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385 million um the important thing that I'm going to show you is that is a net number you know our that is not our total claims cost that is not the total cost of all the insurance lines it is a net number and so what that means is this is the budget request 14.38% you'll see it's the total there but it's a combination of these pluses and minuses you know the biggest piece of medical benefits is our budget for expected claims again we we have early projections that's 13.78 million this year this is no we um with the new contract we have with our our building maintainers they're obtaining their medical dental and life insurance benefits through their Union and we're paying a premium to the Union as if it's a fully insured plan so we don't have any claims liability um and this was a it was very good for the custodians and I believe very good for the board to do that so these two lines if you add them up is about 14 um1 million so you'll see last year we did not have that line item because we just started this effective January 1 of 24 this month um we pay stoploss premiums 1.65 million as a projection for next year it's going up 15% and what that does is it protects our um it protects us from large claims above hundred $175,000 so if there's any individual claim that exceeds $175,000 anything above that gets paid back to us from the stop-loss insurance company so this is insurance we have to protect us from any gigantic claim and you'll see down in this lower section we expect in this budget that we'll get about $500,000 of stoploss reimbursements last year it was about 800,000 it varies from year to year so we are budgeting conservatively um but you know to the extent we have large claims it does Drive up the premium cost so you know we always want to try and keep our claims and our large claims as low as possible but the fact is we really can't control when someone is gonna get sick and and have a very large medical bill to pay um 725,000 that's to fund the employee HSA accounts in line with the plans that we have 300,000 those are the administrative fees we pay to Signa to process our claims um 64,000 those are employees that elect not to take our insurance we pay them a waiver it's either a th000 or $1,200 depending on the bargaining unit um and then we do budget some money for employee Wellness um that's mostly to cover the cost of our employee assistance program siga does provide as part of their service package about 55 5,000 in Wellness dollars that that we use that's some part of our operating budget they're paying for those services that we get directly so if you add all those items it's 17 milon 7,051 and then because employees pay a co-share for the plans through their payroll deduction we'll collect about $2.1 million from employees to um reduce the total cost that we have to budget for a medical benefits account and again that 500,000 reduces that budget line further so that's how we get to 14.3 million taking it a step further this number is based on expected claims for medical prescription and dental well where do we get that number that number comes to us from our insurance broker USI uh this is their preliminary projection so you know this lower section identifies the expected claims you know for those categories medical prescription and dental so that's how we developed a medical benefits budget um I know that when we track you know for the board monthly we really focus on the claims number but the money that we expect to receiv received from stoploss um from prescription rebates that does show up on the report for next month we're going to have to adjust the report because of the change that we made with the maintenance employees so we'll explain that at the at the board meeting when we present it all right I'll move through the next few um pieces of information quickly these are the benefit plans that we offer to our employees we have a high deductible Health Plan um and we've worked really really hard to get more of our employees to use the high deductible health plan to help manage their own care and be responsible for the you know the funding we have an HMO po um an elements Choice plan which is you know was had to be offered in accordance with the Affordable Care Act not a lot of employees in that but it is a good plan and we also have a dental plan so that's what we cover or that we provide so what we have been doing and continue to do in 23 24 are we try and work to manage our health care costs to keep them as low as possible um as I mentioned a minute ago our employees do pay towards the cost of that coverage for next year we're anticipating $2.1 million in employee payments that's their portion of the co-share we've Consolidated plan offerings over the year we've increased the rate that employees pay we've increased HSA deductibles as we've negotiated our Union contracts you know this slide just gives you a breakdown um bargaining unit by bargaining unit of you know what what their current contract term is what their deductible is what their co-share rate is and you'll see that down here for three of the bargaining units we've eliminated the PO and HMO options the secretaries our custodians which they're on their own plan now and the Cheshire administrative Personnel they've all opted to eliminate those plans they just weren't cost effective and they were priced so that it was not a benefit to them to stay in those plans so those three groups only have the HSA as their option which is is good it also reduces our administrative costs um rhsa enrollment which as I mentioned has been a focus you know we're now about 82% of our employees are in an HSA this just shows you you know back in 2010 when we started um offering the HSA it was about 5% of our employees now it's 82% again we've encouraged our employees we think it's a better plan option and it has worked to their benefit to move to the HSA and then looking at it bargaining unit by bargaining unit you could see that all the administrators are in the HSA 82% of our teachers 95% of our secretaries um are in the HSA and we do have to support retirees in accordance with you know their contract and there's a group of employees um that's part of the 52 TW there's still 25 employees remaining in our plans that we have to cover that are Beyond age 65 that would never that didn't pay into Medicare so these are pre-1987 employees that are still in our plan and will have to continue to provide the coverage they do pay premiums towards that coverage but that is you know within this particular group um this is just a number of things that we've done you know we moved our HMO from fully insured to self-insured that saved us money back in 2015 stoploss coverages through an independent company that is actually owned by several municipalities including Cheshire you know we've got over a million dollars in net worth in CT Prime it's been cost effective it's kept our premiums lower than the market they're not low but we've done well by moving to CT Prime uh we moved to siga in 2019 after many decades with Anthem more recently we moved our subcription from a company back to to Signa these are some of the changes I just mentioned that a bolded there that we've made some adjustments with each of the bargaining units um and then finally I'll just touch on you know we continue to be aggressive with Wellness programs in our district most of it is funded U through the $55,000 we get per year from Sigma so these are some of the programs that you know we we offer we just had a health and wellness fair in November we had 118 employees we did biometric screenings you know which included blood pressure weight um some blood work as well you know we did that at chesa High School in November we have a new yoga partnership with um another Studio here in town I Believe Miss Solano was that where you went today okay and you said it was pretty good it was yeah see look how calm and composed she is so good um and then we are running a another road map to Wellness challenge which has multiple steps you know we run it from the beginning of the year through May um you know with some nice prizes for our employees at the end again we think that that's an important part of of what we do we've increased our efforts and the participation rate has grown over the years so why is this so important and is it helping well we think it is helping and you know the best gauge that I've can find and that I've been using for several years now and explaining to the board if you look at um medical cost Trends and I know this is really hard to read and I know you have a copy but um uh Aon provides this a medical Trends rate report every year um and this is 23 and 24 globally the expected rate of cost increase is about 10.1% for next year this year it's about um 99.2% okay and then this is broken down that's Global if you just take North America it's about six .6% this year expected to be 7.6% next year so medical inflation you know has been above the the inflation rate we hear about every day um and then if you look within North America the United States this year it's 6 and a half% and next year it's expected to increase at 8% so if we take that information and understand that I've this is information we've been tracking for several years these are the increases for the um United States since 2012 6.4% is the average and if you started back in 2012 with where our claims were our claims if we were hitting the trend would be at about $18.08 million we did better than that even though we've had some rough years our actual gross claims over this period of time have increased about 5.3% per year on average so we're beating the cost Trend in the United States and you could see there are some years where we've been above the the trend you know the three years leading into covid and then through two postco years you could see that 8.6 9.4 and 17.8 even with that over this you know 11 years we've been below and then if you factor in after that's gross claims if you factor in the money that we receive from stoploss um prescription rebates and interest on our Reserve balance we're at about 4.1% so we think the efforts that we've made to increase the cost sharing with the employees and raising the deductible and and working with the other programs that we have with siga and our Wellness it is making a difference in terms of how we fund and how the reserve works I know the board members have seen this and and Mr ecki is sees the medical benefit reports but when we budget for claims we don't just send that money to siga we take this the money from the operating budget we deposit it so to speak in this Reserve fund and then claims are paid from this Reserve fund to Signa we know and we can control what we put in that's what we budget you know claims is the big unknown that is not controllable okay and then this Center section just shows you know what's happened to our medical benefit fund you know some years it's higher some years it's lower that's not just driven by claims it's also driven but by how much we fund into that account year in and year out we always look if we can to have two to three months of reserves that's been the target we've been as high as five months we're currently as of December 31st at 1.7 so we're just below the two um we're at 1.8 66 million not a bad place to be a little higher would would be better but we're I think in in pretty good shape with the reserves I'm going to just touch on this real quickly what this portion of the chart shows is if there's a minus that means that we've had claims that are higher than our contributions and if it's in the black that means we've had contributions that are higher than claims some of this is not completely accidental as as the board members who have been here for a while know what tends to happen is when our Reserve balance gets pretty high we tend to reduce the amount that we contribute in an effort to not have a large budget increase and then when claims start to creep up we have to catch up and that's you know what what this chart shows and again there's some commentary here but you could see when we hit 3.2 million in the following three years we lowered the contributions we were making we knew they were going to be lower than the expected claims and then on unfortunately when the pandemic hit we had a really high claim year so our Reserve dropped to 92 24,000 but in the last two years we've increased contributions which has helped buoy and increase the Reserve balance another way um to look at this is is green is good so the last two years 21 22 and 22 23 Reserve balance is actually increased that's because yes our claims were higher but we started funding our contributions to equal the expected claims so that's how we got to where we are today the budget that we're requesting is not intended to build a Reserve balance it's intended to make sure that our contributions are going to match expected claims and if that works and if that happens then we should end the year at about the $2 million claim Mark and if we get a break and claims are lower than expected then the Reserve balance will in fact increase so again this just shows The Reserve balance from 2013 really high balances here we dwindled it down we got to a low point of about 72,000 a couple years ago but as I said we're at 1.86 million right now we do expect as we hit January February March which is a new HSA plan year that our expected claims are going to be lower and we should see the fund balance go up that's my hope and I'm gonna stick with that story for this evening okay and the really the last point that I wanted to make on medical benefits and this is just to give you uh as board an update from last year we've been doing this the last couple of years but this is our claims for the first six month of this New Year okay you'll and these are claims over $25,000 you'll see that the claims that we had that exceeded $25,000 they range from 25,000 to $224,000 so some of those claims the ones that exceed 175,000 there's two already so I expect that we're going to be seeing about 61,000 in stoploss reimbursements as we go through the remainder of the year we'll see the stoploss payments increase unfortunately and that's because we have some high claims in terms of what types of claims consistent with the last few years on a an average claim amount cancer we have six claims the average claim is about 59,000 for each of those six um bone Joint and Spine we've had 13 claims about 56,000 on average each and the highest category this year which is a changes you know and this is a large category but GI e no ear nose and throat you know endocrine other organ issues we've had 17 claims above 25,000 so far this year um 42% of this current Year's claim July through December were above the 40 uh excuse me we're above the $25,000 Mark so you know 42% of our claims or those claims above 25,000 are driving 42% of the cost is the way to look at it and then what I did in this next chart is I just showed the trend so claims above 25,000 you know back in 2019 just pre pandemic we had 25 during this six Monon period of time and then as we hit the pandemic mic year it started to increase um last year was 51 claims this year to dat we're 53 these are the dollars and you know the only bright spot I will point out here is that even though we had 53 claims this year um instead of being at $ three and A5 million claim total like we were last year you know we've dropped to about $3 million claim total so that what's happening with the large claims that is pretty much the highlights in terms of of the charts with medical benefits so I'm just going to give you a quick summary here um you know one is that our medical claim trend is below the national average which is a good thing um and so even though during 201819 through the pandemic we were well above the average the last two years we have been well below the average the rate of illness with claims that total $225,000 or more has more than doubled since 2019 but the dollar trend is a little bit better this year um as I mentioned the budget increase that we need a million 49,000 is expected to just keep claims and contributions in line with with each other and most importantly this year's budget increase is 53% lower than it was two years ago where we needed 2.2 million and it's about 30% lower than last year where we needed 1.5 million so we're trending in a better Direction and that's it for medical benefits yes sir um with regard to the with regard to the medical claims Trends you compared uh treest public schools to the USA yes I'm just curious if you happen to know is that sort of relatively in Apples to Apples the demographics wildly different or are they consistent you know it it's just a broad brush okay Tim I you know it's it's medical benefits as a whole the fact that our okay our plans haven't changed um very much from where they were you know this is over an 11-year period but I think globally and in the US they haven't changed dramatically either so yeah I think it is Apples to Apples but again this is just broad brush no I understand I understand um and with regard to a topic I don't think I heard you mention but I think it would fall into this category the wellness program yeah how is that going well if we look at it from from a participation point of view yeah you know compared to where we were three years ago participation in all categories is definitely up the correlation between people participating in wellness and claims I I can't I get that make that connection it's part of what we do you know we we know that the employees that participate appreciate it and they're participating at a greater rate okay um and why wouldn't you do it right if even if well there is a a piece of mind that goes with it I mean if you're supposed to go out for a walk every day and you have you know students who are coming to school coming to see you after school every day in high school the time commitment can be difficult so I mean it is it's by no means a guarantee in might that participation would happen but generally speaking participation has increased and satisfaction is good yeah okay absolutely great thank you okay um the uh stop Gap threshold I think has it it's been 175,000 for few years or many years it has we increased it from 150 to 175 I'm going to guess about 10 years ago um and if your question is should we increase it or can we increase it if we did our equilibrium question Max you know it it does become math so we can if we increase it 25,000 for an exam as an example and we do talk about this with you know CT Prime which I'm still on on the board I'm still president actually um we're probably going to recommend all the participating you know towns and Boards of that increase it um but there is a balance there so we'll take on the extra $25,000 in Risk it'll lower our premium which is a good thing how much that risk is worth I mean we'll we'll calculate it but it is certainly a consideration sorry so our healthc care firm that helps do the analysis and claims and helps set the help you work with to set the uh um the contri the um medical benefits rate Etc couple years ago if it wasn't last year if I recall they were also looking at the Town side of claims too because the medical cost increases are not unique to just CPS and we're still all sharing the same medical trust fund so to speak but has any come out of there that and I forget the name of the firm it's USI I'm sorry USI does anything come out their analysis um from reviewing the claims and trying to kind of pinpoint um how to tackle this and the reason I ask is every other year depending the make up of the board you know we get folks to say hey why are we self-insured why are we out there doing group plans and that we had those discussions I guess the question I have is has there been anything to help identify what we the town and Bard can do to offset the medical cost increase I I besides the nature of the claims so that's you know that's unfortunately not controllable um I just I don't know if there's been any updates or reports or report out or even on the towns side is fairing with the same situation yeah I I guess there's a couple of things one is we um met with Sigma to do our annual review um a couple of months back you know and there was just a review done with USI as well what we what we've gotten out of those reviews is identifying well you know what are the large um claim drivers and a lot of it has to do with just chronic conditions diabetes you know number one because those tend to be larger claims and what we can do to make sure that employees or their spouses who are on our plans that have diabetes are taking the steps they have to control their diabetes getting their Wellness checks um and there are a number of recommendations that have that have been made which we just Implement you know having to that should improve our claims experience going forward it doesn't mean they're gonna claims are going to drop it just prevent large claims from um occurring as far as you know other things we can do other plan structures you know we did ask Tom last year to take a look at you know what it would look like if we fully ensured our plan moving from self-insured and that's always I mean I know you were in the industry that's always a um losing proposition because the insurance company is going to make sure they're not losing money you know so the alternative to that is to self-insure and pay the cost of the administrative fee to process claims I I wish I could say there were Silver Bullet that we got out of it you know we do meet with with the um with our provider and you know with our consultant uh regularly you know we're going through that process now we had our first review of claims for you know next year's projection you know we'll get another update uh either later this month or early February you know on the projection and they use the rolling 12 month average and then they adjust that projection based on trend they're seeing either within our population or that they're seeing on a more Global basis yeah I it's I I mean I'm just happy that we're able to give the health care to our employees that are in need that's first and foremost their Wellness I just feel out asking this question what could we do different because it's it's it's not a question to ask this is not e treasure I know it's not treasure and uh so it's not as if there's something happening with our specifically in Cheshire that driving the cost up this is a trend that's been happening in many towns companies and I know you work you know with CT Prime thank you I know it's another time commitment but so I'm sure that group is seeing similar Trends in different districts I think it comes back to the medical costs certainly Wellness prevention will help uh every little bit but I just feel you know not asking the question I do know that USI yeah has been looking pretty thoroughly and if there was a silver bullet so to speak we would have had it already but there isn't unfortunately it's just I think you know we've been pretty deliberate on the efforts you know some of which I mentioned that trying to look at ways to keep our cost down you know the one thing I'll kind of add to that is the state offers a a plan it's called a state partnership plan which a lot of I don't want to say a lot certainly a large number of board of AD and municipalities have joined but that's because their medical cost on average are well above ours you know we're still even with family coverage you know we're in the $26,000 range many um municipalities and Boards of AD mostly in Fairfield are well above $30,000 and so the state partnership plan because of the way the premiums work benefits them but we're not there yet and so that's a good thing um that is always an option that we look at but the fact that we're below happy about that thank you okay all right last section for tonight is pension uh few things one is that um when we talk about funding the pension and retirement accounts this is exclusively for our non-certified staff our teachers and our administrators they are participants in the teachers retirement plan and they basically fund their own retirement plan the board does not contribute or participate in any way financially to that um in 2012 new employees no longer were eligible because we eliminated it through the union contracts the town of ch special pension plan instead those new employees are offered a Define contri defined contribution plan where we uh basically contribute a fixed percentage of their salary every year so as a result of that we now have 54 employees that are still working that originally were participated in the town of pension plan and obviously their grandfather they stay in and you could see that you know back in 2018 18 we had a 126 employees that were in the pension plan now we're down to 54 the reason is people retired the number of employees that are participating in the 403b defined contribution plan is at 221 employees uh back in in 2018 it was 140 employees so one's gone down one's gone up if you just do the math net net it's about the same total number of employ employees that are being given retirement benefits um the pension contribution line has been increasing in recent years it's a result of two things one is the actuaries that are um basically hired to do the pension calculation and tell us how much we need to contribute you know they made a recommendation after the 2007 um through 2009 Market declines that you had to start increasing the amount that you're funding into the pension plan uh and the second bullet that's here is and this is the more this is realistically the more important reason why we've had to increase our um contributions is because the actuaries keep lowering the return assumption in fact last year they dropped it from 7% to to 6.75% and every time that happens we have to contribute more funds in order to be able to make sure that the people that were promised a retirement benefit continue to receive it so just along the lines of those two points back in 2009 the this is the Dow Jones hit a low of 6500 and then you could see it's been on a steady climb except when the pandemic hit it dropped down to about 18,000 and you know as of January 10th we're at 37,000 so the returns from the Dow have certainly come back um and have actually been quite strong in the last few years so that's helped us um but what has hurt us is the reduction of those return assumptions okay so this is the history of how much we've had to increase year over-year you could see back you know 20078 we actually um had small increases then we actually decreased the contribution and it's not that wasn't a a reduction that we decided to do that's what the actuaries told us you were overfunded back then well we we've had to go on a stretch where it increased pretty significantly between between 2012 12 and 2016 and now it's leveled off except you see in 2122 that jump corresponds to when the return assumptions were dropped okay so um for next year the early budget amount is an increase of 20,000 for the pension um nothing really we could do uh to adjust that you know it may change as the actuaries continue to do their work um this I just included again I I know this is a little bit hard to see but the return the one-year return and this is as of September of 2023 was about um 10.2% overall 12.3% in the traditional assets and then we have a low return on some of the um liquids in the portfolio but the portfolio that's being managed is about $84 million the town of Cheshire has a pension board that manages these Investments so I just provided that for informational purposes you know we are getting a reasonable return it is a conservatively managed portfolio but um what's driving the increase is clearly the return assumptions have decreased and those return assumptions would decreased um It's Not Unusual you know along the same lines as medical most towns and cities that are responsible have lowered their return assumptions and have increased the amount that they fund to their pension plan so the fact that we're doing that is a good thing it's not a bad thing costs money but you have to fund your pension obligation properly um so if you look at employee benefit as a percentage of budget you could see we're definitely on an incline you know back in 20056 we were about 133% of budget and now employee benefits which is mostly our medical benefits is about 19.6% and then if we summarize total salaries and benefits um it's a 4.97% increase this is again we we've gone through each of these categories that's what it is is a total and so what's interesting here is if you look at salaries and benefits as a percentage of budget um back in 20056 it was about 80% and projected for next year was also about 80% we know that a larger percentage is benefits and a smaller percentage is Wages but it's generally been in line you know since 2005 20 06 so that wraps up benefits um do you know what our percentage of I don't know what the right term is percentage of funding know like our the the pension is 80% fund you know I I didn't I'll get that for you I'll give you a definitive number last year it was well over 80% um and I'll get an update on what it is again again when they reduce the um return assumption actually lowers the percent of your obligation that's funded but I'll get an update and then um as far as the breakdown of the Investments is that on our town website or Is the no that was um the pension board when they meet they they do post their minutes but I had a request that from the Jim jascot the town's Finance director and he sent it so when they post the agenda and they post the minutes they don't post the attachments but that is a document that you know we could obtain I'm I'm just concerned about the um the percentage of what of alternative assets like I just I think it would be nice to know what that means versus what traditional assets are like are they did they load up on bitcoin or something like that you know what I mean to kind of yeah get I don't know I doubt yeah I doubt but but when you call it alternative assets what does that mean you know yeah no I'm I'm seeing a the return is not fantastic so I'm wondering what's going on I know some of the people on the pension board it's there's no Bitcoin in there that's not what they do but I just so I'd like to know it's a good it's a fair question and I'll get you some inform know it is it could be a you know we're we're peeking out at the top of the market arguably right now and we had the pony up what almost 225,000 in 2020 and a little bit less in 21 and we're talking about all these other thing other time bombs in our budget that we might have to come up with and so it' be nice to know how we're positioned for the next down inevitable downturn you know okay so any information be helpful we'll get it who sets the who sets the return assumption the actuaries that that we hire so we I'm just curious just to be clear on this they tell us number is that advice they they make a recommendation the Town Council ultimately thank you okay the Town Council ultimately has to decide if they want to accept the Assumption and over what period of time because you are allow of phase in Period sure um okay generally speaking well you know certainly since I've been here you know they've accepted the actuaries recommendations um and they have taken the opportunity to phase it in over a longer period of time so the impact to budget right because this affects not only the schools but it affects the town because they have you know police um and other employees that are participating in the town's pension plan as well yeah no I seem to recall that back at the bailout 15 years ago because they just dropped their numbers down dramatically um their return assumption so my my point is it has nothing to do with ches Public Schools or the Board of Ed it's the town okay yeah we we we are taking Direction on what we need to do there yeah I mean they basically do they own the pension the pension fund do we have any do we have a say in it how it's treated or is it basically controlled by the council the pension board makes the decisions okay you know really our involvement is you at this point when an employee retires you know they notify they give us a retirement notice you know we work with the finance director you know to get the pension estimate and then ultimately the pension paid out to the retired employee sure okay no thank you for that um and how many how many employees do we I don't think you mentioned it what you were the numbers you were talking about before were employees current current employees who will be pension eligible and employees who are or Define defined benefit pension eligible and employees who are defined contribution receiving right now the the there's 54 employees that are still contributing those are active employees and there's I think the number was 212 active employees in the defined contribution plan so just to be clear so the number of retirees yeah is higher than the 54 this is just people that are still working here still active not retired okay so the defined contribution after they retire that's done right is there anything basically they they could take the money and go yeah um and the money that's being contributed contributed to them they can also contribute to that fund that the it's a 403b plan like 401K in the corporate world you know the money goes into their account you know they have their selection they could choose from one of nine investment providers and they choose their Investments within those providers but that's essentially their money okay thank you and with regard to the defined benefit plan the people who are active retirees do you do you know how many people that is right now just approximately I don't I don't want to guess that one but I'll find out okay yeah okay all right thank you you're [Music] welcome point of clarification you said the actuary recommendations when they decrease we obviously have to step in and increase or it the opposite no when they when they lower the return assumption right that means you have to put more money in to meet that pension obligation in the future so we were at eight now we're at 6.75 so that Gap increased the amount that we have to contribute you know and these are I mean these are long-term payouts right so if an employee retires you know as an example at 65 and their life expectancy is 85 you know that's 20 years of payment that we owe them at the set payment rate um and that's what you have to make sure you have enough funding to carry that employee and then all the employees that are in that category through and then the actuaries what they look at among other things is you know what's happening to life expectancy if it's increasing people are living longer than 85 you still have to keep making those payments so that's a yearly recommendation that brought forward to the town and the town decides whether or not they accept the actual projection correct so just to build off of what Sam is talking about we don't have any control over any of this is that correct correct so this is good information for us but that's what it is okay information but if we get a projected retirement the the 54 employees could decrease depending on whether they choose to retire this coming year right right okay but that doesn't change Our obligation un unfortunately because you still have to fund it it's been interesting I mean one of the reasons the town and again we're not alone that we did this the reason that we mve to A A Defined contribution platform was so that we would know what our fixed payments would be going forward well a couple of things happen within the pension plan I mean we've lowered the return assumptions especially that was precipitated by the market downturn in 20079 or 2007 through 2009 but also it didn't help us when employees are no longer contributing to that plan so you don't have the opportunity with new assets to in invest those dollars so you know that it's kind of been an interesting set of circumstances that got us to where we are today I'm not questioning the Judgment of the decision but that is the reality of what's happened um and then you know similarly or related to that the fact that we don't have a t of chesher pension plan does hurt recruiting or retention you know and I think it's especially true in the chesher police department where a lot of municipalities still have a pension plan which is very attractive so you know there's there's there's pros and cons to the decision and you know what we have to contribute that's you know going to be a continuing budget constraint hopefully we don't lower the return assumptions any lower I mean I I I think we're there I'm not sure that going much lower is necessary but not an actuary and if that does happen where we keep the return assumptions at 6.75% we should see that our pension contribution should level out for the next few years thank you thanks um a minute ago you mentioned the pension and the town having Define contribution plans instead of Define benefit plans basically the story I've heard separately is it sort of hurts uh Recruitment and Retention in terms of the police department that's what you mentioned has that had any effect on the ches public schools anything anything worth mentioning I mean if one person says no I'm really that concern but is there a trend there that exists or I don't think so I think it's it's clearly more prevalent in police departments across the state to still have a pension plan we're a little bit of the outlier Not Unusual for the positions that we have in the schools and you know it's not been a I don't think it's hurt us recruiting wise I mean to any measurable extent Define contribution plan pretty good plan um you know we contribute 5% of the employee wages to the plan if the employees put in 1% we put 1% more in so they can get 6% secretaries have a slightly different Arrangement they have to put in three and we put in eight for them it's portable so if they leave before they retire and they've been with us for five years they're fully vested they take those assets with them and they can roll them over and you know continue to benefit from them in future years yeah I think there's to me there's there's probably two different issues one of which is um risk who Bears the risk is it the taxpayer or the employee um I think Define contribution plan is reducing the Shifting the risk from the taxpayer to the employee it's how I generally see it the longm RIS yeah the investment risk long-term risk that's one concern as far as as far far as dollars though and funding goes if we ever get to the point where it is affecting retention and recruitment I think it's pretty straightforward that Define contribution could change it could increase it could decrease I just I don't think money should be part of the real discussion about DB versus DC pension plans to me the issue is really risk and where does where does that investment risk sit yeah have that graphic you know that there the different I'm looking at a different chart versus your graph I did add this switched it off at the 11th Hour however I'll give you new copies on Thursday but the version that we're posting on the website does have this so that concludes this evening so this was our first public budget review the next meeting um to continue on with the public review the second half of the accounts is Thursday and then the public information session is scheduled for Tuesday January 30th so I thank you if there are no further [Music] questions chair um vinc Dr Solen team and all our folks here this evening thank you so much for putting all the time and thank you for presentation and know was more to come I just want to say it's always uh refreshing for me to see our our team here at these budget meetings after a long day at work so thank you for hanging out with us tonight and probably a couple more nights so uh it's very helpful so far thank you thank you thank you Mr Marana thanks V you you have at least two more years V I heard that one year comment at the beginning so yeah um motion to adjourn Tim second by Mr grippo all in favor of adjournment it is unanimous we are adjourned

uh board president um board member Greer uh has requested to join uh tonight's meeting uh virtually uh due to an unexpected turn of events that allows him to be uh virtually um board member Greer if you can um State uh why uh you could not be in person today yeah I'm away on a work trip and didn't think I was going to be available but am was available to step away and join in for this meeting board member Greer um is there an individual 18 years or older present with you yes my wife Briana Greer is also in our hotel room uh thank you um board president I will turn it to you um we have heard uh board members Greer's request to join uh the board meeting uh and board members um that are present uh and in attendance must vote whether to allow board member Greer to ATT or not to attend thank you mrga colleagues do I have a motion to allow or not allow board member to attend tonight's board meeting virtually motion to approve for board member Greer to attend virtually tonight first motion by board member arianis do I have a second second second by board member benas any discussion seeing none we will take a hand vote what member V yes what member arianis yes Benes yes and myself yes four you can stay Adrian thank you uh now I'm moving to item 1.2 approval of the agenda can I have a motion motion to approve motion by board member Benitas to have a second second second by board member arianis any discussion okay we will take a um hand rote board member benas yes board member Grier yes board member arianis yes and board member B yes we will we will we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we are now moving to item 2.1 public comment on close session agenda items hope do we have any blue cards Orica anyone on raised on Zoom we have no hands raised on zoom and I guess we would have no blue cards okay so we're moving on to item three approval of resolution number 23- 24-13 designating January Board of Education recognition mon month can I have a motion motion to approve motion by board member arianis do a second second second by board member benas any discussion colleagues January is Schoolboard recognition month resignation month I am bringing forth this recognition as a reminder of many ways us as board members work for and with students parents and staff in the community please join me and reading reading the resolution board member Bo can you please read the first three where as statements yes whereas an excellent public education system is vital to the quality of life for all California citizens and communities and whereas our public education system has faced unprecedented circumstances these past three years as a result of the covid-19 pandemic and whereas our Board of Education continues to to act to ensure children's academic social emotional physical and mental health needs are met at a time when students needed consistent Services most and board member can you please read the the next three whereas Board of Education members continue to Advocate to best serve the children in our community each and every day and whereas the Board of Education members are committed to children and believe that all children can be successful Learners and that the best education is tailored to the individual's needs of the child and whereas the Board of Education members work close ly with parents educational professionals and other community members to create a health the healthiest environments possible where all students can Thrive and what M arianis can you read the last three please whereas Board of Education members are responsible for building and maintaining the structure that provides a solid foundation for our school system and whereas Board of Education members are strong advocates for public education and are responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the Public's expectation to the district and whereas the mission of the public schools to meet the diverse educational needs of all children and to empower them to become competent productive contributors to a Democratic Society and an everchanging world is more pegnant than ever before now therefore we hereby declare an appreciations to the members of the Board of Education and proclaim the month of January 24th as board member of Education recognition month in Los Angeles County city of azuza Aza the Unified School District I urge all community members to join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work for our local Schoolboard members and in working with them to create an educational system that meets the needs of all our children uh colleagues please place your vote um board member B yes board member arianis yes board member Greer yes benas yes thank you and yes for me um now we are item uh 3 3.2 review and effective governance procedures mrga I will turn it over to you thank you uh board president uh Rodriguez Peña um tonight uh we are spending some time uh as a governance team uh to go over um governance uh procedures uh we are very honored and excited uh to have Miss Angelina Pride um back with us to help facilitate tonight um Angelina pride is a former uh board member uh not too far from here and so she uh understands in a very deep manner uh the seats that you sit in and the roles uh that you play as board members uh she is also intimately involved uh with csba the California school boards Association um and so having a facilitator of that with that amount of experience uh benefits us as a governance team uh tonight um we kind of can put tonight's meeting as governance uh we have I'm sure miss Pride will have some some things for us uh but we are going to be looking at uh two uh sections of our board handbook uh under our protocols uh tonight um for Fe feedback reactions um to see if there's anything that needs to be edited deleted added tweaked um and then the second bucket of tonight uh the board member greeters um uh recommendation or request um is that we look at our procedures for public comment um I don't want to put words in his mouth but I think the idea was that when we have um meetings that have a lot of public comment or might be contentious contentious in in some way um then we're put on the spot to try to make decisions right on the spot and so the idea was when it's not contentious and we are in a meeting where we're talking about governance um we can have the time and the space to make some decisions together collectively so that therefore whether it's a lot of people or a little bit of people whether it's boring and nothing's happening or again something that's hyper sensitive uh we already know moving forward how we are going to address uh public comment and so uh that's kind of the second bucket uh for tonight uh so with that being said I'd like to turn it over to miss Angelina PR thank you and um thank you all for being present tonight for this uh workshop and hopefully we can get a lot accomplished get everything we want accomplished and leave here feeling like we have moved forward and accomplished um what we came here for tonight uh trusty gri thank you for being able to make time to be here I know how the work trips are so I appreciate you taking some time to still be part of this conversation um I've been with all of you before you know I encourage discussion um as we go through this this is your time not mine I'm here to leave need to guide provide information on governance um but your district is you and so you know what's going to work best for your District so please feedback comments that will be helpful to um help us achieve our goal tonight as we start um with the PowerPoint of next slid I'm sorry um I do want to start off again with a message of trust uh trust is the result of respect and standing not necessarily agreement we can disagree all day every day but still trust one another so I ask that as we start this Workshop that we all assume positive intent I say that all the time we have to assume positive intent that everyone is coming from a a place of making progress tonight of um improving your meetings um adjusting your governance handbook as needed and that's the work that we're here for nothing personal nothing political but to do the work of this governance team to help make you stronger and be able to run your meetings more efficiently effectively and make sure that everybody is on the same page any questions about that part okay great thank you so with that said let's get down to business I know we always talk about this um anytime that I'm with you but it's important uh when I talk about unified not uniform remember I said that unified uh versus being un not uniform means that you work together as a team something comes up for a vote you vote on it the vote may be 0 it may be 41 it may be 32 it doesn't have to be 5 all the time there can be disagreement there could be reasons why one person may not support something over the next person that is okay what is not okay is then saying well I'm on the losing end I didn't my um vote didn't matter my vote didn't count nobody cares about what I think those type of things are not okay those things are detrimental to the work of the board it's okay to disagree it's okay to have a different opinion but I use this picture because if you notice on this picture there's four puzzle pieces I wish there were five but there's only four there's four puzzle pieces they're all different they're all different colors so they're all they all look different but if you notice they still fit together and that's what we have to look at when we talk about unified not uniform each one of you brings a different mindset to this board you bring a different background a different experience different thought process you may come from different areas in the city where you hear different things and that's fine you bring that voice to the board you state your opinion on on items that come up on the agenda and then you vote but the vote is the final word that's what you have to go by once the vote take takes place so remember even though all of you are different you still still fit together as a board each one of those pieces comes together to represent and support the students of this District because that's needs to be the main focus that's what we always have to remember no matter what no matter when personalities get in the way no matter when disagreements over um things happening in the community get in the way you still have to put those pieces of the puzzle together to do the work of the district comments thoughts so I assume that we have understanding on that thank you next I just briefly want to remind you about Unity of purpose the last time that I was with you we were working on your strategic plan and um that went very well I thought that you guys did a really good job and again I commend the superintendent um for all the pre-work that went into that that was a really solid process it was one of the best strategic planning processes that I've seen so again kudos to all of you for that and when we talk about Unity of purpose I want you to always remember that strategic plan that you developed um that you voted on and approved that all of your community gave input to that your staff gave input to because that is your guiding force for what you want to do with this district and how you want to move forward within this District and how you want to achieve Student Success and achievement for every single student that is comes through the doors of one of your schools um your Unity of purpose I think was made very clear through your strategic plan and the agreement that you came to so again um just keep always keep that at the Forefront I would encourage you every now and then just glance through your strategic plan so you make sure that you remember what it says it's easy for us to forget get as we go day by day meeting by meeting doing different things but come back to that because that's something that everybody gave input on and everybody had a voice in and that there was an agreement that yes this is what we want to do so always remember that come back to that and keep that at the Forefront of the decisions that you make the actions that you take and how you govern your District yes trusty um I have a question so you're describing the Strategic plan that had a lot of community input and School District input and ultimately was vetted and approved by the board here is that the Mission Vision Mission Vision Values and goals documents yes so that is the entirety of our strategic plan is those four documents or is there more to it it oh you want to oh go ahead because you you did most of the work on I don't have it here in front of me but I was just going to say that your strategic pan land all of that is and I think I think to you quote um a little bit what Miss pride is saying like those are a guiding um uh are guing principles our goals that we're trying to strive for and so when we're doing things like for example we're currently writing the 2427 uh alap that those become the Northstar and so when when we're doing things in the district whether it's the alc cap whether it's facilities or whatever those these become um the Strategic moves that we're making to make sure that we're following those North Stars um coming soon to board Das near you um those will be right front and center of where you sit so they'll be staring at you um during board meetings thank you for that clarification I of course we participated in that process but I didn't have the clear understanding that those four documents comprised our strategic plan so I needed that clarification yeah and um does anyone else have any more questions and also um I may add when we did do the Strategic plan we also looked at the alcap to do the you know to do the Strategic plan so it's kind of like fits together like the puzzle we're talking about yeah and I think sometimes when we think about strategic plans we think that this is a standalone document and it's really not because it encompasses so much like superintendent Ortega just said it encompasses you know it's your your driving force of where the direction you want to go in the direction that your community has said that you should go in in uh the direction that staff wants to see you go in and then of course the direction that all of you want to go in it all came together into these different pieces and that's what you'll be using um when you start well you guys have already started on your lcap um but those were those will be things that will be taken into consideration as the lcap is developed because it's something that you committed to so again just you know take a look at it sometimes you know just to refresh it keep it in your memory so one of the main reasons why I'm here tonight again is we're going to look at a couple of um things in the governance handbook as superintendent Ortega said and one of the main ones the first ones that we're going to start with is um meetings looking at our meetings and here you see I have this quote up here about the meetings because either the most effective way of unleashing Creative Energy and impacting positive change or the most frustrating time wasting experience ever inflicted Upon A group of people that is a meeting the choice is yours whether your meeting is productive and you take care of the business of the district or whether it wastes time I've been in both and I can tell you the productive one is much more fun so hopefully that you will keep your um meetings productive and um you have your governance handbook that we're getting ready to talk about that lays out some norms and some protocols that will help to keep the meeting uh productive if you all agreed to follow them so we're going to look at them today and see is there anything that we need to update anything that we need to change is there anything we need to have some discussions about one thing I will tell you is that I do watch your board meetings before I come so I did have the opportunity to go back and watch a few of your last board meetings and um I have some thoughts but I'm going to leave this to you because I think that some of you may bring up some of that before without me even needing to say anything so let's start by looking at your governance handbook and what you came up with regarding your board meeting Norms um so take a second look at that list of your board meeting Norms that are in your governance handbook on page I Mark the page sorry it's one of the first pages that we have in here uh page four so if you have you have all have a copy of your governance handbook right so if you look at page four look at the board meeting Norms page numbers on the bottom it it does when I printed it does yours not have page numbers oh no well it's the same as in the presentation too okay I'm sorry I'm looking in the actual governance handbook sorry yeah so yeah so on the slide is the same thing that's on page four in the governance handbook yes and that's up there on the on the screen so um just take a a quick second I'm going to give you like 30 seconds to take a quick look at that and then let's let's have some discussion because this is in your governance handbook and if there's things that aren't working that we need to review and remind ourselves of we want to do that if there's things that we feel are missing or things that need to be U maybe changed reward it we want to do that as well this is our opportunity so 30 seconds seconds okay so let's talk about um this list and let's see how it goes the first one is make sure each member's voice is heard so tell me this is a norm that you all agreed to do you feel like this occurs uh Adrien if I don't see you please speak out if I don't see you away wave your hand or if um uh president um Rodriguez Pia doesn't see you please oh there you go there you go so it may be easiest for me to to share a a thought or a concern that I have on the front end instead of waiting to be called on because I'm not quite sure where it fits here but it seems like it may touch on at least maybe a few of them um but but one thing that I did want to point out um and maybe we add something here explicitly is kind of a a growing concern that I've had as I've noticed a kind of an increasing frequency of instances where the board president has been interrupted in the middle of the the meeting when um she has been chairing the meeting um if I can if I can cite an example uh at at the at this previous uh meeting we had the um uh classified employee of of the year and there definitely was some commotion and if I'm honest if I were if I were chairing the meeting myself I which I wasn't I probably would have called for a recess or called for a break but I wasn't chairing the meeting um the uh Yolanda you you were chairing the meeting and and board board member rodrig pan you were chairing the meeting and board uh member AIS there was a a couple instances where you called for a point of order um and I wasn't I wasn't certain if the point of order was really fitting but but there came a point where it went beyond a point of order and there was more of like a command Deering of the meeting itself that I that I did not believe was was appropriate for for that meeting so I'm not sure again the the general thought is is around allowing the chair to chair the meeting um unless there's something inappropriate or egregious happening that needs to be be corrected but I didn't think that that's what happened um and so that's just kind of a concern that I've seen and I've seen it happen um a couple of times uh more recently thank you um actually I know exactly what you're talking about and I had a note to myself about the point of order part um but let's first talk about uh what trusty gdes said about the the meeting itself in in how the um the call for the point of order versus how it was handled uh took place so I did see that meeting that was one of the recent ones so it was one that I did see watched in its entirety and I did see you had a wonderful celebration um your staffs were they were very excited it was a a time for celebration you know so I totally understand that I also understand that then the board needed to take care of the business of the district you needed to have your meeting um at that time I do agree with trusty Greer that maybe a f minute break should have been called to to tell everybody okay thank you you know you either have a seat or you know go outside finish your talking and pictures um so that we can resume our meeting that would have been the easiest way to do it that um that's typically a way to get things back under control and be able to move forward with your meeting so I would just suggest that in the future whoever is president that you keep that in mind that when you do have celebration events and stuff and especially like towards the end of the school year when you have a lot of parents here taking pictures and stuff give them you know a few minutes or adjourn for a five minute break you know to kind of get everyone to move out so that you can on on our Norms or on you know I like to add that moving forward in the future you know um where would we put this if we're going to make any changes is running effective meeting um board meeting yeah there's I think meetings it would go under the board meetings um if I'm looking at the governance handbook remember I'm not looking at the slot because this isn't um this isn't there I'm looking at your actual governance hand be and I just like to add that that's okay with my colleagues to add add that um moving forward like I won't always be sitting here but future right I that there's under in your governance handbook there is a um there's a prior to board meeting part and then there's a board meeting part under the board meeting part it kind of talks about things that you'll do during the board meeting so it would be easy to put an item maybe towards the top of that list that states um um during times of award ceremonies or acknowledgements um when large Crowds Are there that and I can come up with some wording um and send it to you guys uh to review and you can um just add something a five minute recess will be taken to um clear the room regain order so hold on one second maybe something like um allow transitional some transitional time for between ceremonial and business parts of the meeting something like that I I would also suggest because I agree with that I would also suggest that there be some language that still allow for discretion meaning I I think it's most wise to do but but I would still so if it said the board should consider or it would be wise for the board to um allow time but but I I still think it would it would be a good idea for there to have some discretion um for the the chair whoever the chair is as opposed to being locked into to something um that says that they shall or they must must right so we can do a May versus a shall I to um on that same note I would also like to add who is the person responsible for clearing um the crowd right so we're we're writing about having that transition but who is from the cabinet like responsible to actually clear and have somebody yeah I think I think that's a good idea because I noticed what happens is with the crowd like that day would I noticed it got really loud and even if it seemed like you know um board member uh Arana I'm sorry my mind went blank so I I noticed that she had to get louder but it was because everybody was celebrating and and it it so people don't it doesn't register right away so I thought too that having someone clear the room would have been a good idea so based on what I saw on the video of the meeting I think U what trusty Griff said a May instead of a shall a May would have been in order at that time where the board may consider taking a five minute recess to um clear the room and you know then resume their meeting just a quick brief recess um so how do you determine if it's a May or a must or a shall I mean how did you CH I would I would agree with trustee Greer that you should always keep it as a May versus a shall um because it's it's going to be up to your discretion you know when the room is in a at a point where you can continue the business of the board versus when you can't well I'm myself as the president felt after they were moving out and I I said to continue uh the young lady that was going to be speaking but then they c a pointed order again but I felt if you see it to me I I felt you know that that it was because they were already at the end and we were able to hear so let me ask you a question I don't you seen that part or not I did and that's why that was kind of a me I felt as a president that it we continue so let me ask a question based upon what I saw on the video and please correct me if I miss something or didn't see anything completely it seemed to me that um trusty arianis could not hear the public speaker um that was online and that was when the point of order was called and um at that time then you did ask ask for them to you know exit so that you guys could resume your business and then um it was not even like I don't even think it was a few seconds before then a second point of order was called um saying I still can't hear when the person resumed because you did tell the speaker the public speaker to go ahead and resume a second point of order was called um telling saying that where you said that you still could not hear the individual what I well let me back up the point of order let me address that part if you don't mind can I deviate for a quick second yes because I have a question like how many point of orders can you call and what is point of order really mean you just keep calling it or is you know I want to know also um with was that allowed or was I don't was I supposed to say something or or just continue I I'm not sure okay so typically a point of order is called to address a violation of a parliamentary procedure that's when a point of order is typically called um it can also be um to call in question prop um proper conduct during a meeting someone can call point of order I think we've all seen board meetings on the news where people are just yelling and screaming at each other and somebody will say point of order you know so it can be used at that time um but it's typically due to a violation of parliamentary procedures and a a point of order can be raised at any time during a meeting if there is um a rule violation or parliamentary procedure violation um something regarding um timing the way a motion was submitted um if it something wasn't done properly point of order can be called and any of us who have ever sat in the board's president seats have experienced this where we're going down the agenda following the agenda you know okay next we're such and such and we skip something and somebody will say point of order you skipped you know item blah blah blah oh yeah okay sorry and you go back and you you know correct yourself that could be a point point of order because it is a parliamentary procedure so things like that is when you um can call for an point of order anybody can call for a point of order but here's the catch once the point of order is called for then it is up to the board president to address that point of order so it doesn't allow for um let's say that I'm on your board president uh Rodriguez pin she's going down her agenda she skips item number three and goes right to item number four on the agenda and I say point of order and she might look at me like why are you calling a point of order or what's your point of order and I would say you skip number three you need to go back you're on item four okay she acknowledges she goes back but let's say that I she says um I call point of order and then she says okay before she can even address that I called a point of order I'm like point of order you called number um you're on number four and you were supposed to be on number three I don't know why you ski number three but you need to go back to number three because you can't just go to number four without addressing number three then I am out of order at that time because when I call the point of order it is the board's um president's position just like with a motion to then say what is your point of order so it's not something that's typically used a lot so we don't maybe really think about it or we forget about how that process is going to go um I think I've the only time I've ever heard it used was when somebody skipped something on the agenda um but just remember for future reference that if you call a point of order then it is up to you need to give the board president time to say what is your point of order I cannot hear the public speaker um because of the noise in the room noted then the President should have would have been able to say and should have said um you know gavl don't be afraid to use your gavel sometimes you know gavel and say excuse me thank you all for here being here we had a wonderful celebration um I appreciate you I know you're excited we would like to resume the meeting but we have a public speaker that waiting online and we need to be able to hear if you don't mind if you can step outside the board would greatly appreciate that you know or something to that effect and then the meeting could have moved on instead what happened was two people competing talking same time and like I said point of order is not something that we're all skilled in or noticed in I actually went and did some homework and when I was watching it I was like I've never heard point of order called for something like that and when do we call point of order that's a good question so I had to go back and do my homework to see when do we use that and how do we use it effect effectively to make sure that the meeting stays on track but we have to remember to respect the position of the board president and let her do her job I earlier when um I had said can we have also somebody be you know to kind of escort people out um I don't think we we address that um having somebody such as a superintendent or the individual who was uh George ronio or I would I would recomend me to allow staff that way we don't we don't pigeon hole to somebody but we know it's staff that's going to be um ushering people out yeah so is that what you guys would like to do I can put something in language of that too um just for clarification staff CFA staff aea staff cabinet staff staff then who then who would take the lead at that point is is whoever in charge of most of the time it will be the person who's leading that night or that evening and we can put it we know and we know that this is I wouldn't again we can but I would just say to allow staff that gives the ultimate flexibility um and doesn't pigeon hole the board into you know if all of a sudden someone's trying to help no no no it's supposed to be Jorge or it's supposed to be you know well well also if Jorge is not there correct right you know so it should be staff meaning well who's ever working under him right yeah that's your direction would it be okay to to staff but whoever is leading that recognition well I think the simplest thing to do is when you do have those big celebrations in a acknowledgements like that is just for whoever's sitting in the board president's seat to say um thank you everybody um for being here this evening we know you're excited want to take more pictures we need to resume our meeting if we can respectfully ask for you to go to the hallway or you know that's the easiest way to do it without having to worry about somebody getting up while you're still trying to hold the meeting you can't while they're exiting them out so just you know use your gavel you know hello just politely ask them to leave as the simplest way thank you um I I think that we were started talking about the example of a ceremonial event and having the transition however there have been um times re in recent meetings where we've had uh me many members of the public here for public comment and sort of after the public comment time is over then the audience has shifted out right and so there's also been some commotion so it's not all I agree with giving the District staff flexibility about saying it's District staff who you know whoever's working that night to help um move the crowd along and um I want to underscore my support with um uh the role of the president as chairing the meeting however he or she that style the may you have that discretion um but going I think for me tying it back to the unity of voice that the way we're going to speak to our public would be through the [Music] chair yeah so any further question what do yeah what do you guys think is that a solution no I have another questions so if um for example because again like you said we're you know we're all in a rotating chair and um we will uh some of us will have the role of President how how do we um address when for example uh for that night and and I'm speaking just for myself I I felt like I was not being heard and I think that's the whole reason I I I I I asked for a break for a five minute break a recommendation for a break and I understand that it's up to the the president um but H how do we address that to be um as as a colleague to you know I I feel like I'm I I can't hear still um how do we have that conversation H how do we address it right there and then you ask asking for a break oh I was he say I don't remember you asking for a break did you ask for a break that even I didn't hear it but but I only watched it once so I may have missed it I don't recall I just I know you called point of order and said you couldn't hear not on the microphone but I when I did say we we know I asked for a break and so how do we address for like hey at this point right now you know making a suggestion to the board president um it's it's loud um can we have a five minute break to well but I think we just discussed that and I think um what trusty Bo just said that the discretion of the president I think everybody and correct me if I'm wrong and trusty GRE has his hand up we'll get to you next um correct me if I'm wrong but we just agreed that there would be language yes we that will say that um if needed you know um that the the board um president may call may consider um taking a five minute break the superintendent Ortega just said that staff would also help to clear the room so if we follow that protocol then there shouldn't be an issue next time something like that arises um just to board members uh comment so um when we do have a a High um turnout for public speaking um we're not there yet can you hold that one write write it down so you don't forget yeah but hold that one trusty Greer yeah I I just wanted to uh share a a thought and then also a clarification so talking about the classified employee cele and and that that whole piece that was just an example of a situation where where I it seemed to me that the the board chair role was commandeered um and there have there there have been other instances that's just the that's just the one that most clearly came to mind um I know in real time I I almost felt a sense to interject myself to kind of and kind of remind and say that it is it's the discretion of the chair and again that's coming from the perspective of if I were there if I were in the seat that night I I probably would have gone a different route I probably would have called for a timeout but I wasn't in the seat and so us not being in the seat uh to to respond my my thoughts to respond to your question uh board member aiis is if if we make a suggestion to the board chair and the board chair decides not to go with our suggestion then that's a discretion of the board chair um and it and I I would say that it doesn't give us life sense to then take matters into our own hands and turn on our microphones and enact the action that we were wanting to have happen um it goes to the chair and if the chair agreed like that that that's part of the operation and and if in the event of us seeing that there's a chair that's abusing their power or or something then we we have governance um we have governance protocols like this to be able to to talk about and address and address some of those things so not every issue I I think I would say that not every ISS issue is really able to be handled in real time and I had to use some discretion myself that evening because I wanted to address it that evening when I when I thought that you were interjecting inappropriately but but I I did not believe that it would be appropriate for me to do so so even I had to save my my my comments for for this particular meeting trusty Ariana so would you like to comment no I I you know I'm so glad that we're able to speak about this um and I I do want to also just say that when things like that happen it you know on on my part it was not done maliciously you know um this is we're learning also too I you know we're not new board members any of us on this board anymore but I think we're also learning you know how to address certain things um and I appreciate that board member career um and I I do you know um and uh uh honestly um we're going through this for a reason and I absolutely I I I want to apologize you know publicly that again um it was more likely to give that respect again we can go back and forth but at the same time I do understand and I do agree that yeah I do see the board discre the president's board the president's discretion thank you thank you for that and um thank you for the comment and and definitely thank you for your comments um and I agree with what truste Greer said about we have to respect the the position of the president um we all like you said going to be sitting in that seat or you all not me anymore but you all are going to be sitting in that seat at some point and um just remind yourselves of when I'm in this seat you know how would I feel so keep that in in the Forefront of your your mind um but thank you sitting sitting as a chair and something like that happens it kind of throws you off because you're trying to follow you know and and do the right thing and it kind of throws you emotionally also I mean because of course you get upset but then you have to try of just do your job too so it does throw not only whoever sitting here when people do that it it throws you off and then it's just like you're like okay you have to I mean I you know I I heard heard a meeting yesterday actually and someone called point of order and then the person kept talking and they called it again and then they the chair told them and you seen the meeting yesterday and she said you are out of ter you are out of order you know she told the person that and the person stopped see I could have did that but I I'm not going to go back and forth and make a show right you know what I'm saying that's why I didn't say anything I mean I looked at her kind of like you know you know I get it but I was not going to respond in that manner where it does look like you know you you can't you're not you're not getting you're you're not taking a hold of your meeting and plus it's affecting you but but it's very hard because it does throw you off it throws you off emotionally because you know I'm a human being it's like everybody else right that's why we need to try to moving forward have meanings and you know run as smooth as possible and find a way how we can make it effective and how we can work together and how do we address it you know how do we ask the person nicely or you know that's where the respect comes in right and and like I said po um uh point of order is rarely used um and so even when you hear it is like can throw you off for a minute because it's not something in most Schoolboard meetings that you hear frequently so I totally understand um what you're saying and I think that trusty Ariana um does as well and you know always the one nice thing about your your board meetings is that you do post them online afterwards and so each of you can even go back and look at the meetings and say how did I do did I respect the chair did I you know follow the norms and the protocols that we have set forth and we can look at ourselves and and not many boards get to do that because they don't post their meetings or record their meetings and so they don't get to go back and look and see how did I do and I would encourage each of you at some point not you know you don't have to do it after every meeting but if there's a meeting where things happen or you're not sure um how things went go back and look at it look at yourself you're going to see it in real time um you know of how you acted in real time so take that opportunity to do that and use that as a um a way to grow into your position and to prepare for your next position on the board and and and I feel respecting the chair is one thing but I think we should respect each other not she the president or him I think we need to respect each other and also I think that that will work absolutely I totally agree and when I say in this context respect the chair it means as you leading the meeting but absolutely respect should be there between every board members and we've all had this conversation before at all times so I have here my order to develop um a statement and um I might send a couple for for the board to look at to add to the board meeting um protocols uh in your governance handbook and that would be the ones that are in your governance handbook on page seven um and then all of you can um look at it look at the wording and then if you guys once you guys decide that you have wording that you like then you can agendize it to approve it to add it into goverance handbook okay and if I can just say thank you to uh board member Adis thank you for the your um your your just your humble oh he froze to share you fro waited in here hello you froze for a little while can you start oh sorry am I back yes okay so just wanted wanted to to say thank you I I know that I'm I waited until this meeting to be able to share that um but just just thank you for um just the the the way just now that you modeled um just a humble reception and modeled um you know what it looks like for us to um yeah just work through some of those those challenges and grow together as a team so just thank you thank you just respond to that yes and I I think we're all here kind of like as we go back to our um our unified page right that that we all come from different experiences thought process strengths opinions weaknesses and we're here to learned we're we're not perfect and by all means um if we have a difference of opinion or we have a difference you know if one of us conducts ourselves in a certain way and we're here to process this and to grow from this and I think that's what unifies us more I agree 110% thank you so as we um look at the other things on the board meeting Norms is there anything else that anyone feels warrants some discussion or um the wording needs to be adjusted it um anything that has been a concern I wanted to add something I'm not sure if this is where we at it if this is a time we're moving forward when um the chair ask us for a motion a first motion that the person that's going to do the second we should pause until the chair asks for the second motion instead of you know someone say I'm first a second and then I'm like who said first and who said second um this is why you say can have a first and that's what you say can you have a second then you um because I always announc who made the first motion who made the second motion and sometimes it's it's hard to tell who who said it um and I don't know where we put this in here so I would again propose that that goes in the governance handbook on page seven underboard meetings as as well um but it's funny I I'm I'm giggling a little bit because that was also another thing that I picked up on when watching your meeting and I had written myself a note here to bring that up and then at the start of your meeting today I wrote myself another note um again because when you were opening the meeting and um you were asking you know for the motion to approve you know the agenda I think to start the meeting and um so somebody made the I think it was trusty Ariana made the the first or trusty Bo one of them made the first you know I I make a motion and as you were saying I have a first motion somebody else was saying I second while you were speaking and so I wrote myself a note like oh they're doing it again yeah I would appreciate that but that is um something that I did notice second second wait be acknowledged and um I just want to say something on that and I'm as a trustee I was guilty of that because I thought I was speeding the meeting along you know okay first a second you know I just thought hey I'm gonna keep this rolling but um as I got more into governance and started to you know read my my governance books more I realized that I was doing more harm than good here's the reason why the whole remember you're in a meeting so when you run this meeting everything is being recorded um it goes into the record the minutes go into the record so it's critical that the people who um have to transcribe um the people who are watching online that they be able to hear what is going on so if we're all like you know if the board president is saying um you know trying to acknowledge who gave the first made the first first motion and the person somebody else is already making a second talking over her then there is room for error of getting it right in the minutes and that's a permanent record so we want to make sure number one that we have our permanent records right number two it's just a courtesy common courtesy and like I said I fully admit I was one of those people I was always as soon as somebody said first I was like I second you know I didn't give anybody time for anything and it it was rude um so I will um develop language for that as well what how it should go for the record is when the President says um you know item number such and such and such um I have a motion and trusty Ariana says um I make a motion then the president repeats I have a motion made by trusty arianis is there a second then trusty B Bas says I I second and I have a second by trusty being Vitas I always say mess up Benitas I always mess up your name I'm sorry benas says you know I second then she can say you know then motion um all in favor you know I you know take the rooll the motion carries um and then go on to the next item you do need to do that that is just good governance um so yeah we we need to be mindful of that and um like all of you I can easily admit that I was guilty of that trusty GRE yes so I mean I can admit I'm I'm chiefly I I wouldn't call myself guilty uh but I would say that I'm I'm uh uh chiefly among those who who operate in that way I would also disagree that it's um necessary to to wait but I would also um want to respect the chair and what the chair is saying that they prefer and so if uh you as as chair board member Rodriguez Payne if you're saying that you would prefer to to to slow it down then then I think that could be respected my thoughts on that so I I mean I I disagree on that as a as a as a rule necessarily and and would again look to the discretion of of the the chair to to make that call I do think that it does speed up the meeting um and and it does take away from um a lot of unnecessary uh fill-in words uh but in this instance I I would certainly say I want to respect who is sitting in the chair seat and if you're saying that You' prefer the not happen then I would want and would ask that we all respect that thank you thank you member and again um I would just reiterate that part of that is to make sure that the permanent record is correct that's the big part of it because you need to make sure you have the right person on record who motioned who second I have been asked who made the first and who made the second you they've asked me and and something like I'm I couldn't remember you know something you don't remember just going back and forth yeah so I want to be able to announce it so the person can hear the name and they can get the name right right so would you like for me to go ahead and develop some language on that I I think I I I would agree that that yeah if that's something that um the board president right now feels to have a little more order that way she can write it down because again we we will be in that position and that will you know create more order and again since it's being recorded I think it's important and keep in mind um some of us talk faster than others uh when I ran when as I served as board president um twice I talked pretty fast um so for me trusty Greer I think you talked fast when you were the board president too I think we can still do the pause for to get the second and the here who did the first and the second is still keep the meeting going at a good pace so but we do want to make sure that people are heard when we make sure we have the right voice of who to attach that that motion to okay oh no no worries that's what we're here for so going back to the Norms um is there anything else that any of you um can think of that we need to discuss or address Angelina are you also do you still have your list of items from that You' have observed or are you waiting for us to exhaust our list I bring them up as we get to them um on the norms and then I have some on that go into the next part of our discussion that I brought up for this one I have I'm done because uh actually all of you brought them up before I even had to so did you have something yeah I did um absolutely I uh in terms of the bullet honor time be elective and be elective and efficient with discussions um I know that uh in the past couple of meetings we've had some very passionate issues where we've had a lot of discussion we've had a lot of public comment MH um and uh I'm wondering as a board what our maybe it's a resetting of the Norms around the discussion and if if that is um impromptu remarks and discussion versus reading a a lengthy prepared statement um I I wonder how effective that is uh in terms of who is the audience is the audience ourselves you know discussion or is that are those prepared statements intended for the public or or is it both so that is a a wondering that I have or if it's political you know Grand I didn't I didn't say that but I my wondering is what I those are things that we have to take in mind like you said is it is it a productive use of time we have to say it is it political is it grandstanding you know there's lots of things that you have to think about because we want to address it as a whole right now and not dance around some of the words because they are maybe a little uncomfortable we got to talk about it that's what we're here for so let's talk about it um how anybody want to start with their thoughts on this my my thoughts on it is that um I I will get people from the public they would question like you know what was that person saying or what did they mean by that or you know question you know they if they're reading something lengthy or they're talking lengthy they it's like you lose the audience sometimes because they they're not sure what what the point is so I I would assume that when we're going to respond just get to the point and just respond to what whatever you want to you want to relay the message to um because you do lose the audience but you also people begin to wonder what what are they saying you know you know what I mean you know what are they trying to relate to us is it a message they're trying to tell us is it you know so that's that's in your govern handbook number one says all board members will have an opportunity to speak to any items on the agenda and the board president will acknowledge individual board members prior to making a comment um and it talks about the protocol of raising your hand and everything like that um but that first part you know that every board member has the opportunity to speak is a given yeah um what trusty Bo is saying is you know the length like how long does this go on and on um and this is something that you as a governance team need to decide how you would like to handle those types of situations um remember this is your governance handbook these are your norms and protocols I'm here to provide input to provide um governance tools and standards and protocols and throw what ifs out at you and wise out at you but every district is different when it comes to things like this and how long um and discussions should go and how they should be managed so this is something that all of you need to decide so trusty Bo let me ask you a question um is it a frequent thing that you see where um comments and or discussion it's not comments discussion on an item goes on lengthy or that it seems that it's more than just a basic discussion but maybe and these again are my words maybe going into the grand standing or the political or I'm up for reelection type thing um how do you feel U what do you think sure and uh I I also want to make clear um I'm not making a distinction of speaking impromptu versus reading prepared remarks I know it takes you know part of our Norms is be prepared so if you really are going to be prepared sometimes it depending our style we want to write it out and maybe limit it to a paragraph or so or 30 seconds worth of air time um so to be clear I didn't want I don't want to offend anyone about prepared versus offthe cuff spontaneous remarks um I think that again topics that require thorough discussion are topics that require A thorough discussion what I'm wondering about is the repetitiveness of um recapping what you know if I'm at the end of the line and if my colleagues have already said something I may just say I echo my colleague sentiments rather than going through the list of the 10 things that everyone has said um similarly um I think given you know we have a couple rounds of discussion or as long as it takes I don't if I if that was already in something I prepared I won't read it again and um and now I now I feel like I'm repeating so that that's what I wanted to to get across um trying to be I and I I I don't know that I would say make it 30 seconds or less or make it a minute or less but being Mindful and bringing that to the consciousness of this group is try to be as concise as possible and offer new points to the group discussion um I agree with you and I think that um one of the that you said that is very valuable and that should be used by the trustees is if you are at the end let's say of the you know they're calling on this people to comment on an agenda item and you're the last person that's called on it is okay to say I agree with um with the comments from truste Greer um I Echo the sentiment of truste Greer without having like you said to repeat everything that truste G already said because you are at the end that time so you're the last to speak and if you agree with something that somebody said there isn't a reason to um say it all over again and you know spend another three five minutes on that and it's perfectly gets your point across to say I agree with trusty Greer it's okay you can do that you don't have to say it all over again um I think that if you look at the if you look at trying to keep your meeting streamlined productive keep the people who are present engaged in listening keep the people who are online engaged in listening to the meeting you want the public to hear what you guys are saying but again like trusty Bo said when you go on and on and on and keep repeating the same thing over and over again everybody Tunes you out and you were talking about that a little earlier yeah so it's okay to say nope I I didn't have any other comments I agreed with trusty Greer you know I agree with trusty Bo I'm good you know those were my thoughts exactly you know when I make my comments regarding like um my board member comments you know I I I visit many schools and many programs throughout our district so you know I may visit 10 places we'll just say the the the band and the report cart what have you but I try to keep only to put five things that I went through I don't read the whole you know everywhere I've gone but I think I I I try to pinpoint the things that are great that we can highlight what our district has our programs that people are not aware of or you know or football team one you know highlighting but I try to stick just to five items every meeting I don't well public comments are a different one hold that one cuz we're going to talk about that one we're talking about agenda items so um there's an agenda item it's rent there's a motion there's a second you ask for comments and everyone wants to make their comment on it before the vote um we're talking about how do you handle that when someone goes on too long with their comment or how do you um if everybody is saying the same thing over and over and over again and each person is going on too long every trustee has the right to voice their opinion to let the public know hey this is my thoughts on it but there is the point where at some some time where you have to say Okay this has been going on for several minutes and you're saying the same thing and you're repeating the same thing over and over again so you know when does it get cut off how do you monitor yourselves to know this is it um Can somebody give you you and I can someone use the gavel or Can someone say okay thank you and kind of C you off what's what's your what's your protocol for that how do you guys handle that right now if that happens we I don't think we have a protocol for that that's that's actually the first time I heard that it may not be written what do you do if there's somebody who's going on and on and on as we just listen to them as they keep going I I I since I've been sitting here only three meetings four meetings now I you know haven't stopped anyone I mean I I don't I don't know what I don't even know what to do without not looking like you know you're you're stopping them or like you know I don't want to make a again a scene like I told you so you know what do you do or so trusty Bo you've sat in that chair um when you had to deal with that was it just the the norm to just let them go um I I think I don't think that I've interrupted anyone but I do recall a couple of instances where when speaker one finished I redirected the conversation a little bit to say something like okay and is there anything new or is there anything else so it wasn't addressing it but just guiding the group slowly is something that I tried to do in during my 12 meetings I didn't get to do 24 I'm new and trusty Greer you sit in the seat um how did you handle it yeah I don't I don't believe similarly I I would say that generally my my Mo would have been to just allow for uh board members to speak and and to to give board members time to speak generally I suppose there may have ever been time where things were maybe getting contentious or or things were happening where I may have interjected um but but not just for the purpose of length I'll add another complex layer in this is also uh what happens in the events of of a situation where it is the board president who is uh making lengthier than necessary comments because that that that also creates a new another set of challenges you have a very good point there so tell me as a governance team what can the five of you agree to hold yourself accountable I would not put this in the handbook this is not something that I feel is um you should put a timeline on because there's going to be things that come up where every person's voice you know they need to express what they're feeling and even if they say some of the same things as somebody else there's there's times when you have to have that time to express what you're feeling so we don't want to put a cap on that we don't want to put a timeline on it however um I grew up in a black church there's always that saying govern govern yourselves accordingly is what they would say to us as we left church so there is a time where you need to govern yourselves accordingly you need to be aware of okay am I being productive with what I'm saying or you know am I repeating the same thing over and over again read your audience um look at the people sitting here look at your colleagues if everybody is like this at some point that kind of gives you a sign that they've T tuned you out if you're looking at the audience and people are like this and they're on their phones and they're all over the place again that gives you a sign that they've tuned you out so then maybe that means wrap it up summarize it also um there was the comment about you know people writing things down and and being prepared with what they want to say sometimes writing things down in advance is good of what you want to say as long as it's not like you know a full page of something one thing but so that you can hit the points that you want to hit so when it comes to your turn to address some motion and they say Okay Angelina you know what do you think and I say well you know um I think I have my three bullets you know I want to make sure that every member's voice is heard and I think that we should keep our cell phones off and we all need to come to the meeting prepared so I had my three bullets I said what I wanted to say I'm done I didn't ramble I didn't go on so maybe that's a tool that all of you think of using for particular items and you even if you don't have it done in advance sometimes there's a presentation given at your board meeting right by cabinet or superintendent and you're hearing things and you're jotting down things and then so you make a bullet of your you write down your questions that you may have or you make a bullet of your comments that you have about the presentation so that it then again when it comes to your time you can just go D without trying to remember without repeating yourselves you can make it more productive what say you go ahead I think we um you know in the spirit of a continuous Improvement hear that and then maybe if you could help us make a note of it so when we do our next board self evaluation we can rate ourselves on that point I got you and I will watch some of your meetings so so at any time should the Sher say something or just um you know like thank you for your comments and we're moving on to item or we just have to be really careful with that and that's why I said that's not something I you want to put a time limit on um I think that maybe um a a nice look you know to them to let them know you kind of been going on for a long time is but they're not looking at you um yeah I just that's that's one that I I don't want to stifle a voice um on an agenda item where they're um giving their comments on it I think we have to be very careful with that um at the same time I and I'll say it again that that you all of you as trustees do need to govern yourselves accordingly and realize that you've been going on for a long time um we're all passionate about certain things uh some things more than others and we may have more to say on one thing than another but we have to remember that this is still a meeting of the board and we still want to stay on task and we want to be clear with our points but you can also be concise so that it registers and people hear you so I would say and you guys are free to differ with me you know U but I would just say to try to you know look at them and and the board president is in the middle feel free to turn your chair a little maybe or and um let them know but yeah I don't think that that's something we want to just cut somebody off now with that said I have seen some board meetings from some districts where the board president did have to cut a board member off because they were just on a tangent I don't see that happening in your District um I hope that that never happens in your District but should it ever happen in your District where somebody just goes on a tangent there you know is getting out of control that's when the board president would have to use discretion and use the gavl so any other thoughts on that one and thank you uh Tristy Bo for bringing that up I have a comment yes so I I think they're referring to me as being the one that's more scripted and I'm I do write everything down I it in because um and big letters because obviously I have glasses on so I want to make sure I don't miss anything um I appreciate everybody's comments on that and I'm not grandstanding and I think right now in the political climate that we are in I think it's important for me as a board member also to be informative so that the community is also aware of you know what what why I'm taking that stance on that no vote it's not that I'm grandstanding it has nothing to do with that I'm I'm not going to you know I'm not on on the on the November ballot but um I think that's the way I do it and because I am passionate about certain items and I don't feel that the community sometimes is well informed I'm not saying that's something the district um fails to do it's just maybe people parents working so it's just I want to make sure that they know my reason for taking that position on the no vote if I decide to do that um I do feel I I feel that I get concerned about if we do put a time limit on it or I'm stopped that it can get contentious because things will become more debatable I have a voice and I would not want my freedom of speech to also be violated and and I say that because um I think it's important that we as board members also have that uh respect to also speak and and um because we're not not we're not we're speaking to our amongst ourselves but we're also speaking to the community and I think for me it's important descript it because I want to make sure I don't miss the important points and maybe I'm being repetitive and if I am it might be not not necessarily because I'm trying to um because I want to make sure that it's it's understood that because maybe at the first time I mentioned it or something like that maybe it didn't come across or maybe someone didn't catch what I was trying to say so I I just want to make sure that um I don't miss anything that I I want to bring bring across to the audience so um and I do worry like you said right now if we put a time limit on it or that it's something that that you know I feel like okay I don't have a voice so why there's some kind of control here um I did have another question since we're on this topic so I know in public comment you know the public can come and say and get IAL right and yet as board members in our comment time frame I'm not sure exactly like what I know that we report on certain things like committees or things like that so there's a there's a part of me that I wanted to find out since we're here what what can I say during those public comment meetings what's permissible can you hold that question write it down um like I've told them all because we are going to talk about public comments okay yeah okay um I will address the the previous comment that you made please know I was not talking about you saying that you were grandstanding I was just in my conversation um response to trusty Bo and we were talking about length I said you know sometimes people do it for Grand standing or because they're up for election or because I was just given examples so not directed at you at all um so but I would just say um for your comments I understand like we all said that that's why we wouldn't put time limits on it you have the right to say why you don't support something or why you do support something you have that right as a truste I would just say though to everyone as I've already done so is just to watch your your the amount of time that you're taking and if you um you know do bullet things to make sure you hit the topics that that you you want to hit then that should make it easier and streamline the process for everybody if everybody does that if you know in advance that there's something that you want to you know bring up because you're going to vote no on it just make put down some bullets and and cover your bullets and that you're clear and and you got them across yeah and and you know honestly in in the beginning I was just kind of learning and observing the first few months I was here and then I I thought okay I saw other board members they kind of script their things and I thought oh that's a great idea because this way I don't miss anything so why I started doing it but um with with good intentions so never to give a lengthy comment but to make sure that you know I address the audience and also my colleagues with respect to why I'm taking a position on a particular no vote um but I think that's important to to be able to convey that so that we're clear and and that's why if I have been repetitive it's for that reason so that I am clear in the message that I'm trying to bring across trusty B sorry I oh I'm sorry go go um so trusty Ben this um again my comment was not around scripting it out or speaking spontaneously not at all to me there is a difference between being clear and being concise and so I'm I'm striving as um a colleague to get us to the maintain Clarity and becoming more concise and that's the the length part of it and and and this but this is you know of course I mean yeah I appreciate your passion and and yeah but this is where we have honor time because we have still business to do some we have other items that we need to follow but I mean since I mentioned you know I know you want to be concise you want the community here but then sometimes the community are saying what is she saying or where she getting at you know what I'm saying they're not they're not getting it or they're not understanding which you want to stress the point and you want the community to know but sometimes it gets so long that you know they heard like the first part but then you get to the bottom it's like what was she trying to say you know or or what what was their point I me even though you are trying to get the point and you're trying to write WR like you just mentioned so that's what I'm hearing and I just just you know want to let you know that okay so you know when it comes to to be in a trustee is a learning process even when I left the board I mean I can still look back and say things that I could have done better um both in um as a regular trustee and when I served as president vice president clerk I could say there's something that I could have done better in every seat that I set in when I was on the board and that's why I said take time to reflect go back and look at your board meetings you guys post them I'm seriously go look at it and then sit there and watch yourself and when there's those motions made and you make your comments everybody makes their comments look at it and listen to what you're saying and think oh okay no I did a good job or how man I'm still talking you know pay attention to that and that will help you more than anything anytime I give a speech anywhere for anything I always stand up in my house and to an empty chair and read the whole thing out loud out and time myself and you know get a feel of how it came out how it sounded and that tells me a lot if I get bored listening to myself then I know I need to cut it down if I feel like hey that went pretty well then I know I'm at the right place for the speech that I'm going to give so I would encourage you all to watch yourselves go back and watch a few meetings and see truste yeah I just would want to add a slightly I I don't think it's a posing perspective but just a slightly um additive perspective which is I I've appreciated B member benas that that you have when when you are gonna be presenting a no vote I appreciate that you have shared um that and shared your your perspective on on that um there have even been times where I've asked follow-up questions to and ask for for greater levels of of specificity just to just to make sure that I understand and that and that that there's understanding and to see if there's any way to um get at what your what your concern is but um yeah I just I just want to make sure that I say that I I appreciate that I know that's our protocol somewhere that if we're going to vote no we say why so I do appreciate that that you have been pretty consistent in voicing your your purpose behind a particular no thank you anything else on this one so you guys have some homework go back and watch some of your meetings and see how effective each one of you are okay so going back to this one anything else before we move on okay thank you so then we'll move to the next one this one should be pretty um pretty quick but um this is something that I'm not privy to so you will have to um inform me of how you do these are your um your Norms of prior to the board meeting are you adhering to these things are you coming prepared um ready to start the meeting uh there's a couple of things that I will say for everyone and this is not like just that your District I this is something I say to every District the one thing that a governance team does need to do that a board needs to do is to try to start their meetings on time now I know sometimes when we're in close session things happen you know we get into a discussion you guys have closed session right before your board meeting as well right so things happen you there's a a discussion there's a major issue or something and it will take a little longer than what we anticipated um what I suggest is that if there are issues that are going on in your District where you know you're going to need more time in Clos session than what you've allocated then try to address that beforehand and maybe start your close s see if you can start your close session a little earlier um if you can um talk to each board member before close session and try to you know get some clarity to on some things before you all meet but that always helps but sometimes it can't be helped there's you have to take care of your close session business and you may run a little late getting in here into the board and um to start the meeting but for the most part you do want to try your best to start your meetings on time you all talk about how you want the public to understand and um what's going on in the meetings and hear what's going on in the meetings well if I'm sitting online or if I'm sitting here in the room and 15 minutes has gone by and 20 minutes and 30 minutes and you still haven't come out then I'm getting frustrated as a community member I'm going to leave I'm going to say see look at they can't even start their meeting on time I'm going to not understanding governance and what happens in close session um so those are things that we want to consider with that is being here being ready um having your packet read everything you know gone your computers if you use computers your computers are on ready to go so that you come out a close session you're in here boom let's start the meeting any questions comments on that um do you guys feel like you all do your work in advance to prepare you read your packet um you've asked questions of the superintendent in advance is that an area where they're doing okay yes we have a protocol um in place uh to assist with that so um we have moved our packets up by a day uh to give some additional time for the board so instead of delivering on Friday we deliver it on Thursday um and then number two uh every Monday I check in uh with the board with a text please call me if you have any questions about the packet or the board meeting and then they will call um yeah I want to go over this or have a question about this or can you please explain um this awesome great so any questions on this one they prior to the board meeting or you guys feel like this is something that you you're pretty solid on okay okay so the board meetings themselves some of this we've had some disc discussions on as we've been talking my glasses back on here um as we've been talking about some of the other items we've had some discussions about this um but you know we want your meetings to be effective and then if there's anything in the handbook that needs to be added or deleted that's what we want to take care of today um while we're here we've looked at a couple of things I have some notes already on some things so looking at the board meetings and again I put in your your presentation exactly what's in your your handbook um so as you look at this we talked about the opportunity to speak I think that we're all clear on that one if not speak up I'll give you the opportunity to speak the only thing that I would add here is when it talks about about uh the board president will acknowledge individual board members prior to making a comment I that's important but I think it's also important to remember that the board president can still join in the conversation so so there there sometimes there's different rounds of comments and so I think it's important to allow other individual members to speak for that first round but I don't think that there needs to be two or three rounds or instances where there are people who are speaking multiple times before the board president um just as as one of the five members of the board um is able to to chime in so how about if we add on to the end of that one for 2B the board president will acknowledge individual board members to speak as well as um I don't want to use the word take their term but I'll find a better way to to word it um have their have their opportunity or something like that I'll come up with something have their opportunity to speak is that okay with all of you I'll see if I can find a better way to word it I have a question um yes because I've I've often thought about this so is there an order in which the board president like when when the board president is asking for comments from her colleagues does does she supposed to start with like the vice chair and then is that is there some kind of an order or there is not a formal protocol on that as far as governance goes um I think that you'll find that districts do it differently when I served as board president um on the first item for discussion I would start at the person furthest the second item I'd go there third item I go there so that everybody had a chance to talk first at some point that was always my goal um some people go by membership um the clerk the the vice president clerk member member or member member clerk vice president um so it it varies uh do you have a particular order that you go in yes what I do is I start from my right coming down or this because I I used didn't like to always be the first one so I was like you you you know so I would give every the opportunity I start with Mr G and then B be us and go and then the other way around then I come like b b and and so forth I just kind of and then so I can remember that I don't want to forget anyone either to be sure to give them all the opportunity to se you know some sometimes I have someone say something they don't but at least we give the opportunity um so no I just go this way or I go this way just switch off trusty AR on us I think um what we've done um uh here on our board is is that at the president's discretion on who goes first um and the board president always goes last on the first round and that's that's what we've done yeah thank you um is that working for all of you is that okay that the president pretty much decides what works why Adrian making a face over there no I I was going to say that because when she asked I was saying yeah I do believe that for the I don't believe this is a problem I I don't I don't think that this is an issue the only issue that I've seen and which is what I brought up is I've seen instances where there's been a challenge to say like well board president you shouldn't speak yet but but after there's been two or three rounds and I just feel like there needs to at some point the the the the board President also needs to join in the dialogue not just give the final word right and and you know what I do what m i do I do um like I said to right my left and then myself and then there's further discussion then I would individually Whoever has further discussion but I always go after the fourth board member then I I do go I I don't wait uh till the end and I was going to ask a question regarding um where it says what board members should raise their hand and or call board president to get their attention that one I I I will if you agree if my colleagues agree cross that I mean you have people yelling at you or calling your name or you know get get my attention or not even we're talking about this is for any future presidents what so you want to take out your well in my opinion it's a distraction I you know I don't know how my colleagues feel about it um to try to get my attention you because I usually look this when I I show look at me or or she look at me or whoever right but you know like say Yolanda or president or so do you guys um how do you guys feel about that U 2A it says board members should raise their hand and or call the board president to get their attention do you guys want to leave that Andor call the board president to get their attention or is it enough saying board members should raise their hand yeah raise your hand yeah I think that in the last two years yeah in the last two years we haven't called the it's been ra hand yeah so everybody's comfortable with taking that last part out okay or I'll look at them and they'll just give me that look that you know I want to say something I'm like okay then right yeah so I'm going to put board members should raise their hand when um wishing to be acknowledged or maybe not wishing acknowled want to Beck wanting to be acknowledged I want to say something okay I wish she would acknowledge me okay and then some of the other things I had in my notes we've already talked about from observing um some of your board meetings uh we've already covered so is that good for that one yeah okay so on to the next page um anything here that you guys want to update clarify have a quick dis or have a discussion about out um my notes here from what I saw in your meetings we've already addressed it uh oh I know there was one thing that I had here um you recently had a meeting um that was a little bit longer maybe than some of your meetings because you had so many public speakers at your meetings um when you have long meetings how do you guys address like do you need to take a break or do you guys just push through well the the last meeting that we had we're talking about the one in December we just we just went through we just mhm continued okay and everybody's good with and and if someone needs to you know go somewhere you know go to the restroom or what have you they they're they can go or a Cabinet member anyone they don't have to be um but if you're talking about that that meeting you know um I did check with my colleagues and see if they wanted to take a break and they said no so it's the discretion of the board not even of me it's if if my colleagues agree then we continued that's what we did okay trust I have a question just overall um for example if it's uh we have future meetings that are going to be um very contentious uh we have Surplus meetings that will'll be um addressing so moving forward uh if there's a meeting that does start at 5:30 sometimes we may not have a break we do tend to uh take a break from like close session to General Session oh and so my my question is moving forward how do we as board members um for example do need that break but still want to be engaged in the conversation how would we address handling a bathroom break where we do want to take a bathroom break but it's not a but we want to be engaged how do we address that to to the president well one thing I would say is um after close session everybody should like take time to take a bathroom break before before the regular meeting starts I'm so sorry this is without close session so this is just a a regular meeting for example we had special meeting like stud session special meeting I would say if you know that it's going to be one of those kind of meetings try to go before you you start the meeting um only because if there's a if there's a topic like you said you use the word contentious so let's say there's a topic that's coming up in um um you know you know that going to be packed going to be lots of people here it's going to take a while you you don't want to interrupt the flow if you don't have to if one person needs to go run to the restroom and I know what you're saying about that's what you're talking about leaving but and missing something that was said just like try to go as quickly as possible I remember those times um when we had meetings like that just try to go as quickly as as possible and get back would be my recommendation rather than stopping the flow of the meeting um I personally think that if there's something where it's a Hot Topic and there's lots of people here to at the meeting to hear about it and speak you know and things like that or see what decision the board is making is that when you take that break to you know have a restroom break or or whatever you need to do that that tends to rile up the crowd a little bit more um because they want you to keep going they want you to address the issue so it is better to if you can to keep going of course I'm not advocating for anybody to sit there and get a bladder infection please do not do that um if you have to go I would say you know just try to you know get up and go as quickly as possible maybe whisper to the to the board president you know got to go to to the restroom or something again um I'm going to go back to to to growing up in a black church when you had to get up to leave while the preacher was preaching and you needed to go to the restroom you had to actually put a finger in the air as you walk walked out to let them know I'm just going out and I'll be back as a Baptist thing so so you know just you know letting them know you know be right back or slide a note going to the restroom you know um but I would not Advocate that you stop the entire meeting unless it's been it's really really getting to a point of exhaustion where the board is just like we need a minute we all need a minute or if things get unruly um the board president has the discretion to use the the gavl gavel and say we're going to take a recess you know and give people time to calm down before you come back out so for those type of things yes um if just one person has to go I would say just I know it's hard you don't want to miss anything but just get up go and just get back as quickly as possible if you guys disagree please say so I I agree um because sometimes also you even lose the momentum in the audience you know or people just start leaving and you're not done or they're thinking why are they pausing they want us to leave you know are they doing that on purpose right you know it could be misconstrued oh they wanted they probably waiting for us to leave so we're not going to work you know it does roll them up they start thinking different you know what we're up to right um that's that's what happens okay so we're good on that I just wanted to make a comment on that I remember in one instance I had to get up right to use the ladies room and in my mind I'm thinking because I I didn't know right I'm like well I have to use the ladies room so I got up but in my mind I'm thinking as I'm walking I hope they don't vote or how does that work you know because I'm thinking okay where are we in the agenda when I come back are they GNA take a vote and or I miss something right but I mean we have to do Nature Calls one thing that I will add though is if in instances where you do need to to take a quick um you know break I would say um just try to do so as quickly as possible try to limit interaction with um the audience that are here because sometimes you'll go and they'll try to stop you because they want to talk to you and you're just like just let them know say I I really got to get back I got to go to to the restro you know be polite about it but don't stop and have conversations with people um as you're taking that quick break just go take care of your business you know I would try to hold the vote I wouldn't have the vote with all the my colleagues said they're here it's not right do I would wait for that but just P you know just when people try to stop you as you're going to the restroom especially with where your restroom is you know just you know tell them say I'm just going to the restroom um call me later send me an email whatever and keep going because otherwise you run the risk of getting caught in a conversation and then the board president can't hold up the vote she's being courteous to hold the vote until you return she can't hold the vote forever so go do what you need to do and get back so we're good yeah anything else on this one anything with study sessions um board meeting attendance um you guys are always very good about that and again just be prepared to start the meeting on time have all of your stuff ready to go okay so then let's go to the next one um this one just really quickly um talking about rules for Effective meetings and this one I'm just going to highlight because we've talked about some of this already about arriving on time um being having reviewed your agenda you guys are getting it a day earlier now so that should not be an issue um taking notes to to yourself in advance St on topic that one is critical and that's not one that people think about often because there may be an agenda item that comes up and um discussion ensues and then someone goes off on another another topic IC board president it's up to you to use your gavel to say um you know that's when you can call a point of order because that's a parlamentary procedure because you should not be talking about something that was not agendized so if it is not related to that um then you want to make sure you you cut them off and you know say point of order that's not on the agenda so be mindful of that um asking your questions do you guys have a cell phone issue at meetings everybody's really good about that yeah okay um and then also you know um one of the things that trustee Greer said was that if when he hears a no vote he'll ask questions because he wants to you know see if there's a solution and up there you see for Effective meetings one of the rules is if you disagree propose a solution um so make sure that you have good genuine conversation um follow proper motion protocol we've talked about that one already and um I always put this last one up there is maintain a sense of humor throughout your district has been through a lot and um when I first I think the very first time I came was when you were first talking about school closures so you guys have been through school closures um you've had Charter School people here you guys have had a lot of hot topics come up so sometimes s it weighs down on you but always try to remember to smile remember that you're here for the kids you're doing what's best for the kids and just try to maintain a sense of humor when people come up and yell and scream at you and hurl insults you know just just try to smile through it it's hard sometimes but M try to just maintain a sense of humor that'll help you get through it and one of the things I would always ask myself is when it was times were rough is do you still enjoy serving on the board and I would think about the things that I liked about serving on the board um you know going to activities the student recognitions employee recognitions and focus on those things helps you get through the bad stuff so board bylaws related to your meetings this is just a quick point of reference um there's no extra detail that's needed here in your govern handbook you have all of your board bylaws listed um please use this as a resource if you're not sure um even sitting on the board for eight years if there was something in that was going on and I wasn't sure I would go back to my board bylaws to see if there was something on it and then if I didn't see anything there then I'd talk to my superintendent but your board bylaws are a resource for you so you always want to go back to those so let's talk about our last issue um or our last topic rather sorry shouldn't use the word issue our last topic which is public comment planning so one of the things um as I did get to see um your meeting where you guys had um the whole city of isusa here to make public comment and and those times are rough um because you want to hear the voice of your community um you want to hear what they have to say you want to let them know that they're being heard but at the same time you still want to run an effective meeting where um they get to hear your discussion too so public comment planning one of the things that you need to do is prepare a plan in advance for these situations you want to plan in advance um I know that there's the possibility of maybe having a couple of more meetings coming up like that maybe uh with trusty Arianas is that what you were saying I never know yes so um if you can come up with a plan now of how to address that by saying okay if we have this many public comments where do we stop giving everybody to three minutes where do we start to shorten the time um how do we do this so let's talk talk about that Tristy ariest yes um I I'm I'm so glad that we're we're able to to speak about this I wanted to actually uh make a recommendation um and see what my colleagues think and and get input or different different opinions um one of the things that um I've noticed a lot of uh other uh meetings uh City Council meetings excuse me um or board meetings is that they uh basically take stop taking public comment right at the beginning of the meeting so therefore everyone's present when either the uh the um the city mayor or the president is giving um some type of directive to public comments so everybody has already put in their you know the cut off is right the blue cards correct the blue cards are online that basically it's done before the meeting starts um and I I've watched and and our meeting as well where people are still coming it's it's open you know we have no set um time um so I I'm I'm just proposing out in the open just for us to discuss what do you guys think about having a cut off moving forward um of the time being the start of the meeting um right before the meeting so that way all the cards are in are our secretary is able to fill in the roster as people are you know um heading already had their hands raised before the meeting um but let's discuss that because the the that's something I think that's a good discussion to have yeah what do you guys think yeah board member both um I would I'm in favor of having a a cut off time um however I would propose that the cut off time be something like 710 or 7:15 um and I'm putting myself in the shoes of a member of the public who might be piing my kids getting off of work and then getting here knowing that the Open session starts at 7 and then I could have time to park fill out my blue card and submit it within the first 10 or 15 minutes of the meeting thank you board member GRE yeah I was able to speak to the board president about some of this and and have some some suggestions and my suggestions similar to to you uh board member Bo was something like 710 or 715 but honestly I'm not opposed I'm not opposed to uh board member ianis to to your suggestion that that we said it at the start of the meeting I I I would hope that no matter what we do we provide maybe a grace period and some time for some some learning and some some kind of training uh for for our folks to know that that's the shift that we're going to but that would be in alignment with what happens on at at city council and I I wouldn't be opposed um though I originally was thinking about 710 or 7:15 I would not be opposed to making it asking they be in by the start of the meeting time you have any input on that no I I agree I'm not opposed to you know setting a time limit on it getting the blue cards in I I I feel that if people you know the community wants to speak during the public comment that um usually you already know in advance so you know they should they deserve that opportunity but if we set a time I think that's a good protocol to to consider and I agree I mean we we did use 7:15 as our in our December meeting because we knew that we were going to have many people and it worked out very well cuz I know someone said oh I was going to say something but you guys had a cut off time you know so we had 26 cards we probably would had 50 cards you know but I think uh to uh board members both come in I agree with only because you know what if they're coming from work or what if they're you know in a traffic so they know our meeting starts at 7 I would like either 710 or 7:15 also we used 7:15 last time and it worked out fine but between 710 75 I think would be good not not um at the beginning you know before the meeting starts because it also gives times to time to our secretary she needs to put them into the system and um raising your hand also um Miss Leica she she needs to put those in you know then the cards are coming and coming and they like never catch up so I I would say 710 7:15 would be fine all I do want to remind my colleagues that people that are picking up their kids from work or whatnot do also have the flexibility to call in to to voice their opinion so um this a suggestion just because I do see U there's disruption you know as when we start the meeting as people coming up to the front um and that was my suggestion just for that time um but you know just remind you guys that uh people can call in before that um to have their voice heard and I do agree with my colleagues it is important for our community's voice you know for them to have public comment um so I because also a cut off um for um virtual right um elica Can can cut off the virtual also so it would be virtual and in public the cut of time would be the same right so what consent oh I'm sorry Bo member G I didn't see your hand sorry yeah po president you you just brought up a great point which I think that's important it's important to remember that there that there needs to be a cuto off for those tuning in online as well how how do we enforce that what what do we practically do is there something that the the board president will say or that that does does the moderator type something in how how how would we how would we actually enforce that from an online perspective so I think to uh board member Greer's comments um I think that it's incumbent upon us and we would help lead this as staff to start to um train our community on our new protocols um I go to city council often uh to give public comment and I'm trained that if I want to get public comment I need to show up and put submit my blue card before the board meeting uh begins and so I think that the the online would work exactly as the inside it's that training and then at 710 Leica knows that any hands raised after that will not make it onto the list that she is reporting to Hope and that's what we did for the 7:15 I'm sorry yeah the 7:15 and I think and we use that one more time I think when uh board when uh board member Greer was president I think he I think it was like a 720 or something like that we did the same thing so once that time hits then again we we don't longer take blue cards and any hands raised after that are not are not acknowledged onto the list of people speaking but we would have to do a lot of reminders and we would be ready for that right uh for for quite a while as as everybody gets used to oh now at the Schoolboard meetings I have to do it before the meeting starts or I have to do it by 710 or I have to do it by 7:15 whatever that may be um to set a new a new Norm uh for our community um in regards to in regards to that so so can we ask um individual board members what their preference is and then we'll see you know majority rules how it comes out or what is your recommendation so this is a board governance workshop and we're talking about the governance hand kind just made a note of where this decision right here should go in to the board um governance handbook so you can make a motion um because it's about the governance handbook and this is what's agendize is the governance today so we can vote we can you know okay so we can motion we can make a motion on this and make a decision motion by board board that was a motion I had a question presid so ironically this is a governance workshop and this item is listed as an info item so are we promoted to take action information only okay sorry thank you for clarifying that thank you for the clarification no then we can just um right they can give direction or they can come to consensus right very good yeah so then we could just discuss it decide what you want to do and then agendize it and then once you do let me know and then we can add it into to the governance handbook yeah thank you for that clarification trust Depo Bo memorable I'm in favor of the cut off time being after the start of the meeting whether that's 7:10 or 7:15 I'm comfortable either way um I'm comfortable either way starting before or after I agree with my colleagues board member c yeah I'm comfortable either way probably slight preference for the start part of the meeting but I'm comfortable either way um I I also either way so I don't know come out I mean I I prefer actually 7:15 only like I said it worked out fine the last time and um I think we need to give the community time to get used to it you know I mean the first meeting we're going to have and we're going to cut them off like just like that I mean you know baby steps right well I I I think that no matter what we whatever we decide on there needs to be a like I said a period in time and where we where we arrive there but I actually wouldn't agree that if if we I think we should decide on we should do whatever we think is best meaning if we think it's best to say cards submitted prior to the meeting then I think that that's what we set a a course for and we go there I think starting at 7:15 and then later moving it to the beginning of the meeting or moving it to 7:10 like slowly getting closer to the meeting would actually be more complicated um but but I say we we pick one and and then give time in but but but arrive there with a a set timeline okay I just say 710 and I would agree with with the last statement that trustee Greer made because then the public starts to think well why do they keep changing it why are they moving it you know closer and you know moving it back further and further do they not want to hear from us so I think that decision that you make should be the one that you hold firm to I uh I'm sorry I would agree with you 710 to give them that that like little uh window um and just to be firm on it and to to have like what um our uh superintendent had mentioned to to you know send out in Peach jar to send out to be on our website and so forth and to to basically educate our our community of our new Norm that would be taking place so we would have um hope would be here to collect the cards earlier right and and Leica would be online to to monitor um okay well I'd say 710 that's that's how I feel but yeah 710 okay1 now one one good thing about this um as it's only being an info item tonight is that if you guys want to then you know make this a protocol to and to add into your governance handbook when you approve the changes that we've made it'll be nice because then the public can see that you guys have also had discussion on this so when we finalize the changes for the governance handbook and you bring it for review and approval that'll be there okay thank you that's yes yes can I also make um another suggestion as as we are talking about public comment one of the things that I appreciate that President um Rodriguez Peña um shared at one of the meetings was uh uh the protocol of not sharing time and um because what right right so individuals were um we're I'm yielding the time right like I'm going to give my time to give right uh to so and so um another thing too um that was uh that was brought uh was that people were putting in their cards and then stepping out and it was it it just created a lot of a time delay trying to wait for them are they still in the parking lot so I I would also like to recommend to for us to bring to a norm that when um you do you know basically uh not putting that um where it says public comment you know how it's on the agenda um those Norms that President uh Rodriguez paa brought forth was no you know reminding them no yielding of time you know no I don't know how we would word it the yielding of the time and you would have to be present in the room in order to take your your turn so um for the yielding at the time was consensus on that or what is what is your proposal on that what remember C if somebody was speaking just a moment ago I don't know if your mic was on I didn't I didn't hear anything but um yeah I I would agree with that board member aist uh both of those actually the idea that we we just kind of put a moratorium on yielding time I think that that would that would actually make the most sense and then yeah if we just put language in to say you need to be present at the time your name is called and if you're not present on Zoom or in the room when your name is called then then we just move on and we we don't we don't Circle back around yes pres so I uh agree with uh no yielding time absolutely I I have a question about logistics so let's say this room is full and there are numerous blue cards how can we in sure that the person who that all the blue card people are in this room rather than in the hallway or in an overflow space that's a concern I have I would say um I would say um you know come to the podium um marur Ortega second person will be ganes so the person the second person knows that they're second so they should come in and then as you go on you just read the F the F the first and second one in oh hey they're calling you or what and they should be there by the time the other first person um finishes what they're saying I'm assuming that is a that's a standard practice used by a lot of districts and it does make sense because they can be prepared then they know that they're next yeah and they have time to get over here right I would agree with uh president uh yolan driguez Pia I've seen in board meetings and City Council meetings where the presidents or city count uh City um city mayor will say the next five people and she would call the names and they would line up and before you know there's two people left and then she would call you know I'm going to go ahead and pause to call the next five names so that way they're aware um if they're having tech technical difficulties or if they're you know if it's full um kind of what she just uh said hey so and so you're next you need to go inside and so um I how do we word that do do we just she she'll she'll okay yeah I'm writing myself a note now that's a great suggestion yeah so do we want to have public speakers line up at the podium yes during that time rather not line up or two or depending I think it would depend how many people do you have how many cards you know will we have just the same like where we go to the timing I think that might be our next conversation yeah if it's a normal meeting where you just have like your normal three people or whatever I would just call them one at a time if you have the larger groups then that's when I would say call one and maybe in until the speaker number two will be and then speaker number three will be call more people yes sir and just as a friendly reminder we do have uh the capability on espb they get to see who the list and the order that the speakers are in that's that's public right they see their name on there okay yeah when I saw that on your video I was like that's impressive yeah they know next so you guys are good with that okay Ju Just to be clear um can we add those two things to the agenda so that way it becomes a norm for the yielding and the um well I have the notes here you're gonna do a whole approval of the governance handbook again because we're making changes so when you approve the governance handbook all of these changes will be in it and I think that we can if if the board um wishes on the board agenda item not the board agenda because that's already lengthy but on the board agenda item of the public comment we could list uh some of these protocols that will just be there every single time do do you think that we should um post it out there where they pick up their cards in that table yes like have a board or right big bat I would recommend that it's like you you go to the store no refunds I said where does it say that up there I go oh yeah there it is is it possible to put it on the blue card itself so that when they're filling it out yeah fits that yeah they're reading yeah that's a good idea is there no I I have I don't know if we're still on this item I I have an additional suggestion for a change but I don't want to cut anyone off if someone's still speaking on this particular item continue continue so another suggestion or maybe maybe issue that that I I'd love to see us find a way to to work around is when we have those situations where there are ex just extensive comments and and sometimes there are if we're If we're honest a lot of times we we will get to a point where we may have an hour plus of comments and if if I'm honest we get to a point where many of the comments are just repeating some of the same some of the same things and I and I want to ensure for the sake of of of allowing for public comment that people have an opportunity to do so but I know we have recourse to pause if if our our comments go past 20 minutes or something so the thoughts I have is Maybe if we reach the 20 minute Mark and we if we vote to to to approve to allow for people to continue to comment that maybe we shift from three minute comments to two-minute comments or another suggestion would be if we look at the list and if we see that there's 30 comments and you know or or 40 comments or what whatever threshold 20 whatever the threshold is that we shift to two minutes I just I I think that we get to a point where it it may not be as helpful or or effective to allow for hours long of comments when it's a lot of repetition one so with that maybe an idea is if we have 25 or more speakers that we can make a decision about saying each of those speakers have up to two minutes um do you have a comment RIS um I was just trying to process are you are you saying a to uh board member vote when there's 25 people wanting to speak regardless if it's 20 or yeah so we'll have five blue cards 50 blue cards 20 blue 20 blue cards or 25 blue cards I'm suggesting currently we allow up to three minutes so if we assume that everyone has three minutes then those 25 people are 75 minutes so as a cut point maybe we consider okay if we have more 25 or more blue cards as a board and the chair would announce um given the we have you know 40 people everyone has two minutes today and announcing that at the beginning of public comment you know what I may add to that is blue cards yes but you know we have virtual people online too so is that a no 25 people or I I when I say blue cards I mean both everybody both your your paper or your virtual blue card so total number of speakers understood just 25 people that's General gives you the sense of that's 75 minutes so then half of that is 34 minutes to kind of take both both of um the comments from um the previous board members that spoke I I would uh agree uh with and I would suggest 20 20 people because then that equals one hour right 20 * 3 3 minutes and I think 20 people listening to the same thing kind of what board member career said they're kind of repetitive at a time so it's one you know 20 people uh 20 speakers and then your suggestion then after that reducing it to to two minutes um to give everybody a chance to speak but at the same time um I don't know what do you guys think you need your yeah maybe maybe a combination so we the what we are supposed to currently have in place is that when our com correct me if I'm wrong when if our comments reach 20 minutes we're supposed to stop and pause and we're supposed to vote and and determine if we are going to allow for comments to continue what if we were to say 20 minutes or 20 or or or 20 commenters um whereby if there's 20 commenters that it shifts down to two minutes and if we reach 20 minutes that we that we we vote to allow and say the remaining commenters um have have two minutes I I I think there may be a both and approach that that we can take to to be more concise yes word memorable I think it would be important to tell the public whatever the guideline is at the beginning so that they're not wondering oh if I'm in the first 20 then I get three minutes but if I'm person 25 then I get two minutes was that what your was that your your hybrid proposal board member agreer yes that that is that is what I'm saying and that and I and I recognize how that then um pushes individuals to to get their cards in first if they're wanting their entire three minutes but again it it may also push our speakers to consider if if I'm using up my three minutes how can I be concise we're having the same conversation for us as a as a board to say how can we be how might we be able to be concise to to to contribute what we're adding to the the conversation um as opposed to repeating so I I understand the the the risk involved there but I am suggesting still that that maybe we we make a cut mid um if we surpass a certain time so with that I I don't support that I think if you show up for public comment that either everyone has three minutes or everyone has two minutes or everyone has I believe that everyone who shs up for public comment should have the same amount of time and that if we go with and board member Ariana is I like your idea of the 20 minut the 20 PE 20 speakers well virtual or in person if they all signed up and we have exactly 20 then it's three minutes but that as soon as we go to 21 speakers then it's as the chair would say we have 21 speakers today given our board handbook each speaker will be allowed two minutes and then everyone has time to as a member of the public has time to say oh I have to cut my comments down because now I only have two minutes you have a comment board R Onis no I I I think that um now hybra both of your comments is where I came to the conclusion of that you know sitting here for two hours with public comment um you know we're we're able to go ahead and um like even to board member career's comment right now saying hey these people that are the 20 speakers are going to get here fast early to make sure that they're the first 20 right but at the same time after 20 they know now right that it's only two minutes that they're going to have not the three any com so I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly so 20 speakers will have three minutes at the 20 we're gonna allow the 21st person to only do two minutes is that correct no that is not that is not what I describ yeah clarifying she's if we have over 20 we have 21 people we will say automatically you all get two minutes we're not going to give three minutes the first 20 after that they're two we're going to get two minutes if it's over 21 and if it's 20 did I say that right yeah so 20 equal to or less than 20 it's full three minutes it's three minutes if it's 21 then it's the 99 it's two minutes yeah because keep in mind that the decision will be made once the you guys said that you want a 710 cut off so at 710 how many cards we have then that's when or three minutes they're good yes okay so are you guys good with the 20 20 so 21 goes down to two minutes yes uh um yes yes direct yes I'm yes also I agree can I can I throw a monkey wrench in this no go ahead only because board uh board member Bo stated something I'm like oh okay um so this is great but what if like board member Bo said what if it's 99 like again those those we we'll deal with those as we come along 99 people you're saying or or 50 then one minute no well I we can talk about that so if it's the cut point is 20 and Below 21 to if you 21 to 40 is 2 minutes 2 30 would be if you're sticking to the hour 30 would be the hour just it's another hour sure yeah and then over 30 is one 31 and higher is one minute I think that's I I acknowledge your point of if we're going to set these cut points set them all now yeah yeah what yeah so keep keep in mind also there there is still something currently on the books that we either need to get rid of or address where where there is a 20 20 minute cut off we have had precedent where we have said that I don't know of a Time where we we've come up to vote and where we have said that we're not going to allow people to vote or or to to share a comment after 20 minutes but but I do think that I don't think that it's wildly inappropriate to have a set time to say that the upper end limit is is you know a certain time that we don't just have unlimited so if there are 99 commenters even if we say everyone gets one minute I I I think that there can just be limits um to to our to to public the comment and when we're talking about 20 minutes we're talking about 20 minutes on one topic or just public Comon General I believe if um superintendent T I don't know if you're able to pull up or or if we have that in front of us but I believe it says somewhere in our protocols our bylaws somewhere that if if it's over 20 minutes then yeah on a particular topic then then I I I I don't recall I don't have it in front of me and I was going to say that I wish I could remember what um our card said it did have a a a statement on there about the topic if it was all on the same topic our our board by law does stipulate uh that it's 20 minutes per topic so um and then if it's going to uh be more than 20 minutes the board president with consensus from the board may increase the time um allotted to that topic I'm comfortable with operating under consensus because at least as long as I've been here we've not put a 20 we've not put a a minute cap no we've said we're gonna hear everyone yeah you're right does this is this the same for public hearings that's a good point so a public hearing is a hearing for one item yeah and usually the public hearing though the whole purpose of the public hearing is just for that purpose just to hear from the public and is usually on one specific topic right and the public hearings are generally during regular meetings they're not as they're not separate meetings so there's still there may be other agenda items that members of the public want to comment on well I would suggest that that if you have um a topic that's a a Hot Topic item that maybe you do consider have a special meeting if you anticipate a very very large turnout um because that's the whole purpose of the public hearing is to if something big is happening and you definitely have to be mindful of the consequences of stifling the voice of the public on something like that for example when you did your school closures um if you said hey we're going to do 20 minutes on this there's no no no telling what would happen no and I wasn't suggesting that we would limit it to 20 but that what we've outlined about 20 speakers 20 21 to 30 speakers are we going to follow that framework for a public hearing right but that's why I'm just saying if there's a Hot Topic issue that the public hearing is on do you want to cut people's voice off on that because it's the topic is a public hearing I know it's public comments but the public comments are usually all over the place you know for anything you can come in and talk about anything for public comments the public hearing is usually on a specific topic I'm just asking the question yeah is your decision um I have a question because I know the charter school wasn't scheduled as a public hearing right it was it it was it okay yeah examples other examples of routine public hearings um would be um Sunshine proposals uh from the district Andor bargaining unit members um alcap would be another public hearing that's routine that we have to do a public hearing um budget yeah so yeah there are some routine and then there are things that pop up that are not routine or unexpected so those because they have to be posted right okay and usually like for some of the routine ones you don't get a whole lot of people coming in it's it's usually typically something major going on so where are we at on this so I kind of wrote myself a visual um and from what I what I heard and collected was that number of speakers went through 20 and correct me if I you I'm wrong three minutes total 60 minutes total that we would be hearing from the public 21 through 30 would be speakers the time 2 minutes and it would still equal 60 Minutes in public hearing 31 through 40 is speakers is one minute and it would be 40 minutes 41 Plus speakers we would do a vote I I I didn't realize we were going to divide them that way I thought oh no that that that's what I heard because I heard you guys say what about 41 people and so I I just want to to be super duper clear before leaving the room that that we're that I just wanted the visual and so I I'm asking and this is not my proposal this is what I I heard um that's how I understood it so that's what I have in my notes as well Fe back I would give there if you wanted to stick and that's up to the board to the 60 minutes then your last one that you gave us would be 31 to 60 would be 3 31 to 60 not 3 to 60 correct if if if that was the desire 60 okay then it's 60 plus then would be a consensus cons 60 consensus would be then that's yeah that that's this is what I what I heard sorry oh I think I'm I'm not sure that one minute for so if I hear you correctly we're saying that if there's if there's 59 cards let's just say 59 cards then everybody gets a minute I I feel like that may not that that really might put things that that that are a bit too tight I know we talked about not wanting to not wanting to give some people a time and then changing but I again I'll just say I'm I'm still in favor I'm not I'm not opposed to that or just the idea that um if if two minutes to me seems like the the the lowest that's really like effective for at least the beginning um but then if we get past a certain point and it's on the same topic then saying we're shifting to a minute and asking you just to add to anything that that's been said so people have an opportunity to comment but having a minute for everybody from the beginning seems Seems um a bit too brief in my opinion can I can I ask a question something trusty Greer just said um made me think of something when you talk about you know per topic the it's 20 minutes right per topic is what you currently have on the books so when you get your cards in the um is it your who who collects the cards um so she sorts out the cards by because they put what they want to talk about on it so let's say um 20 cards have negotiations on it and then 10 cards have the the um traffic at the high school and um eight cards have charter school so then what are you going to do because they are different topics you have this many for this topic this many for this topic this many for that topic I I wasn't aware they are categorized on the blue card there's a section U that asks what what are you here to speak about but how about online do do the do our do our okay so I oh the online doesn't don't know see so I I I I'm going to suggest and we we have it across the board if if online individuals don't have to do that I think it's important that the people that are present as well you know if they're going to speak that we give them the platform all it you know across the board and that's your board member GRE um comment this is not good or bad and I'm not making a judgment call but just for context um I do know that there are boards uh when there are long meetings uh limit the time to 30 seconds um and again I'm not saying that's good or bad I'm not saying I'm not making a judgment call but I do know as a matter of fact uh that there are when there's large comments in order to try to get more people to the mic versus less people to the mic uh they limit to to 30 seconds so to to to board member careers's point right so 31 through 60 that would be a you know possible 120 Minutes that's another hour that's and my yeah my suggestion isn't that we give my suggestion isn't that we give 31 through 62 minutes my my my my suggest or I'm just communicating that I'm okay with the idea of of reducing on the on the further out end because it gives an opportunity for more of the the thoughts and comments and emotions and feelings to come out earlier and then people can say I Echo and also and and and that just takes less time but to your point superintendent Ortega you're saying you've seen 30 seconds as a precedent so maybe maybe one minute isn't as as wild as as it seems to me yes um I have a question for um the superintendent what is the the average cards that that you know that we've actually had in in a contentious or where there's a lot of public speakers what has been the norm that the highest average that I can think up off the top of my head I think recently we had one that had 18 uh speakers if I'm not mistaken 26 I think another one was 26 Char 26 which in that case if that were if this was the the if this wasn't in enacted that would have been two minutes per speaker yeah okay so that's honestly that's that no those numbers are not that bad so when we look at this 1 through 60 regardless right 1 through 60 would always if we'd leave it at one minute it's one hour of public comment and then after the six we can have a consensus yeah I mean if if for everything that you've had going on if 26 and but let's say 30 let's just say 30 if 30 is the highest number of cards you've received that's not that bad um for you know those rare occasions where something like that is going to happen and to this point would it be okay and safe to say we can remove the 20 minute per item be removed from from our our our board bylaws right because the people online are not having to do that and so the people in on that are here present if if we were to eliminate that um then we would just do this and we would have people that are present here in person the people that are online um they would all be counted in they would all have equal the same the same what do you guys think yeah I think we should have either or but this seems more reasonable yeah um the minutes so so this is when they're commenting making comments on agenda items on public what public coming I think it's at the beginning of the agenda I can't remember what yeah yeah yeah so do you guys have any other comments suggestions or do we have a consensus to go with the and let me make sure I have it right in my notes and superintendent Ortega please I hope you're you're you're checking me as well so 1 to 20 would be three minutes and 21 to 30 would be 2 minutes and if it goes to 31 then the board would go down to one minute 31 to 60 right it so it would go down to one minute and it includes the virtual people and people it includ the virtual we can add that they're combined right just for a point of clarification just so that we're all aware um I do believe that the only thing that alters this is if there is a um just so we're aware that there is a if there is a public speaker that requires a translator they need to get uh double the time of what is so if let's let's pretend there were 40 everybody gets one minute but if needs a translator they wouldn't they would two minutes yeah that we need to add that make sure it's on there right yeah okay so are we good with that and keep in mind if um you guys find that this doesn't work after a while you just revisit it you know give it a year if it doesn't work revisit it in a year you may not even have it become an issue yeah it may never come up okay true all [Laughter] right so I think wait where was there anything else on public comments that any of you had questions I know you had written down yours um president on Rodriguez P you had written down yours when I said hold those hold those everybody got theirs out right what they had so I think that's we're wrapping it up um I just always you know try to close with this with the um just reminding you of why we're all here Student Success and achievement I I'm reading my notes I just wanted to add something I'm not sure again where we put it if you recall we spoke about reporting out when we're assigned to a committee or we're oh yes or we are going to a conference that we are to I think we have that in our protocol somewhere Superga and I don't think we we spoke about that and I also had that question earlier about like what board members during our public our comment board comments that's when you that's when you okay so for the um committees I I don't recall seeing anything in the government's handbook about it yeah but we can um we can add oh here we go we can add um a statement in there um that if um how do you guys want to the report outs on committees to be handled how was it written superintendent Ora we do have that right we do have that protocol mov yes give me a second I will try to find it's in our uh board bylaws I believe something about something about uh reporting out um highlights of the attendance or something to that effect but I'll I'll try to find that really quick and I apologize you did ask me about that and for some reason I did not have that in my final notes so I apologize oh I have my board bylaws right here well can I share something actually while she's looking for that yes um and and I'm just uh bringing this up to light because one of the things that I I appreciate um today was you know um that was shared by our facilitator with that to go and look back at our meetings right for self-reflection um I I do want to let you guys know I I really appreciate these governance meetings um being able to um to have the space to um to address things that you know are happening on our board um and I'm just going to you know bring this up to light I know that um you said you you can watch all of our meetings online except for this one no it oh we were being recorded oh yeah we did Oh I thought it you know what take it back going back never mind erase um but we're taking this time and opportunity to to thank you know you guys for for this time to come together to to address things that may may not be working may you know may need attention to the tuneup thank you thank you board member benas yes a tunip so I'm very appreciative of these board meetings thank you superintendent Ortega I don't see it did you find it I just looked through the I printed out the all the keyboard bylaws um I did find that there is is here uh that the board could set the expectations for reporting to the board and or the superintendent or designate so it looks like the board can set an expectation to say this is what our expectation is that when you're on the committee and the board per this bylaw 9130 it looks like the board can set those expectations and I want to just make a little comment on that you know I I I was at um the parks and recx meeting and I was sitting there taking notes and and as was I was taking notes I was thinking about that because I was thinking you know we come to these meetings and I don't really report and then I'm thinking at the same time I was thinking there's a lot of information here too right you can't remember everything I mean they do have the agenda so so how do you know which items to report on what would the board consider the you know at those meetings that are the priority I know things that you want the public to hear but usually like with parks and rs they they provide a lot of information to the community in itself already but I mean I don't mind sharing it's just it's like how much do we share well there's I think two different ways you could do that there's things that you want to report out from the committee that you do want the public to hear um there's and this was a practice um that we did um when I first got on the board is that we gave like a committee report in writing and then it was distributed to all the board members in their packet and then at the actual board meeting if we wanted to report out on something about the Committees we were on it was just like a boom boom boom highlight thing we didn't have to go through everything but as you said for example with the parks and wck if there's a lot of information and you're like you know well I don't need to report out on all of this then maybe you just choose like some of the key things that you know the community that's listening and the um the parents and students of your District that are listening with one to be would be most interested in you can just report out on those things at the public meeting but then share everything else and writing with the superintendent and the superintendent can include it in your Friday packet may I kind of like an example you know they're going to build the new swing set at Memorial Park everyone to know that right I mean that's they were on the other day uh regarding you know um putting new bikes at you know Valleydale or what have those are the things the community wants to know not like every little tidbit but something like that you know um that's what so that's that's what I would recomend to all of you if the superintendent Ortega thinks that's a good idea and um and board president and the TR all of you think it's a good idea good use of time that way you get full information but um the time that's taken up at the meetings is um not extensive because they went on you know in their meeting for three hours and now you have three hours of stuff to report on so it's just a thought what do you guys think um one yeah I'm happy to write submit a memo to be included in the board packet or or even just distribute my memo here when we come to the next board meeting either one yeah I I actually like your first uh suggestion being able to go ahead and have it in the board packet so it's already there and we you know and it to highlight maybe one highlight um to share you know when we come because we do attend these meetings or we do go and to these workshops and so forth so it's it's acknowledging the fact that we are active board members um attending these meetings and workshops I I I personally report out like I just mentioned if you know someone's getting in W but I just kind of make it basic you I went to lead school they did this and I went to here and they did this and you know they got you know because you know I do write it down and I do send a copy to the secretary um superintendent secretary that's your public comment right during my public comment yeah not the committee we were talking about the committee no if I'm the committee I I will I would announce I only do five things and I decided if it's in the committee or I went to csba and I came back and we I went to the this Workshop having to do with whichever but that's one of my five items that I discussed during the board meeting during my public comment so yeah only use five items yeah I kind just go like that down the line so for so for committee reports everybody um there was I made the suggestion that that if it if you're in sit on a committee and there's a lot of information that you put it in writing and share with the board members um you know the superintendent can can share that information with all the board members your public comments is a different thing so and that was the last thing that we were going to talk about was public comments um I guess there was a question um you had earlier about how much in public comments and how long um so I will let all of you have this discussion how are your public comments right now I watched um I watched several of them um any discussion any one no what rememberer yeah just going back to the previous item real quick uh I'm actually not I don't I don't I don't I'd have to think more but I don't believe that I'm in support of the idea of board members submitting um committee reports that are included in the board packet I I'm I'm I'm com um as you shared board member rodrig Peña with just sharing that out at the way that the way that often times it happens that that that gets shared out in the public or or in board member comments and it's memorialized at you know there and I think that we as board members just use discretion as far as to to share share some of those highlights but I'm I'm I don't I don't think I'm in agreement with the idea of of um submitting board uh board memos I think there was a concern that there were things going on at board um that on committees that board members were attending and then the rest of the board never heard anything about it of what was happening at the Committees that different board members were sitting on and so there was a concern that you know how do we make sure that everybody is hearing everybody on the board is hearing about what takes place at the Committees that the other boards members sit on yeah I'm I'm I wonder is that is that due to the fact that we are there are instances where board members are attending meetings and then not sharing out at all or is it instances where board members are attending meetings and they're sharing some information but but but there's a sense that it's insufficient what they're sharing and so I guess my I'm I'm thinking it's the former rather than than the the latter um I think that if we just make a point to make sure we share and that we are conc PR about sharing the the highlights from from our committee um the times that we attend committee meetings I believe that that would be sufficient otherwise I think we we may be addressing a problem that may not actually exist so what does the board think this was something that came up to be addressed yeah I I'm in favor um you know either way um so if you guys you know feel comfortable uh during meetings addressing highlights like big highlights that um could be shared here that I'm open to that you had said um during your public comments correct yes yeah to to make that part of your public comment during that time right yeah I think I had a a slightly different wondering um because we haven't had a consistent protocol for sharing committees and then we and we recently um signed up for committees at our organizational meeting um I I wonder are we all able to still honor those commitments and attend the committee meetings and then if we're not able to how do we communicate it with our superintendent or board chair to say Hey you know I know I signed up for it but life has changed this semester I can no longer serve on the committee how do we make that space to um give it up for another board member that's something I would address with the board president and the superintendent and then they'll either put it out there for somebody else to take the spot or you know figure something out to make sure there's representation yeah but commun like you said on that one the communication is the key don't just stop going like you said just make sure that you tell somebody hey life's changed I can no longer I'm no longer available on Tuesdays at six o'clock to go to this committee I'm and regarding sharing out information I'm either sharing it during uh board member comments I'm also happy to just send an email to superintendent Ortega and say you know if you could put this in the board packet right because sometimes I can take give a little bit more detailed information and then we can read it at our Leisure so then why don't why don't you guys just plan to do that then if there is a meeting a committee meeting that you attend and there's lots of stuff and you feel like it's important to share all of that information with the board but you don't want to take up all your public comment time put in writing give it to the superintendent ask the superintendent to share it with the board if it's something that where you feel like you can just pull a couple of things out to highlight and you figure that doing that in your board comments is enough then you have that option to do that as well is that with that cover every situation yeah I think so I think we agree do you guys agree with that TR yes yeah okay we do Okay cool so public comment going back to that um is there any concerns issues uh about length of public comments you mean board member comments yeah the board me I'm sorry I said public comments board member comments I'm sorry yes so Mr TGA when uh you create the agenda generally there are time markers allotted uh I think I I I try to pay attention to those in looking at that are you allotting two or three minutes per board member for that space you give me one second I believe and we do have we do have that um and let me find out really quick what we do there well he's looking for that anybody else have any concerns or anything about for comments I see trusty G sh his head no no I don't I don't have I don't have any concerns with with how it happens I would have I would have concerns if we were to put limits on board member comments um I think that there could be if we if we recognize there was a situation where there was a particular person or a set of persons that was consistently using excessive amounts of time then I think that this would be the place that we could we could address that directly or or or we could just address it directly with that with that person or talk to the board president I don't know but but I don't I don't think that again it's a problem that we currently have I think when I work with most boards what I tell them about um board comments unless I've seen like there's a major issue um I tell them just to be um specific be concise and um make sure um that what you're saying is relevant to the district and if you're doing that then there shouldn't be any concerns but did you find what you were I did right now we allocate four minutes per board member on the on the board agenda we don't even use that ter right and so I think it's you we use that wasn't suggesting a a strict limit but a guideline certainly you can say a lot in four minutes if you decide to use up all four yeah I I I don't know I I don't think we I mean we have four minutes and four and I as far I've been on board the longest we've never had any problems or you know stop anyone or anyone's you know um I think a time limit I think that's not I don't know childish you stop them from talking it's like no so there's consensus that board comments are going fine right now we we I've never yeah okay that's a good thing that's a very very good thing don't have something to say sometimes and it's fine we don't we don't have any that is a very good thing very good thing so um I think that's pretty much it yeah your next steps is um you guys will get together at some point um as trusty um both said um the next time you guys I'll have a governance Workshop it should be for uh aort self- evaluation um I recommend that you do those once a year or every other year at the at the longest length of time so um that's pretty much it so here's my next steps I will work with um superintendent Ortega and board president on Rodriguez paa and um the for the things that we talked about adding to the governance handbook so I will um draft up some things um with the wording to put in to those places that we spoke about and then um superintendent Oro will share that with the board and then you guys will need to um agendize and have discussions and decide what you want to how you want it to say what the final verbiage will be and then you guys once you do all that all of you will then vote to approve your new governance handbook your or updated governance handbook um because we only covered certain parts of it but they were important parts um I do want to thank each and every one of you I think that this was one of the best discussions that we've had um in my time working with you this was a really effective um you guys had really good discussions it it flowed well everybody um obviously was open and respectful to everybody's opinions and the the just the back and forth is is just was very wonderful it was very very very good um so this board has really come a long way and I'm just excited to see this so I look forward to um continuing to see you guys girl yeah question yeah no I I just wanted to make a comment that um I appreciate your time here with the with the board and um for the most part I think we are a great board you know I think we work well together I think we're professional we respect each other's opinions even if we have to agree to disagree and you know I appreciate um you know this time spent together because we really get to know each other and and respect you know how we think but yet we all come together and agree on certain things and that's what makes it the beauty of of being a team that you know we're striving for the same Mission so abolutely want to thank your thank you and my colleagues and the superintendent and thank you for bringing that up because the governance workshops is the only time that all of you get to have these kinds of conversations um it's kind of hard to agendize this set of board regular board meeting so this time together is important to discuss these things of how you're going to work together how you're going to govern yourselves as trustees as a governance team with the superintendent it's important that you take this time to do this and have these discussions so you are absolutely right that is critical and it's and it's very helpful to discuss these things so thank you any further discussion I want to thank all my colleagues for your valuable information I I think we did great today and moving forward you know we're a great team and and and I'm happy sitting here knowing that we're all able to be frank with each other and forward and say what you need to say without feeling threatened or feeling that you cannot say certain things because it it's that's not um this is why we have these me like you mentioned before and and that's what makes us a great team they were all listening that's number one we listen to each other we agree to disagree but I think we came out strong at the end and I appreciate superintendent ARA and also you for our facilitator so n um we're on 4.1 adjournment can I have a motion motion to approve motion by board member arianis can I have a second second second by board member Benitas any discussion my discussion is that went well I like it thank you um can we have a hand vote board member Bo yes board member arianis yes board member Greer yes board member benas yes and me yes meeting adjourn at

if you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district you may submit your questions using the link on the website and the appropriate staff member will communicate with you our BPS 101 Communications manager Harley dman will now explain the procedures for public comment and call up the speakers thank you president me you've been here before you have three minutes the timer is up on the screen for you um I'm sorry this is Tracy graus here with us this evening um as I said last time I'm not the best public speaker so I apologize if I ramble um I just wanted to reiterate what I was here last here for last time um I do feel I got to meet with Mr Kim and I thought it was a great conversation very productive um I hope to see some great things from that um however I I still deep down even though we had that conversation I still have my concerns um because again my daughter came home today saying how there was physical violence in her classroom um and it was not addressed um so not today I'm sorry yesterday um so I just I really want to keep hitting home on JB Nelson needs help they need more assistance and I don't know how else to go about that I know I'm a sub but not one sub can make that change we need more um or just more um people to help out with the behaviors that are going on um but again like I said I just I just had a great conversation with Mr Kim um but again it's just it's happening all the time my daughter doesn't know who to go to there she doesn't know who she can go to she has no trust with anyone because nothing is helping the behaviors so she's like if I can't trust that so so and so is not going to hit so and so how can I go to that teacher and know that I feel safe so I'm really pleading that if there's something we can do to look into this I would really really really hope for that because all these behaviors are going to affect these children the older they get and they're only going to get bigger and harder to control right so that's pretty much my piece all right thank you record time that's the end of public that's end okay thank you next is BPS partners pod the be I know fight your way there today yes good evening everyone uh first off I'd like to Echo any and all expressions of thanks to our building custodians and maintenance and ground crew uh led by Mark Anderson and his team with our Trifecta of snow cold and Ice days and frozen pipes water leaks and insufficient Heat at the high school all just since returning from break I know that they put in many hours uh much before the beginning and ending of our school times these past few weeks and the Bea could not do our job without our Besa and our District staff counterparts so please accept our heart heartfelt thanks for your time and efforts during these weather challenges we also know that decisions made by Tom and the administration on whether to have school or cancel it and to move to e-learning or use emergency days will always be difficult ones to make as inevitably there will be those who support one of the decisions that is made and also those find fault with that same decision I want to thank Tom for using his resources to carefully weigh all the factors that led to the decisions that have been made over the past couple of weeks I know for sure that the safety of students and staff drove all decisions while adhering to the district philosophy of having a safe warm and dry learning environment for our students with these three snow days now behind us I hope we can all move on to Spring very quickly to keep you as a board in the loop we will be having our second District coordinating council meeting next Tuesday I know that this is not as a familiar committee to many of you as our established committees like CAC and plaque and rack but DCC was negotiated in our last contract as a way for admin and Bea to oversee the functioning of our district committees and to ensure that our collaborative structures are not only working but thriving we have several topics on our agenda but one that is quickly rising to the top of the discussion list is artificial intelligence or AI I know that this is not really the case but Ai and education has seemed to come virtually out of nowhere in the last couple of years and currently does have a prominent place in the mind of our Educators especially at the high school and middle school levels in terms of this topic I'd like to give you a few points to ponder as you continue to bring yourselves up to speed with the implications both positive and negative of AI in the classroom of the future as we navigate these ever evolving landscapes in education it's imperative to acknowledge and address the challenges that Educators face particularly in the context of artificial intelligence the integration of AI in education brings about both opportunity and obstacles that demand thoughtful consideration Educators play a crucial role in shaping the future of our students and as AI becomes more prevalent in our classrooms it is essential to recognize and tackle the challenges associated with its implementation here are just a few key points for for you to ponder as members of the board number one professional development with the integration of AI tools Educators need comprehensive and ongoing professional development programs these programs should focus on enhancing their technological skills an understanding of AI applications in education and adapting teaching methods to effectively incorporate AI tools into the learning environment number two resource allocation and I know Tony's not not here but I think his Spidey senses are tingling when I say that uh resource allocation means adequate resources including funding for updated technology and AI tools are necessary to ensure that Educators have the tools they need to succeed proper allocation of resources will Empower Educators to leverage AI in ways that enhance the learning experience for our students three ethical considerations AI in education raises ethical questions that need careful examination it is crucial to establish clear guidelines and policies regarding data privacy potential bias and the ethical use of AI tools in the classroom Educators should be provided with training to navigate these ethical considerations responsibly four student Equity AI has the potential to either accelerate or mitigate existing educational inequalities it is essential to ensure that AI tools are accessible to all students regardless of their social economic background the school board should work towards implementing policies that promote equity and inclusivity in the adoption of AI number five collaboration with stakeholders engaging with Educators parents students and the broader Community is vital in making informed decision about the integration of AI and education creating channels for open communication and collaboration will Foster a supportive environment for educators as they navigate the challenges that are posed by AI I urge you all as school board members to proactively address these challenges and look towards creating a framework that maximizes the benefits of AI while minimizing potential pitfalls by investing in the support and development of our Educators we can ensure that our students receive a well-rounded education that prepares them for the future now if you haven't quite figured it out yet that entire last section that I spoke about was generated by AI it literally took a matter of 4 seconds for AI to create a succinct example Laden list of excellent things to consider when navigating the Uncharted world of AI and education there is so much good that AI can do but there are also obvious dangers of AI that will need to be addressed by using our stakeholder groups crafting board policy and continually Gathering feedback on where we are as a district with our practices and policies while continuing to re-evaluate and make necessary changes in the future future this is purely the tip of the proverbial Iceberg when it comes to the next generation of technology in the classroom and it is one that is imperative that we stay ahead of but and not being run over by the AI bus like it or not AI use is becoming more common and accessible to our students every day Tom and I as co-chairs of DCC will be happy to speak to any of you about all the topics that we will be discussing at any of our meetings so please don't ever hesitate to reach out and set up a time to speak with us both so with that I will just close by saying that I hope that Mother Nature has had her fun with us for this winter and we can continue our school year with no more interruptions from her have a great rest of your night and I will see you all back here in February thanks next is Laura with Besa welcome Laura good evening um as I do every month I introduce to you a besta staff member and if you look at our slide this is our Branch as besta represents the branches of the educational tree and tonight I have the privilege of introducing Lorie steinis who is the kindergarten enrichment uh instructor at Louise White and um we asked her a series of questions and she wrote a story for me that I will read to you the story of how I came to BPS is similar to many other support staff I've met my kids attended School in the district and after many years of being a stay-at-home mom I was ready to reenter the workforce but wanted something flexible that still allowed me to spend Summers with my kids and to be home with them after school I have an undergraduate degree in advertising from the University of Illinois but knew I did not want to return to my pre previous field in 2014 when my youngest was in fourth grade I decided to give subbing a try and was hooked immediately during my six years of subbing I found a passion for working with kindergarteners I made it known to anyone who would listen to me that I love subbing in kindergarten and was soon being requested by teachers across the district I often popped into kindergarten classrooms when I had breaks in my schedule to offer an extra set of hands to help in any way that I could I even expanded my subbing to the Geneva School District just so I had more opportunity to work with the kindergarteners in 2021 when the district adopted the kindergarten enrichment program as a compliment to half day kindergarten I knew I found my perfect job I applied and was thrilled to be hired by Louise White as the halftime instructor this is my third year in the position and everyone who knows me knows that this is so much more than a job to me I love getting to know each one of these little people and hearing their stories I love watching them achieve things they didn't think they were capable of I love seeing them grow throughout the year and supporting them every step of the way I especially love finding fun and creative ways to help them learn be creative and build confidence probably the one thing that most people don't realize about my position is the kindergarten enrichment instructors spend a lot of time outside the classroom thinking about planning and prepping materials for our students I think there is a misconception that enrichment is just playtime or daycare we are with our class for Story Time literacy math centers crafts and science lessons we reinforce Concepts that were taught by the kindergarten teacher such as phonic skills letter recognition and math skills with a variety of Hands-On learning activities a few worksheets a lot of group discussions students also have an opportunity each day to play with a variety of different toys building materials craft supplies puzzles and dramatic play centers if you've ever spent time with kidergarten age group you know that their attention span is about 15 to 20 minutes I think she's being very generous and then they are ready to move on to something else there is a lot of activities to plan and prop for three hours each day by my calculations almost a thousand activities over the course of the school year and I love every minute of it when I'm not thinking of fun ideas to do in my classroom I enjoy spending time with my family traveling reading guard in cooking taking long walks and dabbling in various crafts I have three daughters all who attended poav schools my oldest is now a grad student studying speech language pathology at Illinois State University my middle daughter is a freshman at Iowa State University studying aerospace engineering and my youngest is a junior otavia high school where she plays tennis and is involved in many clubs and honor societies if I could change one thing about my job it would be that it wasn't going to be eliminated the state of Illinois is mandating full day kindergarten by the start of the 2027 school year and from what I've been told by Administration batavia's current halfday program plus enrichement doesn't satisfy the state's requirements I'm heartbroken that I won't be able to continue working at my dream job but am hopeful that I'll find an equally fulfilling position within the school district thank you Lori we really appreciate your hard work thank you thank you and as mentioned before our student ambassadors are not here today whatever they were entertaining um board Liaisons are there any committee updates Sue do you have any um I just want to Echo one thing tdd said before everybody Tunes out of the meeting to the end of the comments I do want to give a big shout out to the maintenance workers well done just a great job Todd said it all but I figure if I comment at the end people will yeah I'm with you so I just wanted to get that ahead of time throw me a curveball it's fine um beefy will meet on Thursday but I did want to let people know that if they go to bavia foundation.org you can find information on all our scholarships that are available um there are I'm not quite sure how many we have right now this year five six in different categories education nursing um different things you can talk to the counselors at the high school but go to the website the applications are due right before spring break fill them out very simple process and most of them for about $1,000 so do that and also February 1st is the deadline for Hall of Honor applic applicants applications so if you know of an alumni that you want to nominate a staff that you want to nominate um am's familiar with this um or a friend of bavia so fill it out get that in before February 1 so and you can go to the alumni nation's website that's part of Tavia foundation and read all about our alumni highlight of the month Amy Nelson grants are due February 2nd oh teacher grants are due February 2nd go thank you Brett I'm not involved on that side so I'm sure I'll find out Thursday about that but thank you Danielle you have any um no committee has met since our last meeting um I I haven't talked about Louise White my leis on school I just wanted to quickly say they had a board meeting uh last week the week before but you know I've sat in in a few um I'm just so impressed you know I I was on our um PTO board and volunteer for for storm so you know it's a lot of work just like what we do here and whatnot but I'm really impressed um with how well they work with each other and Dr scr it's like I just sit there and just like wow they just they get work done really well and the other part of it is like they're very aware of how to service their entire Community whether it is like a financial type of thing or just a timing of stuff they do a lot of things on the weekends they had like Bingo and they didn't just have one time slot they had two different ones and I mean I know that's something little but it's how you build your community because not everyone's off of work at the same time and it's just like natural for them and I it's something like those little things that really make a difference in the community so um I just I enjoy watching them kind of go to work they have a lot of variety of things they had like a I don't know if it's was like a a shop where like the kids could like a Christmas store but they had like a a bin you know with free free like gifts for people who maybe couldn't shop you know didn't have the money to and I think that's just really awesome to do just kind of remember like you're you have a wide variety of community um so I just kind of want to give them a shout out they work hard and think about their entire Community from what it seems okay thank you uh the insurance committee did meet on January 11th I was unable to attend but I sat down with Josh and he gave me a synopsis I'll read the notes but uh the committee reviewed a report from the well in the screenings from the fall and they just expressed a large number of the population expressed a desire to address health concerns like pre-diabetic symptoms and weight loss so there'll be a communication going out to the members on how to address some of those issues and then another topic was um the committee is going to recommend a renewal of Modern Health um Modern Health is a new Mental Health Resource it's an online resource that we implemented last year um you know I was naive at the time I thought when I think of mental health I think of going and sit a psychiatrist couch but actually the vast majority of people don't access it that way so it's a new program we're excited about it we're going to give it another year and then at that point we'll be able to review if we think it's worthwhile to continue so that's that's the synopsis of what was the committee felt it was helpful though definitely think it was helpful and um you know it's just hard to judge I mean it's a tricky thing because obviously like if everyone's in a good spot we're not accessing so it's hard to judge if it's people are accessing it to the level that's needed so but as of right now we figure we think it's yes because people are using it people are using it okay count uh so the rack had two meetings since our last board uh the one in December um they had a guest speaker uh Bob Lewis from PMA he just talked about alternative funding sources um they gave a warm safe dry update board approved it on the 19th and then um they reviewed the financial forecast and then in January's meeting um we had a small group discussions uh about the alternative funding sources they reviewed um the financial report and then we kind of broke up into small groups and um worked on uh this we had some homework to do for these Financial for we each have to take a section and kind of just give notices and review it and so forth okay Rob um the curriculum committee met last last week um and uh jokingly I I say I try to keep up with all the acronyms that go on try to focus it on that but Challenge on a serious note uh they are talking um some issues and I heard the DCC I know they're getting ready to um um send a proposal over there um the other interesting thing is uh I I for me I kind of listen to Just the process a little bit um and see how they're doing and uh I listed for some key words one of them was prioritization they said that they wanted to create some more focus and prioritize the issues that they wanted to address U because it could be overwhelming I think was some of the sentiment with all the the different things going on um the other point was they were talking about the curriculum week which I understand is only three days if I understood that correctly but uh um in this summer and it was nice to hear about that because they were talking about how to increase engagement um with the teachers um and then also how to make it more value add and and make it a worthwhile session um when they come to that uh that uh that meeting so there more to come but those were kind of the things that that I got out of the last meeting I don't have any updates okay uh my only update is I have appreciation to Rael for covering for me at the last two meetings I guess I had some I tried last time to have a and thank you to Josh for trying to arrange an ability for me to listen in but with the small groups it was very hard to listen and and pick up so I appreciate you um covering and working with me on that Rec um and then the only one I I think at the last board meeting we had had a previous meeting for Bick which if everybody's not aware that's effectively like the Uber Council of all the groups that work with bavia PTO you know those groups um and as usual I'm continually amazed at a couple of things and what I just what echoed with what you said Danielle was how well a lot of these organizations work within their their community and respond directly to the needs of that community and how diverse it is across Pavia School District as well um and how they meet those needs and and hearing others just talking about how one has has been running like winter wonderland for 20 plus years you know in some amazing events and then other one's trying like oh I want to do that how do you do that and and work through their trials and tribulations and celebrate their successes so um that would that meets quarterly right Tom roughly correct yeah and we'll be meeting this Saturday yeah okay thanks for the reminder so um so all right um Craig can I ask one question before you move on the meeting that you referenced that DCC okay more acronyms yeah I think I know them by now but do we have representation on that no okay but you will keep us appraised of what's going on because that what you talked about sounds important yeah that's that's kind of the way and correct me if I'm wrong that's kind of like the like this overarching group that's kind of making sure everybody's meeting right their requirements if there's anything that needs to be some cross collaboration they kind of feed up to that so it's kind of like select members of every group no and I get it and I know it was negotiated and everything I was just curious but I just want to make sure that we hear feedback thank you great anyone else anything else okay all right consent agenda according to our board policy we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that do not usually require extensive discussion before board to action these items generally are routine recurring and can be grouped together for efficiency Steve is there anything you'd like to discuss yes surprise all right here we go 5.1 the approval of the uh December 19th 2023 uh meeting minutes 5.2 is our monthly Personnel report 5.3 is our monthly uh payroll and bills 5.4 is the renewal of the contract for our mental health support servic discussed 5.5 is the acceptance of the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year 2023 by 5.6 is the curriculum approval and 5.7 is the approval of the consent agenda anyone have any questions otherwise I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda question I just have one comment this is a copy of the annual comprehensive financial report it's 138 Pages we have a lot of talk about transparency about how we do business it's all right here so people are curious it's available to public document so right there I would encourage people to if they're curious about how we operate this is a good starting spot the other thing I will say is that I've seen paperwork done by other districts and what the state kind of requires as a that backs behind all of this this is a amazingly well digest way of putting the information together that's digestible so it's amazing compared to what I've seen in other districts I will say it's come a long way there's a lot of hard work that go into it now and has accurate and it's easily readable yeah is good understandable they just it yeah you understand not an accountant or CFO so I did have some questions and I know it's Hon's not here but just for as we was talking about transparency um I'll just ask them and then I know that they'll get back to me later in the notes so the first one was is part of the um sure I see it right [Music] the uh invoice Journal was um I was just curious is what we like LinkedIn we have a bill for 9,934 I didn't know if that was like for to um like uh promoting like our uh open positions or like I just because my linkedin's free so I was just curious I don't know what LinkedIn does with all the programs that they offer part of the conversation we you've had is trying to create a more profession new Avenue to recruiting using professional platforms and entities have to pay it's not a free account for for an official like business entity so that's what I was just making like that's I'm sure that's what it was for um and then the other one was uh safe and civil schools was that for the was that for Champs do we know I and it's okay okay yeah champs training okay and then one then the next one was about just the mental health support and I saw that in the report says that 18% um used it and I I don't remember did they get like how many sessions did they get for like they got so many sessions and then they had to pay I was just curious if like that 18% used all their sessions allocated um that was just something and then in this report the acrf um in the special uh Ed report section um when we have like the breakout is our partials in that one or are they in like a different section they are included there it's not necessarily um everything that was been filled it was what was positioned for okay and then I know acronyms but I don't what's CTE programs rear and Technical education yep thank you and then what about the in inter Scholastic programs um I I just I was just on there and I was like what is what is that one you're like athletic Athletics that's athletic okay activities all of those okay yeah okay and I think you were I saw you were you said so that the gifted and honors those are not part of that particular fund okay okay um and then on page 131 full-time equivalent employees page um is this what was actually filled or is this what is what we have and open positions like um like let's and and I don't want to pull it up let's say it said we have 480 positions was that like the employees that we have or is that maybe we only have 470 and 10 open I guess that was just my on the on the I if it's on this so it's but I want to make sure I think on the on the presentation this I believe is our actual head count yeah okay this is our live head count okay yeah um and part of that and I appreciate you raising this this was a there were just some general notes I was going to share about our act for report um as you can see Tony's not here tonight so I thought um this was actually you hit a page I wanted to highlight uh uh if you recall earlier this school year in the fall when Tony was reviewing uh preliminary budgets and preparing reports for the board to see and also published to the uh public this was one of the areas that he had covered and this covers all of our positional history as well if you take a look there's a there's a look back of almost 10 years and actually it is 10 years on this particular page um and so the look back history kind of pretty accurately I would say accurately to the headcount delineates what our historical positions uh look like that we've employed um reason why I wanted to bring this up is because in the Strategic survey that was launched prior to winter break there seems to be amongst the community and even within our internal stakeholders some folks who still have a little bit of a misunderstanding about some historical positions and the one that I saw that came up a little bit was in reference to just um there over the last 10 years has been an increase in administration oh yeah and it's actually been completely the opposite and when I dug into it uh the history I found is that um right around the transition uh of the two previous superintendents um prior board I don't think any of you were on that board had issued a directive to Dr Hitchens uh to take a look at carving back administrative positions which she did so if you take a look at the nine-year look back which was all under Dr hitch's time the district did reduce nine administrative positions it went from 39 to 30 administrators and I just wanted to make sure that whatever I could rectify for the for the public I wanted to make that really clear that Administration has not been added that is I was there and that is I think Brad and Steve you know this that that's been a long held fallacy that I I hear that all the time okay and we've told the public that okay all the time yeah and we can show them numbers they still don't believe us okay I don't know what that's all right I mean so I just thought it'd be worth noting coming from you with fresh eyes yeah I did a little bit of digging and the team was very helpful we got all thatal but in this report you're right like it's a really digestible format right because you can see all the years lining up to each other um and then uh one of the notable things um I do believe Tony highlighted this back in the fall but the interest on investments actually came back a little bit stronger than even what he was predicting at the time so one of the things that we want to make you aware of is it's higher than what we thought it would be but at the same time with what the board approved for our capital projects plan for The Five-Year Plan in December those funds that were invested are going to be withdrawn for our capital projects so when you see next year you can anticipate we will not have nearly if any the amount of interest that the the district has been able to gain from that because we need to invest those into our buildings uh capital projects so that's a big thing and then if you see any areas of surplus part of that is because we have been trying to actively staff certain openings and we've remained keeping we've kept continued to keep those positions open uh such as our classroom pair professionals so there's earmarked funds for that but that should hopefully help explain any of those things and then if anyone's interested uh page 63 and Page 66 will give you imrf and TRS nine-year look backs on um some of the financial details and uh I'm gonna give CED to Tony he's as he likes to put it the numbers tell a story so and Tony has a funny way of reading stories through the thumbers through the data right um which is great so and to uh board member kilberg point the EA report is posted on our website and if anyone is interested in finding it all you have to do is go to the business department Tab and then look under Financial reports and then you'll see uh there are actually I believe several years of reports lined up there with links all right and I just have one more uh summer school and I don't remember um was summer school offered for all of our schools or is it only a certain number we utilize mid Valley's esy program for special education we run an online teacher connected to student e program in the summer and then we run credit recovery at the high school but we don't run a very big Su school program that was all I had thanks hon right the only thing I wanted to add is I noticed that for once in a while the staff hiring is more than the other two sections so the there's appreciate whatever efforts are bringing people in right now so thank you Steve and others all right let's keep it going yeah no kidding um I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenta as presented so so moved so moved by Sue second by Aaron Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes yes yes yes yes yes Thomas yes thank you motion passes reports Tom is there anything you'd like to share uh foas for this month's uh board to review are presented I don't know if there's any questions but any questions no I have none okay okay and treasur reports did you already do that already um so in in discussing with Tony there are no um outliers that the Board needs their attention drawn to in terms of they being other than just typical monthly business that the board is being presented with if you do have any specific questions please feel free to direct them my way and I'll make sure you get answers great thank you any questions send them to Tom all right so we have a couple items on for Action today so item 7.1 is approve purchase of the cyber security platform and considering my office nearly got hecked twice over the holiday and successfully rebutted it I'm interested in hearing this one so Tom you're leading this one I understand yes okay um so as been indicated in the memo to the board this is an endpoint detection and Response Security platform um and it creates just another layer of protection on our devices both for students and for staff um this particular product is a a little more newer and updated version it has a little more it has more support than what we've been using um it it provides more of a 247 wraparound support for us the customer service uh we've been using um the pre the pre previous product we're going to replace has been with the district for approximately 5 years um and I know uh Dave and his team has spent a lot of time taking a look at what the best option is right now for us to move to um the the one of the things that strengths that Dave has pointed to with this with this product is that the response time will allow us to actually try and slightly be ahead of the game and proactive to situations rather than reactive at times um I think that's that that's it and the customer service with anything with technology related is always a big thing so 247 is really nice too and as you probably can sense like our teams middle night something's happening from home they can get in and then start using our systems to do what they got to do right any questions on that one do we know how much we were paying for carbon black um what we were paying for carbon black I do the one that we're replacing yeah no I do not have that but we can get that but a question I always have is was this anticipated and is it within budget that we had allocated for this yeah yes yes my only comment is one bad day is totally worth $52,000 for what is happening to people they the the ransomware type stuff which I understand this is one of those things that would fight are usually asking for that amount at minimum minimum so and the implications to the school district are vast if this isn't handled correctly so I have great faith placed in Dave and his team and everyone else all right um if there are no other questions I will entertain a motion to approve purchase of crowd strike in the amount of 52,900 second by Danielle I think we're doing a roll call on this yep Cindy please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes Thomas yes yes yes Meadows yes sler yes okay thank you motion passes item 7.2 approve purchase of data center storage Tom y all right so this particular item um if you hear the word data you probably can sense this is critical um this is going to be a shift to uh not only store but protect all of the data that is backed up it resides in our servers and obviously there are layers of how it is stored that are layers of security and protocols um we are shifting away from our current uh product because it's actually ran to the end of its life and usage so again Dave and team spent a lot of time taking a look as to what would be a best product for us to protect our data and store it um knowing that this is a service that needs to be replaced at this point so at a cost of $47,900 um and we are looking at replacing something we've been using for seven years when we started with our current product we're moving away from it was on a 5year agreement we were able to get it extended for two more years so we had used it for seven years but now it's run to its end of its life with this new product in group we are looking for a fiveyear agreement or asking to approve a five-year agreement because they have uh not they will not be any end in any service life to anything we are going to be getting out of this package so we are guaranteed for minimum five years that they'll be able to support and update anything that we're using and we will be replacing Hardware hence why it's a little bit more of a expensive cost when you come to this kind of data storage um and I think previously we were hovering at approximately $390,000 with our previous product so this is a little bit more but as you all know in the world of technology with inflation and just Rising costs um this was a the very fair market value that David to would recommend and Aaron he's starting alert he's writing it right in there in the sentence down so is this a um onetime fee for the five years is that how that works like and we pay it up front um I believe it's actually dispersed over time I don't think we just cut the big check right up front but part of that yeah it it is it is the chunk there's a 390,000 was in total over seven years and um again as their services were declining it's kind of a hard to call it Apples to Apples but uh with this agreement at the price that we're ask that we were able to secure this gives us a good bang for our buck with the customer service support as well and the Hardware switch outs any other questions okay with um no other questions I will entertain a motion to approve the purchase of HP Electra storage arrays in the amount of $47,900 yeser yes yes Thomas yes motion passes thank you very much send along our appreciation to DAV uh staff and board comments Administration comments Tom anything yeah so uh just a couple start out with a few General business items uh beefy was discussed this evening one of the other things is that beefy is looking for anyone who's interested in becoming an active board M um to support the leadership of the beefy group I can promise you any War's a camer ey anybody who's interested it's a fun group there are really good baked goods homemade and uh Todd you can attest this right we have a lot of laughs lot of good work lot of cting B Goods Todd March no March kidding me yeah March she's the best um citizen of the year that's right that's right oh citizen of the year that's right and you know it's really good because if you put it on a napkin it's saturated afterwards um um the other thing I had mentioned earlier we do have our pava intergovernmental Council this Saturday uh one thing I wanted to note for the public please support your pto's if you cannot serve as an officer please just try and volunteer for any of their events I'm trying to look at the camera because I know this is me but anyway because we have Amy and Todd um but uh there there are they're great people great leaders putting in time for a kids experience we also have partnership groups like bspn beefy all these other groups that come and also be are part of this conversation um what I will say is they have had awesome conversations supporting each other it's an idea exchange that morning um new presidents of pto's are asking veteran PTO for ideas how to engage how did you run your bingo what business businesses are more friendly and more apt to donate more of the proceeds um there are some of our businesses in our community that won't take any of cut and they won't they'll just cover cost on the meal and the drinks and they give everything right back to that building which is so commendable it kind of goes back to it why it's great Community local businesses so I say support your local businesses um and then the restaurants know I like to and then uh the other update is strategic plan uh we were able to uh accomplish our first major phase or or second if you think about the survey but we had on January 8th our Institute day we were able to uh have our Bulldog ambassadors lead the sessions at the high school want to thank everybody in this district for being a part of that um for being just amazing and how they handled the situation our students were amazing the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so excited and now we'll enter into the next stages and phas phases where we're going to engage some of our partnership groups um and get more voices you know and then you know as the plan was enumerated back in September you know by April we hope to have a good draft to present publicly and then bring back to that other Institute day on April 26th get more feedback on what has been synthesized then by the May board meeting we hope that you as a board are able to take a look at that full product and you too have a conversation about all the p that are being um presented to you um in the meantime we did have our first steering committee we'll have one at the end of this month I'm about to prepare my final report to them on how our stages have gone so far with the survey and with round one and then they will get that from me and we meet next week so I want to thank everybody who's on the steering committee as well it's one more night and one more thing some of these people have to be a part of um and if you looked at the names they're pretty much names you've seen on other stuff so so I just want to say thanks to everybody who's been a part of that work um and I think the the last thing I just want to do is thank as has been noted all of our operations teams and operations Personnel um typically just for all the work they do just to keep us in school right normal under normal conditions but under the last two weeks we've certainly undergone challenging situations beyond the norm um and I I just say this I when I see them I think of a quote that I've shared with our leadership team back this past summer when we talk about uh Simon synic has a saying that out of his book Leaders Eat Last and it talks about um how we choose to do anything is how we're going to do everything and that team has come together they worked as a team they all stepped up people were going to other places that they weren't necessarily assigned to because there was just heavy needs and different spots um and I really appreciate that and what I am also trying to hopefully move us into the next stage is just about our general communication transparency and being proactive about identif sharing what's going on right so if you notice you know we wanted to make sure we shared that the high school issues were not due to any type of negligence or error or you know we could have replaced basically really bad weather hit spots in a on a wing of our building those heating systems have been replaced and maintained over the years and as anyone knows with metal when you continue fix or solder or replace Parts the metal just compromises the Integrity of that structure starts to compromise and with the freezing temperatures you had all these bad situations come together at once but our teams did an amazing job so just wanted to say thanks to them Tom would you mind and not we've gone over this year after year but just for new people in the district with kindergarten parents maybe go over the procedure of how to determine whether to close school determine if it's an e-learning date you know what your procedure is because there is it's what I so it's an early morning yes well well yeah I know and but I know that you know that a lot of us know that you especially know that but if you could just maybe give some clarity to sure people out there who may not know it's not just your you do not just make the call we don't make that call no no no it's much much more intricate than that it is uh you know depending on what the weather situation or uh you know whatever is coming our way uh if we can get ahead of it typically um we as a team will internally check with each other start gauging what we're thinking and seeing um then I belong to a few threads of superintendence uh one in particular that we regularly communicate with these kind of conditions is the Cane County group we talk we meet and then we decide like where the validity not validity uh what we what we're anticipating from the reporting we're seeing right so we'll jump on a national weather service call which is what I did um last week when we decided to move to e-learning at a very early time right the Thursday before and we were able to do that because the National Weather Service was very clear about things and indicators that were coming um collaboration with our County uh superintendents and school districts and then in collaboration with the administration and Mark and his Ops teams and then sometimes uh oh and we do also I communicate with certain partnership leadership groups such as the city of bavia um you know I I'll keep in touch with our Park District friends uh making sure because we have programming that occurs you know in the buildings with them so we try and make sure we got full communication going on including Mid Valley Co-op uh and Lisa py and I also maintain communication there and I always try and give them the heads UPS too um you know I reached out to Todd and Mara you know like for for example like today's situation want to gauge what they're thinking so just trying to get all this feedback from all these stakeholders and then if we're if it's if we determine it's too early we will agree the superintendent we agree that we'll meet at 4:00 a.m.

M Mr pres m g here M here M Mosen here thank you please stand for the pledge allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you if there are any audience members that would like to speak it does not look like it so thank you for coming this is the public budget review and discussion regarding the superintendent's recommended budget at this moment in time I am going to pass the microphone over to the chair of Finance Dr herrian thank you and I am going to pass the gavl right along um first uh Dr Solen could I have you give us a brief explanation of the order of these meetings these budget uh meetings um because we missed last Tuesday's first meeting and um that's being and uh just to give us give the audience an outline of what's to come after today sure thank you Dr Aran um the is as you just said we had the overview of our budget um way back uh even remember when that was because of weather unfortunately if you're watching don't know we do have a two-hour delay tomorrow on uh Wednesday the 24th so uh sorry about that but anyway uh tonight we're here to talk about our operations and uh with a special By Request uh dive into medical benefits uh we will transition on uh Thursday into kind of wrapping up our overview of the operations uh and do a bit of a dive into special education and kind of the costs associated with and uh the outcomes uh associated with because we're really pretty proud of that investment that we make in our students and their families and our our staff there um and then we are hopeful that by next Tuesday we can begin in Earnest kind of deliberating what this means and uh starting to make some decisions about uh what we might put forth for the Town Council to review in the spring uh and Vin will you know quickly touch upon these things uh that same sort of schedule in his presentation so I welcome up Mr [Music] masana thank you Dr Solen members of the board welcome administrators welcome I wanted to start with just a couple of words this is a milestone budget for me and Mr perini this is our 15th budget that we've worked on since 2010 so we're both here we're in this together we're in it together I have at least one more left how about you um and then the other thing I would like to let you know is in addition to our administrators tonight I have Heather Santi our finance manager I know that you've heard Heather santi's name I'm not sure everyone has met Heather and including our our new board members but Heather is instrumental in the development of the budget for the last six years so she's here tonight as a subject matter expert if we need it right Heather okay good so I do have a PowerPoint presentation and I will take you through the first few sections of the budget book um which the board members have we won't um necessarily refer to it in detail but certainly if there are questions as we go through each of the sections that you have on the budget book Let's you know certain ask the questions we'll address them um as we go along and if there's any answers that we can't give you tonight we'll follow up at our Thursday night meeting so the the topics for this evening you see here on the agenda we're going to do a just an overview of the budget including the assumptions that we use to develop this year's budget and review Revenue uh accounts as well will cover employee salaries and employee benefits this evening Thursday evening's agenda you could see is the instructional expense which includes our special education services Robin an Cary our director of pupil Personnel will be presenting that portion of the agenda then we'll go um back to support services maintenance and operations we'll talk about the capital budget which is still in the early stage of development and then we'll clue conclude on Thursday night that's the agenda depending on how tonight and Thursday night night goes the next meeting is on January uh 30th where we can continue to work through the budget or it gets turned over to the finance committee for deliberation so that's our agenda um in terms of the process of the budget and I know that the board members that have been been here um you've seen this before but I certainly would like to present it for Mr 's benefit and just to kind of give an overview but we begin developing this budget in September we um as we prepare the budget there are specific sections of the budget that we look at we look at everything but it's important to note that the salaries which we're going to go through tonight those salaries are uh determined from existing payroll um and then any staff additions or staff subtractions so the the salaries come from our financial system and with the contractual raises that we have for most of our bargaining units and our employees those are rolled up into the salary lines medical benefits which we will be covering tonight those are based on preliminary renewal projections um our administrators and now department managers as we go through the budget I'll explain where they've input the non-salary line items things like instructional expense or some of our maintenance lines those are uh requested from the department managers for those areas respectively um any new programs or Staffing requests those are submitted separately and those are reviewed you know by Dr Solen Miss Solano and we work with the administrators to deter if any of those new program requests are going to be included in the budget uh one of the requests is fencing which we Dr Sol presented in his meeting on the 11th um and then every after everything is input we review those new program requests you know there's a period of time that you know Dr Solen in particular weighs in looks at District goals and makes a determination as to what stays in and what the budget recommendation to the board ultimately will be so tonight begins the board's detailed review of the budget the um board has to by Charter approve a budget and submit it to the town manager by February 15 um we anticipate meeting that deadline the Town Council once they receive the budget from the town manager they have to approve a budget by April 30th uh and in doing so if the Town Council makes any changes to the budget whether increase or decrease um they can't adjust any particular line item they could just say the budget can be decreased or increased by X dollars and then that comes back to the board and the board applies the line item changes and usually that happens in May of 2024 so we begin in September we end in May so tonight is the is the second night of our budget preparation process so a lot of detail you know goes into the development and approval of the budget ultimately this is Dr Sol's slide from his presentation but the budget is filtered with District goals in mind complex thinking and social emotional learning I know the board members and administrators that are here you know know that those are two of the district focal points so everything that's in this budget including Staffing request is focused around making sure that our budget you know meets our long-term goals so here's the key assumptions that are in this budget and I'm going to keep you know going and talking so if I need to come up for air I'll do so but if you have questions just let me know um so here's what we know the net enrollment for 2425 is projected to increase by 56 students to 4224 uh prek to six goes up by 28 grade seven and eight at Doug go up by 21 and the high school actually increases by seven we also included in this budget one new elementary teacher the way it worked out though is Highland and dle increased by one but based on projections Chapman will be lower by one again those are Elementary classroom teachers and Elementary classroom sizes increase on average from 18.7 to 18 .8 um special education the requirements um in special education are increasing in line with our enrollment increase over the last several years so in this budget we've included an additional special education teacher and a par professional that's to um have a second intensive education classroom at Norton we we did this last year as well it moves some of the programming from Highland over to to Norton um and that does help because we know that Highland is at capacity currently um there are positions that are being retained in the operating budget that were funded up until this year so next year's budget includes um several positions that um needed to be funded two math coaches one at chesa high school one at Dodd an assistant principal for Norton and Chapman also in this budget one of the assumptions is that the need to increase our medical benefits um based on expected claims by 1.06 million we'll go through that in some detail later and then also an increase in operations and maintenance um you know that is driven by um couple of things one is higher utility and heating costs expected to continue into next year you know plus our aging building needs so we are looking to increase the dollars we have for Building Maintenance and repairs so those are the assumptions that we use to develop this budget quick word here um and maybe not so quick but you know as an as an education system K through 12 we are responsible to comply with many mandates that come down from the state so the next few slides list them all I'm I'm only going to go through some of the newer ones but you'll see that was slide one uh this is slide two of mandates um some of the newer mandates um are shown on on this you know particular slide you know not the least of which is the minimum wage that was increased by the state over the last several years so the minimum wage went from10 to $15 an hour that's a 50% increase over four years and it's actually at 1569 now so we're somewhere around 53% increase that didn't affect you know employees that are well above minimum wage but it did affect all the employes that we had right around the minimum wage level so that that's definitely had an impact on prior Year's budget as well as the budget that we're presenting for next year this evening um the newest mandates that we have you know shown on this slide I know the board is familiar with some of the ones that that are bolded but maybe not all of them so the right to read act you know that is um I know it's gotten much discussion there is no dollars budgeted if we do need to um by the the um programming required to comply with that act there is a request for a waiver a second request for a waiver um the other one that I wanted to mention here is there's a five-year HVAC evaluation and reporting requirement that kicks in um in July of 2024 what that's going to require is that every school building not only here in chesher but in every school building across all the districts in Connecticut have to have an evaluation completed of their HVAC systems you know ordinarily that would come out of our maintenance budget we didn't add incremental dollars to complete that um you know there's I know some districts have already gone through you know the effort of trying to determine how much it's going to cost it could be as much as $30,000 per school is what the initial uh reports I've heard so you know as we get more information on that we'll have to determine exactly what we need to do we did do an HVAC evaluation um during the pandemic um but that doesn't meet all the requirements that the state is requiring out of this this new evaluation ation um I don't think that there's necessarily anything more here I want to touch on but just you know we'll we'll leave it that you know the requirements of mandates do have a financial impact on the budget some are larger than others you know we're hoping that the the two big ones on here right to read and the fiveyear HVAC evaluation aren't going to be um you know incremental and and very expensive two um couple of different types of of money that we receive outside of funding from our operating budget state and federal grants these haven't changed very much um you know from last year and prior years we have about $1.58 million of state and federal grants that are received by our district the largest one being the mil 50,000 for idea which covers there's um students with disabilities those are used for special education services that we provide in the district uh and you'll see that there are a number of other grants including the Smart Start Grant which is for the two uh prek classrooms that we have running at Darcy uh open choice we do receive a grant we accept students from New Haven into our district we have somewhere around 45 at this time we get about $3,000 per student and then some some bonus based on the number of students so there is grant money that is received for that so grants total $1.58 million for next year again hasn't changed much revenue is different revenue is uh funds that we budget that are paid directly to the town um and the reason we budget it is so that the town is aware of the amount of Revenue they expect to to receive they includeed in their revenues it goes into the Town Council and the town manager's evaluation of you know what the um ultimate cost to the taxpayer will be in the mill rate so revenue is important the total 10.7 million again in line with this current year um the largest of those grants is the educational cost sharing that's provided by the state special education that Grant is specific speically for um students whose needs including um what we do for them in schools plus Transportation when it exceeds four and a half time our average per pupil expenditure so about $80,000 next year we get a reimbursement from the state of about 70% of the cost above that $80,000 um and this year we're actually trending above that so um again that that speaks a little bit about the special education needs and again those are the students that typically we can't service in District that we uh have to outplay and those are the ones that typically Drive uh where the excess cost that we receive in the form of Revenue okay so what's the impact of Grants and revenues it's obviously important because in total if you took this 10.7 plus the $1 million in Grant Revenue that's about $12.3 million that is received you know to offset our budget cost and had it not been for those grants and that Revenue the average taxpayer their cost in taxes would be about $958 higher so there is clearly a significant benefit to receiving the Grant and revenues we good okay and Dr Solen spoke a little bit about uh dur B on January 11th when he presented the budget just wanted to give you a little bit more detail um you'll see here this is the new dur B configuration we talked about that at the meeting on the 11th and you could see chesher here um on the lower end our average per pupil cost is about 191,000 South Windsor is the lowest in dur B at 16.8 and then up at the other end it's reading that's 28648 per student so quite a variance but if you look at these little green um bars that represents the amount of ECS funding each of these districts receive and just eyeballing it you see that chesher received leaves fairly large amount compared to some of the other districts you know such as Greenwich and reading so you know we receive quite a bit more ECS money primarily because we have a prison in town and that helps to lower the um household income that's used to calculate uh the ECS payment town by town so now if we look at the per pupil expenditure net of this educ ational cost sharing instead of chure being in the middle of the pack in terms of cost actual net cost to the taxpayer per student we're on the lower end and this is the old dur configuration that um included Madison for example in 2223 with the new dur configuration we dropped to Third from the bottom in terms of per pupil um expenditures net of ECS so ECS is a is a is something that's important to us we need to protect it every once in a while the legislators do try and shift the ECS funding you know more to the cities and away from some of the Suburban communities like ours so I know our legislators in the past you know have fought to maintain the ECS funding formula the way it is okay so now we're going to shift and dive into the budget sections so this is just a recap this is the year's this year's budget is 84.9 million the recommendation from the superintendent is 90 milon 132 265 that's a 6.05% increase so if we examine that a little bit further you'll see this is the 5.1 million being requested you know of our total budget request or our total budget 54,675 is for salaries that's all salary certified and and non-certified which we'll go through in more detail another 17.7 million or about 20% of the total budget is for employee benefits so the total of those two line items salaries Plus benefits is about 80.3% of our budget um and then on the next slide I'll I'll show you what we consider our our six core service categories that takes us to about 95 and a half percent of the budget so these smaller sections of the pie chart Support Services which will will review on Thursday night that includes student transportation and that is the bulk of the support services line instructional expense includes special education outplaced tuition and and um the Consulting Services we call that line pupil services so that's about 6% of budget and then maintenance and operations including utilities is about 5% of the total budget if we look at the $5.1 million um a little bit differently which we will in a minute I just quickly here 95% of our budget is in salaries benefits cost of Transportation which is is mandated we have to provide student transportation the cost of special education outplaced tuition and Consulting 3.6 million then if you add utilities Heating and the energy contract payments that we make that has to do with improvements that we made to our schools about nine years ago um that we still paying for over 15 years that gets us to 92.2% and then finally if you had the cost of cleaning maintaining our facilities that gets us to about 95.5% of the total budget so those six categories account for 95 a half% of the budget so what's left four and a half perc of the budget is in these categories that are smaller compared to the 95 a half% but these are none the less important category so you know the the caveat that we have on this slide is that you know if we make reductions to the budget which we have in the past you know we're careful where we apply those those reductions so as not to hurt the student education um but generally speaking when we make budget reductions it's in some of these lines you know maintenance is typically another line which is on the previous slide so that's kind of a high level look at you know relatively speaking where's the bulk of the budget so now getting back to the point I was starting to make this 5.13 million well where is that going 43% of it is going to salaries and if you look here 4.22% is is the amount our salaries are increasing that's 2, 21857 our average salary increase is below 3% for 2425 what makes up the difference between that 3% and the 4.2% are the staff additions that I just touched on briefly that we'll go into a little bit more detail so when you look at this 4.2% I just want to make it clear that those are not raises those are raises which are contractual plus the cost of the new staff that's being recommended um benefits which is 24% of the 5 million we requesting 1.2 million for benefits most but not all of that is for medical benefits we'll go through that in more detail this evening instructional expense you'll see that that's about 133% of the increase we're looking to increase by 677 th000 most of that 500,000 is specifically to increase the outplay tuition line for next year which Miss Carrie will go through tomorrow night but we do expect higher number of outplaced students next year uh maintenance and operations there's a a 12% increase that we're requesting there um a lot of that has to do with some um maintenance that we need to do we've cut our maintenance budget the last couple of years so we're looking to restore some of that plus higher utility um and heating costs expected and then finally Support Services that's about 6.95% increase 500,000 most of that has to do with the new Transportation contract the first year increase is 6% under that contract so we're now going to dig into employee salaries um and there's a few things that I wanted to go through first um most of our employees are in a bargaining unit that work here in the schools and you could see this is ranked in terms of number of employees in each of the bargaining units so the teachers um not surprisingly is the largest number of employees approximate wages for next year about 37.3 million you'll see that I highlighted the teachers and the par Educators in yellow because both contracts will be expiring at the end of next year's budget with the teachers the um the way contracts are negotiated for teachers and administrators under law is very specific so the board does to does need to begin negotiating the new teacher contract in July doesn't affect this year's budget we already know what the increase is for 2425 that we're talking about but that is a new Union contract that needs to be negotiated and then in the spring will um begin negotiating the par educator contract these three contracts the chesh secretaries and technicians United um the chesher custodial and maintenance employees and the Cheshire administrative Personnel those all were negotiated and are in place or for the administrators will be in place for next year so those are all set those expire in 202 27 2027 and and 2028 so um couple of contracts to negotiate and three that have been settled in the last year so if we now look at those bargaining units and what their wages have increased over uh the last few years you'll see that the um wage increases have been reasonable um for 2425 this is the budget Year we're working on you could see that some um some groups are very low facilities but that's because the board knows we just approved that contract and we negotiated a change in how their the medical benefits are covered it's not by us anymore it's being outsourced to the union um and the teachers and the administrative Personnel they're just above 3% Dr Solen and I you know we're looking yesterday actually at what the um Social Security cost of living adjustment ments have been over the last several years and they're averaging well above 5% you know two years ago was 8% so these wage increases have been you know not only reasonable not not um not necessarily the fact that they're below Cola doesn't mean they're not in line with other school contracts these are absolutely in line with what other school contracts have been although we think going forward you know some of the settlements that we've heard are you know approaching 4% per year so as we negotiate those two new contracts I don't think we'll be you know in this lower range but that's to be determined the other thing that I'll add with respect to how we negotiate you know wages there's always a balance between wages and medical benefit offerings so you'll see as as we talk about medical benefits that you know one of the things that most most of our Union groups have done is you know they they understand that they'll give up some of wages to make sure that their medical benefits you know stay intact and it's not that we haven't negotiated changes there but there is a balance that we strike when we negotiate between those two categories so for certified salaries there's five groups that um fall into this account category certainly teachers being the largest that's 37 million dollars of the total of$ 42.7 million being requested our administrators substitutes are also budgeted in this category Student Activities that's primarily to pay coaches um and other individuals for extracurricular activities and then uh homebound tutoring services that we provide you know primarily for special education students certified salaries represents about 47.4% of next year's budget based on the request it's about 48 and a half percent of this year's budget so it's actually going down by a bit on a on a comparison basis we have a total of 429 uh full-time equivalent employees that are part of the certified salary group um and you'll see that the request in total for all those categories is an increase of 3.62% what's going to be approved ultimately we don't know yet um so if I take this and now we look at the line by line increases there so you'll see the administrators um that increases 5.2% that and I'm going to just throw out some some information as we go through each of these to kind of give you a little understanding of what what's happening so the administrators that particular group is three people it's the superintendent assistant superintendent and myself you know we are not part of a bargaining unit but we have individual contracts so this number is basically what's in our contract directors uh and supervisors that is part of the administrators the the administrators group you'll see that 4% in director supervisors but the principal line is an assistant principal line is going up by 6 and a half% as I mentioned earlier we have um an individual that's in the aresa grant that Grant is running out this year and so moving that person into the operating budget is why that line item is increasing by the 6 and a half percent um teachers is going up 3.34% the raise for the teachers this year is 3.02 that's General wage increase plus step the reason we're above that 3.02 is because we are adding an Elementary classroom teacher as well as a special education teacher for Norton and we're bringing three people from the aressa grant that fall into that teacher line um substitutes we're looking to increase that to get a little bit closer to the reality of what it's been costing for substitutes typically the cost of substitutes if we go over budget is offset by um not being over budgeted in the teacher line so we have teachers that on leave we bring in additional Subs so those typically offset each other but still it makes sense to increase that budget line 50,000 you'll see that the tutoring line we're holding it flat um that account has been you know managed pretty tightly um over the last couple of years in fact Miss Carri who who's responsible for that has brought that expenditure down from around 250 two or 280,000 a year you know now we're looking at 200,000 per year um Student Activities that's increasing 4% that goes the increase in Student Activity pay is incremental with the teacher contract the reason it's going up 4.3% is we're adding the two fencing coaches which is recommended as part of this budget and again I know that you know the 4.3% you look at the at the percentage and larger increase than the 3% expected but you know on a relative basis it's $26,000 um and about half of that is for the addition of the the two fencing coaches so as a group certified salaries going up 3.62% including the additional staff that's being added or brought in from the ARP Sr Grant it's kind of it for certified salaries good yes I was asking inevitable question do we know about retirements we do not know about retirements if you look at the average over the last few years it's varied from 8 to 14 you know without any kind of retirement incentive so it's it's too early I I don't know of any Dr Solen do you have any inkling yet no we have required to notify us until the spring um but I haven't heard of any retirements we had a midyear retirement which I've shared but that's that's it so far and as we go through the you know not so much in this round of the budget but by the time we get to the Town Council in April we usually have a better understanding of who has um at least given us some notice of intent and we do get retirements as late as you know may for June yeah in one of your earlier slides you had mentioned um student count but you didn't reference the moments and time that you were talking about I was wondering if it was year on year or say from January 22nd or 23rd whatever today is forward to October 1st I think you said there was maybe 54 extra kids I didn't write it down but so yeah the what I showed in the enrollment increase is where we were as of October 1st okay of this year and what the New England School Development Council is projecting for next year the the fact is and I know we discussed this at a planning committee meeting this is really people we're already we're already about halfway yeah now to meeting next year's projection I certainly on the elementary side which is highly unusual correct it is unusual okay and we certainly believe it has to do with the new housing that's been added in our town and it's continuing to come online you know I don't want to say necessarily month in and month out but you know as new houses are available and open and sold people do move in and they they come into our school you know again we we focus primarily on Highland in our recent planning meeting discussion because Highland is you know has quickly approached its capacity so um it's an ongoing concern and yeah so we're we're tracking to exceed the projection at this point yeah yeah we were project increase by 56 going into next year okay we're already 34 Beyond and 22 more students and we've we've met that I wouldn't be shocked if we're there by by Spring and it would continue above and beyond that is what you expect I mean just for people who are watching I mean I think it's pretty straightforward most parents who have kids in the school system probably move in the summertime normally typically yeah okay so this is this is uncommon the dozens of kids moving in during the school year so the 30 for students is an increase since October 1st so it doesn't even include like last Summer's movements so we're I think that's the Unique Piece that VIN is highlighting here is that we've continued to grow not in an explosive rate over the school year but steady rate and I think we could anticipate certainly getting to next year's projection you know in advance so next year and then kind of shattering that through the year yeah okay thank you one other one other question Vin I some of the numbers are difficult for me to see but when you're talking about the per student cost South windster was about 16 16,000 ches about 16 or 19,000 right we're at 19,000 okay so year on-year equivalent you're talking South Windsor is 16 chesher is 19 and reading is 28 correct do you have any idea just generally speaking what drives that discrepancy I mean reading is like 50% more than us well it's a very small District okay I think that is one of the reasons why that number is so astronomical and South Windsor has actually grown quite rapidly is is it all new schools there now is it what is South Windsor just all new schools they've re um the elementaries yes okay I'm not sure Jeff do you know the middle and high school it's at wi not that long ago I mean it's a relatively new school but it's not a new new school um the high school's been there a while but uh and I think when you're looking at per pupil expenditure you're going to see outliers on both sides and that's why I think we tend to look at the average or even the median um I just south jumped out at me because of the I mean across the state that's one town in particular that's had far more new construction the last 5 or 10 years than other towns right they're the only town in Connecticut that has enrollment growth exceeding 10% in the last five years or something like that they they they've exploded a lot of that is actually a migrant population that's um come to work in the software industry in Hartford okay thank you okay last um slide on certified salaries which we'll show this for each of the overall uh budget categories at the end but you'll see what this slide shows is you know certified salaries as a percentage of the total budget and you'll see that it's come down from 54% down to 47% that doesn't mean we've reduceed salaries it means as a percentage of budget it's it's a smaller percentage because other account categories have taken on an increased percentage of the budget which medical benefits is one which we'll show you in a couple of minutes um so that's it for certified salaries we're going to move on to the next s next salary category which is our non-certified salar so this is all the staff that um falls into these seven categories so our par Educators secretary clerical support Personnel maintenance employee School nurses Board of Ed bus drivers not Taco again those are drivers that we employ um and managers and supervisors so this as a total this is 11.92% is the request so that's an 6.4% increase again I'll go through the details um non-certified salaries represents about 14.2% of our budget in the request for next year and it's about where it is this year total uh full-time equivalent staff is about 350 employees you know versus the the teachers were and certified staff was about 411 uh so our par Educators um primarily the par educator group does provide special education support Services some are one-on-one you know per student some are in the classroom helping multiple students there's a small group of par Educators that are General Ed par Educators for example each kindergarten classroom has a par educator um you'll see that um the largest increase in terms of doers is for par Educators but that's because par Educators is also the largest total line item that increases 99.11% the raises for the par educators are a little bit over 3% the reason the request is 9% is because we are adding one um par educator for the Intensive education classroom for Norton for next year so that would be a new position but in this current year budget 2324 we've had to add 6.8 Paras for this school year here to cover students that um have been identified or moved in that have special education needs and we're assuming those are going to be kept in next year's budget um you know this again is you know the need for special ed Support Services has increased in line with enrollment you know a little bit faster actually than our overall General Ed cost growth but it does have to be supported it is mandated um and again miss Carrie will will talk about that more detail on Thursday um uh managers and supervisors that um includes you know some of the School District Operations staff that uh serve as as our managers and supervisors um but it also includes a shared person that we have with the town that does project management work with um facilities so our capital projects we have Dan bomber which is a split resource with the town that's funded through this account um our secretaries the uh increase there is 4.27% um you know we did have you know an addition um it's not an addition to staff we had a group of secretaries that were in our Ida Grant idea grant that have been moved into the operating budget and the dollars from the Ida idea Grant are being used by par Educators so not an increase in staff but it did increase this operating budget line the custodians and maintenance I know this one looks odd increase of 99.9% in custodians and a decrease in maintenance the difference between those two categories because those are all facilities Personnel custodians are a building maintainer the maintenance staff are our Tradesmen that have licenses either electricians Plumbing low voltage wiring um and our out outside ground so we just switch the responsibilities of one of those individuals and that's why one's up and one's down um support that includes a number of of different employee categories our occupational therapists as an example our play our lunchroom playground AIDS um our Technology support staff all fall into that budget category quite a few of those employees were um below well are at minimum wage so they their wages increased and we also had a group of learning support tutors that we gave incremental raises this year that carry it over into next year so that's why that's at 7.1% our Board of bus drivers we have about a dozen board ofed bus drivers and AIDS we do that and we also have vehicles we do that because it's gives us a lot more um flexibility in transporting students most of our Board of Ed drivers are doing special education in town runs you know we're doing quite a bit of um work with our special education transition students where we're taking them to job Shar and those are happening intraday so that's what that staff is used for again we do it that way because it's cheaper than having it contracted out to uh provide a Dao we are adding an additional driver next year that's why that account's increasing by 15% and then the 3.14% those are Health Services those are our School nurses that we have um serving the district so as a group 6.1 6.41% increase in this line item again a lot of that having to do with increases in Staffing not increasing in in wages only now I just took a little bit of a of a deeper dive into the non-certified salaries and you'll see the annual growth rate and this is from 20156 through projected 2425 I just wanted to show that the in this category the biggest driver of the of the growth in in terms of salaries are the par Educators and our drivers we've had add staff in both areas to provide services for our special ed students and you'll see the rest are you know 4% or below in fact managers and supervisors the reason that's up 4% is because that project manager position was added about three years ago so that's what's driving that and then if we look at non-certified salaries kind of over a long period of time you'll see that you know it it has gone up and it's come down and kind of coming back up um from this was 12.69% it's about 13.2% of next year's budget so not dramatically different um and I think that concludes noncertified salary so before we do employee benefits I'll just pause what's the grip B I don't know if this is the right section section ask this question or not so just let me know yeah um outside maintenance is that um is this the correct section for that yes okay well outside maintenance you're talking about our facilities outside grounds parking lots that sort of thing yes um so I was just wondering do we still do we still maintain all of our grounds individually or do we share those services with the town like parking lots and lawn mowing all that Stu it's a we do share services with the town the um during the school year you know a general statement our outside grounds um men maintain all the grounds as we roll into the sports season you know which does start in this in the spring we have a a deal basically where we'll mow all the school grounds that are used the fields primarily that are used for Park and wreck in particular but they'll take care of the infield and you know any maintenance required on the infield during the summer where our students are not using the fields for the most part that goes into the hands of Park and wreck although we still continue to mow the other thing that we do which um I'm not sure we've ever talked about it here is whenever we have a snow or icing event the town does do does all the salting in our driveways and in our in our parking lots um so we we do have a good relationship with the town Public Works staff and and the director You Know Rich cette our facilities director who I know you know you know and Dan Barbaro who's now the interim a director of Public Works you know Mark Cunningham Rich puit you know those we help each other quite a bit you know we're on the phone at you know 4:30 5:00 usually by text when we have a snow event you know to make sure that we're in sync so it's a good relationship and it it it does save money um and it takes quite a bit of coordination I know we've struggled with it back and forth but we're in a really good place right now that's good to hear um and with the uh bartand Park coming online is our relationship going to be changing at all there with the new Fields do we have to incur any additional costs or maintenance there um no I think what it does though is the the new turfield in particular I I think it'll take some pressure off the use of the school field but then again the demand is really high so it it's hard it's hard to judge um and the other thing that we do share you know as I as I asked that question is you know our students do Park you know in bartand Park from the high school so that um in is another shared service that I guess that leavs me to my last question you may might have figured out already but uh our own turfield are there uh are there any considerations there where we need to to plan for that or I know you had mentioned it in the past it's in the capital budget the last year the board approved the capital budget we had it in year five and this year the planning committee is is working on the capital budget so it moves from year five into year four we think we're good the the turf field is holding up well we've only had to add two patches we are on a maintenance contract you know with the installer actually we've continued on it was you know mki reminded me it was installed in 2011 it felt like not that long ago but you know we're we we'll pass the 8-year warranty which is why we have the maintenance contract we have a tested every year to make sure it's not too hard or too soft for students and it's it's performed well with with the gmax testing so yes we are planning for the replacement in the capital budget great thank you you're welcome just um to go back in the certified staff section is there any way we can get a seniority list kind of speaking to Tim's question about retirement projections thought you were asking for Senor list off sure okay yeah and then I just want to clarify that our custodians also shovel the sidewalks then not not just the town coming into to plow oh yeah I don't want to make it appear like our custodians don't do anything all the town does after we're done with the cleanup um the town just comes in and drops salt Andor sand on our driveways and parking lots they they don't do anything beyond that our custodians you know do the plowing shoveling blowing snow and if they if if um the town didn't salt our Lots we would hire we would have to hire a contractor to do that so that is a service that they provide for us thank you good all right I don't want to jinx this but we're doing well on time it's 8 o'clock and we're we're in benefits got that I don't think so I think this year's a little bit easier just wait H okay so employee benefits of about 19.7% of next year's requested budget it's about 19.4% so you know not a substantial change the um total amount of the budget requested is 17 mil 71446 if we look at the breakdown 81% of that is for medical dental um we're looking for a 7.95% increase this year so a little bit over a million dollars on medical dental and that's where we'll spend you know the next you know probably 10 slides to go through the detail of that but I do want to point out this year's increase request is 7.37 you see that last year what was approved is 10 and a half and what was requested was 10.6 so we are requ even though the budget request is higher it's a smaller percentage and the year before that it was over 20% so we are moving in the right direction you know with with the medical benefits um pension plan we need a 5% increase there I'll talk about that in some detail I'll show you some slides Social Security just increasing in line with wages uh we do have to fund social security for our noncertified staff workers comp and unemployment about a 19% increase and life and disability insurance that's generally pretty flat but a small percentage of budget um if we look at each of the line items here quickly um medical benefits is you know 14 million of the 17 million we're looking for a mil 59,000 increase the pension line that um that increase is based on early estimates from the actuaries um workers comp that increase is an estimate we received from our insurance broker that's not the f final number but I will um just let you know that several years ago we moved our workers comp from kerma to Travelers we were able to reduce our premiums by $100,000 roughly when we did that some of that is starting to creep back in but we're still in a better place than we would have been had we um not switched over to Travelers and again Social Security is just in line with wage increases so we're going to focus here on the medical benefits line This 14.

the live stream has started thank you good evening isza um Community students parents and staff Welcome to our governance Workshop I would like to call the meeting to order today on Tuesday January 23rd at 5:36 p.m.

IO and fellas if you can check the link in the description for a cool and amazing link that will lead you to our merchandise which my co- commentator is very clearly and stylishly wearing I'm wearing one of the jerseys you get one of your own at the link in the description make sure to check it out when you get the chance the jerseys are very comfortable very comfortable looks like we're going to get into uh Tristan here uh ooh now Tristan plays uh Little Mac uh he's pretty known for doing so at a decently good level here looks like we're going to get into it Tristan looking to chip in some damage on the Joker here charging up a forward smash so what I'm seeing is two lightweights going against each other yeah two pretty lightweights Yeah couple of breezes here right nothing super heavy but good amount looks like that joker is going to do a nice offstage thing and that's going to be the first stock for Tristan hit him way too far but Tristan coming back with the insane just punch I don't know what it is looking for a counter here isn't going to hit the ledge uh for some reason oh it looks like he's going to come right back into it h some more smash attacks leaving Joker at a very very high percent here very very close to ding from what we can see this Joker is a lot more experienced than the rest of his team be more of a hsue than the rest of the team yeah nice counter from Tristan here going to take take a good amount of damage but isn't going to kill just yet let's see if he can take those other two St other stock yeah yeah see if he can do it going to miss the punch but H he get an up he takes a stock it's one to one in stocks here folks Tristan's going to come back to the stage grab the ledge and looks like he's going to go for some attacks here yeah try try to Sid stepping a lot yeah weaving around Joker here trying to get in any attack he can right trying to land any punch put some damage on the board here Joker going to counter again getting his special ability counter again and that's going to be he going to do it he did well he took a stock off he did take a stock yes Tristan did really well and taking a stock there and it looks like Varsity is going to send in another player here soon uh it's anyone's guess on who that'll be right but it's out of Noah or Jaden yeah one of the two it's either the snake or the Isabelle yep we'll see we're going to see here looks like we're going to see uh Noah looks like we're going to be seeing some snake gameplay today ooh now Joker is only at one stock here so it's only going to take Noah One stock to take out the third guy and we're going to be on the opponent's last person and hopefully he does it with three stocks say so I hope so too hopefully we get that three stock in I believe he will uh and it seems to be going as such going to be taunting to signify that he's ready to start fighting now the Joker is probably going to continue to start countering here or there some more but with Noah uh he'll probably adapt to that and try and from from us Joker assuming he'll have something but doesn't have any leverage here nothing he can get getting hit by every blast he has every blast that can be hit by yeah grenades on the the field and bombs and everything just a whole bunch of stuff C4 bunch of explosives yeah and he's already got him up to 138% one good hit it's going to kill him absolutely just kind of throwing out whatever he can to get a hit yeah going to hit the counter though but at 150 it's not going to do much right and looks like no gets the C4 killing the opponent and with three stocks left we are up two to one on players here yeah now we're going to cut to JV real quick here uh we can see uh Izzy is playing uh so looks like they're fighting in in cidar on the opposing team Izzy who losing a stock here but it looks like the incinerar is only down to one preferably taken by the previous player Adriana who plays Lucario now pyro and Mithra are a good character for dealing damage and ooh and that's going to kill uh and that's JV beating the incinerar player making it presumably even if not winning for JV which is great for the Academy team right great win from them now we cut back to Noah looks like he's fighting Bowser uh King Koopa himself uh Noah's game plan of throwing out explosives would probably seem to be effective here if he can get some distance and just pile on the damage mhm negate anything as Bowser needs to get close to do much right Bowser is a very closeup character yeah seems to be relying on a lot of his close interactions to do much of anything really right strives in close quarters but falters at distance yeah he doesn't really have any the C4 is planted looks like the Bowser Noah hoping to find the Bowser within it hoping hoping trying to fake him into it trying to deceive him now we're going to hit another explosive hopefully one good hit Bowser knock that Bowser gone one good hit is probably going to do it here in a sec oh absolutely he's at 17 look like Noah is going to lose a stock there but and he takes one in return with the C4 even even evening a up for these players here we've got a nice and tight match as it seems all right if Noah manages to keep stockpiling that damage on Bowser yeah it just seems to keep coming and it doesn't stop no just seeming to throw everything he can at it and hit it a lot of it I mean what else do you do against Bowser not much you just kind of stay away and you just have to stockpile damage until he flies yeah and flies yeah true and it looks like he's going to get hit with the side be there uh going to do a little bit of damage but nothing too big as Bowser is getting taking more and more damage no continuing to throw everything he has at him lay him down and kick him up and that's no taking a stock continuing his previous trend of taking damage uh the Bowser continues to take damage now no's going to continue to just pile on a lot of stuff here yeah uh throwing a bunch of grenades firing a bunch of rockets yeah just everything he has in the books here right nothing's off limits especially against bows and that's the with this last dude on his last stock it's going to be round one for J for Varsity here in a minute yeah presumably going to Noah unless the Bowser can take two stocks if the Bowser manages to take these two stocks as he's at 117 that is very impressive looks like he's going to get grabbed and thrown off stage no throwing again throwing everything Bower continuing to be and the C4 is going to kill and that's bit for Varsity winning round one nice winning winning round one all right [Music] so I'd say we're probably going to win round two right yes more than likely doesn't doesn't even matter right but this team has proved to put up a decent challenge I'd say but yeah absolutely a good test of strength now they've been a good challenge now we've got you on the ropes here guys uh we're going to thank our sponsor Adams Wells uh internet Telecom TV your local service provider with gigs speeed internet telephone and TV services for businesses and residential customers and Adams and Wells County unparalleled they are a big supporter and and we are very grateful for their sponsorship from Adams Wells make sure to check them out Adams Wells that's Adams Wells that's Adams Wells make sure to check him out look like Kingpin anywh who looks like we're going to get into round two here of the varsity game with Little Mac starting us off Little Mac against the pyate mythra here yeah he's going to probably do again what he's going to always do and throw out punches and hit the opponent and throw out punches like crazy yeah going to do a lot of damage here already at 50% yeah Little Mac has always surprised me with his damage yeah he does a lot of damage yeah he's very fast in the uh on the ground but in the air it's in the air he is very weak he struggles he struggles in the air he's very vulnerable and it looks like that punch is going to kill their pyrra leading to the first stock of the game there going to do a good amount of damage now why is my name up there uh I'm going to see a lot of things here looks like uh Tristan he going to take over here yeah he may be at 100% And that sends them now uh JV is still in round one here uh but for Varsity looks like we've just got uh Tristan versus the pyrro mythra as you can see currently down one stock in JV and many many many things yeah now ooh it looks like the stock is taken by JV and it looks like they won yeah but uh Varsity continuing to play here Tristan on path to take his second stock soon too in the process of taking the second stock yep one more good hit will probably do it yeah one more good punch Yep looks like just kind of trading blows here nothing huge on the fuse but Tristan closing in closing the Gap one more good hit and that's going to do it that's two stocks from the opponent there let's see if Tristan can take that last one I think I think he probably can he will he's going to hopefully probably and even still looks like Tristan taking a good amount of stuff here with his punch but o looks like he misses it but another counter going to do some damage here just trying to pile on as much as he can the allowed time limit yeah trying not to get hit too hard right big smash attack going to do a good amount of damage here but looks like Tristan gets hit himself closing the Gap trying to get back onto stage here he's going to grab the ledge and come back to Stage counter again knocking the opponent off St and punching them and that's going to be the last St that was very impressive with a one 145% yeah looks like Tristan uh looks like we are up a stock here now JV is still playing round one here uh but looks like they are down one guy uh looks like they might be on their last here right facing off against the Ganondorf Ganondorf still has three stocks yeah looks like it I think of that might be their last guy yeah looks like we've got Kayla playing a new player uh fresh to the uh smash Esports scene this is what her second practice believe so she's relatively new and it looks like the Ganondorf is going to take that stock uh believe that was the last person uh maybe believe so but I think it could be there soon to be but it looks like Tristan here are going to get into a little M matchup against another one here now Tristan's going to be the green one uh and the other guy is the non- green one he's the actual person yeah I feel like the other team orchestrated this to have both little Macs playing against each other I think so too because I believe I think that the Little Mac would probably best know how to fight against the Little Mac yeah based on how both of them having their punches here yeah and it looks that's going to be the last stock for Tristan uh and we're on to our next player I'm going to lead off into our next player looks like Jordan is going to take over on JV here maybe being their last person I believe well yeah their last person uh going to take the guy Ganondorf here Jordan playing NES of course he is dishing out damage like it is a five course meal I'm going to throw out a lot of moves and do a lot of damage here as Jordan is known to do got a lot of projectiles that he can at his disposal I forgot Ganondorf was turned into a sword character in Ultimate yeah looks like Jordan's going to need to take six stocks to win this ooh I think he can do it I he's got I think he can no I think he's got this in the bag Jordan is an incredible player who's capable of many things and is probably going to at some point time win it for JV here yeah seeming to deal a lot of uncontested damage on the Ganondorf here nothing he can do and the forward smash is going to kill Jordan there was one thing he could do and that was it yeah kill him looking back at Varsity Jaden is playing his signature Isabella Isabella yes you can see here uh Jaden is one of if not our best players on varsity uh the premier player you'd want now Jaden is going to do uh his signature of just really throwing out everything like the rest of us making sure to take note over the opponent and try and learn their Tendencies and their tactics and their moves they everything yeah all right uh in in Academy in JV news uh looks like Jordan has taken the win taking the Ganondorf they now only need to take three stocks to win the game do you think he can do it 100% yeah he can do it yeah Jaden continuing to dash attack into the Little Mac Jaden continuing to absolutely bully this little mac seeming to die there for some reason he just going to need to do a little bit more and kill the Little Mac here just one more good hit I'm surprised the Little Mac is still on with 186% yeah one good hit is going to kill that little mac here and that up air is going to do it that kills the Little Mac if I have to say anything Little Mac lasting to 203% very impressive yeah looks like Jaden is Contin going to continue to do some damage here yeah but the Little M keeps on continu Charing charging in and punching his way yeah continuing to go Full Throttle as it seems right just seeming to now be a little bit more patient here but is Jaden is going to throw him off stage again trying to maybe again take him off stage this now JV is on their last round of course with one guy they facing Ridley which we'll see in a little bit uh but for right now varsity o that punch is going to do it o killing Jaden I still think Jaden can win this yeah Jaden could definitely win this yeah considering how the Little Mac is already at yeah i' say one good hit that's it mhm good hit and that's going to do it Forward Air knocking him off again 138 the Little ma another Forward Air and that's that's going to do it yep he couldn't recover that's going to do it with Varsity taking the win there nice Varsity still on what second round yeah on this is the their second guy and uh they're facing the third guy for varsity and it looks like Jordan has somehow brought it all the way back and tying up the last guy on the last match on the first round here and it looks like he's going to kill R here taking a lead of a stock will he be able to finish it this is the last stock of round one folks if it's finished it's over MH looks like we're going to continue uh with Jordan here going to continue to belittle this Ridley here nothing he can do he can't get in he can't he can't attack he can't do anything just going to take a bunch of damage from Jordan here one good hit and it's over and that's the back air that's going to do it and that's JV JV has won their first round let's go JV winning their first round and of course Jordan would have clutched it up now we're going to get back into Varsity here with Jaden facing a joker The Joker we've seen previously uh now Jaden is probably going to continue his play style of damaging and chipping and weaving and punishing and all sorts of stuff uh now we've seen this Joker once before be a challenge previously but Jaden seeming to learn from these mistakes here and making quick work doing a ton of damage here yeah leaving the joker out to dry being at 116% couple good hits and that's going to be it for the Joker let's just hope jayen can take all three without losing his one even still we are up and the up smash is going to kill taking the Joker's first stock and he immediately dishes out 19 damage oo taking the Joker to 51% here good amount of things going on damage and all sorts of stuff yeah now Joker just seems to be taking more of a patient play style but seeming to adapt to Jaden or the vice versa both players learning yeah both both players are learning from each other stage taking the Joker uh o and the Joker dies couldn't recover Jaden might win this leaving him leaving us up a stock Jaden could take it let's hope he does on one stock taking all of theirs o almost killing the choker but the back it's GNA take but hey Jaden's last stock Joker's down to one stock yeah and where's Thea guy yeah that means we just need uh one like good match yeah say so uh one good more one more good match for varsity and uh the second round is over couple looks like they're going to be sending in yeah uh another player here uh we're going to transition here into one of our lovely sponsors the Wells County Foundation uh very special thanks to them for their special Grant they gave us the special PC rig and a very special thanks to them special back to the back to everything at hand you can find out more about Wells County Foundation they suit your needs and they suit mine in this stream yeah now we have Sam going up against the Joker Sam to be so Sam playing his signature K rule yep now it looks like this Joker here uh more than likely Running on Fumes as you can see nothing really left in the tank any who uh seeming to deal a lot of damage here with one more good hit probably doing it mhm 88 percentage here another projectile I'm going to take a guess and say that joker is going to last till 150% as a lightweight I be honest I think uh yeah yeah it's over and that's it that back throw is going to kill them and we're going on we're up an entire person and we still have three stocks the last game of round two and over in JV we have Izzy playing Mithra and pyra versus a Mithra and pyra on the opposing team yes now folks uh Izzy is a known player of pyro Mithra uh a lot of stuff's going to happen a lot of movement here a lot of facing and it looks like Izzy is going to lose that stock there tying it to two and and two and know with a win already on their belts from round one yeah looks like it's just kind of a first to see who can do it now varsity has their third player versus the fourth here uh it is Sam playing KK rule against a Bowser against the Bowser yep now looks like Sam is just going to try and Whittle him down as two heavyweights fighting against each other here yeah going to hit the Cannonball except one has ranged moves and the other doesn't yeah be so that's why I would believe krule has the advantage say so too so it looks like uh krule here is just going to continue to throw some punches out Bowser going to side B and grab Kroll here in other news 150 percentage uh Iz he winning the first round of JV uh in turn of events uh looks like the Bowser is going to get the first stock here we still have Noah true we do still have Noah true okay uh back to the game here uh Bowser at 179 lot of cards on the table here and it's coming up a full house with I don't know what that was I'm sorry uh back to the game uh King K rule continuing to do damage here but struggling to find the last hit here but one more was going to is going to close it out yeah and the counter going to get Bowser off his tight tail but not going to be the end all killer yet good hit here is going to kill it and that's going to do do it there oo that there's going to do it two to two here with our third guy and their fourth let's hope Sam can take it out here finish the job some damage here just going to continue to throw projectiles o Bowser going to hit a high move there isn't going to kill manages to recover Bowser continuing to up be on shield and that's going to do that kill there yeah uh killing Sam Bowser loves to come in from the top there seeming to attack from above yeah going for the grab nothing I'm somewhat surprised drop kick hasn't been used yet be it's a very slow move it's a very slow but very punishing move if you get hit by it Sam being under the platform is impervious to being attacked from above unless dropped through the platform but looks like the Bowser got hit by the platform or got stuck on it at least Bowser continuing to this isn't looking very too this isn't looking too good for Sam but he still has a chance there nice Parry there to avoid the shield break and but Sam does with the forward airock him offage again magnet saves that Bowser and that's game but it looks like we still have Noah that we're going to send in we still have Noah yeah going to probably send in Noah here to finish it finish it up Noah with his signature snake yep going to finish that out and on JV looks like we've got got the oppon opponent playing Terry here and the and Izzy continuing to play pyrro mythra uh Izzy down to one stock is facing against and it looks like Terry's still alive with three very close to dying with 100% yeah Terry is what middleweight I'd say so yeah looks like just going to throw out some damaging moves helping to find one that kills here right one more powerful hit and that's going to be it is he still barely even being hit but at a low percent it's just a matter of time before she finds a hit that cleans it up yeah and she does have room for minor mistakes with that 29% yes just needs one more good hit here to take the stock and it looks like she does will she take the other two well the only time will'll tell I think she will on Varsity we have Noah going up against the Bowser looks like putting up him up against a bunch of damage here yeah doing a lot we've seen Noah beat the Bowser before yeah sure by dishing out a bunch of damage back a is going to kill but the Bowser 137 it looks like he's not going to be too far behind here yeah one good solid hit here is going to do it 148 a few solid bombs will get it 150 here 169 good I think one C4 would get him yeah one good explosive hit would probably do it yeah Dash attack going to hit Bowser still alive at 192 evading a lot of attacks just pounding through him I guess ooh for JV Iz he lost so that should be they're dishing in their next player throwing in there next player but ADV Varsity here it looks like Noah is still throwing explosives and that's going to do it that's going to take the Bowsers leaving Bowser to his last stock here on the last guy no up two just needs to get in that chip damage and clean it up yeah Noah seeming to be at a high percentage though I haven't really seen Noah evade attacks no he seems to just be take well he just seems to be doing a lot of damage here he seems to be dishing out a lot of damage and taking damage at the same time well yeah but that's the quality of snake is that he can do that as snake is surprisingly slightly heavy yeah allowing him to take some damage here he still has the medium weight speed with I'd say a 76% here Noah losing his second stock but still taking it very close here with Bowser at 108 a good couple hits here ought to do it as I was saying about snake I think he has middleweight uh speed with somewhat heavyweight knockback resistance I I'd say he's a medium heavy yeah I'd say so too he's got he's pretty he's got some bulk to him yeah which allows him to live through most of his explosives and the down be explosiv is going to kill and letting varsity win against the opposing team nice against North Judson s Pierre uh against Southwood Southwood now JV plays facing North Judson s Pierre here uh on there and varsity wins that match sure do it looks like they've finished up and they've won that yeah they in through let's see if JV will do this same yeah let's hope so I think they she seem to be on track too uh which person is jv on they're on Adriana here they last or their third I think their second guy here against their the opponent's second guy Jordan well the opponent's second guy but our second it's our second it's our second JB's second yeah they won last round so it's their second guy and Iz he was their first so okay Adrian Jordan Jordan was the person who played last round oh so looks like uh Adrian are going to continue to put on some damage here losing another stock here let's see if she can take the two from yeah okay so it is our second vers their second yeah all right on nice combo from Terry The opponent team a good one good hit from Adriana though and that's going to do it that's going to do it yeah now they're tied up with one with one stock each but Adriana with 113% having yeah very high damage uh in a little bit later we might have we will have Jaden on Varsity conduct an interview yeah with our special Varsity player and looks like Adriana about to take ooh but doesn't do it just yet but very close to taking the final stock and it looks like not going to do it and I was thinking Lucario was going to win because of the special buff whenever looks like we who I heard there were interviews and such over here we got special interview J Jaden J I think I KNE nobody loves you Ry uh so okay it's on all right all hello hello it's me so how about you uh introduce yourself for the uh viewers at home all right I'm I'm Jaden I am the captain of the varsity team for the Super Smash B ultimate program here at bhmsd true yep any questions so uh how what would you have to say about uh the opponent you just faced um I can definitely tell they've grown is one of the things I want to mention we played them earlier in the Fall Split and we beat them by much more of a comfortable margin and as you notice the last match came down to just one stock so very close match I can tell they've grown very cool good for them yeah hard fought match yes yes very heavily improved over this time from what I've seen uh how how would you say your team played against them I think we played pretty good um this was Sam's first match in Varsity and I'm very impressed first round seven stocks so the future is looking very bright yeah MH so yeah very good I only played one round I'm satisfied with my performance did pretty good from I would say we're satisfied with your performance as well thank you and um the reason we've got half of the team renewed it's because Travis did graduate congratulations congratulations to him but un conratulations for his success in graduating early woohoo yes very good unfortunately for us that means he can't play any more matches so we did lose a big player but uh things are still looking pretty good we've got some good uh players coming up from JB very happy with them uh do you have anything to add any any last words um I don't think I do just peace and love yay all righty our Varsity Captain uh Jaden here you go mic with the amazing words of uh wisdom yeah dang sounding like Mr Baker all right any back to the JV game here it looks like we have uh Kayla losing two stocks here our third guy this is our third person to their second here Kayla needing to take one stock here to this this Terry seems to be very challenging this has been this is Kayla's first game with j V which is incredible to see as she's still doing really well for her first G JV game oh going to get hit with a fart Smash and that's going to kill uh I think we are down to Jordan on JV hopefully it up yeah Jordan has been very good at that he he's been very good at taking them out yep he sure has he's been doing it really well so far yeah seems to just continue to let's hope he can do it again hope so I think he can think he with his casualness Yep looks like it yeah we're going to get be getting into it here doing yeah just all right Jordan going to need to take a good amount of stocks here seven uh to even it up win it do you think he can do it I think he can y I'm fairly confident as well I'm confident yeah I'd say so I'd say he probably more than likely can and probably will take it yeah so what are you doing after this you got any plans uh just going to my mom's same here oh and Jordan's going to do it very easily and quickly here Jord does that very quickly with how much damage did he take nothing took nothing perfect game perfect game very aggressive mhm very team doing really well here yeah we're going to get into our next game here they're going to be fighting against Joker Jordan Joker has been somewhat of a problem but we have managed to deal with them yep say Jordan is perfectly capable of taking care of these opponents here yeah I'd say that I'd be fairly positive that jayen has learned how Joker plays yeah and I'd say Jordan does as well yeah say Jordan is going to seeming to deal a ton of damage with 130 one good hit is going to kill yeah one forward smash shield and that's going to kill Jordan taking another stock here one of many yeah recovery going to miss taking another stock that PK Fire was very useful at that edge very very useful taking that stock that stun confusing the enemy and making them lose a stock well it wasn't even confusing the enemy the stun wouldn't let them move yeah o o looks like the upb is going to hit the Joker go there and that's going to another one Jordan still on three stocks even evening it back up to three and three on their last guy I think our Assumption of Jordan absolutely clutching this up was fair Jordan is a very good player Yep looks to be so yeah let's just hope we can get this done with well yeah let's hope Jordan can go the distance here and completely and utterly take out the enemy here looks like they're going to be going Mewtwo oo haven't seen their Mewtwo yet neither have I uh but there's a first time for everything here and it looks like Jordan is about to take his first time for another stock here right even playing field going into this pretty even so far continue to put in a bunch of damage here a ton yeah just chipping it everything he can here now see me if I were to be playing Nest I'd be throwing and that attack's going to take another stock there I'd be throwing PK Fire like almost the entire time yeah PK Fire is a good move though it is a very good move and is a very good utility for Jordan to use and have it his disposal mhm here as he recovers again back to Stage yeah hting the MW continuing to rack up damage here at kill percent at this point Mewtwo looking more and more dire as the situation gets worse for them yeah the up smash going to connect killing the meww leaving the enemies Jord three looks like I looking like it so far if Jordan three stocks this he deserves a big pat on the back big round of applause yeah he's about to take seven stocks he needed to take to win and he hasn't lost one of his own yet which just proves how good of a player he is continuing to hit the Mewtwo over air volley o oh smash going to hit but not going to kill yet that air juggle seems to be and taking seven stocks without losing even one of his own leaving both varsity and JV winning this game winning today they're both Victorious they both continue their record and for the spring split remain undefeated with Varsity going six and one so far throughout the entire thing now Jordan is celebrating celebrating as yeah he he was celebrating a lot yeah hooray now congratulations to both our Academy and varsity team now thanks for joining us this evening this concludes the week of streams but join us again next week Monday January 29th at 5:00 P p.m.

[Music] a [Music] welcome to week eight of the IH competitive season today both are University team will play against Southwood and the academy team will face off against North Judson San Pierre High School our starting map is small Battlefield so far this season OverWatch is still undefeated while Varsity ssbu is five wins and one loss currently in second place let's see if we can hang on to that lead tonight all right so we're going to get into the varsity game right now looks like Sam is playing his signature krule of of course facing off against uh the opposing team yeah basically uh how far o and it looks like that forward smash is going to take it with Sam with two stocks remaining here nice winning as always now I'd say our varsity team has a great chance of winning this with an amazingly quick first round here uh it's seeming to be a pretty easy sweep from our team uh right but still up in the air though could the rest of the team could be great yeah it could have been just that one player yeah who knows it's up to the air uh all right now while we're waiting here folks uh we've got a lot of games here today uh both our varsity and JV but one of the most important things the one thing you can't forget is the Wells County foundation and a very special thanks to them indeed for the special grant that allowed us to purchase the streaming rig and the rigs we're using to stream this currently which is incredible and we can't overstate are welcome for that thank you we are very gracious for them so check them out uh Wells County Foundation it's in Wells County you'll find it I promise anyway back to the game here here looks like Sam is jumping off once getting ready for the next game here planning to use his same attack method of throwing projectiles constantly and rapidly at the opposing team hoping that they get hit by them yeah which is a game plan now looks like he cancels looks like because kru is so heavy he withstands some damage and does not take any knock back or damage from that movement right from that as a heavyweight he has very reduced knockback yes he's slower but he does take less knockback which means he is takes more to kill him than other characters now it looks like here that they've gone pyro Mithra the opposing team nothing really here uh so far just Sam whittling it down oo and a forward smash going to take it that's stock number one we are up an entire guy right now an entire person let's go entire player yeah Sam continuing to go through his game plan seems to be trying to counter something but not finding anything to counter going to Shield Sam does have a decent amount of experience playing against pyrro mythra from the JV team which he played on for a while and the sideb goes nowhere and that's death that's stock number two from the Pyro and methra Sam still dominant as ever yet to lose a stock still playing his heart out here and that ooh that counter going to do 32 that's a lot ooh and looks like the Pirates is going to try and do what she can look another counter yet again you got to be worried about that up smash here trying to get a read here nothing going on here just some trading blows kru getting close to the percentage where he would die sooner than later but pyro and Mithra again but looks like Mithra here or pyro oh and the cannon ball sends it flying and that's guy number two for varsity and he got it without even losing a stock that's incredible that looks like we are up an entire person now almost two of them to their players right now I'd say uh confidently that we've got this in the bag wouldn't you yes absolutely but this is not to undersell their the opponent's team here as they could very easily pull it back with a surprise mechanic of their own here and uh looks like we're just getting ready here setting up folks but it looks like we're going to get right into it with a joker on the opposing team here haven't seen a joker in a while yeah neither have I not very common in the grand scheme of things but game with 80 plus characters is any character common yeah no not really looks like they're just going to go straight into it here got some trading blows here not too much looks like he's Joker the opponent has a counter of his own here which allows him to absorb some of these knockbacks but but Sam already doing 44% damage ton of them ton of damage here and he recovered from that down be with an up yeah looks like the up air is going to get some uh looks like Sam here trying to find an opening using some of his projectiles but still getting countered for it this might be where he falters because this Joker is playing look well back throw from Sam here knock him off stage and hit him again with a cannon ball but nothing of super note here right now but it's still anyone's game yeah all things considered Joker again going for another Dash attack at the ledge how relatively it's still a very close game very close from how their percentages players are still at a decently high percentage here a couple good hits will probably kill both of them yeah depends on how they plan the next Sam is going to lose another stock here is first in a while yeah far from It joker not too far from losing his own yeah Sam was probably looking for a counter there couldn't get it out in time yeah they probably couldn't throw more projectiles out o the down Smash and that's going to take a stock that's going to take another stock there can he take the other two maybe but he still has three other people to clean up the SL for him yeah to to wipe the rest of the team mhm ooh high damage from Sam there on a double counter play oh so that's going to be Sam uh that's our first player here uh on their third guy we've lost one yeah dominant showing so far let's hope we can continue it into the next person so far we are absolutely mopping the floor now while we have your attention here folks do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea 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for exciting textur action special thanks again to Adams Wells internet auction Wells County Foundation Indiana Esports Network and the Army National Guard for their support of our program we wish to see you soon [Music] e [Music] [Applause] [Music] n

IO and fellas if you can check the link in the description for a cool and amazing link that will lead you to our merchandise which my co- commentator is very clearly and stylishly wearing I'm wearing one of the jerseys you get one of your own at the link in the description make sure to check it out when you get the chance the jerseys are very comfortable very comfortable looks like we're going to get into uh Tristan here uh ooh now Tristan plays uh Little Mac uh he's pretty known for doing so at a decently good level here looks like we're going to get into it Tristan looking to chip in some damage on the Joker here charging up a forward smash so what I'm seeing is two lightweights going against each other yeah two pretty lightweights Yeah couple of breezes here right nothing super heavy but good amount looks like that joker is going to do a nice offstage thing and that's going to be the first stock for Tristan hit him way too far but Tristan coming back with the insane just punch I don't know what it is looking for a counter here isn't going to hit the ledge uh for some reason oh it looks like he's going to come right back into it h some more smash attacks leaving Joker at a very very high percent here very very close to ding from what we can see this Joker is a lot more experienced than the rest of his team be more of a hsue than the rest of the team yeah nice counter from Tristan here going to take take a good amount of damage but isn't going to kill just yet let's see if he can take those other two St other stock yeah yeah see if he can do it going to miss the punch but H he get an up he takes a stock it's one to one in stocks here folks Tristan's going to come back to the stage grab the ledge and looks like he's going to go for some attacks here yeah try try to Sid stepping a lot yeah weaving around Joker here trying to get in any attack he can right trying to land any punch put some damage on the board here Joker going to counter again getting his special ability counter again and that's going to be he going to do it he did well he took a stock off he did take a stock yes Tristan did really well and taking a stock there and it looks like Varsity is going to send in another player here soon uh it's anyone's guess on who that'll be right but it's out of Noah or Jaden yeah one of the two it's either the snake or the Isabelle yep we'll see we're going to see here looks like we're going to see uh Noah looks like we're going to be seeing some snake gameplay today ooh now Joker is only at one stock here so it's only going to take Noah One stock to take out the third guy and we're going to be on the opponent's last person and hopefully he does it with three stocks say so I hope so too hopefully we get that three stock in I believe he will uh and it seems to be going as such going to be taunting to signify that he's ready to start fighting now the Joker is probably going to continue to start countering here or there some more but with Noah uh he'll probably adapt to that and try and from from us Joker assuming he'll have something but doesn't have any leverage here nothing he can get getting hit by every blast he has every blast that can be hit by yeah grenades on the the field and bombs and everything just a whole bunch of stuff C4 bunch of explosives yeah and he's already got him up to 138% one good hit it's going to kill him absolutely just kind of throwing out whatever he can to get a hit yeah going to hit the counter though but at 150 it's not going to do much right and looks like no gets the C4 killing the opponent and with three stocks left we are up two to one on players here yeah now we're going to cut to JV real quick here uh we can see uh Izzy is playing uh so looks like they're fighting in in cidar on the opposing team Izzy who losing a stock here but it looks like the incinerar is only down to one preferably taken by the previous player Adriana who plays Lucario now pyro and Mithra are a good character for dealing damage and ooh and that's going to kill uh and that's JV beating the incinerar player making it presumably even if not winning for JV which is great for the Academy team right great win from them now we cut back to Noah looks like he's fighting Bowser uh King Koopa himself uh Noah's game plan of throwing out explosives would probably seem to be effective here if he can get some distance and just pile on the damage mhm negate anything as Bowser needs to get close to do much right Bowser is a very closeup character yeah seems to be relying on a lot of his close interactions to do much of anything really right strives in close quarters but falters at distance yeah he doesn't really have any the C4 is planted looks like the Bowser Noah hoping to find the Bowser within it hoping hoping trying to fake him into it trying to deceive him now we're going to hit another explosive hopefully one good hit Bowser knock that Bowser gone one good hit is probably going to do it here in a sec oh absolutely he's at 17 look like Noah is going to lose a stock there but and he takes one in return with the C4 even even evening a up for these players here we've got a nice and tight match as it seems all right if Noah manages to keep stockpiling that damage on Bowser yeah it just seems to keep coming and it doesn't stop no just seeming to throw everything he can at it and hit it a lot of it I mean what else do you do against Bowser not much you just kind of stay away and you just have to stockpile damage until he flies yeah and flies yeah true and it looks like he's going to get hit with the side be there uh going to do a little bit of damage but nothing too big as Bowser is getting taking more and more damage no continuing to throw everything he has at him lay him down and kick him up and that's no taking a stock continuing his previous trend of taking damage uh the Bowser continues to take damage now no's going to continue to just pile on a lot of stuff here yeah uh throwing a bunch of grenades firing a bunch of rockets yeah just everything he has in the books here right nothing's off limits especially against bows and that's the with this last dude on his last stock it's going to be round one for J for Varsity here in a minute yeah presumably going to Noah unless the Bowser can take two stocks if the Bowser manages to take these two stocks as he's at 117 that is very impressive looks like he's going to get grabbed and thrown off stage no throwing again throwing everything Bower continuing to be and the C4 is going to kill and that's bit for Varsity winning round one nice winning winning round one all right [Music] so I'd say we're probably going to win round two right yes more than likely doesn't doesn't even matter right but this team has proved to put up a decent challenge I'd say but yeah absolutely a good test of strength now they've been a good challenge now we've got you on the ropes here guys uh we're going to thank our sponsor Adams Wells uh internet Telecom TV your local service provider with gigs speeed internet telephone and TV services for businesses and residential customers and Adams and Wells County unparalleled they are a big supporter and and we are very grateful for their sponsorship from Adams Wells make sure to check them out Adams Wells that's Adams Wells that's Adams Wells make sure to check him out look like Kingpin anywh who looks like we're going to get into round two here of the varsity game with Little Mac starting us off Little Mac against the pyate mythra here yeah he's going to probably do again what he's going to always do and throw out punches and hit the opponent and throw out punches like crazy yeah going to do a lot of damage here already at 50% yeah Little Mac has always surprised me with his damage yeah he does a lot of damage yeah he's very fast in the uh on the ground but in the air it's in the air he is very weak he struggles he struggles in the air he's very vulnerable and it looks like that punch is going to kill their pyrra leading to the first stock of the game there going to do a good amount of damage now why is my name up there uh I'm going to see a lot of things here looks like uh Tristan he going to take over here yeah he may be at 100% And that sends them now uh JV is still in round one here uh but for Varsity looks like we've just got uh Tristan versus the pyrro mythra as you can see currently down one stock in JV and many many many things yeah now ooh it looks like the stock is taken by JV and it looks like they won yeah but uh Varsity continuing to play here Tristan on path to take his second stock soon too in the process of taking the second stock yep one more good hit will probably do it yeah one more good punch Yep looks like just kind of trading blows here nothing huge on the fuse but Tristan closing in closing the Gap one more good hit and that's going to do it that's two stocks from the opponent there let's see if Tristan can take that last one I think I think he probably can he will he's going to hopefully probably and even still looks like Tristan taking a good amount of stuff here with his punch but o looks like he misses it but another counter going to do some damage here just trying to pile on as much as he can the allowed time limit yeah trying not to get hit too hard right big smash attack going to do a good amount of damage here but looks like Tristan gets hit himself closing the Gap trying to get back onto stage here he's going to grab the ledge and come back to Stage counter again knocking the opponent off St and punching them and that's going to be the last St that was very impressive with a one 145% yeah looks like Tristan uh looks like we are up a stock here now JV is still playing round one here uh but looks like they are down one guy uh looks like they might be on their last here right facing off against the Ganondorf Ganondorf still has three stocks yeah looks like it I think of that might be their last guy yeah looks like we've got Kayla playing a new player uh fresh to the uh smash Esports scene this is what her second practice believe so she's relatively new and it looks like the Ganondorf is going to take that stock uh believe that was the last person uh maybe believe so but I think it could be there soon to be but it looks like Tristan here are going to get into a little M matchup against another one here now Tristan's going to be the green one uh and the other guy is the non- green one he's the actual person yeah I feel like the other team orchestrated this to have both little Macs playing against each other I think so too because I believe I think that the Little Mac would probably best know how to fight against the Little Mac yeah based on how both of them having their punches here yeah and it looks that's going to be the last stock for Tristan uh and we're on to our next player I'm going to lead off into our next player looks like Jordan is going to take over on JV here maybe being their last person I believe well yeah their last person uh going to take the guy Ganondorf here Jordan playing NES of course he is dishing out damage like it is a five course meal I'm going to throw out a lot of moves and do a lot of damage here as Jordan is known to do got a lot of projectiles that he can at his disposal I forgot Ganondorf was turned into a sword character in Ultimate yeah looks like Jordan's going to need to take six stocks to win this ooh I think he can do it I he's got I think he can no I think he's got this in the bag Jordan is an incredible player who's capable of many things and is probably going to at some point time win it for JV here yeah seeming to deal a lot of uncontested damage on the Ganondorf here nothing he can do and the forward smash is going to kill Jordan there was one thing he could do and that was it yeah kill him looking back at Varsity Jaden is playing his signature Isabella Isabella yes you can see here uh Jaden is one of if not our best players on varsity uh the premier player you'd want now Jaden is going to do uh his signature of just really throwing out everything like the rest of us making sure to take note over the opponent and try and learn their Tendencies and their tactics and their moves they everything yeah all right uh in in Academy in JV news uh looks like Jordan has taken the win taking the Ganondorf they now only need to take three stocks to win the game do you think he can do it 100% yeah he can do it yeah Jaden continuing to dash attack into the Little Mac Jaden continuing to absolutely bully this little mac seeming to die there for some reason he just going to need to do a little bit more and kill the Little Mac here just one more good hit I'm surprised the Little Mac is still on with 186% yeah one good hit is going to kill that little mac here and that up air is going to do it that kills the Little Mac if I have to say anything Little Mac lasting to 203% very impressive yeah looks like Jaden is Contin going to continue to do some damage here yeah but the Little M keeps on continu Charing charging in and punching his way yeah continuing to go Full Throttle as it seems right just seeming to now be a little bit more patient here but is Jaden is going to throw him off stage again trying to maybe again take him off stage this now JV is on their last round of course with one guy they facing Ridley which we'll see in a little bit uh but for right now varsity o that punch is going to do it o killing Jaden I still think Jaden can win this yeah Jaden could definitely win this yeah considering how the Little Mac is already at yeah i' say one good hit that's it mhm good hit and that's going to do it Forward Air knocking him off again 138 the Little ma another Forward Air and that's that's going to do it yep he couldn't recover that's going to do it with Varsity taking the win there nice Varsity still on what second round yeah on this is the their second guy and uh they're facing the third guy for varsity and it looks like Jordan has somehow brought it all the way back and tying up the last guy on the last match on the first round here and it looks like he's going to kill R here taking a lead of a stock will he be able to finish it this is the last stock of round one folks if it's finished it's over MH looks like we're going to continue uh with Jordan here going to continue to belittle this Ridley here nothing he can do he can't get in he can't he can't attack he can't do anything just going to take a bunch of damage from Jordan here one good hit and it's over and that's the back air that's going to do it and that's JV JV has won their first round let's go JV winning their first round and of course Jordan would have clutched it up now we're going to get back into Varsity here with Jaden facing a joker The Joker we've seen previously uh now Jaden is probably going to continue his play style of damaging and chipping and weaving and punishing and all sorts of stuff uh now we've seen this Joker once before be a challenge previously but Jaden seeming to learn from these mistakes here and making quick work doing a ton of damage here yeah leaving the joker out to dry being at 116% couple good hits and that's going to be it for the Joker let's just hope jayen can take all three without losing his one even still we are up and the up smash is going to kill taking the Joker's first stock and he immediately dishes out 19 damage oo taking the Joker to 51% here good amount of things going on damage and all sorts of stuff yeah now Joker just seems to be taking more of a patient play style but seeming to adapt to Jaden or the vice versa both players learning yeah both both players are learning from each other stage taking the Joker uh o and the Joker dies couldn't recover Jaden might win this leaving him leaving us up a stock Jaden could take it let's hope he does on one stock taking all of theirs o almost killing the choker but the back it's GNA take but hey Jaden's last stock Joker's down to one stock yeah and where's Thea guy yeah that means we just need uh one like good match yeah say so uh one good more one more good match for varsity and uh the second round is over couple looks like they're going to be sending in yeah uh another player here uh we're going to transition here into one of our lovely sponsors the Wells County Foundation uh very special thanks to them for their special Grant they gave us the special PC rig and a very special thanks to them special back to the back to everything at hand you can find out more about Wells County Foundation they suit your needs and they suit mine in this stream yeah now we have Sam going up against the Joker Sam to be so Sam playing his signature K rule yep now it looks like this Joker here uh more than likely Running on Fumes as you can see nothing really left in the tank any who uh seeming to deal a lot of damage here with one more good hit probably doing it mhm 88 percentage here another projectile I'm going to take a guess and say that joker is going to last till 150% as a lightweight I be honest I think uh yeah yeah it's over and that's it that back throw is going to kill them and we're going on we're up an entire person and we still have three stocks the last game of round two and over in JV we have Izzy playing Mithra and pyra versus a Mithra and pyra on the opposing team yes now folks uh Izzy is a known player of pyro Mithra uh a lot of stuff's going to happen a lot of movement here a lot of facing and it looks like Izzy is going to lose that stock there tying it to two and and two and know with a win already on their belts from round one yeah looks like it's just kind of a first to see who can do it now varsity has their third player versus the fourth here uh it is Sam playing KK rule against a Bowser against the Bowser yep now looks like Sam is just going to try and Whittle him down as two heavyweights fighting against each other here yeah going to hit the Cannonball except one has ranged moves and the other doesn't yeah be so that's why I would believe krule has the advantage say so too so it looks like uh krule here is just going to continue to throw some punches out Bowser going to side B and grab Kroll here in other news 150 percentage uh Iz he winning the first round of JV uh in turn of events uh looks like the Bowser is going to get the first stock here we still have Noah true we do still have Noah true okay uh back to the game here uh Bowser at 179 lot of cards on the table here and it's coming up a full house with I don't know what that was I'm sorry uh back to the game uh King K rule continuing to do damage here but struggling to find the last hit here but one more was going to is going to close it out yeah and the counter going to get Bowser off his tight tail but not going to be the end all killer yet good hit here is going to kill it and that's going to do do it there oo that there's going to do it two to two here with our third guy and their fourth let's hope Sam can take it out here finish the job some damage here just going to continue to throw projectiles o Bowser going to hit a high move there isn't going to kill manages to recover Bowser continuing to up be on shield and that's going to do that kill there yeah uh killing Sam Bowser loves to come in from the top there seeming to attack from above yeah going for the grab nothing I'm somewhat surprised drop kick hasn't been used yet be it's a very slow move it's a very slow but very punishing move if you get hit by it Sam being under the platform is impervious to being attacked from above unless dropped through the platform but looks like the Bowser got hit by the platform or got stuck on it at least Bowser continuing to this isn't looking very too this isn't looking too good for Sam but he still has a chance there nice Parry there to avoid the shield break and but Sam does with the forward airock him offage again magnet saves that Bowser and that's game but it looks like we still have Noah that we're going to send in we still have Noah yeah going to probably send in Noah here to finish it finish it up Noah with his signature snake yep going to finish that out and on JV looks like we've got got the oppon opponent playing Terry here and the and Izzy continuing to play pyrro mythra uh Izzy down to one stock is facing against and it looks like Terry's still alive with three very close to dying with 100% yeah Terry is what middleweight I'd say so yeah looks like just going to throw out some damaging moves helping to find one that kills here right one more powerful hit and that's going to be it is he still barely even being hit but at a low percent it's just a matter of time before she finds a hit that cleans it up yeah and she does have room for minor mistakes with that 29% yes just needs one more good hit here to take the stock and it looks like she does will she take the other two well the only time will'll tell I think she will on Varsity we have Noah going up against the Bowser looks like putting up him up against a bunch of damage here yeah doing a lot we've seen Noah beat the Bowser before yeah sure by dishing out a bunch of damage back a is going to kill but the Bowser 137 it looks like he's not going to be too far behind here yeah one good solid hit here is going to do it 148 a few solid bombs will get it 150 here 169 good I think one C4 would get him yeah one good explosive hit would probably do it yeah Dash attack going to hit Bowser still alive at 192 evading a lot of attacks just pounding through him I guess ooh for JV Iz he lost so that should be they're dishing in their next player throwing in there next player but ADV Varsity here it looks like Noah is still throwing explosives and that's going to do it that's going to take the Bowsers leaving Bowser to his last stock here on the last guy no up two just needs to get in that chip damage and clean it up yeah Noah seeming to be at a high percentage though I haven't really seen Noah evade attacks no he seems to just be take well he just seems to be doing a lot of damage here he seems to be dishing out a lot of damage and taking damage at the same time well yeah but that's the quality of snake is that he can do that as snake is surprisingly slightly heavy yeah allowing him to take some damage here he still has the medium weight speed with I'd say a 76% here Noah losing his second stock but still taking it very close here with Bowser at 108 a good couple hits here ought to do it as I was saying about snake I think he has middleweight uh speed with somewhat heavyweight knockback resistance I I'd say he's a medium heavy yeah I'd say so too he's got he's pretty he's got some bulk to him yeah which allows him to live through most of his explosives and the down be explosiv is going to kill and letting varsity win against the opposing team nice against North Judson s Pierre uh against Southwood Southwood now JV plays facing North Judson s Pierre here uh on there and varsity wins that match sure do it looks like they've finished up and they've won that yeah they in through let's see if JV will do this same yeah let's hope so I think they she seem to be on track too uh which person is jv on they're on Adriana here they last or their third I think their second guy here against their the opponent's second guy Jordan well the opponent's second guy but our second it's our second it's our second JB's second yeah they won last round so it's their second guy and Iz he was their first so okay Adrian Jordan Jordan was the person who played last round oh so looks like uh Adrian are going to continue to put on some damage here losing another stock here let's see if she can take the two from yeah okay so it is our second vers their second yeah all right on nice combo from Terry The opponent team a good one good hit from Adriana though and that's going to do it that's going to do it yeah now they're tied up with one with one stock each but Adriana with 113% having yeah very high damage uh in a little bit later we might have we will have Jaden on Varsity conduct an interview yeah with our special Varsity player and looks like Adriana about to take ooh but doesn't do it just yet but very close to taking the final stock and it looks like not going to do it and I was thinking Lucario was going to win because of the special buff whenever looks like we who I heard there were interviews and such over here we got special interview J Jaden J I think I KNE nobody loves you Ry uh so okay it's on all right all hello hello it's me so how about you uh introduce yourself for the uh viewers at home all right I'm I'm Jaden I am the captain of the varsity team for the Super Smash B ultimate program here at bhmsd true yep any questions so uh how what would you have to say about uh the opponent you just faced um I can definitely tell they've grown is one of the things I want to mention we played them earlier in the Fall Split and we beat them by much more of a comfortable margin and as you notice the last match came down to just one stock so very close match I can tell they've grown very cool good for them yeah hard fought match yes yes very heavily improved over this time from what I've seen uh how how would you say your team played against them I think we played pretty good um this was Sam's first match in Varsity and I'm very impressed first round seven stocks so the future is looking very bright yeah MH so yeah very good I only played one round I'm satisfied with my performance did pretty good from I would say we're satisfied with your performance as well thank you and um the reason we've got half of the team renewed it's because Travis did graduate congratulations congratulations to him but un conratulations for his success in graduating early woohoo yes very good unfortunately for us that means he can't play any more matches so we did lose a big player but uh things are still looking pretty good we've got some good uh players coming up from JB very happy with them uh do you have anything to add any any last words um I don't think I do just peace and love yay all righty our Varsity Captain uh Jaden here you go mic with the amazing words of uh wisdom yeah dang sounding like Mr Baker all right any back to the JV game here it looks like we have uh Kayla losing two stocks here our third guy this is our third person to their second here Kayla needing to take one stock here to this this Terry seems to be very challenging this has been this is Kayla's first game with j V which is incredible to see as she's still doing really well for her first G JV game oh going to get hit with a fart Smash and that's going to kill uh I think we are down to Jordan on JV hopefully it up yeah Jordan has been very good at that he he's been very good at taking them out yep he sure has he's been doing it really well so far yeah seems to just continue to let's hope he can do it again hope so I think he can think he with his casualness Yep looks like it yeah we're going to get be getting into it here doing yeah just all right Jordan going to need to take a good amount of stocks here seven uh to even it up win it do you think he can do it I think he can y I'm fairly confident as well I'm confident yeah I'd say so I'd say he probably more than likely can and probably will take it yeah so what are you doing after this you got any plans uh just going to my mom's same here oh and Jordan's going to do it very easily and quickly here Jord does that very quickly with how much damage did he take nothing took nothing perfect game perfect game very aggressive mhm very team doing really well here yeah we're going to get into our next game here they're going to be fighting against Joker Jordan Joker has been somewhat of a problem but we have managed to deal with them yep say Jordan is perfectly capable of taking care of these opponents here yeah I'd say that I'd be fairly positive that jayen has learned how Joker plays yeah and I'd say Jordan does as well yeah say Jordan is going to seeming to deal a ton of damage with 130 one good hit is going to kill yeah one forward smash shield and that's going to kill Jordan taking another stock here one of many yeah recovery going to miss taking another stock that PK Fire was very useful at that edge very very useful taking that stock that stun confusing the enemy and making them lose a stock well it wasn't even confusing the enemy the stun wouldn't let them move yeah o o looks like the upb is going to hit the Joker go there and that's going to another one Jordan still on three stocks even evening it back up to three and three on their last guy I think our Assumption of Jordan absolutely clutching this up was fair Jordan is a very good player Yep looks to be so yeah let's just hope we can get this done with well yeah let's hope Jordan can go the distance here and completely and utterly take out the enemy here looks like they're going to be going Mewtwo oo haven't seen their Mewtwo yet neither have I uh but there's a first time for everything here and it looks like Jordan is about to take his first time for another stock here right even playing field going into this pretty even so far continue to put in a bunch of damage here a ton yeah just chipping it everything he can here now see me if I were to be playing Nest I'd be throwing and that attack's going to take another stock there I'd be throwing PK Fire like almost the entire time yeah PK Fire is a good move though it is a very good move and is a very good utility for Jordan to use and have it his disposal mhm here as he recovers again back to Stage yeah hting the MW continuing to rack up damage here at kill percent at this point Mewtwo looking more and more dire as the situation gets worse for them yeah the up smash going to connect killing the meww leaving the enemies Jord three looks like I looking like it so far if Jordan three stocks this he deserves a big pat on the back big round of applause yeah he's about to take seven stocks he needed to take to win and he hasn't lost one of his own yet which just proves how good of a player he is continuing to hit the Mewtwo over air volley o oh smash going to hit but not going to kill yet that air juggle seems to be and taking seven stocks without losing even one of his own leaving both varsity and JV winning this game winning today they're both Victorious they both continue their record and for the spring split remain undefeated with Varsity going six and one so far throughout the entire thing now Jordan is celebrating celebrating as yeah he he was celebrating a lot yeah hooray now congratulations to both our Academy and varsity team now thanks for joining us this evening this concludes the week of streams but join us again next week Monday January 29th at 5:00 P p.m.

now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into close session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10412 items 2.3 to 2.4 do we have a motion motion by Mrs null seconded by Miss Lee any questions before we head into executive session seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr Demari yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes we're in executive session all right thank you we'll see you all at approximately 7:30 [Music] n [Music] he [Music] la [Music] pap [Music] oh [Music] yeah [Music] yeah [Music] a [Music] here [Music] oh [Music] yeah [Music] yeah [Music] nah [Music] would all those who are able please rise for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the repu for which it stands Nation God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you for reading our mission statement tonight will be Mr Bach the mission of the eam Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making protecting themselves respecting themselves and others problems solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Mr Bach now hand the floor over to Dr Smith for our presentations tonight thanks Mr canthon I would like to uh acknowledge we're we have some presentations tonight for students and with us we have the all South Jersey Mart middle and deacy middle students who we're going to play a piece for us first and then we'll get into the uh certificates so uh Mr wer take it away [Music] [Applause] e [Music] m [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that was amazing we're going to we're going to give certificates to the students now and uh Mr canthon our board president if you could join me on the stage for that um as I'm walking up I'll just say uh this is the biggest stage we have but it's certainly not the biggest stage they've played on uh because if I'm right you recently were playing at row right as part of all South Jersey so uh and it you found sounded absolutely fantastic uh just want to recognize also Mr westner Mrs Smith and Mr Li for their work with the kids um if we can give them a round of applause as well so uh what we'll do is we'll walk to you you can stay seated we'll we'll hand you the um certificate you can stand and be recognized at that point and then when we're done with all the certificates you can we would love it if you could all stand up together and we can give you one big round of applause and then parents can come down and take pictures and things like that okay so just you know it's adult celebrating you the uh all right we'll go with Victoria Lee perfect railan Lee thank [Applause] you Victoria Victoria Lee [Applause] Rohanna anath Stephen Chu that right that's your last name right Steven Chua Maria Ibrahim Dana [Applause] Kerber Robin [Applause] petski and Arnav [Applause] sethy and our nav correct me if I'm wrong but you you were first chair cello in this all chef jersey Orchestra right let's give him a round of applause for [Applause] that so now I'm going to step to the side parents if you want to come closer please feel free take a picture of all the kids together all right if we have one last round of applause for all the kids on our all South Jersey Orchestra members congratulations [Applause] students and stuff but um it's a little bit evening of the Arts it's great to have a such a great audience for that too uh so we have another winner and I'm gonna ask Casey gford from Cooper levenson to join Mr kanton and myself up front for this so uh and if Kate gly is here art MMS art teacher if she can come on down yeah yeah yeah yeah and then um our certificate winner as Miss G's coming down Charlotte dumbrowski is she here [Applause] Charlotte so so um there's so Charlotte do I want to Ste thank you um so my name is Casey gford I work at Cooper Levens and we have the pleasure of being the board solicitor um so I actually sit here at most of the board meetings uh so I'm really happy to be here tonight for a positive reason and get to share a little bit of background about our firm um each year since 2008 Cooper levenson has v invited area school children to designs for our firm's holiday cards um the holiday card contest is just one of the elements of our efforts to show support for commitment to community and children and the Arts and schools and to help us raise awareness for our chosen charity which was created by our founder Jim Cooper um whose daughter was a teacher and told him that many of her students went hungry throughout uh when times when they weren't in school so our charity is let us eat please and it was founded by Jim Cooper our founding partner um and it helps ensure that local children who depend on School meals get enough to eat during the summer when schools aren't in session um so this year we chose six card designs of the hundreds of entries and uh Charlotte here is a seventh grader at marleton middle and she won and in addition to the plaques um both Charlotte and Miss Gormley are going to get gift certificates so Charlotte will be getting a $50 gift certificate and Miss Gormley will be getting a $100 gift certificate um to buy art supplies and um we also just you know I know all of you I come like I said to all of your meetings and I just want to thank you uh in addition to traditional art classes your Orchestra and everything thank you for supporting the Arts um and just know that you know every year you guys have every year since I've started I think you guys have had winners because you you truly do always submit such great pieces so we really appreciate it and if you hold on one second I'll give this to you okay awesome thank you Miss gford let's give a round of applause for Charlotte Miss and and you got to get it yeah I was gonna say um you can't see it probably from too far away but it's um want you want to talk about it talk about your um I don't know like yeah I just thought about it thought was like a really cool idea for like Christmas and how like like I guess like feels like home so I don't know if you can hear that but it's a log cabin in the most beautiful wood setting and she thought it kind of symbolized like home at Christmas you know and and for me like just little details so there's smoke coming out of the chimney which to me means people are in there you know and I just like art tells a story and you def definitely tell an amazing story with this artwork so so I just can't wait to hear I feel like there's going to be other things ahead in your future you stay with it you know so awesome thanks Charlotte get a picture e [Applause] I'd be remiss to not just add parenthetically that uh this is the ninth year in a row that a student of Miss gormley's has won this contest which is like I don't think the Celtics even their streak was uh was quite as long as that um far you know so um it's an amazing accomplishment Miss Gormley um no that was a that's it so uh after presentations that's the part where I say any parents who were here or family who were here for the kids recognition part you're welcome to stay through the rest of the meeting but if you want to uh head home and and go on to other things uh we totally understand and you're absolutely welcome either way um most people choose to head off to other things but board meetings are fun too so you're welcome to stay all right thank you Dr Smith the meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person and please state your name and address at the beginning of your public comment um so public comment now for agenda items only at the end of the meeting we also have another session of public comment for any item you should speak about so is there anyone who wants to talk about agenda items today going once can you hear me okay so I'm not sure where I found the agenda but I'm a resident of writings of Mayfair uh correct me if I'm wrong but they were talking about moving to Macy moving the school from tocy to another uh School correct me if I'm wrong before I go any further um so what I would say is first of all welcome and and we're glad for public comment there isn't any item on the agenda relative to that topic so if you don't mind waiting there is going to be a second public comment at the end um about any items at all but but there's but nothing relating to Dei on the agenda tonight yeah all right seeing none we will go hi good even Trish everheart 25 Derby Court I'm here to talk about TBA it's my understanding it's an agenda item correct so I was on the board when we started TBA 10 years and plus ago so I am saddened to hear that there was a letter that went out that said that TBA was going to be closing it had a storyed past I'm sure you know some of you sat on the board at the time uh we had been facing a lot of fiscal challenges and through some creative um brainstorming we came up with a plan to Institute this program at the purple Hall at MMS and we were able to overcome litigation and issues from the state we marched on Trenton not Washington to save TBA and the public got involved and rallied behind the board when we were facing these challenges so I'm a little dismayed I guess that we didn't reach out to the public or share that perhaps it wasn't making as much money as it was in the past so did you as a board um you know look into options to raise and increase Revenue ask people to pay a little bit more to go there did you work to find creative ways to keep TBA and service the families and the community in the way it had been for the last 10 years I was dismayed as a previous board member to see that a letter went out saying that it was going to be closing and I understand you wanted to let the parents know that but I was dismayed that we didn't have the opport opportunity to have the board vote on that or have public discourse in front of the public regarding such a just a beloved institution and program for the district so I want to express my disappointment over that to the superintendent and the board leadership I'm also wondering because I am hearing there are speculations on what might be happening with that Wing um wondering if maybe perhaps instead of closing it you would consider putting some of the preschoolers in that facility I understand it serves 6 weeks old to maybe four years old so maybe you could use those rooms for preschoolers and maybe not have to perhaps turn it into a wing for fifth graders and have to spend money that isn't going to [Applause] be Miss everheart I'm sorry I'm sorry you know I have to apply it evenly to everyone so was I supposed to you are approaching the three minutes okay so please consider the possibility of keeping that as a resource for preschoolers I would hope that surrounding districts actually the neighboring district is using an outside daycare Center to have some of their preschoolers and I would hope that we wouldn't have to choose to do that when we have something right here although I don't support using it as a fifth grade Wing I implore the board to consider keeping it open and just reconditioning it and repurposing it like we did with another school in the district for a way to keep things here and help the families that are using it thank you hi my name is Lisa Weber and I'm G to piggy back off of that because I'm one of the families that is dealing with this closure of TBA my name is Lisa Weber as I stated my daughter Charlotte is currently to and a part of TBA I was notified the first week of January right after the holidays when I was back to work after having to take off to take care of my child which fine it was the holidays but you let me know at 1:00 in the afternoon on a Wednesday when I had just gotten back to work just started a new promotion at work to let me know that my daycare was closing in June and good luck to you and on top of that I'm an accountant for the federal government and your cold and quite frankly disrespectful letter stated that it was because of money I know for a fact that I am paying 1575 a month for my daughter to attend TBA on a 5-day basis and I understand it's not totally your fault that the cost of child care is exorb in this country however I pay a lot of money and on top of that I provide everything for my for my daughter's well-being I provide diapers I provide wipes I provide food I provide all creams all sunblock everything so truthfully what I want to know is how in the world is TBA actually losing money when I'm paying that much money a month and supplying you with everything my daughter's room alone brings in 6,300 bucks a month and there are multiple other classrooms full of more students paying pretty much close to what I'm paying so I would really love an explanation as to how TVA is losing money because again I'm an accountant I understand the numbers so if you could you know expand on that tonight it would be really really great thank [Applause] you Justin O'Brien one Cranberry Court also here to talk about TBA um where is TBA actually accounted for in the budget because I looked it's public it's not really there so we're just taking your word that it's losing money essentially how much is it losing don't know you didn't say you said there's a $700,000 shortfall but in the budget presentation for this year's budget you said in it that you would cut either this school you would close um or you would sell two properties that you own did you sell the properties to try to make up the shortfall don't know you don't s on your website uh the projected enrollment of the tuition free preschool versus TBA enrollment what is that what's the difference TBA staff from my understanding still hasn't been offered a job yet anywhere else in the uh District um why wouldn't you increase tuition to make up the shortfall um that you knew about I I don't understand and the premise and it's behind closed doors there's no real transparency here other than this meeting where you haven't given us anything we're talking before you tell us the facts which is interesting um and my son has thrived underneath of that compared to other places where he has not it seems like there is an indifference on the board to what the actual citizens who you answer to want and uh yeah thanks anyone else like to make any comments about the agenda all right closing that section moving to approval of the minutes we need a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.3 do we have a motion motion by Mrs nll seconded by Mr Thompson any questions on the approval of the minutes Mr Yates roll call please roll call on the approval of the minutes Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demara yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes a motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving on to item number seven superintendent reports and administrative items we need a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.9 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Miss Lee before we head over to the vote I'll hand the floor over to Dr Smith thank you Mr canthon I want to say a few words first about uh what's going on this week in our schools so it's great kindness week which is a national campaign and kindness counts and matters every day in etsd every week each school is celebrating kindness this week in various ways from theme days to coin drives to to sharing ways to be kind over the announcements and how to promote cooperation as well which is another District theme this year at school and at home thank you to all our staff for their passion dedication and creativity when it comes to helping our kids learn and show kindness your words tone and example carry tremendous weight all of us together students staff families and community members have a common stake in spreading kindness the micro moments of countless daily interactions as opportunities to lift each other up to choose to be patient to be kind individually and collectively truly matter as this month is a school board recognition month in New Jersey on behalf of our district and personally I'd like to express deepest thanks to our board of education for their countless hours and tireless work all voluntary and dedication to the best path forward for our children whose education and growth is nothing less than the most important responsibility as human beings the very I'd like to also uh give a few words to a very important upcoming event on Friday February 2nd it's our Eve sham education foundation's annual Gala fundraiser double down for em education at the mansion in Vorhees it starts at 7 o' all proceeds benefit eam students tickets are available at eam education foundation.org hope to see everybody there um I'd like to say a few words as well about a few other things uh an agenda item this evening which was uh the recommendation for approval of the closure of teddy bear Academy on Friday June 28th of this year this closure was communicated at the beginning of the month in order to give families as much time as possible to make arrangements for the um time after June of 2024 are District gave this decision much consideration TBA loses money okay and I I heard some uh you know the public comments however much it loses and that amount may vary it really never made money it maybe broke even some years but without ECC to carry it along there is no hope it will make money and with our district facing the seventh straight year of state aid reduction our district which is responsible for educating not as a daycare center but as a k prek to grade8 District we cannot afford to run a program losing money for kids that as a district type we not responsible for to the detriment of the kids that we are responsible for and that will be plain that if that hasn't been plain as we G through six years of state aid reduction it will be as we Face the seventh this is understandably the most difficult year to identify reductions for and I can't stand up in front of our community and talk about reductions to the kids we have to serve to pay for a program that's losing money for kids we don't and you you're welcome to disagree with me but ethically I can't do that our our district thus can't operate TBA after June 28th our district does also plan to pursue State grant money to provide tuition free preschool as every District around us is either already doing or is in the process of implementing we're behind on that we got tuition free full day kindergarten done that was fantastic it's amazing so thankful and grateful to the community for that that was yesterday's accomplishment for every other District now we need to work on what other districts have already done which is tuition free preschool once we do that 50 of our 72 kids in TBA are preschool aged TBA would be moot through that as well the teddy bear Academy has been an important resource for our community an incredible Resource as spoken to in the public comment hard fought Blood Sweat and Tears to create it and the context at that point made a lot of sense context is always changing and we must change with it I'd like to thank teddy bear Academy director Leah puler and all the TBA staff for their invaluable work over that time continuing through this spring whove provided quality child care in our community for the past decade all current TBA staff will be offered other positions in our district to start after June 28th I'd also like to move on from that topic and speak to another which is some rumor circulating about the possibility of fifth graders moving to Middle School at some point in the future I'd like to make clear that information regarding the 2425 budget and future plans for next year or any year beyond that will be first publicly shared at our tenative budget meeting in March questions and concerns that come about through rumors are completely understandable that presentation will be live streamed and of course I'll share it in my update weekly as I have in the past patience is appreciated as we follow our standard budget timeline which always means public information shared in mid-march the final budget approval of the 2425 budget would be in late April or early May providing time for stakeholder input once that public information has been shared equally important before the first release of information publicly just as we did last year our district will be holding meetings just with staff in early March to talk about the budget around the kitchen table of our District staff and that's very important because as we move through all these years of ch reduction of course the first few years and every year we're just trying to cut non Staffing related items but that gets more and more difficult as you move along because 82% of our budget goes to salaries and benefits so at a certain point when you're climbing up higher in that tree to find savings you've moved past non- Staffing and you're into Staffing and it's only right and proper that we meet first with our staff to talk about those things patience and respect for our necessary timeline is greatly appreciated our work right now is to identify $2.5 million in savings AKA and cuts and that's due in part to the state aid reduction so 719,000 were projected to lose which may change right and it changed last year a few times and increasing costs in a host of other areas which you know as we know from just living these days and and following the news is happening across many many Industries um so as we climb higher in the tree searching for solutions that also means a much more difficult climb and a slower climb but I would say as with each prior Year we will continue to steer by our mission that is our North Star at all times which is to maximize our resources to support student growth and student achievement and we're attempting as in that process as much as possible to turn challenges into opportunities as difficult as that is and that concludes my superintendent's comments Mr canthon thank you thank you Dr Smith there any board members who would like uh to comment or have any questions on item number seven Mr n thank you Mr C then I wrote a few notes down so um I'm sorry I I wrote small but I'll be brief tonight's vote to officially close teddy bear Academy is not just about the deficit that has unfortunately appeared this year the decision to close teddy bear Academy is the first of a series of calculated steps to Forever change eim Township School District what do not fool yourself once TBA closes the contractors will come in the classrooms will be undone and the work by previous boards will be demoed please don't forget we were elected by the community and taxpayers we are supposed to be Financial stewards of taxpayer money are we going to spend money to undo something when we already have a preschool there we're looking toward applying for preschool funding so in my mind this makes zero sense so I have [Applause] cannot this makes zero sense to me and I cannot approve this we can have teddy bear Academy remain open and still go for preschool money they are not mutually exclusive so I say please slow down and I'm asking my fellow board members to slow down because once this is closed there are things to come that this community you will not be able to stop [Applause] thank thank you Miss is null would any other board member like to comment seeing none roll call please Mr Yates on administrative items Mr Bach yes Mr Brown just administrative items is it just administrative items yeah it's 7.1 through 7.9 not the closure do you have your agenda opened no no to all no to 7.4 yes to 7.12 3 and R so to clarify you are voting yes to all but 7.04 is Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes to all but 7.4 yes to all no to 7.04 is noted Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes the motion carries moving to items eight we need a motion to approve item 8 .1 through .4 do we have a motion motion by Miss Lee seconded by Mr ficaro uh would any board member like to comment on any items under curriculum and instruction seeing none roll call please Mr Yates on curriculum and instruction Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr demarcy yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item nine under finance and operations we need a motion to approve item 9.1 through 9.11 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr fys Caro would any board member like to comment on any items pertaining to finance or operations seeing none roll call please on finance and observations Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr deari yes Mrs NL yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you moving to item number 10 under Personnel we need a motion to approve item 10.1 through 10.10 do we have a motion motion by Mr demarcy seconded by Miss Lee would anyone like to comment on any items as it pertains to Personnel seeing none roll call please Mr Yates on Personnel Mr Bach yes Mr Brown yes Mr Demari yes Mrs NL yes Mr Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes Mr fisicaro yes Mr conon yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 11 policy I believe we have no policies moving to item 12 committee reports are there any board members who would like to share a committee report okay we'll close out that section moving to Old business business of which we have none moving to new business of which we have none we'll move into the second open public comment this meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of Interest however if your comments or questions pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you please see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person and please state your name and address at the beginning would anyone like to comment on any items of Interest hello my name is Cindy Rogers I spoke to you at the last board meeting regarding rumors of a plan to move our fifth graders out of their home INE home Elementary School I have two children in the eam Township School District my son is in third grade so any decision would impact him pretty quickly and my daughter is a sixth grader here at the middle school so any changes to the Middle School structure would also affect her last March during budget presentation we were shown a slideshow show on slide 25 there's a list of possible measures that would be taken if we did not pass full day kindergarten many of us were under the impression that to protect the structure of our schools our fifth graders in their elementary schools and the teams at middle school we would need to vote Yes so even though our children already left kindergarten even though I already paid $11,000 for my children to to go to full day kindergarten I voted yes that yes vote was not about kindergarten that yes vote was to protect the leg that is Eve sham Township School District the structure that is eam and the community that is eam we're barely coming out of covid the change the children that this change would affect are the ones hit hardest by the lockdown and the slow return to normal they lost a lot of their childhood don't take their home school away from them several years ago in my district Drama teacher I helped spearhead departmentalization in my school we proposed the idea to my principal we had to do research and a site visit next we represented to various groups and stakeholders in the district including the PTA and Pac and the curriculum committee of the board after all of those approvals we were tasked with making a mock schedule to ensure that this new idea worked that process took a year and a half and it only affected 70 students in three teachers this current plan or possible plan would affect all of our schools every child in fourth and third and second and so on would affect our middle schoolers our sixth graders our seventh graders so many teachers fifth grade teachers Middle School teachers let's not forget Administration counselors nurses Specialists many things need to be considered and explored before making a change as big as this I'm asking you to slow down board members you need to ask questions ask why and how much ask to see bus schedules and the added costs ask to see a mock school schedule and the added cost ask for a breakdown of how many students will be in each class each Hall each lunchroom will you hire counselors nurses specialists teachers's age how much will this cost because it doesn't make sense to me to change what's working and it doesn't make sense to me that it would actually save money if it's space you're looking for create an Early Childhood Center use the teddy bear Academy Wing or take back Evans but leave the relationships that have been built in the elementary schools intact connecting with their teachers and School staff having a school identity getting to know the school resource officer all of these are so kids feel connected and when they're connected they can learn and grow and Thrive the legacy of Eve sham is built on this structure it's time tested we have evidence that it works it's good for kids please don't change what's working thanks good evening uh my name is Colleen Ellis I live in Westbury Chase um to Echo the sentiments of the woman who very eloquent SP spoke before me um many of us voted to fund full day kindergarten based on the slide that was presented previously thinking that we were voting against some of the changes that are rumored to be being proposed now and that's concerning and the reason that it's concerning is not just because it's a displacement for our kids but also because there is a lack of transparency from this Administration and this board when it comes to communicating with the taxpayers who fund the school district I one of the parents whose child was excluded from the after Care Program when this board voted to go with a contractor who would not support students with certain disabilities and who required certain accommodations and that may be old news for many of you but it's not for me because I had to change my work hours and affect my career because of a decision that was made by the board and when I and other parents emailed constantly for months asking for answers to whether our children could be included and why they might be excluded the only person who answered we was Mrs null and thank you for [Applause] that these decisions that you're making have people on the other end of them and I understand that you have a hard decision to make and that we're losing funding but my child is not a number on a balance sheet he is a human being and it feels very much like he's not seen that way by many of you sitting up there I would ask that should these changes come to light where fifth grade may go to the Middle School please consider the special education programs I have a child in a multi-grade classroom he's in second grade or first grade now he'll go to second grade in the same classroom then he'll go to a 3 four five class what happens to that program if these changes go through our children with special needs often seem to be an afterthought to this Administration and this board and as a parent of a child with special needs and as a school-based speech and language pathologist who works with children with special needs that is hurtful and disgraceful further I would just like to say that I support the women who are about to speak behind me about taking a good look at literacy program in eim Township because it's failing my child is dyslexic and he was not learning to read with the program that we have in place it is not evidence-based it is not based in the science of reading and it's failing probably 40% of our kids even the ones that do not have learning disabilities my son is now receiving Orton Gillingham based instruction that I had to fight for and demand and he's thriving ma'am you're approaching 3 minutes so please r your comments I would be happy to so please have some transparency for the people that put you in office and the people whose children are being affected by these changes thank you good evening my name is Melissa Gil sorry I'm a Woodstream uh resident at 228 conastoga Drive um my name is Melissa Gail and I'm here tonight to speak about rumors and speculation that our fifth graders could possibly be moved out of their home elementary schools for the last 11 years I've considered myself a proud eham Township School District parent I've praised and complimented our schools our Administration and staff and our students I volunteered my time from day one and have truly believed in making our schools a better place for our children as PTO president at vanzan elementary school I have seen firsthand the importance of school Community for elementary schools this most definitely includes our fifth graders from the moment they walk the Halls as a kindergartener each year is built towards their final celebration year as a fifth grader and do we know how to celebrate our fifth graders our PTO Works tirelessly to raise funds to support our students and a big portion of that money goes to our fifth grade we celebrate didn't acknowledge them with celebrations and events and they anticipate these moments from when they start Elementary School it has been one of my greatest Pleasures watching these shy and timid kindergarteners progress into confident and proud fifth graders please take moving our fifth graders from their home elementary schools and dismantling the legacy of our school district off of the table countless resurch has shown that fifth graders are more appropriately served in an elementary school setting our 10 year-olds thrive in an environment where they are given responsibilities and roles that correspond to their maturity level they become leaders in their schools through student council and safety patrol and role model models for their younger children buddies to our kindergarteners and first graders emotionally and psychologically it is inappropriate to ask our 10-year-olds to process the issues that face middle schoolers research has shown that fifth graders have more in common with their fourth grade peers than they do with sixth graders and our elementary schools do an amazing job of boosting the self-confidence of our fifth graders by giving them these responsibilities in our schools why should this change if we're truly tuning in to the needs of our students we need to consider their learning environment and where they are most likely to not just survive but succeed thank [Applause] you hi my name is Andrea Tierney I live at 241 con took a drive um my name is Andrea Tierney and I'm a parent of three daughters in this District I've also been a teacher for over 20 years during that time I taught at the elementary middle school and high school levels I'm here to express my serious concerns about any potential plans for restructuring the current model of our elementary and middle schools we know that this is only speculation but with two decades in education I am aware that the planning phase for a March budget presentation is happening now our family moved here just over two years ago and the current model as it is is why we M were most attracted to Marlton even with the challenges in the current housing market we would not consider man Laurel or Mar uh moristown because the students's transitioning multiple times before reaching High School my colleagues who live in these towns have consistently share their frustration about this there are several concerns that should be discussed about bringing large populations of a single grade together in one building but with only three minutes to speak I want to focus on what I feel is the greatest loss when moving fifth graders out of their home schools our schools are pouring resources in the social emotional learning and rightfully so we know that learning cannot exist when the migl has hijacked feeling as if they are in a safe environment where they are known and understood as critical and this takes time researchers in the field of psychology have extended this conversation to the concept of mattering there is no year more than fifth grade where our students are given the opportunity to fill up leadership roles in their school Community our St our students at VanZant serve as members of the student council B Hall safety first grade buddies and overall School leaders I know the pride that this opportunity has brought to my oldest daughter and the thought of my other children losing this is disheartening she's felt as if she mattered not just to her family but to the community that she was a member of I know that the rebuttle for this loss is going to be that fourth graders could just fill these same roles but I can't think of any current elementary teacher that would tell you today's fourth graders are ready for this our current fourth graders have begun their educational experience with lockdowns and remote learning this has impacted their emotional growth in ways unlike ever before the instability and mental health of our students is no secret your voters came out and supported efforts to put more resource towards this why would we do something that's only going to negate this effort the worst thing our district could do is to put these children through more stress by moving them from the safety of an elementary school middle schools are volatile even for our older students many of our children who are flourishing in fourth grade have found this transition to Middle School to be challenging just this past Monday my husband and I met with Dr Smith to discuss an awful situation that my middle schooler experienced this is not an environment for younger students moving fifth graders from their sheltered Elementary School is the most counterproductive measure I can think of this population is too fragile after what they've experienced the community is aware that there are serious budgetary concerns but the option of moving fifth graders and restructuring middle schools is not worth saving on what is ultimately costing us why not work together with your community Excuse Me Miss can you sorry you're at 3 minutes so if you could wrap up I'm finishing okay why not work together with your community members to advocate for funding Cherry Hill did this and they received a significant amount of change in their funding I would encourage you to use us to work with you thank you thank you hi I'm Angela lamort I don't have anything planned but I just want to kind of speak from the heart here I am a teacher of over 20 years and to piggy back off of what the previous woman just said the emotional distress that these kids have today versus years prior is I see it every day and it breaks my heart the kids who are performing well or the kids were always outgoing they even those kids you don't think have any issues going on of so much I've seen it my own children from time to time and to take these these children again reiterating these covid babies that went through lockdown went through all these changes and now are coming out of the other side thriving just now thriving to throw them into another change and I know it may not seem like anything I don't know how many of you have little kids but it's a big deal or if this is to happen next year these fourth graders now my my oldest was in fifth grade last year she loved her last year of fifth grade it's a big year it means a lot they get the do all these special things those kids in fourth grade right now if this is to happen next year they're not having any of that now and they're going to find out the last minute all of these changes not to mention the kids who are in middle school that they're going to be restructured another change they just started Middle School the emotional distress that these kids face every day forget covid just in our regular world with everything it's too much it's too much and I know money is an issue but at what expense at what expense these kids need us they need you to make decisions for them and secondly the transparency issue when we were voting great we're getting free kindergarten finally but on the backand of that was that no this is all news now that oh because we're doing that now we have to restructure everything if there's no transparency there's no trust and right now my trust is plummeting be transparent there will be understanding thank [Applause] you hi uh good evening I want to to start thanking everyone I know you guys volunteer for this you're not getting paid so we do appreciate your efforts and thank you for taking the time to listen to our concerns because as so many of um the previous parents stated we're trusting you you guys really impact our children so thank you for listening uh my name is Christa anelli uh 152 Thornwood Drive um if anyone that I know there's a lot of groups tonight but if you support revamping the English uh language arts program for eim if you could just stand up so they can see that we do have support tonight um I stand before you once again to ask that you review the language arts curriculum being implemented within our school district the current curriculum and minor revisions that occurred over the past summer continue to be insufficient in supporting our children's reading writing spelling and grammar skills in fact many District employees who are also parents within the community have reached out to me in confidentiality ex expressing appreciation for our efforts and to confirm that they share our concerns but they feel silenced by District administrators I ask how does the district elicit input from all lower elementary teachers in the development of their curriculum we must work together to revise the Lang language arts curriculum in order to meet the needs of all students and ensure we are meeting the updated 2023 standards that Focus so heavily on foundational reading skills in fact one of the highlights from New Jersey governor Murphy's state of address was the importance of phonics Governor Murphy stated it is simple an emphasis on on Phonics and reading instruction is essential to the lifelong success of our children I couldn't agree more with this statement and sadly esam's curriculum has missed the mark for many years in implementing a proper research-based explicit and systematic phonics program Governor Murphy discussed a new plan to improve literacy rates focusing on Elementary School literacy and emphasizing bonics based reading strategies and other best practices because only 42% of third grade students in the state of New Jersey has met or exceeded expectations in English language arts according to State tests unfortunately only 39.3% of esm's thirdd graders are meeting or exceeding English language arts expectations and 60.7% of our third grade students are not meeting expectations based on the 2023 state test results so what is E's plan to address this alarming statistic it begins with a true phonics program and the proper professional development training for our wonderful teachers not just a manual thrown to them the day before school begins our children have already lost so much instructional time it is important we make the appropriate changes today you're three minutes hi Jaclyn rc5 kirkbridge Court um my name is Jaclyn Ry I have two children in the district currently and two more coming in um I have a first grader currently um and I've also been a teacher for 12 years I'm currently an instructional coach right now um first grade's a little bit new to me so um when I found out this year that my daughter was struggling a lot and really behind um my husband took and my husband and I both took a look at you know what we were doing and what you know we weren't doing at home and I started to dive a lot into the research and I found out talking to colleagues reaching out to specialist um you know talking to the reading specialist in Eve sham that you guys don't have a research-based curriculum and just to piggy back off of um Mrs ianelli I just want to reiterate how important that is um we do have a signed POS petition that I know that you are aware of um we have 200 signatures and I think it's very powerful and important for you guys to hear some of those comments that I would like to read tonight um one of those comments um I'm signing because my eighth grader who has been in the district since prek is not proficient in reading or spelling we've had a yearr round weekly tutor for her since second grade as well as our daily work on our own and she still fails to be anywhere near grade level the lack of phonics and spelling has been a concern of ours for years I am hoping that changing will fin changes will finally be made comment two I'm signing because I'm extremely disappointed my children cannot spell and are not strong readers or writers they desperately needed and did not receive explicit phonics instruction when they were in grades K to2 they had outstanding teachers but when I would bring up my concerns the teachers would always tell me they were not allowed to teach phonics and could not give spelling tests I'm a special ed kindergarten teacher and use foundations all my students leave kindergarten reading and I was devastated when my own children were not reading going into first grade my children benefited from Reading recovery but still did not have any core phonic skills the reading instruction is not enough to support our Learners and needs to be sorry needs to be updated by our district comment three as a parent of a second grader who struggles with reading this is one of my biggest fears he loves school and loves to learn however I see his frustration grow when reading is upsetting we have a amazing schools supportive admin and downright amazing teachers and they just need the right tools to support our students these are only a few comments as I know I only have three minutes to read tonight Eve sham School District the writing is on the wall you can step up to be the leaders and education you claim to be by incorporating research-based structured approach to Literacy for all of your students you can wait now or the state will eventually mandate it the choice is yours [Applause] hello Amanda gun F link sway good evening my name is Amanda gun parent of three children at Rice Elementary I'm an educator parent having the honor of working in public education for the past 15 years as a school psychologist I'm thankful to have the opportunity tonight to discuss my experiences and concerns I have in regards to eam Township School District's Ela curriculum my journey regarding this topic has been a long one conversations for my current fourth grader began with his teachers when he was in first grade and have continued with his teachers every year since it was not until third grade I reached out to the building principal and now in fourth grade having had conversations with District leaders I share this to demonstrate my efforts to follow the chain of command and place trust in the district however at this point three years later I have very little trust that the district is providing adequate instruction within their general education early literacy curriculum my conversations over the years have provided a window into the deep rooted philosophies the district is blindly adhering to in face of Decades of research disproving these methodologies namely queuing methods as a reading strategy and the overall de-emphasis devaluing of fonic instruction to support reading and spelling tonight I will highlight my concerns to the lens of my experience advocating for my fourth grade child's spelling needs to provide a broader context my son was identified as a struggling reader and entered the districts in intervention programs in both first and second grades however the intervention programs offered by the districts do not employ the recommended structured approach to phonic which would have helped develop his reading and spelling skills instead my Som was provided interventions that are considered insufficient by research and meeting the needs of struggling students in literacy when I address these concerns at the teacher level the responses I received include phonics is not a word used in eam spelling tests are old school research doesn't support them none of them can spell we need a new program I was also told if I took my concerns to the district leadership I would be told my son is approaching middle school and he can just use spell check these comments certainly cast doubt and a lack of confidence teachers have in the curriculum they are delivering however my lack of trust in the district extends Beyond these comments at a recent intervention and referral services committee meeting I was told my son's spelling errors weren't concerning because his meaning could be conveyed the messages I have received from eam are in stark contrast to the research so what does the research say in regards to spelling research demonstrates a strong relationship between spelling and reading snow at all summarize the real importance of spelling for reading as following spelling and reading build and rely on the same mental representation of a word knowing the spelling of a word makes the representation of it sturdy and accessible for fluent reading research demonstrates a strong relationship between spelling and writing the US Department of education's Institute of Education Sciences asserts writers who must think too hard about how to spell use up valuable cognitive resources needed for higher level aspects of composition ma'am you're at 3 minutes so please wrap up poor spellers May restrict the words they write and which inevitable loss of verbal Power Research demonstrates the utility and value of spelling assessments research demonstrates there's substantial evidence favoring explicit teaching of spelling research demonstrates spelling AIDS are not sufficient research demonstrates the value of spelling in the employment sector when fa Please wrap up I am when no I like thank you thank you Maya cerk and 25 cry Circle I'm a parent of two kids in eam Township School District I'm standing here to today to ask that you take a deep dive into the current language arts curriculum and research how insufficient it is in teaching our children basic reading spelling and grammar skills I started noticing reading and spelling concerns in first grade with both of my children I began reaching out to their teachers who consistently told me year after year that the curriculum does not focus on spelling I taught both of my children how to read prior to entering kindergarten using phonics however the lack of phonics instruction in our district has consistently held my children below benchmarks the only solution that was just approved for my fourth grader was additional guided reading instruction if the current instruction isn't working why would more of the same instruction work I thought seeking help for my children outside of the school was the answer however as you may imagine tutors are expensive and between school work after school activities finding the time became apparently difficult so I took it upon myself to research and provide instruction to my children they did not want to listen to their mom they said that is what my teacher's for and while I they are correct how can teachers teach our children if they're using outdated education at home I'm sorry if they're using outdated and non- research-based approaches it has been a struggle for over three years of additional education at home and I'm failing and I'm failing because phonics and spelling is not being followed up in the his their classroom and there is absolutely no emphasis on it I would never have thought that the school district would fail our children in the very basic literacy as it has I ask that any one of you step into our schools see the writing work hanging in the Halls take the time to read that the words on those pages it is a sad sight to see how much money and time will I now need to spend for additional instruction outside of school for my children to succeed in basic literacy it's shameful that the administration does not see what's happening in our schools or maybe you see it and for whatever reason choose not to act either way you're breaching your fiduciary duty in your positions in an email to me from Dr superintendent Smith on December 8th of 23 you stated our students outperformed all 2023 New Jersey test Ela and Mass state averages with the exception of grade three however in Governor Murphy's State of the State address he said that the state's current approach to literacy instruction has not led to the desired results if you look at those numbers the district slightly went above the averages Maybe by 2 or 3% I ask you Dr Smith and everybody else sitting here did you get your current positions as superintendent and all the other positions by being average when is it okay to strive to be average that is certainly not the standard anyone should be teaching our children especially our school district thank you for your [Applause] time Amanda Perry 19 Partridge Court good evening some of you may now be putting a face to a name that you've had come across your desk as most recent as tonight I'm here tonight for the very first time to make sure that this topic stays relevant on your minds you the E sham Township Board of Education has specific components that you must include in the district policies and procedures regarding Hib you also must conform to all applicable case law statutes and regulations luckily for me I'm beyond familiar with what case law and statutes are because part of my job every day consists of case law statutes with the New Jersey laws against discrimination now aside from all of that at the end of the day under New Jersey statute 18a 37-15 you the eam board eam Township Board of Education have the control over the contents of the Hib policy for the district you can't take things away and I understand that but what you can do is you are granted the ability to add any additional components case law Etc as you feel fit for this District yet it appears this District took the easy way out and did not put any additional thought or effort into the policy did each of you know that policy 5512 is a replica of the model policy and guidance for prohibiting harassment intimidation and bullying that the state of New Jersey Department of Education put out and revised in August of 2022 did you know that policy did you know that one of the most important policies that involves the safety of students in this in this district is nothing more than what the state provided as a template for districts to utilize part of this District's policy apparently it's not bullying when a child lifts another child up off the ground from behind unbeknownst to him and slams him to the concrete unprovoked per this District's policy it's not bullying when a child has continuously singled out another child over and over again taunts said child makes fun of said child laughs at said child kicks said I'm I'm just going to caution you and I will give you additional time but no no I just want to caution you I know you're not saying names um just obviously you're responsible if anyone in the room is aware of who you're speaking about that's fine oh sir you're addressing the board not the public so as long as the board can hear you that's all that matters please face the president and address the board thank you okay thank you [Applause] transparency sir again please face the board you're addressing the board not the public I'll address the board like this no sir if stand up address the bo if you had no idea that they were going to do the structuring before what two days ago if you knew sir please turn around and address the board if you let me just be clear if you didn't know stand up if you didn't know that they were going to do this restructuring and this is news transparency that's all we want I'm addressing the board I'm letting you see that we just don't know what you guys are doing here we knew that free Kinder education was coming and we voted for it that was informed to us we realized it and we voted but we are shocked and it's news to us that the restructuring is coming I don't know enough information about this but I will be get getting educated and I will address the board appropriately I know the Quorum is to address the board but it's important to be transparent I'll be back thank you sir uh your name please your name please Nicholas Bernal 23 ran thank [Applause] you hello hello my name is Christina San Fran RI I live on Arendale Drive in uh Marlon I thank you for your time um I know it's not easy to hear all of these important messages but I think the time is valuably well spent um I must be honest I am somewhat confused um it's my understanding that the community of IIM have voted the members of this board into these positions to represent our opinions and our voices uh and while you are silent and asking for patience in regards to the potential restructuring of fifth graders we are talking we are telling you what we want uh we are here tonight and we there is a petition that's been circulating for just over one week only one week and already 350 signatures have been received and it's [Applause] growing if you if you have not reviewed that petition yet I encourage you to do so it is www.change.org eam fifth grade additionally um earlier Dr Smith mentioned the importance of turning challenges into opportunities and I agree with that as personal life values um and this scenario in this room is a a very big challenge the budget is a challenge however there is an opportunity here to benefit from the wealth of knowledge of people here in this room from the creative problem solving skills of the professionals that live in this town yet it's not being taken advantage of the opportunity in fact is being shut down under the guise of asking for patience and therefore it's closing the door on potential open conversation and transparency as the person right before me eloquently mentioned mentioned if we wait until March to hear more about this plan that would only leave one and a half months to potentially have a scrambling conversation with a lot of chaos that's not enough time and with that I pose the following questions to the board that I hope you truly sit on and take some time to think about before you vote which I think will be in May but I'm asking can the topic of potentially moving fifth graders into a middle school setting be brought up within a poll for parents to complete how do parents feel about it can there be a poll that's sent out can the building that's used or was used for TBA be uh used for incoming preschoolers if not how will the retrofitting of that building be funded we just heard about the debt that are or the funding cuts that we're receiving how will that new retrofitting be funded how will the busing of all these new fifth graders going from you know who were once in Jagger now going all the way to decy how will that be funded and I did some very brief research about how other districts in New Jersey are using that preschool funding many of them are successfully using that funding to contract with other local preschools why is that option not being looked into further rather than trying to squeeze so many new preschoolers into the existing buildings the space doesn't seem adequate and so again I appreciate your attention to all of this and I know that we may disagree on the processes but I do respect each and every one of you as individuals and I hope that you can respect me as an individual and respect respect the parents here as individuals as well as your voters and as your constituents thank you hi everyone I'm Kelly wel I live at 28 Paddock Road and I'd like to encourage the district to fully revise its English language arts curriculum I've recently heard some members of our community say that phonics is just forent students with dyslexia or other reading problems and this just isn't true general education students will not be bored with phonics many children need explicit reading instruction to decode words and to read fluently as Christ ianelli said during the 2022 to 2023 school year only 39% of our District's thirdd graders were at or above grade level in English language arts 39% that's it this wasn't an anomaly those numbers have pretty much held steady for the last several years and my issue with that is it means that 61% of our students are not at or above grade level in English language arts as a district we can and we should do better so I urge you to make the current English language arts revisions that are going on right now a major revision thank you hello my name is Angela Stewart I'm at w kirkbridge Court I wanted to talk about my two daughters um one of which is in third grade at rice she is according to her teacher a top speller in her class however every time she goes to do a worksheet in math because we don't get spelling homework sent home when she does a math worksheet she cries because she can't spell words and it's hard for her and she's a top speller so I want to support the fact that we need phonics instruction and my first grader who has an IEP also is struggling in Reading she left kindergarten without knowing all of her letter sounds so she left behind she started first grade behind she continues to remain behind because she's not receiving the correct phonics instruction I work for a school that uses foundations in Wilson and we need to make Chang so that we can meet the needs not just for special education students but for all of our general education students we just voted for full day kindergarten are they going to leave not knowing their letter sounds because that's how my daughter left kindergarten and it was half day but she left not knowing her letter sounds and not being able to read going into first grade she's starting to learn how to read but still does not know those sounds so I now have her go to a tutor once a week and I want to do my part as a parent but it's not my job to teach her to read it's your teacher job it's your job as Administration to make sure that she has the right curriculum that's being followed and research based methods so that she's able to read I want to support it I want to support our teachers I want to give teachers tools so that they're able to support my child and I'm doing things outside of that but it's not my job it's your job to make sure that kids are able to read thank [Applause] you all right we would anyone else like to to comment on any items of Interest all right seeing none we'll close out that section I just want to thank everyone for for coming to comment speaking in the microphone is not easy um there were a ton of we've been receiving a lot of emails with a lot of good research um there were more people who came tonight with well researched written out documentation supporting um the views that were shared tonight if you guys are if you guys are struggling with things trust me the board is as well um I would implore all of you if you did prepare um words tonight to to speak to please do email them to us so we could read them again um especially if there's research as well we go through all of it it's very helpful hearing it all in this compressed time zone is tough um so if you guys are taking the time to prepare written out documentation please do send it to us as well um just so we can reate what you're saying Dr Smith just like to Echo Mr Canon uh thanks to the public who came out we have our meetings in this space because we do want to hear from people and uh that is the best process that we can follow in order to gather input you know for rumors that are out there um I guess a glass half full possible way to look at that a little bit is it does mean on our end the widening circle of stakeholders that are providing input on something also increases the chance that there will be talk about about whatever is being discussed you know and lots we we have had a discussion as far as budgetary concerns when you're in the long seven-year tunnel that we've been in goes on every month of the year there is essentially no end to the budget timeline um when it comes to f kindergarten and ballot questions just to kind of like reframe that for everybody a ballot question the reason we use ballot questions is because ballot questions can pay for things that aren't in the regular budget so when a ballot question passes it's fantastic it's extra money to pay for something that's extra Beyond what's already being paid for so it doesn't fix state aid reductions it doesn't fix Rising costs in other ways it adds something that wasn't already there but it can't pay for things that are so you know our our fiscal challenges um which are extending into the 2425 school year have been ongoing and would be regardless of of fully kindergarden or valid questions and we don't even know what's going to happen after this year right so um I'd love to say say that this would be the end of the tunnel but to be honest um I I I it doesn't it would be um almost uh too optimistic to say that uh we we have been expected as a Township to pay more and more of a local tax levy to cover our our our budget every year the state doesn't release its formula but we know the out come of it which is that they view our town as as being capable of paying more and the state pays us essentially gives less um and uh someone brought up the idea of um advocacy we've done advocacy in that regard I've spoken for every year straight um to the state legislature it fall as as well as the other one-third of districts in the state many of them doing the same thing there were sometimes in those hearings where we were the only School District uh and we're competing against every other state agency that's also seeing its funding slashed and there were so many that I had never heard of before every year you know can't even imagine all the different ways that that state aid flows across our our state it's fall on deaf ears every time um nothing's changed and that doesn't mean there isn't always a role for advocacy it does mean that it would take and someone mentioned Cherry Hill it took 20 years in Cherry Hill before they started to see a difference and a lot of organization Grassroots on the part of stakeholders um just to understand the frame of of what that means and we would love to support any we would applaud and love to support any um advocacy efforts together thank you thanks Dr Smith uh moving to board member announcements would any board member like to make an announcement Mr dearcy yeah just real quick um as it was said earlier in the meeting by the superintendent the EF is holding their uh annual Double Down event on the 2nd of February uh I believe that's at the Mansion on Main Street you could go to the website register for it um just to announce uh the board members were working individually uh on two baskets for that event and we're pulling the funds within ourselves to to support that so uh if you can support that it helps the district out a lot thank you thanks Mr Marcy would any other board member like to make any announcements Mr Brock I just want to thank all the parents for coming out and speaking um please make your voices heard um that is you know what we need we need to hear from you um so please keep that up please let us know you know what's on your mind and thank you for coming out thanks Mr Bach any other board member like to speak uh just to mention um it's just the carry off of what Mr Box said Community decisions need Community input so if there's comments concerns questions keep coming out the meetings I wish every meeting looked like this it's it's good to see the public getting involved thank you thanks Mr Marcy I agree anyone else can speak seeing none we need a motion to adjourn you guys want to stay here motion by Miss Lee seconded by Mr Thompson all in favor thank [Music] you [Music]