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by Miss Kelly Rocky and Miss Chrissy while our coach by Mrs and missena [Applause] B ladies and Gentlemen please welcome these visiting Highlanders number four Addison seider number seven Ali Rocky number 13 Captain Allison [Applause] s got number 88 Captain [Applause] Benjamin number eight Emily kitki number 23 Gabriel Parker number two Jana letto number 16 Captain jayen Foster number nine Jonathan real number 18 Caitlyn [Applause] Clark number 12 Kelly buttery number three Kristen [Applause] thewacky number 15 Riley Marshall number five Sarah kamu number 11 Sarah de gra number 20 sopia Ki number one Taylor Samson and number 14 Vincent Freeman ladies and gentlemen here are our fighting [Applause] musters number 20 Vincent [Music] [Applause] Alo number 34 [Music] [Applause] RTO number 4 Bry glorio number 25 Jai Denby number Eric [Applause] Kowski number 12 David Mia number 32 Neil paral number four vrio number 24 hza Ry number two Christian selar number 15 Daniel Z number one ibraim W and ladies and gentlemen our mentors number 10 Aiden [Music] Kowski number aen barell [Music] number 21 Kyle [Applause] barell number 13 Ryan [Music] Hansen number 11 Lindy Molina and number three Paulie [Applause] ladies and gentlemen kindly welcome students aen Riley and Amaya lzada who are representing Mrs lesler sign language 2 class who will be signing our national anthem in conjunction with its plane at this time we ask you to stand remove your caps and face our American flag located at the North End of the gymnasium as we honor America by playing our National [Music] [Applause] [Music] ano [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank [Applause] you [Music] you [Music] e [Music] [Applause] come [Music] keep [Music] what [Music] m [Applause] [Music] you [Music] get game on and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen I'm your voice the Mustangs vit Chulo and thank you guys for tuning in to this uh basketball game here at CLI it's a UniFi basketball game between Clifton and the Highlanders West Milford and there should be a good one here good movement here a shot and they score early two nothing [Music] [Applause] Highlanders and Clon moving the ball around a shot taken there and it's good Christian Salazar nice shot from him and it'll be tied at two Highlanders with it now drive in and put up a shot and a rebound there by the Mustangs and a pass down Court to Salazar he loses it for a second passes it shot taken there that one no good Aiden Ferrell one of the mentors on the [Music] shot Highlanders with now ooh a nice Tribble move [Music] there and a pass inside that one a little high and a shot Tak it there that one no good nice athletic rebound to put [Music] back a couple shots good defense from the Mustangs and it'll be Clon ball Clon [Music] ball and the mentor frell will get it and he'll pass it to to Kyle farell looking for Salazar nice steal by the Highlanders pass out Court a shot there that one just doesn't go nice rebound by Ferell to Salazar Salazar with the jumper that one doesn't go rebound by phell and a l great shot that one just doesn't go and nice steal there by Salazar Salazar behind the back the shot oh that one just a tad High nice atic play so far by [Music] [Applause] Salazar good defense by Salazar and Salazar will get the [Music] rebound Salazar going with another behind the back move able to stay he'll wants the ball shot taken that one just no good really good play by both teams so far and oh the Highlanders just can't get that one and it's 42 [Music] [Applause] Highlanders a shot there that one high oh what a nice athletic Play to save it from going out of bounds and the Highlanders will have the ball again it's 42 Highlanders Salazar trying to steal the ball [Music] away good defense by Salazar and he has it and he's trying to get the break away trips a little bit spins Fade Away Nails [Applause] there Christian Salazar with the two and it's 44 and a shot there that one a tad High goes off Salazar but they'll say it went out of bounds and it'll be Clifton ball and Clifton will put it its Subs some more of its fantastic athletes [Applause] [Music] it looks like Ryan Hansen will go in as one of the mentors along with uh and ferrell again way turn around come this [Music] way and oh Clifton's going to inbound [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] here and a shot TI there one just no good very nice effort by Vincent Alano mean him share a first name shot there by Islanders that one no good nice rebound and a steal by the Mustangs rly quo with the steel farell with it now pass to hson he shoot the three oh bounces off the rim we are tied at [Music] four [Music] and a three taken there Oh They'll call it two but a long range jumper it'll be six nothing it'll be 64 Highland [Applause] [Music] nurse and a shot taken there one's gone alo vinon alo gets the basket and the Mustangs by the game at [Music] six and the three oo just no good rebound [Applause] there clo with it [Applause] now clo with the three o lot of power behind that shot too he's going to take another one oo just doesn't go but heck of an effort got a lot of uh lot of long range uh jumpers right there shot taken there just [Applause] short the Mustangs are going back down the court it's claudo again oo Bradley cladio definitely a dangerous threat behind the three point line so watch out and a two TI it there that one's SC it's 86 r one minute left one minute oh one minute left in the [Applause] quter with the ball and a still made there by the Highlanders a breakway that one's good 10 six Highlanders and claudo is going to take it up he's very eager to score Tak get a couple shots this game right at the free throw line takes a dribble moves back gets that shot off and out of the win it is 20 seconds left it's 10 six Highlanders that one tied Highlanders still have it they're going inside the paint Oh Long pass pass 10 seconds three taken there no good 4 seconds left Tes for the buzzer beer and that's the end of the quarter and West Milford holds the 106 lead at the end of the first we will be back all right I'll see you soon [Music] Clon ready to go [Music] in Clon we need one more [Music] player we're getting inbound Clifton we're going to [Music] inbound someone from Clifton go by the official [Music] please here we go and we are back for the second quarter of three right off the bat that one doesn't go pck of an effort though and the Highlanders have the [Music] ball and that one will go out of [Applause] [Music] bounds clion tound here they do [Music] [Applause] [Music] he does take the shot the whistle blown beforehand so that one won't count but a nice effort on the [Music] shot West mil INB and they take a three that one doesn't go but they're going to take another shot oh that one just doesn't go another put back good [Music] [Applause] [Music] effort and a shot Tak there that will go W it's 126 Islanders oh a shot from half [Music] [Applause] [Music] court good defense from Clifton and a shot taken there that one's goodone it's 14-6 Highlanders that's [Music] guau and Clifton has the ball he's got a plan ladies G he has it see is he going to take a shot oh he's in there takes the shot oh heck of a play though get back on defense and the Highlanders have it Clifton try to get back on defense well good shot that one doesn't go put back by the Highlanders and they take the 10-point lead [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh and the Highlanders will steal and a three just doesn't go Clon with the [Applause] [Music] rebound a pass there Clifton with the ball still and a shot that one doesn't go hits the rim [Music] effort and a long range shot for the Highlanders there that one doesn't go and they get the layup and that one goes up and through 186 and good hustle there gets in the paint takes the shot that one doesn't go oh gets his rebound Amman with another rebound bzo Amman theum switching off once again and we're going to switch in our Saabs [Music] [Applause] Westford to inbound and West Milford will inbound they have the 10-point lead [Applause] oh and a steal there and he puts up the layup that one just doesn't go [Music] [Applause] through heck of an [Music] [Applause] [Music] eff oh high pass C him with it now nice move oh goes with the layup nice effort once [Music] again oh nice move that one out of bounds westf West mil thir [Music] possession pass there shot taken that one just doesn't go west wford still get gets the rebound another shot that one's [Applause] goodone just moving the ball down Court oh and a nice [Music] move and a foul call there number 23 [Music] first salard inbound pass there shot taken that was go forio fores with the two it's 20- [Applause] [Music] and a shot taken there heck of an effort oh tries for the block fake shot that one for two that one doesn't [Applause] go oh a nice move by Salazar he puts up the two now let's [Applause] go heck of a [Music] move three take one now and this doesn't go west out on West mford it be cliff in ball minute and nine left in the quarter's moving down [Music] court and a shot taken there that was just no good but a good rebound [Music] and that one goes through Hamza Ramsey with the two 40 seconds left 40 seconds remaining 40 seconds and [Music] [Applause] coming High [Music] Pass shot taken there that one doesn't go Salazar with it Salazar trying to move down a nice steal by the Highlanders we a Sho [Music] [Applause] [Music] down [Music] 10 seconds left 8 seconds 8 seconds now Clon hasn't a chance to get any game in that was good to end the corner Clon gets the two and Clon 16 Clon Trails by 4 20- 16 after they get the buzzer beater by Salazar we will be back for the second half [Music] go on the other side [Applause] [Music] highand down we begin the second half of play and we are back for the second half West mford holds the 16 of the 2016 lead over hton both teams playing with a lot of effort playing really hard W mford has position now and a shot there that was [Applause] good by the [Music] [Applause] to C in with it [Music] now and a long range shot Tak there that one just doesn't go nice shot [Applause] though and a three rebound by the [Applause] Mustangs uh-oh ball goes loose out of bounds and it'll be the Highlanders ball [Music] both teams playing really good basketball right [Applause] now oh a pass there a three just doesn't go CL try to get the rebound Highlanders come down with it Highlanders still have it wall range three that one doesn't go saves it from going out of bounds great save another three rebound by the [Applause] [Music] Mustangs by bar nice slide there by Ferell to save the [Music] ball Clinton get back on defense Highlanders Havoc Clinton try to get back on defense a shot there rebound by Clon with [Music] it able to hang on to the ball [Music] [Applause] there takes a shot oh that one close Clinton's going to inbound the ball okay close it to inbound [Music] here a nice pass there a shot good effort gets his own rebound what a shot [Applause] that one out off and it'll be highter [Music] [Applause] ball and a layups there rebound by Clifton Barrell has it nice pass and a three good effort up for ball switch it up with some substitutions Highlanders will as [Music] well Clon is on defense okay C's on defense here the Highlanders have [Music] [Applause] [Music] it defense [Applause] [Music] byon one [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] TI a shot taken there CL with the rebound it's salor with the Superstar for CLI of that game this game so far leading the team in points tries to go for a little trick shot there nice effort on his end CED ball and it'll be cliped [Music] ball and he add to inbound the [Music] [Applause] ball with it he's going to take a shot he's waiting he shoots he scor [Applause] with the basket for [Music] Clifton and a shot taken there by the Highlanders and Salazar with the breakway good rebound by the SS Amad with the shot nice effort [Applause] there Salazar gets it back again and another shot there by Clon good [Music] [Applause] rebounding behind there number 23 bar second personal foul against [Music] Barka Salazar with it the jumper oh it does it [Applause] [Music] go oh what a nice step back rebound by Clifton Salazar with it oh goes with like a windmill type shot quter and he takes a nice jumper there and that one goes Salazar again left 50 seconds left in the quarter the Highlanders with it Salazar with the steale takes another shot oh that one doesn't go trying to get the rebound the Highlanders come through second left 35 seconds wall range shot taken there that one goes out of [Music] bounds 2 seconds 20 seconds lenzo Amman has it he's run it down Court Amman has it 7 seconds he passes it his shot there that one does it go saved by the Highlanders buzzer be his shot oh just does it go really nice play 20 it is 2220 and action cack game for both teams stay tuned for the fourth quarter we will be right back [Music] for [Music] hear [Music] k clion is going to inbound the ball Clon is going to inbound the ball as we begin the fourth and final quarter of play all right so this one cl stops [Music] [Applause] we're back for the fourth quarter Clifton with the ball and a steal there by the Highlanders by a shot taken there they score steing basket by Freeman a stealing basket very [Applause] nice CED with it now oh high dribble gets in the paint takes the shot that one's good by vinc Alo Alano with the basket and a rebound there by the [Music] Mustangs [Applause] and a steal there by the [Applause] Highlanders puts up two shots gets two [Music] rebounds now it goes third times the Char all he needed was a couple of dribbles there and he gets [Applause] it [Music] [Applause] what a pass inside a shot oh that one just no good get back on defense back got to get back on defense a three taken there oh heck of an effort tries to keep it in bounds goes out out [Music] on be Clon ball Mr lesler laughing over there they said it was out on Clon and then clion just takes it it'll be their ball and that one will be out on Clon it'll be West Milford [Music] ball 555 left here in the corner 2622 Highlanders and a shot there by the big man and he scores Benjamin white nails that one very very tall basically the [Music] center [Music] oh a nice pass down cor a break away gets in the paint shoot to the rebound by the Highlanders a put back rebound [Music] again get a ton of rebounds in the highter score by Vincent Freeman by Vincent Freeman there couple of people of this game who share a first name with me but definitely more talented at basketball than I am and a long range shot out onon west that one out on Clifton West milord ball 454 [Music] left and a long range shot that one good effort rebound by West Milford another long range jump that one's SC by [Applause] [Music] Foster is 3322 on our scoreboard here oh high throw in the air this Ste for West [Music] Miler that go we're going to in up C bu putting in their [Music] STS clipon ball ladies and gentlemen Clon going to what we need [Music] [Applause] [Music] one and they're just trying to situate here who's going to inbound the ball for Clifton got a lot of talented kids on this team they just can't come down to one go and they get the one to inbound and we are halfway through this fourth quarter 4 minutes left it's 3522 West Milford uhoh clipon has it shot there oh heck of an effort and now the Highlanders have it shot there just a go nice rebound by the Highlanders a three Nails it by Kelly [Music] butter [Music] inbound oh makes a move inside the paint takes the shot oh ice Seer gets his rebound takes another shot that [Applause] good Ramy Hano Ramsey with the basket uhoh a breakway that one's good for two by oh but got it inbound and a shot taken there that was actually very close but he didn't inbound inbound the ball just saying the heck with [Music] it why not right so eager to take some shots oh there he goes again all rang oh that was actually really close Nice [Applause] Shot they have it a shot taken there does it go put back no good nice rebound and West Milford will score making it 42- [Music] [Applause] the and a shot there that one's C by H Ramsey nice shot by hamzo Ramsey and a three good rebound by [Applause] [Music] Clifton BL Milford still has it rebounded by the Highlanders long range jumper that let's good toter by two player there Ramy with it [Music] again let go for a shot oh aggressive shot goes right off the rim Highlanders with it a break away rebound that one's go by 1 minute and 10 seconds left it's 4626 West [Music] [Applause] Milford and that one goes out of [Music] bounds [Music] [Applause] [Music] time clion is going to inbound when we resume play we are waiting on one more Clifton athlete one [Music] more seconds ladies and gentlemen [Applause] 50 seconds round 50 seconds left to try to get pass time before he gets pass5 seconds shot for the free throw line that one doesn't go rebound by West mil thir 30 [Music] seconds oh and a shot TI it there that one doesn't go wer gets the rebound that one doesn't go rebound by phell 15 seconds just cped hustles down the court to try and score and he gets the basket bask count ladies gentlemen the basket will [Music] count oh it's going to be an and one I think as he's going to take a free throw Bradley Claudia 9 seconds left gets the basket impressive on top of that an animon [Music] C to line for the Mustang shooting [Applause] one quum mve it back and he steps up making it a challenge for him takes the shot oh that one just doesn't go 7 seconds left Russ Milford has the ball three 2 one now I'm blocked that's the end of the game with the High there is 46 and [Applause] your 28 and West takes the 46 out today thank you Westford takes the 4628 win but it's a win for both teams heck of an effort LS Onan tune in the girls basketball game coming up between Clifton and pcti good job by West Milford and Clifton and I will see you in the next live stream ladies and gentlemen have a great rest of your day Clifton

absent Miss Rodriguez here Dr Su Dr sholz Miss Valen uh everybody's here except for Mr G okay no need to adopt appointed acting clerk so I have a motion to adopt the agenda I'll make the motion I'll second Miss Olsson I Mr kesa I Mr Hopkins Miss Rodriguez I approved four to zero pleas stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and and we have no public comments tonight so on to the governing board report of current events does anybody have anything to report uh I I for that's for us congratulations Mr President oh thank you that's all I got okay I forgot to bring I was going to bring um I got an email from a company that's uh rural leadership partnership and they're having a lunch in at the conference center and they were wanting folks involved in leadership positions in the town know that they're invited to it um they sent it to me and then a friend of mine knows that and they were already coming to AO and he mentioned to them that he was like oh I know somebody so he told them I was on school board but I printed it out and forgot it because it's not been a great day but I'll um if you don't mind I'll email it to you and absolutely no pressure to it it's just one of those things that I thought folks might be interested in this probably doesn't apply what I'm saying anyway the we have on the 22nd we have the J T meeting on the 24th so on Wednesday um I've been emailing information you guys are all welcome to it's a drive up to what it tuon P County J office so um and they're gonna walk us around and have lunch and all that kind of be in town that day so um I'll send the emails out again there no pressure it's just an invitation to everybody um Dr Sto and Mrs stolz are going um Mr gig Mr gig I'm sorry it's been a long day my bad um so the invitation still out perfect okay you know what time it is Chance off 11 11 11 3 anything more for the board report then we're on to superintendent report of current events yes Mr President members of the board um I wanted to share something with you uh just a little update kind know what's been going on on from December to uh to right now so uh have a pier we prepared for you and it has a this is what we' posted on our a Facebook um this is first the campus clean up from December 9th there is a a group picture and we had a good turnout uh the main coordinator was Daniel cotton team leaders included Mike Robertson coach ker and Coach leco so really good turnout uh we uh shined the trophy cases the troph tropes trophy cases polished and Shine the bleachers I believe coach leco hit the boys locker room coach Cruiser hit the the double doors and all around the gym and Mr Robertson painted the girls locker room and so this is what we sent out on uh on Theo Facebook did make sure to put down we had a Mr coach leco Mr ker were also present but when we took the picture towards the end of the cleanup um they weren't there but I wanted to make sure we had to recognize everybody but good turnout uh Margaret Bissell also did a real good job with a group of people in the lobby area so that was a clean up from December night that was our fourth cleanup the next uh picture we have this is a par confo this is something new we started this year in line with the action plan just to have a more public Community uh engagements forums and so the focus of this parent capacito was a school safety drill to go over the practice High School evacuation and also data update we also worked with Miss W Wallace you can see her to the right there against the wall uh classroom parent group also we had them just have the meeting during our parent confer just to get to get uh more people in but also to talk about multiple uh multiple issues and so that was our second parent coffee of the year the next one Angelina this is a we've been doing the fabulous Friday shout out for this is my second year and I'm just trying to you know change it up a little bit so a long story short this was from the December 13th professional development and really we really felt that uh you know Dr shol and I talking about it we wanted to recognize all of our teachers because that like today's professional development was a professional Learning Community Focus which is an extension of of B Unified School District and how they became a schools in the May District so the top uh picture was here in the the governing board room was our k16 along with uh you can see there from right to left missan Mr Sno Mr Mr espa missus missia missa Ina um Miss Queeny and miss miss mercy and I were with the k6 group and the bottom right you have our middle school and high school team of left to right first Ro Mr V Miss Domingo um Miss Fernandez miss guo the back R right to left Miss mararo Mr Lara Miss Williams and Mr maningo they worked with Dr shabot and Mr Casey in s we just that data from act data aasa data aala data uh um dibles data and then we had the CT team uh we have Dr Conley and missz for culinary arts and digital photography we could get we could get Mr Chi and Mr Q at the same time for electronics and Aerospace but uh we recognized all of them because that was a really like today Dr shol and I were talking we had another PLC meeting today and our Focus really H to the English Learners really focusing on the aella that's a key part to the ad letter grade we have about 120 English Learners so their role is critical to our success as they do well our entire district will do well so really wanted to catch all of our teachers hard at work looking at the data and and really making the best of our PLC time the next one Angelina we have a we want want to make sure to give you a facilities update you're really focused on the Red Raider gymnasium over the holidays you might notice all along the north end there of the going towards the parking lot all the columns are painted red the beams the trim and the windows so it really stands out also that gate right there both gates right there um at the uh the entrance the truck entrance right there by the softball f so all that red trim and that red just really stands out whenever you're driving by but especially if you're driving by when the Sun rises it looks beautiful just really want to continue with our facilities uh work renovation and this was part of our facilities and uh an operations Team all of them were here over the holidays not just the outside but if any of you have been in the gym since we came back the lobby floor's been waxed the gym floor's been waxed extra squeaky it's it sounds like a gym should sound yep both Dr shabot and I are are play basketball in high school and you always here the JY squeek we practicing and playing games not just that all the corridor and the locker rooms all four locker rooms was was detailed by the by the custodial Services team um the four uh showers in the locker rooms all the floor the shower floors have all been waxed um whenever you want to just come on let let me know we'll give you the tour uh the locker rooms are painted the home locker rooms painted wherever you saw in my room it's red and in the boys home locker room so it has to feel more of a home locker room the girls home locker room the same uh I can't stress that enough Mr Robertson and his team did a great job Mr Nick I believe and also Bautista we're part of that team it's red and white now so uh it was an upgrade all around and we still have more work that we're focusing on so that's the update really want to just keep highlighting to you and everyone throughout the uh a USD Community the facilities it's critical it's critical you know a clean school and campus is a reflection of the leadership and any one who drives by whether they come to school here or they don't or they live in the community or they're passing by or their snowboards it's going to St a lot when they see a clean beautiful campus this is we want it to be to look even better so uh we're going to keep on working on more facilities projects and the facilities and operations team is really coming together and they're really working well together so that's the report for you just to kind of show what's been going on with the cleanup professional development par comp and SE post and Facilities renovation thank you very much and I have a motion to approve the cons I'll make the motion I'll second Mr ker is Mr Hopkins hi M Rodriguez hi Miss OLS hi approved four to zero okay on the Personnel the first item being the approval of the Coss classified resignation of teachers Aid Samuel Hernandez Mr President members of the board uh Samuel Hernandez teachers Aid has verbally resigned his position as a teachers Aid to the sped director on Janu January 8th 2024 Sam's last day of work actually was December um so I recommend the resignation of Samuel ernandez as a teachers a par profession okay may I have a motion I'll make the motion I'll second it okay Miss Olson I Mr Hopkins hi Mr K I miss Rodriguez I approve four to zero and next we have the approval of the classified resignation of sped secretary Debbie house Mr President members of the board Debbie house fed secretary has submitted a letter of resignation to the administration effected January 15 2024 I recommend the resignation of debie house as AED secretary effective January 15 okay may I have a motion I'll make it I'll second it okay I sadly approved Miss Olson I um Mr Hopkins Mr Rodriguez I approved 4 Z and last Personnel item is the classified employment of teachers a leet and iip one yeah teer okay yeah oh yeah don't skip that next one approval of increase in substitute teacher pay Mr President members of the board the business manager of the true professional consultant Mr tymore the administration are recommending an increase of subtit to teach your pay the new rate recommended is $70 per half day less than four hours and $125 for a full day four hours or more I recommend the approval of the recommended rate increase of $70 per half day and $125 for full day subject to teacher P starting january2 okay I'll make the motion to make up for skipping it one second U Mr Hopkins hi Mr ker is I miss hson hi Miss Rodriguez I approved 4 Z okay now on our classified employment of teachers Aid L Andra Mr President members of the board um is Andra has been interviewed for the position of T professional Miss andr has a current IP fingerprint card I recommend the employment of andr as a teacher schools and she comes highly recommended from Dr sh okay may have a motion I'll make it I'll second Mr is I Mr Hopkins I miss Rodriguez I miss olon I approved 420 okay next item business is the approval of out of state travel for the aasa national conference on education Mr President members of board the American Association of superintendents and administrators is holding an annual conference on education San Diego California from the 15th to the 17th of February 2024 key topics will include artificial intelligence safet team schools opportunities for little Youth and Leadership for impact I'm request I superintendent is requesting attendance and for usfr all out of state conferences must be board approved I recommend the approval of the out of state travel for superintendent to attend the aasa National Conference on education in San Diego Califor okay may I have a motion on that I'll make it I'll second Mr K which is I miss olon I Mr Hopkins I miss Rodriguez I approved four to zero okay next item is the possible new agenda items for next meeting anybody have any to suggest okay then I will ask for motion toour I'll make the motion to ad second that motion Mr K i Mr Hopkins wison hi M Rodriguez hi 615 that's how meeting should go yeah

she can okay good evening good evening can you hear me good evening I don't know okay he's going to go I feel I okay good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting to order Mrs Richards roll call please yes president Schultz members of the board let the record show that all five board members are present this evening would now join me in a moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance iedge Al the United States of America the stand I'd like to make a motion that we approve the agenda all those in favor president before we vote um I would like to ask that we adjust the agenda please and move our board organization um to right after the approval of the agenda I second it which number was that Mr sorry to move um 6.4 no uh 9.1 and 9.2 okay to following the approval of the agenda second you second okay all those in favor I I motion carries five 5 Z at this time at this time we have moved on the agenda so we'll now vote for uh the new governing board president for 2024 I'm sorry um I think um we have to make a motion to approve the amended agenda before we get to the okay sorry okay I move to um approve the amended agenda all those in favor I I motion carries 5 Z okay now moving on to 9.1 election of governing board president for 2024 I'd like to make the motion to nominate uh board member Tiffany Schultz to be the president Mrs Anderson um I would like to Nom nominate myself to be president forward I nominate um board member Michelle Anderson for president okay um any other nominations so first we'll vote on the first one and then the second one okay um all those in favor of do we want to spend any time talking about anything or I was just asking if people would like an opportunity to say things sure um I'll I'll Advocate I I just think currently the way things are going as far as uh policies and those types of things make sense to what's going on it seemed like a logical fit so um all those in favor of Tiffany Schultz myself being president for the um I all those opposed nay nay all those in favor of Michelle Anderson for the new president I I nay motion carries three to two Mrs Anderson you're are now the new president the 20 and then uh for the governing board vice president for 2024 I'd like to nominate myself for VP uh I'll nominate board member Tiffany Schultz Mrs Reese do you have any desire to none this is your okay all those in favor of uh Mrs Van Hook for uh governing board vice president for 2024 I I all those I all those opposed okay motion carries four to one um we will now switch spes we just and okay switch you want it's up to you I sure do you want to switch your name please thanks so yeah than okay thank you everybody and um we're now going to move on to item uh well the superintendent report from Mrs Richard thank you president Anderson members of the board welcome to another segment of Higley Adventures I'd like to introduce Mr Len Heiser he has two special announcements president Anderson members of the board tonight it's a very exciting night that we get to recognize two different sports teams for their championships and so our first one we're going to introduce is the Higley High football team you've probably heard them in the lobby but um so I'm going to introduce uh Mr Fields the principal of Higley High School and then we're going to bring the kids in and Mr zubie is going to talk a little bit about the season [Applause] y thr All In [Music] [Applause] Madame President and board members I'm I'm very proud to be here tonight uh with these fine young gentlemen who represented our high school in such a outstanding manner uh I'm going to introduce the 5A uh football conference Coach of the Year Mr Eddie zubie who's going to talk about the team and their accomplishments this [Music] [Applause] year first off uh thank you board for having us for a second year in a row we enjoy being here we'll try to come back next year um none of this is possible without a supportive Community without a supportive District without a supportive Administration uh parents we've talked we appreciate everything you do our community has really rallied around us uh sponsorships coming to the games we try to give back as much as we can uh for the community and most importantly uh these guys and we talk about the trophy and what it symbolizes and stuff and yes it is the state championship but it's the journey right it's the journey from when we started in January AR getting all the way to go through that the ups and the Downs the Brotherhood the camaraderie this senior class for us is very very special um they never lost in the playoffs so every playoff game they won they had eight opportunities and they went eight and0 in that and that's special so when their back was up against the wall they came through so give them a round of applause for that for [Applause] sure and again just want to say thank you to the board allowing us like to travel and have those types of experiences and doing the things that we're allowed to do with the support of administration uh anything that we need or one I know that uh you guys will help us get to what we need so again thank you very much uh backto back 5A state champion Higley [Applause] kns thank you hold on let's let's get a picture with the board members pict oh you take picture hey one more time huge round of applause backto back 5A state champion Higgly [Applause] [Music] Knights all right thanks again Mr fields for introducing the team at this point I would like to recognize the sasman Middle School uh cross country team for their East Valley Conference Championship so uh Mr keing if you want to bring them in please let's give a big round of applause for the EVC Champion cross country team from [Applause] San [Applause] all right we we were going to have them run in here but they're so fast I was worried you wouldn't see them um so I just want to say our our coaches are are absolutely fantastic and and um this year with the support of District administration and the governing board um our team traveled to McFarland California to train with um the McFarland team which had a Disney movie made about them and stuff it's very cool story um and I think that the the care and the passion that our coaches put into this program um is why our Our Girls finished third overall their highest finish ever and and our boys won the EVC championship and so enough from me Mr H or M B thank you um this is just an awesome group of young men right here that I want you guys to meet this is our Spartan cross country team um coach Burke and I just have the best time coaching these kids so parents thank you so much for your support All Season we had an undefeated season this season for boys and we even got a perfect score meaning that Spartans took fifth fourth third second and first in one of our meets so just a phenomenal job to our boys and to our girls but our boys were our Champions this season so thank you so so [Applause] much all right another big round of applause Spartan cross country Mr keing if you'd like to lead him in a run out go ahead we'll let him run out you you're at the front congratulations good to see oh there you are yes thank you so much thank you Mr lsen Heiser such exciting things to celebrate this evening we also want to celebrate our H 100th day of school we were able to visit some schools and I don't know what happened to our children but they grew gray hair they were using Walkers they had hearing aids they had the best time of what they think they might look like when they're a hundred years old all right next we need to celebrate Santan Elementary they have been recognized as a 2023 leader and me Lighthouse academic honor roll School Mr Marcado you're in the audience are you by yourself I'm you should stand up the lighthouse academic honor role recognizes Leader in Me schools that have both met the rigorous requirements necessary to achieve and maintain Lighthouse certification and show exemplary academic growth or proficiency as measured by the state accountability standards it's schools like St san0 that serve as examples for leader and me schools throughout the world congratulations to everyone at SanTan Elementary we celebrate this achievement with you in alignment with h usd's portrait of a graduate Higley helps in December the human resources department organized an annual food drive for St Vincent depal 900 lounds of food were collected and will be provided to families and individuals served by St Vincent depal whose mission wouldn't be possible without Community Support we are grateful to our employees who are always ready to provide support for our community and I know uh miss Karen Johnson is here and also Miss Nicole Johnson we call them Johnson and Johnson so they supported this initiative and it was quite amazing so thank you to HR and to all the employees here in Higley [Applause] all right the Arizona Department of Education Career and Technical education unit reviewed Higley Unified School District for compliance and we'd like to congratulate the husd CTE department for having all programs compliant each program was also scored for quality and all of our programs met the distinguished rating which is the very top rating possible so congratulations and a thank you to the assistant director of this program Craig [Applause] Pearson in addition higgy's director of Maintenance and construction Gustaf landeras has has recently been accepted into the town of Gilbert citizen Leadership Institute Queen Creek citizen leaders are citizen ambassadors Civic leaders and Community stewards since 1995 the Queen Creek citizen Leadership Institute has graduated over 700 participants and continues to be an integral and valuable part of the Queen Creek experience gustafa is he here tonight all right we want to acknowledge Him when we see him it's amazing in addition it's time to acknowledge executive director of secondary education David lsen Heiser Assistant Director of Human Resources Nicole Johnson and Coronado Elementary teacher Jen ignazio they were EX accepted and have been participating in the Gilbert leadership class 32 Gilbert leadership was founded in 1991 and brings together individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to develop their leadership potential and exposes participants to issues impacting our community we're very proud of these individuals Nicole Davis all right and I don't think Jenna is here this evening all right president Anderson are you ready for points of Pride okay so let's start out with our points of Pride from cooie middle school we need princip principal Chad Cantrell vice principal Louisa Schwarz excuse me and Dean BR Brandenburg all right good evening everybody thank you for being here we have lots of people here so thank you guys for coming out to support uh our points of Pride tonight so we're very excited this is my first year as a principal of kolie so this is my very first points of Pride um so I thought since we're all here we're all G to each kind of take a different person in the presentation just so that way um you hear from all of our admin team because you know we make up a team here at kie and that's part of that point of Pride part of why we're here supporting each other so we're very proud of kie so we're all going to take a moment to present somebody tonight so I would like to start by um acknowledging our volunteer point of Pride Jack [Applause] engert so this year at kolie middle school we started the year off um short and algebra one teacher uh we had some some substitutes in place and we had a parent reach out that her dad had a background in math um and was willing to come volunteer over at kie um so Jack came in pretty early in the school year and spent every day working with our students voluntary as a co-teacher for the class spending every day making sure the students are ready he think he enjoyed working with them so much that he went and got his substitute certificate so that way he could actually take over the class as a substitute teacher in the second semester um so we were super lucky super fortunate to find Jack the kids really enjoyed working with him um he's actually coming back tomorrow to to substitute for the class so he can't get away so we very much appreciate Jack we got very lucky to find him um very lucky that he was willing to volunteer every day um for an entire quarter and then for all intents and purpos volunteer that whole first semester to help our students out even in retirement so we very much appreciate Jack and all the work he did for our students so thank you so much [Applause] Jackie stay up [Laughter] here all right it is my privilege to uh announce our classified staff points of Pride for coie Middle School this year uh she's unfortunately uh unable to be here she's extremely sick I guess the whole household caught the bug so she really wanted to be here tonight but was uh unfortunately not able to make it but we do want to recognize her her name is Annie Holden uh she is a custodian on our campus so we lucky enough to get her about halfway through last year and uh ever since day one a friendly attitude um energetic smiles a lot um just just a super hard worker um her work ethic kind of speaks for herself one of those things that we hear every day on the radio is we need assistance somewhere and uh even if it's not her she that's being asked uh she's a first to respond and that just kind of tells you a little bit about Annie and uh we're we're just really fortunate to have her and our campus would not be as successful in such a great great place to be without [Applause] her I am very privileged to be able to talk a little bit about our certified staff I want to say some things that her colleagues and we when we're talking about you who should have this award say about her Miss valin's inexhaustible work ethic is one to strive for is instilled among her students and Carries over in all other classrooms clubs and organizations throughout the kie campus her positive and desire to be the best she can is infectious she has worked tirelessly to help build and grow a robotics program at kie Middle School taking time to attend various professional developments meeting with outside organizations and people as well as cultivating relationships with our feeder school programs I have to add in there that Miss Valenzuela had zero experience in the robotics field when she took over and decided to make this program her own and has done an incredible job evidence of the role she plays at coie middle includes her Max outout robotics classes everybody wants to get in and there's no room a robust robotics club and all the time and energy she spends being a part of the coie campus by building relationships with her colleagues and students kie would not be the same without her Jennifer [Applause] Valenzuela and then finally uh our points of Pride as a student and so like I said I'm in my first year and that's important for this students specifically because we have a lot of great students at K that we're extremely proud of um and so it's often times when you're new it's it's hard to always know who who to choose but sometimes students make it really easy for you they stand out so quickly um and our points of Pride student this this year is one of those students it's Avery Kaiser she's a seventh grade student at Cactus or kly Middle School um so we're we're just really excited to acknowledge her tonight the first thing uh first thing that I got told when I uh announced to our staff who our student was was what a great pick that was the first teacher who found me like ran up to me to find me to make sure I that that we picked the right student with Avery Avery is a member of student council she's in honors classes uh she contributes all around campus she smiles to everybody she's friendly with all of our students she just stands out as such a leader on campus and that's exactly what we want to see in all of our kolie students and so we're extraordinarily proud to have Avery as a cougar this year and for next year she's a seventh grade student like I mentioned before so so we're super excited and super proud to see what she'll do not just this year but also next year so Avery congratulations on being the student uh student point [Applause] of principle cantro we usually have um your winners introduce who's here with them this evening so here with you tonight oh with me here tonight is my wife Shayla my daughter Siobhan my grandson Bryce hi Bryce my son-in-law Darren and my grandson Nathan and my granddaughter Margaret tonight I have my whole family well almost all my husband Isaac my kids McKenna Kayla Brielle Noel and my mom and [Applause] dad um with me I have my mom my dad and then my stugo teacher and my math teacher oh gosh can I add I'm sorry I was staring at my family sorry guys all back there right there love you all right so congratulations to all our coy surprise winner thank you guys and we're going to take a quick picture next we'd like to introduce principal Dan Fox with his points of Pride from williamsfield high school all right good evening Madam president members of the board uh ladies and gentlemen I am proud to represent williamsfield high school tonight we have such an a great staff such a great uh student body such great volunteers who come in and help out on our campus and all of our different programs it makes this process always very difficult to to narrow down uh but we have a really good group of people here tonight to represent williamsfield high school so I'm going to start with our certified staff member here uh Miss Jamie crumbaker uh Jamie crumbaker is one of the most dedicated williamsfield High School teachers we have she finds ways to help multiple departments whether it is her Department of CTE or her surrogate Department of PE jimie frequently volunteers to help for various extracurricular activities and she often fills in as our athletic trainer if we have multiple activities on campus she is of our Tech MERS for the campus helps with PD presentations and is an all-around team player I've got a lot to say about you miss crumbaker sorry uh Miss crumbaker started a new practice last year by introducing a partnership with the children's cancer network uh to invite young children with cancer and their families to our campus so we can honor their journey and and their battle with cancer and show them a good time at some of our sporting events this made more work for Jamie but by being selfless she has taught our students in our various athletic progr programs that good deeds transcend high school we could list her dedication to sports medicine her desire to add numerous dual enrollment courses and her willingness to cover classes in a pinch and we would only begin to scratch the surface thank you Miss crumbaker for your dedication to our [Applause] campus yep you got it thank you M Richard we'll move on to the next person here hold on let me grab the next one we'll do um our fabulous volunteer who has done so much for our theater and drama program Miss Linda Smith is our volunteer for the evening thank you so Linda is an unsung hero in our arts department and it took me until last year to truly realize her impact on our drama program here at williamsfield high school Linda has been the costume coordinator for our theater program for many years now and she has helped multiple theater teachers achieve greatness many people come to our plays and performances but what they don't realize is that many of the fancy looking cast members don't just get their wardrobe straight off the rack some are created from scratch some need alterations and some get damaged over time and need repairs uh this is where Linda steps in to make our students look fabulous however Linda's true impact is not ba based in her wardrobe uh abilities here uh as a volunteer she spends many hours with our theater students and she imparts her extensive knowledge of education and Life to our Blackhawks uh she is like the grandmother of our theater so uh she does a lot for our kids and the kids love her and she just she's incredibly positive influence on our campus here so thank you Linda for being an integral part of our drama program for so long treat from the congratulations all right next up uh I think it's very important that we honor our classified staff Miss Michaela corus so miss Michaela corus came to us um from another District within uh within the State of Arizona and uh she had to kind of learn how to go from the paper system that they were running there to all our fancy computer systems here but the good thing is she actually knew a lot about all those systems to begin with and she's just come in and taken off and done a fabulous job here so we selected Michaela not because she is a huge Phoenix Suns fan like Mr Fox but because Michaela is a rock star Michaela has come in as our new bookstore manager this year and she's completely rocked the position we have received so much positive feedback from everybody this school year about how helpful Michaela has been how thorough she is and how she excels in all facets of the the position Michaela has learned a lot especially coming from a school district that used like I said used paper frequently in the bookstore any strange obstacle that's thrown at her she has managed to tackle through mental toughness and determination thank you Michaela for making williamsfield a better place couple presents for absolutely and finally last but not least Save The Best For Last here our student uh someone I had the pleasure of meeting uh gosh almost four years ago now right um and and we still got one more year together Natasha but Natasha scow is our points of Pride student for the 2023 2024 school year you right there yeah wherever you want Natasha so Natasha is one of our star stem students at williamsfield high school not only is she heavily involved in our engineering and Robotics program but she is also heavily involved in our Solar car team Natasha is a leader within these programs regardless of whether she has a title or not she has communicated with Administration on behalf of these programs she works with other students in the classroom to push them forward on their projects and she has also involved in other aspects of our campus uh this year she is a delegate to our girls state which is a tremendous honor uh and it's a tremendous opportunity for you as well Natasha she's volunteered at elementary schools to help teach students about her exper experiences in robotics and Engineering um and finally Natasha is a bubbly and kind person who helps make williamsfield a more positive place thank you for representing williamsfield high school and as an Exemplar Blackhawk Natasha you I huged everyone else I might as well you to for you and and then Natasha if you wouldn't mind uh introduce uh who you have with you here tonight I have my parents and my siblings all right I have my mom Melissa with me and then my son ja well my williamsfield family is um involved in a couple of activities one is in band and currently at some band practice the others the others had dinners to go to so I'm here by myself ton night um my williamsfield family is all at sporting events because that's where all my friends are and unfortunately my parents are sick this week so they could not make [Applause] it conratulations [Applause] thank you m Richards and and congratulations to everyone recognized tonight and thank you for everything you've done for this District it's a school night so if you would like to leave this would be a great time to sneak out uh before we put you to bed with our board business no that's not okay okay we're going to be moving on to the uh item 4.1 the request just kidding I'm sorry Richards please thank you yes our upcoming events include Thursday January 18th one pill can kill it's a community event and a presentation here in the boardroom at 6: PM we've gotten really great reviews on this so we hope everyone can join us on Tuesday January 23rd is our husd job fair that will also take place in the boardroom there are two sessions 9 to 11 and 1 to3 next on January 30th is the second citizens committee meeting here in the husd boardroom at 5:00 p.m.

great welcome everyone to the ason select board meeting uh for January 17 2024 um call this meeting to order um is there we have um a number of uh events tonight but uh first I'll do a quick is there anyone here for Citizens participation see anyone I see uh so Mark do has raised his hand is there anyone who wants to come to the elect turn for Citizens participation okay go ahead Mark I think you're unmuted okay thank you good evening hope everybody got is safe and and healthy um volume I would like to thank the town itself for Mark hold on one second we need more volume in the room Mackie can you give us more volume y please thank you okay try again mark thank you tting one two three one two three all set yep okay okay Mark 249 roads I'm think second of the town for clearing out from this l s storm it did a good job on Al Street hathon Road and all throughout and um so seeing everything is is good and everything um happy New Year by the way you guys were on I think the first year but I wasn't I wasn't here and um is the town is ready for the town elections is this town set for that uh what happened yet yikes it was oh something appeared backs fun with technology I apologize it's okay us all freshes new year wishes what do you guys is it uh okay with this with the board if we move ahead with with the presentation for Lois since um I'm I'm done oh how come we can hear him again back go ahead uh go ahead back okay there you go we got you back I I thought maybe I got lost in the uh along the backseat board over over rice plane there um I'd like to thank the town for pling out the streets and doing a good job and I was just wondering is this town ready for for the state elections with the Voting is it all prepped up and ready to go what's this wondering well I think I can um my understanding Mark is that we're we're you know we're geared up and ready to go with all the um election preparation for the coming year and um that question came up um from last night State D committee that we had last night that virtual Zoom connections if they want me to help out because I can um I can be around for that here and if they need any any assistance and stuff like that i' be willing to help all right thank you Mark thanks Mark okay that's it for now all right thanks Mark okay so I'm going to proceed to the next item on our agenda genda which is to honor Lois mcalli on her retirement from the public library so with that I'll turn it over to our town manager to um yes so um yes it is a Bittersweet night as we celebrate SL bone um Lois's upcoming retirement um Lois has been a children's librarian since 1977 and has worked at the Ashland Public Public Library is the children's librarian for 23 years if I 2000 boy um so she's uh been here a while seen a lot seen the renovation of the library been through a lot of programs giv us on the Minuteman system um which is a huge accomplishment because that just opened up so many doors literally and figuratively for Ashley residents to you know borrow books and materials from other libraries across the region and Minuteman pretty big region but um Lois has has made the decision that she's going to retire at the end of the month and um we're here to again celebrate that that Milestone and you know a lot of people well I don't know I think quite a few people don't know this about Lois but she's actually an author and uh I am fortunate enough to have one of her books A's Journey um and uh I tell you it's she's very very creative very very thoughtful and um this is this is a prize possession of mine so because I think you autographed it too um so when you are you planning on writing more in thebly okay great I can't imagine not wanting to at some point awesome so um yeah I mean this point in time I don't know if you the board wants to say things yeah I think I'm sure people yeah um I'll I'll say my Lois survived all four of my children being involved in Ash you know the children stuff and it was those were great years I remember very well so um you know thank you for all your years of service doing that and the continued activities at you know the library is so vibrant and so much going on and you've been such a part of that over the years so thank you um for that and um why don't we just go in order here sure uh I would like to congratulate you I too have you know met her first when my girls were a little bit younger and have watched and I think your involvement with how the children's room evolved from when it was in the old library and then with the addition and the thought that you put into and help with creating such a wonderful children's room in the new library we hear so many great stories about what happens down there and we know that it is all due to your guidance and work as well as the board of the the you know the library trustees but someone has to have that vision and I think you've been been part of that so I want to say thank you you will be missed and when you write that book next book let us know cuz we'll talk about it thank you thank you Lois uh for all your service to the to the town of Ashland uh my oldest children didn't have the pleasure of uh having you as their librarian but my grandchildren do and um I can tell you that uh one of my grandsons Coleman uh was very apprehensive about the library when he first walked into that huge big building and went downstairs but you made it very simple for him you made it very easy for him and um I'll never forget when he came back he was she's really nice she's really nice and for you know for six-year-old to say that at the time when he was six that meant a lot so thank you very much for all your service and I wish you nothing but the best in your retirement thank you for you help so thank you Lois I have a lot of really great memories of Lait in the library with my now 16-year-old when he was little and I just want to thank you for providing such a resource to parents because I think um you know we've had so much more programming that's kind of been added on to the library but thinking back when my son was young like you know lapip was like I mean that was the excitement you know that the kids you know the kids would pile into that room um I remember Star Wars Day you know where you would show the Star Wars movie and dress up yeah so I remember one of my best one of my favorite pictures I got to dig it out is um you and Nate Nate dressed up as as Han Solo at the age of like three and um and so it was it's just it it it was such a special place and it was such a great resource for parents to be able to come on a cold or rainy day on a Saturday and just um play at the Train table and find some books and it was always just this hop in place in the library in the children's room and um and and and it was because kids love to come and see you and so um so just thank you for for um for your years of service to the town and for all that you did and and we will miss you and um we will we will we will think of you every day every every May the 4th um when it's when it's Star Wars day so thank you yes I too want to thank you for your service to the town and particularly um you know to library service is in a time when libraries really uh changed so dramatically from the time my children were young to the now um you know my grandchildren and how um you know you made still doing the cards when I came onard all right and and uh you know you really you're being able to stay with all that and and make it all happen and and certainly I think bring connecting us to the minute man system was so uh tremendous for our community um and you know I I certainly have a variety of memories um spent in that library from my now son-in-law asking our our permission to marry our daughter to um you know my grandchildren running running there and uh leaving a friend of mine's daughter there one afternoon after school um and and all of um really all that you've done to to connect to the mest school because of its um how closely located it it is to the library and some of the programming that you were able to offer families particularly on early release days and um and I know our our kids always felt like big shots when they were able to walk down from mindes um down to the library it's one of those special things that you remember your whole life so thank you for your service thank you Claudia so we have we're going to have a proclamation and a presentation but I wanted to um is there anyone who cares to come up to the Lector and and speak about Lois before we get into that anybody in the audience and Lois can use that time to think about her speech you know that kind of any takers all right we'll uh we'll present so I think we'll go up here to present it right so Lo us if you want to this is sorry this is a bit long we tend to you know there's a long record here so uh where is uh select board proclamation of recog nition whereas Lois MC has been moli has been a valued and dedicated employee of the town of Ashen for more than two years is that oh 23 years sorry serving as the Director of children's services as a and as acting Library director and uh Lois started in the library before the much needed Renovations were completed in 2006 Lois was instrumental with moving the library to the very tiny temporary location on Chestnut Street wow yes the space was definitely not ideal but everyone made the best of the challenging situation and whereas Lois played an important role providing input and guidance in creating the gorgeous 22,800 ft Library we have today Lois focused on the new children's space making sure it was welcoming and bright and whereas Lois focused on expanding programming and even offered virtual programming during covid Lois introduced many new programs including lapip uh R to a dog steam Thursdays Friday crafts and Mom mom's group little Crafters to name a few and whereas Lois worked tirelessly to bring Ashlin to a place where they could join the minan library Network which includes 61 libraries and a world of options and whereas in addition to all of her accomplishment Lois has written Illustrated and published two books one called Yugo story about a hippopotamus the other called aees Journey about a lost arbark and whereas Lois has been a constant Among The NeverEnding changes working for nine Town managers including Dexter boo I don't know Dexter blo I remember him Hector Rivera yes Dale Morris Dave Thomas John petran Mark purple James Purcell Anthony skava skav and Michael Herbert and three Library directors Beth Hopper Paula benetti and Mina Jane and now therefore we the select board do hereby Proclaim Wednesday January 31st 2024 is Lois mcalli day wow we we urge all residents and fellow employees to make known their appreciation for her devotion we wish you good health and good fortune congratulations Lo can take that and we have some [Applause] presentations step right up step right up random I do not have I do not have a speech well I've loved working here that's partly why I've stayed around so long is because this is a fabulous community and the people in the town have been so appreciative of the library and um the welcoming me but also showing appreciation to all the library staff and that's made it a joy to be working here and our library is such a gorgeous building that that's been a joy as well so thank you all I will be back to visit but thank you thank you and um I do want to mention that the library trustees are also here so thank you for coming who are you want to raise your hands all right good no good and all right thank you for all your work it's good to see you here all right thanks all right so that um brings us to our next item on the agenda yeah let's take a group oh yeah we should do that I'm sorry all right picture time so uh whoever wants to be in this picture feel free good can you get everybody thanks Lois all right and um there's a celebration next weekend right for for 27 27 y 27 so so where can people look at the details for that where's it post did we post it on the town website I think we did it's in the morning like 10 to yeah there's a public yeah to 2 10 to 10 to 12 this Saturday yeah Saturday the not the Saturday the next Saturday okay 10 to two for the okay yes all right thank you well um the next item in the agenda we're very pleased to inaugurate this new process this is a presentation uh from the ashon Council on Aging a new community hero award and so I believe we're going to have Steve Mitchell come up here and tell us a little bit about it and um then we'll have some other festivities on that but go ahead Steve sure Fran Blake is going to join me as well and uh did he know that Jerry he does now does now so so first of all happy happy New Year to everybody thank good to see you um so as Rob said we uh in two 2023 we started the conversation about creating this community hero award originally it was a senior hero award but as we discussed it more and more we realized that uh uh Community hero might be a better better name for it uh so we worked a a number of months and the the purpose of the award is to recognize and acknowledge Ashley and seniors who have demonstrated public service and volunteerism in support of the Ashland Community and individuals groups and organiz ations who have demonstrated support and advocacy for Ashley and seniors regardless of age or residency so it's pretty broad uh we hope that uh as this develops that uh you know we'll have a very vibrant group of acknowledgements so uh we plan to we have a document that we hope to have on the on the website town website as well as well as a nomination U form as as well so so on behalf of the Council on Aging we could not have two more appropriate and deserving recipients of the inaugural COA Community hero award we're going to do this alphabetically IIA Sano spent a lifetime of service and volunteerism Izzy served on the ashleen board of registrars for 24 years the Ashland Council on Aging for 17 years and the Ashland democra committee for 31 years he was a proud member of the Ashland Lions Club the Knights of Columbus and the friends of the Council on Aging so you know for the folks at home that don't necessarily know who Izzy is this is a man who spent his life in volunteerism and it's it's really a pleasure to see so many of the groups that that Izzy was involved with uh and as well as you know we see firemen here as well as he was a uh his his his real work was was as a fireman as we know so so if we could have asked marine and any family members to come up come on up folks yeah so why don't you why don't you present that it's a little token about our appreciation as Cel and agent Community hero award Indigo Izzy as Enola in recognition of public service and advocacy for Ashlin seniors 2023 thank you maren oh very nice well stay up there we're going to do a proclamation I think right if the time is right you want to do just give me goad okay why don't you do yeah Mak sense to do yeah where don't you C over here yeah okay how you doing okay good to see thanks all right um all right uh this is a select board proclamation of recognition whereas on January 17th 2024 we the ashon select board in the as Rob can you adjust yourself yeah maybe I'll just can pick you up rather than there you go is that good thank you uh on January 17 2024 we the ashin select board and the ashin Council on a are honored to present the First Community hero award and whereas aidio Izzy aseno is being recognized for his public service and advocacy for ashin seniors and whereas the Council on Aging Community her award was created to recognize and acknowledge ashin seniors who have demonstrated public service and volunteerism in support of the ashin community recipients can be individuals groups and organizations who have demonstrated support and advocacy for as seniors regardless of age or residency and where zizzy was a longtime Ashlin resident known for his community service and Leadership and whereas Izzy served on the Ashen Board of registrars for 24 years the ashin Council on Aging for 17 years and the ashin Democratic uh Town committee for 31 years and whereas Izzy served as a member of the ashon Lions Club the Knights of Columbus and the friends of the Council on Aging and whereas Izzy also served most recently on the town manager's police chief selection committee and therefore we the select board and the Council on Aging do hereby Proclaim Thursday January 18th 2024 is izy aenco day we urge all residents employees to make known their appreciation for Izzy's devotion we know he has inspired others to follow his lead and serve the community so thank you very much for that thank you [Applause] are and if you guys if you care to say anything or you know what no I'm a little overwhelmed had no idea about this very just very grateful for everyone to acknowledge my dad here speak yeah I don't know what else to say really I just want to say thank you to everyone I know very grateful on the on behalf of the asano family yeah certainly appreciate Izzy's contribution and friendship over all these years it meant a lot to him everyone here meant a lot to him truly thank you thank you very much thanks thank you thank oh yeah don't anyone leave until we take a picture we'll get a picture with everybody oh okay after we do the next uh so before I I start with our next recipient I just want to acknowledge the uh folks in the audience from the Council on Aging uh and for the from the friends as well so and we have our director of Elder Services here as well Candy Wilson so so our next recipient uh Joanne Duffy served the town of Ashland for 25 years including 20 years as the Director of the Ashland Community Center Joanne's office door was always open and she always had a smile that included everyone including former select board members and her door her door literally was always open and uh you know my I have just got fond memories of of going into the center and walking into our office and we would just gossip and it was it was good we had a lot of fun but uh so Joanne uh is our second recipient if uh members of Joanne's family could come up with the kids oh [Laughter] boy Ashlin Council on Aging Community hero award bestowed upon your grandmother Joanne Duffy in recognition for public service and advocacy for Ashley seniors 2023 you hold it you think you can hold it sure it heavy no he's got very nice hold on hold we got a proclamation now the ashin select board in the Council of agent have a proclamation to make so um whereas on January 17th 2024 we the ashin select board in the ashin Council on Aging are honored to present the First Community hero award and whereas Joanne Duffy is being recognized for her public service and advocacy for Ashlin seniors and whereas the Council on Aging community herward award was created to recognize and acknowledge ashin seniors who have demonstrated public service and volunteerism in support of the Ashen Community recipients can be the individuals groups and organizations who demonstrating support and advocacy for ashin seniors regardless of age and residency and whereas Joanne served the town of Ashen for more than 20 years as a senior center and Community programs director and whereas Joanne assembled a fabulous team that was passionate about making sure that the senior center was in inviting they also focused on having something for everyone to enjoy and whereas Joanne would greet everyone with a smile even Steve Mitchell and was always looking for someone or something to celebrate and now therefore we the select board and the Council on agent do hereby Proclaim Friday January 19th 2024 as Joanne Duffy day we urge all residents employees to make known their appreciation for Joanne's devotion we know she has inspired others to follow her lead and serve the Comm community so thank you so much to Joanne so so we actually we didn't just gossip what we did was we talked about grandkids a lot we talked about dogs so thank you we have one more one more uh award to not award but a plaque so if candy can come up please oh yes so what we have here is our community hero award plaque that's going to be hung at the community center we'd like to present from the council and agent to the director of Elder Services thank you great thank you very nice thank you that's our tune great thank you so we should everyone involved let's have a big picture and of the your fault coming cand one more good thank you thank you yeah these are the good hi Bonnie nice see you turn turn your camera off okay sure you want to take a we can wait a few minutes yeah sure there folks here from does he have a presentation or hey do you have something as part of your presentation you want to show to people or we can talk about how to show well this is the thing this is the map so you want to show the map yeah you get where do you want me to put it I guess um I don't know like anywhere is there any way I could do it so they can see it as well camera yeah if you if you go to the right side or even like the center of the table I can I can set that up so good okay so just tell me what to do that facing this way yeah yeah facing towards the back facing towards the back [Music] hey h Helen's probably going to want to speak to Okay this is left over for my daughter's another hand yeah let me just put this down you can proba end up speaking from right there's perfect right here yep facing Which Way facing towards me so you see it y uh I got you guys ready for me yet or no oh yeah okay back session here we're back in session that's good yeah so um go ahead uh Jim when you're yeah introduce yourself good I will good evening everybody I'm Jim neelson of 35 Ramblewood Drive and I am the chairperson of the ashon historical commission and I'm here tonight uh thank you for having us uh Helen Nicole is also probably going to want to speak hien in a couple of minutes but uh I'll just briefly go over why I'm here I've said to a couple of you um in person and Michael has been in on a couple of our meetings so he knows all about it what we've been working on for the past two years probably since one of the first things we started doing when once um the commission got reconstituted I think it was in 2020 was um all we were hit with a slew of demolition delays and I was I was thinking I you know there's nothing really to prevent anybody from taking anything down if they really want to the demolition delay is for a set person period of time and things like that and I looked around at what other towns did for conservation and preservation of what our mission is which is the preservation of historic and cultural artifacts buildings in the town of Ashlin and and one of the things we don't have even though if you come down from either side on Main Street welcome to historic district of ashin those signs are just science we do not have a local historic district so I then decided to go do some research I sat in on a few uh meetings with the mess um I forget what they're called but they're the they're the state group that that puts on these historical best historical commission who puts on these um seminars on how to go ahead and create that so for the past two years we've talked about it back and forth and we were able to actually hire uh a professional conservation historical preservationist um she would be here tonight she's my expert she's on vacation in Arizona so it was like bad timing so if I can't answer a question tonight um I'll definitely get it and we'll we'll we'll get an answer to you at you know as soon as possible um now you should have uh a few things we have a timeline of what's been going on what the historical district is going to look like and I didn't I sent this along in the original package you don't have this but if anybody wants it this is the state publication for establishing a historic district great so if you'd like that I could send that to you to with 64 Pages which is why we don't want to we didn't want to overwhelm anybody with information at the up the top um letters have already gone out to the business owners and property owners and I'll just give you a brief description of where it's going to be as you can see from the map that we had done the proposed District literally starts at the ash Historical Society the Ocean House and it continues along Main Street to the mill buildings which I'll get to in a minute um then down to The Corner Spot the building next to the the the church down that side of the street all the way down and around to where Eric's is right now the restaurant that includes the library that includes all those buildings on on Front Street right there and across the street it goes from The Corner Spot all the way down to the post office which includes the Town Hall John Stones the fire station um and around the corner to the post office across the street to the old Pharmacy the building next to it then across the street to the railroad station and back around so the thing about a historic district it has to be contiguous you can't split it up um and there can't be any gaps in it because what the process is as you do the research all these properties have been surveyed for historical content not all of them are historical you some of them are just Place markers I mean I wouldn't say Main Street Wine and Liquors is historical but within the district if that was ever to go away someone wanted to rip it down the districts created they'll have to go by the guidelines of the proposed bylaw that will be basically to control what's being put there um architecturally there's nothing about use uh or anything like that people can do whatever they want with their buildings and properties what this is strictly is for what you can see from the street so if there's something behind the building or backyard or something like that that wouldn't be historically you know whatever um relevant it doesn't matter it's what you can see from the street um I'm trying to think of what other points I'm not I'm going to ask you can ask me questions but I'm just trying to cover it first because we went through a lot of this the reason why we picked the downtown district a lot of ashlin's significant historical houses are spread out all over town and there's no way to I mean if you had a city um the Town Council could city council could vote on it and establish individual districts for different um buildings for example Somerville does that all the time you have a question one yeah can you clarify what you can see from the street what is that when you say what you can see from the street does that mean what you can see from the street needs to be saved or yes yes so cuz I would think about Main Street Wine and Liquor yeah that I mean it's not as old as say Jon stones but it's certainly been there since the 40s or 50s right well that that's included but there's nothing I mean there's nothing what I'm saying is that's what the guideline is from the state in other words if there's I I forget what they said if there's hedges in the backyard or something like there's Stone if there some kind of outbuilding like an addition in the back that that would be fine if it's not visible from the street oh okay so they can add something they can add something as long okay it's just what what classifies as being his is in the district okay okay sorry I just want to kind of follow on to that no that's fine so for instance like luners where lunkers is yes if somebody were to ever purchase that that that commercial space and want to renovate it to look better they couldn't do that they could they could they could okay as long as they keep the building's exterior intact now the bylaw will be put together um with with specific okay um restrictions and stuff like that we're not going to they don't recommend like paint color or anything like that you know so that'll be still up to the individual but that the bylaw we haven't got to yet that's down the road let me just give you a little brief timeline of how this is going our final report back from the the the uh St her name is Stacy spies from U hopkington she's the pro and her final report is going to be back to us the beginning of February that'll have all the stuff put together in the report for the state once that's together I've already sent out letters to the individual owners alerting them that this is going on um then there will be uh we'll have another meeting so we have to submit this report to the state to the mass historic Council commission and once they get it they typically have to review it and timeline timelines I'm told it's couple months we're not sure exactly um and then they'll ask they'll ask for other material if we're missing things and that that sort of thing once that comes back from the uh State then um we'll go to the Town Council with proposed ordinance to make sure that it is legal um when we we craft the ordinance and I'll do that with with the help of Town Council because we're not just going to make something up out a whole cloth we're going to base it on something that's already been done in other towns and I would say also once we do that we'll notify the property owners there'll be a public hearing um about it and there'll be more meetings we're also planning on meeting with the different boards in town like the planning board the sustainability committee um the comprehensive plan committee etc etc just to just to generate interest and see what's going on we originally had a timeline of this for this Spring's meeting we're not going to meet that because it's just not enough time we don't know how long the state's going to take with it or anything else so we're shooting for the fall special town meeting because this has to be approved by 2/3 of the town meeting um so by the time we get there we also like to do a little promotion we've been to two different years of farmers markets which some of you may have seen me there um and we were going to be at Ashland day we were going to have a booth but unfortunately that was you know that's what I made that's what the map was for you'll have one next year yes and we'll be we'll like I actually I yeah y we'll be we'll be there at next year yep it's next fall so that's hopefully a way to spread the word to Residents um with talking about other ways to do that too because we'd like to gain public support for this obviously this isn't something that uh you know we the reason why we sended it on the downtown district is because that's where the most that's where the most contiguous buildings are and a lot of them are public buildings already for example the town hall the library you know the U yeah the fire station you know go ahead Joe thanks Jim um I'm sorry to interrupt you but I'm looking at your map I don't see 119 Main Street on this map so which is 119 119 Main Street which is Ashland house yes it should be I it's labeled as Ash it looks like Ash police department it's next to the police department right it's labeled as ashin police department but it's there okay that spot yeah see the number no it is too because that's contiguous with the whole with the whole okay and if whatever happens to the old police building you know I that doesn't really matter and because whatever goes up there if we have the district it will it will there'll be some guidelines of what they can do I can't build a three-story condominium complex there you know just like a block or anything like that we'll have to have some specific guidelines but if it needs to be taken down it that's not a problem okay cuz that'll be grandfather then thank if they take things down that's I mean if it if it's on the historic that's not a historic building that was built in 78 I believe so that wouldn't even have to go through the the process of the demolition delay permit and all that it's a town owned property anyway so I don't think we'll have any okay you know issue with that at all so is it is determining it it to be a historic building based on the year built well in our wait now we just changed the bylaw is 1950 um and anything before that but uh yeah basically uh but that's why I say some of these and they're not architecturally significant like the dry cleaner you know or or um I mean with talvis and sunny side is that kind of counts because that's mid-century um whereas you'd see obviously the new condo on the corner there it just has to be in the district but it's grandfathered in there's nothing we can do about that it's just it has to be there for con continuous reasons so like where the old days TV building his that would Beal yeah each one of these which I can get to you guys when we get them back each is going to have its own macis sheet which gives you the history um the age what it was used for um and some of those were done already in 2010 in a study yeah um by the prior historical commission and some of those we had to have done to fit into question yeah if you don't mind so I'm looking at the map across the street from the post office you have the building that that has now the dentist right and the building next to it is that building part of no the plan for the Redevelopment that goes around it's not that's why it's there because and the two build see that's that's there and then we cross the street to the railroad station yes cuz Believe It or Not nothing's on the national register of anything except the town hall all those things really not even the train station no no and even if it was the two and there's like two dams and stuff like that that are on there that but none of this is none of this is protected even if it was on the national register it doesn't protect it from being U ripped down at some point okay the only thing that prevents that is this a local historic district okay which is why we've been working on this because this is the only guaranteed way to have some say over what goes in in the downtown which I think also dob tales with what I've heard from conversations about the comprehensive Planning Commission and we've just Revitalize the whole downtown with the repairs and the new streets and the lights and all that stuff so I think this was be you know complimentary at the very least yeah definitely so how would that work with the mill building this is the thing i' I don't know what's going on with the mill building maybe you folks have a better idea than I do but they originally said their grandfather didn't because they've already gone through their de demo delay thing and that's expired and that's another issue for another day about Sunset Clauses in the law because we've had a lot of demo delays that they get it they don't do anything and you know year goes by bang we're off and and running kind of thing that's not this issue for tonight but they can they have said in the past that they were going to keep two out of the three Granite buildings I'm hoping that's still part of the plan I don't know we we currently don't there is no plan drawn their plans as of right now yeah so I'm not sure you know if if wor if that didn't for some reason if if we can't include that the only thing that would be left out then would be the Ocean House which is where the historical society is because that's the only outlier that need to get to from from them to the Granite to the you know the rest of it because that corner coming coming from the ocean house that's all relatively new construction isn't it where the where the cond where Bagel table is next to that I don't think any of that qualifies as as being in in the district so we'd have to you know leave that which would be kind of ridiculous because it is like you know the Historical Society but that's why I'm saying I've Been Told that that would even if they do go through their plans it's not going to matter they'll be just in there as a grandfa like the building on the corner yeah the condo building that's not historical but we have to keep it in there because 128 main yes one next to the Federated Church okay so did you I'm sorry Jim I no I'm looking at the map and I saw um I'm following the Blue Line uh going down Front Street um you mentioned Erica's but that is not in the blue line area it is no it isn't if I'm looking if I'm yeah it isz this say it says asham Public Library this is this is the library and then this is Erica's oh okay I'm sorry these are the actual I don't know if you can pass these around I have I didn't include this we're going to includ it these are the list property listings what they were to store that you know what that would be a little helpful thank you put that in originally and it was cut for time kind of thing so no no thank you I'm just looking at the map and the way the map is showing it okay no that's good cuz I know the Eerie Castle uh means a lot to some people that uh would remember it yeah so if some if a business was on this list and they wanted to um opt out opt out they can't they can't if if it becomes if it becomes a bylaw of the town okay okay that's why that's why it's yeah that's why we're notifying them we want to work with them yeah you know and there are all kinds the benefits to being in a historical district um sustainability is one uh because obviously preserving these things uh is more sustainable than ripping them down and putting new buildings in you know um and there's also econ there have been studies shown that Economic Development um goes along with creating these kind of things because it it helps coh here the C The Village Center um I don't know we there's names for name there is Elliot John Elliots you know and we could name it whatever we want Unionville Village Center Ashland Village Center um like the Federate the cemetery behind the Federated church is included and that's a whole separate conversation we're going to have because we're also working on fixing that up there's a whole different subgroup of the historical commission that's working on that um and I'll just say makebe this a good time Helen do you want to add anything here go ahead Helen I think you have to unmute yourself mute yeah I know it took me a minute to find the unmute even though I don't know why um so yeah I mean I just want I did write down a few things I wanted to say and um you know you you actually covered a lot of what I had written down you know we are currently working towards getting uh community support and and I believe we really have a good amount of that now but we're working towards getting more and I've written letters um to all the Committees and Bo a lot of the Committees and Boards in town and I'm hoping to be able to um have you know our group go and speak to them and then also I think we're planning I don't know if you mentioned it I didn't hear you two Community public Community forums about this where people can come and find out and ask questions um but the the the formation of the local of a local historic district um you know in addition to having signs that say we have one um but we don't really is really a big benefit to the town and one of the reasons that it's also a big benefit is is um one thing we learned while we're trying to look at different ways to fund the cemetery restoration is that if that Cemetery which would be part of the downtown historic district were to be in a local historic there's three ways to get funding from Mass historic uh commission and and they're matching grants and and and you have your your property has to be either on the national register the state Register or in a historic district um so if we were actually in one it it would already have qualified this year for some money we're hoping to get that for next year so that's a big benefit but that same benefit would also go to profit making businesses so from time to time if if there were a profit this could not be like a an individual resident homeowner this would be a building in that District that was used to for someone to make it can still be privately owned but if they want to make profit if they have a business in that building they can also get I believe state and federal money uh when they want to do work uh to upgrade or to you know to to restore the building as long as the outside stays in the historic um character uh there's money available and and and some of that is tax credits as well some of that isn't necessarily like a like a grant but it could be tax credits that they can apply because um they are in that historic district so that's another big big plus and um like I said that we are we are working with a a large uh you know Community volunteer uh group right now and hoping to grow that group by the spring to restore the to restore the Ashland burial grounds which is the historic Cemetery behind the Federated church and we will be coming back uh to speak to you about that I I know we weren't in time to get on for tonight uh but we do want to install all in the community community itself a sense of of of the history and and a sense of place that that it you have when you belong in a community and when you have the history of the community sitting right there so that you have you know what what is the downtown historic district or the downtown Village area it's very important for it to remain in character and and this will this will greatly help uh towards that end so I think that's all I had to say but thank you and if you have any questions I can yeah and I I'll be back um as we get further along in the process to like fill you in on what's going on what we really would like is some kind of uh letter from the select board saying that they approve uh a support what we're doing um I don't know if you need to take a vote on that or not but it's something that we have to include in the package when we send the stuff into the state we're trying to get one from the planning board too and all the different committees because the more more Town officials to support it the better it looks now we're not just we're doing it I mean there's these things can take a long time but I want to meet if we're going to bring it to town meeting I want to see if we can get as much support as we can beforehand which is why I'm not for rushing it and trying to get it on in the spring so I want to get we want to have the public forums we want to have the you know the open air markets again and and hopefully ashin day you know because I thought that would have been a great place cuz people would have seen it and ask questions you know so hopefully the weather cooperates this year right hope so Jim I I wonder um so how do you decide where to end it in other words I apparently because for example you said you include 128 main just so you can keep it contiguous why wouldn't you keep it contiguous and go down Homer ra and and grab the well Homer is a problem because of the the construction plan that's going in there the um the uh I forget what it's called but there's a jump right there that where they where they want to put the the apartment buildings in that part particular parel was not historic so and then the two houses on the end before you get to Alden Street those were but they really they're not in any kind of list yet and so it was kind of we could have gone we could have kept going down Main Street um and and put in the houses and stuff on either side of Main Street some of them are some of them aren't they've been rebuilt um but we wanted to keep it kind of small to begin with and I did this I did this kind of we did this kind of because um the example of hopkington you can expand it later let's we want to get it we want to get it in place people can see that this is a good thing and then you can add to it later and there's there's not as many private property owners in the downtown section to be honest with you that we we're not we're not trying to seize anybody's property or tell them what to do with it okay other than the exterior uh for historical purposes only and that's I'm something I'm very sensitive about um it's it's it's important I mean I feel I feel bad that we've we've had a lot of demolition delay permits with people that can't afford to fix up their houses um and there's really no programs in the state to help them you know they want to keep it historical but it needs too much work you know we've seen that time and time again this is something that like Helen said if we get this put together then there might be some money available for Grants and things like that for the historic district that can be put to that purpose at some point down the line I don't know you know but it it helps to have it in there so if there was a bylaw uh and a business was looking to make changes to to their footprint of some sort they would come they would have to put in an application through the historic commission and there would be a hearing or are they not like because I because I guess my question is like how how strict and what the determination process will look like because because if um for instance if like the mill building is allowed to to be a part of this um and the exterior has to be as is but may not sust but may not be as we saw when they went through the planning board there needed to be a housing component to basically um basically Finance the project if if if you know whether it's the mill building or another building and there and there does need to be some sort of housing opponent to it right you know I'm I'm just trying to think through what the process would the bylaw itself is going to mainly be concerned with things like sign signage like how big the sence can be that kind of thing it's not going to be concerned with usage okay like if there's a 40b situation or anything like that it shouldn't affect this at all okay you know because it's going to be um I think we had this didn't didn't we have this yeah my what was your recollection of that I didn't think it was going to matter so my understanding is if a 40b project would Trump would Trump this would Trump the bylaw interesting would Trump the bylaw but not the not the the external well the the the district itself yeah and that that's just based on my research I don't know if St yeah you're probably right but but the 40 beat is but where we're focusing this I mean I don't think there's any maybe at the Mill building I don't know yeah you never I mean I've seen I've seen one house 40 BS you know happen before and I I'm not saying that that should deter a local historic if it happens it happens actually it's just more of a good incentive to go ahead and get our 10% so we don't have to worry about um right you know 40b projects period so if I misspoke I you know it's I'm not I'm I've been doing this for two years but that was always going to trip me up because I kept saying what about the 40b I can't remember what they said yeah I remember bringing that up yeah but that Michael has sat in on on quite a few meetings with us so he's been he's been a priz of this as we going along yeah Yolanda so you're looking to submit something to the state this this winter have them then approve your recommended that would then come back to the town and then the town would vote on it is that what I'm understanding right we would have public hearings there's there's a timeline there's from when it comes back from the state uh we have 46 days to send out notification of the property owners again in the district okay then from there there's also 60 days to have public hearing ings about it okay and then um you pay then when you get to town meeting and this is why we're going to promote it well before we get to town meeting we're going to have handouts to give people at the town meeting both before the town meeting okay and at the town meeting um yeah that's then you have to get a two-third majority and then so part of the bylaw is creating the historic district but also then the guidelines for buildings in the historic district will be part of the bylaws but what I did mention it's going to be a separate sub committee commission for this because it's got to be distinct from the historical commission so we're going to need to create it's in it's in the guidelines which I can send to everybody if you you want if you leave because this is it basically what it requires is that you have optimally if you could get like a real estate person an attorney an an architect somebody who lives in the district um not just people on the commission you know so that but they it doesn't have to be and a lot of times you can't get volunteers to do anything or you couldn't get enough but this is is going to be a separate historic district local historic district commission separate from the historic commission that would be doing heing they would be doing well okay once they're established what now so you have to establish a historic once it's established and voted on then they'll do their own hearings okay in the future and determining if this fits or that doesn't fit so it has to pass at town meeting and then you create the bylaw no the bylaw is created beforehand it's got to be vetted by Town Council and all of a stuff and it's got to it's got to be okay it's got to be legal okay so in terms of um people that you've contacted businesses in that have you had any responses or not yet not yet it ran out relatively recently so it should have gone out a while ago but it was my fault because I was getting the addresses for everybody and I do work that's so if you can um maybe if we just take an example property let's just say that dry cleaner building so let's just say the owner wants to demo that and build something and a historic district has already been created mhm would they be able to would they be able to demo that building I believe so as long as what's rebuilt I mean I know in Hoppington there was a fire and down that their district is pretty small the fire in in the house there um the guy would volunteered on his own to rebuild that within District uh specifications which is why it's taking so long you know the how you know a house I'm talking about right next to St John's there in the back yeah and that that's an example I have from hington um it's a what if um but they can't like say if they want to put it down they can't put like something that's not going to be in the spirit or in within the um what's the word I'm looking for the aesthetic of of the of the of the historic district so they wouldn't be able to add a second story oh no no no no just it it that's that's irrelevant but it's where is that's a non-conforming I don't know when that was built um if you could put there was any historic value in that I'm not sure if that would be voted on but something would replace it but would stay in the character of the historic district that would be up for the local historic district commission I see to determine okay all right um yeah go ahead go ahe you got I just have one additional question Mr chair um sorry about that um using Michael's example if they wanted to refurbish the building is it the entire building or is it the facade that looks that you see when you pull up into it you drive by yeah cuz I know like in Washington DC I mean all the facades have to be that's exactly right okay the facades they can do whatever they want to the Interiors if you can't see it from the street it doesn't matter the back you know that whatever if they want to extend it to the back but what you can see from the roadway what you can see from the road okay thank you but does it have to be that cinder block if the real that cinder block stucko okay okay okay no no it has to be be something else within the district within the district and that could be written into the bylaws so it could be brick like the post office and the build and the the pharmacy or it could be or something like the if if it could like match Stones you know in that kind of you know that style that's interesting you know because I I think like the idea of preserving the actual historical buildings is important to all of us it's the it's the nonoral Stu because to be to be honest some of these facades are not like what we want in a downtown that we've just spent millions of dollars to renovate so right so if so that's where my concern is and and also the businesses that are currently there if if it becomes a problematic process for them to make changes to their own businesses that's well I don't think that I can't think of an example off the top of my head how it would be somewhere that they would change their business with the business is there now like so like if blush bouquets wants to change to whatever I'm just making that up yeah yeah yeah um and you know that's considered a midcentury building how problematic is that for the owner of blush who probably wants to add different signage or change the way the parking lot looks or any you know like I'm I'm just trying to think of like I you know and I don't think it's going to be that stickery um as far as I mean I can't speak for a future committee that's not even created yet but but it's it's it's I don't think that the spirit of it is to keep it kind of cohesive you know as long as it's not outside of the bylaw then they should be fine and I'm sure there'd be you know they would have to work with the new commission yeah you know and the planning board obviously so I know you said that you you wanted a vote from us what I would suggest is if the board is if if this sounds good to the board is to wait until you get the report from Stacy spies so we can review that because I think that we need something physical to that's fine um before I send anything to the state I will send you when I get the report I'll forward it and you guys um can you can you know read it over and ask me any questions it will be a report of what we're sending to the state and this is the letter of support you're yeah I'm just looking for a letter of support okay yep does that work which is why I wasn't looking for a vote tonight I was throwing it I think once we have the report and we can review it we can maybe we'll invite you back to it like maybe the second meeting in February the first one in March as you're getting ready to send it to the state and then we can you know we only meet once a month so these things tend to get yeah you're not going you're not going to Springtown meeting so that kind of that lets a lot okay great so anything El anybody is there anyone Helen okay and is there anybody else uh online that wants to say anything about the histor commission I see Joel's there but just ra you raise your hand if you do use the raise your hand feature in Zoom yes and Helen go ahead um yeah I just wanted to answer the questions I I don't even remember who we asked but someone had asked if any of the groups had contacted us and I have heard from two groups actually um and one was Joel AR Bon so that's the upper Charles uh I see Joel has his hand raised here yeah and then um he uh does I think plan to have us at a future meeting uh they haven't had one scheduled yet and I did hear from Lori tosy on the school committee who did want a little bit more um information about how this actually kind of would affect the schools and why we want to come to a school you know committee to talk to them so I'm gonna I I I have to write her back for that but we we actually have heard from a couple so far so I just I just wanted to answer that because great didn't know that thank you thanks uh Joel I think you can unmute yourself I believe and talk did you have a question yeah a couple quick questions uh one uh do I understand that this only applies to the facade of buildings in other words let's say the town wanted to widen sidewalks or put up no parking signs or make other changes to the streetcape does any of this cover that I don't believe so with signs from the town whereas we already have put in the the the historic looking street lights and and that kind of thing um that would all be in the bylaw and I don't think that I'd have to do more research on that but I don't think that that is something that they concern themselves with okay one other quick question um on things like uh if if you're working or doing a project in a in a sensitive Wetland area there are times that you can have certain mitigations that occur in other words there are sort of workarounds you you have to be sensitive to the to the law but there are some accommodations that are made is there any flexibility here like let's say that the residents really wanted to take the uh I don't know the the old fire station downtown and turn it into a a movie theater with a different facade uh is there any vote of the residents that could in some way override the restrictions that might be put in place no I don't think so once it once it's our once it's in place um that would be it um for the I mean for the fire station uh but again there is flexibility within you know individual projects so I can't say for sure you know it's a kind of okay one last real quick one just a comment I would love to see the select board uh you were talking about having like public forums and going out to lots of committees I think that's just fantastic I like what where you're headed here uh but I would love to see the select board wait for feedback from the community before they uh represent the community they don't know where the community stands on this yet okay um that's fine I'm just trying to get a lot of support in general not that 100% because I have to send that into the state in order to get the ball rolling here it's pretty non-specific is my understanding yeah yeah yeah so unless we're opposed to the concept as a whole I would think all right well and then I would say in response to Joel and anyone else watching in this was on our agenda so when we go to put it on our agenda again we could purposely potentially through the town manager newsletter say this is going to be discussed and voted on at a at a select board meeting if you have thoughts for or against the creation of a historical district and put the map on there or a link to the map please come either contact us before the meeting or come to the meeting and let us know it's a good idea we'll we'll allow a little extra time for public comment and you know one thing I did want to mention too is we're also in conjunction with with this um getting together walking tours of this area of this District we put together um some of the other members have put together like brochures um like self-guided walking tours and some were working on the um the Q I always get this wrong the Q Q QR code sorry keep calling it The QC code um my kids correct me uh it's a QR code and U so that you can like look at the and you could just point to the you know on the and see this is the history of stones or the history of da TV was CU that has quite a history you know interesting or or the or the um or the Mason's building oh yeah that's a that's a cool one I I see um um Mark has his hand up Mark do you have a question or comment uh yes I yes I do it's both question and comment puted into one I I was at the Historical Community I think it was last night and I asked this question I wanted to ask this question through the uh select board and see if there's an answer with the State Historical setup for this for the for the um districts there are State amendments involved yes or no state I'm sorry what state what state amendments State um vo points to uh get this get the ball rolling State you that's why we have to submit all this paperwork to the state because there there are guidelines that they go by and we're if we're missing something from our package they're going to ask me to send it in you know it's it has to be in a certain um protocol in order for it to get approval from the state and eventually what this will do at the end of it is it'll get approved by the Attorney General's office and then it'll be recorded in the registry of deeds um as a local historic district so anybody that buys into it will be it'll be it'll be part of their title uh so you you know I I don't know if you folks know I'm a real estate title examiner and I run into the one in Boston all the time it's like 80 Pages you know of different parts of the Back Bay and south end and you know you just automatically know it's in the it's in the historic district you know Beacon Hill great and I I did ask this question last night and I'm GNA ask it again here how can the state coincide with Ashland's bylaw to put together so it can fit in together to have this going I asked that question last night I mean last week last week yeah uh Mark I think I said that then was that uh we work with the state the bylaw is is under State Direction too because they're going to be approving that as well as the Town Council so there's not going to be anything in the bylaw that would violate state law so the state and so and so the state will have an understanding what what ashon is going to be putting on and you can can you compare that and work work it all as one together I'm not sure I understand the question yeah I think I think that's how it'll work Mark will be uh in line with the state requirements so that should work that's it thank you all right thank you thank you all right so anything else I know um that you guys are you're working on the cemetery um cleanup and is that and so that's we're going to put that on a future that's going to be a future agenda we've already had a discussion I mean a presentation on how to clean the stuff and we're getting volunteers together and we have a group that wants to clean up the brush and all that stuff so so you'll let us know when you want to come in and we'll there's going to be specific questions or things we're going to have to decide at that point is that uh I don't think so Helen yes there is yes Helen Helen would speak better to this than go ahead Helen Yes actually um so the letter that I wrote you um kind of explaining the project and the timeline and the funding so that you would have an idea of everything that that um is going on uh with that and and and uh hopefully potentially what will go on with that um but what we were looking for and I believe probably would require you to all vote on it um was permission actually since it's a town property uh for permission for us to actually uh go in and do the work okay and I would like to have that sooner than later because we're waiting on an RDA um from the the um Conservation Commission um and we would like to get some of our Volunteers in over the winter to remove some small brush and trees and invasive plants because the winter time when the growth is sort of um stunted or or in however it is sleeping over the winter and it's not all there it's an easier time to do that so I I don't think we could take formal action but is that needed for them to do some basic work is it maybe the town man well Michael Herbert told me that was something that we should we should do was to ask for the select board's opinion so that's why we'll put you on a future uh the first agenda in February yeah that would be wonderful would people be ready by then the first oh yeah we would have been ready tonight ready to go now we could I think we needed to do something right Michael yeah and just Helen you can move forward with the RDA application in in fact like said I think it would be helpful for the select board once you get that yeah I I did see that that we could move forward with it but I think what we also want is permission so that once it's approved and once we go through the 14-day advertising period the volunteers can come in sign their waivers and then go in and do some of that work we want to get that started okay we'll plan on we'll plan on having you on our first agenda in February then that would great I would appreciate that thank you great thanks all right Jim anything else that's it for me yeah thanks if you have any other questions and if you have you know you have my email um just send them along I will leave this here and I'll send them out yeah all right great thank you thanks Jim appreciate all your work on this you guys you guys are really moving so that's great it's a while yeah you get the momentum going it's wonderful abely that's great and you got a good membership that's wonderful good grp all right too fast nice eag scull project too all right all right so moving on to Old thanks Jim thank you moving on to old new business um first item is discuss the reduction in the mass Trails Grant from 125,000 to 62,500 and this is representative Lewis's earmark they work very hard uh to um to benefit the upper Charles Trail and um as as part of the governor's n9c Cuts she basically cut a lot of the municipal grants in half and that's what happened with this one so um I think we just thought it was a good idea to put it on the agenda just to note it and discuss it so Michael I don't know if you had anything specific you want to talk about that yeah well I think just in general upper Charles Trail just to kind of update everybody we've had a couple meetings I think since we reported to the select board and um so at the last meeting like our little working uh slash implementation group um came to the realization that the the western part of the the trail or we'll call it phase two um there's actually an understanding now that parts of that at least for now will probably need to be on road um so so that's that will make things a little bit easier but and it also gives us the opportunity to focus on the eastern part which is uh phase one and to that end we're looking at uh pursuing a mass Trails Grant to look at acquire a couple of parcels um owned by an entity known as as Enzo realy um Joe you've had some conversations with uh with Derek who's the the owner of those parcels and that's where the part of the trail goes through and then also looking at engineering um the Dyke Trail section of the of the property so we're like really kind of squarely focused on phase one now and making tangible progress on on some of that it's great very exciting I see Joel's here and um Joel do you care to add anything Joel's Joel myself Michael and U Peter and Tony uh are on the implementation Joel do you have any brief updates or additions to that uh uh well I just want to let everybody know that the town is uh planning to submit a mass Trails Grant application and it's due uh two weeks from tomorrow it's a lot of work I've been writing and writing and uh one of the things I did uh yesterday was send out solicitations for support letters that are that are a required element that need to be submitted with the application and uh the uh the the list of people I have emailed I haven't I've gotten a few of them back today uh it reads like a who's who in the in the uh bicycle infrastructure world so we're going to have some very strong representation and support uh last quick thing I've also had uh great conversations with Pete Sutton who's the state's massot uh pedestrian and bicycle advisory commissioner or whatever his title is and also with uh Amanda Lewis Who's Who uh is the director of the mass Trails program and I've just been really encouraged to have Ashlin pursue this uh it seems like uh they're bending over backwards to try to work with us so as long as we have all our ducks lined up here we we're we will hopefully be in very good shape to get some pretty good funding would it be beneficial Joel if you have a a formal letter of support from the board of Selectmen I'm sorry for the select board absolutely uh I have corresponded I think to Rob about this and possibly Michael uh the last time the town received funding uh was for the trolley Brook Trail in 2020 and the board wrote a letter at that time that I could provide a copy of uh you know as a template uh it would probably need to be updated a little bit but uh okay uh absolutely that that's very important to show uh support from the the town's governing board okay then yeah if you would forward that to Rob and then Rob if you can send it out and then we could vote on that in our first meeting in February well would that work is that timing right good or is that too late that will not work so can we just okay I'm um then I I'm going to make a motion that we allow Rob to update the letter from the previous and that we submit a Bo a a select board letter of support for the trails Grant second motion's been made in second to send a letter of support for the um um Mass Trails Grant all those in uh favor say I I I oppose none so great motion passes thank youc y all right Joel any Joel I just FYI I just I just fought a um an email to you from Karen Adelman Foster of Senator spilka's office uh asking for some more information for the letter of support so you should be getting that now actually with any luck so and then just a follow-up Joel when you say you've reached out to a who's who are you including uh people from Holliston and Framingham in the letter of support for our grant to connect uh I've been thinking about Holliston I have uh the people I've reached out to I'll give you a short list uh I I I thought it was more important to talk to the uh to get support from the adjacent town so I've reached out to hopkington Framingham there's some new developments with Framingham I won't go into right now but they're very positive and um also to storn I would I would recommend Holliston as well to someone someone from their Trails group I would recommend that as well WID neck the uh the committee chair very well I would ask him for a letter of support I think that'd be great great idea okay all right thanks and Michael thank you for um putting that update on the is there anything you wanted to add for this yeah just just one last thing I thought i' had updated the board about this before but after conversing with Rob um I did not but do you recall when we received that letter from DCR that said we AED F because we were an economic Justice Community it was a mistake so so um actually what's going to happen is money's going to ashin State Park to help kind of refurbish some of those Trails so would that include the new Trail as part of the uh no I think it's already the existing well so it's not going to improve the trail that's over over the dam to make it part of I think it could I mean I'm not sure what to your point you know I was been thinking about this they're getting they're getting some Grant funds to do Trails Improvement in Ashland State Park so they probably have some flexibility as to how they can use it right we could certainly ask if we have any say or any discussion and I know the gentleman I forget his name from at from DCR Kevin Kevin from the Ashland State Park he has always been very supportive of our Trail so if we can get a meeting with him to say okay as you're improving the trails in ashin State Park can you include doing the work that would then be part of the our section of the upper upper Charles Trail in the ash State Park or at least have some input maybe not just the Uppa Charles Trail but other Trails like well how are they going to use this money so you know maybe it's you know I was thinking of getting touch with him or you know like you know maybe we could get a plan from them that we could look at and maybe do some feedback whether it's the upper Charles Trail or even how are they choosing to use this money you know that those trails are some of them are really bad shape so anyway but is that something that seems realistic to follow up with him I mean I'd be happy to try to do it or we could I'd be happy to do that as well yeah so let's let's put that on our list of things to try to follow up because it's a great thought that you know they're getting this money and how are they using it in our town so maybe we could talk to them about and like I said Kevin has always been very vocally supportive of us creating the upper Charles Trail and including the Ashen State Park as part of that trail yeah well good discussion can you CL can you clarify the the money that you were talking about that seems to be channeled toward uh DCR is that the money that we had previously talked about that would be would have been available for the engineering of our Trail no no no this was this kind of came out of the blue Joel where we got a there was a press release that Michael was sent saying that there's uh Mass Trail funds allocated to different communities in the state for uh that were what was it economic no uh environmental jce justice community and ashon was one of them and in following up we found out it was kind of a an allocation of funds to State the state park in ashin yeah not not the town of Ashland yes but it it is good to know that they now have these resources and the question would be how are they going to use them y all right well thank you everybody so uh let's move on I think to the next one and thanks for bringing that up Michael uh next one is discuss and vote on delegating the authority to the town clerk with consolid uh with consolidation from the police chief regarding police details This was um I think this was an um a request to us to approve that um that um the police would provide constables or other security for does anyone have the motion my uh do we need a motion or um I just lost it the motion uh there was a letter in the backup yeah I move that we the board authorize the town clerk in coordination with the police chief or her design the assignment of police officers conable details as they deem necessary for all elections in 2024 in accordance with the state law second that the motion's been made in second all those in favor say I I I oppose none I'm presuming there's no discussion sorry I kind of went through that one okay all right the next one is the vote on the home rule petition approved at the special town meeting requested additional liquor licenses and we do we do have um I have an act here is this um what do we have to do with this Michael I'm getting because I know we've gone we've approved this at various times is this the actual petition now that we're going to approve that's the actual petition that you would approve after if and when you do approve that then we send it off to representative Lewis um and so this is something that we're going to sign tonight so so what we're asking cuz Susan gave us something as well article six home rule petition to increase the number of premises of on premises liquor licenses so are we making the motion here this this motion that's on here um because I thought we've done that already yeah this is just like some language this is the warrant tic or the okay this is the warrant article so we're just now looking to reauthorize reiz I guess I should read this home rule rule petition that we is that is that necessary I I don't think it's necessary that you read the exact language I think what you can say is you vote to um file a home rule petition to increase the number of alcohol licenses I move that we approve the request of a home rule petition to increase our alcohol on premise licenses by 16 presented motion's been made in second any discussion or other okay all those in favor uh say I I those opposed no okay so the uh the home rule petition has been approved um and so we can now send it to the legislature do you need this do we need to sign this I need you to sign that and then I'll we'll have Cindy certify it and can send it off all right I'm going to send it around to everybody to sign great thank you okay uh this is I guess oh well we do need to discuss this a little bit ashin business associates holding a public form in FA February 13th the plan is to discuss development and econom economic development they would like a select board member to participate on the panel I think uh and perhaps we're also well anyway so let's discuss that um is there are people aware of this and pretty much know what it's about and are is someone interested in being on the panel is there more than one or Yolanda how did it turn out you were gonna I had mentioned that I was interested um I haven't had the opportunity to follow up with them to see if they'd like me to moderate like I did last year I haven't had a chance to because if I moderate then I don't need to be on it um and I know Claudia had mentioned she was interested in being on it as well so I mean I don't know how people feel part of me it's like until I know if I can moderate I don't want to remove myself as being on it so well I don't think a decision has to be made tonight tonight okay so okay I think we could certainly let them know that there's interest in I'm sure we'll have somebody who's man because last year it was Peter weissberger that was sort of running this who's doing it this year that's a good question I actually the request came through Beth so um my understanding is just the Ashlin Business Association leadership okay I'll reach out to Beth and go from there because you said you haven't had a chance to talk and um I had done this last year and it's a really great opportunity because the questions that come in are very business focused um and I think that it gives us an opportunity to talk about you know a lot of the support that that we give businesses but also just sort of like larger picture what's happening in town and the question you get to see the questions beforehand so that was good it's good and it's you know interesting thing probably if I'm around I'll try to maybe is it going to be um virtual at all yeah that's nice um I think it was filmed and put out there I don't think it was I don't think it was live kind of thing okay so it's a good thing I don't to just for interest uh y okay well thank you so we'll deal with that uh at our next meeting probably right okay okay the next one's reminder of the joint school committee meeting on January 24th 2024 to fill a vacancy on the school committee and review the process I saw Paul Kendall up there ear is he still there so Paul just let us know if you want to talk or say anything about this if this is what you're here for um the um so I had sent an email so we met we had a discussion uh God it seems so long ago now but I think it was Michael and Jim and Lori and I talk about this process I sent an email out to you folks and I know there's been a lot going on I think I asked you for I asked you for questions so did anyone okay Joe Joe has questions very good okay hand delivered hand delivered um so let me just review what I said and this is my memory of what we more or less decided not a problem um what I did one thing I do want to repeat uh what's the time it's it's um next week 6 o' or six it's some yeah so everybody should just note that and right now I'm I may try to come in virtually Yolanda is not available so it'll be you three and perhaps me i' talked to Joe about chairing on behalf of the select board um and here's the process that we had discussed um basically um Lor's going to kind of chair the overall process we're scheduled 6:30 on Wednesday January 24th at the school committee meeting so we'll be guests at their meeting um Lori just sent me an email saying um Jim neelson has dropped out just informationally he's withdrawn his cidy so when so when you people look at it I guess um he's he's withdrawn um we agreed to a 92 opening statement from each three of the same questions for each candidate would limited some time for followup questions from Members being members being select board and school committee members um and um there'll be some members or alternate asking a questions so um after the last candidate there'll be General discussion at some point um the chair will call for nominations the first nomination seconded that receives a majority of V uh votes pres will be appointed um the we talked about these three questions and kind of informly decided that two would come from school committee one from select board um and I think Lor's envisioning that that be a select board question and the select board would take turns asking it you know basically I think so um and the and I'm supposed to like coordinate with lorri over the next few days and I don't know um if is there any other questions besides Joe's anybody else have questions in mind yeah well thank you for putting this in um maybe I'll just read um uh Joe these are Joe's questions Jo all you all have comprehensive resumes Indica involvement in current multiple activities how will you find time to dedicate uh and put forth the effort towards a me being a a school Committee Member uh there was much time meet twice a month will each of you have the time without sacrificing time towards your other activities so that's Joe's first question about time what is the strongest to assist you as a member of the school committee and what makes you the best qualified candidate from the list of current oh I'm sorry um candidates to fill his vacancy which is I'm pretty sure very similar to one uh Lor's putting together but you know thank you for that so um I guess you know one thing I'm a little um Yolanda what's your schedule like over the next few days or are you very cuz well I'm thinking of asking to hand this off this task hand off to you to deal with decide with Lori about the questions M on Friday and Saturday oh that's right this weekend is that yeah and then I have another so to Wednesday I have like a full afternoon on Sunday all right so I I'll get in touch with Lori and we'll try to iron out whatever we can and maybe there's someone else in the committee who well that's true yes sure if you're going to have me represent the have to me instead of cutting the middle man I just come to me directly what do people think of that I'll delegate this to Joe on the question decision everybody good with that yeah so Paul I don't know if you're listening to us or if Lor's uh listen to this we're gonna I'll I'll send I'll send an email and include you and say uh so Joe has given us some questions I'm going to kind of delegate it to Joe to uh speak with Lori and finalize the three questions okay does that work Paul yeah and uh speaking with Lori you know I think based on the number of people and and and what we get from there there might be some fluctuation that might might throw one another question or something like that based on uh based on the numbers I mean right now we got 10 um uh 10 people fill out forms uh she just sent out an email today two of the people have withdrawn uh from from cacey uh I'm not going to mention their names I don't I just don't want to throw that out there to them sure oh I just did one of them Paul sorry we we'll we'll definitely let you know if you want uh what I've done for our committee and I can share it with you uh I took all the the the talent Bank forms and I put them in a Google sheet on a template um so that way what I can do is I can share the template with you you all won't be able to modify the template and I won't use the template but what you can do is you can uh you can create your own copy and then take notes and have all the things right there in a in kind of a more easily usable fashion you can take notes right on the uh right on the Google sheet and things like that to keep track because as I said now we're down to eight but we had uh 10 10 submissions uh so it's a a lot to look at so yeah certainly is that that actually is a good good good suggestion Paul I was going to ask if somebody could put together like a final list with all the talent Bank forms cuz we've seen them kind of come in here and there and there's a lot of them which I guess is really great for the school committee because there's a lot of really interested people looking to to serve school committe it's great it's great and very gonna be very very very difficult to so Paul how did you how are you Distributing this uh list or so so what I did to to our uh for our committee so far is is all I did is I took all the the information from well the relevant information I took out the contact information I don't think it was relevant for for this but uh I took took that and I put it into a Google sheet uh so each tab in the Google sheet is one of the candidates it has all of the all the information and then it has um places for keeping track of your notes on each of the questions and their responses and the general notes taking place um so that way so what I did I I created a created a Google sheet I shared it read only to my committee which doesn't allow them to modify it but what they can do is they can create a copy in Google um that you can then take your private notes on so there's no if you could share that with our committee Paul yeah great again you know same read only and then people can print it out or do it what they want that's great yeah I'll I'll do the same share and then I'll I'll just forward you the same email that I sent our committee great that good with everybody sounds great all right thanks Paul all right anything further on this one I would I would just say um again I apologize that I won't be able to be there but one of the things at the end and I'm sure some of you will think of this and do this is to encourage whoever is not appointed to consider running because it's going to be an open seat even though someone's going to be appointed to it from February till May it's always good to have choices and even though you don't get appointed doesn't mean you might not be able to get the votes to be put onto the the school committee at the election that's right and it's a one-year term I believe right yes one year remaining it's a one-year term and then there's two school committee seats up for re-election as well right so yeah and one of the points I made at our meeting uh just to I want to make sure everyone is aware uh because of the the cycle that this particular seats on it will be uh two back-to-back elections so so uh disappointments to the next election but then um that seat one more year left on that cycle so not that that should be a big deal but I know it matters to people that right if they have it means they're GNA if they want to run and they get appointed they'll have to run and they and they win the election they'd have to run again next year great yeah nothing the other the other component that uh because as we got more and more uh just Lori and I talked about this um just if if we if we are talking to eight people and we're going through a lot and um we were kicking around the idea and she was going to reach out to you rob uh and Yolanda about is there a potential appetite for if we're if we're long time into it we have some really great candidates right so it's going to be a very robust and and and difficult decision that we get to a point where do we want to have maybe a virtual meeting for a vote uh if if we're if we're struggling if if we're two hours into it and we're we're struggling to narrow it down uh maybe there maybe there's a possibility of uh you know having a second meeting just to just to reconvene on on the topic well let's let's get a sense of the board now I would say take a PL take a I I have a feeling Paul like I know that that you have eight candidates but I think my guess is is when you start talking to folks there will be people that that are yeah and it'll be less less top candidates than you went I I also you know just it just occurred to me because we were talking about the election in May I would say that one of the questions that we absolutely need to ask is ensure that they're planning to run in May because there really is no time to try this out before they'd have to pull papers and run so if they're not serious about running in May then I wouldn't even consider them for for a SE that's a question that I always consider ask it's like if someone's getting appointed are they considering running as you said papers papers will are going to be available they only have a couple of meetings they'll only have a couple of meetings before they'll need to submit papers papers are going to be available in uh at the end of the month but they're due in March so yeah yeah so one thing I would suggest if if the majority really feels that's an important question then you know when you talk to Lori that's that would be our qu or maybe she that might be an additional that might be like a fourth question though right that those aren't real content yeah there's discuss Oh you mean in not one of the three right have if you you know to find out how people are thinking you'd have your three main dis things but to bry's point would you know whether you're appointed or not are you considering running and pulling papers for I'll leave that to you guys for so doing that and maybe it's a screening question the possibility of something like that too is uh perhaps when we have them do their introduction uh ask them to that's a brief yes no kind of thing have that as part of their introduction yeah that's a great then then it doesn't get into the three questions so that's good okay that's good thanks for coming Paul because this is like a good way of working this stuff out anything else on this one good thank you all all right next one is discuss the senior tax workof program so Jen go ahead Jen um I think uh about a month back I had um Candy and I had presented just sort of the updated program rules um for the TA the senior tax workof program so obviously just a reminder um at the last um town meeting we had voted to increase the number of the number of hours um and the and and the hourly rate um and sort of expand the program a little bit so you know this program um seniors who are who are 60 or older or a veteran because we also have a veterans um workof program and that has been an Ashlin resident for 5 years can reach out to Candy well at the senior center and um and apply basically to do a part-time uh position um many of those positions that we have uh they're usually at Town Hall at the senior center at the food pantry um and and at the library we're looking at so but we have at Max 10 positions um and so this basically what's in the packet just outlines um the guidelines of the program and then some of the minimum requirements that sort of physical requirements that we need and some of the information that we collect um each year and so um seniors are able to work up to 100 hours it basically gives them a tax um relief of $1,500 at the end of the year um and we're trying to get this program we already have some interested um seniors who have done it previously because this is not a new program it's just we we changed it a bit um and it takes a long time to actually work a 100 hours throughout the year so um I was just looking for sort of we talked about it more broadly in concept last time and just looking for sort of the formal approval on on we didn't have the actual write up complete for the last time great thank you Jen um so this is that's just that's an update on um on the program and so we're moving ahead with it great thanks you don't need us to vote on this information or do you to approve I think it doesn't hurt to just have a a vote that accepts the new the new guidelines all right so is there any any questions or anything else on on this we've gone through this a bit so pretty straight forward a motion sure I move that we approve the updated property tax workof program as presented I'll motion's been made and seconded all those in favor say I I I I and thank you to candy thank you yes thanks C thanks and J thanks for putting this together that's good all right so now just some reminder um complete and return to town census and dog license registrations that are now available and I I did drop off my town census today uh you know maybe it would be worth just commenting quickly about um when people fill out the town census that it translates to dollars for the community yeah yeah does it well that's interesting so yeah so a lot of our formula based allocations are dependent on the census so that's why it's um the town the town census a lot more so with the desal census but the town census as well helps U good reminder us she must have running that in the schools oh yeah yeah oh that I'm remembering that now yeah and then Michael maybe yeah I'm sure you'll probably include something like that in your newsletter this I can yeah just say maybe a couple lines that please take a minute and and this is you know that it's helpful to us yeah finally was that an issue that some people weren't on the census and that affected they were like in school and not on the census is that no but um no I sometimes the thing that mostly in the schools that we struggle with more are people of certain income level that um app you know really definitely brings dollars to the yeah um District um in terms of census we go by how many kids are in their seats yeah on October one so I'm not sure whether or not they're if they're not on the town's uh how that works grants for school lunch programs and breakfast programs that that Ava okay um next reminder is you know we have Town elections coming up in May I believe it's May 1st um nomination papers will be available in Town's clerk office on January 30th um and there's if you go to the towns clerk town clerk's uh site in in the um in the town website there's a whole list of what offices are are available and open um another reminder hazardous waste collection is the first satday of their month at the DPW also mattress and box springs drop off DPW every Friday from 6:30 to 2:30 in the first Saturday of each month so every Friday that's pretty uh pretty convenient very good um and then another the Valentine public forum which we've been putting together and with I mean Michael I should say Michael's been putting together but we've been pushing it is the at Town Hall on Monday January 29th at 6:30 did we want to say anything about that or well we had a request for some information to be either put up on the website or made available um are have we done that or no I don't think we we have um I'll have to look look for that okay because I know they're looking for the CR for the Valentine property any potential you have a plan that you want to present at that Forum so if that could be made available to the public can do that the CR is not back from the state so oh it's still not it is still at the state okay so we can present it but as a draft a draft just yeah we could put a watermark on it I think yeah yes okay yeah just I mean and you know hopefully the state will not yeah we give an update I know that there was some work happening like with you know potential holders stuff like that can I mean I don't know if that's I we may be waiting from for the the CR from the state before we kind of announce that but I think it's important to note that we do have a partner that we worked with to help draft the CR yeah um and so this time they're will at The Forum yeah yeah we can get some clarification it's it's a it's a big it's a big deal once we oh yeah to get a older and everything will they be attending will they have a representative there or you know I haven't specifically invited them but um it's it might remember if we put something in local Town Pages no it'd be too late no um yeah I think those are the we should get a PDF or something up on like a flyer that we could put in uh onto waca TV and are we asking them to film and do a hybrid Zoom um we're asking them to record at the at the least okay so but it will it may or may not be hybrid what do we pick a place for this oh Town Hall are we are we making it hybrid are we allowing people to participate via Zoom um we can you know we find hybrid can sometimes be a lot of trouble so but they do it does provide access to well yeah there are people if people are interested and I think this is certainly something a lot of people would like to participate in and we do have limited seating so I think if we can make it a hybrid meeting I think that would be good and I would say if we think that the majority of us are going to be there maybe even posted as a select board meeting yeah so I thought I saw it posted or maybe it was just as an event posted as an event what the seating arrangements we're not going to be up front no no no we're not going to be up front but I think um like at the planning board meeting recently even though we were all there as individual citizens I think there was at least four of us in attendance of that meeting and because this forum is basically one of our forums I think it would be good for us to post as a select board meeting yeah sure in the last the last Valentine Forum we did which was probably what a year and year and a half ago something a while we did it hybrid and we had a lot of people join we people on if we can like if we're doing it here in this room and we have the capability to do it I would yeah I would like to recommend that we do it hybrid all right although it's never perfect no but again one of the reasons we support hybrid is it allows greater participation from the community and this is certainly a project that we want Community participation and input from yeah y absolutely okay so that go that route anything else on the on the Forum no I mean just other you know a couple of you had an opportunity to look at the barn and I got to see the work there and um it's pretty cool it is pretty cool um especially seeing the dates um on the post of when they were moved that's that's pretty cool so yeah very cool um great okay okay next um so that brings us into the consent agenda um any anything are we ready to approve the consent agenda any anything you want to discuss or see we have Amanda I think it's files right the sustainability committee um I move that we uh approve the consent agenda as presented second that uh motion has been made to approve the consent agenda as presented all those in favor say I I I I oppose none so consent agenda is passed and uh thank you for all congratulations question sure that because I didn't want to pull it out because I just I was just kind of curious um whether we have a new uh full-time patrol officer was he a lateral transfer or was he a new hire um it came up through he's a lateral I was going to get into it a little bit more in town manager reports just kind of like and stuff but yeah he's a lateral okay thank um and then just note just I noticed that this is that we are appointing a traffic officer which I guess is the replacement for the auxiliary police but with a higher level of training I guess this is Billy Foster so retire years ago okay great um all right so that so that brings us over to the town manager report um and Michael it says discuss nine c Cuts do you have a list or well I do so um we we got it just not too long ago um and we talked about the n9c cut for the um Trail for the trail but we did find out that there are other two ear marks um one for the economic development Pro incentive program and then the other for the ReUse of the police and fire station so both of those were cut in half as well so they had both been funded at 100,000 each now they're funded at 50,000 so so what impact will that have on our plans um well the economic development program is pretty pretty self-explanatory we won't be able to fund as as much assistance as as we had hoped through that um nothing really in stone yet for the police and fire station so we haven't really finalized anything yet so it really doesn't impact too much we still should be able to do like some preliminary work that we need to do but um yeah I mean it's it's unfortunate um but you know it's funny as I was looking through the list of of ear marks that got cut today I was just looking at what towns got and like you know a lot of towns got a bunch of $50,000 line items that got cut 25 so we started from a higher level better place so thanks to um our delegation so we've worked a little bit better than some of the other Town yeah we fared we fared pretty well yeah okay can't complain there's that all right Citizens Academy um we had our First Citizens Academy last Wednesday um which uh first of all we've got a great group of 16 people that were engaged um and asked really really thoughtful questions this first session we covered municipal government in Massachusetts and also you know dug in deeper to Ashland's uh particular structure so you know we talked about representative Town meetings City forms of government things like that um Katherine our HR Director she gave a great overview of our HR department and HR functions and some of the the challenges that we have um in all m IP municipalities have um in terms of attracting and retaining people um did a great job with that and then we segwayed into strategic goals and objectives in the projects that we're doing and uh had a good discussion about that and um then we ended with a couple trivia questions so cool I had six but you know guess who talked a little bit overtime and um I only had time for two so would it be possible to would it be possible to find out who the residents are that are participating I think that'd be great to know so if we see them and we can ask about them or yeah yeah and so big thanks to um to Katherine and Jen um you know Katherine for talking about HR and being there and Jen just kind of setting the whole thing up so and the plan is to meet every two weeks roughly we're going to take a little bit of a break um yeah we're doing this um Finance is the next one we're doing opposite of our schedule okay so the second second and fourth okay so what is the total number of weeks that the academy actually eight eight eight weeks yeah and it ends right after town meeting and so the schedule really kind of aligns kind of nicely we tried to line it up that way um so next week we talk about Finance so just planting the seed might we want to do some kind of recognition at town meeting well I think we're going to have them at the at a select after I'm sure the moderator would you know I mean I think we could maybe do it as an overview and so about maybe take a photo so we could at least recognize the first class I I just think that the more visibility it has at different places the more the higher possibility that more people will want to do it I mean I know you had a pretty good number of applicants and you sort of had to pick and choose but I'm just thinking better visibility and then discussion as to could you increase the number the next time that's all okay yeah I mean so finan is next week and so that's timed to where the you know they can have that before the televised finance committee hearing yeah so we'll ask them if they have time to watch that just to sort of get get a deer dive and they'll have at least some baselines so um Britney will speak uh at the next one sort of giving an overview and then also Cindy sakata um nice and Rich ball and then I'll give a quick overview on rich rich doing the cessor stuff that's that's really yeah that's always that's always an interesting exercise but it's it's yeah it's good like I said it's really engaged group too great nice um let's see and the last item that I have is regarding the police department and lateral transfers um so we did get out of civil service which was a big wind for um our police department and our community um but we have had some departures for I'm just going to classify it as personal reasons um so we're we're down on Staffing again which is having a a a tough effect or tough impact on our existing officers so um we met with the Union uh talked with them and batted around a couple of ideas and one of the things we came up with is a signing bonus for lateral transfers um and then also the chief has worked really hard with uh some of the colleges that have that graduate um you know people who have Academy who are then Academy trained and post certified so both of those are we're seeing fruitful results so you noted just we just appointed one um police lateral police officer who came in through the signing bonus program we have about three or four additional ones in our get bad system which is the system that we're utilizing now that we moved out of civil service get badg I like get badged yeah Oh I thought it was like get a badge which is like stealing other police officers well I mean that poaching is poaching is what it is there's the word yeah so um but hopefully we'll get our staffing level back uh you know back to where our officers are not having to pull doubles all the time and and just kind of working their tails off because it really does have an impact on them and their family so most of these will be already Academy of chain yeah so the signing bonus is just for laterals okay so and then the the colleges you know looking at the ones or the Chiefs looking at the ones that have um have the programs yeah marac in fitur program where you graduate CJ as a trained as as a trained you know but they also put you through the academy yeah and I think I you know I don't want to be premature or presumptive I should say but um you know Chief Ross's already identified one potential candidate for marac um that could be available I think graduates in the spring and um after a 12we field training program will be um we'll be able to um you know be on the street so and in terms of the laterals are they um have to match up with a position that we have available or yeah so they're coming over as Patrol officers yeah so that that's really where we're depleted yeah um but no the police department there's you know they're not skipping a beat as you know they can be victims of their own success and so sometimes you don't realize just how um how short staff they can be just because they keep going and going and going but they really are um at at a at a at a bad level so so hopefully this program will continue uh to to bear fruit all right thank you that's what I have all right thank you Michael um so that brings us to board reports so we'll just go I think if it's okay in the usual order we'll start with Claudia and go ahead yeah I think I've been inside all month um I was trying to think of where I'd been but um yeah so I don't really think I have much to say except that you know I appreciate the work the DPW done this week and uh getting the roads ready and um after a really tough storm so yeah got our first winter storm out out of the way all right thank you uh Brandy um so just a couple of things um one our comprehensive plan steering committee meets tomorrow um at the ashin public library at 7 o'clock um I I would like to request that we put a formal line item on the agenda next meeting to give a real update because I think that this meeting will kind of have some good feedback from our consultant plus I think we'll have some interesting um uh tools that we're going to be be sharing out um also just to let this board know we are talking about the project management team the the much aligned project management team um tomorrow as well so that will be a good discussion I am sure so um so that's all on comprehensive plan and then I just wanted to um um Joe and I were just chatting about it there's we have a new Eagle Scout in Ashland Tommy king um and so he's gone through his um uh his Eagle board of review and they're going to do a they're going to do a court of honor I've been talking to his mom he's a classmate of my son so I've I've known him um for years and he's overcome a lot of challenges and he's a really good kid so and a new Eagle so um to come on when is the she hasn't have a DAT yet okay so but she's going to keep me posted and I said cuz I said I cuz I had the same same thought that you did and just to make sure that either because I said to her I said if you know we'd love to be able to be a part of it to celebrate Tommy or at least bring in here for for celebration W doing who is is there a person now coordinating them because I know merly used to do that I'll have to get a hold of uh the scul master to see if there's somebody he would recomend to follow up with us on those programs I think there'll be a there might be a um I don't know where in the process but I assume there's going to be at least one more from Nate's class not not Nate's Nate's not a scout but right but part of the the grp Merl being gone is a real loss for them she was such a coordinator of all that real you know I was at the reservoir last weekend and a lot of those bridges that are there were done we're Eagle you can actually see some name plates are on them so it reminds you know these these guys do a lot of work a lot of projects Town Forest grew too yeah well even more in the Town Forest but also the res I mean Tommy's project was Stone Park was it really really good job what did he do at Stone Park so he cleaned out all the trails thanks cleaned out all the trails and built um a couple new benches oh nice um so yeah he check him out so he's good kid dangling pine tree branches that's oh gosh or Fallen pine tree branches yep all right um okay Joe thank you Mr chair um I don't have much other than the fact that I did report at our last meeting that the uh traffic study Safety Committee were was going to be meeting on the 30th uh but because of uh scheduling issues that is going to be on the 23rd which is uh next Tuesday so if anybody needs to uh it's posted and the agenda is there would like to come it be at the uh substation at U Market Basket uh starting at 10 10:00 till 11:30 and uh we have a lot to discuss a lot of things need to get done so um and again we uh we appreciate all the effort again remind everybody there is a uh parking band overnight parking band from from 2 to 2 to 6 especially where the weather's kind kind of crappy out you never know when you're going to get a Squall so make sure you keep the roads clear a vehicle so that the flowers can do what they need to do and watch for children walking to school especially now that the roads are a little more narrow with the uh the snow banks on on the sides of the road and I I I agree with your your comment uh to us the other day about 135 is a little bit narrower and uh but the cars aren't going any slower so we need to uh make people be aware of that make sure we get things done but I know we're in the process of uh doing potential work on it cross great good just can't see him now because right right so but that's all I have and um thank you all right thanks go ahead uh so just a reminder I've only gotten a potential list of what committee you want to see first from two members I still need it from two other members uh that's all I'll say about that I'd like to I'd like to be able to invite somebody to our first meeting in febru so yes I I might do that I actually I actually support that suggestion and I'm one of the what a great idea yeah I I just made you that we'll see the other thing is I am going to be sorry reminder so we're not giving you the whole list we're giving you I want your top three that you would like to have come to one of our meetings and what was Claudia's top three I I'm telling you that anyway uh I'm going to be at Ma MMA on Friday and Saturday um it was interesting a couple people have said oh there's not that many good sessions but I found a couple that I think could be interesting so hopefully I'll be able to bring stuff back also I have been I applied for and I have been I will be officially appointed as the vice chair of wio which is women elected Municipal officers and then I'm going to be part of the luncheon presentation we're doing a fireside chat with our Chief climate officer here in Massachusetts so I'm going to get to interview her nice so that'll be fun and then next Thursday the Metro West Regional collaborative has our online Zoom meeting starting at 8 and we are going to be getting an update from David luten Heimer regarding the trails project so he'll be on for like 20 minutes talking us through stuff as well as the collaborative will be talking about May projects and the work plan for the next year when is that uh next Thursday from 8:00 to 9:30 online be around there but okay so and that's all I got great thank you um I don't have any special announcements or things that so um I guess I will take a motion to adjourn second so moved all those in favor say I all right we are adjourned thank you all thank you all thank you wow

good evening and welcome to tonight's wrestle match up between the Spartans OB SL medal high school and the Lions of blo high school participating student athletes coaches and contest officials have prepared for today's competition please show your appreciation by demonstrating good sportsmanship and respect for all in attendance per MIAA PD and Islam medal high school policies and expectations please ensure that your behavior reflect the values that should be identified with these student athletes assume responsibility for your behavior please do not direct any negative comments towards officials athletes coaches or fans if you require assistance please call upon a school or security official please please also note the following emergency exits are located in each corner of the gymnasium smoking is not allowed anywhere in school property The Spectators should stay off the plain surface at all times our great country has persevered because because of the men and women that serve our country in the armed forces we invite both veterans and current military personnel to please stand we thank you for this service to our country we now invite everyone to stand as the honor America with the singing of our national anthem oh say can you see by the dawn what so proud We have the Twilight who brought and bright stars the ru the be or the [Music] we were so stre and rock GL the bones bursting in out gave through the night that our plan was still there oh s do that star strangles B and way or the land of the free the bra [Applause] no process captain please captain 106 sprad please 106 spr [Applause] spe [Applause] control good take [Music] side forward [Music] [Applause] forward [Music] [Applause] go [Music] go get it all right side Center Center Center [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey okay St D hands up hands up Circle and Chase don't chase Circle all [Music] right good Circle DAV don't chase Circle D cross D hips up hips up hips up all right neutral all right [Applause] 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[Music] that ankle oh it's there let's go low create angles [Applause] angles get another [Applause] Lo right there [Applause] keep [Applause] your pass off the head off the [Music] [Applause] [Music] head [Music] don't your [Applause] control get get [Applause] elbows in down second Peri [Applause] [Music] [Applause] single double single [Applause] it give it you everything [Applause] pass that [Applause] snap 25 25 [Music] [Applause] got down [Music] third go go through hey snap that again you're snap Circle snap Circle [Applause] need down got still down break down I think that will work [Applause] [Music] keep your arm out of there get your arm out of there [Applause] right 165 green 165 [Music] green St [Music] [Applause] [Music] one two three like come [Applause] on [Music] [Applause] r good yeah you're control it'll be patient we buddy please go know is it it's trolled now it's control stop the blood time stop blood time the you got it stay patient [Music] for right let's go no angles angles let's go no one [Applause] down [Applause] two to the fur a furry it's your choice down the down watch the roll [Music] [Applause] [Music] up [Applause] on your toes on your toes [Music] buddy outside Noah ankles outside watch [Applause] watcher [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ang [Applause] [Music] go one that [Applause] green [Applause] out watch the rul [Applause] [Music] here heavy [Applause] [Music] heavy hey [Applause] [Music] no [Applause] [Music] should you you [Applause] [Music] you [Applause] want this [Applause] is push [Music] go [Music] let on in [Applause] reset [Music] [Applause] reset down second [Applause] period [Applause] [Music] Circle left that move those elow good [Applause] inside get it ins inside [Music] [Applause] seconds the elbows good job [Music] Neal [Music] [Applause] on gav he's tired G we need shots up [Music] the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the [Applause] wo [Applause] on right [Applause] there cover 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get going um calling the um meeting of the the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education uh to order on this Wednesday evening frigid Wednesday evening January 17th and it is 703 um please join me um rising and saying the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you so um we have the roll call tonight um Joy Greenstein is here and Rob Robert fetto Stephanie sakur Sarah Divine and Wendy Youngblood Rosa Fernandez halah harani and then our executive team Casey diot uh Dr jumil and Dr Anna man so good evening everybody and good evening to um everybody who has um come out on this evening to to watch in person and hi to everybody at home okay so we are G to start with something really cool we have a student Spotlight from Candlewood Lake Elementary School um and I I believe we have a student and um two wow uh and Dr Young Blood I I can bring Dr pep saski up if that's okay please' be great thanks we have um two very special young ladies here for our Spotlight tonight and I know Mrs Pearson our upper school media specialist is here as well and I will turn it over to Dr pep saski thank you Dr BR and thanks for I losing my voice students are very happy about that but one thing that I was one thing there I am hello Manny Mota uh one thing that I was definitely committed to was in with Candlewood Lake and a school that size is always any opportunity for our upper school to work with lower school kids in a mentorship way embraced it and D Pearson fortunately has 100% Embrace that so I'm not going to say too much about what she's done this time time uh but she did bring with her Rosie and Maddie who are going to share their experiences why you stand right here hi I'd like to introduce myself for those of you that don't know is that on yet yes on on is it up now it is there we go okay um I'm deep Pearson I'm the media specialist for the upper school grades 345 my partner Nicole Guerrera would have loved to have been here tonight but her daughter had her Winter concert so next time she promises she'll be here um I wanted to thank you for having us back and give you a little glimpse into what we've been doing with our buddy program and a little bit of background for those of you that might be new to the board so when we embarked on this journey with this fantastic new big school we were trying to find a way to let our friends on both levels work together and also especially for our younger kids to have them feel more comfortable because it is a big school and you see big kids whether they on the bus or they're in the hallway so this program is what we came up with and we started out by just reading together and then we showed the younger ones how to Bookshop how to use a shelf marker how really modeled good behaviors in the library then we we did that a couple of times and we tried it we've committed to meeting at least once a month then we went into the maker space and modeled those behaviors there where they can can create and design and build so that when we get to our coding unit later in the winter they'll already have that Foundation laid so what we're here to talk about tonight though is our holidays around the world project and you know communities change and evolve all the time and sometimes you have cultures that come in that are different than what you are used to in your own home so what better way to understand that than to introduce holidays and traditions and Customs at an early age so we had our older students working with the younger students and the kids will tell you a little bit more about that but when you think about it in our school we have Ramadan EOL fitter dewali Hanukkah um K Quanza and of course Christmas and those are the holidays we focused on however we didn't focus on Christmas as we know it we focused on Christmas in the Philippines or in China or in Egypt or in Greece where we found out the Traditions are very different and through the entire project I have to say we started out focusing on what's different but we really realized that no matter what the holiday is and what the culture is we have a lot of similarities and that's really what binds us together so I'd like my friends here I'm going to move this over and have them introduce themselves what's your name meline mine roodle I'm in Mrs pay's class awesome my name is Rosie Martinez and I'm in Miss Muller's fifth grade class okay so Rosie why don't you tell a little bit about what we did um so our class paired up with a our kindergarten buddies and we to teach the them the basic research and Maddie what did we do first um read a book and after we read the book what did we do with what we learned after reading we wrote two facts and we from that we learned from the book and two facts wasn't enough and we should never use Just One Source right so what did the Buddies do next we opened up the computer to learn some more and then after we found another fact what did we do with it we chose a third fact to write down but had to be sure at least one of our facts had was something we could illustrate and what did we do after we had all three facts write a picture to match the words and what did we do with our final projects when we were done our projects were hung up in the library for everybody to see all right so I have just a few samples up here that I'll scroll through and if anybody has questions I know the girls would love to answer them and the students were encouraged to label their illustrations as well so you'll see they have their holiday they have their holiday written um as teachers we found out when we first did this project um there's always something you change so on our some of the forms you will not see spaces for teacher names but then we flipped that and some of them have the picture on the second page think this for Christmas in Egypt lamb stew oh I think I know who did this one who's is this one is this one yours would you like to explain what's in your picture tell them why did you put hearts for eat all fitter um um do you remember what your fact was over there Rosie can you read it for us it is a time for thinking of others and so how did you show that thinking of others um did you dra heart a big heart right so if you get a chance to stop by Candlewood Lake in the next couple of weeks or so um our walls are covered with almost 500 of these so see Christmas in the Netherlands Cent Claus comes in on a boat rides a horse right does anyone have questions for Rosie or Maddie I have a question what was something that you guys found was similar through all the different holidays what is something we all do get presents there we go you think of something else that was different like with the decorations something that all of them had in common uh they were all like like fun and festive and this was a fun fact that a lot of kids enjoyed is that for E all fitter depending on where you're celebrating you might get to attend camel races as you can see we had a lot of fun with this what is something that surprised you or shocked you about the different holidays or about one in particular I think I'd have to probably go back with that one the camel you think of anything else that was kind of really surprising or you wish the mie that you had with your holiday tricky question huh how about the henna painting I thought that was really cool that would be fun to have and then I'll just show you a quick little picture of so this is just one little portion of them on the walls so please if you get a chance stop by and see them thanks so much guys thank you Rosie and Maddie thank you for taking some of your um time this evening to come and show us your work that's really really cool thank you I hope your friends at school have had um as Rich an opportunity and a fun time as you guys have and what's interesting is they are actual book buddies too it's not just an upper school lower school they are buddies they work together thank you Mrs Pearson thank you Rosie and Maddie that's great um let's move now to um public comment so I'll I'll um remind everybody um and for folks who are new you'll be hearing it for the first time um the board of uh education welcomes public comment each speaker shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board at the start of each regular meeting a maximum of 20 minutes is allotted for comment on any item included on the agenda for that meeting at the end of each regular meeting time is allotted for comment on any item which is within the board's jurisdiction which would also also well I don't think we're going to have overflow time uh because we have a short list this evening um discussion of school Personnel individual students or of individual members of the board is prohibited um and with that um I'd like to oh and please do um say your name and your address when you when you begin to speak um I'd like to invite up um our first speaker um is it on can you hear me yeah um Andy Korea 45 West wiser Road that's a tough act to follow um having ridden a camel though i' tell you they're not as cracked up as you'd think they'd be um but I have a few things to speak about um one is I'm very disappointed that there is not an agenda item to discuss Legal Services um I think the board has received enough information to understand that they do have a duty I think to act as to whether we continue with the current um Council and I think we should not um and I think doing so is really a matter of it's not political there's not a side or a caucus to it it's really a matter of being an adult it's also not a a financial issue too which lawyers you pick in the future sure there should be a bake off um additionally I recommend a no vote on the budget at this time there's some answers that need to be um answered I sent an email at 6:30 I apologize for not getting it out earlier um there was a lot to put in there I do think the board should consider looking through it asking questions in the um you know when we have the update from the administration as well as as the budget um there's several things in there there's one I'm a little concerned about the truthfulness of some of the uh comments made regarding legal services and the level of it um we're already over budget uh I think the past two months was $114,000 in in in two months um you know and also there's been statements oh it's just a a small $20,000 budget so from a control standpoint if 20,000 is small and we're going through the issues have the issues of using lawyers the way we do how do you know that it won't be 40 and that it creeps up and what is that extra $5,000 so I think that the board as small as that is needs to put controls that if you know the administration needs to go over 20 they come for every $5,000 increment and why um I'm also a little concerned about how the budget has been handled is because the budget in the in the uh Financial subcommittee meeting was voted to move forward as is with changes that really weren't Incorporated from the public I recall several meetings where a veteran board member would lament that there was not more participation from the community and then once you have participation it doesn't seem to be incorporated in the I think the big tradeoff that this board should do is um no longer move forward with the curriculum coaches and transfer that budget to a special education I think we need more supervisors I think Bill is um or the the director is in a position where they he likely needs to fire two and hire three um and because we have an identified area of need that the special education needs are not covered in the bu from the correct report that is a good transfer um additionally these curriculum coaching jobs you know we have we do not have several schools for which the curriculum coaching yeah what curriculum coaching is intended for but we also don't have a level of quality control within the high school so the problem you're trying to solve with $400,000 in the the lower schools that we don't need I know that we don't need we're not doing through management uh in the high school and the board has this has been brought to the board's attention last year thank you thank you for your comment and uh next Aeron scera five Jackson Drive um let's see where are we I felt I knew I should have printed this out I felt it was imperative to show up this evening and speak about the IEP compliance position position that was brought up at the last Board of Education meeting and if the position was necessary I for one was against filling the position last year as well as adding the FIA clerk position because I did not feel that adding two positions that would report to the problem special education director at the time as well as special education supervisors who were not adequately doing their jobs or ensuring our identified children were properly and adequately serviced I could not understand how the administration came to the decision that spending more money by paying more people to do a job that we were already paying people to do hiring people instead of holding people accountable to do all their duties that they were hired to do does not help the bottom line or the district as a whole fast forward and we are and here I am almost a year later and I know the opposite to be true regarding the compliance position the CK review was crystal clear that the special educ department has many systemic problems that need to be immediately addressed we have a new director who will likely move mountains with the proper support and funding and we have a compliance person who spends day in and day out making sure our students IEPs are written appropriately and support their needs as well as ensuring that they're being serviced if the district is looking at special education Cuts I would suggest looking at the supervisors first the district has had an increase in State complaints mediation and due process hearings in 2022 23 seven State complaints were filed two were resolved with corrective action two were resolved without corrective action and two were dismissed three requests for mediation all which resulted in agreements three due process hearings which were all withdrawn before the hearing in 2023 one state complaint was filed with corrective action three requests for mediation two are still active not even on the calendar yet and one resulted in no agreement all these instances are just I mean they all include a special education attorney I mean they likely can be mediated by our director and it's not really being an option all these it's racked up billable hours we are already $5,000 over budget and we have six months left in the school year and this line item has stayed flat for the next year we need the right people in the right positions to move this District forward and cutting a valuable employee to our Special Education team who's not only supporting our director but our students teachers and parents alike is not a way to move Brookfield forward thank you thank you very much for your comment okay um let's move now to oh we have a we have a new person reporting so apparently for student representative Ava Canton is unable to be with us but she sent in her report and Dr man was kind enough to make physical copies for us um and Sarah has agreed to read it and I know I won't do even close to as well as Ava does so I'll try um past events Wellness Wednesday was on the 10th um the BHS counseling department hosted Wellness Wednesday students created personal mantras and vision boards for 2024 to visualize their goals for the new year midterms are coming up 23rd to the 29th it was slightly adjusted due to the snow day on Tuesday um NHS and student government are hosting another master your midterms event on the 18th which is geared towards ninth grade students and there will be many upper classmen there to tutor in a variety of subjects and provide some advice about taking midterms Frozen in time which is the canel has been canceled this just it this just iness Athletics up dance team The Varsity dance team and cheer teams are holding another showcase competition kickoff for family and friends tonight which is where Ava is um dance team had their first competition this uh or has their first competition this Saturday at Woodland Regional High [Applause] School um BHS has two All-American soccer players Riley McGee and Jack Ryan who received their awards at the All-American athlete dinner in Los Angeles this past week weekend which is an incredible accomplishment athletic advisory attended the cas Elementary leadership conference last week and educated Elementary level students on being a Class Act student productive think thinker how to be a leader and more cheer has their first competition of the season this weekend at North Haven High School wrestling is hosting a tournament at BHS next weekend youth commission is currently in the process of planning the career fair the date has been finalized as March 26th we're currently sending out initial emails to parents and presenters from last years are insuring to include careers that were slightly underrepresented last year such as careers in the Arts and stem National Honor Society is hosting peer tutoring at the master your midterms event on the 18th started the initial planning for the Mother's Day 5K to be held in May 2024 uh is working with Administration on creating some type of multimedia campaign to advertise the BHS attendance policies and help students understand the different attendance codes and rules and then Spanish Hunter Society peer tutoring at the master your midterms event on the 18th for freshmen is in um those freshmen who are in need of help for their Spanish classes and that is it thank you thank you very much that was really cool um there's a lot going on okay so uh let's move now to the next item on the agenda which is written correspondence um Stephanie what do you have for us uh we received an emails or we received emails from colet STM regarding Brookfield cares um Andie CA sent three uh as of tonight legal service regarding leg Legal Services Denise rice also legal services and Bob Beldon also Legal Services awesome um thank you very much uh so now we move to the next item which is um approval of of board minutes Stephanie I motion that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended public budget Round Table 1324 and the regular meeting minutes from 1324 second okay um so the approval of minutes has been moved and seconded um are there any questions or comments um on the approval of these minutes okay all in favor please say I I okay the motion passes the minutes are approved thank you very much now let's move to the next item on the agenda of the superintendent's update Dr bril all right Dr junga thank you good evening everyone hope all is doing well and staying warm um I have uh a number of items uh but I promise I will be succinct uh HR supervisor update um we have screening interviews this Friday next Friday we have the second round of interviews uh H I believe you're on that committee as the board representative so thank you for doing that um we're looking forward to moving that process along um probably within the next 3 to four weeks we will have a a real sense of where we're going with the position uh kindergarten registration uh Dr P and I were actually just chatting a little bit about this over the weekend um really excited I know the team is getting ready for a February 1st uh kickoff of the registration window um I think I informed the board uh back in December or even late November of the letter that uh Dave and I co-wrote and had distributed to the daycares and prek and posted all over the place um at this time uh as a reminder there the September one uh the new legislation with September one but it's a it's kind of a soft rule in that there is a waiver opportunity um Dr P has reported that four waiver requests were written to him from parents so he's working with those families at this point uh parents Square um we are going to be moving forward with a new website and communication platform called parents Square um a lot of rave reviews and anecdotal information I'm receiving from different Educators and parents in this community who work in other towns in the area that have parents Square they're very excited about the fact that we're going in that direction I know Eric and the team are are really jazzed up um we in the communication platform what will happen is um the text messaging School message uh talking points all uh social media interactions te the the classic teacher web pages the uh parent square has bought the remind app all of that is interfaced in one platform so it's going to be really excited to get training started for kind of Tech staff um this February and then Cascade that out over the spring uh Eric is planning a a slow roll out with this we don't want to start with the new communication tool in the middle of all these different cancellations for weather and everything else kind of middle 3ars of the way through the year um we'll start really soft rolling it out so parents are aware of it and get everybody used to it and probably after the April break and then have the full roll out um come July 1 into the summer and have everybody trained up and ready to go for next year you we're already talking about using some of our August professional development time to make sure our staff is uh keyed up and ready so really excited about that and this spring Eric will give a presentation on parent Square so everybody has a real sense of of how it works and we did talk about that at our policy Communications meeting this evening uh legal services update um Casey and I have worked with a purchasing agent last week he has begun the process to pull samples to look at specs and get things ready so right now it's with uh juwels over on the town side who works between the town and bard of Ed with all the purchasing of rfps and and other contracts so that's started we've initiated that process it's underway uh Next Step I'd like to actually bring up Mr Roland to give an update on special education um we will see him I think in February and then April we have some presentations we're going to be planning for the the board more formal but he's got a little update for us tonight see is it on there we go can you hear me good evening members of the board uh just is just a quick uh update almost like a trailer of coming attractions of what's coming in in February and April um no that's right yeah it's my classroom my classroom voice though start was good evening again start again we'll start we'll start take two um good evening members of the board um this is just a quick update of uh ongoing projects and things that are in motion and a preview of what's going to be shown to you in February and in April um the planning has begun for extended school year um been working we had a a planning meeting last week uh gathering information on teachers and related Services folks for the summer and you know as as any of you who who are teachers know the sooner you start planning for extended school year the better off you are so I'm happy that we're starting that process now um also um the Strategic plan is moving forward uh I'd like to do a pre full presentation on that in April uh at the April board meeting um we've had uh initial parent meetings initial staff meetings there'll be more of those with kind of cesing and and putting together items like inclusivity and what action steps we would take to have uh inclusivity as well as um the the compliance piece and IEP uh quality which leads me to my third Point um the professional learning continues with Ed Advance facilitating uh the IEP quality training um which is in the the final stages of their their roll out with that they've done both iners and online and to connect that our septo meeting is going to be on January 23rd and uh at that meeting to uh kind of connect all of these things um our IP compliance teacher Leanne white will be there to give a presentation for parents on CT saids and how to navigate that because as we know the parent portal uh can be difficult to navigate and um to give a parent perspective on on CT sets because teachers have had a lot of training parents have a lot of questions we want to be able to provide that for them so again February uh I'll be giving you an update on the C report and things that we've done that are completed and in progress and we still have to do and in April a strategic plan overview thank you can I ask sure I'm sorry ask a couple question to quickly um I know I read this but I it it fell out of my mind um the the um septo meeting y you said it's on the 23d I'm sorry yeah January 23rd at 6:30 there was a an email blast that went out today yes and it will it be here or the auditorium uh actually had it in here the last the last Meeks um and again parents are welcome to come uh staff are welcome to come we we try to you know working with with Marty mcniff who's the the president of the sepot to have um topics that are of interest to parents and topics that we can provide information for um you know not just guest speakers but folks from within the district that can provide some information to help parents uh navigate uh the process because that it could be an intimidating process and the more we can support that the better I think we'll be okay and one one more question and but but it it like has parts so the first part is if this is too big an answer then we can save it for one of your presentations sure but if you can just briefly touch on what does Brookfield mean by extended school year oh extended school year is a is a a special education program that is um done through PPT recommending students who might experience regression if they don't get the ex the extra in instruction during the summer so some of our most needy students would would continue to get uh 5 to six weeks in the summer in in the small group settings uh and again the recommendations are done with the team through ppts um data is examined and especially this year we want to look at you know do students who need it get it and we want to make sure that we're recommending it appropriately both for and if you know in some cases sometimes you think they might need it but then as the year goes on uh students might not the regression we all have regression in September you know from summertime teachers and and administrators as well as students so it depends on what kind of regression you're looking at so in terms of regression of if they didn't have these this time during the summer they would they would regress too far for them to make that progress so that's why we recommend that through PPT awesome thank you very much and and Bill just to be clear for Wendy and anybody who might be wondering how many students are we talking about tip this isn't you know oh it's not it's not a a I mean last year we did two programs one at Center School and this year it'll be at Cs and at whis skiner so it's you know if I had to again it's hard it's hard to say let's say let's say 100 uh students it's small because really it's the same kind of intensive programs those students are generally recommended for I don't want to make a decision you know in on on the podium but um it's it's to prevent specific areas of regression for specific students who really need it so it's the needy the neediest of our of our students and again recommend it through a PPT awesome thank you very much thank you quick question if you have the PPT earlier in the year do you ever revisit your absolutely Yeah because sometimes you'll have annuals in October November and it's hard you can't tell at that point you in some cases you'd like to but it's we generally like to do like a program review review revise in the CT saids parlament now which is the new but again it's to be able to recommend it at a time when we have the data we have the the ability to discuss it and have parents have input into that as to whether or not you know will the regression be great enough that they'll need it or is this something that September might be something from June to September it won't be so great so that's again bill is a follow up on Sarah's question so if U uh child's annual was in October how are they typically going to find out out the the parent that the student might be recommended for or they're ready for a conversation with the parent in March about extend so in addition to the progress reports that you're getting every marking period on the IEP there would be a uh even at that meeting I would recommend that we set a time for that review revised meeting usually you you always like to try to do you know at the annual try to plan the next annual and say let's try to do this you know obviously within the date but also availability so in that annual that might happen in October or November say let's revisit this in March we put it in the notes um and then we try to set a date at that point if we can right all right thank you Bill oh thanks everybody much appreciated I know all right I'm going to keep moving forward I just have uh three more items uh Brookfield High School athletic program review um we we found out what I would like to call good news moving forward is that uh the CIA uh shared with us that they really they don't have the Capac capacity to send in a visiting team so like we've said before we've done the surveys we've we've uh done done a lot of good work already we've done the self-study um but we need to have the site visit and some committee interviews and things like that um we work with Mr Banda Dr man and our um uh friends up at the CIA and they've made contacts with uh New England Association of schools and colleges known as Nas neas um is going to send in some highlevel uh people experienced in high school experienced in athletics um down to help us with uh a visit and they're also looking uh to work with us on developing um further visiting um criteria and tools that might be employed here in Connecticut and around New England down the road so we're excited about the visit we are going to get to it we're hoping sometime in February that this visit gets scheduled uh matter of fact we were on uh we we were on a zoom meeting just uh late last week so just wanted to update you it's still there um cic just hasn't had the capacity I think that's that's part of the reason they kind of put us off for a while and didn't want to admit that it is not going to be able to pull it off so we've got some really great professionals coming down that we're excited to uh have work with our our teams um religious holiday addendum to the 2425 calendar just a little followup for everybody um we are almost complete with the draft of the most significant holiday C celebrated by the major religions in the United States um once we uh have that drafted um we're going to send that off to the committee we're going to have it sent to the the administrative team let them take a look at it make sure we're not missing anything get as comprehensive as we can um talk through what the operational protocols will look like when we are observing the uh uh supporting students who are observing these holidays in terms of the tests and the projects and the things we had talked about uh back in the fall um and we will attach that to the calendar as soon as that's ready to go so we're still working on that um it's uh it's on the front burner it's just not quite compl complete excuse me and then the final thing um I did send a note out to the board uh earlier today there's just a couple of things I I want to let everybody know we're working on in terms of the board's schedule um The Joint budget meeting of all the boards Board of selectman board of Finance Board of Ed will be here in the media center on February 6th at 6:30 um I don't know if I said that in my message but it's now 6:30 is official here on February 6th that's all three boards working together uh on the education budget um Wendy and I are talking about the next board retreat and also negotiations for the nurses and secretaries we're going to be working on dates for those as well and we'll communicate with those on that committee and the full board on the retreat so that is all I have thank you for your time right on I've used up all my space taking notes um so we'll move now to subcommittee reports um Rosa since you are chair of the finance subcommittee would you start us off with those please okay so we um I have so I'll just do both of them um for the special Finance uh committee meeting on the 2 we reviewed the most recent responses to questions uh and comments that were shared in the budget questions document that'll be made public uh following the adoption of our budget um and then on the eth we that was our regular meeting we reviewed the December financials uh we're still projecting over a $400,000 shortfall um but aside much of that being due to uh the cost for substitutes it's important to note that um the terminology that I've been using in these meetings um is I want it to be very clear um this budgetary shortfall is that's the parts that are due to special education is not Mis budgeting um this is a deliberate strategy it was created in alignment with the board of Selectmen and board of Finance to keep the contingency for special education costs within the town's funds so instead of the Board of Ed budgeting to actual historical expenditures deliberately budgeting only for known students and their expenses so that's what we're doing now um and that's understanding that there will likely be changes throughout the year um so keeping that contingency for those changes on the town side helps the town maintain um fiscal health and only provide the budget the Board of Ed what we need for actual expenses um and that's done at the end of each school year if necessary um also on the eth as a committee we felt that our review of the budget proposal was complete so we unanimously approved its recommendation to the full board which is later on our agenda tonight and that was it great um thank you very much um now let's move to um uh Joy can you give us a cape committee update please sure so we met on January 10th uh we received a presentation by Mr Hill regarding a new Math course very exciting college algebra for the 2024 2025 school year at BHS so this new course is filling a need uh We've recognized Algebra 2 students are having gaps in their learning and we thought this was a good opportunity to give students what they need as opposed to just taking what we have offered so it would be in between Algebra 2 and pre-calculus and it aligns with the math 1600 through Connecticut State Community College so there is a connection with college the cost implication is only for year one and it's for the textbook uh we voted unanimously to recommend this to the full board tonight as adding college algebra as a course offering to the math department we also got a very thorough presentation given by Miss Fus and Dr man that focused on the planning for an impact for the 2022 K3 reading Connecticut legislation so this is a good opportunity to keep us moving forward and it's a progression of where we planned on going anyway um this is based on the right to read legislation that was passed in 2021 so instead of implementing this in July of 2023 we asked for an extension and we were granted it and we were granted 85,000 that's to to be used by December 2024 Miss ferious and Dr man reviewed the work that we've completed so far specifically with letters and that stands for language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling it's a K to 12 approach the presentation they outlined um they they outline current practices that do align with the um csde expectations the Open Court foundational approach as well as the plan for review of selected approved programs that we um that are currently being proposed and we suggested to Dr man and miss farious that um we would like them to really thoroughly explore all the approved programs to determine um if any of the programs would be appropriate to consider for adoption in the 2425 school year so we're looking for a program that integrates content and is aligned with mclass Dibbles the program chosen will ensure a systematic approach to teaching reading and it will guarantee that all our kids are being taught reading the same way that we'll recommend a program to the cape committee by May hopefully with full recommendation coming to the board of ed no later than June um Sarah how and I discussed our ideas on how to help the rest of the board and Community understand the value and importance of professional learning curriculum writing and the coaching model using instructional coaches so Dr man and Miss farious will come back with a series of short presentations like a Netflix series to address these items they'll also present on the teacher and administrator of evaluation support plan for the conclusion of the current fiscal year so it was a really great meeting was our longest but it was it it was it was great it was really productive and thank you Deb and Anna for very thorough pleas presentation can I can I ask a question please sure um this is on the second page of the document um down towards the bottom you talked about so I I don't really have much expertise in the the um younger kid um literacy programs so you guys liked the open Cor so that's something we currently use we use a piece of it okay um so we I asked them to kind of look at because would that be fiscally responsible to keep what we have and build build or are we going to um invest in a totally new program are you guys good with the the so my understanding was that initially or I mean initially there were one or two programs that were recommended or sanctioned by the state or whatever and then it moved to seven and I think now it's at like 18 or something nine and and then there are compendiums oh I don't so we asked them to kind of give us a breakdown of what you liked what you didn't like of the the major ones the nine of the nine oh wow all right okay like one for example you had mentioned and I did some reading up on it too like one was very heavily on technology you know the students are spending most of the time on devices so that might not be a good fit for us so that would be good information for you to hear and for us to hear about and the reasoning why we you know or exay some and supported others and talking to other districts and seeing what they use and why and what works there was an article in the paper yesterday when I say the paper it means the news times I don't don't get out very much so the news Times had an article about um District seeking waivers and um having various positive and not so positive reactions to what the state had to say so the these will be great we'll look forward to them um so can we um is is it too early to hear what happened at policy today we usually wait till the next okay we'll wait till the next then great okay then we're moving to um the next item on the agenda um item 11 it's the consent agenda I motion that the board approve the items listed below on the consent agenda as recommended new hires and degree changes de oh and December financials second great so it has been moved and seconded to approve uh the items on the consent agenda um new hires degree changes and December financials all in favor say I I okay uh appears to be unanimous the motion passes thank you so now we move to new business and we're going to begin with um uh teaching and learning update um so the the board will receive an update on uh teaching and learning as presented by Dr man and um is Miss farious here wonderful yes and so I can't do much better than Joy on the introduction that she practically just did so this is the Prelude and the overview of what's to come um but also there is some very specific information here that I think the board will find quite interesting yeah so we're not quite sure if this is mingeworthy um this whole miniseries but plus we haven't the next episodes we're not on strike or anything but the next episodes haven't been done so thank you sir all right so thanks thank you not on that's on 2024 should work can you hear me can you hear me now that sounds I can hear you test test it is see everyone's getting confused okay that's how it was can you hear me Seth yes are we good okay great I'm sure it was his touch okay so thank you so much for having us um present tonight uh Mrs FAS and I are here to give you the first installment episode one of um our kind of overview on um curriculum instruction and assessment and kind of the you know the the the what we're doing currently and what we're looking forward to so just a little uh kind of contextualizing this um this series uh you know the the primary goals are to concretize the C curriculum process you know I know that sometimes um in education we have a lot of um things that we refer to and processes that are just kind of second nature to us but we want to make sure that we are really giving all of you in the public a clear um understanding of what it means when we talk about curriculum review or um revision and the connection and the Continuum of curriculum instruction and assessment so I'm just kind of a little history to this presentation you know over the past few years Brookfield Public Schools um has really set our sights on increasing student achievement um and the foundation to that is curriculum instruction and assessment um but also enhancing the student experience and again that is that is um a an integral part curriculum is kind of at the heart of that we Debbie and I were talking today about how curriculum is kind of the the the skeleton of the whole um the whole backbone to the district um and then the instruction and assessment is really the fleshing out of that skeleton so we want to make sure that um we are simultaneously recognizing the importance um of keeping the Board of Education and the public um a breast of what's going on and kind of our plans for going forward so we're hoping tonight to really kind of flesh out that that process what it means what curriculum means and then that process of how things are reviewed and revised and then how it serves our students and our community um then next up in the series will kind of lead into the connection between of curriculum instruction and assessment and that kind of Continuum and how the instructional coaches fit into this curriculum and Continuum process um and then finally connect the Continuum of instruction to the evaluation growth and support plan for certified um Educators I've alluded to it in the past uh but you know the state of Connecticut has um updated the guidelines for Teacher evaluation and administrator evaluation and so our professional development and ass and um evaluation committee our PC is working right now on creating a new process for support and growth of our teachers and our administrators our certified staff and so that is going to work right into um the the process that we have developed for curriculum instruction and assessment so um and kind of the finally is to help the Board of Education and the public see the intended outcomes of this critical work um is again integral to all that we do um so kind of just starting us off laying the foundation um is what is curriculum right so do you want to speak to this or do you want you want me to speak okay yeah hello everyone um I just wanted to also first start out by saying thank you for the opportunity to um speak to you all um board members and the public about um something that we're both very passionate about which is uh curriculum so I'm not going to read this slide um because you have it in front of you public has it here on the slideshow um but basically what curriculum is it's a very thoughtful precise plan that really lays Out The Learning Journey for students in small steps and the small steps are basically each curriculum unit or grade level map that's kind of it in a nutshell um it refers to the knowledge and the skills that students are expected to learn and there are some key elements or components of um curriculum unit design which I'm going to talk to um in the next slide and I also just want to draw a little bit of a comparison or or um kind of uh differentiation between curriculum and curricular tools right so we talk a lot we bring forward um a lot of uh tools and that need approval obviously um from the Board of Education First to Cape and the Board of Education um one example is the illustrative math tool that we brought in last year so just to clarify that is not curriculum um that is a tool upon which we will build our curriculum but the curriculum is really and and we link it directly to standards which you're going to see um in the next few slides we identify skills that we need our students to be able to demonstrate by the end of a particular time frame it may be a grade level but it may be a band um but those tools are there to help us uh to help us in that process and kind of you know make sure there's that connection between the plan and the actual instruction and assessment um but we're we are not a kind of plug-and-play District uh we want to make sure that the the tools that we're bringing in are then being adapted to what our students need and our community expects um so just to clarify that yep very well said and curriculum is also not the same as lesson plans teachers use the curriculum to develop daily lesson plans so curriculum unit elements um as I um alluded to curriculum design is really very thoughtful and it's really done with Precision there's really um a lot of planning and a lot of precision that's involved in this process so you start with the the curriculum designers start with the standards right the bare minimum expectations as far as what students should know and be able to do by the end of the unit um standards as we know are non-negotiable um such as the Connecticut course standards you know um we've got the Next Generation science standards and all of the other content standards that are non-negotiable and um legislated basically by the by the state so all of curriculum starts with the standards and really what the curriculum designers do is they work in teams um the teacher uh teams as well as with the instructional coaches myself um and we really work to First initially look at the standards and bundle them or group them together in a way that makes sense to create a learning experience that has like a story behind it um that um will be interesting and engaging um for for Learners um so the standards are bundled in a way that is developmentally appropriate neurologically appropriate and again interesting engaging to students um so that's the bare minimum and then uh we start out with the why the purpose why is it that um teachers are teaching this to students and why is it as Learners that they're engaging in this type of learning so that's really the purpose of the you know the learning so the why starts with the big Ideas which is really teacher facing and basically that's just declarative statements um and truths um it's really again why is it that I'm engaging Learners in this learning and we use the big ideas to then formulate the student facing uh why which is the essential questions and the essential questions again are student facing um and they're meant to be open-ended where students really have to Grapple with the question and engage in really exploring uh answers to that ESS Cal question through the course of their learning in the unit and again they're student facing and in student friendly language depending on the grade level so the what of the unit are the standards really the content and the skills what is it that students should be able to uh what what student should know and be able to do by the end of the learning so the content is the knowledge piece and the skills are the measurable observable skills what students should be able to do and I'll talk a little bit more about that with an example um and then it's the how right how are we going to as teachers teach the you know the units and how a Learners going to um engage in the learning and that's kind of what Anna alluded to before in terms of curricular tools that's basically the activities and resources um Mentor texts which are texts that are used to um during instruction to um point out certain teaching points um and those activities and resources and curricular tools are really the how of the of the learning and the assessments are the how will we know as teachers whether students are learning and how will we know as students whether we are learning um and that's done through assessments which is basically um assessment evidence of success relative to the standards which might be formative or or summative right so a formative assessment is an assessment that a teacher gives in order to kind of see where students are and really inform the instruction um going forward and maybe you know going backwards a little bit and then summi of is more this is toward the end of the unit or toward the end of the um particular aspect of the assessment and this is where students really kind of are um at the end larger assessments I also want to just um uh make a point about curriculum authors um you know kind of who are they and how do they know what to do um you know teachers are as part of their training um you know go through curriculum courses curriculum development so that they understand how to uh use curricular tools but they're there's I would say less training about actually developing curriculum as a certified teacher um and so it's important that our teachers are given guidance when they are engaging in curriculum writing and we have ample opportunities across K12 across the district where our teachers are able to not only get this kind of professional development and growth but also the opportunities to actually put it into practice as Debbie said the instructional coaches are all veteran teachers who have been um given a lot of professional learning in this area working with right lot many years and with a with um particularly with Dr Alcock with whom I know that she has presented to the board in the past um and also through the leadership of the curriculum leaders um such as you know the director of instruction the assistant superintendent um and but really when a teacher uh is engaging in this work whether it is you know a small group of teachers or a grade level or um you know a particular whole uh content area Department um they are they are kind of walked through by one of the leaders whether it's an instructional coach a department leader at the high school one of the administrators um and so that everyone is clear on these different aspects and how where they're going to find this information and then the tools available to them so that they can incorporate these tools into um curriculum if they are revising curriculum same kind of thing making sure that they understand you know kind of what it is they're looking at and Debbie's going to get into the a later slide about talking about the different pieces of data that they use in order to look at data and I mean look at curriculum and really um kind of hold that up to various pieces of data could I ask a quick question because it's just related to this right here so when we talk about teachers writing curriculum are they writing like they're literally coming up with these big ideas and essential questions and then also like listing the content and skills okay yes and thank you because those are excellent questions um so the big ideas and essential questions are basically coming from the the standards so what is what basically is the story of these standards that we've kind of bundled together in a purposeful way right so that's where the big ideas and essential questions are coming from and uh what was the second part of your question I guess like sort of you know when a teacher comes in in the summer and they're doing you know curriculum writing what exactly are they doing you know what I mean so I'm I'm still a little bit mystified with so are they coming up with the the actual essential questions and could you give me an example of what one might be yes and actually that's on this slide here thank you for that segue R right perfect it's kind of small for the public but and even maybe for you folks but we for me to read from me yeah it is very small um but uh I'm going to speak to it just really in general terms so even if you can't really specifically read what's here um you know I can you know speak to it anyway so so there's two screenshots here this is really a sample curriculum template um or a grade level unit which is part of you know the curriculum for kindergarten Ela which is English language arts unit so the one that's on well it's on my left let's see it's really on your your right I guess well whatever it depends on where you're sitting um so the first one there basically you can see that there's some writing and the writing on the Le hand side are basically the six units of instruction for this particular um curriculum which is the kindergarten Ela English language arts units so each um unit has a title um and then you can see those red bars that really illustrates the pacing so what are the you know the length of the unit right so the first unit is this is an eight-week unit I believe and I I think it goes from September to I can't read that part there but I think some part Yeah so basically the red bars represent the pacing of that that unit so as I shared with you at the beginning the very first part of what the curriculum designers are doing are taking the standards and bundling them in a way that makes sense um across the context of the school year right the 10 months of the school year um and then pacing them out and that really creates what we refer to as a year-long context um and that's what we use to first to start creating the grade level map which is what you see here in that first screenshot so there's six units to this um Ela curriculum each one has a title a name and then the pacing of the red bars on the right hand side you can see some of those curriculum elements that I mentioned before like the big Ideas essential questions content and skills so what the curriculum designers what we do is then we take the standards and we develop the big ideas and the essential questions so to your question before Rosa where do you get those big ideas and essential questions from we come up with them um and it does take collaborative like to type environment exactly exactly correct um and it is you know time consuming right because you really need to be very thoughtful about it because that's really the whole why of the unit right um so the Big Ideas are created again from really what's the story here why are we um you know engaging Learners in this um learning and you can see that there's some color coding and there's a reason for that as I mentioned to you before it's a very precise detailed um design right so in you can see that there's three different colors in the Big Ideas and three different colors in the essential questions and the reason for that is because the Big Ideas are directly aligned to the essential question so here I wish I could read what this says I don't have my reading glasses Anna can you read that take off my glasses I can't take my contacts out so Society uses spoken and written language to communicate productively to an audience thank you and then how am I a yes y thank you for that um good job read man so um in terms of the Big Ideas you can see that it's really a declarative statement it's just a statement and a truth not something you can grapple with it's just that's that's what it is and then for the student friendly you know uh essential question because again this is kindergarten how am I a reader so by the end of this unit the students will be able to answer how they're readers and they'll be able to use the content and the skill that they're learning and grappling with through the unit in order to be able to answer that question um by the end of their learning right so each lesson is kind of like a little nugget if you will into that essential question um and as I said they're aligned and then you can even see here although it's hard to tell but the content and the skills are also colorcoded to that particular big idea and essential question so you'll notice that the content are just bullets right and again it's just really content they're nouns and they're derived directly from the standards the precise language from the standards um so the skills is ask questions about key details and you'll see with prompting and support in kindergarten all of the reading for literature standards and reading for information standards are with prompting and support um so you'll notice also or maybe you won't because it's small print um that there are alpha numeric coding in the skills and that again is part of the precise design and that is because the um activities and resources the assessments and the um learning targets are all aligned Alpha numerically to the skills because again the skills have to be measurable and observable how will we know if the students are successful relative to the standard so everything there's Precision in the entire design process and just a few um comments about that the essential questions are questions that again are student facing and really um specific to the students right there's not one answer to an essential question it's thought-provoking and it kind of is Meaningful to students individually towards their own learning um the other thing I wanted to point out is that you know the the curriculum um has a variety of of purposes not the least of which are to help um our new teachers come in and have a sense a game plan for what it is the expectation is that they're going to be teaching right so this should serve a new teacher um working with a mentor uh or you know with someone you know an administrator in the building to say okay here's what I'm looking at this is what I'm planning on teaching this next unit or from this year um but in addition it's also an opportunity for teachers to really kind of continuously assess what it is their teaching you know and that's what we're going to show as we go through this series is that this is really a Continuum you know we're focusing on the written curriculum right now but the instruction and assessment go back to inform the process of the constant reflection on the curriculum and so we talk a lot about writing curriculum but there's just as much if not more revision to curriculum that happens as initial writing for example we're going to have to write the college algebra we actually talked to Mr Hill about this we're gonna have to officially write the college algebra course however that's a pretty prescriptive course so there's not a ton of writing um to do um but that we'll have to get put up into Atlas and make sure that you know whomever can comes in has to can teach it but as we go through and experience it and see what the students are learning there will be revision that happens within the framework of the 1600 Math course because it is a um dual enrollment um but we will that's where that revision comes in so as much hap in the summer and maybe during the school year of writing happens review and revision happens as well and on this slide which again we will make um available to you and to the public we also put in a link down here from a wonderful video that Debbie created you guys hear my voice again um during I think during the pandemic right it was or maybe not maybe before before then um to kind of Na help people navigate through the website uh to get to the parent portal because we have a parent portion of this where parents can look online and see essential questions and standards and those kinds of things for the various yeah yeah you can you we have the um the portal as Anna was saying which is the public site of um Rubicon Atlas where um folks can go on and and view all of The Curriculum maps um and you'll be able to see the big the standards that are in that unit the Big Ideas essential questions content and skills um so I encourage you to take a look um and you get to hear my voice again and it's uh yeah it's great stuff um the other piece that I wanted to mention because you you keep hearing me talk about design and precision um you can really I hope get to see how important it is to have quality curriculum right because we're in the business of student learning and the curriculum since it's designing the students learning experiences um it's really important that it's of quality um so and I'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about curriculum revision which we're doing now there we go all right so what does curriculum revision mean um curriculum revision used to mean that you would go into this binder of curricul and um you know maybe annually at the end of the school year you'd kind of take a look and have conversations and revise curriculum so now it's more of an iterative process where we engage in faculty conversations about curriculum instruction and assessment as Anna alluded to earlier during professional learning um you know opportunities to really look at data in a meaningful way to inform our curriculum because again quality is really critical because it's designing the students learning experiences and we wanted to be engaging and we wanted to make sure that it's thoughtful and that it's meeting standards and frankly going above and beyond the standards right so even though we're including as minimum expectations the standards you know once we have the portrait of The Graduate skills you know iterated we want to be able to incorporate that into our curriculum um as well so that'll have to be part of the curriculum design so um the curriculum revision or the professional conversations about teaching and learning curriculum instruction and assessment is really done by our Brookfield Educators um in vertical meaning um you know K through 12 it could be six through 12 it's it's across grade levels basically when you use the term vertical I'm trying not to speak in educational jargon and I think I'm doing all right so far um and horizontal teams meaning within the grade level right so all either all of let's say third grades getting together or the professional learning communities where maybe you know of third grade is getting together at different at different times to really um look at the student data as well as this other data which I'll talk about in a moment and to have the those conversations um also again professional conversations about teaching and learning and curriculum revision um really allows for relevancy of the classroom experience so integration are there opportunities to integrate some of the content areas into this curriculum right so as you know they're engaging in the discussions oh my gosh like we could really um embed some of the social studies standards in this particular unit I think it would go fantastically you know if we can incorporate the historical figures with the all about writing and the informational writing right so the other opportunities to integrate uh Innovation are there opportunities to uh integrate some technology um that we just learned about in the um curriculum um or some you know research that we just learned about on best practice instructional practices so those typ YP of things are considered in those conversations and coherence um do we really have the Precision in the alignment between the assessments um in this unit and the and the skills are there opportunities to be a little bit more coherent and make sure um we have that as well right so it also centers our discussions for educators on student learning are there gaps are we seeing any gaps in learning which would would help when we look at the assessments that informs those kind kinds of conversations there redundancies and I don't mean um purposeful repetition that's done in a meaningful way to um spiral learning but are there just redundancies that we need to look at and is the curriculum cumulative meaning that um it progresses as you go you know across the across the year and frankly again vertically across grade levels right so those are the discussions that we have um and as Anna said we look at um different sources of data so this really talks about six types of data that we could look at usually in the conversations we don't want to um make any changes without looking at least at two types of data right so you don't want to make decisions just based on student achievement data you want to have at least some another piece or two of other data so perception data really is about teacher perception about you know what they're seeing um you know in their class uh or you know teachers um perceptions if it's a group of teachers um and then student achievement data I think speaks for itself both formative um data in terms of you know whether it's exit slips or just any type of student work frankly is evidence of success relative to standards right everything that students are doing um is giving you information and giving them information environmental data right I mean we know we live through the pandemic that would be very important data to um inform curriculum and some thing changes that would need to be made the macro burst right so just things that are happening in the environment student data demographic data right what do you know about about the students um curriculum data as as I was saying earlier that the Rubicon Atlas um program is the curriculum development tool but it's also a curriculum reporting tool so it helps us to be able to analyze curriculum within grade levels um across grade levels and vertically K12 to be able to see you know you can run a report and look at all of the essential questions for example or you know all of the standards going from grade level to grade level and seeing um you know if if they make sense um and then research data as I alluded to before is there um some new dat new research on instructional practices different best practices um Technologies Etc that need to be considered as you're looking at um curriculum and so and also at the secondary level there might be some opportunities just to kind of go back to those bullet points for um so for example with integration there may be opportunities in eth grade to do some interdisciplinary units as um teams get sit down right so you might have all eth grade ELA teachers but you also have the eighth grade one of the eighth grade teams might decide that they're going to do an interdisciplinary unit based on the the um curriculum that they are working on where they want to help draw those connections for students where they say oh I'm talking about this in social studies and we're doing something that's relevant in English and then we're also doing the science experiment so that's the um an opportunity for that um and you know for example um research data and another kind of like a real world example of that would be the K3 reading right that's what yeah the the state has already kind of brought that to us and said here's the research and we know this is important um and then based on that student achievement data which the state of Connecticut along with the rest of the country has saw a huge dip in um you know student achievement data there are two pieces of data that demonstrate you know warrant the need for curriculum review and and revision so those are some examples okay so then kind of how does curriculum you know all of this work that happens um outside of the classroom directly impact the classroom experiences so as we kind of um elucidate in these uh these bullet points you know it's really important that it helps for teachers and and Educators and administrators to identify the specific content and skills expected for Mastery so we can all have a consistent and coherent conversation right as um as the building uh level people and throughout the district so that when I for example one of the and I've again spoken to this before but that was one of the things I heard a lot last year from the teachers was the the inconsistency um of just knowing what's happening at the different schools and across the grade levels which I think again is something that all public Educators struggle with right I don't know what's happening in e8th grade so I don't know what my nth graders need when they come into my English language arts class um so that was the one of the reasons for the pathway uh professional development plan but it also can be um addressed through through Co those conversations around curriculum and one of our Pathways is around curriculum um it serves as a road map for instructional and assessment approach right so again it's that Foundation whether whatever you know metaphor we want to use um whether it's a skeleton or the road map or whatever um and then we're building the rest of the map or fleshing out the rest of the um person around that uh infrastructure um it creates consistency and transparency for educators and for the public and for the students right so that they know this is where my Learning Journey is going this is where um you know a parent can say okay so if my my child starts geometry in 9th grade this is what I can expect um of my students experience in math for example and these are the skills that my student should be able to master and demonstrate by the end of high school um again one of part of the Strategic plan is that assured experience for students that you know no matter who you are or what teacher you happen to get you're going to have that a series of assured experiences and having a solid foundational curriculum document helps us as the Educators to make sure that those kinds of things are happening um and so that's and and then we know that they're meaningful because of the assessment exper you know that we the assessment results that we get back it's it's assists in strategic plan measurement right we can U make sure that this is we're kind of we're using the Strategic plan to inform the curriculum instruction and assessment work that will then back inform the Strategic plan and how where we are kind of on that Continuum and then as we said earlier helps Educators identify gaps in student learning and then have a place to go back and address those gaps in a concrete way so that if a fifth grade teacher is working on curriculum one year and then go leaves and maybe goes to second grade but we have a new fifth grade teacher come in that person can pick up where that other person left off okay so we wanted to make sure we gave you a little teaser for the next time so that you weren't you know you you wen't didn't just forget about us after the first episode um so kind of what comes next and how do you you know what is where does this all kind of fit into the Continuum so we want to make sure that we really outline for you the curriculum instruction and assessment Continuum because it's not as though anyone one part of this is more important than the other it is very much a Continuum that is at the heart of what we do and is um dependent is interdependent on uh on each other we want to con for connect for you the work of the instructional coaches as well as the content leaders at the at the high school to this Continuum of in of curriculum instruction and assessment by showing you what is it that they do um on a regular basis both you know kind of like a day-to-day basis and kind of like a longer you know term basis and then um identify other certified faculty who are integral to the Continuum and the system so not just at the teacher level but at the kind of supervisor level at the building um administrator level and then throughout the district all right and then yeah this is a visual for all this this is also um a teaser to use Bill's uh terminology for the ne for our next episode and because you can't binge watch right we don't have that already um prepared so really this um slide really talks to the Precision um and to Anna's Point um what we're going to really um hopefully be able to uh impart uh for our next episode is really the relationship between curriculum instruction and assessment and how they really are very interdependent and and in really like a symbiotic relationship really um so again we start in the upper leftand corner and and you can see that we really like the color coding um the standards are the building codes right so we're going to kind of end where we began right the standards of the building codes and to use um you know I guess construction or design terminology they really do serve as that building as the building codes the foundational the bare minimum right um and I spoke about the standards being bundled within the context of the year then curriculum we we build the curriculum off of the foundation so like just like you have a building codes when you're building something and designing something that's like the you know the non-negotiables right you need to have an outlet you know in certain places then the blueprints right is really more to represent the curriculum map where the standards are unpacked right or bundled together um and then um you know really unpacked into the content and the skills from the language of the standards right so the blueprints more like okay um I want to design it more to represent the identity right of the homeowner right so the curriculum is really representing the identity of Brookfield right so again we'll be building in portrait of The Graduate skills um and in our current curriculum we also have built in context and some skills that are associated with context so you go you want standards to be you want curriculum to to go above you know beyond standard just the bare minimum standards um and then you have in the lower leftand corner the assessment which I um shared is directly aligned to the content and the skills that um were unpacked from the standards and included in the curriculum and that's where that alpha numeric coding is done as well and then the instruction is also with the alpha numeric coding we have those learning targets which um are really designed from the skills and instead of having like the oldfashioned what we used to call like the SWAT right that students will be able to instead learning targets that is student facing where we use I can statements and the derived from the skills so in the example that I gave before about you know I think it was asking questions um you know about key details uh answering questions about key details in a text right then an I can statement or a learning Target would be I can answer questions about key key details in a text with you know prompting and support um from an adult so those learning targets are student facing and shared with students because stud students then are active participants in their learning they're not just you know sitting there as you know empty vessels waiting for the teacher to just you know fill their their head with all this knowledge um and then you have the activities and the resources which I shared before again with that alpha numeric coding directly aligned to the um skills um and to the assessments um and that's where you know the curricular tools come in so again the curricular programs are not out curriculum but they definitely are part of um the the curriculum um which is why we have to be very um selective and make sure that we're selecting something that meets you know our our needs as a district and obviously our students learning needs and um so this kind of also this demonstrates our all of the different lines and how the student is in the middle definitely our commitment to the student and we are also we are a learning organization and so we have to take into account the learning needs of our adults and adult learning theory and adult learning needs do that differs a little bit than student learning needs so one of the very important key aspects of adult learning theory is that it has to be relevant and um really uh attainable for someone to put right into practice as an adult right and so with that in mind it's important as we are designing curriculum and making sure that we're focusing connecting the dots for our teachers that we have people to help connect those dots and make it relevant and help them um put these things into practice immedi medely with ongoing embedded professional learning so all of these different lines that are swooping around are kind of represent representative of our instructional coaches of our content leaders at the high school of our building administrators um an example the iip compliance teacher is a similar in that in that role right connecting the expectations of the IEP and uh needs of students to those teachers and vice versa that is very similar to the role of the instructional coaches and of the work that um Debbie does every day and the the uh content leaders at the high school and so in our next episode we are hoping to kind of make these lines come to life for you so that you can really see um how they are integral to that professional learning growth and support of our Educators stay tuned fore stay tuned all right any anytime so we are happy to take questions I will say thank you um thank you very much can't wait for the next episode um no this was definitely very helpful and I know we we talked about this in Cape when back when I was on Cape and and doing these kind of like minseries and this is exactly kind of what I needed to hear so yeah thank you great thank you for that feedback thank you I said a quick question I don't know if it's going to be a quick answer do can you talk to your philosophy about monitoring the pacing guide and whether you're more interested in making sure the kids are keeping up versus you're going to cover all the content for the year that's a good question spoken like a true middle thank you Sarah do I do so you know as as you know it's um it's a difficult balancing act right because you know you do need to be mindful of pacing because you know you have only a certain number of days in the school year um but it's not about getting through um curriculum okay um it's about learning it's about teaching and learning um so the teachers use the curriculum to design lesson plans and to differentiate um instruction as well so just as a short answer to your question it's again the philosophy is it's not about getting through curriculum check the box and turn the page and go on to the next one the next day even if 80% of your kids didn't get it um no it's about it's about teaching and learning and using evidence of success relative to the standard so using assessment evidence and as I said before um everything that students are doing relative to the activities and resources is information to inform instruction um for the learner who's an active participant in their learning as well as for the for the teacher and teacher teams um so if they need to take another day or two um to Monitor and adjust then that's what we do and I think it's also it's it is kind of fascinating to me um to look at how integrated all of the systems become um because you know from a from a secondary perspective you do have those very real summi of Assessments at the end of the year in an AP course or in and also you know 3 through eight we have um in our SBA so that's always that dance that the teachers have to work on and then particularly I think we spoke about this at Cape um you know the the struggle that the kids have what happens if my class is moving on and I don't get whatever the content or skill was um and that's where in terms of that integration of the systems that's where building admins can take back take that feedack feedback from that curriculum feedback that student achievement feedback and then work to adjust um you know schedules or in you know incor incorporate ilt for example at the high school um as well as The Home Room time in the in the Middle School um so that kids have that time to work to be able to go meet with teachers or you know set up appointments so it's really the while curriculum is kind of is that road mapap for where we're going in terms of you know instruction and assessment it has such a much larger implication and Al is the uh will be impacted by all of these other aspects um you know kind of so that's why it's that that symbiotic piece um but I think that like you know your point is very well taken that um when you have these summi of Assessments at the end you have to figure out how you're going to um you know how you're really going to balance that and that's another reason that Brookfield has done has you know has this commitment to student learning and all students learning and we have interventionists and we have support staff we we have tutors we have um you know all of these different aspects of so that we can work to our best ability to make sure that kids are getting what they need and and that's across the board the kids who are kind of flying through things and kids who are still need some extra support yeah probably just a couple of points probably impacts I mean as you're talking about that vertical alignment and the gaps and you know if a curriculum is written and the pacing is just too aggressive or too ambitious um you know that's going to impact the next grade and where where Did We End and where did we go and a few years ago I remember I'm thinking 10 years ago at least 10 12 years ago there was a a big thing about power standards you know we we do depth rather than breadth depth ra because that's what's really important is to go deep into something rather than you know trying to skim through over content you know it really depends on the discipline because in math you you have to achieve certain skills and you know in order to move on and we saw that with you know the college algebra Etc but you know in something like um Ela for example so we talk about essential questions and big ideas and I think it's really important to to understand that just because an we've we've identified this essential question or these big ideas or these standards for this unit that does not mean that those are not recursive throughout the year we may have you know different essential questions different ideas for for the next unit but we're still you know why am I a reader or what do I you know what what does writing do for in society or reading those are are continuous so it's very very different in in that discipline now when it comes to something like you know specific writing am I rating persuasive or informative or narratives you know those skills but we can always do that with whatever content so I think it's very also very discipline specific and I think that's a that's a point to be made as well and often time um grade specific because what how am I a reader can be a kindergarten essential question or a second semester senior essential question absolutely absolutely y are there other questions or comments okay ladies thank you very much thank you back a couple months we look forward to it so um is there other new business okay well then we will um move now to Old business um we've got the superintendent budget discussion um so we're g to continue our discussion on the budget and um and have some dis yeah have some discussion and maybe a vote oh sorry that's your so um let's see uh John and Casey Would you please uh recap um recent adjustments okay so um we have uh some adjustments Casey has a packet to hand to you uh it's an update of U the three-page uh I guess schedule we'll call it that you've had with a summary cover sheet uh in the status quo budget um we net have been able to achieve some savings um uh to the likes of about $45,000 so when Casey comes back to her seat I'll let her walk through that the majority there was some puts and takes and that's a phrase We for board members that's a phrase we've used a lot you put some things in the budget you take some things out and that's where the phrase puts and takes comes from in this case it's ups and downs in terms of of dollars and cents um the majority comes from Fuel and heating oil and gasoline you'll see that in just a second but I'll let Casey take over and walk us through the adjustments to the status quo section of the budget y so yeah these thank you um Dr BR uh these do all impact the uh the status quo area of the budget um there were some minor um changes to um oh oh sorry start again it's okay okay thank you um yeah all of these changes do impact the status quo area of the budget the status quo I believe in the binder was just over 4% uh or 398 it's um it's down um it's uh lower it's about 3.96 now um anyway the SM minor changes to curriculum coaches and leaders it's sort of just some refinement of stien positions um and some tutoring positions at uh whis skiner um dues and fees um were reduced very slightly $1,500 um water at CES uh we got our our water bill and realized um that was not in the budget because we've never had to pay for water on the Aquarian water supply um all of our other buildings are on well water so um we did add that to the budget we're estimating about $9,600 for CES for water for next year and then um in uh moving in a positive direction we did um contract with uh Mitchell oil um just yesterday um we signed that um and uh uh Julian um our purchasing agent helped us lock in um with some good prices we do um have a lockin rate for oil at 275 2.75 21 we are currently at 288 um and the uh current budget reflected a 10% increase of where we currently are so that was a positive savings diesel we locked in at 2.81 52 and for gasoline at 2.58 98 gasoline was also um a small savings there so um those the net changes is a savings of $45,988 which brings the um the increase uh budget request to 6.43% um the last proposal was 6.52 that is can you just that good news go over the first I'm not understanding um so the increase on the first line the curriculum leader of coaches original is 51,000 yep and so there was umcl stien yep there was a stien for the technology integrator um which was just a budget Miss in the initial proposal so that has been included now in this and so what's a stien instructional coaches instructional coaches so in go ahead I'm sorry an you can probably better go ahead um so these are all stien positions um part of our um bargaining unit agreement with the with the Union um they're all for the curricular leaders um at the different content leaders um at the in the different um at the high school level although the technology integrator is districtwide yeah these are for instructional coaches yep so it was just it was a budget miss when we put the budget together originally and we figured that is a stien that is paid out every year so we need to include it in the budget so the instructional coaches there's seven they receive a stipend for the additional work they do throughout the year outside of the regular teacher contract um when the original four curriculum specialist positions were in existence uh before they transitioned into the instructional coach role um they also had a stipid so that was part of working over the last few years with the teachers union that those stiens would stay so it's part of collective bargaining yeah right right is that just for the technology integrator everything was built in he missed it was a miss it just wasn't included for the tech integration specialist that's all and that's the largest the the the $ 4,854 is what we're we're talking about that the largest portion of that is for the technology integrator there were some other puts and takes in there $64 because I think um a couple stiens were based off of the current year rate not the next year's rate which is a very minimal change but yeah before you move on can I just ask a question about the technology integrator um so this is a K12 position correct okay so is this this the person who like makes sure that the smartboards are working or who trains people on um updated uh Tech pieces what what does the tech integrator do so the tech integrator is one of the seven um instructional coaches um and this was one of the three new additional uh positions when the the district moved from curriculum or content area um uh people to instructional coaches so there were the four that were already content leaders at the Elementary level in the high and the Middle School became instructional coaches and then they added in science uh social studies and Technology integrator and so this person um most all the other coaches are either elementary middle or K8 this one this uh particular position is K through 12 and works um same as every other instructional coach uh partnering with uh teachers to set learning targets um work on specific specific integration in a meaningful and intentional way of Technology where it fits into the curriculum um or into a particular unit or into you know so that um so some of some examples that the board has seen before um was in kindergarten a couple years back where she uh brought them a particular tool um called Book Creator and was it Book Creator or Wei video yeah this was before my time I think it was Book Creator she done both um she's done both so right she done both um and they did a whole unit around where they were it was a narrative writing unit and so they used that particular technology piece but they've also done she's also helped lead inter um disciplinary units in second grade last year um this year she's doing a lot of professional learning at the high school around um effective use of uh artificial intelligence and also ways that should should not be used um and so she leads uh professional learning with the uh with large departments the whole Humanities department but then also Partners um with the for example the sophomore English teachers are working on a portfolio um piece and how can she help support that as they are um you know to integrate technology into that so it's less um Hardware it's much more instructional and curriculum and it's really aligned to our strategic plan which has a major piece about digital tool integration for students so um she's aligned with our work we're trying to do as a district and she um bases her work off of the SD standards which are the National technology you know and so what um Dy outside of her regular cuz that's what this is for right what duties outside of her regular day would this sort of include so and that's true for all of the instructional coaches right each the instructional coaches get and that's for um leading that learning in that curriculum instruction and assessment revision you know kind of putting together professional learning around that um or supporting department meetings uh you know so at the middle school um they the all the instructional coaches lead the department meetings after school at the elementary school the they might be leading work after school or on a professional learning day where they are um actually preparing professional learning experiences for teachers um and same thing uh with this with the technology coach doing the same kind of thing at the high school as I said she's Le led a series of workshops for teachers on their teacher directed day on the admin directed day and the department days those are some examples of them the some of the stuff they would do okay also they organize a lot of the um curriculum revision for the summertime so that they kind of look at what needs to get done and prior help prioritize uh the projects and then um work on submitting those proposals to the building level uh administrators and then organizing the teaching the teacher teams to write those pieces and then doing that orientation that I was speaking about I'm doing that orientation for revision or writing whatever is needed kind of just tying this back for um sense making for everybody the the four curriculum Specialists that transitioned into the instruction coaches were always in our budget uh for many many years the three um the science the social studies and the technology that that we just talked about those were have been phased in over the course of the last three years using the rser funds and over time and that was part of um uh not creating a budget cliff and putting ourselves in a really healthy fiscal position with those federal funds that came in due to the pandemic and then phasing it in over time and this is the last year of that yes this this this budget recommendation that's forward this is the last year of any roll in from the federal grants and there's a section on that slide seven in our B budget presentation that explained all that and what is the focus tutors at whiner so these are the from the HR perspective Anna might be able to answer this more but um they were they were budgeted um in the budget at a at a previous rate um that is not what we are are actually paying for that for that group and um it's that whiner um I don't know if you want to talk to the focus tutors and what they do is what Focus tutors do focus focus your focus tutors yes oh yeah they don't have basically an adjustment to to the hourly rate during the middle during the day that we have but this is you're specifically talking to focus focus yes focus is something that we have after school for our um for our students that are we we see that our struggling to get work done at home okay um these are students that you know we we pick these students is almost like we ask that we talk to parents is there students that we've met about met with parents about that were trying to uh find a place for them to be productive and sometimes when they're when they do uh do go home there's not a productive place for them maybe or they have siblings so we give them that opportunity to stay at school and what we do is uh we have staff members certified staff and also I think we have one professional right now that stay up to school and help students with the work okay pretty much what and so that was just budgeted at an incorrect rate yes rate this this adjustment to the rate brings it at the um $42 an hour extended Duty rate that is also in the contract for extended extended Duty it's every day uh we do it we do it Monday Tuesday and Thursday we don't have after schools on Wednesdays or Fridays so we have it for different and so we have it for different grade levels we have it for at least a person for each grade level and we also have uh someone who also uh works with our ml students our ml students after school too so been very productive a question I do I yeah but it's it h it's I'm forgive me for this question but I'm getting a little bit tripped up by the word stien because I I feel like the word stien is usually you know an additional fee for like additional services like uh a teacher who gets a stien for coaching soccer or something like that but we're not not talking about coaches who teach right this that that's their their their job is they're just instructional coaches they are not also in the classroom is that correct they're not getting an extra stien for coaching no they this is their salary basically right okay yeah I'm just getting tripped up by that term that's all okay well that's that that's why it's the co-curricular on that second one item the co-curricular coaches that is that that word siphon is what you were just referring to yes but in in the first line oh right yeah in the first L it's not it is not okay so we're we're talking about it's the same term but two different things okay got it and same term of coaches but two different things okay got it thank you right right right right uh we when we locked in with uh Mitchell This was done in conjunction with the town at the same time okay y they have slightly different rates because they have different usage um the amount of gallons but yes we H not for everything but for oil is it better our gasoline is the same no we we we have a better R yeah we purchase more gallons of oil our volume our volume is better well if nobody else is going to say it I'll say Kudos I mean even though no none of us he controls like Global right pricing you know um Dynamics you uh your your action here was very prudent and it it looks to save the district what $61,000 so right on yeah that and that was weekly you know working with you know our partners on the town side um you know Marsha and Jules and um really staying on top of that so it was team effort [Music] there and then the the following Pages um is just a three-page um report the summary report similar to the um the budget document that you have in your binder this is just updated with um these changes that have been incorporated into the bottom line and as always in the spirit of transparency and good faith any um puts or takes you know anything that happens to increase uh from an estimate that we have in the budget or hopefully decrease in our favor um will be adjusted I I think I Ed the example in one of our previous meetings recently um health insurance the town and the Board of Ed we have the same health insurance for our employees um that we're budgeting a 7% increase there and that's working with our liaison with the Connecticut partnership plan that advised us to go with that um last year we were advised at this time to increase by 12% they thought there would be a a real double- digit increase um we received favorable news by March or April and brought it right down to 8% so we brought that forward to the board of Finance Board of Select and we talked about it so everybody knew and adjusted the budget accordingly yep so any any new information that comes along in the next three months as we work with everybody will be adjusted but sort of health insurance is like the big one I I think it's about $70,000 per 1 1% change is $75,600 roughly based on our current census yeah health insurance for just health insurance and so we're obviously hopeful that favorable news comes in but unfavorable news might come in we just don't know yet right I should know more next week um we have another webinar with the partners at the state um I have I have a I was reviewing the question and answer document and and for the public um people who are watching who might be new to this there's a question and answer document that um that Casey uh put together and of all board members have participated in um a really deep review I was counting today I think it was 60 independent question bundles and responses and I don't know how many hyperlinks to um contracts those are great and yeah those were really really helpful good um when when will some of that that material be available to the public I know I asked this in the last meeting and then after we adopt yeah Rosa talked about that during her report after we adopt um I would think really whenever it's uh prudent to do so um it could be if if we adopt tonight but the the one thing we think about is making sure it's cleaned up you know ready for public dissemination um in inclusion on the website and everything else and we don't have to submit we could always do earlier but we don't have to submit to the first selectman until by Charter until uh January 3 first so we want to make sure we had take the time to clean everything up make the adjustments so everything's ready to go precise as whatever the board decides to adopt right so I I just think it's really important for for the public you know um to to see that uh the a high degree of scrutiny has been applied here um and in that spirit this is sort of like tiny after talking about the big dollars of health insurance but I was reviewing the the document um today and you had the you had a um highlighted item about parent square and a website and that we may not need those expenses it was only $4,200 but $4,200 is still is not nothing um we'll know in March about parent squares capacity to to I think that that is that is incorporated that that is Incorporated in the budget and Eric can probably speak um better to it than I can but I do know that parent Square does eliminate the need for several other platforms um that we're currently using and so the savings was 16 roughly 12 12 $12,000 okay so this 4200 was I think it had something to do with the current website that we maintained that parent Square was going to be hopefully but you weren't sure yet um able to take on some of those functions so that that would be great news um we look forward to an update on that y are there other I'll just make a comment um I think really the and we'll talk more about this when we have our joint meeting with the board of selectman and finance but I think personally what I'm seeing as sort of the big story of of this budget is really the anomalies that we're experiencing this year that we don't normally do and we will have to carry into next year I mean we're talking close to a million dollar in really um I mean even if you take out there is a huge chunk right for special education outplacement we already talked about that as um just in the budget details okay so if you look at one of the columns where it says 23 24 budget anomalies so those are the sort of weird things that we're experiencing this year that's going to be in next year's budget that is not normally there um or to that extent right so even if you look at special Edge transportation we already talked about that as being you know the town's holding that on contingency that's not something that we should really worry about but it should be a flag in terms of um you know why is this budget so big um I mean the other things like athletic Transportation substitutes our teacher salary savings um I mean those are things that we typically don't see being this High um but are also things that are very much out of our control right and that is kind of the major story I think behind this budget um the rest of this stuff is I have to say like pretty pretty tight yeah I agree you know a lot of things are out our control but a lot of things are in our control um you know I'm not really looking to cut anything that directly impacts our children um but I do think there's absolutely things that we can do to you know add or enhance or enrich our current programs and course offerings that directly impact you know our students um I'm going to be honest you know I've always been a bit big Advocate by saying that you know we're really top heavy here in this District um you know we have we invest a lot of money in administrative staff coach you know curriculum coaches curriculum leaders department heads content leaders and there's so much overlap um and that's what I mean by you know looking to using other monies to enhance our programs our current programs or add look to ways that we can improve what we have not to look at well here's where our hands are tied in these areas um it's kind of looking at it through a different lens too was where I see that maybe we can really attack and look at it closely more closely so I I just not I'm not as I feel like all of you guys are admin or um UC Educators except for me um at least you know in grade in grade school yeah you and me but um so I would be interested in understanding sort of what are sort of the questions I guess that you would ask very simply like you know I'm thinking of myself right because that's my my own experience so um we don't have instructional coaches they um I'm given a hefty stien to be an instructional coach a curriculum coach um so there's different models in different districts it looks differently right in different districts um you know have we explored that have we looked at that you know CU it it works right we're the top performing District in Orange County New York so you know what we're we are what we're doing is working right in with that model um and that stien is is very different then what that model is here um and I'm not saying what works for us could work for Brookfield but well may not work for Brookfield but it could right um and that's all I'm saying is to you know and I look forward to the presentation in March regarding that and I I really want to get behind it um but at this time I feel like I can't it's not something that I can get behind are you talking about the Scooters or then are you talking about the tutors the in the tut instructional coaches that are correct okay um so now you're talking so we have seven instructional coaches and on top of that they're getting a stien to do extra work right so um so now you're talking more money that they're getting paid um to do this extra work what I view as not extra work that's part of their job um and that's a hefty you know stipended um not I'm not devaluing their work right because all that's important work not saying we shouldn't do that work it's obviously important as we heard from the presentation um but I just think at some point the level of support needs to peel back because at some a point where exceed our building capacity like we're we're keep we're always building capacity like right we need to build capacity with our new math program Le of math right that makes sense right we're investing in a new program we're going to need levels of support for that and we're going to have to build capacity for that but at some point we can't keep building capacity that's got to be peeled away at some point um we continue make these Investments you know we have to trust in our staff and know that we've trained our staff and we've had this model in place that now we can take those supports away because we have confidence in our teachers and our staff can I sure so when you're saying pull back the instructional coaches are you saying allocate that money to that already exist or cut that out all together and entrust our teachers to just do that to use or at least part of it like you know we we want to integrate content areas right we we push for that we push teachers to you know I'm not just a reading and writing teacher you know I teach all the content areas right when I integrate it in my teaching so have we considered you know scaling back instructional coaches and having the ELA be an Ela social studies instructional coach um math can stand alone if that's you know a vision that we have but um you know or science and social studies kind of integrate and the instructional coaching model we have right now is only K to8 it really doesn't meet a need for the high school you know which is a huge area of need right now is at the high school so that's something to look at too so um you know when I responded on the document about the technology integrator I think I need to have like a better you know and I explained this at Cape when she came and did a presentation it was on Book Creator which was great but that doesn't give me a good snapshot of what she does and what um value she brings to the curriculum K to 12 right she can't work with everybody but what is that what value and what um data can come back and say this is how it's impacting our students in a positive way or maybe that can be integrated with Ela like that cric coach does both Contents I don't know being more creative with that but I would love to use let's say for example we took two inst coaches away how can we use that to um maybe add another business course to the high school we only have offered two um you know I do try to really be reflective um I met with some of the our top 10 graduates in the past two years I did sit down with some of them specifically and I asked them you know what is one way we can enhance what we have here at the high school and they all said there's not enough business and they didn't go to college for business and they actually changed their Majors to business because they didn't have any exposure to what was really out there in the real world in college and what they could potential passs they didn't have any exposure to that at the high school beyond your intro to business class and I think there's one other um business class offered so looking at enhancing what we have again enrichment gifted and talented I know that's another component of it but I for me I can't get behind the instructional coaches at this time um so that's just one of you know the things that I will be you know vocal about I I think you bring up a an interesting point um I I hadn't really critically examined this but I was thinking that the instructional coaches were along the same model as in my district um do the instructional coaches teach any courses in their disciplines so the instructional coaches are not assigned classrooms they don't have classes um that they teach and then in like Joy was referring to and then had do coaching in addition to or have like a reduced load um of students uh in in that model if that's what you're asking that is um right so the instructional coaches as as Joyce said are are primarily K8 um so it really wouldn't work in a K5 uh situation and if you did that in the Middle School it would also throw off teams and that kind of it's hard to have a reduced load at a middle school based on Middle School models um and you know I think that one of the it's it's a it's it's kind of a philosophical conversation you know kind of like what are we what we kind of what's our approach I mean there are some logistical aspects of um you know if we were to to change course right now um and you know kind of readjust uh for next year's budget one of the things that we talked to Cape about um to kind of help wrap our R our minds around the series was um kind of what would help the board understand um you know the experience and and the value of an instructional coach and um I think it was Hollow who said you know like what would be what would happen if we didn't have instructional coaches um so just kind of to preview a little bit and to speak to that you know we are um our instructional coaches are the way that it has been kind of developed over the last three years we've really been working on developing a culture around instructional coaching um two and a half years I think this is the third year of instruction the instructional coaching model and PRI prior to that as um Dr bril said we had curriculum leaders um who were you know specific to their content area in the middle school and the elementary school so it's always been kind of that K8 model um at the high school there was a a Readjustment of Administrators to reduce the number of Administrators with content area and combined Humanities and stem instead of having four areas Math Science Social social studies in English um and that was prior to this whole shift um and so and the content sorry not interr can you just speak to that point just one a little bit more so at the high school stem and Humanities I guess is really so so we we have um six years ago perhaps we moved the model um it was an effort to integrate as Joy discussed uh science um and math and the humanities English social studies in the science math and Tech yeah yeah science math and Tech excuse me thank you and um also there was a request from the board to reduce Administration so we had for a long standing time English social studies math excuse me science department chairs we we reduced um there was a retirement there was an opportunity we reduced down to three administrative positions um and also with the three administrative positions the science math tech and the humanities that's two we had the growing need at the time which continues to grow is our ml population and needing World Language leadership and we brought in our world language ml uh curriculum leadership position which is K12 so kind of at the high school but the World Language piece is K12 we've got three administrators there used to be four that's the that's the coaching model if you will the kind of the Inception of the coaching model at at at the high school and then the K at is as Anna was explaining so as we go forward in terms of you know kind of what would we lose what would we not have and what we wouldn't have is the ongoing embedded professional learning opportunities that enhance that collaboration with teachers and I'll tell you that the the the difference between last year and this year in terms of the culture and climate that has been built around instructional coaching is vastly improved last year when I got here it was um the the perception I think of um from classroom teachers um at the elementary level was kind of okay this person's going to come in and help me teach this science unit cuz I don't know how to teach science I'm not comfortable teaching science that has shifted now to um the the to coaches having ongoing conversations with teachers of you know with whole grade levels of saying let's look at the unit let's look it's unpack the standards do all of that work that we were talking about and help lead those conversations and then meeting with individual teachers within that grade unit or that grade level and saying okay what is it where your students are how do you know that where your students are um what do you think your students need in order to get to the you know final aspect of this unit where are what how can I come in and help model a particular instructional approach um the idea behind instructional coaching is really bringing in high leverage instructional strategies so that um teachers can really kind of connect with all their kids help them with differentiation help them with you know not only differentiating their instruction but also differentiating their materials um being that that person who can be that continuous guide on the side and um you know I know there's also been conversations about how much time professional learning is afforded to you know dedicated professional learning time for our teachers and we have aside from the convocation and beginning of the year which is pretty much you know kind of orienting everybody to the new stuff that's happening um we have the two full days and then we have the four early dismissal days which is again pretty typical of a public school um the instructional coaches if you took them away that's when your professional learning would happen um the other time would be collaborative time kind of making sense of what is going on in the you know the unit or the grade level or how are we going to manage this you know uh change in um in the schedule because we have a speaker coming in um instructional coaches are able to be the person to make sense of what's going on in a more holistic way both within a grade level across the you know grade band bringing in illustrative math bringing in K3 reading um having the conversations K8 for teach you know kind of organizing that for teachers and then in addition um this year our instructional coaches are going through a series of Prof a whole professional development plan for themselves to en enhance their instructional coaching and really make it very it's all about student- centered approach so it's putting student learning targets at the center and figuring out what students need and having conversations around those um and in fact so we started out with the instructional coaching team and now we have brought in those content leaders from the high school so the ml the K12 uh uh leader Katherine abgo um Andrew Hill and uh Liz Spencer are now a part of that and the reason I wanted to incorporate them second half of the year is because as we're looking forward to this new teacher evaluation support and growth plan it is going to be integral that teachers get on I mean it's part of the guidelines they get ongoing embedded professional learning opportunities so that they can set their goals BAS based on student uh data um and it doesn't have to be quantitative data it might be qualitative as well right like we're seeing kind of holistically this is what our students are struggling with we're looking at the curriculum we're looking at the you know the the vertical alignment um and how am I going to address this as a teacher how am I going to grow in order to address it so the shift is happening from the high stakes accountability teacher evaluation where here's your student learning outcomes make sure that 90% of your kids get to 80% of the material 20% the time or whatever it used to be um it's wasn't quite like that but um two how am I going to grow as a practitioner so that I can meet the needs of the students who are in front of me every day and continuously work toward improving my own practice that's where the value if you take away the instructional coaches you won't have that that accessibility and that ongoing professional development that's kind of holistically and then we'll talk more about the individual use go ahead do they model lessons for them too they do they do model so what does the typical day look like for a coach oh you're going to blow my whole thing in lunch um but that's okay triler uh Trail a very inth trailer teach teach you are they pushing they must be pushing into classes I presume they're they're also you know working on on small groups so just basically depending on just yeah depending on the learning Target that might happen so they and I don't know Debbie if you want to come up at all um but they so for example um you know our instru coach for math for K5 um this year the uh grades three mostly three half of three all the way through five has have this new tool instru the illustrative math tool so um throughout the the whole first uh trimester there was a lot of working with the grade level bands so grades four grades five um making sure they were familiar with the tool he had I think two teachers from each grade level who helped revise the curriculum to to incorporate um this uh tool so they did that work over the summer he met with them throughout their process um but it was important and we did a lot of conver had a lot of conversations with him in the summertime it was important for us for him to coach the teachers to write the curriculum rather than writing the curriculum himself because we wanted to make sure that that capacity was being built to what uh to Joy's point before so that they could also then be resources for their grade level teams so he will spend it day will consist of um probably spending you know he'll a part of it will be meeting in grade level teams during plc's or clts um and having conversations about where students are based on the particular point in the unit um asking teachers to bring information about what they're seeing in terms of their students reactions or access to particular tools particular activities so that will be a portion of his day probably a couple hours throughout the day um most of the day is spent in classrooms working with individual teachers answering questions for them or giving them feedback on how they are organizing their lessons um making sure that they are able to manage their lot of different aspects to um the the illustrative math approach um it's really focused on problem solving and active problem solving so he will be working kind of helping to manage those smaller teams and and making sure that kids are accessing the materials that they particularly need um he spends time working with Debbie uh you know kind of checking in in terms of where sorry go ahead no say your answer in it all oh sorry I'm gonna turn it over to Debbie it's okay keep going Debbie can I just jump and say really so for math that makes sense right we invested in a new program right we need to build that capacity of um taking it over making the shift right it's a do it's a different way of teaching and thinking and learning for the kids um but for the other content areas right like that's these are things that we've always beening doing right the the standards haven't changed right we have our curriculum social studies has right um but essentially our standards are our standards right and we're writing curriculum and revising curriculum so um where has it shifted where we need this level of support were we so were we lacking before like you know that good question that instructional coaches needs to go into the classrooms now that teachers don't feel that they're you know equipped to was something missing before can I just jump in here just cuz like it'd be interesting to understand like because I just had a slightly different perspective just based on you know just being on the board when all of this came came in and I never really kind of looked at instructional coaching or coaches as more of a support to get to from A to B it was a resource a continuous resource because when we get from A to B well then we want to go to C and we want to go to D and it's a continuous process of continuously getting better and this is not and yeah and yeah capacity not just to say like okay here this is the capacity you need to carry it's sort of there's always going to be more and it's not really unique to public education I mean private corporations have have technology integrator similar to this because um people are qualified for their job but they can always do it better um and then when they build that capacity well then they should be building more capacity past that so I guess that's how I was viewing it um I like the analogy and I guess the um they're part of the teacher contract right okay so their day is what their day is and that's why there's a stipend if it's and that was a these positions were bargained exactly so can I ask a question regarding your next presentation which is going to be about this is there a way to get some feedback from teachers themselves perhaps anonymously so that we can get like you know not just the teachers we know are excited about it and working and it's working well for is there a way to maybe put out a survey to all teachers and say we want some honest feedback on how these instructional coaches have impacted your day how you feel they're working in general for you personally like is there I think we can gather feedback I mean I don't know how we will do about that you know we'll certainly make that determination but I'm sure that we can incorporate you know kind of how that would hear like directly like they across the board they're finding them to be valuable we don't want to take away a resource that they're but if there's enough saying you know well it's not quite working the way we thought it would maybe it's time to reevaluate I I want to make one clarification this isn't about fixing teachers it's go ahead no I mean first of all I appreciate you know the questions that you're asking mean as a taxpayer myself I I understand and that's your your role as board member so turn it on Hello all right so anyway I do appreciate the questions right and they're difficult conversations because we're talking about things that we feel you know passionate about so again as a taxpayer in Brookville myself you know I appreciate the um the critical analysis of our of our budget um as an educator that's working in the system I have I bring that perspective as well um and the instructional coaches when first of all going back to our strategic plan right which is our in the Strategic plan the vision is to create a worldclass educational system and I think it's about something about um continuous learning I I don't I don't recall it offand but something about continuous learning and growth right so if that's our vision then our budgetary resources and um what we do really needs to be put into that um that Vision right so that that we can um recognize it right so if we want to have that worldclass educational system to an's point what she was just about to share it's not about fixing teachers at all I mean we have excellent teachers here um it's really about a student centered partnership so coaches are really entering into a partnership with a teacher with a student centered goal so it's that's aligned to a standard and a Lear in Target and it's about student performance and student outcomes and that is what we're that's what our organization is about it's about student growth and student learning so it's really entering into those Partnerships the uh instructional coaches do lead um data conversations with teachers um where they get into conversations about the curriculum instruction and assessment and yes they do Provide support and resources but it's a lot more um and this year to to Anna's point that she raised before is really um the first year that we're seeing um where these Partnerships are really around student learning and growth um an example of that is um you know I know we have a teacher that is interested in exploring more about the science of reading and really supporting her students relative to the reading foundational skills so our Ela coach has been working with this teacher on a student centered goal around you know phonics instruction and you know they they enter into a coaching cycle so we're really getting into this into the coaching um I don't know the coaching Cycles if you will um which is really where we have the potential to really make um great impact on student learning and performance so it is an investment I do totally understand and appre appreciate the questions um in terms of how they're spending their days I think Anna answered that very very well um and it's different for the different coaches they do still get involved with curriculum work so in terms of that morph that that morph met I'm making up words now morphosis um to the to the morphing from the curriculum Specialists to instructional coaches they still carry that um curriculum specialist some of those you know tasks or responsibilities in their role as coaches um but it's it's changed into more of a coaching into the curriculum and the design of the curriculum so we've invested in this District a lot of time and resources both monetary as well as human um into um really looking at professional learning and into um continuous learning for you know our teachers um and as an investment what is it 80% of our budget is in human resources and people right so it certainly to me makes sense to invest in um in the people and talent uh management you know just to make an analogy with sports right um LeBron James is an outstanding basketball player right whether you like him or not you know he knows how to play basketball so you know we might say well he doesn't need a coach because he's just got this natural Talent like he's awesome right um but I'm sure he has a lot of coaches and they're not in the spotlight you don't see them you know on these you know broadcasts or whatever hey I'm LeBron's coach and I'm helping them with you know layups um but these really talented coach talented athletes really respect and value the coaching that they're getting because it helps them become even better right um and that's what I would think we would want for our talent our 80% of our budget um to really be able to to develop their talent so that they can then really um affect our the student outcomes which which we know is a district we we need to do right we need to do better with that so I would certainly hope that we would want to invest in world class um education and and professional learning um and continue on this path that we've already began because it's it's really starting to take um I can't think of the word but thank you it's really starting to take hold and um it would be it would be a shame to go backwards um yes there are districts that don't have coaches right and maybe they're um content with compliance and mediocrity um I'd rather have coherence Clarity and and progress personally so um I don't know to to add to that a little bit um thank you Debbie um know organizational Theory and research shows that it takes four to six years to shift a culture um and then we when we kind of when we talk about this this is it was a complete culture shift we had you know we kind of reappropriated some already identified areas with those with the curriculum leaders um where to save money right not to just add to the budget four years ago um and then use the arser funds as the way to intentionally and meaningfully build in um what was not foreseen um but is fortuitous uh was this huge shift in the teacher evaluation an growth plan and the way that again brookfield's Board of Education so astutely prepared for by putting these instructional coaches in three years ago and giving the time to build the culture where te where teachers are now trusting in the coaches and relying on the process now we're poised to really take off with this new teacher evaluation support and growth plan and administrator plan so because we have it built in I mean what they're asking for through the guidelines with that ongoing em embedded professional learning is what we already have so we don't have to come up with how are we going to support these teachers as they set these goals collaboratively and with each other and with coaches we can say hey there's a coach for that hey there's an administrator with whom you can partner and have a two-year plan because your goal is something that's really going to take two years but you're going to have a a thought partner throughout that entire time so that's you know it not only is it going to continue to take time and it's going to continue to shift around right I mean it's not kind of a cut and dry this is what these people are going to do um it's that's one of the reasons I brought in this professional learning for them this year was because they they were asking for it they want to become better and they want to be as impactful as they can to the student experience um and so you know that's that is it it's hard to kind of say here's exactly what a coach does every single day um because again they shift a little bit but that is an example of what Pro whether it's math or CLA or social studies K8 or science K8 um those are some examples of that and then there's also that kind of more kind of you know larger macro approach to what their roles are and what we would really lose if we didn't have them thank you are there other questions I'll just just say one more comment about the the coaches just um sort of a two-part thing um you know I I think we need to be understand that what we really invested in was that culture shift that you're talking about and we need to be willing um honestly to to give it a decent shot I mean that from where we sit at where we're supposed to be sitting at a 30,000 foot view that that's sort of where our role is right is to look at this from a very distant place and say you know this is the culture that you sold us on let's see it through um but I also want to stay critical of it right I mean that's that is also our job so I would just ask that in March when you come back with some of this is um maybe just some some type of data that shows that progress that you're talking about right like how are they how are they being utilized more frequently or in different ways um and I'm honestly fine with qualitative data because that is honestly what we are or after it's not just quantitative data that's important um especially when you're talking about a culture shift um but if there's but if there is any sort of um information anecdotally from teachers um if any of them are willing to come give us some of that anecdotal data directly that would be great um I think that would be sort of helpful for me I'd be interested too in the anchor texts that they're the coaches are using which coaching models there there are lots those so information on those text would be helpful one of the things that strikes me is that they they have a huge job in other words kr8 is huge right and there just listening to you there are a lot of tasks that they're responsible for this is not just I I do X Y and Z it's I do XYZ and you know on on and on um so the thing that strikes me immediately is um how often are the the teachers seeing these coaches because they have there's they responsibilities are so vast um I do believe that a culture shift is absolutely possible because I believe that when people trust the person who's there um that they're going to they're they're going to be okay with with somebody you know who doesn't want to get better sure but the other thing and this is I think a lot and I think time is critical uh at to Rosa's point we need to give them time but this is the the tough part how are we going to link the in the um the use of instructional coaches to student outcomes how do we know that it's a cause and effect that instructional coaches have actually improved student outcomes um and I think that's I think that would be tough myself you know but if there's a way to to to gauge that that would be amazing um and again Wendy absolutely like there are so many models you know what is you know what are they what makes what makes this particular coaching Tech technique or strategy um something that we think is going to be extremely productive for for a cohort of teachers across the board and I I'll go back to my original question I don't know why they aren't in the in the high school as well so to bring it back to budget um in terms of concrete for everybody there uh to Joy's point there are seven you know the conversation there's seven positions so it's a significant investment Debbie obviously talked to that as well um the new cost that's being asked for in the budget recommendation that has been put forward is um half of it happens to be the technology coach's salary so we've had our bester funds for three years and over time we've phased them in so and that's that's outlined in detail in in the budget documents so the only instructional coach cost that's new for next year is half of the instructional coach the uh technology instructional coach which is how much again just I know how 55 do you know what half is it's right here that's it oh yeah 555 is that that's um 51 106 mhm oh yeah yeah I believe right Casey yep okay yep the others have already been rolled in all seven are out of the classroom right they're all out of classroom positions coach they are not assigned a classroom similar to the ma interventionists and this one thank you yeah [Music] okay um I did ask uh last meeting for comeback from the director special ed regarding you know the IEP compliance position also to speak um to some Investments that possibly are needed due to the crack report sure so you want to come up and talk a little bit about the value that the I compliance teacher brings and just for clarity in public comment wasn't sure if it was uh there was a thought that the IEP compliance feure has been taken out of the budget request it has not it is in the budget so you know when we talked about the IEP compliance teacher um Dr man brought up a a point earlier that um you know functioning in within special education as a kind of instructional coach whether it's working on facilitating ppts um working on um teams with writing more specific goals and objectives um and just kind of delving into the CT sets portion and working with teams on that which is really kind of a specific area um that the the compliance person works on through all three schools so do you have a plan to use that position indefinitely Or is this more of a transition while we build that capacity talking about we we spoke about that last time too I think while we have the correct report and we have the correct review um both of them um in terms of implementing those pieces and recommendations towards a place where where um as uh we was was being discussed before moving towards that building capacity where that next level capacity um do I see it as an indefinite position um not at this time but I do see it as necessary for our ability to grow um within compliance and within writing more effective and and meaningful IEPs that before we get into a PPT to teach the the teachers and the related service staff what are you seeing with your data what are you seeing with your progress monitoring and how can we build that into the goal such that it's not um a bone of contention or or or a discussion within the PPT it's like come with something that's going to be um you know specific targeted you'll be able to say this is how it's mastered this is the progress we're using those those little items that don't you don't see in in the larger sense sometimes with APS it's both in practice and what it looks like in the classroom and how you're monitoring and how you're um monitoring it is is really the term and so I think for us at this point in the juncture that we're at within the special education department um it's a valuable piece it's it's a valuable position in terms of being able to support the implementation through a coaching model um that's that's what I could say for this evening it's a really important cultural point I mean those changes from the state were no small thing and and so like the IEP compliance position affects not only the special ed staff but also regular classroom teachers about what kinds of adjustments do I need to make and it's you guys were talking about you know cultural shifts and capacity building and um IEP compliance officers who or um professionals who who do their jobs well assist in bringing all professional support persons together and I think it's also a way to to bridge the the the knowledge Gap that exists with CT sets we we we all like I said I think I said this last month we we had IEP direct for so many years in many districts and we were all used to it we all were used to how it worked and now with this system even though we're we're in the second year and we should all be you know fully fully functioning with with CT the CT said system gets updated almost weekly there are office hours from the state that that they're sending us emails about questions that are coming from directors when we have office hours with directors from around the state so in terms of those changes my ability to implement them is directly impacted by both supervisors and by the IEP compliance teacher in an effort to take that make it meaningful and bring it down to the building levels and to the classroom level so that both general education teachers can understand what their responsibilities are but also that when we're in a a PPT the gened teacher can speak to that goal in my classroom looks like this um and this is the data that goes along with the special education teacher data so in terms of that it's it's kind of bringing various interest together including as you said CT saids and including staff within the buildings and being able to literally coach them through the changes that have happened thank you so what role does the the special ed supervisors play with the um you know IEP compliance I I think there's a there's a a there can be a blurring of the lines there but the supervisors are supervising the teachers and supervising the classrooms and um shairing ppts and I think when you look at an IEP compliance uh teacher much in the same way as as an instructional coach is not a supervisor but the supervisors are you know connecting with the teams supervising teachers um finalizing IEPs um and really sharing those ppts and the supervisors also evaluate special that's right they're evaluating the teachers as I as I and Par Educators and Par Educators within the building that's important too so again it's it's there you can see where there can be a blurring of of responsibilities but when you look at a supervisory capacity and evaluations and and and more of the legal and the evaluation end of teachers and staff versus working on a specific area of special education within the IEP within that document I think that's where you can see the the value of a the IEP compliance teacher so is this so because I mentioned our um Wendy you had mentioned it being sort of more of a culture thing similar to the instructional coaches just talked about okay so so that so that's what you're sort of viewing this position as like you it wouldn't be effective you're saying or would I would it be correct to say that um this wouldn't be something that could ever be sort of a stien position for one of the supervisors or multiple supervisors I think we're not there yet I don't know that I want to give you a firm yes or no on that but I can see an evolution okay of that um but I can also see that given the challenges of the CT said system given the challenges of the the shift in how IEPs are written and how they're delivered and and and that whole system I think within what we have right now um there is a need for that coaching model within here not to say that there isn't going to come a time where that is more of a supervisory role but I think at this time in in terms of being able to work on these specific things in each building in a non-supervisory capacity and a non-evaluative capacity makes a difference for when teams are trying to work through what the IEPs should look like and look like in a meaningful way so I think that's that's the separation that you also want to and don't forget we used it was Grant funds but we invested in the correct program review which talked about the quality of the IEP so that is something acute and significant that we must work on and you're talking about what what's ballpark number of IEPs that get uh written SL reviewed each year well we have 335 students with IEPs um so you can say flat out 335 annuals now that doesn't count referrals right initial testing um program reviews manifestations you know so we're we're now we're probably over 500 right um you know on a on a if if you twisted my arm I might say 600 depending on again the fluidity of program reviews and the nature of referrals and the nature of students moving in so there's a there's a you know if our Baseline is 335 everybody gets an annual from there you can kind of grow from from where that could go so specific to the correct report there were no Investments that you feel needed to be made to improve in the area special ed as far as the budget goes I think a lot of the items that did you make requests and I didn't go through no no this I think within what we have in the budget it is aligned with the correct report and I think there are a lot of things that were again speaking to building capacity I don't think there was something where you needed to have more positions necessarily I think it was working on what we already have aligning processes across three buildings that doesn't require another person um a a a assuring that there's parent communication assuring that there's um a culture shift as you spoke of those were things that within the correct report and again when when I'm reporting next month we can I will be able to show you what's been completed what's in progress and what still has to be done but to me the correct report initially when I first looked at it was not about um positions as it much as much as it was about um what needed to happen within the department in order to make a more effective program for students and looking at IEPs and looking at how we delivered those services not how many people we need to deliver those Services as much as how we could um improve the quality of what we have in District thank you thank you Bill thank you and in uh in the budget binder um are the case load reports that bill put together for us and we're in a very healthy spot um with case loads uh across the district um in terms of our personnel I just think it's important that um uh for folks who don't work in a school um that just the sheer scale of this of hyper detailed weighty and dynamic system be be made plain I think that's really important so um uh are there other uh other items that we could go after um at this point public comment yes before public comment okay um yeah I want wanted to bring back the legal services um discussion um hold on but we're still on the budget discussion is this related to the budget yes is this related to the budget not officially okay um I have one more thing um thank you John for adding the addendum slide to the you know presentation that provided yeah um and looking that over it just it doesn't really you know thank you Dean for doing that um but unfortunately it really doesn't justify the dean of students position that data um it really the slide only highlights discipline numbers so you know if anything I would expect to see like a charted graph from each month and a decrease maybe in dis discipline referrals uh maybe a cross reference from previous years the slide really only tells me that we on average we have 2.74 disciplinary issues or referrals to deal with each day so um it really didn't give me any information on how the dino students builds community outreach and that was the huge push of why we put that position into play was to build Partnerships with parents and community outreach and I don't know if that has been attained at all so you know although the presentation that Dean gave in the December meeting um was was good in some areas it really lacked the meat and potatoes that I was looking for at least for me to get and stand behind that position forward can I say I I've read that um that addendum rather differently um looking at these data points of what the dean uh of students Miss buckton yes um has accomplished in the first 82 days I see this as freeing um the principal and assistant principal to to do the business of running the school in the way that is intended and not to be doing these other things uh that that she is able to capture and I hear your point that this you know it needs needs to be we've talked about this it needs to be more than just going out and saying hi to parents and kids in the morning um but to me this these data points speak to miss buckton interacting with kids in a way that not only cuts down the the friction I guess that would happen in in the office but also she comes from a social work background and I you know we are trying to help our our Middle School age kids especially learn to engage recognize engaging conflict but do it in a healthier way that but I think we need to be careful with that because if we're looking for a social worker then we hire a social worker U please don't misunderstand my point I um I I just feel like we're getting two skill sets in one uh position and practice here like like the the data points here are about how she is addressing uh problematic student behaviors um and I don't I don't know if that's being addressed right just because having the amount of referrals that she has that doesn't prove that she's addressing that need and every parent of middle schoolers understands what that looks like in real time because we've lived it in our homes pick up those socks put your dish where it goes that sort of stuff um but I I just see I I read this really differently and thought wow these are this is evidence of success for that position and joy you you just rattled off some things you were interested in knowing I'd be more than happy if you were able to send me some specific questions that you're interested in can yeah you know I kind I said that too at the end of the presentation you know it was um really like a sunshine and rainbows presentation I was looking for real data like real data comebacks of you know yeah we've had this many referrals and um with Miss buckon here this is the impact that she's had on her student body this is the impact she's had on her students that aren't getting referrals right these are this is this the Outreach she's had to parents um what was her role in the wathon nothing okay so that's one example but how can that improve maybe we should be doing peer leadership like they mentioned so kind of seeing how that program is going to get jump started right I know you know we're we're only in January but you know we could have a phase two presentation absolutely you're bringing up some great points that we could bring forward to you intervention strategies too yeah so real like some meat and potatoes real data showing the impact right and how our whole student body and the community outreach which was the goal of the position was to um not take what we're doing and splitting the jobs right oh I'm going to take more off Mr Bard's plate and give it to miss buckon no it was how we bring this person in to do community outreach to build Partnerships to improve communication and all these things not just address the referrals yeah and I thought that was in the presentation apparently that wasn't clear enough so we will we can go back andjust based on your feedback here when you say impact what how would you I'm I'm just curious how how would you measure impact like what kind of data are you looking for any kind of data that can show impact positive impact so like just anecdotal like stories of success one of the ways we measuring this uh we just like she had said an increase decrease of incidents over time but one of the other things we look at is the followup in the intervention as to what happens afterwards and if they are reist are they continuing to do the same behavior or is the dean interacting and you know right so student a was in my office or met with me nine times in September and I've built a great connection with their family and their parents and student a I've seen them 70% less of the time or you know was only in my office five times in October and then now has hasn't been in my office for theism rates yeah this is helpful right here this is very helpful what you're looking for I do want to say though that she did speak to the fact that like she has had students actively seek her out and I think that you can't really get anecdotal evidence on you know measure that anecdotally but can say value in keeping that in mind that if this is a person that the students specifically are comfortable with and reaching out to that in in of itself kind of is data that's valuable in that way yeah sure so that's maybe continuing to evaluate that piece of it and like is it because she's new and someone you know that's available now and as we go forward is that continuing to be the same is she is she continuing that relationship and are they continuing to be comfortable and what kinds of situations are they reaching out to her for because in her presentation she had said specifically there was somebody with a home issue that had reached out and she was able to counsel and comfort them and bring the family in so I feel like that's would that be the same if it was an administrator there's no way to really know but also or right or even know teach it to what it looked like last year right so should be even looking at that no that's a great idea compare you know to to referrals last year and that kind of thing and if we can even talk about what the guidance counselors role role and how it Chang you know if they're if they're I I mean my my own children didn't know they had guidance counselors in middle school so I don't know if that's another conversation that we need to have I also just if I could just add one piece and I can't remember if this was um presented in the um the presentation but um part of the legislation and that's part of my job is bringing forward the legislation so um forgive me but is the um requirement for uh a policy and a practice of restorative practices you know the boards of of Ed have to have a clearly identified um approach to restorative practices to address proactively um you know disregulated behavior um and that's coming down the pike and um my understanding was that part of this of implementing in a dean of students um was to help kind of prepare the district for those you know those different layers of um you know the compliance focus of like districtwide and then each identified person at the schools and then to implement to make sure that it's not just punitive it's a lot more restorative and a lot more which um I mean and I'm sure as you all many of you are Educators you've gone through a lot restorative practices training or at least you're familiar with it and there is a ton of time that goes into that it's much more time consuming than traditional punitive approach to discipline which is to come in give me your you know I'll do give you your due process here's what happens um it's a lot of let's it's a lot more counseling frankly um and the differentiation between a counselor and a position like a dean of students is super important in that because the counselor has to maintain a very clear role of the counseling piece um which is as much academic but where whereas the um administrator or dean of students or whomever is kind of enacting that restorative approach is really doing that mediation piece and taking on because there also might be some consequences right um sometimes the consequences are the the process um but I just wanted to remind the board of that that there is that requirement of boards um enacting that which is something that I would foresee this person and this role being integral to that as we go forward and policy we talked climate policy coming up sorry that when we invested well when it was approved to put this position into play um it wasn't just discipline like so I don't want us to harp on that either right it was the the real you know drive for this was to build partnership and Community culture culture to improve culture so you know what does that look like for this person right now how how is that how was that looking how is that improve how was what did it look like before what does it look like now um with the impact of this position um does that look like you know we want to implement peer mediation right as a practice to bring in she's going to bring in our students to be peer leaders and provide these opportunities to peer mediate situations that arise um with students students to student or student to teacher or whatnot so um so I just want to be clear I'm not just looking for disciplinary right data you know no and this is the accountability and the scrutiny with new positions that we have to bring forward okay um we seem to have rind this pretty fully now let's um why don't we go around and hear um last thoughts from um everybody about the budget or last questions um with this version uh oh darn um to recap uh we've gone through this um for a while for a while now and so um just to make sure that we unearth everybody's uh questions or or thoughts let's go around um Joy why don't we start um you I don't think I need to hash out anymore okay I didn't want you to feel skipped yeah you've brought up a lot of important points Robert I feel like I've said what I had to say as well thr upun Stephanie yeah I I feel like my questions have been answered um the document that the questions document has been very thorough I've learned a lot going through that and I feel comfortable uh with where we're at okay Sarah I'm I'm good for now okay um uh yeah so I'll I'll just sort of um just as joy and I are the only veteran board members here and this is your first budget so I just wanted to just kind of tell you that like tonight so I and I'm comfortable making a motion and putting it on the table let's put yeah we will um no I was I was just going to say um you know if um I'm I'm in support of this budget as is hoping that a lot of things turn in our favor um but as it is I think this is a budget that we um that I'm comfortable standing behind um and so I don't have any further questions or comments about it um did you want to say anything else no I think I think we we put forth some good questions and but um I'm kind of with you and I think that some of this is going to take time so I'm okay with it for now yeah um so I will actually um move that the Board of Education adopt um a budget in the amount of 53,6 24, 635 for the 2425 school year um so it's been the um second get a second yeah uh I was going to say it's been moved can we have a second but I couldn't find my words sorry okay so uh the motion to approve the um superintendent's proposed budget um which has been approved by the board of Finance has been approved by the finance by finance committee by the finance committee sorry um and so the motion has been made and seconded um who second I second Stephanie did sorry my mic was on I second moved by Rosa and St um seconded by Stephanie um all in favor um I um all opposed I okay so um we have uh five uh yes votes and two no votes so um this version so the motion passes okay um so with that we will move to um public oh no no no I'm sorry you that's fine I can do it after so if you want if there's something else you want to talk about you'll have to make a motion to add an agenda item which is fine I just want I want to make a motion to add an agenda item to discuss Legal Services I'll second okay so we need to have a a vote to no she can just you can just start your discussion now okay I just wanted to um we've had plenty of um information to um to this end and so along the lines of being having a commitment to the students um I would make a motion to um terminate the employment of our current Legal Services hire interim legal services and um while we look for Replacements do we have a second I'll second okay so um we have a second and um I'll in all right I I want well before that I have a very important question on that I would like to I would like to understand what is the rationale there has got to be a very very good reason and an emergent reason to terminate current Legal Services what is that reason I think at this point we have information that proves that they're not necessarily doing what's best for our students and where is this information it's a lot of it's been provided in emails that we've all received and did you corroborate any of that in what way by asking the administration the superintendent in other words did you get the full story or is something of this magnitude such a simple decision for you there's nothing simple about this decision well wait can I understand what you so what you're proposing is that we have no current legal council no I think we should hire in get interim ones in do we have like do you do we have enough information in place to have an interim Council like I'm trying to figure out what that would mean and what that would look like for like let's say tomorrow we needed some Council how would that be provided I don't know logistically how it would work I think it's it's an important thing to consider okay I'm just trying to figure out like if we have zero legal council and we don't have an actual plan in place for the interum like where does the interim come from I guess in your view is what I'm trying to understand like how does that look for like the next 3 weeks while we're still gathering information on like how to move forward with a possible new firm I mean I'd be like we take sorry no I'd be happy to sit down and figure out logistically how to make this work I mean I can talk to whomever I need to talk to but I didn't want another meeting to go by when we're not you know getting the ball rolling with regard to this so is this a a place where you would like to move to a vote or would you like to table it until you have that information which would be two two weeks or three whenever would be the next meeting I'm comfortable moving to a vote okay the motion's already on the table so unless there's any other discussion you can call the vote okay um let me make sure I have the the the phrasing of the motion correct so the the the phrasing is to to terminate the phrasing is to terminate current Council and hire interim Council immediately is that is that a fair representation of the motion okay um all in favor of this motion okay all opposed any abstentions okay so we have um one I five Nays and one abstention so the the motion um does not pass okay um we will move then to public comment and we have um Mr Korea [Music] [Applause] again IND Korea 45 West Road is your is the mic on I think yeah Indie Korea 45 West W Road um since the C report came up quite a bit tonight I thought I'd kind of tell kind of inform the new board how it came about so there were issues with a uh a prior District administrator is no longer here um and the treatment you know performance of the duties if you were to you know Google the administrator um you would see pretty readily that um it wasn't a very good idea or very competent idea to hire that person um they came into the district immediately started violating the law including have a state complaint within a very short period risk for allowing this um so there were several issues between the next school year Mr K I'm sorry this won't infringe on your time but you you can't talk about um individual Personnel it's quite obvious who you're talking about and this is It's they're not a Personnel they're not currently a Personnel um please speak to please speak to your issue and Sir so the the issue what what drove the correct report was parents coming up and waiting 3 hours and speaking 3 minutes at a time while they were cut off right the um the correct report so so on December 14th meeting you're um there was a motion there was an item on the agenda to have CES do a a special education report that was after several issues of parents coming to speak um at that meeting it was deter determined that there were some concerns with uh potential conflicts of interest with with senior administrators and also performance of that organization in Prior um reviews it was a $6,500 review that would cover about 2% of the student population when that information came to light it s of sort of forced the hand of the board to go to a more expansive review that's why we had the crack report you can see it in the prior um the prior board meetings if you go and look so you know as we look at public comment and getting feedback from parents getting feedback from emails coming into the board it's imperative that the board would start to take it seriously right if you look at the information provided to you you have actual emails actual documents um from the prior uh from current lawyers of how the the district um treated a family including trying to push a child out and silence a parent telling a parent that they cannot speak at the board of education so it's important that the board actually looks at the real information of what's going on as opposed to caucusing behind the scenes to um to try to limit parent input and understand what is actually occurring thank you thank you very much for your comment okay um you're going to move now to three main points um St have you been keeping tabs what did you have you been keeping tabs and what have you come up with for the three main points and I'm sorry about the mic I was thinking the three main points would be the student Spotlight from CES with the two cute umou students you give us a great little report um the superintendent update that also includes Mr Ran's update so that kind of incorporates what we have um coming up and then the teaching and learning update I a would suggest the budget be one of those feel free to take my report out of it guys sticking to three so whatever part of the budget conversation um I would just sort of more important than me I would just say like you know like our adoption of the budget the amount and then maybe like like the next steps in the budget process something to that effect and if you want to table us to March we're we're coming back we have a whole show so you could always if you want I we don't have to R it was a show well done great so um for upcoming events um the this budget is due to the uh first selectman before uh the 31st as you mentioned um and we've got our regularly scheduled meetings what what else is before us in terms of upcoming events oh the only thing I had on the upcoming events was actually already talked about the special education PTO meeting here at BHS um at 6:30 p.m.

to the of the United States of America and for it stands one nation Vice chair to do the roll call El here Harris Teresa B pres Michelle here Kate canetta here GL Cooper here Mary Cronin Lauren Dy here Richard Holly Richard janelli here thank you good evening again to everyone uh we have public participation um I will read the script that we use a read at our board meeting the board welcomes public participation and ask that speakers please limit their comments to three minutes speakers may offer an objetive comments of school operation and programs that concern them the board will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the D public school before the start of the board meeting those wishing to address the board in public sessions are to sign the public participation sign up sheet complete with your name address and a phone number and the topic they wish to speak on documents intended for the board are to be submitted to the recording secretary the board chairperson shall call on the public to address the board and the order in which they appear on the signup sheet three minutes may be allotted to each speaker and a maximum a 30d minutes for public participation the board May modify these limitations by a majority vote of those present at the beginning of the meeting if the number of person wishes to speak make it advisable to do so thank you right now do we have anyone that would like to address the board seeing that move on down the agend and we are happy to have Shelter Rock here to Spotlight their school so come on up [Applause] shelter sorry so we would like to say thank you so much for the opportunity to Spotlight Shelter Rock um Kristen Bradley and myself we are the new administrators at Shelter Rock this is my second year there Kristen started with us this year we're very happy to have her there uh we both feel very fortunate to be at Shelter Rock uh our students are very respectful hardworking and kind to one another and our staff POS is very POS and very solution minded oriented we have a very strong School community supported by our amazing PTO who is here today they absolutely amazing uh as of today we have a total of 561 students placed in 27 general education classrooms we have 247 students identify as multim Learners which is 44% of all of our students and 10% of our students have an I but honestly Shelter Rock is so much more than numbers we decided to uh put a video together with our students and staff and they'll be the ones talking about our amazing school commity I hope you enjoy it [Music] at Shelter Rock all students will feel connected and safe so that they will meet or exceed great level standards by the time they graduate fifth grade because we believe that all students can grow and be successful in a positive and engaging learning environment at Shelter Rock we rock these are the core values we created as a school we are safe we persevere we are kind we Empower we are respectful we are we are we are we are power we are at shelter walk we Advocate we celebrate all forms of diversity and actively work to protect the rights of all in our community during our Multicultural day students families and staff celebrated a variety of cultures that represent our community we had many different performances activities and food that was donated by local restaurants last year we brought back an old tradition to show to the talent show our teachers encouraged us to show off our many talents and we were so proud of our hard work and performance the night of the talent show was huge was a huge success everyone did a fantastic job at shelter walk we collaborate we work well with others to identify problems and create Solutions with an open [Music] mind I [Music] for okay tell me in English what did you have to do wait how many how many columns do you have how many columns two and how many [Music] rows J so what's the expression 2 * 8 good job first grade teacher collaborate Techni work together to teach us important M skills all through the year they go to different agaches to learn about the first grade standards for M skin grow every week we get together with other classes to work on skills that are planned by our teachers we coach younger students by helping them with reading and writing we try really hard to be great role models our principles provide us with time to collaborate as grade level teams and with different departments we always use this time to talk about student work and how to move their learning forward at Shelter Rock we communicate we communicate our own thoughts and emotions as well as effectively engage with other perspectives and feelings of [Music] others during our T Hall meeting we talk about important issues we related to our school and we celebrate students for we have the opportunity to share what is happening in our lives our teachers help us talk through our feelings there are special places in our school that we can go to where we need help with our emotions at shelter walk we innovate we identify problems and create solutions for the past 30 years all all the students are invited to create a science project that will be showcased to the whole school we invite our parents to to attend it and learn about the solutions we have created to solve problems every day at the end of we used to fill three large tress barrels with all the our leftover food and garbage we learned how to save untouched unwrapped food andly are trash now students can have the extra food they need if unit and of [Music] stress at Shelter Rock we learn we use the chir skills and knowledge to transform life for self and positivity influence the lives of others our class affirmation I [Music] amart I am unique smart and important I am for my own action I will make good choices I will chose be I will [Music] do I am aad I am unique I am confident I am amazing I am respectful I am eager I am loved aong Lear I intelligent i l u c a r e l [Music] [Applause] l question does anyone have questions I just want to say something assistant principal Bradley and principal PCO I want to thank you both for joining us this evening I can't stop saying great things enough great things about you are very committed and dedicated staff that you have at Shelter Rock school and you guys have the perfect trifecta because then you also have a very supportive PTO in parent group um so we're very proud of everything that um we do at Shelter Rock we're very proud that the two of you have formed this dynamic duo on behalf of the district um we continue to try to do everything we can to serve the shelter Rock Community so uh we are all I can tell you we are all proud and happy here at district office on the board for the first time getting to see you together here at the board meeting um We are continuing to look forward to great things that I know is going to come from Shelter Rock um can't thank you enough put together this presentation for us tonight thank you so much sorry almost got one more sorry um I just wanted to say I was honored to have all three of my children go through shelter Rock School and we're proud Shelter Rock Eagles and um it was there where they got their educational base and that love of learning that they've taken with them and so I just want to say thank you to everybody I see some very familiar faces in the audience who've had one two or all three of my kids um but I want to thank you for all that you do and continue to do for our children thanks thank you any other comments from board members Teresa thank you how many full-time teachers are sh uh so we do have 27 general education teachers uh we have all together putting together with the ESL team with our special ed teachers we have around 40 certified staff members thank you anyone else again thank you on behalf of the board and I hope to see you when the spring comes and it's not so cold thank you than [Applause] you we're going to move right into our presentation here tonight um I like to make a little change as we go through the presentations I'm going to ask you we'll start off with two questions you would raise your hand through the chair you put give me your two questions and then we'll move around to everyone that's on the board that has the opportunity to ask a question and I'm going to ask you to be mindful and polite to each other we just heard had a school come and your children are talking about being polite and CRI to one another and they going to see us sit at adults and can't be polite to each other that's not a good representation so I'm going to ask you to raise your hand I will put your name down and if I overlook you I had thece chair to nudge me and say well someone is over to say I'm going to ask you to ask your questions if it's okay with our superintendent as we go along this is a workshop and I know we used to hold our questions to the end but I'm going to ask you to you know do your questions in if it's okay with the superintendent and uh if it's something that he can't answer right then he will definitely get back to you so at this point I'm going to turn the workshop over to the superintendent thank you Mr is it okay that John also here sure certain and good evening everyone and thank you um for chair Cooper so I want to start by sharing John Mr sping left a there's answers to our January 3rd meeting um at everyone's desk tonight those responses are really in response to some of the questions that came up at our January 3rd meeting uh and it was this handout is also in response uh to some recommendations that the board made to fold into our presentation so the thought was we would in this handout John going to ask you to walk the board through this um instead of you trying to find those updates in the PowerPoint John is going to walk you through this handout that was on your desk and we'll just kind of walk you through what those updates are and as we go through the presentation you'll see evidence of that throughout the presentation so John would you mind take a minute to do that first so can you hear me okay and so a few of the things are um just confirmation um of what we've done the first one there um if you recall our the for our tutors um had not been for many years in the line for salaries they had appeared uh in the 300 lines as we call them and we've uh moved that up you'll see that in one of the slides um called the money slide as um superintendent gets into his presentation but we've made that change it's about uh $4 million and we've also uh restated uh the prior year that um things U are comparable uh we also um we had not calculated the cost um you know we we plan to move um we plan to occupy the cartis building um in late spring and we put some money in for the high school and middle school teachers uh who will be working there to pack their classrooms up uh before they leave uh this would be right after the end of uh classes in June that's something um we typically do most recently we did that with the kindergarten teachers who um moved over to uh St Joe in Brookfield for a year uh once we're um before school starts of course uh they'll come back and we'll they'll unpack uh but that'll be in the next budget the 25 26 years so uh that's been added uh we also got some uh live quotations uh for the tent rental uh that we spoke to about uh at the high school for next year uh primarily to U uh serve meals uh with our cafeteria just uh being too small for the number of kids so um the annual cost uh or the 10-month cost uh for that tent rental uh we estimated at 144,000 that's been built in it actually two tents um you call them a wedding style t with the flaps that come over and the doors and and things like that and then uh we'll need some uh a couple folks in there to monitor uh the lunch periods when the students are in there so uh we we've um built in a par educator uh 05 or halftime par educator one for each of the two10 that will be their a total of $35,000 um you asked about um Staffing history and uh call it a new position analysis and as you look through U your handout there what we have called um it's not on here but the the the next page is u a table that says Staffing history uh that's a table that the uh the city asks us to do every year um when we send our materials over in February and you can see there by a couple different categories uh teachers special ed teachers Paris uh clerical custodian and so forth uh but the history uh there goes back um six or seven years and you can see what's what transpired over time uh a new position analysis uh would appear later y it's the next page uh we took all of the positions that um you've been hearing about the new ones uh put them on a in a landscape format it's called um requested new positions 2425 I've tried to group them uh by um level so you can see all the high school positions there they come from different um budget drivers but here they are in one place and you know as uh one of our messages as you've been hearing um is the surgeon enrollment uh at the high school that's um here now and will continue to grow so you see the the Staffing uh that we're asking you to approve uh is primarily U at the high school uh we'll talk more about that the the driver category appears over on the the far right of that table there some more there um an expenditure history analysis uh that's something that uh City also asks us to prepare uh this is the usual format uh that they get there in these Pages appear in the mayor's budget book uh that comes out in uh late March uh and goes to the city council these have been uh these same Pages have been used uh for many years um ECS funding uh and a enrollment comparison report that's exhibits four and five uh exhibit four uh that data is a a replica of a page that uh for many years here uh you received in your budget book it's not it's not quite uh formatted the same way we'll do that but this was the data uh that you'd often get it it talks about uh numbers of students in different categories free and reduced launch or uh things like that there's some economic statistics there as well that um you were used to getting a an equalized Grand list of median household income uh where we compare uh to some other uh cities and towns I was asked uh today why are those in there uh those are the ones that historically have been in your book so at least for tonight uh we went back with the same ones um you can see the ECS Grant educational cost sharing uh spread out uh that is where our alliance Grant lives we get our ECS allocation uh it includes the alliance we can talk about that a little bit more too um you also um there's an enrollment comparison uh again this is a a city page what's what's different about this is it um shows our grade level configurations of elementary middle and high school um both historically and then a a three-year projection from our demographers there uh we you know when we talked about uh the next page the budget drivers uh last time uh was sort of an overview and uh here was the break here's the breakout you asked for uh that shows a more um uh item by item what's in those drivers I've also uh describe those a little bit I won't go through each one uh now you you'll see some of that in the presentation coming up uh and some notes over there on the side just to help uh understand how we we put those together um so those are the budget drivers and last uh we wanted to give you a call a full Financial summary um it's a page it's a pie chart uh you can see uh the Esser uh Grant in red that's that's the big story of the budget you'll see uh but you can see our grants our general fund uh coming together on that chart so those are the the questions uh from last time and I I think I'll take this opportunity to ask if there are any questions about your handout for John for I review the presentation with you which frankly is capturing many of the things John thank you so J I just wanted to clear we got the the new numbers in so we're looking at like 79,000 more for the tents and the Staffing at Broadview because I think originally last meeting it was 100,000 for the cafeteria tents and supervision so is that my the tents uh come to 144,000 and the supervision 35,000 so you're right 179 of almost 80,000 so Michelle at the last meeting we had estimates there was some request for us to get actual quotes and so they've been updated now the actual and then I just have the other question is I'm looking at the student enrollment I think you just highlighted the cage um towards the end last exhibit projected 2425 enrollment you have is 12,188 are we talking about 12,000 was it 223 why is that number or what is the number uh I for the projected there I was just taking the slam uh report from the last demographic study I think uh the numbers you'll see uh in the presentation those are really what we think are going to happen and and um you know before these go over to to the city uh they'll be um everything will match and they'll age um I think here what I was more trying to do was show you the history uh coming up to this rather than pinpoint threeyear projections can we maybe update that only because you know it's always kind of a moving number and it looks like we're kind of sticking with 12,223 right so if they could match that would be great they will thank you thank you uh Mr Janel we're doing two questions and then we one around okay reputation John on your and could you speak in your microphone because we cannot hear I'm not sure how this works but the the on your first page where item number two and item number three if I add this cost 35,000 on the other I don't know um this total some 215,000 is this to be construed that it's additional monies what we've been told or is this just a breakout of something that's been Incorporated uh it's some additional I believe uh a week or so ago we were showing $100,000 for the tents we weren't showing anything for the supervision or nor anything uh for the moving uh cost uh but these these uh really are two different drivers budget drivers are two different things um the moving cost uh that's to occupy the academy in the late spring April actually that will be for work it's done in June to move in uh the tents and the supervision uh we need those things this year uh for the enrollment so we would uh erect those tents uh this August coming off from the supervisions so part of the quarter million dollars that I refer to some of that expenses the big part of that or half of that would be for the current year being the T and the other 100,000 would be additional Monies to be added to your proposed budget for for next year is that correct this is off of the 2425 budget just so then just want to make sure we say the same okay that's what I'm trying to clarify and so what I Look to assume that whatever number you had of the previous presentations and the total cost would would that number increased by $200,000 well in other words in previous conversations you had presentations you had a number I for get what it was 178 or 176 are those numbers now being adjusted upward because of these additions uh they are they are okay so be corre the other thing is going out of order on your next to your last page where you referred to budget drivers I'd like to see a total on there sure it's about 18.5 million but okay and I keep saying that we look at presentations where you're saying you have incremental cost $28 million and we're only counted with $18 million so you scheduled basically for clity purs I should be told that's a good suggestion thank you thank you Teresa I thank you I just have a quick question about the out of town students I don't recall getting the latest figure on that for this Academic Year um I'm sorry teres when you say students the the students that come to the magnet school is it yes you mean in terms of I just want to make sure I understand the question the number the rate was declining the last year coming from out of town to Dan I didn't recall hearing the current number enrollment enrolling declining yes yes yes um we we can report on that but we can we can certainly provide thank you and this just a common J on on section two part two here is that supposed to be probably an era typ ER is that 24 or 25 should be 24 24 thank you thank third page it is the STA history yes and is there any way that we can detail please um you have the descriptions the all others I take the time short okay um I can tell you that I'm looking for I see under Administration I see superintendent a super assistant superintendent um the principles and assistant principles directors coordinators and we jump to special tutors but I don't know if we're missing something in would that be like administrative assistance safety Advocates would be one being there um they they'd be primarily um non-certificated positions I'd rather take a look at them so specifically looking for where our other administrative positions come in uh many of those uh are in the director coordinator line but there there could be some other like a working Foreman or something of that nature it supervisor could be down in that line specifically on the next page positions yes we have our um our site administrators for our West Campus yes and for the move if I'm not mistake five um would be yes you know that it's the phrase the the devil's in the details and um when we when we take the building in April and um there's still going to be a lot to do um student schedules um organizing things um it's a it's a big deal to start a school it's all the little things um um and uh including the Staffing and and all of that so we need uh someone who can do all that uh really before August not before July uh so I we envision some staff um getting things ready for August getting ready to welcome back the teachers and and so on we're not quite sure yet exactly uh what those positions will be or how but we we do need some leadership uh beginning in the late spring and did we have did we have that listed as a three month position right April May and June that that's the budget is built uh that that person would be uh a person for three months uh heading up each of the schools the middle school and high the academy and so I guess my comment is is within our district we number of positions in which we have um divided their willings right and I don't know if that had been perhaps a thought by the uh cabinet that you know we we've split positions to different buildings and assignments so forth that we might have some administrative positions that we could have used for those months those are those discussions will um ramp up in the the next few months uh but we knew we needed uh some leadership there um I estimated it this way I'm sure we'll be keeping you informed thees back to number two the building is going to be finished this June 2024 no I thought you said that that was the one not 2025 did I misunderstand that oh I'm sorry at the end of the budget year I I try to correct myself yeah yeah I thought that will be in June at the end of the budget years so it's 2025 it is thank you m I just have one question on the ECS grant funding you just mentioned the alliances at 45,000 to4 some change um what is under the alliance grants because last meeting you said it included the Alliance Title One and the grants is that what we're talking about when we're looking at this one item no the um so the ECS uh the educational cost sharing um that's the basic way the state of Connecticut AIDS public education it's a elaborate formula um I know parts of it uh but it's complicated um uh for Alliance districts um one of the one of the ways the state tries to equal level the playing field between uh cities and towns some able to more than others uh is with the alliance Grant and um in our case uh this year it's about $22 million and it's uh it's it's it's a u it's an odd way that they pay that and and count it um most grants are not included in your state aid check so to speak uh this particular Grant and only this grant the alliance Grant is included in these ECS estimates that you see in the governor's budget and you hear about so the $45 million you see there uh this year 22 is has come to us and for our programs uh primarily uh full day kindergarten is funded that way uh but the rest of it goes to the city it's a General Revenue just like uh the casino money that comes in or the town Aid Road and things like that the um City finance department and Council use that to help um help pay for things including education um the other grants you you mentioned the title one um Perkins and so on you you'll hear some more in the presentation um those are not funded through the state aid some come from the state some come from the federal government up through the state so slide you can break that down a little bit you'll see it yes you'll see it a few minutes thank you second round of two question John on the page 20 2425 requested new positions one again I'm going to ask that the categories be subtotal in the dollars come up the grand total of the dollars you have a recap of the FTE but I think it would help yeah if you had to conf in dollars yes the other thing would there be a flow of this schedule do this schedule support anything that we're going to be seeing tonight in your presentation words are we going to be able to flow does this support any of these numbers here just in more DET do you'll be able to so what what John was trying to accomplish tonight was clear that all the updates in the presentation which is like 30 plus slides he EXT he extracted this to say this is new information that we've added into the presentation and he wanted to zero in on that new information that's been added to the Pres presentation specific uh but we will see everything from last week from the preliminary budget plus what you see here in his beautiful presentation that we show T long as we can see the connection yes that if it's not that's about yeah and just final question is on the enrollment the enrollment history when I look at this first blush and we make a lot of conversation we have a lot of dollars that are spent in the category forment when I look at this there's nothing really that pops out of pops up to me that's a significant inrease so I I think we're going to have to be a little bit more educated as to what the concern of the enrollment is is the concern over the increase I think in your slides of over the eight years of the impact that the collected 800 students had from that that point to today what it has on the district because when you look at the numbers here it's not jumping up and supporting that there's anything drastic it's just a you know I'm trying to play devil's advocate for somebody looking at the slide and they present this they say well I don't see any big deal you know I think I know what you're getting at in terms of the effect on Roll But I just want to play Devil's and that question thank you on the page for new positions just a question um we had a number of positions we talked about earlier this week of positions that were not fed this SCH are those rolled over to this new position they rolled over are they so we don't okay that's what I okay thank you for asking are there any other question yes so we will move on to the presentation which is on the screen Dr is going to help you with the slides um I want to share with the board there kind of natural transitions in the slides and so at that point I will break if there any questions this group they may appropriate we don't want to wait until the end um and so I I will just get started and so our first slide appropriately speaks to our vision and mission statement for the district um and I I think as a team as a board as a community we need to be reminded certainly that we aspire to advance all of our students to their Highest Potential um in that of course requires investment that requires planning that requires strategic planning um and we do this in partnership with Community with staff with the board uh to make these things happen right our true north as a district and I want to applaud principal PCO and her team for putting together a video and our schools have been doing a great job this year in our spotlights uh referencing our portrait of The Graduate uh making those CS to what learning looks like in your classrooms um kind of in light of our true nor as a district but these are the characteristics in which we want the skills that we want our kids to leave their schools with um and this is I think this continues to serve as a reminder of why we are here this next slide our district um begins to really talk about of course I think every District feels that they are unique right here in Connecticut uh but we're going to speak to some reasons why we truly are unique in the state of commitment our profile um so yes in in this data is as of January 9th 2024 we have 12,223 students 13 elemente schools three middle schools one high school that's changing soon U and two alternative programs 13.7% of our students um have an IEP and 47% point1 of our students identify as High needs um I'm going to go back to high needs in a second um and this is another this is the thing that truly makes us and distinguishes us from their rest of the districts in the state of Connecticut and that is 33.3% of our own students are multilingual recers um 41 47.1% of our students are high needs which is a combination of being a multilanguage learner being eligible for free reduce lunch having an IEP so any combination of those things identifies you as a i student strategic plan and District priorities and so the board approved in 2022 uh these six priorities and identifying these six priorities is critically important uh to move the district forward so with a focus on teaching and learning uh staff development Talent acquisition uh School climate focusing on school climate meaningful collaboration um and resource allocation than Mike enrollment growth and Mr J had talked about this a couple minutes ago and really asking uh the question out loud like why is enrollment grow such a issue challenge a thing here in Dan and so you'll see our from 20178 um a little over 11,400 students at that time and at the time of the submission to the state of Connecticut 12,126 students when we submitted our data to the state of Connecticut on October 1st and I think in the previous chart we had shared with the board in the community um that was plus 630 something students um over that 17 18 years span again what truly makes us unique for the rest districts in the state of Connecticut um we have our biggest Elementary School um is and you heard principal czecho tonight say they had 500 plus students at their school 631 students in the in the district um typically means you need a new school erected in a school district uh and that's exactly what the demographers have told us we have needed um and this is dating back a couple of years ago projections uh with the projections match actual growth um it really speaks to again why we are so unique in the state of Connecticut and I know we had another board member tonight point out um that the numbers of the projector of the demographer were actually under uh what our real number is right now so John had included the projections in for 2425 and Beyond but Michelle to your point we outperformed the projections which is what we typically do here and we're about 100 about 200 over those projections that are in there uh so we will definitely adjust those numbers um I think we had 30 I think the demographer projected we will be at about 3700 in September for the high school uh where we are based on our numbers projecting over 3900 School obviously we'll have some something more definitive as we get closer to the summer um but those are the numbers that we are seeing right now the next slide this is also about enrollment growth but this is specifically for multi language learners and not special students and again going back to 201718 and up to date to 2324 um you will see significant growth U from a little over 3,000 students to over 4,000 400 students to date um here in the district um and then that rayar represented 2324 we've had 118 students who identified multilanguage Learners since the October 1 submission um no one in the state of Connecticut is growing at the percent at the rate that we are there is another District who is also growing at a high percentage um you will see in some subsequent slides no one is coming close to overall number as we are here in so chairperson C I'll pause here see if you any questions in this transition Mr on sign for the enrollment appr yes to would it be as you've done in other years would it be advantageous to show the state of Connecticut so it it shows more meaningful where the the damur growth is increasing and the overall state is is decreasing we will add that in that is missing this year Abol and the other thing as I mentioned the other day when you look at the next Slide the enrollment in the multi language Learners as well as special education there was just recently a week or two ago a report that came out I think by the state school 101 project that had a nice write up on this and it indicated that danber was the set of all the districts in Connecticut 169 districts danber was the second largest District behind bridgport in in the enrollment of multi insurance leers and so as I said the other night if you put a chart together of the multilanguage Learners as well as the special ed kids at a part yart showed and I think that came out of 51% of the total population what I'm trying to get at is to build the narrative that the public has to understand is what you're up against you as a superintendent and your administrators and your teachers what they're up against by the effect of the enrollment irregardless of in the naked eye it doesn't look like it's you know every year it's a large Peak we only had about 3 years that you Peak but it has an impact collectively but also the impact of the classroom having 51% of your classroom being serviced by children that have special needs and the impact that has on district and you to go out and find different kind type of teachers that are going to fill that for I think strengthens our support as to why you're looking for this additional money in these particular areas so what I'm trying to do is is is is build the story relative to the grass and tie them into your financial numbers so that people understand behind your numbers what this classroom looks like we have tendency of making things look too easy I keep saying you guys do a good job in in you know doing lemonade out of lemons and so the general public you know in years you said okay you did so you did so great why do you need this particular you know increase well it's on a back of Administrators and the teachers and the students so that's what I'm trying to get to it's some sort of a narrative that ties these things in to what the is and then deal with the numbers to say that we're supporting that by by by this particular Edition for this particular I um Mr J I appreciate the feedback and we heard you lot clear last night um when we went to go begin to think about what that slide would look like um we realized we couldn't put put it together too quickly because we have some students who might identify as an MLL student but they may also identify as a special need student and so the numbers will not be as easy to put together as the three different numbers that you saw in the paper so it's just going to take a little bit more work for us to identify the students who have dual ident identifications uh to figure out how we would chart that so it is just yeah right there some cies which will include both so just take a little bit more time but um we we understand the the rational rationale so that we educate the public and the people that are making the presentations to what it's like to be in the school and what you need in order to service these particular needs and also go ahead thank you Michelle Michelle I'm going to ask board members again and I'm going to repeat this until we all get on the same page we have people that are in the audience that cannot hear us we'll tap in this and you people are watch watch that they can't hear cannot hear us okay so please your microphone is not going to bite you just turn it on ask your questions so we can hear you thank you Michelle thank you m chair um I want to thank you John for adding these um additional graphs based on our I hope this discussion we had last time where I'm I'm also um kind of piggy backing off and saying if we know there students coming and our demographic is you know 30% or maybe 40% multilanguage learner what is actually rolling might be a fairly different picture where it's seven let's say multilanguage Learners out of 10 and you know what I mean so actually inverted um so you know we're looking at 16,37 for an English learner and we want to take into consideration multilanguage learner is 48,000 needs is 72,000 per student so those numbers depending on how we considered it's not just the you know 16,000 so just so that we're prepared because we always seem to be a little bit short trying to um get the resources for those students or in our minds realize what those numbers I think really thank you very much fora uh Michelle touched on this and it's a good point the pro did additional 300 students we're supposed to get is there uh a way we can qualify them as to how many are MLL uh students is there any way to find that out I mean we seem to know a specific number but do we can we get to know more of what's coming and be prepared so we have 300 additional students coming up to the high school so uh Broadview Middle School uh that enrollment bubble is at Broadview Middle School this year and so that bubble will be moving up to the high school and so we have the demographics of the students that we know of right now we can't necessarily make projections of how they would identify we certainly have the projections of an idea of the kind of numbers that might be coming in and so what Dan doeses as as an example will kind of leave spacing classes any the event students move in after uh after the um after the schedule has kind of been put together but we don't we don't necessarily have an idea of who who the kids are going to be when they come in and how they will identify just to make sure I hav the SE that's how you're asking so it's strictly from within the system getting that right now yes it's moving up to the high school uh the Middle School governs at the high school so that 3900 that we're preparing for at the high school is enrollment growth from the middle schools coming up now plus the students of course that he has you want to C second yes yes pleas so the next slide is the district reference groups and often times in this important meeting we talk about our durs and the next slide slide 10 is a definition of District reference groups and the rationale about this whole section is really beginning to build a case for what our uh districts look like who are in our district reference group um how they are being funded how the town um funds them how what type of resources they are receiving from the state and then that and kind of getting a look at what that means for D and so the the durs District reference groups are a classification system that groups local and Regional public school districts together based on similar socioeconomic status of their students so this is developed by the Connecticut State Department of Education the durs have not been officially updated since they were first released in 2006 um although as my understanding they are they have actually updated it but I don't think it's been released by the state yet um is the state going away from the durs that is our understanding yes yes that's our understanding next slide um DPS versus the durs and and what we mean by that is this is how we compare uh against other districts who are in the same uh demographic reference group and so I just want to bring your attention to the table here are some of those districts who are in our dur right now and that is in Sonia dur East Harford maridan Norwalk Norwich Stanford and West Haven and in this bubble plot that you will see uh some of the board members were here on the previous term um we have talked about I've talked about the Next Generation accountability index um I had described that as kind of our report card um where it's U this is U kind of developed in various areas from growth of our students SAT scores GR graduation how students are doing in fed um how are the students are doing with access to the Arts um so it's a number of different indicators and um when you look at this chart that's in the bubble chart that's in front of you um from north to south is um the the accountability index going from 50 up to 70 and then going from left to right or east west um is the amount per student that is spent on a student so really there are two things points that we want to get across from share this with you one we are very responsible stewards of the taxpayers money here we spend 16 a little over $16,000 per student here in danburry which is $6 more than Meridan as of the the publication of this chart and you will see uh when looking at the accountability index we score or rate at a 67 and this is if you go to the school and state finance project uh this information is also going to be found on the State Department of Education uh but also in the state finance project and you will see Danberry um at it's a score of 67 and then you will also see districts like Norwalk like Stanford at 21 over $21,000 per student um and then when you look for the corresponding color um and so you for example you'll see Norwalk um at close to you'll see their index is at 69 you'll see Stanford's indexes at 65 and so despite the fact that they're spending $5,000 more per student um their index is really in the same ballpark as ours um I am here to share with you this evening we cannot continue to count uh on our staff to continue to carry the burden that is in front of us um so you know for years we have continued to enjoy The Works of our administrators and our staff across the district we continue to get um to continue to be applauded for the growth that our kids um continue to exhibit and there outcomes that we look at every year uh but times are different in the district not just in Danver of course it's in in all districts uh but the other districts has resources that we do not um and this is really just the beginning page of why we need to make sure we are uh investing in a district uh because we can cannot continue to expect these kind of outcomes with um declining investment in funds for for staff and schools on the next slide demographics and per people's spending this graph uh again this is a part of ight and this is a State Department of Education reference this is from 2122 school year this is the latest one that was available uh by the state uh but again this is Danberry Public Schools versus it's durs and so you will see and this is really just a demographic breakdown 52.5% of danburry students identify as I need in 2122 um a multilanguage Learners during that year was 31 31.6% students with disabilities or special ed students 13.9% um and students who identified as um black or indigenous people of color U was at 7 5.3% um and so you will see um how we match up against the other districts who are in our Durk um and then you will also see how uh the purpal spending for US versus those same districts who are in under just give you a moment to observe this CH and then the next slide um again going back to 2017 to 2023 um and again and beginning to really show um how different we are from the other 168 districts in the state of so since 2017 specifically uh we have had um over a th000 multilanguage learner students in theberry public schools um and while you can see the count in our other districts that look like us most look most like us um and certainly Nook and Stanford have experienced growth uh but nowhere at level that we have um and then you can see the same also West Haven has experienced growth as well um but certainly not um like we have and there are other charts when looking at the entire state of Connecticut uh there are places like new Milford for example has experienced significant growth amongst their multilanguage Learners uh and so percentage wise off the charts uh but in terms of numbers of course the district is not so big um but even with districts like New Milford who experiencing significant growth of this population um just been talking about sheer numbers um there's no one in terms of percentage gross to s in numbers like and great public schools in the next slide this is a snapshot of 2324 operating budgets for Danberry no walk and stord and um you will see the operating budget for Danberry at um in the magenta or purple bar at 150 million Norwalk at 226.50 million and Stanford at 313 million I believe Stanford has about 2,000 more students than us um and I think Norwalk has about a th000 or 2,000 less than us um as we are about 12,000 I think nor a little under a little over 11,000 or high 10,000 but you will see just looking at the high heat numbers U the numberb is reflecting students with disabilities again no one looks like us when it comes to nml students uh the similarities is we ask the question before we AB absolutely perf no one have any question then we can move on to the funding I'll get any question could you speak into your mic okay think help is on the way thank you Kevin the the a suggestion do you think your explanation what you gave to us as your audience as to what the interpretation and the purpose of putting these grafts together you think think on the graph attached to it would be a narrative so that a reader understands the interpretation of these numbers and and the importance of so when I look I Tred to spend today to to look for other Gears of the Next Generation accountability and I couldn't find it just uh but if we can get a couple of three years and it works in our favor that shows we' constantly increase on that average um I I think that would be another feather in our Cal said that we're good Ste Steward or a return on investment is ENT but again explaining to to the the audience what the purpose of the the graphs are okay in the the demographics that we have by the by the durs with the exception of the nor language all in about the same the same group so I mean there could be comments made on that but essentially as you're speaking to us and giving us the education I Look to when I read something is to say okay let me understand it further if it's not applied because I don't have the background and the knowledge to interpret it as as you do and I think perhaps when you go before and give it to the council particularly it helps educate them basically what you're trying to say and enlightens them a little bit more as to what the significance of these numbers are from our perspective so just just a thought thanks Mr thank you um on the slide where you are comparing the operating to in Stanford I think last night jry had mentioned um that those cities were a little bit not in the S with danburry is it possible for us to get some comparisons with possibly Meridan or you know something that's more comparable to danur we can Lisa um I just want to share however of the comparable districts and I'm just going by the definition of the dur because the group we're in all the districts are here and the two districts who are most Like Us in terms of size and demographics are no walking standard and we we have no problem also adding meritan or substituting districts um but when we put all the districts side by side the two districts that continue to look most like us on example but I I'm happy so also add meridin because they're here um their purpal spending certainly is more in line with ours that that is for sure but their size and scope they're they're not the same but we certainly can add but I I just want you to know the ration these two um because they are most likely size for sure Teresa on that same vein when you say the demographic are the same are you talking strictly the students the educational system as opposed to the total population so these respective cities so yeah like what are what are the points of the similarities mik can you go back to the Der so the the district reference groups um they are grouped together based on so socioeconomic status of the students which of course means the parents uh and um that's how the districts improved and in this case um Meridan similar to us obviously because we're in the same group um but just in terms of the size of the city obviously is not as big as ours that's why the district is not as big as ours no what stord is but again we can certainly add some more comparison so the board can see some other numbers on side by side thank no Mr J Kevin I tend to think the the budget on the operational budgets and comparisons personally I would eliminate I think it opens up more questions to we would have to defend somebody saying okay provide me with number of students population tax rates uh you know and stuff like that we get into areas where we shouldn't be you know we're education here we're not looking to see what size of our budget compares to no budgets in the city so it might be something that that would open up but I'm trying to do is prevent your presentation from being side rail to get to another aspect of it as we've seen before where something triggers something and we get off the the beat path I don't think this really reports any the the things you're trying to make without going into somebody being more argumentive or more inquisitive and say it's not relevant so so I I do think it's sorry uh and I agree Mr janelli I think that it's up to the superintendent and our finance director to come in and if they think this is relevant for our budget or they make the decisions I'm not telling to do just a i no just let me finish they'll make the decision if they think they should go in there then they should do it that's for him and finance director and his SC so you know that's the only thing that I'm going to say So Lisa um thanks for the feedback number one this evening and I know Teresa this is probably you'd probably also like to see some additional districts in there as well so we're happy happy to make those additions I think it's important however for the board and the community to have a reference point because without one you would not know what it takes to run a school district of ourselveses um and so the point that and and Mr J to your point um we will make sure we preference the section of the rational why we're putting this information together so I I think that was lost in here so we'll make sure we add that like this is why these four or five slides are so important uh but but I I I need our community I need our board to understand typically these are the costs this is what it costs to run a house and if you've never ran a house before we would not know and at least if we have some reference points other than being 169 out of 169 know what this really looks like in terms of a total budget we have a better idea so that that's really the rationale and I'll make sure the story flows in the way so that folks understand why we're sharing these slides cuz the last thing I'm trying to do is make it look like like bang on the table look how much NOK is getting a standard that's not what it's about but what it is about is just trying to for folks to understand District's our size this is what it typically costs for districts the size of dam schools and if you can provide statistical information relative to student body or population stuff that you know has some sort of relevance because if you have a student body in one city that's 15,000 students one automatically been cost more money to to do that so um that's why I said I mean it may open up but if you provide more information could be good opens up more of a narrative and takes us off to Michelle I I just want to say that I I agree with um including the information because I think that um these numbers that are coming through I mean even for me who's been sitting on the board for two years um it's kind of enlightening to realize that the students that are coming you've got aund students enrolling most of them are multilanguage Learners and I don't think that we really understand what that cost is and we're looking at other schools and I want to say I think I'm really I'm reading for the first time we might be 168 out of 169 $6 that's Improvement that's what we're looking for so I just you know um I I know that we don't want to confuse um the public with information but I I really think thisinformation really helps to paint the picture of what we're looking at in the district as far as it's thank you thank you so there are no more questions on this section uh the next area is called grant funding and John is going to review this section I think this really address is um not all of the questions about grants but I think it will provide an overview of how the grants resp spent how much just by categories and classifications and just overall um the first the first slide really begins to just talk about the mission and kind of goals of each Grant and so John will get started you I think to I just to explain you're you're seeing um more of an emphasis on grants in our presentation this year and there are a couple reasons for that uh one is the biggest reason our budget is going up is because of Grants and one Grant in particular losing the Esser Grant um but so we also thought it's important for for you to take a look inside our grant so you can see what we look at um and what's really going on with the Grant I thought that was important this year um when add our grants to our operating budget we're up over 210 million we'll see in a minute here um but we also want you to know uh how dependent we are on the grants uh and when we lose something uh big like the co Grant um you really are there really is no place to go uh when that happens so um the grants themselves and I I know that slide is very small um but the grants are either um entitlements or they're competitive and um you know they originate either with the federal government or the state government um and and in those governments when they see a need uh they will create a grant to help meet that need uh a couple of these have been around really forever um just picked a couple out the Perkins Grant that's up there the car Perkins Grant uh that started in 1984 almost 40 years ago and it was uh to improve industrial Arts at the time um it's been um changed a couple times now it's it's for Career and Technical education but a a very specific purpose um the title ones you hear about a lot the title grants as we call them uh that started in 1965 uh 58 59 years ago and and um that was U earmarked for uh what they called economically disadvantaged schools not school districts economically uh disadvantaged schools within those districts and it was uh designed to teach math and English in those uh in those schools uh that's been reauthorized uh over the years several times uh now it includes uh stem um science technology engineering and math so they change up with they've been around a long time and and do get reauthorize but um the point I I'd like to make what this chart helps with is uh that they're for very special purposes each of the grants that uh are designed they're they're not for general purposes although some uh have more flexibility uh than others um I won't go through U each of those you'll U you can see see them uh for yourself on there I think the important thing and it's hard to to read uh the second to the last column on the right uh shows the number of Staff members that we have in these grants um see the very first one the alliance Grant that's a state Grant uh 149 staff members are in that Grant um that proba I think all of our kindergarten teachers are in there that's what we use to go from half day kindergarten to full day kindergarten the alliance Grant so that that's where they they live but you can see uh the second Grant is the Ida Grant that's a special education uh Grant there's 21 staff members in there I won't go all through them the title one I mentioned um 53 people in the title one Grant itself and so on so forth um at the bottom is our Magnet School Grant uh that's a very important to grant grant to us uh you can see in the second column almost 1.6 million uh comes in from the state uh to run AIS and uh we have 16 staff members primarily teachers uh that are paid with that state money so that you can see we're dependent uh on these grants for kindergarten teachers for AIS and so on and so forth um next Grant mik next slide and uh so there are a lot of GRS we have 5 55 grants uh and you can see in this this slide what we've just tried to do is highlight the larger ones as I mentioned there uh there's the Esser right on top that's the one uh we're losing but you can see the alliance I I talked about earlier 22 million um those uh six or seven grants that we've highlighted um combined for 43 million uh the other 40 or so grants that brings in another 14 million some of those are competitive uh we submit an application it matches what they're looking for if it's a good application uh were awarded that Grant those are tend to be smaller grants and not grants that we really think we can count on to sustain themselves uh over time those are the B ones Mike you want next slide right so uh this takes those same grants all of France um shows you what we're spending it on and and you can see all the staff members I mentioned uh you can see the salary and Ben the salary benefits themselves almost 42 million of the 57 million in the total grants so that that's a pretty big U piece um that's one of the reasons we feel um these grants particularly the Esser uh that in the last few years were a place we could go uh to finance our gr to Finance U the additions at the high school uh there are not other grants to go to now uh they're all being used as might put it one way uh but the next slide uh I I believe to me this is the most important uh slide when people say to me uh John why is why is your budget up so high what's going on it's that first line it's that Esser Grant almost $1 million and you can see along with the other 55 grants of 46 million and our general fund spending level budget uh for this year there's over 210 million uh but next year we won't have uh that 10 million as a grant and and that um is the major driver uh as to why the increase is what it is I think that's it for the slides um questions on grants Melle so looking at the last meeting that we had for 2324 we had the grants broken out and totaling 62 milon 500,000 and now it's like 5 million dollar less is what I'm reading now with this new with the 7 million you so I did the numbers real quick and it looks like there's a $5 million difference that it's carried over page was the so this is the the Cliff of last week of the last meeting that we had and we had the Esser gr uh grants and all of the other grants totaling 62,500 th000 and now we getting the new numbers which are 5 million less than what we projected the the only number that seems to really kind of deviate is the other Grant number that I had brought up the 34 million that we showed for 21 22 22 23 school year okay so we're 5 million less this your projection how are you where did we find that money then in this new budget how did you allocate for it couple things Michelle are you saying in our projections 20324 yeah in this the original I think the one that want to be at H was showing um 62,500 th000 as available grants that we for 23 24 and then just I was comparing that when we received the last week we were going to be preparing it it looks like we're five 5 and a half million short so I just want to make sure that because when we I I did have an opportunity to go through everything I was kind of concentrating on the budget on the grants themselves so there's 5 million short 5 and a half and I don't know where we're making that so what um the the page we're talking about um if I could we we've called that the cliff slide so let me uh keep calling it that uh we put that together a year ago um its main purpose was not to U provide as find an estimate or a budget it was really to alert people uh that things were about to change and that the the whole point the point there was to show the Esser money uh dwindling over three years of um the ESS the co grants Esser grants same thing um one of them we had two years to spended uh this last one we had three so we're just trying to show in general terms what was going on I I'll I'll look at it a little more carefully but I I think we uh very likely um projected some increases in the alliance Grant um at the time uh there was talk of speeding up uh Alliance uh formula um we think that there's still a a strong possibility that's going to happen uh but what you see here are the grants that we have this year the 23 24 not an increase who may have thought it was going to accelerate sooner than we now do but but the the these slides tonight are based on what I call the award letters uh when you when you put in your application the state says y or n that's what we're adding up uh that's what we're spending okay so those 5 million that we were considering to be money that we would have in the in the budget right CU that's we were kind of well I I'd like to go back and and look at that slide again it's um but I I suspect that's what it was yeah I'm just wondering where do we capture that because at the end we've got new budgets that are totally 178 I just don't know if if you're aware that that number have come down significantly I know we're going to be asking for 5 million in reserves I just don't I don't want to be you know surprised later that oh we didn't get the funny because it's only a week or so difference between our projection of 114 last week or when we met last that's from our book a year ago no I get it I get it um I'm just saying that thank you okay um John first of all I just want to thank you for this slide that talks about the grant spending by category gives us a breakdown and we can see how much of that is going to salaries and benefits and that's those are costs being covered by grants that are really part of our operating uh as as a school so as a school district so I appreciate that WR down so that folks can understand that um can you talk a little bit about the purchase Professional Services under there if I remember there were some positions that may be covered by that category Mike can you go to the slide called Grand funding slide 17 and at the bottom there's a link for major gr fund summary hopefully it works in the presentation and I'm not sure which Grant specific been refer to looking at SL 18 oh okay um okay so uh go so uh purchase Professional Services um that covers uh quite a bit of things um including um what comes to mind are some areas in in technology um some of the other things uh some of the other improvements uh that our alliance Grant uh provides for um just just by the fact that the alliance Grant is the largest that's where you find most of these uh some of the other grants are very specific um purposes I hope I describe um I might turn to our assistant superintendent car casmiro if you could I hate to put you on the spot but um there's some exciting things in that Alliance grant that we're doing yeah I'm just actually just pulling up my list so just as example sorry Sor just as an example um in Alliance we have our um our new leader aspirant program is built in there we've run our Delta program so if we contract for services or professional development any outside vendor generally that goes under falls under that line um tal will be doing a new tal model in the next year I professional development services that we need will come out of that line as well um we've invested in obiously new ESL um program and so there's professional professional learning professional development that is involved there uh we've had some power school training that we've done to help our administrators um get better with with scheduling and learn more about the ins and outs of power school on the scheduling side um we've had some of our ncac Career College and Career writing training in there so anytime you see purchasing Professional Services it's generally us Contracting for some level professional develop that that either goes with a program that we're rolling out or that is needed to um achieve the superintendent Souls uh just a quick followup question then car can you um help me understand how to differentiate that between the line that talks about dues fees and staff development please dues fees so I'm looking at that same um slide 18 Grant by category um and there second line on there is dues fees and staff development versus Professional Services 27,000 sorry I'd like to uh see if we could bring you a listing of that next time if it's okay that's it's a big number to Wing I think so sure if we could yeah John 16 where you do the grant funding why is the $10 million left off this number and also I feel it should be included then footed to total of 57 million because your following schedule include the $10 million and you would have the continuity continuity of having this breakdown showing 57 million into your other schedules Sor say page 16 16 I don't see I don't see listed if you look at your other schedule in your funding you're including the10 million so it is part of the 2324 still right and just and put it so it shows 57 so again you have a tie in one sched to the other the next question is on your P I think it's page 19 the general fund you show is 154 I disagree with that the general fund is 150 that's the appropriation from the city why do we keep flip-flopping from 150 to 154 the message what we're trying to say with that slide is that that um we are together um combined over $210 million the that's a fictitious number I mean you're making up numbers it's not a factual number your budget for this year is $150 million that's what you got you may have a spending issue of 154 okay that's a different question what your appropriation is $150 million that's the budget that's what you've been showing on your financial statements and that's the number that should be here we will make the adjustment any other questions um I just have a question so on our on the $150 million budget that was approved we knew that the $10.9 million es was going away so what did we do in preparation last year for that money going away was there any plan moving forward or did we just know it was coming and we were just warning the cliff and just waiting for it to go well a year ago so um the other Esser Grant Esser 2 uh was about uh I it was $6 million or so but it had 15 to 20 positions uh we added that into the school budget that was one of the reasons we were up last year you'll see that in the Staffing history report I think there were total of 37 positions we added most were from sr2 but we didn't make um any specific plans for the sr3 one of the reasons uh we we don't think those positions are really extra uh or we could do without them some of them are both Esser grants we've used to help Finance our growth and uh both with the uh multilanguage learner but the increases we've seen um those are you know many of classroom teachers so out of the most of this is full-time staff there there are 80 positions 73 of which are fill uh right now yeah that's the primary I think um might be 7 million almost 7 million is salaries and another couple million are the benefit packages thank you our next SE section Miss Cooper is um titled key budget drivers there are six budget drivers that the board had seen previously on the 3rd of January and an additional driver that we have titled um instructional Improvement that I want to be able to walk with so slide 22 as a driver and this is our one of our biggest ones uh in this speaks to Sesser 3 and the staff that we are looking to fold over into our general budget in the 24 25 school year Beyond so um the total for this category is u a little over 10.7 million in which a little over 6.7 million um is in staff uh the benefits a little over 1.5 um Kelly Services which is the service uh that the district has partnered with to provide U substitutes um for uh both teachers and Par professionals um is at 2.4 as a cost to the district and uh the rental cost for 43 Beaver Brook um for the front of the building is a little under $50,000 a year all these things are paid out of s s s 3 U which is expiring and that is a little over $10.7 million the next driver on dber High School enrollment which we talked about and this area total is at 1.9 a little over 1.9 million for high school um is requesting nine core teachers at 675,000 five elective teachers at 375,000 2.5 par professionals fun supervision that John had referred to earlier that's a new addition uh the benefit cost for the teachers um is pumped in at $336,000 the tent rental which is also in New addition to the enrollment change which John had pointed out earlier comes in at $144,000 um the four additional buses John I'm not sure if you mentioned oh well we had this originally um the four high school buses um at $775,000 each comes in at $300,000 in the furniture for the adustment kids um to the high school at $660,000 the next driver I think there were a couple of questions about this when John in John's hand um and certainly also at last meeting U this is for the of Danberry and really these are transitional costs that we are anticipating uh that will be part of the budget and so to lift and make sure we're ready to open the doors in the summer or August um of 25 the recommendation is that we have uh at the point5 we hire a high school administrator for derury high school for the new campus um and that we also hire a middle school administrator for the new campus um so that those two sites are ready to be open and ready to uh welcome staff and students in the fall uh the benefit costs for those positions are projected be a little over 20,000 for half a year uh the teacher pum cost um John also pointed out before we open up the presentation which is it in your packet uh we projected that to be a little over $56,000 this is make sure that our teachers have time accorded to them to uh pack their respective rooms for the teachers who would be moving over to the new campus um and then operating cost um to actually run the building when the keys are handed off to us handed over to us uh we are projecting will be an additional cost of about $300,000 from April through June 30th startup supplies U just to make sure that the building is um ready to go before the July 1 in the new budget um is projected at 19 and this is a total of 56,000 for the acem of d section to recent the site administrator for the high school and middle school is that in addition to principles for each schools this is a site principle for um theem The Academy with uh 1,000 students um this would be an assistant principal charge of each Academy and then principal and this is an addition try to understand your question the the site administrator is that in addition to the principles that would be a principle of the site and then two assistant principles each assistant principal is in charge of the academy and so if you think about the same Staffing that we have at Broadview middle school and Rogers Park Middle School essentially th000 students principal to assistant principles we're trying to replicate that same Staffing formula principal to assistant principles in this case the two assistant principles are charge of the academy the staff will report to them the principal will be in charge of the entire school so the site administrator is not a principal that that that that is a principle we just title it site administrator until the building is actually open so this is getting the build ready oh so this is just in the spring of 2020 because the schedule has to be developed hiring has to be done for the new school so this person will be charged with that uh the middle school and the high school prior to the school so so for three months they're getting $100,000 each well these are projections right now I think when we initially put this these Monies to this budget together um a05 um suggests that it's half the year um and so it really would be less than a05 if we talk in for 3 mons year so that those numbers can be massaged CU this is a little high projection for only 3 months thank you Lauren um so the $144,000 for the um tents that the high school do not including heating the tents during the winter and all that it it does okay awesome and then um Kelly Services is that project are we continuing with Kelly Services how was that I that's what we're budgeting in for moment to continue that yes okay so for the next slide uh page 24 umies of danburry I think we just conclude that one page 25 is academic support uh and this is uh a breakdown of something also you've seen earlier and so this is for Danbury High School four bilingual teachers projected at 300,000 one scup coach for the high school at 75,000 uh four bilingual par professionals I'm at 140,000 um at the middle school two World language teachers I'm at 160,000 projected um at our for our elementary schools a bilingual 1.0 scup coach um then two bilingual pars uh for our elementary schools at $70,000 and benefit cost for all the phans above a little over $300,000 coming in that a little over 1.1 and then just a few more slides for drivers for special education and on slide 26 three special education teachers for the uh 24 25 school year projected and two additional people Personnel staff um and an approximate 4 $1,000 number for 2425 school year safety and Technology um to address the enrollment growth at the high school and also to maintain the numbers that we added to the middle school for last year uh we are uh look projecting three additional safety advocates for danur high school um and projecting that cost to be 90,000 the local share security Grant and Technology mik can you speak to those two for a second cuz I just make sure I get this right any you have some background take the local share of the security Grant this is this would be for the raer system that we've been talking about uh we have a state security grant that requires us to it's basically another reimbursement Grant we would pay it up front and then we get a 65% reimbursement on that amount um $100,000 would cover roughly our share of that and then the technology this is just making our Network more robust and includes additional security measures in light of the we had last year um and just more upgrades as we continue our one one device program it's just a bigger strain placed on that Network we have to continue to make it stronger Mr Janelle you to ask question sure Kevin on your this page it's the academic support this is for the regular school system correct that's not yeah okay that's fine and the other thing in my page 27 you start you talking close to 34 of million dollars for technology that's that's a big increase I mean is there a way to get more specific breakdown as to what you know what this is yeah we we can provide that yeah we can and I I believe uh mik through facilities um walked the committee through um these numbers uh Mr janelli but given the repurpose that a board as a board uh we certainly can use this forum or committee Forum uh to provide a little update on these numbers you know whether it's um the local share of the security Grant technology because everyone here may not be aware of security Grant initiatives and grants that we've apply for and so certainly we're happy to use um some subsequent meetings give do more background on the rationale of these tasks yeah I'm sorry I'm asking for information I wasn't here which makes sense which makes sense I appreciate it abolutely thank you m chair um going back to the ummies of danburry and the site administrators um these are two campuses one high school am I correct so it's it's two campuses it's danur high school will Dan Donovan be the principal of both campuses because I think it's getting confusing because we have principal administrators two campuses it's essentially one high school with two separate campuses and one principal correct that is correct so there's one principal of record with ADD District um I mean I'm going to be frank we should have two high schools right and so we have a building on two separate sides of town U and principal Donovan will be the principal of a campus still close to 3,000 students and uh we will have another school on the west side of town uh with um a th000 students maybe more depends on what happens and we are envisioning someone leading bothies as per the model and then one person in charge of the campus um similar Staffing model as I was mentioning earlier are no different from what we have in Broadview Middle School what we have in Rogers Park Middle School so that's what we're trying to accomplish in this case um with within and so there s we' shared the kind of off chart with the board again and probably be appropriate for us to come back again given that the bases have changed at the table but it's still stand down then over the two campuses and then you're going to have an onsite administrator at the other yes yes and I I think we're going to change this on-site language cuz now it's like like someone is just helicoptering in just to be I got a question in reference to technology is that including the white boards to the new school or do we have white boards yeah we put a lot of those requests in our capital budget um there is some flexibility in this depending on what we ultimately decide to buy in terms of network security there could be some flexibility to afford some more things are there again I'm new to the board so are there white boards at D High School currently so we have we have a few white boards we have more classrooms with projectors with traditional white boards behind you WR on as opposed to a promethian board um there are some of those but there we have we really haven't purchased those in quite a while but there are still some high school I would again being proactive I think we need to somewhere down the road start budgeting this for the newer version because that's what everybody's going to the small boards and we we're leaving our teachers behind on further developing and it's quicker education it's quicker to getting their uh the lesson out to the to the students comments thees as well try we lowered possibly our supplies um to try to make our budget work and I see that there's 19,000 allocated for new school for supplies I just want to make sure that you know we provide the if we're going to go ahead and not just do the the budget that's like turn the lights on kind of thing that we put that money back into the supplies for the teachers um and you just reminded me and I'll thank you about the capital budget and the one toone computers the almost million that we were putting there um i' like somewhere to address that again maybe in this meeting and um my last it thank you Mr could refer to slide number again I'm going to ask if you can total this just roughly this is some 18 but yet if you go to your slide 31 you make comment that the budget increase by $28 million so I'm looking for that $10 million difference somehow to be categorized so that again I like to see numbers tie in so if we talk about increases we show it one way $28 million we don't have to add up things and $8 million and figure out where the other 10 is so if you can figure out a way what the explanation for the additional 10 is and somehow I was going to address that one more slide coming up the money slide I absolutely agree that it should be spelled out so slide uh 27 we just reviewed slide 28 um is instruction Improvement and uh the question was OS at our last meeting Uh Kevin what do we really need and this slide um is a better representation of quite frankly what we feel like the district should look like and so what you're seeing here is um a parent professional uh supporting a kindergarten teacher in every classroom in the district at $1.5 million uh what you're seeing here is 15 additional bilingual Paras across the school system to support our middle schools this would help instruction in our classrooms and to the point that Mr Ji raised earlier um we're looking at the U demographic breakup of our classrooms this also means that our teachers um are trying to meet the needs of special education students multilanguage Learners students who are learning the language for the first time um at the same time while they're trying to meet the needs of our regular students as well um bilingual professionals afforded to our schools that could be deployed to support in various classrooms would help to address those needs considerably as part of our original ask for Danbury High School we had four um bilingual Paras uh we would add six under this plan this would give the high school 10 additional bilingual pars for the 2425 school years 2425 school year and then you see four additional buses for the system uh which will address some of the concerns that we've heard from families uh and students for extracurricular activities and make more buses available uh for our sported and extracurricular programs um so this comes out to an additional two a little over 2.6 million um when we originally had a preliminary budget it was a little over 100 178 million um John came out really happy and excited and said I projected really high with energy costs and insurance cost and in the next budget uh presentation the number was reduced U we appreciate the feedback from the last meeting and that's why the number has bounced back up uh to reflect uh some of the requests that were made at the last meeting and so this next slide titled Financial summary I'm going to hand it back to John I think slide 30 begins to answer some of Mr janell's questions I'm not sure but before we do that may some questions thank you so much um just a quick question for you slide 19 specifies the SR funding source at 10,937 um and I'm I'm noting on the key budget driver slide on 21 that the sr3 expiring is 10, 790,000 it's not a huge difference but I'm just wondering um where that think it's almost so the lower number that's what we're spending this year 2324 uh the 10.9 is what we're projecting for next year so carry those U staff into the new budget that's what it cost maybe I'm asking a question John the grants a general fund listed for the Esser for this year for this budget cycle that we're in is 10 10.9 the budget driver for next year is 10.7 so you're saying that the cost for next year is still going to be 10.9 maybe maybe I misunderstood the driver is we took all the uh people that are here now um I think that's the issue um and it's the people who are here now I'm sorry but I think that's the issue sorry yeah the people are now put them on their steps and lanes for next year looked at the benefit selection from open enrollment um looked at the couple of other things that are in the Esser now our um Kelly Services our uh High School overloads uh some of the rent we're paying up the street and just projected that for next year so the driver the 10 point I just want to make sure I I'm I'm understanding your question Kate to make sure we're answering it um the 109 on slide 19 is what's left in Esser and uh what John is speaking to is we had a little over $8 million projected in Staffing for this year it turns out we have enough vacancies that that number is a little more like 7 million and something and then we took those same staff salaries and benefits projected the cost of the next year and the reason why it looks a little under is because the staff that we had in there that was not here we only fully over the people thank in in this gr and I yeah thank you madam chair um I I just want to Echo Mr J's point about um the difference and and I know that and I saw you've got this information in the slide that's upcoming so of course give you a chance to talk that through but when you look at the key budget drivers and that 10 million is missing for the key budget drivers even if it's just carry forward for contracts or whatever their services it might be helpful to have that category listed on the slide um in some kind of way represented so there's a$1 million gap between the total ask of what is reflected on a bun of drivers it might be might be helpful to just have uh an overall category to break that down because I I don't see later in the presentation to break down that 10 million specifically I just see like the total askes sense but um it's hard to understand and so people can see yeah okay thank you thank you thank you on slide 28 the instructional Improvement the 45 kindergarten Palace do those include the parents that we currently have at that grade level this is an addition to addition okay um and we're only focused on kindergarten there is no need in a grade one through five correct in this in this strategy not saying there's no need but this is what we think is most important I see you Mr yes Kevin just the the point of repeating myself your explanation relative to the instru Improvement is good but again to the reader if there's a way that in your in narrative on these slides if you can stress that so again it emphasizes why you're doing this in your need again I keep going back that we have to educate people what's necessary um and why we're you know why we're up to this do this thanks I'm going to go back to uh un's question in reference to the 45 kg PA my question is wouldn't it be proactive to identify maybe two or three uh kindergarten PA bilingual because if we're going to use 4 to let's say move around uh it's not just kindergarten school it's other grades I don't uh my question is why don't we consider you know maybe there's an answer to it that I'm not sure but why don't we talk about uh ml you know our district being you know multilingual you know kindergartens do speak Spanish and Portuguese and all before they come to school uh so I'm just saying why can we do that my second question if I can uh the DHS enrollment uh I know you said that Mr Donovan requested nine additional core teachers will that help us reduce class size to additional what we have in other words is these nine additional positions going to reduce our class size significantly probably not uh but it certainly will address the antip growth uh that's coming to the high school plus address the students who are going to be remain remaining so and then the my have followup question too and we also consider and again I'm all about being proactive but we also consider about those teachers are future reti or possibly moving out of the [Music] district I'm sorry I don't understand what I'm saying is are we considering possible future retire of Educators retired are we back filling this those positions are these nine positions going to fill those I just I'm just trying to right so the nine positions are new um and I there's a case to be made about preparing for attrition every year because we our system is big enough for we have new folks going into the high school at every level um so that's certainly something we experience uh we try to encourage uh our people who are retiring to let us know as early as possible um and then of course as a system we have to deal with staff who might be leaving us and find multiple ways to try to backfill them um of course we have some uh pipeline programs and so let some of those help as a feeder into the district uh but in other ways it's kind of typical recruitment whether that's from my HR principles cross system yes thank you um I I really want to stress that our um students in our elementary schools see it appears as if they're kind of being pushed inside secondary our our Focus has been on the middle school and the high school we don't seem to have a focus from what I can tell on our grade one through grade five kindergart so I would love to um to look at that again and um I don't know why that's not part of this strategy that you're talking about when you say I I don't understand so with your instru improvement I'm looking at 28 the 45 Paris are all being focused in the kindergarten and I'm not why that um why the other grades are not included in according to John the strategy moving forward um why the other grades are not included as having a similar need um and looking at our uh investing in the earlier grades to look at success higher success rates in your middle in high school as we're having greater success in the elementary um and especially when we talk about our bilingual um I'm not sure if if we're looking do we have any transitional numbers students who are transitioned out of the program um we're you know we're putting a lot of money into and we're talking about the increase in enrollment but I haven't heard anything about student we must have numbers that are transitioning out or some type of data showing us transitioning out of that ml programs that we offer and so that's just and number two um I would love to uh see the cabinet go back and look at been alloted um for the schools for the upcoming we as opposed to what the budget they submitted and asked for um that 30% decrease from last year to the upcoming year it appears to me as um inappropriate certainly is not enough for what we are asking our schools to do and staff to do I would love for you to go back to the table to see if that 30% could be reinstated so the next slide which is slide 30 uh is part of the financial summary and John is going to walk us through this one and at that slide 31 we'll U so I think in in the interest of time I'm I'm going to uh get right to the point on this the money slide and you've heard Mr janelli and Miss Keta talk about um we need to explain this better but this this is what I I think we'll be talking about um you know we spent a lot of time on budget drivers because these are the things that are these are the new impacts on our our spending plan um and and they allow us to move the district ahead incrementally um the the bud those budget drivers and it's a great idea to show the total uh it'll be $8.5 million when we draw that total and what you see here on the budget year to year and using the the lower the 150 million ion you see an increase of $28 million uh that that 28 18 or so is from those drivers and so what's the rest the 10 million that's what the two questions uh have gotten to now um but the the answer to that is if you look up at the chart and you look at the middle column uh this year's budget particularly the undesignated um that was the shortfall this year that's the difference between what Mr janelli and I are talking about what should should we in that or not but we have to make that up next year if we want to continue with this year's program and services next year those we need that money that 4.7 million that we're making up that's half of the 10 it's half of the 10 now if you just go from from 150 to 160 up to that's a 6.9 million increase and here's the point I'd like to leave you with just making up that deficit is 3.7% of the 6.9 the rest of the budget the operating budget year to year and that's what we need to explain and talk about is 3.2% so the the lights on budget we've called it up slight that's not like it's millions of dollars but 3.2% 3.7 to make up the shortfall and then the drivers on top of that that that's why we spent really think so much time on the drivers because that that's the story this year so we can do more on that um at our next meeting but that's that's the point of the the money too much questions yes Michelle that that doesn't reflect the almost 2 million in the one to one computers in the capital budget correct it does not capital budget not part of this put that way that we've always done it that budget would be million almost $2 million High correct I just want to make sure that Mr on the slide I'm not sure that we're matching apples and apples in your current budget 2324 we''ve got the 4.7 negative numbers I I think it's your last meeting that we discussed last night these numbers were reflected down to come up the the net of 150 so it shows a better it shows better comparison the other thing is is how do we go from purchase Professional Services 6 6 whatever it is $6.8 million in 2223 to $2.5 million um so that that's the restatement of the tutors uh in years up until now it was a$6 Million doll figure I've only restated this year and change next year I I didn't go back till last year okay it's going to open up a lot of questions so you're going to have to figure out whether you restate everything or just be aware you're going to have a lot of questions that that are going to be questions the same thing on enrollment impact a million3 in the first year and then they go to 16.7 uh those are big increases right so the the increase in that line last year primarily was the um absence of sr2 and some of the other enrollment uh needs that we met and this year it's the budget drivers other than the last one you heard about the academic any EV has to be detailed explain the other thing I would look for this is one way of presenting it because you look toage everything together and give a general break down by category salaries benefits etc etc another way to look at it which I'd like to see tying to your next schedule is to historically we've always look to come up with terminology for lights on budget like to see with a comparison prior year this year lights on budget and come up with that and then you can compare your your budget drivers so that you show what the incremental increases are on the budget on the the budget drivers so hypothetically just for the arithmetic if your lights on budget increased $10 million and your overall ask is $28 million then you have all the budget drivers totaling $18 million and you got the light on budget showing $10 million you know people can see really where it is so it shows both ways of showing your financial statements one by category and the other in in the lights on versus basically new a we have that we prepared it internally for ourselves that's easy to reproduce okay do that next time for sure that concludes our presentation question one question this is not even you GL you had brought it up at one of our expulsion hearings and I was just wondering is there any thought to expanding the uh the reach area for due to the explosion of the number of explosion hearings uh to accommodate the students that are sent to reach Endeavor me this is coming down the pike and GL has pointed it out correctly I think I mean is there any thought to this for the future for expanding the facilities I think we are in the place where we're going to have to perhaps re-evaluate almost every program that's offered in the N Public Schools given our budget situation um and so I I think it's going to be a need for us to evaluate kind of where we are and where we're going first before we look to expand anything I think that's part of what with some subsequent discussions be about to including our Retreat thank you thank you Teresa yes Mr what is the the calendar I know you guys got a lot of work to doday day work plus the add a burden developing is for the presentation I think it's mid-February but based on the conversations we had previously and tonight you compiling that and then refiguring the presentation when or we I mean you don't have to answer tonight but I'd like to see calendar that that we meet again to you know again go through your next phase of it so that we again to tweak it and so that we can meet as often as possible prior to the adoption of the final the final presentation uh rather than be up against the the gun on the 11th hour and and a couple three days before you know we're making final changes so if there's a way that you can figure out according to your schedule you know some different uh meetings we can have to talk about this even if it's only finance committee then we can brief the rest of the board um that that that's fine so I'm smiling as you're asking this question Mr Janell because I um shared with the team U no don't put the calendar in here we will not need it and and and then there's your question um and so I'm looking at my calar on my phone now uh we have a regular board meeting on the 24th uh we had an open window want to call it open window on January 31st we have a hold for a board meeting anticipating we may need more we did not put a hold on the calendar but there is no uh board meeting on February 7th and the next board meeting is not until um we're back in cycle again on February 14th which is when the budget is the recommended budget is due to the city um so I'm saying all that to say we still have three Wednesdays um available to us if we need them um one of them is a scheduled meeting the 30 persons a hold and if we need more time we still have the seventh opening available if we need to take advantage thanks I just didn't want you guys to be under the gun under the pressure to to you know as we go through this we con refine it to improve it and and I tend to think sometimes the more you look at it the better we tweak it there but I'll leave it up to you as to what your you know I agree with you we can meet in the future whatever your timetable is that that's fine thanks I just want to make a comment I just again reinforce what uh rich said you know the narrative and telling the story is what's all about about the budget and I got to compliment uh you know the team uh for coming up with um you know from where we were about 2 weeks ago last time and and to where we are today I got to say that uh we became a little bit more quantifiable on our information and I still say we we're not there yet but I think we're going to get there uh I've always believed and from my experience that when you quantify a presentation uh the end result is always good so congratulations thank you thankk thank you all for your questions tonight concerning presentation and uh please keep your dates open this is budget season and then we're going to leave budget season and go right into another season so before you put your hats on and get out the door I have the super the chairperson's um report it's going to be very brief everyone in your package you have your assignments okay and it's it's late and and I have spoken to most of you and you have your assignments where you want to be now at some point you want to change and have a conversation with me pick up the phone and call okay everything this is the correct way that we're going to do our standing committees and you understand who has been suggested to be the chairperson of those committees okay the next thing I'm going to ask you please please you ask to to be a representative on this please check your emails don't go two or 3 days uh without checking your email things are coming up that's very important sometime car that to ca some of us three and four times to let us know that she needs to speak to you or what your assignments are okay so just you know take time and go into your emails okay saying that thank you all again I ask for a motion to adjourn this worship made by uh okay by Teresa thank you all again and we'll see everyone Saturday morning at 9:00 yes

good afterno everybody okay the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees meeting of January 18th 2024 is called to order at 3:30 p.m. the following members are present Brian O'Neal Katherine H Smith Jessica Guerrero and anarie Randall treyo absent is Anna L piery but she will be joining us in Clos session staff has requested the following Amendment to the agenda exhibit FF replace page 11 to remove duplicate wording do I have a motion to adopt the amended agenda so moved second okay all in favor I I okay is there anyone who wishes to address the board at this time seeing no one the uh Board of Trustees will now hold a Clos session to discuss items 4.1 through 4.8 on the agenda it is now 3:31 at the size oh my go it's ridiculous

close session close session letting you know that there was no action taken this evening and now we are going to open our Open Session um I'd like to call this meeting order please stand for the flag ready begin I pledge to the of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and for you guys all turn your on thank you um item number five consent agenda is there a motion s second [Music] okay okay any [Music] questions let's see I'm not there warrants are the warrants on that warrants are uh item number six so there are no just the monthly payroll we've got um the approval of the agenda approval of the regular minutes from last meeting hiring of employees approval of the retirement of employees um approve compensation for additional duties approval of the contract between M Area Youth Organization and our district payroll Williams uniform complaints uh approve the board meeting date changes for June as well as approval of our independent auditor selection contract for is it 22 through 24 for two years a threee contract say 2022 through 2024 so it's 20 um 22 23 23 24 No it should have been 21 22 it's the end of the year that it refers to got it and then um the independent contract agreement was California teaching fellows foundation for the Eagle Academy here at OS I just had a couple comments actually I was glad to see that we could build the PHS that have unconventional schedules can't believe it's easy to H CLI work one hour a day so I was glad to see that we had a couple of those fed and the letters from the retirees are always B sweet and heartwarming that I'm you know glad that they're going to be moving on to um a different chapter of their lives and I wanted to thank the employees that take on additional duties because I know that money is nominal compared to the time sacrifice that goes along with any of additional coaching ET so thanks any other comments good roll call vote I I I I I uh item six monthly items and financial reports U monthly approval of warrants any do we have a motion all motion approve second and discussion any questions um I just had a a small one on the warrants page three um I was just curious what our mascot costume was was yeah I saw that that too oh Tim you were gonna wear itar they've been wanting to get one at oci for a while and so um this year they ordered one because they didn't have one both OES and Muma have mascot costumes so now they have one at oci too it's a coyote and he looks really cool he'll be able to attend all the events and he or she who's going to wear that ter I will she actually wants to sign me up just don't tell my teenagers they'll be embarrassed um I had asked question page three and throughout the mor there's various items for eye exams and glasses for students in need so I had asked her where that money comes from if there was any state funding for that and turns out it's a grant so it's wonderful that we are able to provide those services to kids how like the fact that it was local yeah it's a grant that's going to expire at the end of the school year um and in the past when they've done the vision assessments sometimes their students who are meeting um for their eye exams or glasses and then they're not able to get them so the nurse this way has been doing them in each site and has list compiled it's just a few kids at each site um but it make a big difference in their learning um getting those glasses and they feel pretty spy getting to pick them out any other questions he uh roll call vote I I I I okay um audit um 2223 our audit report so we have our auditor here Scott is going to come up and present the audit welcome Scott thank you good evening everybody I'm ass you have a copy of the report yes I'm gonna go through and just highlight a few items in the audit report this is for the period meeting June 30 2023 and before we get into the report itself I want to thank ter [Music] I ter I want thank Tera and all the staff at the district and as well as County they're very helpful and providing with all the information so we get done timely and we got issued by it Scott Scott right Scott could you move a little closer to the mic yeah it's just okay I turned off I don't know if that so sorry name Scott faith on the partner on the audit and again I want to thank Tera all the staff and folks count for their assistance we got the audit done by December 15th due date and we've already ised it to the state thank you we also send a letter directly to Mr at the end of our audit and that letter basically States we didn't have any issues and we may have just received last week and so we're required to reach sh to the member of the board that's why oh the other thing I want to mention too is um we're we were able to be on the audit for six years in a row and so Christina who had been on it for six years was required to rotate off and so I rotated that home and I work on the AIT in the past as well so it going be be nice to all right let's go to page one of the it page one is the audit opinion letter it's on our letterhead it says independent a report and basically after all the test work that we do we issue this report and the second paragraph you'll see in our opinion we're giving a clean opinion so there's three different types of opinions you can have there's an adverse there's an unqualified and uh there's a unqualified opinion and you get qualified opinion for that fiscal year which means that all the schedules the assets the liabilities the revenues expenses and all footnotes have been subject to our test work so you can rely upon all that data' done test work on all this data and so you can rely upon that we've also like I mentioned earlier we've s the state the state goes through and does a desk review checklist to make sure the report is in compliance with their format so we feel pretty confident about that on page five page five I wanted to point out the table one on the right hand leftand side towards the bottom this is a financial analysis of the district as a whole so it shows all of your funds everything all together and again it's districtwide is comparison 23 and 22 with your variances and I just want to point out the total assets districtwide combined they increased about 9% from the prior year total liabilities increased about 21% most of that for net pension liability leaving you with a net position of about 76% higher than the prior so you've got a nice healthy reserve on a districtwide basis let's go to page [Music] seven page seven is the changes in that position so all the activity that came in all the expenses went out for the whole District as a whole it shows the same comment format where you have 23 actual 22 from the prior Insurance variant the total revenues on a combined basis went up 28% most of that's lcff plus there's a lot more state and federal grants that came in last year especially State total expenses increased about 23% from the prior year most of that's instruction Rel that's always good leaving an increase in net position as an entire whole of about $1.89 so you brought in more Revenue than expensive on page eight in the middle of that page was table four table four shows all your governmental funds so it shows all the individual funds that you make budgets for it shows your general fund all the individual funds that go down of the district shows the beginning balance was about 3.9 ended with 4.9 so there was an overall increase in your overall fund themselves let's over to page 52 and again I'm just highlighting a few items on the report page 52 is the schedule of financial Trends it's a required schedule that the CD wants to see in the report it had is just a general fund so it shows your budget for the year you're in now 2322 21 so you get kind of a trend of what's going on your in your general fund one item I want to point out about in the middle of that table is the available reserves of the percentage of total outome and they're actually 3.37% we have a as there the state recommends 4% so you're just shy of that and in the past you've been right under the 4% so you're just under that and so we just have to describe to the state what the district is going to do and so we have a little footnote basically down here that says you're going to monitor your reserves cost cutting those kinds of things to get the reserve back up to and also I wanted to point out just sort of comparing Bass Lake to some other Elementary School audits that we did their reserves range anywhere from 5% to 41% so it's sort of all over the board where where different districts so you're not too far off one of the district other districts we are let's go to page pleas and again the format of this report follows the state says uh this is the scheduled audit findings and question cost and on page 63 and 64 we have the two findings both of them were minor so not only do we audit all the balances that we went over earlier all the schedules but we also look at internal controls we look at Federal compliance and state compliance including attendance regarding Federal compliance the district spent about $3.8 Million last year lot of that was after District get the good news is we had no Finance with all the money that was spent in federal funding there was no issu regarding State compliance we have these two minor exceptions the one on page 63 is classroom teacher salaries that the district has had for number of years which is hard to get up to that that number it's about a million dollar short and you've got a waiver which is flying from the county every get wa so it's just a formality that we have to issue that again you've gotten the waivers there's no issue no question page 64 is on the school accountability report C the start there are two real minor issues they have us look at the sarc and they have us compare to the facility inspection tool and if it says good got to make sure it says good in the S you got to make sure it's the right year so they have two minor exceptions of oci and o no no question costs and Terra has already reached out to us and we've kind of clarified what they're going to do on the start for the current so no no major issues and regarding internal controls we had no issues at all all right so that's the summary of the report does anyone have any questions so it sounds like Tara's doing a good job absolutely and Tara and I have have La corespondence back and forth which is great because she's you want to make sure she's clarifying certain things so she reaches out to me or Christina whoever else in the office and we get back to her and so it's it's a good learning experience for both of us actually because then we'll contact the State we'll trying to clarify things so yes absolutely it's been great working with you thank you y very good well it do look like there was anything surprising in there so and we're handling the uh yeah and like I was saying there's no internal control issues so all the processing of the receipt processing the dispersements not an issue you're making sure you're putting your expenses in the right funds in the right fiscal year all the attendance look great you have the in study contracts all that stuff look fantastic and so that's that's it's actually a really good report thank you yeah than you questions thank you so much um is there a motion a motion to approve I I motion to approve that any questions roll call V hi I I I I thank you so much Scott [Music] appreciate moving on to consideration and action to certify corrective action on the audit findings so these are the two minor findings that he just mentioned it's a formality with the county they were required this form you have to say that you are aware of the corrective actions that there were findings we're acknowledging that and then we have this form that um we approve at the board meeting to send down to the county so they just want to know that that was discussed and it has if you open it it just has the uh you have to have the cover page which is what the clerk will sign and then below that are the two findings and the same ones from the audit report um the ca which is required if you don't meet CA it's an automatic finding which we've had the last few years due to the co fund expenditure even with that 8% raise last year um and and adding that to instruction we still didn't meet that but I had already gone over that during my un audited actual presentation and then other findings related to the sarc but we've already been working with the sites about double-checking those items so they're just minor um findings so this is just to get that form approv that we are aware of the findings okay so I move approval of the to certify the corrected action on audit planings for fiscal year 2022 2023 a second discussion roll call vote I I I I I uh item seven hearing a person's wishing to address the board get any seeing none hearing moving on action items um we need to schedule a board Workshop to discusss and goals this is an item that is on the agenda for the January meeting um each year um given the upcoming changes to the governance team I would recommend that you might table this until we know who my successor will be just a suggestion is there a motion hearing no motion we will take this item um Item B update to AR 41 12.4 Health examinations first reading and action to approve yeah this was one that uh I gave the board heads up on previously um it it really deals with the TV and skin test screenings um I shared with you previously that our current board policy or or regulation um that's in place was one that was approved by the board in 2013 uh when the entire policy manual was updated and reviewed by csba and there was a gap of about four years where there were no updates this was one of the updates that came through in 2014 that wasn't visited by the board back at that time um so I I bring It Forward because of course um beginning in 2014 they allowed for TV screenings to replace the actual TV test and I know the TV tests um have been scarce at times and very difficult for um most recently our our our community volunteers who volunteer with the mass program to get the TV clearance so um we're asking for ch changes in the language as proposed in this tonight that would allow the screening to to replace the TV test and then that would bring this policy up to date with the latest csba version I motion please I make motion to approve I'll second any discussion um I so what's the difference between the test and the screening the screening well that she does it every day it's just it's just a questionnaire to see if they're at high risk you ask certain questions and it's like have you been exposed are you imune compromised have you traveled outside the country and if you um say yes to any of those then we should do the skin test if you say no to those then we can just say no no no TV test needed at this time so it's just a screening okay and it has to be the doctor has to sign it and make sure you know go over the patient but it's then they can get it in their doctor it's easier because the PPD skin test they have to go in and have the test and then they have to go back in 48 72 hours and have it read and that's where a lot of people have the issue so they can get in once but to get in twice in it's time it's hard there just the one that I still have a scar on my arm from [Music] that's CDC website it says the recent most recent report shows in 2022 there were 8,331 reported cases of TV rate of .5 for 100,000 however they reported up to 13 million people are living with latent TV infection which means it's present capable of emerging or developing but not now visible or symptomatic so I don't know how they know that what they do if they test if they do a test if they test positive then they do a chest x-ray and then they go on from there but um a lot of I I hate this people that live in highrisk um communities people with um how do I say this um anyway there are some uh people who live in congregate settings those are high risk so you would want to like people live in community homes people with HIV people with a suppressed immune system people who've been out of the country or live out of the country or have family that live out of the country that live with them or have been recent um have had family that recently visited him those would all trigger a they need a skin test because they've been Poss Expos so a lot of people in different countries come here and they've had they've had TV you know and so anyway again it's on the screening but the only way they know if they have Laten TV is to do the skin test and if it's positive then they have to do a chest xray and that determines whether or not they have lat TV and whether they need treat anyway but the questionnaire is designed ask those questions like are you exposed to your people set have you know blah blah blah so if they're not high they don't need a test any more discussion well I I motioned and someone seconded right yes so now we're moving on we had our discussion and now I just wanted to see if anybody else had any more comments or statistics or anything no okay roll call hi hi hi hi hi um next item is to approve the school accountability report cards all four SARS are attached to your agenda you had opportunity to review them I'm happy to answer any questions that that I can answer and our principles can certainly speak to their individual I'm SAR if if you have a specific question a lot of the data that that you saw or you see in them um is data that was released by CE and the moment it was released by the state U document tracking Services who we contract with for a lot of our reports like this they input that data and then our principls are are able to go in and manipulate the story that you see in there um and then terara uh pulls the financial information and populates the financial field so it's a group effort to to get these completed so um should we have a motion first and a second and then we can discuss it if we have questions if I if I recall this there was a lot of this blank a few years ago last year yeah because the state didn't release the data yeah because of that's right was kind of so you had to approve them as blank knowing that the data was being released like the following day or two and then we brought them back to you as information items to following meeting so going back I will move approval thank youa as presented is there a second I'll second okay I do have uh questions um like this is for 2223 school year and so then I'm like scrolling through and I see um I'm on O's and I'm on page for and it says 2021 teacher preparation and placement 2021 22 teacher preparation and placement and so I was in my mind I thought that I would see consistent years on the boxes and so I was just hoping that there could be an explanation on why it would be important to see teacher preparation for for 2020 through 2022 on the 2223 report you mean makes sense of what CE provides no and and that's that's always a confusing point when we're looking at the S because they're taking multiple years but that's what the data that they need to have present in that year C okay so they determine what data goes in which is also part of the reason that when State releases the data it can be automatically dumped in um some years they get the data out early and most years they're late last year they were very late um but they they dictate what data from what year is included in that c so having something in that column or category is a good thing that just means we're participating we have data and we are we are complying with what they're asking for in our report [Applause] okay any other [Music] questions call V okay I I I I I okay uh item number nine information items the District academic intervention plans yeah so um I know Denise um you had mentioned it was either last board meeting or even the one before to just have more frequent conversations about academic achievement you know how interventions are going and those types of things so um I just figured I'd pull a couple like a specific thing maybe for each meeting or a couple specific things so for this meeting excuse me still trying to get over this cold um I looked at our students districtwide that are in Reading intervention and so the first um set of data on the attachment talks about students districtwide that are in Reading intervention and so there's 131 of them across the district and of those 31 students students scoring two or more levels below their current grade level 84 students with a percentage of 64% students scoring one grade level below their current grade level is 47 for a percentage of 36% and then I looked at their um diagnostic one I ready test compared to their midyear and the percentage of students who showed improvement from the beginning of the year assessment to the middle of the year assessment is 42% and the way I determined Improvement was I looked at students who improved 20 points or more 20 scaled score points or more on the test um and deemed that as significant Improvement and so that's how I got those numbers any questions about that first part um can you tell me what defines reading invention yeah so we have at each site we have um response to intervention class where um students at the beginning of the year are looked at based on not only their I ready assessments but other measures as well and if it is agreed upon with classroom teachers and they reading intervention Specialists and principles that um certain students would benefit from Intervention then they go to that classroom typically Monday through Thursday sometimes on Fridays it kind of depends um but they receive intervention in Reading every day for on specific to like what their needs are and this is from one teacher or is this multiple um well it depends on the site so some have one and other sites have two yeah but it's like if a site has two reading intervention teachers then that you know this group of kids would be seen by this intervention teacher and this group of kids are being seen by the other teacher yeah and then the second page on this is I know that there were some questions about like what do we do District y to address um improving our academic achievement so I just put a list of some of the things that are happening districtwide you know some things are a little more site specific um but I just wanted sort of to start a running list of things that are being done and so the first one on the list is differentiated instruction in classrooms and then there's also I ready instruction that is um part of the I platform when students take their diagnostic test then I ready will sort of create like a personalized instruction path for a student based on their needs and so students can log on and do specific learning activities that I already has generated based on their results um to work on closing the Gap in certain areas and then of course the RTI reading intervention with our RTI reading Specialists we have instructional assistance um across the district grade level planning professional development homework club after school programs we're currently focusing on improving attendance which through our differentiated assistance which hopefully will help with academic Improvement and closing our academic gaps and then celebrating academic Improvement that's a list of some of the things that we're doing have another question so last month when we shed there was like some money sitting there was some money seting like 900 some, that we had that we could use towards academic intervention but we don't have a plan yet so I was just wondering right what the plan is to create when yeah so we're GNA um begin to have conversations with principles and then also bringing in teachers and some of our Specialists to talk about where we want to focus those monies and what would make sense districtwide and then maybe like site specifically so those conversations are starting to happen yeah you'll keep us updated of course yeah so this is more of a comment or curiosity but would these numbers were all higher before Co were they not or is this been a trend that and I'm what I'm what I'm hoping to think is is that you know this is we're better than this and and Co shot everything down and now we're in a recovery phase from that and then we're not just right well two-thirds of the people not reading very well that sort of thing so the data that I looked at that I reported on this in this situation isn't Casp isn't State testing data so I did report on that previously and yes we can see that preco state test results percentages were higher than currently um Co certainly can be something that we look at and say that you know could possibly be part of the reason why but I think that there's like that that's a much deeper conversation I think there's a lot of different things that need to be looked at but um as far as like the the I data as it relates to students in intervention we we don't have preco data for like that specifically so it's not really comparing the same data source well the students are be different too because they cycle in and out so you can't you can only go so right far yeah it's a it's a question even in in my own family you know how do you get kids to read that don't want to read you know and uh but I know that everyone in this room probably deals with that on a daily basis you know I don't want to read I have a iPhone I'm GNA look at that you know and anyway I thought it was more of a comment than a question noted noted any other comments or questions thank you for the information um next item is the enrollment report um sorry my thing went to the top I just scroll down oh and I also included the enrollment versus Ada but first i'm going to click on the one on the right for the enrollment um there we go you can see last month we had 819 um currently we're at 821 um so there's been a small increase U over the previous month and you can see the comparison there in The Orange Box to see what changed at the SES looks like the the same suum is up or yeah a couple that's probably where most of it is and O as well and then Bliss um went up by one so it's just this time of year where um it fluctuates month to month um other um enrollment versus Ada just gives you a percentage better um so you can see there the average the enrollment versus the um attendance so we're around 92% or 94% at wasuma um so before Co I know that's a metric we use a lot we were in 95 to 96 but getting back up there last year it was around 90 so it's going up a little bit you can still see if you have for example o has 350 students enrolled but then you know 326 is is what the 88 average attendance is so it's usually a little bit less and I just certified P1 um which isn't the attendance we're funded on but it's a predictor for P2 which is in April and our P1 came in at 754 so if you think of our enrollment being 821 students but if we're only funded on 754 that can be a little bit of issue that's why they were trying to give us the grace with the average but now the average is going to have a few lower years factored in but we are Indi assist as was mentioned and it's a problem at all Sites you know getting kids to school and then it affects other things like their achievement and their learning so something we're working on thank you Tara thank you next item is inter District transfer report and there have been no transfers in or out since our last report everyone stay put next item is uh the first reading of proposed updates to board policy administrative regulations board bylaws and Exhibits these are first reading and information only discussion um there was a question that came in regarding the board bylaw regarding um board by law 9321 yeah and the question was on the third paragraph Yes where it says in the open session uh preceding the Clos session I'm sorry is it one on the left or the one on the right that we click it doesn't matter it says I'm looking at the final draft oh final draft okay okay so the question was well now that we were move we have moved our closed session to the beginning of the meeting uh do we need to modify the language that's in that paragraph and I don't see that we do because as as we did tonight we opened yeah um with an open session allowing anybody from the public who had public comment about any of the close session items that's where that paragraph comes into play so we actually would be allowing that and it's posted ahead of time so people who and that's better I think because usually we do that at the end of the meeting and no one's here then if someone had a comment versus they could be here waiting for the start of the meeting on the other hand since we're doing our Clos session at 5:30 The public's not coming until 6 they can't be here to make a comment about our closed session yeah they can because the agenda states that we are here at 5:30 for Clos session okay that's um we don't have to change fix that in any way and our neighboring district has done that all along haven't they for the last several years they've had their full session prior to the [Music] meeting anybody else NOS anything yeah I have a couple I have a couple questions on the policy 51 31.2 bulling um so I'm looking at the draft guess it doesn't matter but in the first paragraph which one is she on I'm on 5131 I he the buing 5131 oh she's still there on final draft on the buing got um it says to acts which occur off campus so this poliy shall apply all acts constituting bullying related to school activity or School attendance occurring within a school district acts which occur off campus or outside of school related or School sponsored activities but which may have an impact or create a hostile environment at school and I just don't know how we address things that don't happen at school you know and I'm wondering the liability of that if something happens off campus and then we get somehow blamed because we didn't do something about it if there is a Nexus to whatever the incident is if that Nexus brings it back to the school School site and then the kids don't do anything until say they get home on the weekend there is a Nexus that it started back at school and whatever transpired has a potential impact once they return to school on Monday morning it is then a school issue because it started here and now has been brought back here okay so for example a kid threatens another kid says I'm gonna I'm G to beat you up and then they don't they don't have the altercation here in school they have it off campus the altercation happens off campus but then those kids return to school then are we supposed to punish the kids for having the altercation no okay no but if it started here it that alone makes it a school issue if they take matters into their own hands offsite after hours that's a matter for law enforcement their parents or anybody else that agency that can get involved so it wouldn't necessarily result in school discipline but if they take caption on school grounds then that would result in in school discipline okay I guess I'm a fine line what it says yeah it's a fine line that we have to walk already yeah okay uh and that's why sometimes we our principles will just have to say you can call the sheriff's department and file a report because they determin their investigation determined that the incident isn't off campus okay what happens with my club if it happens at my club question it's on our school it's on school campus so it's a school isue no the problem too is I had somebody address and I can't speak to it because they don't want to speak to it because the children are very concerned about retribution to them at school something that's happening then but we I can't do anything if they're not willing to bring it up but it's sad that they feel that way that kids don't feel supported they feel that they're just going to be bullied and harassed more if they bring it up yeah anyway but my club if it happens at my club it's like Happ at school okay it's a lot different from just meet me out under the oak tree my day I wanted to talk about board policy 614 2.8 it's the comprehensive of health education and so in this short paragraph it's talking about the policies up updated to reflect the new US Surgeon General guidance related to the importance of social connection but what I'm looking at is the impact of social media on children and adolesence but when you look at the actual policy it doesn't specifically have any language about that and I did do a little bit of research I looked at the Surgeon General website and they do have uh they consider an urgent public health issue in social media and I'll just read it real quick this just one paragraph it says um there's growing concerns on about social media and youth mental health it describes current evidence on the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and Adolescence they cannot conclude social media is sufficiently safe for children and outlines immediate steps we can take to mitigate the risk of harm to them and so on the website we do publish um a 25 page advisory giv steps um amongst other people involved but what parents and caregivers can do um to protect them so it's about protecting the children so um would it be possible to be able to send some kind of literature out to parents and caregivers at least so they're aware of the problem here because they're um this says they spend about three and a half hour the average child whose Ania spends about three and a half hours a day which is a good reason why they're not doing that well reading they could be doing that but just something to be able to alert parents that this is an urgent issue okay yeah so it's on it's right on the website okay that be great I think you just did it I think you just told every yeah yeah than so same topic or are we moving on I I can't find where where what I'm looking for on here I wrote it down and then I can't find page three of what I was talking about so um I Under The Bullying somewhere it talks about discipline and corrective actions and it speaks about restorative justice and so I was wondering what that looks like at an elementary school level an example of restorative justice between a bully and a victim and I can't find it of course but it's in there I promise you which policy was that you it's the 51 312 still there I trying to find it and then was it in the policy or the regulation control what you control you control and then write restorative and restorative and it'll find restorative in the document if it's there so then it's not in this but you go back you control F again I think it's the second paragraph under just sounds like regulation did you find it I think is it the second paragraph under discipline and corrective actions yes it should be like on page three at least that's what I wrote down I wrote down page three discipline corrective actions of course I can't find it sorry everybody that's under the regulation the one Michelle pointed out has a page three with discipline and corrective action under the regulation not the policy on the final draft do you want me to read it yes please let me make it bigger when a student has been suspended or other means of Correction have been implemented against the student for an incident of racist bullying harassment or intimidation the principal or de's me shall engage both a victim and perpetrator in a restorative justice practice suitable to the needs of the students and and then it goes on that's is that what you were talking about yeah I guess I just don't see how that really works at an elementary level but and it may not which is why they add the clarifier suitable to the needs of the children or the students because it might work Junior High yeah may not be age appropriate at the elementary level I just Googled it it said restored of Justice Empower students to resolve conflicts on their own and in small groups so maybe it's just a matter of little or friends getting them to kind of hey what did you say to your friend yeah like how did that make you feel when they said that and I also see that as bringing the students together in the office of having that that group dialogue okay appro yeah okay all right well I'm still on the same topic but um in the administrative regulation um I was curious when it says you're going to uh the Strategic plan has to do with Benchmark tracking what that would be what is benk tracking and that's just from your summary statement May it's at the bottom of page one 51 31.2 bulling measures to prevent what what's the Benchmark are we just are we counting incidences is that what what it [Music] is it's from your from your summary yeah I'm reading it okay it's on page one of the actual document yeah it describes it further um developing strategic plan for school connectedness and social skills with benchmark tracking which may include providing regular opportunities and spaces for students to develop social skills and strengthen relationships and promoting adult support from family and School staff peer-led programs and Partnerships with key Community groups implementing socially based educational techniques such as Cooperative learning environments that Fosters belonging through Equitable classroom management so Steve if you look at number one on the at the bottom of page one it get it lays out what that that Benchmark tracking would be it's at the bottom of page one under measures to prevent bulling and it's number one yes that entire paragraph lays out what that pchm tracking would would possibly include very good I just thought maybe there was a chart somewhere like oh that's two that's three three strikes y easy that easy [Music] there's no checklists no Steve did you have any more questions no or comments at this or comments okay how about you Rhonda okay okay um those were first readings and it looks like we did some good first readings so um those will be up next month for approval um moving on to the next item accomplishments and other reasons to celebrate from throughout the district Oakhurst Elementary School is not present yeah cat is ill this evening well she included a wonderful attachment she did which you're all welcome to rescue um yeah I actually heard about this uh this rescue posum um Bernie is making the rounds of the county because today down at the County office in our meetings I heard that Bernie made an appearance at Gould Elementary down in Madera as well or maybe it was at cor school or maybe both but Bernie is making the rounds to the county so he's a popular guy the just he was described as being cute in his own way but not as cute as a little puppy dog uh one of the things mentioned here and it's starting to be a common theme through the district it certainly needs light shut on it but that's the paragraph that cat includes about the new blck system with badge entury has become regular um part of life at oci and O us now and uh been little kinks along the way and those bugs are getting worked out and it's pretty slick pretty easy so work continues and they'll start turning their sites to wasuma in the near future for installation there now other than that you can read the rest of her report that'ss good okay appreciate the grants from Colonus yes always they're always so good yeah um this is Archer love the pictures I'm sure I'm thank you though yes I'm sure newer that new Mas smile um so just some of the pictures there at the top and those are the last few activities that we had in 2023 we had a wild week some of you were there there singing pancake eating hot cocoa drinking and our annual Jingle Bell run there with Miss ma uh we are excited mass is on we are starting this week we have 46 fifth through e8th graders we're excited to go to Badger P I think we've got 20 three who are going this Friday they're super excited uh our eighth graders are preparing for their first visit to W at the end of this month for future bag induction day which is always a gut check moment for a great parents especially their oldest uh sixth graders getting ready to go to green meds outo School in March so very grateful for our district H Team Jordan Gloria and Erica their attention to detail and help with medical side of things is just so so awesome I really appreciate them um I'm afraid we're gonna have snow the sh green motives it's not always my favorite definely cold definitely cold uh boys basketball girls soccer seasons have just started we have a very small small but dedicated little group of student athletes who are working hard they see each other all the time Mrs Peterson's got her inals going on she's moved inside and they are doing old school games uh Battleship Connect 4 she's teaching them how to play spoons the other day in the library it was awesome it was very fun uh Mrs amatti and Mrs Springer are coaching our academic andon team this year enjoying some great discussions about AI I got in yesterday or no this morning on a conversation they were having about a ray Bradberry story that he wrote in 1950 where he talked about the robotic mice that would run around his house and clean up after him and the kids were like we have a Roomba is that the same thing yes so that was kind of wild and then uh just some information there about uh our I ready growth uh diagnostic between the first and second diagnostic we're seeing good Improvement for kids um and the teachers have gotten very creative in their incentives um so it's fun to see them try and dedicate a little extra time questions for me thank you thank you thank you and Oak Creek Mr MCR he's giving a hard time he's complaining do something about would you like this no I'm Co thanks am I all right um and I even I even tried to add a picture this time next but is it a shopping cart oh if you click it it did it come on well click on it it comes up yet okay yeah it's a shopping cart that we do we do have it you know I whatever um yeah it was H shopping to get ready for our there it is that's all the stuffies and toys and the balls and my wife was with me this time and she thought I was crazy filling up all this stuff but it's um it's stuff that people can buy the students can buy at our um pack station and Denise K will be with us tomorrow so that'll be cool helping out with that um and we also have a uh starting tomorrow we'll be selling uh trips to John's Incredible P trip to John's Incredible Pizza um with that also so SP two hours down there doing all you can eat uh Pizza um they get 60 game tokens I think and they can ride through different rides and then last year people brought a little extra money and could uh play more games and that kind of stuff so it's been really cool and I think we had about 50 people last year and uh so plan on the same for this year um so looking forward to that but I'll me go year um oh come on what are you doing this okay um so yeah Mr pearon just started chess club at lunch recess they're doing that two days a week um and as far as I understand you still have uh plans on going beating the valley well they just changed there's a leag down there try to go to but they just had to change the next one because of the state tournament got lose so looking into competing down the valley so something like that uh Miss Bodine Miss Jeff Miss we put together an academic mlon team they've been meeting weekly practice with that and there's a practice elective also going on um they have a it isn't a practice competition that say scrimmage I got corrected on this on the 19th that's on Friday um so that's what that is our girls and boys uh our girl soccer and boys basketball teams each have about 25 players um which is a lot for basketball for sure um but you know hopes to not cut people there are a lot of them out there uh talked about PBIS points and the trip February to John's um grade level award ceremonies will happen on the 26th we had to push that out because we had other stuff going on on this Friday so um we re we recognize um academic achievements but other achievements like um like behavioral achievements and that kind of stuff Improvement that kind of that kind of thing uh we have nine electives this quarter ranging from Advanced Sign Language to photography to Cadet core uh and rocketry Rockets um so we have some new ones this quarter which is cool um and we've been able to have uh with changes going on over at wasuma we've been able to have some wasuma kids uh come over and do Spanish over here with Mr Peterson also that's uh worked out well so far the um the last thing I have here is also about uh I I ready Diagnostics um we've taken the the second diagnostic of three and Michelle was talking about it so it's um we uh I I put some things here but uh for reading our on grade level or above has gone up six% um three or more grade levels below has gone down by 4% so those are it's it's gone up somewhat on the top end and also gotten out of the bottom end which is you know obviously what we're shooting for uh for math the above grade uh above or on grade level has gone up 12% and three or more grade levels uh below has gone down by 16 so there's more Improvement there also um these are schoolwide averages um our staff and students and teachers have all been working very hard on this uh and we'll continue to thank you can you let us know when you have the award ceremonies yeah let us know make it I'm sure sure yeah I'll email it out but it's the 26th in the morning I have sixth grade till seventh and 8th but yeah next we'll hear from maintenance operations and transportation last month I started one that I never got to put together this month is really interesting he built [Laughter] the so uh thanks to a um a large Branch coming down on the district office it has a new roof um took a while with insurance to get there but since we put a new roof on we decided we'd put a new ramp out there um I walked on that and in six months time it just died I couldn't believe the change so new ramp that's concrete new handrails uh we upgraded the front planter area and uh there's still more to come we're looking into some paint um and uh the window Windows got sealed in there that I didn't um State um and possibly a new sign marking it so um those those are still things Yet to Come uh on the next page um wasuma kitchen has a new air curtain um so it knocks down the flies as they come in or as they try and come in uh the OC janitor closet um the bottom of the the hot water heater actually just rotted out completely and had to be replaced and uh as you uh um had the uh the budget stuff earlier um you okayed the 103,000 that we paid so far towards the um the walk-in fridge and freezer that are now there and going and fabulous um I also didn't put in there that the wuma ones the box is the the original box but the guts inside and out have been replaced so all of the fridge and freezers are basically new um this year so we have a good fresh start good all right that's thank you very good you okay uh next up superintendent reports I have no report for you this evening fine um next board member comments Stephen take it away well maybe just comments just thank you everybody appreciate I'm no longer president but I'm still on the board so trying to say something now and then just you know for Old Time sake but anyway I'm looking forward to the new year and the cold weather and the snow and and all the things that are going on at the schools pretty cool so thank you everyone Rhonda um I will be volunteering at mass and we are getting a we were supposed to go last week for training but that was canceled so we're getting a crash course at 9:00 a.m.

distri AP [Laughter] [Music] all righty we will reconvention to uh regular session um so I'm calling the meeting back in order in Open Session uh just a reminder this meeting is recorded and live streamed the board was in closed session and during Clos session we took action uh the board voted unanimously with four yeses and one absent to ratify a settlement agreement to resolve a special education dispute against the district pursuant to the agreement the district authorized educational assessments and services for eligible special education student and agreed to reimburse a portion of the parents attorney fees under the express terms of the agreement the board's ratification of agreement does not constitute an omission of liability by the district with that we'll move on to 3.3 um I'll ask that everyone please stand for the flag salute salute 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 liberty and justice for all thank you I'll turn it over to superintendent Staley for student reports thank you as you can tell we have a lot of young students in our audience tonight and thank you parents for being here and bringing them and supporting them I would like to introduce little Chico Creek principal Kristen shrock and uh I think we're going to see something from these kids I'm Kristen truck I'm principal of little Chico Creek and we are here to sing about Martin Luther King so we have our classes we have some class members from Mrs Warner class and Mrs Perry's class and they're going to set up right over here students are you ready okay look to your teachers enjoy sing about Martin sing about Mar sing about caring sing about caring sing about peace sing about peace all around the world all around the world sing about Martin sing about Martin sing about loving sing about Ling sing about peace sing about peace all around the world all around the world sing about Martin sing about Martin sing about caring sing about caring sing about peace sing about peace all around the world all around the World sing about Mar sing about Mar sing about Ling sing about Ling sing about peace sing about peace all around the world all around the [Music] world [Applause] [Music] oh I'm soor sorry I have a dream we have food and clothes in our homes [Applause] forever I have a dream that everyone that hes your home to live in I have a dream that people will change meanness to [Applause] kindness I have a dream that it doesn't matter what skin color you have I have a dream that people have food to eat I have a dream that people share I have a dream that people use kind words to with each [Applause] other our a dream that everyone celebrates together I have a dream that everyone to be [Applause] happy I have a dream for people to be nice to everyone I have a dream that everyone would be nice and the people that had dark skin and light [Applause] skin I have a dream that people would be kind to their friends I have a dream that people won't be sorry will each other I have a dream that we all have [Music] friend and I hope we can do everything we can to make all of these dreams come true for these wonderful students students thank you so much H about another big hand for them and before any one leaves I'd like to ask Kristen Shar to come back up to the podium for two presentations so I'd like Mrs Warner to come [Applause] up uh so um good evening and I have to put these on and forgive me for writing this but last time I did this I left out way too many things and I didn't want to do that with Mrs Warner so bear with me and I'm not going to cry um tonight I'm honored to recognize Mrs Warner as an exemplary kindergarten teacher who truly makes the difference in the lives of her Young Learners we all know that at the heart of every successful educational Journey there stands at least one teacher whose uh dedication and passion helps shape the foundation of knowledge and character Miss wner is is just such a teacher she possesses a unique blend of patience creativity and unwavering commitment to her students she helps her students develop social skills and emotional intelligence in other words she has a magic sauce spend a few minutes in her classroom and you're going to see students that are eager motivated and joyful as they learn Margie deeply understands that the early years are crucial in laying the groundwork of a lifelong love of learning but it's not just about academics with Margie beyond the classroom Mrs Warner serves as a mentor and a guide to her student teachers many uh many student teachers two of whom are on staff at little Chico Creek now to her AIDS and to her grade level Partners she collaborates with families forming strong Partnerships helping to meet the diverse needs of her students in additionally she serves on our site leadership team where she helps to ensure a welcoming and inclusive community she's been at the head of our LCC parade of light committee for many years uh helping to show off little Chico Creek's cheetah Pride to our larger community and I could go on and on but suffice it to say that Mrs Warner is a significant reason why Little Chico Creek is such a special place for our students our families and our staff thank you Margie for the magic you bring to your students each and every day we all love and appreciate you [Applause] over get a picture picture up get the chairs going have to document this moment and I'd like little Chico Creek to stay put because we have someone else to honor Miss kff do you want to come up all right good evening so tonight we are also here to honor someone truly Exceptional from our little Chico Creek community this person's contributions extend far beyond the realm of his job description and his presence is really vital to creating an environment where all staff and students feel valued and secure so at this time I would like to ask Mr Matt to come up to the [Applause] stage love the attention so uh Mr Matt's willingness to lend a hand not only acts as a model for all of our students and all of our staff um but it helps to add to our sense of community at school no task or job is too big or too small for him uh this man is the first person to arrive on campus in the morning uh ensuring that our school is ready for our 450 plus students he also makes sure that he comes into the office in the morning and turns on a lamp for each one of us so that we don't walk into a dark office uh he helps to ensure safety and Order during the morning breakfast rush and even the busier lunch rush and he makes sure that our campus is secure when we practice our action alert drills and even when it's not a drill so a lot of this person's work is done behind the scenes and while we don't always physically see all the hard work that he does throughout the day I can tell you that we definitely notice when he is gone um the fact that Mr Matt has formed relationships with some of our students who show uh complicated or tricky behaviors uh is not surprising to say the least he is always willing to help a student who's had a rough day um just by being someone to talk to or just giving them a job to take their mind off of things the genuine patience and kindness we witness in his interactions with these students Echoes the same virtues that we've had the privilege of observing in his role as a father to his three smart kind and beautiful daughters through the years as his daughters have attended or currently attend our school we have seen Matt's nurturing and supp support of nature extend beyond his family to embrace our broader School community so I am here tonight we are here tonight to extend our deepest thanks to Mr Matt who is our shining example of dedication kindness and someone who takes real pride in their [Applause] work that's awesome very nice [Music] and with that I want to thank all of the LCC Community you're welcome to stay but you can also go ahead if you have things you have to do and go thank you to our student presenters and I'll turn it back to you here a all all right while um while folks are trickling out I'm just going to go ahead and move into the next item um item number six is announcements this is a time for board members to make announcements regarding to upcoming student events student awards or School site accomplishments um I'll give one brief announcement uh we received notification yesterday from the League of Women Voters um the League of Women Voters uh but county is a nonpartisan organization whose Pro uh purpose is to promote informed active participation of citizens in government um and so they uh have informed us that they have appointed um uh League observers for CH Unified School District um Board of Education meetings and so I would like to to um welcome Pam bner and Helen um Gess I think I might have said that wrong uh as our observers who will be taking turns being here to witness board meetings uh so um happy to see uh League of Women Voters here to um to witness the proceedings and be able to keep their followers um informed and and the public at large um so thank you uh for being here with us are there any other announcements from board members at this time all righty seeing none we can move on to item seven items from the floor um items from the floor for speakers who wish to address the board regarding a topic that is not currently agendized uh do we have any speaker cards for items from the floor we do not okay and so um if there's no speakers for items from the floor I'll move on to uh item number eight our consent calendar um is there anybody who would like to pull an item from consent at this time for further discussion seeing none do we have a motion so moved second okay we have a a motion from U member tennis and a second from Member Lando um this is our first vote for the night is there any further discussion on consent seeing none um Mr tennis we'll do a Voice vote starting with you please tennis ey Conan ey Doby ey Lando ey okay it passes for uh with one absent we're gonna have to do that all night tonight huh yep yes we are um all righty we will move right along that's lots of field trips by the way uh check out the agenda if you want to see all the cool places our kids are going uh moving on to our discussion action uh calendar it is item nine under 9.1 Educational Services 9.1.1 is an informational item recognition of the reading Pals Chico program and award thank you for letting us talk about this this is really one of the um cooler things that happens in chica unified so I just want to give about a minute or two background to kind of lead up to and I'm GNA invite Michelle to come up here right now too Michelle Curran is kind of the head of it now um what has led Michelle to be standing up here with a golden Bell before you at this moment in time so it's about 10 years ago actually uh Roy roock was a community volunteer really working hard to look up our community engagement with things so Rory um we wanted to put some things in place where volunteers our school had really positive experiences also and really made connections with kids um just they got something out of it and that wasn't always the case before with those kinds of things so we put in place um well we started out with positive outcomes for students also so we said one of the ways we want to do something with this is really focus on reading for our students so we wanted to funnel all of our volunteers into a very dedicated reading opportunity to connect with our kids and do those kinds of things um we put curriculum together and we put curriculum together that was so user friendly even a super intendent come over and do it weekly with our students also and be successful with it and have a great experience with it as well so we did those things we bought the materials we had enough dollars to put this in place about four schools back then with a couple dozen volunteers maybe um and kind of cycling ahead about 10 years later we see Michelle here now with this happening at all 12 our schools with hundreds of volunteers kind of mixed in throughout the whole kind of place with it and it's really a humming organization now I mean large part thanks to Michelle with what she does with that and just kind of that range of volunteers though my best friend in town I grew up with him his 94 year old mom is one of those volunteers that's been doing up until about the last year or so we have superintendents to do it we really have a wide cross-section of Chico that's here volunteering helping our kids become better readers we even took a look a deeper dive at the data to see do kids get better reading skill-wise absolutely and they hold that growth too with being part of this program so with all those positives being said Michelle is really the the oil that kind of keeps things greased and lubed and moving ahead and she is just that that volunteer magnet that brings all these people into our schools to make this run so I'm going to let Michelle share a little bit more about it from there and kind of kudos to Michelle so thank you very much Michelle for making it all work like that I have my helpers who are also Chic unified students and couldn't wait to be up here okay um Ted kind of gave you a great summary of reading PS but when we first started um we had about 12 kids and 12 volunteers and we started with six weeks and we called it strategic tutoring and we were trying to figure out like what we could help students with with through the evolution of recognizing it was something volunteers really wanted to be doing on campus um came up with a kind of the plan you see in place today and that's been 10 years and we have had about 3,300 students go through the program um including the kids that have been in this year we've had about about 1300 community volunteers some are here tonight and so I want to acknowledge that this has been a community effort and many of the volunteers sitting right here have been doing this for 5 10 years with me and I could I it's a community effort we have site coordinators I have 14 site coordinators that staff all 12 sites there's two sites with two site coordinators so if you are on the site coordinator will you stand up for me site coordinators Gina Heather yeah yeah there we go bernardette and Sharon so these guys do all the work for welcoming all of our volunteers and doing all the scheduling because that's the biggest piece of this is the puzzle figuring out when kids can come and what volunteers can place with them so and then we have our volunteers which you if you volunteered with us will you stand up for [Applause] me and we've had volunteers from 13 years old to 93 years old with us and truly um just a cross-section of people from all over the community and that's one thing that we're really really proud of so standing right here we have the Golden Bell award which at the Cs or the golden the California School Board Association Golden Bell award I think I got it right um was presented uh we went through the nomination process and did the presentation back in St Francisco so thank you for taking a leap with us as a guinea pig really truly we've talked to so many districts that are excited about implementing something like reading Pals and they're like how how do you do this and we're like well honestly it's a huge kudos to the district taking a leap of a risk with us Ted was one of the first principles at one of the sites and I said can we can we try it he's like I don't know but it worked out and now we have like all 12 sites and we have communities that are replicating this um in Corny Red Bluff Paradise um Orland Orville and paloalto has actually been um replicating our program too so we're really grateful to Cho unified in the board for even just like allowing us to try this out and um it's been a really meaningful part for our volunteers too I I think everyone says they join for the kids but then they feel like they get something out of it too so we're grateful thanks for celebrating with us I'm going to let them ring the bell really quick ready it really Rings all right I do want to jump in and H thank in particular Michelle and Rory rodak for their efforts to get this program up and running it has been fabulous for our kids it also has been fabulous for our school district because we have the community that comes into our schools and sees the not only the wonderful work that happens every day but also some of the challenges we face and overcome on a daily basis as well so I think it's created much more understanding of what happens in the schools and our volunteers are just amazing um I get to see a few of them when I volunteer over at Chapman and their interactions with the kids are fabulous and I can't thank you enough for doing that and I do hope that you get something out of it in return I know I certainly do but we did nominate them for the Golden Bell award at the California school boards association annual conference uh there are hundreds of nominations that come in and they ended up I mean they gave I don't know 30 different Awards but Chico Unified was one of the top three Awards in the entire state so I'm incredibly proud of the program incred our proud of our volun teers our site leaders and thank you all Michelle um oh yeah sorry we'll turn that check around we got a thousand doll might as well be a million first of all thank you very much for everything you do I'm I know how much energy and work you put into this and the the excitement you have about it is palpable and it's so fun to watch um if somebody wanted to get involed involved in and volunteer what would they do reading pal.org it's a pretty simple process to come volunteer we do orientations for all of our volunteers and uh they can contact us right on the website there's just an easy volunteer button and we have a simple form and um and then Mariana who's my lead volunteer coordinator will likely be the one that they conduct with and we'll plug them into a schedule after I wonderful thank you so much yeah any other questions all right thanks you guys [Applause] excuse oh yeah we're going to let you go back and get to bed and get ready to hit those classrooms again tomorrow thank you for being here all righty next item 9.1.2 informational review of California school dashboard results for chica unified with our very own Mr Tim Carris good evening um tonight I will be discussing the dashboard system as a whole as well as Chico Unified School District's uh performance on The Fall 2023 uh dashboard um you'll see a lot of comparisons uh across the state and within our County um I look at tonight as a huge celebration um particularly for our academic achievement and the work that our our school sites have done um to in continue to increase that so the California state dashboard um was put in place by the state of California in 2017 and it is tied to the requirements set forth in the local control funding formula and the metrics required by the federal um Essa act every student succeeds act so the dashboard gives a holistic look at the performance of schools and districts across the state of California um going Beyond just academics as we had prior to the dashboard system in California so we are um measured on seven State indicators based on qualitative data um from State Testing to suspension to U graduation uh outcomes and then we have five local indicators um based on the self assessment that District staff does for us tonight I'll be focusing on the seven State indicators the five local indicators were were discussed um at one of the June board meetings the dashboard is publicly available on a website run by the state um so any member of the public um is able to look up a school look up a district um and view get a holistic view of that school or District's performance um during the consent agenda we um part of part of the consent agenda was the school accountability report cards um I would um and the intent of of the dashboard is similar to the school accountability report card it's just much simpler to look at for the general public um and easier to access so I see this as our district report card tonight the dashboard indicators or the metrics that are shown on the California state dashboard um are organized by lcff priority and so we look at English language arts and math English learner progress so what we're looking at here is how many students grew one level on their um uh English language uh learner test um from year to year we're looking at Chronic absenteeism which means students that were absent more 10% or more of the school year graduation rate percentage of students in a class that received a regular high school diploma suspension rate the percentage of students who were suspended at least one day and the College and Career indicator which is really based on a variety of graduation outcomes um such as the attainment of the seal of by literacy um CTE completion it's really a a broad view of desirable outcomes for our graduates um takes into account smarter balance and advanced placement as well that um that indicator could really be a board board workshop on its own um it's it's there's that much in um it's it's that rich so how do we use the uh California state dashboard and Chico um primarily we're using it to uh measure our progress towards goals set out in our local set in our local control accountability plan um it informs programmatic evaluation um General planning funding Al allocation so we're we put um you know Personnel or programs in place we we need to see how how we're improving or not um based on those actions the data is used in Grant applications and evaluation and we bring it to the public Every Spring um to get input on how we can better serve our students this year's dashboard is different than it has been since 2019 um it this is the first time we received color ratings and explain those in a in a moment um which is a very very simple way to display to the public um how we're doing on on these metrics it's a very simple scale um the color ratings we we're receiving this year that you'll see um in the presentation um indicate growth how much we improved and how we're doing in general It's a combination of both of those the exception to that in this year's dashboard is a College and Career indicator which only displays status how we're doing right now there's no growth measure so this is our is the a highlevel look at the Chico Unified dashboard um you can see uh there's five colors that schools or districts can attain um very low is red and then you can see that color scale um go from red to orange to Yellow to green to blue so it's pretty intuitive for the public um some highlights here um are us remaining uh Green from 2019 in English language arts we see we're yellow in mathematics and it just so happens that most of the state is yellow or below in mathematics and I'll give you more information on that um we see great performance in our English learner progress graduation rate and we have seen um improvements significant improvements to yellow in chronic absenteeism I have a question um when I clicked on the link it took me to 2022 and so oh no no it's okay easy to find 2023 back down menu no big deal but um my question is is it reasonable to look at the bar graph system from 2022 and equate like one bar is basically the same as red two bars is basically the same as orange or or the metrics different enough that's the metrics are different enough I would say um what we what we look for and I'm speaking for senior cabinet and Ed Services is growth right that's what I was looking at which last year's dashbo didn't take into account it was just purely status so I would caution you on that okay just yeah for example chronic appenism in 2020 2 understandably because of the pandemic was very high and now is at yellow which which would be medium you know if you were to say Apples to Apples it's not quite fair not Apples to Apples yeah thanks for clarifying that M so how are the colors calculated um I'm going to walk over here in a moment actually no I have a chord so let me just um uh walk you through this so this chart um is um a good representation of a complex idea I would say um when you look across the top the the top row you see declin significantly declined maintains um increased and increased significantly so this is the growth measure okay so when we talk about growth that's how those are the um the labels that were given based on our growth when you look down the First Column you see very high all the way down to very low so how this works is each site and District receives a growth measure how much do we improve or or decline and a status measure so if a um if a district or if a site is achieving um a medium level and they increase significantly their their color is green if a if a School site is at a low level and they increase significantly on this measure they are a yellow so it's a combination of both of those any questions on that okay this is just one example for language arts these exists for all all the measures when we look out across the state or at at the state itself Statewide um we exceed um Statewide achievement in all indicators um you can see the the color differences there um and the one col or the two colors where we're the same chronic absenteeism rate and College and Career both the St we are um our achievement levels is higher than the state okay the the following slides are the following set of slides are um views at Chico Unified the district as a whole and Chico Unified sites compared to the county um there's a lot of slides here um these are for your reference I'd like to speak like in generalities about them and then get down to the business of um digging into Chico unified data in particular when we look out across the county um we have a wide variety of student populations so we can see so what's provided on these slides is the size of the district or site as well as the unduplicated count for for that District um take that into account as you look at these a site with a uh smaller unduplicated percent percentage will be more likely to score higher due to the traditional performance of that population um so this is this is more of an FYI we all like to know what's going on around us um so I'll just going to walk you through this fairly quickly so we see this is English language arts and our distance from standard um is top in the county map we are near the top of the county um we see Durham at the very top there in green when we look at SES um these are not the colors that you see here are not so that you can pick out uh what color they scored on the dashboard but so you can see what district they're from so Chico UniFi the dark blue we see us clustered up more towards the top but we do see a few um on the bottom um of the list of elementary schools um for English language arts uh same this is the same view uh for math for for elementary schools in the county you see Sierra View up there at the top and a number of Chico Unified School that a number of Chico Unified sites clustered near the top when we see Junior High when we look at Junior High we see our three Junior Highs at the top when we look at math for junior high we see Durham at the very top and then our three Chico Unified Junior highs when we look at high schools um here's the English language arts we see our two uh comprehensive high schools at the top and by the way this is only County uh Comprehensive High Schools when we look at math um we see gridle high up there um as well as Durham and Chico Unified the top four continuation schools in the county we have four and we see Fairview in the middle uh for English language arts achievement and second out of four in math um Fairview is one of our great successes um growth-wise in the district this year we saw a great great growth from them we'll talk about that a little bit more later so now we're going to jump into um Chico Unified in particular and take a deeper dive into our student groups um areas of strength areas of improvement as we do this it's important to have the context of similar districts across the state so what we do is we look out across the state and we find districts that are a similar size plus or minus 25% or 3,00 ,000 um students uh enrollment and then an unduplicated student percentage within 10 percentage points of our percentage so is this a perfect U comparison no um because other factors Community conditions um you know there's other factors that come in it's important for us to measure ourselves against similar districts because we Face similar challenges um with districts that are similar size and a similar unduplicated count so when we look out across the state at at those uh districts within those constraints um we find 12 11 other school districts um other than Chico Unified and so these are the same districts that I presented on in uh early November when we looked at Casp scores and so um what we look at the dashboard um results for Chico Unified number one most importantly we improved 2.2 points okay we improved um last year significantly from 2019 and we continue to improve for reference um our lcap goals are written for both the site or or sypsa goals for the for the site the single plan for student achievement and our district lcap goals are written for three points growth in academics however you can see green and you can see that high performance we're second out of the 12 districts that you see here all similar size and makeup so this is a this is a celebration um and I'll I'll dig more into the details of how we got here in a moment when we look at student group performance on the English language arts indicator um we can see uh performance gaps still in place um particularly with those student groups towards the bottom um you can see you can see some Reds there meaning the lowest U achievement level and you can see um some some outstanding um growth towards the top of the chart the important piece that we look at the most important is this growth and when we look look at this chart it's showing by student group how much growth um they made on the smarter balance test so our our goal again is three points growth for every student group and we can see a number of student groups up there surpassing that that three points some very significantly one thing that we're particularly proud of and a lot of effort has gone into this is our socioeconomically disadvantaged growth um we are as you are very well familiar um we have put a significant effort into um implementation of a districtwide mtss system to close these achievement gaps and when you see socioeconomically disadvantaged for example um scoring that well you can see that we're closing achie achievement gaps okay African-Americans also um our African-American student group went up 3.7 as well right there it's a small line so I just wanted to point that out but that's a huge celebration for us as well so successes in language arts um nine nine of our 13 student groups increased achievement all three Junior highs and Chico um improved improved with Chico Jr improving the most at 7.3 points average distance from standard so that more than doubles their goal for the year uh Park View and Shasta in particular um were amongst the highest growth elementary schools in the state for their students with disabilities population um it is you know when we look at elementary schools across across the state there is many many and they're on the top handful um really incredible work that those staffs have done with those students again I mentioned Fairview earlier Fairview grew 8.2 points um average distance from standard which is more than double their goal mcmanis Citrus Shasta Emma Wilson and Hooker Oak showed very very significant growth um in particular um with the populations at mcmanis Citrus and Emma Wilson with a significant number of uh unduplicated students um that's a that's a huge achievement that's a big celebration for those sites um and I just want to acknowledge all the work that goes on at those sites um at all levels from families to staff you know everybody students working hard um huge achievements there and concerns um both Comprehensive High Schools went down um but they remain at a green rating so they were high in the eyes of the state and but both went down um nobody likes to see um sites go down um we're working with um DLC our district Leadership Council um the teacher Representatives on there to to attack that uh also of note here is our foster Youth and English Learners achieved a red rating so that's the lowest they can get at a site level Chapman and Oakbridge decreased significantly so lots to celebrate there with um English language arts but we always need to be looking at places to improve and and these are just this is a a kind of a summary overview of of places we need to improve for math um we grew we we surpassed our goal as a district of three points Improvement and improved 3.5 points this year we're second in the uh amongst our similar districts across the state this um math has has been for years and years something that we've all looked at and seen a flatline we've seen a tiny bit of growth a tiny bit of decline but for the most part it's flatlining this is significant growth um for Math and you can see us there at second um I mentioned earlier that you know there's not a whole lot of Greens in the State uh and we can see one there Al hamur unified from down east of LA when we look at our um student group performance we see a similar spread that we we seen um English language arts um anywhere down from down to the Reds and and oranges um on up to um some of our larger student groups socio economically disadvantage most notably um at the upper you know half of half of our student group growth socioeconomically disadvantaged by the way is our largest student group The this um this growth uh chart here is something to celebrate um we can see African-American students improving 17 points on average distance from standard that is highly significant it is almost six times our goal for that student group um I had to double check and triple check that that was right and it is it's it's huge growth um we see two or more races growing more than 11 points and there's our socioeconomically disadvantaged group the biggest group in Chico Unified making significant growth um in math Aras of success you I just mentioned the AF growth of our African-American student group um nine of 13 of our student groups increase showed an increase in achievement um Chico Jr again in math um increased by almost 10 points which is more than triple their goal um Parkview and chassa did the same thing in math as they did in English language arts with their so with their um students with disabilities some of the most significant growth in the state when we look at all elementary schools Fair viiew up 16.9 points is incredible growth so kudos to that staff um it's not just the math teacher it's the whole crew over there with all the supports they have place for their U for their kids um and I mentioned earlier our socioeconomically disadvantaged students grew significantly um concerns in math um both Comprehensive High Schools uh achieved a yellow rating but decreased in student achievement so again we're working with math um DLC members um to address that uh Chapman and Oakbridge decreased in math as as well as English language arts um and same thing with language arts as well as English Learners and Foster youth achieved a red rating so um we we're GNA take a a leap into some other indicators but um really what the other indicators such as suspension rate chronic absenteeism those are metrics to support our number one goal which is academic achievement in this District and so the Improvement that we've seen in particularly math but also um English language arts the significant growth of you know certain student groups and the significant growth of of certain sites is something to celebrate okay so we are going to look at the English learner progress indicator right here and what this means uh what the English learn learner progress indicator measures is is if Improvement by our English Learners on their English language state test so how well how quickly are they um becoming proficient in English um we've all in my time in Chi always had a great ELD um program and what we see now is the highest performance out of all of our um comparable districts um and I want to just um give kudos to uh kayin rice and Anna Mayfield who are ELD coordinators and who who run the you know boots on the ground part of um elpac testing the test for our English Learners um and this is a huge point of Pride we increased 1.7 percentage points moving on to um priority five and pupil engagement can see Chico Unified increase by two percentage points um we can see we're we're kind of towards the middle of the comparable sites but we are green so if you look up the chart from us and you see some of those yellow districts um they are yellow because they went down instead of instead of growing so they the that's why they got a yellow rating but their grad rate is is is a little bit higher than us when we look at student group um graduation rate we can see socioeconomically disadvantaged in green Hispanic in green white and green and the all student student group those are our biggest um student groups in Chic unified all in green um that's a good that's good news um we see homeless and homeless Youth and students with disabilities towards the bottom most student groups in Chico UniFi grew last year you can see um American Indian or Alaskan native with the highest growth Foster youth second highest and African-American with the third highest um another um notable um data point here is students with disabilities um growing over 7% um in their graduation rate so that's uh significant growth for those student groups um towards the bottom we can see some dips for um English Learners um Asian and two or more races chronic absenteeism um has been a huge huge issue across the state um if kids aren't in school they're not going to learn as much it's as simple as that um we increased our our I'm sorry we decreased our chronic absenteeism uh rate by eight percentage points last year which is significant um we're still much higher than we were pre- pandemic significantly higher um so that's something that we're we're working on um but our our attendance clerks are kind of the front lines of this of attendance and and welcoming people to uh to school um and they're doing a great job uh reaching out to families building those relationships and encouraging um attendance um here's a quick view of student group performance on chronic absenteeism and this is our growth might be the wrong word this is our Improvement um slide here so going to the left of the line of the middle line the zero is desirable for this we want to decrease uh chronic absenteeism so we can see all of our student groups except two increasing significantly when we talk about suspension rate um that's also been a concern across the state um we see uh suspension rate as or student Behavior I should say and conduct as an improvement to support academic growth of those kids if if kids are misbehaving on campus or in a classroom um that's hindering their academic growth as well as the academic growth of those around them um when we look when we talk about suspension there are certain um education code violations that we have to suspend for and in when we are suspending we are doing so with um you know how are we going to welcome these students back on to camp campus how are we going to correct this Behavior it's not purely punitive and sometimes it's necessary to ensure the safety of of other students and staff on campus um we we decreased by um two10 of a percentage point so basically we stayed the same as we were the prior year um so we're at 4.3% and you can see us kind of you know the top of the bottom half here uh one other you know notes on suspension um a District's performance is highly influenced by the way they code their suspensions and the way they um administer their suspensions so um couple things that that districts may do and we've started to do particularly at the junior high level is um Keep Kids on Campus in an isolated situation with counseling help and um supervision to make sure they're still taking care of their academics and their some uh effort on this on the part of school staff to address the underlying issues that led to that behavior um we have been doing that at at elementary for many many years and we're we're moving that into secondary this year here's our student group performance um we can see um we can see we can see the spread here um down towards the bottom we see uh homeless African-American and Foster with particularly High rates and when we look at um at the change from year to year so again this is similar to Chronic absenteeism you want to move to the left of the zero so you're decreasing um we can see some um significant decreases and we we still see um some fairly significant increases towards the bottom of that chart okay moving on to the final uh data set um is the College and Career indicator um this year only status was reported so you won't see any colors you'll just see purple um we were a medium as a district um as I as I talked about earlier um and when we look at that um across the State um kind of the bottom of the top half in our similar districts um this is a ve there's a lot of details that go into this metric and I mentioned them earlier I'll mention some of them again um seal of by literacy attainment is taken into account here uh smarter balanced results um AP test results seal of by literacy um work experience um things like that desirable outcomes for our students and that is really um something we should expect to see grow significant significantly with the as the block schedules at the comprehensive high schools are in place longer we should expect to see this grow significantly over the years is the reason that there's not a color metric because there was no data last year no data reported last year right most of the metrics include Smarter Balance data and last the 2022 graduating class didn't take smarter balanced so they didn't they didn't give us anything for um College and Career indicator so next year we could expect that indicator to be like the other ones yes you can see our student group spread here this is B this is just performance oops oh then thought I was missing a slide but we don't have a growth metric because we didn't have a last year so um let's talk about how um the dashboard is used in the state accountability systems um districts that Show Low performance for um student groups across a number of indicators um are put into what's called differentiated assistance differentiated assistance is a is a county intervention to ensure that we are planning improvements to our actions and services um we have qualified this year um so we will be working with the county I think our first meeting is um at the beginning of February with the county so they'll come in and talk to us about what we're doing um and we have a lot to tell them um about what we're doing to change things um for these certain student groups um we are the student groups that qualified um Chico UniFi for differentiate assistance are are listed here along with the indicators that showed low performance that um that triggered the differentiated assistance so a district needs to have one student group with low performance in in two metrics um to qualify for da we've you can see the four um student groups for us there things to keep in mind with this 60% of unified school districts in California are in differentiated assistance this year currently so that's that's High um if I was a teacher that um you know taught a lesson and 60% of my kids didn't get it I would look at myself and uh primarily what you know uh this is a this is a significant number of school districts um falling into this um in addition 10 out of 11 of our closest comparable districts qualify for differentiated assist so it's not a an anomaly for a district to get to qualify so Tim if you don't mind I'm going to jump in here so I was actually at a workshop today and they talked about differentiated assistance so for 2023 there was 466 school districts in county offices that were in differentiated assistance um there's about a thousand laas in the state if you put it in perspective that way because there was an additional 203 Charter Schools um so over 6 almost 670 um eleas of the Thousand which goes to his point of the 60% so it's a lot right um accountability to come um we're expecting in the next month to receive School level accountability news from the state schools are held accountable um for a similar um under a similar uh set of requirements for each of their student groups as well um districts fall under differentiated system for that poor student group performance schools qualify um for one of two um accountability measures one is comprehensive support and Improvement or CSI that's only for Title One schools and then additional target targeted support and Improvement or atsi for non-title one schools very similar uh process as we see um with differentiate assistants those School have not been released yet by the state so um celebrations to end on a on a on a positive note um we improved on all dashboard indicators that included a growth me metric so everywhere we could possibly show Improvement on the dashboard uh as a for as a district um we did significant progress was made on closing academic achievement gaps for many students groups we exceeded our goal of improving math achievement something we've been after for many many years and when as you saw when we compare our academic results to similar districts we are at or near the top when we look at uh English language arts math and English learner progress so that's what I have for you any questions yeah m um first of all thank you very much I know how much work goes into parsing and using this information in a way that that we and teachers and staff can find helpful so appreciate the work going into this um you might have mentioned I apologize if I missed it um would you like to slide 50 the uh student group results uh for College and Career indicators yeah yeah um I just want to know how these numers where these numbers come from in that the all students group apparently has an end of 999 students I know we have more than that so who's counted in that group so so this is the graduating class in the gradu of last year right and so you'll see you know some of these student groups and numbers are very very low and you know you can see two student groups at the bottom there with don't even have a metric because there's not not enough kids I just Mis line about the graduating class thank you very much any other questions all right well thank you thanks Tim it's a big presentation that was a lot of slides before I call you up this is not really a serious question but um when you presented on cast scores and science is there going to be a time where that gets incorporated into this dashboard um all signs are that eventually it will be eventually um I think we've told that probably for like 10 years yeah yeah that dashboard requirements tend to change right on up until uh the November State Schoolboard meeting okay so great um question for Jacqueline um is there a direct um impact on the on budget for expenses for being in differentiated assistance okay there's other I know there's other programs where the state steps in and then you have to like pay pay for yeah okay we'll meet with the uh B County Office of Education actually they already set an appointment to meet with us about what are we doing to improve in those four areas they will um offer their support um moving forward we did that last year when it came to I believe Foster um and we'll meet with them again about the stuff that we're doing and we're hoping to continue to improve and how we can improve on those things so we'll meet with them I believe it's in about a week um um so anyway that's how that's what we have to do when it comes to the DA okay and for clarification just to kind of elaborate what Jay said there's no additional cost to our budget at this point at staff time meeting with bcoe to go over that yeah okay we don't have to do like outside Contracting or anything like that thank you um okay well we'll move along to um we're on 9.1.3 discussion action extended school year esy with M Jennifer schola hello hopefully we'll be quick tonight um every summer our special education programs are required to offer what's called extended school year for our students with most significant disabilities with the goal of ensuring that they don't regress over that time being away from services and um work on those goals and the Education Code requires that we offer 20 days of instruction with a length of the day equivalent to our minimum day what we're finding this year with the schedule of June and then where the Fourth of July Falls um historically our attendance always wanes around that Fourth of July holiday and with it being kind of right in the middle of that week what we're requesting is a waiver from the State Department of Education to shorten the number of days but increase the length of time so the difference between four hours a day for 20 days versus is 15 days at 5 hours a day um is is pretty minimal in terms of um services to our students so that's what we're seeking um and in order to move forward with that waiver we need your approval questions awesome thank you yeah I don't see any questions um is there any public comment for this okay no public comment um all right well then that brings us to it is an action item so I believe that you're requesting that we we approve uh I will ask for a motion yeah I'll move adoption of the suggestion we just heard second okay we have a motion by Mr Lando and a second by Mr tennis um any further discussion board seeing none we'll do a Voice vote starting with Miss conen conen I Dolby I Mando I 10 sign all right it passes four with one absent four yeses with one absent thank you uh on to business services 9.2.1 informational item 2024 to 2025 state budget update jaine krer yeah we'll get going um so we've anxiously been waiting at least in my office I can't speak for my peers um for the Governor's budget um here in January so um given the economic data that we saw coming out after the tax receipt were finalized in November and December um I have to admit I was a little nervous um related to the budget for the 2425 school year um but I would say the governor's budget is better than anticipated and and really good actually for K12 education um some of the highlights they're going to fully fund Cola Cola is only right now at 76% so three4 of a percent but they are anticipating fully funding that um at this time there's no cuts no additional cuts no cash deferrals and no program sweeps of programs that have been allocated but not appropriated so the example um that probably re resonates the most with our district is Community School Grants so those have been appropriated but they haven't actually they've been allocated by the state but they haven't been appropriated from a cash perspective but there's no movement right now um to pull those programs back so the governor did come out and say hey we have a $38 billion deficit that we have to address so for um K12 education as a reminder actually it's k14 um education prop 98 is what gets gives us our funding it's 40% of the general fund so as the general fund goes up we get 40 cents on every dollar as the state general fund goes down we lose 40 cents on every dollar um so when it goes down that's a big hit so one of the areas that the governor is looking at is of that guarantee just by the nature of number of students in the state which is decreasing because students are moving out um as as well as the lower attendance rate that's how he's getting some of his savings so while our Ada funding is going to go up by 76% from a Statewide perspective he's actually getting Savings in that particular um component of prop 98 the other piece that the governor is doing is actually taking money out of the rainy day fund so um the state has been putting money into a uh education stabilization act which most call the rainy day fund and he's going to be taking money out of that um for the current year um because the tax revenues for 22 came in so low as well as next year so it would require that he declare a budget emergency he's willing to do that but he hasn't eluded when he would do that so we don't know if that would happen sooner rather than later I think that's part of the budget discussions um with the legislature but I will say the point in having a rainy day Reserve is for rainy days like these so I do um commend the governor for fully funding education and using our Reserve wisely um I think at this point in time with education we are seeing the swing backed categorical programs that went away for a period of time but the good news is there's no new categoricals to be implemented for next year so the governor's committed to continuing the implementation of transitional kindergarten um so we are moving forward next year with another age range for four-year-olds to be five uh September 2nd through June 2nd so full implementation of transitional kindergarten will be in 2526 um he is continuing to fully fund Universal meals which means every child of chica UniFi gets de for free which is a great program for our kids and is definitely keeping our nutrition services staff busy um and lastly he is continuing the expanded learning opportunities program which we call elop which funds are after school program um so the Statewide there's $4 billion doll for that there's no cut but there's no Cola and I see that as a win for education so those dollars will continue to flow through for our after school program so really at this this point the next steps are gets turned over the state legislature so they are going to spend the next several weeks and several months vetting The Proposal um from the governor um lots of negotiations going on and barring we don't have a state uh natural disaster taxes will be du by April 15th and so when the B when the governor comes back in may he will have a much better idea of revenues for the state um to be able to give us a revision on his proposal for 2425 so um at this point we will be taking this data back and crunching the numbers for what does that mean for Chico Unified so we do know that we saw this year um a decrease in our unduplicated student count um pretty significantly almost 3% um and col is only going up 76 um so they're there is we are looking at for next year less Revenue even though Cola is being fully funded um so we'll get into the specifics of that um with our with our senior team as well as um explaining that to our labor Partners as well and that's what I've got for you any questions concerns about the budget it's stimulating I know all right seeing no questions here um do we have public comment okay uh this is informational item uh and so we can move long as long as the board is ready to move to the next item no more questions we'll go to 9.2.2 a discussion action item architect selection for facilities master plan FMP projects by Julie Kissle hi everybody happy New Year it's nice to see everybody uh this item is uh um November 6th the district issued a request for qualifications out to the whole state of California for all AR qualified Architects to respond to um asking for them to provide statements of qualifications and their experience uh with uh K through2 projects uh we received eight impressive responses to our request um we whittel those down to uh four different architectural firms and then um on December 15th we interviewed all four firms the um main goal was to create a pool of Architects to choose from for our upcoming master plan projects um we also identified projects that we'd like to assign to that pool we decided all four Architects um were highly qualified and desirable to work with the district uh that committee was comprised of uh myself and Maria campus our facilities planner also Shannon pen from Citrus Elementary School um Eileen Robinson was there as a board representative and Alan Chambers our district architect also attended to be that architech um expert on the panel so the four firms that we bring forward this evening for uh your review our DLR group uh DLR group is out of Sacramento they designed uh the two-story classroom building at Chico high school they also designed Neil da Elementary School modernization and new construction as well as the new construction at Emma Wilson kindergarten uh HMC who formerly was uh rainforth grow architects who also have worked with the the district on multiple projects namely maragold Elementary School and LMA Vista um lionas architects who you're very familiar with who did our facilities master plan but is also U responsible for the modernization at Bidwell junior high school and Shasta elementary school and they're currently at mcmanis elementary school and then the last one uh who we we just started working with is firm Studio W is their name they are the lead architect for all of the paradise Unified School District projects that are going on post campfire and they're also working for the district on the addition to the bakery uh for our nutrition services department so tonight we're asking that um you accept those four to be in the pool of Architects for all of our upcoming phase five um master plan projects and to to assign uh certain Architects to certain projects so the committee recommended lonus Architects for citrus Elementary School and DLR group for the transitional kindergarten Edition at little Chico Creek and HMC Architects for the transitional kindergarten Edition at marold um remember they're formerly rainforth grow and they're very familiar with the gold campus and then Studio W I'm sorry I may have Mis misspoke Studio W is little Chico Creek Elementary School DLR group will be Emma Wilson where we need a traditional U kindergarten there as well transitional kindergarten so tonight that's what I'm bringing forward for your review and hopeful approval do you have any questions um just a question on uh these projects are are coming from measure K funding is that my understanding yes okay yes these are from their remaining measure K dollars okay thank you the pool will however cover the uh Elementary projects if we're successful in passing a new Bond the pool of four firms will be utilized for rosale Chapman and Parks okay so that the pool is meant to to be to be able to be drawn from for all of our master plan projects is there a deadline for that is there a time po phase phase five okay yeah thank you I don't see any other questions from board members no and no public comment no uh so I will'll call for a motion sure I move that we create a pool of authorized Architects and assign them as Miss K just suggested second Al righty um if there's no further discussion I'll go ahead and start off the vote do be i l i tenisi conai it passes with four with one absent thank you thanks Julie all right moving along uh 9.2.3 discussion action on the 202 2 to 2023 independent Financial audit with Sherice BR hi good evening board um so every year we come to you and present we are required to um contract with an external audit firm um as a school district we have contracted with uh Horton mcnalty and Saturn hmns which is a local audit firm um they come in and do testing that has to do with our compliance our financials um they work with our school sites and uh district office staff so um there were no Financial findings this year we did have one finding that was a compliance so we're working with school staff to make sure that that doesn't happen in the future um but there were no adjustments to the UN audited actuals that we brought to in October um so that's the audit for 2223 do you have any questions to thank you these audits always come back very clean and I appreciate the work you guys do we try okay so we'll need approval of the audit if there are no other questions um so if there's no questions of clarification no public comment then I will uh call for a motion I move approval second all right we have a motion by Mr tennis and a second by Mr Lando um we'll start the vote with Mr Lando Lando 10 second con and I dollby I it passes four with one absent thank you you're welcome are you here for next time on the on the next page all right 9.2.4 uh is a discussion action for the adoption of resolution number 1625 d24 regarding accounting of developer fees for fiscal year 2223 yes so I'm just staying in 2223 for you guys tonight um so this report Ed code we have to bring a report that shows our developer fees that were collected um any expenditures that we spent out of that account as well as what our beginning and ending fund balance and then what our plans are for projects that we're going to be paying for partially with our developer fees in the future um so this is a 22 23 annual and five-year developer fee report um and we'll also need approval on this as well and if there are any questions just let me know was there anything in particular on the report that you wanted to highlight for us no um we we did have a question as far as the revenues that we had last year that we generated were much lower than we've had in the last few years um this year so last year we collected about 1.4 million this year we've already collected that amount so it does seem like last year was an anomaly um and we did re increase the rate this last summer um which doesn't seem to have slowed The Collection so that's amazing um and it does seem like development has picked up so our fees that we collect are dependent on how many permits are processed by the city and building or city and county building departments so we aren't really a part of the process we're kind of just uh or we're a part of the process but we don't determine the number of fees are collected that's more determined by the projects that are going on as far as development goes in Chico thank you you're welcome any other questions from board members or need another minute and developer fees uh that comes back up in May this year uh it will I lost Julie but I think it'll be next year the state will adopt a new that'll be this year yeah we have to wait for the State Board of um education to pass theirs it's typically in the first couple months of the year and then we will do a study and then we will bring that back I'm probably shooting for May June at the latest thank you all right well seeing no additional questions for clarification and no public comment um I will ask for a motion I move adoption of resolution number 1625 d24 regarding accounting of developer fees for fiscal year 2223 second okay we have a motion by Mr tennis and a second by by Miss Conan um let's start with Mr tennis tennis I Conan I Dolby ey I do I okay passes four to one and one absent thank you board thank you item three uh sorry we're moving on to number three 9.3.1 um discussion action item resolution number 162 sorry Human Resources what yeah no I I my numbers are a little bit confusing on my packet um yeah so we're still in nine which is our discussion action calendar three Human Resources one discussion action resolution number 1626 d24 release and non- reelection of temporary including probationary zero certificated employees thank you president Dolby so before you you have a resolution it's an annual resolution uh that we bring to the board essentially Ed code 449 54b requires that the governing board notify a temporary employee and for us our probe zero employees um of their release or non reelection um so that annual resolution is there before you I do want to emphasize um knowing that this is a it's a human business and we've been able to negotiate and maintain an understanding between cuta and the CD that any temporary or probationary employee does have a right to an interview in our process um that's not the case and District so I just want to uh emphasize that uh negotiation so again this is an annual resolution um in relation to our temporary and probe zero certificated employees does the board have any questions for Mr Shephard and we have no public comment okay um then I'll call for a motion sure I will move adoption of resolution 162 second any further discussion all right um we'll start with U Miss conen conen I Doby I M ten sign it passes 4 to one absent four and one absent um okay 9.3.2 is a discussion action item for the approval of personnel commission member for a three-year term great thank you so before you you have an affirmation of the approval of Beverly Patrick as one of the third member of our Personnel commission if you remember back to our our last meeting the Personnel commission members uh generously donate their time to that commission it's most cases a thankless position however they're willing to support our classified employees and the strength of uh of that bargaining unit so this is an affirmation of Beverly Patrick as the reappointed U member of the Personnel commission great see no questions from the board um and no public comment we'll move right on to a motion sure I will move the to approve the appointment of Beverly Patrick to The Postal commission all second so we have a motion by Mr Lando and a second by Dolby um I'll start the vote Dolby I Lando I tennis I Conan I okay passes with four votes one absent and uh with that we will move into 9.4 that's the board this is an informational item 9.4.1 first reading of revised updated new board policies so we are bringing forward two updated board policies that we've done some work on uh this is a first reading um I'm going to ask Jay just to do a very quick overview on the uh board policy 1250 and then I'll talk a little bit about board policy 514 5.9 the only changes I would really would like to make to this this is basic basically a visitors um board policy and it came to us basically a um comes down to uh I'm trying to remember what the penal code is but basically a sex offender wanting to come that they have a child or on our campus but wants to attend to become be able to come onto our school sites our current board policy says that goes through the principal at the school site and I would like to change that as you could see down um down towards the end of the paragraph where that is the superintendent or designate really it's my office that I meet with that um it was recently questioned um by a um a parent that wanted to come on our campus that was a principal's decision and I think that's more of a district level decision and for us to support the principal on that decision when it comes to it because otherwise I believe that's a lot to put on our principles to make that decision on each one of our sites I believe the the district office and myself my office needs to be making that decision when somebody comes on to our campus or not comes on our campus so we're changing it down there to um when it comes to presence of a sex offender on campus any person who is required to register as a sex offender Penal Code sorry it is on their 290 including a parent or guardian of a District student shall request a written permission from the superintendent or design and we're crossing out principal before entering the school campus on grounds as necessary the superintendent or design shall consult with law enforcement and authorities before allowing the presence of any such person on our school or other school activity the superintendent or desni also shall report to the principal any time such written per permission granting granted access to the individual at any limited to of that access so we would contact the principal and say this is what the decisions we made and that's what I've done already this year so in this scenario there'd be somebody at the district office or the superintendent himself but maybe some designate who would sort of be skilled and maybe even trained and and prepared to vet people who wanted to come on campuses yeah rather than for it to just be sort of in the hands of kind of whatever random princi not that they are in some way you know not qualified to make a determination like this but but you know 15 people might come to different conclusions about less and this is a way to centralize things and create potentially a higher or better standard exactly again I'm not as you're saying Matt is I don't think that our principles aren't qualified to do that but I just think that's a district level um decision I'm contacting law enforcement I'm looking up the offenses you know uh we're going through each stubble and how long ago what was it those types of questions and then um I meet with the principal to to discuss um the decision on what we could do off campus or on campus where this um possibly this child or parent is dropping off their child IEP meetings where those are going to be held all those types of things and I and they have to report to us and so I I just want somebody from my office or myself or or Kelly Staley obviously can our superintendent can obviously do that also um yeah I just at this point we're already in that process we're already doing that process I just wanted to put it in our language you know it also something that occurs to me and I want to thank you for thinking about this and in making this proposal because the personal interaction piece you know kind of puts the site manager I.E the principal under a lot of potential MH potential pressure excuse me um you know um that could be awkward at best yeah we were looking to be more consistent and also to relieve some of that pressure off of the site administrator um so that we're more consistent and that we want them to have the relationship with our parents and sometimes if you have to say no yeah that's difficult I was going to add on to that that the consistency is appropriate to to B bum bump this up to the district level because you would want this this to be applied at any site that a particular individual um appeals to you know if they want to come on to that campus it shouldn't differ depending on what principle is is managing that site and you know principles do vary due to their personalities it's not a a positive or negative thing it's just it's the nature of it's human nature so it makes sense to be consistent at the district level on you know being being the gate Keepers to people who are allowed to be on our campus to that degree yeah and I would agreee because as they progress like Elementary to Middle School to high school it would make sense to have like consistency rather than this was allowed in middle school but not allowed in high school or what um so this is a first read uh it will be brought back to us at the next meeting or will it be their next regular meeting in middle of February uh it can come back at the next meeting okay so I'm going to go ahead and jump into the uh 514 5.9 the board received a letter early in the school year from the NorCal anti-racism Coalition requesting that we take a look at this board policy um and we did take a look at it both because of their request but also because we really wanted to have this policy align more closely with our non-discrimination and harassment policy so um we have met three times I believe with norca anti-racism Coalition um and looked at the policy and to kind of better understand some of the things that they were concerned about with the existing policy and I am happy to say that at our last meeting um I think all of us felt that we had come up with a good policy we broke this down into a definition um into prevention the complaint process and then consequences and discipline from a policy perspective um where we we have not yet gone and that we still need to do so this will be a request um from me to the board that we wait to bring this board policy back until we have administrative regulations to go with it our administrative regulations are how we actually implement this policy so for example we need to have some clarity uh if a student were to uh have inappropriate graffiti uh on their notebook or uh drew some inappropriate graffi in a restroom what would those consequences be and what we're looking at at this particular point is that our first step is to educate we're Educators we want to educate the student as to the impacts of uh derogatory statements or symbols and then if there's pervasive and ongoing Behavior Uh the discipline process we would go through it would get consistently uh more stringent as we went through but we don't have all of that yet written down in an administrative regulation that's work that we still will have to do and certainly um we want to continue to work with NorCal anti-racism Coalition as we develop that so this is the policy that we're bringing forward but um in a rarity there just are not administrative regulations that have been developed uh by California school boards Association yet to go with us so we are trying to develop our own we're doing that in conjunction with our school sites so that they can tell us what are the issues that you deal with most frequently um and then what are our consequences that we want to have we don't want to have a policy that we don't have a way to impit so our students currently allowed to Target each other with you know like racial symbols and stuff like that no so what's the purpose of this the purpose is uniformity so that across the district we have a similar approach why are students currently not allowed to do that what rules are you are students in violation of if they're you know um writing offensive symbols or or using slurs at one another what what where would they be a foul of current we currently have policy that doesn't allow that there is also Education Code that doesn't allow that but the part I think that was the concern is the if a student um let's say called someone a derogatory name at one school it might have been you know hey let's not do that again at another school it might have been a suspension so there was concerns about the the implementation of the discipline across the district I mean uh you know what I've been one scenario it was an extremely immature youth you know just kind of running his or her mouth off you know uh and it was like a one-off versus another environment where it was a persistent problem exactly you know uh is there no discretion on the part of the administration to deal with one you know with a lighter uh hand than than the one that was very focused and serious and and this document here does it allow for you know that kind of flexibility so we currently don't have that developed the administrative regulation but yes I mean there will be flexibility but also within a parameter so for example the first um student you referenced that just you know said something immature uh and not even recognizing the impact of their language that is absolutely a teachable moment so where we want to come in and share you know this is this is the impact that an appropriate language has on others and how it might make others feel where if you have another student who after having that type of counseling who continues to use language and perhaps use it in a manner wanting to cause hurt then those consequences are going to be different it does in Broad terms but it talk I'm just surprised to learn that there's not existing mechanisms for for dealing with this kind of behavior that's we do clearly out of bounds we do have existing mechanisms um and they were located that's that's why we're trying to make these two policies more in alignment they were Lo located in non-discrimination and harassment and within egg code but this was brought forward that um the hate motivated Behavior really was lacking and really did need to parallel consequences that were in other policies and it it is an already existing policy in our board policies it's just not um doesn't provide the definitions and it doesn't it it the new policy seems to um expand on or allow for identifying those behaviors um and taking trying to take bias out of it you know what might be perceived as hate motivated Behavior by one person based on their experiences may be viewed differently from another person based on their experiences and this helps with the uniformity of of it takes the helps ideally will help to take the bias out of it um so it expands on what we already have and this is also a first reading this is a first reading and again um I would like like to request that we be allowed to develop the administrative regulations to go along with that before we bring it back um and I also just want to remind all of us that um if there are pieces all or none of any of our proposed policies the first read is to for everybody to take a look at it and you know email in suggested changes or come prepared at the next meeting with requested alter ations if if it's absolutely a working desired yeah any other questions or comments from board members so this does not require action at this point and uh I'm just going to go ahead and jump right on down to 42 and that is a Kelly air that should not have been on this agenda that is actually scheduled for our February 21st first meeting so you will see that come back in February okay so we'll pull that from the so we'll pull that from all righty well so that brings us to the end of 9.4 uh moving on to item 10 is items from the floor it's another chance for speakers who wish to address the board um regarding any of the topics that are not currently agendized today to come come on up and speak um and if there are none seeing none um we don't have any board member requests to agenda an item um and so our next meeting is February 7th and uh do we have a motion to adjourn until our February 7th meeting Workshop meeting so moved all righty uh we will adjourn that

it was very well attended the first round so we're excited for the second meeting also on Tuesday January 30th is Kindergarten roundup at all of our elementary campuses at 5:30 so if you know somebody with a kindergartener get them get them to school because we can't wait to meet them and on Tuesday February 6th is the public forum uh related to the superintendent search people can attend virtually or come to the boardroom at 5:00 p.m.

on January 23rd right on here in the in the media center um and just for people who are marking their Calenders at home right now um we're going to have the what do you call it the the meeting with the the Board of Ed Board of Selectmen and board of Finance joint The Joint meeting okay so that again is um that's the joint budget meeting that'll be on February 6th at uh 6:30 um at the High school so um is there is there anything else okay um with that uh we are not going to adjourn so for people watching at home this is where we close the public portion of the meeting and we're going to enter into executive session to discuss the superintendent's midyear goal update um thank you sorry I motion that we we go into okay I motion that the board enter exective discuss discuss superintendent great shall we vote on it yep uh all in favor I okay so we will go thanks for coming you guys and thanks everybody at home for watching have a good night

on Friday and hopefully we'll be but a lot of people that have been doing it have been doing it so it's pretty good so I think it'll be fine but I am a little nervous about that but it'll be fine if you're tardy with the kids better I'm just kidding but yeah I look forward to helping out with masks again and excited to see where that goes just looking forward to going to Oi tomorrow and happy New Year to everybody thanks for everything you guys do out there I just wanted to share I attended a human trafficking awareness and prevention talk it was last week and uh Lieutenant Robert Blen of mad County Sheriff's did the did the talk it was uh very informative uh just a couple of Statistics um Central Valley is a hub for trafficking California California ranks number one for human trafficking in the US exceeding all others uh the US is the number one consumer of human trafficking globally and it's amongst the world's fastest growing criminal Enterprises estimated at $50 billion doll a year uh Lieutenant blem also talked about how a lot of the victims at least 50% of the victims for particularly sex trafficking are uh they find them online they pray on them online and many of them are young they're of all ages and he said no communities are immune it happens every place so um I asked him if he had some kind of an um information that he could provide particularly to the middle school students that perhaps we could do an assembly I thought would be really informative you know what protections uh people can take online and such so that's it okay thank you um I have no comment either uh okay number 14 future agenda items do you have any just the item that we tabled um the board member meeting yes I was also thinking like we could do it this year at the beginning but we also have an election year so we might have to do it again later but we typically I guess that's why we did it in January yeah okay we'll just wait the changes have made this year anything else like our next meeting is on Valentine's Day so everybody wear red on Valentine's Day better bring Heart full of candy candle session that's right bring your spouse board meeting romantic okay that's our next day the 14th February 14th it's Valentine's Day every year it's not a Thursday I guess my husband can't fly me away for dinner Paris so 5:30 just to reiterate word um starting our meetings half an hour early we're do doing Clos session first and then reconvening out here for Open session so um if you have something to say or some concerns about um anything we discuss in Clos session which is on available to you on the agenda um you'll need to be here at 5:30 so that we can um hear your comments that's a wrap we're done early

and that concludes upcoming events thank you Miss Richards and now moving on to agenda item 4.1 under the request to speak I'm going to read through the expectations for uh speaking in public or at a public meeting we value input from our constituents this time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out speaker cards which are due prior to the start of of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to AR ARS 38-43 .01 action taken as result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask that audience members practice proper public meeting decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal Outburst to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules may be asked to leave in accordance with policy BH public participation at board meetings if considered necessary the governing board president shall set a time limit on the length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has an opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for individual speakers thank you for your cooperation okay first to speak is Heather [Applause] Balch good evening imagine if you would a preschool class filled with young excited students two students would drawn to the same toy truck it was a shiny red fire truck that sparked their imaginations both of them reached for it simultaneously their eyes wide with excitement what do you think might happen a potential conflict over the toy typically young children may react impulsively or argue grabbing for the toy and in extreme cases sometimes physical aggression however we see a positive shift in Behavior due to the implementation of skills that promote social and emotional development teaching children self-awareness emotion management and empathy can make a significant difference in their interactions when students are equipped with the ability to recognize and express their feelings it opens up avenues for communication instead of resorting to impulsive actions they begin to use their words and convey their emotions and perspectives this shift Fosters more understanding and Cooperative environment among children by verbalizing their emotions they enable their peers to understand their Viewpoint this communication can lead to finding Equitable solutions that benefit everyone involved this process promotes positive and inclusive learning environment encouraging collaboration and empathy among preschool students this is social emotional learning and it matters thank you thank you next can we please hear from Ali RI good evening everyone my name is Ali Ratliff and I'm a member of the power ranch Comm community in October our School's principal Mr Chris reuter disappeared over the last few months I've had many conversations and spoken to many people through my research I've learned that one of the big reasons he disappeared was because of the actions of an individual off- campus an individual who is not even supervised by by Mr reuter Yet Sherry Richards held Mr reuter responsible for this already terminated individual's Behavior right after Mr reiter's investigation an employee at the bridges with a similar position as the individual mentioned above had a meeting about their work schedule come to find out their employee had been creating his own work schedule for years did Mr ble get in any kind of trouble for this did Alex erso also know that his employee was creating his own hours was Alex erso held accountable for any of his employees not working within their contracted hours did Mrs Richards protect Mr ble and Mr erso because she does not have the same negative feelings for them as she does for Mr reuter we all know that Bridges is one of Miss Richard's pride and joy I believe she even tried to poach more than the allotted amount of teachers to Bridges Miss Richards inconsistencies don't start or stop there though when asked for clarification as to why Miss Richards did not communicate that our principal was off campus she responded that there was no policy in place the Arizona superintendent office begs to differ on this matter in addition to that she added that she thought Mr reuer would only be gone for a day or two it's my understanding that standard protocol is typically around a week why did she say she believed it would only be a day or two later down the line after the matter was settled it was not until it became social media Buzz that our principal that our school did not have a principal that the district felt the need to address it with their vague emails that allowed rumors to fly dragging Mr reuter's name in the mud and creating more anxiety for families and staff the climate culture survey conducted at our school scored Mr reuter's leadership at an 87% the average score for surveys like this is between 70 and 85% this means Mr reuter's leadership exceeded average I would be very curious about the results of a culture and climate survey for those under Sher Richards additionally I find it absolutely astounding that all of you have never once set foot on our campus through all the lies that have gone on these secret meetings get togethers whatever you want to call him and miss van Hawk's call to have a look into our school all of which took place over this past summer at least one of you would have decided you wanted to learn learn more about our campus before voting on the fate of the person who headed it let alone take the time to speak with him but you did not you took Miss Richard's word and you still have not stepped foot on our campus to acknowledge us you can ask the majority of parents who attend power ranch not the very small minority miss van Hawk and Miss Anderson and we certainly won't ask you to house us privately to tell you our feelings and the majority of us will tell you that Mr ryer was an incredible principal you can also probably ask the majority of our staff but they probably won't gain miss van Hawk's empathy unless they've cheated on a standardized test in August miss van Hawk called for an investigation into the personnel and turnover rate at Power Ranch tonight I'm asking you to look into the personnel and turnover rate under Sher Richards thank you all for your time thank you thank you next will be Taylor Francis Madam president members of the board and cabinet uh I wish to speak on two items this evening first board meetings are an inte integral part of any school district for many parents staff and students board meetings are the only opportunity these individuals normally have to see or interact with the school board with the dedication and work hours of many teachers parents and staff a 5:00 p.m. meeting time conflicts with their home and work schedules preventing them from regularly attending having the meetings broadcast online is a wonderful feature allowing these meetings to reach many others around the area even with this technological feat it is no substitution for in-person participation including the ability to request to speak of the unified school districts higgle is the only one meeting at this time Gilbert meets at 600 p.m.

Chandler 7 p.m. Paradise Valley 6:30 Scottdale 6 p.m. Deer Valley 700 p.m. Cave Creek 6 p.m. and daart 6 p.m. I respectfully make to request that the Board review its meeting time and adjust the regular monthly meeting time and move it back to 600 p.m. or later allowing more teachers parents and community members whom the board represents a better opportunity for in-person attendance second on December 23rd today days before Christmas a fire devastated the home of the assistant principal of one of H usd's elementary schools displacing her and her immediate family for the holidays and months to come almost immediately after words spread throughout the district and dozens of community members rallied together to support one of our own a GoFundMe was organized and the goal was met in under 72 hours in the end the original goal was surpassed by over $1,000 what a testament of our district and the members who reside within it I want to publicly recognize and thank everyone who gave to support our assistant principal the outpouring of generosity was both humbling and inspiring there are many great things about our school district and what a blessing it is to witness one firsthand thank you thank you next miss Karen files good evening I wanted to first thank you for this opportunity to speak um I'm going to use this time to highlight some amazing things happening at kie middle school as you heard earlier or saw earlier Miss Jennifer Valenzuela um her robotics team showed up in a huge way at a recent tournament earning third place in a crowded field of 30 plus teams we had a wildly successful open house for incoming sixth grade teachers or sorry excuse me students and parents and chillin with the Cougars is set to begin tomorrow and continue on Friday this opportunity to bridge that nerve-wracking time between elementary and middle school is eased by the hard work of our seventh grade staff and the tireless efforts of jod stot and our student council I'm a proud teacher at kolie middle school and I and continue to appreciate the support that we receive from District administration and from this very board now I want to tell you a brief story about my own son we live in a neighboring District I won't mention the name and we had been a student he had been a student at the same Elementary School since kindergarten he spent one single morning at kul's last year's chilling with the c the Cougars and decided that that same day that kie was the place for him he was drawn to the energy and he was drawn to the excitement so he left the familiarity of his feeder school and his feeder Middle School uh we open enrolled him and he is now a seventh grade uh student at kie Middle School my son's schedule has six teachers on it five of his six teachers have parents of current or graduated Higley students furthermore I would like to highlight that the decision made with our District administration for student staff and community by the board don't just impact teachers and their students in fact many of our teachers at kolie Middle School are also parents Aunts Uncles grandparents of Higley students and spouses of Higley employees from kul's front office staff Administration countless teachers par professionals and our security officer we have a vested interest in our schools because we are parents and loved ones of Higley students and staff I've had the honor and privilege of teaching with kie and with Higley Virtual Academy and have been shaped and made better by my experiences with a handful of students at least one of which has a parent In This Very Room so with that I want to thank the members of the board who trust our schools teachers and staff with their precious assets thank you thank you next Linda Payne president Anderson and members of the board I guess um I'm not very good at knowing how to start this but I just want you to know I'm that was really nice tonight to see so much recognition being done that was really really nice the main thing that I wanted to talk about tonight was like some had mentioned before if we could change the time to 6:00 there are so many people I have talked to that would love to come to these meetings but cannot because it's just too early and they would like to come and be part of this and learn what's going on and because the ones that have come have learned a lot on once they've gotten here and seen what's been happening so I would like to ask you to please consider changing this time to six o'clock thank you thank you okay next we are moving on to the consent agenda I move um president Anderson if I may um I'm not sure when we'll be discussing the schedule for this year um but if we can um consider a 6:00 p.m.

start time for for the meetings um on that schedule um so when we vote on it we can consider it at that time thank you yes we can do that Boardman sorry Vice President Van Hook so are we adding that to a future future discussions or okay all right thank you okay consent agenda items I move that we approve consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.16 second any questions or comments okay all those in favor I I I I motion carries 5 to zero and Miss Johnson you had something you wanted to mention yes thank you president Anderson members of the board and I'd just like to recognize uh Mr Brian Griggs he's here in the audience and he is our interim principal over at power ranch right now and I'd just like if you would stand up Mr Griggs I know thank you thank you Mr Griggs thank you and thank you Mr Griggs I also want to take a second um been holding on to uh speaking about Mr Griggs because he there's lots of principles Administration when you have k kids going K through 12 I both have graduated and um I I can't can always say something positive about the administration um that my kids have interacted with but Mr Griggs actually made a difference in our son's life I got a okay so I'm sitting at home and I get a phone call from the principal and that's never good and especially when it came to forgive me for saying my son and our son and um it was Mr Griggs he didn't have to make the this phone call but he was calling to say that something positive that our son had done and after many many many years of struggling it that that phone call sent me to my knees um in in moments when you need hope and and hear positive things you're wonderful and good luck and um good luck at Power Ranch I hope that you can really make a difference and they need you thank you Mrs Anderson yes I just want to Echo your your statement as well I've known Mr Griggs for nine years and he's an exceptional administrator and power ranch is lucky to have you and president Anderson I'd like to add something as well um when we got to the spelling be I know you were trying to juggle both schools and I just wanted to thank you for that okay thank you all right now we're we're moving on to agenda item or for the information items agenda item 6.1 statement regarding teen violence from District administration and husd governing board uh member um Miss Schultz president Anderson members of the board your District administration wanted to provide a statement to you and to the community the statement regarding teen violence that we're all aware of so higgle Unified School District acknowledges and recognizes the importance of the recent e East Valley discussions regarding the known issue of teen violence it goes without saying that as Educators we care about our community's children we fully support efforts to address the violence that has impacted our surrounding communities and improve circumstances for all teens and young adults in higgle and beyond our district lives by its core values of Integrity connections learning centered and accountability our strategic plan and our portrait of a graduate outline our values and stresses that we demonstrate strong ethics for the better of the whole build relationships where all in our school Community feel a sense of belonging and create a community committed to a standard of Excellence across our district there are programs that promote character development and values values for our students as we mentioned earlier this evening Higley helps our most recent Community service initiative encourages our youth to get more involved in helping others each of our schools prioritize culture and character building through initiatives unique to their own campus including leader and me no excuses University ACT 212 and many more districtwide we all agree to standards and behavior through our student and employee handbooks designed to create a safe and welcoming environment for everyone when issues arise we are committed to addressing them according to our policies our support includes a safe hotline to bring issues to the district's Attention our SE something say something campaign and School counseling support on each each campus we are reflecting on our programs and recognized the importance of continuous Improvement and we are open to collaborate in community initiatives that may come from current conversations as always we will continue to support our students our families and prioritize a well-rounded education for all students in the bigly Unified School District thank you Miss Schultz wanted to share thank you president Anderson uh before I make the statement I want to just say that our um our open meeting laws and our laws don't uh don't allow us to talk about things before as we've mentioned before and so at the advice of Mrs me mlen then um this was how we had to do it in order to to to come up with something as as a board um so as the former president of the Higley School Board I feel compelled to address a matter of utmost concern within our community teen violence and the loss of a young life Preston Lord recent incidents have brought light to horrific dacks against our teens and the need for kids and parents and the entire Community to stand up against teen violence and it is imperative that we as a community unite to denounce such Behavior it is important for us as a district and a member of the community at large to be proactive to look at our current programs that Mrs Richards mentioned and explore new new programs I'm personally deeply Disturbed and saddened by the senseless violence and the loss of Preston Lord and the other teens targeted and attacked across our community I know that all our kids and families have been affected in some way and since our agenda policy Arizona laws don't allow for a lot of wiggle room on our agenda it would be at this time that I would seek Fe feedback from the rest of the board regarding this statement as you know Mrs Richards I've been very vocal with cabinet over the past few weeks of my desire to make sure Higley is a part of the community speaking out against teen violence and that we make sure parents our surrounding districts and our community as a whole know that we are here to support them and to be a part of the solution I'm hopeful that we can discuss this as a board and look at ways for Higley to be a part of the solution I know that Higley already has programs in place such as the kindness campaign the hotline for reporting but it is possible that we may need more and that our kids need to feel safe to come forward I have an excerpt from Katie mcferson regarding the upstander campaign that she is Champ being in while I consider Katie To Be A Champion for our youth I want to get the rest of the board's ow on the program and if we want to ask District to look into this further I have a copy of the outline of the Campa campaign from her that I'll hand out to all of you District would like to see if we'd like District to look into this further and possibly have on a future agenda item I know we are all deeply saddened by the loss of Pres and Lord and we're sickened by the additional videos and violence we've all seen in our community and we know that whether a bystander directly involved the students parents and staff at Higley we've all been affected our schools play a crucial role in shaping the future of our students and is our Collective responsibility to provide a safe and nurturing environment for their growth teen violence not only threatens the well-being of those directly involved um at this time I'd like to ask for feedback from the board regarding the statement and possibility of looking into the upstander program thank you president Anderson uh president Anderson and board member Schultz uh I first off I wish to extend gratitude for bringing it up because I think it is important that we make um statements for things that impact our community I recognize that not necessarily as far as our understanding students at our school were directly involved but they were most likely at that party or at the very least they receive the media that get shared afterwards as a result um having worked in high school and having spent time you know teaching and being in schools in general I I cannot emphasize enough the importance that I feel these types of social emotional programs do for our students because not only do we have things and one of the things I routinely Express to my students is that they are more responsible for far more information than we ever were they are constantly inundated with news and other things that we did not have and as a result you can tell that there is an increased level of anxiety across the board um not to mention the added pressure of making sure that we do good on certain tests or certain programs in order to get into college because the cost of that and everything else is is pretty high so for me I'm super supportive of this program or at the very least looking into it so I'm happy to you know start looking into some of that and seeing how it could impact our our district and ways in which we can incorporate some of these things because um it's valuable and it matters and uh we are impacted on a daily so I I appreciate that President Anderson um i' like to read um a statement that I wrote um I want to emphasize my strong stance against all forms of bullying and encourage our students to speak up when they witness such Behavior while I emphasize deeply with what happened I'm sorry while I empathize deeply with what happened to Preston and his family I believe that introducing a new program into our district is not the most effective solution especially when we lack information about it our district already has robust policies addressing bullying and tonight we are voting on an additional measure related to student discipline the focus should be on ensuring that our existing bullying and student discipline policies are well communicated to staff by doing so we can demonstrate our community our commitment to supporting our teachers and staff in enforcing these policies effectively introducing another program that diverts time and resources away from academics is not something we can afford to do with our declining or declined academics it's essential to recognize that the issue at hand extends beyond our district and is being addressed by Town Council I've been invited to join the teen violence committee for Town Council which will provide updates as this um which I will provide updates as the situation progresses throughout our community this collaborative effort ensures a broader impact and a more comprehensive approach to addressing the issue of teen violence additionally parents play a pivotal role in addressing this issue parents must take responsibility for their children's actions and ensure that they REI receive proper education at home regarding bullying we must work together with the parents to ensure that this is being addressed um because this is a lesson that should be taught at home and reinforced elsewhere thank you president Anderson um I obviously this is a very sad time for our town um and not just our town it obviously it goes to Queen Creek and Chandler and um our community as a whole um I think [Music] everyone besides the shock shock factor of of the death of Preston Lord seeing more and more come out um is very um difficult in our area as we've been one of the safest cities and to see that it's the teen violence that is is the problem at the moment um I would like to get more information on the upstander uh initiative and look at it it see what it is if it's something that needs to uh be discussed that would be introduced into our classrooms or is it a program to the point just like one pilk and kill that we can help host um Community meetings I would like to see our district um and this is something as we look at for a new superintendent um our district used to be really involved with the town we used to meet annually with Town Council as a as a district um and not just Town Council but also Gilbert Police we would meet with we would also meet with Gilbert Fire um Power Ranch still does a great Community effort um they do host a quarterly Powell which brings um Coronado Ranch power ranch Trilogy um someone from the police department someone from Queen Creek usually attends um and they have a a PO quarterly that they talk about um and it goes to other communities as well from their HOAs that they talk about issues and concerns um and I I think we're still attending that I know as board president I was I was attending those when I could um but we really I'd like to see us get more involved again with with Town Council um as a district with the Gilbert Police Department as a district um for our community so we can help do programs and again it doesn't mean it has to be programs within the school day but for our community uh I I just don't know how many I don't know that much of that's resumed since Co obviously Co stopped all of that um but I would like to see that we try and and get that involved because the more Collective people you have together um working together the less likely we are to see this and um I agree it's um it starts at home and it starts with our parents it does need to continue within our schools and we are responsible each and every one of us whether we're teachers in the schools whether we're board members whether we're administrators just members of this community need to help reinforce that um and make sure that we have a safe community and in addition to that that our children are getting the right guidance I I feel for everybody involved here it has ripped numerous families apart between those that are lost those that have um been abused who have been beat up and those who have been arrested and there's more to come and it just tears the whole Community apart so I would like to to see about the upstander initiative to see if it is something um for us to be able to do the one pill and kill we have done some other um Community meetings that the social media classes that we do but I would love to just see if we if if we explore this and it does make sense for us president Anderson board member Reese and I um the first um meeting with Town Council is tomorrow and that's def you know that's definitely something I can bring up with them too um and uh you know I I look forward um I didn't hesitate to say yes when I was asked because I think that this is a great opportunity for us to work together so um I definitely will bring that up when I meet tomorrow Mrs Van Hook I know that um Mrs mcferson is working with both town councils as well as the other districts um she's reached out to Chandler to Queen Creek as well as panel so I know that she's working she wants the entire Community if if you look at this blurb um everyone to be a part of this because as as Mrs Reese mentioned you know it does take all of us so I know she is already working with Council regarding this as well okay thank you thank you everyone your input um I I'm not going to repeat what you said but I do agree it's it's starts at the home keep it Community together these are the points that I made um never asked for our opinion or our our feedback um we should approach and integrate whatever programs or strategies as a whole community and it's stressed in what you said it is stressed um with uh board members so I think we're on board kind not intended with that um and and I I'd like that the idea of having the community meetings and bringing that back um we have lost touch that sounds kind of a little deep but we have lost touch with our community and this would be a great opportunity to to uh re regenerate this um keep the parents involved involve the businesses neighboring schools uh districts emergency responders you everything you guys said I had on my paper I love that um I want to make sure that I think what this will do is help us to be transparent and accurate also in information it's great that we'll possibly looks like we may have a leaon to the city with the board members so that we can have information directly bring back those yearly meetings have the community meetings if possible I'm excited to have the discussion and I'm excited to see what information um May Come uh Miss Richards you mentioned leader and me no excuses University ACT 212 um are there any other program in place well ask Williams Phi what theirs is I think it's called dominate right so there are several um that are specific to each of the schools but overall everybody's doing something okay you know those are the ones that um stick out but every single David lsen Hauser can probably say more about secondary because I need to put him on the spot right president Anderson members of the board when you look at our secondary schools a lot of times when we look at um how how we support students is not just within the classroom but extracurricular activities and different clubs and and groups that can help and support through that and so many of you have been either a teacher of had high school kids go through and know that there are different things that we do within our Sports and our activities that help support when we look at different specific things uh right now I don't have anything that basically comes to mind as in a tagline other than it is very important that we support our whole whole child as we're experiencing that growth and obviously with the team violence that's that's the age group right now that is the most affected by what's happening in here and I know that it is having an impact on our students within our community and uh we have within our counseling department um uh various resources that we can use to help and support students who are struggling with this um and I I do agree that there is a bigger issue that we can help in looking at address how many counselors do we have in our district Mr Walker I know that we have three at the elementary level and of course we have DEA Morgan our assistant director of counseling can you help with the total at secondary yeah sure um Madam president members of the board there's there's four counselors at each high school and then there's also two counselors at each Middle School um three counselors at the elementary the director of counseling services and then there's also a counselor that's assigned to special education programming any of those are shared between the schools or those solid numbers the elementary share amongst the schools okay and then the special education counselor divides the time between the best program okay at the at the three School levels okay thank you any other comments or questions president Anderson um Mr Walker um I would like to know um as far as the qualifications for our counselors if you can provide that at a later time um just to know um the certifications I know they they typically have um artists certified through the Arizona Department of Education but they don't necessarily hold a behavioral health license so I'd love to know if any of ours actually have that behavior if they're certified through Behavioral Health and we don't need to discuss it it's not on the agenda but at at a f future time if you can provide a list that'd be great sure Madame President members of the board would be happy to compile that information for you thank you so much okay thank you thank you for bringing that forward and thank you for the information M Schultz M rich I appreciate that thank you all right moving on to agenda item 6.2 um HD governing board superintendent district Communications and protocol M Dr Tim oal correct will be joining us this evening and and going through this information thank you Madame President um members of the board and Miss Richard thank you for having me here tonight uh to talk about this important topic um I wanted to discuss with you the proposal you have in your board packet with regards to communication protocols for those of you that don't know me I'm a former uh superintendent graduate school faculty State Association executive director I've worked with or for boards um over the last five decades and um I'm currently assisting the Arizona School administrators Association in support of their mission and as a consultant in that capacity we're helping districts U when asked to uh help develop leadership um and good practice at the district level so I understand the board has asked for this document of communication protocols uh to be renewed and brought back for discussion um and possible future action um the document does have some historical precedent here at Higley it was originally created in 2021 and is currently linked from your board web page the current version is um and so over the last few weeks um I have worked with your senior staff and asked to to facilitate tonight it's reint uction to you uh really because of um updates from board policy and more importantly the precarious nature of superintendent searches in the Arizona employment market and the timing of your search um I've personally been involved in every facet of uh superintendent searches in multiple States um I know that the quality of the applicant pool is directly related to the perceived effectiveness of the board and the the district and um I've actually talked with representatives from rayan Associates a number of times but also specifically with regards to your search um and I know that every viable candidate um has been watching this District since the job was posted um and uh they would be relieved to know that this board is interested in establishing appropriate communication protocols that are current um and and you know agreed to at the board table um as you enter into this phase of your superintendent search which is so important it's important for everyone in this room to know that these candidates will be interviewing the five of you as well as you interviewing them um all nonprofit boards this isn't unique to school boards but all nonprofit boards need to periodically look at their practices and look at themselves to assess how to be better public servants and demonstrate to your constituents your desire to be the best that you can be and develop a framework to successfully learn to disagree um and communicate effectively with one another with that all being said the document before you reestablishes some of the Common Sense board norms and commitments that you hopefully make to professionalism at the board table um and Demon straight to your patrons employees students parents and in addition your superintendent candidates that you're interested um in in these protocols so that all being said you have a draft document that has been worked on over the last few weeks and uh so I'd like to highlight a few elements in there that came to my attention um having been in hundreds of board meetings over my tenure um some things that stood out to me as I worked with senior staff in kind of refreshing this document so on the first page um you will see um a number of bulleted items and items like six seven and eight as we move down the bulleted items particularly six and seven um really have to do with the role of the board and the role of the superintendent and I want to accentuate because you have you have a great board policy that I have reviewed U with regards to how to handle public complaints um and public comments and tonight you know the board Comm I would commend you on you know having uh you know a call call call to the public and and the way you manage that uh it's also important to the search that um these board policies on public comment and public complaints are adhered to with regard regards to the chain of command because that's really what you hire a superintendent to manage for you um also this the the bulleted item one two three four five the seventh one has to do with um executive session protocol um and how I want to accentuate to you how important that is as you enter into the search phase and into the the screening of candidates um you will have very sophisticated professionals that you will be talking to and you will actually have their career in your hands in these confidential meetings and um having been around superintendent searches and Boards over the years I know 100% confident that you and your social interactions will be asked about the candidates about the search about how you're feeling about it and you you know there's there's something we call the administrivia face where you kind of have this cold in a friendly way you're able to say you know I really can't talk to you about that as much as I'd love to and um that's just good practice to get used to so I want to accentuate that um moving on down um Communications with the media at the last part of this page Um this can be really really tricky for boards and really tricky uh when difficult challenges come to board meetings it's it's easy when things are going smoothly and it's really difficult when boards and districts face difficult challenges um it's really really important that a board superintendent team have established uh practices and they are dealt within your board policy kdda um with regards to Med relations but it's really important to reinforce as we think about our own practice as school leaders that um each of you is responsible uh to adhere to these communication agreements um you cannot speak for the board unless you've been authorized to do so and as an individual board member you're 20% of the board you are not speaking on behalf of the board um and when the media comes around it's important that you notify the district you work with your senior staff uh to make sure that there's coordination um on the next page there is a a chart a graphical representation of the the art form I call it an art form of the interaction between the board and the superintendent and I say it's an art form because this is really about interpersonal communication and interpersonal interaction at a very at a very complicated uh complicated level um ultimately you want to hire a superintendent whose number one mission is to help the board be successful and the superintendent that assumes the job um should accept the mission that their job is to help the board be successful and as a result of that um a lot of districts do graphical representations of this board superintendent uh interaction to help everybody understand it U board members and employees and patrons Etc because it is a it's a complicated relationship um so obviously on the second piece there you'll see that the the board's exclusive role is to approve policy but um since the board employs the superintendent um to develop policy that's that person's responsibility and you have a great senior staff team that is that is very capable of developing policy and making recommendations to the superintendent to bring to the board um kind of moving along in that same direction you'll see at the bottom you expect um you're going to expect board members to act as Community leaders and provide be providing feedback both positive negative feedback to your superintendent and you're going to expect your superintendent to maintain good uh leadership and Communications um as I said earlier having been in hundreds of board meetings over my career I think it's odd that Higley does not have their Superintendent at the board table um I think that sends a signal that the superintendent is not part of the team and I would encourage you to make that change um sooner rather than later in fact uh kind of a sidebar communication I was contacted by a representative of one of the candidates for the superintendent position who said I've been watching board meetings and I noticed that the interim superintendent is not at the board table is that a new development and so I fact checked with the district and learned that that's been practice here so I would encourage you to examine that and put your superintendent next to the board president not only for the symbolism but also as a practical matter matter it helps facilitate good practice as we move to the next page on communication protocols um I just have one qu of course this is discussion that used to be the case do you have history on why that was changed actually Mr M Schultz we've never had the superintendent up here in my 12 years Oh I thought but we did discuss it okay um we discussed it with Dr Thomasson okay um part of it was kind of a logistical issue um I'm trying to remember Mrs Wade is there a monitor next to you okay at at one point it was it was a space like what was available um but we did have that conversation of potentially bringing the superintendent up here um and joining the board and part of that too was also um it was their preference not to that they were wanting to be with their team down there okay so um but it it was discussed um I think that's a a great idea I agree I I've seen other districts and and how they're set up sure um I would I would encourage that um and I think um I love when I work with boards and superintendents um I love to think it's a team of six you know certainly the board has one employee and you need to have confidence in that person you need to trust that they're doing their job and certainly the board has ultimate oversight um but it's a team of six to provide really solid leadership so and but thank you thank you Mrs Reese president Anderson um Mr sorry about that that's fine um I personally have have watched other board meetings and I think it's weird to have the superintendent up with the board um considering they're not elected officials and for the board members to be able to see see them um um with the rest of the cabinet members um so I personally don't like the idea of the the superintendent being up here with the board um and think it's weird for for other districts to have that like I think Queen Creek is one of them they've got their entire cabinet on the DI yeah that's I I think that's a little different also and like I appreciate your comment and certainly it's a there's somewhat of a style issue but there's also a practicality issue when the board president has questions about policy or procedure that they can actually you know talk to one another or pass a note about you know have you looked at this policy that you know that there's a practical standpoint too but I do think there's a difference my opinion between your employee the one employee you have and the cabinet it's a different responsibility so that's that's Tim's opinion right but thank you uh moving on to communication protocols uh the next page um once again uh your your policy on uh on feedback with regards to the chain of command and board policy K and KB are accentuated there um and then it's very appropriate under item four for for board members to follow back with that superintendent to make sure that they have followed up and address concerns that have occurred um that's that's what you hire this person to do um item six I know I saw on the agenda that there is some uh future discussion here on the agenda about um board packet processing um you didn't ask me for my opinion but I'll tell you that um in the district as large and sophisticated as Higley um your uh superintendent and board president need more time not less to get information to the board closer to the board meeting uh five days is a long time in the life of a school district and uh so I would encourage you to kind of think through how that works procedurally uh for your staff um on the next page um there's some for president Anderson Mr ogal I'm sorry I'm if you can explain that um you think five days is too long I think my opinion five days is too long things happen Personnel things happen uh there's financial decisions being made there's activities in the district and I my opinion is if you can get that board packet to board members closer to the board meeting it gives your staff more time to more thoroughly prepare go thank you um board meeting protocols um there's some great information here with regards to to uh respect of one another following point of order uh kinds of interruptions should that be necessary when there's when there's debate going on um and uh providing the appropriate professional kind of environment that you've demonstrated here tonight so um on the last page there's more information there on post meeting protocols with confidentiality and executive sessions um and I just wanted to accentuate that so all in all um I think the document like I said as developed in 2021 is ready for a refresh um and Folks at these tables have spent some significant time kind of going through this piece by piece to bring you a recommend recomendation that seems to make sense for the culture of Higley unified um and with that being said I'm happy to entertain any questions or to stop here and let the board take it from here Madame President your your pleasure I do have questions but I I would like to open it up to other board members if they would like to um ask or give information um president Anderson Mr ogal um so on page two um the first bullet point um and for the for the last year um I believe that this has been an issue and I'm hoping that going forward um that whether we agree or not um that there is a level of respect especially when we're on the dis um and so I'm hoping that um the the side by bar conversations and the ey rolling um is uh eliminated going forward because that's been an issue for the past year um and then also um the last bullet point so as far as um talking to the media um we are elected officials and legally uh we do have that right to be able to speak to Media um without having to be um essentially micromanaged by by the superintendent um and obviously when we do speak um to the media we can speak for ourselves and and not the district um but I just wanted to point out that um as elected officials we do have that right um do you have anything on that page before I move on to another page um I do okay board member um you're you're right and however when there are issues of Highly complex and situational all kinds of uh challenges that school districts are now facing um I believe that the district is more Su more is more effective when it speaks with a Singleton Voice Even though five board members all have very may have very different opinions about a particular incident or a particular item um you're speaking to tens of thousands of people and for Higley to maintain its Stellar reputation as an excellent District um your public uh needs to have confidence that the board superintendent team is is working together even if there's disagreement because there's bound to be disagreement um and so you're right as an elected official you can can do those things um and the upside downside in my opinion is to coordinate your message because it builds trust with the community I mean that's that's what I think thank you I appreciate that um for uh page page four number 6B um one members request for additional information result in all members receiving or having the same access to the information um at our our last board meeting I had brought up uh the ability for all board members to be able to have contact with legal um and I think that that should also include legal advice one of the things mentioned during that meeting was that it could potentially be an open meeting law violation if information is shared with the board um but no one board member should have any Secret convers ations with legal counsel without the rest of the board being able to have that same information um so I so I'd like to be able to see um legal advice added to that verbage as well um because if one board member is asking I think it would be beneficial for all of us to have that information yes yes you're absolutely correct and my recommendation would be that you authorize the board president to be the representative to talk to legal counsel right and that is that's the current policy okay um but being being able to share with the rest of the board is what I um I'd like to be able to see in this protocol and that's part kind of as an as an overview that's part of that that team of six we're a team of six right and we want to all have the same information we want to be able to act in good conscious so we know you know kind of where we're going from here with regards to those those things that are highly complicated right and and same would apply um I know there's you know Personnel situations where the superintendent would contact legal and obviously that's not our business um but anything that's board related um it would potentially include the superintendent as well to to let us know that information with that excuse me with that information come from the legal Personnel at that point not from the board president how would that best be communicated um different different General councils um and board presidents you know may have different modes of communication so to speak and you have an excellent uh general counsel here tonight and that's an issue that you would want to have coordinated with the superintendent board president and general counsel yeah and there's no one way to do it as long as those three individuals are on the same page and then to our previous Point all all board members are included kind of once it's appropriate to to share right she mentioned she said executive session and absolutely that that's one of theen communicated is during executive session correct okay thank you um and going back to page two as far as um confidentiality um there have been several instances where um information has been leaked from executive session and it's ended up on social media um there's at least two instances that I'm aware of um and that's extremely concerning for me um another uh issue I have is um so when it comes to emails that we receive um I don't know what the what would be the protocol I I would assume that any type of information we receive through email or communication with the district that that information isn't just publicly shared um one example um I had um submitted a um press release to the media with my phone number on it and a board member shared it with one of their friends and exposed my personal cell phone number to the public and it was posted on social media within 20 minutes of the board receiving that press release um and then I started getting phone calls from parents um and that's absolutely unacceptable um that that was shared because the media wouldn't expose my phone number I put my phone number on there for the media if they needed to contact me um but M Richards share shared that press release with the board at 1101 by 1128 it was on social media um and the I had one parent um I was at work when she called me and I made the mistake of answering the phone um and then she just wouldn't get off the phone so um so I want to ensure that there is something thing within our protocol that um information should not be shared publicly um without redactions being made and that um it should probably go through a public records request um versus board members just sharing it with their friends within the community C can you provide clar Dr I'm sorry can you provide clarification um you asked a good question if I recall from public records are we are considered custodians or because we're elected officials we are considered custodians of public records is that correct yes m m mclenon is an expert a Statewide expert on open meeting law okay so thank you Dr Ogle and uh president Anderson um the the districts uh as public officers the communications that you create that are about board business business are public records you're not necessarily the custodians of those public records because um they are kept in the course and scope of your District's business on so uh they would be kept on your District server your District email so the documents that are created are public records because you're public officials and it's about board business if it's about your personal lives then they're not considered public records even if they're kept on the district server I hope that answers so that's what I was trying to understand is we don't have the ability to share emails with um anybody else correct that needs to go through the proper channels of the public records request through the district office correct Madam president members of the governing board the um there isn't a Prohibition that I'm aware of Legally on you as board members sharing information that you receive unless there is an confidentiality provision that would apply so if you got information about students you could not share it you got information that's protected under Hippa you could not share it but is it is there a state law that prohibits the sharing of information from board members no would it be best to go through those protocols yes it's a risky road because you could potentially be sharing confidential information without being trained or going through the proper channels to redact or not share that information correct yeah members of the board when I'm training young superintendents on this topic I typically kind of in a casual way say I when I was in the seat I never put anything in an email that I wasn't comfortable reading on the front page of the newspaper because you just don't know right you just don't know where it might go once it's written and electronically sound I'm president Anderson Mr Ogle and obviously my press release was public it was just my phone number that I was concerned that that was made P you know publicized and that should not have been because that was only meant for the press to be able to contact me um but um Miss mlen can you um remind the board of the uh what are the consequences of violating um open meeting laws when it comes to Executive sessions sure um Madam president miss fin hook the um opening law enforcement team is typically run out of the Attorney General's office although it can also be other state agencies that look into concerns uh uh with a first violation they typically would not impose a fine but would impose training um sometimes they have uh items posted other options a second violation a second knowing violation is a $500 fine and that's per violation and then a third would be up to A2 $500 fine and also um the possibility of being unseated correct Madam president miss Van Hook you're correct the Attorney General's office has the ability to request that a court remove a public officer through an enforcement action thank you so much do you have more m v hook okay okay um so president Anderson um and Dr Oak I wish to extend my gratitude I was the one who asked to you know start looking at some of these things because I think it matters I think consistency matters um even though we will have disagreements and those types of things how we present that information is important because being united essentially toward some of that thing is is helpful for us to do business in The District in the community and how we're viewed Beyond um I think the only thing that I wish to express is that even though we may have the rights to do certain things with respect to Media I think it's it's very easy for us to get into a position that is difficult if we're commenting on things in a public fashion because it could very quickly become uh an agenda item and then the problem is if one board member makes a comment on something and then another board member makes the same comment on something and if other board members can view it I recognize these are great areas and that these laws were written originally before social media's existence but there's a lot of potential problems that exist um I wish to extend gratitude to board member Schultz in the manner with which you brought up something that you cared about in terms of instead of just doing it putting it to the board first so we can have a discussion rather than putting it out there in a way that either a we were aware of or be as if it doesn't matter to check with us because again we are part of a board as a whole and I also think it's important to understand that when we make public statements whether that is because we have a desire to clarify what is being misunderstood by the public or to clarify a position that we held or how we feel about something um while that I understand the desire to do so I think the hard part is that how it gets viewed is that we all are in the position to be able to do that and again we can't we can't all make a public statement on something outside of a board meeting that's part of the reason that these board meetings exist and then it puts your fellow board members in a very difficult position because now we have to sit and express to people that I genuinely do care about what's going on or I do have frustrations or I do wish to communicate something and either I will at the board meeting when the the issue arises or I already have and I can't speak to that and so so I I think it's important to recognize that sometimes even though we may wish to do certain things or how we wish to go about them that our actions go beyond just us in that moment and it's not necessarily uh in efforts of being a courteous and respectful board to put other people in a position that not only runs the consequence of legal ramifications but of painting a picture that is hard when you're not a part of the conversation president Anderson I'm glad we're having these conversations um and there's a couple things that I try and ask myself as a board member um before doing something saying something um because I can doesn't mean I should um and and so you know I have to go through and think about those things because there's a lot I can do but should I what are the like board member Wade was saying what are the consequences not just to me but to my fellow board members to The District to to the staff within the district um and I I think that we'll work on our relationships and our communication um I agree in all aspects of it and I think if there is a need that that we have to put something out publicly I think that conversation needs to be had with the superintendent and say um look I feel very passionate about this this is what I would like to do can we do something together and not in a threatening way but this is the information I'm going to put out there so we can work together or um or it's going to ride and so I think that if we work on our relationships um just like we talked about in our our board retreat um I I think that we can avoid some stuff that we fell into this last year um I do Dr Ole I I'm kind of back on number 6A um where you talking about giving the district time uh more time to prepare and and we've had this conversation as a board um and I hear you but as board members we need time to prepare too um and so I don't know what the right answer is um I think most people uh know yes we're elected but these are volunteer positions um we were not pay paid for it we're not compensated for it um several of us have uh jobs employment outside of the home um and so trying to as we try and encourage our staff to try and have a work life balance um we're trying you know some board members are trying to have a work life and volunteer balance and and I get we've put ourselves in these positions um and so so I I don't know what the right answer is because part of our five days includes the weekend so it's not like we're asking for it to be on Monday and they have five working days per se and trust me I know you guys work on the weekends I'm not saying you don't um but that um and that then we're we're meeting on Friday um we're asking to get them on Thursday so that we can be prep prepared on on our meetings on Wednesday um but part of this is one of our protocols was that we would be if we have questions because we established this back in um if we have questions on our board packet we're needing to submit those to um the governing board secretary by a certain time so they have time to research them and they can get that information back to all board members um as well as then they're prepared for the questions to come up in our meeting so we're we're really trying not to Blindside anybody um so I guess for me my concern and I I'm just looking for some feedback here is um if we're already having that really only leaves us three days to review our board packet before we need to get them questions so they have two days to research and provide answers and then that way it gives us hopefully a little bit of time that I you know I find a lot of times the questions when I get the questions and answers then that's created some more questions for me and and so um I mean what would you what has been your experience in that one practice questions and answers or well one practice that I have seen effectively done is to um inter in um into is to intermittently have working sessions so that the board meeting becomes a b just a business meeting and you have your informational kinds of discussions and information presentations at your working sessions so that all board members are receiving reports from senior staff you're getting updates on things that are pertinent to decisions that are yet to be made so when they come to the board table on an agenda you've already you're already familiar with it and that's the purpose that that some districts with a lot of complexity like Higley um that's how they kind of sort through to uh incrementally moving boards towards decision making and some of the veteran superintendants will tell you that you you don't want your board voting on things that they haven't seen once or twice before right and so if you do a working session you know once a month to do those kind of things then when the business meeting comes along it's move to approve you know move to approve kind of thing and it takes that that pressure off of I got to have if you know if you're a superintendent I got to have this board packet ready you know a week before the board meeting well and you know 10 things are going to happen after I make the board packet um and so there's that stress on your superintendent and the stress at for the board member is I really don't want to vote on things I'm not familiar with right and so there therein lies the art form so once upon a time long long ago um we did used to do um I just lost the word um work studies a work study before the meeting and this kind of goes back to some of the comments regarding our time that we start um our work studies used to start at 5: and then our board meeting would start at 6 so we would have an hour that we would get some presentations and information and it would be a rather casual conversation we could ask questions if they didn't know the answers then um and things like that the problem with that and kind of why it got changed is that long long ago is we were being introduced to information for the first time in that work study and then being expected to come out here and vote on it and it was like we that was 12 years ago when I got on the board and it's like I you're asking me to process just like you said you're asking me to process something I'm getting this 20 slide presentation on you're asking me to try and go through every scenario and process it and then less than an hour go out here and vote on it so um as we Chang superintendents we kind of changed that structure a little bit and uh and we had the intent on kind of every other meeting that we were having is kind of an informational thing but there is board business that has to be conducted at every meeting and so um that's kind of where we see those informational items on some board Pockets were heavier on informational items than we are on on action items so that might be something going forward that we look at doing again if we're going to do a work study again it's it's where our informational items are um we can ask questions and things like that a lot of our presentations and that can be from 5: to 6 and then look at starting our board meetings and doing our board business um after six o'clock that's how we right that's how we used to run them um and then like I said when we ended up changing some things and um they tried to change the work study and kind of Incorporated it in every other meeting um and that's how we got to we were still starting at 5:00 we were are trying to respect the the staff who have been here and worked all day and then have to return the next day as well um you know so things like that so there was a lot of different reasons how that's changed so um thank you for that suggestion that perhaps we can look at doing some work studies and then like you said the pressure of us getting that so early to be able to um try and do our own um research and and information so we're prepared and so that they're prepared that might change some of that Dynamic right and complicated issues need soak time and so um and and kind of back to some of the beginning comments that we were talking about when you that that team of six right board superintendent team can be so powerful when you're fitting hand and glove and the board is getting the kind of information they need and the superintendent is getting the feedback that he or she needs and then board meetings become pleasurable business meetings right and you get your work done and um that doesn't mean there's not disagreement I mean you know uh differences of opinions are healthy I mean you have a diverse district and people voted for you and so you're representing a wide variety of individuals right and uh differences of opinion at the board table that's that's natural and healthy but when you work as a team you come to a decision and support the decision right president Anderson U Mr ogal um one of the things that we discussed was having a working agenda so that as things are coming you know as they get things that they just add it but they um if if we were to agree to um have the agenda initial agenda released on Wednesday and right now we're getting it on Thursday so it's just the request was just to um just to add one more day but that it would be a working agenda and they can add things as they go that gives us the opportunity to at least research the stuff that's already been added um and you know as we go through the week that if they need to add more stuff that they're I mean they're already doing that um for instance we got our our uh agenda on Thursday when I looked on Friday there was all the numbers had been changed and then when we got our Q&A back um they mentioned that several other items had been added so it's already functioning like that um but if we can at least start Wednesday that gives us board members an additional day um to be able to start researching things so that um as Miss ree said um we are volunteers and you know I work full-time um and so my weekends are you know my time with my family and to be able to run errands and so that time is very important to me um not that this is is not important to me because I I do put a lot this has become a full time job for me as well um and and I I enjoy that um but so if if that could be an option versus a a Works study um then we can consider that as well um another thing um Miss uh board member Reese had mentioned um was that obviously you know working on on our relationships um and and I hope to do that that um the last year I've I've struggled um because uh there's been many requests that have been ignored um I've been lied to um I've I've had to request things three or four times before I finally got an answer um so it's been very frustrating and and then you know the worst is is finding out that that I was lied to about something that I I had questioned and so in order to build that trust um I need to know that um my questions aren't ignored that I'm not being lied to that you know be honest with me um whether I'd like the answer or not um I I expect honesty um and the same treatment um that every board member gets and I feel like I I've been the the odd odd one out and and and the the mistreatment has been pretty awful for the last year so I do look forward to building those relationships and and for things to improve going forward um that's all so being a board member is difficult work and it's sometimes very challenging but you're the rewards can be so great and when it works and when it's working it's really rewarding and very important to your community and so you should be very proud of the work you're doing and you should lean in and enjoy it and it should be at the end of the day something that you're very proud of and um you know you've got a great district and you've got a a a great senior staff and you you can do this I appreciate all the information um and sharing um being very candid and and your feelings and every and and um ideas board member Wade made a great point I don't want to steal it from her but if steal away she she mentioned when we talking about the work study option possibilities that it should potentially also shorten our actual meetings you already discussed that that would be business based and focus on business so that's another added um um entitle or bonus of it um with this what we're going through this is a something that we have draft on it so are we going to eventually approve this whole document is this what we're looking at because as we discuss the diss dissemination of information that's already on the agenda for today and now we're talking about time change and maybe looking at work study so that would be a a a different item later on a future agenda item before we finalize this whole document is that correct president um Anderson I did want to mention that cabinet was looking at potential board board meeting dates and we have been talking about the potential value of work study sessions where there's conversation um and it doesn't feel brushed or so formal so I mean we can bring our thoughts on that and you can add your thoughts to that all of you as well president Anderson I just want to add two more things if I can please one um on Page Six for the after meeting protocols the board members and staff will support uh the decision of the board um like Dr ogal is said you know we don't always have to agree um and supporting the decision doesn't mean you voted for um the item but as board members we have to respect that if three board members if at least three board members voted for it and it passes that is what it is is and we have to respect that decision and um so one of our protocols here is that we'll support or stay silent it's not we're not saying you have to go out and be a cheerleader for it um clearly people know how how we voted um but it's important that we we support once that direction has been approved by the board that we support that direction um and and not undermine it uh because it's really easy to to fall in that trap um so I think that that that was really important when we created these it is also part of um being a board member that that is the expectation of being a board member um and the last thing I just want to um kind of touch on in here is is that we we just as board members we remember and and how we have respecting our superintendent and um and each other we need to respect our our community and our staff that's presenting to us that they deserve our attention when they're presenting it's not even the people who get up and speak and and we've he heard from multiple people when they come and speak and they said you know oh this is harder than I thought it was that they're not public speakers it is hard to get up there and talk um and so we need to respect our our staff when they're giving us their presentations even though we've seen it um and in some cases there are times where um where we've seen the same one multiple times either by law that we have to see it multiple times or that it's just it's information that is important that we've seen it multiple times so I just want to remind each of us that that they deserve our attention um our full attention and um that our phones and and things like that should be kind of silenced put away so um we all have families and if we have something with an emergency you know we can always step out and and handle that so um just a a quick reminder because that was also in our protocols um uh president Anderson um board member ree uh I do you know what page that was on um I didn't see it they updated yeah I I would like to um add um any texting or personal Communications during board meetings to the policy um and and I've had concerns all last year um due to um repeated texting during board meetings and um sometimes even um use of laptops and um shopping online or um so I would like to include any personal Communications uh not to happen during board meetings and um I think it didn't help when last year when we had um I forget his name uh the asba attorney that um attended and said well as long as it's you know if it's personal communication it can't be uh P you know people can't do public records request but I think that you know if it's happening during a board meeting it should be open to public records request or you should just not be doing it at all and be concentrating on um what's happening at the board meeting it's on page five as our on the original Norms um and it's posted here too so board member ree are you asking potentially to put all those meeting Norms back into this document or Vice President Van Hook I would love it if we can add that verbage into the um new policy protocol you mean oh protocol yeah sorry uh it is listed as one of our meeting Norms um I think our I think our original document um is a good point of reference um do it's on page five do I think that it all needs to necessarily be there I don't know um but I do think that we spelled it out a little more um we do have them posted here at the dis as well um for our meeting Norms to be on time be present and participate silence uh cell phones and if Emer emergency calls need to be taken leave the room listen atten ly um with openness and respect to those speaking and voice concerns as we go um be real and authentic with others in a respectful way is what our meeting Norms are I I would I would like to add um aside from just silencing cell phones but um no texting and no personal or personal no personal electronic use during board meetings maybe putting our HD meeting Norms in the protocols in our draft document I don't think there's anything wrong with those I think that's reasonable we can do that I think it's a great idea it definitely covers communication um in protocol so I think it's an excellent idea to put that in there it's like with students adults are the same we've going to have to say it this has been sitting in front of me for almost for 3 years now and I forgot that it's even there I've just seen it it's just it's just left so it's good to re and have it in there we have do have any more comments questions or comments we'd like to discuss or or recommend to add if we think of something president Anderson if we think of something later can we uh when do we expect to um bring this back do you know just to kind of have a time frame of how long we have to be able to then miss Vice President Van Hook I'm gonna get it in a minute uh I would like for us to bring your suggestions back at the next board meeting so because I think what Dr Ogle said about you know in terms of hiring a superintendent I think that individual might like to have have this put together together with your support so perfect thank you thank you this was excellent I appreciate it and thank you for recommending it that we have this time okay we ready to move on item 6.3 first review of the fiscal year 2024 maintenance and operation budget for Mr Moore please this working uh good evening president Anderson members of the board tonight I will be presenting the first review of the 2025 uh school year budget so yes we are already looking at next school year um this has been our practice to bring forth um in January uh the first review looking at projections as you know um it's become a very competitive market in terms of who can get out there first with teacher contracts so what that means is it backs uh you know everybody up in the process so that means HR has to have contracts reviewed I have to have budget projections on and so um that is just the the industry standard right now so um we have adopted our practices to bring forth um the conversations regarding the fiscal 25 budget early in January for anticipated approval attentative approval in March so tonight we'll look at a first review um and I do want to give kudos you I get the pleasure of Pres presting this budget but there's a finance team that that assists me every day and and Sharon Rush Camp she's stayed around but I just want to you show my appreciation to Sharon and all the help she does to uh keep this District fiscally uh sound in terms of saying you know positive in the block and then also looking forward with New Year numbers and projections so let me see there we go okay so I have uh continued to bring forth a calendar to try to orient the board and the public on where we are in the budget process and where we're going um so the Arizona school budget timeline um these are the the standardized dates and statute again we kind of operate earlier to issue contracts earlier um but we'll be looking at two items today we'll looking at the FY 24 Revis budget which is required by Statute every District Revis the budget revises their current year budget to 100 day ADM numbers we are current year funded that 100 they as Mr Richard mentioned in the superintendent's um report just happened the last Friday um so we have a preliminary look at those numbers and then we're going to be looking at fy2 the proposed and adopted budget that legally happens in June again we bring that tentatively in March to issue contracts um but those are the two dates that we're going to be looking at today and then going into next year um budget revision number one of 25 would happen in December if for some reason we were off more than 1% on what we adopted back in June so constantly talking about budget what we know so far about the fy2 budget um is the following item so the agre expens limit um we this is a constant conversation um currently will school districts face this again in 25 there is no permanent fix right now but it has over the last two years seemed to be a practice that the legislators have utilized um the a exemption uh a single year exemption in the budget conversations when either approving bills or in the legislative process so I think I do foresee that being the case again this year um and you know it hopefully doesn't become a bargaining chip um for some of the bills that are being proposed but um I do foresee that being approved and there are some legislation out there that have uh permanent fix um to this problem and so we'll we'll monitor those closely as the the process just kicked off in terms of the legislative process so we'll monitor that so in short it's still in statute that we are expected to um cut schools we are currently overe expending 1.3 billion but in sure I I do see an exemption to 25 as is what has been practiced in the last previous year so we'll follow that um known budget implications the estimated budget um inflation amount the state is currently running about 3.4% they minimally have to obligate 2% um and so we anticipate that being the case as it has been the case in the last couple years so that is utilized in these projected numbers um and a couple other notes small minor changes Arizon State retirement system while it increased last year now they're decreasing this year I'll be at .02 2% uh that does affect both employees and employers but that is a very small percentage and uh will not be affecting the budget in a large capacity the alternative contribution rate took a bigger decrease that is for retirees uh that have our retired from the state retirement system they pay a lower rate that's just under 10% um that is decreasing 2% and lastly our budget transfer estimates um Higley has utilized the uh ility to transfer M dollars to Capital to fund capital projects um with limited Capital dollars this has been our Avenue in which we have uh utilized to fund those capital projects um currently uh we do have a middle school lease obligation of 3.5 million and that's all that we are looking at currently um to transfer um from M to Capital and fiscal 25 um again we'll have a conversation greater conversation at the next board meeting regarding capital projects and our capital budget but that is the number we're using in the estimates tonight um one of the main formulas in the budget in School District budget is ADM right student enrollment that's one of the main multipliers and so when we're looking at projecting 100 day ADM at the time I did this presentation uh we didn't have the exact numbers but these are going to be relatively within a few students um what we're seeing is is what we're seeing around all our neighbors uh is is some declining enrollment mainly in the uh the preschool and Kinder in the 8 through e8th grade um this graph represents I've broken out both our kind of preschool through 8th grade and our 9th through 12th grade and so if you look at the top you'll see a trend over the last five years of um well we did have a spike in 22 generally declining uh enrollment in uh K8 on the flip side our secondary has seen an increase in enrollment and that has been trending upwards um over the last 5 years but when you take those two numbers together that is what we're funded on um we adopted a budget at this in June of uh ADM of 12533 474 again average daily membership is not headcount you'll see the district utilizes kind of that interchangeably um often times you'll hear we have 13,500 students yes because ADM that doesn't include preschool the preschool numbers here we are only funded for sped preschool students and the state only funds .5 of a kindergarten student so if we have 800 kindergarten students only 400 are included in that ADM number so important to note whenever I'm referencing ADM ple that that does not mean we don't we don't have those students in in physical capacity when we reference student count at 135 so yes we're only funded for5 of a kindergart but we do offer full day kindergarten um and back to the the 100 day so we back in 24 we adopted a budget of 12533 um what we're looking at projecting for ADM is um about 190 um ADM lost which is about uh negative 1.5% of our total ADM looking again District wide I said we are not immune to this problem um this has been National Trend in terms of either lower birth rates Arizona is one of the more competitive States in terms of um you private education uh those aren't captured and these numbers they're not required to submit up um ADM so when we look at our surrounding districts um again we're not alone um Benjamin Franklin Queen Creek some of our the Far East um Southeast parts of the valley where growth is still happening um you can see percentage changes in the positive um but more of our kind of you know Central uh school districts that have aging populations are seeing um enrollment decline okay so looking at um our current year budget and revision number one which would occur officially in May but again it has budget implications going into next year um again we adopted a budget of 124 million again that was on June 28th um we transferred um from M to Capital 5.6 million part of that to support the lease payment and the other port to support um additional capital projects that we've outlined in that Capital plan um that budget uh did include a onetime state aid adjustment um that we allocated towards Capital again to support our capital projects um and included a estimated budget balance carry forward of 23.7 million looking at our projected revision um again we are projecting ADM loss of 190 um that is the main um multiplier in the budget formula and so you'll see that's going to be one of the main indicators on why we'd be decreasing our current year budget um in addition our ml transferred Capital that would be the same um but we're our estimated budget AMS carry forward is coming down um greater than what we estimated back in June um so that is estimated at 22 million so combination of the estimated budget balance carry forward in the loss in ADM um in may we will be looking at decreasing our budget by 2.4 million so that's one part of the equation looking towards 25's budget so this is next school year we take our revised estimated revised budget that we just reviewed that would be again including that ADM loss um and the reduction in budget bounds carry forward uh that total is about 122 million looking at the projected proposed budget um we feel you know talking in cabinet uh we feel it's prudent to start to budget for ADM loss it has been a trend um and so if we do not proactively budget for a loss and we assume a greater loss than flat or what we've been practicing it puts us at risk for you know not being able to fund programs staff Etc and so um it is I think at this point in time prudent to start budgeting for um a loss in enrollment um so we can be conservative in our budget estimates and be able to support our programs for the extent of the fiscal year in which we adopt that budget the in addition um I talked about this in the highlights but M Ando transfer to Capital we would be proposing right now um reducing that to just fund the lease payment that we're obligated to make U for our two middle schools and currently it's I know it's way far in advance but we're we're currently tracking an estimated budget balance carry forward of 22 million so we take those into consideration um that budget does include the 2% inflation so if you're wondering why that's increasing um that does include the 2% inflation increase that we're anticipating from the state uh we arrive at a budget of 125 million so we take that increase minus the decrease and we get a net budget change of about $1 million um the biggest factors in that again is reducing the M transfer to Capital so we're leaving more money back in M um and then the 2% inflation Factor on 25 looking ahead it is 6 months out before we get to June a lot of these conversations um regarding the 25 budget are are currently taking place um in terms of property Casualty Insurance um we did have good news the other day we are eligible this is our third year with the trust so we are eligible for a um a loyalty credit of up to 3% of our total premium obligation so 3% on 800,000 uh so we do anticipate some savings actually in in this category pending um some of our other areas where we've seen increased usage um such as prepaid legal that is a function of prop of the property C insurance so um we're working on those Ral rates we'll have more as we progress in this um budget comp ation workers comp um unfortunately we've seen some some higher claims this year in terms of workers compensation but in the same token um the workers comp is uh under paid under the trust and it is also eligible for a loyalty credit so we're hoping um we're um hoping to receive a credit up to 3% of our workers compensation um insurance and so we pay about 450,000 in workers compensation so that 3% is a big um benefit to help offset any increases in that area utility increases um you living in the town of Gilbert I think you've heard about utility rates increasing we are not immune to that uh we will see the same increase and so we're currently projecting out what those increases will mean to hly unified um and then our annual kind of compensation um conversations in terms of FTE addition and reduction and classification so we're currently looking at Staffing um with Miss Karen Johnson and cabinet um obviously with Elementary decreasing there may be opportunities right there to reduce sections at elementary on the flip side with secondary increasing we may be adding uh sections on the secondary side and so um we're finalizing that conversation um and those conversations right now um and looking at uh projected enrollment as well as where those reductions or additions will take place so and then after we get all that uh we'll look at potential compensation increases and how that factors into the um into the budget conversation so I know a lot not a lot of information there but um it's a factor of starting this conversation so early um but at the next meeting kind of segueing um we anticipate having some more of these uh items filled out and having some numbers to look at so at the February 21st meeting we'll look at the second review of Theo budget as well as the first review of the capital budget and then due in part to the superintendent search this year we do have less board meetings in which to talk budget I know I know we all love to talk budget but uh so it'll be prudent um if you know board members do have questions I would say after the February meeting um if there is additional questions over time you wish you wish to sit with me or or M Richards or Karen Johnson um to to schedule those because we do have one less board meeting this year than in Year's past so um going to March 6 we will ask for tentative approval so we can also issue contracts um and get into the swing of things that all other districts are doing at that time which is you know guaranteeing in terms of Staff that's our biggest budget Factor um teachers and staff and so if we do not issue contract smart chicks we will be behind the eightball um and that will consequently hurt us in terms of Staffing retaining teachers Etc and so um at that time we'll also look at the second review of the capital budget um if necessary and then in April 3rd our practice has been tentatively approving the capital budget to allow us to get ahead of those projects in uh the summer um tended approving the capital budget allows us uh time to procure any long lead items that may be needed um or may be scheduled for construction during those summer times when there is no students in class we have access to the entire facility without disrupting learning and education so and then as I mentioned in the previous timeline officially we'll bring back the proposed and adopted budget as outlined in statute um a lot of those numbers we foresee not changing from the March 6 meeting but if they will if they do we will highlight those at that time so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions president Anderson um I I'm concerned that so you you mentioned that the expectation is that they're going to lift that AAL again um but what if they don't then um what do we do in that case I think the district has um looking at this year's budget we we have worked on uh in terms of obligating Esser dollars to not positions we have used to onetime cost um there there was um opportunities to supplement operational costs in the last couple years with the Esser dollars that is running out in June but we have accumulated a budget balance carry forward of of 23 million and we're estimating coming down slightly but to 22 million so in any instance we are still covered if a were to come to fruition um because the estimated budget reduction would be about 16 to 17 million that we would have to reduce our budget we could easily cover that with our budget balance carry forward and continue operations as planned and how long do we forecast for like how long have far out so currently the state funds us on current year funding um so we are constantly looking ahead but then revising current year so we forecast out uh 3 to 5 years but those numbers are constantly being estimated and changed um enrollment can change daily and and then that affects our current year budget which then is a vicious cycle down the road so um we do forecast I person we forecast three to five years out um yeah I'm used forecasting n years out so I I completely understand how that could change um my question then is right now obviously um with birth rate being down um and impacting K through six um looking at the future and those as these kids get older and you know our high schoolers graduate and as these kids move forward you see those numbers decreasing in middle school and high school um and hopefully by then we have you know more people having kids to fill our K through six um but are you counting in those future years are you counting that current decrease moving on to middle school and high school that that is one factor we look at uh one issue we have we have very um we have very special programs in our district one being Bridges and then our high school programs attract a number of students outside our district we attract almost 2,000 students outside our boundaries we see a lot of those come in um to our secondary levels um they may not be currently enrolled and then they enroll as freshmen because we offer a number of programs that cannot be met with either um neighboring districts or or that is either we see them going from private school or home school to the secondary level then that is nearly impossible to predict we have trending data but it's just a variable that is very hard to predict and with um esas coming into the picture now too it has changed the landscape of enrollment prediction um because not only are we seeing decreases Charters are seeing decreases and so we're assuming those kids are going to private or or some other form of Education or I mean in general the the general student body population of of qualified you know kids K12 is is decreasing too so that is why we're starting to project ADM decrease and in in our budget cycle now um to account to account for some of those instances of Aging out you know grading out when we run you know a Kinder class through 12th grade we know when you're bringing in a smaller Kinder class that's going to move up the ladder so that is one factor but there's there's other factors that kind of com that formula it's not one simple formula got it and for um for homeschoolers within our district so I know like homeschool kids have the ability to come and utilize our sports do we get any funding I don't even know if we have any of those students but we we don't get funding for those kids no no but I and I think in sports I would have to refer to Mr lotson Heiser I don't think we currently allow that as a practice so there's two different things that are at play here one is the traditional homeschool student who's registered with the county we do not get any funding for those at all they have to pay the uh fees that we have but we do not get any additional funding uh the second part with the uh esas uh students that are on Esa are current practices that we treat them similarly to a home school which is what the AIA Direction was uh there are conversations right now about that possibly changing through through the AIA but that not has not moved any further uh some other districts have um started to charge them uh the true cost of doing a how much it costs to have an athlete participate because it's not just our fees does not cover everything Transportation coaching equipment electricity everything we have not brought that forward uh there are two districts that I know of Gilbert and Mesa that do charge students who are on esas if they want to participate in our athletic above and beyond the um the fee that we charge them for example at our meeting today it was discussed that if you uh live in Gilbert uh Gilbert's boundaries and you're on an Esa that you you were charged uh $1,250 to participate in a sport above and beyond their pay to play fee because that's the true cost of what happens for their Athletics so those are some discussions that we can have and I can bring back to Tyler and finance cabinet to propose if that is a situation but currently we are charging them the athletic fee the same way we would do to a uh student who's within our boundaries thank you um yeah my understanding was if you're on Esa you can't participate in Local District Sports only actual homeschoolers can do that um but I don't know if that changed the IIA made a recommendation uh last year at the beginning of the year basically that if a a parent can prove that they're on an Esa because the problem is if you're on an Esa you cannot get an affidavit uh for a home school and so we've only had the instance of one student so far within our district and so when we looked at it they had to verify to us that they were not going to a private school because if you attend a private or a chart or any other or an online school that is not the same thing as being homeschooled uh those people are not allowed to participate once we had that verification we charge them the fee and we have to verify they live in our boundaries and they have to go to the school have the boundary that they live in in order to participate so we've had that uh happen one time so far this year thank you yeah CU I um once you once you accept Esa you're no longer considered a homeschooler you're considered a home educator um so that definitely changes things um is it possible to get a list of like all the kids that are within our district that are on Esa um or that are out of boundary um just all the different or is that something that I can pull myself from I think ad ad makes public the esa but like I haven't been able to pull that information um but they do ad does have a list of showing how many students are coming into higgle unified and how many students are going to other districts such as chander Gilbert Queen Creek Etc that live within our boundaries so and that's the information that you do have yeah that's public on ad we can certainly share that link with the governing board perfect I I can pull it thank you um and I I want to say um Maricopa County superintendent's office could probably provide the esa numbers but I'll find out um and then also I had asked for the totals as far as the the funding per student um and I didn't get those final numbers that included um not just base but also with transportation and um Federal funding and um all the other funding that we get per student yeah so U member van we did provide you that information um the we did not provide you information that included federal and state grants as it's not a per pup it doesn't affect um the total population so when you get Federal fun funding for you get that for specific needs such as special education title students it's targeted funding to help support those students who have a higher need or high or need basically more assistance um and so that would not be in my opinion applicable when you include that into the total convers or total budget of the district and and kind of divide that by our total student population now you're taking that Federal funding and applying it to other students it may not apply so and I Know It differs for 504 and IEPs and and things like that but um so we have we have state funding but then we also have um property tax local funding um so even if you can't include the federal amount um are are you able to provide at least local and state funding totals cuz all I the the last I saw it was like $4,700 which would be the base and then we have the additional uh all the other funding that's on top of that so I believe we provided I think in one of the last statuses and updated and it included not only all our state our state funding is our property taxes that's those are one and the same what we do with our budget is levied by the state to on our property tax base so what we adopt as a as what the board adopts is levied to all our taxpayers so that is State funding like there's no additional State funding we get on top of our Levi budget right but that $4,700 does not include um well so what I was getting to what we did provideed not that included our Capital funding our M override um and th those were the three sources so our our m capital and our M override are the three sources that apply to every single student in our in our district um we ex have to look for that I'm sorry we can I can resend it yeah thank you Mr Moore and board member Van Hook I I believe the meeting at the very least that we talked about it is when we talked about the potential of looking at do we do another M override this year and a bond because that's the some of the funding differences and how some of the MOs are are coming up to like laps and those types of things and so I think that was potentially why it got lost in the mix just cuz we were talking about a lot of stuff at that time um but I'm assuming to when we talk more about that in the future meetings because we have to address whether or not we're going to do those this year that that will come up as well yeah and and I can give you those numbers and status but yeah um and president Anderson Mr Moore um I do want to mention that I recently um had the opportunity to tour the North Water Treatment in Gilbert which services our entire District because it covers from the 60 all the way to Germain um and one of the um things that I inquired while I was there about was um how that W the rate increase is going to impact our district um and it was interesting to find out that um so the difference between um how the the schools pay for water compared to how we pay for water at home is that schools pay a flat rate um and and but that there's two different flat rates uh one of them is for internal water use and the other one is external um so there's two different rates but they are flat rates whether you use 500 gallons or a th000 gallons um it's a flat rate that that's charged to the school I'm sorry did they base that off size is that what the it's just a flat rate for every school so we pay the same as Gilbert and Mesa yeah every individual school yeah it doesn't matter the amount of gallons you use per school yeah so um so that was that was something nice to to be able to tour and also learn um as far as how that funding impacts us that's all I want to share so to clarify you you were saying that it's a flat rate it's the same flat rate for every single School District no matter the size of the school district within within Gilbert town of Gilbert yeah and and different versus internal use and external use well and then so well you look at the you look at the the number of schools is where differs right Gilbert has more schools so they pay more where we only pay for the schools that we have so sorry just to make sure I'm understanding and not unjustly getting angry for no reason per District want make so it's per school that we have okay there we go that makes that that makes me feel better that's more egalitarian yeah yeah no it's per schools that's all thank you any other questions or comments from Mr Moore under for under the inflation is that where the um wage the um minimum wage increase is that all under there did we or is that going to be something to consider down the road for this school year or anything that we need to be concerned about uh president Anderson the the state does not fund us to um maintain the minimum wage we are just we just held to um that's a kind of unfunded mandate um currently we are we're trending ahead of the minimum wage right now the minimum wage is uh as of January 1 1435 we our current lowest classified hourly salary is 1485 so um the district has been proactive and increasing um all employee groups up to stay ahead of that and avoid um compression as well as um changing midyear and trying to fund that um work to your group to minimum W to meet the minimum wage standard so but that inflation projected in the budget is not meant for that purpose it that is not that inflation is a state formula um where the state if the state realizes over 2% inflation they're obligated to inflate the per people student count by 2% so that's the that's the factor there so but to for the district to maintain minimum wage that is an unfunded mandate that every employer in the state has to meet thank you a quick read just some people would put inflation in the minimum wage together so I just wanted information about that thank you we ready to move on yeah all right uh moving on to 6.4 um BDA board organizational meeting policy first read mam president members of the board um on the agenda tonight we have a first read of policy BDA uh board organization meeting um there was some changes Miss Van Hook pointed out as well uh ARS 15321 was updated to eliminate the Restriction of having a board meeting between January 1st and 15 so we were able to comply with that tonight by having our board meeting just in January as the language and the law uh prescribed um in addition to that we looked at the policy it hadn't been updated since January of 2011 so in addition to that language we cleaned it up a little bit and made it more concise um added some more um precise legal language and that's what we bring forward tonight as the first read questions or comments for our staff thank you uh moving on to our action items 7.1 I sorry no my bad go ahead okay 7.1 I move to approve the proposed changes to policy JK student discipline second any questions or comments regarding what's in front of US president Anderson yes um I guess I have a a legal question um I know we had some discussion about this at our last meeting meeting um it's crossed out that the super superintendent shall recommend policies and I know that there was um some conversation with the ar [Music] ar can it still not indicate that since the superintendent that the board designates the superintendent to do that Madame President Miss ree either sentence is correct legally you can have either sentence you could have the first the sentence as it currently reads which is the superintendent shall recommend policies and develop procedures or you can have the sentence that reads the governing board in consultation shall prescribe rules so the second sentence that is currently added here is an accurate reflection of the law but you but you do p as a matter of fact prescribe the rules because you adopt the student code of conduct okay so if um I mean I like I said I know we had some discussion about this before and it indicates the governing board in consultation what teachers and parents of the school district shall prescribe rules for the discipline suspension and expulsion of pupils to comply with the AR um and you know reviewing this again and we talked a little bit about it tonight in our protocols is that our role is to approve policy um and we employ us superintendent and their role is to um propose policy I guess if you will um policy development and recommendations is the superintendent's role and the board memb role is to approve policy and review procedures so um I mean in this instance and we've had even some conversation tonight I for me as a board member um I'm not comfortable with consultation of with teachers and parents of the district to be determining student discipline like that is um I'm not the expert in that area I'm not um I'm not Mr Walker who attends different conferences who's up Tod date on um current practices I I mean those are those are people we employ within the district to rely on to provide that information now is it a reasonable expectation that information that they're finding and and things like that that we are having conversation with our teachers and I think some of our student discipline is talked about in meet and confer um you know I mean different things that should we be seeking that feedback should we be seeking some Community forums and some feedback sure but the way this is worded is at the governing board in consultation with teachers and parents I'm not the expert in that and that I don't feel that that should be up to me to gather and create that information I think for me as a board member my role is to rely on our experts and our our staff to formulate appropriate current policies to bring forward to the board um and there's and I don't see why the board can't have conversation we have had conversation not going to bring up the word because the word is a buzzword and it means different things but we've had some conversation about different discipline um methods and um and so that is conversation where the board can can participate can give input I'm just that's why I was ask asking from a legal question I get that that's the exact warning out of the ar ar but for me as as a board member we employ and we our superintendent is our design to act in that behalf because that is part of the day-to-day duties so that's why I was asking that clarification um president Anderson board member Reese um whether we like it or not that's state law so um whether we Implement that into the policy or not it's still state law and so we're responsible for It ultimately when it comes to student discipline um well that's why I was asking the legal question is are governing board members expected to do this or are governing board members expected to or permitted to have their superintendent as their design to do this Madame President Miss ree there are inherent um difficult faculties in the governing board directly soliciting the input of teachers and parents other than through a public meeting um so again soliciting the input for instance when you have a um there's a statutory requirement that you get input from teachers on definition of an adequate classroom performance but that's Satisfied by you holding public comment when you adopt that board policy I think the same would likely be true here so to answer your question directly can this board designate that statutory duty to the superintendent yes as long as you are receiving public comment when you are considering the adoption of the student quote of conduct or your discipline policies because it still comes to the board for approval and I mean we we are still a governing body that that approves the policy I just don't see the governing body creating the policy so I think what what you're saying is that you don't see the governing body being the ones who has to directly solicit that input and I agree with you president Anderson um Miss mclen um so can we maybe add verbage leave the red line as it is but then add some verbage that um once we do have the opportunity to have public comment and hear parents then we direct the superintendent to uh I guess work on the policy and to develop the policy and procedures for board approval because I because it ref the policy references the statute um so I I think it's important that the policy reference the language that's within the statute um but we can then add to the policy to say once that's done as our role as governing board according based on the law that we can then designate the superintendent to um to develop the policy based on those conversations I I think that there is a way to put these together I think there is a working relationship um Miss Richard could wrong that's already in place like I've had a meeting meetings with you and Dr Foley where I brought concerns that what came from parents or staff and said hey does this fit the policy we have do we need to change it and in which again correct me if I'm wrong you said and I believe um Karen Sorry Miss Johnson you were there um then you would take it to the committee you would take it to legal counsel and then bring it back for the board um I think we have that in place it's just getting that language correct on the on the uh policy um I agree um that legally we we are given this um through statute but I personally one board member feel that it really I I don't want that Burden Burden of creating discipline or any rules um that go to students but I think together we do take into account parents and students and staff and work with the superintendent and make these policy changes is there a better way as as Miss Van Hook was saying and Miss ree was saying that we can verbalize that I wonder if again from a legal satisfaction standpoint if the governing board and then whether it's parentheses through the designation of the superintendent you know if that right just follow the governing board through the designation of the superintendent or so Madame President Miss ree perhaps uh you could do two things you could SW you could add back in the first sentence and put it after the added sentence so it would start the governing board in consultation shall prescribe the rules um in compliance with ar ar 15843 the superintendent shall recommend and develop procedures for the discipline of students so just add that sentence back in at after the statutory recitation I'd be good with that do we need a motion for that sentence so you have had a motion so you would need to make an amend motion um to revise governing board policy JK as discussed and approve it I'd like oh go ahead um I'd like to make a motion to amend we're amending right am amend the um policy to add back in the um the strikeout um the superintendent shall recommend policies and develop procedures for discipline of students after um ars1 15843 seconded I I'm like I thought we just discussed this okay everything stated accurately correct so we can now that's correct okay so motion and seconded all those in favor I I I now we need to actually vote on the policy with the amendment so do we have to make a second motion I'm sorry what's the question so we approved the amended version now we have to motion to approve again no you had a motion to approve the amended version you never voted on the first motion so you made an amended motion so you're fine procedurally thank you all right moving on to action item 7.2 I move that the governing board take action on the proposed changes taking in can you can we put it back so I can read the uh screen I like to pretend like I know how to do this I'm going to learn just read it it was different than what's here I'm sorry did you make a motion nope not yet I move that we approve policy BBA agenda preparation and dissemination the second Read With The Changes brought forward a second any questions or comments on this President Anderson yes um I reading this I want to indicate that the the district is Administration does not support these proposed changes indicating that it is a procedure not a policy um on the the preparation U board member uh president Anderson board member Reese um but it's already a policy so do we just completely eliminate be well we can eliminate this because the protocols actually reference bedba we can eliminate the change the policy itself is there um instead of changing the wording in the policy of the five days that that's our expected protocols that the policy itself doesn't need to be changed because the policy does meet the 24-hour requirement that's required by law that the board packet or the board agenda things like that has to be posted um no less than 24 hours so it's referencing that um and that we would get that and essentially 24 hours at the 24-hour Mark they can't make any changes if there's changes made it has to be done in the meeting so um so we we never a I mean we had the discussion obviously as far as updating the protocols but we never really agreed on the day I feel like it's still a work in progress because we're still trying to determine if work studies are going to come in or if we're going to modify this that's um constantly you know causing stress um so in that case do we even want to vote this we have to vote there's a motion it doesn't mean we approve it though yeah if we don't if we don't approve it if we deny it then the policy stays as it is and and the policy still there nothing and it just stays as it was prior to okay any changes um and as we talked through our protocols and as we talked through potentially making some changes where information's a little um easier to get or there's not such a a Time deadline things like that so and to note it could also be brought up again to be changed later after those discussions and those types of things yeah absolutely it can be brought up at any time I'm sorry did have we actually looked or reached out to other districts um to see exactly how they do it I'm sure there is differences amongst the districts around us or maybe there are some similarities but is this it sounded like Dr Ole said that um it wasn't very similar to what we do in most cases so I didn't know if we'd actually our district reached out to other district and say how are you all doing this since this is fairly new and it was a great idea from Miss Reese and her team back in the day to be transparent with information and get the information out there president Anderson now we didn't call and find out or look it up however we were committed to the practice like you see in the communication protocols but for example we felt the need to provide the statement this evening um on team violence and we hadn't had time to talk as leadership to even write that so it would have been pushed till February but we were able to get it in the 24hour time block but not the sorry day that's just an example we're working really hard to get things done on time but that's an example and Miss mlon may have input well I I can give you examples from two unified school districts um that I work with so Scottsdale unified they try very hard to get their board members the a draft agenda the Friday before their Tuesday meetings but um they make substantial revisions on Monday and then it's posted within that 24-hour period uh dice art unified has uh board meetings on Thursday um and they my experience has been that they're typically trying to get the information to the board by Monday of that same week and then will publish the final agenda on um the 24-hour within the 24-hour period those are just the two that I work most closely with and president Anders I don't I I don't know how many also have the same procedure that go through email their questions to their board secretary um and things like that I know a lot of times they save their questions for the actual board meetings and and there's nothing wrong with that collectively when we did our protocols and things like that is one through our protocols that was an agreement to try and not put our staff on on the spot it doesn't mean we can't ask these same questions in the board meeting it's just if we have questions they may not know the answer right off the top of their head it gives them a little time to research it um so we we were just trying not to put any of our staff members on the spot and give them time to be able to answer them um otherwise during your meeting there could be a lot of I don't know I'll have to check into it and get back to you and if it's a voting item well I don't have time for you to check into that and get back to me if we're voting on it um so I I think that's where a little bit of the difference comes in and I think for the most part we've agreed that if if we know the majority of the draft is there that we can start you know that we can be looking at it that if we're just notified that there's been a change there's been an update I think most of that is is fine that we know to to go in and take a look um because I really don't want to me personally I wouldn't want to get rid of our little question and answer process because I think it's very helpful um the other thing is too um the amount of questions and stuff like that uh when you have new board members there's a learning curve there's a lot of information that goes on that that people just don't realize um and so as we talked about at the last board meeting too is maybe if there's and depends on if we look at doing work studies and stuff like that that if there is a way that we can prioritize voting questions and non-voting questions you know for information I think that but that's something we're still talking about um because we our board pockets are full of a ton of information and we seek to understand and it may not have it may not be on a voting item it the answer may be more informational not determination on how I'm going to vote I would just like to better understand this and and so that would take some of that pressure off too so um if people I think that's where we're dealing with a little bit of different just perspective is because we do have that question and answer period and we're trying to get time for us to go through it because in all actuality really we have three days to go through it which is no different than these other boards words it's just our three days is so that we have time to get the information and questions to our our staff so if we all held our questions until the meeting I mean I don't think that that would I think we would fall right in line with what other districts are doing I think the reason we're asking for a little more time is because we we made that agreement previously to try not to to catch anyone off guard so that they can answer it and so that we can have the information ahead of time so president Anderson um also I do know that um many in other districts are actually jealous of our Q&A um because they would love to be able to have that within their District um I also wanted to in order to for future board members that come on board um because these q&as are saved on the website instead of board Docs there's no ability to be able to do word searches for instance within those q&as um and I think it would be helpful to be able to um do a word search kind of like what we can do in board docs and we can do keyword searches and things would pop up so for future board members that come on board um it would be helpful if there was that search feature that they can search through those q&as and be able to look up certain words and then be able to get their answer um and and that would prevent that question from coming up again um and so I don't know if that's something that we can maybe move to board docs to allow that search feature keyword search um versus the website because I don't know if the website has that ability mad president I think we're a little bit beyond the agenda topic talking about the well I just it just goes along with the whole but I I I understand um so we can move forward uh of the two districts that you mentioned u m mlon were did they have work studies do they I'm sorry could you repeat did they have work studies the two districts that you mentioned they do have work studies okay so that shorter time frame would work for them because they have that conversation correct so it we are not ready and we to approve oh I'm not going to speak for you we have to correct so moving forward and have we have I motion yet anybody we second we did all that Madam president you did make a motion and it was second so write this down and I don't have it all right all those in favor all those oppose n Nay Nay Nay I say motion fails or is that the language sure thank you okay moving on to to um agenda item number eight future agenda items no we're on 73 wow I'm sorry everybody discuss the date uh 7.3 action item discuss date for superintendent search first round interviews uh who's hook this was you uh president Anderson um so I asked for this to be put on the agenda um because our last board meeting um I don't remember the date whether it was last one or a retreat prior to that uh we had extensively discussed uh the date and time um for that meeting to do our first round interviews um Everybody acknowledged the fact you know as far as our work schedules and um and I think at at that point um I don't I think we had shut the cameras off so I don't think it was recorded um but we discussed that with my work schedule um I I don't get paid for taking the time off um so we had agreed at 1:30 p.m.

um to have the meeting um and then we got an email saying there you know a couple board members had a conflict and you know would you be okay to moving the date to February 1st um you know I asked you know what kind of conflict it was that caused the change um because I had already discussed with my boss to take the time off um to be there on January 31st um and ultimately I said you know I would prefer for it to remain on the 31st at 1:30 um because it's not easy for me to change my schedule um and then few days later we get an email saying the dates been changed the consensus is um Everybody Wants Fe February 1st um and now it's 8:30 in the morning um and with my job my phone rings all day um even if this call is on Zoom at as I'm sitting in my office um there's no way I can concentrate and be able to work at the same time because my phone is non-stop um so I ask that we come back to have this discussion um and as board member ree um stated there's three of us that work outside of the home um but two are self-employed and and two um that as far as I know are not employed um and I'm the only one that out of the board that works for somebody else and not for myself um so it's very difficult for me me to be able to make those changes um and have to go back to my boss and say I I need to change the date but now I need the entire day off um not just two hours so um that's the reason this was placed on the agenda um so that we can have this discussion again and hopefully um consider the fact that it's not easy for me to take that time off Mrs vanan hook oh sorry president Anderson what uh does work for you um the 31st at 1:30 um was the time that I took off um and it's easier for me to take two hours off two or three hours off versus an entire day it's it's very hard um to do that because I I don't get paid and it's it's tough sure I so so the 31st um didn't work for me any longer because um I have a my I have a convention and I'll be out of town I did say that I am happy to call in that I would be on a plane at 4:30 I'm happy to do that um whatever works but Mrs Johnson and I was worried about the technology and that being able to happen I'm happy to accommodate that I don't know how much I can do to be there but I can't miss this for my job so you know I don't I don't know if I mean it's it is through Zoom but um right and so then I said you know I I have free Wi-Fi on the plane at 4:30 I will be in a convention until 2:30 because that got moved um I was supposed to only be gone till Tuesday and now it's through Wednesday um but I I I don't know what that would look like like I'm willing to do it I wasn't I I I just wanted to make this aware that that's what it was um if there is another day that's later in the day or if something else or I don't know whatever might work then I I'm open to whatever works but I those are my restrictions right now that I will be available till 2:30 which is actually 3:30 our time and then uh I will be on a plane at 4:30 which is 5:30 our time president Anderson and the rest of the board I just things I would like to keep in mind is we aren't we all individually have to make accommodation in our schedule and I am more than willing to do what needs to you know be done in order to I agree to this position I will meet for the things that I have to meet for I'm the only one with young kids I'm the so every single time I can't go to certain things because my husband is a physician he can't change his schedule right um I have to get sitters those types of things so I think it's important for all board members in mind that when we make certain kinds of statements or suggestions we aren't the only ones that have to make accommodations and that's hard that's costly that does a lot of things and so again as I expressed at the last meeting I I don't have a work obligation but to suggest that I just have free time in order to be able to do anything so because it was a new day I'm the one who asked for an earlier time because then the hope is I can be home to not have to get a sitter um because that's costly it's costly in multiple ways not only paying for the sitter paying for food for the sitter to get because I'm not the one who's cooking so I think these things are important to keep in mind again I am more than willing to make adjustments but we also have however many other meetings that start at 1:30 in those types of things as well so that was part of the reason why I asked to see if it could be made earlier in the day so I recognize the difficulty all around and I'm not saying we just move on but I I think it's important to note that you aren't the only one impacted and I think that matters um president Anderson I'm sorry board member Wade um and I understand that um my concern was because of her schedule changed that now the other four were were having to accommodate our schedule um and I mean as far as like events uh I I do take a lot of time away from work to attend events to attend school visits um and so uh and and that's part of my concern is because I am requesting so much time off work to be able to be there because I it is important to me to attend school visits and to attend performances and whatever it is and and to attend meetings um but this situation is a bit different because I had already requested that time off and so um you know that's the difference and then having to then move it to 8: a.m.

um and so now I I have to take the entire day off versus just 3 hours um so if we can come up with another date um with a similar time I just know that we're very limited on on the dates which is why we were trying to you know work all the dates in um but what other date would work for everybody else that may president Anderson so I understand everyone's situation um and I guess my concern um we spoke at length to determine and come up we that conversation was pretty detailed and and spent some time um to try and figure out what we could make with schedules how we could make it work um and like she said we're we're very short in time from our first from our first round interviews to our second round interviews so we don't really um we don't really have a lot of leeway there um we did spend a lot of time talking about if they are an out ofate candidate that while we were starting at 1:30 we would start with them earlier so it was less imp act F because of time zones and and things like that so um for me I can make myself available it because unlike that I do have that flexibility but it does create some issues again it's a lot easier for me to not be available for half a day than to not be available for a full day um and everything so I kind kind of back with our communication protocols I I and this is not on anyone but I personally um didn't really like how it was handled because we were we were asked could we move it to the first and then we were asked you know starting at the same time and then it was well how early can you start I so we spent a lot of time coming up with the date and time that tried to work I get some things change um and everyone handles their their own schedules differently um but we did spend a lot of time determining what what could work for everybody um and then the communication just wasn't really great that was coming out and it changed and then I could start earlier I have that flexibility and then to see it was an all day thing and it was like oh that's not what I was expecting you know I mean so I guess we need to work on some communication and and be maybe a little more detailed when we're trying to ask about this but we also need to be aware like you said you're not the only one we're not the only one I'm not the only one one one person is impacting for people's schedule whether whether you had anything scheduled that day or not it's still impacting for people's schedule so I just want to get that out there with the relevance of what we end up doing it has none but I think that's something we need to consider for the future I these are really important it's really hard doing a superintendent search and the interviews this takes up a whole lot more time right now than we regularly have to give and and it's hard so um I'm going to leave it at that for me can I and I guess it kind of goes back to my earlier statement because I can should I can I yes does it make things difficult yes so um I had in my mind planned my this is what I do and so because I schedule things out too so so I'm flexible I can do I can do whatever but um I think that we need to look at in the future when some of these things not a superintendent search but things like this that if they were to come up we need to try and handle a little differently okay um so at this point well to make the point also is once that date was secured I I built schedules around that date right so now something now that we change the date something's going to hopefully be able to get canceled or moved um but everybody has a valid reason um for this so Miss Johnson do we have other options is that what we want to do tonight is actually settle on a date um or are we I'm sorry we have we have to okay so is that something we can do tonight or do you need to get back to us with the availabilities um I think your president Anderson I think the availabilities are the Wednesday that was previous ly selected that Thursday or Friday we really don't have many other choices if we're going to continue with the other schedule that is bringing that means that if we did it on Friday a candidate would have to make reservations that day to fly if they're coming from a state just kind of the scenarios we would be facing right so they would make reservations to come to Arizona for the forums that start the following Tuesday at 5:00 so we have to take that into consideration and I know the timeline was very tight because we wanted to get ahead of the curve correct we wanted to select our superintendent before the other 34 select theirs so we're at a point where it would have to be that sometime that week of um either that Wednesday January uh Jan January 31st February 1st or February 2nd we made a commitment to put out um the information about the finalist on February 2nd and we can still do that but that would be very tight timeline within hours um and so that people could read about who those finalists are before they come to the forums on the 6th of February my suggestion was what about the first at 1:30 this leaves a lot of people unhappy and then if we're all unhappy look at that compromise the only thing that I could do I could see is I I am tied up till 2:30 no matter what like I'm part of the convention and so um on the 31st right the Wednesday if I move my flight then I could call in I would just need to see what that looks like in the amount of time but it would have to be like 230 I wouldn't be available until 2:30 five on the 31st yeah I would just need to see what the flights look like your avail your availability would be broken up and you could I mean if we're doing interviews we we pretty much figured one per hour at 45 minutes with 15 minute intervals and if you're leaving the convention and then you're checking in at the airport and then there what I'm saying like I would figure out if oh to move your flight later to come home after okay I was like that's a lot of breaking up no no I okay I'm with you now and members of the board please keep in mind that the number of First interviews we will be doing has not been determined yet and if we need additional time we need to keep that in mind we have no idea as to how many interviews first interviews will take place we were estimating an amount but we weren't locked into that so was the estimation to lock in number okay well because it was dependent on the candidates that we received that we felt were viable I I appreciate the difficulty that is there with board member Van Hook in order to move a day I also appreciate the difficulty with which board member Schultz is trying to accommodate the schedule I think there's a lot of potential risk with saying you do it on a day that you're also traveling and what I mean by risk is there's just a lot of things that could put potentially happen that we have no control over that could impact your ability to be there that could lead to us waiting to hear from you waiting for you to call in which then makes us later for other types of of appointments with potential superintendant and I I just don't like necessarily the look of that for individuals who are trying to you know shop for us as much as we're shopping for them I I understand I just was trying to to figure out a compromise in here um I got the same emails you know saying 8:30 and so I I had no idea that there was even anything just 8:30 and I thought oh earlier that's all was the the time um board member Anderson my my problem with the first initially when I got the email I said the the first um if we had the meeting at 1:30 I I have to leave at 3:30 to be at an appointment at 4: um which was the problem with the first so I that would only give me two hours um to it would be diff your Mrs Anderson I don't think your microphone wasn't on but I the second she was saying would be too much of a time constraint if we started at 1:30 so if it was Friday it would have to be in the morning or we could start at 1:30 you think on the second Mrs Johnson president Anderson board members um we could do the second just remember the decision will have to be made it's going to be made anyway to who we move to finalist um again there would be no flexibility if we had more than five candidates unless you want to go into late evening if we start at 1:30 the first gave us a little more opportunity to have flexibility if there is more than five if there's less than five fine but if there's more more than five we want to be prepared to have some extra time there to be able to not go into a eight or nine o00 at night interview um I that would be my recommendation is either the 31st or the First with the second being or if we were to start on the second that we start in the morning yeah we couldn't start at 1:30 on the second CU if we are dealing with people people on the East Coast even if we only did the five and we finished at 7:00 our time with the intervals and then had our conversation if we're not making a decision let's just say it was pretty easy decision I don't I'm just saying that that we could be contacting people at 900 p.m.

East Coast time and that's just not an hour and a half each that could go to about 10 10 p.m. um and or do we have or can we um if there is somebody on the East Coast schedule them first yes and that was a ray and Associates intent was to schedule anyone with a time difference at the beginning um when we had the 1:30 start time so that was already in play but again not knowing who the candidates are not knowing how many we will have there's a lot of variables here and so it would be you know it has to remain somewhat flexible the scheduling of the candidates yeah because I mean even if we even if we have [Music] to let's say we had to do the first February 1st does that still give us enough time you mean at 1:30 on the 1 is that we you're talking about like no I'm just trying to understand your question let's say we we did move it to February 1st at 8:30 um would that give us enough time um considering like I'd have to leave by 3:30 latest to like Miss Johnson said it would just depend on how many people we have I mean if we kept it to five um that would put us at about 2 o'l I think I mean if we had five yes we could do up to 7 between 8:30 and 2:30 and and I don't know 330 back to back to back to back and with 15 minute intervals intervals in between and then that would restrict us to an hour of conversation to for determination if we had seven barely an hour um you'd probably only have about 30 minutes to have conversation and I don't know if earlier is possible on the first like I don't know what your schedule what time you start work or like yeah I mean I start anywhere yeah I don't I don't know what or if that works for Mrs if earlier than 8:30 is is is a possibility too and then that would give you that makes my life easier and that my husband works evenings cuz he's urgent care so that's why all of the evening events are ridiculously hard for me so if it was s is that better and give us more time or Mrs Reese either way I'd still have to take the time off yeah I mean I I can I can make it work 90 99 99% of the time I can also make it work but um it's that 1% that messes me up thoughts Miss Anderson Bo member you're awfully quiet share your thoughts remind me the so the 29th and 30th were not options correct yes because of other board member you were out of town those two days okay and then we have committed to the second of February to make to to make our decision for the finals finalist correct and pushing that out of week the 5ifth or sixth can you please remind me of the consequences of that okay so as per the schedule that was set um the first interviews were to take place on the 31st the announcement of the finalist was to take place on February 2nd which is a Friday and the BIOS would be available on our website on February the 6th we would have the forums for the finalist that will start at 5:00 in this room on February 7th the candidates will attend a tour of uh three of our schools and also meet and greet with the cabinet members in the afternoon at 1:30 on February 7th the candidates will then meet with the board members for their second and final interview thank you it was the Forum I didn't have on my calendar that's the that's the big the big date okay thank you president Anderson um Miss Johnson so the second round of interviews would eliminate some from the first round or that's up to us so the second round of interviews is actually your finalist okay and you'll have information based on a survey that will be available when the forums take place and so you'll have the Forum information the feedback from the forums from the public um you'll also uh be able to meet with them for the second interview ask some more detailed questions and then after that Ray and Associates will guide you through a process to come to a final decision um president Anderson Miss Johnson uh so if we were to meet on the second at what point do we then meet just as a board to be able to discuss which candidates we like before you have to have it posted on the 6th you would be meeting that day we have to after you're done on the second so yes once we finish our first round interviews that's where we have to have conversation and figure out who's going to who who we're doing second interviews on who will be attending the Forum um on the 6th that is correct on the same day that you do the first interviews the board will move forward their finals remember you'll have information about all the candidates you'll be able to see everything this Saturday you're going to be able to start your research and then when we meet in executive session on the 24th you're going to come together as a group and decide your first round candidates and let's keep in mind I I'm just saying it's ground doogs day yeah um well and the 31st that's only two weeks from now yeah and so um obviously if we did it prior to the second I think the second's Too Close um if however if we were so inundated if you will on the first like we we've talked about it but couldn't we could come back and second yes make our decision I mean so I'm I'm just saying that when you don't run as close to the deadline it gives you a little more but that's just so your recommendation is I will be here when I am told to be here literally like the 31st is like my empty day if I look at my calendar that's like my empty oops wrong yeah my empty day and then not again till the 23rd um if if we decide on the second I I just have to get approval from my boss so um and first or uh I first I got to leave by 3 30 latest so I'm just concerned about that if we're not done then that I can't change but the second if we start early I have no choice but to take time off so I'm going to have to just get that confirmed with my manager um so I mean right now I could say the second and just hope and pray that I was going to say my recommendation in that situation and I know you're saying the second my recommendation would be to to try and do the first then with the commitment that we'll be either a done by the time you need to leave when we know how many candidates we're interviewing we'll have a better pulse on that if for and correct me if for some reason on the first we have the need to interview more candidates than we can allow time for we could look to roll to the second in the morning if we have to and I know that's not it's more time that you don't want to take I understand that I'm just saying if that's what we ran into um I would really rather give ourselves that time on the first and perhaps start a little earlier if we can again looking at the candidates um that if we do have some East Coast people maybe we can start it 7:00 or something in the morning to give more time um we can after again it's it's hard after we know I would I'm sorry I'm just personally not comfortable running up against the second that that we're leaving everything in a day um get it I'm hoping we're getting everything done in a day that's the plan I'm just not the type of person who given this situation and so much unknown and things like that and I wouldn't want to be a candidate notified Friday night um because the intent would be we said we would notify them ahead of time or like by the second but I think the intent is in the morning if when we talked about the 31st if we made our decision they would be notified on the 1 yeah you know so um I'm not I am not comfortable running up against the second while I could could I make it work in my schedule I could make it work in my schedule that's just not something I'm comfortable because we're running too close to a deadline so um um so if we were to do it on the first recommendation is to start like at a.m.

yeah if everyone could do that if we're worried about the the time frame that if everyone could start at 7 AM because if we're starting if again if we have east coast people because then that's 9 o'cl their time it we could start at 7:00 a.m. if we don't have east coast people I would not do West Coast people at 7 a.m. because it's 6:00 a.m. their time but local if we do have West Coast or east coast people then we can start at 7 and if we happen to not then we can start at 8 8 okay I'm I'm good with that just said a lot of days thanks we're talking about the first yes at okay I just want to make sure I put it in my calendar appropriately that's all and are we still discussing rolling the decision to finishing that day or keeping Friday open oh we we'll try to we'll try to finish we're the intent would be the int would be to finish that day but yes yes I think a lot of this will become a lot easier after our executive session next week when we know exactly how many candidates we have and then it makes it a little bit easier for us to make sure that we're keeping your your schedule so you can go to your appointment those types of things so at the very least we still have and I'm hoping just I'm just going to throw this out there I'm hoping it's not more than five that if it's more than five that Ray and Associates weeds weeds that out so we're not interviewing like 10 people well because we're getting all of the candidates this weekend is it and then we're we're choosing the five from the candidates that are provided to us right so we'll or whatever number we the whole process in the executive session um next week yes and you'll have all the candidates that are available right and have been uh vetted through Ray and Associates it is your re well it's your job to basically select the people that you would like to do first interviews with that you would believe would be the best candidates for this District okay and it will become a lot more apparent once we once you see them and then once we meet and you all discuss that together in executive session okay although this was painfully long and and and tough I appreciate everybody really caring about this really focusing on um having the time to make the right decision this is a huge decision this scares the heck out of me um as far as the turnover that we've had in a short amount of time for as long as I've been here but we really H are you kidding me thank you everybody all right there's so do we need yeah is there this is an action item so are we voting on anything we're voting on the date again are we G to do anything we got vote on the date agreed upon because it's an action item I'd like to make a motion that we move the date from January AR 31st to February 1st for the virtual search 7 a.m.