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at this location um dianae do you have any questions no thank you much we need a motion to adjourn have a motion to adjourn from someone I still move uh have a second from Jennifer all in favor say I I

may have a motion thank you Felicia thank you Peggy we'll get you on the on the board now Peggy and Felicia one and two any conversation if not all those in favor we're unanimous Ryan's last act thank you very much everybody for attending thank you administrative team for being here tonight you did a great job thank you Dr Grossman Mr Bishop and the rest of the team everybody have a good night see you thank you

oh good evening sorry I'm late you're right on time I'd like to call the meeting to order um at at exactly 50:08 PM where's the pledge we're not we'll do that after right okay okay any motion to adopt the agenda I move to adopt the agenda as presented I'll second all in favor I I all right motion passes five to zero all right do I need a request for um executive session and we'll just have to yeah yeah I move to oh okay uh call for executive session pursuing to ARS 38- 431 .03 A3 the governing board may vote to convene an executive session with the board's attorney for legal advice and for the board to have discussion Direction and consideration of employment law therefore I do move to go into executive session I'll second all in favor all right so all you have to do is just a we time okay everybody welcome we are going to reconvene at 608 and if we can all stand for the pledge Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay I would like to call for an approval for board meeting minutes for regular board board meeting for January 10th 2024 I move to approve the minutes from the regular board meeting on January 10th 2024 second all in favor I I all right you got it girl whoever that okay superintendent report thank you Mr President uh a lot of things happening as we start up uh this uh semester I think the most uh important thing for the students uh in the crowd is this coming up Monday they don't have to go to school so I know they'll be excited about that we have President's Day uh we had success uh with the skills USA with the theater class success number of kids uh participated in the Eastern Arizona Festival uh of theater a regional qualifying event for the international thespian Festival all of them were listed that that had success but there was approximately eight students that had a great deal of success uh we have also had uh as we make the transition I know the year is not done but we're already planning for next year so both CHS um has hosted the incoming freshman and I know CMS has hosted the incoming sixth graders so those events have been well attended uh I know that uh for CMS Miss Ridge got many positive comments uh across the valley quite frankly about uh just exactly how the event went so it was a very good event for kids coming into are making transitions um Ellsworth Elementary ex uh celebrated on the 30th of January literacy night uh included crafts and activities uh celebrating the joy of of reading and even brought uh gently used books to swap uh we have any number of Music competitions that are taking place um uh from the high school um with the Ensemble uh asmea which is Arizona music educators Association solo and Ensemble festivals and were scored as excellent numerous numerous numbers of students uh that scored Sean Lambert has qualified for the February region choir competition which I believe is this coming Saturday um my understanding is uh the first uh student that's qualified uh at that level uh in I don't know if it's the history of the school but in a very long time if it's not the history of the school we had uh a wonderful Community Cafe event um where we had about 80 people from different entities within the community and the schools meeting to talk about uh the district and the individual um schools and what they're trying to do it's a start of a a a family community engagement process uh that we're going to continue uh in the spring with a love a school day uh and a school Community Cafe and then starting next year we will try to get on a cycle of two District events and two um school events uh just a way to bring the community together and see what we're doing um the CPAC was named East Valley favorite in the 2023 East Valley favorites in the Arts and the entertainment for Live Theater category so that was nice people are are recognizing uh the uh CPAC uh we had an orange out event against teen violence on the 23rd um at a basketball game and uh it was well uh attended uh regarding uh concerns about teen violence across uh across the East Valley um uh and uh uh it was talked about as upstander event um and so we had people prior to the event ran from I believe about 3:30 to 6:30 and then the orange out was the actual game and and people getting dressed out we've had uh I'm not going to read all of it because I know we're press for time but we've had uh an a significant amount of District media coverage and Kayla's listed it in the report our baseball team gave back uh went up to North Scottdale to work with the Miracle League those are kids with disabilities and so they were able to work with kids with disabilities uh from the coaches perspective it was uh not only uh amazing for the kids that received the coaching but it was amazing for our kids that gave the coaching to work with these kids uh to get them going with baseball um we've had uh we're starting in both the regional state uh CT stuff and we will be recognizing CT here in a few moments but uh uh future health professionals State HOSA uh competed and getting opportunity to compete in international in April and so there were several team members that qualified there Christ Claypool who uh works in the health Prof professions is going to be presenting at a National Conference uh CTA Knights uh had uh enjoyed several fundraising uh activities an orchestra contact or concert at the CPAC uh which was amazing campus food drive I know I talked to Mrs schopner the deal was if they read enough classes or enough books they would be able to do a dunk tank the day before she let me know that it was going to be inside I noticed from the pictures it was outside uh I think she was dunked for the better part of two hours it was quite cold that day if I remember correctly but I don't believe she picked up pneumonia anywhere in the process I think she survived so Harmon uh Hawks are doing wonderful things at as did the other schools sucessful Kindergarten Roundup event sixth graders as I said before visited CMS uh like all the other schools we had uh uh the spelling be that took place uh again just a lot of things happening CCS uh celebrated their 27th graduate this month so over the course of the year they've had 27 kids uh that have uh uh graduated which is what that program was all about to catch kids up or kids that maybe didn't graduate four years uh catch them up uh on our fifth year so that was uh a pretty good uh uh Pro or the way that program is working is is working real well for lots of kids um our CMS had the grand prize winner as well as first and second in the penal County Martin Luther King essay contest um and they had a a uh Civics and uh serial study prep for the Civics test and I believe we have a Civics spe coming up and they had a number of students that have qualified for that ranch had their annual PTO family Valentine's dance on the 9th and that was a fantastic event I wanted to bring this up to you because if you remember a couple years a couple months ago the beginning of the year we talked about this Helios Grant where we we were going to notice kids that had qualified uh the universities would send them letters to let them know as seniors that based on their junior grades they were eligible to enter in into uh into their colleges uh and we're about one of 14 uh schools in the state that or excuse me one of 27 districts in the state partnering and we had let's see see we had 15 students been Med medu eight to the UVA and they hadn't heard from NAU but additionally we have 54 more students that could apply to ASU and another 61 that could apply to U OFA and so we'll work with our counselors to get in touch with those families to let them know that it's an easier way uh based on their previous work uh that they can get into um uh into uh College uh and they can they still have to go through the process but they're flagged as as being uh potentially successful so we'll continue that program with Helios it was a very positive piece we are working on HR I want to thank Dr dcus we did host the panal County Education job fair back on the 20th uh over 75 interested uh panal county P candidates attended and it turned into 15 new applicants we held it here in the boardroom and we had districts from around panel County show up for the event we will again probably host it next year it's just one of many events that driss and HR will attend I think it was at U OFA uh last week and then there's some upcoming ones that we will host our own in March as well as attending GCU and ASU and Na and and all those trying to look for candidates so went through that quickly but there's a lot of positive things that are happening in the district uh you have the report so it can give you more detail um we also want to take some time let's do that this way have Miss Ridge come up and have CMS um uh presented first and then we'll recognize a couple other groups there it goes thank you I use my teacher voice um president of the board board members Dr Wyman audience and house members I'm excited to talk about Colmes middle school and the things that we have going on I'm going to just really briefly because I'm going to turn it over um to the people that helped me me make these things happen I think we have a quick video but it'll demonstrate our house system and um this has been a dream of mine for the past 5 years to get um a house system at the middle school and we were finally able to make it happened this year and I couldn't have done it without the buyin of my staff and I have some here so you see us all in colored shirts um that is why um but the house system just kind of think Harry Potter um so we had all the kids spin into a house and then um we do competitions through our house um academic competitions through the house system um but the video is really what I want you to guys see first then I'm going to have um a few people come up and talk about it and then I'll do some more bragging in just a bit know you know to it's my house so I don't know if you guys have middle school kids have experienced middle school kids it takes a special kind of person to work in middle school and that's always my interview question it's my very first question is have you ever been around middle school kids they're the funnest group to be around I would never change anything about it it is hard for anything to be cool in middle school I mean they just are anti anything you really want to do it's just the age this has been cool to them and this is my pride and joy so I am going to have um Mr Palm come up and speak first he is our student council advisor um um and so he's going to bring some kidss up with them and then they're going to tell you their experiences and you'll kind of see what houses they represent but please notice that the blue house is in the house r e okay and listen we throw up signs I promise you we're not in a gang but if you on our campus and I see people at my house and I throw up my and then they throw it up back so if they come home I'm not cultivating Bloods and Crips this is all our house signals all right good evening Dr Wyman Mr President members of the school board I'm Craig pal I'm the proud adviser of the comes Middle School student council today I am thrilled to introduce our student Representatives who will be sharing the insights of the benefits of our house system what I particularly admire about the house system is how student L it is and so I'm going to get out of the way and I'm going to turn it over to them good evening Dr Wyman and the members of The District School Board today we C today we the comes Middle School student council representing various houses are here to share our voices about the positive impact of the house systems on our educational and social experiences at CMS um as a seventh grader in the house of solivar I initially felt um nervous starting Middle School it was very brand new to me it was a weird transition but the house system really welcomed me with open arms we have spirit days house meetings and competitions that build a sense of belonging and Community um it's like having a built-in group of friends and supports regardless of the grade level with the house system we don't just compete we also collaborate members of the student council lead the house meetings from setting the agenda and leading the activities we plan to lead the assemblies and Lead our houses in competitions such as our bulletin board contest for Black History Month we are having currently the friendly competition between house Mo houses motivates us to excel both academically and extracurricular activities we want to earn points not just for bragging rights but for pride and other sense of accomplishment we feel as a team it pushes us to our best and support each other nice the house system both celebrates diversity and inclusion we welcome students from all backgrounds and create a safe space of every for everyone to express themselves being a being part of a house gives students a sense of belonging and identity it's like having a second family within the larger School Community we take pride in our house colors mascots and traditions which fer strengthens our connection to our school the house system is more than just points and competitions it's a positive environment that builds Community belonging leadership and positive spirit of collaboration we the students of Co Middle School urge you to support and continue the transformative program that empowers us to be active participants in our education and helps build a stronger School Comm Community thank you so if anybody knows me you know that I am super competitive um can't help it um currently my house is in third place um but the cool thing if you're ever on the middle school campus we have like a big um screen when you come in and as kids get um points their pictures are posted on um the leaderboard and they're live animation pictures so you literally see the kids like throwing up their signs and dancing and do whatever when they earn points and what I really love about it is like when we have new kids that start in the middle of the year or even the latter part of the year we spend them into a house and then they know already that they have a place that they belong cuz it's not always easy to belong in middle school and I love that part about the houses the most so thank you to my amazing students and Mr palm and then um Raina I'm sorry I tricked you and um Kelly I tricked you I told them that they had to do a presentation so miss bog negro comes in oh and I secretly invited their spouses so raina's husband and Craig's wife you want to come on in I know so I told them all the um that they were going to be presenting as soon as Raina came in she comes with her laptop and she goes um should I give this to them so they can put it on and I was like oh I forgot to tell them and she was like so don't do it and I was like No just sit there it'll be fine and so Raina thank you for creating but psych all right so this is the part where I get to um recognize amazing people doing amazing um things and I have chosen to recognize uh Kelly Edens uh Craig palm and Raina Balon Agro and I will start with Kelly who is our media assistant first so Kelly if you could come up real quick so Dr Wyman mentioned that um that we know how to throw down at the middle school he didn't say it in those words but that's what he meant and so we do an awesome open house like I dance I get interactive I don't know why I'm nervous to speak to people but I dance in front of 600 students anyways come so Kelly I I'll never forget this it was open house how many years ago is it two years ago now two years ago um it was open house and she was waiting on the side to speak with me and I'm thinking she's going to ask me something about a kid or something and she said what can I do to work at your school after I did the presentation she was like I got to be a part of this or something like that and then I just took it with a grain of salt I was like oh just go apply you know I'll look for your application next day I had her application and I think in a week later she was at my school I am the lucky one um Kelly is more than just a media assistant um I can't even begin to tell you all the things that she um does um she's a leader of Sal is it I say Sal they say salivary it's we'll split the difference so she goes above and beyond um she just transferred over to Media assistant she changed the library she just asked me Miss Rich can I do what I want in the library sure I come back a week later I don't even recognize the library she took it over um just today she comes and she Peaks her head in my office and she has sets of wheels and I'm like what is that for she goes can I put them on um our tic TCT toe game because two kids have to carry out every day at work and I figure I'll just put wheels on it so it can go is things like that that she doesn't have to do you know and that was out of her pocket um that she continues to do and make a difference at our school and so I wanted to make sure I recognize you because not a day goes by that staff members don't say aren't we lucky we have Kelly [Applause] so Dr don't drop this app Don't drop this I expect to see it in theary it'll be and thank you for making our kids one smart F thank you now I love this girl so much she she is the most stubbornest teacher I know but that's what I love about her she is so right or die and when she wants something from for her kids she don't care about no tone no email like she just wants for her kids I remember I needed a photography teacher and a PE teacher and I asked Miss dunker at that time I said where am I ever going to find somebody that does PE and photography and she goes I know a person and so then we ended up with Raina and let me tell you again I don't know what I did in the universe to hit this jackpot but Raina come on up I'm supposed to be telling you to your face sorry she is so passionate and again I don't have to ask her she just shows up so she I was I thought I don't know if you got here on time or not but I was looking for you and I said anybody seen Raina and they were like oh stayed after school to take pictures at the basketball game before she came here she didn't have to do that but that's the things that she does um she started a running club um after school just recently and these are things that guys she does on her own time time and time again she shows up and and does the work the best thing about Raina is she chose the right house to be I was going to tell that story you were going to tell that story um that we are a river and it's the house of dreamers and and Raina is a dreamer but she makes everything um she touch comes to light so I can't even tell you all the things she does at the school we be here all night and I know we want to get out of here because it's Valentine's Day but she runs the photography club she does running club what else do you do and she does yearbook and comes to every single dance and event that we have on campus and she decorated um the den for us for River and so I I try to tell you I try to give people their flowers while they are alive and I hope that I give you your flowers every day to let you know that um I truly love you and I hope I never leave you or you never leave me don't drop every time I want to say don't drop the apple I want to go say don't drop that D does anybody know song Don't Drop That D hey okay that's it yeah sorry um last but not least is um Mr Palm come on up how many years we been together now seven years cry you're going to make me cry I could not run Coles Middle School without Mr Paul um I know people think principles but it's Mr Palm he takes everything we do and makes it better he is so giving of his time you guys this man doesn't even have to work he chooses to work and he does our drama club he does theater he does student counsel he does crazy things like let the kids paint his personal trailers and vehicles and trucks and um everything he does um it's for the betterment of um Colmes middle school he does um track and every time going ask him to pull back cuz I'm scared I give him too much to do he always just takes on more and I see where's where's wife where'd you go and thank you because he spends so much time with us and I know that's away from his family and um we wouldn't be where we are with the house system if it wasn't for Mr palm and his leadership he takes my words and turns actions my words into actions and so don't want to cry but this this man means everything to me and I couldn't run my school without him so again I hope that I articulate that on more than just a day like today I like to tell people how much I appreciate him he's always stoic I can never read his face and he has the best smile in the world and when I see it I go Mr Palm you're smiling um but thank you thank [Applause] you Mr Palm is a athlete in where did you go to Australia to run some Marathon or something yeah he ran the Ironman in Australia literally came back maybe a day or two and then went with me to Atlanta to a professional conference and so those are the things that that he does and then I already asked him to go to Atlanta again and I was like when are you running so I didn't get him cookies cuz he doesn't eat that you like coffee so we got you a gift card to um Black Rock black rock all right so oh it's heavy all right and then while I have the floor this will be 10 seconds um Leela can you stand up just really quick okay guys Leela is the the I don't want to say the oldest because that's not the right word she has been at the middle school longer than any staff member on our campus what year is it Leela 16 and so today just happens to be National fax day she teaches family consumer science we called it homec when we were younger and so I just wanted everybody to recognize her for her 16 years and it's [Applause] Faxon all right I'm I'm leaving cuz my principes are probably saying girl you taking way too long um last but not least um all you kids from CTA Harmon Ranch Simington and Ellsworth did I get them all I think so I expect you guys to be cougars do you see all this great stuff happening at middle school so future cougars I'll see you in a few years good job we'd also like to take this time to recognize a couple different employee groups we bring up employees uh that are having employee the month the group is being recognized so the first group I'll call them up and then I'll read a little something will be our school counselors so if we could have them come up and then they'll stand for a few minutes we'll get a picture uh first uh Kim chartu chos from uh the high school Heidi Durant from the high school Jolene Peterson from The High School Elizabeth Mala from CMS Madison radkin from [Applause] CMS let's see Julia Goden from uh CCS Latasha hagert from CTA jorianne Neville from Ellsworth Roseanne Richards from Harmon Latoya Bernard from Ranch and John grafing from Ranch if you were not aware last week was uh National School counseling week school counselor standards based students focused and I can read you some stuff about them but just know that our kids um rely on on these individuals in so many different ways they're there for our kids uh just to be uh a person that they can talk to if they're struggling with something they're there if we're talking about what's going to look like in college and what's my uh path going to be they're there just to get advice just to to talk about everything that's taking place they come early they stay late um there's all so many of us in this room that remember the counselor and the difference that the counselor made in our lives when we came through school and these are example of the same types of people that just do amazing things every single day for our kids and so as part of national counseling uh week we just wanted to take a moment to say thank you so very much for all that you do we appreciate you very very [Applause] much we would also like to bring up a a a different group uh February is also CTE month Career and Technical education so I'll invite these people up and then I will go ahead and and speak a few minutes for them darl Lee at CMS uh career in your futures graphic design and coding L Lila Guzman [Applause] fax at the high school Alice goodrick early childhood education and education professions at the high school ton Willis business management software and app design at the high school Christa Claypool nursing assistant at the high school Nick Smith stagecraft and at the high school Jason neelon Sports Medicine the whole month of February is dedicated to um CTE and it's because of the important role that CTE plays for our kids in high school and in the Middle School it gives them a chance to look at what that career paths going to be that they're going to go on a chance to explore they are dedicated it's not just a classroom job in many cases at the high school we also have ctsos which are student clubs and so they are working with these kids outside of the normal day they go to state competitions they go to Regional competitions they go to National competitions with these kids they go above and beyond to give kids an opportunity and so many times this is the passion that our kids find they find that thing they want to do in the arena of Career and Technical education and these are the people that feed that passion these are the people that give the opportunity for our students to show success and to find the path that they will go ahead and you live the rest of their life doing and so we just again want to take a moment of time to say thank you so very much for all you do for our kids you're amazing we appreciate [Applause] it you want to grab can I can I borrow the floor for like two seconds and pull Miss Ridge and just say that I want to say thank you to John scrogum I think I speak on behalf of all CT teachers when I say that we can't do our job without him doing his amazing job and so CT month thank you very much John do we'll go ahead yeah we're going to do volunteer of the month this is an opportunity to thank some of our community members I believe uh Janelle esal and Alice my eyesight's going bad what's that Alicia I'm sorry uh brell brella are here representing uh Compassion Care of Santan Valley so we ask them to come up we have a little blue apple and we want to thank them and and since it on my glasses we'll see how good we do with the reading of this um Compassion Care you can go ahead and take Compassion Care Center is a partnership of faith-based organizations that help families and individuals Thrive by connecting them to the information resources and services uh such as eem emergency food boxes clothing counseling education and job services English learning assistance and healthc care assistance in fact last year Compassion Care Center helped over 140 new families in addition to the 180 returning families already receiving assistance because they're located in Santan Valley the jail com school districts has always considered them to be a valuable partner um with Alicia leading the charge our staff know they can refer our students and families to her and they will be an absolute best of hands it is evident that she has become an invaluable part of the ja comes family Alicia is always so quick to respond and to communicate with the District staff and families uh with such great dignity and efficiency many thanks to Janelle Alicia and The Compassion Care of Santan Valley organization uh we just want to thank you with the presentation of this blue Apple thank you for all you do for our [Applause] family now we're going to do students of the month Awards Mr President board members Dr Wyman our guests in the audience I hope you're ready for this as I mention every month this is the best part of my day um on this particular day I love doing this so thank you for the opportunity could I have Kaden hill come up from com Center for success Kaden come on over here how are you good brother see you turn around and look at everybody you my bodyguard all right Kaden has demonstrated strong work work ethic and a dedication to finishing his classes as well as a focus on graduation if that wasn't enough the staff has recognized that Kaden is a mentor and role model for his peers congratulations Kon on the job well done good job good job could I have Riley Peak from comes High School come on [Applause] up all right the high school team is delighted to nominate Riley Peak for the student of the month award Riley has consistently demonstrated exceptional qualities that make her a standout candidate for this recognition R's work ethic is nothing short of extraordinary her dedication to acade academic Excellence is evident in the quality and consistency of her work Rally's commitment to her studies serves as an inspiration to her peers and showcases her Relentless pursuit of success in addition to her remarkable work ethic Riley exhibits extraordinary leadership qualities she embodies the principles of Co coyote leadership congratulations Riley could I have Olivia Garcia Gonzalez come up from Coles Middle School Olivia always accepts what Mrs Buckman asks of her or my reply to my requests she always does that with Grace and compliance and without argument she exhibits fairness on a daily basis in the way that she handles interactions with her peers and staff she knows how to take turns without creating Discord and she listens very well treating all with respect regardless of who they are furthermore Olivia is also very forgiving in understanding at this age it's quite rare for a student to consistently exhibit characteristics of fairness but Olivia certainly does congratulations Olivia good job could I have Spirit Garrett come up from con's Traditional Academy [Applause] there you go this is Spirit everybody when Mrs schner thinks of the skills and thought that goes into demonstrating fairness Mrs Spirit Miss Spirit has proven to be that student she's grown into her surroundings and has proven day after day how to care for others includes them in activities and makes sure to say good morning and goodbye to everybody in class each day including visitors Spirit has grown tremendously this year and puts a smile on all of our faces indeed indeed Spirit [Applause] congratulations could I have Alena Hernandez come up from [Applause] Ellsworth be all right I'm right here Elena is a model student she works diligently in the classroom on her assignments and gets along with others on the playground she follows the rise code every day she greets adults and students when she encounters them Elena shows integrity by completing all of her work and also helps those who need it she helps keep the classroom and her school clean by picking up around her and she's involved with her work and will answer questions when promptly when prompted she is the type of student you would want a whole classroom of Alana is a joy to have in class and I look forward to seeing her every day and that was from Mrs Goodwin [Applause] congratulations could I have Trey lipford come up from Harmon Harmon is excited to acknowledge Trey lipford as the student of the month because he out he demonstrates outstanding fairness Trey consistently embodies the principles of equity and Justice in all aspects of his school life whether working on group projects or participating in classroom discussions Trey ensures that everyone's voice is heard and respected his ability to consider various perspectives and treat others with kindness and equality has had a positive impact on the entire class congratulations Trey on being the student of the month good J could I have Mary Vega come up from Ranch [Applause] Elementary Mary Vega was chosen as a student of the month you got to look at everybody what sets Mary apart from her peers is her ability to self-motivate her open-mindedness and her ability to be impartial Mary's grades have been high and consistent all year earning honor role or principal's honor role every quarter so far she's yet to miss an assignment and will spend her free time in class helping others she puts 100% into everything she does and she does great on her assignments and Bell work she treats everybody students and staff alike with respect and because of this she's respected by her peers congratulations Mary good [Applause] job could I have Emily Brighton come up from Simington we're one big happy family here mom come on over here come on in get get in here close it's all good all right Emily consistently demonstrates an innate sense of fairness in academic and social situations in the classroom she actively ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate fostering an environment where each child feels valued and included her willingness to share take turns and consider the perspectives of others showcases her strong sense of empathy and understanding outside the classroom Emily extends fairness on the playground where she consistently includes all classmates in games and activities she is quick to mediate and resolve conflicts demonstrates a sense of justice and the ability to consider multiple viewpoints congratulations Emily on this [Applause] achievement members of the audience this time we're going to take a little bit of a break before we continue with the board meeting great opportunity to take pictures with your children in the room or outside because we have a wonderful place out in the lobby to do that as well thank you we'll get started with the board meeting afterwards all right we're gonna ahead and go so anything from any board member uh yes I have a report um on months where there are five Mondays the fifth Monday is devoted to the East Valley Consortium it's a meeting of schools in the East Valley that includes superintendents board members and asba personnel and the purpose of these meetings is to uh share information successes and get the latest on governmental actions so on Monday January the 29th Dr Wyman and I attended the meeting at the Scottsdale Unified School District uh introductions were made information was shared and the latest information on legislative bills and initiatives was shared by members of asba and uh overall I feel it's a very worthwhile activity and I believe the next month that has five Mondays is September is that correct actually I think there's one in May but because it falls with Memorial Day they they jump to September is the next time yeah so the next time we'll get together will be September so that that's my report on that thank you you're welcome thanks for taking the time do that you're welcome it's great anything else from anybody all right um any public comments no not at this time all right next is our consent agenda and we can take that individual or as a whole any questions on that or there's no questions I'll take a motion I do have a question on the consent agenda item 8.10 purchases of Metro Fire Equipment I would just like to understand a little bit more of what that is I I believe and I don't see Mr Anderson here it has to do with our uh uh there we have a alarm company and we changed over alarm company so they're a portion of the alarm company and a portion of doing uh uh uh reviews of of our fire alarm equipment in our schools uh so I believe that's the one that we've had a couple different changes and soft top my head I don't know that I will get the answer from Mr Anderson I'm actually out at a conference the next two days but we'll have an answer for you tomorrow or Monday at the latest now the reason I asked is because it's a pretty significant amount 176,000 yeah it's it's in it's in that arena with with some stuff with the fire alarm system and we had to upgrade some some components to it and I believe we brought it to you guys a little while back but but let me find out from Bob and I'll give you guys an answer um I believe that was also to be reimbursed oh to be reimbursed oh so it would not affect our M oh okay well that takes care of that that has been we've been working with the Sab for a significant number of time on the fire alarm system down at CTA and and they've been very slow but we we think we broke the Log Jam and so that would be why that's being released now he heard us talking about him so the Metro Fire is related to the CTA uh uh the CTA project the 176,000 okay so we're we're fixing the the fire alarm system down at the old at CTA at that whole campus in ccs and we've been working with like I say Sab for the better part of two years now three years now trying to get it done and and we think we finally have it kind of unstuck and to get something done all right thank you okay that's all I got all right I'll take a motion uh I move to hang on I got to get back to where I uh I move to approve the consent agenda as presented I'll second I'll in favor I I I motion carries motion carries 5 O Okay 91 discussion and consideration approval for election services this is just uh an IGA that we have to sign with panal County for election services and what they're talking about with election Services is actually the election that will take place in November for board members and so it's it's not one that we cannot sign um even though we signed this agreement uh we have not actually run an election for probably four or five Cycles uh so depending on who's running or who's not running even though we signed this agreement if if if uh we do not have enough people running to hold election we have three seats open Mrs Argus Mr Dela Miss Tucker seats are open in in in at uh in the November election and so if there's three people or less running for the seats then the Board of Supervisors would cancel it so even though we have an IG we wouldn't be charged for anything because the the the election would be um canceled so I believe the uh election dates to to to sign up for area of interest and getting signatures is June so okay any other questions all right I'll take a motion a motion to approve the election service IG with panal County for the 24 governing board member election Services as presented I'll second all in favor I I motion passes 5 Z 92 discussion and consideration of approval for Arizona Mutual Aid compact this is uh a agreement that we have that that's been ongoing for years it's not just our district it's all districts in the state it's a mutual Aid compact that allows for in the time of emergencies for them to use our our facilities it's been reviewed by legal council each time we've taken a look at it so it's uh to some degree a perfunctory agreement uh in the case of an emergency so I would recommend approval as presented all right any questions all right I'll take a motion I motion to approve the Arizona Mutual Aid compact as presented I'll second all in favor I I I motion passes passes 93 sorry 5 item 93 discussion and consideration for approval of IG with Arizona Department of Education teacher dual enrollment fund Mr President members of the governing board Dr Wyman and Community the administration recommends the approval of 93 the IG with ad that allows from the state budget $500,000 was given to school districts for dual enrollment teachers and it allows the IG will allow us to provide up to a, paid for by ad for our dual enrollment teachers this year and this is a one-time stipended incentive for our dual enrollment teachers any questions can we make it more yeah I wish it was more I like that and Miss Tucker did call me and ask me a question I think I think is very germine just so you know question about uh dual enrollment and and more what what's the difference between dual enrollment and AP classes and the biggest issue with dual enrollment because of it's part of the community college system you have to have a a master's degree to teach um and so in our case because many of our teachers are branding to the profession they don't have their masters with an AP program which we have more classes you don't have you can just have a normal teaching certificate they will give you training to teach the AP classes so that sometimes holds us back we do have four CT programs uh that qualify under dual enrollment um but but that's why we do as much AP or more AP than dual enrollment it's just the uh of a requirement uh for certification for community colleges any other questions just wish it was more yeah definitely all right I'll take a motion I motion to approve the IGA and the a with the ad for the teacher dual enrollment fund I'll second all in favor I I I motion passes passes 5 okay 10 one discussion and information of student achievement report GNA move it back up a little Nancy sorry uh good evening Mr President members of the board Dr wman and Miss Wagner we do have a couple of updates for you from the curriculum and instruction team um before we start those this is not a part of our formal presentation tonight but I did want to address a board member Tucker did ask us at the last meeting about the feasibility of additional courses specifically related to outside participation in athletics and students being able to get things like a PE credit for that U that is something we can look at for a future course guide um we don't currently require a PE credit so it would go as a general elective in the students um overall course competencies um the one thing that we have to be cautious of with that is is making sure that we um monitor how many students we have in that um because obviously that impacts then our staffing pattern if tons of students are taking outside classes as an independent study or um work study type credit then we need fewer teachers to teach so we just have to be conscious of that but it is possible we'll look at that for our next board our next um course guide um tonight we're going to share with you some updates from our last round of professional learning and what's coming up in March um so Miss Christine Murphy will start us off with that tonight um then alfida TS is going to share with you some updates from our mcken vento and our migrant programming and then uh we're going to try something new this month um because sometimes it's things like I don't know Valentine's Day it could be tricky to get folks to come to board meetings but we want to be able to tell you some of the stories that are happening um so thanks to our marketing team we were able to give you a short little video of some cool stuff that we think is happening at some of our schools and Miss diab will be sharing that with you tonight so I'm going to turn it over to miss murphrey turned it on it's not working I'm gonna go ahead and start um I turned it on I promise so on slide four we'll start with the uh information that we got from our survey from January 8th PD day we um um of course I don't have my papers this time keep going going right there next one there we go so if the in the first box here we did some rating skills and low is number one and high is number four so I averaged the total scores so in the first box that comes up here if we click again you'll see the average score was 3.8 and that was on a question where teachers had to give feedback well actually all staff on whether the resources provided in their learn about it supported their understanding and implementation and the average score was 3.8 in that section and in the next section for learn about it it was rating their level of comfort of using the information in their learning sessions that again averaged to a 3.8 in our workshops we ask whether or not the workshop allowed them an opportunity to create something that they can use with students and 95% of our staff say that that time is used to create something for their students um the end of the day our prove it session is where they have time to work and collaborate and we did a rating for the overall professional learning day and their average rating was a 3.7 out of four for that as well on the next piece this is qualitative information so when we ask questions and they type their feedback um they talked about the new ideas that they gained they found value in all of the sessions that they attended and gained a deeper understanding of their Concepts the next one talks about the information around the workshop and showing how they had the Practical tools to implement and enhance their teaching practices those were their words um the next piece they talked about was overall feedback the opportunity to learn and collaborate um one of the areas they had as a growth for us in the next piece is where they asked for more time to collaborate work on developing student learning tasks so in response to that we've added 15 minutes to their workshop time in the March sessions that are coming up are there any questions about our January Data before I move on to merch I'm sure how many people participated in those survey results so 240 good correct um in the March PD what we're going to do for the very first session is we're going to have teachers gather together as a campus and the session is understanding the right work of collaborative teams and we're this year we've done kind of a PLC reset and so we're going to help teachers with that unpacking the standard process and we're introducing AI as a Clarity partner for them and showing them how they can use an AI tool to help them kind of get to the the right work a little bit quicker sometimes the unpacking the standards takes a long time and a lot of thinking and we want to help them get to that that place where they can really use that standard to inform their instruction um our learning sessions we're bringing back back a lot of our sessions were new the bottom half of the document there those were new in January the new one coming in March has the new Banner by it um KN knowing that teachers are asking for support with illuminate which is our assessment platform we're offering a session where they can learn how to use the the reports in that session moving into the workshop which is the time where they get to implement and practice we brought back again at the bottom half the things that we offered in January because those were all new and and we added based on feedback and requests for more time to plan for small group instruction and planning time using that data in aluminate so we did incorporate some sessions for workshops around those topics those are our general um sessions for our role specific groups and student services we're offering sessions that would cater specific to their needs or learn about it we're moving into a practice it session for assisted technology they had some learning in October and January and now they're moving into a practice it session where they can see how they would incorporate those things into their Mets their IEPs and their 504 plans and then we're going to wrap up the day with intentional planning using standard and standards and competencies where we're going to thread that idea of unpacking your standards in the morning and all of their learning sessions and how we can wrap that together at the end to include our elements of hashtag forward with learning walls and data Note notebooks and those pieces and how they can continue to use AI in that in that lane and then moving into planning for instruction and assessments what questions might you have about our March upcoming sessions we will host at the high school again so if you're interested in coming I'll make sure to send a schedule I'm learning all the things that I need to I know when when I was a new teacher I felt overwhelmed how are our new teachers accommod or you know acclimating to this kind of a program I I I I know I think Miss diab could probably or Miss Scott Good Golly could probably speak to that a little bit better than I could because she works directly with the new teachers haven't this much professional learning and it really gives them that time to collaborate with their PE schoal video in LGE also from our International teachers and some of our new teachers about how how much they've enjoyed our professional learning and to thank you any other questions I'm gonna turn over to miss TUS good evening Dr Wyman Mr President board members um as a family engagement liaison I'm um the conduit between our families our students our school and also our resources that we have in our community um I'm tasked with three Federal programs uh foster care bids McKinny vento um and also our migrant Ed program in our district um I I'll begin with mckin vinto programs our mcken vinto if you can sry okay so um I'll begin with our foster care program um this year we really worked hard at putting some different systems in place and we're identifying um our needs as it as it relates to foster care um as part of Esser um students are required to have a foster care bid um it's best interest determination meeting and what that says and if I can just sum it up students have the right to stay in their school of origin so foster students when they're placed in another home or they're put into foster care we have to have a bid for them foster care bid and with that being said I work with other points of contacts I work with school leaders I work uh I help to coordinate these foster care bids and it's a holistic approach it making sure that our children have the stay in their school of origin so in other words they're not moving to say Mesa one week and then two months later they're moving into our district we really um behind the scenes we really and leaders help a lot with those bids as well they really help to advocate for students to stay in our district or on the reverse and for students to stay at their school of origin when we think about the importance of a foster care bid many of these many of these students would be losing credits if they moved from school to school many of our students would be losing um the relationships that they have with teachers or sometimes they would even lose you know whatever um extracurricular activities so behind the scenes that's what taking place it's staying in their school of origin origin or moving to um a different district and if they choose to move schools my job is to help coordinate the transportation and then also put those mechanisms in place so we can have immediate enrollment um the next program that I operate or I work with is our mckin vinto program this program um I've really seen it grow within the last uh couple years a mckin vento program is um is a federal legislation that promotes um School stability for students and then Al it also helps um to remove um it helps for immediate enrollment as well when we think about my role in The District we think about school continuity and it helps for immediate enrollment and school stability um I serve as an advocate to remove some of those barriers that are taking place at home um with parents um connecting them with Community Resources connecting them with um Federal funding um so um it's our numbers have really jumped from probably about 30 when I started in this position and this year alone I've identified 74 mckin vento students and our migrant Edge program um this is our our migrant education program is a federally funded program designed to enrich and respond to the educational needs of students whose parents work in the agricultural fishing and ranching industry um the main um component with our migrant education is advocacy I work with our high high school students um with College and Career planning I uh translate for IEPs teacher conferences um I work a lot with parents um Christmas holiday events help support those needs um this this summer we had a a science stem camp we had about 12 students participate in that um again referrals to Social and Community Resources and our weekened food bags um we coordinate with um some food banks in our area and we make sure that our students not just our migrant ad are all any student in our district has access to these these food Pro programs I want to end my presentation with a picture where um I got to take my students to um ASU poly camp and that was the aviation simulator that's us in front of the aviation simulator any questions I don't have a question but I just like to make a comment because you made me think of something as you were giving your presentation about um students young young people who are in um uh foster care and how they age out of foster care evit has a new program and and Greg knows about this I don't know if we've it's talked about it in in a board meeting where they're actually building housing for students who were in aged out of foster care to live on the evid campus and then attend classes so that's something that maybe I don't know if that's something you could work with them or if there's a partnership that can be formed but it certainly sounds like it's a good thing to help students who are you know in that kind of a position absolutely I really um I work hard with my migren ed students to refer them over to the evit program and so when I when I read that today in an email with um I I just thought I we got to find a way to connect that to connect the dots yeah thank you for that I am very excited as we talked about earlier or Dr Fountain talked about we're going to show you a little video in the past I've come up and kind of given reports on our instructional rounds that we do with principls and with teachers well this is now um moving into the school sites where our instructional coaches are also doing peer-to beer peer-to-peer observations and we really want you to hear from our teachers and as you were asking about some of our new teachers and how the professional learning helps how these peer-to-peer observations it gives you an opportunity to hear straight from them about how they're implementing it straight into the classroom and how it's so helping support them and really that retention here I am not sure if I'm doing this right yes oh oh it's not me thank you so peer-to-peer observations are really an opportunity for teachers to go into each other's classrooms and to share and collaborate ideas on instructional approaches um to create a space where it's safe to share challenges they face and to really create a culture where that is acceptable I observed my peer teacher last week what I noticed is that she does a lot of a guided practice independent practice she allows students to have um checks for understanding and does like peer checkins too so I'll take some of her ideas and utilize it in my own classroom I'm able to um take what they have learned or take what they have taught and see similarities and differences of how I teach and so how I can grow from that it creates an opportunity for ongoing learning we are exposed to strategies and methods that we may not otherwise encounter connecting with my peers it allows me to um see how differently they teach and um just have that like cohesiveness with each other and the ability to um like you said find a network feedback has been exceptional every single teacher that has had the opportunity to go in and observe their peers has let me know that this was such an eye openening experience once they got the opportunity to have this dialogue and talk about what challenges they face and then seeing different interventions and different approaches really brought down those walls and created an opportunity for teachers to just sit down and discuss you know how can I improve and how can I get better better serves my students because able take away what I learned from her class or from her teaching and able to apply it to my own and be more consistent and thorough with how I teach one of the favorite parts of this is that I'm able to give the teachers an entire day of planning so that what they just witnessed in the classrooms they can Implement immediately the value that I received from my peers is the ability to take away what they are showcasing and what I can personally work on we do activities after we are in the classroom for a long period of time and we talk about what are some things that we notice and how do we categorize these in the educational real is it management that we noticed is it hash forward um whatever we noticed and how do we identify those key details in the classroom and how do we bring it into our own instructional tool belt and that's really what it's all about in essence how do we reach every single student every single day and thank you Kayla and your team for providing that for us for today great job um this really our peer-to-peer observations this has really led to not only um working with our instructional coaches on the campus but teachers are reaching out to us even at the district level and we're coordinating where they can go observe and have peer-to-peer observations within other school areas so really this is teacher uh Le and that collaboration piece allow ows for all of our teachers to have that opportunity to not only observe within their campus but also on other campuses any questions and is there anything you guys would like us to present on from curriculum instruction and assessment for the next board meeting I can think of right now okay thank you very much thank you thank you 10 point 10.2 is on uh student enrollment um I don't know if there's any questions you you received the report last uh I think it was Friday uh I will speak to this a little bit more and on 10.4 about some strategies that you guys have asked for but I didn't know if there's anything in particular that anybody um needed questions or comments on I'll be more than happy to answer or anybody from the from the leadership team can answer if it's specific I had one question does the did uh what's the agreement we have with grad Solutions did that make any difference for this month or no not yet we we've applied to uh ad and we've reached out to ad because ad hasn't given us back so we can't start until ad approves it we're still waiting on ad I will tell you though we did start to see a couple families from the the uh Wales Ranch that are starting to come in our school so it's not there's not like big numbers but we are starting to see some some families that have moved into the Wales Ranch area which is Colmes and schn um are looking to start coming to our schools both Simington and and um Coles Middle School have have received at least one family two families in in that area so we're starting to see that we'll just kind of see there's uh in in the lar lar homes one I swung in there and talked to them there's about 30 homes that are occupied so it's not like they're they're building a lot but it's not like the occupancy is is up at 10000 but we're starting to see that so we would anticipate uh we'll see some of those as well as the one over here on on Meridian in Germaine do we know that when uh people get information about their new home and the new community they're given the names of the public schools because I know that I received that when I moved into my home but I don't know if that's still a practice that's going on I would say it is uh I think some of the concerns will be and and I think even going back to if you remember back in in 2020 we had had a survey done cu the we were looking at at some point of possibly going out for a bond or override and and even with that information and one of the parents that that went to one of our schools they still don't understand because there's so many schools that are there there's still confusion they're assuming that this school is part of our district or that school is part of this District um and they don't even understand the lines of communities nor school districts so it's there but at times it's confusing depending on who they talk to because there's so much Choice out there uh I'm not sure everybody understands how the lines are drawn um we'll continue to work with them but it's just confusing because there's just so many choice and when you when you Google things you don't necessarily there's errors and stuff that you Google so depending on who you Google they might misidentify what the local public school is um uh so there there is some confusion out there do we have an idea what's the price range of the homes in uh everything development uh I'm seeing low threes to upwards of the sevens I did ask the one the one home and like I said I didn't get a chance to get the other one lenar and and I made the assumption that maybe it was uh older individuals that were affording the homes and maybe if they had kids they would be older kids and they said no they're seeing they're seeing people buy across across the range um even young families with kids up to to retire age so there's still there's enough of a range off of low 3es to to Mid sevs that that they're getting a little bit of everybody and I think they do have some uh some incentive type packages in the low three homes for first time buyers um and so that I think they're working on that um and so I was a little surprised that they were saying that had it range but but they said they were I know I've seen some things out there where one of the reasons for lower students in other districts is the housing market just prices people out so it's maybe good to see the houses are maybe a maybe a little more reasonable allows families with children to move in and if we continue to capture what we're capturing then we'll that should be a positive bump for us in some way right okay 10.3 discussion of and information on student travel 2023 Mr President board members Dr Wyman uh last month Mr Delena asked us to put together some summary of our student travel you'll see there in the report that was put together the dates the specific schools student organizations student count and locations you'll know notice there in summary that the majority of the places that our students are going are in Arizona but we're also outside of the State of Arizona such as California uh Missouri and Indiana um this report shows the opportunities the competition and the travel that the students are doing which I think is what you wanted but I'm here to ask for any further direction or any questions no it's exactly what I wanted and I was I hope it didn't take a lot of time and effort to put this together because I didn't want it to be an academic exercise whatever it takes but I was hoping that maybe we could use this as a way to continue marketing the district these are opportunities we provide for our students that maybe other districts don't because we since I've been on the board we have never turned down any request for travel and we feel it's a part of the educational program the process the growth of the kids so if a way to use this in our in our Outreach I that's why I wanted this information available so we could do that thank you and on behalf of my colleagues and our leaders we appreciate the fact that you allow the students to do this travel um it's very important to their development at all ages and we thank you for that thank you any other questions all right thank you okay 10 for discussion information of board requested targeted action plans yeah and I'll ask the gentleman in the booth to go ahead and call it up and move through to appendix one um and then the first page after appendix one so this is coming out of uh a request from the board as part of my evaluation to add uh additional targeted action uh I felt it was probably easiest to put it in the context of the uh strategic plan so you would have it all in one in one place as we talk about different things that are happening uh the conversation relative to uh student enrollment uh focus more on uh students that are currently with us that are leaving so so this first action plan deals with those students that are currently with us and if they're leaving and so what we're we're looking to do without reading everything there is make sure we analyze the current withdrawal process there are some forms that are used that are state level forms uh there are some uh there's some stuff and Synergy that uh are required to be checked as they uh as they uh withdraw uh you will note to number three right now there's a box that says quote unquote why you're leaving um but we only have about 42% of the people check it uh we can't mandate it but we're going to try and improve that in some cases please understand the why is not necessarily what's answered if I say I'm taking my child to New York City to attend school the why is obviously the probably moving to New York City if they say I'm taking my child to Ala but they don't want to tell us the why we don't really know why they're leaving us um but we know that they're leaving us and where they're going but what we've tried to do and what we're going to do is we are in the process of creating an ex exit survey tool which is Step number two and that would be a Anonymous survey that would be given on a q QR code that would ask some additional questions of the family and in those cases we're trying to drill down to get more to the why uh we will implement it beginning after uh spring break because we're in a process of of developing it and talking with the principles to make sure they're comfortable with it um so that would be the next step and then the third part was uh a discussion about recapturing students uh those decide to leave us can we go ahead and follow up with them uh the followup that we're looking at would be twofold one would be automatic uh we are talking with Synergy to see if if they can develop a program that we would automatically reach out now we would obviously again if I use the New York example we're not going to reach out to the family in New York and say hey you want to come back um because they're probably moved for a reason but for those families or those homeschool students on an annual basis we reach out to them to say uh this is what we have to offer we would hope that you want to come back we're also looking at the the notion of making personal calls and followup personal calls but we're trying to develop what that really means it has a lot of layers to it I would not anticipate either one of these two steps being completed and ready to go until uh the beginning of the new year just because if there's a development from Synergy it's going to take some time um and then the other one we just want to look at people's work schedules so this is in response to those kids that are in our system that may have left the next page if you go to the next page is part of my superintendent goals that we've talked about I've summarized them here I'm not going to go over them but this is the the some of the strategies we're we're utilizing for trying to attract those new students so when we look at student enrollment we're looking at both those that are currently enrolled as well as those that are new I will point out one thing because we're getting probably in the next couple weeks ready to launch we have had a campaign uh working with Kayla has worked with an outside firm to create new videos for all of our schools uh we're just about done with all of those videos there's also going to be additional video for the district as well as five 30 second slots that will cover a number of different things including hiring the the school videos are just about done and so uh as soon as those get done we'll figure out a way to launch them uh probably not at a board meeting only because if you take 10 or eight schools over two or three minutes you just took up uh a significant amount of time uh but we will launch them I will probably share them with you one email at a time just so the file's not too big just so you can have a chance to see them I would just say that the initial review of them is very positive I think they they capture the message that you the the videos are the principal as well as the teacher talking about a number of different things at the school and I think the especially the b-roll the the footage of the schools really captures the essence of what the um what the principal and the teacher are saying and I think there'll be very very good uh ways to continue to promote our schools so I just bring that up to you because that's coming if you go to the next slide please another area was student achievement and so the analysis of taking a look at number of different things with student achievement uh the first one is going to be the valuate the existing uh hashtag forward framework against other Frameworks to look at Cost scalability uh implementation training resource uh so we're in the process of doing that right now we've talked with uh I think probably we're looking at a half a dozen different programs um and we'll come back with the conversation on that we are looking at the illuminate system uh not that we're looking to go away from the illuminate system but more to make sure that we are uh looking at the reliability of the data comparing it with other districts um looking at cohort data a little bit more tightly so how are kids transitioning from one year to the next relative to illuminate sometimes if you look at grade level data it's a it's skewed because you may have a a group of kids that struggle more or don't struggle as much uh in a different cohort so grade to grade is not always uh uh uh comparison and then how does this impact our professional learning some of the stuff we've talked about today and then we'll continue to implement the district curriculum plan uh the only cautionary tale I will tell you with the district curriculum plan is obviously it's associated with budget there'll be a presentation the second on budget um and and there may be uh some issues as to whether there's funding available for all the implementation uh but we would like to continue to to move forward with the plan that Dr FR has uh but it has to be placed in the bigger picture uh we go from there and then if you could slide to the last one then the third area was student staff discipline so with the discipline process for students we would continue with Administration training and data analysis the data analysis is the report you've receed from me at the end of each uh quarter and then what we will do this spring is get a committee together including parents teachers and and administration to review the Matrix uh and talk about what we're doing and and look for any input uh and and potential changes obviously it's going to be against um uh the law so that there may somebody may want to change but it may not be practical to do the change um so we'll do that and we'll also do the review of employee discipline uh you can see that very first part was the board legal advice and that was started tonight I know it may continue but but that's support of it and then having conversations with her administrative team relative to evaluations and employee discipline um so those are action plans that based on what I was asked to do in in the evaluation that will move forward the last page I just put it in for your own uh appendix 2 is just a reminder that there's also a performance pay plan for administrators and I just summarized it and I chose to put this all in one place so that we understood that these are the four goal areas we're working with the Strategic plan here's some action steps and then here's a performance perance pace so more than happy to answer any questions but I just want to present uh based on your request any questions just just to comment I Greg I I think you've captured what at least from my point of view what we were looking for so I appreciate that that looks nice all right 105 discussion information on 2425 budget process good evening Mr President members of the board Dr wman colleagues community members I'm going to apologize in advance this showed up today okay I promise I'll wipe down the podium for whoever's next we still have three and a half months of school it's hard to believe it's gone by that fast huh but this is the time of year that we start to receive our financial information from the state about our up UPC coming physical year budget with yearend budget revisions and next year physical budgets on the horizon this refresher presentation not only allows us to show you how we build the budget but it gives opportunities to the collaborative process to determine what our priorities are this information that's being presented tonight has also been shared with the leadership team and the comes collaborative committee for consideration and input so looking at the building of the budget components you'll see ADM right in the center and that's because students are the center of everything we do including the budget process you know I can't come up here unless I spout a rag ars5 9182 identifies average daily membership ADM as the total enrollment of fractional students and full-time students minus withdrawal of each school day through the first 100 days in session wow just say student the 100th day count locks in our ADM and our 100th day count was on January 11th since ADM provides the funding for all of our Stu when the students are present they're not here we don't get funding everything revolves around our students whether it's our general budget limit our unrestricted limit any additions or deletions that we're looking at in the budget or even just maintaining our current budget everything revolves around our students so this is the budget process lot of information um we're going to summarize it as quickly as possible ADM average daily membership that we just covered is based on the current year funding some of you who've been in the districts or worked in um school districts for a while you might remember that we previously used prior year meaning whatever we the number of students last year determined what our budget was this year in 2017 that changed so we are paid based on the number of students here now then we move on to our general budget limit right now we get a 2% increase we also take into consideration our transportation we get District assistance that we get to adjust for our teacher experience index comes into play whatever our reserves might happen to be any add-ons or deletions that we need to take into consideration if we're not looking at our general budget limit we're looking at our unrestricted budget limit which deals with our capital and typically applies towards our daa or District additional assistance we have to always look at what it takes to maintain our current budget what is our staffing and expenditures we can bring revisions to the governing board on our budget based on any significant changes or is directed by ad for instance the required uh Revision in December then once we take all of that into consideration we have to look at what do we need to add or what do we need to take away are the health insurance is going to change is State retirement the mandatory benefits going to change workers comp salary increases any programs that we have all of this is just part of the process and it's just re reminder that it it would be great if we just looked at one little number and said hey this is it there's so many moving pieces I have a question absolutely in the general budget uh limit it says increases in inflation rate so how does that get determined State and so whether it's I mean they say that it's only 2% increase in inflation they're saying they only have to give us 2% oh so whether state 8% they only have to give us 2% they can give us more yeah but but for clarity the law states you have to give the lesser of the two which is inflation or 2% for inflation they use GDP gross domestic product and so right now that's higher than 2% so we know we'll get 2% please note that when we look at the uh raise for minimum wage in January that's used on inflation but that's used on CPI the Consumer Price Index CPI is traditionally has been much higher than GDP so when we get a 2% raise we do not get enough to cover the minimum wage increase that will be required in January because they use two different indicators on that and it's in State Statute again we can't just pick one number can't do that or one that makes sense true when we deal with the budget there are different factors and one of the things things that we have to do when we look at our ADM is we get weighted ADM there are factors that are applied that the state identifies for us so we have to identify what's in preschool what's in K8 what's in 9912 and then what are our online students this graph shows you where we ended last year what we adopted in July and what we were revised to in December bless God bless you thank you I know where you're at just the other thing that we have to take into consideration is what we call Group B weight on and you'll see it's a very long list but basically we get additional funding for K3 our English language Learners different um special needs in uh the variety of areas our gifted program and our free and reduced lunch we take all of that into consideration in order for us to be helped for us to determine what our Revenue control limit is you'll notice Noti that we went from 4,52 students projected to start the school year then in our revision as we discussed in December went down to 3755 so then what do we do with all that data is everybody still awake okay is good stuff all right I let you know numbers 1 plus one will always equal I want to say seven but I'm joking okay maintenance and operations let's look at what it takes for us to be able to do our current budget when we use the information on the previous slide we take our base support level that is provided to us from ad this year that number is $4,991 4.71 so if a student is here on day one they're here every day all day through the whole year that's how much we get for that student if that student is absent at any time leaves our district or comes in later we get a fraction of that amount we take our space support level we multiply it by our students we add in our transportation Revenue control limit which is an indicator based on how many riders are on our bus and how many miles we transport them take all of that we now have our Revenue control limit we receive additional assistance through what's called daa District additional assistance and you'll see that it was roughly $2 million last year and is again this year there was no adjustment that they required of us but what we do is we typically allocate approximately $750,000 of that to our M budget and the balance to our unrestricted Capital that allows us to meet both of those needs you will notice that the amount increased 550,000 to help us cover the loss um in December we do not have an override M or Bond but that would be taken into consideration our carry forward which has a directive from the governing board of approximately $1 million our prop 123 we've always allocated directly to M and then what we call um governing I'm sorry General budget limit add-ons this is not always a positive number because the add-on could be our Energy savings um which we have to pay you'll notice that it is is negative last year because that was our Energy savings the number looks reduced at the adopted budget and that's because we received one-time funding from the state of 1,367 we applied a portion of it to M and the balance of it to Capital needs however when we had to revise the budget again we lost almost 300 students and we had to reduce the budget by $2.3 million if you take the additional money we took from the daa reallocation we take the um additional $750,000 from the onetime funding and we moved it over and then our carry forward we projected originally at $83,000 we were able to carry over more money because our purchase orders from last year closed and we didn't have to the expenditures that we thought so that gave us another 320,000 overall it meant that we had to reduce our budget by 675,000 but we did again make those changes um to have us meet the $2.3 million change excuse me question absolutely uh your assumptions on Prop 123 are they at the existing 6.9% from the land trust fund because I know there's been discussion about raising that to 88.9% I haven't double check their math but these are the numbers at ad of our reporting for us okay so the one two3 just so you know the 3 has to get out of uh out of uh uh legislature first if they pass it it does not go to the governor so the governor's got a one two three plan that's not going anywhere because politically it won't but then if it gets out of legislature then it has to go on the 24 ballot and so you're not going to see and then it has to pass and so you're not going to see if one two three passes you're not going to see it till July 25 so when we look at these one two three numbers it's two different issues and and if and when all of that plays out we will know here in November whether uh there's actually additional dollars that are going to be available uh starting in July of of of 25 thanks I would like to point out that these numbers are taken directly from our budget reports that are approved and anybody that wants to take a look at them please just refer to page seven of our budget reports they're on our website and they're also on the ad website I didn't make them up okay so the next step in the process is we need to look at what's our current budget what do we need to maintain it this graph shows you the state requires us to provide them the budget information based on these categories this is taken directly from page one of our budget reports it shows where we ended last year which was just over $3,785 th000 when we did again the adopted budget with 4,52 students we were just over 31 million6 that was great but when we did the budget revision bringing it back down to the 3755 our budget dropped to 30 million 9.99 so again this is the time of year when we start getting physical information or physical data for the upcoming school year so that we can start the budget projection process so when we use the numbers that were given I actually calculated this based on 3746.0 ADM that is the last number that ad is showing for us it's approximately nine students less than the revised budget about $60,000 using those numbers if I take our current revised budget and I project that every student will come back and we'll keep them all year long we come up with a revenue control limit of just about $28 million my my projection reduces the daa assistance to M to 1 million so that we can put more money back into the capital account for those expenditures that we know are out there the budget carry forward I'm targeting at 500,000 I'm hoping for more but you've seen the budget reports that were loaded this month I'm assuming prop 123 is not going to change but I am noting that the add-on you'll see is a negative and that's because our Energy savings um amount due this year is a little higher than before if I assume the raises from FY 23 applied in the 24 school year are current school year and I say our professional development supplies and other expenditures are not going to go up atically I do project that we would have a 1,177 shortfall now being prudent I feel like I had to look at it and say what if we lost students so I projected if we lost just 100 students that 100 students keeping all the other factors the same would present a $1.7 million shortfall I do think you need to consider and we have made sure that everybody is aware that this does not include any benefits increase that could come any raises to non-hourly staff it does not factor in mandatory uh raises for January 2025 for our hourly staff it doesn't take into consideration the prop one 123 if there's a variance the rollover balance if I can't roll over 500,000 it impacts us negatively if I and get us higher it will help us out State matching benefits we actually do know now and they're going to reduce by 0.2% we're very excited about that and then we also have to consider that essers will finish in September and so we have to take into consideration anything that we pay out of essers that we're going to continue to do we have to find another source for could be M could be something else but we do have to find something to be able to address those again we bring this because the budgets are going to be back one page go back ju just a couple things so everybody understands and uh because this obviously when you take a look at those numbers uh people can Panic a little bit um please understand that what we would anticipate uh if you were to give the same raise to the rest of staff that was given to the staff at January that that would be about $650,000 so you really if you take a look look at this and saying how do we get to there then you're really looking at at uh looking at 1.7 to 2.3 2.4 million that we would have to go ahead and adjust in the budget um please know we're already working on this part of the conversations with CCC with you guys and Leadership has started on this I believe uh I will not go at 100% but I believe in many cases uh unfilled positions as well as attrition will result that we will not have to lay anybody off I'm not going to put 100% down but there are positions that are not filled and there are positions where we already know people are leaving and so we're working on what would happen if we don't fill those positions then we're also working on other uh things that we could do uh with early stages so I'm not going to go into great detail um that would then suggest that that this is how we get to 2.3 um the reality of this of the of of the budget is irrespective of anything else state law requires that school districts have a balanced budget so we will solve this problem because we have no Choice um I know there's several districts because of the declining enrollment across the the East Valley that are already talking about laying off people again our brothers are not to do that right and closing schools um Yep they're closing three and they have a fourth one on the Block that they're still debating and so we're not at that point um uh we're looking at a number of different areas we want uh as Mr Ray has asked for you know no surprises and bringing information forward we want to be sure that you guys are seeing budgetary information over the next couple of board meetings before we come to you with our our recommendations um this presentation this actual YouTube presentation Kayla will go ahead and take a look at it and kind of squeeze it down a little bit we're not going to have everybody in the district watch a 20-minute presentation uh but we will go ahead and share this same presentation in some format uh hopefully next Wednesday uh at during the PLC time with staff so everybody's aware of it again I I the cautionary tale I would have everybody is don't panic uh we are working on it we have an understanding of what we think we can do um there are still some uh numbers to happen uh that may change this in a positive way um I doubt much but uh an example would be 301 uh you get those numbers at the end of March and that may throw in a different amount and that may be used to help with a with an increase the other piece is we're looking uh literally positioned by position uh to look and make sure that everything's budgeted the right way so you may have some M positions that should be in tital dollars or federal dollars and that would give savings so we're working on this issue as we speak but we want at least give you an initial look that says that there is a oh my gosh U but uh uh at this point uh it's early in the process and at the end of the day you will have a balanced budget as of July and our goal would be uh not to lay off any people and to provide a race for everybody so we stay competitive with neighboring districts I'm still on the slide before you leave it uh the daa to M the reduction from 1 million3 is to 1 million can we keep that at 1 million3 or what's absolutely we can my prediction was just because of the commentary of capital needs I was trying to see if we could get a little bit more money back over there we can absolutely keep that at a million three and that takes $300,000 that we don't have to keep looking for absolutely okay and we'll continue to review all of these as Dr Wyman pointed out um and I'm going to go ahead and flip we're back to this screen it's a process and because it impacts everybody um Dr Wyman definitely wanted us to bring it here tonight but also to bring it to leadership and to bring it to the comes collaborative committee because we do want their feedback I I certainly don't want to be the one sitting in my office making all of those decisions and to the extent possible and sometimes when I say this the the year makes it easier other years makes it harder but we would hope that maybe there are some options that we could bring so so what you just decided or what you just spoke to maybe the option is if we do it this way we put 1.3 in if we do it this other way we do 1 million what do you guys think is the better way to go about it or something like that so if if there's options available we would bring the options again a lot will be driven by uh uh the consensus of the CCC as well as consensus of the leadership ship team and uh we have plenty of meetings come up leadership meets the first Monday of spring break all day long to have this conversation so there's a lot of work to be done and we will get to where we need to get to are there any other questions do you want more I'm here all night no thank you appreciate it thank you thank you all right 10.6 discussion information of an estimate excess capacity for open enrollment exess this is a a annual thing that we bring to the board um we're just bringing it to you for information this month in case there's any questions uh when you have open enrollment you can go ahead and do open enrollment based on the size of the school the grade level configuration or program configuration this is what's been approved by the board in previous years we'll be bringing it back in uh March for final approval but I just want to give you a chance to see it so if you had any particular questions on it uh please note the one thing is um you may have situation where you may have a school that's open but a specific grade level that's closed because the grade level's too big you may have the grade levels open but you may have a specific programs that soon closed example sped we have more sped students uh but please note this is for open enrollment so if you have students that are in our community that decide to come here let's say they move into Wales Ranch this does not apply to that because we have to legally take kids that that live in our our neighborhoods so if we had kids that lived in our neighborhoods that came and you have a a 1 to 27 ratio in fourth grade but for a particular school there's so many kids there that there're sturdy kids in a class then there's 30 kids in the class this is just for open enrollment if a kid was coming from QC or from Florence or something like that we would say we're at capacity we'll put you on a waiting list so I'll answer any questions but in note it'll come back um next month for approval all right any questions on that okay 10.7 discussion and information of Community use of District facilities be scheduled as we discuss um the the budget and we know the issues that are there we're looking at all things and we've already started to look at all things uh one of the things that we looked at is our community facility fees uh reminder that we have four levels all school districts have four levels of fees uh uh level one is uh related to to our our school and our kids and then you go from 2 three and four deals with whether you're a nonprofit the type nonprofit you number four is for profit we looked around at neighboring school districts uh depending on on where we looked at the districts and said are we charging the same as everybody else or are we uh artificially low right now we're artificially low across the across the board now these are recommended changes that we're coming forward what I can tell you is when you look at three or four districts it's not like we're lower than everybody on everything there's a few things we might be a little bit higher there's a bunch of things that we're a little bit lower uh is started out with a conversation with the CPAC I will tell you CPAC wise we were definitely lower than everybody and we went over to Hamilton and Basia high school we looked at um uh community events uh we looked at QC we looked at Higley we looked at AJ um and so a group of us uh Corey Lee was part of it Kayla was part of it Bob was part of it uh we just went ahead and took a look at it and said okay is there a system that we can come up with that would allow us to increase our rates and still be in the ballpark a little bit lower than everybody else but it costs us to run our facilities there's no two ways about it I mean it'd be nice if it if you could just say it's going to be free um but that's not the reality for the most part what you'll see it's not every single one um but for the most part what you'll see is increases of five five and 10 so $5 on the first two from where they were the previous year and $10 on the uh the last one the exception would be obviously the CPAC it was significantly more than that because we were way way under underpriced and so those numbers are more in line they're still the lowest in the area but they're a little bit closer to what other other districts are doing the second page you will see is really like things and there's only a couple areas that we're looking for require for increases because a microphone is a microphone is a microphone um and so we we weren't looking at the Marley floor the reason why you have Gaff tape in the Marley floor the Marley floor is the movable floor that we use what you have to do when you put it together is tape it down that Gaff tape runs at about 40 bucks a pop so we were charging 18 bucks or something like that so it's like we're losing money to tape the floor uh and so we went up there and then the food trucks because many of them we don't get a ton of food trucks but they're they're benefiting from being on a property so we wanted to increase that a little bit to to get some of the profit so again this is brought to you this month I'm more than happy to answer any questions but it's brought to you this month so that you have a chance to look at it it'll be back next month for approval um if there are concerns uh if you have a chance to study it because I know this's a lot of information uh between now and the 17th a reminder that the March meeting is the 17th a week later than normal a couple weeks later than normal du the spring break please let me know because if we want to make some changes it's we'd like to start to move forward with some stuff so we can post it uh uh but this will also be quite frankly if you do approve it this will be part of the budget proposal uh or recommendations because it's the way to uh generate Revenue so we're not everything is linear and so some things will happen before other things and this is an example what would happen before other things so I'll be more than happy to take any questions so these these yellow ones are the ones that it's you've highlighted that's what it's going to go up to is that you're saying yes yes it's that's the new number and it's highlighted so that you know that that's the change uh if you were to I believe in the in the agend item we have the old fee schedule so if you want to look at that you could cross compare against it for example the parking lots that is that just so like like somebody wanted to do I don't know some something in our parking lot like yeah you may end up having a double hit on that you may you may have somebody wants to do something with food trucks and so we're going to rental the of the property truck of the of the property the the actual parking lot plus you would go ahead and charge them on the food truck so in that particular case you get that you got to remember though like the kids homecoming you're not charging per se on the on the uh parking lot because that's a kid event we don't charge on kit events it would be somebody coming and we're going to do a a a car show on a Saturday okay we're going to you're going to have to rent our parking lots to do the car show and that's what that rental would be so is this and so you said that you've looked at competitively at other districts yes now the problem you run into is not everybody has everything that we have so we've we've tried to to do the best we can with what we have and so not everybody has necessarily the parking lots um but but we've tried to look and we look primarily at the the QC AJ Florence because that's the mediacy of where we're at um and and then tried to measure against it and again in some cases we're higher and some cases we're lower okay right question I'm looking at the calendar you got there says March 17th agenda item for board approv that's the next agenda that's that's not the next board meeting the next board meeting is on the 20th because the 17th is a Sunday oh okay typo okay I just want to be sure on the dates okay okay any other questions all right 108 discussion information regarding landscape RFB I know we're thrun late so I'll just jump in Bob you can stay seated um just note that we have outsourced uh landscape and grounds for years in this District I don't even know how long uh and so we continue to take a look at that we we looked at the possibility of of of creating our own but with with the budgetary cost of the initial startup fee to purchase all the equipment we don't think it's viable so this is just to give you a heads up that we're going to go out for an RFP with Landscaping um and that the tenative timeline will be to uh again we'll change it it's the 20th so on the 21st we would we would send the bid request if you approve this we would send the bid request out it's a 30-day so it's actually to be the 21st of April that we get the bids back and so we would look to bring the recommended vendor on the May board meeting and with the hopes that they would start July 1st um and we'll just have to to see where it is we'll put it out to a variety of different vendors uh we have had up and down when it comes to uh vendors on previous rfps um uh but we want to uh take a look at it based on a number of different issues within Landscaping that we're dealing with right now we probably need to talk I probably need to talk to you about a conflict of interest at some point yeah okay and and and in that case if you feel there's a conflict interest when we get to that point then you just recuse yourself from the from the uh uh from the vote you don't have to announce why you just say there's a conflict I believe there's a conflict of interest and I'm just going to excuse myself from the vote okay all right any other questions on that okay 10.9 discussion and consideration of approval for changes to policy recommendations from asbaa or policy advisory 76 63 to 786 this is just a first reading yeah any comments or question on all I would tell you on this is this is just minor changes as a result of changes to the law we just received it last week um so it's it's statutorily they're making changes so I don't see whether there' be anything that we wouldn't approve but again take a look at them if you have any questions ask me and then I'll bring it back next month for formal approval and then they'll be uploaded into the uh policy manual I'm glad it's only 60 pages right any questions all right that brings us to 11 um executive executive session pursuing to ARS uh 15- 843 pupil disciplinary proceedings student exposion and readmission so I move that we go into executive session at 811 second all right all in favor I I I okay

[Music] pap [Music] for [Music] hello everyone and welcome to week 11 of the I IH senen competitive season today our varsity team has seven wins one loss and two ties and they will play against Blackford they are currently undefeated 10 and0 and the academy JV team will face off against Brean High School our varsity team is currently ranked third in the state and the structure that we use for our leagues um is called 4v4 crew battle uh players will uh take turns fighting 1 V1 matches with the winner carrying their remaining stocks SL lives to face the next member of the ooing team of the opposing team and uh for today we will be starting with the uh jv/ Academy cyber Tigers to see how well they perform in their match okay it seems that JV H is currently starting their first match we are just waiting on the opponents to pick who they're going to send out first um here's a quick shout out to uh to some of our to one of our sponsors uh thank you to our sponsor adamal internet Telecom TV your local service provider with uh gigs Speed Internet TV and telephone service for business and residental and residental residental customers in Adams and Wells County uh without them uh most of this probably wouldn't even be possible seems our opponents either just can't decide or they're just not showing uh currently we are setting up the game which will take a few minutes so just bear with us while we set everything up oh seems that uh JV is ready to face off against their opponents we got uh our cyber tiger on the robin with uh the opposing team uh PL picking Ice Climbers Robin recovering onto the edge already having some pretty nice damage on the Ice Climbers going in with the blade oh that's pyro and Mithra I apologies I don't know the entire uh smash Rog roster ooh nice uh sending into the air with the I think that is the uh what's called uh neutral air us having a pretty big lead in terms of uh percent oh the Ice Climbers just spamming their uh I think that's their uh side special having a bit of a zoning battle ooh our pyra almost uh dying but being able to recover on the stage uh which for the first match we are on uh our uh Academy player named Izzy is currently playing in the first match she did manage to take off a stock um while I was trying to find out what map we're playing on oh our starting map is a town and cityia and the uh loser of the first match will be able to uh choose the map to see that kind of get a bit of advantage to have a bit more comfortability with how they play ooh can she take another stock before she goes down nope the stocks are now two to two with us having a pretty big lead almost getting the kill off let's see can they get the recovery um something that we have uh newly added as of today is in the uh like top middle you can see that we have the name of both schools and the players remaining for each team um our pyro has been able to take out an extra stock from the Ice Climbers making the stocks two to one and the the stocks for those of you can see they are the face icons in the bottom stocks are also acting like your lives in terms of just in this game getting a nice uh blade rush in nice little combo keeping them in the air killing one of the Ice Climbers let's see and we will be going to the varsity game after uh this round or match I'm Prett sure get getting the final kill uh only being able to take one stock off from the varsity cyber tiger so we are in the lead in terms of our jv/ Academy team which is very nice for us now our opponents must select their second uh character that will face off against the farity Cyber tigers not the the JV team we're going to with the VAR game which seems to be a mirror match with King K rule you don't see this often a mirror match that being let's find out who's King whose King K rule is truly better we have Sam hallway uh personally playing both these characters having lots of range tools but they can also counter each other's range which might make for some I guess ping pong action being uh able to come across here getting the recovery they're King K rule having really good Edge guarding let's see there King kru being able to pick off the first stock of hours ooh B down hitting him upward let's see barely missing the uh four air the fair see cany Edgar yep ooh very nice fair from our King K rule making the stocks now even throwing his crown then our comes back out O The Cannonball deflect getting up close and personal not working out for us let's see ooh the body slam keeping them in the air just trying to make sure neither of them can just be on the stage are King K Ru losing their second stock making the uh stocks now one two let's see how well Sam can perform against the enemy King K Ru both them having pretty high percentage meaning they can die at any time oh there King K rule getting the fair uh taking Sam out of the game very very unfortunate for [Music] us let's see who the varsity players will send out for their match currently we have the JV game uh going on right there oh is that game did let's see let's find out we did sadly uh lose one of our players but we did very good um the round definitely is not over yet for our JV cyber Tigers though let's see who will take her Place let's see will'll take Izzy's place um let's see can you guys see that nope seems Tristan will will be going in as their member for the uh JV cyber Tigers playing his signature Little Mac you guys currently I can't see it but yep now you guys can we are up by one player and let's see how many stocks uh today we have Tristan active on jv4 I'm assuming just round one is I don't know if this is a permanent for this match there pyra getting very good damage off just in this uh quick succession them having a pretty big lead in terms of damage but Tristan can definitely uh pull this back and take some stocks off oh that's a misplay on their JV team they did not SD which is a self-detecting IND or jumping off the map but um after a player uh lose the game they'll they cannot play for the rest of that set so uh what we're seeing right now was a quick reset from the uh JB team but now we're on a to the Varity game we have uh Jordan playing his nest versus there King K Ru let's see getting a nice combo win hitting the PK lightning going for it again hitting it three times in a row can he get the fourth going for barely missing by an inch but let's see getting a nice Block in sent dodging The Cannonball ooh getting side aired off the map making the stocks two to two Jordan PK lightning tracing knock him off the stage hitting him again making it back on the stage doding with getting hit by The Cannonball up now we are up by one stock see o can you recover oh barely missing their recovery making the stocks one to one very unfortunate for us hting the PK Fire oh the oh Jordan missed his recovery again sad Bly making their King K rule take down two of our players very unfortunate for us as you guys can see right there we have the uh new JB game going on um because what happened was they did not SD at the beginning of the match what they were supposed to do because um after a player has won a game they must continue fighting until they lose again um in that set with that one character any stocks the player lost uh will must be like taken off so they have to SD uh at the beginning of the next game which uh they forgot to do they must do so by jumping off the edge uh once the team has no uh players remaining so all four have lost all three of their stocks the opposing team will be considered the winner it seems Tristan is oh for a split second there they had the exact same amount of percentage uh we are up by one stock and a little bit of damage now we're up by two stocks let's see how well Tristan will perform uh I guess damage wise to I guess get chip damage for his second stock to just hold as long as he possibly can Tristan doing very well against this pyra there pyra and or mythra being able to pick off Tristan's first stock but now Tristan just coming back trying to get the Revenge kill getting the final hit making him only lose one stock against that which is very good for us because now they're down to their last player while we still have three going to the VAR game we have Jaden the captain of our VAR team facing off their King K rule let's see can he clutch this up and just take as many stocks as they possibly can from Blackford oh getting hit with the rocket unfortunately not being able to kill just barely missing it uh King K rule is a heavy character which means he has a uh Better Block so he can block more damage but he does move slower but uh in return He also just does more damage while uh Isabelle is a lighter character uh with faster attacks but she is able to be Block Brook nether Jayden does keep all three of his stocks uh being able to take down black Bird's black for's first member of their four so let's just see how our captain can perform against them going back to the JV game we have Tristan doing very well against their NES NES missing his recovery making the stocks now two to two getting the PK Fire TR whiffing some of his light attacks The Nest doing very good against his little mac showing why he's one of his counter picks TR in having the KO punch which is the punch that oh barely missing it but that punch can do Insane amounts of d damage uh in just a single quick strike which would be very useful n being a zoning character with well Little ma just has to get up close and personal so it's just uh whoever can get in who distance first n hang the PK Fire Tristan knocking back off the stage let's see missing the recovery again making the stocks two to one Little Mac uh when I was talking about heavy and light characters he's kind of in the middle of that he has a decent block uh he can move fast and he can also attack really hard so he's kind of like in the middle of that as I just said Tristan getting the KO punch back let's see if he can land it the this Edge guarding with PK Fire barely missing the KO punch ooh just barely weaving that PK Fire blocking it getting up close and personal with the nest ooh Tristan getting hit by the uh side attack sting him off the stage making the stocks now one to one let's see the nest just being on the offensive on Tristan oh Tristan getting a big hit in that's throwing him back off the stage hitting with the ground pound let he is the the kill punch but this recovery makes sure Tristan can't get back on the stage making sure making the nest win the game with one stock remaining we have Jaden versus their King K rule which I thought they just played against I may be wrong match may still be going on okay so this is just a different uh player but they both just play K rule which is a pretty which can be a pretty big counter to Isabelle King k r having two STS remaining our captain showing why is the captain with some pre Edge guarding let's see can the king K will pick up the kill on our Isabel nope ooh deflecting The Cannonball picking off the kill getting some nice combos in on the king K Ru oh the king K rule Landing the side be killing our captain with one stock remaining back to the JV game we have our Robin versus their nest us having three stocks oh never mind we are now we have two stocks against their one ooh deflecting PK Fire getting high percentages on the nest let's see how well she can perform with her meter and how well she uses it us being at very similar health health seems to be more of a zoning battle now as the match progresses this Landing the recovery how it should be oh our players being two to two oh getting the kill on our Robin stocks one to one they're M at very very high Health hitting the PK Fire on a robin getting a nice little combo in there throwing her back off the map oh the robin sadly just barely missing the kill both times that's eating the projectile that's throwing Robin off the stage trying to pick off the kill this is a very even match right now A The Nest letting the side be killing a robin going to the vars game we have Noah he was supposed to be the Ace of the game who was the Ace of the game fight facing their King K rule who has insanely uh high or low HP toing I don't know how you look at it signature the grenade hitting the king K rule sending him off the map meaning Noah has one stock to win this game for the varsity match against their six oh wait um very special thanks to the Wells County foundation for a special grant that allowed us to purchase this computer that this stream is currently running on without their support we be we wouldn't be able to provide the quality programming that all of you are now enjoying going back to the JV game we have Lucario versus Lucas Oh Oh I thought that was n but uh this is our this is their last player and this is also our last player so all she has to do she has three stocks to take out his one let's see how well Adriana will perform against this uh Lucas uh they might have one more player after this uh we are not 100% sure the Ness being able to take our first stock off of Adriana throwing Adrian Lucario coming in with the kick oh let's see being able to recover in the PK lightning which you didn't need I'm missing the counter just barely Oh missing the grab let's see what she can do with her final stock NES eating the oros spere Oh missing the counter just barely again oh teabagging us I I'm pretty sure that's what he was doing right there o Landing a very heavy attack then that's eating the oros spere again missing the counter getting thrown off the map see oh she does actually hit the recovery Nest getting back on with the PK lightning he also absorbs the over sphere or sphere Mary uh just lost the first round so the uh best we can do is looking for a tie against Blackford oh and it seem oh nope she does not die let's see where this leads off from the Lucas failing to kill our Lucario a that seems to do it that fair seems to to get our final cyber tiger down apologies but uh while we wait for round two to commence do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea auction is an online and inperson auction platform that can help your nonprofits host a great Charity Auction find out more at auction that's auction.io yeah the best both teams can do is looking for a tie uh currently right now there's uh primarily just uh strategy discussing in the uh cyber in which is what we call the room where we play in there will also be I'm pretty sure just some slight either some slight nope I was wrong it seems for the first round of the JB game they will be putting in Tristan as you guys can see right there after this H we will be showing the VAR City game wait no might be wrong uh but for JV we have a uh Kirby versus Ice Climbers oh we know I was wrong uh Tristan is now playing for the uh Varity team for this match and he is facing off against their MW let's see Tristan having the KO punch very early hitting it not being able to pick off the kill but doing massive damage to the Mewtwo getting a nice combo in on the Mewtwo keeping him on the edge as long as you can see oh Mewtwo almost missing the recovery TR in having the KO punch again which might be to kill from this range if he does mention it which he sadly misses need to hitting the dark poles the Shadow Ball depending on that yeah that's Shadow Ball Tristan picking off the kill on the Mewtwo getting his first stock off but then Mewtwo retaliating by taking off Tristan stock Tristan doing very well Mewtwo right now blocking his uppercut Christen dodging most of the Mewtwo combos getting him off the ledge charging up a punch oh Mewtwo being able to evade it because of the eye frames he got from getting back on stage which for those of you at home or just non- Gamers who don't know what eye framers what eye frames are they're invincibility Fram so which means for a few seconds they will not be able to get hit but Tristan does manage to find the kill on the Mewtwo making the stocks now one to one very huge for the varsity cyber Tigers uh and for those of you who don't know or are just tuning in and just as a quick little reminder Blackford is undefeated they have a 10 and0 record oh tra uh Tristan barely falling because of the Max recovery uh making the our first member go down against Blackford going on to the JV game we have a Kirby versus Ice Climbers making the stocks are currently one to one a oh nope the side this neutral B not killing we have Kayla on the Kirby two k oh Ice Climbers missing the finishing blow on their side attack let's see this the M the mall does unfortunately kill Kayla we have the captain Jaden facing off against their Mewtwo Jaden will have three stocks against the U meww only one getting nice with the umbrella sending out the fishing hook TR trying to no pun intended just fish out a hip you getting a grab in almost picking up the kill again should oh canceling the recovery let's see how Jaden will play this EDG guarding see up the fishing hook throwing him back off the stage oh the rocket hitting the Mewtwo getting the fish back out getting hit with the fishing hook again and I think that was a frisbee up be getting a cheeky little hit off oh the side be killing the Mewtwo uh making our stocks perfectly even with the opponents you have Adriana facing up against the Ice Climbers let's see how well she does she currently has three stocks against the Ice Climbers one Ice Climbers being able to get the hit out uh get a final hit on taking away her first stock but we do have a pretty big player lead getting hit with continuous just flurries of the Mallet hitting them dashing into the icicles that they did uh throw out let's see a dra being at a very low uh HP for this them dodging the oros spere getting a ground pound off see how well she plays getting here with the upbe taking away her second stock she seems to be just deflecting the ice back to uh to the Ice Climbers doing very good sending out a small oros feere oh hitting into when she jumps back up or we're coming out again side be doing lots of knock back to the enemy team or for recoveries thing them back seems like the other ice climber guy with the oros spere instead of the main one this these ice climers seem to be playing very very well nice Rec o side B finishing off Adriana we'll be continuing to the varsity game very shortly good see jayen has taken off one both stocks been taken off from both teams uh but their character being way lower than ours which is very good of course oh the down smash getting the stock off of their uh character both these characters seem to be very good zoners with the with flub playing uh good uh close range as well getting a very nice uh fish again frisbee oh getting hooked again thrown off the map oh getting smacked off the stage taking off Jaden's second stock just making sure he cannot get back on the edge just trying his hardest to make sure he gets this final stock off throwing him off good job from Jaden killing their second member from Blackford we have Jordan on his famous Ness uh him going to JV seeing how many stocks he could take from uh the opposing team's uh junior varsity team oh the PK lightning getting the climber Jordan keeping all three of his stocks we have the Isabelle versus their dun cut which uh this is something that our vars team has been preparing for for a very long time uh the ace for this match being Noah this is what they've been planning for most the week so Jaden's job essentially is to just get as many stocks off of the dunk hunt as possible just seeing because uh I I talked to jadden before this and he said the plan for Noah is just to see who can just be the better zoner uh between thir unup and our snake that being Noah you're being at a pretty M like medium range of percentage just being relentless with his attacks and specials not being able to find the kill on jayen countering his mine or the TNT throwing up getting the kill on the duck cut but Jaden being at 20 that that that was also very huge because um the Duck Hunt is who we personally think to be the best on their team Jaden does have a very high amount of HP but that also does put Noah in a way less stressful position and a way easier position to be in oh the dynamite blowing right up on top of Jaden killing him but we should have two members left left to kill their dunk hunt we have Jordan still keeping his three stocks whilst their character is only at one doing very well showing why he's the captain of the JV team having a pretty big zoning battle Jordan getting another three stock R the varsity game could you just this as I was talking about earlier to see who's just it's just the Battle of zoners but it seems like Duck hun is not one he's not opposed to getting up nice and personal no sing the rock down ooh duck hunt picking up the killer Noah okay getting the grab sing his rocket oh just barely missing s him back off the stage throwing the grenade s a rocket getting the on the duck hunt meaning he only has one stock left while Noah has uh two seems like a spoke too soon the stocks are now one to one so it's like a fresh start in the match lots of pressure on both teams no being in a very high HP barely dodging everything throwing at him avoiding just being knocked off the map duck Hut throwing them off the map let's see can he get recover he gets the recovery uh while this match has been going on Jordan uh lost one of his stocks but he did beat the other member on the enemy team on the J's opposing team Dunt finding the kill on Noah very good performance from Noah getting another stock off the Duck Hunt but uh if you guys want a jersey andoor shirt like this uh we also have hoodies mouse pads and I think something else uh you could get uh cyber Tigers merch in the link in the description okay we have our final member Sam versus their Dunt Sam will have all three of his stocks and the D count will only have two so the best we can hope for Sam picks off a quick kill making it just a uh three stock versus three stock match for the final round uh if he does manage to pick off the kill on this duck hunt G rule also being another one of those zoning characters which can also be a decent counter ruct if played correctly with deflecting just like that duck Hut finding some good damage on Sam Sam clapping it back no pun intended see Finding the kill luckily as I said being able to find off the quick kill making it one to one uh for players in terms of the Cyber Tigers but that was also their bet what we think to believe their best player seems Jordan has both of his stocks and I believe this is their last member uh having two PK lightning not finding its Target PK Fire missing the bat swing it's being a pretty intense match as of right now oh Jordan barely missing the recovery not dying to the fire oh Jordan only has one stock as opposed to the Pyro two oh the socks now one to one both being fresh stocks Jordan finding very good combo finding the final kill JV has now tied their game I believe very good performance from the JV team we have a mirror match of King K rules Sam has lost his first stock as opposed tother King K rule who still has all three of his but this is their last uh person Sam deflecting his Cannonball hitting him with a fair shooting the crown and him back off the stage shooting a cannibal suing anything that he may try to throw at him blocking blocking back and forth it just seems to be this match is as of right now missing the deflect a Sam getting hit with the side air I don't know if after this match I will get an interview with any of the guys but oh I was wrong it is one to one Sam has to kill Sam has to beat the king K rule two times in order for the Varity cyber Tigers to at least tie against Blackford there krule finding lots of d on hours which is very bad for us not being able to The Cannonball missing the deflect recovering back on a stage there King K rule finding the kill our varsi cyber Tigers falling to Blackford uh making our new uh record S 2 and two um that is thank you for joining us this evening that concludes this week's stream join us again in uh two weeks on Monday uh February 26th at 5:00 p.m for the tetrio action again special thanks to auction at Wells County Foundation Indiana Esports Network and the Army National Guard for supporting our program without them none of this would be possible but we will be getting an interview from The Varsity Captain so I'll be with you [Music] question about the match um everyone play to be on yep uh let's just go let's just go you know um I hope this is on is it Joo is it on got make sure yep okay so um both the JV and the varish team both did very well um what do you think I guess could have been the deciding factor in terms of uh The Varsity guys winning that match cuz I saw their King K rule play very well Sam did find a very quick kill on their duck hunt which you guys believe to be the biggest threat Noah did very well against them you took a stock off of them uh Tristan did very well against their opening member so I believe all you guys did play very well today uh what do you think I guess like do you think it was just them being better than you or do you guys like what do you I guess think like led to the loss I would say I think we played that well I think it just was like we need to be better but still that is the best team in the league undefeated throughout everything and you guys almost beat them you guys almost tied we brought them down to two stocks in the second round we have improving to do lots of improving but we are almost there we're almost ready to hold that trophy yep um like I I saw you played very well you managed to take out um what was it like two to four of their stocks I believe I got five I got one on their number one guy I took fully took out their second guy and then I took one off the duck H home which is their third yeah they obviously incredible players you know their record of undefeated just speaks for itself definitely top contenders of winning the trophy but we're going to get there yep we have to yeah uh the JV team they also played very well Jordan played phenomenal like he normally does on the JV team um like I guess in terms of uh being a like cuz as you know Tristan and Jordan they both subed in in respectfully for both the JV and the varc match um who do you I guess believe do you guys think if Jordan was there instead of Tristan in the first round you guys uh might have tied or do you believe Jordan Jordan was in the first round yeah but I like I'm talking about the second round like you guys intentionally have planned him to be in the second round do you got like do you believe it would have been better that round or do you think uh this is like the best case scenario for the second round it is rough to say but as you know a coach I do have to say it Tristan's performance compared to Jordan I'll just put it like this Tristan took the same amount of stocks from the enemy team as Jordan did himself Jordan sded twice and took two of his own stocks and Tristan took two I saw that um which it's also very uncommon for to to see Jordan I guess mess up on the nest recovery cuz he has been playing nest for a very long time so it could have just been nervousness against a team like this yeah I did notice he was going in with the pressure with getting into his own mind he is a phenomenal player absolutely incredible he's almost at that level just like just the team in general he's just got to get that he needs to cancel out the nervousness that's really just all he needs to improve and then you believe he'd be amazing yeah that nervousness that that self mind game that's what holding him back once he gets rid of that that is a top Contender yeah which it's pretty bad that he's a senior so he can't really improve upon that um a lot of time we will be sad to see him go at the conclusion of this year he's an incredible player yeah it will be an unfortunate loss to the team yeah especially the JV team because they like I guess like put bluntly they seem to be I guess struggling without Jordan or Tristan on their side which is very unfortunate because in uh last week's match and this week's match they were both like the Jordan was the deciding factor um but we be we will be uh wrapping this up uh for this week as I said uh join us next Monday not next Monday in two weeks for Monday that being the 26th at 5:00 p.m.

two one and we are live good evening this is the ashin school committee meeting for February 14th 2024 Happy Valentine's Day we start by reading our vision statement which is the ashon public schools is a Forward Thinking District that cultivates the academic and social emotional growth of each student through a supportive collaborative Innovative and challenging environment students will develop into self-motivated resilient lifelong Learners who Embrace their role as a respon as responsible contributors to a global Community this meeting is being recorded by waca cable TV um as our normal um procedures we review the agenda and adoption but before I do that I want to welcome our newest member Marcy culverwell to the the school committee U Marcy stepped forward and been appointed to to fill out the remainder of um this year um for the seat that had been occupied by Aaron Williams and after Aon stepped down and uh we welcome you and look forward to your contributions so um let me move to the review of the agenda and adoption and after that I'll just um because we have one member who is virtual of us each time as being present and approving the agenda the first item will be public comment uh second item will be student advisory Council we then have administrative items of the Karen Karen spila Grant approval uh that Jen Cutler I think will be speaking to an overnight travel proposal from girls acros for May of this year a calendar survey results in the school calendar for 2425 school year excuse me uh the Strategic plan that we've been working on will be update and approval we have an assistant superintendent's update a superintendent update warrant approvals then we have uh some minutes to approve gifts and donations then um member updates and any action items and then we will have an executive session um to talk about collective bargaining strategy so let me just start by asking everybody to identify themselves as as being uh present or not which would be a neat trick or uh and that indicate whether you are in agreement with the agenda let me start with Lori who is virtual Lori yes hearing yes thank you thank you Marcy just push the button Marcy cwell and I'm here all right yes I'm good with it all right thanks Paul all right um so our uh first item on the agenda is public comment and uh for anybody who is participating virtually can you if you wish to make a public comment please raise your hand with a little icon um and we will acknowledge you and ask you to to um make your comment if there's anybody here in the audience live have three people watching um who wants is here to make a public comment please come forward to the podium okay seeing nobody coming forward and see seeing nobody on screen that's looking to speak we'll move on to our um next item which is the presentation student advisory Council and we have two students here if you guys could come to the uh the podium and introduce yourselves and then we' love to hear from you excuse me uh I'm rug Ron I'm a senior at Ashland high school and I'm Emily I'm also a senior at Ashland high school thank you so the first thing I'll discuss today is uh midterm so from January 23rd to the um students at AHS had their midterms the midterm exams were appropriate appropriately waited as they had been for the past few years and um the teachers gave ample time and resources uh to help students study for the midterms EXC um and the wrestling team or for athletics the wrestling team won their sectionals this past Saturday for the third time and they're off to win a state championship this weekend at Wakefield High School and the last thing I'll discuss is that this week the Freshman sophomores and Junior Juniors have been having class meetings to discuss classes for next year and um in the classrooms the teachers have been placing recommendations for students to take uh for the next year and the new business classes they've been successful so these were implemented in AHS this year uh Mr Kaden head he's been teaching them really well um and yeah so uh they they've also had xblocks to uh learn about potential uh electives they can take next year related to financial literacy and business thank you uh so two weeks ago we had our Flag Day ceremony which was a cultural celebration put on by the cares team uh we had over 30 students and staff participate in the ceremony um where they paraded their country's flag and shared a little bit about their culture um and as part of the celebration the nutrition staff has made some cultural meals throughout the month such as food from India and Great Britain which was pretty cool and then um in April the student council will be putting on their annual Bingo night which is open to the whole Community um and there's going to be prizes from local businesses in restaurants and that's on Thursday April 4th and then last the schore plays coming up in a few weeks um they're going to be putting on Chicago on the 1st and 2nd of March at 700 p.m.

[Music] good evening and welcome to the February 14th 2024 Greenfield Public School school committee meeting secretary Jive will you call the role yes um secretary denim I'm here Vice chair Martini here chair Johnson mad here mayor dorer member pretti here member ston here member Childs we have a quorum we have a quorum and anches has just arrived we are um starting the meeting at 6:01 p.m the meeting is being recorded by gctv if any other persons are present are also recording you must notify the chairperson of at this time I don't see anybody and we're on to the greenspoon award winner visit we are very pleased to announce that Jessica carau who is a teacher at Greenfield Middle School has been for 14 14 years um Karen and I and Michelle Fenimore were able to surprise her the other day in her classroom and um share with her that she was chosen for a Greenfield's award this year and Miss patod has begged to be able to read a paragraph of the nominating um entry I don't know how else to say that but the nominating narrative and I think that um all of you will enjoy it so um congratulations Jess I've worked with you for many years and I'm so happy and so proud of all the work that you do for Greenfield Public Schools um if many of you don't know the grinspoon award uh you are nominated by your fellow colleagues and they submit in writing why they think a teacher is deserving of the award and I just have to at least share the first paragraph um Miss win who is a team teacher of Miss Caro's nominated her and and she started her nomination with the following Paris has the Eiffel Tower New York has the Empire State Building at Greenfield Middle School we have Jessica CaRu Jess would crack up laughing at this comparison and you probably are too but hear me out every place needs that emblem of strength stability and inspiration where you can look and say that's where we want to be Jessica is that emblem to me and so many others in the district so I just thought that was very appropriate for what you stand for and how many people value uh what you do in that building but also districtwide so congratulations I think she deserves a acknowledgement and I would like to share that Karen and I and Michelle and Jessica's family um will be able to be with her when she is um recognized at the log cabin in April with all of the other area grinspoon winners and she gets some prizes uh along with that and we are putting out a press release so that everyone um in the area will be able to see that Jessica is our winner so we're super happy and proud to work with her so thank you do you want to say anything um sure do I have to push this spot you do yes a couple times if you want us to hear you yes I I guess I mean I just uh when I was hired in Greenfield many many years ago um I'm not I'm from the area but I'm not super close to Greenfield um and it's where I met my husband um it's where I've had my two kids since I've um you know worked here so I really feel like I've evolved a lot as a person but also as a teacher and so I'm just super thankful that you know even though I I don't live super close this is like my my little home away from home and my my other community that I really love and cherish so thank you again I really appreciate it thank you excellent um congratulations and thanks so much for all you do for the schools um so we're on to public comment the normal process is is that members uh sign up uh with Susan Farber who unfortunately is not with us tonight so we're going to be a little bit more on informal and I would just ask anyone who would like to speak uh for public com comment to raise your hand and I'll call you up please step forward to the table and say your name and where you live the town you live uh know you to push it until it turns green yeah there you go okay hi everybody uh my name is Kate br I live at 94 Meridian Street in Greenfield and I've been here since 2017 um I'm here primarily uh because I've got the buzz about the fact that the Green River School May well be decommissioned as a school and I'm excited I'm really excited about the possibilities because all the years that I the many years that I've lived here and walked by the school um and just the go most that's there you know um and I have talked to people who went to school there or they sent their children there and it just seems such a shame that such a lovely property would just be sitting there so I am very excited about the possibilities of it being decommissioned because of the many other ways that it could be put to use in our community for the greater good and to still remain a neighborhood um icon um my main questions right now um I'm totally curious about how this process is going to work um how um the decommissioning process works how long it takes um will this property go into um private ownership will it remain a town or city property and the most important thing for me is how will the decision making process take place um between between Petty plane top to bottom and Meridian Street top to bottom uh there are about 475 residents and there's a lot of of core in this neck of the woods and uh even though a lot of people don't know each other by name there's a lot of high neighbor head nodding and stuff like that and so we all kind of consider this little building to be sort of the Stonehenge of Meridian Street area and um I think I can always speak for myself but I do believe that most of those of us in this part of town at the crossroads of petty plane and Meridian really hope that we can be at the table have a place at the table during the visioning process and the implementation process of whatever it is so that's all I have to say but uh I'm looking forward to what more comes down the pike and thank you for your listen thank you anyone else wish thank you my name is Susan WTIC I live on Forest Avenue in Greenfield uh and I'm here representing housing Greenfield and I would just like to support Kate's comments um we very much are looking forward to a full discussion about what um can go into that space and how um how the decommissioning process happens and we're very willing to assist in any way we can um so we you know we don't understand the process and we'd like to learn more but however that process works if uh there is community that I just want you to know there's a large amount of community interest in seeing uh whatever is developed there to be really positive for the neighborhood thank you thank you any other public comment please hey Su SLA 88 Deerfield Street um my comments are going to be in the same vein they're about the Green River School and about learning more about the process what's going to happen um during the possible decommissioning of the school I would like to be um more direct and say that I'm hoping it can become affordable housing housing is obviously a pretty desperate need in the city um and specifically if that is the case it's my understanding and again I'm speaking a little bit out of ignorance here but um I was told that there might be some loan amount or debt um associated with the school um and so through the state and if there is a possibility to have a conversation about loan forgiveness on that with State officials that if we're advocating for it to become housing the state right now is very interested in housing as a topic that's before the legis legislature is a major bill so roping our local legislators into discussions about loan forgiveness to potentially turn the property into housing that's positive for the neighborhood I think would be good and uh we would really um as people in the area like to know more about the process and be given the opportunity to be involved and advocate for a good outcome thank you any other public comment I'll just say for folks watching at home and others um the we're we're piloting tonight uh uh on the agenda there is a zoom link for people to participate in um public comment remotely so in the U I don't see anyone here on the zoom tonight but um for those watching at home for future reference will'll continue to do that so we would welcome your comments virtually as well as in person and our next item is report of student representatives to the committee um it's rather short tonight um this was a little last minute on my behalf but I guess that means it's a little more concise um so we're going to start with student Council as always we are gearing up for our annual trip to hyanis which occurs um in the beginning of March over over vacation we're going to have a trivia fundraiser to help offset that cost and if you're interested in attending you must be 21 or over um the cost is $10 per person and it is at the Moose Lodge in Greenfield on Saturday February 24th doors open at 600 and questions start at 6:30 you can RSVP with Miss mass at an Mass 1 at gpsk12.org uh teams are up to 10 people you can bring your own snacks and we thank everybody for supporting the trip by showing up um after attending a Bachi event out in Middleboro I believe several of our members wanted to continue our partnership with our special education students and have started a best buddies program at the school um they're currently meeting with them once a week for Just Dance and are extending our programming to crocheting and potentially cooking with the students in M Delio's life skills class um French Club had another successful annual candy grams fundraiser and hand delivered them to students and staff today on Valentine's Day um um we all look forward to taste of world cultures on March 13th and their trip to France that's coming in April drama club continues to work hard on their spring play myth adventures and they're adding light sound and set and costume elements to enhance the spectacular work of their actors um that they've been doing their performances will be on Friday March 22nd at 700 p.m.

of uh so I think trauma could look very different for many different children right so for some it would just be a straight idea of like children who are dealing with abuse it might be children who are moving on a regular basis and they're dealing with um loss of friendships it could be children who have lost an adult in their lives recently it could be children that have dealt with significant illness children that have dealt and been unhomed for a period of time all of those sorts of things children who could be experiencing divorce all of those things that could be creating a challenge for a child that isn't necessarily going to be reflected in like standard academic instruction and we want to try and think about how we can make sure that we're supporting those students when they're coming into school and taking their needs into account so that they feel comfortable they have trusted adults and they know how to communicate with those adults in The Bu okay yeah thanks you got so um what data do we have for this so in 2021 um as part of the work that we did as a district we had um many folks from around the district coming together to um to discuss um Equity as a districtwide committee and out of that um we gave a survey to our staff um and we had found that um for uh confidence in terms of the knowledge of um Equity terms uh people felt more confident but then when it came to feeling comfortable and understanding and expert around um different Affinity groups that was more difficult for people and they had less confidence we also saw that folks um that staff in general felt more confident talking with colleagues um they felt less confident um having discussions with students um and even less talking with families and so from that that really bore out some of the next steps and actions that we're taking as a group um to really try and think about the work that we need to do as a staff um and then translate that over to really be an excellent group of adults for all children who come through our doors hi um I'm Laura Stokes I teach Design Lab here and I also um run the talent in gifted program that's called Eureka um so here's some data that kind of enforces why we have an equity group and why Dei which is diversity equ inclusion is very important at PCS so we looked at data from 2019 to 20 so that school year and then this current school year 2023 to 2024 so over the span of five years the differences in population of students so if you see you'll see like El students um that doubled basically in percentage um for reduce lunch looks like the percentage dropped but we actually our student population increased and so there's actually seven more students that qualified for lunch um students receiving special education services increased by quite a bit same thing with students with plans also inre so our needs of our students increased which is why this is something that kind of proves why we need to make sure that we meet the needs of all of these students um more data would be so same years we're looking at the last five years um racial diversity so you can see the numbers um and overall basically what this is saying is that from 2019 to 2020 there were um 63 students that were considered non-white and now in 2023 2024 there's 93 so that's increased by 30 students um so again this is more data wide equity and making sure these students are represented and comfortable in our school hi I'm Becca gra I'm a kindergarten teacher here at PCS um So based off of all that information that Tom gave about our previous survey data saying that staff doesn't particularly feel super comfortable talking about equity and then knowing that our our student population has changed here's what we're doing to combat that here at BCS um we have decided that as a staff we need to get better at having those types of conversations um and understanding our students having those understanding to meet them where they are and to meet our colleagues where we are so we started out a um newsletter monthly newsletter from the equity team that highlights a different affinity group each month so for example we did one after the holidays on religion and how we can incorporate religion into the school and how we can talk about different things and where different students might so that they feel comfortable in our classrooms being different or whatever um and this information is for staff only it's not going out to students right now um it's giving teachers resources to learn about these different Affinity groups it's giving them more um webinars things that they can look at to try and just get their understanding level of these different Affinity groups um so we can have those conversations as a staff um we are building our larger subcommittee so we have our small steering committe equity we've asked other members of the school to join that committee to try and get you know feelers out there to the rest of the staff so they have a a say in these kinds of things um we decided that we do need to spiral back because our staff has changed so much over the last few years that we need to have these kinds of conversations again and take that survey that we took back in 2020 2019 2020 um to see if people are still feeling the same way about diversity and equity and the needs that we have there and then um St necessary to build a greater staff capacity okay so this is curriculum instruction and this first part I'm going to share I data um which really relates back to the first goal in third goal um in curriculum instruction and also sorry on third grade teacher um so this next slide is the five five level placement for I ready um Ela which is primarily reading and so the top bar shows the winter scores from this year um for ELA and the Bottom bar shows um the fall scor so just to highlight students have improved significantly you can tell um so it's hard to see there but mid or above level in ela impr from 100 students in the fall to 203 students um in the winter level which is the just plain green without the spashes in it um improved from 82 students in the fall to2 students in the winter and then our yellow which is one grade level below our red which is two grade levels below and then our slash is our more levels below has decreased so students are making Ina and same is true for again the green with the slashes through it improved the green has improve and the yellow and red and there's also a correlation Andrea H who can't was talking to IR representatives and they were saying that there's a correlation between um students that fall in that mid um and have it perform and then this is the three patient so it just shows on level below and then well below um Ela L and this is the same kind of data but math again each level broken down okay good evening everybody I'm JV for and what you're seeing here is how I already indicates growth so it indicates growth in two ways talks about typical growth and then it talks about stretch growth so typical growth is the average growth of students at each grade Baseline placement level whereas stretch growth is the growth recommended to put students who are performing below grade level on a path towards proficiency and to put on grade level students on a path towards Advanced proficiency levels so what you're actually seeing there is a sample of a student report which we call teer facing means that the teacher sees it and then it's up for him to decide if they want to share it with parents or with students okay so what you're seeing is you're seeing growth in ela and math and it's important to remember that the percentage progress you're seeing is a median number so fora that median percentage is 107% and median percentage for math is 71% so at this point they expect 50% at this point I expect them to be reaching growth 50% ients benchmarks is there predetermined levels how is that decided not just to teach your personal V or is there a benchmark so ready so we do have benchmarks that we're looking for so words like Jenna was referring to we have bid on grade level that we have early grade level so usually around time you said when you get that teacher snap the teacher makes the determination bed combination of a couple of things so part of this work that we use so when we think about like how do we use the data right so teachers are are getting this data but they're not just working on it in isolation we have our data team process so every week each grade level team is coming together and looking at data and so this would be just one one data point right so we might have for ELA we might have a data point that would indicate something and you see a student you say wow Tom's not making the growth that we want to see this is one assessment do we have other data that would indicate that time is also struggling so we have something like our dibles uh screener we might look at that for decoding then I'm as a teacher I'm giving different Assessments in the classroom I go well on I ready Tom might be struggling dibles is looking okay what's his what's his classroom data looking like if that's also something that's struggling then we're saying all right as a group we're seeing this data say there's something that's not working for Tom and then as a team we talk about that and determine is that something where we might want to reach out to say Andrea's team and say we need a consult here I'm looking at Tom everything's not great you know how am I going to help him out she works with him and then we reach out to families to say hey we got some data and we've reached out to the team we're going to take a look at that closer Tom's going to be on some will let you know how that goes so we try and get parents involved as soon as we can if we see data that's concerning but we don't just use one point because it could be a false Canary in the colan right a child might struggle like you might have a second graded and they're working on a computer and they do the I'm yeah like oh man it's snow today recess right and so you want to be able to get a whole picture of a child okay that makes a little more sense the whole process and then you would take that and the te get together was an intervention or whatever you're going to do from there yeah and then if a child's in intervention we have a whole schedule so every six weeks we come together and we have a process to be able to discuss every child that's in intervention whether or not we need to increase their program decrease it change it um and what progress we're seeing based on both the folks in intervention and the classroom that makes a little more sense you got I want to ask a question going to wait till the end but Sean had a touch on here um did it change then from prior to where you're not sending these home to All Families it's now teacher choice to do that you said like teachers can choose whether or not to share this report out is that so what I'm saying is that that's teacher facing they see that report and and there is a letter that goes home to parents as well that talks about generally their outcome for all yeah so we have yep so we have the family report for already that should be going home at both um both conference times um but sometimes there's you know families might want to know more specific about how their child's doing um and we can share that out on our level it gets even more specific to domains and we can really take a look at that on a domain specific level for each individual child and talk about like where we're seeing either growth or lack thereof and then how we're trying to address that okay so every every family will get their their beginning year report their mid report and then end of year at some point whether sent home or at conference time now is this when was this report sent out did the parents received this recently not yet we're still we're still working on so we want to make sure that we got all of our process together um in terms of that we've got March conferences coming up so we're looking to really Target that for our mid year so the way we have the initial um Benchmark and then we typically share that out at our initial conferences and then we have our winter Benchmark and we share that out of our second conference okay so we'll be getting that within the next couple weeks then uh March conferences are 24th and 5th okay this slide is showing us um based upon our five level placement there the growth that has been made in ela since our fall Benchmark and as you can see there's a l growth taking place at all levels but particularly at those levels that are one or more levels below Benchmark and then for math we're also seeing growth at all levels but particularly uh at the gr levels that are vulnerable indicating that we are targeting those students that are struggling okay I'm Sher director special services curriculum instruction and I'll be speaking to you about professional learning so this is another area that we're focusing Mr re spoke earlier about how important the people are and how important it is to help them grow professionally in all many different areas so we're continually trying to work on this so in the survey I want to highlight two of the areas here because for the most part it was pretty good we have a couple areas we're working on one is the opportunities for individualized professional development so we are at 55% there that's something that we've really been trying to work on we have purchased a professional Library where there's Pathways that people can choose as well is really trying to work on the specialty areas because it's a little bit trickier for someone who's teaching PE and art and there's only one of them so versus a grade level it's a little bit um easier when you have other people doing the same thing that you do to talk and grow from each other as um and then the next part with the administration um working on having regular timely and helpful feedback so we're working continually on this to try and improve and we actually have an outside consultant working with us to help sure that we're aligning and growing ourselves to help the teachers even more and then the last part the climate of collaboration it's not just the communicating between each other it's learning from each other growing being on committees teams all of those working together and this is what we're doing to work on for the data we've been focused on small group instruction as well as science of reading professional development of small groups you've heard me talk at pre prior um Board of Ed meetings about having literacy have come in to work with teachers working with two grade levels at a time and having that as a focus with them so they're really getting that professional learning handson in their classroom with their grade level Partners um and then we also have started some extended data team time some feedback came from teachers you know they by the time you drop off your class you start talking and really getting into things it's time to go pick them up again so we've built in some times to have extended time so they can dig even deeper into the data to make those changes for students and then um monitoring our mtss process which was the intervention that we spoke about and so that's great but like where do we go from here because I think if you're standing still you're moving backwards and so it's really important that what we're doing is we're really trying to improve right better today than yesterday and better tomorrow so on the equity side we're working on building those relationships right it's difficult to have some of those conversations if you don't have that full and committed trust to the people around you so we're really trying to be able to build that as a team as a group we're continuing to create and present those newsletters we're also getting feedback on what we feel um staff would mean we're getting feedback from our staff and subcommittees and then we're researching potential outside providers to provide um potentially outside work in both developing relationships and staff training around equity um for social emotional learning we're reviewing revising that behavioral process our climate committee is talking about this on a regular basis it's the top of the agenda as we look at it around data everything that you're seeing here we talk about on a monthly basis in that climate committee um we're also researching trauma informed in tier one Behavior practices to implement schoolwide and then also determining a professional learning plan and then for high quality instruction we're continuing that work focusing on data collection for small group instruction we're implementing that um in and we're implementing that work and that professional development with um with folks through literacy how um and with Rob and Moore for math uh and then also we're researching the mtss process and really looking at how we can improve that along the way um so we've got a lot of things that we're doing and a lot of things that we're looking at as we move forward and I think that really gets back to the idea of this strategic plan so we had a 5-year strategic plan clearly some things have happened along the way but it doesn't away that that was important work and it's an important need for our district and so that's our charge and then now our job is to think as we're starting to move through these what other aspects of that do we need to address based on what we're seeing from our staff from our families and from our students and then I think ultimately which will probably also Encompass um several members of the board if you look right we're coming up on the end of this strategic plan so what we see as we're getting through now what we've been able to get to what we might not have been able to address yet and what we see as potential new needs for the district will really drive that next that next strategic plan so um it's really that's our job here is that the Strategic plan is a really excellent guiding document but then our job is to really take that and turn it into boots on the ground support teachers and put them in the best place to be successful and support students in all aspects of their their roles and their lives here at school so um that's what we've got any other questions um thanks for the ones great yeah I got a couple yeah and we'll do this by the numbers because that's just the way I process stuff sure how many periods are there in the average day periods how many how many classroom sessions are there so when we think are you talking how when's the teacher let's start with this one then teachers are supposed to be in the building from when to when 8:15 to 3:20 to 3:30 okay how many classroom sessions do they have in that period meaning like English readings corre so we typically have about a 90 minute block for ELA um we have about an hour block for Math and then we have um a half hour for morning meeting and about 45 minutes for science and social studies and then another 20 to 25 minutes for uh win or intervention time okay you just mentioned it how much time during a day between 7 and 3:15 are spent in meetings I depend as opposed to classroom it depends teacher to teacher so sometimes we would have um meetings that we would need for um for say like a student who has an IEP and we would meet with that family and that classroom teacher would need to be in that meeting it's not necessarily something that would be every day it would be something that would fluctuate across the year but there seem to be a lot of Team meetings about developing these programs so how much time in the day typically yeah typically those are happening before and after school hours we're not meeting during the school hours to interrupt instructional time so like if I think about climate so it's not deducting from instructional time there is some time when we meet for when we think about the intervention process so for the intervention process because there's several staff members that we need and it's really essential right because something like climate committee I can't be like margerie you must show up to climate committee right she volunteering cuz she's amazing and she's on climate committee but if I do need her in a meeting about a particular student that she's seeing that would have to be during time we make sure that we get coverage for for staff like classroom teachers and things that way but typically it's fairly small blocks of time okay thank you welcome I have a question yeah um so what is the process I mean we talk about these um you know testing to evaluate kids and teachers yeah can determine where children need help in terms of maybe the opposite if you know parents are approaching the teacher yeah and saying you know I have a concern yeah you know maybe they notice a dyslexia of some sort or something what is the process for that being addressed and getting the child to help when it's initiated by the parent yeah really good question so I think you know so we so um I think it depends on what the concern is it's brought by the parent right so sometimes um we might have a parent that's coming in and they have a concern about a student and um and how they're presenting as a person their behavior something that they might be noticing that's different about their AET or something that way um and for that we have what's called our Behavior Support team and so every Friday we're meeting as a behavior support team and we take a look at if we've had Behavior referrals right Tom's Tom's been having an off week we've had three different referrals for him let's talk what's going on in Tom's life or we just Tom's teacher let us know that his folks called and they said hey Tom's coming home he's crying last couple of days something's up with him we're not sure let's talk about Tom and what's going on with him or he's come to us and he said listen I I've been having a really rough go or the teacher might be coming and saying I'm seeing Tom and he seems really frustrated so we have all those different ways that that data comes to behavor support and then we reach out to either the teacher or the family and let them know hey this is what we're going to do is our next steps that way and we keep them informed along the way if it's academics yeah so if it's academics we take a look at what does that data say so they might say hey I'm really worried about my child right and so we look and they say Tom's really struggling with this or that and then we look at how that child is presenting in terms of their data at school and if we're starting to see something that's similar in that Trend then we would go along through that consultation process so I would say the parent can request to be to have their child evaluated by intervention or when how does it how does that process go our first step wouldn't necessarily be to go to evaluation um our first step would be able to would be to take a look at the data that we have then based on that if we see something that would be a similar Trend what we would do is we would ask that teacher to fill out what's called a consultation form they would say what is the data that I see what have I done so far to try and support that student and then someone from the curriculum team would reach out maybe talk with them and say hey I've seen you've done X Y and Z with Tom have you tried this and this and this no I haven't okay try some of those strategies out we're going to check in with you in a few weeks and see if they're successful if they are well great we've we've built a better mous trap right if they aren't then that's telling us we need to do more and then from that we would go and say this might be a student that we need to refer um in our um mtss process and say maybe this student need some additional support and intervention and we would say what is the data that shows that they're not growing in that typical education classroom and then how can we support them which we would consider so typical education so ased you speak tier one right then an intervention might be tier two where you'd be going to your typical class and then getting additional support from either the classroom teacher on a regular basis during that intervention time or with the intervention team during that intervention time and then we monitor right every six weeks we come back to the table and say how's Tom doing we've been giving him this intervention is his data improving is it not at what point does it reach um you know where there needs to be um additional testing and referrals to outside good question so I'll take it from there for the next step so if the mtss process had concerns or not see because they're tracking all the time if they're not seeing the progress and they've changed the intervention and increased the intervention and they're not seeing that then they might make a referral to the Special Education team have what's called a planning placement team meeting and at that point the team looks at the data to determine what are the next steps and you would ask the question what happens if parent has concerns about that obviously the best thing to do is to do the whole process but if that is not working and someone a parent has a right to request planning placement team meeting but that meeting they might get together and say this child has had no intervention we're seeing the data and they're looking like they're doing okay or they may say yes we have concerns do parents know that they have that option do they know it's they can ask do they know the process for asking for that I can't speak for every parent but I know it's on the website it's in our procedural safeguards that we have out there anyone who calls with any questions to me I explain the process I know Tom do the same and we explain to teachers too if anyone has any questions with that um the best practice would be to go through the ntsss process because if a child um were to go through the plan process one of the questions we have to roll out is did the child respond to intervention so um that's an important piece of that what is NSS process it's basically multi system of support thank sorry Sean that's that's [Music] our yeah and the challenge right and the challenge is it's the Goldilocks theory of trying to find intervention right you don't want to do too much you don't want to do too little you want to make sure that you're getting that child the right amount of support so that they're not missing additional tier one instruction to go and do something but also that they're not struggling so much with that tier one instruction that we're not helping them enough so they can be successful I just wanted to follow I can't think what it's called but we get as a parent right at the beginning of every year you get a handbook or a a manual something what yes thingy and that includes the information correct that you were talking about the process is really strong and works really well so if parents have concerns usually that's our first you know talk to the teacher look at the data because it might be that parents are concerned that their child is actually developmentally developing appropriately for that age group but they're just not sure sometimes it's not as obvious yeah and the other and the other part is that we don't just wait around so um as we go through every Benchmark series we have specific time to not about in that data team cycle where um teachers haveon time and so we're using that to look at the The Benchmark reading data and The Benchmark math data to say here are all the kids that we've got here's the data that we've got who's in intervention who's getting support who might be showing some flags and isn't getting support what are we doing for those kids and making sure that we're not the losing a kid proverbially through the cracks we're trying to make sure that we catch everybody as soon as we possibly can easy small solve small problems these are the people that make it work right boots on the ground right and so it's good people knowing the data knowing the information knowing the process and doing the hard work right it's the hard work um and so I'm really proud of the folks who are here because it takes it takes a lot of effort um and I think it takes a lot of courage to stand up as Leaders amongst your colleagues and say listen this is what we're going to do as a district um so there's some really great people here who are leaving a really great charge so I'm really grateful for that um thank you for your questions thank you for coming in to present thank you you know seanj and okay all right thank you PTR report state your name and let's go good evening everyone uh my name is Melissa zaldo I'm PTO president and I'm mom of a fourth grader in class um so we've had quite a busy few weeks since last meeting um as we as that meeting was ending up we were gearing up for our Fun Run um it was very well received I came and watched the fourth graders ran and they transformed the gym into a glowe run the kids had a fantastic time um proud to say we brought in quite a bit of money from that um over brought in um over $16,000 and the PTO spent 2,000 to bring that on so we netted $144,000 um so the next steps for that we brought that in for playground enhancements um so we're looking forward to working with uh Administration um on the next steps on getting some playground and adaptive equipment out there on the playground um the event culminated um every student that was brought into any type of monetary donation didn't matter how small name was entered into a raffle and one student from each grade and one staff member um won the chance to hie Mr in the face there are pictures up on our Facebook page so if you haven't seen it I highly recommend check it out the students loved it um so overall was a great event we're like I said we're going to start looking at on how to spend that money to enhance our playground make it more adapted um also on February 3rd was our family night at Quin ofak University hockey the PTO was able to purchase 100 tickets at a really reduced rate and so families were able to go out and um watch Quinn ofak Crush Dartmouth I guess it was four Z I don't know anything about hockey but I guess that's a really good score um and then on the n9th last Friday uh we held our sweetheart dance here at the school um the decoration first I want to say thank you to Janette Sao uh Nicole Kennedy and jeie house for planning the event I I know some of the board members were at that event it was the gym the hallway out here looked amazing um I would thank U Milton Jackson for being our DJ he had those kids he had everybody out on that dance floor like dancing all night long um we also worked with Stephanie Wells from uh rainbow Farms to make bers and corsages available for purchase prior to that event um I would say huge thank you to everyone who volunteered before after and during the event and I also want to shout out to the Bethany funer fire department um in order to have events in the school we have to have fire watch and we work with them um I know I saw a couple of them so huge thank you to the fir for helping out that event and then today for Valentine's Day myself and two other my board members um were in the cafeteria during lunch and we handed out um popsicles to all the students um they LED them and to email Trum as I was leaving we do have some extras so if the staff wants them they're in the freezer in the staff room um the kids absolutely love that um so what we have going forward is tomorrow is our February it's going to be held here in the library at 6 PM like I said we'll be discussing um a lot of discussion about um how to spend that money from the fund run and also some of our um uping spring events also on March 6th we're having another restaurant night with the Antonios all you have to do is call place an order say you're at the PTO and they going to donate a portion of that back to the PTO also coming up on uh March 8th uh we're hosting our family bingo night um I believe the hour is going be from 5:30 to 8 um registration should be coming soon um we're going to work with brand of pizza where P where families can pre-order Pizza have p sit in the cafeteria go play some Bingo take a break um and then go play some more Bingo um we have some great prizes we have tickets to the Connecticut Science Center gift cards to milkcraft worth ice cream and a whole bunch of others uh registration for that should be coming up soon also coming up in March is our um teacher appreciation dinner uh the PTO provides dinner for the staff during uh their evening conferences because they're here like day and I know it's great appreci I don't know what they're having yet um we'll probably find that out tomorrow but um if people want to donate we'll have a link out for that as well also um just looking a little further ahead um we're starting planning for our spring playing um that's going to be the Friday before Memorial Day we also have um our Quin quasi uh family night coming up the weekend before that and um our yard goats family game I can double check on the date but those are all coming up at this BR as well thank you thank you very much all right we come to the public comment portion of the program Board of Education welcomes public comment individuals or groups May address the board concerning any subject which is within the board's jurisdiction 3 minutes will be allocated to each speaker and a maximum of 15 minutes to each subject matter the speaker is requested to State their name and address are there anybody here or is there anybody here um who would like to make a public comment M Alo report um please state your name and address okay sorry you want need my address you just need to write it down um yeah just write it down okay um Melissa zalo um I did forget to mention in my report um I was here like I said for the students um lunch periods I was so impressed with how those kids behaved all during lunch um from from when the kindergarteners all the way up through the sixth graders um I've heard stories as a parent like sometimes lunch isn't always optimal but from what I saw from those kids today they were all well behaved they were respectful um some said Thank you some didn't which is fine I get it but I just wanted to share that with the staff that their behavior was absolutely that's today right yeah that was today all tired from snow day I just want exha what's that sledding exha see what it's like tomorrow and Thursday or Friday thank you any members of the public any other members of the public going once going twice all right approval of minutes January 10th 2024 does anybody have any comments errors and or omissions do I have a motion to approve the minutes make a motion second you have a town all those in favor all right motion carries unanimously committee reports we'll start with curriculum uh curriculum met um a week ago um just looking at my phone I kind of recap my notes Here uh Mrs Kel reported on the recent upcoming PD offerings for staff um working with literacy on how to provide professional development in the area in the area of reading for k6 and the Team Summit Math teachers are working with Ed Advance um Cas will provided an update regarding midyear benchmarks I'm sure she's going to touch on some of these things in her report um Mr re whale presented an overview of the midyear I ready Benchmark data for the school and in March we will get an update on the 5th grade Team Summit math any questions comments thank you Angel Finance um Amy's not here I can either defer to you or I can do it okay Finance report uh general education salary and projections that's on the uh it's on the fifth or sixth page of your package okay um general education salaries you'll notice has a surplus of $4,560 General occas supp wi is sh a deficit of 8386 due to additional report customizations with power school and an increase in cost for QuickBook software for our sub accounts general education other um slight deficit of $1,500 due to accessory replacements for student technology general education now showing a surplus of 30, $681 which is still largely due to salary adjustments uh for new hires and such special ed all special Edge salary lines have been adjusted to reflect a surplus of $103 which is lower than last month due to Paris adjustments and higher sub costs all other spec at items remain status quo special education ends this month with a surplus of 19,000 $162 operation salaries remain status quo from last month uh there's no change there's still 26,000 in the red um operations benefits is now showing a surplus of 26,1 150 due to adjustments made to our workman's comp anticipated costs Services is also now showing a surplus of 3980 due to adjustments made to our quarterly lap cyber insurance and under underground storage tank policy invoices all other accounts remain status quo so operations in overhead now ends the month with a budget surplus of 3670 the overall budget is now showing a surplus of 53,56 this is still largely due to savings found in salaries and benefits once Brandy completes her cleanup and scrub of accounts we anticipate the number will increase but departments are still actively spending and numbers are still too hard to pinpoint where exactly [Applause] land questions and K will give a discussion during her um presentation about the new budget about the the board budget okay policy yeah you me policy committee met last night oh wait a minute I need a motion to approve the finance committee meeting the finance committee report report second all in favor I I all right sorry go ahead s okay so the uh the policy committee met last night and we're adjusting to not having to Carpenter curate the agenda and so on so uh there was some things that were a little different and uh what I was trying to point out to the committee was uh some purpose of the of that comes out of bylaws and uh bylaw 9000 specifically uh that the purpose of the Board of Ed is or one of the responsibilities let's say is to carry out the mandates of the Connecticut General statutes through policy and uh when doing so you're supposed to hear and consider facts and recommendations so I've been concentrating on trying to carry out the mandates and in so doing um pointing out inconsistencies that uh have been concerned and trying to straighten those out and specifically the terminology of using the word mandate and using it carefully because I think we could all agree that mandate means it's required by law so when we use it we want to make sure that it's uh in context and and uh we're not mixing recommendations with mandates or calling recommendations mandates different things like that because I think it got a little mixed up along the way so you'll see in the next month's meeting there will be three policies that will be mandated policies with mandated revisions and there's some guidance that came from Chipman good that we could add in but I think we should keep guidance in the regulation section as opposed to putting it into the policy section because you know policy is supposed to you know give our aspiration so to speak and the regulation is how to carry it out so if the attorneys are giving us guidance that's I think it would be better placed within the regulation and there is some uh practices that have shown that within the body of policies that BCS has is just inconsistent sometimes we do and sometimes we don't so tried to get that consistency as well uh hearing and considering facts and recommendations I was happy to find that Shipman and Goodwin in their policy portal they actually provide uh written comments on their revised language and explain the the reasons for it whether it be change of law or guidance on implementation so what I included in the policy packet were excerpts from shipment and goodwi so that we had those recommendations with us and reviewing what the policy was doing and uh I intend to do that in the future as it applies and I also think it's important that the superintendent be a part of forming the the the policy committee agenda and uh as long as Kay is willing to meet with me you know once a month or so uh we can uh sit down and prioritize the needs of the school and hear her recommendations because she's a very important voice in this uh she sees things that you know aren't going to come out of cave or in a good way so that that'll help keep us on track so uh without getting too technical I hope I haven't gone into too much I'm hoping that this will provide the board a good premise and platform and uh so we can uh make thoughtful future policy adoptions and we'll see how it goes next month you'll have a few policies in front we can all discuss pluses and minuses of of putting guidance in the policy as opposed to into the regulation that was a debate that we had in the policy committee which didn't get resolved I don't know if I lost everybody or if that made sense no so so you're making progress you're shaking out the The Kinks in the in the procedure true and you're relatively satisfied with the advice that you're getting from shipment and good well let me back up that's maybe the wrong thing to say but so far it appears that the recommendations are in line with what we're supposed to be doing well yeah that's you know their policy Services is responding to changes in law and so they are the primary source for determining the Mandate stuff well your question you you had some questions regarding them versus cab and Cab's mandate versus policy and well I'm sorry that still hasn't shaken out yet and you know I don't think we're going to be able to shake it out I think the world is just a very unsettled place it's reflective in these two lists because if you take a look at the list from K for their required or mandated policies and you compare it with the one from Shipman and Goodwin they bear a little resemblance to each other quite honestly that it's it's remarkable how different they are and which one should we be giving more weight to we all right so cave will fairly consistently not always uh put a disclaimer in that you know they're not the the board's legal counsel and they defer to legal counsel so Shipman and Goodwin is the primary source for mandates but at the same time I don't see all the policies that we need in shipment and Goodwin either so you know I'm not so I suggesting that their list may be complete and maybe they're working on it I don't know but you know going to either policy service and starting to inquire about this I don't think I think they play probably play dodgeball hot potato and we wouldn't get a straight answer and and a lot of these things are evolving constantly and that is just the way the world is lately and so it's not anybody's fault it's just the I'm not looking for fault I'm just looking for guidance from a perspective of fault however I would think that following the mandates of our legal council would somewhat indemnify and insulate us from any liability should our policy run ay of mandate we could lean on our attorney's advice and from a perspective of saying we've done our due diligence we follow the advice of legal counsel whom we hire to put us on that path no one expects us to be legal experts right we hire a legal expert no and what you say is valid you know that would be my concern of taking a mandate that they tell us like listen we think it in your best interest at a board of ed to add this to your policy manual because this is how we read the mandates coming from the state if we choose to not add those mandates to our policy manual and add them second and I and I I'm not quite sure I understand adding them as a regulation as opposed to a policy change EJ if I may we were I'm on the policy committee as well and we had a a very um a very active discussion and while we didn't solve anything I think we had a lot out of that we kind of figured out where we were some of those questions that were coming up we've kind of I think organize it a little bit that we could potentially bring some a question like this up to the to the board at some point one of the things that one of the takeways that I got out of this is Shipman and Goodwin is looking at so there are State mandates and there's specific man language that comes from the state mandate that has to be in policy shipment and good one is taking that and writing it up for us I think some of the issue that and so correct me if I'm wrong is shipment and good one starting to put some of their own language in that so the question that arose from this is should we just have the policy as is written from the state and that's it and not have shipment and Goodwins sort of extra information in there they guided they they guided information in there or should that be part of our policy and I think that's what we were kind of debating last night in that conversation um you know I think that we were in we were all bringing up different concerns of you know one way or the other trying to weigh out the pros and the cons of that but ultimately that is that is the question there is State policy guidelines that have to be in there shipment and Goodwin did you know they're the lawyers they wrote up their legal stance on it but it has more language in it or I don't want to say modified language but additional language than what the state has put out so I think that was the the sort of of the debate is should we just have the language from the state and that's it or should we be taking Shipman and Goodwin's language and putting that into policy or should it be removed or should it be just moved over to regulations versus in policy and that was we did have discussions about C but I think ultimately we ended on like focusing on the lawyers specifically with the state mandates in our conversations last night right and well it's specifically where they they they come out and they say they're providing guidance that's not requ by law okay so we have to you know when we're and it's the use of the word mandate okay so if we get a mandated policy with a with a mandated revision we shouldn't be intermingling those things with guidance recommendations and opinions okay it should be strictly the Mandate okay and if we want to put in their guidance and and definitions and and examples and all this terminology that comes with it we can but we have to recognize it as a recommendation and not a mandate one of the things you may want be careful with our label and I don't think we have to have all man we can have policies that we put in place that aren't necessarily mandates correct we can still do that need to be careful of the labeling so that we know what the choices are yes all right because when something comes in it says it's mandated that should be the result of a change in the law okay that you know the for instance I'm using that you'll see next month is this is all the non-discrimination policies you know so they added a protected class for um sexual abuse victims no domestic AB victims so the there's a mandate to make a change but the language is not necessarily congruent to the mandated change so we could say it's a mandated change with some added verbage what you may want to take a look at I think one of the things that may solve your problem is when you go into the Connecticut General statutes to to research something it gives you what the statute says and I'll use something that I'm very familiar with in zoning regulations they give you the statute then underneath the statute they give you the history and the history could be in four five six eight places in other words going back as far as the statute how it was changed this time and I think you may want to approach to policy the same way if you're going to recommend a policy change then where did the language come from and what it impacts you see what I'm saying in other words it gives you some brief ex doesn't have to be a a doctrinal dissertation it can only be you know a couple of sentences but it puts everything into context and it explains what the policy is for how is arrive that and what it governs that may be something you want to look at because that would solve some of your problem is you know okay this policy is not a mandated policy it's a recommended policy and here's what the recommendation was and here's what we're doing do you see what I'm saying I do and and mostly what I'm trying to do is keep us from being misled by by marking these things mandated and that's what I'm saying is I think you want to have a not a disclaimer but I think just a one or two sentence explanation of why we're doing this policy and where it came from where the language came this language is verbatim ship Good's uh recommendation you know or this is verbatim from the state uh Board of Education paragraph I you know whatever chapter and verse but just a one or two sentence explanation on what we're looking at and why we're looking at well I think you have a couple issues going on I think we have statutory mandatory you're going to do it we also have best practices part which is what Shipman and good ones are doing and you have cave which is giving you Professional Standards so you clearly have three different areas that you're going at this way the statute should be the statute that is mandated all the other policies are either going to be a professional standard or a best practice and I think those are the areas you should be looking at the attorney's point of view should be whatever the statute says if we're going to do other policies then it should be either a professional standard or it should be a best practice and they are three distinctive things in my world OSHA is a state mandate the National Fire Protection Association is our professional standard we are held to those two things but they are one is you're going to do the one is I strongly recommend you doing this and I think that's the difference between the attorney and Cave reading the cave stuff but that's why you give an a small explanation no I'm not saying you're wrong but I just I think we need to be careful because there are three distinctive things exactly right and what I'm trying to avoid is just something mate and thinking that we don't have a choice or that we can't you know question anything it's just like rubber stamp off we go so I don't want to to see that happen but you know you have mandated policies with recommended revisions or recommended policies with mandated revisions I mean you it can make you a little crazy I know but I think you got I think it's going to take a little time to that out so it's not going to be done this week you be a process you know what I'm trying to do is you know do something consistently and orderly so that we all know what we're getting and uh specifically not to be misled by labeling and that's and that's why I suggest you you when you when you come up with something just a one or two line explanation of what we're looking at okay so you know as as a board I think we could all agree that mandate means it's leg legally required I think you know we can all agree on that I'm not positive uh but uh you know board policy according to another byw is supposed to be you know telling us what will be done and the administrative regulations are supposed to tell us how it will be done so you know when Shipman and Goodwin comes up with guidance okay this was the the Crux of of the discussion so they have guidance it's not required by law you know that's point it's not required by law but we're giving you guidance that would be a best practice okay so that's not mandate correct that's a best practice so this this is where you know we were discussing do we put it in the policy or should it go in the regulation you know see I was of the mind that it should go into the regulation to you know implement the purposes of the policy well I think I think the better question ask K is how many state regulations do we follow under that are mandated factually mandated by the Board of Ed or state statute do we have any idea I don't have that number does it ex because I don't I don't even know honestly where I would begin to look at that because to Susan's point the amount of legislation that has come out just last year alone it it just being compiled so so Sean let me give you an example use OSHA as an example right so if there's an OSHA regulation of something with you have to have fire suppression equipment available in a particular room with a certain square footage if you're going to have a an active stove okay what to give this as the best example but outside of Education what Shipman and Goodwin then came in and said well we want to Define what fire suppression really means it means you could have a fire blanket or you could have this or you could have this or you could have that but technically it's not part of the of the actual mandate that came out but Shipman and Goodwin saying we're really recommending you put this language in here that was some of the source of the of the debate last night well should that not be in the policy because OSHA didn't say that so why are why are our attorneys adding that in it should not be there I don't want to question to me if the attorneys their job is to cover us if they're saying it should be there there's probably a good reason for it C is a different story if that's something with regulations that we want to have discussion about about best practices but if we're talking about them trying to cover us from getting sued because we didn't identify what fire suppression meant and then all of a sudden we thought we had the right thing in there and then we didn't I would I would be less likely to question our attorneys on saying that we know better than I would C that was sort of my stance on it CES it we ended up getting cab out of the conversation last night we started to focus on the attorneys I don't want I personally don't think our group should say yeah I don't want to follow the attorney's language because I feel like we open the town of Bethany up to potential lawsuits doing that now whether or not it needs to be in the regulation or as a policy I think you know we can have that discussion I think that policies don't have to just be the state mandated language only so I think we could have put some of that language in policies if we choose to and I think that's where we have to listen to our attorneys and say okay should this be a policy or should it not be why why are you we can ask them why are they recommending it and not just take it on Blind Faith but I do think we potentially open ourselves up if we start disregarding shipment and good one I agree with you I'm I suggesting that we disregard them okay so please don't misunderstand I'm just concentrating on the labeling so that we know what we're making a decision on what is mandated and what is not okay they they threw in these guidance recommendations and so the question comes is are those best used in the regulation or or is it necessary to put in policy okay so that's what that's really what it came down to can we posit that question to the attorney and say listen you've made recommendations based on this mandate do you do you recommend that we put them in the policy or do you think they're best placed in our regulations we could I mean want to perhaps that might all you know alleviate the discrepancy and then you could label them however you want when you put them in front of us but I should also add make your life make your head spin just a little bit more okay that they changed this PO all right so the policy we're discussing was the one in the December uh board meeting packet okay that's the policy with all the language okay the policy that I brought to the the committee last night has like 1% of that language in there because most of it was guidance but since that time Shipman and Goodwin has updated their policy again you know so we're already out of date by even looking at the December version so you know they keep they re they rewriting this thing it's a moving Target my suggest my suggestion would be to concentrate on a point in time put it on a piece of paper we'll take a look at it discuss it and then decide to go from there and if it has to be changed into some future date then we change it but we should start the process to see what shakes out don't just try to do it all one shot just pick one or two and you said the one that's what I've been doing then that's Pi the three non-discrimination then fine then next month um you know the policy committee is going to meet before the Board of Ed meeting no no no oh okay yeah policy not a monthly meeting oh but I do but I think what we did as a committee last night right so we we talked through these these policies and we do have both the sort of the strip down version and the version with more language in them and I I think it's in some ways it's good that we have a few just a few policies to talk about the first time so that we can as a group sort of come to a consensus about how we want to approach them I also like this is I think as a group we're starting to get a better sense of of what our priorities are in this process and where we're heading I think having the actual policy in front of us rather than the hypotheticals is actually going to make it easier now that we've started this we have we'll have something concrete to look bring it back bring it up next month what I'm going to suggest because I I didn't get a chance to last night sorry but in the policy committee meeting I would have thought of this but it didn't get in there because it got late I was thinking maybe we should propose to the board okay we can call it the mandated version okay which is what the shenon referred to as a strip down okay because it there's just not a lot to put in there okay very specifically adding a protected class for the most part there's one different so we could call that the mandated policy then we could have the other version that was in December and call that a recommended policy then do it that way and and let's just give us something to start with and you know we should consider whether or not we want to put all that into the policy or into the regulation that accompanies the policy exactly and that's what Shannon to to Shannon's point I think that's a great way to start okay like you know you know the the the the the Journey of a Thousand Miles starts with one step let's just take one step that's what I was trying to do that's why we only got three number and that's a great way to do it and and and Shannon's idea of coming basis let's try it that way for next month okay all right that way we can all get on the same page yeah perfect all right thank you guys we appreciate it all the the change in age five which is which is we realize it's a it's it's it's it's a it's a it's a tough place to be well you know the change in A5 are in age five for kindergarten there you know C and Shipman and goodwi they can't agree on that either and I guess there's more changes possibly coming down it's and so there's more changes possibly coming down a lot of people don't want to implement it yet they created all that chaos that they're going to back you we have these professional you know Services okay but they are only model policy Services okay they just claim all over the place that you know you got to do your own thing okay and it's not like bring something next month and we'll okay see what she looks like all right thank you for your time sorry to no this this was we knew was going to be a a difficult area because there is so much to it and there is exactly what you guys were the three of you were talking about is that you know you've got so much conflicting information it's not going to get better unfortunately have to for ourselves in this all right unfinished uh business the approval of the superintendent's proposed spending plan K you're on sure so I won't take you through all the slides I won't make you suffer through that but I did put at your uh station today uh just some highlighted some boarded points um the same way which I presented to the board of Finance when we went before them back on February 2 it outlines that the key drivers are the contracts and benefits you know that we negotiated the new teacher contract that weighs into this um some of the challenges with the increase in enrollment inflation those are some of the things that we're trying to to adjust for um the budget Journey contractual and benefit obligations for leveled Services started us at an 8.11 increase up to a summit of 99.59% our final requested increase at this time as the result of conservative Grant offsets is at 5 .

I can I have roll call please presita present Michelle here Kate here glis here Mar Lauren Richard H here Richard janelli he's AB thank you we have yes yes public participation the board welcomes public participation and answer comments be limited to 3 minutes the public may offer objected comments of school operation and programs that concern them the board would not permit an expression of personal complaints ofat comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the dbe public schools at this time we will start our public participation the first person that signed is Heather everyone is everyone is limited to 3 minutes hi everyone my name Isen I'm a resident of d and a teacher at d Ray High School um most of you know me very well um and you know my love for this district and um the love of our students our staff um this has been a really difficult year um I was one of the teachers that was um hit um in December and um along with another colleague of mine who is now Prett bill um the I'm here because the safety of students and teachers in my opinion should be the number one priority of this district and I really hav't felt that um I'm sorry I'm usually much more composing this um I am actually afraid for the first time in 18 years of teaching I am sometimes afraid in my school we are overcrowded there are not enough adults to go around there are not enough safety Advocates they aren't paid well enough they don't even get benefits so we can't keep them around there is a problem a significant problem at D high school we know we all know about the overcrowding I don't think you understand I actually have been pushed and shoved not intentionally by kids but because there's just a swarms swarms and swarms of kids it is unbelievable what it's like there this year and it's most especially on the floor that I'm on which is de3 it is pro probably the most populated floor in the entire school and we don't have enough money and this budget that's coming up and the current budget and next year's budget does not in my opinion prioritize our safety and health or the students safety and health and I am begging you I'm literally begging you to please do something about it please get working cameras everywhere in the building please please get more safety advocates in the building please pay them a fair wage and give them benefit so they're not afraid that they're going to get hurt on the job please do something because otherwise pretty soon you will have no teachers thank you very much I appreciate your time and I'm sorry I'm coming across so emotional but there's there's nothing else I can do except show you how raw it is so thank you have a good evening thank you for bringing your comments to the board tonight thank you Adam good evening my name is Al I'm student at bra school and I just want to address something about my own personal beliefs growing up in family I saw that as hard of I'm half Pakistanian and half white one side of my family is Christian and the young is Muslim when I was younger I never noticed how difficult it was to transfer between one side and another side the different responses I have received um students family members about my two sides I've noticed that it's pretty hard to deal with these two sides and on the side where I'm Muslim I know that I am loved and I have so much love inside throughout this there is a holiday called he on this holiday we stay up so late we celebrate this month after the month of Ramadan where we fast almost every single day I'm asking you guys and pleasing you for a day off it is hard to go back to school the next day with deal with all that stress the makeup of work those assignments add up and I know this might seem a lot but it's my parents are pretty hard on my grades so I'm just asking you guys if you can get eat off got everything to me I also notic other like schools getting eat off there's holidays like paper Good Friday and Christmas so I'm asking why not I hope the speech might do well happy day thank you for your com [Music] Sarah good evening my name is s and good evening my name is Sarah Sayan and I'm a student in brav Middle School living in New York my whole life we had PR all after moving to Denbury I learned that no one at school knew what e was or what my religion even is my heart sank as I had to make a fre test and went for like 100 assignments the next day since I had to miss school for eight my parents are very strict when it comes to my education so it took them a lot of debating before finalizing that I shouldn't have to go to school on me it made them sad too knowing that me and my little brother had to struggle just because we wanted to follow our religious traditions and be with our loved ones on a special day that meant so much to us what makes it harder is that people at school had no clue what me was and every time I mentioned it they were like what's that or like that has to be made up I always shed my best to be inclusive when the other holidays come out like Hanukkah or Christmas I say Merry Christmas to my friends that celebrate Christmas because I know it makes them so happy I don't I don't want to be I don't want to ask for too much I just want to be able to say Aid without having to give a speech on what Aid is all the time I love living in D but when my favorite day comes around the corner I get stressed and I have to balance so many things and I am still a kid after all I miss being able to enjoy waking up and not worrying what I'm missing out on but I know it's about more than just how I feel about the work I have to make up if the entire District takes off our Aid we can celebrate diverse holidays and encourage an of inclusiveness we would Al we would be allowing students to learn about different cultures and help students appreciate the diversity of dber thank you for your time thank you may my name isiam a I'm a senior high school since the last sport of Ed meeting on January 24th many families from my community Danberry contacted me asking about our e proposal because they want to support it and get involved including our community leaders and Muslim civil rights organization however our personal experience as students with the leadership of Danberry schools teachers and staff encourage us to believe in this board and this board will continue to work with us students to list the E of and as holidays on the calendar of our schools we met with the superintendent last year he was supportive and encouraging and he advised us to bring our proposal to the new board because he told us it would be difficult to add the E holidays to the 2023 to 2024 year we are proposing it to be added to the 2024 to 2025 and following Year's calendars recognizing Eve as a holiday and closing de schools will provide Muslim Students with long overdue accommodation Stanford Manchester Bridgeport Trumble Fairfield New Haven Hamden Norwalk water already have the eeve holiday off and we believe that Danberry should be on this list Danberry has dedicated days off from school for many non-religious and religious holidays including yor and Good Friday Muslim Students have been victims of high levels of islamophobic sentiment and islamophobia in US public schools it is a prevalent and ongoing problem according to a Nationwide poll taken by in 2020 by the Council on American Islamic relations which found 51% of Muslim Students in to 12th grade face religious bullying more than twice the reported national average of 20% some young Muslims experience anxiety depression insomnia and low self-esteem what others feel they must choose between being American or Muslim at school having the eat holiday off is a way to promote cultural engagement and a way to change outdated stereotypes through education which starts in schools where children are supposed to learn about cultural diversity and acceptance if he finds this need further discussion the Muslim Community and the students of D we would like to we we don't want to stop do them as we are given everyone three minutes okay thank you okay thank you very much Serena hello everyone D is a diverse City and students across the district represent a vast array of cultures and religions Muslims make up a sizable amount of our home which becomes painfully evident when I see the amount of students struggle to make up assignments and tests after e excuse absence means nothing when students are left no time to breathe after their absence equal representation is core to our campaign to make both eids districtwide holidays but each year I witness dozens of my classmates struggle with their mental health during what is meant to be a time of Celebration and Bliss I want my classmates to enjoy their religious holidays just as I enjoy Christmas Easter good Friday and every other religiously significant day I have the privilege of celebrating with ease with ease I'm sure you all want the same for all Danbury students as well as a member of Danbury High School student council I am usually obliged to attend at least one Board of Ed meeting a month but I come here completely for my own will because I come here with the moral responsibility to advocate for the students I repr present every year dozens of our students fall behind simply because they celebrate Eid there are two eids but only one currently falls in the school year needless to say since Muslim holidays follow a different calendar that will eventually change and the deny School District must be ready to accommodate for students when that time comes students deserve to celebrate their religion without worrying about school and a large sum of us take this for granted thank you for your time thank you my last speaker s if I did not pronounce your name wrong I'm sorry good evening uh my name is s I'm a teacher at high school I apologize just like Heather um this is our emotional topic um I've been teaching at D high school for 10th year this is my 10th year now um 2021 I was named teacher of the year here at d as anyone who knows me um this for me is my calling it's not a job and Heather is right um what is happening at De High School is beond um acceptable um we we we're here talking about increasing reading scores math scores and I'm sure the board of you have uh pressures from the state to get funing whatever that is the pandemic didn't help things um but there's so much emphasis on numbers on the statistics right now we are barely keeping our heads above water with the safety and the lack of disrespect to teachers this year alone pretty much on a weekly basis now I've seen flights on D3 I'm also in D3 and it's not just D3 is everywhere um I can call I can call the f word the b word I then pretty much kids just not everyone but enough where it's not just me um I've witnessed see you know dealing with hearing how my colleagues are being punched um I'm asking you and I know you have to focus on numbers but what we're looking at is maso's hierarchy of need you're focusing on actualization versus the safety please provider administrators with money support training that they need to conduct our monthly safety committee meetings give them the training they need to manage these things because you are going to lose a lot of teachers teachers don't want to leave but they're having to leave uh thank you thank you thank you is there anyone that would like to speak that did not come and speak and did not sign up one opportunity for 3 minutes hello my name is Ria Khan I actually a 2020 graduate of DHS proud alumni um and I just want to speak on both topics that the volunteers have spoke on tonight um as someone that had graduated in 2020 at DHS it was obviously very different from the what I'm hearing now but at the same time we end heard fights just like she's explaining now it is almost embarrassing to think that I am a college graduate now and you're still enduring these problems and think that these issues are just arising and you're still doing nothing that's such a concern it's only getting worse the teachers are getting punched now I just want you to think about that in my case scenario it would only happen from student to student and I was the year that we had got accredited amazing but you're letting teachers get punched and hurt just think about how that's affecting their safety and wanting teachers to stay there's obviously other factors that are making them want to leave but now you're letting them get hurt and putting them out at the job I just want you to think about that because these teachers are the reason why I do what I do today these teachers are why I am the person I am today and I cannot thank them enough these are the teachers that would be been impact on us if you want them to go they're ready to go I just want to remind you of that and that's for the kids that are fighting to get eth eties mean as much as Christmas does to you I want you to think about that as well because if you get Christmas off that's amazing you get to celebrate that big part of your Christian belief they have Muslim belief they believe it too consider that and consider those Ramadan holidays the eeve holiday those are as significant as your Christmas Hol your Good Friday your your Easter whatever it may be just those two the topics that were brought up tonight mean so much to me and I want to consider that if the CP was an issue when I was in high school from 2016 to 2020 and it's still an issue it needs to be resolved and the fact that I did not get eat off as a holiday when I was in high school still an issue and that the fact that it's still not been resulted to the St as we are standing in 2024 that is a problem and it needs to be resolved thank you thank you at this time public participation has been closed we will go right into our agenda for tonight I need a motion to accept the consent count I'll make a motion that the Board of Education approve the items on the consent calendar exhibits 24-21 through 24-30 as recomended motion made by Kate could I hear second second by air any question concerning to consent calv seeing none all in favor to consent Calvin can I hear I I motion so car we're going to move down the agenda to the action item action item a okay I'll make a motion that the Board of Education approve the D Public Schools 24 sorry 2024-25 calendar in with exhibit 24-31 motion made by Kate could I hear second to the motion second second by Louisa any question concerning this motion yes I can I just wanted to point out that from the last calendar that you saw to this one uh the 2025 2026 there was a change uh there was an error on the uh indication for the rashash date originally listed as the 23rd has been corrected to the 22nd and that has been noted on on your um on the calendar in your in your pocket 2425 for 2526 the the date was changed from the 23rd to 22nd and I did indicate that yellow in your packet just that you were aware that that was a change from what you previously had seen yes k um with regard to the the advocacy we heard from our students um my mic is on yeah okay um with regard to the advocacy that we've heard from our uh some of our students at the last two meetings um can we just clarify Dr casmiro when we do an approval on a calendar like this uh what what can happen after that can we make amendments to the calendar how frequently does that happen I mean there has there have been times that we have made amendments after we after we've submitted the calendar usually because either there had to be a change in the school year we found an error that was unanticipated we've done that um the school calendars that are presented here were actually kind of late in the in the season here to get the 24 25 calendar in um but certainly you know if the board wishes to make an amendment down the line um in recognition of some of the things that you heard tonight that that would be the board's choice to do that me ask a followup question yes uh my followup question is you know I understand that there's a process that we have to go through and improving new holidays to be added to the calendar U that involves contractual paperwork with some of our bargaining units um is there some way that we can demonstrate um recognition of the concerns that were forward perhaps uh develop an internal policy where we don't have tests or uh you know quizzes or you know major projects that are do uh on those to holidays absolutely I think it's it's a good suggestion in theory that is what is supposed to happen um that we have students have the ability to have an excused recognized Day offer religious Services um but unfortunately I don't think you know with the with the way that the academic calendar flows um some folks may not necessarily um you know recognize that fully and and appreciate um what is happening but certainly that could be something that can be brought up through policy um or through you know have a regulation around um particularly student work um and acknowledgement of religious holidays okay thank you Dr any other question say none all in favor a motion did I hear I motion so car Item B Teresa B D Public Schools 202- 2026 calendar motion that the Board of Education approve the de Public Schools 25-20 26 Calendar in accordance with exhibit 24-32 motion made by Teresa could I hear a second on that motion second second by Al any question concerning exib 2432 I need okay um I don't know if I can ask a question um with regard to the ID holiday and does it fall um on the same day every year I believe I believe the calendar for 2526 is the day that falls on it is it was on I think it was on I believe it falls down uh spring break time that's 25 26 is that a process that you would like for the superintendent to look into if I'm not mistaken there are to um in holidays when you say one Falls during our so I'm trying to figure out when does the other and is it consistently the same around the same time each year it's my understanding that it shifts um each year it's not necessarily consistent I believe uh this year in April 11 I'm sorry we do not we do not dialog I'm sorry we do not dialogue with each other I think this is April 10th you want to have a conversation you can have the conversation later we do not diog back and forth with our ordinance okay that was any other question concerning uh that exhibit seeing none all in favor action item B did I hear I motion so car action item C o okay we have one do you are oppose or you abstain oppos okay so we have one oppos action item six I make the motion that the Board of Education approve the authorization of signature change form for the e099 agreement for Child Nutrition programs in accordance with I guess the state rle the state 2 legislator 24 34 thank you are you reading action item C I'm sorry let me rephrase it let me R you let's stop let's start all over I know it's Valentine's Day but I had a sign that I I I know it's Valentine's Day I had sign that exibit to what Miss Harris before you even stop no chop death okay I make a motion I make a motion that the Board of Education approve the authorization of signature change form for the Ed 099 agreement for Child Nutrition programs in accordance with 24-33 the motion was made by second by any discussion on that motion seeing none all in favor can I hear I motion so car now since Al you knock Miss Harris out the place on Valentine's Day I'm going to have to give Wanita uh Michelle would you exchange with Wanita I need to do an action action it action item D action item D authorization of change to the signatory representatives thank you m the motion that the Board of Education approved and authorize a change to the signatory representatives for the danur public schools and danur public school launch program in accordance with exhibit 24-34 motion was made by Wanita could I hear second by Michelle any discussion seeing none all in favor could I hear I I motion so carried thank you action item e Mr h the Board of Education adopt the superintendent 20242 fiscal year budget in the amount of 1881 m343 n95 as presented for submission to Mayor as required by the city Charter in accordance with article 24-35 motion made by Mr Holley could I hear a second for that motion seconded by K we're going to open it up for a discussion at this time any discussion Mr so in further consideration from the finance board and review with with John as far as in the past couple of days uh we wish to amend that amount to actually a net budget of 168 milon 160,000 and if I can kindly explain if we start with 1813 the contractual agreements as well as well basically the the C the contractual agreements have been adjusted somewhat but in addition we're expecting an increase from the alliance Grant to the tune of 6 6, 800,000 we that comes directly to the Board of Education we are anticipating an increase from the state ECS funding of $2.8 million now that is given to the city and it is the expression of the city but in the years past as I'm to understand stand that has been passed along back to the to the board of education and then we also anticipate I anticipated a savings as far as retirements of 200,000 based on 20 employees at $10,000 per year which basically Nets us out at 1681 160 0000 windows again okay so if we start with the Baseline budget of $150 million M we have the 2024 loss of es eer money in the amount of 10, 800,000 contractual agreements contracts salaries health benefits transportation to the tune of 5.7 million those are a clear increase over the current budget plann for the 2425 budget budget drivers basically our wish list totals 9.6 million we also that would include the new positions FTE and all the support staff to address the enrollment growth to address the transportation needs as well as to address the special education mandates lastly we have the capital expenditures although we feel and many people on the on the on the well that should basically move to the operational budget to be placed either under Technologies or supplies to the tune of $1.86 million so grand total in terms of the grant is 00 so basically 178 million again taking away the anticipated increase from the alliance Grant which is 6.8 million the anticipated increase from ECS funding which is 2.8 million and the expected retirement Savings of 200,000 brings us to a net budget of 0000 my question would be have there been any discussion with our finance department chairperson of the finance committee I have spoken to Mr janelli as well as John they in course C up to yes okay um thank you for bringing that information forward Mr Holly um hesitant to commit to numbers from the state we don't have information yet currently the governor is proposing 60 over $60 million in cuts to the education funding that was just approved last session by our legislature um so I'm I'm a little reluctant to to take for you know take for granted that we're going to see these numbers come through uh to dampy for next budget cycle it's a real gamble on our part uh to do that yes um why I would hate to have us sitting here in the same position that we started out with um when we when I came on to the board um you're using the term anticipate which is not to say that you're going to get it um and so I I'm a little weary about dropping down to that note any anticipation um yes M uh L that L answer question I just have a question have we drawn down on all of our eser money is it at zero it will be at the end of [Music] June Mr so again in correspondence with John and and Mr janelli who I believe has been speaking to Julie kishner he's confident although to uh to to Kate's point the uh the state of the union and the State of the State of the financial you know that uh that the governor had imposed he is very confident and comfortable with that increase as far as [Music] ands good thank you and I certainly appreciate um your general analysis on this however I'm I'm very uncomfortable uh in the 11th Hour making a change um from what has already been proposed and discussed at length I certainly was not a part of that conversation um to to present it in that in that manner and the alliance Grant historically is supposed to be supplemental supposed to be viewed as supplemental to support school systems highy school systems there are categories um that money needs to be spent in high need students um Second Language Learners um Innovation College and Career they're very specific categories um in in the past we have not in this way put up against put up an anticipated amount up against our budget certainly we've had to rely on the alliance Grant um to kind of save the day when we did not get our ass from the city and that has happened but the allian grant should be supplemental and not supplanting um funds that we should anticipate from sources so I just want to put that out there and I I do have a question John if that was your understanding um coming out of most recent meetings right if I if I could I think um I think we the minimum there need to be two resolutions um there absolutely has to be a resolution on the total spending if you'd like to have a second resolution uh that has to do with revenues and things like that um that's fine um there's two reasons why we need a at least a single resolution on the Appropriations uh one is practically speaking uh two of the last three years uh we've tried to combine uh revenues and expenditures in a resolution in it um it didn't work uh in the in June of 2021 for the 222 2122 budget uh the board's resolution included a draw down of educational reserves 2.4 million to be added to the Appropriations and and that's what we started spending as going on but when we got over in front of the city council with the next budget they said where why did you do this only we can authorize the draw down the reserve and that's what led to some of the confusion that year we had to make a special request and it wasn't until uh May uh that we met their requirements for how to draw down that Reserve was specifically for certain things um the second mistake we made was in the curent budget um we adopted a uh budget that wasn't was not balanced uh the savings amount 4.7 million uh we're still trying to work our way out of that we're optimistic uh but it's um it's not up to us that the city uh likewise has to approve this uh so that's the first reason of the Practical nature of the way the the city uh funds us uh the second reason you need to have advocate for separate resolutions uh really comes from the state law and it's uh connetic it's education law 10- 222 uh it requires you to adopt an U itemization of expenses for next year I'll just read you very briefly um each local board event shall prepare an itemized estimate of the cost of the public schools for the year that's what you have attached to your item uh an itemized estimate and shall submit such estimate to the board of Finance in each town or city having a board of Finance to the board of Selectmen if each town has no Board of Finance or uh to the um U Authority making Appropriations uh for the school budgets in your District which is our case so we have to have that estimate of the ation and then um but secondly the car Caris Point uh the alliance is a whole set of additional spending uh it's not um you could say we have 181 uh million in front of us but there's another 22 million this year that goes for primarily full day kindergarten and things like that so we really should not lend those two answer Teresa um being I'm only been on the board for this going into my third year I was shocked to read about the governor's uh uh State of the Union addressed and finding out Esser funds were not supposed to be used for payroll the permanent positions so and now he's saying it's tough for the people who did Sara so our management of those funds creating this problem now I I just want to ask and I'm feel very uncomfortable at this late out and I have to agree with the superintendent to make a change in what we have been trying to put together a budget to present to City Hall tomorrow we talking about making changes and why this information wouldn't brought to at least a superintendent just a little bit early in some type of form I don't know who else maybe everybody else is comfortable just saying yeah let's make the changes I I'm not comfortable and I'm not no Finance person okay that's why we have the people sitting around the table that we have brought into this this business of ours to help make the decision with us so you know maybe somebody else have comments yes so do we have any firm numbers from the state in regard to our es fund ECS funding for 2425 um in Connecticut there's a a two-year budget by annual budget and the um this uh July Begins the second year of the two-year budget and so there are firm numbers for ECS that were U adopted by the general assembly of last June but uh the reason uh assembly gets together for what's called a short session is to look at the revenues to see if they're coming in the way they thought they were coming in a year earlier maybe the casino revenues are down or state income taxes are up or something like that the purpose is really to look at that to see if the the taxes need to be changed however what really happens is uh new proposals come in heard of those not from the governor there'll be some from the assembly and that process will actually play out uh the way it did last June with changes in both the U state aid amounts I suspect uh and other spending amounts everything is uh free game although it's not the original intent help the short session so so if I may John so in that regard as far as the the anticipated budget in 202 5 was not $9.6 million more allocated or slotted to be received by De well we know two things I think from a call from authoritative sources we know that um the governor's budget includes ECS and within that is the alliance Grant and that is 5 million next year the same as it is this year 45 million includes about a $22 million Alliance Grant the rest goes to the city for State a but we also know from talking with the State education department and their officials that um as soon as the state received our October one enrollment numbers which of course they didn't have last June that that would trigger an increase in the alliance Grant with the existing formula and when we spoke with them they said the uh calculation of our October enrollment would mean an additional 6.8 million coming to danber in terms of a larger Alliance Grant which means a larger um ECS kind of complicated but those things are others okay U Mr hly quick question for you in looking at the original number of 181 million and the new proposed 168 million there's a $13 million gap there um and you know I'm taking into account the approximate $10 million in outside funding from Alliance ECS and um the internal savings retirement savings um I'm still coming up short3 million that we had um at some point had in that that previous incarnation of the the budget proposal do you know what's in that 3 million uh changing contractual agreements and budget drivers budget drivers were originally 107 from speaking to John this afternoon he had reviewed that number to be 9.6 contractual 71 to 57 and then the the additional you know retirement savs 100 understand if I mean if I'm looking at this that you're counting the retirement savings twice no I'm looking at that in the original number the 6 million in Alliance 2.8 in ECS and then 200k in retirement savings correct originally originally from from from last night's meeting was 100K as far as the retirement uh retirement savs so we're estimating 20 employees at 10,000 per so a change of 10 employees and 110,000 okay so that 3 million just to clarify is contractual contractual budget drivers retirement and when do you say contractual can you just clarify that for me contractual agreements from basically salaries health and transportation that is 2023 and renew or additional raises salaries health benefits for 2425 season meaning that we expect to save that amount of money or no that means that's that's the additional expense to carry the same Personnel from the 2023 24 school year to 24 25 school [Music] year and then the budget drivers would you do you have a breakdown uh 107 to 9 six and 107 was in John's exhibit from last Tuesday or yesterday and upon review this afternoon he gave me a number of 96 yes uh Mr Spen could you sh some light on that the budget driver Dro and how when we spoke this afternoon um talked about calculating contractual requirements in the in next year's budget and we talked about that including the um the labor contracts and some of the benefits that go with that the transportation contract with SDA that's a multi-year and we included U some of the special ed out of District tuitions just going to next year but what's what's when you just if you only consider that as what you're going to do next year you're not including the things that are not necessarily contractual AGS uh for example supplies could we go A Year Without are we obligated to get supplies no do we need them yes um you look here things like dues and fees example might be our membership in C or something like that do we have to do that no but what the original set of drivers in the page you saw took what we're doing this year and said what will it cost next year so it included things that are not contractually required and I think that's the difference between the number you had and the low I guess I'm looking for some specifics there to understand what it is to cut for next year things that are not contraction how I not one of those four contractual situations right I understand I I guess there are a lot of things that are not contract required that we do with this District so I'm just looking for some specifics that's all be everything other than uh teachers and their benefits um or I should say all staff that are members of The Bargain unit in off uh transportation and uh special ed tuitions they make up the number that would be carried forward everything else is not it okay thank you my question would be what would if the board look at the number that's on the action item 81 m34 3,995 that's the amount the original amount so we have another number that's going to be lower than 168 milon and I'm not that's going to take care of what we need to do as a board that's so I don't know how anyone else feel but there's a motion on the floor to accept this I I understand I understand u m j what you're saying but we are all under the assumption that we're actually going to receive 81 million and we have no guarantee that we're going to get that money so we have to think about that as well there's a lot of ifs with the 181 million so um you know I I understand what we're saying as far as it being a little bit um you know last minute but I would rather put my name to a realistic number that we can actually wrap our heads around and understand what we're getting into and if these are the numbers that John is explaining to us are the actual numbers um you know I I would prefer to be realistic about this rather than going in and just hoping that we're going to get that money and then end up back here at this table talking about what we can't do anymore well I you know I think we're all trying to be realistic and I heard what John said and also hear what Mr Hy said and again I'm not a number person but I also think that none of us think that the city hall is going to give us $181 million we are very clear on that okay now are we going to get 168 million that's if too I'm saying that we this group has worked very hard come out to a lot of meetings and we have discussed this Bud time after time after time and now we're here at the last hour which it has to go to City Hall with these numbers okay we invited the chairperson of the education committee and the mayor and the finance director to be here tonight to sharing this this information and I don't see that okay so we're not sitting here saying that we going to get the amount that we anticipated I just don't fully understand the complete jump from then up until now the amount that this Board needs to approve okay the superintendent you want to say something thank you I I agree um you know when we look at 181 million I think we all look that and say okay that's a pretty big mountain to climb um but I think we in this place now at this time because of years of not asking for the correct amount um for for assuming that we're not going to get it anyway so don't ask um and for short changing um the true needs of the district and so while this yes this is a this is a quite an impressive uh amount to put forward to the city we all respect the the position that they are in um but I also think that we have to respect the position that that we're in um and and respect our schools our teachers we our testimony tonight that that we do have needs um we spent a lot of time going through articulating those as a group um you know what I think we all arrived at the um met a voting member at the 181 um through a long series of presentations and documentations and understanding of fres um to arrive at the 181 343 so um you know that's the number I feel comfortable with at this time and I'm hoping the rest of the board does as well don't I'm sorry you're you're fine I was just going to say we just keep changing the numbers the numbers are always changing and it's just concerning how we leave a meeting and we have the 181 number and then we come into a meeting and now there's three people that know a different number and I just I don't know understand how we keep getting all these different numbers and there's pockets of people that know and people that should know don't know and it's very alarming to me and it's I'm just not okay with it not okay with it m um I'm just looking at the budget uh it's kind I agree with Lauren every time that we meet and we start looking at the numbers we are trying to verify what they are um every time we meet again that number goes up when we're supposed to be really focusing on trying to kind of really bring in it's $32 million last year's budget was 9 million what we're putting what's been put up right now is $18 million and I don't look at it as going to the mayor or going to the city council it is going to the people of the community so I understand that we need and I was heartbroken to hear the commentary today and I I know that a lot of what was said is is accurate and we need to we need safety in our schools and we need to educate I I understand that but we also I I don't care what side you're sitting on left democrat or republican undecided everybody is committed to education as far as I'm concerned everybody I've spoken to in the city how do we afford it that is the question 32 million that we're looking at like 60% of our city budget it was 50% that's 10% that we need to come up with then for safety for our police and our fire so I I'm I'm on the side I I agree with Lisa I think this number needs to be a real number and I'm hoping that when it goes to the people who represent that's our mayor his success is all of our success you know that's we talking about education so how do we afford what we need and and be realistic so as far as I I I'm looking at this number I know again we don't want to turn the lights on budget but if we have the commitment that you're saying from um the funds and it brings us right kind of in that area that I I don't see how we put forward a 20% increase plus of Education every resident in this city without having an audit for the last two years with still having question about the original 3 million since we've been meeting there's been a $220,000 increase for the magnet school we have the 400 for the special education so every time that we're meeting we're kind of almost addressing unfunded mandates or items that we had a flood or we have to repair and I understand that's all part of the process but $32 million I don't know how the residents in this city that are struggling how do we afford so I'm I'm inclined to be you know after that we are committed to that $32 million every year plus the five as it increases um I'm hoping that our our delegation will go and be able to um you know bring in some of that money that hopefully you know we going to be trying to advocate for and bring that I agree we don't get our fair share from the state but we have to understand that the mayor and the city council are the people in the city so it isn't what they will give us or what they won't I look at it more or less what can we afford so that when we open those doors the people that have invested in this school can actually be living in the city and going to the school that they've been Ving for so I mean I know that this kind of came out of nowhere but but at the same sense I think it is a responsible budget so I know that we need a lot more and of course fing safety those are are big ones here um you know if we have to massage this number a little bit so that people feel a little bit you know like there's a little bit more uh eway you know I would be inclined to listening to that but we were I I've been listening and I was hoping last night at the finance committee meeting that that this conversation would have come out of it and it didn't so unfortunately I think we're here now and you know I just thank you for your time and it's uh low here you uh can't hear you the mic is on I don't it's supposed to be on there we go um this is a carry on of 22 years of an Administration that's just kicking the can down the road and you what really frustrates me the most is that that that had administrator was an educator by trade which in my in my view he he didn't help the the situation we're in today and that's the message we have to put bring out to the public uh we have a lot of new people in Danbury that moved in don't know the system they know how you know the previous administrations they they're comfortable what they do uh I I must say based on what I've seen so far here the 181 is not even enough and on all honesty but we can't ask we can't ask the uh taxpayers all of us are to to have another pay another tax increase to cover this I mean we already got hit hard last year okay it's money comes out I don't care if it's a tax increase or not a tax increase I'm paying more money out of my asro and my stuff my tax property out of my out of my pocket but I'm also I don't have anyone in the school system but I'm willing as a taxpayer and that's just as me it's just me okay I'm not saying everybody's thinking the same way I'm okay if I increase my proper tax a little bit to cover some of this okay but we have to let the public know that this is not not us doing bringing this number it's what's been accumulated for years okay so and hearing you know look I we have the same problem we doing down in Stanford not as as hard as this uh but we're all all districts is getting hit hard with the esone um you know but I'm you know I'm I'm a little reserved uh uh like I said 168 sounds like a good number that's a good just tweaking through but um as of right now I don't know about I don't know we have uh we can ask the dam Baran people to pay an extra 20% increase in the budget that's that's my concern right now that's my concern right now we thank you madam chair um I I want to be clear that you know I think everybody around this table we are all supporters of the education system in D mury and nobody wants and everybody here understands the position that we have been put in over the past 20 years we didn't get here in one year and we're not going to get out of this in one budget cycle I don't see a plan put forward showing me how over the next 5 10 years we are going to get out of the that took us 20 years to get into um and I think just coming up with these large numbers well while I agree with Al it's not close to what we need um we have to take it in steps we have to move in increments that will not suffocate the community as a whole but yet help us survive and build back up to where our schools need to be um so you know again I understand what the schools need I understand that we've been underfunded I understand all of that and I've been advocating for as long as my kids have been in the school but we have to do it responsible responsibly and to put out numbers that are not fiscally responsible is not going to help anybody it's not going to help the district it's not going to help the students so um I would prefer that we make the decisions as to how we're going to spend the money not City Hall um and so I I would want the number to come from here being the number that we need we get and move forward with thank you yeah just to follow up so me being new to the board and I'm used to looking at budgets I'm looking at uh a spending plan from previous years I haven't seen one I don't know if there's one but the other part of it too is you know it it's I don't say this I I'll just seal my time for now okay K I understand where folks are coming from in terms of wanting to deliver what we perceive to be a fiscally responsible budget to the mayor's office and the city council but we just had our roles of responsibilities uh Workshop about a month and a half ago and was we were reminded at that Workshop that our responsibility and our role in this position is to bring forward a budget that addresses the needs of the students in our district and that when we turn that budget that budget proposal over to the city the city will make its decisions and whatever budget we get returned to us we will work with and figure out how to deliv the possible educational experience that we can so I hear and appreciate those concerns but I urge my fellow board members let's stay in our lane and remember what our role is in this process M we we've been going while you know everyone have expressed their concern and I think we need to either Act we either at or you get off the pop so Michelle I just I have a question regarding our fiscal responsibility I I know that I think it was Mr janelli that had mentioned that whatever we put forward as a board just can somebody weigh in on that um comment that was made a couple of weeks ago regarding putting this this budget forward and and having like this personally responsible for the numbers being put forward right and that we have confidence in these numbers I think I do I do remember U Mr jali's comments I think what they were referring to is um if you have an appropriation that falls short so if you get to the end of the year and you overspend your appropriation that's where personal liability may be implicated as for numers so you want to make sure that you have enough to C your okay I think that's all right so thank you now John can you just explain to us how this all happened this afternoon with Mr janelli I know he can't be here tonight but can you just explain how this I U for help Mr Hol too when he called me this afternoon um he asked when Mr janelli called you no okay um what we estimated to be the contractual commitments only in the budget and that's what I um then proceeded to calculate we talked also about um state aid and how that actually works here including the alliance that was a discussion thank you any more discussion my last word will be and I have to agree with Kate and I think we're all sitting around the table we are elected officials even though the numbers are not what we want or assume that they should be we have someone that's sitting around this table that have the degree that has been working with us fiercely trying to put together a responsible budget and I left here the other I think it was last week we pretended so many meetings there was a to me a number that was given to to us as board members that we would want to present tonight as elected official we have a road to put together together a responsible budget for the needs of our students and everyone that's working with and I say unless if there any other questions let's go ahead and we do a roll call on this budget and move on Mr H if I may and again from from past experience and kind of how previous budgets have been explained to me as well as being part of it basically have a an oversized or a grand total operational budget from that number you back away anticipated a Alliance Grant additional Alliance grant money as well as ECS money so the budget that that that I that that's been prepared actually totals 178 million it's just that of that 178 million we asking the city for 168 of them CU again we anticipate $9.6 million in increased funding from the state now is that is that number questionable absolutely but as John mentioned from July we were anticipating 6.8 additional dollars in Alliance and 2.8 million additional dollars in ECS so if you were to add that to our our request it actually gives us a bu of 178 or as far as an operational spend budget of 178 and again just just past experience what we need to spend what we anticipate to come in as far as additional funding what's it net op so it it's a very difficult balance between financial responsibility to the city but also best interests of the students and I believe $178 million budget does that and again but that's for the entire board to decide it's my understanding that Mr janelli is not on board with what was presented tonight he has been he did text T and I wanted to make sure that his comments on number is not comfortable with what was presented today with this assertion the new 168 he's not comfortable with the 160 so no other discussion there's a motion on the floor it was moved by Mr Harley there was a second by Kate could we take the we had this yes just just a point of clarification Madam chair uh the motion was made Mr Holly introduced uh a possible amended amount so I just want to clarify which amount were voting on but there there was no second to that Amendment uh number so we don't have to vote on so we with the original motion thank you the original motion um read Mr Harley you going to read the original motion I just want to clarify one thing the there wasn't an amend there was no motion to amend on the floor so you're just hearing the original motion you'll vote so that the board of educ adopt the superintendent 2024 25 fiscal year budget the amount of 181 m343 1995 has presented for submission to the mayor is required by the city Charter in accordance with article 24-35 motion was made by Mr Harley it was second by Kate we going to do a roll call vote please Al yes Teresa no Michelle no Kate yes Gladis yes Dr is absent Lauren no Wanita yes um Mr Holly no and Louisa no so at this point we have five against and four in support so the motion is defeated that means now that you don't have a proposal to send to the board so you need a new motion so this Board needs to continue to move motions until you reach consensus on a presentation to the yes one and so at this time um as a member of the uh finance committee I would like to have before me hard copies of the discussion that went on with uh Mr hly Mr Spang and um to be able to look at and discuss done it was verbal it was verbal via the phone done I'd like to make a motion to the board that we adopt a budget for the 2425 uh calendar year in the amount of $168 million $168 $160,000 uh as amended by Mr holl that number in my opinion will actually grow to m96 ,000 with the expected increases from the alliance Grant and additional ECS State funding there's a motion on the floor there is no second so second motion second by Michelle yes Teresa um in connection with the uh possibility for the state grants coming to ECS the alliance whatever budget is decided on tonight and we get those funds the city won't deduct those funds from the budget that they're going to give us that's what I'm okay here here's what is it uh whatever whatever it is um for the ECS and Alliance and do you know what I'm saying is it is this does the city have that uh possibility of saying well the state gave you this we'll give you less that type of thing if we pass a certain number already but relying on that to come down in the future not part of this grant I mean part of this uh budget so we need a list of itemized expenditures if that's going to be 168 million and we need to know what we have so far that's not going to go over to the city um we could make a second request a second resolution asking them to app state aid when they make their decisions and apply grants but um that's uncertain and if we end up if we we submit a proposal for 168 million that's um we're going to have to cut at least $2 million from our existing programs and services we have as and I would imagine as well as all of the budget drivers you can't you can't net revenues against the list of itemized expenditures they said no to us twice you know I I just would like to uh remind the board the action that we just taken to me and everyone have opinion what you have did is just undermined the administration and our leadership in trying to move our district fort everyone has a right to vote the way they want to but in voting we also need to think about what we're doing how we're doing and how it looks yes I'm just really confused because 20 minutes ago you were telling us that Rich's numbers made sense and now here we are you were and now here we are and we're asking for documentation of Monita is asking for documentation of it and now you're telling us it's not going to work I don't know if I'm the only one confused or what is going on but we need numbers we need accurate information to make an informed decision and I I think that's half of why most of us half of the reason why most of us said no because we honestly have no idea what's going on cuz these numbers change so much that we just have no idea I thought I I'm sorry if I was misconstrued um the question I heard was could I explain U Mr Holly's number and I tried to explain it based on our telephone conversation I didn't say I agree with it I didn't say it was legal I didn't say it could go forward I was just trying to answer the question of how his number was lower than what was here and I said I thought I said it's because it did not have things that were not contractual things like the C dos or supplies uh it could have added um High School athletics that's that's not in his plan either go down and down so I am sure Mr Holly was not trying to do anything that wasn't legal so I think we're all a little bit offended by that but I don't know I'm just getting really upset and I think this is probably going to be my last statement because it's not getting pretty but I just think we're all just looking for accurate information and it just changes so much and I we know there's lots of moving pieces but some of us have been on this board long enough to understand and we don't because we we can't at last night's finance committee meeting I think the committee was pretty clear uh when they ended the meeting that there was going to be a a motion for 181 343 that would come tonight that's what I heard Michelle I sat in I'm not on the finance committee so Melle we can't I'm I'm on the speaker um so I was on that meeting last night I'm not on the committee and there was it was going to be um discussed last night where there was a motion that rich was looking to make and was not able to make it and it was pushed into today's meeting so last night if it had been discussed I would have commented but it was pushed to tonight um and I have to agree with Lauren it isn't a question we do not have solid numbers that are consistent from week to week we have a conversation and and within a couple of hours even if we have the newest document it is inaccurate it is very difficult for and I think it's been discussed at the ad Hons here in in this meeting the numbers are always moving and we're always adding to them so I I agree with Lauren I don't have head I don't I'm not sure if if these $32 million we don't have audits we constantly having to correct the numbers we were in a meeting here last week making trying to figure out on the capital Improvement if it was $150 mli ,000 repair or replacement on $850,000 budget and there was a meeting happening that evening on that so there's a lot of confusion for the board members and I don't it doesn't matter which side of the island you're sitting on we just we can't really have complete confidence at least I don't I'll speak for myself um on the numbers that have been provided over the last especially last year but since the beginning of my three years because of Co because we've had you know a new program we've had aot a lot of moving parts and I think last year when we had the whole 4.7 then the 3 million and it was deferred for the specific reason that we went ahead and committed $100,000 for 1300 hours to get those audits completed they were due to be completed on Thanksgiving and March 15th should have been the second one that would blinded us up to be in a great position to understand what our numbers are that is not the case we have no audit we don't even know where we are in the audit and we're going from 9 million to 32 million is the answer uh again I have to agree with Lauren and a couple of the other board members have spoken here tonight as far as yes I am all about moving the district forward but we need to be responsible and how we do it and I take my my position very seriously and this has to do with making that we get our kids as much as we can but we have to be able to afford it thank you um k um my information last night when we left the finance committee meeting the committee was bringing forth to the full board tonight to accept this action item e with that amount that was my impr and I was on that meeting so you know and and there was question asked did anyone have any questions was there any concern so okay I I would add that that number Mrs Cooper was also the one that be resolved uh at the iners meeting on the 7th so that number did not change from the previous Finance meeting to the finance meeting last night I'm very concerned that a conversation was had with the finance director that did not include the full finance committee that this is coming to light on the evening when we have to take a vote on a lot of information and I will agree with the sentiment that many of us are confused about the state of the finances that we're in right now but the bottom line is we went over this information twice and there was an opportunity for people to voice their concerns at that time and to suggest that we changed that number it didn't come forward so I'm struggling to understand why it's come forward now and I I agree with Miss Cooper this is we're sitting here with our superintendent who was not part of that conversation who has looked over the numbers the same that we have and gone over this information and Mr H I understand you're looking at a final number of 178 million but that's still 3 million shy of the 181 that the board was looking at so I'm real confused as to what's going on here Mr Hall I'd like to make a motion that the Board of Education adopt the superintendent's 2425 fiscal year budget in the amount of 181 million Charter in accordance with 2435 there's a motion on person have to withraw their motion and the second have to be withdra Mr har you made a motion of 10 and something I can't remember the you made a motion Michelle s so you either withdraw your motion I wish to I I wish to withdraw my original original motion and that I move that the Board of Education adopt the superintendent's 2425 fiscal year budget in the amount of 181 343 995 as presented for submission to the mayor is required by the city Charter in accordance with 24-35 motion made by Mr Harley second by K any no is there any discussion can we do roll call yes Teresa yes Michelle no Kate yes glattus yes Lauren no Monita yes Mr Holly yes Louisa six in favor yeah and three oppos motion so Carri thank you discussion I'm sorry discussion this should be very free uh we have the dialog uh we sort of changed last year as the going having a workshop and only having one meeting per month and the discussion that I've had and felt that we should go back to a original two meetings per month and I hope everyone sort of feel that you know because it was just a workshop and we were doing the same thing as a workshop that we was doing at the board meeting so I don't know if we need to make a motion to amend or do that or just uh Kim can you help me out so you have a policy and the board policy requires you to do two board meetings a month last year you voted to suspend enforcement of the policy so that you could do one meeting and one Workshop so now you basically want to lift the suspension and go back to enforcing the policy so I think you can make a motion to return to enforcement of policy or I guess this is bylaw 9321 um to go back to the original enforcement of the original policy Kate would you make that motion I'd like to make a motion that we uh lift the suspension to bylaw 9321 and return to the uh existing structure two full board meetings of mon second second second by any discussion all in favor can I hear I any oppose any obanion thank you the superintendent I will work out a time that we can have a special presentation or Workshop that you guys are interested in because at the initial beginning in January I sent out a list of things that we want to start looking at board members the top priority was um the budget so we're doing it but and next one will be having some information about clonic absentee how to work with the superintendent how to bring that for so that will be our next one okay thank you uh superintendent okay thank you Cooper um we'll come back to the budget update timeline and move on to just the academy update first um so we got some wonderful things happening at the high school right now um um our nth graders completed the first career exploration seminar course that's our first cohort going through the high school um Dr Martin Karina Janelle The Freshman Academy principal and Brent Dean all gave presentations to the ninth graders about the prer academy expectations um selection process um and they spent a great deal of time understanding what each Academy offers um they captured all the student populations we had uh presentations translated multiple languages um and it was actually a wonderful experience for the kids the academy directors a and APS held presentations during Flex uh repeatedly over a two-e period introducing themselves and reviewing all the pathway information students got to rotate through each one of those um and multiple opportunities to um to to better learn about the Pathways in theems before making their selection um the students did complete their pathway selection process and so the administration is in the process of reviewing those now um and in the spring there will be an academy unveiling event where um students get to learn which Pathways they're in and have a wonderful celebration about uh the curriculum that they're about to embark on for the next 3 years after that um super excited about that tomorrow we have a um a special event we're holding um student focus groups for the students who just completed the the curriculum that we just wrote um to get their individualized feedback or Collective feedback as groups and as individuals to see how they experience the curriculum and how we can improve that we're also running focus groups with the teachers as well um to gain their input so we're excited um we're also um building off the some of the career uh pathway courses that are being developed we're also working with neighboring colleges and universities to plan out several college campus visits that align with some of the emies so to make it very specific so as students in nth grade get a chance to to go off and visit it's actually aligned to the pathways that they have selected um and then last but at least along those lines um on the side note I'm also working with several universities right now to help build um of our dual credit offerings and to work on articulations so that our students can gain college credit while they're taking these elective courses so super excited we're seeing um price points around um $60 for a three credit College course um and down to zero depending on um student status so there's some wonderful negotiations happening I think they're going to be um in the making for a while and it's going to yield a of opportunity for our kids um lastly the high school's been holding several um Community parent engagement nights um in October they had a bilingual night at the police department um the on 1 122 they had a Career Academy Zoom session on 212 they had a Career Academy night um for parents it was postponed due to inclement weather they'll be rescheduling that one um and there's going to be Academy presentations with sixth graders at Rogers Park on 228 229 presentation with uh at Westside in Broadview and on 3:11 will be a schoolwide fair at Danbury High School where eighth graders and families can come and learn about the Academy's high school programs and clubs and all the things that we're about to offer did you see that letter we got from that parent who didn't know anything about the academy model or we got it on our U emails to the board I mean did anybody answer this person so so um I it was that I I think I recall the email that that that was received um I did have yeah we did get a lot of information go out through parents Square so it was surprising to see that but certainly um we can always bolster our communication around that um one of the reasons we're announcing s of the dates tonight is because um you know we want to make sure that the attendance and these things are are are robust so we'll continue those efforts um next up I'll have um Dr Roco come talk to us a little bit about the as Lottery update um as you're aware we're in the process of concluding the lottery um then also discussing some of our concerns around ratios and and things that we've been working on to get our participating districts to to send more students to us she going to give us an update on that good evening everyone um the lottery officially closed on January 16th as of January 22nd there were 689 Lottery occupants 613 of those were danburry residents 76 were from other towns currently we have extended invitations to 40 families um we are not able to accept all 76 applicants because their home districts have kep on of seats that they they will allow um and with the currently enrolled students from those towns we can only fill the VAC seats ex graders or any other exent students so uh I'll give you an example to make it clear um one of our partner towns has an agreement of to hold 18 seats for that town for this current scho here they have filled all 18 seats they will have four students who exit as fifth graders at the end of this year so we can only fill four seats to bring them back to their cap of 18 that partner District happens to have applicants so we will wait list the other 22 when we enter those four in to get them back to their cab so it may seem like well we have 76 families but we have to abide by the Caps of those partner districts so we can only extend applications at this point time to 40 of those families um we're beginning to receive calls from families confirming their accept acceptance of seeds currently we've only received five calls but it's still ear only in the process we will continue to get calls in s Sanchez will begin reaching out to families who have been accepted um to I know what's holding them up what's keeping them Mak the decision how can we offer them more information to get them to make that decision um as Dr Cas mentioned in the previous meeting we've been flaged by the state for being out of compliance with the residency standard um Mand schools cannot exceed 75% enrollment from a single participating District on October 1st with the enrollment collection data um the magnet school at 75.4% of the students were resents so we were just over 75% threshold that percentage has dropped slightly still right around that 7% last Just sh 75% um we because of that we are required to submit ative action plan that will be submitted tomorrow and I'll share some of the strategies that included that plan when we look ahead to the 2425 school year we are looking at the roll up of our currently noral student numbers so we're looking at rolling our current kindergarten through fourth grades up to our first through fifth grades when we look at that percentage of the students who are Dam residents and nonam residents we are currently sitting at 76% of D residents um so that is why we've had to hold off on accepting any D applicant into the lottery what we really have to do now is get our out of town residents in and then proportionally add in our G residents so that we do not go out of compliance again with that 75.5% ratio we recognize that that's still a lot of our families we are doing the very best we can um we are going to increase our recuit recruitment plan andies if we don't for this current school year the state has weaved any any penalties um but next year if we're not in compliance with that residency stand we do penalties to Grant allocation um we are going to be monitoring that dat very carefully the state is also to monitor that very carefully um you do not want to run into any fisal penalties some of the steps that we have included in the corrective action plan is reestablishing the advisory council with um Co that has kind of Fallen apart a little bit The Advisory Council also on the original partnering districts many of the superintendents are new um so we have to kind of reenergize the feeling about the magnet school reintroduce those super to our Magnet School um Dr K has reached out to the superintendent of the partner districts that me lists for to see if they're interested in increasing the number of seats that they hold a commercial is being produced Dr C Tak on that andon the principal at join forces to create a video that's going to be shown YouTube Facebook channels this Jon is working on a plan to gain access to events and neighboring and partner districts where she can showcase the school and talk to families about as she just recently attended multi- toown uh basketball event at the pal building and set of a little table to share information so she's reaching out in the communities she will also be reaching out to the superintendent's offices to get permission to speak to at PTO meetings to partner districts to share information about AIS she's hoping uh hosting an open house for ad District families um who have been offered seats to bring them in to tour them through the building introduce them to some teachers familiar with the and encourage them to make that decision to commit to a we've also included a form on our district website and place where the Lottery application was which will guide uh parents to uh complete a form that form will then tag Sandy Sanchez who is the lbr coordinator she will then reach out to families and get and gain more information from them about where they live so that we can try to G more famili from our other District Partnerships so we are working very hard to increase our enrollment it's really going to be critical to get those out of District Partnerships increased but we have to be very cautious about the number that we're allowed so that we don't get into a position where we are over and residents and face any kind of fiscal penalty yes thank you for the update Dr um quick question for you how many other districts currently um are to so in inside the partnership we have um five districts fieldfield we also have other participating districts so they're not within the advisory Council but they can still send their other children there we have students currently this year from Beth Waterberry Stanford Woodberry and Trumble we have applicants this year from nck Newton and Rich Hill those new to us in the upcoming school year thank you any other questions Dr thank you Dr thank you okay and then up next is Mike the facility update thank you Dr so just a couple quick things on facilities uh largely in following up from the science of facilities meeting last week there were a few follow items that were requested um three uh specifically one was a list of shared responsibilities between the Board of Education and um City Public Works U that list was I I shared this and a few of the other things with um sub chair Britain um the second piece was uh an update on the operations hero software um this is I was actually in a training today on it and we've had a training with several of the um users um this something we've ironed out just about every last R we fully believe will be able to launch this in the next week or two so we're feeling very good about that and then lastly there were some questions about the warranties on um some of the malfunctioning parts that we had on the G building HVAC system and there was one other item about warranty the G building one um I put a question out to the city regarding the warranty it was the elworth roof that was see one whether there were warranties existing on these question up to the city but I haven't heard back yet so hopefully I'll know that umin the next week or two and I'll show that the committee chair um there was a recent uh cold snap that um affected GB building um it looks like when they were doing some of the repairs there was a pump that was actually shut off by mistake um it just never got turned back on so that wasn't a malfunction it was just something that happened when the mechanics were doing the changes so that's there um that's actually all I have on facilities there's any questions question thank you thank you m mik you while you having mik did you want to talk a little bit about the Connecticut sa sure Geor yeah if you all remember there was a group that was here I think it was two weeks ago during our meeting where the orange shirts um the Connecticut um uh group for gun safety um and if you recall they work with school districts to send out m me in about uh save gun storage um I connected with a few of their um their leadership team shortly after the meeting and received a bunch of materials letters and other things that we can send out to to families and homes um we are we've reached out to the D Police Department it's something that we think we want to do in partnership with the police chief um so we've reached out to them about U figuring out just how to craft the message um and then we'll have the superintendent and uh the police sign on it together Distributing out to [Music] families thank you okay um one of the last ones I think the the budget of they timeline I think was clear when we put this on here last week um really obviously our our budget is due tomorrow to the to the city uh to the mayor's office and we'll be sure to submit that on time um the last the last um the last thing on here is the read Across America read Across America and so I just would members um to to be on the lookout for invitations to read in our schools um it's probably my favorite time of the year to get to go in and sit with kids and um connect with what's happening in the classroom so between March 2nd and March 6th um you should start to receive some invitations to participate and I encourage all of our members to um celebrate the L reading and help our students become lifelong readers that is it for me thank you superintendent the board chairperson reports going to be so brief I want to start out with on um February the 5th I attended the Citywide PTO I think Michelle was on that call was on that call um and it was just basically listen to the reports from uh citywi PTO members given their report as to the different things that was going on within the school that they were represent and so that's basically what we saw of listen to Dr Casmir was there she did a report on the academy and she also did a re um comments concerning the budget and how we working on the budget and I appreciate her being there to represent the bo uh my second thing was on February 6 um I spoke at City Hall u in front of the common Council and I'm encouraging board members when something come up an issue and we're there asking for money or whatever we're doing safety around certain schools don't feel like just because I'm the chair that you cannot speak I welcome you to be there to support and bag up whatever is going in our okay and and I welcome that support okay um next item I want to talk about is and this is very F and sort of u a moody thing about me and I thought you all asked me to represent you as a board chair when you get a call from someone or you get an email from someone you are to forward that email to the superintendent you don't take it upon yourself to have a conversation with that person or do whatever you want to do with that person that was emails go directly to the superintendent she has a person in charge or she has the time to get back to that person okay because and I know that you know we to had this Rosen responsibility we can get ourself in a lot of trouble by opening our mouth that certain things are not being direct when the Press call you I think you all know what to say you only have one spokesperson for the board and you elected me to be that chairperson if you did not then take it away from me okay if you want to make about I I think it's very easy to say to that person we have one sports person for the board and that's our chair any chairperson that we have had for this board and I was sitting there when the press or anyone called me I would say to them I am not your chairperson this is the person and if you want that number I can give it to you okay so I think we need to be respectable of leadership and if I'm doing something WR you tell me again we have to be careful how we answer things and we know what we're dealing with here in the district and be careful okay um finally I would like for the Personnel search committee to think about meeting an hour early on the 28 so we can have a brief discussion about how we going to move forward with the Personnel search okay if everybody's comfortable with that okay so 28 we meet an hour earli or whichever we'll do it about 5:30 okay and we have food for everyone okay so we can talk yes Teresa um nashille did we get any more information about hotel or anything I so if everyone's agreement everyone agreement with that then we'll move forward with that M can I just make one comment your meeting of the Personnel committee is considered a non meeting so that will not be subject to fo your requirements posting and open attendance just to be clear thank you Kim I think that's all that I have to say uh you know we need to um you know it's exciting to go into schools and read with the little ones but but you know you got to be careful cuz they have coal so you don't want to bring them Co back home but it is it's exciting it's exciting because the little ones three to you know I say third grade fourth five and they like to lay up on your legs and they like to you know get as close to you they possibly can so just just enjoy it's exciting so that's all that I have and if um there's no other discussion I motion to the meting to okay M chair no super okay Val you have anything else then I entertain a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn motion made by Al second by Michelle all favor all right enjoy your

yeah I'm ready ready are we going okay I'd like to call this meeting to order please stand for Allegiance ready begin I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um okay roll call we're all here we did that before there were no um no action was taken in closed session um we're on item number five the consens agenda is there a motion I'll move to a I'll move to approve I'll second any discussion i u wanted to make a comment just a quicky uh just to give a congratulations on the retirement of Alexandra noaker is it 33 years is a really long time to do anything and I just want to recognize that that's just amazing and uh and the Shannon Eckland as well I don't know how long she's been there but it's got to be up there so kudos to both of them any other comments roll call vote hi I I I I uh item six monthly items and financial reports the approval of warrants all move approval of warrants second discussion any questions I just want to give a shout out to Mindy she's the one who processes all our payments and she's been so diligent trying to put just the right wording she's pretty Limited in her characters and she's each time I find less and less I have to label so Mindy is doing a great job that helps a lot it is very helpful than youy okay roll call vote i i i i i and the next item um Governor's proposed budgets so I just have a brief presentation um usually I keep this one a little shorter so let me just load it so um some of you attended the recent Capital advisor workshop at the county and prior to that up in Sacramento they had the governor's budget Workshop held by school Services which I attended um I'm just going to go over some quick revenue and expense assumption so um the the local control funding is going to be projected around 10.6 million and it's a little bit down because of our lower ada8 and also this year we had a 8% Cola and next year they're projecting a 7% Cola um and we have to make some plans for our prop 28 art and music funds um it's only around uh just over a 100,000 that you have to split by three sites um but so that's something we have to think about um going forward and then our Co funds will expire at the end of the fiscal year so we're wrapping up using that um actually we had a little bit of funding left and um we decided we're going to use it we need to renew all of our devices and usually you have a lease going for that can be pretty pricey um and Stephan did a great job Gathering different quotes and he um we decided that we could just purchase the devices outright using the covid funds and then will be covered for several years and it also includes the service which really helps him too because he's usually got about 50 devices out at a time that he's mailing out um and they repair them and it's all under warranty so the and the vendor worked with us and they brought the price down quite a bit I know that seems like a lot but if you think it's just a few hundred per device and we get close to just under 900 devices to have enough for everybody so that is a really good way to use the last bit of that funding then we don't have to worry about $100,000 lease payments every year in the future especially with funding being unknown um um and then other revenues they had said they could reduce tital one um special education funding as you know has been my big soap box that it is very underfunded and it needs to be raised they haven't talked about anything to uh address that over the last couple years they added you know maybe $10,000 um they haven't said anything about that and then our up which is our unduplicated pupil percentage that's our students who are uh lowincome English Learners Foster youth homeless you um it actually went up quite a bit this year and so that does bring in some more funding for those specific students and programs like our RTI and other supports for those students and then our Extended Learning opportunities program funding is ongoing mainly that's been used for our my club program which has been a great partnership with the community uh and we we're lucky to be able to add it it at the suuma as well as the site we've always had here uh and we're also going to be using it for little uh for The tream Meadows Catalina any of the type of overnight field trips um something in the past where um your students were doing more fundraising could have been a hardship it's nice that we have this funding to help support those programs and then home to school transportation uh there's a reimbursement but they do reduce it based on some factors in the calculator so um at first when they roll that out and you'll see in the plan that we go over tonight it seemed like it was going to be a lot of extra funding but then they said oh wait you deduct this and this and this so it it ends up being kind of minimal and then some expense projections this is a slide from a few years ago that Kurt has always encouraged for me to have um just saying right out the gate what's something that you have to pay the next year you everybody who goes up in their next step or goes over a column as well as the proposed 2% that we have in the salary schedules for next year um and then stirs and purs which is our retirement um that goes up year to year so right away out the gate um we have over a $200,000 expense but then when you look at the lower Cola and our lower Ada it's a negative amount adjusted to our funding and we've always um in the excess left here this has always been a positive number and it's not and I just thought it was important to show this because you can see that um having that lower Cola to go from a 8% Cola to a 7% and then also we have a lower enrollment this year and and our attendances our Ada is coming in lower so it isn't it it doesn't really add up to a lot there's another slide I have where it shows how um it adjusts it adjusts the cola by having a lower Ada so in terms of doing any of those kind of things that are listed down there at the bottom um that that's why we're goingon to have to look at next year you know what we're going to do in terms of vacancies or adjusting things um cutting budgets like expense budgets like supplies or Services because we're really going to have to take a closer look at all that and we haven't had to do that in the past so this is I'm not going to read through this whole slide but this was a slide from school Services where they wanted you to show that um at the top there is the current year and then next year by having those projected lower attendance rates i' actually we're not getting a 76% Cola we're getting a negative 1% Cola um so it it isn't like for like when you're applying that with lower attendance and the lower attendance gets lower because we have lower enrollment too when we're down 20 or 30 students you know then that just lowers the average right there and that's just using base Grand amounts not the full uh lcff you can see here our enrollment in Ada history so as long as Randy and I have been here which was back to 2017 um you know they had pretty solid numbers and then in the middle there we had a couple years at 890 for our enrollment and our Ada has always tracked about 40 less than our enrollment uh fast forward to now where we have um it was 8113 students the day I checked I think it's 820 today but when I certified the P1 attendance uh that Nicole helped me with um it was 754 the average daily attendance so you figure where um getting funded for 754 students but we have 820 um and that's why there's been a lot of um proponents for different funding formulas using enrollment but nothing has ever it never makes it each year they talk and it doesn't happen but it seems all the dist and this isn't just us all the districts across the state are in this boat um even after the pandemic where the attendance rates just never have really come back to what they used to be so the next steps um is that we'll all be working on the the budget and the lcap um you'll see surveys going out and working with our Community Partners the next meeting we'll have a second interim budget update and then the P2 attendance that's what we're mainly funded on that that's due in April so we're hoping for a stronger number than we had at P1 a lot of years it goes down but I'm hoping fingers cross it it goes up a little last year our P2 was 772 and right now we're at 754 so um but again I mentioned that's offset by the lower enrollment and then in uh May they'll have the governor's revise some years it's completely different than what was rolled out in January um some years it's gone way up um hopefully it doesn't go down anymore some of the workshops we've been at they said maybe it'll be closer to 1% Cola but even with that lower Ada we probably won't won't have that um and um every year it seems like I'm saying the same sort of thing and then you know then they're like oh wait there's this extra Revenue that comes in this is all data we get from the state and we just share what we know at the time not making it thank you terara do you guys have any questions thank you Tera thank you okay um item seven hearing a person's wishing to address the board I didn't receive anys we received an email from a concerned citizen earlier today okay um that I would like to read into the record this is in regards to trusty Ronda Clark I've been a resident of the o area for 30 years and in all my time I have never come across someone like Mrs clar she constantly listens and helps people caring about the community blah blah blah I was like oh my God what did I do she actually you can't comment she actually tries to make a difference and sometimes especially on Valentine's Day parent that would be times not times Mrs Clark has decided to meet with you all instead instead of having a romantic dinner at fancy restaurants with me oh it's just another instance of Mrs Clark putting her bored needs in front of important days like Valentine's Day Happy Valentine's Day thank you for listening to my concerns and have a wonderful evening with your notes and all that important stuff Happy Valentine's Day bored at home Mr [Applause] Club scared went from having a heart attack to being very any what did I do now he didn't get you anything Brown that was it okay all right brownie points yeah sorry we can't comment okay number eight uh action items um comprehensive school safety plans is there a motion to um approve this individually or possibly all three together I think it move that we do all three together is there a second I'll second okay any discussion I have a few questions yeah when they when they said they're comprehensive I looked 160 pages of comprehensive only 60 something um I have a couple questions it said that we had to hold public meetings for these and I didn't know how that process worked the uh School site council at each of the three sides served as the committee okay and those are certainly public meetings and and we also have parents involved on the state Council okay gotcha um and then each school's plan had objectives there was a grid with lots of objectives and then how the funding was going to be who's in charge of that and I was just wondering if there's any kind of a timeline for implementation of those objectives I will turn that over to our two principls who were here tonight because they created the pl we were actually dinner um our our thoughts were that after they're approved and we know that we can move forward with these PL then we would need to get together withot with different departments with terara and figure out prioritizing what are our most important um steps to take and then how can we go through all of those okay so it's kind of where we are so you guys approving is the first step thank you all right very good um yeah I want to talk about page 9 it's board policy 5141 P point4 Child Abuse Prevention and I did talk to Mr seals about this but I wanted to point out that it says here and I'll just read it the Board of Trustees recognizes the district's responsibility to educate students about the dangers of child abuse so that they will acquire the skills and techniques needed to identify unsafe situations and to react appropriately and promptly the superintendent or design shall seek to incorporate Community Resources into the district's Child Abuse Prevention programs to the extent feasible the superintendent or design me shall use these Community Resources to provide parents and Guardians with instruction in par parenting skills and Child Abuse Prevention so I see that there's nothing actually in place to my understanding speaking to Mr seals but I wanted to see if we could work on U collaborating perhaps with the Mad County Child Abuse Prevention Council so I've talked to some other people who are social workers and a gal from care portal and I'm unfortunately there are there's educational materials and resources for for those um working as adults on this topic but for children to equip them and so that they have an understanding situations of child abuse there doesn't appear to be resources but I would like to see what we can do in that regard yeah after our discussion I too looked at the what was available here in Mad County and I looked at the calendar of events that the uh child abuse Council prevention Council has on their website and it is geared toward more of the community at large um and so we'll be reaching out to see if there's anything that we as public schools um even if it's offering our facilities for some of those events [Music] um but I I remain unaware of anything that's specifically created for children other than elements of our seal curriculum that addresses you know personal space and and those types of elements so that that's that's probably where we're going to find any material it's just educating as to the importance of that individual space and priv there's also the project protect which I I looked into that at the end of last year and they there's grants for that and they were really excited about that and they wanted to do training like right away in like the end of April May and I thought I don't know if our staff is like going to be able to do that at that moment in time so I've reached out to them again to see what we can get going for to get trained so we can Implement next year and we've utilized them before yeah some of us some of you have gone through that training yeah I know it was unsettling um this project protective was really focused on the human traffic traffing aspect um and we were the first district in Madera County to actually have our staff fully trained in project but we have had some turnover so the time the time is now to to refresh I really loved a lot of components about that training because it's very age appropriate it's very empowering and recognizing personal boundaries in space like you right um said earlier you know just taking care of your own stuff and um I think one that that is one of the strengths I think of the program is that it's um very specific to certain grades and very appropriate for those um age ranges and um as the program um moves into the older or higher grades out of our district but into the high school district it becomes much more um focused on grooming and things like that and that way we're not scaring kids we're teaching them to be empowered and to their voice yeah and I also like that they encourage to train classifications outside of just teachers like bus drivers and yard supervision because sometimes they can see things can be trained to see certain behaviors and stuff that might be give you you know they might go W right for important to did you have any other comments uh no how about you Stephen any comments oh I I have just just made me think of an article I read earlier today about um some parents in the I think it was in the North Bay Area uh for Christmas they gave their uh 15year old boy a a handgun to protect himself four days later he took it to school and shot a bunch of people and the parents got arrested and they're really looking into it you know that's a aspect of safety we don't want to have parents given their kids guns to protect themselves in school who knows what what that was all about but parents are being completely held responsible for the whole thing so any I think all of our campuses are weapon-free zones there's posts I don't know signs I don't know what happened over there okay um I have a comment I just wanted to uh thank all the principles for their time and efforts uh that was required for our comprehensive school safety plans I know the meetings and the writing and the documentation and organizing all of it you guys could do it in your sleep and you probably do because that's the only time you have but um it's I I just want to say I appreciate your effort okay so um we have a motion and a second roll call vote are we we're doing all three at the same time yes that was the motion all three yes I I I I I all three in one motion y okay and moving on to um a the single plan for student achievement reports the Sip says this again is an opportunity for us to approve all three if you deem it so and state in your motion I make a motion to approve all three SAS all second any discussion I have a couple one thing really um just seeing the test scores and all that is just super concerning and I know we've already started conversations about intervention but I'm going to continue to say that I think it's a huge emergency in our district I think um our kids failing and then we have chronic absenteeism and we have a lack of success which probably leads to more absenteeism and then leads to less success and so we're kind of in a spiral and so I'm really hoping with this money that we have and creating plans for Success that we can turn this ship around thank you for that anyone else I don't remember which side it was but I see that one of the goals is to increase the time for reading intervention so I wanted to find out how much time is actually currently allotted I think it depends does it depend on the site and the grade level probably too yeah do you remember which one it was it might have been oci I think it was oci actually they said they had 120 minutes I believe of tier 2 intervention I did read that they have 80 minutes for Math and Ela and then 120 Minutes of tier 2 intervention I believe that's what I read for oci I don't think it was actually broken out in each in the other two schools sites okay so yes I see the goal is to increase time for reading Mr MRE had put that down I think that's extremely you had a good plan I'm putting you on the spot sure okay okay yeah okay any more discussion Rollo hi hi hi actually I did have another is that okay really quick it is I'm to delete delete delete so I see that on all three I believe it was um part of the goal is to um increase survey participation with parents and such I wanted to find out what kind of participation you're already receiving it's pretty low I think it actually it's in the lcap um report also but it was it was pretty abysmal the survey the lcap survey participation so the the thought is to try and um encourage incentivize um maybe add a question on the lcab of um what School site and maybe even which like grade level if it's a parent that's doing it or even a teacher and maybe incentivize some sort of class reward or schoolwide reward for like the highest participation of um we'll see and then I know there have also been strategies if there are events at the school like a talent show for example that happens kind of around the same time as the l cap surve are going out to maybe gather folks that are there and a setting like this and maybe have some Chromebooks out that already have the survey up and say Hey you know before you leave can you spend some time at one of these Chromebooks and and and do the survey and and kind of explain the importance of that so those are a couple ideas to try and boost the participation so if you have others I kind of like that fun with the class because kids can be pretty persistent with their parents cool and there's a competition between the schools they want how long is have idea in so our our site idea like when you go to the doctor's office you always get hands of the clipboard right you take a few minutes and fill this up and so um they were batting around the idea that before first quarter conferences you always have parents that are waiting right so have a brief three to four questions three to five question survey on a clipboard I'm just going to be a couple of minutes could you fill this out for me because they're going to be waiting anyway um but then the concern was wanting them to be able to turn it in with a feeling of anonymity um and so how do we handle that right a yeah just drop it in there yeah it's also hard with like the class or the teacher because a lot of families have maybe like two or three kids at a school site so we wouldn't necessarily want them to fill out three separate surveys but then like which kid or what class gets the point right right so I'm you know in the subconscious right here it's like okay how do we make this there's a solution right just trying to find it right now or like doing a parent night or something where you you know provide pizza or something like that and you set out Chromebooks and you just invite them to like drop by and put in their survey and grab grab dinner something like that I don't know yeah I mean we we haven't tried those things so it wouldn't hurt to try them and we're either going to see it works or it doesn't work great IDE any other questions comments concerns [Music] statements roll call vote I again again I I okay okay uh the next item is approve the tentative agreement between the district and the Bass Lake Teachers Association is there a motion I'll make a motion we approve tenative agreement between the district and blta a second any discussion roll call vote I would like to oh Jackie nef who served as the negotiation chair for for blta sent in an email the for this afternoon to hello all happy Valentine's Day and happy board meeting please accept my apologies for my absence at the school board meeting this evening the night that the TA is on the agenda for approval she then shares that she has some professional responsibilities tonight I that have P her away uh but she finishes please don't advance and let the board members know how thankful we all are for the raise and the positive bargaining this year cheers Jack okay okay I I I I I I okay thank you motion carries good next item is d uh to approve the updated certificated salary schedule for 23 24 school year I make a motion we approve the updated certificated salary schedules for the 2023 2024 school year PA second any discussion I want to point out that the uh proposed certificated teacher salary schedule reflects the changes that were just approved in the Ten of agreement which includes the uh elimination of the what was the 75 unit column and what was the 100 unit column is now the 75 unit column so our certificated teachers are able to uh reach the the far right of the salary schedule with 7 the completion of 75 units now there were a number of of folks who were able to move over and then once that was done there's for the 23 24 school year um it reflects a 4% across the board raise um and then we'll we'll take up the matter of the 2425 here shortly there this is an odd year um and we've stated all Bel to our labor Partners at the table as well as U all of the board and our updates as the year has gone on that um our past practice for the last several years has been whatever one group gets they all get um and you can do flat raises like that uh up to a point until we reach a point where we need to do a reset uh based on comparison studies with other districts comparable districts and we certainly look at our neighbors here with Y USD and Shian and also posa um as comparable districts but then also those districts that were were um identified as comparable districts in our recently completed cak study looking at our classified positions and uh what we found is there are positions and this is not the the teachers playing stretch because those comparisons we we continue to maintain uh rather competitive pretty favorable we have been through the years but there are other positions that require additional education or credentialing where we have fallen behind drastically and so we reach a point where it's a reset year uh the change I mentioned about the teacher salary schedule a moment ago with the change from 100 units to 75 to max out uh and those those number of teachers who Moved there's no way to replicate that in any other salary schedule for any of our other groups and certainly not on the classified side and I must mention that uh we have not completed negotiations with our classified Partners yet um but we will be using the results of the CX study that I mentioned um knowing that there's some some positions that we're looking uh seriously at having to reclassify as a result of that um this is one of those years also for certificated and we see that with um the principal's salary schedule as well as the um certificated support with our school psychologists um in looking at those those comparisons we were horribly below and U in an effort to keep all positions in the district competitive um this was a year that we knew that some would get more than others and including some within the bargaining unit with blta we knew that those affected by the unit change were going to get more uh but what we have tried to do each and every year including this year is that the result of negotiations is such that every everybody is going to benefit in one way or another this happens to be a year where uh some folks increase by 4% others within the unit maybe we at 6% others within the unit were at 10% U and there's no way to do just a flat rate and maintain our competitive status for all positions in the district and so any discrepancies that you see will reflect in that U that's that's where we we have it I'm happy to answer any other questions any questions no roll call a vote i i i i i motion carries okay next item is e approve the updated certificated salary schedule for 2425 school year so the attachments that you sorry I make a motion we approve the updated ceric TR 2024 2025 school year I'll second okay Mr SE superintendent seals yes thank you um the salary schedules before you um for the 2425 school year reflect a 2% across the board race as you saw from my presentation it's looking kind of Bleak but we were really happy to meet with our negotiation partners and have a two-year agreement and I think they feel um the same way so that we know that we have that going forward any questions roll call vote i i i i i motion carries um f approve the public disclosure CBA form so this form is required oh oh you have to do it is there a motion I'll make the motion to approve do I need to State the public disclosure cbaa form first certificated oh second any discussion so this form is required by the county we have to um send this to the county 10 days before the board meeting for them to review it is one of my favorite things to work on it's a really fun spreadsheet and then I never don't I don't even understand how it works it's a mystery but every year we get it figured out and it's just basically saying the district can afford the raises that we're doing they want to check that at the county level um and then um we get that approved here and um then we're good to go for certificated and then we'll bring it back again when we get to classified but so it just breaks down what the cost of the raise is and then it goes over what we're doing exactly and it shows multi-year projections as well as meeting our reserves but keeping in mind where you may see any extra amounts or anything this only is certificated um and when I plug in numbers you know for everybody um it's probably going to be tight with the reserve for that um but to be able to meet it we um have talked openly with everybody about moving some things around um because it as well deserve everybody's hard work you know being able to do this and we always say we wish we could do more if we could but just showing that the district is being fiscally responsible and that we can meet our obligations in doing this agreement thank thank you so much for playing that shell and just moving things until it makes sense I appreciate that any other comments roll call vote i i i i i motion carries letter G approval of the resolution wait yep approval of the resolution of intention to terminate certificated employees is there a motion I'll move approval I'll second any discussion roll call vote i i i i i motion carries um H approval of resolution reducing laying off classified Employee Services approval of resolution reducing laying off classified Employee Services I'll second any [Music] discussion roll call vote i i i i i motion carries I um approve of the annual update of the transportation services plan so motion I move to approve the annual update of the transportation services plan I'll second any discussion we [Music] need okay roll call vote i i i i i motion carries J consideration and Adoption of board policies and regulations all of approval second any discussion no we talked about these last good we're good um hearing the discussion roll call vote no discussion wow I know we did last I think we reviewed these before anyway I I I I I motion carries okay um first reading and possible action to approve administrative regulation and board policy 4148 point3 preschool and early childhood education is there a motion I motion to approve with I'd just like to hear more about about it that's what the discussion parts for okay okay you need discussion yeah you got questions you made the motion but you can still not well you can always withdraw your motion you can amend your motion too I'll keep the motion but I just wanted to see if you had any further comments on it thank but I think the explanation I gave in the background information was very straightforward as to why you did not see this one in the batch with the rest of them um as I was going through initially I removed any of the board policies that spoke about High School uh but I also removed this one because this deals with preschool and the district got out of the preschool business several years ago um but after the meeting jeie and I were talking and she reminded me that the last time an update to this one came up um I chose to bring it forward to the board and the board approved it because at that time they were considering the mandatory uh TK and so um at that time we left it in in case the state decided to lower the age and require districts to offer preschool again um and that way if that happened our board policies would already be updated we wouldn't have you know Superintendent at that time would not have to dive in and and not reinvent the will but figure out what we were missing what we were lacking so after having that discussion I decided to bring it back back to you and you can either do it as a first reading with adoption next month or as i' set it up with possible um approval tonight and all this does is updates our our board policy 51 48.3 and our regulation 51 48.3 that it's centered solely on preschool and early childhood education we don't currently offer right but who's to say that the next governor of California won't make this the the project and that's the direction we're going now with mandatory um pre which for us we we offer TK but they could mandate the the preit I see it starts as early as three years old correct whether some are still wearing diapers so the idea would be they do the prek as three-year-olds TK four-year-olds and then 5-year-old would be Mur kindergarten so in approval tonight is just updating our own policy manual but it's a policy that we currently don't use because we don't off preschool it's just keeping our our policy it's a pre policy St there's a motion in a second is there any more discussion that was our discussion that's that's why I said more no more I'd like to abstain a vote I'm all for limited government and for not having children that young mandated if that ever happens said I believe in limited government this would make more she's going to abstain she wants to abstain she beli I think children that's too young especially to be mandated like to obain roll call vote um I I I I I I motion carries all right moving on to information items um enrollment and attendance percentage reports okay information only yes in this one I didn't include the attendance pursue images sorry about that um but we do have the latest enrollment there and you could see the previous meeting um it was 8:21 now we're at 8:20 so not many changes you do see some fluctuation at the sites but usually it's a few more at Bliss or then the numbers go down at Bliss and then there's more at the side so it's just kind of bouncing back between those two staying steady at 8:20 inter District transfer report there were none item c local control and accountability plan midyear monitoring report for the 2023 2024 lcap so this is just a report that we have to do in the middle of the year for the lcap so I just went ahead and um filled in the column that says midyear outcome data um some of the cells I couldn't populate because we didn't have the data and I think you saw somewhere on there with the surveys like I don't have the percentage of the survey completion because the survey hasn't gone out yet so there are some things that I was not able to populate but mostly it's there can I make a comment of course um Michelle I liked your robust goals for academic achievement I did I did I thought CU I felt like necessary sometimes they're a little low what we're shooting for so I felt like you're really reaching and I think that's what we need to be doing so thank you for that yeah it's important any other comments and I think we're capable I know we're capable okay um item D academic achievement differentiated assistance so that um that's just kind of been a standing agenda item now for information either we'll discuss academic achievement or differentiated Assistance or both just kind of depending so I did add an attachment for um differentiated [Music] assistance why is this not coming up me so the first um attachment well I'm going to talk about the um the grid the graph first with the attendance rate do you guys have that one up I've got so you know that we I clicked on the first attachment but I open that either I tried to download it and then it oh it didn't come up and there's nothing in it yeah so it's only coming up for me because it's my computer and open it up in Pages you on the attachments it shows interesting well the other one comes up because the attachment in the packet it seems to come blank oh well shoot so if you could save it as a PDF and then reattach it then they'll be able to yes yeah I could do that for the pencil on the item okay hold on email to oh can you do that Stephan that might be quicker okay sorry about that okay I figured you were going to be talking about it so we' the information looked it up at home okay well while I'm doing this the good news is is it looks better so that's good um trust her so um I've been tracking this with um Jim Sergeant down at the county and we looked at our attendance rates for these months last year compared to now and we're trending up so that's good because we're in differentiated assistance for chronic absenteeism so we've put some things in place and some of the sites and some other things that we're going to try for the remainder of the school year to continue to make that better but right now we are we're doing better did you get it stepan yeah okay so there it is there so we did it by school site and so you can see um the blue was last year and the Orange is this year so I saw that before pretty significant yeah so that's good what's the OES one I'm sorry can go down there go so I mean that's normal in November and December and probably even like January February like cold season right and sometimes people are taking like extended vacation around the holidays so sometimes we see that dip but so it dipped but it's still higher than than the previous year so that's good so where's wasuma it's there oh there we go yeah yeah yeah good job keep in mind the attendance rate is not going to necessarily change the chronic absente rate right because the chronic absente rate is the the percentage of students who have 10 or more absences right we're all students here is just our daily attendance rate so it's good it's great news but don't assume that there's going to be a automatic positive correlation to a lower chronic absente it's we're trending in the right direction yeah for sure yeah so that's good um and we're going to continue to do things for that because we continue to be in differentiated assistance for that so we'll continue to work on that and then the other document that I think you're able to pull up okay I cool so that um shows that we are going to be in differentiated assistance for some other areas as well for the upcoming year and um now we're going to have to pay attention to those areas and make sure that we have that addressed in our lcap so a couple lcap meetings ago I was given this piece of paper with a lot of red on it so that's okay it it's you know growth areas so um but that's a new situation now where we're going to have to make sure that we're addressing um The Chronic absenteeism in the suspension rate and then um an Ela for academic achievement for students with disabilities so yeah that's that's the big that's the latest information on differentiated assistance where we are as a district does everybody know what all these abbreviations mean what do you swd students with this but I don't know what s is socially economically disadvantaged oh disadvantage got it [Music] so so information yeah on differentiated assistance and where we are and you'll see language about this in the in the El our goals and actions does this mean is this to show that we qualify for different funding things or something or what is that' be cool what is it actually just actually that wouldn't be cool right because then like that's not a good setup yeah so it just means that we will get assistance from the County Office of Education to assist us in creating an action plan on and and like there's accountability right we have meetings and we have to have a plan we have to discuss it and create data for it so create actions and decide what met we're going to use to evaluate its Effectiveness yeah I'm I'm under the impression that this is probably similar for most of the schools in Madera County yes oh like all of them for chronic absenteeism yes yeah yeah where's everyone going when they're not yeah yeah that's definitely like Statewide not only countywide and then um suspension rate is also up for most folks because of the social emotional stuff going on and just some of the issues that were dealing with that we weren't dealing with maybe four five six years ago um this this issue has exploded post pandemic and some of the Lessons [Music] Learned coming out of the pandemic was if you had a spple you were supposed to stay home but now when students stay home they still have access to all of their assignments all of their curriculum because they have their Chromebook at home with them so it's easy to tell Mom or Dad I don't need to go to school because I can do all of my work here at home they don't do it so and and the governor and the state legislature recognize this situation is affecting all of California because in the governor's budget proposal and in discussions right now in the legislature they're coming up with chronic absente mitigation plans and they're talking about allowing all schools in California offer Saturday school as a way to make up absences they're also talking about giving districts and schools the flexibility to offer different forms of distant learning that were affected during the pandemic for reaching kids that weren't coming to school but at least this way we can still have a shot at providing the education and certainly I would expect that there would be some form of daily interaction between a certificated staff member and a student um but they're working on all that right now what's important to note is that they recognize the issue that we're all facing because the argument as Tera brought a while ago talking about the governor's budget the the impact that chronic absente ism is having on on education Community the clamor coming from education last year for enrollment based funding was louder than it had ever been and it got further along in legislature than it ever has before and so the legislature is trying to avoid going that route because it would increase the cost of Education um so they're trying to come up with alternative Solutions and that that alone if we had the flexibility to do that then we could create some some some programs that that will offset our our absence rate which we see the Improvement on kids com to school but as I mentioned it may not have an impact on chronic absen rates and if we know at each site we have we have students who are well beyond 10 absences on the year and if they're at home and they're doing to work but then they don't get credit for we don't get credit for the attendance you know so then what's the point of them doing it you know I mean they're not behind they could be doing the work but they're still absent unless they had some kind of hybrid how come those don't go on stud I mean just it's just sporadic just a day here or a day there or I'm tired today kind of a thing it's not necessarily three or five days in a row okay I I think it might be fair to say that there are kids who go on independent study who also don't complete the work yes yes very much so right so it's offered but they don't always come back with it done was a certain amount of days you had to be gone yeah it's not just on for a day for shortterm shortterm yeah so when it's just a day here or a day there they wouldn't qualif it's got to be three consecutives and then we have students who go into L fulltime who don't complete the work they're going to wind up being chronic absence because it's based on the work that they turn in right so it's it doesn't allow us flexibility and even if somebody is ill and they you know they're ill 10 times throughout the year that's considered Chron even if they got doctor corre absence is an absence unless they have like a chronically ill verification form on file but you know there's a small percentage of okay any other comments I'm sorry I one more comment about the suspension rate just because if you need to suspend a student who need to suspend them so why is this is it just because of you know thinking that it's slightly racist or what is that I know that they made the law about it I'll speak to it and I'll turn it over to you but um there are alternatives before you get to suspension okay and the state wants to make make sure that we are doing everything in our power because we know that there are offenses that say you shall suspend okay at that point they're suspended right uh but it's for those things uh that don't fall under that shell suspend category are we suspending for those offenses and that's what they want to make sure of and so that involves training of our principles and our staff on how to handle it I mean even training of our our teaching staff instructional staff what are we doing in the classroom first and if we could show that hey we have a stepbystep process and they're still getting suspension they' earned it so that's why sh you yeah no that's and you know the the push is like we want kids in school right and so whatever we can do to to mitigate that and make sure that kids aren't just continually being sent home of course there are offenses that it just has to happen and suspension counts as an unexcused abs but we know where they are but it's still an absence but if they're suspended for the offenses that are suspendable offenses then why would we get deed for that because they're considered unexcused absences by it okay they're suspended for the shell suspend they're suspended for the safety of the school at that time and op per um so that's why we shall suspend but we also take a ding when it comes to Ada okay as a result all right so the suspensions affect the chronic Adis as well correct think about which is why a student who is suspended 10 times in a given school year is then expellable yeah I wonder if there was a number for that yes we have follow through and it's the same at elementary school and high school this number okay um well I am happy that we hold standards and that we are um demonstrating that there's expected Behavior at school and offenses won't be tolerated and I also love that there are um supports from the classroom to um before suspension that um where kids are given chances and that they have the opportunity to correct their behavior so it doesn't feel like it's a swift hand and but I'm glad that it's still there and we have that um ability to do that because it's not fair to the teachers and staff to spend all of their energy mitigating um students that are misbehaving when the rest of the class goes um and waits and not is not getting instruction because everybody's attention is diverted and the other thing to remember is by having this data [Music] available we we need to analyze what the offenses are because if we see a trend of suspensions ands for shall suspend offenses then that also says something about the culture of the school and we're going to want to mitigate that um because naturally want everybody to school every day um but if we see the trend of of dangerous Behavior or or dangerous choices then we need to do what we can to turn that around y AG okay um item 10 accomplishments from and other reasons to celebrate from throughout the district ois elementary school every time I have it all ready and then like I press button when I walk up there we go okay good evening Happy Valentine's daytin um we have many things to celebrate at OES um first of all before I start with uh the shoutouts for this month I didn't get a chance to review the shoutouts for January I know you all read them but I just wanted to give public acknowledgement to Kanas for the grants that they awarded us for so we are very very thankful for um the many grants that they awarded us um so uh in towards the end of January end of February uh CHP donated 15 helmets uh to my club so that the O the the OAS and oci kids could begin uh riding their bikes and skateboards and skates and scooters um the the helmet Supply was not so not not so good so they donated 15 helmets and kids are happily uh Wheeling away um in also in January Don Smith was promoted from Lieutenant captain and so she um it was a big a big accomplishment we were very excited and so we were able to celebrate her for that on January 25th uh the end of January we celebrated all of our um academic achievement students and we also decided this year that we would award Improvement if they didn't necessarily meet all of the academic criteria but they worked really hard and made big improvements we awarded them for that and so we showed Super Mario Brothers movie and kids wore pajamas and PTC sered cereal and popcorn and we had a great time um also at OES our librarian and the fourth and fifth grade teachers have launched an information literacy program uh for grade students in grades four through five this program is teaching students how to research information identif high quality sources take notes from research sources paraphrasing without plagiarizing using direct quotes and citing sources and so I know that U Middle School teachers are definitely going to be very appreciative of this because it is a skill that our students badly need and so um I'm I'm really excited to see like Kelly our librarian helping our with that um we celebrated the 100th day of school at the beginning of February um we actually at OES celebrated the 101st day of school 100 plus one so that we could tie in a bunch of extra fun things on on Friday um and so the kids had a great time we we participated K5 which was you know the it used to be traditional K2 for a while and then with Co kids missed out and didn't get to do that so we went back to doing K5 and so they they enjoyed that everybody made projects and new tour and yeah it was great fun I included some really cool um steam projects that U Mrs Burton did in her class with 100 Legos and I hope you saw our our old man picture cute yeah super cute we had this little firsty that just dressed up as this old man this darling um so lots of fun we had a lot of fun on H's day um our uh cross country team is off and going the OES wining Eagles currently have 51 participants now might actually even be 52 uh so Kiren Corte and Robin Ward are heading that off and they're practicing with kids and coordinating with homework club and Esports and so um there will be three meets the cow patty run at the foro rodeo grounds the wasuma cross country meet and the cross country meet at so we're excited to see how they do thank you thank [Applause] you elementary school I will not be joining our cross team get that out right away okay um all right tell Joseph have a good night uh so we have a show your pause grid on our cafeteria wall uh it's where kids are kids are recognized for going above and beyond um so we have 150 student Deeds that exceeded our PA expectations they've been cataloged and praised and every student who has an Accolade on the board earns an ice cream party after February break kids uh were excited to see their names go up on the board during lunch I'm getting ready to start the whole process over again so um things that kids were recognized for one student in particular uh we had a new student who started one day and he was in the cafeteria didn't know where to sit and one of the little fourth graders grabbed his lunch jumped up and he was like here sit here and he went and found a different place to sit so it's just things that we're noticing that kids are more cognizant of one another and above and beyond so we're trying to reward them a little bit uh our garden program we are inside for the month of February these last lessons have focused on the importance of native bees how plants use transpiration to absorb water and some taste testing I love it when kids taste test and then they realize they've eaten a vegetable and they liked it and then they're nervous um we all know how valuable our volunteers are at the schools but this Garden Club crew is is the most dedicated group that I've ever seen one of the most amazing things about them is that they have zero absolutely no familial connections to Wasa students they have been there year after year after year month after month and they just keep coming back with more creative things to do so our we could not do this without them they are amazing um our students in grades 4 through eight are excited to have their school after school Garden Club back again Mrs ton and Mrs Peterson have conveniently started teaching kids about how to collect rainwater they've had plenty of opportunities to rework their homemade designs and then you'll see one day it was raining and they were working on some murals uh with seeds they were learning about the different sizes shapes and and the uh product of those seeds uh teachers have been celebrating second quarter student academic successes from honor rooll to kindergarten alphabet Masters to AR Superstars and we had 16 pause character Award winners who were recognized by their teachers for their attributes ranging from sportsmanship positive attitudes kindness and the whole range of ideas there we've got some kindergarten through first graders up on the staves there so you can see them you can see the P grid behind them behind each of the names on the P grid is the actual ACC Accolade that the teacher wrote on so we send a a copy of that help of the adults too start that over here in a minute uh our eighth graders spent a day touring yed high school learning about clubs classes and Badger mentality before registering for their nth grade classes that's kind of a breathtaking moment for some parents uh we noticed that more students were showing an interest in the robotics based science classes that were offered at yhs so we like to give a shout out to Mrs Barnes and Mr Corgan for doing such a great job sparking interest through our elective programs uh Mrs Amad and Mrs Springer's academic pentathlon students took a literature and Essay practice test uh they were supposed to do it last week we had a snow day so they had their official test that happened this morning the super quiz portion will take place on March 9th at ranches Middle School this year's topic is all about artificial intelligence which has sparked some very interesting conversations they all now think Ray Bradberry was a prophet um our Littles also celebrated the 100th day of school with a variety of projects activities and crafts we were going to be treated to our kindergartner annual Chinese New Year parade through campus on Friday but uh the snow destroyed the dragon these things happen the kids were plenty noisy though they worked it out uh I believe Mr seals might have provided you all with a copy of the maraposa cazette where uh Kelly did an amazing article about our librarian Mrs cander she is finishing her 38th year at wasuma she's amazing uh and so if you haven't had a chance to read that article that link will take you there but that was amazing uh winteral you'll see the pictures there they went inside for a battle ship tournament and they are working on cornhole next they're so funny our primary team is absolutely loving the science of reading training that we're going through we are having incredible conversations and we are already talking about making changes for the rest of this year carrying over into next year and what it's going to mean for our kids and their growth uh a special shout out to our district nursing staff these two are amazing uh we have students who are now directly benefiting from the Leo's eyeglass program thank you for spearheading that Jordan and our health aid Gloria is absolutely incredible she'll be going on the Montery field trip tomorrow to uh assist a student and she didn't even hesitate we got to be there at what time 6:45 done not a question these two are quite the team so I appreciate whoever found them whoever had the forite to hire them they're incredible and then finally uh congratulations to our seventh grader Sergeant meter for their most recent Cadet cor honors they won the Brigade level competition for individual major awards for our local Cadet cor and then they comp competed against about 100 other Cadets in the non-commissioned officer group at camp San Louis abiso the last weekend of January this was a state level competition so up until that point Sergeant Meer had only competed against her other uh members at oci and then she moved to a state level competition they had to give a two to three minute oral presentation on an important person who has made an impact on the world there was an interview it was a little bit scary a test a drill and a uniform inspection kudos to Terry and Ronda Baker and Jennifer bod for all of their hard work with the cadet cor program our students are participating we are seeing amazing things with them and this sergeant meder she's she's rocking it it's been a game changer for her so I'm just really proud of them it's a great program thank you thank [Applause] you O Creek Intermediate for those who are unaware Mr McGrew is actually traveling this evening heading over or heading up to the loai area for a training that participated in the morning on Universal Design learning which is the the model that we are going to we actually already begun training our oci staff for inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream classes moving forward starting in the fall um but I I want to touch on a couple of things in his report because they're pretty phenomenal too just as you've heard from o anduma you see some pictures there Mr mcre report oh and I must also point out and I'll make Tim watched the recording of this uh noticed the format of his report this month he's actually got slides pictures he's trying he's trying to keep up he's been sh comp want to be sh up anymore so he has included some some information pictures from the one their 100th day theep rally organized by the leadership student Mrs Hatfield and Mrs lancor for those actually Stephen I think you asked about the masca uniform previously there's there's a look at it right there um their pep rally included great level competitions and prizes which obviously included powdered sugar donuts hanging from a string I get invited yeah I didn't get the invite on that one either um okay and then he gives some some props for awards like Mrs Archer just talked about with Cadet core you see pictures of them over in San liso participating a really cool picture of some projects that students creates in seventh grade uh in Mrs long course class that represent the classic books that they had finished reading clearly the first picture is aliceon Wonderland the next one is where the mountain meets the moon uh very creative outstanding work being done there um a picture of our leadership class at oci with Mrs Hatfield when they come over to OES each week and read with the littles really cool program and he says the leadership class is now selling candy grams for Valentine's Day I'm sure they wrap that up raped in the money I'm sure today was nice and quiet on campus Valentine's at Junior High or in this case intermediate and high school is pretty L 8th grade students also signed up for their yhs classes like our wasuma Wildcats did and when they partic and they also participated in FBI day over at the high school future Badger induction day so great things happening at throughout the district uh next we have our superintendent report I'll keep it brief in the interest of time and that Ronda needs to get home because um but it's important to mention and it came up in in some of the photos of the three reports that we just had um as well as um other other elements of this evening's meeting but a huge shout out to all of our Community Partners um we'll start with law enforcement the the relationship that we have with Madera County Sheriff's department and also CHP are phenomenal to begin with but depy lots who's the staff resource officer assigned to the high school he's actually been assigned to any call that comes in for any of the area schools um he is always very quick to respond and um we just value that relationship greatly as well as his sergeant Sergeant Joseph Wilder um but we've also got a great relationship with our CHP office and uh a couple of the CHP officers have children who attend schools here in the district and they have been instrumental uh particularly over here at oci with if you're ever around somewhat in the morning during student drop off but definitely in the afternoon when it's time pick up and our buses are trying to get in and it is congested traffic has backed up in both directions on evening Springs um it's it's rough and CHP has spearheaded a move with Madera County Public Works and Madera County Roads and with Mr McGrew about finding Solutions um that intersection is too small for a roundabout but a roundabout would solve most of those issues um but there are people who do this kind of work who have their eyes on it and I'm hoping to report it sooner rather than later that we do have some solutions to make that um much easier last thing we want to see is we also in addition to the cars and the buses we have a lot of students who walk home and at that time we also have students from the high school who are walking up Indian Spring so we don't want to see anybody get hurt and uh but I just appreciate the Partnerships that we have with them other Partnerships C mentioned the Kanas and the kuas have been so generous Through The Years with our schools with their with their grants and our other service clubs as well um had I mentioned the Leo's Club the glasses we certainly thank our Lions Club for that um the master garders at wuma Holy Cow what what a impactful program um the the relationship that wuma has with our animal shelter there in aani when the kids go over and read to the to the animals I mean it's just um it it's a h it says an awful lot about our community and the district's willingness to partner um and the on that's having biggest impact on a daily basis is is our relationship with my club that after school programming there is some really really cool programming being offered kids are taking advantage of it and that that's a part of Education that we weren't able to provide until These funds became available with the encouragement to partner with with somebody in the community so it's it's allowed what was boys and girls club now my club to keep the doors open um increased Staffing exponentially um and just a lot of great things and I just I want to say thank you to all our Community Partners can't do it without Board number comments Steve I attempted I I had a whole speech prepared about something that happened this week but I'm not sure it's appropriate for this crowd um it was after church and uh this lady came up to me and she says I hear you're a board member on the school district here and I go yes yes ma'am and she says well it's corrupt and you need to resign and just get out of there which you know surprised me and and I said well excuse me but I'm not corrupt I don't know anyone on my staff that's corrupt or on the board that's corrupt and I certainly don't know any teachers or principles that are corrupt we're all doing the best we can and I'm a volunteer back off and then she goes well you know you should just quit all together and just leave the state and I said well you're part of the problem in this whole thing is because you know it's people with your opinion that that they're not voting they're not participating and that you should be praying for me praying for our board you should be praying for the teachers you know because you're a Christian prayer Warrior for heav sake that's what she was claiming to be and so you know we had this argument and this got heated and she said well on top of that I don't even believe in voting and I said well well then you're just just missing it everywhere because the only places you can actually uh uh engage with our government is by voting jury duty or being in office and if if you're not voting you're just spouting off you're not participating you're you're almost being cowardly and her husband was there and I'm looking at him like I'm about to get punched but it really is it's a it's a cowardly thing to do to not participate and hide it behind your faith or whatever I said no your faith is the reason in the um and and I've heard this said by different parties but it's just a amazing concept that if that if the decent people people with a moral foundation in this country would just actually vote instead of doing what their pastors tell them like don't participate you know your kingdom isn't here you're going to go to heaven and and just check out you know don't participate don't get involved in the rift rra and I I heard that from the pulpits and uh and pastors and In Articles and it's just absolutely wrong it's just you know the this whole country was built on the idea that the the the moral people in this country it's their duty to vote it's not a right they they had to do it to make it work and and it's that Collective opinion that made the representatives so that they could make the kind of decisions that did represent the whole people I mean it was just sad when I read uh I heard it actually that no I did read it that it has nothing to do with Joe Biden but but in the Democratic um voting back in South Carolina he he be he became the the Democratic lead guy there in the primary with only 130,000 votes for the entire state that was the turnout it was pretty much it and I'm thinking well where are the other 4 million of them or however many they are what are they doing you know why aren't they participating and it's just a frustration for me and I'm not taking it out on anyone here I'm just saying there it was just a surprise to hear someone like that cuz they're the ones that are that are encouraging people to to to to move out get your kids out of school you know don't let them in there because of you know who knows what's going on you know and I don't think it's going on in our district maybe it's in that school in Oakland that you read in the newspaper but it's it's not here you know and and if it was we would all know about it like probably within minutes and we'd be all over it and so I said unless you got something specific or some actual proof of this um allegation you know we're just going to have to park up I can't take it anymore anyway so I was just an interesting position to find that I'm a Schoolboard member and I'm having to defend you know being a Schoolboard member even the public school you know but I thought well why not that's that's I signed up for it and uh and I offended the woman offended her husband but were the whole crowd never intimidated me a whole lot so I just I just laid it out there and pretty much half agreed and half didn't basically normal situation and uh I just just wanted to share that but that affects our Ada it's it's a I thought about it wow This Woman's actually encouraging people to get their kids out of school get out of here don't vote calling herself prayer Warrior at the same time I just found it disturbing and and you know because it's not what I expected to hear at all about five minutes after a church service you know so anyway that's my comment and I'm fighting for our school district out there in in the trenches so thank you um I really don't have a report I just want to say Happy Valentine's Day and um we should celebrate and show love every day not just on Valentine's Day oh sweet um I got the opportunity I got an invitation from oci to go see their elected program one morning so I went and did that and that was really cool to see the kids in different set settings I got tour of all the different classes and what the kids were doing and everyone was engaged everyone was you know learning so that was really cool and um I was supposed to go to OES and then turned out to be a snow day so anyway figure that out at a later time but um always great to get get to see the schools and what's happening out there so thank you for the opportunities and invitations so keep coming all right thanks and I got to go to the O oci uh award ceremony so they had one ceremony for each grade six seven and eight and it was just wonderful to see so many kids that did so well and not only academically but also with their character and citizenship so that was really impressive and I got to see the mascot and he was having a ball there so oh and also Mr Peterson was giving out the golden I thing it's called the Golden tennis shoe or something award golden sneaker that's right I'm glad I didn't say the golden athletes foot [Music] okay uh yeah I don't have uh any comments tonight happy Valentine's Day um future agenda items Larch agenda to also be I will give you I will give you a heads up I will not be Pres now I'm scheduled to be out of state for the March meeting okay but Tera and Michelle will be here and we'll have the second interum and then the art plan we'll have some good stuff revise plan yeah back and probably the next batch of board policies and yay okay our next meeting is March 133 uh 5:30 is closed session 6:00 p.m is open session and we're done this meeting is a jury okay

all right we'll call the uh meeting of the basa Union School District Board of Trustees uh to order at 5:31 we have three trustees in person uh two trustees will be joining us um at during close session um for close session we have conference with the real property negotiators government Court section 128 we have student discipline student suspension student expulsion or student expulsion read read admittance government code section 35 146 and 48918 we have conference with negotiator government courot section 5495 7.6 and we have Public Employee discipline dismissal release complaint government code section 54957 uh are there any public comments on close session items seeing none we will now adjourn to close session thank you all right we will now reconvene to open session um all right trusty himz would you lead us in the flag salute please yeah everybody could please stand and face the flag right hand over your heart I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you for that trusty how can you please read the district mission statement of course uh barasa Union School District provides all students the skills to become lifelong Learners and successful 21st century Global Citizens thank you for that and trusty Nan can you please read the Norms of the Board of Trustees yes um the bar Union School District Board of Trustees agree to focus on the best interest of students at all times be respectful listen openly address problems and process not persons keep each other informed maintain confidentiality work toward the future learn from the past equal participation from all members and to stay on task thank you for that um for disclosure taken disclosure of action taken in closed session uh Dr FES thank you um there was a motion by board member NN for student number 71641 156 and seconded by board member boak to move to expel students 716 5 thank you for that Dr Fus um uh do we have a motion to adopt the agenda for tonight I move to adopt the agenda I'll second it it's been moved in seconded all those in favor say I I I I the agenda has been adopted thank you um do we have anything under recognition ceremonial Dr f um are there any public comments on the concent calendar agenda items seeing none can I um may I get a motion for um for approving the consent consent calendar tonight I move to approve the consent calendar second and motion it's been moved in second there no other questions all those in favor say I I I and motion um carries 5 to zero thank you uh are there any comments at this time from the public on non-agenda items seeing none we'll go to reports and presentation Dr fentis uh the first one is B basa Art Festival committee presentation thank you as you know um this past year we've had a very sex successful varasa Art Festival um that supports all of our students in our school district so we do have a presentation for the board to provide an update on the outcomes of that event and to also share uh details for the upcoming event for this school year so I'd like to um recognize uh trustee H menz who on his own time also supported this event and will be sharing with us some more uh background information on the success thank you good evening so this is what it looks like from here so um this this uh well I guess last year now we had you know uh the the person uh it's Frank conella who for years ran the festival and we really appreciate all his work he was able to do it last year so um council member Cohen if you could join me um you know he's representing uh represents the area of beresa on the city council and he knows that it's a I'll let you I'll let him kind of explain it and then I'll go over you know the process of uh basically putting on the festival and and how much we raise for for our schools yeah the berasa Art Festival um is probably the biggest and most important event in our district every year it's the oldest and largest Art and Wine Festival in the city of San Jose and we're very proud to that event is an annual tradition um it was founded back in the 70s by some community members who were founded it to support the music program of the berasa school district and um they ran it for years and they had a committee that was kept it going eventually they did they retired from organizing the event and we have to continue having a committee every year to help organize it so it was great that Frank stepped up for a few years last year he informed us probably around this time of year that he wasn't going to be able to pull it off that last year and that's when I said as a representative of District 4 this is unacceptable we have to have an an this is an annual event we can't just skip certain years so um we had a conversation with uh Hugo and Angela who's where did Angela go oh there she is she moved Angela who's in my office and others about can we pull this off if we try to coordinate it and bring that committee back together so I'm really proud of the work that Hugo and Angela and s did along with cooperation from some of our other partners we have uh Martha creger back there from Senator Aisha ahab's office and we had cooperation from uh supervisor oo Lee uh assembly member Alex Lee and others who helped sponsor the event but we our our volunteers and Community stepped up once again made it a really successful event and now it's time to begin planning the 2024 barus Art Festival you we also have some great new artwork um with the logo of the Art Festival um created by our great Eric Osborne Bard in our office who's really good at with Graphics um and so turn it back over to Hugo but I'm excited to be here tonight just to kind of wrap up last year's festival and begin the the planning for this year's Festival so council member Cohen um you know gave me and Angela the time um basically in the you know cre uh you made made us I guess uh creatively uh open right he left it open for us to run the festival um as we saw fit so uh you know first of all we needed to form a committee as you can see there are some is Dan here there he is so we had a lot of help um because we didn't have a lot to go on um so we you know try to bring together and we did bring together a pretty good Community um you know Tim Morosco is there from Alex Lee's office uh and then we had you know a few um District employees who've done it in the past and some community members uh who've done it in the past also we have tavu from Oto Le's office who who's very helpful um in the planning so we had a lot of planning to do so we had to meet weekly so we had you know like council member Cohen said we started out well first of all it started out it was a couple months it took a little while to find and to get the berasad foundation to agreee to um you know take on the funding this year so after they said yes you know we'll take take on the funding which they haven't done in hadn't done in many years uh we began the process of actually planning the meeting uh weekly um there were a lot of issues to resolve you know in terms of uh you know who the vendors were going to be uh that were going to you know provide the Arts and Crafts who was going to provide the food um who was going to provide the wine glasses was a big issue because the wine glasses are not cheap and so Susan foul actually stepped up and paid for it um so we were really grateful for that but we had weekly meetings you know discuss the logistics of the festival coordinate volunteers U do the setup um so it's quite a complicated process but we had you know people who've done it for many many years and who are willing to meet with US Weekly uh and be there on the day of um you know to to make the festival happen and then of course to put on any kind of event we need money um so we had a lot of people um you know council member Coen uh provided a great deal of the funding for the festival from the district four office um tasty fresh they did the uh promotional materials we had some funding also from U Alex Lee's office from Oto Le's office uh Valley Water provided some funding and some local businesses um also provided some funding uh Aisha wahb's office Senator a hobb's office provided some funding so we're very grateful also googly Mo and Jay lore provided the wines at a discount for us to to make the festival happen rod and Robbie um so we're really grateful to all these uh businesses and and individuals who helped out with the sponsoring and then so uh you know after all the planning coordinating we had some money raised uh raised paid for all the you know the Porta parties and and for the park space and all that stuff on the day of we had more than 75 vendors um of different kinds you know providing local arts and crafts uh clothing uh I remember this this woman sold bows for your hair uh woodworking um you know plants we had so many vendors I think we haven't had this many vendors at an art and wine festival or Bas Art Festival in a while um so it was it was great to have all these different vendors um you know uh there and then this the what are they called the the pin wheel yeah um and then you know we had various food trucks and actually we had one food truck uh it was the shaved ice it's con ice and they provided so they sold you know their shaved ice at the festival and provided some of their proceeds um back for the uh for the Ed Foundation we also had uh 13 offices of elected officials and service providers there just so people can you know get some information on you know what we do as you know in elected offices what some services that are available are uh in the community and of course we had lots of volunteers to make that event happen that day uh more than three 3,000 attendees uh people from the neighborhood and from throughout the South Bay really um you know attended the event and so in conclusion we got more than $114,000 raised for beresa Union School District programs which is the ultimate goal um you know the festival so it was a lot of work but it was a lot of fun and planning and I'm really grateful to everybody the volunteer and everybody that was volunt told uh to you know to uh to help out um and we're doing it again this year so uh it's it's planned for Saturday May 11th again at peniten Creek Park it's going to be the 47th uh annual uh berasa Art Festival so if anybody wants to contribute either by volunteering their time being part of the committee it'd be great to have another board member as part of the committee or if you want to make a monetary donation we're always taking those and money's always very helpful um and so we have also we want to officially present yes I I I will say that I have always I have always wanted to come somewhere with a giant cardboard check so I now have my opportunity but the festival isn't complete without the official presentation although the Ed Foundation has had the money all along because that's where the money was immediately deposited but we want to make it official uh to that we've raised this money for the Buras Ed Foundation which will be used as the district and Ed Foundation see fit for the for all of the schools of the baras school district so I guess we'll we can present this to uh the president or to the board and to superintendent or whoever you was appropriate we have our $114,000 check from the varas Art Festival so one more thing so in addition to the giant check I also have a in our office we have a giant Banner that there was this group of artists that went to the festival and they had people you know the attendees kind of add their uh their touch with paint and stuff like that so it's I don't know how big that's like 20 feet yeah so I'll bring it to the next meeting but it's it's quite a piece of artwork uh local color yeah visitors just drew on it it's a really beautiful piece and it doesn't fit my cubicle so you know I'll bring it here thank you thank you so much for that and thank you for being here uh council member Cohen and thank you for the check and uh thank you trusty humanus for all the hard work I do have one complaint there's no pictures of me cleaning up me Dan Angela and Mara remember how much we cleaned up we did we did a lot lot of uh work after the fact so that's also important they'll have it next I'll make sure their photographers around when we do that so but no uh seriously it is it is a uh big shot in the arm for us uh for our school district for the Ed Foundation uh you know to have that um uh money available for our teachers for uh for their grant for helping uh their classrooms so it's uh it's no joke it's it's a good amount of money it's uh I know uh the amount of hard work that went uh uh into doing this I was there at the initial meetings unfortunately it canot continue due to family reasons but um but I know the challenges of the vendors and all those things so I'm with you so we really really appreciate um all the hard work and all the support from uh uh the council members office and as well as our sponsors so thank you so much for doing that and I know that um representatives of the barasa Ed Foundation couldn't be here after all but I do want to extend on behalf of them you know their thanks and appreciation because as we've come out of the pandemic you know these types of events and community commity support has taken some time to kind of get right back into place including for the Ed foundation and their own resources to be able to continue to support teacher grants and special school projects that our teachers like to do for our students and so this $14,000 will be a great boost uh for you know for them to be able to continue those offerings so thank you so much for everyone that was involved in coordinating taking on the leadership and and uring that we continue to have these resources available perfect any other comments from the um uh trusties okay perfect all right we'll move on to uh Item B um elap M update and budget overview thank you at this time I'd like to invite Dr mccu our assistant superintendent of ed services to share with the board uh where we are on our um goals and our lcap and our financials and how we're working towards uh meeting the outcomes that we established for this year all right here we go so here's our agenda for uh the presentation we're going to take some time to review our lcap goals there are metrics for each goals um a lot of the metrics that we're using here are we're also in the a dashboard presentation that we presented at our January um board meeting and then reviewing how our actions and services are going for each of the goal um Josh Kor Josh korano helped with the budget expenditures for each goal and then of course where we're at with stakeholder engagement and timeline for the new lcap cycle which will be happening um pretty much right after the February break is when we do a lot of that Outreach and start planning for the next cycle so as a reminder um lcap goal one ensuring a safe and productive learning environment that promotes wellness and a positive School culture for all students some of the metrics that we used specifically um we're looking at 2023 um data and that's kind of like our Baseline and where we're at at this point um I think we looked at uh January 31st as the midyear update and then where would we like to be is the goal for the end of the school year at the 2324 school year and that's actually what we um sought out for three years ago so the desired outcomes were actually at the beginning of this three-year cycle and how close we are to um hitting those um outcomes so as you can see um some of the metrics that we use specifically to support goal number one uh attendance rates so at the end of last year we are at 24.71 per and right now we're pretty much right at the same uh 24.7% so we're definitely continuing to monitor those I know we're going to bring this up tomorrow at our leadership meeting with the principles and other leaders but we are hoping to get to to 98% so we do still have some work to do on attendance rates uh chronic absenta M was a big Focus for this uh current school year last year we had a 16% uh chronic absenteeism rates and we were looking at specific student groups uh our Hispanic student groups were at 34.6% and our African-American student groups were at 29% so at the midyear point like I mentioned in January 31st uh we are at 13.7% which is a decrease in chronic absenteeism which is a good thing our Hispanic student groups are at 27% and then African-American students are at 177% we had a very lofty goal of trying to come out of the pandemic with chronic absenteeism rates at 4% so at this point we're just happy that that chronic absenteeism rate is decreasing I don't see us hitting that 4% rates and we'll look at um once again setting those three-year goals for this upcoming cycle to be a little bit more are um in the realm of what we could potentially hit uh suspension rates once again for last school year we're at 1.6% and then we're looking at our student subgroups that potentially have a little higher increase so our Hispanic students at three and a half our students who qualify for free and reduced lunch at three and a half% our English Learners at 1% and our African-American students at 10% % so definitely looking uh specifically at those student groups because the student groups should be pretty much in alignment with our overall suspension rate and as you can see um we still have work to do with some of our student groups and uh currently at 82% suspension rates um Hispanic rates are decreasing our students who qualify for free and reduced lunch are decreasing El's decreasing and African-American students haven't really decreased much compared to last year um one student for the expulsion rate one student tonight for expulsion rate um and our desired outcomes are pretty close to the mark once again it's our student group for our African-American students that we're continuing to Monitor and support as we um look at our metrics so to get a little bit more into detail we're looking at the number of students in each subgroup that helps really identify the in and then the number of students that have been suspended within those student groups I think that also helps us understand specifically for our African-American students groups there's very few as a a collective but 19 of the 81 students were suspended and 22 23 year we have it down to five students but some of those students have been suspended more than once so those are some of the numbers that we look at you know once again 85 students for Hispanic students a big beat excuse me a big decrease to get to 29 students as of um January 31st wrong way and then just how are we doing with our actions and um services and our budgets so we're continuing to work um specifically with our mtss which are multi-tiered systems of support we actually have a district executive leadership team tomorrow we're working with the collective impact solution um group we're doing a lot of training we had a um PowerPoint presentation that was rolled out in January to all schools so that everybody understands what our Focus area is uh we're continuing to work with our students who need that social emotional wellbeing and students supports um we are um happy to report that we did qualify for a grant so we were able to identify and hire an additional School social worker who just started um at the beginning of January she's housed out in at the pedmont middle school so she's also supporting pedmont but also um supporting all schools linking the services that are provided within the districts excuse me within the county so that some of our students get more support um Panorama survey is coming out that's also part of our lcap just to see how our students feeling about their social emotional well-being um we're going to continue with the student survey for Panorama and we're going to be continuing to outreach to parents and staff through the survey monkey and we're working towards getting more of our schools up with positive behavior intervention supports PBIS for short we have three schools that are going through the um Santa Clara County Office of Ed getting training we also have four schools that are getting like a little reboots a little restarts and they're working with a collective impact solution folks and we continue to have web at all three of our middle schools and at this point in the year I think Josh also was um around the end of June or the end of January excuse me we're at uh 46% of our expenditures for what we have captured for goal number one I keep going the wrong way all right we're going to keep moving forward goal two improving student achievement for all students providing that Common Core State Standards instruction with the Strategic use of technology and also providing professional development for all staff we look basically at our metrics our our um test scores specifically our esack scores and we'll just kind of go through those pretty quickly what we're looking at for the Baseline is the 2021 2022 sback scores that were um administered in the spring of 2022 for the midyear update we're looking at the 2023 ESC scores that were administered in the spring of 2023 so once again um you can see that we are at 34.6 above standard um from last school year we dipped a couple of points but we're still above standard um and then once again looking at our specific uh population of student groups our students who qualify for um free and reduced lunch 11.3 points below standard and so actually we decreased so now it's 17.7 points below standard our African-American students were at 52.9 points below standard and actually increased but they're still below by 37 points Hispanic students were at 31 points below standard and that also increased or decreased the number of students um to 41.3 points so our goal is to continue to increase three points across the district and also within student populations so we've made a little bits of progress within some of those student subgroups but once again really focusing in on how to support those student groups for math overall last school year we're at 6.7 points above standard this school year we're at 11.1 point above standard so we're making progress there students who qualify for free and reduced lunch were 49% point6 points below and this past school year we're at 11.3 points below so making some good progress African-American students were 112 points below now we're at 52 point nine points below so that's almost increasing by you know 50 points uh great and our Hispanic students were below at 81.6 and at 52.9 points so you can see for math we're making some steady increases which is great and I think that also back to you know in-person learning filling in those gaps um so our math scores are moving trending in the positive direction and then looking at our lpac scores for our students who are English Learners and making um once again 50.9 per of our students are making progress towards English proficiency and this school year 54.3 making progress and this is once again the 2022 2023 scores right now um our um assessment team is out actually giving the lpac scores for this current school year so that data probably will be um input for next school year and then once again the number of students who are reclassified last year were 304 this year it's 115 and a very lofty goal I think um once again these are goals that we need to reconsider for the next iteration and I thought I think we we were trying to capture was the three years added together to get to 500 so that is the LPC scores and I keep going backwards uh reading benchmarks same information um at the elementary level the Middle School level benchmarks are given um a couple of times during the school year so these are the at the midpoint um once again end of January so you'll be able to see the base line and then compare it to where we're at mid year where we'd like to be at the end of 2022 or the 23 24 school year so we are making some progress by closing the gap on below grade level um approaching grade level decreased a little uh meeting grade level increased a little and exceeding grade level was almost half of our students which is really um positive and so we are hitting our desired outcomes specifically for or the exceeding piece but we still have some work to do with a below grade level and approaching grade level um same thing for math we have those Middle School excuse me not math but the reading benchmarks for the middle school also given three times a year our um percents are trending a little lower with our Middle School um results so you can see that the um decrease and Below or excuse me the increase in the below grade level and then also the increase in approaching grade level and so that's continuing to work um specifically to help support our middle school students and going back again okay it's the up button not the down button Joe all right so actions and services and our budget update so once again providing those basic instructional services to all students um we had uh a great conversation with our dear friend Dr Nikki Elliott who was on site yesterday and giving us a lot of great feedback on her strategy Keepers we also have a um uh another training scheduled for next week so when we're on break we have about 30 of our classified and certificated employees who are going to get level two training from Dr Nikki and her team and once again our strategy Keepers that have been um at the Forefront of supporting Dr Nikki and her work and those are our employees we'll also be helping um co- facilitate some of those sessions uh we continue to support our tier two and tier three um Ela and English language arts intervention with our Imagine Learning um platform we have a lot of extended support after school to help fill in those gaps our um instructional coaches are also working with students at each of the school sites we just hired reading tutors specifically to help with uh those tier two and tier three supports for English language arts we continue to provide um SEAL training um to help support our English language development and those students who qualify for El we this is our first year that we've had all three of our middle schools provide zero periods so that our El students do receive and elective um math for tier two and three I just being very honest that's more support that we need to help support um uh teachers with supports in math or programs to help support in math we're continuing to work through our fast units and we continue to work on our Avid um schools our three middle schools and three elementary schools and that support and we're continuing to work through educ climber which which is part of the illuminate assessment platform and getting more into how to support and understand all the different features to track some of these assessments and like I mentioned as well gold two were in pretty good shape for um expending those um funds at 52% down ah I still went the wrong way all right goal three increase the parent and Community involvement and education and once again um looking at our metrics talked a little bit already about the Panorama survey um we continue to have delac meetings which are district English language advisory committees and this year they're happening continuing with zoom that was one thing that um we had a discussion at the beginning of the year parents really liked um the option of Zoom especially for deac meetings which are during the day um around 8:30 to 10 we have uh a handful of parent education nights that are happening right now we're wrapping up our Middle School supports and then in March we're having parent Ed nights at the elementary sites so it's going to actually be housed at rusin so we've had some really good um parent nights sponsored by the district we also have multiple parent nights and other opportunities that happen at uh the school sites and making sure that we're sending out those parent newslet twice a month and once again goal number three doesn't have as much um budget attached to it but we are at about 47% and we're continuing those parent communication Outreach using our translators and communicate is a contract that we support for other translators that um are in addition to the services that R3 translators provide and once again that parent engagement and getting the county office to help support with um some of these uh initiatives so where we're at is once again we're wrapping up year three what I just presented will all go into year three of the lcap and it's part of the new template there's always a new updated template and that's the um annual update template that we'll be using and as we clck close out that uh three-year cycle we're also opening up the next threeyear cycle and so what we usually do between March and may is we make presentations to our parent Community um groups which is our Bara District advisory committee our district English language uh acquisition committee we go to principal meetings we have our own lcap meetings we invite our Union folks we have principles on those committees we have parents on those committees so so I'll be sending information out probably right after the break set those all up the superintendent I really enjoy going out to the school sites to hear from the students they tell us a lot of fun information and we enjoy that and Gathering that information to also help support you know um what goes into the lcap and then like I mentioned before we have our Panorama survey so getting the students to also from third to 8th grade giving them um I think it's about 40 to 50 questions about how they're feeling social emotional well-being Etc and then uh this will be our second year sending out the survey for the elcat through Survey Monkey and we'll continue to refine those questions and get feedback so that we continue to put all those things into our upcoming cycle all right questions any questions comments on the board I have a couple of questions and comments thank you for the presentation always happy to hear updates from lcap especially since all these goals are so important and I'm always happy to hear that we're still working with Dr Nikki and getting the um the strategy Keepers out there making sure that they're um going in to the schools and making sure everything stays up to date with them I I had just had a couple of questions I noticed that um Avid we just have it at three elementary schools was wondering why it's only three and not um are we looking to expand more just curious or are they funded by Title One funds Avid is really the big Focus has been middle school and so it's competing initiatives and so what we really looking forward to do is trying to get some of the fourth and fifth grade folks into the AVID program and getting them trained up and then they would have to go to um some of the trainings throughout the state and the interest of getting those additional trainings outside of the calendar year is a little difficult because it usually is at the end of June early July and so we're really trying to get the three elementary schools kind of more pumped up before we add more and honestly it used to be four elementary schools and it's gone down to three because they also felt that it just the support and the progress was wasn't as robust at the elementary schools as it is at the schools gotcha that makes sense and I also just wanted to ask um I noticed that we have a parent newsletter is that available in different languages I noticed that we do have um translators but are the newsletters translated in Vietnamese Spanish so there's usually just a little um uh piece down at the bottom that says if you need translation um however when we send things out uh via Niti important documents that need to be filled out those are translated okay great thank you so much sure any other questions so from my side I just had a a question about the on on the metrics that you presented uh where it says the desired outcomes so so if I heard you correctly that's at the end of the end of the threee cycle not just for the year correct correct so we plan those out when we created the three-year plan at the be beginning of the cycle and we were just being very lofty in our our um outcomes now it helps us really like redefine where we're at and making them a little um more attainable for the next cycle also knowing that that year one was 2122 correct correct so that was our first year back in from you know everything with the pandemic but otherwise the numbers look look uh look quite good I I know there's always work to do there's absolutely as a school district we we constantly are it's a moving Target but uh you know some of the numbers metrics look very good so thanks for all the hard work there another piece that I think we really need to continue to monitor are the student groups right so those you know big picture on paper everything looks pretty good but when you start really digging into those student subgroups that's where the work is to be done in my opinion because you can definitely see there's a disparity between the overall and then looking at the student groups and that's all what that's basically mtss yeah the multi-tiered systems of support to really support those students that qualify for free and reduced L that's those extra dollars that we get to support those programs so perfect thank you for the presentation all right going all the way to the end now going the wrong way okay Tony all right um we'll move forward with the measure L and measure U construction Bond program update thank you and we invite Tony kisto for his monthly report ton ton there we go um again the gym they started using it on the 17th they've been using it almost every day especially now that it's raining they've been using it more and more um let's see if I can do this oh I learned from Joe again we'll go through measure L and measure U um measure L will be real brief because again we'll we have some funds left we're going to present what we have left in the April board meeting so that we can approve and then hopefully spend them by the end of the of the fiscal year um measure youu again the projects we have completed we completed the Middle School gym basically the gym itself we still have some site work and some other things to do around it but the gym itself is complete um also the morale exterior door replacement project that's complete and the exterior door numbers at pedmont has been completed um we did bid one project since the last board meeting well since the since my last update was the um toy on restroom project that was actually awarded on the 31st of January um again we had six bits and actually we started the 5th of February um projects that are in progress again at pedmont we have at the gym we still have to do some landscaping and basically we have have to replace some um electrical we're just waiting for the turn the um the switchboard to arrive it's we ordered it six months ago we think it'll be here in another six months once that's here we'll actually do it and it's basically replacing the old one that was there and it basically just Powers up the Portables um exterior door numbers they've been working on some of the door numbers at all the schools we had to be selective because of the cold weather they can't actually put the numbers up we've been putting up more plates than or you know plates than numbers um the PA project that actually started about a month and a half ago they've been working on that we're going to actually start probably putting in the PA system in another month at pedmont or so um the security alarm project that actually started at pedmont yesterday and they expect to complete that in a couple weeks and then they'll move on to Morell and again for the security the existing system is still up and running as soon as the new one's put in then we'll take down the old one um again the restroom project at Toyon that started the fifth they're moving along that's actually doing pretty well most of the demolition has been completed so far um there's been a lot of noise but the teachers have been really pretty good Troopers I mean we actually asked the teacher that's adjacent to it if she wanted to move and she's didn't want to and she's stayed put and she's hasn't complained so it's been actually pretty good um our biggest concern now is next week it's supposed to rain and a lot of the heavy that we are demolition we were going to do next week that might we might have to do on Saturdays and things like that just because of the rain um again the fire alarm replacement for Brook tree Majestic and Summerdale Majestic is pretty much complete M Brook TR will be complete probably at the end of um I gotta get this right president's weekend break and then Summerdale should be done in April the only thing the first two we haven't turned them on yet is because we're still waiting for certain parts so that we can actually test everything and turn it over to the school but they should be done by the end of the summer um projects we have in design of the next set of fire alarm projects at Toyon Vincy Park and Northwood um again we're working on the warehouse replacement project exterior signs we're working on again the rest of the schools for the PA and security Brook tree Majestic Way Noble Northwood Summerdale toyan and Vincy Park we're working on design right now we hope to bid those by the end of all of those by the end of summer um the exterior windows at pedmont that's actually at DSA um and that'll that went in about two weeks ago so that'll take about three or three months to finish hopefully they can do it faster because it's just Windows um but we'll bid those probably at the end of April we're actually going to bid everything we might not award everything until it actually gets approved by DSA though again the idea is try to get almost all the windows done this summer and then the last one is the comprehensive infrastructure renewal and utilities assessment it was um they actually started that in fact they walked was it last week two weeks ago Dan so they walked all the schools already they're going to have recommendations on kind of things they can do for the mechanical systems solar water just a variety of things and again those are all things that they have to do be able to show that they can save money so that we can do those and again this is I threw in a picture of this is the on the right are the two bathroom or the two storage rooms that are going to turn into bathrooms are going to turn into restrooms and on a site plan you can see the colored ones are actually where they are so and wings C and J which I'm not sure why it's j and l that's basically all TK and Kinder lower grades so those are the kids that are going to use those restrooms and then that's the inside of the finished gym which most of you have seen and then it's just a this is just a schedule of how we're going to complete everything questions how's the uh construction Market any chance that the other beds that are going to be coming up are going to be under um the budget well we we we know the PA will because that we can actually do through Cass so we already know kind of where those numbers are and it's just a b matter of what how many we're going to buy kind of thing so we know we're going to save some money there um the rest of the things it's just I mean again the Toyon project we were lucky we had six bids so that's great so at least it's competitive um it's just going to you know it's still hit or miss it's better but there are still some materials that are taking forever to get like still mechanical units are taking six to 12 months to get longer than they should um switch boards for electrical those are taking a year to get so some things like that are just taking too long so again some of the things we're looking at is trying to pre- purchase things so that we don't have to wait so long to do some of that stuff so it's better but it's still not great right okay anything else any other questions oh yeah thank you for the presentation always happy to hear which projects you're working on I had a quick question about the comprehensive infrastructure renewal and utility assessment you mentioned they're going to be um looking at our solar and our water usage will they be looking at like renewable um or how we can better utilize our solar panels like for example um kind of like leveraging our existing infrastructure for electricity and such would that kind of be part of the report yes okay great yeah because I'm really interested to see how we can better utilize our solar panels and also see like how we can use more renewable energy you know bring down the cost of yeah because initially when we did the solar the solar panels we only did about 80% of capacity so one of the things they're going to look at is and I think we're allowed to go to about 110% of what we can produce so they're going to look at how we can do that and if that actually makes sense okay great because again all the Everything's changed on how we get rebates back or just because NM one is how they charge that's what we're in right now but now they're M3 so the rates are a lot different and payback's a lot harder to make money on okay so got but anyhow we're we are actually looking at that okay great thank you anything else um from my side I have a question for for the remaining measure L uh funds do you already have a list of items prioritized well we have a couple I mean we I think we still have about 300,000 left but about 150 or so is uncovered so those are the things we're kind of look at what we want to do um so a lot of the things we're going to look at is we're still want to purchase some more um cafeteria tables for the for Toyon and Noble we never purchase cafet cafeteria tables um Ruskin needs a few more outdoor cafeteria tables there was some shelving for at the sister schools we put them at Brook tree and Majestic and at the time Summerdale didn't want them but now that they have less classrooms they need more storage space so we're going to add some more show so there's things like that we're going to try to Doh um we still have the um loan for the renewable energy for the Lighting systems that we did we can use some of that savings to pay that off um okay so things like that we're looking at yeah the reason I asked is I I noticed something um at Cherrywood you know I'm there in the mornings to um uh for my crossing guard Duty um when I walk to the parking lot I noticed something uh unusual if you can picture the Cherrywood parking L just a single aisle uh the one side faces the uh road to to the grassy area other side faces the school near the fence and that side doesn't have those concrete Stoppers you know where safety Stoppers oh the the little parking barriers parking barriers right so uh could be an issue if if a you know someone hits a gas pedal instead of inad of the break they're just going to go through um the fence uh so I was wondering any reason why that was not put in and are are there other sites like that potentially that could be an Hazard typically you put those parking barriers when there isn't a curb okay so if there's there's not a curb I see okay so typically if there's a curb you don't put them in if there's if there isn't a curb that's when you put them in but uh in this specific case there are students walking past that fence uh so if a if a if a car does lose control they're going to hit the hit the curb and hit the student potentially I mean we can look at putting those in because honestly they don't they're not that much money to do right so I was that's why I was curious so we can we can add that to the list of potential projects if the board we can do that okay if if also if we can evaluate other sites I I only know but to see I understand sites because I'm sure there are there's a few sites probably like that but I'll look all of them and we can put some numbers together okay that'll be great thank you thank you for the presentation of you're welcome all righty all right U moving along um item 11 superintendent report Dr ftis thank you um first what I'd like to do is just express my thanks to Dan and to Marla and the entire mot team we've had a stormy month and um I just kind of want to share some context on what we do when you know storms happen and we're preparing for that kind of weather um especially the last storm I know we're getting ready to enter again into another one hopefully not as strong as the last but um there's constant visit and checking on our monitoring systems for power for rain damage all of those things and so with the last storm you know I was in communication with Dan on Sunday he had his teams out you know checking the sites Monday morning Marlo was on site very early pre-dawn to make sure all School sites had power and that everything was ready to go so there's a lot that happens behind the scenes to make sure that our schools are ready for staff and students um for the next day so um and a lot of that happens after hours or on the weekends depending on when that storm stor is is planning to come so I just want to thank our team and even as the storms and rains occur I know our grounds team our maintenance team they're spread out at all of the sites you know um helping to address any potential issues um to keep people safe you know with all of the excess water we can have um and also to to monitor that the uh fixes that have been put in the place with our Brawn project are working and I was over at p and you know I know I was talking with a custodian there and he was like oh in the past we used to have like a lake here but the new drainage system worked perfectly and you know and that did not occur so um so it's really good to see those things be effective and so I just wanted to um you know share my gratitude to the team and knowing their work's not done with this next storm coming uh so we'll continue to Monitor and do those updates because we know that um a lot of other of our neighboring District districts were impacted with school closure um due to lack of power and all of those types of things and and so just wanted to share with our community all the work we do in the back end to ensure we can open school and be ready to make those announcements if we need to make other changes and so yeah Dan's in the room so we can say thank you to him for for that scouting work that he does um and then also uh you know we talked a lot about um in our alcap presentation about the mtss work about continuing our work with Dr Nikki it is nice to see the bright spots where that work is making a difference you know for our students and for our staff uh last week I had the opportunity to attend the aapi network event for countywide administrators the topic on their agenda was was um mental health and wellness and our Cherrywood team were the panelists and it was great to see you know our our principal principal Choy as well as the site social worker a classroom teacher a parent and a student um all talk about how um mindfulness strategies were making a difference for them personally as well as you know um in their school setting and and with the climate and so uh we had a few parents there in the audience that were very interested in learning more about that work and how it could be applied um you know I really loved hearing our parent who was on the panel they have been practicing the strategies at the principal coffees introducing the parents to that work there and you know our parent had really um taken that work and really reflected on you know how she approaches her own children with different areas that are kids can be stressed about whether it's homework or things happening with friends or disagreements with their parents and how to give some coping strategies and giving their students a space to have a voice in their home you know as well as at school our our student uh was actually our demonstrator along with our social worker with everybody in the group to show us some breathing exercises uh that that they've learned to do and our student shared the different scenarios in the classroom that he sometimes takes those strategies and puts them into use and so it was just spot-on really proud moment I saw Dr Nikki um yesterday and and shared with her I said oh you would have been so proud I said because you know even our social worker did a lot with the group in talking about the science behind that work and the physiology piece um connected you know when we're going through those exercises so it was it was well done so it's nice to see through the training you know we have um individuals within our own community that have not only taken on that strategy but are ready to be in position to support others in acquiring that learning and and understanding um more on the best uses of those practices and I know we've got folks in the room here who've been part of that training and as well and so you know um really hopeful on where we can see our strategy Keepers go in the next level um with this work and and then of course with mtss um as we've talked about in the past that um one key strategy around that is really communication and getting to a level of understanding across our district of what that is about how we're prioritizing that work and and where does it fit in everything else and so um we're still working on that our delt team I know uh we've got a member in our audience here that's part of that we're talking through those issues talking through those challenges how can we um support all of our staff in in you know understanding what this is about identifying the resources that go along with those supports for them and for students and and just making a stronger system around all of that work that does take time um we're in it we're committed to making this a positive outcome for everyone and hopefully see you know continued improved results on our on our data that we've been looking at as a result of it um and you know and really I think with any initiative like mtss work and other things the basis for all of that is is you know the success of it will be the relationships that we have with one another and that we have with our students and with our families and that's what we keep coming back to is the importance of of those critical relationships those conversations so that the more we learn about our students needs our family needs we can better identify what those right supports are to help our staff you know Implement that and and move forward uh so that we can see our students being more successful so you know I want to thank everyone because there was a large team that was involved D in being part of this launch and and giving feedback on how we could it's always a challenge you know to have a unified message go across and you know and we're getting feedback on on how our delivery was and we're going to continue to work on that to make that better and to make sure it's more comprehensible and you know um and clear and you know I think our staff is asking that from us too and and our parents need to understand more like what that's about and so that'll be the continued work but I'm very excited about where we are and and what our commitment is towards that thank you for that Dr Fus uh there any comments or announcements from the board okay none at this time uh the next item on the agenda uh with content is review and action um Dr Fus item a is yours it is recommended the Board review and approve board policy 0460 local control and accountability plan for a first reading as you heard uh there's yet another iteration of this plan so what this policy does is it updates um all of the language and terms that the state school board has approved uh for this next iteration thank you for that is there a motion to um review and approve V policy 6 I move for approval second okay as we move and seconded there are no questions all those in favor say I I I I motion carries 5 to zero item two Dr fenus it is recommended the Board review and approve board policy 0500 accountability for first reading um with this um this is also coming from the state the state had submitted a waiver request um to the US Department of Ed in terms of our accountability structure it was declined by the US Department of Ed so um the state now is going back to um revisit that language and put it in compliance with what US Department of Ed expects and and that's where the language changes are occurring here okay perfect any there no questions on this can I get a motion to approve yeah move to the board policy so a second I'll second that all right it's been moved in seconded all those in favor say I I I motion passes item three board policy 0520 Dr fenes it is recommended the Board review and approve board policy 0520 intervention in underperforming schools for a first reading so again going back to our State Board of Education in revisiting uh the lcap template there was also lengthy lengthy discussion regarding accountability and school performance and so they have also made adjustments in the guidance on when schools have subgroups of students that are underperforming when will technical assistance be provided at the state level at the county level and so this is updating that language perfect any questions if not uh I'll enter hand a motion move for approval second it's moved and seconded all this in favor say I I I motion carries thank you so much um Item B under review and action under Human Resources we have three resolutions Dr Fus yes thank you so much um before we get to the resolutions I just want to share uh with the board and with our community um we're brought to these resolutions based on our budget finances uh that we've been monitoring for the past two years as you know we've had our budget stabilization committee reviewing our areas of need uh which have predominantly come from our structural deficit spending as well as the impact we have faced with declining student enrollment and so as a result of that we know that um we need to ensure that we continue to use our resources appropriately to sustain our fiscal solvency uh we have had um lots of Engagement with the County Office of Education as they have been uh reviewing and monitoring our budget reviewing our next steps um that were recommended by our budget stabilization committee and now looking at um us implementing those actions and that's where where we are having said that I also want to express that we understand you know the impact that this has for our students for our schools and our staff and we are committed to ensuring there's minimal impact possible with these decisions that need to be made um you know there's kind of a twofold in terms of where we are there are state regulations that we have to meet specific timelines and that's what brings these actions forward at this time but there's a lot of other developments that will happen happen from now to the end of the year you know we have a preliminary Governor's budget which currently right now is is not um favorable for us that is still in discussion at the legislature and will evolve there will be a May revise and we'll learn more about our position at that time in addition when we look at making sure we have appropriate Staffing at all of our schools we base that on our enrollment projection those are fluid numbers in addition to that we also base it on transitions of our staff which also is very fluid and will continue to adjust throughout this rest of the year so one of the things that we have done that I want to remind our employees that's out there for them is we have offered an employee um early tell incentive so it's $1,000 to letting us know as soon as possible if they're going to be making a transition outside of the district if that's because of a retirement uh moving you know we have staff that move out of the area uh taking on other you know jobs outside the district uh the more information we can have in that Arena that will help reduce this impact that we currently are facing so want to encourage everyone that that still continues to be an opport Unity uh there seemed to be some confusion of that funding being um equivalent to a golden handshake or retirement plan that's not the intention of that this is an early notification bonus um that we're trying to provide so we can get information about mobility of our staff sooner rather than later as we work through this process so I just wanted to say that as a a general statement and I have more to share as I go through each resolution by when do they have to notify to get the, incentive to you know just to notify currently the deadline is is this week um because we do have a March 15 deadline for notification we're open to discussion with our our labor Partners if that needs to be extended in order for us to acquire more um but the first notice for these individuals that may be imp acted it has to be done by March 15th so again it's just to um people that are already planning on retiring or maybe finding a job elsewhere or they're moving or moving it's just if they already know that they can notify us they get a, correct extra as new information comes in we'll be uh notifying these affected impacted employees as soon as possible that their job's no longer at risk of absolutely so uh like I said there's a lot of Mobility that's happening because there's a lot of variables that will help reduce these numbers down and so um our first round of notification has to be done by March 15 but as we are getting information even this week we've been getting information from staff regarding uh different situations that will alleviate some of those numbers we're taking that into account so that any notifications that we have to give are the absolute minimum remember that we have to do if there's enough you know uh notification before that March 15th it could be zero but we don't have that information at this time so we're encouraging everyone to let us know even post March 15th let's say an individual does receive a notice we know that there's still potential change to occur after March 15 if anyone received a notice and now we get more information those notices can be rescinded all right let's go through the resolutions one at a time so first one is resolution 23-6 to eliminate or reduce uh the number of certificated employees um Dr FES thank you it is recommended that the board adopt resolution 2306 resolution to eliminate or reduce the number of certificated employees uh currently that resolution States 13 full-time employees and as we said that number will continue to uh reduce as we get information about people's plans of uh what they intend for next year right if there are no questions I'll entertain a motion I move to adopt second it's been moved and seconded maybe have a ro call what Miss K hi I I thank you uh resolution 2306 has been adopted unanimously um next one is resolution 23-7 um to decrease uh the number of classified employees due to lack of work and lack of funds Dr f it is recommended that a board the board adopt resolution 2307 res olution to decrease the number of classified employees due to lack of work and lack of funds and one thing I would also like to share with our board and highlight for our community is this listing of positions all of the positions except for one are currently vacant so um they're not impacting um any current employees the one position that does have an individual in it is the part-time custodian position and we do have other uh custodial positions open that can be made available to that individual but every other position on there is currently vacant and this uh action will allow us to remove those positions from um the encumbered expenditure component of our budget thank you for that if there are no questions I'll enter in a motion on this resolution I move to adop Second has been moved and seconded let's have a roll call vote Miss Gomez Hi I hi I I the motion is um motion resolution 2307 passes unanimously thank you uh next one is resolution 23-8 criteria for determining order of seniority for those employees with the same date of first paid service Dr ftis it is recommended that the board adopt resolution 2308 criteria for determining order of seniority for those employees with the same date of first paid service so as we look at the seniority list that exists you know with our staff they also um each staff member has a um a start date upon which they were hired and there's always that possibility that multiple staff members were hired on the same date so if that were the case there needs to be um Criterion that helps identify uh the order ranking of those individuals and so what's recommended based on here is we know that our certificated employees also carry a variety of different credentials we also have a variety of specialized needs that are hard to find uh type of positions and that's what you see on this listing uh bilingual certifications uh Special Education certification teaching experience at different grade levels um national board certification these are all you know different uh components that can be taken into account when having to rank individuals that were hired on the same date thank you for that if there are no questions I'll entertain a motion I move to adopt resolution 23-8 second I also have a comment just on the three resolutions I want to thank superintendent and assistant superintendent Franklin for all the work that you've done to uh you know have a minimal impact of these reduction of positions and not necessarily people and that's kind of what we're hoping right that impact on on people on our employees will be minimal um and thanks to your work and you know Finding other ways to you know save some money and reduce these position some some of which are vacant you know to not impact our our teachers are classified and our students ultimately right so thank you very much for your working assistant superintendent of Human Resources thank you it's been moved and seconded may we have a roll call V Miss com i i i i i the resolution 23- 8 passes unanimously thank you so much uh next on the list is under Education Services I bet thank you it is recommended the board approve the title one part a schoolwide program waiver for Brook Tree Lane view Summerdale Toyon pedmont and maril middle school so as we've mentioned in the past um in order uh there's certain Criterion that our schools need to meet to be able to receive Title One funds as our demographics have changed you know our schools no longer qualify outright for Title One funds so the board has the opportunity to request a waiver so that our our schools can continue to receive these funds since they're still above a 25% threshold or have English learner significant English learner population that they're trying to support one change in this year's waiver is we have an additional school added um and that is Brook Tree Elementary um and so based on you know their free and reduced uh lunch data this year their percentage grew and they are now eligible also to receive that added support of funding it's important to submit turn in those um free and reduced forms correct regardless of whether you you think you qualify or no but um uh yep perfect uh any comments from the board if not I'll entertain a motion to approve move for approval is it a second second it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously thank you so much uh item D under Bond program uh for construction change order Dr FES should through thank you um for this first item it is recommended the board approve change order number one for bogul Brothers Construction Inc for bid b05 2022 23 interior renovation at the Ritter Park district office and to share with the board this is a change order for credit back to the district for approximately 114,000 perfect we will take it uh any comments from the board if not I'll entertain a motion second okay it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I motion carries thank you um next item is fuse service ink change order number one thank you it is recommended the board approv change order number one for fuse Service Inc for bid b04 2022-23 for electrical upgrades at the Ritter Park district office this one uh this ch order is also a credit back to the district for a little over $38,000 that's great um uh any comments if not I'll enter in a motion to approve move to approve has been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I motion carries unanimously thank you uh next item on the list is Liberty Contracting and Consulting Inc about to find this it is recommended the board approved the Liberty Contracting and Consulting Inc agreement for Moe cleanup that occurred districtwide emploees for the storm thing main point okay got it any other any comments from the board on this if not I'll entertain a motion move to approve so second it's been moved and seconded um all those in favor say I I I motion carries unanimously uh next item is the sound and Signal ink change order number one it is recommended the board approve change order number one for bid b07 2022-23 for sound and Signal ink for structured cabling at the Ritter Park district office this also is a credit back to the district for just under $8,000 perfect any comments if not I'll entertain a Motion sounds good move to approve second it's been moved and seconded all those in favor say I I I I motion carries uh unanimously thank you so much are there any requests for staff followups or items future agenda from the board uh seeing none I'll uh request a motion to to adjin the meeting is there a second second okay it's been moved and seconded say all those in favor say I I I meeting is adjourned at 8:57 p.m.

for Tetris action uh everyone have an amazing day and uh thank you see you all uh on the [Music]

and then the 3D at 2 p.m. great thank you does anybody have any questions for our students what was your favorite food in uh that you had as part of that cultural f um I think the bangers and mask was pretty good what about you um I would say the the pizza Italy Thursday yeah Thursday but that Thursday it also happened to be uh Italy's day so pizza was the special so you double down on Pizza yeah right Lori did you have anything here thanks Mark no just thank you guys um I wish I was there to eat those yummy things with you all right thanks thanks very much and and certainly you know you're you're free to take off we know you've got lots of studying to do thank thank you for coming in okay and you guys are going to keep me honest in case I skip over things which I tend to do um administrative items the first one is Karen spilla Grant approval and Jen Cutler hi Jen how are you I'm good how are you good so do you have a presentation or something you'd like to make on this um I don't have a presentation but I can just um introduce uh what what the grant is and um some of the things that we are going to be using it for if that makes sense yeah please okay so um we are extremely lucky to again um have uh Senate President spila ear Mark a specific amount of money um towards the mental health of our students um this year we um had a very generous earmark of $100,000 um so we are some of the um major things that we're going to use this for um last year we used it towards starting a partnership with cartwheel care um which provides teletherapy to our students and uh parent support um as well as mental health webinars that our staff and families can access this has been a really successful partnership we were going to see how it went this year to see if we wanted to continue and if we could continue as it is quite expensive um but thanks to um this earmark we are able to continue and we have had such wonderful feedback from our students who have who have accessed to Tele theapy from their families and from our um counselors and psychologists who have been referring our students so this is definitely a partnership that we would love to continue and thanks to this um funding we will be able to continue so that's one of our major um things that we're going to continue um something new that we're going to be able to add is um a referral Network work to be able to refer not only our students um and our students families and their family members but also our staff and our staff our staff members family members um it's called car Solace and they are able to refer fam all of these people to outpatient therapy but also higher levels of mental health care so um inpatient um mental health care which most referral networks you know don't do so it's an actual referral Network where um our our counselors or psychologists would refer the the person and then um the referral Network would actually take you through the whole process as a family um and help find a match for you whether it's a outpatient therapist or it's a um you know inpatient um Day Day program or an actual inpatient setting um so um this is another really great um uh service that we're going to be able to to offer to our students staff and everyone's family members um we're actually going to be starting this in March and going through next June um the other major thing that I think um that I've already we're already going to be piloting after February break um and we've gotten a lot of excitement um from our staff is we're going to be using a trauma informed um teaching approach um that I just got trained in as a trainer and and um our goal is to train all of our prek to 12 staff um and thanks again to all of this money we are going to be able to do this um this also allows us to provide professional development for all of our school counseling staff um for example um our counseling staff really enjoy going to the Massachusetts School counseling Association um conference Every Spring um and this allows them to do that has very um good professional development that's specifically targeted to them and what they do um just this evening I got a email from Mary Beth Gant who is the librarian at the high school and she actually had an excellent idea I think she saw um what I was presenting about um in the school committee agenda and she said you know if there's money I think it would be great to allocate some of it to provide expanding the mental health fiction and non-fiction offerings at our libraries throughout the district and I wrote it right back and said I think that's fantastic there definitely will be money for that so I'm definitely going to allocate some to that um and I think it's a great idea um so we will there will be also be money for things things like that throughout the district um questions yes so any questions Marcy Paul Lori Jen this is great is it a one-ear a one-year Grant or it is so um and actually we have to use the money by June okay by by June 30th of this year um so uh and we did have it last year as well okay um so I do an anticipate that you know um uh president uh spoka is very generous um to us and to her other um districts um and so you know we may get another earmark in another year um but yes right now this is a one-ear year mark great thank you hey so so Jen one of the things I was going to ask is this is our second year with it right uh second year with with with the Grant I think was 75 last year or something like that was it it was yep uh and so you talked about uh professional development are we going to be able to do that PD this year or because I mean obviously PD time is is a precious uh precious commodity that is already stretched uh and we want to do we we already want to do more than than we have time for and and are we going to be able to do that uh or is it a multi-year uh approach to getting that the the teachers trained yep so it's definitely a multi-year approach but the nice thing about it Paul is that I already used the funds to become a trainer so now that I am a trainer I don't have to and and we'll probably get a couple other people trained this year with the funding so um now we will be able to train our staff which I always think is a better approach so that we don't have to keep going out and getting you know and having someone paying to to have other people train our staff um so um so this year um on our May and Mar or sorry our March and may half days I will be training our Warren staff um and uh then probably we'll be doing um Mendes in prek I'm assuming probably in August of next year um and then we don't have dates for middle school yet but um but yeah it's definitely a multiyear approach okay and and these programs sound great and uh we know that state funding and these grants aren't necessarily a sure thing for Perpetual so um have you given thought to if we if we had to try to seek other funding uh and and the was limited you know what what those options would be and and and could we it sounds like we're going to these things are really great and we almost would have develop a dependency on them you know we lived without them before but sounds like living without them once we have them is would be would be more difficult so uh yeah you know just thoughts thoughts on sustainability for something that sounds not just a nice to have but something that you know sounds like we might be pretty you know dependent on and and would would be a significant loss if we didn't get the funding right so something like cartwheel care where you know it's the teletherapy that I think that is something that is really going to become important to our district and and has really um shown that it's extremely helpful especially to our um growing population um that does not speak English because they have um uh many clinicians who speak many different languages um uh I think I consider that one of those services that you were talking about Paul so um that that this year I was going to if we didn't have this earmark which I didn't know we were going to have um I was going to propose that we fold that into our budget that was going to be one of those items that I asked um and I talked to Mr Adam about that that I asked that you know I really think this is important and I really would would like to um propose that we put it into our budget so you know that that would be the type of thing that I would want to put put in um in the future if we did not have um grant funding for it I think it's that important to our population yeah that that that's perfect that's exactly what I was talking about is thinking and having those conversations about hey what what really we couldn't live without if we needed to either fold it into the budget find alternative methods um and things like that but it sounds like you're already thinking about it in that way and prioritizing it and having those conversations so that's perfect and just to the sort of same point Jen um just on the the two things that seem like they would be ongoing services that we'd want to maintain um as opposed to like the Train the trainer thing which obviously more people can get trained great but um what is what's the sort of estimated annual cost on the cartwheel and car Solace programs so the cartwheel I'm just I'm just thinking about from if we were folding it into the budget you know what's the ballpark that we'd have to worry about um so I think the car Solace was about 14,000 um a year actually that's not even a year that's for 15 months um and then cartwheel care is about 28,000 a year so not not a huge knot in the scheme of the budget okay thank you yeah um Lori did you have anything no okay so I think we we need a motion to approve the grant yes I I mean I move we uh accept the the uh the grant as uh presented is there a second second we'll do roll call just because Lor's are remote Lori yes Marcy I Paul yes Mark I as well thank you and and certainly um if there's a means by way we can get a a thank you out to Senator spilka sen president spila I think that would be a great thing to do because she's done many things to uh support our community obviously as well as the schools specifically thank you Jen thank you so much uh next item on the agenda is overnight travel proposal girls across May 4th and 5th so I Mark I'll speak to that quickly I think it's important that uh coach blazy as we've done with our basketball program as well have the coach come and and explain what the purpose of the trip is uh I'm totally in favor of the trip uh I've looked at it extensively there is somebody in the room Jim who might be able to speak to this oh is there what's your name Katy Katy bazy oh she is there I didn't see the thanks sorry Katie no one told me you were there I was gonna propose waiting until you came now even her jacket say coach Kat okay why don't you introduce yourself on the microphone just for everybody else watching hi so um I'm Katie blasy the varsity girls lacrosse coach welcome thanks for coming um yeah so just the trip um we're are playing a game on Nantucket on Sunday May 5th um so we're proposing to go the day before to hyanis um where we can have some team bonding activities team dinner spend the night there and then take the ferry on Sunday morning for both the varsity and the JV uh girls to play at Nantucket and then come home Sunday night okay great and Jim was there anything you wanted to add to that I kind of cut you off a little there no again I'm not in the room so I couldn't tell she was there so I apologize that's okay yeah we're having we're having an interesting technology night tonight um and and so can you talk a little bit about the team building type of stuff that you you hope to do and what your goals are with that yeah I mean it's more to give them a good experience together um we haven't exactly figured out exactly what we're going to do but we were thinking of like going down to the beach and playing some kind of like Olympic games um different different things just together um non lacrosse related just to kind of work together um kind of come together as a team kind of different Partnerships and pairs than you might have on the field just so everyone can um you know Bond and become uh together as a team and this would be both JV and varsity so it's kind of a way for the whole program to come together how many kids is that all together we are expecting about 4 this year okay great anybody else have any questions for Coach Katie uh not for you I mean uh is it is it a bus uh uh bus down there and then then a fair it says yes we would um take a bus to hyenas um the hotel that we have reserved um is right next to the ferry so we can take the ferry and we don't need any transportation in hyenas um then the ferry back we haven't figured out the way home there are several parents going so it's you need to kind of see how many parents are going if we can get home that way or if we need to rent a bus but okay now so uh I'm assuming that'll be done uh in Far Enough advance that that Kelly and and Jim will be will be comfortable with that yes um Jim and and and Chris just a question so it says that it's $100 a student uh and it's being funded through the clocker club yeah so our sub account right now has about $4,600 and based on our um estimations for the hotel the ferry um meals it would be under $4,000 in total so we can fund that from our account okay so from your from our sub account yeah so okay so from not from a from a clocker club correct okay so maybe update that update on the form because my question was going to be if if it's from the clocker club we probably have to accept those funds then if it's going going to be expended this way right well I think that's what she please correct me if I'm wrong when you say sub account you mean sub account from the clocker clock yes each sport has their own sub account within the clocker club so all of our fundraising dollars go into that sub account sorry just to clarify so so I think what you meant by clocker Club so it probably would need to accept it right because it is coming from a sub account from this uh from from from from a from a nonprofit yeah so so it's an external funding source so uh that we can handle that separately but would need to accept that uh those funds then yeah yeah I'm not sure we been we could probably do that by working with with my office so if you want to send myself an email um we can get it on a a gift and donations after or something to that yeah and and Mark Mark's point you know we probably just need to be more clear on because I think we've probably done this in the past and not accepted but uh but because same thing we do for any of the um AFI grants or things like that there when they come into the and expended for the district we just need to accept it so nothing you need to worry about it was more a question because I saw that it was uh so it's good that have said clocker Club as opposed to just a sub account because we do have Club accounts that are within the district and so the funds that come in there we don't need you know there they're they're fund if they're fundraising and different things they get in there differently but um so so Jim I just had one question for you about the transportation back issue um I'm assuming not but do we have any policies that we have to be worried about in terms of parent Transportation issues or things like that if that's the way we end up no no okay yeah so so so Jim that's my only concern is that that that's not ironed out but as long as that's ironed out in in enough time where you and Kelly are comfortable with it that's yeah and I think once the season begins ktie will have that squared away for sure yes okay do you want to make a motion are you okay proving as is or you want to make it contingent in some way uh I mean I'll make the motion and say that this contingent on on you know that deter you know determining that to the satisfaction of the uh principal and super um so I I would I would approve the um overnight travel for the uh rolls cost teams uh as presented uh pending the uh resolution of the travel back as uh approved by the uh superintendent or Andor uh principal is there a second second okay any further discussion since I I skipped over Lori Lori anything you want to ask or chime in on I'm good okay thanks um so calling for the vote Lori I and Marcy I Paul I and I for me as well thank you thank you very much have a good time thanks ktie sorry I wasn't there I didn't see you all right next item on the agenda is calendar survey results school year calendar 2425 school year as you know we do not have a calendar set yet for 20 uh 425 School uh year and uh typically we have this done in November but as we've experienced over the past couple of years um with our commitment to honor the diversity within our district uh I want to make sure that that we had a survey sent out to the community to see where folks uh were you know what their thought process was with regard to the calendar and our our dates and I want to be clear we we will go back to the when we start which is that week before Labor Day obviously this year was an anomaly because of uh the Mendes project but I want to share some of the survey results and then obviously get feedback from the committee and hopefully get a vote on what our calendar will look like so we can publish that I know families have been uh asking about that um routinely they're calling my office saying when are we going to get a calendar so hopefully we can get that uh rectified tonight so I'm going to just share my screen here um um and hopefully this is nope that's the wrong one sorry too many things here open okay can you see this okay yep thank you okay great uh so just briefly um you know the purpose was we we had a calendar survey back in 2019 um we have state mandated uh holidays of 12 uh we have 180 school days that are required a minimum of 900 instructional hours for our elementary students and 990 for our secondary students so I think that's a frame of reference that we all need to keep in mind uh and then then we also build in five snow days uh and I apologize for yesterday's snow day which shouldn't have happened it's only because you're we'll get that out of the way uh key audiences obviously our faculty staff our students uh parents and caregivers and our community members uh weighed in and we felt it was important that that our community members have an opportunity to weigh in as well uh even though they may not necessarily be um impacted directly uh when days of of uh when days are observed for holidays um religious holidays but um you know certainly we are an entire community so we sent the survey out we had three languages uh got 973 responses um it was Anonymous um so there could be folks taking several um opportunities to to respond um they could skip questions and this is just a breakdown uh about 77% of the response of the 973 were caregivers or parents um with smaller percentages obviously um for employees and students and and a few um community members so what I what I felt was important that we present tonight was what were folks thinking uh what were the questions we asked um we talked about exemptions uh from homework or time off for school for religious observances and holidays uh and how how people felt uh about that um and the same question was asked uh of all parents Guardians staff faculty students Etc and at this point um 79% of the of the folks responding um said there was no need for an exemption or they they needed an exemption uh or time off from school or any religious holiday the answer was no they didn't um however you we're going to get into um policy concerns and questions that folks had uh when holidays are observed but the religions represented without within the the survey uh as you can see we we have a a pretty diverse Community um with the majority of the folks the Catholic Christians um outweighing everyone in terms of the responses so the question asked was um below is a list of some religious or cultural observances which are on the left hand side you can see for any of the observances that you apply to that apply to you please indicate the related impact on School attendance uh and only for the holidays that apply specifically um so for Dali so for instance of the respondents for um you know dwali just over 50% said no school is needed as an exemption right they they they want to observe that day um whereas the majority of them are also saying of the folks responding close to 80% there needs to be some flexible homework policy regarding this and and you'll notice this um is pretty consistent with um all of the respondents right um whether they believe they should have a full day off a no school day or an early release there needs to be some sort of thought process regarding accommodations for homework and homework um testing Etc and what I was trying to get to was obviously we have limited time within the school year and how are folks thinking we need to fit this 100 these 180 days in add in the five um snow days but then factor into the account the state uh mandated holidays uh and what does that do and what does that look like in our calendar especially if we're observing and not only recognizing religious holidays but taking those days off when they fall within the calendar not every year do the days fall within the calendar where it impacts a school day um and as you can see you know in terms of the colors uh maximizing continuity of learning in time was what was most important to folks um of the question that here was asked in terms of um honoring diversity maximizing continuity and securing the earliest possible last day of school um can I just ask a question on that Jim and if the survey dove into this but um are you able to correlate anything in this chart you've got up there now about the calendar priorities to the responses that we received about should school be closed or not closed and how how should we observe things it's what I'm I'm I'm trying to get to is if if they're 20% of the people that say I need something how many of them are they still saying but it's more important for us to have continuity or are they saying something different yeah Mark we I I couldn't disaggregate that data okay um it's a great question we had we actually as we presented this Within um admin team meeting as well that that question was brought up um uh and and we were trying to actually even break it down even further based on um you know how people responded to their what religious observance they were referring to as well um we'd have to dig a lot more deeply into every single question and every response um but that being said here's how things uh did shake out um um in terms of the calendar preference uh and there were four major pieces of this so folks were asked do you want to maintain the non-mandated holidays included in the current calendar meaning uh are we going to recognize those days on the calendar and observe them as days off when they fall within the school week or to reduce the non-m dated holidays so what does that mean reduce right do we recognize one um major holiday per religion uh if it falls within the and and how do we determine what that might look like how do we um select the day to observe within um the school calendar when it falls during a school week um three eliminate all non-mandated holidays uh and four add non non-mandated holidays that are not currently in our calendar so increase the number of days if you will uh that are observed uh in terms of days off if they fall within the school week uh you'll notice that about 29% said hey we need maintain the current calendar as is 31 a half% said well let's think about reducing it uh no real uh answers as to what that means or looks like and about 37% said eliminate uh so it left about leaves 3% um or if you add that with maintain uh honestly you get about 32% uh folks are saying you know maintain an ad um are pretty similar in my mind um you kind of to the prior point you you'd expect there to be some correlation between those that said eliminate and those that said continuity of education is correct the highest you would think there's a correlation and and again I didn't dig more deeply into that to disaggregate that data but if you want to we can certainly we can try to see if we can pull it out um unfortunately when we're using Google uh forms and surveys it's not as simple as uh what we used to do with Survey Monkey um had a lot more flexibility in terms of pulling that data based on questions so you know we just want to share some of and I I don't want to read all these it gets kind of messy when we share this um but the things that folks really talked a lot about was that continuity of learning especially in the September uh through November time frame uh when we start school there's sometimes uh in in September we have three four five holidays uh that are recognized um and so that continuity of learning is really a challenge um but you know again folks were um concerned about child care U you know that comment Child Care is tricky for those families when the kids don't have school we certainly have numerous families who uh do need to find uh care when we celebrate uh observe uh and take those days off um the one piece a piece that's consistent um is that excusing absences is the far right hand corner at least on my screen uh not mandating homework and assessments um excuse absences with no homework um for people to celebrate non mined holidays so so there's this concern of how do we approach this if folks take the time off uh from a homework and testing perspective and I I want to be gentle with my response uh to a certain degree it's been a challenge when it even with our family reconnect weekends right where the there's a there's a sense uh and a perception and probably a reality where at least at the high school level students are burdened with more work than what they might have had uh traditionally within a week uh and there's this either front loading or backloading of of testing assessments homework that may um impact the students because we're celebrating uh and observing holidays during the day uh during the week if you will so I want to be you know cognizant of that uh I think we need to do a better job from a district-wide lens of making sure our Educators fully Embrace and um understand that the purpose isn't to front load and and or to backload testing assessments and um homework yeah I mean thanks for saying that Jim because that's one of the challenges with what whatever we if we want to try to address any of this is we can say whatever we want but if we don't do it with any kind of fidelity um because I can tell you with absolute certainty that some teachers just say okay I'll have it due on Tuesday but it's not one day's work right so it's still the same thing you were going to give for them to work over the weekend you're just going to say oh I'm not doing it's not do on Monday it's do on Tuesday but right that that's not you know and so we we do have that the particularly at the high school so no matter what we decide um to investigate that will be a concern is we we need to do it um so Jim do you have anything more on the slides yeah I got one more I think Mark I just want to just share um you know where we are in terms of the last days of school currently right um and and that's why you know school year 23 um these are the last two years before this year because again this year's an anomaly based on starting after Labor Day um but we also have I've I've you know looked past 2425 to 2526 in currently every one of in 25 26 school year every single one of the Hol holidays that we observe uh currently in our calendar actually falls on a school day uh in that 25 26 school year thus pushing the end date to June 27th uh with the five um potential snow days and where and to be clearth falls into play to be clear th this is 180th day not 185th on this slide right correct y yeah our mandated required days right thank you Paul so um summary based on those slides Last Thing Mark before I stopped sharing is the the majority of the respondents do not need an exemption or time off uh majority prefers to eliminate or reduce non-mandated H non-mandated holidays um and respondents suggest impling flexible accommodations uh excuse absences or floating holidays no homework nights flexible deadlines U Etc so that I mean that's a challenge right um is how do we how do we approach that and what I'm going to ask this committee to to think about first before we look at the options of the calendar you have to come to a conclusion first and foremost with regard to how are we going to observe religious holidays are we going to stick with uh what we currently are doing or are we going to modify that and before I can present one of two options for the school year uh 2425 just based on where that December January break is um that's the first first thing we have to know um so I'm going to open it up to you all to have that discussion before I present what the options of the calendars might look like okay thank you can I go first Mark yeah I was going to ask you Lor because it looks like you're in rout I'm I'm ready to talk I'm in rout and usually I'm to talk first no I have a strong opinion on this and I never get to talk first being chair I usually let everyone else give their opinion but um I I'm taking it advantage of this situation of being a you tearing so I get to talk um I I want to say that I will never vote to eliminate the Jewish holidays and any other holidays that we've already committed to and that's how strongly I feel about it but the only the only way that I guess I would is that if we really dug into this we heard from the clergy we heard from people who actually celebrate these holidays and not just the majority because we already know the majority is Christ and they and and my family is also Christian um and Jewish and full transparency um but they get their day on Christmas because it's a national holiday and that's because it's a majority and nobody would be in school on that day even if we insisted that they had to um the rest of us minorities um Jews being 0 2% now I don't know the number for everybody else but when those other folks came to us in the last few years um we knew all this information when we agreed to um respect their day off um it was important to them to have a day off I know how holy the Jewish holidays are and that those people are either not going to be in school on those days or they're going to be in school because they feel that they've been given an impossible choice because you know they're diligent students and they don't want to miss whatever's going on there regardless of whatever the homework policy polic is and all that other stuff so I feel very strongly um that we should leave things as they are uh one thing that I would consider is you know maybe just because of logistics and we've pretty much gone to the end of how long we can stay in school based on lots of different things the the heat during that time of year um contracts with the Union etc etc you know I'd be willing to say logistically that maybe we can't add anything else but um I am I you do not nobody has my vote to get rid of these holidays um I I don't think Tina feels as strongly about this is I actually I shouldn't speak I don't know how strongly she feels but I I know when I heard from her today that she wouldn't make the meeting and she can't vote tonight but her preference is to um continue recognizing um the holidays that we've agreed to recognize and uh you know if we she has an opportunity to speak for herself in the future I'll let her do that um but I feel very strongly that um out of respect and and again I've been a working parent I know how tricky it is to handle those days off um I also know that in September it never feels like we have a full week but I think respecting people and respecting our community and not just doing it by majority rules because in that situation we're not a community and we're not honoring the people who might be in the minority but need to have our respect on these issues um I I I think we it's very important maybe we knew some people say like some people have the day off and they don't even know why they're home well if that's true then maybe we need to do a better job educating people on why they're home so um I'm gonna let somebody else give their opinion now but um I will never be voting to get rid of those days well I shouldn't say never I I need to hear from more people all right thanks Lori Marcy we give you a nice softball topic for your first meeting oh I love the softball I I I did research um so I guess the first thing I'll say is good news in September there's no holidays other than Labor Day so you get to kick off with a good solid four weeks of school whether we keep the holidays or not um I looked at the other schools that were in the survey and hopkington and NAC are the only ones that put out their calendars they also are keeping all of the holidays and have a similar start and end date to the proposal so um you know I I feel strongly like Lori does and for a couple reasons one being there's 20% of people in the survey who said they need the day or an excused absence and particularly at the high school level now having a high school student those kids are going to go to school I mean they they are they're going to miss a whole day of um things that matter for school or they're going to miss for their family and it's just it's just a different it's a different workload at the high school so I feel it's not fair to penalize those students um or their families to have to make that choice especially where there's capacity in the calendar to complete the school year in June and start it um similarly to others and I think that you know one thing I was curious about when I looked at the survey was how many of the respond like did we break it down by school which unfortunately we didn't but either way I just feel like if I get the holiday offer Christmas and I don't have to make that choice but my neighbor has to make that choice I just don't I just don't think it's fair to families I totally understand the child care comment I have four children I I get it we're going to have you have to make that choice in June too if the school year ends early you're going to have to look for child care then so you know it's a it's a child care issue no matter which way you slice it so it's you know I'm not inclined to take them out of the calendar and you know I appreciate Jim very much you making the comment about holding people accountable for if we were to have excused absences or a homework policy or whatever that is because while all the good intentions are there I don't you know I'm just speaking from personal experience I don't think it's quite uh evidenced yet in practice the way that we all would like it to be not that we couldn't get there but I I would want to better understand exactly we'd be keeping people accountable um if we were to take something out thank you Paul yeah I mean I think I'm the candada the one who bring brings us up every year but I I don't I don't think it would be as far as your initial question Jim there it would be flippant and disrespectful to make any attempt any changes now right so uh I don't I don't see that as as an option however I I would like us to because we we kind of have the scab we pick every year and we don't do anything at least this year you put out the survey right and I take the surveys as a data point to say should we continue a conversation or have a more more you know uh comprehensive conversation about something and I'll I'll you know as far as days off I'll do you know correlate this to the survey you did related to changing our week-long vacations right you you put out a survey about that right and it was overwhelming 100% don't ever touch uh that survey told us unequivocally our teachers would strike everybody would be crazy at us if we had a different vacation schedule than everybody else in the state right so that survey that dat data point was meaningful to say full stop that's probably an nonstarter right because that was another thing we talked about in the past about why do we go on break go on another break and then go on another we have like these three breaks in in pretty uh quick succession and there's not really uh needs for it but to be consistent so this one uh I think it it's not enough data to make any kind of decision and I think it would be flippant and disrespectful to to make that so I'm in full agreement that as of tonight I think we need to look at our calendar in the two permutations you have that is maintain uh the current ones we we do we do uh have in the calendar that said I would like to regardless of the outcome of any of the conversations I would like to actually have a more comprehensive dialogue about this uh Lori brought up you know find out uh what you you know the different synagogues temples and and churches and that our community goes to uh talk to the talk to the you know the leaders and explain to them the considerations we all have and and and and what that means to to see because I I can't sit here to and say there's there's so many topics we can go and we can sit here at the table we can do our research and and we can act in the best interest of the people right uh because we do that here's I don't feel I can because I don't know uh enough about the particular situations and and and holidays and what they mean uh and the ways that the leaders in those groups do uh I would love for us to do that and have more comprehensive conversation about it because we make assumptions all the time about hey this is the way that people feel this is going to be honored and but and I'm not as flipping about the fact that my kids come home I'm like do you even know what day it is and they're like no okay so did we really did we really honor that is it and is it better that they were would be in school and we don't do anything new and again this goes back to I'll say this but I'll Circle back to until we can do something with Fidelity I would have pause in implementing it right uh but wouldn't it be better if they were in school learning why their classmates aren't there wouldn't that uh help produce that inclusion understanding empathy uh reduce potentially all all the different you know whether it be any sematic or or any other type of uh thing that we're actually educating them we're honoring them by teaching the kids and our students and staff uh why these things are important to them right uh because was it was it three years ago now when did we when did we add e fitter uh two years ago three and you know I I you know I'm not saying it's right or wrong to do it I think we did that kind of flippantly because it was a student that came and asked us right um we added it and that's great and and I I'm not saying we did anything wrong but uh what about the next one right we you know we we're reaching a capacity where yes the dates line up right so I want to be clear the the dates in that uh table that Jim had were the 180th days if we had five snow days the 185th day would be in the 20s because we we still have juneth and stuff in there right so now if we have a heatwave that it wouldn't be safe we can't really complete school you know so I don't know that we have much capacity in in in the calendar regardless of that says hey we're going to be on 25th at the latest I because you know depends on where the the uh you know the the next two days might be might be a weekend right so to me I I'd like to have more comprehensive it might come back saying leave it the way it is but then we've put it to bed and we're not having this conversation next year right we would come to here's our decision and here's why right not just because it's five people with uh uh particular opinion sitting around table not because it's a a survey that you know who knows the validity of the data right and I'm not questioning it but I also I can't hang my hat on that we got to everybody that as Jim said somebody who really felt a certain way didn't do it 20 times right uh and and and things like that so I'm in agreement that we can't do anything today uh with the holidays I I that would be totally disrespectful but I would like for us to have that more comprehensive dialogue about it uh and then come back and have the discussion uh with a better and more thoughtful approach to it because I don't think it's right that we would sit here and make a decision and not have engaged um the the the the leaders in those uh of th of those groups and and and those things so that that's that's kind of where I am at it and because I I see all the all the the the issues with it right and and we don't even talk about all the issues there's food security issues by taking that day off uh you know there's there's families that are like okay how's how's my child eating today right uh and and and those things and and and it's it's tough and and I totally get and agree that it shouldn't just be the majority because that's kind of what inclusion is about right it's you don't need to be the majority right and so it's not it shouldn't be majority majority rules but we also kind of have the the uh holidays we do because of that even the the Jewish ones they got in there first because they were you know you know more recognized than these other ones and so now we have two of them on and so if we can't put another one on for for the next one whatever that is how how do we is that Equitable just because they got there first right and so uh I I think having a different approach and maybe it's a hybrid maybe it's a hybrid approach of we can honor certain ones the way we do and then we can have a secondary way to honor them where we do some of these other things but uh I do there's there's a lot of considerations there that it's not as not as easy and I don't I don't feel as strongly in either direction I just I don't have enough information but I think I think we want to be thoughtful and comprehensive about it and and I don't think we have and have done that yet and we'll just have this conversation again without without doing that so thanks Paul um yeah I've got a lot of um competing thoughts I suppose on the topic um obviously you know if you were just to think about managing a calendar of of school um you you'd kind of want a lot of as much consistency as you can have and if it were sort of up to me I think it change the way everybody does the the February April breaks Statewide but I think not just for the reasons you articulated Paul about when we sort of asked people what they would want but just the the the consistency the athletic schedules the the it would just be a nightmare to do that if it wasn't done on a Statewide basis personally I think that's something that somewhere we got to figure out how to have that conversation but that's not here today um you know for me um and I and gu disclosure I sort of am a a very bad Jew um and and yet I I have I do have strong opinions on this because it is one of those places where as a kid growing up even in a place that had a decent sized Jewish population there were always Jewish kids around if there was there's always a sense of of the Assumption the assumption is that you're some Christian denomination and people still you know will wish you a Merry Christmas when they really mean happy holidays or whatever they don't mean to be offensive but there's an assumption there and I think that that for me um while I don't practice does make me very sensitive to the fact that um diversity equity and inclusion with the heavy emphasis on the inclusion part really means that we we have to test our decision-making against sort of what does it look like for those who don't already feel included right it to me it's that 20% and that's that's a large number when you're talking about a group that says I need something different you know that that the normal the quote normal schedule or whatever you want to frame it doesn't really work for for me um at least not in total right I also think it's interesting that there was a small number of people who had in identified that they wanted more holidays but if you looked in the chart of the different holidays Good Friday was there right which is obviously a Christian holiday um and so you know when we're talking about this I think it's we really in some ways have to separate out at at least for now the question of which holidays which schedule and think more about the principle of inclusion and and what are we doing to allow people to um celebrate those religious holidays that are important to them um and you know I I I honestly I think to some degree juneth holiday becoming a holiday and certainly appropriately so but the timing of it the school year I think has brought this whole dialogue back up because you're sitting there saying I need my 180th day and if I hit a snow day now that next day is J uh June 20th if the holidays you know the 19th was on Monday for example and you know you got a long weekend and that last day is a half day and everybody's like see you right um and I think we already struggle enough as it is to keep kids engaged staff engaged through the the month of June um you know it is as it is not an issue without some real serious things pulling in different directions right um because I do think that there's a disruption to the educational continuity but at its core to me if we're really looking at inclusiveness um I don't think we can make a change I think the the questions that I posed to to Jim earlier were to sort of get at the things that I think would be important to me in revisiting that decision at not for this coming year but at some point in the future um and that really is about understanding what those 20% of the people who said they need something how that how well that correlates to what the relative importance is and and I fully recognize even within that there could be people who feel very conflicted in their own answers right they could say look it's really important to me not to have my kid have to go to school that day but if I'm making a decision educational continuity is important and I'd rather have them not miss anything right so there can be a conflict within that that I don't think we can understand all that well yet um so I'm I'm certainly I think in line with everybody else which is for for the next school year excuse me I I I can't see making any changes from how we're doing um and recognizing holidays um I I will say Paul as much as would share your desire to kind of whatever else it is we feel like we need to to look into to really get to an end point on it and say okay we've done it I I think we have to acknowledge that the world around religious observances is changing um and that there will be pressures that that come to us at different times or whoever sits in these seats um that may make this a more frequent discussion than it has been in the past you know and I'm not saying there's much we can do to change that um but you could look at at the at least the survey data and say we should really be talking about adding Good Friday we're not talking about adding Good Friday and um I don't know what the answer to that would be you know nobody's come and said you know we really need to do that but now we have some data so I I won't belabor the point it seems that um we're all in agreement on the holiday issue for the next school year and that really kind of really leads us to the decision we have to make for tonight um I don't want to foreclose anybody from adding anything else but anybody else have any comments they want to make before we kind of get into the let's look at the two different options that Jim put together presumably looking Jim at keeping the holidays the same way um but let me go to Lori since you're on Route again and I don't know when you're going to get where you're going anything else you wanted to add to the discussion very soon no I I think I think I I got my point across okay thanks Marc Paul thank you Mark yeah I mean so for me like I said the the would we have support for at least getting getting us further along in the conversation I think the conversation can be uh almost in perpetuity right but but I don't know that it already has been well but but but it's but it's been going around in the same Circle you know and it's been around this table as opposed to a broader a broader conversation want that Jim I I had a vague recollection that on the point that um Paul was making earlier about talking to some religious leaders in the area I had a recollection that that was a point that came up before and you might have done some of that and I I did okay do you want to share anything from that and I it was so long ago Mark and I think I mean we're going back to at least eight years ago okay um when when I had those conversations and and we've added holidays uh or religious observances since then and again I think the complexity of and and I agree with you wholeheartedly I think juneth um is is a day that that needs to be recognized and observed it just where it falls within the calendar makes it a challenge um so it is what it is um so you know I think I think I've gotten the point I think the two the two calendars that you need to really focus on are were for FY or school year 2425 uh are we will recognize and observe those as days off within the calendar it's just um and and pulling in uh our clergy and U religious leaders um over the next year to before we have the next uh iteration if you will yeah I think what I'd suggest on that is maybe we have a follow-up conversation on diving into let's try to think comprehensively about any additional information for further conversation so don't run off and do something right away on that yet but I think at some point in the next month or so we can you put that in agenda so let me Paul let me come back to you cuz I cut you off yeah no I I I I think that I think what you said is I I agree with that just I don't think we can put a pin in that today I just threw it out there so I don't expect to be a i Ed the word comprehensive we couldn't even if we wanted to tell Jim what the comprehensive what comprehens that's my point yeah meant tonight anyway so so I I think that's fine and I said it might lead us to saying you know what this is the way to do it and but we've we've we've answered it to the best of our ability right I I don't I don't uh have no predilection on what that might lead to right I I I I don't know I want to know right um so there there was one other point I just wanted to to put out there that um it it really Echoes some things that you've you've both of I think of already said about sort of the question of what are we doing and are we doing with Fidelity around particularly the high school and to me I agree with those I think those are legitimate concerns um it also points out the work that still has to be done in terms of really appreciating the importance of religious observances and and quite frankly ordinary policy around family reconnect weekend that are not religious um but I think that that's really important you know for us to sort of move backwards from where we are we're trying to create an inclusive environment and we know that we still have some more basic things of just getting people on board with what we expect to support that effort to sort of uh I won't say throw in the towel but kind of back off of it to me would would be problematic but that that'll be my last word for myself and and and to me if we if we couldn't do it if we didn't have confidence we could do it with any kind of fidelity and we do it well then we're not we're not respecting we're disrespecting yeah right um and that's so and and I think that the two things is separate but related right we want to have the answer to what we would like to do and then can we do it yeah uh and that that goes you if say we could hit the hit the button say hey Christmas isn't a isn't a mandated holiday you you'd then go to the next level can we do it and the answer is probably not we we probably couldn't staff the buildings right but you know we get to that point but and for the same reason if hey if we decide this is a we have an an option b to do this and then we decide we we figure out well I don't think we could we didn't have confidence we could do it that means logistically it's not going to work anyway but we but we answer the question question so why don't we move to the two calendars Jim I mean I think um as I understand that the variation between the two calendars that retained the currently recognized holidays was whether or not we have a longer um sort of holiday recess or between Christmas and New years's and that that time frame um as opposed to sort of keeping it the way it's been is that a fair assessment of the difference between the two that is yeah I just shared the screen with you um really the the itations are as follows right so this is observing um and allowing for the days off um and this allows for two full weeks during that December through um January 3rd so the 23rd through the through the 3 um so that that moves the end date with five um again this is where juneth Falls is the 19th uh so our last day would be the 20th and the 27th assuming we had five snow days the other calendar um ends on the 17th and the the fifth uh snow day is the 25th and what it doesn't do is it does not pick up the 2nd and 3rd of January that's the that's the only difference of those calendars and I think it's important um to share um let's see here I'll share one other piece of information with you um which I I did email you'll notice that January 2nd happens to be our sixth most absent day of the year in terms of of attendance um and if you those these dates I'm sharing with you are all back up to holidays all back up the vacations for the most part um and you know that's uh pretty interesting statistic I just wanted you to have it before you make any decisions um but there were a couple dates in there that just look like the middle of December um like a Friday it could be yeah um was there a reason why you provided that those data points or am I forgetting like a day that well those are just the dates I don't I'd have to go back and look exactly why the 14th and 15th were okay um but I'm just telling you this is based on last year's um you know information that we currently have all right so it seems I mean for changes but generally speaking we're talking about two variations y um you know an option one calendar that um has a longer um break around the holidays and new year new year and another one that does not correct and so any anybody want to and Jim just because I I heard you mention the dates the one that that that goes through the third it's the 16th and 24th fourth right are the 180th and 85th days the no it would be the 20th and 27th okay so that's option four it's option four okay yeah sorry I brought up the wrong option here and option three is the one that does not go all the way through the third we come back to school the second and the third I think we're all just looking at visuals here right so sure right yeah right so option I guess you've called option one keeps option one or two oh then that I should stop looking at that then because those are not recognizing I think I opened the wrong I I remembered it backwards when I just opened them up uh and that's why I had those dates I'm like what and but I didn't look at the at the first line in the in the file yeah so here's option three I'm sharing on the screen yeah it's a little harder to see than uh so option three is 17th and 25th right correct no this the 19 no is the 20th and 27th option three goes all the way through January 3rd yeah I mean I I'll just jump in on this one just to to throw something out there more for conversation I I I just generally speaking worry about the utility of time in June and I worry about you know the the longer we go into June it just feels like um the the particularly if it gets warm you know the harder it is for kids to concentrate people burn out and I know it's still day 180 whatever it is but it does seem that at least my experience with my kids and seeing how things go it's um more time in June it's not necessarily more productive time and as much as this year might be the the year to look at it given sort of how the holidays fall um and that's second third and you're just come back for two days um you know for my two cents i' I'd probably keep it the way we've done and um have kids come back back in on that um January 2nd Date but throw that out I certainly my opinions are not as strong on that one as they are on the holiday issue just see what others think um when I go to again to Lori Lori anything you you want to time in on that one it's getting darker there isn't it it is I I'll be I'll be in the light in a few minutes um I I don't have a strong feeling about this I mean I'm only thinking back to when my I mean it's six and one half it doesn't or the other obviously everybody would love to get out sooner in June but January 2nd Al always felt to me kind of harsh um so my my preference right now if I had kids there would be to give a couple extra days right after the first but uh you know I I really will support whatever um the rest of you feel on this because I I don't have a strong opinion about it Mary thoughts keep in mind you're going to you have four kids you're in the house how do you feel on day 10 I love them uh I love them always I I don't really have a strong opinion either way either the only thing I'll say is that I think that if the last day of school without snow days happens to be June 20th it's going to usurp your January 2nd for attendance potentially so either way whatever you think is best honestly I'd defer to Jim and Mike on that one well I mean I'm always I think this option's on there because of me right Jim uh because I'm always the one who says it's ridiculous to come back on the second when the first is an overnight holiday so you didn't even go to sleep until the until the first right uh and then you so it basically precludes if you have spending that time uh with your family that's not you know uh you know close by so uh if you're talking about family time that this strikes me as as absurd but it also strikes me absurd looking at a calendar that potentially has a end date of the 27th of June so I'm conflicted because I do have strong feelings on both of those accounts I think it's absurd to get to come back on the second and I think it's equally absurd to be literally within one day because if it's not the 27th it's the 30th we have one one day of wiggle room if we happen to have a day where we can't have school because it's 95 degrees and and just you know a tremendous heat wave in the end of June which it could be right so um and your point I mean partly we're not those days in June aren't very valuable because if we're ending the second week in June then then June's you know we're already winding down if if we were if we if we scheduled to the 27th I think the first couple you know weeks would be generally more productive but the heat could play into that too right it would be even if we had good good days like take the beginning of this school year right you know you're winding up and and you're not as productive but if that happened to be in the prime of a uh of a contiguous uh normal week you'd be less productive because of the heat so I as much as I want to add the this the second third I I I don't think I can for all the reasons and it because I think it would be hypocritical talking about a concern with pushing the calendar being where it is and then add to somewhat arbitrary days let's see if Jim has any Jim or Mike have any input on it from a sort of you know what what really works best from an educational perspective and if there's stuff we're not thinking about so Mike and I are in different courts on this so let's be clear there so we got more split down the middle okay yeah no so I mean again I mean you're dealing with the end no matter what right whether it's the the 20th or the the 23rd or 25th 27th it doesn't matter right those two days I think are insignificant in in the overall sense of of what you're asking Mark um that being said I I think we will see a tremendous because of the way the holidays fall we the second and third will be will usurp all days out they're not coming back families are going to take an opportunity to go uh and leave on what December 26 December 20th they're leave they're gonna leave December 20th 26 they're gonna leave December 20th that Friday and they're not going to come back until the 4th of January you're going to get you know yeah 14 almost 15 days potentially of families to go away yeah the way this the way this Falls it it sucks because we're taking the 23rd off because we would never take the 23rd off but it's a Monday and we'd be doing a half day the next day right so we're taking it off for that reason um yeah again I it doesn't matter to me one way or the other I don't think from an educational standpoint the 25th or the 27th matter Mark okay it's whatever you feel comfortable with and I think all your points are valid on both sides I just need a calendar yeah I was say so let's let's get a motion here Mike you're on the other side sorry thank you I don't have a whole lot different to add I mean if if they one thing that I think we have to take into account right now is we're being judged on attendance on a regular basis now by the State and you know things like the second and third if kids aren't going to be in school it's going to that's going to work against us in terms of our accountability do I personally wish that we could be having those days so we can get our students out earlier in June yeah I I do because I think that once you once you elongate the school year we all know it's it's harder to maintain student attention come late June their friends are out of school from different districts it's hot it's warm people want to get to Camps summer camps have started for kids all these different things that uh everybody else wants to do instead of being school is happening and the later you go the more you have to deal with those things but I also you know I really do worry about those two days whether or not they're going to be effective days of learning too for the second and third so I I know this is a difficult decision I I could go either way with it really all right so keeping in mind certainly that we're really just talking about one year right this is not a policy level kind of thing we're deciding I think let's see if somebody wants to put a motion out there and see what the vote is and just go one way other I'm gonna make a motion go for it Lori what do you want to do I am going to move because I am moved by what Mike just said and and I think that's at least the only piece of information other than you know the six of one half a dozen of the other if there are absentee issues on those days and that come backfire on us as a district I'm going to move that we accept the calendar that includes January 2nd and 3rd as the day off and include continues to include the holidays that we have agreed that we would includ I I don't have the options in front of me I'm sorry I think that's option three I'm sorry no that's option four four thank you option four so we have a motion for option four is there a second for option four I'll second it okay any discussion on on option four being the calendar for the 2425 school year all right call for the vote Lori yes Mar I I I I'm gonna go no all right so it option four passes by a vote of three to one okay thank you I will have the calendar published all righty I wanted to be funny and say I don't like it I I want an option six well I mean I want this shifted so we're not taking the 23rd off and we can just add the the second without it being a dangler and you know so uh it seems like it's it's it's a perfect storm to make it the worst worst possible decision either way people won't complain about it at the beginning of the year they'll complain about it at the end of the year so you know that's way it goes all right uh next item on the agenda is strategic Plan update and approval yeah so how long has this been six years um uh coming on two coming on two feels like it it feels like it right so really this actually I don't think this will be a heavy lift tonight um we've already as a committee approved uh the New Vision um statement and the the big buckets of of the um strategic plan uh the indicators uh you've been a part of and had conversations with I what I wanted to show you was and I'm not going to go through the entire um slide deck because it's really a lot of backup information but what myself Mike the entire admin team as well as Prem leading us it was finding those those targets that we needed to add uh into um each of the ended up being 11 uh areas to focus on over the next five years and again we're not focused on every single area every single year uh as you've seen with the school Improvement plans they've already Incorporated uh the indicators into um the the objective into their their specific uh School uh plans so let me just share this again and start okay back to the front is this okay is it big enough yeah yeah okay great thanks so this was the aps vision statement that we agreed upon um and I again part of it is I want to get this entire thing approved so we can start using this statement um that the committee had uh agreed to um quite some time ago and I just included it in this deck tonight just as a um way of showing this is what um you had worked through so important to understand indicators and uh strategic and operational um the the Strategic ones are the most impactful things we're going to do over the next five years um this is the external dashboard so forward facing what the community will see um on a regular basis uh knowing hey this is where the the community uh or the schools is headed and the community can can follow along this um the operational indicators are more internal that we're looking at uh the data that comes in and identifying okay how does it relate to the Strategic indicators are there warning signs that we need to be paying attention to um this isn't something that would be forward-facing if you will but something we might be monitoring on a daily or weekly basis I'll give a prime example when we're talking about uh absenteeism and chronic absenteeism we might be looking at that information daily but we're not going to publish that out to the the community on a daily basis we're going to be looking at that data internally and then uh see how it translates to the Strategic indicator of of overall absenteeism if you will does that make sense for these two this is the these are the terms prem's been using with us for quite some time I just wanted to you know keep it simple everybody good with that okay yep we're all good Jim okay great I can't see with this up Sor okay so here are the indicators and what we identified as targets and I want to be clear not every one of these uh indicators has a Target yet um partly because we've got to identify what that looks like and I'll get to that in the next page um but we talked about our mcast scores our math Ela and science but in in particular in our subgroups um so we now have clear-cut goals right so APS will Target greater than or equal to 65% student proficiency in ela math and science uh student growth will Target a growth of 62% for ELA and math over a 5-year window uh as you know student growth 50% means students are growing at a at a one year clip uh each year uh subgroups identifying specific subgroups right um and and seeing how we can increase um how well they're performing student attendance Dropout rates these are very specific indicators and the targets that go with them um student participation rates this is something you know that we're struggling with right so what does it really mean to participate it's not just about Advanced coursework it's how how are students participating in our extracurricular activities and just because they're part of a group are they really participating and how do we set an annual Target to improve um more student uh participation but a more diverse student participation as well uh in certain activities including Athletics uh clubs uh and advanced courses hey hey Jim for something like that um yeah probably sound like a broken record on a lot of these things like uh how do we know and Define a good Target for something like that right yeah so so we can't right so that's where that we will that second bullet Paul uh we will examine and set an annual Target so we've got to actually figure that out that's why it's not um that's why we're not really focused on that in the current year in terms of of school Improvement plans in the district um yeah you have to figure out your method for getting a baseline that you can then correct measure afterwards what impact whatever you did had that's right but even if we do that you know I don't know if there's an external body that can tell us what normal or good is or bad is right something like that yeah I wish I could give you that answer we know it's something we've really want to focus on and we've got to come together as an admin team to to Really break that down more concretely to just to make a good point we we had the same exact conversation be honest with you yeah my M's no sorry I just wanted to be clear so for the 5year period are you measuring from this current year we're in or the next like starting in the fall it will depend Marcy it's a great great question right it's a five-year window for all of these indicators okay however not all of the indicators will start in 2023 got it okay because we have to identify like to that point that Paul was just making about participation rates we might have data for 2023 but what does that really look like um so there might be a three-year window that we're looking at that uh information so maybe we can add a column to this going forward like what period like what Academic Year you're in correct okay yep yeah we will actually have a column eventually that that shows all of our um targets did we meet them stop did we not meet them yeah okay yep yep we will have that we'll have a dashboard actually shows how close we are to meeting uh the one thing that we've really talked a lot about was because we have indicators um you can't be afraid to say we're not meeting them right or adjusting them based on the data that's in front of you based on um a variety of factors uh these might be high high achieving high level goals that we want to accomplish but we may not get there and we may have to Pivot at times so that's that's something that we think we think these are reasonable and achievable uh but you know I'll tell you right now um APS like number two uh chronic absenteeism that that's a real concern using data even from 2022 moving forward uh this year's data uh is ugly uh as much as we're trying to to work through how we're working with families on the discussion that how important school is and to be in school um we may be you know the department sets a goal for us and we may never hit that goal uh and I think that's happening in many other districts doesn't mean we shouldn't try to um so discipline rates reducing our out of school discipline especially for our highs population access yeah can you talk about that one a 1% reduction in out of school suspensions for high needs population sounds like a a weak number if you had a 100 of them and all you're trying to do is cut it to 99 um so is there a little context perhaps for for that one that you offer yeah I'm going to move forward in the slides then okay Mark sure um so so let me just give you you know a background here the this is in your packet you'll notice the data that we use to help determine what our targets are okay yeah and I didn't want to go through them all there's 60 50 you know 30 slides here yep so but to your point for number five I just wanted to shoot forward to that because you were talking about um student discipline so as we're looking at um the data from the state right we're looking at all of our students who were disciplined in school out of school suspensions and you'll notice part of that low income students with disabilities and high needs the number 4% of the 600 right so we're trying to reduce it to that 1% so a reduction of 1% which is significant in terms of the number right so so you're reducing a percentage you know you're taking reducing it by this percentage Point you're not reducing right okay yeah yeah it's probably just the verbiage that that used to explain the indicator that's all yep okay thank you that so that's why this is why this information will be present as well uh we'll publish it because then folks can go back and look okay here's why they're looking at this specifically right soate let's figure out a way to way to phrase that so we're not think somebody's not thinking oh you had 100 you just got to stop top one and you you meet this that'd be a it's a 1% reduction in the percentage of students of high needs population students that are being suspended I think well you're reducing you're reducing your current suspension rate by a quarter is what you're doing because you have a 4% you want to bring it down by one that's AAR so that may be a better way to say 25% reduction in current yeah so so so so yeah where' Smith that so somebody doesn't raise the same eyebrow that that that I'll clean the language up but I got your point yep yep all right thank you yep uh and I'll just go back to to that um again School climate we've talked a lot about it um you know using uh certain metrics that that Jen Cutler has talked a little bit about um we still have information from the Metro adolescent Health survey we don't have yet for 2024 so there are components of this that uh will certainly be implemented in the future uh family engagement data again what does that mean just because that you know we have families participate in in whether it's our um e nights or parent teacher conferences we've got to figure out how to capture family engagement and what does that mean um we don't have it's got to be meaningful data I I think that's pretty clear um we can say oh we had 200 parents show up to a freshman parent night well is that engagement the answer is ah probably not it's their participating but what does it look like um so it's another one where we're trying to figure out the the metrics to use in this instance and you'll notice that on 10 and 11 as well um we're not quite sure how to um we have a plan for like 10 deferred maintenance um we don't have you're talking about qualitative issues rather than quantitative ones yeah exactly right right so this whole notion of even anecdotal evidence like okay you know we had 75 parents show up at the the Warren eel night okay but it's the first time we've done that just at Warren um how are we then following through to make sure those parents stay involved um we know from our data from Lexi that more and more families are getting involved with parent teacher conferences but we didn't track that data previously so we want to increase that right so um and that's good and bad right you yeah we we we would be we look more successful if we had the data from before we did Lex and I don't know if you you know when he said lexit what that is uh so it's a online translation service that we can use um it's cost effective and it's actually it's available on demand yeah it's on On Demand and it's been very successful in uh engaging with our non- English speaking parents to the point where even if they don't show up the um uh that translator can contact them and and talk to them and they're and and potentially get them engaged and we've we've seen really great results with it uh but you know so we don't have the data before that we've already implemented something that has has made a dramatic Improvement so uh uh so you're going to have to improve on the Improvement which which you're always looking for continuous Improvement but that'll that'll make these not look as not track as much progress as we've made right but but that's a good problem to have I suppose yeah so I I mean the the F maintenance component I mean I think this is a much bigger conversation that needs to ur in the summer with with the school committee uh since we do not have our own um capital projects line uh that we rely on free cash and the town to help provide for not only deferred mten but new projects so it's something that we have to um figure out how do we build that into the budget uh if that's where we want to go instead of relying on the uh town to you know sufficiently which we know doesn't sufficiently but to provide the fundings um funding sources to to maintain equipment and buildings Etc um and then the budget allocation this goes back to uh equity and looking at each building and each department to make sure that um the needs of those departments and buildings are being met based on the students in front of them uh not just and I'll use that prime example where we've always had um the school choice funding and we break it out based on basically population size so the high school gets more school choice funding each year than Warren and mes does is is it fair uh is it the only way that um we are evaluating Distributing that those funds right now yeah um but there has to be a better way to do that and again it's about conversation with not only the school committee but admin team to identify proper um metrics to to do that um I've started breaking down the budget by building um so you can basically break down her pupil cost what's it cost to educate a student at the high school versus Warren and Mendes but is that really the approach we want to be taking um so um looking at it from an equitable or Equity lens is is something that that we need to do um so so so those are you know and and those are the Strategic indicators that we're focused on um and I think what I'm looking for is that the the committee again formally uh you know vote on the the vision statement but uh the indicators and uh and targets uh as presented uh and then we will come back at least now it's February um probably April and then I think we need to do it two or three times throughout uh the year and set those dates by the school committee in the summer uh workshop and say okay we want updates on these targets twice a year uh and and be consistent so that becomes part of the agenda that the school committee puts forth is hey we need we need the targets on these three items we're getting we're going to get some of those because at the end of the year when the buildings uh present their school Improvement plans um they will certainly talk about some of this stuff all right so the the the idea here is that we're going to sort of formally complete the process of the approval of our strategic plan yep and so what we need is just a motion to approve the Strategic plan as presented and that's that is inclusive of the indicators the strategies Etc that that you have outlined and the change recommended clarifying language yes okay for the 25% 1% y okay or or you know if you have um yeah I mean I think there there are some things obviously you've talked about the indicators that are not like you still need to figure some things out um to me that's I don't know that's the final half percent you know it's important but it's you the plan is I think the part that we want to adopt and the indicators that we're going to measure by the exact terminology of those those indicators you know in some places needs you know some more work for you guys to figure out what you want that Target to be um so with that are there any any dialogue or are we ready to just go to a motion any let me start any questions for Jim on this yeah I mean and and I I I think just a motion to approve it without any qualifications because there's a bunch of TBD things right and this is going this is a living document so uh any substantive changes that because you're not going to know it until you get into it that hey we need to Pivot and that pivot if it's substantive will discuss and and and approve and and and things like that so yeah I don't even think we need to worry about that language CU things need to be updated in there anyway right laori anything from me no I I'm sitting here thinking it would only be Marcy that might have questions because we've been like kneed deep in this for a couple of years we've had multiple workshops and we've had Prem working with us and we went through all of the um exercises to yeah I was joke earlier that she she wants to adjust the vision statement I'm good I'm good if you want get killed at first meeting by your colleagues it's a no I actually think it's very well laid out and thoughtful and um I already you know gave Jim my one knit edit so I'm good I'll learn as I go you're not going to share that with us no I mean he already fixed it there's nothing to and we didn't even notice how's that all right is there a motion motion I would love to make this motion go for Lori to accept the Strategic plan as presented is there a second second all right Lori taking the vote Yes I Marcy hi Paul hi I for me we have a strategic plan thank only 18 months after we targeted but that's okay it's good it's a good plan we always we always said we want to get it right not not done fast and a lot of the work's been going on anyway all right uh assistant superintendent update Michael I'll be very quick since uh we've talked a lot um we have got some uh professional development that's going to be happening in on March 15 so we're planning uh for that right now we working with a consultant that's going to go into pitway to talk about uh some some social emotional learning and some responsive classroom techniques for our our um preschool teachers uh Pete is working closely with the S3 team still um in terms of looking at our data assessment teams and how we're how we're improving that process and and Jenna and her staff have had some more meetings with our adaptive X Program in terms of our uh cultur responsive teaching practices also just wanted to quickly point out that the ashon Middle School drama production uh is coming in late February on February 29th and March 2nd The Miraculous Journey of Edward T Lane is being put on by a group of talented actors and actresses from the a middle school and um we're also working closely with Britney right now to talk about how we can Implement some professional development for our entire team regarding the new IEP process that is being implemented uh in the state so lots going on in our world but it's all positive great thanks Mike jim I've got nothing more than what we've talked about tonight two pretty heavy lifs tonight so I really appreciate the attention to detail that folks that had uh the next thing up for us is our uh budget obviously uh and a budget workshop on uh Saturday March 16th make sure everybody's got that in their calendar I'm looking myself and no I do not yes I do do you have a time frame for that Jim uh usually we start around 8:30 and go to 12 oh it's great that's like a nice half a day all right yeah actually I don't Jim I know I've got in my calendar but can we ask Gretchen to send out like a calendar invite sure can you know with a specific start time we going to be in room five most likely uh in the activity room y yeah y or do you want to be in Mendes yeah there uh you know what maybe yeah it could be in Mendes yeah wherever it is we just maybe get calendar invit everybody that be nice we do it well mean you know we the calf there you're going to have a lot better uh yep I just don't I don't know with basketball and things like that how many people around and so yeah terms of right noise we can we can always go in the music room too yep yep 100% okay all right War approvals Paul uh yes hold on one second let me back to that between January 2020 January 25th 2024 and February 14th 2024 I Paul Kendall authorized by my signature payables in the amount of 326,885 uh this includes general fund EXP expenses of $2,959 revolving expenses of $1,592 32 and Grant expenses of $2,890 and44 cents okay thank you Paul uh under our consent actions we have two sets of minutes to approve January 10th and 24th looking at the January 10th minutes did anybody have any issues with those minutes no hearing none is there a motion to approve go ahead he's not used to running the meeting you know I'm soed making motions I move to approve the uh meeting minutes for January 10th as presented is there a second second second Lori I Marcy I Paul hi I for me and January 24th here in nothing any can I have a motion to approve the minutes for January 24th so moved and do I have a second second second Marcy and uh so Lori I Marcy hi Paul hi and I for me as well Jim do we have any gifts and donations we do um HS student council for $488 88 for purchase of one commercial vacuum clean uh for the HS custodial staff HS student council $74.97 for uh purchase 72 small calculators for the math department Planet Aid uh $42.50 miscellaneous gifts and donations Alliance Energy uh $500 to support uh math and science programs at the Warren school uh Ohio pile prints $61 33 for miscellaneous gifts and donations and then uh weight $362 uh donation to ashack for a grand total of $1,889 68 thank you can I have a motion to accept the gifts and donations as presented so moved is there second second uh for the vote Lori I Mercy I Paul I and I for me we are to member updates start with our virtual participant Lori I have nothing to add this time thank you all right Marcy anything nothing to how about you were appointed I was appointed there you go Paul um I I'm sure there's something I'll probably forget but uh as it relates to mindes uh kind of the the cool thing about having the the new school and and things like that we have taken two districts uh on tours that are in their feasibility stages of an msba project we've done uh the reading public schools and Southboro Public Schools who are both in that uh uh educational visioning section of the feasibility stage so uh and I'm sure we'll have some more great and I'm not sure there's other things I'm forting um the only thing I'll share is um so as as I've mentioned in the past the high school site Council um has been talking about the issue of weighted grading versus unweighted grading um I think that's becoming part of the community um knowledge that people are talking about that there was a survey sent out to students there's a um survey or at least an opportunity there listening sessions kind of thing um I listened in on on one of those this week um the virtual session on Monday afternoon um there were 30ish participants um a lot of you know a lot of people with you know as you can imagine some strong opinions on it and I think some other people were there to listen um but just want people to be aware of that if you're not that discussion is ongoing um the next uh site council is the 20 whatever the first Wednesday is after break I think the 29th um and I'm sure that conversation will be picked up there so I'll be interested in hearing the sort of debrief um but Kelly's been really good about emphasizing to people that she wouldn't be proposing any changes that impact kids who are sort of Midway through their High School career um so that we'd be looking at things down the road and we are doing due diligence and looking at things thoughtfully rather than um sort of trying to rush anything through so um ongoing dialogue and I I'll provide updates as I can on that otherwise I don't have anything else um action items I don't think we have any action items that we need to look at for the future so we are I think ready for our executive session Jim is there um are we talking about any units other than the teachers that Lori might want to participate in or we can just talk about the teachers uh I was just going to give an update on the esps okay so Lori are you going to join us an executive session I'm available to if it's appropriate okay when we do this I'll make the motion um and then we'll do the part you can participate in first and then you can excuse yourself when we move into the the part that you wouldn't participate in uh so with that I will make the motion to go into executive session under section 21 A3 to conduct strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and not to return to open session we'll be talking about the um ashon Educators Association teachers unit and the educational support Personnel unit not the others Jim correct just those that is correct we don't need to tonight yep okay just just those two units even though there are others on the agenda so that that's the motion is there a second second okay thank you Paul roll call vote not that we Haven been doing anyway but Lori yes Marcy yes Paul hi and I for me four nothing roll call vote we are in executive session thank you have a good night everybody

and Saturday March 23rd at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. tickets will be sold at the door um $5 per student and $10 for adults this show both comic and tragic is not to miss and we hope large enthusiastic crowd supporting drama club drama club's return after five long years of absence Library Club held a poetry workshop on January 24th with lyrical Faith a black American educator activist and spoken word poet from the Bronx students and teachers were inspired and began writing their own poems the library itself at ghs has kicked off a 2024 reading challenge encouraging students and staff to set a reading goal for the calendar year people will sign up to fill out a pledge card with either a goal number of books or pages per month get a book themed water bottle sticker and a monthly reading log bookmark participants who complete the reading logs went are into quarterly prize drawings spectrum is working on their own annual Valentine's Day bake sale this week with chocolate covered pretzels the goal of that fundraisers fundraiser is to raise money to buy Club t-shirts to march in the Franklin County pride parade in June and to close everything off we just on behalf of all of the students at ghs and all of the staff want extended congratulations to aiana KLU Zach oari and Nate Woodard for being accepted into the UMass honor band um that concludes everything but if there are any questions on what I mentioned I'd be happy to answer them I'll just add I had a opportunity to attend the honor band performance on Saturday and it was so exciting there's students coming from all over the Commonwealth and was creating like B bands or or orchestras really three different orchestras composed of people who had never met each other before learning mer music and performing it all in one day it was really cool any other questions or comments all thank you so much now we're on to reports of the administration and our business manager good evening everyone you have your monthly update uh for the budget we also as requested last time included Capital uh those are at the end of the report uh just to highlight uh we are beginning our year end closing or I should say continuing because we've started at the turn of the the calendar year um you'll see like uh some of the special education tuitions have been moved to circuit breaker so we'll be doing things as we've done normally of moving expenses to the revolving accounts and potentially moving things out of the local budget um or out of the revolving counts back into the local budget as we do our normal year and closing to see what we can do for maximizing funds available uh in all those funding sources uh no nothing knock on wood you know concerning as of this point in time so um if there are any questions I can answer them member Den um last month we had talked about um a request for training members how to read budget reports in a more easily accessible format and I was just wondering where you might be on that if you thought about admittedly I didn't know it was my responsibility to coordinate that I was thinking that would be a school committee discussion Andor setting up of a workshop and I would make myself available well fair enough I was not sure yep I think that's something we can have on our list for a future meeting but no progress has been made since the last time okay wonderful thank you okay any other questions for business manager all right assistant superintendent um I also have a very short report tonight but um some great photos that I wanted to include so folks could see what we have been up to uh with regard to our instructional strategy work uh The District Administrative team along with our desie ssos team and our teaching lab part Partners we have conducted learning walkthroughs one and two on questioning in all of the district buildings that aggregate data from uh the instructional strategy was shared with building principles and their instructional leadership teams who met reviewed the data and then uh we're building plans for future professional development which happens either dur during their plts which are professional learning teams during the day or faculty meeting time so that's been going well um curriculum updates we had an opportunity to uh Luke Martin and Rebecca Zimmerman history teachers at Greenfield High School organize the annual yellow conference which is youth engaged in uh leaders and um officials legislators and officials I think I apologize um the conference was on Thursday January 25th and it really was uh wonderful to be a part of I included some photos um Alana jjy from fog was there along with uh representative whips and bla which uh students got to do small group conversations and then break out into larger group conversations with a lot of officials uh representative um representative School Committee Member Jive was there along with school Committee Member seon so it was great to see kids just really engaging in uh Civic opportunities um We are continuing curriculum mapping it's been an ongoing year-long process in ela and music we have five committee members who are really working hard um after hours to finalize Unit maps so that we can review all of them by June um what I did not include but which will begin is we have a science curriculum group starting up in March to review science materials so that we can uh plug along and order new materials that are highquality standards based for future years because we are um really behind the eightball with some of our materials in the science department so that'll be for grade 6 through 12 coming up I'll keep you posted on that and then Title One is uh one of our federally funded grants and part of that really is to promote family and Community engagement so we always partner with the Greenfield Rec Department during the winter carnival and try to be a part of as many festivities as they provide so that we can also be there to give away books math games and really engage with the community so we had a lot of fun um we were there on Saturday at Sanderson Street and uh some of my title one interventionists as you see joined me and we're giving away books we had uh prizes for kids it was really a nice event and then we sponsored the Mad Science Show which happened at the middle school later that day it was a packed house and I got a lot of nice emails from families in the community just really appreciative of the show and having something uh free and available for folks to attend so um that was great and then on Sunday we froze outside with Olaf in front of Adam's Donuts um but we were able to give every child math games and a book when they picked up their specialty Donuts from Adam so really appreciate Christy Moore at the rec department always offering us the opportunity to engage in her festivities and um it was just really nice to see all the families and community and kids come together so thank you okay let's hear from the superintendent and then we can take questions for both of you after that so the first piece I was speaking about was the grinspoon award but that I think has been covered although always worth repeating um the budget the superintendent's budget has been posted it has been in the Greenfield Recorder it's on the website the budget hearing is scheduled for for February 28th at 6:30 here and um I believe that the superintendent's budget represents the priorities in the Strategic plan as well as some discussion with the budget subcommittee and we also uh really are seeking to preserve our staffing overall which is positive you know we're in a time when the eer 3 funds are running out they'll be done by the end of September and and I think when the committee sees my budget presentation um I hope that you will feel like we have maybe had a little budget slope and not a cliff um anyone who's interested in reviewing the budget can find it on the website or certainly folks can call my office we have hard copies available if anyone would like them so we have a few Staffing changes coming in the future um I shared last month that Merill melli our director of ear childhood was leaving she's going to concentrate on her doctoral studies which is wonderful for her and Jill taglia who is one of our special ed teachers at AE is um she's been appointed as the interim director which I'm very excited about Jill has over 20 years of teaching exper special ed teaching experience as well as having been a principal for a number of years in another state so she is an experienced administrator and we're happy to have her with us in her new role and then um Mr Morrison from the high school has shared that he will be moving on from Greenfield at the end of his contract which ends um in June so I would like to thank Derek for the work he's done at the high school and really appreciate the time that he's been here and then I will let the committee know um what the next steps are um for me in replacing his position and then um a commercial we need still instructional assistance at a number of schools across the district so if anyone's interested you can check School spring there is an employment link on the bottom of the homepage of our website or you can contact Lauren in my office if you have any questions um weather related decisions I really don't like talking about the weather in the winter and we dodged quite the um potential disaster the other day but I just want to remind folks that it is a complicated Endeavor to make decisions about WEA um the weather decisions get made at about 4:30 to 4:45 in the morning when there is an event and I assume people can appreciate the challenge of trying to predict what the weather will be um multiple hours ahead and thankfully I know there's often a desire from families for me to please call it early do it the night before but thankfully in this instance that did not occur because that would have been not a good use of snow day um I appreciate that parents may not agree with the decision I make if I have kept schools open and so I will remind them again that they have the ultimate choice to keep their kids home if I have opened school um we just ask that people call um the same challenge goes for having indoor recess versus outdoor recess all of our principles want the kids to go outside and breathe fresh air and run around um but times there are times when we make the decision to have students stay in because the weather temperatures and the wind chill make it um concerning for our students to be outside so I appreciate the um understanding when we make these decisions so um a positive note Karen and I were able to attend the building a strong stronger Commonwealth one person at a time Franklin County legislative breakfast on January 18th that was held at the Greenfield Public Library and um representative bla representative whips were in attendance along with Helena Cohen from Senator comerford's office and the speakers that were there provided a wealth of information about legislative proposals and budget proposals to support the public and school library system across Massachusetts so we were very happy to be able to attend that event and registration is forthcoming kindergarten registration is on the horizon we have put an ad in the paper um we are sending information home it is on the website if you know anybody who has a child who will be 5 honor before September 1st please share this information with them uh um we are also taking pre-registration paperwork at the Academy of early learning please call the building to get information just a reminder to families that um at times spaces are limited at a it is an integrated program meaning that we serve the needs of students ages 3 through five with disabilities as well as students age three through five who are non-disabled and so we um utilize our spaces in our classrooms and follow um statutes around ratios when we fill seats at our preschool so um keep a look out for the pre for the preschool and excuse me kindergarten registration thank you questions for the superintendent and assistant [Music] superintendent none tonight excellent okay okay um we'll move on to the consent agenda and uh just a reminder so this would be a motion to approve all the items listed on the consent agenda um if there's any single member who would like an item on the consent agenda separated and considered separately um we can do that so is there any member who would like to um remove an item from the consent agenda member Den I'd like to remove C because I have to recuse myself from that vote excellent okay we will consider the vote on the contract for the school transportation services separately are there any other items members would like to consider separately otherwise it's just a vote and well we can discuss but um we' V vote up and now vote up and down or down on a b d and e all right um here a motion to approve the uh consent agenda as presented except for item C so moved uh motion by member Martini is there a second I'll second that a second from Member child's um any discussion okay um all those in favor say I I I I all those opposed and I'm abstaining so the motion carries um let's see now let's move on to the vote on the contract for school con School transportation services can I have a motion to approve that contract so moved so U motion by member Martini is there a second seconded second by member Childs any discussion it's still red I Oh I thought you were going to talk okay uh not seeing any discussion so let's uh have a vote on that all those in favor say I I all those opposed say nay and those abstaining I'll abstain and member Den abstains but the motion carries so those were all approved um next we're moving on to the uh superintendent evaluation so um I had uh presented a committee structure last a meeting that did not include a subcommittee for superintendent evaluation because I wanted a chance to discuss it and think about it and learn some more and I wanted to kind of share my my thinking about about that process so I think that there's been some dis satisfaction with our superintendent evaluation process um I know I felt uh I didn't really like love the tool and I found it confusing and difficult um I think there's also been a concern that some of the the comments from school committee members haven't always been entirely in line with what our role is in the superintendent evaluation process um and so it's caused a little bit of tension and confusion difficulty so I think the um really appreciated the initiative of member den and others who wanted there to be a subcommittee to try to address some of those problems um and including um revamping the tool that we would use with the um superintendent evaluation um just as a reminder and for the benefit of people at home any changes that were made to an uh superintendent evaluation tool would need to be done in concert with the superintendent who is being evaluated um so it's not something we can just decide on our own the superintendent would need to uh agree to changes and we will not be doing a superintendent evaluation process this year because while we would love the opportunity to appreciate and be constructive with Christine about her work uh also it's not very valuable for someone who is not continuing in the role so we have some time which is which is also really good um so I guess what I'm saying is I see a need for professional development for the committee so that we can have a superintendent evaluation process that's uh constructive and that builds a stronger relationship between the committee and the superintendent um to support them in in their role and being even more effective on behalf of our students I'd like us to do that professional development together first as a full committee um so that we could fully understand the process and also fully understand our existing tool um then as out of that professional development process I'd like us to have a discussion about whether we still want to have a subcommittee to work on changing the tool or or some other item but I guess essentially what I'm saying is I'd like to start the work together with professional development as a full group and I'd love to hear um members comments about that and also would welcome feedback too from the superintendent and assistant superintendent so anyone who wishes to speak yeah member Martini when would you propose this to take place um I think it pretty much as soon as we could get started with um mask if you know what like mask to come and work with us and um to provide some professional development for us so getting on their calendar it could be as early as next month that we would begin remember Den I'm wondering if maybe a little bit later might be good considering that we have so much coming up and I'm Wonder wondering if that might be a good thing to do really work on in the summer especially since we don't have that much to do in the summer and we won't be evaluating for a little while but I'm really glad that you're looking towards professional development for this thank you other comments member ston so I I understand why we're not doing an evaluation this year I get that but would it inappropriate to maybe suggest we keep the Cadence and have a different type of meeting together maybe like talking about long-term goals and plans or some other way to sort of like keep up the rhythm of us doing an annual evaluation and and have it in the the agenda and timeline but also just could we do like the pre-work to an evaluation work of like understanding what where would you like to go and how do you propose we get there and what are some ways that you would find effective for collaborating you know and sort of laying the land like that um is that an inappropriate thing to suggest in this agenda item yeah I think so go ahead please share again yeah um I think I had two thoughts one um knowing that the evaluation doesn't begin at the end um for the superintendent the evaluation begins well before the start of the year when goals are set so I do agree there's some time but maybe not as much for the incoming superintendent as the committee might feel because whatever format the goals are structured in needs to be in line with the tool so just to keep that timeline in mind um I guess um what you're suggesting I always perceived as the goal setting beginning conversation of the evaluation so I think is really critical it has been for me as a superintendent um but I I guess the process currently is a lot of that work would happen at that goal setting when the committee um hears from the superintendent then you folks talk about the goals but it's important yeah to have that Stu no I I appreciate that uh and the reframe back into evaluation and maybe suggesting that we should keep in a a somewhat quicker timeline so that we can have the kind of disc discussion that we would like that we that is mutually satisfactory yeah no I think that the summer is maybe a little too late um just thinking ahead as to goals that we want to set together and continuing the Strategic plan work that we have in place and really uh hitting some Milestones that we want to see some successes and growth in together but um in order to do that the tool has to be decided on so it's kind of the chicken and egg theory right now as to um how we get to a agreeable tool and therefore go from there with the goal setting and I think part of it is that we don't fully I don't fully have a picture yet of how much time we will need for the professional development whether it's one meeting or a series of meetings um so whether we will have time to kind of fully do the professional development that we want to do and then also look at the tool in time for your first year on the job maybe if we do decide to look at the tool depending on where we are in the process it might have to be something that we look at for a future year um so but we may I guess you know one Speaking as someone who was really dissatisfied with that tool the first time I used it at all I was kind of won over by the argument that if we had a full training on the tool and fully understood why it is laid out the way it is and what the opportunities are for the school committee to give feedback that we may not actually need to change the tool I'm not sure about that because I still think it's not great but um but I think what what's most important is not the tool but our work work with each other our relationships with each other and how we use this process to unite as the leadership of the school system to help the superintendent to do better and better and so I feel like we can do we could probably do that with our existing tool so we'll see but that's my that's my dream remember Martini would you be scheduling this as a working session um I think it would well it I'm not entirely sure I guess I would ask Mass to give us some feedback on that I could imagine that the the first item would be a session that was part of a school committee meeting but we could um make a motion to you know uh not follow the normal rules of Robert's Rules of Order so that we can um we can learn in a more collaborative way than by making motions and whatever but um I imagine the the first session may be more of a general overall orientation because we do have several members who haven't I'm sure have had the opportunity or will soon to in the charting the course that's required of school committee members to get a brief overview of the superintendent evaluation process but I think a more in-depth overview would be useful for all of us so I'm not sure what the format would look like exactly yet yep I think my preference for professional development in general and especially on something that people are going to be unsure about uh in certain aspects is to have a working session so that it is less stilted and more open as a conversation uh so my preference would be to have a working session and aim for maybe April and to take place when you say working session you mean a separate Standalone meeting where we aren't kind of following the normal rule Roberts Rules of Order what correct okay thank you any other feedback on the superintendent evaluation professional development plan okay thank you very much for that feedback and I'll use that um as I'm we're planning this uh going forward thank you very much next uh the yellow followup um member den and member ston to either of you I'd love to hear a report from the conference and what you see is uh anything that came out of it that we could learn from as a school committee the yellow day is my favorite day I have so much fun there and it's wonderful to get to interact with the students so I just want to say that there were there were a lot of students and they're very engaged and they're just wonderful smart Plucky young people and it's great to hear what they would like to see in their schools so we were part of this school support Breakaway um group and um we got to meet small groups of students first and it was great to be able to tell them what the school committee does and um kind of clue them in on um on what our roles are and State were there and a few other people were there who did similar things and then when we moved to our school support group uh we pretty much just heard ideas from them and some of them are within our purview and some of them weren't but um we took some notes and there are some things that we can um I think that we can make some action and change on the a few of the things were um they'd like to see an increase in field trip amounts in the budget they'd also like to talk about about an increase in um the budget for the music program and um they certainly love Mr cek and they wanted us to know how much they liked him and they wanted to talk about having more of him so um one of the notes that we made was maybe if he was interested having a staff presentation about the music program and um yeah I think that items related to the budget are are great but they're perception of a personnel and things like that that gets into the superintendent's territory so right um but that definitely a best practice that we learned from Mas about having staff presentations come in for the committee so that's why I bring that up and then um they also had a lot of questions about the Athletics policy they're very keen on um working towards getting um athletic credits for things other than just PE a lot of them are playing sports and not getting athletic credits for that or marching band and um they would like to have these credits because then it frees them up to take additional classes that they would need uh for graduation credits so those are some of the top things um they also had a lot of questions about the bathroom situation and the very next day we went on the school tour with um with Karen patod and we did tour the bathroom so I'm just saying that uh we have seen them and they are in great shape and uh very nice and not in disrepair at all so I guess um turn it over to member seon I'm sure that they might remember a few other nuggets I think so I got my notes so awesome they they will help me um yeah so uh another thing that the that the students mentioned was how much they really appreciate their instructional staff um they really value their their teachers and wanted to to communicate to us knowing that we help fund their that we fund their teachers they wanted to communicate that that their instructors are really important and that they um support whatever we can do to to support their instructors um so I appreciated their concern um I think one of our other responsibilities as a school committee is to um advocate for youth especially we have our mayor sitting as part you know as part of the body and they did talk about wanting more spaces for teens to hang out um that don't necessarily cost money um but where they can study they can hang out maybe they've got games um either board games or like pool or something um as well as other sort of teen attractions so they don't have to go out elsewhere out of town to like have a decent amount of fun like actually have real fun um but you know anything that we can do in the community to make this an attractive place to be a high school kid would be um would be much appreciated um let's see what else did they talk about um I think there were there were a number of other things that are not necessarily within the school committee's purview um to really talk about but I I also want to Echo what Elizabeth was saying that that was probably my favorite day and probably will be my favorite day all year um and I can't wait till the next one excellent thank you both um let's see let's move on to reports of the school committee um report of the chair um I wanted to just take a few minutes to talk about um the importance of academics in our schools and uh I think that we we love our teachers and everything they bring to our students and and how hard everyone's working to improve student outcomes but I wanted to talk about something that goes on behind the scenes that isn't just about the number of teachers we have but H how those teachers can with leadership with with curriculum leadership can actually create a a more holistic syst system of learning uh throughout the whole schools and that is really the role of our assistant superintendent for curriculum and I just think that you know when I've been out campaigning and everything for school committee what people are really asking for is just great instruction in the schools and there's a lot that goes into that it's not just about the number of teachers that we have it's also about whether there's somebody who's looking at the big picture and making sure we're getting the new materials and in vetting the curriculum when I um first um came on to the school committee it was a an appointment to fill a vacancy which I had to apply for so I came to a school committee meeting to interview and out in the lobby there were a group of teachers who were coming and to present to the school committee about the Civics curriculum that they had had to because there wasn't at the time an assistant superintendent for curriculum there was uh a conference that they all had to go and attend and try to revamp the curriculum together as a team in their free time and I'm just so grateful that we now have an assistant superintendent who can when the state is requiring like an overhaul of a curriculum can attend those meetings and bring things back and work with the teachers and get the materials and all of that so I just just wanted to call that call that out as we're heading into budget season and and people are looking at the budget and they may see a salary and think well how many teachers could we get with that salary but you have to think about more than just the number of of bodies but also the leadership around curriculum that's so vital for our students so I just wanted to use my soap box to say that tonight and would' love to hear a report from the budget and finance subcommittee we had a meeting on January 22nd the only item was fy2 budget development and as you know the superintendent budget has since been posted in the newspaper and on the website specific topics within that discussion included new positions including the float custodian that we discussed as a committee in December instructional AIDS necessary for specialed education and an elementary instrumental music teacher in regards to the latter we discussed the music program uh quite a bit and possibilities for expanding it which has been a consistent interest discussed by the full committee and something that we have received much constituent communication about we uh took a vote in support of the superintendent uh posting an anticipated opening for an elementary instrumental position uh I noted that this and other aspects of Arts programming uh will need to be part of future discussions by the full Committee in regards to Future budgets as well uh we discussed transportation in regards to the new five-year bus contract that was recently approved by city council and that was on the agenda tonight um we discussed the intended shift to full year science and social studies at the middle school that will necessitate about seven new positions in future this was delayed when the committee uh voted to delay redistricting uh however this is an anticipated change that will affect future budget development and involve staff and program movement when 8th grade shifts to the middle school and fifth to Elementary uh likewise the committee has discussed Spanish language instruction at the middle school that was cut last year and may wish to bring it back uh and essentially in our discussion um this would be sensible to um to consider when those changes come about um also related to redistricting support in the budget for transitional social activities for students was discussed and more information is needed um from that subcommittee and uh related decision- making in order to move forward specifically with that uh Andy shared a summ of the state budget process as it pertains to our local process in which at the time of our meeting Governor Healey's proposed budget was anticipated shortly and it since was put out a couple of days later um in which is included the Chapter 70 amounts and required local contributions um noting that Greenfield is an above minimum funding Community um which then leads into deliberations in the legislature and he also touched on chapter 766 schools which are specialized special special education schools uh tuition costs which are affected when students move at certain points in the year and uh which also had a substantial increase increase in rates approved last year unfortunately Greenfield did not meet the threshold for assistance with this in the supplemental budget that was passed by the legislature in December and uh let me know if I have gotten anything wrong or missed any of the Salient points that questions for member martini thank you let's see next is my committee the policy and program uh subcommittee um so um we're continuing our overhaul of the policies and trying to update them with best practices and model policies um and also customize them for Green Field um I do have have a motion for us tonight related to that um related to section I which was in your packet um so I'd like to hear a motion that we approve the first reading of amendments to policy I um as presented oh second reading sorry I move that we adopt the policy I um uh in instruction uh as presented on second reading is there a motion to that effect so moved moved by member ston is there a second I'll second it second by member forti thank you maybe we should have like an official seconder um great discussion about section I yes member Martini I had just two questions um I noticed that IG and igd are partially redundant and in the masc Guide online they are one and the same can you repeat the IGA and igd it's curriculum development and adoption IG hold please oh for goodness sake curriculum development so yes they are somewhat redundant what I can tell you is that um the process that um I've engaged in to this point is to taking the section going through editing making comments posing questions and then Liz leant from masc goes through answers um comments back and um based on that review the both of these policies were left in that section but if the committee wants to delete one you know certainly whatever whatever your preference is many I find that there are a fair number of policies throughout the policy manuals mascs and ours that are fairly redundant but so whatever whatever the committee's pleasure I guess what I would recommend is that we vote up or down on the policies as presented tonight and then we can refer items back to the policy committee to take a look and make changes in the future if needed that okay um I think it would be worth uh the subcommittee looking at just consolidating those two policies to one the way they are in the guide uh and my other question and I apologize I don't know the wait a minute yes I do ihba AA about observations AA yes I just noticed it's around the middle of that page there's a line that says something along the lines of the people Services director will ask the permission of the special education director and the building administrator to schedule an observation which doesn't really make sense for it doesn't and I actually have the phrase special education director crossed off so that should be it should have been deleted in the final okay I thought in the edits it ended up saying that the pupil Services director would ask the permission of the pupil Services director and the building administrator want to make sure he's very very sure no that should have my copy with the um changes doesn't say that so I will double check it but it should read the pupil the director of pupil services or design um I just saw what you I'm sure it is not terribly difficult for Mr messing to ask permission of himself to schedule something but I just he rarely argues with himself about those things so I will double check to make sure that's cleaned up thank you that was all thank you member Martini any other oh yes member Priti just in relation to ig igd I don't have any context other than they do they do reference at the bottom different mgl so it might be worth the policy subcommittee checking to see if maybe what mask has put forward we might word differently in one or the other to make them less redundant good idea yeah we can definitely take a look at that at a future meeting any other questions or comments about section I all right so I think we are voting um to approve it with with the kind of typo um changes that member Martini mentioned and Al sorry that was other thing the one we have online doesn't is fixed it says we'll work with the principal will work with the classroom teacher and the Observer and the director of people services so I think it's fixed in the online one that we got from Lauren today there have definitely been some issues with Version Control so depending on when you're looking at it or you know um so we'll make sure that that's cleaned up but I I guess we because it is pretty much a typo I don't think we even need to amend the motion um to to address that um but we will um take under we will definitely take up that those uh two that look so similar and find out if there's a reason why or if we can consolidate and get some help with from mask on that so thank you so much for your thorough reading of that and your feedback um I want to appreciate the uh policy subcommittee and the superintendent and mask for their their work on getting through this pretty long section and we have some other big mountains to climb with other big sections coming up uh so I appreciate the entire committee's uh resolve to finish this process especially before the new superintendent comes on board um great so let's see let us vote um all those in favor of um of the motion to approve section I say I I I I any opposed I'll abstain the motion carries thank you very much everybody uh the executive subcommittee did not meet this month uh did the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee meet we have not met but we do have a scheduled meeting on the 21st at 4M virtually EX excellent I I will repeat that the 21st 400 p.m.

44% which is $41,250 in comparison to the overall requested increase for 2324 this proposal is an additional $149,500 of budg in my lifetime but you know usually you get the you know how you do your monthly report or the monthly financial report and you got a line by line and this goes up this goes down blah blah blah and you know we see the budget once it gets on to that report is is there such a thing in existence for this budget do you have a line by line like that I'm trying to think it'd be in bry's computer software program okay all right and so does the finance committee work with you on on helping to develop this or do you present to the finance committee I present to the finance committee okay and then but we we also went over to two meetings ago yeah we also went over a a a a synopsis I mean we can break this thing down on inin item but the idea is the big drivers are uh I get the overall I just you know if somebody was interested in the detail yeah if you if you if you were interested in detail I'm sure Brandy has this broken down into a a concise sheet if you're interested okay all right just curious because we get and I like the presentation the overall and and I get all that just you know if you want we can put a I I can ask K to put together a presentation that will put us all to sleep I mean it's not what more engaging than that I was just asking if it I've never found those numbers to be I guess she has a blank one of these Yeah well yeah we can if if you want to see something like that a 2024 2025 line already filled you can you you can do if if you want we can do that that's relatively simple yeah because that's just a comparison of last year to this year item by item but you've got something similar to that in our regular um board breakdown but if it means some that's why we asked two meetings ago so that if anybody wanted additional information we can provide it I sorry I didn't think of it oh okay well did is it going to stop you from voting on the budget no okay if you want the information I can add it to a weekly well I'll have you want it to no okay oh I I say so gets to a copy how is your budget proposal received at the finance committee I think it went very well we had a very nice discussion uh they asked some questions um in terms of why there were some of the increases that existed and that was that was it you're back here I'm still here so yeah there's not much there there really isn't much place to trim on this thing I mean it it it is the difference between mandated it's contractual you know some of the stuff is contractual and we're stuck but I think the board on board of Finance understands that and um you know I I I thought K and everybody did a brandy did a great job on the presentation and I agree with you I think it was well received it may not be you know it's not they may not be happy about a five and a quarter percent but there's really there's not a lot of fluff in there there's not any fluff in there they were here for the negotiations they were here for the negotiations yeah so that that's why I emphasize that you know a big hunk of this is the teacher salary increases there's nothing we can do about that so I guess the next step is do we have to hold a vote on whether we accept this so we need a motion to accept K's um the superintendent's um proposed spending plan for 2425 and this is what we'll go with to the town so move Angelo and Sean second any discussion any further discussion all those in favor I unanimous new business none administrative reports superintendent all right so on your table you'll find the enrollment summaries for 2122 22 23 uh and for this year we did start the school year with 445 students as of January 31st 2024 our current enrollment is now 450 students any questions on the enrollment before I continue we just keep moving in all right for a Personnel update Vincent condo will take over our vacant fourth grade position uh for the rest of this year he joined our team this week he was actually here this morning at our staff meeting uh he'll spend this week working alongside this the current long-term substitute who's in the classroom as part of the transition uh and his most recent teaching experience was in in Sonia Claire diadamo am I saying that correctly CLA deama will take over our vacant special education position for the for this year uh she comes to us from the unity University of Rhode Island and her most recent teaching experiences have been in chesher we haven't set a firm date just yet but we're hoping it will be as early as the Wednesday after the fake Break 2 the 21st um and then tomorrow I will be interviewing a finalist for our open pair of professional position where are we would staff that would make us fully staffed that so right now we're down one pair of professional correct [Music] okay any other questions all right and then just an update on the kindergarten entry yes it is a moving Target no nobody really loves it um people like the idea of the kindergarten age being moved to five it puts us in line with all the other states it's more developmentally appropriate for students at that point um what people aren't loving is the legislated appeals process um that they added into the language required it's mandated right that's it's in the public act right um what to your I think question that you were asking Sean is is is it going to happen are they going to back down it will more than likely not change anything for the 2425 school year but for 2526 the hope is that they will remove the appeal um because the appeals process is what makes the implementation of this very challenging it actually flies kind of in the face of saying that children should be five to go to kindergarten but if you want you can have them tested and then we can say yes or no to have them come to kindergarten so at this time we've actually received only seven requests for additional information with regards to the appeals process um for students who will not meet the September 1 2024 enrollment date for kindergarten birth dates for those requesting an appeal or an evaluation range from the poor kiddo who's got a September 2nd birthday all the way to somebody who has a December 22nd birthday yeah welome so it's a wide range we have September 2nd and September 4th kids within that that one week October 1st October 3rd November 16th December 11th and December 22nd so kind of a range there we can kind of see again the the 2 and the 4th of September that that that kind of stinks right but for the student who's December 22nd they're you know kind of hoping that the appeal will work in their favor and or that they'll just make it five by January 1 because I think that's what they were probably intending to do um but those families those seven families are going to be contacted next month to schedule the required evaluation to determine if the child is developed is appropriate to be uh admitted into kindergarten even though they do not me the age requirement because it's mandated that we do so any questions so have you figured out how you're going to yes we're we we're working out the process for the for the evaluation yeah all right yeah and there's nothing that says that you know a child that appeals and goes through this evaluation this is a conversation that the superintendent groups have have been having is you may put a child through this evaluation process and the child will say not get into because they won't do well in the evaluation they don't get into kindergarten there's no appeal of the appeal right so we'll go through this process and if if it's determined that the child is not developmentally appropriate based on the evaluation for kindergarten the answer is no and the parent can't appeal that so does csde give you anything on appropriate no so there's no guidance from them no guidance from them on what is appropriate no guidance for them on the appeals process outside of the fact that the letter needs to go to Mr re and the person conducting the evaluation must be a certified staff member of of the board of education so it's not like we can contract out and have an agency come in and test all of the students so so what is the testing process consist I'd rather not put it out in public because I don't want people to try to teach to what the assessment is going to be but there's there's a process where they will come in there'll be some information that we gather from parents there'll be an evaluation of the child and then our school-based team will evaluate and review the result results of that and say okay you know be like that Indiana Jones movie you just lay out like six cups and you ask the kid to pick one and they got to pick the right one or they turn the stone well what sh one prior to and districts are and so the the in the spirit of this this legislation it was supposed to kind of level the playing field across all districts but you have honestly some districts saying okay we're going to evaluate students here's your evaluation show me a phone iPhone and Droid right doesn't matter which one the child picks so long as they pick the phone and don't lick the wall they get in and others are saying no we're going to have this really strict you know assessment it's going to be a standardized assessment it's going to be this it's going to be that there's no appeal there's probably no chance that some of the kids are even going to be remotely close to passing it because they're not in favor of letting the kids in so the fact that the state gave no additional guidance in terms of what assessments should be used or what that should look like um has not made things they want the rule but they don't want want to have the accountability for it so they put it on the districts correct shame there give the appeal then would solve that problem right so not having the appeal would make things very easy because even though it's you know I would feel horribly for the person with the September 2nd birthday I could stand fast and and say the law is you must be by September 1 you must be five your birthday is September 2nd I'm sorry but there's that appeal so we'll do what we're required to do all right moving right along are you done yes I'm done thank you okay uh director of special services Cheryl you're on thank you um for professional development I know Mr M talked about um things I'll just go into a little bit more detail we continued our work with literacy how and we're going to be continuing throughout the year Focus so far has been on oral discourse and vocabulary and the feedback so far has been very positive um to this appr approach to professional learning and we're doing that in grades K to six rotating in teams of two grades per session and our Math teachers in grades five six have been working with a consultant from an advance looking to bundle the standards selecting the best resource in addition they've been working on problem solving um and again the teachers have shared some positive feedback for this style of professional learning because they're really working closely and in the classroom um planning all the phases of learning and uh for curriculum we've talked about we completed our midyear benchmark assessments and teams are really analyzing the data right now that's all I have for today okay thank you uh Tom reach whales you're on all right so um you know you heard from us that we've just completed the winter Benchmark um also since our uh our last meeting we had our Winter concert on the 17th really excited to get um choir and band going again I think that having and Katrina um really taking each of their respective expertise is really translated into some excellent U musicianship uh our January community meeting as you heard was the 26th we had uh kindness and uh presentations from kindergarten on kindness and Martin Luther King Junior Day uh I also received eight pies to the face there are videos and pictures of all um what kind of pie uh it was it was uh shaving cream because uh I I came in in my tuxedo because if you're going to get pied in the face you need to be dressed appropriately um it's classic uh my dry cleaner does not appreciate it um we're working on uh getting our midyear goal meetings with staff uh scheduled up right now uh and our drama club has uh started since last we met and we had 80 kids sign up uh so so yep yeah so the first rehearsal had all 80 children there we are a victim of our own success uh so we have so many kids that were really trying to think about now as we move forward how we might actually think about parsing that out and maybe having um one particular program next year for some of our younger students and then thinking about um how we might split that out it's just a lot of kids which is a good problem to have um so we're really excited about that uh February community meeting this month is going to be focused on building relationships um and we have a parent academy uh that's going to be taking place on the 29th of February it's going to be focusing on supporting families uh around student mental health and specifically anxiety so um Ariel uh lasin our school social worker um and uh Miss nathman are going to be focusing on supporting families that way we're really excited for that uh and then uh we also have our Invention Convention coming up that's going to be taking place in early March so a lot of really great things going on for kids uh we're running into the problem now with after school things that we're running out of dates so we've got you know we've got the kids going to CCD on on Monday and then Tuesday we've got choir and then Wednesday we've got band and you know we've got boost and drama club and Lego Club and gems and there's a lot of stuff going on for kids uh so a lot of really great opportunities for kids to be you know getting great work during the school day and enrichmond after school so we're busy any questions or anything I do he do me a favor yeah take me on the Journey of a fifth grader at BCS yeah what do they have for teachers peras take me on a JY explain their day to me all right so you got a fifth grader and they're going to come in they're getting dropped off they come around to the circle they're going to come in and they're going to go in um the door right here they're going to get to their lockers and go into class when they come into class they're going to do lunch count and attendance then at 8:45 BNN goes on the air they're going to see BNN from about 8:45 until about 8:51 at about 8:51 until 9:15 920 they're going to have morning meeting we're going to focus on a tier one um strategy for the entire class around building Community Connection maybe we're talking about how to build connections with adults to have that second trusted adult because I'm in Mrs hemp's class and she is my human but I really don't necessarily feel comfortable with a lot of other adults how can I build those relationships and connections with other adults right at that point that student is going to go um and they're going to transition to their first class so they might go over same teacher or different teacher uh they rotate Yep they're going to rotate so that work the whole thing all right so as a class right at at that time we shift out um and they're going to go over um to say uh Mrs tishy they're going to go in and they're going to have an 80-minute period for um for math they're going to go into math they're going to have a mini lesson some independent practice probably some small group work they're going to do some problem solving and they might go on to I ready and get some work done on their my path they might go on to asath get some Fact Practice after that 80-minute period they're going to go to a second 80 minute period could be either Ela science or social studies they're every day yep they're going to go every day so they they have the same first period the same second and second period typically um and then say their third period so sorry their second period is going to be another 80-minute block Y at 12:05 they're going to go over to specials they've got six rotating specials those are art music PE Spanish uh and then two versions of Design Lab so um so we've got Ron uh defasio who is focusing on a lot of um a lot of uh presentation and um problem solving in here and then um and then Laura Stokes who is working on in the uh maker space so they go to that special until 1245 at 12:45 they go to lunch 12:45 to 1:20 they have lunch lunch 1:20 to 150 they have recess at 150 they come back in they'll have a third period they're going as a class to that third period meaning who they start at home room typically yes yep and then um and then from there that's going to take them to the end of the day that's going to be 310 at 310 305 310 they're going to pack up and then the bell's going to dismiss from there they're going to dismiss out to potentially an after school thing like choir band Lego Club drama club name it or they'll get on the bus get picked back up and go home so if they receive Support Services due the day how does that work into that yeah it's a really good question so it depends on the kid okay but typically what we try and do is we try and line up that support with the class that they're needing support in right so if I'm an ELA kid right and I'm going and uh I'm I have a need an instruction for for reading we're going to try and have that intervention come on the back half of that reading block right because the front half of that's going to be that tier one instruction time I'm going to teach you something new in the fifth grade curriculum and then I'm going to have that time where I want you to work and do that independently right and so for a kid that we know might need additional support that independent time could be really difficult for them so that intervention might look several different ways it might be Tom Reed swell a fifth grade teacher is going to give that particular intervention right there because it's not a very high need there and it's something that a classroom teacher can provide um several times a week it might be something that they're going out and working um with uh M stole who's one of our our members of the curriculum team one of our instructional AIDS right they might be going out three times a week in a tier 2 intervention it might be a tier three intervention where they're going out on a regular basis every day with say Miss stole or Mrs a or someone that way or it might be something where they're working um with uh Carrie Pacini who's our special ed teacher um supporting students in fifth and sixth grade same thing that would be also for say like math we'd really try and Target that back half of that math block sometimes what we're seeing the challenge for some kids is they have multiple needs and so we're trying to make sure that we're getting them all those interventions with having the least amount of impact to their tier one instruction so so what does a typical fifth grader have interaction with their with teachers and faculty during that day do they have interaction with three teachers no pairs what what do they have interaction with well it's so typical like think tier one student no interventions you'd have your home room teacher you'd have so would be would be either right so it' either be um right Mr Yuan Mrs hemperly or Mrs tishy Right so you'd have home room so you'd have one classroom teacher then second in ela let's take someone who's in Mr yuan's class they'd have Jason Yuan they'd have Brook hemperly and J tishy at a minimum they're going to have three classroom teachers and one specialist every day and then if they're in intervention they might have one or two interventionists or in special ed they would have a special ed teacher who would be working with them typically Mrs Pacini it depends student to student depending on student need they might have um one or possibly two par professionals who might support them through some of those interventions um but it it really depends student to student that's very specific to a particular child's case now within the fifth grade team have we had changes in teachers or faculty this year or is everybody been status quo since the beginning that changes yes for sorry yes for science so on an off day so think on so think AB on an a day you would have those three students those three periods and you'd have social studies on your b day you would have um Alyssa garula who would be science so you'd still have you'd still have tishy and math hemperly in reading and then you'd have say Home Room for Yan and you'd have science for garula so could either be three or four right but the same and Gul came in we started in September with we are currently at in the fifth grade with the exception of science science science teacher left in September science uh yeah we brought in we brought in um midall so how is everything working out currently in the fifth grade everything's status quo everything is good I think it it okay we had we had a hypothesis that we needed to be able to take a look and try and find greater time for Math and I think what we're seeing both on the way in which we're approach coaching math in fifth grade and the time that we've been able to put on task for that we're seeing some really strong results comparative year over um so the kids came in with that initial Benchmark in the fall um they were off by about two percentile points last year it was 48 this year it was 50% in the green and they've gone um last year we got them to 60% this year we've got 70% of the green um and I think it was 72 on the the chart you had up there earlier uh it's 72 uh it's 72 overall when I look at fifth grade we went we went uh 50 we went from 50 to 70 so far substantial grow yeah significant and that's without the added time no that is that is with the added time because that's that's with us really trying to focus and Ure that we got we got that hour plus block of math every single day so you got to think they get Ela math science or social studies Ela math science or social studies so we're guaranteeing we get that large chunk of ela and math every day Saul asked you another question what leads you to believe that we need more support to math in the fifth grade how did you make that determination historical well a combination so historical um what we've seen across the state um and and what we've seen across many districts as a as a significant um drop off in test scores into fifth grade and what we've anecdotally seen here um a lot of what we've seen so we've really been digging into like why right because we see the data and then the question is why and so we've really been looking at it there's a lot of things that that work as rules that then don't necessarily apply as you start getting higher and higher right so you say well like the bigger number is bigger well a fourth isn't bigger than a third because four is bigger than three but when you look at it no it's not anymore right and so we're really flipping things on their head in fifth grade and we're running into a lot of kids especially even like this year where we'll say all right so here's this new right we're taking the way that we've been thinking about math and we're going to apply it in a new way in are like no but that's not the way this is the way and we go that was the way now as we're looking at it we're applying this way and so we're really looking at ensuring that not only in fifth grade we're getting kids ready for those standards but also making sure that prior to that we're not setting kids up for a rule that expires when we get to say negative numbers right you're going to do a subtraction problem you put the bigger number on top you subtract the smaller number if I have $10 and I spend 20 I don't put the bigger number on top you do in my house it's a rough budget but you know what I mean like so there's some of those things that that expire that way and so we're trying to both attack that math thinking and build flexible problem solvers and think about what may get in the way of those kids what might be a roadblock as they're approaching that in fifth grade to set them up for greater success so the difference between fourth grade math and fifth grade math where they're at right now in the beginning year is that a significant growth for the kids to catch up with or is it kind of like a slow building process or is it there's a this rapid change from fourth to fifth I think we're seeing growth so we're seeing growth in all grades from from the fall to the winter I think that what we've typically seen is that going from fourth to 5ifth cohorts that may have seen seemed really strong in fourth grade haven't been as strong with the fifth grade standards in curriculum and so what we're really trying to do is think about how we can ensure that kids are really good computers but also really good problem solvers and thinkers because you've got to be able to just you it's like reading you can't just read the words you have to read and understand what the words are saying you can't just add the numbers you have to be able to do something with that addition subtraction multiplication and division and so we're starting to see them needing to apply a lot more of that approaching those standards in fifth grade and the more that we can get flexible thinkers there and kids that are thinking about it from a problem solving standpoint the the better we're seeing them them do on you know overall overall a as mathematicians but then as it translates to you know standardized scores but historically we see trouble with that that that round up okay yeah y so that was our struggle yeah a little bit yeah and I think it's one of those that you know historically I think you know and I'll say it all the time as a former stem coach it's always been acceptable to say socially I'm just not good at math but nobody walks around and goes I'm just not a good reader I can't read right but it's socially acceptable like it gets a laugh I'm just not a number guy right so we're trying to really counteract that and be like why do kids get to that thinking and a lot of times it's because they've built this one thinking and then it gets turned on their head and so they give up and they go well math is impossible and so we're trying to say no Math's just it's a different way of thinking so historically we see that change between fourth and fifth there's a big when we look at a lot of those rules we've been looking at them a lot of them fall apart in fifth grade and then again a lot of them start to fall apart into seventh grade as you go that way Sean we had bunch of the data presentations over the last so many years there's been that continual like trying to figure out why there's that drop that's part of the reason why like the curriculum committee we had suggested an update on we know they implemented some changes so that's why the next curriculum committee that that's what we asked for we're going to get an update on where that fifth grade math stands with some of the changes they they've made fifth grade math steam Summit how that whole model is working yeah can can I ask a followup as well I'm I'm just something that you that you just said really resonated with me that we know know that for for fifth graders um you know there's a lot of other things going on with them right socially developmentally um I have one of home um she's lovely I have a six-year-old if you want to trade good thanks um but I'm curious that I know that we have a lot of really good measurements of how they're doing on sort of like the standardized assessments of math do is do we have any way of measuring these like attitudes and I'm think and maybe I'm thinking this particularly as the parent of a girl but I know a lot there's a lot of research that attitudes are start to differ between girls and boys at this age do we do we have a way to measure that and so that we know how our how well our changes are succeeding sort of on the test but do we have any sense of how well our changes are changing those attitudes yeah so margorie Nome who is not here would say thank you so much for asking that question so that I would say the short answer is yes and no so yes we do around overall attitudes for students no not particularly directed towards math so when we look at that Desa assessment that we talked about from the steering committee presentation part of that is really looking at where students have strengths and where they may have weaknesses now again it's an adult facing rubric right I look and I say here's Tom you know how is he with all of these different things one of the things that we've seen as an overall weakness of students in general is goal directed behavior and that's not like I need to set a goal and reach it but it's also like what do people who are goal directed do they persevere through challenges they think flexibly about a problem all of those things they see the steps to reach from point A to point B and so if you're a kid in math and before point A to point B was take the first number take the second number put them together now it's take the first number analyze what is that first number take the second number analyze what that is determine what you're actually doing with those now I have to think more flexibly and I have a lot more steps and so I think that that's part of it and when you talk with Jess tishy she notices that in a lot of students is um the the the you know the psychologist will call it Rock brain right you get stuck you're a rock like it is what it is is what it is and so that's part of what we're trying to counteract is to say it might have been but here's some ways to really kind of build you as a flexible thinker and so we're we're thinking about that overall for the school and then very specifically for Team Summit because we're seeing some of that come through in terms of math thinking and so thenc so overall for the school specifically in Team Summit and then within Team Summit kids specifically around math yeah I think that's what we've really been that's some of the beauty of the data team process is that that's really where we've gotten to in our conversations is we've looked at the desk and we've gone wow gold directed behavior and then we've been like then we talk about what does that actually look like when we say that like kids have a deficit in go directed Behavior or they don't have a strength in go directed behavior and then thinking about what's the opposite so what does a a student who has a strength in that look like and then how do we get those other kids there this is I don't know it I guess there's really no polite way to say it that's okay but in fifth grade in math period yeah there's always been since I can remember sure the old joke that girls were better at math and men in certain grades you know in the younger grades that the the girls did better in math then as you got into the the the the high school and the college it it started to flip around is that something that's demonstrative in other words is there a is there truly a um a difference or is it just something that's perceived I mean I I would say that the challenge of it is that I think sometimes young girls are are are are living in an overall community that turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy right and so the challenge is that right is that is that we need to as a collective ensure that they have role models that they see themselves as strong mathematicians right and so I think the beauty is that they have two very strong women who are there as their Math teachers who aren't sitting there going hey you know like I'm the science and humani people they're going no math is cool like I'm the math you know I'm the math nerd I really like numbers and so I think that that's a first part to it and that I think a lot of times what you have is if you have really good role models that way then kids can see themselves as having really good efficacy in that area and if not I think you run the risk of having a self-fulfilling prophecy to say quote unquote girls aren't good at math and then they're worrying am I one of those girls that isn't good at math maybe I'm one of those girls that's not good at math is math really hard for girls and not boys and all of a sudden you have that pressure of not fulfilling that stereotype and that can be really burdensome and so we're really trying to counteract that both with strong instruction good role models and really thinking about how we can build those strategies so that they can feel successful when they hit that road block thank you welcome anything else thank you I think that was a very um very informative discussion I'm very happy with that I appreciate the care to our instruction uh I thought it was well done and I thought it was well uh it's something we needed to hear everybody El set moving right along Chairman's report two things number one Sean had mentioned at the last meeting about trying to get the teachers here maybe once or twice a year to do a a presentation on what's cooking uh to that end Kay and I met with um Kim Walton and Jamie Bowen from the teachers and that discussion is ongoing and uh we hope to have something to report either next month or the month after but we did have that disc we started that discussion I was thrilled tonight when they were all here what's that I love when all the features come in well then you hear it right from the horses not what's going on okay good uh second thing um as many of you know there was an incident with a burned Bagel about two weeks ago and and um part what Bagel gate Bagel gate and Jesus I hate that part of the uh even though I've used it I apologize I dig R um part of what came out of that is there's some confusion about uh response and hanging the bbfd the Bethany volunteer fire department out um so to that end Kay sent out an invitation this morning to herself Tom Reed Swale um Rich kogil uh Brent chiarelli sha Uh Kevin from uh facilities uh myself Dave Miriam and sea um fire marshal uh Dave what Steve Steve soua for a zoom meeting uh next week to discuss in short what happened was the alarm was pulled the alarm was cancelled bbfd uh wasn't notified so there was a little bit of confusion um thank God there was nothing serious and it appeared to be more a miscommunication than anything else but to that end um we're going to have a a discussion among the principal parties to make sure that doesn't happen again you got the invitation to R I didn't look at my email yet today okay well you were on was there uh if there's anybody else from the from the from the board that wants to be involved in this thing you're more than welcome I'll have uh K send you a link it's next Friday uh the 23rd at 10:30 in the morning that's assuming everybody can make it but we got at least the the the particulars who are uh K Tom excuse me uh the first selectman would like to be on that list is that what you're asking sure can you put the first selectman on the list list it's a lot of people to fine-tune protocols what's that it's a lot of people to fine-tune the protocols no that's it's the the bottom line is that the protocol is the alarm gets pulled and bvfd takes over that's the protocol all right yeah I just want to caution you that if you're going to have all the board members present they'll have to have it as a posted meting for open meeting and that's why I'm saying if anybody wants to attend it'll have to be changed post it'll have to be changed to a post so just it has a level of uh of complexity and that's three that's three members or more and right now there's two if Mr CFO joins the meeting it becomes well but Sean is Jo yeah yeah then my suggestion is post it I hate like hell doing that this this seems like a lot of Overkill to just say how come you missed the phone call well this really seems like this is requested I got a phone call this was requested I'm doing what was requested you know we don't want it to happen again there's a number of people that feel that there was a breakdown and that um it could have been a lot worse uh Now's the Time to do it over something as innocuous as a burnt Bagel we don't want to be doing this as an after I 100% agree with you that you should do it but I don't think you need that many people to do it the whole board there the first select woman the fire fire department the fire marshal the you need the fire Marsh you need the Fire Marshall you need the volunteer fire department you need the principal you need the superintendent and if you have a board member then if you're the board member that's taking care of that then I think there there's your team Sean is head of facilities who should be there because he handles facilities Okay Kevin should be there because Kevin is our facilities person Dave Maran is a uh Town police officer who should be there because he's also a safety officer the fire marshal should be there because he's the guy who clears the building you know and I'm opening it up to any board member because that's the what we should be doing I'm not going to tell a board member they can't attend a meeting okay so this is now a public meeting there's nothing you can do about it we we kept it to a d minimum who someone pulled the post station who reset the post can can okay we've already started just give a brief front down so there was a burnt Bagel um that in in one of the places and as somebody was in the hallway they smelled smoke sure and they smelled something that was burning not being able to easily identify what it is they pulled the pole station and we evacuated the building MH and then somewhere in between the evacuation of the building where when the alarm goes off the alarm company is supposed to notify bvf date right they didn't get that notification so we evacuated the building Dave Miriam was here we were you know the cast of V her was all here um the alarm was turned off we came back into the building fire marshall Susa came he inspected the building he said I really would have you know wished you guys had wa waited for me to come back inside but you didn't okay um let me have a time in front of the staff I'll just give them reminders of what is appropriate evacuation and return procedures never hurts to have him back in front of the staff so we agreed to do that with Fire Marshall Souza and that's it so the people that are on the invite list I think are the minimum that we need other than for select woman I um alarm company didn't call well and and soal station can I yeah the whole question they waiting for the 911 tap to is who canell the fire department and so are we going to speak freely John or no you're going have a public meeting now so you may as well set meeting for the only reason the fire department found out about it was Dave Mar and called looking for the fire department yeah someone should have been like com so the bottom line is so the bottom line there's something happened and it's fortunate there was only a burned Bagel sure and let's iron this out now rather than waiting till we lose a wing or something God forbid so is is this kind of overkill for having this many people I don't think so well it sounds like the one person one of the people that's not in the list then is somebody from the alarm company right well we're not sure where that came from that's in the process of being right now that's something entirely different and the alarm company only only uh only uh notifies that they have really no no purpose in this other than notifying the volunteer fire department which is the thing they got dropped right alarm company calls dispatch yeah dispatch calls BBF and if someone from here calls the alarm company says you can cancel as a false alarm they call dispatch and they say dispatch we're getting reports from the school it's a false alarm then they'll call bvfd and say hey we're getting reports from the school it's a false alarm bvfd is still going to come to confir we're just going to lower the alarm know the interesting part is is CSP knew about the firearm at the school that's how the day staff at the fire department found out the firearm was going off because they listened to CSP and they're standing there going why aren't we going and they're calling the Dispatch Center going what's going on at the school oh that alarm was cancelled so they're trying to figure out how all that transpired they're waiting apparently for the 911 tape since we're speaking fre that sounds like a problem at dispatch that may very well be but in the meantime in the interest of not seeing this happen again yes in the in the interest of getting a protocol ironed out it's better to air on the side of caution you know a half an hour meeting May solve a lot of issues can I ask a question though that after hearing some of this though no if this leads to any individual that made a mistake and now becomes a Personnel matter in a discussion it evidentiary I don't think it's going that far I think what it's going to happen meeing to you know what I mean if if it's a public discussion and then all of a sudden it turns into an individual Personnel I'm not look I'm not looking to establish blame I'm looking to establish procedure and I think that's all the fire department is looking for yeah which I think is a good meeting but if we make it a public meeting it's not a hey let's figure out what happened and then we can report on what it is if the if it becomes a Personnel discussion that's public it needs to be closed but that's what that's what I'm saying so if we say we're going to have a full board meeting if it becomes a Personnel discussion then I think we shut the thing down and we approach it differently and I don't think but I I'm not I'm not seeing this is coming as a Personnel issue we won't know until we don't know until it starts and that's why if I have to shut the thing down and you know hey guys we can't do this like this then we do it but right now the way I see this is not so much as fact finding but to just establish a protocol so that this doesn't happen again you know at the very least what comes out of it is oh the Fire Marshall clears the building well and we we have to we have to get something right and I think what the whole thing too is what I think is we're missing with this is the fire department has a 10 to 12 minute reflex time to anything you do so if they cancel the call no one's coming and then someone walks upstairs cuz the kids want outside oh and it's happened upstairs we had a fire upstairs in the second floor and someone finds something it canceled it now you got that 10 to 12 minute reflex time that's back into play now you're 15 minutes into this thing so it it does matter that we make sure everybody's on the same page and and that's why I said I'm not looking at this as a personel matter I'm working this as a procedural matter if it D Deen degenerates into a personal matter then it shuts down and we go a different route but this I'm I'm looking at this as amiable I'm looking this as a discussion and maybe establish a couple of procedures and if we have to put them in writing we put them in writing but I'm not looking at saying well Kevin you didn't make the phone call or David you didn't make the phone call or the fire marshal didn't make the phone call that's not what this is about this is about to ensure that the next time this happens there's a polic a procedure whatever you want to call it in place that everybody is notified correctly promptly and with no confusion that's all fair I have another question though for K if we have a public meeting on BCS evacuation procedures is that become problematic from a school safety standpoint we're telling the public how which exits we're evacuating from and that kind of thing versus that's not what this meeting's for but it's going to come up we have to talk about if we're talking about a procedures John Paul you have to that's what we're talking about is we're talking it's my understanding this is strictly a notice this is not a mechanics mechanics has already been established the school established a mechanics for how to evacuate a school a long time ago this is not a mechanics this is a notice this is so the FY volunteer fire department doesn't get hung out the dry again I I think I do think I'm not debating whether we this like conversation needs to happen I'm just my concern is I think this is a procedural matter that should be within the the small group that it entails not this first discussion should not be an entire town meeting it's not a question of a town meeting it's question of we now have three members of the board I won't go you take care of it I don't think it should be a full board thing I think you're right Sean if Sean's in the facility or you as the chair goes I think that's appropriate yeah but Joe says he wants to go if it's going to turn into a public meeting I think I think the end result is all they're looking for is to put everybody on the same page I don't think that's what I'm saying I agree with as well how the kids are leaving the building where they're going it's like hey look the firearm goes off during school hours please look around if you have a fireing ability call 911 and police tell them that because it trips a whole another Matrix and the response if you guys have nothing that's great call them back and tell them that so someone can come here walk the building reset the alarm and walk away I think it's all they want that's and that's and that's what I Envision and that's what I Envision yes I do not Envision this is saying you know how you evacuate a school where you're going that's already been established at the start of the school year and we're not discussing that that isn't the discussion public information that isn't the discussion what the discussion is is what happened the breakdown of communication and to make sure it doesn't happen again that's all okay so cancel cancel the public meeting thank you John no problem I do get your concerns though but I don't think that's what they're looking for no I know it's not I guess in the discuss somebody ask a question with you know someone gets up and now there's a public comment part and somebody starts asking questions and there's response I just don't want to make sure we're not setting ourselves up for Yes I I want to make sure we get to the point of exactly what you said needs to get done that procedural piece and it doesn't get sidetracked by having it won't other components that's there's there's one component as far as I'm concerned there's one component and one component only and I believe when I tell you they're not drifting I think it's just going to be a very clear and concise me so everybody is on the same and nobody in here you know I know all the players personally and I think no one here is looking to place blame I think everybody is just wanting to make sure that thank God there was just only a burnt Bagel you know and and that's sometimes these are good time these are these are good to have out sometimes these kinds of things lead to a positive change you know like like they said to me when I got the first phone call about it was you guys have fire drills and the Firearms going off the fire Dr pull up it's like hey hi fire drill day and no one told them so you know that I think they want to address that issue too so we'll we will discuss it but this is not a this is this is not a uh let's find fault and hang somebody excuse me this is not a let's find fault and uh and assign blame and you know castigate something that's not what this is about this is only procedure ual you know were errors made sure they were mad when I got the first phone call well like I said this is procedural and that's the way it's going to stay this is not personal no or personal and I will ensure that it stays that way anything else so that's all I've got to report correspondence public comments second go round going once going twice sold American motion to adjourn second all in favor Happy Valentine's Day Happy Valentine's Day turn

thank you all for being here tonight

virtually you can find the committee meeting um we're going to be uh making some decisions related to the implementation of the vote which was taken around redistricting and drawing the lines and have some discussion about the necessary next like what the implications were of making that decision um and we will also be discussing what's next or what is needed to move the Green River School along so great thank you um next let's hear from the school committee handbook ad hoc committee we met on February 9th and we met virtually and discovered quite quickly that this is a large collection of materials to go through there were seven handbooks from masc as templates that you gave us and we looked through threw them together and identified uh things that we thought were important and looked at things that were policy for us but could also be in the handbook and decided that we are going to do a working session on March 27th at the library um from 6:00 to 8:00 pm and that'll give us a chance to be sort of informal um Robert's Rules don't really benefit us when we're trying to pour through documents and brainstorms so we're going to make it an informal working session and we'll make an audio recording of that working session and the goal is to have an outline of what we think the handbook should be how we think it should be organized and hopefully we can bring that to the full Committee in April but if anybody has some ideas percolating on what they would like to have in the handbook or operational procedures that they have thought about that they think should be considered please email that to us so that we can start compiling this list because there's quite a lot of information to collect and um a design outline to create so but um please don't email the committee because I think if more than a quorum of us are uh discussing something then it kind of goes into OB meeting law so I think it'd be great if people have feedback on that now um and we also have another meeting before your next meeting so we could put that on the agenda if you wanted to get feedback from people that way but members of the community can certainly email you so we could so if somebody had an idea on the committee about they wanted something potentially added to it they couldn't email me I mean I'm not I'm not I mean not to create deliberation but I think I think yeah we can't really deliberate by by relay so there's three of you on the committee if one of them talks to you and then you talk to the committee that's a quum understand yeah so that's the issue but we do have now and we have um four weeks from now and certainly members of the community can email you at any time with their feedback on it okay so for soliciting information for it now does anyone have any thoughts on it or has anyone thought about it I would love to see a code of conduct included for sure okay and and I think uh also it might be helpful to have some um operational guidelines for how to the um organizational meeting gets organized and and all that anybody else okay well if you can remind me we'll put it on the agenda for next time so people have more time to think about it and give you some feedback uh anything else okay um and collaborative for Educational Services representative member par yeah uh went to the my first meeting was January 31 it was uh remote there was a lot to digest so um I thought I'd put something together put some of the materials together to put together and to distribute to the full Committee in March it's nothing time sensitive they're getting started on um um some moving some work forward that the executive director is working on that I have barely read about yet um and yeah I'll put something together for the committee for March and yeah that's that's all I have thank you um City Planning and construction representative has there been any meetings as far as I know based on the town website they did not meet in February and so I did not meet them okay great thank you I don't know I don't know if it it is that's I don't know if the mayor knows is that is that something that happens on a particular timeline or okay we'll find it the website says that it's generally the second Tuesday of the month I believe at 4 oh okay 4 4:30 monting it did not show up on the town calendar so okay great excellent and our legislative represent resentative member deneve uh yes so we have the day on the hill coming up May 4th and in preparation for that I have contacted Jason Frasier who is the vice president of masc and he teaches workshops and does professional development on preparing uh School committees and other people to approach legislators and um get everything together in order to ask for for money from the state so he is going to come out on March 27th from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

at the library and in attendance will be division five members which is our collection of local school committees and we will also be inviting um all of the members from the local um committees closest to us hallmont um Gil managu and so on and so forth and masu would like to have us cater this in some fashion and reimburse us for that so this is an opportunity to do some professional development um if you'd like to attend the day on the hill he will help you get ready to do that and hopefully we can go together um as a show of strength for western Massachusetts and advocate for some education funding thank you uh what about the assistant superintendent search committee uh okay so there was a nice pool of applicants for this position and I would like to think that this speaks to the serious efforts that the district has been making to improve student outcomes by the curriculum work being done um investing in high quality instructional materials and practices and investing in our staff by improving compensation um all of which is underscored by the city's uh commitment to the school department as demonstrated in the last budget season and election uh five candidates were interviewed and I appreciated hearing from all of them uh about why they want to work in Greenfield and what they believe they can contribute here uh I will definitely remember perspectives that were shared about how to meaningfully evaluate the effectiveness of programming and how implementation of needed changes realistically plays out and holding fast to responsibility for student learning while genuinely facilitating personal growth and professional growth for people uh the school committee's consistently identifi some priorities that I think are related to this position including maintaining a regular focus on student achievement investing in those high quality high impact uh evidence-based instructional materials and practices and centering diversity Equity inclusion and belonging with special attention to disabled students uh so I discussed these priorities as part of the firstr interview feedback and there will be be two candidates called back for second interviews which from which we can expect a recommendation for an individual whose expertise and priorities best match what we are trying to achieve and who will contribute to the success of the district's strategic plan the goal is to have this transition occur in a timely manner so that uh Karen can train them planul before July and there for devote her full attention to taking the step up into the superintendent's office thank you any questions appreciate everyone's work on that and finally our district Wellness committee representative member Priti I don't have a report just thank you for passing the uh wellness policy thank you for we meet again in March thank you for all your hard work on it yep sorry just as an added um note to that I will put the draft of the wellness policy out to parents in my update this week just so that folks can see it and what Melissa bednarski shared um if all right that primarily the work was reviewing and um like reframing any of the information with new guidelines and new statutes but that there are not huge changes that are from our current policy so but I will share that out so that folks can see it prior to a second read great thank you with that we are moving to adjournment like to hear a motion to adjourn so moved motion from Member Martini a second from Member Priti any discussion all those in favor say I I I any opposed any abstained we are adjourned at 7:13 p.m.

to see everybody again uh welcome to the February 15th 2024 meeting of the an renters commission the purpose of this commission is to advise the city council on the city administrator matters affecting renters in our city uh our commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the mayor and approved by city council two non-voting city council Leons two non- voting members representing different landlord perspectives and a non- voting representative from University of Michigan Student Legal Services to speak during any of the public common opportunities you'll be able to speak either through the webinar link or by phone uh depending on your method of access to the meeting for phone access please call 877 853 35247 and enter meeting ID 935 881 941 uh also the instructions will be repeated during the public comment session great so we can move on to roll call as always uh please state the city and Township uh or state that you're calling from it's if it's not from an arburn so I am here calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Chen I'm D I'm here in welcome commissioner Kelly I am here in n aror as well nice to see you commissioner dran here and an arbor welcome commissioner Els you're in an arbor howy commissioner Lowe's here an arbor commissioner tibits I am here also in an arbor great commissioner Rosen I'm here in an arbor nice to see you commissioner ratliffe commissioner Thomas commissioner pitz absent commissioner good here Nan arber so nice to see you council member Rino here and an arbor hello council member Harrison here and haror howdy okay so we have a lot of people here this is great we do have Quorum um so we can move on to item three approval of our agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as it's presented today I'll motion okay moveed by Patrick we have a second second okay I heard Jeff oh go ahead Travis okay sorry sorry um I was waiting for you to open it up for discussion but um I I apologize I can't stay for the entire meeting tonight um and so I know that it's not currently broken out but if you wanted um I have the bit of a report of the ordinance that's coming on Monday and so if you wanted me to give that if we could move that up in the agenda maybe to after the first public comment um I'm happy to do that okay sounds good do we have a motion to do that make that change I'll motion to do that okay Amendment motion Mak a change to the agenda thank you Patrick do you have a second second second by Jamie okay um any discussion on that don't think so okay uh all those in favor of making the amendment to the agenda say I I I all those supposed say nay okay so the proposed agenda is so amended uh so now we move on to voting uh well I guess we didn't exactly did did you say which part of the agenda you wanted it to be moved up to I figured just after the first public comment was fine yeah perfect okay uh so now we can vote on the amended agenda uh so all those in favor of adopting the agenda as amended say I I hi hi hi I'll just post a n okay we have approved our agenda great so now we can move on to item four approval of last meeting's minutes um now let's see this is approval not only of the January minutes but of the December minutes um great so do we have a motion to approve these meeting's minutes so moved thank you Jeff do we have a second second second by Dandan all those in favor of approving our minutes say I hi hi I was post a name okay with that we approve our minutes now we move on to our first general public comment that's item five and I'll pass it off to Kristen all right um public comment can be made by phone by calling 877 5247 or 888-788-8086 141 if you are calling in you can press star n to raise your hand to be called on to speak if you are attending through the web link you can use the raise hand feature um can address the renters commission for up to three minutes um if anyone is interested in addressing the renters commission go ahead and raise your hand and the zoom link is a2gov.org renters Commission meeting wa just another minute okay no attendees have indictive thank you [Music] Kristen okay so now we can move on to uh council member rina's report thank you um and sorry again that I have to leave a little bit early I have a conflict tonight um but I just wanted to give everyone an update uh on the ordinance work that you guys were working on and I know um commissioner Rosen has been working with our attorneys on drafting as well um and I think we have uh landed on a final version that was submitted today by council member Harrison and myself um and I believe council members Briggs Watson and Cornell have already signed on as co-sponsors um and this is the the first ordinance that we were working on to um clarify and update our early leasing ordinance and right to renew um and so there are a few changes that were added to it um the the biggest I guess thing that happened is we merged the two sections into one if you'll remember this is is um uh hopefully helping to clarify the way that the ordinance is both being read and understood but also enforced because previously they were kind of like confusingly referring to time frames and other sections and all over the place it was a little difficult to follow um so it is technically a repeal of um section 8531 um but ultimately that section is being absorbed into section uh 8530 and so um the content remains there but it's kind of merged together and and uh brought into a more cohesive uh law uh the second piece that that's happening is we're really hoping to strengthen some of the language and clarify some of the language in a way that would close up some of those loopholes um in conversations today um we seem a little bit more confident that um the language will will strengthen the city's position and being able to site some of these like early bird specials and things like that that um that ultimately some of the landlords were using to try to get around the ordinance and so um feel very strongly that this helps strengthen the city's uh position in terms of enforcement to be able to actually help protect some of the renters where before I think um you know after a year plus here now we we'd identified some some areas that needed to be um strengthened um and then uh there were also another change you will see which I think will hopefully help to cut down on confusion among some of the tenants who were trying to figure out if they actually did have a violation um is you know previously you'll remember there was a lot of reference to counting days backwards from the end of a lease um that was really kind of difficult and confusing to follow particularly when the the dates and the the the amount of days didn't align and so um this version actually changes that so everything is counting forward it's a you know 210 days into a lease um and so it's still this same amount of time um but it's it's moving it forward and the way that they made sure to address that for those leases that may be longer um because you know I when we were first drafting this there was concern that you know what if a lease goes to 13 months to avoid that or what if somebody has a three-year lease or a 2-year lease and so there's clarifying language in there that for leases that are longer than 12 months that date begins with kind of the last 12 months of a lease so all of the time frames are predicated on that last year of a lease um and so this is hopefully going to create a lot more clarity around this um I feel pretty confident from from conversations I've had with staff that the the city feels this strengthens their position in being able to enforce the ordinance um and and crack down a little bit on some of this bad behavior um and so this will show up for first reading on Monday um and then uh two weeks from now assuming that uh there aren't any considerable changes that happen in between um there would be a public hearing and a vote on second reading to to pass it and assuming it passes um it would then the the new version would go into effect 10 days later um and I see see Gail is Raising her hand and I'm thrilled with that because I was actually G to ask her if there's anything else she wanted to add because I know she's been working on well I haven't seen the final draft so I wonder if there's if the final copy can be shared with everybody yes it is it is published on legistar now and so I can make share that with Kristen to share around okay yes no I mean I'm hoping some there were there were some things that I was still uncertain about when I uh was talking to to John Riser but so I'll be curious to see what the final what the final draft looks like and and hope that it fixes some of the changes one of the questions I had though um that I asked John but I don't think I heard back from so this doesn't change the effective date of the ordinance does it like we're not starting over again correct I mean the the existing yeah that is correct the changes will just going to affect 10 days later the existing ordinance yeah okay thanks Travis um Jordan obviously we'll we'll see it hopefully um yet tonight even maybe but um the big thing with the like emailing time frame was that able to be addressed at all like that they can't solicit them so early on you know that was something that was really important to our small work group so we believe that this language this is where I'm talking a little bit about the strengthening of the the ability to enforce is I think there was um the way that the language was written previously referred to there are different legal terms I guess around an offer um and the previous version left a little bit of um wiggle room around what constituted an offer um we believe that moving forward any solicitation for Renewal it is a renewal offer um and so that is where this early bird special piece is specifically and so you know if you're if you're emailing and saying like sign up now and you'll save $500 you're providing an offer um and so they believe that they've clarified the language in a way that strengthens that um and yes I will send that over to Kristen right now so that she can um it out to folks but it's on the city council agenda for Monday so that's where it's publicly posted um and sorry since I I am giving an up oh you have another question about that zachari um so all right so since I am giving an update the only other thing that I'll give an update on and I don't know if uh Cynthia wants to chime in at all on this either uh I don't want to just pretend I'm the only uh the council member that could give an update here um the we also received uh we had a work session on Monday um and we Council has recently received a report on economic development opportunities in the city um and a big part of that is around housing Supply um and so it may be of interest to folks who um particularly on this body who are interested in additional housing Supply in the city but also um how that correlates to rent and um possibly the addition of additional renters but hopefully also additional Supply helping to um ease some of the burdens on price around the city and so the the report calls for um additional housing um at all rates um so market rate affordable um work force all of those things and so um making sure that that all of those different um types of housing are prioritized moving forward um and so just wanted to add that that that work session happened and there's a lengthy report but for those of you who don't want to read the lengthy report like those of us and Council needed to do um the work session might be a nice kind of a bridged version to with about a I think about a 2hour work session I think that's all I've got thank you I actually do have a question in your first part of the report sorry about that uh if 8530 is amended and you said that it would take effect 10 days after or you shortly after his passage how is there a plan to for how we would communicate these changes to landlords and what happens in the event that they've already made Communications that would violate the new version of the law yeah so so I unfortunately I mean the the new version is not law currently um and so it wouldn't wouldn't be in effect until 10 days after um and that's just kind of the rules around posing and new ordinances taking effect um but um but then yeah the city the city generally then will um it falls on the kind of the administrator and staff to to inform of the changes and of course we'll need to make updates to our website things like that um I am confident that I mean in reading the language myself I am confident that it is much clearer um and so hopefully it's a lot easier for folks to understand uh when they're reading through and so it might even be something that you know we want to update on our website things like that to make sure we're getting the word out um but particularly I think um you know I will share it with I know some folks who are in some of these you know student um and parent Facebook groups and things like that where this is a Hot Topic and even just using our personal networks to make sure that folks are aware that the change has been made um because I think uh ultimately uh once that goes into effect um if folks continue to see this happening uh that's where um we hope that they'll file uh especially if it happens again even if it's happened to them before and they didn't feel like they were there was enforcement before if it happens after the new ordinance uh hopefully there might be new recourse for them to be able to enforce against that circumstance um and so but unfortunately yeah until it goes into effect the current ordinance is still what we're going by thank you of course any other questions oh go ahead jul um I was just uh maybe need to put it on the agenda for our next meeting to once it passes to see if we need to change the booklet to make sure the language we have in there about um Alo matches with the current version I don't think it will so yeah we we'll certainly have to do some updating because obviously even um the reference to the second section that's kind of being absorbed into um so I think the current early leasing ordinance is absorbing the right to renew ordinance uh so it will all kind of become one um and so even the number will change on some of it so um yeah we'll have to we'll have to update all of our materials okay any other questions or comments okay thank you very much again for that report of course thanks everybody and I'll stay as long as I can here and I apologize again I have to leave early thank you we can move now on to item six old business we don't actually have any old business so we can continue on the agenda to item seven start with 7- a uh discussion of attendance and appointments um so let me pull up something here let's see how many do we currently have any vacancies on the um on the commission go ahead Julian um yeah Lucy's position been posted for a little while and I don't know if we've got any interest we also still have that attorney vacancy as well that's right okay this say Travis yeah so I've I have contacted a few attorneys about this uh unfortunately I I tried to get some attorneys from um legal services of South Central Michigan but apparently part of their bylaws prohibits them from sitting on boards like this however there has to be more attorneys in in town and around the area so uh I think we need to all double our efforts Gail if you know anybody um that would be a great help Travis I will put her on the spot and throw this out here but there's also the possibility that if Gail were want would want to move into a position where she could be a voting member she could apply for that seat and U ofm could appoint a different representative um but that's just another idea that we could toss out um I have not discussed that with Gail as putting you on the spot here in the meeting yeah no I'd consider that I mean I'm not sure who um who they pull in from U of M but there's obviously plenty of people so um either one would be fine with me but you you just want you want more you want another attorney regardless right yeah I I I'll ask around and see um see if I know anybody thank you g um I believe we also have a member who's not attended for a number of months yeah uh and I know I think we reached out to them before I think that I feel that we should move forward with removing them from the commission and maybe one day he'll have more time and be able to participate again but we need to have more people active members right now in the commission so what's the process for that Kristen I know this has happened before for removing some you know a member of the commission who hasn't attended typically people resign I'll double check with what the um procedure is I know that um we can report to the mayor and then I think the mayor has a part of the decision in choosing whether or not to remove the person so um I will share this information uh from this meeting with the boards and commissions coordinator in the mayor's office okay thank you Kristen and have has anyone from the commission asked him to resign okay we should probably do that first and maybe give like a week a week or two and then if we don't hear back then we'll go forward with the removal through the mayor okay Jeff um I just double checked the bylaws while we were talking and that's that is what it says that uh uh it's three uh regularly scheduled meetings um she notify the mayor who can and we can recommend removal that's all it really says okay thanks Jeff yeah we're definitely we have hit that point okay and then so we would have two vacancies at that point uh there's also my seat which will be vacant in a couple months so uh we need to all try to get people to apply I know I've been asking my friends uh acquaintances to consider applying um and I think that in the past when we've had to appoint people usually we had the chair the vice chair and our city council of the aison meet and go through the applications and make recommendations to the mayor we've also invited other people to uh participate in that process in the commission but in the past it's usually just been the chair the vice chair and the two cons so I think that our path forward is to um contact that the commissioner hasn't attended see if he can if he's going to resign if we don't hear back then we have him removed and then uh council members Rina and Harrison do you want to meet as a group sometime soon in the next couple weeks yeah sure we can y yeah yeah we can certainly find time and um take a look at the applications too and see what's coming um and and maybe look back at some of the older ones to and see if there are folks we can that if we're interested and want to see if they're still interested definitely do we have like a flyer or something I mean can we can we make something that's like more attractive to share widely maybe would that be advantageous I think it is I think it is prominently featured on the website sorry I didn't raise my hand but I don't I don't know if there's like a graphic or anything like that that was made last time yeah I can't remember either way uh I'm more than happy to make something Jordan I know you've made some things in the past that look great so maybe we can include you on the email thread there okay great as it to do I'll make sure I send an email to all of us to schedule that me and welcome rosanita nice to see you hello sorry I'm late no worries uh I don't know if it's necessary but where are you calling from take attendance oh I'm calling in from an Arbor Michigan sorry about that great thanks res okay I'll open it back up is there anything else uh to talk about in regards to this topic okay great well in that case we can move uh down to 7-b which is to discuss planning future commissioner education opportunities um I'll just say that we did schedule Avalon housing um is a nonprofit developer in town for our next meeting so they're going to come and present a little bit about what they do they a very prominent U entity in town so it's really important that we learn about them for those us who don't know the time um any other opportunities for commissioner education Julia um so I'm not sure if I I thought the like security deposit went really well thank you Gail um but I don't know if there's other parts of the law if people have a particular interest like going over evictions or repairs or something like that we could do um I don't know if uh anyone from the Housing Commission has come and spoken um to us before that might be something also Jordan I will say that when I was on the um there's a small work group that's working with wh and um some other housing providers ERS like SOS um and ozone house I've been going to for about 5 months now um and any landlords that are interested Bob if you want to interest are interested or any other landlords that are interested it's been um a good working group but there we were talking about some survey results from last year from a w survey of landlords um and there was a lot of landlord interest in um education series education video for tenants about like how to be a good tenant um and so so I'm wondering if I know we have kind of thrown that around um in the past um so we thought that that was maybe something I just kind of bring back to the group um if there's any interest in kind of working on that I guess either as a commission or if you personally are interested in maybe working on something um just about you know not not real heavy maintenance or anything just kind of basic communication things basic leasing things um if you're at all interested in that or if the commission is interested in that let me know I guess thanks Jordan Gale um it might be nice to have someone from Hawk housing um access for Washington County to come and talk and let us know sort of their process and what resources are available for uh for renters who who need them that's a good point that out there I think hawy would be a good guest that's the housing Housing Association of washon County Housing access for washingt County this shelter Association yeah it's housing access for Washington County okay there's also the shelter Association of Washington County suck yeah so for folks who don't know housing uh housing access is going to be the like number one main call that you call to um to start getting help either with um you have an eviction that's coming up you on the edge of eviction you are um unhoused all of those people are going to funnel through that and for the call um this past month I was kind of surprised by the number so I'll just say them quickly that um the report was that there were 3,100 calls to Hawk um in January Alone um so that seemed like a pretty pretty big number um and you know comparatively was kind of they go up and down but it was interesting for me to hear that so I think the commission might benefit from that too yeah that is a [Music] stagger okay so so far we have uh haulk remind me of the other ones that were mentioned watching a housing Alliance I think thank you was there another organization arber's Housing Commission yeah great on top of that uh wh actually has a training uh housing Advocate advocate K training excuse me hat um that's this month I will send out the information to every member of the commission I think it'd be a really good idea if all of us can as many of us can attend as possible believe it's online Jeff um I'll I'll have more details um when I report on the hhsb meeting but um uh the last meeting had a visit from the Planning Commission with a lot of really good information about um just in general economics in the area you know current situations in terms of taxes and of course housing and and plans and things like that so um uh their website but also possibly having um uh their director come out and kind maybe do the same presentation for us could be very informative I got a lot of really good information thanks Jeff and that would probably directly address one of the points on our work plan which is uh to learn more about the tc1 zoning effort the transit Corridor effort among many other things okay great um oh and Rosen need I know we had recently talked about um inviting um the unbs person from um uh which California City it was San oh it was Santa Barbara County they've had an an landlord tenant edsman program since the 1970s that um it has like a 90 some per success rate of uh resolving the issues between the landlords and tenants so they don't actually have to go to court or get evicted yeah that'd be great and we may even want to invite um some people from other organizations to that because they probably haven't heard directly from these from officials from Santa barara County on that okay out of so I'm looking at Washington housing Alliance uh ha Housing Commission Planning Commission and the Santa Barbara on buds person of these five options uh are there any that you all prefer to explore or to to prioritize not for our March but for the months after I'm guessing it's going to mostly depend on other on their schedules and when they can send somebody welcome yeah well I can send some emails here and try to get something scheduled future meetings I'll just send them out and plan plan in advance and present to to all of you which RS could be which dates great anything else on this topic um ju I know Julia I just want to Echo uh what you said earlier about whether or not there's any particular areas of tenant landlord law that we all want to learn about so is there before we move on is there any particular topic outside of security deposits that you all want to learn more about you know I would say evictions but I think that might be that's probably going to be covered in the wh training so I I think that we should all prioritize going into that if possible okay anything else on this topic before we move on great thank you I think there was a I was just looking at the work plan again there was the topic of slowing gentrification but I'm not sure who would be the ideal person I might have to do some research to find out um what policies have been used elsewhere or or maybe if there's researchers in the area that would be able to come speak to that topic that's something I could follow up on a good point all right well we can move on now uh to s- C uh discuss the complaint Complaint Form Outreach that's I believe for 8530 and 8531 which were the city's going to consider amending soon I'm going to pull up the Complaint Form but also just open this up here do anyone have any thoughts about uh how to do this Outreach Julian um I'm I'm kind of curious it sounded like there was one ticket issued um and if there's been any others I've heard from a couple people who filled out the Complaint Form that the response they got was just that the city was going to talk to the landlord and tell him to stop doing it I think that's a question for John Riser who unfortunately not here right now he what I know is there's been this basically what you said there was at least one ticket issued um I don't think the court date has come yet uh I think was postponed but from what I know the city is only issuing one ticket like per landlord basically uh so the idea is that they don't want to issue too many tickets because the landlord will have a chance to correct the behavior in the future that's my understanding Jamie yeah just wondering um if you or maybe Gail could speak to um like what does that process look like you mentioned like a court hearing got delayed um like does the landlord have a chance to like dispute the ticket or I guess what just I'm wondering like where the court hearing fits in with that process very good question yeah the only thing my understanding is that the original the the court date on the ticket was postponed to or adjourned to allow the landlord to take some C you know corrective action and I you know it's up to the city at that point I believe um to decide what to do from there so I I you know again that's probably that's another good question for John Riser I don't know how they're intending to proceed I understand that the corrective action that was suggested has been taken by the landlord and I don't I don't know where where that leaves the city um at this point so if I hear anything else I can let you guys know or if you next time if John riser's here he can update us as well je um kind of the same vein um the court date was that um because it was being challenged do we know or because um it was more like a let's see where we are let's see what we can fix and possibly assess a fine or not or you know was it a challenge or was it just part of the process um I mean they could always they could always give an adjournment my understanding was it was it was done with to give them an to give the landlord an opportunity to try to come up with some suggestive correction you know something to do um to try to fix the problem um you know it's a little late but uh nonetheless that that was done and so um you know it it's within the it's within the city's City's discretion to postpone things to give them you know and to try to sort of negotiate some sort of resolution with them so I don't I don't know can't speak for the city I don't know what they'll do moving forward so oh go ahead Jordan I um actually want us to go back the there's some changes in the I'm texting with Travis right now but there's actually um I'd like to go back to the ordinance amendment I think the timeline is actually off in a way that we didn't think and I just want to talk about that so whenever it's a appropriate to come back to that would be great okay um let's discuss that after Outreach of the complaint I think that does sound important okay so I think we have to ask where this is we're kind of in a tricky situation I'd say because we're trying to get the word out about a law that's about to change so any education we do now might not only be unnecessary but might actually confuse people once the law does change just kind of some of my thoughts here Gil I think Prett people are pretty well confused as it is um and at this point I I mean I can't tell you the number of students that are coming in our door you know or are calling us or reaching out I mean I I assume for the I I no longer follow the parent Facebook page but Jordan I'm sure you're seeing plenty of um comments about this so I I mean I would push for postponing any sort of Outreach until or or education piece until we we have know what's going to happen with the proposed amendments and where that leaves us I mean at this point at least for most of the students that have their leases that in August they're sort of done with that proc I mean it's it's sort of done sort of ongoing you know that that the landlords are um dealing with the renewals so I I think we should I think we should wait rather than confuse the situation anymore just my two cents Jordan I think that's fine um I mean if we're by the time this gets through has the second reading and is effective in 10 like we have some built-in time right before before education efforts about all of the things so I mean I think that's that's fine um yeah I I get what you're saying Gil like we're you know within the next month all of the summer late summer start leases start getting signed um and so that makes sense to me Jamie yeah I would just say I agree with that especially since the new change if it's made won't be retroactive I think that could be really confusing for people um who would think that maybe the new change could apply to their current situation not like what's going forward so I think that makes a lot of sense okay great I think if we know people who are dealing with a situation it's a fear violation and I do uh I'm still going to encourage them to to file a complaint but I generally agree is there anyone who isn't sure about that approach or who disagrees with holding off on on Outreach okay Jeff um I was going to just add um I think that's the that's exactly what needs to happen especially with uh um you know being able to provide people with a more concrete date uh in terms of training as to when you know these kinds of things take effect but also um to continue to encourage because I mean even though the the law may be changing there is still a an in ordinance on the books it obviously has been enforced so um as you said just continue to encourage people if if they feel like there's a violation to move within the existing framework until it really is replaced because it does exist and um at least in one case it's apparently doing its its job thanks Jeff okay I think now would be a good time for us to discuss uh your concern Jordan kind yeah sorry I should have looked at this when Travis was on um essentially what they've done is that the the landlord can't make the offer until it was previously due to be signed basically essentially so now it's putting like unless I'm not mathing right feel free to double check me um 210 and then 240 so 240 from the start of the current lease is basically going to mean that we can't sign for like we couldn't start even showing it to new people for a late August lease until late April and like honestly students have already gone home um so we've actually bumped the timeline back in a way that that makes it not workable for landlords I think um I would prefer to see us do I think if we're going to get I I like the 30 days to accept that's what we've been doing on our own with our students um I think that it would really that it it makes the most sense to say the the contact can't go out until 180 days and that the the re the successive renewal um would have to be accepted by two by not 240 but 210 um because I'm really worried about that timeline if we can't even start showing units people are already out of town um in April and so we didn't we didn't really talk about that as part of our work group that makes it very unworkable for me as landlord I don't know about Bob um or Gail's thought on that but I mean we are already getting hundreds of emails a day by this point and we hold people off But continuing to do it when students can't even go look at apartments because they're already out of town was something we had talked about heavily with the first iteration yeah I understand your concerns there uh Julia so I I kind of like the cling better but I'm not a landlord um and it another way to get around it is September first is like the worst time for a new lease to start like I don't get it um and I I think that's a way to get around it you could start August 1 or you could go to May 15th or you could go I hear you and let me let me explain I guess our perspective on that so we we do our group leases on May leases that's pretty rare but we find that um you know groups kind of want to be around for the summer um the other students that are grad students and things their programs often don't start so our smaller units that are more geared toward grad students all start mid to late August I don't think many people actually start a lease on September 1 anymore because mostly the school semester starts before then so I hear what you're saying and and that yes we can start them earlier but when the summer session of classes goes until like have to check the date first or second week of August people need to be living there so I mean the timing just is it is tricky and it's thoughtful in our our process in a way that I hear what you're saying that we could start we could just start signing them for earlier but that doesn't that doesn't eliminate the problem of people need to live in them either like having a half summer lease doesn't really work because either someone isn't here and they want to sublease for the summer or they are here and they're doing classes and they're working and they want to be here for the summer so August one is or say July July 30 July 15 isn't really a timeline that works for students it either eliminates the possibility of subleasing all summer if they don't renew which screws them out of like four months of rent that they could be getting do you get what I'm saying with the the kind of with so many of our Stu our renters being students it I don't I don't think that forcing landlords to make a change that basically eliminates the possibility of Summer sub leasing for students is healthy for them if that makes sense yeah you know I guess back in the day it it used to be May so you you know it it it makes sense to have the break around um semesters thank you Julia thank you Jordan Cynthia I just um wanted to say that we we can there was some discussion around 180 days um and we can we can look at amending it to you know 180 and then would be the 210 with the with the additional 30-day period yeah I I love that I mean I think that kind of accounts for both scenarios it gives them the 30 days and and honestly the other part too is for May leases even Julia that um an extra 30 days would start us leasing like essentially over the holidays are at the beginning of the semester which kind of is tricky too so I think for both timelines for May and fall I would I would appreciate that um being looked at so thank you okay yeah I I understand your concern Jordan and I also share it um I think that students need to have some time at least a decent amount of time to be able to to uh if that's what they want to do um and a lot of people do leave and yeah so I think that that the dates probably should be reconsidered and I think probably some more Outreach needs to be done to students student tenants since this is predominantly a problem that affects uh student tenants not only yeah I wonder if it would make sense for our our smallish um group on this to try to meet now that we have the updated version to try to meet again and go over and just see if there's any other things that we um have any con I mean if we could meet with it be be before the city council meeting yeah I second that I think it's a good idea I can send that an email okay I'm I'm just I'm just seeing cuz I had sent some suggestions and I'm just seeing now what's what what changes are made in what weren't so I've got to look compared to what my notes were from before as well yeah I I think we should take a look at the stamp like very commonly used start dates for leases and just with a date calculator figure out okay here's where we land is and then you know asked Jordan asked Bob yeah yeah so if we could do something Friday tomorrow or Monday that would be great okay I'll that's not thanks any other discussion on the proposed amendment great so Jeff sorry I do have a quick question and there might not be a quick answer but kind of tying into that do we have any kind of ideas to the percentage of our the city's leases are um student I mean I know we can use age and some basic demographics there but um just in general how many of our our you know what percentage is in fact student leases that would likely fall into to that that August April kind of time frame I'm unaware of any hard data on that yeah as best as I could figure out taking the amount of UFM students and like you know dividing stuff out how many were in dorms that kind of thing the number I came up with was slightly less than half of the renters um our students but what landlords do for students spills out into the rest of the community I mean every lease I've had um is a September 1 lease and I the landlord was never willing and I don't live somewhere where any undergrad would ever live you know they're just not willing to consider any other date though it's it's a lousy date for me to move because there's so many students going crazy in town I'd rather move any other week um but nobody's been willing to budge on it thanks Julia that's about what I was figuring to in my head okay anything else on 7-c before we move on okay thank you everyone for the disc discusss um I'm looking forward to meeting as a group to discuss the um these amendments okay we can move down to item eight reports uh are there any Commissioners who would like to give a a report if so just raise your hand Jeff uh yes I have a report as the hhsa Lea um from their last meeting uh which was just last Thursday actually um as I kind of mentioned before um one second I to P my notes up here um in this particular one there were there two large the two largest kind of topics of the meeting were um a kind of a review of the city's uh con uh comprehensive plan that the Planning Commission is putting together um and it it covered huge amounts of information um I don't want to go to the whole thing but um I have like two pages of notes that I took cuz it really was quite fascinating in terms of um you know how much of the city is is residential how much is commercial how much is uh single family dwellings how much is still available for development you know just the densities all sorts of different pieces of information um which is possibly pertinent to what we do and that's why I brought it up earlier too um uh just kind of as a um some of the highlights um the the comprehensive plan is being worked on currently and the idea is for um the final plan to to be rolled out towards the end of this year with an adoption for early 2025 that's kind of the time frame they're working on um and they have a website which I'd be happy to share with everybody that that goes through a lot of this information um uh one of the more interesting um uh things that I saw was that um of the the jobs in the city there's app approximately 94,000 jobs um a lot of 76,000 of those commute into the city um which I think is and only 17,000 live here so I think that that kind of touches on what we do and the fact that you know obviously housing in in ant Arbor is is a big concern um and um in terms of the uh the jobs themselves 37% are tied to U ofm and arber apparently is like the most dependent area in the country on a single anchor employer so I found that very interesting too um the other big topic of discussion was um uh the affordable housing that the city does manage um uh my understanding is there's only 33 units currently mostly in the um single person Studio kind of uh uh style um very few if any family units uh so there's kind of a a a chunk of the population that that might be needing those services that might not have access simply because um they're just they're just not available um and they mostly occur in um three different locations uh there is some look at um expansion um and possibly even creating some family units um but that was uh the other big topic of uh conversation for that one so that's kind of the the the gist of it like I said I will share out the link to the uh the comprehensive plan website that has a lot of that information there too oh Jeff do they recommend to do the service to because they have the website they seems like they wanted to people to do a lot of surveys whoever lives in anab or who has ever visited anab they wanted to do the service as many people as possible maybe we could share this website to everybody here and everybody here could help us to do the surveys too if [Music] possible yeah on the website the very first the very first thing that pops up is links to you know take our survey so um they they really are looking for information in terms of their plan um the tc1 was brought up as well and I know we talked about that today so um it's it's a pretty there's a lot of information out there and so um probably easy to get lost in it for hours Doom scrolling through all of it so um I I said I'll send the link out if anybody wants to take a look thank you Jeff Jordan can we use our mailing list to email out the survey is that a or like is everyone on our mailing list already getting the survey I don't think I is everybody the website yeah the website yeah if need it we could have shared this website I do have the website and yeah I'm wondering I'm wondering if we can use our renters commission mailing list to do Outreach for the survey Kristen may have that answer thanks dandon I appreciate it definitely um but the renters commission subscriptions um other departments don't have access to it the same way so um people wouldn't have received it unless they already subscrib to planning updates uh so Jeff you mentioned did you see that I think I I didn't fully understand that there were only 33 affordable units that are managed by the city that's the number I I overheard um there there weren't many it sounded like um and they're looking to expand and these are ones that are administered through um the city's uh the fund and uh commission Council M Harrison please tell me if I'm wrong um uh the city's fund and you know like just recently in the news there was that uh that article about um uh the development that that made the donation to the fund rather than do affordable housing um uh so that was my understanding was that particular um uh directly managed by the city not necessarily subsidized in other developments kind of thing yes that sounds about right correct yes thank you Bob yeah I'm just curious does that include the agencies like Avalon or anybody uh any of those organizations who are providing housing 33 seems awful low yeah that that's what caught my attention too and why I wrote it down and and like I believe that is specifically administered by the city um versus other organizations that that provide services like that gotcha thank you Jordan do you still have a question yeah I mean I was just gonna say I mean to my knowledge the Housing Commission manages 18 separate properties so I don't I don't know I don't know maybe it's a Nuance of funding but I mean there are I don't know yes the 33 sounds very weird I I don't think that's correct but um that they have 18 properties under the Housing Commission at least according to last meeting that I went to I will uh do some more digging and figure out where my where my number has gone wrong thank you um just as a kind of a followup the pro the three properties of they mentioned were um anber City Club uh beakman on Broadway and the standard which is the newest one um and they mentioned how beatman on Broadway um has a third phase coming those were the three kind of properties that that actually came up in that that discussion Jeff Anita well even though like there may be say 18 properties I know that um like in the neighbor where I grew up there's like three it's one property but three buildings but there aren't that many units in there it's one of the few um an arbor properties from like the 70s or 80s that was meant for uh families so you it may be like six units at most but it's three buildings you know so and there's like I think one or two more that the city owns that are left in the area where it's just very few units within um multi level buildings thanks Cynthia it's um yes that's correct and it's actually it's 19 buildings built well not buildings 19 locations and 56 within those 19 locations there's 56 units but that does not include like what rosan is talking about so that may constitute the 33 all like all the other just separate um you know few units here few units units there okay thank you yeah I think that's more of a number more in the range of what I was imagining more 500 side but you go ahead Jeff um I I just pulled up the the weight list website too and I'll include that when I uh send out for the comprehensive plan site to um uh so you all can see what I'm I'm seeing from them too but is it is the the only ones listed on the weight list site are those three properties that I mentioned too so I'm sure there other resources and maybe they are through the city um in fact I'm sure there are but um like I said those were the three that kind of popped up I think this highlights the need to have a guest in the housing commission for they can answer some these questions okay well thank you Jeff for the report any other questions for Jeff before I move on okay other reports from Commissioners um so I have reports which is just that if you're interested in getting involved with housing advocacy on the state level and that are uh towards our um State Legislature please let me know there's a coalition called the rent is toam high Coalition I know they're looking for people to help out um and as far as I understand they're focused currently on advocating for more investment in public housing social housing specifically actually mixed income social housing so exciting project so if anyone's ever interested uh please let me know beyond that I saw that the an arbor tenants unions uh social media is now active and I know they've been meeting uh so if you're interested in joining that I understand there's going to be a some public meeting soon so you can go probably follow them on social media be a good way to follow what's going on okay can move on to uh report council member Harrison do you have a report to give beyond what council member Travis CC M said no no further report um beyond that what we discussed earlier thank you very much okay uh wonderful we can move on to uh item nine second general public comment public comment can be made by phone by calling 877 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 once you call in you can press star9 to raise your hand um you can also join using the zoom link which is A2 go.org renters commission meeting and if you're joining with the zoom link you can use the rais hand feature there are any um attendees who would like to address the renters commission go ahead and raise your hand here we do have more hello um I'd like to Echo some of the comments that have been made about um the change from the 150 Day from the end date to correct me if I'm wrong is it now 210 from the start date okay so this whole year um people have been telling students uh student renters that you know 150 days from the lease end date is this date so let's just for example say this date is March a lot of you know as Jordan has pointed out a lot of renters have reached out and have repeatedly been told that date um with this proposed change of moving it 210 days from the lease start date that for for the company I work for will change that date so I think it's a little unfair to have been telling student renters this entire year don't worry wait until March 15th we're going to be able to help you on March 15th just wait until March 15th and now Midway through this cycle we're going to have to tell them just kidding the city council has just extended the date and you know further pushing off all of these extremely eager incoming renters and transferring renters that just want to be able to secure housing I think that would be a total disservice to those people just doing this in the middle of the year just my thoughts thank you there are any other attendees who would like to address the renters commission go ahead and raise your hand all right no other um hands are raised thank you Chris and and uh I'll make sure that we add that in the discussion topic for that work meaning on yellow right because I do think it's a obviously a valid concern okay we can move on to item 10 communication uh so okay so I see Kristen you removed two of the communications so then there's only one on there was that on purpose um tell me which one had the error I'll put the other it was number three regarding uh rior okay yeah that was that one the other we can begin with the first one uh which was an email from JY Family Services I've heard nothing but good things about JFS and and I'm really excited that they sh are there any comments or questions about this email might be nice to have him come as a speaker good point oh I that do list anyone else um I suppose Julia and I we can we should talk about who would set up a meeting to to discuss with them make sense Julia great okay we can move on to the second email thread that was forwarded to us um this was no this is regarding the toilet issue and the heating issue anyone have any thoughts about this email forur was folded to us so my understanding here is there was an issue with the toilet and the heating and then the C inspectors got involved is you know how this ended up I got think lost anything else any thoughts about this one it seems to be an an ongoing complaint that the tenant has filed with the city the city um rental housing department so not sure what role we would play in this at this point is I noticed the last I think the most recent date was the fifth is there any update or way of knowing if this has been closed out beyond what we see here I can check with rental house saying and I can report back probably a good idea just to check seems like they have a handle on it of course it was their job but always good to be aware of what kind of complaints are being submitted I appreciate that they that you're going to do that question okay any other discussion or questions on that email red okay I think we're skipping the third one for now because of the redaction issued but maybe we could have that on our next agenda R properly okay so let's move on to item adjournment do we have a motion to adjourn no motion move by Patrick we have a second I'll second second by Vita thank you all those in favor of joury say I I all post say name great so with that we are Jour thank you everybody thank you thank you good night take care good night everyone

if you are just tuning into to the broadcast we are uh in the middle of the meeting now it's 5:43 and uh we're at uh letter D on JK so we're following through the policy the policy is JK student discipline and we are currently discussing section D so or C sorry not d c okay so do should we leave c as is then anybody object okay moving on d d is uh Megan's comment yeah I basically just read it I read it like multiple times to I feel like interpret what it was saying and I still feel like I don't I don't know I just don't know if there's a way to make it more reader friendly I commented on your comment with my first at it so this is your revision yeah the end I was an Eliz so that might need to be a second sentence I I mean I I think that is a a lot more clear I like that you uh put in the K2 part too because there are extenuating circumstances for other grade levels what do you think Meg I agree yeah I think it makes more sense anybody else going once going twice M thank you for rewriting it because it makes more sense because yeah I read it multiple times and I still can make sense and but my question is is what is in this paragraph actually really kind of going back to part of what's it's like it's basically B I think yeah yeah like that we just rewrote like is is there anything in there that's not already a part of being why do we need to have why do we need to say it twice I guess is my question I think that so my best guess was that four where B is it's like you're determining that the be like you're talking about like how bad the behavior is okay and then like the sub bullet B is basically like it's so bad we can't control it with a behavior intervention and then D is being like Oh by the way you definitely did the intervention for and that we''ve inv involved the parents input and okay yeah than well whatever and documented can somebody replace that and then we'll move on to E one and two uh two is the next comment and that is me what are examples a readmission procedure for pupils who are in kindergarten through fourth grade and who are expelled from or subject to Alternative reassignment at the school to be considered for readmission on appeal of the pupil's parent or Guardian at least 20 school days after the effective took me and Adam an hour this was like the longest part of our hour together um it's like I think it's kind of crazy so we don't ever do this but one and two if I'm reading it correctly if we suspend a kid for 10 days and on the fifth day the parents like I really don't think they deserve the 10 days they can come and appeal for us to readmit them sooner and then on two where you have the alternative reassessment if we expel a student or we send them to like Compass Learning 10 years ago the kid would have to stay at that school for at least 20 days before the parents could like ask for us to let them come back so there are no examples because this is I've never heard of this happening are you have examples of alternative re assignment or just this POS I wrote this on January 30th well and the alternative reassignment we talked about I think we talked about it right Compass yeah that's it also I'm not sure what was going through my head at the time to be honest so I I don't know where where this came from origin originally like where as decided to pull this kind of stuff but it feels very reminiscent of the special education rules about um you know when we like if we are moving a tri to another placement because of disciplinary reasons which there's a very limited scope where we can do that unilaterally they have due process rights that allow them to challenge the placement as a part of that and I'm wondering if this was trying to get at this or with maybe allowing parents like my kids you know good behavior please I don't know but um I think what what I was thinking about the time my mind is a lot on restorative practices it's it's something that's important to me so I think in my mind was like what what would be an alternative reassignment that would somehow or another be related to um a some sort of res restoration process but I I and and because expulsion is is definitely much much more severe than suspension um so I in my mind I was like you know what is it that and maybe it maybe this is too high of a level for that maybe it's more of a you know a practice than it is a policy so it is but I would not I would I would leave an in should at any point the district decide that they need to actually expel a child or I also do an alternative place it's apparently such an unpopular comment the computer did not keep it I would like to suggest that where it says at least 20 days that we were to increase that because if we if we say like intervention in the classroom for six to eight minutes then if a kid is parents going to try to have their student readmitted after being expulsion there should be the amount of time it would take for them to show progress so I was like 30 to 40 consider but I feel like I would yes it is and remember 20 school days is four weeks is it 20 it says 20 school days but six to eight is what we say intervention is when we're doing like mtss process but most things need six to eight weeks so if you need six to eight weeks to show progress in any other realm of academics then I feel like that should say consistent to like being remitted of the school and I know this is kind of a moot thing because it doesn't really happen but if think of the things that we expel kids for let it up let's kick it up to 30 days well I also think that part of this really is about the alternative reassignment option that we've never knew um and oftentimes I in special ed there in special ed we can do that an alternative reassignment for up to 45 school days under very specific circumstances um that' be my hunch you know it's because because of your comment about how long it takes for things like that to to to show progress I I would agree as well okay so next up is the aggravating circumstance and that is Miss skips mle can we feel like said statue can should we potentially just mix this and move it to the glosser oh yeah like a yeah at the bottom it's the only thing I could say is like if you wanted to add to this you could but I wouldn't like I don't know what documented prevents learning unresponsive sence perfect to me in my world the prosecutors have a lot their aggravating circumstances has a their very last subsection is a catch all so basically they can present anything as an aggravating circumstance but I wouldn't encourage you [Laughter] okay so next is the principal of each School shall ensure and that is Miss Gibson McLean as well okay so could we we could further Define this to make it more effective could if we wanted to we could really further Define we could say for example um you know not just a copy of all rules we could say the principal of each School shall ensure that there is a document you know behavior management system that is in place that addresses the needs of all students and that WR copy is distributed to staff students yes so my Wonder is um if we like know in practice what it is because down below you ask a question basically about it one of the things we might want to do too is consider just like the renaming of things um because what we give the parents that I think meets these rules it's actually listed as the parent and guardian responsibility form which I think is a misnomer to what we use it for so after anytime a student is so at the beginning of the year to your question beginning of the year the teacher the teachers get that big packet you send to each family and one of the papers inside is the parent responsibility I I think we might call it a compact um and it tells you about our disciplinary actions for problem problematic behaviors and then every time so parents all sign it at the very beginning of the year you turn it in and then anytime we um suspend a student we when we have their re-entry meeting we have to go through the suspension paperwork um and then we have to go through this form I brought a couple copies because I was like I if anyone you guys haven't been suspended so then I would say it sounds like you guys are already meeting the requirements for this policy because I think in order to get some of the parents the kids are the ones that take it home right you I mean I missed in my experience I mean also my parents I usually walk kids at least basically what the paperwork is right I would hope that the kids would maybe read it before they give it to their parents no no the parents have to you mean at the beginning of the year or during oh yeah and then also same thing I the only thing that we have to do to make sure this is being followa as polies that the kid who transfers in instead of just the parent showing up and signing it it would be kid is trans meeting or just take five minutes and walk through this yeah and they get it and when they transfer in um and they enroll it's a part it's in part of the enrollment packet too so so do we want to further Define this to make it much more effective or do you think this is just because here's might I could further Define this to make it more effective but I think this might just be intended to be like a send one of these Ty things and I can be might be moving past the scope of this language if we added a bunch more to I would my vote personally would be to leave it as the practice is because this is a feasible practice and if we did more like a presentation that was given out that would be really hard but I do think at the very least this is not named actually because it's like you'll bring like when I tell it to families I'm like these first six things are things that you're already doing at home you're already bringing them to school ready to learn you're making sure that they're clothed now the next Parts I want to talk to you about are what happens if they keep I use a whole staircase analogy but like on this on this staircase you know you're on the first step of fighting but if you get to the third step of fighting that might mean blah blah blah blah blah so um I our job is to stay at the policy level and not dictate the specific practices and so because that's that's stuff that falls under the superintendent responsibilities um that's what we're already editing right now a regulation it is but we're not going to dictate like the name of a of a form or or how that that is the process I think it's I just put that in there because it felt like I didn't know what the process was and just reading that I thought well this is done if that's not actually for once we are following policy I'm more than once but yeah so that's what that is so are we leaving it as is okay moving on that get that oh okay the very next thing is the princi more about that so the next one after that is uh for Megan the principal of each School shall ensure yeah that I think it was it was a crack at rewarding oh it I I guess passed that P never seen but I'm happy you probably haven't it's p that pack she's like just take a packet um this plary actions will be reported inmin all types ofion so so so wait are we resolving it's because we have two paragraphs that are nearly identical very bottom of three and the very top of four yeah are we resolving Megan's comment yeah okay because one is parents and one is students and then Adriana's is next oh Adam was just thinking that when you see a comment that says a that's Adam that maybe we should have more than once in the beginning of the year I think that's a great idea feels more like a practice make that reations so we can resolve that all right next is uh Katie's comment about the disciplinary actions taken will be recorded just a question mark so probably AC is not def so also admin is not also what was the stop explanation is that where I stopped law I don't know I think you wrote that that is okay that's what I was wondering or or or a note to us to stop you from explaining this stop her now stop her now to stop before temporary removal you're right because then we were like yeah okay so all right the obviously temp the temporary removal part I believe was like very much wait we're not there yet oh we're not there we're at the paragraph right above oh that's where my question mark is I thought that's where it start I ALS I ALS I also have a question mark about this sentence so even if that was an accident I would like to talk about it so the okay maybe that is what I meant was that little sentence the disciplinary actions that are recorded in the administrative log I took it as anytime that we do suspensions or expulsions we're required to put them into Synergy which is our administrative blog so what is the separate file so so this so this part is tricky because in Synergy when you put it in in their violations you can pull up a student students incident history and that would be their separate file right I will tell you if you're thinking about the um paper copies so what not and I'm speaking only for monov Vista those go into a black binder chronologically with their cover sheets so that I know like I need to discuss suspensions when I have that yeah so so I mean what I feel is that separate file for each student with suspension convulsions it makes that Synergy make sense to me I feel like that aligns there um disciplinary taken will recorded an administrative log that to me feels like if I let's say I'm a new assistant principal and I come in and there's a kid with all this Behavior but maybe he's only been suspended one time I would like to see the Brad documentation of interventions that have been tried lunch detentions after school detention go into synerg deta um sometimes um you know I think sometimes things go into Synergy and sometimes things don't go into Synergy and I think that suspensions explosions usually make it in Synergy it's not it's not in in my opinion it's not a consistent practice as a parent I've heard from Little Birdies that Synergy ain't being used like it should that you know is not a consistent practice this child has been referred or I've had all these issues and then I look and nothing's been written about and just to add to the story because you are correct uh just to add to the story uh sometimes there's a perception that you have like an internal log and then you have a for public log which is not really for public but is reported to the state and uh the state is aware of that so there's this perception that you want to kind of Shield that uh because the thought process is we don't need to put everything out there just the stuff that is high up to a certain threshold which I so Synergy so correct me what follows a student from high school or to high school are we aware of what so Behavior records from a school don't don't follow the kids their C their like report card does so then is there any reason not to extensively track behavior in Synergy is what yeah well in Synergy or and to be honest it would be capacity because we get a go we get a Google form we have like our office referrals come in as a go in into our Google form and we go through all of those things but some of the stuff ends up being like it could be an office referral where like we got nowhere with like there's this this kid so that will stay in that Google form but then anything that we give like a detention for or a conference for we put into Synergy so it's very time consuming that's so w I'm sorry I'm just still stuck on the fact that nothing goes to the high school I'm like whoa because when they they can act they can request Behavior records but we can't give any detail we don't give the detail stuff that's in Synergy so it basically just lives for our personal records so think is a good when they get a behavior report it might say like um suspension and then it'll give like the violation code but gives like no details yeah yeah but that doesn't automatically go with them when they go that has to be like specially requested so disciplinary action is do we have a shared common definition this we talked about this a little bit I mean removal from classroom is a displ action right right kind of detention is a displ action any kind of consequence such as losing is dis action um would we like to instead of saying administrative log would we just like to say Synergy would we like to be more specific I know Synergy is a specific platform but I feel like we have used Synergy since the beginning of time so I don't know we haven't well we've only been with Synergy for seven years but and it is so fun to use well you know um but I appreciate you bringing that because I was thinking the same thing like this takes me back to our previous conversation about when we're talking about discipline what's discipline and what's not discipline because this is just saying discipline will be like and that can be way over Broad and I will say I mean the reality is as a person who gets called in and asked to look at kids and be and be that expert and I'm like uh huh or and or with a special ed kids sometimes I get asked hey we need to do a manifestation determination like there's nothing in the like where they're like no there there was this suspension I'm like it's not even in there I how do I and I know that's a practice but but but for speaking to the consistency of the practice but I do think that we need the policy needs to be very clear on what when we say discipline what are we talking about um because this mostly this policy is about suspension and expulsion so my I want to just say really quick just to give us a like a Insight on how it is um a school like so I'll just talk for manav Vista mon Vista we average 300 two like 340 office referrals a year things that we get from everybody I know I know so 340 office referrals we we don't put every single one into Synergy we just we don't get to it because you have to remember that when you put it into Synergy it's not just the is the one incident but then you have to put it in for each kid and like I I have a feeling my understanding is I think that I put I have previously in history like put in way more than maybe some other schools were putting in and I still would be like oh I didn't get these like there's still every quarter I was like I didn't get to like 20 of those 30 of those that are in there it's overwhelming and I believe that there's one school who has like almost 1,200 office referrals right now at this point in the school year like we have to be really thoughtful about if you say every office Pearl every time a teacher sends a kid or everything that's not a disciplinary action so I'm I added a comment um so I would say like disciplinary actions that result in a student's temporary removal from class or suspension of Privileges and I think that's the current practice well that is not the current practice that's what has been told to us to make it our current practice can you repeat that what's not the current practice that so I'm saying discipline actions that result in a student's temporary from class or suspension of privileges will be recorded ministra and AD joh is saying that's our current practice I have a bunch of lunch detentions that my students have got I promise you if I go in Synergy right now they're not in there well lunch so that's a suspension of privilege right lunch detention is a a suspension of privilege recess yeah yeah it is it was in recess that sounds like their privilege of recess put it in as detention is all so I I'll go you know I will go check right now put my money where my mouth I I trust you well actually K Katie I this is a legal question okay right because the question is if we whether it's whether we call it a detention or not if we if we disallow a child from participating in lunch and recess is that at in a legal level because they're not well and part of this has to do how Daniel wrote his definition here I out there yeah no no no but um but that is effectively a temporary removal from their class their program um from something that they should be allowed to access and I'm asking this because special there's like special ed this starts like this creates a real issue with in in the world of special ed because so you may not have the answer today but maybe something we need to explore okay so sorry yeah because then it would cause like you all to have to re-evaluate like basically everything that the kids do special because they're already at doing different things um yeah I think that's something that we might want to ask Jessica about I think what we is there a way you could write the question so that Jay can get it to Jessica also just to sorry right for okay um just throw I have a referral from February 13th where a student the referral was handled students give lunch attention and lunch attention is not logged in Synergy how are you looking at Synergy what are you looking at they're displine incidents in Synergy I can see all my students displ incidence well I guess I I think we're split hairs right like because there's one way that like this is the directive of the district and then there's like each person's like capacity to it but the rules are if I remember them correctly you absolutely had to put in your suspensions you have to put in your um expulsions and that you should put and that you should put in so those are the have to and then you should put anything in that was going to be like ongoing like if it's if it's like their second incident you would put that in um or if you are doing um like any sort of like you the administrator were giving the consequence and doing the consequence it sounds like my school is not following policy I I can add to that a little bit in the sense and we just had this conversation yesterday about uh specifically discipline and what is something that is designated as office manage and what is designated as teacher manage and I think especially at at our school there is some confusion about where that is and who is responsible for that and I think that maybe there's a lack of understanding about and this goes back to the original question that there's there's not consistent straight across is like is everything go in or is it stuff that's just office managed or is it not I don't know so I would say this one action is the result in a students temporary removal from uh we might want to make that more specific because syy and look at the violations and just say if this is a violation a kid gets from you this is one that would need to be in it still would make ity the my question is is it about the violation or is it about the dis it's about the disposition what I meant to say we can look at the disposition and of these being the disciplinary actions they call them dispositions DET suspension there's like a parent notification like community service is is one parent notification like you know if I we put some into Synergy and like the disposition is apparent notification other schools might not be putting in and I would also say that that's probably not you can also log that communication logs what that's for well I think yes my thing is just like if we can put it in and it feels like it's going to be ongoing you know so I would I mean me personally I I would appreciate uh Direction in terms of that just because I've heard mixed messages in terms of what goes in Synergy what doesn't go in Synergy is that the official log should we have an internal and something like that I I would just like I I would just like Direction ad can you just look at the Synergy dispositions real quick and I think tension suspension and expulsion are easy for us but what else is on there that we my question and James with that thought is is that something that needs to be explicitly given guidance from the regulation or is that the superintendent in in terms of how he's implementing all the all of this that the guidance needs to be provided at that level well it sounds like the guidance has been provided and that is not being followed consistently and so having an additional layer of account no and I appreciate that think you're right our job right right now our F task is do we need to rewrite anything here and I'm trying to get a sense of do we based on this conversation I personally related to get the guidance and I don't mean to be crass but I personally don't care I don't care if it comes from the superintendent I don't care if it comes from the policy I just want you to tell me what to do I think it should come from the superintendent I would defer um yeah oh no Katie went to the bathroom or something and we need her to explain this thing now um statute we do not need necess basically it says looks like Katie is just saying we don't necessarily need a confinement policy um confinement is very different yes confinement is like locking a kid in like a closet right yeah we should just eliminate this um however so there's a policy that's teally under confinement do you want to do temporary removal first that sorry one second let me look at this statue this is basically saying kids will follow the rules yes okay that sounds good to me that sounds vague enough and like br enough that's what most of our schools do everyone every teacher is allowed to temporarily learn most students from class you can't no one your principal can ever tell you you need to keep this kid in class I mean make it a priority but they can't tell you this kid screaming and crying and wailing you can't teach you have to keep them in class sound looks good to me um so is this this Katie comment does is she saying that we should not have this at all I think she was saying like you don't have to have it because like they allow us to have it but we don't need to have it on both of them and Adam does not think that we should have a confinment policy because he's like well because we were talking about like well when would kids get confined because we don't do that currently we don't just like put them in room and I was like well they put in rooms and his point was like well it's probably more dangerous to them or like if they got in trouble for like drugs what if they had them and they were using them I'm sorry I actually reconsidering this now because so technically what this look what is technically confinement is if a kid is doing something dangerous and remove all of the students from the room and close the door and keep the door closed while I wait for my someone to show up to handle the kid that's techically confinement right because I I've left a student alone in in enclosed space which is the room yeah um I just clicked on the the law because I want to read that specific definition because that's not the terminology that was previously used in the law it was um um seclusion not um confinement and I'm not finding the the explicit wording based on the link that's in here just say number nine thank you yeah I mean because technically so I mean I mean this has happened before at my school if a kid has like a knife or something dangerous and is being erratic your our procedures to remove everyone else from the classroom close the door keep the door closed answer is yes yes we do we do have that um for Our Stars classrooms we have space that they can do that if it's necessary so we can't take that out of policy yeah I would leave that in policy um I would I would like to ask Katie about sorry you're so Katie what we just discussed yeah we said that we're cool with temporary removal that's just referring kids out of the classroom yeah so confinement so we originally thought of confinement as like locking a kid in a closet or something which sounded crazy but actually technically what confinement is in a school setting is like the example I just gave if like a student had a knife and was being erratic like our procedure is to remove all other students from the classroom and close the door and keep the door closed like that's technically confinement and that is my my understanding is that is basically like the safest and best thing to do in a situation like that um and so this needs to remain in policy I do have a question for you though if that's you don't any for like oure students prior parental notification so the yeah what stood out to me on this one was my brother's experience in this District in the 90s and being placed in padded rooms by himself um and me being called to like come calm him down that's what this brought up for me I don't know if that I know that those rooms don't necessarily exist anymore but um that's what it brought up for me and I thought I would never want to see anything like that again but we do have some of those kinds of spaces for like our our social emotional self-contained program yeah um there I it's you know there's a they are constantly monitored there's a there are windows in the door so that they can be watched [Music] um but we I mean we utilize them yeah as calming down spaces and timeout rooms I mean it's not but technically depending on exactly the wording of the law because it keeps changing those could meet the threshold of this that's what I was thinking okay um so what's weird in the in how this is All Worked is like if confinement is authorized like like has the technically theard yeah that's why I was also curious about that but also I'll say this you know like 25 30 years ago my brother wasn't there was wasn't a there weren't two sped rooms he was in a room that was for Behavior social emotional and for people with like all kinds of cognitive dis like it was like a we are putting everybody in the same room and because you're acting out and we don't have time we're just gonna put you in this room right now kind of thing right my understanding is the conditions that sort of thing is used under is when a kid is the danger to themselves or others and cannot be CM down okay yeah I don't even know where else because I was also trying to think of where else the board would authorize this Kati I didn't figure that out below if we're done talking about yeah well this at the end of confinement can you look at that statute and for the defense of property part and tell us if we can take that out or if that's required by law oh yeah because so my thing I think it makes perfect sense to say we should not you know um we should not prohibit schools from having policy which has procedures for reasonable use of physical Force to defend yourself or others that makes sense if I have to grab a kid because they're hurt hurting someone I should not be liable or whatever um but defense of property feels sketchy to me I would really not like a teacher to be like well I grab this kid because he was so breaking my stuff yeah the way what it says though is prec is that this the governing board of any school district in consultation with the teachers and parents of the school district shall prescribe the rules for discipline suspension and extion the rules shall be consistent with the constitutional rights and shall include at least the following it says proceed for the reasonable use so like you could say that there's no reasonable use of physical Force for I mean you could say that I guess like you don't think there's any reasonable use for physical force of Defense of property um so we I mean we could just remove and defensive property from this line then my only wonder is it's not really like you're defending the property but like when kids start to like actively destroy something like in the like use of Mak making a weapon you would stop them yeah so I feel like which that's in defense of them right like they're hurting themselves or others or they're preparing to hurt themselves or others right like that's isn't that the parameter that the you have they have to be either hurting themselves or others but what I'm saying is like like if if I saw like because technically right and I may be like being too literal but like if a kid's breaking this chair but they're not breaking the chair and actively hitting me with it and they're not actively hitting other people with it but I could infer that you are going to do something with it you can act before they act okay so like technically an assault can occur before anybody touches you because assaults there's many definitions of assault in Arizona and one of them is that somebody's put you in reasonable apprehension of imminent physical injury okay and that's what I was just wondering because like you because then if it was like if a parent was like they were just breaking the chair like this would cover me being like yeah they were breaking the chair and I was concerned about safety but if I could say like well I assumed that the breaking of the chair was to hit with it I think I think this eliminating this would be I feel very because I think what is more likely is a kid breaks a ruler and a teacher gets mad and snatches it from them right or you know a kid is not I've had teachers where you know I have I have learned as a teacher you don't keep anything you care a whole lot about in your classroom but like there's teachers that keep pictures of family members or decorations in their classroom they care a lot about and you really don't want to or any staff member to be like I am touching this child because I don't want them to break this picture frame or break this thing that's very UNC and obviously there's still a punishment prescribed in some other place but this is just about using physical Force against the child I would say you know politically speaking obviously like this just goes this is like stand your ground for schools basically defensive property which I feel like is unwise my I guess my question is the distinction between this General use of force because it's an immediate we have to do something versus like I mean you know as a district we train staff in the use of physical restraint yeah for sure right and so it's and I what I don't know off the top of my head is within our policy is this the only paragraph that now that speaks to our ability to use that yes yeah I think so that's the only place that I I saw it from what I recall when I look through it policy for a bunch of stuff this is the only place I found one the only so like where are the procedures well here's the thing it says schools are not prohibited from adopting policies which include but this isn't even like this is so ref self- referential um so that's another point that you're making right and so under and I think confinement has the same issue because um but the the funny thing is is the way that the statute says is that the governing board in consultation with all these people is going to develop the procedures for the reason which that's kind of that's like seems like a little bit in contention with the way this is written maybe it's just saying okay since we don't have it schools can do it schools are not prohibited we don't I also feel like it might legally speaking whatever it might also be important for the governing board not to create specific procedures that include I it might be unwise no I agree I don't know that we're most people wouldn't be experts in that so I wouldn't be into that can we remove and defensive properties everyone okay with that yeah and then we can see what Jessica says about it if she thinks it's I would I mean it's in alignment with the training we do for phys with physical restraints like would never I mean if you work at Circle K or Walmart they're going to not let you run out because somebody's taking something so you probably shouldn't be doing the same thing at school putting yourself in danger or something like that right give me my pencil [Laughter] sharpener I'm gonna go I want to go back up because I'm now I'm not sure like in like when we were like what's the practice for the telling the kids about the discipline I was like oh I know I know we have that so do we have a process for um parent notification for confinement so my so my understanding from reading this was just that um if you have a student who it is anticipated in the course of their learning they will need to be confined like in those specialized programs there has to be some not like there and it says the superintendent is the one that has to ensure that that these things exist and also so I see the second one um the teacher yes the teacher shall make reasonable attempts to notify the people's parent regarding and writing by the end of the same day that confinement was used that it is my experience that when a student was confed in a classroom that the parents are notified by the end of the day yes it is but I'm saying like the first sentence says before confinement the whole the part with the end of the day that's like an exemption if it's like imminent harm to themselves that is B my understanding is that's basically the only time that confinement is used right is that there there's a student that imminent physical harm to himself or others and so pretty much all the time it'll just be that same day so so do we want to I I'm I'm really concerned I I not that I'm not really about the conversation except that that wording that's in here is based on an old version of the regulations of the of the law yeah because the statutes used to really speak to and use the phrasing like imminent danger of bodily harm to self or others um it used to talk about how and and I thought and I didn't know and I I don't know if that's still in the regulations like with restraints and seclusion like they have have to have that immin be immin danger bodily harm we have to stop those practices as soon as they no longer pose that that threat of imminent danger bodily harm um it then it also spoke to the requirements of um parent notification and I'm wondering old regulation had all that well or I don't know if it's the old regulation or if there's a different regulation that speaks to that that this isn't referencing and I want to make sure I'll go to our board dos and see what I can find right now I can find I mean ultimately I'm just wondering no but I I just I don't know if we have those or what we're doing and do we need to change it let me see if it's somewhere else because I know I know what you're talking about and that's when that's the only time I've done so would I look for the word confinement or should I look for a different word well the word used to be seclusion seclusion okay and then and restraint it was restraint and seclusion okay do we want to move on while Katie look oh here we go jld DB restraint and seclusion there go so it's a whole separate policy yeah okay and B bodily harm to people or others less restrictive interventions then can I and is that on our list of policies I mean it's part of the umbrella so we could make might I can I recommend that we table the conversation on confinement and of like this section until we work on that policy and so we can make sure that there's an appropriate alignment and or we understand what the distinction is between the two I think that's sound what can you tell me the policy jld DB jld DB yeah is that part of our group right now so it's under the J's it's just not under JK but we said and related policies so because confinement is referring to this I assume we could we can add it to the next one I just looked at Hilda and she said yes so Hilda says yes and then it looks like there's some attached exhibits there's exhibits a through D which are like forms yeah which we're in the process of drafting new forms any as a district at the district level anyway so okay okay um I'd also like to point out that it is 6:29 and we had agendized um having the um public comment read before as a part of our conversation even though it's not going to be related to the can everyone's comfortable I think if we go till s we could easily finish this whole policy and then have the comment at the end read the comment at the end and say okay next time we're doing dress code which is fine I'm just I'm just I'm just bringing us all the work to totally yeah I just want to make sure that the comment is read because it was applied to this so is everyone actually it applies to the policy we're not getting to tonight yeah but if somebody submits it for this Mee absolutely absolutely well and we agendized doing it in the middle of this conversation once we were live anyway so got it um so is everyone saying half um so the next one is threatened an educational institution and my comment was does this apply K8 yes yes and so what kti what are some examples of threaten educational students I say threatening to cause physical injury like for example threatening to kill a student or staff member right um so tring to cause damage so I don't I don't disagree with that I just have my followup is isn't there true threats right and true threats are pretty clearly defined constitutionally well not clearly defined but I think it's hard the younger you are to be making true threats and so you have a good you know what I mean good because there question to bring up there we all know that first grader situation in the other state with the the gun and all that stuff so I guess my question is if it does apply K8 how does that align with the I I thought it was law that you can't go and suspend a kid below seven that's not a suspension I'm just asking the question okay okay so what I'm just saying is that like th this law for like the actual 2911 has no exceptions it's just a law that exists right it would just apply to like whatever other laws exist about about like Prosecuting people depending on their age so generally speaking if you're under eight you're not going to get adjud you're not going to be in the juvenile adjudication system like that's just because you have to be like competent to be adjudicated so if you're under eight you're not getting like a case um if you're between the ages of 8 and 14 you're going to be in the juvenile system for the most part and then if you're 15 or over you have the chance of being charged as an adult so that's kind of how the ages breakdowns work that's for 30 13 2911 as far as like 841 goes they referenced 2911 and so they're using all the definitions and saying like we're going to take everything that's in 2911 as a criminal law that applies to to people in the adult criminal world and also it also applies to juvenile adjudications we're going to take anybody who then it would be like eight through 99 or whatever 100 and whatever okay and use that in this context we're going to say all the same definitions that are from the statute are just going to apply here basically so then then it is possible that is K8 it doesn't yeah it's just like they're not going to have criminal liability at a certain age my recommendation would be to make that clear in in that part of the policy because I I I'm sure I'm not the only one that get confused about that just double check because I don't think it this part was like as a part of that because that was only referring to the expulsions when it you know yep because I'm sure someone else will be thinking wait you know is this something that is possible because you know XY so yeah so like if you go to subsection h of 15841 it say its own subsection right and um it says a school district or Charter School shall expel from school for at least one year a pupil who is determined to have threatened an educational institution except that the school district May modify this expulsion requirement for a people on a case-by casee basis if the people participates in mediation community service restitution or other programs in which the pupil takes responsibility for the results of the threat this subsection shall be conru consistently with the requirements of id idea and a school district May reassign a pupil who subject to expulsion pursuant to the subsection to an alternative education program if the pupil participates in mediation blah blah blah those things and then they also may require a pup's parent or Guardian to participate in those in those kinds of programs as long as they take responsibility for the threat and then then they say for purposes of the subsection threaten an educational institution means basically everything find in 13 2911 and then they list it out so I'm not seeing where it like gives an age limit question just for my yeah definitely not there's no definitely no age Li for my information does this mean that a school could if a student like threatened the educational a school could require counseling as a remediation I mean it technically I think really I mean participate in mediation community service restitution or other programs in which the people takes responsibility I have referred to this policy in the past when a student posted a gun on social media and like a vague threat um as a way of inspiring some action on that instance and I think this is you know it's required by law seems like the language is is a copy of the statute I don't see a reason to you know change anything here move on that's good to know yeah and then um how can you require that though well the alternative is exposion yeah it's like if you don't want to be expelled you can do something to not be expelled well like I said my only comment is if that is K8 then I'd like it clearly spelled like a K8 student or some just some indication in there that there's no confusion about whether or not especially since other places we have definite one thing I did think about that I wanted to maybe do and I don't know where we could do put this but like um I don't know if it goes in the glossery or what but essentially explaining what some of these things could be like examples that judges have said no yes this is this is an example that meets the burden for this and no this isn't enough for this to be a threat or Interruption Ro and okay let me I added a line that says for any so threaten educational student means for any student K8 to interfere with or disrupted everyone like that sounds good Katie can we resolve your other comment there yeah I'm editing it so I can remind myself oh okay what these instances all right moving down past regulating off-campus speech so I was going off of the May okay um but I added things that like we actually are really struggling with as a district and I wanted to see like if if this could be expanded a little bit um so we have kids who will like impersonate other kids on social media um and they'll like create like a burn account basically under that kid's name and as of right now we're just well maybe that's not on our campus um the I'm gon I'm gonna tell you specifically and then see what you think because I feel like it's really limited but like violating criminal law so like it'll be a kid that we think has like possession like we think has a vape or whatever and like we know that he has access to the Vapes because like there's his social media he's got a picture of him like smoking um so being able to so that one that was like the most like broad but um the f out for a fight on Camp like they have a fight after like on Monday afternoon and then Tuesday we like find out that they are like gonna like fight again about it a rematch like a re exactly they want to like have a rematch and so they'll beef from that school during the day yes tension is high but it's all about what they're going to do outside of the campus and what we've done and how our work around currently is like that you like your after school fight created such a disruption to this learning environment now that now we can punish but it would be kind of nice if it was like well also per policy that we're I think we're responsible for them until they get home yeah so it would be nice to have it more clearly labeled like if a fight happens off off of campus with two of our students you may so my I think that's pretty clearly established under the law that's something they can still get in trouble for my recommendation for is to n three and for four I say instigating planning or participating in a fight between others well and that's the thing is yes so okay and that was the other one is that what they'll do is they will they're they're like getting on social media um and they like truly are just being like I heard like James is gonna fight Adam in the parking lot and then like the other like then they will like going back and forth and so it's like all of a sudden we don't care he's pretty confident he can take you overa he probably can um so those are things that we are often struggling with um in the school environment they are very disruptive to the day yeah yet nobody believes that we have any right to getting them in trouble and I would like to I think instigating or planning a fight between others while they're on campus is not in this policy but squarely within a different issue right if they're like at school planning something for later I think you can intervene and that that actually doesn't fall under this policy because they're not doing off- campus speech right they're talking about something they're going to do later um as as far as like a Fallout of a fight on campus I don't know I I think I think we I think we go instigating planning or participating in a fight between instead of saying between others in a fight with other students right essentially right because they're you know kid wants to go fight their dad at home I just don't even know fighting is I don't think fighting is a form of speech is the issue I'm getting at and so I think the only thing you could talk about is like if they're plan a fight but this would be this section would be if they're planning the fight off campus right like well if they're off campus and having the conversation and I was just social media we could say we say instigating planning or promoting a fight between themselves or others so a student but that would just be off campus right I don't know it's we're trying to Target social media right so so for example recording a fight filming it and posting it would be you know participating in or promoting a fight that happened even if it was off campus and honestly last number one would be super helpful if we could it's hard to catch them but kids are using like our school logos or they're using like yeah look up Gateway ships I bet you have one of those um GW confessions I bet you have we' had a like a TCA TCA confession oh that's a whole another thing with like using your guys's inos and I and I tell the kids like you once youve like like you're involving Us in this there is nothing in the in the policy that like if you were if we actually find out you're the owner of the that's something I think that's definitely under this section that you could ask because that's actual speech the fight thing so many from such a weird thing to do there's tons oh James there's even like gross I think that's something you definitely can and should add into this yeah I don't the fight thing is just like the weird thing where and I get what you're saying but it even if you're if you're planning the fight on campus then it's not off campus speech you know so if let's say they go home yeah they make a thing that says I'm gonna fight you or whatever sorry yeah and um the you know you call home parents like well that was at 4:30 they're at home they can do whatever they want at home yeah it's it's the it's the actual posting of it that I was thinking would be under here because you're right that's exactly what they do they're realistically they don't make usually make social media posts during not always sometimes but they don't usually make posts but these are definitely problems I think all the campuses are struggling with and it' be nice to have it it be addressed somewhere even if it's not here I just thought it would I definitely think the first one is something you could address especially yeah I think that's something you can address and if you extended that instead of just personating another student on social media to be impersonating impersonating other individuals or organizations yeah now we've dealt with all of all of that stuff that we were just talking about yep um we've had situations at our school where people make like a fake account of somebody at home and like start a fight with someone and then that person will go to fight that student the next day they'll have no idea what it's about oh because it's whole separate kid made an Instagram with their name and their picture and that's what I'm I was gonna say that's like the student version of swatting St verion of swatting you get those kids that they know will fight anyone reliable SW team yeah they know how to spot them I guess that's just mean it's very well then it's like those are mean man yeah they're rough because then you don't know who to believe because it looks it looks like the other student is the one instigating the fight um I don't so it's been a long time since I've been up to date on like First Amendment stuff with schools but generally First Amendment stuff like yeah I don't I think that's something you could put it in we could run it by Jessica I still think that there's might be an issue with that one fall like the like like the stuff that's like planned off campus and takes place off campus you know what I'm saying yeah that's where it's hard because it's if it's not something you can really draw attention to during the school day a lot of so counting it it's a disruption disruption yeah so they will they'll fight somebody go videotape it the video like that I don't know so yeah they definitely it's just because this is talking about actually regulating their speech so it would you would have to be not disciplining them for looking at a video in class you'd have to be disciplining them for actually making that video and sharing it or outside of school if they're sharing it in school sure you got already a mechanism to deal with that but if this is would be like if I went to a fight at the park I recorded it and I posted it on my social media and now you're punishing me at school for it but nothing happened at school and this was on my own personal social media and I posted it at home like that's where that's what this is talking about regulating off campus speech in that way um I and I think when you do have those other fallouts you have other mechanisms for addressing I think those issues ktie I mean great example let's say that happens fight happens at the park record it post it kids watch it at home they come to school and then there is a shouting match in the classroom between several students about yes now you could punish the kids who have the shouting match but realistically what about the kid that is sharing the video and promoting this fight unfortunately I don't know that we have much control over that and I'm just being really honest and I think that and I think like I think the way Allan's wording the other thing too might be a little far I liked the student because it was like School related might be a little broad to list it as other individuals because that could go to like anybody or any students and staff student staff and or yeah yeah student staff and orri because then you could like get punished for imperson some Rando that has nothing to do with the school and that's not what Our intention is yeah um that this is like uh I'm sorry not that I don't like meanwhile I have a problem with all of part C okay failure to follow rules concerning lessons coning lessons the writing of papers the use of computers participation in other online school activities I don't understand how failing to follow rules is um regulating off-campus speech um play anybody so you could say so I think if I had to guess what they are targeting is let's say a bunch of kids at 4:30 went to the park and said none of us are training in our homework tomorrow we're all gonna you know ditch class tomorrow it's ditch day right um things like that right which could be yeah I had is plagiarism too is it the writing of papers and lessons the what is the use or sharing like somebody yeah shares the lesson outside of school yeah I guess you know what I mean yeah someone send somebody got the worksheet key and they're setting it out I think the computers just dated I think it was like this is old this is very old and I don't understand I'm trying to go to I'm gonna go to title I don't understand how it has anything to do with regulating offc the speech I'm gonna go here and search for this like term and see if whatever they were trying to con Beyond confusing now off canus speech I agree with youing to follow rules concerning lessons like that sounds it must be play I lessons to me feels like a let's not all turn in our homework there don't do about it type thing and I thought it yeah I thought it was like if you like again plagiarism like if you posted your answers well that's the writing of papers I think that makes sense should they just say plagiarism then it's a fun R but plagi but our role in terms of plagiarism is is only if they're turning it in as work like if they're passing trying to pass it off as work for us to assess and and evaluate if they're just posting stuff online or whatever they're doing like and claiming that like I wrote this poem that like well that was TSLA what are you talking about like I don't I don't think like I mean want let them live their life you know just saying no it was me want strike through C I think we can strike through it for now I'm just trying to see if it's a statute but I don't even see it anywhere um well there's no statute we got 12 minutes if there's anything that talks about regulating off campus speech what about breaches of school security devices uh that makes sense to me yeah yeah okay let's keep that also should we put um wait okay it's off campus never mind well again how wait hold on how is breaches of school security devices an off Camp bring maybe because if you're home you could hack into the computer system at school and change the grades is that speech yeah well no so I mean here is an example is like let's say a student goes home and says hey guys here's how you jailbreak your school iPad and they post a guide on Instagram on how to jailbreak their school iPad so can't we just say if they do if they do anything that that tells people how to do things illegally that impact the school I mean that's what we're talking that's what we're getting at here yeah well these are circumstances that implicate the district's off-campus Reg regulatory interests so if the if if a school security device is breached then that implicates our off-campus regulatory interests we look at a students off campus speeny there's an attorney general opinion from 1989 that says students may be expelled for committing crimes off campus but for me to find that would probably take me to go to like the archives or something I we I creative the kids are preaching school security Li okay so they are though so let me see I would put them on njs for that but we have kids who are breaking into um they're like hacking other kids parent views because they're figuring out their passwords and they're going through their stuff so that's not school security devices but I think maybe that made me think like maybe we need to add like well and again that's a violation of of expectations of being a student in the school anyway whether that's off campus or in campus like it's also a crime let's just Google seems like a random like what are they looking for in parent view can we okay here's my thing can we table this and come back to like let come back to this because it's we're taking too long to figure our comment that says come back after figuring out what all this means that's a lovely comment um okay so the last one last thing to talk about for this policy for now um the district may take affirmative steps to work with student short of discipline to engageing Future respectful and accountable digital C digit digital citizenship um can we remove can we remove shorter discipline I think so from what I see in this I don't see this is just something in there that's not from a statute so that's why I also put we can probably do a better job here well and also this policy is student discipline it's not student expectations yeah I don't know what this is what I would like to say can we maybe we just double check that there's a comparable expectation the student the student in the other policy where we listed out yeah some of those things related digital relating to digital citizenship and then I'm totally okay with taking it out of year I don't know with TR I haven't looked or anything but we do need I think dive into like what is digital citizenship because it kind of brings back the like do we have a thing that says do not there's nothing in jic that says dig citizenship there's nothing J I see that talk about let me check ji digital no no digital that would be the same thing like stealing their past there's nothing in either of the policies we've previously looked at about this about digital citizenship just or off campus speech I feel like that's something that's important to have I think we I think we really I mean you could just I mean if your school has an expectation to be respectful and kind and you're not being respectful and kind digitally that's I you know I feel like we have things that can catch that without spelling it out on purpose or explicitly yes I'm sure we do because we're managing right and we don't have it currently and we're doing this time but I do feel like there's a lot of stuff that comes up about the iPads and using the iPads and it would be super helpful if we had something especially with the idea that like taking away the iPads not quite be allowed so like if we had things about like going to the wrong websites all throw out there I hate the iPads and I don't think we should one where the kids take them around everywhere you know so you're suggesting we add a policy that is I was suggesting that that we make sure that it's somewhere sits somewhere in jir under the student rights and responsibilities and if we don't have that they have they right they have a responsibility to to relate to digital s whatever wording we want to do with that um that that's what I was where I was suggesting that it live all right responsibility JK is a conduct right yeah what did you call it J what so it's ji which is the students rights and expectation and then in that document we also have jir which is the student rights and responsibilities just want to capture so yep let's make sure we rehit let's go back to J and add something about digital citiship and then for this can we just remove it I guess well if it's whatever we think but if we remove it from the student discipline will we I feel like we need to get to the N it the iPad like managing the iPads is nightmar and but but is is that an issue of policy or is that an issue of practice well I think my my only thought is that when we have policy to back our practice it's it's helpful it's stronger it's clear it's more consistent well I appreciate that but we don't have like we don't have specific policies about every potential student Behavior that's fair so sorry I'm laughing at something I'm reading so my my question in our thinking as we wrap up this conversation because like right we're getting close to being done getting out of here so is when we talk about student discipline like at to what degree do we want to be speaking about every potential student behavior and how we're that we and therefore we need to discipline it or is it falling under something and I'm not I don't know the answer to that I'm just suggesting the question I see your point and I I mean you're disciplining iPads and like navigating that so much that I feel like that actually might still be past that threshold where it's like you're right I would say iPads is like probably like the third biggest like issue which is which right and that that I wondering if that's then is it a I don't know maybe is it its own policy or is it its own regulation that's very explicit to that if it's that complic if it's that necessary I don't know well it sounds like we are not resolving this in five minutes right I'll add that I just added a document into our share Drive called off campus speech scotus case it's from 2021 um it'd be interesting for you to take a look at it but essentially um yeah it's about this girl posting all the stuff to Snapchat about her school because she didn't make the cheerleading team or something I don't even know yeah but BAS basically they're saying that like first a school will rarely stand in local parentice when a student speaks off campus and that second a student from this from the speaker's perspective regul regulations of off-campus speech when coupled with regulations of oncampus speech include all the speech that a student utters during the full 24-hour day and that means courts must be more skeptical of a students efforts um I'm sorry a school's efforts to regulate off-campus speech for doing so may mean the student cannot engage in that kind of speech at all so finally the school at self has an interest in protecting a student's unpopular expression especially when the expression takes place off campus Because America's public schools are the nurseries of democracy um so can we can we start our next meeting right above regulating off campus speech so yeah so basically they found that this kind of speech was um was protected and that the school district's decision to suspend her was unconstitutional all right so next and that her speech did not cause a substantial disruption to harm or threaten the rights of others I don't want to cram james' style but I just moving us along um next meeting we are starting right above off regulating off campus speech and we then we are handling dress code would we like to read the I just I think you're moving faster than we are oh next it sounds like next meeting we are starting right above regulating off- campus speech and we're g to finish this last little bit up and then we're going to do dress code right oh I was gonna say I feel like [Music] we I feel like what was left of this was stuff that was like are we starting a whole brand new thing so I don't think we've s a lot of the stuff that's listed in there yeah there's a lot going on I think we just need to start back here next time so we're starting at regulating off-campus speech Yes and then then moving to dress code which is j i c a r and then would we like to read the public comment before I wrap up I'm just writing down what you said huh I said we do need to because we have we have one we have one public comment about dress code oh okay yeah I can do this after okay all right uh so the public comment this is a public comment that was uh submitted today and uh do I have to should I read the the the like who it was and all that stuff okay so the comment is from Andrew Cho he a seventh grade math teacher at William T Mackin school and I'll just read it as is says hello I am a seventh grade teacher at Mackin school for the past three years I'm writing to urge this committee to change the policy on uniforms in my experience students and staff have engaged in power struggles on a nearly daily basis throughout the school year over uniforms in the Middle School when starting the year all teachers staff and students are enthusiastic about following the school policies and sweating the small stuff however as soon as that initial stamina wears off uniforms are the first area that students push back on in the vast majority of cases students choice of dress does not pose a distraction or obstacle to the learning environment however what does create a distraction or obstacle is the power struggle over enforcing the uniform policy I believe students choice of dress in the grades 6 through eight should be encouraged as a healthy way of self-expression currently the policy that the principle must lead the initiative itive to get parent and staff input and approval on the policy change at Mackin the principal has not initiated this process in the past decade while all other schools in the district have amended their policies a districtwide procedure and policy regarding the middle school that fits and supports the trend at the majority of the schools would be most appropriate for the goals of support our students learning in our district that's the end thank you Andrew I could have written that myself okay so can I tojn thank you can I get a second second all those in favor I meeting adjourned

[Music] morning Wildcats it's Friday we're going to have some fun we're going to talk to some wild cats find out is Love dead their feelings on Valentine's Day will Travis and Taylor make it where should they go on a first date and some ideal Valentine's Day gifts very studious this morning in the lrc you guys want to be on Friday funay yeah sure well good morning wild cats I'm here with Mariana Bella what year in school are you guys I'm a freshman freshman freshman all right we got three freshmen big week this week it was Valentine's Day got some pink here on the table are you guys Pro Valentine's Day anti Valentine's Day what's your opinion on it anti an anti pro pro we got one pro two anti Valentine's Day if you were given a gift would you prefer flowers or chocolate flowers uh flowers flowers got three flowers here all right is Love dead no no no all right we got some optimistic freshman here that's good to see all right wild cats I'm here with Daniel Sheamus are you Pro Valentine's Day or anti- Valentine's Day Pro Valentine's Day that way way to be optimistic what's the best like romantic comedy or romantic movie out there Mama Mia movie letter to Juliet or Dear John all right we got lots of options there for did you have a good Valentine's Day I do I do it's my lucky day all right morning wild cats I'm here with Dr DWI Dr dwire big week this week we've had the Super Bowl we had Valentine's Day are you Pro Valentine's Day anti- Valentine's I am anti- Valentine's Day hopeless romantic I'm sure your wife appreciates it did you guys exchange gifts did you get her anything no but we did go out to dinner with the whole family okay where'd you go we went to Burger and Sushi House in Geneva burger and Sushi House did you get a burger or did you get sushi yes did you watch the Super Bowl son I did every minute of it are you a fan of the Taylor and Travis love story I'm indifferent I don't really care wow thank you Dr DWI I'm here with AJ Aiden Co Joseph Arion all right you guys are all freshman correct first year going well here are you meeting new people around the school yeah yeah Mak new friends making new friends for sure good big week this week we had Valentine's Day are you guys Pro Valentine's Day anti Valentine's Day Pro Valentine's Day anti Valentine Pro anti pro pro we got a couple Pros a couple anti what would be your ideal first date what would be a good first date if you were going to give the wild cat some advice the movies yeah the movies I'm also going to say the movies yeah probably movies lots of creativity here amongst the Freshman a picnic a picnic all right we got four movies and a picnic what type of movie would you want to take him to you going romantic comedy you going like scary movie scary scary SC scary they get scared and then like they cuddle with you yeah they can like hook you hold your hand they then they get scared and they just kind of like huddle with you all right thanks guys all right wild cats I'm here with Miley Fernando Trisha Juliana is Love dead no no good are you guys Pro Valentine's Day or anti- Valentine's Day I'm definitely Pro Valentine's Day She Wore all black yesterday yeah would you rather get flowers chocolate or stuffed animal flowers chocolate stuffed animal stuffed animal what would be the ideal first date to go on take me to my favorite restaurant which is Movable Feast in Wheaten very bougie from what I hear just like good quality time like not going to a movie theater cuz then you can't talk to them somewhere you can talk to them perhaps a local coffee shop or something okay everybody loves a good romantic comedy this time of year do you have a favorite romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days anyone but you 10 Things I Hate About You How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and like anything Shakespeare why do all the romantic comedies have like lists of 10 10 Things I Hate About You How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 10 is just like a good number I wish it was 13 though because that's Taylor to favorite number that changes the subject are you guys into the Taylor Travis Kelce relationship that's going on right now I am would you rather see them end up married together family all the story book ending or do you want to see them break up so she can write a song about it I would rather hear an album about it all wild cats I'm here with Monica Noelia what year in school are you guys freshman freshman freshman freshman how's freshman year going it's pretty good this week was Valentine's Day are you guys Pro Valentine's Day anti Valentine's Day I'm pro pro Valentine's Day would you rather get chocolate or stuffed animal flowers what's like the perfect Valentine's Day gift flowers I like flowers I would also say flowers flowers what would be a great place to go on a first date or let's say you had a Valentine's Day date where where do you want to go the aquarium the aquarium that's awesome see some fish walk around you get to talk perfect first day for you would be like a nice dinner or something all right nice dinner out have some conversation some good food good all right wild cats I'm here with Daniel Logan big week this week Super Bowl Valentine's Day are you guys Pro Valentine's Day anti Valentine's Day what's your stance on that I think it applies to the people it applies to got it yeah yeah so you're not going to talk down to people that celebrate it if people want to be smoochi then let them be smoochi okay we'll go with that did you guys watch the Super Bowl I did who were you rooting for I was rooting for the 49ers have you heard about the chief's tight end Travis Kelce he dates Taylor Swift are you aware of are you Pro the Taylor Travis relationship or anti- Taylor Travis I could really care less but she's polluting the environment with the uh planes she's been taking wow okay hot take there on the uh private planes you have to fly from Tokyo to get there do you think they're going to make it they're going to last no it's not it's going to become a song here soon all right Wildcats I'm here with Joey what year in school year I'm a senior this week big week we had Super Bowl we had Valentine's Day are you Pro Valentine's Day anti Valentine's Day Pro Valentine's now now how come uh well I got a girlfriend now that makes it a little bit better so how are you guys celebrating Valentine's Day we're going out to dinner and exchanging gifts very nice do you mind sharing where you're going out to dinner Texas Roadhouse Texas Roadhouse going to get a nice steak and salad lovely all right wild cats thanks for sharing we learned a lot I think most wild cats are optimistic Pro Valentine's Day they like the flowers they like a first date where they can talk to each other maybe avoid the movies unless you go to a scary one that can get you into a handhold have a great weekend keep talking to each other building those relationships we'll see you in a few [Music] weeks