because now that you've shared them with me we have some responses for part of it but it doesn't mean that they are not good ideas there and and this is actually one of our new hire um teachers uh first grade I believe at Sunrise she's just a patient and we were talking about how to try to attract more teachers and retain them and this is just what she came up with I asked her to come to a meeting and she doesn't like to public speak so she wrote it down instead she's a first grade teacher but she doesn't like Publix yeah she's okay with kids she's one thing talking to little kids in a different thing adults um you know I as far as like health benefits and whatnot I mean that's that is what it is it would be great if we could all offer everybody great things but it's not not feasible you want to share the other ideas that are on here so that yeah that um tuning in can know what you've suggested yeah the first thing is that um the district could advertise in the community about the post bachelor certification program it's offered through Mojave Community College this program allows anybody that has a bachelor's degree already they can get their education furthered and get a certificate as a teacher in the state of Arizona and she was just using I believe the Northland Pioneer College as one of the things and they offer U.S Constitution and Arizona Constitution for those seeking the alternative teaching certificate and they do do it during the summer and during the summer it looks like they're 50 off the classes and then they are work at your own pace and you have up to a year to complete it and the requirements for the programmer to have a bachelor's degree they have to be hired on at their local school district and then they have to apply for the certification program and they cannot get the FAFSA for this so there is no financial assistance available which I had no idea that that even existed um so it's new it is new that's good and we have been um and I will tell you in response to this um uh that's a very new program at MCC we've been involved with a a grow your own teacher program and with teacher internship programs the grow your own teacher program is with NAU and we've been involved with that for several years MCC is now offering actually the newest piece of that has to do with offering an undergrad degree program the issue is that when NAU's program they don't call it grow your own we call it that but it's one it's a part of what Amanda does you know in her position and at the time that that was set up it was very specifically set up that it would only be with the universities and that the community colleges would not try to impose on that process so we've been cautious about um advertising it because we kind of felt like we would be shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit if we did that so we don't deny that it's there you know but we don't base our advertising on that piece a number of a number of colleges offer what she has in the second part which is the Northland Pioneer uh Grand Canyon virtually any of the universities offer an internship program and we work with all of those programs who you know that all teachers from all of those who already have a bachelor's degree and want to earn their Masters in Education so we work with all of them on that some of them you can do that without without cost as well but that's up to the teachers to be looking for we do mention it to folks who are interested and we encourage some of our local folks to do that so that is already in place so MCC this is their it's new but it's been offered at the other Villages yeah well NAU has offered both NAU has offered the undergrad program and then many colleges in the state offer the um the The Graduate level program now does mcc's because I know MCC used to always offer the Arizona Constitution and U.S Constitution to the teachers and stuff do they still offer that or you know what I don't know if they do I don't think they do they don't do we know if Amanda's picking that up that might is that going to be okay all right so they haven't they haven't done that for a while and that applies to folks who've who are either wanting to come into education because they have a degree in some other area but it also applies to anybody who comes to us from out of state to get full certification in Arizona they they have to do the U.S and and they either have to prove that they've had U.S Constitution class in their undergrad work or they have to take it and they must take Arizona Constitution that's fairly consistent from state to state you know if you move from one state to another they're going to make you take their state constitution class as far as the insurance being a doc there's not anything you can do about that I understand but a lot of employers can't even afford to offer any insurance exactly we discussed this it comes up annually in our meet and confer discussions and um and part of what we talk about is okay if as a district we wanted to consider Insurance a a reasonably priced insurance for families because it's here to do that to bring that down it means that what we would pay for the insurance for our employees would go up and um and so it's it's a balancing act you know and of course the board decides On Any Given year what we're going to do for our insurance for the following year our board the four years that now going into year five for me the board has been pretty adamant about let's make sure that we can make the full payments for insurance for employees that were not in a position where we say you have to make you have to pay a percent image of it and if that means that we're not offering something for families that's a reasonable price that's where we want to be I don't know quite where districts are right now but I know that three and four years ago lots of districts were considering that employees would have to pay part of their base you know their base insurance and that the districts couldn't afford the whole thing we have a buy-up so we offer a base plan and employees can buy up for a very reasonable monthly amount to reduce their their deductible but when you go to the family thing it's it's just huge and if somebody's asking because people have asked me okay well then how is it that needles can pay for their employees and their families and my response to that is California funds students at three times more than three times the per pupil rate as Arizona and in this area the cost for utilities and fixed costs for our school districts are very similar if you looked at the fixed cost across the river for Laughlin schools and for needle schools and US the fixed costs are very similar that means that the difference in what those districts get pers per pupil funding can go for salaries can go for uh you know for insurance can go for those other things and so you know sometimes the the response is simply some education for our folks we would love to do it but it's yeah it's just really hard um and then the last one where she's talking about if you'll let me address that about the providers in the area um uh we changed Insurance two years ago three years ago now because Aetna did not have carriers in the area and um so and we could not get we and and at the time uh Kairos was with Blue Cross Blue Shield but part of what we what we want them to do because that's another example of us being a member client because they're part of the trust you know a wing of the trust is that they're looking for the best bang for their Buck relative and the best bang for our buck relative to the services but they always respond to us in terms of if we say we're not getting this this service is not available in Bullhead City under your plan they look to make those arrangements if those services are available in Bullhead City sometimes the service is not even available here and and so maybe the closest would be Kingman or Havasu or sometimes Las Vegas but they they go to bat for us they spent several months this past year because we were not getting good uh urgent care we did not have good Urgent Care the doctors were were involved in the plan were signed up for the plan but the clinics were not and so that was causing an issue for our employees if they went to Urgent Care their doctor bill part was paid their Clinic part wasn't and so now so what Kairos did was then made the arrangement to say you get you know you get what you need done and then submit it to us and we will reimburse because they want to make sure that we're getting the coverage that we expect to get from them so we're trying her ideas are excellent we're trying and I know just from my end of it with insurance I mean you think it's just is what it is in this area and we don't have enough doctors to go around so you're not going to find people accepting new clients for pretty much anything right now exactly there are they already have full house I think for many of them to add to that Sheila and I certainly would want to hear any other ideas you all have we are in fact sending two of our folks to it's called a career something around the career fair or something in Palm Palms Palm Springs Palm Desert in September we haven't done that for a couple of years because we got we sinned and we haven't gotten many results but we're going to try it again so we're going to send a couple of our folks to that and kind of tap into the into the California market and see what we can see what we can find over there and then we'll be looking at a couple of others during this year pick that up but any other any ideas you all have we certainly want to consider them and share them with the recruitment committee unfortunately I think that's one of the things that we need to as a board and a district really concentrate on obviously oh yeah and we wish it were no this is not going to come out right I was going to say we would wish it was only our problem but it isn't it's it's nation state Nation the state too yeah yeah it's it's just a huge problem I think I shared this with you last month um uh or I shared it with some group recently in 1970 in 1970 which was the year after I graduated from college 50 percent of the degrees from colleges and universities in the U.S were education degrees in 2022 that had dropped to four percent so the you know the pool is not there this was one of the the items that we were talking about when we had the community here yes and it still is going to be one of your strategic goals I'm sure yeah yeah it can't go away as a goal cannot go away there were some several good ideas yes there were good and so we'll revisit it there too yeah yes we will have we ever actually like had a symposium with the teachers asking them themselves what they would recommend that's part of what the committee did last year the retention committee and this year it'll be the recruitment committee and that's part of what they're doing they actually had some really cool ideas for retention than we've implemented awesome item 1.5 Staffing update I thought eighth the day in that you'd want some staffing information and Charlene particularly asked about about some information um and and what you get what's in the reports from the principals lots of times it's just numbers um you know number we have this many openings we have this many filled whatever um so I I asked her specifically if if seeing the org chart would help so you kind of knew where the openings were and that also gave me the opportunity today today to look at our uh actual numbers we have uh and I'll just throw this number out but we have 2331 students registered but today in seats in classrooms we had 20.95.

that second goal is very similar to our goal from the previous year and quite frankly we knocked that goal out of the park our goal for last year was a 20 drop in we had a nearly 40 so really proud of the work that we did there um our third goal is that by May of 2024 our staff and parent satisfaction will be reported by I would recommend Dysart middle we'll reach um 72 percent again that's another incremental goal because we met our goal from the previous year and we're again knocked that one out of the park um so we're really excited to see the continuation there our action plan and our plan to meet these three goals is quite frankly we looked at our data and we completely restructured our master schedule and streamlined content areas for teachers with that became a complete PLC reorganization which was fantastically timed with the PLC convention in Las Vegas and we really organized reorganized those to facilitate more standards conversations and results driven conversations we're really looking at the state performance level descriptors and moving into student results and how that translates to kids we will also be implementing instructional rounds this year which is a program for teachers to observe each other and give specific feedback the best way for teachers to learn to grow is to watch other Master Teachers so we're facilitating that program and we will also continue to monitor uh referral and academic data weekly we've increased our parent and Community Family engagement activities on campus for this upcoming year and we're also restructuring our successful house system from last year and increasing its campus presence we're generating a lot of Buzz right now about our house sorting that is tomorrow that's where we're going to sort our entire student body into their four houses staff is all on board and they already know what house they're in and then kids and staff are you know they're getting super excited about it but we know that when they're excited about the programming at school that they perform better academically and that's all any questions oh sorry additional supports I apologize additional supports um that we are focused schools so we're really thankful to be working with a lot of layers at the um the district office in ed services and so that's going to be additional walkthroughs targeted training we've got specific training that we've already seen coming up based on needs that we've seen on our campus with our new to us teachers and we'll also be getting additional training and feedback for our ESS and El teachers in those areas as well um so really leaning on District supports there to help us and help all of our teachers grow thank you thank you thank you guys quick question just to make sure I'm looking at this correctly um on your data Slide the second one in regard to intermediate for 2122 to 22 23 61.82 to 31.82 percent um what's the discrepancy there just to make sure I understand I'm reading this correctly and understanding it was at a drop or was that we had ones we have students that actually jumped from the one they went from basic all the way up to proficient so we had students then our seventh and eighth grade classes that actually jumped to grade levels because of the amazing work of some of our teachers and the discrepancy was just we also lost some students that they were in that 61 percent and they were not with us for the 22-23 school year thank you um I just had some questions regarding the the action plan um can you I think it was on the action plan um as far as yeah decreasing like the office referrals how how do you what is your plan to do that well one of our big plans is we share that referral data out with teachers every week of by grade level and we share that with all of them we actually Incorporated that into our house system last year it'll look a little bit different this year um and the way we did that was um if a student it's kind of hard to explain but like if you got a referral I'm out of fifth grade then sixth seventh and eighth grade all got points if that makes sense so we made it kind of we added it kind of into our competition but really truthfully what it came down to was revisiting our discipline flowchart in our discipline Matrix and really cornering like is this a classroom management issue is this a uh or is this really a discipline issue I mean really working with teachers uh Mr Perla this my assistant principal last year is fantastic about talking with students and talking through like choices and avenues and really I say he's truly cognitive coaching with students about making better decisions and choices going forward we really truly spent the time building relationships with the kids and the families um our we haven't she's kind of moved into a new role but ernestina Rose go on our campus also she was our family Outreach specialist last year she knows every kid every sibling every cousin Grandma everybody I mean can give whole histories of families because she's been in the community for so long she's an amazing resource and then of course we've got a couple staff members that retired and then now volunteer with us or work as Perez but they were also teachers in the district so and at the same school so we've really we've tapped into those longevity and that Taproot relationship to be able to decrease those and going forward our biggest piece is visibility we have people everywhere so we're out in every hallway or out at every lunch come by first thing in the morning you'll see me on the driveway and when it was 118 on the first day of school I was out in the driveway and built again building relationships with parents as they're driving by and with kids as we're waiting it makes all of those little things add up to make big things you also mentioned the master schedule changes can you speak to that just a little bit yeah absolutely so um in last year we had a master schedule where our seventh and eighth grade teams taught both 7th and 8th grade so if they were an Ela teacher they taught seventh grade ELA and youth radioa and for all of the core areas so we really looked at that and said let's streamline so we can focus lesson planning and make sure that that's key and that the conversations can be we can really dig into the standards and the scope and sequence for the one without spreading ourselves our teachers too thin and so far it's really worked that gave us the flexibility to restructure our plcs by those content areas so our grades five through eight math are all meeting and those conversations have been so deep right now because they're they can't talk about um you know Little Johnny's late for every day you know or we need to make sure we pick our kids up two minutes before lunch or those conversations are gone it's truly now this is the standard here's the performance level descriptor here's where my kids were at last year our first PLC meeting they were digging through aesa data from last year combining that with the scope and sequence for this year combining that with the lesson of the standards for the first two weeks and it was it was amazing um we were all you know when we had all separated out from my leadership team I mean came back and debriefed afterwards and we were just like yes this is this is where we're going and it's good feels really good good thank you I have a question on your action plan there's two things that caught my eye the first one was the house system I wasn't real familiar with that can you go into a little bit more detail on that and then you also talked about increased family engagement how do you plan to to get more parents involved they actually kind of go together so absolutely it's built off of the the house system is built off of the Ron Clark Academy we were very thankful to be able to send four four of our teachers this year I'm planning to send a couple more um but it the premise of it is is that every student as soon as they walk on campus has a community has a place where they belong because that's you know for some students they come to school then they don't necessarily feel like they fit in so we have all grade levels separated into the four houses that in the Ron Clark Academy technically has eight but we decided to go with the main four um and so tomorrow they we'll all find out what house they go into and then there they'll have we're going to use our advisory time that's already built into our bell schedule to do some of the community building every staff member is a part of a house so they're going to be the students will be able to build a relationship with a teacher who's not giving them a grade um it could be somebody that they again see at you know whether that's lunch duty they might see them in the next year but it's all great so our fifth grade students tomorrow when they get their house that will be their house for the remainder of their years at Dysart Middle School um and then they the purpose of it is that they grow into leaders because it will become student it's student-led and student generated um so they're going to be leading that we then took the house system and um because there's the four and there's the four quarters we decided to make every quarter separated out by or kind of sponsored by I guess by a specific house so first quarter is our isabindi house and they are running the they're going to be leading the family um the Fall Festival that we had last year and then really improved it but they're going to add some isabindi pieces to it plus the spirit week and then bringing parents in we've already I've already sat down and calendared other events on campus this year with my family Outreach specialist and my interventionist specialist just to make sure that we already have them all set up and ready to go and then which ones we're going to be tagged to a house second quarter is going to be Amistad and we figured their house color is red so we were going to do a spaghetti Bingo dinner because that seemed to fit and all the house of Al Turismo our house sponsor the our staff member leader for that one was really his heart was really like I want to do academic showcase in the spring absolutely if that is where your heart is then then you go for it so anyway so we just kind of we did that and then make sure we've already counted out that we've got them all there and then now it's just getting the parents on campus that's wonderful yeah we're really we're really excited tomorrow if you guys are not busy at two o'clock come on by we'll be happy to have you we'll give you a lanyard and we'll give you a card and you can get a house yourself it's really cute um in Walking classrooms today the students were asking me and Mr Perla what how so you guys is in well we haven't told you guys yet you know we'll find out tomorrow I want to be in Reverse okay why um they're super jazzed but we just keep telling them you don't get to pick your house the house picks you so it we're really we're really excited about it and then of course that has really energized our staff um and again I think which is just helping those conversations back in plc's again seeing seeing the teachers they're the camaraderie between them has been even stronger this year so really excited great job thank you thank you much quick question sorry um I wasn't sure if Miss Grant was going to go the advisory out I you said advisory hour is it really an hour no advisory period it's periods 15 minutes 15 minutes every day and then we did increase a little bit on Mondays so that we had a little bit of extra time sure to do just that but that's every Middle School we all four middle schools are running on the same bell schedule this year perfect thank you you bet sorry no you're good thank you next we'll move on to item G2 Dr Credo thank you madam president members of the board to continue in our academic Focus which is one our main goal uh in the district I asked Dr assai to do a presentation on our academic Focus for the year so doctors say good evening Madam president members of the board again uh it is my pleasure to present on our academic Focus um our academic Focus goals for Educational Services and really our indicators are built off of the golds uh the board's goals Dr crota's goals and then we produce the indicators really the indicators revolve around increasing test scores mandatory data chats with principals adding supports at Focus schools and our PLC process we believe that raising student achievement requires Fidelity to process and also solid measurements the processes we'll be talking about tonight include the implementation of the PLC process really are rebooting because we've tried it before and not seen the gains we needed ensuring Fidelity to the resources and scope and sequence focusing on Solitaire one instruction adhering to benchmarks and using them to really identify deficits and opportunities to curriculum Compact and our measurements we're using aligned to our state labeling system our measurements of success are the double ASA azsi and act that's what we're measured on that's what we're going to judge our process on to review the PLC process it revolves around four questions what is it we want students to know really the what the standards how will we then know they know it the how what will we do for those that have an extension which in the past has been overlooked a lot and what will we do for those that don't to this end the board sent all of our directors and our principals and two of our board three of our board members to the PLC conference in Vegas we believe that as we Embark in our rebooting of the PLC process that we really needed to ensure that we were all on the same page that we defined success the same way in the past I think for PLC process it's really been focused on what the adults in the system are doing and we've redefined that as we can't have a really as we tier our plc's red yellow and green we can't have a green PLC without that group producing results for students I can be doing all the actions but if I don't if I have the best intent without the impact it really doesn't matter so as we've done this um Miss Hartson and Miss Noble designed with Educational Services a Continuum for our plcs and what success looks like this was used by our site by our site leaders to really classify all their plcs and the plcs went and did some self-reflection themselves saying this is where we are no nobody's all red really are all yellow but here we are in different areas and here's our goals for the year here's how we're going to move over so we can do the PLC process better in addition all of our sites have worked with either Mr musee or myself to design a PLC rollout process for the year with goals and what their staff's going to do and how they're going to have accountability for that in addition our district office staff is going out on Mondays to see what is being done with plcs and to look at the feedback that principals are giving to their teachers because we know that feedback for students matters but feedback for adults and their system matters as well the next part of our process is adhering to a Solid scope and sequence we build our scope and sequences off the Arizona State Standards we look and build our assessments off that and then we use our resources that we have that we've adopted through our curriculum adoption process our district probably has some of the most detailed scope and sequences in the state this is a sample of the front-facing page so it defines the unit it describes it it gives a timeline and we don't you don't have to be on on every day uh you can be three or four days in between but you shouldn't be two or three weeks behind because we do have transfers in our district and if a kid goes from Rancho to El Mirage they should be learning the same thing at the same time so we don't lose ground it also defines our major standards and our minor standards and it also provides the teachers with the assessment so that enables teachers to really plan backwards we had work done on this this summer through summer workshop that we've talked about over 80 percent of our staff actually had input and going back and really examining our scope and sequence we looked at our assessment data from last year and we said where did we really hit it out of the park and where did we not and we were able to make revisions to the curriculum revisions to the assessment to better align them to the state test our next process type is to our teaching and learning and what it means to have great teaching and learning and Dysart last year you heard a couple schools mention that they were concerned about tier one we are not going to have that this year we are all solid on what tier one looks like it's defined by the Dysart instructional protocol we trained our teachers on it we trained our administrators on it uh to that end as our TLS program our teaching and learning specialist program was revamped this is our primary coaching tool I do want to emphasize that it's not a checklist I if I see the first five minutes of class I'm not going to get all the checks on the sheet and the sheet isn't about getting all the checks this is for coaching I always start by coaching and looking at the objective does the objective align to the standard at the correct level because if I'm not teaching the right thing at the right level it doesn't matter how pretty the lesson is the rest doesn't matter because I'm not learning the right thing at the level of rigor I need to from there we coach we look for checks for understanding which is in the bottom right hand corner do our teachers know when kids leave the classroom daily who gets it and who doesn't because if I'm working on a standard and I don't know 50 of my kids know it on Friday it's too late I've wasted the four days in between I need to know daily what my kids know and then we have active engagement and academic conversations and the other two quadrants which overlap the beauty of this is every educator in Dysert can tell you what Solitaire one instruction looks like because that's defined and the reason that's so important you hear me get very passionate when I talk about this part is the research shows that there's more discrepancy classroom to classroom then school to school traditionally because different teachers like you can bring your own art to this there's some scientific things that go into teaching to produce student achievement and we want to make sure all teachers have that the next head of the process is making sure we are also adhering to test prep we teach the standards which are aligned to the test and sometimes people say you're teaching to the test yes we are we want our kids to be successful on State Testing when I took my superintendent's exam I wanted to be successful on that as I want my daughter to one day be successful in her nursing exam which she will study for so we teach to the test we look at our standards we look at the test we have Benchmark predictors our Benchmark predictors we should not have been surprised where our double ASA scores were this year our Benchmark predictors for reading were within 10 percent we estimated as a district 36 percent of our kids would pass 46 actually did but we do have time before the last Benchmark in double ASA and our scores should go up because we know what they're low in and we have time to intervene our math we did not do such a good job of intervening in our benchmarks predicted 41 of our kids would pass and 41 of our kids passed what this does tell us though is it's more important than ever because our benchmarks are so tight that our teachers and our leaders lead teachers and really being able to dissect those when we get them the times a year that we do and say what do our kids still not get is our curriculum going to address that if not we need to go map that in again which groups of kids don't get it so we can pull small groups um also taking the test tests are different now than when we took them back in the day I had a number two pencil it had to be an nicely sharpened and I filled in one answer for each question now kids take the test on the computer they have multiple answers sometimes they have drag and drop they have to fill it highlight things so if I never practice with the test format kids might not know how to do that in addition it's changed the way that questions are asked we have a standard rl2 that asked um it has to do with summary in writing a summary it doesn't say writing a summary it says summarize in the past when I taught English I had kids write the summary I thought I kicked it out of the park or hit it out of the park I'm sorry I'm not a sports person um I thought I hit it out of the park um obviously I didn't either today that same question asked It'll ask which of these is the best summary It'll ask which sentence completes the summary what detail best supports the summary so you can see if I just teach it the way I used to by having kids write a summary they could be able to do that I would think they're proficient but it's not the way they're tested so that's why these things are important to us and part of our academic plan for success in students showing proficiency those are our process goals to hit our three percent gains the next is focusing on our Focus schools um when Dysart middle presented they are one of our Focus schools we identified six Focus schools as having less than 40 percent of students proficient in reading and less than 30 percent of T students proficient in math or having a new admin team altogether what these schools do is they intensively and I mean intense I was at all the focus schools this week my team was too I felt like I was walking in I either saw Amy Ashley or Dana back there walking out meeting with principals we asked them to file Focus plans the first goal of their focus plan is always solid tier one instruction and how they're going to roll that Dysart protocol out how they're going to hold teachers accountable how they're going to do PD and PD that's differentiated because when I'm doing rounds with the instructional protocol if Craig has a great objective every time he doesn't need to set in professional development and listen to me tell him how to write an objective so we're using our data which is collected two at the district level so we can also see if we need to infuse some of those practices within our curriculum the second goal is up to the schools they have goals such as improving systems Improvement in subgroup populations you saw some of our schools classified a higher amount of Els some didn't our ESS population some schools chose to focus there because we do have we are in TSI targeted School Improvement for you for ESF students at some schools our Focus schools include Ashton desert metal Riverview Thompson Ranch West Point and Valley Vista our final lunch pin in this is increasing instructional leadership because we know that next to the teacher the teacher is really makes the most impact on student learning research supports that leadership is the second the principle has the highest second highest influence on student achievement so we thought that we really needed to go back and train our leaders you've already heard us talk about training and getting a common vision for what a great PLC is and how that can move that was at our PLC conference in Vegas I also didn't put up there we did a lot of dug into that a lot also at our back to school with our administrators we have revamped and overhauled our teaching and learning specialist program they're meeting more frequently in the district the part I think that's going to really make a difference is in the morning we talk about best instructional practice and how to coach they practice those coaching conversations but in the afternoon we're actually going out in about groups of three or four on campuses with teachers who have volunteered to let them practice their skills in their classroom so it'll be on the job it's a learning by doing where you go into the the classroom You observe as somebody goes in to replace the teacher for about 10 minutes the teacher comes out in the hall conferences with the coach and goes back in it's a high-yield strategy and coaching and I believe as an instructional coach if you can do in and out coaching like that that you can coach anything so it's going to be really great to have this opportunity to practice and grow our teaching and learning specialist because eventually we want them to be our assistant principals and our principals we want to create a pipeline of growing our own I didn't add this up here but we also have a master teacher program there are two one or two teachers from each school who applied were designated Master Teachers and we are using them for model classrooms I was at Ashton Ranch yesterday Jessica Brill who was a great teacher at Valley Vista she's now at Ashton Ranch opens her class to her colleagues to come in and observe and give her feedback on her best practice so she has to be on that's a lot of pressure because those Master Teachers have to be on all day every day because you never know who's walking in and then they use that to debrief as a method of best practice so hopefully our Master Teachers become our TLS our TLS become our APS and our principals and last we continue training for teachers in addition to sites working on the elements of the Dysart instructional protocol and plc's we have gifted cadres for our gifted teachers our gifted training for teachers who are learning how to really raise the level for their gifted students we have a group called the literacy literacy leadership team which is a combination of effort by our language arts specialist and our social studies specialist to really get kids reading more and writing about using those primary sources as they write it's had great success and then our math leadership team who continues to study our new math curriculum how to really implement it with Fidelity and best practice and they serve as role models to their peers I added this because one of the things that we've done under Dr crota's leadership and one of the words I keep hearing around the district is focus that our leaders and our teachers feel that we're more focused than we ever have been Kara Sarah included this for her staff it's her goals it's her CIP goals that talk about goal one and academics goal two and referrals goal three with satisfaction but she aligned it nicely to their Mission Vision collaborative commitment Norms that are part of that PLC process and underneath you can see many of the different things we've talked about from feedback with the Dysart instructional protocol to the PLC rollout to RTI and how that really all fits to to promote those goals which are aligned to not only Dr crota's goals but the board schools and I will be happy to answer any questions thank you Dr Sai thank you for this presentation um I feel like the past couple of years we've been really focused on our academics we want to say we want to see our students learning we want to get proficient on grade level as much as we can because when students get behind teachers not only are responsible for teaching that grade level content but they got to back up before they can get to grade level and then it just and it's kind of a domino effect so I love the focus on the academics but not just okay yeah yeah we're focusing on it this is the nitty-gritty this is how we're focusing this is you know us studying and seeing okay we need to do something different here's where we're going to start so thank you for that um can you maybe just uh in like a couple of sentences just briefly highlight again exactly how the PLC process is going to drive our academic success in a couple of sentence I feel such a challenge for me um I will try my best president um with the PLC process it's focused on looking at in that unit at what are those standards I feel in the past we've kind of given it a a glance and not gone past the semicolon most of my English standards are deeper level and the before the semicolon is kind of at a dok one or two and then it goes on to a three but we only teach you the two so really defining the standards and doing a task analysis of what does it take what are the prerequisites to reach that standard and breaking that down so the teachers are engaged in that conversation uh during common preps preferably at elementary it's really easy to get common preps at high school we try diligently to get common 9th grade prep common 10th grade unfortunately when we can't find enough teachers sometimes teachers pick up six fifths and that process becomes harder we are able to do it on our Monday early release which embeds time during the day so as long as time's embedded during the day it's some point for those plc's or sometime teachers have that opportunity so it's defining really unwrapping that standard but then two saying how will we know they know it that day not in creating those common formative assessments or every two days because for too long we've waited till the end of the unit which in English can be three or four weeks so really defining how will we know that that standard in real time because like you said if they fall behind it's so much harder to make up but if I know on day two I need to pull a small group to make that up I have that real-time data so creating those common formative assessments as part of that process Madam present I can help her with the one or two sentences um of course you can simply put if you want a sound bite for the professional Learning Community process it's a focus on student learning and not teaching just because we're teaching kids doesn't mean they're learning so we need to measure what they're learning and adjust accordingly so it is a focus on student learning thank you I appreciate that and I've you know being in education I've been in plc's and I feel like for the most part it's been this sort of vague idea you know you get together you know okay what do we you know and it's kind of just okay yeah you know everyone hits the surface of it but just taking a deep dive into it and it doesn't have to take hours and hours it's more of a focused conversation like you were talking about I've seen some very effective plc's that work in about 45 minutes you know to go through it I also think being able to you know across the district we do pull all of our music teachers together or all of our all of our Singletons with CTE so I think sometimes when we try to force it at campuses in the past it does make it harder if you don't have like content there are ways to do vertical plc's across things but I think we we've really tried to look at how can we create maybe multiple meaningful plc's but it's like you said it's the quality of the conversation thank you and I like the fact that you highlight it can be done in 45 minutes it's not it doesn't have to take oodles and noodles that you don't have to stay for two hours after the Bell just a PLC correctly correct um thank you um and then also I want to just focus this I'd like to highlight the focus on our TLS and our coaching because coaching is one of the greatest experiences but it could also be viewed as an Expendable position for people who don't understand education people who don't understand what a coach does why it's important it's not somebody who just goes in and says okay you're fine and then move on so for maybe somebody who doesn't understand the process can you maybe in like 10 sentences I'm sure I'll do 10 sentences and then Dr crota can finish and summarize it in one okay um so our TLS focused primarily on our zero to three year teachers because we know lots of teachers will leave the profession in five years so we want to retain those people they start with training them in the basics from new educator orientation how to access we do so much on computers now that can be hard you know how do I use infinite campus how do I use illuminate how do I use my different testing platforms uh then they go into the first two weeks we focus solely on management because I know if I don't have management the rest doesn't matter because I have kids running all over the classroom or that aren't listening um sometimes that's really easy sometimes a coach goes in and says Craig you need you need a quiet system symbol signal um and the teacher does it it's successful other coach will start to engage in a cycle of planning going in and observing and debriefing with the teacher another thing a coach does is really focus on transfer of skill professional development research will show us that about 10 percent of skill is transferred without someone there to support it so we invest heavily in training teachers and different methods in professional development and then that coach is there to watch the transfer of skill and provide feedback or reflection depending on the level of skill of the teacher if my teacher is really skilled I can say what do you think you know could have made it better the teacher will come usually my zero to three year teacher you kind of have to dig down and say okay do you think maybe this or this and then you go back and you try it again and the coach is there again and the coach really I believe in Patton well I believe others too impacts the efficacy of our teachers and we know that teacher efficacy the belief that I can do something that I can persevere that I can get it done is one of the highest influences on student academic success Dr crota would you like to summarize sure you only get two I I can do in seven words I would say solid teaching practices create successful learning opportunities and that's proven in the research that more solid they are in their in their practices the more kids are going to learn thank you for the presentation um it was very informative and it really just re-emphasizes for me how much of a focus you guys are putting on academics which has always been um very important for me um I also liked that you had the the piece on tier one and that you have from you said you're going to use that I don't want to call it a cheat sheet what's the real name desert instructional protocol the tls's are going to be using that going into the classrooms uh the TLs admin also uses it for so there's two ways this is going to be used the TLs goes in and they script by hand and then they go out and they kind of go over their check boxes because it's kind of a hierarchy of how I coach it should never be handed to the teacher like here you got three out of five checks so TLS will use this every visit when they go in wanted to just clarify though that we're going to be monitoring for tier one because I know you've said initially go back to tier one but we are right we're we're just going to make we're going to this is our solid tier one this is our way of making sure it's implemented in the classroom yes okay and I appreciate that be because we learned in June struggle school-wide with tier one instruction which was still alarming I still cannot hear that so I'm glad that we're getting plans in place to be able to make sure that's happening and that's one of the reasons member portrayed when you saw the focus schools all of their goal is Solitaire one revolving around education on the dip okay and using it in those schools to really have a rollout plan for it okay and I will say between this presentation and just what I've seen of this this team um there really seems to be a very strong emphasis on academics being in the schools doing all the monitoring and I appreciate it and I really want it I really hope this this um uh not motivation what am I looking for sorry my brain is um momentum continues because and now as you and I have known each other a long time my thing is you can be nice and not effective okay now I've got a new one you can thank Dr crowdo because I wrote it down just because we're teaching kids doesn't mean they're learning that's profound that is so true because what I'll say is you can go in and do these spot checks and be in the classroom or and look and say okay yep they've got a PLC scheduled they're doing professional development Mondays you know they're doing all these things just because you're checking the Box doesn't mean it's effective doesn't mean kids are learning so it's really important for me and I'm really inspired by this team because again you guys really seem to be driven by being in schools and making sure things are happening but please continue please continue that and go in and measure I mean I don't want to just hear these are the interventions we're using and then we don't find out until the end of the year that kids didn't move the way we wanted they didn't grow as as much as we needed them to or like you had said with your English scenario that you know that's a long time to wait to see whether or not kids get it so I guess for me my takeaway with all this this all sounds good but just having ways that we're doing frequent check-ins to make sure that what we think is happening is is really effective and meaningful and kids are learning well I think that's part of the um one of the real benefits of Dr crota's leadership is he has high expectations for us as assistant superintendents as principals for our teachers but also the demand that we support schools in doing that um you know and also we we have great leaders and great relationships who then they don't see it as an obtrusive process but hey I had a principal go I'm so glad you're here to walk I'm like really no really I am so I think our leaders appreciate the support uh because we have a great group of site leaders who want to be better tomorrow than today who are you know they look at their data you know even our top performing school she goes that's not where I wanted to be and that they constantly they want to produce great results for our kids for our community and they realize that working together especially in the same direction that we all have this laser-like Focus this year that we're going to get there a heck of a lot faster than trying to do different things all over the board and I think building that collaborative team as well is good because then that way no one should feel uncomfortable or hesitant to come forward and say I need help I'm struggling or you know my interventions aren't working and coming to District staff if they need to and saying how I need that help now better to know now and fix it and feel comfortable asking for it then again end of the year scores come out and then it's too late you know thank you for everything you're all doing appreciate it thank you um just want to say how much I appreciate this this presentation all the information that you're providing I know it was mentioned um in here with um the slide for Luke but also in a in one of the cips you know speaking to the attendance piece of it in in reducing discipline referrals um and while that's you know hopefully effective you know that that effort what are we doing for the actual attendance to school um what steps are we taking to improve that each of our sites is really looking at that oh we have the standard letters but we know the standard letters don't always work um so lots of them have less of them have programs that are promoting attendance that we're really trying to get out and I'll cite Luke again uh because we just talked about it the other day she has classrooms actually competing against each other to see who gets the best attendance making sure we do call home I have one school that's exploring the idea of house visits I we have to iron out some things there because we also you never want to put your people in Jeopardy and not not that without ever intentionally happen but right you know just the legalities and Logistics of that so we have looked at that we have reached out to I believe uh one of our schools was talking about reaching out and working with their SRO okay to see how they can support us Maricopa County has a Cuts program that we used to use however they're only available once a year now so that's not really an option for us anymore when you say it's only available once a year what does that mean like one time per student or know that they'll come and do hearings for us once a year I believe because that's that's the capacity they have gotcha so that used to be a good deterrent but it's not something we have an option for anymore so we need to continue to explore options because sometimes even as a parent when I took the kids through high school just knowing they had to go to an attendance hearing was helpful yeah Madam president uh member Dinsmore we also this is a major part of our data chats that we've had with every single principle so far we talk about attendance we talk about chronic absences we're able to run lists of kids we have administrators using their team identifying kids with chronic absences sending letters about chronic absences aligning it to proficiency to show the parents how proficiency lines up with chronic absences and reaching out to explain that you need to be present in order to learn so it is a very huge piece is a huge Focus for us again we talk about it with every principle every principle is targeting it we've sent out announcements district-wide but ever since the pandemic it's okay not to go to school or it's okay not to do that and I and I take this time to urge the community we need people you need people to demand that their kids are in school we will help them learn we will get them to where they need to be to be successful but they need to be in our campuses so that is a strong Focus for us and we will continue to do that throughout the year thank you and you know as a parent of a a student with a chronic health condition are we still requiring those chronic Health documents to be submitted if there is a true yes we do medical issue yes we do okay that would excuse them from from The Chronic absences but outside of that though we do have the ability to suspend or discipline in other ways Madam president member Densmore we do look at that the suspending piece obviously is putting them out of school even more I know um so we do have those things with discipline we talk at the high school level about losing credits in class after a certain amount so they do have attendance contracts that go out and after a certain amount of absences that the students will lose Credit in those classes so we start to explain to them that in order to pass high school you have to accumulate a number of credits so if you're losing credits you're going to be in high school a very long time and so they're starting to have those conversations a grade school we're talking about retention too we've talked with principals about if they're not here and they're not proficient at grade level we may need to talk about bringing them for a retention that they haven't learned what they need to learn in that grade level and they need to do it again thing we asked them to explore with their teachers is having the teachers call home as lots of times if it's a you know if it's a person I don't know calling home it's not as impactful I know when I was in the classroom if my kids were gone for two days I made the phone call personally if you have 160 kids it's a little bit harder sometimes depending on how many absences you have but I do believe that Personal Touch also makes a difference when I call and say hey I noticed Caitlyn was gone today thank you so to piggyback up the absence or attendance issue when I was in high school we had our school district had a truant officer and if you didn't show up to school we had a couple of true officers that would roll up and they're nice true and officer cop car and you come to the door hey get along to school is there any possibility of adding something like that in the future Madam president that is that is the cuts program that's put on by Maricopa County and there are so many schools in Maricopa County that that's what Dr assai was referring to they can come and service our district for one time an entire year obviously that does not help to tour absences for one time I have worked with the police Chiefs in both cities to try to come up with a program that will allow us to use some officers as Dr assai said there's concerns about sending our staff to to the doors so we always make sure our staff is safe although phone calls don't work so we are in discussions and talking about that on how we can maybe utilize some officers at some time knowing that we can't utilize them every day because they have a job to do too you know their their jobs to keep the city safe and respond to calls so they they're not employees of the district to go out and Chase absent kids but they are very excited and willing to talk through the program and see what we can do and maybe utilize sros um we're looking at every Avenue we can and you know just getting the word out that we need to be in school thank you and I do want to say thank you to El Mirage PD and surprise PD and MCSO for those sites I just cannot say thank you enough I know your resources are spread thin but the fact that you're willing to share your officers to keep our students safe and our staff too means a lot Madam president they are amazing to work with so I second that comment and and it's they're very good to work with we are very fortunate as a district to have those Partnerships I have a question for you Dr Tsai you made a comment through your our speech just kidding um that just kidding um that you were talking about having the teachers not wait till the end of the unit the unit to discuss and see if they've got it you mentioned something about actually going over it before making sure that they're understanding it before the end of the unit how how are they going to do that are they going to test them give them a pre-test so it would normally what I was referring to when I said that pre-testing is also a good way to do it and then curriculum compacting I don't know if we're quite there yet the part I do think we really have the ability to do working with our plc's is the district makes the unit test so teachers already have the unit test but dividing that up and saying what are the big chunks so if I have a unit that's on addition subtraction and multiplication I would teach I would say I'm going to teach this at the part of addition for three days and then I'm going to give a quiz and I'm going to see who gets it and who doesn't within that I should divide it in different ways I might have some kids that tell me three plus five is fifteen because they accidentally multiplied but it makes sense and some kids are just like it's two so there's a difference in mistake I I just missed it I had a problem with the process which is an easy cleanup maybe in Bell work the next day versus I need to pull a small group Henry teach that I would teach the next section on subtraction I would go ahead and quiz on that I might decide to build my common formative assessment on addition that I taught and subtraction so I could get another read on how my kids that didn't do so well the first time did on that and that I might quiz on multiplication the next time or all three and then give my unit test so there should be checkpoints along the way I kind of my husband says I get lost a lot when I drive so I kind of liken it to the mile markers as I'm going to California if I see Indio I know I'm on the right path and if I see other places of which my to happen once or twice I know I know that I'm not so those common formative assessments really serve as our checkpoints along the way um and they're really what we should be basing our small group off of or our bellwork cleanup the next day okay because I think that's a fantastic idea if the teachers are doing that because I know you know I'm going to age myself you know 30 years ago when I was in school um we would have stuff like that in in the classrooms where the teacher would go over the lesson and you know and ask whoever has the answer and throw candy you know oh you got it right here's peace candy or we would have we would line up to the board and the first one to write the answer you know got something I mean it was just stuff like that that made the kids more interactive and they remembered a lot more and that's even to increase I mean um that's kind of that on the spot chat I would call the on the spot check we do it a lot with white boards I actually used to take my math teachers as a coach I would take my math teachers into a dance classroom dance teachers give some of the most amazing feedback as do coaches in the world you know they're like no put your point your toe do this and they can watch five different things and if we actually were able to give feedback like that what that you're talking about in the moment that is the best timeline specific feedback it has one of the highest yields I think it's like a 0.84 according to Hattie anything above 0.4 is really good so it's one of the highest yield practices that we can do to increase student achievement all right thank you next we will move on to item G3 Dr kroto thank you madam president members of the board cabinet and guests uh tonight we are presenting to you a dress code presentation I believe was asked for back in May I believe April or May that we would like a dress code presentation um and so we are fulfilling that tonight and Mr musee is going to send to you uh some information on our dress code yes thank you Dr croto good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent crota um we have uh an opportunity here to change gears and talk about a different topic and dress code and and this is is really uh for us I believe an opportunity to look at when we talk dress code the whys behind why you have it in place we can look at the current guidelines and practices that we're utilizing in policies we get a chance to assess where we are and this is an opportunity to look at areas that need to be improved and also any updates that we need to make within that those practices so I want to start with talking a little bit about some of the reasons why and and establish what are what are the purposes of address code number one when we look at that list we see it's established as a professional professional atmosphere for learning this gives a chance to say what it should look like when we talk about our campuses and wanting to see that atmosphere on a campus of when students come to school the second one you'll see listed there students should dress in a manner that takes into consideration that educational environment the safety help and the welfare of oneself and others and I want to emphasize that that area of safety uh safety to themselves could be the types of things that they could have on or they could be a problem um involving whatever's happening at the school but also re I would keep in mind that when you have a tight dress code safety is also I would speak as an administrator it makes it very easy for me to know who belongs on my campus and who does not so there there's elements to that that safety can be a huge element to when we say when there's a dress code in place and then the third one you see is there that a tire that detracts from the learning environment and that could be anything that could be affecting the educational atmosphere or the or could cause it educational disruption so this next few slides you're going to see actual information that comes from the student and parent handbook these are contained on pages 26 through 28 of our of our handbook and I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to work through these just so you can get an idea of what's contained on those pages okay and so I'll work my way down the list of each of these so we talk minimum guidelines shouldn't be seeing pajamas at school undergarments should be worn we shouldn't see undergarments worn as the regular clothes undergarments is actually designed or excuse me defined in the handbook um any reference to gangs anything that we could say that's and a lot of times too that one especially with the help of our of our sros and local police departments can Define that for us so we do education on that and work through those safety procedures but it is defined in there that way the piece you see on there of uh the next bullet not include defamatory writing obscene language symbols images reference to tobaccos drugs alcohol that's actually in reference to an Arizona State Statute that one and then the next one the same way must not display anything that would just if you displaying anything on your clothes it could be an illegal um any type of illegal property or anything that they have on them that you cannot possess at school hoods are not to be worn at class or it could be that a staff member is asking you to take it off uh when you're in in the classroom and then clothing that should be adequately covering the full range of movement without the undergarment showing I'll continue um the accessories and personal items okay and these are things that they may have that are more physical in nature that could be a safety uh concern that could cause anything to themselves or others you could see things like and some of them might not be a safety but could be involved in the safety app measurement of a student or what they're doing to learn in the room it's like for example sunglasses being worn inside sometimes there's medical situations and we understand that but we're talking in general here uh Spike jewelry chains um long belts anything that could be used in the wrong way Mass can be can be worn but they're not to be worn in any way if they're for a health purpose that's fine but not to be done is a way to cover their entire face so I would use examples like Halloween time and things like that where if a kid had an entire cover we'll see that and we have to provide instructions to students around that time of year but at any time you can't wear anything that would be distracted we didn't know who you are uh the accessory accessory can be confiscated by the administration or the staff member and the site administrators can determine if hats or headgear allowed so that one is reiterated under that particular item then you get into some of the specifics about clothing here um so you're going to see these three as I run through these next three slides are very much defined of the shirts the pants and then the shoes shirts and tops so shirts should not include spaghetti straps halter backless strapless off the shoulder tops meaning no straps as well cutting down the far end of the back or under the arms front of exposure as it's red there so they do Define what that is in there and that's a specific item in our in our handbook second one there exposing any part of the midriff undergarments when sitting and we know that we talk about midriff as far as the short shirts and then obviously must not be see-through ripped or torn I do want to point out on the top one too will we say that we're also talking about that could be the type of tank top that could be worn that has a very large undercut on it as well pants shorts bottoms um this next one is anything that could be exposing their backside or when they're sitting or standing extending of a reasonable length um that second one there any undergarment that could be um could be allowing that them to be not be able to function in the proper way of being able to sit and it's exposing their undergarments and then finally it talks about spandex in the form of types of pants or bottoms must not be see-through so those are these are pieces that I reiterate these are listed in the currently in the handbook okay and then finally the shoes we say that shoes need to be worn I think you would see that you know pretty much anywhere we talk about shoes uh being you know needing to be wore to school uh clothes shoes toe shoes for physical education is listed as well so a kid is not coming into into PE trying to perform in sandals we obviously because they get hurt and then slippers should not be worn to school and I think that kind of aligns to the to the pajama one so that's the way it's listed what could be some of those violation the consequences to these um these are these are the three things that we have identified that we have identified as the ways to deal with this um depending on those particular types of violations a lot of times during the beginning of a school year it would be an education time and then addressing it so you might ask that student to maybe uh changing the clothing that could be provided by the school sometimes that's something could be provided or changing if they have clothes to change into um turning that inappropriate clothing Inside Out has been done and also having clothing brought to the school if that's approved by the administration so if they could be bringing it in you know having it delivered but again you wouldn't want to do that on a daily basis so that's why the consequence piece to it is listed in there that that can be given by the administration if the dress code violation continues so there is Avenues to do that as a due process piece so really getting into the nuts and bolts of this um you know assessing Where We Are and I think that's why this item came before us is is an opportunity to talk about that and so as we launched into this year we felt it was important to establish more communication on the importance of dress code does it mean that we wouldn't still need to entertain what needs to be maybe adjusted or updated within the handbook so that could be a conversation and I'll get to that in a second but really starting this year it was important and we started off from a district level making sure that communication was sent out to parents um then we provided due process information to the schools that they could utilize schools then we were going into classrooms they have an opportunity to review it with their students being done either in a home room or a third hour in high school or things like that where you get you get a chance to review what the practice is with the student uh message is being sent home as well from a local campus um the the other part is is that you'll see that third bullet and some of these are things that need to then continue with what kind of training and working with local administrators we need to do to how to enforce and build a dress code culture and when we say that it's a positive culture we want students to feel comfortable at school and knowing that it's a place that they you know it's a learning environment that they're coming to as well but that they know that that's um that they know what the expectations are um and obviously that involves our parents and the community in that aspect and in the long run assessing the number of violations on each campus regularly so that's something that we are going to be paying attention to now is what's happening with dress code and when do you need to address it right now it's hot so a lot of times you're seeing right now that the kids I mean it's kids will wear jackets and then the jackets Come Off because they're wearing something that may be underneath that's not appropriate so they can shift it between that but a lot of times in the winter you see them more covered up so you'll see that change and when we get into the spring we see the adjustment again and that's not it's pretty obvious but that opportunity for us to assess where we're at continuously throughout the year what we're doing and how we're reminding on our campuses and working with our parents and Community but I think most important is our last bullet there is um we we feel that also is in this process we need to look at how can we form a committee to begin reviewing and updating this dress code policy I've been working uh closely with Kevin cashatt in the student services office I've asked him to be working closely with the campuses in the initial part of the year we've all been doing that as you know as assessing as from our end what we've seen on campuses uh going out there and visiting the schools early on but we feel like at this point now too is that we can do these things but we still need to come back to and look at forbing a committee and looking at how we can review the current dress code practices what's in the handbook providing updates and where we want to go from here so if we feel like there needs to be updates to it if we also feel like we need to talk about how we are actually enforcing and making sure it happens on our campuses as well so the start was to get to really go after it hard you know and make sure that we're communicating it out and then we can continue that conversation as far as as moving that dress code so I'm going to stop there and I'll be open to questions and what you'd like to uh discuss regarding that thank you Mr musee I feel like it's important to have this conversation you know I I think we've gotten very lacks with our enforcement of dress code and for me as a teacher when I had kids who came to me at one o'clock in the afternoon and I dress code them parents were not happy well it's one o'clock in the afternoon why are you just saying something now well I just saw your kid now when my kids had five other teachers through that day and nobody's dress coded them and it's a clear very clear the shorts keep getting shorter the talks keep getting skimpier and and even for gentlemen too um you know Trends are chaining for changing for gentleman's clothing and some things are inappropriate also I think it's important to address those and for our male employees who don't want to address a female it's super easy to find your female buddy and say hey I got so and so in my first hour can you come dress code her or for the lady say hey I got so and so can you come dress code them or talk to your administrators because it's it's I feel like this is an issue and if we keep if we let kids get away with just some of the small things they're going to think they can get away with the bigger things and just to continue that focus on behavior and learning I think it's important to make sure that we go back to actually looking at kids and dress coding them but I also think it's a good idea to have a conversation about some other things that are in the dress code I mean as a college student didn't we all wear pajamas to campus at some point I'm you know if a kid's wearing PJ pants that's more appropriate than a student who's wearing a halter top so I I think it might warrant a conversation how we got to this point because it's it's really gotten like way out of control where it's not even a matter of um you know way way back in the day and I understand changing the times this might not be a thing anymore but way back in the day it was where if you were going to wear leggings those were considered undergarments which I never agreed with because they're not undergarments but the rule was you can't wear leggings unless you're going to wear a top that covers your bottom now that's out the window which whatever I mean again I that might be something everyone things change I get that my big thing is it's not a matter of like oh your shirt doesn't come all the way down it's like you're half your shirt's gone and these young ladies are just walking on these campuses with very little material on their top and and how no one sees that as like Michelle steffen's point how does that how do we get to the point to where these kids are able to go their whole day or even through the front Gates and nobody stops them and I don't even necessarily buy the well male teachers may not want to comment on female students and female students or teachers may not want to comment on male students but I was standing with Dr crotto and it was just a simple don't wear that shirt anymore okay and it was like you know you didn't have to say exactly what the issue was she knew what the issue was you know and and way back in the day as well it used to be one particular School in our district used to have clothes that said dress coded on the top and people said oh that humiliates kids we can't do that some of these outfits they should be humiliated walking out their front door wearing those so I mean having a shirt that says dress coated on it I mean I don't know if we go back to that if that's legal I have no idea but I'll tell you what it was pretty effective because they didn't like going back to class with that on their shirt but I mean the point is whatever we do I don't think it's going to have to be like a conversation or we need to move toward it some of these things just have to stop right away you know whether it's like you call the parent and they either come right then or the kid does the rest of their work in the office for the day I don't know what the answer is but it's distracting for some kids you know to be sitting next to a student who is half clothed or or dressed inappropriately in some other way I don't know how we got here but that's our fault that we allowed it to get to this point just as much as it is the kids and the parents fault for allowing their child to leave the house and maybe some parents don't know what their kids leave and I get that parents have to be at work super early and they may not have no idea someone purchases the clothing but we weekends are different than school I also understand that but all I know is we send the handbook out we used to have parents sign off on that they read it but it's our fault that we keep allowing it to happen because we're not doing anything to stop it or a lot of our buildings aren't and we need to figure out how like what we're going to do like now like I even want to know like in a superintendent update in the coming weeks what we've done to address it moving forward I don't want to wait until a dress code committee comes together and we figure it out because it's just it's just out of hand and once we get there I think we need to have a clear understanding of how we're not going to get back to this point again because it's like we can't get back here it's it's very bad I mean I'm not I'm not shocked by a lot of things but some of the things that I've been seeing on some of these students not okay for school not okay I think any time around public but not not okay for school when you can't have other students who might be distracted by their classmate and I agree with Michelle and two I'd rather some kid come to school in pajamas then at least they're covered then coming to school with half of a shirt on yes Madam president board member Pritchard um the uh the the first aspect I wanted to state to that because I know you said how we've gotten to where we are um I would always say that that comes with expectations and the expectations that you establish and where where you want those to go at the beginning of the year so I don't believe that in starting and I and I don't know how far back I could go to this point I've asked you know some of that piece that I've looked at that and talked to obviously talked to uh you know within cabinet on this on this and other administrators what have we been sending out prior to this like what did we do to start the year of communication so that parents know what the expectation is before school starts what did you do in the beginning of the year to review the policy and practice in the classrooms with students and on the campus so that kids know and then how did you go about actually holding them accountable as you went forward a big part of this when you say setting expectations is is that and this is this is something that I believe strongly in and I know um the administrators do as well is that you you're not it's not going to be any good if your staff is not helping to enforce it and I know that that was that was mentioned earlier how did a kid get through the entire day your staff has to own the expectations of the of the campus just as much as the administration so that's that's our that's what we've started this year off on is saying that that's an important piece you're right now what happens after that so you can you begin that way and and much of that when I say conversation conversations with students could be on the first day when they show up or whatever and you're making it like you're making them make the change there and maybe there's not a consequence to it or anything else but there is a due process to that piece and there are schools that do hand out shirts sometimes they're PE shirts or other things like that I don't know about the actual putting that print on but you could we have that ability those are elements where you're saying that that's not acceptable to wear that on the campus so um you know I don't I don't want to pin it to anything maybe there was in the last few years that element of how schools had shut down and then started and maybe there was something that happened within there that you know that things just didn't keep going in that way of saying there's an expectation but we can set an expectation that's where we've started this year and and Dr Kota was very clear with us on that that we will make sure that we make that message clear to our parents and our families and our students we went over that it's part of our uh getting back all of our parent acknowledgment forms it is an expectation it's not it's not an option and then it's up to us to then to look at what's happening with that and to assess it and to come back to that and see what's happening so when we're out on campuses we're making the visits having the conversations with our with our principals and our assistant principals what are we doing to ensure that that's happening on the campus one other thing really quick that I noticed when I read through it and I don't know if this is paraphrased or if it's actually out of the handbook on the page about the purse accessories and personal items the last bullet side administrators can determine if hats or headgear are allowed students shall remove their hat or headgear when requested to do so by staff does that mean then that when the Pledge of Allegiance or the national anthem is on they're not required to remove their hats unless it is a religious headpiece or something like that Madam president board member Pritchard uh the the hat is still expected uh you know during that kind of uh when you talk about the Pledge of Allegiance I mean that isn't that is something that is an expectation at the school that they would remove their hat um that you know so so when you get into that piece of the Hat the hood and everything else that would be an expectation it's not defined there we don't have it defined in the handbook that way it's just when you say they can they can determine if it's allowed or not and then they shall remove get the requested it doesn't really it doesn't really give this was written this was written primarily for while the while the instruction is going on in the classroom when kids have it on and you can't see what they're you know the fact that they could be asleep or other things like that or a kid that pulls their hood or the fact that there's you know the element of a kid could be distracted doing something else um by hiding behind that but it was it was written for the instructional side of things that's how that piece was written I see maybe just something to consider absolutely when your committee gets together is to firm that language up as it pertains to National Anthem or pledge because as it reads if someone like refused to take their hat off you wouldn't be able to cite them under the um the dress code and the handbook because it really doesn't specify it says it's up to the administrator just something to think about absolutely for when we get up to that point but because I would hope that that would be you know non-negotiable thank you um just looking through this as far as the the current dress code standards this is specific to students correct yes and do we have standards for staff as well yes we do in writing yes how do they compare I would refer over to Dr polling for that piece but we did have just as a quick board member Des Moines we did have conversation just as an aspect of what how does that we did have a just some casual conversation Dr pulling could respond to that much better than I can thank you yes Madam president uh member Densmore and board um yes those are sent out annually and it's part of the um package in the mou it comes from a memo from the superintendent they're very similar to the student expectations I I don't have the verbiage with me right now but they're very similar okay with that with some of these standards with the you know the spaghetti straps the the short shorts midriffs how is it that we hold that we at least in writing hold our students to these standards when many of our district purchased athletic uniforms do not even come close to these standards just something to think about as we go through that um yes Madam president board member Densmore I as I'm looking at some of the the pieces that you're talking about and and I I know that when you start to Define like maybe specifically with within there because they talk about what that looks like but as a I'm thinking of a right now I'm thinking of the aspect of a tank top there is language in here that try that attempts to Define and it could be more clearly defined um what what the cut might be and what that should be like or the the size of a of a strap there has been large and you know very Broad and strict interpretation to that but I think we could Define that within there to show what's acceptable because the athletic uniform is Def is designed to be an appropriate type of you know um uniform within that performance and what they're doing so then we would say is that appropriate on the on the campus if they were wearing something similar I I don't believe and I would say that'd be a great conversation I don't believe that the writings of of what you see here I think this is talking to the extreme of what you might see like within because we say like a kid is in the swim team we know they're wearing right so we know that the uniform fits I think people are swimming on any of our campuses anyway but they're correct but I didn't even matter representing that as well so I I would say though that that that competition of what the school approves for a uniform so I don't think that was the intention but I think we could definitely say you know make language to say that hey uniforms that are provided appropriate to the sport that are approved those are those obviously fit those guidelines this is for the learning environment here right but I think even like maybe on a spirit day or you know a I don't know homecoming Friday where everyone is in their uniforms during the school day sure I don't think we're going to have any of our swimmers and their Speedos correct you know but we would have a cheer or Palm that's maybe potentially exposing their midriff and the rear end hanging out during class that there is definite potential I've seen it so I'm just putting that out there for thoughts on this going forward um but I also just want to mention you know I don't think that we're holding some of our staff members to the same standards in looking at this and I know that you know as we say in the stores out there you know it's so hard to find Bermuda you know length shorts for girls and you know and not getting the booty shorts right well it's the same for women too I mean grown women it's so hard to find a pair of pants without holes in it you know a shirt that actually covers your waist it's ridiculous meaning you know it's like we're having to shop in the granny section you know but so I get it for our parents out there I get it for our staff out there it's difficult because Society is changing but it doesn't necessarily mean that we need to modify our standards to society those are my thoughts I just have a comment too I know that everybody's you know wants everybody fully clothed and they're okay with Pajamas I'm not okay with Pajamas um I think our students should set their standards a lot higher than coming to school in pajamas these children are getting ready for the future they should learn to dress for the future that's just my my only opinion thank you Madam president members of the board I'd just like to close this out by saying we we have some work to do on this dress code that is apparent we have started that process and it's not only the process of communication and the process of getting that out we've had parent comments that they appreciate what we're doing and bring in awareness and focusing on it we will continue to do that but it's also a saying that goes back to what gets inspected gets respected so it's our job to make sure that we are inspecting our dress code and making sure it is uh operating the way we need to we have some work to do on it and we will do that so just want to close with that and and go on the record to say I did not wear pajama pants to college thank you Dr Credo were you in a suit and tie [Laughter] thank you we will move on to item H1 Dr crotto thank you madam president uh we have some exciting appointments tonight great presentations now we're on to the exciting appointments and Dr polling will lead us through the recommendation for Director of Finance thank you Dr crota Madam president members of the board Administration is proud director recommend a position of Director of Finance to Francie Wolfe Bauman for the assignment in the 23-24 school year she is a bachelor's in science and hotel and restaurant management from Northern Arizona University she has extensive educational experience including being in Dysart since 2008 and she's currently our accounting coordinator she'll receive a salary and benefits commensurate with the position her education and experience her resume is attached for Board review and I'll stand for any questions thank you Dr pulling polling okay I move that we approve the appointment of Francie wolf Bowman Bowman Bauman Bauman Bauman thank you as Director of Finance second motion made by Crystal Chapman seconded by Don Densmore congratulations next we will move on to item H2 Dr Credo thank you madam president uh tonight we continue with our recommendation for an interim Elementary School principal and Dr polling will continue with this item thank you Dr crota Madam president members of the board Administration is recommending the addition of an interim Elementary School principal position in order to provide appropriate coverage additionally Administration is recommending the appointment of Rick candy to fill the interim position for the remainder of the 23-24 school year at El Mirage elementary school he is currently the assistant principal there and actually he's been in Dysart even longer since 2004.

next this is just a reminder Philip wanted to make sure everybody remembered that when assessed values rise that they eventually sometimes come down sure to share that in history that has happened assessed values can decline after recession as property values and new construction reduces property values increase in 2023 and that's a delay of when you see that in taxes in 2025.

it requires us in our findings to um to find certain items have been addressed like pedestrian I don't remember all of them but it's essentially like pedestrian safety and consistency with neighborhoods I don't remember all the words but essentially it's right there so it seems like these four items squarely fit within our jurisdiction so it was helpful for me to look at the ladder and be like okay I can do that we can do that as a board we have the ability to address these four items but honestly I don't look to the bylaw enough when we hear projects and I think we should consider doing it more so that we better understand what we are able to do and we don't forget key elements because I do sometimes feel like unless someone brings it up we don't really have a checklist of things to think about yes this project is unique but we have a train station with a historic train station building a historic post office other historic buildings right there any development not just Homer is going to bring up the exact same issues so I second Kate point but I also think it's a really helpful exercise in checklisting areas of town and I wonder if as a planning board we might want to sort of say this is important to us design review seems to be very good at outlining those key elements if they have capacity to maybe look at our bylaw and offer us input hey for this District in town these are the things that we should be thinking about based on our bylaw you have jurisdiction and these this area of town these are the things you should think about and I kind of wonder if design review would be interested in that and if we as a planning board might benefit from there support because I don't think we always have time during our meetings to look to the bylaw are you um just to backtrack a little bit I think in terms of the possible um additions to uh conditions you know as far as construction I I think gcg seemed willing to help us out with that they suggested that there might be conditions that we put in there as far as um you know monitoring for like programming he talked about things like that and of course I think that's something that's yeah that's why we have gcg yeah they're professionals it's a professional site uh civil engineers and so obviously that's something that I'm I'm happy to coordinate with gcg uh not just for a learning experience but also from uh from something that we could add into all decisions yeah and then the second part of that and I think you were in terms of the bylaws that you're looking at looking most looking more at number one the um which is the the dealing with the historic nature of the town and everything that that encompasses and that I think is uh um I mean a more complex one one is about technical issues I think how do you do this how do you build in a downtown area without damaging anything else with getting traffic around with making sure pedestrians are safe during construction and all that um and the other one has to do the number one has to do more with design considerations and and that I think to me you know like of course I'm not the person on the construction site but to me is um an even more difficult question is because um because there's going to be completely polar views on uh on exactly those things you know issues of massing and scale and setbacks and and all those things and um and so I think what you were suggesting Anna and correct me if I'm wrong is to look at the bylaws and maybe bring up find points that we need to discuss more thoroughly about and where these kind of sorry where these different opinions make may arise and what the options are I think where I'm going with it to try to be more precise like I had not considered okay we have you know we're digging and creating under like if you think about it Underground Construction versus above ground parking space all this thing that is it's relevant specifically to that area because of the historic buildings combined with the train station so that is a unique thing that I didn't think about relative to downtown just it was helpful to see it in this letter and so what I was envisioning is design review is focusing on design in this way if there's other areas of town they have similar input on like hey this area of town has these unique elements any project in Pond Street is going to ask the same questions here is the top 10 questions we as design review think you guys should think about this part of town I don't know maybe are more industrial part of town like where we have the um the project we had last time with the um exactly mongonco Road might have its own unique things that maybe design review thinks we should be thinking about because this to me kind of struck as hey downtown history train station these things you guys should think about relative to not just Homer but any project in that area so what I'm I'm not visualizing them going through the bylaw we can read the bylaw I'm visualizing more of what clearly they're thinking about the unique Prospect of every single area and it would be beneficial I think for us to get this in a broader way so that we're not just focusing on one area one project but we're starting to see this community in a wider kind of whole holistic way that's what I was envisioning because I'd be curious what else have they thought about relative to other parts of town that we have some benefit from thinking about anyone else want to jump in I guess I um and written in the letter and listening to it what everybody has said I think there is I I I see like three different parts to it um relative to what we were just discussing on matching the historical nature of the place and what have you uh I I didn't quite get what the intent of this paragraph is it seems like like editorial which is which is fine but this this is what we've been doing there's nothing that we that we forgot here and I think we are sharing with with the design Review Committee a sense of purpose of of seeing the whole and I think on the discussions that we've had specifically for the project that this letter is addressing I think we've talked about those things and and I'm sure we will talk about that moving forward so that that is this doesn't I don't think this is actionable it's good to know but but it's it's pointed out as though I wouldn't read it as though something that we've missed or something that we were not aware of this is what we do in every on every conversation so so that I took that that way the other part is what Anna was just referring to uh the the technical nature and I'm glad that you and Peter had that discussion with with uh with an engineer um but what what it what's there was some uh blurring the lines in some of this language and the way I read it um and of course we we need to understand what happens on the private side of that property and on the public side which is where the project is taking place uh digging a hole to to make a parking uh if it's permitted on on the private land and and is being proposed by uh licensed professionals all these questions on technical Natures would have to be responded to it the way they're going to excavate the place is going to be directed by a geotechnical engineer that would describe the methods uh recommended and GCC would would comment and agree or not so I think we should kind of parse the technical nature and leave the engineers to to to to confirm to us that everything has been fulfilled uh and the last two parts I mean the protection of the of the of the train station I completely agree because I I and monitoring not only the train station but I think all the uh whatever is the proper radius of of of homeowners around there because when you're going to do that you want to make sure that we protect their their their interests so I I think that that as a condition that makes total sense to me and and and the last part the the um the I call it a strategic plan the the logistics plan uh makes sense for us to review I I don't think there's any question that the police are going to want to know what's going to happen the town hall there's a lot going on there um so so I I I think would be good to to to this kind of kind of weigh into a kind of a net of of items and I think it's good if we if we can kind of um look at which of those which I think is really the last ones that really uh I think we should we should uh settle on on on on what applies to this project and what a place to any other project similar um so that that's my comment it would be good to keep those things separate that's that's all I say Keith oh no deeper you want to weigh in okay um design review after hearing those comments do you want to come back and do you have any comments to make or um we've this is partly why we sent the letters we noticed that there was a problem we thought it would be reasonable to send you all a letter um I think if if you uh want to continue the educational piece it might be very helpful for um the guy from gcg to write us back a letter or write you all back a letter in response to what we sent so we can all sort of hear in quotes the conversation that you and Peter did because it sounds really interesting I'm sorry that I wasn't there um but I'm not sorry I missed the rain it was very last minute meeting I'm sure and then um I think that this might be something that maybe in the future they could also address in their reports I actually look forward to seeing their Pro their reports on every project because it gives us some insight about where there might be some Oddball things in town that we haven't thought about like a few meetings ago probably several months ago now um discussion was brought up at the planning board about the sizes of parking spaces in town and that maybe that needed to be reviewed because it was out of might we might be out of sync with other what other towns are doing now or thoughts about parking and then um because I happened to have heard something right after that meeting about parking I sent everybody a lot of documents about it um from uh an interview I'd heard so I think that these things are on our mind and as we find them we'll be happy to forward them to you all yeah I can certainly you know Peter and I can certainly look at you know ask gcg you know I what would be maybe the best way to have kind of a little educational session if it was might be easier for them just to tend to a meeting and talk to us versus I don't know writing a report usually takes a lot longer at least for me um um but they could do they could do something so people could find it later on and refer back to it and say oh yeah that's what they say about things like this because it was actually very educational it is very educational to read some of their reports it is it is I just uh try to be respectful of their time as well and Trisha one question um during that conversation did he race any alarm on on any specific subject that he thought oh we're gonna have to look at this or it was more uh okay we see this price and we will review these this and that you know this um as far as like the things maybe the general things on this list know he's like some of these things we're doing right now in downtown next to train station we're digging holes we're next to sidewalks and you know it's it's fine we do it all the time I think though when we're standing there looking at the site but this this maybe folds in a little bit more toward into the discussion actually with the applicant you know that comes next but you know as he was standing there looking at things like well they're gonna have to where does that wire go okay we're gonna have to do something about that and then we were talking about you know where the entrance to the site is and how there's a poll right there and it's not just the poll but the um the anchor line that has to be on that side I can't remember how many think he said nine feet maybe from the pole so they're things like that that [Music] um do have to be like he wasn't sure how it was going to be addressed and that would need to be addressed so there's some things that are that were very general about every project and there were some things very specific about this project um that would be you know in their you know in in their normal report because it's specific to the project so Mike will be here Mike will be out in Ashland obviously doing work for the downtown project so obviously as this project moves forward you know there'll be Eyes On The Ground not just on the paper uh looking at the reports but also on the ground on the site so I think that's just something to know moving forward um any other comments from the design Review Committee I would like just something quickly oh go ahead Kevin sorry you can go ahead okay so I would just like to underline that what we're doing is meant to be totally constructive and that it's not in any way suggesting that something has been overlooked but only that something you know we would be sure that something was addressed uh because you know we see ourselves working in concert with the planning board and the other agencies in town so I just wanted to say that and that I really appreciate the constructive nature of this conversation and it's um it's really a pleasure to be involved thank you thank you for that um Kevin yeah I was going to say I I you know I wanted to comment on the fact that this letter was going to be longer and we actually pulled back on it a little bit and we we understood that we were kind of outside of our jurisdiction as the design Review Committee in the topics that we were addressing but we saw an overarching issue that we wanted to raise to make sure we were in alignment in terms of the things that were being requested from the applicant and it sounds like we are so I appreciate the consideration of the letter yeah I mean I um on the one hand like I said I think sometimes issues well I think it's normal for issues of design to have very different opinions and right answers right from different people so um so that's almost that's a discussion for every project I think the other component of that um is like I said with the with our board you know that we have been kind of taking these opportunities for to educate ourselves that a year ago we we didn't have time to do and so I thought this one was actually kind of unique especially maybe since we don't have we don't have our Kevin anymore to kind of fill us in on some of these some of these large construction site things um so that it was really appropriate because it is a very different site than what we've been dealing with before and the the questions in some way are are different the concerns are different in that way so I think it was a very appropriate timing to say you know maybe we need to educate ourselves a little bit on on this process even though it's covered by building code it's covered by regulations it's not something we're going to be in there correcting every you know we're not we're not qualified to do that but to have a general understanding about how things work I think is very appropriate for us for us to do so right any other any other comments well then we will be wrapping this up and we were going to move on to I don't know do we have a continuance first no so um the first public hearing on our agenda is for a 94 1949 Homer and obviously design Review Committee if you're hanging out that would be that would be great as we go on to talk about this project Peter can you kind of give us the update it's been a little while since we saw it so um can you go to some update about where we are yeah sure so thank you so much so tonight obviously we're joined by the application team of Terry Morris uh Ron Bork and Mr Rick Salvo and so with that uh the application team has met with the design Review Committee twice since the last time the planning board has met I know they had received the gcg letter uh which was dated June 5th in doing so there was revised plans sent that were distributed to the planning board um and obviously posts and online that's the the set that you see in front of us I do want to note that this afternoon I did receive a uh updated plan uh which was not printed just because I received them and also I received a dream drainage package and a response letter from the engineer that response letter will be distributed as soon as possible and posted online please note all elements have been sent out to gcg for review um and so at that point regarding the updates on the site I'm going to hand it over to the application team to step forward and present that the board and so uh Attorney Morris please um uh please give the planing board an update and uh in in Ron and Rick if you want to present please let me know and I will make you co-host it to share your screen uh thank you Peter for the opportunity to participate this evening um just as a footnote to the prior discussion about construction activities and the potential for um any change or damage or anything like that relative to this project um there are legitimate questions we recognize that but we also can assure you that of several things I'll work from the blast first and that is there was a lot of question about conditions that should be included in any permit that the planning board votes to to issue we are I personally in in the team that I work with are entirely familiar with the insertion of a condition that deals with construction management plan construction management plans deal with among other things issues surrounding dust and rodent control hours of operation staging of materials delivery hours of operation delivery it also includes a contact person whose names are and numbers are given to the police and fire and uh and planning all right so all of these things are anticipated as part of uh the the actual construction of this project um closer to home I could say that the uh we are going below grade uh probably to an extent that it's not typical of um of building a single or two family house but nonetheless um we have every reason to believe that the soil conditions here I haven't seen any test orange myself but I know that this site is typically full of what's called urban urban uh Urban Ash or Urban fill which is largely Ashen and other kinds of mixed Rubble on top of uh ultimately gravel and long um so we do not anticipate uh any uh use of uh blasting even though it's heavily regular as the chair has said it's heavily regulated by the state we do not anticipate uh even whole ramming I am familiar with both of those operations in some cases lasting is less is less of a a curse on on surrounding properties because it's first of it the activity is control but be that as it may we don't want to plan to do either one of those we are going to Simply use um very large machines that are typically associated with Excavating the foundations and and structures of this type um there was some concern expressed at some point in the process about how we would handle the construction of uh this excavation that is in closer proximity to uh for example to the back of sidewalk the public sidewalk or private properties that is typically handled by and by a number of ways probably the most common is to Simply Drive piles and use sheathing as a way to retain uh the the uh the hole for required for an overdig um so we're familiar with all these and uh and I would hope that having can share this information with the board and the members of the commission that are that are on screen that um we are we are fully committed to uh to a project that is going to be a a benefit to the to the town and to uh in any interest or parties having said that I think that that segues into uh several issues that we believe that have were vetted not that were identified at the first meetings of the planning board and then subsequently vetted at the design rebuke uh committee meetings that we have held um I'm careful to say that I am not speaking for the design Review Committee uh the chair is here and certainly can express um uh any views that she made or any information that she feels is uh more complementary or more accurate but I believe the there was a lot of talk initially about the design and whether the design should seek to emulate or somehow um integrate the historic uh uh train station in the most recent communication that we have seen which is a a letter that actually was the team is just just was in receipt of today uh which is was sent by the design Review Committee um we know that they have come to the conclusion and made a recommendation that there are not be any sort of uh you know any time any way to try to copy the line or the materials um because the the the the structure was it should stand alone by itself it was built in the late late 19th century by a private architect uh it is a singular example of of a style and of a building that serves a particular purpose and we are we are not really seeking to um copy uh or make any artificial Connections in our project to what's across the street simply I think we are trying to honor the objective of the overlay District the Ashland downtown overlay District by replacing what everyone can see uh the uses that are on the site you know a strip mall and and and and we are going trying to basically establish a building and there's been some discussion about this as well I believe one of the speakers at the last um uh committee meeting uh mentioned the fact that they would like to see the building split up into smaller pieces to create more of a village effect that was an issue that came up early early on I'm going to interrupt you a little I'm going to interrupt you a little bit here because yeah that was an issue that we've already previously discussed on the planning board exactly so I'm kind of looking for and we also have obviously the design review committee's notes which I everyone has received and and likely read through so I'm only looking for you know the interest of time like what are the big issues we're dealing with like for instance gcgc still has a I mean their report is quite long I believe some of those issues have been addressed but it's usually we receive a letter from the applicant to tell us exactly how those issues have been addressed or or you know to let us know how they're being addressed um I know that there was some big issues with the designing of the with the designing of the underground parking and um and how that how that is going to work I think I believe that was redesigned so if you could kind of tell us like the big what are the big issues where we're looking at here either yes Madam chair thank you for focusing more on the discussion uh or Scott with that one um it is true that the I think it was I can't know where there's a gcg report of a peer review that um identified a potential problem with circulation within the underground garage our our architect uh Mr lawn book was on screen on worked with our engineer and that that has been completely resolved we have uh redesigned the parking layout so that we are able to accommodate uh the requirements for a safe and smooth circulation of vehicles within the garage I can I can turn it over to either of my colleagues to give you a further explanation of that if you want to put that issue to breast and then we can move on to several of the other larger issues um Ron would you uh would you care to speak to that I know you did a lot of work on that and and then Rick I believe you recited the you put that response in your in your response on the to the G gcg right so I'll I'll start Rick um so we did um put a massage and do some redesign to improve the circulation at the end of the ramp the turning radius and a portion of that was how the vertical circulation went through the building at that end of the building it's very limited in where stairs can go but we were able to relocate them to a in a position where it allowed a little more um ability to turn at the base of the ramp so I think we've resolved that issue significantly more sufficiently so I think there was just some other issues I don't know if you were interested in oh the sub subsurface drainage system and and uh was going to be handled on the site I think since we last spoke before the planning board I think uh Mr luxavo our engineer has since produced a drainage report and and dealt with other issues that are related to the Civil aspects of the site Rick we want to comment on some of those or Peter would I have the ability to share my screen well I do excuse me so for the record Rick salvoth engineering alliance with a project civil engineer I think everyone's pretty familiar with the site as you can see in the pre-development condition you know we've got number nine Homer Ave and extending over to number 49 in this direction here we're about 38 39 658 square feet of land the majority of it is either occupied by building by pavement by hot pan gravel and then there's some landscape areas around this house small Fringe around this house and kind of a hard panned area back here there's about 1100 square feet of Landscaping on the site in the in the current condition um you know which produces sort of a high rate of storm water runoff if I jump down we did excavate a test pit in this area here um we were able to excavate down about eight and a half nine feet uh before we hit standing water um in the hole we did uh witness some modeling which is sort of the bathtub ring if you will that that the estimated seasonal High groundwater leaves in the soil the staining on the soil that was about 66 inches about five and a half um about five and a half feet down what that did for us was it corroborated the subsurface drainage system that we're proposing in this area here that it met the separation of groundwater which is about two feet which is a dep standard we were also able to corroborate the parent soil material which is a loamy sand which was a very favorable for infiltration the entire paved surface of this parking lot will drain to a low point in this area over here which is equipped with a deep coated catch Basin which then drains into a water quality unit which has a total suspended solid removal rate of about 93 percent so it's a very efficient system for about the ten thousand square feet of pavement that we're proposing in this case um and then the majority and then this whole roof area also will Connect into that um the system has been sized to completely hold uh the 25-year storm it mitigates the rate of runoff significantly reduces the rate of runoff for the two-year storm the 10-year storm the 25-year Storm and The 100-year Storm um if I switch to just show some color here you can see there's quite a bit more green space in the post-development condition than the pre-development condition we're jumping from about 1100 square feet up to about 8 800 square feet I I think outside of the drainage one of the issues that had come up during the department review was the fire department accessed through the site and if you can see the swath through here that's sort of a different color there's a there's a paved paver path through here for walking on either side of that there's a reinforced lawn that will allow ability of a fire engine to be able to pull into the site drive through the site and drive across this and exit back out out onto Alden Street without the need to back up um the comments that we had received from the fire department had suggested um using a single unit truck that had a length of 40 feet the gcg comments suggested a slightly larger vehicle what you see here on the screen is that slightly larger vehicle that can turn off a homer Street pull into the site for verse through the site drive over that reinforced lawn and get back out of the site this is brand new information that was sent to gcg and I imagine it will also be sent to um to the fire department as well through through the normal circulation through the planning board process so we haven't heard comments back yet but that was um the way that we had proposed and sort of worked with the fire department at the um at the department head meeting to be able to address the concern of apparatus traveling through the site um beyond that um you know the site I think is the from from this standpoint you know looking down on it is very similar to the original proposal obviously there's been a lot of tweaks to the plan um to accommodate different con different comments of different interests but the the same basic principle of pulling into the site having some temporary 15-minute spaces over here that would be available for pickup and drop off Surface parking spaces over here then exit down into the ramp for the for the underground parking um I don't know Ron if you want to share your screen and and show the board I know you articulated how the parking um was redesigned but sometimes picture's worth a thousand words and maybe it's a little easier for the board to be able to see how those changes were made uh sure so if I could share the screen uh yes you have uh Ron you have the power to share the screen you're as co-host okay thank you as as far as a little off topic but I believe um gcg also mentioned um Park accommodating parking for the existing building is that included in your numbers no that was not included in the numbers because they we think that that observation was incorrect the building next door has never had the use of any of the parking spaces that are located in a parking area in front of the strip mall they have operated without any parking they are legally non-conforming in that respect and will continue to operate in the same vein so we stand by our original assessment of the parking requirements that we've uh that we have provided for this project thank you okay so uh what you're seeing is the lower level parking and the theories in question were uh location where these turning radius is both leaving the ramp or exiting off of the ramp and and going on to the ramp um so we were able to reconfigure the parking maintain the parking count and accommodate the turning radiuses uh as requested as you see now there's all 24 foot wide aisles which is pretty standard 9 by 18 parking spaces which uh about two feet shorter than than the zoning requires I know in Ashland but a 9x18 parking spaces you know it kind of an industry standard out there yeah please um when you say 9 by 18 are you talking about all the parking spaces including the ones on on the ground there's no parking space smaller than that or there is no the parking spaces parking spaces inside the building in the garage I believe are all nine by ten is that correct Ron that's correct oh when you get outside um all the parking spaces all the standard spaces uh um nine by Twenty and it comes with the Ashland standard there's one space um that's nine by eighteen and that's in in an effort to save a pretty large elm tree that's out there so we did shorten that one parking space up so we could save that um tree and then obviously the Ada spaces is an 8 by 20 space with an 8 by 20 aisle to create a van accessible space in accordance with um with the architectural access board in Ada I think it's important just while we're talking about parking that that we will need to at least discuss this existing building you know as we look at adding a building of this size and to downtown the fact that it it does have another building on it that may not have had parking before but that's still an issue and still a potential problem to be resolved when a building is being proposed on the same lot so I don't want that to be just brushed under the rug as if it when it requires a waiver well Madam chair that you'll see in this site plan the site plan does not include that building and all of the measurements that we've taken all of the standards that we've taken with respect to computational floor area ratio and setbacks all of those things are using this configuration this piece of land right so that building is not a part of the site that's correct there's two different pieces of property well there are three Deeds there are three Deeds to this this property consists of at least three three separate pieces I'll I'll have to I haven't looked at the deeds in a while I don't have them not in my office I'm actually out on vacation but I will have that information for you and I'll tell you how the properties are separately dated I guess we just we don't need to dwell on it now but we would like uh we should have a memo or something about that existing building if it's a part that's fine I'll be happy to prepare thank you um I think the other thing for me which I started to mention um in talking about the discussion with um Mike Carter from gcg um is that pull the poll the utility poll that's kind of in the area of the exist of the proposed driveway and the hold down which is on the side of downtown obviously to keep tension on that poll and if those are located relocated and there's also a poll further along in the property that seems to have wires that go through the property to reach I think an apartment building in the back and we're wondering what if those have been looked at and what that entails because obviously they wouldn't be going through the building rickshawal can address the existing pole yeah can you give up this year for a minute Ron so we did locate all of the utility poles uh actually the the surveyor had had located mall for some reason they didn't show up in the plan when it was originally submitted this is the pull this is the newest poll that was installed that I think is the one that you are referring to um there's a stone bound right here um this pole is about six feet outside of that stone bound it's outside the limits of our driveway all the poles are right on the curb line on the sidewalk is a minimum of five feet sometimes it's sometimes it's a little bit bigger than five feet in the way that the roadway is configured with the property line um so you know the question of access behind the poll there's always quite a bit more space than the minimum 36 inch class base required by Ada in most cases it's it's upwards of four feet but there's plenty of room to keep this pole here it can still be anchored back in this landscape area back here without any issue the poll that you're that you were referring to um is right in this area back here um obviously we'll be working with the power company to see how they want to handle that poll um Perhaps Perhaps um that power gets relocated on the ground and this pole slides back in this area and gets a riser put on it and it and it stays servicing that apartment building we'll have to work that out with the power company so you're saying that that's the that's the poll that the the poll on Homer Street attaches to is that right yeah if I if I if I shoot let me let me show you on the existing conditions plan it's a little easier to see yeah just to jump in I think the pull is from Homer but it feeds a a parcel that's fronted on Maine that's right it comes from Homer this poll here services this building 35 Homer and it's also a line that goes back to this poll and then this poll from their services one of these sites on Main here doesn't seem like that Riser pole was you know the the one we the one with the whole bat the hold back the tie back the tie back it seems um it doesn't seem like it was that close to that brick building but maybe it was that's that's the brand new poll that was the newest poll that was installed yes that I was referring to um and when we were on site we noticed obviously we noticed that the the line that was obviously feeding the building off of Maine yeah this one comes off of this pole here behind the dumpster correct which is interesting because why didn't they come off a main but that's for that's that that question is uh needs to be answered by other folks yeah I don't I don't know that there I mean I guess when Terry does is is uh Research into the title I'm not sure that there was even an easement for it so I guess lots of but that'll be I think that's going to be pretty easily figured out with the power company we have room to accommodate it if we needed to or perhaps they could just come off of Main Street okay run were there any other issues that you wanted to comment before Ryan comments uh Madam chair members of members of the board we spent a lot of time with the uh uh the design Review Committee discussing the treatment of the site between the back of sidewalk which would Rick leave that there I guess that's something the back of sidewalk in the front of the building one of the things they asked Ron to do was to create a greater recess you see how there are four major projections on the face of the building projecting out from the main part of the building to home or out they uh asked him to create a great and enlarge the recess areas so that there was the possibility of creating more active uh space uh in front of the buildings there was a lot of talk we had originally proposed a an extensive landscape plan for that here for that area in front of the building um they thought that there was far too much uh landscaping and they would rather see some some of it eliminated so that it provided for the opportunity to create some uh Gathering space or some more functional space in front of the buildings and create essentially small plazas or Terraces and which we have which we have done I don't know which one of these uh uh Rick or Ron which one of these would show best uh that line would it be one of yours yeah Rick Rick if you want on Cheryl uh so while they're bringing that up so when I say that treating the area both the site the area of the site between the back side walking the front of the buildings and also the look of the buildings the treatment of the buildings uh Ron has spent a lot of time in between meetings um responding to a series of questions uh requests for information that the the committee had made and actually at the last meeting produced a number of options uh for the for the treatment uh different treatments uh they had they included shingle collaborate some brick um and those are all vetted I think it's probably worthwhile for us to share that portion of the presentation with you so as a way of uh answering some of the questions addressing the issues that we talked about so I think this is a good one right Ron oh yeah let me let me get to the one that doesn't have the existing buildings on it okay the one that you had showed the different the different texture yeah Ryan perhaps you could go into it um yes uh sure so as Terry mentioned um we did create uh we did relocate the doors at the suggestion of the design Review Committee uh so that they were all within a recess section of the building so it created a there's sort of sense of balance and you knew where the front door was um and and along with that we did enlarge the plazas uh we did uh landscape you know around it uh in this instance I believe the discussion LED more towards doing a planter box than to do that field Landscaping but in in general concept all the recesses have the entry doors in to the commercial space uh which is outlined here but it's yet defined depending on on how the space is actually leased out but there are multiple entrances and um and then uh as Terry mentioned Terraces that would allow for for example Cafe seating if there was a deli in this in this space for example we did we did actually in one in our presentation but Ron with some uh perspectives and aerial views uh show uh some projected seating uh tables and chairs in one of those uh uh Plaza areas um as Ron said it's difficult we it's difficult at this point to basically Define those spaces uh and say well we're going to put benches here we're going to use shares there on this it really does depend on the tendencies that occupy the building and the uses to which those areas would be put they're not they're not all going to serve the same purpose we think that ultimately since we're working towards conditions for approval of the site plan that we would have a condition that would make the approval of the final landscape Arrangement here subject to the approval of of the uh of the time the planning department uh at the stage when before a building permit is issued yeah I mean we could go we could go we could go round and round and round about which plants to plant where and this and that and I don't think that it's the job that you that you the planning board wants to get into the weeds as to the planting and all the other things yep I'm not gonna I mean I'm not gonna speak for the whole planning board but um on on these issues at the design Review Committee has been addressing it seems like they've looked carefully at at these kind of the front entrances this kind of thing I think for me um the big pieces that still remain to be seen is just working through that gcg list because I think when I read through the list there are a lot of things that are a little tight you know and that have kind of um that that needed answers and so I think for me that's the kind of the the four focus on exact plantings in in front of something or you know I I need that list of gcg to be gone through thoroughly and with every item in response to every item in for gcg to agree that that was a good solution and and so that's a little bit back and forth yet like to me that's you know um that's the foundation you know that we that we need to do so yeah and I will say just today uh you know Rick's elbows on the call but Rick sent over a detailed response letter okay which I think it's not in the packet tonight it was received today uh this is going to be put up online it'll be sent out to everybody tomorrow and that has already gone off to gcg okay and so just to reiterate that is where the response is from June fifth letter I think it would be useful Rick do you have that letter you could bring up on the screen yeah we're not going to go through it tonight though because the planning board hasn't even had a chance to look at it Kate did you have I think I think what I'll say about him chairs is we we did provide a written response to every single comment um we addressed every single comment um and I think um you know gcg were probably just got it today are they going to get it tomorrow morning um so by uh next meeting I hope would be that we would have have worked out every issue with gcg so then maybe we can have a more fruitful discussion with the board but I just wanted to give the board kind of a heads up on some of the bigger things that we had addressed or or what our what our plan was to address them um and then once gcg gives its blessing um I think we'll be in a better position to further the discussion with the board with the process because if I recall this is actually on a ticking timeline um and it looks like they were doing a lot of work but that gcg letter was June 5th we're now into August just receiving the response so I want to make sure we're cognizant of like deadlines and timelines and don't put the planning board in a bad position over something that was maybe got lower on the list with the applicant to respond to because that's that's something that we I very much rely on like we Peter says over and over they've been working the town for a long time we I expect when it's all done there's probably going to be open issues still that might be in the planning boards court or it might be another round so I wanna obviously get that everyone agrees but I want to be cognizant of the timeline and make sure we have that discussion so for an administrative standpoint I can answer that question and Attorney Morris and I spoke about this today and so the last extension they gave us an extension so for the site plan review that expires on April excuse me August 31st and so I did put that on the radar of uh Attorney Morris and I did say remote you know we need to talk about this and you know extend that out to I would say September 30th September 31st at the earliest uh to get the gcg report going and so um I don't know you know Attorney Morris if you want to speak to that but that is an administrative item that was that was discussed uh this afternoon I do Mr Magic because as you know every time we've discussed this we've always agreed to every extension uh that was requested we've never sought to put the planning board under the gun for uh under any timeline a sole concern however is that we not we got caught up in a circular uh you know a carousel okay where between the planning board and the design Review Committee where a lot of these issues have been rehashed we have we believe we've answered a lot of the things relative to design review gcg goes beyond simple design review and I understand those are within the purview of the planting Point our goal Madam chair members is to basically we believe we've got sufficient feedback from the design Review Committee as to as to the issues that are important to them and that they think would be important to you and the public and we have set forth uh resolutions or address those concerns um so we are hopeful that at some point when we get put all this together not only the the global gcg issues but also the things that are site-specific that we can move this uh forward um without you know in I guess in more economical use of beatings we thought that this meeting would be useful to give you a status update of where we were uh and what we've uh what we've presented I had proposed to talk about the facades the facades are clearly um of interest to everyone and I think that I would like appreciative John Ron could have the screen for maybe five or ten minutes at most to basically show you what work has been done on that so we can get some feedback from from you members if if that's possible yeah that's fine thank you Jerry uh so um one of the the comments from the designer view committee was to show some options and materiality uh to the elevations so what I've done is I've created four types that have a variety of material changes and um and sort of organization um this this does not necessarily have to be replicated all across the building we could create interest by maybe bookending with one type and then having the center with a different type but this was really that exploration so nonetheless you can see there's some feel colors and and window frame calls and things like that and it was a request that I update the model each Mo the model with each one of these options which is is something that I'm working on um so this is our you know our key we call it type one uh type 2 introduces a shingle style along with the collaborate type 3 has a um more of a contemporary Farmhouse vertical bat board and Baton along with collaborate uh type four had a little more modern inset of metal panel along with the traditional collaborate in all instances you know there's there's an organization there's an organizing element where the main um Gable ends will will have several materials they won't be overloaded with materials and then there'll be a um a different palette on the insets in some instances so that way we could create that that interest but also change color change material and try to modulate it so that you know some of the comments were the size of the building and we try to establish a module which which chased it down to a traditional pedestrian scale of a two and a half story home um or traditional storefront from you know the turn of the century um so that's that's the result of Ron I think it's important to note that this particular uh thing was was not was not something that was favored by the committee nor is it favored by us oh right so yeah so the um the ones that I've I will be pursuing is is type 1 type 2 and um the original concept on the building comments from the planning board on the facades and materials oh thank you I'm looking for comments from the planning board oh okay yeah I I think without more detail is stuff to tell but I I like the idea that um that they are exploring further these options it looks like the design Review Committee offer a really great you know Insight uh I think we should uh I I like the idea I mean personally it's very personal because it's aesthetic um I like that some of the options are exploring are more uh like a simplified level of detail uh in my view I think as the as these things get explored it would be important to give a person to to to the the base what what The Pedestrian scale feels and how those materials be a little heavier and a little more consistent and maybe the interest goes everywhere else but I think you should wait until these options are explored yeah um deeper did you what are we on than that we're looking at feels like it's a large Mass so it's really critical to apply materials to make sure we break that stretch um it was there I'm sure I'm sorry I could I couldn't hear yeah we can't hear um I would just caution that when you're playing with materials right now the view that is there on this page feels like it's a large mass so I think you really have to use your materials very strategically to make sure that it doesn't feel like a um unified east to west box versus kind of those nice intricate details that you have in these elevations it really needs to come out and I think that challenge is there definitely when you're playing with these different palettes I agree yeah and that's where I was looking at the possibility of bookend in the building with a similar palette and then in the in the center phase uh they could become uh something else yeah I mean for me I think I think the question at this time is less about exact color and material but how is the entire building broken up or is it left and right or is it bookended is or is every like how how do you how do you start to distribute those things across across the building to tell a different story about about how this was built you know or um its different components and um so I think like I said I think that might be more important than the exact color of materials sure so so I think at the next point we really need to see color on the massing to understand how we're supposed to read this thing are we supposed to read it as one big boat that kind of landed there or is you know how are those different parts expressed and so that we can read it as different houses that might have come together over time or you know what's the narrative there that you're going to be using the color and materials to tell I think the bagel table building is always a good example of that because it looks like two buildings that kind of just happen to be built next to each other over time and of course it wasn't it was built all at the same time right but they looked carefully at that as a way to break down the mass I I agree with you Trisha and I think that maybe having these part elevations to explore kind of variations of um of relationships of different materials are are helpful but but uh where you and deep are going uh I think it's also important that once that is explored a little bit more we need to see the whole thing in context because uh sometimes there is a repetition of storefronts which is a consistent use and you want some consistency and and some differentiation so it's a little tricky I'd like to make sure that when we see these Explorations we see a part plan blown up which is great and then um the whole project on a rendering well that's our intent okay Anna so my addition to this would be that I thought the design Review Committee report number two was very helpful there is a lot of data there and a lot of input in red to the applicant and so I do believe that we have to come up with a way to efficiently allow the applicant we should address the applicant's concern of a back and forth and I do think we as a board need to reach some consensus that we agree with the red and that we want these things to be explored by design review so that we're efficient and you know I personally liked all the red suggestions I had a few specific elements that I really as a planning board members personally care about and so I'd like to highlight some of those that are important to me and maybe add a few elements to the applicant's thinking is that okay to do right now or do you want to go through them first no I don't think I mean given that we just actually got this a few days ago today no but if they're things that you want to highlight I think you should yeah so the things that I really liked I mean I liked first of all I agreed with all elements in the red that the red was what uh were action items As I understood them as to what the design Review Committee wanted the applicant to look to and I personally although I may not have agreed with everything I felt like it was correct to explore it so that we could later make a good decision so I'm not committed necessarily to the recommendations implied in every situation but I'm open to having design review further get the detail and explore um so my kind of suggestion would be that the applicant would respond to everything in the red and then if the Apple can disagreed with design review and felt that the planning board should have an alternative perspective that we would be presented with okay design review wanted a we the applicant think you should also think about B and C for this reason so that we could get some feedback from the applicant but also understand the design of your perspective as far as highlights I liked the mural concept um the design review had suggested putting a mural on one wall of the commercial building 15 Homer and I'd like to see what that might look like I guess in a way to like what size what what are we talking about the pocket Park Points were really jumped out to me I'd like to understand better the location of the pocket park how it relates to the site how it relates to the rest of Ashland you know accessibility to the public um the theme of the location versus the community I really appreciate the detail that we're all thinking about relative to this building but I keep thinking this building belongs in downtown how do we use this building how do we get to it is it just a place to live that people drive from or is it part of a community where you live there you go to the farmers market you bike to Stone Park your kids go to school nearby and they want to go to the library how does this building relate to all of that what is the human kind of traffic through it and what elements can we add that are that we need so some of the things that we're not in design review that I'd like to think about is a bus stop um some sort of public bus stop or or bus shelter some type of e-bike or scooter charge station so that people who live there have a way to move around in ways other than cars and that there can be a positive kind of energy if you will of people wanting to use downtown without cars as much as possible the folks who live in this building what will make their lives unique is their accessibility to downtown they really don't need cars to do all these wonderful things they can go to Starbucks they can commute to the MBTA station they can their kids can go to school really without a car so I really want to explore that and that was not there and then finally well I didn't see it there and then the solar which designer of you mentioned I'd like to hear more about the possibility of solar energy in this site we did a we addressed a number of those in the design review process with respect to solar we agreed that we could put solar on all the self-facing roofs fortunately those face they do not face the street because we did not think it was going to be aesthetically consistent with the objectives of the old delay District to have solar panels on the front-facing roofs um so that was how we dressed that out we also addressed the issue of sustainability substantially this is going to be and I said it before and I've said it at least again before the design of your committee this is going to be a fossil free building we're going to do everything electrically we're going to do it by heat pumps we have you can see the roof we have used those small portions of the roof that were created flat they can continue they will contain the heat pumps you can see them on the on the on what's uh shown on this Shadow study drawing um we have repeatedly said that we were going to provide um EV uh ready every parking space well inside in the garage and outside are going to be easy ready the the commit the design Review Committee asked about well how many of them are going to have Chargers well I can only say to you that in the um other jurisdictions where I have practiced um this kind of Permitting and that issue has arisen the typical standard is 10 of the um 10 of the spaces are outfitted with charging stations in that case I can safely say after having discussed this with the owner that we can commit to 10 of the 60 spaces we'll have charges any other charges uh in within the garage itself of course would have to wait until we see what the demand is from the residents who are living there in response to the question about bicycle parking we have handled that one of two ways uh Ron had his first floor plan that shows actually an area for bicycle storage and parking off of the lobby Lauren could you blow that up if you're in bicycle storage space off of the off the residential Lobby in addition to that in the parking garage We There is a provision for mounting wall mounting um biker racks at the head of each and every parking space where that would be so desired so parking providing alternative ways of transportation aside from the automobile that will not that will not be a serious problem here at this site and just to clarify I think that's great for the residents absolutely I think what I was commenting on is as you know there's been some talk of I mean I don't want to open up a can of worms but there was some talk previous meetings on bike path in the area which is theoretical at this point but I was imagining more of how this space relates to the entire community so it's not just the residence which is great you're giving the residents those those sustainable elements but also the community that's nearby because this is this building is going to bring people into the community and make them part of a greater community and so I I was not just envisioning you know obviously if somebody is coming by from I don't know from the Middle School to the Starbucks and there there's a kid who goes to the library who doesn't live in this building they're not going to come into the building to charge their bike right they don't they don't live there and I'm envisioning this being a space that has has to have some connection to the rest of the community not just for the residents I think that's I think you're absolutely right and I think that speaks to how those spaces which are shown on the screen now that we've created those plazas how they're utilized are they are they going to would they be would there be bike racks there as opposed to seating or in addition to seating you see our those are the kinds of issues and I think that has the answer to the puzzle of how to connect this to the train station I respect the idea that we can't replicate this beautiful unique historic design of the train station but there's a theme Here of Transportation there's a theme Here of public space and use that 100 years ago was one and now we have a little differently now we have to Envision the future of Ashland right and so there can be a theme here if you do think about that element of public transport and this building having some connection to that yeah I think for I think we um you know I think we kind of need to move on I think the two things um that are you know both things are kind of in process right now I mean we got the design review Commandments I think two days ago and so um yesterday yeah and with the new drawings and stuff I haven't had time to go through them thoroughly and understand each of them thoroughly especially with the other letter from the design Review Committee at the end then obviously the gcg stuff is still in flux so I think this is all the further that we're going to get tonight now I don't know if this is going I assume this was done at design Review Committee um well given that it's in front of us right um so I don't know what the understanding is there on the other hand I'm a little surprised that some of the things haven't been more resolved so and so I I am supporting Anna's position as well supporting my colleagues in the design review I I I did not scrub everyone but I did go to the red because you know and they seem reasonable to be answered right and I'm looking at it similar to gcg if they answer and we we kind of say that's reasonable and we're good with it or no the answering to are the answering to us or the answering to design review for analysis well that's a process for us to decide but I think they should be answered by the applicant let's start there and I I think that's to their concern how do you see it because uh what Trisha said makes sense so so the Santa Review Committee highlighted the only one area that that seemed like they were that they had an expectation of of another review was the uh the request of renderings yeah depicting this and that it's kind of big that that that that implies that they want to see it again but if we are seeing it I was seeing it initially more like you just described it these answers these questions can be answered and we can we have the judgment to understand if they were answered properly but the renderings part keeps the thing in flow so I think our decision needs to be made or uh where is the status of the Santa review Community process uh or if it's going to basically uh be merged into a response then maybe we can review and the members of the design Review Committee could join us at that review to make sure that everybody sees it and in context and we don't have to wait for another cycle I mean I would say possibly a joint meeting about that because the big things are actually open that we said they're better at they have more time but I I understand the Project's been in front of us a long time the applicant wants to keep moving in it and if we can come to that I you know I'm okay with that I think we do have to check with our colleagues on the design review if that's satisfactory as well but yeah no I agree I think I think every item on the design review list and assuming that the applicant has received this list too in the same way that every item on the gcg list has to be answered in a way that we can read it and see that it's been answered and then it goes back you know in the same way the design Review Committee list has to be the same like we need answers the question was asked it needs an answer um so and and the answer might be no we've decided to go in this other direction and would rather ask the planning board that might be your answer but it has to have an answer right so that um and I agree that it might be the most efficient way to do it might be to have a to have the design Review Committee have let's all talk about at the same time so there we all of us are on one page we're not going back and forth we don't need to send it back and then back again in the interest of just efficiency I'm all for getting together with design review I think that there are 20 or 23 red items it's a lot and so once you double the size of this group having a meeting where we discuss 23 items is going to be extremely time consuming um the items that are more specific than others no I understand but it's but we all still might have different views about that you might have a specific view but I may have different views and so you may say half of them are not important but the other half will be mine so we could have it quite busy dealing with that in addition design review did a really nice job answering uh eight of our points that we brought to their attention specifically and so we as a planning board need to we need to come to consensus on those eight points that we already asked them to address so I'm just a little concerned as to the efficiency of time I understand the applicant's concerned hey why do I need to go to both groups and is this going to be inefficient but if we right now this planning board likes the red isn't it more efficient to give this to design review to address the 23 items and then we can have a more succinct organized joint meeting where we can narrow in on hopefully less than 23 red items but but that is fair but it also depends how about all the design options that the sun review wants to see are we not interested in us seeing those options as well I I think this would how would I would miss that opportunity you're saying that if we have them jointly at the beginning we're more likely no I'm saying that the same review Community requested options to be to be rendered which the architect is going to work on and uh if if we don't want to see it but they're going to present it to the center Review Committee we're going to miss the opportunity to see those I mean I would assume assume I guess I was but it's part of the red that you said that it would be I was envisioning that if they did read a saying however we the applicant think the planning board may like option b I think as long as the applicant knows that we're not saying hey we agree with everything and you're kind of tied to whatever design review says we're saying to the applicant we respect the design review opinion we want you to go back to them and give them what they're asking for but we also want you to know that we may have a different View and so we're open to Alternatives in your response and give us your your the next kind of variation of it I'm just suggesting and I'm concerned with how much red there is let me move the design Review Committee can weigh in here because I'm not sure always that the reds are decisions I mean no decisions but action items I'm just concerned items that we would then have to assess if we're satisfied so if design review says they're satisfied in a in a response I'm assuming the text becomes black because black means updates the previous item it's just going to narrow Us in on the unresolved items so I could go either way I'm happy to make this one big party but I just think that that could be quite inefficient Kathy do you want to weigh in yes please thank you so um we definitely are not finished um and I know that we've asked for a lot of things and I know that the reason you got the letter as lazy did is because it got very specifically cross-checked against everything that we said and all of the red items are action items and um as I'm sitting here listening to this right now I'm pretty sure we've left a couple of things off I think the very biggest thing that we are most concerned about is the scale representation of one of the first pages of this presentation where they show the photo montage and they show the um building I think you have to go farther through it it's not the first page you have to go farther down that one there and um there's one with the telephone poles in front so we are actually having trouble with the Landscaping in part because we don't know what the final height of those poles and the wires are we don't exactly know where they are and we don't know where those poles exactly set with the height of that building so we don't actually know what kind what size trees can fit out there for starters and if we can fit trees out there which is one of our problems it was pointed out by a member of the public and I think the board is unanimous on agreeing the our committee excuse me is unanimous on agreeing that the that the actual rendering with a photo montage which is not this one that we're looking at right now shows the building bars are down sunken down in the ground and not as high similar to the first floor of the three units where the two hair places and the other um the pizza place are and so we're concerned about that because it didn't it looks like either these poles are the top of the building or they're not quite right and and we're having an issue with what we're looking at so we've asked that for that to be fixed and it may have been fixed because what I'm looking at right now looks like it's been fixed can you move that over to the right please that looks better I think than what we saw originally presented to us which puts all of those polls at that height at the top of the peak of the building so we're we're actually asking about that and we want to know that that's correct that that's actually represented the way it's going to be or are those polls going to shrink when the new polls go in because I don't know I have no idea so Kathy what are you recommending as far as the point of like how we should do this because so I think there's two things I think that and I I it's taken us four hours on two separate nights now to get through just stuff we're sending back to you a meeting with the applicant took almost that long so I can't agree more that this is all taking a long time but it's also a process where it has to be thoughtful I actually think that our two board and committee you need to put our heads together and figure out how to make this a more streamlined process in that respect because we are going to have differences of opinion just among ourselves as to what we think these projects should look like but I definitely think I don't want to be in a position where I'm listening to an applicant say what they are saying tonight um about the back and forth I think we need to we need to figure this out so that isn't that doesn't happen again so I know that for sure so I don't think we've had any back and forth yet like that I've seen because the only thing that that has happened is we had a meeting planning board we came up with eight items you guys gave us responses and then you're giving us your for your second report so I don't think we're yet at a point of great concern about a loop all over the place I think we just need to get organized we've got 24 25 items in red action items if we the planning board have some consensus that we like these we just need to figure out do we want to do this just based on what what what Kathy just said and listening to Anna I mean I I quickly go through the the red items and there's kind of two categories there's a category there's a lot of them relative to things that would be resolved with the renderings which we just heard looks like they have been resolved maybe they have but this is not all I wouldn't categorize all red items as the same there are some that could be just simple answers could we just parse them out and say provide the answers that are specific to in in a letter something that we can hear from Kathy and her group and then the ones that are more design oriented could be treated differently yeah I agree because I think there are some items in red you know um all doors will be accessible without a step provide a grading plan to confirm I I'm not sure that's needed from design Review Committee you know I think so it's would I propose could I propose something in the spirit of time would the planning board trust Marcelo and Trisha to do that to go through the list and come up with what you believe we can handle on our own as a planning board versus items that would make sense to pass on to to design review I personally would be comfortable with that I don't think we need to do it tonight I think if we as a planning board degree in a general consensus that these red things are important to us I think we can appoint you to kind of figure that out and and split it apart for us efficiently if they're if we can agree to that I think it's far more efficient so it'd be picking out the things that we think should be focused on at the design review committee meeting going back to the design Review Committee versus the things that we will look at in planning boy that's that is what I'm suggesting I mean we could certainly do that I mean my example was that there's uh there's a common one of the red comments that says that um it appears that one of the setbacks was not correct and the setback should be pushed to comply with zoning that's a given I think that the the things like that are things that are we say Okay noted it has to comply that that's not a discussion and things the other things I mean I'll be happy it will really it will take 10 minutes I'm just suggesting that that is an efficient way to do it it's a thought unless we want to do it right now which I don't think I have the bandwidth to do it right now we just got this report are you okay with that Kate we can't hear uh I think your mic is off Deepa Deepa was saying that a lot of these items are interconnected and I reiterated that uh so I believe what our what our proposed plan is that Marcelo and I will look at this list which we'd like I said we just got a few days ago parse out the things that we think are still in the camp or that we should still that should still be in the camp of the design Review Committee things that do not need to be addressed in design review Community Committee separate those two and then have some of these issues these remaining issues be resolved and design Review Committee because they're not really meant to be designed to be they're not really meant to be resolved here in the planning board so um so but that list then will then be shorter and more focused and we would hope then that in going through that list that will be one more meeting and and then it would be back in front of planning board so I have just one question about that because it seemed like people in this group wanted to look at those four or five examples are you saying go back to the design review with that and ask them to put their recommendation and then just move on and I think if we're not doing a joint meeting I think we we should give them the opportunity not just pull that back out of the whole process I'm happy for them to provide a recommendation yeah okay congratulations should we do we need the applicant's input on this or do we just kind of have jurisdiction to ask for another design review analysis I I I'm comfortable with what I heard tonight that the the there was this one option that was discarded in concert with the sun review and he's exploring a b and c or whatever um I'm fine making sure that that exploration gets further I'm fine with that too the applicant's permission to go back to design reviewer that's our that is our it makes sense to talk to the applicant to make sure that you know obviously they do have some renderings they need to put together and it's a meeting but I think obviously the applicant has stated obviously this the term Carousel which I think fits the summertime theme here uh they don't want to go around and around on a carousel yeah and I think the design Review Committee needs to be very efficient with its time and what they focus on so so does Kathy your hand is up yes so Madam chair I think we are as efficient as we can be what I'm actually concerned about is we've been asking for things some of them going on two two rounds now well then then we understand is like as they have now come before the planning board and we are asking them to go back to the design Review Committee they can see that we are very serious about providing these things but it will be the list that Marcelo and I look at as the things that should be provided so it will it will be a shorter list than than what you haven't read I think that in the future um we're not going to have a second meeting or however many meetings we've had with an applicant if they can't get us all the stuff that we've asked for the first time around I don't see any reasonable way to do this right now I think we have to come up with it in the town and I think Unfortunately they get to be one of the developers that has to deal with some of this um as we go through the process but I think it's important I think this is a big project in the town and I think the committee is is concerned um I think the planning board has emphasized in in past meetings that we rely on the design Review Committee and we trust their input and that they should consider that very important so I just want to be clear I I would be supportive of design review being part of our next meeting so that we can get like we're gonna the way I understand this is Marcelo and Trisha would come up with a shorter list of action items as to things that we believe okay we really do need design review expertise more that list would would shorten the action items for the design review applicant would go back to design review we would get one more report report number three and then we would have a meeting we the planning board and we would invite design review to come I don't have a problem with that and I think that's okay to do because then we're at a much more narrow list I think that's where we're at exactly what we're talking about I don't think that would remove okay I don't think that would remove um Kathy the design reviews ability to tell us these things that remain a concern okay can we uh so can we have some input in from the applicant on that um Terry I'll start so um just for our full transparency I haven't changed this rendering this is this is the rendering I presented and the comments that were made I think were a little unfair because this is a photo montage of six or seven photographs and so they all have different Vanishing points so when you put the photo montage together you know I selected this as my sort of reference point this building is set back uh probably about 12 15 feet yeah and it's about the same massing as what we have yeah I understand I think those of us we understand that these things cannot be done accurately it's a perspective it doesn't work like that we get it right so but what I'm saying I don't want to we don't we don't have time we don't have the capacity to go through this right now and remember that that list of what is going to be asked for is going to be edited by the planning board so your list is shorter and we will make sure we take if you have any um in if you have any feedback on this list of what you were being asked to do that you think is impossible very time consuming we just don't have that information perhaps you can give us some feedback in the next day or two about that list and and why it hasn't been provided maybe there's a reason you haven't provided it and it that it just the information doesn't exist or we know whatever it is so that we can we can take that into consideration is that fair that's fair okay Madam cheers would I would like the endowments to respectfully and I underscore that word respectfully ask the chair of the designer committee who has said that she has we made repeated requests for information that we have not provided give me one example of that so we know no we're not no we're not going to argue about that here I we're not going to argue about that here I have already said that that we will that the applicant can give us a list of hey we couldn't provide this because or we did provide this and and they say we haven't whatever the thing is Marcelo and I are going to edit that list it's going to go back to design Review Committee to talk about the things on the list and then it'll come back to planning board to resolve all other Matters by that time maybe we will have received all the information also related to gcg and we'll take a big step forward here but we're not going to go back and forth and argue about this tonight all right so what do we need Peter to make this happen because I'm about to I could I just had one brief thing I'm so I just feel when I just want to reiterate that it I I very much appreciate and respect all of the hard work of design review there's no way that the planning board can have that kind of detailed time to every single detail of design and so I want to underline that but I I absolutely want to reiterate agreement with Trisha's point that there's no need for the applicant to convince a design review or any member of design review of one element I think we the planning board are the ones that need to be um convinced if you will and we're not going to get there unless we move this forward that I just wanted to reiterate where I I think we're getting confused as to what our jurisdiction is versus design review yeah it's a good comment all right Peter so with that said oh so with that said and I this is to Terry the applicant uh Terry Morris uh the next meeting for the planning board is on August 28th and also at this point I think it makes sense to continue it um I hopefully they'll be um my question is is obviously in the summer do your does your application team think it's appropriate to meet again on the 20 the 24th or would you like to continue this to the second meet the first meeting of September which will be September 14th and then the second note is I think it makes sense uh verbally but then we can follow up by email is to continue the um the date of final decision to September 30th uh Peter I I can't really answer that question on a at this time without conferring with my uh my two Consultants you know the uh Ron and Rick most of the burden of what we're talking about falls on them and I'm not going to put them on a spot saying right now whether they can commit to one or the other but I certainly have an answer for you tomorrow okay why don't we do this for the point and let's just take this with a grain of salt let's for the planning boards perspective continue this to August 24th with the understanding that the applicant will be in contact with the two consultants and confirm that date and then obviously if it needs it to request it a continuance this this matter will be appear again at the first meeting in September uh and then but I think it makes sense for that to just having a verbal agreement that the the the date of final decision will be extended to September 30th um how many home meetings of many of the planning board meetings are there well right now there is one more in August which will be August 24th and there will be two in September all right so agreed I make a motion for 9 to 49 Homer that we continue the public hearing until August 24th based on having a verbal Grant follow-up with a written agreement that the continuance of the process until September 30th okay I have a Point Break plan no okay if you need to take a break go come out we're we're you know yeah um okay so we have a couple next to our agenda we have a couple um well one is a withdrawal 12 to 6 12 to 16 Union Street that's the definitive subdivision plan next to the public safety building I think everyone got that letter they have are asking to withdraw the application without prejudice simple summary Peter simple summary is the applicant back in November put in a pulmonary subdivision and their whole goal was to free zoning upon the denial of the town of Ashland's housing moratorium and without an appeal of the town the applicant has decided to withdraw the application because at this point there is no need for a zoning freeze on that property in defense of a building moratorium and so with that said the applicant did not want to go through the Hoops of a definitive subdivision with their review process of gcg and the planning board and so therefore the applicant has made this request so Peter quick question so gcg was already reviewing another round off of this project what what happens with that so the app so gcg we had a we had a a peer review fund there was one round uh they never submitted additional material and so therefore it just stops and so gcg did a review they were actually they were paid invoiced all set they will not receive that money back the applicant as a consultant peer review account um but the application it just kind of ceases it would draw without prejudice and um everything and and they lose their standing their November standing um with this withdrawal and so it all comes down to what they were trying to re with trying to they were trying to secure a zoning freeze they lose all standing and um and and that preliminary subdivision gets wiped out canceled out Kate were you about to say something I make a motion that we um allow the withdrawal without prejudice for 12 to 16 Union Street definitive sub subdivision plan a second roll call though Catherine Jersey guy Trisha Kendall all right so next on the agenda is 10 to 60 Main Street Peter is there someone here from 10 to 60 Main Street who we've so sit here the entire time at this point we're looking at the the the waiting the the participants no okay I did go back and forth with the owner um Rich Gordon I went back with the attorney Joe antonellis and I also know that um the architect um excuse me uh Scott Richardson uh confirmed attendance however do our difficult technical difficulties I'm not too sure what happened I've been looking in the waiting room and I haven't seen him pop up uh but with that said um obviously the application is still trying to put things together um from uh from uh architectural standpoint from a site standpoint and so um what I can bring forth to the planning board is the requested continuance which was via that I believe a um email letter a letter received by email which was dated I believe um July 28th uh if I stand corrected yes I just um one note on that I had asked Peter when they asked for a continuance that we should have someone here to explain to us why we're having these long long continuances and then not really saying much work and so that's still a question that I have I guess I'm willing to continue it one more time but we're gonna expect something at the end of this you know either that there's been a change of project that it's being withdrawn that if there's a significant step forward because this isn't this is no longer going to be the pattern to be wasting the planning board's time with these continually long continuances it doesn't make sense if the plan isn't if the project doesn't put together they should withdraw it and get their act together is my it's my bottom line I guess it's getting a little crazy I am happy to put that in email and and I will see whoever had feedback on the board that's just my personal I felt like we made massive progress and then the continuances are taking away that energy so my concern is that we were in a very negative place for a little while there it felt very tenuous in fact I think we were pretty close to saying this is not going to work and then we made massive progress and it disappeared and that gives me great pause and concern for the future of the project agreed anyone over there okay um all right then yeah I'm continuing do you want to add anything to that Peter no I think I understand the frustration and I'm happy to um be a conduit to get the point of the Cross and when I saw this project in May early May yep early yeah yeah right yeah it's been a long time and without a report with nothing yes so all right um is there a motion for the continuance okay you're our emotion person I'll make a motion to continue that um 10 to 60 Main Street special permit site plan review project to September 14 2023 meeting okay we have made it through that now um sustainability committee I apologize for the late hour all of us would like to be out of here soon but um but this is an important actually I'm going to ask are we actually going to be cogent enough to have the conversation Trisha given the late hour because I know I'm just going to check in with with Maggie and with with Margie and and Chuck to see if like it's it's a little late I want to be respectful are you checking in with the planning board or with a boat I guess that's a fair point because we're attention because it's 10 o'clock at night I don't want to give it less emphasis but I know you may have a clock on this and the fault was on our end not your end so um yeah but at the same time I want to make sure we'll have a coaching conversation um so um I'll I'll lean on you to see if you're actually able to lead the discussion because you've got the heavy lifting to do here I'm not really sure what what it is that we're going to be or we were planning to do right I would recommend Trish just given the the timing right now I think we've we hung on just just out of respect we didn't want to just leave you I apologize for that no it's absolutely fine I I get you had technical listing and I can see what you're doing really important yeah so your um I'm sorry I didn't hear the last part about you you said Ash I I thought someone was going to say can I just so I okay all right so what we're doing it's okay why don't you you have and it's okay go ahead make your point and I for one would like to do more research other than what I've done and it seems like there's so many different ways to approach a tree bylaw and so the suggestion I was going to make uh is that we maybe consider having a retreat with um the sustainability committee to really focus on the tree bylaw so that it's more of a working session and a little bit more substantive rather than being part of a formal meeting that we can actually sit down together and look at some examples of tree bylaws and really kind of get into the nitty-gritty of the complexities of what this is because I think it's a very complex issue suggestion I'd be comfortable with that if you guys can make the time because I do think that it does require some level of collaboration back and forth where uh you know 20-minute slots are probably gonna can always leave us with open Action items continuously having some sustained time on it might might actually push it through given the number of times it's been attempted but I'm also not the only one making a call on something like that you know in the interest of the calendar you know frankly I don't see during the summer getting people it's hard enough to make sure everyone is here every other Thursday to attend a planning board meeting with summer and vacations and other responsibilities so my recommendation if totally understandably you don't want to get in this tonight we put you first on the agenda for our next meeting on August 24th August 21st August 24th right after the clerk well right after public comment we put you first on the agenda everyone's bright-eyed bushy-tailed and give this matter the attention it deserves yeah I unfortunately won't be available on August 24th I'm actually out myself but Margie might be able to lead that conversation but uh um yeah so so we could we could approach it either way I'm actually open like I said I I want to make sure this gets collaborated on because at the end of the day this is something that you guys have to be comfortable with and and need to actually put out there because it is a bylaw change and and um you know it's my understanding that it's not like we are supporting even though we are we are spearheading the the need for it I think we're supporting you in putting together the right bylaws that that you can be behind right because we can't really do it you know well what is your suggestion for timing then I just can't guarantee that we can get a retreat date together that sounds difficult to me okay so um I know next is it next Thursday yeah on the topic uh yeah so so Peter I think you had had a conversation with Margie around timing just given the calendar challenges and what something like this really ought to go through which includes public review and and all of that I don't know oh no no it's it's there for the next on meeting one minute I actually you know what Ash you just the the screen here in town hall went black so can you just repeat well I understand your question we're trying to gauge timing so I was like we've been pushing hard for fall town meeting if is this actually gonna be feasible but but if we and and Margie and I discussed it and we were like if it's not fall it can be spring like we we care about the fact that it happens and it happens the right way but we also want to make sure that if we move from Fall to spring it doesn't mean that it just gets put on the back burner because clearly it needs the effort and the work and and that you know by by shifting it if that gives us the chance to do you know the retreat or or if that's the right mechanism and that's the appropriate way to do it I don't want to block that but but I also want to make sure that we don't all just sit back and kind of go okay great it's involved so now we'll basically just let it Slow Burn and then we'll be getting close to fall out to Spring and then it won't happen again you see where I'm coming from I think it's very early to make that decision decision first to really understand what our individual questions are okay I was going to suggest not a full-scale presentation and meeting but maybe one or two questions from each person on the planning board if we already have specific questions that we're thinking about as a way to yeah as a way to give immediate feedback or gut reaction questions for the next presentation that would be my suggestion tonight so that we move it forward even a little bit because I'm sure we each have kind of wise immediate questions just a thought a possible that you could send us those questions so we can hair to mail them or send them to you I don't have any problem with that yeah that way we can be prepared and we can come prepared with those have you all received the um I think Margie had sent out sort of the the brief around the work that had been done so far like like an in a slightly more summarized version absolutely yeah and was that useful was that what you were looking for I don't know if we've all had a chance to review it but I certainly found it useful and I would propose the planning board members get our questions over to Peter and Peter can combine them maybe and get them over to the sustainability folks I'll be happy to collect all the questions in the playing board and get it over to Margie and just to answer your question ask regarding the timing of the bylaw from my professional opinion it's going to be very hard to put together a bylaw that is ready to go for fall town meeting right now we are in August and I know just going by the dates we have to prepare for a town meeting that's going to be held mid-november I would have to have everything I would suggest that the planning board have everything wrapped up by last meeting in October and to give us at least three meetings to discuss that by law prior to that meeting which would have to take place mid-september which will be at our September 21st meeting I would also have to um advertise the bylaw in the newspaper and that's a three-week look ahead right and so really you're looking at late August to have a bylaw ready to go um to present to the town and advertise the town once it gets advertised you know you really can't change the bylaw and any huge you know any large manner um yeah so I will tell you right now and and I know I email Margie a timeline but uh I would say late August early September at the latest uh we would be looking to get a finalized bylaw and at this point I do see that as a very tall hurdle yeah so so here's what I'm going to propose then again my interest is to do the right thing by the town to actually succeed at this we've taken I think multiple swings at it but but to succeed at it and succeed at it right and that incorporates all of the feedback right and this is not a hidden process like in any way so um let's let's agree that we'll meet at the next meeting we'll put the questions together just so that we can continue make progress fresh I'm gonna take the timeline pressure off us of of trying to do this in Fall as long as we all align on the fact that we'll do everything possible to get this into the spring right and that just gives us the space to do this right and that's the intent and and it's not the intent to punt it right um I think it's premature for us today without a substantive discussion to say whether it's fall or spring I think Peters I think Peter's information is saying it's just not and um is that not what you you heard I understand that that is Peter's recommendation and I respectfully believe that we need to have a substantive discussion before we as a planning board can either agree with Peter's recommendations or not because a lot of it depends on how much pre-work we've we've done how much thoughts we have what our questions are I it could very well be based on our substantive discussions that we cannot pull it off or we could have a vigorous conversation in the next meeting and decide that it's extremely important for us and that we want to add extra priority to it so I would I would like to not today decide that we're not I think I'm about to bring it for the fall yeah that is fine it's not really even our call like we're waiting for a a bylaw to come before us and that would be my opinion like right now this isn't complete right this isn't I'm not disagreeing right right so right right so understanding how long it takes us to get to that level of completeness it seems very optimistic to fit that schedule so but that's fine we can hold off on it till next time yeah yeah let's let's let's let's agree to the meeting on the 24th I won't be there but I'm not critical part on this right Margie is the important person from my committee and Chuck's going to be there so so let's agree to the meeting to the 24th you've all gotten the summary that we had promised in our last meeting um if you could review it send the questions to Peter that way Margie knows what to prepare for how to structure the conversation right uh let's have the conversation on the 24th and then make a final call on you know and I think now or later or whatever right okay but let's also commit to the fact that then if we're pushing it later that we do everything so that we don't end up in a position where we will again run out of time that's all I would and Marcel has a question on this yeah um yeah I think that's going to become self-evident when we meet um I can I suggest one thing and maybe ask ask you that you can tell us we're looking forward to this discussion um could we start next meeting maybe with a very quick executive summary on your part or or your your team maybe Margie will do it on on the history of why the bylaw failed last time and understand what what in your view uh led to to that result so that we the intent is to create something that we all feel is important and that will pass I don't know I don't think the bylaws I just want to clarify it's never been complete hold on hold on sorry it's never been the process I've never been completed so it's never gone to town meeting okay okay even down to that it has never come to the planning board yeah yeah and I think so what what Ash was referring to us we've won multiple times is that the internal process it was the internal process it's internally I can state that our old assistant player Emma our old sustainability manager Franklin cash in Margie uh met multiple times with DPW staff and there was never a consensus regarding the the bylaw how it does how would it apply the enforcement the size of the tree how it's measured is there a payment in lieu what's the cost looking you know it's starting to as we started to analyze uh other Town bylaws how it was really going to be implemented how it was going to be adopted implemented and and and and discussed did the Bible how how was the bylaw going to fit in mold and really mold how is the bylaw going to be molded for Ashland okay so then the plan to to address that should be in place so that we don't repeat that right this is where I think Peter might prepare a memo for us outlining some of those issues so that we can be better prepared as a planning board to actually provide and find consensus I don't think that though all those I mean I was here for all of them I think yeah beginning right and I don't think that they're that detail Margie might be able to provide other drafts but this it's been much more piecemeal than that than what I'm saying Destiny's Peter has some expertise as a planner in some of the challenges if you will of a tree bylaw that we as a planning board might want to consider if we're going to attempt to reach consensus as a planning board I'm just throwing it out I'm happy to outline what I believe the past no no I don't want to do all in the past because it's more like hey planning board these are some of the elements that other communities have these have I'm happy to outline a one-page memo about something like that so that we can more efficiently as a planning board get to the heart of where the problems might be I'm happy to do that okay I'm not really worried about the past and I would urge all of us to forget the past yeah and then all of a sudden this thing called covet hit yeah but I was not referring on just dwelling on the past I was referring about learning on the past to ensure that we don't repeat it I would say I'm happy to put a little one-page memo and and we can kind of work through it but um but there was multiple meetings Margie was involved the assistant planner was involved we came up with a pretty good draft we were looking at stuff from other towns we sent them some social economic data that we collected recently that was updated What towns have tree bylaws I can tell that Trisha remembers the fondly it's just been it's been a really long time yeah it's been on the table a really long time and then you know and that was really what I was reflecting on is that we when I said we've taken multiple attempts we've taken multiple attempts of trying to draft this thing one of our learnings Marshall just so you know because we went through a similar sort of introspective process was that we didn't Engage The planning board early enough and that is why I came to you the last time around saying I'd like to start this process with you rather than trying to come up with something that's already abstracted out and and you know we get stuck in the mud just before it even gets to you right so that's my attempt at making a learning from the past so so we'll see how it goes but but you know honestly it's never been out there we just haven't gotten it past the Finish Line yeah yeah it's just one thing I did you know right now this is a six inch diameter tree right now in our bylaw this is a major tree right this is an eight inch tree right this is an industry standard major tree when it comes to a street tree right and so just to we just have to discuss and and focus in on what's a major tree what's a minor tree right because right now we're not even we can't even we're not we haven't even reached that consensus well we've never tried I know one word has never actually had that time and I know the sustainability the sustainability hasn't tried with the planting boy right so it's kind of like okay what qualifies what doesn't qualify you know when you come through a putting blood application should there be a tree plan you know what elements what what are the triggers right and I think those are the bigger items that have to be flushed out you know within a discussion I think having that discussion and remembering that we're not we are not actually changing the bylaw town meeting does correct we are presenting we're presenting and so whatever it is we are drafting is meant to give the public a chance to opine and potentially consider options so it's not that the planning board has to come to the perfect consensus of which one of those is the right answer we have to find what are we willing to present to the public for consideration a town meeting which is slightly different from reaching that perfect decision agreed okay so we're moving this to we're going to move August 24th and I'm going to say 7 15 to 8 15.

um so we are going to review our mission and what CNS is doing um as we enter the new school year 2023-2024. in addition we do want to address a couple of programs that currently exist within our community with from our school sites as we continue to support the needs of our community so a little overview about our program CNS participates in four Federal meal service programs the national school lunch program The Breakfast program The Challenge adult care food program which is our supper program and an extension from national school lunch program is a seamless summer option program that is offered during the months of June and July during our Extended Learning period and it includes meals for children 18 and younger these programs are um highly regulated and as of 2010 when the healthy hunger free kids act was introduced our entire nation especially when it came to um Child Nutrition programs we had to implement the new regulations that came with it as of 2012.

item 4.3 the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the settlement agreement in oah case number 20230-40723 resolving all issues and students do process complaint by making changes to the IEP conducting and funding assessments and providing services and reimbursements item 4.4 no reportable action taken regarding negotiations item 4.5 the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to accept the agreement regarding employee hr-2023-24-02 item 4.6 the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to suspend without pay for two days employee hr-2023-24-01 thank you um next item is student speakers do you have any students in the audience that wish to speak okay moving on reports of associations Mr Schuster uh good evening folks it's glad I'm glad to be back here at the start of a new school year but a few things I wanted to update the board about when it comes to our association is the work that's been done over the summer it is a time of Rejuvenation a time of relaxation but it's also been a time of of work and really rededicating uh ourselves to our students and our community and I wanted to go over a few things you know as soon as we got out in June immediately a group of Asta members along with a group from the district went to Philadelphia to take a look at Community Schools models to look at things that we were doing right to look at things that we could learn from others and to understand where we were absolutely on the right track the very next week another group went to San Francisco where we were selected to present Statewide for all of the districts around the state that are implementing Community Schools we brought parents students teachers and staff with us for those presentations shortly after that we were at the Nea representative assembly the National Assembly in Florida where a presentation on Community Schools was was led by myself and Emma Alvarez a student a rising freshman at Anaheim High School who spoke to a room of 7 000 teachers about her community school experience and how incredible it's been in Anaheim you may have seen some commercials around CTA and Community Schools the second round just started this week and uh largely feature um Jesse Alvarez one of the parents from our community in the new commercials were very excited about the selection and a lot of the footage is also recognized recognizable because it was filmed at Dale Junior High last spring um we continued at the summer Institute not just with Community Schools work but teachers doing work around national board certification um we also had a group of teachers this year apply again for the uh The Institute for teaching uh which is uh California Teachers Association grants for classroom projects and this year Asta members applied more than any other local in the entire State 15 applied seven were accepted for a hundred and twenty thousand dollars coming back to projects everything from where food meets technology to cultural histories to CPR training for students all kinds of programs that teachers have gone out not just to advocate for but to go and find resources and bring them back to this district and to our community in fact over the last seven years now it's 23 grants for 392 000 that our teachers have brought into our classrooms our own public information officer John Bautista built the digital media center at Katella High School when he was a teacher there with a CTA grant for teaching so our members have been very active also I don't want to be remiss to Nea grants that add up to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars around the work of community schools that we have added as well the last two years so we are here to work hard as a partner for what we want to to do to implement uh you know the vision of public education in this District so um it's important that we understand as we go forward that we find any way we can to support our not just our teachers and nurses and speech language Pathologists but everyone as they as they implement this new model of community schools and everything that it brings in and how it's breaking down all of the silos and bringing everything in to one system of shared governance that all of our parents students communities employees and District staff can be part of so I look forward to this year implementing that and doing everything we can to work together and support our colleagues and staff thank you thank you thank you now we have uh co-presidents from apga Lacey Munger and Brittany Busca good evening Ward um thank you for the introduction for Brittany because Brittany is our apj co-president this year um this is her year one so she will be here for two years and this is my last year supposedly but we'll see how that works um but anyways with that said if I let her earlier I know but this is Brittany bauska she's from Savannah high school and I just wanted we wanted to make sure that you had names to the faces faces to the names so that way when we are splitting up duties you see you know who's coming and you know who's here we did want to just give us some comments about what counselors have been doing since we left last school year um we left the last school year with having put over 7 000 students in summer school through our different programs that were offered to our students whether it be access Apex seat based learning pchs and within those 7 000 students when we came back we then had to place those students appropriately in their classes based on how they passed their classes or not why that's important is because that did affect our staffing for our master's schedules across the district and so in support of our teachers making sure that that they were appropriately our students were appropriately placed our Master schedules were appropriate and fine-tuned considering that our numbers did go up within the classrooms that's what we as counselors have been doing since we came back in July and I would argue to say that we never really stopped working even though we do take a vacation summer school does not stop so that does not mean that we don't stop getting phone calls emails whether it be from teachers Apex teachers students parents we continue to answer those questions for them throughout the school year and throughout the summer so from what we have heard the last couple of days have been pretty smooth within our schools and we've had a really you know nice beginning and so as more grades come in from second semester there will be adjustments made but all in the best interest of our students of our staff and making sure that our sites are run appropriately and we will continue to say that it's counselors who really are the heart of our school we are the ones who see teachers parents community members all staff members on a regular basis and so with that said we would like to acknowledge the fact that due to some found funding that we are receiving another counselor within our group and we are appreciative of that so thank you board for that because that will once again help us to bring back our numbers and just the support that our students and our staff deserve so thank you thank you thank you next we have Amanda bean from ask Alta good evening not much of an update really just wanted to on behalf of also welcome everybody back to the 23-24 school year it was very exciting to see students and staff and teachers and admin all at the sites yesterday everybody looking happy and ready for our first day of school and really just wanted to give a big congratulations and a big thank you to all of the Departments and staff that contributes to making a successful opening of school and we just want to wish everybody a wonderful school year thank you thank you is there anyone from PTA this evening I didn't see anybody in the audience okay moving on public comments for Open Session items opportunities for public comments occur at the beginning of each agenda item or at this time and the time limit is three minutes per per person we will begin with um [Music] Luis Andres Perez foreign it's a question but I know this is public comment and this is regarding agenda item 9.3 which is a continued second reading on the graduation requirements I'm just a little bit curious and more of a question what's the rationale removing the Civic and Service Learning requirement as per your guys's board policy 71105 parentheses 6146.1 on the second page the Civic and Service Learning requirement in addition to the prescribed coursework all students shall satisfy complete 40 hours of Civic and service learning activities to obtain a high school diploma I'm curious to see what the rationale is removing it I'd understand if it's a barrier to entry or barrier to graduation but concerning that addition to 9.3 you're adding an additional education requirement I'm just kind of concerned since the district's really pushing Community Schools and I know it's big a big thing in the last 10 years I know when I graduated 2014 this wasn't a requirement for graduation so I just kind of want to see what the rationale is I didn't think there was any discussion in the first reading I think there was more discussion if there was a roll call vote needed more so I just kind of wanted to see what the board's thought process on that was when it comes to 9.3 thank you guys okay thank you uh next uh speaker is uh Tanya bagdanovic hi good evening to all the board members and guests my name is Tanya bugdonovich I am a recently retired Public School educator of 32 years a parent a grandparent and an owner to 14 properties of which I contribute to the funding of public education as well as to your positions on the board of the Anaheim Union High School District I am very concerned to see such drastic changes being made and implemented into our Public School Educational curriculum and practices first please research and investigate agenda item 9.2 resolution number 2022-23 commitment to diversity equity and inclusion I am a voice for many I stand here for many saying no to this curriculum indoctrination which forces all students to submit to and to be exposed to a perverse sexual lifestyle second agenda item 9.3 revised board policy for a high school graduation requirements as he just recently it's my same issue please do not add ethnic studies as a requirement for graduation this should be a choice in college as an elective also please do not remove the Civic and Service Learning requirement which is so rewarding to students as they develop character traits of kindness integrity and develop personal skills through helping others third item 10.11 the independent contractor agreement for the program youth engage I don't know if you have researched it but I have it is led by Brian Brady this is a program which teaches the do's and the don'ts of designing an effective youth Council we should be providing traditional public speaking classes to students to be able to speak in all arenas and situations of life not just in a youth Council this will incur an additional cost of seventy thousand dollars my fourth and final is agenda item 10.17 Community Schools service provider agreement illumination Institute I urge you to vote no this is the practice of Buddhism which is a religion a philosophy in a set of beliefs and practices of Mind and Body Control students would be practicing during school hours on public campuses from 30 to 45 minutes it uses the terms mindfulness and teaches students to lie on Matt's nil to prepare for their posture and breathing techniques for to connect with deeper stats of states of consciousness the illumination instant tooth has recently been implemented in some schools in California and Alaska and in the country of Laos and Michael matsuda our superintendent is on the board of this institute which is asking for fifty eight thousand dollars to fund this is using his own personal beliefs to fund a program and enforce this practice upon the students in the Anaheim Union School District thank you for listening and I hope you will take the time to do further investigation as I have done before making life-changing decisions that will cause harm confusion and Division thank you moving on to item items of business number nine um 9.1 School sponsor student organizations second any discussion so you know all in favor say aye aye opposed that's 5-0 9.2 resolution number 2022-23-e-03 commitment to diversity equity and inclusion and this is a roll call vote motioned okay motion for this resolution we have a motion a second any discussion strong eye and I vote I thank you that's 5-0 9.3 revised board policy 71105 parentheses 6146.1 High School graduation requirements second reading so move second Motion in a second we have any discussion just one quick discussion section can you just provide some context of how we will continue to recognize Civic and Service Learning in our sites yeah so thank you trustee Guerrero so just so you all know the civic education or Civic Service Learning requirement although you're you're potentially voting to remove that as a requirement that Still Remains a high priority for the district uh I think to the gentleman's point there were students who were not meeting their crime for a variety of reasons and this then became a barrier that could prohibit their graduation so that was never the intent when the policy was put into place or the requirements put in place we will have a way to recognize students who meet that requirement as you know the cords and sashes that students wear there'll be pins that that we'll be able to recognize when they meet those hours so it's still going to be pushed we still have the service lawn the steamapalooza in addition another opportunities for them to be engaged and additionally now that all of our schools are recognized as California democracy schools they do a Civic Action project that is a service project and now we can say with confidence our students are getting those experiences but if we got a student who comes in their senior year they miss that experience their junior year we're not going to prohibit that student from graduating so this is a way to honor that requirement but without forcing it as a barrier which again was not the intent of the board or the cabinet at the time that was initially passed awesome thank you okay okay um to that point um talking with a school high school principal she was disappointed to see this kind of requirement eliminated entirely because she said there were so many students who would do this and then learn oh my this is really neat I really enjoyed this that expanded their you know their their background um and now she says very few of them are going to do it um so I I kind of question because my next thing is the ethnic studies we are requiring it but isn't this a state requirement and is the state requirement starting this year or next year so we're just ahead of the curve so my point being the ethnic studies is a state requirement it's not just us deciding that this is an uh requirement for our graduation but I you know and our ethnic studies are going to be uh done in two ways we're going to have actual ethnic studies courses that they can select or we're going to have ethnic studies embedded in some other classes like English classes or whatever so the students aren't forced to take an elective entirely of ethnic studies so therefore losing a choice that's not going to happen so at least we're doing it this way and but I would still like to see maybe if we could have some service hours required so every student would give it an opportunity to experience it whether it be 5 or 10 hours 40 is a lot okay but and so now that we're putting something else in here I wouldn't mind seeing some even if it's in the Democracy course or something but make our students step out a little bit whether it be for SEMA palooza or whether it be for the College and Career Fair or something where they're spending some time for the better good of the community oh anybody else yeah I I tended to after I read that and I actually saw it crossed out I was like oh wait when did we do that and and I understand in the spirit and the intent that we didn't want to penalize students but I've also have been approached about you know if you don't kind of require it then they won't come in and volunteer and I think in the spirit of the volunteering and the requirement is to get them there and after the students are there they come back the next day and and we we do have um a plethora of opportunities for them to to to do the you know registration you know on its own I think people could fulfill you know a Year's requirement um for this um and so I'm I'm really struggling with uh removing it all together as well um if we could um you know as Anna suggested you know reducing the amount of time or hours so you know we're really helping our students to really understand in the spirit of the community service and the spirit of the engagement Civic engagement on doing what's right in your community we kind of have to nudge them and teach them and and a requirement I mean you know a lot of kids need that push yes that I was trying to think of the right word so in that Spirit I'm I'm really hoping that the board can um rethink that requirement and maybe we can come to some soft Landing um I have to agree with the other two other board members um yesterday when I was touring schools uh one of the prince was yeah it was one of the principals mentioned to me about during the summer a student was doing some volunteer work and they were a junior and they were going to go over their 40 hours and so it was they were having a discussion about well you don't have to do anything more in your senior and they said but I want to this has been so much fun doing what I've been doing he says I want to do more so and then being on a Scholarship Foundation one of um in evaluating the uh scholarship applications and what the students turn in volunteering is part of the it's not a requirement but they certainly get points when they do volunteer and it's in a based upon the number of hours so and it's all trying to get the students to as as we just said um give back and recognize and some of them don't really recognize how important it is to give back to their community so I think we need to do something and again it doesn't have to be a large amount of hours but something to give them the impetus to get out there and recognize that it is important to be giving back to to the community in some form so I I re I would recommend that uh it this continues to be an information item and that we bring bring it back with some tweaking to the policy I'd just like to add um I'm very sympathetic and empathetic uh to the comments made I think 40 hours is excessive but I think the value not just for these young people learning and experiencing life the community benefits from this when you give of yourself to your community that is value that you take with you for the rest of your life and you can't put a price tag on it and I want you all to know how much I value you that you are here tonight that you care that you speak up and that is what makes this country great and I I want to thank you so I'm open to change anybody else um yeah I'm I think it'd be interesting to look into um I think you mentioned that some of them weren't able to complete the 40 hours maybe looking into any stuff that impeded them whether like Transportation or maybe communication on where those hours available but I think two are called my colleague's points may be looking at lowering the 40 hours if that's something that's not reachable for our students okay very good thank you do you have any questions of the board in detention okay very good uh 9.4 licensing agreement lumison so moved second the motion a second is there any discussion I had one question um I just wanted to clarify there's no costs in entering into this agreement there's no cost okay okay any more questions or discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed that's five zero 9.5 Community School Services provided agreement Serve the People Community Health Center so move second Motion in a second any questions seeing that all in favor say aye aye aye opposed five zero 9.6 independent contractor agreement Justin brisdale so I moved second that was drizdale not Bruce okay uh any discussion no okay all in favor say aye aye aye opposed that's 5-0 9.7 independent contractor agreement Neil uh Taylor so I moved exactly any discussion seeing none all in favor say aye aye aye opposed five zero 9.8 revised policy uh board policy 6203.1 in parentheses 9270 conflict of interest first reading and we'll move on to the consent calendar anybody wishing to poll anything no polling okay seeing none do I have a motion some Move Motion and a second to for the consent calendar in total you're not pulling anything nope wow okay it's unusual I know all in favor say aye aye opposed okay foreign all right next is superintendent's report no report tonight no report and how about the staff yes you do you're on the man yes I am my report oh good sorry no that's okay thank you you're on the men's I was going to show my my foot yeah yeah the beginning of the year you know just want to say Happy New Year we had a great as I think Lacey and Grant had said with opening the schools went smoothly um a massive shout out in affirmation to our site administrators our teachers our counselors our classified staff all of our community members for for contributing to that that open uh it's been a great Smart Start a lot of positive vibes that we're hearing about and feeling on our campuses and just excited for the year to come good great more staff more staff and what do you want to take this time to thank the city of Cyprus for allowing um us to use their park for our parking because we are undergoing construction at Cypress High School I also want to thank the um Cypress Police Department for um having all the officers to be on the streets to make sure that our kids are getting to school safely so just want to make sure that um that they know that I was at Oxford Cypress Walker Kennedy the last two days as well very good thank you want to give a huge shout out to our community school teams led by Carlos Hernandez and everyone else involved for executing the community reflective learning walks the past couple of days we heard nothing but positive reviews from all of our staff at our sites and it was just a wonderful way to kick off the year and prepare to welcome our families and students as we continue to get to know these and assets of the community and build relationships also good job and kudos to all of our team thank you all right next is I turn the page I don't have the proper number in front of me so hold on just a minute I know what it is but it is number 12 13 12 Board of Trustees reports now thank you um so I had an opportunity to attend the back to school Outreach fair at Gilbert High School hosted by our auhsd mental health and wellness Department in partnership with the collaboration to assist McKinney vento and motel families and I just want to thank all of the Community Partners that came out to participate in that I also had the opportunity to attend Sycamore Junior High Schools Community School tour I know Mr Saldivar mentioned it I know a lot of our community a lot all of our schools went through the Community School tours and I want to thank the coordinators for organizing that and I thought it was a very well done I really enjoyed the tour of my community and I know other schools had students that hosted the tour so thank you to the students that hosted a tour to their own community and then I attended a few community events the Community Schools conference that was community-led at Ponderosa Elementary and then a few back to school community fairs that were led by some of our community leaders so thank you for them to for providing resources as students got as soon as prepared to head back to school and then I just want to Echo everyone's comments and wishing everyone a very happy Academic School Year and happy first day of school yesterday thank you thank you thank you Miss Percy okay I was able to do the community school tour with Western High School and even though I thought I knew the area well I did learn quite a bit and it was very interesting um also I attended Lexington principal's coffee this morning but wait a minute before I did that I went to Lexington yesterday afternoon to collect my granddaughter oh I was appalled at the traffic there must have been 1200 cars out there in line to each one picking up their kid I mean I was I couldn't believe and I this was at 20 to four I mean 20 to three so you'd figure out that it was at least 15 minutes after kids were out but the traffic was backed up two main streets I went oh my okay so uh but then I did go this morning and attend the coffee very well attended they had approximately 160 parents both in person and online for the coffee and it was very well done Danny did a good job going over everything um and uh gave the parents quite a chance to question and I learned something about our computers in other words how we are issuing the Chromebooks to our students in seventh grade and they keep them okay for the whole six years there in in Anaheim Union so that was something I didn't know so I thought that was interesting um but I also kind of helped chime in with Danny when he'd referred as something about history at the school I went okay I know that I mean since I was there for 25 years and that school alone so it was fun and he had some yearbooks from the very beginning and I learned that Lexington's yearbook was was officially called the regulus I didn't know that ridiculous so I learned something else here then from there I went to Cypress High School and I was so happy to see the fencing is going up and I talked to Jennifer the principal and she told me several parents were really glad to see fencing going up it may not be beautiful but it's going to be secure and that is really good um so and the both schools said to said they had a really good starting of the Year things were going smoothly so that was good to hear and it is really I'm going to say something to the city to say thank you thank you again because to offer the use of Oak Knoll parking for our students is great because half of the Cypress parking lot is now gone and last year that entire parking lot was filled so this is a little difficulty for us right now while they put up the solar paneling but once it's done it'll be great and I'm sure that as they get strips done we can start using certain strips so a few weeks of inconvenience but I'm really pleased that the city of Cyprus came forward and and did that so it's really good and that's just about all I've had time to do so far I mean I did some elementary school stuff too but but that doesn't count here thank you Miss Smith I don't have a lot to report but I am going to share something a project I've been working on for years and um as Mrs Piercy said that we now have fences around our our schools and we now have officers that have to go to our schools and the changes that we have all seen societally what Patty has to do with the money that she's given for the from our bonds to upgrade our schools to air-condition them and to bring them up to the standards of what the needs are for today and I'm just going to share just an overall that when I look at things that have occurred societally I think that what we are doing and how we are handling the homelessness so sadly needs to be changed and it's going to take a real mindset for people to understand that people living on their streets in our communities from Seattle to Portland to San Francisco Los Angeles Anaheim down to San Diego it's not acceptable so I'm working on a project I'm hoping that you will learn about it but the idea is that we have to change the law and the fact is that when Governor Reagan was governor he signed a document that was put on his desk and it changed the law and it opened all these facilities for the mentally ill and they were released and 50 years later we see where we are and now that I am the age I am and what I have seen and observed having been from the San Francisco Bay Area growing up there I knew what that Community was like and it's not like that today they opened the mark Tompkins Hotel up on Nob Hill for the homeless so I think what we need to do is we need to reopen facilities Statewide from the north to the South and we create hospitals for the mentally ill and the chemically addicted and for those who want to re-enter Society they can go to a Bridges program like we have here in Anaheim out on the 91 freeway so that they can get into career technology training get jobs open a bank account get an apartment and get back into life so what I Envision is that these facilities that we hopefully will open will be run by the medical school system the UC system and where people will be clean and safe and get appropriate Medical Care for their needs so that's where what I've been working on and I hope in time to come that it will start to be bring the change and that we will be a model here in Anaheim and we're calling ourselves Anaheim Hearts United so um I share that with hope and gratitude because I think that we are such fortunate people in this country where we live you look at the horrors that other people are living through in Florida you name it Tennessee Hawaii Maui and so I just proffered that I just give that to you because I think that people are sinking into hopelessness in this country and it's not healthy so what's your your project well Mrs Smith um Miss Rambo Trejo okay thank you I want to wish everyone a Happy uh I always say happy new year because it's our happy new school year um and Anaheim elementary started today so today was our first day of welcoming our students and I think we both missed each other the teachers the staff the employees and the and the kids so um I was uh fortunate also as Grant said um we never really stopped all of us working during the summer time and I was able to do some training as well with gaselpa um and I'm very fortunate to get some RBT training and CPR training with them I attended our ROP meeting and I also attended their teacher training back to school and they're in service and they were doing their training for all of their teachers as well I attended the resource fair that Adela organizes every year at Gilbert High School for a fortunate unfortunate circumstances that our families face but what I love about that every year is they just do that with such dignity and providing for our families and unfortunately there was another one going on at the same time which kind of divided our family so I think we're going to tweak that for next year but it's an amazing um amazing resources that our our families get from our district and Adele has been doing that for 15 years now so kudos to her um I visited um on my own I had been meeting and meeting to do it I went to visit the Mendez tribute Monument Park and I encourage everyone to go out there and take a minute um it's on Olive and Westminster Boulevard I believe I think so um just a tremendous amount of Love put into that it's a small tiny little Monument but it's just beautiful and it's done with such dignity and it's our history it's it's our history it belongs to us without that case um you know tiny little case in Westminster and the impact that it made on what we're actually doing today and I am so proud to be a trustee of this District you are going to point out this this wonderful directory that we were privileged to get today some of it is for in-house but we encourage Catherine and I wanted to encourage a lot of those who are maybe watching to really go on our website and just watch the highlights of all the things that we're doing is just too many things to to even to to talk about there's just a plethora of information and there are easy videos that you can watch to just learn about all of the programs and wonderful education opportunities that we're giving our our students and our parents so that's my report thank you thank you Mr animal Trio I attended uh three different ROP [Music] events one was a new teacher day for their training one was for their fall in service and another one was just the regular old ROP board meetings that we had yesterday which is standard operating procedure for them but everything was running smoothly they had through with our district and other districts did many many upgrades in in the various campuses that we have programs on and I've I went in one class yesterday and it was the culinary arts and and it was really looking good I know it still has a little ways to go but the work that was done over the over the whole day it was uh it was really nice to see I also attended uh the Anaheim City intern recognition which was really great to see the the students and and hear what they uh did during this uh their internship I attended a city of La Palma meeting and there's something that uh the city and cities all five of our cities and the district get together uh throughout the year and talk about issues and and coordination and that how we can help each other uh mutually and they were very pleased to get back on on board again after a Hiatus because of the covet issue also I was very pleased during my I think I've gone to 14 Schools so far uh in back to school yesterday and today and I have to say that every single one of them from everybody that I talked to said it was a tremendously good back to school opening of the schools the teachers the students coming back were excited to be there they were you can see the smiling faces on uh walking around sitting in classrooms and they were engaged there wasn't a lot of um uh education process going on that they thought they weren't getting really educated but they were because it was all working on relationships and that's all part of the education that we want to develop with the students so it was working very well in all of the classrooms and I am very pleased to uh to see that we have and I met a number of sros we have them all now in all of our schools in the city of Anaheim and our schools in with La Palma and with Cyprus so we have sros covering all schools which is uh very pleasant finally we were able to get it put together with them and I didn't hear anything but good reports and also they were the the sros and new ones that I met yesterday and today they were Just Smiles they were just so happy to be on our campuses so we look forward to good things you explain to the public what sros are sure they are school resource officers they are specific they are regular police officers but they're specifically trained uh in education codes so they know the they're because there's different laws governing our students on campus versus being on the street so they are trained in not only the laws but also how to deal and de-escalate uh situations on campus and develop relationships with our students so that they realize that the police are good people and that they are not something to be afraid of so it's a great program hopefully we can over the years because it's very costly very costly for either the city or the school district because a police officer is when you figure out the their training their hours their benefits the police car and all that it becomes you know in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per officer per year so that's a big bite out of anybody's budget so something that we work on we get grants and just hopefully we can continue on over the years a couple things well I don't know wait okay quick you have a minute and a half I'm telling you I was able to go to uh Cyprus registration because I was around the corner doing training and so I stopped by and I was just going to stop by for a minute but um it was really amazing just how smooth the registration went so and then I also did the the bus tours and I I was I went to anaheim's and I went on Gilbert's so kind of sort of in the same area um but on just the um the tremendous job they did and it really explaining and the one thing that impacted at me and and I think a lot of the other teachers there was that we drive by you know we get off the freeway and we're heading to our job and we drive by these areas all the time but do we really stop to look at really the surrounding area and do we really imagine if you know students have to walk home in some of these certain areas and and really what that impact makes but not so much to pity our students or you know but to really celebrate their resilience and celebrate that um you know site in spite of some of these circumstances that they are in that they Thrive and we're a thriving District you know so I really enjoyed that and that was whoever decided to do that I think it really made an impact on our staff just as a follow-up to that because I did ask every principal and people that I talk to on campuses about that I didn't have the opportunity to be on on any of the buses but they said there was some some place there was some hesitancy about wanting to go do this but when it was all said and done everybody was so uh pleased that they got the opportunity to really see their the area that their students live in and where they come from and really get a better feel so they can have more um I don't know if the word is empathy but more a better understanding of their students and their student lives and what they're facing so I think it was a fantastic opportunity for all of our our teachers and it was and I don't know I I went on Western's Community tours and I don't know if every school did the same but I know that Western had three students or four students who were the ones that developed the whole trip they're the ones that decided where they would be going they gave the background and you know it was just very very well done and it I think it's a great practice I mean this is something I think which is good to be done every couple of years because if you know as we gain some new teachers and something else I wanted to bring up was this habit of well this the thing that the junior Highs are doing where they have the seventh graders come the day before or two days before to kind of walk the campus with their mom and and kind of get an idea of where things are and if they have their schedule they can learn beforehand I was at Walker on uh was it Monday or Tuesday but Tuesday I think it was Tuesday yeah and they had a really good turnout and I mean these kids were coming they were and the teachers that were there they were going and talking to or but they were walking around finding out where their classes were and it is a great practice and I think it's a big help for the seventh graders so they don't feel quite so lost when they they come in because the first day of school for seventh graders they looked like a deer in the headlights you know it's a big change for them from an elementary school to this big campus and all these different teachers so um I did that now since I have the floor I have a question your time is short here I just want to ask for something and I can wait wait yeah we haven't gotten to that point okay Advanced planning yeah that's number 13 Advanced planning anybody have anything yes okay go ahead Miss Percy okay I understand that e Cadence has changed a lot this year and but first of all I would like to have some tutoring on the Aries program I I'm having trouble Jaren when you send me the information for the teachers thank you and principals meeting and what have you I don't get it all the time so I need some tutoring and I was going to ask if any other board members okay feel like it would be nice to have some tutoring on this uh set aside a time when we can come in and I don't know who would do it Eric or or something Matt or whatever and also explain to me e-cadence I don't think we need to utilize it but the teachers are utilizing it but I know that we can utilize Aries so I'd like some more tutoring that's a great idea yeah okay third we third it and fourth about it okay okay that's all all right thank you all right Cadence experts okay next is um future meeting dates is September 14th is our next meeting and at 6 pm and number 13.2 any suggested items Miss piercing went out of line but that was okay okay all right so nothing beyond that so now we would like to add I really am serious about changing when we return to school in the fall and go back to the time when in the past where school would start just after Labor Day and graduation would be in mid-june when if this school year was changed it makes it very difficult for families that have kids in two different systems Mrs Miss Miss we discussed that at the last meeting and we asked staff to get together some information to bring it forward so and I'm hoping that we can learn what other school districts dates are and I and I'm going to add it's very costly to pay for uh air conditioning in June and it's hot for these kids out on the Playfield so okay 14.0 14.