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as well as through uh channel 18 on Mondays and Saturdays at noon and Thursdays at 3: and um without further Ado I would uh will begin our meeting um with public comment so if anyone wishes to comment on any item that is on our agenda please step up to the podium and please state your name before you make your comments don't all run looks like that's a no all yell um and so it looks like um we do not expect a student rep this evening that's right she could evening no worries Lots on her plate uh we yes as we've lots and lots and so good for her and uh no worries with that so I will um next I will entertain a motion to approve our minutes we have both the regular and executive session minutes for January 22nd um Adam J make a motion we approve the regular session minutes of January 24th second that's 22nd it's the 22nd yes it says 24th on the agenda but it was the 22 listen I got 22nd yep it's okay I'm all right it's so we have a motion we have a second by Mr Oliver any any discussion okay um hearing none all in favor I I passes unanimous Madam chair make a motion we uh approve the executive session minutes of January 22nd 2024 and hold them until the matter for which they were completed is complete second okay we have a motion by Mr noones a second by Dr Jenkins any further discussion all in favor I I motion passes 5 unanimous um my compter okay do 29 um so we have consent agenna I'm going to turn it over to Dr Maguire did we do the 29th oh I'm sorry I'll make a motion that we approve the uh regular session minutes from January 29th second okay we have a a motion by Dr Jenkins a second by Miss Co Miss Coughlin any discussion on those minutes regular session minutes of January 29 all in favor I I motion motion passes five zero uh unanimous now I'll move it to the consent agenda items Dr sa Maguire great as you can see on the consent agenda we have a couple of exciting events coming up for our that our students will be participating in um all from our all with our Dartmouth High School students we have two World Championship competitions one for indoor percussion and one for varsity wintergard and that's going to be happening in April of 2024 which is not too far away now um and then the other significant event for our students is that a group of our students will be attending the masc annual spring conference and that's really an exciting opportunity for our students like yourselves and myself we got to experience the masc conference um in the fall and this one is geared toward our students so this offers them an exciting opportunity to be really involved in Civic engagement I know that Mr Shay is here and if you have any questions about any one of those three he's happy to answer any of your questions no Madam chair make a motion we approve the U three consent gender items the uh indoor percussion to uh World WGI World Championships in April the vity went toot also to WGI World Championships in April and the uh High School uh Student Council masc annual spring conference in March excellent second have a motion by Mr Nunes we have a second by best Coughlin any discussion Mr Oliver thank you madam chair so my my only question and this is for maybe Mr share anyone on the board here is this the first year I don't remember approving the the masc um we have not past so is this the first year we're doing that that I know of since I've been here yeah so um our student council was really excited about it so we're sending four officers or five officers four uh four seniors and a a junior okay excellent perfect yeah no that was my only question and as always best of luck to the uh to the other groups absolutely I agree with that any other questions or comments no thank you thank you great so we have a motion by Mr noones we have that uh was it best for the second um best yeah best without uh any other discussion be had uh all in favor I I motion passes um unanimously 5 um next I'm also going to turn it over we have old business uh we're going to have a discussion around the fiscal 25 budget update Dr s and again before I just turn it o right over to Mr Kylie I think it's important to preface our update this evening with some caution I mean although the re we have to be optimistic and at the same time we have to acknowledge the fact that our budget will in fact be impacted by um the decrease in in the aid from in local Aid so I'm going to turn it right over to Mr Kylie thank you Dr sa Maguire so um you know we've had a lot of budget discussion up until this point obviously uh what we're doing right now is we're working to identify areas um to consider so that we can present an at our next school committee meeting on March 11th A reduced budget uh from 6% where we originally were down to 3% um so we have to reduce that budget by a million A5 dollars we know that school choice is going to play a role in that reduction um but we're finding uh that you know we need to pay attention to a variety of factors in terms of bridging that Gap so uh on March 11th we will present to you uh our plan for fiscal year 25 it'll be a 3% budget um and then on March 25th hopefully uh we can hold the public budget hearing and then April 8th would be a proposed date to vote to have the school committee vote for the budget obviously we can have discussion and dialogue at any of those meetings regarding the budget but that's uh that's what we're working on right now meeting with principles and and and their staff so that's where we are with it any comments questions Mr Oliver thank you uh this Amaral I guess my only question for you Mr Kylie is um with the school choice playing uh it being a factor um after our vote to use it uh to help bridge the gap do we have any idea of the uh FTE that we're that we're looking to to cut at this time or is that you would like to hold off to our next meeting yeah I mean I think we'll we'll have a presentation at the next meeting with all the details so everything will be transparent at that point and we'll have recommendations obviously we've had to change gears throughout this budget process a couple of times um and are in the process of doing that we want to do it right um so we didn't want to rush it tonight we still need to work with the schools and identify areas but it's safe to say that while school choice will be utilized to bridge the gap it's not the only thing that we're going to propose so um you know we need to do our due diligence and be cautious and obviously you know think about the future here um so we're we're in the in the midst of that putting a plan together for you is it too early to speculate or is it safe to say that we can expect uh Pink some some amount of pink slips I think that what um our focus is going to be is to attempt to make reductions based on attrition okay however it's not necessarily true that that will be the the overall solution I mean there may be um a need to look beyond that um and that that's if you're going to do that you have to be very careful about you know the decisions you're making and um we want to make sure that you understand what the impact of those decisions will be so that's our plan to present um you know almost a month from now now but uh with March 11th but um is to have that all for you so you clearly understand the impact of what we're what we're going to propose well thank you and I and what we're going to move into school choice which I think is an important decision as well you know what what gets shifted there right so agreed well thank you for that and I will I will certainly hold off on any further questions till uh next month I saw Mr noones yeah thank you madam chair okay so now I'm totally confused which I know sometimes doesn't take much but when we had the joint meeting with the select board and the fincom MH there was a million5 gap and we said we went back to our meeting and we funded that with school choice money much to everybody's one-time use etc etc type of deal what has changed I'm missing something here no I I do I don't think you're missing anything I think I think you're right that that is what the course of action that took place however um I do think that there were items in our original budget proposal that um were then added back into the budget for the purposes of looking at it from an override perspective potentially that never you know came to fruition and so we still need to do our due diligence in terms of looking critically at our oper a um the school choice money I'm glad we glad we saved it yeah it's not going to be around forever and I do think that we need to be cautious as to um you know what we can and can't do moving forward in terms of making decisions I don't think that the long-term future of our budget um I don't think it makes sense to just fund all 1.5 to5 million of uh what was on the table at that January 20 what January January 8th meeting um I don't think that that necessarily is going to be the plan that we're going to present to you because I think we need to think critically about our operation and okay I would it be worth I'm sorry you no go ahead I got another but go ahead because I'm going to change gears um would it be worthwhile to convene uh meeting of the budget subcommittee y to seek maybe our input we'd be happy to do that that would be a great idea that's a great idea yep yeah we'll reach out with some dates potential dates and we can pull before the next full committee meeting I think that would be at least educate me a little bit yep we will do so Dr Jenkins and then back to Mr so I think we have to be careful here too because to John's question about the 1.5 million it now looks like we asked for 1.5 million and we didn't get it and now we're like oh oh well actually we don't quite need 1.5 million so I think as we make choices about what's coming back out of the budget we need to be really clear about what the implications of that are because otherwise it looks like we are asking for things we don't need I know the reductions that we're talking about will create some pinch and I think we have to be honest with that otherwise we sort of lose our credibility um as we start to think about an override in the community yeah exactly uh I want to still in the budget but I want to shift gears a little bit and go back to the update that Dr Sabre Maguire gave us uh Friday the cross and the crossing guards are going am I what am I missing well it's not the crossing guards it's that we're we we met with the police department we we met with the chief and we're what we're losing is the traffic director um and that's because they can't the police department can't fill the position and that director currently uh you'll see that that person is outside of the middle school and outside of the Quinn school and so that was basically I think they were down to their last traffic sup director and that person now they're they're unable to fill that position and so we're working very closely with the middle school and obviously with the Quinn School admin team to make sure that we have a in place to mitigate losing those really important that person is really important to directing traffic in the morning and the afternoon because so correct me if I'm not that's not about money though no no I'm not trying to mince words here traffic supervisor tra crossing the people that are outside directing the traffic to let the buses and the pedestrians go across it's not thr in officer it's on an is it an officer not it's a traffic supervisor who's a trained employee of um you know by the police department but is not a police officer right that we used to have four of them um they've been unable to fill them and the last one is going to take another position with the police department um and unfortunately this week will be the last the last week that that person will be on duty um if anybody wants a job uh we'd be happy to point them in the right direction to go talk to the police department about uh about a potential position but uh unfortunately like many jobs it's really impossible to find people right now um so we've we've worked with um as Dr sa Maguire said we've worked with the police department with um the middle school and the Quinn school to try and identify you know potential mitigating um factors that that you know we could help with such as offering transportation to kids who are currently walking from to the Middle School from south of Hawthorne Street so um and that will all be communicated directly to the to the families impacted and in general to the Middle School Community um the Quinn school doesn't have unsupervised kids walking uh but there's a lot of people that walk and cross there and get picked up we've expressed our concerns regarding that um I know the police department is uh certainly going to approach it from a um from a police officer perspective in terms of enforcement but in terms of having somebody there at this point okay it doesn't appear that that will be the case so um can I just perhaps this could be passed along to the police I mean I'm thinking about it like as a parent right those are the times you have to be there when you're you're getting your kid I don't wonder if the police have not reached out to UMass Dartmouth um you know there are students who are always looking for jobs and they might be more flexible in terms of you know they may be available in the morning and in the afternoon and I do know we have a large uh crime and Justice studies Department those are students who are looking um to get into work typically in law enforcement um so you know to have that on their resume as they go look for a job that might be a good place um they're welcome to contact me um but if you could pass that along we could see maybe if we get that posted there um and see if we can't you know find someone you know to do that work suggestion Le okay good thank you anyone else I'm good thank you appreciate it thank you thank you so much um and uh on to long-term capital planning long-term capital planning do you remember those words longterm capital planning seems like it was a lifetime ago that we talked about long-term capital planning but we have been actively working toward um continuing to keep long term planning as a priority for the school district and as you know Mr Kylie serves on the long-term capital planning uh committee and we just want to update the public as to where we are with that and start thinking about next steps because we do need to continue to move forward thank you thank you Dr s Maguire so um and thank you all for the opportunity to sort of renew the discussion that we've had um I prepared a presentation I don't intend to go through all the slides in detail because they're repetitive based on what we've already presented to you for the most part although there are some changes um that I'll highlight as we go so to review the process um really I I I don't know if I said this before but I think it's important to understand that long-term planning has been going on for a number of years um you know that the school department Department committee have been a part of that for quite a quite a number of years and um you know really the modern era of longterm planning dates back to the msba site visits in 2016 and numerous steps um you know have have been taken since then so this is not not something brand new no new ideas here really um I think the difference is that we're finally at the point where the town is prepared um to uh at least publish some sort of plan um and I think that our role in that is that um we need to provide them some guidance as to priorities and projects that are on the need to be on their radar um so that's you know what we're trying to accomplish with this process um I I think it's also important to note that the plan's not set in stone you know this is going to a flexible document anytime you're planning I mean jeez you're planning one year ahead it needs to be flexible right but if you're planning 40 years ahead it needs to be a flexible you know plan um and I I think that everyone understands that and that this is some sort of it's essentially a framework um that will enlight be able to you know it be transparent and Enlighten the community as to what the needs are of the community so um you know I think that that's sort of where setting the stage for where we are right now the goals we've reviewed these before um I'll just highlight you know obviously we want an appropriate learning environment for kids that's our number one you know our number one uh goal and and um you know Quality quality learning for all um you know we need a building to be able to do that and I don't think we're in the best position um because uh again you know 72 with without factoring in this building the new building 202 years old now um you know 72 years is our average our average building so you know I don't think that places Us in the best position to educate kids but I do think we do the best we can with what we have so so we had presented some options and the and the three options we presented aren't the only options there's other options um and these were things to think about um option A was to replace Dartmouth middle school with a high school uh and then tackle the three elementary schools in some in some order with Potter and Dello being first and then the Quinn School third um option b was to uh approach the elementary schools first then a new middle school and then um the the Quinn School final and option C was to really look at the middle school first and then three elementary schools so replace the middle school and interesting um so we've had some discussion with the mass School building authority on this um what the recommend ation that they're giving us is when we're ready to present a statement of interest to them tell them that we are going to replace the Middle School it they said it is not necessary for us to decide at the moment whether the building is a high school whether the building has grades 5 through 8 or whether it's 6 through 8 or 9 through 12 all of that can be part of the feasibility study process working with the msba so what we would be doing is expressing our interest of why that building needs to be replaced and I think we can easily you know justify that um but offer that the community is interested in looking at options um in terms of the our intent for the project looking at options to consider for the community so I found that to be quite helpful because it sort of places us in a and C are kind of the same thing now um and you know it's great to have discussion but it's not necessary for us to decide right now that um or to decide 5 through 8 so the kushman school could be closed like we don't have to do that today so just something to consider that that's pretty new information like today talking with the msba so that's why I didn't really change the presentation but um but I was very uh you know very grateful for their Insight on that for sure um you know we did a comparison of options and talked about you know talked about the different things that that I mean this was our thoughts um you know in terms of the impact on students and you know whether they're looking at a high school and middle school versus an elementary school would impact more students initially with the first pro project and you know talked about the location in town and placing a new building in the center of town and some of the some of the different um you know different factors that um we considered to be positives or or negatives too in terms of expense um be happy to revisit any of this stuff as we go this is this is a new slide um so looking at timelines and this probably could have changed based on my discussion today a little bit too but um it's generally pretty close so the high school roof can't go to the msba yet so it's it doesn't meet the requirement until 2026 so it was installed in 2001 it has to be 25 years old before they'll consider the project they just have too many roofs on their list so they can't it's it's an arbitrary number but it's their rule at the moment um BAS based on the volume of uh of statements of interest that they've received so um with that said we've got to wait a little bit longer before we have a major project on the high school roof um a new school as a suggestion could be applied for in the next few years um it does the process itself can take five years so um you know if you apply for that next year or the year after it's it's a ways out before you're going to have a new building that I mean we're just talking about the possibilities for a feasibility study and determining what building you build in terms of the grade structure and everything that could probably take a year um you know before you iron everything out and then get the town meeting votes that are necessary we only have two Town meetings it's it's a process that's going to take some time so we have to be aware of that and think of that then if we were to follow up with a second School five or 10 years out from you know that would be a logical you know a logical progression of events this is a little ambitious for sure but um then a third school maybe 15 to 20 years out that depending on whether you're talking about starting with elementaries or starting with a middle school or um it would it would take a bit to accomplish our goals obviously ly and then the final school 20 to 30 years out so um it's a long haul and it might very well be longer than this this is sort of an ambitious timeline um so we have to consider that when we're talking about 1955 1956 even 1967 as the ages of the four the four buildings that were really focused on um 30 years out before you start yeah that's a lot of time to keep that building in uh in top condition so something to consider for sure um you know we we had talked about this briefly I I think it is important to keep in mind that the stadium should be addressed somehow um it would be irresponsible not to and it will get to the point at some point where it's go we're going to be the water infiltration in the building is going to become a bigger problem that you know we won't be an easy fix not that it's an easy fix it's but it'll be a much more difficult situation if if that's not addressed at some point so I I do think that needs to happen um you know a Dartmouth High School renovation well if you're talking about a 40-year plan and this building's 20 years old I mean in in in 40 years from now I think I think within that scope there's going to be something else done to this building I don't think it's necessar necessarily true that you know we can just this this will be all set no problems outside of a roof that's not realistic um and then you know all the implications of if we don't do this or if it takes us too long to do this what do we do with our systems with you know the HVAC with roofing systems are going to come up again and need to be replaced like we I've been a part of all of the roof projects here and so five buildings um but and they should be 30-year roofs but some of those are now like 13 years old so that's going to be in the scope of this you know so that we've got to consider all those things Windows like at the potter and Dello if it was going to be a long-term weit before we tackle those buildings those should be done we've got a there's a lot of considerations to factor into this process um so next steps obviously your discussion your questions that's all critical um the thing that I think we need to do is figure out some priority because I think we need to give some information and guidance to that longterm Capital planning committee so um my hope would be that we can have some discussion tonight and see if there's some consensus that could help give direction and I could relay that to that group again doesn't need to be set in stone um but I think they are they are doing good work and trying to put a plan in place um and I don't want to be be the part of that that you know I don't want to hold that up the momentum's great so um we want to we want to be a part of that so I think really that's that's the next step in our process here um so I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have or what's the committee Mr Oliver thank you Mr Kylie that certainly is good news the fact that we don't need to make a determination uh whether or not how what that facility would be used for for the grade span and whether or not it's used for a middle school or a high school because that was my number one concern right now es before seeing even a fe feasibility study because I've already had this conversation with some people in town is you want did I hear you want to do what did I hear that the the school committee wants to build a new high school so I'm happy to I'm happy to hear that um I think in all honesty I think this town is about 10 years behind the eightball already um maybe even more with um keeping up with our buildings and and renovating or or building new buildings so I think the time to act is now especially if we have a um if we have a long-term uh Capital planning committee that's willing to um to listen to us and willing to make some priorities um yeah I I think uh I think it' be prudent for this committee to take some kind of action through a vote on uh what our priority is uh for me um I think that does make the most sense um after considering it and after hearing what we heard tonight uh that we would uh like to see a uh a new building on slokum road uh the site of the current uh middle school that's uh for what it's worth that's my two cents and like I said I think the time to act is now because every every year that goes by the the prices are not going down thank you Mr Oliver Dr Jenkin yeah you know I would agree that the middle school is my priority I'm also glad that we don't have to make a decision about what that is but that building it's just not a 21st Century Learning space it's not I mean they do a great job with what they have but we need to do that um my concern a little bit is seeing this I'm thinking whoa this is really aggressive right and then I don't even have a sense of what the town priorities are and what the town is slotting in there do you have you had any conversations right do you understand what they're prioritizing over this period what they're talking about I do um so there's without you know sharing too much detail about other departments that I'm not the expert on I can say that the water and sewer projects are a major component they should be um it I've been very encouraged by um sort of the collegiality of the group in terms of being open-minded and not being siloed I mean I get it like if we don't don't have good clean water or the or the toilets don't flush okay well we can't have school anyway so I get that right so but there's some big projects on that end not as big as what would be building a school um but but sizable projects that um are important for the town so there's a lot of discussion of of that what I do think and some of those are pressing um but I think they recognize that our projects are pressing ing as well and I think that you know if if there's consensus tonight um bringing that back to them and kind of sharing our or our projected order of operations we'll try and figure out how um the town could could approach that I do think that um we've sort of charted out debt and uh taking a look at what what it might look like and what it might mean to to the taxpayer we begun that process in that group it's super important part of the process and I do think that the town has the ability to undertake multiple projects at one time that it's not necessarily okay we've got to pay off the high school like we just you know we just did before we start the next project I don't I don't think that that's necessary so um granted some projects might be bigger than others you know if we build a high school okay that's a very expensive project the middle school is really expensive too not as much but um so uh you know I I I do think that um there's going to be a way that we fit those projects together that hopefully might not be absolutely ideal for us but it'll be something that we can live with and I'll report back to the group as to once that starts to progress but without prioritizing it's a little hard for them to do that too yeah I guess I I guess my concern in asking that is is that right there's always limited appetite among the voters for supporting overrides and as we like the first one or two there might be more appetite and then the further we get and I I worry we end up in a place where while the elementary school on that side of town is brand new and the elementary school on this side of town is still you know nearly 100 years old by the time we're at the end of it so just thinking about sort of the politics the politics of it and you know because we do ultimately even if we're all convinced that the town can take on multiple projects ultimately we have to convince the voters that the town can take on multiple projects and so just thinking about I mean obviously Water and Sewer are a good example everyone wants their toilets to flush and you know the water to run but we should think about that in terms of particularly the timing too of right if we're all in agreement that middle school is first right second third and fourth are elementary schools and you know you're looking at a gap of 20 25 years like how how does that work and so I think for me it's clear that the middle school is up here what falls down after that I'm not really sure except to say some rotation of elementary schools right maybe a couple at a time makes more sense than 111 I don't know yeah I think that is the difficult most difficult challenge we face is I mean I think that the Quinn school would be done after the other two however um how you decide which identical building built by the you know under with the same design same architect same contractor same materials at the same time you're going to replace first that's a tough decision that's why as you can see on my options I said building one building two you know and just I pumped it on that one [Music] um maybe we use the same footprint all right for the again maybe you know and if we could get msba to buy into something like that that would be fantastic mean other districts have right it's possible um so those are things that you know again we need to be flexible and we need to be able to change the plan along the way somewhat but Mr thank you madam chair uh two questions Mr Kylie uh on the uh the timeline the high School roof goes to msba in 2026 I'm going to make an assumption that's just the paperwork to get their approval uh yes a statement of Interest would be filed so we're looking at 2728 before we get the roof so we're still we've got to extend the life of this roof we do so I um I don't think I've talked to you about this I don't think I did some engineering work not me personally I hired an engineer um it would be pretty shudy work if it was me but um we I hired an engineer to do uh sort of a a survey of the roof condition um highlight areas that we need to focus on and um they came back and said kind of what we knew which is it's in rough shape um lots of things need to be done to this roof and they can't be they can't all be peac meal little you know $20,000 fixes that's just not going to happen so um so we have a challenge ahead of us okay um it's going to be a rough a rough stretch but you're right that's you're talking 28 probably before it's done and that's if we I mean we'll we'll submit a statement of interest is it a guarantee I don't think it is I think what we have going for us is we we've not done an msba project in a little bit where trying to preserve a building that um although it wasn't an msba uh building it's a fairly new building um so I I mean I think they'll take that into consideration I think we have a real good shot at getting you know getting funded in the first year but um but yeah it's going to take a going to take a while going to take a while we may need some more funding yeah we may need some more funding you know we've got a little bit of funding that the finance committee um voted our away uh from their Reserve fund for for some you know some roof repairs but um yeah that's it's not we might have to do that every year I I really don't know okay uh another question I have before I get to my my options uh if we if we we get in and we end up with slokum road but for whatever reason we end up with that as a middle school fight I mean what's in here what does that do to this building in the sense besides the roof you know I mean can we get another 30 40 50 years out of this building I think we have to we would have to I think we have to and I think we can yeah um you know I I I think one of the things that we put as a as a positive uh an advantage with you know option A which we don't really have to do right now but was that we could possibly have a state-of-the-art high school uh that instead of a 50-year-old high school at some point you know um so I mean conceivably by the time that building's done this building will be 30 years old yeah that's all it's not not a brand new school anymore it just isn't um so that's something for the community to consider but if we end up building a middle school I mean we I think I hope you know that um you know we're committed to maintaining the buildings and as long as the town continues to support us through Capital Improvement projects which other than this past year they have been so you know we it's no secret we didn't get it really anything funded last year um outside of some uh some flooring repairs but as long as the town is committed to maintaining the buildings moving forward then we'll do our best and and keep this building in good shape as good shape as we can anyway I mean overall I think my agree with Chris and Shannon I like option a type of deal I mean you know take you know fix fix slm Road it moves everything as we've talked about in previous meetings you know there for athletics and Fields and and such uh kind of in some instances would be a little bit of money saving because we wouldn't have to have the buses transporting students here there and hither and Yonder type of deal so uh but I think I think that's the one that you know again you you make it you know a you know early uh you know mid century 21st 21st century uh building so that that's my recommendation thank you um I agree um I think middle school should be first um and the fact that there's open space right next to the existing one makes it easier I don't know how any of the middle school or middle schools would be easy because they don't have a plot of land right next to them and you can't just raise the building and what do you do with the kids while you're bu building a new school that that we have to figure out but I guess with plan a or plan of just making a new Middle School we have time to figure out what to do with um the elementary schools so an elementary school obviously costs a lot less than a middle or a high school is it conceivable to do more than one Elementary School at a time or is that just like what do you do with the students okay so um I'll I'll give you an idea so well first of all to your first point in terms of the piece of land so we actually have some land um that is developable uh right next to one of the elementary schools so the Dello school um owns actually quite a bit of that property is actually quite large um behind that building that could be a consideration it's big enough to build a school for sure um part of school not as much it might be possible though to to build an Elementary School on that property it would be tight for sure um it would have to be really up in really on the back edge of that property um which might not be ideal but that's something to consider and the Quinn school I don't know it's 30 years from now uh or 20 years from now I don't know I don't know we'll have to figure that out I guess sorry Mr Grandfield but you know in terms of doing more than one so so I I think um I I'll mention that we were fortunate we have a um a Dartmouth president apparent um his name is Nathan Silva he works for a major um uh contractor um who um and he has a a great deal of experience with uh building projects and school construction and his his the business that he works for does some very major um School construction projects so he reached out to me quite a while ago offered his assistance provided some cost estimates based on our options looking at that um including escalation Clause um costs and and looking at it over timelines and everything it's really he he did a lot of work and and uh you know we're super thankful I I think um you know what we're talking about in terms of projects though it's pretty expensive an elementary school might be $70 million in today's in today's money uh you know a high school might be7 million so I mean could you do multiple elementary schools at once well I mean it might cost less than doing a high school at some point you know so I guess maybe you could but you know we're going to have to look at how all of these projects work within the town's structure what it would mean to the tax rate in terms of debt exclusion votes and and what it would mean to the taxpayers so you know we know that there's a lot to do there um and uh the town has be that that long-term capital Group which has really been working well has done quite a bit of work looking at this um that we currently have a lot of capacity and that we're not really paying for very much right now in terms of debt um since the high school was paid off a couple of years ago so um you know it's it is time to start considering these projects and whether you could do two at once I don't know I'm not sure but it's it's something to at least talk about quick just on on does this uh does msba still have the model school program they do still have a model school and they're also pushing energy efficient uh projects so so um it's a good point uh in terms of msba so we would be eligible around 50% reimbursement from msba um if you build a model School you get extra reimbursement so that's sort of a bit of a canned design so it depends whether you can fit that on your site whether it meets you know meets your needs it can be scaled according to you know enrollment and everything but it it's um it's something to consider you get a a little extra money from msba and they're also very actively pursuing um Energy Efficiency initiatives through the msba through um you know in terms of using heat pumps to heat the buildings and a variety of technologies that that you know are are very um you know very efficient trying to get to Net Zero buildings and um so and you get extra money for those two so things to consider as we go thinking so this is kind of a maybe a crazy idea and you can tell me that maybe it's a bad idea but again thinking about the politics of it and worrying about going back to the voters repeatedly for um debt exclusions has anybody ever thought about doing just one Capital override that we generate $10 million a year that goes into account every 5 years we've got $50 million right that's a if you if you figure out what the projects are and you figure out what that is you only have to go to the voters once right and then the money that goes in there just goes into whether it's a stabilization fund or whatnot right and it just goes we just work through the projects um and I don't wonder whether maybe that's a better approach than having to every five years go to the voters and say and we want to and this this just occurred to me after seeing bess's reaction when you said $70 million for an elementary school right we can just say oh we're going to pull out of this account and we're going to pay 70 million I mean so it's something that I think is worth considering um at least we because we know that we that for the next I don't know it's not like 40 years from now all of a sudden we're like okay good don't ever have to replace a school again or no we don't need another water plant or a police station or whatever our Capital needs continue right and whether it it might be better for us to do a one-time push um to get the money we need because I I just am I'm sort of cynical about to keep going back every five years for another $50 million project I can share that with the group it's an interesting idea I the one thing I will say and not to be a downer on that idea because I'm not I think it's interesting and might work well in terms of votes we will need to keep going back in terms of submitting statements of interest and voting the the town meeting votes that are required to participate in the msba projects we'll need all that too not not that's easier all right would you say look we got 100 million in the bank we're ready to go to msba right I agree think that's just a little bit easier way to approach it yeah yeah I'll uh I will share that with the group we're meeting tomorrow Z via Zoom okay via Zoom since uh everything Clos oh the snow day yeah anyone else before I no um I I you I I agree with my colleagues I think like leading from a place that really uh you know um looks at the age in in of the buildings I do agree with the middle school is is one at the top um but I wonder about any opportunity to sort of phase out kushman school as as say um thinking about the age of that building um is that in consideration is there anything that you could share I I think that our um and this sort of you know some of the options obviously illustrate that um closing of kush kushman school and I think um that was part of my discussion you know our discussion today with msba and that would be included in our project intent um which which I think would be an attractive sort of piece of that that might lead to them being even more favorable okay we're thinking creatively we're closing a building that's outdated that's small that you know isn't ideal um trying to be more efficient in that way and um you know I think it that leads to oh are we looking at 5 through eight are we looking at a shift are we you know some some sort of different uh configuration but those are things that we would do in that feasibility process with them but I think that would certainly be a goal um and that could be done with the first project we get one project one building built we could accomplish that so um and so in meeting with them tomorrow other than hearing our you know our consensus some do you need an official Vote or um you need for us to do anything more more official I I don't I don't I mean I don't think you're voting for for specific projects yet or anything I I I think I don't know if if you um I have enough information I think enough feedback to go back to them it's fine I appreciate it perfect we yeah this was very productive sounds good yeah definitely great thank you I think um thank you for that uh I we're moving on to new business so we have superintendent update I'll turn it over to Dr sa Maguire great so um February is about to live up to its name so we finally uh and I finally um for the first time get to announce a snow day so um I was going to wait for this evening to do that but there seemed to be so much interested in it in it that we didn't want to keep people off because I know people were making plans but I just want to make sure that people understand that we don't take decisions like this lightly I mean this is really an important decision to make and it's not just one person's decision uh the superintendent may get some uh sort of you know uh accolades for making the decision but really it's a team decision including uh our own School folks here you know Mr Kylie talking with the town DPW officials other school-based folks across this region I mean I've been in touch with other superintendents all day long and certainly Community leaders and all it's always about the Safety and Security of our staff our students and our community and so although we love to call a snow day it really is serious business I just want to make sure that everybody understands that we do take it seriously um but congratulations seniors you get your snow day apparently that's a big de deal here in darmouth so a few items under teaching and learning that I just want to bring to your attention and if you remember earlier and I did um bring this up in one of my uh school committee updates on a Friday but we had publicly discussed chronic absenteeism and that the commissioner was bringing that forward to the board and I just wanted to make sure that everybody understands that although we believe this is really important uh the board did not approve the commissioner's recommendation and so what that means is that chronic or absenteeism won't take on increased weight in our accountability stand standards moving forward um you know we're happy about that but at the same time I want to assure you and the public that student attendance is really important to us and we're starting to have not starting because I know this conversation has been had in this District before I ever got here but really thinking about some strategic opportunities to re-engage students so it's not so much about the punishment that students receive for absenteeism but it's how how we as a school district are considering what what kinds of things are keeping our kids out of school Beyond illness which we of course want our families to keep our students home if they're ill but there are other things that we need to be doing as a district and I'm really pleased when I talk to the leaders and teachers in the district that that is at the Forefront of their mind but we wanted to let you know that that wasn't going to affect our accountability um also I wanted to bring up at the last school committee meeting we talked about the need to explore curriculum resources uh you probably seen and I might have even talked about it um recently one of you know on the news or the globe uh you've seen that Governor Healey has come out with an initiative around literacy and one of the things that I think is really important for you to know is that here in this District folks are already at this work and so it's not the state coming in or desie coming in to Dartmouth saying we're going to force you to look at your curriculum resources I know uh Bess and I have had this conversation I think since the minute I walked in the door here and and she as well had just started as a school committee member we recognize that we have worked to do around selecting resources and even more importantly putting this District on a path where it does in fact have a curriculum um a curriculum review cycle and so I'm going to ask M Pavo poo to come up to the microphone and talk talk about some of the work that she has been doing um and really it's almost every day I see her with a care at least one curriculum team a day uh digging into this work yes we had our science group with us today so um I'm going to just first give you a little bit of an overview on a curriculum review cycle and the work that Mr tibo and I did um with the curriculum Council last year to develop this curriculum review cycle um Dr Jenkins was part of this work and so this should look familiar first you know what is a a curriculum review cycle and really the importance is just that cyclical nature of looking at our curriculum in a way to revise it to make sure that it's up to dat we know that things change we want to make sure that we remain current with what we're doing um and it really it gives us the opportunity to make data informed decisions about what the efficacy is of the curriculum materials that we're putting in front of our students every day um and so when we look at the elements of the curriculum review cycle you know obviously we want to make sure it's standards based and so as standards get updated it's imperative that we also make sure that we're updating our curricular materials um the alignment piece so it's kind of an ongoing joke but not really that anyone who works with me here as me talk sort of ad nauseum about uh horizontal and vertical alignment we talk a lot about the journey that our kids take right it's not so so much necessarily about just the grade level that you're teaching but the journey that that our kids are on and making sure that there's alignment between what they're doing let's just say in my world in second grade with third grade and as so there's that cohesion and that coherence that runs through the Journey that the kids are on um the equity piece we want to make sure that our curriculum resources are reviewed make sure that there there's no bias or cultural biases that are in our uh materials that we're putting in front of our kids we look at the professional development needs what are the needs of our educators to be able to not just give them a material but have them be able to use it effectively um and be able to um use that tool to teach our kids and Mr Kylie no offense that I last on my list but certainly there are budgetary implications right so we can't we can't get into a place where we suddenly need to review all of the curriculum and replace all of the curriculum so we need to do this in a cyclical nature and really have a budget and and a plan for making sure that we're looking at that that and so I'm not going to ask you to um look at this tiny little font I'll go through very quickly just there're really four tenants of a curriculum review cycle and you can really hop on anywhere right because the point of it is that it's cyclical and that you can do these things and um as we're developing that we're looking at our various curriculum areas and saying what makes sense with where we are right now um so just for I'm a I'm a kind of linear person I'll stop upper left so when we talk about reviewing the curriculum reviewing the curriculum really is is when you're taking that deep dive right so we've done some we've had something in place and now we're really taking a deep dive into what we're doing making sure that there's alignment to our Mass state Frameworks making sure that it is that has that alignment vertically and horizontally a great across grade levels making sure that it's not written making sure that it's free of biases um making sure that it's based on current research and I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a second um making Mak sure that it's Equitable to all students so we're looking at the diversity piece of that not just in the um cultural biases piece of that but also are our students able to access it do they have entry points regardless of sort of where they are or their learning styles can we can we is Equitable for all students in all learning styles um and then you know we need to make sure that it's we have alignment with things that we do to measure our students right so our SATs our acts our mcast making sure that the things that we're doing like I always say to my elementary folks mcast should never be the first time that these kids see something that looks like this right and so making sure that we're preparing kids for something that is a realistic part of their Journey um assessments making sure that our assessments are telling us what we need them to tell us about how our students are learning and so the outcome of that sort of first phase is you know a report or a state of the Affairs of the of that curriculum review um and then you may end up saying we need to look at something new or we need to write some revisions to this curriculum you know it could be a great a great framework and we just need to make some modifications to it so regardless of what your decisions are your next sort of phase in that um would be to do that development or revision right so we're either going to be piloting something new or looking for something new or we're going to be um doing kind of a deeper revision of what's in existence already um once you do those things right we need to implement and we need to implement it with Integrity um and make sure that we are uh implementing the the things that we're saying in the intent that they were intended to be done right and so um then we get into that monitoring phase and this is a multi-year phase where we're really looking at the data and making small shifts we're looking at scope and sequence shifts assessment shifts and really throughout all of these phases we're also very heavily focused on professional development what are the needs of our teachers whether they're new teachers whether they're veteran teachers sometimes that looks very different sometimes it's programmatic professional development around the materials sometimes it's instructional practice professional development so we're really looking at what the data is telling us our students need and providing PD around that and so I'm going to make a little shift and say that one of the when we're talking about current practices and making sure that we are um doing what our kids need I'd like to talk to you a little bit about science of reading as Dr Sab Maguire said there's a lot to be uh said heard read listened to around the science of reading although it really is not something new it has really come back around um because it it is a comprehensive body of research it's a lot of years of research and what it tells us is that um there are five foundational skills to learning how to read the bigger picture that we need to remember is that learning how to read is not reading as a whole right so we're really just talking about the foundational skills of reading and these are the Five Tenant of that sort of foundational skills we talk about phic awareness and phonics and fluency and vocab and comprehension and if you don't live in our world and use those words every day um as I know many people do not this is what that means so phenic awareness when we're talking about reading it begins far before you ever talk about your eyes on a page we're talking about being able to discern sounds and manipulate sounds and so we this is a real early foundational skill um but we need kids to be able to um be able to articulate and hear different sounds in a word so that when you hear the word bat you know that there's a b and a a and a t in there um and then we move forward and learn that letter there are letters that come together to make those sounds and sometimes two letters come together to make a new sound um and so those are sort of all those core things that kidss are doing before they're ever really reading or if they're having struggles in their reading that were looking at deficits have come up along the way fluency is just that sort of smoothness automaticity being able to read so that students can understand what they're reading so um it's that sort of muscle memory that you can do things without ever thinking about them right like sometimes you drive home or you think you're supposed to go to the store and suddenly find yourself in your driveway right cuz you're not really thinking about having to do that you just your brain knows how to do it automatically that's that sort of piece about you can lift the load of decoding and trying to figure out the words and really give yourself that opportunity to understand what you're reading vocabulary right I mean it's pretty self-explanatory um building the repertoire of our kids vernacular making sure that they have words that they can use and they understand and vocabulary has a direct link to knowledge based to knowledge and comprehension understanding um and there's a lot of research around just building our kids knowledge base right and so I again am such a nerd about this stuff but I'm like the Neuroscience behind how you learn is your brain is forever trying to make connections anytime you give someone anyone new information your brain instantly goes to work trying to connect it to things that you already know right and so we have to put things into kids that they already know and understand and that's you know a big part of what happens here and so um foundational reading skills how do we measure those well the Commonwealth has come along and really helped out in that and said you're going to do it and so they have a uh a early literacy screening guide that was passed in July of this year and so um this is the guidance that came out we had the guidance says we have to assess kids at least twice per year using a valid valid developmentally appropriate Des approved uh literacy instrument and then for students who are identified as not meing the Benchmark we need to inform parents of that and have a plan for what to do with the kids but there is good news in dartman public schools we have already been doing that so um we use the Dibbles eighth edition to do some screening of our kiddos and we were already doing that uh and we actually do it three times a year in Dartmouth we do a beginning middle and end of the year Benchmark and for kids who are not meeting The Benchmark we do a progress monitoring between so our students who are identified as struggling readers are being benchmarked five times a year in the area that we have concerns about which works out to about every six to eight weeks which is a great RTI cycle so we're looking at our kids we're looking at their data we're looking at what they're telling us so dible stands for dynamic indicator of basic early literacy skills it tests four of those five what Dibbles does not address is vocabulary but um IT addresses four of those other five basic skills of reading that are identified through the science of reading um and these are the grades in which they are assessed so you heard me talking about that phic awareness piece that's like a real basic foundational skill we're testing our kids in K and one in phic Awareness phonics we're testing them all the way through third grade reading fluency we don't actually look at kids oral reading fluency until around the middle of first grade because we're still teaching them to learn how to read that word reading fluency piece though is words on a page right so it's that to build up some of that automaticity so that we can get them to be fluid readers and then um the reading comprehension we test in grades two and three now we certainly test their comprehension in other ways but in Dibbles we're looking at grades two and three they do uh a maze which is a actually I gave you a little information about what each of those subtests looks like if you really wanted to see it um and and then I'm going to talk a little bit about some of those and what we have been doing over the last year and so when we were talking about the data and talking about what do our kids need um the group of kids in front of us we need to remember are some of the kids who had a very different Early Childhood experience um our current fourth graders are kids who went home in March of kindergarten and had a very different first grade year than any other kid would have right um our so play that forwards and backwards our third graders if they were in our preschool went home and had a very different kindergarten experience and so we know in looking at some of our data that our kids were really struggling with some of those foundational skills um and so what we did is we um graciously went to Mr Kylie and I said I really need some money and we were able to figure that out uh and we were able to get the foundations uh foundations is is a phonics based program um if you've heard ever of Wilson intervention it is based out of Wilson they're sort of the gurus of foundational reading intervention um and we were able to put that into the all of our classrooms so we had a group of teachers who piloted this last year in K to 3 all of our classrooms this year and K to2 implemented it one of the things again going back to that curriculum review cycle you learn from your pilot was that a third grade implementation is a very difficult thing for something that's very dependent on kids learning the basics of it in K1 and two and so we actually had our teachers go to some training with Wilson and the the recommendation was that you hold the third grade for a year let the kids get some of those foundational skills under the belt and then they can really fly with it in third grade and so what I've done um it's important to note that our kindergarten Dibble schedule is a little bit delayed so our our beginning of the year kindergarteners our introduction to school is certainly not one that we want to say welcome now come with me and I'm going to give you a test on something that you know you maybe have heard before but maybe not and so we try to get you know six weeks of instruction under their belt before we start looking at kids we don't want to over identify we don't want to under identify we want to make sure that the data we're collecting is accurate so what I've done is put together some um information about our kids in grades 1 through three so if you go back to the the test those there are four sub tests that are kids in grades 1 through three and I wanted to look at what does it look like this year compared to last year so we're talking about just one year not even a year right we're talking about six months of good solid tier one instruction and so we looked at middle of the Year benchmarking last year and middle of the Year benchmarking this year and at first glance you might look at it and say it doesn't really look so different but I think the other thing that you need to remember is that typically there's an implementation dip when you dip when you start a new program that the kids are all trying to get on board and you have to sort of bridge that Gap from what they've been doing before to what they've been doing now and so I look at this in this data and I go well overall we still have we had 65% of kids at or above the Benchmark before now we have 66 and so they're they're shuffling out a little bit different that can mean a couple of things right these are different cohorts of kids so this is an average of the one to three last year and an average of 1 to three this year so the cohort is a little bit different but we're making moves that we want to see we have less kids in the well below we have more kids at The Benchmark we took a little dip in the above Benchmark piece but in the overall at or above we're trending in the right direction that's true again when we're talking about our nonsense word fluency so nonsense word fluencies is we give kids madeup words right and so it's not we're not dependent on their ability to memorize a word we're giving them a word that is not a real one and they have to really depend on those foundational skills of knowing being able to segment words into into their sections know the sounds of those sections and be able to come up with it and so we do that at the phon level or the piece of the word level we do it at the full word level and again you'll see this was a great one you know our kids at The Benchmark again we're moving in the right direction word reading fluency is the ability to read those words at a singular level again you know that at or above number is trending in the right direction and our oral reading fluency um we're right we're right there is where we were last year and so you know I think the connection to this is that we have to continually look at the data and what the data is telling us about the efficacy of the programming in front of us and then if we need to make moves making sure that we're putting high quality research-based materials in the hands of our educators giving them the professional development that they need to be able to execute it well and then continually looking at how our kids are doing making small shifts were necessary making big shifts were necessary um and so you know what we have done is we address the foundational reading skills which we knew was a huge deficit post-pandemic these are like I said kids who just didn't learn how to read in the way that we know kids need to learn how to read and so we had to address that um and so in the longer term we are looking at our overall um Ela programming um our we have four curriculum teams that you've heard me talk about before our Ela team met with two publishing companies uh the week before last they have a couple more coming in next month and then we'll be looking at making some decisions um and anxiously also listening to what happens at the state level on what they're thinking about as far as uh literacy curriculum because they have a lot to say about it um which will be great as long as they attach funding to what they have have to say because um you know that tends to sometimes be the case but uh I'm happy to answer any questions that you have about the that was a lot of information in a short amount of time so I'm happy to answer any questions that you have well no questions but I'm really happy you're doing this and I look forward to seeing the next round of tests and how our students are developing and hopefully yeah so just say thanks I think the presentation is super useful I mean I think people sometimes think well I learned how to read like how different is it they don't understand that the what we know about how kids learn to read is continually changing and updating um and so to hear about sort of our understanding um like I know I'm I would probably do really bad at the madeup word test cuz I'm I'm like my kid would come home and be like how do you break these words up and I like I don't know like I I just know the word um so I think it's you know breaking it down and focusing on that makes our students better than perhaps we are but it's not as transparent because they're just learning to read that's what they see it um so I think it's super helpful for people to see these different components of that and I appreciate it thanks Mr it's this is this is great thank you and it's it's interesting it Dibbles this still around still around eth Edition huh eighth edition but you know I mean I can I can then again I can remember it you know being talked about yeah and and such but uh this is excellent you know I I'm and not that I'm looking for a kindergarten the first grader to have a lot of home but you know do the do they take sheets home for Mom and Dad the guardian to sit down with them to try and deyer some of them I think the biggest thing that we can do is create a literature Rich environment for our kids right and so reading toe children when they're learning how to read is has so much power in that ability to build vocabulary to build content knowledge and then also it's something it's time spend right and so if you can create a joy of reading I would tell kindergarten and first grade parents and typically at the elementary level the expectation for homework is that you're going to do some kind of reading at home it can be reading with an adult it can be reading to an adult um you know there's a lot of benefit in reading things that you might consider look at your child and say well that's too easy for you now no there's so much benefit in building their fluency and their ability so read to I would tell my kids read to the dog read to your dolls read to your little brother or sister right like if reading in general in any way shape or form will have tremendous benefit for your kids and it doesn't need to be a worksheet necessarily it doesn't need to be something that they're pencil to paper just creating a really liter Rich environment for your kids is truly the best thing that you can do thank you yeah no thank you great presentation Katie and um no I I certainly appreciate the work that you're doing along with Mr tibo and the rest of the uh staff in the district I look forward to seeing where where we go from here yeah thanks we appreciate your support yeah thank you uh thank you for this I really uh you know uh in particular um selfishly really love the focus and the the curriculum um cycle to those onramps for those students who learn differently um you know I uh and also selfishly sort of being kind of close to um those you know Audi books or I remember um one of my kiddos early on like U um participating in uh counting how much time in the summer they they were reading and it really was all of the things that we were able to help uh them access to be part of that whether it be audio whether it be thumbing through magazines and pointing to pictures and communicating in just alternate ways so I really love the focus to those on-ramps for all of our Learners um I I'm wonder I'm the good news is we're already doing it with the Dibbles um but that added component which I completely understand and and am in support of uh but I'm just wondering your thoughts I'm looking over there like to parents receiving because that you know yes we would have parent teacher conferences we would talk through um you know the struggles that we have on those individual basis if if a teacher teachers are able to identify through the way that we're doing it when a student is is not um to the level that they think they should be um what has been the response to parents receiving That official sort of 30-day documentation saying your student is not meeting the thank you for bringing that up so that that part of it is new for us right so um we do a lot of assessing of our kids and We Gather a lot of information about them the the new piece to that right is that requirement to be in contact with parents to say your child is struggling and so I I don't love the idea of only contacting parents when your child is struggling and so we made the decision to contact all parents about how their students were doing and um the other thing I don't love is when a parent finds out when they receive a report card or that that's when their child is struggling that should never be the first idea that you have and so you know because it's done pretty early in the year sometimes before parent teacher conferences the timing of it for kindergarten worked out great because we could give the letter to all of our families at parent teacher conferences but the 30-day requirement didn't allow us to do that for our our older kids so we built time into their day for a phone conversation for any student who was getting a letter that said that your child is below the Benchmark and so a conversation with a family is so important because the other thing to remember that Dibbles like all of our assessments is one snapshot and so that conversation with a teacher who really has been doing work with a student could sound something like you're going to get a letter that says that your child didn't do so great on this I read with her every day and I want you to know that this isn't reflective of what I see from your child and this is what we're doing and this is right or this you're going to get a letter today and it might seem a little bit concerning but I want you to know this is what we already have in place your child might be seeing a reading specialist they may be doing some tier 2 instruction with me in the classroom so the other part of the requirement that's great is to have a plan and so you know it would be one thing if we were communicating and saying just want you to know they're not doing so hot but not have a plan for it but to be able to say this is what we're doing in response to that um and make sure that the parents you know and I think it softens the blow when you get that letter because this is let's let's be clear like this is dyslexia guidelines right and so you're getting a letter that says your child may be at the higher risk for dyslexia and what parent wants to get that letter certainly without context it's terrible and so you know we provided some time for our teachers to be able to have that conversation and provide the context but also what they see on the everyday basis not just on these one minute Subs that they're doing with these students excellent of course you already had a plan for thank you for um explaining it for the public but and for me but um thank you thank you Katie I just want to say again been leading great work before I got here one of the things that I was really excited about was when I finally um got to Dartmouth that foundations was in place because that was something that I was committed to in my prior district and also what you didn't mention but hegerty um is also another aspect of a resource that you have brought in to the Dartmouth schools to help support again around the science of reading and I want to just also mention the curriculum review review cycle because it's really not unlike the capital Improvement the long-term planning for Capital Improvement so if you're on a cycle you don't get to this point as Katie pointed out that we need resources in every single content area and that becomes really expensive but if we budget for it over time and it's connected to a cycle then it's almost like what you said Dr Jenkins earlier we're banking right so we we know that money is there it's there in the budget every year and we're able to make decisions based on something that we have in place um supposedly and I'm I'm believing this might be true is that there is is going to be funding attached to this and the thing again that I feel really confident confident about in Dartmouth is that we're so well poised that whatever it is that's eventually released um that will be right at the front of the line ready to ready to move on a resource and again Katie's been doing a lot of work with a lot of your Educators in this school district plenty of teacher voice so important so thank you thank you thank you Katie thank you you so you know my favorite thing to talk about is entry planning that's why I invited Ross up here to help me with it so um part of what I want to help us to do and help me to do really as you're still I'm still saying still your new superintendent as I'm moving out of the entry entry phase um into strategic planning um we're not going to really be digging deep into strategic planning until we have collected all of the information that we started really way back in July or April really um we have partnered with teaching Learning Alliance I think I mentioned that at a prior meeting and they're going to be helping us to they're going to be facilitating this process and one of the reasons for that was that we all meaning the entire team here including some of yourselves want to be part of the process and not necessarily directing the process because we want to be part of the teams that are doing this work and so uh Mr tbolt is going to talk about our next steps thank you Dr Sabre McGuire so um our strategic planning actually um you can pick where you want to kind of put a PIN to say we started uh I know Katie talked Katie and I talk about this all the time but on March 11th which was a Wednesday of 2020 um the District strategic plan te actually met in the community room at Quinn and then on Friday March 13th 2020 we know um the whole world shut down so if that's the point you want to pick as a starting point that would be fine um but last year really uh in 2022 2023 school year we started partner partnering with Envision learning um to really develop our portrait of a learner and the portrait of a learner uh for folks who might not be familiar with it it's just it's basically a promise from darmouth public schools to the community this is what you can expect your uh you know the students in the district to be um working on on a daily basis as they're with us some districts call it a portrait of a graduate or a vision of a graduate we made a purposeful decision as a strategic planning team to call it the portrait of a learner because we want it to be applicable to students prek through 12 in our district and we really wanted to serve as that North Star that would eventually guide our district strategic plan planning work and so as Dr Sabre Maguire said we're now at that point where we have a draft portrait of a learner we presented it to um our Educators uh in the early release day in January to collect feedback from them um and again one of the things that's so important to strategic planning work and to the development of our portrait of a learner is input from all stakeholders within the community and so last year when we started this work what we really did was ask every single educator to kind of create a prototype if it was up to them in small teams what would the portrait of a learner look like for them at their level and it was from that that the strategic planning team really developed our portrait of a Learner in addition to that we surveyed all of the stakeholders in the community um parents and uh families and caregivers um elected officials uh received a survey uh from from us um students at the high school level were part of of that as well and of course our Educators were were surveyed and and actually developed their own prototypes so it was a very inclusive process and that uh strategic planning te spent all of last school year really synthesizing all of that data and all of that information and put it together and so now we're uh shifting from partnering with Invision learning which helped us with that work and they're a nationwide uh National Consultant Group that does this work around portrait of a learner um but we're shifting and partnering with the teaching and Learning Alliance now which is a consultant uh Consultant Group uh in the ma in Massachusetts made up of uh recently um serving superintendents or assistant superintendents they've worked with over 80 districts across the Commonwealth and I think in in some other states Across the Nation as well um to to do various types of educational leadership work strategic planning work um Etc so um we're going to be expanding that core team the district strategic planning team um has consisted of representation from each building in the district including central office um so there's been administrators and either coaches or teacher represent uh representatives from each building but we're going to look to Branch out and to include um you know a couple of uh folks from the school committee Board of Selectmen the uh fincom also uh families and um you know parents um we're going to look to increase our educator representation on that uh on that team as well because now we're really shifting to the uh intense work of moving from a poster for the portrait of a learner to our practice what do we need to do to go from that poster to actually living you every single day so that every single student of ours has that experience um and that's going to happen fairly quickly which is exciting because it seems at time uh at times it seems like we're moving very slowly even though the work takes time time and so I'm I'm glad we've moved at uh the pace that we have because we I think we've done some really great work um but over the course of the spring and then into the fall we're going to put together a plan that really um that's presented to the school committee for approval um and it will really address how we're going to move from poster to practice and the endgame is once it is approved by the school committee that the teaching uh and Learning Alliance will produce a professionally designed print ready strategic plan for the next five years that's going to really drive the work in this District um along with a data dashboard that can be used to um monitor our progress as we achieve the the goals and the uh um initiatives that we set forth in that plan and communicate that out to the to the public as well so that it's fully transparent and everyone knows exactly um you know how progress is is is being made I just wanted to share because I talked about the portrait of a learner ignore the graph the graphic here is not what the final graphic will be this is a placeholder graphic um our unified Arts students at the high school are actually um taking these competencies um and branding it and designing it to reflect Dartmouth um and so the again the idea was that we'd you know some some communities will just have a uh graphic design deser do it for them we wanted our students to have a hand in owning this because it's ultimately about them um and so we uh met with Christine MC our unified Arts Lead Teacher here at the high school she's working with the teachers in her department and the students uh and they're actually in the process as we speak of creating several designs that will be considered um in terms of the graphical representation but these are the five comp competencies that were identified by uh stakeholders within the community as being important to our portrait of a learner and they are critical thinker and Problem Solver Communicator continuous learner contributing Citizen and collaborator and these are the skills and competencies that we said every effective learner needs to uh employ at some point um and again prek through 12 um what you don't see is the actual work that took so long which is these are all very well defined and broken out by grade level so it goes prek through two and you know for each of these competencies there's definition and uh performance outcomes that go with them so from prek through two what does an effective Communicator look like and it's all laid out and then for grades three through five what does that Communicator look like 6 through eight and then 9 through 12 and that's done for each of these competencies and again that was done um through a series of meetings throughout the course of last uh school year where um a very talented group of of Educators really looked through and had good discussion around what are the skills that go into being an effective communicator and what are what do they look like at each grade level and so on and so forth and that's what was presented to all Educators in the district earlier uh in January as I talked about to get feedback because the design te the uh planning team created it but we wanted educator feedback as well so um you know to make sure it was going to be a document that is useful to all teachers and all students in the district um this is our core team as of today uh so this is the team that I said we'd be adding to um and I just want to um kind of acknowledge there awesome folks who either from retirement or left the district who contributed to the work you know it started with Dr gford obviously uh retired and and so um Dr sa McGuire jumped right in there um same Lori jwin was part of it um Bill Garcia and will Higgins um all contributed significantly to that portrait of a of our learner draft and and of course these folks who are listed here on the screen are still very much part of the work and so we appreciate their hard work um a lot of hours uh of work and good discussion have kind of gone into it and I think we're in a very good position to add um to the team like I said with members from the school committee select board uh fincom parents and Guardians caregivers um you know and and some students as well so we're excited to do that we're excited to continue the work and part of um what teaching the teaching and Learning Alliance is going to do for us is to facilitate focus groups to continue to bring uh input into our process and so um one opportunity to be part of such a focus group is going to occur at the superintendent's Family Forum um um which is going to be held here at on March 6th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

at plank Junior High School we encourage everyone to be there we're all Partners in the education and experience of our students February is love the bus month love the bus love the bus months it's a time set aside to recognize honor and celebrate the yellow school buses that transport some 25 million American school children each day we celebrate the trained professionals who manage and operate our transportation system ensuring the safe delivery of students to and from school each day and I don't want to just read that line I I want to sincerely thank all of our transportation people we appreciate you yes okay mine is um our school district's annual Amplified student Le event celebrating diversity across our community brings together individuals from so many different backgrounds cultures races and ethnicities this event celebrates the differences that make us all unique as well as the similarities that unite us this year the event will be held on March 21st at the asigo East High School with the theme of walk a mile in my shoes students proudly and courageously share their talents traditions and interests with those in attendance please mark your calendars and plan to attend this incredible student event again it's March 21st from 5: to 8:30 p.m.

um all members of the central office leadership team will be on hand talk about uh different topics we hope we'll get a large turnout of family members community members who want to meet Dr Sabre Maguire if they haven't already or uh meet other members of our central office leadership team hear about some uh of the exciting work going on and perhaps most importantly take advantage of the opportunity to share their voice um to help us prioritize the the work of the district moving forward just to build off of that I want to make sure that we're clear that we're we are not jumping into strategic planning without first reporting out to the school committee and the public on what our entry findings are because the entry findings should and will inform the strategic planning process and so that is something that we're working on and part of this superintendent family form is meant to gather us together more information from the public um so this will be sort of a combined effort where we get a chance to and we've talked about this really since since September having this opportunity to meet with families but on so we'll do that and you can see the topics will include school budget teaching and learning student services technology and more and then we'll hand part of this meeting off as Mr tbol was saying to the folks the facilitators from teaching Learning Alliance who will then be able to work with the this family form to gather information that will again go into our report on Entry findings so there won't be any actual strategic steps for rest strategic planning until we complete our report on Entry findings because the findings are critical to informing what comes next with with our work um I also just wanted to mention the stakeholder groups are are critically important as a matter of fact we have a group this week yes yeah so this week um our middle school and high school students will be meeting with representatives from uh TLA um on Thursday afternoon and that will be the first opportunity as Dr Sabre McGuire said to continue to collect stakeholder input into that will inform um the strategic planning process but again it's a it's a group of uh middle school students and high school students and then later on uh in a week or a couple of weeks after uh vacation I believe the elemente school students will have um the opportunity as well um and then eventually it will our staff uh you know faculty um and staff will have an opportunity to meet with representatives from the uh from TLA family uh and parents um community members and then there will be for anyone who can't come in person there will be a virtual opportunity to do so as well um that TLA will host um to be able to you know really reach anyone in the community who wants to be part of this this work will have an opportunity to do so super any questions fantastic nice thank you thank you very much appreciate it so how are we ading the family form that's great question and in particular I mean I think it' be easy to reach out to families but what about Community how how are we going to engage the community in that so part of the way that we'll advertise the Family Forum is through our weekly backpack that's one way but we also realize that not everybody probably looks in the weekly backpack on a weekly basis um so this will be something that we also will will um do a a call through parents Square so a text so we'll give the community as far as the community is concerned though um we have Dartmouth week I think somebody from Dartmouth week was here earlier is up in cor so we'll be counting on their help as they help us with uh advertising and promoting a lot that's happening here in the Dartmouth schools and so that's another way we'll get the word out to the community thank you any anyone else no right you know I have a couple more things yeah I'm just thinking in terms of the Family Forum the special the CPAC special parent advisory Council was scheduled for a workshop the following week but I'm thinking it might be very fruitful to um advertise this as an opportunity to advise the school district that's the point um for this purpose and leading this to be our meeting or directing families to to this forum in lie of you know so we're we're willing to be flexible and I think that's a great idea to to offer families a real real opportunity to have an impact that's a great that's a great suggestion okay and I see Miss Denia over there noting her head yes so here Mrs Redland so yep we'll make sure that that happens I'll get that word out um so just a couple other quick updates I always have to talk about Personnel in HR we are going to be advertising for the position of Early Childhood director we spoke about that today we're hoping that to do that in probably uh early to mid-march um that's when these types of positions are generally advertised and we think that'll give us the time we need to be able to attract a qualified candidate pool uh I always have to say you know I'm going to say it educating educator um Specialists educator esps educator support professionals thank you so much all right and then um always substitutes and so again Katie and Ross have taken over the interviewing of substitutes for the district and I think that that's helped to promote a smoother process for getting people in and getting them out into the schools as soon as possible and of course I Kate doesn't like to be thanked but I always have to thank her because she really does so much work on making sure that we get our candidates um you know that we get their paperwork done and that we get them out into schools as soon as we possibly can um but then you know we have a lot of fun stuff to talk about uh this is always my favorite part to continue to just talk to you and the community about the wonderful accomplishments of your Dartmouth students uh this past week I had the opportunity to watch the girls basketball game this past Friday night um they had their second victory over Bridgewater rum which is apparently an anomaly here in Dartmouth and with that win they won they secured their first ever League Championship and so that's a really big deal to to them I could see how excited they were and the celebration that took place with that win and we're going to be looking forward to seeing what happens next so they they completed a perfect Conference record they were 80 in their conference and 16 and one overall so that's pretty exciting news to see where the girls basketball team goes next um at the same time this game was happening I was able to um pop in and see a what was a double session of the six through High School school strings section of the orchestra and so um that was directed by Heather church and Mike Daniels and they did have uh apparently uh nationally and internationally renowned uh musician here who was working directly with the students it was really exciting to see I have to say it was it was incredible impressive and the first time that I've had the opportunity to see that part of the orchestra at work and your sixth graders unbelievable when I heard that they had just started in January to play some of the pieces that they expertly played so it was like you know you're going to really literally an orchestra concert right here in Dartmouth in the middle of or the beginning of February um the DHS boys and girls indoor track teams both third and second place finishes at last Tuesday's indoor championships um I didn't get a chance to see them yet because they're playing in I mean they they compete in Boston so perhaps we can talk about that at some point and try to figure out how to get them closer to home um but definitely many combined and individual efforts I got to meet with all the captains of the sports teams and the track team was really well represented so you can tell that there is Gen genuine commitment to that sport here in Dartmouth uh so I also want to mention the hockey team continues to pile up some wins they started off a little slow but it looks like they really put things together um but beyond Sports there are some public facing that are all public facing and they certainly get quite a bit of attention in the Dartmouth week but I do want to thank the Dartmouth week for cover and offering a sort of a two-page I think spread on what's happening in the outh schools and what's so incredibly impressive about it it's all written by our students and I don't think you'd know that unless you read the the um opening paragraph describing what this particular spread was about so lots of great things in here a couple things that I've learned I also got to participate in a podcast with the with the students who are running your school newspaper and let me tell you they didn't lob any softball questions it was really challenging and one of the things that I I'm so impressed about because just last me last week I met with speaking of the roof a group of sophomores so four sophomores who are doing a Civics project about the high school roof and they had some excellent questions the um the report that Mr Kylie had uh had a group come in um I had it in my hand it's it's about this thick and I have to tell you it's page after page of problems there was nothing in it that said this part of your roof is in excellent shape so lots of photographs to go with it um but back to meeting with the students they had they asked excellent questions they're really interested um Mr Kylie and I are going to take them up at on the roof at some point because he offered to take me up on the roof to see where all these problems are and so we invited them along but really thoughtful questions thoughtful kids and again the podcast was so incredibly impressive so professional and Mr Higgins does a great job leading those students and I think that's important to close on thinking about all of the wonderful adults that are so committed to kids in this community because that's how they're getting all of these are being exposed to all of these wonderful opportunities in the community of darmouth there's so much more to talk about I know the boys basketball game maybe just Ed they're up 12 oh they're up 12 so that's exciting news so we hope that they're going to also be victorious this evening but great stuff happening so we should all be celebrating those kinds of things because that is the commitment that the community has to its schools and so thank you thank you thank you um so before uh I really don't have much uh do anybody um else have anything to contribute Mr n thank you mam chair just to real quickly follow up on Dr Sabre Maguire talking about student athletes and the standard times is uh getting caught up with their uh last year spring and this year fall student athletes and such and we've had uh a couple of our athletes make that uh uh those the the awards and such so just congratulations to them uh I know I briefly touched on it uh last month but uh March Saturday March 2nd starting at noon time here the uh music association is going to be hosting a nesba show both color guide and percussion uh starting at 12:00 noon uh our JV is on the JVS Color Guard goes on at 12:45 uh the vity goes on at five o'clock and awards will be right after that and then uh we'll kick into the percussion and dmouth is scheduled at the moment to be on at 8:50 with a Wards right after so in the next couple of days I'll get an email out to everybody looking looking for presenters for the trophies and again you know the times that they're there I realize it's a long day and such but if you want to if you're able to help out we would appreciate it that's all I have thank you Mr Nunes anyone else um the the only thing I have uh really is just I I started talking about this um uh I was approached by a Community member um and then I did see this end up a conversation on social media um but I just wanted to mention it because I know we have a policy around naming facilities and um uh I just couldn't occasion the exact process that I believe it's through if anyone has such a you know there are policies around how that is determined and and and the fairness and the the the Outreach to other interested parties I keep looking at Mr noon just as your historical um but uh yeah I was also contacted by community members well I didn't see anything on social media but I was contacted by commun by a Community member yeah so they would what what how does it start through the superintendent's office or is it just in it starts with like a letter of letter of interest to the superintendent they come before the committee here's what here's what they want here's what they would like to do and you put a you put a group together to filter the potential uh honores and such and then you know and there's a whole policy on that yeah I have it in front of me that type of deal and you know certain things you know the looking for a wow factor yeah and such and then uh you know then they come up with a recommendation and it comes back to was mhh okay deal great that's the digest version yeah no no no CU I know it's sort of like you open it up for other folks who might have a different thought around how to approach a certain building or in the part about seeing it on social media which is I didn't really read but it looked like there might be some someone else already um named after particular space so um lots to consider so thank you for I just wanted to bring it up I mean and what's the at that point as I said you know you may have to try and you know somebody's going to have to do some leg work to on so it's a process that process yeah yeah it's not yeah I think that's important it's not as easy as saying it's not cut and dry right it is not it is a process and it's a community process and there needs to be a lot of involvement in that and ultimately the committee does make that kind of decision yeah I do remember we had the we started out with those discussions a staff member came to us about we uh and it took G coach gasar um naming the court after honoring him um and so that took took a lot of community involvement and and uh I wasn't on that committee but others were and that that was really meaningful so I just wanted to bring that up because it was brought to to um my attention by a constituent yeah great um I have nothing else and so um and I don't have my agenda in front of me to next meeting is March 11th March 11th 6: p.m.

at ASO East High School wonderful we have some phenomenal athletic uh celebrations we're going to send wel gosh so many we're sending well wishes to our asigo East and asigo high school girls bowling team who both are headed to the state finals asgo East plays second and asigo high school plays fourth in the ihsa sectional so congratulations to them um we have great job to for our boys Co-op swim and the dive team um as the SPC conference Champion so congratulations to them ouro Co-op gymnastics team has claimed both the Upstate 8 Conference Championship and the ihsa Regional Championship um their team scored their highest point total as a team at the sectional Championship with Ava Sullivan and Sam Phillip both qualified to move on to the I ihsa state championship for all around in individual apparatus so congratulations to them and as mentioned earlier uh we have registration for our kindergarten and dual language program this is a very excited time of the year when we welcome all of our future students to register for kindergarten and all of the details for this registration is on our website um but we want to draw special attention to the opportunity for our district which offers um to our kindergarteners um for the chance to be a part of our dual language program um dual language is an immersive program for students to receive their education in both English and Spanish and this form of education continues throughout all subjects and and grades throughout high school and this helps them to develop um bilingual fluency and high academic achievement so more information is on our website um to be available for kindergarten and dual language registration please go there for more information more information and before I read mine I just want to say to to the bowling piece really appreciate um Partnerships with businesses that we have out there and I'm pretty sure we utilize Parkside Lanes so thank you Parks side lanes for all you do for our community as well uh so 100th day has been recent uh recently celebrated usually it's a big day for uh young students and I I know a uh I know an elementary teacher in my own District that they decided they were going to do the 101st day so they could do 101 dalmati this is proof that students are no no offense but kids are actually more resilient than adults many times cuz it threw the adults off right I learned what I learned is don't necessarily take the 100 and go to 101 with elementary teachers CU they they've got this like thing down about 100 days and you go to 101 and look out um this means a couple of things right this means the second trimester for uh elementary students is fastly approaching and oh there's that Temptation right there's that Temptation where you kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel like the end of the school year is coming but listen let's not forget right April is is there's a lot of school in April and May so yes we uh we've got you know it feels like April outside lately but uh it's not and we still have a ways to go but um encourage everybody we have strong students strong teachers and we're we're getting close to Spring Break and we come back it's going to be here we go so thank uh continuing with athletic celebrations um for boys wrestling congratulations and good luck to bradden Swanson who is a state qualifier in the 138 pound weight having placed fourth at sectionals can't remember the last time I saw that number um oh uh ASO High School co-ed competitive cheer um so proud of them they play second at conference and qualified for State for the second year in a row by placing fourth at section um they finished their impressive season in 22nd Place at State and I was huddled around with a bunch of teachers watching it on a really um bad um uh Wi-Fi but it was so I'm so impressed with them and they've just really represented throughout the season and as Dr zmy will tell you I've become a cheer addict I love it um and then our asgo East dance earned a trip to the ihsa state finals by placing sixth in their sectionals they finished their season in 26th Place out of an extremely talented group of 3A dance teams so kudos to all of our student athletes can I can I mention one other thing too it's getting late as it is um I there there are more ihsa sponsors more programs than just Athletics um I I don't have all of the I don't have all the names but the other things that they do sponsor are chess drama music speech and scholastic bowl um I do know one student who goes to I believe Trower that qualified for sectionals in uh original oratory and I just want to you I think anyone that qualifies for sectionals in any of those categories um does a great job so they're not just about uh they're just not not just about the athletes and during our ssac meeting athlet it was a a pretty extensive conf conversation because Luke Luke competes and a couple other people competes in the oratory competition so they're very involved so we're excited about it very good he did humor I said trur I should have said as humorist any any other comments before we move on it's getting late okay so we'll move on to 8.1 consent agenda are there any questions on the consent agenda I can make the I'm sorry can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes of the Board of Education meeting from January 22nd 2024 open and close session 8.2 to acknowledge the foer requests received by the district and 8.3 8.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and or more than 200 miles second are are there any questions on the consent agenda okay Mr Gatewood I Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi mrone hi Miss Simon hi hi hi motion passes 70 um 9.1 financial statements and the investment schedule are there any questions on these items okay next I want to invite Mr Queen for an operations update even good evening everyone good evening great to see you tonight so we're going to talk about two locations starting with oehs high school we're going to talk about tracks um well track so we've uh come up with a solution to the problem that we were faced with back in the earlier part of the summer and and beginning of the school year where we had a trouble located in the dzone the dzone is if you take a look at the screen is that little piece of real estate that we all hang out in during um cross down classic and other events that we're holding at the high school and what you're looking at is a section of real estate that we are able to move back to get this portion of of the high jump located we faced several obstacles with this um we had to work with the enduser and the coaches on several occasions just to make sure that we were in in in the right excuse me that we had the proper requirements for the ihsa requirements and that we could utilize it with the coaches and what you're seeing in that little circle arcway there is where they would set up that that high jump mat and and they'll move this fur for wind location several other okay reasons why they would want to um move this area around what we faced was the crown of the football field a football field is naturally crowned when you're dealing with natural Turf which produced a problem with the pitch and the leveling of that that dzone as a full and we talked about this several times in FFC and here here both and and and we didn't want to get into a situation to where we were struggling with another sport to make this sport work right so what Todd Roberts is done he's came up with a solution to where we're going to be in requirements we won't have to cut into our football field like I had mentioned before we're going to be able to get all of this in and and and the coaches will agree that it's going to be a great fit so we'll be pushing this out to RFP at the end of February beginning of March and our goal and our requirement is to get this done in the middle of July okay questions for Mr Queen I think the only question I have is what impacts does this have on or or does it make I don't want to phrase this does it impact either this season or next season more than we've already implicated does that make sense no so that's that's why this need needs to be done in the middle of July so we don't impact that fall track season I've worked with the coaches we're going to get in right after their May spring session around the track just to keep away from bothering anything there um so no this this should not and and another thing I would like to note is the price difference so when we first started talking about this we were sitting at about 103,000 for the change order this is going to cost us 50,000 so we is that a savings I'm here that's a big savings in the change order absolutely okay thank you thank you Mr bami and thank you Mr Queen goad got one more I'd like to talk about plank soank rtu yeah plank rtu replacement this was the replacement of nine rooftop units on the top of that building this is all HVAC related work right so our goal and and we're we're optimistic that if these five smaller units show up by spring break we will have these units installed over spring break and then give us a great jump start on that summer install of the F of the four larger units um we've we've actually had a lot of good work with the new contractor and this new liquidated damages I mean these guys have really been spot on with getting those schedules spot on with getting in there getting the things done that need to prep us for this spring break date so both projects are looking looking good on on track to to complete them both so as a point of clarification Mr would you or Bill do you want to talk a little bit so this is part of our new contract that we brought to the board correct in terms of how we approach the business as a result of the lessons learned from last year so I wanted you're saying that this is really motivated on Chang it it has like in the rfps that we've went we've went through we've we've done about three since we've done this we're seeing great numbers we're seeing competitive numbers we're getting more more biders people are wanting to take advantage of this opportunity to where all sides can can come out on top on this right we can we can get our projects done in that short period of time that I have to do them in the summertime and and the contractors have a advantage to to make some money on our end as well this is not hurting us because this is out of the contingencies so we're we're using that money out of the contingencies and it's budgeted for the project so it's not a total bonus it's a workable bonus okay thank you all right all right anything else that's all is there any questions rep plank no okay uh 9.3 mowing bid results mowing bid results so we met with five contractors um and our recommendation would be to go with the lowest bid as or ACS oi LLC um for the 2024 mowing contract with the option to renew a one year for two two years um this was an eight building hybrid program and the same as we run the snow removal questions just one do we have um experience with them from the past or or is this kind of new for us we don't the these are a new contractor that we're working with but we what we did do is check their references um they're doing bigger areas Fox Valley so they're holding some big clients that were very happy with their work I'm excited to work with them because they're numbers were real low and I think we can start a relationship with them and if we don't well we'll talk about renewing that one year or not or we need to go out to RFB again thank you thank you Mr Queen um next we have 9.4 evidence-based funding and Beyond so thank you Dr katti I cannot uh say this enough evidence based funding is Chang the trajectory of our finances for the folks who are listening to us who are wondering why the district finances seems to be in a better shape that's one of the biggest variable it's a game changer for us and I think if you remember when we met with our legislator uh the village uh the village legislative breakfast we made it clear to the legislator we thank them for the work that they've done in making sure that state continues to fund ebf and as long as that happens we will dig our way out of uh the struggles that we've had over the years and uh so I just I cannot say that enough so what I just wanted to talk about I'm going to try to to move quickly today don't spend as much time as I've done in the past is that I decid to focus on uh three basic things when it comes to to uh ebf the one is to there are three stages in determining how much money a district would receive from ebf one is uh the state needs to determine how much is actually costing the district to educate a child how much does adequate education look like so we'll go through the uh cost breakdown very quickly the other part is stage two is looking at how much local resarch does the district have to be able to do that and the third part is how much additional resources does the district need outside of the local resources to be able to get to adequacy so what I'm focusing on today is just the stage one determining the cost of funding uh education so if you look at that one of the key variable is enrollment still drives if you all remember uh few years ago before pre2 2017 we used to have to do the state used to fund School District with GSA everybody got the same amount of money based on enrollment and so enrollment is still a big variable in the process so what this shows it shows that this uh those it these items have to be backed out of the enrollment number but enrollment is still a big driver and so what is done is look at uh 2year prior enrollment in the last three years to get an average okay and then uh you see what the uh the adequacy amount is and then the other three variables that I consider in addition to enrollment average salaries of the staff member in the district as well as cost Factor Cali ation which I'm going to talk about in the next slides so these are abbreviations that will become relevant as we talk about subsequent slides Elementary Middle School High School low income and non low income those are all important factors that are taken into account so this are the core investment this are what district I expected to spend money on and that is then used to determine whether the cost factors are as I mentioned earlier as you see that teaching is is it's a big part of that so it's counseling then you have librarian and you have nurses and supervisory Aid and other instructional related uh cost and this is I wanted to show how much a district is expect to spend per student this is the core investment so you have gifted there's an amount that is uh that a district is expected to be able to spend per student and the same thing with computer tech uh assessment and then instructional material this are the in doing the calculation in trying to determine how much districts are spending this is what districts are expected to spend per student and it goes on again I wanted this the first one instructional this second set of data is more operational none related to instruction but still very important one big one is uh operation of Maintenance right Elementary uh Middle School and High School the expectation is for each child a district is expect to spend 1361 for operation and uh and uh maintenance and then central office dispenses employee benefits and then once you have there those are core uh factors then there's some non-core factors if you will one important factor that I want to point out is the comparative uh wage index we know depending on where you are in the state the cost of living varies from place to place if you live down state let's say you live in Carol uh the salaries that are paid through education who live down state it's not the same as folks who live in uh who live in the Chicago metropolitan area so that is taken into account so that is um a factory that is taken into account in determine what adequacy is so this is that's this is related to what I just talk about there's a regionalization factor based on the cost of living of different parts of the state so this is so I just went through how the cost are calculated to determine how much does our district need to invest uh in educating students next time I do the presentation what I'm going to then look at is look at what the local weals that are available for school district to be able to meet this cost and then the final one will be how the state then calculates adequacy and says okay based on the cost that you're supposed to have in stage one stage two based on the resources that you have available to be able to fund a good education for a child regardless of where they're located then the state will determine how much additional ebf funding should be allocated to the district and this is where the chair system comes in so tier one uh districts are the ones who are furthest from adequacy which is where we are and they get about they guarantee 50% % of all your money right each year that is appropriated then uh then it goes down from there TI two uh tier three tier two are closer to adequacy tier three are really really close to adequacy tier four they actually spend more money that it's required for adequacy any questions yes I try to go through that very quickly I hope it made sense I have one question yeah one question for can you in make sure you include the total cost to educate and then versus how much we actually receive to Levy to do the the Delta between the two of those sure sure and then and then you can add in how ebf makes up that difference difference absolutely and of course of course we'll know that we're still only will still fall short of that number but I just want to be able to see I couldn't I'm not as good as Jared I couldn't do the math as fast on slide six so just to to answer that question to actually answer that question I'm happy to uh to create a a pie chart that shows that that would be great and also a table that shows the Delta the levy only amount to 58% is the largest by far correct 58% so the state part is about 30% so that's a big chunk yes so if you are both of them you're talking about 8% everything else accounts for the rest correct significant source of for but I will put it in for the uh for the second stage but I love this I love to be able to see the difference as an individual student because I think that everybody will be able to see H how their tax dollars goes to per student and how much the state funding makes up the difference I think that it'll be important to see that and yeah I'm I'm happy to do that in when you look at the union the Illinois is actually I believe in the whole Union School District are more dependent on property taxes in funding education than any other uh state in the Union if I can repeat that again most of the school districts a big chunk of funding comes from the state and property tax is only a small part of it in Illinois is reversed so then depending on where you live determines the kind of education that you get so if you live downstate where the property uh the the property is more agricultural in nature which doesn't get tax as much the level of local wealth that you have available to you before ebf was limited but if you live in a place like korth or gleno you have a significant amount of property tax wealth so I'll give you an example where the average adequacy in the state is about 12,000 to educate child yeah per child if you go you start moving North to the NorthShore you look at Island Park Lake Forest wer vanburn uh uh willm Kena you look in a district that spend as much as $30,000 per child and no one could tell me there's no difference in how much you spend on the outcome that you get from from the education that you receive so that's why ebf is such a game changer for districts such as us even though our taxpayers pay a large Property Tax Bill relative to to other District because if you take the district and the nor sure the value of the property is high so the tax rate is low right here the value of the T the property is not as high as what you have in the N show so in order to be able to make up the difference I tax rate is higher proportionate to what you see in high wealth property area have um back at the beginning you talked about uh funding or you talked about student population taking the the average of the the current student population and the past two years yes and that's where you get your number from um so what happens when you live in a district that has a lot of new construction with a prob a potential future influx of kids are you behind the eightball then for those years because you can't predict so two things will have to happen you wouldn't be able to get that until subsequent years until it happen in two areas even in your property tax it's going to be important for you to calculate your property tax levy well because in the assessment estimate that you get from the uh the county assessor doesn't include new construction until those properties actually get on the tax bill and if you calculate that if you under calculate that you lose the ability to get those resources forever so you have to that's one of the reasons why we balloon Levy when we do property tax because we have the gome of uh existing property on the tax role but as far as new construction they have not been assessed yet right so we don't know what it is so we have to do a lot of data mining and then balloon that to make sure that we don't leave any money on the table to make sure that's on the property tax end as far as the ebf end what the uh state would do they'll look at a threee average right in subsequent years and if the data shows that you have increase in enrollment the ebf allocation will be adjusted to reflect that can you can you but but it lags behind yes okay yes can you add into that how the impact fees subsidize that for that reason yeah so no construction it depends on the type of construction too though yes because you get more money for single family because there an assumption there families live there they have children you don't get as much for tow houses and so it depends and then if you have Senor cities in housing for example like their W you don't get much in the way of impact fee because there's no expectation that children will be living there because residents are required to be 55 and older so it all depends on the type of development that we're talking about the so when a so when a developer comes before us and they want to wave impact these I wouldn't do it so the the only thing I like and you could definitely correct me or where I'm wrong but I like to always make sure I just pound in the historical piece here Illinois has 800 plus correct 800 plus school districts that's correct in the state nobody even comes close no I mean even California right doesn't come close and and there's always this like you know I I I kind of get tired of people kind of uh ridiculing the state of Illinois and here's why because I don't think people factor in the entire history and the entire history of Illinois the whole concept was for there to this local control and since most of Illinois outside of Chicago is farming communities right you had something that was created that was very unique to any other state I have not found another state that does exactly what we do in the form of high school only districts now Texas does have about a dozen notice I said a dozen we have over 300 yeah Elementary districts in Illinois yeah Texas has like 13 but they don't have any High School only districts if you want to go further yeah let's go further talking about education even if you look at the taxing district with L Illinois has more taxing district than most other school most other the state you have mosquito baitman you have I mean you have all this uh Bridge maintenance uh District so and they all they get a piece of the property tax L too so that's another thing that in Illinois lead and this is actually playing out right now I I've kind of laughed when it'll be very fascinating to see like there's this conversation about the Bears moving into Arlington and I'm laughing over here because that thing there's four school districts involved in that and so they're trying to get four school districts to agree to something it only takes one to say no and the other three are going to be like no thanks I thought going to the South Side now well that's probably why that could be why those conversations have started and so like I I think sometimes when everybody wants to know a what's the unicorn in Illinois but the problem is though if we're going to be honest and have this conversation it's nimi not in my backyard so hey when you go out and you decide to reduce taxing bodies don't touch mine like don't touch my community if it has an Elementary and high school district just touch somebody else's and the problem with that is you got two choices state of Illinois pay up because you want your 800 school districts because come on you're not going to convince somebody to not do it or somebody else to do it and you not do it and and deal with the price or you're going to have to have those conversations in some of those districts and a lot of people don't want to have those conversations in some of those districts I'm not telling them to my point is simply you can't have it both ways you cannot sit here and complain about the number of taxing districts there are in the state of Illinois and then turn around and say but hey not here don't touch my taxing buy and so like I think sometimes we we we want to pile on state of Illinois and say we hate Illinois or whatever some of us but let's be honest and have the real conversation about that so yeah in conclusion I just want to make the point two key things ebf whenever we see our legislator let's keep reminding them to keep making sure that the governor includes uh the required appropriation in ebf so we can start digging ourselves out it's not like we don't pay enough we pay more than our share of property tax in this community so it bef help the other factor is that being able to Levy to CPI those are the two key factors that has been game changes for us but the larger part though is CBF we need to let our legislators know we need to we need them to to keep making sure ebf is properly funded they're worried I I I have a calculation question it interests me that average salaries is part of that um so does that does that incentivize no not really I wouldn't say that I wouldn't say that because what you do you look at a region it's it's a you look at the region as a whole remember sgo is part of the Chicago land Metropolitan uh metropolitan area for economic reason for CPI reason so what you do you you want the the the thinking is you want to be able to attract good teachers we have shortages now if we don't pay as well as our neighbor in Neighborville we don't pay as well as our neighbor in 202 there's a tendency for educators to go to the area where they can make more money so part of the regionalization factor is trying to see what the average salary is based on the standard of living and making it's not the ever salary of the district no no that's what I was getting I was like that seems no comparative wage index that was what I the comparative wage index is based on the uh CPI Factor so what you do uh CPI the urban area when you do CPI calculation for Chicago you include all the caller counties there too and you do the average of that so the thinking is they don't want uh us to be disadvantaged because in part of the urban area we pay less than our neighbors and the thinking is if we don't if they don't take that into account and make sure we get money based on the fact that we need to attract uh we need to be attractive to to Educators then we're going to fall behind in our recruitment okay poor Charlie would like to go home thank you again Mr oemi for the presentations and to be continued [Laughter] um oh sorry whenever we're ready for you a board policy first read Dr K actually we have one more item oh wait I was going to say we got the we have board policy so everybody had access to these so if there yes so these were the remaining policies from our last press policy update um that we wanted some additional time to talk um with some people at the um in different departments so the first one we have is related to resignations so there is a small change um um recommended in your information we're removing the written notice um and then uh providing some information regarding um the 30 calendar days prior to the first day of student attendance the second um policy 5220 is related to substitute teachers um there is a change in the policy um there was additional flexibility given um during covid so that is uh changing a little bit um so in the 1 where it talks about substitutes people with only a sub license as opposed to Appel that are subbing um so uh brings that back down to 90 days instead of 120 um the third policy for your review is 6230 library media program um so this is in essence uh just a uh uh a restructure we already have um in our policy adherence to the uh Library Bill of Rights um this is needed to continue our library grant funding um in six or sorry 760 um we have uh for residents um there was some potential flexibility that we could have um looked at now with school code um we are recommending um that uh the current policy stay as is I just have one clarifier on the on the Ala the library media program so that came correct me if I'm wrong it came from press plus from from uh basically from uh legislation that came from the state without that policy we jeopardize potential funds coming in is that correct so we have two choices we can either utilize in order to maintain funding we can either maintain the language that we currently have about adherence to the library Bill of Rights or we can adopt a statement that specifically uh refers to not Banning books um so it's which is like a subset of the library Bill of Rights so what we currently have in policy is actually more comprehensive so that's why we're recommending that we stay with the verbiage that we're currently using got it thank you thank you okay 10.1 action item bills for payment can I have a motion please forgot I can't see make a motion to authorize the payment of of bills in the amount of 4,664 61810 as presented second Miss I Dr Maria I Mr hi Miss Simon I Mr gate hi M Johnson I Mr hi motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of Health Life Safety survey violations can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the work for violations classified as priority a and priority B for the two high schools second Dr Mario hi Miss Simon hi Mr hi mrone I Mr Gatewood I miss hi M Johnson I motion passes 70 action item 10.3 approval of 2024 2025 school calendar can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the 2024 2025 school year calendar as presented second Miss venman hi Dr Maria I mrone hi Miss Simon hi Mr Gatewood hi Johnson hi Mr hi motion passes 70 action item 10.4 student disciplinary case can I have a motion please I make a motion to expel student 2023 - 24-1 through December 11th 2025 pursuant to the board's written findings and decision as discussed in closed session with the opportunity to return at the beginning of the 2025 2026 school year if the student successfully meets academic behavioral and attendance expectations at the alternate program second Mr Cerone hi Mr G I Johnson hi Mr hi hi Dr Mar I miss Sim I motion passes 70 action item 10.5 approval of second separation agreement can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the mediation agreement resolving a discrimination complaint filed by the parents of a District student in OCR docket number 3-1 1607 second Dr Mario I miss menm I Mr Cerone I miss Simon I Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr pler I and action item 10.6 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and presented second that's okay okay Dr Mario hi Mr Gatewood hi M Johnson hi Mr hi Simon hi mrone I miss menou hi motion passes 70 11.1 can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I I I yeah

here at the Dartmouth High School library media center um with the live stream of course so with that I will entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second we have a motion by Mr noons second by Miss Coughlin any discussion all in favor I I Happy Valentine's Day everybody thank you happy snow day everybody that too [Music] thank

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tonight um we will conduct this meeting like inperson meetings so Commissioners during roll call please indicate your current location and during the meeting please remain on camera just as you would be visible and please mute when you're not speaking uh public comment tonight will be on Via telephone only to speak during any of the com public comment opportunities please call one of the two toll-free numbers 877 853 5247 orle 0099 and under the meeting ID number 956 8718 7876 on your phone this information is also available on the publish agenda in Public Notices section of the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on ctm channel 16 as well as AT&T channel 99 and of course online at a2gov.org CN Joe would you please read the land acknowledgement for us tonight yep um I acknowledge that the land the city of Van Arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the anash shanab including Odawa oju and badmi and W andat peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally in unconscious ways from indigenous peoples The Taking of this land was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can Empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals thank you and could you please take the roll call yep there's someone there let me promote him um I've heard uh commissioner Sandra said he was running a little late today but um commissioner burwitz see you but so we we'll take that as good for now um council member Briggs um commissioner cvin Garcia not seeing yet she said she might might have a conflict um commissioner Hans here from my home in an arbor uh commissioner 11 I see he's here see the connecting for audio so we'll Circle back in a sec um chair McKenna here uh commissioner mki here for my home and an arbor commissioner overp here from an arbor in my home uh council member Rina here in an arbor uh say commissioner Cinder is running a little late uh commissioner Smith here and an arbor and commissioner zittleman here and an arbor all right chair you got a quorum fantastic thank you so much um so we'll move on to the approval of the agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as posted and and a second second thanks and a second commissioner mski thank you um so Commissioners please raise your hand if you want to propose any changes to the agenda it's posted we stating an issue okay fantastic and we have commissioner burko is joining so seeing No Hands raised all those in favor of approving the agenda as posted raise your hand and say I I great I'm seeing unanimous vote um so the agenda is approved and we'll move to approving the minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes as posted in a second so moved thank you council member Briggs and commissioner mki um so um are there any proposed changes at this time if not we'll move on to raising hands um all those in favor of approving the minutes as posted um please raise your hand and say I I okay thank you for unanimous vote the minutes are approved we will now move into our first opport opportunity for public comment uh this is an opportunity for folks to speak up to 3 minutes if you're watching on CTN you can call 0099 or 877 853 5247 and enter the meeting ID 956 8718 7876 and this information is displayed on the meeting agenda in the video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star n on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please I'm hearing some feedback please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sound so that we may hear you clearly uh please set your name and address at the beginning of your comments Joe do we have anyone on the line I don't have any hands raised but I have some people in there so I'm going to give him a second just in case all right [Music] um uh caller ending in 134 um thank you Mr Lang and chairman Kenna it's Ken Garber 28 H Hill Court um I wasn't going to speak but um seeing no one else a public comment um I figured I'd chime in um I look forward to all the presentations tonight they all look excellent um I want to raise an issue that's not on the agenda and that's the um DTE capacity problem um some of you know what I'm talking about um we've seen a lot of um good developments that want to go all electric new construction end up using gas because DTE does not have the um capacity to serve the building um this has been extremely frustrating to me personally uh it happened just last week when the architect for 7-Eleven Church a 17-story building that intended to be all electric um ended up uh having to uh uh go with gas boilers because DTE said it didn't have enough capacity this has been an issue elsewhere and it's legally unacceptable in my opinion under common law and also modern federal and state statutes and regulations Monopoly utilities are obligated to provide service to all customers within their service territories even if they have to do this at a loss you can't just say sorry not enough capacity duty to serve as I understand it is a rock solid legal principle but unless we hold DTE to this that company I think will refuse or delay and here's why DTE Electric in 2023 had a 13% operating margin according to their most recent uh 10K filed with the SEC compared to 177% for DTE Gas SO gas sales are a lot more profitable DTE has no incentive to add electric capacity forcing gas is much better for dte's bottom line um so uh I don't have a fast answer to this dilemma but all our electrification efforts in new construction will be for not if DTE doesn't get on board and uh upgrade its capacity I think we need more information to begin with what is not enough capacity mean do the distribution lines lack sufficient diameter to deliver the electricity are the substation Transformers deficient is DTE not Contracting for enough electricity from ITC and myo which run the wholesale grid that's the first thing we need to find outs um and if upgrading is needed is DTE charging developers uh an arm and a leg under CIA which is contribution in Native construction um this is being misused it was meant to make sure rate payers weren't subsidizing urban sprawl not for infill projects um but no one took DTE system neglect into account anyway um I'm not asking for an answer or even a discussion I just want to raise this issue because it's affecting Planning Commission literally every month thanks and again look forward to the talks thank you um no further callers thank you so much thanks Ken for your comments um they are received and I uh am curious what you're thinking uh so thank you for for calling in and laying all that out for us some very pertinent points there um all right so we're going to move into presentations and discussions we do have a pretty full agenda tonight um so we're gonna without further Ado um invite our friend um Jordan Larson up uh a community engagement innovator at OSI uh to tell us about the current state of affairs on um an arbor work in the bright neighborhood thank you Claire and thank you everyone for having me tonight um just give me one moment as I pull up my screen share all right can everybody see just to confirm yep all good all right thank you again to the commission for having me tonight uh as Claire said my name is Jordan Larson and I am the community engagement in inovator for an arber's office of sustainability and Innovations uh I have been with the office um since the beginning of this last September um so I'm sowhat new to the team um very excited to be here and contribute to the work um and one of the things that I just wanted to kind of uh begin with is to um highlight and stress that you know my uh role within the office is to support um the the community engagement and Communications that we're doing um and so while I not be an expert when it comes to some of the technicalities behind the the energy work that we're doing um uh a lot of the work that we're doing in the Bryant neighborhood is very much um you know resident focused engagement focused um and that's why I'm here to present to you because that's been the the primary project that I've been working on so um I appreciate you being here and I'm happy to to share some updates with you all so to kind of just run over the structure of what we're going to talk about today um just laying out kind of the agenda or table of contents for this presentation um we'll start with a general overview of uh what the work is and the project uh and some of the grounding and and kind of approach and thought process that we have behind the work highlight some of the planning um of what's gone into how we're approaching um our community- based energy work in the Bryant neighborhood um what we're doing with implementation and kind of how that's going uh and then we'll be discussing a little bit about the exciting District geothermal project we're pursuing um and then end with some highlights of additional work and takeaways um so I'll begin by uh kind of answering this question or highlighting why the Bryant neighborhood um as many of you know Equity is one of the primary um three values driving the a20 plan um and uh when it comes to why we're we're really focusing on briyan as sort of this pilot or test neighborhood to to Really push for what a carbon neutral neighborhood could look like there are a few different reasons that we want to highlight um uh to kind of set the scene you know Bryant uh is in the southeast side of an arbor just uh south of the I94 freeway um bordering ston School Road um and it's one of an Arbor's um we would describe as Frontline communities um that has also historically um kind of had underinvestment when compared to the rest of the city um residents of the Bryant neighborhood are over 50% bipac um 75% low income um with many residents that are long-term residents that have been in the neighborhood for many decades uh being on fixed incomes as well um and roughly average energy costs um are between um uh 13 and 1800 a year uh roughly onethird of residents are classified as energy cost burdened um the homes in particular in Bryant um were all built around the same time as part of a single development um in the late 1960s um currently roughly half of um these single family homes are owner occupied while the other half are renters um and now one of the reasons um you know that we we especially wanted to focus on Brian is to acknowledge that um trying to transition um a an existing neighborhood like this to being carbon neutral is a challenging difficult task um especially recognizing that you know homes built um prior to Modern energy codes and um homes that are a little bit older have a lot of um repair work that need to be done as well um and so we recognize that this is a kind of hard uh thing to achieve in the first place and that's one of the reasons that we want to focus on um a neighborhood like this to show that it can be done and to um kind of assess and as we go better understand what it does take to transition a neighborhood like this to be carbon neutral um another couple highlights is that the um neighborhood uh is also supported by a community center run by Community Action Network um which is very engaged in the neighborhood um and allows us to do a lot of great partnership work um with a trusted organization um and partially through that community structure there are a lot of opportunities for community leadership um to kind of Drive the project um and those are some like very important pieces um yeah so as I mentioned you know so much of this work is being done in collaboration with the Bryant Community Center and Community Action Network um and so having kind of a home base in the community has been essential to the work uh to highlight a few things that Community Action Network does um it is a nonprofit and um it serves seven community centers across the county um the majority of which are in an arbor um and this one in particular the Bryant Community Center um provides a number of services to the neighborhood um one thing to note is that it hosts uh the County's largest food pantry um which is one of its biggest operations um it also serves as a site for after school programming and summer youth programs as well um that support students through some of their their schoolwork and also through some professional development um and also supports Community capacity building in a number of different ways um and again just really want to take a moment to um to highlight and celebrate uh all of the amazing work that K does and the Brant Community Center does um and uh highlight as well that you know the work that we're doing to try to support carbon neutrality in the neighborhood um would not be possible without partnering with this trusted Community organization um now to to kind of just give an overview of uh kind of the the planning and what has gone into how we're approaching the project um the goal that we're trying to achieve is to transform the Bryant neighborhood into um really what might be considered the first fully decarbonized existing neighborhood um especially in an arbor but in Midwest and possibly the us as well um now to sort of uh get this process moving um we started with um grants from the mcnight foundation and uh this first step is to do home energy assessments um which is to work with residents to better understand um the needs in their homes what types of Renovations are required what can be done from an energy perspective and um uh one of the things that we really want to highlight is that um in kind of developing this project and moving this project forward um you know we we were very open to and and really lean on community feedback and Community leadership and how we kind of got this process uh off the ground um and so some of the things that we learned early on in the stages of the project um through listening to Residents was to um uh think about the way that we are referring to energy assessments um instead of calling them energy audits we call them assessments instead um and um a lot of this focuses on um a lot of our work uh in the neighborhood uh focuses on and highlights um uh health and safety um along with the climate impacts as well um so that's kind of how the the assessments are are critical to the beginning of the work and as far as um the planning phase for for funding improvements um you know while this is all going on we've been strategically applying for um grants to actually do um the the retrofits and change makak within the community um so that's kind of how things started um again we kind of already provided a little bit of detail on this assessment process um with changing the names from audits to assessments um the focus on health and safety and um one of the things that we found was really helpful to getting residents on board was just to even compensate them for their time engaging with the assessment process um so residents that complete their energy assessments receive $50 um Visa gift cards um and that has been a big help in in getting folks to um you know take some of that extra time to walk through the assessment process with us um and at the end of that assessment process um we create a report on the home and what can be done to make improvements um and that is done through the um energy uh software program snugpro um so we uh put everyone's information in snugpro develop these reports um and provide those reports to the residents themselves but then also use those um as we we try to connect residents um to the programs and and resources that we have now as far as the actual making improvements Parts which is the kind of the um the main goal of what we're what we're trying to do here um we're we're using these assessments to coordinate and fund uh the improvements by stacking as many different grants and resources that we have um uh really focusing on the health and safety components Energy Efficiency beneficial electrification um Renewables where we can um as well um some of the things to note uh we have encountered homes with drainage issues in uh basements and crawl spaces um exposed wires and attics um so as we've gotten you know kind of into the the bulk of the work we are definitely finding that there are some um you know important uh just repair concerns that we have to uh address with households while we're doing this as well um but in this process it's been essential to work with residents very closely um residents always have the final say on um all of the upgrades and working with the contractors um something to note is uh for the for the time being the the energy work that we're doing has not focused on changing HVAC um or installing heat pumps because we're exploring this um District geothermal system um which we'll get into a little bit later um and so to to give just a quick overview of kind of how we're funding some of this um a large chunk of funding has gone through the uh State uh Michigan Home opportunities um for energy oh gosh I'm forgetting the exact acronym for the My Hope program too many acronyms um I have it later in the presentation as well um but uh we've got a large uh amount of funding I think 1.55 million from the My Hope program um that's supporting retrofits uh we are also stacking that with the county weatherization assistance program um trying to get as many uh folks into that program as well um so that we can stretch our our other dollars um we are also receiving some funding from the builders initiative which is helping to um do some more of the the deeper electrification and even renewable uh energy installations like solar for a few houses as well um and we've also received some funding from the solar moonshot um initiative um for solarization um here I can just highlight uh a few uh more sort of visual examples of some of the work being done um a lot of the homes in the neighborhood have um had very little to no insulation so um definitely the houses that we have been working with have um received uh attic uh insulation and basement uh insulation encapsulation um that has been a big one for sure um there's also been work on door Replacements um uh full door Replacements also adding storm doors you ceing around doors um you know uh General air sealing work for the envelope um and that of course also includes Windows um so window replacements with um high energy efficient Windows um and you know additional air sealing um I would also just like to highlight uh that we have um you know in a few instances been able to install uh solar arrays um for a few residents um uh and while it is not pictured in this portion of the slideshow um you know this also comes along with uh panel upgrades and some other electrical work as well as additional Appliance uh swaps and upgrades now to uh to kind of highlight um some of the stories and and feelings from uh can staff as well as some residents I wanted to take a moment to share a video that was produced by the mcnight foundation um about the work that we're doing so just bear with me real quick as I stop my screen share and I share another window that has the video ready to go it's actually looking like maybe we don't have permission to share sound um that's okay uh I know that's maybe happened with our zooms before um I can share uh this video um after the session and it is included Linked In the slideshow um yeah I think that' be awesome Jordan let's let's do that yep uh so would definitely encourage watching the video it's great to hear from some of the residents and hear some of those stories but we can move on so let me go back to my screen share of the slideshow n that is present review let me go back to the correct on apologies for this slight delay here okay all right and we will continue [Music] on uh so here just to highlight some of the progress um the current progress that we've made um so far in the work we've completed 73 home energy assessments um we've secured funding uh for roughly around uh 50 home retrofits um with a lot of that funding coming from the My Hope program which is 55 or sorry 25,000 per home um we've nearly completed uh that contracted work through that program for 10 houses and we've got another additional 10 houses in the queue um we've added solar to two homes in the neighborhood um and we have three more in the queue as well um something I just want to highlight is um some of the challenges that we've been uh uh in um you know kind of discovered ing throughout the process we mentioned them earlier a little bit uh including the drainage and mold remediation um again these are things that um shouldn't be that surprising but when it comes to limited perouse funding it's uh a fairly big ticket item to do drainage remediation or deal with mold remediation so on the occasional house where that is a concern um that does take up a a fairly large amount of funding um and then again there can be these deeper repairs um if there's structural concerns around the roof or deeper electrical work um that needs to be done um so in those instances you know that can um take a large chunk of of the funding that we have for an individual house for instance um so far again this is a very rough estimate um we've been seeing that um really the funding that it takes um to move these homes into from the state that they're currently in to more to like an almost fully carbon neutral or fully electrified um and carbon neutral state is close closer to 45 to 60,000 um so obviously the 25,000 per home from just the My Hope program um uh does not fully cover that and so figuring out ways to to stack funding um again I will note um that does not include the retrofits for HVAC um which we'll we'll address in a little bit um also just noteworthy that um some of these programs that we're working with do have income limit requirements um uh which is you know in important consideration from an equity perspective but also something that we're needing to consider how we make sure that resources and um you know ability to participate um for folks that are maybe just above some of those um income limitations um and can't really Finance uh a lot of these upgrades on their own so thinking about ways to uh provide more resources to those households um and then again you know as is a common concern how do we make sure that there's renter access with 50% renters in the Community um some of our funding does allow for uh supporting retrofits for rental properties um but in the case of the My Hope program a landlord can only retrofit one house and if they have multiple homes in the neighborhood only one of those can be covered by the program um now just to highlight a few next steps um uh again I've been mentioning the county weather weatherization assistance program um we only recently discovered that their uh books are open for uh getting new uh projects uh underway and so we're really in the process right now of of um pushing that really hard and they have um more uh open income limits so bringing more residents into that program and and really focusing on stacking those um and then one of the next components that we're really going to be focusing on is evaluation over the last uh year and a half we've been pushing really hard on the um energy assessments but now that we're actually getting some of the work done in homes and getting some of the retrofits completed um we're going to be logging what those retrofits are and kind of what's Happening into snug Pro as well and trying to track outcomes um but that's kind of what's what's to come uh now to go on to the geothermal project um this is really exciting uh because we received a um energy conservation block grant uh to do a one-year planning project uh to develop a design for a district geothermal system uh in the Bryant Community this would cover all of the uh 260 single family homes as well as the Bryant Elementary School the County mental health facility which is across the street and the wheeler service center um which is also um across the street from the Bryant neighborhood so this is a very large uh large project um that we're really excited to to pursue um and again one of the things that's really important about this project is to really Center um kind of equity in the process and acknowledging that geothermal is not something that any of our individual residents would be able to pursue on their own but if we can um establish a a district system that really opens a lot of doors for transitioning um uh this system uh I believe is intended to uh take on at least 70% of the heating and cooling needs of that whole District um and uh again it is just a Grant um so in this current phase uh we're designing a system with a lot of community feedback um with Community engagement being a key part of the project um we're doing monthly events as well as uh other engagements to get uh Community input on the project um but there is an opportunity to down select um from the the current grantees in the program to get implementation funding um so uh we're really pushing hard on this and we really hope that we will have success and by the end end of um I think the project period goes through this coming uh September um and then we're really hoping we get selected for some of that implementation funding um but here's just a bit of a a graphic to outline some of the stakeholders um again really focusing on this being a coalition um for Community geothermal so we do have the community voice portion where we have the city of an arbor Community Action Network washing County an Arbor Public Schools and DTE supporting um since this is crossing property lines it does um it it has to be considered kind of as utility so we do have uh DTE as a partner um as we're trying to pursue this project um we do also have analysis and design support a lot of technical support on this from a number of different organizations and Consultants um there's also a Workforce Development component um where we're we're really focusing on um how we can develop and uh um make more Equitable access to the workforce that needs to be kind of created to to Really push additional geothermal work um in our kind of local and Regional communities um and how can we um kind of get some of that information um into the community about opportunities there um and then we have partners for um deployment um the actual geothermal contractors and and those folks um so this is a very exciting project that we're just getting off the ground and um can just highlight a few things in the upcoming t uh timeline to really show you how um while we're really pushing and supporting energy work um the community center and events that we're also engaging on are focused on just general Community Development and um uh other just like fun aspects of bringing together so generally we have a couple of events hosted at the community center per month um often one is more of just a community oriented event whether this month for instance there's a Bake Off happening uh this Friday or there game nights or um you know holiday celebrations um and we try to attend those as well um and at some of those more just kind of community oriented events we can do some of our promotion and talk to folks about the energy work that we're doing as well um promoting opportunities to engage in our uh events as well as sign up for the energy assessments and such um but uh next week we're doing our first Community design shet um where we'll be doing a lot of uh project introduction to the geothermal project we'll have another design shet where we're actually going into the system design and getting a little bit more deep into um what the project will look like and then moving forward we'll have a number of different engagements around the geothermal project from engaging landlords to providing project updates to the community um focusing on some of that Workforce Development and green careers uh as well as celebrating the project the end um so this is a really big project we're really excited to uh be pursuing and if we are successful that's when we'll we'll push for um geothermal um and try to get more resources to get um you know retrofits in homes for for heat pumps to get into that uh District system um and uh again just to kind of point out all throughout this timeline we're continuing to do our door-to-door Outreach um as well as office hours where we're supporting people with applications for different programs um and that's all just kind of happening in the background as well um now I'll just highlight some of our additional work a few fun things to uh to point out that have been happening at the community center um uh in I believe 2002 uh there was the uh resilience Hub ribbon cutting at the Bryant Community Center um with the addition of uh solar and battery storage um with the building um which we're super excited about uh we have also um uh received a grant uh to do some more deep um decarbonization work at the community center as well as doubling the size of the solar array and the battery storage um as well as trying to to get the community center on geothermal first um before we pursue the rest of the district um so that the community center can serve as like a learning living laboratory for what um a carbon neutral building can look like um and so we're very excited to um to pursue that in the coming months to get a little bit more of that work done and move us closer to that goal um another thing that we were really excited about was this past fall um helping Community Action Network acquire a EC cargo bike um as part of the food pantry program uh can delivers food to some residents in the neighborhood that um have some more Mobility challenges that makes it a little bit harder for them to physically reach the food pantry um and so before they' been working with door Dash and a few other ways to to bring food to folks but now with the the EC cargo bike it's really easy to do all the deliveries in the neighborhood um with the ebike uh and that's uh nimy Pavo uh one of the can staff that that we work closely with and she absolutely loves that thing um so wanted to highlight that um and again this isn't quite as energy related but just noting that other OSI programming is also happening in the community as well like the 10,000 trees initiative um Bryant has a a lower uh tree canopy cover um and so we promote the threee tree giveaways and have done multiple uh Community tree planting events um in Bryant as well um one other thing to to just highlight is that uh Bryant does tend to have more issues with flooding and drainage um than many other neighborhoods in an arbor um and so that's kind of been a focus of the project as well um a number of households have um U with some support um planted rain Gardens um and a few other projects have gone in um to help reduce the the the flooding uh but again just kind of an example of how uh the brght neighborhood is one of our Frontline neighborhoods and um you know flooding and other climate impacts are a concern in that neighborhood um now just to highlight a few takeaways here at the end um you know really just want to hammer home that addressing residents needs and understanding what they want from the program is always the first priority um that has I think been one of the biggest reasons for our success in the neighborhood as well as um uh really partnering with and leading through uh an existing trusted community- based organization um in our case Community Action Network with the Brant Community Center it's been super helpful for building trust Capac capacity building um again being equal partners and making sure that they feel supported and have capacity um to pursue this programming um and as much as possible giving power to the residents um involving them in the process um as much as possible always asking for feedback um and letting them lead where they can and make final decisions um and again I have just a couple of pictures I wanted to use to exemplify how you know we just try to support can however we we can um they have a shed in the back of the community center that over the last year had gotten really cluttered and disorganized and we brought a couple of our americore climate Corp members that support OSI over and they just spent three hours going through and organizing the shed so again part of that trust building process and support process is doing kind of whatever whatever we can to to support the organization and and support the community um and these these kind of small gestures can go a long way um I won't fully walk through this but I I just wanted to share and and note that it's included in the slideshow just a little bit more information about the the various um funding sources that we have um so just wanted to to highlight that you can refer back to this if you would like um again noting that um we have a significant amount of funding from that mishta is all is the My Hope program um billage initiative the doe grant for the geothermal Project funding from the mcnight foundation city of an arbor reporting um solar moonshot and the the block grants as well so a lot of different funding sources and we're always trying to pursue more as well um but that takes me to the the end of the presentation um thank you so much for having me and I would be happy to take anyone's questions if you have time thank you so much for sharing all that um fantastic I'm going to open up uh the meeting here for for for comments um from Commissioners um definitely have comments and questions but I'm going to open up the floor yes commission overbeck hi um that was very impressive Jordan and I really appreciate what you guys are doing um I wonder do you get any uh residents who are or homes that are just not interested in in being part of it I mean are you getting 100% participation that's a good question and uh what I would say first is that we've been pleasantly surprised with the level of participation um generally when we you know I think that there's some hesitance especially at first um if there are some community members that haven't been very engaged with the community center previously you know generally people are not trusting of people saying we we have programs that we can give you for free um and so I think that's one of the the first barriers if we can and kind of get through to folks and and really um get across uh all of the the programming that we have and and you know encourage them to come over to the community center and engage in some of maybe the community building events first before they they kind of get involved in the energy work we've been very pleasantly surprised with the level of participation that being said of course there are residents that um you know in general have um not been as engaged in the project um uh I think some residents um again that there's some level of distrust with city government which is in many cases I think um we understand and is is warranted from um you know historical uh experience and perspectives um and again that's one of the reasons that we really try to lean really heavily through um you know this work being done through the community center um uh and also some folks that um you know from the the current resources that we have right now that don't qualify um you know they say like I I can't you know pursue this type of work right now I don't have um the resources to to do that um so that is something that we hear sometimes as well um you know I think that this is a project that we will um we're we're constantly looking for ways to to make sure everyone can participate and as time goes on we'll be looking for more ways to Resource homes that right now don't have as much access to to funding and and those sorts of things um but at least we have enough right now that there are a lot of households that are like yes if I want to participate if I can get my you know if I can get new windows and new doors and um you know get some of these things fixed up there's a there's a lot of um uh you know excitement uh to get some of that work done very cool oh yeah commissioner Hans hi thanks um just a quick question uh just going off of the years of the construction of the community and the issues with drainage I was curious is was this community built with orange or Orangeburg piping I do not know the answer to that question um unfortunately see a couple hands popping up so it's it's possible someone else in the room does so I I can jump me I I live in the neighborhood and um it was something we were concerned about when I purchased the house so we had that specific inspection done and my house does not have orange birg piping um and we've largely extrapolated that that likely means that most of them don't because they were all kind of constructed and developed at the same time um and are very similar so can you share what that is I've I've never heard of that term what kind of piping is that it's a uh it's a fiber based pipe that uh has degraded significantly faster than they originally planned um for portable water or sorry uh it's uh sewage drainage generally oh sewage drainage okay yeah okay so this sewer pipe is degra potentially degrading if it it were made of that yeah large swats of the city that were built in the 60s uh suffer from that issue interesting good context okay commission mki yeah I've got um a couple of quick questions uh I'll just go ahead and close them all at the same time first of all I'm wondering if the assessments include um blower door tests before and after secondly I'm wondering um I didn't see DTE as uh being part of the funding sources and that's a little bit disappointing um I know the state um erw the energy waste reduction uh spending was increased in the last in the recent set of bills that were passed and I think 25% of that has to be spent in lwi income housing uh or low kit income areas or there's also the DTE foundation so I'm wondering if there's any participation by DTE with incentives or anything like on appliances and then third is a question that I posed before today's meeting and that is Bryant um is one neighborhood it has 260 units and the city has almost 50,000 units and by various counts roughly 50 different neighborhoods so the question is when when can we start to take the lessons learned and the models and the best practices from Bryant and start deploying those across the other 49,000 odd housing units in an arbor so that's it thanks yeah absolutely uh I I uh understand and and can definitely respond to all of those questions um first just to clarify for the assessments um what we're currently doing right now uh does not include blower door tests pre and post um I as far as my understanding there was some back and forth about uh how we wanted to structure those how in-depth they were we've partnered with Elevate closely on this process one of the things that we came to was um for Access reasons some people preferred to do virtual home energy assessments so we have a process where people can take some photographs of some of the key appliances and then speak to someone over the phone um and kind of like walk through the assessment virtually um which has gotten a little bit more participation um so we we are not currently doing blor door tests um uh and then can you remind me what the second question was sorry my AP apologies no problem dce PT uh yes um I am not and Joe Joe's been with the office a little bit longer than me I'm not sure if we've had Direct um DTE collaboration on kind of the the individual home home retrofit side of the work they are collaborating and contributing to the the district geothermal project but yeah Joe I'm not sure if if there's been direct uh collaboration on on this other kind of aspect of the work yeah there there hasn't um part of that's just how funding stuff has been but you know part of it with when it comes to like the you know rebates uh like the energy waste reduction ones and stuff like that um and this happens not just with GTE but other um rebate opportunities in some cases where it's a matter of who is funding the work and who's applying for the rebate um since in this case we are the one or well you know either OSI or can or whoever has secured that particular Grant is the one who's going in and paying for it um since we are not the homeowner we cannot take advantage of that Grant opportunity so kind of one of those you know trade-offs where it's like cool they could get that discount if it was the homeowner paying for it but then it's the homeowner paying for it and not you know and then the flowr of funds just gets confusing when it's you know paying upfront then giving funding back in form of reimbursement so it just ends up being trickier and um not fully feasible under the the current funding structure with that uh and then or uh Gabriel did you have a response to that particular question or was you have and a followup question I do have a build on that but if you want to get to the other first that yeah oh yeah I'll I'll adjust that first yeah of course the question around um you know how are we taking these Lessons Learned I know that that's uh an area of interest and um uh you know a key piece of this project so there are a couple things that I can share um uh one is that the um the experience and kind of process of learning uh going through the development of the the assessment itself um has helped inform how we're doing the assessment process for the home energy advisor program um that OSI uh is launching this year uh and so um you know uh there there have been some lessons learned in terms of what is working what hasn't worked what that process can look like um and that um a lot of what we've learned and done in the neighborhood has directly supported um the haa program um and similarly I think some of that some of those learnings um have has also supported the development of the the rebates program um and general you know we see the haa and the rebates programs as being um kind of like our our first big step in making sure that there's some um resource access and again some of that like especially from the home energy advisor program perspective some of that tailored um individual Pathway to zero support um and understanding what that can look like um and so so that's one of the really big ways that we're we're hoping um this kind of work can can reach the rest of of the community but um the other big one I think for me is just that um we've learned a lot about engagement at a community scale or at a neighborhood scale um and that that is what we are are hoping to bring to more neighborhoods especially now that we have some of these other City programs that are coming online over the next year um now that there are some resources to support some of that work now how do we take some of our engagement capacity and some of the approaches and what we've learned doing that in the Bryant neighborhood and do that elsewhere um and you know our OSI team has been expanding we now have an americore team of 10 folks that or nine folks that are focused on doing engagement and education so we we all of a sudden as fairly recently have this boost in capacity to do more engagement um and so I definitely think that the the approaches and the the learnings and the strategies that we've we've kind of come to from this project will find their way into more neighborhoods at that kind of scale and approach um especially promoting these new programs coming online Joe is there anything else you would want to add to um to that question no I think you did a pretty good job covering it I think you know the the big thing too and you know as as we look at it and how we you know think about things you know in addition it's always yeah where's you know things coming next but also you know focusing on all the things that are happening here and all the things that still you know do need to happen going forward you know as we mentioned you know the funding sources to date are you know up to you know 50 homes and that's not all the way with all those 50 homes so there's still a lot of work happening you know with that and a lot of work still to go on that um additionally some of the other you know kind of um I don't know collaboration isn't necessarily the right word but you know some of the stuff you know with the results we've gotten from this just in terms of like showing results showing success um it's it's really informed a lot of the other Grant applications we have that have gone out and that are coming in that are looking at um other areas particularly uh some of the more affordable housing sites you know working with Ann Arbor Housing Commission um Avalon housing and a couple you know just just to name a few so a lot of you know being able to say here's the work here's how it's happened and that's leading to um you know helping us secure more funding helping us secure more opportunities to be helping in some of those um you know some of some of those developments as well um so more is happening and will be happening because of that you know just being able to show you know we have been doing this kind of work we've been doing this engagement like Jordan said we've been doing the you know technical work as well um and you know showing how that can translate and then being able to work in additional areas with additional funding um for um you know additional uh places that have excuse me a particular a particular emphasis on Equity as we go great by har did you have it in comments or did you get your questions yeah it just it was a followup and and you had sort of briefly alluded to this a little bit but I was I was I was thinking just thinking about the cost per home for some of the retrofits and and updating and things um and I think it was $40 to $60,000 or something like that per per unit um on you know on average and so is I'm I'm curious with respect to sort of questions about scaling but also with respect to the incentives and the sort of different actors that might be working together in this both in terms of grant funding but also DT or others um you know what what's possible in terms of a you know one I guess the first question is are those hard costs of 40 to $60,000 or is any of that sort of also offset by incentives and rebates and things like that or is that sort of an additional piece of things that um might be possible in the future as the sort of as some of some of those in some of those programs come online um and also there's a clear tension that you just described which is for DTE the individual homeowner or or resident has to be the one doing the application but then also these other programs are more at the OSI level um or city level and so um I'm wondering just if there are ways of learning about how we might sort of align some of these and bundle them and and try to try to um pull it all together yeah absolutely I think that um you know we've we've been focusing on on some of the the initial components of the project and our our first few funding sources but the long the farther we go in the project the the more emphasis that we're placing on to you know how do we really stack resources and then you know outside of the the the grants and the funding that we have how do we provide structures for residents to then access the other program resources right like you're mentioning um and so we one of the things that you know I mentioned briefly but didn't provide a lot of detail is that we're now um offering office hours um where residents can come in um and we can help them walk through application processes for for different programs um in in the case of a couple of our programs we we actually still need to do that for ours as well um uh but like we are actively exploring um you know if there are additional programs that we haven't considered yet that we can help people apply to um you know how can we how can we stack those um and also to uh to answer your question about what is considered in that cost um that is like a very back of the envelope just from some of the things we've seen of our our current work um uh but as far as I know like that that would not include offsets for rebates or or like Ira tax incentives for instance so um so that would be that would be a separate consideration great stuff um Jordan I have lots of questions you know this is super close to the work that I do um and I just want to say um I'm also super impressed at everything that your team has brought together and is delivering um um I see that as the most Cutting Edge work you know that I've seen of this kind like in the country so it's pretty cool to see it happening here um just from the financing stack and the people you're able to access the U collaboration with Community groups and um all that so that's super cool but I'll ask you one just one question um what do you feel like you need to move forward like what is what is a major roadblock to success that you currently have yeah I feel like what's sticking out to me is is how we you know really support some of this transition for households that don't qualify um for some of these um more stringent programs you know because that's that's where the bulk of our actual retrofit dollars are right now um and you know uh it's it's still a a pretty big barrier um for a lot of folks you know financing all of this on their own is is you know not very feasible um and so thinking about ways that we can provide better access to um to those folks that are like kind of just above our our income limits like that's a real struggle um and then also with the the eye toward um hopefully implementing the district geothermal system at some point like we'll definitely need resources and support to do um you know HVAC swap to geothermal heat pumps that's going to be huge you know the implementation dollars would go a long way to getting a a a system installed but again we have to go back to the individual household level and say how do we how do we provide the resources to make sure that you know the houses that we've already done a lot of that efficiency and weatherization work that would be like such Prime candidates to really benefit from this geothermal system like how do we get that heat pump in their house um that's going to be kind of a big question for for the next phase especially if we get implementation dollars cool okay well I'll follow up with you on some of that um commissioner L do you have a comment before we move on uh yeah I know we've been going for a while here I I appreciate the presentation first of all um one thing that I sometimes think about um is like how there's like similar homes and I'm wondering if the bant neighborhood has like a lot of similar homes and possibly there's some sort of lessons in terms of like I mean it's great to go in and do all these audits but it's also expensive and I'm wondering if there's some sort of cost savings and learnings that we can get from like very similar homes like I mean typically in my understanding like the first couple things that you want to look at are like the attic insulation and I mean this is obviously very generalized but often times the basement as well and you can maybe not necessarily have to do audits all the time I'm just wondering if there's any cost savings or ideas around similar houses yeah I definitely can share that um you know it is the case in the brght neighborhood that uh I think there from the original development there's two dominant floor plans um so again almost all the homes were built within two years or like two or three years and the majority of the homes have one of two different floor plans so there there is a lot of of similarities and so um I think we have been seeing from uh some of the assessments that we're we're finding some consistent um you know uh issues or or things that are coming up in the assessment process um for sure the like the insulation is one um again we've we've been finding that U for a number of houses the the drainage concern you know we need to be checking the cross spaces for um for flooding damage or for drainage issues um as far as uh what a strategy might be for um like rethinking trying to get everyone through the assessment process we haven't really like strategically work through what that might look like um because right now we're also kind of using it as an engagement tool for people to get invested into the process um and since we do have funding for some of those incentives to kind of engage in that um that has been an effective way to get people to kind of uh come to us with like oh okay um now I'm a little bit more aware of what's going on in my home and now that we've had this assessment you're talking to me about resources that we can do to kind of facilitate that um but I think you're right that it's worth considering how um you know if if we kind of know what the the average house looks like you know is that process the the correct process for every single household in the neighborhood um I think that's a a reasonable question to to consider great thanks for spending this time with us Jordan we've we've learned so much um about this uh process and I know you'll be back to update us later in the year so um thanks for doing that yeah happy to join thanks for having me cool okay so I would like to um switch it over um commissioner overp are you still prepared to present tonight yes um it'll be a little quicker um yeah well just one sec so just I just want to outline the plan so um let's have you present and then we'll have a conversation and then we'll take a five minute break and then Jen certon is going to join us for the final presentation um so that's kind of how we're going to move through the night so I I'll pass them back to you sounds good to me you ready to roll okay let's see why why okay everyone can see it someone can see it great um I want to talk really briefly tonight about uh how climate change is proceeding and we've had quite an interesting year so far last 12 months and I'll allude to some of the reasons why but I'm really happy to see um folks really moving out on climate action because I think the re the motivation to do it is only getting stronger um I'm not going to talk about the impacts of climate change on Michigan uh in a comprehensive way but I think it's um worth noting as all of you know as the CL climate warms the atmosphere going to hold more moisture so one of our biggest impacts in Michigan and indeed much of the world is um more intense rain when it rains um the odds go up that the rain will be coming down harder um so that's affecting rural areas and farms in Michigan it's also um of course busting dams and causing uh considerable suffering in South East uh Michigan here's just something that came in the uh fifth US National Climate assessment last year just showing how big the change has been in terms of the percentage of water rain falling in the heaviest 1% of events in the midwest it's gone up 45% already and as most of you know we have warmed the planet um between 1 and 1.5° C so we're getting associated with this more intense rainfall but of course more flooding too and it's a direct um result of a warming atmosphere and to give us a little more motivation uh where it is raining the atmosphere uh is dumping the water uh harder and faster than ever before but where it's not raining the same atmosphere that is uh warmed and can hold more moisture is demanding more moisture from the land surface and vegetation so other parts of the world uh paradoxically are getting drier and more drought prone while we get wetter and more flood prone and one of the more iconic droughts that have developed is in the Southwest us uh where um people still talk about getting water out of the Great Lakes and that's one reason why we're spending a lot of time um making sure that we understand this situation and hopefully my dog isn't disturbing everyone she's going to nuts okay I don't think they're going to take water out of the Great Lakes but the whole High Plains of the United States are also drying out and they're pumping the groundwater um unsustainably so big swap of the United States are where we have agriculture in the case of the high plains in summer in the case of the Southwest in Winter um we get a lot of food from these two places are um going to dry out unless we stop climate change real quick uh the other thing that's really everybody is probably already well aware of is that last summer through now has been um warmer than ever before uh since we had theom on the planet and on a global scale and the scale of the uh record is is really unprecedented it really the temperature jumped um a quarter of a degree uh Fahrenheit and that is exceptional uh and the discussions you often see if you're paying attention is that is this due to global warming or is this due to the alinia and as you'll see in a second I want to make the point that it's um it's due to global warming so here is uh a graph that was in the New York Times where the debate has taken place uh and it's quite a debate uh I think it's pretty uh settled but there are still some very prominent scientists um including Mike man a gentleman a close friend of mine who uh just won a million dollar in a lawsuit against a couple people who were defaming him uh over his work on climate change uh he doesn't think there's been an acceleration and a lot of it is just what do you mean by acceleration um this is this graph shows you Global temperature over the last um or over the instrumental record since 1850 and you can see around 1970 things really started to um speed up no one debates that but then there's this other debate is it accelerating even more recently and in in this particular data set from Berkeley um Global temperature you can see that the rate of change has gotten more steep uh some other records don't show that um but this is the one record of atmospheric temperature that shows it so from as far as Zeke's concern a prominent climate scientist it is accelerating and there he wrote a great piece in New York times and then this is my favorite quote about the whole thing uh Jim Hansen who was uh my pooc mentor um the guy in 1988 was the first person to get appear before Congress and say uh climate change is happening we can observe it um you know it's just making the point that uh you almost have to be a damn fool if you don't think uh it's climate change is going to accelerate he's not calling Mike man a fool uh they both get along just fine um but he's just saying that we're going to continue to see an accelerating problem and here there have been a couple studies that have recently been published that really make it clear what's going on and this is I think my favorite this is by a group down in Australia what they've done is they've looked at all the records uh different types of Records in situ robotic um I don't think they use satellite uh but they're using all the insitu measurements of ocean heat and they're putting them all together and they're getting an answer about what's going on with ocean heat why ocean heat well it turns out 90 over 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the ocean and if that wasn't taking place of course the atmosphere would be a heck of a lot warmer and we'd certainly uh be complaining even more than are already um but as the ocean takes up heat um it also can start to saturate and the amount of heat it can take up uh so that appears it might be happening but the most important takeaway is um This Record just a second I got is that bothering you guys I got to shut if SS came to the door Cy I'm sorry about that um so uh if you look at the red curve that's the actual record of ocean these guys looked at decadal averages and you can see that the size of the bars the blue bars give you a u indication of how uh much heat was accumulated Each decade you can see there's been a steady acceleration in the M heat that is piling up in the ocean and this makes another really important point is that um a lot of folks are saying well it's the alino um that's producing This Record warmth and the last uh big jump in global temperature was during in El Nino in 19 I mean in 2015 16 um This Record jump was much larger than that one and the thing to realize is that because the ocean is warming when an elino occurs you get more heat released by the ocean into the atmosphere than normal um or less taken up um but that heat uh any heat we're getting out of the ocean is anthropogenic uh it's been warmed by humans so what do you think's going to happen next summer it turns out that uh we're going to switch over most likely to a linia again uh so that will probably mean this coming year won't break the record again um but on the other hand there is it is possible that it will okay the other reason we really have to worry is not just because uh global warming is accelerating but we're getting closer to what we call tipping points and there are lots of tipping points and this is out of the national assessment as well that was just published showing where all uh of these tipping points are and a good example of a Tipping Point uh is the loss of ice sea Arctic sea ice um and that's been moving faster than any I think scientists thought possible and um as we do that the uh Planet becomes less reflective and more heat gets staken up so that will accelerate the global warming but it'll also start really messing with a lot of other things uh like more polar vortexes in the winter um another thing that could happen is uh the Boreal forest uh the great uh Conifer Forest that go all the way around the circum Arctic could uh burn up and loow and behold last summer we saw evidence that that is also speeding up and then it's it's also showing another one that is occurring is that permafrost could melt and if permafrost melt melts it could release a lot of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere again becoming a amplifying or positive feedback and they're quite a few of these U tipping points that have Global implications but I just want to end by talking about one last Tipping Point that we've crossed and I think this year in Michigan is a great example of the future and that is the death of snow I actually got quoted uh saying that I'm not sure I meant to say it but uh it was in the Free Press and uh but I do think it's true what's going on around the world at um northern mid latitudes is snow is becoming a lot less common and at the same time we're getting more snow further north where people don't live uh in greater in you know in dense uh concentrations but you can see in this map all the different watersheds in red colors where snow is disappearing really rapidly and it turns out this study that was just published this year uh makes the point based on observations of snow around the world that uh there is a Tipping Point where when you reach a temperature of 17° fahit average winter temperature um after that point every degree of of of warming causes a much higher um loss of snow so we are really beyond that Tipping Point now and throughout North America um in these areas that are shown in red we're going to start seeing a more precipitous decline in snow cover and snow pack and this will have huge implications out west but it also means this is one reason why we're getting more intense precipitation because we're starting to get intense precipitation uh in Winter not just in the uh spring and and summer and another thing to note that I just saw in the news I think two days ago three days ago uh is that uh for the first time there was a tornado in uh February in Wisconsin so things are really changing so the whole point of this presentation is to clarify anyone who's really following the scientific debate that uh it is getting worse and it's getting worse faster uh climate change is accelerating so it's really important uh that we really move faster than ever in Michigan across the US and around the globe um to Halt climate change and uh it's not too late to save the day and moreover I think it's a uh potentially a massive economic engine uh if Michigan and the Great Lakes can lead in uh the all of the Technologies necessary all of the solutions and not all technological uh that are needed to hold climate change because the entire world is going to be willing um to uh provide a market for these Innovations so thank you I'm happy to ask any answer any questions that you might have 11 uh if you don't mind I'm curious if you could talk briefly about one of the Tipping points you didn't mention which was the I think you had a more technical term for it on there but the global conveyor belt that goes through the Atlantic and the idea of that slowing down and stopping and what I mean I tend to hear that that's going to make Europe cold but I haven't heard much about what it's how it's going to affect the US yeah well thanks for asking that one I I sort of promised to keep this short um so I didn't include that but uh just in the last week another study was published by Danish colleagues where they um you might have seen it in the news it's pretty big news uh they did a simulation you know they did a much higher uh climate simulation uh higher resolution climate simulation that uh for the first time allowed us to test the hypothesis that increased Melt from the Greenland ice sheet which we are observing would uh make the waters in the North Atlantic uh less dense and would not just slow down the ocean circulation in the Atlantic which we've been observing but could actually stop it just like in the movie uh the day after tomorrow uh which when it came out all my colleagues were like uh that is pure non-fiction I mean pure fiction that could never happen it turns out in a in the uh 2007 ipcc uh report that won the global uh the the Nobel Peace Prize uh we argued a lot about that and um my uh colleagues uh who were really bringing the paleoclimate data to the whole debate were arguing that this could happen particularly this German guy named Stephan ramsdorf and um my other colleagues who were relying solely on models uh that were not high enough resolution that were too crude didn't have all of the processes necessary to really evaluate this they were saying since we couldn't simulate it we couldn't say it could happen but now we think it could happen to answer your question uh and well make it even worse Noah it could happen in this Century um and the nice thing about this modeling effort is it it started to identify ways that we could actually get a little early warning so and I think that's very crude at this point but the the goal here is to to really know uh exactly when it's going to happen before it happens um and so how it affect the climate uh Europe will get hammered uh it'll get much colder and stormier uh Europe it'll be drier um and uh it'll be uh a much worse disaster than the global warming alone of course most of the earth will still continue to warm um and in North America because we're at the same latitudes uh we'll see some cooling along the you know in uh in closer proximity to the Atlantic so the closer you are uh you'll get you we will get some cooling uh but as you get further away from that the the warming will over whelm it and a lot depends on how much warming we have before this thing shuts down my guess is that we can avoid this particular Tipping Point uh if we're on the trajectory we're on now but that is not a it's a guess we don't know that for sure so you can bet your um bippy that every climate scientist who can is going to be trying to really look at this in a much more uh you know close fashion and and figure out where the points in and how real it is but we are really a little more i' to say we're a good deal more scared than we were a year ago this has been an exceptional year in in the kinds of changes we're seeing around the planet we really do have to Halt this sucker all right John like to cut to the chase you're I noted your takeaway uh I know our primary mission is to advise Council on policy decisions uh knowing what's going on in an arbor and knowing what you just presented is there anything that you recommend policy wise that we should be doing that's it well I I really love what an arbor is doing and the aspirational carbon neutral by 2030 I think is great uh someone has to be that bold and in Arbor hopefully has the wherewithal to um at least get close if we don't pull it up um I think the big thing is we need to figure out and for me personally I like to think of what's going and the university is going to um hopefully soon announce a much bigger climate initiative uh aimed at speeding things up not on campus alone but off- campus and I think that will be a big help but I think we really have to figure out how to change the policies in Michigan and Beyond but Michigan Pro provide a you know a place to start and I think a Tipping Point for the nation if we can pull it off because we're not a you know liberal East or West Coast State we're a a purple State uh you know industrial Legacy or Rust Belt State um you know we are a state that if we can pull this off at high Northern latitudes anybody can so I think we really just need to uh figure out the policies that um keep DTE from you know stalling this thing and the other utilities I mean consumers is better than DTE I think but they are certainly both of those utilities are a u Public Enemy Number One when it comes to making this happen and happen fast um but at the same time I think we also have to embrace all our fellow citizens in um other parts of Michigan rural parts of Michigan and really help them uh understand and get the benefits of uh a fast energy transition that they deserve um by virtue of their land being used for the renewable energy for the battery storage uh Etc um so a big part of the M University of Michigan's initiative is going to be trying to narrow the urban rural divide the wealthy less wealthy divide and ensure that everyone in an Environ you know benefits so this is environmental justice just as doing things for you know in Detroit to help marginalized communities there's Justice the idea is we got to be more Equitable but we really need uh to break the backs of these utilities from slowing things down because if we don't get off gas really fast we're cooked and if you all remember when our a DT U colleague came and visited us with with us um he actually made the statement that they hope to be uh selling just as much gas in 2050 as they are now that's insane you know that's the you know that kind of attitude is the death of the planet and you know I'm I'm focusing on DTE here but it's really the fossil fuel industry and the utilities more broadly I don't I don't mean to just make them sound like the only um you know enemy of what we need to do here but they are most Pro imate one and I think we Ken Garber you know he made a good point earlier today they're doing everything they can to slow us down and uh it's taking unbelievable courage I think and Innovation to to um figure out how to slow them down instead speed up the energy transition okay Gabriel thanks I you you know you pointed to a number of particular Trends um for the mid you know for the Midwest the Upper Midwest for the Great Lakes um and I'm thinking for ant Arbor for Michigan for the Great Lakes are there sources of information that might help folks who are thinking about decisions now that are going to be locked in place 10 years 20 years 30 years from now and you know whether it's what they're doing with their homes how they're thinking about neighborhoods um whether they're thinking about what kinds of equipment to install are there sources of information about um sort of the direction and intensity whether it's temperature whether it's precipitation um things like that that you would seek out that might help um folks who are working on these kinds of things sort of better maybe adjust their expectations around what's happening now because we're always sort of biased towards well here making decisions about here we are now but if if we're thinking and trying to anticipate say 10 20 years into the future at least um is there a sense of where folks might go for that kind of information to help them calibrate the some of the kinds of things that they might need to to think about um and and even for even for the city and and for policy uh for what's happening with an arbor well there's you know two things you know there are two things we got to do uh one is we got to Halt the problem uh we got to mitigate the problem we got to find get off of fossil fuels and we got to do a few other things that are hard to do we have to decarbonize Agriculture and the Food Systems which is pretty hard to do um you know for example we all have to start eating a little less meat um because that is really uh you know a big problem in terms of greenhouse gas emissions um and there other things um so we have a lot of ideas and you we can go and look at the uh state of Michigan's my healthy climate plan my being spelled Mi um and you can get a a a pretty good sense of the kinds of uh changes that are necessary many of which take place at a a home level U but the really important ones take place at a more utility scale um and neighborhood scale and Community scale um but then uh we also have to become more resilient in the face of the climate change we cannot halt um so there's a lot of debate about are we at 1.5 degrees you know the Paris agreement already uh and the answer is no you know that is a it's GNA be a sort of a decadal level of uh you know continuous sustained warmth um but we're getting darn close I think uh it's not going to be mid-30s it's going to be in this decade uh and by my guess or estimate and um so we are going to probably end up stopping climate change closer to two or two and a half degrees see above pre-industrial so that's a good deal warmer than now and that means all the things we're seeing happen are going to get worse and the National Climate assessment sort of lists those um but they're um you know more uh longer warmer heat waves extreme heat uh more flooding uh dry spells in the winter and the in the summer are going to end up being uh more um made worse and into turned into droughts probably that'll bring a wildfire component uh Eastward into Michigan won't just be the smoke probably at some point um you know our Lakes will become ice free this winter is a good example where we have very little ice on the great lakes that will change and and enhance precipitation that much more um we W have snow um so you know we know uh qualitatively all the trends that were predicted long ago are all happening now uh you know more tornadoes in cold season um things like that as well more severe storms um we don't know exactly the quantitative uh um you know nature of these extremes um in exactly what chronological uh location going into the future um so that's something the scientific Community is going to continue to work on is to provide the specificity the quantification but we kind of know everything that's going to happen so uh that means you know that the Great Lakes water authority is very interested in figuring out how to deal with more uh flood situations in in their service area including Detroit no-brainer you know um was I had a lunch today with some folks um the private sector talking about what could we do um to deal with all the flooding and you know their n nature solution natural solutions they technological solutions these are all the kinds of things that will continue to innovate uh to uh improve um but uh we have the information now on the trends and therefore anyone in Michigan can get a pretty good handle on what's ahead for them qualitatively and what they should be preparing for you know when you're on a you got a place on the on the lake a lake uh you know more extremes uh so more high levels and low levels in lake level could create a real erosion problem if you've got a a lake house or something on one of the Great Lakes so you know it the list is uh but the National Climate assessments not a bad place to start they have a website you can find it online published last year it's pretty up to date great thank you so much for um the presentation um a lot of good signs in there and it's good to hear the the top lines too um so we can go back and and share that with others that aren't as close to it um we're going to take a brief a f minute break J I see you're on thanks so much for joining um we're going to have you uh present to us in just five minutes if that's okay we're going to take a break uh feel free to go off camera and um we'll come back at um at again I made you a co-host so you should be able to share screen and all that when we get back but if you need anything let me know while we're all coming back I wanted to um just open up uh for any questions any clarifying questions I know we've just received a lot of information um and had some great discussions but if there's anything um that anyone has questions about tech technology terms or anything like that um we'll take them for a couple of minutes everyone comes back online yes I got ice cream in my in my break so you'll have to deal with that okay okay last call for clarifying questions all right just know that there's always an opportunity for anyone who has clarifying questions to ask them um you can raise your hand you can also blurt it out so um feel free to do that Jan will turn the meeting to you um you are next presenter tonight all right good evening everyone and it's always nice to deal with the energy codes a very um Dynamic kind of presentation at the end of a meeting so we'll try and we'll try and make it interesting anyway um yeah I wanted to just kind of give a a an update and also a bit of an orientation on uh codes basically basically code adoption in Michigan so the um Michigan energy code is um was first we first had an energy code in Michigan in 1977 um and it is based on a an international code called the international energy conservation code and um by legislative mandate we're supposed to update this code every 3 years the last time we updated the code was in May of 2017 so obviously we're not meeting those mandates uh just to give an idea of where Michigan stands um among the states with um energy code adoption we're kind of you know in the middle bottom of the pack um however uh in process right now is our energy code update which will bring us into um ashray 90.1 2019 and the iecc 2021 so that would bring us into the the sort of Darker blue um components and we're in fact jumping a code cycle because we're so far behind in our code adoption so the codes all uh building codes are basically administrative rules and the legislature has at Authority for that code process to um laara and the Bureau of construction codes um and just an idea of the codes and how the energy code works with the building codes is there is a residential building code and there's a residential um energy code which is we adopt the iecc and then there's a commercial code which adapts both the IC and ashray 90.1 which is a voluntary standard and it's an alternative kind of compliance path within the commercial code um existing buildings so if you're renovating a building um it depends on the level of Renovations uh how that the energy code intersects with that specific code the code adaption process is just like any administrative rule um so that means there's a an established process within the state and basically there's um the department in this case BCC would submit a request for Ru making there are Draft rules that are um published and they have to do a regulatory impact statement with a cost benefit analysis there's a public hearing it goes to um a it they put together a what's called a jcar report which is a a joint uh committee on uh rules which is a bipartisan um uh Committee of the legislature and depending and then J Carr can either act on it or they can kind of pass and then it automatically becomes adopted so um this rul making process we actually got all the way through last year to jcar and they pulled the rules back um there were two reasons for that uh and one was um Eagle was sued over one of the regulatory impact statements and so uh uh any of the rules that were in process needed to go back and um re U kind of uh rewrite their regulatory impact statement and there were also some uh there was some imprecise wording that was pointed out so where we are now is we're back at um a public hearing um State and that public hearing for both the residential and the commercial energy code is going to take place uh February 22nd in Lancing so um and just an idea of um these the the codes um ashray as I talked about is a voluntary standard but it's a it's a um compliance path for the commercial code and um ashray is sort of an engineering society that publishes those standards and so the ICC and ashray every three years they come out with their um updated standards so guess what it's 2022 um there's a new ashray standard out and the uh new ICC 2024 will be published by the end of the year so even though by the end of this year Michigan will be adopting um what is the is ashray 2019 and iecc 21 the new codes will be out so even though we're jumping a code cycle we're still a little bit behind so um then I just to give you an idea of where we are with all the different building codes so Michigan has a the building codes are a State uh code mandated code we have a single state construction code which includes Plumbing mechanical electrical Rehabilitation um and then the energy codes so it any Authority having jurisdiction can only adopt and they can't be any less restrictive or more restrictive than the state codes there's no local um uh leeway with any of these these codes there are two building related codes that do have um local jurisdiction and that's the fire code and the City of an arbor adopts its own fire code AS do most uh municipalities and the housing maintenance code and the housing maintenance code is the one is the basis for the green rental housing ordinance um that's moving through so those are the two codes that have any kind of uh local leeway so um it just to give you an idea we're moving through kind of all of The Suite of 2021 codes except for the electrical code and the electrical code has always been um the most rapidly adopted um building code in Michigan so they're on the um the 2023 which will be effective a series of building codes that'll be effective um in March um a little history on the adoption of the energy codes the commercial energy code is actually more stringent than the residential and even though I say residential uh the residential uh energy code applies to um multifam buildings that are three stories or lower so um so what we've really got is a residential code that is less restrictive currently than the commercial code so the energy Improvement that we will get by adopting this new code is much greater from the residential standpoint than the commercial um some of the highlights of and I'm doing ashray 90.1 the commercial code um the most of the requirements get more stringent and things that were best practices are now required um rooftop units have gotten a pass in the b in the past and so they're ramping up the efficiency of those and what's really uh I think important and this is in the residential code too there's a there's a performance mandate so you have to have a third-party commissioner um for most buildings that are over 10,000 square F feet to do envelope commissioning and commissioning your systems this will help uh building performance dramatically um in the in the residential code we do have um blower door testing um and the insulation requirements are also increased um so this is it it should improve the performance dramatically of both the commercial and the residential um however uh it the codes are only as good as the design professionals the construction professionals and the code enforcement and it's pretty notorious around the state that there is not equitable equal enforcement of especially the energy code and one of the um the funds that iig has that the state has applied for is um the uh training uh throughout the state of professionals plan reviewers Etc on the energy codes as we adopt the new codes because this is something there are Provisions in the code that um do need to be um enforced and um and that really rests on all the local jurisdictions for implementation um I think the state really has done a a relatively good job of primarily adopting the iecc um as um the international code is written I think there are two um what they fine-tuned in this round were the appendices and in the residential code there is an appendic called RB um which covers solar ready residential um which requires basically uh adequate roof space an electrical panel space Also it has to do with some um um just allowing for um electrification so it doesn't require an all electric building but it um uh it facilitates um the transition and there's a a same a similar appendix for um commercial that is kind of solar ready commercial and some of this quas aligns with um the incentives that the IRA have for um housing uh there's a uh an incentive per unit for developers that they can use and so um the the code gets us um most of the way there actually so this it it's an improvement over um what they were proposing the last time uh what they're not adopting uh is appendix Cc or RC and this would be a requirement to have onsite or off-site Renewable Power um it doesn't ban gas but it certainly um promotes electrification in all electric buildings and ing those electric buildings by Renewables um there was and this is not in the current um um regulatory impact statement this was a impact statement issued earlier um but the Lara's position was that it was just one there's electric capacity problems and two it makes things much more expensive um for um for Builders and so it has to pass a certain return on investment by legislative um mandate and um it so in any event it it's we're still I'm still going to Lancing and advocating for um both appendices r c and CC um but I'm you know I'd rather have a rapid um adoption of the code at this point I think um so uh I want to kind of do a little bit of a a look ahead um currently um you know 90.1 ashray has no requirements for Onsite Renewables however in the 90.1 2022 there is a prescriptive requirement for on-site Renewables now prescriptive means you can trade it away um for doing other things around efficiency Etc but it there is a requirement and this is the first time um mandatory Renewables have been added to um uh uh ashray and ashray has um internally recommitted to their uh Net Zero standard by 2031 so we're we're going to be looking at ashray to definitely um continue to uh promote a standard that provides for NetZero construction by TW by at least their 2031 um uh standard so um and that's sort of their their um reaching that Net Zero Energy by 2021 or 2031 um if you're interested um these are links to um the current code information when you go on to these links you'll you'll see the draft uh rule language and what's really difficult about the draft rule language is it it's the administrative rule which references the code and so you have to go into the code to get all of the um the sort of prescriptive uh measures of the code and um uh the the public hearing is is held at the um at the uh State um Historical Museum is that right the state museum in Lancing um there's um Senator shank had a a bill that was called Senate Bill 274 and this bill was really interesting um because the intent of the bill was to require carbon neutral zero net Energy new buildings by 2027 um and uh I do not think that this bill is going to go anywhere I think um the climate bills have they've done what they feel that they can do and they've moved on to some other legis legislative priorities this year um but it was a I think it was a good effort um and perhaps um you know at some point in time something like that could be legislated the other piece of legislation which would be great to have is require automatic adoption of new energy codes um and that would um eliminate um the um eliminate the lengthy kind of code process that we have um all of the codes are vetted very early um you know through the IC process and ashray uh code process so those you know those are those are options that we have for um getting more rapid um energy code adoption there are a bunch of states that have um what they call stretch codes or allow municipalities to adopt um more strict energy codes that would have to also be legislated uh legislative action so that could that's also another possibility but um just talking with the uh the Democrats I just I don't see any more climate legislation what they've done is great um it didn't get us all the way there but it's better than where we were that's for sure so anyway that's um that's sort of a a code summary energy code summary and I'm happy to to answer questions uh we did have in October and I can send anyone a link we did have a um a a recorded uh I have a presentation I guess on the uh 20 um the 2021 energy codes primarily the commercial one if people are interested in sort of the code getting into the code provisions of that thanks Jan it was very enlightening I'm a bit of a code nerd myself um it's a whole language isn't it yeah yeah yeah totally so um again I just want to make the call for clarifying questions there's a lot of information there folks if you haven't know don't have this intimacy with the code um definitely ask Vice chair harp question yeah thank you so much that was great I um I was just going back through the regulatory cost benefit analysis um that I believe is provided around the ruem and I and I was I was specifically looking because a lot of what gets thrown out and you add a slide to this of The Upfront construction costs associated with implementing the code change and and I think both with respect to the net net zero appendix but also with respect to the switch between 2015 and 2021 and I think if I'm reading this correctly it it identifies um about $4500 on average um between the different climate zones in Michigan for crawl space heated heated basement or slab type construction for a single family prototype house um as the construction cost difference um between the 2015 code and the 2021 code um similarly for multif family the average is somewhere around maybe 1,700 um per unit increase in between 15 and and 2015 and 2021 and what I'm wondering is relative to The Upfront cost is there a sense of what the net sort of operation cost difference um that we're expecting to gain or um from some of these changes in partic because they're making the claim obviously that that the the cost the uppr costs are so much so what I'm wondering is how does that how might that translate over the life of the home and ownership you know ownership or or rent um both in terms of efficiency but also in terms of of potential savings from from making these changes or how are you thinking about that might be the question asking all of the codes go through um the the national they have a a couple of uh National Labs that actually do the number crunching and one of the things that we have to realize is Michigan is going from um you know we're skipping 2018 so it is much less of a shock if you keep on that know three-year Cod cycle um I'd have to go back I I think that Energy savings was uh around 10% for the residential increase it was less than that for the commercial because um the home builders have a a huge lobbying effort they actually um uh sued the state um uh around the very first um residential code energy code and that's also why the commercial energy code is required to be updated every 3 years the uh residential code is required to be reviewed every three years and updated every six years so the home builders really influenced the energy code Le legislation but yes there is a um and I and I'm sorry I I don't have those numbers in front of me but you're right they do do a very specific uh cost analysis based on the different climate zones and the differences between um the codes yes they do council member Briggs um thank you for that presentation there were a lot of and I have to go back and listen to it again because there were a lot of um questions that I've had that got answered through that presentation and um a lot of good material one of the things um that I was wondering if you might be able to provide a a few thoughts on our um in terms of our developments we're often we obviously can't go beyond um what is um been adopted and um but there are a few exceptions to that potentially um in terms of our planned unit developments which would often come into residential commercial um code um Arena or into the commercial code and then if we find um opportunities to incentivize and where folks are going you know reaching to um doing more than what we require um but thinking about it within that framework one of the one of the things that planning staff and Planning Commission struggle with sometimes is just having an objective standard um to be able to kind of rely upon and so this is one of these great pieces that's been thoroughly vetted but you also mentioned sort of the challenges around um uh code enforcement and knowledge of knowledge of the latest code and so I'm just curious if you have any thoughts around if we were to let's say within the peut um framework um have one of the community benefits be for example that um you know the developer has has is utilizing the latest commercial code um I'm just curious what your reaction or thoughts are to that amongst many other things of course as well yeah so for instance the latest published um energy code for instance um yeah I think you can I think you can do that one of the um downsides are I think uh there's been less use of the Pud um in an arbor as you add more um you know incentives that maybe don't make as much they don't pencil out for a developer um it's much more streamlined to just do a byri development um the other issue and I've talked to three current developers that really do want to go all electric and there is no reliable uh service from DTE um they can't they they can't commit to a schedule if they do go all electric at this point in time so you know I think there is um uh you know from the industry uh you know they they really uh they're really trying to take A2 z um um uh to heart and try and and do those things um but like I said if you can't get the power there when you want to build your building um or even the U ofm is having issues getting the Transformers there for their new um residential development velopments um so there's a there's a real supply chain issue and um um a a grid capacity issue yeah so yeah zoning is a an instrument that you can use and I know I'm Planning Commission chair at Scio and uh we're trying to align some of our incentives and so forth with uh inflation reduction act incentives to see if we can push it um a little bit further um with developers um we've had you know some luck with um you know several projects doing um you know one megawatt solar uh within their developments and so forth um but yeah like I said it's it's tough because if you if the incentives don't pencil out uh they don't really do any good if people aren't going to um take advantage of them yeah commissioner mski thanks Jan I have the same question question of VI that I posed to commissioner peek and that is our mission as body is to advise Council on policy issues um what if anything is a take should be a takeaway for us uh within our sphere of control or influence that should we be doing on on a policy related to all this code related stuff yeah that's um that I mean that's a that's a really good question I know um Ann Arbor did sign on to um Michigan environmental council's um um uh position statement um for energy code adoption um and I think internally policy-wise um I think it's you know the zoning ordinance and you know it's it's kind of an interesting there have been several communities I think one in Canada that have actually eliminated um certain zoning requirements in their Transit corridors um it's and uh in exchange for um um increased energy performance building performance I think the other thing that um policy-wise uh cities have done is one I think the benchmarking ordinance is a great start um Philadelphia and a I don't know which other uh cities have a a building tuneup ordinance um because it's not I agree that the new construction needs to be um certainly um Net Zero um but we have a huge existing building stock and I I'll tell you we do not have efficient existing buildings in an arbor we have uh I think one of the from a policy standpoint one one of the best things you guys can do is the green rental housing ordinance um that's going to have I think a wider impact than the benchmarking ordinance um and that's leverage that you all have now right on Jan couldn't agree more okay um other questions before we close out our meeting Jan I have a question for you um you say you're going to the hearing um can you tell us a little bit about what what happens there what do you expect um knowing that comment period is closed um if that's the case um yeah where are we at in the process and what do you expect from the hearing yeah so you can actually um I believe that you can also email um comments um you know uh to be entered into the record at the hearing so the hearing uh they call it the order uh the last time the hearing uh the hearing was held up for both codes at once and I think there might have been 10 people um that participated in the hearing it's always good if you you participate you hand in um a a written copy of of what you um present um and it's entered into the record um and it's you know kind of similar to a public hearing that the Planning Commission might have or city council um run very similarly um the uh home builders I'm sure will be there last public hearing they entered in a a notebook it was literally a notebook um into the record so like a thick are you saying it was thick as a notebook or like someone's actual not okay I'm sure it was extremely factual okay moving on um any other comments here all right well thank you so much for joining us um really timely and and so I'm so glad we were able to have you on um i' really like to join and um so I may come out um but I have to get my head in the game in terms of what I want to say in particular yeah we're coordinating a little bit with the Michigan um environmental Council and so forth so um yeah be glad to share any kind of notes and so forth okay I I'll reach out to you um that okay thanks appreciate it thank you again morning all right all right all right all right where are we at um okay so we're going to move on to the last segments of our meeting here um we're going to move to report from staff and I'll take OSI updates first Joe do you have any updates for us yeah sorry threw me I just about to say thank to Jan and then here we are but um yeah um yeah just noting a couple things I know that we've um just on a couple things that we've both talked about here uh as well as whether be recently or over the the past bit but just noting that a couple of the various programs um are going to be kind of ramping up soon here in the spring slash early summer um as most are aware the home energy rating disclosure goes live um in March so that's going to be really ramping up the assessment structure is getting um you know C some of those final Nails in and figuring out you know how that all works but that that's taking place soon um Additionally the uh home energy advisers that we talked a little about as well as the rebates we' talked about both today but also in the in the past are um in very active uh planning and should be should be rolling out here again in the next the next few months um you know spring SL summer um so be on the lookout for those um I know we've again talked a few times as well as it's come up here uh green housing um similarly in progress um I think I've mentioned before but for those who haven't heard it's it currently in legal review working through that process um and getting everything um you know set on the legal end before moving forward with that um relatedly that's not a word relatedly um we've you know talked about the energy options analysis looked at it here um we're currently going through as well as working with some third party firms to review the model that was presented in the report um to you know validate the findings make sure everything you know looks looks right and stuff like that um so should be more information coming for that um in the next next few weeks here so be on the lookout for that um that's most of what I have um similarly again if you want to learn more about the home energy rating disclosure as well um that'll be the topic of the next uh sustainability series um in the in the Forum there so attend if you are interested in that as well thank you Joe can we have some updates from Council Members if there are any sure I'll provide a quick update um folks might want to take a look at um we just had a work session last night um an economic development um report that our um Deputy City administrator put out and there's a a long long the presentation is short um but there's a long report associated with it and a bunch of appendices there are some sustainability recommendations within it as well but um U of note in it is um there are many things of note but um to share here there are in addition to the sustainability recommendations there's this um piece of asking us to essentially State our values um um u in terms of Economic Development and embrace um you know State very clearly our our need for more housing in the community and making housing a a priority for the community as well as sustainability and and couple of other values associated with this as well but um that does create some tension that I just wanted to report here as as we've mentioned a few times um tonight there are as we're trying to build our way out of this housing crisis um we are hitting isues with DT grid availability and also um and also what we're allowed to um require by right within our code so um we're we're looking at ways to incentivize and and and go above and beyond um and to streamline the process so that it makes it more affordable for folks to to integrate that in but um encourage folks to at least skim the report and if you have any thoughts um certainly send them our way great hearing about that capacity issue again okay Council Rina do you have anything to share council member breaks just hit the big one that I was going to bring up as well so thank you for that council member cool right let's get our update from the environmental commission commissioner mki uh two topics were a primary concern at the last meeting the first was a discussion of a draft resolution uh that the commission considered for the first time last year and then again in the meeting at the end of January that would uh make a recommendation to council to in that actually the environmental commission would support uh a recommendation to council that Council uh go ahead with a phase two feasibility study um that's that did not move forward to a vote um I don't know if it will come to a vote um I assume that it will be considered again uh but that's the the the municipalization through uh condemnation of dte's assets and looking at what the cost of that might be there was a phase one as everybody probably remembers a phase two would be roughly U $500,000 so that was considered um but uh tabled again uh the second topic is uh we had an update on the 10,000 trees initiative um that's going extremely well uh good news is that uh the proportion of trees being planted uh that our native species has increased significantly and there's also um some potential movement to um create a local Nursery so that we're really getting uh genotypes that are are really suited for um what we are uh want to be seeing here in in Ann Arbor um so those are the two topics um while I have the floor I'd like to comment briefly on Ken garber's comments and the discussions um that we had um about this uh Supply issue and grid issue I want to read from an article in M live quoting um Jerry noria who's the CEO of DTE who appeared at a groundbreaking at at the um uh Broadway Park West development on the Huron River and he said at the time quote an arbor has a goal to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030 and DTE is very committed to partnering with the city to achieve this very aspirational goal and ambitious goal and he went on to say and we're proud of the fact that we can be a part of this journey within the city of an Harbor so uh as I've been emphasizing with my comments earlier advising Council Council should really hold dte's feet to its fire or in this regard and it's really irresponsible that DTE cannot support developers wishes to go all electric so that's my two cents thanks okay great thank you for sharing all right we're gon to move into to our did I forget anything this is a part where Everyone likes to say I forgot something okay all right uh so we'll move into our last opportunity for public comment um folks have the opportunity to speak for up to three minutes if you're watching on CTN please call tri8 78899 or 877 853 5247 and enter the meeting ID 956 8718 7876 this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and the video feed City staff will select color that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number this was done earlier to electronically raise your hand please press star n on your phone and you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and please move to a quiet area mute any sounds so we can hear you clearly and again state your name and address at the beginning of your comments do we have anyone on the line do not have anyone on so I think we're good to move forward quickly move on just kidding um okay items uh for the next agenda does anyone have any pressing items that they'd like to post here yes commiss 11 uh I don't know if this is like something that um is an easy question or an item for the next agenda but I remember a while ago we had the um don't remember what it was so the DGA had this pilot program where they had a solar in one of their parking lots and I was there the other day and it uh it's not there anymore so I'm guessing it ended I'm just wondering if we can get an update on what happened with that and if they're going to expand it or if that's maybe I missed the memo There Was an explanation of this already but anyway Jo you have an yeah I I'm not sure if it's the exact same one but I we there was a um there was a property that had had a car port it was recently sold to a different um you know a different unit and as part of that the um carport came down so it can be relocated to a different um area that's that's owned as part of it I'm not sure if it's the exact same one there that's part of it the one across from the farmers market that sounds right I just I I I've heard like the update but I don't know the exact details that that site's being developed that that site's being developed into affordable housing so that whole parking lot's going to disappear so that's probably why it was uh taken down in preparation for the development of that line okay right we're g to bring the meeting to a close um so it's currently 8:20 p.m.

with just a couple of excuses we'd like to excuse Chuck Waldo and Margaret gobby not being here today and we have Diana Butler on the phone with us so we have a quum to operate with so we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance and I've asked Jennifer Brimhall to lead us in that 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 all right well thank you we're going to turn some time over to Dr Wright now for some recognition and awards I we'll let you go through that Dr Wright web turn the time over to you for character counts all right if I have my I know I've got Lily here and the other character counts recognition winners come on up Lily I guess you're uh you're my one that showed effort tonight and came to the board meeting so so the last month um you can stand up here last month we our character recognition Character Matters award was effort and um Lily along with some others let me read the other names we have do daada Josh liten Andres Perez Aoki torti Brody Ellsworth Ian Lily alwin Renee panel and Troy liser they were all recognized by a teacher a coach for their efforts in the classroom effort on the field effort in the hallways wherever they were putting forth what makes them a person and it showed in their work and teachers were impressed with what was going on and so they were nominated for efforts so we wanted bring those students that were were nominated and recognize them with our board members tonight so please give a round of applause for Lily and the others that weren't able to be here oh yeah picture time all right Dr right is that all for the character counts for the junior H and so now the future Business Leaders Lauren we have a presentation for that yes I think um Bridget Miss Blake is going to come up and then and with Jack Woods to announce some winners with FPL and other fpla winners come forward to thank you so we're happy to be here and uh I'm happy to brag on three of our members that are here we had eight of our 12 members that went that placed and they brought home 11 medals we compete against 60 high schools and many of those are in the valley so 4A 5A large schools and Jack will tell you what everybody placed with their events Jack is our president all right um Kylie Jolly plays third place in accounting and second place in social media strategies uh Tiara Johnson placed third place in future business Ed educator Trevor Klein got first place in Supply Chain management and second place in digital video production and he placed along with Ken who got second place in digital video production and Xander was on that team as well um Taylor rowitz placed first in ux design and then I placed um third in impromptu speaking second in journalism and first in public service announcement that's awesome W that is that is very very impressive thank you thank you you want a picture with this group nice job kids way to go and thank you Miss Blake for your help in sponsoring that thank you let's start with the Elementary School for students of the month and then we'll go to principal hoffm after that and Mr whip so I don't see our student of the month here um but I do have her plaque and then um some stuff that one of her teachers said so our student of the mon Elementary School is Cali Craft um Miss lto said that Cali craft is her optimistic view on life spreads joy in the classroom her dedication to school does not go unnoticed she's always trying her hardest helping her classmates whenever possible she cannot say enough good things about her and what a joy she has been um throughout this year she's so proud that she's receiving this award so we will do it up big for her at the at the elementary school um and sad that we missed her tonight so there's an extra fbaa member came in we need that introduction and a retake on the picture please welcome Trevor Klein come to the front Trevor Klein you know you have to have your picture taken for posterity [Applause] all right um I'm gonna ask Ian Chief to come up please Ian Chief is an eighth grade student at the Junior High um here you go g I give you that for a second and so I've got a few things to say um that some of the teachers have said about Ian and then I'll throw a couple things in as well um he uh one of his teachers says I've had the pleasure of teaching Ian for two years I found him to be polite courteous and very trustworthy Ian cares about his classmates and teachers and he demonstrates this on a daily basis this is one student that I will always remember for the good things that he has done um and a second teacher said um Ian is a great kid always does his work he's a very kind and considerate student when the bell rings he always helps clean up the room he pushing pushes in his his chair pushes in the chair of others um and on his way out of the class he always stops to put in the door stop Ian also he holds the door for everybody at lunch um he is and so you don't see a door opening where students are going in at that he's not holding the door um he is just such a polite student what a great example for bluid um and uh kudos to the parents because he is a very wonderful young man element Mr Grace is this Miss craft back here yes you have her come on in let's do it again yeah all right call I just have to say it takes good parents to raise good kids and and appreciate the parents that raising these kids all right so Callie's here now um like I said earlier she exhibits everything that we want in a Blue Ridge student um she's helpful she's positive she has a great attitude um her teachers absolutely love her when I request people to nominate students um very rarely do I get the same person from both teachers um because teachers like to go across their class and nominate as many as they can both of Call's teachers nominated her for student of the month as well as a couple other staff members that have interacted with her throughout the building um very deserving student uh C craft thank you thank you for coming all right Lexi ordinola come up please so Lexi is our student of the month at the high school your plaque and more importantly free cookie um so Lexi not only is she her she's our senior class president um she's I have usually I know the kids forever because they've been with me that mid School junior high high school with a quite a few of them so I've only known Lexi for the last four years she came to bluid as a freshman since her freshman year she has been really involved with the school and with it student council with its Athletics she's one of the pivotal team members of the soccer team throughout her years here um she is strong in the classroom she has uh 4 point I'm not 4.9 weighted GPA she has straight A except for one class unfortunately she had a be in one of her AP lab classes so but still remarkable to go throughout her High School career and only have one be so she's fantastic in the classroom she's helpful wherever she goes she does amazing job with student council and helping out a student body activities um we enjoy her in the morning announcements and jokes of the day she does a great job bringing the announcements keeping the kids informed of what's Happening we want to recognize Lexi for the amazing job she does at the high school thank [Applause] you Mr web and Lexi is also on the high school side she's on the superintendent's kid Council and that is an amazing group of of students and so uh I wasn't surprised when she was nominated and she has contributed at at a very high degree and we appreciate she's one of many of our wonderful kids good job Mom on on that thank you craft family thank you as well now miss hoffm principal hoffmier you have a teacher of the month award to present yes if I could please have Mrs cherity bero come [Applause] up you're welcome Charity's been with us for uh three years now um and it is a she came to us um as a teacher from the Philippines with an extensive background in um in teaching English and it is a difficult process to come to the United States to teach um and so she she managed every challenge that was thrown at her um and she is such a proponent of our bluid culture it's so amazing to see um she is she come steps in and helps wherever she has asked and volunteers I mean if we just say we need some people helping with this she is always there um she is a wonderful example of kindness to her students um she brings us information if she has concerns about students she's always bringing that to our attention um and reaching out to the students to make sure that they feel welcome in her classroom um and so we are just very blessed to have her as a teacher at the junior high congratulations I also wanted to recognize Ian's family for coming looks like he has a really good support system there the chief family thank you for coming and supporting your child we appreciate you we have now our February be our star and uh Mr Webb will you present this for us please sir you bet Mr Archer backck come forward please so Mr archb is the BR star winner for the month of February has did not come with a cookie just kidding you get your cookie too um so Mr Archer Beck he is assistant principal at the high school assistant principal for discipline but he does not only handle discipline now that is a major job of what he does you'll see him running across campus um he's he's the guy that bust our kids for Vaping so he is getting his miles in and and it's making a difference and we're seeing those numbers come down and um and it's partly the effort that he puts into the dedication of his job um doesn't matter beond the classroom with the discipline side of it he is a major Force within the high school with um curriculum with the teaching working with the teachers doing helping his wife Ricky with professional development um um he helps out with all the athletic events he wherever there's a need Mr arck is there he's helping out with the the little league basketball um he's he's got a vested interest there with his with his boy but he would be involved no matter if his boy wasn't doing basketball he's just that dedicated into bluid and so we've adopted him into the bluid family and we want to make him feel welcome and so he'll be here a long time so we want to recognize him for be our star great job Mr Webb if I could also add Mr archet is an outstanding example for our young students we need young energetic Educators to serve as good role models for these kids and and he's certainly a great role model we appreciate his work ethic and his and the the spirit he brings to the job he's just an outstanding member of the family we thank you we appreciate you Jake thank you nothing but good we hear about Jake thank you Jake um that part of the agenda will conclude the next um section of our agenda is a consent agenda that um is an accumulation of several things Miss Butler Diana have you had a chance to review that and is there any item that you would like to take out and vote on separately no it looked good all right Jennifer how about you is there anyone to speak in behalf of the school fundraisers here tonight if not then no fundraiser no Mr web no okay um if not I'll make a motion to accept the consent agenda is presented I'll second that motion I have a second from Jennifer all in favor I I that looks like that passed unanimously the next item on the agenda is business and uh that only is a district update uh Dr right we're going to turn to you so you can give us an update on all the things that have been happening in the last month yes sir the the top of the hour update is that our girls are home tonight at 7 p.m.

Mr mg Mrs alen Mr next is uh an action item approval of the agenda Mrs Leber yes Mrs Amaria yes Mr MCG yes Mrs alen yes Mr yes and we have two sets of minutes uh to approve first one being the meeting of January 9th amaras Mr Mr M Mrs Allen yes Mr yes and that takes us to the special five minute meeting we had on January Mrs yes Mrs Mr MCG yes Mrs alen yes Mr yes in case anybody's Wonder Mr mcgivan is on the phone which still gives us a any calls to the public no calls to the public no that we will move on to the superintendent all right good evening Mr President members of the board parents and students thank you for being here just some quick updates because Mrs SOS is going to cover a lot in her report in terms of data so I'm gonna just highlight a few things for you for starters um well miss Nani is getting that up registration for 2024 2025 school year is up and running so we need parents to please register your students for next year we really depend on early registration to help us determine class size classroom assignments and allows me to determine how many students we can accept under open enrollment so the sooner we get those um students registered the better it is for misson for us to make plans for next year so thank you we had a new year staff kickoff and um we had a little motivation and humor to kick off the new year with our Colt staff we had James palasio who's the dean of dual enrollment and high school programs at FEMA College um come and address our Colts and um they were good sports I redid the words to the 12 um Days of Christmas to the 12 weeks before testing for teachers so um there I am in my go Cults and um all the support staff helped out so I hope that our teachers who are in the audience can attest to the fact that we um had to add a little bit of humor with all the hard work and stress that's coming up with um this type of school year and getting our kids and staff through testing we also talked about um what we can personally influence what strengths we all have to bring to the table how do you leverage our talents and what are our blind spots really as we analyze data on what are things that we either anticipated or not and um are we aware of any and what we can do to better help our students so it was a good kick off so thank you Mr a for starting this tradition because I believe it's year three of our new year three or four years now so thank you next our student leadership Lighthouse team and parent advisory meetings um we really discussed leader in me the character Ed program that we have we asked the students what do you know about leader and me what do you like about it what do you want to know what do you wonder about and on the poster on the side you can see where we did like a carousel where the kids were rotating at the posters and writing their ideas so some of the kids ideas on what they know about leader and me is that it helps with their emotions helps you to be a leader helps you to be a better person promotes more kindness makes the school better improves future life and beginning with the end in mind so um they really were talking a lot about what the habits are and what they're learning which is nice we reviewed climate survey results with our parent advisory as well and we started a book study on the seven habits of hiding affective families with our parent advisory members to come with what the students are learning in the classroom okay we had a a leader in me ad site visit Mr M Mall came to visit he is the director of character education through the Arizona Department of Education so as a reminder ad provided matching funds for our leer and me character at program additional funds were provided by a grant Opportunity by the Franklin cubby Institute so we were able to purchase the material and the program at a very minimal cost to our school uh again it was an opportunity to showcase our students and discuss progress and plan for implementation we visited classrooms um we walked through the middle school building and we showed him the third grade folders based on the seven habits and you can see in the middle there there is the time Matrix and talking about how how we spend our time right on things that are either urgent or and things that are important so the kids are really learning some good life skills with the program and i' like to show a video of one of our middle school students scho my home life and my soci so the students were doing a carousel they were having great conversations and then MRSA said you need to come over and listen to them so of course once I started recording they all started to move away and they got a little bit shy but they were um very excited about talking about what they know about okay our job fair and um vacancies so again um thank you Mr Nathan and Mrs bti for attending the Y job fair um we held our job fair on Saturday February 3rd our vacancies so if you know anybody or want to recruit anyone we need a middle school social studies teacher a maintenance tech and bus driver so as of right now we're very excited that um our staff is all planning to return we have a retirement in middle school for social studies so we all we've been working on retention and hopefully we can find a social studies teacher sooner than later cwdl our new Auditors we had the first um it audit of five years we changed Auditors and we're saving the district a lot of money um because we are mandated to have an audit so it just depends on who we go with so we did an RFP and selected cwdl so feedback from the staff was positive and documents analyzed were similar to past audits so there weren't any major surprises um during the exit interview the feedback from the Auditors was favorable and they are not anticipating any major audit findings it's apparent that the systems we have put in place have helped in separation of Duties and in streamlining responsibilities in all departments in the past three years the audit is still taking place as we continue to send um them documents that they're asking for and everything is random so they pull like three kids and say let us see their attendance and they pull other kids we want to see kids who withdrew and if they were quoted correctly so it's not only an audit of the business department but it's an audit of how we enroll kids and how we code them if we say that they're here half a day did they really leave afternoon or what I mean they're that strict on how they look at the documents um so again final audit results will be shared at a later date Auditors have until March 31st to finalize but so far it's good news love of reading week want to thank our B the rotary members parents and community members for sharing your love of books and importance of literacy with our students there's some pictures of some of our rotarians who have come in um thus far we have more coming on tomorrow and Thursday to read with our students our student Lighthouse leadership team students also signed up to read so there's one of our students reading to another class A lot of the older students wanted to read in their siblings classes which was nice we had our math and science night last night so thank you um parents for coming you can see pictures there of parents engaged with their kids science fair projects we have a few in the back and um one of my favorites was the 5 rule so boys and girls if you haven't seen it you can check it out because they tested food from the cafeteria and um so you'll have to see their conclusion and let me know what you think but they're back there so we had every single middle school student did a science for project which was exciting Foundation our sweet Art G was a huge success we will have our followup meeting next week so we will know more about um how well we did in the actual fundraising but we wanted to highlight some pictures of our staff was at a new venue there was our amazing Colt jazz band did amazing we have our chamber orchestra so our kids are just so amazing if you haven't heard them we they are also going to be performing at Rotary jazz in the desert um our jazz band so they have just come a long way continue to surprise us every time we hear them our governing board members thank you all of you for your support and for your attendance and we even got Mr mcgibbon there thank you Mr mcgibbon um we ALS it was fun we had a a silent one of the silent auction items was a visit to the Santa Rita Ranch so um that brought in some money for our foundation so we're excited about that as well and I know Mr MCG is super excited about that and once a cult always a cult thank you Colt alumni and these are students that have come through Continental some are already in college and some are still in high school but they know how to hustle and increase sales so we're going to keep inviting them to come back because they sold a lot of raffle tickets so we're very happy for them again Happy Valentine's Day and on the right there there's a picture of Mr Nathan and I because we did have the baby goats come visit preschool which is also a highlight of of February so we always make it out there to hang out with the goats so thank you very very much and again thank you for coming thank you thank you thank and that is going to move us to the admin report starting with our princi known as this good evening [Music] everybody what have our quotes been up to I think superintendent Rico has shown a lot of things that we've been up to so we'll start with some of that we've been having our nurse ums and Troopers been on many lessons throughout the school based on are is that teachers are asking for right here she was with kindergarten just doing a quick little mini lesson on the safety when bik R so she's showing them um helmets and a little skeleton head and showing them just about being heading and the importance of and then our eth grade students were studying marine life and they have to go to the aquarium in Phoenix very have any been out there this is my first time it was pry impressive very impressive students were also learning a lot of things with the have instructors there that were teaching them throughout the exit so very educational and fun we have our gardening club who's working hard at spring up our campus through Owl and they'll be collaborating soon with our Middle School gifted students and some other from the community that going to be working on our GRE the 100th day of school we had the 100th day of school we had a lot of um little hundredy olds wandering around our campus and that was also the day of our assembly celebrating your children and their successes so we're very proud of them and then uh superintendent we' already touched on the leader me and the kind work by our students it was really great to hear them collaborate and really take the lead and take charge of the student advisory meetings and hear them collaborate with one another and when we leave tonight it's going to probably be dark out but we it will be a little little bit by the peaceful that the eth graders did last year and this is a bench that our e graders have gifted the school with this year so it's right outside heading and we also as superintendent R mentioned we did class walkthroughs observations and had a lot of Reflections we're able to have our students participate with us and give them give they gave us great feedback and insight and we've gone into middle of the Year map Benchmark data that's our winter District benchmark test and that's what we're going to go into right now since some of our teachers what our deer room looks like as well so for the middle of the Year reading data if you look through here we can see that we're doing pretty good this is this is achievement wise um by grade so these are students who are at grade level the blue me they are above grade level green is they proficient yellow means that they're partially on the C going into the proficient area or they fall into the partially proficient and that's the same on every color band we've been working really hard at really getting these areas to decrease and in those day-to-day meetings that we've been having and talking together as a team the importance of tier two interventions which is those small group interventions for our students so that they can continue to make that growth and not just um flatten out and then end up in the partially proficient for the fre levels so this is a reading grow for all grades um like we just overall we have achievements and this here on the top is if students have met their RIT goal so they might already be at grade level but we have 28% of students over 577 students who are meing not meeing the projected RIT they might be at Great level but every time they take a benchmark they give them like eight points of a goal or a little more for them to reach some of them might be almost on the cusp of that and that's why we're doing those wanting to do even more to interventions with our students because we're seeing that this is a trend School wide where students are pretty much excelling achievement wise in their great level but for their own individual growth gos so they keep progressing um is an area we have to work on Mrs I just want to add that um the growth me Med and distribution is based on all the students in the nation that take the NWA assessment so they're looking at comparing our kids to other students it's not just our school that's how they determine growth right so you know when the state Compares us to other third graders in the state NWA is a nationwide assessment so um that's why they're projecting growth and the growth is projected if in competing with students who are at that level in time does that make sense so it's it's a a median distribution Nation nationally so as you can see here this is a quadrant chart that we can also look at and it shows us that we have students who are high achievement low growth so they're high at achieving and they're reaching grade level goals is where we're seeing a trend happening in our school and then on the cusp of being both the high growth and high achievement so we have some that are outliers where we have these are great levels where they're at low achievement low growth or low achievement high growth but we've been working the past few years to get all of these kidos to start getting into this quadrant area and that's we're continue to work so this is middle of the Year MTH data so just like the reading data same thing we're working really hard at making sure that foundations that are being built will continue into the great levels of our students progress throughout the years and also with working on decreasing this and increasing these areas over here in the and again like Mr Rico just um explained this is what it looks like schoolwide but based off of Nationwide outcomes for our school so we want to get up until those 50s and 60s and again this is winter data so we still have almost a whole semester of work that our students are still learning and being exposed to and again the quadrant as we can see we're falling here at high growth or low growth but high achievement okay so we got to move these to here great level but we got to get them to meet their own individual rip goals through end of and aha moments during our great level reflection times was that fality to the reading curriculum our teachers are seeing that extreme Fidelity bellt Bell work in elementary school has beening successful with student progression and grow the professional learning communities that we have with our teachers and with our staff her great level teams um regarding modifications and differentiation for the work based off what students need in each subject area and supporting one another in their efforts to serve all of our students in their achievement goals is something that they are continuously working together at needed is what we discussed was help with those tier 2 small group supports k through eight and that's something that's new for Middle School when we talked about small groups so we've been having those conversations with middle school as well what do small groups look like because that's not something that Junior Highs are always accustomed to doing is pulling those groups and small intervention but we have discussed schoolwide in our data meetings that it's needed to create keep having our students make that upwards trajectory of success in Reading Writing Math and Science um possible need for Benchmark Advanced reading curriculum in sixth grade because we currently have how and we fling collections for six seventh and eth but the current reading that we're seeing some pretty great success in our elementary school raises the bar of talked to some parents who said it seems pretty challenging but our students are starting to meet um where it raises that bar for them even in kindergarten if you ever have a chance and want to start just walking through Kinder starting to see the anchor charts that the teachers are doing in the notes with the students it's it's a big shift from just two years ago so the work that's being done with our little ones there it's pretty phenomenal and it's continuing all the way through fifth grade so we are thinking about possibly um talking about the curriculum that's being used in elementary for it to also go up into sixth grade because that's how far it does go U more study skills and famili familiarity with online student curriculum dashboards map State Testing dashboards to each students in class district and state testing worries regarding meducation and functionality of those online programs and um data digs for great level in mathematics are taking place this week and they're also working on the data walk but one thing I do want to mention is in education it's very hard because we are um mandated to do State Testing in public schools so we know that it can create anxiety and nerves especially in our little ones and there are high demands from the state to have us do these tests so in doing so we want to ease our our students Minds as much as possible and prepare them because a lot of things have shifted curriculum wise and testing wise to technology to everything online so on top of the stresses of our students already having to you know their learning standards and their TI standards so they're prepared for each grade level and we really prepare them for high school and Beyond um we're really noticing that we really have to be giving them more exposure to some of these dashboards some of you see you know when they're working onl at home or they're trying to do math homework on math on their laptop the navigations and the tools are different they're different from the things that we are used to and I can say that too I'm parent as well here at Continental and I'm seeing the same things that all of you are seeing and I and I know it's not this type of math we are used to doing so our little ones come home and we're trying to help them they're like that's not what the teacher said how to do it and if we comes really stressful so we want school to be fun and our teachers have did an amazing job at that but then we always have to think about the mandates that are put on our teachers and our students and our staff based off of what we have to do for state for state so we really want to make sure that our students when they do have to do these Benchmark tests and the state tests that they're as comfortable as possible and it's like second nature on how to navigate and then talking about testing um we just finished Benchmark testing which is the data we went over and for our students who are English language Learners mrso is finishing up the Z spring assessment testing window we had our eighth graders is the national test that happen we don't get scored for it but we get chosen every so many years our e graders just some tests for testing in February 88 last week and then we have special some of our special education students who are taking a multi-state alternate assessment again these are all state mandated tests that um a side that's for Fifth and eighth graders we're going to be doing that in March toward the end of March and um the aasa window that is for reading math writing that's April 1st April 26 and that's third through 8th grade and there's a lot that's put on um are especially third graders because it's a move on when reading program through the state so um they're they're gearing up for having to take that test and then we have PS our students are going to be going to Wal gr optional and our many of our students have signed up already with our middle school pror so we will be transporting them to all on April 8 the TS if any of you are interested please let us know you can call our office or get our school but we'll help facilitate that that's $14 um but don't let the Fe keep you from doing that if you want to sign up your eth grad to take the p and then we have our end of the year District Benchmark testing April 29 there's a lot of and we thank you for your support and what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us this is something the generation Network schools uh team that came and walked through with us went over and it was something that we talked about with each of our teams and our data dates just that it's important to really see the strength that lies within our teachers and we're very proud of the work that they do I see some of them sitting out here I'm very proud um of all of you we all are as a team and we're very proud of all of these students who work very hard each day and all of the parents who are always stay on them and helping them with the homework even though it's hard for us too to figure out some thank you for all your hard work and remember you know what lies within you that's going to get us through the most challenging te thank you thank you so we have one more presentation then we get you guys that would be our special education mine short I promise we'll get you out um so I'm Minas I'm the director of special education um so this is kind of where we're at with our special education program I'm so proud of our teachers and our students um everybody works so incredibly hard every single day um our October one data which is the kind of the big data that we send to the state every year um indicated we had 85 uh preschool to eth grade students who receive special education services as of February 9th repr 95 students which means we've had students come into the district we've identified new students um so we can we get students in a variety of way um so our highest categories of Eligibility I get asked this a lot because we are such a small District um specific learning disability um out of all of our students 34 students second grade to e8th grade have this specific category of Eligibility um our second highest population of students are our students with a speech and language impairment there are 24 students with this as a primary category so it's what they receive services for only however we have to keep in mind that there are many more students that have this as a secondary category of Eligibility which means they have two different categories that we work within to support that and then our third largest category is a developmental delay this is for students in Like Preschool to third grade um and we have 17 students so just as you saw the maps uh data from this playblast I broke it down a little bit further for our special education students a lot of times we look at you know the progress that students are making and for students in special ed sometimes that progress is different a lot of times it's different so I like to focus on what individual students um made so for math p8 28 students made growth within their math test and 11 students scored at the exact same level or they were um they lost less than five points um for reading K8 47 students made growth within reading 16 students scored at the same level or lost less than five points and then language usage only our second to e8th grade students take this particular s 41 students State growth and 13 students for at the same level or lost points so again I'm really proud of our students and I'm really proud of our um staff as well because they work really hard to um get these kids exactly what they need so contributing factors Fidelity to supporting the classroom reading and math curriculum um this year we have implemented supplemental curriculum specific for special education so this just opens up of many many more opportunities for students to learn skills building a student efficacy especially in the middle school a lot of times our middle schoolers don't like to ask for help because they just they don't so really building their self- advocacy skills has been a very large goal of our Middle School teachers specifically um briding needed foundational skills with the curriculum and even though we have a new supplemental curriculum um that all students have access to sometimes it's just really working on those Foundation skills to support students growth steps will include uh continuing to work um on all of the above mentioned dist factors and uh we will continue to identify students who lost more than five points growth and find out the reason why because if we don't know why we can't fix it and we can't fix it to make it better um if we're not just you know there really supporting our that's all I got for the CH you thank you now it's time for our speci special recognition we will start off the [Laughter] [Music] the amest to tallest line here and then parents please feel free to come up and record and take pictures and then you'll head over there with them if you want to meet the to help them pick out their shirt size and other some other goodies certificates for so Mrs Tesla writes Carlos is a wonderful student and continues to grow Carlos supports his friends and is growing as an individual congratulations Carlos is always helping others she makes sure that the teacher and students are being safe and responsible she's grown so much this school year and is kind and generous to others congratulations L Miss AA is one of the sweetest girls I've known AA has gone out of the way countless times to help others on the playground and in the classroom she's kind human in every sense I'm so lucky to get to learn with you and watch you grow this year I'm so proud of you Mrs F congratulations Jessie isal go out every time we're in of help assistance Jesse appears out of nowhere to lend to help him he loves to work on his assignments and never complains follows all of the safety goals and is a great friend of many students in class he's my most improved student so far Le hard to includ all subjects I love teaching Jesse having in our class missia congratulations about an amazing outgoing loving hardworking funny and safe young lady Olivia comes into class with a huge smile on her face she works so hard and makes sure to participate in class I love that she challenges herself to doing her work I've seen so much growth in Olivia she's grown so much confidence she's kind to the other students and adults she such a great example being inside out the thank you for being so amazing Olivia you miss Georgia has earned of month fabulous attitude respect for others and dedication to her learning she's a great friend who's always including others and making them feel good about themselves Georgia always communicates calmly and is respectful to others our second grade class doesn't just like Georgia we love her keep up the great work Mrs congratulations always will to help friend out as well as his teacher he's always ready to learn and sits quietly and nicely until dire are given Ethan is kind to all of his classmates every day and loves to make them smile this is congratulations Lea is a wonderful student full of smiles and always so positive she's kind to all her classmates staff and anyone who is around her Leila stays safe on campus and is ready to help others when needed her care for others shows through her form of action she's done incredible in all subjects and grown so much academically I'm super proud of her for she has amazing potential and I know she'll do amazing and all she puts her heart into great job Lea Mrs H my name is Adine comes to school every day with a smile on her face and a positive attitude she's caring and compassionate to each of her peers and helps whenever one of them in need she shows responsibility by completing her classroom job each day without reminders Adeline always follows our school and classroom roles and she encourages others to do the same congratulations Adine Max is a wonderful and extremely respectful te he's kind to everyone around him and tries his best winning class he works well independently and in group studies Max is always aware of his surroundings and tries to complete work in a timely man congratulations kind caring compassion giving understanding these are just some of the wonderful qualities my January C of the month joicy displays on a daily basis joyy really has a heart of gold and shows empathy to others she asked to sit next to a particular student needed guidance and Direction and has been a blessing to him then moving just around after our holiday break she asked to sit next to the student again I was so proud and moved by her offering he now ask every day to give joy a starburst and gratitude for her friendship it is a really beautiful thing to see joyy keep being a positive like to others and noticing who needs a little more attention because you are perfect friend love Mrs Flowers James is a new student who quickly embraced our culture James's kindness towards his peers and his willingness to help is unwavering he's a bright student who has the ability to think outside the box he will change our future I'm honored to be able to have a small part in assisting in your academic development congratulations J house Eva demonstrates day in and day out what being Continental C truly is she always has a kind spirit and radiates that to her ears Eva is a model student who is safe and responsible she exemplifies these characteristics and can always counted on to do the right thing when it comes to classroom expectations in any capacity AA can be counted on to be kind safe and responsible others should strive to be more like her congratulations and this is from all of the Middle School teachers they get together to nominate nomin Tyler is a wonderful kid to have in class he's super responsible with the studies and can always be counted on to be kind and safe Tyler is well respected by his peers and the staff congratulations so with that two employees of the month if we could have ours of students come up and here get all right so our Golden Horseshoe award is our employee of the month and our employees of the month are nominated by their colleagues here so our first employee of the month is Miss Gail HT miss this is what your colle have submitted and Miss Gail is such a gem she always walks around campus with the smile on her face she adores the kids she works with and is such a trooper for taking on more hours out in the after program Mrs Gail can always be counted on she's always here for us for us as C staff and is beloved by our students she always has a smile on her face and brings positivity to our school she is a phenomenal colleague and we are so lucky to have her on our team we appreciate all that you do Mrs Gail we're lucky to have you in our school family and our next employee who is nominated by the staff is our second grade teacher Miss Jan your colleagues wrote Janette is a of a teacher and a coworker she has a heart of gold and you can see it when past and present students approach her she's such a positive person even through rough times or struggles she goes out of her way to help others and check in with her team we are also happy to see her become a first time Mom too Miss Mills is such an amazing teacher she loves and hears so much about all of her students and works very hard to help those who are in need our school and school Community is very lucky to have Miss Mills teaching our students thank you for being a continental Miss Mills we love you okay we also decided it was recommended by our board to highlight a volunteer certificate of appreciation so we would like to call up Gary and Ruby Freedman so Mr fredman Gary he is um he comes to our school and Ruby reads with our third graders um who read with the dogs program Gabriel's Angels so we really love having Mr Freedman here he has volunteered numerous hours in the library he is also a rotarian so he is with me on Thursdays at the vi rotary and he was initial in writing our grant that started our outdoor musical playground and um he is also spearheads the cleaning of the outdoor musical playground on a monthly basis um very committed to schools and students done work at s and in Sarita so we are just blessed to have you as part of our C family and we really appreciate your time and your efforts that you spent on our students and our oh oh yeah who's who's read with Ruby before and here yay okay so this is part of a program where kids really feel that they can reach to the dogs they're in a relaxed environment they like to they're that's part of our test taking strategies some builing fluency when they can sit in a calm environment and read with Ruby and with Mr so we really appreciate you both thank you now we'll post her a picture girl squeeze in and we'll get ruby and boys and girls want us there you go t students you can go in the [Music] back we good all right everybody Ruby Ruby wants to see the kids that's fine everybody say c oh all right thank you so much you guys are awesome thank you so with that we'll take a couple minute break um you all can feel free to stay for the excitement that's following have our financial report help yourself do some pizza and see you again [Laughter] show you watch [Music] all right with that that's takes us to the consent agenda it's a motion itemis all she's Andrew anything please Mrs yes Mrs Mr MCG yes and that takes us to new business so we're going to send a policy and adopt a new one to take us place in two separate motions so we are actually asking to suspend the policy bgb which requires a second read of new policies since we have heard from leg in terms of our policy and we're looking it was just easier to do it that way than to BL line and red line the existing one that was a little bit more redundant than the I will Mo to suspend the policy Mrs Le yes Mrs yes Mr MCG Mrs Allan yes Mr yes and Item B the U new one so yes see the application attached and the policy so there is the um application for open enrollment and the board has to approve the Open Enrollment procedures every year so for you is for us to begin open enrollment for next scho year I will move to approve the Open Enrollment determination for 2425 school year I second discussion um was there add to this application if they need bu no so we had determined that we would wait and see how many students um were going to be in need or would request it and so far since we haven't opened up the actual application when we did our showcases we had three families come from Thea Highlands but they um did not express that they would need Transportation at this time but we'll wait and see how many students we getan oh sorry they were from Rancho yes Mrs yes Mrs maras yes Mr MCG yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Al yes next is at the end we're going to get a conflict of interest form which has to be signed every year pretty self-explanatory but you'll see that when we sign and that takes us to The Climate survey I believe um yes so you have um you have the attachments to the planate surveys and like I mentioned we've been Rie we reviewed them with our parent advis team our students U we did induct with 159 parents um responses 515 student responses and 48 staff responses which is definitely an increase from the last couple of years I think it did help for us to to lesson the questions and to also put it on the QR code to get feedback one of the things that um you noticed is um everything in the climate survey they're very positive and favorable most of the success was in the 70 to 80s or upper 80s in terms of um how well things were going in and what people agreed on one of the things that we are highlighting in the prek-1 82% of the students um said that there was name calling anden on campus and in the 2 through 8th grade there were 76% name calling and bullying which we have been working on with our student advisory um today we um did a PBIS positive uh talk with the students there were 50 some students that were invited that we challenged to be leaders in the school and we talked about the power of words and how um hurtful words could be and how they can replace to help us get control of the name calling and buing that's happening in the school I really think that Leader in Me is going to continue to help us and our bbell efforts with our de kinded efforts um will also help us out so that's something that you're going to be hearing more of in the future in terms of what we're doing to address that but overall we were very pleased with the climate survey and I think it's also a testament that we have listened to our parents and we've made a lot of changes and continue to increase communication with parents to be transparent um in terms of discipline I think parents are are really understanding how we work with students and what our expectations are and next is to U point the Student Activities Treasurer our business office um GRE Schubert as the Student Activities director I I move to appoint GRE Shubert as the Student Activities Treasurer second discussion yeah I have a question um didn't we assign him this Duty after the last audit but then we have to give it to someone else because of separation of Duties I don't I think it was what we had to do he he is the one and every year we have to assign someone to oversee it but I think the process from the last was we have that separation now so we have other people who are accounting and accounting the money and turn it into him as a finance person to get it okay to get it done so but that is a good question and I can clarify you yes yes Mrs Le yes yes yes Mr mcgiven yeah Mrs Alvin yes Mr yes and Mr Rico will talk about the financial report yes so there in front of you you have our financial report as presented by Mr Schubert any questions or comments after the motion after the approval I moveed to approve the district Financial second any comments discussion okay M Le yes Mrs amaras Mr MCG yes Mrs Alan yes Mr yes and with that that takes us to the board and school events if you would noticed we said possible quum just in case more than two of us attend anything legit to do that I do see an error on March 1st I think it's supposed to read March 2 for the jazz is I have a field trip for a Saturday okay the the desert no it's the Jazz Band yeah they're going to Desert D Casino I'm not sure why it says March 1st through 5th oh no March yes so March 2 March Saturday is jazz in the desert okay so we'll make that it's right yes it's right on the calendar thank you thank you for catching that you've got a a field trip on a Saturday not on a Saturday I don't have anything on a Saturday I've got one going to they'll themselves jazan field trip it's not a field trip I've got I've got a jazz ban to the casino field trip in the middle of the week okay speaking of possible Quorum um at the the foundation is we are now the three of us that were members are now what do they call it non- voting members it's official it's official so that's a change and then if you look at our next meeting normally would be on March 12th that spring break so that was moved to the following Tuesday on the 19th so here's a question I have I'll be in Japan then on the W Grove trip um so you guys certainly more the cable going on without me or you want to to the next week what's that what day is that or we talked about either doing it March 5th the the week before March 5th March 5th because March 26 I think would be too late yeah last week wait March know March 5th is the Disney Ensemble trip as long as we don't have a um an early meeting at 5 o' I can make it we have will we have parent advisory on that day what did you say no it'll be it'll be a normal meeting time collaboration right so so we'll say March B and with that any um discussion um gay that was a nice event it was even outside was nice great but I not seen before years um the venue was really nice I want somebody to get married have a party I know talking about that so we can take out the back the lawn area Su build clean my dirty shoes no I'm just sorry I missed it uh my husband doesn't like going to those things plus we wonderful you're getting better though you're here we missed you there'll be plenty of other events and occasions so with that we'll take a break and sign some paperwork Andrew thanks for calling in thank you drew do you have anything to share any words of wisdom oh I've never had any words of wisdom I enjoyed the me out today I know once a year thank you for coming have a good night okay take care [Music] byee only

for testing testing three testing one two3 e for e yeah wor e for e second okay I would like to call this meeting to order this meeting is our committee as a whole for Creek School District 201u February 13th Tuesday 2024 it is 6:30 p.m.

[Music] up [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] a [Music] a [Music] ah [Music] hello welcome to week 11 of the IHS CN competitive season today we have exciting matches between our Academy cyber tigers at waasi high school and then Varsity cyber Tigers will face off against Manchester OverWatch competitions our best five matches going through the following game types control escort push and hybrid with only one week left in a regular season Varsity is undefeated with an eight and zeroed record Academy is also having a great year at nine wins and only one loss which was to Concord yes all right anyway we got the waiting for their first matchup today's control map is Antarctic Venezuela control is a game mode in which two teams fight over a capture point in a best of three format while a team has control over a capture point the team will gain capture percentage until they reach 100% And the team that reach 100% first wins The Round In A best two out of three format overtime will be triggered if one team has reached 99% and the point is currently being contested this game will does not have a time limit unlike others so it can drag on for however long it wants and we got the matchup beginning they're coming out of the spawn room please cut to them yay okay perfect we got Noah playing the Bastion Bastion is one of the best characters in this game and he has been for a very long time just imagine a tank with a Gatling gun taped at the top of it that is Bastion oh wow he's incredible there's there's the Gatling gun mode sending in a bomb to the enemy team who seem to be all in that one Corridor we've got Caleb on the brg I believe Caleb is usually the tank but today he's trying out support with the brig just swinging around that mace we got Leighton doing some damage to the Reinhardt getting multiple kills Leon nice meanwhile Noah just shooting off here we go we got the view of Caleb here going around looking to heal the team with some healing packs rri very good very good character for not only support but just damage just goes around with a shield swinging a mace around that sounds very cool yes here we got Mac on the sigma he's playing tank today sends out the shield enemy team does the same going to throw in a rock looking to take out some supports all right we got a good game going on oh our team has just reached 50% on the capture point so we are halfway there we just got to hold him off got Lily doing some great support we've got Leighton with oh we got multiple alts Leighton getting multiple kills with death Blossom and that gravitic flux yes very good play good stuff this could still go either way though it's looking like Leon going up to the spawn looking to get some pickoffs he sees the junkrat no that's a soldier same thing no it's not Leon in the back Reaper just so powerful on the flank pushing them back is that I believe we are at about 90% capture this round is close to over gets the kill on the junkrat Leighton with some great Reaper gameplay this this is what you want on your team and they're just going to push him back a little bit more and secure the round good stuff all right so this does not mean the match has been won this just means the round is currently 1 our cyber Tigers need to win one more round to win the game and the enemy team has to win two more rounds who is going to get to that point first we're just kind of waiting here in the spawn room oh the switch to doomfist okay doomfist is another one of those melee tanks you can probably notice the huge fist yes mhm there you go look at them very mobile as you can see he seems very fast at this one yes very very much Smashmouth style offense with doomfist dip in get some punches maybe even a kill or two then dip out look at that just like that both teams just kind of feeling each other out right now seeing who can get the First Advantage ma going to charge in going to evade while the reaper comes in to the backline oh here we go all right we're getting good kills we got Leon still on the reaper still doing doing good and that is a team kill they work really well together yes they do Leighton just waiting just kind of camping out waiting for someone to come here comes the sigma all right he got about half damage on him good alt charge all right we got Mack still on the doomfist we got Lily here playing KIRO one of the best supports in the game in my opinion I don't know much about the meta but in my opinion KIRO is one of the top characters very good DPS very good healing yep here she is going with the team it's looking like the point is being contested I don't believe anyone's captured the point yet but that has has changed as the Cyber Tigers take the first point I know so who do you think is like really like more mobile into it who you know I don't know how to word this right I'm sorry uh more Mobil you mean like just mobility in the game yeah yeah I would say that is probably Mack the man that we are spectating right now as I was saying earlier look at him he can just fly across the map just out of nowhere Here Comes doomfist look at that it seems like he's planning it almost yeah you got to go in with a strategy when you're doomfist and he is very risky because a lot of the times when you just dive into you know a 1v5 like that it's very easy to get trapped and just melted but Ma has been doing a great job as well as Caleb with the Zenyatta his r his wrist show all of his efforts to it we're going back in a regroup at the point just taking a little bit of a break while Leighton also Retreats oh Leighton seems to be in a bit of trouble with a tracer But Here Comes ma to come to the rescue and Leon still in trouble with the Sombra everyone just chasing him down he's able to get out going for damage on the road hog Big Al Big Al for Noah with the Bastion the air strikes and that Tracer still seems to be just trying to get the little chippies in well there's the Tracer again dipping in dipping out and the Sombra the DPS seeming to be teaming up on Leighton this could be bad but he's looking to lure them to his team meanwhile there's a battle going on at the point Tree of Life from the opposing life Weaver it's very gamechanging all as is the one that Caleb just popped the Transcendence from the Zenyatta lots of alts going off every team just throwing everything they've got at each other in these potential final moments they're all pushing it really hard yes oh but the enemy team steps off of the point and that is going to be a round one victory for the Cyber tiget score is currently 1 and let's see who gets play of the game it is going to be the reaper just very impressive performance all around from Mac from Noah from the supports from Caleb just everyone operating at maximum capacity like a well oiled machine and I'm I just heard a Big Woo for real you heard that yeah yeah seem to be pretty excited about this one all right we have a little bit of time to kill so do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea auction it is an online and inperson auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great Charity Auction find out more at auction.io that's auction.io you want to read out the other sponsor the Adams well one yes the Adams Wells just checking thank thank you to our sponsors Adams well internet TV tvom TV and your local service provider with the gig Speed Internet TV and telephone services for businesses and residents customers in Adams and Wells County thank you and also very special thanks to the Wells County foundation for a special grant that allowed us to purchase the computer this stream is currently running on without their support we wouldn't be able to provide the quality programming you are now enjoying huge shout out and thank you to Wells County Foundation as we get our second second round started the escort map for today is Havana escort is a game mode where an attacking team must escort a payload to a delivery point while the defending team attempts to prevent them until the timer runs out each map has three checkpoints between the starting position and the delivery point which when reached will increase the timer and move both teams spawn locations overtime will be triggered if time runs out while the payload is being contested by the attacking team it's looking like a cyber tigers are going to be starting on defense for this match so for this map in here is it like what's some good points in the map some good points in the map well it is a pretty good map I don't know much about the OverWatch meta as I've previously mentioned something to note is that the first and third points of the map take place outside but the second one takes place inside so characters like Farah who can just fly freely would probably be better in the outside stages of this map rather than the inside that's Prett very good to know thank you you're welcome we got Leon doing his normal hiding just waiting for something to come through and there it is almost gets the kill on the enemy Reaper he's going to just fade away to his team we got Noah on the balcony shooting off the Gatling gun looking for some kills excellent tracking there oh and the reaper teleporting up not sure where that Reaper went I think he might have gotten scared by the uh plentiful members of our team I did notice Theo and the Bastion up there we got Mac doing good damage chasing after the enemy tank and the enemy Tank's going to go down there great teamwork oh and there's a May in there Here Comes Mac charging in getting a little assist but that is going to be Leighton with the fullon kill we got Caleb just throwing just trying to get a little bit of Chip damage in there get a little bit of ultimate charge this is a bit of a strange matchup we got oh all right the whole team seeming to just be throwing all their stuff at the diva gets her DED we got Leon scoring a couple kills but he does go down to the KIRO as you can see in the top right Caleb Still just trying to get some steady damage the opposing team does seem to be on the cart so what's the difference between Caleb and Mack like what's their power difference their power difference you mean as players or just as the characters as players and as the characters like first as the characters all right well I don't personally know much about the differences between the players but I will say the characters so you mentioned Caleb and Mac yes well Mac is the tank he's the big boy with the big Health who goes in blocks for his team while the DPS does he take like most damage for them that's what he's meant for he absorbs that damage and Deals out big damage and let's see Caleb is currently playing support gives the heals and other uh good factors of like that are just required such as KIRO who is currently being played by Lily she has a power where she throws a ball onto the ground that for a short period of time gives whoever hits gives whoever is hit by the ball invincibility so sort of like they can't get hurt one bit and they can keep playing with like their special moves maybe yes while while that little small buff is active and it's a small buff that's a very scary small buff oh here comes Noah with a rocket jump he's got a little bomb that can not only be used to damage players but can also launch him into the air as was just displayed Here Comes Caleb pushing kind of far for a support but if anyone can do it it's him he gets the kill on the May multiple members of the team getting their different kills and highlights in and that's a team kill good stuff there oh the May Al so this one's a lethal one it's blizzard oh all right well I'll explain it while we're queing up for round number two see yeah blizzard for May she the biggest part of May is that she has a power of ice she has a gun that shoots out just snow and stuff to slow down the opponent and her alt throws out a big area of freezing snow that will freeze anyone for a short period of time to make them very vulnerable for an attack you just can't really do anything while you're stuck in that blizzard here's a question for you um so if there's like people who have to stay together like supposedly the tank and the support player should they stay together or should they still go off on their own well most of the time you've seen gameplay from people like Leighton who play damage yeah and it's kind of self-explanatory they do big damage where they go off on their own but most of the time the support wants to have someone watching their back because most of them can be very vulnerable when exposed to matchups like just any damage you know they're called support for a reason they're not called support because they get fullon team wipes they're support because they can heal and help like with the Buffs I'm guessing yeah and the big and the best thing he can do as a sport is usually to stay in the backline and help out the big damaging guys a team would be pretty much nothing without the supports here we go oh is that a double doomfist match up that I see so both play both um teams choosing the same tank they're just kind of flying around the stage right now Mack is able to get the kill on the enemy doomfist now he's looking to take out the rest of the backline there we go good stuff Lily getting in some last second healing seem to have taken out most of their forces I didn't see a teamed kill notification so there could still will be someone else alive and it seems like Noah going after them and that is going to be round two going to the Cyber Tigers 2 today so if we win this next match we win the round and in that case The Varsity record will be Advanced to nine and0 good job Varsity mhm good play here from Leighton with the soldier he has been on top of it with DPS today as he usually is such an impressive player so far from what I've seen they're all like doing a lot of teamwork and it's really impressive yeah that is what differentiates teams from being like at that next level that teamwork they have such great Synergy with each other they've been doing this for so long they're not only brilliant players on their own but when you combine them all with that teamwork it's just lethal like they do it on the daily too I've heard them multiple times during practices like you got the team captain Caleb calling out 3 2 1 go and I can only assume that's when the entire team pushes in because you know you can't just be going in willy-nilly one by one person you got to have that Synergy such a big part of OverWatch that's very impressive most people in the world can't even work together so in this game OverWatch is nice to see people work yes it is very inspirational and we've got match number three queued up we got the push game mode on new Queen Street push is a game mode released alongside OverWatch 2 in which two teams fight to escort a robot who pushes an objective to the opposite side of the map each map has two checkpoints two checkpoints along the objective path when a team escorts a robot past the first enemy checkpoint their spawn is moved up to forward spawn if neither team reaches both checkpoints that team that pushed the objective the furthest will win overtime will trigger if the team with less progress have possession of the robot when time expires so there objectives to protect the robot yes protect the robot but also take out the enemies robot yeah you know how they were just pushing the payload just imagine that but both teams are pushing the payload at the same time yeah hope you got course to reckon with yes hope you got all that because the match is in progress we got Noah switching over to support going with the brig swinging around the mace I haven't I don't believe I've seen him play anything other than DPS it will be interesting to see how he adapts to support going for the Reinhardt there seem to have a Genji on the squad right now and that would be Leighton so versatile with the damage roll Noah is going to go down there unfortunate all right Noah back in the spawn oh interesting we have Caleb playing Widowmaker so Widowmaker is just the sniper very one-dimensional character far away sniper headshot equal kill very simple and we got Leighton on the damage roll playing as Genji he is going to go down there unfortunate got Noah back at the point ready to dish out some damage and some healing seems that Mack is still going with that doomfist from last round we got Noah just trying trying to finish off the Lucio almost gets there but he has to flee as well as Mac just giving out some last second healing while they regroup we've got an even match here oh the enemy Reinhardt the enemy tank getting stuck with the rest of the Squad Lucio trying to rescue him but to no avail and this is the time to push for the Cyber Tigers Leighton going to get that kill on the junkrat Leon dashing in the KIRO goes down he's going to Dragon Blade that's his ultimate ability gets the kill on the Ekko looking around for more people and we're going to take the robot well it seems that we've subbed in Chris MC no last names almost messed up yeah we got Chris here subbed in for going with the Anna gameplay shooting off saying hello to his fellow teammates oh we got Mac with the meteor strike doomfist's ultimate ability going to launch on the junkrat gets the kill Chris going to get a kill oh not going to get one more kill until he goes down we got Caleb on the Sombra somra is the sneaky class of this game goes invisible then jumps out of the Shadows to come and attack you would probably be a very good fit for Leighton so sort of like a ninja yes very ninja likee like a cyber ninja look that didn't better yeah just teleports away here we got Leighton on the Genji avoids the big boy Hammer swing I'm forgetting the name of it how am I forgetting the name of that he is going to pick off the EO there we got Leighton attacking the junkrat oh there we go the teamwork of Mack and Leighton finishing the junkrat off and he's still pushing in we got Chris on the support he's going to stay on the robot you obviously need someone on the robot so Chris seems to be that role he is going to Nano Lon for the nanoblade and and he's just in there swinging around gets the 3K gets the 3K while the rest of the team finishes the team kill very impressive that might be play of the game they're almost there Leon with his classic strategy hiding behind the team finishes off the distressed Soldier going in for the junkrat Leon finding the kill now the opposing supports being picked off Noah in the 1 V one duel with the Lucio and he wins it and he pops the rally gets another kill while he does it the opposing team still contesting it's coming down to the wire the opposing team switches to orisa one of the best tanks in the game Noah is going to go down there so close to getting that final win meteor strike almost brings Arisa down there she goes Mac Oh Mac and Leighton fighting and they are going to get the team kill to clinch the victory good match between the Cyber tigers and Manchester and let's see who gets that final play of the game of the day of the whatever it is going to be Leighton with the Genji I imagine it's the nanoblade oh is it the Nan blade oh no it's not it's the very closing moments of the match oh we got a 4K there then got the assist on that final kill to complete the team kill very impressive showing from both teams here um we'll see if we get an interview that' be nice yeah I don't know if we're getting any would be pretty cool yeah excellent matchups today that was really cool and fun to watch and I thought both teams were really good yeah both teams the great showing I did hear some wrestling outside but no one's come in yet we will see our players are still logging off as we speak that last round had me on the edge of my seat I'm like whoa what is going on it's so like exhilarating there is there is a lot to commentate on on OverWatch there's a lot going on constantly mhm very rare will we find a moment of Comm in that game makes it all the more impressive that our players can just go at the level that they are just every team in the league can go at the level at they are at they are weird all right so while the varsity game is over that is not going to be the end of the stream it seems because I think the JV match might still be going on we haven't received any updates on the JV match I don't know what's been happening over there not yet oh oh they seem to be on the third match I don't know what the score is but we have the playing the arari oh it's a man hold on get keep the commentary going oh it seems to be 20 okay yes all right here we go I'm hooked back up back in here had to open up the door because we might be getting an interview we have Kinder aness on the supports the support Duo and I imagine that is Eli on the tank Eli's got this specific strategy with tank just Smashmouth constantly in your face and the supports are perfect to back it up it's really an excellent Team all right it's looking like we're not getting an interview from Varsity maybe someone from JB will be open to that but they'll have to end this match up I have been told that it is currently 20 in favor in favor of the Cyber Tigers Here Comes This with the sun strike don't know what the actual name of it is but that would make sense all right it's looking like cyber tigers have possession of the robot at the moment Kinder just getting some good healing in oh yeah see look at that so low on health from kind of Reckless but very effective offense of Eli theiner there to back him up looks like he's taking those risk mhm thess is unfortunately going to go down to the enemy Ash Al and there's the hammer down the Ry the opposing Ry alt both of our supports have unfortunately gone down we have thess running back from spawn room oh she's going to meet the robot there very soon the trying to meet back up with her team it's looking like she is able to do that here comes the fire strike they're hiding there waiting for the perfect moment to push in and it's looking like now is the time Eli trying to push in but the enemy team doing an excellent job of holding him back oh it's looking like the enemy team just got a good oh the enemy team is doing pretty good with the junk R gameplay yeah I did it's already been explained sorry in case you didn't know in case you're just joining in for the JV matchup we're currently on the push game mode with new Queen Street it's a game mode released alongside OverWatch 2 in which both teams push a robot which you seeing right now with the the Kinder gameplay so yeah they get they both got to push the same robot to the opposite side of the map and whoever has the most progress or whoever reaches the second checkpoint first gets the victory Here Comes ker he's popping the AL which basically just makes everyone in its vicinity uh just faster it's a very effective Al and they're going to have it for a pretty good portion of this potentially final push thes getting some good healing in good portion of our team doing pretty good Jacob doing great with the reaper gameplay good Sun strike from thes accompanied by Eli's tank gameplay the enemy doomfist is going to go down there getting some last second healing and the JV cyber tigers are going to get that Victory I hear them popping off in the other room it's three 0 yep three 0 for both teams oh and Aiden going to get the junkrat play We unfortunately didn't get to see any of the game playay but let's see it right now just hiding off in the distance fire in the hole who gets I believe one and a allari healing pylon and finishes off that Reinhardt for the 2K great performance from both teams as usual so yeah uh let's see if we get any any interviews interview question mark all right it's looking like no one wanted an interview today okay maybe next time yeah maybe next time all right well we do hope to see you next week thank you for joining us this evening we will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.

[Music] all right we'll get started here welcome everybody here to our meeting our we'll start out with Pledge of Allegiance all by a prayer everybody please stand and pray flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God with liy and justice for all our father in Heaven we're grateful for this evening grateful for this time that we have as friends and fellow school school board members and administrators here in this school district we're grateful for the health that we were able to have to to be here we're grateful for all the teachers and the students again that that come to our schools and that we associate with and the friendships that we have we pray for those that may be sick or Afflicted or have any other elements please watch over them and help us to be aware of those things and those needs so that we may be able to be assistance we ask you to please bless and direct this meeting that we may follow th thy will and th counsel that we may do those things which will help this school district to to go in the direction which would be best for the for the kids in this area we ask you to bless bless us in the decisions and and the discussion and we say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen future board meetings uh February 27th March 12th March 26 all 6 o' here at the uh administration building um revision to the agenda there's a few things in one thing in the HR that's about it I think uh recognition all right so we have a couple of things here but first of all it's always fun to speak um about and for our teacher and staff of the year so I'm going to have Mrs deer come forward to start with this is the fun part of the meeting where we do get to recognize our people so Mrs deer um during the 2022 2023 school year uh you were nominated by your um staff to be the teacher of the year and I know that when we talked about maybe moving on to um the district teacher the year that you had a lot of things going on you were um teaching summer school and teaching summer school she was doing IAD so one of her focuses was to help those students pass and does a great job with that also um you're an adju teacher or Professor with Indiana W indana wesling and so very very busy so she did not move on to try to be the the district teacher of the year um probably could have um but she wanted to make sure that she focused on the teaching that she does to help the students that we have um and also future teachers because we certainly need that so I very much and if you remember um very much respected that um that because that was a great um situation with that but then on behalf of Ms St wers County we do have the staff Spotlight teacher of the year for Southwood Elementary um this is a $50 um voucher for the online store and so that's yours and that is one of those um things that First Farmers Bank and Trust helped sponsor uh so we want to thank you for all that so let's give her a round of applause so I also always give the principal an opportunity to say whatever he wants to say about you so there's not much to say about this deer now I'm just this deer is uh the opin of of what you want as a School employee U she has so much compassion for her students um I think everybody in our building would say um she always comes in with a smile on her face um and always gives 110% to her students and she's always there um you heard Irene is a big thing for her um she makes sure every one of her kids is going to pass that test um and she she reaches out gives the extra work that you need to but all the kids that she touches um every day they know that she loves each and every one of them with all her heart she puts the kids first and I don't know if there's a better person I Bo that shows that leads by example she is super humble she hates this right now but she got has deserved this Spotlight and very proud of her thank you and you didn't have the opportunity to say anything but I heard that you didn't want to say anything yeah thank you thank you very much congrat I do love my job all right thank you very much all right Mrs come up here so now you know how that's done so that's what she did so the staff of the year um Mrs Adams have done different things at Southwood Elementary but currently um par professional uh helps a lot with some students and U very loyal to the school a great neighbor too by me so anyway to the east right but um anyway St here so we really appreciate all that you do and want to congratulate you and you also get a $50 shake for that so give her a round of applause and Mr stford don't leave yeah U Mrs Adams is a great she's a quiet leader you won't hear her say all light at school but everybody knows um that she is there for the kids she's in a challenging room she's in our our rise room and really does a phenomenal job with those students um there's a lot of people would um not would burn out that position she's she comes in with a Smiler face every day um we could ask for a better person um this was a blowout for the votes when it came to her appear voting on her that she got this position because they know the work she does what she does for our students so we appreciate her thank you very much thank you thank you and like we always say you're welcome to stay but um you also can leave if you like everybody's usually pretty busy so we won't be offended because that's typically what happens but you can do whatever something better thank you thank you thank you I have some other things y I have a few other things here so we'll go ahead and go with those so first of all from Northfield um from Mr Snider exemplary behavior report was filed by official Thomas nard on behalf of head boys basketball coach Rex Rymer this was following the the game on Thursday February F against um Manchester that was at Northfield Mr new new hard stated I would like to give kudos to head coach Rex ryer of Northwood High School during the contest on Thursday night when they were getting beat he never said one negative word to the officials and coached his kids hard they gave 110% the whole game and also had excellent sportsmanship a lot of times during these lopsided games it's easy for the players or coaches to get frustrated at the officials but this wasn't the case last night coach Rymer does an outstanding job with his kids so great to hear that and that is certainly true what that official said and it's lopsided you just get frustrated and sometimes you may try to help the officials um next one comes from Mr Snider also Huntington University held their high school art reception Friday February 2nd m n Pi was awarded honorable mention and Lane Denton was awarded honorable mention in second place overall so congratulations to them also from norfield 7th grade robotics team John Young Patrick nestler Chase Ross won the entire robotics competition at Ground point on Saturday February 3rd this earned them a state bid so congratulations to them as Southwood Mrs Lewis said an Exemplar Behavior report was filed by official Darren hos on behalf of the South boys basketball team for the January 26th contest at North Miami Mr hos stated the South boys basketball team played very well and showed good sportsmanship while having a lot of fun during the game tonight Clint the kids played and the coaches coached their kids the fans cheered for their team thank you for setting a good example of what high school sports are all about good luck to your team as you continue this season you know wins and losses wins are always fun um but having those exemplary behavior reports um is very good and that's shows the character of our coaches and and U also of players so let continue on I have one more from Mrs Lewis at Southwood congratulations to all Southwood banded members who received gold ratings at the 2024 solo and emble instrumental contest held at Eastbrook high school January 27th Ethan Lockard also qualified for state for getting a gold on his group one tener saxophone entry he will perform at the state contest at North Central High School on Saturday February 24th students receiving gold readings were Alexis Bly Alexis r Blake Smith Kaylee Nelson Aubrey KY Rachel Lawson keny Morman Mayan Remy R rney Cameron Johnson Dylan Cochran Olivia Simpson and Ethan Locker so again want to congratulate all them and thank um the principes for sharing uh those good things that are happening there schools so I believe that's all I have for recognition my my uh iPad was updated and so it's kind of weird because you can see I don't see anything right now but it shows that there up it's up there but then if I slide that there we go okay so I'm curious to the students and the coaches and all that do they get to hear this do does the principal share these the coaches get it it goes to the ad and coaches get it as well they should I just the kids and and what I do is we do different things on this but sometimes we don't read all the names but when you guys leave and after these meetings um uh Mrs langy Bartles um I used to do it before Mrs langy Bartles but um she will um put all this together I will send this to the newspapers and radio stations but then I'll also record and then I know um WK I think they record they do it all at once but then I think um my bash they take little Snippets and put them on at different times so that doesn't mean anybody listens watches or listen to students listen radios but it does go on the radio but not all of it like not all the names are necessarily read so because if we go on and on and on people don't necessarily listen all Z all right uh public comment on legitim items only all right thank you um approval of minutes uh we had the regular meeting on January 23rd and the board of planets meeting on January 23rd we get those at the same time motion second [Music] Mo second we have a motion in a second all those in favor of approval say I oppos all right uh claims any I have any questions on the claims fav all right Kevin dark Trace yes okay I was going to ask that too so I so that's a cyber security software program that we use um this is the third year of it and actually we'll be piloting a program through the idoe uh next year and so for a couple years then at least we won't have that expense but at some point depending on what the pilot does I'm sure that expense will come back in some capacity obviously cyber security is a big deal and so that just helps us with contr before then dark Trace this our third and that's for all the buildings for the district any other questions on claims or motion a second so move second all those that are in favor flames you oppos all right payroll nothing out of the ordinary for payroll um the next one in February we'll we'll start we've started receiving coaches pay for the winter season uh so we'll see a little bit of increase in February um overall plus we did the early literacy grant stiens that you guys approved last time that will be in the next the February 15th aoll which is this current one um so you'll see a little bit higher things all those in favor payroll say I me oppose right Financial summary uh I believe I gave you the end of the month stuff what's up um so just kind of the um first look at into the month balances for January uh we will look at the next board meeting then for cash flow uh and kind of look at those first early projections uh come January uh throughout the year but nothing out of the ordinary uh with any of those ending balances all right all right any questions there all right Personnel we got a list yes don't get bored lot of coaches spring Sports we have a couple resignations uh Jennifer nestler has a professional at Metro North Rita schs as a cook at Norville high school Under employment uh M mcka waymire as an English teacher at southw high school torren leaks as a codian at Metro North Elementary Thomas té teacher and football coach at southw high school and just notice that's a Revis that he will be beginning on with your vote um next Tuesday so sorry make sure you s that um and then we also have Mary Turner as a custodian at South Elementary um we have one lead number 172 which begins it's already began January 29th retirement uh we have Dan Snider as a teacher of Southwood High School I think this is the second time second time make official maybe and then uh Deborah shinkle a teacher at Sharp Creek Elementary at the end of the school year and Sandra gut wheer as a teacher at Southwood High School you com all wait after we vot you vote well probably shouldn't be hard to replace a few of them uh transfer Brett whim win as a custodian transfering from Metro North to Sharp Creek February 19th and Jordan Boer transferring from business teacher to stem teacher at South of high school effective next school year all right Southwood spring coaches trying SCH we have Cory blocker head coach Danny Lloyd as assistant head coach of baseball Kyle zerus assistant baseball and Dustin rled as assistant baseball coach and Christian deer has a volunteer baseball coach and mil Scott as assistant baseball coach and Sam Cole as a volunteer baseball coach it's all baseball AI Seno has a Head tennis Gary Dale as a head golf Deon bale as assistant Golf and and Deon Bale is a high school or Junior High Golf Jody Dale is a volunteer assistant golf Kanye bone he track har Hamill assistant track Chad Andrews assistant track Jeff Hopson assistant track Natalie younger assistant track Gina Deon assistant track Carl Pace head softball Gary Marian assistant softball Chad Lambert assistant softball and Christan mccort assistant softball and that's all southw to North Heather heyen head track lar Von assistant track dick leming assistant track and Trish Trisha Oswalt as assist track Michelle rice head Junior High track Sarah adman aderman Junior High Assistant track Kyle Kyle aderman volunteer track Hana breaker volunteer track and Joseph Mitchell head baseball Stan Cox assistant baseball Remington montz assistant baseball Nate Henry assistant baseball Bren riper assistant baseball Tiffany stiff head softball Jeff Jeff Jeff cers canas C campus assistant softball Joe [Music] W assistant softball Abby Mitchell Vol volunteer softball Marian milm Head tennis Casey Dyson assistant tennis Colin Daws Ed Boy golf Trey Cole assistant Boy golf Anthony s Junior High boys golf Jordan egman softball Mah Higgins assistant baseball and Sam burkov assistant baseball I get a motion for motion second for HR second all those in favor of HR say I any opposed all right if I can speak to our teacher retirements just to give you some statistics here uh first of all de shinkle um all of her years have been at MSD I don't know if you want to guess how many years but 48 years and that includes this year 48 years um Sandy gutweiler all at MSD and she 40 years um Dan Snyder uh 34 and A2 years total 17 years at Cher bus and 17 and A2 years at MSD so many many years of experience that we're losing um and but we do a very very much appreciate um their service to MSD over all of those years so we're going to have somebody new on the top of list next year as far as H numbers of years experience because Deb has been there for a while as far as on the teaching Rank and so we'll have somebody else new the top of that list a lot of years 48 40 and 17 and for do so want to thank them very much for their service to MSD and all the students appreciate that uh Heartland career center um we haven't had meeting since then but we did meet with the superintendent and another buing project or different group you might address that a little bit yeah um a different way of doing it there's a a gentleman that actually is from chabus um actually good friends with a was a a player for Dan Snider actually I learned that about him um but the company that he works for he's not an architect but he's actually um works for the manufacturing company and right now since you brought that to my attention I don't know that name right off the hand but it's yeah I know there you go but it's a company that's been in business for many many many many years um and so they do it a little bit differently um and kind of just waiting on what the board of managers kind of decides to putting it back on them because they're the ones that makes the the final decisions on if they're going to do something like that but if they would do that basically they would hire an architect and it could be like we have teachers of record so the teachers of record they have the ler but they may not necess be the teacher of service they may not be teaching on that particular student so they also have like Architects um of Records so in other words somebody that would charge a lot less than a normal architect but then the person that does all the work would be um the gentleman that actually came and presented to us so just a different way of doing it uh one thing probably need to vet a little bit more to see if um they would do it I I think um it may not be necessarily less expensive to go that route but one way of doing it is like for example if you want to do a metal roof which he kind of says would almost last forever forever one time I learned about that only seven years but anyway but forever um it be more than seven years there on the metal roof but maybe putting more money in the in the actual um materials instead of all the other soft cost so but we don't know that yet we don't know so anyway thanks for putting me on the spot Mr CH no problem and because metal because that does have a pitch drip over there and that make it work a lot better accordingly and it's way overdue um and it's not is they actually did a little boring there to find out what was and it's um even worse maybe than what they thought so been going a long time it's way past due so um the difficult part is there's five different School corporations with five different situations going on financially and to get everybody degree not necessarily degree everybody agrees it needs to be done how they how they're going to pay for it so that's that's going to be the big thing and glad that Mr dris is the president that can get that all worked out with the other board members so trust in'll be superintendent report yeah I just have a few things um just the locker room progress um I know I took a picture of the concrete which is not that exciting but yet there was a lot of work done um to get to that point so they did that at Southwood on Friday and then of course next Monday it'll be done at norfield so that means that some other more exciting things will happen because then some of the new construction will happen after that so uh some move that goes along I just wanted to share a little bit of information about legislation some statistics sometimes we we hear that there's not going to be any controversy uh in the in the short session this year with education but overall there were actually 297 Senate bills that were introduced um 110 of them passed for a pass rate of 37% memorize all these guys I'll give you test later 442 house bills were introduced 111 of them passed with pass rate of 25% now um for educational there's 71 education bills I think there's something going on with attorneys and the legislators because you know whenever have I L I looked right at you so I had to say that I don't know I didn't really think about saying but anyway every time we have a bill and we have new things to do that means we just have to figure out what how that all works and GL we have people that can help us do that um thank you Josh yeah I feel in love um priority Bill if you know you probably know this that Senate bills like number one those are priority bills the lower the number the higher the better the priority um and that requires the I read um a lot of that's the I read a lot of it talks about um being held back but they're not necessarily saying it's it's about holding students back but maybe more remediation um and then priority number one for the house is House Bill 101 um and it does some different things that won't affect us a lot but there's other bills like House Bill 1073 um if there's available funding whatever that means available funding that's actually in the bill right now um that we would be then putting um electronic recording equipment in each designated life skills classroom seclusion areas or timeout areas so it's kind of interesting um the reason why some bills are happened like that is because there was a bad situation in a school um one situation and with that situation um now we have to have a bill and now we may have to do some of these things but the big question is um available funding whatever that means um also so there's um Senate Bill 282 talks about absenteeism in School attendance so there's information about that we know that our attendance rate since uh Co has gone down we are not in you know we are lower than what we've been but not that much but yet we still want it to be higher um so our goal would be to actually improve that we have had meetings uh with our administrators um even with um uh the juvenile Prosecuting Deputy prosecuting attorney and probation officer to see how we can work together to try better help um some of the situations that we need help with um and that's about it as far as some legislation I do want to tell you that our our February student count um the ADM is always a very important uh time so for February 1st 2024 our ADM is up 34 students from last fall uh so we're at 2186 now it won't show 2186 when we send up the doe because we have some dual enrollment so it will say something like 2184 38 or something like that I don't have to memorized but the 38 it's kind of short person like me that's skinnier though so but anyway 2186 that's how many students that we have that does not include the prek so I look that back up in the prek we have 15030 students and we do not get funding through the state of Indiana unless they do have an IEP um and so uh 63 at Southwood Elementary and 90 at Metro North Elementary so a grand total of number of students that we have 2339 so just good information um keep us going and uh appreciate all the principles and everybody that's working with the students and the additional students that we have so I think that's all I had what do they want to do to I read so number one I read right now they probably will mandate that all students will take second um they will take them as second graders we are piloted highly team back in one of our schools this year um there are how many Mr ster how many were schools so far there's over 900 that signed up isue 700 and something took it last year at second grade and over 900 signed up to take isue and so we're having one of our doing one of our schools doing that this year it may be mandated from now on but what's going to happen is they're going to possibly they were looking at trying to make more of it um mandated that they are retained in third grade um but that has been talked about as not necessarily the best way of doing it it would be more about remediation and possibly if all students take it in second grade of course if they take it in second grade and pass they would not have to take it again in third grade um but if they don't pass it that would give them um more of an edge to know which students really need that extra uh boost um as they take it again in third grade um so that would be one thing that they would be doing they'll let them retest in the summer after third grade correct correct correct and they actually can take it also in fourth grade yeah until I passway fifth grade too traditionally our our pass rate has been very very good um uh you know we've we've had a little slippage too but it can depends on the students that we have but also depends on some of the covid situations have happened um the state of Indiana um is their goal is um that the state of Indiana everybody's at 95% um in 20 now I lost that one 2027 was that yeah 2027 so trying to push a lot they're doing some extra things this year too it's always been a time test um although I think most of our principles and our teachers would say that most of the students in third grade um did not need necessarily extra time but this year it's untimed so we could spend days on doing if they like I guess we just found this out like last week so big deal yeah yeah so so I mean they can think days well I'm J you about that a little bit I'm just saying yeah um no it won't take days dat but they may take extra time and that actually will it's good and bad because it's hard to schedule that way because you know if you schedule it and then they go and it's lunchtime or whatever then it's going to be interesting but um that's something that's similar to other testing that we've had not necessarily typically the high stakes tests do not are not unlimited time but this one is they have assured us that that will not change anything um as far as the comparison data I don't really understand that for sure because if you have a time limit you would think that possibly it would be I mean if you don't have a time limit you could do better so I don't know how you really you know compare that but that's fine to us that's we're question all right they're going to the battle a what did we make you mad or something all right they're going to something more fun this is a lot of fun all right new business ready yeah but I would like to before you go on to all that this isn't part of the superintendent um report but just like to share some information uh Dr Coon's going to share some information also but since we're talking about um these projects and about all the the legalities that we have to follow kind of wanted to share some other information um for our public all of you know because you've been a part of this um but when we have we talk about this bonding process that we're we're doing some other um official resolutions want to go back to the work sessions that we did all right so we had work sessions our first one we started talking about this was January 17th of 2023 uh we had another work session April 10th of 2023 and then another one on August 8th of 2023 and just a reminder if you recall not that this is a good face necessarily on mine but yet we are on um Facebook apply these are all recorded they actually go then to YouTube so they're all out there in the archives so you can see them but just want people to know that we do we have these open discussions about all the things that we we've been talking about uh we then had our regular school board meetings um on August 22nd of 2023 Sharp Creek um when we talked about those three different options um that decision was made um at that point and then the bond hearings we had two Bond hearings um the legal parts of that was um September 12th of 2023 and September 26th of 2023 so again all six of those meetings including all the other meetings in between um are have been um meetings held in public they're not public meetings but meetings held in public plus they all have um been recorded and on Facebook live and also YouTube also so just want to make sure that we kind of go over that again because there's a lot of discussions and talk and people just want to know and so those are the things that we've done um and then Dr Co is going to kind of give us some history about lease bonds sure yeah um interesting data that you found yeah so I'm not a bond expert but I can speak from just some of my experience uh on these bonds um there there's typically two type of bond processes that school corporations can go through to borrow money one of that's through the what they call go General o ation Bond and the other one is through a a lease rental building Corporation Bond uh essentially um with the goo Bond each district has what they call a bonding capacity of a limited amount of money that they can borrow I think our go Bond capacity is around $4 million and so once you borrow that then you pay that back and you have no more capacity until you paid that back um anything above that that schools typically do what they call Elite mod financing through a multis school building Corporation and from a historical purpose just last year 2023 we did a lease bonding for these locker room renovation projects and some of the other smaller projects that we did so um that is nothing new to this corporation uh or any other school corporation across the state of Indiana um I went back into our files a little bit just because I wanted to see just more from a historical perspective um the earliest lease bond that I could find was from 1979 and so I kind of went through and I tried to count up since 1979 the school corporation has done one 2 3 four 5 6 7 8 nine 10 11 lease Bond uh um processes uh for building projects or whatever they had going on at that at at that time um the resolutions that we're asking for approval tonight is a continuation of what we started uh for the 2024 Bond uh for the U Northfield Elementary project of bringing Sharp Creek over and adding on Space to Northville High School um a lot of that process was done like Mr cabber said in the fall this is just a continuation of that because we're getting to that point where we're going to start looking at uh when we want to start financing and borrowing that money and so to do that then a lot of these requests then are related more to that building Corporation um lease project uh to allow us to borrow those monies and so on the new business we have uh three resolutions to approve uh in relation uh to that the first resolation uh uh resolution excuse me uh which we could call exhibit a is the resolution determining need for the project and so as required by the school leasing statute Indiana code 20- 47-3 the board must make a determination by resolution that there is a need for the project resol exhibit B is resolution approving the form of lease the school corporation is funding this project through a lease financing as it has done with other past construction renovation projects lease financing are used by school corporations across Indiana in order to borrow for renovation and construction this type of financing does not count against the school corporation's constitutional debt allowance the building Corporation will purchase a portion of the Northfield Junior Senior High School campus at the closing for at least the appraisal value the building Corporation will then lease the real estate back to the school corporation the lease rental due from the school corporation will be paid from property taxes the lease rental as shown as a maximum amount in the lease will be sufficient to pay the principal and interest due to the bond holders and then Exhibit C which is the third resolution is the resolution reapproved the building Corporation in order for the building Corporation a not for-profit Indiana Corporation to issue tax exempt bonds the IRS requires that the school board approve the building Corporation and authorize it to issue tax exempt Bonds on behalf of the school corporation we already have a building Corporation so this is just reapproved uh that building Corporation so those are the three resolutions Josh I don't know if you have anything in reference that you want to speak upon on those nothing to add I it's pretty good summary but I mean if that leads to any other questions I'm happy that help answer questions else all right um need a recommendation to approve the resolution a I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation for resolution determining second a motion in second all in favor exhibit a say I I any opposed right passes recommendation to approve approving form of lease exhibit B so second motion second for exhibit B all those are in favor say I I any opposed motion passes and the recommen recommendation to approve resolution reapo approving uh building Corporation Exhibit C motion second a motion in a second for Exhibit C all those in favor say I opposed all right passes so there will be a few more advertisements that will go out and a few more postings at some of our building locations and then U I believe March 12th is when that hearing will be all right move on uh we have recommendation to approve of 2024 secondary summer school offerings yes the last board meeting uh Mrs Moore uh presented on the uh Elementary summer school course offerings this is for the secondary high school level course descriptions uh similar to what we've done in the past we will provide a driver's education option uh we will have uh two virtual options uh that students can choose for depending on their need one through Indiana Online Academy and one through our adum program and then we will offer uh up again uh summer a as an option uh for students uh and again as part of summer school reimbursement requirements we have to have at least 15 students uh to make those course courses go uh usually we do a pretty good job of of filling those up but there have been times when we've had to not be able to offer something because of all right recommendation for that summer school offering make a motion to accept this recommendation for 2020 or secondary Sumer school off second motion of second all those in Favor All oppos Passes recommendation to approve the revised 2024 school board meeting dates I want to talk about this a little bit so moving forward um we would like to do more of these during January um it was actually brought up and I know Mr Bowman mentioned this um in the past your term for school board used to start July 1 um and then that's when we used to always do like in the summertime we would figure out what the school board meetings would be for the following year but it's been many many years now that we' started January January 1 so we have our reorganization meeting in January we have our finance meeting in January uh so from now on we would like to have um the meetings um discussed in that reorganization meeting in January and then go ahead and plan for the whole year including uh the following January because then you would wait to see if there's any changes in the leadership and so all this is is just basically going for more for the calendar year going through all 24 and then setting the two dates in January of 2025 and then if there want to be changes we can look at that then too so you can see and I'll just go through very quickly January there's two meetings February 2 March there would be uh the two April only one may one June 1 July two we're starting up school again August 2 September Two October and November and December only one and so it's typically what we've done in the other years except one thing we decided we would go with just one in May um if ever we need to add another one we can um but this gives us some flexibility everybody a little bit of flexibility a lot of those that are just a one month is because of you know different holidays and different things like that and different things that you guys have done and will be doing so anyway I just recommend that these be approved for obviously we're already through the first three on there but we've already had those but all the way through January of get a motion for that change revise schedule I'll move to approve all right have a motion in a second to approve the revise 2024 school board meeting dates all those in favor say I opposed right uh recommendation to approve the extended overnight camping trip for Sharp Creek Elementary 6th grade Silver Lake May 15th through the 17th Sil motion the second all those in favor say I I any opposed all right passes and like the last one recommendation to approve the extended overnight out of state senior class trip for Southwood High School to pigon for Tennessee April 14th through the 17th of moved second motion the second all those in favor say I oppose all right finish Business board policy and public comment Mr stuff since you just mentioned him and this wasn't on our recomendations but um two things that happened over this past weekend I don't think it was on the recognitions that anybody put but as you knew that know that um Northfield actually won the sectional girls basketball sectional went to Regional um was not successful there but they made it to there which is great and then also Mr staer first year wrestling coach at Southwood um he had two um gentlemen that made it to Regional and then they actually both those moved on to semi State and so they both wrestled in semi state of for Wayne last Saturday so congratulations to coach ster um actually a huge increase from about 200% increase from last year to this year as far as how many went to Regional and then even I don't know if you doubled out again to go up to semi-state or not but so we were debating about what would happen next year but I think he might be still in for next year so I Rec that's not official yet because we have to wait till it off congratulations any items for board members all right

okay big big crowd um to be virtual and uh this is really our second meeting our first meeting it's like the storms are chasing us so this is our second virtual meeting so thank you all for joining us tonight so therefore we're going to condense some of our agenda tonight we're going to uh because we don't have a flag really to stand up to we're going to um eliminate the Pledge of Allegiance tonight we're going to eliminate the uh were going to honor the shops for their contributions to the district we're going to eliminate that tonight and of course we'll eliminate the Canton celebrates I want to welcome everybody that's on on tonight um especially the administrative team Kim H is here tonight gonna give a report and we we have the PTO that we'll be giving an update so it's going to be a pretty action-packed meeting not to mention that Dr Gman is going to go over the uh the uh administrative budget that he submitted and um I can't say enough about the document that he produced um and the team that put that helped him produce it I think it's a it's a great collaborative effort and it's a real upgrade from where boards in the past have uh been able to see so thank you for that Dr Gman so with that I'm G to kick right into the Chairman's report and uh really I don't have much to much really to report other than um I just want to say how great it was last night to attend the girls basketball game at the High school they had three graduating seniors and um they did win and that was a that was a big deal and um Kim was telling me earlier that they start tomorrow with the with the playoffs so there's a game tomorrow night I was most most really pleased about is there must have been seven or eight teachers that were there not to mention all the all the kids that are there watching their um their their basketball mentors on the court but um it was nice to see all the teachers from from Cherrybrook all the way up to the high school supporting uh the basketball program the second thing is once again we we produced a very successful prisms program and I was saying to Dr Gman earlier that you know since since really since I was on the board the last time our music and arts program is is superior it's it's it's a great great program and it's something that I think that we're getting we should be known for uh in the town of Canton small small school district with with a with a big band um that might be the tagline but um I'm just so pleased at what uh what they were able to accomplish what they the performance the musicians the the um the Arts uh and all the volunteers and the parents who went in to make that such a successful evening so uh I was just one of those nights where you're just proud to be part of part of Canton so um all that is really great um I just want to remind everybody in the back of your kit is please look at the upcoming meetings that are coming into we're we're now drilling deep into a budget season and as uh Dr Gman goes through the budget tonight what we're going to ask you to do is uh write down your questions uh we're not going to take the time tonight to answer the questions we're going to ask you to come back in our at our next board meeting uh get those questions into him by when would you like those in by the 20th of February did we say the 20th I I'll go over the timeline in about half right so I just want to remind everybody of that and uh other than that that's that's really all that I have and so I'll turn it over now to uh Dr grman for his report super thank you Mr Daniels it's great to see everyone in the the squares hopefully uh everyone's safe and they um had a good day today a very difficult day for the the superintendent of schools the past 24 hours whether we would kept changing up until 11:30 last night so it is one of the most difficult uh decisions we have but we always decide on the side of safety so it's good to see everyone and we do have uh roughly 13 or 14 people also uh viewing this via zoom and as we know there'll be a recording i w do want to welcome Jamie Neeman Jennifer Violet Maggie me and Courtney Vincent from our PTO is here tonight to give a brief update of what's happening at each of their schools and also I I believe we have Ali Barker representing the Canton friends of Arts um Canton parents for Arts that are is going to give a a brief update on the Arts and as Mr um and our athletic director uh Kim H and as Mr Daniel said I did have the opportunity also to go to prisms last week with a few also a few members of our administrative team and it was a wonderful event I I also which was really exciting got to go to Yukon last Friday to see the kanton middle school and the kanton high school jazz band perform at the University of Connecticut through their judication festival and when I tell you that I was really impressed I saw a lot of bands that day um I was really impressed with um our our bands and how they performed and the the the middle the high school was outstanding the the middle school jazz band is probably one of the best middle school jazz bands that I've seen in a long long time and uh Mrs antonucci should be really excited for what's coming her way at the the high school in a couple years or a year from now it it was just wonderful I I also want to remind our community that we have our winter recess next Monday and Tuesday a very exciting event is Thursday February 22nd the astronomy night I believe that's at Cherrybrook primary school at at 6:30 um p.m.

make a motion to call the meeting to order I second it thank you Bri Hy made the motion Teresa second it thank you very much tonight we'll get right to it as you can see what the agenda is we're first going to discuss the financial status of the uh seven month ending January 31st 2024 and then the second item on the agenda is the financial review of the budget submission to the the city that being said I'm going to turn that over to Mr spank and Mr we well thank you Rich um I'm gonna let Mike walk you through it um and Mike if you could mention it it's kind of um new and improved uh working uh carefully last week you'll see some changes and how it looks um you'll see when we talk in the narrative about things we reference the line item that's later in the report um and the report itself has those numbers as well as a new column uh for the most recent monthly activity and then uh Mike I think we did our first stab at the uh the top 10 list as well that came up last month so why why don't you walk uh folks through and we'll see where we go yeah sure it's uh yeah Mr janelli had some um feedback as well we were able to incorporate in here so pretty excited to uh to reveal the changes um Ken if you could just pull up the January report if there we go so this is just the uh the summary uh narrative uh year-to dat so ending January 31st there was a total of 67.2 million uh expensed of the $150 million budget that we have and then there was an additional amount incumbered of8 2.5 million so we have right now um a we're projecting at a positive $285,000 variance so still positive but that that number is slowly um approaching zero as time goes on the uh next paragraph you'll see here uh with the underlining um one of the changes we made to the reports you'll see uh below that we added the um general ledger account numbers which is that 102.0 number you see um as well as the title of what that account uh actually shows um and in this paragraph It's just calling out that there there are two items really um that are are kind of being offset so the teacher regular salary is is showing unfavorable um but that's offset because the the actual amount that was budget Ed um for the new positions um we budgeted in an account called enrollment Impact Staff and that is um typically is below but for this current report U Mr janelli you asked that we kind of put them under and over each other um and in a similar manner there's um a an account called uh tutor special ed which are special education tutors and the budget for that sits somewhere else so when you combine those they those items offset to a favorable $945,000 so what we're trying to do is for those accounts that are either largely positive or largely negative um for the reasons of being offset somewhere else we're trying to combine and collapse them so it's a little bit easier um you'll often hear me to refer to this as just geography where the expenses are hitting one area but they're actually budgeted in another the other item I wanted to call out was uh the account um transfers and special items um this item uh is the number that we're typically used to seeing all the way down at the bottom of the report it's a negative $4.7 Million number and that was um the anticipated savings that did not materialize and uh I think for now um for the purposes of this report anyway we're going to leave that so we can expect to see that for the remainder of the the fiscal year um and there are some some changes we'll see as we walk through the report but the last thing we just wanted to mention is that in October um the at the Board of Education regular meeting um there was a request uh for 200,000 to be um refunded back for the uh cyber C breach and about another 200 400,000 for the special education mandate um for disabled students that are age 21 it's now going to be age 22 um and those were approved um for the most in the most recent city council meeting so can I stop you there for a moment the additional monies that would just uh approved for us the 600,000 will be a special one time appr appropriation that I'm assuming next month since it was authorized I don't know how you're going to reflect it what he reflect it when you get the cash or when it was authorized but on the bottom of the $150 million budget it'll have another line number for those two items showing a one time appropriation and that should increase the 284,000 balance by by 600,000 so we'd be looking at some 800,000 positive toward the end of the year is that correct yeah the the um additional six um 600,000 will essentially increase as you're saying correctly will increase the $150,000 dollar budget so there will be uh favorable variance because the the numbers that you're seeing um below the 150 here which is the 67 million and the 82 those are are already have those amounts that expensed included in them so um there there will be an increase in the unencumbered balance correct and one other question if I made the the cost for the cyber security and the take one of the time the cyber security that money has already been expended I'm assuming or incurred on our part is that correct correct the other 400,000 for special a has that been inur it or is it encumbered uh I believe that that amount is encumbered um is that correct John it is uh probably more than half of it has been expended you know we're halfway through the school year and what's not uh is encumbered either to the out of district schools themselves or in transportation to our transportation provider thank you I I yeah one question I can't see okay I can but not everybody so if you have a question you know just be polite just mentioned your question I I really can't see the hands but I can see Teresa at this point uh the 600,000 is that coming from the reserves or directly from the city I'll answer that um yes to both the the reserves are on the city balance sheet and they're uh releasing those uh to us so so this is not the city giving us money they're granting us the uh okay to take it out of our reserves this is nothing this is not out of the goodness of the city council's heart no it's coming out of your five million whatever that number is 5 mil8 I don't remember the number but it's coming out the board reserves I think I I think that should be clarified in in that uh in this document that it's not that what should we clarified for then it's the two items were approved by the city and it's most re to from the reserve account oh okay we could put put note that there's nothing there's nothing there about being from the reserve account and I'm thinking it came from the goodness of the city's council's heart and it's not no they're not that kind you I mean I appreciate them releasing from the reserves don't get me wrong but I I just like clarification on this document yeah and and that's why I said to show it when John shows it below the line it's not an addition to the Appropriations just a one time a one time in Fusion similar to what you had mother time before okay we can certainly make that footnote so it's clarified thank you Mr chair may I ask a question and I see Wanita also has her hand up as well sure it's okay K I'll take you person one either okay thank you thank you um Mr chair I just want to confirm when we made the the request of uh city council for this money were we expect were we asking for it from the reserves or were we asking from for the city for this for these funds because uh and perhaps I'm wrong I I knew we had made a request of the reserves uh for initially $4.7 million and then we dropped that down to just over three million um I thought these other two costs were were uh requests directly to city council for those funds uh they they were both they were different uh one was for from our reserves and the other we asked for from the city Surplus I forget which one was which okay um I I was under the impression that the 200k and the the 400k requests were from uh City general fund our motion um from this committee actually was from the one was from the reserves one which what do you mean John that one of either the 400 or the 200 yes I I think if we look at my document I've I've replicated Verbatim what our motion was and that would tell us how what was said could dig that out and I I think that's a good point Teresa because it's contrary to my understanding which meant that it came completely from our reserves John and that is the 600,000 reduce the Reserve balance that that's what eventually happened that's how they that's how they put it forward to the city council that's what the council voted they didn't vote it the way we asked for both of them okay because next year if all things stay the same they'd be obligated to give you the 150 and not not the 150 plus the 600,000 is a word an appropriation you tomorrow for the U minimum expenditure requirement r no no no I'm just saying forget what I said so long as we're clear that it came from our reserve and Teresa you're clear on that so johal footnote it so that we could have that as a footnote um Rich 18 yes thank you um I um disagree that it should be a footnote I think that it should go right in the paragraph be very clear and transparent um that this amount was from the um approved to be withdrawn from the educational fund supplemental fund and this was from whichever other account okay but all right that that's fine it's a matter of presentation well we're talking about um making sure that we have a narrative to go along with the budget so let's be very clear and open and transparent with what we say and it does not need to be I don't think it needs to be a footnote it needs to be very clear where the monies and the amounts came from okay so in [Music] the unless you want to well okay take that into account for next month when it's presented on the financial statement we can incorporate that into the narrative points well taken all right let's move on Richard holler has his hand up okay Richard hey good uh good evening John and uh and Michael if you could kindly explain so if if I understand correctly our current salary incumbents Allin is running a positive 954k and you you have our yearend encumbrance coming in at about a 284k the um just to clarify sorry the the 945 $5,000 um favorable variance is a year-to-date favorable variance that is specific to only two accounts one is the tuition special education and is offset by the clerical substitutes um the 284,000 refers to um the entire balance of the entire general fund okay so kind of with that being said then where where is the variance for the difference of 670k you would have to look at all of the different that's what I'm asking that's what I'm asking for where where you know where where where are we struggling as far as against against you know year dat budget in terms of what what specific line items and in particular you know the needle movers whether they be you know health benefits Transportation whatever the case might be I I I would think Richard when they did involved in the detail of the report it should become evidence I mean we're only looking at a summary here so we haven't even got to the detail yet if you want to move on if you want to move on to the details you can go through it and perhaps it'll show up there you to up there okay thank you Ken if you could just scroll down to the the next page so this is the breakdown of the accounts this is the the summary so the large um buckets so to speak so salaries benefits purchase services so on and so forth the First Column you'll see is something new to this report this is month-to-date actual um and this is the actual spend for the month so for the month uh ending January 31 um and actually the top of that report says 2023 it should say um we spent 10,952 th000 the next column over um actually the next four columns were what we were traditionally used to seeing which is the budget the expenditures year-to dat of the 67.2 that I mentioned before and the uh incumbrance of 82.4 leading to our positive $284,000 variance and this is like I said just a summary the detail is in the report following this um by by account by line item for the for the members I had asked John and and Michael to insert a month of date column because I like to use that and I like to see the month of date because sometimes I like to play with averages and see how they compare to the month of date U and what my purpose is is collectively is to have a consensus at some point as to how we can improve this report so that we feel we get the information we're looking for from it uh so it's it's open you know for discussion at a later Point as suggestions as to other items perhaps that you'd like to see on the year and how you'd like toh to see it so this was the first the first go around the first draft showing the monthly date um I said I'd like to see monthly figures and year to date figures um the other comment I'm going to make is is the $4 million I don't know if you can see what I'm pointing to here the unassigned minus $4 million my suggestion would be conversation on this I'd like to see the budget numbers adjusted without that negative number because to me it distorts the the balances because you have when use the word inflated numbers in these categories and then you're taking it out at the bottom and you one L sum joh had prepare a budget net of these numbers and I think you read it across and you see the actual balances total should be the same that is the bottom number but uh looking at it line number by line number would be differences so again that's a topic for conversation to perhaps further clean this up a little bit if you want to go on go ahead sure K if you'll just scroll down the um following Pages um I believe uh Mr Holly this was your request was the um kind of a top 10 account so I did the uh five positive and five negative um so that the top section is those that have uh the most the five most unfavorable variances and the five beneath that it starts with enrollment impact are the five most positive uh variances and if there's no questions on that we could move down to the next page and then this Begins the detail uh Mr hly you asked although I think it might be hidden by our faces depending on how you have your screen setup um all the way to the right is the yeah there we go the year-to-date budget balance so this is by account the items that have that darkened box around them are the uh footnotes uh 31 and two which are called out on the um summary page uh there was some feedback that that um narrative or summary page that we use should call out the major items in here so that's just what those boxes are and this particular page uh is this particular part of the report is about six pages long and Ken if you scroll down to the bottom you'll see that you'll get get to that 256,000 I'm sorry $284,000 positive variance and the footnotes are are below Rich um I'm concerned at the low ballots and this is only February I mean this end of January uh that's kind of scary point we have no wi room but add to the six of the 284 add the 600,000 or 640 whatever that number is that we're getting from the the city so brings the number up to 800,000 800,000 at at this particular point I I think Dr casmiro should make a comment relative to whether she thinks a free should be in order at this point I'll let her answer that yeah Ian we started to have some preliminary conversations about a soft freeze just to see where we are to stabilize um that the low balance concerns me as well um I'm also cognizant of the fact that we've um a lot of the the freezing so a soft freeze would mean um our schools would uh have to freeze some of the supply lines that they have which were already reduced so before we send folks into a tizzy I'd like to continue to work with the finance team to analyze it thank you Point's well taken Teresa looking at the 284 would be serious because it gives us very little Wier room for margin of error the additional 600 plus at least gives us a little bit more of a breathing a breathing uh a breathing room put you know putting it that way uh but and and I believe that was possibly the the I'm not going to speak for John but went John and Kevin Went before the council indicating that they didn't feel that they needed the 600,000 I'm sorry they didn't need the $3 million but would like to have uh an authorization to draw down on it I think they were taken into account the the acceptance of the the uh 600,000 that they would get and and thinking the numbers would end up at the end of the year in the black is that correct yeah it's exactly right we uh we gave it a name we said the uh the $3 million that we had asked for in the summer uh we said it's very uh likely we won't need all of that um part of that is what Mr Holly pointed out in the salary lines we have a favorable Val balance there um because of our un mostly because of our unfilled paraeducator positions um unfortunately we still have um an estimated 50 unfilled par educator positions and if they're earning uh $25,000 a year uh there's a a million to right there so if you take that off the the three million you could say we we might need two million uh but what we ask for is uh the ability to draw it down as uh things occurred um and we're I think the jury's still out on that um they haven't said no to that uh they'd like to talk to us some more so I'm I'm modly encourage enourage that that may be the way they they do it these these reports are so detailed with the amount of line numbers um and and and I must admit it's confusing and as we go along and that's why I think it's important to get your Insight and opinion as to what you'd like to see I mean this the first time we put a month of dat figure I wouldn't mind seeing another sheet that backs this up with from July through through the current period at an add with each month the the month of dat total because it then becomes easy to take a look at the transactions and you can see what particular accounts might be vared this month or costs were up or down and and explain the reasons when you're looking at that right now it's a matter of I had conversations with John where I was taking year to dat actuals and comparing into the month coming up with variances but as John explained the first two months of the year July and August are very light so a lot of my numbers were on the average for less than what my acttion was so there are some idiosyncrasies in the way we operate and I to think the more information we have the better informed we are um we can always export this to Excel and and make it do pretty much what we want to do but as long as we keep working for that and we get to a better understanding of it I think that I think that's good gives us a better opportunity to understand the numbers and where we're going okay Mike John yeah so that that is um that is the last page of this particular part of the report and then the next page Begins the last part which will show our uh grants um I did change this report uh also um in that I sorted it by the total budget amount they were previously listed by their uh their Grant number which is the last three digits you'll see after the name that4 I just changed it to be sorted by the budget so you see your biggest grants uh first yeah hold on one second all right that's good one other recommendation I'm G to make on the other report you have i' like to see subpal after your accounting Series so that your 5100 series your salary is the subtotal act so would agree with your summary page and for all the other categories so then we have nice highend numbers and it's already referenced to see the categories for the summary and we can down and talk about them I think I gave you a copy both you a copy of something I developed again we can try that next time sorry uh Rich yes I'm having a hard time hearing um because there's some background noise what I was saying is I was recommending that in the future on if you go back to the line number for report Michael scroll up a little bit more Ken yeah yeah so these are broken up by the um actually the third part so you'll see these are the 56s so if I'm understanding you correctly I'll insert um a total so that all the 56s are sumed together that match that uh summary page before this right I I did that for December uh so I already have it done it'll be very easy to make that change yeah and then I think it makes it s because then you have you go from the summary you go to the detail report uh and you know I think we're getting closer to cleaning this up that we understand it the question is is there anything in here at this particular point that you should when you use the word put a watch on something that we should be concerned about it looks like the health insurance is is is favorable and running favorable but is there any anything in these list of accounts that you are worried about that that could be problematic Rich one of the things on my mind um is special education um and special education Transportation um there's little we can do about those um things that come out of IEPs but we have felt a little pressure um in the accounts and in the U purchase orders that go out in those two areas so we're we're keeping a very close eye on that internally to see what's going on okay do anybody have any other comments on the report if not then we can go to the second item on the agenda which has to do with the which the the budget that we're going to submit um it's my understanding that for tonight we were going to confirm since we didn't have last week a final answer as to the the capital budget item uh items put it that way or the $1.6 million that we added to the budget uh we didn't have an answer that night Dr Cas were you able to confirm for John with the city whether our capital budget was incorporated somewhere in in the city budget uh the fact that we couldn't find it um may have meant that they put it someplace else or was it completely left out we would justify to put in the the number for the computers that we needed so and John could confirm it's my understanding that none of the the items below the the Brick and mortar list made it into made it into for consideration there appears to be some projects that crossed over such as the ellworth roof replacement and some items such as that um but for but the items that we placed in the budget um that were of the nature of of Chromebooks uh copers security things that we considered essential uh did not make it in for consideration so we amended the $178 million to now to be precise to be 181 million 343 um I think it's 995 um do we have to at this point as the finance committee take that and make that recommendation to the board that that is the number and the details that we support and submit to the city or is it finished uh for what we did last week but I think since we had the confirmation tonight it sort of buttons it down that 18081 Million number is the firm number going to stay with that rich the uh the the agenda for tomorrow night uh the agenda item the motion is to adopt the budget at at that level okay whether that comes from you as a motion or I'm not sure well yeah it's just a recommendation of the finance committee since working on it that we recommend the full board toep the 181 billion I don't know if that's necessary in a formal motion or we just move on and and do it next night I'll leave that up to gladus she knows the Robert's Rules orders I work on bri borders Mr chair I see that Teresa has her hand up yes Teresa okay uh this is probably what I should have asked Mike last week that figure for The copier and uh replacement copiers is that the same figure we've had for the last two years trying to re um replace copers and it just keeps getting kicked down the road Teresa just to clarify you said Mike you were you were talking about Mike C Mike seelig okay sorry yes uh we've been able to replace a few copiers but the bulk of that money has just carried carried on to the next budget even when we had a full allocation last year that's correct so we're we're we're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul again um let me go back to my previous are you satisfied with that answer Teresa yes thank you Mr chair thank you um let me go back to my previous question is it necessary Mrs Cooper for us to make a motion from the finance department tonight since we have clarification that the Chromebooks were not in the capital budget that the finance committee formally recommends to the full committee the AC acceptance of our number of the 181 million 343 995 the recommendation would the recommendation will come from this the four the finance committee to the board on tomorrow night to accept that number of 181 mil3 and something and N something okay for the board to accept that okay that's fine so we don't need any any motions tonight is there anything more that has to be said on the proposed budget well I I just want to say about um it's come to my finally to my attention and I think Rich you pointed it out we don't have any JV teams at the junior high or uh sports teams at the junior high level and I think at some point point that should be a serious consideration um down the road um I comfortable with the way this meeting has has gone is is there any other information that committee members feel for any other board members who are on this meeting want to ask otherwise I'll ask Mr chair Wanita has her hand up thank you um let me also um add in that one of the items um that did not um get on uh from the city were the walls at King Street Primary School um I don't know from the past how the finance committee has looked at this but we know that we um are living in a time where safety needs to be at the top of our list and so I'm I'm a little uh taken a back that we're still sitting with school buildings with an open concept for learning in other words no walls and those are our babies that are in that building thank you thank you well noted we could bring that up on a sites and facility meeting the next time somebody had a question no rich I I was just gonna add we're we're um we're constrained um when it comes to Capital we can um we have a lot of leeway within our operating budget and even what we call operating uh computer student devices and things like that uh but uh capital and bricks and mortar is really the province of the the city council it's it's things like that are not an option for us to add into our operating budget as much as we need to um there there's a pretty clear line that's that's drawn u in the state statutes yeah I just um I just want us to make sure that as a board that we are uh stressing that that that should um also be of importance to the city I understand that that's their um thing but that's certainly that safety area uh Danberry has been blessed I believe that we have not had any serious uh safety concerns in our buildings and we want to keep it that way the points well taken ju and that's why I said we can bring this up at the sites committee to further push these issues uh has a watch it rich I'm sorry I just I just wanted to make a comment about the the capital um budget projects you know I I I think heading into this and and trying to get a handle on what that process entails um you know that was a little bit elusive uh to to me personally and I think to to a few others and so you know I I would recommend and moving forward you know considering that there's a lot of you know there there's a good list that was put together there was just on the brick and mortar building side there was you know almost you know five over5 A5 million dollars for the projects listed things that we need in the school system and clearly you know um adding something like that you know is not going to not going to serve us at this moment in time but certainly um you know if we could make an internal um prioritized list based on the list that was submitted and begin to incorporate those in and then build in some advocacy with the city at the same time so that we're present and we're advocating for some of the most pertinent projects um before they come to pass uh in in in advance I think would help our position um you know the how we didn't you know we get to a place where we don't know if something is even in the budget or not in the budget or on the capital list or not in the capital list is is disconcerning so you know moving forward I'm hoping that we can build in some um proactive advocacy along the the items that are on here so we can get these picked away because we do keep kicking the can down the down the road um you know with a with a sense of defeat as you know because we we know that certain levels of funding are are simply not possible so um that would be my recommendation that's well taken because and I think from my point the years I've been on the board I don't recall us really talking about the capital bu big emphasis has always been on the superintendent's budget per se so I think in our calendar for next year is that we devote the time to to prepare the budget and discuss it was as much this as we do with the operating budget so that we could you know make our statement and do the advocate the advocacy during the course of the year to support that um this was a a big surprise to me when I joined the board and found out about this budget and that's why I had asked for a copy of it uh I don't recall in the past it being an issue of you know most of the time we spent is been on the superintendent's budget so I don't know how that was done in the past but the points well taken and I think you know in addition to On's concerns we will address these issues you know as they come up periodically on the sites facilities meetings but we will then look for the agenda next year to do a more prudent job of following through and see what happens with the capital budget so doesn't fall by the wayside become you know 11th hour nightmare like we had to find out this time it it is an embarrassment hadn't Michelle brought up that point then going under a Mis assumption that everything was honky Dory later we found out that nothing was even given given credit to what we presented so we we' got to correct that as well Mr Holly are you able to put your mute your microphone please sure thank you could I could I just say something uh Mr janelli um and you know right now we're dealing with the budget and we're all concerned about everything that goes on uh concerning education and as we talk about things that are going on in our schools that we are not happy about things that could happen to our young people and I think it's very important that as we talk about you know the sites and facility committee can handle this the budget committee can handle this who can fix this I think we all need to advocate for what we believe in and I think I'm the oldest member on this board and if I can take time I advocated to the common counsil last week talking about safety in front of South Street school and if you know if it comes up again this month I'm gonna still go there and talk about safety you know they might get tired of hearing me talking about safety and and what they can do and what the police can do to make it better so you know I'm just saying this to every you know and I know we can't be every place every time sometime we just have to stand up different people and speak things and they are hear a little bit different so I just want to say that really quick pleas thank you that being said then I call for a motion toar so moved okay who made a motion Terry made the motion I'll second yes yes okay all in favor I I I rich bye thank you very much I'll see you all

and as chair I declare this meeting adjourned thank you so much for your attention I think we had great comos tonight so um thanks all for participating and we'll see you next month good night thanks all

they're hosting a state I think that'd be a first round of the state playoffs I think is the number nine Team Six team 12 team I was closer I was right the same but they're the 12 team they've done a really good job so come on out tonight and cheer on our girls they're playing I think Gilbert Academy from they in the valley and so we're going to cheer them on our boys Mr web are in the state tournaments well or just just narrowly missed the 24 spot came on strong at the end made a good run at it and they did beat sholo they beat sholo we can say that they beat sholo three times good job and our girls have really made a nice run the end of the year both teams are playing very hard we have about five wrestlers I think that are still in the State uh tournament and so that happens in Prescot this next weekend it's Friday and Saturday it's not convenient but it it's it's fun I always find my my way there to watch a few of our kids wrestle we'll be there one of our female wrestlers is is in the tournament on wrestling females she's the first wrestler to wrestle females and we had another that's at Air Force Academy and she wrestled against everybody and so we've we've got it coach Merill I want to say this has done a great job building a program we had more boys and young ladies on that team than we've ever had in the more than nine years that I've been here and so great job with that as well and so uh that we had also in terms of academics the PSAT or act this yesterday and today and so we had a good showing with with that and uh we are at the I don't even know what month it is I think it's February the 70 days of February and so we appreciate the community's patience the weather's is is tough and we appreciate our teachers administrators working on the instructional time model to have make sure that the learning continues but we will not have to make up days at the end of the year so it takes added work especially for the teachers administrators but at the end of the year we won't have snow days to make up that's the that's a positive side of it and that those are really the highlights um Mr President unless the board has any questions I'd be glad to answer or address those I think you're forgetting one of the major highlights and that was the play Sound of Music Sound of Music yes it was that was an incredible performance it was it was absolutely wonderful I saw three of those I think six performances and I was able to see both casts and they did an exceptional job and for uh High School of 650 kids really a remarkable job you would expect something of that quality to come out of a 6A school with 4,000 kids maybe but I don't know that it would have been any better it was just amazing from the from the performances by our students to the props and the costumes the whole thing was wonderful but there was a lot of work that went in that I want to give Kimberly's team on facilities and maintenance uh it was a herlean effort to get that ready in time I was telling a March end of March I I just if it got done sooner great but that was a a great effort by your team we appreciate it and facilities for making sure that everything runs well Mr bloomstrand Dr D Jennifer ol and uh Becky Evans so many other people that contributed it was it was a wonderful really wonderful I brought my mom on the last night of it so that was maybe her 500 showing that she seen she was singing along with it it was wonderful yeah they did a great job great job we're very proud of our kids I anything else Mr mer that we left I believe that's enough Diana do you have anything you'd like to ask the superintendent no thank you Jennifer with that aren't they putting in for a national competition I I I know that ASU was there at least one of the nights observing and so I think they are in some type of a greater competition and as she was evaluated in the program I'm sure they were you know as excited as we were do we know how many people attended I was at the last showing and it was just about at capacity which would be about 675 the first night was well over 500 and I was there on the uh I guess would be the fourth night and there's well over 450 people so I'd s an average Route 500 people a night so 3,000 out of 4,500 Community pretty good pretty good and Mr Webb too I want to thank Mr Webb and Mr archal archet and everybody that has done so much Megan they support these programs and that's in addition to by the way we teach math science English and history and so it's uh the administration team took on a lot of of that work and made sure that they that Teresa and her team had everything they needed so those things just don't happen there's a lot of work behind the scenes and I want topr my appreciation to all of those folks sitting right there that make these things happen so good job and thank you I also wanted to say that I received a compliment from one of our families because our Junior High Principal was at a junior high tournament on a Saturday in Snowflake so they're always doing something just a true fan right just a true fan Junior High Principal you it takes a special person to teach and support Junior High kids she's the only one in the room one of the few in the world that could do it the other one's on the phone over here she did it for many years yeah Miss D I have absolute respect for anybody that works in a junior high period um I do know for a fact that there were people from our adjoining communities as far away as Winslow and Holbrook that came to this performance they heard about it saw the posts and came to see for themselves and were thoroughly impressed so we did we I didn't do anything they did a wonder wonder wonderful job anything else next item on the agenda is a call to the public is there anybody here that would like to address the board at this time going going gone all right next item is an announcement of when the next board meeting will be held it will be Tuesday March 19th at 5:00 P p.m.

Madam Secretary roll call please sir Mr swales here miss site suus here Mr alch here Mr gagos here miss rup is here Dr Hall here president Brown here thank you let us stand for our Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr Bor member Mr guyos followed by our mission statement read by Dr Hall ready whenever you're ready all right I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all our mission statement is to empow each student positively I'm sorry to empowerment of each student to positively impact the world for okay thank you both board member gyos and Dr Hall and at this point we're going to move down our agenda uh with a motion to go through and allow public hearing on the closing of Mo education center can I have a motion so moved so move move by Nelson second second by Jamie roll call a vote Mr alre I Mr gyos i m rson i Mr swales I miss stumbris I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry this time I'm going to ask our business manager assistant superintendent Ken serman to come up and take it from there thank you president Brown good evening board Dr Cara Administration uh those in the audence audience and those in the public uh this is a public hearing on the closing of M education as a student attendance Center um very quickly let me just go through a little bit of legality here Public Act 10224 um talks about the sole purpose of the public hearing is to give the public a chance to give input on the closing if they have that input so this is that opportunity also you will notice that uh notice of the public hearing must be provided at least 10 days prior to it uh by publication on our website we have done that as you'll see we published that on our website on January 29th um lastly there will be three public hearings the purpose of this hearing is not to discuss what to do with the building the purpose of the hearing is to give the public an opportunity to make comments about the closing of the building U the discussion what to do with the building happen after the public hearings we have three scheduled tonight next Tuesday and then March 12th reasons for closing the building I think uh everyone knows we have put a new addition on Creet money High School to facilitate the programming that was occurring at MEC it's the new edition the bridges Edition was open for uh for staff attendance on January 8th and the first day of student attendance was January 10th of 24 as of January 10th all staff and students that were at mon education center are now at the bridgid Edition so there is no more staff or students there at all the other reasons for closing it is there were significant repairs that needed to be done at MEC approximately four to five million maybe a little bit more I was conservative on that amount um there needed to be all the Gavin piping needed to be removed new H HVAC removal some asbest some additional Life Safety projects and then there was also the ability to expand the programming in the pathways for our high school students in the new facility that's joined to the current high school so that's really the reasons that the board decided some of the reasons that the board decided uh to open up the bridges and then the Clos and receive so at this time I I'd like to see if there's any input from the community and open that up to the Community this highlight I'm going to ask you is there was there any written comments public comments that came in on this sub subject were not they were not um so president Brown at this time we could open up to the public to see if there's any comments uh on the closing of the of MEC absolutely if there are none I'm done okay if there's no comments again as Ken alluded to from the board members is not to discuss what we're looking to do or not do but only to hear from the public so no comments coming in from the public I would like a motion to close the public hearing on the closing of mon education center so moved second Alex just can't get it I'm sorry move by Nelson and second by Madam Secretary roll call please when you're ready all right Mr gyos I miss rubson I Mr swales I miss s stus i Mr alre I Dr Hall hi president Brown hi motion carry do we have any public comments submit it or any no okay any board updates okay I I I got a few I guess uh I'm sorry just a few uh I gave him my opportunity if if I get boy boy comment would not have commented all righty then our kids program project initiative is going very well Janel I'm going to ask you to explain briefly what that kids program is and how we are different than any other District okay hold on all right here we go so the um kids program looks at uh kindergarten Readiness uh and it stands for kindergarten individual development survey we were asked by the state for work that we were doing pre pandemic um to uh put together and work with the state on a pilot program and the purpose of the program is to uh have vertical articulation between our ELC program and our kindergarten teachers and to align um what they're doing in prek and what we're doing in kindergarten to better prepare and have um St stronger outcomes for our students the way that we are different there were three schools that were asked to Pilot this program um in the state and we are the only School District that has a board member that joined us and that would be Mr Brown president in [Laughter] bre again the voice of a board member and we know that this is his passion about um prek Readiness and um getting our kids ready but again having an opportunity to have a board member at the table working with teachers in the state is is huge thank you so much I appreciate it I have I have a question will Mr Brown be able to move into kindergarten this year that that way when he actually graduates yeah I knew I should have said nothing wow but I am looking for backup if if one of you want to join me and I can he a little bit more about what's going on but if you have a free time I know it's a lot of moving Parts out there and board members are so busy doing things but so far I was been able to attend all the meeting meetings and I still look forward to attending the meetings to come so also I got a chance on my own cause to fly to Washington this past weekend visit a lot of the historic sites there I mean it was so much and I really challenge all of you if you go down to Washington DC to attend the African-American Museum it's fairly new I saw a lot of dignitaries from Chicago area that was down there as well it was an eye opener for me to visit a lot of the sites I wanted to go to the national board of education building so on and so forth but in the middle of my stay there you know I had a 911 so keep me in your prayers it's amazing that I'm here uh that was that was that was not pretty so keep me prayed up here okay emergenc Emergen I'm s the 911 yeah so but I'm looking forward to going back there see if I can pick anything up that will be beneficial to our school district in any way shape or form and I'm just working with Dr koganes on a few things behind the scen just to better our PTO programs throughout the district more to follow on that as well with that being said we're going to get to administrative updates but I add if the board see any problem moving item number Charlie two up right behind or right after Alpha One the good news so the superintendent do we have any problem with that not at all okay so we can get our visitors out as quick as possible no and that's a good way that's a good way no that's in the go I didn't mean it like that okay being respectful of their time I know there you go there there you go all right so Dr kin is on you all right well I'm excited I've got about four four items to share real quickly um as far as um some activities that are going on in the district um the first of all is we uh our staff and faculty uh students are celebrating Black History Month throughout all the buildings uh in particular all of our elementaries are schools are going over to the high school to see a special presentation it's uh music and readings and they've done this for I think several years now and it's us just outstanding so they've been uh celebrating that um right now we are looking at um replacing our furniture in our K5 buildings so we've been um activating our staff to give some input on chair selection desk selection um so that we can move forward with doing that and again the reason that we are doing doing this is that um as we have all the projects that are going through with re um replacing all the flooring and the painting we're going to remove all the furniture from all these buildings and you can imagine some of this furniture is dates back years and years and years um so um Ken and the business office was able to find some funds to um use this as an opportunity to replace that furniture um with Future Ready Furniture we've contacted a vendor uh that's looking at furniture that really is sending the right message we want to make sure that we have um not only equality but Equitable furniture for all of our students because in some of the buildings it's hodge podge Furniture just kind of matched here and there but we really want to add furniture that is dignifies the educational process and so forth so our teachers are working with us to help select uh bright colors Mr solish and and uh uh different Siz chairs and tables and so forth so we're really excited about that so that we can get get the order out by um March so that we can get the furniture coming in by August when school starts so we're really excited about that and moving forward and then our facilities will look pretty neat uh coming up for the next school year uh another activity that we are working on is our youth Summit um as you know we've got our community mentors that has been working here with us for the last couple of years it's represented from all of our communities and we are going to be coming together on um Monday which is a school holiday it's president day but we are going to be coming together at the high school between 10: and 2 um to Showcase and uh Mentor our students we've got uh different um uh volunteers coming in to have various sessions on financial literacy how to do bank accounts um and sharing voice and so forth so we're really excited about that this is our second year doing it it has received really good feedback from our students and it's only from our U Middle School as well as to our high school students so we'll be there if you're in the area please feel to stop by on Monday and our next that we're kind of excited about uh on March 1st at the Holiday we have early dismissal on that day but we are going to be sponsoring our first safety Symposium that's going to be countywide and it's going to be housed here at our district um I had out the opportunity to present a local conference recently and we just had overwhelming feedback on the interest of some of the things that we are doing here some of our protocols um and as well as some of our um you know our posters and and how we've uh gone about getting ready for uh emergencies and so forth so we are going to be hosting um a summit and we are going to be having uh many of our staff members our professionals highlight we have Mr hollyfield from the high school is going to be sharing some of the protocols uh Greg Schneider for the middle school is going to be presenting and then Brian Maine is going to be presenting for the elementary as well as Dr Luna for talking about HR we've got our healing paw and then Mr Tobias is also going to be sharing that so we're really excited about that we're going to be pushing that out probably tomorrow and um again uh I will send that out to you as well if you're in the neighborhood and can swing by we'd love to have you as you can showcase what we're working on and I know our board members that have been sitting on our First Responders meeting you know there's a lot going on a lot of really exciting things going on so um anyway so we're really proud about that and we're looking to yes and we're looking to have it videotaped and um so that we're really you know going to have it memorialized so anyway those are some of the highlights for this week oh all right there we go so we're going to personnel and culture Dr Eric this is you if not I'll hold it if it falls I'll hold it uh thank you um so I wanted to um on the um employee benefits insurance broker piece um so in the fall our committee had a meeting uh with our current broker and after the we had an opportunity to kind of talk with our current committee about the level of service the things that we are currently experiencing within our employee benefits package and the committee was looking for some SE different options so with some of those options we put out in RFQ um request for qualifications for other Brokers that could service our employee benefit package uh we received five responses to that and the committee went through a series of interviews with three of the brokers um at the end of our final interview the committee was surveyed uh we had lots of great discussion and it was very clear from those survey results that the committee definitely sees a change as warranted in our current level of service with our broker and um we are here to recommend uh as members of the insurance committee are here Mr Woodard Miss short M Holan M quinland and Mrs Bragg uh we're here to recommend Gallagher for our new employee benefit F broker and we have melna and Sammy from Gallagher here to kind of just introduce themselves to you and talk to you a little bit about what they can provide for our employees well hello hello okay it is on okay um my name is Mel Diaz and I serve as the uh practice leader for our Scholastic team at at Gallagher and before I get too much into what we do I wanted an opportunity for my teammates to uh to meet you folks so I want them to introduce themselves hello my name is Sammy rero I am a benefit consultant in Gallagher I work with a lot of school districts similar to cre Moni to oneu uh with distri strategy and helping them as part of the Cooperative I'm a little short for this um hello will this go down it's okay I can I can tip to oh okay cool Hello uh my name is omna sadiki I am an account manager here at Gallagher um similar to Sammy I do work very directly I work directly with um school districts throughout the Chicago metro area um and I focus more on day-to-day tasks so such as enrollment and anything benefits okay so um a little bit about me I I've been with Gallagher for a long time now um 12 years that that's a long time for for for me um I've worked for other uh top consulting firm uh but my stop here at Gallagher has been um one heck of a ride and so proud that uh I end my career at at Gallagher uh it's that type of that type of organization uh so we're a little bit unique um and I'm glad we stood out during the evaluation of the insurance committee uh we're unique in a sense that um we've dedicated um the better part of the last 40 years into the Scholastic space um I have worked for other competitors um that will dabble in the Scholastic space but you know you'll also touch Commercial Business business Tech business pretty much whatever you can get your hands on um Gallagher were unique in a sense that we have an entire practice just dedicated to the Scholastic space um and that's what makes us you know unique because we get embedded to u a lot of school district uh Insurance committees uh we become part of it um and so we have this knowledge and insight that a lot of other consulting firms simply don't have um our footprint in this space again when you've committed 40 years to this uh is is pretty large U as many of you know there's about 800 school districts public school districts in the state of Illinois Gallagher represent um more than 25% of of that 800 the one U Cooperative that your school district is very much interested in joining we manage that um there's a total of 13 of us that manages it again this is what we do and that's called the educational benefit Cooperative it's a Cooperative that's been around for about 40 years um and it started with just seven school districts um U back in 1984 and at that time you know they were trying to figure out a way how do we how do we leverage our size you know because as a individual School District we didn't have a whole they didn't have a whole lot of Leverage with their carrier Partners so somebody came up with this brilliant idea of of coming together share their risk and all of a sudden they went from you know 150 uh lives as an individual School District all of a sudden they had over a thousand lives and now they were able to apply a little bit more leverage so really that that that that uh that concept is what has grown over the last 40 years and now you know we are sitting at 128 school districts that's part of this uh Cooperative um and that leverage uh that we have because of its size allows me to negotiate with carrier Partners on things like administrative fees even uh value added programs that if you become a member of The Cooperative you get it from immediately from from day one um and the Cooperative as a whole um I mean it's really this pretty incredible Community because it's really designed as a very welcoming Community um it has you know it's we have districts from all over uh the state of Illinois we go as far south as as decar um and we all also different shapes and sizes um decar is is is our largest one actually I I take that back we we added U as weo school district January 1st or about 1,700 lives um but you know we we go as low as I we have a Willow Springs that's 50 lives uh but the beauty about the Cooperative is that everybody is viewed as the same everybody has an equal vote actually at one point before he retired uh Frank Patrick was the chairperson of the EBC and he was from the smallest School District but that just tells you the type of community that that it is um what I can tell you in terms of its performance the EBC is a long-term play if if you are a school district and I and I and I meet lots of school districts if you're looking for that that uh that short-term result you know what how much can you save me this year and and then you're thinking to shop the following year then the EBC is is not for you we are a long-term play and and our numbers says that um our five-year average has outperformed even during the last two three years which has been a very very difficult period during the health care uh insurance industry but we consistently Will outperform the Market two to three percentage points on what their average adjustment is and a lot of it is because the EBC has less administrative expenses um and because when we purchase stop-loss levels we purchase it at a much higher level so that's less cost cost um so it's a pretty awesome Cooperative um I can tell you in the last 12 years we've had less than a hand less than a handful of school districts that has left the cooperative and they didn't leave it for financial reasons it was more for for political uh reasons um but we're very proud of the fact that you know consistently year after year our retention rate is about 99.9 um it's not the type of thing that people join and leave because one is the cooperative and the executive committee you know they want to make sure that that the folks that were recruiting into the pool understand the concept of the pooling they want to be part of this community and they want to be part of something that's going to be a long-term solution for them um so that's that's the Cooperative in in a nutshell um we never take these opportunities for granted when we're in front of a full board and opportunity to serve a school district um so thank you so much for this opportunity um and we're here to answer if you have any questions so please feel free you can't make it that easy for me come on guys so this uh your Cooperative is is essentially a union um of park districts School dist School District school districts school districts uh so you negotiate um everybody together yes so we we Leverage The the size so we we because we we can we bring to our carrier Partners 128 school districts about 35,000 actually about 38,000 employee count that's a whole lot of Leverage because there aren't many organizations out there that size right right so especially in in the benefits space so when you have that level of of Leverage I can go to a carrier partner and say hey um you've enjoyed this partnership you've grown your Revenue has grown because because the Cooperative has grown what can you do for the cooperative and those are the things that I I can confidently ask a carrier partner and they have delivered for us that's why even with our our carrier Partners our approach is very longterm um because it because they have to earn their key just like Gallagher has to earn our keep with the Cooperative so does does the Cooperative offer Wellness programs and those types of things to it does actually one one of the value help reduce costs yes uh one of the value added services that we do is U is a wellness program with an incentive So currently if your school district is paying for like biometric screening uh those things are included in the program and and also if you perform uh certain activities within the wellness uh piece There's an opportunity to earn back some of your premiums back into uh back to the district um and so that that incentive has has been around and it's been adjusted over the last couple years but it's pretty engaging and the district really has the flexibility um in to do what they want to do with those money sometimes they'll just use it to fund their wellness program um and and a lot of the things that that we do is geared toward how do we manage in slowing down long-term Trend so that's a program that again it's it's it's not the answer to everything but it's but it's part of the answer we implemented tedoc back in 2017 way before you guys heard of tele medicine when the pandemic came we we did that in 2017 so when when the pandemic came and everyone's kind of scrambling for tele medicine the EBC had that already but again it wasn't the the one solution it was one of many solutions that we wanted to implement because guys Healthcare expenses always going to go up our job as consultants is how the heck do we slow that sucker down and it's it's a bunch of things that you have to do I call them like spokes in a wheel you know it's not one little thing it's a bunch of little things yeah so being on the committee I just want to reiterate what you said is that it's a long-term commitment so we can't expect possibly that you get all our data and do everything and that we get some like Miracle where our costs are you know a lot lower than what they currently are that's what you're saying right I mean there cor correct yeah I I mean I just want everyone to be prepared for for that absolutely absolutely MH do you mind sharing who some of your partner providers are so uh a Ted do is is one a reliant standard Blue Cross uh Blue Shield metti I mean all all the big Partners um navigate is U is our uh health and wellness uh platform Sammy am I missing anything else oh yeah I'm sorry business solver is is a Ben benefit Administration platform that will actually help the school district on the on the eligibility side we are we are a self insur District yes not anym not anymore that's no yeah last ah yeah okay scratch that all right you mentioned earlier that by being being in this Co-op that you are or you probably have look to save us three 4% on that's on average I I I can't speak on because we have we we haven't actually quoted you an EBC quote so but I that's on the average performance the EBC outperforms u a Blue Cross Blue Shield's average book of business adjustment by about two to 3% year-over-year MH and what do you base your fees on what do we base our fees your fees on well the majority of it about 95% of it is based on claims experience uh because the Cooperative as as a whole is uh is is self-funded so the the vast majority of that expense is on claims expense the other 5% is Administrative expenses like paying for things like Ted do um Ben admin Cobra services so on and so forth let me let me rephrase question of the 4 to 3% you save us by being in this Corporation this Co-op how much would that percentage go down by what the the fees you're charging us oh our uh I just did the calculation on this so Gallagher's fees represent um about 8% okay so less than a percentage Point all right that's what I was okay I wasn't quite sure yourself but all right great thank you any other questions as far as like mental health goes sure uh how how robust uh is your um is is someone looking for mental health like counseling things like that how how easy is that for uh the customer the the the teacher well in addition to the the resources that that's available uh the primary resource is going to be with our carrier Partners like like a Blue Cross Blue Shield um the navigate platform will also have an ability to provide um mental health library components um the EBC is looking into a more very structured um mental health uh program on its own currently that is one program that is not um like a so-called value ad so right now we lean on the existing partnership that we have with our carrier Partners Blue Cross Blue Shield um the EBC does have a this is one of the value ad programs an EAP program and there is counseling that's available through the EAP um so that that's one piece that that's currently that's there right now okay any further questions if not I'm going to turn it back over to you super thank you very much oh thank you guys good luck thank you thanks to all the hard work of the insurance committee yeah absolutely good job is that back to you superintendent thank you sir if you need a bottle water anything like that you guys okay no you heard my feeling youed no no our past president he corrected me on that no we we just we value your time take care take care we do and uh I didn't want to burst their bubble but congratulations to our insurance committee because we added teleah Health well before covid we had it just about the same time that he mentioned but I didn't want to like say that oh we had it I would I would have said good job to the committee do you want to go back great job commit tell them that no no you guys have been a great doing a good job this is the committee too oh my okay good job who's the leader all right good job what's your name Dana good job Dana thank all of you yes Dana thank you your work excellent job oh I'll let you I'll let you cuz that's all under you yes so um let me introduce Miss Carmen Thompson she is newer to us not new to the district from yeah we did a little switch here to getting it Charlie one in under our administrative updates Miss Thompson comes to us she's come to us mid year uh she was replacing uh former Miss Riley and she believe social worker right over Bel Morrow yes and so we needed to get her replacement there and now we've got her now working uh in the at the district office in this capacity kind of uh over overseeing the discipline and mtss program so we've asked her to come today to kind of give an update on the districtwide discipline plan as you know per District policy we have a district discipline Review Committee that two of our board members sit on uh that we have every year because Miss Thompson didn't really start into this role until a little bit mid year we haven't had those committees uh we will resume those committees in April and I think uh which one of you we got two okay so we'll be doing one in April is that Nelson and Jamie on the discipline committee was it jie or who's on the discipline committee no one else it is okay well maybe it's me it is you if it's safety or security related that kind of stuff it's probably it's it's so she's going to be sharing our districtwide uh discipline data with you which we've got some exciting news to share with you tonight and um we are going to and annually we have to put together a report for the compliance for ISB so we'll be submitting that report for you to review as well um but anyway I want to introduce Miss Carmen Thompson it is all you for uh introducing ucing our districtwide discipline thank you well thank you again I'm Carmen Thompson I'm the new supervisor of ppis and I'm going to go over some discipline data I'm going to do a overview and then some recommendations going forward so as we're looking at incidents by offense um not sure if you can see from here but overall our data has gone down um from 2022 to 2023 School year based on numbers from February until now I'm sorry did I miss one by location we can see that the classroom is still the highest um location however when you look at it we have decreased 20% how do the two washrooms differ from each other I'm I'm sorry no it's just the last yeah I see that you're saying one's watchh room and then there a r I'm not sure I could look into that to see if it's a we're all good I just didn't know what the difference was I don't think so cuz one is just a one so I'm not sure if it's they used a different code back then so it's something I can look into perfect thank you okay okay we would look at the grade um last year we seen that eighth grade and nth grade was the biggest um grades that had the largest incidents and this year ninth grade has gone down tremendously um some of that could be the new um start the ninth graders first and let them get adjusted acclimated into the classrooms um let them learn the rules and now we see that they were adjusted and came in with a better year um and then we say this year the sixth graders are are having a lot of incidents so that might be something we look into as far as for next year for the Middle School um and although 8ighth grade and is at 328 incidents that only represents 116 students and same with um sixth graders it's 226 incidents but that's only 97 students so that's not all 300 kids having those same incidents all right when we're looking at the schools we see that the middle school and the high school are still the largest schools and what we're going to do is go further into working with the tier 2 team at the middle school and developing a tier 2 team at the high school so we can look at a curriculum that comes from sixth to 12th grade and make sure that we're providing more interventions in those areas go back to that yes if I'm reading this correct it has maybe you just explained this but it has CR money High School twice yes I was looking at last year's data it looked like um two incidents they used the old code for the high school so that was a a human eror instead of putting the 407 they use the old code okay thank you yes so with ethnicity we know that this is why we are doing our plans and even though we still have African-Americans as um the highest person I mean race having incidents we're still down 25% from last year and then the trend has been that males are having more incidents than females and this year if we're looking at the data from o October we've been trending down so that's a excellent thing for our data so just to do a overview the incidents have been reduced across the school district the highest categories of disruptive behavior has decreased 29% um over half of the 21 categories have also decreased um the classroom continues to be the main location of incidents but it's shown the decrease of 20% and 8th grade continues to have the highest incident but these have also decreased 133% um in 2023 the freshman's had the second highest incident and has since seen an incredible drop of 54% um the middle school and the high school incidents have decreased 8% and 20% respectively and all race and ethnicities incidents have decreased with African-Americans being decreasing 25% and both male and female incidents have decreased 25% and 16% respectively and in contrast for 20 um 23 we've been showing a steady decline since October so going forth um we do need to rebuild our team and have meetings and in April we want to analyze the data and develop an action plan to continue this downward Trend that we're seeing um sorry the discipline team along with the PBIS teams will start exploring uh new SE curriculum for 6th through 12th grade um that has theal and the mental health components the high school will still continue to utilize the restorative justice coordinator and their team and the coordinator will continue to analyze the incidents could assess if the restorative justice practic is how they're doing and then last but not least but with that classroom incidence being the highest we want to make sure that we provide professional development and restorative practices trauma informed care classroom management deescalation and R race Equity um I want to thank you all for allowing me to show this um information any questions yes well you had mentioned earlier about the males were have more disciplinary actions taken against them than the females and I pretty much know as far as minorities to non minorities the racial there but do you know the racial of males and females you know what at the high school I know that's a loaded question but it is and I have prepared for my um the uh race but not the mail through F mail so I would have to look into that okay and that that would tell me a little bit too you know because that's all relative as far as the percentage have been higher yes by one group than the other MH okay but thank you you're welcome there's no other question any questions yeah so okay what you're counting is that referrals yes so all I know well they're offenses okay a year or so ago we had an issue or with teachers putting in referrals but nothing being done with them or is there still a backlog of referrals or are all referrals being addressed or um right now the referrals are what the teachers put in offenses is after it's been investigated and administrative have taken um some action so I'm not sure as far as the process of Mr Alber I can address that because I've been working with the high school on that from what I understand they did address that um okay from last year because that was an area of concern okay anything else yeah let me just have one more I what I did not hear and excuse me if I missed it was the initiative of restorative justice how since you've been on board here are you ensuring that that process is being utilized or if that process is being utilized to say on a particular person do we still count that offense towards that person if Resto of just is as part of the process okay since I've been on board I started because I'm supervisor of PB started with the PBIS portion um I haven't been able to contact yet with the restorative justice to see how that actually um runs but I can make sure one they're part of the team and then we go over that okay yeah I would definitely challenge your team to use you know see if deescalation is being used restorative justice is used and and I'm sure you're familiar with Senate Bill 100 yes okay all right okay welcome aboard thank you thank you I'm going to add a couple more pieces here um certainly with you being new I wanted to remind the board of where we were a couple of years ago uh to really celebrate what we're seeing in the data um some of the things that have taken place in Middle School they've added the five-step program and we saw a significant decrease in some of the incidences at High school like we said we've got the ninth grade comes a week early um but they've also restructured the grade level team so they're all focusing on a particular grade level so that there's more relationship building going on at that level as well we've added the youth Summits as you know with the community mentoring program um we've added deescalation training for everybody in the district we've added more increase of our security our SRO is is with us we've um we've added the diversions program which um really reduces the amount of suspensions and reducing anything with the prison to pipeline scenarios that we've we have feared so we've added that as well we've added service learning projects as well so there's a lot going on you almost can't put your finger on one thing did it it is a whole Community that's working together the community on the outside all of our staff working hard on the inside and changing our systems and process has made such a difference as well as our security uh has made Staff feel more safe in how we go about um addressing various issues so like I said we're not done yet uh we want to continue to drive down these numbers um as much as we can and as we look at the data we can start really pinpointing a couple of those grade levels you know this the transition point is where we're seeing a lot of this and if you remember the preschool screenings that we put in we were seeing a lot of our little our little biddies our kindergarteners with lots of Behavioral issues coming in we put in that preschool program at the beginning of the year we've almost eliminated that we were able to identify students that you know needed more time and we were able to provide different services for them and that has made a difference too I was just at at one of the buildings today and they said it is completely different from what it was last year with our little Bitties um because we did get them in the right placement so again um we appreciate your support as we've worked through this in your patience uh this has been a journey like I said we are not done we have more work to do but I definitely feel like we're on the right track and the trajection for decreasing these is uh is definitely right there excellent thank you so um during uh Miss Thompson's presentation uh she had a number of the incidents that were uh taking place but that the number of students that uh caused the the incidents were was a lot smaller right correct so like it was the same students over and over again right correct so what we can do with the data and we would just discuss this today we can drill down that data and identify who those students are then we can track what kind of our sort of practices that we're doing what kind of interventions we're doing for them to really start seeing if we're to make a difference with those students and also with the bridges program that's been moved over um we have more applications that we can do for students to provide additional types of services as well for that so we've got a lot more resources than we had a few years ago and I think by changing the data and how we're drilling for it is going to help us to better identify and really get to the students needs um instead of just guest work I'm really I'm really interested How uh Bridges is going to work um and how how it's going and how how it will progress um because I it is a valuable tool um for students and for teachers but I I I want to know uh I would like to know uh the the mechanics and how uh we're helping our students you know with with issues well what we can do I think probably in this fall we will probably give some sort of a presentation right now we are still uh working with our 30 30 students that we had we are going to be reidentifying a um a different type of student to come in a lot of our students that we have so many of them have anxiety we have a lot of treny that chronic treny so we've got to try to find students that are struggling with coming to school with all these anxieties even being in a classroom is painful for students or walking down the hall so we're trying to find tool to go out there and do more of a universal screening to locate them find them and find the ones that we can find the right service for because again we wanted to make sure we can provide up to 75 students here so we want to maximize that space and Service as many students as we can um so in the fall once we start uh moving in that direction you know we'll we'll give an update very good excellent good question okay back to you there's no other questions on this topic back to you all right ex more exciting news back to facilities we're almost done with facilities I believe at some point in the next five years K is used to this so he knows what to do yeah okay thanks well good evening again uh I I left you a packet uh yes you did that's uh about 40 pages I I hopefully I'm not going to spend all of my two hours uh going through this hopefully it'll be a lot faster but I I will share with you that one of my goals um before I left here four months and 16 days is but to to set up to set up the district with another short-term facility Improvement plan the district has an opportunity with some borrowing power and getting some more funds to do some things that I believe are sorely needed so between Jason and Brian myself John keki um and a host of others Keith um we sat down over a number of months and kind of put together a new three-year plan and I'm going to I'm not going to go into lot I shouldn't say I'm not going to go into detail I will go into detail but you know I know you're probably going to have questions and all of that so let let me start this and I'm going to start walking through the pages and I'll refer to things as I go so on page two was the short-term facility plan that we had put together in from 21 to August 24 that included this year and that so that investment was almost 77 million dollar that that we had put together um the board knows that a lot of this work has been done we're in the final stages of it and so the next page you'll see is a breakdown of the new short-term facility plan that also includes the summer 24 so this will be summer 24 through June of 24 through August of 26 uh three different Summers and one of the things we tried to do is we looked at a number of resources uh that we have a master facility assessment plan plan that Healey Bender had put together a lot of Keith's knowledge that we have in coming up with some um with some projects that have to be done that we feel have to be done for the Safety and Security of our students things like doors and windows um in our buildings and that um we also have an opportunity as Dr Cara talked about with classroom Furniture we have that opportunity and of course I would say you know know the major project is going to be upgrading the athletic facilities at the high school um I I'm going to touch on that real briefly I'm going to touch on a little Financial now and I have more financial at the end but I'm going to direct your attention to this black box here and that is um you know a a multi-purpose Stadium recoding tennis courts pickle ball and asphal totally $18 million if you remember back when we got an estimate of about $27 million to do that through um a bunch of conversations we had Jason brought to the table a company by the name of Burns and Jones I'm going to talk about that does Cooperative construction we were able to get that price down to $8 million in fact the facility if you look at just the multi-purpose station ium softball fields and the building is only going to cost us $16 million and $27 million so it is a huge savings and allows us to take some of that money and then put it into other projects as you'll see later on so I just wanted to share that because I think that's the big question that comes up and again I'm going to talk about those things in a little bit of detail especially about that project but this will kind of give you an overview and kind of the time frame of what our plan are is the next page you'll see are some of our buildings and the things that will be done in certain Years you'll see uh the 24 Renovations that are taking place the one thing I do want to touch on is cre Elementary School um I will share with you that the roof there is in terrible condition horrible condition and needs to be replaced immediately the problem with that roof is that it has 14 different elevations on it so that means there are 14 different levels and 14 different roofs on there and we're not able to either replace or restore that all at once and that so we brought out can let me ask your question on that we have our life safety survey starting I believe this year and the past life safety survey did not identify any roofs as being life safety right that was part of our physical assessment to recommend that to be those roofs to be replaced so are you saying that we can possibly say that the condition of our roofs a roof or roof or whatever at creek falls under a life saf could fall under a life safety I'm not I'm not saying that at all I don't even know if it'll fall under a life safety situation all I'm saying is that the roof needs to be replaced right now that's all I'm saying and that I don't know if it falls under Life Safety I I really don't know that um all I know is the assessments that we have the uh the work that we've done the companies that have looked at that said you need to have that replacement because it's leaking all over the place right now but if you could and our architect would know that answer right he would know that answer I I believe so Okay the reason I asked because if we need to replace it then there's another Avenue to borrow money under that's all right there is but I don't I don't know if you I don't know if you have the borrowing power to do that life safety I don't think you'll have the borrowing power to do it okay so you know even the the life safety things that we have done under the previous plan yes we've used uh working cash bonds well we exhausted we had about 10 million of Life Safety money in a pot right we have some money L I'll show you that all right we had about $10 million of life safety issues to do and we use working cash get it okay yes I know you haven't got to that part yet but is that why you have under Creed Elementary you're doing it over the summer 25 and 26 because of the 14 elevations you're splitting into two years yeah we're actually splitting it I'm sorry I just want to go we're actually splitting it over three years so we would start uh the first project you're going to see is that in 24 in somewhere of 24 is a major part of the roof then in 25 and 26 so we would do it over actually over three years okay I didn't see the 24 okay so the cost of doing the whole thing is about $3 million total yeah and then but we have to do it over three years they can't do it any less so besides Creed Elementary have you assessed any of the other buildings that we just did that are as bad as that I mean you're using you're putting we're putting them in order right so depending on the level yeah it's depending on the level that's the worst one that we have okay I mean that's the one where we having the leaks and all that stuff the other ones are I don't want to say in okay shape but they're okay for a few more years okay and and and I would say at some point I know you're trying to get through this but I would say for a forecast can we at least forecast hey the next one that's in in line is hey it's B moral hey it's CSK hey it's t whatever it is can we at least maybe put a little under 26 or what like we should start thinking about that ahead of time yeah we start sure sure so we can start looking at that that's not a problem yeah y um so you'll see on each one of these you will see the number of projects being done I kind of separated that out um so let's just take Bel moral you'll see the 24 Renovations you'll see the classroom Furniture uh what our estimates are excuse me to replace that exterior doors exterior windows uh so you will see that in each one of our buildings that I've done here uh the total amount it corresponds to the the the color page that I had I had put together and then you'll also see here in Moni there're are newest Elementary buildings so really their classroom Furniture is getting uh replaced and then uh over at tala you'll see the renovations with classroom Furniture doors and windows Ken I'm a little a little confused sure on a bmar you're talking about replacing exterior doors for couple hundred, and I'm looking at our 2013 Life Safety Serv survey and under that survey says replace exterior exterior exit doors in in their entirety at doors 1 n 10 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 25 and 26 that I would have hoped we took care of those doors this last round of we we have taken care of a lot of those doors those have been done but like the whole front entrance needs so we got more doors than this there's more doors than that that need to be replaced yes and that a lot of other than what I'm seeing here from the last 2013 life saav yeah from the 2013 Life Safety those have been taken care of already these are just additional doors that need to be taken care of now do you have any idea how many I I I honestly don't because again I'm seeing this is for $30,000 and then if if the numbers come up to that I'm okay but when I saw that I'm like how many doors do we have on this building yeah the numbers Mr Brown the numbers I pulled were from our facility assessment uh study that was that Healey vender had put together for us yeah so that's where these numbers are coming from I just I just extracted those numbers from there okay um but I mean I'll give you let let me give you an example that's that's very similar yeah ELC here exterior do is 36,000 now again they had the same thing in life safety where some of those were replaced but imagine the front entrance out here now yeah that has never been replaced so that whole glass and everything including the vestibule doors now need to be replaced with aluminum doors okay so you know it it it may only be five or six doors but there's some major doors that need to happen now and that so that's what's being replaced so the doors will be replaced with aluminum and again again I don't want to prolong this but if that is the case why wasn't it kept I don't how much damage could have occurred to those doors to make them a safety issue now than it was just from our left well safety so that's 11 years ago it is and I know when you when you look at the rust on those it just was original doors yeah I mean you can't even close the doors anymore I mean it just it's just over time they have deteriorated is all you know I I I I understand that but it is 11 years ago that that study was done so okay you know that's all all right right so you'll see that let me move on to the middle school because there's a couple things with the middle school I put money in here uh you'll see some carpet replacement the board has approved that already so the carpet is being replaced there I have put money in here because we are we have some old rooftop units there all of those need to be replaced so I've put money in there for that um I've also an an estimate that we had gotten to replace all the units I forget how how many are there Keith off 13 rooftop units over there and then I put in an amount a $4 million amount excuse me for a classroom addition now we are doing a feasibility study right now to see what the need is if there is a need so we're doing that there's a um an outside consultant that Dr Cara is working with and the team is working with along the Middle School um um to get a recommendation that so I put $4 million in here for that um if that is needed I think um the results of that would come to the board in March or April Dr K probably in March so we'll be able to see that but I budgeted some money in there for that um athletic facilities one question C sorry yes I'm sorry for the classrooms at the middle school you have it at at the summer of 2026 is there any way that uh that project can move sooner uh if needed if the if the sure study comes back great question you know yes it can it it just depends what's going to be done there so that's what we're looking at and that's what we need once I i' I've done a couple things I will tell you this that uh we have the feasibility study out I've had have a contractor come out and look to give us some ideas so those two can correspond so that when Dr Cara and brain spaces presents whatever their findings are if there needs to be a solution I'll have a solution right away it could it could be moved up okay what we do okay so real quick couple things in here there's not one thing here in prevented maintenance that I see yet is that a different line item or is that something that's outside of this because if I remember you know a lot of this is going to hinge on the closing of of two tiffs so with that being said I think or the conversation was it approximately 2 million a year is going to have to go into prented maintenance we did a lot of work in a lot of buildings plus we have the high school that's newer the Mony Elementary we want to take care of these buildings but is there a line on them besides all of this that's not hinging on the the Tiff money that we're going to borrow from where we're going to be able to maintain this because some of the issues that we have right now is because none of it was maintained sure so one of the things if you remember I talked about that there'll be about a total of approximately 6 million dollars in tip money coming in my recommendation was to use two million of that towards these type of projects per year take another $2 million then and put it towards preventative maintenance and another two million into uh operating budgets and all that preventative maintenance comes out of building and grounds budget this is just strictly capital projects out of the 60 fund that where these come out of preventative maintenance would come out of basically Keith's budget and that so that money then would be earmarked and there would be an increase in those budget line items for preventative maintenance so that the preventative maintenance can be done there essentially that money still coming out of the Tiff money is what is assumption which part of this is being funded out of that as well yes yes all of the Tiff money is in essence is going into your operating you know but we'll move some money into capital projects the rest of just stay in in the other funds in yes K do we not looking if we're looking to use this Tiff money you know look like we got a good shot of getting it and but if you look at the expenditures for salaries and benefits and compare that to what we can actually go out and get from the taxpayers for the most part we had from negotiating raises at a x number right per year in the next several years but CPI I think is not right now about 3.1 right so that's already we behind the eight ball of a percentage right there and money we can get based on money we pay so I don't see again not asking for it tonight but some type of forecast I think Bill alluded to you know some point we need to see a bigger picture to say okay we have work in cash but we can only borrow x amount based on our Eva of what our Eva is right so much of working cash and we're going to need that we're going to need a pocket a placeholder for working cash somewhere down the low so with the money that we expect from the up Tiff expiration we're looking at a couple million for this project per year right for all $25 million that you're looking at to expand here so I would like to see just I don't I don't want down the road five 10 years down the road if we don't have a at least five years forecast that we cannot account for our expenditures with projected revenues sure yeah yeah and and and there's the montiff too that should right at the same time time yeah there's one more two so a lot of things is predicated on potential Tiff the two of them predicated that they close and that that happens okay yeah I think that's something that Jason and Brian are beginning to work on as they start looking at their budgets for next year you know they're working on the budgets right now so they're going to start looking at that and um not only looking at next year's budget but then trying and forecast out five years to get a fiveyear plan on all of this yeah um yeah I I that that's going to be needed I think you know my thought offand is that the district is in a good solid position right now financially and that but again I think now that everything is in place process-wise and from a financial standpoint Now's the Time that now you need to start planning a new yeah I think you know in looking at your tips you know you take out eser now because Esser will run out you know and that so now you need to start planning and if that means you know you look at I know Mr Brown you've talked about this efficiency plans and all of that if you start looking at those things that's where you start looking at that in your Five-Year Plan so that that's that's something that they are working on um and they're using actually forecast 5 to do that or analytics which is good and I think the I think the plan is important for exactly what we have in here right now creats roof MH so that's number one one of the other things under new business that I was going to bring up is the high school parking lot is awful let me get to this let me let me right so my thing is I want to make sure that we've talked about if we're borrowing the money to do the five Renovations like we did but we still want to be able to make sure we can maintain like a roof or something of that nature that still needs some more work right right yeah and I and the board knew we was going to have the these challenges with the older buildings and we just got to chip away and and and I think we're going to be in a pretty good position when the next life safety survey come up that we're not going to have many things here so now it's a matter of just knocking and tipping away at these things okay so let me talk about the athletic facilities because this is a big piece of uh this plan I'm sure Dr Hall is listening so actually burn bernon Jones was brought to us actually Jason brought brought them to us uh and introduced them to us um because over Bloom um they did their new as their new tour field on that so um we had a number of meetings with them they are formally and I'll just kind of give you a little bit of background they they started as an asphalt company uh and then had moved into doing sports construction and uh that is their Niche right now that is what they do they do it through what I'm going to call Cooperative purchasing so you don't have have to go to bid they give you a price that is guaranteed and they give you a timeline that is guaranteed or they will pay you are they guaranteed to beat any bid huh there are no bids but they will bids but they will they because here here's I'm I already and I'm going to go into this like I said previously we were quoted $27 million there solid price right now is $16 million okay they will guarantee that price is it the board position you you got one bit is it the board position to get three bits I'm just asking technically yeah so the next few pages bunch of pages actually are uh projects that they have done uh throughout the state of Illinois these are just some I'm going to highlight this one this is in Johnsburg this is going on right now and what they are doing there is they are doing a um a full Stadium they are doing a new baseball softball turf field they are doing a parking lot and they are doing tennis courts and bernon Jones is doing all of it okay um they uh they actually gave me their contract uh their their price is guaranteed and the uh the deadline uh the completion date is guaranteed or else they pay $1,000 a day in liquidated damages and that um so I'm just going to run through these you'll see a variety of these I just picked some out of ones that they had sent us but one of the things I want to share with you because we haven't used this process before uh we decided to check references on this and so they gave us a whole list of things I just went through and picked 15 references and divided them up between Jason Brian and myself each of us called five and you'll see the questions there I'm on page 22 you'll see the questions there what we asked each of our references um on this on on bernon Jones and the next page page 23 is is about that on the 15 that we contacted we were able to talk to 14 of them um you'll see about their experience with Burns and Jones everything went well with just some minor issues burn and Jones stood behind their product work to create correct issues without charging additional money project goes fast be ready for fast result excellent to work with did the project come in on budget and on time projects came in on time and on budget had to push to get it done due to weather delays guaranteed on time with liquidated damages would you hire them again all the references indicated that they would in fact five of the references indicated that they're rehiring them for additional projects like baseball and softball fields is there anything we should be aware of everybody said really no uh once a month billing and great to work with all stakeholders were pleased with the projects then lastly on scale of one to five with one being the worst and five being the best how would you rate them 12 schools gave them a five one gave them a four 4.5 because of permanent issues but they said that's really not Vernon Jones fall that was mostly our village you know and that but rated them down the last one was a four one gave a four because there were some insulation issues on this some of the sideline of the football of the tur field of the multi-purpose Stadium however they said Vernon Jones came out corrected that they didn't charge him anything but they covered the cost of $150,000 so they stood behind their product so those are references we got on buron Jones I I will be very honest with you I've never gotten references this good on companies on these type of projects especially the number of references that we contacted so the next page you'll see is kind of a conceptual layout of of the field uh of of the whole stadium now again I'm just going to kind of give you an idea this is the high school parking lot right now so this would be our new mult multi Sports Stadium there would be a ba new baseball and softball field that would be turfed this is also Synthetic Turf Synthetic Turf Synthetic Turf and that our current uh stadium is about right here now um also we got a price to put a new building in here too so that is up here Vernon Jones does not do the main buildings like that so we contacted another contractor called bear construction uh that does purchasing uh construction and so they have oh this let me talk about this these are just two pictures kind of conceptually what kind of the field look like uh and then this would be kind of the softball baseball fields concrete dugouts there would be a brick back stop stands all of that um this this is a proposal of the building that we would put up on the facility it's a 13,000 squ ft facility it would have locker rooms in it there is a concession stand they also have uh changing rooms uh the latest is there's and this is the first I heard of it uh they don't put showers in anymore it's all changing rooms so there's no showers in there uh and also there is Storage on both sides not only for equipment but just for maintenance thing and there's also a concession stand here there are public bathrooms we have separated bathrooms out though uh for visitors and for uh home team uh the other thing we've done with concession stand is put different side windows on here uh so visitors can be on one side home team can be on the other side getting concessions so they're separated too um this next page page 27 is kind of of a breakdown of everything and the pricing uh that you'll see so I'm going to let me just kind of go through this so you can see uh the first part is the stadium and some of the particulars that are there it does include demolishing the oat Stadium uh includes some general work Synthetic Turf it includes a video display for the scoreboard um an independent sound system it's 3000 seed bleacher system 2,000 for the home team a th000 for the visiting team uh it does have a Press Box on it it does have an ihsa regulation running track along with field events there would be a Synthetic Turf baseball field with a new scoreboard and concrete dugouts you see the additional pricing there and that's because of the uh kind of the back stop uh rck veneer back stop that we would put in uh the softball field mimics that also we would install some uh Gold Exchange zones on the track along with blue so the track would be blue with exchange zones being gold to match our school high school colors uh the turf itself would be uh green then you're going to see here the stadium building too in addition we would be able to do some remodeling work of the softball field over behind ELC here so we will be able to do that we've budgeted some money in for that also when I share the concept here you're going to see a practice field over here so there's money included in the budg to put a practice field in hey hey Ken real quick did you figure in to take the new lighting system and move it to the new yes that's all fitted so so that is going to be moved over yes and that's all in the specs actually but yes and that um so in addition oops oops oops sorry went the money right away okay the video display for the scoreboard would be on existing score puras at a video yes at a video component to yes yep is there a uh a reason why we went with Turf U other rather than uh natural grass um yeah is is is the uh injury um there I think there's a lot more to that basically is the functionality of the field so I think if we were able to have I think if we were able to have you know multiple soccer fields and multiple different fields sure but I think the idea is that band can't practice on the football or if you have multiple and it's grass the problem is if we have a wet it gets warm fall oh yeah get gets worn I hear you it gets really bad I think the players then for me when they're playing football is more of a safety hazard when it gets really bad okay for sure so I think that's the big thing the big thing is that you know you tear up your field with all the practices you don't you know John practices come John I think it's a safety thing at that point you start looking at differ between natural grass and artificial you know tur ends up becoming a situation where you can use it all the time so if you start looking at those baseball and softball fields uh the beautiful part about living in Illinois is we get have we get to have all four seasons in one day especially in the spring um so you know we're we're constantly rescheduling and then you know just in my experience with like the football field and you know that there have been times where it just gets so downtrodden that you can't do anything and now this will allow us to not only have football uh games on it but soccer matches in addition to having the marching band on it and there's no problem with you know the constant wear and tearing it's and it's it's really something they running at all points in time and the other thing is like snow doesn't stay on it uh depending on how much but for the most part it it melts really easy um it you don't have to worry about um the youth teams they can use the fields as well that's what I was going to say the youth programs will be able to use it as well so that ultimately that would be the you know that would be L last piece of and it saves you money in the long run from having you can allocate the uh your your workers to go do other things versus having to come out cut the field cut the grass and stuff like that yeah you save a lot of money down so just to give you a frame of reference in the 15 years that I've been involved with it with the school district we've had move one ihsa playoff game because of the conditions of our football field um and we've also had to in two of our state championship runs go practice off site because of the state of our our our grass just to just give you an idea of how that can really turn especially as far as that your weather is concerned sure okay I was just wondering if if it's uh safer for for the kids to be running out Sal uh to to be using Turf I I'm not sure I I haven't uh you know I haven't researched or or anything but I hear like uh uh pro athletes complaining about Turf sometimes yeah yeah I think I think it's a you know obviously I can't necessarily speak to that piece but you know I can speak to you know uh it's it's a surface and it's you know it's a surface that we're able to play on I can't speak to the specificity could I can tell you that there's obviously always an inherent risk anytime you're engaging in extracurricular activities okay now I I do have I do have one question um for you all I I don't know who could answer it I I I don't know Ken if you've ever been inside the high school but if you have have you been to the wait room which you maybe you haven't I don't know I have I figured I'm being F but uh is there any money in there and I don't know how bad I mean our district ad thinks is needed for um a new workout facility for our students because it it's uh it almost mimics some places I've seen that um well I w't say a District's name but oh some more districts who who who don't take care of their their weight room and I'm not saying we don't it's just really old and and I will tell you to jump on that I did ask about a year ago and I know we were talking about this is it not just maybe to redo it but also to have a girl's workout separate separate okay because they need own space so they don't you know I mean sometimes it's intimidating to be in there with whoever's in there right they the girls need their own workout weit room for sure but I was I think I talked to Ken about it but it's about space yeah and I and I you know I'm gonna go back to something Mr Brown said I think you have to chip away a b correct you're not going to be able to do everything you just can't you know so you know I I don't know if there's going to be funds left I I will tell you I've got funds left left from you know the previous plan you'll see that I I'll share that with you but I've got all that money ear Mark right now there may be some money but I think like Bill said I you know if you're looking at trying to do a woman's workout of a boy's workout or or men's workout whatever you want to call it you know it's going to cost you more money you're going to have to you know do some construction and all of that so that's why I just think you have to chip away at it and I'm thinking remember we just did all these projects and there was we had we had 10% money in there in case something goes wrong and now at the end we have some extra money at the end of these projects as long as we put it down the line that we're forecasting that hey if there's extra money we can possibly I I wouldn't say guarantee it but at least if we had it in there as a thought process CU then at least we know that we can move in that direction maybe if at the end of the project there's funds that we had not spent where is this money coming from I'll I'll talk about that okay cool oh yeah can if if we're building a new softball field why do we need to remodel the existing is that for JV there there's two reasons why I would do that one is a JV field and then it gives both uh we have seventh and eighth grad teams that come over and play on that or can practice on that now their seasons are different but it just does that um you know the baseball field here is okay I haven't earmarked any money to upgrade that but there's a field behind it and I think we need to do a few little things to that um you know you know we'll look at that as we go and see you know some of the I just there is some money there so I just put that there we might not have to do all of that so you know see and again that's a forecast that's perfect that you have that at least in there for us to right look at yeah wait are you making the baseball field there a softball field no there's one there's one another one behind it the fresh well the Freshman field so the other the ones you're talking about updating are the ones that create Elementary no we're not going to do anything oh that's going to be away it's gonna be gone okay y yep um the other part of this that Vern and Jones can do is you know you mentioned the parking lot over at the high school that's in terrible condition so we have earmarked money with them and they've given us a solid uh price on uh doing parking lots and so that would be the M the entire parking lot around the high school we would also do the parking lot that is off of sagamon uh in that picture that used to be you know where the Dome and the Sixth Grade Center is and then also the front of that so all the asphalt around the high school would be done and that um in addition we've also included money in here looking for it to redo our tennis courts and to convert for four of our tennis courts into pickle ball courts um pickle ball is one of the biggest Rising sports that are coming up uh a lot of communities are are now investing in it um and so uh I I really feel that the ihsa eventually is going to have pickle ball as a sport right uh just because its popularity so we would do that it would also give the community an opportunity to use the the courts as pickle ball they won't use it as tennis courts but they'll use it as pickle ball Jamie you're looking at me the park district uh already distri just did yeah yeah so I'm not as worried about Community do have them in our community extra doesn't hurt though yeah right and that's what I said extra doesn't hurt I'm not so all of the asphalt thing is also included in here uh so is that all of the asphalt around the high school yes the Circle Drive yes everything it's everything in the back okay the and this is this this isn't patching this is like redoing this is grind it down you'll see here it says I I I can read the words but I don't believe it so it is yeah yeah I know it is I I'll be I'll be real honest with you Nelson I find it hard to believe but you every time I go over there it's embarrassing it is but I I will tell you when I any any reference that we have checked on birds and Jones they have gotten these prices from them and they do the work they do is unbelievably good so I yeah um okay finances here we go all right so uh page 29 so the top blue box will give you an idea of the money that we borrowed back in uh 2020 2022 between working cash bonds debt certificates a total 83.7 million the remaining money so I did a breakdown here met with Brian and Jason we went through this we've checked this 50 times probably um so you will see that the money we have available that the money that is left is the total proceeds left here are $26 million out of that $26 million though the board has said we want to hold 6.2 million of that which is this amount up here we're not touching that so we have $20 million available right now from those proceeds that we took okay in addition to that so that's 20 million in addition to that this is a uh I had PMA put together a forecast of the money that we could borrow uh using $2 million of the Tiff money so you'll see three different scenarios there you'll see 15 years 20 years 25 years and that my recommendation what I've included in here is the middle one which is the 20 years it would get us 25 million almost $26 million right now uh in additional money and then we would use the proceeds from the tip in order to pay off to pay the principal for that two million of it a third a third of it okay so that would be two million of Ken how would this be different you know we paying roughly $12 million towards our debt right year on end right how would it be diff would this be a separate so debt okay yeah a good question Mr Brown so these are alternate revenue bonds and so alternate revenue bonds are are the reason you can do that is because you have an alternate source of Revenue coming in that can be the collateral for these bonds that money is paid out of the operating funds so the Tiff money that is going into the operating account is going to be paying for these bonds and that so it doesn't go against your debt limit at all doesn't go against our D or yeah it doesn't go towards any of that stuff because they're alternate Revenue so that's so the other question is isn't our isn't our um debt payment going from 12 million to 10 million in 26 I believe it goes down to 10 million goes down $2 million so it goes down so this won't have any effect on that though it'll still go down right you know and it'll lessen the tax bill on the tax payer so this does not raise taxes for the taxpayer at all I want to make that really clear it's going to be paid for out of operating funds and that which is the tip Oney right and then as a big picture you kind of glance and say you know when all this being said we still are going to be able to maintain a fund balance that will be able to give us the higher profile yes yes okay and that was the purpose of leaving that $6.2 million also for the working cash yes at working cash so we're leaving that we're not touching that okay have you guys looked into any alternative funding sources like sponsorships from major corporations as in Amazon haven't Amazon is usually very uh stingy with their money they prefer to have things instead of money I I understand but have we have we asked anyone no to help offset this no can we okay good question good question I think so here here's what I will share is that don't hurt to do a parallel path when you go to do that you need a whole advancement team to prepare a a presentation for corporations and that I'm not equipped to do that I I I would just say now again I I I'm going to refer back to one of my previous lives at the University of Illinois Chicago where we went out fundraising all the time we have a full advancement team of four or five people that put together the presentations for UIC Athletics and then we sold that to sponsors and that we just don't have that capability here to do that and high school districts usually don't have that you know unless you hire somebody to do that that's all we can but yeah go ahead J what's the cost difference between repairing the facilities that we currently have like replacing the stadium seating and the doing that instead of building a complete new facility for all of the for all of the two things I will say there uh the stands you will have to tear down and put up all new stands uh and then your track is not regulation right now so you're going to have to install a whole new track anyway so what that means is is that you will have to actually push out the footprint because um your track and then you know you're if you want to turf field you're going to have to rip up all that grass so I think you know I I don't know what the cost would be to repair that but it's almost you're going to have to put in a new stadium and the other part of that is the girl softball don't have do not have a facility here at all they have to travel across town yeah which is what we've been striving for that they do not have anything here at the high school and the other thing is we continue to try to be cheap for our students and they because we're trying to save money for money that's designed to be spent for certain things to to save money for I don't know what and then the kids get short Change while other communities around us are constantly stealing our kids because they're getting bright new shiny things whether somebody thinks that's important or not it's D it's going to continue to drive our numbers to have and we're not not going to have money anyway because K the townships of the world the HFS of the world the all the districts around are Bloom everybody's upgrading their facilities while we're trying to figure out the cheapest route to go and not upgrade our facility I would say our our our existing football field in stands they're at the end of their useful life I mean they're they're not thinke with that I'm just looking for the the cost a fit analysis so like I'm not I'm not disagreeing with any I just want to know when when I when I when I use the term end of its useful life it's not repairable correct but what I'm asking for is a replacement of those items vers just a cost benefit analysis to repair versus completely tear down and replace then you're comparing different things because we want other stuff so if you're just talking about just the football football field it is going to be less cuz that's all you're talking about you know but the but like right now the you're you know the girls softball plays over at Creed Elementary I'm not disagreeing with any I'm just saying you can't compare them you can't really compare them because they're completely different things so it would be hard to do an analysis is that's just my opinion yeah the only thing you would analyzed is the football field you wouldn't analyze any other part of the plan well and that's okay I think that's a fair answer I'm just looking for that I and I can't speak for you I think that you kind of seem elevated and everybody's just trying to answer the question without being I'm not just no I'm literally on the same page like whatever I was just looking for okay what that was no that's understandable we're I think we're all on the I think that that's understand we're just giving you what like you're asking the question we're giving you what we believe or know or whatever that's not a anybody just yeah I think Jamie try and answer it though for you okay so if you look at the pricing here $10.3 million doesn't cude baseball and softball if you were to I'm just going to say replace our current Stadium as is you're probably looking at about s to eight million okay just that okay okay and that would mean we we take it out and we just put a new one in there as the plan is you know with the regulation track and all that stuff the other money is getting you your baseball and softball field now in order to do that though I have to move the football field I can't leave it in the same spot got so that that's what we're doing we're moving it closer to the parking lot so that we can fit those two and that's what gets us atten good question Jam good question okay good point so the the other thing John had just reminded me of we're also taking the soccer fields from the back of the building that sometimes plays in the swamp to retention and moving them onto the multi-purpose stadium also so that just what are we what are we looking to do with that area nothing I don't know at this point I think I think it could be used maybe in some practice areas or interal intermurals or something like that if you want to do that you know so but is design for drink right I that's what it's designed for and they just happen to see it and use it because would the field football field be positioned so that the home team is on the West Side yes so we don't have to stare into the sun yes okay yes that was our one goal yes y we'll let the visitors there yeah absolutely exactly um so the other part of the finance is the additional funding that we would have that would be be included in this one is not on page 31 so uh you'll see up here is the alternate revenue bonds 25.9 million we are using about $185,000 in estra money for the carpeting at uh the Middle School uh we have a $50,000 in the project grant for carpet replacement also um and then some interest income that we can get off of this money we're estimating on side about $750,000 that we can get over the life so it to give us $6.9 million you'll see the summary here that I've done on page 32 the top part are all the different schools I have included in here the last line on the upper box is contract balances those are any contracts that we still have to pay off from uh the summer of 23 work money that we're holding and all that stuff so that's all all included in here uh so you'll see 4 46.9 million uh just about equals so there's a surplus $629 you so essentially page 32 and Page Three are reflecting each other but and I guess the idea is when you say we have $20 million left and you're going to borrow 26 you're trying to figure out what you but you're essentially again all the money is not just for sports Athletics it's for doors and roof replacement and and uh I mean the Fieldhouse flooring the You' even put some money in there in case the classroom Edition like all of that's earmarked in here yeah and I you know one of the things we talked about when we did this is that you know I think one of the concerns of from our standpoint to share with the board and the community is that there's still some things that need to be done with our buildings and we know and you know Dr holl and I have had many of conversation about the athletic I know the athletic outdoor ones need to be upgraded I know that but how you know there we need to figure out a way of how we can do it all you know as much as possible and that uh and I we we're pretty confident and U we we all agree on this plan we like the plan you know John's been involved with this so he's been involved with our athletic facilities and that so it kind of it takes care of a lot of different things that are still all right I'm sorry and it's still addressing doors roofs like things that are functional windows and then the other part is that we've just expanded our Middle School athletic programs we still need facilities or fields to to do all that and let so let me share you a little bit about I don't want to take up a lot of your time I will uh but let me let me share a little bit about Windows so we had a study done architect committed did a study about the r values of our building and you know when you build a new building your R value walls and windows should probably be about a 20 and actually ours were a two so we've put in you know you guys have approved us putting in great systems but and they're efficient systems but this the infrastructure still isn't efficient so that's where the windows come in so that's why Bill like you said windows and doors are really really important you know for our new systems that that to lower operating costs to lower operating cost it's almost like the LED lighting scenario that we did all the money we're spending on just a high school yeah and you turn around and look at the money you know there with the rebates and stuff but how much cheaper is that you're over the life of it you're going to see it so one last thing I do want to share with the board and and I put in here I've developed through with the help of PMA and a lot of other things just kind of a schedule of events from now through 26 and it kind of will help you know provide a framework for for Jason and Brian as they kind of move forward on things and that um so it it shows some things it starts off with all the summer contracts were that were approved by the board back in January of this year but I want to take you over to page 37 and I want to touch on this a little bit because I put some important dates in here to let the board know what's happening so the first one is February 15th that's this Thursday um Dr Karen myself and I think Mr Brown has been invited uh to meet with mayor rudz and Elizabeth Scott who's the village manager of University Park to discuss the dissolving of Tiff five um our recommendation and our request to them is that they go to their Board of Trustees on March 12th to approve a resolution to dissolve the Tiff at the end of this year uh they can approve the resolution at any time and so we're asking them to do this ahead of time because quite frankly we cannot go out sell bonds until we have that I me I I'll just make that clear so that is huge I've already had some Dr K and I have had some prelimary conversation with the mayor about this uh he does want to talk about it he seems very positive of it um so we're going to have some discussions with him on Thursday about this to start moving forward with his board and Ken on that note what's what's the worst case scenario if they pass a resolution we go out and sell the alternate bonds we obtain that those funds for the selling of those bonds somewhere down the road DAV on the resolution great question um so what happens once they once they uh approve the resolution they turn that into the county clerk once it's with the county clerk as far as I know binding now I'm assuming they could vote to reig on it or you know not change their mind change their resend it yeah are we stuck with those obligation to pay those bonds with u the closing of the bonds would take place until July of 24 so you know I I mean I don't I don't see a scenario where they're going to rig on that because it's a value to them to but again those are discussions we want to have with the mayor now what I will share with you is my plan uh I'm going to skip this dat but um if the mayor is okay I will go to their village board meeting on the 27th of February like I did previously and have a discussion with them and make a presentation to them um sharing you know our requests to dissolve that uh to pass the resolution dissolve it we're not going to dissolve it early we're dissolving it you know it'll still be dissolved at the end of October but at least to pass the resolution the one thing he couldn't do was resol uh dissolve it early but he needs that money because there are a lot of things that in University Park that needs to be done and he repeatedly says he cannot afford not to have that money so so to answer to to help couple on Mr Brown if we sell the bonds you get the money and something happens can you can you do you have to keep it or like if you don't use it in so many years what do we do with it anyways the the problem is if my only fear which I've said from the beginning is I wouldn't want to see anything done until that is closed by up and mo both they have to follow through because you've said that if if we don't stay on top of them to do that and they miss that we're out the only issue you have is that if you do that you're you're behind on this you push this off three years it's a huge risk though it is it is a huge risk and that's why I think there needs to be preliminary conversations now again we've had multiple conversations about this you know in up you know again we had discussions about dissolving it early they wanted to do it they had no problem doing it but they couldn't do it because of some of the contracts that were signed into in the Tiff and with the companies you know that wasn't mayor redz at all I mean that was I guess if if they approve the resolution at their board meeting I'd like our Council to give the board an opinion that this is Ironclad okay contingency whoever purchase the bonds it's almost like paying your loan off early what's the penalty so I'm sure the bond buyers would want some money on lending us the money is there any prepayment penalty on alter I look at that I I can find that so worst case scenario if we borrow just say 25 million and we pay you know and it for some reason it doesn't fall through with the deal with University part that we pay them back that 25 million plus maybe a couple hundred thousand I'm just saying worst case yeah I can find out for pay it back in you know in two or three months or six months yeah our our plan the schedule that I had put together is not until March 19th would the board adopt a resolution of int of int to sell alterate revenue bonds now please understand just because you pass that doesn't mean you have to do it either so but this whole plan is planed on trying to you know we're on a fast track here is trying to Everything is Everything You know we got a lot of critical we got a pretty big critical path here with Milestones there is and you know again I but but a lot of the the roofs that a lot of the things that are going into the educational buildings could be done from the funds that we have left over they can one of the things that I I put on here was that I'd like to come to the board next week with approving the classroom Furniture um we're in the process of surveying a lot of our staff and that so I've got budgeted it's almost .7 million so I'd like to come to the board and say we'll purchase that uh Furniture but not to exceed the 1.6 69 that I have in here the reason for that is I have to order it by March one in order to get it here by August one so I you know and we do have funds available for that um the other thing uh Nelson like you said is the roof I could I would come to the board next meeting about the roof contract too for that one phase one of phase one of three phase one yeah just phase one um so uh the other parts of this again is on the 19th would be intent to sell revenue bonds um burn and Jones they asked for a letter of intent to kick off their design stage so uh that's something we're working on I was thinking about the 19th but we can talk about that and see what the attorney says and all of that stuff and then on March 21st once this resolution passes if you approve that and pass it on the 19th the 30-day petition period starts on the 21st closing of the bonds will be in July U so that's when we would actually get the money for the extra money for that the other money we already have so so coming to the board next week as an action item to approve this one company trim trim Co purchasing group yes for the roof that would be for phase one of the roof okay yes was that a bid sent out for that that was not that was cooperative that's Cooperative purchasing okay which which means which means it's it's part of the procurement law so that Cooperative purchasing is that all of the bidding has been done on items ahead of time all of that's been done already uh through a variety of bids and that um so that is already all done so that was all done okay yeah that was a question a couple board members came up to me saying that they want to see these the bid tabs on certain execution of jobs out there that we have you know we come to the board and I kind of understand what happened you know you come to the board you say take an action item to approve x amount of dollars for this one particular vendor to perform this work but we don't see what's behind the scene that this one vendor was selected from three or four or five yeah so like with Burns and Jones and and I have this in a lot of their documentation you'll see all the Cooperative certificates that they have on all of their stuff you know on everything on all of their subs and all of their products and all of that stuff so uh it's all you know and I think Jason you were involved with Foya on the Cooperative am I right went over Blom yeah when I began was a foyer regarding prevailing wage and we sent it off with the document provided by them and we never heard anything back about it again so we didn't miss any any steps along the way no no I mean I you know again we we've talked to other school districts that have gone through this process Mr Brown and it's been seamless not a problem at all okay yeah okay okay thank you I'm done thank you so much everybody you thanks Ken thanks Ken appreciate it goodbye all right and Ken I just want to let you know if you can look into house bill 4866 House Bill 4866 sure as a bill that just was filed with the clerk back on February the 7th of this year by a representative house representative and that was to seek different methods of funding for the schools I don't know all the logistics of it but if you can bring us back some more information on that okay House Bill 4866 I sure will okay thank you okay uh Dr car you're done right oh you got one more okay all righty do we have any old business the only one I had for old business was the high the uh Bridges the leak did they you know I know they're addressing it but did they figure out where the infiltration and why that happened that's still being discussed between upper management with CCC and The Architects um I continue press that is our number one agenda item each week we meet is that a sprinkler pipe yes is it plastic or is it or is it uh galvanized it was galvanized okay okay any other old business I could uh provide an update on the Evolve system that's being installed at the high school uh the Evolve metal detector system uh Tuesday March 19th uh installers will be on site at Creet M High School to begin the installation of the remaining units at uh door a door B the main entrance the auditorium and the athletic entrance they anticipate uh being complete with the installation of those units and a calibration by Wednesday um Mr debias has arranged for training to take place between School administration and the representatives from eval on the 20th um and then through working with principal hollyfield uh will communicate to parents the procedures the expectations and we're looking at a go live date of March 25th to uh go live with our additional evolve units that are physically on site right now excellent thank you you're welcome wow and so far things is working pretty good at the at the addition right with those units yes um Mr alre had an opportunity today to see the demonstration after our district uh one First Responders meetings with I think he didn't set it off actually he did yes and uh Mrs Z somra say she saw them in action before so she excused herself from that portion of the meeting but U I think everything went well with that and um yeah it was great that we got to use those at at Bridges to accl the staff and some of the students so we're definitely prepared for that and a good thing about going live on March 25th is that if we need to do any additional planning we have time over spring break put those procedures and Implement any changes prior to students coming back from spring break excellent money well spent okay no further old business if not new business any new business out there oh okay I just have one I if no one else did it was more informational um I just received a word today from Mr Tobias that mon um is interested in uh participating in an SRO program with us so if uh which I sure we want to pursue um so I'll be working with our our attorneys to draw up some paperwork to see what those shared expenses are so we're really excited about growing that program would it be just at the high school mon element it's going to be from mon Elementary School however the partnership uh is about being able to access and if there was something that was going on at the high school the middle school we now have two full SRO that can come in help support so that is a an advantage so we have back our SRO at the high school yes he's been here he's been back working it' be great if it would be a full community engagement if we can see Park force and we're working on it that would be great um I believe up has expressed interest but I think it's just a matter of looking at their their Staffing okay are is it going to be a collabor as far as costs is concerned do we know that just kind of well we're working out right now okay we just started working on so they just expressed the interest so we're going to be working on that just want to let you know that was hot off the press for today excellent good news that should have been under your good news yeah I suppose yeah anything else anybody else any new business uh old old business uh I think um too late you can change come on it depends on how you word it can be new business well no uh I just I just remember um when I was talking about teacher retention stuff like that you were going to give a presentation uh like in March and so I just wanted to make sure you're still on we have ready to go okay just P it off based on the agenda that was okay all right no no it's it's fine when I think we discussed March when we're going to do that so committee March yeah I think that's when you said you wanted to do it so okay y okay do we have any own new [Laughter] business is that it all right we do have as we do have a line item of close session and a reason to go into close session and that reason is the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees can I have a motion to go on close session so moved second move by Nelson second by Alex okay that's good all right uh Madam Secretary of roll call Mr Al hi Mr gagos i r is and I Mr swales I miss site stumbris I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion pass and we are entering to close session it should be about maybe no more than a half hour no more than a half hour and we will not take any action thereafter thank you public for joining us tonight have a good evening

for an exciting match of Super Smash Bros where the bluff and cyber Tigers will face off against Blackford and the academy team will challenge Breman it's going to be a big matchup very important special thanks to auction it Wells County Foundation Indiana Esports Network and the Army National Guard for their support of our program thank you have a wonderful rest of your [Music] day [Music]

John that's a Cherrybrook just nod the high school it is at the high school but we invite our Cherry Brook friends to that correct um Tuesday um also tonight I'll be presenting I'm really excited to present the administrative budget tonight and I'll go over a lot of dates that we're going to get together as a board in some timelines that we have as a board as we go through the the budget process so I I'm going to stop there I'll take any questions out of the superintendent's office at this time any questions from the board members Jordan can I ask you just to give the board just a real quick update on past and what's going on at Cherry Brook please yeah so there there's a lot of things that um need to take place in the next several months and I anticipate that there'll be a going out to the entire town relative to p and some of the testing that that needs to be um done um what they're really looking at is uh getting the filtration system and getting that system uh started very very soon a lot of work could be done um towards the spring and towards the the summertime um they need to do some more testing as they've been doing for the past few years and um I anticipate that the CAO will be sending out communication to the the town and we will certainly communicate that with our school Community the commun the communications that go forward um so they're they're moving we'll also be talking about that in the budget process because there's funds within the the large Capital to fund um the the the past filtration system that they're looking to do thank you for that update board members any further questions and one more Mr Daniels while we're on that the um the the the group that is looking at the architect for the module classrooms at Cherrybrook uh met today and they they learned a lot um regarding that and the processes whether to uh go to bid out to the state um for Grant reimbursement or not so those will be things that that group will be bringing back to um the per permanent building uh permanent Municipal Building committee and I'm sure Mr Bishop next month uh we'll give an update on where we are uh relative to where that group uh lands but I just wanted to touch on that I know Mr dangel and Mr Bishop and Mrs mikowski attended that meeting and there'll be more of an update next month thank you any questions on what you've heard tonight so far okay so we move right to the student reports and Maggie Juliana and Simone is with us who would like to go first okay Juliana you're up because you're in my Square okay um so I will be reporting on Cherrybrook so in honor of the 100th day of school the Cherrybrook School Community has been collecting non-p perishable food items for donation to the local food bank as of yesterday State students have donated 70 big boxes of food and other items to be donated to the local food bank in addition uh to learning how to be safe kind and responsible cheer Brook students have been introduced to something called The Bare Necessities the bare necessities are flexibility respect contributor integrity and Problem Solver at the January all school meeting students learned about flexibility and when things don't go their way how they can compromise and adapt at the next school meeting students will learn about respect and being kind to someone even if they are different to you the bare necessities initiative is being led by Mr amera Miss santanella Miss card Mrs raposo and Miss Donahue additionally Friday March 8th is Cherry Brook's night at the Hartford uh wolf pack excellent anything else that's a great report by the way I'm so impressed with the amount of food that was was um donated collected that's just that just has a huge impact where where do where do the food where does it go is there a food bank that we're donating to or I'm pretty sure it's the Canton food bank it's a Canton food bank that's huge great thank you very much Simone you want to go next and then we'll close out with Maggie all I can go next um so first with the Middle School um they put on their production of the Phantom toll booth they also started the new year with the resolution to read more in 24 and are celebrating the joy of reading um they also held the seventh grade parent orientation welcoming current sixth grader sixth grade families as they prepare for their transition to middle school then this month they will be fundraising um during February with several fun events culminating in our or in their sorry P teacher event all of which um will raise money for huskython which supports ccmc um febru February will also contain the pto's we love CMS campaign and bus driver appreciation week and lastly the CMS jazz band performed at Yukon Jazz Festival on February 9th and that's it for the Middle School excellent job um I can quickly do the high school one as well well okay um for the high school you already had mentioned but we had prisms which was amazing and it had a huge huge turnout um and then finally the whole school selected classes on Friday February 9th except for seniors of course great thank you Simone welcome and Maggie um I'll re reporting on CIS they had a really successful first ever family paint night they used donated paint and repurposed pieces of slate removed from the roof last summer and Mrs Costello prepped each individual piece of slate and prepared brushes and paint and the PTO provided Refreshments congratulations to the kidlet team they competed for the first time in several years in early February it finished seven out seventh out of 29 teams and they were one and a half points away from moving on to the second round last week two CIS students were recognized at the 25th Annual CIS celebration of the Arts and last February in advisory student made Valentine students made Valentine's to show kindness and gratitude to our community members at the police fire department and those at Cherrybrook healthc Care Center this week CIS is celebrating random acts of kindness week if students can earn an average 50 of 50 kindness cards each day for their school this week each grade level will end the week with a 15minute dance party excellent I I have to say that um the the three reports from our student reps um so much better this year we we've kind of evolved and moved forward to to hear some very meaningful things and I'm glad you're all uh interacting at the different uh levels the different grade levels so any questions for our student reps anything that you heard or comment on board members okay thank you very much so tonight we're we're very fortunate to have our our our PTO members and um thank you Jordan is I second Jordan's uh appreciation for everybody taking time out of their night tonight and I'm I'm glad in a way I'm glad this is a zoom meeting because I know it makes it easier and I'm glad for our administrators because you're out so many nights so um even though that it's always nice to have these meetings in person but I want to thank before we start I just see so much activity going on with our P PTO I I read all the updates I see all the things that you're doing Canton is an amazing place that the balance that you bring the the the impact that you have and and what you're teaching our children I think they see um they see parents involved rolling up their sleeves getting involved helping out at every level and and also doing things where maybe the board can't afford certain things and you're doing things like cleaning up and sprucing up um break rooms for teachers and all the other good things so on behalf of the Board of Education I think if we if you were here tonight we would all be smiling and wanting to shake your hands and say thank you but thank you to our pto's so I I'll start Jamie do you want to do you want to start or Jennifer Maggie Courtney who would like to go first can you hear me I can Jamie thank you I can go hi thank you um for inviting me uh to the meeting tonight um as the C uh Cherrybrook um PTO President we kicked off February with our spread the love event we had Parents um along with us Supply uh treats to the Teachers Lounge um it was a little thank you to the teachers for February we are supplying all the students and staff at Cherrybrook with new updated Spirit Weare to incorporate our new mascot honey so those will be expected um to hit their classrooms in March um our children's Fair planning is in full swing we have our Fair scheduled for Friday May 31st um so that is we are in the nitty-gritty of getting that all planned um together with CIS and the middle school PTO we are celebrating our bus drivers next week so Cherry Brook will have our day on Thursday um in March we have our book fair um which is during conference week so we're looking forward to that um for read Across America we are going to be supplying the teachers with goodie bags so that they're able to have an interactive read allowed in their classrooms and then in April we are hosting an Uno game night for families so we're hoping that will be a fun turnout great thank you Jamie thank you Jennifer you wna go next sure um I'm actually gonna split U my report with Maggie um so the last time we were able to meet with Dr grman was way back in the beginning of October and looking back from what we've done since that time is is amazing the amount of things we've been able to accomplish um so first off looking just at our membership we had set a goal to have 60 families join this year and we surpassed that we have about 74 families that joined and just for comparison we have 58 families that joined uh for the 2022 2023 school year so we're very excited about that um just a quick recap of the things we did in the fall we we had our annual Fright Night back in October 20th uh which was also very successful with the Haunted Hallway uh we had live music and we actually a new addition this year we had food trucks uh we also started our Courtyard project so we utilized funds from the Paul Newman Foundation Grant which we were used to clean up the courtyard we had parent volunteers along with board members come and help plant perennials clean up the beds and we also created a rock riverbed using painted rocks that students paint every year at the beginning of the school year um with Mrs costell uh so we created a very nice border um and then the plan is to continue this project into the spring with adding a bench and also looking into having a parent um consider painting a mural on the outside wall we also had custodian appreci appreciation day where we provided a gift card to the custodians to Evon Prime meets and this is the first time we've ever recognized the custodians individually uh usually they get lumped in with just uh staff of appreciation uh November was a little bit of a quieter month we did our annual um conference meals and had a different theme for each day December we hosted our first probably since before covid indoor movie and we did this in coordination with ccmc pajama day and we showed the movie Togo and we collected funds for uh ccmc and raised over $350 and with the coordination of Pajama Day the kids able to come in their pajamas and stay after school and have air poop popcorn and hot chocolate um additionally we had we're working on staff lands Renovations so this was um a project that we were starting to plan last year and it didn't come to fruition but this year we started renovating the staff Lounge in place of a holiday gift so uh parent volunteers PTO members we painted the lounge we purchased a new kitchen table a cabinet for paper office supplies a new couch and a new chair um we also have our art teacher Deborah Costello Who's purchasing canvases and she's going to help with the decor by having her art students paint on canvas and have that on display um the goal is to continue this project into the 2024 2025 school year um additionally we were able to uh for the first time probably since pre-co to fulfill wish lists for teachers um so we had three different requests that were submitted for stools and workstations um so to provide a more um flexible learning environment for the students um January we did a night at the Harford wolf pack and um as already mentioned we also did a paint night fundraiser with Mrs Costello and uh we raised over $800 with over 60 people in attendance um February actually tomorrow we are going to be Distributing Valentine's that the students made and they're going to be given to the Kinton police fire department and Cherry Brook Healthcare residents and this is to coincide with the random acts of kindness week um along with the middle school and Cherrybrook we're also uh going to participate in bus driver appreciation week we'll be um putting together small small goodie bags for each of the bus drivers monitors and crossing guards and the last event for February is we're going to be hosting a student staff basketball game on February 29th the admission is a food item to give to the Canton food bank in addition we we purchased new spirit Weare of spirit socks and we purchased some socks uh for the teachers and staff that are participating and as another Act of thank you we will be providing lunch for the staff the day after the game um so I'm gonna have Maggie um just go through the remainder of the report briefly I'll finish off the year um so for March um we're doing a readathon where we're planning a fundraiser and coordinating events during the first two weeks of March um to get kids to count their minutes and get them to be reading we also reach out to local businesses at this time to sponsor classes teams and grades March we also will do um provide conference meals the week of conferences April we give small gifts for PA of professional day as well as administrative professional day may we have teacher appreciation week we'll celebrate and principal's day we're planning a fundraiser with Sharon leer photography um to do five minute sessions um for siblings at CIS um and then we'll also be hosting a yard goats game at the end of May and welcoming our fourth graders June we will provide an ice cream truck um during field day and we will assist with the sixth day sixth grade celebration to date we've had um four fundraisers ch a catalog fundraiser A Mizu 21 fundraiser and then our paint night um so our budget you can see there but the highlights of that is because of um our fundraising efforts last year and this year we've been able to increase um what we donate for field trips by 50% so that's a great thing for the students and families at CIS thank you for inviting us that's fantastic both reports are fantastic I I have to ask you when 60 families joined what do we have maybe 90 families because of the duplication it's CIS or what do you think I mean that that's a pretty good ratio and and so I wanted to ask when when you have 60 joined does everybody participate I mean do you get that kind of participation from the other parents because it can get heavy when it's just three or four so our goal was to have 60 families join but we had about um little over 70 as far as participation you know I know it's hard people have their work home life balance schedules um we do tend to see a lot of the same families that get involved and but when people do get involved they're it's extremely helpful and extremely appreciated great and and uh Jamie I just wanted to ask you do you have a a good solid membership base um we ended up uh changing our membership uh this year we asked for uh donation where parents could choose where their money went to so we had a check box um where if parents wanted to donate for Teacher meals or for the children's fair or for a a book for a child at the book fair um so they were able to pick and choose um where they wanted to send their money um so we did not necessarily have a membership form okay but you feel you have enough you know boots on the ground to do all these yes great by giving the parents the option to where they wanted their money to go we had um an amazing um increase in uh donations from our parents fantastic So Courtney you're up thanks uh my name is Courtney Vincent I'm the president of the middle school can you hear me yep okay um we currently have 33 members this year which is down from previous year um so far this year we've completed several fundraisers uh we started off the year wrapping up the lobster Loop um in September we had our fall mum fun fundraiser which is um coordinated with gresik Farm uh we also have ongoing Spirit Weare sales and we had a restaurant fundraiser with Mizu 21 uh most of our time is spent um working with staff on teacher requests and school events uh this here some of the things that we've provided the staff um have been a new printer for the art teacher um we donated funds for the PB student Rewards program uh we provided payment to the Connecticut Humane Society for them to come in and do a science program for the seventh graders uh we um donated knitting needles and yarn to the nitflix program through that's through the library at the middle school we provided snacks for club events um and we also donated gift cards for the readed more and 24 raffle um that will be coming up um some events that we helped in the fall um were the uh student staff soccer game which was at the end of October which was very successful um despite it being very cold uh we had 37 students play and nine staff members um the band the eighth grade band uh played the national anthem um we sold concessions um and had uh a freeze dance at halftime we've also helped coordinate um with the student council we've helped coordinate the Veterans Day celebration and the Winter Dance um we provided the staff lunch during November conferences from The Little Oak Cafe and um during the holidays we also provided them a special breakfast some upcoming events that we are working on um this week this week we are actually it was supposed to be today but we're going to do it tomorrow celebrate weart CMS and we'll be providing um the staff with a gift and stacking their um staff Lounge um as uh Jen and Janie also said we're celebrating bus driver appreciation week next week um we are coordinating with the high school and our day to celebrate the bus drivers will be Wednesday uh we'll also be providing scholarships for the eighth grade DC trip um in March we'll provide St um with a lunch from quente Pub and we're working with the eighth grade English Department to coordinate the Greek banquet um we've also been in talk with some high school parents to celebrate the teachers for teacher appreciation day uh we'll have the spring flower sale in May which is also with gic's farm and then we're going to start um in the next couple weeks starting to recruit for eighth grade promotion and the lobster Loop committee um and then lastly we'll work with staff for the e8th grade and seventh grade field days and the eighth grade picnic fantastic Courtney do you feel that you have enough support and help um so far yes um we haven't had needed too many volunteers yet um they we did have a few volunteers for our mum fundraiser um most of our volunteers are needed in the spring with promotion and the lobster Loop um field day and the picnic excellent um board members questions for our PTO volunteers presidents hardworking [Music] volunteers any questions on what you heard Kim I can ask one um I want to just say I agree with Lou on everything that he said in the beginning how much we appreciate the work that PTO does and all the parent volunteers um and my question was just like was there anything that the board could do to better support the PTO or even just the school syst system in general or um and do you get opportunity to provide feedback to Administration um about you know things that could help improve um your work that you do to support the schools so that's really for anybody I guess to answer anybody anything the board can do go ahead Jennifer um you know I honestly and I'm new to the president's position this year for the PTO so I don't think I've I've encountered anything as of yet I think maybe that's fortunate um where I feel like we need support from the Board of Ed however you know I feel if we do have any questions or you know if there's something that I I need help navigating um you know Rebecca CTO has been extremely helpful and accessible as far as um any questions that I have or that we may have okay well I I want to again uh thank thank you for all the hard work it's it's really what different differentiates our Canton Community it differentiates our district um that I Tred to keep up taking notes with all the things that are going on and all the things that I want to attend and all the things I'd like to be part of and there there's just too many but please keep us informed and where you need some some extra hands make us work a little bit we'll be glad to serve or work an event or something of that nature so come to us we want to support you we want to help you because of all the things you do to help us so thank you again and thanks for being here tonight okay that leads us into um Ally we get to hear more about the um the Canton friends for arts and all the things are going is is this a group that changed the name now is it still can school for arts or is it something else hello there can you hear me yep how are I'm good good to see you again Lou um yes my name is Ally Barker and I'm the current president of Canton friends for the Arts or CFA so we have had a name change I'll get into that a little more here in a minute um but before I start talking a little bit about our organization I do want to take a quick minute to say thank you to Dr Gman Mr Bishop and the Board of Ed as a whole for your support of our recent prism show your participation in our Hometown Heroes raffle baskets was so appreciated and some of the most bid on items of the night so thank you again um I saw many of you at the show as well and we appreciate the continued support of the board for all of our Arts programs um so I'm here tonight to speak to you all about Canton friends for the Arts which was formerly known as Canton parents for music CPM was an organization that supported all the music programs in the Canton Public Schools but as our Arts programs have continued to grow particularly in the high school we have noticed that there is a need for support in other areas in the past couple of months we've done all the careful work of officially changing our name with the state changing our bank accounts Etc we also held the logo contest at CMS and CHS and we're so excited to unveil our new name and new logo the week before prisms you can't see but I'm wearing one of our new shirts uh with Haley Catalan she was our winner with her logo um those are for sale so we encourage you to join us in proudly showing your support for CFA by purchasing a hoodie or a t-shirt our vision for CFA is to provide support with fundraising and volunteers to all our Visual and Performing Arts programs for example our drama program continues to grow with the addition of the Fall play and is needed assistance with fundraisers such as the Alice in Wonderland tea party that was held two years ago our vision includes providing support to our Fine Arts faculty and students with guest speakers and special requests for experiences and equipment and of course we will continue with our proud tradition of supporting our excellent K12 music programs with support for guest artists programs and other special requests in 2023 we also set aside a special fund for scholarship assistance for trips and events which will continue to grow as the years go on with broadening our scope we also need to broaden our membership and pool of dedicated volunteers many of our CFA board members have their last child graduating this year or next so we would love some parents of younger students to join us we meet monthly and the participation level is really up to you you can volunteer to work a specific event such as a fifth grade concert or you can join our board and help plan for future events we have created some new fundraisers this year we hosted a CommunityWide tag sale this fall which we are hoping to repeat next school year we are also excited to announce a new event coming this spring canton's Got Talent a k to2 event which will be run by music drama and art students and will include an art show as well as a stage show our student council will also be participating so be on the lookout for audition information coming probably in the next week or so um to all the families watching this evening I would like to encourage you to become more involved in the campon schools I think it's easier in the younger grades um but as our kids get older we tend to become a little more disconnected with uh the schools um you've heard tonight from all these parent organizations we're all busy but we also want all of our kids to continue to have the special events and experiences that are a point of Distinction and pride among our school we would love to have you join us come to a meeting or just reach out if you have a skill in the Arts that you'd like to share with our students and staff uh we do have an email address that you can reach out to us it is Canton friends for thearts gmail.com we would love to hear from you uh thanks everyone for listening and thank you again to the board for allowing me to speak thank you so much Ally and uh so many G Great Performances so so much great art through the hall way it was uh it was really something we're looking forward to uh The Adams Family coming in March I think it is right mid-march yes March uh 14th 15th and 16th I'm very I'm very excited about that and so are my grandchildren so thank you very much thank you so much any questions for Ally and and the Canton Friends of the Arts any other questions I I love that um it's kind of a that it's kind of a star search you're going to be run running with with the kids I mean that's that's the old that's the old phrase um what's so this is kind of a new thing um apparently years ago the um student council ran a tailet show of sorts um but I know Michelle uh wuk Taylor our drama instructor she has kind of had this Vision to do this for years and then the trien uh organization also got wind of it and they I was thinking maybe just high school but want to do K through 12 so I I think they're going to have auditions via video um we're still kind of working out the Kinks to kind of figure that all out but um it's I believe the date is going to be April 19th don't quote me on that um but that is is going to be cool I I'm excited to see how it all comes out that's great I I I I'm going to share with you one quickie that back in the the mid90s uh the PTO ran and Mr shy remember this a star search where we uh various families performed or various individuals and uh I have to say that Pam Keegan and I won the awards that night we were uh sunny and Sher unfortunately I was sh she was sunny but it was a great show so I'll tell you what Lou if you wna you know send in your audition tape we might be able to you know fit you in the to the uh schedule love to see up and roll me out to do that one again but thank you very thank you sounds good thank you so much okay that leads us toh our athletic director Mrs he new mom so thrilled to have you and I hope things are going well at home we're glad you were back in the fall and uh did miss a lot of time I think you were back in what by by October yeah the end of October I I came back so um and the baby's doing great the baby is doing great I'm actually doing uh this live fun function in his room right now I I don't know if you can see the miniature clothes in the closet back there um but but yes uh Canton Athletics we had a great fall season and I have to say um I know she's not on here but I wanted to give a shout out to Nancy Grace who was my quote unquote long-term sub while I was out uh she did a fantastic job and I know uh you lifers here at Canton know that name very well uh back in the day when she was the athletic director and field hockey coach so a huge thank you to Nancy Grace So Kenton Athletics uh this just a review of The Fall season um so next slide is the by the numbers I don't know if I've been here when we have had every single fall sports team make the state postseason playoff tournament um and that has happened this past fall and it it's fantastic to see that we've been so successful in the fall season with all of our sports teams um boys and girls cross country participated in the state tournament uh boys soccer made it to the second round they lost to the eventual Champion old sa Brook gr soccer made it to the semi-finals field hockey um as many of you uh went to the state championship game saw that they were the state Runner UPS they lost in the state championship volleyball made made it to the state tournament for the first time in a very long time so kudos to Joe sooz and his crew for doing that and football made it to the first round of the state playoffs as well uh Middle School sports uh had great participation in the fall seasons and we are looking forward to those student athletes coming up into the high school uh the next slide will show all of our allconference and all state athletes we had 18 allconference Athletes and eight All State athletes and uh you can read their names right there um and they will be recognized at the end of the year sports awards um at the end of May early June uh next slide is talking about our community service and our Warrior Leadership Council a huge part of our Athletic program is community service and we want our student athletes to be good human beings when they get out of uh the high school and so being a good Community uh member is essential to that and so a lot of our teams participated in the trick-or Trot uh race the lobster loop our middle school athletes gave created uh gifts and gave them to senior citizens over the Thanksgiving break um we had multiple High School sports teams participate in pink games which gave money and awareness to breast cancer and then we had our annual booster club Food Bank competition which the cross country and football teams won and then uh we started a Raheem Nelson scholarship fund which our voicey soccer team and head coach Bill Phelps uh headed and uh they actually won an award for that I'll speak more on that later and our the wlc is the warrior Leadership Council and I had that off and that is a council of all of the captains of all of our sports team teams and any other quote unquote leader that coaches uh nominate to be part of and we meet once a month and we talk on different characteristics of leadership and they are also uh the ones that give different ideas for uh school spirit and increasing attendance at games and also new ideas for uh program uh ath or sorry program Outreach initiatives so um thank you to the warrior Leadership Council for their contributions to everything um Athletics has done uh next is our big fall achievements uh Margaret Bristol who is our field hockey coach she won her 100th game this year and our field hockey team uh had its first undefeated regular season for the first time since 1992 and I talked about this beforehand our boy soccer team won the contribution award from the Connecticut High School coaches association um with its efforts in creating the Raheem Nelson scholarship fund and Bill Phelps also won the Lifetime Achievement Award from The High School coaches association so that's a great uh award for him and Jim Potter who is in his second season uh won coach of the year for our conference that we are in so kudos to all of our coaches who have done a fantastic job with our student athletes in the fall season um some highlights to our budget in our rotation schedule for uniforms we have girls soccer girls tennis girls lacrosse girls basketball and baseball all up for new uniforms we have uh added a huddle subscription uh for the entire Athletic program for the next three years for those of you who are unaware of huddle that is a video program that allows us to live stream games and have uh outside people watch events and also it is available for our coaches to do film study create recruitment videos and so on and so forth uh Nixon has increased the price of plaque so that price in the budget will go up and our shot clock in basketball was purchased last year and is working great this BAS basketball season um we haven't had any issues I haven't heard the cic have any issues with that either so it's been going very well um things to look forward to in the coming months uh I will do another winter review in the springtime and college signing day will be held in May uh in hopes of highlighting every single student athlete that is going to play in college um I know some of them might still be undecided on where they want to play and so we don't want to leave out anybody so we want to make sure that we highlight every single student athlete going D1 D2 D3 or any other uh School playing a college sport so that is what we can look forward to in this uh coming months that's great Kim good job on the report board members questions for Mrs Heth any regarding our our school um Sports programs so Kim I have a question for you how are we doing um coaches are always sometimes tough are we are we fully staffed on the coaches right through down to middle school we pretty good uh for the springtime right now we are looking um we have one interested candidate for uh our high school assistant track coach but we are looking for two assistant track coaches at the high school level and one Middle School track coach um in the spring time okay other than that we should be good and and as far as participation it seems like everything is up as far as participation I think this year we even have a a freshman boys basketball team correct yes we we have had that in the past um and some sports are up some sports are down um and it's just kind of a roller coaster as it is every single year um and so hopefully we'll make sure that we give every opportunity available to our student athletes great great one more time any questions from Mrs he okay thank you Kim thanks for joining us tonight you're welcome okay uh moving right along Mrs Mrs Kowski okay well this morning uh the finance committee and I met and reviewed the financials as of January 31st in detail uh so I'll give you a quick highlight of that now um the fiscal year 2324 end of year is forecasted at 31 m927 018 which is unfavorable to budget by 18,9 27 um I wanted to point out that the general education piece of that is favorable by 14,35 and special education unfavorable by 195 233 uh the fiscal year 2324 forecast as of January uh indicates an unfavorable change over last month of 17,24 um the biggest piece to know you can look at the um uh Det for the financial results in the narrative um but the biggest thing um to note is that for this month's forecast uh I increased our uh reimbursement from Hartford Public Schools by 41,0 182 based on the actual um estimated billing that I gave Hartford so I felt comfortable going ahead and increasing that Revenue reimbursement so that helped us out a little bit uh the excess cost reimbursement however um for that the expectations have been reduced by 140,000 and that's based on new data from the state of Connecticut uh including uh indicating that canton's reimbursement rate is now expected to be 70.5% that's 70.5 uh we if we didn't have to reduce our excess cost reimbursement our current position would be about 4,92 seven unfavorable to our original overall budget so you can see how excess costs uh really affects that but please please stop there for one second okay so I just want to tell the board that um the state has pulled the rug out from under us and it's not the legislators it's the governor the governor had promised us 88% we were all high-fiving last year when we heard 88% we came down and typically we're budgeting around 75% so we thought we were picking up 133 % not only did he reneg on the 88% he went below the typical 75% to 70% we have been working all year the superintendent the administrative staff on clawing back our deficit down to more of a reasonable number as Donna pointed out it would be more like 40,000 or so uh thousand and instead because of the state we have to make up the difference and and that's a problem and and I really want to encourage each board member to write the governor write the governor as a board member and say listen we work hard at trying to fund our school system and when the state makes a promise we expect the state to fulfill the promise and you know you may feel that this is an exercise in futility but it's an exercise that needs to happen across the across the state that the governor has to hear that he is taking away money from our children we can't budget one number get another number and then and then it's at the cost of other programs even even sometimes it's it's a cost of personnel so this this is really something that that I'm upset about I think the board members should get upset about I think part of our job is to lobby for our town and uh we've talked to our state legislators they're as angry as we are they're not happy about it either but they need more Firepower so either send the letter directly to the governor or send it to the governor through the care of our state representatives but they have to hear about this and I would actually encourage the administrative team if you if you felt so inclined as as administrators this is eating into what you're asking for th this is putting more pressure on the board of education to find the dollars necessary so you know I I can get a little bit passionate about this and and Don I'm sorry to cut into your your presentation but but it's important that at some point we have to take a stand as Board of Education members we just can we work together I mean we we've discussed this before where a lot of districts will send a group letter and those the board members I don't know if they usually do it as unanimous but we draft a letter and we send it together I mean usually I've seen that happen I'm happy to do that we can all sign it at the 13th on the March 13th um and it I've seen that done in you know before we'll do that we'll do that so but we we have to start really pushing back because next year you're nervous about what we're budgeting at and I think Donna budgeted next year at 75% pardon me excuse me 70% so you stayed very conservative to 70 even though in the past we've been getting 75 and we've been promised the 88 so and this is a two-year budget so we almost G we're almost assured that that's what we're gonna get right because this is a two-year budget yeah I let me just jump in there really quick and I know Don you were actually finishing your report um the as you can see we're $180,000 in the red um I I do want to make it very clear that if we didn't have the excess cost it would be 40,000 like the chair said but what I do want to highlight is um we for us to come down from last month to this month uh Mrs McAn who's on the call um her team worked really hard um that we actually that that net that we would have received was students coming back to the Canen public schools and doing a reduction in tuition and a reduction in um transportation and so we go to we got to celebrate that that we're welcoming kids back into our schools um and we have to honor that that we are doing the best that we can to um do what's best for kids um but if we didn't have to make that reduction the addition in excess cost this would definitely be a different financial report and I'll make it very clear to the the board of finance that within our Thrive program that we are uh doing that there's in the first year Mrs McLean and her team have done a wonderful job in their their savings um in that uh with that program and and bringing kids back um so I got to commend this team uh but that that's where we are and we'll continue uh to work on our budget for uh this month uh Mr Bush I don't know if you have anything to add regarding the financial report just take myself off mute there yeah so in in regard to the financial report no I have I don't have anything else to add I think Donal did a good job thanks Russell thank you Jordan so um Kim excellent suggestion we'll have a letter prepared for the next board meeting that we can all approve and sign thank you for that Donna anything else you want to add to your report that I so rudely interrupted you I'm sorry you're fine no I think you and Jordan covered the rest of it if anybody wants to read any of the more details uh the narrative is available so thank you um and I do want to say Mrs mcle we've we've seen uh the activity we've seen some of the things that that have happened the savings keeping some kids in uh Transportation down um and I remember last year when you made the presentation to the board of ed uh to the board of Finance or to us and we made to the board of Finance you you were worried about stating any savings in the first year and and you came out and and you really did you did great and thank you for all the hard work thank you okay all right that leads to Mr Bishop and Mr Bishop's going to give us a report and John if I can ask you you also to just to cover just uh the educator diversity plan a little bit and what we're going to do with that please that's that's correct uh and and that'll be what I'll speak to tonight so in in accord with accordance with the legislative mandate Public Act Two uh 23167 section 10 um the the state has uh required that districts create an increasing educator diversity plan uh it was previously known as the um the sorry it was the minority recruitment plans uh which may have been in place in the past um the the work really centers around what does the uh District do to be able to have uh supportive hiring practices uh legal hiring practices to be able to support uh employment within a district the plan consists of three areas recruitment hiring and selection and retention and uh elements of the plan uh are developed to be able to be support support of of of strong practices our plan was initially shared with our Board of Ed finance committee this morning because it does have financial implications for us uh but wanted to be able to bring it by the board as well to be uh generally aware of of this as well um our plan has uh three Central goals to it um ensuring the necessary conditions are in place to support the hiring of Staff of all backgrounds examine practices to ensure necessary conditions are in place to support uh staff of all backgrounds create conditions which support Equitable practices in teaching working and the learning environment uh you will recall that one of the board's goals is embracing equity and one of the elements that we have brought forward and you will see in tonight's budget is securing funding for and participating in the Connecticut teacher Residency program which provides uh opportunities and Pathways for uh staff to be able to or or uh Community individuals to become certified and an alternative route to certification so I wanted to be able to bring that that uh to the board's attention we did complete a a first read or review of it I will be sending this out to the uh the board for further review and look forward to any comments any questions for me thank you John we look forward to getting that at U for the second reading and the approval at the next meeting thank you sir any questions I just want to make sure we're good okay thank you very much okay this leads into our public comment we we make the public comment uh so you can hear some of the reports and some of the things are going on for those of you who joined us in the public um if you'd like to speak on any topic tonight please do so understand that the board probably will not comment on your uh on your statements primarily because it's not on our agenda so we're we're limited on on what we can do but we we'll definitely listen and What needs uh action after after the fact if if there is action needed we'll be sure to get back to you so with that Kira you want if you're joining us for public comment this evening you can use that raised hand feature of zoom and I'll call on you by your Zoom name and that will allow you to talk and you'll be able to make your comment in that way so if you'd like to speak go ahead and raise your hands and I will keep an eye out for you Lou I don't have any raised hands at this time okay great Karen then we'll close out the uh public comment so we move into the uh administration's presentation in the budget Lou I'll interrupt you for two seconds I did just get a raised hand I don't know if you wantan to he let no yeah that's lovely all right so I'm gonna allow um Kevin Bradley to talk Kevin just uh again state your name and your address for the record please we go thank you Lou my name is Kevin Bradley I live at Fort Eastview Drive here in Canton hello to everybody and everybody watching and listening hope everyone fared well on the uh on the day of snow thankfully we didn't get hit the way we were anticipated to get hit all right uh that being said I just want to go ahead and throw something out because one of the things that's uh been brought to my attention with the uh assessments that we all got on our residences was the Imp of the economy the impact of uh uh the assessments on our uh our tax obligations here in town uh which go in conjunction with our tax obligations at the state level and our tax obligations at the federal level along with the increase in all of the prices for everything we are dealing with and that's food that's gasoline that is our insurance rates which have SC skyrocketed uh for this upcoming year and I know that you all are doing the best that you can but I want to implore everybody do whatever you can not to increase the budget because it's really going to hurt so many people that have been here in town for so long and hurt them in a way that they can't cut back which is their property taxes that that's it and I'll probably be a broken record for the uh uh this budget season so thank you for letting me speak thank you Kevin thanks for attending our meeting we appreciate it okay uh we will move now into the administrative uh budget and I I when I got my my packet it made me think about when I was a selectman where we would walk away with these green bar books that that you truly needed a wagon to take out the budget and then uh in in Board of Education we were still using the green bars and they were about this thick and and you remember our last budget books have been these big binders that uh I actually returned back to Claud and I think she got $15 for my binder that's how much these things cost but uh just kidding uh but now we' we've condensed it but what we have here is some really enlightened um good information for us as board members I know that I U made a lot of highlights to it it will help you as you meet with the public there there are bullet points that you can take out of this I know that I know the superintendent's going to give us also a uh kind of our own bullet sheet of talking points as we go forward but Jordan and team thank you again for all the work that went into this very concise very informative Dr grman take it away super thank you so a as a superintendent of schools you you have this Vision especially when you come to a new District of what your first budget presentation will be like in a district and now I could say I'm two for two of having pres to present my my first budget virtually um so we're going to do the best that we can with this and uh I'm excited to present the administrative budget it it's been a a budget that we know that we've been working on since I started in July I'd be remissed if I didn't thank this administrative team for working with the teachers and their staff of putting this budget together this is not the superintendent's budget it's the administrative budget that comes from all our staff collectively within the the can public schools of what we feel it is the best step forward that really will guide this District not only next year but for many years after I'd also be remissed if I I didn't thank our cabinet with with our business official Mr Miss Kowski uh and our director of Technology our facili director assistant superintendent and the one that put this book together and it was a heavy lift for this team because it is new we did flip the whole budget process I is my executive assistant claudon nardy uh really did a nice job putting this uh book together and really beginning the oper opportunity for us to share the story of the can public schools and where we are within the can public schools and related to the budget so what we really need to really look at is the vision of the can Public Schools everything that we do needs to be grounded in the vision of the can public schools graduate with creative thinkers communicators collaborators critical thinking and compassionate citizen we need to remember that as an administrative team we need to remember that as a board of education and as a town this is our vision for the Ken public school graduate and this year the Board of Education established goals would board goal number one being student growth and achievement board goal two being Partnerships and Community engagement board goal three being Financial sustainability and efficient operations board goal four learning environment and belonging board goal five embracing equity and board goal six Workforce Development I'm proud to say that the budget that the administrative team put forward aligns with our Board of Education goals in a very very powerful way that is also outlined in in the budget book that we presented to you the administrative budget priorities which were really important that guided our work is in six levels number one student achievement in all areas across the district maintaining our class size policy according to the Canton Board of Education policy a strong focus on teaching learning professional development and social emotional well-being of our students and staff a focus on creating an inclusive and cultural responsive learning environment providing a safe and healthy school environment and propose a fiscally responsible budget that aligns with the Canton Board of Education goals what I'm very proud of and I I I I I could take some credit for this being here six years ago um but this town should be very proud of the successes that we have in the can public schools and they're numerous the best elementary schools in the US News and report we have students that are compassionate citizens with Halloween drives started in 22 on an average of 200 PBS of candy 100 days of school food drive for the Canton Bank a sixth grade student was chosen by a panel of libraries Educators to represent Connecticut students on the 22 nutmeg nominating committee two sixth grade band students qualified for Northern Regional two fifth grade students were accepted into the heart schools of music harmony winds which is meant for advanced middle school students fifth grade student one the county winner of the state annual fire prevention contest two sixth grade students were honored by the Connecticut Association of schools two sixth grade students were honored at the Connecticut Association of school's Elementary celebration of Arts in both 19 and 21 and in 23 a sixth grade student placed first in the Connecticut Middle School Division of invest right seven sixth grade students qualified for Connecticut problem solving 10 sixth grade students qualified for the Connecticut problem solving affiliate bow in 23 we are ordered the distinction of the best middle schools by the US News and reports our music program best communities by the the F the organization n students and staff leaders are Equitable and engaging instruction and have presented at Yukon and Regional Schools on the topic we had an outstanding 24 teacher of the year Ashley lepain hint high school was ranked the 27th best high school in the US News and World Report the high school received a highly favorable denial accreditation from the New England Association of schools our combined SAT scores is one of the highest in the state for the class of 23 in 23 123 students tested in a total of in 90 AP exams 33 students were designated as AP Scholars 40% enrolled in the high school and at least one AP 43 seniors received medals for outstanding academic achievement at our latest award honors award ceremony our growth continues to make we continue to make growth on our Smarter Balance assessment Athletics our girls field hockey team as we heard tonight finals girls soccer semifinals grany Canton football let me rephrase that Canton gany football football peat champions in 2123 Co-op ice hockey won the state championship in 22 boy soccer State runner up in 22 over the past two years 16 athletes have gone on to play respective sport in college 36 Allstate athletes two all-americans 11 4year scholar athletes and as you heard tonight we have plenty of uh community service so our story for the Canton Public Schools and the success that we have within the Canton Public Schools is tremendous you won't find too many school districts in the state of Connecticut that can share just some of those accolades think about how many we we said tonight so we are very successful in the can Public Schools our student enrollment as we've been talking about for the the past six months that I've arrived and I know there were some studies our student enrollment if you look at the Highlight in 2425 you could see we're actually taking a dip from 1483 to 1475 but you could see in 2526 we go to 1495 then we go down to 1490 and 1473 and then we start going down you may say we hit the bubble already because if you look in the previous years you see 1521 1497 158 we hit the bubble as a as a district but what we didn't do is hit the bubble at Cherrybrook so you got to look very closely at the prek through three Cherrybrook right now we're 450 we're 446 and then we jump up to 474 483 480 487 so the bubble is at Cherrybrook even though we had higher numbers the previous years those higher numbers were actually at the middle school so if you look at 2122 it was 242 247 and then you could see the middle school and the high school is actually where we're losing our numbers and then the the Cherry Brook um that's where our bubble is that's what we're preparing for and then you could see our projected class sizes that we have within our um buget that our class sizes are going to remain as I said within our um class side class guideline and policies that we have for the the the Board of Ed and there's going to be no different in in sections that we have for 24 than we have for 25 and this next chart is just a different way of of showing where we are with the the Highlight for the average um for the 2425 in in Black the one thing that I do want to explain is a per pupil expenditure in the next gener next generation of accountability index yeah I think it's really important to share what we spend in the Canton Public Schools and how our kids perform according to the Next Generation accountability index which I'll explain po po pup expend is calculated on an average based on the total District expenditure across all students this measure assists districts in determining the relative return on Performance Based on expended funds so what I need to share with you is the Canon public schools actually ranked 96 out of 194 reporting districts in agencies and per pupil expenditure for 22 that's low folks that we are 90 6 out of 194 so what that means if you look our PPE can the P per pupil expenditure for 22 was 23246 which is below the state average below the state average and what you could see is our students are performing right in the middle right now according to the accountability index now you might say well what makes up this accountability index so let me explain that the accountability index is based upon 12 indicators academic achievement measured by state assessments academic growth number three assessment participation rate number four chronic app absenteeism five postsecondary preparation in the coursework six postsecondary Readiness exams and college credit seven graduation on track in ninth grade eight graduation four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate nine graduation six-year adjusted cohort 10 postsecondary entrance all students College enrollment 11 physical fitness and 12 our access so what that means is so if you look at this chart you could see relative to our durg if the left-hand chart Compares us with uh how the state Compares us relative to our Durk you could see that we're at number 15 and how much we spend per pupil expenditure and then our accountability index where the state has all that formula we're right still in the Middle with our accountability index at 74.6 5 so we are performing well according to what we're using are per pupil expenditure and then the next chart says really the the same thing Canton is representative by um the the the star right in the middle with us being the the the higher we spend on per pupil expenditure where we are as we're saying it's showing how we are performing at a pretty high level according to our per pupil expenditure um that we are spending so what does that mean if you remember in December on December 8th this chart may look familiar to you I presented to you a a forecasted budget if you look down at the bottom was a net percent of 5.55 so I presented to you at that time netting out different things which I'll go over in a minute a 5.5% budget now where am I now so if we go to February 13th and I want to really go through this uh closely with you you can see if you take the salaries Transportation health benefits liability insurance go back here please Insurance oil natural gas electricity contracted Services you can see just to move those things over over it's a 5% increase right out of the gate I'm at 5% then when you add in and you put out the net excess cost just for special education I'm at a 4.85% so right out of the gate with those two areas we're at 9.85 then if you start looking at our dues our fees our supplies our maintenance our furniture educ ational technology tech services and small Capital items we're at 12 that's another 2.7 that brings us up to a 12.32 budget then you start netting out our open Choice students so if we didn't if we didn't participate in in the open Choice program um and as you aware we get $10,000 for our open Choice students and I presented to you the the open Choice budget last month that we're anticipating $950,000 so we net out $950,000 and then we're also anticipating additional revenue from Harford for our special education of a 2.68 so right there that is you would subtract 5.67 and then as I've been sharing since we've been doing the forecasted budget that we are anticipated as the town of uh Canton to receive an additional [Music] $398,000 in education cost share that I did get confirmed that that it's still in the governor's budget that we will receive $398,000 this year and another $400,000 for the 25 26 budget if you net all those things that brings us down to a net increase of a 5.39 so I'm actually lower than I was last month now you may say well how did I get lower how did I bring that 5.5 that I had in December two months ago now to a 5.39 there was a lot of moving parts that happened in the past month kir so in the past two months excuse me we actually had to add back into this budget $223,000 so we learned that there was a a k teacher kindergarten teacher that we removed from open choice that we had to put in to the general fund for $98,000 we learned since last uh since December that we have a student um that um at a district tuition um that we were short $97,000 because a student is actually going to be at a district we have the new digital citizenship a requirement of $5,000 tuition went up for the Farmington Valley uh continuing education and then our Mastery project of $38 that BR that then increased my 5.5 up by $23,000 that it brought me close to a six so I had to sit back and say based upon the budget workshops that we had previously and hearing some concerns that um we had to be um looking at a budget that would have to be lower but would also move our district forward so what I did was everything in red is what I took out of the forecasted budget so there was a request to actually have three additional pairs at for kindergarten for srbi pairs I reduceed that by one and a half we feel that we could transition into um three in the coming years uh based upon enrollment we did have a reduction in our insurance of 44,000 at the forecasted budget we added at 9% it's now at 8% um I did remove the Athletics secretary from the budget for 32,000 we did have a magnet school Savings based upon the the governor's budget that we could put it at 65% of 31,000 I did reduce our legal fees by uh $10,000 I increased that by I believe uh $115,000 so I brought it down only 5,000 up because we don't have as many contract negotiations next year workman's comp we feel we could go lower than that we reduced um some of the maintenance project projects that we had of $330,000 that we feel that the estimates that we received may have been a little high um athletic uniforms for 31600 we did have um a lot of uh money not a lot but we had about $100,000 in in the pay for play so we're going to move that to pay for play um special education tuition Mrs McAn um said that we could negotiate um some things with some schools so we brought that down by 15,000 small Capital uh re-evaluation of the administrator projects that we think we could come in lower by 15 e- rate Savings Mr Dum asro has done a great job to go out there and find uh grants District interior exterior doors small Capital we're going to take that out of a security Grant um miscellaneous equipment that we feel that um we could get at a better price or possibly do without um again some more e- rate savings by Mr delmastro we're we're looking to do we were looking to move our imput and Visions to a web hosting system we're going to hold that off a year for 17,500 interactive Tech replacement uh Mr deastro actually submitting this grant this week um for the Propecia Grant of of seven of $110,000 to get our interactive boards by Grant I anticipate that we'll get that some athletic equipment of 1,800 to pay for play adjusted our open Choice by 25,000 we actually had 925 in um we actually had 925 in for um for our December number and so we were able to do that uh gy chairs for 35 can everybody hear me still okay Jim chairs uh for pay for play 3,000 so you could see I eliminated $342,000 and with the offset of what I had to add of the $23 to the 342 I I reduced this um by $139 um th000 from the the 5.5 so we we did a lot of work from December um to um February 12th where we are February 13th where we are right now next slide and remember our eser funds that we received from the the state of Connecticut is $315,000 that we um still have in our budget relative to uh 30,000 for custodian educational software uh 3.0 tutorial support summer services our communication coordinator and literacy specialist I showed you this um last month uh this same exact slide so typically as you know that th this chart just lays out that 75% of our budget is made up of salary and benefits um that that that's a big part of of our budget and um it's just there's not a lot of room in a budget when 75% of if it's it salaries and the next chart just really shows the the different aspects of where we are with our regular education staff and our benefits and you could see General Ed supplies is a small portion of this um budget and and transportation and tuition are are some of the other major drivers of a budget so what's in this budget from a a staffing standpoint our campus monitors are still in this budget for um oversite for the the the Safety and Security at Cherrybrook and CIS we have 1.5 kindergarten Paris we have our open Choice after school coordinator at CIS a math English tutor at CIS we still have in here um and we're moving right along with the Commissioners Network that we do anticipate that we'll receive funds from the the state of Connecticut for our 0.5 social worker math English tutor at CMS again the Commissioners Network Ram uh I'm very excited to present to this board our English Department shair for leadership for our department 6- 12 unified arts department coordinator organizing leadership for rtech and PE an after school monitor for the CMS CHS uh campus because we have we have so much activity going on in there our field hockey coach at CMS extended year coordinator occupational therapis as I I said to you in December this is actually a cost savings for us because we contracted it out we're going to hire our own and then our as Mr Bishop actually spoke about tonight our teacher and Residency program and that would come out of our open Choice attendance Grant so there are some things there but from a standpoint of where we're going as a district there's nothing new on here that you you have not seen um when I presented the forecast budget in December and then our small Capital um projects that's a different number we were at approximately $80,000 in um December and we decided to scale back some of the projects relative to maybe the cost that they were looking at but you could see the arkil the classroom kids table the laminators all the things that we we spoke about in December are are there the kindergarten with the rug replacement the replace some AC units the Middle School printer the washer dryers Athletics the volleyball stand the pure per uh pupil Personnel Services um the music up right piano for a total of 50,000 $53,000 which is not a lot of money for a a a small Capital with in a district to trying to move projects forward highlights to the administrative proposed budget it maintains the camp board of education class side guidelines core instructional student intervention programs maintained campus monitor position for both Cherry Brook primary school and Canton intermediate and extended campus supervision at Canton middle school and Canton High School our teacher Residency program department chair for English at Kon middle school and the high school math and Ela instructional materials for both Char Brook primary school and K intermediate school and the new course offering at the high school economic early college experience one of the things that's really important is to look at our six-year average that that we have ranging from fiscal year 20 to 25 that we're the as I said the net increase of 5.39 with an average six-year of 4.04 for total operating budget request 5.39 of 33 million 47,800 had um two or three budget workshops already but now you're seeing the administrative budget in its final terms and ultimately it's the board's job to adopt a budget to bring to the board of Finance so we're asking if there's any questions related to what you heard tonight and looking through the the the budget book which is really detailed in what we're asking for that we we're looking for you to send an email with your questions to Claudia nardy Donna myself and John Bishop if you could send that by February 20th which is next Tuesday our goal would be to answer all those questions in a slide deck like we've done at our previous meetings and present those answers to those questions on February 27th in the budget workshop and then we have budget workshops on February 29th and March 5th and then the board of education budget is due March 11th um then Mr Daniels will make a a presentation to the board of Finance on March 20th and then if needed there'll be a a board of edge budget workshop on March 26 depending on if there's any Board of Finance reductions in the annual budget hearing is April 23d and then the budget uh referendum is on May 9th so th those are the SCH I I'm really proud of the work that the administrative did with a new superintendent of schools that really flipped the process of what we're doing I I want to remind the board that we had a forecasted budget and we really were looking at where not only where we would be for the 2425 school year but also five years from out and I just want to remind the board I I if you remember how we've been doing the monthly financials I'm actually riding um this budget with if you remember about a $1 million loss from this year that I got to make up for um next year and I if if we didn't have to do that if there wasn't a shortfall this year um this budget would actually be much lower um than it is by two or 3% if we didn't have to uh make up for that I I did want to make sure because we've discussed that um before and it's where we're at um but I feel proud of what the work that this team did and we feel that it's um a budget that will definitely move the the the school district forward that truly aligns with the Board of Education goals and I'll take any questions at this time general questions Cara can I ask you can you go back is there any way you can go to page 32 and 33 of the presentation of the budget book or the presentation the budget book is it is the budget book here to go yeah you'd have I've got it it'll just take a second all right what I want to tell the board members is I think the thing that I'm most proud about in this budget is the way that Jordan mapped the entire budget to the board's goals these are our goals our highlights of things that we wanted to accomplish and on page 32 and 33 he's mapped every single one of um the dollar increases or the dollar needs uh to those goals so um if you can't pull it up now that's fine but I would really ask you to read that because this is the thing that hit me hit me U you know hit my heart it hit my passion for the board hit my passion for the district that that we've been able to map this budget to the goals and the priorities of this uh this board of education so I think that's important that's page 32 and 33 thank you okay there they are right there I just I just wanted to show you that um you can see how from student growth and achievement all the where the dollars are being spent and I think from Board of Finance situation or perspective uh this is very meaningful so thank you cara that's fine okay thank you Dr Gman great work any general questions on what you saw remember specific questions just maybe you writing down as we were going but we'll do this uh on the um 27th is it 27th yes board members anything okay thank you very much and thank you for that presentation okay we're going to go to standing committee reports we'll go quickly on that Russell I think you said you had nothing to add to Donna's report is there anything you want to add from Finance um no we went over the financials um for January we approve and we approved past financials and that's basically we talked a little bit about what Mr Bishop discussed this for the first reading and uh that's about it thank you Russell um on policy Mr shy you had a meeting tonight we met tonight I'm happy to say we completed our review of the 4,000 series Mr Bishop has been terrific in his research and and getting back to us and we began looking at the 5,000 series which is with students very long and very complicated those of you that were able to uh read some and send some comments in very much appreciated and we decided we'd add an extra meeting in at six o'clock before the uh regular meeting on February 27 I believe it is and again anybody is most welcome to attend and if you have any additional comments in any of the students uh related policy as the 5,000 series please send them to to John and to me thank you Joe um curriculum and Technology Erica you had a meeting today yes thank you to everyone who came to the meeting this morning um we went over the assistant superintendent monthly update kindergarten registration update um we look we talked about the January professional development um we discussed the literacy update and the equity update and um we will be putting more detailed notes um in our minutes for those that want more details and those will be posted to the website in your next next meeting is um February 28th thank you very much thank you and any questions for curriculum I'm sorry no um and for communications Felicia I'm gonna jump in on Mrs Jordan's behalf there um with her approval um uh just to be able to share with the board um uh we have been working to uh prepare the most uh recent newsletter which should be coming out presently to our community highlighting uh some of the uh continuous work that we have do in our district to be able to support even beyond the the typical classroom into uh enrichment for our students and and and helping C really feel like a a home and a place for every student uh additionally we are working already on our next newsletter that will go out to the community uh we are in discussions with the uh um Board of Selectmen in the town and the board of Finance on how we might be able to possibly work together in communicating factual information regarding the budget process to again continue to work to support um information for the entirety of our community thank you John fich you want to add anything to that or um NOP that's all and I know we'll have our next meeting will be the probably the first week in March well we'll share that date probably next week with the rest of the board okay and just uh FYI for the board I've move Cindy's uh assignment over to Communications to help out with uh Felicia so uh Cindy will be more over to Communications to help out with Felicia okay any questions for any of the subcommittees board committees okay uh calendar of events uh in your packet you'll see the calendar of events mark your calendars appropriately and accordingly um and I'll I'll catch up with you Jordan on on a meeting that I want to that I may not be able to make but U I'm sure Joe will be there so um any questions on the calendar of events okay we'll move into uh board announcements so um Everybody saw that Ryan Ryan is a resigned and I want to say this that um that having served on the board of Selectmen and um other committees and park and reck the hardest committee I serve on or that experienced is really Board of Education it is a demanding um it's it's demanding from a volunteer standpoint with amount of meetings and and so on and it's hard it's hard so it's hard to balance uh family life with Board of Education life and it and it's hard when you have other things going on in your life and Ryan stepped up he's got several things going on in home and um he's served this board for six years and he's done a wonderful job and has contributed and he's been a wonderful um member and he's done it sometimes at sacrifice of family but he's been a a joy to have on and when Ryan was on he was really on as far as his comments and really challenged us from time the time so uh Ryan I just on behalf of the board I just wanted to thank you for your time serving and we wish you well with all the family things that you have going on and as I've always said to every board member it's got to be family first then your job and then the board and uh so I I can appreciate where you are and I just wanted to from the bottom of my heart thank you for all the time that you put in six years is a is a pretty pretty good run so thanks very much thanks L I really appreciate that and I appreciate each and every one of you you know how hard you work and how much time you spend volunteering um you guys are you know this Bo is really part of the heart and soul of what makes Kon so wonderful um and I I really appreciate having the opportunity to to serve with with all of you um and this board has been so pleasant and civil um it's such a refreshing um you know change from what we're seeing on the national scene um and I just would encourage everybody to keep doing that and keep you know no matter what our what our differences may or may not be um to just keep on you know treating each other with the dignity and respect that I've seen over the last six years um and uh you know just be the antidote to that otherwise uh toxic National scene so um you again thank you all for the opportunity and um you know I look forward to be able to help out where I can in in the future well we're going to remember that because there's always places to help out but uh and maybe as as life gets easier like I did you can always come back so thank you Ryan great guys I I know that we The Parting Gift for you is is a brick it's a brick uh Donna has ordered the brick and I think in the spring it'll be uh put in at the flag pole at the uh at the high school uh just just thanking you for your time and it's always great to show your kids and and it also Inspire civic responsibility and Duty when people see dad's name up there so I think that's I'm honed thank you guys any board member have any any comments All right so uh what takes place is tomorrow there'll be an announcement uh uh seeking a board position for an unexpired term that runs through 2025 I think I've given you all a little bit of ins it on how that's going to work we'll run that ad for the next two weeks it'll close on March 1st which is Friday I believe and then the following week we will we will meet uh to interview the candidates so um tomorrow when uh Claudia drops that announcement CommunityWide you'll also get a copy of that it's a it's a standard uh note just uh seeking applicants for an unexpired term through 2025 who must be a Republican or or an unaffiliated uh voter in a resident of the Town clearly so uh those are the requirements any questions about that okay thanks again Ryan okay board board action items uh Dr Gman alluded to it but we are moving forward with the um with the U Portables at Cherrybrook we had good meetings with three Architects uh we learned a lot we know some things and I I think I'll just report to the board right now I'm feeling pretty confident that we can get this done by the uh the date that the superintendent has put down is April 15 2025 so I think I think we're going to get there um other than that that's the only action oh past action item so do we have anything that needs to uh we need to come back to or that we haven't touched base on something only thing Kim the only thing that I I'm getting from an action item from today's meeting is just a request uh for the board to um get budget questions to the to Donna mikowski to Claudia John and myself just copy Us in um by Tuesday February 20th that that's the only action item that I was able to get Kim I don't know if you if you got any no you talking to me Jordan I am um that was the only action item that I I I thought tonight yes we have motions for the um recommend actions yeah no I'm just talking about what what needs to be done by board members for next for um that's all I have too super thank you Kim okay um recommended actions and uh point of order Dr Gman um I believe we have to accept if I recall in my um Robert tools we have to accept Ryan's resignation as a board I I truly don't know that answer um if you do or if you don't I I feel confident that the board has to accept the resignation from a board member so I think I it can't hurt us to go through the motion correct so um I will entertain a motion to accept ryal donal's uh res from the Board of Education affected February 13 2024 can I have a motion thank you Cindy second thank you Kim uh all those in favor we have nine board members or eight board members now okay so we go to see you go Ryan thanks guys Jesus got have one Des Center or something kind well you said we're a civil board so we didn't want to hurt anybody's feeling here so um okay thank you for that now I need a motion uh that the C Board of Education approve the consent agenda is provided and motion thank you Erica and uh Cindy thank you for the second okay we have first and second any other uh conversation questions hearing none all those in favor I and the final act for this board tonight is a motion to adjourn its February 13th meeting at 8:48 p.m.