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Mr Hopkins hi hi I okay you stand and join me for the plge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liy and okay and the only thing on the agenda for this part of the meeting is the budget hearing yes Mr President uh members of the board this is a public hearing to present the fiscal year 24 budget revision for the AO Unified School District number 15 all districts are able to revise their adopted budget by December 15th of each year as Allowed by Statute a RS 15- 905 the district should post the standard 24-hour advance notice of the board meeting and hold a public meeting this is a budget hearing for the 2024 budget revision there is no board action necessary at this time however we do have a Mr Tyler Moore from True professionals our Consultants here to present to you and those in attendance and listening at home the budget revision for fiscal year 2024 more thank you you Dr good evening president Hopkins members of the board um tonight I'll be presenting the budget revision as Dr clo said get it up running um each district has the option to revise their Budget prior to December 15 um pending um a letter from ad in regards to um uh when they reconcile the adopted budget versus current year expenditure so uh if you go to the next slide please I'll cover um first the the revised budget explanation why AO revising the budget at this point in time I'll go through the two changes the main changes are on the emino budget and the capital budget as you know those are the only budget controlled funds the district has the that's a number of different other funds that are cash controlled and Grant controlled those are not um statutorily within the budget that ad authorizes so are separate buckets um that are authorized to different entities whether the cash Etc so and then I'll talk about upcoming budget conversations with what's going on the legislature the State deficit um and some of those 2025 budget conversation so you go to the next slide please um so this again this uh budget revision is pending um is when basically there's two reports that ad um plls one the district adopts a budget which we the AA UniFi did in July um every every school district is operating on a current year uh kind of budget cycle so in July we make some assumptions on what enrollment will be we also make some assumptions on what the disal end their um ending balance will be for that fiscal year um and so what ad does is they reconcile those reports um with the budget 25 report U that report takes um again what the district adopted and then Compares it to how the district is performing in the current years um if the district is 1% under that that what they adopted then it triggers basically a letter to the district asking them to do a rision so um AO triggered the 1% test on both the ML and da budget and I'll explain why um but again that 1% is 42,000 so what you adopted in July again is off by 42,000 remember you guys have a 3.2 million operational budget and a you know worth a million dollar capital budget that's a small margin so it was easily triggered um through the test that ad did so again I'll explain a little more on that but the other report is the budget 75 report so that reconciles the annual financial report that I I present to the board in October um in financial report explains the year ending balances after the district has reconciled the whole fiscal year if you remember that report was in October and I we adopted the budget in July so again we make a lot of assumptions in July based on how that's going to end um and you'll see later sometimes that's not always correct right and we have some variances and savings um between what we adopted and what we finished the year on so that also plays a factor in this revision so so we get to True up both um on current year ADM and what if the what the AO ended the year on with the anal report so that's what we're doing tonight so if you go to the next slide um on the revised budget we're going to look both at the m and capital budget the ml budget how this reads is we have the budget kind of categories the adopted budget is the next column so that's what we adopted in July the revised budget is what we're revising to um is what we're recommending to board revise to on Wednesday and then I show the difference so if you look at the first category the base level amount so that's a per pupil amount that that school districts get without any additional level uh weighted funding right there's additional Group B funding for your students fed eligible ell eligible I kind of collaps that formula into a simplified model so typically you don't see any changes in the middle of the year with the base level support that's typically set um in the K12 legislation and it's set for the whole year so you'll see that's why there's zero difference there ADM so this is your average daily membership or or basically your student count um through the first 40 days um you'll see what we adopted was 370 um you're actually running a little bit ahead you have about just over five kids more than what we adopted so that's going to help right um You can take that plus the 4900 that's going to be additional budget capacity if you look at the revenue control limit you'll see there's a decrease and I'll explain why you think well why is there a decrease the ADM up on like I said there I collapsed this formula but on the adopted budget um we anticipated a lot more Group B weight students so what that means we anticipate a lot more um students with uh fed related disabilities elll Etc right now you're you're operating um um with less than what we anticipated so um again that's how that total formula shows a difference of 45,000 from adopted to Revis if you go down the budget balance carry forward um we anticipated in July a $724,000 m&o budget balce carried forward um you can see we we were very conservative in that number and we ended the year actually on the AAR with 1.2 million M for $50000 difference so that's an increase um in budget capacity um directly related to how much carry over the district ended on on the anal repard um again I was very conservative in that number in July on the adopted budget no my first year in the district there's some liabilities in there that I didn't know if it going be expensed or not so I took a conservative approach knowing that we can always add that budget capacity back at this point in time so the add-ons as I was explained to Dr add-ons um are prop 123 funding um that the state um sales tax on the state trust land there's also um that if you recall there was a one-time state aid supplement that the government added this year um it was 300 million districtwide ao's portion of that was 133,000 so that's in that add-on piece um just reconciling those to actuals I was just off about 3,400 so that's a benefit to the benefit on this division here so you take all those out um and run them down we're actually revising from your July M budget revising up 469,000 to 4.8 million with 1.2 million being your your new kind of unallocated contingency um and M&L so we go to the next slide let talk about capital capital is a little simpler formula um again it kind of reads the same way the columns we have a bu of categories adopted budget in July revised budget today um the adjusted da or Capital this is your capital budget so annually um the district would get what we adopted what we assumed we would get is 303,000 um I was a little high in that uh adoption number the actual true up cost is 284 ,000 on the revised budget that 284 is that that's your annual appropriation of capital um then you get to add on your budget chry for again I was conservative in that number that we adopted in July um what we actually ended the year on for last year was 163 budget contingent carry forward for Capital again that's going to be your your contingency number um and the number that I I talked about before um Dr so has been putting together some Capital initiatives on he been funding um some of those include the had the cheerleading mats scissor lifts in the works um so we're we're being able to kind of replace some of those outdated pieces of equipment enhance some of your programs for that money and I know that plan will continue to be robust as we continue to work through some of those priorities for for the board in AO so um that's an increase 66,000 from the adopted to the Revis um the add-ons the only add-ons for this is interest you can actually capture budget um capacity with interest earn um so with a million dollars sitting in the now now you're set on what Pima count is you know um giving you for interest rates you're not get getting the the good interest rates but um you know 50 5600 interest earnings I I assumed it was 65 but that's a little high um so 5600 interest earnings and that gives you a total capital budget that for that we're revising to of 1.1 million which is about 46,000 increase from the adopted budget in July any questions on those two budgets before I jump into kind of like upcoming budget conversations no so overall very healthy um it's gonna give you guys some leverage when we start looking into fiscal 25 and some initiatives that you plan to do so the next slide just looking ahead um some of the big things in that are going on but the Statewide U minimum wage increase starts January 1st 2024 1435 an hour Al was pretty um good of being proactive in this um the minimum the the lowest ver is 1485 correctly right yeah so um you guys are ahead of the curve on this um initiative and so one of the things that we've discussed is trying to continue to be ahead of the curve so um as we go into fiscal 25 looking at um staying ahead of the needle and um prioritizing moving uh your classified hourly up to stay again ahead of that inflation Factor because that's going to continue to go up with Arizona's formula um you may have heard that Arizona State um has a budget deficit that they've been operating under um they're continuing to underperform um what they've been projecting in terms of State revenues um some of that has to do with the the Statewide flat tax that Governor duy implemented some of it has to do with esas vouchers are outperforming what they originally budgeted for um there's a number of different things kind of contributing to that um which kind of creates some unknowns for the next bullet point which is the fiscal 25 K12 budget um as you know K12 education the biggest one of the biggest pieces of Pies in the state budget represents just over 50% of the state budget so when you see the state budget having a deficit you kind of get concerned because they have to cut that somewhere um and so um right now there there's a lot of unknowns out there um a couple things we do know they have to fund is inflation increase at a minimum of 2% that's in that's in in statute and then um they have to continue to increase Capital because that was an initiative passed in 20 2021 Governor du a three-year Capital increase so that is anticipated to be 4.6% so those are the two I know but there's a lot of uncertainty with how they're going to balance the budget with that deficit um and one of the reasons why kind of we're recommending to to hold on to these contingencies until the first of the year to make some um better decisions budgetarily that will be able to be sustainable um for the next year and ongoing rather than make some some changes mid year on this revision so um we do have to by Statute do another budget revision by May 15 um and that Tres up to your 100 day ADM town but outside of that um that is all I have for this budget revision so there's any questions that have Mr President members of the board also had talked about earlier Mr Mo and I health insurance increases also has to fit in there because that just continues to go up so we have a very healthy Reserve but health insurance increases going up quite a bit coming into this year they're going to keep doing that so it's good to have that healthy Reserve to help us be ready for all those changes one question I have is kind of only somewhat related and that's with the minimum wage increase been my understanding that the original plan was to increase it every year until it hit $15 an hour so this next one could be the last the one after the going up to 1435 could be the last one I'm assuming because so there was no actual limit put in the stat okay okay states do not have a cap okay it's based off pretty complicated formula it's based off like growth and sales tax there a there's a number of different things that it's face up but there's no cap okay okay so this can go can get every yeah it's definitely a concern for wage compression right um sometime yeah maybe you can move the needle up the bottom but now you're compressing up you know any everybody up the the salary schedule so now you're creating wage compression and it's a it's a concern when you have somebody doing a job that that is higher up in the scale and now you have to bring up everybody at the bottom and what's the incentive to work yeah any harder when you can when the wages are are being compressed like that so it's an issue across the state um with not only school districts but like businesses trying to keep the incentive for and scalable across positions so but that no there is no cap okay okay thank you does anybody else have any questions good okay thank you very much a always very cleor thank you okay and at this point I guess I ask for a motion to adjourn the budget hearing I'll make a motion during the budget hearing I'll second Mr Kur Reesa I Mr Hopkins hi Miss olon hi M Rodriguez hi Mr Guth 5 Zer 5 Zer and for folks that are here we have to wait until 6:30 because that was posted time for the start of the next meeting so play cards on your phone I went to I went to gavo day District day the other day I was that's what I I mean that's just what I had heard when I moved North Carolina is still under $8 an hour South car

okay 6:30 Julie will you call the role please K Casten here Ken Dawson here Mr Espinosa here chir Fuller here Jenny hagstrom here Terry pavich here Don Runner here Gian huni here and N M here thank you okay having a quorum let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all so don't make that I'll turn this over to you for student perspectives all right and I'll invite Courtney easy good evening everyone it's nice to see all of you and I really really excited um to have student perspectives tonight so um one of the things that I'm really proud of is how in the many many different ways that our students build our climate and culture and so tonight um we're going to hear from two students from our AAP IU and I'm GNA let them explain what that means to you um so I'm gonna call up Nila and Henry to come on up and talk to you about our aapu um group at North High School come on up [Applause] guys okay um hi everyone I'm Henry um and I'm Leela I'm a junior at down North oh and I'm a senior and we are representing the AAP ISU which stands for Asian-American Pacific Islander Student Union whenever you want in advance just tell me um so pretty much our goal as a club is to just sort of unify the Asian-American population and be able to give a chance for all of us to sort of come together and have conversations with one another and also kind of build the opportunity for others who are not a part of our culture to learn more about it and kind of just familiarize them familiarize themselves with something that they don't really know about um so as you can see on the slide um we just share and learn many different topics um for example we did certain presentations on like specific cultures such as like Filipino Heritage because it was recently Filipino Heritage Month um we had a Dali meeting which Lea H um and we pretty much just want to build a community for aapi people at dgn and be able to celebrate it and that's something that we've had a great success doing so far at dgn some of our different ideas for this year and things we want to accomplish include Club spirit wear and different culture shares where kids will be able to um explain to the rest of the club something specific or unique about their culture we're planning on different community service projects and decorating a display case which we have done we're also planning on movie days at the end of the year of different movies that showcase aapi people and different arts and crafts as well as some different uh shared meetings with BSU LS and LSU and other student unions at dgn um we also have some fundraisers that we're planning and a few that were we did last year that we're planning on repeating again as far as things we've done already this year these are just some of the things we want to share pictures that you can see on the left are of our potluck that we hosted earlier this year this was something really incredible that we did we had over 30 different um food items brought and over 11 different ethnicities represented something really incredible I thought about this is that we did not have only Asian students who were bringing dishes we had kids from every continent I believe except Australia and Antarctica who actually brought food from their culture and this was really an incredible thing we had over 40 kids in attendance lots of food lots of really good food it was a lot of fun um we also participated in the no one walks alone challenge which you can see in the top right corner and as Henry mentioned earlier we had a the meeting where we ate lots of good food and we made little like clay lanterns called Bas and those are just some of the things that we've done already this year all right I think that's the end right y so thank you thank you for sharing one of the things that I'm super proud of that they do um they and and it might seem small to high school kids but for adults like me getting older it's really important that they run a really active social media page on Instagram and it's so positive and it promotes all of the things that our students do um and it it always sticks out to me and so it's really they do a really great job of showing off the different things um that they do during school and after school with all different students and it's really amazing so um I want to make sure to promot that too answer questions how many students do you have in the union currently um I believe there are I don't have an exact number um but the people that we have maybe around 80 people but the number that are able to like attend meetings is usually a little bit smaller just because of scheduling and things like that that's great 80 people wow and when was the club formed um maybe 2019 it was before both of us were part of it so I don't have it's been there forever guys question if there was one thing you had to say about the club that you or Union that you've learned or means the most to you what would it be um I would say as like a student leader on AP IU I feel like we've created a really close culture I think all six of us are like pretty close and like equ people um for example one of the other leaders who couldn't be here um she hosted an event where we like made egg rolls at her house for the popup the night before so that was a lot of fun um me and another leader were able to attend so I think it's just nice to know that you know I'm able to find friends through this club I'd say the same it's a really great community of people both the leaders and all the students in attendance through our meetings through um events like the potlock I think we've all got to know each other really well I think we've all become like a really tight-knit community so that's really nice great great great very good right well thank you you thank you thank you all right student board members who's up first this month it's me this month all right so um ders gr North is killing it at sports right now for um our cross country team just went to Nationals and I believe our boys were the seventh in the country for running which is awesome and then our girls were 16th in the country for running which is also awesome so that's really good and then our football team um we went to State I was there and it was very cold yeah and yeah we didn't win but we still got second so we are first in our hearts so um yeah so that was it was a really good I think experience for the school in general though to be able to Rally behind like it's kind of like how basketball was last year for us like basketball was was a very big like Community thing for us where it's like everyone went down on the fan bus like to both U ofi UIC so it kind of felt a lot similar to that so that was really fun to be able to experience that again but this time with football which I feel like is even better because it's a higher like capacity for who can watch it so there were so many people that went down to ISU it was awesome to see so yeah I like that our school was able to like rally behind that and like have that sense of community uh other than that it's finals it's that time between Thanksgiving and Christmas so lots of school our teachers have been doing a really good job providing support for students and not completely overloading us like I know I've been asked a lot like do you have a test on this day CU it like there are a lot of classes where it's like oh there's a lot of overlap between who's taking them so our teachers have been really good about being conscientious like that so yeah good stuff yeah so okay so we're all coming back from Thanksgiving break so it's our what second week back and I guess everybody body that was a like a well-deserving break like everyone was more relaxed coming back like seeing it people were just they were't I wouldn't say they were ready to take on the next weeks but they were like they were better than the week before Thanksgiving week you know so that's win and then um with that there's um a bunch of like activities happening at DJs throughout the school to keep up the positivity of our community such as we had for Access we had our student Choice days while we also had our second student versus or seniors versus staff which was the scholastic bowl and seniors did win that with the last the last question was worth 11 points and only for the seniors so we won and I was moderating that really wanted the kids to win yeah so that was a good experience like everybody a lot of the seniors did go to the auditorium to watch and a lot of them were answering like very very active along with it even though they weren't the ones on stage they were still there like reading these incredibly hard questions but they were still like getting the hang of it and they they like the questions and they like that kind of community building and then with that um we also we also had our Coco in the Commons starting last Friday which is every Friday during the month of December students get have the option to get a free cup of hot chocolate so that was that was cool to see because especially these freshmen they didn't know this was a thing so coming into the school and our access leaders they were handing out like peppermint candy canes too so just that first day of December was really like hype and happy and then the next and and then at night time we had our basketball game or one of our first home basketball games against hinsdell South and we we might not be like state level worthy but we were still winning and we still won and we still did better than our past years so that was a huge thing and a lot of and a lot of students like actually realized how entertaining basketball was so a lot of them said that they were going to continue to come to these games so overall we're having a happy December so far and everybody is everybody is not excited for finals but they're looking forward to winter break so we have that and again our exess leaders they created um they created a spirit week to keep the joy so we have on like Tuesday we have different spirit days and then on Tuesday we have like take pictures in an inflatable um like an inflatable snow globe and then on Friday we have pictures with Santa which is Marty the Mustang dressed up as Santa so that's a great like ending for the winter and we're just excited to see how Thanksgiving or how winter is going to be and how winter break is you guys have scholastic bowl like with your teachers yeah it was seniors versus uh staff really during access yeah we should do [Laughter] that I know somebody that will serve as a moderator if you need them to oh I'm on our team it's coming cool finally always been all right Julie do we have any visitors no sir okay then Hank will turn it over to you em five turn it over to Gina for course proposals okay so every year in December we bring forward the new course proposals I'm really excited I feel like I say that every year excited this year because we have um well they're coming from two departments first of all the first Department Department which our department chairs are going to talk about the courses but one Department's bringing forward a transition English course which is going to be great for our students and our other department while I'm excited about all the courses from that department I don't want the department shair mad at me um one it looks like we are going to get dual credit for and that will be our first course in that department with dual credit so I really am excited about it this year um and brought the department chair here to talk about the courses so with that I'm going to invite Dr Brony and and um and Tracy Sebastian to come forward and talk about modern rhetoric all right um as Gina just informed you modern rhetoric is the transitional English class um we already have transitional math in place and has been for a few years uh pql right um so that one's already in place so this now the state has come forward and wants to do the same thing in the realm of English so this would be we are calling it modern rhetoric um because it is based in in writing there is reading but it is based in writing um so we wanted to be around a rhetoric course similar to what they would hear that same type of course being called in a college um it's a yearlong class so it's only open to the 12th graders it fulfills because we have a literature and expression requirement in English or one semester of each and we other we have other yearlong courses that fulfill both so it will fulfill both of the requirements if they take this course um we have applied for the um portability but the not for full portability meaning transitional math if they they right if they pass it and they get the credit it is portable to any community college right now as we started as it says there we're going to run this as a pilot this year um so running it as a pilot with cood we've come to the agreement that this will only be this year if they take it then they only can get credit through cood and into cood not credit sorry they can get um accepted into cood and it's not portable to other ones yet um we've also agreed to limit the enrollment in the sections for this year then because we are piloting it so we're looking to run run one section at each school if possible um and we've identified students at this point based on as it says up there the things that cood specifically says are required to not have to take their 099 or 098 classes and it will get them into a credit bearing English class and the big thing about getting into the credit bearing English class is that it also opens up the gate for them to get into other credit bearing classes such as like psych 101 or history class or um some things like that that if they um unfortunately have to take an 099 class because it's considered remedial they cannot take some of those other classes so the goal is that we're going to get students into the credit bearing class by taking our class and once they're in that credit bearing class it opens them up to being able to take a lot of other classes that would be closed if they didn't have this right so the course itself obviously there's a lot up there I'll just kind of talk through it at the most macro level I think the thing to draw your attention to that for me uh as a writer and writing instructor in particular that is uh most appealing about this course is the nature of it just having these five units um which is you know if you were to compare that to a normal like year-long class is probably three is units fewer um and the whole point there is that cood in particular and it matches with our belief here in District 99 um really sees this as a a process based course um there are actually three of the five major units have to incorporate multiple massive uh revisions and and rewritings um which again is something we believe in um it's not always easy to get all the students to also believe in that um but that's the nice thing about this course is that it does sort of do that and uh as Tracy mentioned in in the more macro sense uh this course while certainly uh you know deeply aligned as an English class um it's a little bit less of what maybe students have been through in their first three years a little bit less literature involved a little bit more non-fiction uh a little bit more of this this writing and this research there's also a big required component around metacognition and reflection as they go as well um trying to build those sorts of skills that you know aren't just specific to an English course but specific to success in life uh quite frankly and so we're excited to see some of those pieces um you know not only asked of us in the design of this course but but required of us so following in line with what cood is asking so you have these five units they've told us what has to be incorporated them as Dr Brony said and then they actually tell you like what types of things that they would like to see as the texts that are used and that first line is important because they they don't want it to be these couple lines they don't want it to be simple text that you're just reading it's not books meant to be that way so they want to incorporate all the different types of things that students will be seeing in their real lives so like there are some they want you to have to look at podcasts they want you to have to look at short videos they want you all the different types of mediums and you use all of those and they use them in their assessments so not only using them as instructional tools that is part of it's not just writing so a lot of the formative assessments are also asking students to use those types of things in the class as well and then the grading it is very similar to ours um 60% of the grade has to be those five ass those five major assessments have to make up a minimum of 60% of the final grade and then overall they have to get a c in the course and if they get a c in the course A C or better hopefully they'll get better they get a c or better in the course then we are saying that they are ready for college and cood will then they will not have to in any way take the entrance exam and they will already be placed into a credit bearing English 101 class which then like I said opens up the door for them to other class is very important yeah so that's the basis of the class and how it's being put together um and what we have to do with it to move for forward students so I just want to reiterate a couple of things that's that are really important about this transition class we already have as Tracy said prep for quantitative literacy which is our transition math class this now would be transition English students who are successful would place at COD directly into credit bearing courses which as I believe Tracy said opens up the doors but the other thing that I want to share is that it also opens up some other doors and those doors being the diploma endorsement for example um students have to be considered College ready this is one way to be considered College ready you may recall for for some of you um years back talking about the state's um College and Career Readiness indicators and transition English like transition math is one of those indicators so this is huge uh for us and I really appreciate Tracy and Chris being willing to take this on because this is a huge uh Endeavor and Ryan dhy has helped to support this um so I want to acknowledge that as well as Jake and Keith but Ryan uh really worked on this and um worked with Tracy and Chris on that so I just wanted to share that very good I think it's fantastic that our high school students will learn how to prepare and deliver a PowerPoint presentation in high school that's that and one question who is the ideal student for this course what you said um student who we would say is just below the meeting mark on many of our standards so they would be the student that we want to make sure so like they use the indicators that they use is a certain grade point average a certain score on the um sat is the PSAT sat sat one of those um so they look for either an overall score to hit a certain Mark or within the English the evidence-based reading and writing score to be a certain Mark so we went through and say this is where Jake and Keith went through and looked for for students that did not meet those or just below that specific Mark so we're looking for students that would be on that border so if they had to take the placement test they might not pass it and based on those qualifiers they would not qualify for the 101 class for the credit bearing class so if they were not going to qualify for that class and they're on that cus whereare they would have to take the test and possibly not pass the test to get into that that's the ideal student for putting in this class because they're right there and this is the push to get them over the hump to be ready for the college classes right so if it's the SAT would they know their score in time to register so we can look at PSAT scores and predictor predict not 100% accurately what we can predict where the student would fall on the SAT and that's that's pretty much what we're looking at because the SAT scores we won't get until June we're looking at which students will be in the class you know now yeah the list we're creating now so in the event one of those predictions may not have come to fruition uh there's no harm with the student still being in the class right at the end of the day that that's that no one's going to be hurt by being in this in this course so good point remember the majority of our students are going to college page right and if they don't have to go through a whole entrance process process and can go directly into credit bearing coures for many students that get caught in that cycle they end up a two-year degree can sometimes take three or four years as they work their way through the remedial pathway at the college level so this is hugely important for our students that are making that transition to again it's not just about opening the English 101 credit it is I mean when we talked to Cod they were very specific about how it closes doors to many other classes that they can't take until they are in the in English 101 credit bearing class and while this pilot will be with cood for next year right uh we will apply for portability and hopefully that will be approved or we'll do whatever we need to do to get it approved and that means that if a student goes to another Community College in the state of Illinois which does happen for a variety of reasons not just a student moving but there might be a program at one school that isn't at COD or whatnot it is portable so they would go directly into credit bearing courses at that Community College so that's what we mean by portability and we have that for our transition math class and have had for a few years cool MH so it sounds like there could be a cost savings totally too for the absolutely and time absolutely for sure especially if they place all the way down and do an 09a class and they have to take that and then 099 before they get into the credit bearing class so no the completion rate of students that need to take remedial courses is far lower than students that place directly into credit bearing courses MH okay so how many sections will you be able to offer that first year at each they've asked us to limit it just one that's part of agreement part of the agreement because we're piloting it before only to cood so we have made that agreement with them to look to Pilot one class at each and then as we pilot it then we'll make the decision to either move fully forward with that curriculum or a different one and so then we can ask for the state for full portability and then at that point lot of steps a lot of steps um and at at at that point it would be based on how many students are eligible and interested so we're going to limit it for the first year as Cod has requested that we do but I also believe that is a good thing to do as we're working through this MH yeah so I support you get your feet wet yeah help us get up and running so speak yeah and figure it out fully before then we would hopefully we said open it up to any student that is eligible I would just say applaud the administration and staff for working on this and with the focus of opening up doors for our students and putting them on a stronger foot to have success you know in the next phase of their lives so thank you very much thank you right thank you thank you thank you thank you so our next set of course proposals are coming out of Fine Arts and Jerry is our department chair at Downer South and Gina's our new department chair well newer I guess few mons in at North and they are coming forward with quite a few Chang es so revamping the our acting sequence you may recall that we moved acting into Fine Arts a few years ago and they're revising that sequence so much that we considered them to be new course proposals so that's three courses with acting and then two other additional courses and since they're the experts I will turn it over to them sure uh so you did talk about opening doors and over the last couple of years we've really strived to find ways to increase access to our for our students to the Fine Arts with minimal to no prerequisites or background if you'll remember we went with the singer Studio last year um as well as revamping like um changing it to music production and all of those things that we have done so far are really just literally trying to increase access to our students and increase um their ability to take what they want and find their interests and their voices in any sort of form in our school um so we kind of took that a little bit further this year prior to this proposal moving forward our acting sequence went acting one acting two and if you you know then acting three so each of those acted as a prerequisite to the point where acting three often didn't run or had to be stacked in order to run uh or run under reduced enrollment um so working with uh Tiffany and Nathaniel at South we they thought of the idea of taking all the prerequisites out and instead giving students an opportunity to find the niche within acting that they like so we're looking at acting for screen now or acting for stage with a Capstone for that course uh for that course of study to be Advanced acting studio so if you take a look that's the graphic right there the left is passed like I said if you took one and you liked it and you went on the two and you like that and you went on to three now they can choose um The Proposal is that they're able to choose uh which of these they'd be interested in and then have the Capstone at the advanced acting studio and again I just feel like it's It just fits right into the district's mission in terms of finding ways in order to allow students to find their voice without any prerequisites so the first uh course that I'd like to outline is the acting for stage you can go into the next one one semester elective it's opened 9 through 12 all these courses except for the advanced Studio are uh open 9 through 12 um and just a basic uh description the students learn basic introductory acting techniques through the exploration of physicality stage presence stage movement vocal expression and improvisation I'll they work on character development through monologues and script analysis and learn foundational AUD audition techniques uh also called cold reads which I found out through this process I had no idea what that was but that's what they're called um and then uh including plays and musicals so we're really excited about this one and if students have taken acting one two or three all of them can act as prre it's just so you know into the advanced acting studio and if we were going to say which one was going to be most similar acting for stage would be the most more traditional sort of acting curriculum that students would be used to like if they were taking acting one and they weren't sure um I talked to Tiffany with then they kind of said acting for stage would be the more natural fit right away so that's acting for stage and then the second one coming up is acting for screen which is kind of self-explanatory um they'll gain practical knowledge about auditioning for camera television film and commercials they'll experiment with different RS to conquer cold reads again site reading auditions for actors and students develop a vocabulary for performing on sets and auditioning for the camera learning about the business of acting with yall so is like I'm so glad that they put that in there because so much of what that is is how you can Market yourself how you can really get the Savvy that it takes to be a business for yourself when you're going into something like acting it's such a Cutthroat industry so I thought that is a highlight of the of the curriculum as well and so once they either take acting for screen or acting for stage they can then go to the Capstone honors level Advanced acting studio that's a repeatable half credit code course one semester uh it's open only through sophomore uh sophomore through seniors because obviously they have to finish the pre that's the only the only prerequisite is having take and acting for screen or for stage um and they'll experience multi-level in-depth study of theater and acting through peer selective works a lot of student voice goes into that and then students explore Advanced acting methods and styles and we'll culminate in a final showcase or short production for public viewing um so we there were some questions about what the rationale was in terms of why we are you know giving it the honors weighted credit um all of our Fine Arts Capstone courses are offered at the honors level whether band choir orchestra uh and our U Visual Arts courses they're all at that level um the weighted grade is an additive incentive for the students as well to continue to push forward to that next level and engage in the process through the subject matter while developing the higher level skills the course it offers um and it's a rigorous course you know it's it's repeatable because the rigor never lets up and that every single semester is going to be a different it'll be same subject matter but a lot of different ways to approach it in in in a rigorous way as possible so I just wanted to kind of clarify as to why we you know went with proposing this as an honors level course as well and that those are the three acting courses so before we go to B beginning band did you have questions that I can clarify I was curious with the new theater itself World Class theater is that help boost the uh interest in acting and find overall at the school I think that this approach um along with the word of mouth along with the stage along I think that all of those things will have positive impacts on the enrollment of the course um we you know like the singer Studio it didn't run last year but the the talk that was just cuz the proposal I just gone through but now the kids are talking about I really do anticipate the fact that the word of mouth and the opportunity to be a part of that Performing Art Center is really going to be a huge impact on the course it's a great question great great and for and for students that complete it they've completed the whole series of classes what type of pipeline for future opportunities either while still in high school or after high school do we have for the students to question there are a lot of community opportunities a lot of the you know the smaller production companies that will hire some of the high school students um but I think that we have such resourceful theater student uh staff that they would be really great at like just being the resource for them in terms of you know the connections that they have Colombia the connections they have in Roosevelt and the connections they have I think that would be of of great benefit for all those students and it's similar to our art courses as well like those staff members are so well connected within the community that by the time our students get to that cap scho they not only have the skills they've got like tons of resources in terms of postgraduation so great thank you absolutely yeah right all right uh the next two courses are music classes and they're both classes that I've t in the past in my previous District that uh were well received and that I wanted to bring here so the first one is beginning band which is exactly what it sounds like um it's it's fifth grade band except for high schoolers and I can tell you as somebody who's currently the parent of a fifth grade band student it goes much better at the high school level uh it is a year-long course so it earns one credit it's open to anybody and there's really three Target audiences for this class and again from experience having taught it um I really do see all three in the class one would be students without any prior instrumental experience because really you don't know when you're 10 years old what you're signing up for or not uh and what that's going to become in high school so there's a lot of high school students who who have friends in band or just see the band out on the field and kind of wish they had had done that but there's there's not that access point after fifth grade really um so this class is that access point um also uh obviously students who Maybe started in fifth grade and quit along the way for a variety of reasons and again kind of regretting that choice um second audience would be students who are maybe coming into 9th grade but aren't at a nth grade skill level for again a variety of reasons um that's something I actually talked about that with our counselors at um our round taes last week the week before whenever whenever that was um about you know sometimes I'll have students come to them and say you know I am in ban but you know maybe I didn't do it last year or just just don't feel very confident and that would be a counselor discussion for maybe beginning band is the right place for them maybe they just need to learn those fundamentals again um and a lot of times those students want to pick a different instrument too um and sometimes a different instrument really is just a better fit so this would be an opportunity for that um and then thirdly it would be students interested in music education which we do have some of those students right now taking our CTE class intro to teaching which is awesome um this is a little bit different than that there are some teaching opportunities in there just because high school students who are experienced in band teaching a beginning band class is not super far-fetched you know there's certainly opport ities within that class um but also in my experience those students I had were often Coral music Ed Majors students who were vocalists who realize that in college our certification I'm a music teacher our certification is music k12 and you might be better at at band or choir than something else but your certification covers everything so those students might realize that in college they're going to have to get some band experience and this is an opportunity for them to learn an instrument and just get a little bit of a head start on that and make College a little bit easier uh in that regard so again just an access point to the dgn and dgs band programs once a student has completed this year in beginning band they would qualify for our normal curricular Band program so they could go into it North it would be symphonic band at South what would be the next also SYM wi Symphony okay uh the next class and again as a sophomore as a junior or even a senior then they're a part of that program and can access marching band and jazz band and all the other parts um of our band programs um assessment in the class highly individual Iz you know it's just like any music class honestly there's a constant feedback cycle of formative assessment but there would also be playing assessments writing assessments um and the students would have the opportunity to perform as well I always had my beginning band class do a December concert they're generally at about a sixth grade level Honestly by December and then by the end of the year seventh maybe even eighth grade level just because again bigger brains bigger hands can reach the end of the trombone slide like I said it goes a little bit better uh so students would select an instrument to in the first week of school uh rental opportunities are available I always kind of suggested students if possible rent an instrument from we have a contract with quintland and Fabish for our rental instruments you just know you're getting a good quality instrument and there's a warranty for repairs when you do it that way but uh for students without maybe the financial means to do that we do at both buildings have a stock of instruments that students would be able uh to access for that um and as I said with they'd finish the class being able to enroll in symphonic band um yeah that's actually kind of all duplicate of stuff I've already said so I think that might be the last slide for beginning band yeah any questions on that one since this is a totally different direction and Gina and I had a conversation about this both being music people that what the research and what Gina's experience has been and my experience has been is a kid that starts in fourth grade come senior year there's lots of kids that can start ninth grade and be on par or even ahead of those students that start you know it's just different kids at different times you know this isn't like a student's going to have to progress through all the years like no yeah it could be in one year they're in your top band truly truly one of my favorite success stories is a student who took beginning band as a sophomore literally for no other reason other than he saw it in the course book and was like me um and signed up learn trumpet um the next year was in regular band as a junior his senior year he was a marching section leader in the marching band still wasn't the best trumpet player but he was a good marger um and then got accepted to U ofi for engineering and decided to audition for the marching line I then made it and and that completely came back inste of completely changed the whole trajectory of you know his high school and college experience by by having that entry point so it's important all right on the complete opposite end of the Spectrum in some ways uh is our introduction to American music class um this is a semester long class that earns half a credit it's open to grades 10 through 12 and we've had I think very successful discussions I think you agree um with cood about offering this class for dual credit um I did start this same course um at Manuka in my last District um it was the first that we are aware of dual credit music class offered um in the area and this class music 1104 at cood is the same reference number so it's the same class um UK I was dual credit with jolet Junior College it's the same class it literally uses the same textbook um I reviewed the cood syllabi it's the exact same class so I've taught this class actually for the past 10 years um the target audience for this class certainly would be interest interesting to students who are currently involved in music um but also interested interesting to students who are history Buffs or just kind of interested in this specific topic um but really one of the the big draws of this class is the Dual credit nature so um as I'm sure you're all aware when you go to a four-year liberal arts college there's some sort of Fine Arts requirement just like in high school you have requirements for English and math and Fine Arts and Etc um so you know while students who may be interested in majoring in music would certainly benefit from this just for the music history experience I didn't have an American music history class in college I don't know if you so it's actually a really unique offering for music Majors too um but non-m music Majors you know your business majors and Engineering majors and English majors are still going to need that Fine Arts Credit so this is a class that could knock out the Fine Arts Credit for high school students but also at the college level so when they attend cood certainly it's on their transcript there but um I had checked when I started the class again 10 years ago uh we called ISU U ofi eastern northern southern western milikan Wesleyan and asked if this class would fulfill their Fine Arts Credit at their University and they all said yes um and I've had many positive experiences of students being able to transfer this class as their Fine Arts Credit at the college level so um that's really I think a good opportunity for students to knock out that Fine Arts Credit that you know not to say their University won't offer wonderful fine arts classes but if that's not their major let's be real that's it's less enticing once you're in college so there's a little bit of instruction here in the elements of Music um however this is not a how-to Hands-On type music class you know for the student without Music Experience who wants that sort of thing that would be more singer Studio that' be more music production this is a lecture Style music history class um that there's a little bit of discussion of the elements of music just to give them a common vocabulary as we go through their curriculum um so they'll be able to identify and describe genres Styles trends um actually starts with music of Native Americans and goes through Colonial music and then through really all the eras that you learn about in American history just through the lens of Music it goes through the Revolutionary War and you know the world wars and Jazz and Blues and uh usually ends up with uh protest Rock of the 1960s which is a fun ending around this time of year um but really it allows them to understand music but also honestly understand history and and just culture and human nature better through the lens of music and it's kind of an interesting it's just kind of an interesting Twist on students who are already pretty quite familiar with American history just kind of through a new lens that might be is that the last one last SL all right questions on that some of these I'd like to sign up for I've got that response a lot for this class I love this class my students would make fun of me every chapter we got kind of like you were saying every year you're like this is so fun every chapter we get to like guys this is the best chapter but it really is fascinating because you you know you get to protest Rock of the 1960s and we started with literally Native American music and you never feel like you jump It's never like well now we're putting that away and talking about this it truly is connected and it kind of and then students end the the class with presentations about current artists with the task of connecting them to what we've talked about earlier in the semester and it's it's really I think it's super fun I'm biased but I think it's super fun I are all these programs across the district so the acting that you presented is that okay yep so just let me know where to sign up absolutely we'll do a summer class just saying the final could be like if you could name all of the people in we out the world video how many of them are still alive thank you for bringing another dual credit opport yeah absolutely exting I'll also point out i' I have been in the district eight years and every year I have been here Gina and the curricular team of Department chairs have found one or more dual credit courses to bring to our catalog so that's that's a pretty impressive track record yeah that's great that's awesome so where are we at at that do we have like 15 16 or most of them are in CTE but remember last year we rolled out speech and we did end up running it we had students sign up in both buildings um so we're definitely getting into some other areas so very excited and for this to be the first one in Fine Arts yeah that's really cool and so we have dual credit and I think Fine Arts is unusual to dual credit um but for example we have dual credit and PE as well which a lot of schools in dup page do not so um so I'm really excited about that and well with the with the new requirement of this report card related to Fine Arts down the road won't this help absolutely yes I'm glad you were paying attention you passed the quiz yes remember in two years Fine Arts will count towards our our report card and having options like this definitely increases you know between beginning band and and our acting courses and and having a dual credit course creates opportunities for students to meet that yeah very good thank you very much thank you thank you thank you come back uh next month month for approval or next meeting two weeks I thought Indiana was a fabulous the best public school the country yeah our next topic yeah I mean it's and it's a beautiful Camp all right would you like for me to click for you or would you like the clicker you click all right I got that'll keep me more engaged okay so I'm going to start us off we are the three College and Career Specialists across on both sides of town my name is leavon Robinson I've been in the district for eight years before that I did some things with the wi Soxs and in nonprofit management so thanks for having us hi good evening thanks for having us I'm Terry manderino I've been in the district since the fall of 2012 um College and Career specialist and counselor thanks for having us and and I'm Adrian Nolan I'm the other college and career counselor at South um this is my sixth year and prior to that I was in CPS at aect school so thank you for having us we're excited to talk to you guys kind of about what we do some data that we have and then kind of looking forward some Trends we're seeing in like what we're going to do about it so I am going to talk about our current programming and events that we have so both schools run a multitude of college and career programming and events um to help kids explore postsecondary paths um there's a lot of them listed here I was told we only have like 10 minutes so I'm not I'm not going to go through all of them um but I will highlight a couple um so the first three we run together as a district both high schools um combine and we Market this together we do a faston financial aid night both in English and in Spanish um for all district families we run a conquering College cost night which kind of supplements that it talks about um we partner with someone who does it um but it he talks about other ways to help college and then we do a College and Career exploration night um which I think we used to do separate as two buildings and then we combine and so now we do it together um and it's a really good kickoff way for junior families and parents to explore different post-secondary paths they can take uh take After High School um a lot of the other events listed there are Partnerships we have with College of DW page Illinois student assistant Commission um we visit a lot of avid classrooms our newest partnership is with Green Halo Scholars which is a local nonprofit that helps um under represented students uh get mentors and help for college applications and then we did want to highlight what we do during our access lessons um both high schools run a comp uh a comprehensive counseling curriculum um that highlights a lot of postsecondary planning um um that includes going into classrooms 9 through 12 pushing into access lessons and running a full curriculum so we do small group lessons for each grade level at North the curriculum is called discover you at South the curriculum is called Focus um it's pretty much a parallel curriculum that we create and tailor every year to make sure we're meeting the needs of our students for postsecondary planning um and then with the Advent of access we've also been able to create new lessons um again touching on the financial a so we have a how to read a war letter lesson that all seniors take that started last year and financial aid overview lessons for juniors and seniors just because they're such heavy content topics and we're not always able to get that into the Discover un Focus cul okay I'll speak to um some of the unique things that we do at north um separate from what South does um so the first one process sessions in the fall uh we do a lot of specific sessions helping students with requesting transcripts recommendation letters um we also across the lunch periods throughout the whole month of October offer post High School planning workshops where we'll help students with anything related to that planning we do start to focus in in that last week of October to help students meet that uh the early action deadlines and so we do focus on college applications that last week we offer a lot of um essay writing support through those workshops but also through uh we usually have a guest speaker from a College uh College representative who comes um and then I work with some various teachers um in their classrooms also um and then I also work with teachers on uh more career um exploration through classrooms we offer a senior panel in the fall for our current Juniors and seniors are really just talking with Juniors about their experience going through that application process um and then in the summer I do um kind of various things but this past summer I did a uh building your college list which was a virtual session and then uh we did two common application workshops for students so they could get a head start before school started as well and then at South we just wanted to highlight the unique events that we do as well um next week or actually this Friday we're polling students who have high GPA who haven't requested any college applications yet so we call it a zero app Workshop to kind of Target those students and see if they need extra help or what's going on um we do a panel um like of graduates that North does um we have a parent who's a downers grow South parent um has like extensive work history and Advising at like Williams and University Chicago and Michigan um and she now is an independent education consultant for college wise but she comes and just volunteers her time with us um and it's been a nice partnership I feel like sometimes that's um in our profession um can be dicey but like it's been an awesome partnership this is the second year she's been coming in on Fridays to help students build lists and help with essays um so we're continuing that um we also have social media interns at South um which has been fun that's in alignment with the internship class the new internship class so two of the kids in the class just come to the college career center and they are our social media interns um so you can follow us everyone at DJs col we do career stuff too but it just it wasn't long enough um we just did a teacher appreciation breakfast on Friday to thank our teach teachers for writing letters of recommendation um and then we run a special circumstances Group which is postsecondary support for our inocent students okay so this next session um section of the presentation I'll get started on so there's two types of data that we're using and I'll try to cue you what which one each is as we go through but there self-reported student data and then there's Clearing House data which is National Data that's more of coming from the colleges and it is probably the most accurate data that we have so this first um slide gives you an image of um how the class of 2016 from Downers North uh progressed through college so you see we had about 90% of our students enroll in the first year and then about 67% of our students graduate um in six years or less and then the next one um and I'm sorry didn't say on the last slide that is um National Clearing House data and then the second slide for this section is self-reported um from our students so our students take a survey in the fall or in the spring towards the end of the school year around May um and let us know what their plan is After High School and so we had a large percentage of students say four year and two-year college and then we had smaller numbers choosing other U paths outside of that so if you'll go on to the next next slide then that um shows you the top 10 colleges that North students attended over the last three graduating classes there you go 43 and then I'm going to talk about South the exact same three slides but for the South data so our um we have 70 of the class of 2016 again the the data the most recent updated data we have from the clearing house is that um 76% enrolled in college in the first year and then our sixe graduation rate is 51% and then our self-reported data so from the last three graduating classes is that a little under half of our students uh said they wanted to or were going to go to a four-year college and then about 37% said they were planning on going to two-year college and then our numbers are a little higher um for those other options I will I just did want to not too though because it is self-reported Data it's obviously not 100% accurate and I know that we have more students that have been listed in the military because we kept better numbers of that last year um and it's just because this is the way we run the report Nan it's just not reflecting it there being selfreported the best we have for now and then last those are our numbers okay the college zo page number is super high and it's not exactly accurate um but what we do at South is if students haven't requested any transcript at the end of the year we just go ahead and send it to College of due page preemptively just in case they were to like show up in July or August and say they wanted to enroll um and so the way the status pulled it's it it's where your transcript has been sent so that's why our number looks so high so again but those are our top 10 colleges for the last three graduating classes uh all right so I'm going to dive deep into some data and talk about what we're going to do about this in the future so as we look at our class of 2023 similar to what adun said we know about 50% of our class wants to get a fouryear degree and a third wants to get an associates degree than like a small smidget of students doing other things or they're undecided one of the things that we do in May of senior year we ask every senior so you made your decision why did you make this decision and for the mo majority of students they're choosing based on cost and this is a trend for the past 10 years so later I'm going to talk about why that's important and what we're doing about it and also a lot of students are choosing colleges based on the major I'm going to talk about why that's important and what we're going to do about it so okay so a lot of data on this slot for dgs these are our top 20 schools for the class of 2023 and I uh highlighted a few things because it kind of speaks to how we guide our students so the schools in yellowish are highly selected schools if you look at um Northwestern and University of Michigan our acceptance rate is like dismally like it's low it's highly selected school so we know we need to support students that want to go down that path if you look at the schools in red loola and Marquette two private schools we're getting a lot of students that are admitted but very few students yield and we think that's because they don't give a lot of financial aid so we know cost is a big thing what are we going to do about it which we're going to talk about and then the schools in green those are public instate and out ofate schools where we are yielding a lot of students because we are finding that they're affordable for our students which I think comes up on the next slide yes so we know based on family income a lot of our students are choosing to stay in the state of Illinois because orbana champagne an now has a program where if families make under 671 they getting free tuition uh Southern carandale just upped that number to 103,000 those families are getting free tuition so we're really pushing this option to our middle inome and low-income families and then out ofate Trends if you look at the bottom uh Illinois state is about 28 grand we're educating our students that there are options out of state and these are just a couple in Milwaukee Missouri and Western Michigan that are pretty comparable so depending on your family your circumstances you don't have to stay in state and going out of state may be comparable or even cheaper okay and some similar data and a little bit of different data uh from North on these next couple slides so this one reflects the top reason that they made the choice as well and you notice cost um on the North side again self-reported by students is that 28% of students say it's their top factor and then 39% of students say that major or career pathway is their top factor and then this is over the last five years I thought it'd be interesting for you to see this data um from 2019 to 2023 each of the senior classes so if you notice we have 35 to 50% of our students going to public schools out of state right at the top and then the middle lines kind of follow each other for public instate and private out of state varying around 20% and then the final one um is the private instate students and those um students are choosing those schools at about 15 10 to 15% of our students are choosing those schools so again I mean we could we could guess that some of the reason that yellow line is where it is is because of some of those attractive merit scholarship packages that are offered uh by schools just outside of Illinois yeah uh so what are we going to do about this on the financial aid lens we have the access lessons and I know a lot of our conversations one of the things we first talk about is cost what's the pl what's the plan look like have you talked to your parents we provide a lot of fasts of support to students and to parents for our highly selective um students who want to those go to those schools we have the volunteer come in who can give a little bit more support than we can give uh I think that our internship course is really great for students who are looking at the fouryear school because it provides them real world experience and it gives them something that makes them stand out in the applications that not many other students in high school are doing and we've been bringing back uh Alam and seniors to talk about their experiences about what works like on the mission side what helps with like um just not feeling comfortable how they navigate the space and then from a career exploration lens we're partnering with our CTE speakers we do a career speaker series where we bring in people from the community to talk about their career path you will all be getting invites to do that as well and then we partner with um the chamber 360 for the attainable future programs and then we also with access to our focus and discover you lessons thank you what questions do you guys have for the uh career speaker series what do we have planned for this year so far so the program will happen in February we always have a doctor lawyer nurse we have a musician come from La we have um Architects um uh we have a wide variety of people who planning coming in good great alumni uh just anyone in the Community during the pandemic it started off with a lot of my friends because it was a chance for me to hang out with them and learn about their job and since it's grown to more people in a wider variety of careers we have an electrician coming and like so it's a it's a variety one of the pushes that we're trying to do is bring in more people that don't have college degrees to Showcase that to our students who choose not to go to college do you guys ask the students who they like to see come in do you interest to for them to understand what they would like to see casually as we do some classroom lessons we do ask them what they're looking for and then we do we try to get those people to come in but it's difficult just with our place in the country and the people who can take off of work to come talk to our students with regards to trends for admissions obviously you know being a Midwestern School most of our students go on to Midwestern schools for college how much exposure are they getting to the schools both on the east coast and the West Coast as far as Representatives coming to our school uh Etc I so we have colleges from all around the country come visit us but as they like a Boston University as it come to the Midwest they're naturally going to go to the schools where they get the most applications so they don't always visit us and sometimes we know our students are going to stay in the midwest so if I'm going to promote schools to our families I may not always say go out east go out west especially if cost is a big factor so there's definitely College fairs um the hensdale Lions Township North Central where they can get that exposure but a lot of the schools that visit us are uh from the Midwest cool too so um Chicago is a pretty heavily recruited Market students so there are a lot of Chicago land Chicago Land Based Representatives that are working for University that are far away so in that in those cases we get a lot of visits from those schools some of them that don't have regionals they might be looking based on the number of applications or the yield they get from our schools yeah we just had actually we just had Yale come to ours too we have like University of Tennessee like and there's always like the list posted of like all the different schools that are coming and it's a pretty good variety like all over the country we do like Wisconsin specifically doesn't they were coming like every other year before the pandemic and now I think we've only seen them for one virtual so it just kind of depends on the school and how they're handling recruiting right in the different areas so I wanted to put in kind of a plug for Tech and I don't know where this Falls if it falls under the tree but because of AI and everything that's going to be happening that's in my opin our mix internet you know big is the internet there's a a lot of um need going to be a lot of Need for cyber security and there are there are certifications out there where you don't have to take the bath of a fouryear university maybe not even a twoe so I just wanted to kind of mention that if H some if you haven't get some um and I don't know if that falls on the train I'm not sure it definitely does um it's something that under College du page because their certificate programs are phenomenal and it's something we've put a big focus in pushing our students to do is like um students sometimes will say and this is an anecdote but like I'm going to C but they don't really know why or like what their specific goal is and so we really try and push that like you can get an associates degree yes and it's great but you can also go and get a certificate and cyber security is one of those and they have that new Homeland Security building to which is awesome um so like we p that we try to well we're actually a part of our College and Career exploration event this year cood is coming and we've asked them to talk about their programs that are certificate based rather than you know their General message is about the whole um university and the associates programs or the whole college and the associates programs but we've asked them to focus in on programs like that that in two years or less you can be finished with school and R earning and in the job you're looking for yeah there are actually openings in those fields correct well manufacturing right is just a huge area so lots of the trades are really um big right now too yeah at Down's Grove North how successful was the um common application workshops over the summer yeah um so I don't I didn't bring numbers but I would say we had full rooms for both of them so um we one of them we did in the Commons but that was like a classroom full of students and another one we had to move out of the commment because it was so distracting and there are people coming through but they were good turnout and we got all the way through the goal was to get through the Comon out tab so I don't know if any of you are parents and have seen this beast but the Common App tab it gives you an amazing start because then after that you have to look to the schools you're that you've chosen to apply to and what are their additional questions they have so it was pretty successful yeah we were happy with it he common application is such a great tool to save the students money and you know applying to multiple schools it's really excellent as a parent going through this process the first time with my oldest who's a junior um do you offer any presentations specifically geared to parents as far as you know how to navigate this process what is early action what's early decision what are the strategies do you do you do anything of that nature and when do you offer those go well we do the the so the event the College and Career explor exploration night in March that's like our big Junior parent event okay um so that'll be in the spring becoming it in March okay um which will be virtual I believe this year just to make it more accessible to all parents um and then we do a lot of communication via email um in different forms to push out like we have a guy that's out that like has what action what is um I think one challenge we have is not everyone is there like when we deliver it and so like if we have it in writing as a guide then people can access it like when they need to find that information um but yeah the the big one for both sides of town is the college and C exploration and on the North side since I know you're a North Side parent um we have a college andc website that has that information as well okay yeah as a parent of a graduate I think your resources are excellent I mean I mean even if if we ourselves went to college it's so different now you know I went to the flsa you know seminar and how to fill out the form which was hugely helpful and I really appreciate I mean you're coming about the listings of the schools that you send I mean you know my daughter's on it too but it's like it helps when I see a school that she may I mean it just tons of information it's all new world like I said even for people that went to college themselves so I think you've done a really nice job of helping the parents navigate to support the students I know there's tons of resource for the students but I've seen it um it works really well Incas I would also say familiarize yourself with navian like go go in it with them um because it's yeah it's getting better it's getting better links is so now have sunting schol links is well whatever the program is at the time I think the more that you are in it with your with your child and seeing the numbers and seeing the trends I think and I I truly believe School links is a huge upgrade for and I will speak I'll put my parent hat on now I have a son that is hypercritical for I don't know what reasons he's hypercritical of what happens in schools and uh the the first time he ever came home excited like my school did something right not our school he goes to a different school was uh was school school links and he he loves that application loves that tool he's like this is really good you know he was super positive about it so I'm excited that you know I think our kids will have that same experience with that tool I've actually onboarded as a parent in another District as well um and have gotten to see our middle child um kind of navigate it so yeah it's amazing yeah it's also been really interesting too like with the Common App like the amount of schools that you're able to apply to because of the Common App I applied to 15 schools and like that may seem like a high number that may seem like a lot of work and it was but it wasn't as much work as it could have been if I applied to 15 schools individ individually completely by themselves and another great thing about um the center is that on the website they have like all the stats that you could ever need to fill out the application too so they have like our class size and then they have like like I I the month of October I lived on the college and career website just because it is just like a hub for like everything that you could ever need for college so yes good job glad you're looking at it two things um one I appreciate the effort that you've all made to make these resources available to students um I can speak for myself when I applied as a student at Downers Grove North uh I had but neither of my parents went to college and so neither of them had any uh they they were of of no help in navigating uh Financial aidid or uh the common application or any of those things that I made a bunch of mistakes when applying to college and suffered for it the past few years um the second part of that is how have you been able to address those types of situations with students who maybe have absent parents for whatever reasons um and is there any way that you hope to improve that for the future I think uh one of our goals is to Target students earlier we have a ton of data where we started looking at students in after the fourth semester so into the junior year and we started to see who are our highest achieving students that got good test scores that whose parents didn't go to college and then we started to Target them for special interventions uh like we had the alumni panel come a few weeks ago we send students that come from marized communities or our Christian like special invites and certain things and similar at north um we actually run a group that we um what we call the junior one next four I think is what we call it so we target students um from some of those areas and then have them in a weekly group where we sort of go through the junior year we go through the different processes that they're going to need and help them with the research um yeah so tons of things like that we're actually trying to Target uh that population specifically and provide supports where we can so I I was just going to to piggy back off that's super important to me as far as a lot of times you know your access to information and La thereof will determine exactly what Chris said what happens you know how the rest of that path could look um so I I actually sat down with Anita when my daughter was going off to college and I thought this is super helpful it even overwhelming for me as a college graduate degrees do was overwhelming and I appreciate everything you guys are doing so what I'm getting at I don't know how you can leverage the community to help because that's this is a heavy lift and there are so many students that you are you know would have to touch and meet and that's a lot of work so I'm just thinking through is there a way to even leverage community that would like I'd be willing to come in and help with students that don't have the resources because it's it's super important I mean those little things turn sometimes turn into big rocks to keep on the rooll later on so well thank you for pointing that out um and yeah thank you we we'll talk about that um but we also do like speaking of just community and leveraging the community this year North and last year starting last year South we partnered with a CBO called Green Halo Scholars which targets those specific types of students who's like are first generation college students or possibly lwi income or have some some sort of barrier to going to college um and then we get to nominate about like four to five students for each starting junior year to be assigned a mentor and like have that one-on-one support uh and then I actually also just thought of how and I I glossed over this in my slides but we partner with our Avid classrooms too because that like Avid does find those students and then like helps them through those four years so between the three of us we're constantly up in Avid um again although the students in Avid might not be our students we they typically endend up coming to us anyway and getting that support um so those are some other ways when we how we reach those kids well another thing we do too is with our career speakers that's a standard question like who are you in high school right and what did you study how did you get to where you are right um and one of the things that happens in attainable Futures too I think for all of our kids that last networking session kids always come away from that event saying no one did what they said set out yes that's true they learned a whole lot on the way right and so we so often have this ABC plan right this is going to happen and this is going to happen and so it's nice for them to see our speakers um talk about those things and how life took a left turn when you were hoping for a right so yeah uh I want to echo down like everything you're saying is valid we have case loads there are mental health concerns we every year we re evaluate our programs try to figure out we can only see so many people in our offices but how can we partner with our College Representatives how can we get more students connected with CBL how can we start more Partnerships with nonprofits in the area to make sure that every student is getting the support that they need if it's one meeting or if it's 10 meetings with their parents well and especially over the last couple of years the counseling team revamping all of their curriculum to fit into the access class periods in ensures that every one of our students will get that Baseline set of material and nobody's going to get missed right and that's a that was a huge lift to get ready for the new schedule and to put that in but and it'll just keep getting better year after year but that is where kind of just starts for everybody and nobody gets missed by putting it into that that space in our our school year and our schedule between the three of you any of you guys have a great uh human interest story of one of our students that came through our programs that has probably reached back to you and let you know how much of a difference you made in their life or anything of that nature uh we um had a student maybe three years ago um she was an English language learner um went throughout the community um her parents didn't speak English she was the one who went to the doctor's appointments took the hardest lastes we offer got all A's we recommended she do our program um with Northwestern early decision to get in she didn't get in initially we kind of coach her through the process and now she is at Northwestern full right scholarship and I think they give her like a two or $3,000 stien to cover all her books and she's come back to speak with students about um navigating College from a first generation standpoint and just some of the things that has worked for her that's fantastic very good very very good thank you there's lots of those stories I feel like there's so I mean I've heard the ones that thanks for making me stay in you know an AP lay class because you know I improved my ACT score was at the time and um college level English is so much easier for me than it is for my roommates right there's those we had a student several years ago that started out in our strategies for academic success u a bit of a struggling learner um super hard work though so this was amazing because then she transitioned out of that and into Avid and then ended up um I think she she was on the track team at Miami University and has since graduated and I've run into her a couple times so yeah it's just exciting to hear those stories and see where people start and then know that everyone can finish ahead right it's funny I ran into a student about two weeks ago and that I graduated from and asked her about her experience um she shared I wasn't the best student but I want to talk about how prepared I am how prepared that joh South you know has she was like kind of you know gy about it so those are the things that make me excited I actually Shar that those are the reasons I you know I'm excited to stay on the board so to all well I will also just point out that one of the board's requests this year was to receive kind of this post secondary kind of data I appreciate that you guys doing my job for me and bringing that data and thank you for your time this evening thank [Applause] you all right uh we had a uh ad last week because of an opportunity I'm going to turn this over to us to kind of talk about what we're thinking about here so uh we've been having transportation issues are all across the state of Illinois right and so um we we have issues with getting our students to activities events on time uh due to a lack of ability uh for our our companies that we work with to even have staff to be able to to drive right so this has been an ongoing uh need for our district um and one of the areas we had a a meeting at the beginning of September we were talking about what are our current issues and future needs and clearly having additional activity buses is a need for us uh so we've been looking at all different options we've been looking at new buses we've been scouring for use buses um while the supply is getting better and the turnaround is getting better for new buses it is still out quite a bit if we were to order a new bus right now uh on a state contract we would not get it until December of 24 really so when you think about the new bus turnaround right there's there's a long weight still in production and getting all of the different uh factors that are at play and not to mention that in that time even if the price changes you still are you still have to pay uh the difference if you will if you were to even order a new bus right now because that is something they don't know what the the final cost is going to be for the chassis for the engine all of the different components that are there right so um our our staff has been digging and trying to find uh used bus opportunities and so we came across um some uh different opportunities um and we actually uh sent Luke our our mechanic to go and drive those uh different buses and to look at the different uh options that we found and there are four that uh we think will be a good fit for us and and definitely meet a need uh that we have so uh we are able to um uh purchase these for used buses which will help tremendously with our extracurricular and co-curricular uh needs to get our students uh to places that they need to be to be able to engage and have those those life experiences as we've been talking about um so they range in looking at that uh they are low mileage when you think think about it you know just over 13,000 miles to to just over 30,000 miles um and for a bus that's not very many miles right so we're excited about this opportunity um so wanted to present this uh to you and glad to uh answer any questions that you might have why would they sell them so different uh in Illinois it's interesting right so you you have a 5-year depreciation uh so you can claim um and get reimbursements for different mileage for different trips uh based off the the the time that you first purchase a vehicle so you notice that these are 2017s right so likely that that's what's happened where a district has gone and utilize that the life of that time and then they're they've traded it in uh to either purchase another uh either new or a used bus oh so cuz you know when you you look at 13,000 mil or 15,000 miles I mean that's nothing in comparison to a bus I mean although a run could only be two miles maybe correct right it all depends upon the the region and where that bus was was run out of and right right so you know getting rid of something that's still has quite a bit of mileage left on it y seems it's a win for us win for us yeah it is but I mean you wonder if there was a problem that's why we sent our mechanic over to look at them and drive them and make sure that they were in and they will all have to pass the Safety Lane they were not in an accident or anything got the Carfax no yes they will all have to go through and be safety Lanes before we um and and that's part of the process right they will go through um anything that's addressed in when they try to pass a bus through the Safety Lane that is on them to fix and that would be taken care of so when we get our when we get those um they would be ready to go okay maybe buses is it are we having production issues production so we haven't fully caught up from the whole chip thing right and so it's um it's been a domino effect and so it's it always takes longer for it to rebound on the on the end and and so we're starting to see that because they they were about two years out um then they got to about 18 months and now we're about a year out so hopefully that will continue to decrease um while the prices aren't decreasing right um right they're going up but um it's it's really tough pill to swallow when you have to pay more and then wait longer right so um yeah and we routinely have situations where we want to take students somewhere and we can't and we have to come with an alternative or like need some examples of things so any a lot of the spring is our busiest season right so when you think about our our Sports and different activities that run um we oftentimes have to wait until um I think I if I remember correctly sometimes our students aren't getting to places or even able to get on the bus until like 4:00 to get to an event you have to wait for the normal run to finish because to drop all the kids off at home and then come back to pick them up to go so our our um our bus companies that we uh that we contract with don't have enough drivers they have enough vehicles but they don't have enough drivers in order to run their regular route and run those extra routes so and again that's a that's an issue across the state of illo it's not unique to us it's not unique to us it's it's a it's a growing issue that I I think will continue these are the smaller buses right so these are like you want to be a bus driver to drive these bus need to drive dri so coaches are driving right coaches advisers and how long like what would you anticipate the use of like would we get five years out of these buses hopefully much longer than five much longer than five so that's that's why Luke is a great mechanic right and so that's he's looking at that when he looked at them through that lens of what is that look like is it going to be a long-term investment it will be and just to give you an idea of the impact on our Fleet we currently have six buses at South and three at North so we would add three of the four at North and bring them up to six and add one additional at South and put them at seven they have a slightly larger souit population and that would you know help close some of these gaps North High really felt the pressure uh last spring I mean both sides did but it really impacted North because they had such limited access to activ buses over now are we still looking for more yes oh yes yeah and what are we anticipating another four or five I don't know we'll see what we're able to find and what prices they're able to come in at and we'll also see how this impacts our needs the other thing this is an unbudgeted expense this isn't in the budget we're going to use fund balance uh to offset the cost of this however this is kind of you know it is an investment because every time one of our coaches is driving we're not paying for uh you know the bus company to to drive our students so there is a slow but steady payback on this kind of savings yeah yeah okay all right and we can afford it JY J says yes all right all right you know I I don't want to put us put us behind this is kind of as J says this is core to our business so this is the kind of thing where if you have that opportunity you take it and really there's no no relief coming in the idea of additional bus drivers that there's just nothing on the horizon uh the opportunity to purchase new buses is at least a year out right so and you're looking at a price tag of $85,000 and up for a new vehicle so there's a significant savings here uh in this purchase so because of that it's our recommendation that the board take action tonight we typically would have talked about this right multiple times but this is a if we don't buy them somebody else is going to so we wanted to get this in front of you tonight and it's our recommendation that the board take action to authorize us to purchase these vehicles okay any other questions okay then uh I would like to ask for a motion for the Board of Education to purchase four 14 passenger 2017 Chevrolet Starcraft activity buses at a cost not to exceed [Music] $9,746 to go into Clos session for a the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal council for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the district or against legal counsel for the district to to determine its validity and B Collective negotiating matters between the district and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees so moved Terry moves Charelle seconds you Terry pavich hi charell Fuller hi jny hagstrom hi Cara Caston hi Ken Dawson hi Chris Espinosa I and d rder i motion carries for the members of the public and those in the meeting uh the board will not be taking any further action other than to adjourn after we come out of Clos session have a nice evening all right short break and we're back in here yeah no

Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting for December 4th 2023 you oh can I have a roll call please mrone here Mr gwood present Miss Johnson present Dr Mario present Mr pler present Miss Simon present present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay okay 4.1 public truth and Taxation hearing we will now hold our tax Our Truth and Taxation public hearing for the 2023 Levy we will therefore have three opportunities for public comment tonight the first opportunity will be during this public hearing on the 2023 Levy if you wish to make a comment about the 2023 Levy please make it during the public comment portion of this hearing if you wish to make a comment on the state waiver application please make it during the public comment portion of the next hearing if you wish to make a comment about some other matter unrelated to the public hearings you may do so during the third opportunity for public comment make sure that you noted on the comment card during which portion you wish to speak this is the public hearing conve convened by the Board of Education of community Unit School District 308 regarding our requirement for a truth and Taxation public hearing for the 2023 Levy at this time I would like to to ask the district administrators who will give information and updates during this public hearing to introduce themselves and proceed uh every year the board of education is required to approve uh the levy for the upcoming school year for the upcoming year so for uh this this time of the year we are introducing the 2023 Levy the levy is the is the amount that the district requires to be able to fund the obligation of the education in the district and it makes up about 60% of the revenue that the district uses to fund operations in the district thank you and now the board asks members of the public to comment on the 2023 Levy when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that the comments are limited to three minutes per person and that neither the board nor the administration will be answering any questions during this time thank you for your comments so there are no comments on the tax levy so we will now close the public comment on the or and the public hearing and we will now move to the next hearing 5.1 a public hearing on the state waiver we will now hold a public hearing on the state waiver application for full day school Improvement days we're going to have two more opportunities for public comment tonight the first opportunity will be during the public hearing on the full day school Improvement plan days waiver application and the second opportunity will be during the public comment portion of the meeting if you wish to make a comment about the full day school Improvement days waiver application please please make it during the public comment portion of this hearing if you wish to make a comment about some other matter unrelated to the public hearing you may do so during the second opportunity for public comment and please make sure that you've noted on the comment card which portion you wish to speak this is the public hearing convened by the Board of Education of community Unit School District 308 regarding the full day school Improvement days sip State waiver application at this time I would would like to ask the district administrators who will give information and updates during this public hearing to introduce themselves and proceed invite Dr K hello my name is uh Dr Heather KC I just wanted to provide a few updates on our state waiver application historically we have utilized half day school Improvement days as part of our uh teacher collaboration and building collaboration process what we would like to do is move to full day uh we think that that will be more effective in terms of the collaboration process um we are approaching and um looking at this waiver in uh collaboration with our asgo Education Association um we are looking to implement three full day uh School Improvement days and the reason why we're able to go in this direction is due to our bankable minutes so throughout the school year we do have enough instructional minutes above and beyond our requirement so we are able to explore this option um both for scheduling and collaboration purposes okay does the Board of Education or any other District Administrative team um have any questions or thoughts to share great progress thank you okay Dominic what you say great progress yeah something we okay so at this time I would like to ask our administrators if they have any additional information documentation or recommendations that they would like to have before the board um while the while we consider whether the to authorize the full day sip day waiver application okay all right we will now close that portion of our public comment for the s State waiver application at this time members of the public may make comments when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone and state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that the comments are limited to three minutes per person and that neither the board nor the administration will be answering any questions during this time thank you for your comments are there comments or on the state waiver okay thank you now we will move on to public comment 6.1 on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we received from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school education residents interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback in order to hear from as many people as possible comments have been limited to three per subject three minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes so what we'll do is we'll take um the the first subject and any individuals who um have comments and then um for any additional portion of the 30 minutes we will then use that for as many um individuals who would like to speak on the same matter so comments should be addressed to the Board of Education as a whole and not directed to an individual board member audience or staff member the board does not participate in discussion during public comment followup to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you Jen Snider hello board members hello you're not supposed to talk to me it's been a while since I last spoke I took a break because my mental health needed it being here trying to talk to you trying to make some sort of progress has been difficult and exhausting there's been a lot of frustration and a lot of Tears nobody here has made anything about this easy someone told me recently that I just have an axe to grind and they said it as though I was going to be offended I absolutely have several axes to grind and there is nothing shameful about it I have an axe to grind about old post failing their students in multiple ways I have an act to grind about administrators that failed to fail incident reports in a district that doesn't seem to care about it I have an act to grind about how little the people in this room actually pay attention to these public statements and process what is being said even if you were looking at me right now it doesn't mean that you're actually listening I have an acts to grind about how it has become overwhelmingly apparent that the district has too many people that aren't particularly trustworthy I've come to figure out that this is what my regret is with this entire ordeal it isn't my actions that I regret because I've never regretted those it is that I trusted the district after every conversation I trusted the Old Post administrators that they were going to do what had been discussed in our meetings I trusted that their priority was student safety I trusted that they were working on it I was wrong then I did it all over again because I didn't learn from my mistake the first time around I trusted when someone with in this room reached out and insisted that they cared and that they wanted to help even when everyone else warned me about them I still put my trust in them I was wrong all over again I was railroaded and learned a very unfortunate lesson it has taken a few short months to completely destroy my trust with the district from teachers to administrators to third party vendors I no longer trust anyone I'm listening to what my children and their friends are saying so much more than I ever have and I'm taking it with a lot of weight as the kids have proven to me that they can be trusted more than the adults teachers are publicly humiliating and shaming students they are creating situations that puts classmates up against one another and staff members are boldly complaining about mental health absences being excused and their distaste over I'm completely disenchanted with every aspect of wolf poost and the district over the course of the last year I have learned that the students are not the main focus no matter what anyone says the politics finances bottom lines and personal gains is what truly takes over I've listened to the board discussed traffic and infastructure more times than I can count except the district doesn't own any roads isn't paying for construction and has nothing to do with any road work there has been far more concern about students sitting in traffic rather than elementary students being put in danger on a consistent basis there's been more concern that students have to leave home earlier to accommodate traffic than there has been concern about ensuring that all students are in a safe learning environment free from violence bullies and constant racism from peers I understand now why people from outside the district tell me what a mess this district is when they find out where we live I'm Giving Up on asking for your help in keeping elementary students safe and the parents informed thank you so much your time is up don't worry I will email this to all of you thank you thank you Leah Philpot [Music] good evening I'm here to talk about book Banning about three years ago can you move and speak into the microphone I can't hear you about 3 years ago there was a concerned parent that wrote into the school district asking to offer replacement for teaching To Kill a Mocking Bird in English class and she said that due to the racial climate in most buildings um and in the world I'm questioning what thought went into assigning this particular book sitting in a classroom where you're a minority having to hear such egregious acts and language is very uncomfortable I know that students both black and white have complained about the nature of this book yet it is still required reading she continued to email the district about her complaints about her child having to hear the nword in harp novel and it made them uncomfortable the district teachers got together and offered an alternative for the following school year of 2021 and according to the English oehs English department chair Amy Hawthorne she said that no students chose the alternative to tequilla Mockingbird that year despite that Faith doist the associate superintendent chose CH to ban the book entirely from the school if a book is historically and generally accepted to be appropriate but it is replac replaced in the curriculum and thus disallowed then it is banned as a subject matter to be studied it is B from the curriculum I just want to um ask ask that when you make your comments if you would not direct them at any individual or um staff member or board member or audience I'd appreciate it I'm not directing them towards an individual I'm telling you the timeline of of what the information was and how it went down yeah there was a staff member's name mentioned because she is in the email thread of what she has discussed I wasn't speaking to her go ahead okay I think it is a mistake to ban To Kill a Mocking Bird and I think that number one the complaint is about the book even being allowed in the classroom which open opens up the door to other issues and the argument should be that it's been determined by the board that the value of the novel lies in the theme of turning racism on its head this is not what we should be striving towards it may be um use it may use examples of historical evils of racism but the ultimate theme is pointing to a higher way of being a higher ideal than what a number of the characters do in the novel they serve as an example of bad behavior Behavior not Behavior we should be emulating Behavior we should be condemning just because something exists or is displayed doesn't mean it is an affirmative of that action the conversation of racism is clear in that novel that it is bad it is evil and we should do better with the dialect novel to Killa Mockingbird a conversation is going on in that book and it takes place in language and action which affirms an anti-racist stance and the Injustice of racism thank you so much for your time Mandy doy good evening everyone my name is Mandy doy I am actually a freshman football parent um if you'd have told me a couple of years ago that I would be up here I'd have told you you're crazy because I would never be talking about football the way that I'm going to talk about football tonight um I'm here to ask for artificial turf we need artificial turf on on ohos and OE um and I will tell you a few reasons why um mostly so that our players can play on the field and so that they know the conditions that they're going into unfortunately and I know that some of you will say well NFL are going away from artificial turf but the truth is we don't have the money to keep up a Turf uh or keep up grass like the NFL so if we go to artificial turf we can um play whether it's a drought or we're raining we don't have to worry about our players getting hurt because they're falling in a hole or the conditions are not accurate or good for them um plus I've seen a whole bunch of stadiums things that I would have never thought before I've gone to uh Yorkville and planfield and Lincoln Way West and they have amazing stadiums and I just think if we want to see the pride that we need to see in OE and that we want the community that we want to create I think that that really starts with our stadiums our soccer players can play on them we can have invitationals which could potentially bring us some Revenue I've been in the District long enough to know our financial challenges um I also know going to planfield and seeing their fabulous concession stand that I'm pretty sure we bought it with our uh interest on our bonds that we purchased from them but I mean that's just the joke that we were all saying I know that's probably not the truth but that's just the word on the in the football parents so I'm imploring you I understand that it's a great deal of an investment but I think that for um the long future and the future of our football players the future of many sports not just football I'm here representing football but it's dance it's soccer it's um uh band I mean marching bands can have invitationals on our artificial turf they don't have invit or they don't have competitions on regular grass I don't have a marching band student I have a student that has graduated in 2006 2014 I have a junior and I have a freshman here so I have been at OE long enough to see where our stadium is we're getting there the new track is wonderful I you know we have a lot of great things that are happening in OE but we need to continue to improve those things and as you can see by the young gentleman behind me I think that they also want to play on artificial turf considering that their parents got them out here tonight to um support the initiative so that's it thank you thank you Nolan k good evening I'm Lan cobal I'm a junior who plays football and P vaults at as Le I'm here today to express my concern of not only our football field but our track as well my freshman year I broke my ankle from the uneven field and we couldn't host any track meets with the track's unsafe cons uh conditions we were promised it would be better for my sophomore year and things barely trained changed we hosted on a track that just passed the bare minimum safety level to host meets at one meet our po vating Runway area was completely underwater causing my teammates and I to work together to get the water out which we were able to but after all the hard work our event was still canceled the unsafe grounds of the football field in track has caused cancellations and injuries for football players in track one may feel that switching to Turf will only help the football players however that's untrue cheerleaders dance in the band work as hard as we do all summer and after school to prepare for Friday Night Lights when games get canceled due to unsafe conditions that's a let down for many the community looks forward to these nights just as much as we do this is not how I would have thought my high school years would be working out on uneven M muddy grounds that are covered in water a good amount of time and risking injury every time I'm out there a turf field would will be safe and will not only give my teammates opportunities but it will also allow other sports to practice and play on as well I appreciate you listening to my concerns and I strongly hope you do the right thing by approving Fielding to the f future thank Youk you Bob eams not sure I said that right sorry it's uh hi I'm Bob Iams that's a tough tough fact to follow from those two but first uh thank you for the opportunity to speak thank you for uh being board members and advocating for our students to make uh sd308 better um I've lived in iGo for about 15 years I have a sophomore student athlete and an eighth grader student athlete um I'm here tonight to express our concerns with the ongoing field conditions um at the football field um and want to advocate for the proposed uh uh for a proposal for Synthetic Turf uh during the 2023 fall season we were only able to host uh three home games um due to the unplayable condition of the field um on October 13th the final home game was moved to York Field's brand new synthetic turfield uh to accommodate uh for that to combate that last game um which resulted in loss ticket concessions Revenue but more importantly importantly it cheated our band dance uh cheer our football team our parents um and even our seniors on their last game that was frustrating uh based on our understanding the football field and the practice field just really can't be maintained or were initially designed to accommodate 3,000 students um at an 8A school um over the last years Synthetic Turf has become really the expected type of facility for high schools in Illinois um I understand sd308 is the seventh largest largest District but unfortunately we're the only School within the conference that doesn't have Synthetic Turf as I mentioned Yorkfield just installed their field last year the Valley View schools have had Turf for at least 15 years so what does this mean for resty 308 we need to allocate Capital dollars for the implementation of synthetic turf fields that both both OE OE and oehs to accommodate the activities that others have just mentioned we're not asking to be better we just want to be equal with the other uh teams that we compete against synthetic tur Fields will directly enhance the experience of nearly 500 fall athletes and students at each High School this doesn't this number doesn't include our spring athletes um our award-winning Beast of beasts of the East band would have an opportunity to compete practice and and host events on this field soccer would have an opportunity to to choose a grass field or a natural uh or a synthetic turf field for their events lacrosse and new sport within the district is going to need a durable field to play on uh dancing chair would benefit and our 15 or 150 member football team um would benefit from training practicing and playing on a facility that's on par with uh the other schools we understand The Upfront costs are significant uh But realize that the longterm DET termin return on our investment um including reduced maintenance year round use and all weather conditions more Pro programmable hours uh no need to rest the field and potential Revenue opportunities with our local organizations um like oitf asgo bears and other soccer groups a project like this can be complicated and challenging from a logistics and schedule standpoint but it's something that can be done in a short amount of time based on my experience as an architect I've been involved in nearly 60 projects like this um with school districts and park districts um it can be planned out designed bid and constructed within a six-month period just to wrap up um it's time to reinvest in our facilities reinvest in our kids a new synthe field will not only address our Sports um it will also help establish Our Community Pride thank you thank you [Applause] [Laughter] you Ryan Chrissy good evening I'm Ryan Chrissy I'm an Ole resident I have a freshman daughter here at OE and a son who's a sixth grader over at plank I'm a special education teacher in head varsity football coach at glenbard South High School in glennellen and today I'm here to talk about uh the turf which is in my opinion a significant initiative that holds immense value for our district and not just for man and not just for monetary purposes our student athletes musicians and Learners deserve a reliable and sustainable surface for their activities be it Sports marching band cheer dance or learning Beyond enhancing the overall experience the financial benefits are substantial offering lower maintenance costs and extended usability the district can establish a consistent Revenue stream through various Avenues including rental opportunities ities for programs like asigo youth tackle football local soccer and Lacrosse clubs football jamere and marching band competitions moreover the rise in popularity of sports like lacrosse and field hockey present additional opportunities that would be impractical with natural grass fields lastly our softball and baseball teams would be able to have meaningful and productive outdoor practices early in the season when most of their work is completed indoors while opponents highlight concerns about injuries and costs it is crucial to note the reputable organizations such as the National Football League Players Association recommend transitioning to grass fields the reality of injury risks on artificial surfaces is evident and as someone who deeply who is deeply involved in athletics I have witnessed serious non-contact injuries although I would prefer natural grass for all of my players at all levels maintaining a consistently safe grass surface is nearly impossible for dist districts without the extensive resources available to professional and collegate sports organizations acknowledging The Upfront financial burden on a Turf surface I propose exploring such Solutions as intergovernmental agreements with organizations in and outside of iGo neighboring towns local sports entities as well while the initial cost of installing Turf is substantial it can be spread over an extended period of time through loans or through the district's capital budget can pay for it in one lump sum importantly as I mentioned before lower maintenance costs that are required on Turf compared to Natural G grass make it a financially Sound Investment furthermore the potential to add revenue streams particularly through rental opportunities for the turf surface with lights adds a valuable Dimension to this endeavor in conclusion embracing artificial turf not only fulfills the immediate needs of our students but also positions our district for long-term success Financial sustainability an expanded array of opportunities for our community thank you for your time thank you than [Applause] you Jamie Liams hi I'm Jamie aams I live in iggo as well and my kids both feed into iGo East High School my son Lincoln's a sophomore and he played on the varsity team and he also participated in basketball and field field here at OE and my daughter's in e8th grade at Plank and then uh she participates in volleyball and track and field and is very much looking forward to coming here next year um with my job I do have a great understanding of how a board uh interacts with a District staff regarding policy capital projects Staffing operations and maintenance of facilities and how often during Community feedback like this today um you know either from our partners or from our community members parents it can play an active role and help the distri strategically focus on our efforts moving forward today I'm here as a parent to voice my concerns regarding the playing fields uh as you can see um and work with I'm asking the STA the board to work with the staff to focus on um working on this for our students our coaches and our community to help plan for improvements and Fielding the future for District 308 I'm aware that maintaining the football fields especially in the condition they are right now has become increasingly challenging over the years and it was disheartening for our entire team but more specifically for senior football band cheer and dance program participants and parents who were deprived from that experience to host their last game at OE rightfully so our Fields were extremely muddy due the excessive wear and tear on the grass creating the uneven and unsafe plane conditions that you're hearing about today our cheerleaders and dancers were slipping during the performances band members covered in mud and our football players getting hurt we had kids this year who would score a touchdown or be running off you know um out of bounds on a play and as soon as their cleat hit the paved track they completely wiped out um practically and drained themselves um so it's just concerning to see the unsafe conditions that our facilities are in in an era where almost all of our opposing teams have tur Fields our athletes are at a disadvantage when they go to away games not having that same consistent practice and playing service that everyone else in our conference has so it doesn't only affect their performance but it's also impacting the overall morale of the program I understand implementing changes like this is uh challenging and it does take time um and I just hope that our voices are heard today and it helps Drive some urgency with um the board to the staff and to pay attention and help Rectify some of the situations to ensure our students have those fair and safe environments I really appreciate your dedication to the well-being and success of our students and look forward to some positive changes that will benefit in our entire School District so thank you so much for your time and consideration thank you thank [Applause] you Nico Vach that [Music] right hi thank you um I got four kids that will go here two that are here currently um I'm not going to repeat everything they just said everybody kind of has a lot of the same stuff some of the stuff we're not covering like we were talking about safety and stuff like that I know somebody sent out picture of the field at the beginning of the year uh OE and Os even at the beginning of the year they're pretty tore up the maintenance and stuff to keep these up is really almost impossible for the budget that you guys put forward for it the synthetic is really the only way to go to where it's able and ready for these kids all year round they're going to get hurt on these fields and we've seen injuries we can't sustain it if we have rain or anything it's just we fall behind and there's no way to to keep it up so that's the one thing I think you guys touched on a little bit that I think is so important and just keeping up with all these other teams that have these synthetic Fields so our kids are not at a disadvantage I think everything else pretty much guys covered but that's something that's so important for these kids so thank you thank you thank you Ryan soless good evening thanks for allowing us to be here today uh taking the time to to hear us um like like Nico just said um I have a student uh my son is a sophomore here in in asgo East uh he loves and enjoys and uh is football is his life um right now he's committed uh long story short I I don't want to repeat everything that everybody else said I think you guys kind of heard it loud and clear as far as the importance of but I'm I'm here just advocating to as a business owner um um understanding the importance of a cost to a business and a return on investment of a business is very important um I think as all the parents have said here uh there's a lot of there's a lot of return on investments with with the synthetic with the synthetic field just it's not a sunk cost you have opportunities for across all sports across all divisions across um all youth levels to have opportunities to continue to bring Revenue into the into the school into the into the district by being able uh with a with a solid plane field uh to be able to have outside activities um competitions for band for for football for soccer um my son personally so from a business standpoint it makes sense it's just reinvesting in the business to to to to grow and it's a cost at one point but it becomes an investment down the road uh from for many from from many aspects the other thing is my son was one of those individuals that uh was two times this year uh was playing on a muddy field went and hit the track and completely wiped out hit uh injured his back and injured his leg had to take him to the doctor in one of those situations so you know when we look at safety for the kids um you know the inconsistencies of of the playing field and the inconsist and the and the and the horrible conditions make it very hard one for them to be safe two to really be able to play at their best ability um and not and not just this school for any other schools that come in you're risking the injuries of all these other kids too um so yeah and third keeping up with the field having the have the money to keep up with the field and and continue to to try to address the issues just becomes a lot more costly down the road than the investment that you're going to make to to to invest in a synthe synthetic field that requires less maintenance um forly you know my son talks a lot about other kids and I know kids Talk Amongst each other and you know I hear I hear I hear things on on what my son tells me about how other kids want to and don't want want to come due to this due to that and the football field and Sport and the conditions of the field at in the long run do do make a difference when people are looking to move and they're looking for good school districts it's not now more dayss it's not even about it's it's about the education that they can receive but there's a lot of really strong athletes that want a want a good program to play for one that support the children to support the parents um that create that culture that community and uh when when you when you have when you have word on the street where the field stinks and uh and the conditions are horrible and uh it it it affects the program and it affects it affects it affects the the community and the and the and the program you're trying to build um you know we have a good culture here and uh we don't we don't want that destroyed by by by people not wanting to move in and having some some athletes being able to come to to to ASO School District because of that but that's really it um thank you for your time appreciate it you thank you Chase the mod greetings to you all hi good evening I uh Echo most of these sentiments but I maybe I'm going to come at you from a pun intended left field here a little bit because when I'm sitting in the stands I mean this is a matter of Pride uh let's be a beacon I have a son who play we all have a things have changed a lot out there it's very competitive and we need a leg up so you know a lot of these points have been made already but I would say you know look we're in Kendall County we have a pretty good tax base here and I can't help but say when I go to another field I I I do say what what what's why don't we have do we have the money for a turf field or we we should you know and that's that's as a taxpayer right and and the other side of this is is the road they take you're talking about college recruiting there this goes a little deeper and and we need to shine a little more for the next step in evolution here for these kids so I I think of that as well um if I'm we're getting a visit from a a recruiter and if it's a a good day maybe we'll we'll it'll pan out but you know what if it rains a little then we we might have a disaster on our hands in that regard too so I I hope these points are well taken and uh there's not much more to say other than that so thank you and let's get some Turf all right surf and turf Lincoln hi my name is Lincoln I Jam I was able to play varsity football this year and I have a goal to play college football at a high level I feel that the facilities of spigo East are limiting my ability to reach my goals three times a week during the summer I feel the need that I have to go to drive and to commissioner's Park in neille or planfield North High School to train on turf field safely I speak for my fellow OE teammates and my cross town rival friends we need syn Synthetic Turf to compete at the AA football level thank you thank you thank you thank you that concludes our uh public comment Mrs similton I know we don't respond to things but I just want to share one thing to everyone listening and so forth I'm a crazy football mom coach chrisel probably tell you I am I've wanted her for a long time but one of the things that I've seen recently on social media is a lot of misinformation about our track and field about the what is happening and what is not happening next next year so I strongly urge everyone to please make sure that you're talking to your principal talking to um our administrators to understand what is truly going on and when it comes to our facilities we have um bonly finance and facility meetings that we is open to the public and we encourage especially the group that wants Turf to come to those meetings and to hear what's going on we've been talking about Turf it's one of the first things that I talked to Dr katti about so please make sure that we are putting the correct information out there because it's really important yeah and I'll say something but not now I'll wait till board member com you're thank you this is like we're we're getting out of order here I appreciate it okay your turn all right good evening everyone thank you all um this is really a followup to our last board meeting where we presented um updates on our school Improvement planning process and and as of July 1 when I entered the district and was really grateful for the opportunity to spend really 90 to 100 days engaging in a variety of meet and greets which included hearing about um everything from our facility needs to our Stadium needs to the kinds of challenges that our students were experien in terms of who they are and identity and the bullying and the racism in the schools that some students may be experiencing as well as the opportunity for academic success in ourselves um all of these really came together in terms of being able to start to reflect on those and one of the things that one of our markers as a district around progress is the Illinois report State card that really Fe gives us feedback whereas an opportunity to really review in a holistic manner some of the high level academic data some of the high level feedback as it relates to culture and climate that we get through the five Essentials as well as some of the points of Pride that we have as a district we are an incredible district and I feel so proud to be able to be in this District to lead it and so tonight you have a a chance to now hear some of what's moved out of the space of both um the Gathering of information that I engaged with with our senior leadership team in terms of reflecting on where we are as a district and now moving into what our engagement will look like as a response to that now I want to highlight two things in the presentation you're going to hear from Miss faith dest and Heather conc this this evening two things one is that you're going to hear really because of the timing in which there was this leadership shift what are the priorities that the principles and the schools had already centered in terms of the work that needed to happen this year and you're going to hear about that the second thing you're going to hear is what are the responses and what are the the direction that I am proposing and that we are proposing that we need to move towards in terms of initial planning in response to the data that we've gathered tonight you'll get really high level information about that and then at the following board meeting you'll start to get even more granular sized pieces of this information so I just want to kind of frame that that tonight you're going to hear both what are we doing now what have we planned to do because we didn't wait for this data to come out to start preparing for what we're going to do this year we had a a plan that had been EX listing in relation to what we call Envision 308 which really identified markers around priorities and we had things to celebrate and there were things we needed to do to do better and I'm grateful for the team and our principls our Educators our taas every staff m in this district has been working very hard to make this a successful place for students and tonight you're going to hear some of the highlevel direction that we're going to do to start to go to those next levels of success going from great to Greater not good to great so uh I want to turn it over now to Faith and Heather thank you so much thank you so much um with that we are also welcoming Dr Waller Mr obafemi and Mrs citas in our presentation also so you'll be hearing from all five of us um so throughout the last couple months um we've been studying the system we've been meeting discussing with our building Leaders with our district leaders and as Dr kelti mentioned we're at the point where we're than trying to ready our system to move forward so what we're going to discuss tonight is as we talked about last time those celebrations and connections from our Illinois school report card data that we discussed last time um to our plan for improvement then we will shift into what are some of those activities some you've heard about um in our report so far this year but some are upcoming throughout the year and then next we will go to our action plan which we've just started to delve into um that's what we will be focusing on our highlevel uh goals and objectives really related to not only the work of the superintendent Advisory Group but then also um ongoing suring survey data and data that we have collected and analyzed thanks so much going to bring us back to uh celebration from uh the last time around where we had a 10 percentage Point uh in increase in grades 3 through eight of our students that are meeting proficiency uh for reading and it's one thing to celebrate that it's another to figure out well what happened and how do we keep that going so in uh talking with principles looking at our classroom walkthrough data talking with staff um several things especially at the junior high level come to mind and some of our Junior highs had 16 20 percentage Point uh increases and we worked at increasing the implementation of our sd30 literacy framework which the last year that was really focusing a lot on independent reading we used a lot of our essr funny money to come up uh with texts from various backgrounds levels interests uh and increase that engagement uh and explicit instruction and reading especially at the junior high level we also looked at it small group instruction uh and really geared it toward what students need uh and then I cannot help but really recognize the work of our Junior High instructional coaches that we're providing daily on the job right when they're needing it uh training and coaching for our teachers if you go to the next piece uh this can I real quick can I ask a quick question because I know this happened when we got this presentation and I'm sorry but I want to ask I want to ask this here while it's fresh in our mind so we heard a lot we've heard a lot about scores and where those scores need to be and what I just heard you say was those those extra Esser funds definitely were connected to that and what we were able to do with that was definitely connected with that increase is that going away this is the last year of the SR funding correct okay I just want to make sure that we note that thank you right moving on uh to math not quite as rosy we are still holding it steady but I do want to highlight a lot of our work in the last few years has been to decrease the opportunity gap between genders uh we have a bigger Gap than the state does and we have been looking at the different learning styles that are somewhat attributed to gender uh and have been doing what research would tell us we need to do to increase our uh girl math scores so that is a lot of the work on collaborative structures within our math classes uh and then also explicit vocabulary instruction and this is crucial especially at the elementary level because then when they go to Junior High the junior high Math teachers are speaking math language that sometimes our students can't access if we don't do a great job at vocabulary instruction at the younger grades again want to highlight uh our Junior High instructional coaches because we would usually see when we have a new math adoption a decrease or a dip in scores as teachers get used to that and students have not had the scout in of the years prior and instead uh we remain steady so we're very optimistic that we will see an increase uh this year going on to the next slide and some of our ongoing plans for improvement and now I'm talking about this year we want to continue the successes we've seen with the literacy framework we are moving now into writing uh because that is the other pie piece of that for many writing lessons uh and then we want to continue all the things that we had found out from the successes for the reading part in math we're working on building thinking classrooms which if you get an opportunity to see it it's really great it's it's students owning the process a lot more critical thinking a lot more real life problem solving uh and then we'll continue our work with collaborative structures and explicit vocabulary instruction if you go on to that we also there's a lot of instruction that isn't just literacy and math so our climate for learning framework is something that we will continue to work on our school Improvement planning process where we get together go through data make tweaks on the school Improvement plan we'll continue our walkthroughs uh we've done our first uh thousand classrooms will'll be doing another a th after winter break uh and then the high schools are doing some really great work around coaching and creating together uh with teachers a walkthrough tool for them to use and now I'll turn it over to Dr Waller right good evening everyone just as part of that bridge I just want to highlight um you may want to speak is Dr Waller but we are hosting a series of reviewing mentioned School Improvement planning where we'll be highlighting all demographic groups and there academic performance not just one particular subgroup and so part of the work will be to review in the school Improvement plan so if you want to add that to your the structure you've set up for principles sure absolutely so um our principles are going to be going through a reflection model process um in the next couple of weeks with District administration and um the intention of us doing that is really to get them to reflect on the data that they're utilizing in order to meet the goals that they've set forth in their school Improvement plans as well as um to determine the support in areas that they need so having them really look at the data interpret what that data May mean and then actually putting some steps in place um for support that they may need in order to make sure that they hit those goals um so that is the the wrap up in 23 24 as far as the work that they're doing with school Improvement um and shifting to the equity and engagement piece I'm very excited about the Dei committee that has been put together uh members on that committee represent um building administrator District administrators um all departments coordinators roles just trying to make sure that we have everyone at the table in order to um make effective uh changes and so um the Dei committee um this past week um they are drafting a Dei District policy and so we're excited about where that's going and um that will go to cabinet and then it will go to the equity teaching and learning committee to get you all feedback um and then in add addition to that um and that's a policy committee sorry just want to add that yes and the policy Committee of course yes um and then the other portion is around our success indicators and the development of those in in effort to support the direction that we take with school Improvement for 2425 and so right now that Dei committee is um determining the data that we want to use as well as analyzing the specific data for these specific areas which are around lessening the academic opportunity Gap um as well as increasing a supportive environment so um we wanted to say uh you know looking at student Behavior won't we don't want to necessarily focus on discipline right because we really want to focus on the relationships and those pieces um in addition to that um we are um excited about um looking at different programming as it pertains to special education as well as gifted um and then continuing to build those relationships between staff and students and just as importantly student to student as both faith and Dr Waller mentioned it's um our goals and objectives are Beyond just reading and math um so some of the work that is ongoing in um seal student behavior and Safety and Security we are currently in the uh curriculum review for our tier one um seal curriculum for our early childhood through 8th grade students we also have a working uh committee that will be intertwined with our mtss structures about our tier 2 seal interventions and supports we have uh classrooms that started piloting and are continued to Pilot this year classroom calming corners and calming strips as well Asal picture books in order order to keep students in the classroom um and then uh more importantly especially connected to tier one explicit instruction related to student Behavior data in terms of our student services and safety uh we implemented new student support plans and safety plans really focused on um supportive measures to our students um that are experiencing some safety or security concerns um we also established building based threat assessment teams last year as we talked um not only related to policy with our district level threat assessment teams but then moving down into our schools uh so we have instituted a new threat assessment protocol and then finally one of the things that we have implemented throughout this year is a collaborative program um working with um our as Wego police Department really focus on reducing uh repeating um offenders of vaping and fiscal altercations so those are some of the things that we have ongoing right now connected to the work from last year so as We examined um the data whether it was our all data or by subgroup or by gender um what we're looking at then is not only our academic Behavior data um we talked about our attendance data our student support data but then also our survey data across the district from our parents from our students and from our staff and through those examinations four main goals have emerged so at this point these are still in draft as Dr katti mentioned we will come uh our next kind of third part of our series is um our action plans goals objectives and then our measures that's where we're focusing on right now but our three goals focus on our Partnerships our organization our culture and climate connected to student growth and our financial transparency those were the key themes that have emerged through our data analysis and discussion so going Beyond just um state level data in terms of what we've talked about on the school report card we're also looking at our five Essentials and focusing our goals through the lens of one of the five Essentials this is our district level data from school year 2023 um and we receive an overall report not only on the five measures but then also on submeasures correct are currently in terms of effective leaders ambitious instruction supportive environment and involved families uh we did receive a overall neutral rating and then in collaborative teachers um we do we did receive a week rating So based on these five Essentials that's guiding our work through the connection to our goals so Dr K if I just say one thing there which is that I can you go back one slide so I want to highlight here for really the board and for the public just for a second and we'll have time to go deeper this at our next presentation but essentially what you're looking at is a description of what our system really looks like if you want to calibrate for schooling success if you want to think about what is the system to get to Student Success this these are the five key components of that success effective leadership collaborative teachers involved families support supportive environment and ambitious instruction that's the system that leads to significant outcomes and what the research will say is that if you get three out of five of those that's primed for Success you're going to be moving you're going to be what's the expression cooking with grease right you're going to be you're going to be moving and that you need three out of those five systems to really be primed for success and so that data is really helpful for us when we think about the survey and the surveys is coming up in a few months um if not less that input provides us with reflection opportunities to see how we're doing on these in this these systemic areas thank you Contin so um as I mentioned what we're doing is looking at the systems as a whole connecting our goals to one of those five Essentials as we move forward through our uh collaborative planning process so our first goal um connected to involve families um at this point I'm going to turn the discussion over to Dr Waller and Teresa to talk a little bit more about our goals all right so um we're very very excited to um to you know Elevate and see all of the amazing work that um Michelle early has been doing um as a part of this goal um and so ultimately um we are focusing on a couple of things um we have been having meetings with parent University um to Foster this new relationship and create this partnership in order to meet the needs of all of our community members in various ways um and so we're very excited about what that is going to look like in addition to that um our superintendent Advisory Group has um met yet again um and it's it's very exciting to see the different stakeholders coming together so that we can um gain the different perspective persectives and build on these goals and bringing them into the conversations um so I know those are two pretty powerful things that we're going to be doing within go one so thanks building on that a little bit um that one the first part of that really turns internally and looking at how we can engage and build up that structure from our um inside and then the second piece of that is really um as we try to take that structure and turn outward and what does that mean to um build those Partnerships across our community both business and Civic organizations so the desire to have those um formal relationships whether they be contributing through um student experiences um Financial Obligations Partnerships um really thinking outside the box so um it's kind of a two-fold uh looking in inside as well as engaging the community as on a broader Spectrum so in terms of our next goal um what we're looking to do is focus strong L on more collaboration and Partnerships so working um with our bargaining units to establish those collaborative structures um we talked about it a little bit with our state waiver and really formalizing our collaboration what does that look like um also as Dr Waller has mentioned really examining our school improvement process and how are we collectively working together to improve the student experience so in terms of objective four um we want to look across the system at our districtwide programs so we've talked about what can we do differently at different levels um our from our early childhood all the way through to our Alternative Learning experiences so how can we do some program evaluation um to not only look deep into the student achievement data but what are those experiences look like um and how can we strengthen those programs so our goals and objectives will be um really focused on where are we now and where do we want to go um to have clear and definable experiences for our students in terms of goal three this is where um you might see some change over the next month or two um really looking at culture climate and and Improvement across um both our academic and seal experiences so um in terms of professional practice what does a effective um uh learning experience mean for our uh teachers for our staff members what do those opportunities look like to not only deepen their learning but impact change across our organization um so what are some in really the connection from objective five into objective six is what additional learnings can we bring uh to provide more foundation and focus on Equity um across both our academic and our seal programs I know with everything that has been said so far I hate to say the most important ingredient is the money to pay for so I'm going to bring it all home so one of the key things that we know as a district we've been struggling with is to get a good handle on our finances and the uh goal for is creating transparency and just doing a better job of making sure we have adequate resources to be able to fund all this important uh work that we need to do and in doing that we're going to do that in in two two key objective one has to do with just creating a culture of conservatism whereby we manage the resources efficiently before we spend money we have to ask the question do we really need to do this and even if we're doing this it's just the best way to do it so that's the key thing we want to manage our resources well we also want to be very transparent and very being very clear in communicating how much we're spending how we're spending it and and also letting folks know that we're doing it the best way possible that's what we that's objective uh seven object objective eight which is somewhat related to seven is that most of our buildings will build the last 18 20 years and most buildings when they get to be about 20 years they need some TLC right and uh so some of those buildings now we need things like uh rooftop unit which uh is helpful for for Ambiance in the building and also what you will call V uh building envelopes the uh the roof as well as the uh the windows they need to be looked at and replaced and in order for us to start doing that in a planful way instead of just doing waca we are talking about creating a master facility planning and that process will be one that will include all stakeholders we're talking about Educators we're talking talking about administrator we're talking about our parents and trying to reimagine moving forward from now moving forward 51 15 years from now what do we need our buildings to look like and how do we go about making sure those buildings are durable and they're well careful and the process of doing that is to master facility planning and uh what we're planning to do is in the next fisal year making sure we have resources in place to actually create an RFQ where we ask Architects to come up with us with ideas in leading the process in doing that thank you so in terms of part three so next steps in our process um we're going to come back with a more um indepth and you know as Dr katti mentioned kind of grain size of our action plan and success indicators so these are just some examples of what you will see as part of the action plan for each of our goal so as um Teresa and jadan mentioned we're currently in the process of our implementation of our superintendent advisor group so in conjunction with action plan steps and items we will also be bringing success indicators so what are those intended outcomes what is the impact in ongoing monitoring not only of the plan steps but then what are we looking to achieve as part of the system so what data are we looking at what is the monitoring cycle and what is the intended impact so for goal two as we mentioned one of the current uh action plan items is a refinement of the school improvement process um really connected to not only the district goals but also the collaboration model uh goal three we're looking to redevelop and Implement an equity focused multi-tier system of support so looking at both our academic and our social emotional learning and supports of our systems through the tiers of both you know in and out of the classroom and then an example um connected to what rapael was just speaking to is identify those savings moving towards zerob based budgeting in order to then look at uh the impact on other potential programming so these are just examples of different uh action plan items connected to our goals so the timeline over the next six months is to establish our collaborative District level teams um so we're working with our Union Partnerships and our uh building leaders to realign the goals um through those Partnerships focus on Improvement and collaboration and then finalize our district Improvement plan so that we can then make make strong connections between our goals and our objectives at the school level so what this timeline does is it moves up our school Improvement planning process so we can really kick off that work at the end of the school year into the summer um to be ready um at the start of the school year so this is our our next phase of our timeline for the work connected to our goals and objectives any questions I have a few but if you don't have the answers to these you can get back to me number one if we had situation where we have um well first of all start with this one uh unlike the private sector we have to have a balanced budget correct we're not we're we're not the federal government so we can't print money so that option's off the table too correct if we were to finance some of this we would have to go and ask the voters am I incorrect about that like in other words if we didn't have the money and we had to go Finance it it would be the voters who would have the say correct uh Finance what exactly so in other words if we needed we didn't have enough funds for the facility needs that we think we have that would be a voter decision at that point am I correct absolutely because uh and if I can if I can explain yeah go ahead a school district I what is called a desent debt extension based limitation and we're maxed out out so in order to be able to issue Bonds Beyond that and the the short way of doing that is to do a referendum where the the taxpayers in the community will vote Yes or No to increasing that Deb extension limitation yeah I'm aware but thank you for telling me no there's the reasons why I'm asking uh my third question to you if you don't know the answer to this that's fine let's see I already know the answer to Valley View they do not ask for tax anticipation warrants I already know the answer to planfield they do not ask for tax anticipation warrants because we actually gave them money last year in interest and they bought ours so I don't need to ask about those two do you know if Yorkville West Aurora East Aurora Manuka High School District because those high school districts are always funded better um than these unit districts let's see am I leaving anybody out are any of them experiencing a situation like us where they're asking for tax anticipation warrants uh based on my knowledge the answer is no and if you would like I can you know I can yeah you can let me know off offline what would be interesting also is to understand if any of those districts also have uh gone three years in a row where they decided not to raise the levy no yeah thank you thank you yeah please you you know the there was a slide about seal and there was a a bullet point at the very end of that that I didn't quite understand with that explicit instruction related to student Behavior data you want to speak to that so if you can just elaborate yep so the work of the schools was to develop um tier one in you know Behavior instructional expectations so based on their specific data whether it was in the hallway in the classroom on the playground what are some of those expectations of how to you know be a student in the cafeteria how to be a student walking down the hallway so um because that could look very different at Early Childhood versus the high school level so that is done um per school but what are some of those explicit um instructional expectations and how we in essence want our students to relate to each other and um you know uh work in the space connected to the outcomes of our data so we look at the data to enhance some of those explicit instruction pieces Faith Jadon anything to add to that um I would just quickly add to a piece of this to is around self-regulation and those pieces and so um we need to be able to look at the student Behavior data as it pertains to you know bullying and things of that nature in order to again have that explicit conversation regarding empathy and and self-regulation and understanding our emotions Etc so extending it to that space as well well I will say that at the schools when I'm doing the walkthroughs uh um when I've done walkthroughs in the past Heather what you were talking about is um very obvious um after it was explained so there's it's definitely getting implemented um the other thing I had was on the last slide it has a timeline um is embedded in there success indicators is that coming okay so okay so that's part of the the work at the very very beginning so um those success indicators will be developed um at the district level and then kind of refined in um at the school level also are are you I just want to clarify the question so when you think you're saying that are you referring to metrics to measure the progress towards the goals that were identified with the objectives yes okay so that's so yes so part of what each of those objectives will have are action steps and then of markers for what does success look like for each of those which is when we're when we're referring to success indicators we're talking more holistically as a district versus what's in this goal right this goal is really uh strategic move to say we've come I've come in the district has launched what the plan it had and is building now we've got to figure out how to go from great to Greater right um and so what what the success indicators that Jadon is referring to is we're looking at what does it look like to ensure that we're seeing a holistic success for all of our students across multiple now some of that will be in the metrics you'll see around the action planning work and the goals and the objectives but if can we go to the the the the slide with the goals and objectives so these four goals are really connected to if we're going to Now set up let's say smart goals as a district which stands for specific measurable actionable results and timing I like to include in their inclusive and Equitable but smarty goals goals I digress so my point is that in order for us to build that there's some excavation there's some coordination there's some transparency figuring out where the funds are there's some high level organizational change that needs to happen to even get to the starting point right this could be very different if we came okay here's what we're going to do here's what we're going to do in six months or 12 months I'd be lying to you there's some a really important groundwork that has to be done oh yeah principles teachers engagement Partnerships with parents and our Union leadership cementing these building a real culture of vulnerability and Trust to then then move to them like okay so now can we determine how fast we're going to go there are Vital Signs and imp expected impact outcomes that are connected to each of these four goals in other words what do we expect to see achieved within 90 days this is really a 90day will it be extended but really this is then connected to some 90day work and then that will launch in the spring really towards probably a year if not 18 months from that point on that's all I know okay I I want to invite the board and really the public as you listened um questions that come up please send those in email us um we really appreciate the feedback um this really why we' launched superintendent advisory groups uh superintendent working groups I mean it's really to engage we've had this past week last week we had the the Dual Lang the E Forum I apologize the El Forum um these are all vehicles to really start to get feedback around these action steps I just have one comment more than a question on this and you know uh especially if it's ever insinuated that I don't listen in fact um usually when something's brought to me mean not only do I listen but I drive my wife crazy because I don't sleep uh and ponder over situations and so when we're looking at all this um you know one of the conversations I've had with multiple stakeholders outside of the district and this is why I think all of this is important I'm just going to preface this is um it is very difficult right now in education for us to have um honest courageous conversations about where we're at and um I talked to there are a lot of Educators in this in this District which is great it's a great place to get a lot of information from um I had one educator from a from another District I'm not going to speak to about this District right now but from another District who was telling me that um her particular Elementary School had hundreds of Crisis calls already this year like five crisis calls on average a day um I know that I've talked to um an educator in a very influent District near where I live who is talking about how they have kindergarteners who are being cleared out of classrooms and and attacking Educators and so forth the reason I bring this up is because many of our best laid plans also need resources and when I saw an article recently where um ISB is is being begged by many districts in the state to be very careful what they're going to do with funding because the needs are increasing they're not decreasing um it's um it's it's very important right for all of us to listen to the entire conversation and look at everything that's going on because um if our legislators continue to hedge at well we don't know about after next fiscal year um some of our best laid plans are going to have problems and that's not NE necessarily reflective of us and the first thing I try and figure out is what's going on with multiple systems not just our system and when you have Will County legitimately talking about um taking some of their funds from their budget to try and fund an alternative school that is busting out at the seams because and and then they can't find help and they're Outsourcing um and they're seeing behaviors even in their alternative school that they haven't seen um this is indicative of where we are at as an entire system and so we need to be very cognizant of just like we're talking about making an investment an investment on the proactive side is is imperative at this point um but there's a reason why those districts are asking isby and I want this to work for us and and all these people pieces are important but the system as a whole not just our system but the system as a whole has to hold together also right okay well I have uh two more points of reflection that I would ask and hope to see in the next iteration of this presentation um the first one is that we often use the terms culture and climate together and they're two very distinct and separate things and so I I'd like to see us um if possible separate those things and talk about what things belong with what climates the stuff you see on the top if you look at a tree and the culture is the stuff you see underneath and so when we're talking about school culture and climate where does mtss fall where do other things fall I think it's very important because culture and climate are very very different secondly I was can we go back to um the where it talks about engaged families or increased family engagement right so we have increased Community involvement in schools by expanding current relationships and creating new Partnerships but then we talk about building relationships with families those are very different to me and so I think that if we're aligning goals unless I stakeholders are a lot of people I think that family engagement and stakeholder engagement need to be delineated because increasing um involvement with families and parents and Guardians is needs to be focused on and very myopic because it's incredibly important and then what other stakeholders whether it's community community um groups Community businesses and so forth is different um so I'd just like to see that maybe a reflection on that so we understand what specific goes with what right and so for tonight's purpose I I appreciate that I'll just underscore that what you're seeing so what emerged here right so why did this emerge this emerged because in the various engagement with parents principles Educators teachers and what I heard is that there wasn't a coordinated structure to really support those things to leverage that partnership that needs to exist both internally but also with our our community that there is a lot of resources left on the table oh yeah as well as and those resources are not just Financial those exist on the table too I was going to make a Turf joke but I won't um and then also resources in terms of human investment and coordination and Care partnership and so those two that's it and so I love that you kind of highlighted those two things that affirms what's in our action plan you're going to get some more granular siiz things um but and the board will have a chance to respond to that both publicly but also in advance no I know that and but but but but so thank you all for your feedback um our next presentation this evening um is related actually that's to build on um next we're going to invite Miss doist to speak about our uh organization and organizational and curriculum audit um really this is an opportunity for us to really almost create a selfcheck as we start to build these plans for next steps this is an opportunity for us to create a I would call almost like a third party that's going to start to give us feedback as to whether we got it right so not only will the board but the public public will have their feedback but this gives us almost like a third investment to say are we getting this right and what did we miss Faith the stockless all right so first I want to talk about why do we need an organizational and curriculum audit and it's really important to pone in on that word organizational as well as curriculum so it is to look at curriculum material systems but it's also all the context around the supports uh and the systems in which it lives and then the second part of the process which will be really important for us is to involve more teachers more staff District administrators the coaches all of that through the process um of assessing what we have and then also looking at those results to determine what are the next steps and professional needs you know moving forward so when you look at what is examined in an audit yes it's curriculum guides yes it's you know resources and textbooks but it's also test results it's also our policies it's also funding it's also how do we staff and Coach everything it's our Union contracts you know just so much of what what is the business that we do and how are all the different tools um that we use uh to do it and then when you look at how it's completed you might think it's well it's a group of people looking at our books looking at our test data it's a lot more than that it's doing classroom walkthroughs these people will come and do that it would be surveying our students and staff some of our interviews and then yes going through hundreds of our sd308 artifacts uh and our scope and sequence and looking at those pieces so we talk a lot about the importance of collaboration Workforce when you think about five Essentials that's where we were back at that collaborative piece and this will involve a lot of teacher input on curriculum needs the delivery it'll talk to instructional coaches on their um determinations of next steps and then also looking at professional development moving forward know Dr con already talked quite a bit about five Essentials and the alignment to five Essentials those are those four draft pieces that we have here and this work really centers in on goal two where we're talking about overall organizational health and systems uh to increase student achievement and learning through high impact instructional strategies and then also the climate and culture and increasing student growth looking at inclusive academic andal programs and practices and this will be looking atal curriculum too this is not just uh academic curriculum a huge piece of this as we've talked about is collaboration with our Union so we've already met with the Union leadership to talk about the purpose and the need for this and tomorrow I'll be doing an online piece for a lot of our instructional uh for the audit the organization through uh key members from our Union uh and then we're going to continue to work with them throughout this process as well so some of the process we've created and posted in RFP we had it posted for 30 days we received three different proposals things that we really looked for are um professional references here in Illinois if you're looking off of Illinois standards and Illinois bandat it's important to have some local references also the qualifications and expertise the capacity and then of course the fees uh and we went through that uh and we are really looking at cmsi they were the only a vendor of the three that had expertise and professional references here in Illinois and we thought that was critical they also had the largest emphasis on Equity they also were the most comprehensive and we'll be spending a little bit of time uh with the board Equity teaching and learning committee looking at this more and they were the least expensive option so uh the cost of this uh is 96,500 again this is more than just looking looking through information this is getting out to schools looking at uh classroom walkthroughs survey pieces our next step is to bring it back to the board uh for Action in January and if it is approved we would begin that work right away so that we could have this Baseline of data and plans for improvement by April then that last bullet point is just a reminder that it's not a product that we're searching for but also the process to continue to collaborate with our Union leadership uh and have them joint we go through this Venture together in improving our instruction quick question yes this is really good this makes me excited but I have a question in regards to um expertise in and experience in Illinois I in Illinois I think that is phenomenal do you know what other you don't have to answer this but I'm thinking about from a benchmarking standpoint what other states um do they have experience with because I'm wondering how are they going to Benchmark what they find in our district to say if it's good acceptable or not are they only going to compare to other schools in ill or districts in Illinois or are they going to say here best practice some of the other references I'm looking at their whole proposal uh here there is work that has been done in Oregon there's uh work that's been done in Texas there's work that's been done in Arkansas uh work in Iowa so it's not just uh Illinois but we thought it was really important that they have a knowledge of Illinois I have a um I guess comments and maybe one question but um I just want to EMP like excuse me I think this is a great move curiculum touches every single student every single year every single day um and this type of an investment I think is important to know uh where we're at and continue the digging that we've been doing sorry that's okay the the digging that we've been doing um around other areas um I just want to say I think that we're hiring a company or an audit company to do this because we want an outside perspective and we also maybe at this point don't have not the skill we we have the skill but maybe not the capacity to do this type of an audit at this level is that why we're Contracting out with someone else no cuz there are various ways so in audit I want to frame this two ways there are lots of ways that we can engage in you know reflection self-reflection engagement there are lots of tools for calibrating the system what you receive through a comprehensive audit of this nature is you essentially bring in um practitioners but also researchers who can really provide you with a high level but also grain size assessment in relation that can Benchmark your against other systems I'm within the system already right and so everybody here is within the system there are going to be natural blind spots um I'll give you an example my four goals tonight that or our four goals that we brought tonight that I that I that emerged and I say when I my they emerged out of what I led in terms of the assessment of the district and engag in with all folks at the highest level of the the senior leadership team down to students those yielded high level markers that we need to pursue right it behooves the board now to essentially what we'll have is now a third part is going to come and say yeah you're hitting it early on in this process and it provides us with really like expertise but also to say you're the blind spots you've addressed this organizational Health we're ility evaluation systems we've we''ve we've changed our organization chart we're looking at pilot studies around we're doing some Pilots around our ly we've got building them classroom this provides it and for a district this large um this is actually quite a deal given the level of depth they have of of of facility I'll give you an example tonight we're discussing potentially a facility audit um a comprehens of Master facility plan next year that's going to probably cost twice three times the amount and that's just for the physical plant that's just for the brick and mortar right that audit will cost 3 to 500,000 potentially and districts typically will do it Elgen just did it um 300 has done one recently I think in the last couple years those cost even more but yet we have people internally who may be able to do it so I think it's a great question and I appreciate the ask because it's important to know that it's not that we're not doing inter reflection it's not that we're doing calibration and Faith mentioned this evening jadan and her work and our team has done a lot of different calibrating things what this does is it provides us with a much more laser likee attuned um and focused reflection on both curriculum but also organizational systems and also priorities they may say hey these four goals you got to change them they may say you've thought of this but let me let's give us some let's give you some better recommendations yeah thank you um that's clear and I'm just wondering the Le the I just want to set myself up for what I think is coming from them we're like the board of education is going to receive like a report like with some recommend like they'll we'll we'll see their findings that's right correct okay well you want to speak to the findings process or yeah sure after they do their classroom walkthroughs and the initial piece there's a uh an overview that here's where we're at and then they go back and create a very polished you know product of here's the uh results that will take a little bit more to have in polished form and there'll be an executive summary that we can share and then pages of more details uh and summaries of the different components and then you have different programs the equity lens you know there's so much to all of this okay thank you I have a question more about the process and something that maybe we need to um possibly punt to the finance and Facilities team at some point but why are we not seeing the three proposals side by side and then with your recommendation instead of just the recommendation it's kind of we've had it all over the board where we get recommendations or we see all the prop it I'm not saying see the full proposals but see kind of a side by side of these are the three companies we looked at these are the fees associated with it this is what the output that we'll get why are we just seeing only the recommendation I I would really like as a board for us to understand and have something very uniform so that when you're bringing recommendations to us we are seeing that I think that without that type of process um we've struggled in the past and I think moving forward we need to decide what that looks like when you're bringing proposals to US versus a slide that just says we receive the three here's the recommendation we don't know what the other ones are to understand or to be able to ask questions we we can provide that for the next board meeting first of all and secondly we will definitely I think for the finance facility committee bring the procedure and make sure that there's some opportunity to calibrate that and then bring it to the fin next board meeting so thank you for that be fantastic thank you great feedback okay all right 8.1 Dr Keli we will have your superintendent report all right good evening board it's been a rich evening already and I appreciate all the engagements on multiple fronts and I apologize for the the coughing I am not contagious I was tested for All the Above So for those of you ducking and cover uh you're okay um I'd like to welcome first and foremost several members of our senior leadership team who joined who stepped into new roles this evening Dr Heather concade now serving as Deputy superintendent Dr Jadon Waller who is now serving as our assistant superintendent of equity and engagement Dr Brian zy assistant superintendent of Human Resources they say if you want to go far you go you don't go alone you go with a team and I'm grateful for the team that we've assembled um these individuals have been value members of our senior leadership team and following our last board meeting um have now stepped into new R and I want to congratulate them on their uh career opportunity before them and their continued dedication to this awesome District um tonight I also want to express warm wishes to those who celebrate special holidays this time of year um Hanukkah bodh Day Las pasadas winter salces hulie Christmas and Quanza just a few of the wonderful traditions of this holiday season our community is filled and Dr birthday and Dr W is filled with the yes Dr Wall's birthday is in the spirit of this period um if you wondered why you were feeling so happy so um this is a wonderful example of all the various traditions and cultures that really bring U make our our district such a wonderful and unique place to live and work and be a part of um we want to wish you all a special time filled with Gatherings with your loved ones and celebrations that create lasting memories this is our last full board meeting of 2023 hard to believe we I'm going to get emotional we encourage our students to finish out these final weeks strong we have lots of important learning to do and we want to thank our student ambassadors for all they're doing and that work and I hope everyone has a wonderful and restful break tonight I'm also thrilled to introduce and we are joined by representatives of the iGo Junior Women's Club who are presenting a check to pay for student lunch balances for families who fall outside of the free and reduced lunch program [Applause] guidelines for families experience hardship having this expense taken care of really means a lot we sincerely appreciate the club's generosity and partnership for the benefit of our students and families I want to just continue to Echo that we all we live in a world right now where there can be so much harm and hurt and when a group of individuals arise to fill a place that is often overlooked there's nothing more powerful and to be celebrated than that and I want to thank you so I want to invite the board to join me for photo as we receive a check that's a large check I wonder who was going to sign so let's uh let's take a quick [Applause] [Laughter] photo wait where's RA you want gra this to you thank you very much thank you thank you thank [Music] you keep filling in keep filling in y so good close together close together say lunch I got switch phon for their hold on here we all right thank you so [Music] [Applause] much [Music] plan to try come up to the mic so please please so we just wanted to let you know that we do plan to try to make this an annual thing to contribute to food insecurities within the community now if yes we should stand if anybody feels so [Applause] moved if anybody feels so moved to join your efforts in contributing to this fund what do they need to do how do they find you what's the process or is this just for you all um no absolutely it's not just for us we do have a website aso.org so you can follow us there for different fundraisers Within the community one of our biggest initiatives is scholarships for high school seniors uh at OE and Os and we have a huge red carpet party in March March 2nd and um keep an eye out for tickets they'll be going on sale um the middle of December middle of this month um and we invite all community members to join us at that now say your say the website again asgo junior.

look [Music] at you [Music] what [Music] it's [Music] SE Jo to the world [Music] I've got some helpers here you want to help me count down okay ready we're going to start at 10 we'll start from 10 and we'll go down to one okay 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 [Applause] y Awesome Again keep a keep a lookout for Santa he'll be coming down Main Street [Music] oh [Music] w [Music] when I get [Music] married [Music]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] Holiday Stroll what a great event Saturday December 2nd was filled with people it started with a book sale over at the library and then it had the Holiday Stroll which happened from 12: to 4:00 and it happened in a couple different places Town Hall was packed with Artisans uh and crafts homemade crafts as well as other items um and then you could also go to the you also could have gone to the bagel table and they had some Artisans and maybe you stopped in between between the bagel table and town hall and got to enjoy some ice cream from our newest ice cream vendor Subzero the day ended with the holiday lighting the trees were lit up in Montenegro Square the Lions provided hot chocolate and cookies for everyone who attended uh Santa was there to talk to people and see people so it was just a great full day in Ashland and if you are an ashin resident it really shows the pride of our community people coming in and sharing and talking and just having a great time in town so hopefully you had the opportunity to participate maybe get some gift shopping done and just enjoy being with your friends and Neighbors on a great day in [Music] Ashland

moderator's motions the moderator's Motions are listed in your handbook on page four they are the same standard motions we approve each town meeting so I'll address ask to address them as a group do I have a motion to approve Moder rary motions 1 two 3 and four as printed in the handbook uh all in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously on to our business for the night article one free cash transfer sponsored by the town manager and finance director to see if the town will vote to transfer from free cash and amount of funds to be placed in the stabilization fund OPB trust fund special education special purpose stabilization account capital account and or general fund or pass any Vote or take any action relative there too the finance committee recommends the town transfer $1,743 680 from free cash to the following accounts sum of $25,000 to the general stabilization fund sum of 5, 440 to the oped trust fund sum of $200,000 to the sped stabilization fund the sum of $1,364 to account 01544 d524 for the purposes of supporting activities outlined within the opard settlement program and the sum of $931,000 thank you Mr moderator can everybody hear me hope they can now anyway thank you for being here thanks for coming uh hope everybody had a great uh Thanksgiving holiday but um article one is indeed our free cash transfer it's something that we do every year in the fall and essentially what we do is we appropriate the balance in our accounts from the previous fiscal year um and what the select board finance committee and the school committee as well as the town manager and superintendent agreed to back in 2013 was a set of financial policies which would address long-term liabilities as well as one-time expenses um and that includes moving money into our general stabilization fund which keeps our that's considered our rainy day fund um that keeps the balance at 10% of our expenses um our opep trust fund which handles long-term health insurance liabilities for retirees uh a sped stabilization fund which is which was established I should say to handle out of District special education costs um and then Capital expenses um in the total of almost a million dollars it's how we fund partially our Capital plan and then this year is a little bit different uh we have opioid settlement funds uh the reason this is in here this year is that we received settlement money from a couple of major lawsuits related to the manufactur of opioids and typically this goes into a special account but the Massachusetts Department of Revenue would not allow cities and towns to put that in a special account right now so it closed out to free cash thank you to allow discussion I'll entertain a motion that the town vote to transfer from free cash the sum of $25,000 the general stab St General stabilization fund sum of 55,56 4.40 to the obam trust fund sum of $200,000 to the sped stabilization fund the Su excuse me the sum of$ 713644 to account 01544 d524 and the sum of $931,000 at the bottom of the uh chart is different from the total in the motion and which number is correct because there was a 40 cent error in the table the motion is correct okay and you get the bonus prize for noticing Janet Platt 11 Rodman Road um I'm just wondering about the capital funds how um it's nearly a million dollars and we don't have a capital funding committee anymore and I'm wondering what it's going to and how do we plan for that for the Future Okay um how we plan for it for the future is probably best left to a meeting other than town meeting uh but what it's for there is no specific appropriation I'm sure the town manager will be happy to give you a general idea that's up on the screen but we V vote an appropriation not specific amounts that answer question I except for the one I are you okay with that do you have he's I'm more than happy to have uh Michael speak to it a bit just a general idea of the the idea behind it okay any further discussion seeing none this will require a simple majority vote all those in favor please raised your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article two property tax exemption sponsored by the board of assessors select board and town manager to see if the town will vote to adjust the exemption amount and eligibility factors for the property tax exemption for senior citizens under Mass General Law chapter 59 Section 5 Clause 41 C and a half to be effective for exemptions granted for any fiscal year beginning July 1 2023 or pass any voter take any action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town adjust the exemption amount and eligibility factors for the property tax exemption for senior citizens under M General Law chapter 59 Cheon 5 CA 41 C and a half to 12% to be effective for exemptions granted for any fiscal year beginning July 1 2023 Mr manani thank you Mr moderator can everybody hear me I'll use my outside voice if I have to um this is a standard uh line item that we have just about every fall with respect to this and U specific issue and it's to help those who uh are having difficulties with uh paying their taxes uh especially seniors and and those that meet the qualifications um on online there's an online qualification list of things that they have to uh meet before they can uh apply for these for this for this exemption and this year it's 12% uh last year that figure was about $854 uh taken out their tax bill this year roughly I believe uh Mikey can correct me if I'm wrong roughly about $950 roughly per say 97 97 okay so I know it's not I'd like to see it be more but for right now that's the best we can do and uh that's that's basically it thank you thank you Mr moderator to allow discussion I'll entertain a motion to the town vote to adjust the exemption amount and eligibility factors for the property tax exemption for senior citizens under master General Law chapter 59 Section 5 Clause 41 C and a half to 12% to be effective for exemption granted for the fiscal year beginning July 1 2023 do I have such a motion discussion seeing none move to a vote this requires a simple majority vote all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously article three senior tax workof program sponsored by the town manager and senior sener director to see if the town will affirm its acceptance of General Law chapter 59 section 5K to allow for the select board to establish a senior tax workof program and further the town adjust the ex extion and one allow an approved representative for person's physically unable to provide such services to the town and two allow the maximum reduction of real property tax to be based on 125 volunteer hours in a given tax year rather than $1,500 the finance committee recommends the town so vote Miss Greaves thank you Mr moderator get there just anyway um so this is a program that we've had before but the state has made some recommendations for Chang that we would like to accept the one is that instead of the person who's getting the tax write off has to do the work that someone can do it for them pretty much as it says right there and then the other one is that instead of an amount it's the number of hours and we do support this because as we you know for some people they can't do the the work physically but they do need to um benefit from the credit thank you thank you m Greaves to allow discussion I'll and hand a motion with the affirms accept acceptance of General Law chapter 59 section 5K for the select board to adjust establish a senior work-off program and further the town adjust the exemption and one allow an approved representative for persons physically unable to provide such services to the town and two allowing the maximum reduction of real property tax to be based on 125 volunteer service hours in a given tax year rather than $1,500 do I have such a motion discussion Ryan turncliff 21 Rossy lean I just quick question that I probably missed um what's the monetary value of one service hour Mr Herbert so typically it's been $15 an hour but this also gives us the ability to make adjustments to that if necessary and I believe the you know as Miss GRE had mentioned we this is kind of a revision of a current program and I think last year that amount total 22 $2,250 okay thanks thank you Mr Don okay thank you you then Mark Don Road SMS I I did watch the pre- timeing inform it's the second question I had on that night if a person is working not working and has um Social Security disability with fixed incomes what does this due to this article was it due to what Mark to the Aro and sell the motion oh the article sorry Mr Herbert yeah I would actually defer to our assistant Town manager for this miss ball I don't know you hear me um so we looked into this after the town Mee the town managers forum and I don't there is no eligibility requirements like the exemption has and so if somebody is able to work off their hours they're eligible that includes one here and um the fixed income doesn't get affected it go it goes directly towards your property taxes unless they're issuing a 1099 or a W2 there would be no social security impact it's not it does not yeah it goes directly against your property tax okay thank you you're welcome any further discussion see none this would require a simple majority vote all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes anonymously article four accept donation of land zero Fountain Street sponsored by the town manager to see if the town will vote to accept as a gift take or otherwise acquire a partial of land identified on the assessor map 010 and lot 0045 including approximately 10,890 sare ft more or less with an address of zero Fountain Street rear and authorized select board to take any other action or execute any documents necessary to effectuate the conveyance of same to the town or take any action relative there to the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr Herbert thank you Mr moderator um so this is a small piece of property in basically the middle of a subdivision off of Fountain Street um that's being generously donated to the town by the Bell family um again it's it's a very small piece of property it's unbuildable um and currently it's forested open space where it will and if it does come to the town if the town meeting so votes it will remain as open space um and our conservation agent and our assistant conservation agent have identified this parcel as having a high ecological value for the town um and has benefits in terms of carbon sequestration so um that's why we had ask Town meting to support it thank you Mr Herbert to allow discussion I'll ENT hand a motion that the town accept as a gift take or otherwise acquire a parcel of land identified on the assessor map 010 and lot 0045 including approximately 10,890 Square ft more or less with an address of zero Fountain Street rear and to authorize the select board to take any other action or execute any documents necessary to effectuate the conveyance of same to the town do I have such a motion discussion relating to land acquisition this will require two-thirds majority all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes youly Article Five accept easement 107 High Street sponsored by the select board in DPW to see if the town will vote to accept as a gift purchase or otherwise acquire an easement as shown in a plan entitled easement exhibit plan 107 High Street Ashland Mass prepared by gcg Associates Inc and dated 92823 and indicated as 15 foot access easement a copy of which is on file in the office of town clerk and further the town shall appropriate funds sufficient to acquire same or take any action relative there too the finance committee recommends the town so vote Miss Bennett thank you Mr moderator uh this is a um easement up on High Street um if you're familiar with the Old yesteryear Farm up there um that woman Mrs uh Crawford many years ago donated a piece of property out in back of her home uh it's about 3.28 acres and uh with the stipulation that the town mow it twice a year the town does not have access to that land to to mow um without having had to disrupt some very old stone wall um so that some a neighboring home owners have offered um or negotiated with the town for an easement so that we can access the property for mowing twice a year um so we would uh like to support this so we can continue to have this as free space you can actually see it if you drive up High Street and look to your right uh not too far after whittimore you can see the the open space back there and and uh looks like a nice field thank you thank you Miss Bennett to allow discussion and hand a motion that the town accept as a gift purchase or otherwise acquire an easement as shown on the plan entitled easement exhibit plan 107 High Street ashin Mass prepared by gcg Associates Inc and data 98 2023 indicated as 15ot access easement a copy of which is on file on the office of the Town Clerk and if the easement is not provided as a gift that the town appropriate or transfer $2,000 from account One account 01422 D 5245 in order to pay the cost of same please note the account reference was not in your handbook it was added later it was unintentionally omitted do I have S a motion discussion I'm GNA let my neighbors go first you go first thanks all uh I'm here to speak against the proposed your name and address sure Ben cre 111 High Street thank you here to speak against the proposed easement for 107 High Street I'm an abutter at 111 High Street in the town manager Forum this week Mr Herbert alleged the need for this easement was because a new property owner had expressed opposition to the town using his property to fulfill its obligation to mow the field located off of High Street believe he's referring to me and I want to be clear that I've never expressed any opposition or anything but cooperation and allowing the town to access the field via my property fact from the DPW cleared some dogwood trees from my neighbor's property in preparation for taking this easement last year I asked why they were doing so and was told it because the select board had expressed concern in the town ACC this access in this field via private property and that a future homeowner might possibly deny them access do not feel either argument is valid and given High Street status as a Scenic Road I against this easement and the removal of the scenic stone wall it would entail as this town changes and modernizes I believe it is important to respect and preserve artifact effects of our Agricultural and Industrial Heritage and maintain the rural field that attracted so many of us to buy homes and build lives here this unnecessary undertaking undermines those cultural touchstones and therefore I'm opposed to it thank you thank you Mr Herbert did you have a no I can wait okay okay um Amy Sayad 106 High Street um I have um two questions the first one being that is presented um in the the um the I apologize what's that called the uh the plan um Claudia you very specifically mentioned to this was being done to not disturb stone walls and I believe there is a stone wall exactly right there Mr Herbert this is an existing driveway um so you're talking I'm looking at right there so you this is not to the left this is her the current owner's driveway correct okay all right so I apologize for that um so then I guess my second question is that what's going to be if if the town is taking that easement what type of um ensuring that people are not going through in that road to get to that parcel of land understand that atement just means that you can walk across it it doesn't mean you're going to develop it it just means you can have have access but but understand that this is a Scenic Road it's a very that that curve that's right there is a very tight curve there's a lot of accidents and um the ground outside of I'm directly across the street from that entrance is extremely soggy and any car that parks there sinks into the mud okay and again I'm not here to dispute any of what you're saying I'm just explain an easement doesn't mean anything's built it just means the town has legal access to transgress that that area to get from one place to another I I know but it's being presented tonight as being that oh this is great we can now access this this parcel of land without any hindrance because there now is a direct access and I'm questioning the what is going to happen to ensure that people are not going onto that parcel at all hours of the day because right now there is no access so now suddenly there will be access that's my question Mr thank you so just to be clear I mean obviously there's a a bit of confusion here but I believe this is an existing driveway it is it's a private home though so now you're saying the town is going to have that access we will have access for mowing purposes only okay a year yeah okay so then we we're already doing that a I I do I understand that but it was just presented as being that this is open space and that you're saying okay this is great now the town can access it and so can private citizens no access for the town of Ashland okay that's just not how it was presented so again I there's been a lot of just disc like the way that this has been presented has been just very confusing and quite frankly against I'm sure if if Mavis was still alive today she'd be thrown the fact that we're having so much discussion over her request to mow this La twice year so thank you very much hi ma'am um Katie cre I live at 111 High Street um I just wanted to share with you my concerns about the communication around this easement being put in I came out one day to find DPW putting stakes in the grass and cutting down a blooming tree saying they were going to take down the stone wall and put in a gate and make an access that way and that was the last that we heard of it and so to find out now it's actually not that the tree was cut down for no reason it's going to be through the neighbor's driveway that's new information to all of us and also as my husband said I think we're being misrepresented um we did not tell anyone that they could not come through our yard in fact unannounced a tractor showed up four-year-old twin boys when they see a tractor they're all that excited they think it's like time to go see the tractor and we said we just need to be informed a heads up just let us know and that was not what received so I think that's why we all have some concerns also with the location of where this easement is when they're coming in and out we just recently had an accident of someone coming across our lawn right there it's a very bad Corner very poor visibility so just wanted to share my concerns here about that Mr I say Mr moderator Mr manager so so Katie but I'm starting to understand a little bit where some of the confusion is so yes about a year ago DPW looked at creating a new easement rather than the existing one that that that existed uh that would go through a stone wall and and you would have to clear brush and everything um they decided not to do that and go with the existing driveway access that is uh that's currently being used we just needed to give an easement specifically an easement for it and so I was not referring to to the creit family when I was talking about people who didn't want us to use it anymore so okay so this this house is actually 107 High Street yeah okay is that does that clear things up a little bit yeah I mean it's new news you know because when they came through and they cut the tree down it was like we're doing this and now to cut down a tree for absolutely no reason when they're not even going there it's and they cut this Tre created this little animosity and a lot of people very confused why it was happening that way this tree was cut recently no when they put the stakes in a year ago and then we never heard anything about it so all right okay feel a little little and I do want to I'm sure I apologize on behalf of the town for for the lack of communication which does sounds like it could have been handled better um in in a couple of instances I do just want to note for folks in the audience that the reason you get an whether this situation or other the reason you you acquire an easement when you're already doing something is to preserve the legal right to do it in the future when there are are different Property Owners or or different neighbors so that's it's a standard practice and has nothing to do and I believe in this case as well with the current folks there it's just a matter of preserving the town's legal right to go Mo Al twice a year that without an easement has to rely on the individuals who may be there now in 10 years and 20 years and 100 years okay and oppose looking for your support in requesting additional lior licenses you probably are wondering why we are requesting additional lior licens if we still have licenses available the answer is simple the process is long it could take up to 2 years for us to receive those licenses these additional licenses could be used for restaurants hotels clubs taverns Continuing Care retirement facilities or General on premise this slide shows the location of all currently issued lior licenses the green shows locations where we have both a retail and a restaurant establishment an example would be Mexico City or Las Cabos the blue is retail stores only and the red is restaurants so why are we asking for 16 more licenses if we still have licenses we recognize that having licenses readily available is a tool that can help us attract businesses but understand that we need to issue them in a responsible manner attracting businesses and is and benefiting from the meals tax is good for Ashlin so how did we arrive at 16 we looked at the potential needs and the current projects these include the development of downtown 10 to 60 Main Street Pleasant Street the MBTA train station 9 to 49 hom RAV the tech center located at 200 hom RAV 100 Chestnut Street and the Redevelopment of Route 126 currently we are awaiting the application for 200 Homer ra and the brewery application for the downtown fire station in closing supporting the home rule petition is an investment in the community this helps us shape our community and attract new businesses communities like Hudson malor and NAC have revitalized their communities following the same process adding additional licenses will play a key role in revitalizing and redeveloping Ashland we will be adding dining options that will dry draw people from other communities and we will benefit from the additional meals tax it generates let's hope that Ashlin becomes the destination that other communities strive to be thank you Mr Robby to allow discussion I'll entertain a motion the town authorized select board to file a home rule petition to increase the number of alcohol license for on- premises consumption for the town of Ash by 16 additional license for alcohol and further upon submitt the select board is hereby authorized to approve amendments to said petitions petition which are within the scope of this article do I have a motion uh discussion uh Miss Kinsman wanted to make a statement on behalf of the select board thank you Mr moderator um our community has invested a lot in our infrastructure specifically in our downtown in Route 126 the select board looked at the potential private investment in businesses that could come into Ashland as a result of this over the next 5 to 10 years we are already seeing that commercial investment beginning Ashland is a desirable Community the select board felt strongly that it was important to our Town's economic development that if a restaurant wanted to come into ashin that we should have the ability to offer a liquor license if they wanted rather than risk losing them to another town if there were no more licenses to give especially since we hear from residents how important it is to attract new businesses to Ashland as the town's licensing Authority the select board takes its role in determining liquor licenses very seriously each applicant must come before the board for a hearing and follow a strict process before a liquor license can potentially be given because of the lengthy time and legislative process around a home rule petition it will not be possible to come back to town meeting to request more at a later time so although there may never be a need to actually issue 16 additional liquor licenses the select board supports this warrant article and asks town meeting to vote in favor of the home R petition thank you Mr Don okay thank you Mar Sony again against it for for the reasons why we could do better buiness attraction than just liquor licenses against it because it does not show what true asand can be 16 liquid license it have to come back in a couple years to make sure it's there it's not the right way of doing things in my mind economically it does not help because it only targets one product why is this a a thing to do now when there's no business to be in town for it's the blind Le the Blind and hoping the blind don't get drunk before they can see you again thank you Mr turncliff hey Ryan turn Cliffe you're going to get the better half of us in a second here so I'll just get my two bits in so is this going to be dueling turn Cliffs no no we're not we're on the same side okay wouldn't everyone like to see that though yeah so so look my comment here is um if we have open an available liquor licens is this is premature and it's the the board of the select board's um respons posibility to issue these licenses appropriately and fairly and competitively um I I would argue that you can have a competitive process for these licenses and find the best uh business to bring into Ashlin that deserves and needs a liquor license for that business to exist um recent news in Framingham last year huge battle over a single litho license that became available because of business turnover and that's going to happen in ashin too I would love for every business that opens that needs liquor license to be successful uccessful the reality is they're not so have you really accounted for business turnover in the request for these liquor licenses and do we really need what it would be at least 46 she's going to have the right number of liquor licenses um in this town um so I guess that's my piece uh if if they are issued I would just urge Extreme Caution and judicious um uh use of those licenses to those businesses thank you m turff um Amy Cliff 21 Rosy Lane and I absolutely understand the intent and the good intent of this article um but it I think a conversation would be remiss without the public health perspective um and so it's my understanding I just want to make sure I have the numbers right it's my understanding we have 20 licenses 16 have been issued for available our total liquor licenses with the additional 16 would be about 50 I think stop it right there are those numbers correct Mr Herbert before we get on any further let's validate that so yeah I have the latest numbers I have are four being available uh for all alcohol and to Wi and mall and then 50 total which would be on premise and off premise with the 41 oh oh excuse me I'm sorry that incorrect um that is correct okay so I think that puts us from the abcc map and I'm not sure this map is up to date but I think that would put us into the category um listed by the abcc that would be um with with towns like NAIC Milford Franklin that all have populations of about 30,000 I know that the intent of the mass law is one per 1,000 population and if we get the additional 16 we're looking about one per 450 um residents and so I just think it's important that we have from a public health perspective a conversation about the public health replications of expanding alcohol access and uh availability and potentially signage for young people um and would ask that there be a public health impact assessment of what you know increasing those essentially doubling those licenses would would lead to thank you thank you Mr Crow uh Preston Crow 41 Rockwood um I personally don't drink so you know my initial reaction is well this doesn't impact me um but then on the other hand I can very quickly name seven restaurants in Ashland that I like to go to that all have a liquor license and my understanding of the restaurant business is that without the liquor license most of those restaurants wouldn't be making it and wouldn't be around anymore so even though I'm not consuming alcohol myself uh having a good variety of restaurants is to my benefit and to the town's benefit and if we want to have more restaurants in town uh besides you know fast food places um they need liquor licenses or they won't make it or you know they'll choose to go some other town so I'm in favor of this thank you ma'am yep um Amy Sayad 106 High Street um I just have questions you can pull that microphone down to to the the little girl level um so no to the not giant level um so my quick question is around um Town resources I have to imagine that adding 16 liquor licenses would would be an increase into town resources such as Board of Health for inspection services and also um civil from a perspective of we're going to have that many more drivers that have just been drinking and then are now driving I just curious about what thoughts have been given into the consequences and the additional resources that our town would need to support such a large increase and liquor licenses thank you Mr Herbert so I would say probably the majority of the resource intensive part of this would actually be on the administrative end and Susan since uh you are the administrative end on on with your licenses you feel confident that you can handle this I do and I feel that we're not going to get 16 all at once we're going to get one here two there until they're all dispensed so I don't think that we're asking to operate I mean to run hearings for 16 licenses all at once any further discussion c n will move to a vote this will require a simple majority all those in favor of article six please raise your cards thank you and opposed article six passes article 7 CPA funding to construct a dog park sponsored by the community preservation committee see if the town will vote to appropriate up to $215,000 to enable the creation of the Ashland dog park on Town property along Memorial Drive or pass any Vote or take any action relative any action thereon the community preservation committee recommends the town so vote the finance committee recommends the town so vote subject to the presentation presentation of a maintenance plan acceptable to the town and to report on revenue generated opportunities to pay for said maintenance Mr Terell thank you and we have a little slide presentation you could see it but we can't there there we go okay hi my name is Cara Terrell three hildale place ashin and I'm the president of the Ashland dog park committee next slide so with over 1,800 plus registered dogs Ashland's culture embodies the need for a designated open space and recreation community dog park the designation of area for dogs to roam off leash legally we further preserve the currently used areas Town Forest Ashland State Park Warren Woods and Warren center from dog use time and time again the voters in this community have told us they want an Ashland dog park next Slide the Ashland dog park committee a board of six members has been working on the project of developing an active Recreation dog park for over eight years next slide we became a 501c3 so we could act as a nonprofit in fund raise we expected to complete the dog park project by Spring of sorry to start the project by Spring of 20 no we're going to complete it by Spring of 2025 fingers crossed so we can be so we can be sure we don't lose our grant funding the committee is now in receipt sorry Slide the committee is now in receipt of a design created by a design architect who has worked closely with Stanton Grant at past dog parks our next step to be eligible eligible for construction Grant is to find a designer to create a final design obtain permits from the conservation committee agree upon a finalized maintenance plan for ongoing maintenance then we will go out to bid the grant says we need to be ready for constructed construction by Spring of 2025 to still be eligible for the construction Grant through Str Stanton Grant where we are getting most of the funding next and this is the design that we have currently and this is on Memorial Drive um take a r at the Dunkin Donuts okay next that's it there is no next that was it thank you okay thank you to all discussion I'll entertain a motion that the town appropriate up to $215,000 to enable the creation of the Ashland dog park on Town property long Memorial Drive that will include parking storage facilities fencing and off Le exercise space for dogs and that to meet this appropriation the sum of up to $2,000 be transferred from the open space account from the committee preservation fund balance and with unexpended funds as of June 30th 2027 being returned to their funding source do I have such a motion discussion sir uh Aon lad 15 153 Pleasant Street chair of the CPC committee uh we enthusiastically support this application we've seen it in many other towns across the Commonwealth of dog parks working with the Stanton Grant as part of the funding mechanism uh the Landon place is a great location um the design has been tweaked to make sure that we have everything funded for the future uh it fits into our open space and Recreation plans uh I hope they apply for a liquor license so they can do some fun events um all joking aside sorry I need a little humor at town meeting but I get the Applause so that's all good um I hope you support this and I will as well for the future thanks is there any further discussion okay this will require a simple majority all those in favor please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passed but not unanimously thank you now the article you've all been waiting for no just kidding it is the last one article 8 extend CPA funds for the Riverwalk project sponsored by the community preservation committee the city of the town will vote to extend the time by which funds need to be spent on the Riverwalk Trail enhancement project which was authorized under article 11 at the 2017 annual town meeting to complete the design of construction of the subury river trail Riverwalk until December 31st 2026 at which time any unexpended funds will be returned to their funding sources or take any action relative there to the finance the community preservation committee recommends the town so vote the finance committee recommends the town so vote Mr lad yeah so um a in school asking for an extension um but the project has tweaked a little bit you've seen work continue on the Riverwalk project um even today as you speak mil work at milpond Park um is getting constructed there we've completed the bridge we've completed the boardwalk this continuation of extension is to hopefully make connections towards a cville road part of the trail so we can make a loop uh connecting with the project so a little bit more time to do engineering work studies related to the other side of the river and hopefully we can get that done in the next 3 years otherwise I'll ask for another extension thank you to allow discussion I'll UNH hand a motion that the town extend the time by which funds need to be spent on the Riverwalk Trail enhancement project which was authorized under article 11 of the 2017 annual town meeting to complete the design and construction of the Sudbury River Trail Riverwalk until December 31st 2026 at which time any unexpended funds will be returned to their funding source do I have such a motion discussion is there any discussion scene n we'll move to a vote this requires simple majority all those in favor of article 8 please raise your cards thank you and opposed that passes unanimously being no further business I'll entertain a motion to dissolve all in favor opposed happy holidays everyone [Applause]

um Monday except Wednesday because early released so Monday to uh Monday Thursday Friday and M Tuesdays so we we do the BT the tax bookl performance matters there are resources there like the retest you do the retest Benchmark reviews that we send out to parents um Invision math resources as for Math and for inrich those who passed the benchmark test they will do the ISL math playground and math proy interactive website V worksheets Benchmark reviews math res veres so for those rage those who got below Benchmark they didn't pass a benchmark and the inrich those all pass about Benchmark so they will still do the EXL Okay so we've so we're done with the the reage and enrich the reage and enrich where um those datas we got from The Benchmark first quarter results so now we focus on the BS this is the data analysis and results so fourth to six the the common that we could get the area to focus is the basic comprehension and um practice and reading complex letter combinations tellings and blending words complex letter combination so we need to um we also have English Learners so these English Learners we have new students um from forth really I think there are five of them are new and they are they really need uh like the service of our El teacher which is Miss so here's what we do doing uh the how you address the data so the English Learners are doing the reading speaking writing and listening exercises using the Retta Stone so the those especially those who really don't understand English so they will be focusing there for the basic one next is we do the spelling practice and spelling twe every week we do small groups geted reading and close reading also do devels intervention resources reworks passages and from the BT we also have after class jering and um English learner sub session in the scening every Monday Tuesday Thursday and Friday at 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Org the word Juniors is spelled out yes and we also have a Facebook group last year we did 19 scholarships um all $1,000 each and we also do scholarships at wanzi Community College wow so cool thank you thank you and with that I want to invite board members as part of my superintendent comments um I've um I it's important that we share in some of the good news but also important announcement that may be coming up so I want to invite board members to jump in here and share some of those uh shout out to OS junr Sydney Hamer uh Long Beach uh state recruit as she was chosen by the Record newspapers as the girls volleyball player of the year yeah it's a Long Beach I like I like that right the beach different Beach but still the beach we are so proud of the 105 students from my weo East and the 68 students from MGO High School who have been announced as the 2024 2025 Illinois State Scholars um these students join their peers across the state in the top 10% of the graduating seniors and recognized by their outstanding achievement congratulations moving on seven students from asigo East and eight students from asigo high school were selected as 2024 Illinois music Education Association Allstate musicians these students will participate at the 2024 All State festivities with others from across the state in Peoria January 25th through 27th congratulations to these talented musicians ASO East High School's kinetic Wellness Department received the Illinois Association for health physical education Recreation and dance Health Blue Ribbon program award the this is a testament to the great program we they provide for our students congratulations Community cares does so much to support our district families they currently have families needing sponsors for this year's holiday project please consider signing up by yourself or with a group to help make the holidays brighter for these families in our community please follow the link on our District 308 Facebook page or visit ww w.

and I like to our elementary would like to thank you all for giving us a chance to thank you are there any questions about any of the fourth grade The Big Year for reading Am I Wrong third grade is third so and what happens if a kid can't read when but this is all but these fourth graders are our covid second and third graders does that make sense no I think they were I had some of those for fourth graders when they were in first yeah which is true yeah so that was that's still Co year yeah I am all online yeah yeah there's still just some making up from the losses what happens to a kid when you can't read fourth grade that's like part of move on and reading right read stute and there are exceptions of that um if the child has special needs so it's not detain If the child is and less than three years in the program they not also be you know back but if you are not part of those two and not under CST um and you and and there's a c cut of score for for you for them to say that you know you can move on to the next then we have to provide extra support during summer school um usually it's both June and July and then if they show Improvement then they move on and we continue to track that's how but if not if they don't show off we do retain have you had to um there're supposed to be one this but the child moved the child moved to a different school didn't he missed a lot of classes last year he didn't show up to the summer school both like summer school just thank any more questions Mr President I just want to add um I really enjoy when I when I I've got into each of their rooms I'll focus on uh for the sake of this comment fourth to sixth grade guided reading it's really great to see that and the intermediate levels just thinking back to uh my experience as an interactive literacy running record teacher you're looking for the meaning structure and visual you're really breaking down the guided reading lesson you're going through site words looking at the students pre-emergent emerging intermediate fluent and it just really you're listening to Dr sholz and I talked about this they're really on you can just hear it I mean this is taking me back to my interactive literacy training 1998 99 and 2000 you hear the terms are and it's affected and I believe the data supports it um and we're we're working like if we're behind right Dr shab I mean we're we're really starting on this ahead of last year's schedule and you hear the comments from the PLC team leaders look at everyone here I mean this is a very United k34 to6 team and they have a great team to follow leadership team with the the data and Mr Casey and Miss Mercy the instructional coach so I mean I I'll take them seven days of the weekend twice on Sunday they're really breaking down the data they're they're digging into it deeper and they're the guided reading is the key to a balanced literacy and a successful interactive literacy and students making the jump and becoming very fluent so uh it's great to hear these terms that I was training many years ago uh running record you know meaning structure visual it breaks down where the student strengths are and where can get better so it's great to hear these terms being used right now that's all thank you very much our next item on the agenda our next item on the agenda is a report on The 8 Hour recovery time for sports students Mr President members of the board um further request of Miss olssen the administration will present a report on eight hours of recover time for students returning late from sporting events there is no board action necessary at this time this is a study session item only so you have I believe an attachment uh in your uh board docks and uh this is something that that Dr sholz and I talked about uh we also spoke with our legal department on this so I'm just going to highlight some of the key items and I'll leave the rest up to uh for your discussion re regarding uh reduced instructional time the key point there is a loss of potential state aid Arizona law requires that students receive a minimum number of hours of classroom instruction as a condition for the receipt of State financial aid if 8 hour hours of rest policy is enforced it could result in certain students not receiving the required amount of instruction time uh adoption of an 8 hour rest rule could mean that the district would have to stop sending um teams to locations where it is not possible to return home in time to avoid the mandatory 8 hour rest period some other key points defining defining and deciding when and how an 8 Hour policy would be worded and the apply applied could be difficult uh for example how would the district determine what late means is it after 10: p.m.

communitycares group.com that's c mmu n t y c a r s gr r o u p.com to find out how you can help thank you can I can I interject into that we have actually filled all of our sponsor positions nice there's still opportunities to donate funds um so we're we're always looking but we're happy to say that we have sponsors for our families awesome that's awesome thank you by the way Mary Joe for all you do appreciate you we wanted to extend an invitation uh to the community to participate in a showcasing of cultures and traditions at bac's annual celebrations around the world event or C cundo on December 8th uh the event will be held at East viiew uh from 6:00 to 8:00 so you can visit the District's website calendar to find that information but everyone is welcome good and finally as a reminder the public is invited to attend all board committee meetings where particular topics are discussed details are presented and recommendations are brought forward to the board as a whole coming up later this week Wednesday December 6th is the equity teaching and learning committee meeting at 5:00 p.m.

midnight 1: AM um what types if not all extracurricular activities would be covered um how would parents be notified what happens if some parents students prefer to come to school anyway and others do not just some of the intangibles uh what is the preferred amount of necessary rest time it could be eight hours or it could could be four six or 10 hours how does the district determine the proper amount of rest time and what is the basis for that determination so uh we did talk to uh our legal department um they researched to find out if any other districts or or regulatory bodies had a similar similar policy they could not find one so this is just information for for you to have as you discuss this some more more and and um very good points as far as uh just that that are made and um the rest is up for uh for your discussion Dr shol you have any U any other key points to make Miss Olson's um concern is very valid we want our students to be well rested and healthy when they come in come in the class um but they you know some some of the things that you just mentioned there that make it difficult to to set a standard and a set time and and and to make a schedule to where they don't come out late you know or come back that late is really difficult as well and a lot of times that's up to your whatever conference you belong to ca or AIA they they send you all over the place um I know when as a as a varsity coach we had probably 10 high schools within 10 miles of my school that we had to go to Yuma because Yuma deserved to build to you know have people go to play them and and um and so yeah there were some really late nights um and you know some sometimes um a kid may miss one or two the first or second period if they're just not feel feeling that well after something like that but we expect our our student athletes to have exemplary attendance and so if you do that throughout the year during the season if you miss that one or two periods um you should be able to make make that that those academic requirements up during that time my this is my feeling um I know after our last home football game I mean some of our kids drag can dragging in they've been hit really hard and been hitting hard and they looked like they'd come in at 3: or four in the morning from a long trip just bruised up banged up and uh you know a couple of them were a little tardy and um and and so those things do happen uh with with our youngsters but um I don't know it's up for for you and the discussion I I know that at a lot of rural schools they they deal with this and they have to they have to talk about it and discuss it because it seems like we we have to travel a lot more a lot of times it comes down to busing we just we we you know as you all know we have a hard time getting bus drivers Transportation does make a difference you could have a team come back early when they're waiting on another team to play so everybody gets back Aid or we're taking two smaller vehicles um so we do have those are just some some of the hurdles we have to we have to get over as well but um I think it's I think it's a valid point I I I don't think it happens as often as as um we may have in our minds that that it might because when it is one late night long trip and if you are a parent uh it's tough you know it's tough to get teenagers up anytime but coming back that late after after you know really playing those Rough Sports then then it does make it more difficult but from the schedule that I check we don't we don't have that that many really late late returns but there are some for sure I think the biggest ones were the Friday or not Friday but the Thursday night football games you understand why they do that yes we do but so I truly would like to see because with the CIA now all games are on Thursdays because of the referee shortage and I understand that I like to see if we could possibly even look into going to AIA to see if that is an option so I I can make a point to that Trish I was the ad where we went from the AIA back to um the C and the last year that that I they put together the conferences AO was playing Duncan Fort Thomas Alfreda and St David which are really far away really far away and I went to them and I said we don't want to travel all the way across the state to play sports can't you put us so T hbin win you know Winter Haven over there and they assured me that they would but then when the when the schedules came out guess where we were at all over the place all over there right so at that point we felt I talked with all the coaches superintendent the principal and we felt the time that it was in our best interest to go to ca not because of the competition level but because we would have closer games and we wouldn't have because at that time most of the ca teams were in Phoenix and so we were going to play Phoenix teams instead of having to travel all over the state so just going to the AIA which I'm not 100% against but just going to the AIA in no way it's not going to fix everything that may not fix anything in some ways it may even make it worse like from what you said it might make it even more challenging yeah and and you know I've been on those buses coming in at 2 o'clock in the morning as a high schooler back in 1970s and as a a coach you know and I know what it's like to ride that bus home in the middle of night you know especially when you're an old man but you're a ro area and if you're going to play you got to play other Royal teams and those Ro teams are scattered all over the State of Arizona and so you know I don't know I don't know any anyway you can fix this who who makes the schedule for the CAA when we get our football schedule well CA makes a football well um we we can we can look into all options guys let's be we can look into it we can talk with our ad um Dr sholz and I can talk with both CIA and AIA doesn't hurt want we may stay where we are or if there's an option I know there's other uh there's other schools that maybe aren't as far as those we we've uh we can bring some some of those I'm sure busing also is is I get that but um let's check it out I mean uh what's the worst that can happen is that it doesn't happen and we stay in CA but what's the benefit of what can happen that we're going consistently to other districts where High School football is being played on Friday night and that sounds like that would address the concern I know Miss Olsson has as far as getting back late on Thursday well if you playing on Friday night you're getting back late on Friday night you have Saturday and Sunday let's give it a shot I mean you know that's just football yeah no no it's it's I get basball basketball baseball is usually Tuesday and Friday it depends but um let's we can check it out and do that you know another thing too um going back to the video you showed last week about um not dealing with difficult situations is not it's not when we wait for things to get easier but learning how to deal with difficult situations handle hard better handle hard better let our kids stay up late and they get back the next morning they have to get their butts up and head to school so they can be sleeping on the bus they're getting some nap time the bus driver who comes back in does that bus driver have to report back to school to drive that next morning are they exempt it's part of responsibility that we we have to be able to allow our kids to experience some of these tough situations because as they become adults they're going to see this how many nights have we been up so who knows what time we still have to get up and get our butts to work the next morning it's it these late night games happen just a couple of times during the season we had um a movie night was it the end of October my kid didn't come home till after 11: and before she left I said okay the movie's going to get out close to midnight you still have school the next day she goes I know all right then go you better make sure your butt's up the next morning and at school 8 o' in the morning it's just it's I think it's just something the kids have to get used to when they go to college they're going to be up during finals studying all night long and expected the next morning to be there taking that test it's just something I think that's a life lesson that these kidss are going to learn and it's nice that they're going to learn it right now in high school with the guidance of their parents so that way when they're in the real world they're like this is a piece of cake I've done it before and here it seems like we do have a way for them to make up ours if they are abely by doing enrichment stuff and I'm assuming that anybody playing on the sports is doing well enough that they are so that they were their thing would be then the community service options to make up for time ABS glad you brought this up Trish I'm glad you brought this up because I think it's been a conversation been going on for a while about whether we should go back to the AIA or not right and by a lot of a lot of people in a lot of different ways another thing that happened to us that last year was they stuck Us in double A in baseball and softball so we were playing dyser high school that um Yuma cath League um schools that were so big I remember watching a a team take infield one year and I was in The Dugout with our team and they were putting on a high a college display taking infield right and I could feel that everybody in our Dugout being intimidated so I had to start making jokes and doing other things to calm the kids down of course we went out and they clobbered us bad the AIA just they didn't take care of us they they kind of used us as a doll yeah they had a spot so let's put off one in doua you know this don't have them play Hil abandon schools their size let have them play huge schools so so if I was going to make that decision D which I have no no part in at all I would definitely sit down with all my head coaches huh I would I would get all my head coaches together of every sport and I would say what would you guys like to do you want to go back to AIA or do you want to see stay in the CA and then they could tell you how they felt about going back to the AIA I I I didn't have any trouble selling the school to go to the CIA because Dr superintendent hated the director of the AIA at the time so he was more than happy to get away from that guy but um but the AIA definitely did not treat Offa High School nor hilin hilin pulled out the AIA the same time we did right they pulled out and they're not going to go back to AIA so if you do away if we go back we won't have that home game anymore can seal it in that is like the biggest game of the year you know talk talk to your coaches sure no we can I hate this Thursday Night Football I I hate it it goes against every tradition of high school football right the the kids are going over there I don't care what you say when the kid gets back and or 3 o'clock in the morning he's GNA have a heck of a time in class the next day I just hate I've always hated Thursday Night Football the C is's always had at least one or two Thursday night games right even when I coach you at Thursday night games but I understand why they do it if you give an official a chance to do an AIA game or a CA game he's going to choose the AIA game every single time right so this way they can do a c game on Thursday night and then do an AIA game on Friday night and so they get they get the officials I I understand why they're doing it doesn't mean I like it but I understand why they're doing it Mr President Mr D misson we'll just we can we'll talk with the coaches we'll follow what you're saying keep it in mind what Miss Olsson is let's see what happens it's either going to be ca still or AA we'll figure it out but at least we're talking about it so let's let's see what happens okay is there any more discussion on this then we will move to the item that we reloc located in the schedule which is the request for the termination of the association between a USD and asba Mr President members of the board uh this is a request for termination of the association between a USD and asba there is no board action necessary at this time this is a study session item only you have I gave you a hard copy of what uh F5 superintendent Todd Jagger shared with us at our last superintendent collaborative meeting November 16th to all the asba executive members he included this information um in multiple ways he sent it to him and you can see uh that AO Unified School District is the first resolution on the packet along with elter Ampitheater Catalina Foothills unified flen Wells unified Continental Elementary School District Mirana Unified School District P County Jo technical education District Saar Unified School District Han Unified School District District B Unified School District so you also uh have included in your attachments uh I know and just kind of echoing what I believe uh Mr Hopkins stated earlier a joint statement so this was a joint statement for asba board of directors just talking about Mr Deon Del palasio has announced his resignation effective December 15 2023 as executive director of the Arizona school boards Association and um echoing the comments from Miss Rodriguez the last discussion October 11th a key Point she made puts pressure on asba to correct the situation so uh wanted to share this for you for your discussion the attachment from all the districts and the the most recent news this this afternoon from asba you got that email today Yeah so basically a save face statement instead of dealing with the problem so is there any discussion on this I just have a statement that I feel the asba punted on this instead of dealing with it directly they just said okay we'll go ahead and let you resign this and this and this which I don't think is right but whatever um so that's all I got to say on that Dad I was I mean I had written them the first time I told you about addressing my concerns then I wrote them after hearing back from uh Mr Polio I wrote them again and kind of pointed out that my questions hadn't been answered they' been avoided never heard anything back from him and it was frustrating to me but at the same time kept thinking I was like okay I'm not this is about the district and what's best for our students I can't make this decision based on how I'm feeling about this not an emotional decision this needs to be based on what's most practical for the district even as frustrated as I was with the lack of communication um I do wish the asba I wish originally the ASA board had properly vetted their candidates barring that I wish they would have taken action but barring that I glad that this gentleman has stepped down and hopefully they can do a better job of vetting the next candidates that they're having in that position but I I still as irritated as I got with them still can't deny the benefit to the district and to our students to have that Association still in place this to me just shows that their executive board doesn't care it's all that is so I'll be very vocal about asba and how everyone these people they should accuse themselves of being on the executive board and letting this just happen so that's all I got to say on that yeah and like I said I thought to the the board members who basically said no we don't want to see the report on this like in my I would have loved to have seen them go too because if they're not willing to look at hey this guy doesn't have the credentials you he says he does if they're oh well that's not important no that is very important especially for a organization that supports education otherwise I mean granted most of our students have no idea what's going on at asber but it's not setting a good precedence for how to run an educational system if you're going to let somebody take a job without having met the educational requirements of that job so I'll just say this for the remainder of this term I'm just going to boycott anything personally that we're involved with as with okay that's just for me understood is there any other discussion on this matter and we'll move to the next item is possible new agenda items for the next meeting I think we need to because I read the policy we're good okay yeah we voted to approve it we did yeah we did read over the policy on that um the meetings and it said it says that yeah I'm pull it right back up say literally right here the second Wednesday of each month during the regular school year is designated as the regular board meeting date the board May hold other meetings as cancel as called regular meeting may be rescheduled or canceled by majority vote of the board is one of one of the reasons so and looking back at that calendar there were a couple where it was happening in the first week and not the second week so there were a couple where it didn't follow that second Wednesday of each month being the set date but if we vote on the agenda on that calendar like it is it becomes legitimate and we and we certainly can it says the second week or the second Wednesday second Wednesday and then we certain and we usually it's usually winds up being second full weeks that way we can have the well never never mind not make any sense um but we still have the option to to change that schedule throughout the year I know from looking at it I'm pretty sure I'm going to need the October one shifted because that's in the middle of my trip back East again and of course we can just but I'll see V to change it yeah yeah yeah so I think we're we're good on it if we vote on the calendar like it is to me that meets that requirement of the board by majority deciding to change the date from second Wednesday to one of the other Wednesdays so when I when I ran for board for agenda item and it's been an agenda item before but when I ran for the board two of the main things that that got me elected was I said that I would see about getting track back of the sport and I would see about getting Junior High Athletics again right and so I'd like to have that as the agenda item again okay good talking about track because now if we're going to do it we need to do it and also High Athletics okay and I know well we can't discuss I was going to discuss but then I realized I cannot do that so um anybody else have agenda items to propose for next time so okay may I have a motion to adjourn I'll make motion I'll second that motion Mr C Mr Hopkins Mr cutri M Rodriguez Miss olon hi I'm tired me too Caroline I'm tired Caroline said but

finance and Facilities will meet on Monday December 11th at 6 p.m. and then Tuesday December 19th the policy and legislative committee meets at 5:00 pm these meetings are held at the District administration Center and there's opportunity for public comment at each of these meetings and by the way I want to point out I don't want to call out his name because I don't want him to get embarrassed but we do have a an OE student who I think has showed up to every single one of our committee meetings and so you're seeing your notice and appreciate it be the change right be the change right uh with that that concludes my superintendent comments um there are so many exciting things that happen in this District um and uh so much learning and it's I'm grateful to have the board joined me in reflecting and celebrating those so thank you for that Madam president thank you thank you for that report and if you guys don't mind can we go out of order and do the stup the student ambassador report because it's getting late and we need them to get their sleep and be ready for tomorrow so we're going to go with our student ambassador reports oh I have to make a motion to do it can I have a motion to um have our student ambassador report go after our superintendent report tonight I moving to 6.2 right move to 6.2 or 82 uh I make a motion to move item 8.4 to 8.2 second Miss menm I Mr pler I hi Sim hi Mr G hi Dr Mario hi hi motion passes 70 we will now have our St our student ambassador reports can we make that permanent so we don't have to do this a lot yes well we have to make a motion for that no no we just do it all right so over the past couple of weeks we have made some very successful plans for Ascend on January 26th the main topics of discussion were deciding on a schedule that will give students ample time with speakers and for reflection determining how we want to organize our speakers discussing how to give students decision-making power on which speakers they want to listen to while keeping students organized and focused and lastly how we can Ensure students are engaged throughout the entire day we plan on continuing this planning at our dece December 11th meeting so we can have an appropriate amount of time to make sure we communicate these plans with teachers and staff appropriately lastly I just want to discuss the triple I conference I had the privilege of attending two weeks ago myself and other ssac students were given the opportunity to be part of a dayong intensive on student voice this program included important lessons on breaking down barriers between between students and administration discussion of important issues within District Statewide and a breakout session with just student attendees this breakout session was one of my favorite parts of the day as we got to discuss issues we are addressing within our district such as sexual sexual harassment and mental health with other representatives to find unique ways to tackle these issues overall it was a great experience that I will remember as I continue my work as a student ambassador thank you to the board and administration for giving me and the other ssac members this amazing opportunity that was awesome thanks all right oh okay um I was not unfortunately able to attend the triple I conference last month as I was attending an entertainment conference in the Sunshine State of Florida um I was able to learn a lot about the business industry however and the hard work that does go into that field um overall the ssac has been um focusing in on planning our Ascend um in January and we are looking forward to completing all prod all of our projects and finalizing our details uh by the next board meeting so we can provide essential communication about Ascend uh as well as pushing out and receiving our um much awaited results um from our teacher survey so we can create a strong action plan to kick off second semester strong uh with how we want to utilize those results results thank you you thank you very much and you guys are excused second semester oh my gosh okay now we'll go back to our 8.2 board committee reports so we have finance and facilities and then policy and legislative um finance and Facilities would you like to share out sure uh the O EHS the asgo East track oval is striped and completed and available for use the high jump pole vault and long jump should be completed by May 2024 depending on whether I think that's really important because there is some misinformation out there right now that um says there will not be for next year and it's really important that everybody understands that we have a very keen eye on that the outside track will be ready for track season the high jump long jump and the pole vault will be completed inside the high school if it's not ready by the track season a lot of this is unfortunately determined by vendors and timing and uh materials weather so we kind of have to absorb um those delinquencies when they come for come to us the ohos track still in progress with a completion date of May 2024 depending on the weather in the interim we have reached out to Yorkville High School in planfield central to host our home track meets OS will utilize the OE track occasionally for training the OE tennis court is complete the OS tennis courts are anticipated to be completed by May 24th depending on the weather tennis season should run without interruption the ASO East pool maintenance of diving boards and their starter blocks is needed gathering information on the cost at this time and we will will update the finance and facility Committee in December clubber our architect has presented a 5-year plan to our finance and facility uh committee for approval and it will be presented to the Board of Education um yeah and then yeah just uh I don't know this it kind of ties into our the meeting prior to this where we discuss you know how we're going to look at contracts moving forward and uh making sure that we're um buckled up in that process as well so I appreciate the S oemi bringing that to us and um you know we're looking to make sure that uh some of these situations uh don't happen again well I think it's also um and and kind of a different topic I think it's also great that we've got A Five-Year Plan put together um that cloer did for us so that we can start to kind of uh actively plan and budget for some of these repairs that we all know need to be done at this point in time y one piece just to give the history here um some of those things were done in the past and then Financial Calamity occurred and so um I I I'm I get just as frustrated as other people um trust me I do but I think I I'm not sure how else to I'm just not sure how else to articulate that when those things were happening um you know uh I don't I don't know what else we we could have done at the time to to convey that there would be years and years of of effects from from all of that um I feel terrible about it every day right but um I can tell you someone sitting up in bright lights on a stage when you're discussing Cuts there wasn't one person who thought well we'll be fine after this um so I'm happy to see us getting better and thank you but I know we're not where we need to be so I don't think anybody's arguing that yeah it's gonna it's take a while take a while on I didn't realize we had a page two we did discuss the water main break at um ASO high school I just want to shout out to the maintenance team did an incredible job um thank you Mr Queen please send along our appreciation what they were able to do in such a short amount of time to um mitigate the risk of more damage was incredible so we were very proud of that we will be receiving the Board of Education will receive a bid for mowing on January 8th and then we will have um action on January 22nd and something that I am very excited about is we put out a an RFP that's a request for a proposal for new food service possibly could be Aramark again we don't know um but last year ISB took away the low bid requirements so we now have the chance to award the Food Service bid to align with our board priorities and our values and our vision um there are wow this got updated there are 15 vendors that have shown interest so far which is amazing the RFP process will allow us to do a food tasting and visit the cafeteria and there will be a um small committee put together to help within student ambassadors board members to take part in the tasting process and we have also um very proud of Amanda and um Dr or Mr uba in um really putting all the needs of our specific district and our specific schools in the RFP to ensure that um all of our students are getting the same food um on a daily basis at the same time especially with what is um presented in the menu which we know there have been a lot of issues so we look forward um to getting back that information and that's two more vendors that submitted since we met as a finance committee so that is very exciting okay policy and legislative okay um we had um two basic conversations at the um policy and legislative committee uh we did some work on policy uh reviewing policy from press and and an additional policy um that um will'll bring forward to the board as well uh and then we spent another half of the time um discuss discussing uh legislative matters um Jared did a nice job of bringing some information that he gathered uh about the districts um around us near us kind of around us uh and and helping us visualize what characteristics we share with those districts to see if there is any natural um natural connections that we could make in regards to advocacy at the legislative level um that conversation continues um started yeah we're just getting started with that what did I miss I think we were also talking to the ISB or we were considering talking to the iasb about potentially in the future having some Regional having a regional meeting I have to keep telling this down having a regional meeting um at this location depending on what they're in this District depending on what their parameters were um it seems that we I guess from from what we've heard we have been fairly quiet um within iasb for a long period of time and it's uh we need to start getting our voices back yeah it kind of ties into some of the feedback that we received from IB we had what I thought was kind of a courageous conversation too when it came to uh we had a great um suggestion from uh Teresa about um perhaps um approaching our um region which we're in iasb we in the kwaki region about perhaps um seeing if they can get legislators together and we could go that route one of the things to think about um that our conversation went to when it comes to advocacy for our district is there's a couple of pieces one is we are definitely on the border of our region so Kettle County isn't even marked on the map as being in Kish and we're the largest District in kennel County and clearly we're in the Kwak division uh but if you go to TU 4 they're in Dage and if you go to planfield they're in Three Rivers and so we really are like we talk about being kind of where everything meets over here we really are kind of where everything meets according to them we had some discussions about whether we wanted to have discussions with iasb about the way they've done the regions that came up um and then you know and this is the hard part to kind of convey to um the community there are there are committees there are there are leadership roles in the regions and then there are leadership roles at the Statewide um myself being on the board six years that's like nothing right um it's compared to other districts who claim those uh leadership roles they've had a lot of experience and a lot of board members on there I am not advocating for anything other than to make sure that the general public understands we've had turnover um that we've been uncomfortable with uh when it comes to Administration level but we've also had turnover at the board level and I'm not saying that it hasn't been necessary or anything but there are consequences to that right and one of the consequences I'll talk about it more in my board comments is we seem to not know the whole history of things that have come before us sometimes and um you know we can we can say a conversation started at a certain point from our perspective our perspective is limited right um and so so a lot of times those conversations trust me have started long before and and there have been people who sat in these seats and have said many things uh and witnessed many things also uh I am happy though that the board seems very excited about staying in iasb because that was another thing was brought up we've actually had board members who wanted to remove themselves from I uh asgo from iasb as well so I think those were everything you did a good job of covering everything else I just wanted to add those pieces of the conversation that happened and I should thank you again for putting all of that together it pretty awesome it was actually fun I enjoyed it I know you enjoyed it I knew it was fun when I got it like within 24 hours like oh Jar's been having fun and texts along the way contrary to popular opinion I do listen and then I I go forth and I told you my wife gets tired of me not sleeping thank you all right 8.3 board comments who wants a start you've been going last so I didn't prepare anything but I just wanted to say triple I was once again um quite inspirational and walked away with a lot of ideas and thoughts and so forth but more than anything I just want to say that our students man did they shine once again um we even had our former um one of our former ambassadors come back and one of our former committee members and I'm grateful to Caitlyn and Monica it was just such a joy to see them and spend the day with them and they continue to represent us weo and put us in such a bright shining light so it was great it was a great it was definitely great um another great weekend I can continue with comments and just say um was my first time at triple ey um great experience uh lots of you know getting to know each other and hanging out and also lots of learning in the different sessions uh I got to attend um some uh session on negotia negotiations I got to attend a session on uh teacher Pipeline and I had to attend a session also uh with a panel of legislators which is one of the um more pertinent takeaways as they discussed ebf which was um a is always a topic uh related to all the things that we're doing here on the board um and I'll say that and I have my detailed notes uh but there was uh two legislators there as well as a Deputy Governor for education in Illinois um and my summary of my notes are that uh for next year as Jared has said several times um ebf will likely be funded at 350 minimum uh and then from there there might be some competing priorities uh those priorities include higher education early childhood education um and fun funding for to support migrants in this the state uh so some good takeaways lots of learning and a great opportunity uh let's see so uh a couple things that uh I'll start with the I went to a at Triple A a piece on sped funding uh special education funding uh a couple of things I I pulled a lot out but I'm just going to highlight three um ebf does not provide for high cost low in students with disabilities so as we see that population increase we should realize that um also uh idea hold harmless is based off of 1998 numbers um so when we talk about anyone messing with evidence-based formula that should be alarming to say the least especially if you have someone in special education uh I'm not going to get into details but there's potential where Outsourcing um could be affecting our maintenance of equity and for those that don't know that this is the formula that makes sure we aren't reducing spending on special education um so there was that the delegate assembly was very interesting uh I'm important to be transparent here so the biggest generation of revenue for iasb comes from dues and Conference conferences and programs the largest expenditure is on personnel and progress some of those um um Outreach pieces that they do there were two candidate I I apologize for this I felt terrible about this there were two candidates for vice president um we didn't know so just so we're aware what the process is you can submit your name but this goes back to you have to have a certain uh criteria you have to have so many years in you have to be a certain level within the um um within your um your region so in the kwaki region for us none of us I'll tell you right now none of us are eligible to run for any of it um but um so I'm I'm sorry they didn't tell us that somebody did submit their name who was eligible it was a board member by the name of uh from Valley View I'll just leave it it was a board member from Valley View um and um they did not win uh instead the person who won is from a non-unified district down state um discussions about uh this came up in our large District Meetup that Mary and Joe Mary Joe and I were at attended the lack of transparency with that piece and some of the lack of transparency with the delegate assembly in general I think we're pretty darn good here and we do the best that we can uh there was a consent agenda both items on the consent agenda were taken off but then no one had a discussion on the one that was taken off um um and uh that was the school resource officer it was accepted with about 65% of districts voting yes the industrial construction resolution did not even reach a discussion which I thought was terrible I'm I'm not you know wherever we go with it we go with it but the fact that we weren't even going to talk about it was very disappointing the new bus driver resolution also passed and there was not even an attempt to move the employment history review resolution to the floor so it didn't even make it to the floor the one piece I'm going to add that's not triple I related though kind of my first time at triple I was in 2015 and I went at that time with another board member and we went to many of the exhibits that had Turf um and we came back and we were like wow this would be very cost effective here that was 2015 in fact it was mentioned in a board meeting in 2015 and we talked about how that would be very cost effective it's actually one of the probably I don't want to promise this but it was right around that time where I coined the phrase the things that we are doing to save money are actually costing us money I know and I remember this very well from 2015 uh however a very bad sign of a district trying to make investments is when you are having to utilize tax anticipation warrants um it's Hey listen I would like to pay off my house I would like to I don't know spend no money on anything except for paying off my house that's not realistic I have a mortgage and I can't do it right um so I understand the piece about investing I 100% agree that this makes absolute sense um anything that we do that keeps us from getting to a budget or I'm sorry a balance where we don't have to borrow money from other districts those are hard decisions right those are hard discussions as far as a loan goes the the community spoke three times well the community spoke two times and said no um a third time the county said no which was on the sales tax piece actually not going to use the person's name but I actually had a an elected official who no they're they're they're Republican who said that was an ingenious idea because because you were forwarding all that money to at the time we had a policy that forwarded all that money and would have would have gone towards property tax abatement which probably would have garnered a lot more support when it comes to things like levies and so forth uh but it didn't pass right and we're not a business so we have to have a balanced budget legally we can't print money because that's the federal government um and tragically it's on display for where the spending levels are for for districts we we are not in one of those tiers that's better off uh it keeps me up at night because I am absolutely 100% concerned about safety of our students full disclosure I walked out on the asgo high school field and a couple of you heard me say this this thing's in terrible shape I thought we were G to I thought I was going to watch the Chicago Bears come out and and and blow a game out there no both teams played better that's very true they did um but I just just I say this only because the conversation happened about eight years ago and then we went into budget cut mode we asked for money it didn't happen and we decided as a community we were going to crawl out the the hard way and these are all effects of that I don't like it I hate it um you know and the decision is easy it'd be easy because it's yes it is coste effective you have to have money to invest money though that's how that part works unfortunately hard way what's that crawl out the hard way what is the hard way meaning we weren't because we borrowed up to our what do you mean like like we could have passed a referendum and that would have been an easier way we decided that wasn't you meant the we as the community we are a community yes and and we we collect I know sometimes it's hard for us as As Americans to think we but we so okay no I got you uh I'll would just say ditto to everything with the uh triple I student voice Jen summed it up pretty well excuse me there was one um session that I went to uh that was creating trauma responsive schools and it was two comments uh one was unaddressed childhood trauma is one of the single greatest Public Health crisis in our country and so when I think about that um I'll say the second one first and then I'll give a summary the long-term effect the long-term impact of trauma is related less to the trauma itself and more to the community's response to that trauma and so when I think about those two comments and I think about our postco schools not just for our students but also for our teachers and staff it just makes me think or know that we have no idea of the impact that Co had on our teachers and on our students alike and so when I think about um and here the behavioral concerns that we have and and that was the other thing is that you know it's not the behavior and so I'm just excited about the plans that I saw today um that implemented everything is from AAL perspective because I I think that we have continued opportunity um to to make sure that we are caring for and building the community that's responding well to the to the students and uh staff and administrators who have experienced trauma whether it was through childhood or whether it was recent um so that we can be sensitive and not punitive in our response yes really good very good so for the community um the return on the investment that is made by um um allowing us as the board to attend such conferences is that we bring back um best practices we bring back um tools and we bring back um products that help to make us more efficient and effective and you will continue to see those things in play um as we start to have more conversations about um our experience experiences um and bringing to the table all those tools and best practices and products that will help us um for me one of them was around this idea of how do we as a board determine our Effectiveness because you as a board you know we're responsible or well we're we're focused on two things organizational Effectiveness and student learning but how is it that we as a board determine our effective and one of the um sessions I went to was on evaluating our Effectiveness through policy and so there are tools and processes that you use um to when you look when you're looking at uh your policies and we could go um you know one by one to determine it and I want us to actually take a look at that and I want to bring it to the policy and legislative committee to see what they think of this uh tool and um how we might use it to evaluate our Effectiveness as a board can I say one more thing I forgot about my turf response yeah I appreciated everyone who uh gave the the their responses and so constantly I thought about what is the actual cost to maintain our current uh field and I've been doing research for the last several weeks and I absolutely am nervous about we don't want any injury um but I don't want to ignore the fact that it is statistically proven like one of the reasons why all the NFL teams Etc are moving away from Turf it's not just because they they like um grassy Fields better and yes they have the money to maintain it but it's statistically proven that there's a a significant higher rate of non- cont in injuries with turf fields and so I just want to say it that we do have to there's a balance between making sure we maintain what we have so that we reduce injuries but also understand the injuries that could that could take place with the turf fields as well so we just have to make sure that we con consider all things um when we're considering what solution we'll go with well and I think we haven't even approached this topic right yet and All Turf is not created equal there's a lot of safer Alternatives out there um my son played on um Olive pits which are you never think of but there are a lot of really cool Alternatives out there and so I just want to be careful I I want to let Mr Queen and his team do their due diligence and be able before we say no to Turf for them to be able to bring us any possibilities of what's out there but I do also know because Dr sparland and I uh spoke about this as well that it cost us an incredible amount amount of money to maintain what we currently have and when you know that it is subpar maintain yeah use that work then you think okay we're paying all this money because we haven't as we sit in trust for the community we haven't had the support to go forward so we haven't spoken about it as we get the support they've been waiting in the wings you know ready because this is something that is important but we also have to be careful that it is not All Turf isn't created equal so% all I'm saying is consider everything yeah absolutely and that gentleman that was the coach who came up here and spoke he said exactly what you said he said exactly what you said okay M okay um I'm gonna lighten this up a little bit so I I also went to the triple conference it was my first time did spend the day on Thursday in uh full day of equity immersion which I really really enjoyed really learned a lot of things really really enlightening um couple other places that I've been to over the past couple weeks uh I was happy to be invited by uh Toya Jones the principal at Boulder Hill um I was there at the beginning of their uh staff meeting last week so I spoke for a few minutes there um though the teachers there the whole staff there they're all rock stars um you know they they don't have an easy job that particular day the topics that they were dealing with were not easy so I um I appreciated the opportunity um and um again rock stars every one of them uh I also went to Prairie point last week where bionic made an appearance again uh this was the first hike presentation that I've been to um so they pulled out the fifth graders at Prairie point and they did basically basically a two and a half hour presentation um the kids were very responsive bionic does such a wonderful job they're so well rehearsed um and the and the kids were so receptive to it um and once again I think it's important for kids to realize through some of those exercises that they may be thinking they're alone in in a particular situation but they're not and I think the um I think that kind of helped to kind of bring it more to light so very well done um and then finally I was at the Christmas walk as we Go's Christmas walk this past week and I happened to be one of the bus hosts now if you remember Friday the weather was awful rain so needless to say there weren't a ton of people parking in the O parking lot and busing on over there were some um but it gave me the opportunity to spend some time with a couple people from transportation so I would like to give a uh shout out to um to Andy and dispatch who we had some with some really good conversations about what's going on uh great guy um great thoughts great ideas um and also he was he was kind of filling in because Jessica who was the driver was still our um still out dropping kids off so I spent the second half with Jessica um she's been driving not too terribly long uh but she enjoys her job she enjoys the people that that she works with um you know she admitted that there were some some things she felt needed to be to change but um overall she was pretty positive so it was very helpful to me and enjoyable to to spend some time with both of those people um amidst the rain and everything else that was going on so that's it from me just a couple things uh attend did the uh asigo Special Olympics uh the ASO wild cat varsity game they uh beat Elgen 30 to 26 I believe um and I I I really want to thank the parent that reached out to me uh to to all of us I believe to let us know that it was coming that there was a game uh it was a day before though so a little tough but um so I I encourage any Community member out there to let us know um about any events that uh are going on um the other thing was um I did attend that e Forum um that you were speaking about um uh it was well done there was a a an appreciative and optimistic Mo mood um at the table I was at there were lots of uh circular tables filled um with community members it was um I was it was uh impressive showing put it that way so um and uh want to thank the people that put that together so yes okay um we're going to 9.1 the consent agenda you know what I'm oh yeah say there was there was one other thing you know um I did as far as with the turf um I did reach out with some of the you know community members uh to give a little bit more context obviously and there's going to be a presentation later on today so um I'm going to refer them to the presentation that's going to be coming um just kind of give a little more context is where what we would have to forego you know if we were to be doing that for capital expenditure purposes so um but I already provided that context and I think that they you know there's a sense of uh uh willingness to to try to figure something out but we'll see so sorry it's okay thank you okay can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 9.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on November November 13th 2023 open and close session 9.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district and 9.3 to approve the field trips presented Mr Gatewood hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Miss Simon hi Mr pler hi Miss Ben I motion passes okay financial statements and investment schedule are there any questions on these items I don't have any questions and I'm going to also punt another thing to the finance and Facilities committee but we stop putting the bill pay on and when we make changes can you please let the board know why we are doing that so I'll bring that up also in the finances facilities committee thank you thank you wait jent I'm sorry what part of the bill payment pardon me what part of the bill payment because there is a list of Bill that were paid or that were up to be paid in 11.1 yeah it's a it's a different it's a different program or a different report sorry but you'll bring it up in the finance and facility but you'll bring it up in the finance bring up in the finance fa okay thank you uh fiveyear project planning any questions you received a report this evening about this I think that's what you mention did you need me okay yeah just if I can do introduction bill you want to do in we're welcoming to the mic uh Bill Queen our director of buildings and operations and Charlie from CL so all that work Rafel was talking to you about we're going to give you a little 5-year plan on what that Outlook is it's a little combination of what's been identified through our 308 visions and with my team itself the finance and Facilities committee has already reviewed this FYI right all right Charlie I'll let you lead around that on through it you just tell me how to work c um this is work uh for both this year and and parts of next year for the uh the physical year 23 24 I'll note the two items when you're looking specifically into each box but at the top items that are starred are in process at some point they're either in design or through construction or in construction or going to construction or going to bid um the other thing I want to note is uh the uh values that are there are either budgeted values and that's in parentheses or their actual bid values that that you're seeing there um the other thing that I wanted to point out uh is in the next this slide and subsequent slides you're always going to begin to see a roof and we've talked about this over time you guys have been approving roofs every year for the last three four years and that's going to be a trend that'll continue one of the pieces that came out of the Invision work with uh Bill's team is that uh you have 22 academic buildings 23 academic buildings um and the high schools are of square footage that they're so large you can't do the entire square footage of that roof at one time it's a it's too much for any contractor to do over a summer so what they recommended was to divide the high schools up into 13 so that you would couple couple a high school with an elementary school so as you see an elementary school being done there's portions of the high school being done and then you'd have a Junior High in a year all by itself so um you you're seeing that we're doing a um the Fox Chase Elementary roof will be next summer um there's uh some flat work we're looking at right now to do at various schools um the other item on of up there to look up of note is the health Life Safety plan the health Life Safety plan um some of you might remember was recently done in the 2016 2017 years um at that time going through 22 buildings over a summer and uh identifying all the violations and reviewing all the violations and putting together the plans for the State uh we decided it was better on the district's behalf if you broke it up a little bit you have about just under it's 3.4 million square feet of building so we broke it up about a million per per year we've just finished doing the health Life Safety surveys for the high schools and we'll be presenting to the board in January uh those violations as soon as we complete the internal review um and and then the other element that was discussed before at the finance committee facility finance committee was evacuation plans per building which we started that process this last week one uh next year um again looking at a uh the rtu projects that which you've already approved again not items that are starred uh there any corrective work uh that requires Capital funding U health Life Safety could be done either internally with your staff or externally with third Pary so any projects that might come out of that at um and that's a just a budgeted number now that's being vetted right now as we go through this this work um there's been funds identified remaining from Esser to uh accomplish some U facility back um building automation system upgrades you have several uh Antiquated um systems that need to be upgraded to help uh Bill staff identify when issues go off in the middle of the night and then we' be continuing the health Life Safety survey portion and we would be tackling the junior high schools next summer um the following uh year again there's that roof again you'd be seeing some high school work at bernart UH Junior High School the Bernardi roof replacement uh there's partial roof work slash the skylighted area in here um Long Beach cooling tower replacement uh interestingly enough it was refurbished but it's starting to rust through it's it does need to be replaced now at this point um and then there's addition the the corrective maintenance that would come from the health Life Safety survey phase two which would be the junior high schools and then we would be starting the phase three which is the elementary schools and it would in include the Early Education facility as well um next one okay um then there's uh areas of this building that we're going to tackle for roof repl replacement in fact it's the far area over um by the gyms uh Prairie Point roof replacement would occur at that time too there's a lots of miscellaneous work at southberry to be done uh some health Life Safety excuse me some HVAC testing and balancing work uh some well as some asphalt and concrete flat work uh as well as some Hardware that have that been identified uh security and safety measures in in the Invision planning work and then uh same with Boulder Hill very similar and and miscellaneous items that uh could grow at this point we were asked to revisit adding Boulder Hill to the concrete for the um in the first slide or second slide for next year's work so Bill and I are going to do that this week as well is to get out and take a look at Boulder Hill and see if that work has elevated from corrective maintenance which is non um hazardous to something that's more like a health Life Safety you're going to trip on it and then uh the corrective work work that would come from the final Health Life Safety phase um and then Tom uh Thompson junior high is scheduled to be replaced uh the roofing replaced on that area the original part of that building uh there's an addition done in 2008 six I think and that roof isn't scheduled to be replaced just yet so it' be the older portion of the building the uh 1999 section would be scheduled to repl um also concrete repair repair work at the um facilities location uh Hunt Club concrete work and then Bo call Bas and corrective maintenance work and as these get further out into the timeline um they're more flexible because we have to respond to issues that might arise and some other items that have come to pass uh that bill and his team have identifi identified daily with his staff so just in case uh you're wondering where's all this money coming from we know he's getting close to Christmas but so uh if you remember back in uh February of 20122 there was a refunding done and the proceed of that refunding was actually $18.6 million of that amount we've actually uh spent uh $5.1 million through the end of September so we have $1 13.4 million that has to be spent and based on the fact that it's refunding was non- taxable Bond were required by the IRS to to start spending this very quickly and we actually we gave them a a schedule of payment of uh expenditure back then we said we were going to have it all spent by uh no later than the uh the third quarter which will be February of 2025 we haven't done that so what we trying to do sp all $18 million by the third quarter Yeah by February of 2025 and how much has been spent today we've spent $5.1 million and the reason why we're required to spend it is when you issue non- taxable bonds you're not supposed to earn extraordinary interest rate on it if you do there's a clause in the IRS uh rule that is called Arbitrage rebate which means you can issue an untaxable Bond and then put the money in a bank account under on interest on it you expected to earn reasonable interest but if it's more than reasonable interest then you have to pay a penalty so in order for us to avoid doing that we're trying to uh to Che up and trying to get uh some of this native project done so that's where the money a big chunk of the money is coming from that $13 million left over from the February of 2022 uh go refunding mon two questions um you halfway answered one I I'll I'll follow up that one after depending on how you answer so the at the end of this five years what percentage of roofs across the district would have been completed and if you don't know that's fine we can we can get it I can get back to you with absolutely but we do have that yeah CU I'm just thinking about how much more money will we still have to spend after this 5 years is we of get exact because it's a it's a moving Target unfortunately because that's what we've identified right now and with buildings the old that they get with the kind of increment where we get very cold very warm uh tends to have a negative impact on roofs so it's a moving Target agre and then the second part to that I'm sorry you someone was going to say something yeah yeah and this is the body of work now right at any given moment anything could change with this document in that sense if we do get a critical breakdown we would have to Audible and relocate those funds to where we needed to fix right correct this this also doesn't cover any work that we would be doing with our civil engineer or anything outside of clubber this is this is strictly the work that we are doing with clubber so there's other projects that me and Mr OPI will will be looking for that parking lots and things of that nature that we would have to lean on for our civil engineer yeah CU my estimate was this is roughly about five million per year and I think it was like 2.7 the last year um and so uh the second part to that question was um how we be building what oh you you answered that oh you answered something see man I knew I was old I was going to forget I'll remember in a second go ahead jar is any of this on here I guess I have a two-part question first is any of this on here at a point where it could fail on us and we have to move it up and two is there anything that's not on here that could fail um because you kind of allude the fact well things could change that makes me think that there are things out there that could potentially fail no we're just at that life expectancy right no nothing's critical to where it's going to fail but we're getting to that life and it could what I guess then what is it that could change this right so you said well something could change just hypothetically if we were to lose a boiler or something at one of the buildings that is something that we would have to replace immediately as an emergency fix okay so and yeah okay I don't want to okay thanks appreciate so I'm I'm also thinking total budget and so so this this let's say roughly 20 million doll but this is only a percentage of the master plan that will come late that we spoke about earlier that will come later yes which could be an additional I think the one of the last estimates we said I don't know what the estimates are but it's only a percentage of that and I'm just trying to make sure that everybody understands that this is just a very small percentage of the greater absolutely plan that we need money in order to pay for for all capital projects absolutely which even every anything else could be included uh wish list Andor critical needs absolutely I will be reluctant to make a guest toate because that's the whole point of doing a master facility plan we would not look at just what is needed right now we will look at as we plan into the future as a district we'll look at the education programming we'll look at different things to come to that uh to that figure so right now I'll be I'll be premature and just uh spitballing if I were to come up with what that number would be until the master facility plan is complete oh I get it and I'm just trying to make a point that this is a small percentage but yet it's still a 5year plan to even only do this absolutely okay absolutely yeah and on a good note we and it's and it's funny you know when comand reaches out and what are you guys doing what's going on over there utilities are down majorly well we're saving money on these new roofs that we're putting back so we're getting that funding back and we're making a difference in how our buildings react to the climate so so we're getting some funds back by updating these roofs and going with these high efficiency chillers and boilers and things of that nature we're actually going to see some returns from combat and energy places that's great okay thank you thank you all you thank you thanks Charlie thank you um any questions this evening about the Labor Management partnership contract report no okay RSP enrollment analysis contract I had one question so my it was an assumption on my part so I'm my guess was that the two years and the reason why we need the current years to create the Benchmark or is it supposed to be 2024 and then 2026 so the contract uses obviously historical data current data to provide us projections about this year and moving forward and then at this time next year they'll use this year and next year to then next year and Beyond that's what I thought but I just wanted to just make sure that okay that makes sense yep but the report that we will receive is similar to last year's will where it will include his historical current and future um projections both for um attendance-based and programmatically based that's why we have to provide the enrollment and if we've moved any of our programs around our district sites how far do they go out is it only a year or just as far out as information is available um I believe it is five years but hold on one no it's fine just just wondering cuz I'm wondering if it's five years they for the student count but they report back yeah yeah yeah she they're supposed to look into the the future just wonder how far and then if it's five years out then do we need to do it again next year I was actually wondering the same thing but then again I'm thinking about it that level of information is probably worth the investment regardless even if even if it's only incrementally changing year-over year um especially since we're in the growth mode again Dominic's going to invest in a DeLorean so to my understanding we've uh done this enrollment projection every year the report that we received last year was past current and future where the current was the current school year uh 2023 and the future included four years of projection 24 25 26 and 27 so it's five years inclusive of the current school year all right thank you y next junior high any questions about the junior high school English learner support contract okay uh policies for first read any questions about those coming forward okay thank you board okay action items 11.1 approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 2,154 79676 as presented second Miss vmou I Dr Mar hi Mr Cerrone hi Miss Simon I Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr cler uh abstain so motion passes five six six oh Jen was here she came back sorry six and one exstension um action item 11.2 State waiver application can I have a motion please make a motion to adopt the resolution to submit the state waiver application to the Illinois State Board of Education as presented second Dr Mar I miss Simon hi Mr hi Mr C hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss ven hi Miss Johnson hi motion passes 70 action item 11.3 Stuart Farm lease can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the steuart far Stewart Farm lease as presented second Miss vmou hi Dr marel hi Mr Sone hi Miss Simon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson Mr cler I motion passes 70 action item 11.4 resolution for fiscal year 25 budget development can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution for the uh fiscal year 25 budget calendar is presented second mrone hi M Johnson hi Mr cler hi Mr Gatewood hi I Dr Mario I miss Simon I motion passes 70 action item 11.5 resolution for property tax appeal intervention can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution for the property tax appeal intervention second Dr Maria hi Miss venman hi Mr s hi Miss Simon hi Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr blobber I motion passes 70 action item 11.6 adoption of the 2023 tax levy can I have a motion please make a motion to adopt the 202 to I'm sorry make a motion to adopt the 2023 taxt Levy as presented second Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Dr marel I miss ven I Mr hi Miss s i mrone I motion passes 70 action item 11.7 approval of separation agreement and general release can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the separation agreement with Dr John pesky as discussed and presented second Miss similon I Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson I Mr Gatewood I Mr Sone hi Miss venman hi Mr cler I motion passes 70 action item 11.1 approval of personnel report can I have a eight 11.8 um approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Dr Maria I Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson hi Mr Koger I miss Simon hi Mr Cerone hi M venman hi motion passes 70 can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn at 950

um first order of business this morning is the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all do I have to ad the agenda have a motion by Mr Russ second by Mrs count all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed motion passes thank you no public comments this morning no next up Dr arov 102 determination hearing resolutions for Guarantee Energy savings project than you this morning the hearing prior to selling the bonds to finance the guarantee Energy savings project Capital project maintenance and miscellaneous and I will now turn over this thank you I now open this public hearing I'd like to turn it over to Dr Taylor to present the project the financing of the project and the actions we're taking this morning not going to share a lot on the project that was covered last week um patrons and the community members can review that presentation Dr long did a great job had some outside Representatives that cover the Energy savings project um what we're what we're approving today what we're asking the board for approval is a 11028 hearing and and issuance for it's going to be $25 million in Total Bond proceeds 17 and um Sorry Miss Howard if you go to the next slide for me I'm going to cover just some of the Project funding as a requirement of this uh process and so the first Bond the first bond in Project will be at a cap of $17 million and this is the Energy savings project we've been very conservative in the numbers that are that are posted on the screen trying to anticipate where interest rates might go um interest earnings and costs there as well um and what our maximum payments can be when we don't know what the asss value will be until next August um on the next slide Miss Howard is the remainder of the 25 million will be put towards the reoccurring misscellaneous projects which is something the board has done since 2009 um this helps supplement our capital projects fund um by providing maintenance and technology equipment um along with um some device purchases and and and technology for students um as a part of the textbook rental solution and so those are the two things provided overall in this project um this was figured into the budget numbers that were presented um to the community and the county um this will be the action um for the board to take today we had a hearing last week as well um but the action today would be to approve this and move this process forward so that we can advertise this project out to the community that's all I needed to share Mr Alexander thank you Dr tayor this is the appropriate time for members of the public to comment on the project and the information presented this morning or the members of the public president who would like to comment I now close this public hearing are the members of the board whoever have any comments or questions I just have I guess it's an exciting project seeing get off the ground I would ask that we have some kind of periodic reporting mechanism so that we can show the hopefully success or you know hopefully not struggles hopefully we can show the success that savings and the back the public funds this so I don't know it has to be monthly quarterly maybe you know or annually probably I think uh one reason that the project was moved up to November and December we could get going and I think by summertime we'll have some significant progress to show if things play out well we will also show this in our budget presentation for 2025 as we would anticipate cost savings for that budget great thank you thank you anybody else have any comments all right do I have a motion Mr I that we approve counts do I have a second thank you Mr D we have a motion in second all those in favor signify by saying I all those opposed motion pass 5 announcements uh the December 21st meeting executive session regular board meeting have been canell our next executive session meeting reorganization and board of Finance meeting board meeting will be January the 10th all right we got some documents for you guys to sign

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and our organization meeting we actually identify leadership which will tomorrow and so I'm this very uncomfortable chair feel more comfortable in a different seat but um just pick things off Mr could the here here and miss cullin here if we could pleas rise for pledge the United States stands indivisible with liy jice for all okay for your report um so on our agenda is audience I don't know if we have anybody from the public who would like to address the board you ready to go good evening this didn't take very long um anyway wanted to ask you guys um you legislators I'm sorry I'm being formal here um when you go back session to take a very serious look at what commonly refer to as the to read at we just learned the district learned last week that they did not receive a waiver even though they have an exal eting program um and I have a close associate on the that devised the um or came up with the um recommended curriculum I just want to bring a couple of things uh we already have in place Connecticut partnership for lit success part with n Yukon um its did purpose is improving literacy as well as schoolwide Improvement fored schools um Improvement for um select schools in Alli District bill was as um an initiative um which represents more step in Connecticut

you could let us know when we're live please okay just one one more second okay we are live good evening isua Community this is the Tuesday December 5th 2023 meeting of the isua Unified School District Board of Education the time is now 5:31 and I'd like to call the meeting to order we'll next move on to 1.2 roll call board vice president uh sorry board vice president Rodriguez paa pres uh board member Benavides pres board member Greer uh we expect him to return and we also expect board clerk arianis to be with us shortly um given that we do have Quorum we'll go ahead and proceed with our meeting uh now moving to 1.3 approval of a agenda may have a motion make a motion to approve second moved and seconded any discussion seeing n I'll call for the vote and the motion passes now moving to 1.4 of Allegiance we have Isabella heel from Magnolia I'm sorry okay we'll take a roll call vote for approval of the agenda board vice president Rodriguez paa yes board member Benavides yes board member V is yes the motion passes thank you so much and now moving to item 1.4 Pledge of Allegiance uh Miss Isabella heel from Magnolia adult transition program to lead us thank you everybody please stand put your right hand over your heart ready to begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible will liberty and justice for all thank you Miss and now we move to item two point1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda items uh we'll first take comment from those members in person hope do we have any blue cards tonight okay no blue cards for inperson comment and Leica do we have any members of the public online we have no hands raised on Zoom no hand raised online thank you so much and now we'll uh move into the meet of our meeting today mrga for 3.1 discussion of surplus property thank you uh Dr Bo um we'd like to uh reintroduce Miss Lauren Jennings uh who is here uh to pick up where we left off uh at our previous uh board meeting and so I'd like to call her up to the uh Podium uh to um to continue her presentation thank you Miss Jennings and uh for our colleagues would you like to continue with where we left off or would you like to uh begin at the beginning of the presentation no where we left off I think okay I think so I think we were on slide six Workforce housing was that where we were I from my notes I believe we finished Workforce housing and we were um on SL 10 but we should pick up on SL 10 is that all right yes all right so slide 10 we'll continue the presentation from last meeting discussing joint occupancy thank you Miss Jennings awesome well thank you again for having me it's great to see you all um I saw a few of your faces at csp's annual education conference last week so I hope you enjoyed your time in San Francisco um and good to see you all again so tonight's conversation will be a pickup of what we discussed at our last meeting in November and we are discussing alternative use options for underutilized Andor Surplus property and so moving right along on slide 10 um the we discussed last month um employee Workforce housing and so the second option for alternative use for underutilizing Surplus property is what's called Joint occupancy and so joint occupancy is essentially where a developer would partner with the school district so the district would partner with the developer the developer would construct a facility on District owned property and that facility would be jointly used and so the purpose and intent of the agreement is inherent in the name of joint occupancy so with this type of use and this agreement this does require the district to have continued use of a piece of property and so should the district uh for whatever reason not have use or need to use the property joint occupany just wouldn't apply um and so there are various different types of joint occupancy agreements um that districts partake in one of the most popular ones would be recre for recreational uses and so there's a variety of different key features associated with joint occupancy that are listed here one of the main ones is that the lease term comes with a maximum of 66 years and um we'll move on to the next slide and the next slide shows some of the pros and cons associated with joint occupancy and so some of the pros listed here are um is that there's no formal bidding requirements that are associated with joint occupancy however the One requirement or one of the requirements is is that proposals must be taken by the board as well as evaluated and so it does provide for some flexibility again with the bidding procedures an obvious Pro of this option is that construction of the buildings would be completed by the developer so they would not be completed by the district and one thing to keep in mind when considering this option is is that the this is list under the key considerations um so when and if the district were to consider joint occupancy the portion of the buildings that are utilized by the developer would have to adhere with all building and zoning regulations by the local jurisdiction so in this case likely the city of isza um and then the buildings that are occupied and utilized by the district would have to adhere with all um District facility regulations and so another Pro attached with joint occupancy is that that it does provide the option for the district to have facilities again that would be constructed by a developer and potentially an income stream obviously that would be based off of the negotiations and the exact agreement um that's come to with the developer but it is potentially an option and then because the district would be essentially providing the land the developer would be funding the construction um with joint occupancy the district would not pay any rental fees as associated with use of the building um or pay any um charges to use the building so that is considered a pro um some of the cons and just things to consider if you were looking at a joint occupancy would be obviously some loss of control um this would be where the district would again partner with a developer and so the district would not have full control over the asset because essentially you're bringing in another partner who would share that control um and then last but not least again just a key consideration not necessarily a con is that this does require again District use of the property and last but not least State Board of Education approval is required and so with that um that would just need to built be built into the timeline associated with the um requirements for the State Board of Education to receive the agreement review it and hopefully ultimately approve it so that is joint occupancy any questions associated with that use can you give me a sorry can you give me an example of what what that looks like yeah so uh one example would be potentially a recreation use so we have H worked with a district where we're considering that one of our clients is considering joint occupancy with a local nonprofit organization and so that the district would own the land own the facility excuse me own the property and then the nonprofit would construct the buildings and then the district would utilize a portion of the buildings and then the nonprofit would utilize a portion of the buildings and so um I guess I can say the entity I can't I won't say the district nothing's public yet but it would be um the specific District that I'm referring to they are in talks with the local YMCA and so that would be an example where there could be some potential um joint occupancy use that both the developer as well as the district could could benefit from but who would be responsible the developer or the um the district so the the developer is would be responsible for the development um in terms of the financing structure in terms of how do we pay for it that would be up for negotiation um typically the developer or the the other entity would be in charge of financing however with the specific District that I'm referring to they're doing more of a collaborative method um because they have a long-term relationship already in place so that's a part of the negotiations and the key considerations would be um working through the financing structure which is always the hardest thank you you're welcome I have a question so in that scenario the developer would be the YMCA or they're acting as a developer correct and let's say you enter into a joint venture like that with a developer and they build housing is that housing at market rate how does that work does it have to be affordable housing so um that's probably more of a legal question in terms of what the Education Code specifically allows for with joint occupancy from my understanding we have not completed an agreement where joint occupancy was with housing because it does require the district to have use of the property as well too so um typically if a developer were to come and in build housing that would be more of either um sale or lease of the asset where the district wouldn't have continued use of it thank you any other board member comments on this item all right so we'll move on to the next Jennings I have a comment yes sure um can you talk a little bit about liability in the instance of joint occupancy where the district is using all or some of the property and the the partner is using all or some at any given time what does that look like from an insurance and liability standpoint yeah so it's typically separate use of the property so it wouldn't be a it wouldn't be where you're sharing a room so to speak like this it would be where one portion of the property is occupied by the developer and one portion of the property is occupied by the district and that is seen in some of the requirements and the key considerations where essentially title is under um as a developer is using the property so during during the joint occupancy say if it's 50 years or whatever have you um title is still vested with the district for the district's Pro portion of the property but then the developer has full control over their portion of the property so in the instance of a Performing Art Center where you have a main theater what does it look like is would the district apply to sign up to say we have 20 nights a year what does that look like in terms of control and liability of an event type of space yeah so that would be more of a joint um with within the joint occupancy that would be more of a joint use agreement where there is like you said a Performing Arts facility and both parties want it to jointly use that facility so that would be more that would be a separate agreement where the district would then um that the the agreement would specify the liability associated with it in terms of who actually owns owns the facility is it the district that owns the facility and then the developer is using it or is it vice versa where the developer um is in charge of the facility and the district has rights and access to use it so that would be something separate and along the line this line of thinking um have you worked with any school districts that have done a joint use occupancy with their City yes so um that is all we've done one with the school district uh the exact agreement I can't name it off the top of my head but um where the it would that we did one where it was a recreational use specifically um where the school district owned underutilized land and the city wanted to have parks and playgrounds associated with on that land and so during the day a portion of the property was a part of the the school grounds and then um on the weekends and after school hours it was open to the general public and so that is an example of a joint occupancy and have you worked with any um cities and District partners that are doing something like a Performing Art Center no I have not directly thank you all right so we'll move on to the next option which is lease of an asset and so this is essentially where the school district would become a landlord and you would bring in a tenant that would utilize your buildings and grounds and so this option is most applicable when the district does not have a short-term use for a piece of property however you have um a long-term use for a property or potential for long-term use for a property and so with the lease of an asset the lease is for a defined number of years so it can be something that is as short as five years or potentially 50 or 60 65 years and so um up to 99 years is the maximum lease allowance and um this again is typically where the district does not have short-term use for an asset but you're not ready to sell the asset alog together because you're unsure of your future perspective views and so some of the pros associated with a lease of an asset is that there are unrestricted use of lease proceeds um education code is pretty silent on what restrictions and requirements are allowed for with the use of the lease proceeds and so that there is some flexibility with that um and then also two it allows the district to generate income from its assets and also ultimately retain title some of the cons associated with uh a lease of an asset is it does potentially limit the pool of users that would be interested so for example if you were to lease an old school property um you if you were to lease the buildings it would require a user who would be interested and need to use the buildings in their current Asis condition because you would be leasing the buildings Asis so it does limit potentially the pool of users um there is also the option to do what's called a ground lease so there's a buildings lease where you're leasing the buildings there Al also is the option to do a ground lease which is essentially where you're leasing out the dirt um and with a ground lease it comes with a lower lease typically a lower um Revenue Associated um and then your tenant has the typically the option to develop their own buildings and Facilities on top of the dirt um this still however does limit the pool of potential users because you would need to find a tenant who has the funds and the resources to build a brand new facility um and then also to one who's willing to invest those funds and then um when the lease is over no longer have access to the property um also too the way a lease is structured is that the district would receive income um typically either on a monthly and or an annual basis rather than receiving a lump sum payment so one example is we did a long-term lease with the school district for 65 years over the span of 65 years the district is gaining or earning $16 million so that's a large amount however though the it's not going to be an aump sum the district would receive $16 million divided by 65 years divided by 12 months so they would receive an annual or excuse me a monthly amount that at the end of 65 years they would would have earned $16 million so it's just something to consider if you're um looking at a lease um also two it's the a ongoing potential liability as a landlord the district would be a landlord with the tenant um and then of course just um the risk associated with the tenant is that um you know the district would be responsible if should the tenant fail to perform on their lease any questions in regards to lease I have a question sure so for for the lease of assets we can um go ahead is that where the Adaptive reuse where we can go ahead and lease it to a developer for them to go ahead and do the adapter reuse for them to do housing on top so yes that's an option so adaptive reuse is essentially where they would reuse the prop the buildings and grounds and then adapt them to their new needs um or what you're what you could potentially another option for a developer would be a developer would would lease do a ground lease they would likely demolish the buildings and then they would construct whatever they wanted to construct on top of the the dirt and so what does that look like um for ground lease right um what what is the timeline on that in terms of actually earning revenue or executing a lease yeah so we can actually or it's on a future slide but I can I can talk through it so um essentially if the school district were looking to execute a lease um there are certain Education Code requirements that you would have to go through so you've already put if if the property is already surplused that's one of the first steps um you would be required to offer the property for lease to various um other um public agencies and that is defined and dictated by Education Code of who those are so they get a first WR of refusal assuming that none of those entities are interested then you would be able to offer the property to the open public the general public um assuming you were to apply for a waiver with the State Board of Education then you would uh release request for proposals and then potential interested parties or tenants would submit proposals based off of their interest I and the proposal would include um you know their recommended lease rate their lease term things of that nature then the district can go into negotiation so I would say from start to finish again if you're at the beginning stages of just recently surplus of property um probably nine six to nine months and that's on The Fast Pace um it really does depend excuse me actually in my notes I put four to six months which is on the last slide that's probably a best case scenario if everything aligns the stars align thank you I have a quick question you talked about government agencies having the right to First refusal that has no dictation on what we determine market rate to be correct you as a district have no obligation to um lease and or sell to any of those entities your only obligation is to negotiate in good faith so we've had plenty of offers that come in from other agencies and they are severely below market rate the district do not have to um do anything with those offers all right shall we move on to the next so the next option is a real property exchange and so this is essentially where the district were to exchange property for property um and I want to be clear make sure on the same page when we say real property exchange it has to be property for property it cannot be property for money because I essentially be a sale which we'll talk about on um the next option so a real property exchange is essentially where you as a district say we have a piece of property that we no longer need then there's also this other piece of property next door across town wherever that we want instead and so this would be where again if the stars align you then would negotiate a swap of land with the other property owner um and so there are different types of real property exchange one of them is an equal exchange of property for property this option is quite rare to be honest because this essentially says that you have a piece of property that's worth $1 million you identify another property across town that's also worth $1 million and so therefore the value of the lands are exactly the same and so it's an even swap um real property exchange does allow you to also swap nonidentical values of land so in this same example if you have if your property is worth 1 million you identify a property worth 500,000 you can still exchange that um and then within that instance then the other owner would swap the land with the district and then pay you the balance of the differential in the value which is 500,000 so it does not require an equal exchange you can do money and land the only requirement is it has to be land for land it can't be land just for money so there needs to be two pieces of property involved um so on the next slide some of the pros and cons Andor key considerations is that um one of the pros it's a very flexible process um so you know Education Code specifically says that you know the district can exchange real property without complying with um any of the provisions that are set forth within the code that are dictated for a lot of the other different options so very flexible process some of the key considerations and I would say probably what makes this option somewhat challenging um is that it does require again property for property exchange and so you would have to find a suitable property one that you're interested in and then two you would have to get that owner to also agree and want your property in exchange and so we've um gone down this route countless times with districts and um there instances where it works and then there's other instances where for example you know the district um identifies a piece of property so with one example one school district we work with um they identified land the city owned and we attempted to negotiate a property exchange for district land with city land and while the district wanted and had a need and interest in the city's land the city did not have an interest in the district's land and so again it does require that extra hurdle of identifying the property and then also finding an owner who has the same interest in your land as well too and then generally speaking best practice when you're going this route is just to get an appraisal um and typically the appraisal would set the standard um by which the agreement is finalized based on the values of the lands themselves questions about uh real property exchange the question Wasing so um as a school district you know we've um evaluated leases in Open Session right and we've done that with a variety of partners for some of our spaces um to confirm a um lease of an asset that would also happen in Open Session as we're entered or is there any part of that um evaluation of proposals H does that happen in close session for a lease a lease agreement and this is going to lead to my next question is that directed to me yeah so typically um when the lease proposals are received and evaluated that is in closed session and the reason why is because if there are three proposals that are received assuming again the district receives a waiver um and does not go with the um receives a waiver from the state in regard that allows you to go with the request for proposal process um if there are three four or five multiple proposals um the district wants to keep those proposals as well as the proposed lease values um confidential until you have made a decision to move forward with negotiations um on a particular lease agreement the reason being is that when negotiations happen sometimes potential tenants can remove their proposal and no longer be interested and so if you were to make all the proposals public then sort of your backup knows what you already were accepting for your first first offer and so it just takes away any leverage that you have and so um typically again depending on on um the waiver specifications you are required to um at first just announce who you're entering into negotiations with and then the actual lease data value term all that stuff is not made public until the agreement is finalized and on the agenda for approval thank you and so then similarly for a real estate exchange um close session discussion and vetting um is there a component of those negotiations where let's say for example it's a it's our city or a different city and we're contemplating exchange um are there any required disclosures about okay you would like District property are there and I guess I'm trying to get to the question of uh how do we ask or are there any uh restrictions on wanting to know what the other partner is going to do with the land so we trade right and we want to use it for something our district purpose but and now we have our partner owns land in our district um do we have any element of control about what now that that partner owns the property what they can do with it no once you exchange the land it's no longer yours and so um once escrow closes and title switches it's theirs and they can do whatever they want um however you know that could be a part of the initial conversations up front um and of course then the expectation would be that the other party acts in good faith off of what they committed to the district that they would do with the land but typically once property is no longer the districts um then you lose control over what can happen with it Lauren just for some clarification um understand that they can do whatever they want with it because it's their land let's do deal with them boundaries of zoning oh correct right and permits and all that yeah so thank you for that clarification so when I say they could do whatever they want want with it they still have to abide by the requirements of the local jurisdiction so if the property was within city of iso the city limits then um the city would have the ultimate say so in terms of what use would be allowed there and that would be dictated by the already established zoning code as well as the um local land use designation and so the owner could potentially apply for a zone change and or um General plan amendment to basically change what the allowable use is but ultimately the city would have to approve it and it would have to match the development patterns of the surrounding neighborhood you are you able to share any examples about both positive and negative examples of a real estate exchange that really really well for the district as well as one that that didn't go as expected um the the most recent ones that I worked on um actually did not go through um the reason being is because it is extremely difficult and challenging to find a party that is one willing to swap land and then also has the same interest and and is interested in the district's property so both of them were withal school districts um and one was actually with the they were both with the city they were both with with their local cities one was interested without sharing the district name um was in swapping a piece of land that was occupied by the local fire station um well it wasn't occupied but it was owned by the fire station and it was vacant and then another one was the one that I mentioned where the school district um wanted to swap their underutilized land for for vacant undeveloped city land that was in an area that the school district needed to open a new school in um and with both of those instances the first one with the the the school that I mentioned just the city was just not interested in the land they just had no need for it they they the city was looking to acquire and develop park space and where the district had the land they did not need spark park space um the other one with the fire station um it was a long negotiation process and ultimately at the end the city decided to not move forward and they didn't provide a reason why um so I personally um in recent years have not worked on a property exchange that has been successful however I know that there there are some that have been successful and typically I would say um it would be likely where um another enti approaches the district so they are they already have decided that they're interested in the property versus the district convincing a property owner to be interested so I have a question so um when you have an exchange prior to this exchange are we to know what they want the land for I mean because what if we don't want them to use it for whatever purpose it is I'm not sure but do we know prior yeah so that would be a part of the negotiations um you know there's there would be nothing it wouldn't be a part of the contractual agreement in terms of you can't force them to sort of do something specific with a property that they own however that could be a part of the initial conversations of what their intent is but but we can refuse if we don't of course approve their in can of course you can can I ask you extent hypothetically you have one one party proposing a particular something and we say that doesn't sound like something that we would like to support and another entity that's posting something at a lower price to us and and we can even in that bid process take what they're saying know that they're not contractually held to it but we are able to take that potentially take that into consideration and take a lower bid based off of what they're they're communicating on the front end yeah well so with real property exchange there is no bidding process because each individual entity would be their own property owner so there's no bidding process associated with it it would essentially be a a direct negotiation so there's a lot of flexibility so um when I've worked on it with school districts it was the district saying we want this piece of land and then our team or whoever on whoever the district hires to represent you would then approach that property owner and say hey we're looking to the district is in interested in your property are you open to further conversations and then assuming they're open um then you know negotiations would start but then you would likely get an appraisal of both of the pieces of land so that we know okay what's our starting point What's the value of the district's land what's the value of the property owner's land all right so we'll move on to the next option which is sale of the asset and so this is essentially um it's different than lease because as we discussed with the lease the lease is where the district does not have a short-term need for an asset but there is potentially the need for the asset in the long term um with a sale of an asset this is essentially where the district decides we have no need for this property neither in the short term nor in the long term and so this would be where the school district would would um declare the property Surplus um and then you essentially say we no longer want to retain title and or retain ownership of the property and we want to sell it to a new owner who is free to use the property however they see fit again assuming it aligns with the um specifications and allowances of the local jurisdiction and so again this the district would no longer retain title of the property upon sale and close of escrow and so obviously some of the pros Associated is that once the district no longer owns property there are reduced maintenance costs and operating expenses associated um at our last meeting we talked about non-use fees uh which are um attributed to properties uh by the state it's actually a monetary expense that a school district has to pay for property that sit vacant longer than five years and so it allows the district to avoid those potential pen penalties um upon sale in close of escrow the district would receive the lump sum of the total value of the property um so this is different where a lease would be monthly Revenue this would be a lump sum from the proceeds upon close of escrow and then um the Education Code does provide some allowances for how the funds can be used and those are listed there so use of proceeds um include capital outlay and or non- reoccurring maintenance as well as onetime general fund use with State allocation board determination and then some of the obvious cons Associated is once you sell a property the property is no longer the districts and so you do not have the option or flexibility to use the property in the future um for any potential unforeseen uses that could occur um in five 10 or 10 years can you elaborate on the one-time general fund use with the Sab determination yes so um that's more probably a legal question um I could answer it but I that's probably more a question for legal counsel I feel more comfortable with them answering exactly what you can do with it but typically I'll say legal councel can you give some examples so yeah so I can give some examples so for um uh well my example would be the uh non- reoccurring maintenance so we have a school district where they sold property and then they used the proceeds to do maintenance um to large expense maintenance on a piece of property that they were looking to rehabilitate and or upgrade yeah I asked because up to this point it's been my understanding that these funds would need to be used for facilities and and kind of capital facilities and whatnot so that one-time general fund use I guess is something that's would would be new to me can can we get um feedback from legal council on that and be updated I can also share so this was a perfect example during covid um Governor Newsome actually enacted this um for two years they allow districts that sold property they could use the funds for a one-time use on anything in the general fund but that was only during covid so they actually have the pass legislation to put that in place and that was one of the things that um govern did for C Rel I have a question regarding the non-use fees l u Mr did you say that that's triggered after five years of nonuse for facility yeah so typically um non-use fees are um uh charged by the state and it's for property that are not in use either via lease and or for district purposes and it's typically after five years there is some flexibility if a district you know were to um apply I don't think it's officially called a waiver but to apply to the state and say hey we're getting ready to use it or there's a reason why we're not using it but there is a fee Associated and it's a certain calculation based off of the value of the property Mr J Mo I have a question about then the the mo not this round of campus consolidations but the previous or Mountain View um are we getting on five years for those campuses we're getting close to five years yes ma'am and so what's our what is our based on calculation do we have a sense of what that fee might be we do not at this time but right now every year we do have the notify the state of our purpose of our uses of all our facilities and is that like a January 1 basis or is it an anniversary of the use we receive the notification in June that's always due between July and August of the preceding or the following the school year okay so are we in year four and then we're about to get to the fifth year I would I don't want to jump and say that um but I would I believe we're close I think we're in year four going to five okay then um I would like to request some um preliminary information about if uh we go into that five-year non-use what the fee would be if those campuses continue to be a nonuse I could request that please State thank you and for clarity that that would only be Mountain View because Sierra is in use right cor yes sir so the um Roop is using the O Sierra campus yes ma'am and um the adult school is next to it right so are they considered one property yes ma'am so as long as it's being in use by R yes ma'am okay thank you you're welcome I have a question so at what point does the notice of availability you know for let's say that we do go the lease route I mean the sale of the asset rout when does that how does that process go yeah so we can actually go to the next slide and this this slide does share the process for sale or lease uh the process is relatively very similar um and so the district actually has already done the first if we're looking at the three columns completed the steps in the first and the second column um a lot of our team we've been working with the district since last September so over a year so we've helped to answer a lot of the steps and complete the steps in uh column one column two was a 7-Eleven committee process which the district recently completed and then the third colum would essentially be what would be left and so um from my understanding the board has already declared property as Surplus or exempt Surplus um and so um after the property is declared Surplus The Next Step would be the notification period And so um the there is a timing Associated um I believe it's uh 60 days so there is a 60-day first right of refusal and that 60-day starts the day the notices are mailed or emailed but typically we recommend mailing those notices to the entities and so um if there are is no response within those 60 days then again the district has fulfilled its its requirements and you're free to offer the properties for sale or lease to the general public um if you do receive a response saying that there's interest um in the property then the Education Code does dictate that um you are required to negotiate in good faith with that entity for a period of up to 90 days and so that is sort of the um that could adjust the timeline again if there's interest um in all of the districts that we've worked worked with most of the time there is no response from entities um however there's I've there's been plenty of properties where um you know there have been responses but as I already answered you are under no obligation or requirement to actually um to to sell or lease the property below market value um you're you have power to accept and or deny any proposal um as you see fit and so um assuming that the prop is still available after the noticing period then um the board would have another action where you would have to declare via a resolution your intent to sell or lease the property so that would be um another resolution that you would have to pass essentially saying that we completed our notices we now are declaring our intent to sell or lease the property to the open general public um and then potentially here this is where you have the option so if you were selling a piece of property the Education Code um dictates the process and it essentially says that you have to sell the pro the property via what's called a public auction um and it's it the auction would take place at a standard regular board meeting but essentially um interested parties would submit their bids um the bids would be open during the public auction and then it would move to what's called an oral auction where literally um the district would announce the highest bidder and then per code the next oral bid has to be 5% higher and so that's what the code requires and then it requires you to essentially sell it to the highest bidder um most District clients though however apply for what's called a waiver and you can apply for a waiver from the state that waves that requirement and it is that essentially gives you the flexibility to negotiate with your interested proposer as well as potentially select maybe the not highest bidder because the um second or third highest bidder while it doesn't have the highest revenue it that their use fits in line with the community and your um ultimate intent for the property so it does allow some flexibility and um in my experience in recent years in the past 10 years um we've never seen a a the state denial waiver to a school district it does come with requirements but it gives you again the ability to wave some those was there a question yeah are there any benefits to having kind of like open circus on a board meeting so I would say uh well I'll give you my professional opinion and U in my experience so I've done both I've I've done um auctions one auction that was actually successful I would say was not with a school district it was with a um County and they act well they require they don't have a waiver process but they actually were able to get a higher value from the property because there was interested parties who were going back and forth um I would say though typically with school districts though um I'll give you also probably a a not positive side of that um I will not name the district it's public but I won't name the district so we went through the district did not want to go through a waiver process and so we did do a public auction and one of the difficulties with the public auction is that you are required to accept the proposal no matter what it looks like no matter what the terms are as the only require or the only thing that you're looking at is the price and so um this option turned out to provide um I would say challenges for the school district because even though the price was higher it came with a much longer escrow period um and so the district um it still hasn't closed yet they're still in escrow and I believe we did the auction in 2021 or 2020 um and so it it does not give the district the flexibility to negotiate right if you were to go for a waiver um you can negotiate price you can negotiate terms you can negotiate um pretty much anything that's included in the proposal and then you can agree to it agree to the actual agreement once you are comfortable with it um on the flip side though because I hear you and it's and you're saying hey well could we potentially be leaving money on the table the benefit is is that having a a team or or a fiduciary on your side who can vet all of the proposals that come in to truly ensure hey are we getting market value is this the best that this proposal proposer can provide and is this what is this truly the value of the property so that I would say would be um what I would recommend the district to have if you go through with the waiver process does that answer your question I Tred to be um so I was gonna ask um from what I hear the the city of mdusa has first priority on a lease or a buy or or the city they have to be auza it's because we're in Aza but do is that a true statement so assuming that um the city is on those required notices then yes um whoever is on the entities and it it depends on if the properties were deemed Surplus or exempt Surplus um and it always the the names or the number of the entities changes from time to time so I can't say with exact guarantee but assuming the city's name was on those required agencies then yes the city would get a notice if you were to release the properties and it would say this notice hereby states that isua unified school district is offering the below property or properties for sale or lease uh please advise if you you know please contact xers if you are interested in a sale Rel lease so theoretically yes and what would deem a property exempt or an entity exemp so the um it has it it not the entity it has to do with the property itself and so typically School District property would be exempt Surplus um and from my this is another legal question but from my general understanding I believe it has to do with the um uh the name is escaping me uh the Cal the Surplus Land Act and typically the school district is exempt from the Surplus Land Act thank you m Jennings I have a question about the process yes once the school district declares that it has an intent to sell is there any point in that process where we can reverse that yes um you so I'll give another example uh I'm working with the school district now we released four sites for sale excuse me sale or lease um we received a ton of proposals and the board ultimately decided that they did not want to accept any of the proposals so um you can go through the entire process and ultimately the final decision would be whether you accept a proposal or not um and then even still once if you were to accept a proposal it's not binding until you actually sign an actual lease agreement Andor a purchase and sale agreement so you have the flexibility um even if you were to pass a resolution that um just means you're intent you have an intent to sell or lease um it doesn't bind you to actually doesn't force you to have to sell or lease and so the point of no return is execution of the agreement and possibly escrow for a sale correct yeah once you once you execute the agreement agement that would be a binding agreement and then in this process um I'm just asking questions uh the land use attorneys are those with your firm or is that a function of is that with F3 a division of F3 yes that's a division of F3 okay anything else Miss Jennings for this well there's one more slide okay the summary yeah so this is just a some some summary I realize it's a little might be hard to read H but this reviews the pros and cons of the five options that were discussed and then the last column on the right attempts to provide an estimated timeline to completion um emphasis on the word estimated um this could change at any time based off of board schedule based off of the potential um other party but I tried to just give a general summary of the potential steps as well as timeline hopefully towards completion this is great thank you you're welcome so that's all I have um any other questions before I take my seat okay yes I I do have questions um the superintendent and public cabinet um during this process say will we will will be hiring a project manager to look over this third plus property project and when would that start if if we are because I I don't I don't see our people inside taking this over uh mot um or Latasha because the Project's very very big and it's we need to do the right thing we want to be sure that we you know someone's working only on this Surplus properties yeah that that would um that would depend on the decisions of the board um on on what to do with the properties um that would depend on on those decisions are we building are we developing are we constructing um versus we're just going to do a lease and we have no responsibility for building or cons or constructing uh that will that will determine our next tax but yes if there is an excess of projects that is something that that we um have will contemplate for sure and then just my second question do you have um your the cabinet have any recommendations that um that you know that you can bring to us regarding the properties or the sales or or release or any recommendations at all um yeah so we've made one rep one recommendation public um which is uh we recommend uh using Center Middle School for a community and Conference Center uh and we recommend uh using um the SLA Middle School uh for Sierra High School and a Central Kitchen those are big labels and there' probably be other things that would be on these properties um as well but these would be um the main the main function um if that were to happen then that leaves four properties uh still to be discussed and still to be uh considered uh we as a team um can understand the the heaviness of this of a decision of such U magnitude and so as we have thought about you know what we would do or what we would recommend uh we have not taken that lightly uh at all um um so when we have thought about what we would do um a lot of factors have come into that recommendation or that you know yeah that recommend recommendation number one declining enrollment is real it's a real thing um right now in 2627 uh we are projected to have uh 5,940 9 kids that's less than four years from now we are projected to lose 563 kids can you that 2027 2627 EXO 2627 that is correct uh we are projected to be at 5949 five just to put it in context 563 students right now we have six schools with less than 556 with with less than 563 kids so more than half of our our campuses right now have less than that projected amount that we are looking to um to lose in just under four years if we shoot forward in in those four years and we and we place ourselves in 26 27 with that projection we will be at 59% usage of our facilities which is the flip with the flip side is that 41% of our facilities right would be available for growth or for students at csba I happen to be in a uh Breakout session uh this last week where they shared that the state of California is projecting to lose more than half a million students in the next nine years the state of California over half a million students is a projected uh to have loss so we cannot ignore uh declining uh declining enrollment can you repeat that in the next how many years nine years they are projecting to lose more than half a million uh students in the state and you define loss not necessarily that a half a million student are I mean it's it's unknown but not necessarily that a half a million are leaving but just looking at how many students are exiting the K12 versus entering the K12 coupled yes with the birth rates yeah declining birth rates uh as well already alluded to the fact that right now right if we if we if we go to four years out we would be using our facilities at 59% so that 59% just that alone right has um gives us growth opportunity if there were to be all of a sudden uh spike in birth rates or a rise in uh enrollment there's still 41% of our current properties that would be available so Mr T I think that's a really important point to clarify So when you say in the 26 27 year we project 5,949 students occupying the same number of sites we're occupying now meaning that if so it's not of all of our used and unused sites that's just of our sites that we're occupying now disregarding unoccupied sites you're saying we still have 41% growth to absorb additional students from for a variety of reasons correct and then coupled on top of that the recommendation to hold on to Center and to hold on to slon as you know Community Conference Center Sierra High School uh um Central Kitchen that gives you even a further back stop right for Spike of enrollment or increase of enrollment because now you have literally two properties that if need be could be reverted back to school sites so you have the 41% just in four years let alone that that trajectory that that is supposed to continue plus you have two additional sites that if you had to you can rever back to school sites um so that's so far we also know that currently right now if well let's forget about Center and slaon for a second without Center and slaon we know right we shared in May 2022 um our facility needs and dreams um we hear it at auu high SCH High School quite often about scoreboards about lights about seating um and so when we think about the current facility needs and dreams of the options that are available then we have to ask ourselves what what can match up to make those facility needs and dreams a reality um and for us that option is a sale because a sale uh involves um cash flow um that is is right now when you tag on the center and sloa Middle School conversions or repurposing that adds right I think it was somewhere between 12 and 134 million um and um board member Greer if I can quote you like you know why why not dream big right as we were thinking well if we wanted to do this we kind of gave a kind of gave uh a range um and then lastly so the sale would bring in our opinion right the funds to to to adequately address our facility needs and our dreams uh because the other options although there are some Financial benefits those are are steady right and so you're getting steady in uh stream of money but we're not talking in the millions and millions of dollars to do the things that that need to be done possibly uh a sale of the properties um and here Lauren you can correct me if I'm if I'm wrong what what we have heard um is that because we're talking about three entities if I'm not mistaken three um um zoning Partners uh on the on the properties that that we have everybody has discussed and talked about housing hous housing housing housing so there could also be the potential this is just a potential if these properties are developed in what we seem to be pretty confident is going to be the allowable development of these properties could possibly also bring in families and bring in students to further bolster um the district there are are some minor other benefits um and maybe Latasha doesn't think they're minor but there are Developer fees and those kinds of things that that can also be a positive um uh to the district so when we think about declining enrollment when we think about the fact that we feel that we have enough space to absorb a possible uh growth and when we think about the possible benefits of an influx of funds to address our current facilities and our dreams um that is what leads us right since being asked that would lead us to believe that the the sale of the properties makes the most the most sense uh for the needs of our district and I just wanted to add on to that because where were going to get millions of dollars was our school bond and now we're in the last issuance of our funding for our school bonds but um I'll just say I don't think isza is ready for another school bond that's not going to happen they passed like a very thin margin we're lucky to have that school bond so that's where I'm seeing where we do need more money and um because we're not getting any from the state and uh our money's running out so we have to think about those things um that we want to have our dream and make things bigger and better it's all about money I agree with um vice president um Rodriguez paa because I think that I mean I I remember I was here for the bond too and just you know I hear the community right now and I really don't think there's the support for another Bond I as as a school board member now I would love to see that the district implement and some kind of facility maintenance program just like the city does right with their roads and Paving the roads that we put it in painting uh any kind of Capital Improvements where the community is driving by and people can see the change and students can feel a sense of Pride walking into new a new you know new grounds maybe the asphalt I mean it's unfortunate that um it h you know there's some things that we've maintenance has kind of fallen behind but this is an opportunity I believe we have where we can change that I I really don't think we can go to the voters with another Bond I mean I I really don't another thing too and I think this is more of a question for Lauren is I know that um Center is located in the county jurisdiction so how does that impact you know let's say we were to move forward with a community center or the does that slow down the process I know there's more more we have to go through certain you know permitting process with the county how does that look in terms of specifically a community center yeah just to you know move forward with changing the the use oh the use so it would be essentially the same so um no if the property isn't unincorporated that means then the county would be the local jurisdiction or if the property was in within city of isua City Limits um you essentially would need to get approval from from either the county or the city to have the use change um and so we would be able to look to see you know is there typically in any jurisdiction it's important to look at what the recent development patterns are so like what has the county uh locally and in the nearby neighborhood what have they approved because they never want to put a use in the middle of um you know like I always say put a 20 foot apartment building next to single family homes it would just never happen so we would be able to say okay is this does this have the potential to be legally permissible meaning could the county or whoever the local jurisdiction have the um would they be open to further conversations to approve it and essentially would be the same as you would if it were in the city um getting the building permits and the What's called the entitlement or the right to build what you're looking to build so does that change any of that timeline that you have in this slide here 17 for Lauren just a quick clarification though uh because we might be using terminology in the wrong okay in the wrong way my understanding is that our vision of a community and Conference Center is still within the use of a district um and so there is there are no other loop or Hoops that we have to jump through it's just like we open up a Family Resource Center or a well-being Center uh it is de for the use of the district um and so therefore correct me if I'm wrong I don't think that that this applies that we have to go get permission it's if I think in your sense like Community said if we're building something or whatever then then yes but in the this still this still falls under the use uh of the of the district so I think that we we do not have to abide by that yeah so there are certain allowances where the school district essentially does not have to abide by the zoning code um and it's it's specifically if you were to use a property for some sort of Education use which in this case as long as it applies then um you are your own jurisdiction you do not have to abide by any of the zoning or development standards of the the county or whoever so it effectively would help streamline the process for you okay thank you Bo M I have a few questions superintendent arga can can you speak to what is what is staff's hoped for outcome from this meeting thank you board member Greer um at our last board meeting it was requested that we had some objectives for toight uh so board president um and I had an opportunity to collaboratively uh work on that um and so we do have some like floor objectives um so one objective was that uh we might get direction uh from the Board of Education regarding the use of Center Middle School and slen Middle School like are we on board with the idea of a Community Conference Center at uh Center Middle School and Sierra High School and a Central Kitchen uh at sloa middle school so like that would be one objective uh the other objective uh because again we understand the hairiness of a decision like this if if there was not a clear path to a decision to the properties or one property then maybe uh another objective is to get us closer by eliminating uh some of the options that are available to us uh so for example today we heard joint use we heard exchange and so maybe if if if again we're not ready to make a decision maybe we can start eliminating some of those options like none of us are interested in X then that can narrow the future conversations and possibly if if maybe even some desired ranking like you know this is kind of First Choice second choice third choice but we need more conversation or whatever just to help future conversations um be more productive and more effective and more efficient so so there's two objectives that is correct okay you said that that we're projecting 59% of facilities in use and again to be to be clear we're talking about the sites that if we if we look at the sites that are are not deemed Surplus today and if we're looking about looking at the percentage that those are in you so so we're excluding when we talk about that we are excluding Center we are excluding um Powell we're excluding these other other sites and we would still be at 59% correct that is correct would you would it be possible don't have to do it now but would it be possible to get some information that I guess that excludes Center and excuse me that excludes Gladstone middle school and ausa high school and I asked that because as centralized schools I I imagine that those within themselves can Flex down and and out as as needed with the influx or or decrease in in enrollment but really the what I'm what I'm be curious to know is what is our what is the percentage of of capacity that we have for our elementary schools um and that doesn't have to be necessarily given unless it it can be but but um I wouldn't expect that to happen now okay and if it can be then then I'd have a followup question to that uh we are are there other offsite facilities I know we we've talked about the sight off of Arrow Highway and I know we've discussed the potential of bringing those on to to school sites where are what is what is staff's thinking in regards to that and and what is the status of of those sites does the does District own that lease that um what are the potential savings for any any off District uh sites that we use yeah so my uh talking about the Circ um that is uh with our Salpa uh that's where the Salpa offices um are maintained uh that property belongs to Cina Valley Unified School District um and if I'm not mistaken uh we are not paying um any kind of lease or any kind of you know B um and so uh yes we have discussed and talked about again the Sierra the possible Sierra High School um location uh we've discussed and talked about you know possibly centralizing our team tosa teachers on special assignment um we've talked about possibly uh the staff members from the Circ um so we do have um we have had those conversations um and we have said you know this would be a good landing spot uh to uh to have them at um we have not discussed that with you know the team or with those individuals they might be perfectly happy there and if we're not paying anything then sure no no harm no foul uh but yes those conversations have have been had um the other big conversation that we have had is if Sierra High School gets its proper school um that leaves uh some facilities um availabil at the adult school and so uh we had uh today uh appr propo um Magnolia adult transition program student come and say the flag salute and so we have we have also said you know it's their adult students they belong at the at the adult school with other adults and they're adult students and so again that decision about slen would make that possible to move over that program program so that they are with other adults as well do we have any have we had any type of appraisals done and what would that process be if we were looking at the different sites that that have been deemed Surplus to to kind of determine what what they would be worth if we sold short answer is yes but I'll let Lauren uh talk about that right now yeah so our team has completed um on the sites that we did study for the school district what's called a residual land value U and so we do have those values and that would be something that we're happy to discuss with the board en close session um we recommend always discussing those um in close session because that potentially if you were to ever consider releasing those sites um you could potentially lose some leverage uh if you were to make the values public and then last question I have assuming that we don't yet have the that that data on um was a question about excluding High School Middle School yeah we have the numbers I don't see uh I don't see you do a subtotal Latasha I don't know if you can do that quickly or not so I the subtotal capacity of just our elementary schools yeah and you have but by percentage not enrollment by percentage because my total enrollment includes the entire District yeah so I would have to work to get that but I do have a capacity by um each School site yeah so if we could be be provided with that that would be help sure and the reason I asked that and what I what I would the ultimate question that I want to get to is this is this is a difficult question and and considering the process that we just went through um is is uh a question that would be scary to ask but but wanting to put out there and and continue to project ahead and be realistic about our future projections if we were to use a Liker scale of highly unlikely to to highly likely and and and the different options in between when you're talking about our capacity for for facilities what is the likelihood that we foresee in the future that a future iteration of this this board would would be at a similar place where they're needing to consider consolidations of uh Surplus properties yes that is a a tough a tough question um I think we can let me start with providing the reverse of of your question because I believe in Natasha please correct me if I'm wrong on my numbers using the same marker of 2627 right that same marker uh glasso Middle School is projected to be at 73% capacity and if I'm not mistaken azuza High School is projected to be below 50% um so um it it would be hard well just based on the numbers very likely I mean that's that's very likely that a future iteration of this board a future iteration of this cabinet would find themselves in a situation like hey I know that X number years ago we closed eight schools but the reality is the reality so so I would say that based on the numbers based on the projections that is highly likely that a future board future cabinet uh would have to Grapple with that conversation so along that line Gladstone projected to be at 73% and isua high school to projected to be at 51 did you say 51% yes but I also want to be fair that Asuza High School number includes the Capac of Foothill because right now yes they have two campuses so we also have that as well so if just make sure we compare apples to apples but yes that's where Aza high school would be with both compa um campuses having their capacity and that number is 44 44% so what's the current capacity of the the combined isua High School Foothill complex and the current cap site capacity of Gladstone right now I'm showing based on our projections that Gladstone Middle School is at 74% and ausa because they have two campuses is at 49% so isza going from 49 to rejected 44 and Gladstone going from what to what 73 to 71 74 to 73 so that in itself is fairly steady for Gladstone as as a single site yes okay I think you were keying in on elementary site capacity and keeping in keeping in mind that there would be a delay in the declined enrollment impact to Secondary School sites that if if we had projections that that would take the elementary school population out in additional five years out in additional years that that decline would follow it's just that our our it seems our our data stops at that point because that's how far out our demographers were able to project right yes and another point to consider is that unlike the elementary schools where you're spreading out the the the students and the declining enrollment uh this is a one school concentration right so I have a question well you already answered the question regarding the adult transition I was going to ask that question about those students so um I'm going you talking about the elimination of some of these um items you gave us I I for myself you know I'm not sure my colleagues but the employee Workforce housing I really don't think we should look further onto that because you know we're we're trying to earn money this is the whole purpose of closing the school sites and I think this would just be something well it's totally different than than what we're looking at you know my opinion I think um and the um the property exchange also I think those talk I think for myself I think a joint use at lease or a sale for me seems more feasible financially fora and I'm not sure how know that that's I know that uh typically in our board meetings especially when we have action items the whoever sitting in this shair speaks last but given that this is a study session I'd like to kind of share kind of what I'm thinking um along the way um Lord vice president R Spa I I I think I'm am in agreement with you about the concept of Workforce housing however I am in support of figuring out how to be able to support housing um and maybe that's not again our Workforce housing but providing ways for more families more um residents to join the isua community um I think when we ask the critical existential question is this indirectly or directly going to support student enrollment more families more students um so I'm I think I'm kind of with you but I I'm with you in terms of not the workforce housing as its own specialized project but the concept of housing in the city add to that because I know that the city and I'm not sure mrga the city um by the state I guess was required to build so many houses correct I'm not sure the figure and I think the city was is doing just that they are building more houses that to me that's the job of the city to be doing not not a school district yes and I'm I'm not disagreeing with you um and I know that that was a a previous convers ation about the arena allocation so uh the city meeting its allocation and how is that translating into actual structures actual units um is a a question I think to to explore with our Part City as partners um I wanted to ask again this exist existential question about is this action directly or indirectly supporting enrollment growth um because there's I I see that we have a um opportunities to increase the pipeline and so I wanted to ask um miss kamacha about our early Ed preschool enrollment given that we've expanded our preschool sit what is our preschool enrollment and how did that change from last year before we had the grant to this year and what what does that look like in terms of potential kindergarteners middle schoolers ASO a graduate I'd have to pull current numbers um because we did reconfigure with reorganization so some schools um that had previously one section of um preschool programming now have two sections so it their enrollment might have increased but I'd have to look at comparatively last year to this year if there has been an increase or does it appear that way because of how we've reorganized and reallocated um our preschool sections at the different Elementary sites thank you I I think I'm interest I'm interested in looking at that and I think the the main question is did our grant allow us to expand services to serve more preschool kids our preschool Grant is adding a full day full year program um which we are still in the process of getting up in and and renting at this point so our our part Day part year um that has remained consistent okay so I think I'm I'm GNA repeat back to make sure I'm understanding so our our part Day part year is continuing and the grant is funding the all day all year but it has yet to take effect correct so we haven't seen that bump yet not yet do we know how many students are contemplating being served under that if we're at capacity with what the grant supports I believe the enrollment caps out per classroom so it would be two CL we'd be looking at an additional 50 seats 50 seats or four classrooms only two because it would be um when we consider the ratios um for adult to Children um it would be about 20 approximately 25 students in a class and because it's full day it's not a port day section um so it's a it would be like a 7 AM program to 6m so those seats would be allocated to 25 students and have we determined where that program would be located in terms of a campus there are a couple of different options that we are looking at one place that has come up as an idea um would be housing one at Longfellow and then another at the South End of the city um and then potentially growing out to maybe the adult education center or something like that I just have one more question on on this thread and then I'll yield it back to my colleagues just because I'm I'm thinking about Pipeline and I'm thinking about um hooking families at early Ed at preschool those are the families more likely to stay within the district because they love their teacher they know the campus they feel very safe and secure and supported um as a district when we had the opportunity to visit um the Jeff Seymour family center in El Monte part of that campus I was um pleased to see it was associated with the preschool and because I thought okay here's a district campus you know where how does it where is the revenue that supports it and part of that I understand came from that that preschool site um I think given the um socioeconomic diversity and the growth in families in is zza um as we think about planning and expanding our early Ed programs I would like us to um do some thinking on how to expand our full day full year programs to include a sliding scale paid option um because I know in um talking to families um who need child care who absolutely need child care um the ability to have a a paid option here in our backyard um will keep will attract and keep families here and I think is more likely for those families to stay within the district um and I know that's something I think that there are a lot of people eager to um participate in I I just agree with that as a as something to explore and look into I think that's that's a great suggestion my question to to to follow up with that is um do you have a projection date on when this will take effect the the ones that you have already um spoken about which is the 50 seats the two classrooms the full day full year we have to look at the Staffing components to that because it's a different calendar because full day full year means just that that means it is um focused on Child Care um so to um Dr Bo's earlier question um the enrollment of the full day full year is focused um toward a sliding scale um Working Families to provide child care um but full day full year means it operates all year around which is a very different calendar um than what we currently um Implement at um our part Day part year so it would only be closed um a couple of days during the Christmas holiday Thanksgiving and a couple of other big holidays but it operates all year around so Ju Just so I'm I'm clearing what I'm hearing is that we have no projection date as of right now I I couldn't give you an exact date right now okay um when you do have that date and hopefully it's soon could you please share that with us absolutely thank you I'm just looking to give processing time I I have I don't want to necessarily move us there but I do have some concluding thoughts go ahead so as we have been having this conversation about well one looking at the the hope outomes for this meeting so one is direction for Center Center Middle School campus and the SAA Middle School campus and then also determination on direction for the other school sites if not at least elimination of of options with with that in mind along the way I it has been important for me to ensure that future iterations of this board and cabinet have options available to them so that we are not handcuffing future decision makers into decisions that we made now with without thinking about about the future in just recognizing and realizing where the realities of declin declining enrollment and where we are um and what we're projecting as far as capacity of sites and and what that looks like I'm and that we would we looking to hang on to at least two sites that that would not house students which gives us flexibility if if we needed to to flex out there I'm I'm actually comfortable with the idea of of both utilizing a center and sloon for the things that that we've discussed just and I'm I'm also um comfortable with the idea of a sale of the remaining properties um we can we just I would also agree I think one of the main reasons that we started the project to be able to go ahead and consolidate and reorganize our district was us to be able to use um the best to you know for our students in our facilities and to be fiscal responsible um the use of Center in salson Middle School to what you have recommended I feel would benefit our students and it logistically makes sense having Sierra with the adult school was not for it from the beginning and therefore I truly believe that bring The Adult School to uh from Magnolia to um the adults here I don't know what to call it Gladstone Adult School is that what we call Magnolia adult transition program okay Magnolia adult transition program bringing it to the adult school um what my question for um for the use of Center Middle School I would like to request what what is we would like I would like to request also from my colleagues as well to have input and what that is going to look like for you know the facilities Ed um what is that Center's going to what Center's going to look like um are we going to build something right one of the things that I um heard and I can't remember one of my colleagues say you know for the students to drive by and say that's a Performing Arts Center and actually look like a performing arts center right not just it up um not just you know doing a little bit at a time truly being able to invest in a Performing Art Center that perhaps we may also have other um entities other organizations come and use that Performing Art Center um Clos by eliminating options that was your uh second objective um again go going back to why we have gone through this process it's been years if I'm if I'm correct three years that we've been speaking about um just in my term but actually we've been speaking about closing schools of surplus property for the last six to at least and even before that the not the board but the community knowing what was happening and the low enrollment that was happening The Exodus of our students leaving our district um and you know finally we had this conversation The Sur property that was there before this property made the great decision in being able to recommend Gladstone and Mountain View um so I also am in favor of being able to get some money in real time because we owe it to our students now not later but now and so what that looks like I I would like to to know and have a more clear understanding um you know on the timeline of um what the sale of our properties are going to be and I would like to recommend that we sell Mountain View as soon as possible that would be my you know my request because it has been empty for so long and the damages that have been coming you know from people that been vandalizing things that we've been having to patch up it is not okay it's a sore Thum in our community and that right away needs to be sold right away those are my thoughts so um I wanted to add also that I do agree with board member GRE regarding Central Middle School as the um um and um I think it'd be a great resource center for our community we did see the one in Elon and they did it was like a used to had um some student classes there in the morning but in the afternoon they had um research centers for the community in the weekends they have they had a community garden there they had like a safe place so they can come and I think that it was really nice and I would like to see something like that here in isza in the city of isua in SLO Middle School the satellite kitchen would be great because you know I know that the the young ladies and men that work very hard in the kitchen have wanted a satellite kitchen and they deserve it because our food is really delicious these days um and Sierra High School also you know those students deserve some places where they can go play and they can play basketball and they they need a field because we have been shuffled those part students around from one school to another side and still they continue to keep smiling and not I never hear them complain so they deserve it I I think that um the sales of the remaining properties of course I you know it's a hard thing to say but I think that we do need the money our our sco like I mentioned um it's the last issuance and we already have it that fund is already accounted for so there's no space to use that money and this would be the best time to make our schools we spoke about even when that happened that we wanted our schools to have since board member um benas was not here but that was our Focus to have our schools have the cbal field was very important that's why you see people go by Sant like oh well we didn't even know Center looks totally different you know the facade of the front of the schools and we can do more more and um I think that would also bring us um my job as a board member to be U um fiscally solve it and this is where that big word comes in I think that the um person we should work on I'm not sure I like to know like you know what are we going to do first or what campus are we looking at first I do think that we should go by the well I don't want to say the while the oldest ones I guess like Mountain Drew and the adult school they've been you know when reach just five years um when you they've been empty for so long and I I like to see like what what are we doing first what campus are we going to work on first what I really would like to see the ones I today when I just heard about the fiveyear uh plan I didn't realize that I want to be penalized our purpose is to make money not to lose money right so that's all I have to say can you explain to me the adult school again scenario please absolutely um so uh we are recommending that slon Middle School um be converted to the Future home of Sierra High School if that were to happen that means that the the campus where they're at right now currently they would vacate that piece of it and that property also houses the adult school and so one idea is that right now at Magnolia Elementary School we have an adult transition program on the same campus and so the idea would be that the Magnolia adult transition program move over to the adult school so that they can be with the with adults as well because they are adult students so they'll be moving over to Sierra to where Sierra used to be now they're not as as there would still be other room and that other room could also be opportunity for our adult school to continue to expand as we envision um opportunities for the community uh to be adult Learners and learn things like trades and get certificates and those kinds of things okay thank you I I like that idea because you would be consolidating in a sense right so I think that they need to we need to do that um so I would agree with that Vision um I do agree with Center Middle School um being the community center I I personally I think it's in a great location it's it is in the center of if you will the city in a sense and um I I think that would I so definitely support that having the um satellite kitchen at slaon I also support that as well um I as far as the different options here I do not support the workforce housing um that that's not it's still there's a lot going on right now in the district so I really want to continue to keep our options open but at this point I would support eliminating the workforce housing um one of the things that I would like to see is some kind of and I don't know if this is would be the time to talk about it maybe not maybe in the future whether we decide to sell the other Surplus properties that were not you know which are um not Center or slen I really think that I would love to see some kind of a joint venture with the city and you know for good A B good business relationship with the city I know the city's also looking at maybe having some kind of recreational facilities I know that you know they talk about maybe I think at uh memor Memorial Park and I'm still learning all this so that Memorial Park I think sometimes the the children use the they have for my understanding they have to go out there set it all up and things like that and I remember when I first got elected I went to a community meeting with the PD the city the district and one of the things that I heard the community say was that we needed to bring some of these programs back I know that we're talking about enrollment decreasing but we also have to keep the option open of future enrollment in case we need to increase our Capac so I do agree with um board member Adrien Greer his his vision but I also think that we need to remember what the community was voicing at those meetings that we need to keep these children engaged so I would like to see some kind of a joint venture with the city down the road uh where we could work in partnership with them so that we can I think they were also looking at Lee the the field at Lee school and um maybe we could have that conversation with the city because they want to use that for you know the the the games and all that for the community I would like to see some kind of a joint venture in the future with the city a partnership so that we can engage and utilize these facilities in good faith with the city right I mean this is an opportunity we have where we can address some of those concerns that were voiced at that community meeting because we need to keep children engaged and then also maybe one of the things that you know for me that was important when we visited the I went to at least three of the sites the community centers and other cities one of the things that I wanted I want for isua because we do have this opportunity and for our community is that that we have the W factor I I didn't get that at all at some of those community centers and if we have an opportunity here to enter into some kind of a joint venture with the developer down the road be it the city brings in the de whoever it is that we somehow because we you know get them to bring in the dollars to help us with the joint venture of maybe reconstructing some of Center so that it is a w factor that we just don't put you know the building and you know a new signage and things like that that we look at maybe reconstructing or reconfiguring so that that that it does look like a true Community Center not like we just kind of slapped you know paint on the building and you know new signage I think it's time that we really look at giving back to our students as far as giving them the recreation facilities that they need and that they've been asking for that's that's where I stand um Mr T I have a question I know when we first started the consolidation the reorganization process we talked about Foothill Middle School being isua high East and there was talk about at least some prelimary conversation around theater or performing arts space um can you remind and refresh us where we are in that discussion in terms of the use of Foothill Middle School site as an arts space for the high school yes I'll begin big and then I'll let Latasha uh speak uh granular uh so yes that was one of the things that was approved uh by the Board of Education um and so we have been working um with uh Architects and designers um and I'll Tasha let you know where we are in that process so we received culinary designs um so our next step um we received the seating capacity um right now um is projected at 250 um persons um inside of the area um right now we're trying we're exploring um the idea of permanent seating versus flexible seating meaning that we could move so we can have a multi-purpose use of the space um and so we have walked that with the architect um we're going to get more feedback from Mr Fernandez as well um and we the last thing that we're trying to explore is there's a back area um next to the multi-purpose room currently on the east side of Campus of how we can merge those so it could be a backstage area um but uh design wise is creating a challenge because the level of the ground is not it's just not a flat surface um so we're currently exploring but we've received the information for sound um lighting and so right now we're finalizing the seating and then from there once we have those fin designs we'll present that to the board of education and we could break ground M Jamal when you talk about flexible seating is that flexible seating like the seats fold into the floor and you can have a prium stage with seats around or what kind of flexible seating do you mean um flexible seating to the extent that we can actually remove the seating to have a open space to utilize the um area for other purposes but we're all but the design also includes expanding the stage as well is that different from chair so is it like a semi permanent seat where you could install and then you'd have to uninstall and that's different from a a portable chair so it's it will be um Theater seating and it's just a difference of It fixated To The Ground versus um Theater seating that we can actually up and store away in case we need to utilize the space for another purpose and the the the floor would would then be flat or I I would there be like tracks on the floor I'm I'm not sure um it's elevated so it will so that way we can maximize the number of persons that could be in the space it will be a slight elevation plus with Ada seating as well oh okay um I was using the one or not flat but a smooth floor when we remove the seating yes but it will still have a elevation to it if we want to have removable cating thank you and then I I heard you say that you're work you have bids for a sound lighting and seating um can you remind us what an estimated project budget is for that at ISU High yes give me one second I think it was half a million dollars thank you for all all in Allin thank you you're welcome um so I'll begin with with my closing comments um I am I'm in full support of the repurposing of slen as future home for Sierra High School and the expansion of the Central Kitchen that I'm in full support of that similarly I'm in full support of the repurposing of Center the Center Middle School site as a community slon center um I echo my colleague sentiments around getting more detailed information um how do we blend and braid funds from a variety of sources to do that um and I think I'm uh I don't think I would anyone here would disagree that I want to see that done in a really quality way right that it's um you know we haven't quite the lottery but doing it in a very high quality way where that it is um not just new paint um and a new sign but it really has uh transformed the space so that it feels like feels like a new site um I think because it's a new purpose it's a it's part of our new vision um my other two interests in terms of use or just the function of sites really revolve back to um Mi Mission and purpose and I would be interested to explore how we can expand our all day all year preschool programs either to expand them on existing elementary school campuses or attach it to the community center or this is pie in the sky this is at the other end if it makes sense to identify one of the campuses to be a larger early Ed site that's maybe attached with other um tosas or other District staff that would make sense to locate there so that's kind of a variety but I I I'm interested in expanding Early Education Services because it is a way to invite families to move here stay here and and grow with us um and I think one of the things that we've talked about as a board that we've seen in in um presentations and awards is we do art really well whether it's our Congressional award-winning student it's our music students um and so I I heard an idea of supporting Performing Art Center and I definitely support the idea of a Performing Art Center and I think that it makes sense to um have a conversation with our city to do that as a joint use um when I look at where we are located on the foothill Corridor we kind of have passing in at one end and maybe we have Claremont on the other and I think we are positioned to kind of fill that Gap to have in addition to what we want to do at isua high school as a school-based art and theater center but really to be able to open it up as a cultural um and Performing Art Space um I think it lends vibrancy to our city um it helps um cement our role as a destination where you work here you bring your kids to school here you can enjoy a play you can go out to dinner in downtown um to me that makes sense and I I think doing it together um also shows that we would have a strong partnership with our Civic leaders um so that's something that I that I support so I I think I answered the question about yes for SL and yes for Center and then my two main um ideas that I champ in are early Ed and arts through a joint use uh with the city of Asuza I just want to ask one question did you want to eliminate did you already share oh um yeah and that thank you because that's I was focusing on the things I really excited to talk about and maybe that the harder things uh are harder to talk about um I am I am open to the idea of sale uh in a graduated way I'm not sure that I'm ready to say dispose of all the properties right now because that's a really big it is a big step whether you do it all at once or or gradually but I would I'm I'm supportive of sale but not all six at once I think um starting with some of the older properties Mountain View getting a sense and that also is a kind of a test for us about the process because as a governance team we're all new doing it together um so I I'm not opposed to say I'm open to it my only caution is to do it in a graduate way and so that we can show our community progress that we're taking action um I I'm not sure given the complexities of a exchange that that makes sense for us because we're trying to figure out what to do with the properties we have now rather than finding a new one so I don't think that makes sense for what we want to do um and then some I I guess it's somewhere between the joint joint use and Lease what would make sense for this Performing Art Center in terms of the the vehicle um so that's that's kind of where I sit with that can can I ask you a couple question when when you say that you would you seem to prefer the idea of doing things in a graduated way as opposed to to doing things all at once I guess I'm curious why like it there's an aspect of that that seems to me like kicking the can down down the road um to to a certain extent um I guess I'd also wonder and and any colleagues can can respond to this what would we want to wait and see what what what would we what what more data would we hope gather uh to be able to make a decision um I I I personally like don't don't take don't take lightly the idea of of of go for it and sale um but at the same time as I'm looking at things I suppose it would be helpful to get the final numbers on on percentages for elementary that that would be a helpful data point but as I as I look at things all signs point to that being the the wisest course of action and then leveraging those those resources for some of these things that we're talking about um I think delaying that just kicks the can down the road and we find ourselves where other properties are now in the same state that Mountain View is in and so I just wonder why we wouldn't proactively um go go about addressing that so I'm just curious what the thoughts are why why we why we would if you put something on the market market dictates the the speed of that um and and if and if there if there is is interest so I'm just curious why we would delay or or do it in phases I I don't quite understand why we would do that asking um because right so so since since uh board president since since you began with that I I I suppose I'd love to hear initially your thoughts but then I'd love to hear any thoughts from from any others on the on the board as well and that's that's a really valid point I think it's um it's not I'm not saying no right I'm not saying don't sell anything I'm saying I I I support that and I think what I'm expressing is a sense of um really a responsibility yes to to be uh stewards you know the best stewards of funds but then also if you said and I don't know what the appetite is here if we said all right we're going to agendize this for the generary board meeting are we ready to put it six properties up for sale in January I might want to take some more time to think about and maybe one month is enough but if you ask me today are you ready to sell all six properties no further questions I would have to do a lot more thinking and that that is what is going through my head and what I'm trying to express in terms of stages or at least starting with one Dr B just with Clarity it's four properties unless we're taking Center and slos in off the boat and we're saying we're going to consider those for sale sure sorry I think that's what was stuck in my head about um opportunities and and what what I would like um like I mentioned the first two that I've been on the longest to work on First and I'm not saying you know um take 10 years I would like to see a timeline I mean is in the next three years we're GNA you know Sol them or six months or I like to see a timeline I like to see also what is the value of these properties you know and what what is the um the size of the properties I like to see that I think but but but I I'm not talking about um I not sure what you're saying you're think you're thinking that we want to wait 10 years or I I was that's not my mindset so one one way to look at this is to say we have limited capacity and so if there are four sites that we need to sell let's let's slow down and let's sell them one at a time and that that to me in my opinion delays the process unnecessarily as opposed to if we communicate what or or obtain whatever whatever data we are needing to obtain to be able to make a make a decision and then if we communicate at in essence then let's go if if we come to the point where we say yes s of all four sites makes the most sense if we come to that conclusion I'm not sure that it makes sense to me why we wouldn't do them um concurrently as as as as opposed to I I don't I don't understand why we would do that why we wouldn't just what I'm saying is that um it's four properties right the two that I mentioned to go first right and so with with with that the idea of let's do the two that are oldest first I don't understand where that comes from as opposed to saying to our partners uh um uh real estate agents whatever whatever companies we're working with we've determined that we want to sell all four of these properties and so what would it look like for us to move forward on all on all four of these and if and if as we're speaking to our our real realtors that they're saying we don't have the capacity to do all four at the same time so let's do two then I can see prioritizing but if we can do all four why I don't know why we wouldn't and this is why I'm asking for a timeline I mean how I mean I don't I don't know how long does it take to sell a property you know what is the process I mean I'm new to this just like we all are so I like to see the process you know how long does it take to sell a property um you know I don't know that either can I just speak into it I I think that also to the process of of selling uh a property we have to go through the rfqs we have there's a process and so you know to to what you're saying I I would agree with you completely in the sense that why wait um but I think it's important that as we bring up the fact that it's going to be going on five years we are going to um lose money on that having to apply again um just with Mountain View alone is that correct we are rolling into the fifth year and so we were running but we can also continue to apply for a waiver um so it's not automatically that you automatically have to pay those fees but we are rolling into that fifth year yes ma'am if we can you know if speaking to to uh board member Greer's Point um the reason that I had said Mountain View was because of that but if we can do a waiver did not know thank you for clarifying I would also like to see all four of them you know sold um because of the fact that again we don't want another six to go by and then grow weeds and again vandalism and so forth and we can do all large once some um I would agree and just I have a question and maybe this is for luren have you worked with other districts where one maybe they do it in phases that you could share or one that they do it all at one time yeah I think it really depends depend on the number of properties as well as just the market so one example I believe I shared Hayward Unified School District is a CLI of ours we Sur or they surplused eight sites all at once and the district decided to to release the sites for Sor lease in phased approaches so we've did four at first um and then next year they're going to do the remaining four the reason why is just because they their district is located in one city and so the sites are rather large and so Market absorption right to release all s all eight sites to the market at one time um there's only a handful of potential I mean assuming it's for housing and potential developers and so um in order to be able to maximize the value of their land we recommended to do it in two phases um and so that is something that our team can definitely take a look at based off you know depending on whatever the board is interested in um if you are considering potentially all four we can provide a recommendation in terms of if the if releasing all four would have a potential impact and dilute value um and if so a recommendation on how many to do first and potential timeline of when to release the next sites and I think I think that that that's what I wanted to hear from Lauren because I think kind of back to board member Pena I think that we need to see some kind of a timeline thank you for clarifying that I think the I'm still championing this idea of a possible joint use to do a Performing Art Center and if we move forward with um all four properties that sort of takes that option away unless we're saying we're going to develop a Performing Arts Center on an existing campus which is a possible but um maybe not as straightforward right because if those campuses are are actively being used um construction of a new building might be might not be tenable if we have students on campus but couldn't we do that at at Central Middle School also possibly I you know I don't have uh a def I'm just bring up these ideas about when we say we're going to build on a site or versus its own site you know what are the advantage of having a center at its own campus versus in combination with there another use just just ideas yeah and why not I mean why not in the resource center in the middle of the of the community which is great but you mentioned that um it's not in the middle of the residential Center School is more in a busy street it's not in the mid of residential they have a lot of parking um I think that would be great can I just ask for clarification now for remember B Ain joint use but then you bring um then you bring into in you're talking about the performance you know the performance center so so just to get clarification the performance center with Community Schools would be at Center Middle School which no say no must I I I believe what Dr B's trying to say is of the four properties that are left maybe one of them that is what I was proposing as as a idea you know collaboration with the city that we might find common ground that we would convert one of those properties into a Performing Art Center um and I think um inherent in that of course and I think Lauren has alluded to this in her uh in her presentation right um there would have to be some interest uh from the city um and preliminarily not to say that right what what we have heard is the overwhelming interest that if these properties are Surplus that it they be developed for housing and and therefore thank you for clarifying that and therefore you know with that being said as well you know why I had shared earlier today um to be looking at Center there's a field out there it is humongous you know there could be a parking lot there could be a huge Center that could I mean the vision is is there it can happen the room is there right um one last thought I would agree with my colleague saying that what we do you know moving forward making sure we just don't put a paint you know it's really important that we moving forward are able to double check triple check quadruple check when we order something when we're building something moving for forward that you take in consideration right the timeline what does it look like and Consulting it with the board before AC making you know the request or the purches should I say so let me let me also communicate some operating assumptions that I have when we look at where the four remaining Surplus properties are we recognize that it it spans the course of three cities and across those three cities we've already gotten feedback from from the the the city government as as you alluded to that there is ex tremendous interest I mean not even interest I mean as the way that it was communicated to us before for at least for one of the sites is they're checking online to see when it goes up for sale like they're they're they're they're there's they're waiting because of the the need for them to to hit certain um housing housing quotas and so as as we look at the market dictating that I it it makes sense to me if we say there was there were eight properties that were in one city and so if eight properties are in one city how that dilutes but recognizing that there are three so so not thinking theoretically thinking specifically about the context of what sites are are actually C plus it's it's across the span of three three sites so my operating assumption is that based off the data that we we've collected is that these cities would be highly interested now in moving finding some way to move forward and for those to to be converted into some some form of Housing and communicating and recognizing that there's there's a there's backend benefit whether it's the pipeline of of families coming into the district or developer fees and there there there's there's other things as well I I so again I I continue to ask the question I I I just don't know why we why we would delay unless yes if if if um we we hear back from from our Consultants that it's determined that it would dilute the market then by all means let's then let's let's pause otherwise I'd say let's why would we not move for so I have a um operating question so in the sale property to for the purpose of the for developing housing is this are cities on that do they have the first R refusal or are we talking about selling a site to a city or directly to a developer right and because I'm I'm I'm picking up on the idea if you if we flood the market right with four properties um now overlaying that with three jurisdictions um but who's actually the buyer right so what is the What is the power of the buyer by releasing fewer or more or fewer properties who is eligible to buy them in which order right is it City or developers and and can I just add to add to that question as well because it was also communicated to us that cities would be very clear about if this property is is purchased these are the only things that we would as as it needs to come to us for for approval keep in mind future buyers we would only be approving this change otherwise it has to be in this the within the the current zoning that it that it is which I don't know that there would be a market for that but but it see that would be a cue to then to developers that that I I would want to purchase this site because I it will be converted into housing right so to answer both of the questions um the notice to public agencies assuming the city or whoever the local jurisdiction is one of those public agencies the notice would go to them first so the local jurisdiction or whoever the public agency's on the notifying list would receive a notice of availability um if you chose to to release the sites for sale they would say the notice would say this site is available for sale if you're interested please submit a letter of interest and your intent to purchase the property um assuming none of the agencies respond with interest after 60 days then you are allowed to release the sites that ener public which in that case likely would be a developer to answer your question in regards um the cities our team did meet with each of the jurisdictions and um I I'll say which I I shared last year earlier this year um each of the jurisdictions are um very they have their Reena allocations was the Regional Housing needs allocation and they have their requirements and so they were extremely excited to hear that the district was potentially considering alternative use options and I do believe um if I remember correctly most of the sites at least three of the sites were already the local jurisdiction had already rezoned those sites to allow for housing in the event that the district were to ever potentially offer them for sale so housing was what we received um each of the jurisdictions are really pushing for not just with your property but just in any properties that are available for sale um they're really in desperate need of housing does that answer the question can I just say something the I think when I think I was misinterpreting too when I was hearing Performing Arts Center Community Center I thought it was kind of all inclusive and we were looking at Center Middle School so in looking at the site Center Middle School is 13.87% for the district so with that are we as a board um comfortable to give direction to staff to have staff explore what adding a Performing Art Center to the center campus could look like so that we could get more information in terms of cost design timeline funding yes okay Mr superintendent is that clear Direction on that yes I request permission to have that same thinking and apply it to the azuza high school campus uh because if we are trying to spend half a million on a current theater for Aza High School versus a Performing Art Center that would be housed at Aza high school that would serve the purposes of that school itself just as a just as another idea uh let me ask I'm G to ask a question mrga so the uh High School perform launch Center is that only for Isa high school students if and and I was thinking the center one would be for all the schools not just for um for all the community I should say right not not just the school but the community um we have a ballerine dance studio somewhere or something like this um and isza high school that is only for isza high school students drama class or can anyone go there so that's the difference can I I ask a question of Latasha when do we will we see renderings or schematics of that the foot you know what you envision for for what staff envisions for yes ma'am and to answer um board member um vice president um so any of our facilities could be joint use could be utilized through use of facilities for anyone um but right now um so this will give oursa high school students adequate theater um but that does not um um limit us to say that it could not be opened up to the community or anyone else that wants to utilize it as well oh okay and I'm just suggesting as an option not to say that that's where I other thing I did notice I mean you know I go to many of the kids plays and Christmas carols and so forth the a the um cafetorium I guess you can call it they's always so packed it'd be great if they this students from whichever elementary school or any school can go there and perform I mean either at at the isah high East or at the Performing Arts if if we're talking about the one at Center because it's people are are standing against the wall those cetorum are not big enough and um or I know like paramounts very huge and they have to have like two assemblies you know why you know why can't we make something where all the parents can participate I I just a couple weeks ago we attended the um College headed and mighty proud at Apu and I looked over at yoland and I said why aren't we having this at the district you know so yeah that would definitely yeah Adrian so my my list of weeds things to comment on has is growing um let let me just I'll I can SP out quickly so one yes as if if we move forward with this idea of yes to slaon and and Center as as we're talking about um I I I would hope I would expect that there that there would be conversation here for us to look at what are the specific so Performing Arts Center or or just just what is what what's happening on these on these sites I I would pref also want to see City partnership Community organizational uh organizations partnership on on these other sites um so so a a yes now doesn't wouldn't mean for me yes and now staff go do anything and let us let us know how it goes in 10 years in instead I I we're saying yes and so with that yes now there are deeper detailed conversations that we need to have as we dream up what what happens on on those sites uh so there's there's one thing but and I and I would be in favor of that happening on the sites excluding the four Surplus sites so so I wouldn't again thinking specifically where those sites are located where Ellington is where Powell is where Mountain View is I uh even if we were to have a Performing Arts Center I'm not sure that those sites make sense as as we're thinking about where those those specific specific sites are um second thought is would also would also want to not assume names so this is something that also becomes confusing when we say SLO the slaon middle school campus becomes the new home of Sierra High School does it need to be slaon high school does it what what what do we what do we do as we have some of those conversations with with some with with sites and and as things move so it's the Magnolia transition school is it still the Magnolia adult transitional school if it's at the adult what does that look like I would also hope if there's conversation um I also would would expect that we are doing our due diligence to be future thinking and our approach to to these things I'm reminded of how we it wasn't that long ago that we sat in this room the room looked different at that time and we discussed what the Gladstone Street campus was going to look like and then later found out after we moved forward that there was a need to add the parking lot and that wasn't originally communicated and and then even after that now we're saying but guess what that's not even ideal anyway because uh the genertion school and the adults shouldn't really be on the same campus anyway so my hope would be that we're we're really thinking about all of our needs when we're considering these things as we're considering the the configuration so that while we may need to look at school or or a future version us of us we'll have to look at school consolidations in the future what can foresee and let's make decisions based off of uh those uh projections make sure that's everything and I would also expect that the same way that we have handled the the spend the expenditures of of bond dollars where there's been spreadsheets and conversations and Clarity around where these monies are going and what projects we're prioritizing and how just the the specifics of how those dollars are and how we report that and update here from from board meetings my expectation would be that we treat these we would treat dollars obtained through sale of properties in a similar way um with similar levels of of transparency and and uh in input and I would also like to request that we do uh as as soon as is is possible uh begin a conversation in close session about the the appraised values of of each of the four um Surplus things um artudo Ju Just to to your point um and what board member Rodriguez Pena said was that um when elementary students have their their Christmas plays um what has since I've had two children go through the K through 12 here you know they would bring us in kindergarten parents we barely fit in the multi-purpose room then they would Usher us out and bring in the first grade it's quite honestly a mess and I I do do not believe that at Foothill Middle School we would be able to have that you know that for our students are you know to be able to go ahead and host our elementaries to actually have you know a Christmas play a Christmas um what is it a the carolling that they do um the multi-purpose room but unless we're going to tear it down and build a new one it's not I it's not feasible so with you know with that being said um I I would I would you know like to challenge you and say how many people according to the seats that um you guys are uh looking to get right how many people are actually going to fit in that Performing Arts Center could you when you get that number could you please um share it with us second go Ahad just as an example and you know so right now it's a 250 Cedar is what we're thinking about but when I was thinking about dreaming I was thinking about forget that plan you have a whole section of Foothill that's all land right for dreaming I mean that on Rockville right that could be carved out to be a Performing Art Center if we want to again don't buy what I'm selling there I'm just saying as we're thinking about options and we're thinking about you know potential uses right that was it but Center Middle School is just as uh the same but but but you know I I think the difference between that um Central Middle School and foill is whill is in the middle of the residential and I know people that live there and theyve complaining already because the kids are crossing the street they complained about Foothill when they did have their assemblies in their open houses and what have you parking throughout in their in their parking public parking right but it's their parking we hear that a lot and can you imagine I mean having big pering arts and and over I'm just I don't know 600 kids or families if if it's a 250 capacity and and uh we just I'll give you example I mean paramont you know they have I don't know 500 students they're not going to fit there they don't even fit in their own school and they're not going to fit there but the residential we have to look about the residential Central School is not in the middle of the residential and um also moving forward I would like to have um in our weekly board packets updates what are we doing updates like we get great updates from everyone right you know where are we at what's the process at so we can see um if we have any questions for you right like we we usually do but I would like to see updates because this is kind of a new thing now this Surplus properties you know following the question um that I had and what um again um you just shared I I would like to and what board member career said I would like to actually imagine you know having some having a parking lot in that field at Foothill Middle School because teachers that have you know um that are going to be H that are housed or will be housed right if there is a Performing Arts Center there's not enough parking for parents as well so looking forward being able to imagine what does a parking look like right so we don't run into that same you know issue of now we have to approve the parking um I would like to have that included as well at both sites at um future Sierra Vista and center and Foothill sites please mrga did you tell us that we are expanding staff parking at elementary sites or did I make that up you are correct so can you refresh our memory yes we're looking at expanding uh pickup and drop off zones uh which uh can include uh expanded parking as well latas know if you want to tell us where we're at with that yeah so we've submitted um the architech has completed the designs and so we are awaiting um DSA approval um once you expand parking you have to um have um DSA sign off for ADA compliance reasons um and so once we have that then we're able to break ground um but we'll be presenting that to the board education upon approval but we have submitted the plans to DSA for all of our elementary sites okay so just to recap because we've done this over the course of a year or 18 months that the board approved the parking and off expansion as a project and then now we would be approving final plans correct um just touching back and I'm going to try to be brief I will try to be brief um the issue of parking in capacity I think it's I agree that we need to take the long-term view of not just how many seats and students but what that means for the number of families the number of Staff as we so that we do it you know measure three times and cut once um I support that I also think that the idea of a larger per Performing Art Space that would be more of a public facing space um it may be that the isua high school theater at 250 or 300 is the right size for a school-based theater but I I see as a performing arts space something a lot larger and it just to with like I think Disney Concert Hall is 1300 seats and it's you know it's a very different um design but it's that's what 1300 seats looks like Dorothy Chandler I think is 1500 seats um maybe it's not that big right we're not downtown LA but in terms of two or 300 seats maybe it's something like 800 seats so that we really can have um you know worldclass performers come to isza and do their concerts here and so again bringing that um not only for our students to have the larger Christmas plays and performances but also if we're going to be if if it's a place where it becomes a revenue generating Center for Public concerts or um you know artists who on tour it has to be attractive for them in terms of ticket sales so it's I don't have the number but it's probably closer to a thousand do we know what citrus colleges Performing Arts Center holds and we don't have to look it up now but but just good to have just just curious curious another that looking at um the depth of our discussion the meeting time the faces in the room are we at a point uh colleagues where we can conclude and say that we achieved the objectives for tonight I I would look to sta to answer that and also as best they can therefore re reiterate to to us what they believe um they're able to gather as far as Direction I'll take a stab um I think I hear consensus for direction and this is direction right there's things that we will then have to do to solidify this as proper uh board action and take next steps and all that uh is the uh concept of a Community Conference Center at Center Middle School uh with some dreams I don't want to lose sight of other things that were talked about before this for example um something that was brought up before was a sports complex right and so why not put options and you know different things on the table as we are are thinking about that so I don't want to lose sight of other dreams and ideas that that have been uh brought up around around that um facility um and then I also heard that consensus around the property the slos middle school property um that uh we can move in the direction uh to imagine that and dream that as the future home of Sierra High School along with uh the Central Kitchen as the base uh but again we have already dreamed of some other possible things that that would fit there uh nicely uh for for that um property um I think I'm I think I'm close to say I hear uh Direction uh to start working on next steps uh for consideration of the four properties for sale um as we have alluded to I mean this is a process that will include um um close session uh conversations uh will include recommendations uh from dcg strategies in terms of steps uh and and will'll also include our legal council uh in terms of resolutions um and you know those kinds of things uh talked about first rer refusal and those intimate steps that that we know we're going to have to take um so I guess for the second part I would ask clarification that if I'm if that is what the board has has said the first part I'm pretty clear the second part is I would just want to hear like a nod or yes that that's where we're at so I I'll try to reiterate that so clear guidance on moving forward with more details on slaon as Sierra plus kitchen clear Direction need more details on developing Center as a community Plus+ site um and then this is the question for us uh are we giving direction to superintendent and staff regarding we would like to see uh timeline and process for sale of the remaining four properties yes and and Appraisal yeah all of that yes so includes um properties sold all at once or phased in right right so that the plan to consider what that looks like the information will need the process the participants so that was clear thank you any final thoughts colleagues I just would like to add um also to what what with the parking lot again I'm going to stress in the parking lot um at slaon and Center what is that going to look like in the cost I just want to thank you Lauren for your great presentation and the um superintendent this cabinet for all the hard work they've been going through putting it together thank you I I have a question for clarification for me so when we talk about the um Event Center is it Event Center at the Performing Arts Center at at U foill so are we seeing that it's going to see 250 people and that's just leaving or using their multi-purpose room right now how does that that's using the current uh multi-purpose room at Foothill Middle School and converting that to a theater for the high school and what's the capacity in there now I would have to get that but I know that's within the capacity and that also allows for a full row on both sides of the seating for um ADA compliance okay I have a question before you guys move forward with that um before you guys purchase anything can you guys please bring it to the board on what's going to look like the capacity and kind of have some um idea on that before anything's purchased moving forward with that of course thank you I I I feel the same way I think that um because we're considering all these other options with the Surplus property that um I would like to see like you know I'm sure that that was going to come to the board the schematics and conceptual plans and so forth and then I have a question regarding the parking ratios at um Center should we move forward with uh you know the um Performing Arts Center sports complex or anything like that um is there any way I don't know if this is the Lauren question or not to explore the capacity or the ratios on the parking you know given the size of the site you know based on maybe just a let's just say a scenario of a 60,000 square foot building something to that effect I don't know if that's something that dcg would look into or how that would happen yes typically um um that comes along with your design so if you were to go to add a building um that will come along with saying okay based on this building based on the um capacity you would need x amount of spaces as well as x amount of ADA compliance bases um currently um the first pre um design that we show or not design but dreaming that we had for um the center campus it already allowed for additional parking um that we um um present into the board education but if we're going to add more buildings and Facilities then with that design will'll come with additional um needs for parking and and Mr I know that we will get I think you've heard clearly that the board is very interested in getting detailed information about parking the use of the building is for example classroom use and the ratios of parking is lower than the ratio for assembly use correct so if we have a 800 seat theater it's maybe four to one parking versus classrooms the ratio is lower yes ma'am thank you so much you're welcome and for the for those two sites did we have budget remind me were there already budget projections with with the vision for the slaon site and the center site so so okay coming to a ahead I would like to entertain uh a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second and if we could call for the vote and vote online if we haven't already logged out um hand hand vote please I'm not even my computer's not even we'll take a roll call we'll take a roll call Board member Greer yes board member yanis yes board vice president Rodriguez PA yes board member Benavides yes board member V votes yes this meeting is adjourned at 808 pm thank you thank you colleagues thank you superintendent and board uh cabinet and thank you Lauren yeah thank you Lauren thank you Lauren for coming back

but on the side no that's noise hold power glad you saw that yeah good call it's still accessing okay all we good all right we're recording now we start at 1800 uh continuing with the roll call as I forgot to turn the recorder uh Mr Hopkins here Mr Kerner just present Miss Olen here Mr Guthrie Miss Rodriguez here Dr soltero Dr sholtz Miss Valen all present and accounted for okay you don't need to appoint an acting clerk so I will ask for a motion to adopt the agenda I so move secretary Mr K is I Mr Hopkins Mr Guthrie hi Miss Rodriguez hi Miss olon hi it's approved 5 to zero please stand and join for the plge Alle flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible and Justice okay and the first item of business would be public comments it looks like we have no public comments to be made this evening so we will go on to governing board report of current events does anybody on the governing board have any events to report I have none okay then we'll go on to the superintendent report of current events Mr President members of the board and everyone in attendance it's great to see everyone uh get ready for the holidays uh have a couple of things I want to share and it's good to have everyone here um can we pull up the report Angelina the you guys have it uh you have a hard copy but you also have it um in front of you want to just share with you and everyone in attendance just whenever we can share our celebrations uh this was a an email that was shared with Dr sholtz and I and it says right there you can see Midway down this is actually sent to um all districts throughout Arizona so every single a USD Red Raider it's all of us in here should be proud of this incredible accomplishment uh Beyond textbooks partner shout outs congratulations on your success recently the Beyond textbooks team began scanning uh the data spreadsheets to analyze and accelerate our BT partner successes from all across the country so not just Arizona all across the country the celebrations are extensive but here are several that our team identified and I put that in bold um AO School District elementary increased from C to a b Middle High High School increase from a d to a c how did they accomplish this effective leadership quality teachers and staff a belief that all students can learn and following a proven system for teaching and learning and this is from Justin cheeseboro the the director for Beyond textbooks in the B Unified School District B Unified School District is an a district all their schools are a schools so it's great to have all the parents here in attendance um that's the blueprint model we're following uh Mr President members of the board [Music] District I think we all should really give our district and entire Community a big round of applause this is a [Applause] great and next we have an update I passed out to all of you I'd love to see all of you Saturday you have the rest of Saturday uh and Sunday to recover Lieutenant also said you're ready to paint all those doors to the gym he just told me right now so um I wanted to just share with you this is our cleanup and uh this is our fourth cleanup and board members you have a hard copy and also I believe u in your in boards you have a hard copy for sure just want to share with you all School campus cleanup number four Red Raider gymnasium basketball court bleachers locker room lobby area December 9th 8 a.m.

[Presenter] We from Sons of Orpheus, of which I'm  a member, always feel like this is one of our favorite events of the year. We get to sing on the same stage as the students and a nice mariachi band, and it's just a very enjoyable evening and  we know it's for the benefit of the food banks that do such great work at feeding the people of the Tucson area. So, we’ll be back later after the students sing, I will introduce to you Malea Chavez, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the food banks. She'll have a few words for you, and I think at that time I’ll be able to give you an estimate of approximately where we stand on tonight’s receipts for your generosity, and we very much appreciate that. So, on with the show. The students are first. [Miss Kate]: Hi, everyone. I’m Miss Kate. I'm the music  teacher here at the ASDB.

my name is Dana Noble I'm the director of curriculum instruction assessment um welcome students to The District spelling be um we want to let you know that we consider you all winners and we are so excited that you are here and you should be super proud of yourself for all that you accomplished we also want to welcome our parents family members our administrators here as well to support their students I wanted to just take a moment to introduce our judges we have Adel greaver who was the one who came up and introduced we have Aaron Morris over here and Holly Johnston and our pronouncer today will be uh Danielle ederton so we're so excited because we could not put this on without everyone here I have a lot of rules so it's going to take me a few minutes to read them so bear with me um and just relax while I read them in competition after the pronouncer gives the contestant a word the contestant will be encouraged to pronounce the word before spelling it and after spelling it however no contestant will be eliminated for failing to pronounce a word but the contestant must spell the word that is pronounced while the judges attempt to detect a Spell's misunderstanding it is sometimes impossible to detect a misunderstanding until a spelling error has been made the judges are not responsible for the Spell's misunderstanding the contestant May request the pronouncer to pronounce the word again Define it or use it in a sentence the contestant may ask for the language origin of the word no other information about the atmology and history of the word will be given the pronouncer may not entertain root word questions requests for alternate definitions or requests to markedly slower the pron pronunciation the pronouncers sh shall Grant all such requests until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the contestant the judges May disqualify any contestant who ignores a request to start spelling the judges may also disqualify a speller for um if the speller who does not approach the microphone when it is time to receive the word who engages in unsportsmanlike conduct or who is in the process of spelling utters unintelligently or nonsense words the role of the pronouncer is to correctly pronounce the words the pronouncer will give a sentence a definition and other information about the word at the Spell's request if the contestant thinks the word may be pronounced differently the contestant must provide alternate pronunciation and ask if the dictionary lists the pronunciation provided by the contestant the role of the judges is to determine whether the contestant has spelled the word correctly the role of the speller is to gather as much information as possible to help spell the word correctly and to spell the word correctly it is the Spell's responsibility to understand the word the judges may not disqualify a speller for asking a question a contestant starting to spell a word may stop and start over retra retracing the spelling from the beginning but in retracing there can be no change of letters of their sequence for those first pronounced if letters are changed of their sequence is changed in the spelling the speller will be eliminated the spelling be shall be contuct conducted in rounds each contestant remaining in the be at the start of the round shall spell one word in the round until we get to the last two contestants upon missing a spelling of a word a bell will be rung and a contest contestant immediately drops out of the contest until we get down to the last two contestants then the rules will change and I'll come back to read those rules if a word has one or more homonyms the pronouncer will indicate that which of these is to be spelled if the listed word is not properly identified either by defining it or by distinguishing the homonyms any correct spelling of the homonym will be accepted the speller shall not be disqualified for failing to note that a word is capitalized any question relating to the spelling of the word should be referred to miss isherwood right over there in appeal form must be submitted to her or by the end of the round the deadline for filling an appeal is before the speller affected what have received his or her next word that he or she state in the competition for when only two spellers remain an appeal must be made immediately that is before a misspelled word is given to the other contestant an appeal would State the word in the question the name of the speller and the reason for the protest the judges are in complete control of the be their decision shall be final on all questions when the number of spellers is reduced to two the elimination procedure changes and I will come up to the podium to read the changes to you please remember to turn off all cell phones good luck spellers we're now begin our spelling be um with a practice round and our pronouncer Miss Edgington will get up and get us started thank you know there is a grip on the microphone so if you're taller you can push it in and raise it up or if you need it shorter it can be adjusted for each of you exactly where you want it so you just squeeze this side thing and it up and down okay right during the spelling be I will say the word is and then the word and then I will say the word two times if there is a common alternate pronunciation then we will give the alternate pronunciation as well during the spelling be if you spell the word incorrectly you willar hear the bell ring or judge will state that the spelling is incorrect and you are disqualified um so we have our practice round um when you come up please say your name and school your you're coming you're from for the practice round the word is cold cold c o l d name is lla and I'm from Countryside your name in school Grayson Brink and from Freedom Traditional Academy the word is Bolt bolt bolts b o l t bolts I'm Emily and I come from Western Peaks Elementary the word is Holy Holy h o l y my name is kise um name from Thompson Ranch the word is lime lime lime l i m e lme sopia Garcia and I'm from El Mar elementary the word is army army army a r m y Army the word is pump pump pump M my name is j aruo and I'm from Canyon Ridge the word is band band um can you give me the definition um a group of musicians or a strip used to constrict band b a n d band NAA and Asante the word is hand hand hand h a n d hand hi my name is merid and I'm from West Point the word is many many many m a n y many my name is kraton Chambers and I am from Surprise Elementary the word is kind kind kind k i n d kind jacine I'm from Marley Park element the word is King King King k i n g king my name is Kanan and I'm from King Elementary the word is pint pint Pint P I N T pint um my name is Anna and I'm from Mountain View sorry the word is bond Bond Bond b o n d Bond my name is Gabriel Ericson I'm from Rancho Gabriella the word is odd odd odd o d d odd my name is Kanani and I'm from Riverview the word is POD pod pod p o d pod my name is Michaela and I come from Luke the word is Ace Ace Ace a c e Ace My Name Is Karly and I'm from Sunset Hills the word is two this can be a homonym it means relating to one more than one in Number the word is two two t wo2 my name is Jayden gero and I am from daer middle the word is car car car c a r car my name is Desmond I'm from simron Springs the word is few few few Fe e w few that is the completion of the practice round we will now begin the spelling B judges are you ready let's begin round one the word is catnap this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun meaning a very short light sleep especially during the day the word is catnap catnap c a t n [Music] a the word is brick brick b r i c k brick the word is useful useful useful u f e f u l the word is Delta Delta I have a definition please the aluvial deposit at the mouth of a river commonly forming a nearly flat fan-shaped plane of considerable area traversed by many separate branches in which the river distributes itself Downstream and resulting from the accumulation of stream sentiment supplied more rapidly than it can be carried away by offshore and alongshore currents Delta d e l t a the word is handle this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a verb meaning to manage to control to direct the word is handle handle h a n d u l handle the word is thicket Thicket t h i c k t Thicket the word is Flashback flashback flashback f l a s h b a c k flashback the word is mutter this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a verb meaning to speak especially in a low or imperfectly articulated manner the word is mutter m m u t t e r mut word is funnel this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun meaning a utensil that is typically a hollow cone with a tube extending from a the point designed to catch and direct a downward flow of liquid or some other substance the word is funnel funnel f u n n e l funnel the word is Trove this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun meaning a collection of objects deliberately concealed consciously assembled previously lost sight of or not appreciated at its real value Trove say it one more time Trove Trove t r o v e Trove the word is Gossip gossip gossip G SS i p gossip the word is pending this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is an adjective meaning not yet decided in continuance pending pending p n DG pending the word is livid livid livid l i v i d livid the word is trifle trifle trifle t r i f l e the word is version version version v e r s i o i mean n version the word is Fade Away Fade Away Fade Away f a d e w a y fade away the word is biscuit biscuit biscuit b i s c UI T biscuit the word is Scandal this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun a circumstance or action that offends proprietor propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with or involved in it the word is Scandal can you say it again Scandal yes s c a n e d e l the word is stomach stomach stomach s t o m a c h stomach that is the end of round one the word is bronze this word has a homonym or be could be confused with another word it is a noun it is an alloy of copper and tin and sometimes small portions of other elements that is harder and stronger than brass and that is used for a variety of industrial items as well as for objects of Art and bowels the word is bronze bronze b r o n z e the word is Antlers antlers antlers a n t l e r s ansers the word is crookedly crookedly um c r o o c k l why the word is furniture furniture furniture f u r n i d u r e Minature word is secreted secreted secreted s e c r e t e d the word is Sentinel Sentinel Sentinel s e n t i n n e l Sentinel the word is confident this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is an adjective characterized by a strong Reliant and bold belief in oneself and by the Freedom From Fear doubt and worry confident confident c o n f i d e and confident the word is delegation delegation meaning please it is one or more persons appointed or chosen to represent others as in a convention or congress delegation d e l a g a t i o n delegation the word is engulf this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a verb meaning to flow over and enclose to overwhelm engulf engulf e n g u l f Eng golf the word is pixels pixels pixels p i x e l s pixels the word is aptitude this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun meaning a natural or acquired capacity or ability aptitude aptitude a p t i t u d e aptitude the word is composition composition definition a piece of writing especially a written exercise done for a course in writing in school and usually intended to show study and Care in Arrangement composition c o m p i s t i o n opposition the word is disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer d i s c l a i m e r disclaimer the word is gratitude gratitude gratitude g r a t i t u d e gratitude the word is communing communing communing c o m m u i u n i n g the word is appreciation appreciation appreciation a p p r e c r a t i o n appreciation that is the end of round two we will continue to round three word is occupancy occupancy o c c p e n c the word is spectral spectral spectral s p e c t r a l spectral the word is adhesion this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun meaning steady or firm attachment as to a person party principle or idea adherence the word is [Music] adhesion the wa e s i o n adhesion the word is seclusion seclusion seclusion f e c l u s i o n the word is skirmish Skirmish um can you use that in a sentence yes both countries hoped that the Border Skirmish would not trigger a war Skirmish SK i r m i s h skirmish the word is essential essential essential e s s e n t i a l essential the word is criteria criteria can you uh use it in a can you give me a definition standards on which decision or judgment may be based criteria c r i t e r i a criteria the word is anniversary anniversary anniversary a n n i b e r s a r y anniversary the word is Aviation Aviation a v a t i o n Aviation the word is Excursion Excursion Excursion e x c u r s i o n the word is elocution elocution elocution e l a c u s i o n eltion the word is your this word has a homonym or could be confused with with another word it is a noun meaning time pasted and especially long since past the word is your use in a sentence ah the days of your dad said when he found his old baseball and basketball cards in a shoe box your y o r your that is the end of round three we will continue to round four the word is stockpile stockpile s t o c k p i l e stockpile the word is Castaway Cast Away Cast Away c a s s t a w a y word is Fallout fallout Fallout f a l l o u t Fallout the word is goalie goalie goie g o a l i e goie the word is Hackers hackers hackers ha a c k e r s hackers the word is landlocked landlocked the definition please living or located far from the ocean say it again please living or located away from the ocean we need the word again I'm sorry sorry the word is landlocked I can you repeat it one more time land locked you in a sentence please after growing up in Miami Elena could never feel quite at home in any landlocked Place landlocked l a n d l o c k e d hand loock the word is haywire Haywire Haywire h a y w i r e includes round four we will continue to round five the word is Brooklyn brookin can you use it in a sentence luminaries with roots in Brooklyn include rth Ruth Bader Ginsburg George gerswin Spike Lee and Jay-Z capital b r o o k l y n and Brooklyn the word is incandescent incandescent i n c a n d e s c e n t incandescent the word is magistrates magistrates magistrates m a g i s t r a t e s magistrates word is thyroid this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun it's a large endocrine gland that lies in the base of the neck and produces an iodine containing hormone having a profound influence on growth and development and specifically stimulating stimulating the metabolic rate the word is thyroid t h y r o i d e thyroid the word is innards innards innards i n n a r DS inwards the word is contempt contempt definition please meriting scorn and condation as poultry mean or vile in temptable i n t e m p t a b l e contemptible the word is altimer altimer altimer a a l t i m e t e r that concludes round five round six the word is Constitution this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun meaning the whole physical makeup of the individual comprising the inherited qualities as Modified by the environment or physique Constitution c o [Music] n s TI t u t i o n Constitution the word is vintage this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word is an adjective meaning marked by Advanced age dating from the past vintage vintage v i n t a g e word is consumption consumption use that in a sentence the chart showed the relationship between consumption of natural resources and industrialization assumption c o n s u m p t i o n consumption word is productivity productivity p r o d u c t i v i t y productivity the word is distribute distribute distribute d i s t r i b u t e that concludes round six seven the word is whereas whereas whereas w h e r e a s where s word is Puritan Puritan r a t i n ptin the word is a claim a claim a claim a c c l a i am a claim word is patience this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun calm self-possession in confronting OB obstacles or delays the word is patience patience p a t i e n c e patience word is premonition this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun it is anticipation of an event without conscious reason reason premonition can you use it in a sentence yulanda had a premonition that she would win the lottery premonition p r e m e n i t i o n that concludes round seven on to round eight the word is Hipp hypocritical hypocritical h y p o c r i t i c a l hypocritical the word is milligram milligram m i l l i g r a m milligram word is negligent negligent n e g l e g i n t NE congratulations we are down to the last two contestants so there are different rules so listen carefully when the number of spellers is reduced to two the elimination procedure changes at this point when one speller misspells a word the other speller shall be given an opportunity to spell the same word if the second speller spells the word correctly plus the next word on the pronouncers list then the second speller shall be declared the champion if one of the last two spellers misspells a word or the other speller after uh correcting the error misspells the new word then the misspelled word shall be referred to the other speller if this other speller then succeeds in correcting the error and spells the next word on the list then he or she shall be declared the champion if both spellers misspell the same word both shall continue in the competition and the one who M first misspelled the word shall be given a new word to spell the champion is not determined until he or she corrects the misspelling of the other speller and then correctly spells the next word on the list good luck the word is Dalmation Dalmation d a l m a t i o n dation uh the word is Ficus um can you use that in a sentence the Weeping fig a household a house plant of the genus Ficus is commonly kept in homes and offices as a decorative element Fus p h y c u s Ficus word it is Fus Fus f i c u s Fus Y and you get one one more word the word is cataclysmic cataclysmic you repeat it cataclysmic cataclysmic c a t i c l i s m i c cataclysmic word is cataclysmic cataclysmic cataclysmic c a t e c l i s m i see cataclysmic word is Florentine Florentine you repeat it Florentine Florentine f l o r e n t i n e [Music] Florentine the word is Miranda Miranda Miranda m i r a n d a Miranda word it is extemporaneous you repeat it one more time extemporaneous extemporaneous e x t e m p e r a n e o u s extemporaneous where is is extemporaneous e x t e m p e r a n i o u s extemporaneous where it is cauterize cauterize ceriz c o t t a r i s e ceriz where it is cauterize ceriz um can you give me the definition to burn or sear with a hot iron corrosive agent or other agent as to destroy abnormal or injured tissue cize c o d d e r i z e cter eyes the word is crustations crustations crusta what was it crustations crustations c r u s t a c e a n s crustations the word is fugue this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun a pathological disturbance of Consciousness during which the patient performs acts of which they appear to be conscious but of which on recovery they have no recollection word is fugue fug f u g e fug the word is fug fug f u e g Fugue the word is meridian Meridian Meridian m e r i d i a n Meridian the word is prator pretory you rep it promontory p r o m i can you repeat One Last Time Promontory n t o r y Promontory the word is Promontory p r o m e n t o r y promontory the word is tempera tempura this word has a homonym or could be confused with another word it is a noun fritters of seafood and vegetables fried in Deep Fat tempera tempera t e m p e r r a tempera where is temp tempura t e m p u r a tempora the word is sge sge sge s e d g e sge and give your names to everyone and your school again I'm Grayson I'm from Freedom Traditional Academy I'm Jaden I'm from Canyon [Applause] Ridge I

and are live good evening everyone and welcome to the Ashlin select board meeting de December 6 2023 um before we get started I just wanted to just note uh ask for a moment of silence in commemoration of um uh the great tragedy that occurred in our our town and our thoughts and um prayer and compassion go out to the family and the many members this community affected and um also wish to thank the First Responders for the their quality and compassion in these difficult times so I just like to ask for a moment of silence thank you all and also I wish to note the passing of the father of our friend Mark donon is here tonight and our thoughts and prayers go out to the donon family as well um I do also just want to note that this is a difficult time of year and uh Michael reminded me the that the town has resources for people so don't hesitate to reach out and ask for help or or to get help on behalf of others if you wish so for the other board members wish to say anything um all right thank you um on another note on a a more positive note I I think it's appropriate to congratulate Ed Burman for being uh named a permanent police chief of the town of whan so congratulations to Ed I'm not sure how he juggles everything that he does and um so good for Ed so I think without further Ado I will um we'll go into um citizens participation do we have anyone here go ahead Mark okay thank you for the moment you gave gave a front there mark Sony foring on hathon road Cas Mass out way move back a little bit so I can get myself on here and um yes my dad did pass away on Sunday the 3D at 3:55 p.m.