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actually 8.99 we'll talk about that account but anyways I'm saying we are going to have fun that debt service from no longer rep part so will that free up no no okay sorry no that was important unfortunately when you issue Bonds in the way that we that taxing Authority goes away once the bonds are paid um all right that answers that question but we are living within our means to do this this won't stress us to the point where if something else happened within a reasonable scale we would be incapable of responding correct okay uh I wanted to ask this question what are the consequences if we don't vote move forward on this the very first consequence is is that we could not reasonably um Begin work on those safe Estes for storm and Louise for the the school the 25 school year it would be 26 at the earliest that we could do that work I mean by law I mean I required to do the fire alarms or is that uh yeah we will be yeah so we don't have a choice on that you don't no that's happening no matter what okay well I'm just saying it's not like that's about space function Firearms you you have two choices of fire alarms you either wait till it breaks and then you're in trouble and you can't have a building or you get ahead of it as manely aware you know as close as you can get to it and that's where we're at what I'm hearing right you know and then my fourth question is if we didn't has this what would be alternative Solutions and would that be another referendum or just hoping nothing breaks alternative Solutions here other than item three is crossing your fingers and praying as we've been kind of punting on these waiting to see the resolution of these referendums for since 1819 he said right so it's not like this is just came out of nowhere like we've known it but we said well we're going to put this together and see what the community says those are my questions I have comments but if other people have questions how' you do how do you do RJ or Rob I just you didn't ask any of the questions I had okay Rob I just I just have a comment on this um first uh I commend Tony for uh this plan and uh having a plan to execute these items and I know it's although he said it in a couple sentences I know a lot of work went into um developing how we would uh pay for this so um I think it's right now we got to do this he's got a plan um to get us there to to pay for this and I don't see any reason to wait on any of these items to follow on with that I I appreciate the the accolades thank you um but Mark Des them more than I do he's the one who Combs through all these fine details I just made it look pretty here um but this is this has been um marks I'm sorry it doesn't really look all that pretty does you like those numbers yeah that's why not those numbers but just you enjoy numbers that's why it looks pretty to you but Mark Mark and his team did all did all the real work here so get you a birthday card with numbers all over it I would appreciate that be you have more questions I have comments do you have comments I don't have questions I want just a comment you know regarding number five the functional improvements I know that's a concern for for a lot of our community um but you know we do have amazing staff um and I I as much as it hurts to say that we can't do anything for number five and I don't want to put everything on our staff but I feel personally confident that we have enough within their abilities you know to to support the curriculum and the majority of our staff meets or exceeds you know in in their areas and so I'm confident our kids will receive wonderful education even without their being anything under number five it it hurts still though it's really concerning but I I I kind of fall back on that so that's just a comment so it's a bummer but um yeah I've got I don't know how many questions I have but I do have some comments as well so thank you so I visited JB Nelson and I saw the work that was done there before I make any comments on that I just want to make sure that I'm correct according to the chart to the plan 1.1 million was what was spent on the work that was done at JB Nelson correct the new vestibules that's incorrect isn't it yeah the the total for the new vestibules at storm and Louise I total right about 4.5 million no AGS that JB Nelson was 2 million AGS the we packaged them together so it's tough to pull apart on on the sheet it says 1.1 I don't know what you're refering yeah that's the capital projects Master list yeah that's this year so it's it's it just shows this fiscal year it doesn't show last fiscals year so there was another amount for it was 800,000 for last year so then when you combine those basically it was 2 million giv is about 4 million total between the two schools okay across the fiscal years that's why it's split up funny on that chart okay so I've got a lot of thoughts on this and my I the the thing that I would love to really see and the thing that I think is missing from this picture is hearing from the public on other proposals and I'll what led me to this was at a at uh at JB Nelson when we first had the referendum we had $5 million slated for that school and we had six areas of concern out of those six areas of concern as far as I can tell we addressed one control of main entrance we had space utilization and functional adequacy classroom for Science and Hands-On learning suitable spaces to serve students with special needs age playground equipment age mechanical systems and lighting was control of main entrance the only thing that was addressed so my thought process here is I would love to have the public see what our opportunity lost is I heard you for year say let's not throw good money after bad and as much as I love the idea of securing the schools right away if we're gonna if we're going to put aside let's say 20 million if we're going to put 10 million per school with items one two and three for HCS and at one point we're asking for 35 million per school if that is funding is available would it not make sense to ask to see if a referendum for 25 million for one school would pass am I am I logic am I making sense here or does that not track uh so I want to see how I understand what you're saying you're saying what if we float a referendum to pay 25 million per school for for those two schools or yeah so 50 million in total if that's where we decide to go or one school at a time per referendum um I remember very clearly the the representative for the vote no campaign said if we had a smaller itemized referendum they would support it detailing what we're looking to do we've now got those details out this is much more detailed information than we had when we were first doing uh the referendum the six light items and the the opportunity that we lost at AG at JB Nelson I think is very important to know that those five things are not anywhere near getting addressed in this in this plan they're not even on in scope so I'm just wondering if the public saw what is wanting to be done at each school if we had the money versus what we are going to settle for because that's what we're doing we're settling here if they saw that would they then vote for taking money out of their own Pockets to fund the opportunity for these students that's I'm just wondering that's that's where my mind's at with this so do you just as a part of a dialogue so do you see that those that you couldn't do this while still highlighting those inadequacies or the things that didn't happen so that if there is a question later about why these things aren't occurring that that presents a a discussion point for a potential I think the logical way to do that would be to delay the timing if we're at a point where we need to have HC Storm and and we need to start making those calls for those two schools in January that we move something from 2027 into 20 2025 I'm not sure exactly what it would be but um some of the things that are later that are smaller items I mean the HVAC that needs to be done unless I'm wrong is is like $300,000 some of the some of the or the fire I'm sorry the fire alarms $332,000 it's it's not anywhere near the the almost 10 million per school I'll add a little bit more I'm sorry to keep I don't mean to be on a so box here the locked entrance the vestival with the the sight line at jbn was great the new office was great the storage looked amazing they had more storage but then I looked over the side and they still had had an old filing cabinet there I'm like why is it there they said well because this storage unit filing cabinet was actually up against a a pole like this so it was it was false it was a false front because of aesthetically that's what they they said it was an aesthetic decision to have in a fake front instead of just pull the drawer out to give more storage space I'm not sure where that came from but it was there's just a lot of Miss steps there there are there's doors that were taken off in the hallway for some reason there were old fire doors that would close if there was a fire you would push a button the doors would close if the fire alarm went off those are gone so the front area where the security was done it's so secure you could push a button the door is lock in the front if you're in the back of the school if you're in the cafeteria you don't have those measures you don't have that security like you like you would have had um they the teachers are currently using the closet the janers closet closet for their Lounge because of the amount of sections of kindergarteners and first graders they had they voted together they talked together about not wanting to have a Mobile Music believe it was so they gave their Lounge up so that the students had a music classroom I just I feel like we're we could do better than what we're doing and if we go with this plan that we're just going to see more and more examples of this at other schools I mean we already know that it's like this at other schools and it's not going to go away and a learning environment that is a Teachers Lounge versus teachers now working out of a closet where they have a microwave and a small little fridge I mean I just I I would love to as much as I hate it because I've been part of this for years I would love to just take a break think about what we could actually do with the public and ask them what their opinion is that's where I'm at okay now I have my opinion I'll share it's a different opinion and I respect RJ's thoughts first of all if we vote Yes for this this doesn't preclude us from future referendums I think the only thing it limits us to is tearing down HC Storm and Luis white because we wouldn't want to invest all this money but based off the conversations I've had for the last two years even though I believe that is The Prudent thing to do and I wish you know I advocated I mean personally I advocated for that that was the financially responsible thing to do that is a concept that is just mentally people might understand it but in their heart and their guts they just can't get behind it what I would keep hearing is my house house is 50 years old and I don't tear it down to build a new one I remodel so I think the community spoke in two referendums we had one that was basically a coin flip the second one that failed by a larger margin so I feel that we've been waiting on these things for four or five years we're talking about fire alarms keeping our students warm and comfortable and someone made a comment to me that maybe the only place that some of our kids feel warm and dry is at school and we're not even really fulfilling that right now to the best of our ability and then safe entry so my kids go to JB Nelson RJ and I thought about that a lot and as we know a referendum is a very slow methodical process that has no guarante and um unfortunately in the world we live in right now uh violence is a part of our daily lives and so well the I can't say that these entries would make it uh immune to any tragedy that could happen uh I would have a very hard time sleeping if we've gone through this process because when did the 2018 is when we started this process for the referendum right when we started the master plan process we started looking at this initially in 2017 and that had a wide swath of input from the community you were part of that other I think rob you were part of that so I'm not saying we don't continue to listen to our voices but I feel like we've done our due diligence engaging the public these were priorities I feel like the community to me says warm safe and dry safe and secure yes we behind that we want to spend money on that now learning spaces or the evolution of Education that's a diff difficult more difficult question to ask there's a lot of different opinions on that I feel like my second question do we have the ability to fund this uh is it in our budget and can we do it without hamstring us so that if anything unforeseen happens we're unable to react I feel it's our physical Duty now to do this so that we can get these projects started immediately and then when we have the Strategic plan that Tom is working on so hard at that point if we decide to address these other needs so this is not precluding us from doing other things at JB Nelson HD storm at uh at Lis white what we're doing is make it safe and warm and dry and more sec with money that we have that we can spend that we can do it and we're living within our means so I think the time to act is now because uh we're not done listening to the community I have a hunch people we might have a referendum down the road and it will address other needs but these are primary core needs that I think the community has spoken on that we value that we want to make sure that we are at a minimum providing for our students and families and teachers and staff and so I I I feel personally that it's my obligation to vote for this so that we can move forward to satisfy those needs any other comments I was just wondering 20 what am I wrong that you had mentioned that the numbers here are good if we don't hire any new faculty am I just dreaming that that that you said that that on the financial forecast yeah yeah those numbers assume that we're not hiring additional we're not adding FTE to our current numbers with one exception ft stands for fulltime equivalence so thank you for pointing that out meaning you know full-time people who work for us full-time uh the one exception is kindergarten we did bake into that assumption that we would have to hire six kindergarten teachers to implement the full day kindergarten requirement in 2027 okay did you make a comment that it did kind of put into place um the thought process of the best by contract yes I okay I heard that okay all right so um from my perspective um and most everybody knows I kind of do this stuff living um I personally live in fear of something catastrophic happening that is we're in here next week talking about how we're trying to figure out how to free up $3 million to do a roof or shut down a school that just happened at a school district recently that they had to go borrow another school that was not being used from another school district to get kids in it and we're the ones that are supposed to be able to try to help figure that out and and provide guidelines to the staff and to the to the um Administration and to the teachers and to the kids and everybody else that we have to do that um I I think like I I want to look at these in my head as like a as like a like you guys have framed it as a priority and and we were in rack talking about some of this and I wanted to know because my primary question and I'm glad everybody discussed it a bit is you know we recognize the fact that if we go down this road the likelihood of rebuilding those two schools and demoing them is sailed so now we're taxed with not F literally but we are taxed with how to figure out how to do that so one of my questions on the safe entries one is this construction is are you anticipating it's going to go beyond a summer or because it's twice the square footage that you're trying to get done in about the same amount of time yeah it would be highly doubtful that it would be done in the summer right and it's mainly because of really there's no second shift labor force right if you you want to get this done it's one shift so you can kind of piece it together a couple different ways but in early talks looking at this we'd piece it together get the safe entry done get the office configuration done that would shift around those two classrooms at those buildings but you would leave out um some of the kindergarten pieces um because it all ties in with plumbing um Plumbing takes a little bit longer um because you're connecting things so that would get pushed down and the reason that would work is how where the full day kindergarten is at um so that's how you would look at re you know kind of putting that over two summers you can't do this work during the school year okay right um I think Mark there was also the discussion at HC Storm the site improvements would be going through the start of the school year correct right is that still if there was s in you know the the whole site improvements being done um you could do that at a different piece that could be a a project on its own um you know the trade packages are completely different than what's inside the school so you could do that separate I mean now probably wouldn't be the most convenient for students and staff there but you could do that during the year you would have to get a temporary entrance and you'd have to move things around but from the timing standpoint in our in the discussions we've all been part of there's no way to do that simultaneously through the summer to be completed no okay I just want to make sure that was clear we noted that work here yeah my point is there's going to be some operational challenges at the buildings to do that um I'll add to that that I also work in the construction industry I'm in schools quite a bit and I've been in a lot of schools where work is ongoing and it's not ideal but it's manageable kids are resilient they figure it out the the workers are consider it they get a schedule in high school when the ones I've been in the bell's going to ring in 5 minutes everyone gets off there ladders they clear out they go have a smoke or whatever they're doing they let the kids off campus I'm sorry whatever they're doing but any I'm saying is they're not really in the hallways they know they make it passable and they work around it and the kids it's not ideal but they adjust yeah yeah I think in those cases there's something to be said about when people see the construction and something being built in in the name of educating them there's that we can deal with this well we know what's we know the end game and I think that's a difference from when kids know coming in during the winter some of the UN events might not be working so they might have to be wearing their coats because the classroom might get a little cold right extra cold that's not towards the end game of anything other than they're hoping someone's going to come and fix that so it's working it's a nice sentiment but it's not in the name of Education though right that's my point and there's a different I think uh student efficacy in terms of getting through a construction site site work when they know something's being built right they know that the end goal is to to facilitate or help them in some way as opposed to what's we don't know if it's going to get fixed tomorrow sort of thing so to to kind of finish like mandatory safety items we'd be borderline negligent not to do right borderline it's not a legal terminology here I'm just saying we really got to take a hard look at that warm and dry would if we don't decide to do it someone will make us do it be highly likely um and dry I'm kind of in that same boat I kind of really have a not a hard time because I know we need to do it but it's a harder decision to make about the safe entries just because that's really where we're putting the stamp on it that any work we're going to do at those two buildings is going to be more of this kind of operational impacts future Renovations even if we do package that as a referendum question later that's the hard part of this decision for me it's a fork in the road for us I feel like yep in a way in that regard on those on that decision yeah and then the general maintenance you know that has to occur to a certain extent but I understand they're lower priorities and and these are things that I know as Tony said earlier as fund balances adjust and firm up that components are going to slide up and down the scale of getting done or not done so we could you know that number four right there could turn into number five with two dashes in it if we have to based on market economies and whatever else you know so number two too right so I mean it's it's it's a tough it's a tough challenge um I said a while ago when the referendum didn't pass in particularly the second side is well the easy route just evaporated this is the hard route and we're in the middle of it and I I I wholeheartedly agree with you RJ I think I think we did the best we could and the staff and everybody else did the best they could at educating people but I don't think they know what they I don't think they fully comprehended like what the impact is going to be financially even about having to renovate as opposed to build new and everything else because you like you said like they just couldn't I had a conver long conversation with somebody at one of the meetings and they just couldn't quite wrap their head around why these buildings weren't good enough to just renovate so um so I mean from my end I'll just let my vote kind of speak for itself but I'm just acknowledging that this is just probably one of the harder decisions I've had to make right while being on the board and I don't want um and I again I don't want to demean or you know I have a different opinion perhaps than you but um I mean of course my decision is formed off of uh since I've been on the board a lot of Engagement so uh and we don't spend like I said dollar one cavalierly it's a hard decision to spend any dollars on any of this stuff but um I feel at a certain point part of our responsibility is to act uh after getting input I feel like we have gotten inut at this point so yeah I appreciate your opinion I I feel like yes or no you're winning and you're losing Agreed 100% And and your comments for me at least were well takeen I think it should be kind of like made aware of what some of these challenges are and things so that if there's a referendum question coming up later that the job of that will be to put some money in line item number five to make the process a bit less complicated or arduous for our students and staff so okay any other questions or any other information to add okay I will entertain a motion to award the 2024 bavia high schools wait wait did go too far did damn it I will entertain a motion to adopt the warm safe drive facility maintenance plan as presented so moved second motion by RJ second by Rob I'm Aon D on it I'm not I'm off today Aaron thanks Aaron um Cindy we please lead us in a roll call vote sorry guys I'm having a hard time here um yes hbert yes no Meadows yes thank you very much motion passes good discussion thank you everybody appreciate all right Mark let's get to the thing I tried to vote on earlier so try to move forward on that one yeah yeah um this is really kind of the third month of this discussion out the action um last month I talked about that this was part of the bid process um this is mainly the exterior maintenance of the Fine Art Center and the Fieldhouse the one piece that's interior is the lighting in the Fieldhouse um so you will have trade packages for this um you'll see them in appendix a but uh the trade packages are masonary painting Roofing that's your Exterior Roofing is a small piece it's B mainly um Gutter and downspout work and then the electrical is your interior work for lighting so this is really maintaining those buildings um it's outside maintenance yeah the price tag is high but when you're that far up in the air it quadruples the price very quickly for um you know lifts um protection of everything around the building from when you're painting um also the piece in here is there's allowances built into those bid prices of $55,000 um those allowances are really for unforeseen things that come up is that overall or is that individual sorry that's overall so it's 20 for masonary and 20 for painting but it it totals 55 ,000 um so let's say nothing comes up which normally doesn't happen but if nothing comes up that $55,000 would not be spent um so I mean this is the Mason area is the highest one but that's all the cocking all the filling of the joints or the crack and the pre-cast walls so that's that piece I don't know if you have any other questions so lamp reviews and meets with the contractors to do scoping right yep lamp you know reviews all these with the four trade packages okay y anybody have any specific questions yes just to clarify again we we have a plan in in the budget to pay for this yep okay yep this is part of the um capital projects plan and this is all summer work right yes this will be this summer any lead time issues on anything that we there is not any leite ement issues which is amazing that I can actually I'm on that right now don't I heard him knock on the table so jinxing ourselves is what he's thinking right now you know protecting I got my rabbit's foot in my pocket here I'm rubbing it so yeah okay all right anybody have any questions for them appreciate the diligent kind of process of bringing us along and kind of talking about each one I think that's a bit of a shift from what has kind of happened in the past and I appreciate the deeper knowledge about it so and Mark I do want to compliment you I mean you're a softspoken guy but it's pretty rare for me to be at any event and you're there I mean first day of school you're there you're at event I mean you're present nobody knows our grounds better than you do in the district so I appreciate all the work you and thought you put into this appreciate you saying that I second second that great call out it's not it's not a formal action here that what we're voting on MAR is a nice guy yes motion passes 5 Z okay I'll just make sure I'm reading the right one this time I will entertain a motion to award the 2024 Tavia High School summer Improvement project bids as listed in appendex a as presented so Move Motion by Aaron second by RJ Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes pass yes AR yesil yes sler yes motion passes thank you next item is uh 2023 tax levy presumably Tony will lead us again presumably Brad did volunteer willing Brad's got this so uh we will start this off with we call a public hearing or members of the public can I present the the details about the levy public will have an opportunity to ask questions although I'm not sure anybody looks like wants to do that this evening after we conclude the public hearing then the board will have an opportunity to deliberate upon the levy and then take action upon it um what's not usual about this Levy process for us this year and last year is that we have to hold this public hearing it's a it's a we have to we have to comply with the truth and Taxation law and the reason being is because we're our our Levy or ask exceeds 5% more than what we collected last year so we're um if the excess is more than 5% uh then we have to publish notice in the paper we have to hold a public hearing and the board has to have an opportunity to formally listen to the public before they adopt the levy uh and the reason why our Levy is as high as it is is because of inflation uh when it comes to how the levy Works we're in K County King County has what's called the property tax extension liability law or limitation law not liability law limitation law which is commonly referred to as the tax cap and so we're limited to our extension by 5% or CPI whichever is less we all know that inflation been pretty high in the last couple years and so we're Limited at that 5% with new construction that are added is added on to our tax roles our ask is 5.9% so on this public hearing I'm just going to give you some kind of high level mechanics of what's happening when we're adopting a tax levy and where we've been in terms of history from tax rates and property taxes and where we're likely to be in the future because as we've been talking about with the referendum tax rates are going down we're paying off our bond and interest and what impact does that have on my property taxes so hly if you would mind pulling up that slide deck I'd appreciate it one question while you're doing that since it's one of the questions on there the $90 increase is that post like is there a net or like from a the bonds falling off is that $90 above that or is that $90 without consideration of the bond $90 all in including the bonds so as uh Aon asked earlier the 9.1 when we're were talking about the referend the reason why you remember that 9.1 is we talked about 9.1 is the regular bill that we have and it has been for a long time this is the first year where we actually see it decline just a little bit bit went from 9.1 to 8.9 so it's actually the amount of we're going to pay off for those that Bond and interest payment is going to go down by 3.6% now it only represents 99.6% of school taxes but it's going down just slightly so your taxes are still going to go up this year they're just not going to go up as much as they would have with that $300,000 that we're not otherwise paying but they're going to go down next year that payment is going to be haved next year and then the year after that it's gone we'll have paid off all those bonds our ability to tax for them goes away and then tax rates go down and I'll show you a graphic of that in just a little bit thanks but I do want this to be informational so if you do have questions please please do ask the total ask in this Levy for this current fiscal year is $ 82.6 million what we expect to actually receive is just about 82.3 million we never quite know how things are going to shake out because the tax process is rather U complicated and assessments shift and shake until tax bills go out and even after tax bills go out things kind of shift and Shake but we ask for a little bit more than we would otherwise expect because there's a lot of things that we just don't know at this point in the process and because long short of is some things fall shorter than expected right you need a little bit of the overage to offset the things that might drive you under otherwise you could end up short of your 5% and the reason why that's important is because since we're capped we're limited to that 5% or the CPI of what we actually extended in the prior so if you don't extend enough you're kind of capping yourself and that cap has a compounding effect over time and so um that's you know there of course people disagree with that you know when you're when you on tax but when you're from a from a standpoint of the school board where your only lever almost quite literally that you can use to raise revenues to pay all the bills that you have to pay is this one Source you have to be very careful in how you make these decisions bottom line is the median value home in bavia as of right now is $399,000 and if your property is worth $399,000 today and it went up by about 7% in the last year the difference between last year's tax bill in this TI's tax bill is about $90 if your house is worth more let's say it's $1,000 more you'd add another $225 to that amount if it was $100,000 less you'd subtract about 22.5 dollar from that amount that's what we expect it's difficult to estimate what's happening in town because there are so many overlapping taxing districts in vavia that it's hard to we just talk about the school taxes because there's a lot going on as the board knows 10% of our enrollment comes from Aurora it's a different municipality different taxes you could live in the Fox Valley Park Park District down there or if you're here in in downtown you're you know you're in the heart of bavia but if you live up in the north west corner you live actually in the Geneva Park district and the Geneva Library District those are different tax rates and so it gets very confusing for everybody as to how all these things overlap and what ends up happening on tax bills and it can be different from one side of the town to the next next side please Holly this is our revenues by source so did you say earlier that the the evidence-based funding is going to be Zippy well it's not quite Zippy it's $5,000 that's it fair noted it's not even worth talking about frankly in100 million statistically Zippy statistically Zippy what's not statistically Zippy is tax bills and is that actually in the document statistically Zippy yeah and 81% of our revenues come from local property taxes and for the foreseeable future all of our new growth in terms of Revenue to pay our our bills and pay the very things we about I apologize there's other local Revenue there that's a little red sliver and the number I had reconfigured this slide so that you'd see it but it's 3% and then I reconfigured it again and that number disappeared but that little red bar is 3% State funding the evidence-based funding that you know what the state provides us which will not increase as long as our enrollment is going down or and where we exceed 100% in terms of adequacy is 5.6% and viously as time passes and our revenues increase elsewhere that number is going to decline other state funding are categoricals for special education and transportation those are reimbursements for money that we spent in the prior year those will go up slightly because every year we spend a little bit more on those uh costs um but the state ever never really keeps up with inflation on that so that will erode over time and then U 6.6% of our money right now is federal net amount is going to go down pretty significantly next year because all the pandemic relief dollars will have been spent and so that number will decrease but that's where our money comes from but the purpose of this SL is to say what you're doing tonight when you adopt the levy 81% you're you're basically giving your authority to say these taxes have to be are coming in for this amount of money we don't file the levy with the county clerk by the fourth Tuesday in December you don't get anything and uh that would be a real problem obviously 81% of our Revenue would disappear next slide please H time is down to 7eleven you'll see this in the board report but this is a visual representation of in the green bar market value of the home so this year market value median value of a home $399,000 of for our school district last year that home would have been worth $375 9,000 in the prior year 360 and on down the line but you can see what the taxes were for those amounts in Prior years and again going up from 90 by $90 from one year and I'll note that uh a strong school system is a primary driver to home prices increasing which is really a really good point as a matter of fact and it very much is and um we're very fortunate in the sense from our EA when you look at our eav and you look at the Great Recession when our when everybody's eav was declining ours was one of the very first to recover and recuperate I was just talking to some business managers in the northern part of state where they have literally just recovered from the Great Recession in terms of their eav exceeding what it was when the Great Recession started and we recovered within a few years and we're very fortunate that that's the case but again a large part is that's due to the school district and the local market economy and those sorts of factors but you know I think the school district pays a pretty heavy role in that in that Association is there simple explanation for and and that gap between the red and the like the inversion that happens on it is that the is that the bonds falling off that's doing that or what is that I'm not sure I understand so the red line of 6,000 but of taxes but a house is worth 346 and then by the time it gets to 2023 your house value is shown above the red line M yeah that's just the scale on both sides and so one is the dollar amount and then the other is the scale for for the taxes okay um and we're assuming that the property the the value of the home is increasing or decreasing with the um the in the rate of increase so it's because it's the the just to make sure I'm correct in my assumption so house values are going up 7% but the taxes are only going up five so at some point they go boink and F the other way exactly okay so you're getting more value out of your 7% rise than you're spending in your 5 I think there are some people that might debate that with you but I understand yeah you know yeah next slide please now this is to the question that we had earlier about what's happening with the bond and interest Levy and and what's the annual tax levy this graph illustrates that so the action that we'll take tonight is the annual tax levy that's the part of the taxes that the school board has control over up to 5% or CPI whichever is less and the blue bars are the amount of money that the school district must raise to pay off the bond and interest debt it was issued and so as we're nearing the end of paying that off they're generally about 20e issuances we'll have that we have one more year 2023 is where we stand now we got one more year where the blue bar just gets a little slightly less than the year prior and then next year it cuts itself in half and in 2025 it goes away so that's about 10% of the tax bill that will disappear in the next couple of years next year even with inflation being relatively High um tax bills I expect will go down next year um we'll talk about that in a little bit um but from from us yes we don't can't control what the other taxing bodies do there's 9,000 taxing bodies in Illinois more than any other state in the Union um and so it's difficult to tell what's happening on anybody's tax bill and school districts however though we're the big pigs at the trough as I always say and we're 65% plus of the tax bill so more than likely tax bills will go down but we can only talk about what will happen from our perspective because it's very difficult to talk about what it means for every last mavian with how everything overlaps next slide please this is the a longer view of the property taxes paid for a median value home we saw in that last graph where you you talk about those green bars increasing at various percentages Craig this is what it would look like if we did a look back to 2013 you can see how in 2014 that amount went down uh in terms of property taxes and that was because eav went down now people had different experiences depending on what the value of your house was at the time but the reason why we had such an issue with tax bills and the school board and its tax rate pledge at the time is because eav was declining and when we issued those bonds and made that pledge it was inconceivable that eav would ever go down but of course it did here we are we see that it's going to go down in 25 start going up again in 26 and Contin and it's turned in 28 next slide so just couple take-home points 81% of our revenue is from property taxes the tax rate is declining every year but tax rates of course or excuse me taxes of course go up even though the tax rate is declining all of our debt will be paid off in 25 we're going to see an increase here in 23 but a decrease from a school district perspective in 24 and all right so that would conclude the presentation for the public hearing and we have an opportunity now to hear from the public if anybody's so inclined Todd you get a chance to speak come on one more time take advantage of it three minutes though I just want to say to Tony that I find this very confusing when you get people's tax bills I mean don't think it's by accident um but it is really our opportunity to fund our schools so um it's one of the primary that we have um so but I thank you for giving context and then to be able to get it down to I always give tony a hard time because he likes to give all the context I'll say it's 90% he'll say it's actually 90.1 he always has to and I'm like you're right but so to I'm sure it's painful you to have to distill it down to something this succinct but I appreciate you doing it because it it enables people like me to be able to understand it and uh share it with others if they ask questions about it do you have any more graphs unfortunately no numbers um I'm wondering the adoption of the warm safe and dry facilities plan was approval of this part of the funding yes that's a good question that I forgot to mention so when we adopted the budget in the in September um we assumed that we were going to Levy at percentage that we're levying today and um 50% of that money shows up in this current fiscal year so the levy that you'll adopt tonight 50% of that money will show up in May and we'll balance our books as we end of the fiscal year and the other 50% of this tax levy would start um paying salaries and bills for the beginning of the next school year so if you change your mind on this Levy you change your mind on the budget that we adopted in September so essentially that budget adoption sets the course for the whole school year and this is a a component of that it's dependent on on the budget so if you made a different decision as to what you were doing with the levy you have to reconsider your budget it basically be invalid we'd have to start all over again w we depends you don't necessarily have to start at Ground Zero but you have to talk consider you know the difference between what you were expecting to collect and what you actually would collect but more specifically to your question RJ yes warm safe dry is highly contingent upon the levy which is also increasing capital projects allocations to by 15% each year we're sliding past about $3 million worth of contributions this year and by the end of 2025 that number will be in the high five million to fully fund warm safe try all right so seeing none in terms of public participation Mr President we can move on to the actual contemplation of the adoption of the yes so does anybody have any further questions my only note that I was going to say before I call for a motion is you know the thing that I hear from people all the time is well why are you asking more than the 5% that's allow able so you explained that earlier is because the the maths as my wife and I joke at the house are sometimes push it below that and then that would cap you at that for this year which means that 3% five you know three and a half percent or whatever you can't get is gone forever as it again debatable but it that's money that is no longer accumulating and compounding as you get more money from it you know from that growth later it's lost so um that's the primary question I kind of hear from people about that I don't have any other comments I agree that it seems a little backwards that you're doing a levy decision and a budget before it you know but it's unfortunately like you say many times about many other things in our budgetary and financial process and districts and it's the way we roll yeah any other questions for Tony before I call for a motion okay I will T entertain a motion to adopt the 2023 tax levy as presented so moved go ahead I heard Danielle Danielle all right second second by Aaron Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes Meadows yes AR yes kber yes sler yes thank you motion passes Tom is there now that we're done with all the fun stuff Tom is there anything you and the administration would like to comment on this evening yeah uh just a few things to share this evening um so it is been been a year since I sat in front of the board this evening as Todd had alluded to uh earlier tonight and um I I you know I've I've said this a few times and I just wanted to say it again you know I just want to thank all the various stakeholder groups both inside of BPS 101 and also within our communities that we serve um for such a tremendous welcoming and uh willingness to partner willingness to sit at the table and talk and and partner together on different things um you know I've so Rob and Danielle and Raquel you were not um you know in the process when I was that I was going through but I just kind of want to highlight that my hope is as we continue to work together with the administration the board um our Bea and Besa uh colleagues as well that some of the things I talked about in that process are what we're going to continue to be really Relentless about in pursuing and one of several of those commitments we're talking about creating a a sense of belonging in this District that our students our staff and that people have an ability to feel like BPS 101 is a place for them um I think it's a great School District great communities that are a part of our school district but I think with any great organization we also know then we should always keep working towards greater and better and and I think there's room for that and and so far with our strategic plan survey that we launched we're getting that feedback you know I think there's a lot of positive things there's also a lot of things that people are sharing that are areas for us to consider in terms of our growth um the other thing we had talked about was um you know making sure that we're elevating students and the focal point about all the work we do here is about our students and you know hopefully that is another aspect that we're going to continue to engage in um as we keep moving forward uh that's part of why we did decide as a team here to move forward a little bit more on AG of an aggressive timeline with that strategic plan process right and I just wanted to share with the board that you know up to this date we have over a thousand responses uh we're hoping for more I want to thank uh Todd and Mara for encouraging their members and reminding them to also complete the Sur uh we've had a lot of parent feedback as well um and so with that yesterday we completed our student uh Bulldog Ambassador training these uh just to remind everybody as I shared earlier this semester are students will be facilitating and leading the conversations and leading this process for the district um last night's training uh was just a tremendous opportunity and reminder as to why we should entrust these kinds of things to our students um if you were there last night you would have saw fourth graders through seniors working together in an environment where not only were they collaborating but you could see some of our older students leading some of our younger students creating a mentoring opportunity while they were also all focused on how they're going to lead at on January 8th in the afternoon uh when we meet for our Institute day super exciting um the steering committee for this process we will be meeting tomorrow evening for our first steering committee meeting um Aon kilberg and Rob arandu you both are board reps but we'll have key stakeholder reps as well as part of the steering committee and um the first meeting will be to review the uh on on our agenda will be to review the process talk about where our survey status is before we close it um and you know go over any Q&A kind of things that the steering committee may have just as a reminder the steering committee will be the kind of the accountability um portion to this entire process so that when we are done those that are on that steering committee can vouch for the fact that they got to see the raw data they saw how we synthesized everything throughout the process and that each step that we took so when we come back to the board for final approval near the end of the school year you will know that the steering committee was able to see everything along the way and during those checkpoint meetings giving feedback to me confirming or affirming things look like they're matching all the feedback we've been getting and that the the goals Vision strategic ideas all lying to what the feedback was throughout the process so very excited about that that um also want to make sure we congratulate two people who have been one of our stakeholder partners for the district for a long time um recent announcement was the uh announcement of the citizens of the year for bavia in Marge and Dave Brown so I just want to give them a little shout out for all the work they've done uh Marge especially being one of the very first people who welcomed me in with some of the work and the community engagement here so wanted to say thanks to that um and then before saying happy holidays and to and a great winter break to everyone I do want to thank uh Todd and Mara for trusting the process right off the bat with this strategic plan and being really supportive to the administration team that supports the work they they help clear the path and then Cindy I really appreciate all your support I'm nothing can be done without Cindy so I really appreciate that and um and again the best part of us is our students so you know thank our students for everything and what's to come so with that I hope everyone has a great winter break see you next year board member colleagues is there anything anyone would like to add or as if the answer was no but go ahead are you starting down yeah if you sure sure um just to support I please definitely fill out those surveys you know the main ability for us to really hear everyone's voices and to understand everything through is through those surveys um it there's been a lot of work behind it and the work going forward is going to depend on it so please please please share the word make sure that they're getting filled out um for me this is like a really heavy meeting so I just want to say to the public and to you guys I mean in full transparency these are like really hard decisions and they're not taken lightly and I know this is only some of the conversations and thought processes that come out um you know know I definitely think about the people who are not in this room you know we listen to members of best bu speak and you know how everyone is affected and it's it doesn't go it doesn't fall from here I we take everything seriously I take everything seriously and um just really hard decisions this meeting um so thank you for walking us through everything thank you for the board for asking some questions and just kind of trying to make sense of what we can and do the best that we can um with what we have um so I just I feel like you can't make everyone happy but just do know that we listened and um I hope we can continue forward to to making choices that will really make differences for the kids and and hopefully they're the right choices in the end um on a better note I just want to go back full circle to the beginning of the meeting to Chris even though he's not here um he has been such a mentor an accomplice with some amazing things and a really great friend um his trickle Dawn effect is really really amazing to get to to witness um from Amber to running for school board to students and other members of the community it's not just it doesn't just stop at the school district um This falls into tying our youth into our um elderly generations and really how to tie in our community um to learn from each other to accept each other and to really Bridge a lot of the gaps and I've already watched some of that happen and I know that trick Aon effect is just going to keep happening so it's really really cool to see him acknowledged also we've heard about Amber being acknowledged and that is a true trickle down from that without that support and those safe spaces where you can hear each other speak and really just kind of be supportive and no you're not alone in this it's huge so I hope that everyone in the community can feel that and really understand understand that I I know that the equity work can be seen as kind of a debatable topic you know or just kind of like a Hot Topic button but it really does touch everyone's lives it's not just the marginalized Community this is for everybody and it really does lift the entire community so I'm just super proud of him and just wanted to tag that along and with that happy holidays to everyone see you next year yeah my turn uh so uh thank you for your comments seel I want to start by saying uh like I always do thank you to everyone who came and gave voice to their concerns or critiques of what we're doing or their thoughts on just general subjects or reached out to us via email or on the street or on M at Limestone stop me and uh ask me questions it's really essential to the work we do as R.J mentioned you know we don't do anything without really feedback from the community so it's essential to what we do so I thank them for that want to congratulate my colleague and friend Chris low you know I think back to when my process started he was one of my first mentors one of the first people I sat down with so yeah his impact is wide ranging I also want to thank uh the board secretary Cindy Rodriguez uh every time we have a meeting she prints out she kills a couple trees for me uh every time I have a request she say laptop out of the way yeah what is this thing throw that away give me a piece of paper um but uh she gets things done she keeps us organized she keeps us informed she makes sure that we can have the information available to us that we need to make decisions so I want to thank Cindy for our hard hard work um and then I just want to thank our partners for all their work I want to thank the the team here that puts these reports together it's a lot of work uh to generate them and make them understandable and then to be able to answer questions so thank you for that um on a heavy your note I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of Geneva freshman I'm not sure why I'm getting so emotional James Oliver I don't know the family um you know he's not he was not a student of BPS 101 but I feel in the Fox Valley and the Duane we are all a family um and I I have a freshman son so when you hear something like that it's it's hard so uh you know I just want to let them know for supporting them uh I want to congratulate our Illinois State Scholars Dr Smith announced 76 of them my daughter Emma kilberg was one of them we're very proud of all of them for their academic Excellence it speaks to how hard they work and also hard work our teachers and mentors work with them so we should all be very proud of them um I also want to share a couple things I saw firsthand uh last night I was at the fifth grade band and Orchestra concert at the BAC uh led by our instructors Lisa Hatfield Mr and Mrs oath and Mr Buckley if you wanted to be an environment of uh exuberant joy that was the place to be I'm not sure how Mrs Hetfield is able to contain all of that it was an hourlong concert getting them on and off the stage several times uh listening to the performances but um they are open to the public so if you ever have a chance to one of those uh and what is remarkable is uh you know most of that performance is uh enjoying their enthusiasm but then as you see them progress and you see like where Craig's kids were the Improvement is just unimaginable actually even if you just go from year to here so it's exciting to be a part of and uh again I would encourage people to uh take advantage of those opportunities and then uh another thing I was able to witness was um I just like to point things out we have a tendency I feel like as a board and as a community as a district to recognize you know there's certain people are groups of students that get a lot of Praise uh athletes uh I'm not denigrating them but um you know if you walk into the gym there's life-size posters of the seniors in there which is great we should congratulate them but I always feel like we should really be doing more to recognize those people who are good citizens who are kind and so my neighbor uh Riley Cheeseman he got called to the principal's office when I was a kid that was a bad thing but in this case it was a good thing he gotta sit down and he got to make a phone call with with the principal and call his parents and say he was recognized as the student of the month and how you attain that is through academic Excellence participation in class uh and in your activities but really one of the biggest drivers is leadership and being a positive influence for your fellow students and so I think it's wonderful that we do that these kids should really be held forth as this is what we're trying to do because my mentor from an earlier stage was Virgil Murray he was a principal for over 30 years in the town I grew up and he I would say you know Mr Murray what are we trying to do and he said we're trying to produce good people good citizens good neighbors who are productive that's our mission in my opinion and Riley cheeseman's an example of that so congratulations to him um and then at the end I just want to again say uh happy holidays Merry Christmas be safe recharge and we'll get back to work in 20124 thank you Rob I'm GNA keep it very short here so I just uh wish everyone happy Holidays happy New Year look forward to a very productive collaborative 2024 um James Oliver family condolences really that's such a tragic thing and um I'm thinking about them and and the the school and all the students uh really tough way to end the year of course but I mean obviously it's never a good time for such a strategy strategy I'm sorry I'm losing my words CU yeah it's it's really really rough um so I hope the family is doing their best they can to to you know take comfort in each other um congratulations again to Chris um really miss having him on the board always love hear what he has say and um he did not disappoint tonight so Chris thank you very much and congratulations um also to this team that the admin um everyone here you all are really great um I know I pepper you with questions sometimes and you always have thoughtful answers so I appreciate it and it does take me sometimes two three times to say what say it again say it again you figure out the right way to say it to me and I finally get it so I appreciate it really do um and with the board here really appreciate tonight it was really good conversation um it was nice to end the year with some action and not just well it's a it's winter break let's just take it easy so for pushing us towards that and for us having some good conversation I really appreciate that everyone I'm really happy that there's seven of us that do this because I definitely don't feel like I always understand the the right way to go with things so I appreciate that um on a happy note last week my daughter had a Str performance at the bavia public library so that was very exciting um she is one of only two sixth graders in the strings group that's composed in seventh and eighth graders so that was really fun to see um and then uh just wishing all the students faculty and everyone a safe break all right um mine will be fairly brief because I'm just going to point out that uh everybody else talked about music almost but me so I'm in a join in I know I'm in a weird position now that I am I am you know my kids are out um and back visiting from college and one's doing a music minor so I get to kind of experience from AAR like his grandparents did here but you know um you guys can take up the mantle that's fine I'll start inviting you yeah that's okay but um you know it it's kind of a weird position to be in when i'ms are not like focus on something that you know my kids aren't super invested in anymore right and so now it's more it's like more kind of real to me in a lot of ways so um my wife has managed the fact that we don't have concerts to go to because I just finished up renovating our bathroom so um one thing I forgot to mention their student ambassadors were not here today they are off studying for finals so uh we wish them luck on that I'm sure they do not need it um and then the last couple of things one is uh we just came back uh about a week or two a couple weeks ago from triple ey which is a kind of of a a state conference for various levels of kind of Illinois school boards and and others organizations and some of the things that I had offhandedly mentioned to you as we were talking are showing up today like if you guys had not noticed we're not calling names in a very specific Order anymore of alphabetical it's getting randomized every time just so that everybody doesn't feel like they got to be first or last or following a vote so that the intent is to make people feel that they're making decisions for themselves not reacting to what everybody else is saying right so um and then U see other changes that I've seen over the past year of this board being far more dialogue oriented than we ever have been in the past so I definitely appreciate that um and then I do also appreciate everybody's um willingness to kind of work with me as my close my first portion of the year as a board president and have people to help me remind me when I jump an entire action item so I appreciate that um and then all of the discussions that are happening behind the scenes I I don't know whether it's because I see them now more than I did before um but they are definitely happening and I think by and large they are good things and everybody's learning stuff and getting to the right information so with that what I will end with is um to our staff Administration and teachers um my wife and I often debate about what do you call this respit because a break never seems quite to have the gravitas that it needs to have um as she works in a school District but a rest fit just seems weird too so um whatever you want to call it enjoy it you deserve it um we look forward to having you all back but please enjoy your time with friends and family um time is limited time is short and we want to make sure everybody um gets the moment to be able to spend it with those that they love and care about so thank you everybody have a great holiday and I will entertain a motion to adjourn so much you with a two for today yeah second Rob stepping in all in favor I you say no again RJ I I I it is now 9:17 and the meeting is adjourned thank

will not be called to speak this is a consensus among the board to implement this procedure for purose of public hearing tonight yes yes thank you transl for andrin and Spanish are available if requested at this time can the man um mandin translator Mr V Zing please translate the 7:15 cut off time if you can come to the podium please the following will be mandering announcement thank you thank you Mr z uh also um Adriana Garcia Medina can please the translators in Spanish please Charter topnotch steam Academy charter thank you can you please place your vote on the agenda we have a a first and second motion I can take a hand boote board member B yes board member arianis yes board member Greer yes and board member benas yes yes five and know thank you you can please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the for all thank you very much the board will now move on agenda item 2.1 public hearing on the charter petition to establish a topnotch steam Academy we will now open and convene a public hearing at 7:04 pm on the charter petition that was submitted to the district to establish topnotch steam Academy as shared during the prior public hearing held on the on the petition the petitioners seek to establish a new classroom based Charter School to serve students in transitional kindergarten through 8ighth grade the charter school would offer a English Mandarin D language emerging program with a steam Focus for students as required by law the board received a detailed staff report that included an evaluation of the petition and supporting documents staff in conjunction with the district legal council analyze the legal requirements set forth in the English in the educational code to determine whether the petition meets the minimum standards for approval the staff report includes the review team finding an opinion that the petition does not meet the minimum requirements to re eligible for approval the staff report was on December's website and provided to the to the lead petition petitioners at least 15 days to this meeting as required under the educational code this public hearing is required to be held before the board may take action to Grant or deny the petition as part of this public hearing the board will provide District staff and petitioners for topn stream Academy with equal time and procedures to address the staff findings of fls and recommendations on the petition hearing public comments on those findings and recommendations and considers the admission preferences in the petition as for procedure the district the district review team and the petitioners will each have 20 minutes to address the board and present or respond to any information concerning the proposed finding and recommendation the petitioners will receive no no less than 20 minutes to make their presentation that means that if the district R viw team presentation is less than 20 minutes the petitioners will still be afforded a total of 20 minutes to make their presentation following such presentation the board will receive comment from any member of the public including on the admission preferences then the board will have the opportunity to ask questions or make any comments deliberate and take action to approve or deny the petition please note that the board by law 9323 provides that individual speakers are allowed to speak three minutes to address the board on each item on each agenda item and board will limit the total number for public input to 20 minutes however to ensure that a full opportunity for public input the board president May with the board consensus adjust the amount of time allowed for public input and or time allotted for each speaker further in order to ensure that non-speaking English receive the same opportunity to direct address the board any member of the public who utilizes a translator shall be provided twice the a lotted time to address the board translators for Mandarin and Spanish are available if requested as a reminder if any of the member of the public wishes to speak on this matter they must submit a blue card or raise their hand on Zoom by no later than 7:15 any new blue card sub or raised hands in Zoom will not be considered after 7:15 in addition a member of the public shall not permit to yield their time to another member of the public and the speakers must present excuse me and the speakers must be present with their name when their name is called there is a consensus among the board to implement these procedures for purpose of public hearing is there a consensus yes yeah yes yes thank you at this time can the Mion translator please translate the 715 cut off time so yield or yielding time and they must be present at this time at 7:08 thank you thank you can the Spanish translator Miss Garcia Medina please come forward thank you we will now turn the presentation or statements by the district and the petitioners first does any member of The District staff or review team desire to speak on on a presentation or comment on the staff report findings of facts and recommendations please note that you will have a total of 20 minutes to address the board yes uh board president thank you uh Miss LaTasha Jamal is going to put a presentation uh up on the on the um screens so good evening ready okay good evening board president Rodriguez Peña and fellow board members uh this evening cabinet our legal counselor Miss lesie locker and I will be presenting key aspects of the district's staff report a fact and recommendation on the topnotch steam Academy charter petition as you know oh sorry next slide as you know the topnotch steam Academy chter petition was submitted on September 28th 2023 the district commenced the petition review timelines when it received a signed certification of complet completeness from the lead petitioner on October 4th this slide shows the timelines that were followed by the district related to the petition and refle reflects the first public hearing on the petition the capacity interview with the petitioners the publication of the district's staff report of proposed findings and recommendation which was also sent to the lead petitioner on the same date and this evening's second public hearing I would also like to note that yesterday morning the lead petitioner sent my assistant a written response to the staff report which was addressed to the Board of Education that same morning I forwarded a copy of the written response to the entire board the purpose of the second public hearing is for the board to consider the charge school's preferences and to consider and take action admissions preferences and to consider and take action to approve or deny the petition I will now outline some of the key aspects of the proposed Charter School the lead petitioner Christina Sue submitted a petition to establish an independent classroom based Charter School Miss Su is asking for a five-year Charter term beginning on July 1st 2024 and ending on June 30th 2029 according to the petition the charge school would offer an English Mandarin dual language immersion for students with a steam project-based learning Focus this program this program would be designed as a two-way 50/50 dual language immersion model in which approximately 50% of instruction would take place in English and approximately 50% of instruction would take place in Mandarin the petitioner is looking to serve students in transitional kindergarten through 8th grade at full implementation I will now turn it over to our legal councel U Miss lesie Locker to address the legal requirements for the consideration and of Charter petitions thank you superintendent Ortega and good evening members of the board I'll provide a brief overview of the petition requirements to establish a charter school which are set out in the Education Code the charter schools Act of 1992 provides a set of standards and criteria for a school board to determine whether a charter petition should be approved or denied in reviewing petitions for the establishment of charter schools the governing board of school district shall Grant a charter petition if it is satisfied that approved the petition is consistent with sound educational practice and with the interest of the community in which the charter school is proposing to locate the school board must also consider the academic needs of the students that the charter school proposes to serve a school board however may not deny a petition unless it makes written factual findings specific to the particular petition which set for specific facts to support one or more of the legal grounds for denial we will be addressing those legal grounds and the corresponding findings of fact that the district's review team has developed concerning the petition which are also articulated in the staff report that was published first we will provide a brief summary of the evaluation process that the district implemented for purposes of the petition review after the petition was submitted the district superintendent established a review team of senior Administration from multiple District departments who have expertise and extensive knowledge in various areas of school operation ations the district's review team performed a detailed and comprehensive evaluation of the petition spanning all areas relevant to a charter schools operation the district's review team also conducted what is referred to as a capacity interview which is intended to assess whether the petitioners have the capacity or the ability to successfully implement the program described in the charter petition this is a valuable opportunity to gather information on the governance and Leadership team's experience and expertise to assess their knowledge of the laws and practices applicable to Charter Schools and to obtain further detail or clarification on items or questions that emanate from that petition review with that framework we would like to turn the board's attention to the proposed findings of fact that the district review team had identified the first finding of fact in the staff report identifies those sections of the petition that were considered by the review team to overall meet the minimum evalu criteria described in law even though there may have been some concerns or minor deficiencies in the descriptions of those items these included components of the petition addressing the required affirmations and assurances annual independent Financial audits student discipline procedures Retirement Systems Public School attendance Alternatives poost employment rights of employees closure procedures and the Declaration that the charge school would serve as the exclusive Public School employ employer finding of fact number two addresses the district review team's concerns that the petition presents an unsound educational program for the students enrolled in the charter school as was shared earlier the petitioner is looking to establish an English Mandarin dual language immersion program for students with the goal of attracting a balance of native English and Mandarin Chinese speakers to enroll while this may be the goal the petition lacks any meaningful explanation of how the charter school would serve non-native English or Mandarin speakers this would result in the exclusion of of a substantial number of students within the district when considering that approximately 48% of the district's population does not speak English or Mandarin as their first language this includes most notably native Spanish speakers this would likely result in a significant educational access barrier for our district families additionally the proposed curriculum uh has no clear curricular path there is a lack of clear articulation across grade levels and there is no meaningful discussion as to how the program and materials would be aligned with the applicable California State Standards this is especially concerning given given that there is a heavy emphasis placed on the use of steam instruction yet the description of how the Next Generation science standards mathematics standards and art standards will drive instruction in the units Des cribed is vague and underdeveloped significantly the petitioner's approach to addressing the needs of English Learners and students with disabilities is significantly lacking in detail for example the fact that there is no clear defined designated English language development instruction or curriculum for English Learners is problematic and shows a lack of understanding of the Charter's obligation to provide a sound education for these students these are some of the many examples of emissions and deficiencies in the petition that undermine the soundness of the program and call into question whether the proposed model would provide a meaningful educational benefit to students especially those representing some of the district's most vulnerable populations finding a fact number three provides a detailed summary supporting the district review review team's position that the petitioners are demonstrably unlikely to successfully implement the proposed English Mandarin dual language immersion program our team has serious concerns regarding the petitioner proposal to serve students across six grade level spans in the first year of operation of a dual language immersion program there is no meaningful discussion in the petition as to how the charter would serve students entering in the upper grade levels if they are native English speakers or English Learners without any formal instruction in the Mandarin language given that the Fidelity of the model depends on maintaining an appropriate balance of native speakers in the target language here Mandarin and native English speakers the review team expected that this would be addressed in the petition however little attention of any was paid to the issue best practice indicates that a successful dual language immersion program be built one grade level at a time starting in TK or kindergarten for purposes of target language acquisition so it is unclear how the petitioners would tailor the program to address these critical aspects to support student learning also based on the language in the petition and comments made by the petitioner during the first public hearing and capacity interview it is obvious the petitioner is Desiring to create a charter school to to serve a distinct Asian subgroup residing in the Northeast region of the district which would be at the exclusion of of a vast majority of our families in ausa the district review team also identified deficiencies in the Charter School's proposed Staffing plan and plan for professional development there is limited uh number of appropriately credentialed and experienced teachers who are authorized to instruct in Mandarin since there is an extensive bilingual authorization process required in California there is also a lot of competition among other language immersion programs because qualified teachers are in such short supply although Miss Shu identified some strategies to attract qualified teaching staff including potential Partnerships with certain programs and attracting teachers from Taiwan there is no clear reliable plan to identify to indicate that the chared school could secure enough teachers with the their bclad or fing authorization to fill these roles which are essential to the implementation of the proposed model this is further exacerbated by the fact that the employee qualification section of the petition is deficient and does not specify all of the required or necessary education California based authorizations and experience needed of certification staff to be to teach at the school the proposed financial and operational plan for the charter school is also Pro problematic and is based on unrealistic assumptions during the review of the charter school's financial documents which included a budget narrative firste budget multi-year projections and cash flow documents several issues were identified in relation to the proposed petition while the staff report addresses these issues in detail I will will highlight some of the significant ones that were found particular with regards to projected revenues although the cola cost of living adjustment percentage of 3.94% was used for the budget documents the newly projected Cola for the 2425 is significantly less the current budget reserve of 5% will not account for the projected decrease in the cola though we acknowledge that the lower Cola was not available at the time of submission the budget as it stands would be out of balance as the cola would result in a projected Revenue loss of over $400,000 in the first operational year the projections for enrollment are not realistic and may lead to a significant overestimation of the charter schools Revenue received through State funding in case the Charter School's expected unduplicated pupil percentage count does not come to fruition during the first fiscal year it could cause substantial revenue losses the petitioners have projected their Revenue based on the average daily attendance of 95% Which is higher than the district's Ada rate of 90% however there is no explanation provided in the petition or the budget documents to support the use of an inflated Ada rate if the actual attendance rate Falls below 95% it could lead to a significant decrease in state revenues and put the charter school's financial stability at risk findinding of fact number four addresses the number of petition signature is required for approval the petitioner anticipates employing 12 full-time teaching positions and therefore would need at least six petition signatures from teachers who are meaningfully interested in teaching at the charter school to meet the legal requirements the petition includes six signatures however only one of the teachers specifically lead petitioner Christina shu is authorized to teach Mandarin because she holds a b clat authorization this was problem atic for the review team because Miss Sue is slated to serve as both the principal of the charter school and as the board president of the nonprofit corporation that would operate and govern the charter school given this extensive involvement in all aspects of the startup and operation of the charter school it is unrealistic to assume that she would simultaneously serve as a teacher in the first year of operation therefore when excluding Miss shu's signature from the total teacher signature count this reduces the total amount of valid teacher signatures to five which is insufficient to meet the signature requirements under the Education Code finding a fact number five concerns the various elements in the petition that based on the review teams evaluation do not contain reasonably comprehensive descriptions to be mindful of the time allotted for this presentation I will not describe each individually but I will identify the elements where the review team found substantial deficiency that resulted in this finding these include the descriptions of the educational program the measurable student outcomes and methods for measuring student progress the governance structure employee qualifications health and safety procedures the balance of students from different subgroups Admissions and Lottery procedures dispute resolution procedures and Facilities providing reasonably comprehensive descriptions of these elements is critical in order for the district to assess the efficacy of the proposed Charter program and operations however given the number of deficiencies and omissions in these elements the district lacks confidence that the petitioners could implement the charter school with Fidelity and uphold the legal mandates applicable to Charter Schools finding of fact number six is perhaps one of the most notable findings included in the staff report which concerns the impact of the charge school on our isua community this finding allows the district to consider the impact that the charge school was have on vulnerable student populations district and school programs and on Staffing and operations particularly in the area where the charter school intends to locate after giving significant and careful consideration to the proposed program it is the district review team's position that the proposed charter school would substantially undermine existing Services as well as academic and program programmatic offerings for students cause a negative impact on the district's fiscal condition and Staffing and and limit diversity and access to the charter school for the district significant student subgroups student staff Community have weather significant up upheaval in the last three years due to school reorganization we saw a total of six schools closed which included a high school and all of the middle schools this does not include the two schools that were previously closed about 5 years ago layer on top of this the impact of covid-19 and cannot help but understand what azuza has been through the staff report includes extensive details supporting this community impact finding and describes how the proposed charter school would threaten the district's fiscal solvency program offering for students and educational access to students specifically those who are not native English or Mandarin speakers these are all very real concerns which have been expressed not only in the staff report but by a significant number of of members within our community who have shared their opposition or concerns publicly therefore the district review team has proposed this finding because the approval of the petition would have a pro profound and adverse Community impact on the district again the district's recommendation on the petition is based on the propings of fact described in the staff report and shared with you this evening based on the totality of information received and as described in the prop findings of facts in the staff report the district recommends that the Board of Education adopt the district's staff's of fact and deny the petition to establish the topnotch steam Academy thank you so much we turn it over to board president to see if there are any questions thank you um thank you superate um Ortega and is cabinet and Miss Locker the petitioners for topnotch Academy will have a total of 20 minutes to address the board and make a presentation or comment so you can please come forward your time will begin now good evening honorable members of the board superintendent and District staff my name is Samantha Cho from icon School management and we were responsible for creating the school's five-year budget projection along with the school leaders we have submitted our detailed responses to all of the district's fiscal findings and the TN response to staff report but I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of the responses while we appreciate the district re reviewing tnsa proposed budget we felt that the fiscal findings that were included in the staff report were speculative erroneous and failed to identify a valid legal basis for a denial of the charter the first example I would like to direct you to is one of the district findings that state quote the district acknowledges that the new Cola was released on November 16th after the submission of the petition although the reduction in Cola was not known at the time of the submission the current 5% budgeted reserves cannot account for this projected decrease in Cola end quote as the district mentions the budget was developed for submission on September 18th which was 2 months prior to the recent Cola estimate announcement for the next school year the district cannot possibly expect us to predict the future and use those expectations in our budget projections budgets must be based on latest available information when the budget is developed which is exactly what we did further the 1% Cola expectation announcement was at best an estimate and has since changed and we have and we expect that estimate to further change during the governor's January budget proposal and the May Revis another similar example is a finding regarding our estimates of the up or UND duplicated pupil percentage as you may already know the UND unduplicated people percentage generates additional revenues our budget projected a highly conservative estimate of having 60% up based on the district's 8627 up rate even with this conservative approach the district states that quote if the 60% up does not materialize tnsa would have a loss in Revenue end quote and that our budget thus overestimates the revenues this is an unrealistic speculation at best as we already conservatively estimated that a 20.27% lower up than that of the district and on this basis this cannot possibly be a reason for denial lastly the district states that there are deficiencies in the cash flow projections in our budget we didn't include any revenues for July through September well it is understandable that this can seem to be a reason for concern the reason why we didn't include revenues for the first three months of the school year is because new Charter Schools don't receive any revenues in the first three months of operation instead new Charters apply for pensc or pupil estimates for new and significantly expanding Charters and this generates the first payment in September October time frame through the special Advance apportionment it is clear that the district does not understand the funding process for new charter schools and have erroneously included this as a fiscal finding all of the district's fiscal findings followed a similar pattern where the findings were speculative and erroneous and we have thus responded to each finding in detail we hope that you take this into careful consideration when making a decision tonight thank you good evening honorable member of ausa Board of Education mrga superintendent and Aus staff my name is Christina Sue I'm the lead partitioner of the topn steam Academy I'm here today to respond of the ausa UniFi School District staff report we appreciate the time spent by The District staff in reviewing the tnsa charter petition and supporting material however we disagree with the proposed finding in the staff report and are troubled by the lack of a comprehension of a dual emotion program that's evident of a staff report the staff report demonstrate not only a misunderstanding of tnsa educational program and a requirement for a charter petition but also a lack of careful reading of the petition that was submitted the proposed finding are inaccurate and should not be adopt by The District Board of Education our Charter petition exceeds an requirement for approval by the district the staff's uh report accusation that tnsa is specifically targeting Asian students to the exclusion of other students of other background is shocking once again this reflects an anti- Asian or anti-chinese sentiment that stands in contrast of the proactive engagement that is encouraged when it comes to other community tnsa has in fact engaged in Outreach with Asian family something that is not against the law but we uh VI mentally disagree with any tion that we have done so to exclusion of family without a background the staff report accusation of tnsa has excluded non- Asian student is also repent considering the statistic on Asian family under representation of the district itself one of the main reason we submit this petition was to imediate the under representation of Asian student in the district enrollments based on 2021 estimates Asian students comprise has only 1.6% of students in the district even though approximately 11% of the student age population in the city of ausa identify as Asian cated differently the population of Asian student at District school is nearly seven times smaller than the total population of Asian students in Asia so my effort to draw Asian students back into public education to enroll or reenroll in the local public school system should be praised not to condemned it is unfathomably why the district is so averse to the fact that my me as a Asian-American woman seeks to increase the number of the Asian students enroll in the local public school system including Asian-American families in the public education system is not the exclusion of the detriment of a student without a background and especially when Asian students themselves are evidently the one who have been excluded from the district whether accidentally or intentionally the district decision of disagree disregard my name from the signature of the teachers who are meaningfully interested in teaching at tnsa violates the established law the Act was created in part to provide opportunity for teachers parents pupil and Community member to establish maintain school that operate independently from the existing School District structure my ability to serve as a leadership capacity at tnsa and as a teacher is not only realistic but is expressly complet by the ACT needless to say I have already proven my ability to serve in the leadership and teaching capacity simultaneously through the Dual imersion popups program in the summer of 2023 I not only serve as a teacher in that program but also founded the program itself held daily meeting with for sumary program staff train other fow teachers by observing their up classroom and providing individual feedback and greet all student attending the summer program every morning and ensure that knew where to attend a class if everyone has experienc serving as in a leadership capacity and as a teacher and that's me the charter articulate a wide range of plan to promoting engagement and Outreach with family found diverse background our community outreach plan includes at least night preschool for day Care Center to Religion Center which includes both a Buddhist temple and Adusa Hispanic Four Square Church and a Memorial Park nor uh Recreation centera City library and the California uh Pediatric and Family Service we plan to release all Communication in English Spanish and M Chinese at the very least including fire with information on how to apply links to our website a phone number and invitation to community meeting all application material will be available in English Spanish men Chinese with other languages upon requests from the interest parents likewise the charter school family student handbook will be printed in at least English Spanish and mention language we acknowledge that the engagement material themselves are currently being developed and the school does not yet have Spanish version for certain form that you will eventually have naturally we have not assembled all of our material given that school is not yet authorized it is unreasonable for district to suggest the charter school dis sueding non-english maner native speaker from attending simply based on the fact that we currently lack Spanish language form while ignoring all other information we mentioned in the charter at the same time the district own action of the public hearing disuade native mention speaker from having their voice heard in the previous public hearing regarding the petition we wish note that our communy supports signature that in appendix one in our Charter petition feature multiple signatures from families of Hispanic background and other background they are clearly not just Asian a child CH cannot be denied under the factor of The Superficial reasons such as a district own declining enrollment or because of the district decide the charters program the the charter school program is not unique enough for or in demand in enough or the district plans to offer a similar program in the future year it cannot be denied simply because of the charter school program could theoretically be replicated and it cannot be denied simply because there are other school in the community with a capacity for more students if this is where the law it would be allow a school district or opportunely and unilaterally should change parents by denying them quality School of a choice in every instance denying Parents Choice for the sake of a district being able to keep all Charter out of their boundary was not an intent of assembly Bill 1505 yet this is exactly what denial of this Charter petition would do the physical impact analysis in the staff report relies solely on the Lost revenue of Staff the district failed to consider other factors too such as its own obvious reduction in expenses such as a result of serving fewer students and the fact that tnsa will need to hire teachers from the community and therefore will add jobs California's public education funding follows the student this fact alone means that very existence of the childish School in the school district will lead to the dis uh redistribution of a public education funding if even one child leaves the district to attend a childish School the key is that such funding belong to the student not the school district quality Charter School do not take funds from school district they serve students many of have excited um ex access public education all together as is the case of the many families who are likely to seek enrollment at tnsa and public education dollars do not belong to the school district they belong to students the tnsa charter cannot be denied simply because some students may choose to attend a charter school instead of District school which could lower the district Revenue in fact tnsa program would uniquely increase the district's Revenue tnsa withdraw many students particularly Asian students into the local public education system for the first time or who who otherwise would never have returned to the district school the district seem to have a forgot gotten that it would be benefit from the arrangement since charter school authorizer May charge and receive 1% of the revenue of a chared school Under Education Code section 47613 the fact that Lee P the fact that Li have been engaged in Outreach efforts with the rosale community as the staff report noted is supportive on the point since many rosale family do not attend district schools furthermore tnss programs serve only grade TK to a tnsa graduate entering ninth grade and above are well positioned to enroll in the local high school in the district whereas without tnsa they might never have the district dis disturbing misinterpretation of the law would in fact reward school district for inefficient and academically unsuccessful practices and result in a denial of efficient High performing charter school that in fact fits School secondary program the second prong of the analysis about whether the charter would substantially undermine already existing services or program in community again for context this finding is not a tool for school district to preserve all the its program and administrative Arrangement just for the sake of maintaining the school district status quo loss of downsizing District program prr do not justify the denial of a of a charter unless they would also have a substantial negative impact on students and family the staff report does not provide any evidence whatsoever of a negative impact on students rather than substantially under my existing program tnsa would add a new and unduplicated program sold by many family who are no longer attending district schools at all as for the third problem of analysis the district fails to recognize that District's lack of success in creating its own English Manion dual language Merion model has a little bearing on TNS own Prospect enthusiastic interest in our authentic research back back English Manion dual language immersion model exists now we have received interest from at least 81 member in the community many of when are now not they are not Asian we make no small point in the under line that one of the likely reason the district dual imersion effort were unsuccessful is because Menin speaking Community member will not actually heading up those efforts unlike tnss leadership team moreover none of the program list in the staff report as a district often involve Project based or interdisciplinary learning that is characteristic of steam as far as we can tell the program listed in the staff report are subject taught in the student in the silos not in a dynamic multimodal environment that steam offers and the program that will be offered at tnsa once again the district appear unable to grasp what is the concept of steam means in addition most of the family engagement opportunity of the staff report identify of this of section are literally required by law the School site Council elac deac and provide no basis on the denying our petition or any Charter petition for the matter last many of the program list in the staff report exists at practically any school art music and Stam related courses offering are common place this is exactly what makes tnsa educational program a steam based English Manion dual language program unlike any other the district offer under the charter school act the district should be guided by the intent of a legislature that Charter School are and should become a integral part of a California educational system and that the establishment of a charter school should be encouraged this very purpose of the ACT is to provide parents and people with expanded choices in the type of educational opportunity they are available within the public school system to improve pupil learning increase learning opportunity and provide vigorous competition with the public school system tnsa Charter petition fully meets the letter and then intend to a provision in the ACT they are not the narrow cherry pick provision cited by the district and the staff report simply put our is a strong petition deserved for the district support and approval we respectfully request that board approv tnsa Charter petition thank you very much for listening thank you very much for your presentation and comment Christina H and Top Notch Academy hope Anda h many blue cards do we have in hands raised I have 22 blue cards 22 thank you and we have four hands raised for a total of 26 speakers thank you the board will now receive comments from members of the public who desires to address this matter I I have a quick question point of order can can I ask a quick question before to clarify um so we have 48 in total uh speakers okay please clarify 26 total oh 26 thank you so there's four hands raised total okay so there's 26 total okay uh Ju Just uh question are are we allowing them the three minutes yes we are okay just to clarify just so it's all clarified and everybody knows at this time and just to clarify again we have um translators so there's not two people at the podium right okay I just want to clarify some people just came in so that that that's why I'm clarifying um and we have the translators in the front Okay Madame President thank you uh you're welcome I will call our first Speaker Mary Wong come to the porium please good evening a USD board members thank you for your time to consider this proposal you know I I'm impressed with the number of parents and teachers and students who are here this evening um and not only this evening but the prior hearing um and I think this demonstr Ates a very strong commitment to education um which I also share as a teacher educator specializing in language education you know my my graduate students have enjoyed the opportunities of volunteering hours uh of teaching at the home workhouse here in isua and it's been so helpful to both your students and to my student teachers um and I've also heard of Spanish dual language programs uh in the isua schools which is appropriate and so encouraging and I want to applaud that um I say this to highlight that I feel we're all working towards a similar goal and that is to help students learn and to prepare them to make a meaningful contribution in their communities I believe that this um proposed Charter School will do this and moreover that it will be mutually beneficial I understand the fears in this room of closing schools and programs of lost jobs tightening budgets I'm experiencing that as well uh as a teacher educator and I think it's precisely because of these hard times that we need new approaches and new programs and that they should be considered um I believe that this school could bring back the almost 10% of Asian students living in isua who are missing in the isua public schools and potentially feed them into asus's public high schools um once they graduated from tnsa after gr uh grade 8 um it can also serve non-asian students who want to learn um both Mandarin and English this would enable them to communicate with almost onethird of the world's population speak 7,000 languages but Mandarin and English that would be onethird of the speakers you know rather than a threat um this may be an opportunity and one that I hope will not be missed you know it's right for you to have concerns um but but please take the time to make data informed decisions as I believe that this is a is a strong proposal you know as a language educator who speaks Mandarin I actually taught Chinese at Apu um I was the lead researcher of a large multi-year government-led evaluation project um of language education in primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong um so I just can't help but be so excited about the potential of this school thank you Miss Wong your time is up oh okay thank you thank you can I have Genesis Lee so well I am a proud Mount of a special ed kid who actually enrolled in the school district I know most of you some of your teachers here and I was was a you know parent of a year probably not anymore after this speed but I firmly believe that our city and our children benefit from having educational options so contrary to the you know the concerns raised by the school districts and the teachers union I'm confident that the charter school will not harm the kid as the funding is intended for the benefit of the children so it is essential to prioritize the well-being and educational opportunities for our children over the interest of external entities parents should be empowered with choices that cater to diverse needs of our community so I do not really see topn as a competitor to the current schools um instead that it is likely to attract students who are currently not enrolling a USD um in especially in my community by bringing in the CH school we have opportunity to welcome back those families and who have chosen nearby school districts for their children's education this influx of students can contribute rute to the growth of our local schools benefiting both current and future students so given that top nudge only serves the TK to 8th grade it opens up a pathway for students to contribute their education within the Asuza high school and seers college systems this seamless transition can enhance the overall educational experience for our children and Foster a sense of a community within the district so furthermore the establishment of the CH school has been known to possibly impact property values in the city this increase in property values lead to additional tax revenues ultimately benefiting the city and its residents the long-term financial implications of such growth can contribute significantly to the overall prosperity of ausa so in conclusion um I urge the board members to consider um the potential benefits of support supporting the introduction of topn um school by doing so so we're not only at advocating for the school choice but also fostering the environment that prioritize the educational well-being and future succeed of our children thank you thank you very much next up Andrew cleer members of the board I'm here on behalf of my students and our community to demonstrate what it looks like to speak truth to power in this District you are the powers that be so here are some truths for you the truth is that you know your responsibilities are to make the best decision for our kids for their future for this community and nothing else the truth is is that all of you read the report put out by our district because that's your actual literal job to make the best decisions for our kids with the best information available and anything less would be a failure on your part as ausa's elected officials the truth is that the district put out a report with reason after reason as to why this charter school is so disorganized unprofessional ethnocentric financially damaging and just playing unable to meet even the most basic needs of our students and so much so that the district needed to use 36 pages to document everything wrong with this charter school I could plaster this wall with that report and you're telling me there's and they're telling me that there's nothing wrong with it the truth is that this meeting is not here to summarize the the board report for you because you read it right the truth is that accepting this charter school would be admitting to the community that the people elected to meet the educational needs of their children cannot do so without the help of an outside source and if you read the report which you totally did you would see how unprofessional disorganized and sad their proposal was we need to focus on our own issues in this community not take on the issues of this school the truth is that their petition would be laughable were it not for the fact that you are all seriously considering their proposal tonight this meeting is here to give the charter school an opportunity to call together a rebuttal to their embarrassing petition be before you make a decision the truth is however that the eyes of ausa have set their eyes upon you watching you watching to see where your allegiances lie if you make a decision that harms our kids that takes more resources from our kids that Nails the final coffin in this battered but still standing District I say to you that this community does not easily forget please reject this Tarter school I have nothing more to say on this matter thank you for your time next I like to call up Mr Rono no I don't think you do good evening my name is Ron Trestle and I am a teacher at isua high school I grew up in isza just above 10th Street as I got older I always thought that I would move on from muuza just like George Bailey from its Wonderful Life thought he would move away from bed for Falls turns out that I was wrong as a young boy of this community greatly influenced me my friends and my family were here we went to church together went to others houses hung out in the same church youth group played basketball Memorial Park and played baseball at the little league and pony league fields during this time I never felt excluded I was welcomed into the houses of my friends no matter what their race or religion I was a guy that ate all the food and then went back for seconds and thirds I was there at baptisms weddings and kinas yes I was that guy I was always included in never excluded I was loved and taken in by families I was never looked at any different there was never any thought of segregation just integration and learning all about culture and love here in isza as a supporter of public schools in the diverse community that we have in our schools it makes me upset to hear about this issue that we are considering bringing in a charter school this is my 20th year working for isua unified our district is about integration and inclusion it is about making sure that every student is given a high quality education by high quality High qualified teaching staff no matter one's race religion sexual orientation or disability we do not discriminate we need to stay unified as a school district we we cannot afford to fund a charter school while trying to maintain our own District we cannot afford to lose funding for programs that our students so dearly need or close schools like we have been forced to in the past due to decreasing enrollment I know that most of the board members have been raised here in zza and have attended the public school system here in isua I hope that you continue to make the effort to fully fund our district build our programs promote inclusion and diversity and keep our schools open I hope that you vote no on Charters thank you next IID like to call up Mr George Q too he's already there thank you all right uh good evening board members colleagues as a constituent of azuza and alumni from Aza unified I must protest the notion of introducing a charter school in this school district I will not only represent myself but also my family friends and neighbors who are concerned about the charter school in nauza the reasons why me and many other constituents disagree is because Charter Schools absorb funds from public schools in this case topnotch Academy will absorb up to $4 million annually from Auda schools from students staff teachers administrators and yes even programs leaving students vulnerable to depleting resources as cannot afford to bring a charter school for it will for it will be against the interest of our students and Community which brings me to the next concern about topn Academy that does not that does a poor job in representing and acknowledging the Latino community and the diversity of our of our students in his we in his website I don't I don't see a trace of Spanish for the many Spanish speaking families and students of azuza according to the district report to the topnotch academy it does not provide sufficient and detailed evidence for any effective and inclusive English Mandarin dual language immersion program as it does not address the needs of different student subgroups like English Learners or AKA Spanish speakers and of course students with disabilities their 50 to 5050 model of dual language immersion would exclude students who are not native speakers of of English and Mandarin which is about 48% of the student population or hundreds of students in the report of topn Academy has not clearly defined an eeld instruction for English Learners given the students demographics of districts this is a major problem and reflects as uh Miss kamacho has stated the lack of the lack of knowledge and understanding of the charter of school's obligation to provide a sound meaningful and legal legally compliant education for English Learners um I've spoken to other constituents as well and of course they see this charter school as a form of sub uh segreg um and of course some of our teachers have stated before in the meetings that why not work together to create an English Mandarin um dual program and of course a lot of constituents inza are seeing this that there's a bigger issue at hand here an issue that needs to be addressed um so these are some of the reasons that me um I as a constituent of Aza among many others are concerned about introducing charter schools in AA unified and of course I hope and we hope that the board will vote no and of course they're watching right now on how you guys will vote on this matter thank you thank you next up is EST compos M good evening board president Rodriguez paa board cabinet members colleagues and esteemed um citizens of our community our mayor as well I I come to you once again as a constituent of the city of Asuza and as an educator of 23 years in at asua Unified School District um I am deeply deeply concerned as a citizen of this wonderful City about the charter schools I came from a city that has allowed charter schools to come in and have seen the public education system nearly diminished at the high school level because of it with no benefit to the district at all I'd like to say to um the people that are here in support of topnotch steam Academy have you st foot on our campuses have you come in to see the great work that we do at AA unified have you looked at our dual immersion models now that we have them I keep hearing yes in the background but it obviously when what I'm seeing is exclusion I'm sorry I have I have the microphone right now thank you I'm seen exclusion as a teacher of ethnic studies I work very very hard to develop a program of inclusion including our students of all Races and to hear people say that we are discriminating against them as a as a district is heartbreaking it is heartbreaking I spent countless countless hours teaching students some of which are standing outside about what it means to be inclusive of other ethnic groups we welcome our students our Mandarin students into our schools Bor you have a decision to make you need to think about what's best for our kids all of our kids not a selective group of kids but all of them it is your responsibility I voted for every single one of you except for one because the laws changed otherwise I probably would have voted for you as well but but I have voted for all of you and I did it with good conscience and faith that I knew that you would make the right decisions for our kids so I'm standing here as your constituent asking you to make the right decisions for our community and for all of our students and not just for the interest of a few thank you thank thank you next next up Natalia via uh before the uh timer begins I'm the next One jacine S we're going to speak together no um individually please okay um good evening my name is Natalia via and I am a senior at isusa high school I would just like to start by saying how far that how far our district has come throughout the years and that this change would greatly affect us and all our new upcoming high schoolers K through a and everyone else involved such as parents and families we have greatly evolved throughout the years but this isn't to say that it has been easy we are Gladiators at heart as we have just moved to isusa this year as Gladstone was directed to shut down although this change is irreversible we miss our school environment dearly many others who take part in this District's education have noted that you have recently shut down numerous elementary schools all of our middle schools and our high school home Gladstone this is our final year in this district and both myself and my peers have been put through many difficult circumstances as a result of switching schools a USD has numerous successful young people who attend uc's Cal States and additional private schools across the country we apply to competitive programs have the potential to graduate college in three years and we obtain countless scholarships thanks to our amazing excellent teachers and our academic transcripts the claim that ausd lacks any programs is misleading information we personally believe that they offer plenty and that participation in these programs is low due to enrollment decrees many students are unaware of this plan that you are trying to impose on us why don't you consider student and instructor feedback why aren't the top notch recruiting our whole class because we don't fulfill your intelligence standards for your steam Academy because of our racial background a USD offers stem classes from elementary to high school all which are evolving we feel that if you were to add an immersion curriculum that this would greatly solve the problem instead of switching the whole district and having everyone go through change change is hard and we have already gone through it enough and adding to that change isn't going to help those who are already struggling thank you for your time and I hope tonight's decision is to vote against the petition and to allow our city to continue to thrive on its own as it has already been thank you okay okay thank you next you will have jacn canana good evening Board of Education and community members my name is jacqulyn Santana today we represent our peers at auza high school who couldn't make it today such as the Student Union the Souza medical Pathways the early college program AP classes student advisory Council cheer soccer HOSA Charter hospice and many more Community Schools were just introduced this year to all our schools including auua high school and we continue to learn about their benefits and determining what we can do to improve connections between students parents and faculty considering we are members of the Student Union We Carry Out Community circles to help students contribute to interactions as well as acquire comfort with one another in a classroom setting we address personal needs and ensure that everyone has a voice in and outside the classroom our school offers the chance to collaborate with International students to create welcoming environments many including myself are native Spanish speakers which have been marked as proficient in English throughout the years a USD provides a range of Spanish French and sign language lessons that appeal to all the levels of interest to expand our knowledge since the elementary level we have all gotten introduced to the art programs the stem clubs music to expand our likings as we move to the secondary level of Education we also feel that adding a dual language emerging mandering curriculum would be the compromise alongside the Spanish language route that is provided it could be similar to the programs that we offer at the elementary schools currently to provide the Learners with equivalent possibilities and opportunities overall using the a USD funds to add a to add a charter school would not be beneficial to our district adding a Ming program instead to in addition to the Spanish program would be more beneficial for the successful outcomes instead of taking our sacred funds that the top notch doesn't deserve we thank you for your time and hope tonight's decision is to vote against the petion and to allow the city to thrive on its own for those deeply involved in the success of our students thank you next I like to call up Hector ernandez okay good start good evening exem board members superintendent Ortega and people in attendance my name is Hector Hernandez and I'm a current senior at Aza High School I am here to talk about and give my opinion on the top-notch steam Charter School especially why I believe it will be one of of the worst decisions made to approve it this decision will not only affect the school district itself but the community of Asuza as a whole by implementing Charter Schools you are segregating your community and creating this ideal in which only a specific student can achieve success and what does that do to them the premise of Charter School assumes that they can somehow provide opportunities that do not already ex exist in our community to me it only assumes that we as students are somehow lacking as I present myself in front of you how dare you believe that we will not amount to anything a vote to approve this Charter affirms that stance topnotch embodies this ideology that they will come into our community and somehow save it that they will be the Savior we need to become successful students but guess what we are we already are and have been successful for years without them each year many students are accepted to top universities across the country furthermore last year we had four students win and place in the United States Congressional Art Contest award for their artworks and they are now in Washington DC are you now proud of them as well 11 students last year placed top five in the state for medical based competitions in which which three of them are now considered International finalists and two went on to win a top five spot in the world are they not enough for you yet you sit here contemplating this Charter School you were elected to serve ausa students a job in which you promised the people of ausa that you would put them first but as a product of this District I do not feel a priority do so now make us feel a priority to to the parents to the parents out there Charter School will also bring about the loss of millions of dollars in budget money that goes directly towards the education of your child this will hurt programs such as engineering medic and do enrollment but if that's not scary enough think about all the teachers and employees who will be fired these is who the educators are the most amazing people I've encountered ever they have taught me how to be successful they have taught me how to think critically and independently and best of all they have taught me how to become a decent person as you sit here on your high little pedestal believing that this will be the best possible thing to ever happen to our district and Community maybe you should reconsider what it means to be a Community member don't allow top-notch to win and perpetrate this ideology that they are a savior Asuza needs saying no to schools will show the isza community you believe in them and if this is too much for you maybe you should reconsider your position as an isua School Board member because I promise you we the ausa people are more than this lackluster perception you have of us thank you next we have thank you re good evening Schoolboard superintendent Mr Orga and all others in attendent tonight my name is fivia and I'm a current Junior at Aza high school and a former Gladiator student who has sadly lost their home school when I first found out about the charter school wanting to be brought into our district I was in utter shock and disbelief at this shock at this thing where got out and no one knew the true reason the this Char School wanted to come into the existence of our district I was I am a part of the AL committee and at our last meeting of the year we had the biggest question of Our Lives that was brought up by Emmanuel satat brought up to Miss Ortega and Miss Jamal Miss LaTasha Jamal asked why these Charter Schools were gonna be brought into our district they informed us about the loss of our money which was was which was going to be about $1 million lost in our district in the next and over the next 3 years they were also informing us that it would not be beneficial to us because of the mannering English program because most of our families here are Spanish Spanish English uh dual dual enrollment program uh families and students everyone knew the basic stuff about this whole thing but no one knew the exact reason and everyone I mean literally everyone in this room and everyone outside was in the dark about all this as a public school student I do not see the reason we need to I do not see the reason we need to bring a charart school into our district because it's not beneficial to us we've been fine on our own for the past four years this is not going to help us at all and the less money we have into our into our district means that our programs are going to be cut our programs are going to shrink even more than they already are our programs that are already being shr shren right now they're just they're they're decreasing we're not getting more students we're losing enrollment families are not having many babies anymore everyone's moving away declining enrollment is everywhere Bor as you sit on your pedestal consider this this vote to be a no not a yes thank you uh next I like to call um Ty Ben who good evening everyone my name is tid W what is consider an unsound education program is narrowly defined a program considered unsound only if it is likely to cause physical educational or psychological harm to student or student of if it is likely to be of no educational benefit to the student who attend none of those Factor are relevant to the tnsf Charter and none are mentioned in the STA report the district appear to misunderstand the fundamental nature of TNN tnsa program as explained throughout the chter DU language emerging program benefit from a mix of naive native and nonnative speakers of the Tet languages because it allows student to support or be supported by others in the language development while fostering strong personal personal ties and uh building a sense a sense of community in other words du language emerging model are effective when at least some student know the target languages but certainly not not all of them are expect to we understand this and the other Charter expe State we will strive to attract a balance of native English and the mandering Chinese speakers to enroll at the same time tnsa program does not require any specific balance of native English and the maning Chinese speaker student speaking students and then and nowhere and by no by no means are due language IM model like pnsn inaccessible or not intend for student who know nether languages student who speak neither English nor mandarine Chinese would would be treated as English learner as required by law meanwhile student who do not speak mandering would learn that language at tnsa for the first time alongside each other thank you very much Mr W your time is up can we have Jim chin move come forward my name Jim Chen and as far as the charter schools grade level ISE the expansion plan the district appear confused by our statement that most student will likely enter the charter School in kindergarten or first grade which capitalize on children's optimal age for second language acquisition uh CR page 90 and we plan to enroll student in grade TK to five in the initial years of operation and spend to the include student in grade six to8 in subsequent year see the page 31 as the years progress we expect that most enrolled student overall will likely have enter top NAIA uh Academy during their first few years of elementary school just like at nearly any other public school the district also appeared to confus about the nature mandering Chinese instructor instruction for student in grade 6 to8 as a state in the chatter student in the middle school program will be offer one period of mentoring language and Chinese culture each school day see page uh 6.43 crises will range from novice to advance to account for varing level for of manding Chinese uh proficiency I I see no reason why serve student beyond the TK to kindergarten in our first years of operation in case of a concern we are proposing to serve student in KT TK to five grade level in our first year of operation in response to students voice demand for school that serve abroad great span see page 31 special the SRA Valley where Aza situate as a significant population of M speaking immigrant student who do not yet speak English many of these student arrive when they are in later stage of elementary school and many enroll School in the S gabber Valley area none of which are in the district the mandering DU language immersion program a best research reach research based model to support English language learn to become Prof profession in both English and mandering for this new M speak much Mr Chen thank you your time is up thank you no more cards and um anyone online are we are we we're going to switch the screen right now with some of your names oh I know I just didn't see any names I okay good evening the soua UniFi School District board members thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of topnotch steam Academy as a private citizen who works in the Souza I have witnessed the growth of this city since 2006 I especially enjoy seeing a marked increase in the Asian population over the last 17 years as an Asian ameran allow me to point out the Deep cultural value a have for education especially in Grain in our long history Chinese are known to travel far for what they deem best as educational opportunities for their offspring for instance I have friends who live here and travel daily to Pasadena and bulletin foru immersion and steam programs hence it seems natural and wise to respond to a growing need in a Souza a such growth in the Asian population almost always bring subsequent growth growth in the economy and reputation I see a great deal of potentials for a reimagined future with The Offspring of the with the offering of a Mandarin English du immersion program as an educator for over two decades I recognize how quickly our world is changing and the need to offer optimal academic opportunities to Young students to be agile this include offering bilingual education so that they will be ready for emerging Trends in any profession with Chinese being the third most used language in the world it seems wise and Forward Thinking to become one of the cities to lead and be successful in Mandarin English dual immersion therefore I urge you to seriously consider the proposal by top n steam Academy thank you thank you can we have um uro Garcia please good evening board members community members my name is aruro Garcia I am a director of operations with icon Cool School management uh in support of topnotch steam Academy a little bit about my background I have 10 years in the charter school five years I worked with a dual emerging English Korean uh School in South Los Angeles they had similar concerns in terms of the community the community is mainly Hispanic and African-American for majority of my five years there we had less than 10 students that were Korean the majority of those students were um Hispanic and African-American um and it worked and I think it came from the fact that it's an option a choice for those students in that Community to take advantage of and that's what Top Notch would be a choice for these students here um I also want to respond a little bit to some of the fiscal findings uh my colleague Samantha did a good job but again in my 10 years of working with Charter Schools and talking to school districts uh I was surprised with the amount of speculation in the findings for fiscal a lot of ifs the first if is the Cola will be 1% yes that's learning we adapt as we move budgets forward your own District budget for last year includes the 3.94% cola for the 2425 school year and as your district will work on updating budget so will we to update top Notch's budget um the second if of the unduplicated people percentage um we use a very cons conservative number of 60% um your district is 86 the hope is to get students from your community the odds of becoming lower than 60% are much smaller than the odds of coming higher than 60% if we reverse uh the If instead of coming in five students less and we come in five students higher of unduplicated that's an additional $200,000 to the school over three years and then in terms of the loss from 3% to 1% in the first year it's not 400,000 it's 400,000 across multiple years in the first year it's about $86,000 budgets are built with that 5% Reserve to account for that economic uncertainty the 5% Reserve in the first year was over 150,000 that 86 is absorbed in that but of course you go and you work to update that the other if in terms of 88 percentages uh Charter Schools do have 88 percentages that are typically higher than districts again because it's Choice students are choosing parents are choosing to send their students there so their attendance rates are much higher and their levels of chronic athletism it's lower um with couple the schools that we work with in LA and Orange County last year the average 88 percentage was 95% and this year it's increased slightly um last year was a tough year across the board for Ada um historical lows for everybody just as you were coming out of the pandemic so you know it was just a lot of ifs and districts work with ifs we work with ifs but we have to have the opportunity to make that adjustment and move forward thank you uh next I'd like to call up um Cecilia Ford good evening superintendent cabinet and board members and community members um I come to you tonight as a parent of a junior at isza high school I am also an employee of this district and I worked for this district for 13 years um having a charter school come in would take away programs that we've already built we're building right now we're rebuilding because of reorganization we've gone through changes don't make us go through another change again some of our kids are struggling we see it in our school district right now we see the high school we see the Middle School we've come together and we're everybody's trying our teachers our staff our students are all readjusting to bring somebody new in would be another change that everybody has to go through I urge everybody on the school board tonight to vote no against another change that we have to go through our C we need to readjust we need to adapt to everything that we've gone through to this point our staff our students and everybody in the community is readjust ing please vote no against bringing this Charter School in let us rebuild and let us come back together as one thank you now I would like to call Andrew te good evening board members I'm Andy C and I'm here to voice my opposition against the proposed Charter School the fact finding report from the district is clear the petition does not meet the key elements of EC 47605 I would like to address the the divisive undertone of the charter school petition I am highly disturbed by the undertone of this petition and the exclusion of key demographics in our community we as a community should oppose any publicly funded school or programs that excludes by race gender religious background orientation or disabilities whether that exclusion is by design of happen stance it should be legally and morally opposed I have been in a I have been a resident of ausa for over 10 years and I've tied to the communities for close to 20 years my wife is of Hispanic descent and has been part of the community her whole life it was not so long ago that asian-americans had targets painted on their backs while Asian hate crimes Rose across LA county and and across California I cannot find one single report in azuza that shown any hate crimes against Asians the exclusive nature of this petition is an insult to the ENT to the isua community that ensured me and my family made it home safely every night during those trying times this petition does not meet the legal requirement and should be denied if that is not sufficient then the petition should be denied for the pure device of nature to our community thank you for your time next I like next like to call Eva or J good evening uh Susa UniFi School District uh board members uh my name is Eva ortis I am a resident of ausa UniFi School District I have four kids and six grandkids I am here to support topnotch steam Academy okay I want topnotch steam Academy open in our community because it will give my grandkids a competitive Advantage for their future they will not only be bilingual but trilingual when my kids I have I have a 23 year old 23 year old son he did not graduate from high school from asusa he he went to Elementary here in asusa and also to asusa high school and unfortunately he did not graduate right now I have a 17-year-old and he is not doing grade in ausa high school I see that a lot of teachers are here a lot of teachers are here but my sons they tell me a lot of teachers focus on all the A+ students not on the ones that need help a lot of teachers a lot of teachers need jobs a lot of teachers are here becausee they need they need their jobs I do have friends that are Asian and they have to drive far to take their kids because there are only a couple of them in in here and they get discriminated they get teased that so I am here to please ask that we have a choice and I ask and and um for you to approve the petition of topot theme Academy thank you thank you uh next up is Meg zala Schoolboard I'm not going to address you because you know how I feel I've spoken to almost all of you at some point or another about the Union's feelings about the charter school instead I want to speak to the parents um who are here to advocate for top knot you don't know me um I am the President of the teachers union but I'm also a parent and I live in Chino I brought my children to go to school here in isusa because of the amazing teachers because of the district's inclusiveness my husband is Filipino um we have a biracial family and I have biracial children I know what it means to be discriminated against it's happened to us and it's very hard and it's very scary but it didn't happen here in isusa my kids were well taken care of and it's because the teachers in here they care about the kids they do and when we took our children back to Chino schools it was more because of the neighborhood friends and all those kinds of things but my eldest son his passion was Mandarin and so we took him to Chino Hills High School because it was the only school that taught Mandarin he took it for four years and then he took it in college and his first job as a mechanical engineer out of college was to work for come key um which is a Chinese sauce company for those of you you probably have it in your pantry at home anyway um it's insulting honestly and maybe you don't know this it's insulting to us when you say that um Asian parents do whatever they can for the education of their children because the inference is that we don't and that honestly is hurtful because whether I'm Caucasian or my Filipino family or the Latinos in the room we all want the best education for our children and so I I'm I'm saying this with respect truly you want what's best for your kids just as much as I want what's best for mine and after 30 years 32 years teaching in this District I want what's best for our children in as youa and that includes you and so whatever the board decd decides tonight I am going to I'm going to plead with you please bring your children to our schools I want your children in my classroom I want them I want to love on them I want to teach them I want to encourage them I want to uplift them to be the best that they can be and I'm sorry that you you had children that had difficult experience with with whatever it was that they endured but I'm going to I'm going to say that I believe that's the minority because the majority of kids come out of here like rock stars and so please please let's acknowledge the fact that we are a district that's inclusive time is thank you I would like I would like Charlotte ree to come forward please good evening my name is charot Ruiz I a dual imersion student at Victor hods Elementary I love my teachers and everyone that works at my school I'm here today to speak against this topnotch them Academy Charter School the past couple of years have been hard on our azuza school communities we have closed many schools due to low low enrollment not because our schools are bad but because many families have made the hard choice to move to more affordable housing many families have adapted to changes but we are a wonderful community and have adapted well Aiza unified offers all the programs we need and more I love our doing Mion program CU I get to learn Spanish a few years ago Mandarin was also being offered but not enough interest was shown if that has changed I am sure our discrict district will address it soon in our arts program we get to learn about many different artists and their styles of painting I will soon be joining the miai de as soua and soon after the orchestra you don't need a charter school to take resources away from our schools next I will have Emily Reese good evening president rodrigus paa members of the board and superintendent Ortega and the cabinet members as a proud student of isua high school and an Engaged Community member I commend the school for its outstanding and diverse programs enrolled in the international Balor program Project Lead the Way engineering program Maria deza and the zua Unified School District chamber orchestra I am grateful for the rich academic and extracurricular experiences provided however the foundation of this preparation began in Middle School laying the groundwork for my success in high school one of the most notable strengths in our public school system is its sense of community and inclusivity as an active member of the Student Union we collectively strive to Foster unity and a strong Community spirit and this includes elementary and middle school students as we have done Community circles in the past with them and have seen that students open up from all backgrounds no matter their ethnic background or academic success it would be such a shame if a charter school were to come and strip away all this progress we have already made and make a bigger disconnection between students who have different educational barriers barers moreover this sense of community takes root early on beginning Marin Orchestra in elementary school I've had the privilege of going growing up in the same group for the past 10 years I hope my little sister who is currently in college Elementary School can share a similar experience when she reaches her senior year however this would not be possible if a charter school were to exist as a programming would be different our elementary schools are evolving positively so considering the potential impact of with Charter School on our progress I implore you to P persevere and strengthen our existing programs especially in the light of our merger our school district is already grappling with low enrollment and introducing a charter school could adversely affect our community please let us continue to flourish and contribute positively to the academic and communal fabric of azuza thank you thank you next I like to call up sto Serano Luna Sarah Sano Luna hello everybody my name is Sarah San Luna and I'm here today to firmly stress that there is absolutely zero need for a charter school in isusa and although I hope I actually don't need to persuade you the board today as it is again so extremely OB obvious that allowing a charter school to open would only hurt our district and our students School board members eyes are on you tonight for you to listen to your constituents and to to listen to the district's recommendation and not allow this to happen to the people here and the people watching at home play close attention to how these board members are voting today as their vote will show you if they actually care about this district and its students and take into consideration when giving them your support and your vote before I go I would like to say to Sabrina B I'm a especially paying attention to your vote tonight as I like a lot of people here do not believe that you truly care about this district and its students but rather have ulterior motives like a charter school opening and are catering to the people in your area for I think we would all appreciate you pushing those in your District area to attend ausa schools and help build our district up again I want to emphasize that if you are doing your job tonight the job that everybody here voted you to do you would be serving the people of the school district district and be voting against a charter school thank you I like i' like to call forward Savannah Rudder hello everyone um I'm Savannah Rudder I am a product of your District um I went to school my siblings are going to school have gone to school with your kids with your grandkids I am friends with your grandkids and with your kids this is our community ladies and G gentlemen this this is us um and if we want more options let's bring more options let's bring more let's do more for our kids that's what they deserve right keep it public provide Equity equity for all of our kids publicly everyone I'm hurt as a teacher right now because what I heard is that us teachers and is Unified are not caring about our students and if anyone in this room I can wholeheartedly say that I am one of those teachers that cares 110% if not more I am involved in our community greatly I have been involved in Girl Scouts for our community providing leadership to our young females I am an educator at isua High School teaching science I am a product of many of these teachers I have had many many of these teachers I coach many Sports volleyball basketball men's volleyball girls volleyball girls basketball basketball softball baseball it's the options are endless I do that because it's for the kids so I am hurt if you're struggling if your student is struggling if you're a parent who feels that your student is not being heard please come join me take your kid into my class room 335 at isua high school and come see my class filled with more than 36 students at lunch every single day who get to participate in inclusion diversity City and Community it is a community in there and it is a community a community in every single classroom if you walk onto that campus please join us we want it we welcome it Lord please come onto our campuses I want you in my room come see me please let's have a conversation come see my kids come see what they're doing come see the great things see the community that we're building come watch our amazing teachers come watch our amazing students because they are doing great things to any missing students that some someone mentioned earlier come join us we want you here we welcome you here into this amazing azuza Community with that being said our students the students in our district deserve our undivided attention all of our undivided attention so let's focus on them let's keep investing in them in our community our future please deny this petition thank you so much next next I would like to call Kevin Davis good evening honorable board members this is Kevin Davis I hope you can hear me I'm one of the zoom participants um I serve as legal counsel for topnotch steam Academy I believe you heard comments from my colleague Greta Proctor at the last meeting and it's my pleasure to speak and support of the petitioners who are not only proposing to bring a dual IM immersion steam program to the isua community but who who are also proposing to bring District residents back to the local public school system with this program this will bring State funding back to the district I would like to speak to the board of education's options tonight adopting your staff's proposed findings is just one of the options the petitioner has thoroughly responded to and refuted each and every point in those findings I hope you've considered the petitioner's response because the staff report in front of you has been thoroughly refuted another option for the board is to approve the charter tonight which does not require any specific findings like those prepared by your staff any board member could make a motion to approve the charter petition and the board could take action on that motion right now I assure you that top- notches Charter petition more than meets the legal standard for approval including the new requirements of ab55 that require the school to demonstrate it will meet the entire the needs of the entire Community by providing opport OPP unities that do not currently exist this option to approve the charter petition is consistent with the Education Code which says the the establishment of charter schools should be encouraged the legislature contemplated this back and forth between the district and still found that Charter Schools should be encouraged it's also consistent with the State Board of education's guidance on reviewing Charter petitions which states that an unsound educational program is narrowly defined um the findings that your that your staff has made are are narrowly defined by the State Board of Education a program is considered Unown only if it's going to cause physical emotional physical educational or psychological harm to students or if it's likely to be of no educational benefits to the students who attend the school those findings can't be made tonight based on this petition or at all this Charter petition presents a sound educational program the petitioners are demonstrably likely to successfully implement the the program described in the petition and the petition contains all the legally required affirmations and comprehensive descriptions of the of the elements that are required for a charter it's ready for the district's approval tonight I wish to express my strong support for this Charter petition and request that the board approve the charter this evening so that the district can bring this unique program to serve students within the community thank you very much and I'm here if you have any questions we have three more speakers we're just going to refresh the the thank you ni I like to call um Ethan nango board president it appears he has left the zoom okay we'll move to Amber fish can you hear me yes we can Perfect all right thank thank you guys for your time tonight um I want to start off by saying language is so important I have a family who in our immediate family we have English Spanish Greek and Mandarin speaking individuals um we love that our son is getting to participate in the D Merion program that we currently have here at isua it is a great program unfortunately for myself I didn't wasn't taught in Spanish and my son started out in the kindergarten program and he sat there saying I don't know what's happening he did it online kindergarten first year online from because of covid and he just add at the screen saying I don't know what's going I don't know what they're saying I don't know what's going on and I was so disheartened for him because it was hard to watch him struggle he's a smart kid he's in third grade this year and he is doing phenomenal thriving our program works we start at kindergarten in first grade the students progressed until middle school high school they'll graduate at the end of the program if they continue it it's their choice to continue with a sylla by literacy topnotch is talking about opening up a TK through fifth grade where do these students start do they test in and if they test in how many students are they going to have for these grades that are native English speakers as compared to Native Native Spanish speakers because there has to be a balance that's what makes this program work um my concern is that they don't have this for the first first few years because Sixth and eighth grade obviously come next and they're saying their students after graduating from eth grade would go into our school that that's phenomenal I'd love to see them come into our schools I'd love to see them come into our schools starting at TK um but where does that leave them with their Mandarin program learning we currently are not supporting that and they won't be able to graduate with that Sola by literacy on their diplomas like our students will um steam programs are district is already pushing out steam throughout all the schools we have these amazing steam labs for our students to use and I love seeing the creativity that our students are coming up with using them I'm hoping that our district will consider a mandarin program dual immersion program in the future near future to support these parents who obviously seem to want this in our school district but I also think that it's important to take into consideration all of the time and effort that our community has put into reorganization already you've mentioned it we've closed a lot of schools we've had a lot of shuffling we're losing certain programs but ausa School District asua Unified School District we are thriving right now we are doing the best that we can for all of our students and making the best choices and adding a topnotch steam Academy is not in the best interest of our school district and I believe you guys should vote no deny this petition keep focusing on what is best for our students and for our community within our school district thank you next I'd like to call on sashik hi can you hear me yes hi my name is sachko abrahamson and I'm an Asian-American who happens to be a parent of a dual immersion student um I guess it's safe to assume that the funding for this Charter will come from isusa unified will only students within the isusa city limit be allowed to attend if not what are the insurance what are um assurances that the charter will give to make sure that it serving the community that they attend to take funds from we have serious concerns about any program that um takes away from programs that are already hurting to cater to a very small population that's not guaranteed to come back to isusa unified um especially to the last speaker what she was uh talking about if the program ends at 8th grade and they don't get to graduate with that biliteracy um certification why would they want to come back if they could stay in a district where they would would grad uate with it um tnsa looks to Target a very small group of residents while taking resources from already established students who choose to stay in the district we implore the board to not punish the families who chose to enroll and stay in ausa we hope that you will um consider this and deny this uh proposal thank you thank you okay thank you um thank you all for your comments um now we have questions from the board and uh the Board of Education and I would start with um Mr Greer any comments or questions yeah have I'll least start with a couple questions I I I would uh appreciate hearing uh both from the uh topnotch representatives and also from our our district um there the understanding of the distinction between ELD and dual uh dual immersion so EOD is for English language development and the Dual language remission is for students um there are two type of a dual language remission program one is the native speaker of mention language so which they probably as the uh English language learner as well so they will be uh qualified under the uh EOD program and the other uh part of um the students who are um English native speakers so then they will be uh the mangor language Learners can I ask or normal would you be able to speak that as well sure so dual language immersion program is a program that is structured with a balance of students who speak the target language so you have a balance of sometimes 30% um English-speaking 30% bilingual 30% whatever the target language is with the goal of um adding an additional language to the first language the students bring or if the student is bilingual uh building proficiency Additionally the goals of a dual language emersion program are to establish students who are bilingual biliterate and bicultural English language development is a California well it's a nationwide requirement for English Learners and requires two types of English language development integrated ELD is provided to students throughout the day so that they are able to access um instruction um in a language that is their second language that they are learning so it gives them that entry point to be able to participate fully with instruction designated El is an a second requirement so students have to receive both designated ELD is a designated time during the day where students are specifically taught um uh to develop English which if I was a native Spanish speaker my designated ELD time helps me to be able to fully participate with the goal of eventually reclassifying thank you and for tnsa could could you speak to um at the start of the at the at the start of the the the potential opening of of the academy how many grade levels would would dual immersion Mandarin be made available to students so we plan to open 2 TK 2K 2 first and then second to fifth grade will be just one class per each grade so if I hear you correctly you're saying TK through 1 well there would be multiple classes yes and then uh but second through fifth dual immersion would be made available uh but you're expecting that it would only be one class per grade grade level correct the first year yes can from our District staff can we speak to uh with our experience with dual immersion uh can can could it be spoken up up to what grade level do we currently have dly imersion present it's Spanish of course our current program is at uh seventh grade at the middle school and how many years have we have we had this program in place so we launch launched approximately 8 years ago um and we started with a prechool TK and two kindergarten classrooms at one site um so two strands at one site and two kindergarten strands at another site can I ask why we did not launch a dual immersion program uh that that expand the elementary grade levels so best practice um with instruction being tied to state standards and stu um instruction being pitched at the appropriate rigor for students to be able to participate um and be able to engage so our program is a 9010 model so we would expect that students are able to fully participate um in the program as they proceed throughout the grades so they are developing um Proficiency in that target language in our case Stanish beginning in preschool and each year that adds so again they are able to fully participate with the appropriate um rigor of the grade level and um the standards and really engaging in again those core pillars of being biliterate bicultural um and bilingual and then for for I say is it would you say that it is your all's understanding um that uh best practices would would call for for some of the um kind of additive growth and and the inclusion of of native and non-native speakers and how if and if and if so so that's part one to the question and then if so how how would the Academy address this particularly for the the higher grade levels yes I agree um uh What uh Miss um I'm sorry the uh commo um just explained it's absolutely correct of theoretically um that is a best model best practice that I've been practiced throughout my teaching career as well um however the reason uh that we propos uh for additional second to fifth grade was based on the parents demand um throughout this the popup summer program and also based on the uh parents who sign up the intent to enroll form we do see there are the parents who interest in this program that their children are already enroll in the manor program uh throughout the U different uh diversity of the groups um so they are interested in this program I I totally um as far as my teaching practice I seen I that's the best practice that she just described um it's just the the student population who interested in the tnsa program I already have somewhat of a um background um language um learning mjor language learning um levels um so that's the reason we feel like we can add just one class that's the reason we only add one class per grade level from second to fifth we don't do um two classes and then the also I want to add that the model for the mention dual language Information Program is different than the Spanish language program that currently um that was modeled in ausa UniFi our model is a 50/50 model um so I know that uh Thomas Kier they do have a lot of research done says 910 model is the best practice um however those study was only based on a Spanish dual langage Information Program those program um this those study was not done in the uh M dual langage program um you UTA is the most successful state of um launching the Dual language education um believe they have um 50% of their schools are all offer variety of a dual language Information Program and Utah has found the most effective program are 5050 and then in order for the uh School in the Utah State to receive the funding directly from the state they have to implement 5050 program in addition the top nuring Academy the our Menin curriculums is the uh Menin Matrix um which is developed by the state of the Utah and so we are adopting the Utah model thank you thank you board member benus yeah I have a question for TSA so I noticed in the petition um regarding the Outreach efforts what would you do to implement your Outreach efforts to parents because as you know the district tried this in the past and they weren't successful at it or they were successful but to a point because they didn't move forward with the uh English manderin dual immersion program so could you tell the board what would make it different for you you for TSA for tnsa um so um when we um after the summer uh popup summer camp that we did over the summer um there was uh you know parents come to me and tell me that uh whether we're going to have similar program available anywhere and that's the reason I started to asking them that if I um start up uh petition for the child school would they be interested um so 85% of the parents who took the survey expressed that they will be interested in the similar program that we uh implemented over the summer so that's the reason um I um you know take everybody's um you know um in start to make a survey um to the intent to enroll form and I distribute it to people and turns out to be like I have a 996 uh parents who sign of an intented enrollment form in the city of Azusa I I understand and thank you for that but in the future because it sounds to me like there's two things happening here there's the petition for the charter school and the need for a English Mandarin dual emersion program for the students but in the future how would you continue your Outreach efforts to reach those parents that the district in past years worked hard at implementing and they got very little turnout from what I understand um so that's kind of interesting I don't know um what type of a um information session that um the district has held um so um what I have been doing is I've been constantly giving up information session every weekly and sometime I do it like two times per week um to um explain to parents what type of a um curriculum we are teaching what kind of model we are using um and then um and also uh what type of a a Project based learning that we've been doing successfully over the summer um so that I've been like celing have um having the uh the meeting the information session um and also that I um visit um the um the um Parks uh throughout the city and then talk to parents and find out what's their concern about their students about their children and I also ask them oh where do you guys go to school will you be interested in coming back to public education um public schools if that we offer a good uh you know RoR uh mjor door language imion program with a steem focus and then they all say yes yeah so I believe in the response the city the district's response weal I I believe I saw that TSA focused their efforts primarily on an Northend what did you did TSA do anything to address the community on the s then and if you did what did you do um so same thing I try to visit the parks um you know in in the um Sol Park and then I do find that um some parents are interested um so I want to add my personal story uh my children um I also um my children also uh uh grow up with a Spanish dual langage generation program so they are trilinguals um so they helped me to do a lot of Spanish trans ation um so um that I I have to admit that I do um go to the some of the parks um in the southside of the city uh not very successful um was also because there are times when I try to talk to parents and then uh because I need a translation with a Spanish um they got uh some people heard that I have a conversation with par they come and to interject my conversation so I wasn't able to really continue to promote my program in the southern part of the city and I do find more success successful um you know um uh rate over in a know part of City yeah remember B thank you board president um I have a couple of questions for Mr Ortega and staff um this is largely around our current world language and dual immersion offerings um at um which World languages do we currently offer at Gladstone Middle School we currently offer Spanish at the middle school level and does that begin at sixth grade uh we begin at uh 7th are do do we have any current plans to expand World Language at the Middle School level in terms of adding another language we would definitely look at the interest of the students in what they um what additional foreign languages they would be interested in in US adding is that um already something that's part of a survey or part of our current District surveys that we've surveyed the students themselves so we um host listening sessions um towards the end of the year with students to to collect feedback from them in terms of um interest of of adding additional um programs um also through our triaa which is our academic articulation advisory with teachers counselors administrators um we collect feedback on um addition um adding courses and that type of thing thank you and um we know we have the international baloria program at isua High School um my understanding is that the IB Program requires two World languages to be part of that course of study um can you confirm which World languages we offer as part of the IB program at isui yes Spanish and French Spanish and French um our community schools effort has been um kicked off very successfully I've seen it at my children's own school at Hajj I've seen it at other district schools I've seen the community school liaison out in the community at non-district events um it's been a point of Pride for our school and I know that we are continuing I think we have just one more Community Lon position to fill and I think we're all excited about that um given Theus the uh increased Asian population within the city and District of isua um can you share with us um if we have any current um community aison that are Mandarin speakers So currently of our community Liaisons they are bilingual English Spanish um one of our program Specialists speaks some Mandarin and um as we as a a destination Community where we have newcomers from all types of ethnic and linguistic backgrounds um how do we serve those families who are Mandarin speakers and Mandarin monolingual when they show up to enroll out of school uh we have um different efforts um in terms of what types of translation and interpretation um that we provide um when we have um loow incidence languages um we will utilize technology to to help to support that um and when um the need arises we may have requests from teachers um for count um for uh different types of conferences ssts IEPs um parent coffees um for additional languages um we've translated for ASL um Arabic cantones so we contract with um translation services um to offer that when a significant need arises or for those specific types of um instances where um a family requires that access um to be able to bridge language thank you mrga I'm gonna ask you just a couple of questions um preface this with my own two daughters are part of the dual immersion Spanish program at Hodge um my big girl started in Kinder in first grade and she's currently in second um and my little girl started in TK at Longfellow and I can tell you that they are both thriving really well and in fact uh my big girl comes home and she speaks to me in Spanish um so I am a defin a supporter of language for all um and regardless of ethnic background or what your family looks like or what your family speaks at home and I say that as a testament to language learning for everyone um so that's my endorsement of dual immersion in isus unified Mr Orga how would you as superintendent rate the quality of our dual immersion parentheses Spanish program here in isus unified we have been um extremely fortunate uh here in isua to launch uh a dual language emersion program uh like Miss kamacho said uh we were very careful and intentional on how we launched uh including our youngest Learners in preschool and knowing uh through experience that any dual language immersion program um throughout the course and the run of the program uh you see a drop in students because a they trans they there's attrition natural attrition uh or B students get a voice and so sometimes in fifth grade um they're like yeah we're done with Spanish or we're done with this we have other interests and so they're going to drop out the program um and so knowing that uh we were um extremely uh intentional on building four launch classrooms knowing that through attrition and through voice uh that would still give us a very strong middle school program uh we are extremely PR uh that we have uh been asked uh to um share about our program uh locally uh at the county level and at the state level um and so when we our students and uh what they are able to do and what they are able to accomplish um I would rate uh our program um something of a model uh for others to see we actually get quite a bit of request from other districts as well uh to come and learn and to see what we what we've done and how we launch and how we've implemented thank you and Madam president if I could ask just one more question of course thank you and uh Mr Orga given that high rating of endorsement of how well we do dual immersion programs in the district as part of a district program um don't you think that given the interest expressed for it by many voices in this room that uh if the district would offer its own dual immersion mandin program that that would be of benefit for the district as well as all of the district students we would not only be eager but proud to uh add another layer of uh dual language again we think we have we don't we don't think we we know we have the expertise um and so yeah that would be again we would be eager and proud to be able to uh to serve our community in that manner thank you Mr T thank you board president thank you board member Aris excuse me um I would like to start off by actually thanking um everyone that's here today from all of our teachers our students our parents and also the people that are here to also advocate for who uh what you're standing for and that is your Charter dual immersion Mandarin dual immersion coming up to the microphone and advocating for something that you stand strongly for is not easy I'm very passionate very passionate about Ju Just dual immersion it's and what it stands for I am a proud parent of two children in dual immersion one has received the state literacy seal in her diploma I am that parent here at a soua unified that started with dual immersion when it began I have seen the struggle of a beginning dual immersion I have seen the fight the tears of many years of trying to get parents children to stay as they progress in grades I have seen the successes with my own children such as um you know thank you for for sharing that uh board member Bo that your children come to our district and that they're in the Dual emersion Spanish program that that's amazing and that they're at Hajj taking advantage of the parents that have fought with tears in blood standing at the podium begging for this program to continue and to be strong now it's been 13 14 years that I have been part of duel immersion Spanish I do also have a testament of what a soua unified has done I endorse as well I I I I share the same sentiment board member my colleague with my colleague here the the endorsement of dual immersion absolutely when the district offered dual imersion Mandarin when they or in the beginning stages I attended the meetings because I actually wanted my this is before my son started dual immersion Spanish my son wanted to learn du wanted to learn Mandarin and I was that parent that was advocating for the dual immersion Mandarin I was that parent outside of the schools in the Parks through cheerleading through the nonprofits trying to recruit our community in rosale for our program here at auua unified to be successful for dual immersion Mandarin and I share the same sentiment as both parties are here sharing their belief and their passion for what we it's a common goal and that is our students the success of our students that's a common goal that we all have and I know that here my colleagues also have that same sentiment such as you guys that have spoken you guys that are here sitting standing outside have you know on this standing on the side we all share that same sentiment and that's why we're here or else this room would be empty as a myself as a proud auua Unified School District student I was an English language learner I know the struggle as well as a student I also worked in the classroom as an English language advoc uh educator so looking at this as now a board member being able to not only be a student a parent an educator inside the classroom now a board member I truly see the importance of dual immersion absolutely and I really really hope that we as a board understand how long it takes for a program to be successful and that it's not easy again as Su unified has put it out in the community and we only had so many people not enough to be enrolled in the program I have a question question for our district if this passes tonight do you have a rough estimate of how much let's just say given a number right of how how much in Ada funding they were to take maybe they're saying there's about 96 that that that's what I I have here 96 right let's just say 100 100 students from our district how much is that in Ada we did the calculation over a three-year span and we're looking at approximately over $2.3 million so what you're telling me it's $2.3 million that we will be losing in our district for a program that is just starting and um now I W would like to ask uh the top notch um I have a question for you under what Foundation or what other you you said um Miss Miss Christina um Sue thank you um what other Charters have you led that have been successful um I I've looked at your your profile and um you're here and you you want to lead this um what are programs have been successful under your care under your watch um so as you mentioned earlier that's very difficult to start uh to a new program I absolutely agree in fact that I was um the Lead Teacher to uh start the uh wage worth program in hend laon and also the panta program in pona unified um so while I was in uh both program I was the lead teachers and also um I was the curriculum developers and I know um that it takes a lot of time and effort to build a program and both School turn out to be a very high performing schools um and also that I'm not just saying the Asian students they um I also um have very successful High successful rate for teaching Spanish speaking students um the parents are so happy to come to me said they um took their kids to uh community events and then their children are able to communicate um in using mention language with the uh like Market they go to or the store they go to um and and so they they came to thank me uh personally and so I know that how to build a program successfully um and like as you mentioned um and also Dr Bo um has uh applaud uh the successful of the ausa Spanish dual language program me as a proud parents as well like I mentioned earlier my children are trilingual and my daughter she not only graduate um from a college with a chemistry degree but also she graduate with Spanish minor so that shows that the effort that I put her through the Spanish dual language program throughout the elementary grade level of a a very worth in investment for my children's future so vice versa that the parents who are already speak Spanish at home if they put their kids in the uh Manion dual ination program are also a very um good investment for their future careers um and also that um by knowing that the district um we been uh the um board member uh of benav keep asking me how to recruit students um so so I think the key is really um we need to have like parents would trust who is running the program who has been successfully knowing how to begin a program and also to grow teachers and I um learned that that was very difficult to recruit teachers um in the uh the the situation of uh in the United States of the teacher with the m uh credential with a M uh B clad um and also multiple subject credential we do have a lot of teacher who are single subject credential in Chinese but not multiple subject um with a b class so those are very difficult to recruit um so so then by knowing that I personally invest a lot of time and also go uh talking through many of the uh credential uh program in the University level uh learn that that we we can also um have the uh a teacher uh that recruit internationally um so there is a very successful Menor dual language Charter School in Oakland called you mean charter school so they are like uh the the top 1% uh score in the state um and um they do have a lot of teacher art they hired through their international program and and those are are doable and then I do uh work with a lot of University in Taiwan uh and then over the summer I was able to um have them come um to um teach at my summer camp that I started and then I have the opportunity to uh uh provide um the professional development uh and the strategy that been implemented successfully in the American educational model and then they were so quickly able to adapt and change um their teaching strategy that being growing in Taiwan and to teach in the United States successfully yeah so by saying that that topn them account is ready um to launch the school uh because we have uh the teacher resource and by also we have run the program in um the United States and with experience and then we also have uh the community parents who trust us um and then willing um to work uh to send their kids to the topn steam Academy thank you thank you I'm done okay thank you yes um I have um a questions for you for the tnsa so first of all why a charter school why not as is UniFi why why can we have um the do imersion mandarin where our students can be trilingual I'm just understanding why our Charter and not you know work together with our district I mean our teachers are top-notch too we have great programs I know you heard about the great programs that we have right we have stem I mean we talked about many great programs I just don't thank you I I I just don't see that um it is beneficial I agree with you but I still think that the children why don't they come to our school district why don't they come to Ze Unified School District um I feel like uh parents should answer this question not me okay no no it's no I'm sorry I'm not expecting to answer it's just like I'm I'm I'm wondering like why don't they come to our school we have great teachers we have great programs you know we have great schools you know why do we have to open a a charter school what is the necessity other than I understand your concerns about the do mergin the do um Mandarin we could do the same thing because we have a successful dild Spanish English right so um also so um I I was kind of not too happy only when I did read the memo when you did talk about that you wanted to be in the northern part of the city I I read that somewhere and I I live in the souths side of town in in the south of the 210 Freeway over 45 years and I personally have not heard or seen that anyone from your program has approached any parents or anyone regarding this top notch Academy so you know I am concerned with the past six years years or five years we have closed six schools due to declining enrollment we also have um still people still on unemployment you know our teachers have lost jobs our classified employees have lost jobs is is I mean you don't think about that you think that would it you don't think if it's going to harm us at a z white school district or you I I I'm not understanding why we have to have a top notcho and we can just um have it in our district and we did try but we can try again that's okay we can we can go out again and try it again and have it in our district well what I can say um is that um currently um the students who signed the intent to INR form with topn steam Academy only probably five to six students are currently the students who are enrolled in ausa uni School District so and you know and and that and sorry excuse me I'm not done thank you and that's another question I have you know I I did see the list and the students are from Temple City they're from Diamond Bar correct they're from rosem me mon park and why are us as taxpayers need to pay for children that are out of our district it's just a question I you don't need to answer I understand but I'm just kind of puzzled all this I don't so I do want to if I may yes of course so the funding for a student who's attending the charter school who is not from Aza Pacific that fun city of Aza sorry um that funding does not come from the pot of money from isusa UniFi so the funding for Ada is per student from that student so that student creates that rate from the state it's not uh there's 100 students if 50 are not from isusa that doesn't mean you're taking 188 from ausa so I just want to make sure that's clear well well I I you know because they mentioned that the community of isua we're talking about isua today right want needed or want a a um an academy or or wanted um do Merion Mandarin we could open in our district just to same just the same way and and have get the Ada at isza and also I me we we do have permits someone from D come to permit we'll welcome them too we'll get ada8 with that too I just you know don't understand the loss of funding that we've had in the last five years and I I I just can't see just doing that again and just losing and again uh staff members losing jobs like I mentioned you know our kids have been switched from one school to another school and you should visit our schools come to our schools see our programs you know and and see we have great changes we had real big re organization it's turned out really well so just saying so I would like to thank the AA unified and topnotch Academy for your presentation also everyone for coming out tonight and sharing your public comments with the board of education do any of my colleagues have any further questions Bo R certainly some comments there there could be a question in here somewhere but I'm I'm struggling to see what topnotch would be able to provide that the isus Unified School District could not I'm I'm I'm struggling to see what what topnotch could could provide that would somehow be superior to to what um Aus unified offers and has the capacity to offer um I have tracked all along uh just the the success and and the slow progress of our of our dual immersion Spanish uh language program and just recognizing that it's it would it would maybe be possible to in order to have something that's that that's that's Grand or is is is is able to be marketed to all grade levels to kind of start something and launch and invite everyone to be there but but there was a a long slow commitment to doing things and and taking time recognizing best practices and and implementing those those best best best practices and so one of my one one a concern that I that I see when thinking about students who are Learners here within the isus Unified School District is um my just just the the lack of confidence that I would have in uh the the the program model that's being proposed um and and um the the value of having native and non-native speakers present at at each grade level I I struggled to see how that would even happen how how there would be non-native Mandarin speakers especially at the upper Upper Grade levels I I just I struggle to see that um I also want to say we we have sat up here the this the specific have looked slightly different over the course of the the past handful of of years but we've been tasked with making some extremely difficult decisions and and the decisions that we have been making have been painful at times but but we've continued to ask what can we do to to provide the the the best and the most robust program offer offerings and opportunities for the students here within the isus isusa Unified School District and and as that has amounted to consolidations of of of school campuses I I've shared up here for every school that i' I I grew up here every school that I've attended does not look like it did when when when I was attending here and and those are or difficult decisions that were needing to be made but what it's done for us some of those incredible sacrifices we've heard some of our Aus uh high school students talk about the the the cost for them as as being part of Gladstone High School but what that's done for us is it has really put us in a position as a as a district where we can really look to to reimagine and reeval evaluate and ask ourselves what is the menu of program offerings that makes the most sense and and facilities and and and just who are we as a district as we look into the future far into the future and and what I'm hearing uh from this is that there tends to be a a ground swell of of some support for Mandarin um and when I when I think about that and I think about the pro proven track record of the isus Unified School District to offer dual immersion programs um I'm I'm you know one want to give a strong directive uh to to with the support of my of my colleagues to to our staff to really investigate and look into um dersion Mandarin um and offering that for for our community um and and I and I would also want to invite uh the the the the those who are here tonight and and requesting that the the approval of of this the of this Charter School to to Really join in um the the efforts um and all the good things that are happening within the the schools within the isus Unified School District and and I mean yeah I'm I'm just I'm struggling to see why why we would when we're closing schools and needing to to reorganize why why there would be a new school that that that's open and and if and if that new school um yeah I'm I'm I'm just I'm just really really struggling and and uh to to to see a pathway where where it would it would make sense to move forward with um with this petition yeah so I I really want to add that um the district did try right to open up a m dual language Merion program um I guess that also sets a lot of a limitation of a teacher the resource teacher that you can find that can teach in this dual language program and the experience the directors who can help to establish the program so I think the key is really the flexibility of of not I'm when I say flexibility doesn't means they don't meet the requirements of the credentialing requirement to to teach in a public school education right so so it's really um the the resource of the teachers that I'm willing to work with um the to hire the international teachers um to be the model of a 5050 that requires um two teachers co- te two classes so one teacher will be the Ming teacher the other teacher will be the English teacher or or I can say target language teacher um so so then the Nate the both teacher are the native speakers of their language right those are the very key of to make the 50/50 program successful so so that's the reason I say we need to um as as a charter school we tend to have that flexibility um that we able to invest and to hire the teachers who qualify to as a credentialing program the credentialing requirement by the CTC um and then we can uh work with the international teachers uh to um teach in our program so that's the key here thank you any further questions board member benos I'm sorry can can I just please ask board president I I really would like a five minute break I I'm so sorry if possible I think we need to continue I'm sorry okay then I'm going to excuse myself the consens and I will be back thank you I didn't want to miss it but you keep going we're good okay Ben yeah um I'm going to share some thoughts that I put on paper so first off I would like to to take this opportunity to thank the topnotch steam Academy team and Miss Christina Shu for submitting the Char School petition I can see a lot of time and work went into putting the information together at the same time I would also like to thank thank our staff and superintendent Ortega for their hard work time and comprehensive review and Analysis of the petition details as part of my review process and in examining all the material presented to the Board of Education my goal was to keep an open mind regarding the petitioner's request and similarly I had to recall the importance and priorities of our student Community their goals our goals as a district and how to evaluate the impacts of a charter school at this point in time Upon Our student community and the district's budget although I kept an open mind concerns became evident I will share a few concerns regarding the petition itself that are questionable for example the petition lacks d details as we heard here tonight um the petition lacks details in many of the required elements presented in the petition such as programming implementation student enrollment teacher credentialing average daily attendance rate and the lack of advertising and Outreach to Hispanic students given the fact that our district is 91.6% Hispanic and the methods for determin determining eligibility for special ed students and L long-term financing for the success of the charter school to name a few I also have concerns regarding the student recruitment strategy and process as it runs entirely counterproductive to serving a balance of student subgroups reflective of the district's population the district also the petition also presents a flawed instructional design and reveals insufficient planning and preparation to support the staffing needs of the school when fully implemented further it is clear that the petition lacks insufficient information regarding how how the petitioner will integrate the various components into the design in the short future and meaningfully address the educational and other needs of students enrolled in the charter school for example how will they appropri appropriately staff school with qualified experienced teachers and provide and provide professional development although we've heard some proposals tonight um I also I I continue to have a concern because I I feel the district also shares that same concern how would we reach that pool of credential um Mandarin English teachers more important I became overly anxious to see the lack of information as to how the charter school anticipated revenues and budget costs to ensure the fiscal stability and solvency of the school in the short and long-term Future these are only some of the many concerns and or omissions that undermine the soundness of the petition and providing an exceptional educational program and fiscally sound of Charter School within our district as you can see the petition lacks viable information I believe we are a district with Forward Thinking With A Forward Thinking Vision that has a dee rooted commitment to provide outstanding deliverables on a day-to-day basis as we help our students achieve their highest potential for success now and in the future I would encourage those who have not read The District's response to the petitioner to read it at your leisure the district's response is an has been posted on the District web page since December 4th I also think it would be shortsighted of the district not to Recon the district not to consider entertaining the following um the district should consider re-evaluating the district's capacity to once again reintroduce a Mandarin English dual language immersion model into our district one I would also encourage to the district to survey students teachers and parents regarding the need for a Mandarin English dual language emerging model I would also like to encourage the district that during coffee with the principal um superintendent Round Table Community circles and things of that nature that our staff as parents what they know and what they think about the Mandarin English tool immersion model this way the district can get an idea if if they know about it or what they know or the lack of knowledge uh I would also encourage the district to develop better Outreach efforts to reach parents and the community as a whole regarding this full starter Pro proposed startup programs such as this program being discussed here tonight I would also encourage the district to talk about this at the City Council meetings when this superintendent provides his updat so the community as a whole is hearing um the needs or maybe proposals that the school is working on and I know that Mr Orga does that now but it seems like there's this is something that's been on the table for a long time I would also encourage the district to continue to work with the city to get the word out all that being said it is critical to consider the timing of the petition we just finished closing six schools and continue to work through the merging of the schools which remain open and the fact that the Board of Education most recently began working on the Surplus properties and is in the process of evaluating the disposition of those properties it is not a decision we collectively make overnight I believe there is a time and a place for every decision be it in our schools in our homes or in our personal life I believe we can not work in haste to make decisions that appear and sound fruitful yet lack critical data to prevent calls in the future I leave you with this quote by Charles Spurgeon The Waiting itself is beneficial to us it tries Faith exercises patient trains submission and endear a blessing when it comes thank you yes Dr B thank you board president um I will try to be brief in in my comments um I hope that an outcome of this evening is that we can take as a school district and as a city and as a larger community that we can take a Quantum Leap into a more robust concept of unity and Community um it is to me disheartening uh when we talk about a north south divide um it's something that I have felt in my own residency being relatively new to isua and I think that whenever you chose to be part of the zuza community whether that's six Generations ago whether that's you are um from indigenous people that have been on the land since the beginning of the continent or whether you are a newcomer that moved here because of jobs opportunity um I think it's really important to continue the dialogue and say that we are all aans just because we are here together and we have all made that choice to be here so I hope that as part of this dialogue that we can again take that Quantum Leap into actively promoting unity and recognizing that we're all here for a variety of reasons for a variety of time and that that as human beings we have we're all in the same Level Playing Field and deserve all the same equal opportunities for our children for our parents for our community um before my children were school age I did attend as a resident as a protective I attended the uh dual immersion Outreach interest meetings that adverti both English and Mandarin programs and this is my my personal anecdote um it was hard and and I am not uh a mandarin speaker I know enough to just enough to be dangerous I know slightly more in Spanish um my my U native tongue is English and when I attended those meetings um they were um held in English and Spanish and all of the materials were both in English and Spanish and so I as I think we are hearing more interest in Outreach to uh the Mandarin speaking Community um I want to Advocate that materials are and translators and interpreters are readily available so that that if and when we have a ground swell or even two three five families that are monolingual Mandarin speakers that come to the district for any type of question or information seeking that we're able to receive them in a way that's dignified and that we provide to all families um I'm just saying I'm not saying we don't do it but I encourage us to do more and and with that um in some of in some of my work in education um I am encouraging you Mr Orga and and your staff of um excellent Educators to look at the promoto model of trusted advisors as a way to increase our Collective cultural competence in engaging with Asian Community here in isua I think who is doing the talking and the asking and that relationship matters and uh it all begins with conversation and conversations begin with language um and an understanding of one's um cultural and ethnic Heritage so I encourage us to look at that as we expand our footprint in communities um and also communities and and also as we advertise and make current families aware of new programs um as we have adopted uh new programs we're capitalizing on new grants preschool Community Schools it is our responsibility to get that information out there it is not the responsibility of the public to dial into a meeting so that they can find out it's our responsibility as public servants to push it out to families and residents in every way possible and in that respect I don't think there's any possible way that we could overc communicate that and those are my my comments board president any further discussion I I yes I just you know I I wanted to also thank csca for for being here um they're strong supporters as well of all our children and I want to thank you uh for being here and being passionate uh and standing for what you guys also believe and so thank you for that that is all thank you oh I'm so sorry I no I'm I'm good okay hearing none I would like our legal council to explain to the board the options for voting on this petition so that both the board and the public are clear on any action taken by the board Miss Locker can you please come to the podium oh yeah thank you thank you board president yes so so tonight you have an option to approve the petition and under the Education Code you do not need to make written factual findings if the board collectively you know votes to approve the petition document um so you could approve the requested five-year term that was set out in that document or an alternative year or alternative term not to exceed five years your other option would be to deny the petition and so before you and as posted on the agenda there is a draft resolution 23249 and that includes uh an attached exhibit that is reflecting the staff report of the proposed findings effect so by virtue of adopting that resolution to deny you would be effectively denying the petition but you would be also incorporating or adopting the the findings of fact that are listed in that document as your own does that make sense so the board in order to let me just clarify in order to deny a petition you must make written factual findings one or more legal grounds for denial the staff report that was posted on December 4th and a copy of which is included as an exhibit IIT to that resolution includes those listed findings effect as proposed by staff so if the board were to vote to adopt that resolution 23249 including those findings of fact you would be effectively adopting um the resolution to deny with those findings of Acts supporting that decision to deny the board may choose to include additional findings or alternative findings however those would need to either be read into the record or written down those are not within the resolution itself so I will share one other less used option which is called a conditional approval or an approval with conditions that is not something that is set out in the Education Code but other agencies have used it before but what I would share is that that's typically where the petition is largely comprehensive and meets legal requirements but there's just some technical amendments that need to be addressed which could happen via a memorandum of understanding or things of that nature so that is a possibility however when there is a petition that has substantial deficiencies or omissions or problems that would not be an advisable route to take I just wanted to share that with you because that has been done in the past however again it's typically for more non-substantive issues that are identified in the petition that could be easily corrected um after the fact so those would be the three options available to the board any board members have any questions M Locker just for for clarity sure um you started off by saying uh one option is to approve correct the charter so in essence that means if somebody if that's if that's the will of of a board member or board member the first step is to then vote no on the resolution there would need to be a motion so a board member can make a motion and there could be a second on that motion if that motion is to vote to approve the petition and there's a second and a vote is called and that that carries then that would be to approve the petition got it if there is a motion to adopt resolution 23249 a vote of yes would mean that you are taking action to deny the petition a vote of no just means you're not voting to deny the petition that does not mean that you're approving it that's not the default what would happen there is that if that didn't carry the board would still need to take action in some manner in other words you have to affirmatively approve the petition or affirmatively deny the petition and again that resolution as proposed by staff is presented to you for your use if you so choose to use it any further questions so I have a a motion on the floor well yeah I I I move that we adopt resolution 23249 uh to deny the petition I second the motion motion by board member buau second by board member benas having a motion and a second will now we will not vote due to the nature of the importance of this tonight's topic I would like to take roll call as a vote board member Bo yes board member adanes yes board member G yes board member benas yes and I'm a yes motion passes 5 the public the public hearing on the topnotch academy charter petition is now close at 9:59 do I have a motion on the floor uh for adjournment second first by board member Adis second by board member Greer see none I mean both hand yes yes yes yes hand thank you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we are now adjourned just

welcome to the December 19th 2020 oh um it's all good uh welcome to the December 19th 2023 regular meeting of the an arbor Planning Commission for detailed information meeting procedures please review the full printed meeting agenda provided M Kelly will you please call the role yes noting that Commissioners Aban and S will be absent this evening along with council member dish commissioner Lee here commissioner we here commissioner Mills here commissioner hamers Schmidt here commissioner Weatherby here commissioner Clark you have a quorum thank you uh moving on to item number three approval of the agenda may I have a motion please to approve uh moved by commissioner Mills and seconded by commissioner White all those in favor please say I I I motion carries uh may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the December 5th 2023 moved by commissioner hamers Schmid and seconded by commissioner Mills all those in favor of is there any discussion of the minutes just sure just a um a typo on on the uh second section of the document where it says to look at the or please review to the video recording it just cuts off at please review and there should have been a a continuation of that and if you give me a minute cuz you're moving really fast I could oh yeah find it in the document yeah yeah no of course um tell you exactly where it is while he's pulling that up any other discussion of a minutes we'll um all right it's page six okay under Section 9B under commission discussion it says commission the commission took into consideration the proposed requests and discuss the matter further and then in Brackets it says for a complete record of the discussion comma please and then it breaks off so if it just continues there but we can approve it with that correction absolutely we can make that correction if M perfect uh all those in favor I I uh motion carries uh we're moving on to section number five next ups are reports of the Planning Commission and written communication um Council dish being present Mr Leonard hi do you have a new report I do Hello uh we had an active city council meeting uh last night uh there were several items relative to the Planning Commission I wanted to show progress on one is first reading was approved for uh a modification of two personal solar energy systems to provide more flexibility for those to be located in front yard setback requirements and that they would no longer be subject to the Mr Leonard we can't hear you sorry I think it was when Mr Leo was joining if you could yes we can please continue thank you yeah no problem uh so uh after in addition to solar energy system modifications uh amendments to the office District to create the used Banquet Hall as well as some clarification between veterinary services and aborting services uh approved on first reading uh the proposed Plymouth Road tc1 rezoning was approved however there was a modification um eight Parcels that the Planning Commission had added to that have been removed by the city council that was based on the conclusion that they had to be noticed uh at the Planning Commission rather than being added at the table um my apologies that was uh during that discussion I indicated that I thought that that would be adequate so if the Planning Commission is interested in pursuing those that would require additional action uh those were the uh PUD properties on Green Road uh that were added to that the rest of the parcels were approved on first reading and then two approvals were completed uh second reading and uh uh final approval of the site plan and rezoning for the village of Ann Arbor uh site plan amendments adding 120 addition units those reach conclusion um at the city council meeting um I think you all received a communication um I do want to acknowledge that uh commissioner so is not uh in attendance and has resigned from the commission just from a staff perspective I really appreciate her um contributions over the time uh on the commission um definitely going to be missed um hope she's feeling better soon and I also want to acknowledge uh one of our uh staff members will be appearing at at his last Planning Commission uh this evening uh city planner Chris changen is going to be retiring uh from the city early next year uh so this is going to be uh I anticipate his last uh appearance formally before the Planning Commission um Chris has been with the department for over 26 years um an absolute uh uh between him and recently uh retired Jeff Khan losing a lot of um institutional memory and experience in the city um but um I I just for Chris he's always been somebody who's willing to step in um uh volunteer take on projects and I um I definitely will miss having him around so um if you get an opportunity uh um make sure you um get all of your uh questions out to him tonight because you won't get many more opportunities thank you thank you and again another thank you to commissioner salv for her service as well as Mr Chang uh do other commissioner officers or Liaisons have anything to report written Communications are included in today's packet we're going to move on to agenda number six which is public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about an issue that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission then we'll uh call on remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star 9 if lift sting by phone or use the raised hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please call 877- 853 5247 and enter meeting ID 1226 City staff will select callers whove raised their hands using the last three digits of their phone number or by name of available and you'll hear an automated announcement saying that the host is allowing you to speak so when speaking please move to a quiet area mute any background sound sound so that we can hear you clearly and for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time Mr Garber good to see you thanks CH I wasn't going to speak but as I strolled in I heard the news that commissioner Sal has resigned from the Planning Commission and uh I'm kind of shocked and dismayed to hear this um you know she's been a consistent Progressive voice on commission and uh I will personally um you know miss her presence here and um you know I can only wish her well um and I will also miss U Mr Chang's very professional uh work on staff on you know different petitions uh I give him I I respect him a lot as well so two big losses tonight just wanted to comment on that um thank you thank you Mr Garber would anyone else present like to speak this is on items that is not listed on the agenda seeing no one else do we have remote speakers I do not currently see any hands raised Mr chair give it a few more seconds okay uh we will close this public comment we will have a chance to do public comment on those agenda items each so um we'll go on to agenda number seven public hearing scheduled for next business meeting staff the next regular meeting and the only meeting in January for this body will be on January 16th there is a returning item it was already noticed and it was postponed that's the street vacation for 2845 um I believe I South State planner de Leo I'm looking at you it's yeah okay I have I just wrote South Street that's not right um and there are no additional public hearings scheduled for your next business meeting so it should be a light agenda we had one possible public hearing but uh they weren't quite ready perfect thank you we're going to move on to section 8A which is unfinished business this is amendment to the chapter 55 of the unified development code Transportation impact analysis requirements and review criteria the unified development code amendments this is amending chapter 55 sections 5.29.18 n.6 related to the traffic or Transportation impact analysis requirements review criteria um this is amendments to that section 5.2 9.8 required plan information paragraph e trans uh Transportation impact analysis and section 5.2 29.6 site plans paragraph e criteria for review of a traffic impact analysis the staff recommendation is approval so we'll move on to staff presentation uh yes and we have on hand uh planner de Leo uh who will be guiding us through the staff report and also we are joined by Cynthia readinger uh civil engineer in our transportation group uh who has graciously joined us to help provide additional perspective ask any um technical burning questions that you all have about this amendment and I will hand it over in whenever you are ready planner de Leo thank you for bearing with me I feel a little bit like a hot mess over here um your mic is a little low all right um full screen and screen sharing to here share that see did it follow all right looking better all right uh thank you very much these are proposed um this is a proposed amendment to the unified development code AS mentioned it is um two amendments to section 529 in subsections point8 and six these are related to our transportation impact analysis requirements and review criteria uh we first staff we first talked to the um ordinance revisions committee about this in the summer um and we uh prepared a diagnosis and an outline of what the issues were um in very high level summary our unified development code refers to um transportation impact analyses we refer to um traffic um and these are fairly outdated um terminology um and we are and we proposed a series of amendments to to modernize and also reflect what our staff is currently asking for specifically we ask for multimodal transportation impact analyses and we when we talk about um we don't talk about just traffic but we talk about transportation we talk about pedestrians non-motor Transportation as well as vehicular Transportation um we are putting forth tonight um two amendments uh three were were conceptually discussed but we are um putting forth two tonight these are relatively small and easier fixes um that don't take um a lot of analysis and will provide um an incredible amount of bank for our buck we will be being clear about what our expectations are for site plan submitt requirements and we will be um clear about what are expectations for review criteria the um the component that it would be missing would be the standards for site plan approval adding those adding any standards related to Traffic impact multimodal traffic impact analyses to our site plan standards we'll try to tackle that at a later date it would require a more robust conversation discussion it will require some policy decisions let me get back to my staff report again the hot mess situation um this is not the staff report that I I'm going to stop sharing for a second while you pull that up just a reminder that was a cover sheet to just remind the commission that this item had a a small uh typo unfortunately we felt like it was significant enough that we've Ren noticed because it was a change in number for the section uh the UDC that would be adjusted so the staff report that was included in your packet on 125 is the one that we'll be reviewing tonight how am I doing Alexis great thank you yeah perfect that's what I thought all right and just a second here we go should go to all right I'm going to take these proposed amend so now I'll talk about the actual proposed amendments and I'll take them out of order um because out of order they are arranged in order of the unified development code but they are not I think in the most logical order for discussions first we are proposing an amendment to section uh 529.com so as I mentioned we are already asking um applicants to provide a multimodal transportation impact analysis following updated methodology and our proposed amendment is simply to state that to strike the language right now that talks about better our proposed amendment is to strike the current language and say that site plans that propos to generate more than three trips per unit per peak hour or 50 trips per peak hour shall provide a multimodal transportation impact analysis consistent with the 2023 Institute of Transportation Engineers multimodal Transportation impact analyses um we are also proposing uh language that specifically address area plans asking that information provided um on for specific criteria so the magnitude of the rezoning will be um can be be understood and we are proposing to strike then the the following language that provides um unclear requirements we don't need to repeat what the transportation impact analysis should include when it's already in the it manual this makes it confusing about which takes precedence um over then the second amendment that we are proposing um is to section 529 6E the criteria for view of a traffic impact analysis we propose to add the word multimodal and then switch the references from traffic or parking to multimodal Transportation um in the packet is our staff report plus our proposed amendments and the diagnosis and um commentary that was provided to the ordinance revisions committee back in the summer also joining us by Zoom is um transportation engineer Cynthia readinger um I think that will conclude my staff presentation but I am more than than happy to answer any followup or clarification questions questions and I'm sure Cynthia is as well thank you Miss Leo we're going to move on to public hearing this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about this item we'll first call on individuals here to address the commission then remote participants um to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star I and is listening by phone or use the race hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please call 87 7853 5247 and enter meeting ID 977 6634 And1 1226 City staff will select callers that have raised your hand using the last three digits of the phone number or by name if available you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area um and mute any background sound so we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of the comments and is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time regarding the amendment to Transportation multimodal analysis seeing no one do we have anybody any remote participants we do Adam Goodman you have permission to address the commission for three minutes hi Adam Goodman 4005 Avenue I sent a message to the ordinance revisions commission committee uh back in the summer when this was first coming up um with a few concerns I'll I'll try to get through them here as well the first and and sort of most foundationally I'm not a transportation engineer but I've read commentary from some folks including luminaries like Donald CH which basically suggest that the methodologies from The Institute for transportation Engineers or it that we're we're using here both in the old version of this ordinance as well as the new the proposed changes but but they're basically junk science um and you know that these are these sort of prescribed trip generation rates are based on limited data or statistical significance and the entire premise that land uses are the only thing that generate create uh trips is is a little bit problematic about given all we know about how you know the the design of the built environment itself IND is what sort of induces or creates demand as well um the new methodology is maybe still better than the old one in terms of achieving our City's goals because at least it does consider the needs of of bikes and pedestrians and nonmotorized users um on on that front I'm a little bit concerned that we're still talking about you know even multimodal level of service still seems like it would include veh vehicular level of service to me and I would like for us to stop considering vehicular level of service at all because we have a goal in the city to reduce vehicle miles traveled by 50% you know if if developments are going to continue leading us to to widen roads then that's counter to our counter to our goals um I I would also note that you know one other thing I've I've heard about these uh Transportation impact analyses is that they're quite burdensome for developers so um I actually spent a fair bit of time uh over the last day or two reading the economic development report that the city just released was attached to the city council agenda last night um I would recommend everybody all of you read that as well it's actually a fantastic document and it it addressed this this particular this very question that we're discussing tonight um kind of on two points one was it did recommend approving these changes because they're more in line with their City's goals but also it said that we should decouple uh Transportation impact analyses and several other sort of technical detailed uh planning processes from site uh so that developers don't have to do all of this before even getting to have an approved site plan and um doesn't look like we're considering that tonight I hope we will in the future thank you for your comments your time is up our next caller is sh you have permission to address the Planning Commission for 3 minutes hello how's everyone doing today um I am reading the agenda as public comments persons may speak for 3 minutes about an item that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda please state your name and address for the record my name is Samuel Hayes and I live in in Michigan but I do I'm sorry to interrupt you I just wanted to let you know that the time to speak on a item that's not listed on the agenda has actually transpired and right now we are on the public hearing for amendments to Transportation impact analysis requirements you can make a comment it then I'll be silent thank you so much okay there is another opportunity to speak at the end of the agenda I appreciate it thank you you're welcome there are no other hands raised Mr chair thank you with that I'm going to read the proposed motion which is the an arbor City Planning Commission recommends that the mayor and city council approve the amendments to the chapter 55 unified development code in sections 5.

PM Tuesday December 19th 20123 and I call this this meeting of the Board of Education to order Cindy would you please call the role yes M pres here hilber pres gonzale Thomas sliger present arandu here thank you next I would invite Aaron to lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance 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 um are there any items to add a remove from the agenda no sir no okay well our first thing is one of our favorite things to do is celebrate a success so um as our celebration this month we'd like to recognize Chris low um will you please make your way to the podium sir Chris has served is a member of the BPS 101 Board of Education from April 2015 till April 2023 and recognition of his dedication to inclusivity and fostering dialogue about Equity within the committee the Illinois state board of education has awarded Chris low the prestigious Thomas lay Burrows award for 2023 this esteemed award recognizes Schoolboard members who have made outstanding contributions and have shown commitment to educational equity and Community engagement during his eight-year term as school B board member Chris Champion the importance of Civic engagement amplifying Community Voices his effort have left a lasting impact on the BPS 101 district and Beyond on behalf of the BPS 101 Board of Education congratulations Chris on your recognition would you please share a few things of your thoughts and what this honor has meant to you sir probably surprising no one I have prepared thoughts um the last few weeks have been surreal for those that know me I'm not a huge fan of the spotlight and it is especially disconcerting to hear things hear people say good things about me I keep waiting to hear the butt however I'm okay with this one because I don't view this as my award I didn't do this by myself this is something we did as a community I've always prided myself on my willingness to hear and understand the concerns of others I believe this understanding is foundational to building Community I spent most of my experience as a community and Schoolboard member encouraging people to use their voice I taught them about the chain of command I encouraged them to learn how to have their voices heard I tried to bring those with common goals and concerns together so they could support one another I did everything I could to teach them how the system works and how to enact systemic change I emphasize their voices were important I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the amazing relationships and conversations I've made and had with community members here are just a few examples if Tim danowski hadn't approached me about the Watchdog program I wouldn't have been able to help bring the program to our schools had students such as Killian Isabella and Martin not approached the board about lgbtqia plus bigotry and racism I probably would have remain blissfully unaware of the suffering occurring under the surface of our often idelic appearing Town had Scott Naylor not introduced me to Amber jersa I would have continued to believe I was alone in this fight within the district a few years later she's the North Suburban teacher of the year and I'm here as the State Board member of the year that doesn't happen without that introduction there are many many other examples I'm not including that have led to this moment I am here because of the amazing folks who have risked their own personal Comfort to build a movement while progress may not be where we would like it we have built the foundations of something that can transform our district and our town I have learned a lot over the last few years especially when it comes to equity work tonight I'd like to share some of those things I've learned my hope is others can use the same methods to continue the important Community Building work first I apologize if this is long-winded but it is our responsibility to use our privilege and power whenever possible to protect the oppressed and those without power that includes when you have a captive audience and you receive an award when we remain silent we are complicit if we don't speak up we allow it to happen use your voice use your wallet always try to protect the innocent always question those with power I've learned Equity work is difficult work it will drain you both physically and mentally it will enrage you and leave you in tears as a volunteer in our community I have spent hundreds of hours sitting on Sidelines coaching and in meetings I feel a personal connection to many of the families and the children I've seen grow up yet as a black man I have seen kids and adults who I thought I had a mutual respect and admiration for commit blatant acts of racism and bigotry it feels as though our shared experiences meant nothing to them these moments can leave you confused angry and ready to give up pace yourself take care of yourself this is a marathon not a Sprint be patient consistent and firm but be kind trust me when I say it will take you to unexpected places I would never have guessed this is where I'd be when I first volunteered at hooverwood school as a stay-at-home parent I've learned Equity work requires us to work on both society and ourselves one of the most difficult things for me to accept was the knowledge that I have contributed and continue to contribute to systemic oppression and white supremacy I a black man in America trying to do the right thing and I am still part of the problem every day I make decisions that lead to the oppressions of others it is not intentional it happens when we participate in the system try to be aware of the consequences of your actions when you see you're causing harm try to do better if you can't ask yourself why that is I've learned we must seek out the voices that are not being heard if you have power chances are you know the opinions of those who are always in the room where decisions are being made how are those decisions impacting those who are not there if you don't know the concerns of those you serve how can you properly represent them our systems are designed to oppress those without power it is designed to silence those without power I believe it is Our obligation to protect and empower the vulnerable we do that by going out of our way to listen and hear their stories their truth support them on their Journey make certain those voices are heard better yet get them in the room where the decisions are being made representation matters I've learned we must use relationships we create to build coalitions when I began this journey I began because of the pain I was seeing from our children based on their emails and their comments at board meetings I knew they were suffering from many of the same problems I experienced as a child I decided it was time for me to use my privilege and power to help them at first I felt I was fighting alone I was isolated frustrated angry and things felt hopeless I felt all I saw was pain and everyone with power wanted to ignore it others as others began to hear and support me I was able to share the burden others were able to share their stories and experiences we were able to create and build spaces where we could safely learn grow and organiz organiz aone voice is easily ignored together we can't be silenced together we can Tear Down the Walls of systemic oppression and Empower our youth to create a more optimistic future for everyone a question I am often asked and was just asked yesterday by our state representative is how do we know if we're being successful I've got two answers for that first is the data driven response to know if you're making progress you need to have clearly defined goals and trackable metrics attached to these goals we know our district is overidentifying Children of color for special education we have specific data that demonstrates our students of color perform significantly worse on standardized tests we know 75% of our black students are in the bottom quarter on SAT scores we should use the data we know and collect the data we need Pro to protect the groups we're justifiably concerned about then you have to have a timetable to revisit these goals and a plan to adjust should you not make the progress you anticipated this typically means those making the changes need both power and a budget second and this is a much easier method ask the people you're trying to help if black students are struggling and you change policies to make things better ask those black students if they have seen and felt the changes ask them if their lives have improved let them tell you the changes are having a positive impact good intentions good intentions don't always make policies that are effective I've learned it is one thing to say the right words and say you're an accomplice or Ally it is different to actually do something we know oppressed groups suffer simply by existing what have you risked or sacrificed personally to help the oppressed how have you cast in your privilege for the benefit of those without it if we expect the World to Change we need to demonstrate we're willing to sacrifice and lead the way we need to change our approach and admit our fallibility we need to help develop the next generation of of leaders from students and staff and provide them with the leadership opportunities we need to seek out their voices and let them know how it is influencing our decisions we need to make sure there are leadership of positions available for them when they are ready that may me mean stepping down from a position of power so others can lead so new voices can be heard new ideas tried I sered two terms and intentionally chose not to run for a third term I believe it was time for someone else to have the opportunity I made a deliberate effort to work with community members to find folks who could be potential leaders we provided information ssts on how to run for office what various elected officials did and the obligations required to anyone who is interested we helped them navigate the process for getting on the ballot running a Campa and running a campaign we helped introduce them to voters and educated them on an important issues in our community I am proud to say that after serving as the first black School Board member in bavia history our city replaced me with three candidates of color to the best of my knowledge they are the first to represent their respective groups on the school board and possibly within our community thank you for having the courage to run and be strong enough candidates to win the support of our community I am confident you will continue serving them all well and lastly I've learned Equity work is not passive work we must be proactive if we expect there to be changes doing nothing supports the status quo which we know is built on oppression everyone has something to offer it is our responsibility to use our skills and privilege to ensure all of our children have access to what they need to thrive we must be the example they deserve to see with that in mind I want to leave you with two quotes from James Baldwin the first if one really wishes to know how Justice is administered in a country one does not question the policemen the lawyers the judges or the protected members of the middle class one goes to the unprotected those precisely who need the laws protection most and listens to their testimony and second those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it thank you thank you Chris appreciate all the work and effort you did one thing I was going to say that I I personally learned because I came on the board while you were on it already is one thing about you that I I picked up is it's never about me it's always about we with you you always do the right thing you always try to forge a path forward might be hard but you you know you're doing what's right for you and what's right for others at the same time so thank you so appreciate that okay next public comments welcome to the Board of Education if anyone wishes to address the board this evening please hear our recording secretary to submit a form for addressing the board please put your full name and address on the form in general the board will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment this does not mean we do not take your concerns or comments seriously the board values active Community participation in the district Endeavors and encourages people to engage with the district using appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district and cannot engage in District business individually if you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district you may submit your questions using the link on the website and appropriate St St member will communicate with you our BPS 101 communication manager Holly dman will now explain the procedures for public comment and call up the first speakers that I assume we have thank you president Meadows we have two today uh speakers will be called up in order of form submission the first form received is the first person invited to speak when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard all individual speaking will be limited to 3 minutes as you can see there is a timer already displayed up on the screen and we'll start as soon as you're settled at the podium at any time during this meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary Cindy Rodriguez at my right speakers should conduct themselves with Civility and respect towards everyone in this room our first speaker is marann neerman hi I'm Maran neerman and I work at Rolo Middle School for the support staff I had no intentions of being here tonight so I'm not really very prepared to speak but it was brought to my attention that we're going to vote on Outsourcing the placement of some PA professionals or something really don't know much about it but I do know that I guess we're going to pay him like 60 plus some thousand dollars of taxpayer funded money to put these people in a position through the end of May I think so it's a short-term fix on a problem that's been in this district for years we've had a problem with getting people to work for our district for years and it might be because we're paying him to start out $424 an hour now keep in mind this agency that we're they're going to vote on approving we're going to pay an agency 60 some thousand it's my understanding and I could be wrong because I literally found out about it today to employ a two to three employees okay so 60 some thousand employee couple employees keep in mind if you go directly to District you're to make $4 and 24 cents an hour so it doesn't lead much you know to the imagination as to why we can't find people to work here right I've worked for the district over 16 years and I don't even make $16 an hour but we're going to allow a person to come in here and work for an agency step in to a par professional position and make make probably more than I make a lot of talk about Equity just now and I am a reasonable person and I am open to any feedback that somebody can come and bring to me to help me to see this as an equitable proposition for the existing employees support staff at Roto middle school or I guess the district um I'm a fortunate person my husband has a job makes a good living so I am not one of those people that are doing it because they need need it but there's a lot of people out there that need the money and $142 24 an hour isn't very Equitable I know a lady that works in the district she's been working here 22 years she makes $27,000 a year but we're going to give an agency $660,000 to put a couple people in place to fix a problem for five months so what are we going to do in August when August rolls around it's my understanding those people it's a shortterm contract May it's over with August comes around we're going to have the same problem what are we going to do you think they're going to negotiate it for $60 some thousand I wouldn't if I were them they know we're in a not very good position right so we're going to allow these people to come in and pay people that have zero loyalty to our district we have a lady that's been there 22 years and she makes $27,000 an now so there's a lot of the morale is just a little bit in the tank right now people try to stay upbeat there's a lot of good relationship with the students there I question the relationship that these people that are going to have a f Monon contract with our district are have with those people with the students and aren't we here for the students really aren't we here for the interest of the students I find it hard to believe that this is going to end in five months and that they're going to be able to develop those relationships thank you next we have Tracy gayus um I am my name is Tracy Gus um I used to work at Early Childhood Center um as a par professional um I recently resigned um just to tag along with you due to the pay um it's isn't enough to make a living however that is not my main issue here today my main issue here today is um safety concerns at JB Nelson and also behavioral concerns it also tags along with the prior comment we do not have the resources at JB Nelson to manage the behavioral and safety concerns at the school every day there's five plus needs at that school for Subs I should also say I'm also on the list to be a sub I help out at JB or wherever um and there's just not enough hands there's so many behaviors across the district across I mean the entire United States with kidss I'm sure Co had a a lot of lot to do with it everything else home life whatever we don't always know um but there's just none enough hands we can't get the people and if that's first I've heard of what you were saying um it's a lot of concerns there we've had recently had JB Nelson lots of safety concerns with particular students um every day there's safety concerns things aren't being handled I don't think properly um on the safety behavioral and possibly even the bullying front um and I don't know really what else they add for that I wasn't really prepared to really be here until 30 minutes ago um but yes that's all I really have I think I just want to make it known I need I need it looked into because I'm at that point where I'm either going to pull my kids out or I'm going to I moved here for this district and I'm fed up so that's it yes I made time thank you very much next is our BPS Partners uh Todd with the Bea good evening everyone um before I start um I was just on the way in here I had like a memory flashback so last December was the first time we were formally introduced to Tom and he was here with his wife and his daughters and they were all sitting right here and it kind of shocks me that's been like a whole year ago already but I the one thing I remember is I made a connection to um home alone and you being our John Candy coming in here and like saving the day and so um it was just funny that I had that recollection so again um even though you've only been here I know you count the months and and reflect on how many months you've been in your position we've known you for more than a year now so that's really kind of amazing how time has flown so I just wanted to share that and the rest of my talk for tonight is about Chris low so first off I just wanted to say uh congratulations to Chris in being recognized by not only the State Board of Education for his contributions to the BPS school system while serving as a member of the board of education but more importantly for being recognized by your colleagues and the here tonight your student focused lens rooted in your own experiences with equity and inclusion brought a perspective onto the board that was at times itself underrepresented or misunderstood by those without similar experiences you sought to not only educate those around you but to motivate by your words and your actions thank you for fearlessly speaking your truth standing up when it seemed you might be the only one standing and keeping the lens focused on whose voices weren't being heard and how to support our staff to ensure their needs were met so our students can continue to grow from the Bea Chris you have our respect our gratitude and most importantly our thanks for what you accomplished while you were on the board and for what you will continue to do as a community leader in bavia thank you very much and then that's all I have for my comments tonight so I'm going to wrap it up and just say um I'd like to wish you all a very happy holiday season filled with peace joy and time spent with those that you love make the most of every opportunity that comes your way and have an amazing winter break and I will see you all in 2024 thanks thanks to thanks you're doing okay over there Chris you're doing okay all right next is Laura from Besa hi Laura okay so um it is an honor to introduce to you Mary labau um she is a dedicated special education par professional who has been an invaluable part of BPS 101 Community for the past 20 years her journey is one marked by Passion resilience and an unwavering commitment to help students overcome challenges Mary's career began at Early Childhood Center where where she spent an impressive 15 years in the instructional classroom her profound dedication to the program and the students there was undeniable however five years ago her journey took a new direction as she transitioned to hooverwood elementary school she embraced the role in the K2 developing opportunities also known as do classroom for two years followed by another two years in the three to five grade classroom this current year Mary has returned to the K2 Doo classroom developing opportunities program is a therapeutic instructional program designed for students in kindergarten through fifth grade who experience social emotional challenges that affect their school achievement classroom Behavior social skills and relationships with others the program is divided into two classrooms catering to the different age groups in her personal life Mary is a mother of three grown children each of whom graduated from BPS 101 her children have gone on to pursue diverse and meaningful paths one is a social worker in Alabama another is a third grade teacher at Louise White hi eron and also her son serves as a paramedic firefighter with the West Chicago Fire Department Mary's personal life is equally fulfilling she's been married to husband Greg for the past four and a half years they reside in Geneva they share their lives with her three stepchildren living in Florida and Tennessee and two beloved grandchildren whom they love to spend time with and to spoil together they find joy in attending sporting events country concerts and exploring new places one thing that Mary wishes more people understood is the vital importance of their roles in the programs that they support over the years Mary has witnessed the profound impact she's had on the lives of students parents of the past students often reach out to her sharing stories of the positive influence she's had on their children it is a testament to the dedication and unwavering support that she provides one of the most Cherished Memories throughout Mary's career has been witnessing students who graduated from self-contained do program thriving in the general education classroom this transition represents the ultimate success of the program and the students it serves however there is one aspect that Mary feels should change the compensation for par professionals after dedicating two decades of her life to BPS 101 Mary is currently making $20 and 61 cents for 20 years of service she believes there should be recognition and compensation for the years of service within the district particularly given the intensity and physical demands of her role dealing with challenging behaviors including scratching spitting kicking hitting punching biting are just a few that can be part of a daily routine for the par professional yet Mary and her colleagues persevere because they believe in the program and are committed to helping students succeed in closing Mary is more than a special education par professional she is an advocate a mentor and an inspiration her unwavering commitment to students and her desire to see them Thrive is evident in her dedication to her work her story is one of compassion resilience and the pursuit of excellence and education thank you for your outstanding service Mary you Laura according to our board policy we designate a p in the agenda as consent agenda for those items that are usually are usually repetitive and do not require extensive discussion before board action do committee reports oh yeah sorry thank you my vice president reminded me we need to do committee reports I jumped right over it I'm sorry anybody have committee reports for today Danielle did you have one yeah okay let me find gives everybody a chance to exit where' everyone go don't take it personally Chris doesn't want to sit through this yeah right he's like did it long enough what the heck time okay no it's okay um plaque met on November 16th I was not in attendance but from a notes um it seems that they've begun to strategize and produce their preliminary professional development planning with listing goals they'll continue with discussion and revision at the next meeting um discussion at the next meeting will also include BPS bpsu and its offerings that next meeting is scheduled for January 25th um Equity met on December 7th and the commune it definitely is having really productive conversations it's it's really exciting to hear them come together um the the last meeting kind of went over their priorities and focus of the group discuss what's going well what's not going well um within the district and there was honest and encouraging discussion behind that which was really nice to hear you know you have different points of views and everyone give allows the space and kind of feedback um there was a bit of time taken to find a way to bring the student voice to the group a lot of that was Logistics and what will feel comfortable for the kids we talk about equ Equity within the kids whether they can uh come to Something in person stream in what will they feel comfortable and safe with um so there's a lot of that to consider so um I think the next meeting will continue that conversation and I that will enable them to really decide what to focus on they want to hear student voices since everything is for the kids and decide what the main focuses are because I mean it's a long list of obviously different things but um they'll continue that conversation the next meeting is on February 1st I don't have as complete a report as that uh the insurance committee met and um I'll just say say we uh shared some good cheer and we reflected upon the past year and discussed uh the work ahead uh and so the next meeting will uh I'll probably have a little more substance as far as topics of discussion did I miss anything Tony that covers it okay not a comence that covers it Rob um I I don't have too much to share I I did uh attend the the last curriculum committee meeting and um was more listening and observing and learning um during that process so um getting the feet wet and getting going on it so it's a big topic yeah I just want to draw attention to the on on the BPS 101 website the stiping committee has a nice new page created there um it's really uh transparent helps with the knowledge I'd say covers the purpose statement the scope of their responsibilities DET telling the contract uh agreement also their guiding values and uh if you want to learn about the application process there's a nice Ro map explaining everything so it's really nice well done website or I should say page on our website it's underneath the groups section on the B website that's it all right uh rack meets later this week Thursday Thursday so uh we'll have an update at the next one can I go to consented J okay thank you sir all right according to a board policy we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion before bared action these items are generally retained recurring and can be grouped together for efficiency Steve would you like to share anything before we take action I don't know why I asked that as a question I will happily share oh thank you thank you sir the consent agenda with you uh 5.1 is the approval of the meeting minutes from November 14th 2023 5.2 is our monthly uh Personnel report 5.3 is our monthly payroll and bills uh 5.4 is our donations if you click into that there were four different donations um all sizable and appreciated from uh bavi Arts Council David and Alice verelli office dep Depot and beefy uh 5.5 is our board member expenses 5.6 is the approval to renew our student photography contract 5.7 is our special education contracts 5.8 is the approval of the 2425 academic calendar 5.9 um is the curricular material display which is right outside and 5.10 is the approval of the consent agenda anyone have any questions I um I think it might be appropriate if you wouldn't mind expanding on item five .7 yeah I mean uh I can share Carrie Rue came to uh cabinet um this was a cabinet level decision led by Tom Kim um with uh significant challenges uh at our high school with all of our specialized programs um we have entertained and tried to do a few things over the course of this year to uh get better staff there and we have not had great success um therefore she came to us with a concept cep of um utilizing some uh contracts with some outside agencies uh to give some context over the last few years we've done uh these sorts of contracts to um hire uh various specialized positions like psychologists uh social workers speech pathologists um uh certified School nurses uh all those sorts of things um and to uh meet the needs over at Pavia High School um we have uh brought this contract to you to get a couple of uh par professionals uh Carrie uh when she made this request um and we processed this in cabinet uh it was determined that uh the area of greatest need is bavia High School in addition um you are also going to be approving uh a a couple of uh staff members uh we're shifting kind of the structure of the program um because of a lack of staff and so we're actually hiring additional coach co-teachers um that will start January uh 8th um in an attempt again to uh better serve our kids so that's kind of the backstory of those um we certainly understand um how some may perceive this but uh one Central issue is that we have students who come into our buildings every single day and we need to meet their needs um and be properly staffed and so um we have to make these kinds of decisions I appreciate that I I know we've tried lots of things to get folks in here um so I appreciate it I also wanted to call out then on this Personnel report if I'm not right if I'm not right if I'm wrong there's three pair professionals leaving again in this month yes what are your thoughts on that as far as the need for replacement there we have to take the same route probably not necessarily um I'm not going to get into each individual's unique circumstances um but yeah it's it's anytime we lose uh any staff members in the midst of a school year it's obviously a big concern um we have continued to keep the positions posted um again when we're making decisions about where to allocate staff we really look at the greatest areas of need and uh so I can't necessarily say what will happen uh over at uh two of them I know were at Rolo one in early childhood um Early Childhood uh for whatever reason has been in very very good shape this entire school year with par professionals I think that uh that job um at the Early Childhood might be a little bit more uh appealing um to someone as opposed to working with uh larger students who uh have have maybe more significant needs um so not exactly sure I don't I don't when we uh we worked with our bestas association um on an agreement uh an Mo MOA to uh to to do the special education contracts and I believe we put in there up to four pair professionals um we have two um but like anything it's not like uh the Contracting agency has a list of 25 pair professionals that are available okay um we were actually very happy to scratch out too so we'll have to see where that goes I appreciate also the knowledge of the mo MOA with the with Besa yeah that makes sense it was a question I don't wasn't going to ask cross my mind I ask one other thing does anyone else have anything on on those two I do have feel so are these vacancies will they stay posted and be filled if they're filled then what happens with the contract do we have lots of needs we probably I think we're short 12 to 14 PA pros and so um that was a part of our agreement with Besa was that absolutely we will continue to keep these posted and we will hire as many people as we can I think it's a bit farfetched to think think that we' be replace all of our Paro positions um but certainly if we were able to get a handful of paros then we would allocate um staff uh PA Pros as needed to the greatest areas of need okay and what's the likelihood I I read in there about the um the rate for overtime what is the likelihood of that happening probably very low okay yeah because essentially their day runs you know their regular work day um I can't think of a whole lot of instances where they would be working any overtime um Beyond like an emergency situation where we had like maybe a shelter in place and had to wait several hours to get clearance and and get kids home when those things happen um you know that would be extraordinary unique but that might be something but the the body of their regular work by the nature of the position generally speaking does not require any overtime so just also as a clarification the $62,000 number is a grand total between these two correct I have not done the math but yeah looking at their hourly rates and what we anticipate their work year to be for half of the Year okay and that's a fully loaded rate with whatever they get paid because you're paying through an agency that's not their take-home per se it's their insurance and whatever else the agency covers for them that's the agency fee yeah okay thank you any anything else on this topic did you have another one I just want to throw out there the item 5.8 the academic calendar I peppered these gentlemen with questions about the calendar and there was a lot of really good really thought out um answers to my questions so I feel like it deserves a little bit more credit than just another line item you all put a lot of work into it I saw you worked with the the union members on it as well and um got a lot of insight to it so everything I was like but what about but what about they're like we can't because of this we can't because of that so um I I don't want to be a part of that process so don't ask me thank you all for doing that work with the calendar yeah one of the yes thank you one of the things I learned early on and because the block calendar system at least from my perspective kind of like forces you to have to end things at the high school level before you know Christmas and so that's a lot of what I learned anyway when I was going through this the first couple times that kind of pushes everything in a certain direction as well so but I will say I do concur that now that both of my boys are in college they were well prepared for their college life based on that kind of block schedule Arrangement even though they don't ever use a locker and haven't since middle school so it's different okay any other questions on any other items before I entertain a motion thank you very much I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so move second motion by RJ second by Aaron this an all in favor or we doing roll call uh nope Cindy please leave us in a roll call Vote Yes Yes Meadow yes yes thank you very much motion passes Tom is there anything to share under reports or would you includ share items of are report yeah I'll start with uh for Foya there are no Foya requests to report the and then moving on to our Treasures report yep Treasures report Tony I'm I'm leaping to a conclusion it's going to be you it's yeah um yes it's me and uh nothing out of the ordinary to report the standard investment report and uh revenues and expenditures and fund balances are that okay enrollment projections enrollment projection I will give you some highlights enrollment did decline last year or excuse me this year compared to last year uh and is continued the trend although I it is what's notable is is that we actually have more students enrolled this year than we had otherwise expected given our projection model so as a matter of fact there are more kindergarteners here than we would have otherwise expected that were born in King County and there's a number of reasons why that might be the case we don't exactly know for certain but a lot of it we believe has to do with the housing market there could be some variance of course too in the number of students that happen to be born and reside in bavia U but overall we see that as a good sign there's about 50 more kindergarteners than we would have otherwise expected 50 did you have a question 5 Z 5 Z yeah and they weren't equally peppered across the district where they they are they they they're they don't don't ever show up in uh equal dispersions uh that's never the case they're always clumped and they're usually clumped in the places that you would least have where you have the least room uh so uh but we do hope that you know that's an interesting turn we we do hope that it continues all said however enrollment will continue to decline next year they're just as I like to say we're not manufacturing as many as we used to we graduate classes of over 500 students and there's only about 300 50 or so give or take that are coming in behind them so enrollment obviously goes down then there's not that many students moving into the district in a given year to offset that decline we do believe that given birth rates as they are right now that enrollment will stabilize over the next 5 years at about 5,000 students and the declines that we will see will primarily take place at the high school as those smaller classes enter the high school so this graph that's shown here that yellow bar you see the yellow components of the bar graph getting smaller and smaller those are high school enrollments you can see that roughly speaking the green and blue bars are about the same those are middle school and Elementary School enrollments so um interesting data now can I add I believe that what you referenced that I believe two years ago was the largest graduating class that bavia high school had in its history so that was a spike that we had so that's not the norm to have that many students and it's all downhill from there for the for downhill from there in terms of new enrollments um if you scroll down just a wee bit please Holly this just a breakdown of of who is coming to us when they enroll just a little bit more get to the bottom of this table we'll see that roughly um seven or eight% of the students coming to us that are new have uh IEPs special needs needs 30% low income and 25% um are not necessarily English speakers and so uh what's interesting is those numbers and for non-english speakers are increasing primarily due to what's happening across the world students have different needs and so we keep an eye on those things so that we can continue to um make adjustments so that we meet students needs as they're coming to us and um if you scroll down just to the very bottom Holly there's a blue bar graph right right here or line graph these are the uh the live births in K County over the last 10 years so you can see how much smaller when I say we're not manufacturing as many as we used to we're not you know birth rates were over 9,000 in K County uh 10 years ago and now they're just over 6,300 so things are changing this is the first one though I can remember that there was actually actually a discussion or statement about stabilization yeah right because the talk over years even during the referend and others people were talking about if it's declining declining declining like it's almost like at some point they thought it was going to hit zero right you know so knowing that it's interesting that the language is starting to morph into stabilization is good to know what the future holds is anybody's guessed but you know we're just looking at the trends right all right we can move on to the financial forecast which is the next item on the agenda we also Thunder sorry about that unless there's other questions about the enrollment report it feeds in of course into the financial forecast obviously student enrollment is a key component of our um the resources needed and required to educate students and so that's obviously an important thing in terms of highlights been saying for for several years now um we are in a much better fiscal position than we were uh even 5 years ago uh the the district has a higher credit rating with a standard and poor and we have to maintain credit ratings for our for our bonds so so that individuals or organizations that wish to invest and buy our bonds they have to understand what our credit creditor worthiness is and our ability to repay and so that has improved in recent years and we've also significantly improved our fund balances our fund balances that in the spring we had to issue tax anticipation warrants because we run out of cash we weren't able to make payroll or pay our bills we had to borrow money to make that before the taxes came in looking at all the based on all the assumptions what's happening in the economy and looking at a revenue sources we do believe that budgets will remain balanced until 2028 however in 2029 we anticipate a a deficit and the key drivers of that are increased costs for Staffing it would also um increase costs for purchase Services we rally very heavily in this District on Outsourcing um transportation food service and um custodial and those contracts with the inflationary pressures that we Face elsewhere in the economy are driving those contracts up as well and we also faced uh increased costs and and needs for maintaining our facilities and so we're Bing some of those contributions for maintaining those schools into these into these ections we're in fact increasing them by 15% annually so if all continues on this current Trend you know unless we're very careful uh we are likely to see a a deficit in 2029 um this assumes that we're not hiring any more staff in fact it's assuming that we make some reductions in staff proportional to student enrollments um but it also knows to it does consider uh that the next one of the next big costs that are coming for us is negotiations with besta and uh and increase in terms of uh wages and salaries for individuals in that particular EMB bargaining unit so uh if you scroll down just a little bit Holly we'll see a graphical representation of that please thank you going down you can see this is what's projected you can see the that yellow bar that kind of stretches across that yellow line it stretches across the bars is our fund balance and while it is increasing it the rate of increase slowly tapers off to the point where it actually starts turning downward in the other direction in 29 the blue bars represent revenues the green bars represent expenditures and the blue stands proud over the green until 29 if we scroll down just a little bit more Holly will see the history over the last five years which includes this year and you can see that the with the green bars are much taller than the excuse me the blue bars are much taller than the green bars and the pandemic has been good to us in that sense we avoided a lot of costs during the pandemic we didn't spend as much money on Transportation uh during lockdown a lot of the activities ceased and so there was a lot of things that didn't happen then we also had received a lot of money from the feds to support us and particularly for food service and um responding to the pandemic and the like and now those funds are are going away and those costs are coming back with the the full force of inflation and so you can see that it's changing pretty quickly our essentially our expenditures are growing much faster than our revenues and so we'll need to be careful um and the other thing is is that we cannot expect more money from anybody else other than from local taxpayers unfortunately we're in tier four of the evidence-based funding formula which means that we exceed 100% of funding adequacy for our students needs and so from the stakes the state of Illinois purview we don't need additional money here in Pavia uh and from the feds we will get more money each year from the feds but not anything appreciable basically the bottom line is every new dollar that we have here in bavia is going to come from local property taxpayers that's not a situation that's unique in bavia but it it we definitely feel the pressure here in bavia and we'll talk more about that in a little bit when we talk about the tax levy but that said um you have this slide in here that we were looking at with the breakdown of the 82% is that that's coming that comes up in the um we'll talk about that in the tax levy but yes 81% of all of our Revenue comes from local property tax payers yes I'd happy to answer any questions that you have about the financial forecast then at this time it would appear thanks toy I I'll just say it looks good I mean when you start getting out five or six years I'm guessing five years ago when you did this forecast you didn't anticipate what have a pandemic and so things are going to happen that we can't foresee exactly so it's good to go out that far but it's just sort of like it's important to see where the Contour it's where the trends are going but you're good but you're not that good so yeah he's close he's close I'm just saying like obviously it's concerning to say we might have a deficit 2029 but there's things are going to change between now and then will impact those yeah we could have more money we could have less is it's difficult to tell of all the assumptions hold which they certainly will not there'll be there'll be some variance right so I'm just starting to say like yes it's something to keep an eye on but I wouldn't be overly concerned about that at this point is that accurate I would say that's accurate yes thank you okay thank you very much next is the several action items we have first one on the table is adoption of the warm safe and dry facilities maintenance plan Tony Tony are you kicking us off on this and yeah this going be for it a tag team or remarkable as Podium and I can tell he's dying to get up there he's excited yeah um we talked about this uh uh a in um in October um and um we took your feed back and kept talking about it and we're trying to present information to you in such a fashion that it is um helps you see how all the elements fit together um Mark and his team are in the midst of What's called the 10-year Life Safety survey and that is a required survey that we have to do every 10 years and that that survey will be complete but there are some things that we already know that will have uh pretty considerable costs that we're aware of right now that we've added here those that would make up category one which are the mandatory safety items and Mark can give you some more details on those if you're interested um the majority actually all of those are fire fire alarm related you say that again fire alarm related so between devices boards stuff that's l absolute having difficulty getting replacement parts for them all that other good stuff yep okay the second category of items are what we call warm and dry and they were identified as Priority One and essential items that need to be addressed in our Master facilities plan when we were doing that those items were identified and some cases as early as 2018 2019 school year and they have been on our list for some time and they're getting to the the point where um we we can't ignore them any longer is that a fair statement the third item is safe entries that's the one component of the things on this list which we would consider to be optional in terms of how we want to approach them um there are the safe entries the only two schools remaining that do not have safe entries or vestibules is our HC Storm school and Louise White School um the way that those schools are configured and given their age um the work and the costs associated with putting safe entries on those schools is significant estimated to be some 12 a half plus million dollars uh because it requires considerable work inside the building we looked at um other options where we could add on to the school and those costs were more than twice um of what you see here and it's just Out Of Reach for us um with our with our finances uh the challenge with those safe entries however is that if we were to decide to move forward with them you wouldn't of course turn around and tear those school down schools down and rebuild them as was recommended in our Master facilities plan so if we were to move forward with these safe entries it would not be prudent to do so if you plan to rebuild those schools the challenge here however for the board is that the amount of work as you can see with 125 million is substantial and requires a significant degree of planning and engineering and architecture there's lead time involved in doing so so if we were to start today the earliest that work would be finished would be not the coming school year but the school year following and we cannot delay long any longer if we want that work to happen on that timeline so that's why we're here with this decision now now this uh and then then there's general maintenance items which are priority to maintenance items it's a significant amount of money but other things that is need to be done for the well uh for good upkeep of our schools and then fifth being functional improvements there is no dollar amount there because we just wanted to make sure it was clear that none of the work here in this plan to keep our schools warm safe and dry would actually functionally impove improve the learning environment for students or for staff this is just so to speak keeping the lights on and keeping the school warm and safe um the in terms of funding this you see a dollar amount there total some $48 million this really should be thought of as a framework uh because when we dig into these projects and work with our Architects and Engineers to make them happen we might need to repackage them in different ways based off of the the the conditions that exist in the schools or the timing of things um and we expect that these costs will escalate over time so these are this is $48 million in today's dollars and this is a plan that would take five years for us to fully Implement so those costs of course would escalate with inflation as we would otherwise expect in terms of being able to fund it there'd be two pots essentially that would fund this work one would be existing fund balance it be about roughly speaking in round numbers $25 million from our fund balances we just talked about earlier and we've been adding to that pot but half of the the fund balance would go toward this work the other would be from our operating budget we talked earlier about increasing those annual allocations by 15% so over those five years we' increase our operating budget and allocations in that operating budget for capital projects by 15% each year and that would get us very near the total of some $52 Million worth of work that we're considering this doesn't preclude us from considering a referendum in the future so that's certainly a possibility and that's available to the board we don't have to make that decision tonight but the decision we are asking you to make is we've got a lot of projects that are very expensive that really just can't wait anymore and in particular if we want to put safe entries on these schools at storm and Louis in a the next two years uh the time we need to start now Mark I kind of stole your thunder there I'm sorry that's okay get picture you've seen a lot of the pictures I know so the other thing the safe entries does include um because to do that work um in those buildings you'll be shifting things around to make that work we also include the kindergarten in there too kind of anticipating that for when full day kindergarten comes on so that is included in this as well for people that are going to watch this online could you just share an overview like when you walk into those two schools what that looks like because I've been in both and it is sort of not what you'd expect walking into a modern school it is not what you'd expect when you walk into a moderate School Mark no so when you walk into those schools you don't walk directly into the office area you basically walk into well depending on which school you're at um the cafeteria is either on the left or your right or you can go into you know a hallway into other classrooms if you go to the right or your left if you walk straight a distance then you have to then enter the office so really it's more of an open concept when you walk in now there are things in place you don't just walk in the door you have to buzz in um things like that but when Tony talked about a secure vestibule at all the other schools when when you you have to buzz in and you walk into either a vestibule and then get buzzed into another door then you enter into the office um that is not the case at storm or Louise we wouldn't call them unsafe right but they're not ideal they require different procedures and um um it's just not how things work in today's times or how they should work so it's something that we do need to address any comments or questions this is a big one I have a lot of comments and a lot of questions but I'm willing to let other people go first Stu they want I think that let me sorry let me talk a little bit about timeline we talked about oh yeah go for it good idea um we did guson and JB Nelson that timeline was very very tight that project's about a third of the size square footage as these projects would be um if we were to say we're going to do this plan on January 9th I would be contacting our Architects and engineers and the planning would be done um that's how quick and it will take basically that timeline is to plan and then we would want to get this out to bid in October time frame and bring it to you in November probably the latest on be comfortable with lead time items and things like that because we're not building a new building we're going into a building that's about 46 years old so you don't know exactly what you're getting into so you want to have some time and some contingencies built in place for those unforeseen conditions so that's why the timeline's important because basically less from well 10 months from right now as we would be going out to bid for the summer of is um I've got just one question to lead ask as many questions as you want I understand the timing on it as far as if we want it done by a certain date what's driving the statement that you made Tony that we can't wait any longer if well that's the Assumption well there's two parts of that we can't wait any longer we we can wait on the safe entries that's just a function of whether or not we're comfortable with that we heard from the community and the master planning process which we started in 2017 that this was an important and very highly urgent item and we've been building a plan trying to float a referendum it didn't come to fruition and now we're at a crosswords we have to make a decision is so what we're going to do there items one two and four those can't wait anymore we need to start working on taking care of our school facilities so that they remain warm safe and dry and Mark can give you more details but we Face daily issues with our HVAC systems um or and Plumbing Systems um you know we talked in October we showed you pictures of the the domestic piping at JB Nelson it's galvanized pipe and it's at far beyond the end of its life and we're just one leak away from catastrophe when when it comes to uh flooding for in that in that building we literally have to bust open concrete walls whenever something starts to leak and it's it's not a good situation to be in we we just can't bury our head in the sand anymore and pretend like these things are going away it's time to take care of them in that part I recognize the one three the one two and four I'm still not understanding the crossroads that we're at is it we're tired of waiting and we just want to do something no this is us simply saying if the expectation is is that to put safe vestibules on those two schools in particular and it's to do it in a timely fashion if we wanted to do it not for next school year but the one following we have to make a decision very soon okay I get and if we don't make a decision understand what you're saying it's going to be another school year Beyond okay I give thank you it was hard for me to grasp for some reason so um go ahead with your questions Aon I've got more but I'll see if you cover them okay well you took my first one so when I was reviewing this I came up with four questions with sub questions but the first why is it necess necessary to do this at this time which we've just answered and if we're looking at what we're proposing to doing fire alarms warm and dry so when our kids are school they're comfortable safe entries I I don't think anyone could argue that that's we'd be negligent if we weren't addressing those primary needs in our buildings these are not extravagances by anyone's definition so and we went through the referendum process twice because if you would have got different results these would have been addressed so we gave the community a chance to weigh in a larger context on those Vates and they spoke and I respect the community decision but now these these remain and we have to address them so that's why I feel it's urgent to do it now and because of what Mark said it's not like you snap your fingers and they start construction it's a very long process to do it right so that was my first question my second question is and Tony answered this is how do we fund it and are we living within our means because $48 million is a lot of money that's for the most part the community's dollars that we're spending we take that very seriously we don't spend $1 without giving it careful consideration and so Tony answered it by saying that it would basically a split of fund balance and operating budget I would like to ask we are retiring bonds we're paying 9.1 this year we'll pay n but when they PID off every time I say it's 9.

Lea please let us know when we are ready to start the meeting okay the live stream has started the live stream has started good evening everyone is the community and students parents and staff Welcome to our special board meeting board of education I would like to call this meeting to order today on Tuesday December 19th at 7 pm I am on item 1.2 roll call Board member B here board member adanes present board member Greer here board member Benz here we're on item 1.3 approval of the agenda can I have a motion motion to approve second motion by board member adanas second by board member Greer before we get to before we get to the Pledge of Allegiance I would like to announce that any member of the public wishing to speak on an agenda item number 2.0 which is public hearing on the topnotch steam Academy charter petition you must submit a blue card or raise your hand in the zoom platform by no later than 7:15 anyone who submits a blue card or raises their hands on Zoom after 715 p.m.

thanks for joining us

please yes here yes here here L shoeer here Tyson search here all right we have a quorum in a full house everybody stand with me and recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I'd like to welcomee our guest tonight so thank you for joining us that's right exactly everybody tuning in from home thank you for taking the time to join us any public comments oh you sure you got a captive audience So Perfect all right correspondents I their city um did with the state letter ISB findings it was in the P packet that's our Corp it was just the report from the ISB gotcha visit move right on to our consent agenda Mr groy if you'd be so kind to walk us through that yeah you've got your reports and minutes to approve we have a resignation Doug venos halftime high school track coach is is stepping down we're going to need to fill that position we do have a leave of absence and we have an extra curricular Sarah Klein is going to be our or we're recommending is hopefully you'll vote for it the Middle School assistant track coach um posting then for the halftime high school track coach that we are losing with Mr vos's resignation uh Administration recommends the board approve the consent agenda as presented very short this time yes any comments questions concerns he you know maybe like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda is presented I'll make the motion thank you Andrea d a second a second leis a seconds a roll call please Norine fried yes Adam hkin yes Andrea Cory yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meer yes Mr schacher yes Tyson search yes all right we move on to our Communications and reports the enrollment is in your packet and then we'll start with our assistant superintendent report so I want to start out with start off with a few shout outs um for our staff and um so starting at the high school I want to give a shout out to Amanda mcke um kind of my theme you'll see for this month is it's not always those big things that matter it's the small things that matter um and so Amanda is one of our High School Math teachers um and I was in her classroom one day and to watch her lesson and to see the different modes of Engagement she used with her students um they were doing verbal responses she was doing modeling at the board then they got out whiteboards and were doing activities to watch a group of of high school students be engaged for an entire math lesson um and see the validity of why they were doing it um is huge right math is not always everyone's favorite subject and it also when you start talking about high school students and making sure to keep them engaged is sometimes a difficult task um so she did an excellent job with that the next picture of the students in the cafeteria um my shout out for this month is Michelle breeding who is one of our cafeteria workers at the middle school um if you remember last year we did the survey with the students and we did the tasting menu where they got to pick different items um but Michelle breeding then saw that um there was a need for some more options for the middle school students other than just what came out from that tasting menu um and so she took the time to talk to students listen to what they had to say and she actually brought the walking tacos to the middle school and it was a huge success to the fact that not only did they run out of chips and had to start borrowing bags of chips from the other buildings but they once they borrowed from the other buildings they still ran out of chips the first time they sold it so it was an overwhelming success um and that was because of Michelle's dedication to getting our kids what they wanted to eat during a school lunch um the the next one down below where it shows the classroom number is just a sign I was walking around the building doing some classroom visits and I happen to come across Lyn web's classroom room here at Parkview um and all of the classrooms were doing their map Benchmark testing for the middle of the year and so our sign just says we are acing the maap test um and it's just those small subliminal messages right a lot of the signs said we're testing or um you know please be quiet as we take the test um but just switching it to that putting in the kids mind that we're acing it because we're showing everything that we know um is a huge subliminal message and it literally was just a sign that she chose to hang outside of her classroom um so just wanted to give Lynn a shout out for that and then the last one is a picture of Vicky biffer who is at Eagle viiew she's one of our first grade teachers and I was filling in for Erica last week as the principal in the building and so was able to sit in in an IEP meeting and to listen to Vicki talk to the parents you know to go into an IEP meeting um you already know your student has challenges at school um and so a lot of times they just tend to pile that on here's all the things your student can't do um and we also I think we've talked about even in our um board meetings about how we use a lot of acronyms in education right we don't always stop to make sure that everyone knows what that means um and Vicki did an excellent job of not only celebrating what this child did really well in the classroom but then made sure that the entire way through the conversation that the parents understood exactly what we were talking about made sure that they had plenty of opportunity for questions or to add in their own Insight um and it was just nice again that small little thing but realizing that it takes a village to educate a student um and she did a fantastic job of including those parents into it so um again just a small recognition of a lot of the outstanding teachers that we um and you know staff members that we do have in the district um the next one I want to give a shout out to is to another one of our High School Math teachers Wendy Stevens um who actually just received her national board certification it is an extremely intense and long process to go through to earn your national board certification um so it's kind of a step above just receiving your traditional Illinois state certification you have to not only um do different activ activities along the way and provide them but you have to videotape your lessons you send them in they're critiqued by a panel of different teachers that look at what you're doing and all of that um so to have a teacher on our staff that is you know nationally board certified now is a huge accomplishment but a huge benefit to um our students in the district so just wanted to give her a shout out and celebrate her as well and then to just kind of give you an update on District news kind of looking forward to what's going on um I'm working currently on setting up a lot of administrative training so I've talked to you a lot about teacher professional development that we do but we can't forget our administrators need professional development as well um so we are doing a lot of different trainings on handling discipline and alternative ways to um teaching students right we talk about when a student doesn't know their math facts right we don't punish them and send them home with detention or anything like that right we teach them and we figure out how to approach them well when a student Can't Behave we shouldn't just punish them and send them home we need to help teach them how to behave um so doing some trainings on discipline and bullying and how to tackle those um we are still continuing with our teacher trainings when we come back in January we're going to do a lot of training that will kind of roll over from month to month on our half days looking at our Focus standards classroom instruction and assessment um in this next semester we're doing a curriculum review for science it's time for us to look at our science curriculum and is it meeting our needs and where do we need to make changes um from K through 12 with that um we'll be mapping out our Middle School English curriculum I've talked to you earlier this year about we were doing a pilot at the middle school with some curriculum um you know kind of looking at what it offers we are realizing that it's not meeting the true needs but that's difficult when you buy a can and curriculum of what there is um but we also know that there is a need to ensure that our students are receiving um a robust and a rigorous curriculum so we are going to be working with um the teachers this next semester on getting that realigned and then we're working on some updating some teacher evaluations um some different options that they can do a lot of times we tend to start seeing teacher evaluations as just another hoop to jump through or a box to check off and and if teachers and administrators are going to spend their time um and invest their time into that we might as well make it worthwhile for everyone involved so we're looking at making some changes to how that works and doing some trainings for the administrators as well to make their evaluations much more um efficient and needed and then we are going to also in this next semester do some vertical alignment for our art curriculum so getting um our second through through um 12th grade art teachers um those three teachers together and to be able to look at can we align what we're doing make sure we're not overlapping projects and and that we're meeting the students needs there so a lot is going to be happening in the second semester and then really the last thing I just wanted to throw out is just um really more so to anyone including especially the public um that might know of people we do still have a cook position that is open that hasn't been filled that is extremely important um you know I talked about Michelle and how important her job was um she needs some help and support to get that done so we do have a cook position still open we also have a PA position that is still open so if anyone's open in or interested in a full-time position um but we also need subs desperately in every category teacher Subs Paris Subs custodial secretary um cook Like You Name It We need subs so anybody that you know has has a flexible work schedule that thinks well I can only offer one day a week we will take you one day a week um all you need to do is contact Kim at the district office and she can get you set up with what that is so I just wanted to throw out an extra um you know kind of acknowledgement or a reminder to everyone that we are looking for those spots and that's all I have that's a lot it is a lot yeah all right and on to our superintendent report all right um last month we were asked about the eclipse we sent out a survey uh 625 families responded to the survey 10% of those families that responded would have issues with child care if we would close on that day they'd have to figure it out um so whenever you adjust a schedule you've got to you've got to think about those things 64% of the faculty and staff um that responded we only had 119 of them that responded but 64% of them they do not want to add a day to the end of the calendar and cutting that day would add a day to the end of the calendar of the 36% 64% don't want to add the day there were 36% of those people that were willing to extend the calendar of that 36% 15 of them would also like to use a personal day so some of the people that wanted to extend the calendar were like yeah I'm fine we could have the day off extend the calendar that's good but no I I don't need a personal day that day you know 15 of them said we would so in my mind those 15 are the ones that are vested in in getting the day off um at this point I think that we should try to figure out how to get the subs so that those that are going are going um but I wouldn't change the CH the the the calendar or do that I mean you guys can add it to an agenda item if you want to um but my recommendation was don't change it 10% of the community is going to have issues with child care and I'd like to think that the 15 people we'd be able to figure it out and cover it but uh as we're always trying to thread the needle and do what we can for them and do what we can for this this is the calendar was set and so I just wouldn't adjust it yet um the second thing I want to talk about is strategic planning and listening to Alysa it's that timing it's you know we've got a lot of things going on uh we've got the found things in the district to a point though where I think that strategic planning might be a good time we've got all of the roofs covered and all of the tuck pointing done on the buildings so our buildings facilities are looking good we've got the big project at the high school going um which is a wonderful wonderful thing for us curricular we got textbook adoptions going we've got um alignment with our our our specials and stuff like that that happening we've also got operational stuff we've changed over our financial software we're getting new updated student softwares so all of those key foundational things that an organization like a school district need to evolve we've all done those those things and so at this point strategic planning would be our next place where we look at them and say you know there's there's typical areas like you would want to do Student Success thriving Workforce or Workforce Excellence you know how well do we prepare kids for the workforce or for college uh self-supportive School climates or future growth and aspirations family committee uh Community engagement um effective efficient and effective operations you know how do we serve the community what do people think about and you can get goals I bring this up because um there's this company called thought exchange that has a really neat tool for surveying the community it does come at a cost but it also comes with advisers on how to do this um just to get the the the thing ahead it's about 24,000 for a year um if we do it this year the sales guy can drop it down to 21744 that's based on a 2,000 student population so we'd give them our actual numbers and that would be what it is for 21,000 we could start it in January and and go um what's neat about this program is is it allows you to ask very openend questions on those specific areas so the survey the parents can then write in a one sentence I think that they do this really well it then has you with a Liker scale rank other people's comments like in Student Success I think the high school does a great job with the science program you know how many other people then when you answer what you think with that qualitative it then quantitatively starts throwing you other ideas and um you you get to say whether how strongly you agree or disagree with those ideas and so what happens is is as we're is they were doing the presentation and showing it to me um they say that you walk into the room with an idea oh we need to do this but then when you see other people's ideas and you start judging it you walk away with a kind of a a deeper view or another idea um it also has AI components on the end of it so if you wanted to you could have ai write up a nice little summary of the findings of this report it really is a neat program um 24,000 or 21,700 if we do it this year would be expensive um it's not a cheap program but I've looked at other schools that have used it and um I think it would be worth the investment so I'm not asking for an action item here it is within the limits of what I could do um as far as purchasing it it would then go to the strategic planning and we'd be able to engage and you'd be able to send it out like a survey just to the faculty and staff you could send out a survey just to the families you could send out the survey to the community you could have it on the website and say all business owners please you know you go to the chamber and you say please fill out this survey and you get the feedback from that um so think about that I've got a week to get back to the sales guy as to whether or not we want to engage now or we want to engage later no pressure no pressure it it's a a $3,000 savings um I like to save $3,000 however I don't want to buy something that might not be the right time to use either because buying something and then not using it's no good either so can I ask some questions certainly all right so who's going to compile all this data and go through it sounds like a lot of work the compilation of the data they actually have a coordinator that they assign to work with you and so they help you create the surveys because they've done strategic planning at other districts and then the um the metrics on the other side it prints out reports and they would help you massage those what would happen then is is with those reports and the the the responses you guys the board would need to sit back find some time we would need to schedule a weekend maybe couple hour Retreat go over that and set goals and again we've got a lot of things going on right now with the uh high school expansion with the textbook adoptions with a lot of the foundational stuff um if we're not going to do it this year you'll probably hear me next year pushing a little harder for it but um have you talked to any school districts that's use this not this tool specifically no other questions so you only mentioned a few of the areas is it open for other areas like could we use it for finding out the opinions about the facilities and yeah absolutely just I the the areas I picked I went online and I looked at a bunch of school district strategic plans and they're all rather similar you know the the problem is is that you know you're going to be talking about Student Success you know you're going to be talking about Workforce and and post school you know you're going to look at the facilities you're going to look at the financial you're going to look at a lot of those areas um the goals that you then set is where the the responses to the survey guide you but the areas are all um sky's the limit because you can whatever you find important important I I do a little research on this afternoon so the the option is unlimited surveys that you want to do yeah is that the one yeah because um I think for the first year the first year that we do it be it whether we do it in January July or we do it next January um the first year you use it you want to be able to survey everybody I mean you could send it out to the band parents you you know with Skyward grouping kids you could send it out to the people that ride buses that's my last question so how where do these lists come from do we have to supply the list for these surveys so do we have to have a list of the parents or do we have to have a list of it would come through our our uh our emails yes the business we're responsible for creating the list all right most of the families and and community members we have in our in our account I'd have to go to the Chamber of Commerce and get what their ma email list is um so there's a lot of ways to do it the post office typically has an option where you can mail out uh uh Flyers to everybody in the ZIP code right so is it a one-time fee or is there a fee every sing every year every year and they say that it usually goes up around 3 to 4% every year so love the idea hate the cost yeah that's why we're discussing it so trying to figure out why you would do it more than one year I mean if you're doing strategic planning you don't we wouldn't typically do that every year anyway right I mean you know that's kind of like an every five or 10 year thing probably I to go out for that much information I mean you want to update your strategic plan more frequently but I wouldn't think that you would need to do that level of digging to figure out what the priorities would be for the Strategic plan if you had recently done an overhaul yeah I guess I I'd need to do a little more thinking about once you do the the plan you've got your goals set um how do you measure the goals do you go back with another survey or are they more concrete goals like we're going to do this you know are we is one of the goals to you know build support because to to to see if you've accomplished a goal you might need a survey to do it is I guess my point but yeah but I don't think we need to pay a survey company to do that to do appointed success survey so you're seeing this as a one one shot and yeah I mean I with with the cost of it I mean I just can't see the value of doing follow-ups at this price but you know in the the entire landscape changed after Co and returning trying to figure out what people's priorities are now may not be the same as they were five years ago 10 years ago yeah so when we talked about trying to maximize that cost for that year so um in the past we've done exit interviews when staff members are leaving the district um I sit down and interview them why are you leaving and when we were in Chicago one of the sessions I sat in was about building staff culture um and it talked about really you shouldn't be doing exit interviews you should be doing stay interviews um and so when you first start those right it's hard to people to have trust in what are you really doing with this data and so we talked about well this might be a good way that first year to get more people to anonymously share their thoughts until they kind of build the trust and see what we're going to do with this information um and then slowly turn it into something else but I think like to Adam's point that kind of a one-year thing but let's use it for more than just strategic planning if we're going to spend that kind of money this is kind of a last minute thing and and you know it is a $3,000 discount but it again at the price point it is I I I think maybe we need to have more time and more thought on on it before we move forward and I'm sorry Greg asked this question I I don't know if I just didn't hear it or what but your answer as far as who's I know you asked who's going to compile the information but who's going to then be processing the information looking at it maintaining all of the you know the surveys the stats the everything else so that if even if we were to do this within that first year we know that what we're paying for is actually somebody's using it cuz I'm just one of those people like I'm very and I'll be honest like I'll like oh this sounds great I'll buy it I'll do it and then you know like if you don't have somebody executing it so I guess that would be my question too is who's who are going to be the people that would actually execute the outcomes so that we're what we're paying for is actually getting utilized yeah and and that would be where the administrative team the development of the plan and the goal setting would be the board once the those goals are set then the administrative team would have to come up with how are we going to implement the changes that we're working toward and then it would be a matter of then coming back and reporting to you all that we're actually making the changes so it'd be kind of layered all right that's all I had for the oh um we are going to have a very brief closed session there's no item after do you want a consensus from the board are you happy the way it stands or with this I'm happy with way it stands I think I I we'll wait is the read that I'm taking if if I'm reading that wrong that's why I'm reading the room as well just all right just don't want to assume anything that's all that's fine we got plenty to do so I I think that's I think you can always ask for a 10% discount huh yeah I think you can always ask for a 10% disc that's not enough carot to make me want to jump into stuff I agree works for me perfect and that's not saying that we can't do this on our own also if you want to do a survey if we're coming up with the data or the or the lists we can do a survey monkey for yeah what I liked about it was the qualitative aspect where people are able to write down a sentence and then other people can agree or disagree with that sentence I I maybe we does have to be educator specific survey company I mean correct all right it's probably a good starting point yeah great conversation though thank you okay all right I mean it sounds like a great program just yeah money you well and with the high school project and that sort of thing it's bad timing I think it's the all right move on for items of action the first is Airbase favor the approval of the tax levy for the year 2023 yeah and uh we presented that last month it's numbers are the same Administration recommends the board approves this I need to get the signed Levy to St Clair and to Monroe before the end of this year so I'm hoping you approve tonight so that I can deliver it to St Clair tomorrow and uh Tuesday for Monroe so perfect questions discussions comments would anybody like to make a motion to remove the tax levy for the years 2023 the year 2023 excuse me I'll make the motion thank you Andrea Joor second I'll second Tyson second thank you roll call please Adam hin yes Andrea Cory yes KY moer yes Craig Meyer yes L schacher yes Tyson search yeser yes perfect thank you all for that item B is the approval of our early graduates and you have a list of indiv indviduals who have gotten their credits so that they can graduate they will be invited back to walk the stage should they choose they're not forced to but uh the recommendation here is to um approve their early graduates there's a lot of people that end up getting jobs before they go off to college and it's beneficial so impressive right questions comments concerns I had a motion to approve our early have a question so when the if the students do the early graduate if they graduate early M um are they still allowed to do any of the extracurriculars later in the year like prom like yeah like they can do prom they can do graduation um but not like student council or that kind of like the clubs and the sports kind of things um no but the like prom graduation they are it's an interesting question I would imagine when they choose to graduate early they are um informed of the things that they be opting out of or not so so just out of curiosity why is that like what is is that a state thing is that a a district thing as far as I mean why aren't they involved in our clubs anymore yeah CU they're not our student anymore okay I mean coming back for prom and whatnot it's yeah and so um you know the clubs are the more day-to-day things prom is a you know if you're sitting there saying well I don't want to be an early graduate cuz I want to go to prom you know that's a one time event and odds are you're going with somebody that's still a student um but as far as the day-to-day clubs and whatnot is that the same or is that different than students that I don't know what the right word is affil like not Affiliates but that you know like siou or you know like swick they do some swick classes or something like that is that so the startup the startup the startup that's that's what it is where the students go and they go to the startup they do not participate in our clubs they can do it if it's outside of the school day is I believe the running yeah our running start students can participate yeah not startups running start yeah that's it yes yes so the clubs that are outside of the school day um we've made a couple of changes to kind of help benefit in the past like they hadn't been eligible for National Honor Society but those students are taking extremely rigorous courses so that is something that is changing in our policy for next year that those students will be eligible for National Honor Society they are eligible for prom and graduation um but yeah not the the day-to-day clubs that meet during home room I think and that that was one of the things I've heard in the past was you know they're taking these like you said rigorous classes that are very Advanced and kind of getting knocked I guess for not being recognized as National you know Honor Society so but that's the running start that's not the early graduates right which is yes so that's that's what I was trying to differentiate and understand the difference if there's any early graduates on the TV they are going to vote for it we'll get there we'll get there we will Circle back thank you for clarify that's the most discussion we've had on it anyway we would recommend the early graduates and they would be able to go to prom but not other clubs sorry no no that's I have they're all things that I've been wondering so it's you know the extracurriculars and all that so it's just just graduation if they want to walk in the spring which was the traditional one they'll get their diplomas did they get their diplomas now or do they get it in may they get I honestly don't know I believe it's May I got mine when I graduated I graduated early and I got it when I oh yeah I think that's I mean if they're no longer a student why would we hold their diplomas yeah no they I mean it's just a matter of whether or not they're printed I don't know so they are they are okay there you go okay you see I'm learning new things than too how about a motion to approve our early graduates I'll make the motion thank you Adam I was hoping you might second in seconds thank you all in favor I any opposed any extensions that All Passes moving along we have the approval for intergovernmental yeah go ahe sorry for the instruction of emergency medical responder course yeah and I'm hoping that this one pass too because um Tuesday or Wednesday what day are you meeting with I'm meeting with her on the 28th oh you're meeting with her on the 28th to show her her room and get her wow so I mean we should just not approve it right now just because you're doing all this that would be a cruel and somewhat humorous joke but this is a good program and I think that this we've got a lot of kids again the goal is to um add another class so that they can graduate and become emergency medical technicians oh no I think it's a I think it's a great in the future we want toand it to the we actually talked about this a few years ago kind of touchbased about it that's great yeah a dual credit so the students in the EMR class will be earning dual credit this week perfect nice great idea all right right so Administration recommends that the board approve that intergovernmental agreement with the city thank questions on this one I think we actually talked about this one during our dual credit discussion Perfect all right any you like to make a motion to approve our inter intergovernmental cooperation agreement I'll make the motion Thank you Lisa second I'll second who second oh Sanders thank you all right all in favor I opposed any extensions perfect next item is our second reading of approve and approval of the board policy press issue 113 yeah and I sent you all kind of a summary recap of it um there were some of the areas like um uh there's one of the the building the bidding threshold is being recommended that it moves to 35,000 changed from 25,000 um that was one that I know that we have discussed previously and so I didn't know where you guys were on that one um and then the leave of absence of the employees uh 250 employees so I mean I answered most of the questions if there weren't any questions or comments on that I would say approve it as presented that would be the higher threshold for the bidding tell me if you'd like that changed um was same problems last year huh I don't I don't know that I saw that the there was a it was an update because the Illinois code changed I don't know that that that that has actually up for question of whether we want to go from 25 to 35 I think this is just a policy update to align with Illinois code change it is so we're not we're not deciding whether we want to increase or not yeah that's just for the the Illinois right we can make it stricter but not broader so yeah we can we can wind it down if we want to we just can't say we're going to do 40 or whatever instead right but we can do 25 if you want to do that yeah the number hadn't changed for a very long time so the recommendation is to allow it to change [Music] because so I had a couple of additional notes or things I guess just to bring some for just just for awareness um like 220 uh that which affects us as the board as to how we do it um it did outline how we how we or when we are allowed to attend virtually and especially if we're sick if there's uh employment or School business functions that take us away family or other emergencies or unexpected Child Care obligations so they've changed that since we're no longer under an emergency status um but those are the authorized reasons for virtu virtual board meeting attendance just a highlight I had there um I think the only other one was on 760 I think your recommendation was no is the default um this one is about accepting District employees children if they're non-residents to aend for no tuition fee basis yeah so that no is the default no is the default that that's one that I I would actually like to have some discussion on because I actually think that why why wouldn't we want to allow our teachers to bring their kids here but I I just I know other some districts do it some districts don't I mean I know we have quite a few that live outside the district that have school aged children I don't I don't know the one thing I would say that has changed this has always been a possibility for districts and back when you were paid by the number of kids um there's an advantage to trying to increase the kids so a lot of communities would allow their their teachers that lived outside of the district to bring the kids in because you got more funding for that evidence-based funding has changed a little bit so that we don't see any benefit from adding to the kids right now um our classrooms are pretty full we are you know and so we don't know how many would come in if you do this you would be taking all of them there you know it's not like but we'll take Mrs Corey's children while she but not Mr Meyers you know it's a it's an all or none thing um I I could go either way with it the the big perk I think that we would want to think about is would this make people want to apply here because as a Colombia teacher and my kid could come to Colombia that might get us some applicants um I would just piggyback on what Adam said was that I feel like in the past we've lost teachers because they were able to go to the district dist where their children went to school and it's more convenient for them we we've lost some longterm teachers waterl grain some from us yes some long-term teachers that have been able to go where their kids go to school and so I I I really think that that would be an advantage for anybody applying here to be able to bring their kids to go to school here with them it it cuts down on child care costs it cuts down on a lot of things that are Logistics in just in general so I I would not be opposed to that at all is a consensus on the board that board policy um 7.60 under residence it asks do you wish to accept requests from District employees for their nonresident children to attend in a tuition-free basis knows the default we I've heard two people say yes that they would they would think that that's a a a good idea we can change that to yes tuition free yeah it would be tuition free I agree I think it would be a benefit I don't I mean I I get like the tuition free thing like could be opening up a can but I don't think there's there's going to be enough that it would several won't pull their kids from the schools to bring them here now but it would be enticing for new teachers coming in or maybe you would well I'm saying like not everybody would but some would we could do a survey I mean probably we love surveys let's do so I like the idea a lot but I'm having a hard time making the decision without knowing what the consequences are so in other words if we're going to bring in 100 kids and it's going to upset the apple card on the whole deal we have to know what we're getting into in my opinion again I like the idea but well I think a survey would be good like to see how many how many staff actually have kids that age like school age that they would even want to bring them here and then if you I mean and then we can the math people which is not me can do the math and kind of figure out like you know tuition free what is that costing what what I mean I think that there probably needs to be a little bit more digging but I absolutely I think it would be beneficial I don't think that I think if somebody's going to work for our school district and they're going to that they should have some sort of benefit to doing that and and letting their kids come and like everything that Andrea said I I I'm fully on board with that um I think the rest of it would be like not because of me necessarily but because of backlash that we could get from so what I'm hearing you all say is we can approve the policies as presented and we will table specifically board policy 760 and we will update that next month in January and I will send out a survey to the faculty and staff and see who would be interested in possibly bringing their kids here we'd have harder numbers and whatnot and I could um do some digging into this would just be teachers right is this just teachers faculty and staff faculty all faculty all staff which I mean it could then help us get more people that want to come and work here I mean I don't know you know I mean like that could be a huge benefit we could maybe get some great you know additional I mean obviously we're we have a lineup of people that we're looking for for Stuff soar bring their most kids are going to want to stay I think in their community that they grow up in I guess it just depends on the age yes the age but it gives young and you're starting off with little ones then you might just want to be like hey let's like let's do this so I don't know we'll just I think if survey is a good idea okay how much is out of how much is a tuition for non-residents right now we don't accept tuition for yeah we don't have it um there is a calculation I'd have to look it up it it is your operating yeah it's probably the you'd have to look at your annual financial report and okay but there's a calculation in your annual Financial reports and I'd have to dig it up but it's well because only reason that I really ask that is whenever you're looking at the total compensation package calc calculation I know on the federal government side if that if this was something that was offered to a teacher on the federal level then that would be something they would consider okay there's a benefit that you're getting as a non-resident you could take your kids there and here's the here's the stated value you know as to there's no real backend to it um but it's good to know you know where those dollars are and you know if the school is actually attributing 7 what would have been $77,000 to you know position you just keep track of the numbers for people that are numbers people like myself even if there's nothing on the back end it helps you at least I don't believe that what I don't believe that you're not a numbers person I feel like you're like engineer guy so don't I was like the recommendation is to approve the policies tabling 760 I will do a survey and I will um look at the AFR and get you the tuition costs I don't think we necessarily need to table to 60 or 270 uh we can approve it the way it is and we can always amend it okay at our next meeting that way everything's clean because we table it we have a we have an item that's up in the air could be ambiguous that's my recommendation but so so we have that option of change our policy anytime we change it time You' need to go through two readings so I would I would we' have to do January and then February February yeah where I I think in tabling it you could say we've done one reading a second reading and then be able to table it that's fine right let's table it that's fine because I guess the policy would continue as written until as written right okay that's true so I'll make the recommendation with tbling 760 and I second and approving the rest I'll second it seconds a roll call please Andrea Cory yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa Schumacher yes Tyson search yes Norine Frick yes Adam Hunkin yes all right that passes that concludes our items for Action our next is our discussion items we'll start with our facility study yeah this is an update you have at your desk uh schematic design narrative um Adam spent a day out here going through copious amounts of plan and circling and highlighting everything we've then gave that to The Architects and um they've acknowledged all of it the schematic design is the first phase then you get the um document what what is the DD there's SD DD and then CD the DD is development design where they go into more at this point what we're approving is the fact that we are going to be adding an auditorium an administrative office area a front wing and a gymnasium with remodelings of the others it's kind of the footprint that we are agreeing to um in very broad Strokes the details have been discussed and are being pushed through do you want to add something to that Mr humin well the details for the front Wing the administrative area the auditorium and then some of the renovation of the existing space the details of the gymnasium have not been right laid out so that's really a broad here's conceptually we w a competition gym we went some locker rooms and four four or five rooms above it um but that's about the level of detail that's gone into that um but the rest of it we've had pretty detailed conversations looking at size and flow and restrooms and pretty much all the all the stuff we need to get get moving uh to get those types of things everything except for the auditorium space um to where they can start start preparing to go out for a bid and getting the engineers I know they were in on Wednesday yesterday for it was yesterday afternoon um 1:00 to around 4:15 they were popping ceiling tiles and um finding details like the uh the the classrooms that are behind the auditorium area they were going to kick out the wall so the band room had a little more room but they found that the wall there is a loadbearing wall and so the extra few feet probably is not going to happen um because that would just it's one of those things where those extra feet wouldn't be worth the Cana levers and all the other physics yeah and so um they were in there and and like we were also in the media center and finding out where the pillars will be because right now the media center will be part of the cafeteria as the media center becomes where the office area is cuz a new office area is being built but that that space is going to have some poles because something's got to hold up the roof and so they were identifying where all those things are but that's so all all the Code Compliance they've been going that's part of this phase going through making sure we have adequate restrooms um we've had numerous discussions about having whether you call them family restrooms single person restrooms unisex restrooms whatever you want to label them as um you know we're looking at making sure we have more of those in the school um as well as in the auditorium area for when we have events um that it could handle it looking at even being able to lock off areas or when there is something in the auditorium people cannot get to the rest of the building right now we put up a sign that says please do not enter this area um there are doors but you know there's 50 ft before the door um you know so things like that just the the flow all the safety items so all those things have been discussed in pretty pretty lengthy detail and then that's what the engineers were here for on were here for yesterday for numerous hours looking to make sure that some of the assumptions about well what do we have for cable trays what do we have where does the plumbing run how many actual you how many things are here where where's our Fiber come in that's still a question um you know some of that stuff uh they're they're really ironing out the details that's where we're at now so that's kind of post the that's moving into the second phase so one of the the points that was um discussed on Wednesday there is going to be an elevator at the end of The West Wing currently the second floor of that Wing is not Ada accessible because the second floor of the East wing and the second floor of the West Wing don't connect and there's an elevator on this side but there's no elevator on this side and so there was a lot of discussions of why can't we get the second floor above the what we're building to connect to that so that people could just walk because there's if we're adding this many number of students the flow and how the people walk and the stairs and everything it it is just it's the roof line and um and the fact that the hallway you need to have a ramp up and go over the the the roof it's it's elevations don't work yeah the elevations don't work and the roof line doesn't work so there's just no way to conect NE so you're going to need to add another elevator which and the structure is not there to put a second second level on it yes so just every at every turn the answer was it's just not practicable yeah practicable so yeah we we tried but it just didn't make sense so we'll add an elevator yeah even if we did connect them we would need to add an elevator anyway because the distance to the nearest elevator would have been too far so whether ada8 says yes or no I I still think that that would have been a bad design all right so um we are going to be approving the schematic design and then the uh the next stage is where they really get the the the walls figure out like in the office area we're still going back and forth with like the in school suspension should we have a bunch of little rooms or one big room that a person could sit in and and and so there's some programmatic things that we are still working out um as we go through the different iterations of the plans but well I think maybe one other thing of might be of interest so during the when the construction starts the day after school lets out most likely um so the the entrance to the school will change I know we we've had quite a few discussions internally about it but I don't know if we as a board have talked but if you're coming in from the parking lot nearest I don't know I guess the the the hill the city park over by the by the gy corner by the gym that will become the new main entrance during construction so they're going to build a little foyer entrance into there there's already a ticket window that's currently used for storage so they will'll be able to have um someone in there actually for when people come in and need badged in or whatever uh so there's already some infrastructure there so they won't have to do a real complex build but they will build a new entrance area that will allow us to stay secure and meet our different security requirements for that year and a half or whatever it's needed um and I think right now the projected schedule is through December so it' be a full school year and a half um until the front is opened up this currently the projected timeline so that's all still to TBD but right now that's the best we have as far as a forecast um because that's going to be a large chunk the um and I say this with the trauma that it brings to us but when we did covid and um we ended up doing video announcements of what we were doing and how we were doing it we're going to need some video announcements on how traffic's going to flow and where the parking's going to work and all that other stuff so this summer is going to be uh a lot of communication out to the public as far as you know we need you to come in here this is where you drop off your kids and this is you know we'll have videos and diagrams and is there something that you can do prior to school letting out to let kids know that that's like so that you can let the kids know directly without just depending on parents so pretty soon everybody's going to it's it's becoming almost that time where uh they start picking their parking spaces for next year okay and so um that's going to be the first step of it because we're going to want to make sure that we control what side of town you live on as to where you're going to be what parking lot would be the most advantageous graders like knowing like parents obviously are going to be dropping off at that point like they can't drive but I mean even for eighth graders you know current eighth graders that are going into freshman year to know and just have that idea of like hey we've seen all these years kids go in to this door but come you know fall of 2024 let's go just so that they know obviously parents are going to have to know also but maybe just to kind of that'll probably be part of freshman orientation okay that's that's what I'm asking which is normally when they like when because I have a freshman so it was all brand new to me so that is something that they did with us you know before school started you know with an incoming freshman so I would expect that that would happen with them as well but I do think it would be good for the upper classman the current freshman sophomores and juniors even if it's just there are next year it's going to be different because they're not going to pay attention over the summer right so but right now a lot of there are parents that have kids just in the middle school that Park up where we're doing the new parking at the park and they their middle schooler walks through you know pass the high school to get up there and I don't know if that's going to be a possibility because the construction to be able to and and so there's um well the high school kids will have that parking lot full right so so it's it's I mean they'd have to park farther up into the park if they to do that because all that current space where they sit right now next to the batting cages and there's maybe a half a dozen cars up there on any given day right so where they where those folks sit they're going to there's that whole parking lot I expect will be completely filled with higho school kids that have parked there already but you know if it's seniors then they may be gone by the last hour when somebody needs to come pick up their kids so they'll just have to see what space is available there but yeah there's going to be some changes to how it works but that's at least we have an alternative solution versus just saying okay only we only have 100 parking spaces for kids to use we'll still have 200 close to the same number we have now even during construction so but we are starting to look at um flow of traffic as we're looking at where the office is going to be because we've got to have um all the fire codes and because if there was an issue getting the kids out safely and emergency plans and all those things are are in the work so questions concerns comments about any of this all right perfect move on to individual board member comments anyone have anything for this evening no president's prerogative I don't have anything as well so that leads into our executive session and we're going to entertain a motion to journ into executive sessions for the purposes of appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of a specific employee of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint log against the employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity according to 5 ilcs 1202 C1 and also be student disciplinary cases pursuant to 5 ICS 1202 C9 may you like to make a motion to adjourn into executive session I'll make a motion I'll into executive session thank you Andrew I'll second second roll call please yes Adam hkin yes Andre Cory yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa schacher yes Tyson yes all right there are no action items as a result anticipated from our executive session so you are welcome to rejoin us at the conclusion of that and watch us adjourn so we'll be back all right we are we are back uh we just conclude our executive session there are no action items as a result of that our last agenda item is adjournment anybody like to make a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion thank you Adam second I'll second okay perfect all in favor I I that concludes our meeting time is 8:25 p.m.

Insta becca. insta so you won the first prize congratulations so uh I guess I could probably spread this out throughout the day what's going on with me because I got a million things going on and so but I wanted to fill you in on a on a few things so I'll try to get through this quick uh so to just to recap 2023 I was on the Today's Show so we went to New York that was pretty cool a little out of my uh comfort zone but I did it so I'm trying to encourage you guys to get out of your comfort zone so that's what I'm doing uh we also went to Turkey if if you saw my hot air balloon uh video we were in Turkey I went to Colorado Springs went to Nashville Firestone sent me out to Nashville if you watch that video um and then we also went to Kansas City and to Pica for my my cousin's 80th birthday so that was fun we all got to get together and celebrate that so cool things on the schedule for 2024 for me um I'm gonna actually go out to Montana uh eBay Motors is sending me out to Montana to to drive some cars in the snow that be pretty pretty fun in January and and Firestone we got some more things planned with Firestone I'm actually going to be writing a column for a paper um I don't think you guys know that I know yeah kind of fun uh I'm also going to be a part of this thing called kinship where you come in a group of you it's kind of I don't want to call it group therapy but it kind of is where people come in and kind of talk about things what they're going on I think it helps with the loneliness that's going on in in the world where we're kind of separated and it's kind of a way to bring people together AARP is actually coming to my house to film um I did the initial interview with them they want to come and just highlight my story um and this is kind of cool uh have you guys seen Reacher yeah is it it's like the Jack Reacher show Jack Reacher yeah it's actually I mean Tom Cruz well he had a movie version there's a TV show yeah so there's a series so they sent me some stuff and uh just trying to figure it out because it's it it can be a little violent too Action Hero no no no so uh anyway kind of fun uh dropping from a rope yeah look at that go look at him uh it really show my age I think if we started doing too much man double double in here so um and then recently like I said I've been interviewed in Montenegro Bulgaria and then Indonesia I was on in indones show that's amazing kind of crazy and then so my wife and I are turning 60 this year so we wanted uh we have a few things that we wanted to do but um we're gonna go to Port of viarta we're going to Paris and Greece and so so that's kind of fun so that's awesome yeah got a lot of things uh happening that's just kind of how things are just starting so at the beginning of the year the the things are already kind of packed but looking forward to that so yeah somebody was congratulating the winner isn't that nice very kind of yeah uh yeah sorry we're not interacting with you sorry a little bit we got you know yeah we got got schedule got a schedule we gotta keep uh so let's see did that now we were gonna sing a are we gonna sing A Christmas Carol now or I think we were okay we were so so Chris uh christas carols we're going to be singing those I thought I share that sing yes please sing along for us it's uh uh anyway so um an Adam's guitar uh plays guitar so Adam's multi-talented he also he'll tell you about his paintings and all that but Adam I asked Adam if he could come up with some background music for me so when you listen to my videos I'm using kind of one track as you probably can tell over and over getting a lot of use out of that one track extending it 10 minutes the royalties have been amazing oh so anyway kind of cool because I just asked him could you have some sort of calm music in the background and so he did that he also did uh my other original theme song for the podcast and then in the background is are Travis's kids saying Hey Dad hey Dad hey Dad right and then at the end it's Jacqueline his youngest uh daughter saying Dad how do I yeah kind of cute so just so you know that's kind of a family thing yeah and so we recruited Adam to come in here and uh try to play some guitar sing for us one thing I wanted to share with you too I don't know if you guys are familiar with Paul Harvey but he was a real famous guy on the radio and I'm dating myself here but he was even before before me uh he if you can imagine that the rest of the story he he had this thing called the rest of the story and I'm not going to read this but it's a cool story kind of putting the Christmas story in a nutshell and it so if you just Google it Paul Harvey uh a story about the birds a Christmas story about the birds I would encourage you to do that so um we're gonna sing oh little town of Bethlehem and one thing that's always tricky when you're singing with some of these is the lyrics are a little a little different on different things and Adam's got the chords I got this and we're going to just kind of I'm just going to do that at the beginning of every song and it's going to be oel okay perfect so see have this goes give me uh we have not warmed up we Haven we're it's going to be scary for a little bit we're going to need you to kind of le start us I'll try Okay so oh little town of Bethlehem how still we see the light above thy deep and dreamless the silent stars go by yet in thy dark streets Shine the Everlasting Light the hopes and fears of all the years are met in the tonight for Christ is born of Mary and gaed All Above while moral sleep the Angels keep their watch of wondering love oh morning stars together Proclaim thy holy birth and Praises sing to God the king and peace to Men on Earth oh little town of Bethlehem how still we see the light above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by yet in thy dark streets shineth the Everlasting Light the hopes and fears of all the years are met in the tonight is that it there's other lyrics in himels or whatever read the whole story it's kind of good I hope you guys sing this kind of reminds us me of when we we sing together in church yeah kind of Harmon you sounded great I thought they sounded did they sound great they sound okay okay you'll get used to think we don't answer if they sound so drawing two so Adam wasn't singing I know I was focused You guitar no I wasn't I didn't want to take away get a glass of water so I'm going to turn it over to Adam real quick I'm just going grab a glass of water so um Adam we're going to have drawing number two for Adam and then Adam why don't you tell about yourself I will and what you got going on even personally too with the kind of big news right this coming year so I'll be right back got some water okay I'm Adam the nephew and uh I have a pregnant wife and she's about seven months along nice so we're expecting here in a couple months so it's gonna be a big change exciting time for us thank you thank you um yeah so we we'll see how that goes it's our first kid it's it's a it's a girl we don't have a name yet so just be praying for us and should we ask for suggestions no thanks you're getting plenty of those already so Roberta Rober we're if your name is Roberta it's a fine name we're probably notri it's his name is Robert that's why that's my middle name though too Robert yeah Roberta is good it's a life Roberta makes sense so we're excited um I also have a giveaway I'm a uh I'm a painter I'm an artist and uh you may have seen we did a a a video a short series of videos on learning how to paint with uh Dad how do I Dad here and so I'm giving away a painting this is a painting I did I'll hold it up here if you can see it try to get a little less glare but giving away this painting um to one lucky uh person reading the name off here in a second but also I do have if you if you like this painting I do have prints available on adamcy art.com you just go straight to that page and 50% of print proceeds are going to the international Mission board and impact a life foundation so if you want to uh pick up a print I can ship that out to you as soon as possible uh I have 11 by 14 and 8 by 10s so just Adam Kenny art.com Kenny has an E before the why just so you know and Adam so is that a painting of a of a place this is the painting of a place yeah so I live in isqua Washington and there's a creek that runs through isqua isqua creek isqua creek believe it or not and uh I took a photo out there so then I did this painting um of that very nice o oil painting on panel wood panel yep I'll brag on you a little bit Adam so yeah you go ahead well Adam also teaches at uh a college I don't know Pacific paciic University yeah so he's good he just get keeps getting better and better I've got stuff that he drew when I when he was young three four five years old I it's gonna be famous someday I don't think so but I love the it's pretty cool Adam is very talented so he um yeah kind of you have so many different is it genres genres yeah where I mean I saw a drawing that you did of Squiggy yeah that was amazing yeah I do a lot of if you go my my Instagram is Adam Kenny art Adam kennyart I have a lot of black and white drawings on there and have or the white on black like white pencil on black so who are we giving this painting to Dr roll drum roll this painting is gonna be shipped to I think this is L Jasmine Jin l or something like that it's always tough on Instagram some of the names are really so difficult congratulations L Jasmine jel congrats I hope you enjoyed enjoy it it was a fun paint I feel like I with every painting I always feel like I'm getting better so there's so have never celebrated Christmas well enjoy yourself enjoy to the world an awesome time so real quick let's just look so Vietnam with love glad you're here from Vietnam uh where you from let's run through some of those uh Brazil Minnesota it will be 51 degrees for Christmas no snow no snow wow in Minnesota is that in the what's the Dome there Minnesota I don't know what is that Dome called The Viking Dome that's it super doome no that's manila manila okay uh T Compton Ukraine oh my goodness the Bronx hope you're doing okay out there hi from Manila the Bronx nice oh Nashville very cool this was recently in Nashville Billings Montana I'll be out in Montana in January end of January uh Taiwan Philippines Florida New Mexico Longmont Colorado Texas very cool love Texas I uh been to Dallas a few times and eaten at the Hard Eight love that barbecue uh so Detroit Michigan West Virginia Mountain Mama Take Me Home Country Roads Mexico City Asheville North Carolina been there my daughter was out in Knoxville for a time we visited there South Korea uh Kiev Guatemala Ohio Maine so yeah pretty awesome thank you thank you for being here am encroaching awes that's okay that's okay okay so we're gonna sing Jingle Bells jingle bell little lighter one yeah starting with the dashing through the snow yeah okay so let me get the tempo here uh dashing through the snow in a one hor open sleigh or the fields we go laughing all the ways onil ringing Bri what it is to and sing aay tonight oh jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in a on open sleigh hey jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in a one open SL a day or two ago I thought I'd take a ride and soon miss Benny bright was seated by my side the horse was lean and L Misfortune seemed his lock he got into a drifted bank and then we got up oh jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it is to ride in a one hor open sleigh hey jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh what fun it [Music] iside very good Adam nice job multi talented I I don't know if granddaughter uh Jacqueline is watching or not she'd be singing along to that that's why that's why I did the ha we always do that where are we at I don't know drawing three Rick Rick so Rick's got a couple things so we're going to divide them up though so your first one first one okay yeah uh it go also goes with a uh a uh dad joke oh okay what is one of a chiropractor's favorite tools it's almost too easy an adjustable wrench let me this bag of tricks bag of tricks here four this is what you'll be getting and I thought as part of my thing where what's going on with me I'm retired um so just enjoying life uh active in our church more active in our church um enjoying grandkids working on Grant kids Vehicles working on vehic constantly yeah who whoever's vehicles but I wanted to show you something with an adjustable wrench how to use it properly some people don't realize that that you use you're supposed to use it the right way okay is that okay to do this no well okay I'm shaking but no I mean a lot of people don't a lot of people don't know that you adjust it obviously uh but if you can see that you turn it like this you don't you don't have upside down like that like that where you're pulling on the jaw like that you always have the jaw going the other way where you're because that locks that that into the jaw you do it the other way and it PR it apart so a lot of people don't know that but it's the way you should do it but when you can try to use a regular boxand wrench yeah that way you don't round off the corners of the BT but um so Rick's giving away what are you giving away in your first giveaway on that crescent wrench your crescent wrench okay crescent wrench and the crescent wrench goes to St Fuego St Fuego St Fuego yeah so hopefully you Cong hope you'll use that wrench correctly yeah if we find out you're not we're gonna ask you you'll have to send you need to submit a video of you completely understanding how to use that okay and we're gonna have Rick honestly if you just for for just your own edification uh if you use a pipe wrench you'll see how a pipe wrench it locks by by turn if you go the other way it'll just loosen okay so there is a proper way to do that worth knowing I hope okay sorry no no no don't be sorry I've learned a lot of things from Rick so I just to be candid with some of my the stuff that I've taught and if I'm doing it wrong it's probably because I didn't learn it from Rick I I will I will comment Rick comment if he thinks that there's something I left out so have AER twe tweak that a little bit okay sorry y okay so where we at It Came Upon mid Came Upon a Midnight Clear or Came Upon the Midnight Clear which which is it what does it say on yours It Came Upon we'll go with that so my my print is very fine here very small so I'm gonna be kind of leaning forward awkwardly I like this song and uh let's see I think I'll go with one c chord and then you can just so and do we come back to this so do we do piece on throughout or do we do that at the end well it's just like we rehearsed which we didn't uh I have I basically just have three verses and I think you kind of have three verses here you just go boom boom boom I don't think so I think it just goes straight through does it okay well that's fine we'll just go straight through as long as we're good I think so all right so I'm just going to do like a little C and then just just like we didn't practice so it's going to [Music] be Came Upon of Midnight Clear that Glorious song of old from Angels bending near the Earth to touch their hearts of gold peace on the Earth Earth Good Will to men from Heavens all gracious King the world in Sol stillness lay to hear the Angels Sing still through the clo and skies they come with peaceful wings unfur and still their head Heavenly music floats for all the wey world above it sad and lowely plains they bend on hovering wings and ever B sounds the Blessed Angels Sing All Ye crushing Lo whose forms are bending low who to along the climing way with painful steps and slow look now for glad and golden Hours come swiftly on the wing oh rest beside the we and Angel sing I've got something in my throat I'm sorry trying this thing here apologize espe okay all right trying to leave these so that I moving right along I have a dad joke dad joke here but let's see where we at I'm going to give away I'm actually going to give away three book three of my books so I decided because that way we'll give away 10 things to give people more of a chance to to win yeah so um am I doing the book yeah before the dad yeah let's do a book and then we'll actually do a firestone oh nice yes too so my book uh yep and I'll sign it and write it to you is to I already gave that one away Mama Juju Mama Juju 27 96 congratulations you I think I just heard yell M Morana when is the second book get to writing uh I've thought about it I may end up uh doing something I've been toying with a lot of different things um might even self-publish maybe so that's cool yep um and so let's see the fire so Firestone you know again I got to give them credit they've been amazing to work with and if you've watched my videos with them they're not saying they're not putting words in my mouth they let me say God bless you at the end of my videos which I really appreciate um and they they've just been so easy to work with I love them um they flew me out to Nashville they well went to JBLM for that van giveaway and all it was was I'm there for the van giveaway they weren't you know if you watched that video there wasn't I wasn't saying hey buy a Firestone tires really do think that they just want to help support um what we're doing here and so and they very generous with these gift cards too right we got four $500 gift cards pretty much depending on your vehicle should be able to buy uh buy a set of tires for the most part or close close to it and then just have to pay yeah that's quite a discount I mean wow be a lot of help buy tires yeah so they're awesome just great people went out and we visited their they you know Bridgestone Firestone is out in Nashville where they're um headquarters are and so we got to tour the their facility and then we went to TJ you know saw TJ Williams I hope you've seen that video what she amazing wonderful woman and Jose I mean the impact she's had on just one life with Jose and then when I was talking to Jose we both kind of had mutual respect for each other he said he's watched my videos but I've I was inspired by him and then he's you know trying to pass along the Legacy to the rest of those uh young men there so he's just a fine young man but could have gone sideways had TJ not been in his life so pretty cool uh Hey today's my birthday I never had a dad so I'm really grateful for a channel like this thanks means a lot the effort you put through it's honestly worth so much well happy Birthday Jose Jose happy birthday so uh and then where are we at Morgana wish you happy birthday oh a bunch of people that's very cool look at that see I got the co I got the cool people everybody supports everybody you know acknowledged that before but let me acknowledge it again thank you for walking alongside each other too because I just can't I just don't have the bandwidth to necessarily get back to everybody I get emails and um messages and comments and stuff and I I try to because I want like I said before I want you to feel seen in this world you can feel like you're all by yourself at times and it can be lonely and I hope that you feel loved and if you need to feel that way come back my channel and watch a video right I mean that's what we're trying to do something a wholesome channel that anybody and everybody could come in and feel like feel like you you've been loved right so um so Firestone gift card the first one this n deserves a drum oh yeah Carrie Lynn EXO EXO I'm assuming kisses and hugs car Lyn kisses and hugs wow [Applause] congratulations thank you again Firestone go get those bald tires replaced okay so how we doing on time 8:34 K okay so hark the herald angel sing we're gonna do next who is this Harold guy oh I was gonna do a dad joke oh was it anything that that was it kind of a dad joke it was it is kind of a dad joke now where did my dad jokes go they're in your oh boy other file what's that one heart The Herald okay we got to be careful on this one yeah we can't start too high is that one it might be that one we had to start P oh well I it is okay oh sorry okay I use my best one start off it wasn't even mine so what did I'll maybe I'll do two here okay what did the horse say after it tripped oh I'm hoing it that's pretty good I don't know help I've fallen and I can't gidy up [Laughter] oh okay and have you ever tried to eat a clock I don't have time it's very timec consuming time consuming good that's good okay so we are here we're staying along yep we got that and then we'll do another Firestone drawing after this so stay tuned for the next fireone drawing and we're going to sing hearty heral Angel [Music] sing theal Angels Sing glory to the new king peace on Earth and mercy mild God and S recile joyful all ye nations rise join the the Triumph of the Skies with Angelic host Proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem the Herald Angels Sing glory to the new king ha the heaven Prince of Peace hail the son of righteousness light and to all he BRS with healing in his wings while he lay his glory by born that man no more may die Born to Raise the sons of earth born to give them second birth theal Angels Sing glory to the newborn king are we doing it again okay I don't know yeah we can there was one more I saw three yeah that's the same as and one and a and the Herald Angels Sing glory to the new born King peace on Earth and mercy M God and siners recile joyful all ye nations rise join the trium of the with Angelic host Proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem theal Angels Sing glory to the newn king one more time hey they didn't get it the first two that was way better than the first time we sang it a couple oh yeah you can't start too kill you yeah yeah we were all scared of that one coming in we were we were a little nervous and so we didn't practice we figured practice I think I think I said this last time I worked with a guy that he said when he was a kid and would sing that song he thought that Harold was the name of the Angel it was Harold the angel bring news yeah the name I'm just now learning this you're scaring [Laughter] me okay so another Firestone so we did that Firestone ready Merry Christmas to all you guys sorry I interrupted that's okay no you're good you're good uh Matt Henderson you won5 one I was hoping that Firestone one yes congratulations Matt yeah congrats very cool so so just so you know know so people that I've uh that we've called that are winners please email me at Dad how DOI gmail.com put giveaway winner in the title that would be good and then I need to know how to get you the prize right if it's a gift card I can just email it to you so if you've emailed me already we're good uh but if it's one of the other prizes we're going to need a physical address to send the stuff to yeah right so make sure you do that okay okie doie [Music] oh Joy to the World and then we're going to do another Rick giveaway and then we're going to do another Firestone giveaway after that so how many verses do you have for Joy to the World I've got I have Joy to the World I've got it if you don't I don't think I have it just Talk Amongst yourselves there's your dad Joe hey all right very good Adam thank you I'll just do this a lot I got we wish you Merry Christmas and the 12 Days of Christmas but I do not have Joy to the [Music] World okay while he's doing that I got another dad joke for you Adam that's aggressive scared him a little bit was like being back home with him little kid my stuff what yeah I did live with you guys that times with Travis uh so why do cows wear Bells this is an oldie cows Bells why do cows wear Bells somebody probably knows this anybody know this come up with it okay you're like me you're stunk see there's Lisha she always comes and comments she's one of the names that I mentioned earlier cows wear Bells um because they cheering this patience up that's good we're what we're cheering somebody up with our singing oh okay she's singing along with us maybe good ask Miss patience yeah singing with you okay nice cheering you up yeah she makes comments a lot too so thank you so that when let's see music so they can Bellow what why do cows wear Bells so they can Bellow so you move out of the way so you move out of the way that I think that's what she meant there because their horns don't work there it is I got it score good job Chris good job good Google searching on that Chris you're you're really fast okay so Joy to the World and you got it in micro writing in micro yeah oh yeah well you don't need it though no I don't but how many verses do you have just two uh one two three four so this is just something I learned uh this is just an aside about Dr of world uh if you know music at all you just go down backwards through the uh major scale to play [Music] the wow wow just learned that recently it's pretty cool huh that is very cool they're pretty easily impressed I got a big wow I don't know wow okay uh okay so here we go Joy to the World the Lord is come let Earth receive her King let every heart prepare him R and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and heaven and heaven and nature sing Joy to the World the Savior Reigns let men their songs employ while fields and floods rocks Hills and plains repeat the sounding Joy repeat the sounding Joy repeat theing Joy this one okay no more let sins and Sorrows grow your Thorns inest the ground he comes to make his Blessing flow far as the curse is found far as the curse is found far as far as C he rules the world with truth and Grace and makes the Nations Pro the glories of his rightousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wers wonders of his love nice Joy to the World Joy to the World Joy to the World at Christmas time yep y so we got Rick again Rick's drawing I know you're looking forward to this more than the fire you get a lesson out of this one too you might tool you might learn you might um got another dad joke to lead into oh okay what's the other favorite tool of the chiropractor oh of the chiropractor um I don't know the slip to Joint Flyers slip slip joint probably nobody even knows of the slip joint fers is well that's why they come to your channel to learn what a slip joint pliers is so uh a slip joint players you can adjust it to go two different sizes they're they're super handy although you got to be careful you know use a tool properly uh you can cut wire with them you can uh grab stuff that's that's tough to pull out of something but uh using them on nuts and stuff like that use a wrench first last I mean if you got to round it off nut then you maybe clamp on this and they got the serrated Jaws to grip it and what have you so anyway they're a good tool to have yeah I have I have one of those yeah they're not don't go to it first no no back use a wrench it's kind of a backup thing yeah oh you guys are too kind Merry Christmas to all of you uh hugs from Brazil this is very cool you guys Rick Rick you go on too long no they doesn't in conclusion okay so what do we got going on oh Firestone so Rick and then Firestone you give that away yet did I miss that come on I get so concerned with our lesson that we forgot to give it away I'm keeping it whoops my fault that was my fault okay so it's this one right here okay drum [Music] roll with vir wow I am k j h no you're not you are I guess not yeah congratulations I would guess I am KJ i a m kjh yeah all little letters congratulations congrats yeah congratulations you'll like them so that was that uh let's see and your no I'm that's after and then so we got another Firestone another Firestone so drum roll please there you go I was waiting for that that's we added that I like it okay uh underscore Jennifer McLendon congratulations you won a $500 you got like Firestone that's crazy I know yeah they're very generous and they've been they've just been so good to me so uh let's see what else we got here I'll save that Dad joke for later so we got that so we're going to do d we try it we can try christm what 12 days of Christmas are we doing it off memory though no I so I have this so here's the tricky part this always kind of makes it fun I think um we're gonna each take a now it go back and forth no no you're in I can't play this and do that at all are you serious you don't have to play this time are you Ser we're just gonna do it Acappella okay AA okay you don't want accompanyment that's fine you're doing great but we want you to sing yeah yeah okay so we're going to start off so who wants the first one I did that one year and that's horrible in a fair tree because you got to sing it over and over again okay I'll forget okay so you'll do that or do you want to go like I thought it'd be easier in the line yeah so you'll do partrige inent ends up in the line anyway okay partridge in a par tree I'll do two turtle doves you'll do three French hens four calling words should we do Serpentine no well that's you'll never get that oh you're really confusing we Loop in figure eight oh yeah figure eight yeah so am I going to do so if you're doing that I'm doing that you're doing that are we all gonna do five gold rings so I kind of get a do we need to mark it no we f it no it's all right this I'm gonna Mark mine behind the scenes Rob we're letting you in on our practice session thank you for joining us yeah this is just part of process oh but you and I both have okay no bad ideas you know this is just the whole sorry time out the premise of the channel is that you can do anything you set your mind to right if you just look at the end work backwards yeah Rick we'll get through this and getting out of your comfort zone TV or not somebody want to tell a dad joke while I'm doing this you got one I I I'm running out ofor jok uh dogs this is here's a here's a medical joke oh okay hang on let me finish this then dogs uh can't run MRIs but CAT scan ah nice CAT scan oh that's nice I guess I didn't get a laugh I thought it was funny is it better to get a laugh with one of those drok or to get a ah hey I know you can always go to reading the comments Ariana beautiful songs I like singing along or love singing along thank you Ariana thank you for singing along too uh definitely putting me in the Christmas spirit Al thanks for that um Oldtimer I I can relate to you uh this is awesome good for you okay yeah I'm ready okay the challenge is ready I have to tell you that so speaking of that yeah we uh I there's been times where I've been you know been filmed and stuff and uh but the one of the earlier ones I went down for a shoot down in uh down in California and they were getting ready and they said oh and this is the talent I'm like I'm the called they called that [Laughter] before you look behind so oh yeah okay so we're singing We gotta sing this part together right yeah we got to start so okay well let's start okay let's go on the I'm starting at the 12 on the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree on the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree on the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me three French two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree on the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four calling Birds Three French Hens two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree so far so good yeah we're doing good on the fth day of Christmas my true love gave to me five gold old Rings four calling Birds Three French tens two Turtle does and a partridge in a pair tree day of Christmas my true love gave to me six pie of laying five gold rings four calling Birds Three French h two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree on the seven of Christmas my true love gave to me seven swans of swimming six laying five gold rings four calling Birds Three French Hens two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree on the eth day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight maids of milking seven SW swans are swimming six EA laying five gold rings four calling Birds Three French Hens two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree on the Christmas true love gave to me nine ladies dancing eight maids of milking seven swans swimming six Ling five gold rings four calling Birds Three French and two turtle dove and a partridge in a pear tree on on the 10th day Christmas my true love gave to me 10 Lords are leaping nine ladies dancing eight maids are milking seven swans are swimming six are laying five gold rings four calling Birds three two Turtle does and a partridge in a pear tree on the 11 day of Christmas love to me 11 Pipers piping 10 Lords are leaping nine ladies dancing eight maids of milking seven swans of swimming sixing five gold rings four calling Birds Three French t two Turtle Dov and a partridge in a pear tree on the 12th day of Christmas my true love give to me 12 drummers druming 11 Pipers piping 10 Lords are leaping nine ladies dancing eight maids are milking seven swans are swimming six are laying five gold rings four calling Birds Three French and two turtle doves and a partridge in a PA tree wow if you had not written that on there we' have never done I was Los I'm telling you that was a great idea the notes paid off I would have been lost so nice look at them all five gold rings oh they're singing along with us that's awesome so that we're there 12 Days of Christmas I'm going to give away another one of my books another book what is that that's that let me hold your book up trying to get organized here it's a long terminal that is so my book my book this is the last one okay my book that I'll be sending to somebody uh share SS EC sh s s h a share SS EC congratulations congratulations and then Firestone the last Firestone gift card this one was Kimmy love to Kimmy love to congratulations again if you've won that's all the gifts all the giveaways but stay tuned for our W wish you a merry Christmas but uh remember to email me right I don't have or I'll email you we're just gonna keep these gonna be able to get that that cards out at the family Christmas there you go if you don't claim it if you don't claim it I might get it okay we're good there and then that's kind of wrapping up here yeah we are went fast y not for these guys it uh so thank you again everybody for being here we're gonna sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas because that's always fun uh and it I always think of the as I was looking at the lyrics um if you've heard the Muppets version of it won't go won go animal p can't can't get oh is that one the line yeah yeah she uh they say figgy pudding and Miss figgy's like Piggy pudding then he goes no figgy it does have bacon oh that's hilarious didn't know that anyway thank you guys so much thank you for your support and uh just this is been crazy uh I say that every time but considering where it came from and where it's at now it's just been uh quite the right and grateful for all of you uh I'm grateful for my family too um being joining in here it would be weird for me to just sit here and sing Christmas Girls by myself I think uh but anyway so thank you everybody for joining us we're going to sing We wish you Merry Christmas and wrap things up so I don't have cords you don't need them perfect so are we gonna try to let's go from Top yeah okay we wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year good tidings we bring to you and your K We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year BR us figgy pudding bring us figgy pudding bring us figgy pudding and bring it right here good tidings we bring to you and your We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we won go until we get some until we get get it right here tidings we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we all like ourg all like our figgy pudding get our figgy pudding good cheers good tidings we bring to you and your K We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year yeah all right Merry Christmas Merry Christmas everybody love you thank you for being here enjoy Christmas awesome time yeah hopefully you get a chance to relax and spend some time yeah just kind of thinking about deeper things because we can get so busy with so many other things so many distractions social media all that so I'm probably not going to post for next week or so uh just to kind of take some time off to to enjoy enjoy myself somebody's getting us some figgy pudding would you bring us some figgy pudding never I never have either but we won't go until we get some I hope it's good so okay merry thank you everybody love youin the Lord Has Come God bless you see you all right

I guess he this we're live we are live from New York oh from Seattle sorry horrible dad joke so uh Hey kids thank you oh my wife is listening to us in the background so glad you're all here we're really excited to to be here again do you like my uh I'm not sure what Rick's got going on here but gotat lady I'm just a lumberjacking my tree my red truck glad you're all here thank you for showing up uh we should have some fun we got some great prizes I think uh you know the Firestone gift cards I thought we're pretty and then there's my wife again uh so we thought we'd start a little bit early so oh my goodness there's uh so many comments in all right nice nice so glad you're here uh TR so this is my brother Rick for those that you don't that don't know um he's the one I went to live with when I was younger so him and his wife Karen he's nine years older than me does he look it at least and and this is Adam this is Rick's son Adam he's nine years younger yeah no no we don't need to go into ages and Travis couldn't make it unfortunately you know I did my podcast with Travis so a lot of you may be amiliar with him uh but unfortunately he couldn't make it he had a cough and it's it's a bummer he couldn't make it because he has a lot Tois yeah nice to miss hopefully you're watching this Travis so yeah right uh anyway um yeah so it's unfortunate he couldn't make it here because he laughs at his own jokes and so it's always nice never dead air with Travis right never he's good at filling in he is real good uh so let me see we might go a little bit longer than usual I think um normally we try to keep it 30 minutes to 45 minutes but I think we've got just so many things going on that will probably go a little bit longer and we do like to kind of engage with you guys too as we're uh as we're going along too but not get so distracted with that because it can be a little distracting I like that you you all look fairly young thank you thank you is it light and it's our makeup yeah so um I do have Super Chat enabled whatever that means uh so somebody asked asked me that last time and I didn't even know what it was to be honest with you I can explain it Super Chat is a way people can make donations oh and their their chat will like be highlighted and so it's a way in which they can interact on like a a level where we can see it a little more easily oh okay how that works okay it's pretty super it's a super chat it's a super way of chatting so uh let's see what do we got going on here um we always like to say where are you from I think that it's always just crazy to see uh what how this channel has gone across the globe and recently I was going to share this when I tell a little bit about what's going on with me but just today I was on a TV show in Indonesia so Jakarta I recorded that a while back so anyway crazy that this has uh become what it's become and hopefully you know we'll continue to grow this thing and um have a movement of trying to encourage people to be able to do things for themselves and be the best people that they can be so much love from Alabama Alabama we got relatives there now we do yeah my brother moved right my brother Jo daughter is in Alabama Massachusetts resident alien from India oh that's rash or is that rash because I I know I have anyway so Saudi Arabia see Morgana she's Morana Morgana is always faithful she is So speaking of that I one of the things I wanted to do at the risk of leaving people out I don't want to leave people out because there's certainly a lot of people that comment on my on my different channels but I just want to run through a real quick list of names of people that have been faithful uh to comment and uh encourage encourage uh you know they um I got people praying for me and I I do appreciate that so so Amy uh Morgana thank you so much you're you're on the list of course Lisha she always comments and says nice things Jeffrey I know he always he um sends me direct messages and says he's praying for me Malone uh I you know these names I don't know if they're real names or not but you know who you are right it might be your Alias rash uh she's always good to to comment Julie is really faithful I don't want to read your last names necessarily in case you want that to be private hiding from the police uh care bear 8198 thank you so much for always commenting Kelly Lynn has been really uh faithful squeak your mind uh she always comments uh Amy Fuentes uh is another one real Nick BB might be pronouncing that wrong gratzi g r a a zce thank you uh Christina thank you and danne Chrissy so uh again at the risk of leaving people because I could probably read that all day but I just wanted to let you know that I do recognize you constantly coming back and encouraging me so so thank you for that uh let's see hi Poland hi Brazil yeah we didn't really acknowledge where you're all from but yeah Chicago Iraq oh my goodness yeah very cool nice fix the fireplace damper today it was knocked out of place nice okay good job that's very uh I don't know I've shared that before I remember when we were younger um and uh we went to light a fire and I didn't know about the fireplace damper having that open right because if you don't Smoke's going to come into your house you got to open that up but you want to keep it closed right so the rest of the time there I think that's a relative R oh Laticia that's uh my mom my wife's mom hi Mom [Laughter] I call oh that's lety that's hi lety yep yep so uh and one thing unfortunately I'm really sorry about this but the the prizes are for people in the I said continental US it really should be contiguous contiguous United States but I'll honor the continental United States because that would include Alaska but the only reason we did that is just because it's just tricky uh you know there might not be a Firestone in different countries uh and so we tried to keep it simple in the future with other prizes maybe we could do something where we yeah include everybody International International shiing uh yeah so uh first uh do I have a dad joke maybe I'll maybe I'll tell a d what I know gosh it's been a busy season ad Adam's expecting his wife is expecting so I don't have any dad jokes yet but in a couple months I'm sure I'll have some yeah okay so I saw this online so I this from somebody but I thought it was so clever so did you hear about the blind Cyclops Brothers No neither have [Laughter] [Music] I very very true is that [Laughter] hilarious you had to go you had to go to Cyclops to make that work right neither have I that's pretty good so all right so we already did the drawings and I have backups Ina in Cas so I'm not going to read the backup names but we did the drawings backup names in case you're not actually in the contiguous Continental Continental us so the connected States we'll start with that so my book and I'll I'll uh sign this and personalize it for you so my book the first drum let's see is drum roll it's like Christmas Vacation vation myps are frozen it's it's becca.