Reader
Browse passages, annotate evidence, and export with full provenance for citation.
well I I'm just sitting here you know we've been through this several times and every year these are great is there somewhere that we should be including how parents would be involved in school Improvement in other words dare I say their responsibility for their child with the education it is this the place that we should talk about that or because I never see that as part of this it's the schools are doing this the schools are doing this the schools are doing this but where are we letting the parents know you have some responsibility here in an inclusion way yeah I wanted to do there's a lot of um partnership particularly in our elementaries our parents are more involved there and those are those formative years where they have included not only information but um our ptos all the principles will share those at their meetings and ask for some input and their they go through the data so that they can see how our kids are doing and what we're striving for so I would see on an individual building basis they use different mechanisms they have to involve parents that way ignore I have a question on the I'm sorry on the document the summary document I just want to make sure these might just be clerical misses here under Center Grove Elementary it says 922 is that supposed to be nine two point two I'm assuming and then you see that okay and then on North Grove it looks like we're missing the percentage this is the sign yeah it's just the percentage under the I read it says three minus percentage I assume we did better than three so this document is just for the board correct this isn't what we produce or approve your the board's approving the board's approving the the action item the action plans yeah the summaries to Hope communicate okay I just need to clean down what our yeah multi-page about 10 to 15 per each so for that for people for us to show to the public so I can fix those before before they go public but you're approving the plans not the summary sorry about that okay thank you and this is actually I mean like it's an ongoing thing throughout the year isn't it I mean yeah if some of them get together should put it together but the thoughts about this is ongoing throughout the year in each building and as I said earlier [Music] talking about data talking about places to make improvements so it's it's not only a building um it's not only building work it's really District work and we're supporting and back and going back and forth and we decide we call them our big rocks because you only have so many things you can do right in a year so the biggest things those are our big rocks and and reading is a big rock that is a multi-year plan and so um you know we've done a lot of that work with math and now we're on the reading component which you know it's harder to do an auditions see them in both so Dr Hoover I appreciate the school Improvement action plans and our goals and it looks like it's increasing either two or three percent and I read depending on school and depending on grades how did we do last year I mean we had the same goals that we establish annually did we meet those goals this year if we did what schools if we didn't how are we going to meet them next year so it's a lot I actually charted it all out somehow I knew you had and um across math and language arts by grade level in our elementaries in more grade levels than not we exceeded what we expected last year um and in some we did not and the same in language arts um so I won't say we went up everywhere last year because we didn't um we did stay um about the same distance or more though from that state average because that's one thing to look at because when we look at your seventh grade month and we went down to percentage points but then when you look at the state you can tell it was a dip for everyone there was you know something with testing or that year so we always try to compare two not only did How We Do compared to last year with completely different children right right grade level but how do we compare to the state average because we want to keep getting farther and farther yeah which is also a good measure we also look like I showed in the um student performance to see if there's those same Trends or are we falling behind somewhere and that's not the trend with other schools and I appreciate you have a new set of second graders every year but those second graders become third graders so we're tracking and and for those that fell behind I'm assuming this action plan then is is taking into account to try to catch them up for next year yes and and one of our besides our in the elementary are reading we also have a big rock of working on our RTI structures so that you know students need interventions um they're getting what they need and very targeted support for those gaps thank you Madam president I move that we approve the school Improvement plans as presented [Music] aye any opposed all right thank you Nora appreciate that and uh you know a lot of good stuff going on there super excited for Sugar Grove that was a big deal a very very big deal for Sugar Grove to be named a Blue Ribbon School we're going to be celebrating them next month so we're looking forward to that yeah great principle set the sugar that was very deserving they made some big gains in their support some student learning thanks okay next is 7.2 accept bids for multi-purpose facility doctor thank you this evening I'm recommending that the board approve or accept the bids for the multi-purpose facility and Dr long will provide you with some additional information thank you tonight with us from a come hunt is Chad Peters the senior project manager for us hey come hunt and and Center Grove received bids for the Center Grove Softball and golf facility is designed by Fanning Howie and Associates on January 13 2023 and again on August 17 2023 and let me explain that we had a bid packet that we felt was came in a little bit unreasonable so we kind of repackaged it and re-bid that that's why the Gap in between and why it's taken us a little bit of time to get it to you but by repackaging and re-betting number two we saved almost two hundred thousand dollars on the project so it was it was a good idea and I appreciate hunt and Chad leading that um that that idea and and following through so on July 15th and again on August 18th uh CSO and AECOM held de-scope meetings with the low bidders and based on their review of the D scope meetings and budget they recommend we accept the bids from the following companies and bid pack oh I wanted to also tell you sorry we had a total of 23 bids for these so we we're very pleased with the number of bids that we had felt like we had a really nice package and a nice project to get quite a few bids on it so we're very pleased with the turnout so in bid pack one we recommend approving the SCS Construction Services they'll do the general trades and site work the total amount was one million 855 thousand dollars on bid Pack 3 for electrical and lighting to Maverick electrical solutions for a total of 428 902.75 for bid packet number four access control and security to Hoosier security for a total of sixty seven thousand nine hundred dollars a bid packet number five to uh Plumbing to Gordon Plumbing Incorporated uh for a total amount of one hundred and four thousand one hundred and twelve dollars uh bid packet number six to McCann uh mechanical to Irish Mechanical Services a total amount of 129 000 bit packet seven the duck worked by Irish Mechanical Services for 142 000 and bid pack at eight uh fire protection also to Irish Mechanical Services for sixty thousand dollars so that's our recommendation and be willing to answer any questions just just one bill and I think you know I'm understanding the the bid summary sheet that that you sent to us but just so unclear the bid summary is just listing the kind of the recommended not all those that bid but then I see a bunch that say not taken um we didn't take any of the alternate bids okay that's what that was for I think I thought on the bottom maybe there's a the the tabs for all of the oh it's in a spreadsheet sorry we can pull it up I don't know that it's important I just but those are the alternate bids some things that you know we were hoping to get in and decided not to take any of them okay that's what I would my question was more than not taken okay than anything else and is this just something that we feel maybe will add over time we think we can um we had priced them out and and Chad had done a lot of work and we had priced them out to to see what it would cost if we were to purchase them and we wanted to compare uh that price to what the the if the contractor would bid on and we felt like we could still do it cheaper than including it in their part of the the package so we'll still do them it just won't be part of the um the bid for example it's like the The netting for a hitting facility you know for the golf some for that seems pretty important right yeah well we probably need that um but we had priced that out and and but we also put it in a bed packet and we know what our price was and all the bids that we got were higher than what we could get them for so it was really kind of a loose equipment we were hoping we could get it all through the contractors but Loose equipment will figure out you know how to do that by the time they put their markup on their ffne then we're in a situation where we can just sort of get a direct right okay so the money for for that is still part of this package right we still have that we still have the money yes to go buy those things yes I'm for saving money Chad I haven't mentioned class 89 in a while so you can see the the class of 89 from Center Grove Is Standing Tall still right so Madam president I moved that week's vice president what you I move that we accept the bids for the multi-purpose facility as presented thank you do I have a second a second thank you Mr Russell Mr Robinson all in favor aye any opposed and it passes 4-0 thank you thank you all right and I'm struggling here there we go yes so next is 7.3 budget hearing thank you this evening is the hearing on the 2024 budget and I will turn it over to you Mrs counts to run the hearing okay this evening's board meeting has been appropriately advertised as a hearing on the 2024 budget the bus replacement plan and the capital projects funds plan I now open this public hearing and I would like to call on Dr Taylor to provide an update on the budget uh but we've got quite a few slides to cover here tonight um I want to share some information first off the board's not taking any action this evening this is a requirement that we've published these documents we'll go ahead and go to the next slide we've published these documents we published those on September 8th into the online Gateway system they are also available on our on our website website and the address is listed on the screen this evening the board will hear information on the budget hearing and some requirements for the bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan we do all three hearings at once and then I'll return in October and ask the board for adoption of of the budget the bus replacement plan and the capital projects plan please so we're going to cover eight uh well really seven important areas then one summary slide that kind of tell the story of our budget and our and what we're asking for this school year so the first thing to look at is um our enrollment and how it's changed over the years and you'll see we've seen steady growth some years we've seen big pockets of growth this year was a year where we grew 71 students or 61 students that's as of Tuesday the official count day for this will be October 2nd this year that is slightly later than in Prior years that's a new requirement from the journal assembly the budget I'm going to present tonight was built on the number 94 94 so 60 new students so we're only off by one right now and for each student roughly we get about 6 800 in Revenue into our education fund we'll talk about the other funds as we move through here but these are this is the really big funding formula that pays our teachers and our instructional staff next slide please right the capital assets plan once again is a legal requirement and we like we publish any Capital asset or project that's going to exceed ten thousand dollars and we also like to note that since 2010 we've supplemented Revenue in our operations fund with General obligation bonds we have to do this we receive roughly 50 percent in revenue for the budget that we need to spend in our operations fund and again that's things like custodians bus drivers utilities and Fuel and so while we need one amount we get about 50 percent of that from property taxes and so to offset that difference we've sold these Geo bonds this year for 2020 four sorry there's a slight typo there it's not for the 2023 budget but for the 2024 budget the bonds will be 6.1 million dollars it helps to tend to shrink in that gap between what we receive in revenue and what we need to spend in the budget and those bond funds support our maintenance department and our technology department this is a view of how those funds are distributed across those different projects again items exceeding ten thousand dollars so you'll see the the the line number the item if it's funded from the operations fund how much and if it's funded from the bonds how much and on this first page we show our maintenance budget on the next slide we show our technology budget and then the total cost for that and this is again something we've done every year this is also part of the requirement that we share this information with public and what we're going to do in our Capital asset plan the next uh requirement we're going to cover is our bus replacement plan um we look to replace our budgets our budget our bus replacement planned we look to replace our buses every 10 years sometimes the usable life's longer or shorter that shorter than that depending on on the life of the bus this year we're recommending a replacement of eight buses the corporation currently owns 99 and why might that be a little bit off it's not exactly eight is that we've held on to some buses a year or two that have that we've maybe been able to keep in service that 99 number also includes all of our many short or shorter buses our moderate size buses um our special special buses that run different routes maybe run in between buildings for athletics um and so they're they're included in that count but we don't always replace those they typically have a little bit longer life Dr Taylor that still looks like a plug number and I think I've asked that every year but we actually have 99 buses correct we don't I don't believe we operate 99 routes we do keep some some buses ready to go and trade them out and we obviously have buses out for service every day right we have a great mechanical staff that service our buses and does a great job of that one other limitation here is simply the cost and the growing cost of these buses they were hit some of the hardest hit equipment we have since since covid and so you'll see that increasing cost and the reality is that some years we can get that ninth bus some years we can't and so we always advertise we trade them in and we put that proceed towards the purchase of its replacement all right thank you next slide so a couple new slides we wanted to add this year because this has been a unique year in Indiana Finance and and school budgeting we've had a lot of swings and they're large swings and so what you see on in front of you is a list of new Revenue that we received and I just listed Revenue that was over a hundred thousand dollars so if you had all the numbers up at the top you're not going to get exactly the number at the bottom because it includes some things that are lower miscellaneous Revenue that just would not fit on the chart but you know we did get some new funding from the state you'll see what our new found the foundation and complexity funding is you'll see then that we also received about that 6 800 for 60 new students we really were estimating and hoping to have more like 200 new students this year still growing still great to be a growing School Corporation just didn't hit that 200 number and so our prior estimate in this area was really 1.3 and we wanted to list that and just let folks know receive some some additional funding for uh additional students classified as special with special special education and with vocational education and so both of those have gone up that sold their populations some of that money will go directly into Staffing to support students or we'll go to a C9 Vocational School to help um to provide educational opportunities that we maybe don't have here on our local campus the honors Grant went up and this is an interesting one prior we've only received honors Grant revenue for students who receive an academic honors diploma and this year we have an opportunity to also receive compensation or receive additional revenue for students who pursue and pass the Dual credit course who get an Indiana college core 30 when they graduate and a few other things there's like five different factors I won't go into each one of them now but it's a good opportunity we are a high performance School District this is a great thing for us we're happy to do that we're happy to receive this Revenue it will really help continue to fund those exceptional experiences um something the board took action on and has done is as we've talked about with that that the bigger need in our operations fund than what Revenue will support we've had to look at items in our operational fund that we could support out of debt service we talked about the maintenance and transportation we've been doing that since 2010.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so Beverly was Forward Thinking when we installed them and is looking back and as we look back we recognize the importance of those panels and have just finished expanding them what a great idea thus Beverly benefited from the past and the works of the future just like the National Archives we can look at the documents of the past to learn and work for the future both the solar panels outside the school and the National Archives benefit everybody similarly similarly uh Beverly makes investments in our children the Beverly schools have one of the most effective one-to-one language laptop programs in the state and in 1959 Beverly made an educational investment in the incoming Freshman Class resulting in the high quality class of 1963. our return on our investment on all of these projects has been immense our speaker tonight is just one of the beneficiaries of Beverly's commitment to education and by his benefiting from The Beverly education and by this we're benefiting from the uh we have all benefited from his expertise it is my distinct pleasure to be here to introduce tonight's distinguished speaker to be honest I have been looking forward to this since uh the night uh in 2014 when Mr fario spoke here I know that it will be both informative and thought provoking David ferio is a graduate of the class of 1963 from Beverly High School and not this building but an older one I assume not not this one and and since then has done great things with his Beverly education David Sears served as the Director of the New York Public Library and as the university librarian and the vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke University he recently retired as retired as the 10th archivist of the United States he was also the first librarian to hold that position which is amazing to me that it took all that time Mr fario will no doubt have an inside take on books access to books and the importance of the printed word as well as historical documents and have that have for all of us it is my great pleasure to introduce to you David S ferio [Applause] so David so Jay let's get started with what exactly is an archivist I'm not technically an archivist I'm a librarian so and there's a great great deal of controversy about there was a great deal of controversy when my nomination was announced among the professional Community why so he's only a librarian as one of the commentators that he's only a librarian it's a different pattern of education and it's a false dichotomy Librarians and archivists are responsible for collecting protecting and encouraging the use of fill in the blank you know whether it's primary materials or records or educational materials or whatever it is but the basic functions are the same the processes are a little bit different in terms of how archives are created and dependent upon robust records management programs so that there's so that the entity ends up with something to actually archive a good example of that is when I became the librarian at Duke University the archives the Duke archives reported directly to the president and she came to me this is Nan Cohan who was the president at the time she came to me and she said this doesn't make any sense the archives should report to you the archivist at that point was a Duke grad historian not trained as an archivist so it was a kind of a political situation so I said to her the only way you're going to you know this is going to work is if you hire a consultant so she did that she hired a consultant who delivered a report that said it should report to the librarian so she came to me and she said now will you take it and I said Not until you let me create a records Management program because Duke didn't have a records Management program really so you can't have a you know a decent archives without um Professional Care around the creation and maintenance of the records to begin with so that's what um the the subtle twist between our archivist responsibility and a librarian's responsibility okay and tell us how you became the 10th archivist of the United States it's um it's just hard to believe it was I was in retrospect now I had this cushy job at the New York Public Library I had an office on Fifth Avenue I had a lion outside my window a Friday afternoon um in April on a call my my assistant came into the office and said the White House is on the phone and I picked up the phone and I said yes and this 12 year old who was working on appointments for the president he was an undergraduate at Georgetown um said we're looking at you no he said first of all he said aren't you surprised to be getting a call from the White House this snotty kid uh we got beyond that and he said um I'm calling because we're looking at you for the position of archivist of the United States and this was something that was never on my radar screen that never occurred to me that this was something that that I would even consider and it's a presidential appointment so I was highly suspicious for me Presidential appointments are usually someone is given a lot of money to her campaign or a friend of the president or and mainly doesn't doesn't have the credentials doesn't know the business so why are they looking at someone who knows the business so this poor kid said well would you think about it over the weekend and he called back on Monday morning and we had the same conversation you know I said Kyle Watkins the kid's name is and I said I'm really flattered but you're really looking at the wrong person so 10 minutes later an adult called and and asked if he could come to New York and talk to me about the job so Tom wheeler who was the head of the FCC um came to New York and talk to me about what the Obama Administration was looking for in the new archivist and it all had to do with the Obama open government initiative to create a more transparent and collaborative government and they were convinced that the archives had an important role to play in that process and that's what that was the trigger for me that's what attracted me to the job that combined with the fact that it was the Obama Administration and an opportunity to give back um doing um public service at the government level was was what what really convinced me why was that so interesting for you um I knew the business I knew um you know how I knew how to run an archives I was responsible for archives at MIT Duke and the New York Public Library so the the technicalities of the of the job were were interesting but it was the opportunity to think at policy levels about how records can be used to be more open and transparent to let the American public have access to the records of the country in new and innovative ways so right now if people are interested in actually accessing any of the records what what's the procedure like go to archives.gov and search the catalog it's that simple yeah um it's getting better a strategic plan that that scared the um scared my staff significantly I made the statement that we were going to digitize everything everything yeah and that everything translates into about 14 billion pieces of paper and miles and miles of film and video and maps and all kinds of things but I'm firmly convinced that it's the only way that we're going to provide um especially kids with access to our records is to make sure that they're digitized and available 24 hours a day online and coupled with the fact that I was able to convince the president to issue a um a directive around managing government records electronically so we have shifted the federal government off of paper into electronic record keeping so that that stake in the ground around digitizing everything is everything that is sitting in files and and 42 facilities of the National Archives across the country so that's the process that's underway now wow you've met and worked with several presidents seven several seven seven seven presidents seven presidents eight first ladies any favorites we don't talk about favorites every one of them well almost every one of them has has some I can say something positive about one of the one of my first tasks as archivist was to take on the creation of the Bush 43 library in Dallas and that was and you know I I had an impression of that president in my head and I was not looking forward to my first meeting with him but he is the most Charming individual um outside of his office one of the nicest guys um and we had a wonderful conversation about electronic records because he'd never created any he never used email and I was I was citing the facts about how many electronic records there are from his administration and it came across the desk and he said and you know not one of those is mine [Laughter] and the day before I left Washington for my retirement he called to wish me good luck and suggested that I take up painting painting because he's painting he's now painting he's got um right he's doing exhibits he's got books published yes there's been much written about uh over a classification uh too much secret or restricted information who actually gets to decide that 2500 original classifiers in the executive branch there were 25 individuals who have the authority to classify that's down from when I started 9500 so there are fewer of them at work but we're still up against the fact that there are no standards for classification that what is top secret in one agency may be not Secret at all in another agency so there are no standards and and the process is it's much easier to just classify something than it is to go line by line and make a determination about whether it really needs to be classified so it's a huge problem there is too much classification to overclassification is a huge problem and there is a um that the reason I know so much about this is that within the National Archives is a unit called the information security oversight office which monitors classification across the executive branch and that unit has an Advisory board that has that provides a report to the president every year and for the 12 years I was there the report always recommended dealing with this lack of standardization to reduce the um the number of classified documents okay just to let everyone know I wanted to take a quick break and let you know that we are going to open up the floor for questions a little bit but I have a couple more prepared questions um what are the proper ways of declassifying interesting topic yeah it's I bet you never saw it coming the person has a magic wand and he can just can't just say this is Declassified that makes sense the president does have the authority to declassify but there is a process to follow um most classified content most classified records come from the intelligence community and there are multiple agencies that have equities in most of those classified records so it's the CIA and one of the branches of service military service and and perhaps the FBI all have equities in a single document so you can't just say it's Declassified without notifying those agencies that it's been Declassified because it's not the only copy of that classified record so it's very important that in the declassification process the originating agencies are notified and so far that has not happened that has not happened okay yes can you tell me about what important roles libraries and museums play in sustaining our democracy sure I think I've got two letters to first of all the National Archives didn't become the National Archives until the Roosevelt Franklin Roosevelt administration so records were stored in attics and basements all over town and I'm subject to fire theft and all kinds of horrible problems um the you know the British burned the town um during the War of 1812 the charters were stored at the state department and a clever clerk named Stephen Pleasanton who was my personal hero recognized that those Charters were at risk and he [Music] um rolled them up stuff them into linen sacks commandeered a wagon on the street and took them into the hills of Virginia and it's the only reason that the Declaration of Independence and the constitution of the Bill of Rights exist today wow Rotunda so they have been at risk the records have been at risk for from from the very beginning dragged from Philadelphia New York Washington so it's amazing what I had a responsibility for actually existed so it's not until the Roosevelt administration but as early as Thomas Jefferson there were concerns about the records and I'm going to just read a couple of letters from Jefferson that explained um this is Jefferson in 1789 who said where um uh wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice they may be relied on to set them to rights so from the very beginning the the thrust was to make the records available to make sure that the American people had access to the records so that they could correct problems that they saw coming so that was 1789 and then in 1791 another letter from Jefferson where he says time and accident are committing daily havoc on the originals deposited in our public offices the late War has done the work of centuries in this business the Lost cannot be recovered but let us save what Remains Not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time but by such a multiplication of copies as shall place them beyond the reach of accident multiplication nation of copies he is the grandfather of my digitization project this multiplication of projects and then FDR was who I'm convinced was a clause that archivist himself when he was dedicating his Presidential Library in Hyde Park in 1941 said he likened the dedication of her library to an Act of Faith to bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future a nation must believe in three things it must be leaving the past it must believe in the future it must above all believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future so from the very beginning the thrust has been make those records available so that American people can hold their government accountable and learn from the past and that was that's what drove me for you know my entire time at the National Archives making it easy for people to do that wow I'm just taking that in for a moment that's amazing uh can you tell me about your time in Beverly Public School System how has the education that you gained led to you to to where you are now I had a great I had a great experience I loved school from you know from Mrs Robinson's first grade class where I was in the bluebird reading section can you believe that they could never get away with that now with it I think there were starlings and the lowest group you know they were classified as a bird based on your reading ability so um but I I was a good student and I loved I loved um my time in you know Elementary School Grace Dowling in the third grade who's who's aunt Minnie Greenleaf lived around the corner so there were all these personal Collections and she hit a coat room full of rubber stamps that she stamped you know when you did a good job on your on your papers and I got to um fill the inkwells for our penmanship class with our traveling um Miss Adams was the traveling penmanship teacher she was about 300 years old when when and in fact it was so bad that she was my father's penmanship teacher and she's the one who broke my father of using his left hand and and but by the time I got there I'm also left-handed as she had gotten over that so we had you know a circuit penmanship teacher a circuit art teacher Mrs fish who taught me about Rosa burn here and her love of horses I just I was a good student and loved and thought thought I was going to be a teacher that's where that's where I was headed yeah okay my favorite class was Senior English with Emery hollerer who was um who I thought was ancient but it turns out that that's like his first job out of college he was only a couple of a couple of years older than we were but he he made that class so much fun um that it was not it wasn't a chore you know and he's instilled in me um a habit of reading 50 pages a night I have to I have to read 50 pages and that comes from the training that Emory Oliver so I try to always do that but it's um I can't say enough good about the education I got Beverly Public Schools what do you think is the single most important thing that you learned um single most important thing um it's that it's the the importance of education and that it's um it's the road to success and it's it's just how important it is in a personal life jumping back to the archives uh can you tell me about the kinds of records that were in your custody sure um everything from every every possible format you can think of parchment paper vellum um film discs we conservation preservation is a huge part of of the the work of the National Archives we have trained scientists chemists physicists who are daily testing materials for deterioration the as you might expect the charters or of the highest concern to ensure that those are cared for special um especially so that the temperature environmental conditions are are appropriate for for the um the Declaration of Independence for instance so just about every format you can think of and when you get into the business of electronic records we've identified over 500 about 575 file formats for for digital records which is an amazing challenge to ensure that those records can be migrated over time and content of them read this is an international effort to ensure that electronic records are surviving huge challenge wow before we open up questions to everyone here a couple were submitted from a classmate Brenda Harding have you ever been nervous about meeting someone or doing an event with them God bless Brenda Harding where are you sure where are you oh hello Brenda is an old friend and I saw that that question in advance and it made me think of I've I've had the opportunity to meet lots of lots of folks um and there are two two situations where I was just stunned in awe and Starstruck I guess one was when I was at the New York Public Library meeting with Lauren Bacall we were after her for her papers for the library of the Performing Arts and they went to her apartment in the Dakota to talk to her and I was just like oh my God Lauren because what am I doing here with Lauren she was she was perfectly charming and I was just tongue-tied and uh and I can remember as I was leaving uh gorgeous apartment as I was living there was this huge chest by the by the door and she said and that's bogey so she had his stuff too she didn't um she did not give her stuff to the New York Public Library she had kids and they sold the papers I think somewhere so the second one was um I was invited to a dinner at the Supreme Court for a retiring Justice this District Court D.C District Court judge and I was seated next to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and that was my first encounter with Ruth Bader ginsenberg and she had on these wonderful white laced gloves and then she was totally charming and I was it was the same thing like oh my God but that was the first of three meetings with Ruth Theta Ginsburg the next two were in my office she came to do a we did did two naturalization ceremonies a year one on Constitution Day and one on Bill of Rights day and she was the guest speaker at one of those and then she came to do um a private tour of our 19th Amendment exhibit um and it was it was a completely different situation in in both of those it was much more relaxed and comfortable and totally Charming individual um and sharp as attack she went through that exhibit and she could talk cogently about every record that was in that exhibit and she was just wonderful and in fact one of the um one of the administrative duties of the national of the archivist is managing the administrative process for amending the Constitution and and as you might remember the era is still up in the air about passage and I was under great pressure to pass it to you know ratify it um the timetable has shifted expired twice it has been rescinded by Six States um and the advice from Council was don't touch it right now and I had conversations with Ruth Bader genser twice who was surprised that I was getting such such blowback about this and she said you know we need to start over she said that to me twice we need to start over so thank you for sharing can you offer any Clarity to the ongoing Beverly Marblehead controversy surrounding the birthplace of the U.S Navy this is from Richard Pescatore a Beverly birthplace fan Richard are you here there is thank you for the question so there are actually five places who claim to be the birthplace of the American Navy when I was when I left here to go to join the Navy the sign at the Beverly Salem Bridge was welcome to barely the birthplace of the American Navy and when I came back from the Navy Marblehead had scooped up the title so I don't have no idea how that happened or why that happened but I wasn't happy happy to see that so the five places who claim to be yeah here it is okay Philadelphia um George Washington signed the law that created the um the Navy the Continental Navy in October of 1775 so they claimed to be the birthplace Whitehall New York um Benedict Arnold led a naval action on Lake Champlain Whitehall claims to be the birthplace of the Navy um Machias Maine in June of 1775 the British Navy Schooner was seized off of Machias Maine so they claimed to be the birthplace Providence Rhode Island claims to be the birthplace because the first call for the establishment of the Navy was made in Providence Rhode Island and then of course there's um so it's six places then it's the Beverly and Marblehead um fight over whose who's got it um so it's all it's all about the ship Hannah which was outfitted George Washington ordered the outfitting of Hannah which was in Beverly Harbor the crew was the Marblehead regiment but the if you look at the composition of the Marblehead regiment there were many Beverly residents who were part of that regiment so it was a mixed crew it sailed out of Beverly Harbor didn't Sail Out of Marblehead Harbor [Laughter] [Applause] so um when I was when I was the archivist when I met with the directors of the presidential libraries for the first time they went around the room and introduced themselves and the director of the candidate handed me a copy of a letter that a kid wrote to um to President Kennedy asking for information about the proposed Peace Corps it's a letter for me then two weeks later the Eisenhower called to tell me they had found two letters for me to prison Eisenhower and then when I was at the LBJ they handed me a copy of the letter I wrote to LBJ congratulating him for signing the Civil Rights Act so my staff was so sick of hearing about these letters that one day one day the staffer came running in with a letter from Taft to me claiming that verifying my claim that Beverly was the birthplace of the American Navy that's great so as far as I'm concerned it's still up in the air and you can have whatever plaques you're gonna get made that say it's the birthplace of the American Navy and that's what they have over there in Marblehead plaques we got a couple of Marblehead Ringers in the audience so uh uh Doug Walker wants to know what impacts do you think AI will have on the National Archives it's something that I'm really interested in and curious about because when I was at MIT in the libraries at MIT where artificial intelligence was almost born it was really a conference in Dartmouth but the other artificial intelligence lab adopted the library as kind of a test bit so there was a lot of interesting machine learning activities that the the AI lab was was doing so I've always been interested in the machine learning aspect of things there's some very creative work done at the the Virginia Tech University of etu um in that area of facial recognition lots of Civil War photos for instance of soldiers who have been identified through loading lots of lots of recognized photos with names and and that kind of stuff we had an active partnership with vtu around testing several machine learning aspects of ways of Inc enhancing increasing the processing of Records by loading as much of the content as we have made available and then loading new records in and seeing what kind of matches come up to see if if we can describe records in a more efficient way but I'm really concerned about the misuse of some of this these records and how we protect to ensure that that those aren't being altered right and which is you know a huge concern in some of the the AI applications that are um being bandied about today uh uh also from Doug a burning question Donald Trump famous we rip up we flush down the toilet but we don't burn that's the question Donald Trump famously flushed documents and clogged the White House Plumbing what heroic actions are the archivists taking to piece these items back together so um I don't know if you notice but if you Google Trump White House toilets you will find several references that he made during speeches all of a sudden in a rant he started ranting about the quality of the toilets in the White House and it's because he was unable to flush those records um that's what stopped up the um stopped up the um the toilets oh my goodness and I never got I had a cunning idea to get my hands on the plumbing records of the White House to see if I could correlate the but I never we never got around that so they were issues around you know tearing up and some of the records that we did get delivered to us at the change of the administration were bags baggies of torn up records um and [Music] um so and then there was um talking about burning someone on my staff reported that they saw smoke coming out of the chimney at the White House and they're convinced that there were there was actually burning of Records but there's no there's no documentation there so the the records in the White House and the records in the every executive branch agency are controlled by monitored by a records management unit within the the agency who reports to up through their own agency we have at the National Archives we have authority over the Executive Branch agencies in terms of the federal records act so we have the ability to investigate and and guide and provide correction if if things are going wrong but on the presidential records side we have the opportunity to provide guidance but we don't have authority to tell them what to do the only only areas where we have authority are suspected removal or destruction of records and so that's where we were able to make some inroads so the the there is within the White House the White House Office of Records management the worm which is responsible for the records of the of the White House and it's a unit that as I said doesn't report to me but reports up to the um through the secretary at the White House and we have a very close working relationship with the with that group and they were beat up basically for four years of that Administration in terms of trying to get the processes you know followed and all that kind of stuff so it really felt badly for them and invited them before I left to come for a tour of the National Archives and gave them each a copy of there's a wonderful novel that was written by a friend of mine called Rachel to the rescue Eleanor lippman has written a novel about Rachel as a young intern who's hired to tape together torn up records in the in the White House so I gave each member of the worm a copy of that book and I gave the director of the of the worm Phil um a plunger with his name on it uh so appropriate um insurrection what would have happened if it were successful what agencies or departments would have stepped in can you talk a little bit more about that yeah it was um so another administrative role of the National Archives is to administer the whole electoral college process so the archivist establishes the date of the Electoral College meetings sends a letter to the secretaries of State outlining what the rules are the secretaries of State have to deliver to the the archivist a certificate of assertation which is the list of official electors that's the first thing document that needs to be sent to the archivist and it has to be certified with seals and all kinds of stuff and then when the electors meet on that day the result of those meetings are forwarded to the archivist as well and then my staff compares the votes with the original set of electors to make sure that there's no funny business going on so in this particular case there was funny business going on because there were seven bogus lists of electors that were submitted by seven different states so at that point Department of Justice gets involved in you know and we make sure that that only the official electors votes are counted so that whole process and what happens on the hill when that's certified is Meaningful to us and to me and I was in my office that day watching on television as for that ceremony take place but also watching this angry mob coming up Pennsylvania Avenue by my window under my window um screaming you know stop the stop the steal and brandishing all kinds of flags and Banners and sticks and it was scary as hell it was the scariest moment of my career in Washington because it occurred to me if these morons realize what's in this building what's to stop them from you know coming attacking you know this building and damage trying to damage the charter so I backed away from the window um it was the I was alone in the building with security people it was just me and the security folks the building was sealed so that didn't happen but that was that was my concern um so so you should know the question is really about if they had if the mob had destroyed the certificates and they couldn't and they couldn't do the work that they needed to do that was only one set there are multiple sets of those certificates and the votes in the National Archives saves one of them one of those sets so there's backup okay so so that that was not at risk even though there was a lot of stuff in the Press about how we came so close to losing everything and right but we do we have backup okay and it's like it's actually back up online also because as those certificates are are received they're scanned and put onto our website so I think this might be a good moment to open up if anyone has a question for David uh we would love to hear your question here I'll come down with the microphone I actually was just hoping you could get back to the question that you asked and then I think there kind of went in another Direction about the importance of libraries and museums in our current um state or whatever thank you what's the question uh explain the importance of libraries and museums in our society I thought I covered that in terms of access to the records um everything that that I have been doing in my career is figuring out ways to improve access to information whether it's a college student or using doing research or for the American public in terms of access to our our records um so that they can hold the government accountable that's you know that's the basis of our democracy we have another one over here hi I I work with you at MIT in the early 90s um the difference between you were saying that because those uh electoral votes were digitized immediately we had copies but you also talked earlier about the risk of alteration of digital copies what's the balance how should we maintain original versus hard copy versus digital there is no um we're now in a situation where there is no paper copy it's digital only for um all of the 21 275 agencies of the executive branch so it's the the potential of altering a digital record that that's used to keep me up at night not anymore someone else is worried now the importance of backup we were heavy users of the federal Cloud to ensure that there's a secure place where those records can be kept but it's it's a you know cyber security is a huge issue is it a greater risk than paper definitely yeah but we're not going back yeah we've had we've had situations where you know paper was changed a um noted historian changed a Lincoln paper document to change and change the date on it to make it look like it was the last thing that he signed before he was assassinated I'm wondering if you had top secret clearance and if there was any documents that you examined that were revealed surprises that maybe the general public doesn't know in the United States yes but I can't talk about it [Laughter] cemeteries throughout the country are full of deteriorating archival records called tombstones so any hope for restoring and preserving those those records are we are you talking about a specific collection site well everywhere like Central Cemetery in Beverly the Tombstones are deteriorating you can't read many of them yeah I'd love to see them when I was a Simmons student I had did some volunteer work with um Mimi Bachelor some of you might remember me Bachelor um looking at the records in the basement of the city hall and we I saw firsthand what you're talking about in terms of deterioration it's um preservation is not an easy sell for funders it's not the first thing people worry about um and it's you know the the federal government has several different um Grant making opportunities for people to to get started but in terms of long-term maintenance it's the responsibility of the The Entity to ensure that there's that material is is available long-term hey when I graduated from college my first job is working for LCBO of space which was the Prime contract of the NASA over at Kendall Square oh yeah the electronic Research Center yeah and we worked on the project uh at the time we called it the electronic library where we had facilities all over the country St Louis had everything and anything you want to know about safety in California the Palo Alto was the jet proposed now one of the things Harvard University allegedly was trying to digitize their entire collection was there any collaboration between New York Department and Harvard on this massive task of trying to digitize what year are we talking about when was when was this uh on the I I think the Harvard stuff I I think it was about five or six years ago maybe 10 years ago no not that I'm aware of okay no yeah well they have this massive program where they're every I think the the main library is what Weiner or wiener Weidner who weiner yeah and the the that was the first uh place that they wanted to digitize and then they were gonna I from what they say was an ambitious program yeah that's that's interesting I don't I don't know anything about that but I would like to know more about it we were um at the when I was at the New York public we were part of the Google Book Project and we did massive amounts of digitization of out of copyright material from the New York Public Library in a Consortium of about a dozen different libraries around the country who were creating content for for Google books hi Beverly has a public library it does yes on on Essex Street and in the Farms even at bookmobile so I wondered when you were growing up in Beverly did you use those libraries I did in fact I used a little-known branch of the Beverly Public Library in North Beverly in the Conti flower shop the Conte's dedicated one shelving section four books that were delivered from the main library and the bottom shelf was kids books and I can still remember it was within walking distance from where I grew up and I can still remember sitting on the floor of Conti's florist shop surrounded by tubs of flowers and stuff picking books to read that was my first that was my beginning in libraries and Mrs Conte up until about five or six years ago was still alive living in Florida and she read an article about me in the Salem News when I was appointed and sent me a letter because I had talked about the Conti's flower shop that was so nice and then when I was you know could um actually go to the the main library I fell in love with will Barnett in these paintings in the in the library in the main library they're still there The Wilbur Nets and one of my best friends is Chris Loring who's one of the famous luring family who have supported the Beverly Public Library forever and he's a librarian what was the librarian at Smith College foreign honored to have you here tonight um my question I have a 19 year old son and you know my biggest I guess uh concern today is is we've touched on a little bit misinformation yeah and I think of um the role of an archivist uh to to be that of preserving history uh for what reason to to bring a better future um and it's disturbing to see how he is influenced you know they say that the newspaper is kind of the rough draft of history and I guess you could apply that to you know all of the um you know gigabytes of data that that transpire every day right as that turns into an archive um how how do we use that as a tool and and you mentioned you know digital digitization as being kind of the the you know your passion and and um making it accessible how do we make it accessible to the younger generation that isn't inclined to read the newspaper that has journalistic Integrity where you know sources have been so that's part of um uh when you're in answer to your question about the role of the libraries and democracy point one of the values that I developed in my Beverly Public Schools education was critical thinking the ability to recognize where the content came from how trusted is it can I believe what who wrote this you know what are the credentials all that kind of stuff in in going out of my way to read stuff that I wouldn't ordinarily read so I get a you know a picture a whole picture of of um around the around the issue um and and and the Pew Foundation has does a series of studies about American life and um measures uh American Trust of various institutions and the consistently public libraries um appear at the top of the list of the most trusted entities in communities and that they um must be doing something right in terms of providing well-rounded collections as well as services that address this critical thinking issue I think and it's not it's not easy I can tell you um I there's um this is a gross generalization but Librarians are pretty liberal individuals and I can still remember when I was at Duke University and it was the rise of the conservative presses in the publishing business and my bibliographer's resisting collecting conservative literature there's a you know a bias that um needs to be recognized and conquered in order to present the whole smear for students to make those critical choices yeah David if all of the documents artifacts of all of the wonderful things that you've witnessed and had been in the presence of which ones were the ones that really just just impressed you and here it is you know is this document or is it here's this Society you know it varied we I'm sure we did a lot of VIP tours in in the vault the high-end kinds of stuff and we always went out of our way to tailor it to the individual so and I tried to go into as many of these as as possible and I think to answer your question I think the most disturbing and valuable um collection are the 375 treaties with Native Americans that were signed where we promised so much land um hospitals schools and never delivered on any of them we have um a private donor who gave us the money to digitize all those records so all those treaties are now online on the on our website and we're regularly visited by tribal elders and tribal lawyers who are still using those treaties to convince the federal government to deliver on some of the promises that were made so that's um you know one of the the areas that I would point to but as I said we tailored our vault visits to the individuals and we had the new commandanto of the Coast Guard with us for a visit and I remembered this situation growing up in Beverly about this legend about this capsizing a boat of a boat off of Mingo Beach and General Patton young major Patton in a boat with his wife saving these kids and I um I asked my staff can you find and I found the they found the records and we were able to share those with with the in in the the letter written by Mrs Patton I guess I don't think they were married at the time I think that she was they were dating but she was on the boat and she wrote this four or five Page Letter describing the event saving these kids these kids were weren't about that capsized they were passed by by several other boats they weren't they weren't saved until the patents pulled them on board and described how low in the water they were sailing to get them back to shore that was a very special moment for me because I remembered that story and and didn't know that it was actually documentation to to prove it you mentioned um access and you also mentioned nationalarchives.gov yep have you noticed an increase in hits to the National to that website over the last couple years is it decreasing is it staying the same are people using the media to find out information yeah is a steady increase but I'm more I'm more interested in my my approach to things is it's fine to to point to archives.gov as a place to find information but it's more important for us to understand where people are going now to find information and get our stuff linked there so Wikipedia is a primary example all of our collections are linked to entries in Wikipedia and we've got something like three billion hits a year on our content in Wikipedia for instance um Flickr for photos um so wherever you know wherever people are going to find information themselves we try and Link the um the Wikipedia thing is is still controversial some people think it's not a trusted Source I disagree completely it is the people's encyclopedia and the editing process weeds out incorrect information I learned this at when I was at the New York Public Library I encourage my bibliographers when they're processing a collection to make a link in Wikipedia in that page so that people get driven into the New York Public Library through Wikipedia a staff member in the library for the Performing Arts that just finished processing The Paddy chesky collection and went into make the link and she discovered all these errors in the page and she she had editorial chops and went in and changed made the corrections and within half an hour she had a flaming email from a faculty member at Northwestern University who had created the page how dare you um and she flamed right back saying you know I've got the records you know I have the documentation so it's a self-policing kind of thing um this is a multi-part question so knowing that you were the former archivist of the United States made me wonder if closer okay made me wonder about archivists in other countries and if you had any connection or correspondence with them and how they might do things differently and the second part of the question is that while there is a lot of history in this country it is still a relatively new country and how archival um different differences in archival techniques between older and younger countries if you were aware of such a different search Extinction there is a a really good group called The International Council of archivists and it's the um the the national archivists from around the world who get together every two years to compare notes we have at the National Archives had the closest working relationships with the archives of the UK Australia and Canada similar issues in terms of electronic records great variety as you might expect in third world countries in terms of just getting support for paper record keeping and Records management in general so it's um it's a it's a really mixed bag and it follows just the the economic situation in each of the countries but we have um as I said before this this business with the file formats for electronic records most of the work that's being done to address that is through this Consortium of the English-speaking archives um so you talked a lot about libraries and books and all that I recently read an article that 85 percent of gen Z get their information and this was specifically to the financial world financial information from Financial influencers which to me is a very frightening thought process right so how are we addressing that um you know if if the students today and I don't have one but um are using social media and not really using books going to libraries like I grew up doing how do we preserve some of the stuff that you've worked so hard to keep and to preserve and archive any thoughts education education education you know there's a wonderful book called the filter bubble I forget Ari something or other um which spells out exactly what this issue is where people are getting their information from one source and not exposed to you know other sources recognizing that in educational programs in schools and and teaching people that they need to you know how to do basic research is is multiple sources of information and comparing multiple sources of information um I I you know it's a huge problem so David tell me how do you feel about the future going forward are you hopeful leave us on a good note here of course I'm hopeful of course I'm hopeful um we are at a very serious time in our history I think we have lots of forces working for us and against us it's very important in these times for people to not sit back and wring their hands but to get involved to to act there's a wonderful book called the bill of obligations by Richard Haas h-a-a-s-s that's a take on the Bill of Rights and translates each one of those rights into an obligation one of the most moving events at the National Archives are those naturalization ceremonies that we do we're a hundred new new citizens are sworn in in front of the charters and in those each one of those ceremonies there's an outside speaker who has gone through the process Ruth Gator bins Gator brinsenberg and Jose Andres and Elaine Chao and a long list of of um of Madeleine Albright people who have gone through the process and talked about not only the rights that people have but the obligations and I think that's that gets lost we're so focused on our rights and not on our obligations that we need to pay attention to that get involved call call out things that you that are that are wrong that you see that are wrong and get involved this is so fascinating thank you so much David thank you both so much and thank you all for coming this evening we have a lot of gratitude many things and first of all all of the um the Dr trochick superintendent of public schools uh thank you as well as the leadership of Beverly High School principal Mark Thomas Phil cordere Paul Casey curriculum director for the Humanities Judy Miller or is she not here now Barb facto as well as all of the all of the students who help participate today Bev cam tremendous thank you so much for your help and Chris Harvey and the text that makes sure that we were up and running tonight um as we leave and as David and Jay have kind of shown us tonight um we have to support our public institutions support um um those those things that really make our community what it is and makes our country what it is um and one of the things that we have to support is education so I ask you to support the Beverly Education Foundation remember our great nation is built upon an informed citizenry and um and that's to help us determine those issues and what we're going to do with those issues and how we Face them so advocate for Education support it fund it and get involved in it and again thank you so much for all of the questions all of the support and for your time and and and wisdom both of you thank you good evening can I just do um I just didn't need to do one shout out to someone who couldn't be here tonight who's watching in the live stream um the oldest living Pharaoh who's 95 years old my uncle Feeney um who would be sitting right over there with his wife and daughter is watching online and he is he literally is the oldest living Pharaoh because we're the only ones who pronounce it incorrectly [Laughter] so Feeney thanks thank you
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
thanks Tony yeah first of all thank you very much for mentioning post-grad options besides College I very much appreciate that two uh two questions for you uh the name of the Fall play called deadline and it's about a group of writers who Island and they're basically against each other and write a book the fastest something like that okay thank you and what are so community service hours I think I get that what are leadership hours community service hours might be just something like going to help out at a food pantry or something that like that leadership hours um asks students to step out of their comfort zone and really put themselves in a position of leading obviously others and so some examples of that might be coaching like the youth field hockey program like I did or becoming a mentor at one of the camps around town as long as it's obviously not a paid position or mostly things along those lines mentoring people is a great way to get leadership hours um I helped run a camp for young football players in town um it is usually in the beginning of August and it lasts uh the first five days of um of August so yeah thank you are these leadership hours right now I'm just curious gotcha [Laughter] thank you yeah of course come on Andrew sure Ella Andrew thank you guys I'm sure well I know your day probably started about six o'clock this morning so here we are a good 14 hours later and you're still at it so adding this to your list of obviously um pretty awesome extracurricular activities we really do appreciate it because I can't speak for everybody up here but um we sometimes get lost in all these papers and things that we look at here and hearing actually what is going on at the high school and all the great activities and opportunities and sports programs and things you guys are all having fun it really makes this role that we serve for the town very much um more rewarding for us personally so I want to say thank you and look forward to hearing your updates every month thank you thank you faith welcome you guys you guys are different every year I I mean just different personalities and I love it and um Your Enthusiasm is infectious and it's my favorite time of the whole board meeting and I just I have nothing more to add to what these guys have said but just hang on to your hats because this year's Gonna Fly by enjoy it and savor it and keep us informed as you go along as to what's going on in your lives um so good luck thank you and and then Adam so welcome you to I don't know Andrew but I'm looking forward to hearing your reports each month Ella I can't believe you're a senior yeah I'm remembering fifth and sixth grade Ella Paul but at any rate that just shows my age more than yours so uh thank you for your reports of course in the coming months and thank you for tonight's report very informative um and I got you beat I've known Allison I don't know she was like probably from birth maybe but uh congratulations to the both of you um you know adult time this is just you know uh another uh September meeting but it's the sixth set of sixth set of young adults we've had at least in front of me and uh so great to have you here serving uh in this capacity this year and looking forward to hearing your reports so thank you awesome I uh looking forward to your reports each month uh Andrew and Ella and Sally this is I think my 14th set of Sting around I mean it's wonderful and I just uh but as faith and utter set time does fly by and I think you have a great year enjoy it savor it and I hope that the board event meetings is not the highlight of your year because there's much more fun things than that but thank you for volunteering thank you for being here of course thanks and uh you certainly don't have to stay uh but uh thank you again excellent up next we have two very special presentations we're going to start with the teacher of the year and I think Dr Solon you have a presentation thank you Mr paragini it's uh as you said a special presentation it's an incredible honor tonight to be able to recognize two incredibly talented and dedicated professionals uh who work in our school system uh tonight we honor our Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the year and para educator of the year it is um incredibly difficult to stand out with all of the talented people that we have working for us but I think tonight you'll hear why is difficult as it is to make a selection it's easy to honor the people that you will meet this evening the Cheshire Public Schools is proud and excited to announce the selection of Catherine zukis is the 2023-24 Cheshire Public Schools teacher of the year Catherine is a first grade teacher at Norton school Catherine began her teaching career in New Britain at DiLoreto elementary school as a long-term substitute enjoying the Cheshire team in 2009 working first at Highland and then at Norton school where she has spent the last 13 years colleagues who have had the pleasure of encountering masukas's teaching know the warmth that she exudes and the way she makes each and every child feel special her colleagues and supervisors recognize how talented she is in growing her students her first graders are able to consistently meet their academic goals as a result of the caring accepting environment she creates that enables all students to take academic risks Catherine personifies calm Grace and Poise she welcomes every child to her classroom in the same way that she would want her own children to be received appreciated for who they are as individuals and called upon to reach their very best potential mizukas's teaching exemplifies the interconnectedness of social emotional learning and complex thinking Catherine serves on a number of committees including the new school working group she's an intervention team leader District grade level representative and has been a presenter on responsive classroom practices within our district sharing her talents with other Educators she also serves as a mentor teacher working with college student interns who are studying to become teachers in addition to her work as a teacher Catherine is a wife and mother to her two children Harper and Ford in her Spare Time Catherine volunteers at her Children's School serving as co-chair of the fundraising committee coordinator of family school events and maintains the Garden in front of the school Catherine stated in her acceptance speech during convocation this year how we make children feel matters she shared that it is her truest belief that only the the only way forward in our society is through education she spoke to the impact an excellent teacher can have Catherine zukis is a gifted educator who's not only talented but humble and articulate Catherine will represent Cheshire education Community with a Grace that will shine a positive light on the profession and make all of us proud to be a part of this calling please join me in congratulating cheshire's teacher of the year Catherine zukis [Applause] said that I didn't need to say anything but I would just like to thank the board and admin that's here parents um Cheshire is such a supportive community and I really appreciate the time and dedication that you have to education in this town thank you thank you [Applause] thank you congratulations thank you thank you congratulations Catherine up next is our para educator here and I think Robin and Carey will be presenting this one welcome everybody the Anne-Marie Murphy para educator of the Year award has been established by the state of Connecticut Department of Education and the school of paraprofessional advisory Council it was established to recognize the important role of the para educator in supporting student achievement this award is named in the honor of Ian Marie Murphy a para educator who lost her life at Sandy Hook it recognizes a paraeducator who demonstrates exceptional skill and dedication in the performance of his or her job I'm delighted to be able to honor cheshire's para educator of the year with over 100 para Educators in our district the decision in choosing one person to honor and represent this group is a difficult one this para educator demonstrates many attributes that make her exceptional her knowledge of instructional strategies and ability to think on her feet making adjustments based on students needs our skills valued and appreciated by every educator she understands and develops strong relationships with all students addressing them by name in the classroom and in the hallways when working with students she demonstrates patience a positive attitude a calm demeanor and genuine interest she has worked with students who are challenging both instructionally and behaviorally there have been times when I've had to call on her to train others and to take some additional summer hours even though she may have been planning on taking a summer vacation and enjoying her time off she agrees to take on these positions because she wants the students to have a positive summer experience her day working with and for students is not done at the Bell she's very active in the PTA at Doolittle bringing many activities to the school did you know that Doolittle has a drama club she has helped produce plays and musicals I am so pleased to introduce chesha's para educator of the Year Christina vayu [Applause] what do you want yeah um I just wanted to say a quick something too just because um there's one thing I'm very excited about and one thing that I'm really honored about this like I grew up in town I went through Cheshire school systems and exactly what you said the education and the commitment to education in this town is amazing now coming back to town raising my own kids through the school system and working in the school system and on top of that both my parents worked in the system at one time my mom actually worked at Doolittle as a special ed secretary for 13 years up until she passed away in um and my dad passed in April so the fact that I'm kind of still kind of doing and being in education like both my parents were it's very very special to me um the other thing I just wanted to mention is that because we're very excited at Doolittle um we are about to start a best buddies chapter at Doolittle will be the first Elementary School in town to have a best buddies chapter um so myself and a fellow parent volunteer who's also a teacher at the high school read Mangia Sierra Matthews is going to be co-advising with me so tomorrow at town meeting we'll be announcing it we have a sixth grade Board of board of for our best buddies and we're just really excited is another fun thing [Applause] and Ella's already on board the collaboration I she's often coming home with our new little Class A lot of collaborating so on behalf of the board and in your community uh thank you for your Awards and continued service congratulations up next we have audience uh comment if anyone in the audience would like to address the Board of Education now is a good time to do so okay consent calendar um let me call for a motion first and then we can discuss the items if any well soon I can make emotional consent Anna move that the Cheshire Board of Education approves the consent calendar as presented second and seconds any discussion on the consent calendar items seeing as there are no questions the motion is that the Cheshire Board of Education approves the consent calendar as presented all those in favor please raise your hand it is unanimous thank you committee reports we're going to start with curriculum faith thank you Tony um we had a couple of things that um would you prefer to start with the motion um proceed as you see fit okay um perhaps that's uh the best thing to do to get that out of the way and then we'll just move through the other items um so um in our last board meeting on September 11th uh one of the items up for discussion or up for um a vote was flexibilities for implementing Connecticut guidelines for educator evaluator evaluation 2017 for the 2022 2023-24 school year and at this moment I'm going to hand it over to Marlene Solano to explain exactly what that means and then we will have a motion on adopting it thank you faith so you may remember that we brought this to you before since the dawn of the pandemic the state department of education has made some adjustments to teacher evaluation calling them these flexibilities and we have and you have approved us to move forward with those flexibilities for the last couple of years this would be the last year of the flexibilities because the state is in progress of releasing a new teacher evaluation program that our group will be evaluating this year and coming to at the end of this year with a plan in the meantime these flexibilities allow us as they say greater flexibility in that these would be inform more frequent observations that are informal so they are not scheduled and teachers like that very much administrators like that very much we tend to get a much more authentic observation in of their practice when and it's not planned and so this has alleviated a lot of time for both parties and it seems to have been effective so we would like to continue with that and are seeking your support for it so we have a motion um that reads move that the treasure Board of Education adopt the flexibilities to the fundamental requirements of the Connecticut guidelines for Education evaluation 2017 for the 2022-23-24 school year I'm going to say that again for the 2023-24 school year um do I have a second any discussion Samantha um Solano can you just kind of also highlight that which I'm personally happy about the fact that there's no summative writing anymore it's more based on feedback and so forth so CMD mean for the flexibilities that they released in September yes I don't know a whole lot about that yet we received that last week the flexibilities that we're reporting on now are not for the current ones they're for the the flexibilities not the new um a vowel system that's been put out as of September 14th so we're going to visit the new one at the next committee the we'll revisit the new ones after our pdec committee gets together and so we'll be coming to the full board with that probably in the spring okay great thanks sure any other questions or comments okay seeing none um the motion is move that the Cheshire Board of Education adopt the flexibilities to the fundamental requirements of the Connecticut guidelines for educator evaluator 2017 for the 2023-24 school year all in favor got it path thank you thanks um okay so also taking place in the meeting are were some other items um going from Top uh bottom of the report to the top we uh Miss Solano reviewed the um writing curriculum writing Institute that occurred over the summer um over 80 teachers attended this was the third annual curriculum writing Institute um and there were 40 Projects we kind of reviewed them um but they ranged from grade one research to high school British lit to seventh grade seventh music Innovations um so it was quite a robust experience for everybody uh we then heard about um multilingual learner enrollment um this was just mind-blowing there are now 477 students who fit into this category and they represent represent almost 50 languages um so this information isn't obviously important for future consideration um uh for What's called the Seal of biliteracy under the estate guidelines um but it just kind of gives you an idea of um some of the challenges that we are facing within the um the district with the influx of non-english speaking students and families so um and then last but not least we went we did a deep dive into our estate testing results and you do have that packet that I had asked everybody to receive to be sent out earlier I don't know if y'all had a chance to review it but um Miss Solano has graciously included it in the packet there are some highlights and clearly a lot of progress is being made um and there are some areas that we all recognize is in need of improvement um to summarize as fast as I can um in grades three through eight on the smarter balanced 76.4 percent of tested students met or exceeded levels uh three or four in the ELA portion of the SBA smarter balance test and 73.4 met or exceeded levels three through four and math and then 68.9 percent achieved their growth targets and 73.2 percent achieved there that was in the LA and then 73.2 achieved growth targets and math for the ngss which is the next Generation uh science standards we generally saw the same Trend could continue as we saw in the smarter balanced and that is a movement back toward our pre-covered levels which is to be cheered and they're moving quickly um so our bounce forward program clearly is effective and and getting kids back on our students back on track um and so in grade five um what's this was quite a quite um uh import or just uh something to boast about 80.1 percent of our students matter exceeded um levels three or four and that placed uh Cheshire number two in durg B uh we're at number three um in 2021-22 um grade 11 also did very well um they got they jumped by nearly 12 points over the prior year on the ngss um with 67.7 percent of the students meeting or exceeding um levels three or four and our rank climbed to 10 in durg B from 15.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
okay that's the motion moved by Julia do we have a second for that oh second okay second by rosanita I heard first all those in favor say aye aye opposite name okay great thank you Julia I appreciate the fact that you came in this commission with that idea and I appreciate everyone's discussion on that okay are there any other comments on the issue of the proposed rent control ban repeal uh on the state level State legislation okay um before we move on I'll just say that the Coalition that I mentioned earlier that was uh that had that repeal as one of his demands was called the rent is too damn High so if you are interested at all in checking out their demands and seeing what they're about you can look them up online rent is true damn high in Michigan uh they're based on Lansing okay we can move on to 7- D which is a discussion of our next meetings agenda so before I open it up um let's see have we talked about anything I think Julia did you mention something that you wanted on the next meetings agenda uh we'll just uh if Kristen had if she could get any data regarding um A Fine Collection from building inspections great so I guess we'll tentatively have that on there and if uh Kristen's able to get the information in time any other proposals well if if we're able to have a education committee um before the next meeting then Jamie I guess we could have on the um you know having somebody to talk about uh security deposits or evictions sorry that wasn't my computer glitching out that was my head glitching out any other ideas did you like did somebody already suggest um like a review of the green Fair you took the words right out of my mouth perfect I think it'd be good especially if the larger group is here to review what um you've heard from folks and then you can compare it to last year before really whatever you want right any other ideas there is something that I've been thinking about which is that there's this been discussion about right to counsel which um is a program that's been implemented in different areas around the country including in Detroit very recently where if you if you're you fall beneath a certain income level and you're facing eviction you have the right to an attorney you know right to counsel right and that the idea comes from the big problem that um that many tenants are facing which is that tenants by and large when they're facing eviction have very low rates of having uh representational legal representation but landlords have very high rates of you know it's like 97 of landlords go into eviction hearings with an attorney and um I heard from a council member that there was interest and exploring the idea getting more research about the idea of implementing a program here in Ann Arbor I'm not it was suggested to me that that the renters commission reach out to um Human Rights Commission and start some kind of joint group to start doing research on on the issue and do research about what a program might look like for the city um I suppose I'd like I think we should probably discuss that at our next meeting at the latest and um I think I if anyone's interested in that project just let me know and we can maybe figure some things out so we have a more coherent uh proposal at the next meeting um I I don't know but now now suddenly we have all kinds of agenda items but um off meeting a couple of us had talked about uh short-term rentals and kind of the Airbnb scene and how that's impacting housing um it's been I think about a year since those city ordinance it was in effect um that that might be something we discussed too at maybe the November meeting or I forget Christian how do we meet in November um like does it fall around Thanksgiving uh let me pull up the calendar it looks like oh the third Thursday November is the 16th so it'd be the week before oh right it's the third sorry I I originally went to the fourth also and I was like oh I don't think it's gonna work um but the the third is um the third Thursday it's not a holiday thanks yeah I think that if the next meetings agenda gets too lengthy and it seems like it's going to take up too much time we can just postpone some of those items to the next to the agenda afterwards okay any other ideas all right well if anything comes up just email I think Christian me and Julia and we'll make sure that gets you know it gets considered and put on the agenda all right so we move on to item eight which is our reports eight-a reports from Commissioners committees and our working groups we already had the report from the committee um so I think we can just do commissioners does anybody have a report to give Jeff I mean I kind of do but I'm a separate agenda item technically aren't I oh for hhsap um yeah yeah you can just give it now that's okay I don't know if I should do it yet um okay um I attended uh last week my first um hhsad meeting which is um was interesting um uh a lot of the discussion was um there was there were kind of two main issues that they discussed which is um the first one was uh their plans for parking day um I guess they had a tent at parking day um downtown um and a lot of it was plans for for their Community engagement for that um I think it's already happened now so I don't know how that turned out yet but I'll find out um uh before our next meeting um the other half of the meeting was a lot of discussion regarding um the home ARP which is American Rescue plan um for uh urban areas in the county uh it sounds like Washington County got about four and a half million dollars um that has been the current um updated draft plan is to use about half of that on affordable housing uh which includes um subsidized housing in in housing that is uh run by either Community organizations or um government organizations specifically for um low-income residents um and the other half was for Support Services uh for those people so it works out um um about 2.2 million dollars per each of those um uh items and it looks like the um I did some more research myself because I wasn't totally familiar um it looks like that's through I think 23.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and we've done incredible work I know last year it was a little bit or much slower but you know with coordination between Key Club the Student Union and student council we've been able like I said to quadruple our amount so that's always great um and yeah I just I thank you and I look forward to my last year here being as the student union rep um and I thank you all for the communication [Applause] Joseph siano 102 Trenton Ave good evening everyone my name is Joseph siano and I am running his ballot number four for the Clifton Board of Education because I firmly believe that our children deserve nothing less than the absolute best education if elected I will tirelessly dedicate myself to ensuring that our schools have all the necessary resources to provide a truly world-class education to every student this includes fiercely advocating for increased funding for our schools and special education programs and exploring Innovative options for early childhood education programs as a lifelong resident of Clifton a product of Clifton public schools and a dedicated business owner I fully grasp the immense value of strong Partnerships between schools families and local businesses I will Forge close-knit relationships between our schools and The Wider Community creating remarkable opportunities for our students to thrive and Excel in preparation for their future endeavors this community means everything to me and I am relentlessly committed to its progress I actively collaborate with numerous organizations such as the power of one Knights of Columbus and the Early Childhood advisory Council which tirelessly Champions the significance of early childhood education being a lifelong Clifton resident and a product of its schools I firmly believe that the most effective way to uplift our community begins with its Cornerstone education as a seasoned business owner I possess unparalleled experience in working with diverse communities fully understanding the profound impact of collaboration and teamwork I am deeply passionate about providing every child with an extraordinary education firmly convinced that we must unite and work together to shape the brightest possible future for our children running with the resounding motto together for excellence I wholeheartedly believe that transformative change in progress demand the collective effort of the entire community thank you very much [Applause] good evening everyone I'd like to introduce myself tonight to the board into the Clifton Community my name is Tanya Suarez a 23 Hall Street Clifton resident for five years and I'm a candidate running for the Board of Education this November many have asked me the very valid question why am I running for the Board of Education the short answer is that I'm a mother to a beautiful child who is in the second grade in Clifton School 8 and I would like to contribute to the potentially long-standing policies and practices that will influence his education for years to come and of course there's a long answer as well I have dedicated my career to working with children youth and families for over 20 years and have gained a wealth of knowledge on the experiences kids and their families have in schools from Early Childhood to transitioning into college I understand families who experience food insecurity housing and stability and what that means for their children who attend school hungry or look forward to school as a safe haven I have training and diversity and Equity work having facilitated seminars and professional development series for teachers parents and Guardians I have witnessed the frustration parents and Guardians and experience when they encounter policies that prohibit their child from inclusive education or being denied Disability Services I have observed what children experience in the classrooms particularly around their social and emotional well-being through my years as a school social worker when I practice child-centered play therapy ran social skills groups and responded to behavior crises in the classroom when working with parents and Guardians I have seen their worry about finding adequate Child Care before and after school or wondering where they will send their child during summer breaks because they need to go to work therefore I understand the importance for schools to provide respite for families Who Cannot drop off and pick up their children during the exact beginning and end of school hours and currently I am a doctoral candidate at Montclair State University and the teacher education and teacher development program this program has given me insight into the ways in which teachers need to be respected and honored as the professionals and experts they are most having a great array of Love creativity and ideas to best serve our students additionally I'm involved in two education research projects at Montclair State University and also I'm working on writing a book chapter about transfer excuse me transformational education I also want to make clear that the center of my objective to be on Clifton's board of education is to be an ambassador for all children every time I've worked with Children and Youth I treat them as an extension of my family making sure they get the best care and have access to what they deserve the footprints in my career have always been centered around children youth and their families I have no Personal Agenda to use the Board of Education to climb the political ladder I am a parent an educator not a politician and although public education is political it should not be politicized the well-being and future of Clifton's Children and Youth reside in the policy making that comes for the Board of Education and I am prepared to keep students at the heart with every decision I contribute to I know my career knowledge and perspectives will greatly benefit the Board of Education as well as the students and families of Clifton because I have personally seen how policies and practices directly impact students and will make informed decisions based on matters of Education not matters of personal gain please know that I am passionate about the well-being of all children youth and in turn I am passionate about public education because I believe public education is the foundation to an equitable and just Society for all of these reasons I wish to be a part of the Board of Education if anything I said tonight resonated with you I ask for your support to vote for number one come November 7th my bottom line for my why is to do right by all children all students knowing that every decision that I contribute to making will also impact my own son I sincerely thank you for your time [Applause] good evening Keith Bassett Clifton New Jersey I have something to say tonight it's not going to be easy but I want to make sure everybody listens to every word I'm saying closely so nothing gets construed the wrong way here Mr Smith social media is a great tool when it's used properly can share wonderful events memories photos that last a long time anything digital in nature will provide a path or what is called a footprint the pets that lead to the footprint eventually will be led to the or agenda of the actual content it's all about forensics something was brought to my attention that I want to discuss publicly I know all too well how certain people including one to individuals from this board can create fake content it happened in 2017 from Ava Pino and just two years ago in an Instagram page was create using a member of my family's name that instant not only caused issues for my family members it also caused my spouse a really good position in a replo firm so now I'm bringing to you the information that was given to me refers to a website called kids Messenger on Facebook it is controlled by parents I was a little Disturbed when I saw the image I'm not making any accusations and I'll say accusations again is definitely a picture of a dog looks like Triscuit just making you aware of what I found there was a photo of a dog with the name Triscuit Smith the screen name is Triscuit Smith ironically with the dog's photo is a spinner image of your dog Triscuit then another photo with the name Renard on it Triscuit Smith Triscuit Smith photo comes without any wording then another person posts with posts with the cartoon character saying hi back to Triscuit Smith Tristan Smith writes hi blank I am purposely not exposed the name of the child how are you doing I hate being stuck in the house all the time but we uh had to remain safe saying hi blank to protect the person hide blank a second person Smith then posted another photo of two characters hugging each other and a picture of a dog just get Smith I don't know if you're aware of this website Mr Smith but I'm bringing to your attention so you know you're not getting blind side or nothing maybe you have something to add to this well it's kind of bother me and I'm going to tell you that I will get to the bottom of this who create the profile and who's behind posting this to children in the name Triscuit Smith I will be foreign all the information appropriate law enforcement agencies that protect the safety and Welfare of children as I done with two other websites that were formed in 2017 two years ago remember the words I said there is a path to Lisa footprint that will lead to their origin I'm just doing this for the safety of children now my next thing is so nobody thinks I'm making things up here okay his pitches of the website uh another picture of the website and what's going on and another thing kids messenger okay so I don't want to get accused of you know making up things it's it's a political thing no I just want to know who really did this because you know what I have a problem and I think out of two decades this is the hardest thing I ever had to do up at this mic but you know what I had to think about this a long time and if I didn't do this well I'm not doing right to the children and I'm gonna get to the bombers no question about it I usually do but Mr Smith I like to work with you too if you know anything about this or something I like to work with you too and see how this happened thank you anyone else wish to address the board seeing none motion the clothes by vice president uh Danny seconded by Mr abedravo so we're very happy to have for the first time here representing Clifton High School um as our student uh representative and I want to make sure I say your name correctly because last year I really messed it up right Richie Jada right please come forward for your report thank you okay good evening Commissioners and Dr Robert Ozzy I know I have been briefly introduced by you um to you by Tiffany last June and briefly by lies just now but to thank you sir got but you didn't suggested my name but I am Jada I'm jitterwitter and I'll be serving my peers as a student representative a little bit a little bit about me um besides for being the student rep I am also the vice president for Clifton Student Union I play for singles honor Clifton um Varsity tennis team and I'm a thrower for the girls track um tennis for the girls varsity tennis team oh my goodness I am a thrower that's all right take your time for the girls track team um I do pride myself on my engagement with numerous clubs that CHS has to offer including Heroes and Cool Kids and I am the vice president for the Clifton Student Union um no let's just dive into what's happening with her school so um first of all our school year came to a very abrupt start with our voter registration um which we have seen great engagement in um as the registration continues students are able to gain more insight on any uncertainties they may have regards to voting not to mention they're getting the chance to recognize the importance of their vote and hopefully kick start their civic invasion um as Mr Rose um told me earlier the analyze mentioned we quadrupled the amount of registration we had since last year and um just in case any students are listening um on your 17th birthday you are able to register anytime not just this week and there is one more day for our voting registration um on the 27th we have our annual back to school night which as always will be an exciting way for the parents of CHS to be involved with our school um our fall sports team continued their study Advance within our season and for anyone interested our football team will have their second home game of the season um at Clifton Stadium at 7 pm um lastly I do want to acknowledge the awaited construction that our school has seen since returning from our summer break I know that I do not stand alone in regards to my gratitude seeing the work done on the new bathrooms the clocks in the hallways and of course the ACs um in our classrooms which has well we see the progress on it and we do appreciate that um we my classmates and are are very happy to see that our concerns are being met and um the steps are being taken to make our education a little bit more comfortable so thank you um and we're excited to see the steps that are going to follow um so that's it for my report and have a great night thank you thank you Jada thank you [Applause] okay thank you [Applause] Jada great job and uh we're so fortunate to have you with us for uh this whole year giving you reports and it's all downhill it's all easy now right it's all done good job thank you so we start a new school year and our uh wonderful pbsis program is off and running and again miss ragosa what a great job you do in this and um I turned the floor over to you for your presentations oh I'm sorry so I'm gonna do that first yeah yep sorry we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna go out we're gonna Walter a little bit all right if I could um we're going to move to uh ea1 state county teacher of the year could I have a motion please second a motion by Mr Roberto second by Miss basford um Dr Robertson you want to read yep thank you Mr Smith good evening Commissioners members of the community faculty and staff who came out tonight nice to see everybody and um our honored guest tonight at the Clifton Board of Education meeting is none other than the 2324 Passaic County Teacher of the Year Amanda Rhodes Amanda I'm going to read the resolution the board will vote on it and then I'll say a few more words and we'll recognize you and I I think you're going to say a few words tonight also good we'd love to hear from you resolved at the Clifton Board of Education recognizes the 23-24 Passaic County teacher of the year which honors an outstanding educator in the Clifton Public Schools the selection committee has a named Amanda Rhodes grade 5 teacher at school number 11.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
2018 just a few short years ago what was your favorite memory of homecoming when you were a student here I would say probably the homecoming parade what instrument did you play play Trombone trombone look out for his extension all right Wildcats I'm here with Mr fantozzi Mr van Tosi choir director and from the class of 1995. 1995. all right what was your favorite memory of homecoming when you were a student here I had a really cool opportunity as a student that I was elected to be on the homecoming Court which was really a lot of fun congratulations were you the homecoming King I was not still not he's still not over it all right Wildcats I'm here with Karen's up Karen's out from the class of 1983. so it's your 40th class reunion this year congratulations what is your favorite memory of homecoming as a student here my favorite memory [Music] also heard a rumor that you were our homecoming queen is that true [Music] here Karen's at class of 1983 homecoming queen all right Wildcats I'm here students from the class of 1985 1985.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
now this is as it is every year a draft financial statement subject to control we don't really need the audit but thank you I'm just not riveting no that's fine so the uh audit before you is a draft subject to your approval this year is a little different only because we are still honing what will be an internal control comment that will be included as a part of the audit It's Not Unusual to have that but it's still being tweaked a bit so is not in your packet and we will presumably Chris come back for the next meeting and have you approve it then a person including the comment after it's finalized so let's talk about the audited financial statements themselves included in the packet is a clean opinion we did the audit in accordance with General acceptance auditing standards and governmental audit standards we tested the assets liabilities revenues and expenses of the organization including Federal Monies uh without incident we had the complete cooperation of management and staff there were no disagreements over access to accounting information no disputes over accounting issues no disagreements over financial statement presentation and so our audit opinion once it is before you for approval will be independent and appropriate if we turn to pay the page four and you don't have to but real quickly on page four you will see cash and Investments of 22 million three hundred and eighty three thousand that is roughly the same amount that was there last year now I will tell you and we'll talk about this when we look at the revenues and expenses you all have done an outstanding job of investing your funds in higher earning instruments this year this past fiscal year as a consequence you will see when we get to it that you have significantly more investment income that you than you had last year or in other prior years so kudos for responding to the interest rate environment and maximizing the assets that you have you use a pool cash method for doing that and so you were able to pull the cash from the various funds together and maximize your Investments you had significant fixed asset addition activity this year you can see listed your land Building and so forth more than typical you had a million almost a million four in significant additions this year which started with over a million dollars in roof editions just a little more than a million in the roof you purchased a bus for another hundred and fifteen thousand roughly you did bathroom Renovations for some sixty thousand you did a land bridge of another 30 to 35 000 those are the significant Capital editions that you had equaling as I mentioned almost a million four which is significantly more than in Prior years and you did so by the way without incurring additional bond indebtedness which means that you took it out of the cash flow of the operations it's also why how why and we'll get to it again in a second you'll see the bottom line this year is significantly less than perhaps it would have levelized been quickly your debt position at the end of the year was just short of 5.5 million dollars you made all of your bond payments on time those Bond payments in total represented principal payments of some 3 million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and another hundred and forty thousand dollars in interest expense so that was also a significant expenditure during the year that was budgeted for and all paid on time your bond situation is such that you're going to see the bonds paid off in total absent additional indebtedness in the next two years you have Bond payments scheduled to some three almost three and a half million in 2024 you have another principal and interest for bonds to some 2.1 million in 25 and then you are debt free again something to anything else that you may choose to do in your budget going forward so you're in a very enviable position in that regard and that is a summary of your assets and liabilities on the income and expense basis which is Page Six if you are five sorry five if you are following along this year's bottom line and of course you're not a for-profit entity but nevertheless this year's bottom line was some 340 350 000 to the good that contrasts last year's 2.8 million to the good and so the big picture reasons for that is a significant decrease in federal funds this year some seven eight hundred thousand decrease in federal monies which is representative of the coveted environment we just came out of we also had a decrease in your personal property tax collections uh significant again as a result of among other things the whole coveted environment and then as we said you had significant Capital editions as well as salary raises and other items so net net you were positive effectively on total revenues of 32 million when you bring 350 000 to the bottom line that's effectively break even on a big picture basis I do want to call out and then I will take questions and wrap up a new Full agenda you did as I mentioned a nice job of maximizing the interest rate environment your average interest earnings this year were slightly in excess of three percent your interest on your bond indebtedness was less than that at some 2.6 percent and so you'd have a positive result as a result of that last year's interest income was some sixty thousand dollars this year was and I have a note if I can find it or not issues interest was six hundred thousand dollars and so you had over five hundred thousand dollars of additional interest earnings this year that you didn't have in previous years by wise utilization of your excess cash and by the way that extra 550 000 was more than you brought to the bottom line so at the end of the day your net positive result for the year was as a result of effective utilization of your cash Reserves I'm happy to take any any questions I know you have a full agenda and I kinky swore that I would try to cut it to a just the important issues I appreciate that sir no questions any questions a lot of good news thank you sir all right so um I will let you go thank you all right on to administrative reports uh yeah enrollment reports are in your packet see that I can keep an order otherwise I can yell that sorry all right not administrative reports there would you like to start us off oh yeah so the last time I was here I was talking to you about how the year ended up so now I'm back to tell you how we are starting again um we've been in school for about a month now a little over and every year like you know what to expect but every year we're just amazed by the amount of growth that we're seeing in our little ones three-year-olds four-year-olds all the way up through seven-year-olds so we've spent a lot of this month working on our three pillars of our PBIS system which is safety respect and responsibility and so we've been really learning a lot of routines how to be at school how to move through the school safely how to be a student how to be in a room with lots of other individuals as many of our children are so young are coming from having only been with families or in-home daycares and it's just really great to see how everyone's doing Mrs Freeze is going to speak to some more specifics but I wanted to share a few photos with you as well so up here I have to start off first and foremost with a photo from Mrs worsham's class we are celebrating her this year this is her final year teaching as she retires and so she recently earlier this week did one of her most favorite activities which is quill riding um and so the kids loved it they had lots of fun with that I have only one photo of a cow but if you walk through the halls of Eagle View you will see many photos of cows because we've adopted cows almost every classroom has one um some are named glitter Moon one had like a really basic name like George or something I can't remember off the top of my head so that's kind of fun going on and then we will track the growth of that cow or those cows over time I had to put the third picture on this is Jeremy Tom this is Thompson sorry he is one of our I.T coordinators but we love him at Eagleview um this was a picture that I was observing in a PE classroom he came in to speak with me and he's pretty tall guy and he got Down On My Level so because he didn't want to seem towering over the children and this little guy ran up to him he didn't know him we just ran up to him and he needed a hug so Mr Jeremy hugged him while we spoke this fourth picture is a view that we are fortunate to see every day at Eagle View starting at about 7 30 or so we open our doors at 7 40 and we always have lots of eager smiling faces peeking in at us eager to get in all right next slide oh that's okay there we are so lots of learning already happening in addition to the safety respect and responsibility that we're working on at Eagleview we are starting academics as well and so our children are naming letters naming sounds reading I was in a kindergarten classroom this is Maya's classroom today and they were reading sentences already a month into school and it was just a really beautiful thing to see the last two photos Mrs Freeze is going to talk about some more actually let's send her two photos that is our grandparents day that we had with our kindergartners and then the bottom picture is math we like we have our classrooms but the whole school building really is our classroom and so we go outside as much as possible we had some pirate hunting out earlier in the uh week this is doing some math we like to write the room so that can be with letters numbers anything to that effect and then some friends being made up there which is one of Mrs Freeze's former students I know you're accepted all right let me hand it over to her I've spoken it up thank you Mrs Benny I'm Amy friese I teach Early Childhood Pre-K at Eagleview I've been there a long time and I really still enjoy it um so I'm just going to give a general synopsis of a few things that occur in our building music classes taught by Mrs Hughes she's amazing um she what she had to say was that preschools are a new addition to her class this year in music she has 39 students from pre-k that come twice a week they have been using scarves song cards letter number cubes songs and Quaver to explore movement and I don't really know what the Quaver is it's an interactive music instructional program so it's pretty fun steady beat their voices and fun and she really really enjoys teaching the little ones this year she said it's very it's just great and music is very important part in helping with their educational Journey so npe this year we've got a new PE teacher her name is Mrs Rogers she is fantastic one of the things that I've taken this year and my class loves it is when she says flat tire everybody goes and it really works in our loud classrooms it's really great we use it every day in all of the lunch hours and it works like magic it is yeah they love it yeah and she says flat tires so good but MP um she does you know she teaches preschool first grade and um kindergarten and they're beginning the school year learning about spatial awareness and they're working on home-based spots locomotive locomotor skills and exercises throughout the spark physical education program students have already learned how to do push-ups by using the triceps and doing dips squats and different stretches at the starter class students are learning about the importance of keeping our hearts healthy and finding ways to make them stronger um she said to ask any of the kindergarten or first grade students if you see them around and they can show you where their biceps and triceps are in fact interject something yes so with our PE class in addition to all the health instruction that she's incorporating along with the activity we're also really pleased that every student this year at Eagleview has PE and so that means that our early childhood students and our preschool students also have PE which is something we worked really hard to try to achieve and then the vast majority of them also attend music classes too so they're getting a more full like School experience instead of just being contained within their classrooms yes and I honestly will say that that's very very important because a lot of children especially the ones that need a little extra attention do learn through music and physical and gross the motor and so it also helps with their transition when they go on to kindergarten to oh I know that teacher so it's less stress so it is a great addition and I hope that it continues to stay Pre-K which is one of the classes I teach we're adjusting to new routines and we are having a great time we're having a blast we've we're we've been talking a lot about apples this week and different things and I know my class in particular we do Brain Breaks throughout the day and they just laugh and giggle and you know we dance around but again the addition of PE and music have been very beneficial as Mrs Vinny just said with kindergarten they had grandparents day which is a few of those pictures that are up there that was on September 15th so it was very recent it was very successful the grandparent one grandparent comes in they have Donuts they do crafts they play games they read books so that was very successful kindergarten is also discussing apples as Pre-K is and tomorrow will be the big apple day where they do cook apples do applesauce and I think they do all kinds of Apple games I think Eagleview may single-handedly be sustaining the local Apple Market I know we've been bringing them in by the bushel at all grade levels yes and kindergarten is also learning letters and red words numbers one to five and working hard on writing their names and creating pictures like Mrs Denny had said in first grade the first grades are adjusting to new routines and expectations the teachers are also including some of the things they learned in some of their summer trainings specifically the Orton Gilliam to improve their reading and writing skills they're excited to once again have some of the Columbia community helpers come next Friday for a presentation to talk to go with our reading unit um and our speech continues to do amazing things as well especially with our non-verbal communicators they're continuing continuing to support students with picture communication throughout the building their stop signs and there's classroom pictures or on the way out to the bus the children have to point to go home or go bus or something so they're saying some things even if they can't verbally say it they point and then the teacher will say the words for them so they can associate those words in print and the speech is also very excited for October because we they have an annual trick-or-treating day with the younger preschool students that need some extra help and it is very fun that's all I am thank you that's a lot thank you all right on to our assistant superintendent report um so let me start with my shout outs um so I'm going to start with that top left picture is Jamie Mansfield from She's our secretary at Eagleview um she is coming up on her one year anniversary with us in the district and she has done a phenomenal job I think she had big shoes to fill when Karen left um Jamie jumped in um kind of unafraid and tackled it is doing a phenomenal job has really helped in making sure that the new safety protocols that we put in in the buildings are being followed are being adapted to and all of that so we're thrilled to have her the next picture is Christian Davis Ralph so he is actually our high school band director but also comes to Parkview and teaches a couple of music classes he realized in his schedule just because of with the multi-building he had a little bit of extra time and actually went and sought out one of our classrooms to provide them a little bit extra music is Erica was saying we try to incorporate all of our classes but he realized that one of our self-contained special ed classes when they go to music weren't really getting enough time to play with the instruments because they're in there with a whole class from another room so he actually went found that teacher and said I've got some extra time in my schedule why don't you bring your kids down so we can do a little bit more music and activities and it's just them so we're excited about that the next fixture is Cindy schlitting so she is our Tech teacher at the middle school and she has done great jobs in bringing in a lot of really cool things into our business or I'm sorry our tech classes but what um I am most thankful for of her right now is obviously we've been through we're on our second Middle School business and Tech Teacher already this year and Cindy from the very beginning really went above and beyond of helping out these teachers to acclimate to not only the district but helping plan the curriculum helping with all the materials telling them we teach the same subjects here so I've got you covered as far as lesson plans and that here spend your time focused on those Singleton classes that you teach at the high school and I will step in and hold your hand so I think that transition would not have been as well either time that we've been through it this year if it wasn't for her and then the last picture is Amanda who was our High School PE teacher and has now transitioned into the assistant principal position she is doing a fantastic job but I I think what most stuck out to me is we were sitting in a tier two PBIS meeting and we were talking about students that are already showing up with some issues or could potentially and she already had a list of students that she had known from the past that could potentially visit the office more frequently than others and she had already gone out sought them out she's been building relationships with them from day one I think that's an advantage to hiring an internal candidate but her initiative to go out and do that has made a huge difference already in what we're seeing going on at the high school so we are appreciative for that so like I said a lot of great things going on but just wanted to give those four an extra shout out and then in your packets for approval tonight is the Improvement plans for the district and for the buildings so we um had really or are really focusing on this model of all for one and one for all in the district this year and you will hopefully have seen when you went through those plans that they all revolve around things that we've identified at the district level the you know we've talked a lot about differentiated instruction and how important that is for all of our students to be able to learn at their level and then raise that up to that Mastery of the standards um so that's a goal working with helping our teachers better understand and then come up with some more resources and tools of how to accommodate 504s and IEPs in the classroom is important working on increasing our standardized benchmarking scores we always want to right continue to raise the bar of what our kids can achieve and do our social emotional learning supports we had a SEL team go do some training this summer and they are really helping guide the buildings on supporting not only the students but also the teachers with everything and then just continue to improve last year our district initiative was the tier one the positive behavior and intervention support the PBIS system and we have so tier one focuses on things that all students receive tier two starts to look at those students that that General instruction didn't quite fit so it's kind of like taking that differentiated instruction and looking at it from a behavior lens so let's focus in on what these students that are struggling behavior-wise need a little bit more help and support with so like I said that's all in the the Improvement plans but really focusing all around that all for one and one for all to our superintendent's report this is the boring part I I don't get to talk as much about the instructional stuff but it is fun to get out into the buildings and see what's going on um financials we've transferred over to that new Financial software you've heard me bemoan about it the accounts payable is pretty much done because you've got your reports and when that you got your reports all of the bills and the processing of bills that side of the house is now done there's Kim Gibson is reconciling the checking accounts manually but there is a download of a file you can get from the bank that she's got to learn how to do that's the last step and then we are done with accounts payable um payroll one of the things that we did not realize was how Antiquated our old system was and there's been a lot of data entry as we're downloading the informations and getting it into Excel and checking everything and transferring it over it's taking longer than I would have liked however we are extremely close um we keep going over the deductions and benefits the contract that we just negotiated with cesma where we gave Insurance to a bunch of people or cash in lieu which was good for us in hiring people um during a financial conversion that was probably the worst timing ever to add those extra nuances but um the ladies are doing a great job and and its uh goal is to be up and running soon I think we were staged to do some um parallel payrolls this week but it's going to be next week or the week after because our benefits and our deductions were still kind of off and so what they do is they do a payroll in the new system for one that we just did and then you get to check all of the pay stubs and make sure that the calculations are still correct and then you do two of those and we're good to go and so the goal is October November to be live with the payroll side um that will allow us to start going to paperless leaves paperless uh time cards and that's really going to be a welcome relief so that's the financial projects I will say that you know we spoke about the treasurer in doing the Investments that's Brad gotcher he came on as our Treasurer a couple of years ago and he really does a lot of work with all of the local banks to make sure that our CDs are timed just right so we can make the bond payments and still maximize that interest um so I want to thank him for that I also want to say that we've got projects that we're looking at as far as the high school construction and the parking lots and things of that nature I've got a meeting scheduled for October 2nd pending will cancel it if we don't hire everybody that we're planning on hiring tonight but I wanted to get it on the books because we can take advantage of Arbitrage and so stifle the bond council is going to come in and talk with our construction managers and our Architects and really get a good understanding of how it's going so that we're not bonding too much we can then take that interest that we're making because you can earn more money than you are actually paying on the bonds that you're selling and that's called Arbitrage and we're going to take advantage of that so um a lot of details but it's it's it's good stuff uh our parking project seems to be going well with the city we've got Jen Carlson from FGM here she's going to talk a little bit about that if we have any questions but the relationship with the city is a great thing too you know we talk about all for one one for all when the taxing bodies can leverage work together it really is great for the community and for the taxpayers and that's really our goal it's to provide the best benefit and the education is taken care of but we want to take care of the financial side as well um so that's my superintendent's report s thank you all right we'll move on to our items for Action the first one was the approval of the or the 2023 annual financial report as presented however we just got this today so we're going to table this so everybody has a chance to read it so we're not Congress we're going to reach up before we pass it so we're also going to add some pages to it but 66 Pages a little bit too much to go over in half an hour while we're listening to everything everything else so we're going to table that matter so the next one is the approval of our 2023 to 2024 School budgets yeah um I think everybody learned a lot from the grilling I got during the public hearing with all of those questions and answers um this is speak now or forever hold your peace Administration recommends that we approve the budget as presented if you have any questions let me know questions comments concerns what that would it be like to make a motion to approve the 2023-2024 school budget who wants to spend all the money I'll make you Andrea wait a second and roll call please yes Kelly Moyer Greg Meyer yes Lisa Schumacher yes Tyson sir yes Maureen Friedrich yes famous our next item is the approval of the administrator and teacher salary and benefit reports and this is one of those yearly action items as soon as you approve it we will get it posted on the website Administration recommends the board approved the report as presented now that we've got the budget approved to actually afford it right questions comments concerns but I mean I can make a motion to approve the administrator and teach your salary and benefits reports I'll make the motion Thank you Lisa for a second a second Tyson seconds or call please Andrea Corey yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa Schumacher yes Tyson search yes Maureen Friedrich yes Adam Hampton yes next item is to appoint our iasb delegates so it's always fun to volunteer somebody Association of school boards has a joint conference with the Illinois Association of school administrators and the Illinois Association of school business officials that's the conference that's held in Chicago at that conference we have the yearly task of sending one of our Representatives typically our secretary Mr search um to uh vote on our behalf and um the all the voting topics are discussed the month before uh Administration would recommend that you continue to do the secretary because that's what we've always done and Mr search is going to the conference so I believe he's available I recommend we uh give it to Tyson make you volunteers is that your motion sure a second all right all in favor aye perfect thank you appreciate it yeah all right next idea is the Improvement of our school Improvement approvals could be of our school Improvement plan for 2023-2024 school year and we'll turn that over to Miss Smith I've been trying this year this year buildings goals were tied to the district goals but also really Implement how we were going to measure those and what steps we were going to do to achieve them rather than just saying there's a goal that we have um so really trying to hold ourselves at the administrative level and then how we can best Implement that in the buildings to reach those goals questions covers maybe like to make a motion to approve the school Improvement plan for this year make the motion thank you Tyson very second awesome small second all right 10 seconds all in favor aye any opposed any extensions all right next item is the approval of a projected authorization for the CHS City parking lot this is the getting into the facilities aspect of the evening's agenda and I want to thank Mr emkin and Mr Myers for the time that they've spent going over all of these contracts and discussing this we have Jen Carlson who's with FGM architects in the audience but this is that project where we would expand the parking at the bone short crop the park the city park and over by the foot by the baseball field this would allow our students to park there during the day as we go into construction and then ultimately lose parking and so with the growth and the loss of parking Administration recommends that we do this Adam brag do you have any comments or questions yeah so um there's been a lot of questions or some questions about would it affect the current track the current walking Track how would it affect the the batting cages the all the access in and out for the community Etc so right now the current plan is it won't affect it other than during construction because we will be redoing where the road where the walking path goes across the road there will be some work there redoing the drainage and then but it won't it won't move it it'll end up in the same place it's just going to get basically torn up a little bit and then Reef you know repaired as far as the parking we're losing approximately 100 parking spaces over the course of the construction there will be a 120 or 110 to 120 parking spots up top I don't remember the exact number it will also add in actual handicap accessible parking as well as sidewalks that go up to the little bleachers behind uh Home Plate at the ball field as well as a sidewalk from you know from the Walking path to the parking lot itself I'll call it the lower one that's between the stairwell to Nowhere right now and the batting cages so you won't have to walk on the road to get from whether it's the first base side parking or the third base side parking there you'll be able to access that through a sidewalk and then there will be a handrail put up on the stairs as well as some lights we'll go so we're not going to tear off the stair stairwell that's there but we're going to put up some handrails so we improve our safety issues as well as some lights to meet code we're working with Ameren to get they're going to take care of the lighting if you will as far as helping install that so other than working with the city on ensuring that we don't change our water runoff and that we meet all the current codes but we're looking again like like I said we're looking at 90-ish I don't remember the exact numbers but on that third base side and then the remainder will just where we where you park up from the first base side of the ball field that will be extended a little bit farther in with a sidewalk in front of it so that you'll still have two-way traffic accessibility behind it but you'll be able to pull all the way up on it negative surface so most of it'll be asphalt except for the sidewalks so it'll all be up to code and then yeah I think that's about it and we're hoping to have this done by April we're also improving the road to come in because right now it's a one-way Road or our own room for one vehicle at a time that'll be expanded to two ways and then the the school will utilize the parking during school hours and the public will utilize it after hours so it'll actually give a lot more access to the walking trails and the baseball fields and the park amenities it should make sense yeah here's a nicer they wish they would have had it last week I'm sure but uh it'll help to get up the stairs they'll have lights and yeah the handrail going up the stairs for those who Park in the high school I like to think Jen she really uh helped us through this process and kind of led the charge and made sure all our eyes were crossing dotted and our T's were crossed and kept moving along so any questions comments would anybody like to make the motion to approve the project authorization for the CHS City parking lots thank you Adam enjoy your seconds second Andrew seconds all right roll call please yes perfect congratulations thank you that's a that's a big win for everyone that's great all right next one is the approval of our contract with FGM as Architects for the high school project and again I will tell you that we sent out those contracts a little later than we would have liked however Mr hemken and Mr Myers has read that um contract every word and forced me to understand every word which is a good experience for me I will tell you but uh Administration recommends that we approve the FGM contract as Architects for the CHS project perfect and I'll add to this one this this was a horrible tedious project project that uh it was like pulling teeth and it was like going to the dentist every day so it was just no no offensive dentists out there but uh I would like to thank Adam for he he really dug into it and and Jennifer putting up with us we're not an easy crowd so we were very particular on what was in the contract what the language was what we'd agree to what we wouldn't agree to deal breakers that sort of thing and I will never schedule a final meeting at two o'clock on a Friday yeah we were uh we're here to wait till seven something on Friday 7 30 on Friday yeah so we thought the Friday would get everybody moving it didn't so uh it was a yeah I was saying we still didn't get finished there we had to finish up later so anyway I think what's in front of you is a is a good uh agreement for all involved and fair agreement I think the the district is well represented and well protected at the same time anything else you wanted uh yeah the only other thing I would add to it is yeah so for those who aren't really familiar so fdm will be working as the architect and and basically take care of all the engineering work with the engineers as well as the architect as well as have Jen that's here uh will basically be the representative from FGM to work with us throughout the duration of this three-ish-year project um so yeah and when Greg says it was a horrible experience negotiating contracts and going through the contract details I believe that's what he's referencing because that's never fun for most people some of us are kind of Twisted and like this stuff but um yeah but anyway yeah I just wanted to Echo again uh yeah fgm's been a great partner today we work with them on a regular basis for normal school projects but we're signing into this special contract or agreement for the high school project since it is a different scope than just normal normal business and Campus Management so again Greg and I I know we've spent many hours going through every word tedious lease I think we're in the days um you know and then you know working with them so we've had quite a few meetings with the Architects we've had quite a few meetings with Mr Grody going through all of the data so again yeah that's pretty pleased with where we ended up so anything you want to add no I've just appreciated all of your time so far it's been nice to work so closely with the school board from the very beginning so it's been a nice welcome and so I appreciate all their their comments and content I felt like we have a nice relationship working together so far and that we can accomplish a lot as I was not at this Friday meeting that keeps getting up thank goodness I actually had other I was conflict of schedule but anyways it's been a great experience so far so we're looking forward to the next steps Perfect all right any other questions concerns yeah thanks for all your time it was well worth it I think so would that maybe like to make an emotion to approve the contract with FGM as architect for this CHS project as well I'll make some motion to our second oh second at least a seconds can I roll call please yes this is Schumacher yes yes Tyson sir Noreen Friedrich yes yes Kelly Moyer congratulations all right well now we have an architect and Engineers so we're in design so uh we're well on our way now we got to build this thing so we need a construction manager which is brings us to putker polker whatever the family doesn't even know how to pronounce it so they pronounce it differently so I'm going to pronounce it both ways just cover on my bases again this was another process that was was very tedious and we have to make sure that the contracts with petker and FGM and Cobalt are owners wrap all aligned and and uh then the contracts with the subs correct yes yeah so this this is a multi-multi documents that all kind of went together so we basically were meeting with FGM and we met with pecker separately and then Cobalt separately and then we brought everybody together kind of hammered all individual contracts and then how we're going to handle the subs and their Contracting and that sort of thing so we got everything pretty well worked out actually we did have worked out and uh we're all in agreement and again Adam was a lot more involved with the contract language so yeah I'll elaborate and just for clarification so whenever we you know when you're looking through this list you're like okay we got multiple how many contracts do we need to get started right um so this construction manager there were different Avenues we could have taken as far as our methodology for how we wanted to go out for bid um as far and manage the project throughout in addition you know there's the architect and then you have to have the on-site and we could have went with a general contractor we could have went with a construction manager at risk which means once we put out for bid for the individual components of of the the build if you will then you can have an at-risk which you then sign it over and then they're responsible for that contractor and the res and the results or you could have a construction manager as an advisor where they're not actually responsible and then the responsibility still is resides with the board or the district we chose to go with the construction manager at risk instead of the general contractor or the advisor I just thought it was in our best interest to be better for managing the project throughout holding accountability and then also weighing you know what the different costs cost would be going at risk and versus a general contractor or something like that so anyway after reviewing all the different pros and cons of the models we did decide to go with the construction manager at risk so once as we progress you'll see we'll keep coming back to the board we'll go out with rfqs if you will for the different phases of construction and the different tasks or projects within it and then once those are awarded we will immediately assign those over to the construction manager at risk and this would be peckers who we chose there were multiple uh construction management companies or that were interested they're the ones that you know made the final after going through and reviewing the proposals as well as the costs so not only did they actually come and they were the ones that we would have recommended they were also the lowest responsible price which we were pleased with as well so all of these came in close to where our expectations were so again it's all it was all based on a projected forecasted budget without a lot of data but we were very close so we're pleased that it's coming in where we thought so um and then like I said pector is out of breeze so they are a Southern Illinois local company and uh we are looking forward to working with them so that's there was there was a lot of negotiation on all of these contracts not just monetary negotiation the wording that's why we spent five and a half hours and I think that was our third meeting just to get it to the 95 I'll say and then we still had some clarifications to figure out so anyway I will digress from there but think in the comments questions would it be like to make a motion to approve a contract with pettiker as construction manager at risk for the CHS project I'll make that one as well I don't think Adam one second Kelly seconds roll call please Lisa Schumacher yes Tyson search yes Maureen Friedrich I guess Andrea Corey yes Kelly Moyer Greg Meyer yes unanimous all right next item we have is approval for the SLU Mandarin trip June 26th through July 3rd 2024.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
the board is as approved some debt to be issued and we issued that in the spring for school bus replacement and so to help with some of that school robust replacement cost we're going to actually pay those out of that service moving forward it's not the entire amount but it's a good start and that was money that then was available it's not really new Revenue but it's an expense we did not have to make out of the operations fund um it's a good time to have a little bit of a cash balance we do maintain about an eight percent cash balance and when when the interest rates are going up it's a good time to do that so we've increased our interest projections for next year um still feel like and hope this is a little conservative but it's reflective of what we've really received in the last three months um here at the school corporation and so um the amount and then we projected it out over a 12-month period finally there's something that exists in our state called a maximum Levy growth quotient and this is a rule from the state that says you may not collect more than this number from your local taxpayers and um this was going to be a year for Center Grove schools where we could actually collect more than that rule applied and the reason was that we were growing faster than the state that rule got changed during the last legislative session and they said nope everybody in the state is going to have a cap even School corporations that are growing at a faster rate and so we really were projecting closer to 1.2 million in this area and you'll see it came out at five point five or five mil 500 000.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so in grade 8 on the ngss we saw a decline in scores with 65.9 percent of the students meeting or exceeding uh level three or four which dropped CPS Cheshire public schools to uh 12th in the durg from 9th in 2021 and 22. and then last but not least the Statewide sat testing um percentage of students meeting or exceeding levels three or four fell in both Ela and math over 2021 and 22 and CPS ranked uh in our ranking dropped from 13th to 16th and overall we were 30th out of 118 schools in ela and 30th out of 120 in math so um obviously a lot to be pleased with and some areas that are needing um some attention and I am going to hand it back to um Marlene to kind of walk you through any other um information you might want on this so probably would you want to add on because I have a question I can wait I think you should ask your question because Faith did an excellent job yeah fade an outstanding job and I I know uh it was a great meeting I forged I couldn't be there last week but thank you again and Faith for working through this Marlene for printers together just to point out a couple things just to I know we're we're climbing back to pre-covet levels with s.a.t which is a good Trend but to put in perspective the the top scoring District on Ela the average score is 586 Cheshire was 544 on math it was 586 and chesh was 538 so we're not very far behind in terms of a huge gap in achievement uh I'm sure we're going to close that Gap and I know it's not all about test scores but I think for folks that were following hopefully more folks are following the Quicken committee meetings over the last year or so but last year there were quite a few meetings where Marlene or a team talked about strategies for uh learning awareness in the classrooms and we have some new materials for the middle school so I I think this year if the progress continues we'll see some some better scores next year but I do want to thank uh District staff for all the work to I'm going to bounce forward by trying to get back on the positive directory so that was my only comment thank you Samantha thanks Faith um so I appreciate the native language report because obviously it's showing us that the town is becoming more diverse so that would be my first question is how what are we doing to meet the needs of these Learners my second would be if if this is for a future meeting can you or send it via email a breakdown of the high needs percentage because I'd like to see how those populations are doing with regards to this this seems just the typical broad so if that could be sent to us and I really would appreciate maybe we have to reevaluate our bounce forward um plan because it looks like our increases based on what Tony's saying the growth is not as substantial as it should be so fit oh I think that's my request is maybe we look at it again and see because I I just feel like our pre-pandemic numbers were in the 80s and it's just slowly moving we're only moving like two percentage points since 1819.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
um so I don't know how much that's going to or it has to be planned in disbursed by 2030. um so over a seven year period I don't know how much that's going to um really make a huge difference but hopefully it does um and there were some discussion regarding apparently um there's a program in Dallas County Texas for um rehousing that has met with a lot of success since it was implemented in 2021.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Miss Rhodes has been selected for this distinction by Passaic County for her dedication to the teaching profession the Clifton Board of Education and superintendent of schools commends her for her dedication to education and strong commitment to the children of Clifton Miss Rhodes has been a fifth grade teacher at school 11 for the past seven years she models leadership in and out of the classroom by serving on several curriculum development development committees and mentoring new teachers Amanda is also the coach of the school's pbsis where she works to support student and teacher success by creating positive and safe learning environments she believes in the importance of creating a classroom Community where her students are celebrated loved and respected and say it any better than that she knows that students who enjoy learning are successful and she works to challenge her students daily with experiences that are meaningful engaging and fun congratulations Amanda Rhodes roll call please Mr abidrabo 100 yes Ms basford yes Mr Brunswick yes Mr Mejia yes Mr Paris yes Mrs Santiago heck yes vice president Danny yes president Smith yes motion carries congratulations and if you'd like to uh come up to the podium you're more than welcome to do so [Applause] good evening and thank you for inviting my family and I here tonight to celebrate my accomplishment of being named Passaic County teacher of the year um this is definitely the highest achievement of my career and I'm just so excited to share it with our Clifton community being named the Paseo County teacher of the year has already provided me with so many amazing opportunities the biggest is getting to know and learn from so many amazing teacher Educators and leaders throughout the state my cohort of County teachers of the year has adopted the slogan our year of yes and we want to take advantage of the many ways that we can help grow and improve education in New Jersey now while I'm preparing as this role because it's a little tough for me um I've become very reflective of my career and who I am and when I think of our slogan our year of yes I have to say I'm so fortunate to have been a Clifton public school teacher for seven years and experienced seven years of yes here Clifton has provided me with so many opportunities to develop my skills and to help others develop and grow I'm very thankful for the support of administration that we have our central office administrators our supervisors and coaches the principals have had the pleasure to work for I've just always felt supported and I felt cared for so I want to thank you for that they've always said yes to me and they will continue hopefully to say yes to me in the future my colleagues at school 11 are the best around they're always providing the best education for our students their willingness to help one another and collaborate has just made working at school 11 such an amazing experience for me shout out to my school 11 friend I truly appreciate being chosen by them as the governor's teacher of the year because they see me every day they see me walking the hallways they see me attending meetings they see me I'm seeing our school-wide assemblies every month and I just appreciate that they see me in the hard work and they can appreciate that my students past and present have given their best efforts and they are make my days just so full of love and learning and there's nothing I'd rather do in my life we know fifth graders aren't always the easiest to convince to say yes and to cooperate but they've done such a great job and I'm so appreciative of them I have been a member of curriculum committees like you said where I've helped to um develop lessons and plans for instruction from my colleagues which has helped me to strengthen my engaging lessons for my students I always say yes to joining committees and I'm so thankful for that our district pbsis initiative has provided me with so many opportunities to impact the culture of our school and our town working within our district and with our coaches and our team at school 11 has been such a fulfilling role for me I love celebrating our students and staff and seeing their positive actions make a amazing School identity that reflects our pillars of responsibility attentiveness respect and enthusiasm working with other coaches that we have some here today um has helped me develop friendships and has shown me the dedication of all of our Clifton employees we are so lucky to have so many amazing Educators here in Clifton having the opportunity to Mentor new teachers another is another amazing part of my job I get to help new teachers understand who they are and watch them grow and develop their strengths as they become amazing teachers as well providing the support for our new teachers is vital especially now because it is going to help continue to strengthen our education in Clifton that's a job I will always say yes to and now I'm going to try not to cry but I will be remiss if I did not mention my family as they are the ones that have supported me and said yes throughout my entire life and these years as well from attending a school events with me to sharing the new trends on Tick Tock that make me look cool in front of my fifth graders to helping me set up my classroom every summer and to just always offer encouragement support and advice that is so needed every day as a school teacher I'm so appreciative of you all and I thank you for stay for always saying yes to me so tonight I want to stand here and I want to thank our Clifton Board of Education and all of the amazing educational leaders that we have here in Clifton for all of the many ways you've said yes for me in Clifton and now as I represent you in Clifton and Paseo County and New Jersey I look forward to representing you in Clifton again and saying yes to so many opportunities in the future [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Amanda on behalf of the entire Board of Education we he's on behalf of the entire Board of Education we want to honor you with a small token of our appreciation this plaque and I'd like to read it for everyone it says in recognition of Excellence presented to Amanda Rhodes 2023-24 Paseo County teacher of the year your unwavering dedication to education boundless passion for nurturing young minds and Relentless pursuit of Excellence have illuminated the path to a brighter future for countless students in our community the Clifton Board of Education is proud to honor you for your outstanding contributions to our schools and the profound impact you have had on the lives of our students presented on this day September 21st 2023 by the Clifton Board of Education please [Applause] thank you we got everybody come on Mr Rhodes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] mark that's right we have um okay sometimes more three two one more one more for Miss Rhodes phone got it [Applause] um thank you there you go Paris still can't see you it's Junior's on the spot right here for you and I um three two one for good measure one more ready boom [Applause] can I just get a picture of you in the Platinum in the back oh yeah no we're good yes while I know um school 11 teachers are really want to stay for the rest of this board meeting we won't hold you back if you would like to leave at this time so we know you have much to do at home and you're more than welcome to stay but if you want to get out this is a good opportunity thank you yes thank you right it was yourself I'm not creative at all right yeah not in a dishwasher though all right um we'll move back to um Miss ragosa um number eight on our agenda um if you'd like to come up please with your presentation well that's a very tough act to follow I mean who doesn't love Miss Amanda Rhodes teacher of the year Paseo County teacher of the year and um I know she left what my goal is to always say yes to her I aspire to say yes to her whatever she needs and asks because she is that wonderful of a human being and educator Ford thank you so much for allowing us to present once again and to start off the school year with pbsis it is our goal tonight to Showcase School 15.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
what was your favorite memory of homecoming when you were a student here favorite memories uh hanging out with all my soccer friends and obviously winning our soccer game during the week of homecoming but then there was a older girl who was a homecoming queen who I really wanted to go to homecoming with but didn't get The Bravery to ask her to homecoming I wonder whatever happened to her [Music] all right Wildcats I'm here with Viviana Valeria Vargas from the class of 2010 2018. second 2018 along that we've had today what were your favorite memories of homecoming when you were students here I got to participate in putter puff and it was under Under The Lights did you win yes we did congratulations seniors almost always win and Val for me it was sharing my last two homecomings with both of my sisters my younger sister and my older sister oh making homecoming a family affair what a great memory [Music] all right Wildcats I'm here with Eric quatley from the class of 2014 2014 not too long ago coming up on 10 years though time goes fast idea in class back then your senior year I think what was your favorite memory of homecoming as a student here the refreshments chocolate chip cookies for sure I would eat those the dance Refreshments if you get parts next Friday night at the dance head on to the field house we'll have plenty of refreshments Wildcats I'm here with Dorian Carrasco Dorian Carrasco from the class of 2010 2010.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
yeah we have Miss Arnold in the audience to answer any questions when did you say the last trip to Spain was I wasn't able to go um I was expecting my daughter um been and they are with SLU wanting to go again um it is administration's recommendation that we would send them on their merry way it's a great opportunity for the kids we do the German trip and so a Spain trip as well would be very nice questions concerns comments except for current seniors consider graduated in 24.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
from what I'm seeing here then with the fewer students about 960 000 Less in revenue and from the mlgq growth about another 650 000 less than Revenue yeah so 1.4 I got 1.6 but I'm not going to fight it down well you've got a lot of you've got a lot of things that aren't on here too yeah that's correct that's and you know we found those things out some of this we knew about in July we knew it was coming um but the new student account we found out about three weeks ago and we changed some of our expenditures to match this and you'll see that as we move forward into a balanced budget but it reduced the number of teachers we were going to hire this year but really in the operations fund that was a that was a tough hit because that's a fund that has been underperforming in revenue for years and we were really looking forward to getting that advantage of catching it up it's not it's not thanks so and this is the positive slide I was just saying not not good news but no it's good it's still good but if you it's just keep that 6.38 in your mind and let's go to the next slide and this is Major swings and revenue that went down obviously some of those went down because we projected them to be higher but these are actual numbers that went down um property tax caps can can continue to be a growing and more significant issue for our Corporation they have now tripled in the last two years and I'm going to show you a chart here in a moment that kind of shows that growth but it is becoming a a hard to manage necessary reality and the reason the Caps come up is that we have a lot of other and taxing entities that also need growth their equipment their staff are all costing more they need to ask our taxpayers for more our costs are going up um our towns and our cities are grabbing assessed value in the form of Tif districts and they are setting that aside so that they can grow and develop the communities but all of that comes at a loss from somewhere and and for us that that amount for 2024 is really estimated to be closer to 2.4 million is an increase um we're going to set aside 1.8 million and we're going to do some other things that aren't aren't listed on this slide to kind of come up if that estimate comes in we will we will manage it um to be honest to grow our budget and our losses in this area 1.8 million was already a pretty heavy lift and to imagine us going up to 2.4 in this current budget would have meant we would have to significantly look at reducing our budget amounts and so we felt this was a a reasonable number to grow it we can always hope that it won't hit that estimate but last August we thought it would be 800 000 and you can see it tripled since last August so that's what we're going to talk about again here on some other slides because that's that's the biggest hit to the revenue the other one is that we're really happy that our general assembly stepped up made a rule Indiana was one of Six States to charge parents for textbook textbooks and curricular materials and and education should be free and fair in our in our country and I believe this is a great step forward I think we all agree with that however the method in which the state allocated funds available for textbooks really underfunded our need so we anticipate we'll roughly receive about 150 dollars per student for textbook rental but unfortunately the average cost at Center Grove schools is closer to 300 dollars per student and so that was a pretty big underfunded mandate coming down from from the general assembly we're glad to have some funding we will receive that money um but it really forced us to set aside 850 000 so that we don't have to change the exceptional programs we're offering we don't have to ask our teachers to do without or to cut they can continue to teach with high quality curricular materials that they've worked hard to adopt and use in their in their everyday in their classrooms and so we feel like this is a good number we hope it can reduce over the years as we find new ways to adopt or not adopt or extend contracts Dr Hoover and her team are already looking at this for next year um that hopefully is a number that will reduce as we move forward but we had to put something aside to make sure we can continue to provide the the great exceptional educational experience every day anything you want to add there well on it um next bullet point anytime the tax gaps change or the portion of tax revenue changes the excise tax and local income tax also change and so if we get a loss up above in that first tax cap line it's going to impact those other taxes um and so that that was about 200 000 that was lost in our operations fund and then finally not really a big loss in Revenue but um Central nine is experiencing the same issues we are they had to ask for some more money they see their cost going up um this is about an 11 increase in our in our cost for Central nine still think it's a great program money well spent we're already working with them on their budget for 25 to try to get ahead of make sure we don't see something like this again to make sure we're being good team players but we needed to show that in there and so when we had all those big swings up and the positive and the negative we went up 6.3 but we went right back down about 3 million any questions I know I covered a lot of topics there in those slides scene none we'll move to the next one which is a slide we have done in the past and it's just other major changes in the budget we did not hire or change any new administrative positions we did add nine classroom teachers to still meet the need a lot of those are specialized teachers and not as many home run teachers again because enrollment didn't grow as much didn't have to add as many homeroom teachers as we did in special areas um three support staff classroom assistants and then two bus drivers again to help the managing growth and and keep our routes at a reasonable time length we are pleased our health plan is really performing very well we are close that even with a minor increase that we're recommending in this budget we will be able to to hit our Revenue goal for for cash balance in that account to make sure it can stay self-funded we are self-funded insurance and this will allow us to continue performing at the highest levels and it's a it's a very minor and moderate increase for most employees this is going to be a dollar a pay um and so we're pleased to be able to hold that really as low as possible and the corporation contributes quite a bit to that that account as well the next two though are growing as we all know your utility bills and your gasoline costs are going up at home and they are going up for the corporation and you'll see we did a 13 increase in our utility accounts um this the for this year and our gasoline actually it needed to go about 200 000 which is about a third of what where it was in Prior years and we think those are the reasonable we watch projections in those markets obviously if they go down that's great it's just more cash available but we had to be realistic and these are these are actuals that we spent in 22 projected out to 24.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
Sam I just want to respond to your first question about meeting the needs of multilingual Learners and I really thank you for asking that question every one of you in the packet has a listing of all of the Native languages of our students by school and how many students are in each school that comes to that total of 477 so you can see there's such a variety of languages and one of the things that we have worked towards and that we continue to work towards is making sure that our teachers have the skills that they need to teach the unique needs of multilingual Learners it's really quite impressive when you think about the fact that we have 477 students in our school whose primary language is not English they but another language and they are learning English as a second sometimes third even fourth language it's it's just incredible and I had shared this information in sort of as a backdrop for us pursuing a seal of by Literacy for our students who have mastered more than one language and especially certainly be appropriate for some of our very high achieving students who have English as their native language but very impressive for students who have come here and learned that language on their own so one of the things that we do in order to make sure teachers have the support that they need is to partner with a coach at Aces Aces is the regional what our Regional Education Center and we have a wonderful coach who came last week and she spent or was it this week I'm not sure one or the other and spent a full day with our high school teachers because as you can see at our high school we have um 124 students who who speak more than one language and in the coming weeks we have this scheduled for our teachers at Dodd and our teachers at the elementary school and that consultant is also going to provide in classroom coaching in addition to that we have our literacy our learning support tutors at the elementary school who support students in learning another language at the middle school our reading teacher as well as her para educator work to do the same thing and then at the high school we have a lovely woman her name is Amy Russell who supports those students as well so we have multi-tiers of support at each level through elementary middle and high school to your other question um Sam oh go ahead well we're still on that topic um can you remind me that um bilingual seal is brand new and it's Statewide yes it's not exactly brand new but it is gaining more momentum in the state and the state is looking towards having schools report on the number of students who would acquire this seal I I think it's way overdue and I'm really glad that it's coming coming to the Forefront thank you sure the next question was about high need students and you're right that wasn't in our packet but it's something that we've been looking at since the data came out in August both internally and externally and what we've seen and I don't have the numbers at my fingertips to give to you tonight Sam but um in Cheshire we've got some of the um some of the some of the top scores for our high needs students and really commended um Robin Carrie and the whole entire special ed department and as well as our general Ed teachers for some of the um the gains we've made if you remember Norton and a few years ago Chapman had really closed the gap or began closing the gap for those High needs population and became schools of Distinction for that reason but that is absolutely something we'd be happy to share at a future meeting I just want to clarify Heidi is not special education no high needs is free and reduced lunch it's also students receiving special education services and our multilingual learners feminine thanks Tony I I am no fan of standardized tests uh nonetheless I we we live and die by it I guess to a certain extent it's part of how we review the church Public Schools so I'm just going to Second Sam's concern just about understanding that a bit better with regard to the native language just to be clear on this it says the primary language is that are we saying the first language the kid the child grew up with was not English or the family and household grew up in it's the student him or herself yes so I guess the best way to answer that is when a new family comes to town and registers their child they indicate what their primary language spoken at home is and if it is not English it is listed on on this paper that I gave you as what they wrote down as their primary language in their home okay I get it okay thank you thank you um just so I can apply some rudimentary context as not an educator when we came out of covid you use the term called acceleration um and and and I and I see the uh the fifth grade science scores and I like you know just do a little bit of math and how old were they when covet happened I think that would be like kindergarten or first grade I guess right would that be somewhere around there um and so is acceleration still happening and if it is at what grade does it stop I love that question so um acceleration is still happening as a matter of fact the district has embraced it to such an extent that our definition of high quality instruction is really really had its Genesis in the definition of acceleration acceleration always carried this or are you going too fast are you talking about moving beyond um the current grade level and so we sort of took that definition and made it our our definition of high quality instruction with some tweaks so as to get rid of that um confusion so it's happening at all grade levels and throughout and the reason I'm confident in saying that is because when the teachers and our teacher leaders came together and we were talking about the concept of acceleration everyone agreed that this is the right thing to do not just post covid or during covid because this is good teaching so the answer to that is yes we are meeting all of our students where they are but making sure they have access to grade level instruction so that would be true for a child you know with special needs it's true for a child who's been severely impacted by covid and and anywhere in between or above that so to push back on that a little bit in 1819 it looks like man we are right there we were really succeeding then we hit covid and then we use acceleration and now the recovery does not seem to be as quick so is that an is that a commentary on the Damage Done during that let's say year and a half that it was so substantial that the recovery to sort of uh come back to that 1819 level of uh proficiency is not possible anymore or how how should we turn interpret that that sort of drop off you know and then recovery I think what we do when we get these scores in and into Tim's point the reason why we sort of always look at these scores it's because it's the only Apples to Apples comparison we have to to as a as a ruler to measure ourselves against and if you look at other districts we are not unlike other districts that people are still striving to get back to pre-covered levels we happen to have a really great year pre-coven and we could feel things gelling and knew we were headed in the right direction and we're I'm confident that we will get back there we're not back there yet if I could just jump in with a couple of quick points when you look at growth in terms of our percentage of of students who achieved the growth Target or met the growth Target um from 22 to 23 Ela and math combined we had the highest growth in durgby um let's see we were 16th in the state of Connecticut in 2016 our achievement for Math and Ela and three through eight was 35th in Connecticut um you're correct in that we were fifth of the the K-12 districts in 2018-19 before the pandemic um we've we're now nine or eighth um so you know the school districts that are out performing us our New Canaan Dairy and Western Westport Madison Wilton and Ridgefield and not by great measure um and so you know I don't hear that people are saying oh my God the world is ending of course we want to be top five again but it's not we're not 35th either um we're achieving an incredibly high level outperforming almost every other school system in our derg and many who spend dramatically more money than we do in that process so you know I I don't want to sound defensive but I want to create perspective here that um we're far from the sky is falling to Faith's point though when you look around and we you know we evaluate a million different data points there are certainly places where we want to continue to improve um and we're more than happy to continue to elaborate on that but I just wanted to remind people that perspective that I shared at the opening of schools meeting I yeah I I wouldn't take it uh personally but I know it's difficult not to be good but I think uh from again I I think for all of us this is this is what happens when you set the bar high right yeah our students are achieving something happens we want to get back to make sure that they're getting all the support and growth they need and that's where we're coming from so I appreciate Adam raising the uh yeah absolute Damage Done kind of mentality um so we'll work through this a couple notes so last school year uh the curriculum committee we had several meetings on Deep dive on English language Learners and supports for our staff um uh sat the new curriculum uh at that et cetera we're going to probably revisit those again probably I I would think in the springtime once you have some traction so stay tuned um I just want to ask that when the curriculum committee agenda is mailed out that all board members get it because there's a lot of good information there I'll try to pull up the videos from last year related to tonight's topics because uh it'd be nice to have that Baseline as we look at in the future how things are progressing um and one last thing so I I think I asked this last year in one according to community meetings and my one of my assumptions is I have to wonder if the SAT scores not being as high as they used does that little reflection of the fact that arguably colleges now are not really requiring SAT scores um our our students feeling less pressured to take it and I don't I don't say they're going in not seriously but I don't know if that plays a role when they take the test knowing that that's not the only Factor anymore for admissions yeah that could be a fair that's a fair question to ask what degree do kids uh place an emphasis on the SAT before they take it and um if if it's diminished at all I would be surprised if it was a Cheshire only problem right like so I I think that when we look at everybody our peers that we compare ourselves to I would think that if the if it is a diminished uh intensity when it comes to the SAT everybody has that so we still want to improve uh significantly where we are in that respect not just curious I'm not hearing that fair questions Point yes one other point um Marlene and I had talked about this and and my question was is this a especially with first of all I don't know that the I don't believe the SAT reflects the caliber of our kids of our students at all I um case in point two cases in point tonight um I but there's there's just something not matching up and and I um so is it a question of the their interpretation the reading of the questions uh the problems that are presented is it applying formulas what is it and and as Marlene said they they're analyzing the data and all I would ask and um I don't we don't need voluminous reports but just every now and again as you analyze um the results and and break down the data just give us um maybe at the six month Mark in an update on what you're finding um so um because it'd be it would be interesting to hear what's happening I mean is it just a disinterest on the part of the kids and whatever this is going to be you know they don't need this anyway or do we have some problems that we need to look at curriculum with or something like that um just so we're staying on top of it that would be my request great thank you up next is our finance report Mr grippo or Mr maciano yes I would be happy to good evening board members and all the board members do have the finance report in the in the package and tonight's report should be quick it's only the second month of the year our budget approved for 23 24 is 84 million 993 429 as board members you've all been here for more than one cycle so by August we haven't entered all our encumbrances for payroll or Transportation yet so we only have 24 of our budget expended or encumbered there are no um concerns or issues to report at all for this fiscal year yet and we hope that continues through the year I did want to know two things and it's in the report very quickly one is that we just learned this week through the governor's office that the Connecticut minimum wage will increase from 15 per hour to 15.69 cents per hour effective January one that's the midpoint of the year we did a quick review we don't have many employees that'll blow the um 15.69 minimum we have some that are between 15 and 1569 it's about 40 employees so we'll adjust their salaries on January 1.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
um it was more of a um uh one of the members mentioned it actually no I'm sorry it was one of the council members that attended that mentioned this particular program um so there wasn't a huge amount of detail but it was definitely interesting um if anybody's interested I can get them a link to that some information on that but it was a it was regarded a rehousing initiative in Dallas that apparently has made some significant um reductions in the the homeless population so um it was pretty it was it was worth listening to um I mean also I believe will be at the green fair so um if you see anybody there uh say hi let them know you're the runner's Commission because of my big plan to read Fair as well and that's it for me thank you Jeff I appreciate that you have said the meeting rosanita um I don't know if you said when the meeting was um because I don't know if the announcement had come out yet or not but that they talk at all about the changes in the fair market um rate for from HUD that starts in October the fair market rental rates for the area um I don't have that on my notes I don't recall them talking about that okay yeah because that um yeah it's going up in a was I think October 1st um and also did they talk about the eviction money at all and where we stand with that because there had been money allocated to help people with evictions but I know that's been such a huge problem that I don't know if we have we run out yet um that also I don't recall I'm trying to read my notes here from last week um that was um it was mostly planning on on this this rescue plan and like I said the um the um nothing excuse me the um why am I blanking all of a sudden um parking day sorry um so um but I can ask them um it might have been a mention in one of the slideshows they had I can try to get a copy of that too and uh just review that as well um and double check and see if I was mentioned here or not I don't recall it don't okay but I'd be happy to look into it I did find online from high that they should go and the new fair market rent prices were going to affect October 1st so I think you're correct there is a new Zone thank you any other questions or comments or reports from commissioners uh so I have a report here um I I did mention some of the stuff from that Co the rent Institute an high rally which was in Lansing it seems like there's probably going to be a tenant's Bill of Rights law you know law package that's going to be proposed sometime in in Lansing I don't know what likelihood is that it will be passed or what components of it would be passed but it's probably going to contain the repeal of the rent control preemption along with a lot of other things so I think I would just encourage everyone to keep their eyes out for that I'm sure there will be news about it and it sounds like um uh sounds like our Representatives will be involved in the process from Ann Arbor um beyond that I was able to meet with an attorney who was involved in the process of constructing the right to council program for the city of Detroit I asked a lot of questions and I took some notes and I'd be happy to share those notes with anybody or just you know talk to you about what I learned but I'm hoping that we could use that if we decide to go forward with the right to council project um you know in collaboration with with whatever other groups but um I do have those notes and I'd be happy to share them on top of that you know we do have some Communications here there are pertinent to this but I've we had a meeting about Courthouse Square the complex downtown and the problems there and we agreed that we we really needed to make sure that they had an attorney um involved and we want to check in with that person um just to make sure that everything was going okay and that there's nothing that the city could do to to help even more and so we we found which attorney from legal services of South Central Michigan was involved and I have we agreed that we were gonna that I was going to try to contact him and I have tried in many ways and many times but I have not gotten through um and I was just hoping that things had maybe gotten better at the complex I'm not positive if that if that is the case or not based on the communications we received um seems quite confusing what's going on there but I just wanted to give that update since we agreed that out that was kind of one of my action items to check in and that I was not able to make contact with that person oh and last thing we are looking for um the uh attorney advocate or attorney a tenant Advocate position for this commission so we need somebody who's an attorney who I don't believe they have to live in the city of Ann Arbor but they're interested in tenants issues um I've tried to get someone from Legal Services at South Central Michigan involved but it turns out their bylaws actually prevent them from uh from serving on the commission so if you know anybody who's an attorney who might be interested please do reach out I can be happy to talk to them if that helps but that's all for me any other reports oh hi councilmember Harrison welcome hello y'all how are you good are you relate work ran late today sorry I'm late I'll catch up yeah well we're almost through uh tonight I think um but now might be a good moment and you just joined but if you have anything to update us with um that would be great to hear and I guess uh if you have anything about the the fee situation as well that'd be great to hear it yeah um the fee situation we are rolling along here we've had you know our meeting with attorney Riser and he's been working really hard on it and currently um council member rodina and I are in the process of meeting with basically finding a time to meet with him again to see um what our next steps are but it is moving along so yeah it's good good stuff thank you anything else gosh I just literally ran in here I'm trying to think um I bet I do have something I can't think at the moment I know um council member rodina sent I don't know if you guys discussed uh he sent a list of uh some of the things we've passed um you know the the South Town approval it's 216 new housing units um let's see what else is on here that he listed um U of M's 2050 campus plan is underway and um they are having looks like a community open house plan for October U of M plans for their physical I'm just reading what he sent um their physical campus obviously um impact will impact our work and at times May conflict with it so um he's mentions I encourage everyone to check out the website and consider attending an open house he sent a link so I maybe you can forward that along um and uh 630 plus bed student focused apartment complex approved for South Forest right um you can't remember if it's been shared or not so uh I just I can't think of anything at the moment but I bet I bet I I bet if I have any updates send an email it's been a long two days but uh um I will share this really quick there was yesterday there was the um 2023 um Washington opioid Summit um at Washington I participated in the um the panel I was a panelist on the stigma you know trying to get rid of stigma uh breakout session um it does intersect with housing obviously um folks that are housing insecure um and suffer from a substance use disease we know that um being housing insecure makes their situation worse so it was good to see um the community uh different Partnerships organizations be there supporting the recovery uh Community it is recovery month um home new home of New Vision was present our supportive connections Washington County Sheriff's Office U of M just trying to think those are the those are the ones at the top of mind that all had tables and material and things um it was nice they had a lunch um keynote speakers I couldn't make it to the very beginning but the MD HHS was there presenting on the um opioid settlements that different you know municipalities have been receiving and I think they had some discussion on who received more and who received less and what the reason was behind it but anyway substance use disease does intersect with housing um and security so I thought I'd mention it but that's the at the top of mine right now so thank you very much yeah I realized I put you on the spot there so that's okay no I should be prepared to share it's just there's so much happening right now but uh yeah um and I I spent some time in the jail today too so um that's some more work I'm doing um but you know that's obviously housing is secure you know we know that folks that are impacted by the criminal legal system um you never you know more difficult time finding housing and we also know that um when they're housing is secure you know what that can what that can look like for the individual so um that that's the work that's my work that I do um so that's where I was today but um anywhere yeah and I'm gonna follow up with rosanita on what I missed so sounds good thank you very much uh for all the updates any questions uh comments [Music] okay wonderful um any other reports from other commissioners okay um oh Jeff sorry uh one other thing I kind of wanted to add up councilmember radina has been in contact with me um just from a renter's point of view um the um specifically on Stone school near where I happen to live um we had talked about looking to put in um pedestrian flashers uh because um as you as you come over the expressway from the direction um it yeah people go pretty fast over that hill and it's it's a kind of blind Hill so um we've been doing some discussion about um um getting the tenants in the area to um petition the state Council to put in one of the um the push button flashers very nice thanks Jeff and and Gail do you have anything to share from Student Legal Services uh any specific problems that you've been hearing a lot about um we have a couple buildings that aren't quite ready uh we had a bunch of students impacted by the the I guess the second phase of Beekman on Broadway and so um that's been a little bit of a problem there was another building no that was a single building so no I mean just the usual move-in problems you know places aren't quite ready not clean um but nothing out of the ordinary I'm sort of waiting and eager to see what's happening with the right to renew stuff and what landlords are doing I think it's a teeny bit too early to see that but I imagine it's going to be happening soon so I'm curious to see um and be curious to hear what the rest of you hear on on how that all is playing out with what landlords are doing with I mean with students and and tenants in general I mean last year the issue was you know questioning whether or not um the the law was in effect but we don't really have that issue now so you know now to be a question of what what workarounds they may creative workarounds they find or whether they'll do what we intended and hope that they do so we'll see Thanksgiving okay I think that we can move on then to um did I get this psychody here I'm looking for oh no okay communication is afterwards yeah we can move on to item number nine which is the second general public comment period um Christian whenever you're ready this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the renters commission for up to three minutes about any topic you can call 877-853-5247-488-788-0099 and enter the meeting ID 935-8080-1941 or if you are um joining with the zoom link you can go to a2gov.org renters commission meeting and you can if you're calling you can press star 9 to raise your hand or use the raise hand feature if you are attending there's a meeting with the link we'll give it just a minute to see if anyone is joining and there are no attendees all right thank you Kristen now we can move on to item 10 which is Communications if I'm not mistaken we have five Communications on the agenda tonight let me pull them up here so we have a few Communications from residents of um Courthouse Square sounds like they're still dealing with issues and we did hear back also from or cc'd on an email from the property manager I believe as well so we were kind of in the middle of his back and forth um I think actually all of them are from Courthouse Square residents so it's kind of a lot to display all at once but um does anybody have any comments or questions about these one from a college student and not the same resident right yes thank you I overlooked that one just now I appreciate it there was one about noise kind of like a noise complaint issue or the college student had a problem with neighbors partying right next to the to their rental unit thank you so let's first discuss the courthouse rare issue if anybody has anything to add I I know that the building has some government money besides just the um Section 8 vouchers that individuals have uh does did the city like a couple years ago when they were threatening to close the building maybe four or five years ago did the city put any money into Courthouse Square was it just all the answer to that was I I had a hard time hearing was that uh you don't have an answer to that correct I was yeah I do not have an answer to that oh God yeah it seems like we don't know oh Kristen I don't know either I know there has been some coordination with the city in the past but I think that was like quite a long time ago so um is that something the rentals commission is like interested in more thorough info on well it seems like if there was some City Connection to the building that that might be a little bit of Leverage to he'll write a letter to the owner and be like this is ongoing problems you know it's not working the way you're addressing it now yeah resonita well I mean I do want to say that the property manager um in their letter did say that the issue with the elevator part of it was a an unsubstantiated rumor and also gave what could be further clarification as to what was happening with the person who was um experiencing some of the issues and one of the problems on their part is that they do have somebody who may be living with them who's under the the 55 and older range um as well and so there it's a much bigger it's not really again um like I've said before this isn't really in our purview um as this person continues to send letters um and just from what I'm reading my was it my personal don't sue me reason because um just based on my professional past is that this person needs a different type of advocate than what we as a commission can provide and instead of coming to us given their age it is either a legal services or fair housing but also they should be in touch with like the Area Agency on Aging or OCR the office of civil rights um those are like the only two other things that I can can think of um as a as a recommendation for that individual thanks rosanita Julia um I I agree that I mean we can't really do anything for an individual tenant you know except to try to steer them in the right direction um and that's kind of why I was bringing up the issue if there had been some city funding in the building that that would be one way where I feel it could come under our purview um and even though we're only getting for the vast amount of communications we're getting is from one individual there are tons of problems with the building and the management company it is not just this individual there have been long-term problems in this building this is a management company that kind of swooped in and has taken over low-income housing management all over Southeastern Michigan they've totally taken over like cash Corridor in Detroit in all kinds of communities um and there's lots of problems when they first came in they were just like blatantly breaking the law and changing people's leases and doing rent increases so I I just want to push that this really is a problematic management company Australia there's Anita um right and so like I I said though is that it because of their age I that's why I say the local Area Agency on Aging which is AAA 1 dash B um because they have Helping Seniors with those kind of issues they're better equipped with that and then I said OCR the office of civil rights would under if they if it's a building that is a voucher building then that would be under HUD um because they are somebody not only are they receiving HUD funding and so um if they wanted to escalate that is the appropriate way to escalate that as well as OCR the offices of civil rights portion under there is because they are somebody who is over the age of 55 which puts them in a senior category um which is a protected class underneath the office of civil rights and um you know under the Ada or what was it anyway that's getting a little tuned to the weeds I guess but um I would also say that it might be a good session later for under tenant education um as what to do when there is a complaint if somebody does have a disability or is older or who falls underneath a protected class in a situation like this that's it thanks Rosa needs uh yeah I I think those are good suggestions of uh institutions that this person this tenant could reach out to and I really I wish we had a solid point of contact for the building from legal services of South Central Michigan um like I said you know I've reached out a few different ways in a few different times to try to get in touch with their attorney because I think ideally we could ask them about the situation and provide them these suggestions and hopefully they would be able to use those resources to help this tenant maybe you can reach out to the managing attorney there or somebody above that person to see I did yeah I can reach out to them again um yeah I I can do that again because I just I don't want to respond you know have one of have Christian or whomever respond to the tenant giving them advice if it might be conflicting with the advice they might be receiving from the legal services of South Central Michigan you know I know they know what they're doing so yeah no I absolutely agree with that um I will make a note and I will reach out to the attorney above this person one more time rosanita um well was it John Reiser is still here does does he have any advice Riser is still here advice regarding what um what else we can do with this particular tenant um I had said I had suggested like possibly the local Area Agency on Aging or um them contacting HUD but how much it what exactly are we allowed to say in a response to attendant complaint like that um or in I think Zechariah had mentioned he attempted to talk with the um fair housing attorney but hasn't been able to receive any response yeah and and Link is it appropriate for Legal Services it sounds like it is legal services yeah that's right because I I think we we had the meeting to discuss this particular complex and we agreed well we just want to check in with the attorney and make sure that they have the resources that they need and just kind of let let them go but I was never able to make make that point of contact I think we can respond to the person and kind of provide the same information that we provided folks in the past Legal Services I'm not sure um I don't have the email in front of me if they reference that they're working with them already I know one tenant was but I think that the tenant who with the elevator I think that I believe that's a different um Courthouse Square resident um so I don't know if this person is already working with legal services we can I can respond with the same um like list and then we can include maybe that like age-related resources um the group is interested in that Jeff yeah I was just gonna say I don't know um what Authority and or you know liability we have to to do much more than that unfortunately um um you know point the right direction um I I I could see them also um citing an attorney decline for their religion saying they can't tell you anything so you know um whatever we can give them I guess and that we can but that's it's a shame I think we're pretty Limited yeah so it sounds like it makes sense to give them the resources um rosanita maybe if if you could write out or find links to those resources the two that you mentioned and maybe email them to Kristen so she could include it in her email if you're willing to do that 'd be great okay so I think those are really good ideas and I will try again to get in contact with this attorney um and just check in okay um and to be clear that legal services in South Central Michigan I think they are just totally spread thin and I think that's why I haven't heard a response um I know they work very hard okay so we can move on to the other communication um well before we do is there anything else in questions comments about the courthouse Square emails because they were from two different residents I think so okay did a building inspector go out is the elevator working not aware of um malware we need to try to find out um several weeks so the letter response from management said that the elevator was fixed and that no one was stuck inside it there was no um record of a police report or emergency call that happened and that it appears to just be a rumor the letter also indicated there were two elevators and one was out of service is that correct okay right and someone getting stuck is is kind of a different issue but that is somewhere that I think we do we are able as a commission to forward on a complaint to the building inspectors to have them check it out all right should um so is there anyone opposed to having that forwarded on to the building inspectors um as Julia suggested Okay Christian do you mind oh John I saw you unmute no no I mean that's entirely appropriate if the elevator isn't working the you know the building department needs to know about that you know you know so right and I you know we I'm not sure if we do know if it's working at this point or not but anyway sounds like there's no objection so uh Chris and your earlier's convenience can you please do that okay now let's move on to the email from the U of M student um just a quick summary sounds like this person has been bothered a lot by parties that have been going on they seem to recognize that there's not a simple fix to the problem they're dealing with but they wanted to make sure we were aware of like this sort of noise complaint I think I would say that you could refer them to our office but I'm not sure that there's all that much that we can do you know other than recommending that they you know if the noise is significant that they contact the police to file a police report I I don't you know in these situations it's really hard for us to I mean tackling Noise Within the building is one thing but like tackling stuff outside the building you know not really the landlord's responsibility not all that much that we can do so I don't know what we as a commission can do I'm I'm not sure that it's all that um I'm not sure that it's our issue but I you know happy to hear other people's opinions on that yeah I think it would make sense to just respond saying that the commit you know the commissions received this and that you can always contact Student Legal Services or file a noise campaign with the police does anybody have an objection to that sort of response I mean we get these all the time this is a common not a common but this is these cases comprise the 15th district court docket so um you know it's a noise complaint it's a trash complaint it's a drunken disorderly it's a you know they really should contact the police when in when it's happening if if uh the subject of excessive noise or drunken Behavior outside their apartment you know the Ann Arbor police department has special patrols that deal with just this very thing I don't know that it's a landlord tenant I mean issue as much as as it is kind of general you know nuisance and uh you know living in peace um okay any comments or questions about this communication no okay well that's it for the communications so just to recap uh Kristen if you could send an email back to the tenant who's experiencing and I think we emailed about the elevator and who's going in the back and forth with the manager uh our our resources and rosanita if you can email Kristen those two extra resources that we can include specifically for this tenant I will again try to contact the attorney um from Legal Services I just did and um I know was it weird running over but I think one of the letters said that she was withholding one of them was withholding rent was that correct or had it in escrow and if so um I don't know if if um anyone followed up to make sure that she had done it via a court order in order to protect herself because otherwise she's just not paying rent yeah and is that the function of this runner's commission pursuant to their bylaws to do that kind of I mean I don't I don't know that it is beware of it you know your bylaws talk about what you're empowered to do and what your purpose is and individual advocacy and Advising them on how to do that might be beyond the scope of is it in the tenant book uh the booklet that we give out at all the escrow yeah I believe it is um it does mention it it doesn't well right I agree with John that it's it's not in this commission's purview but you don't have to do it through Court escrow it is legal to withhold your rent for repair is not being addressed right I think that if this tenant goes to the resources that we provide them they'll get a lot of sort of advice um they're able to get through so that makes sense uh so thank you for sending that on to Kristen and um I appreciate everyone's uh willingness to discuss these things I I just feel that uh if someone reaches out to you know part of the city looking for help and we don't steer them in the right direction and something bad happens that would feel really I feel like it's our and well it may not be directly in our bylaws I think it's really important that people have good experiences with the city and that they get to the resources that they need so I appreciate everyone discussing this okay so that brings us to the last point in the agenda which is adjournments um the motion to adjourn so moved all right we have a second second second invite Jeff all those in favor of adjourning say I I was supposed to name okay you're adjourned thank you everyone thank you thank you everybody
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
where amazing things are happening so School 15 it's in is in its third year of its implementation and they've been working hard very hard at making long-lasting positive connections with their students led by their fearless leader Dr Legion the Baton Walker the school 15 pbsis team has developed amazing instructional events over the past three years tonight you'll see a little bit of what that looks like and you'll also get to see the special flavor that school 15 has every one of our schools comes with a different knack for how to reach their kids creatively spiritually and enthusiastically so let's take a look at what's going on at 15. [Music] good evening Board of Education members District administration and the Clifton schools Community I am Dr Batten Walker the principal of school 15. tonight we would like to highlight our pbsis expectations and rewards and show you why we have cougar Pride here at school 15.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
we just interviewed one of your classmates what was your favorite memory of homecoming and you were a student here favorite memory would have to be the football games you know football games always got crowded people came home and you know we got to associate and just connect with you know old old and former soccer players as well getting together with friends in the squad for the football game we'll see you there next Friday night Wildcats I'm here with Miss mastriani Ms mastronic from the class of 2015 2015. you're a very involved student here from what I remember was your favorite memory of homecoming when you were a student football game Squad pep assembly football game Squad assembly thank you one more question were you on homecoming Court I was you were did you win were you the queen I don't think she's over that yet all right Wildcats I'm here with Brittany Nelson Ernie Nelson from the class of 2006.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
who welcomes anyone she's also here to answer any questions you have she'll she'll be accompanying she's helped from the start with this um yeah I'm the director of international services at St Louis University so I work with our midrand campus and so we're working in conjunction to help chfs provide an opportunity for students to have an experience in Madrid so all of the safety protocols all of the activities will be sponsored and extended to CHS from Sylvia is this an every year trip uh we since we haven't taken one since oh seven I think we'd like to get one um under our belt but we have already been talking about all the wonderful possibilities that this could bring perhaps even some type of credit for the students because both the German and the Spanish students currently earns through 1818 dual credit through St Louis University so we're just thinking maybe we could start even even more studying with that here are the questions so I saw in the packet that there's different room types there's a room that's occupancy of three there were some that were in occupancy too is there like a set boarding house or a hostel or hotel or what what's the lodging because I was like okay where's this where'd the three come in that's an unusual number for a hotel it's a typical dorm so campus so it's called El Faro and it's like a residence hall okay so you can think of a double residence hall like a traditional residence hall and some students are tripled in Residence facility so that's a triple yeah that was my question being a residence hall that makes more sense so and it would be a whole opportunity for students who are getting very ready to attend college or starting to start the process to live in a dorm in Spain and we'll we'll be on the same floor so so you need another chaperone we appreciate you being included with us I think it's a great great thing for this District any other questions would it be like to make a motion to approve this Lou Mandarin trip July 26th through I'm sorry June 26th through July 3rd 2024. I'll make the motion I'll second Lisa second all right uh roll call please Tyson surge yes Maureen Friedrich yes Adam himkin yes Henry Corey yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg my yes Lisa Schumacher yes all right our last item for Action in our regular session here is permission to sell commercial grade cafeteria equipment with gub deals I um provided you a list and I failed to bring it with me so I don't remember exactly what the equipment was I know there's a kettle I know there's some warmers I know there's a top ice chest Laura glowaki this summer went through all of the kitchens and found items that we don't use we don't plan to use like the fryer we not really allowed to fry food anymore it's just too unhealthy um anyway we have this equipment I would like to sell it gov deals is how we sold the buses um the last time and that seemed to work out really well I will take pictures we've got um the owner's manuals for every one of these items so the owner's manuals and pictures will go to gov deals they'll build the little page and then it'll be an open auction but we'd like to get rid of them let me read the items uh how how close I know there's cash registers on it yeah so there's a Frymaster electric fryer two Casio electronic cash registers industrial rack the nine shelves a chest freezer an Altair steamer a kettle and two heated banquet and transport carts and I believe the kettle is five gallons so if you need a five gallon cattle it's your chance questions comments concerns right around the corner you never know would it be like to make a motion to sell our commercial grade cafeteria equipment be a gum deals Doreen do I have your second second your seconds roll call please yes Henry Corey yes Kelly Moyer Greg Meyer yes this is a Schumacher I guess Tyson search run to our discussion items the first one is the facility study we kind of hit on that quite a bit we did I just want to stress one more time should anyone have missed it I'm thrilled that the construction um contract stage is over we can move on to the actual work so I'll second that individual board member comments anybody have anything huh all right prisons prerogative again you guys have heard me talk way too much tonight so we'll spare you that we do have an executive session this evening and and we're gonna go into executive session for the purposes of appointment employment compensation discipline performance we're dismissal of a specific employee of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint Lodge against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity pursuant to five ilcs 120-2c1 we're also going to discuss student disciplinary cases pursuant to five ilcs 120-2c9 and also possibility of placement of an individual students in a special education program or other matters relating to individual students pursuant to 5il CS 120 2c10 or meetings between internal and external Auditors and governmental audit committees Finance committees and their equivalents when the discussion involves internal control weaknesses identification of potential fraud risk areas known or suspected frauds and fraud interviews conducted in accordance with the general accepting audit standards of the United States of America 5l CS 120 2c29 and lastly possible litigation when the action against affected affecting or on behalf of a particular public body has been filed and or is pending before court or administrative tribunal or when public body finds that an action is probable or intimate in which case the basis for the findings shall be recorded and entered into the meetings minutes of the closed session closed meeting excuse me Five Mile CS 120 2C 11.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and then finally just a reminder that we had to set aside any of that new Revenue had to be set aside for that what's what is in in essence lost Revenue to the tax cap loss so let's take a look at a chart on tax cap losses and just want to show you how this has grown since it's it really came about in 2009-10 and you'll see for for Center Grove it really kind of just was pretty steady subtle growth we could manage it you know we're talking about a budget that's about 20 million and so when it was 100 000 it wasn't that bad but now it's getting up and it's projected to be 4.5 million and remember well it's a budget of 20 million we really only receive 13 million and so that 4.5 is a really big hit on the actual Revenue we collect in property taxes and um you'll see that the scariest last three bullet points are the scariest it is tripled now it's growing so fast that it's just at a straight angle and I have to keep adding more rows at the top and more more lines out to the right and so something we need to get a hold of and we need to strategize on how we're going to manage that continual growth as we move forward so what does all that look like when it comes down to an actual budget well we've taken all that new revenue and we've placed it in the education fund our operations fund accordingly and we're represent we're presenting two balanced budgets this this evening in the education operations fund our debt fund we're going to spend some time talking about our debt service fund we're going to understand just by twenty five thousand dollars it too is starting to get some impact to that tax cap loss and so we need to account for that we need to assume that we may not collect as much in the debt as we as the growing cap loss is so it's not a lot it's still under a hundred thousand that's the good news but it has grown each year and we need to start setting aside so that's that's why you don't see a balanced budget there it's simply we know we're not going to get Revenue in that account and we're setting that aside to offset it's a 117 million or 170 million dollar budget in total that we're presenting this evening we'll move to the next slide so how do we generate that money well we talked about the education fund earlier when I showed you the student population and the money we get from the state there's no local tax rate for our education fund however we do have a tax rate for our operations fund and our debt service and what I presented on the chart is the 2023 rate you'll see it was a dollar two three nine um and what we're recommending for 2024 is an increase to a dollar six four four that's a little over four Cent increase um and you'll see of that four Cent increase very little is going in the operations fund again we're constrained by that maximum but 3.6 percent of that is going to go into our debt service fund and we're going to talk about the plans for for that Revenue um I always like to point out because if you go out and look on the public website you're going to see an atrocious very high advertised rate we do that just in case something's wrong there's an error an Omission this year's a great example we didn't get our assessed value until I had already published and closed this budget and so it's a good thing I advertised High because we're able to have some flexibility and make changes as needed and we can land on exactly that tax rate that we want to land on when December rolls around slide please all right just want to show some historic some history of our our total tax rate so back in 2009 our tax rate was at a dollar four and since then it's really hovered around a dollar two we've done a great job managing that um to the extent that we could unfortunately these losses that we've incurred now going into 24 cause us to approach this total tax rate differently and we have to start thinking about how are we going to continue to operate in an environment where the tax cap losses are growing so fast on us we have to come up with ways to spend less in our operations fund and our education funds maxed out spending money on teachers instructional staff so we have to look to our debt service fund and that's why we're making this recommendation this evening is to go to the Dollar six tax rate which will allow us to perform some new debt projects to offset some cost in the operations funding show you what that looks like what our tax rate currently looks like in our County I only have 20 23 numbers this is something we get every January and so I'll updated each year but you'll see Center Grove ranks fourth in our County three Schools Franklin Clark Pleasant and Edinburgh all have passed General past operating referendums so they have additional funds that come into their corporation above and beyond whatever they're going to tax locally for operations or Debt Service Center Grove is right there above Angeli Jackson Indian Creek and Greenwood at a dollar two thirty nine and so even going to that dollar six will still be solid in that fourth position moving forward want to expand that out a little bit and on the next slide we're going to look at where do we fall in the state this isn't every school in the state but it's a good sampling this is provided by a company we work with called policy analytics they work with a lot of government agencies and you'll see I put a big red arrow on where Cinder Groves dollar to tax rate lands right now um you'll see some schools around us like Southern Hancock Alexandria South Madison Shelby Eastern but what you'll see there as you move across to the first bulb number at a dollar six really one five nine nine that's the Statewide average and that's really what we're recommending is to come in right around where the state right average is at a dollar six if you move over a little further you'll see here in Central Indiana though the average is really a dollar eighteen and so we'll still be well below what the central average is very reasonable very very great a great use and a great um in my opinion a great deal for your dollar and the types of programs and education we provide at that rate honestly as you're just reading across some of these schools you might think ones that we kind of look like or perform like who do we compare to academically a lot of those schools are well out to the left on us a lot of the schools in the suburbs surrounding Indianapolis and Fort Wayne are listed in there still come in at a very reasonable rate even with this forcing increase and and I think it would fall right in line then with that state average again these are all last year's numbers they will all change and fluctuate as we move into the upcoming year let's bring that back locally on the next slide and we'll talk about what does that look like for a homeowner here in Center Grove so I've taken a a home that's three hundred thousand dollars and kind of played out what would their tax bill look like and you can see what it looked like in 2023 that homeowner after all their deductions um ended up paying about fifteen hundred dollars in school taxes 1503 at the bottom if we did nothing and just got the flat tax rate because of some changes there in that supplemental deduction from the state that homeowner's tax bill would would fall to 1481.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above