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foreign [Music] thank you so much and good evening Azusa Community welcome to the Tuesday August 22nd 2023 meeting of the azus Unified School District Board of Education the time is now 6 38 and we will resume with Open Session if you would all rise to join me in our Pledge of Allegiance thank you and moving on to item 5.1 reportive action taken in closed session there was no action taken by the board in closed session now moving to item 6.1 public comment hope do we have any members of the public in person there are no blue cards for members in person members of public in person and Lika is anyone online who wishes to make public comment we have no online public comments thank you and now we'll move to item 7.1 this is an action item may I have a motion make a motion to approve 7.1 second moved and seconded is there any discussion I just want to thank the Azusa Police Department for adding that one paragraph that we spoke about and if you noticed it it's on there now so I'm willing to vote on that any further discussion okay seeing none it's been moved and seconded I'll call for the vote and the item passes unanimously now moving to 8.1 our government's Workshop Mr Ortega [Music] thank you Dr Beau uh tonight uh we have um our awesome facilitator who's been with us for several governance meetings I'm happy to um be on this topic um and so um Miss Angelina pride comes with the comes to us via csba and so again we're just very fortunate and grateful that she is here and I'd like to turn it over to her um to get us started great thank you so much and thank you for having me back again I've enjoyed working with your board and I'm happy to be here working with you on this process um so when um superintendent Ortega reached out to me to come in facilitate this Workshop as you look at your mission and your vision and your goals um I was very excited about the opportunity because right now is the perfect time for your District to be updating all of these your district has been through a lot the last few years um in under strong leadership luckily you've been able to weather the storm and get to the point where you are now so I definitely want to commend this this the board and the administration on all of the work that you've all put in to make sure that this District continues to move forward in a positive way the other thing that I want to say before we get started is that the process I have the opportunity to speak with super superintendent Ortega about the process that was utilized for collecting information from your stakeholders and I have to tell you that the way that your District went about doing this was I mean just incredible to engage the stakeholders in the way that you did to get the responses from the community the way that you did and to let them know that you weren't just checking a box that you really wanted their input and I think the time and the effort that was put into it shows them that you're serious about making sure that the mission Division and the goals of this District match what the community want not just what the board wants not what just the District administration wants but to have input from everybody this process that you use is one that I have not seen in a very very very long time so definitely want to commend you for all of the work that you did in the commend your community and all of your stakeholders for taking the time to be involved in that I mean to go to a retreat and spend all day in a room you know hashing through this that's just incredible so hats off to you guys I mean that's truly a model for how you went about this process so again kudos to all of you in the district for doing that and making sure that that all of the voices for the community were heard so I want to jump to just jump right into this because you know I want to make sure that we get all of this done and that when we leave here today that everybody that we have a final product I don't want you to have to drag this out anymore you all have good information um from The Retreat and from the surveys from your community so we have the foundation already now it's just to say okay how do we make sure that this aligns with everything that we needed to align to um for the district mainly the lcat so um a couple of things before we get started this is not a just a rubber stamp I want all of you to let your voice be heard um to express any ideas that you have any concerns that you have now is the time because once we say okay this is it that's it you're going to support it and you're going to say yes I gave input on this and and I'm ready you know this is how I feel so now is your time to speak don't leave the room and say well I don't like this because of this if there's something that comes up that you don't like or that you don't build represents the district in the way you believe it should this is your time to speak so I don't want to come back to another Retreat six months from now and people say well I felt like my voice wasn't heard or I felt like I didn't get to say this now's your time to speak as we go through this process so please please please speak up and let your voice be heard um one of the other things that I wanted to say is I also want all of you to be open and candid um I know that sometimes when we're in these settings uh you you may think that you need to hold back something that you want to say this is not the time as we're developing the mission and the vision and the goals because like I said once we're done with this this goes on your website this goes on all your marketing material you need to be able to look at this and say yes this is we did a good job on this so don't hold back any concerns that you have be open and candid with any comments or questions that you have or you know input that you want to provide so we're all good on that okay so then um let's go ahead and get started the first thing I wanted to talk about was the fact that your district has been through a lot of changes but not just your District um education right now is going through a lot of changes we're seeing challenges with funding number one enrollment as you guys are very familiar with um equity and access teacher shortages student achievements special ed services technology language barriers mental health and well-being infrastructure and Facilities Community engagement policy changes and regulations and um still you know trying to make sure that we're getting the students back from from covet you know the ones who went into remote learning and never returned back to us and tracking them down and getting them back in the classrooms so the district has a lot of challenges that they're facing so as we develop our mission and vision and goals we need to keep those things things in mind but not just those things we also need to keep in mind the lcap because your mission and your vision and your goals must be aligned with the lcap and if you recall and with the l cap there's eight areas um for the that we have to make sure that we adhere to when we um address the L when we do our lcat and so we want to make sure that we keep those eight areas in mind as we go through this process as well okay so then let's go ahead and get started so I figured that we would just go in order of how we usually do it and talk about the um the mission statement first and so the purpose you know of the mission statement of an organization's mission statement is to clarify the identity of the organization number one what are you here for what is your goals what are your objectives what is it that you hope to achieve and so your mission statement needs to do that and it serves the district um purpose to help guide the organization's actions and the decisions that you make in you as a board you guys make a lot of decisions with through your votes and through your proposals so your mission statement needs to be able to be clear about the overall direction of the district so and the same with the vision as well but um the vision statement when we talk about that we're talking about purpose you know it outlines our long-term aspirations our function it provides clear and inspiring picture of what the organization envisions of what you want to be how you see yourself when people say Azusa unified what's the first thing that comes to their mind and then the importance it's um it's like um a vision statement it helps you to share the organization's culture you know how you guys interact with each other what your growth plans are how Innovative you are and then when we look at your mission statement we talk about defining your core purposes in your primary activities your reason for your existence we talk about um the mission statement we also look at the function which outlines what the organization does who it serves how it delivers those Services um and how we listen to and interact with our stakeholders and then also a well-crafted mission statement provides clarity about the organization's Focus about the guiding principles and the primary function and it also helps the stakeholders to understand what the organization any of you have ever been on a job interview where you wanted to research the company before you applied for the job a lot of things times what we do is we go to their website item one of the first things we do is look at their mission and their vision statement to see okay what is it that they're trying to do what is it that they hope to achieve how do they want to be viewed by you know their stakeholders and um the people that they work for and work with so those mission and vision statements carry a lot of weight so when you guys went through the when they went through the retreat and um if I get anything wrong jump in because I was not there so um when they went through the retreat they came up with draft recommendations and these are recommendations and I know that superintendent Ortega has said the same thing to all of you that this is not the final s these were recommendations so let's start with the vision since that one's the first on the draft recommendations when you looked at the vision statement that was recommended and not in full statement form but what they put down is they what they wanted to see as a vision statement what were some of the things that you thought and what were did you relate to what they said did you not relate to what they said um did you feel like something was missing or that something was wrong and all of you have a copy of that or was I supposed to bring it up on the screen Mr I think you said uh just in case for live right okay but it would it also be possible to get we talked about keeping the eight areas the lcap areas in front of us could we could we have that freshly sent our way so that we can actually or printed so we can keep that in front of us sure okay yes thank you yeah so so um when they they brought back the when superintendent Ortega brought back the proposals uh one of the things they said here was that um the vision that they they saw for the district so students and staff will discover their full potential and positively contribute to their community Through advocacy thinking critically communicating effectively and showing compassion so when you read this um after the retreat when superintendent Ortega sent this out to you what were some of the things that stood out to you about this anybody I just wanted to say that um I actually was honored to be part of the process and um just to give a little background to my colleagues they were not there there was a total of 18 people there including the superintendent his cabinet Administration Union reps from aea and CSEA parents and students two board members which is um were president Bowen myself and we were there three days 12 hours retreat just to revisit the division the mission and the values and goals and it was 115 degrees where we went to this mysterious place outside and in the elevators with the air conditioning they knew you'd be happy to be in a room with AC but don't go in the elevators so I I just want to add that saying that you know how much time we took to really look at the goals and really look over um we looked over the survey we um all took strongly into the consideration was the voices of the community and the survey and the staff students and parents voices we look strongly at that so I mean I was part of the process of course you know I agreed with that we sat we went around we had conversation you know and for us to be here just to figure it out in what an hour or two I'm not sure um it's very hard to do than us being there three days 12 hours well then this whole group which is great all of you did the hard work you laid the foundation you looked at the survey results you looked at what the community had already said and then it was narrowed down to a smaller group as you said than to go through and say okay what what common themes are we seeing um what do we see that's missing that maybe nobody addressed or was something that's been in our heads that you know is here on paper that we hear saw in the survey as well and to have those Frank discussions and I think it was important that we did look at the series which I don't think my colleagues have the surveys in front of them and we did strongly look at surveys of people uh community members like I said staff and students in order to to reach the vision that we're looking for right yeah and thank you for um sharing what the experience was like since you were there firsthand so I really have nothing to add because I added it at that time if I could add just an overarching comment and then a specific comment to the vision um so speaking as a board member who was not there uh looking at the work that was done I mean I'm just I'm very impressed with with what's coming our way um as a recommendation so thank you to you to both our colleagues on the on the board cabinet and others who were there and participated yeah it's great work um I I will along the way just have maybe just a couple um suggestions or or some some things to to keep in mind but largely including this Vision I'm I'm just very pleased uh and and grateful thank you for that Miss Pride just a logistical thing can we can you go to the 100 and make that like 150 any help sure is that better yeah board member Ariana's or board member vanity this do you have any comments at at the beginning outside of this discussion let's just look at the vision let's we're starting with the vision so any comments on the vision and superintendent Ortega please feel free to speak up as well I think I wanted to just Echo uh board vice president Rodriguez Pena's comments about the process that it was um Mr Ortega did a great job facilitating so he wasn't leading he wasn't really inserting himself into the conversation but he was facilitating small groups that got up to large groups so we had what three or four rounds each to discuss with our our teams and I think one of the uh one of the themes that we heard loud and clear was safety and we addressed that at each round in each of these aspects Mission Vision goals um values another element was really kind of the human well-rounded holistic element that you'll see reflected in words such as compassion and collaboration I think there's a lot of robust discussion around the human element of what kind of um people we want our students to be what kind of people we want our staff to be so for me those were two key highlights the focus on safety and how that should be represented in words and in language and also the really the I call the 3D or the the humanistic emphasis on the kind of people we are as a district as a whole a good point and while you're talking about safety because I did see that um as a theme that was that had come up and through my conversations with superintendent Ortega asking him more you know about what he heard while he was there um as we talk about safety and wellness keep in mind that it's not safety and wellness is not just one little thing it's several things we talk about physical safety but we also talk about emotional and social well-being as far as safety we talk about um Crisis Intervention and support preventing substance abuse hygiene and sanitation even physical activities we talk about nutrition you know is everybody getting lunch is everyone getting breakfast so all of that falls under safety when we're looking at that word so I know a lot of times with everything in the news when we hear safety we tend to automatically go to you know the safety in the classroom of the students and the staff you know with active Shooters and we also go on to the the other part of the um safety where we're looking at the substance abuse in schools because those are the things we hear about on the news but keep in mind that there's so much more as well and as I've heard this board expressed in other workshops that I've done with you about the social and emotional well-being that's a huge safety issue but also the nutrition that's a big one with the lunch and the breakfast and you know just doing everything we can to to keep our our students physically healthy as well so um I'd like to say something about the vision I think police for me um I wasn't involved in those meetings but in looking at this for me I think what's really important is that as a vision right for the school district I mean it's great that we you know that we discover their full potential and positively contribute to their community Through advocacy thinking critically communicating effectively and showing compassion but I also think that because we are an educational system we need to remember that well as I feel this that we need to remember that um our goal is to become successful adults right in the future so to me the word success and really embedding that type of language within the vision speaks volumes because at the end of the day when when the student graduates we want to be able to produce a successful adult in life and I think that I I don't I don't see that here I mean I think there's a lot of great stuff here and and um I that's one of the things that I see would bring a little bit more value to the vision at least from my perspective you make a good point and I see you all just got copies of the the lcaps the and thank you for asking for that um because as we talk about this you know I said earlier we have to keep the eight priority areas in mine as we're going through and for those listening the lcap you have to address a priority areas and there's student achievements student engagement um this full climate the parental involvement the basic services and course access um so of course as you were saying that our goal is as Educators and as board members is to have the students be successful and students you know achievement is always at the Forefront and you guys have done enough enough workshops with me to know that my favorite sand is um is Student Success and achievement that that has to be the number one focus of everything that we do is Student Success and achievement always so keeping in mind what Sandra said and then um anybody else have any comments that they'd like to make about how we need to look at revamping the statement just to get clarification um or which I agree with you a board member benavidez um we would like to have success added to to what the vision is well this is the first time I've been through this process but yes because I think it's powerful that's a powerful word because at the end of the day that's our job right our not not just as a board because we we govern the district but you know the teacher also has a job that and I hate to say that a student is a product but you know that's our job is to deliver a successful product that can be a you know a successful producing adult in the future and and I just see I don't see that here I mean it's great and and I and I love this but I I just think that as Educators that it is our job to make sure that as uh as you you stated um that we need to ensure that our job is that we have Student Success and achievement right because at the end of the day they once they leave you know our campus they they are out there they're adults we want to make sure that they are contributing to society but that they're successful in their contribution exactly so so where do you think it fits in this fishing that's here you're reading that where would you think it fits I have no idea but that's and this is my first time I'm we're doing you know I'm going through this but it's just I I and I don't know what the parameters are if we can insert that word yeah I can type it in and you guys can read it and say Yes No Maybe So yeah board member benefits I just have a I mean just a thought don't buy what I'm selling uh but we our first goal if uh I'm as Pride if you scroll down to our first goal is around student learning just wondering if that would be a place where you want to see success and achievement we do have the word achievement there right now and by we I mean the group um just just a wondering if that would be a a place where um that would that would fit just as a just as an example uh every student will receive a well-rounded education that meets their diverse needs and promotes their gross achievement and success is there any way we could insert that in the mission a thousand percent that's the wishes of the board so are you talking about I thought we were looking at the mission or the vision we're looking at the vision we're looking at the vision statement now this one here that he that superintendent Ortega referred her to was the Galt was one of the goals Justice to show that what you were saying is one of the goals listed as one of the goals in that we could possibly add the word success here in the in the gold at in this goal about student learning Mr Jacob could you read that so your learning goal one more time sure again if you added and again this is just a recommendation uh every student will receive a well-rounded education and that meets their diverse needs and promotes their growth achievement and success and I don't know if achievement success are too close or not but um this is a an idea but but to the point of of course if the the board wishes to insert in the vision of course I would actually agree with board member benavidez in that uh finding a way to insert that in the overarching vision uh would actually seemed to make a lot of sense to me personally so you're you're saying this goal here or just the word success I'm going I'm going so I know that uh superintendent or Sega suggests or or asked would if we were to add some you know success within goal one would that be sufficient is a question that was posed primarily to boyfriend videos and the rest of us I'm saying after hearing what you what you should I agree and I don't think that that would be sufficient I think that it would it would be best to I agree with you from I understand the language of product and what that looks like I I get the complications with that but from a vision standpoint it would make sense for us to talk about uh you know helping to facilitate the growth of successful adults or or that being part of our vision that makes a lot of sense to me as as you've shared that one I'd like to chime in just a little so um in our in the The Retreat uh stakeholder discussion of vision we purposefully purposely included staff so students and staff in terms of all the people that our district represents internally in terms of internal stakeholders and I I'm hearing the um the idea of adding that word success which I'm not arguing against but so I'm just I'm holding it there and as I read the vision as it's written I think if it's if the vision statement is a statement that describes our aspirations I think you could say that a successful student reaches their potential they contribute they positively contribute to the community they add they are able to Advocate they're able to think critically they're able to communicate effectively and they show compassion and I think that's a way to describe success even if we don't use the word success and that that's a that's an additional thought but if we were to add the word success into this sentence as it's um currently constructed may be the point of where we could add it would be something like students and staff will successfully discover or successfully realize their full potential right because realizing your full potential is success in in in the broad sense right if you have reached your full potential of the district and the education and the experience that you receive and participate in if that enables you to reach your full potential I would argue that you the district has been successful in helping you do that so we'll discover to me is like well I'm going to discover it but am I going to oh am I will I own it right I guess that's the way it's kind of speaking to me because we can all discover our talents but is that something we are going to be a product of is is I could discover that I have the talent of let's just say sewing but is it something I'm going to utilize so if you were to using your your suggestion uh what president uh successfully realized their full potential I I think that that gets that what you are suggesting so I think that would make sense in jumping ahead not not too far but looking at Mission where we're talking about uh diverse College and Career options and and we're talking about students there I could see a way to add what you're talking about with success at the end of that so I and I I would be comfortable with it being in either Vision as you suggested or finding a way to put on the tail end of the mission foreign again that the vision is the it outlines the long-term goals and the idea of you know the future idea of what your students will be in the mission defines like the the primary purpose of your organization your reason for existence so when we're looking at the vision you know we're looking at long-term aspirations what are you aiming for so I hear you you're saying you're aiming for success for these students so I would suggest if um board member benefits if discover if you feel that discover is not um impactful enough maybe it's a word like realize because realize kind of means that it's you're not just brushing against it but that you are doing it that you're living your full potential is that the kind of like word that you're looking for I just I think for me I would prefer to see the word success in the vision somewhere because when when you when you go to the if you're on the web page or you're looking at this District's Vision I mean that's that's our overall Vision as Miss Pride was saying right so if we could insert that word in there somehow and we could come to agreement then I think that would be great okay so I'm going to ask a question here because I do not use Google Docs we are not allowed to use it at my job how do I strike through this in the upper right hand corner where it says editing if you click the drop down and change it to suggesting now you can just delete it [Music] yeah that's what I wanted to strike through so that we are not taking it off so we don't have to keep putting it back so I know where it's at in word but I don't see it here oh you gotta take it out because I know like what was the word you said um yeah I just think that yeah the word discovers kind of to reach their potential I think that's what I feel there's success to reach your potential success either I don't know dancing singing English stem whatever they do best and we want to be sure that we are saying we as Educators want this child to reach his or her full potential and whichever it is you know what what whatever they do best but I think the word discover um it's we need to put a different word in there because discover again it's just very vague it just doesn't um so um trustee um Benavides um I did a strike through through Discover and put in the their suggestion that we had have successfully reached um you can see it on the screen is there a way for us to be able to see her screen on our computer I think they would have to log into the zoom huh and turn one into three yeah and you tell me what you'd like for me to insert or something in the and then I'll make sure that I put any changes in blue so that you know will know what I've added in and will strike through anything that we're thinking of taking out I'm so sorry are we just speaking out I think that this can be a little bit more important okay um one of the things I I do agree um in adding like success or discover I have uh like advocacy will some word to basically it's it's the autonomy that we're we're giving them right that for staff and for um students so I would suggest students and staff will um have efficacy to reach their full potential he and I chime in just on just on the word efficacy only because a lot of people don't know what that means and this is going to be your vision statement that any parent any Community member who's not in education or who's not in a field where that word gets thrown around we want them to know be able to read it and get a a good understanding of what we're speaking on do you have a different word you can think just to check in on that you're totally right when we discussed we did have many educators of course they're bringing all these big words that we didn't know what they meant and we spoke about just exactly that we wanted to be sure that anyone could pick this up any parent can read this even if a student they need to and understand it right how about Blossom or our mindset is awesome except to all of you Mama thanks I'm just throwing it out there you know to have yeah you don't like the way it reads um at this moment I I actually do really like it but I do agree with board member Benavides is that I I would like to see success and full potential does kind of but at the same time just to be clear and direct and this is what I'm hearing for you is that you you know just to be clear and direct to be able to go ahead and add that instead of just what is full potential well it means to their success thank you all right are you like me I left one of my pair of glasses in Texas I had to take out another pair today Adrian read it to her so it says oh go ahead okay popcorn I mean it says students and staff will successfully reach their full potential and positively contribute to their community Through advocacy thinking critically communicating effectively and showing compassion is that better yeah let's see let's move this over is that better yes with just an eye test chart [Laughter] opinion of what I like this change yeah I do I think it still keeps it simple but it if this is the first thing you read on our page yes success is right there so am I hearing consensus on this as your vision statement yeah okay I just want to say that I think what it does is it creates the intention right I mean that's that's the goal and and again keeping in mind you know the purpose of the mission as I said and I think that um I agree with the board that successfully sounds better than discover there's lots of things about myself I'm still trying to discover so successfully is a much better point all right thank you so let's talk mission to create a safe caring environment where we educate and Empower all students nurture all learning styles and ensure diverse College and Career options initial thoughts so I I personally I go back and forth on the comment that I originally had was under the one of the one of my two comments was under the first goal with when we're talking about student learning and and being specific about like targeted achievement that's the only thing I wonder I see we're going to educate and Empower all students and ensure options but I've but the mission of what what are we existing to do I I really think talking about student achievement it would be important for our student achievement to be included within the mission somewhere I hear Adrian and uh board member as a Counterpoint to where how draft dramatically the mission changed from what it was to this version um and correct me uh superintendent it was really focused on state state federal and local assessments was that the was that the mission statement that was previously there because there was one of these um uh paragraphs if you will that really focused on assessments and we wanted to move away from saying our mission was not to have students do well in the assessments but broaden that and so we that's how we got to educate right we said we're School we're School District our job is to educate and we added empower so that's I share that as background of how it evolved over the course of the three days can you read the previous one do you have it up the Azusa Unified School District equips every student with the Knowledge and Skills for College and Career ready Readiness to fulfill the purpose and positively impact Society let's go one where um about the the gym okay oh what was the previous mission statement [Music] can you read it one more time the Azusa Unified School District equips every student with the Knowledge and Skills for College and Career Readiness to fulfill their purpose and positively impact Society again don't what don't buy what I'm selling but what just to a board member Greer mentioned I mean if that was a desire of the board I mean I think you just said it it just goes at the end of the mission again don't don't buy what I'm selling but I mean it would be that to ensure student achievement seems appropriate to me if that was the will of the word can I chime in a question that I had when I read this the only word that's that seemed odd or out of place to me was the word options because it seems like we're narrowing it down to that they only have two options College and Career options diverse College and Career options and reality of it is is that there is going to be some students who you know college is not going to be their things there's going to be some students where career may be they're you know they're going to have to have a job at some point maybe to take care of themselves but maybe not some may want to travel do volunteer work some may want to get involved in other things that aren't necessarily a career right away or not go to college right away how are we supporting those students to reach their goals or as well are we thinking about them we live in a different Society now where you know we have a lot of students who take Gap years and want to go off and do something to figure out what they initial what they want to do later on in the future so the just the word options it made it seem like that's it that's your option college or career pick one Yolanda do you want to talk about the kind of the thinking of the stakeholder group and how we because I know we we spent a lot of time on this piece talking about careers and courses things like courses of study and I I strongly believe that the word options was like other than College and Career oh okay you know you know college career yes but other than that just like you mentioned some we get they are not going to go to college or even the career but they have other options of anything else they want to do maybe that's not the right word but that was the mindset I hear what you're saying you know what I mean yeah so I don't know there's another word you have in mind if you think I I I'm not sure other options that's I think when we were talking about it we were talking it started we were talking about courses or curriculum sorry oh no go ahead and and I think that's kind of how we're saying well we're instead of just talking about courses and curriculum what about Career Technical education vocational education and that's kind of how it got to these couple Awards here so you were looking at the CT part of the component of it gotcha um the other the other option for options is opportunities bringing the opportunities to our students right college and career opportunities a career can be in anything it could be Tech it could be you know a three-week course or online course and these are opportunities for our students so I'm going to suggest maybe opportunities instead of options what do you guys think thoughts I'll put it here just so that you can see what it looks like I'm a visual so I know we're getting into the nitty-gritty Awards meeting here which I mean it is what it is I like opportunities I think the word Ensure is odd with the word to ensure diverse college and career opportunities oh I'm like yeah I think if we're saying opportunities which I like opportunities it seems like provide fits it better I think I personally like that as well so to create a safe caring environment where we educate and Empower all students nurture all learning styles and provide diverse college and career opportunities yeah is that a thumbs up from everyone sounds stronger it looks like you well the only thing I have is around achievement but that could uh maybe that's for the conversation for the first goal to uh that we have so I'm comfortable with this we have consensus I'll read it one more time to create a safe caring environment where we educate and Empower all students nurture all learning styles and provide diverse college and career opportunities we're good trustee um dinovites it looks like you still have a question well I was just trying to go back to what um board member Greer said with respect to if I'm understanding it correctly student achievement somewhere in there is that what I was hearing or yeah to to unpack it and maybe maybe we can decide is it best here or best to be addressed in the next area I just think it's important when we think about what what are we doing whether it's a goal or whether it's saying what do we exist to do is is to create a way for students to to almost like a better is get to the next level so if if we're coming here how do we how do we rate how not just raise our scores but but how do we how do we help students to raise their own individual like they are we're speaking about their their individual growth which then raises you know everything across the board so maybe that's best looking at the goal one or being specific about that within goal one um but I would just say that's part of when we think about what do we exist to do uh part of that is to to to to to uh catapult our our students hire um academically and I I think that that you're right I think when we get down to the goals we can be a bit more specific um this one is if and I'll go back to my my first analogy from when we first started the workshop if you were looking to apply for a job at Azusa Unified School District and you were at the mission statement as we just edited it what would you think would you think oh okay or would you think I don't get it we're good I didn't want to say anything until you reached consensus but I really like it I think it sounds good with just those couple of changes I think that it really um it kept the it kept the the input from the stakeholders and from what was developed at The Retreat it kept what they wanted to see and what they thought the missions should you know look like and I think it just took it took it up a notch so and that was with just changing those two words so okay great so before we get to the goals we do need to talk about core values so these are the things that um came up as core values in one thing that I did notice is that a lot of the the items on this list do go back to the um the priority areas for the lcap as well so as you look at the core values here what do you think do you like what they put is there something you want to add is there something you want to delete we have collaboration diversity equity and inclusion Integrity accountability and respect continuous growth open communication and student focused these are the core values that you as abort the administrators of the district the teachers the staff this is what they're saying that they're committed to doing in their positions each and every day and your positions each and every day for the students in this District I I do want to make comments on this I and I don't know if we can change any of this because it sounds like it's related to the lcap or whatnot but you can still change it this is this is what we're here for today and I I mean I think it's important for me to speak on behalf of the community that I represent on behalf of the children and um and I love everybody and this is just you know unfortunately for me you know Equity diversity and inclusion and we can thank our government for this but there has there is some kind of you know related like negative connotation to that and I can't sit here and say that you know because of the community that I represent that I'm comfortable with that because uh there's there's still a lot of legislation out there there's still a lot of things that um when we look at the Dei I mean we're sitting here talking about this but how do the parents feel right I don't know because we're we're making we're basing our core values for them basically for our students and I mean at the end of the day the vote it'll come down to a vote right and and but I but I can't sit here and say that I'm comfortable with that as part of the core values and I know some schools are probably adopting that and I think for me I'm just not comfortable with it because there is like I said there's still a lot of legislation there's still a lot of things that are out there that um there's a lot of mixed feelings about this does it really promote um I I think it undermines too that it undermines um like Merit and qualifications and things like that to a certain extent whether it's in the workplace in school or whatnot but that's that's just my my feeling towards the Dei in the core values when I looked at when I look at this I'll I'll tell you and I'm speaking just for me what I what I see when I read diversity equity and inclusion what I see is that it means that um every student has the opportunity the same opportunity at every time and place from our El our English language Learners to our um our high achieving students to our low achieving students to our special ed students to the the you know at every level that every student is looked at in the same way and that they're viewed is viewed as how do I help this student continue to achieve no matter where they're at no matter what level they're at that when I hear the word inclusion that's what I think of is that every student is going to get what they need in order to be successful in school while they're with you and Beyond when they leave you um and the same thing with Equity um when I was with your team before I don't remember if it was last time or time before that but one of the things that we talked about that came up was making sure that there was no group of students that was left behind someone brought up the fact that um we were having a conversation and we were talking about um students who weren't performing well who weren't achieving well and someone says well you know yeah we want to give resources to those students and make sure that they're achieving both we can't forget about the high performance students either we need to keep challenging them we need to keep providing for them and make sure that they have what they need to continue to be successful as well so when we look at Equity you know we're thinking about that as well as far as as far as diversity your district is very diverse um very very diverse this district is and I think that the importance of that would be just saying that you know one area isn't going to get more because maybe that part of the district is more affluent than the other part of the district or this District isn't going to get more because maybe they're um a lower socioeconomic area of the district but that we are making sure that everybody gets what they need and equal isn't always you know Equitable because if you give us all the same thing you know all the same amount of food to eat but I'm not hungry and I don't really want mine so I let mine go in the trash but superintendent Ortega hasn't eaten in two days and I just wasted something that he could have benefited from you know so that's how that's just my interpretation of it when I look at diversity equity and inclusion one thing I would say and I hope that this doesn't get taken in the wrong way by any means is that I think that when you're sitting on the dance and you're making decisions about something like this and there's all this noise in the news and in the papers and on the radio and on the talk shows and everything that you have to say what does this mean to our district don't look at what this District said it means or what this news channel says it means or what this politician says it means what does it mean to the to this District so you as a board what does diversity equity and inclusion mean to you you have the opportunity to Define what it means to you and what it means to Azusa Unified School District because I know of Plenty districts that I've been to where everybody has a different interpretation so what does it mean to you but that's why you know I can add that you know I think it's really important that we leave it in there you know we are non-partisan when we're voted in we're not voted in by parties so we should not look at parties and look at what's on the news because we are here to serve our students whomever they are again like you mentioned you know ERD students you know High Achievers whomever we need to serve them and educate them all the same so to me we need to leave this in here it's very important because we started having this um even the students um what remember Ariana said we call the students at Glaston high school you know they were meeting together because they wanted to be included and they wanted to be a voice whoever they were and I know her daughter was one of the students and they um would come to the board meetings and and it's really important that we include them and whoever whoever these students are but it's also our job it's also our job to do that so we have to get away from parties and who you are and the News seriously we have to think about the students and the staff that are here at Azusa unified period And I took my oath right and I appreciate that and I took my oath as well but I think that and I appreciate everything that Mrs Sprite said as well but you know I I think that for me I think and and like I said at the end of the day the board will make a decision right and and um and I just wanted to make sure it's on the record and it's not I'm not here as a party I'm here as a board representing the parents of the children and um when I think about this I think about like you know diversity I get it I'm Hispanic right I come from a single parent household I mean we were on welfare you know my mom struggled she worked hard to you know for I I mean I went to school as an adult worked a job and got my master's degree but you know so the diversity I I understand that and we are a very diverse Community I used to work for the city I mean I know the demographics so equality you know I I look at it more like equality yeah we're all equal in a sense you know I mean and the reason I said that earlier we can thank our government because it's kind of like they've they've structured this Dei and and um it's evolved into something that unfortunately I didn't make that decision none of us here did and and it and it just happened and now we're having this discussion and I'm not here representing any party I'm just representing the children and the families and what I heard when I was out there campaigning and I'm looking at it like diversity yes because we are a diverse Community equality because we all have we we all have equal opportunity I'm sorry quick question just so I'm clear is it equality did you guys change it what well like stepped out or Equity yeah I'm saying she's standing quality yeah so diversity quality and you know to me it's like more like color blindness because I think that that I just think that we're we're getting caught up with a lot of yeah it is there there is a lot of talk out there and and with respect to different parties and things like that but I also think that we we need to respect the parents and the children and and um some of the things that we hear too as board members and I'm not here because I'm here representing any part I'm here because my job when I was door knocking was I was listening to parents and they're what they were voicing to me so if I were sitting on the dice and not voicing I'm not just voicing my opinion then I would be doing a disservice to my community or my trustee area and I'm sure there's some within the other areas that also feel the same um this is why we did go on the survey parent survey yeah parents were the highest at 52 percent and we listen to their voices and this is where we actually came out with this also right you know so and and hear the community also right and that's okay I mean if the survey you know if it rated high in a percentage that's fine but I just wanted to make sure that I voice my opinion on behalf of the community that I serve because that's also important that I don't forget that that's why I'm here no and remember what I said at the beginning is that everybody needed to speak out and everybody needed to say how they felt about things whether they like it whether they don't like it whether they have suggestions for it to change it that's part of the process so you're just yeah you know and sometimes we're going to agree to disagree but absolutely my job as a board member is to represent my district now the 52 I will challenge you on that when your job as a board member is to represent the entire right the Azusa unified right exactly but so so and I I don't know the 52 percent you know maybe they surveyed those people I I have no idea that's we did yeah this is a service right so I mean I'm just voice and that's what we that's when I asked each and every one of you to do and I thank you for doing that it's important that everybody's voice is heard and you know everybody up here you don't always have a 5-0 vote on everything that's that's just part of being on the board so no I thank you for um voicing your your opinion and your thoughts and your concerns if if I could add interestingly enough ironically looking at diversity I think I think this represents diversity even here on the board because for me as a as a representative who who values representation across the district across the different categories that we may you know consider it's it's for that very reason that I I would be I would be uncomfortable if diversity equity and inclusion was somehow excluded from from our our core values um and I and I do know I'm uh I'm I'm aware of the ways that that can be a buzzword in in certain settings in certain certain places um maybe even positive and negative and depending upon where you're where you're suggesting it but I think that was spot-on despite what you said about uh for us it's important to understand what does diversity Equity uh and and Equity to distinguish from equality like uh specifically from equality um but what is what is diversity equity and inclusion mean within the Azusa Unified School District and I think it's important that that we are we are mindful of that um across across the the district um and across the different categories I just want to to read Equity Equity means each individual or group of people is given the same resources resources or opportunities Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome one of the reasons I believe that this is very I feel very strongly about keeping these core values within our district the diversity the equity and inclusion is because we did have our students staff community members come and speak and we listened and that shows right there that we are listening that we are not taking things out of context because somebody feels strongly about you know taking it out of context it is what it is I mean we can't we can't read too much into you know we want to accept everyone diversity equity and inclusion is what we need to have in our core values and um you know it's it's one of those things where I I hear um what what was said that you know we hear our community but the same time we need our community to come and speak here we can go and listen to our community you know on the phone or they can text us which they do right and we can knock on their doors or whatnot but I think it's so important when we have a group of students that feels very strongly they did not have a diversity equity and inclusion in their school setting that we we listen this is our future and I think one of the things that we have in our division let me go back um where we included right the success I think this adds to their success as well that at a young age we are not excluding them right um and so being able to empower them with this I think will also will also um you know Empower them to be successful adults I'll try to be brief so um I'm very much in supportive including diversity equity and inclusion as part of our core values and I think just to uh if we could skip ahead just a little bit to one of the goals that is presented here around human resources um Board of debate with this I heard you mentioned something about uh Merit and accomplishments and presumably you're talking about affirmative action or preferential hiring practices or admission practices in the Human Resources goal that again is presented as a draft for consideration we specifically cited hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified et cetera Etc um so I think diversity in in this entire document as a whole appears in a couple of different ways um and and I think that is also you know by Design um and this I hear you're very passionate comments about how you feel you know representing stakeholders that you've talked to personally or stakeholders in the district um I think along with some other colleagues here that citing and really naming diversity accurate inclusion as it stands I would not want to have a Mission Vision value statement that did not include that any other thoughts or any other thoughts on on diversity Equity inclusion or any of the other bullets that are listed here or do you feel anything else is missing in the core value where it says continuous growth I was um thinking more of the line of providing lifelong learning right because continuous growth sounds kind of like okay but being able to provide um as a district the love of you know of learning to be lifelong I I had us well I'm not not I don't know about lifelong learning but what I wondered growth is uh we've talked about continuous Improvement and that's a word that we've that we've used and I wonder if that's more fitting only because growth growth can not always be isn't good or bad or it can be either um so I I would actually be in favor I don't know about I'm not sure about lifelong learning um or if that it would go there if we were looking to add that somehow as another value but um which I'm not sure about either but I would say continuous Improvement versus a continuous growth yeah I just didn't like I didn't feel that growth was the strong enough do you have a strong an adult app program is when I think of lifelong Learners I I didn't know my mind always goes to our adult Learners that are in our district and we you do have an adult program yeah I would like to see lifelong learning added to our core values to also include you know one of the things you said because it's the ranges it covers everybody we can make that another bullet I would like to suggest that but I do like the continuous Improvement instead of the continuous growth and then possibly add to the and add the lifelong learning as a different uh bullet point just add the two bullets and the lifelong Learners and continuous improvements and remove the continuous growth because that's a growth means like I mean a lot of things but grow I don't know [Music] put that there will leave or make this one and I think Mr Ortega we've heard you say continuous Improvement in many board meetings so it's not only Improvement to test scores and other measurables but Improvement to systems and procedures and policies you're doing pretty good on that Angela yeah you don't know how to do it this is so you know anytime you're on a different computer other than your own you're looking for everything yeah so um I made those changes is there anything else that sticks out to any of you any questions comments some concerns additions deletions can you what were the core values or is if you can read those out the previous ones yeah collaboration honesty and integrity being student-centered accountability equity and Excellence transparency can I make one suggestion not that it really matters but can we move student-focused up to be the first one so are you guys okay with this list now anything any other concerns I think I like transparency in there because I think that's it's it's critical nowadays I mean it was in there in the prior goals right with integrity and title I was actually going to say how about if we put um transparency and integrity together because they kind of go hand in hand yeah is that okay yeah that's that works are you guys okay with that how does that look to all of you complete [Music] and I know um I know that there's concerns on the diversity equity and inclusion but we have consensus that we're moving forward with this I just want to make a comment on that and you know for the record I'm not sitting here saying that I don't know that we're a diverse you know group I'm cognizant that we are in a diverse Community not just here in Azusa but you know in the surrounding communities um so I'm sensitive to that and uh and I know and I believe that we should all have you know there should be some kind of equity and and and and that everyone should have an opportunity whether you're you know whether you you know you have maybe you come from money or not and and that um and that it should be inclusive of everyone unfortunately in today Society right this is where we are today so for me you know the reason I brought that up is because I want to make sure that there is an understanding out there that uh it's important for me to be the voice for for the others as well and I'm it's not because I'm sitting here and not cognizant that that you know I'm sensitive to those things as well especially because of my upbringing and and I I mean some of my best friends are from different cultures you know and and I mean I meet with them just this Saturday I'm meeting with different cultures but unfortunately today we live in a society where things have been taken out of context right so but then again I go back to the fact that I am sitting here representing certain stakeholders and I I'm that voice and and I just want you know my colleagues and everyone here in the audience to be aware of that thank you okay we're making good progress here so now we were on our goals so I'm gonna take this down so I can try again I'll show you as much as possible so we did make some changes here already I can take that one out now that I know how to strike through things so I can take this one out so if you'll recall at the beginning of the meeting um we skipped down to Student Learning because of the word success and we added um we added that in under student learning the student learning goal so the student learning goal says every student will receive a real one well-rounded education that meets their diverse needs and promotes their growth achievement and success um anything that now that we're actually on goals that you would like to add delete have a discussion about this statement before we move on to human resources I think the only thing it would add is a comma after achievement to make the punctuation consistent among all of our sentences absolutely thank you you got a question on it doesn't sound quite right to you I'm trying hard not to be nitpicky oh no go for it then remember this is your opportunity do it now so I wonder if looking at looking at this I wonder if but if my Hang Up is on the word promotes um it's it's just a bit too passive for me and I I understand I I understand that we will have these are going to be goals and then we're going to have other like specific tangible targeted goals that are that are attached to this is as well but I would just love this as a district to take to be bold enough to to do more than promote let's set a goal of promoting growth and achievement but I don't know but I don't even have a suggestion for a replacement one I mean thank you how about their support or ensures because this modifies well-rounded education Imports diverse needs and supports their growth diverse needs and what did you say uh trustee RLS you said a word just a minute ago myself yeah I can't remember what you said just a second ago Advocates that's right Advocates um I think I think the word ensure insurers is the closest one for me personally that I've heard the word insurance is carries the most weight that's what I'm gonna get me give me some context of what you're looking for it to to explain to convey to somebody who reads it what do you want to convey that we're that we as a district are saying that we we're that this is what we're going to do like we're we're taking on the goal of not merely promoting someone's growth and hope they get there but we're our goal is that yeah so if we look at the word ensure we look it is a goal to ensure because it's already a guarantee yeah because it's already a goal which which the fact that it's a goal makes it aspirational by by Nature so we're working towards it so to be working toward the promotion of is just a it's it's it's too passive in my opinion sure I would still like to see that meets their diverse needs and advocates and whatever other word I would like to include advocates in in there as well that we are all Advocates teachers staff Administration board we are all Advocates right of their diverse needs to ensure their growth and achievement so that meets their diverse needs and Advocates their growth and achievement their growth achievement and success that sounds a lot stronger that means their diversity and ensures achievement and success let me take out insurance for a minute so you guys can read it both ways let's see it both ways and tell me what you think I don't I don't feel like the word Advocates fits in this sentence it sure means that we are going to do that that's right we are Advocates means more of um well I think you're going to advocated yeah because it's a well-run education and yeah ensure their cross yeah I like that one could you could you read it for us please every student will receive a well-rounded education that meets their diverse needs and ensures their growth achievement and success I'm comfortable with this yeah I'm making sure better than promote any other thoughts maybe not here but I would like to see that in one of our goals and I can't remember which one right now the word advocacy um but we'll get to it okay hold on so we have consensus on this one yes sure it's a Human Resources we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified and provide competitive compensation professional development and ensure high standards for professional conduct you have professional choice she missed you if we were trying to not use the word professional twice in the sentence and also make it more accessible language we could think about replacing professional development with training so I know in schools we talk we say we even say PD we don't even say professional development and that's not something that everyone would readily know or even what professional development is but I think training is a more accessible word we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified and provide competitive comp and provide competitive compensation training and ensure high standards for professional conduct there's still something in there when I read it out loud that sounds weird am I the only one catching that I think training doesn't fit in the right trees Stronger Yeah well something with cream flow yeah you know I don't want to say dog but you're training you know someone you're just I think it should be I mean it shouldn't be a simple coaching Fuller than professional development because yeah you're right okay but it's just there's something with the flow listen to the flow it says we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified and provide competitive compensation training and ensure high standards for professional conduct it could just be me I think it's it's just something it's Punctuation is that what it is so here's I'll take a stab so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified comma and provide competitive compensation and meaningful training comma and ensure high standards for professional conduct so compensation and and meaningful as a descriptor for training uh-huh foreign high standards for professional conduct is that I miss anything that you said no but now that I look at it maybe there doesn't need to be an and after qualified it's just um a comma so the the verbs are higher and retain provide competitive compensation meaningful training and then the next verb is Ensure so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified provide competitive compensation and meaningful training and ensure high standards for professional conduct Ed before Angela um educate educate somewhere in there I mean um provide competitive compensation and educate I'm actually comfortable with uh professional development even though the word professional is in there twice because it's professional development and professional conduct which are which as two connected things are are I would be comfortable with professional on there twice as it was originally wow and then we're taking out did I get that right oh oh sorry I mean in poha should be removed so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified provide competitive compensation and professional development and ensure high standards for professional conduct yeah I like the professional development but could we use another word for like professional conduct the professional development I think is strong and yes we do we do like the perfect but but the whole professional and professional does the same thing well look at professional conduct and again like before I asked you so when we say professional conduct what are you trying to convey excellent customer service [Music] that they're going to have good contact with the um students parents staff not even conduct what the word means I don't know if you have to put professional conduct down now I really like what what you just said can you please repeat it employee conduct right you said something different oh um when you asked you know when you say professional conduct you know High prevent you know good pressure conduct um what did I say I forgot what you said excellent customer service excellent customer service so if we're facing our students we're facing our parents the community each other if we're all providing excellent customer service yeah yeah then we are acting according to high standards of professional conduct I I mean so let's let's go with that if that's what people are thinking I think customer services include and included within professional conduct and but that there are other aspects of professional conduct that are not included within customer service so so to me that change would be more limiting um could we add that though okay I would like to add it actually I don't think we should put it twice I think I think that would uh I just think changing it replacing professional conduct with customer service would only get at a a important aspect of professional conduct but but it but there's there'd be other pieces I think that are not included within that so I agree with that and it was just my reaction to what is that was my first reaction to professional conduct because this is a human resources goal so this is about our staff and our employees what if we instead ensure high standards for employee conduct I would be comfortable yeah it works yes yeah I like that I think for me I was thinking more like um just the like the environment right because that's a what do you mean go ahead high standards for I think I have I'm just adding this in so we don't forget where we were again what someone said so you had a thought yeah because in nature it's the environment right that we want to provide that it's a professional environment because um you said the p word yeah [Music] I think when I think you actually had a a good point with this Being Human Resources the word employee makes sense I know in many organizations especially you will see that they'll have an employee code of conduct but that's who they serve because HR yeah and that's it's in the HR part so the using the word employee actually does make sense so we will hire and retain diverse Personnel who are highly qualified provide competitive compensation and professional development and ensure high standards for employee conduct I see hit nuts consensus sure yes yeah I think it sounds good I I'm just I'm sorry I I would like to actually I I just remembered where um where I wanted to put the word advocate it goes back to our mission real quick just real quick too to go back to it real quick so so to create a safe caring environment where we educate comma Advocate comment and Empower all students nurtural nurture all learning styles and ensure diverse College and Career options let me put it down here so everybody can see it foreign just as a point of remembrance we did use advocacy maybe this is what you were remembering in the vision if you look at the vision that is in there not saying it shouldn't be in the mission but I'm saying I know you were remembering like where and and I I remembered wait a minute we do have that already in the vision you go back to the mission they're both right there I don't understand paragraph I would like to include it as well because we're talking about the environment and when we as staff right where we as a district we're advocating for our children not only are we educating we're advocating for them as educators if yeah I'd say um this is this I'm fine personally fine with this but if we say Advocate I think we'd have to advocate for um not just advocate that we would need to add the I don't think that it the sentence structure makes sense without the word for so advocate for and comma I like including advocate for but I would flip it to say educate comma Empower comma and advocate for all students so advocate for is immediately before all students or do we take out the empowers that what you said but no just just uh flip the order so educate comma Empower comma and advocate for all students to create a safe caring environment where we educate Empower and advocate for all students nurture all learning styles and provide diverse college and career opportunities that sounds strong yes consensus just say just throw it out there don't buy what I'm selling I don't think you need the and after empower oh okay you do yeah yeah they're relieving it [Music] that's where it goes so the human resources one are we okay now we're good on that one so we're at budget and finance to be responsible stewards of public funds and provide the resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values the only thing I would change provide resource I would I would like to maximize resources or or I would be okay with instead of but but if if not somehow talking about the maximization of those resources but I'm comfortable just replacing Peppa provide and maximize resources because you can provide with them I think it's just a matter of probably like so because we're talking about budget and finance I don't we're not for do we provide the resources we don't we don't provide the monetary resources but we receive the monetary resources and then we met we we are to maximize those there are other types of resources that we provide but I wouldn't say that it falls unnecessary I don't know right we do we allocated resources to programs and activities right right and I think allocate would be a better word than provide so to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize resources the allocation of resources and maximize the allocation of resources which do you guys prefer Boardman Burger when you say maximize what do you trying to emphasize yeah so if we look if if we if we take a look at uh the entire process that we went through for our school reorganization and are continuing to go through personal reorganization that is a that is a way to look at these are the resources that we have how do we how how what do we do with those resources in such a way that it maximizes opportunities uh programs student learning student experience how do we how do we take the same resources that we would have and maximize them um for the usage of our of our students and stuff so it would see as we're looking at goals I think that I would just see maximizing us as what what we are actively working toward now do you think that that is a word that someone will understand I I think so but but um I also think that it's a it isn't it I think it's what we're doing I think it's an and I don't think um allocation necessarily gets at it I think I think allocation is insufficient and I wonder what I think someone would probably have a better chance of understanding maximize over the work uh allocation but um yeah I have to agree with trustee Grier that maximizes a good word only because um remember at the beginning when I talked about some of the struggles that education as a whole is facing when I talked about was financial resources and so what we get is what we get and we have to make the best of it we have to decide you know like so many people do each month when they get their paycheck how am I going to make this work how am I going to get the most out of this money and so I think that maximize says that that you are getting a certain amount of resources financial resources and you as a board have to make sure that you're getting the most out of it that you possibly can I have to agree because I think that it shows that we are taking action watching our dollars where we're spending the money and then we're putting those dollars to good use so I I really appreciate that word absolutely but now the question um that trustee Greer also had was about the word allocation so right now it reads to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize the allocation of resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values I think we can take out allocation just keep it more simple to to read public funds and maximize the resources needed to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize you want the left and the resources and maximize the resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values I go back and forth about the word of that I'm comfortable with it come on is that what I'm gonna have to do yes so you okay with that let's see to be responsible oh because I have the strikeouts still in there to be responsible stewards of public funds and maximize the resources needed to meet our goals fulfill our priorities and live up to our values short sweet to the point any thoughts we're good consensus okay okay so now we are on community engagement so under Community engagement there were they proposed uh bullets basically here so to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions in the business Community to support student wellness and achievement I would love to see Community organizations added to the list and and I'm and I'm I'd be good with that petition so what um business Community is that considered like the city hall you know can we try to get partnership with the mayor and the um content members is that under government or are we calling that um business communities you could say Civic and business Journey so I mean to do that so you could say Civic and business Community yes okay yeah yeah I like that and just for formatting um I think when we wrote it on the the poster it was easy to Bullet it out so that we could consider each stakeholder um and I think when we're presenting this in a document or on the website oh yeah I would probably say not have bullets and have everything in lower case with commas so it reads as as one you wanted with one sentence right so so Community organizations and so um I don't think we need yet and the if you put this well I think it's gonna depend I mean is it like one sentence it is I viewed it as bullets you want it as one sentence so do you want it to read as one sentence that says to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions Community organizations in the Civic and business Community to support student wellness and achievement that's a long sentence no I I just went like the community oh no I was talking to trustee about the community organization and you know in that same line but if if it's bullets I would take out the and the yeah I would take the end of its wallets yes to me I think it when we were writing it it made sense to list it but in a final for final language I think it's it ends up being a long sentence but in a very and we see it as the paragraph yeah so that we could visualize it I think that would benefit as we're here now keep in mind when I do this they won't have capitals but I'm not going to take the capitals out and until there is a decision made so those would be lowercase so that's how it would look without the capitals of course should it read Civic and business communities or is it sufficient it's just a community I would like to include communities communities so to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents residents educational institutions Community organizations and the Civic and business communities to support student wellness and achievement so you guys like it as a paragraph I still I still don't like the end uh before Civic Ambitions but just and Civics and take that out yes so remove the duck no I I say remove the and uh use comma Civic and business communities wait I'm sorry I think you kind of have to have and because it's your list yeah okay and ship it so to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions Community organizations and Civic and business communities to support student wellness and achievement I think to I would go either way with the the that struck out but either way yeah I could go either way I think I would lean more toward the side of including the but I I could I Wouldn't Die in that [Laughter] it can you read it with the and without the to welcome build and sustain strong Partnerships with students parents families residents educational institutions Community organizations in the Civic and business communities to support student wellness and achievement I asked you no she asked me to read it when okay yeah so that's with it I think that works majority wants I mean I'm comfortable either either way it does whatever okay so then we're putting it back and then um just we're doing lowercase on the items yeah and then we'll change everything to lower case thank you it looks okay in a sentence right I'm just looking yeah yeah okay see you guys skip like that yes yes okay facilities our facilities will be safe clean and well maintained for Learning and extracurricular activities with state-of-the-art technology so um my first question is we look at this one is this is this is a goal is this a goal that is um a long-term goal short-term goal or medium term goal think about your your resources all the time vote right but um when we put in there you know with like state-of-the-art technology and for the extracurricular activities I'm a parent and I'm reading this or I'm a Community member and I'm reading this and I'm thinking oh cool you know we're going to get that new gym that we've been wanting and oh wow all right our classrooms are going to have this and that in it this Tech that Tech in it that's why I asked that question well that is our goal yeah right yeah so I mean but is it like is it like long term where I look at this as my kids freshman year and I'm still looking at it on their senior year and I haven't heard it doesn't change or you guys have things in the plans in the works I think more than enough I think that there are things currently in place that are in line with this that's what I meant and that we're continuing to build up to build upon that so I think I think okay um we won't let you down we'll be sure to be sure that we're going to do what we're saying right or if we're here today not tomorrow but future board members you know that's what our mindset is is right and that's my job is to ask these questions that you might get from the community so okay so are you guys good with that is there anything you want added taken away do you have a recommendation if state of the art should be hyphenated or does our Communications team have a style guide recommendation for state of the art if it should be hyphenated or not I don't have a recommendation I'm trying to think of how it looks and things other things that I've seen where it was like part of a statement like this because it it modifies technology well this will be proofed anyway before you know well that's what we thought we were doing they'll have they'll have the real English Majors through it to make sure we we dotted every eye across every t technology okay so there's hyphen said for Google as an adjective it is an adjective yeah but then not be not between art and Technology between art and Technology okay so anything else with that one are you guys good I mean I think it's very clear very to the point okay safety and Wellness let's pray if I may hear um so let me take it down to a different page because it it ran into two pages it'll make it easier for us to view thank you um the [Music] group that went to that got to go to look at this uh felt strongly that there should be a goal around safety and wellness based on not only them that were there but based on the outcomes of the thought exchanges that were put up um we were almost done but we did not get to finish this one to add to bring forward to the Board of Education a recommendation so where we where we were in the process and in the protocol there were two iterations of what this goal could be but we never got to the point where for one and so this was uh it was decided that this would come to the board of education for consideration um and to talk about we like number one we like number two or meshing these two together that's why you see two here versus everything else you only saw one recommendation thank you for explaining that so the first one we ensure environments that address students needs by providing emotional physical safety along with fresh healthy meals to influence cognitive development for overall well-being the second one to establish a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported that first one had a little something strange going on when I read it yeah I think it's I think it's supposing safety is attached to emotional and physical but it's added to the list instead so I think I think that's where it convolutes the first sentence I think you're right board member there's that piece and then um the the concept of fresh healthy meals nutritious food fresh food came from I think it came from the the surveys the 1300 voices that talked about better school food better school food which is a common refrain so I think it's we're trying to figure out if that should be if if School food should rise to the level of being embedded in one of these overarching goals or not and also strongly in the surveys were safety right safety and um fresh healthy meals you know of course they want your child to eat well and but safety was also a big um point that we wanted to put in somewhere in these goats do you have a preference between number one and two right now or is it something that can be tweaked to take a little from both or is there yeah seeing seeing the convoluted aspect of safety on number one makes me prefer number two as a as a foundation um personal unless we were to figure out how to word Smith that and figure figure out that piece what do you mean Adrian so number number one it simply doesn't it actually doesn't make sense unless hey so number two makes sense what where where would we add fresh and healthy meals well yeah I think we'd have to add it but it's clearly just kind of added to that one as well yeah so if we were to just use that as a foundation and just add it there um what do we say establish or maintain I would say maintain I think that's a good point because if you use the word establish it's like it's not there yet we don't have it but we're gonna get it we're gonna we're gonna you know put this in place so I agree that it has to go to maintain yeah and I wonder if there's a way to take the back do we just take the back end of that sentence on number one and find a way to work it in the end of number two from with fresh and healthy it seems kind of I'm trying my take on this is that um we know that we're moving toward scratch cooking and um you know beautiful learning spaces right I'm not sure that having a specific goal around School meals is at the district level but that it's at a lower level in the lcap when we say we you know we've created um School Chef we've created cafeteria workers who are doing these things and we're our priority around Health wellness and nutrition is embedded in the budget process and how we allocate funding rather than its own Standalone goal because then I think if you're talking about fresh food healthy meals you're also talking probably about physical education health education PE and that can be where whereas we don't have other specific big goals around that's Ela or math right it's not a Content area we don't have other content area goals or this would be like a health and wellness nutrition goal can we can we fit the word healthy in there without without saying freshly fresh healthy meals you know to maintain healthy healthy physically it physically an emotionally safe environment for all because I I while I agree that we may not need to get down to a level of saying fresh healthy meals it may still be wise to to include healthy some somewhere within the environment that we're because physically it gets at it but we're talking about physically physics healthy meals not necessarily fresh but healthy meals because we are going into scratch cooking and that is more healthier than eating um prostitute right so we're trying to let the community know that we are leading that way where the students are not eating all processed foods so um I like healthy meals it not necessarily fresh but to be sit in somewhere there how about like to support student health something to that effect [Music] I think saying healthy meals gets does get too specific I think that that's that that's lower in the milk that if we say if we stay healthy then as we flesh that out and and the lower levels of the of the targeted goals and and strategies for to achieve those goals the healthy meals are part of that I don't know that we have again same thing we said before um saying healthy includes healthy meals but also includes other aspects saying healthy meals excludes other things that healthy generally would include okay well because you mentioned what you're talking about like physical education you talk about that but then we should just add physical education also healthiness add both of them because yeah healthy means healthy can mean a lot of things but why can't we spell it out I I would like to add that that too as as well because it goes it kind of flows with it both food you know meals and physical and I actually do like the fresh healthy meals it's something that we haven't had in this District in a very long time so are you looking at adding along with fresh healthy meals to the end of number two [Music] how would you start that though along with fresh healthy meals and or the physical um idea if not a separate goal we don't have physical education in here we just say emotional physical what president about um you know we're talking about also the physical well-being as in sports and physical education and because that's where they have their daily exercise exercise right that includes to Wellness so then I would suggest I mean emotional um the wellness support the emotional well-being of our students also I have a Hail Mary here okay are you Catholic um to to maintain a healthy environment that is physically and emotionally safe for all where students and Staff feel secure and supportive but I like to add meals feel safe no feel light security where you're reading my notes [Music] I I said yeah Latasha I have a question do we have a uh staff well one is do we have a school wellness program right a school Wellness Plan yes ma'am and does that include staff yes ma'am um so with that in for example for number two the original number two we say this environment where students and Staff feel secure and supported um maybe we could add to the end of the year number two uh to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality health and wellness programs and have access to high quality health and wellness programs which would also include physical education yeah we're doing we're on the well-being yeah because we haven't there's it's mental health physical health nutrition for staff and students I would like to withdraw my number three comment comment after support it I have to tell you guys I love commas um I'll put them everywhere if you let me can um so I would like to be on a combat after support it or no yeah I would like to um actually add something that um board member added uh just one word and that's and I don't see it up there so we already have safe environment never mind we're good to establish a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality health and wellness programs don't think we need it it's a quick question if I'm a parent if I'm reading this high quality health and I'm just going to just play dead with it so does that mean Health Care does that mean what does that mean what do we mean with that we need to add like when it's together with Wellness I think that that that means that like the physical education the the food like the uh that type of environment but again it would be health and wellness but if we're trying to do simpler terms right [Music] well it's like when a doctor tells you your health and wellness is important yeah health and wellness is yeah they you think exercise taking care of yourself eating right drinking water there's a word missing to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality health and wellness programs you mean nutrition like Health comma nutrition comma and wellness programs only to talk about the emphasis on food yeah well to your point you're saying that because I think health and wellness like to add nutrition in the middle of it I think changes where health and wellness is a thing well we already have healthy meals up there so no we're gonna no that's this whole separate thing it would just be number two just be number two um so because because health and wellness is a is almost in and of itself to add nutrition in there it now separates health and then and and now I think that's where it gets confusing and what you said like health programs what health program we have so I think adding nutrition I think makes it more confusing okay you know um there's too many ands there's too many ants that just students so are you saying nutrition and have access I mean meals I'm saying that the term health and wellness is something that includes meals so adding nutrition wouldn't be necessary because health and wellness would already be inclusive of nutrition then if you wanted to keep nutrition I do I wanted to keep nutrition or I wanted to put meals in there some somewhere because again we are heading towards fresh meals and nutrition yeah that that that's okay why don't we do this here I call nutrition and health and wellness programs there's too many ants well I didn't add another in I didn't take one away but I didn't have one to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all we're students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality nutrition health and wellness nutrition yeah we'd have to put another hand um and Latasha I have a question can um staff purchase meals yes ma'am does Steph know that yes ma'am I love this do we have well yeah because this is Wellness so that's why you have secure in here right yeah for safety can we put a period somewhere I just feel like there's all period like the first let's just out to maintain a physical and emotional safe environment for all period where students and Staff feel secure and supported no I think maybe it's just a long sentence yeah it takes a long sentence but it reads it well well I don't think it reads right we're trying to um get a nutrition common health to me I think we would need another name I do too but it's already a lot of bands but and I wouldn't put a comma so to us to maintain a physically a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality nutrition and health and wellness programs so I think because the list is two nutrition is one and health and wellness is two then you don't need a comma I'll read it one more time to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported and have access to high quality nutrition and health and wellness programs that time it didn't sound bad could it make sense if we if we replace and have with the word with ah with access too I like that to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment for all where students and Staff feel secure and supported with access to high quality nutrition and health and wellness programs Governor wanted it does it sounds better it flows much better let's say ye all that works Okay so I'm gonna just strike through that one and we have consensus on this one and that takes us to the last that was the last one okay just for for next steps um I will take all of these changes put them uh on a clean slate and then just to matter of factly I'll bring them to the next board meeting for approved I think you all did a great job um we had some good discussions about everything and you reach consensus working as a team so and I think that you still kept the foundation of the hard work that the stakeholders and staff put in at The Retreat to come up with all of this information to give you the foundation to be able to do what you did tonight so I thank you all for your hard work on this and um I look forward to seeing it in print on your website let me know when you put it up so thank you before we leave I know it's late and you guys have done a lot of work and we all have to go to work tomorrow just one quick question I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't ask um how things are going in general um aside from what we've done is looking at governance uh because that's the last time I was here that's what we talked about so just really quickly how are things going as far as governance um with your board our things flowing meetings being managed well things good well I I have a statement or um a concern I would say you know within our board and you know we've talked about in the past about the elephant in the room okay yeah definitely we have so you know I'm concerned that you know we have a board member well I would say you know president well you know um you know we need to talk about social media you know she has posted on her on her social media uh regarding Charter School charter schools and her Facebook and I understand you know it's her her Facebook it's her page it's not my page but what disturbs me is that you know I'm getting calls I'm getting emails I'm getting negative statements regarding the Board of Education and you know they mentioned the superintendent from community members and parents so of course no one includes me now I'm in it which I have nothing to do with it but I don't mean it because I am a board member so you know someone text me this statement that um The Rosedale Community is going to give us a petition regarding this top-notch uh stem um and Mandarin do a language emerging program for a charter school I have yet to receive it but if someone received it I'm not sure where but of course they're sending it to me I I get texts all the time so my concern is so you know can you give us direction or what do we do about it I mean we just you know and and I just want to discuss this because this is why we have governance you know I don't call her and ask her personally or I'm not going to do that but you know that's what government is about for us to discuss situations like this right and it concerns like I said because I don't have an answer to people that ask me you know so what you can do about it and stuff like that and it's not my my space but what kind of Direction can you give us or I I don't know what honestly what what I need to do and I'm not sure if my other colleagues have received anything I don't know but I have so first of all I think I'm a little bit confused so let me ask for clarification first of all are you saying that trustee Bao posted something on her social media regarding a charter school um I guess advertisement and literature I'm I I don't even honestly I don't even have her on my Facebook page I don't but people have sent me you know articles or something she wrote and stuff like that and I think that um you know we need to discuss it to see what do we do about it as board members or I I don't know so when someone posts something on their Facebook that you know that they've sent it to me like in a text no when someone posts something on their Facebook and then that wasn't you and then the other board members are getting yeah well myself calls from the community about something that someone else posted yeah I kind of speaking we have another my colleagues I can see calling for myself okay so you know my colleagues have received anything I I don't know so one of the things that I've talked about in governance when we've had our our you know basic New Beginnings workshop for the boards is I always caution about social media use um it's a double-edged sword you can use it to promote things in the district and in the community and you can you know use it for the good but the thing with social media is it's all the interpretation of the the reader yeah so I could you know I could post something very simple and basic but maybe you take it as I meant it but then maybe someone else takes it and says that's no I that's not what she meant she meant this and you know you could have two different people with two three different views without seeing the posts I haven't seen the post so I don't know what it's about I do know that from being with you earlier that the charter school issue was a very sensitive issue in this District um so that is not something that I would say should be posted on social media but again I have not seen I like the opportunity um you know I wasn't sure that this was going to come up as a an agenda item and I'm not hearing you say that it in itself is an agenda item no because she has to get concerns and this is why sure the government and this is why we can't we can't do that right sure I mean yeah I asked about governance and how you were operating together as a board right we should not I get it but I think this is a time and that's what she asked and that's what I'm saying sure so I have a question um for superintendent um according to our our board bylaws policies handbook um when we have a concern I guess among board members or any any one of us would have a concern about any what other person's conduct any other trustees conduct is our protocol to talk to the superintendent is our protocol to call each other um what is do we have an established precedent or or or do we wait until board meetings or government sessions well from what I know Eastern governance Retreat you know I I don't I will not call you and you know I'm not going to approach you we're not supposed to do that no that's not I encourage you all to do and I know that but I know I thought we were supposed to but that's what I encouraged all of you to do if you recall um one of the workshops I see one of the workshops that I had with you one of the things that I encouraged because there was some dissension among some trustees was that there needed to be conversations that take place um to discuss things and to talk about things and you know not let it just simmer and but yeah so that is what I always recommend as the first course of action is to ask for clarification depending then upon the situation and what the response is after the conversation and if there's still an issue then you can decide okay no this needs further conversation at that time I would let the superintendent know hey just giving you a heads up I have this this concern with this trustee about them doing X Y and Z I've talked to this trustee about it um not happy with their response I feel like this is a is a problem but keep in mind that things that we talked about before were more interpersonal they were personality differences um I don't feel like you take me seriously or I don't feel like you listen to me or I feel like you cut me off those type of things if you're talking about something that's reflective upon the board as a whole or the district as a whole then that's that's a whole other different issue and so I I would still address my concern to that individual I would then Loop the superintendent in to say Hey you know just letting you know this is going on normally I would say I would Loop the president in as well but this is between the president and the vice president so yeah well you can still even with the president you can still feel free to you should still be able to to voice your concerns well I don't feel comfortable okay and I can under I respect that but um yeah but then after that it's something that yeah if you if you feel like you want to talk about it with the whole board then this is the only setting that you can't address that in um is not a closed session agenda item so you would have your board comments where you could bring it up and then the president would have the opportunity to respond because I just asked about governance based upon my past working with your board and what we've talked about in previous retreats then yes you had the opportunity to to voice your concerns right now because I did ask about that as far as governance you know to check in with the board based upon our previous workshops um again I haven't seen the post so if I may ask a question so board vice president respectfully since you've brought up this topic here in this forum can you share with me what your concern is now that we're sitting here face to face well yes my concern is that you are the work president and if you're posting on Charter Schools Charter School um your oath is to represent this is the Unified School District and their programs and their students it's like if I was advertising Mountain View High School when my daughter goes to Gladstone you know why am I highlighting another District you know it showed a new version we have the immersion we have stem in our district so why would you be advertising I hear you and um you know I'm unanticipatedly addressing this and I want to address it with all of my colleagues here and for for the record um so on July 14th um I hosted on my personal page right so no I'm sorry not a personal page personal profile if that's a distinction or not well on a Facebook account operated by me as an individual um I posted a flyer for what I thought was a Summer Academy summer program opportunity and that's what I thought I posted to say hey and it was in the middle of summer exactly July 14th um I'm sorry for from our district I just want clarification if I could I wouldn't be happy to provide clarification yeah uh to share publicly right I'm I'm on tape as we all are um and so I wish I received an e-flyer that you know was kind of small and it was I I believe again this is what I believe was it was a summer opportunity it was a a um I don't know if it was tuition free or if it was it was tuition based or fee-based summer program that was offered in the city of Azusa and I believe it was offered at Apu at an APU classroom um that's what I thought I said and when I was representing it I wasn't representing to say I'm doing this or the district is doing that said hey families here's an opportunity for another summer program among all of the summer programs that are available to families in the area including what our city does other non-profits things like that um I posted it like hey here's something that you could do if your kid's interest in stem right I had looked at it myself for my own kids but ultimately we decided to do it do something else and I enrolled my kids and think together um and as everyone knows here that my two students are in elementary school in the district and in fact they attend Hodge in the dual immersion Spanish program so yes I am the supporter of dual immersion programs myself as a parent um and we're currently enrolled in the Spanish program and I intend for my children to graduate and earn their biling we'll see a live of literacy um subsequent to my the post that I made um I saw some posting about well you know what is what is this you know is is Dr Beau supporting a charter school and I was like oh well no I wasn't supporting a charter school I was just sharing information about a summer program and so I realized that this has caused some consternation within the community and um you know I think one of the most important things I've learned as an elected official is to listen as much as you can because people will share what is important to them um people will share what's important to them right and uh I I hear that some people are perhaps questioning the oath that I took and I know a couple of times we've said here you know the oath that I took well we all took the oath right and um we took those to represent a public school district um it is no secret that I'm an educator who has worked in charter school since 2004.

um auditor presentation and um the fact that you will con receive everything before it goes to the board or to the for reviews with enough time to us to call you to ask for Mr moth like ah so I saw this and I have a question yeah so in our interpretation we'll put in there which those reports we consider should be uh and then you look at if there's any other that you want to see that we missed okay three down on to the last one all right the last one uh El Financial Administration uh executive limitation number 16.

it's van Venter Manufacturing Company it just says principle on short-term debt I don't what does that mean it means that but sometimes we use language that nor that you know like it doesn't it seems obscure but that would be to pay down debt and so that is the lease for the what we call the mfac or the maintenance facility that's on Main Street okay and uh it's a it's a lease to own so it's considered debt and so when we finish paying that off I believe it's either off the top of my head it's either next year or the year after we'll own that building okay okay that's all right thanks I had uh I guess one question too more on the process side of when we do these contracts like with the Chromebook renewal um do we solicit bids like from different and and this is more than just about the Chromebook but just in general when we're renewing contracts um uh I guess what's what's the process there do we solicit bids from different uh companies it depends on what we're procuring and in the case of Technology it's exempt from bidding requirements so we don't seek bids what we do is see quotes and so our board's policy is that we have to seek at least two quotes Okay and ideally three before we enter into those purchases although in some cases some technology depending on what has come before there might be circumstances there are circumstances where we would only have one but yeah we try to seek out the best price and the the reason why technology is exempt from those requirements is because it's a very difficult to spec in certain circumstances as you can imagine so for example um you you want a solution that actually meets your needs and sometimes you can't necessarily specify that so under Illinois law that is exempt from bidding requirements and it's just in certain cases it's beyond just the price though right we're not oh yeah absolutely you have criteria that you're looking at that these suppliers or companies have to meet yeah and so if you're not um you know when you're doing a bid it's the lowest responsible veteran so price basically is the rule as long as the as the bid is responsive to the the criteria and meets the scope and that better is somebody who is reputable and is able to deliver the product it would go to the lowest price if it's exempt from that then you can use a lot of other criteria although there are certain restrictions depending on what you're procuring and so for technology in that particular example we have a lot more flexibility but we do seek multiple quotes you'll probably see that like coming up later on in the fall and when we send stuff out to bid for next year's yeah anytime we do bids the board is required to take action and award the bid so we'll know who the different candidates were yeah you'll see you'll have a list of who responded to the bid and what their prices were and then we'll do what we call a scope review with the lowest bidder to make sure that their their bid and our spec are lined up that we're we're getting what we're we're asking for and that they're capable of delivering and that they're responsible better and then Craig's responsible all on my own thank you thank you any other questions good questions though thank you I'm hearing none I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented smooth motion by RJ second second second by Sue all in favor aye opposed motion passes next is reports Tom is there anything you'd like to share under reports uh the foia reports under Section 5.1 are presented in the agenda in the packet any questions I was just I was just wondering about the purchasing records um that seems like a very vague request to me but it was granted what what did we provide there so we this is a regular request that we received from this company which is smart PR smart procure and they want basically everything that we purchased for generally on a quarter basis and so that's what we provide them is we do an export from our system for everything that we purchased and those are public records and they're entitled to them I'm not saying that I was just surprised that caught me by surprise like everything you've ever purchased but I you know what I'm catching out the dates so they they quarter it off for you yeah it's generally about four times a year then okay you see that and so that's our that's a regular request when I first read it I thought it said up to four up to April of 2023.

so we've got one more here but it's a kind of a money in Money out thing it's not like they just give us the cash we hold on to it we have to show them I was just I was just curious like so okay so we still have a year I didn't know if uh anything with our budget was something that we could put from the theater fund like if there was something like you just said the HVAC so I didn't know if there's anything else we are philosophy on the on the Esther funds has been we tried to alleviate alleviate the capital needs that we've been kind of putting off historically you know to get through the Great Recession stopped investing in capital projects because we we literally couldn't afford to do it and so we built that back over time and our money for those capital projects have gone a little further because we've had this after money so this I have one comment just so for me to summarize it and I want to thank Dr inglesik has that he spent all the time walking me through this document but my big takeaways for the community on this budget is one we're living within our means we're paying our bills we want to thank the local taxpayers because that's where the bulk of our Revenue comes from the bulk of our investment our budget is going into our people so we are investing in our people and while we are living within our means it is nice to know that we have a little wiggle room so if something unanticipated does happen we're not going to have to immediately borrow money so uh anything else you want to add on a big picture level it's the gist of it and there's a lot there to digest and if anybody has any questions or thoughts or things that come up after the fact I actually enjoy talking about this and so I'm happy to sit down with you and walk you through it whether it's a board member or a Community member anybody uh you know we want to make I gotta go Tony you want to be gone yeah he means it I enjoy it things [Laughter] all right my only question on it just to kind of be clear about the capital projects plans those are anticipated transfers they're not for some unforeseen conditions or anything else you can kind of quote unquote Park the money in the education fund or in the O M fund to be able to move over to capital projects at some point for expenditures is that correct this is what we can afford to move and so one thing I should add is that historically all of our transfers to capital projects have been from o m right this is the first time that we're drawing some of that money from the education fund and the reason being is because we don't have any more cash left in the O M fund to get to the level that we need to get to for to to get all the money that we need into the capital project pretty significant and require and necessary projects yeah well you know yeah and so like what we we've been we've increased what we're putting toward this because of the magnitude of some of the work that we have to undertake for example like AGS and jbn yeah and there just isn't enough cash in the you know on the o m fund to fund all of it this year okay a little I have a question but it's not a little bit but we have an update on the capital project was that everything get completed like I know last one we had pictures but we don't have any pictures yeah we were talking about doing an update about that and um what we'd like to do is we'd like you to see it because it's it's pretty cool um and so we're trying to figure out how we can make that happen uh there's odds and ends of course uh that need to be taken care of as typical punch list items and like flashing around some of the in the awnings outside the door is it looks a little funny when you look at it right now but it'll be taken care of here in the next week or two but nothing that would preclude us from using the building the other example would be like the signs that are in place the monument signs don't actually have the name of the school on them yet but they will that's great so these are the kinds of things that are happening now but nothing that precludes us from using the space but um it's really nice to have I mean it's just it feels better and it makes more sense it's nice to have spaces that just fit kind of our needs are going to have modern needs for schools it's kind of it's kind of one of those things like if you don't know how bad it is until you you see how it really could work well and so it's it's very it's very refreshing we're very pleased with how things turned out we've got some more work to do though are we talking about doing board that we'll figure out something but it's years ago repent especially after major construction or something like that would take the activity bus and we'd all go see the high school and what they've done over there and then go to the middle school and go to AGS and just travel around all the schools and it was very difficult burdensome to some of the principles I think sometimes and but it was really informative for us to see like when they had major construction and get to see all at once you know so hopefully something like that can be worked out Mark Anderson was an excellent driver as well yes sir it's always better do we have to go on that bus yes you have to does it have air conditioning it does it does yes what'd you say it was difficult getting everywhere well it is like during the day and then you have to deal with our day on the bus there's always one part of the thing would be that that's under official business of the board so we would so they know where the board will be at roughly approximate times so that if public wanted to participate they have a right to do that so I think the last one was the one right before I became appointed to the board and I wasn't appointed yet they're like oh we're doing this do you want to come along as a member of the public so I did but I don't think I got to write on the activity bus so I'm a little bummed that I'm not sure I knew there was one but even we like had lunch at the high school we were hitting the projects that that you could trip okay so is there anybody from the public that would wish to address the board hearing none and there'd be at least one it's one it's like silence for not carrying take it for you did a good job Tony will do all right thank you any thing we need to do as far as that meeting or the closing or doing nothing right okay historically we've done you know like the where the board opens the meeting and the board closes yeah yeah as long as we give folks an opportunity to address the board we're okay opportunity had all right um staff and board comments Administration comments is there anything you'd like to share for the administration sure um so tonight Mark's actually at the conclusion of our board meeting tonight we'll mark my 53rd day on the job and it's one to provide the board a few updates um beginning with you know when I started on July 1st there were some large overall objectives I wanted to make sure the first uh several months were something I was going to see through as your new superintendent so after 53 days I was reviewing this and and it looks like that road map of goals is being completed or on the path to towards completion one of them being initially us as a board and superintendent team we were able to get together and do some of our mandatory training requirements but also be able to establish some ideas as to how we'd like to work together as a team and as teammates to support each other which I also want to say thank you to everybody who continues to want to reach out and talk and ask questions I continue to encourage that um want to make sure you as a board are always informed of everything that we're doing in this district for our students uh secondly one of the big ideas and Todd we're like becoming this great Partnership of speakers here who did this to me on Monday last week but as Todd has alluded to already about a little bit about trust um one of the things that we also talked about during my course of my hiring and now as I've been through the district for almost two months is the idea of making sure that we as a district continue to build on the trust we have with our community and our stakeholders both inside the district and outside of our district and so through this time it's been great I've been able to meet with groups of students Bea leadership and Bea members Vespa leadership investment members our entire Administration which we also had time to work together at a retreat during July and get ready to launch the the school year in August officials from the city and the mayor's office police leader our police chief our fire chief the Chamber of Commerce leadership our library leaders Park District leaders beefy chief Japan United Way the Batavia Ministerial Association and the Batavia Women's Club I am probably leaving some other groups out there the stakeholders that we've met and connected with and we're we're starting to round out the rest that we need to make sure we're connected to but it goes back to some of the questions I've been asked when people say how's your transition and one of the things like you you have probably heard me say is it's been an amazing early Journey there's so much support for this school district it is so clear from inside our organization and outside of our organization people love and care about our district and our students and so for me again one of those things as we continue to progress I am just really thrilled and excited about Holly's Been instrumental in helping me make sure that I'm getting connected to the right people and arranging that along with Cindy so I want to give them Kudos and and gratitude for that and also this has been an opportunity for me to continue to learn and understand our why as a district why we are here as Educators what we value and care about when we do our teaching and learning with our students and so that's that's something that is not done yet that is a continuing process throughout the course of this year but it's one that's definitely been on its I'm going to use Tony's work Glide path um so as alluded to start we started the school school year last week we welcomed staff Monday and then brought students in on Wednesday it was a super exciting time I was kind of getting sick of sitting in the office and and just looking at our colleagues and I think we wanted to see that energy and feel right about why we're here and that definitely uh hit the soul on Wednesday seeing all of our kids seeing some criers separating from moms and dads and I think some of the parents were also crying in their cars uh when I was walking to the next building truck getting my car to get to the next building I did notice someone crying and I checked on her and she was like laughing because like caught her crying uh that was sweet um but it's just been a phenomenal opportunity to see how we open schools the collaboration that's been going on and so again coming back to the idea of trust and as Todd's alluded to we have uh great work ahead of us and I'm looking forward to that opportunity a special thanks as we went through opening the schools to our building and operations teams and our technology department as well they were instrumental as you can all imagine leading into the week everything just gets ramped up even more it's already busy but it gets even more ramped up you know our o m teams are trying to prepare the building openings while you know some of the delays that might have happened over the summer were out of their hands because of Supply short you know late delivery on supplies or certain things that the construction groups couldn't get to until they received the right stuff our teams responded very quickly and and proactively in assisting everybody to get their rooms ready get the buildings ready and open they look phenomenal from a technology standpoint just to give you an idea just on opening week alone our Tech Team handled over 460 tickets opened and closed on one week on that team while they were also still hustling to finish pulling all the wires in our buildings and setting up Chromebooks and opening up email accounts we had over 71 new staff accounts opened up since July and you know so there's a lot of data that I've talked to Dave about and I just found it to be really impressive and knowing what Mark's been doing and and hearing our updates about the district just really impressive last thing uh the corn boil was an amazing opportunity to see our community in action coming together at the high school but representing not just current parents but I mean there were community members there I thought that was an amazing event got a chance to hang out with some of you and that was awesome and just looking forward to a great year one Speaking of the great year final comment is board we'll need to we'll be talking a little bit about our April regular board meeting there was a late summer legislative change that will require us to move our regular board meeting up and have it conducted prior to April 15th and that is a statutory regulation due to the timing of when we handle our sb7 reduction of force board meeting every year the annual meeting that happens so we can we don't need to make that decision tonight but I'm just throwing that out there so you're aware so two proposals I'll throw out there could be one of the two first Tuesdays before April 15th other than that it's been awesome thank you for all for your support and that's all I got all right any board comments anyone like to start at that end uh you look like you're chopping at the bit Erin so no I'm gonna wait my turn Sue Kelly um I just I'm just gonna talk about flag day but Todd did such an awesome job I've been working on that with that committee for over seven years now to help build that Monument so I would encourage anyone who's around on October 1st to join us downtown to celebrate the opening of The Monument um Flag Day Monument I don't know that flagday monument.com is the website and I believe later on this week they will be having a cool down tab where you can donate 17.77 which is the year that the Flag Day was originated and they're trying to get people to donate in the name of the school that you went to or you're affiliated with so if my kids went to AGS I could donate 17.79 77 cents to Aid in the name of AGS kid's good Hoover what wherever so I would encourage you maybe to do that and it will go towards purchasing a brick in the name of AGS and if you'd like to purchase a family brick with your name on it and I got to see mine last night it was very exciting purchased it seven years ago finally got to see it so might enjoy that also I was very excited last week on the first day of school I got to go to Batavia High School first thing in the morning so I saw seniors freshmen you can always tell the difference then I went over to storm met some students and parents over there then I joined Tom over at Louise White it's not my school that I'm a liaison to but I have a close connection I think I've gone over there so many years to see Dr skomer and all the kids ring the bell it is a wonderful tradition and it was Dr scomer's last first year so I wanted to be there for him when he did that and it was just a wonderful experience and so I just I just had a great time so hope everybody has a great year and thank you Tony doing a great job because I do remember those years and we had to borrow all that money enjoy the fact that you don't have to be on the board when we're borrowing all that money so thank you Craig everything to add to you I'm sorry I'm so sorry I think we overlooked many updates yeah I'll get that I'll add that right after we get down with Poconos well I would have updated if I had anything are we updating during this time I'll go back around for a couple of years I don't have anything to add on top of you guys that's amazing congratulations to getting started this year and it sounds like it's been a really energetic and positive start I hope I heard a lot about opening day I was able to go but the staff like that I heard from were just like oh we're just so excited and I mean it's really cool to hear I think staff Community just everyone all together just excited for what we have in store for this year and um just to pick you up back off your gratitude for everyone who got us through the first week and all the hard work that's Lane had so just looking forward to the year and working together but yeah thanks thank you uh I want to thank first of all everyone who attended the meeting tonight um or who emailed or just reaches out to us when we're out in the community again I say it every meeting but it's very important it's vital to the work we do so I appreciate that um I do want to welcome all our new teachers I was at the kickoff on staff and I think we had 38 new teachers which is a big number for us so we're excited about that we're excited to see a lot of familiar faces and of course I want to welcome all the students back to instruction I always kind of amazingly the energy the anxiety maybe on that first day and then after about three or four days everybody gets in a Groove and we're off rolling so that's exciting I do want to recognize two people I won't mention well we'll mention one um at that kickoff for the staff there was two students that spoke one from representing Rotolo one from the high school one was Zara who's one of our student ambassadors and I just had to say that you know our kids are just so impressive I mean I'm 50 and I would have been nervous giving that presentation and they did a knocked it out of the park so you know I'm just constantly amazed at what our kids do I also want to say that you know I attended a lot of events as a kickoff and what's really exciting is that students are the focus of everything we're doing and I'm just really excited about what we're going to be able to accomplish this year and then I'm going to be a little bit of a broken record but again getting to opening day and having it go smoothly is a lot of work and so I want to thank Holly for getting the word out and I also want to thank three people specifically director of operations Mark Anderson facility manager Rob Schmidt and director of Information Services David Thirlby they were grinding I mean I saw Mark Anderson making sure the buses were running on time that first or second day so outstanding work on their part and then finally I just want to compliment the superintendent Kim I mean you listed off about 20 organizations you met with I mean I swear to God I've bumped into probably four times last week I think one time I got coffee or and you made it for me you were there you're so present in the community so but that's what we need to do I mean as we said earlier trust is based off relationships and you're doing that work and I I know that you have kids that are also starting school and so you're putting in the hours I know that's time away from your family yeah and it's appreciated and recognized so thank you for that um I just want to say to welcome back to all the kids administrators uh teachers support staff um yeah and just thanks to everyone who made that first day goes smoothly as possible in the whole first week and it's my hope that we just have a great healthy and happy and productive school year Rob um as everyone else welcome back to the teachers students and parents as well wish everyone a very successful school year I had the opportunity to go to AGS on Wednesday for their opening day and I'm going to use the word I think I've heard a couple times already but it was very energizing to be there on that first day seeing the kids and being a few years removed from having kids in elementary school setting it's just something so pure about seeing those kids arrive at School especially those that are there for the first time and getting ready for instruction I shout out to principal Kristen Stevens at AGS just did an awesome job handling that day and some of the issues that came up even prior to Wednesday I went the Friday before and she gave me a tour of the school and showed me all the improvements you know Tony was mentioning some of them at AGS and it's just amazing and I'll continue to beat the drum that we need to have those improvements at all our schools it can't just be at AGS and JD Nelson we need to continue trying to come up with a plan to work towards making our schools more secure more safe and a Better Learning environment for for the students RJ um I was I was at you know my daughter is in sixth grade so I was very jealous of my daughter when we went to the move-in day at uh at Rotolo and I saw Tom that I think I met your kids right there did I meet your children no no I was just I was helping others what am I thinking I was oh maybe you were talking to someone else's kids um I swear about your children somewhere no um but it was it was amazing you know we all talk about it we know how great the school system is but I don't know if my wife and I were more nervous than my daughter possibly and when we couldn't get her Locker Unlocked it was just it was crazy and there's three or four other kids are all like I'll help you I'll help you and it did turn out it was just the wrong combination but there was so many people that were willing to help just with such a such a simple task but my daughter told me that the first day of school she was helping other kids open up their lockers and she gets you know so she was enjoying it and we we went through that first day of her leaving on the bus and my wife and I were hiding behind a bush down there about a block away she saw us she was fine with it but it's it's so you know it's so emotional and makes you so nervous and I think you all I know you're all involved in just every little thing that makes it that much better so um it was really a proud day for me to be part of the district so thank you all to everyone that's involved with making it happen thank you for putting all the effort you've been putting in lately as well that's it saved my comment to the end but let's do the committee updates and since you can't just say one thing yeah I want to thank everybody for thinking but I want to make it really clear I have amazing teammates that allow me to do that everything that the people in this building at mfac are doing is what allows me to get out there and do that so I want to say thank you to my teammates that are here in this room and then the teammates that are not here tonight but the principals the Russell Administration it doesn't happen without them no and since RJ pointed out you get to start committee update so I hope you have one I have no committee I want to hear some though Rob do you have one I do not have one but I have a question so um I have not heard about any of my committee's meetings is is that they go a little something communicated through an email yeah you get an invite soon okay it'll happen and before I jump does anybody have a committee update um I don't I I wasn't part of it but plaque did me um I wasn't able to go they had to read Retreat um and August 3rd so I'm just going off of their agenda but it sounds like they really kind of head on from their April meeting um which focused on like how do we measure the impact on student learning and discussions around that again I can't really speak to it because I wasn't there but um I mean it based on this and they talked about kind of went over their reflection and review from September of 2022 the um uh my gosh you know when the teacher uh the uh Institute thank you thank you Institute day so they kind of reflected on um what was the feedback and again I can't speak to what the content of it of it is but that's what I got okay so I I will be there in September so I'll have a better update okay I I did have a question Danielle so the equity meeting the Equity Group didn't have a chance to meet yet I need not to my knowledge and I plan on reaching out that's the only reason I even brought up the committee updates I was hoping there's gonna be something that could actually I'll let you know as soon as and there will be there will be committee invitations and updates as as you've heard Todd and I have some of those major committees that we're working on together making sure we have the right people there and get their representation okay Sue do you have anything no no I did not I do not have a committee update the people that I work with on the capitol projects committee were very very busy making sure that schools opened and kids showed up and everything else so I I fully understand why we did not my only comments are this is the first year of many many years where I did not have a kid going to Batavia school district and so I appreciate Tom and Holly helping me record a little bit of a message for the teachers I hoped it looked slightly better than I thought I left it so um and that um I I'm kind of beginning to realize this particularly with my youngest one how well we do to kind of prepare them for school and then as a reminder to parents that sometimes when your children leave they're better than you thought they were and to tell the teachers that and the staff and everybody that supports them that they did a great job Riley um is doing an amazing social emotional learning experience to manage my wife's and mine's emotional Behavior so he's doing a fantastic camp counselor report every couple hours as he goes to classes so I appreciate the teachers and everybody else for helping them understand that that is very helpful so um and with that just finally I know the immense amount of work because in my profession I have been working um kind of non-stop with schools that are beginning to open and the custodians and the building foreman and people like Mark and superintendents and teachers and all the effort that goes in that I've done I see it firsthand and the tension and the um and The Angst about that and then somehow miracles happen and the first day is amazing so I hope it was for everybody else and look forward to a great year thank you all right so today we will be adjourning to a closed session um for the following reasons you can buckle up I got a lot to read um the the closed session is for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a parked recreational educational setting or specific volunteers of a public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint Lodge against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer or public body or against legal counsel for public body to determine the validity that's the first period by the way however a meeting to consider the increase of compensation of a specific employee in a public body is subject to the local government wage increase transparency act it may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with this act five ilcs 120 2c1 and for security procedures School building safety security and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual a threatened or a reasonably potential danger to the safety in employees student staff and the public body pursuant to 5iilcs 122c8 so um do I hear a motion to go and oh did I get that oh yeah yeah here a motion to move into close session so move motioned by Sue second by Raquel all in favor aye uh post so moved we will be going into closed session I don't believe we've got any actions after this meeting so you can stay around if you want but you won't be watching anything entertaining when we get back thank you everybody

Brendan said he had to leave at nine and I have to leave shortly thereafter right wow is there anything that we should skip ahead and do or if we just come this list are we could we be done for the night or um yeah I think we need a list well and then we can discuss the the marked up um marked up report sorry thank you I just forwarded the stuff that Kevin and I were talking about the other day and a couple of things I found going on that website of theirs so you all will have it and you can look at it because it's it's actually really interesting um and they're not messing around food I think we should reword this but do we want to add something to this effect to the list yeah I was thinking that would be useful unless other people have a something else they want to do yeah I'm for it um the other thing Kevin would be the site analysis well actually it's that whole next section at the bottom actual below this one should line it on our foreign six and seven yeah like should um should seven be like an a probably or you could just combine it I think yeah hidden line perspective let me use of the model thank you so site analysis do we want to expand on that it says a site analysis that considers environmental conditions including but not limited to solar aspect including changes that any building would create during an existing vegetation topography noise screening Etc I don't know well we never see that we see some of it but we don't we don't really see I would rather them I think we could figure it out ourselves and then I feel like I'd rather ask them to focus on like the massing and the things well we actually need them we actually need them to tell us some of this because they don't it doesn't get concerned what do we know Ashland more than them ideally yeah because you never he didn't give us the proper solar thing and so you know some of this is saying stuff that you might already do without even thinking about it when you look at a project but some of these people are coming in here and they don't they're not they're they're not thinking about this stuff or I'm gonna say that the way they present stuff I I think they aren't thinking about it in a holistic way um and it comes in piecemeal fair enough and we need them to be to me it's a way to get them to do their homework because I think that some of the issues we're having right now are because stuff wasn't thought out or they just thought they'd do it as they were building it I don't know what they're thinking um but it's actually they're just not professionals I didn't say that there's another there's another time well what precedes that is it says three viable schematic facade Design Concepts Illustrated in elevation including details of the building base yeah we don't even mention anything about materials or facade options here all right so that that's actually where we're proposing something somewhat different and new because then they go down to follow any additional diagrams illustrating proposed satisfaction of the design guidelines applicable to the development proposal you guys work in Somerville right what's HUD PUD um a boy a thing design Urban Design so it gets even more crazy it says it's a planned unit development as well developing subject to any previously approved PUD of the Pharma asmd zoning District must provide the following blah blah blah yeah I think a putt is is similar to like the the Ashland downtown district it's it's a planned development with a with a future goal in mind I don't know um I don't know what we actually want to list here because it could be an endless list actually well well I think the list that's there gets through well this said environmental conditions including but not limited to solar aspect including changes that any building would create drainage existing vegetation topography noise screening Etc so I know like in Boston they talk about shade of buildings they talk about wind tunnels like all the time it's one of the big it's two of the big things to come up with with buildings and that's from oh a long time ago back when I used to live in Boston long before they changed the name and they wanted to know all these things about it um in particular downtown by the common in the public garden they were very clear that they didn't want buildings to be that tall to create shade on either of those spaces wanted them to be in the sun to be nice pleasant spaces and at some point uh I was in charge of an event down there and the people were from New York and they all commented on the fact that it was a sunny space whereas wherever they had done something in New York it used to be sunny but it had become shaded by buildings which I thought was a really interesting comment I was like huh unintended effective development that nobody had thought about until they had to [Music] yeah I don't think you can make a good Building without without assessing all of this so when we present to a client we actually say you know you already know all of this we're just kind of telling you the story of of your town or your property or whatever it is and it really shows that we've done our homework and we we know why we're doing the things that we're doing even exactly even if we feel like the person that we're presenting to already knows all the information right right no I think it's a good it's a good um I hate to use the term exercise but I think it is yeah I don't know what sorry I'm skipping ahead but I don't know where this one came from now it's not so confusing I can't say that is it because we don't trust that when they say they're doing compact spaces we don't trust that that they're scaled correctly in the plan or I think what we actually wanted to see is what the difference would be so that if because our parking calls for whatever it calls for and it's more than it's more than people think is reasonable now which is why everybody keeps coming to us saying we need we want an adjustment to it and generally they they get it um even though they have to go through all of these Shenanigans to get it and so that's in there because what would the square footage if you if you didn't have all of the parking per the bylaw What would essentially what where would you where would you get extra square foot on your property and what would you do with it that's that that's why that's in there I think it was a long time ago it feels like a long time ago when we wrote this I think that would it feels confusing what's that it feels confusing me I just I mean we're just asking them to present a civil drawing that shows the parking I I don't know because the the parking regular space and smaller space so so you want to see I don't know well let me put it to you this way I don't know if this is reasonable and I don't know if we can get it out of them or people are going to have the reaction that YouTube just had um but I think that was in there because when it got written at the time you thought it was something that would be reasonable to ask them and partly because it started to come up at planning board meetings there are actually theoretically going to be looking at that and then when I heard that's why I sent the stuff about parking a while ago and about the cost of how much it costs to make to parking spaces per unit in a project I'd rather rather them just meet the parking standards for the zoning check that box and then we can have a discussion about reducing sizes but I think that's a that's a zoning question well it It ultimately is I guess I would I would never like I would never prepare like a separate site plan with different parking sizes okay that didn't meet the zoning requirements just get it out of there um I've never seen a planning board well we we actually it's because we're we have an an ongoing issue with smaller compact cars some of them and some of them are behemoths still and then the third piece of that is that we're [Music] um people are either way are trying to not do the standard like 10 by 20.

so they're both commercial uses but his um it's a much his project of masking scale of it is in has a much smaller footprint than the than the storage unit project for example or um even like 128 million or 12 pond have are there's more massing to those I think than than there is to um then what happened over at magunco Road because he was mostly a one-story building over there right maybe it's two stories of like parking spaces and like Signs and like it didn't seem like it seems like this would be like over their head well it's Overkill first I well yeah yeah I'm not sure how I don't know if I've raised the planning board if they decide or not but it feels like I think we're Fresh Off in 1949 and we were kind of like and we need to Destin this message it seems like a lot I think um we just need to think about the phrasing of how we would do this of how we would say that um and put it up at the top that this was intended for larger more major construction projects or yeah major yeah we have to Define it really carefully because it's defined what's major what's Minor by laws anywhere no I don't think so I mean you have to poke around and look I don't I mean the only way it's defined is about multi-family and the amount of parking which is way over the top you know I mean we have to come up with a different way to describe what you're talking about because I think you're right but he has Oodles of parking there what's this business auto body right you know so he's going to have them there and he's doing two things there I think he's selling used cars and he's doing the auto body and I jumped in on this topic yeah please please um I I think that it's up to us to determine how we apply these these questions and and our report format and list of documents to each project right but if I Was An Architect going you know going after a project and and maybe it was just like a small addition to an existing building I would look at this list and probably I would respond to each item in in the narrative that I would write per per item two here and I would say not applicable to like to any of these things if if there's an item here that we're requesting that doesn't apply to the building at hand or the project at hand then I think it's up to the applicant to note that it doesn't apply to them and and I think I think that could be reasonable I think we just assessed that on a case-by-case basis I don't want to I don't want to create separate lists for different types I don't think we need to say anything upfront about that this list is only for certain projects because then because then an applicant might say well my project doesn't fit into that mold and so I don't it doesn't apply to me that's that's partly what I'm concerned about I don't want this to be misinterpreted but I think it's a really viable point [Music] um is it kind of this application for like anything that like requires a special permit yeah we only review special permit products okay so okay all right so yeah let's just make them say like like um let the applicant determine what they want to provide I don't why did go come to us because of where it's located it was a special torment with regards to the parking wasn't it or there was a second use being applied to the property yeah but I don't remember the the triggers for generally you are our location in the town where it's it was um it might have been the parking that brought it because there was so much parking compared to the buildings I don't actually remember I just remember being surprised and then I figured out who it was I was like oh wow guys I'm gonna have to go in a couple of minutes just so you know we if Brendan is leaving too then we need to um because we're not gonna hang around for a little longer okay so my concern is I want to actually get I want if we think this is good so Hana before we finish the list yeah do we think we've finished it that's my question or do we want to just uh you could send us back out to everyone and we could look at it see you know fresh if we notice anything missing right that's what I was thinking just so we don't yeah done here and maybe we can figure out a way I think we have to be really careful with that I think you've got a good point Brendan but I think we have to be really careful with how we raise something like that because whoever somebody else I haven't been here that long so maybe just that one little project seemed like it was like maybe that's just like the odd odd project so well we've excuse me we've actually had a couple um there was one where they're storing a bunch of stuff the downtown project right now and a lot that's on magunco road right at the top of mogunco road across from where the dance studio is I think that's called zero montgomco Road or I don't remember and then there was another one sorry where all the lighting poles are yes thank you and then um there was another one that backed up to the railroad tracks behind the magunco road properties uh which is a landscaper who bought up three properties down there to clean up and expand his business and fit everything into that area Metcalf Road Maybe um anyway that was sort of a small one because he was changing the use of something over there even though it was in an overlay District they had to come before us so you know they didn't those didn't have a lot of documents either foreign need them they were going to be I think uh design Review Committee at the time thought that the landscaper buying up the property and doing what he's doing over there was going to be a vast improvement from what had been previously going on what's up you know so um do we want to do we think this is good for right now we'll take another look at it next time yes I think so um yeah okay and then um anybody have any comments on the letter before we uh the email from design review I mean two design review from the planning board all the green notes mm-hmm you had a reaction Brenda thank you I know it seemed a little dismissal like not not your Not Your Role Not Your Role not your role yeah we'll tell you what to look at exactly I told Kathy we got sent to bed without supper so I think we all feel the same way that's how I feel right like keep screaming into the void well I think we have to be clear about what we think our rule is per the bylab which was set by time meeting and if we think that what we did was reasonable and we just keep on going make it as transparent as possible because that's what I think we've been really trying to do and we've been trying very hard with some good success to work on our Communications streamlining improving the communications with this document thank you again you guys you dreamed it up to begin with that was that's huge um I think it's made a big a a big impact I don't know sorry go ahead well I didn't know if anyone else had anything else to say but I just I I don't I don't know another way to approach this I think you know they called out the bylaw in their letter and so it's an invitation for us to revisit it and check what we're doing against it which we've done before but maybe just look at it again um and then continue on because I certainly I mean from the tone of the letter it was more like we'll decide what we want you to look at not like you should you know follow the bylaw even though they brought it up so I found that to be a little contradictory right well what I was also struck by was that we're clear we're advisory so I'm yeah I'm finding the tone you can only look at this if we say so well surprising actually based on what the Biola actually says so I think we're we're getting um uh I asked talking to I don't know two or three people about this I said it would be helpful for us to have binders of the bylaw so people can go through and mark them up and flag areas and things like that because I find it really much easier to edit stuff if I have something in front of me as opposed to trying to do it digitally um so by Tuesday Wednesday next week Alvaro will have all that stuff ready for us what is it a print of the bylaws or print of the the guidelines or what is it and I'll I'll actually it's a good question I'll just clarify with him that we're looking for both you know I mean looking at the email from Marcelo and Trisha I I wonder where we overstepped because the Bible we broke down our report format into landscape and building orientation open space Heritage pedestrian access like that's that's how we broke it down and then when you look at things like under building orientation height and scale I mean those are kind of vague things and I I think we're still within our rights to to review them I don't I don't think we overstepped yeah I don't think we overstepped based on what I've seen but I think that's why um I think would be useful for everybody to have the copies of this so we can all be looking at the same thing and go through it and make sure that we're we're within the bylaw I I think that the idea is that the project is beyond the point looking at massing that the planning board planning board has already reviewed and invented that and well it's it well let me just finish that's another reason why we should be looking at projects earlier so that we can actually comment and make make some changes um at the outset right and we had a conversation about this lack of space at the front of the building and the masking the scale in terms of why um one of the reasons why we were having so much trouble figuring out what we could do with the Landscaping and all the other things that were desirable to have out there in that front space because it's really too small for the scale of the building so just say nothing of now we have holes and wires out there also taking pace well I don't think we have time to actually talk about the project no I think um no and I think I'd actually liked it um I had a I have a long day tomorrow I had a long day today um oops sorry um so what I was thinking is we can go back we've got we've got this thing which you can send out to all this right cap the end of this what you edited yes yeah and we'll um we'll all look at it oh we'll I'll look at this uh committee report and hopefully next week we'll get the binders and we can start going through them to and apply it to the report and see if we think we're still you know we're still within what we're supposed to be doing and then we'll take it from there I think you know I think we can if we disagree with what's being said we can just write on our our last report that we respectfully disagree because I'll our job is to render an opinion it's their job to make the decision yeah and I I think what what the planningware wants us to do is focus on what we can still control at this point with this particular project um right we still have decisions to be made so I'm going to use those have been made already yeah I'm gonna use a project though that we got we got the uh there was a 40b it's tied up in land court right now just below Cirrus and we got a request from the zoning board to look at that project they wanted us to look at the architecture of the project it was pretty modern and I think they weren't very comfortable with it by the end of the guys presentation he'd he had referred to the Landscaping so many times in the presentation that part of our comments back we prefaced our comments back to the zoning board saying we cannot consider this project without the Landscaping so we've made comments about it and I just happened to run into the chair around town and said you know I hope we didn't overstep but that's why we did he said oh no it was once you wrote it that way we we understood what you had said and that was fine to do that so that's where I'm going with this that was kind of just had to pop off so um yeah but I you know I said this I think a few weeks ago that we needed to all read the Bila and here we are so um you know and I think it's gonna I think it's gonna be important I think it'll be informative and then we we can make some decisions moving forward so anybody have any other comments no okay anybody wanna uh entertain a motion to adjourn can I ask one one final question you can always ask a question what is what is the plan for reviewing in detail those green items the do we have uh I guess we're not reviewing those items until the applicant comes back to us with revised drawings and materials and all of that so are they set to be on the agenda in the next couple of weeks um I want to say there was some mention made of August 31st so that's a good question and I will just write my primary question is I don't think we need to respond to this email um with the comments from the planning board and until we meet with the applicant I don't think there's anything we need to do right now right and I'm also concerned this this report has been sent to the applicant which is something they said they weren't going to do in the future and so I'm not sure how this is communicated to the applicant right now um well because we had a oh I forget uh who we had a meeting with um Brendan it was before you came on for sure where the applicant essentially told us we didn't have to do this because there was a memo from the planning board that said they didn't have to do it anymore and that wasn't the case I think it was 100 Chestnut actually they had sent a memo saying they wanted these items answered but it was not to the exclusion of all the other stuff our committee is not the HJ we are not the authority having jurisdiction actually over the applicant so I think well that's why I want everybody to read the bylaw yeah and see because I think town the intention of town meeting was to actually have additional eyes on these projects reviewing it because Tom reading felt it was necessary kind of like the hers stuff the first time adopting the basic hers you know was kind of like the town meeting where this past time or only half of the hers stuff got adopted um when people got up and complained that um it was going to be too expensive I mean they just they they all got up there and sang a song and literally as soon as the thing got passed there was a developer in town over on um Oak Street no off of Oak Street on uh to Oregon Oregon Road who put in a development and everything up there was following the new Horrors and apparently it's some of the best housing in town in terms of you know at the time it was in terms of design or Energy Efficiency Energy Efficiency you know the design was pretty standard but Energy Efficiency well like maybe the action item right now is just confirming with Peter that the applicant knows what they need to prepare to come back to us do they do they know what their items are I think that's that's what we asked Peter to to find out I was kind of confused looking at the whole document like I think is internal I mean it's it needs to be public record of course um but I think right now it's just internal correspondence between between the planning board and ourselves but how is the how has that been translated to to the applicant and to their workload well yeah we'll find out eventually because that will be a public document I believe it's an official email going back with instructions if you will to an applicant or here's what else we want to see yeah I just wondered if they're making a succinct list or just sending that report with all the green text on it that's why why I brought it up I don't know well shall I make a motion to adjourn I was willing to entertain it a few minutes ago oh excellent all those in favor all right let me get further notes okay [Music] Brenda carry on sorry I said I it's unanimous that's awesome okay Brendan thank you so much no problem um quick question when did you call the me to order before I arrived that like 650 or do I just say 705 and that was kind of like a 705 whenever we started we were actually doing housekeeping housekeeping okay until last week oh good point so um okay I have the notes promptly took them up excellent appreciate that all right thanks everybody have a good night too take care good night

ever it's like forever and I was like that would be a nice reason right that's why I was surprised it was granted so okay anyone else on the foia reports no anything else Tony Tony on the treasure reports no they are there you know one thing that I think is interesting that the board doesn't typically see is the investment report because we actually have Investments so and I'm very excited about that we'll talk more about that in a little bit all right and then your favorite part Tony public hearing on the time yes I'm next so we'll talk about that pretty much now so um we do have to hold a public hearing on the budget each year and that's what the purpose of this agenda item is this evening we'll also talk about the interfund transfers that are part of the budget so I'm going to give a brief description of what's in the budget and the mechanics of the interfund transfers and then anybody who's here this evening is will have an opportunity to address the board and ask questions and then we'll conclude the meeting and that will suffice for our obligations for the public hearing and then of you know terms of timeline we shared with the board a tentative budget in July this month we're doing the public hearing and then next month we'll do the adoption so there will still be some changes to this budget over the course of the next month it won't change dramatically at this point but it will change before we adopt it in its final form in September uh if you wouldn't mind Holly thank you the budget is always available at the same link each year bps101.net budget most recent budget is available and there's two files that are available in public there's the public the budget form which is what we put on that's the formal official budget document that we place on display and that we submit to the State Board into the county that's the board's official budget but we also produce what we call this budget summary which parses that budget up into a format that is hopefully a little bit more digestible than than just the raw numbers and the codes like you were asking earlier Raquel you know all those codes are in that budget form and that's how we figure out which line to put those numbers on is by following the kind of the rules of that program accounting manual that the state has devised overall we expect a surplus of 2.2 million dollars that's a little bit lower than the last time you saw this budget it was 2.4 million dollars last time and we expect that with that Surplus our ending fund balance will be some 60 million dollars that will bring us to a revenue to fund balance ratio of about 52 percent now recall and when I first became the the csbo the chief School business official for the board that number was well below 25 percent and so we would have to borrow money each year so that we could make payroll and I we have come a long way since then we've been very fortunate that we've been able to improve our finances to this degree and luckily we were able to invest some of that money now or actually put that money to work for us we still need the money and and it's not just kind of sitting around we're able to invest it and and earn interest on that money we have to have we only receive payments twice a year but essentially as we're so heavily reliant on property taxes we receive a vast majority of our money each year in June in September and But after those dates there's not a whole lot of money moving into the district's coffers and so in years past actually for well over 30 years as best I can tell the board had to issue what are called tax anticipation warrants kind of payday loans essentially we would borrow that money have to pay interest on it so we could make payroll and pay our bills until the taxes flowed in and luckily we don't have to do that anymore it's a it's a it's a pretty big deal I think we're the only ones over here that remember that I don't think they know it's a new development yeah it wasn't even when I was started it was before that that it got let's say corrected Tony worked very hard on it we did and it's it's a it's a major accomplishment um because but historically we would actually you know it's kind of a waste of money to borrow money to pay interest on it to just to make payroll anyway uh overall Revenue has increased by 3.1 percent to 137 million dollars so we're approaching almost 140 million dollars uh evidence-based funding that's the the kind of the general state aid money that comes from the state of Illinois uh that's expected to remain level at 5.6 million where what we're considered to be tier four on the evidence-based funding formula so that according to the state's math we exceed the the Target or the adequacy level the targeted amount of money on a per student basis and so the new money that we're receiving from the state of Illinois is an additional five thousand dollars quite literally running to the bank with it running to the bank with an additional five thousand dollars so I'm going to call 5000 level I'll just call that close enough to the level even though it's just a little bit more other state reimbursements are what we call categoricals for special education and for transportation and so a few others uh are increasing by 1.3 percent to 3.2 million and so overall just you know our revenues are increasing by 3.1 percent meanwhile our expenditures are expected to increase by 5.3 percent so it's a good thing we have a surplus we have to be careful making sure that we remain like as I like to say on the Glide path so that we can keep our expenditures in check with our revenues um major pressure on expenditures this year is of course salaries and benefits and purchase Services given inflation we have a new teachers contract we've also had one reason why expenditures are increasing for salaries as much as they appear to be is because we have several vacancies for support staff that went unfilled in the prior year we budgeted for them we didn't fill them and so now since we didn't actually spend that money in the prior year it looks like a bigger increase also for benefits benefits did go up from the last time you saw it went up by I think probably close to a half a million dollars and so we've got some more adjustments to make on employee benefits between now and when we finalize this budget in September we've got some work to do in terms of Staffing we also have a half a million dollars in contingency in this budget in case there's anything that we couldn't anticipate so Tony on that continues you don't adjust that contingency that's just held for it so like when we saw the bump up since the last budget or adjusted you're not flexing that number to hold numbers you just that's right pure unforeseen yeah those are pure I don't flex that no I don't flex the number unless um if there's a higher degree of uncertainty you know I might but generally I I don't um no it's not a number I play with but it's certainly a number that we use in case something comes up unexpected you know we have a little bit of cushion when I first started in the first year that I was the business manager we didn't have any contingency because we literally couldn't afford it and our Surplus was a quarter of a million dollars and that's when you know you really have to make sure that the budget is working but anyway we've gotten past that so we're in a better position now uh Staffing will we will we expect to increase by 7.3 percent and this is where I believe the budget will move between now and September so the 7.3 not percent excuse me 7.3 FTE or full-time equivalence on that number could go up and it could go down between now and September we've got some work to do in terms of where things will finally land before we adopt the budget meanwhile our student enrollment is expected to decline by 2.2 percent we'll also know more here in another month what our actual student enrollment is still a little early yet I mean it's well weak into school and we you know students are showing up but there are some who may have you know their life circumstances may have changed and they might have registered and might not intend on coming back but they haven't let us know that yet so we'll finalize those numbers here in the next few weeks so that will bring our stat pupil to staff ratio down from 7.9 to 7.7 which is excellent that number has gone down dramatically in um in recent years is that all Steph yeah that's all staff yeah deeper in the budget you'll find the numbers first licensed staff that's a high level overview of the budget one thing I would note is that um we are investing that fund balance as aggressively as we can certainly not putting the principle at risk you know we invest in CDs and treasuries things that we're most assured to get our money back there they're all they're all insured those Investments and that will generate we expect about 2.2 million dollars this year and that's just a pure coincidence and so things have changed in terms of what we expect in terms of revenues and expenditures but we've landed on this number of 2.2 million it's pure coincidence but that's the Surplus that's also what we happen to be investing These funds upon in terms of what we expect in terms of interest and if we weren't able to invest those funds we would not have a balanced budget and there's a good chance we'd be talking about program Cuts laying off staff and the like so while we're doing well financially it's kind of on a Razor's Edge we have to be prudent in how we manage our finances because investing those funds in the long term are not likely to continue I mean there's probably another year or two or we'll be able to invest those funds and make some some returns on them that are reasonable but you know that I don't know that that will anticipate that we'll continue in the long term money has to keep yeah we keep rolling it over but you know as the market changes those those the investment rates will change as well too so Tony and the population student population um can you comment on are we seeing the are we seeing increases at the lower grade levels like kindergarten first grade are we seeing increases no we're seeing we're seeing about the number of students show up as we expect in our enrollment forecast and that number is going down relative to classes that are graduating because the birth rate is just that much different um in the intervening year since so for example um we graduated 500 plus students this year right you know the year before yeah the history of Batavia yeah yeah I think that was like five I don't remember off the top my head was like 550 or something where's Joanne there's one she's hiding okay yeah so uh but the incoming kindergartners are about three 350 plus a little bit more than that so the reason isn't because people are leaving town um the reason is because the birth rate has declined that much or over a 12-year period I also have a question though uh do you think when we have to go to full-time kindergarten like I know we have only like there's only one school that offers that right now but we have to go to full-time was it next year and a couple do you think that do you think that will increase no because we offer a full day experience for any parent that wants it it's not with one kindergarten teacher but most of our kindergarten students are at our buildings all day long I think there's a total of maybe 12 families that choose the half day only option across all buildings in the district across all buildings yeah and Brad that's about 97 98 right of our kindergarten enrollment we're here all day with us uh and then Holly if you go back to the interfund transfers on the previous page so to make this budget work we're transferring money for various reasons yes and so one of one of our obligations uh in according to that the kind of the rules that I that program accounting manual that I was talking about earlier is that we have to pay all long-term debt out of our debt service fund and that Debt Service fund only gets Revenue based off of the bonds that were you know the community members pay taxes on so other debt like um Capital leases in this case the fifty six thousand dollars we lease our activity buses we have to move that money from the education fund Into The Debt Service fund to pay the bills for the cat for those leases but there isn't natural Revenue in that fund to pay those bills so we have to make a transfer um we're moving 1.8 million dollars from the education fund to capital projects to pay for capital projects the key the big projects that we're paying for this year are the improvements to Alice Gustafson School and JB Nelson school or their their secure vestibules and and also for the middle school for its kitchen renovations and it's taken us a couple years worth of saving essentially to be able to afford those projects because that doesn't fit natural the size of the car the cost doesn't fit naturally into our budget also we're transferring 144 000 from the O M fund operation and that by the way Raquel matches the amount of money that you were looking at for that payment that's that band of entertainment that's for that that's also a lease so that's long-term debt that we're paying for the same reasons why we're paying the activity buses and then the balance is uh you know three million dollars from o m to capital projects again for those projects so we kind of use the the capital projects fund as kind of like a piggy bank this is a lot of the capital projects that we need to undertake just far exceed our capacity to undertake in a given fiscal year so we we put money into that fund and then we spend money out of that fund as we can afford to take on those projects the other issue is is that sometimes we don't know exactly when we're going to have to pay those bills because most of those projects take place during the summer some of the bills show up in June before the fiscal year ends a lot of the bills show up after June and so it's really tricky in terms of timing to be able to know exactly when the bill is going to hit and in the old days especially when we only had a margin of 250 000 in our budget that bill hit a wrong time you know either you had a green number or a red number and it was really hard to tell which and so that's why one of the other reasons why we use the the capital projects fund for for that purpose and I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you might have any questions I have one sure I know it's not on here because I think we get reimbursed but the Esser fund um when does it we have to be I know it's in phases so is one phase coming like I think what phase two is coming to the end phase three is is is Con getting is within a year of the end it's nice or fund is certainly Esser I don't remember what it stands for we use the acronyms around here so much that you forget what they mean yeah um but it was Federal pandemic relief money and there were three phases the first phase was the immediate phase where we were dealing with lockdown and we were buying cleaning supplies and those sorts of things we spent that money in 2020 and we spent it very quickly because it wasn't very much then the second phase came and the memory served it was about 1.2 or 1.4 million or something on that magnitude and we spent that on capital projects particularly for HVAC yes at we had projects sorry high school and middle school yeah Came From Heaven it helped us and so then we could spend other money on other Capital Improvements but the reason why that worked well is those HVAC upgrades also helped with ventilation and moving air inside the buildings for that would reduce some of the the covet load and then the third phase came and that was um in excess of two million dollars and we're still in the process of spending that 15 of that has to had to go toward basically alleviating learning loss and Brad can tell you more about it and that's basically what we have left to spend is dealing with that some of our plans have changed over the years we have to finish spending all that money by September of 24.

parking space anymore they're trying to go down to that's 9 by 18. not of 18 is the standard everywhere pretty much okay then 10 by 20 that's insane well yeah but that's the order I've never seen that um in some of the older like um malls and places like that you'll pull into a spot and you'll be like my God like you don't really have to even think about parking you know or or pulling in or you know you go into some of the garages in Boston and they're very specific about these are compact spaces only and then I don't even know compact spaces what do they what are they now I think you can go as small as eight by maybe 16. 24 foot Drive lens pretty much the standard I have never really seen sometimes they do like 20 feet long but it has a shorter drive lane like a 22 foot drive right well I did a events for years in a parking lot where it was 10 by 20 so it was fairly easy to Pace off where the tents and things were going to go that's not like Shoppers World no [Laughter] be about 100 years old if that was the case yeah all right what else we got here oh I had a question about um are we making this list which is the same list that the planning board would be requesting applicants to provide to them right is this this is the same list whether it's um documents for our review or the planning boards review because the planning board has to review a civil drawing that has parking shown so maybe we don't delete that line item I don't know well see I I don't think we should put the the words planning board up in that first yeah because I think we're asking for these documents in particular to streamline the process with the applicant yeah we rarely get all the documents we get like a pretty picture yes okay so this is in addition to what the planning board might be requiring correct yeah okay um so a number eight Like A and B could be combined I'm not quite sure why I see we should just be like an existing Edition survey I wouldn't want them to like to confuse them it'd be nice to have like a a survey like like 1949 it looks like they just kind of like Trace some property lines and don't have like an actual survey uh uh are you moving that yeah I think it should be next to the site analysis oh okay oh what Brandon was saying about the survey is actually let me just say like existing conditions survey with topography and vegetation well with topography and vegetation identified yeah so the site walk through for 9-49 I actually asked them to do that because there were a couple of significant trees which at some point we saw on something we stopping them again and that's why I ended up having the whole conversation with Julian about the critical root Zone documents which we had already sent over to the playing board like well over a year ago so I forwarded those to Alvaro to send him so they could protect the roots of those and I think there's a uh maple and I don't remember what the other one is and they're sort of to the back one of them was more off to the right and honestly everything else back there is stuff that's really beat up or invasive they did another they weren't surprised to hear this from me because they did another they did the entire uh they actually got a safe plan approved for something called Alden Street uh 41 something Walden Street and there was a boatload of trees behind that I actually went down and dragged my husband to help be the recording secretary we measured all the trees so I could talk about how valuable they were in the landscape um and what they were really doing was hiding really awful views that project had gone through or um you know but creating some buffering views and I really wanted those the trees the trees respected and there was at least one neighbor who was really glad that we were down there doing that because she had large trees right on the edge of her property they were just inside her property line but that they you know they were going to totally take that project out to the edges just like this one we could take discussion of Starbucks until Pond Street out that line I was just looking at the Somerville list again and I think what would also be helpful is a narrative oh yeah very good a written narrative we do that yeah we do that a lot just describe the project great because we hear it a lot we never see a written thing on it yeah because we ask a lot of questions that could be covered in the narrative and that we have a record of it you know about sustainability goals and um like I think I think it would be helpful for applicants to think about how the building fits into the context and actually write something about it that we can read um because I think it would be a little more thoughtful it sounds good to me so where where would that get put I just put it here under number two oh there you go okay thank you um we need to say something about Green Space in that line Green Space yes you could even say public Green Space because that's actually what the town is after yeah I like that sorry okay I'm I'm rewriting this a little bit so that we're not um accused of copying basting I don't think anybody from Somerville is um thought I thought there was maybe something else here oh diagrams oh I think there are two things I I think this actually would be helpful if we actually required a format for the presentation for one thing would be easier to see when we're when we're looking at it's 11 by 17 it's automatically going to be a larger scale on the screen we can print it and review it more easily if if we wanted to if um and it forces the applicant to create a presentation rather showing a civil drawing I'm I'm anything you think could improve what we're seeing would be great honestly and you all do lots of presentations like that because yeah this tells me that it that it shouldn't be uh construction drawing that we need to take in construction drawing and make a more you know aesthetic presentation you know it's for a different audience and context right do we treat all prefixes equally like or is there like a minor review and a major review you asked that again sorry it just popped in my head but like um do we treat all projects equally as in if you had to come to us it's the same or they're like a minor like like demagunka road is there like a minor view compared to like 1949 or um in the downtown where it's more of like a major kind of you have to yeah is there a threshold or I think it's all about this it seems like a lot yeah I think it's um is there anything that defines like like a minor project for us uh like a major project we could actually specifically like I mean like like this this list is great for 9 to 49 or like 10 to 50 or Main Street but like um Road like do we just need like a nice site plan that shows everything they're doing like with dimensions and types of any kind of proposed element or building um well we either need to say that at the top or we actually say it at the bottom and just say because that was a the big projects so I don't want to uh we need to be careful because he was doing something very different from uh that um the lovely storage building on 135.

um this is based on our state science standards the ACT science uh is not necessarily aligned quite to our state standards so that our cohort 2024 actually takes this test this counts for our accountability for a through F whereas act science doesn't count for anything with a through F it's good for our kids going out to college here again consistently above the state the state did improve as we did from last year last year was the first year when we administered azsi we do anticipate seeing these scores improve over the next few years with the adoption and implementation of DNA our new assessment platform comes with an item bank that is much more closely aligned to the state test as well as to our state standards more rigorous and and we truly believe that once students start engaging with that our staff will be able to start looking at that and adjust their instruction accordingly graduation and Dropout rates uh we had a 96 graduation rate in 2022 that puts us as the highest graduation rate of any District in Maricopa County this is according to the Arizona auditor general only three other districts Hayden winkelmann Duncan and Thatcher had higher rates and all of those were considered to be immediate small and medium-sized districts whereas we are considered to be a large District so this is an impressive feat by by both of our high schools with that graduation rate we get full points on a through f for sitting at 90 percent so maintaining a 96 huge dropout rate what that is looking at is students are identify identified as Dropout they began at one of our schools left one of our schools and we don't know where they went so a one percent dropout rate is huge and again Testament to the front office at our high schools for tracking down kids that leave and identifying where they've gone and that that then goes into our student information system gets sent up to the state that allows them to track those students and identify the dropout rate foreign CTE so here we're looking at as well as our portrait of a graduate and that College and Career Readiness so looking at our Career and Technical education program uh last year we had 465 industry credentials earned by our students in CTE there were 2557 seats in CTE courses that were filled by students I say seats because we could have a child that might take three or four CTE courses they're filling three or four of those seats and then most of those kids take a skills assessment at the end of the year we had a 90.5 percent passing rate as a district on those skills assessment our advanced placement program as a district last year we offered 28 different advanced placement courses we had 1466 seats filled by students in those courses and of the kids that took the AP test we had a 73 passing rate 73 passing rate of students earning a three or better generally a three or better is going to get you college credit uh depending on the college and depending on what they're looking for just for comparison the Morrison Institute in Helios and ASU decision Center did a study in 2018-19 looking at AP participation in the state compared to the nation in the U.S in 1819 the percentage of receiving a three or better was at 59.6 for Arizona it was at 59.4 so it's the most recent data I could come up with as a comparison but just looking at that our passing rate is sparse period to what you're seeing in the rest of okay and then last I want to show our foreign language information we had 60 seals of bi-literacy that were earned by seniors last year that's based on performance on the stamp and enrollment in our world languages programs that improved from 23 last year we also just got information as to the total number of seals of by literacy that were issued to the state our number of 60 represents five percent of the total seals given out in the state so huge shout out to Rebecca Rodriguez and our Royal language teachers for helping our kids get to that point and then again 536 of our kids were enrolled on our DLI program so again huge shout out to both of our sites as well as Rebecca Rodriguez on all of the work that she does finally kind of what's next in terms of our students and and what that they'll be doing we have our district benchmarks starting on September 5th uh for third through eighth grade in ela math and science uh we give those at the end of the first second and third quarters they are mimics of what the state test looks like gives us a lot of data about how our students are going to perform on those State tests and allow us to provide address gaps in our curriculum and that kind of thing moving forward a through F letter grades cut scores will be approved by the State Board in September they will then approve letter grades at the end of October November 1st is a state deadline to release letter grades so we'll have a better idea of where our schools are based on what the data that we have once the cut scores are approved and then I'll be able to publicly talk about them after November 1st move on when reading just wanted to throw that out there that we are currently assessing all of our k-3 students in literacy and dyslexia in using a state approved test this is mandated by state law for us to do this it's administered at the beginning middle and end of the year so we've already got data coming in on where our kindergarten first second and third grades graders are that information then gets we let parents know those kids are at risk right now and the things that we're doing to address some of those deficiencies and then finally just to put it on the radar State Testing starts at the end of January the Zella reassessment for our Els English Learners and that's the proficiency test for them and then starting the end of March beginning of April we're straight into State Testing so questions Mr Berkshire these numbers are amazing they're so good and it's a testament to our teachers and our students and just um hearing miss d'ambrosia the ambrosio's excitement that she had for her students um I'm sure that all these teachers are are just as great as she is and cheering their students on during these testings so um I'm super excited to see these numbers questions comments from the board yes um president Schultz I love seeing the high rate of graduation but I do have a question as far as our math and um reading yes we're comparing to State and our numbers are higher but at 60 percent that if if you if that equates to a grade that's still a d um so how are how has our graduation rate so high when we're only at 60 percent in those areas is our is everything kind of watered down to push these kids through to to increase our graduation rates or the numbers don't match up the graduation rates is pretty much what I'm saying so it's 60 yes great we're doing great above State average but at 60 it's still considered a d the state test is a very rigorous test I think any teacher that has participated in the state item uh writing process and and the review process those items that kids are engaged in are extremely rigorous so obviously when you look at some of the metrics that some of the organizations in Arizona put out the goal is that our third graders are sitting at probably an 80 passing rate and that has been a long-term goal um but I would it is very hard to equate a standardized test that a child takes one time a year to a collection of evidence that goes into a student's grade there there are a lot of factors that could impact besides the rigor of the test that student performance on that one day that they take that test they could have had a cold and been snippling the entire time headache and just weren't able to to engage in the tests like we know they could they could have had uh gotten off the bus that morning tripped and fell lots of different things that could have happened to impact their score on that test so what the state test results really do is they give us a snapshot of where our kids are they allow us at the district level to to look at Trends and identify maybe we have some gaps in our curriculum and and an instruction that we can address and those are things that I've been in conversation with Mr loutsonheiser here miss Lindsay as well as Miss Davis and the the instructional coach team about at the district level we also meet with all of our principals to talk about their site level data lots of different points come into to that so it's hard to to say that a grade represents what a student gets on that test Berkshire when you come back and you share the official letter grade information at that time will you be able to show us how we compare to our surrounding districts so in terms of our ASA our state test performance that data hasn't been released publicly it should be released prior to letter grades coming out once letter grades are released that information usually is public for everybody so we should in November if I come back I should be able to talk about how we perform just in test score percentage compared to our surrounding districts as well as how our schools did in comparison to to our surrounding districts in terms of letter grades and for the the slide where it had the the failing at the bottom I think it was about 15 percent um what actions are being taken to be able to help those kids increase their grades not sure which one you're referring to um I'm sorry I don't have my iPad uh page 11.

I also want to highlight there at the bottom that we have administrative staff of 102 which would be 76 certificated and 26 classified so when you're thinking of certificated staff I just wanted to be sure that we're not just talking teachers incredibly important folks but we also have other certificated staff in Chico Unified I just wanted to provide those those labels for the board to understand them for the community there were not just talking teachers we're talking about all the support staff in this classroom and building environments so some more data this year we had 26 retirements 44 resignations we were able to hire 72 teachers we were really excited at the the new teacher orientation we asked the group to raise their hands and let us know how many of them have previous experience in another district and over half raised their hand which seems really selfish professionally but we're really excited to steal teachers and get them into Chico Unified it's always a good thing for our kids so we're excited about that you can see here too that we we have six Kuma Chico Unified Management Association members and then we have 34 staff on various types of leave medical leave just just different types as always when we start school years there's still some little pieces that need to be filled we did have a week ago when we were first creating this presentation we had a couple other positions that were on here and in our special ed staff administrative staff worked hard to hire two two more clinicians so or excuse me two other positions however we still have some reading pal positions and some special ed folks that we're still looking for and we'll be working hard to fill those positions I'm not going to again read this whole list to you I do want to point out that we've been extremely fortunate to be able to recruit administrative staff into Chico obviously that has an effect on other districts but people want to work here some have been training really hard in other districts for three four five years for the opportunity to uh to come back to Chico when they had been here previously as a teacher so we're excited to have them have them join us I'm going to turn things over to David Cole and he'll walk you through the classified side well again it's very nice to be here I appreciate the opportunity uh when we look at classified Services everyone that does an older certificate by default with the within the Ed code but what's interesting with all these groups they all have subgroups within them and so we have about 99 job descriptions that people are working in within those groups so there's 99 seniority lists and things of that nature so it's a rather large group when we look at the data we looked at last year because for us it's a continuous change last year we had we looked this we had 500 job placements and of that 125 new employees so when you look at this and you see 35 new hires from June to August 17th that's brand new employees come to the district that have never worked here before but within that and on top of that we have 84 appointments So within our process of our seniority process where employees have the opportunity by seniority to bump some or to move into a position that's vacated based on the seniority we've made 84 of those moves since June and so it's about 119 or so changes that have happened since June so it's it's constantly changing constantly moving forward within this group here looking at the data we looked at this year and the data we looked comparatively last year when we looked at this time last year we had about 81 positions open in the IPS or in structural paraprofessionals today I checked on that number because it changes all the time it's at 58 and so it's a different number even from when we posted this on the 17th in addition to that we have these intervention behavioral interventionists which are the more highly trained structural Pairs and we had last year a total of three positions we had one filled this year we have 26 positions and 20 filled and we're not filling the other six because they're holding off right now so we're completely filled when it comes to those as well as the behavioral specialists were completely filled in that area too for us IP positions as a whole represent about 407 positions in the district so it's a large number of people we've gone from about 20 percent of our total Workforce when I started to over 50 percent now that we're in the specialty area and then the others you can see in Camp supervision and the others we've made dramatic changes were much better position we were than a year ago going forward and I guess with that it went very quickly if there's any questions we'll certainly go through those all right thank you thank you oh oh got one did you say you have a question Oh I thought you said I do sorry just kidding all right yes all right uh we will move on to 9.3.2 discussion action approval of a provisional internship permit for a multiple subject credential for Gianna Hughes yes thank you board so we're bringing this to you tonight for Action when we have a situation that we're trying to fill a position with someone who is an intern obviously we need to be sure that we are submitting the proper documents in this particular situation with this teacher at Marsh she is currently enrolled in two courses that are the prereqs for her to get into the internship program typically when we submit this type of application the state requires the application to include a full school year however we know that she'll be moving into an interim position in the spring so it's really just for the for the springs or excuse me the fall semester and are asking for approval for this provisional permit as this person prepares to be to be an intern for us Maybe are you ready so just for clarification it's not even an internship credential it's before it's pre in turn correct okay right and she's being supported heavily by the department I spoke with Jessica Kemp this morning as well as Gary Story the assistant principal at Marsh to be sure that she has what she needs to get to get through the this first semester and be an intern and then she'll be in that internship program for a year and a half um ideally after two years with us um satisfactorily completing all the requirements for that credential she'll be well trained by Chico Unified candidates no no that were even poised to go straight into the internship this semester correct you can see on the verification of requirements in the packet that we are required to distribute job announcements contact college or university placement centers advertised on the internet we went a little above and beyond by attending some job fairs and we're unable to find someone for it okay thank you public comment all right seeing not all call for a motion I move approval of the provisional internship permit we have a move for approval by member Robinson and the second by member Orlando um we have to do a roll call vote I don't think so though right isn't a roll call but where we go one by one you're really ready to jump on that and tell me I was wrong that's good I'm glad that I'm glad that you're making sure I'm straight and narrow um we'll go ahead and start with you if there's no further discussion Ms Robinson are you coming for I'm asking if there's more discussion and if not we can go ahead and start with you I I don't have any questions thank you okay but it's seeing that there's no discussion we'll start with with you Ms Robinson since it was your motion uh Robinson I can't connect all right it passes thank you we'll move on to uh 9.3.3 discussion action resolution number 1614-2-3 elimination of classified services and ordering layoffs in the classified service for the 20 20 30 to 2024 school year thank you president always long title so you see you'll see before you the next two items we have two resolutions I do want to heavily emphasize that every position on both of these resolutions are vacant okay they're vacant with this first one these are non-csea employees these are positions typically uh filled through parent volunteer parent associations typically in most cases these are parents whose kids age out of the school that they're working for these are funded by site discretionary dollars and as those positions as those parents move on you know and their kids move leave the school and those positions become vacant and this is an annual resolution so we're asking for approval um seeing no questions or public comment I'll call for a motion I'm of approval of the layoffs second all right we have a motion by member Robinson in a second by member konkin um last was unanimous so we can do a voice vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed it passes five to zero uh next is similar as Mr Shepard claimed uh resolution 1615-23 elimination of classified services and ordering layouts in the classified service for the 2324 school year great thank you so these rcsea positions however again they are vacant and in most cases these are positions that are very small for example in 18 minutes of a position less than an hour and as you can read there in the language there's a lack of work and or lack of funds to maintain the following positions so again I just want to re-re iterate that these are vacant and in most cases these positions have grown larger with the campus supervisors um there's two listed for pvhs both for lack of funds but very very small FTE correct so the person who held both of those also held three other positions actually within the district so it's just smashing five positions together to make the person whole however that that employee is no longer with us gotcha so that's is that is there still a need for those stats there are other there's another funding source for the same amount of hours that another campus supervisor picked up so the students are still being served with the same with the same number of hours gotcha okay thank you no other questions I will call for about I mean sorry emotion I move approval Dolby seconds got one okay any discussion uh Voice vote those in favor please say aye aye uh it's unanimous again thank you good job Mr Shepard uh on to 9.4 board uh 9.4.1 is discussion action for proposed 2023-2024 board Workshop calendar topics Liaisons and board member assignments so at our June 28th meeting we assign some of the positions but we kind of skipped over some of them as well and I'm also at that meeting the board gave me the task of going back and putting them into an order so two things that we need to accomplish one is to approve the order that we have for the Workshops the dates and the topics that are assigned and then for the November 1st and for the June 26th board workshops we need to assign board Liaisons so the November 1st is a Chico Unified student achievement data and cast information Eileen has volunteered but that was not approved by the board at that meeting that was subsequently when this went out and was vacant so is there interest yeah I mean I would be happy to serve on that one anybody else interested are we good with um Eileen and Tom no arm wrestling up there for that position huh okay and then June 26th is the local control accountability plan and budget approval any interest from board members to serve on them I mean yes but now I just feel like I'm being greedy I'm trying to figure out where my name ended up Landing after all that you see I see you on April 3rd right for the CTE one is that all you've got and no September 6th facilities yeah yeah yeah I don't believe the totals were accurate down at the bottom because I came up with Dolby with two konkoma 2 Lando with two Robinson with two or three if you added that one that Lando at three with the new edition yeah in tennis that's here I can yeah you can put me on for Elk out anybody want to join Caitlyn on the lcap oh I'm sorry yeah I offered that I can are you looking for two or three okay yeah she got you I think after yeah so what I'd like the board to do at this point is just affirm you can vote or just come to a consensus that this is the workshop order that you would like and that everybody that has signed up that's I got it right but that's what you wanted to be serving on I just feel like there were other ones that I had asked to be a part of and then I mean these are the workshops then we'll move to the standing work groups so there's another page yeah that's not what I'm referring to okay um and we would have to look and make sure five so yeah this just doesn't seem in line with anything that I would have said I should have looked at this beforehand but there was other things happening but I would have to see what um what our notes were from last time that was a while ago so it is what it is I guess no I agree there seemed to be some decisions we made last time that aren't reflected in this document like I don't remember saying that I wanted to be on CTE and I do remember saying I wanted to be on the dress code locker room and nutrition services for example really sure how it shook out so I'm happy to go back and we can look at the video and go re-look at the minutes from now that's to be approved for it now and I think that Tom yeah volunteered I really thought we'd completed most of these and made some other changes meeting so there was a shared document and then I think it got unshared so what we can do is we can go back and review this and make sure that it is exactly what people wanted and then I can resend it out to the board I'm looking at Erica that's where we took it from originally correct so it was a shared Dock and we can go back and look at the minutes to make sure the shared document reflects accurately the request from the board or we can just go through and redo it right now it's up to the board I don't want to go through it right now but I'm just one person I said I don't want to go through it right now but I'm just one person I would rather go back through the minutes and look at the previous documents you what happened rather than having to do the whole fluffle again seemed like there were on several of them there were more than a couple people that were interested so maybe I don't think that we got to the point of fleshing out who was going to do what yet I think that we had we had got our list I think it's as far as we got I don't remember like we did come to a conclusion but I mean I remember some of them I didn't that I was hoping for I didn't actually get so maybe that's where the confusion is yeah well are any buildings going to burn if we don't um okay this this month I think the order is yeah yeah the the order we have time to uh put in the um facilitators because we've got September covered and October as long as we're okay with the order we can go back and we won't be meeting with people we will start meeting with the facility with the physical education dress code locker room soon yes I would like to know yeah that one why those how That Shook out but I'm not good with October October necessarily so when we go back and look I know that we've already contacted Matt and Eileen about a meeting on September 12th but we if we change those people we'll just know that we'll just send something back out to whoever the other people are okay um do we do we need a motion to approve the order you're asking for a motion to approve the topic by month is that that's the order you're talking about rather than who the Liaisons are well we've got someone up here and now that doesn't match what's on the sheet in front of us wow this is very different yeah this is the original okay let's go back let us go back through the video part and make sure okay thank you as long as we're okay with the order we're good I think we're okay with the order so can I make we're going to move approval of the order for workshops listed here I'll second that motion all right any further discussion all right all those in favor aye aye aye all right that's unanimous thanks folks I'm glad I was not totally wrong my memory is serving me not terribly um okay so that is oh just kidding 9.4.2 discussion action approval of revised updated Slash new board policies okay we had two board policies from the last board meeting that were brought requested to come back one of which we pulled and one of which the board had some questions uh board policy zero four six zero is the local control accountability plan the questions around that surrounded um students serving on committees or having a student committee which is what Chico Unified does that is clarified in the language do board members have any questions for clarification from staff nope no it was clear that sorry that once we found the Ed code language that we were we were right on right um apply for a motion still moved all right we have a motion by Mr tennis and a second by Mr Orlando those in favor of approval signify with aye aye aye aye all right it's unanimous it passes I will move on to item 10 items from the floor um we still have one more board policy Oh I thought that it was Hollander won we still have one more well it's also they're one item there is another board policy that came forward last time as an arm we had to bring it back as a board policy right it just wasn't listed as a separate item right so I was assuming we were approving both at the same time my apologies no problem we should have been clearer I should have been clearer about that so Mr Shepard you want to go ahead and introduce that one word policy 4119.20 is a collaboration essentially of conversations with both Union groups CSEA and CTA the idea of behind this new board policy is essentially to create the most safe room environment we can for not only students but also our teaching and certificated staff and as importantly our CSEA staff who are coming in for example we have a very tight maintenance schedule and custodial schedule and we're asking our custodians to to get into rooms clean rooms make sure those rooms are ready to go for the next day in a really tight window of time in some cases it's as little as 17 minutes so we're really trying to create the most professional environment we can for our students and staff so I want to reiterate this board policy has been over a year of collaboration with unions to ensure that we have a safe learning environment for our students staff including our CSEA staffer coming into those environments do we have any questions for staff not questions just comment that this issue has been battered around a long time and this is a great collaboration between the two unions to do a fix public comment I'll call for a motion I move approval of the board policy for 119.20 I'll be seconds all those in favor bye hi I'd imagine if there was discussion wanted that somebody wouldn't cut me off I I do want to thank Mr Brian Daggett custodian at Emma Wilson for being here for the last two forecasts to get this through it's through thank you for being here started this discussion and he has seen it all the way through so thank you Brian credit do thank you okay moving on to items from the floor uh do we have any additional public comment this evening okay see none um item 11 board member requested to agenda's item uh during the June 28 2023 special board meeting and workshop the board approved a new process and formed to agendaize items at this time no board member requests to submit an agenda item have been received so with that I'm going to move to item 12.

we haven't written the bomb I mean we haven't even approved to go forward with a bond let alone write the bond Lang or ballot language for that bond yet so that's completely up in the air hasn't been decided at all we could have theoretically three recipients so to speak you could have the the the guts of the the school district and then you could have the Charter Community generally and then you could have a special carve out for inspire um which would be repaid what's that which would be repaid down the road I mean I don't know how you write bonds you know maybe that's true if it didn't pass um or if that was a political liability of some kind that prevented it from passing um you know the Inspire Bond then um that could be bad you know your terminology was on point um it'd be a bad situation for Chico Unified Schools like Chapman and Rosedale and Parkview and and Sierra View and I mean we've all toured those facilities and seeing the condition that they're in so somebody is I mean this is public education and I'm amazed at the way money flows into this institution it's impressive but you just don't have a crystal ball and and is it wise for us to sit up here and assume passage of the next school bond at the expense potentially of you know our little kids and those those falling apart elementary schools I think what I proposed is probably the least painful of the options that we've talked about it doesn't involve closing a school it doesn't involve carving out a piece from the charters that would be inequitable it doesn't involve projects that have been prioritized or planned by the district that would somehow you know not be achieved they might be delayed for a bit but again four to five million dollars is not going to be as painful as some of the other options that we've talked about just so I'm clear the what you're suggesting though if I understand correct is in violation of no okay no it is not because we're talking about a future Bond and that language has not been written yet thanks hey Becky I just I don't have any questions I really appreciate it um I know this is a hard and emotional topic and I appreciate that you let us know that you're elevated we kept it together and you've been very wise and your responses I just appreciate you and your partnership in this process thank you very much thank you Tom appreciate it all right speaking up next is Tony Fierro good evening thank you for the time um I am the extremely proud father of three exceptionally talented intelligent and beautiful daughters who one of them has already graduated from Inspire and the other two are current students I continue to be amazed by this small But Mighty School and what they're able to accomplish what they've able to really provide for myself and my family to to help me lift my children lift my daughters up so that they have the best you know opportunities in their lives going forward based on the experiences that they're having right now at inspire I I think the one of the main things I wanted to think about was that what could this school do if they actually had proper facilities and and a place of their own based on you know their track record of what they do now I I work at Chico State and I see just dozens of familiar faces of students who have graduated from Inspire that are now at Chico And I know my daughter her my oldest daughter is now at Long Beach and a lot of her friends have gone to other insta or universities here in California and so um maybe the better analogy I mean I appreciate the you know the the point maybe or the the thought that was trying to be expressed um I imagine almost everyone in this room has gone hiking in Upper Bidwell and have had the opportunity to see those you know towers of rocks that just look amazing and you wonder how someone could do that it takes um intelligence Ingenuity uh technical ability creativity you know so many skill sets to be able to create that little magic Tower of rocks and to be able to you know maybe what we're trying to do is pick up that little Tower and move it to another place you know not necessarily a tumor that needs to be removed but something that needs that's magical that that's precious that we are now trying to give it its own spot so that it can continue to uh you know do more and more for not just my children but everyone in the community so I think that was my role here tonight just to speak I was asked yesterday or day before to uh you know voice my opinions and really I just wanted to impress upon and and I have so much respect for the roles that you guys play up on the stage here because this is very important work that you have to face and I appreciate that but I think my role was just as a parent to say how much the school has meant to me and my family and really most people in this room and uh I really hope that we collectively come up with them the best choice the best solution for everyone thank you [Applause] all right that was the end of our speaker list um and so we can move to emotion board discussion may I excuse me may I make some discussion before we have a motion on the floor is it I think that you could ask questions of clarification from staff or members of the audience because I'm not really asking clarification of this one I get my thinking out straight by saying in our lab but I will ask a question actually well with a little bit like um how much is left in the district's gonna hit me for this question um in our general fund Reserve I'd have to get back to you on that fair enough do we have any sort of a even big Ballpark and I'm you know hey do we have any anything they could do one just wait until I can get back to the board on the reserve that's right thank you very much because I was gonna remember how much it is either I ask because um not because I think we need to put so the worry is that no matter how you slice of the money has to come from somewhere and while I really really appreciate um Becky speaking from a place of hope and I agree I think there's room for everybody to grow and get better this um the money has to come somewhere and some students will have something less right I mean there is a finite amount of money in the process even if they are really large numbers um that said I want to pose a slightly different analogy which is something like say an egg all right you guys have been in the nest at Chico high for a long time now it's clearly time to go see what you are when you're somewhere else um and I really encourage um I know it often seems like there's not enough communication between the district and Charters and I hear that a lot of the times because we're getting new information just before you guys get it um so I don't want you guys to think about purposely playing games that's certainly not the goal everybody up here has I understand I think it's fair we can all agree Inspire is an amazing school it is a great service to the community we want it to succeed all right um so I understand that we will have some upcoming talks with Charter leaders in the near future I hope that as the district leadership goes into those talks we can look really carefully at where we might be able to take some money out of our side in the short term because I think in the Long View we will benefit from having a another high school campus in Chico I think I mean the reason we decided that location a long time ago was because it was definitely wanted to eventually I know our numbers aren't quite where we want them to be in terms of the population to really Merit that but on the other hand the whole reason I opposed and continue to oppose is checking out hooker which is a terrible idea for the record um is that I have a strong belief that small schools with strong communities are the best places kids to learn so in closing down hook rope we would have just caused we would have right had the same problem where we had a small community that maybe have more space than they technically need According to some metrics but it's their home and they've made it their own and we do need to find a way to get inspired to be able to do the same thing and if that um is going to take some money out of any of Chicago unified's projects in the short term I think that's probably work that we just need to figure out I think the tricky piece is right this repaint what does that look like how we write it into a bond in a way that both makes sense and is legal and passes the smell test to the voters right and that's going to be a tricky road to hoe and we really appreciate all of you and your commitment to getting a bond passed because we need everybody to get the time it's not a popular thing to do right now to go out and ask the public for more money um I really want to make a motion but I also want to yield my colleagues here who I'm sure have lots of things to say but I think the smart move honestly without kicking the can too far is to wait until we have those discussions with the charter leaders where we go in with a spirit of yeah we're gonna have to take some hits on our side of the budget as well to get this done because long-term Chico Unified will end up owning a high school that we did at basically about the price for whatever happens in the future that will be there to serve students in Chico in the future I'm going to make a motion to um take no action on these options at this time and direct staff to engage with the Charter Community and bring back additional options for hypothetical Bond language of the September regular meeting second okay now we can fully discuss I'm Mr Lando I'm sensing some optimism from you that uh that there's a financial solution that can get inspired the 10 million dollars that they need to push them over the threshold where they can build this Canyon View Property when I talk to Chico Unified staff I do not get that sense of optimism okay I mean I have heard I mean unless we're talking about writing the bond in such a way that there's a huge carve out or a designation directly for inspire maybe that's just what we're talking about aside from that I'm not saying no one's brought to my attention in spite of my hours of conversations about it some like ready solution where where that money is going to just magically appear and they're going to be able to do it do you have any more specific thoughts as to how that might come about or or are you inclined to think that we will be potentially riding the bond with language specifically you know awarding this money to inspire well um yeah one of my first notes was the same thing you brought up that making the Fremont campus supplement in the bond is not a terrible idea but even if that's not the option we choose we have a huge amount of latitude in how we write the bond like we said we're looking at maybe million ish if we go for the next amount we can at the bond I know this is all before we get to the bond itself so it's a little hard to talk about it but to be careful with that but again we could do a carve out we could do some kind of other formula where some where more of that is weighted towards the district with the understanding that we do get value out of that later on I mean the money is there or maybe there if we pass the bond it's not there right now um the question is where do we think the most value is both now and in the future I think it's the thing that we're not talking about enough is long term 10 20 years 30 years down the road we can take Maybe a chunk of what we would think of as hours in the next Bond which is not ours right it's all it is but we can decide what allocation that goes if it's Ada and we get 15.34 again for Charter it'll keep something completely different um but we could write that a thousand different ways in which we end up with one separate account it has the money to build Fremont Street it's just a question of where's that money coming from what is it happening because of it right and maybe just the point about political liability but but thank you for your your response yeah I want to add to that Tom that um sorry Mr Lando that I do know your name and I know how to pronounce it and everything um that my concern and what will be helpful for me to have a very clear picture painted if we pass this motion by that September regular meeting is to be reassured that the caveat that we do go out for this hypothetical Bond and it passes um that um what was our third in Line Elementary was it did it end up being Chapman Parkview that Parkview doesn't get knocked off the sooner than later to-do list I don't want Parkview to not be addressed until after 2030 if we pass another hypothetical turning 2030 bond for example that's where my and I know that that's uncomfortable because we're talking about pitting an elementary school against Inspire and I love Inspire I truly do but that's our fiscal oversight as a board is the those weighing those caveats I guess so it would be beneficial to understand those minor you know where those lines fall and I I really feel like having an in-person a conversation where everybody is just putting it on the table all the charters included and just really have this conversation about School needs in Chico that that from that conversation we should see this come into a better focus I just think that we did get out ahead of it so um yeah anyway that's all I would say I still have a setting up tonight I think um thank you madam president one of the things that um having been around for a while has given me is perspective and a process um having been involved with the beginning of the facilities Master plans I've been able to see what goes into evaluating and assessing school facility needs in this District our no my responsibility as a board member is to do the best we can to maintain support for Chico Unified School plans I think our last when we last updated the facilities master plan I think we had had identified I think 300 million needs that are unmet out there in our schools and we all heard Rosedale we've you know we've been there Chapman Parkview we've got needs at Citrus that need to be met Fairview um the needs are huge and we have kicked the can down the road and have left those sites untouched well beyond what we first committed to is there an answer there there are answers and there is a process moving forward but again we're getting ahead of ourselves because in order to make a decision about what to do about maintaining our commitment to the schools we've already said we're going to treat to next we have to have the facilities Master Plan before the board in September and ready for examination and approval we I would not um feel comfortable bringing into that discussion um [Music] where are we going to get money for inspire um again cart before the horse we have to be able I have to be able as a board member for Chico Unified to be able to take a look at the commitments we've made and the needs that we have out there for our Chico Unified plants and the conditions are horrible and that's impacting on a daily basis the education that our elementary kids because of the three schools that we've already committed to on a daily basis yes I understand inspires need I was I was one of the people involved in wanting to get Inspire at Chapman I've been around that long I'm that darn old so I know that um the commitment that the the families around Inspire made are part of what has made it an amazing School um and they do they do treat to what the young lady that was an inspired student originally treat to they save lives and and they also put students on a path to soar with their love of whatever their interest is math science dance you know Theater Arts it's an amazing School but um we're back to what is our fiduciary responsibility to the K-12 students of Chico Unified and we've lit those needs go unmet because of financial constraints for too long yes I want discussions um and a look at what could be done as long as it doesn't interfere with the commitment we've made to the three elementary schools that are now at the top of the list to Citrus and Fairview um and I don't think bringing it back in September is a wise thing we're not ready yet we need the facilities Master Plan before us and approved and then work on what we are allowed to have in the way of constraints on how much of a bond we can go out for and take a look at the reality of what we can do right now we're speculating and that's that's not good I'm done in September the regular board meeting for September is that enough time to have those conversations I'm just hearing what you're saying and you're saying that you don't think that that's enough time so well we are scheduled to bring the facilities master plan at the board Workshop board Workshop September and the bond looking at the the steps because there's lots of steps involved in making a decision about the bond canvassing the community you know all of that stuff so we're we're gearing up for some things and so I just think September is too soon and I do want to add in there I mean it is a process and we will need to hire Consultants to go through that process I don't think that by September 6th we'll be ready to be doing language the board will actually need to make the decision to go forward with the bond and then follow the bond advisors process than that but that does not mean that we can't have some conversations about when we get to that point what would potential language look like we just won't be ready to say this is the language in the bond at that we're two weeks away so my question was about the regular September board meeting would that need to be come back as like an informational item on what's being discussed as potential any potential additional options that are discussed with the charters yeah I just don't think we want to we've already gotten ourselves out in front of the process I don't think we want to continue to do that and we need to have those conversations with our bond Consultants about what exactly is that process because I certainly don't know yeah and I also want to add that even if something is a discussion action item that doesn't mean that we have to take action it just gives us the option to take action just like tonight's meeting for the most part sometimes it's nice to have that flexibility to hone in on a final decision we can thing off the list of options options for example um any other comments on the motion on the floor Clarity yes so you discussing bringing this back at the September 20 meeting the regular yes thank you okay thank you I didn't look up the date but that's why I said the regular meeting yes okay yeah so that would give us two weeks after the Workshop in which we look at the bond and if I and the facilities plan yes thank you the the decision for the board is that coming to us to actually go out for the bond is that on our Workshop software Workshop agenda you know I don't know the answer to that that you know it just continues with the bonded advisory okay not the particular language but just the guests we're actually doing this because we're out ahead of that that vote also right now that's why I've referred to it as a hypothetical Bond because we've not actually taken uh action on approving that yet Mr Elena just to clarify so your emotion is um obviously okay sorry um to delay meet with the charter schools and gather information and basically assess to see how they're feeling about these and potential additional options okay yeah I mean I love it in theory I mean but just it's optimistic I mean I I feel like I mean everybody probably doesn't have the same information we do but just with the input we've received from the other Charter Schools it seems like it would involve a complete you know change of a um opinion yeah I think the other Charter Schools were very blindsided by all of this I don't think that there was an opportunity to have a a really purposeful meaningful discussion with those folks and that coming out of some of this engagement that I'm asking for um perhaps there would be some understanding which has come from discussions I've had with Charter folks just having that one-on-one conversation about you know where these ideas are coming from have been met positively so I am optimistic that impressed I I want to just remind all of us that one of the reasons why it seems as though we don't really know what the heck we're doing and where we're headed it's because if you remember we're Bound by um the laws that say that only two of us can meet on a subject so we can't have side conversations that involve more than two members of the board so when we get here you're seeing our first attempt at finding Solutions in some areas so it's not that we don't take it seriously it's just that we can't violate the brown Act um you're seeing and hearing stuff knew the same as we are yeah actually did want to make that point earlier also because it does seem like it takes a really long time but I mean this last eight months compounded into three meetings that we've really had discussions about how to get inspired to Fremont Street is that's that's it this is what you see the three hours of those three meetings pretty much um so in between I strongly always encourage staff like from Inspire to reach out to District staff appropriately that would be beneficial to everybody if you have concerns please reach out to The District staff nobody's stopping you from doing that but we can't talk to each other about those things and it gets tricky when we're talking about the things not in this meeting space um I would like to do you have something more to add briefly I'm going to be voting to abstain because I don't want to kick the can down the road and I think that Inspire should move to an existing Chico Unified facility so just vote no um okay uh I'm gonna do a Voice vote actually can we um a chance to restate yes that's what I was just gonna ask for can we have a restatement of the motion please that's on record okay all right we're going to do um uh individual votes so Dolby I Robinson I konk and I am tennis abstain all right it passes four to zero with one abstain um with that that's the end of that item and I'm gonna actually ask for a break

good evening I'd like to make a motion that we move to Executive session Ed it all those in favor hi you will be back good evening we will now reconvene in General Session I'd like to call this meeting to order this is Richard's roll call yes president Schultz let the record show that all five board members are present this evening thank you like if you now join me in a moment of silence and Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice fraud I'd like to make a motion that we approve to the agenda all those in favor aye motion carries five zero Mrs Richards president Schultz members of the board here's another segment of Higley Adventures this evening we want to recognize Kyle Arrow Smith rsro officer and I'm going to ask him to come to the podium up there along with four of his Cadets these these I don't want to call you kids because you're not kids anymore these young adults were selected by Officer Aerosmith and they graduated from the Gilbert Police Department youth leadership academy in addition they were invited back this summer to lead the camp so I'm going to let officer Aerosmith introduce his folks here or his Cadets and let them put this in their own words [Applause] thank you [Applause] okay thank you sir good evening uh uh Higley board members and guests uh here to join us today um I'm Angel Enriquez and over this summer we got the very fun very exciting experience to go back and Lead uh Gilbert Police Department youth leadership academy uh due to the collaboration of Officer Aerosmith and Colonel Vaughn standing right over there all of us were once Air Force Junior ROTC members and we've just learned so many valuable skills in both ROTC and Gilbert Police Department youth leadership academy that we got to go to and more to that so while we were while we were at the Gilbert Police Department youth leadership academy we've got to do some activities and take some field trips and the first field trip that we took was to Topgolf where we learned about uh sportsmanship where we competed against other groups that were at Topgolf with us and then the second field trip that we took was to an escape room where we got to learn teamwork and working together to solve one common goal and then we also went to Alta where we could learn to trust each other and have some fun climbing hi I'm Alex Shafer and I have the high honor of talking to you guys about the food we ate while we were there laughs beginning with this we ate from four separate places beginning with Chick-fil-A on Monday barrows Los Favoritos and Rudy's on the end and when I walked around the classrooms asking that's why they were so excited to come there they said that there are sros at their schools told them there'd be food so that's sweet and uh one more thing that we got to do over there another great um plus a positive during this Academy we got to meet so many different people that we didn't know from different schools Campo Verde Perry Gilbert High School Highlands there were so many different schools people we never knew before who we could relate like simple things like let's say we both took honors pre-calc and we both did not know what we were doing at all we met so many new friends who like we've still talked to about a month ago I was at Portillo's and I saw an old friend that from there uh it was a great time I still talked to plenty friends that I've learned from there and it was just a great time getting to eat food with these people go enjoy these nice activities with them while also getting to learn valuable Leadership Lessons that you'll actually use in life and you've met so many people there I believe it was like 20 ish people uh per week and there were two weeks there evening I'm Maddie Wilson including communication which also Works hand in hand with teamwork as well as our problem solving and my favorite public speaking um with all these skills we can actually take them back to our high school in our community and even in the workforce so also at school you can just use these skills every day in projects as well as our leadership I myself am a Cadet along with these two over here in Air Force Junior ROTC and we can use these to help guide our Cadets to success really quick I just want to give these young adults over here a shot out also there's seven high schools at Gilbert Police Service across Gilbert and it's Gilbert High School Highland Perry can I just say Higley and williamsfield we're the best represented schools in our program we had the most students and the most returning for ambassadors so that's all attributed to them [Applause] so officer Eric Smith and Colonel Vaughn you've done an outstanding job of helping these guys become amazing leaders not just for the school district but much more you were Gilbert leaders and we're very proud of you [Applause] all right there it goes this evening we want to highlight Higley High School's Prince Millman he is the National Junior Olympic All-American decathlete this is an amazing amazing accomplishment this summary stood on the podium at the University of Oregon as he received received his medal and is All American status he is the fifth best decathlete in the nation as a decathlete prince complete competed in numerous events now that competition is complete he's focused on academics but believe me he's already looking forward to beating some of those records so we wanted to acknowledge this and give a shout out not only to him but to Higley High School [Applause] I'd like Kimberly Ohanian to come to the podium for a minute this evening we want to thank our fantastic Community Education team the leader of this team is Kim and when we hired her several years ago I said you've got a big job you know coming in after covid that's not an easy thing to do and she hasn't done it alone but she is definitely the leader there are so many supportive staff members families and of course our students this evening we want to highlight students we have students that have a one-year celebration these students are employees of our district they align with our portrait of a graduate we love providing opportunities for our students to obtain initial work experience that that's important because it went from applying for the job interviewing for the job and the expectations of being an employee within a safe and supportive environment so Kim I'd like for you to introduce your individuals that are here this evening and if we'll wait and clap she's going to make them stand up and don't sit down and then we'll all clap and then we can hear your names thank you Mrs Richards President Sultan members of the board on this slide here could Evelyn please stand julisa she is not present today but we do still want to recognize her Berkeley Everly Rigdon and Bella foreign [Applause] could you please join them Ali Morgan Wyatt Carter Gabby and Jocelyn [Music] our one-year celebration now let's keep moving forward thank you all so much for the work you do every day and for coming this evening so we can recognize you great job [Applause] it's not limited to one year we also have kids that and they're not kids and I've got to quit calling them that I'm sorry these young adults that advance from student workers they are now serving as assistant team leads so miss Ohanian can you introduce these individuals Giselle Gianna Michael and Julissa three to five years is an accomplishment for any of us thank you for hanging in there taking care of our kids taking care of each other and our families the raving reviews come every day in fact Mr Walker could give a raving review but I won't make him he's always bragging about kicks Club so thank you guys so much [Music] [Applause] next we have Olivia self if you're in the audience we're going to want you to stand up for a long time she is a recent graduate from Williams Field high school she started as a student worker and now as a paraprofessional at our Coulee early childhood development center she is also the recipient of the first things first scholarship with a goal to become an early childhood educator congratulations Olivia [Applause] all right let the bragging continue we want to recognize these through three students congratulations to Cutter renatum William Robertson and Jennifer White these three individuals earned a perfect score on the ACT test that's really incredible less than one half of a percent of the students who take the ACT earn a perfect score well done for this outstanding accomplishment [Applause] hmm and last but not least we've got little Cooley brilliant beginners learning and I'm wondering Miss Ohanian are you going to work to hire these kids in a few years in the classroom they're learning about science and conducting experiments aligned to the book if you take a mouse to school so great things are happening across the district and thank you to Patty Gleason for running an amazing early childhood development center [Applause] thank you president Schultz we have upcoming events tomorrow evening here in the district office we have the dangers of Snapchat this is a repeat present I'm gonna wait and let them leave thank you guys for coming thank you for coming thank you okay tomorrow evening we have the dangers of Snapchat presentation here in the district office in this governing board room at 6 00 pm we held these sessions last year got very positive reviews and encourage families to attend Friday September 1st a week from this Friday we have a school visit at Bridges Elementary and they're geared up and ready to go on September 4th we will celebrate Labor Day and there will not be school so nobody cry right now it'll be okay and then on September 14th we have our business partners breakfast here in the governing board room thank you Mrs Richards that was my favorite Higley Adventures yet that was a lot of amazing accomplishments and Community leadership so thank you very much um and the Snapchat um discussion tomorrow is a great event for parents I highly encourage parents to attend that event all right okay all right request to speak we value input from our constituents this time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out speaker cards which are due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ARS 38-431-0.01 H action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask that audience members practice proper public medium meeting decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to all points of view those that refuse to follow these rules will be asked to leave speakers please limit your remarks to three minutes thank you for your cooperation and first up is Mindy Mrs Mindy brocker thank you so so much for the opportunity to speak today there's just two quick things I wanted to talk about real quick first I love my public school I wanted to call out a quick but heartfelt thank you to all of our teachers and admins who put in the extra effort on top of giving my children a top-notch education to do all the fun enrichment and Extras I have one kid who was jumping out of his skin excited at the idea of an elementary drama club one who is really too darn cool for school but would murder me if he missed the opportunity to go to Washington DC with his class and another who was absolutely 100 percent all in at the idea of learning physics at Disneyland so this is an amazing opportunity that my kids get because those teachers are going well above and beyond to make it happen so thank you next I did want to talk about the dress code update actually I'm really impressed at the difference between the first and the second read through whoever wrote it managed to capture what was important prioritizing the minimization of classroom disruption but also giving us parents freedom to parent this last meeting people went on and on about female attire as a woman in my 40s I dealt with so many ridiculous rules that were aimed squarely at us telling us over and over again that we're responsible for the thoughts and actions of men and boys wear a slip wear a pantyhose don't like your shorts be too short don't let your cleavage show don't breastfeed your kids be professional be pretty wear makeup don't wear too much makeup don't forget to smile and on and on we are always told to protect the eyes of our young men and I was told over and over to protect the eyes young men to be honest I'm over it absolutely I'm parenting boys that are fully capable of respecting women they can recognize that no matter what a woman is wearing they have their own responsibility to be good and respectful young men and students and to be frank I won't even ask their opinion about what girls in their schools are wearing because it doesn't matter their opinion does not matter I have to be really clear with that the opinion of boy students does not matter when it comes to what our girls wear to school so with this policy that's been crafted I think you have found a really good middle ground allowing me as a parent to take responsibility for my child's attire while still allowing the teachers the ability to minimize classroom disruption so I ask that you approve it to let us all move past this craziness of worrying about midriffs and spaghetti straps thank you sorry the microphone wasn't working for a second um Mr Adam brocker ah good evening uh so yeah so I'm parent of uh three kids in our district been here for about 10 years um I also want to applaud the current draft that we discussed of the dress code in the last meeting uh I do greatly appreciate the willingness of the board to address a and try to create a gender-neutral dress code that's greatly appreciated I just wanted to respond to some of the public commentary that we heard last time um just um what was stated previously it was very clear that our young women would be bearing the brunt of any sort of um restrictive dress code um as such I do currently support the the current dress code draft I I do believe it it offers finds a good middle ground uh I do want to speak to a couple of specific points um sort of previous previously mentioned I don't think it's reasonable to put blame on our young women for the thoughts of our young men this does not prepare our young men for the workplace to allow um their performance to be excused and blamed on the attire of our young women um the second point I do want to stress um just as sort of a Counterpoint there was a lot of discussion about the professional attire of our young women and not a single thing was really mentioned about the attire of our young men and boys I can say as the parent of a couple of teenage boys that they're not uh not really concerned about professional Tire more just how comfortable can I be so um I do think overall our kids would be better served by a professional development class if that's something that we want to put forward rather than create the creation of a punitive dress code so yeah in general I just want to say that I do appreciate the work that the board has done on this dress code issue and that I do appreciate the the they're trying to seek a middle ground um one thing I do want to reframe is a data point that Mrs Anderson put forward um did put forward a number of different pieces of data and I do really appreciate that um one point of information that I found interesting was that three of the top schools have a minimal dress code and that's three of the best so I just want to put that as put stress on that to say that we should focus more on finding a uh a better more inclusive dress code thank you thank you Mrs Jessica d'ambrosio good evening governing board good evening cabinet um as a school teacher for nearly two decades I know what goes into teaching but also what goes into after school events that the school puts on to create Community for our community I wanted to celebrate Williams Field high school they had an event on Friday August 11th and it was for the teams to be known so the dance team the cheer team the football team the band it was the most extraordinary night as a new high school football mom to walk into an event where all the football players are lined up applauding the parents how many times have these parents sat through countless years of extracurricular activities cheering on kids it was such a cool warm exciting inviting experience that I just thought it deserved to be recognized it was the dedication of coaches certified classified staff members an incredible booster club filled with volunteers past students and teachers and I just really wanted to recognize them they did an incredible job and the sense of community as a teacher who's been in this district for a very long time walking into a high school and seeing my third graders being those girls out there dancing with some amazing moves I was so impressed and so excited I was taking pictures and being like oh I wish I had his mom's number but um it was just really neat I think that the dedication of these teachers and administrators really show and we create a incredible Community here in Higley so huge shout out to Higley Unified School District in Williamsville high school thank you moving on to consent agenda items 6.1 through 6.1 zero I make a motion to approve the consent agenda items all those in favor aye motion carries five to zero at this time Mrs Johnson we'd have like to introduce someone yes uh presidential members of the board I would like uh Miss Mary Davis to stand up she is our new director of professional development she comes to us from Washington DC with many years of experience and we are thrilled to have her here at Higley welcome Mrs Davis [Applause] thank you welcome Mrs Davis we're very excited to have you moving on to information items 7.1 husd by the numbers good evening president Schultz members of the board um members of the community uh it's my pleasure to carry on the theme for tonight which is focusing on students for me I get to look at our students by the numbers so what does the data say about our community and our students and so looking forward to sharing that with you tonight first we're looking at enrollment Trends in the district our 100th day student count so most of what you're going to see is based on last year's data we usually 100th days when we send up all of our information to the state for any kind of assessment that kind of thing so you can see the overall enrollment in 2022 was 13 585 of that 10 305 of our students were within our boundaries attending the school for which their boundary another 1575 students attempt were within our boundaries but they were attending a school outside of where they were boundaried and then we had 1705 students attending our schools from outside of our boundaries student demographics uh 62 of our students are white but that means about 38 of our students are non-white Translating that into the classroom when you walk into one of our classes four in ten of our kids are non-white students and I think that's important for our teachers and our staff to to really understand student programs and needs these are four different programs that we as a district support students identified for these programs usually have unique needs that require additional support from teachers site and District instead of giving you percentages I thought it was important to give you the actual numbers of those students to really clarify how many kids that is in each of those programs so you have special education our English Learners gate is our gifted and talented program and then our free and reduced launch of students now moving into the actual assessment data that we have this is our aesa Ela scores for our third through eighth grade aasa is a state achievement test it's giving in the spring and as you're looking at this we improved in Proficiency in all but our fifth and seventh grades however in both of those grades the state also saw a decline in proficiency so we pretty much mirrored the state in terms of our performance but you can see consistently our schools outperform the state average foreign this next chart is our cohort proficiency so what you see here is the colored bands are like kids moving from grade level to grade level again you can see our cohorts in from going from third to fourth grade had an improvement in proficiency as well as from fifth to sixth grade and then you can see 2020 that was the year that covet happened and we shut down and we didn't have State Testing here we have math again outperform the state pretty consistently across the board again increase in proficiency for all of our grade levels except for sixth grade again we mirrored what happened at the state level in terms of the that those increases and decreases and here you have the cohort for math the three starred years in eighth grade at that time we were administering AZ Merit and our eighth graders had a basically were taking different tests in eighth grade uh they could be taking the eighth grade math test they could have been taking the algebra test they could have been taking the geometry test because it was end of course assessments at that time there was a change in 2021 to azm2 and at that time they did away with the end of course assessments and they were grade level assessments so all of our eighth graders took the same test so what you see in the eighth grade the 17 18 19 those are the results of the test that the students took and then once we got to 21 it's all the 8th graders taking the same test ACT Aspire is given to all of our ninth graders this test will be used for the first time this spring or for next year for a through F to measure growth as ninth graders to 11th graders how well they did it in ACT Aspire uh last year so 22 to this year as a 11th graders with act that'll be a component of the a3f scores for next year when I come in front of you with that um what the Readiness percentage in ACT Aspire says is this is the likelihood that a child would be at the Benchmark level on the act when they take the act as 11th graders so basically what you're seeing here is that 62 percent of our kids are predicted to be at Benchmark and I'll show you what those scores are on the next slide but these are good numbers looking forward to these kids as 11th graders thank you here you have our act average scores for cohort 2024 a cohort is all students and entered our high schools as ninth graders at the same time due to credits you may have some students that are classified as a junior that may not have come in as a ninth grader with all of the other Juniors so when we test for State Testing purposes they identify only the cohort is the one that's taking that test at that time so this group is our cohort 2024 probably 99 of these kids are truly 11th graders there's probably a very small percentage that aren't the number that you see that is the average score on each of the subtests with the act the dotted line those are the subject areas that there is a benchmark score for so in math The Benchmark score is a 22 and what that represents is that those students that score there have it approximately a 50 chance of a b or better or a 75 chance of earning AC or better on the corresponding College course their freshman year in college so we're very close in most of those subject areas including English where we're above that that Benchmark level truly a testament to our students and our staff and as we saw we had three kids that got perfect scores this year so that's pretty impressive the state for a through F takes the ACT scores and reclassifies them into our proficiency levels similar to what you see in aasa um what they to come up with this they looked at what the state identifies as College and Career ready so the cut scores for proficiency are lower than those benchmark scores that act puts out because not all of our kids are going to go to college and the idea is are they career ready as well as College ready these are internal scores students never see what they get in terms of this but it's used by US and as well as the state to identify a through F and where's the the proficiency level and growth level of students are and the ELA is a combination of reading English and the writing score next up we have azside this is a state Science assessment that's given in fifth grade eighth grade and again cohort 2024.

oh at the ACT cohorts proficiency let me go backwards can you pull the slide back up I think Ari tell me when to stop yeah yeah so oops sorry mentally proficient it's actually slide 10 I believe right no hers is 11. 11 sorry so I I can address minimally proficient in all the areas um sites get this data and they have it so one of the advantages to our new assessment platform is we're able to pull reports on current students that show how they performed on past tests so our current classroom teachers have that information with them right now as to which students were minimally proficient most of that aligns with our Universal screener data as well as to those kids that come in with skill gaps and are at risk so at the elementary level we have a robust mtss program where they're identifying those students at risk providing intervention for those students and really trying to to to fill those gaps in that those kids have middle school and high school they have that same they have similar programs it really is the more we know about what the student is coming in with in terms of their understanding their knowledge what those skill gaps are the better we can address those skill gaps and and help them out so again that's where programs like acadians which is our Universal screener for literacy comes in an important K3 we're piloting right now bass bridge at three of our elementary sites and with special education in seventh and 8th grade and what bass bridge is provides us with is both math and reading and really Targets in where those skill gaps are for kids we anticipate expanding that to eighth grade hopefully so that when at the beginning of the year we know that a child is struggling with phonemic awareness and here are the strategies that we can take to address that particular skill and fill those gaps in thank you you're welcome Schultz a question have y'all looked at done any data correlation between AP students and state and National test scores and how do you have that information or is that something can share later say that correlation between AP scores and like State and National scores like to see if there's a correlation between those as far as how they perform so the best I was able to provide was that information there college board has an interesting system set up that we got access to the AP scores but then our access expired and with the change in superintendent superintendent's the only one that can grant us access to that information so we're still working on getting that information so I'll be happy once Ms Richards gets the document that she has to sign that gives me my my access back to be able to provide you with that information it's very frustrating on our end I think he just called you illnesses any other questions uh no thank you very much these numbers look great and as you mentioned they are just a snapshot um even though in someone who's not a fan of State Testing it's still great to see these numbers thank you very much oh Mrs Wade sorry one more comment I also just wanted to say thank you for your explanation as to the pressures often on standardized tests I think any teacher who has experienced the difference between a regular test day that you give weekly of your AP usually those types of things the kids feel the weight of it um the the structure the procedures everything it there is a a weight of stress so already you have your high anxiety kids that don't test well to begin with in this environment it's often harder to get them to understand that it's just the same as any other test and all of these things and I think it's important for us to keep that in mind that when we look at these tests and why there's such a big difference is because the nature of standardized tests and we all of us in education who are not profiting off of these tests recognize that these tests are not a measure of intelligence or capabilities which is why our graduation rate tends to be what it is in comparison with these numbers so thank you thank you very much moving on to 7.2 Safety and Security update Miss nope good evening president Schultz members of the board Mr Moore we'll just pass this clicker around I have the pleasure of presenting at Safety and Security update for the district as well as co-presenting you know Mr James Walker director of student services and Mr Jim pasig the director of Information Technology we have a pretty um uh I guess inclusive team that that kind of constantly has this conversation um in regards to Safety and Security with what we're doing throughout our district um taking in feedback from our principals um this is a topic that is on top of our minds um and top of our budget conversations as well um so a little bit history Maybe there we go um so the history of safety security the increase attention to Safety and Security has has grown over the last decade there's been a number of high profile incidents of violence um increased social media usage times have changed in terms of this this topic in terms of school safety which is why I mentioned this it's pretty much on top of our minds when we're talking about any funding initiative or initiatives that we're doing throughout the district um Higley has had a history of making some Safety and Security improvements throughout the district um just to recap there's over the last 10 years our front office reconfigurations we're all done with the 2013 Bond those front office reconfigurations made all our school sites a single point of entry and that configuration again was done on the summer of 2014 traffic flow modifications are continuing being done this was a topic in our budget conversation several projects have been completed Higgly High Santan and then we have several in the works but traffic flow modifications are typically funded with the Jason ways funding they're intended to reduce congestion enhance emergency access and again improve the safety of our students and staff other safety improvements that the district has been working on over the last year include alarm enhancements and audits communication improvements with two-way radios and intercom systems and a visitor management system that gives us greater access to check in and check out individuals that are accessing our campus next I will turn it over to Mr Walker to talk about our next initiative which is security cameras members of the board tonight in regards to our safety and security update security cameras are our critical piece for surveillance in the school district for first and foremost for for building security uh it serves as crime deterrence as well as crime prevention it helps to investigate incidents and also creates the ability to prevent incidents from happening in the first place because it provides better supervision over campus operations it gives us as a district the ability to document it gives us also a tie-in for emergency response and as the the technology increases so does the Partnerships with law enforcement agencies and the ability to share for emergency responses and then overall just the the input for from law enforcement and assessments of our campuses is the implementation and the upkeep of security cameras provides an enhanced level of school safety across the board so I'll turn it over to Mr basic to talk a little bit about what we currently have because we do have security cameras in place but what solution that we're looking at as a forward-thinking a solution for this topic good evening so we currently have um multiple camera systems but the one that we're looking to replace is the vigilon camera system the vigilon cameras are low resolution they're 1080p cameras so visibility is sometimes challenging uh they require Network video recorders so so every site has an NVR a recorder as well as a server and they are really at their the end of their useful life um one of the expenses that we're being asked should we decide that we want it should we decide that we wanted to keep the vigil on cameras is all of the servers and all of the nvrs need to be updated and upgraded that's how old they are the approximate cost and admittedly there's some there's some adjustments that we could make by making certain campuses more robust and certain campuses less robust with regard to say recording times some of those things but generally speaking if we went with what I would call the Goldilocks solution the middle of the road solution to upgrade all of the vigilon equipment to the new servers and the new nbrs would cost us approximately six hundred and sixty thousand dollars and we would put all of that money into the system and we would not purchase a single new camera so we are suggesting that we go with a Enterprise level solution through the berkata corporation verkada has 4K cameras so there's a certain level of future proof uh there those cameras are four times the resolution of the existing cameras the Mercado cameras are all cloud-based so the images are captured on the camera itself it isn't the data is encrypted on the camera the data is encrypted in the cloud and the data is encrypted in transit from the camera to the cloud each camera can hold 30 days of storage and we have an unlimited amount of storage in the cloud so if we determine that we need to save footage for an investigation or for any purpose we can save it in the cloud the cameras the hardware has a 10-year warranty so should a camera fail or should a camera be damaged or fill in the blank for the next 10 years those get replaced we also get 10 years of software upgrades and improvements ricotta has been putting out patches on a regular basis quarterly if not more often and we also have as part of the vakata camera solution 24 7 365 monitoring of the exterior of our of our campus so um images can be can be used to trigger intervention by police or by other services the the other I'm sorry I'm sorry Tyler I apologize the last thing I just wanted to say is is the ricotta solution um is accessible on uh computers and also on apps and footage can be shared with law enforcement in in emergencies so versata is a is a suite of services um all of these things fall behind what they refer to as a single pane of glass which is their application called ricotta command all those types of sensors and services get their own tab within Mercado command and although we're going to start with cameras focusing on the exterior of our sites eventually moving to Interior cameras we do have the opportunity to add things like integration to our access control system air quality sensors and communication so so really as we progress with the Mercado solution and we continue to add things in and and uh we can continue to make the system more robust and more integrated district-wide foreign use in a variety of of uh sites and and organizations I did reach out to three different school districts who responded to uh in varying ways to my request for uh for a reference but generally speaking the the experience that they're having with their with their their installation mirrors what we would expect based on our assessment of the of the product people are are quite pleased with it and I would assume that Higley will be as well so this is what we're deeming phase one of our security camera planning cost um after again like I've alluded to we've made a lot of improvements across our district this is really I think the next point of emphasis with working with Mr Walker and Gilbert Police um that uh that Higley needs to address and so um the total phase one kind of plan and cost as presented um in a later board agenda item it's 156 total cameras and that includes software that's a again a 10-year warranty that also allows for software upgrades the primary focus of this first phase is the external cameras at our sites this does cover all School sites so we're not emphasizing one set of schools all School sites um would be this in this first Focus but what the emphasis on the external entrances of our campuses points of Entry Etc phase two would then be to look at internal cameras or and then look at points of entry points of interest where we feel there's High incidents in areas where are deemed security risk um the total cost of this phase one is 529 000.

thank you they're used they're doing hours too they're doing this I was on the text before you as long as as long as Erica's ready all right we're returning from our break and um we are done with item 9.2.3 so we're going to move forward to a 9.3 Human Resources 9.3.1 is informational District Staffing update terrific so thank you for this opportunity I'm joined here this evening by executive director of classified HR David Cole and we do know that our other executive director of classified HR Mike Allen is watching on the zoom so we are excited about the opportunity to share as we do annually our staffing update and I most of the time we gloss over an opening slide but I do want to point the board's attention to the bottom line of the slide that HR is is laser focused on supporting every student every day and we're going to walk you through some slides that we think will prove that statement to be true so we just want to start with some big numbers this year we currently have certificated numbers we have 781 staff and then classified HR broke down the 787 classified staff into various categories here as you can see I'm not going to read the slide to you but I do want to point out that we have two different types of classified staff we have the classified California School Employees Association at 7 14 and then the exempt California School employee Association at at 67.

to adjourn the meeting all right uh the meeting is adjourned Olivia texted me

read by from all parties and it's good for students in Chico and Beyond and also beneficial for students who continue to be victimized by the campfire thanks for your time Mr gronstaff Sir I have a question um do you think that there is a solution out there that could be satisfying to all parties well as we talked about the the lawyers that you talked about hadn't really come up with a final conclusion with that accurate that I heard that we're still discussing they were pretty clear in their opinion we've asked them to put it in writing um I think it'll be really good for all parties to talk together because I don't think they did before these options came up speaking for yourself as a member of the foundation board I'm going to ask you a question that I'm going to start asking more Inspire leaders how would you feel about being at another campus an older campus an existing facility within Chico Unified School District as opposed to a brand new one on in the Canyon View location I'm just gonna hold on I'm just going to pause just just let you know that you do not have to answer yeah no I mean you know it's public forum and you can click on it and respond later I I think you need to really take a serious look and investigate that I have gone um to a couple of other campuses and looked around with those things in mind and you know I think there are possibilities there I think the entire thing should be discussed probably between the board here and Inspire and have things shared around I I do think that school districts have a lot more options than we're hearing right now and I I think I'd like those to come up thank you thank you so before before we go on to our next speaker I just want to let the board and our community know that the live stream is down we had a computer crash are we back up Patrick okay I'll take that back Melissa dancing broke it it broke the internet you broke the internet um all right we're gonna move on to Ruby patchel followed by Rose carpelka [Applause] hello my name is Ruby patchell and I'm currently a long-term sub at Inspire I have also worked at Chico High Marsh and Chico Jr here at Chicago unified we have gathered here to talk about the funding for inspire and their need for a new campus and I want to share my story which represents one of the many reasons why Inspire should have their own space a Content warning there is mention of suicidal ideation I started at Inspire in August of 2011 for both Inspire and my second year of high school I had moved to Chico two months before the first day of school and I was depressed and anxious and self-conscious and friendless and while I think most teenagers starting at a new high school feel the same there was something else I was dealing with my mom signed me up for inspire and I was hesitant I was worried because it was small that I would stand out and that friend groups would already be formed and that I would be alone so I told my mom if my first semester and Inspire didn't work out it was fine I would transfer to another school what I didn't tell her was that if my first semester didn't work out then I wasn't going to go to school at all I wasn't going to be alive anymore in the year and a half before I joined inspire my life wasn't turmoil and it had led me to a place where I didn't want to live so starting at a new school was truly the last thing that I wanted to do fortunately as proven my presence here tonight my first semester at Inspire was better than I ever could have hoped or imagined [Applause] I don't say this lightly inspire saved me I found friends and mentors and an advisor before Becky Brown was principal she was my English teacher and my advisor she is someone even now I can go to for advice and reassurance I found hobbies that later I turned into a college degree that I turned into a career I have gone from an inspired student to an inspired educator Inspire is a student is a school made up of students from all over Butte County it doesn't just serve Chico but kids from all over the county looking for a place where they can belong it's comprised of some of the kindest most caring talented and funny teenagers I have ever had the pleasure to know I am a firm believer that we don't deserve things we earn them and over the last 13 years Inspire has earned a new campus a place they can call their own thank you for sharing Ruby Rose krepelka and Then followed by Brian Boyer good evening I had a whole uh actually I did bullet points this time so that I wouldn't go over on time and I had to change a bunch of them after the surprises that were given to us tonight which seems to be a practice of this situation where we aren't things aren't discussed with the Inspire staff or anything prior to what we can expect um so I'm gonna I'll hone in on the items that actually are relatable now um I want to start out with the simple fact that the district does have a legal obligation to provide facilities for inspire I think we all know that I think we have to keep saying it because it seems like the the money part of the deal as far as the loan or wherever it comes from seems to be uh acting like we're the inspires being given a favor inspires not being given a favor they're actually asking to pay for themselves they just need to find the the funding for a limited amount of time this is a great deal for Chico Unified and the reason why is the whole 27 million project is paid by inspire yes we have a 10 million dollar shortfall but the state if we don't do this now the state Grant of eight million dollars will go away and so I can't see that by moving to another facility within the district which I don't think is a bad idea but the problem is of the timing of the eight million dollars we're back to that uh you know back against the wall as far as how long you it takes to submit um all the processes and approvals by allowing Inspire to utilize some funds temporarily it would not be pulling money out of the resources for the other schools for Chico Unified because you're going to get it back the other options that we had and again was a surprise when we attended the meeting back in I believe it was March about the hookerope those have been voted down so if we don't have a school to go to and time to make the plans that option is off the table we can't we can't wait for that unless we want to just I'll say give away the eight million dollars to the state we're hopeful that at this time you guys can come up with an option three something that would work as a win-win for both parties um I don't think Fremont Street yet it will be new it's utilizing old Portables it's it's not you know brick and mortar it's it's using half of the the buildings that they already have and it isn't that we want up shiny new campus we went on a campus that we can be proud of and a place for as you see the children in ex-inspire students to belong we do know on the upcoming Bond if you choose to um pursue that option then we'll we'll be right there and we'll help you pass it like we have in the past so I I really want to let you know the time is now and please make the consideration of of not postponing and fixing things or coming up with creative ideas and I do agree the uh Charter committee could be at a start thank you for your time I do appreciate all of you and uh thanks for listening thank you Mr pelka I have a question [Applause] um thank you for coming here tonight and for giving us your perspective I want you to know before I ask you my question that I've had conversations today with Chico Unified staff Jacqueline Krueger and I have been assured that if we were to make a decision in the next month or two that there is still time to put Inspire at Hooker Oak if we wanted to do that okay that is okay as the the foundation chair a highly placed leader with an Inspire what would you think about Inspire being at the hooker Road campus I would not be opposed I think that would be a solution okay well you are one vote away up here from not being a reality and I'll just leave you with that thank you well we're waiting for the next speaker uh one thing that um Rose said was uh that uh quote you need to come up with a third option but I want to um I want to revise that to we yes thank you we need to come up with the best viable option for everybody all right Brian Boyer you're up next followed by Johnny Dunlap on behalf of the Gibson family so there's there's some of this uh still left that I'm going to share I chew through some of it as well uh good evening I'm Brian Boyer I'm speaking to you as a uh okay thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight I'm speaking to you in my capacity as a member of the board of directors for inspire School of Arts and Sciences first I'd like to acknowledge and express my appreciation for the many acts of generosity and Goodwill on the part of this board to support inspires effort to relocate the chief off the chico High campus starting with your willingness to allowed us to build on the Fremont site to your most recent decision to provide you don't know how to call this anymore it's not financing but provide a creative solution to finalize the move as you know as Rose pointed out California law prop 39 requires that Chico Unified provide facilities for the 300 Inspire students that live within the Chico Unified School District regardless with the use of charter school facility Grant funds and Creative Solutions through cusd Inspire is poised to pay the entire cost of moving to Fremont Street tonight you'll consider two creative options I'm concerned however because these options are presented with they're presented in a divisive fashion Inspire is first pitted against Chico Chico elementary schools then Inspire is pitted against Chico charter schools the takeaway from this characterization is that Inspire and its win for inspire is a loss for somebody else that's not that's a that's a that's a scarcity mentality we need an abundance mentality there's enough for everybody the timing might be different but there's enough for everybody also I think it's important to bear in mind the interest of Chico high in order for Chico High and the district to reach their facility goals Inspire needs to relocate off the chico high school campus that's a point that's been made and so in closing I feel the need to highlight the fact that at no point at no point during the process of developing developing any of these options neither Inspire nor any member of the Charter Community were consulted so now we find ourselves in a position of having to Cobble together coherent input using these three-minute sound bites this lack of inclusion collaboration and transparency is not the message we want to take forward to the greater Chico Community as we ask them to trust us with their money to meet the needs of all of Chico students thank you Mr Boyer sir how would you feel about Inspire being located on the Hooker Oak or a different existing Chico Unified campus well man I'm still stung from the what was it a mass tumor analogy uh I'm not smiling um and so I I I don't want to speak for the board and so I'm not going to I know that when we were willing to open ourselves to that conversation when that was one of the possibilities that was on the table and so um I would I would imagine the board would be open to be to be a part of that conversation but I can't speak for them specifically thanks next up we have Joni Dunlap on behalf of the Gibson family followed by Becky Brown first thank you for this opportunity I'm Joni Dunlap and I'm a parent of an inspired graduate and a current senior and I'm also a past member of the Inspire School Board I Echo all of the comments that others have already shared this evening on top of my own family's experiences I believe that there are very important community and Regional reasons to build a new campus or relocate Inspire off the chico High campus therefore I asked the board to support funding options for the Inspire I'm going to say Fremont Street project just because that's how I've come to refer to it in my own head specifically the move to a new campus on Fremont Street or somewhere else has the potential to enhance the learning environment it becomes a purpose-built campus designed to provide students with facilities that can greatly enhance the quality of Education offered by providing specialized Studios Theaters rehearsal spaces and Science and Engineering Laboratories inspires move from the camp that the chico High campus has been pointed out already has also enhances the learning environment for Chico High because they will be able to reclaim the physical campus space and further develop their own programs it also has the potential to increase attraction businesses and families moving into the area are looking for access to high quality educational opportunities a new campus can attract students from within the community and Beyond for example one of inspire Specialties as we witnessed this evening is reforming Arts which can draw students with a passion for music dance theater and other artistic disciplines from all over the county and all over the region enhancing the high school opportunities in Chico by having Inspire at Fremont Street and expanding Chico High's campus can also have positive economic impact on Chico because it may attract people from outside of the immediate service area it also has the potential to improve morale having a modern and well-equipped campus can boost the morale of teachers and staff as well as students and their families and the surrounding communities again moving inspired to Fremont Street enhances the morale of both High School communities and attracts other skilled Educators to those communities finally it also has the potential for positive messaging investing in a new campus demonstrates the school boards and the community's commitment to this unique and inclusive high schools long-term success it signals to students Educators parents the community and local businesses that educational opportunities for diverse student groups are valued in addition this project May attract attention from other educational opportunities granting bodies and potential Partners interested in collaborating on and supporting other projects of interest to the school board thank you thank you next is Becky Brown followed by Tony Fierro [Applause] I'm going to try to be coherent because my speech went out the window these Revelations I'm also going to apologize in advance because I'm elevated um I Heard mention that you haven't had enough time to put together options or to explore them well we've been asking for help since September of 2021 when we learned of the 10 million dollar shortfall and getting to the table has been very very difficult um we are asking you for a loan we are not asking for a handout as the lovely rose said um we don't want you to pay for this project we want to pay for it um and we are asking you for that loan not asking our Charter colleagues for that loan because it is not their responsibility it is the district's responsibility to provide adequate housing for our 300 in-district students you the district also stand to gain from the removal of inspire the tumor from the chico High campus that's why we're asking you for this loan we have a tough decision and we've been here month after month after month and I've asked our community to come month after month after month and they have and thank you so we have to make a decision very shortly here whether we want to take the few measure K dollars we have left after the 730 000 that we spent for Fremont Street planning and take advantage of some State funding and make some minimal upgrades and chip away at those 30 year old Portables or I think it's totally reasonable to wait until the next Bond measure is passed I think that's very reasonable we could wait for that and we could ask that the district pull some funds from their allocation not from the charter allocations because we simply wouldn't take that deal so if Inspire is estimated to receive five to six million dollars that would only leave four million or 5 million from a district allocation that would be paid back later and so it would not be let's not talk let's not pit Charter against Charter or District against Charter but understand that we have to work together to take advantage of these State funds give inspire a campus and let us move off the chico High campus I actually am very grateful to the district and grateful to this board for all that you've given us and for these Creative Solutions that you've proposed and I'm grateful for the opportunity for our students to receive this education in civics and I hope that they have the opportunity to see leaders making decisions with wisdom and transparency thank you thank you am I able to ask for a quick question Becky can I ask you a quick question I don't know if you want to come back up or not you had mentioned um that the the 10 million dollar assessment that was back in 2021 and something that I keep coming back to is the fact that that was now over two years ago looking closer to three and with the obvious you know changes cost of living all right I should say changes in construction prices that we all see I mean have you checked back in to get a more accurate estimate of your the short Paul we've talked to the brilliant Julie Kissel about this and Julie this was actually sort of the height of the pandemic you know costs going through the roof and Julie actually thinks that that number is probably still pretty accurate Becky um you are a highly Pro placed Inspire leader I put a question to other board members and now I'm going to put it to you how would you feel if Inspire were to be given different already existing older Chico Unified property such as Hooker Oak I still think that if I speak on this um the takeaway for our community is going to be Inspire get something at the cost of district schools and that's just not um a road that I think that we should go down I don't want inspired to get something um because other Charters lose something I don't want to inspire to get something that a district school doesn't get you are all in these roles because you have to make really hard decisions and closing a school is one of the most horrific things that a school board can consider so that means I'm not answering that's a thoughtful that's a thoughtful answer thank you if you talk about wanting you know we want a solution where no one has to give something up well we know that's not realistic right I actually don't don't think that's true so in my mind and and I'm not like I just want to be with kids in classrooms and with teachers I'm not like a money Mastermind but you have so if you put out a bond in and you're still working on the money from measure you're still working on the money from the last Bond I don't believe that any of your elementary schools are going to suffer much from you having to delay spending five million dollars while that I mean I know Julie works really efficiently but I I don't believe that you're going to have elementary schools with Windows falling out if you have to delay that 5 million or 4 million until a subsequent Bond comes out if that makes sense and you can't really do much with 5 million it's not we're actually moving our money the the Chico Unified money is moving it's the charter process that that the money's not moving us quickly I don't know that that's any fault of theirs but well you have quite a bit left in measure k how much do we have in measure k I don't know off the top of my head but we are building McManus Elementary which is using the series C money for that so if that Bond doesn't pass you know I'm sure you're then we're screwed we are all screwed the charters are screwed the district is screwed but I believe we're going to pass that Bond because if this board is making wise decisions you can bet that Charters we're gonna we have highly engaged communities we are going to band together I mean look at these people they've been here night after night after night they are going to show up they're going to make phone calls they're going to get the bond passed and it's to the benefit of everyone in the district but the only way that pond Passage would give you what you want according to our attorneys is if it was to scoop off the top from someone 10 million dollars and gifted to inspire so the next Bond I believe you could write any way you want to write an understanding the 15.34 um that is clearly delineated for Charter Schools is for measure K that the community passed in 2016.

um this is based on our state science standards the ACT science uh is not necessarily aligned quite to our state standards so that our cohort 2024 actually takes this test this counts for our accountability for a through F whereas act science doesn't count for anything with a through F it's good for our kids going out to college here again consistently above the state the state did improve as we did from last year last year was the first year when we administered azsi we do anticipate seeing these scores improve over the next few years with the adoption and implementation of DNA our new assessment platform comes with an item bank that is much more closely aligned to the state test as well as to our state standards more rigorous and and we truly believe that once students start engaging with that our staff will be able to start looking at that and adjust their instruction accordingly graduation and Dropout rates uh we had a 96 graduation rate in 2022 that puts us as the highest graduation rate of any District in Maricopa County this is according to the Arizona auditor general only three other districts Hayden winkelmann Duncan and Thatcher had higher rates and all of those were considered to be immediate small and medium-sized districts whereas we are considered to be a large District so this is an impressive feat by by both of our high schools with that graduation rate we get full points on a through f for sitting at 90 percent so maintaining a 96 huge dropout rate what that is looking at is students are identify identified as Dropout they began at one of our schools left one of our schools and we don't know where they went so a one percent dropout rate is huge and again Testament to the front office at our high schools for tracking down kids that leave and identifying where they've gone and that that then goes into our student information system gets sent up to the state that allows them to track those students and identify the dropout rate foreign CTE so here we're looking at as well as our portrait of a graduate and that College and Career Readiness so looking at our Career and Technical education program uh last year we had 465 industry credentials earned by our students in CTE there were 2557 seats in CTE courses that were filled by students I say seats because we could have a child that might take three or four CTE courses they're filling three or four of those seats and then most of those kids take a skills assessment at the end of the year we had a 90.5 percent passing rate as a district on those skills assessment our advanced placement program as a district last year we offered 28 different advanced placement courses we had 1466 seats filled by students in those courses and of the kids that took the AP test we had a 73 passing rate 73 passing rate of students earning a three or better generally a three or better is going to get you college credit uh depending on the college and depending on what they're looking for just for comparison the Morrison Institute in Helios and ASU decision Center did a study in 2018-19 looking at AP participation in the state compared to the nation in the U.S in 1819 the percentage of receiving a three or better was at 59.6 for Arizona it was at 59.4 so it's the most recent data I could come up with as a comparison but just looking at that our passing rate is sparse period to what you're seeing in the rest of okay and then last I want to show our foreign language information we had 60 seals of bi-literacy that were earned by seniors last year that's based on performance on the stamp and enrollment in our world languages programs that improved from 23 last year we also just got information as to the total number of seals of by literacy that were issued to the state our number of 60 represents five percent of the total seals given out in the state so huge shout out to Rebecca Rodriguez and our Royal language teachers for helping our kids get to that point and then again 536 of our kids were enrolled on our DLI program so again huge shout out to both of our sites as well as Rebecca Rodriguez on all of the work that she does finally kind of what's next in terms of our students and and what that they'll be doing we have our district benchmarks starting on September 5th uh for third through eighth grade in ela math and science uh we give those at the end of the first second and third quarters they are mimics of what the state test looks like gives us a lot of data about how our students are going to perform on those State tests and allow us to provide address gaps in our curriculum and that kind of thing moving forward a through F letter grades cut scores will be approved by the State Board in September they will then approve letter grades at the end of October November 1st is a state deadline to release letter grades so we'll have a better idea of where our schools are based on what the data that we have once the cut scores are approved and then I'll be able to publicly talk about them after November 1st move on when reading just wanted to throw that out there that we are currently assessing all of our k-3 students in literacy and dyslexia in using a state approved test this is mandated by state law for us to do this it's administered at the beginning middle and end of the year so we've already got data coming in on where our kindergarten first second and third grades graders are that information then gets we let parents know those kids are at risk right now and the things that we're doing to address some of those deficiencies and then finally just to put it on the radar State Testing starts at the end of January the Zella reassessment for our Els English Learners and that's the proficiency test for them and then starting the end of March beginning of April we're straight into State Testing so questions Mr Berkshire these numbers are amazing they're so good and it's a testament to our teachers and our students and just um hearing miss d'ambrosia the ambrosio's excitement that she had for her students um I'm sure that all these teachers are are just as great as she is and cheering their students on during these testings so um I'm super excited to see these numbers questions comments from the board yes um president Schultz I love seeing the high rate of graduation but I do have a question as far as our math and um reading yes we're comparing to State and our numbers are higher but at 60 percent that if if you if that equates to a grade that's still a d um so how are how has our graduation rate so high when we're only at 60 percent in those areas is our is everything kind of watered down to push these kids through to to increase our graduation rates or the numbers don't match up the graduation rates is pretty much what I'm saying so it's 60 yes great we're doing great above State average but at 60 it's still considered a d the state test is a very rigorous test I think any teacher that has participated in the state item uh writing process and and the review process those items that kids are engaged in are extremely rigorous so obviously when you look at some of the metrics that some of the organizations in Arizona put out the goal is that our third graders are sitting at probably an 80 passing rate and that has been a long-term goal um but I would it is very hard to equate a standardized test that a child takes one time a year to a collection of evidence that goes into a student's grade there there are a lot of factors that could impact besides the rigor of the test that student performance on that one day that they take that test they could have had a cold and been snippling the entire time headache and just weren't able to to engage in the tests like we know they could they could have had uh gotten off the bus that morning tripped and fell lots of different things that could have happened to impact their score on that test so what the state test results really do is they give us a snapshot of where our kids are they allow us at the district level to to look at Trends and identify maybe we have some gaps in our curriculum and and an instruction that we can address and those are things that I've been in conversation with Mr loutsonheiser here miss Lindsay as well as Miss Davis and the the instructional coach team about at the district level we also meet with all of our principals to talk about their site level data lots of different points come into to that so it's hard to to say that a grade represents what a student gets on that test Berkshire when you come back and you share the official letter grade information at that time will you be able to show us how we compare to our surrounding districts so in terms of our ASA our state test performance that data hasn't been released publicly it should be released prior to letter grades coming out once letter grades are released that information usually is public for everybody so we should in November if I come back I should be able to talk about how we perform just in test score percentage compared to our surrounding districts as well as how our schools did in comparison to to our surrounding districts in terms of letter grades and for the the slide where it had the the failing at the bottom I think it was about 15 percent um what actions are being taken to be able to help those kids increase their grades not sure which one you're referring to um I'm sorry I don't have my iPad uh page 11.

and again um we've mentioned this in the budget conversation there is a one-time state aid supplement that the governor um allocated for fiscal year 24 that 300 million dollars Statewide um I mentioned the budget presentation that the district is focusing on using that for Capital needs this is a perfect use for that one-time money to invest in our safety and security throughout our campuses and that concludes our presentation so if there's any questions I'd be happy to answer presidential Mr Moore did we get any other quotes or just one Mr PESA can speak to that we investigated um staying with the vigilon equipment and we also looked at Meraki equipment and based on the assessment with the team we we recommended that we move forward with ricotta okay and can the footage be foiled at all in case let's say there's an incident um Can the community request a copy of that recording I am not a lawyer so I'm not comfortable answering that question um I'm not certain James members of the board I'm not a lawyer either but I can take a little stab at it there are some protections through FERPA based on what's captured so there are limitations but at times it could be requested depending on what the request is in regards to okay thank you um in an update or in our superintendent report can we receive visual comparison of what it looks like now as far as your quality of Imaging compared to what either what you're expecting or once you get things installed the difference the true upgrade and what we're going to receive sure we'll be able to provide that thank you um do we uh I think we don't quite know um where internally these cameras will go correct I know you said eventually we'll we'll start from the outside and then work its way inside the schools um do we have an idea as to like as far as like near locker rooms and bathrooms the initial plan is to remove the um a vigil on cameras and then replace the uh the vigilon camera with a vertada camera in the same location and then we will engage with the vercata engineers to help us determine um the best location for some other cameras but um that'll that'll be sort of a give and take process working with with its uh site leadership as well as berkata um engineer and and I go ahead yeah I can also add to that um that that's a strategic plan uh that we're not not the Strategic plan but a strategic plan that we do have to incorporate law enforcement input uh the engineers from the company as well as the site Administration for areas of high need thank you and uh one more question will those cameras have facial recognition capabilities the the new ricotta cameras have um have heuristics or AI that will allow us to search for certain things like students or people with red shirts on or people with backpacks that sort of uh um Enterprise level uh sorting and searching is possible with the picata cameras any other questions comments one more sorry and will this information be shared with the third party company at all or will it be on our cloud it's our data it'll be encrypted in all three locations on the camera in transit and in the cloud and it's it's our data it's not a third-party data thank you anything else thank you very much it's a very important topic [Music] moving on to action item 8.1 I move that we approve policy g b e b b staff contact with students second read second questions comments concerned this is um a tweak that we had from before so I don't think there's anything else I do have a quick question um let's see at the end where it says use of physical Force against students um I did recently see an article it's an old article um where a I think seven-year-old um there was physical Force used within our district and the the child was locked in a closet now do I mean I'm just concerned as far as like use of physical Force because when I read this article like to be honest like as a parent it was very con concerning to me um that that much force was used against a seven-year-old but how does how does um what are the limitations of this I guess is what I'm trying to understand so board member Ben hook I'm going to ask Miller to OK about CPI AC in the appropriate procedures that are used thank you in our district we currently have um three individuals that are certified Crisis Prevention intervention trainers and their role is to train identified staff in the use of what we call CPI Through The Crisis Prevention intervention Institute the majority of that training is de-escalation techniques that do not include any type of physical contact but in the event that we have a student that is a danger to sell for others that we have to intervene staff that intervene are trained in the use of the CPI techniques so that they're done in a manner to keep the staff as well as the student safe but it's only used as a last resort and is the parent notified at every single time they are they're notified in writing and they're also given a copy of the incident once the investigation is done thank you all those in favor aye motion carries five zero eight point two I I move that we approved the authorization of expenditure ricotta camera replacement second questions comments concerns I know we just heard the presentation I didn't know if you I know you wanted to see a visual I don't know if that impacts the vote or oh it won't at all okay sure all those in favor I I motion carries five zero I move that take act or I'd like to make a motion that we take action on selecting a firm to conduct a superintendent search second questions comments concerns all those in favor I know I don't do we need to name the sorry yes thank you just we just need to clarify based on what was determined and decided within executive session we're giving direction to our HR Director to follow those instructions yes on after I read it I apologize it's uh uh thank you I move that we authorize Mrs Johnson to to hire Rey and Associates to conduct our superintendent search second hope I was in favor I apologize for that very clumsy vote on my part is five to six motion carries five to zero items for future agenda add um possible uh executive session um whether it's to the next board meeting or possibly prior um to discuss the turnover rate at Power Ranch and possible Personnel issues okay thank you we'll discuss that with District foreign anything else I mean to add some humor out just to see a budget item for more boardroom Clickers yeah could we get a budget item for more Clickers or or maybe uh Mrs Anderson suggested a ball that we could just toss across we thought we had something tonight it's just hesitating because when I cook it it vibrates and so yeah we have Mr it in the room thank you Mr paseks for helping us out and we'll have it we'll have it under control [Laughter] thank you Mrs Anderson eye move that we adjourn this meeting second all those in favor aye thank you and have a nice evening like when you click it it goes and then it transitions but we need more than one like even if we had one for this side one for that side and one right there we would be good and I know you've said you can't switch

I also want to highlight there at the bottom that we have administrative staff of 102 which would be 76 certificated and 26 classified so when you're thinking of certificated staff I just wanted to be sure that we're not just talking teachers incredibly important folks but we also have other certificated staff in Chico Unified I just wanted to provide those those labels for the board to understand them for the community there were not just talking teachers we're talking about all the support staff in this classroom and building environments so some more data this year we had 26 retirements 44 resignations we were able to hire 72 teachers we were really excited at the the new teacher orientation we asked the group to raise their hands and let us know how many of them have previous experience in another district and over half raised their hand which seems really selfish professionally but we're really excited to steal teachers and get them into Chico Unified it's always a good thing for our kids so we're excited about that you can see here too that we we have six Kuma Chico Unified Management Association members and then we have 34 staff on various types of leave medical leave just just different types as always when we start school years there's still some little pieces that need to be filled we did have a week ago when we were first creating this presentation we had a couple other positions that were on here and in our special ed staff administrative staff worked hard to hire two two more clinicians so or excuse me two other positions however we still have some reading pal positions and some special ed folks that we're still looking for and we'll be working hard to fill those positions I'm not going to again read this whole list to you I do want to point out that we've been extremely fortunate to be able to recruit administrative staff into Chico obviously that has an effect on other districts but people want to work here some have been training really hard in other districts for three four five years for the opportunity to uh to come back to Chico when they had been here previously as a teacher so we're excited to have them have them join us I'm going to turn things over to David Cole and he'll walk you through the classified side well again it's very nice to be here I appreciate the opportunity uh when we look at classified Services everyone that does an older certificate by default with the within the Ed code but what's interesting with all these groups they all have subgroups within them and so we have about 99 job descriptions that people are working in within those groups so there's 99 seniority lists and things of that nature so it's a rather large group when we look at the data we looked at last year because for us it's a continuous change last year we had we looked this we had 500 job placements and of that 125 new employees so when you look at this and you see 35 new hires from June to August 17th that's brand new employees come to the district that have never worked here before but within that and on top of that we have 84 appointments So within our process of our seniority process where employees have the opportunity by seniority to bump some or to move into a position that's vacated based on the seniority we've made 84 of those moves since June and so it's about 119 or so changes that have happened since June so it's it's constantly changing constantly moving forward within this group here looking at the data we looked at this year and the data we looked comparatively last year when we looked at this time last year we had about 81 positions open in the IPS or in structural paraprofessionals today I checked on that number because it changes all the time it's at 58 and so it's a different number even from when we posted this on the 17th in addition to that we have these intervention behavioral interventionists which are the more highly trained structural Pairs and we had last year a total of three positions we had one filled this year we have 26 positions and 20 filled and we're not filling the other six because they're holding off right now so we're completely filled when it comes to those as well as the behavioral specialists were completely filled in that area too for us IP positions as a whole represent about 407 positions in the district so it's a large number of people we've gone from about 20 percent of our total Workforce when I started to over 50 percent now that we're in the specialty area and then the others you can see in Camp supervision and the others we've made dramatic changes were much better position we were than a year ago going forward and I guess with that it went very quickly if there's any questions we'll certainly go through those all right thank you thank you oh oh got one did you say you have a question Oh I thought you said I do sorry just kidding all right yes all right uh we will move on to 9.3.2 discussion action approval of a provisional internship permit for a multiple subject credential for Gianna Hughes yes thank you board so we're bringing this to you tonight for Action when we have a situation that we're trying to fill a position with someone who is an intern obviously we need to be sure that we are submitting the proper documents in this particular situation with this teacher at Marsh she is currently enrolled in two courses that are the prereqs for her to get into the internship program typically when we submit this type of application the state requires the application to include a full school year however we know that she'll be moving into an interim position in the spring so it's really just for the for the springs or excuse me the fall semester and are asking for approval for this provisional permit as this person prepares to be to be an intern for us Maybe are you ready so just for clarification it's not even an internship credential it's before it's pre in turn correct okay right and she's being supported heavily by the department I spoke with Jessica Kemp this morning as well as Gary Story the assistant principal at Marsh to be sure that she has what she needs to get to get through the this first semester and be an intern and then she'll be in that internship program for a year and a half um ideally after two years with us um satisfactorily completing all the requirements for that credential she'll be well trained by Chico Unified candidates no no that were even poised to go straight into the internship this semester correct you can see on the verification of requirements in the packet that we are required to distribute job announcements contact college or university placement centers advertised on the internet we went a little above and beyond by attending some job fairs and we're unable to find someone for it okay thank you public comment all right seeing not all call for a motion I move approval of the provisional internship permit we have a move for approval by member Robinson and the second by member Orlando um we have to do a roll call vote I don't think so though right isn't a roll call but where we go one by one you're really ready to jump on that and tell me I was wrong that's good I'm glad that I'm glad that you're making sure I'm straight and narrow um we'll go ahead and start with you if there's no further discussion Ms Robinson are you coming for I'm asking if there's more discussion and if not we can go ahead and start with you I I don't have any questions thank you okay but it's seeing that there's no discussion we'll start with with you Ms Robinson since it was your motion uh Robinson I can't connect all right it passes thank you we'll move on to uh 9.3.3 discussion action resolution number 1614-2-3 elimination of classified services and ordering layoffs in the classified service for the 20 20 30 to 2024 school year thank you president always long title so you see you'll see before you the next two items we have two resolutions I do want to heavily emphasize that every position on both of these resolutions are vacant okay they're vacant with this first one these are non-csea employees these are positions typically uh filled through parent volunteer parent associations typically in most cases these are parents whose kids age out of the school that they're working for these are funded by site discretionary dollars and as those positions as those parents move on you know and their kids move leave the school and those positions become vacant and this is an annual resolution so we're asking for approval um seeing no questions or public comment I'll call for a motion I'm of approval of the layoffs second all right we have a motion by member Robinson in a second by member konkin um last was unanimous so we can do a voice vote all those in favor please say aye aye aye opposed it passes five to zero uh next is similar as Mr Shepard claimed uh resolution 1615-23 elimination of classified services and ordering layouts in the classified service for the 2324 school year great thank you so these rcsea positions however again they are vacant and in most cases these are positions that are very small for example in 18 minutes of a position less than an hour and as you can read there in the language there's a lack of work and or lack of funds to maintain the following positions so again I just want to re-re iterate that these are vacant and in most cases these positions have grown larger with the campus supervisors um there's two listed for pvhs both for lack of funds but very very small FTE correct so the person who held both of those also held three other positions actually within the district so it's just smashing five positions together to make the person whole however that that employee is no longer with us gotcha so that's is that is there still a need for those stats there are other there's another funding source for the same amount of hours that another campus supervisor picked up so the students are still being served with the same with the same number of hours gotcha okay thank you no other questions I will call for about I mean sorry emotion I move approval Dolby seconds got one okay any discussion uh Voice vote those in favor please say aye aye uh it's unanimous again thank you good job Mr Shepard uh on to 9.4 board uh 9.4.1 is discussion action for proposed 2023-2024 board Workshop calendar topics Liaisons and board member assignments so at our June 28th meeting we assign some of the positions but we kind of skipped over some of them as well and I'm also at that meeting the board gave me the task of going back and putting them into an order so two things that we need to accomplish one is to approve the order that we have for the Workshops the dates and the topics that are assigned and then for the November 1st and for the June 26th board workshops we need to assign board Liaisons so the November 1st is a Chico Unified student achievement data and cast information Eileen has volunteered but that was not approved by the board at that meeting that was subsequently when this went out and was vacant so is there interest yeah I mean I would be happy to serve on that one anybody else interested are we good with um Eileen and Tom no arm wrestling up there for that position huh okay and then June 26th is the local control accountability plan and budget approval any interest from board members to serve on them I mean yes but now I just feel like I'm being greedy I'm trying to figure out where my name ended up Landing after all that you see I see you on April 3rd right for the CTE one is that all you've got and no September 6th facilities yeah yeah yeah I don't believe the totals were accurate down at the bottom because I came up with Dolby with two konkoma 2 Lando with two Robinson with two or three if you added that one that Lando at three with the new edition yeah in tennis that's here I can yeah you can put me on for Elk out anybody want to join Caitlyn on the lcap oh I'm sorry yeah I offered that I can are you looking for two or three okay yeah she got you I think after yeah so what I'd like the board to do at this point is just affirm you can vote or just come to a consensus that this is the workshop order that you would like and that everybody that has signed up that's I got it right but that's what you wanted to be serving on I just feel like there were other ones that I had asked to be a part of and then I mean these are the workshops then we'll move to the standing work groups so there's another page yeah that's not what I'm referring to okay um and we would have to look and make sure five so yeah this just doesn't seem in line with anything that I would have said I should have looked at this beforehand but there was other things happening but I would have to see what um what our notes were from last time that was a while ago so it is what it is I guess no I agree there seemed to be some decisions we made last time that aren't reflected in this document like I don't remember saying that I wanted to be on CTE and I do remember saying I wanted to be on the dress code locker room and nutrition services for example really sure how it shook out so I'm happy to go back and we can look at the video and go re-look at the minutes from now that's to be approved for it now and I think that Tom yeah volunteered I really thought we'd completed most of these and made some other changes meeting so there was a shared document and then I think it got unshared so what we can do is we can go back and review this and make sure that it is exactly what people wanted and then I can resend it out to the board I'm looking at Erica that's where we took it from originally correct so it was a shared Dock and we can go back and look at the minutes to make sure the shared document reflects accurately the request from the board or we can just go through and redo it right now it's up to the board I don't want to go through it right now but I'm just one person I said I don't want to go through it right now but I'm just one person I would rather go back through the minutes and look at the previous documents you what happened rather than having to do the whole fluffle again seemed like there were on several of them there were more than a couple people that were interested so maybe I don't think that we got to the point of fleshing out who was going to do what yet I think that we had we had got our list I think it's as far as we got I don't remember like we did come to a conclusion but I mean I remember some of them I didn't that I was hoping for I didn't actually get so maybe that's where the confusion is yeah well are any buildings going to burn if we don't um okay this this month I think the order is yeah yeah the the order we have time to uh put in the um facilitators because we've got September covered and October as long as we're okay with the order we can go back and we won't be meeting with people we will start meeting with the facility with the physical education dress code locker room soon yes I would like to know yeah that one why those how That Shook out but I'm not good with October October necessarily so when we go back and look I know that we've already contacted Matt and Eileen about a meeting on September 12th but we if we change those people we'll just know that we'll just send something back out to whoever the other people are okay um do we do we need a motion to approve the order you're asking for a motion to approve the topic by month is that that's the order you're talking about rather than who the Liaisons are well we've got someone up here and now that doesn't match what's on the sheet in front of us wow this is very different yeah this is the original okay let's go back let us go back through the video part and make sure okay thank you as long as we're okay with the order we're good I think we're okay with the order so can I make we're going to move approval of the order for workshops listed here I'll second that motion all right any further discussion all right all those in favor aye aye aye all right that's unanimous thanks folks I'm glad I was not totally wrong my memory is serving me not terribly um okay so that is oh just kidding 9.4.2 discussion action approval of revised updated Slash new board policies okay we had two board policies from the last board meeting that were brought requested to come back one of which we pulled and one of which the board had some questions uh board policy zero four six zero is the local control accountability plan the questions around that surrounded um students serving on committees or having a student committee which is what Chico Unified does that is clarified in the language do board members have any questions for clarification from staff nope no it was clear that sorry that once we found the Ed code language that we were we were right on right um apply for a motion still moved all right we have a motion by Mr tennis and a second by Mr Orlando those in favor of approval signify with aye aye aye aye all right it's unanimous it passes I will move on to item 10 items from the floor um we still have one more board policy Oh I thought that it was Hollander won we still have one more well it's also they're one item there is another board policy that came forward last time as an arm we had to bring it back as a board policy right it just wasn't listed as a separate item right so I was assuming we were approving both at the same time my apologies no problem we should have been clearer I should have been clearer about that so Mr Shepard you want to go ahead and introduce that one word policy 4119.20 is a collaboration essentially of conversations with both Union groups CSEA and CTA the idea of behind this new board policy is essentially to create the most safe room environment we can for not only students but also our teaching and certificated staff and as importantly our CSEA staff who are coming in for example we have a very tight maintenance schedule and custodial schedule and we're asking our custodians to to get into rooms clean rooms make sure those rooms are ready to go for the next day in a really tight window of time in some cases it's as little as 17 minutes so we're really trying to create the most professional environment we can for our students and staff so I want to reiterate this board policy has been over a year of collaboration with unions to ensure that we have a safe learning environment for our students staff including our CSEA staffer coming into those environments do we have any questions for staff not questions just comment that this issue has been battered around a long time and this is a great collaboration between the two unions to do a fix public comment I'll call for a motion I move approval of the board policy for 119.20 I'll be seconds all those in favor bye hi I'd imagine if there was discussion wanted that somebody wouldn't cut me off I I do want to thank Mr Brian Daggett custodian at Emma Wilson for being here for the last two forecasts to get this through it's through thank you for being here started this discussion and he has seen it all the way through so thank you Brian credit do thank you okay moving on to items from the floor uh do we have any additional public comment this evening okay see none um item 11 board member requested to agenda's item uh during the June 28 2023 special board meeting and workshop the board approved a new process and formed to agendaize items at this time no board member requests to submit an agenda item have been received so with that I'm going to move to item 12.

oh at the ACT cohorts proficiency let me go backwards can you pull the slide back up I think Ari tell me when to stop yeah yeah so oops sorry mentally proficient it's actually slide 10 I believe right no hers is 11. 11 sorry so I I can address minimally proficient in all the areas um sites get this data and they have it so one of the advantages to our new assessment platform is we're able to pull reports on current students that show how they performed on past tests so our current classroom teachers have that information with them right now as to which students were minimally proficient most of that aligns with our Universal screener data as well as to those kids that come in with skill gaps and are at risk so at the elementary level we have a robust mtss program where they're identifying those students at risk providing intervention for those students and really trying to to to fill those gaps in that those kids have middle school and high school they have that same they have similar programs it really is the more we know about what the student is coming in with in terms of their understanding their knowledge what those skill gaps are the better we can address those skill gaps and and help them out so again that's where programs like acadians which is our Universal screener for literacy comes in an important K3 we're piloting right now bass bridge at three of our elementary sites and with special education in seventh and 8th grade and what bass bridge is provides us with is both math and reading and really Targets in where those skill gaps are for kids we anticipate expanding that to eighth grade hopefully so that when at the beginning of the year we know that a child is struggling with phonemic awareness and here are the strategies that we can take to address that particular skill and fill those gaps in thank you you're welcome Schultz a question have y'all looked at done any data correlation between AP students and state and National test scores and how do you have that information or is that something can share later say that correlation between AP scores and like State and National scores like to see if there's a correlation between those as far as how they perform so the best I was able to provide was that information there college board has an interesting system set up that we got access to the AP scores but then our access expired and with the change in superintendent superintendent's the only one that can grant us access to that information so we're still working on getting that information so I'll be happy once Ms Richards gets the document that she has to sign that gives me my my access back to be able to provide you with that information it's very frustrating on our end I think he just called you illnesses any other questions uh no thank you very much these numbers look great and as you mentioned they are just a snapshot um even though in someone who's not a fan of State Testing it's still great to see these numbers thank you very much oh Mrs Wade sorry one more comment I also just wanted to say thank you for your explanation as to the pressures often on standardized tests I think any teacher who has experienced the difference between a regular test day that you give weekly of your AP usually those types of things the kids feel the weight of it um the the structure the procedures everything it there is a a weight of stress so already you have your high anxiety kids that don't test well to begin with in this environment it's often harder to get them to understand that it's just the same as any other test and all of these things and I think it's important for us to keep that in mind that when we look at these tests and why there's such a big difference is because the nature of standardized tests and we all of us in education who are not profiting off of these tests recognize that these tests are not a measure of intelligence or capabilities which is why our graduation rate tends to be what it is in comparison with these numbers so thank you thank you very much moving on to 7.2 Safety and Security update Miss nope good evening president Schultz members of the board Mr Moore we'll just pass this clicker around I have the pleasure of presenting at Safety and Security update for the district as well as co-presenting you know Mr James Walker director of student services and Mr Jim pasig the director of Information Technology we have a pretty um uh I guess inclusive team that that kind of constantly has this conversation um in regards to Safety and Security with what we're doing throughout our district um taking in feedback from our principals um this is a topic that is on top of our minds um and top of our budget conversations as well um so a little bit history Maybe there we go um so the history of safety security the increase attention to Safety and Security has has grown over the last decade there's been a number of high profile incidents of violence um increased social media usage times have changed in terms of this this topic in terms of school safety which is why I mentioned this it's pretty much on top of our minds when we're talking about any funding initiative or initiatives that we're doing throughout the district um Higley has had a history of making some Safety and Security improvements throughout the district um just to recap there's over the last 10 years our front office reconfigurations we're all done with the 2013 Bond those front office reconfigurations made all our school sites a single point of entry and that configuration again was done on the summer of 2014 traffic flow modifications are continuing being done this was a topic in our budget conversation several projects have been completed Higgly High Santan and then we have several in the works but traffic flow modifications are typically funded with the Jason ways funding they're intended to reduce congestion enhance emergency access and again improve the safety of our students and staff other safety improvements that the district has been working on over the last year include alarm enhancements and audits communication improvements with two-way radios and intercom systems and a visitor management system that gives us greater access to check in and check out individuals that are accessing our campus next I will turn it over to Mr Walker to talk about our next initiative which is security cameras members of the board tonight in regards to our safety and security update security cameras are our critical piece for surveillance in the school district for first and foremost for for building security uh it serves as crime deterrence as well as crime prevention it helps to investigate incidents and also creates the ability to prevent incidents from happening in the first place because it provides better supervision over campus operations it gives us as a district the ability to document it gives us also a tie-in for emergency response and as the the technology increases so does the Partnerships with law enforcement agencies and the ability to share for emergency responses and then overall just the the input for from law enforcement and assessments of our campuses is the implementation and the upkeep of security cameras provides an enhanced level of school safety across the board so I'll turn it over to Mr basic to talk a little bit about what we currently have because we do have security cameras in place but what solution that we're looking at as a forward-thinking a solution for this topic good evening so we currently have um multiple camera systems but the one that we're looking to replace is the vigilon camera system the vigilon cameras are low resolution they're 1080p cameras so visibility is sometimes challenging uh they require Network video recorders so so every site has an NVR a recorder as well as a server and they are really at their the end of their useful life um one of the expenses that we're being asked should we decide that we want it should we decide that we wanted to keep the vigil on cameras is all of the servers and all of the nvrs need to be updated and upgraded that's how old they are the approximate cost and admittedly there's some there's some adjustments that we could make by making certain campuses more robust and certain campuses less robust with regard to say recording times some of those things but generally speaking if we went with what I would call the Goldilocks solution the middle of the road solution to upgrade all of the vigilon equipment to the new servers and the new nbrs would cost us approximately six hundred and sixty thousand dollars and we would put all of that money into the system and we would not purchase a single new camera so we are suggesting that we go with a Enterprise level solution through the berkata corporation verkada has 4K cameras so there's a certain level of future proof uh there those cameras are four times the resolution of the existing cameras the Mercado cameras are all cloud-based so the images are captured on the camera itself it isn't the data is encrypted on the camera the data is encrypted in the cloud and the data is encrypted in transit from the camera to the cloud each camera can hold 30 days of storage and we have an unlimited amount of storage in the cloud so if we determine that we need to save footage for an investigation or for any purpose we can save it in the cloud the cameras the hardware has a 10-year warranty so should a camera fail or should a camera be damaged or fill in the blank for the next 10 years those get replaced we also get 10 years of software upgrades and improvements ricotta has been putting out patches on a regular basis quarterly if not more often and we also have as part of the vakata camera solution 24 7 365 monitoring of the exterior of our of our campus so um images can be can be used to trigger intervention by police or by other services the the other I'm sorry I'm sorry Tyler I apologize the last thing I just wanted to say is is the ricotta solution um is accessible on uh computers and also on apps and footage can be shared with law enforcement in in emergencies so versata is a is a suite of services um all of these things fall behind what they refer to as a single pane of glass which is their application called ricotta command all those types of sensors and services get their own tab within Mercado command and although we're going to start with cameras focusing on the exterior of our sites eventually moving to Interior cameras we do have the opportunity to add things like integration to our access control system air quality sensors and communication so so really as we progress with the Mercado solution and we continue to add things in and and uh we can continue to make the system more robust and more integrated district-wide foreign use in a variety of of uh sites and and organizations I did reach out to three different school districts who responded to uh in varying ways to my request for uh for a reference but generally speaking the the experience that they're having with their with their their installation mirrors what we would expect based on our assessment of the of the product people are are quite pleased with it and I would assume that Higley will be as well so this is what we're deeming phase one of our security camera planning cost um after again like I've alluded to we've made a lot of improvements across our district this is really I think the next point of emphasis with working with Mr Walker and Gilbert Police um that uh that Higley needs to address and so um the total phase one kind of plan and cost as presented um in a later board agenda item it's 156 total cameras and that includes software that's a again a 10-year warranty that also allows for software upgrades the primary focus of this first phase is the external cameras at our sites this does cover all School sites so we're not emphasizing one set of schools all School sites um would be this in this first Focus but what the emphasis on the external entrances of our campuses points of Entry Etc phase two would then be to look at internal cameras or and then look at points of entry points of interest where we feel there's High incidents in areas where are deemed security risk um the total cost of this phase one is 529 000.

we will be doing a pollinators walking tour um that is going to be uh we're going to have a central location at uh Blom me Works uh where we'll have tables for folks to come in and learn about pollinators and how they can help to protect pollinators by planting native plant species um leaving the leaves in the fall otherwise uh following our suggestions under the pollinator or a y Care Program um and then from there uh we will have a virtual map that they'll be able to go uh visit as many spots on this walking tour as they want uh they're all downtown areas um city parks uh University of Michigan sites um a few private residences of folks who have agreed to have their their yards open during that time period um to go around and take a look at uh the um infrastructure that we have in place to support bators whether that's you know native plant Gardens or beehives um or what have you uh and I believe there will also be honey and apple tastings at Blum um and yeah so it should be a really fun event uh if you are available then we encourage you to stop by yeah and I want to thank Sean for doing a lot of the background work on this and getting it started it's G to be fun you should all come um okay water quality do we have a report on water quality yeah yeah um we haven't met since may actually but um we have some ongoing things um one is that's uh commissioner nedrich is um inquiring with the city about the use of brine in the city she's following up on chloride pollution and um which comes mostly from road salt applications and um I myself I'm looking into U um into looking about into inquiring with City staff about storm water where floods have uh which neighborhoods have experienced flooding recently and um we're also participating in the uh as observers in the Heron River wack council's mid Heron um working group which has quarterly meetings uh there was one um within the last month uh where various items were discussed um of interest to this group would be the uh the response to the uh um you know to the uh eag the the eaga consent judgment regarding nutrient pollution to the herant river you know which which is mostly phosphorus rather than nitrogen and so um there's a working group within um the Heron River watered Council it's coordinating governmental actions on that uh but I don't have any details about that yet and then um we're also looking into uh reviewing the green streets um initiative and um and so uh and also I'm pursuing um uh part 20 known part 2011 sites in the Allen Creek upper Allen Creek drainage because of some residents have noticed a lot of uh often there's a a strong petroleum smell coming out of the ground in West Park so we're going to see if we can track down where that's coming from and maybe get some um action on a part 2011 site U but we haven't located which one is the problem or maybe maybe there's a new part 2011 site who knows that's it all right thank you very much um natural features so this will be the last report from natural features we're going to be biodiversity next time um Chris Graham is there anything that that you have to report that on the natural speeches work diversity and natural features are all going to be one committee yeah wow yeah wellow we haven't gone very far with natural features except some of us met with Derek Dort and he expressed great affinity for natural features in the city and warned us that uh there were lots of competing priorities and I suggested to him that protecting natural features was established policy by unanimous vote of the council 20 years ago and it's not something that ought to be set aside for new priorities and he said well we'll do the best we can uh meanwhile uh the master planning process apparently is not even begun yet and we again asked to be party at the table not as commenters from the public but as other City officials involved with um that process at least in so far as the natural features master plan part of it is concerned and he said well there are a lot of other people want to be part of that process and I said okay we said okay and so we'll see how that works out in any case it's wonderful to have um things happening with pollinators it kind of refreshes the wheels and U I'm not sure Sean was talking about the Monarch festival at Lessie Park if that's what he was talking about then it's coming up in early September and Lane and I went last year and it was wonderful apparently there's a fundraising dinner the night before or Friday night and I guess the festival goes all weekend but um that turned out to be a very fun event and um well worth your time um there's a pollinator hunt team as part of the wolf pack that has made a major donation in support of that Festival um and they met today and have a long list of things they're trying to do too um pollinators are flying and certainly they been butterflies in our garden um black swallow taals yellow swallow Tales monarchs um it's late summer the flowers are out there and things are great for pollinators thank you yep thank you um the next group I have is uh planning board M dis I see your Hann now um I wanted to offer just a little bit of perspective on the meeting that we had with Mr delort in terms of planning uh are I don't think that there's anything I don't think there's anything directly of interest to this group um but I did miss the last meeting and um so in any case we'll have to I will have to remember that I need to be reporing to you guys since we don't have a a member yet but I did just want to say that I I my understanding of what this notion of computing priorities is it's not that their competing priorities in natural fatures scores low the idea is that um in any decision that we look at we are looking at natural features we are looking at other aspects of sustainability like electrification we are looking at creating housing in the context of a housing crisis and that the comprehensive planning process is the appropriate place for people to deliberate the relative weight of all of those things and that any one group may have its leading issue but it is through the comprehensive planning process that we get full public engagement and feedback around how um how people generally want us to prioritize those things or how we work through because it's it's not as if I say oh well today natural features doesn't matter to me um but tomorrow it will and then the day after I'll prioritize housing you're always weighing all of these things in every decision that you're making and you're never coming up with something that is good all the way around and Derek sometimes likes to say if a decision pleases no one you've probably actually gotten it right because you've gotten something right about every little thing but nobody is totally happy so I don't want anyone in this group to feel that natural features is taking a backseat to other things it is absolutely Central to this comprehensive planning process and that process is underway the planning team is in town in a week and doing stakeholder interviews with council members um and I think I don't know if there's other parts of the city going on right now and um it's series of public engagement meetings are going to be planned and up and running very soon so um you know I just I I really don't want especially Chris to feel like that work is wasted or or not honored um thank you C dish I think we'll all be feel better when we can see it and understand it you know right now it's kind of a theoretical and until we see it it'll that's when we'll um understand and be able to discuss better I think um um I know that um commissioner maren is not here um council member Amman do you have comments on Transportation I do thank you one thing uh this isn't Transportation Commission related but it's Transportation related um Friday September 22nd is world carfree day and there is a carfree day challenge going on actually for um the week of September 22nd to September 29th from the get downtown program um you can Google that and participate in it just as encouraging people to take bikes buses scooters and more uh you can show your environmental impact and win prizes um the other thing Transportation related is that we just passed in Transportation Commission a change to the neighborhood traffic calming program that makes it easier and more accessible to add in changes as we reconstruct roads that make the roadway um safer and more amenable to people who are outside of cars um right now that program is completely separate from Road reconstruction it's a petition Le process um certain elements that are useful for calming traffic are only used in that program and so they're not used outside of the petition process and so a funny thing can happen where basically they're reconstructing a road and they know that there's a speed problem and there's a certain set of elements that are completely off the table because um they're part of the petition Le neighborhood traffic homing program so anyway Transportation Commission and a subcommittee of that has been working hard on changes to that um for probably nine months and now has something that they're they forwarded to council and I'm bringing that forward hopefully for the next meeting a couple of other random non-transportation related things I'm not sure if people know about the um hon River Watershed Council fundraiser that's on the 7th sluds on the river I'll be there hopefully maybe I'll see some of you there too and uh last but not least some of our colleagues on Council myself that included went to Boston recently to learn about how they're doing District geothermal and it sounds like that was a really fruitful trip for all involved Dr staltz was there um the mayor was there a couple of other of my colleagues were there and they also I think spoke to someone who has I think I don't know if it's like a citizen science type of project or what but he goes around and he measures gas um because basically gas is leaking sort of all the time and he's targeted certain neighborhoods where the levels are off the charts and I think from what I understand from my colleagues we are having that person visit an arbor to kind of show us what he does and to create a map of our city uh with this kind of like gas leaking so I thought that was pretty interesting and relevant to this group that's it that's great um the next one I have on this list is Council and so we have our two council members here J do you have anything that you would like to um comment on from Council we just passed the first reading for the second time for the home energy uh home energy rating ordinance um it was a first reading again because OSI made some changes based on questions and feedback um from the first first reading so that passed and we'll advance to a second reading I believe on September 5th um that's a OSI has done a really good job of putting together fre frequently asked questions as they' gotten a lot of these so if you're wanting to know more about that's a good place to go I can't think of anything else can you council member dish um probably nothing of partic specific interest in the environmental commission other than that one that just mentioned thank you very much um I so I'm going to do a a chair's report I just want to say that um since our last meeting in June um Steve Brown and I went to the um Compost Facility and participated in the audit of compost sorting through a selection of composted composted delivered materials to find out what we get and there was plastic there was some treated wood there were some things that were inappropriate for that um and right now we're wait waiting for um the full analysis of what's going on with composting and that will be used to direct um information that will be given to the public in the future um I want to remind and encourage anyone who um uh know some youth candidates that we are seeking those youth candidates and we do have a form that we could distribute to all of the Commissioners to um pass out to um people you know or to post in an area that would be visible to um get an additional commissioner it would be great so um either Sean or I will forward that form to you it's just a quick write up of of what the commission does um I welcome your help um and then just to report on the ongoing monitoring of the one4 dioxine plume um there has been some testing that was reported just today in mli um that identified some low levels of one4 Dio saying in private wells in Township area s Township in an area that's north of the boundary of the um oh gosh the the plume boundary that's been determined um and so this is what's um not known at this point is whether this is actually new or if it's been there for a while so there will be some subsequent testing um ideally this will be used to support the expansion of the ongoing monitoring um as well as just support moving toward an EPA super fun um designation so stay tuned on that um the other thing is we had a big rain event yesterday um pretty intense not so much necessarily in an arbor but it was surprisingly intense so um we are living through climate change right now um I would say yeah four and a quarter inches in my house four and a quarter yikes the road and yeah yikes okay um that's the end of my report um and Sean provided the report from staff thank you very much Sean if there's anything you want to add to um that that well apologies I may have missed it um but looking at my notes I don't know did we have an energy commission report out oh I'm sorry you're right thank you commissioner mki sure uh at our August 8th meeting we had two interesting presentations first of all one about the grid electrical grid with a representative from the University of Michigan who studies grid and grid reliability and then from DTE uh the second was uh the updated greenhouse gas inventory for 2022 uh if I can just summarize both of those real quickly uh I I'd call everybody's attention to the DTE report it was covered I think fairly accurately in M live and the reason why I want to call people's attention to it is that um it really was devoid of any specifics um there was a lot of talk about improvements and reliability a lot of improvements about improvements in the grid and that the grid was going to be was one of the best in the nation in 10 to 15 years but in terms of real specifics real measurables real commitments something that we could hold DTE to there really was was nothing um and given that we have a carbon neutrality Target of 2030 and they're talking 10 to 15 years there seems to be a mismatch there um Missy in her opening or very early in the Monday meeting to council she talked about the fact that it's likely that we'll have more meetings with DTE and I think it's really important that the energy commission and also city council holds DTE accountable um and not just give really sort of anecdotal information about what they're doing um so if you're interested go to legis star or go to YouTube and watch city government Channel and watch that um the other uh topic was as I mentioned the greenhouse gas inventory real quick summary it's not yet posted to osi's greenhouse gas inventory web uh page U but you can also find the report on legistar greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 were up 99.6% over 2021 they are down uh 3.3% versus 209 the last year before the pandemic um if you look back all the way to 2020 or to 2000 I should say um and the the inventory was done a little bit differently but basically um we're reducing emissions at the rate of about 1% per year um it's been a little bit faster than that um between 1 and 2% since 2015 but we're basically reducing emissions at at about that clip so if you look at what we need to get to by 2030 we have really a tall task um in front of us let's see if there's anything else that I wanted to say [Music] um I think that's it thank you very much thank you sorry for missing that earlier um all right we are now [Music] uh um items for our next agenda you can see on on our agenda that we're looking for um a presentation from the group called Perpetual um that will deal with the um circular economy if any other council member wants to propose something for the agenda please let me and Sean know that'd be great um so with that um we are at our second public comment time unless I missed anything else Sean uh believe the next scheduled meeting is announced before the public oh okay the next scheduled meeting is September 28th at 7 pm so we will see you here on the little screen um and John Kart has his hand up oh I'm sorry uh just the the question I had was I if I missed it I'm sorry but Sean were you gonna be circulating that updated list of uh working group members it would just be helpful to have that sooner rather than later yes I will uh distribute that with the followup from this meeting thank you thank you for checking on that all right um and with that I'm going to move to the second public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 888 78899 and enter meeting ID 922 969 9 61644 UM City staff will select the callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand please press star n on your phone you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that you may hear we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments and um Sean do you see any people listening or with their hands raised we do not have any callers currently okay we give it a brief wait okay Sean do you see anyone now there are no callers okay so with that I would um appreciate a motion to adjourn the meeting commissioner kver I see a couple of seconds and move to adjourn anybody say I thank you thank you very much for sticking through this me meeting um administrative stuff um still will help us I think in the end so um thank you I appreciate it there'll be some follow-up messages coming and um we'll see you in September bye good night everybody thank you

in order for our staff and our students to understand and handle cases of harassment intimidation bullying we provide trainings and programs for them some programs would be week of respect pbsis trainings would be everything that leads into those programs and right here is just a report of how many trainings and programs the different schools accomplish in both period two and for the year and our numbers are commensurate with what we usually have for each of the schools the last portion of this is the school self-assessment there is a document put out by the state where each individual school gets to score themselves so you imagine that out of a perfect score every school is getting a perfect score they're not and they know that and they need to look at this very closely and pick apart each element and make sure that they are reaching the highest level and you can see that we don't just give ourselves perfect scores the buildings each look at this and score themselves and then I review all of their documentation and make sure that their scores are accurate and for the most part everyone does score themselves accurately and sometimes are even a little too tough on themselves and I may bump up their score a little bit because I know that they've actually done more than they're reporting and you could see that from last year 2122 to 2223 we've had an increase a substantial increase in nearly every school and part of that is because we've been more proactive with giving them the information they need to meet this criteria so they're looking at that from day one of school and finally from our areas of improvement we plan to have continued collaboration with the building principles and anti-bullying specialists in each building to identify Trends and coordinate trainings and programs for our students and staff that meet those trends we have focused professional development program that's going to be completed by all staff district-wide influence implementation of pbsis is continuing and then a regular review of the code of conduct and discipline Matrix any questions any board members have any questions nope thank you Mr doctor I appreciate it very thorough report Mr doctor when's the second when you have to do the second one January okay thank you okay let me go back up where I skipped here all right we'll go back to uh number nine adoption of minutes of the June 22nd meeting motion second by Mr abadrabo second by Miss basford any discussion seeing none roll call please Mr Roberto um Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes uh president Smith yes I'm sorry and vice president Danny I skipped her yes we'll let you slide adoption number 10 adoption of the minutes for July 27th meeting motion second by Mr abidrabo second by miss basford any discussion seeing non-roll cold Please Mr Roberto yes Miss basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mia yes Mr Paris yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes [Music] all right next we'll go to number 11 superintendent's report Dr robitosi thank you Mr President good evening board members members of the community students faculty staff and attendance it's great to be here with you tonight it's nice to see you I have some good news to share to start off we like good news so every three years in the state of New Jersey school districts are evaluated by the New Jersey Department of Education through a process called Cusack which stands for quality single accountability Continuum basically it's it's the state's report card for each School District so this past year our district was cusacked which is a a verb that I made up and it's there's a lot of work that goes into being evaluated by the state people from the state particularly from the County Office of Education come to our district and visit our schools ask to see certain documents want to see certain reports and verify that we're doing all the things that we say that we are doing um and the district is evaluated in five key areas those areas based on Research are areas that are known to um Be an Effective school districts so those areas are instruction and program fiscal Finance governance which is you guys operations and personnel and we were a Cusack months ago we didn't get any results and today out of the blue I received an email from the state of New Jersey addressed to me um informing me that the Clifton public school district has been identified as a high performing School District by the state of New Jersey [Applause] in order to be designated a high performing District you have to score above 80 percent in each of those five categories so I'll review the scores for you without getting into too much details but in fiscal management 100 percent nice um and you'll see a resolution on the agenda later on that talks about the district was recognized for the um asbo international certificate of excellence certification which means we do really well with our finances and that's a credit to our ba and our system ba as entire staff and this board who's one of their primary responsibilities is to oversee finances so that's fantastic governance that's your job so the state comes in and they want to see did you evaluate the superintendent yes you did here it is um do you update policies regularly yes you do I mean and there's a whole list of other things I'm proud to say that you scored a hundred percent operations these are things like do we send the proper reports to the state on time do we have the appropriate data files when a student goes on home instruction does the home instructor that does it happen within a certain amount of time uh all those things and I'm proud to say in that regard we scored 100 percent personnel we scored 97 percent the area that we lost three points on it was an area which I may choose the dispute because it's doesn't really make much sense but a 97 is a 97 so I may just let it go but basically it dealt with um the amount of time it takes us to enroll a new employee in the um so we have to enroll new teachers in in this program and that's where they get a mentor right they get their their their certificate but what happens is sometimes we will hire a teacher um as a leave replacement and then we hire them full time and when it looks to the state life we should have placed them in that program when we hired them as a leave replacement and the which we can't they won't allow you to but now we're getting penalized because then we hire that person as a full-time teacher and it'll look like their start date they should have been enrolled in that program and they weren't so it's kind of a silly kind of thing so I right is that kind of the gist of it um is it worth fighting not really um we'll fix it and then there's instruction and program so this is the one that to be very honest with you we're always afraid of because the primary score is done before the people come into the building to see us because it's based on your standardized test scores it's based on student test scores so what we knew and listen there's no uh we're we're not ashamed to say we regularly report our test scores we know there are areas we're doing well we know there are areas where we need Improvement our test scores aren't fabulous um but we're we're getting better and we're improving so before the state even came in we were at 82 percent right so that means just based on our test scores we're at 82 but then they come in and they do all the other checks they check your curriculum make sure that your curriculum is aligned to the standards make sure that the board has approved your curriculum make sure 100 lists of hundred other things and in that regard we scored 82 which was the highest we could have gotten based on our test scores so to be designated a high performing district is um is our report card that's a testament to the administration to the board to our outstanding staff and I want to congratulate all of you and especially a big thank you to miss kusilevich who really leads the charge on Cusack for most of it um so thank you Janina for always being outstanding [Applause] I'd like to update the board on summer registration we've registered nearly 1100 students since July 1st that's correct 1100 students since July 1st we currently have around 300 students at some level of the registration process and we still have a week and a half for school starts and some people don't realize that it's like the day before school starts and they realize oh we have to go register our kids for school and then um the lines at the door but thankfully Mr Doctor Who is in charge of our student registration has created a a process by which has become very very efficient um Pre-K registration concluded on July 31st as the spots were nearly filled however those who registered prior to July 31st were put on a waiting list in case openings arise Pre-K uh ladies and gentlemen is not guaranteed okay it's based on need and the availability that we have based on the state aid that we get and we do not um correct me if I'm wrong we do not utilize any local monies for pre-k it's all expansion state aid we do not use local money for Pre-K as you will hear later in committee minutes are um our domicile investigative staff has been have been very busy this summer these are the people who check residency and you know when we did our budget this year we spent a lot of time talking about how much money we spend how much tuition we sent spend on charter schools and so we get the charter school bills they'll send us a bill and say you owe us this amount of money this is the tuition and it'll give us the list of students I know before I got here that that bill was just paid now we actually look at the list make sure the students ours meaning that they live in Clifton go to the house to make sure they live there and then pay the bill by doing that this year we um save the district over 350 000 in tuition not that we didn't pay that we told them we got your bill but your bill is wrong because these students are not ours so Bill Passaic bill Wayne or wherever the students live that's because I have great staff and they care about the taxpayer they care about the money that we spend that's that's not money that you would ever know about if I didn't tell you but it's important that that it's important that you hear that because that is real money finally I'd like to give a referendum update this summer has been a doozy to say the least we have construction going on in almost every building and if you were to walk into any of our buildings mid-july it would have looked like they were vandalized it would look like a bombs went off because it was just chaos um but as as anyone who's ever had any kind of remodeling or renovation done in your own home you know that things don't always go as planned you know you take down a wall and there's a pipe there that's not supposed to be there and then the plans have to change and things like that and that causes delays but despite that I'm I'm happy to report tonight then I want to assure the board and the community because I hear things that we are on time with all of our projects we will be opening school on September 6th for in-person instruction contrary to any other rumors you may or may not hear um a good majority of our buildings could open next week if we had to but many of our sites are still open construction sites um there was one issue that came to my attention today that it was on social media and I don't like to address social media I think social media will be the end of our civilization but I got so many calls on it that I just want to speak publicly about it because it's not a secret we've actually spoken about it publicly before in June we knew when construction started at the end of June at school one when when the when they were started to renovate the bathrooms and they removed the floors there they found that many of the steel beams in the bathrooms um the structures were not stable enough they were corroded and it just needed to be replaced that's one of those things that you don't plan for on a timeline but we knew that at the end of June we talked about that at a facilities committee meeting and we said then that it's very likely that the school year may have to start off with luxury Portable Restrooms outside the building for a few weeks I know that was said at the meeting I know it was said and read publicly at this meeting that is only for school one there are no other schools that will have any Portable Restrooms and it will be a very very temporary solution We Believe at the most the month of September barring any unforeseen circumstance right so don't hold me until September 30th if it's a week later right but we believe it's only going to be for the month of September now I will tell you this I'm not joking when I say luxury portable bathrooms you would you would want these in your house they're they're that nice I understand some of the concerns well the kids have to go outside to go to the bathroom yeah guys that's why you have Administration to think of these things and to figure out a plan so we have a plan in place we have we're going to have the area canopied to protect the staff and students from the weather we're going to have a security Personnel assigned outside just to the bathrooms the principal and administrative staff and the teachers will have procedures for when and how to use the bathroom it's instead of going down the hallway to the bathroom they're going to go out the door to the bathroom under a canopy and go outside is it the ideal situation no but do we not want to open school for a month so anyway I don't like to if somebody has a question send us an email right what one of us will if you send it to a board member they'll most likely forward it to me and I will get the answer but the Social Media stuff um is just it starts issues that that don't need to um need to be issues like so the you know the biggest thing was the principal of school 13 today had to call me and say they're they're telling me I said who's telling you well Facebook they're telling me I'm gonna have portable bathrooms you're not going to Affordable bathrooms Oh no you're wrong because Facebook says it so it must be true so anyway I'm making light of it but social media is is um not the best thing so does anybody have any questions about that by the way um it came to me so I have to yeah I flipped it to you too as well and I asked you and you answer my questions today um I know you're going to have a security guard is it going to be male or female if the security like who's going to be the attendance inside these but I've never seen them so I don't know what they look like inside are they gonna well to be very honest with you miss bassford if it was a regular uh inside bathroom the the students the the students will go in by themselves like a teacher obviously can go in there if there's an issue but there's not going to be an adult monitoring inside we don't we wouldn't have that in no no I understand it um I think what I I miss I miss uh spoke will there be a Changing of the Guard like when the guard has to go on lunch break or oh yeah we're gonna have full-time coverage plans in place it will it will be a hundred percent covered and listen you know no no plan is foolproof no we'll adapt and adjust if if things need to to change but I'm confident in the plan we have I'm confident in the administration putting forth that plan and and our teachers are resilient our teachers no matter what you throw at our teach issues they figure it out yeah nobody's gonna be happy about it but our teachers will do whatever they got to do to keep their kids safe and to you know to get it done and I have one I think the per you said the end of September the people were worried about that it was going to get delayed and it would be during the colder months that was the other issue I really it's boring I I did put that caveat out there barring anything unforeseen but I'm being conservative when I tell you October we should be good um over the next week and a half we will have cleanup Crews roving the district that's one of the biggest issues is that you know there was so much work done this Summer that the the buildings were filthy but again that's why you have Administration to come up with a plan for that and I just happen to have some great people around me who think about things before I even have to worry about them including our director of buildings and grounds Eddie Maldonado and our two supervisors supervisor custodians Sean Smith and supervisor maintenance Mo capacity they've have gone above and beyond in every aspect dealing with this dealing with all the work we have going on and kudos to our assistant VA met shehada who is on everything every single day and is always always number one goal is to make sure the district looks good so thank you Ahmed um that's my report for tonight ladies and gentlemen I'll be happy to answer any other questions but um you know anybody tells you school's not opening we're opening and it's going to be beautiful I have a question about Cusack do you know what we scored last year by any chance or the last last session the last time was my first one and we were high performing don't remember the numbers exactly though Judy but we were high performing facilities is in under um oh okay that's that's true that's a good point so yeah it is under fiscal management but facilities falls under that because that falls under the ba as well so that's part of the the 100.

these reports they're submitted for review to an external panel and so they review them they judge them to ensure that they meet those high standards of the program and so getting those Awards actually represents our commitment to financial transparency since they are the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting so I'd like to thank the entire finance department obviously they carry the heavy load on this and now under the direction of Miss Francie will foulman and the entire team they do an amazing job with Gathering the required information and so I'm sure they're going to continue to do an excellent job Meeting those high standards so I have the award here so we'll probably be displaying it out in the case out in the lobby for for viewing thank you questions thank you Miss Fidel that's awesome next we will move on to item C1 Ms Densmore this is the time for the public to comment members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on this agenda pursuant to ARS 38431.01 action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing the staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date in order to facilitate accomplishing the business of the district in a timely manner a time limit of three minutes will be imposed for each individual or group addressing the board when you approach the podium please state your name for the record and first up we have Stephen lobert my name is Steven Wilbert I'm a father of a student over at Luke Elementary it came to my attention this school year shortly into the school year that the board decided to terminate the contract with Southwestern Behavioral Health my daughter utilizes those Services every week at that school and it has helped her increase her grades and her attitude at the school day in and day out and I'm extremely disappointed that you guys have terminated that contract limiting my daughter's access to these resources I struggle with five kids three different school districts I do not have a lot of time after my day especially with the kids getting out at 4 pm to get them around and get them some of the health they help they need and this greatly helped me and now you guys have put a massive burden on me I know there are other parents there are other kids in this situation that you've now put my daughter in and I ask that you guys reevaluate your decision on that and bring them back to help our kids in these schools and help them succeed otherwise take that last line off your wall thank you Dr curta will you follow follow up with Mr lobert yes ma'am thank you that was all we had okay thank you next we will move on to item D1 Dr Cordo foreign thank you madam president uh tonight we do have a student update school is back and I'll have Mr musee introduce our student speaker yes Madam president members of the board Dr crotto and guests tonight we have our student update coming from Braley Ratliff she is a senior from Valley Vista and one of our officers in the in the Dysart student council and fairly has some information to share with us good evening um recently or at our first dslc meeting we discussed that each school was presenting their back to school spirit week which was very successful a lot of participation and with the back to school dances from Valley and Willow and we also began planning our end of the year conference splitting up different schools into different committees to make sure everything gets done Valley Vista suko is working to present the 2024 Arizona Association of student council convention coming January 25th to the 27th today we represented at Ironwood High School at the 2023 Spirit conference and this coming week we are sending students from Valley Vista to represent at Cesar Chavez McClintock High School Perry High School and Tucson magnet that is all for tonight thank you very much thank you next we'll move on to day two Dr crowdo thank you madam president members of the board just a couple uh quick updates tonight so September coming up is going to be National attendance month uh we are starting a massive attendance Campaign which we've already started but September we're ramping it up so you're going to see a video message from me to community members to to our students about the importance of attendance uh bi-weekly we're going to do social media posts and schools are going to help share those posts and retweet them and all that other stuff what they do monthly we're going to even after past September we're going to do District reminders for Flyers use our Peach jar I encourage our tenant our teachers to highlight the parent attendance and then we're doing something pretty cool with the attendance contest between all schools so kind of like a March Madness so we're going to pair schools up against each other and that's coming up our PR department under Renee Ryan has done an amazing job to make pick up this bracket so we will have an attendance Champion towards the end of the year of the best attendance they're going to compete against each other and the winners are going to advance down just like the bracket in March Madness and and we're going to have a prize for that winner at the end so we're doing some awesome things to kind of highlight attendance is important for our students to be in school so they can learn very important so I continue to remind everybody and and those watching attendance matters and we need people to be in school or our students to be in school to teach so with that also you know that our fall seasons are upon us you can tell by the marching band they did an awesome job tonight but all our Sports football volleyball cross country swim and dive badmin palm and cheer golf band theater choirs they're all in full force so I urge everybody to check our website for our all the times and locations of all those events come check it out last week we had a great I've been cutting at Dysart high school so a celebration of their new new field it was an amazing night congratulations to Dysart they did a great job and they even got the win on a new field so they opened it up in a great way so I just want to remind everybody to mark your calendars for September 8th that's when Willow Canyon will have their ribbon cutting ceremony so we're excited about that and with that that's all I have this evening thank you very much we will move on to item D3 governing board update um I just attended the Countryside School of their coyote code celebration and that was a great way to start off the school year those kids are so excited and they were cheering and they were learning that code pretty darn quick but great way to start off the school year so that's it i i attended the um the Dysart field revealing ribbon um cutting ceremony last Friday that was a great experience my whole family got to attend and the best part is they won the game so end of the night with a with a great celebration and then today I attended the trust policy government summer Summit where it went over policies of the different districts it it uh it showed a lot of the districts are now going through the trust and and then there's a lot of other districts that are in the process of going through the trust so that was a good experience and I just want to thank Dysart for allowing us to attend with the with the administration so thank you thank you I attended Spalding night at Freedom Traditional Academy and it was really interesting not only from hearing from some of the students but but hearing from some of our Educators who say that Spalding makes their lives so much easier teaching so I'm excited that we're obviously we have it at Freedom but that we're piling piloting it elsewhere so I'm looking forward to hearing the feedback from other schools I also attended the trust policy governance Summit today it was just very informative not only from our own attorneys but also hearing from members of the Attorney General's office and it was just a lot of information sharing and it was really refreshing um just to experience something that was that's really seemed truly nonpartisan and very much appreciated that's it I also would just like to thank Countryside principal Miss McNeese for extending her invitation to allow the board to attend their first coyote Spirit assembly it was great to see the students so excited to be back in school and all that hyped up coyote spirit so thank you again for allowing me to be a part of it um I also want to take a moment to comment on a current issue in the media regarding the Arizona School Board Association as many may recall on December 8 2021 by a 3-2 vote this board adopted a resolution severing ties with asba which for me was not an action that I took lightly when I was sworn in as a new board member in December of 2006.

that would be a hot day okay a simple wrong would have done just fine but uh all right Tyler what are you going with um I believe it was 123. Tyler's a little closer is 134 Death Valley California good guess guys we got some freezer pops over there for you to stay cool Friday fun day we can talk about the Heat we got people walking in the grass trying hey guys you want to be on Friday fun to talk about this this horrible Heat Wave we're having all right Wildcats I'm here with Kayla you're on the dance team I see yeah she's got fans over there it's gonna be cooler next week how have you been handling this heat the last few days oh what he's too busy talking to all her friends I've even handling the heat the last few days it is horrible it's too humid a little trivia question before I got an ice pop for you to help you cool down and keep you cool early 90s star Vanilla Ice became famous with what song sort of Vanilla Ice haven't you [Music] got back close another popular another very popular rap song in the early 90s there is a baby in the title by Vanilla Ice if there was a problem solve it check out the hook with my DJ revolt foreign that's right too cold stay cool get a freezer pop one or two more should we ask anybody else any other questions questions all right wow okay that's great first couple weeks of school stay cool gonna be a beautiful weekend ahead we got through the heat got through two weeks first football game next Friday night keep the spirit up see you next week [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you